Beneath Cursed Moon Full v0.3

Ta b l e o f C o n t e n t s
Credits & Thanks.............................................................................................................................................................................2

Premise..............................................................................................................................................................................................3
Basic Rules........................................................................................................................................................................................6
Moves.................................................................................................................................................................................................9
Playbooks........................................................................................................................................................................................17
Champion........................................................................................................................................................................18
Changeling......................................................................................................................................................................21
Dreamer............................................................................................................................................................................24
Fiend..................................................................................................................................................................................27
Hunter...............................................................................................................................................................................30
Necromancer...................................................................................................................................................................33
Scholar..............................................................................................................................................................................36
Scoundrel.........................................................................................................................................................................39
Vampire............................................................................................................................................................................42
Warlock............................................................................................................................................................................45
Werewolf..........................................................................................................................................................................48
Equipment List..............................................................................................................................................................................51
Playing The Game.........................................................................................................................................................................54
Running The Game.......................................................................................................................................................................57
Setting..............................................................................................................................................................................................63
Common Setting Elements.........................................................................................................................................................67
Adventure Ideas............................................................................................................................................................................71
Monsters..........................................................................................................................................................................................73
People...............................................................................................................................................................................................75
Abominations.................................................................................................................................................................................76
Beasts...............................................................................................................................................................................................82
Demons............................................................................................................................................................................................88
Fey....................................................................................................................................................................................................95
Undead...........................................................................................................................................................................................102
Other Monsters...........................................................................................................................................................................108
Dice Probability...........................................................................................................................................................................109
Index..............................................................................................................................................................................................110
Table of Contents
1
Credits & Thanks
Writing and Design by Michael “Karrius” Mazur.
➢ dragonchild12@gmail.com
Cover art by Flavia de Vita
➢ http://fdevitart.tumblr.com
➢ https://www.facebook.com/fdevitart
➢ https://www.instagram.com/fdevitart
Playbook art by Dreamweaver Druid
➢ https://dreamweaverdruid.tumblr.com
Layout and formatting by Goaty Goats
➢ https://goaty.neocities.org
Special thanks to all those who have helped with ideas and brainstorming, including Lisa Shruggernaut,
Graham cash4bees, Dogmantra, Spiderrebelnews, Meats, Goaty, Max, and Pillow.
Thanks again to Lisa Shruggernaut, Meats, and Goaty for helping with art ideas.
And thanks to Josh, Frank, chonjurer, and K, who inspired me to never stop pushing for things to be better
when it came to design and community.
Credits & Thanks

2
Premise
Beneath a Cursed Moon is a tabletop roleplaying game about hunting down monsters in a dark fantasy world
and killing them, while protecting those they would prey upon. It is heavily inspired by Gothic fantasy media,
like Castlevania, Bloodborne, and Hellboy. While it uses many horror elements, this isn’t a horror game – nor is
it a grimdark game. Monsters exist, and your heroes have the power to defeat them – and it’s up to you to
protect those in need of help. You don’t fear the dark – the dark should fear you.
Beneath a Cursed Moon is played with one Master of Ceremonies, or MC, who runs the game, and any
number of player characters, or PCs who each control a single character. The MC then controls the monsters,
and other characters in the world, both good and bad. The MC and PC act out their characters, in a way that
fits the characters as described, in order to produce an interesting story and situations. The two roles are not
competitive, and instead the MC acts as a sort of game designer, narrator, and referee, with the goal of setting
up interesting challenges for the heroes and acting the part of the minor characters and villains, while the
heroes take center stage.
The expected structure of the game is to be informed of a threat – possibly from moving into a new area, or a
body being discovered, or the like – figuring out what the monster is, preparing to battle it, and then
protecting people and slaying it. Sometimes, that will involve chasing the minions of Dracula back to their
master’s overly elaborate magical castle – and sometimes it will involve trying to figure out which seemingly
innocent person in the village is the werewolf before it can kill again. The expecting arc of a game isn’t
entirely this rigid, however, and monster attacks while investigating, or having to piece together who
summoned the monster you’ve slain will mix up the fighting and investigation portions. Mystery solving is a
major part of the game, and being able to identify and track a monster is just as important as being able to kill
it.
There’s no one set setting to Beneath a Cursed Moon, although the game makes some assumptions. The world
is a dark fantasy one, of small villages separated by dangerous wilderness, with larger cities acting as cover to
the more social predators, who blend into the masses in order to get close to their victims. The specific details
are for you to decide as you play, but ideas are provided later in the book.
If You’re Familiar With Powered By The Apocalypse…

If you’re familiar with Powered by The Apocalypse (PBTA) games, there’s a lot you’ll find familiar here, and a
lot you’ll find different. The basic mechanics - the 2d6+stat, the mixed success on 7-9, and so on - you'll all see
as obviously PBTA inspired. Where Beneath a Cursed Moon differs is on some of the specifics of those
mechanics. The game assumes that bad things are happening anyway by the time you start rolling - either in
the immediacy, or the long-term. Rolling a mixed success doesn't need to have some kind of downside for
every roll, if the downside "You didn't get enough of the information you wanted -- do you want to try to act
now, or wait and risk more victims?". The situation should provide the pressure, and players should never feel
punished for acting. Other games lean heavily on "fail forward" to keep the gaming moving - in Beneath a
Cursed Moon, things should always be moving forward, and failure shouldn't change that. It's entirely
acceptable for the next part of forward momentum to not come from the characters specifically.
Premise
3
Author’s Note
Hey – thanks for checking out this book. If you’ve even gotten this far, I understand that’s a huge level of
interest that I super appreciate. This book was made from my love of Castlevania, and desire to play out
similar settings in a roleplaying game, as well as wanting to make games for people who want more out of the
RPG industry than what we’ve got today.
Beneath a Cursed Moon has been offered on itch.io entirely pay-what-you-want. It was important for me to
make this book free, because I really don't need the money, and I want to encourage more people to develop
off of my ideas. More than anything else, I want other people to read this and make games I want to play.. Still,
any support you send is appreciated. With your help, I can afford more art, editors, etc, and better compensate
those who have worked on it. Any money I make from my books goes entirely to the others who have
contributed to it, and to getting better art and help for the next book.
There’s a lot of ways RPGs get bogged down in racism and other bigotries, sometimes in a poor attempt to
comment on them. Some of the “award winning” games in the same genre have just copied horrible racist
stereotypes as if there was nothing wrong with them. Beneath a Cursed Moon doesn’t want any of that – none
of the thoughtless bigotries, and not attempting to say something important or deep. Games that have
important messages or try to teach you things or open your mind to other viewpoints are cool, but there’s no
reason for anyone to listen to me when it comes to that stuff. I'm kinda a dumbass leftist when it comes to
that, honestly. This game’s goal is to brush aside nastiness and be a good time for those who just want to hunt
down and kill some monsters. Everyone deserves some low-stress fun, the staking Dracula equivalent of
comfort food. That's not to say I'm going into this blindly, though. While this game is based off of a lot of
material that is kind of historically focused, it plays with history fast and loose, and I encourage you to lean
more towards a fantasy-set setting instead. Racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, and other bigotries are
all going to be assumed stuff you don’t want in your game in any form. They’re not fun, and we’re here to
have fun. That being said, a lot of horror monsters are based on fears tied to real-world bigotries, or deal with
things you may not want to bring up in your game, and when appropriate that’s discussed or modified to be
more general purpose. You can read Dracula as the fear of a seductive forgeiner preying on woman or as a rich
noble preying on his undercass, and whenever possible we're going to push the latter. This isn't to say your
game can't handle those themes - but those are up to the comfort level of you and your players. I can't possibly
know what's going to work best for you.
This game pulls from European mythologies, or more accurately literature set in those areas, heavily. Part of
this is because that’s what’s most familiar to me – and I’m least likely to horribly butcher – and part of it,
frankly, is “That’s the way Castlevania did it, because that's the way Universal Studios did it”. There’s a lot
outside of this limited geography and time span that can be used as inspiration – the Scholar’s art was based
off of period-appropriate Persian scholars, and the ghoul used is the demonic ghoul of Arabic folklore, and not
the modern-day undead “fast zombie” - but by virtue of needing to be a finished product that has to be done,
and only trusting myself so far when it comes to research, the limits of the book are as they are. To properly
cover everywhere, this book would have to be huge.
Finally, if you’ve got any comments, suggestions, etc, let me know at dragonchild12@gmail.com , on twitter at
@dragonchild12 , or at my general purpose RPG discord at https://discord.gg/G5mg5g .I’m interested in
hearing in feedback, both good and bad, and am open to fixing any issues the game might have. Also, if you’ve
got projects of your own you’re working on, and want help with brainstorming, writing, editing, finding folks,
affording art – or even just need a community, reach out. I made this game because I want more games out
there I can be happy with playing.
Premise
4
Relevant Stuff I Like
It’s traditional to have a big list of literature that RPGs are based off of, and here it is. It’s important to note
that this isn’t the whole list of everything that influenced this game – stuff like Dracula and Frankenstein have
seeped into popular culture in an inextractable way, and were certainly used as reference. But I didn’t read
them and think - “Hey I want to play this”. These are the things I specifically wanted to make a game around.
The actual list of media the game pulls from is much, much bigger.
Books: Hellboy, The Case of Charles Dexter Ward and other works of HP Lovecraft, Throne of the Crescent Moon
Movies: The Mummy (1999), Pirates of the Caribbean, Van Helsing (2004)
Tabletop: A Touch of Evil, Blades in the Dark, Magic the Gathering: Innistrad and Ixalan, Ravenloft
TV: Angel, Castlevania, Gargoyles, Sleepy Hollow (2013)
Video Games: Bloodborne, Castlevania series, Darkest Dungeon, Diablo, The Secret World
Premise
5
Basic Rules
If you want to read more about how the game is structured, check out the “Playing the Game” chapter for PCs
and MCs, and “Running the Game” chapter for MCs, and might be a better place to start if you’re entirely new
to roleplaying games. If you’re jumping right into playing the game, or are already familiar with RPGs, the
rules in this chapter and in the “Moves” chapter are all you really need to know to jump right in.
Character Creation
For the PCs, character creation is done by picking a playbook – a concept that has an associated bonus and
abilities to it, that determines what type of character you’ll be playing. Each playbook has bonuses listed to the
different Moves, which determines how good your character is at different actions, and include a few bonuses
you need to assign yourself. The playbook then lists basic abilities, which you get all of, and advanced abilities,
which you can choose two of, unless your MC says you start with more. Full details on creating a character are
in the Playbooks chapter.
Important Terms
Ally: Anyone who’s on your side. You choose who your allies are. Allies you’re unaware of may or may not
count for effects, based on the fiction – that’s the MC’s choice.
Armor: A character with armor subtracts the armor’s damage from any harm they suffer, and can even reduce
an attack’s damage to 0. Some forms of damage ignore armor, and some forms of armor have weaknesses that
are ignored by specific attacks.
Bystander: A person who is not a PC, and is not a monster. Civilians, local militia, and the like. A minion-
level human.
Harm: Damage an attack deals, or a character suffers. PCs can suffer 10 harm before taken out of a fight, but
other characters can suffer a variable amount.
Hold: A result to be “cashed in” for an effect. When you acquire a hold, mark it down – you can then spend
the hold according to its source for some benefit, right away or later. Unused holds stick around.
Forward: A bonus to your next roll of a particular type.
Lord: An extremely powerful enemy that will challenge the entire group.
Minion: A minion is a weak enemy, little stronger than an ordinary person. The heroes can fight them off in
hordes.
Move: Something a player can accomplish with distinct mechanical effects. A move will always tell you what
bonus to roll (based on your playbook), and what happens based on the results of that roll.
Ongoing: A bonus to all rolls of a particular type, that lasts as long as a condition applies.
Playbook: A specific archetype with a list of bonuses and abilities that you choose at character creation.
Scene: A scene is a played-out event that takes up a single fight, investigation location, and its aftermath.
Whenever you have a skip from one location or time to the next, that’s a change of a scene.
Warrior: An enemy of some strength, who’s roughly as strong as one of the PCs.
Basic Rules
6
Moves
Moves represent things players can do with distinct mechanical effects. Moves tell you what happens when
you try to do specific, common tasks. Anyone can perform any of the basic moves, but there also might be new
moves available for your playbook. When you use a move, you roll two six-sided dice, add them together, and
then add a bonus to the total. If you have a Forward, that applies to the next roll you make of a type of move.
If you have an Ongoing, that applies to all rolls that it applies to, until something says otherwise. Once you’ve
rolled the dice, if your total is 6 or below, generally something bad will happen, even if it’s just wasted time. If
it’s 7-9, something good will happen either with a drawback or to a minor degree. If it’s 10+, you will succeed
in your task. And if you’re lucky enough to roll 13+, you do whatever you set out to do extremely well. The
MC generally doesn’t rolls for Moves – only the PCs do. Full detail on what all of the moves do are in the
Moves chapter.
When you’re using a move, you should try to describe what it is your character is trying to do, before
mentioning a specific move by name. It should be fairly obvious what move goes along with what actions, but
it’s the MC’s call which move to use – feel free to suggest an appropriate move, and especially to remind them
of your playbook’s moves, though.. The MC might call for a move when you didn’t think you’d need one, or
might not call for a move at all – sometimes you’ll just succeed at whatever it is you’re doing, or you might
not have any chance of success due to reasons you’re not aware of.
When rolling a move, you should start by describing what it is your character is setting out to do. Then roll,
and see the result – and narrate how you get to that result. If you’re trying to hold back a rampaging monster,
say that you’re trying to do that, roll the move, and then narrate your success or failure based on the result.
You should free to add details to the setting to get at the result, too. You might be trying to identify what
attacked someone in a field last night, and only when your move tells you that you can successfully identify it
do the details of there being an identifiable werewolf track in the dirt get mentioned. If you failed the roll,
maybe that track didn’t exist, or maybe you didn’t find it – either way is the same for the narrative.
Actions that aren’t particularly difficult, dangerous, or time consuming don’t require you to roll for a move.
Your character doesn’t have to roll to climb up a ladder – unless there are gargoyles trying to rip them off of it,
in which case it’s dangerous enough to warrant a roll. You don’t have to roll a move to look information up in
a library – unless you’re actively on a case, and the time you waste paging through books means the monster
has time to kill again. Moves are only rolled when success is not guaranteed, and pressure is in place that
makes success or failure interesting.
Investigation
When you’re trying to find things out – talking to people, hunting for clues, drawing upon your knowledge, or
the like – the investigation moves are used. Every PC gets one attempt at an investigation move of their
choice, and then time passes. The MC will keep track of the time, and as it passes, you can expect bad things
to happen – the monster will heal its wounds, capture more victims, draw closer to the finishing of their ritual,
or the like.
Basic Rules
7
Combat
When you’re in a fight, the MC will describe the actions by monsters and bystanders, and then the players get
to declare their actions, usually rolling for moves. Each PC can roll at least one move – usually Battle,
Knowledge, or Sorcery – and get run to wherever they need to be close by. If getting where they want to go is
difficult, a Daring Action move might be needed. This usually doesn’t count for the PC’s action, unless it’s a
particularly complicated Daring Action, or it ends up taking more time as a downside. Once PCs have all acted,
if their actions don’t actually address the threat posed by the monsters, then the foes get to achieve whatever
they were trying to do. So if a werewolf is looking to abduct a bystander, and everyone chooses to try to hurt it
(with none of them getting in its way directly), then none of the PCs will be hurt back – but that victim is now
in the werewolf’s hands, and the werewolf is starting to get away. Instead, a PC would have to move the
victim out of the way, push the werewolf somewhere else, or draw the werewolf’s attention onto themselves
to interrupt it. When an action is interrupted, a monster is going to take another, similar action to react to the
situation at hand – if you jump in front of the werewolf trying to abduct a bystander, it’s going to try to claw
at you, or grab at you instead. The cost to rolling poorly on combat checks is the lost opportunity cost, and the
risk of sticking your neck out.
Suffering Harm
Damage and health is measured in harm. All PCs can take up to 10 harm in damage – once they’ve taken 10 or
more harm, they’re badly wounded and out of the fight. This doesn’t mean they’re dead, but it does mean
they’re not getting up for a while. Depending on how they took the harm, and what else happens to them, this
might end up killing them – it’s up to the MC, and based on what’s dramatically appropriate, but PCs
generally shouldn’t die at 10 harm except in exceptional circumstances. No matter how much harm is healed, a
character who’s been knocked out of a fight through 10 harm can’t rejoin it. 10 harm until defeat is only the
rule for PCs – civilians and weaker monsters require much less harm to kill, while powerful monsters require
much more.
The Battle move allows a character to deal harm as appropriate to their weapon – how much harm that is is
listed with the weapon itself. When not using a weapon, PCs can deal 1 harm with their fists, or grabbing
whatever junk might be nearby. Spells, special abilities, and other attacks can all deal harm, as listed, and
characters might suffer harm from enemies, as well as environmental hazards, botched spells, falling from a
great height, and other dangers.
Basic Rules
8
Moves
Players interact with the game system through the use of moves. Anyone can perform any of the basic moves,
but there also might be new moves available for your playbook. Moves are divided up into three categories:
Combat Moves, which don’t have to be used only in combat, but generally what you want to look at protect
others and fight your foes; Investigation moves, where you take time to try to find things out; and Other
moves, which are things you could see yourself using in both situations, or just on their own.
Each playbook has an associated bonus for it for each move. When you use a move, roll 2d6 and add the
associated bonus. If you have a Forward, that applies to the next roll you make of a type of move, as specified
by the Forward. If you have an Ongoing, that applies to all rolls that it applies to, until something says
otherwise.
Combat Moves
BATTLE
When you get into combat with another creature, either seeking to do harm or prevent harm done to yourself
or another, roll Battle. On a 6 or below, you’re easily fought off. On a 7-9, choose 1. On a 10-12, choose 2. On a
13+, choose 3.
➢ Deal Harm to your opponent (as appropriate to your weapon) (spend an additional choice for +1 Harm)
➢ You throw your opponent off balance, giving your allies each +1 Forward against it.
➢ You take or keep an item or position from your opponent.
➢ You draw your opponent’s attention onto you (and away from others).
➢ You break free from your opponent’s grasp, or break someone else free of their grasp.
➢ You force an opponent into a position you want, or keep them from getting away.
➢ You attack multiple foes at once, adding the (group) tag to this action.
➢ Reduce harm dealt to you by your opponent by 1 until your next turn.
KNOWLEDGE
When you want to aid your allies in combat with helpful advice, roll Knowledge. On a 6 or below, you fail to
come up with anything useful. On a 7-9, hold 2. On a 10-12, hold 4. On a 13+, hold 6. You may spend a hold at
any time to
➢ Know about all of a creature's unusual attack methods and weaknesses.

➢ Help your allies find an opening against a creature, giving them each +1 Forward against it
➢ Find a flaw in a creature’s defense, causing your next ally to damage it to deal +1 Harm
➢ Help keep an ally from harm, causing them to take -1 Harm from an attack.
➢ Give your allies spiritual strength or guidance, giving them each +1 Forward to Resist Dark Magic.
Moves
9
RESIST DARK MAGIC
When you want to resist dark influences or ward away evil creatures, roll Resist Dark Magic. On a 6 or below
your warding has no effect. On a 7-9, you can ward away minor minions, like skeletons or imps. On a 10-12,
you can ward away monstrous warriors, like vampires or succubi. On a 13+, you can ward away powerful
creatures, like fey or vampire lords. To ward away a creature, you require the appropriate object (iron for fey, a
holy symbol for undead, etc), and it prevents the creature from attacking you, or anyone else you’re shielding
for a moment. In addition, any PC can roll to Resist Dark Magic when an effect is trying to influence them –
the better they roll, the stronger they resist the monster’s effect, as listed per monster. Bystanders always fail
to resist dark magic, unless there are special circumstances.
Investigation Moves
When you investigate an area, talk to witnesses, research monsters, or try to find tools you need, you can do
so during the Investigation phase. If the PCs are under no time pressure, investigations automatically succeed
and proceed freely – there’s no worry, after all. Most of the time there’s some form of time constraint, even if
the PCs aren’t aware of it: the monster might find new victims or get away, more minions might be drawn to
the monster’s lair, or the villagers might tire and grow suspicious of the outsiders.
When you investigate an area, either looking for clues, drawing upon your knowledge, or talking to witnesses,
roll the appropriate Investigation Move roll if there’s a time pressure. If there’s no time pressure, your
investigation automatically succeeds and you can just keep asking questions as appropriate, although some
amount of in-game time will pass. When you roll, on a 6 or below, you fail to get any useful information, and
may even disturb the clues or worry people enough to cause future problems. When you roll a 7-9, you get to
ask one question of the MC. On a 10-12, you get to ask two questions. On a 13+, you get to ask three questions.
The MC should answer the questions fairly and honestly – it’s then up to you to describe how you’re going
about finding the answer to that question, with the MC providing input to help. You might figure out that the
monster is a werewolf from bites or fur or a claw mark, or that a monster must have been let into someone’s
house because the door was smashed through on the inside, or the like.
The first time the PCs investigate a scene, they can each do so once with relatively little time passing. Each
investigation thereafter takes time – risking further victims, the monster hunting you or getting away, or the
like. If you find clues as to what kind of creature something was, but don’t actually follow it up with what its
weaknesses are when your character might know, that’s a sign you got interrupted or distracted by other
thoughts – which you can later put it together using the Knowledge roll, when stuff is getting dangerous.
There are three types of Investigate rolls you can use:
Moves
10
INTERVIEW
This covers talking to people, asking around, and sizing up a social situation. It’s not just getting people to talk
to you, but also finding the truth or misconceptions in what the witnesses you’re already talking to are saying,
and getting them to focus on details they may not know are important. On a 6 or below, you fail to get any
useful information. When you roll a 7-9, you get to ask one question. On a 10-12, you get to ask two questions.
On a 13+, you get to ask three questions.
➢ Are there any witness accounts I can get that I didn’t know about?
➢ Exactly what type of creature was it, using witness accounts?
➢ "What are the people I'm talking to really feeling about someone or something?"
➢ What do the people I’m talking to actually think of me?
➢ Are there any inconsistencies in the witness accounts, either with themselves, each other, or what I know?
LORE
This covers knowing stuff about monsters, history, magic, and the like, or knowing where to find it when you
look things up in books, as well as making the necessary deductions to put it all together. On a 6 or below, you
fail to get any useful information. When you roll a 7-9, you get to ask one question. On a 10-12, you get to ask
two questions. On a 13+, you get to ask three questions.
➢ Exactly what type of creature was it, what is it capable of, and weak to?
➢ What kind of magic was used here?
➢ What is the history of this person, place, or creature?
➢ Is anything out of place with my understanding of how things should be?
➢ What ties these things together?
POKE AROUND
This covers looking for clues, searching the area, and general nose-to-the-floor detective work. It’s not just
finding clues, but realizing what is a clue, and what those clues mean. On a 6 or below, you fail to get any
useful information. When you roll a 7-9, you get to ask one question. On a 10-12, you get to ask two questions.
On a 13+, you get to ask three questions.
➢ How did a person or creature enter this location?

➢ Where did a person or creature go?
➢ How did a person or creature make their attack?
➢ How many people or creatures were here?
➢ What types of people or creatures were here?
➢ What was a person or creature after?
➢ Is there anything missing from this location?
➢ Has anything been added to this location?
Moves
11
Other Moves
The moves listed under Other Moves are ones that generally aren’t restricted to combat or investigate.
CONVINCE
When you talk to bystanders to try to get them to do stuff for you roll Convince. On a 6 or below, they refuse.
On a 7-9, you’ll have to give them something to do it, they might talk around about you in an inconvenient
way, or offer to help but run as soon as things get dangerous. On a 10-12, you get them to do what you want
to do. On a 13+, they’ll believe in the cause, and might even try to get others involved, too. Bystanders can
generally only have the convince move made against them by PCs once per circumstance.
If you’re going around town trying to find things that are rare, expensive, or just a whole lot of something, roll
Convince. On a 6 or below, you don’t find what you’re looking for. On a 7-9, you find what you need, but it’s
not quite what you had wanted, or will take some time until it’s ready. On a 10-12, you get what you need. On
a 13+, you get it easily, and it’s better than you could have hoped for.
DARING ACTION
You roll this when you do something dangerous and physically active, like try to safely jump across rooftops,
run away from a creature in the woods, save someone from a burning building, or the like. On a 6 or below,
you fail to accomplish your goal, and something bad takes place. On 7-9 you accomplish your task, but
something bad happens as well. On a 10-12, you accomplish this without any problems. When a downside
happens, it’s the MC’s call as to what happens, but the PC should help suggest things, and work it into the
fiction. Below are some example downsides, but remember that they should be appropriate to what’s going on
– a more dangerous act should have a worse downside, and a downside shouldn’t directly contradict what the
player is trying to do if they roll 7+ (so “draw attention” isn’t appropriate when you’re trying to sneak past
someone) - that’s what a failure means:
➢ Take one or two harm (ignoring armor)

➢ Drop, lose, destroy, or use up an important item
➢ End up in a bad position, taking -1 forward until you recover
➢ Draw attention to yourself that you didn’t want
➢ Take more time than you expected
On a 13+, you also gain one of the following benefits, in addition to whatever you were trying to accomplish:
➢ Put yourself into a good position, getting +1 Forward to your next roll.
➢ Get yourself out of harm's way.
➢ Do what you were planning faster than expected, and get to do something else.
Moves
12
HUNT
Whenever you try to track down a monster or person, think you’re walking into an ambush, or want to set up
an ambush, roll Hunt. On a 6 or below, whatever you’re hunting gets the jump on you or you fail to find it at
all. On a 7-9, you both spot each other, or you find who or what you were looking for too late. On a 10-12, you
get the jump on or ahead of your target. On a 13+, you ambush the target and get +1 Forward to your first roll
against it. A group of characters all using Hunt in the same situation roll separately – some of you might get
spotted, while others ambush, or some might lag behind when you dash into danger.
PATCH UP
After a fight, characters can take a moment to Patch Up, reducing their total taken harm by 1, and keeping
people from bleeding out. Characters can choose to patch up again, reducing harm again, but that takes time.
In investigation phases, anyone can choose to patch themselves up instead of spending a turn investigating.
Sorcery Moves
Sorcery falls under three types – Astral, Infernal, Necromantic. Astral magic concerns itself with the dreams,
nightmares, and visions, and taps into the power of slumbering horrors. Infernal magic calls upon the power of
demons and hell, and gives the user command over elemental forces and demon summoning. Necromantic
magic is power over life and death, as well as dark curses. Your move bonus in Sorcery applies to all three
types, although most playbooks that use magic have a more specialized bonus, like “Astral Sorcery”, that is
used for the applicable one instead of the more general bonus.
Sorcery moves are divided into two types – Combat and Ritual. Combat sorcery is cast in the middle of battle,
and is only available to specific playbooks. Ritual sorcery requires more time to cast, and is usually done in
place of an investigation roll. In order to use a sorcery move, you must have some way of finding or knowing a
spell. Some characters just know spells automatically, or have equipment that provides them with them. Those
who don’t have those benefits need to find spells in books, scrolls, or ask around.
COMBAT SORCERY
Some playbooks have access to Combat Sorcery, letting them cast offensive magic in combat. If your playbook
doesn’t grant you access to Combat Sorcery, you just can’t do it. When you use Combat sorcery, roll the
appropriate sorcery type. On a 6-, your spell fails, and no drawback is suffered. On a 7-9, your spell works, but
you suffer a drawback. On a 10-12, your spell goes off no problem. On a 13+, your spell goes off without a
drawback and you can choose an additional benefit from Combat Spell Benefits.
Sample Astral Combat Spells:
➢ Wrap a target in spectral tendrils, keeping them from moving for a turn.
➢ Put to sleep any number of people who would be defeated by 5 harm total
➢ Choke a target with acidic mist (3 harm, ignores armor, ranged)
➢ Shroud yourself in a dreamlike haze, making creatures prefer attacking your allies, and reduce the next
harm you take by 1.
Moves
13
Sample Infernal Combat Spells:
➢ Throw icy shards at a foe (5 harm, ranged).

