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| walter crane incredible beauty woman crane gender illustration beautiful walter literally me crane illustration |
The Plain
The plain stretches around you, vast and silver-grey. Behind you, a storm churns the sky. Ahead, a forest promises shelter in its shade. Moving towards the grove, you glimpse a strange procession: a Knight, a Lady and a Dwarf.
The Knight’s armor is battered and scarred, but not broken. A blood red cross is emblazoned on his breast and shield, a constant reminder of that most noble sacrifice. He rides a powerful horse, gnashing and foaming at its bit. He is on a quest: Gloriana, queen of Faerie Land, has sent him to kill an odious dragon: Error. He will do this, or die trying, for above all things he desires Gloriana’s grace.
The Lady rides beside the knight, huddled on a snow white donkey. Her face is covered by a veil and wimple, and a black stole hangs heavy around her neck. Trotting beside her is a lamb, white as her steed.
Lagging behind the riders, a Dwarf hunches along, bent nearly double under the weight of the Lady’s bags.
Redcrosse Knight
Skill: 8
Stamina: 12
Initiative: 2
Armour: 1
Damage: Sword
- Determined
- Yearning
- Doubtful
- Brash
- Fed Up
- Noble
Lady Una
Skill: 9
Stamina: 6
Initiative: 3
Armour: 0
Damage: Unarmed, nails and little teeth
Special: Una cannot lie, and believes any lie told to her.
Mein
- Sorrowful
- Naive
- Humble
- Wistful
- Placating
- Curious
Dwarf
Skill: 6
Stamina: 10
Initiative: 2
Armour: 0
Damage: as Maul, hitting you with a comically laden bags
Special: the Dwarf can bear a burden of any weight, provided Lady Una asks him to.
Mein
- Tired
- Resigned
- Loyal
- Irritable
- Bitter
- Stoic
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| second crane of obligation and beauty |
The Forest
Many wide, easy paths lead into the forest, beckoning you deeper. Massive trees stand together huddled like conspiring bishops, limbs spread above you, branches woven so thickly that not even the eye of God could pierce the canopy. Birds flit from branch to branch, their song mocking the storm that rages futilely outside. The path that led you in is quickly lost in the verdant labyrinth, but new paths catch your feet, guiding them ever deeper.
Encounters
- 2d6 of Error's Monstrous Young, nailing pamphlets to trees and handing out books to whoever they see (these are worth a fortune!) Reading them forces you to roll on the Error table.
- Polemics and pamphlets, damp and smelling of bile, nailed to the trees. Reading them forces you to roll on the Error table. Following them will lead you to Error's Cave.
- 1d3 travelers (roll a background for each) making use of the miraculous properties of 1d3 random trees
- The Knight and his Entourage; if you are traveling with them, then
- Reroll Mein for each
- One of them has wandered off into the woods and become lost; reroll Mein for those who remain to determine their course of action.
- An old barefoot man, in long black robes with a book at his belt, stares at the ground glumly, beating his chest and murmuring prayers to himself as he walks slowly along the path. This is Archimago. He bows deeply as you approach, saluting you humbly. He does not know of Error, nor of any such strange adventures, but offers you shelter for the evening in his Inn, urging you to rest your weary bones, for even the sun itself must nightly rest in the ocean.
- Roll twice and combine. If you roll this again, roll twice and combine but the first entry you roll is actually one of Archimago's fiendish Sprites in disguise.
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| type shit my dreams have been on lately for some reason |
Archimago’s Inn
A little hermitage rests peacefully in the crook of a dale by the forest’s edge, a short distance from a humble chapel. Up the gentle slope of the hill, a crystal spring wells up and overflows into a playful brook.
Inside, the hermitage is small and bare, scarcely large enough to hold 4 people. No entertainment can be found, but Archimago has a pleasant voice, and more pleasant words. He tells you parables of the saints and stories of the popes, beginning and ending each with a heartfelt Ave Maria.
Night falls quickly, and you feel your eyes grow heavy. No matter how much energy you felt you had, sleep proves irresistible, unless you ask to Test your Luck.
After a little while, Archimago shows you to your room. If you are not sleepy, he seems somewhat perturbed, but bids you goodnight anyway, and asks not to be disturbed.
The room is spartan and clean; rows of simple cots line each wall, each well made up and inviting. The three furthest from the door are occupied by the Knight, the Lady, and the Dwarf, all of whom are fast asleep, and will not wake even if shaken roughly.
Once he has shown you to your rooms, Archimago will return once, after about 15 minutes, to see if you are sleeping. If you are not, he is flustered, and urges you to sleep, reminding you of the long road ahead.
After this, Archimago will retire to his study, where, surrounded by stacks of leather bound arcane tomes. He consults them feverishly by the light of a guttering candle, searching for spells and charms to trouble sleeping minds. In a clear, cruel voice, he calls out to great Gorgon, prince of darkness and dead night, and from the shadows draws a swarm of tiny Sprites which buzz and hum around his head like fat flies.
