Fear Blades and Devil Smiths

Wander deep enough into the Wyrdwood and you’ll find a small village full of devils. The devils down in Devil Town know how to forge blades out of your own fears.

Fear Knives

You’ll need to pay the devilish smith in advance, but he will cut you a nice discount.  The knives bring more misery into the world, after all. After you give the devil your coins, confess your own worst fears aloud. The smith draws those fears out of you, like gray spun sugar, and coalesces them into a dense alien material, not unlike glass, metal, or ceramic. The smith forges this fear-stuff into a knife with aesthetic aspects reminiscent of the fears that created it. A blade forged from a fear of fire might be bright orange in color with flickering edges of yellow. Fear of abandonment might produce a blade that weeps tears when left unattended.

You are now immune to fear, both mundane and magical. But fear is part of what makes us human and keeps us safe, so you also lose 2 points of Charisma and 1 point of Wisdom forever. 

The knife inflicts damage like a dagger (1d4). In your hands, a knife made from your own fears is +2 to hit and inflicts an additional 1d8 psychic damage to living, feeling creatures.

Draw a pentagram on your character sheet. Write “NP” in the middle. Fill in each arm as you gain Nightmare Points. 

If you use the fear knife to hurt a living, thinking, feeling creature, then when you sleep that night you must make a 2d6+WIS roll. 

• 6 or less: Your sleep is plagued by the pain and terror of the being you harmed. You do not gain any benefit from the rest (no healing or spell recovery). Gain a Nightmare Point
• 7-9: Your dreams are unpleasant, but you are otherwise fine. 
• 10+: Your sleep is deep and dreamless. You find comfort in the abyss. Lose a Nightmare point, if you have any. 

Nightmare Point Totals

• 1: You always look like you need a nap, but you’re otherwise fine.
• 2: Your skin and hair turns ashen white or charcoal gray (your choice).
• 3: Your alignment turns to Chaos, if it isn’t already. 
• 4: You no longer regain HP or Attribute damage from resting and must rely on supernatural means of recovery. You can still refresh your spells, at least.
• 5: Your physical form fades away, becoming dream-stuff and entering the Kingdom of Terrors. Roll up a new character. They are pestered by dreams of your old character. Give them +1 to any one Attribute. 

The Goat & Raven

The Goat & Raven Public House is owned and operated by the dwarf Stanislav Arn. The house features a large, open common room with a balcony running along three sides that leads to rentable rooms. Its dark wood walls are covered in hunting trophies—antlers, claws, stuffed heads, broken spears, etc. A large crossbow with a wolf motif hangs behind the bar (Wolfkiller: heavy crossbow +2, +1d8 damage to beasts). A raven sculpture made of worked iron perches in the rafters. Pens behind the building house Stanislav’s prized goats. Stanislav’s house special of black bread and spicy goat stew with turnips is particularly well regarded. 

Stanislav Arn (Dwarf 5, Lawful) retired to Wyrdwood over 40 years ago for a quiet life after a career as an adventurer. He is tall for dwarf (5’3”) and thinner than most of his species, suggesting human blood in his ancestry. Stanislav generally maintains a professional and stand-offish demeanor but is suffers occasional bouts of melancholy. His few close friends say his taciturn facade hides a generous nature and wry sense of humor.

Stanislav’s hands are thick with scars and callouses to the point that he can reach into his ovens and grab hot kettles without gloves or other protection. “Peac” is tattooed across the knuckles of his right hand, and “Qiet” is tattooed across the left. He tolerates neither ruckus nor fracas in the Goat & Raven, and he is more than happy to let his fists enforce this rule (2 attacks per round, 1d4+1 damage each). It has become something of an informal rite of passage among the young men of Wyrdwood to get beaten up by Stanislav Arn.

Stanislav was married to Luscilla Gull, a human woman and member of his old adventuring party. She died of an unknown illness five years after she and Stanislav retired to Wyrdwood. Village rumor says that Stanislav buried her with a fortune in jewelry and treasure. Luscilla’s grave lies in the cemetery behind the Gray Chapel. Stanislav interred her coffin beneath an elaborately decorated burial vault. Hand-crafted and tear-stained by a grieving dwarf, the vault is indestructible my mortal means. It requires a combined Strength of 50 to lift the vault off the coffin. Luscilla’s body is bedecked with 3000gp worth of gold and jewels. Should someone rob his dead wife’s grave, Stanislav will make it his life’s work to kill the thief.

Lord Wyrd's Library

Lord Wyrd’s library is massive and sprawling. It is also messy and disorganized with no categorization system that anyone can determine. His family’s collection of ancient tomes and treatises is unmatched outside of academic circles. The library contains information on a wide variety of subjects, but most of the collection deals with the Wyrdwood and its environs, inhabitants, and history. There are no magical tomes or spellbooks to be found here.