➢ Wrack a creature with agonizing lightning (4 harm, fire, ranged) and reduce any harm they deal by 1 until
your next turn.
➢ Surround yourself in hellfire, burning those around you (4 harm, fire, close, group).
➢ Throw an explosive blast (3 harm, fire, ranged, group)
Sample Necromancy Combat Spells:
➢ Drain a creature’s soul (2 harm, ignores armor, ranged) and heal 1 Harm of your own.
➢ Kill a helpless creature by hand, causing you to heal 2 Harm.
➢ Weaken a creature, causing all harm they deal to be reduced by 2 for a turn.
➢ Take any number of Harm, and heal an equal amount from another you touch
Combat Spell Drawbacks:
➢ Suffer 1 harm (ignores armor)

➢ Use too much dark magic, taking -1 to all Resist Dark Magic until the fight ends.
➢ Also target a creature you didn’t want to.
➢ Put yourself in a bad position, or take too much time to cast, exposing you to danger.
Combat Spell Benefits
➢ You throw your opponent off balance, giving your allies +1 Forward against it.
➢ You take or keep an item or position from your opponent.
➢ You draw your opponent’s attention onto you (and away from others).
➢ You force an opponent into a position you want, or keep them from getting away.
➢ Deal +1 Harm
➢ Reduce harm dealt to you by your opponent by 1
The spells above should be taken as examples if you want to write up more combat spells. Combat spells are
roughly as good as the effect you’d get from rolling 10-12 on a Battle move. They’re more reliable, but have a
chance of going wrong. If you have at least one combat sorcery spell already, you can learn more through
training from another PC, or finding it in a book and studying for a few adventures.
RITUAL SORCERY
When you use Ritual sorcery, you must first have the appropriate scroll: these can be acquired as any other
gear, or through your playbook. Each scroll describes one spell – work with your MC to choose a benefit of the
spell, as well as at least two requirements from the list below (or similar ones), and roll the appropriate sorcery
type. On a 6-, your spell fails – if it’s a relatively minor ritual, you’re unharmed, but for a bigger ritual you
suffer a ritual drawback. On a 7-9, your spell works, but you suffer a drawback of the MC’s choice. On a 10-12,
your spell goes off with no problems. On a 13+ your spell works better than you expected it to. Any ritual
requirements and drawbacks should be appropriate to the strength and importance of the ritual – banishing
weak demons is unlikely to have stringent requirements or strong drawbacks, where as banishing demon lords
is likely to have 3 or more requirements, and a devastating cost to failure.
Moves
14
Ritual Sorcery Requirements:
➢ You require expensive or rare components, which you will have to find, and are destroyed by the ritual.
➢ You require help – at least 2 others need to participate in the ritual, and you all suffer the drawbacks.
➢ The ritual requires your blood: suffer 1 or 2 Harm that cannot be healed until the adventure is over.
➢ You need to cast the spell at a particular time or place (full moon, midnight, dawn, an unholy site, a place
free from civilization, etc)
➢ The spell is especially complicated, and you take -1 Forward to casting it.
➢ The spell requires handing off of an item, token, or talisman to the intended (unwilling) target.
➢ The spell is fragile – the effect it creates can be easily disrupted by moving stones, erasing lines, etc.
Sample Astral Ritual Spells:
➢ Meditate, and have a symbolism-filled vision of a previous event at your location.

➢ Gaze into a reflective surface (such as a mirror or still water), and see the view of another reflective surface
you know.
➢ Cause plants in an area to grow wildly, or be blighted.
➢ Change the weather, to within its natural limits.
➢ Mutate a creature into an abomination.
Sample Infernal Ritual Spells:
➢ Keep demons from entering an area until the next sunrise.

➢ Banish a bound demon.
➢ Call a demon of a type you choose. Powerful demons can give you penalty to your Sorcery roll.
➢ Create an area of binding to any demons who enter.
➢ Create a domain of magical fire or ice that does not dissipate.
Sample Necromancy Ritual Spells:
➢ Keep undead from entering an area until the next sunrise.

➢ Put a wayward spirit to rest.
➢ Summon a spirit from a skull to interview.
➢ Raise an undead skeletal servant.
➢ Curse someone to suffer some mishap, or grow weak or sick.
Moves
15
Ritual Sorcery Drawbacks
➢ The ritual has whatever effect you desired, but you have no control over it.
➢ The ritual takes longer than expected, and requires more time.
➢ The ritual has destructive and unpredictable side-effects.
➢ The effect will happen, but not in the way you expected, or the place you had wanted.
➢ Become cursed, suffering -3 to Resist Dark Magic until you have a full day to cleanse yourself.
➢ The ritual drains your magical energy, causing you to suffer -1 Ongoing to Sorcery rolls until you have
time to rest.
➢ The ritual drains you physically, causing you to suffer -2 Ongoing to Battle and Daring Action rolls until
you have time to rest.
➢ The ritual leaves you mentally dazed, causing you to suffer -2 Ongoing to Knowledge, Lore, Poke Around,
and Hunt until you have time to rest.
Miscellaneous Rolls
Sometimes you’ll want to roll for something and none of the moves quite apply, or you think you should be
able to use a different move. An archer with a high Battle skill but low Daring Action wanting to break a noose
with an arrow, a scholar wanting to use Lore to put together a weird trap or concoction, using your Sorcery
bonus to identify the details of some magic, or the like. There might even be another move that can do what
you want to do, but adding a different bonus seems more appropriate. In these situations, it’s up to the MC
what bonus can be used, but the results are similar to a Daring Action roll. On a 6 or below, you fail to
accomplish your goal, or the situation gets worse in some way. On a 7-9, you do what you set out to do, but
also something bad happens – you draw attention, take lots of time, etc, or are given the choice between
succeeding and having the bad thing happen, or just gracefully failing with no consequences. On a 10-12, you
do what you set out to do, and on a 13+ you get results better than you had originally intended.
Moves
16
Playbooks
Once the group has some kind of idea of what they want to play, each picks a Playbook. The playbooks tell
you what kind of character you’ll be playing, and what they’re capable of. While multiple players can pick the
same playbook, it’s highly discouraged – picking different playbooks ensures that each member of the group
has their specialties, and everyone gets their own chance in the spotlight. The playbooks are:
Champion: A devoted warrior who defends the innocent and is guided by their strong beliefs.
Changeling: A faerie-touched wanderer who carries the enchantments of the fey courts.
Dreamer: A sorcerer whose mind is infected with eldritch insights, and master of astral sorceries, the magic
of dreams and nightmares.
Fiend: A redeemed demon who has to fight against their evil nature, while still commanding the full powers
of hell.
Hunter: A seasoned monster slayer, who is a peerless warrior that always has the tools needed.
Necromancer: A master of the magic of death, able to drain the life from their foes and command undead.
Scholar: An always-prepared sage who is able to identify monster weaknesses, and carries all sorts of useful
items.
Scoundrel: A former bandit or outlaw who fights against the darkness with cunning, dirty tricks, and charm.
Warlock: A master of infernal magic, who has sold their soul for the power to incinerate their foes.
Vampire: A predator of the night, cursed with undeath who must feed upon the blood of the living.
Werewolf: Cursed with lycanthropy, a werewolf is always fighting for control with the vicious beast within.
Each playbook is composed of the same parts. It lists Moves – which are available to everyone – with your
bonuses associated with each move. Whenever you roll that Move, you get to add the bonuses listed for your
playbooks. Some Moves share the same bonuses, such as Knowledge and Lore.
The playbooks also list abilities – Basic and Advanced. You begin play with all Basic abilities associated with
your playbook, and two Advanced abilities. At the MC’s option, you may start with more Advanced abilities if
they want to run a game with more experienced characters. As you play, you’ll get more Advanced abilities
every few adventures.
While some playbooks list equipment, not all do. This doesn’t mean that those characters are walking around
without anything, though. All characters are assumed to have the basics – things like clothes, food, torches,
rope, money, and the like. Any sort of weaponry not listed is only capable of dealing 2 harm, and while any
character can be wearing protective gear, if it’s not provided by a playbook provides no mechanical benefit
against the threats PCs will actually face.
Finally, each playbook comes with some quickplay backgrounds – use these if you’re having problems coming
up with details on your character, or just need to make a character fast for a one-shot game. These quickplay
backgrounds are just suggestions, and you shouldn’t feel restricted by them.
Playbooks
17
Champion
Those that stand for truth and righteousness, and are empowered by their strong belief in a cause, place, or
religion, have little to fear from the dark. Shunning subtlety and dishonesty, they wade forward into battle to
defeat the forces of evil, and protect the innocent. And while faith is a mighty shield and justice a powerful
sword, being heavily armed and armored helps, too.
Bonus Moves
+2 Battle
Knowledge / Lore
+3 Resist Dark Magic
Poke Around / Hunt
+2 Interview / Convince
Daring Action
+0 Sorcery
Assign +1, +1, and +0 to the remaining Moves.
BASIC ABILITIES
Heavily Armed and Armored: You own a suit of marvelous heavy armor (and possibly a shield) which gives
you 2 armor, as well as one of the following weapons:
 Battle axe or claymore (4 harm, close, iron)

 Spear (4 harm, reach, iron)
 Short sword (3 harm, close, iron) and a longbow, crossbow, or musket (4 harm, ranged) with iron ammo.
Protect the Weak: Whenever you use the Battle move to draw attention onto you, you can choose to give an
ally you’re protecting +1 Forward against the creature you’re fighting, or to reduce the next Harm you take
from the creature by 1.
Turn Away Evil: Whenever you successfully use Resist Dark Magic to ward away a creature, you may choose
to deal 1 Harm (ignores armor) to that creature or gain +1 Forward against them.
Playbooks
18
ADVANCED ABILITIES
 Authority: You have a granted authority, from church, crown, or law, and can get those under the same
authority to aid you. At the beginning of an adventure, roll your Convince move. On a 7-9, hold 1. On a 10-12,
hold 2. On a 13+, hold 3. During the adventure, you can spend a hold to find someone who obeys the same
authority as you, and make a request of them like you had rolled a Convince move with a result of 10.
 Center of Attention: Before rolling Hunt, you may choose to make yourself the bait. If you do, your allies
get +1 Forward to their Hunt rolls, but you can’t get a result higher than 7-9.
 Guided by Conviction: When you make a Daring Action move in a way that does not involve treachery,
guile, deception, or surprise, you always set out whatever you wanted to accomplish: rolling 6 or below is
treated as a 7-9.
 Honest to a Fault: As long as you haven’t lied to a bystander this mystery and intend to stay true to your
word, you gain a +1 bonus to your Interview and Convince moves.
 Mind Like An Empty Book: You’re good at listening to others and respecting when they’re right. When
someone uses a Knowledge hold to help you specifically, they gain +1 Forward to their next Knowledge check
(this effect does not stack). When you use the Lore move alongside someone who has a higher Lore bonus
than you, you gain +1 Forward to that roll.
 Leadership: You can direct your allies in their tasks, keeping them organized, motivated, and inspired.
Instead of using a combat or investigation move, you can instead choose to lead your allies, giving them +1
Ongoing to all rolls during that investigation turn.
 Religious Training: You always have holy water (2 harm ignores armor, throwable, blessed, only vs
undead and demons) and a holy symbol (warding tool) on you. In addition, all weapons you wield count as
blessed.
 Shining Example: Whenever you succeed on a Resist Dark Magic roll to resist a dangerous effect, or a
Daring Action roll to avoid harm or perform a stunt, your allies gain +1 Ongoing to accomplish that same task
for the rest of the scene. They cannot gain more than +1 Ongoing to the same effect from this ability.
 Stand Your Ground: Whenever a creature deals harm to you, you deal +1 Harm the next time you damage
said creature.
 Gain +1 Knowledge/Lore
 Gain +1 Poke Around / Hunt
 Gain +1 Daring Action
Playbooks
19
QUICKPLAY BACKGROUND
Your distinctive armor is;
 a shining suit of plate.
 battered, worn, and patched together.
 a thick and fur lined leather coat, boots, and hat.
You draw your strength of conviction from your faith in;

 god and religion.
 your land and its people.
 the good that exists in all hearts.
 cold, hard steel.
You and another PC are tied together through;

 your shared faith or hometown.
 your guidance to them on the path of light.
 working together to save the same person.
Playbooks
20
Changeling
The reach of the fey is subtle and insidious. Some who wander into their lands return years later, unchanged
physically, but forever touched. Other times, children are snatched from their cribs, with a faerie child left in
their place. Changelings are those who bridge the human and fey worlds in some way – be they humans who
entered faerie lands, or fey who have imprinted on human ones. They find themselves with all of the charm of
the fey, but being between worlds as they are, forgettable by those around them.
Bonus Moves
+2 Battle
Knowledge / Lore
Resist Dark Magic
+2 Poke Around / Hunt
Daring Action
+0 Sorcery
BASIC ABILITIES
Forgotten Child: Whenever you use an Investigation move, you can prevent anyone from remembering your
presence – but they still react to you in the moment. If you spend a hold from any investigation move, you can
also have your allies be forgotten. This can be as selective as you’d like.
Hunter’s Tools: You own one of the following weapon sets, and a suit of light armor worth 1 armor.
 A longbow or crossbow (4 harm, ranged) with silver arrows; and a short sword or woodcutters’ axe (3
harm, close, iron)
 A spear (4 harm, reach, silver); and throwing knives or throwing axes (3 harm, throwable, iron)
Unnoticed: Your presence is hard for other creatures to focus on. Beasts, Fiends, and Humans will never
attack you unless you make a motion to attack them or take something of theirs first. When you enter a fight
with such creatures, you gain +1 Forward to your first Battle roll against them, as if you had ambushed them.
Whispers: When you use the Convince move, you can give yourself -1 Forward to it to make the target
forget their interaction with you, and think that they came to their desires on their own.
Playbooks
21
ADVANCED ABILITIES
 Enchanting Voice: Your voice can take on an enthralling quality. When you use Enchanting Voice, roll
your Convince move. On a 6 or below, your use of magic is obvious, and enrages your victims. On a 7-10, you
can distract people or beast minions for as long as you talk, but they’ll know they’ve been tricked when it’s
done. On a 10-12, you can distract people or beast minions and warriors for as long as you talk, and a few
minutes after, with them being none the wiser. On a 13+, your voice can lull people and beast minions or
warriors into a trance that is only broken after hours, or until someone rouses them.
 Faerie Skin: Your skin is tough, and can turn aside the claws and teeth of sharp beasts. Gain 1 armor that is
ignored by iron.
 Fey Kinship: You gain +2 to Resist Dark Magic rolls to resist the magic of, but not ward against, all fey
creatures, as well as +1 to Hunt rolls in any natural settings.
 Finder of the Lost: You cannot be affected by magic and glamours that keep you from noticing something
or someone. Add the following questions to your Poke Around and Interview moves – Poke Around tied to a
specific area, Interview about a person or people:
➢ What was lost here – physical or metaphorical?

➢ What are people’s unfulfilled wishes?
➢ What do people regret is gone from here?
 Hidden Friends: Whenever you use Battle to draw a creature’s attention towards you and away from
another, those you are protecting are glamoured – they are completely forgotten by the creature you’re
dealing with as long as you’re still around and they don’t attack the creature. Hidden allies get +1 Forward to
their next roll against creatures ignoring them, but then can’t benefit from Hidden Friends again that fight.
 Listen to the Wilds: You can speak to and understand animals, plants, and other natural creatures. When
you use the Interview move, you can ask questions of them, and you can use Convince to get both
domesticated and wild animals to do things for you.
 Oathkeeper: You can swear an oath, and are granted great abilities to keep it. If you swear an oath to
protect someone or something, you gain +1 Forward on any roll used to directly keep them out of harm’s way,
and magically know whenever they are in danger. If you swear an oath to kill a thing, you deal +1 Harm to
said creature. If you abandon or fail on your oath, you suffer -1 Ongoing to Resist Dark Magic, Convince, and
Sorcery until the end of the adventure. You can swear one oath each adventure.
 Rules of the Court: You have sworn to the rules of the faerie courts, knowingly or not. Gain +1 Ongoing
to Convince when you are telling the truth or using misleading wordplay and deception while not lying. As
long as you do not lie, you can tell when someone is lying to you – if you do end up lying, you lose the
benefits of this ability and suffer -1 Ongoing to Convince until the end of the adventure.
 Touch of Magic: Choose one type of magic: Astral, Infernal, and Necromancy. Your sorcery bonus with
that type of magic increases to +2. You know two combat spells from that school of magic, and once per
adventure you can produce a ritual sorcery spell without the help of any scroll or outside source.
 Gain +1 Knowledge/Lore.
Playbooks
22
 Gain +1 Daring Action.
 Gain +1 Resist Dark Magic.
Your fey heritage is obvious due to your;
 inky black eyes.
 long, pointed ears.
 supernatural beauty.
 unnatural hair color.
 skin and hair that changes with the seasons.
You became a wanderer;

 after escaping from the fey realms.
 after your parents rejected you for your heritage.
 because the wanderlust was too strong.
You joined up with the other heroes;

 because they were the only ones who seem to be able to focus on you.
 because one of them took you in when nobody else would.
 because misfits have to stick together.
 because you find yourself drawn to one, and want to be close to them.
Playbooks
23
Dreamer
The sleepers from beyond the stars, under the waters, and within the earth speak to many unfortunate. They
whisper in their dreams, invade their thoughts, and bring unwanted insights. These unbidden secrets can be
mastered, and astral sorceries flow through the recipients like waves through the ocean. But while the waves
can be harnessed, they change what they touch, and the Dreamer’s mind is never left unscarred.
Bonus Moves
Battle
+2 Knowledge / Lore
Poke Around / Hunt
Interview / Convince
Daring Action
+1 Sorcery
+3 Astral Sorcery
Assign +1, +1, +0, +0 to the remaining Moves.
BASIC ABILITIES
Commune: You can slip into the world of dreams, and feel out the creatures living here. As an Investigation
move, roll Astral Magic, and ask questions from the following list as normal:
➢ What evils are slumbering here?

➢ What major events have happened here?
➢ What emotions and fears are heavy here?
➢ What is the geography and terrain of the surrounding area and structures?
Astral Sorcerer: You know all astral combat sorcery, and if you want to cast an astral ritual sorcery, you
know it and don’t need to find it written down.
Playbooks
24
Touched by Another World: Choose a mutation from the following list. Every three Advanced Abilities you
choose, you can choose another.
 See in total darkness.

 Breathe underwater and swim perfectly.
 Ignore all poisons, sickness, disease, and corruption.
 Have no need to sleep.
 Be able to eat any organic material, no matter how spoiled, rotten, or poisoned
ADVANCED ABILITIES
 Forbidden Knowledge: Whenever you roll for the Knowledge or Lore move, you can choose to tap into
forbidden knowledge. When you do, gain an extra hold – or two extra holds if you roll 13+. When you use
this, you suffer -1 Ongoing to Resist Dark Magic until you’ve had time to rest.
 Lead the Faithful: When you use a hold from the Knowledge move to increase harm dealt to a monster,
the attacks of you and any bystanders you’re fighting with deal +1 Harm and don’t count as the “next attack”
for the purpose of the bonus’s duration. In addition, whenever you use a hold from the Knowledge move to
give your allies a bonus to Resist Dark Magic, all bystanders you’re fighting with are immune to the effect.
 Lingering Aura: When you use Commune, you can focus on an object instead of an area, and ask the
following questions:
➢ Who owned this last?

➢ Who handled this, since the past full moon?
➢ What owner had the deepest connection?
➢ When and why did it change hands?
➢ What was this used for, or on?
 Lure of the Moon: Your magic is tied to the phases of the moon. During the night of a full moon, you
ignore Combat Spell and Ritual Sorcery drawbacks for all your spells – although your allies do not, even when
participating in a ritual with you. During the night of a new moon, you suffer a -1 Ongoing to all Sorcery
rolls. During any other night, you ignore the first combat sorcery drawback each scene.
 Misguided Dreams: You can enter a trance, and slip into the dreams of someone who you have a clear
mental image of. Roll your Astral Sorcery. On a 6 or below, that person has a dream about you, and grows
suspicious. On a 7-12, you can implant an idea in their mind, that they’ll carry out until they’re in obvious
great risk. On a 13 or above, they’ll carry out the implanted idea with fanatical dedication. If you roll 9 or less,
you also suffer a ritual sorcery drawback.
 Sorcerous Savant: Choose Infernal or Necromantic sorcery. Your sorcery bonus with that type of magic
increases to +2. You know two combat spells from that school of magic, and once per adventure you can
produce a ritual sorcery spell without the help of any scroll or outside source.
 Twisted Flesh: Your body seethes with twisted growths underneath the surface. You gain one armor
against physical blows, but is ignored by any weapon that’s flaming or any other source of damage. Whenever
a creature deals damage to you by consuming part of you in some way – biting, blood draining, soul stealing,
or the like – it suffers one harm that ignores armor.
Playbooks
25
 Whispers of the Sleeper: At the beginning of each day, and whenever you take the Patch Up move, you
can listen to the whispers of the sleeper, choosing one of the following benefits: heal an additional Harm; gain
+1 to Resist Dark Magic until you cast a spell; gain +1 Forward to your next investigation move.
 Zeal of Devotion: When making a Battle or Daring Action move, you may add up to +3 Forward. You then
take -1 Ongoing to all Sorcery moves until you’ve rolled with your Sorcery bonus a number of times equal to
the bonus you took.. You cannot use this ability if you are already suffering the Ongoing penalty from it..
 Gain +1 to Daring Action.
 Gain +1 to Poke Around / Hunt.
 Gain +1 to Interview/Convince.
People are unsettled by you because of your habit of;
 never blinking.
 taking raspy, gurgling breaths.
 chanting in your sleep.
 bleeding black oil.
The sleepers have a connection to you because;

 you came too close to where they slumber.
 you meddled in magics that should not be touched.
 they were drawn to you by your art.
Despite your oddities, the other heroes work with you because;
 they knew you before your changes.
 you’re convinced they can help you silence the voices.
 you’ve proven your reliability in saving others.
 few know more about monsters than you do.
Playbooks
26
Fiend
Not all demons are bad. For whatever reason, some of them turn out good.. Maybe they were summoned and
raised by humans as a baby, they’re a human possessed by a fiend, found love with a mortal, or just never got
into that evil thing in the first place. Now, they bring hellfire and damnation to the side of good, while
struggling against their dark nature.
Bonus Moves
Battle
+0 Knowledge / Lore
Daring Action
+0 Sorcery
+2 Infernal Sorcery
BASIC ABILITIES
Against Your Nature: Whenever you spend a combat action putting yourself in harms way to defend another
while dealing no harm, gain +1 Forward to your next move. Whenever you roll Convince and act generously
and honestly to the other side when you didn’t need to, heal 1 Harm.
Demon’s Skin: You have 1 armor that is ignored by blessed weapons. You cannot be harmed by non-magical
fire or ice, and aren’t bother by extreme temperatures.
Hellborne Magic: You know all infernal combat sorcery, and once per adventure can produce a ritual sorcery
spell without the help of any scroll or outside source.
Infernal Weapons: You have some form of natural weaponry that you can have burst into flames: claws,
heavy fists, horns, spikes, etc. These count as a weapon with (4 harm, close, flaming).
Playbooks
27
ADVANCED ABILITIES
 Brooding: Sometimes, you just need to stay alone, and brood on your dark heritage – but you’ll always
show up when needed. For an investigation action, you can instead choose to Brood. Doing so allows you to
give any one ally of your choice a +1 Forward to their Investigation move after they roll the dice, as you were
there helping all along. Alternatively, if someone gets into trouble during the investigation, you can show up
and get +1 Forward to your first move to help them out of it.
 Damn Charming: Despite – or maybe because of – your appearance, you have a certain allure. You can
spend a hold from the Interview move to get someone to perform a favor, so long as it doesn’t place them in
danger that they’re aware of. When you roll Convince, you can always offer a favor later as payment. While
you can skip out on the favor, you won’t be able to use Convince on that target or those they tell until you
make good.
 Devour Essence: You can feed on the souls of the fallen. Whenever you kill a living creature, or at the end
of a fight in which people died, gain 1 hold that can be spent immediately or after the fight to either ask any
question from any of the investigation moves that the creature’s knowledge would help answer or to heal 1
harm.
 Driven by Shame: You’ve learned to turn your own shame into a driving force. Whenever you roll 6 or
below for any move, you gain +1 Ongoing to all moves until you roll a 10+.
 Fury: Whenever a creature inflicts harm on you, or two or more harm on an ally, you get +1 Forward to
your next move against it – but that move must inflict harm back if possible. You cannot gain more than +1
Forward against a single monster from this ability.
 Smell of Fear: Add the following questions to your Interview list. When you roll at least 7+ on an
Interview move, you may ask one of them for free:
➢ What do the people here fear the most?

