The Haunting of the House of Crum
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B13. Preparation Room
This small chamber’s walls are carved from the surrounding stone and contain numerous niches in the walls that once held various ritual paraphernalia, such as robes, unholy symbols, fetishes, and other similar objects. These date from the days when Crum toyed with demon worship, hoping it might alleviate his ennui. A few of these objects still remain; all show frog themes—froglike images and shapes abound. None of them are particularly valuable in themselves, although a silver unholy symbol might fetch as much as $20 to sages or scholars interested in the worship of the obscure demon lord known as Brekekoax in certain magic tomes.
Hanging on a peg in the room is a single greenish-gray hooded robe with a metal clasp in the shape of a frog’s head. Anyone wearing the robe will find themselves immune to immediate attack by any frogs or froglike creatures, whether terrestrial or otherworldly in origin (other than mechanical ones). This immunity extends only to creatures that the wearer does not attack or against whom the wearer does not take violent action. Should the PC ever attack a frog, the cloak’s effects are permanently nullified.
B14. The Great Ossuary
This large cavern was used by Crum and his servants as a repository for the bones of those murdered or sacrificed within the estate over the years. Even now, his undead servants bring the bones of those slain here to rest within this chamber. Characters that use Investigate will find that there are a lot of bones here, probably enough to account for several hundred individuals. Lurking among the bones is a roiling white ooze created by Crum through necromantic rituals from bones, skin, and gristle. The ooze is malevolently intelligent and will lie in wait until any living beings come within 10 feet of its resting place in the northeast corner of the cavern, after which it will attack. A careful search among the bones will reveal little in the way of treasure except a gold ring (worth $40) that contains an inscription, reading “To Big Head Molly.”
B15. Cave Of Illusions
This cave is, like several others, dimly lit by greenish phosphorescence provided by otherwise harmless fungi and lichen that cover its walls and ceiling. The cave also exudes a faintly sweet odor that is noticeable by any creature that takes the time to smell the air within it. Otherwise, they will not notice the odor.
Regardless of whether they notice the odor, any character that enters the cave must immediately make a Physique check (at +2d if they notice the odor and take precautions, such as covering their mouths, etc.). Failure means the PC breathed in a noxious gas that is seeping into the room through a crevice in the western wall of the cave.
Those who breathed this gas will see an illusion of a horrific creature menacing them. A different creature is visible to each character affected by the gas and all such illusions cannot be seen by anyone else, even those affected by their own illusions. Each Turn, the illusory creature attacks (with Melee: 4; Physique 6; Will: 8; Regeneration). If it scores a hit, the target dies from fright. If it fails to score a hit, the target gets a Will check to shake off the effects of the gas. Characters so affected can do nothing but swing at the air, cower in fear until they shake off the effects of the gas, are slain by the illusion, or their unaffected comrades do something to save them. Characters removed from the cavern return to their senses 1 Turn after breathing clean air once more. The cave contains nothing else of value.
B16. Pool Room
This large cave contains what looks like a pool made from a strange silvery-black metal. It is about 3’ deep. The sides of the pool are inscribed with a peculiar writing that defies any attempts to decipher it. The pool is completely devoid of any liquid. However, there is a large amount of reddish sediment at its bottom. If examined, the sediment is some type of earth, although not any sort from the area around the estate— or indeed anywhere on this world. Sages well-versed in the lore of other worlds might be able to identify it as hailing from Mars, and suggest that such earth is used as a component in the creation of portals to this alien planet, which is precisely what Crum did in his quest to alleviate his boredom.
The portal could theoretically be recreated here if the characters filled it with water and performed the proper magical rituals, but finding such knowledge might prove difficult, as the tomes that included them are no longer to be found within the estate.
Earning Vigor
For every three encounters the PCs survive, they receive one point of Vigor. If a character dies during an encounter, that encounter is not counted toward the three encounters to earn Vigor. For example, Flux’s character Wundabat is killed by a crazed snaggle-toothed hippopotamus during the 3rd encounter. Then he is not awarded Vigor until he survives the fourth encounter.
PCs also receive 1 point of Vigor for each battle, win or lose. However, if they fold, they do not receive any Vigor for that battle.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
As Technical Director of the Afrikan Martial Arts Institute and Co-Chair of the Urban Survival and Preparedness Institute, Balogun Ojetade is the author of the bestselling non-fiction books Afrikan Martial Arts: Discovering the Warrior Within, The Afrikan Warriors Bible, Surviving the Urban Apocalypse, The Urban Self Defense Manual, The Young Afrikan Warriors’ Guide to Defeating Bullies & Trolls, Never Unarmed: The Afrikan Warriors’ Guide to Improvised Weapons, Ofo Ase: 365 Daily Affirmations to Awaken the Afrikan Warrior Within, Ori: The Afrikan Warriors’ Mindset, Ogun Ye! Protecting the Afrikan Family and Community and Kori O: Protecting Afrikan Children from Violence & Sexual Abuse.
He is one of the leading authorities on Afroretroism – film, fashion or fiction that combines African and / or African American culture with a blend of “retro” styles and futuristic technology, in order to explore the themes of tension between past and future and between the alienating and empowering effects of technology and on Creative Resistance. He writes about Afroretroism – Sword & Soul, Rococoa, Steamfunk and Dieselfunk at http://chroniclesofharriet.com/.
He is author of twenty-one novels and gamebooks – MOSES: The Chronicles of Harriet Tubman (Books 1 & 2); The Chronicles of Harriet Tubman: Freedonia; Redeemer; Once Upon A Time In Afrika; Fist of Africa; A Single Link; Wrath of the Siafu; The Scythe; The Keys; Redeemer: The Cross Chronicles; Beneath the Shining Jewel; Q-T-Pies: The Savannah Swan Files (Book 0) and A Haunting in the SWATS: The Savannah Swan Files (Book 1); Siafu Saves the World; Siafu vs. The Horde; Dembo’s Ditty; The Beatdown, Initiate 16, Gunsmoke Blues, Malik: Confessions of a Black Identity Extremist and Malik: Confessions of a Black Identity Extremist 2: Enemy of the State and Steamfunkateers: The Steamfunk Role Playing Game—contributing co-editor of three anthologies: Ki: Khanga: The Anthology, Steamfunk and Dieselfunk and contributing editor of the Rococoa anthology and Black Power: The Superhero Anthology.
He is also the creator and author of the Afrofuturistic manga series, Jagunjagun Lewa (Pretty Warrior) and co-author of the Ngolo graphic novel.
Finally, he is co-author of the award winning screenplay, Ngolo and co-creator of Ki Khanga: The Sword and Soul Role-Playing Game, both with author Milton Davis.
Reach him on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/Afrikan.Martial.Arts and on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Baba_Balogun. Find his books on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Balogun-Ojetade/e/B00AVEA7SU.