Lord Wyrd deeply values his ancestral library and does not allow just anyone access to it. PCs will either need to sneak in or gain the trust and confidence of Lord Wyrd or his daughter.

Research Rolls

If you have access to Lord Wyrd’s library, ask a single question about the Wyrdwood and spend 1d8+8 hours in research. Roll 2d6+INT.

• 6 or less: Your search is fruitless. Your time is wasted and you lose any accumulated +1s to your research roll. But the GM will tell you some unrelated but interesting (if not necessarily important or useful) rumor, bit of trivia, or lore that you stumbled across in your research.
• 7-9: You haven’t found the answer yet, but you’re on the right track. Take +1 to the next research roll you make regarding your question.
• 10: You have found the answer to your question. Your GM will give it to you as a single statement. Any follow-up questions you make can be researched with a +1 to the roll.

If you want to help someone in their research, spend the same amount of time with them, and roll 2d6+INT

• 6 or less: You are a distraction and a font of bad information. Your friend takes -1 to their research roll.
• 7-9: You neither help nor hinder your friend, but you get a +1 to your next assistance roll.
• 10+: You find some helpful information or leads. Give +1 to your friend’s research roll.

Wyrdwood Village

I've got a new campaign idea in my head, because clearly I don't have enough projects to keep me busy. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it right yet. Once the plague leaves our far lands, I'm probably going to propose it as the next campaign for my home group. Or, if I ever get room for another online game I might run it as like a virtual open-table.

It's a spooky (but not horror) rustic hex-crawl setting centered around a haunted forest and anchored by a little village full of eccentric NPCs. I'm going for a kind of dream-like weirdness more than horror. it's a gothic fairytale vibe without going into full-blown Burton territory, like a Roger Corman meets Guillermo del Toro thing. System-wise I think Beyond the Wall and Other Adventures is the best fit.

Here are my vague and poorly organized concept notes...

Wyrdwood Village (Setting)

Keys: Dreamlike, folktales, decay, mystery

Musical Influences: Purson, Blood Ceremony, Devil’s Blood

Specifically not a horror setting, despite some of the folk horror trappings.

A small village spread around an ancient manor house occupied by the mysterious Lord Wyrd and his household.

Lord Wyrd is mysterious with vaguely-defined supernatural influence on the area. Of an alien mood, but surprisingly benign. His family has been here as long as the village has, with no records showing their origin. Lord Wyrd has been the master of the Manor as long as anyone can remember.

The Wyrdwood is a primeval, spooky fairytale forest full of strange ruins, monsters, and secrets. The village has only one path in--the old covered bridge.

People (PCs and other weirdos) just “show up” in Wyrdwood village, coming across the bridge. Sometimes by accident, sometimes on purpose, sometimes by invitation from Lord Wyrd. Designed to facilitate bringing new characters/players into the campaign.

Visitors are welcome, and Lord Wyrd is quite happy to provide rooms for guests within the Manor, as long as they behave themselves.

Every week, a masked man driving a wagon comes into town to resupply the merchants and take their money to deposit “back in the city.” This "city" is never discussed in detail. Anyone who attempts to follow the wagon driver when he leaves the village never returns to Wyrdwood. None of this strikes the villagers as unusual. Wyrdwood Manor

• Many secret passages and hidden chambers
• A strange art gallery
• Lord Wyrd’s bored and lustful daughter
• The locked bedroom of Lord Wyrd’s dead son.
• Distressingly cheerful Halfling groundskeeper
• Competent if uncreative cook.
• Necromantic butler overseeing ghostly staff.
• Guest rooms available for use by adventuring types
• Library full of cryptic answers
• Family crypts

Wyrdwood Village

• Tavern, where hirelings and torchbearers can be hired.
• Church dedicated to a forgotten god
• General store with a very friendly proprietor (Runcible Hawk and his old dog Blue). He’ll buy pelts and monster skins from adventurers.
• Smith who can make weapons and simple armor, and can order heavy armor for you (delivered next week!)
• Several empty houses that can be rented or purchased from Lord Wyrd (so PCs can set up their own homes, temples, guilds, etc.)
• Apothecary who sells potions and buys weird ingredients from the PCs.
• Handful of farms with quarreling families.
• Maypole and old menhirs where seemingly random holidays are celebrated.
• Crusty old bailiff/sheriff who keeps the peace.

The Wyrdwood

• Ruins of unknown history and make
• Dungeons of various sizes
• Creepy druid cults burning sacrifices inside wicker animals
• Talking beasts
• The tower of a reclusive, but good-natured wizard.
• Coven of sinister witches and their goblin minions
• The Parliament of Spiders
• Ancient statues covered in moss
• Small village of devils
• Bearlike hermit
• No standard “humanoid” monsters, aside from some beastly goblin-folk.