➢ What can I do to get people here to fear me?
➢ What can be done to soothe fear here?
 Thickened Skin: Your skin has thickened, becoming even tougher – possibly with a change of color. You
gain an additional armor that is ignored by blessed weapons, but your demonic nature is always apparent to
bystanders.
 Unnatural Aura: You give off an aura of ill ease that keeps Beast, Demon, and Fey Minions from
approaching or attacking you, unless you attack them first. You can also ward away Beasts as if using Resist
Dark Magic, but by rolling your Infernal Sorcery bonus instead.
 Wings: You grow large wings that let you fly, glide, and hover as fast as you can run or walk.
 Gain +1 to Knowledge / Lore
 Gain +1 to Resist Dark Magic
 Gain +1 to Poke Around / Hunt
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Your demonic heritage is obvious from your;
 oddly colored skin.
 hooves and tail.
 thick horns.
You strayed from the path of evil due to;

 being raised by humans since you were young.
 falling in love with a mortal.
 witnessing a great tragedy.
 never having the heart for evil anyway.
The other PCs met you when;

 they suspected you of being a monster to hunt..
 you saved them from another demon.
 you worked together as parts of the same organization.
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Hunter
There are many who wander as expert monster hunters. They’ve learned every trick for tracking all sorts of
creatures down and putting them to rest. Chances are they’ve had some sort of terrible run-in that set them
down this path, and there’s always older hunters willing to mentor the next generation. Maybe it’s even in
their blood.
Bonus Moves
+3 Battle
Knowledge / Lore
Resist Dark Magic
+2 Daring Action
+0 Sorcery
BASIC ABILITIES
Light armor: You own a suit of light leather or mail armor that provides 1 armor when worn.
On the Trail: After using the Poke Around move to ask a question about a monster, you gain +1 Forward to
your next Hunt move against this monster. You cannot gain more than +1 Forward against a single monster
from this ability.
Signature Weapon: You begin play with a magical weapon. At your choice, it or its ammo is also made of
 iron or  silver, and the weapon is either  blessed or  flaming. Choose one from the list below:
 Battle Axe or Claymore (4 harm, close)

 Chain Whip or Spear (4 harm, reach)
 Crossbow, longbow, or musket (4 harm, ranged)
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Slayer: You have one type of monster you know a lot about – maybe they’re the ones you’ve primarily trained
against, maybe they killed your family and burned your village, or maybe just a touch of magic is in your
bloodline compelling you against them. Choose one type of monster: Abominations, Beasts, Demons, Fey, or
Undead. Your Knowledge, Lore, and Resist Dark Magic moves increase by +1 when used against these
creatures, and when you use Lore when investigating these creatures, you get the answer to “What type of
creature was it?” for free, without spending a hold. In addition, choose one item from the Tools of the Trade
list that’s relevant to that type – you always have it on hand.
Tools of the Trade: You have a bag of items you can rely on. Twice per adventure, you can produce any item
on this list. Anything that comes in multiples (like arrows or throwing daggers) is enough for one person to
keep on-hand and keep using:  silver throwing knives (3 harm, throwable, silver),  iron throwing axes (3
harm, throwable, iron),  a hidden dagger (3 harm, close, concealed, iron),  a heavy torch (3 harm, close,
fire),  vials of holy water (2 harm ignores armor, throwable, blessed, only vs undead and demons),  iron or
silver ammo,  an iron horseshoe (warding tool),  a holy symbol (warding tool).
ADVANCED ABILITIES
 Backup Weapon: Choose and gain a second Signature Weapon. You own it, or your signature weapon can
transform into it with a flick of the wrist.
 Bigger Bag: You can pull two more item from your Tools of the Trade a day. In addition, add the following
items to the list:  poisoned knives (2 harm ignores armor, throwable, only vs living creatures),  oil flasks (2
harm, ranged, fire, target takes 1 harm ignores armor per turn until put out),  a vial of anointing oil (makes a
weapon blessed for one scene),  a vial of flaming oil (makes a weapon flaming for one scene).
 Create Opening: You gain +1 Forward to your next Battle move against any creature you’ve successfully
warded away with Resist Dark Magic.
 Magic in the Blood: Choose a sorcery type attached to one of the monsters your Slayer bonus is associated
with; Astral (Abominations), Infernal (Demons), or Necromancy (Undead), or for Fey, any. Your bonus to cast
Sorcery spells of that type is now +2, and you can use your Tools of the Trade to produce a combat spell scroll
or ritual sorcery scroll for that school.
 Mentor: Whenever you produce an item through Tools of the Trade and give it to another person, you also
have another of that item – for yourself, or to hand out as well. In addition, whenever you gain +1 Forward for
any reason, you can instead choose to give it to another character, with the same restrictions and uses on the
bonus.
 Reputation: You’re well known and experienced as a monster hunter – your Slayer bonus now applies to
Convince or Interview rolls when getting bystanders to help against any monsters you’re a Slayer of, as well
as Poke Around and Hunt moves against said monsters.
 Slayer of Many: Choose an additional monster type to be a Slayer of.
 Stench of Evil: Whenever you use the Interview move, you can spend a question to ask “Is the person I’m
talking to a monster?”. If they’re a type of monster you’re a Slayer of, you’re told what type they are.
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 Unstoppable Pursuit: You gain a +1 bonus on any Daring Actions in order to chase, reach, or otherwise
get to someone for you to fight, and you suffer 1 less Harm from any drawbacks of these Daring Actions. In
addition, your Slayer bonus applies on Daring Action when trying to reach one of your chosen enemies.
 Gain +1 Resist Dark Magic
 Gain +1 Interview/Convince
Your hunter’s outfit is;
 a long cloak stained with mud.
 a nobleman’s outfit, worn from the road.
 a cuirass and armored skirt.
Monster hunting has become your life because;

 of your need for revenge on the creatures that killed your family.
 your bloodline has always done so.
 it’s a living.
You joined up with the other hunters because;

 you shared the same mentor.
 you taught one the art of the hunt.
 you saved one from a monster attack.
 your families have always worked together.
 you worked together to hunt the same monster.
 you mistakenly thought one was a monster you needed to kill.
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Necromancer
The magic of life and death is a seductive path, promising to defeat man’s greatest foe – mortality. The quest
for eternal life through undeath draws many to the dark magic of necromancy, while others research it to
prolong the life of others, or try to bring back loved ones. No matter the intention, necromancy slowly eats
away at your soul, leaving its practitioners as lifeless as the creatures they command.
Bonus Moves
Battle
+2 Knowledge / Lore
Poke Around / Hunt
Daring Action
+1 Sorcery
+3 Necromantic Sorcery
BASIC ABILITIES
Command Undead: You may attempt to command unintelligent undead. As a combat action, roll your
Necromantic Sorcery move. On a 6 or below you attract the attention of the undead, who instead come for
you. On a 7-9, you can get unintelligent undead minions to momentarily halt. On a 10-12, you can get
unintelligent undead warriors to halt, or unintelligent minions to fight for you for a turn. On a 13+, monstrous
warriors will fight for you for a turn, and minions fall under your command for the rest of the scene. You can
keep using this move on the same undead until you roll 6 or below, after which they become immune until you
rest. You can only affect a close handful of undead each time you use it.
To Know Death: Whenever a non-minion creature dies near you, you gain a Knowledge hold that can only be
spent against creatures of a similar type (abomination, beast, demon, fey, undead, or human).
Necromantic Sorcerer: You know all necromantic combat sorcery, and if you want to cast a necromantic
ritual sorcery, you know it and don’t need to find it written down.
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ADVANCED ABILITIES
 Bind Soul: When a creature dies near you, you can choose to trap its soul into a talisman of your own
making. When you have that talisman with you, you can interrogate the soul to use Interview or Lore to learn
anything the soul would know. If you spend an entire night in a ritual, the soul becomes permanently trapped.
Otherwise, it is released the next time you bind a soul.
 Blood Sacrifice: Using your own blood as a ritual component, you can empower your spells. If everyone
participating in a ritual with you suffers 1 Harm (ignoring armor), you can ignore one of the ritual’s
requirements of your choice. When you cast a sorcery that deals damage, you can choose to suffer 1 Harm to
deal an additional 2 Harm.
 Curse Master: Whenever you use a Ritual Sorcery to place a curse, hex, or the like on another creature,
you can ignore one of the ritual requirements. Whenever you use a combat sorcery to give a creature any kind
of non-harm penalty, that penalty lasts for twice as long.
 Dark Life: You have completed your transformation into one of the undead. You gain a +2 bonus to Resist
Dark Magic, but can no longer ward against any creatures. Unintelligent undead will not attack you except in
self-defense, or unless explicitly commanded to by their controller. You count as undead, and no longer need to
eat, drink, sleep, or breathe, but still heal normally.
 Death Sight: You can see the ebb and flow of life and death.. Add the following questions to you Lore move
list. When you roll at least a 7+ on a Lore move, you may ask one of them for free:
➢ Who or what’s blood (or body part) is this, and are they still alive?
➢ When and how did this person die?
➢ What was the last thing this person experienced before they died?
➢ Is this person or creature undead?
 Dread Medic: Whenever you heal your own harm through Necromantic sorcery, you may instead heal a
nearby ally. If you do not change the target you’re healing through sorcery (be it yourself or another), heal an
additional harm.
 Essence Focus: If you have a body part (including hair, blood, or the like) belonging to a creature, you can
use it to channel your magic. You can target that creature with your spells, even if you can’t see them, as long
as they’re nearby. In addition, you gain +1 Ongoing to Hunt rolls against creatures you have a body part to.
 Reaper: You gain +2 Ongoing to the Battle move, but if you use the bonus you must choose to deal harm.
You also get a heavy weapon – a battle axe, claymore, or scythe (4 harm, close, iron).
 Sorcerous Savant: Choose Astral or Infernal sorcery. Your sorcery bonus with that type of magic increases
to +2. You know two combat spells from that school of magic, and once per adventure you can produce a ritual
sorcery spell without the help of any scroll or outside source.
 Gain +1 to Poke Around / Hunt.
 Gain +1 to Interview / Convince.
 Gain +1 to Daring Action.

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Death follows you, and is obvious by your;
 dark, dramatic clothing.
 pale, lifeless skin.
 total lack of body heat.
You first delved into the dark arts;

 because you were allured by its forbidden nature.
 to try to resurrect someone important to you.
 to better understand and fight undead horrors.
 to seek eternal life.
The other heroes work with you;

 after you used your magic to save the life of an innocent.
 because you pursue the same research, and just took it further.
 after needing your help to put an unruly spirit to rest.
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Scholar
Knowledge is one of the greatest weapons against the darkness, and some wield it as their sword. Educated
students, priests, and even former cultist all have turned their hard studying into a way to fight horrors
intellectually when they can’t physically. Their knowledge is an invaluable resource – as are all the tools and
equipment they carry, and the bits of magic they dabble in.
Bonus Moves
+0 Battle
+3 Knowledge / Lore
Resist Dark Magic
Poke Around / Hunt
Daring Action
+0 Sorcery
BASIC ABILITIES
Bag of Supplies: You have a bag of items you can rely on for every conceivable situation. Five times per
adventure, you can produce any item on this list. Anything that comes in multiples is enough for one person
to keep on-hand and keep using:  vials of holy water (2 harm ignores armor, throwable, blessed, only vs
undead and demons),  an iron horseshoe (warding tool),  a holy symbol (warding tool),  a heavy torch (3
harm, close, fire),  a silver dagger (3 harm, close, concealed, silver),  silver or iron ammo,  oil flasks (2
harm, ranged, fire, target takes 1 harm ignores armor per turn until put out),  a vial of anointing oil (makes a
weapon blessed for one scene),  a vial of flaming oil (makes a weapon flaming for one scene),  a scroll
containing any ritual or combat sorcery.
Killer Curiosity: Whenever you put yourself in danger due to a need to investigate or learn something
without the rest of the group to back you up, gain 2 holds that last until the end of the adventure, or until
they’re used. You can use these holds as per the Knowledge, Lore, or Poke Around moves.
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ADVANCED ABILITIES
 Always Prepared: You may use your Bag of Supplies an additional 3 times every adventure, In addition,
you may spend 2 uses of your Bag of Supplies to have any item at all you can think of that’s reasonable for
you to be carrying around.
 Astral Dabbling: Your bonus with Astral Sorcery increases to +2. You know two combat spells from that
school of magic, and once per adventure you can produce a ritual magic sorcery without the help of any scroll
or outside source.
 Bumbling: Whenever you suffer a drawback from Daring Action, you can always choose to lose one use
from your Bag of Supplies, or lose or break an item you’ve already pulled from it as your penalty. You can also
do this to reduce the harm of an attack against you by 2.
 Dramatic Reveal: Whenever you produce an item from your Bag of Supplies to immediately use, you gain
+2 Forward to the move to use it.
 Light armor: You invest in a suit of light leather or mail armor that provides 1 armor when worn.
 Infernal Dabbling: Your bonus with Infernal Sorcery increases to +2. You know two combat spells from
that school of magic, and once per adventure you can produce a ritual sorcery spell without the help of any
scroll or outside source.
 Just a Scholar!: You know how to make yourself look harmless. You can spend a hold from a Knowledge
roll to have an enemy’s attention redirected from you to elsewhere – you don’t get to choose where.
 Necromantic Dabbling: Your sorcery with Necromantic Sorcery increases to +2. You know two combat
spells from that school of magic, and once per adventure you can produce a ritual sorcery spell without the
help of any scroll or outside source.
 Plenty to Go Around: Whenever you produce an item from your Bag of Supplies, you can spend an
addition use of it to provide enough of that item for the entire party of heroes.
 Gain +1 to a Move or pair of linked Moves that are at +0 or +1 currently.
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Your clothes speak to who you are. You wear;
 a fancy scholar’s outfit, dirtied from the road.
 a scholar’s outfit, perfectly maintained and pressed.
 practical, smart traveling gear.
 unassuming religious robes.
 a hooded cowl.
You’ve learned all you know from;

 studying in the top universities.
 being mentored by a skilled monster hunter.
 as part of your priestly duties.
 hands on experience and curiosity.
 being a part of a cult.
You first met the other PCs;

 when they were investigating near you, and you had something they needed.
 when you helped educate one.
 when you were assigned to them from the same group.
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Scoundrel
Some who fight against monsters weren’t always the most heroic, even if you they wouldn’t think of
themselves that way – bandits, pirates, cutpurses, highwaymen, or the like. But there’s always something more
dangerous lurking in the dark. One fateful encounter with a real monster is enough to change anyone’s
priorities to focusing on making the night their own once again.
Bonus Moves
+2 Battle
Knowledge / Lore
Resist Dark Magic
Poke Around / Hunt
+3 Daring Action
+0 Sorcery
BASIC ABILITIES
Ambush Master: You gain a +1 Ongoing to Hunt moves when you try to lay an ambush or trap.
Element of Surprise: Whenever you attack a target unaware of your presence or unaware that you’re a
threat, deal +2 Harm.
Scoundrel’s Gear: You own a suit of light leather or mail armor that provides 1 armor when worn, and you
have a collection of light weapons, including throwing knives or axes (3 harm, throwable, iron), and either:
 a small crossbow or pistol (3 harm, ranged, concealable) with iron ammo

 daggers (3 harm, close, concealed, iron)
Slippery Bastard: Whenever you use the Battle move and don’t choose to deal Harm, you suffer one less
Harm from all sources until your next action.
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ADVANCED ABILITIES
 Connections: Whenever you want some help and are in an environment that might have some of your old
gang or other ruffians you can press into service around, make a Convince roll. On a 6 or below, you won’t get
the help you need, and word will get around. On a 7-9, you’ll get some basic supplies, no questions asked, or a
guy or two to help you. On a 10-12, you can get some specialized (illegal) help, or a couple of armed people
who don’t mind getting their hands dirty. On a 13+, you can put together an entire gang, no problem.
 Criminal Lore: When investigating, if you roll at least 7+ on any investigation move, you can ask one of
the following questions for free, and spend holds from any investigation moves to ask more:
➢ What is the most expensive thing here?

➢ Were or are there any cheats, scams, or cons taking place?
➢ Is anyone here using a cover identity?
➢ How has this scene been tampered with?
 Expose Weakness: When you damage an opponent and have at least one Knowledge hold, you can ignore
1 point of that opponent’s armor (to a minimum of 0) without spending the hold. An ally can spend two
Knowledge holds to give you one Knowledge hold at any time.
 Make Em Bleed: Whenever you use Battle to throw your opponent off balance, you can also deliver a
bleeding wound. In addition to giving your allies +1 Forward, you deal 1 harm (ignores armor), gain +1
Ongoing to Hunt and Poke Around rolls involving them, and will be able to identify them even if they try to
disguise themselves or shapeshift if the wound is visible.
 Reputation: You have a criminal reputation of some kind. You gain +1 Ongoing on Convince moves when
you use that reputation, as well as an extra hold whenever you use Interview (even if you roll 6-), but doing so
will likely scare away who you’re talking to afterwards – and might draw the attention of local authorities.
 Risk Taker: When you roll a 10-12 on Daring Action, you can take a downside to also gain one of the
benefits you get from rolling 13+. You also can only ever take a maximum of 1 harm from the downsides of
your Daring Actions.
 Scoundrel’s Luck: Whenever you would suffer Harm, you may take -1 Forward to reduce that Harm by 1
by rolling out of the way, putting yourself into a bad position, or the like. If you use this ability to negate
Harm, you can’t use it again until you’ve lost the forward and regained your footing.
 Sticky Fingers: Whenever you use the Poke Around move and get at least one hold, you can ask “What
items have been hidden here” or “What’s here that might be useful” for free, and pocket it without anyone
noticing. In addition, if there’s something from a previous scene you could have picked up, and it turns out
you need it later, you’ve been hiding it the entire time.
 Who’s Side Are You On?: You gain +2 to Resist Dark Magic to not give into influences that would cause
you to harm or betray your allies. However, you’re very good at pretending to have succumbed. Whenever you
try to pretend you’re betraying someone or that you’ve been incapacitated, magic or not, you gain a +1 bonus
to the Convince roll in order to make it look genuine, and get +1 Forward to a Battle roll against anyone who
buys it, in addition to being able to ambush them.
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 Gain +1 Resist Dark Magic
 Gain +1 Poke Around/Hunt
Your rough and rugged look is complemented by;
 a big scar across your face.
 a bandanna and an open shirt.
 your blades on open display.
You abandoned the criminal life after;

 someone you failed to mug gave you a second chance.
 a robbery went tragically wrong/
 monsters attacked the people you cared about.
You met up with another hero when;

 you tried to steal from one of them.
 they called upon you having heard of your fearsome reputation.
 you were with them at the wrong place, wrong time.
 you sought them out to teach you the way of the straight and narrow.
 they saved you when you got in over your head.
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Vampire
Cursed with undeath, vampires require blood to survive, and are driven to prey on others. Some are strong
enough to fight against this curse – or may have some help – and so retain some essence of their humanity.
They still feel the call to feed, but fight against it, and use the dark powers granted to them as best they can.
Bonus Moves
+2 Battle
Knowledge / Lore
Poke Around / Hunt
Daring Action
+0 Sorcery
+2 Necromantic Sorcery
BASIC ABILITIES
Armaments: You own a suit of light leather or chain armor (1 armor) and one of:
 a fine duelist’s sword (4 harm, close, iron)

 a spear (4 harm, reach, iron)
Blood Points: The curse of vampirism leaves you craving the blood of the living, which drives and empowers
you. You begin each adventure with 3 blood points, which can be used on various abilities down to your
minimum of 0. You can spend 1 blood point to gain +1 Forward to any move. You cannot spend any blood
points in direct sunlight, but may do so in the shade or in a sunless room. If a move tells you to set your blood
points to a specific value, you only do so if your current blood points are lower.
Fangs: You have a set of sharp fangs (3 harm, close) which can be used to drain blood from others. Whenever
you deal harm with your fangs, set your blood points to be equal to the harm dealt (after armor). If you’re
trying to drink the blood of a willing or helpless creature, use Shared Blood, instead.
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Shared Blood: You can drain blood points from a helpless or willing creature. Choose how much harm you
want to deal ahead of time – this damage ignores armor. Set your blood points to be equal to the amount of
harm you deal. When you have no blood points and use Shared Blood, you must declare how much you want
to drink and then roll a move at no bonus. On 6 or below, you deal 2 more harm (and gain 2 more blood
points) than you intended. On a 7-9, you deal 1 more Harm (and gain 1 more blood points) than you intended.
On a 10 or above, you feed as you want.
Unholy Magic: You know all necromantic combat sorcery, and once per adventure can produce a ritual
sorcery spell without the help of any scroll or outside source.
ADVANCED ABILITIES
 Beast Form: By spending one blood point, you can shapeshift into a wolf or bat. As a wolf you gain +1
ongoing to Poke Around and Hunt, and retain your fangs. As a bat, you can fly as fast as you can normally
run, but cannot make any attacks. You cannot speak, wear armor, or use most items and weapons in either
form, but anything you carry melds into your new form. Turning back into human form does not take any
blood points.
 Blood of Life: You can draw upon your undeath to heal your wounds. You can spend 1 blood point to
recover 1 Harm. As a combat action, you can also have others drink your blood, healing them 1 Harm for each
1 Harm you suffer.
 Cloak of the Night: The darkness surrounds and protects you. Whenever you are completely isolated from
the sun – be it night, you’re deep underground, or in a windowless room – you gain 1 armor that is ignored by
blessed weapons. You can also see perfectly in even the deepest darkness.
 Darkly Charming: You have a supernatural allure. Whenever you use the Interview move to get
information out of someone, you get +1 Ongoing on Convince rolls against that person. You can use the
Convince move to convince people to let you drink their blood, and as long as you don’t kill them, they’ll find
it pleasant enough to come back for more.
 Fangs Out: Whenever you attack an opponent who is unaware of you, or you have a Forward to your
Battle move from an ally’s action, your fangs improve to being 4 harm.
 Form of Mist: By spending a blood point, you can shift into a cloud of mist, allowing you to fly through the
air and through tiny cracks. As a cloud of mist, you can fly as fast as you can normally walk, cannot make any
sort of attacks, and cannot be harmed except by fire.
 Hunt for Blood: You have learned how to hunt for wildlife to sate your hunger. As an investigation move,
roll your Hunt bonus, with +1 Ongoing if it’s night. On a 6 or below you fail to find anything to drain. On a 7-
9, you find small wildlife; set your blood points to 2. On a 10-12, you managed to hunt and consume a deer, or
similar sized animal; set your blood points to 3. On a 13+, you gorge yourself on large prey; set your blood
points to 4.
 Hypnotic Gaze: You can hypnotize creatures who look into your eyes, making them easy prey. When you
use Hypnotic Gaze, roll your Convince move. On a 6 or below, your attempt to hypnotize the target is obvious
to them. On a 7-10, you can hypnotize one person or beast minion for as long as you take no other actions. On
a 10-12, you can distract one person or beast minion for several minutes after you stop focusing, or a warrior
for as long as you take no other action. On a 13+, you lull a person or beast minion into a trance that is only
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broken after several hours, or a warrior for several minutes. You gain +1 to Battle and Convince against
creatures you’ve hypnotized. Any harm dealt to a hypnotized creature breaks the effect.
 Sanguine Strength: Whenever you have 2 or more blood points, and spend a blood point to gain +1
Forward, you instead get +1 Ongoing to that move (and just that move) for the rest of the scene, or until your
blood points drop to 0.
 Gain +1 Poke Around/Hunt.
You are dressed in;
 a noble’s outfit, with long cloak, suiting your old status.
 simple peasant garb, that you wore when you were attacked.
 a long hooded robe, to protect you from the sun and hide your hideous visage.
The vampire who sired you;

 is dead – you saw to it.
 you have no knowledge of.
 is out there somewhere, and you’ll find them.
 was killed by another one of the heroes, for which you’re thankful.
You managed to fight against the curse and retain your humanity because;
 you were born from a woman turned vampire when pregnant.
 one of your parents was fully mortal.
 you were saved before you were made a vampire fully.
 a powerful necromancer gave you a soul.
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Warlock
A seductive source of power, infernal magic grants its users whatever they wish – as long as what they wish is
destructive. Warlocks have sold their soul for the ability to burn away all their worries – and their soul. Some
see it as a necessary sacrifice to make in order to protect those they care about, and struggle not to slip further.
Others fight against their past, in hopes of redeeming themselves.
Bonus Moves
Battle
+2 Knowledge / Lore
Poke Around / Hunt
Daring Action
+1 Sorcery
+3 Infernal Sorcery
BASIC ABILITIES
Infernal Sorcerer: You know all infernal combat sorcery, and if you want to cast an infernal ritual sorcery,
you know it and don’t need to find it written down.
Sacrifice: You can gain magical power by sacrificing to powerful demons. As you perform sacrifices, they
grant you more power, but expect more and more from you. A sacrifice is an involved ritual, and takes an
investigation action to perform. Making a sacrifice is a move with a bonus based on the value of your sacrifice,
as below:
➢ Kill a living animal = +0 bonus

➢ Take and destroy someone’s property = +1 bonus
➢ Take and destroy an animal owned by another = +2 bonus
➢ Take and destroy something precious and irreplaceable to someone = +3 bonus
➢ Kill a living person = +4 bonus
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If you roll 6 or below, the dark gods are displeased with your sacrifice, and you can’t make another sacrifice
this adventure. On a 7-9, gain one hold. On a 10-12, gain two holds. On 13+, gain three holds. Each hold can be
used to give you +1 Forward to a Sorcery roll, and you can use as many holds as you want on a single roll. If
you try to make multiple sacrifices in one adventure, you suffer a penalty equal to the total number of holds
you’ve gained from Sacrifice this adventure. Performing demonic sacrifices is a dangerous thing, and should
not be taken lightly.
ADVANCED ABILITIES
 Command Elements: You can control the elements, even when they’re used against you. As a combat
action you can make an Infernal Sorcery roll. On a 6-, nothing happens. On a 7-9, reduce the harm of all
elemental (fire, ice, lightning, etc) attacks against you by 1. On a 10-12, reduce the harm of those attacks
against you by 2, or against allies you’re standing next to by 1. On 13+, reduce the harm of those attacks
against you by 3, or against allies you’re standing next to by 1 . If you reduce the harm of an attack to 0, you
can instead redirect it to a new target of your choice.
 Demonic Torture: You know just how to strike to make your foes hurt. Whenever you cause harm to a
creature, one ally of your choice gains +1 Forward to any move against it as the creature is wracked with pain.
 Impromptu Offering: You have a ritual knife (3 harm, close, iron), that’s decorated in a macabre way.
Whenever you successfully kill a creature in combat with it, or an ally benefiting from a forward or bonus to
harm that you have given them kills a creature in combat, you immediately gain a hold for your Sacrifice
ability that does not count as a penalty to future Sacrifice moves.
 Metamorphosis: You can take on a demonic form for a short period of time. Spend one of your holds from
Sacrifice. For the rest of the scene, you gain claws (4 harm, close, flaming), thick skin (1 armor, cannot be
harmed by non magical fire or cold). If you spend an additional sacrifice hold, you gain +1 ongoing to Battle,
and the transformation lasts until the next sunrise or sunset.
 Prey on Guilt: When you roll at least 7+ on an Interview move, you may ask “What does this person feel
most guilty of?” for free. When you take advantage of this to prey on their guilt, you gain +1 Ongoing to your
Convince move.
 Sacrificial Expert: Gain +1 Ongoing to your Sacrifice move. In addition, you can choose to spend your
Sacrifice holds to gain +1 Forward to any move, but only one at a time (except for sorcery, as normal).
 Sift Through the Ashes: Add the following questions to your Poke Around list. When you roll at least 7+
on a Poke Around move, you may ask one of them for free:
➢ What was destroyed here?