He whispers intently to the swarm. They swoop out the door, through the keyhole, towards the chamber where the travelers sleep.
The Sprites seeks out the bed of the any visitors where, in a grotesque transformation, they unfolds their flylike child bodies into the long, delicate ones of Lady Una, and slips into the their bed.
If the Knight and his entourage are among the visitors...
the Knight tosses and turns, moans of breathless passion escaping his lips at times, which may wake light sleepers. Finally, he starts awake, only to find the Sprite, disguised as Lady Una, beside him offering a kiss. He will start from his bed with a cry, which will waken all but the deepest sleepers, and fling her from him. The sprite will vanish. In its wake, the Knights rage is terrible, and he may kill any in his path, particularly his Lady.
Archimago
Skill: 10
Stamina: 12
Initiative: 3
Armour: 0
Damage: as Club, hitting you with a book
Special: can summon and command a Sprite of hell; up to 6 at once.
- Self-Effacing
- Glib
- Pious
- Charming
- Kindly
- Sly
Sprites
Skill: 8
Stamina: 3
Initiative: 4
Armour: 0
Damage: None
Special: Each Sprite functions as one of the following spells, physically carrying out the spell effects with their devilish fingers: Animate, Darkness, Ember, Helping Hand, Leech, Tongue Twister.
Sprites may transform into many shapes and take on any appearance. In their true form they are something like flies and something like skinless children.
Sprites are denizens of hell. Each owes their allegiance to one of the 72 demons, who will seek vengeance for their death 1d6 days later.
Mein
- Mocking
- Cruel
- Disgusting
- Thoughtless
- Craven
- Mischievous
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| sometimes we get all confused |
At the end of the tunnel, Error waits. A woman from the waist up, her lower half is that of an enormous, loathsome serpent, tipped with a massive, dripping sting. She lays on the filthy floor of the cave, her tail looped around her in fat, shifting coils.
Upon her, sleeping in her knotted coils, or greedily nursing foul milk from her breasts, lie 11 of her squirming, Monstrous Young, their forms not yet fixed, mutating even as you gaze upon them.
Error hates light, and will cower from it, or, if she must, attack in order to put it out.
If she is slain, her many Young writhe and snuffle about her corpse, slurping desperately at the black blood and white milk that spills from her corpse. Their stomachs grow horrifically distended from their feast; as you watch, one ruptures, entrails spilling out of its thin skin.
Error
Skill: 12
Stamina: 18
Initiative: 4
Armour: 2
Damage: As large beast
Special: rather than attack, Error may birth 1d6 Monstrous Young.
Once per round Error may vomit a torrent of heretical books and scrolls, eyeless toads, and poisonous bile in front of her. If you are in the area you are automatically hit but you may Test your Luck to reduce the damage roll by 1.
Error's Vomit:
- 3 Dmg
- 4
- 6
- 8
- 9
- 12
Anyone who takes damage from the torrent, or reads any of the damp, slimy texts suffers from extreme, pervasive confusion about the nature of their faith and role in the world. Roll 1d6 on the Error table:
- No effect, your clarity of purpose holds true.
- Your faith is badly shaken and you feel the need to reassert it. your next turn must be spent boldly proclaiming the merits of your opinions; for each piece of evidence you can provide, regain 1 Stamina up to a max of 3.
- the solar system
- heaven
- hell
- good
- evil
- the origins of living creatures
- As above.
- You're shaken and uncertain. You must spend your next turn asking your companions to clarify their opinions on one of the matters above. If you agree with them, lose 1 Skill but gain the Advanced Skill Lickspittle at rank 2 (then 3, 4, etc.) If you disagree, the two of you must duel.
- You no longer remember why you are fighting Error; everything seems mixed up and pointless. You try to disengage as soon as possible. For the next day, all your successes are "success at a cost" as you try to play devils advocate for yourself.
- Your old beliefs are discarded like rags to the wind. You want nothing more than to be loved by Error, to drink deeply of her milk, and tend to her young.
Mein
- Maternal
- Defensive
- Nonsensical
- Probing
- Cowardly
- Seductive
Skill: 3
Stamina: 3
Initiative: 3
Armour: 0
Damage: none
Special: if any of the Monstrous Young hit you, instead of dealing damage they latch on to a limb. A limb with one young on it is hindered, a limb with two or more on it is immobilized and impossible to use.
Rather than attack, one of the Young may suckle from Error: they are forced to roll on the Error table, but gain the ability to deal damage as a Small Beast.
The Young are a multifarious brood. To determine the look of a given one of the Young, roll 3d6 on the Monstrous Young table.
Mein
- Sniveling
- Sycophantic
- Incoherent
- Panicking
- Hungry
- Coy
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| a kent and im spent |
marvelous and nasty 🙂↕️
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