➢ Why were things destroyed here?
➢ How long ago did this destruction happen?
 Soul of Cinders: You’ve sold your soul, or burned it away to get the power you crave. Your Resist Dark
Magic bonus increases by +2 against resisting effects, but not against warding creatures, and you’re immune to
any effects based on draining or stealing your soul.
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 Sorcerous Savant: Choose Astral or Necromantic sorcery. Your sorcery bonus with that type of magic
increases to +2. You know two combat spells from that school of magic, and once per adventure you can
produce a ritual magic spell without the help of any scroll or outside source.
 Gain +1 Battle.
 Gain +1 Poke Around/Hunt.
Try as you might to hide your sinister nature, it’s always revealed by;
 the way your eyes glow.
 the smell of sulfur around you.
 a brand seared into your flesh.
You first pursued the dark arts;

 to obtain revenge on those who had wronged you.
 after being tempted by mortal pleasures.
 when you were indoctrinated into a cult.
You’ve sought out the other heroes to fight alongside;

 because it’s the only way to get your soul back.
 to continue your goal to see all monsters burn.
 to make up for all that you’ve done.
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Werewolf
One of the most terrifying beasts of the night, werewolves are creatures of bestial strength and rage. Those
infected with lycanthropy are doomed to forever be a danger to those around them, ready to explode in a
killing frenzy at a moment’s notice. The strongest willed learn to fight back, eventually regaining some
measure of control. Still a danger to all those around them, they seek to make sure those at risk for being
caught in their wrath are those who can handle it – and those who deserve it.
Bonus Moves
+2 Battle
Knowledge / Lore
Resist Dark Magic
+1 Daring Action
+0 Sorcery
+2 Control
BASIC ABILITIES
Beast Form: When you shapeshift into your beast form – either a large wolf, or bipedal hybrid form – you
gain +1 Ongoing to Battle and Hunt, as well as Daring Action for physical stunts focused on speed or brute
strength. You also gain claws and bite (5 harm, close), and 2 armor that is ignored by silver. When in Beast
Form, you cannot make Knowledge, Lore, Interview, Convince, or Sorcery moves.
Control: You have a special move, Control, used to keep yourself from changing into your beast form, and to
force yourself to change back. Your Control bonus starts at +2, but takes a -1 Ongoing under a full moon and -
1 Ongoing if you have 5 or more harm. Whenever you suffer harm, or the first time each scene you’re exposed
to the full moon, you must roll the Control move. On a 6 or below, you transform into your beast form. On a 7-
9, you hold it back for now. On a 10+, you don’t need to roll Control again for the rest of the scene.
You can will yourself into your beast form at any time, and transform whenever you fail a Control move. Once
the immediate threat is over, you can start to try to transfer back. If you’re in sunlight, it’s automatic. If during
the full moon, you need to wait until daybreak. Otherwise, you can roll a Control move at the end of each
combat, or after each Investigation turn.
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Keen Nose: Whenever you make a Poke Around move, you get an extra hold that must be spent on a question
to identify the movements, number, or identity of creatures, or on the following questions which are added to
your Poke Around list:
➢ Whose scents can I smell here?

➢ Where have I smelled this person’s scent before?
Scrounged Weapons: You’ve learned how to defend yourself with whatever you can get your hands on. With
a bit of time, you can get your hands on a woodcutter’s axe (3 harm, close, iron) or pitchfork (3 harm, reach,
iron).
ADVANCED ABILITIES
 Anger Management: You no longer have to roll Control when taking harm from a Daring Action roll. In
addition, you can channel your bestial strength for great feats even in your normal form: you get +1 Ongoing
to physical stunts based on strength or speed. This adds to the bonus from Beast Form.
 Animal Magnetism: You can understand the wants and needs of animals, allowing you to use Convince to
get both domesticated and wild animals to do things for you. When dealing with wolves or dogs, you have +1
Ongoing to Convince checks. You can make Convince and Interview moves against wolves and dogs when in
Beast form.
 Beast Without: When not in beast form, you can still manifest claws (4 harm, close), and are resistant to
damage, gaining 1 armor that is ignored by silver, as well as a +1 bonus to the Hunt move due to your
sharpened senses. This is replaced by your Beast Form bonuses when you transform.
 Break the Chains: Whenever you are in Beast Form, you ignore any attempts by enemies to magically
influence your mind. Whenever someone tries to magically influence you, you may choose to immediately
shift into Beast Form. In addition, whenever you shift into or out of Beast Form, you heal 1 harm.
 Moon’s Child: Your claws and bite count as silver weapons, and in Beast Form, your armor is reduced by 1 against
silver attacks, instead of being completely ignored.
 Rampage: Whenever you attack with your claws or teeth, you can choose to have the results of your Battle
move effect all creatures within reach around you, as if it had the (group) tag, except for one of your choice –
this applies to both enemies and allies.
 Shred: Whenever you deal harm to a creature with armor using your claws and bite, its armor is reduced by
1 against attacks that don’t bypass any of its armor until the end of the scene. This ability cannot reduce a
creature’s armor by more than 1.
 Silver Sorcerer: Spirits that are bound to the moon as you are speak to you. Your Astral Sorcery bonus increases to +1.
Whenever the moon is visible, you gain an additional +1 to Astral Sorcery. You can use Astral Sorcery while in beast
form. You know two combat spells from that school of magic, and once per adventure you can produce a ritual magic
spell without the help of any scroll or outside source.
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 Gain +1 Resist Dark Magic.
 Gain +1 Interview/Convince.
Your bestial nature is hinted at from;
 your body hair and sideburns;.
 your odd nose and constant sniffing.
 fangs that show when you smile.
 fingernails that grow back long no matter how much you cut them.
The first time you transformed;

 was a tragedy you never want to speak of.
 was predicted and controlled, because you knew you were infected.
 someone showed up to stop you, and you owe them everything.
You travel with the other heroes;

 because you’ve always been close friends.
 because they’re the only ones who accept you.
 for redemption for all that you’ve done.
 because you know they can handle you at your worst.
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Equipment List
Equipment in Beneath a Cursed Moon is handled loosely. All characters get weapons and armor based off of
their playbooks, and are assumed to be carrying traveling basics – food, torches, money, and so on. If it makes
sense for a character to be carrying it, they’re carrying it, and if it’s easily findable, it can be found. If there’s
something that is likely around, but requires a bit more effort, the Convince move can be used to find it.
Weapons
All weapons list how much harm they deal, followed by their ranged tag, then other tags. The harm they deal
is the amount you deal when you choose to attack with it using the Battle move. The ranged tag tells you how
far away you can fight monsters with it. The other tags vary – some have strict game mechanical effects, while
others are only there to suggest ways you might get an advantage or disadvantage from using it over other
types.
WEAPON RANGE TAGS

Close: The weapon only works in hand-to-hand range.
Group: The attack targets multiple grouped together opponents
Reach: The weapon has some length to it, and can attack enemies outside of arm’s reach, but not ones that
have already got their hands on you.
Throwable: You can use this weapon in hand-to-hand range, or throw it close by.
Ranged: This weapon is long ranged, and can hit far away enemies.
OTHER WEAPON TAGS

Blessed: The weapon has been consecrated, making it effective against demons and undead.
Concealable: The weapon can be easily hidden on your person.
Fire: The weapon is on fire, or damages through fire, which is useful against some foes.
Ignore-Armor: The weapon’s damage ignores armor, and is never reduced.
Iron: The weapon is made of steel or iron, which while fairly standard, is particularly useful against fey.
Silver: The weapon is made of silver, good against werewolves and some abominations.
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51
COMMON WEAPONS
Arrows: Ammo for bows, crossbows, and firearms, they’re made with either iron or silver.
Battle Axe (4 harm, close): A large axe with long handle, designed to be used as a weapon.
Claymore (4 harm, close): A heavy two-handed sword.
Chain Whip (4 harm, reach): A long whip made out of linked metal chain or with a metal weight at the end.
Crossbow (4 harm, ranged): A normal sized military crossbow. Requires arrows.
Dagger (3 harm, close, concealed): A concealable knife for stabbing
Duelist’s Sword (4 harm, close): A finely made one-handed sword
Heavy Torch (3 harm, close, fire): A club wrapped in oil-soaked rags.
Longbow (4 harm, ranged): A large hunter’s longbow. Requires arrows.
Musket (4 harm, ranged): A gun that requires two hands to operate.
Oil flasks (2 harm, ranged, fire, target takes 1 harm ignores armor per turn until put out): A specially
prepared flask of oil with a flaming rag or other igniting method, designed to drench and burn its target.
Pistol (3 harm, ranged, concealable): A one-handed gun that can be hidden under clothes.
Poisoned knives (2 harm ignores armor, throwable, only vs living creatures): A thin knife coated in a
fast-acting poison.
Ritual knife (3 harm, close): A twisted, decorated knife more useful for sacrifices than combat.
Scythe (4 harm, close): A large curved blade at the end of a wooden handle.
Short sword (3 harm, close): A short, reliable sword usually used for a backup weapon.
Small Crossbow (3 harm, ranged, concealable): A fold-up crossbow that can be easily hidden.
Spear (4 harm, reach): A two-handed spear or other polearm with a long shaft.
Throwing Axes (3 harm, throwable): Light axes designed for throwing.
Throwing Knives (3 harm, throwable): Knives weighted for throwing.
Vial of holy water (2 harm ignores armor, throwable, blessed, only vs undead and demons): Blessed
water that burns away evil.
Equipment List
52
Woodcutter’s Axe (3 harm, close): A simple axe used to chop lumber.
You can have weapons look or act like whatever you want – so if a weapon isn’t on your character’s
equipment list, but makes sense, check with your MC – the only real important value is the harm.. There’s no
reason a vampire can’t be using a greataxe, but most of the time that’s not the image associated – which is
why it’s not there. Likewise, for the MC, if you want guns to exist in your game, just substituting them where
longbows and crossbows are now is easy enough, with iron or silver bullets instead of arrows.
Tools
Not all equipment a character uses is a weapon. Some playbooks get various tools as well.
Iron Horseshoe: Representing industry and the taming of nature, a horseshoe is the typical tool for warding
against fey.
Holy Symbol: Metal or wood carved into a sacred shape, useful for warding off undead and demons.
Scroll: A scroll described one spell, either ritual or sorcery, that can be cast with the Sorcery move.
Vial of anointing oil (makes a weapon blessed for one scene): A decorated vial of anointing oil that can
be poured onto a weapon for a short-term blessing.
Vial of flaming oil (makes a weapon flaming for one scene): A thick, sticky oil that can be poured onto a
blade and set on fire.
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Playing The Game
For both players and MCs alike, making sure everyone is on the same page and understands what’s going on is
important. Here’s some advice for that.
Session Zero
If you’re starting playing Beneath a Cursed Moon – especially in a campaign setting, where you’ll be playing
several sessions with your PCs – a Session Zero is recommended. In Session Zero, everyone sits down together
and talks about what they want out of the game, what characters they want to play, and usually, how your
characters all know each other. Even if you don’t have time to sit down and plan everything out for a full
session, you should think about these things ahead of time.
Expectations from the game should be your first topic in session zero. You’ll want to discuss what you all want
out of the game – heavy action, deep drama, interpersonal conflicts, or the like. It’s alright if not all players are
after the exact same things, but understanding of what everyone is looking for, and how to best play to that
means everyone can still have fun. One of the most important expectations is going to be a discussion about
comfort level when it comes to elements of horror and violence – what level of description of violence and
gore, as well as similar subjects. You know best your own sensibilities, but even then, this is a constant,
shifting thing, that you might find yourself more or less comfortable with things than you thought mid-game.
For both yourself and your fellow players, be willing to have more discussions about how the game is going,
and what you’d like to see more or less of as you progress, and everyone will be happier.
Next come the setting and characters, which go hand in hand. Your MC might have a specific setting and pitch,
or setting elements in mind for you to work off for. If they do or not, the group should work together setting
down things they want to see – you can go as in depth as fleshing out a specific town, or just mentioning
rumors, organizations you might work for or against, or the things you might want to see; would you rather
be exploring ruined castles, saving isolated villages, or tracking a murderous vampire in a busy city? Do you
want your character to work for a wider church order – what are its goals? Is your character hunted by
someone or something, or are they hunting a specific creature themselves? You should work this out while
choosing your playbook and working on your character, so they all tie together.
For character creation, none of the playbooks in Beneath a Cursed Moon are so similar that you wouldn’t want
to use them both in one game. However, you probably won’t want to use two of the same playbook in one
game – work with the other players to make sure you’re not overlapping. You also might want to make sure
you have a good variety of specialties, especially across the investigation moves – having someone to cover
each investigation task well if needed always helps. These worries aren’t ones of making sure the game works
– if you have a group of all Vampires, or if nobody is good at the Interview move, you can still play just fine –
but instead are about spotlight and focus. If your group is all good at different things, you don’t have to worry
about stepping on each others’ toes, and you’ll all have your time to shines.
When starting out, it’s likely ideal if all your characters know each other to start, and work together. This is
especially important with characters who could be considered monstrous or evil until you get to know them.
Work out party dynamics – how your vampire met the champion and the hunter, and what they all think of
each other – ahead of time. This also lets you talk over what might be most fun to roleplay out. Characters
who don’t trust each other, are rivals, are deeply in love, or have known each other from childhood are all
exciting hooks, and need both players to be on board.
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54
Each playbook comes with a set of “quickplay backgrounds” - you don’t need to follow along with these, but
they give you some options of what your character might look like, come from, and why they work with the
other PCs. If there’s some detail you can’t narrow down, these can get you started.
Investigation
During investigation scenes, you should declare how you’re investigating (which move you’re doing), as well
as where, if applicable. This is when the PCs are most likely to split up, and pursue their own interests. When
the PCs are apart, it’s important to keep any side stuff short. Don’t get yourself into a deep rabbit hole of side
material on your own – this is a group game!
The three main investigation moves – Poke Around, Interview, and Lore – all work similar. PCs roll their
moves, see how many holds you get, and use those holds to ask questions. The MC then answers those
questions, and the PC and MC collaborate on how that answer was obtained. Sometimes it’s simple – if you’re
using Lore to know the history of the place, that’s just something your character has picked up, or if you’re
using Poke Around to ask where someone went, you can find tracks or the like. Other times, the MC will
supply the information- like if a PC asks “What type of creature was it?” with Poke Around, the MC might say
you find fur, which you can identify as being from a werewolf. This is also room for an MC to ask a question
back, if they want – if an Interview answer tells you that the bystanders you’re talking to are scared of your
character, you might be asked to provide why, or what mannerisms for them draw your attention to their fear.
Investigation holds can be carried from scene to scene, and shouldn’t be treated too strictly. Splitting holds
between two different monster attack locations, as long as it’s all part of one big investigation is fine. The MC
might make you lose your holds when you’re moving between two very different places, or wait around too
long, however. If you use Interview to talk to people in a bar one night, you likely can’t use left over holds at a
fancy party the next night.
When investigating, the big drawback is time. Any time you get to a new major location, the PCs can each
make one free investigation move. Afterwards, every time the PCs decide to investigate, each can perform an
investigation move, and then time passes. That’s bad, and PCs likely won’t know the specifics of why – but if
there wasn’t an out of control monster to deal with, then there wouldn’t be a need for them. Instead of an
investigation move, there’s other actions available, including Patch Up to heal harm, Ritual Sorceries, or even
just moving between far away locations. All of these have to be balanced against a secret, ticking clock – you
want to make sure you have all the right information, but you also don’t want to take so long there’s more
victims. Monster hunting isn’t easy!
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55
Combat
As discussed in the Basic Rules chapter, in a fight, the MC describes the actions of monsters and bystanders,
and then the PCs get to declare and roll their moves. If the PCs don’t actually address what the monsters are
threatening to do, then the monsters get away with it.
On most turns, a PC will usually make one Battle, Knowledge, Resist Dark Magic, or Sorcery move as their
action. Sometimes, a Daring Action move will be made – either in addition to the other ones (usually to get
somewhere) or instead of (usually to achieve something, or perform some physical feat). Fighting against and
killing the monsters is fairly obvious, but when you’re trying to protect someone, using Battle to draw
attention to yourself or keep monsters away, Resist Dark Magic to ward monsters away, or Daring Action to
get the vulnerable out of the way are the usual methods.
In combat, there’s no real set order to turns – go ahead and act in whatever way you like. If you want to let the
scholar go first so their knowledge can be useful to the rest of the group one turn, and then the hunter go first
to see if they defeat the monster the champion is considering drawing the attention of – go for it.
Rolling With It and When To Roll

When you’re playing, not everything has to, or should, be heavily regulated. Act out your characters, and only
turn to the dice and investigation or combat rounds when the situation calls for it. Most of the time, you’ll just
roll with the situation, only touching the dice if you come up to a situation where success or failure is called
into question, and interesting. Until then, just act out scenes as you like, moving the story along.
When you’re talking as your character, there’s a lot of different ways to do it, and you’ll slip between them
based on what’s natural – don’t think too hard about it. Talking in your character’s voice, talking in terms of “I
tell them…”, or narrating what your character does by name are all appropriate to different scenes, as you see
fit. If you want to buy something mundane from a store, you can just narrate that you buy it – you don’t have
to play out that conversation, or roll any dice. But if you’re trying to get a rare herb for a ritual, you’ll need to
roll Convince first – and then maybe play out the result in conversation. Fit how you’re treating a specific
scene to how interesting and important it is to you, and you’ll soon find this all flows naturally.
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R u n n i n g The G a m e
This section is for advice on how to run a game as an MC. If you don’t intend to be the MC, you don’t really
need to read it – although it’s not like it’s off limits, if you want a peak behind the curtain.
The Goal
As the MC, your goal in running a game is to help provide a good time for all – yourself included. There’s a lot
of different things players can get out of a roleplaying game, which can sometimes make this a difficult task.
For the game’s story, there’s all the stuff you can get out of it from any good story – character development,
plot twists, exploration of themes, and so on. Plus, getting to act out a character is just fun. This is at once the
easiest and the hardest goals to hit, due to the unpredictable nature of a roleplaying game. You want to give
your players freedom, but story elements can be harder to nail due to the group nature of roleplaying games –
you don’t always get the ending or reaction you want. While the advice in chapter can certainly help, you’ll
need to find your own individual style – and the style of your players – working together towards it, and
remember that it’s a group effort. There’s nothing wrong with just stating, out of character, what you think
might be interesting to happen, or what you’d like to see happen.
The investigation parts of the game should present an interesting mystery to the players. Being given a
situation and having to figure it out is fun! The investigation portion of the game should provide a mystery
that can slowly be unraveled – maybe in one session, maybe over an entire arc. These mysteries can reveal
deeper knowledge about the story and its setting, and serve as puzzles and challenges for players to tackle.
Combat is also about providing a challenge to the players, but is also one of the most tense and uncertain parts
of the game. Combat should involve tough choices between putting their characters at risk at stopping
monsters to potentially save innocents, as well as a strategic minigame. Combat also makes a good climax to a
story, where the investigation, planning, and preparation can finally pay off.
When running the game, most importantly, you need to keep things moving. As the MC, you’ve got a heavy
control over the pacing and momentum of the game. Let it languish, and everyone will quickly become bored.
Which isn’t to say it’s all your responsibility – the players need to keep active, too. But when things seem
stuck, it’s your job to get them moving again – prompt players for responses, ask them what they do, ask if
you need to clarify anything you’ve described, or just give them more to work with. When they’re truly stuck,
that means it’s time to progress your timeline of events, and for more things to happen.
Session Zero
Everything said in the Playing the Game section about Session Zero applies here, but there’s a few other
things you need to work on, to plan ahead. It’s good to go into Session Zero with a pitch, or some pitches for
players to choose from – be it unconnected mysteries every session where you’re randomly trouble-solving, to
deep dives into the tortured backgrounds of the heroes, focuses on particular monsters or cities, or games
around a single villain or catalyst event. Without something to build upon, no matter how small, you’ll get
players making characters that are aimless, and have no real grounding with the type of game you’ll be
running.
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57
You’re going to want to pay attention to what characters the players are making, and help guide them into a
good direction. That’s not to say you should dictate or tell them what to do, but if one player is playing a
Fiend, and another is a Hunter who especially hates demons, ask how they get along, and make sure what they
work out is compatible for a cooperative roleplaying game. If it isn’t, you need to step in and make clear that it
has to be, to whatever level of “we don’t like each other but we’ll work together” you’re comfortable with.
Finally, when it comes to how dark the game is, remember that you’re the bottom line. You’re the one who can
– and needs to – step in when things get out of hand. You’re not running things for the comfort of your
average player, or each of your players – you’re running things for the comfort of all of them, which means to
the comfort of the more sensitive player at any point in time. You have to be sure to not cross anyone’s lines –
which may even be different if it’s happening to their character, or to someone else. To do this, you’ll want to
have some means of communicating what goes right or wrong from players – there’s many formalized “X-
Card” systems you can find online to use, where players have nonverbal ways to redirect a scene, or you might
find a more casual, oral approach better because you don’t intend to push boundaries. Either way, when
playing a game with violence and horror themes, making it clear to your players that you’re willing to listen to
their input is important.
Planning an Adventure Timeline

In most sessions, your PCs will be reacting to events and racing to stop things from happening. While they’re
likely to pursue their own goals, especially over the long term, in the immediate you need to present to them a
problem that they need to stop – this is a game about hunting monsters, and in order to be true monsters, they
have to be doing something bad first.
When starting with an adventure, you should decide on what the problem is, and a time pressure. Basic
examples might be “A werewolf is in the town, and the full moon is coming up soon”, or “The cultists have
kidnapped villagers, and will sacrifice them soon, when the stars are right”. You’ll then want to think of some
events that can happen along the way if your players don’t interfere. It’s not enough to just say “At the end,
the cultists complete their ritual”. Have a body of a recent sacrifice be discovered, have them kidnap more
people, or have them try to assassinate the PCs. This helps increasing tension, gives the players more clues to
follow, and can mix up the investigation with some action.
Once you have your events, you’ll want to write up your timeline – some games refer to these as “clocks”.
Your timeline should list out events and when they’re going to occur, with a number of steps in between to
give players time to investigate. Some steps might be dependent on what the players do – if they’re spending a
lot of time around certain helpful NPCs, those NPCs might be targeted to slow the heroes down, or ignored if
the monster is trying to avoid conflict. Here’s an example of a very basic timeline, of an adventure where the
heroes are trying to stop a demonic cult from using kidnapped villagers to summon a powerful demon.
➢ The Heroes arrival at the town, hearing rumors of a demonic cult, and learn several townsfolk have gone
missing. The PCs get a day of of investigation, with everyone able to take two investigate actions.
➢ The next morning: A helpful contact who suspected some villagers of being cultists, has gone missing. The
players get an investigation action.
➢ The contact’s body is found later that day, having been used as sacrifice to summon a minor demon. The
players get an investigation action.
➢ That night, if the cultists think the heroes are close in their discovery, assassins break into the inn rooms of
the heroes with the help of their summoned demon.
➢ The last day of investigation – if not stopped, the cultists complete their ritual, and summon a powerful
demon. The players get two last investigation actions if needed to figure out the cultist ritual site, and
where they’re keeping those they’ve kidnapped.
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At every step, more places to look for clues present themselves to the players – you might want to throw in
the contact’s private journal with their suspicions, evidence of where the contact was sacrificed, and at the
end, cultists to interrogate after their assassination attempt. This helps to ensure that the trail doesn’t dry up,
with players unsure where to go next.
How much time in between each step, both in-game and out of game, is variable and should be up to the
specific needs. While the above timeline had two investigation actions per day, there’s no need for any real
number – you could do 1 or 5 or 10 just as easily. For areas where all the investigation is going to take place in
a small area, it makes more sense to have less in-universe time pass between actions, but if the heroes are
having to cross a gigantic city, or even run between multiple towns to perform their investigations, you might
want more time to pass. Out of game, you want to give players a chance to figure things out, but also put a
time pressure on them. A larger party, or a party that’s focused more on taking investigation abilities is going
to need less time to figure out what to do, and so should be presented with tighter time restrictions. A smaller
party can’t get as much done in a day, and so is better suited for timelines that give them plenty of time to
investigate. There’s no one answer, and is something you’ll want to adjust as needed – if players keep figuring
out your mysteries early, consider giving them less time in the future. If they’re struggling, consider giving
them more. But don’t take away victories from your players – if they solve an adventure easier than you were
expecting, let them celebrate!
One last important role with the timeline is the phases of the moon. Two playbooks – the Dreamer and the
Werewolf – care about the moon for some of their abilities, and it’s likely that the heroes will pick up some
ritual spells that care about the moon, too. The game assumes there will be three nights of a full moon, and
three nights of a new moon each month – so any werewolf attack on the full moon is going to be back the next
two nights, too. If the full moon matters to your adventure, set its place in the timeline. If it doesn’t, because
you likely don’t want to track individual days, consider two different methods. For the first, have every
adventure featuring a full moon be followed by two adventures with waning moons, then an adventure with a
new moon, then two more waxing before you’re back at a full moon. For the second method, roll two six-sided
dice for the first day of the timeline. If both dice match, it’s either a full moon or a new moon – 1, 2, and 3
represent the first, second, and third days of a new moon, and 4, 5, and 6 represent the first, second, and third
days of a full moon. If they don’t match – don’t worry about it, unless you’re dealing with an especially long
timeline (over a period of several days) for your adventure, in which case you may want to roll again for later
days. The dice method gives you a 1/12 chance for a full moon or a new moon, which is less than expected just
based off of days of the month – this is made up by the fact that you’ll likely have more due to just putting
them in the timeline yourself.
Investigation
During the investigation part of game play, the players will use investigation moves to be able to ask you a
question, which you must answer truthfully. You also have to work with the player to figure out how they
know these things – sometimes it might be simple, like identifying a werewolf based on tracks, and sometimes
you might try using it as a jump-point to ask an open-ended question to help develop characters, like “You
recognize these wounds as a belonging to a merman’s acid – when have you run into those before?”
When planning your mysteries, you don’t have to sit down and think about the answer to every question
ahead of time. As long as you have a general idea of the situation, you should be fine – and if a question comes
up that you don’t know the answer to, make it up! If the players try asking a question that doesn’t apply,
consider if the fact that it doesn’t apply is useful – and if not, don’t count that against one of the holds. “What
kind of magic was used here?” in a place where no magic was used might be useful if the players suspect
magic was involved – but if it’s simple a mundane attack, consider just saying that no magic was used, and
give the hold back.
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Planning Combat
Setting up fights of an appropriate difficulty can be tricky, and requires some judgment on the part of the MC,
but there are some guidelines, and monsters are divided into three classes to help – Minions, Warriors, and
Lords. Not all monsters of the same class are equally strong – pay attention to their individual stats, and use
their class as rough guidelines. Keep in mind that it’s going to vary from group – a group with access to a lot
of silver weapons is going to have an easier time with werewolves compared to one with only iron weapons,
and a group that invests heavily into investigative abilities over combat ones is going to have a harder time in
fights overall.
Minions are meant to be largely disposable – players will be able to handle a great number of them with only
minor harm, but they can provide useful distractions for the villains. Warriors are a bit trickier – it usually
takes around 5 attacks from the PCs, in total, to take down a single warrior, unless they lack access to the
monster’s weakness, in which case they’re in a bit more trouble. A single warrior can be teamed up by on most
groups, but can be a severe threat to isolated PCs, or PCs who are separated due to other concerns (like having
to protect civilians from the minions). Two warriors is a decent enough threat for a group of four or more PCs,
but they’ll have to be careful not to let both monsters team up on one character – otherwise they can expect to
win. Warriors with less than 10 maximum harm are a bit easier to fight, while those with more than 10 are
tougher. Lords are special – chances are, they’ll tear apart an unprepared group. When using a Lord, give
plenty of foreshadowing and chances for PCs to prepare. A Lord with 15 maximum harm is a pretty tough
fight, and it should have minions helping it. A Lord with more than 15 maximum harm that is a monster the
PCs are unlikely to be able to defeat unless it’s alone, or they’ve prepared well..
For all fights, giving the PCs the ability to flee is important – as is having the monster occasionally flee, or
starting with smaller, less dangerous groups to serve as forewarning. A monster showing up on a scene,
causing some damage and destruction (and maybe even killing a few victims if the PCs mess up), and leaving
as soon as things get dangerous for it is perfectly acceptable and in-genre, leading to uncertainty on when the
next attack can occur. You can’t have building tension if the monster appears once, is dealt with, and then the
adventure is over.
Running Combat
As discussed in the Basic Rules chapter, in a fight, you should start be describing the actions or obvious intent
of monsters and bystanders, and then the PCs get to declare and roll their moves. Based on what the PCs have
done, the monsters then get to act on their intent.
You don’t have to fully describe what a character is doing – a demon stalking towards a victim might be
intending to maul them, or might be intending to grab and abduct them – but it should be clear where there
focus is. When a PC doesn’t interrupt, you can then narrate what the monster does. When a PC does interrupt,
shift the focus on a new, appropriate interaction that takes into account the interrupt – if a PC throws
themselves between the demon and the victim it was moving towards, the demon should attack the PC,
instead.
When a monster acts, it gets to use multiple attack effects, just like a PC who rolled well on a Battle move.
How many attack effects a monster gets is dependent on how strong it is, with the section on monster stats
providing more details. You can throw in an extra attack effect for a turn under extreme circumstances – if a
PC has gotten into a real bad position, or the monster has reason to be particularly enraged, or the like.
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When choosing attack effects, don’t just go for the maximum possible harm unless a monster really needs it to
break through a PC’s armor, or it looks like they’re losing badly. Having the monster shove people around,
push them into precarious places, go after civilians, try to grab prisoners, or just destroy the environment
around them is a lot more interesting, especially when these have further effects. What happens when an
important witness is abducted, or the abomination brings an entire house down?
Attack Effects:
➢ Inflict harm according to its attacks

➢ Inflict +1 more harm
➢ Give your attack the (group) tag, inflicting harm against multiple foes at once
➢ Throw someone off-balance, giving them -1 Forward
➢ Take 1 less harm from all attacks for a turn
➢ Grab, ensnare, or otherwise abduct someone
➢ Take something important
➢ Destroy something important
➢ Move or push someone where you want
Bystanders – normal human good-guy NPCs – get to act too, in the same way monsters do. Players might try
to raise up a militia against a horde of zombies, or arm victims in a heated moment, and you should let them. It
makes the NPCs feel more real, rewards the players for making character connections, and also puts the
bystanders on the front line Bystanders always fail Resist Dark Magic rolls to resist the effect of monsters, and
can generally be assumed to need the heroes to protect them at every opportunity. For other matters, use your
judgment on what they’re capable of – if you’d let a PC roll Daring Action to try to quickly break down a door
to escape the undead horde, you might let two villagers break it down after some time.
Elements of Horror
Horror and tabletop roleplaying is a difficult mix – elements of tension or shock can be difficult to pull off due
to how long things can take in a roleplaying game, out-of-game distractions or tabletalk, having to repeat
descriptions, and the like. And Beneath a Cursed Moon isn’t a horror game – it doesn’t make horror the focus
of every adventure, or the main point. It is still horror inspired though, and there are times that horror
enhances the game, and certain techniques can still be effective in a tabletop game.
Building tension and uncertainty is one of the best ways to play up horror, and there’s a lot of ways to do so.
When the PCs investigate, they often split up – this is a perfect time to hint that they might be in danger.
Catching sight of the monster, finding a fresh kill, or even just the locals acting strange or suspiciously – hint
at the danger. You don’t necessarily need to follow up on it, but doing so every so often can keep players on
their toes, and ramp up tension in times when they aren’t even in any real danger yet.
Putting the players in a precarious situation, where they want to press forward can also help with this tension,
but it has to not feel forced. If the characters must go through a series of difficult fights in order to complete
the adventure, that will simply feel like a high difficulty. But if the players know they can wait until daybreak
to make fighting the vampire nest easier but have no chance of saving the victims unless they go in now, that
choice will help ramp up the tension. Bad things will happen either way – to the PCs, or to the victims –
because of their choices.
The slow reveal of a mystery is also a great source of horror, especially when it brings to light a shocking truth
in the end. Learning that the person the players trust is actually a monster who’s been preying on the town, or
that the PC’s dealing with dark magic is responsible for what’s happening is a plenty horrific payoff that
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works well. Learning of past atrocities that are being caused by a source still present also sets the stakes – it
lets the players know “this will continue unless you stop it”, and makes them feel responsible.
Uncertainty and dread certainty work well for tabletop games, but it’s also important to acknowledge what
doesn’t. Sudden, violent action is rarely going to to have the same scare it would from a movie or video game
– the start of any action at all will put players into a “fight mode” mindset, an encounter meant to be won. The
deaths of every characters the players like will make them not attach to those characters at all, while just
threatening, and not backing away from the promised threats if not stopped is strong enough. Excessive
descriptions of violence or gore also are unlikely to make players feel horror – players will become
desensitized to them, and it’s easy to cross overboard into humor. Give just enough detail for the minds of
your players to paint the picture!
The Castle Crawl

Despite the fact that much of the source material involves long explorations of giant, twisting castles, and
killing all the creatures lurking within, Beneath a Cursed Moon doesn’t focus on the castle crawl. While it can
provide an interesting cap to a long arc, there’s only so many castles you can trek through killing everything
inside before it gets stale. Instead, mysteries and character interaction, as well as fighting to protect people are
the focus on the game.
That’s not to say trekking into a haunted castle isn’t workable, however. There’s a few things you can do to
make these adventures more interesting, though. The first is to allow use of investigation skills to predict
what’s coming up ahead, or for finding things. Identifying just what’s left the marks on the walls, interviewing
dying soldiers who had been attacked, figuring out what ritual the magical markings were used for, or trying
to follow a trail left by a monster that’s abducted someone are all good uses. The second big thing is to make
sure the castle isn’t empty of people. More than just monsters, have people who have been abducted and need
to be freed, other monster hunters who you can team up with or have their own goals, or people struggling
against being turned into a monster like a vampire or werewolf, that have to be quickly cured – if the party
can find the necessary things in time.
Advancement
The primary method of advancement in Beneath a Cursed Moon is giving the players a chance to choose more
secondary abilities. How often you should hand them out is up to you – if you’re running a long campaign,
giving them out after a few mysteries, or the conclusion of a long, satisfying arc will be most appropriate. If
you’re just playing the game a few times, you might want to give the players a new advancement at the end of
every session.
The heroes will also pick up new equipment as they play, and it’s your call as MC if you want that to be a
permanent bonus, or something that’s more temporary. If the equipment is something they obtained for a one-
off adventure, or is something expendable, like some vials of holy water, it’s appropriate to say they’ve run out
before the next adventure. If the equipment is a little more permanent, but not particularly special, like finding
a big iron axe, such equipment should be far more likely to get broken or lost than the PC’s other gear (which
normally always returns or is replaced by the next adventure). If it’s something special, like a weapon gifted
from a dying hunter, let them keep it – they’ve earned it.
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Setting
Beneath a Cursed Moon doesn’t use a single, pre-set setting for the game. It’s up to the MC to decide on the
setting – which doesn’t mean it has to be a large, premade thing with maps, and it doesn’t mean the players
can’t get involved.
Your setting is best painted in broad strokes, with details filled in as you need them. You don’t need a large
map, but it might be useful to have a general sense of terrain, names of some major cities or countries, and
organizations or monsters you want to be involved. From there, fill in small villages and places as needed –
there’s no need to try to plan everything out ahead of time. But it’s useful as a group to decide on some basic
ideas, and incorporate them into character backstories; if there’s an organized group of monster hunters in
your game, have the PCs had positive or negative run-ins with them before?
Session Zero, when you all sit down to create characters, is the perfect time to discuss the setting as a group. It
can enhance the game if everyone sits down and contributes to the setting together – consider going around
the table, and having each player contribute a person, group, location, event (historical or recent), or similar,
until either everyone is out of ideas or you’ve got a good amount of things to work with. The group should
play off of, and expand on each others ideas, and will then have a good idea of what others want out of the
game, but also material to base their characters off of.
Real World Or Fantasy?

The biggest choice when it comes to setting is the decision to set the game in a completely fictional world, or
set in “real” history with fantastical elements. Both have their advantages and downsides.
For a historical setting, you have the difficulty that everyone is going to bring in assumptions of how history
“really was” - and they’ll rarely be the same. Players will have a different level of understanding of how
government works, what people wore, and so on, and that level of difference might cause a conflict of
assumptions that needs to be resolved to get everyone on the same page. Such conflicts are still possible with a
fantasy setting, but are easier to handwave if everything is made up. However, you do have the advantage of
being able to use actual maps, and pull from actual history – if you want to know something, you can just look
it up!
When using a fantasy setting, you also have the advantage of having everything the way you like it, and not
having to work out messy details. You don’t have to figure out what would have changed if Vlad Tepes was
really a vampire, nor do you need to figure out what needed to change to make history largely the same. You
can also do away with all the parts of history you don’t want to touch on – sexism, racism, other bigotries, as
well as real-world religions and their history can simply not exist, so they don’t have to be subjects you’re
dealing with at the table. It also makes it easier to have the explicitly fantastic baked into the setting, like
rulers who keep themselves alive through necromancy, or open and known demon-hunting groups.
Going with a fantasy world is likely a better choice, and one the game assumes to some extent. Still, if you
want to set things in the real world, there shouldn’t be any issues with the rules in doing so, and the option is
there.
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Time Period
Gothic fantasy literature are set in a wide range of time periods, and even if you’re using a fantasy world, you
likely want to pick one time period to base your game on, to help communicate things like common
technology and social structure. In particular, there’s two time periods most important to Beneath a Cursed
Moon, that come with their own common themes. Neither has to be adhered to strictly, but it's useful to think
about how common conceptions of both differ. If you’re running a game, you might want to consider picking
one to use as a shorthand for what players can expect when it comes to setting.
The first time period to consider lines up to the late 1400s to early 1500s AD, at the end of the Middle Ages in
Europe and moving into the Age of Discovery. Most importantly, Castlevania III and the TV series is set here,
but in actual history its also the end of Vlad the Impaler’s reign, in the middle of common recurrences of the
Black Plague, the start of the Spanish Inquisition, and the beginning of the first matchlock guns with triggers
becoming available – the perfect strange, high tech weapon for a werewolf hunter.
For games set in this time period, isolated villages full of rough folk some distance from their neighbors brings
the right feeling. A variety of different wars for local lords have pulled soldiers away from their homes,
keeping those best able to fight monsters killing each other – or worse, when the war is over and they instead
become mercenaries and bandits. The effects of plagues and wars can be heavily felt – the people are
devastated, and death is common. Corrupt nobles squeeze their peasantry for as much wealth as they can
while engaging in pointless political squabbles using the lives of their people as pawns perfect villains,
especially when they turn to dark arts to achieve their ends. The failure of such lords can create perfect power
vacuums for evil to roam free, be it an abandon castle that makes for a nesting spot for demons, or an
unpatrolled forest that werewolves now use as hunting grounds. Isolation, failure of those in power to protect
those under them, and a general sense of mistrust, hopelessness, and bloodshed are all common themes when
drawing from this time period.
The other time period worth considering inspiration from is the 1800s. Castlevania: Rondo of Blood and
Symphony of the Night are both set in the late 1700s, and Bram Stoker’s Dracula is set in 1897, for a perfect
century of vampire-hunting. The Gothic novel flourished during this time, with special note to be given to
Frankenstein. Bloodborne’s aesthetic styling draw heavily from this area, and the century also holds the work of
Edgar Allan Poe in its early years, and ends just short of HP Lovecraft’s. Poe’s works also bring in the all-
important murder mysteries, and tales of Victorian murder have been some of the most persistent in people’s
minds, be it the fictional Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde or the real-life Jack the Ripper.
For stories set in this time period, there’s less of a focus on small, isolated villages, and more on the false safety
of larger cities and the darkness of man. In the novel Dracula, the titular vampire moves from his isolated
castle to London, and begins preying on victims there. Setting your game in a large city, or a city and outlying
areas, allows you to build a specific cast of characters and places that you can draw on again. This helps make
the stakes more real, and allows the building of interesting relationships. It’s important to not fall into the trap
of having all the threats be some foreign other, however – while many horror stories are influenced by racism
and the monstrous “other”, the far scarier fiend is the one who has lived besides you all your life, but cares
nothing of you and only of themselves. While some is personal, others involve the corruption of institutions
that hide their atrocities beyond bureaucracy, The brightness of humanity pushing back against the shroud of
monstrousness, and the evil that secretly lurks in the hearts of men are common themes to draw from, as well
the corruption of institutions that hide their atrocities beyond bureaucracy.
These two time periods aren’t the only ones that matter, but they’re a good start to think about. There’s
material that falls in between the two – the Pirates of the Caribbean movies most notably – that are great to
drawn on for your game, and when set in a fantasy world, you don’t need to be strictly beholden to any one
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theme. Going into the past isn’t terribly difficult – removal of firearms should be the only major change
needed – although going to modern day requires more work, and not what the system is designed for, due to
the complexity of modern weapons and changes that technology brings.
Monsters
The game pulls its monster list from a lot of different sources. Many of those have been filtered through
modern day retellings – as just one example, there’s lots of different, incompatible types of vampires in
mythology, and Bram Stoker’s Dracula is a specific interpretation, that differs from the Dracula of Hammer
Films, and the Dracula of Castlevania. If all those are put into one game, it becomes muddled and messy – it’s
important for monsters to be understandable and consistent. If a character is a vampire hunter, their player
needs to understand how vampires function, what they’re weak against, and what their powers are in order
for the player to sensibly interact with the game. If you have no consistency, you don’t have vampires and
werewolves – you just have individual, named characters with random powers. So decisions had to be made
on what each monster “is” - if you don’t like the decision, it’s easy enough just to change it, but you should be
consistent with your changes. And for some creatures, like vampires, a little wiggle room is given in that they
can develop new powers individually, as a function of experience and sorcery.
For within the game itself, it’s generally assumed that people know monsters exist. Some might be shielded
from specific ones – if vampires are native to one location in your game, perhaps those who live far away
don’t know about or think vampires exist, but they certainly believe in their monsters. It’s likely that random
villagers have a lot of beliefs on what monsters can do, and what can stop them, and only some of those beliefs
are true. It’s up to the experts – that is, the PCs – to sort out what works and what doesn’t to save the day.
Finally, people are likely going to be pretty suspicious of monsters, and for damn good reason. Your good
vampire or demon is one in a million, and your werewolf PC is one bad day away from a slaughter. This
shouldn’t be a constant pain that makes players lives miserable all the time, but lip service should at least be
paid to it by PCs trying to cover up their monstrousness in new areas with appropriate hooded cloaks, and the
like. Alternatively, “risen” monsters might be well enough known that the PCs can get a pass – but if so, you’re
likely to have to deal with demons and undead claiming to have been redeemed as means to deceive their prey.
Magic
There is no good magic in Beneath a Cursed Moon. While there are good witches and sorcerers who use their
spells for noble aims, all magic is inherently dangerous. It tempts the wielder to do horrible things to fuel their
own powers or goals, and is a corruptive influence. Many good spellcasters would say the same about a sword,
and largely be right. Like a sword, it’s far easier to harm than to heal, and any positive gains are often through
the use of violence and fear, or through great risk.
The exact limits of magic in the game are kept vague, but the three categories are meant to carve out strong
niches with their own distinct flavor. Astral magic is tied to dreams, nightmares, visions and prophecies, art,
and abominations of all sorts. Infernal magic is destructive, commanding the elements be they fire, ice,
lightning, or anything else, in damaging ways, and also involves control and summoning of demons.
Necromantic magic is the magic of life, death, and undead, able to grant it and consume it, and also the magic
of wicked curses and hexes. Each of these magic is tied to a monstrous type,
Magic is partly a personal thing, and partly a thing to be studied. People can have a natural talent for magic,
but no matter how innate of a sorcerer they are, they still need to learn the motions and rituals to use it. While
flashes of wild, uncontrolled magic might have happened in a character’s past, by the time they’re PCs, that
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magic has been studied and under control to some extent. Monsters are the exception to this – to many, magic
comes naturally. For some demons, conjuring hellfire is as natural as breathing, and their use of magic looks
different in performance, even if it’s the same in effect.
Ritual spells are the most complex of all magic, and require time to enact. A ritual spell is like a formula, in
which every piece must be put into place perfectly. Those who are completely inept end up with nothing, but
those who are partially skilled are the most dangerous, for the magic takes hold, and then they lose control.
Developing a new ritual is hard work, and requires experimentation and weaving together proper magical
threads, making already-developed spells written down valuable.
While blessed weapons and holy symbols have an effect on demons and undead, it’s not because they’re
empowered by divinity – rather the opposite. To bless an item is a form of basic spell that requires no faith to
perform, and holy symbols are magical runes that work in anyone’s hands. Due to their usefulness, once
discovered these spells and symbols became part of religious beliefs, and over time associated with worship.
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Common Setting Elements
While Beneath a Cursed Moon has no one set setting, with names of characters and places to draw from, there
are specific recurring elements that show up again and again in the stories the game draws from. You don’t
have to use them for your game, but these discussions might help give you some ideas.
THE CHURCH
A large, country-spanning religious structure, modeled off of the historical Catholic Church (or the actual
Catholic Church, if you’re setting the game in a historical period) is almost a given. It’s holy symbols are
carried by monster hunters, and its monasteries produce dedicated crusaders.
Depending on the tone of the game, the tone of the church changes. In a more lighthearted game, bumbling
monster-hunting priests and trustworthy knights are more common, with the local churches providing safe
areas to rest and talk, and a good source of holy water. On a small scale, the people you meet can generally be
counted as charitable and good. In darker games, the church is a stifling political force, having gained power
from the collapse of other political structures, run by selfish clergy who care for their own power and wealth
than they do their flock. The crusaders of this church are a force of persecution, killing those suspected of
minor crimes, and can lead hostile, xenophobic mobs. How the major religion is treated – and if there’s just
one, or multiple coexisting in harmony – is an important discussion if any of the heroes intend to be believers.
In a fantasy game, you’re going to need something to represent a holy symbol – the alchemical “sol” symbol,
representing the sun and gold is a good one, and is simply a circle with eight lines radiating out of it, or a
circle with a dot in it. Any easy to draw symbol can do, but it shouldn’t be to complicated. If you plan on
having the church play a big role for your game, you might also want to decide on clergy titles ahead of time,
although the usual priest, bishop, etc, can work fine.
THE CITY
The great, modern metropolis is a common setting, especially as you move closer to the present day. Be it
Dracula with the real-world London, or Bloodborne with the fictional Yharnam, a vast, crowded city full of
people makes a great setting. Such cities are usually centers of trade, with people from all over making their
homes or passing through – which serves as a great hook for a group of diverse heroes banding together.
The size, and sheer number of people within the city make it an inviting place for people to hide and just blend
in. For the heroes this might be a hunter hiding from their past, or a necromancer who acts as a doctor. For
monsters, a vampire can easily hide in the crowded city, and have their pick of meals – there’s always
someone who’s alone, who won’t be missed when abducted.
When using a large city as a major setting location, consider what the city’s law enforcement is like – in order
to leave room for the heroes, they shouldn’t be too reliable. Is that because they’re corrupt, incompetent, or
just don’t exist beyond soldiers moving in when needed? Also think about how the city gets in its trade, what
its relations are to its neighbors, and if it has any major industries.

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THE CULTS
Monster worshiping cults that brainwash their members, summon horrors, and commit ritual sacrifice are a
given for a dark fantasy setting. When using a cult as a villain, their goals should be at least believable – blind
worship and evil for the sake of it doesn’t make an interesting motivation for humans, especially in a mystery.
An easy basis for cults are the three schools of magic. Necromantic cults can promise healing and eternal life,
and would be especially effective at places wrecked by disease or other calamities. Infernal cults and their
demon minions can promise power and revenge, appealing to those who feel they have been wronged,
justified or not. Astral cults are about being part of something bigger – being given secret insights, knowing
that the world is soon to be consumed or undergo great change, or desiring change and power.
While more of a tool for the MC than PCs, there are plenty of ways to tie a hero in with a cult, especially if
they’re a spellcaster. They could have been a member of a cult and gotten their magical training there, or
raised in it and run away. They could even still be an active member of a cult, and see the cult and benign (and
it might secretly be). A warlock who comes from a hidden cabal of infernal sorcerers who use their magic to
slay evil works, and gives a good hook to the hero for both contacts to rely on, people who may ask them for
help, or former members to know who have been corrupted into evil.
THE HUNTERS
The heroes aren’t the only ones who hunt monsters. There are others out there – people you’ve learned from,
trained yourself, team up with, or come into contact with. Establishing some names can make good
background elements – did your Hunter learn from an old master, who’s now retired, dead, or still out there?
Is your Fiend pursued by a hunter who sees all demons as needing to be killed, and doesn’t trust the “good”
ones?
Lone figures make good background material, but many settings also have organized groups of hunters. Some
of these are bloodlines, entirely families of monster slayers who pass down their training. Others band
together in a type of guild, providing contacts and supplies for each other. Often, these groups fracture due to
personal feuds, differences on methods or morality, or when caught up in larger political struggles.
THE KINGDOMS AND WAR

You can’t have the classic vampire count without a kingdom to be a count of, and a war to earn that title in.
While great wars and various kingdoms often serve as the backdrop of many Gothic fantasy settings, the
important part isn’t the details of who’s fighting who over what, but rather the effect that those things have
over the common folk.
The effects that a war – either ongoing, or having just ended – cause on a land are severe, and make it a fertile
ground for monsters. The strong and healthy are pulled away, keeping them from defending their families, or
return after a campaign and continue the violence as bandits and strongmen. Resources are scarce, hunger is
common, and disease and terror are given a chance to spread. Desperate people turn to magic and dark arts to
survive, and nobility who are “useful” to their lieges are given more leeway to take advantage of the people
they’re supposed to protect, and commit horrific acts against their enemies. War weakens the defense of the
innocent against mortals, raises up the monsters-at-heart among them, and spills blood to stoke the thirst of
monsters.

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It’s also worth acknowledging colonialism and imperialism when thinking about the effects of war on your
setting. There’s a common trend to make the victims of imperialism the source of evil – resist this, and
remember they’re the victims. If you want to play with this sort of backdrop, keep the colonizers as the blood-
suckers they are: which can be both figurative and literal. A game where your heroes are fighting against
invaders from a ‘great empire’ who relying on dark magic and monsters in their ranks could make a great
backdrop. Consider playing with the idea that the outsiders have brought magic and monsters that your local
heroes aren’t used to – that the invading necromancer is of a type of undead you’ve never seen before, and so
is something you just don’t have information on.
THE SCHOOL
A great university, research team, or group of explorers, the School provides a location that can be a safe
haven, or a place of intrigue and paranoia. Not only serving as the perfect background for a Scholar or magic-
focused character, the School can be a group of important NPCs, or an adventure sit all of its own.
At its most literal, the School is a major place of learning, sometimes distinct from the Church. The two might
be in direct opposition, serving as a rivalry between faith and reason or between a focus on morality and
research unbound by ethics, or the Church might be the benefactor, with religious learning serving as the
backbone of education. Such an institution would be a place for characters to learn about the wider world,
science, and magic, either in their past or in the present. If they need to find some forgotten bit of history, this
would be the place to look. It may also be a place to store dangerous relics, or to find one when needed. The
university can also be its own adventure site. Possible hooks include a student or teacher delving into dark arts
and causing magical disturbances, the school seeking out monsters for study and losing control of them or
falling under their thrall, or the start of a magical cult that seeks to spread its ways.
Related to the School are the expedition or explorers, who delve into forgotten and ancient places. They might
be sent from a specific school directly, or lead by a brilliant figurehead. In a Gothic fantasy setting, such
expeditions always go wrong, stumbling into a nest of underground monsters, awakening some ancient evil, or
unearthing some cursed artifact.
VIEW OF MAGIC
To most people in the world, magic is rare, dangerous, and sinister, with its users to be avoided… or dealt with.
And they’re largely right. The majority of magic users, at one time or another, are likely to hurt someone. It
might be through negligence, vengeance, or just an unintended consequence, but magic is dangerous. For the
normal person, even if they don’t know enough to understand the difference between the types of magic, they
know that dealing with demons, toying with the forces of life and death, or tapping into ancient powers isn’t a
good thing. There are always exceptions, and the average person is still likely to accept magic if it comes from
a trusted source – be it the local witch or soothsayer, a respected scholar, or a respected hunter who dabbles in
magic to better slay demons.
When thinking about your setting, it’s worth considering how magic is practiced, and by who. Are there any
“legitimate” sources to learn magic from? Religious and scholarly institutions might have an accepted way to
study magic, and requirements and limitations they think help followers stay on the path of good, certain
cultures might have specific spells and rituals they see as an accepted thing, and orders of monster slayers
might teach magic as another weapon to be used and controlled. Consider also how these people are thought
of – are those schools and religions that teach magic accepted at all outside of their home territories, or are
they seen as dangerous heretics?

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VIEW OF MONSTERS
It goes without saying that the majority of people are afraid of monsters – there’s no “friendly demon next
door”, which makes life a lot more difficult for a Fiend than it does for a Necromancer. For major groups the
players are intended to interact with, how do they view monsters-turned-good; does your NPC hunter group
try to help afflicted werewolves learn self-control, or do they see killing those turned as a mercy? Heroic
monsters are rare, but you might not be the first vampire, werewolf, or demon to turn to the side of good.
While monsters are terrifying, some groups might also think their monsters are at least worthy of some
respect. Possibilities include legends about a hero who gives into lycanthropy, martyring themselves to fight
off an attacking army, a vicious and bloodthirsty noble who was a powerful vampire, and kept their people
safe in exchange for blood, or a religious story about a demon who was raised up into goodness through piety
and sacrifice, to mirror a fallen angel. If these figures are still around, and not just legends, it’s very likely that
other groups will find them worthy of hate and scorn – if you’re the one being attacked by a vampire that
protects other people, that’s just a vampire with human thralls in your eyes.

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Adventure Ideas
The following are some adventure ideas, using the monsters presented in the next chapter, if you need an idea
for a game on the fly, or just some inspiration. Most can fit into a single session.
➢ The water of a village has been infected by the Consuming Consciousness, with people slowly sickening
and turning. The source of the infection is deep within a sealed mine, or on a monster-infested
mountain or grove.
➢ The start of a Consuming Consciousness infection is started at the edge of a large city, causing a massive
exodus and chaos.
➢ A Twisted Worshiper, promising eternal life, travels from town to town, poisoning those left in its wake.
➢ A fishing village turns to worshiping Hydra when their fish run dry, and sacrifice those who don’t join
their cult in order to keep their bounty.
➢ A Scylla is attacking boats that pass through its waters – and some have turned to feeding it sacrifices for
its blessing.
➢ Investigation suggests a Spawn of the Depths sleeps near a community, and is slowly waking from its
hidden worshipers.
➢ Rare plants are needed for a spell, but the grove they’re located is the home of Arachne, Griffons,
Manticores, or other dangerous beasts.
➢ Something has awoken a Dragon that now threatens the surrounding area – even if it’s appeased and goes
back to hibernation, whatever woke it has to be dealt with.
➢ A Gorgon has made its home in an old monastery, were important holy relics still rest.
➢ A Werewolf Lord looks to infect others to grow his pack.
➢ A merchant caravan was attacked by bandits – but in truth, one of the caravan guards was a Werewolf.
➢ Gargoyles, Screechers, and other demons come to abduct anyone walking the streets of town at night,
carrying them away to an unknown place.
➢ A school or monastery has been overrun by demons, trapping those inside – including whoever must have
summoned them.
➢ A Malphas has made its home in a town, and gathers people’s secrets, using them for blackmail, or to turn
people against one another, intending for the town to tear itself apart.
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➢ A Slaughter Demon has made its home in the tunnels beneath the city, and is preying on those who
stumble upon its caverns.
➢ A Succubus is manipulating local leaders, causing them to crack down in the name of greed and paranoia.
➢ An Alarune has secretly made its home in the massive garden of a noble, or within a city, and is picking
off its servants or passersby.
➢ A Doppelganger impersonates one of the heroes or a close friend, trying to destroy their relationships or
committing crimes in their guise
➢ After a fey lord demands that a town on the edge of the woods is evacuated, a Dullahan rides through the
village at night, killing one person every night until they give into the demands.
➢ A highly advertised play is soon to debut, and it has the fingerprints of the Golden Muse in its making.
➢ A group of Redcaps have hidden themselves in an abandoned building in the city, and are growing more
bold in their lust for blood.
➢ The boundary of the wilds moves closer to the village every day, the line of coming trees guarded by
Treants.
➢ A Ghost haunting a house, and terrorizing its new residents was killed by another monster, still on the
loose.
➢ A well known doctor is found murdered – the Homunculus they created has escaped.
➢ A plague begins to spread in the city. Is this a normal disease, the work of a Nosferatu, or other monster?
➢ The beckoning of a Vampire Lord draws monsters from far and wide to join together under an unholy
banner.
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Monsters
Monsters are divided up into five different types. The monster types don’t have any game mechanical effect on
their own (unless a playbook like the Hunter references them) but are organized in this way in order to keep
similarly themed monsters together – monsters of the same type are more likely to be pulled together for a
single adventure. Most monsters of a single type also share many of their weaknesses and warding
requirements, although they’re by no means universal.
People are included in this chapter, and first, even though they’re not really “monsters”. Innocents who need
to be saved, the local militia who you can recruit to help you, or the members of the dark cult all count as
people, and don’t have any of those weird magic weaknesses going on.
Abominations are creatures from another world, or those infected and mutated by them. Abominations come
in many forms, all of them twisted and corrupt. What few weaknesses they have come from what other ties
they have – those with close ties to water and the moon are often weak to silver, and many need to be burned
before they can be fully killed.
Beasts includes all forms of animalistic creatures. Real-world animals, like wolves and bears count as beasts,
but so do fantasy animals like hippogriffs, and most importantly, lycanthropes cursed to turn into great, feral
beasts. Most beasts don’t have any particular weaknesses or way to ward from them, beyond lycanthropes and
their weakness to silver.
Demons are birthed in hell, and are nasty, sadistic creatures that love to torment and corrupt all that is good.
While any demon enjoys causing pain to mortals, they take even more delight in causing mortals to hurt each
other. Demons can be warded away with holy symbols, and are harmed by blessed weapons and holy water.
Fey live within faerie courts in places of deep wilderness. Immortal and aloof, fey see mortals as little more
than disposable toys to play with. While they are bound by the laws of the fey courts, and can be bargained
with, their rules are arcane and their contracts full of trickery and wordplay. Fey can be especially harmed by,
and warded with, iron.
Undead are creatures that hang onto life despite being dead. They range from the lowly, mindless skeletons
and zombies, to the cunning vampire. Those who retain their intellect are often driven by strong passions, such
as the desire to feed or take revenge. Undead are usually created, and not born, be it by the bite of another
undead, through necromancy magic, or just the conflux of foul intent in an area. Undead are generally warded
away by holy symbols, can be burned by holy water.
Other monsters are exactly that. There’s not many of them, and don’t share any traits. Monsters animated by
magic are common in this category, but anything that doesn’t fit above can end up classified here.
Beyond their typing, monsters come at three different power levels – Minions, Warriors, and Lords. The power
level is there to help give you guidelines on a few things: how many you can use in a fight without
overwhelming your PCs, how much harm it takes to defeat them, their armor, how much harm they deal when
they attack, and how many attack effects they get when they attack. The power level also determines how easy
they are to use moves like Resist Dark Magic on.
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Minions are the rank-and-file monsters of the evil hordes. A lone minion isn’t much threat to a PC, and could
even be fought off by a single bystander with the right weapon. But when they come in groups, they can pose
a much greater threat. Minions generally take 2 to 4 harm to defeat, have no armor (or 1 armor that can be
bypassed by the right material), and deal only 1 or 2 harm when they attack with 1 attack effect. However,
minions can gang up on creatures as part of a mob – three minions can work together to add +1 attack effect,
or five minions can work together to add +2 attack effects.
Warriors are monsters that are strong enough to be a significant threat on their own. Each one is roughly as
strong as a PC – but alone will quickly be defeated by a group of PCs. A warrior generally takes 10 or more
harm to defeat, has 1 armor (or 2 armor that can be bypassed by the right material), and deals 3-4 harm when
they attack with 2 attack effects.
Monster Lords are the strongest of all monsters. Even a single one is enough to challenge an experienced
group of hunters, and they rarely fight alone. Monster lords can take 15 or more harm to defeat, have at least 2
armor (or 3 that takes -2 armor against the right material), and deal at least 4 harm when they attack with 2
attack effects. Players need to be prepared and ready before facing a monster lord.
Monster stats provided only list the most immediate, important things you need for combat and its aftermath.
Details that should be obvious or up to your story needs, like how creatures with wings can fly or how fast
something can run, how easily a werewolf can be provoked into transforming, or what ritual sorceries a
vampire knows are left up to the needs of the MC and the game.
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People
Normal people are likely to get placed into danger quite often, and while not monsters, PCs are likely to earn
the ire of many in their adventures. From the civilians you’re trying to protect, to the local militia, or
experienced monster hunters, the stats for the different kinds of people listed here are broad, and meant to be
widely applicable.
Civilian
Type: Minion
Max Harm: 2
Armor: 0
Attacks: Punches and kicks (0 harm, close) or torches and pitchforks (1 harm, reach)
Attack Effects: 1
Civilian stats are appropriate for the normal folks of the world – those with no training, and no real weapons.
They’re defenseless against monsters, although they maybe have a chance against weak ones when formed
into a mob – but are likely to flee and panic, without the right leadership. Civilian stats also represent rank-
and-file cultist with no real training of any sort.
Hunter
Type: Warrior
Max Harm: 10
Armor: 1
Attacks: Two-handed weapon (3 harm, close, iron or silver) or longbow, crossbow, or musket (3 harm, ranged,
iron or silver)
Attack Effects: 2
Hunters are experienced monster hunters who have taken down some horrors and lived to tell the tale.
They’re extremely rare, and can’t be found just anywhere. While hunters often work together, they’re usually
pretty opinionated about the right way to go about things. Many also aren’t as accepting of werewolves and
vampires who claim to be good.
Militia
Type: Minion
Max Harm: 3
Armor: 1
Attacks: Basic sword, spear, or axe (2 harm, close, iron) or longbow, crossbow, or musket (2 harm, ranged,
iron)
Attack Effects: 1
Militia are anyone who has at least some training and gear to fight with. The local trappers, soldiers, and
bandits all count as militia. They can hold their own in a fight against the weakest of minions, but are likely to
suffer heavy casualties taking on serious threat.
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Abominations
Abominations are the twisted, otherworldly horrors that corrupt that which they touch. They wait where none
can reach them – deep underground, beneath the waves, or high in space – lurking and preparing for their
next strike. Abominations are connected to the astral plane, and have no shared weaknesses as a whole, but
many need to be burned to be killed, and those connected to the moon and tides are often weak to silver.
Many abominations are based on the works of H.P. Lovecraft, and that needs to be addressed. Lovecraft’s
stories were often hideously racist in all sorts of awful ways, none of which you’d actually want to ever use in
your game. Lovecraft’s work has been iterated on and deconstructed by many talented authors, leaving a lot of
possibilities for reinterpretation. There’s a few things that you want to avoid when running Beneath a Cursed
Moon. For starters, there’s no “secret tainted bloodlines” or the like – there’s no people with “dilute”
abomination blood, but rather people sickened from coming into contact with disease, or a willing descent into
evil. Cults dedicated to abominations (and other dark gods) shouldn’t be portrayed as backwater, “primitive”,
or racially focused – cults just composed of normal people, who have been pulled into doing horrible things in
exchange for their desires being met – be they power, riches, belonging, or just basic needs. Abomination cults
are everywhere, and those who are already well off can be easily manipulated into further greed. And finally,
“madness” from witnessing things is an overplayed, overdone trope – this game doesn’t have a “sanity” stat for
a reason. While some lip service is played to maddening dreams and forbidden knowledge, these should be
seen as a cause of normal, human stresses. Feelings of powerlessness, paranoia, and despair are important
aspects to horror, “going crazy” for seeing one too many tentacles isn’t.
Compared to the other types, abominations are some of the most diverse. There’s a lot of ways you can have
them originate, but here are some suggestions that play off of classical ideas, keeping in mind you likely want
multiple sources for abominations in your game:
The great Dreaming Hydra has slumbered for ages in the deepest parts of the sea. When those suffused with
astral magic sleep, they dream the Hydra’s dreams, seeing visions of cities long sunken beneath the waves. The
Hydra calls to them, promising rewards for their service. The most devout of the cultists of the Hydra have
been granted eternal life and great power, but have their will forever shackled to their master – and now, they
seek to bring others into their embrace. For if enough of their voices raise up together, the Dreaming Hydra
will awaken, and they will become masters of the new, flooded world.
Sealed within the earth is a malignant growth, known as the Consuming Consciousness. The origins of it are
unclear – some think it came on a rock from space, burrowing deep as it crashed; others think it was there all
along, growing and festering, possibly even feeding off of sin. The Consciousness bubbles up from
underground, taking many forms, such as a putrid fungus, a thick oily black liquid, twisted and writhing flesh,
or a choking, hazy fog. But all of the forms have the same toxic effect, poisoning, twisting, and warping
whatever they touch. Living creatures mutate, and have their mind dissolved away – those who succumb say
they hear the Consciousness speak to them, millions of unceasing whispers constantly tormenting them. Over
time, their brain is eaten away and replaced by black goo, their old selves dying, and they become little more
than rabid animals. Even if they are recognizable past their mutations, hopefully nothing of the original mind
persists – the Consciousness is entirely in control. Person, animal, even plant, no living thing is immune to it’s
touch. Despite this horror, some welcome the Consuming Consciousness – they see the eventual fate of the
world to be swallowed by it, and so give worship to it with foul rituals. For it’s part, the Consciousness
rewards them – they hold onto their minds, even as they lose their bodies, their thoughts and voices joining
the cacophony eternally.
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Consciousness Made Flesh
Type: Abomination Lord
Max Harm: 15
Armor: 3 (1 vs fire)
Attacks: Tentacles and bites (4 harm, close)
Attack Effects: 2
Burning Acid: Any wooden or other organic weapons that come into contact with the Consciousness Made
Flesh melt away. Any living creature grabbed by it or who strikes it unarmed suffers 1 harm (ignores armor).
Consume: The Consciousness Made Flesh can pull victims into its fleshy body, and absorb their life as they
melt away. If the Consciousness grabs a victim, on its next turn it can use an attack effect to pull it into its
body, whereupon the victim is helpless and suffers 2 harm (ignores armor) immediately, and every time the
consciousness acts thereafter. A consumed victim can be saved by dealing 2 harm at once with a sharp weapon
capable of puncturing the Consciousness, but the resulting acidic splash deals 2 harm (ignores armor) to the
rescuer.
Poisoned Ground: The area around the Consciousness Made Flesh is poisoned and lifeless. Anyone who
spends more than a day in an area poisoned by the Consciousness finds that their wounds do not heal, and
food and water tainted from it leave the eater hungry shortly after consumption.
A Consciousness Made Flesh is the – hopefully, end – result of a growth of the Consuming Consciousness. The
mass of living creatures fed to the Consciousness creates an uprooted mass of flesh, constantly secreting a
searing acid, and able to wander and find an a new, life-filled place to corrupt. It appears as a 12-foot diameter
giant blob of gelatinous flesh, with a thin membrane that has eyes and limbs within pushing up against it. Its
skin parts to show soon-disappearing mouths full of acid-dripping fangs, or twisting appendages.
Once a Consciousness Made Flesh finds a place sufficiently full of life to destroy, it settles, and begins to poison
the surroundings, creating new Consuming Growths and Flying Polyps. It spreads its poison as far as it can,
before uprooting and looking for a new area to taint. Killing the creature before the land is irrevocably
poisoned with start the slow healing process.
Corrupting Growth
Type: Abomination Warrior
Max Harm: 12
Attacks: Lashing tentacles (4 harm, reach)
Attack Effects: 2
Corruption: Anyone injured by the Corrupting Growth must succeed at a Resist Dark Magic move (requires a
roll of 10+) or be corrupted by a black splotch on their skin. Corrupted characters heal an additional harm any
time they would heal harm, but the splotch spreads – keep track of the total additional harm healed since
becoming corrupted, and if it’s 10 or greater, they are lost to the Consuming Consciousness. The corruption
can be cured by burning it away – have the curer roll their Lore bonus. On a roll less than 12, the corrupted
suffer harm equal to the extra harm they’ve healed since becoming corrupted. On a 10+, they’re cured of the
corruption.
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Corrupting Growths are “buds” of the Consuming Consciousness. Made from the twisted mess of animals and
plants in poisoned areas, they have no set shape – they stand 8 to 12 feet tall, and have a tangle of countless
legs that end in hooves, hands, plant stumps, and other various bits. The rest of their body is a black, wrinkled
mass of shifting flesh, with folds parting way to reveal fanged mouths, and tendrils reaching towards the sky
that give it the silhouette of a tree.
The growths exist to spread the Consciousness, and do so slowly, poisoning the edges of the forests or mines
where they spawn, and slowly moving out. They are heralds – and worshiped as such by the Consciousness
devotees – of the spreading plague. When faced with people, a growth prefers to injure those it can, before
retreating deeper into its lair to let its corruption do its work.
Flying Polyp
Type: Abomination Minion
Max Harm: 2
Attacks: Bite (1 harm, close)
Attack Effects: 1
Flying polyps are the weakest of growths of the Consuming Consciousness, and act as its scouts and first line
of defense. The polyps look like a mass of flesh two feet in diameter, split apart by a T-shaped mouth lined
with teeth like jagged rocks. Its wings are thin skin pulled across a bony frame, and need to beat constantly to
keep it afloat.
When the Consciousness has poisoned a new area, polyps bud from it, and fly through the area around it –
once scouted, the Consciousness growths in the direction of the most life. If anyone threatens the poisoned
land, a swarm of polyps descend on them and tear them apart, bringing the remains back – in chucks – for
rebirth into new creatures.
Merfolk
Max Harm: 8
Armor: 1
Attacks: Claws (3 harm, close), Poison Spit (2 harm, ignores armor, ranged), Tendrils of the deep spell (target
is restrained by phantom tentacles and cannot move until they break free), Slumber spell (creatures who would
be defeated by 4 harm total fall asleep)
Attack Effects: 2
Once human astral sorcerers, merfolk were mutated by their devotion to the Dreaming Hydra. Warped in the
Hydra’s image, they now have a brightly colored body covered in slimy fish scales, as well as a fish’s head,
webbed fingers and feet, and a long trailing back fin from neck to tail.
Merfolk are able communicate to each other in the language of the Hydra, which no mortal can speak. Merfolk
can swim perfectly underwater, see in the deepest depths, and breathe both on land and on air. They now
serve as the center of the Hydra’s worship, and appear only to the most devoted of its followers, who are
already lost deep within the cult.
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Scylla
Max Harm: 15
Armor: 3 (1 vs silver)
Attacks: Snake heads (3 harm, reach), Dog heads (4 harm, reach)
Attack Effects: 2
Multitude of Heads: Scylla can spend one attack effect to have the eel heads attack six different creatures
within their reach, and the dog heads attack one creature within theirs. Each head can choose a different
attack effect – two can bite, while another grabs, etc.
An extremely rare creature, a Scylla comes about from a devout worshiper of the Dreaming Hydra undergoing
a special ritual that involves bathing in poisoned, stagnant water. Her mind becomes attuned to the Hydra’s,
and her body undergoes a slow, painful metamorphosis to its new form. While the upper body remains the
same, worm-like growths wriggle and burrow underneath its flesh, and extra sets of eyes push their way out
on the face. Its legs are transformed, and now look like its sit atop six giant snarling dog heads, six long, thick
tentacles ending in eyeless eel heads with rows and rows of teeth, and a mess of tentacles that work like legs
to move it about.
Once transformed, the Scylla finds a hidden cave, or treacherous water pass to lurk in, devouring any who
come close to her lair, and spending the rest of her time communing with the Hydra, passing down its secrets
to her cult. They serve as oracles, and their lairs are a center for pilgrimages and offerings from the Hydra’s
cult.
Slime
Max Harm: 2
Armor: 0
Attacks: Burning touch (1 harm, close, ignores armor)
Attack Effects: 1
Slimes are barrel-sized semi-animate blobs of acid with a semblance of life. They’re sometimes secreted by
other monsters, produced in lab experiments, or born from poisoned water. Unable to think, a slime is simply
drawn to the nearest source of animal life to consume and burn away.
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Spawn of the Depths
Max Harm: 18
Attacks: Massive Fists (4 harm, reach), or Choking Mist (2 harm, ignores armor, group, ranged)
Attack Effects: 2
Psychic Wave: A Spawn of the Depths can unleash a terrible psychic wave over a huge area. All living
creatures that are not its worshipers suffer 1 harm (ignores armor), and take a -1 Forward.
The Spawns of the Depths are one of the children of the Dreaming Hydra, and one of the most fearsome and
terrifying of abominations. They stand nearly 30 feet high, and reek of rotting fish. Their hunched forward
bodies are shaped like a hairless great ape, with slimy, rough dark green skin covered in barnacles. Their faces
are as smooth and hairless as the rest of their bodies, with six dull yellow eyes, and a wide squid mouth
surrounded by grasping, hooked tentacles.
Though countless are sleeping just as their mother is, the spawn are far easier to wake. Called to the shores by
the prayers of worshipers, there, the Spawn wait and grow in power. As they do so, their terrifying psychic
waves slowly begin to spread – at first, just nearby and on a weekly basis, but soon several times a day across
the entire area as the Spawn is soon to wake – and when it does, it devours all those nearby, and takes its
worshipers back into the sea to become merfolk. If confronted, the spawn will not fight to the death – it will
retreat when injured, and dip into its coma to heal, until it is once again awoken by prayers. As common
targets of worship, statues and shrines of the Spawns are common among the Hydra’s cultists.
Tainted
Max Harm: 4
Attacks: Claws, teeth, or fists (2 harm, close)
Attack Effects: 1
Poisoned Flesh: Anyone injured by a tainted heals one less harm the next time they would heal harm. A
character can only be poisoned by this once until they heal.
Areas infected by the Consuming Consciousness become poisoned, and those who drink from the water or eat
from the land that's become corrupted suffer a slow mutation into the tainted. Both human and animal can be
affected, and are twisted into monsters. Large, black, cancerous growths form on their skin, slowly enveloping
them in an oily mass, with the growths forming new appendages, mouths, or eyes.
While the tainted can be cured in its early stages by use of ritual magic and fire, leaving its victims forever
scarred, once it’s progressed too far all hope is lost. The victim shambles about, looking to kill anyone who
risks harming the Consciousness, tearing them apart, or burying them deep into the poisoned earth to become
tainted themselves. Most frighteningly, tainted humans seem to show some awareness of their previous lives,
muttering in their old voices, recognizing those they used to know, and being drawn to places important to
them.
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Twisted Worshiper
Max Harm: 12
Attacks: Mutated Arm (4 harm, reach)
Attack Effects: 2
Living Flesh: Whenever a twisted worshiper suffers more than 1 harm from a non-fire source, a slime or
flying polyp sprouts from its wound.
Twisted Worshipers are devotees of the Consuming Consciousness who have been accepted into its hive mind.
While they can sometimes pass as normal looking, hidden beneath their clothes are strange growths, or extra
eyes or mouths – when faced with danger, their mutations overtake them, rapidly twisting their body into a
defensive, gory show, covering them with exposed, pulsing muscles, sharp bony growths, and pushing forward
a mutation that will eventually turn them into a Corrupting Growth or other horror.
The lost souls that worship the Consciousness do so out of despair; they have come to believe that the
Consciousness will devour the world, and by sacrificing themselves to it now, they can retain their identity in
the coming apocalypse. They try to spread their grim message out of an earnest desire to spare others, or that
just might be what the Consciousness in the back of their mind is telling them to think.
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Beasts
Beasts are all variety of animalistic creatures, including natural (like wolves and bears), fantastical (like giant
spiders and dragons), and intelligent or cursed (like minotaur and werewolves). It’s a broad category, that
draws in anything that’s animal-like and not belonging to one of the other categories.
Normal animals in the beast category aren’t necessarily vicious on sight, but nor are they non-supernatural,
either. Not every random wolf or bat is a major threat to everything around them, but dark influences of other
monsters can drive them to aggression, and lots of werewolves have dominated a normal wolf back. For some
of the larger beasts, like griffins or manticores, they’re best used as an obstacle in the way of some other goal,
or having been “tamed” by some stronger monster.
Arachne
Type: Beast Warrior
Max Harm: 12
Armor: 1
Attacks: Fangs (3 harm, close) or a sword or axe (4 harm, close, iron)
Attack Effects: 2
Weakening Poison: An arachne can spend one attack effect to weaken its prey whenever it deals harm with
its fangs, giving the target -1 Ongoing to Battle and Daring Action until they rest.
Sticky Web: An arachne guards its lair with giant webs that can be difficult to see. Characters moving
through the arachnea’s lair must roll a Hunt move, and if they roll a 6 or less, they’re trapped within the webs
and helpless. You can try to break free, or break someone else free from the webs by making a Battle move: 6
or below means you’re so thoroughly stuck you can’t even attempt to break free anymore or the person
attempting to help gets stuck as well, while 7 or above means the victim breaks free.
Arachnes have the lower body of a spider, and upper torso of a human, but come in many forms – some with
spider bodies that are furrier, some more chitinous, some with upper bodies that can pass as human, and
others that are strange colors like dark green or dusky gray.
Arachne make their lairs in isolated caves or abandoned ruins, and use devious traps to snare wanderers or
passing animals, and sometimes pose as victims in need to help to lure in the gullible. As a threat, Arachnes
primary prey on people for food, with brave ones setting up in more well trafficked areas to have a constant
source.
Bat or Bird Swarm

Type: Beast Minion
Max Harm: 2
Armor: 0
Attacks: Bite or Peck (1 harm, close)
Attack Effects: 1
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Trained bats, crows, and other winged, dark birds are common servants of vampire lords and dramatic
sorcerers, and the ones nesting in the belfries where demons and undead make their own often become
aggressive from the corrupting influence. Individually quite weak, a large swarm of them can surround and
overpower their prey.
Dragon
Type: Beast Lord
Max Harm: 20
Armor: 2
Attacks: Claws and Teeth (5 harm, close), or Fire Breath (3 harm, fire ranged, group)
Attack Effects: 2
Clumsy Flier: While a dragon can fly, it’s not particularly agile when doing so. All rolls against a flying
dragon take +1 Ongoing; a dragon will usually land, after a first initial fire volley.
As big as a house, a dragon has four legs, huge leathery wings, fangs as big as a man’s arm, and worst of all, a
breath that’s a raging inferno. The most fearsome of all beasts, the dragon has earned its reputation – capable
of razing entire villages in one night, and requiring a skilled group of heroes to take down, little can stop a
rampaging dragon. Luckily, they’re exceedingly rare, and enter hibernation that can last for years – but when
awoken, their appetite is legendary.
Giant Bat
Type: Beast Warrior
Max Harm: 10
Armor: 1
Attack Effects: 2
Deafening Screech: A giant bat can use an attack effect to let out an ear-splitting screech, deafening all
nearby until its next action. Deaf characters can’t hear, and so have trouble communicating and using
Knowledge to help each other out.
Gigantic bats with bodies bigger than people, and wingspans as big as buildings are favorite pets of vampire
lords. They’re commonly used to guard entrances to the lairs of powerful monsters, or to serve as mounts or
pets. Taming the carnivorous creatures requires a steady supply of food to keep them happy, in the form of
large animals.
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Giant Spider
Type: Beast Warrior
Max Harm: 6
Armor: 1
Attacks: Venomous Bite (3 harm, close)
Attack Effects: 2
Weakening Poison: A giant spider can spend one attack effect to weaken its prey whenever it deals harm
with its fangs, giving the target -1 Ongoing to Battle and Daring Action until they rest.
Sticky Web: A giant spider guards its lair with giant webs that can be difficult to see. Characters moving
through the spider’s lair must roll a Hunt move, and if they roll a 6 or less, they’re trapped within the webs
and helpless. You can try to break free, or break someone else free from the webs by making a Battle move: 6
or below means you’re so thoroughly stuck you can’t even attempt to break free anymore or the person
attempting to help gets stuck as well, while 7 or above means the victim breaks free.
Giant spiders can range in size to as big as a large dog, or bigger than a person, and make their homes in dark
caverns or forests, sometimes even making their lairs in the tunnels underneath abandoned castles. Their nests
are filled with giant webs used to trap their prey – and if the webs don’t work, they attempt to incapacitate
them with a poisonous bite. The victims are then hung up, wrapped with webbing, and kept to eat at the spider
or its young.
Gorgon
Type: Beast Lord
Max Harm: 15
Armor: 1
Attacks: Sword (4 harm, close, iron) or Snake Bite (2 harm ignores armor, close)
Attack Effects: 2
Avert Your Eyes: Anyone who makes a Battle or Knowledge roll against a gorgon and rolls less than 10
suffers 1 harm as they catch a glimpse of the gorgon’s eyes and slowly turn to stone. A player can choose to
avoid this effect by taking -1 Forward to the roll.
Petrifying Gaze: Anyone who has 3 or less remaining maximum harm and meets the Gorgon’s gaze is
instantly turned to stone – slaying the Gorgon will cure them, but not if their stone body is damaged.
A gorgon is a creature that was once a beautiful human, but changed into a beast by a curse born of its own
wickedness. While it retains most of its shape, its legs have been replaced with the body of a snake, and its
hair replaced with writing serpents. Now, any who meet its gaze turn to stone, and its beauty can be
appreciated no longer.
Lonely and bitter, gorgons inhabit places that were once beautiful, but not overrun or fallen into ruin, and
bring death to any who disturb them. These tend to be places of historical, magical, or spiritual significance
that have since been abandoned, and often still have valuable or important relics left inside. Those who disturb
a gorgon can be expected to be turned to stone, with the beautiful defaced as the gorgon is filled with jealousy.
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Griffin
Type: Beast Warrior
Max Harm: 10
Armor: 1
Attacks: Beak and talons (3 harm, close)
Attack Effects: 2
Griffins are ill-tempered territorial animals, prone to preying on livestock and travelers. They have the lower-
body of a lion, and the upper body of a giant eagle. They make their homes in inaccessible cliffs, overlooking
their hunting ground, and always nest in pairs or more. Nearly impossible to train, they can only be cowed by
the vicious, or with the help of magic, and turn on their owners.
Harpy
Type: Beast Warrior
Max Harm: 8
Armor: 1
Attacks: Talons (3 harm, close)
Attack Effects: 2
Snatch: Whenever harpies spend an attack effect to take something, they can spend another to fly up into the
air and out of melee weapon reach, even if they’re already swooped down to attack this turn.
Creatures with the body of a giant bird and head of a person, harpies are covered in feathers ranging in color
from brown to orange, and have especially large, sharp talons. Their human faces appear normal until they
twist into unnatural grins, showing a carnivore’s razor teeth.
Intelligent and sadistic, harpies love nothing more than to capture and torment other creatures. They
especially love stripping the flesh from their victims, carrying smaller creatures into the air and dropping them
from a great height, or stealing the food and supplies of lost travelers and circling them while they slowly
starve. Despite their cruelty, harpies are also extremely cowardly, and would never fight alone, and flee if they
feel they’re in real danger.
Manticore
Type: Beast Warrior
Max Harm: 12
Armor: 1
Attacks: Bite (3 harm, close) or Spines (2 harm, ranged)
Attack Effects: 2
Manticores are flying beasts that make their home in high perches, on mountain cliffs or in abandoned towers.
They have the body of a lion adorned with a scorpion tail covered in spines, bat wings, and the head of a
person with three rows of crushing teeth. Extremely territorial, anything that’s not a manticore’s mate is prey.
A flick of their tail can send out a flurry of sharp spines, which they use to kill ground-bound prey. Once its
victim is dead, a manticore can unhinge its jaw and devour an entire person whole.
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Minotaur
Type: Beast Warrior
Max Harm: 12
Armor: 1
Attacks: Horns (4 harm, close) or Giant Axe (5 harm, throwable, iron)
Attack Effects: 2
Charge: Whenever the minotaur charges at a foe, it gains two additional attack effects with its horns.
A nine foot tall beast with the torso of a man and legs and head of a bull, the true origins of the minotaur are
unknown – they may be the result of a divine curse, a reclusive true-breeding species, or a mad magical
creation. What’s known is that they are extremely territorial and furious, and exhibit little more than animal-
level intelligence. Minotaur rarely cross over into human territory due to being herbivores, and so are rarely
seen even if they are present. However, their rarity, unique appearance, and ill temper make them a popular
monster for intelligent monstrous lords to catch and use to guard important, sealed-off places, or to watch in
delight as prisoners are thrown to them to be torn apart.
Werewolf
Type: Beast Warrior
Max Harm: 10
Attacks: Claws and Fangs (4 harm, close)
Attack Effects: 2
Werewolves are one of the most well known and feared of all monsters. They carry the curse of lycanthropy –
while they appear as a normal human most of the time, when hurt or angered, and under the light of the full
moon, they become bloodthirsty beasts that walk on their hind legs like a man, but have the fur and face of a
wolf and sharp claws. For those new to the curse, they have no memory of what they did under its spell – and
while the strong willed can fight it, many eventually give in, becoming more animal than man no matter the
outer appearance. The curse passes to any who are brought to death’s door by the werewolf’s vicious mauling
but manage to survive – at the next full moon, their transformation is complete. The only cure is the poisonous
wolfsbane, which must be administered before the next full moon.
Werewolf Pack Lord

Type: Beast Lord
Max Harm: 15
Attacks: Claws and Fangs (4 harm, close)
Attack Effects: 3
The largest, most vicious werewolves eventually survive to become pack lords. Cunning and agile in a way few
other creatures are, the pack lords have years of experience and command lesser werewolves, with other
animals fall under their sway or flee in terror. A pack lord has perfect control over its power, but has utterly
lost its humanity to the curse.
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Wolf
Type: Beast Warrior
Max Harm: 6
Armor: 0
Attack Effects: 2
Feared by farmers, a wolf is dangerous enough on its own, and one of the animals most easily influenced by
dark magic. The presence of demons can turn them irrationally aggressive, vampires can hold sway over them,
and werewolves are naturally able to command them. While no threat for an experienced hunter, a whole pack
of wolves is a different story.
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Demons
Creatures born from hell, demons come in a variety of shapes and powers to suit their chaotic nature. Some
demons are intelligent and cunning, able to tempt mortals into committing horrific acts to damn their souls to
hell. Other demons are little more than mindless beasts, hellbent on destroying everything in their path.
Regardless of their nature, demons share a weakness to blessed weapons, and can be warded away with holy
symbols.
Demons are brought into the mortal world through the use of summoning magic – they can’t enter it on their
own. Warlocks and other practitioners of the dark arts can bring demons into this world, and while they often
try to bind the demons into performing services, those bindings don’t always hold. Other times, infernal spells
are botched, or the demons are freed intentionally to sew chaos and discord.
When free to achieve their own pursuits, demons delight in violence and the corruption of mortals.
Unintelligent demons are little more than especially vicious, bloodthirsty beasts that are just smart enough to
toy with and torture their prey. Intelligent demons concern themselves with increasing the suffering in the
world, and bringing more demons into it. Every desperate mortal is one who can be more easily convinced to
fall into evil. Once they’ve become loyal minions, demons do tend to treat mortals well, even if they’re viewed
as little more than resources – a stable of well kept, loyal cultists have many possible uses.
Cyclops
Type: Demon Lord
Max Harm: 18
Armor: 2
Attacks: Heavy Club or Fist (5 harm, close)
Attack Effects: 2
Petrifying Eye: A cyclops can attempt to petrify its foes with a beam of magic shot from its eye. The target
must find cover, or be instantly turned to stone. Once killed, all of a cyclops’s petrified victims are unpetrified,
but any damage done to them while stone remains.
Vulnerable Eye: When using its petrifying gaze, the cyclops’s eye is vulnerable – attacks that take -1
Forward can target it, and ignore the cyclops’s armor when it’s hit. If the cyclops suffers 4 or more harm from
one attack, or 6 harm in total to its eye, the petrifying eye is canceled, and the cyclops is blinded, giving all
rolls against it +1 Ongoing.
Cyclops come in many different shapes, but all share a massive, 12-foot or more height, and their single
massive eye in common. Some look like scaled up humans, similar in coloration and proportion, while others
show aberrant features like lumpy skin the color of dried blood, trunk-like feet, or misshapen jaws with teeth
growing in all direction.
Solitary demons, cyclops are summoned as guardians of an area – an arrangement that usually suits them just
fine, as long as they’re well fed. Cyclops batter their opponents before turning them to stone, preferring
statues of the bloodied and terrified to decorate their lairs. A cyclops’s domain can usually be recognized by
the crushed statues that litter the area.
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Gargoyle
Type: Demon Warrior
Max Harm: 10
Armor: 2 (0 vs blessed)
Attacks: Claws (3 harm, close), Fire Breath (2 harm, fire, ranged)
Attack Effects: 2
The demon from which the common warding statue is based on, gargoyles are some of the most common of all
demons. They’re roughly shaped like a person, with a hunched over form, claws for feet and hands, and large
bat wings either stretching out from underneath its arms or growing off their back. They have stubby, dog-like
grotesque faces with prominent fangs, and their eyes light up as they spit balls of fire.
Gargoyles are intelligent, but rarely have any desire to speak to mortals, instead focused strictly on killing.
One of their favorite ways to kill the defenseless is to grab a victim in its claws, fly high, and drop them.
Gargoyles are common bound as defenders for infernal strongholds, as they can naturally disguise themselves
by taking up perches on walls, and cults seeking to slaughter an entire village in sacrifice often try to do so
through the slow summoning of more and more gargoyles.
Ghoul
Type: Demon Warrior
Max Harm: 10
Attacks: Claws (3 harm, close)
Attack Effects: 2
Hunger for Flesh: Due to their insatiable hunger, ghouls deal +1 harm to any creature that’s already suffered
2 harm or more.
Flesh-hungry and devious, ghouls are shapeshifting demons with a true form is that of a twisted humanoid,
with sand-colored, leathery skin, and an elongated face like a dog’s with protruding fangs. Each ghoul has two
other forms – one of a hyena, wolf, or other four-legged animal, and the other of whoever the ghoul has eaten
the flesh of last. When the ghoul devours a victim, they get the ability to perfectly replicate that person’s looks
and voice, and even snippets of that person’s memory.
Ghouls make their homes in isolated places like cemeteries, sand dunes, or underground caves, where they use
their shapeshifting powers to lure passersby to their den to devour. A ghoul will eat the long dead when
pressed, but prefers to feast on fresh kills. If multiple ghouls have congregated in one area, they’ll happily
work together, digging out caves and hunting in packs, sometimes making giant tunnel systems below towns.
As demons go, ghouls are one of the easier to summon considering their strength, and easiest to bargain with
– if you’re willing to pay the price. No particular magical talent is needed to summon a ghoul, only knowledge
of the right symbols to draw with your own blood. When performed, the ghoul is willing to undertake a
murderous task for the summoner, agreeing to devour one target of the summoners choice – but only after the
summoner themselves is devoured, providing the ghoul with its first disguise.
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Hellhound
Type: Demon Warrior
Max Harm: 8
Attacks: Bite (3 harm, close), Fire Breath (3 harm, fire, close, area)
Attack Effects: 2
Hellhounds are basic animalistic demons kept as pets by warlocks and greater demons. They appear to be
normal dogs, except for their red and black fur – at least, until they breathe fire. They’re often used much like
humans use hunting dogs, or released into the streets on demonic attacks on cities. Mortals can’t tame
hellhounds like normal dogs without the use of infernal magic.
Hell Knight
Type: Demon Warrior
Max Harm: 12
Attacks: Claws (4 harm, close), Firebolt (3 harm, ranged, fire), Hellfire Aura (3 harm, close, group, fire), or
Fireball (2 harm, group, ranged, fire)
Attack Effects: 2
The shock troopers of abyss, hell knights are bipedal demons with a man’s body, a goat’s hooves, and giant
claws. Hell knights have some kind of monstrous face – that of a goat, lion, or other beast are common – and
sometimes have massive bat or feathered wings. The skin of a hellknight is often an inhuman tint, like dark red
or deep blue, and sometimes covered in fur.
Hell knights are calm and even-tempered for demons, able to bargain and strategize. When corrupting mortals,
they do so matter-of-factually, convincing the mortal that great acts of wickedness – which the hell knight can
certainly help in – will make the mortal’s life better. In combat, they like to pelt their foes with fire from afar
before putting themselves in danger; but when harmed, they can go into a furious rage, burning down
everything around them.
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Imp
Type: Demon Minion
Max Harm: 2
Armor: 0
Attacks: Tiny Spear (2 harm, close) or Claws (1 harm, close)
Attack Effects: 1
The least of all demons, imps are the simplest creatures to summon and control, but also quite clever and
tricky. Their power is matched by their size, as they’re rarely over two feet tall, and have a bat’s face and tiny
wings that keep its man-like body afloat.
While even an apprentice warlock can summon an imp to perform basic tasks, they’re whiny, lazy creatures,
and will attempt to wiggle out of its commands – twisting the wording in ways detrimental to its summoner.
Imps prefer to hurt others by causing “accidents” to occur, and will only head into a fight if pushed by a
stronger, scarier being.
Malphas
Type: Demon Lord
Max Harm: 15
Attacks: Talons or Claws (3 harm), infernal fire (4 harm, fire, ranged)
Attack Effects: 2
Call the Flock: A Malphas can call crow swarms, which seem to come from out of nowhere. At least three
swarms come to the Malphas’s aid.
Demon crow lords, a malphas appears in the shape of a jet-black human wrapped in crow feathers. Its face can
appear as that of a man, a crow, or the white skull of either. Its carried aloft by large black wings, and its feet
are often replaced by talons. A malphas can shapeshift into a set human form, unique to it, that can pass as a
person but still gives hints as to its true form; noses that look too much like beaks, the black eyes of a crow, or
hair that looks like feathers are all common.
Malphas are powerful demons that specialize in subterfuge and spying. The crows under the command of a
malphas are sent out as spies to listen and observe mortals, gathering whatever secrets they can, before
reporting back to their master. The malphas then uses this knowledge to blackmail, tempt, frame, or humiliate
its victims, seeking to spread discord and unrest. They use their magic to whisper secrets and doubts from afar,
and plant evidence – phony or not – of betrayal or treachery. When people no longer trust each other and lash
out, a malphas has done its job, and seeks more victims elsewhere. When confronted, a Malphas will put up
some fight, but is likely to flee at the first sign of any real danger.
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Screecher
Type: Demon Warrior
Max Harm: 8
Attacks: Claws and Teeth (3 harm, close)
Attack Effects: 2
Maddening Screech: Whenever a Screecher swoops down from the sky, it lets out a cry that addles the minds
of its prey. Anyone who hears a Screecher must make a Resist Dark Magic move (requires a roll of 10+) or take
-1 Forward.
Swooping: A screecher can use one of its Attack Effects to disengage from a foe, immediately flying into the
air after making a strike. A battle move used to force it into position keeps it on the ground, where it can’t fly
again until it manages to get away from its enemies.
Animalistic demons, screechers are terrors of the sky. They’re made of little more than sinew, bones, and skin,
like someone had sharpened the skeleton of a horse and stitched together a leather canvas and wings over top.
In order to let out the horrid sound they get their name from, they must unhinge their jaws, making them look
even more broken.
Screechers are kept as pets and shock troops by stronger demons, and even used as mounts by powerful
warlocks. They possess little intelligence, and prefer to swoop down onto their enemies, letting out a terrifying
wail as they do so. When they hunt in packs, the wail becomes a deafening near-constant screech that drowns
out all other sounds.
Slaughter Demon
Type: Demon Lord
Max Harm: 15
Attacks: Fists (4 harm, close) or Hook or Hammer (4 harm, close, iron)
Attack Effects: 2
Fresh Meat: Whenever a slaughter demon deals 4 or more damage to a target, that target suffers -1 Ongoing
to all rolls from pain and its injuries until it takes the rest action. A victim cannot suffer more than -1 Ongoing
from this effect.
Fury: Whenever a creature inflicts harm on the slaughter demon, the slaughter demon deals +1 harm to that
creature on its next action.
One of the most terrifying demons to ever meet, slaughter demons are hulking masses of muscle completely
devoid of mercy. They’re shaped like extremely strong humanoids with skin like cured leather and twisted
horns, but facial structures, size, and even presence of claws or hooves vary. They arm themselves with
massive hammers, twisted hooks, and a variety of other cruel implements.
Slaughter demons are powerful enough, but too impulsive and bloodthirsty to serve as any kind of leader, and
simply don’t have the head for schemes. Instead, they’re favored as summons for those who want a powerful
demon to kill for them, or to work deep in infernal lairs as torturers, guardians, and pets. They have little to
say beyond taunting their foes during battle, and don’t care about the safety of their allies, or even themselves.
Slaughter demons quickly grow bored when not killing, and will leave their lairs to hunt – dragging back
victims to torture if they need to pass the time.
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Succubus
Type: Demon Warrior
Max Harm: 10
Attack Effects: 2
Enthrall: As an action a succubus can attempt to enthrall a victim, and have them follow its every command.
A PC target can make a Resist Dark Magic roll – on a 6 or below, they immediately move to the succubus
under its command, and can make no further moves except those ordered to, but get to roll Resist Dark Magic
again when after being compelled to do something that strongly goes against their nature.. On a result of 7-9,
they’re enthralled for a turn, but get to act normally the next turn. On a 10+, they shrug off the enthrall, and
can’t be targeted again this scene.
Soul Drain: If a succubus has in their grasp a sleeping or helpless victim, or someone they’ve enthralled, they
can drain their target’s soul, dealing (2 harm, ignores armor) and healing equal to the harm dealt. If this attack
would kill a creature, the succubus can instead puts them into a deep sleep – when they awaken, exhausted,
they act as normal, but will obey all of the succubus’s commands until the curse is broken with ritual magic or
the succubus is slain.
Succubi are demons who prefer a more delicate approach to tempting and tormenting mortals. They’re adept
at magic, and able to read thoughts, and shapeshift to appear as any human, but in base form have giant bat
wings growing from their back, and scaled claws and hooves.
Succubi love to torment their prey by taking the appearance of their loved ones, and convincing the victims to
commit vile acts, or of the hopelessness of altruism leading them down a path of despair and evil. Their
preferred targets are those in positions of power, as the government and clergy can bring suffering to all those
under them. When cornered, a succubi prefers to not fight, but will pick off lone stragglers, pin them, and suck
out their souls.
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Succubus Queen
Type: Demon Lord
Max Harm: 15
Attacks: Claws (4 harm, close) or torturous lightning (4 harm, fire, ranged)
Attack Effects: 2
Enthrall: As an action a succubus queen can attempt to enthrall a victim, and have them follow its every
command. A PC target can make a Resist Dark Magic roll – on a 6 or below, they immediately move to the
succubus under its command, and can make no further moves except those ordered to. On a result of 7-9,
they’re enthralled for the rest of the scene, or until the succubus takes 4 more harm. On a 10+, they shrug off
the enthrall, and can’t be targeted again this scene.
Soul Drain: If a succubus has in their grasp a sleeping or helpless victim, or someone they’ve enthralled, they
can drain their target’s soul, dealing (4 harm, ignores armor) and healing equal to the harm dealt. If this attack
would kill a creature, the succubus can instead puts them into a deep sleep – when they awaken, exhausted,
they act as normal, but will obey all of the succubus’s commands until the curse is broken with ritual magic or
the succubus is slain.
A succubus queen is an ancient, elder succubus, far more powerful than its lesser kin. In their true form, a
succubus queen can be much taller than their normal kin – some are as tall as a human, while others are over
twice as large. Their demon features are even more exaggerated, with bigger claws and scales, and often
growing twisted horns.
A succubus queen only concerns herself with the corrupting of the most important figures – heads of state,
powerful monster hunters, and important religious figures. While she may charm lesser victims, they’re often
discarded, and become despondent and suicidal once the queen has left. Unlike normal succubi, and succubus
queen is more than happy to tear victims apart with her claws if need be, but is even happier to see her
minions throw themselves to their deaths for her.
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Fey
The faerie realms are not farm from the human one – walk into any deep forest, far enough from civilization,
and you may end up there. There, the land is more alive, more powerful, and more wild. Mortals find
themselves endlessly lost, with direction and time not working as they expect – while the fey who make their
home slide through effortlessly.
The fey are made of primal nature, but even nature has rules it must follow. The fae are ruled by the Faerie
Lords, and they draw their magic from bound oaths and bargains – which you can enter into without ever
knowing it. To take from the fey, or to accept their help is to enter a pact with which you may not know the
details – but said pactmakers are always bound to tell the truth, no matter how much they may lie. The more
powerful the fey, the more oaths and limitations their magic is bound up in. While fey have their own unique
forms of magic when it comes to wish-granting and enchantments, many are also capable practitioners of
astral, necromantic, or infernal magic. In addition to their oaths, fey also share other weaknesses – many are
weak to iron blades, and others more plant-like are weak to fire. All fey can be warded against with iron, but it
must be worked in a way to show dominion over nature – horseshoes are the most common, but enough nails,
or a heavy shovel can do in a pinch.
Understanding the mind of the fey is difficult for humans. Fay see themselves and their needs above those of
humans, and don’t consider human feelings to matter at all, much like a woodcutter does not consider the
feelings of a tree. Lesser fey can at least be comprehended to some degree, as mischievous tricksters who
perform cruel pranks just to see the reaction. More powerful fey hold court with their subjects, in complicated
games that take decades to play out that can be a hazard for mortals to be caught in the middle of.
Alraune
Type: Fey Lord
Max Harm: 15
Armor: 3 (1 vs iron or fire)
Attacks: Vine Spear (4 harm, close), Flying Seeds (3 harm, ranged)
Attack Effects: 2
Blood Drain: Whenever an Alraune deals at least 1 harm with its Vine Spear, it drains blood from its victim.
After draining blood, it can choose to heal 1 Harm, or throw its Flying Seeds at all opponents on its next turn.
Thicket: A creature must make a Daring Action roll to be able to reach an Alraune’s main body, due to the
tangle of thick thorns surrounding it. The downside on this roll is always to suffer 2 harm (ignores armor).
Alraune’s are plant-like fey that appear at first simply as large flowers – often roses, or other beautiful blooms
with a tangle of thorny vines around them. When dormant, the flower curls up, that when opens sprouts a
figure that’s person shaped from the waist-up. Some figures From the center of the flower sprouts a figure that
appears to be a person from the waist-up. When dormant, the flower closes in around the figure for protection.
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Spilled blood on fertile ground can give birth to an Alraune – especially so if the bloodshed is constant, or the
ground touched by magic. Execution grounds, old slaughterhouses, or battlefields are their most common
sprouting spots. After it grows, an Alraune hungers for more blood – its vines stretch out, seeking animals to
impale and drain the fluids of, leaving withered husks behind. When no prey is around, Alraune give birth to
dryads, who seek to lure human victims into the alraune’s clutches. Alraune are selfish creatures, and have no
desire or ability to make more of their own – their seeds wither and die if taken too far from the base creature,
and if allowed to sprout near the Alraune, grow into dryad servants, or more vines and flowers under the
alraune’s control.
Doppelganger
Type: Fey Warrior
Max Harm: 10
Armor: 2 (0 vs iron)
Attacks: Sword, axe, or other weapon (3 harm, close)
Attack Effects: 2
Mimicry: A doppelgänger can choose a character to mimic the actions of. If it attacks, the doppelgänger
attacks. If it defends, the doppelgänger defends. When performing this way, the mimicked character suffers -1
Ongoing against the doppelgänger, and the doppelgänger gains an additional Attack Effect.
Mind Reader: Attempts to use Knowledge against a doppelgänger suffer -1 Ongoing. If the Knowledge check
fails (rolls a 6 or below), they Doppelganger gets an additional attack effect on their next turn.
Cunning shapeshifters, the true form of a doppelgänger looks like a person made out of unbaked clay, gray,
hairless, and lumpy. Doppelgängers can change their shape at will, changing their appearance to look like any
other person, as well as morph their clothing and the items they carry, although if any morphs objects leave its
hands they fade away into smoke. When slain, a doppelgänger reverts to its normal form, revealing its
deception.
Doppelgängers are predatory fey who seek to replace mortals in their life to cause as much misery as possible
before slipping away, and watching the destruction unfold. They disguise themselves as another, and commit
betrayals or atrocious acts, making sure that their crimes are witnessed. The impersonated victim is then left
with the blame – and the more righteous, more spotless the victim the start, the better for the doppelgänger.
To aid them, doppelgängers are able to read the surface thoughts of others, letting them always say and act as
expected in the moment to moment. When they kill someone, they fully absorb that person’s memories.
Dullahan
Type: Fey Warrior
Max Harm: 14
Attacks: Bone Whip (4 harm, reach), Word of Death (2 harm, ranged, ignores armor)
Attack Effects: 2
Portent of Death: The first time a Dullahan stops its ride each it, it delivers a grim portent of death against
one person present. That person suffers an additional 2 harm anytime it takes harm, until the start of the next
night.
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A headless rider, a dullahan is always seen riding atop a black horse, or driving a carriage decorated with
bones. The dullahan dresses in black, and carries its rotting, grinning ahead under one arm – with the other
controlling its horse, or wielding a long whip made from spine bones. The hoof beats of the dullahan’s horse,
and cackle of its head are carried great distance by the wind, the unnatural echoing serving as a warning and
threat.
Dullahans are servants of necromantic fey lords, set out to strike fear in mortals, and make them cower from
the might of the fey. Fey that feed off of terror employ them, with the dullahan’s night rides providing an
ample feast of dread. They kill one mortal each ride, unless opposed, in which case they ride off, and return
with a retinue of undead or other fey to slay those that tried to stop them. When killed, a dullahan, horse, and
its carriage melt away into black smoke.
Dryad
Type: Fey Minion
Max Harm: 4
Attacks: Raking claws (2 harm, close)
Attack Effects: 1
Plants born from magic, dryads come in many forms, but all appear to be human-shaped and composed of
living plants. Green twisted vines with sprouting flowers, tree branches wrapped into limbs, or even just a
mass of moving moss and algae are all possible compositions a dryad can take.
Dryads are created by fey, and don’t have much of a mind of their own. They follow the wills of their creators,
and while they can think and adapt, they’re single-minded in purpose and don’t care about their own well-
being. They can’t talk, and can only make noises like laughs, screams, or wordless singing, which they often
use to get the attention of their prey. When slain, a dryad collapses into a pile of vegetation that quickly rots
over the course of a day.
Elf
Type: Fey Warrior
Max Harm: 8
Attacks: Silver longsword (3 harm, close, silver) or Silver spear (3 harm, close, silver)
Attack Effects: 2
The rank and file of the fey armies, elves look human if not for being too perfect. Tall and figuresque, elves
have an enchanting look to them such that anyone who looks upon them sees an ideal figure of beauty, but
struggles to describe it later. However they look, something is obviously off – be it just a little too tall, too
angular, too smooth, too handsome, too soft, or otherwise just too perfect.
Most fey that mortals interact with in a way that isn’t entirely negative are elves. The elves make up the
majority of the fey courts, and are the ones most often serving as deal-makers, “gracious” hosts, and
manipulators to mortals who enter their territory; mostly because they find outsmarting and tricking humans
more fun than just outright killing them. Elves have a natural aptitude to magic, and are capable of becoming
powerful sorcerers and fey lords through study.
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Frozen Shade
Type: Fey Warrior
Max Harm: 10
Attacks: Icy Shard (3 harm, ranged)
Attack Effects: 2
Icy Winds: A frozen shade is constantly surrounded by icy winds. Any Battle rolls used to attack it at range
with a non-fire weapon suffer -1 Ongoing, and any Daring Action rolls used to navigate through ice or water
suffer -1 Ongoing.
Frozen shades are spirits that appear as ethereal, graceful figures made entirely out of deep blue ice, complete
with frosted hair. Some appear to be naked, while others wear flowing blue clothes that billow in the icy wind
that constantly surrounds them. They can casually glide through the air or water, and rarely walk.
Haunt icy rivers and ponds, frozen shades lure out their victims to the water before drowning them. At areas
that are only frozen during certain times of year, the frozen shades are dormant otherwise, returning with the
frost. Cruel and capricious, frozen shades only true desire is to drown others in their icy waters, which
strengthens and feeds them. Often, they’ll delay the death of a victim if others are nearby, to bring more to the
water.
Goblin
Type: Fey Minion
Max Harm: 2
Attack Effects: 1
One of the lowest and most chaotic of fey, the look of goblins is as wild as the realms they come from. Their
skin can be smooth or rough, sometimes covered in warts, and colored like stone, earth, leaves, or water. Their
ears and noses range from gigantic, to just slits against their hair. Whatever they look like, all goblins are
short, strange creatures.
Goblins are beneath the note of most fey lords. Numerous to the extreme, they’re more akin to vermin in the
eyes of their master, albeit vermin that can be entertaining when unleashed on the unsuspecting. Goblins have
little concern for the needs of others, and are cowardly to the extreme in caring about themselves. Despite this,
they still manage to work together effectively, understanding that teamwork is useful in their goals – which
largely consist of theft, sabotage, and fatal mischief.
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Golden Muse
Type: Fey Lord
Max Harm: 20
Attacks: Cane or Fist (4 harm, close)
Attack Effects: 2
Pull the Strings: As an action the Golden Muse can fill the air with a tune or poem that fills its targets with a
strong emotion – rage, fear, desire, or anything else. A PC target can make a Resist Dark Magic roll – on a 6 or
below, they’re filled with the emotion, and must act on it until the Muse departs. On a 7-9, they feel the song’s
pull, and suffer -1 Ongoing to act against the emotion until the Muse departs. On a 10+, they’re immune to the
effects.
Tales Made Real: As an action, the Golden Muse can conjure creatures that appear animated as musical lines,
painted images, or outlines in ink. The creatures act immediately when conjured. A single warrior-strength
creature, or three minion-strength creatures can be summoned with a single action.
A fey lord who loves to travel in human civilization, the Golden Muse’s true form is unknown. They can
change their shape, but only appear as their own person and never duplicating the form of another, and rarely
change shape when working out of a particular area. Regardless of shape, they’re always dressed in an
elaborate golden or yellow outfit of expensive and fashionable design, often with a golden mask to hide their
face.
The Golden Muse is a powerful fey lord with deep ties to astral magic, and who especially loves the creative
works of mortals in all their forms: music, architecture, art, poetry, literature, and plays have all caught the
Muse’s eye. The Muse approaches talented artists – especially those who have yet to ‘break out’ - and
approaches them, helping to influence their work, and get them noticed through use of its glamours and
mental manipulation. Through the Muse’s influence, magic is woven into the art that causes surges of
emotions to run through its audience. Homicidal outbursts, suicidal hopelessness, or destructive celebration
are all common in the audience, with the only way to cure it to be to drive the Muse away, and perform
powerful ritual magic thematically tied to the situation.
Redcap
Type: Fey Warrior
Max Harm: 12
Attacks: Wicked pike (4 harm, reach, iron), thrown boulder (3 harm, ranged)
Attack Effects: 2
Blood-Soaked-Bandanna: A redcap can soak their bandanna in the blood of the recently slain. If a redcap
kills a foe in melee, they’ll take their next action to soak their bandanna. When they do so, they immediately
gain +2 maximum harm. If the bandanna. is taken from them, the redcap weakens: they lose 4 maximum harm,
an attack effect, and all their attacks deal one less harm.
A murderous fey draw to sites of great bloodshed, redcaps appear as small, shriveled old men with large teeth
and wiry hair, wearing crimson bandanna and wielding oversized weapons. Despite their size they are
frighteningly strong, easily able to overpower a human. Redcaps have a single-minded obsession with murder,
and while they prefer humans, they’ll kill animals in a pinch. When they kill someone, they soak their
bandanna. in the victim’s blood, staining it. The deeper the red of the bandanna., the stronger and more crazed
the redcap becomes. The color lessens over time, and were the cloth to ever become white, the redcap dies.
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Redcaps make their homes in places where blood was shed, particularly if done so maliciously – the old castles
of torturers and tyrants are a favorite, but they’ve also been drawn to houses of healing or butchers’
slaughterhouses. They’re happy to work in groups, and plot and plan out the way to enact the maximum
bloodshed possible, often picking isolated victims out first to strengthen themselves before a wholesale
slaughter. Due to their strength and vicious nature, redcaps are a favorite guard and soldier for fey lords, who
often keep a retinue of them ready to unleash against their enemies.
Rusulka
Type: Fey Warrior
Max Harm: 10
Attack Effects: 2
Drag Under: As its action, a Rusulka can latch onto a character, dragging them under the water. They require
a Daring Action move with a result of 7+ to break free, but suffer -2 Ongoing as the rusulka holds them down.
Each turn the character is under water, they suffer 1 harm (ignores armor).
While glamoured to appear to be the image of beauty in its observers eyes, rusalka have a true form that’s far
more hideous, with webbed hands and feet, slimy scales, hair of seaweed, and a mouth full of shark-like teeth.
Rusulka live in any sort of water, fresh or salt, commonly making their homes at rivers, lakes, near ocean rocks
just on the edge of where humans dwell. Using their glamour, they draw passersby to them, and once they’re
within reach, grab them and drown them. A rusulka’s water can quickly become littered with the bones of
their many victims.
Siren
Type: Fey Warrior
Max Harm: 10
Armor: 1
Attacks: Claws and talons (3 harm, close)
Attack Effects: 2
Siren Song: As an action a siren can sing a song so enthralling, whoever hears it can’t help but march towards
them, no matter the risk. All nearby creatures must make a Resist Dark Magic roll – on a 6 or below, they
immediately move to reach the siren, no matter what danger they go through, until the song ends. On a result
of 7-9, they move towards the siren this turn, but can make other actions and defend themselves as normal. On
a 10+, they resist the song, and can’t be affected by a siren song again this scene.
Sirens are fey with the bodies of beautiful people, with variously bird-like parts. Some have feathery wings
growing from their back, others have the wings instead of their arms, their skin can either be smooth or
covered in brightly colored feathers, and their legs are sometimes that of a bird with large talons.
Charming and coy, sirens nest along cliffs or rocky outcroppings in water, and use their song to lure victims to
their death. They love watching mortals walk off of cliffs, or step off boats into the sea and drown. Sirens also
take delight in music and poetry, and can be drawn to a beautiful song just as their song draws others to them.
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Treant
Type: Fey Warrior
Max Harm: 14
Attacks: Huge Branch (4 harm, close)
Attack Effects: 1
Cousins to dryads, treants are the towering guardians of the fey realms. Normally looking like massive trees,
treants have the ability to lift their roots up like massive feet, swing and curl their branches like arms, and
grow a face to speak out grim warnings in their rumbling tone. Treants look like trees that match their locale,
but signs of unusual trees for the area are indications of stepping into the feyrealm, where the landscape is
soon to change, or the feyrealm pushing out into other territory.
Treants are grown from sapling trees infused with magic to give them intelligence. They’re loyal to their
creators, even past the creator’s death, and are content with sitting and guarding an area forever – they are no
less patient than a normal tree. While powerful, treants are rarely used to conquer in ways beyond a slowly
shifting border – they’re too slow to be useful aggressive forces.
Will-o’-the-wisp
Type: Fey Minion
Max Harm: 1
Armor: 0 (can only be hurt by blessed weapons, fire, or magic)
Attacks: Cold Fire (2 harm, close, fire)
Attack Effects: 1
Sometimes called just “fairy lights”, will-o’-the-wisp are spirits that appear as bright lights at night in
wilderness areas, and guide travelers off the path. They float and bob, as if from a carried lantern, and draw
curious travelers to follow. Once a victim is behind them, the wisps lead them into danger – be it a cliff, river,
or waiting monster, and then blink out, disappearing. When invisible, a wisp can do no harm to another, and
prefer to let natural dangers kill their prey, feeding off of the spirit of the recently dead.
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Undead
Created by necromantic magic, undead are the remains of the dead brought back to life, or creatures who have
a prolonged unlife from magic. Undead tend to either maintain the intelligence and awareness they had in life,
or be soulless, mindless creatures bent on killing. Due to the foul magic that animates them, undead are weak
against blessed weapons, and can be warded against with holy symbols.
The most common source of undead is through the deliberate creation with necromancy. A corpse can be
raised into a skeletal or zombie servant through ritual magic, and forced to follow the commands of its
reanimator. Undead like these can also reanimate on their own – locations that are the site of heavy magic use,
or great evil or suffering can become so suffused with necromancy that the dead will rise of their own will.
Rarer forms of undead are those who have transformed more deliberately, often from those seeking to spread
their undeath, like vampires, or seeking eternal life, like liches.
Unintelligent undead have an intense loathing for life, in all its forms, and express it through murder. Even for
intelligent undead that try to maintain a grip on their humanity find it difficult to do so – all worldly pleasure
seem cold and empty to them, and a jealous hatred of happiness bubbles inside as the years pass.
A special note is needed for vampires. Vampire stories are inherently sexual in nature, and often heavily based
on xenophobia. In the novel, Dracula himself is foreign invader preying on women. Given this, they do require
a some care to use. Much of the sexual nature of vampires is something that people have generally become
inured to, even when stories make a point of it, but be careful not to take it too far. The use of vampires as a
foreign “other” is easier to avoid. There’s plenty of other things vampires can be metaphors for – with one of
the better ones being the rich, “noble”, ruling class, sucking the blood from those beneath them, both
figuratively and literally. Consider the ruler who exploits those under him, with an insatiable greed, and
eventually turns to undeath to continue his life, with no concern of who he ends up killing.
Ghost
Type: Undead Warrior
Max Harm: 8
Armor: 0
Attacks: Icy Touch (2 harm, close, ignores armor)
Attack Effects: 1
Incorporeal: A ghost is incorporeal, and can only be hurt with blessed weapons or magic.
A ghost is the soul of a dead person who could not peacefully pass from this world, bound to it from anguish
or necromantic magic. Appearing as they did in life, a ghost looks translucent, and is often dressed in either
the clothes it died in, or an outfit that is otherwise symbolic to it.
Ghosts are usually bound to a single person, place, or object, and unable to go far from it. Not all are
inherently hostile, but will instead haunt those around them to until the living help the ghost find rest. As time
passes, ghosts become more and more desperate, driven to violence from madness and despair. While
defeating a ghost will put some of them to rest – particularly those bound with magic – others will require
their desires to be met, or an exorcism to be performed. Even after “slaying” the ghost, it will reappear during
the next full moon or emotionally significant moment, likely far more irate.
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Homunculus
Type: Undead Lord
Max Harm: 15
Armor: 3 (1 vs blessed or fire)
Attacks: Massive Fist (4 harm, close)
Attack Effects: 2
Clumsy: A homunculus is especially slow and clumsy. Any character that gets +1 Forward against it, for any
reason, has that bonus increased to +2. If a character would take less harm from a homunculus attacks for any
reason beyond armor, they take an additional less harm.
Rage: Whenever a Homunculus has suffered 8 or more Harm total, it flies into a rage. It deals an additional +1
Harm with all attacks, and its attacks become incredibly destructive to its surroundings.
A composite being created from stitched together corpses, alchemically prepared parts, and necromancy, a
homunculus is unnerving no matter how well crafted. Its skin tone turns a sickly color, from rot or its
preservatives, and its body moves in jerky, strange ways, as if it cannot control it well.
The crafting of a homunculus never turns well, no matter how skilled its creator. Often, the result is mindless,
unable to communicate beyond moans, and filled with a curiosity that easily turns into a destructive rage.
Even the most intelligent, well made homunculus finds the world difficult to relate to, their dead hearts leaving
them unable to process their own emotions and feelings, and prone to fits of violent rage.
Lich
Type: Undead Lord
Max Harm: 15
Attacks: Scythe (4 harm, close, iron), Soul Drain (2 harm ignores armor, ranged, heal 2 harm)
Attack Effects: 2
Grave Grasp: As an action, a lich can cast a dread curse, dealing (1 harm, ignores armor) to all its foes, and
lowering all harm they deal by 1 until they successfully cleanse the curse. The curse can be cleansed by a
character making a Resist Dark Magic or Necromantic Sorcery move as an action: on a 10+, all of their allies
have the cursed cleansed. On a 7-9, they may choose to cleanse one ally.
Reap: Whenever a lich kills a living creature, it heals 2 harm.
Powerful necromancers who have given themselves eternal life through undead, liches appear as fully skeletal
figures. Liches commonly wrap themselves in elaborate robes and shawls to help hide their skeletal form.
Though they were once human, liches have sacrificed their own humanity for immortality. A lich loses what
little connection to humanity they have, no longer able to feel true happiness, grief, or love. Instead, a lich
develops a single-minded focus on their goal: be it a pursuit of magic, devotion to higher dark power, or
murderous revenge. Whatever their obsession, it consumes them, leaving them caring for little else.
Liches are extremely difficult to kill and keep dead. A lich becomes bound to a particular thing, and will
continue to reform (over days, months, or even years) as long as that thing exists. Often, a lich chooses some
treasured item, memento, or magical artifact to tie their life to, but sometimes they become bound to a
location, like a dark temple or their magical library, or a creature, like the vampire lord they serve. Whenever
what they’re bound to exists in the world, given time, so too will the lich.
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Mummy
Max Harm: 12
Attacks: Slam (4 harm, close), Sword (4 harm, close, iron), or Bandages (1 harm, ranged)
Attack Effects: 2
Bandages: Whenever a mummy uses their bandages against an opponent, even if they deal no harm, the
target begins to be wrapped up. After the first hit, the target takes -1 Ongoing to all rolls. After the second,
they lose the use of either arms or legs. After the third, they’re completely immobilized. A character can break
free of the bandages by spending an action to make a Daring Action move. On a 7+ they’re free, and on a 10+
they’re free and get their action back.
Preserved corpses, mummies are covered in wrapping from head to toe, often yellowed with age. They move in
awkward lurches, and sometimes carry swords and wear ornamental golden decorations and jewelry.
Mummies are deliberately created through necromancy, either as servants or guardians. They’re compelled to
obey the spell that animates them, and while able to think, do not have independent desires or the ability to
talk more than a groan. Mummies will obey the orders of their creators unerringly, or if tasked to guard a
location or item will do so, and ceaselessly hunt down whoever disturbed them.
Nosferatu
Type: Undead Lord
Max Harm: 15
Attacks: Bite (2 harm, close), Claws (3 harm, close), Soul Drain (2 harm ignores armor, ranged, heal 2 harm)
Attack Effects: 2
Blood Drain: A Nosferatu can spend an attack effect when damaging an opponent with their bite. If
successful, they heal a number of harm equal to the harm dealt.
Blood Plague: Any creature harmed by a Nosferatu’s bite or claws must roll Resist Dark Magic against the
necrotic plague that courses through their body. On a 6 or below, they’re plagued until they’re treated at the
end of the adventure. On a 7-9, they’re plagued until their next rest. Plagued characters suffer -1 Ongoing to
physical actions, and take 1 Harm (ignore armor) whenever they roll a 6 or below on a move for a physical
action.
Relatives to the vampire but far more twisted, nosferatu are undead blood-drinkers who have been ravaged by
their curse. They’ve gone completely bald, their limbs and digits elongated and twisted, and their fingers
grown into claws as they slowly mutate into a completely inhuman form. Their hideous monstrousness is
visible, and they hardly look human.
A nosferatu is created when someone strong in magic poisons their soul. Necromancy fills the void of a
sacrificed soul, filling it with a hatred of life, and a need to feed on the blood of the living for nourishment.
Undeath fills every part of their body, and a foul disease flourishes within them. The victim’s of the nosferatu’s
hunger shown signs of this plague, with those who survive the initial attack sickening and dying, and the dead
becoming discolored and putrefying, spreading the sickness further. Nosferatu tend to be solitary creatures,
unable to make more of their own, but those who surround themselves with followers tend to lead
necromantic cults, or adopt vampires who can make more of their own to serve.
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Skeleton
Type: Undead Minion
Max Harm: 3
Armor: 0
Attacks: Bony Claws or Teeth (2 harm, close), Thrown Bones (1 harm, ranged)
Attack Effects: 1
Little more than reanimated bones, skeletons are stripped from all flesh and meat by the magic animating
them. Commonly made from human bones, wolves and other animals can be reanimated as well, or made from
a mix of bones of various creatures. When their bones become broken and the animated magic disrupted, they
all suddenly fall apart.
Skeletons are loyal to their animators, or if not explicitly created, instead seek out life to destroy. They cannot
communicate, and are unintelligent, possessing little more than feral animalistic sapience.
Skeleton, Bloody
Type: Undead Minion
Max Harm: 3
Armor: 0
Attacks: Blood-soaked claws (2 harm, close)
Attack Effects: 1
Bloody Reanimation: If destroyed, a bloody skeleton will lose its next action, and for the action after that,
reanimate itself, its bones repairing as its stands back up. If its bones are scattered, it will still reanimate, but
take longer as they slowly slide together. The bloody skeleton can only be destroyed with a blessed weapon or
necromantic magic.
Bloody skeletons are created when a skeleton has been seeped in enough blood and necromantic magic to
keep itself animated no matter what. They constantly drip an endless supply of fresh red blood from their
bones, and leave a trail of gore wherever they go. Due to the magic animating them, bloody skeletons are far
more aggressive than normal ones, and will seek out and pursue any living creature they see, with intent to
kill – but give special attention to anyone who destroys them.
Skeleton, Soldier
Max Harm: 8
Armor: 1
Attacks: Longsword (3 harm, close) or Longbow (3 harm, ranged)
Attack Effects: 2
Animated bones dressed in armor, and given weapons, skeleton soldiers are equally likely to be fallen soldiers
risen from the grave as they are skeletons given armaments by their creators. Although they’re tough, the only
leg up in intelligence they have over normal skeletons is their ability to work together, echoing the fighting
formations of their past life.
Undead
105
Vampire
Max Harm: 10
Attacks: Bite (2 harm, close), Claws (3 harm, close), or Longsword (4 harm, close)
Attack Effects: 2
Blood Drain: When a vampire damages an opponent with their bite, they heal a number of harm equal to the
harm dealt.
Hypnotism: As an action a vampire can attempt to hypnotize a victim, and exert its mental domination over
it. A PC target can make a Resist Dark Magic roll – on a 6 or below, they’re stunned in place until someone
spends an action to snap them out of it, On a result of 7-9, they’re hypnotized for a turn, but get to act
normally thereafter. On a 10+, they shrug off the hypnotism, and can’t be targeted again this scene.
Perhaps the most well known of all intelligent undead, vampires are the night’s ultimate predators. Vampires
appear as they did in life, but with more pallid skin and sharp fangs, and appear to onlookers are beautiful due
to the effects of their hypnotism.
Vampires are one of the most diverse monsters, and have a variety of strengths and weaknesses that come
from different bloodlines and mutating through magic. There are some things they all share in common,
however: they all consume blood to survive, share the common undead weaknesses, as well as that of fire, they
all lose their magical power and strength in sunlight (but can still go out during the day(, they cast no
reflection, they have superhuman strength and agility and take well to learning magic, and they cast no
reflection in mirrors. Other powers that vampires may or may not be able to manifest including turning into or
commanding wolves or bats and turning into mist, all of which require some some training of the part of a
new vampire. Specific bloodlines of vampires have been known to have their own weaknesses – strong senses
of smell that reacts poorly to pungent items, an obsessive need to count objects, and an inability to cross
running water are all possible – but shouldn't be assumed. Plenty of vampires have also spread rumors of their
weaknesses that end up being completely false. Most normal vampires don’t need to be staked – when slain,
they simply dissipate into dust.
Vampires are created when a human is drained of all their blood while being fed the vampire’s blood. The
person will appear dead, but revive from the dead later. Newly created vampires are weaker and disoriented,
but vampires who live longer become stronger, potentially even becoming Vampire Lords. Vampires have
some control over their spawn – they can influence a mental control when together, which slowly fades with
time and distance.
Undead
106
Vampire Lord
Type: Undead Lord
Max Harm: 18
Attacks: Bite (3 harm, close), Claws (4 harm, close), Longsword (4 harm, close, iron), Soul Drain (2 harm
ignores armor, ranged, heal 2 harm) or Hellfire (5 harm, ranged, fire)
Attack Effects: 2
Blood Drain: When a vampire lord damages an opponent with their bite, they heal a number of harm equal to
the harm dealt.
Hypnotism: As an action a vampire lord can attempt to hypnotize a victim, and exert its mental domination
over it. A PC target can make a Resist Dark Magic roll – on a 6 or below, they immediately begin to follow the
Vampire Lord’s commands. On a result of 7-9, they’re hypnotized in place until someone snaps them out of it.
On a 10+, they shrug off the hypnotism, and can’t be targeted again this scene.
The oldest and most powerful vampires eventually become vampire lords – stronger, faster, and tougher than
most vampires, and having had time to hone great magical powers. They pull great influence among other
monsters, cowing them with power or hypnotism, and are responsible for some of the greatest threats to
mankind.
Most frighteningly, vampire lords are notoriously difficult to kill. The specifics among them varies, but tapping
into their great unholy power some remain alive even when dismembered, are only paralyzed if their heart is
pierced, will come back from the dead after a set period of time, or can be revived if a single drop of blood
touches their ashes. The specific methods of a vampire lord’s eternal life and destruction tend to be unique to
that vampire lord’s situation.
Zombie
Type: Undead Minion
Max Harm: 3
Armor: 1
Attack Effects: 1
Dismemberable: If a zombie is injured, but not killed, the attack dismembers it, and it can only slowly limp or
drag itself to its victims – those who stay moving have no problem staying out of its reach.
Animated, rotten corpses, zombies clumsily shamble about in the tatters of clothes they were dressed in in life.
The magic reanimating them cares little about their body’s integrity – not only are most zombies missing
chunks of flesh, many are missing entire limbs, or even pull themselves on the ground after their legs have
been lost.
Unlike most other unintelligent undead, zombies can’t be controlled – the most a necromancer can do is guide
them in a direction, and mask their presence from the horde. They’re animated by the most raw and primal
necromantic energy, and driven entirely by a sheer hatred of life and insatiable hunger. Areas that are bursting
with necromantic magic, either from foul ritual, horrid deed, or the presence of a powerful undead lord, will
have the dead rise up as zombies en masse – not just the long dead, but those newly slain, as well.
Undead
107
Other Monsters
Not all monsters count as one of the other types. Creatures under “Other” type can be from a variety of other
sources, but none of them are common enough to deserve their own type, and don’t share any weaknesses.
Animated Armor
Type: Warrior
Max Harm: 10
Armor: 2
Attacks: Heavy Sword (4 harm, close, iron), Heavy Axe (4 harm, throwable, close, iron), or Heavy Spear (4
harm, reach, iron)
Attack Effects: 2
Clumsy: An animated armor is especially slow and clumsy. Any character that gets +1 Forward against it, for
any reason, has that bonus increased to +2. If a character would take less harm from an animated armor’s
attacks for any reason beyond armor, they take an additional less harm.
A suit of armor animated by magic, an animated armor is a large, clumsy automaton wielding a massive
weapon. Unable to speak, an animated armor is still intelligent, and can appear at first as if someone – albeit a
very large, burly someone – is within its armor. Animated armors are often made from decorated armors, and
sometimes disguised as empty suits of armor.
Animated armors are created with powerful magic, often to guard a specific location. They are wholly loyal to
their creators, and only have a concept of self-preservation in regards to carrying out their duty; if told to
defend a location, they will do so to the death. Animated armors can think, and can be told to carry out
complex tasks, although anything involving precision or delicacy is unsuited for them.
Living Spellbook
Type: Minion
Max Harm: 2
Armor: 0
Attacks: Collection of Swords (2 harm, close, iron), Spellshock (2 harm, ranged, fire)
Attack Effects: 1
A heavy tome a living spellbook is an old book that flies through the air. When it opens, either a variety of
blades strike at those nearby, or a blast of magical energy is released.
Living Spellbooks are created when magical energy is accumulated in a library, from arcane writings and
experiments. This energy spreads, infecting and seeping into other books, granting them a semblance of life.
The books are hostile to those that approach them, attacking the living indiscriminately.
Other Monsters
108
Dice Probability
The chart below shows the probability of rolling different results based on your bonus, with listed values in
terms of %.
Roll/Bonus -1 0 1 2 3 4 5
6 or below 58.34 41.67 27.78 16.67 8.34 2.78 0
7-9 33.33 41.67 44.45 41.67 33.33 25 16.67
10-12 8.34 16.67 25 33.33 41.67 44.45 41.67
13 or above 0 0 2.78 8.34 16.67 27.78 41.67
Getting a +1 bonus increases your chance of each result by...

Roll/Starting
-1 0 1 2 3 4
Bonus
6 or below -16.67 -13.89 -11.11 -8.33 -5.56 -2.78
7-9 8.34 2.78 -2.78 -8.34 -8.33 -8.33
10-12 8.33 8.33 8.33 8.34 2.78 -2.78
13 or above 0 2.78 5.56 8.33 11.11 13.89
Dice Probability
109
Updates
26 Oct 2018 v0.1: Initial Release
08 Dec 2018: v0.2: Corrections made to missing move bonuses in Dreamer, Necromancer, and Vampire
playbooks.
???? v0.3: Minor typo corrections throughout. Corrected assignable move bonuses in Fiend playbook in
playbook document.
Updates
110
Index
Abominations.................................................................................................................... 76
Ally...................................................................................................................................... 6
Armor.................................................................................................................................. 6
Battle................................................................................................................................... 9
Beasts............................................................................................................................... 82
Bystander............................................................................................................................ 6
Champion.......................................................................................................................... 18
Changeling........................................................................................................................ 21
Combat Moves..................................................................................................................... 9
Combat Sorcery................................................................................................................. 13
Consuming Consciousness................................................................................................ 76
Convince........................................................................................................................... 12
Daring Action..................................................................................................................... 12
Demons............................................................................................................................. 88
Dreamer............................................................................................................................ 24
Equipment Tags................................................................................................................. 51
Fey..................................................................................................................................... 95
Fiend.................................................................................................................................. 27
Forward............................................................................................................................... 6
Harm............................................................................................................................... 6, 8
Hold..................................................................................................................................... 6
Hunt.................................................................................................................................. 13
Hunter............................................................................................................................... 30
Hydra................................................................................................................................. 76
Interview........................................................................................................................... 11
Investigation Moves.......................................................................................................... 10
Knowledge........................................................................................................................... 9
Index
111
Lore................................................................................................................................... 11
Moves.................................................................................................................................. 7
Necromancer..................................................................................................................... 33
Ongoing............................................................................................................................... 6
Patch Up............................................................................................................................ 13
Playbooks.......................................................................................................................... 17
Poke Around...................................................................................................................... 11
Resist Dark Magic.............................................................................................................. 10
Ritual Sorcery.................................................................................................................... 14
Scene.................................................................................................................................. 6
Scholar.............................................................................................................................. 36
Scoundrel.......................................................................................................................... 39
Sorcery, Combat................................................................................................................ 13
Sorcery, Ritual................................................................................................................... 14
Undead............................................................................................................................ 102
Vampire, Playbook............................................................................................................. 42
Warding............................................................................................................................. 10
Warlock............................................................................................................................. 45
Weapon Tags..................................................................................................................... 51
Werewolf, Playbook........................................................................................................... 48
Session Zero...................................................................................................................... 54
Weapons............................................................................................................................ 51
Index
112

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Credits & Thanks.............................................................................................................................................................................2

Cover art by Flavia de Vita

Playbook art by Dreamweaver Druid

Layout and formatting by Goaty Goats

Credits & Thanks

If You’re Familiar With Powered By The Apocalypse…

TV: Angel, Castlevania, Gargoyles, Sleepy Hollow (2013)

➢ Know about all of a creature's unusual attack methods and weaknesses.

➢ How did a person or creature enter this location?

➢ Take one or two harm (ignoring armor)

Sample Astral Combat Spells:

➢ Throw icy shards at a foe (5 harm, ranged).

Sample Necromancy Combat Spells:

Combat Spell Drawbacks:

➢ Suffer 1 harm (ignores armor)

Combat Spell Benefits

Sample Astral Ritual Spells:

➢ Meditate, and have a symbolism-filled vision of a previous event at your location.

Sample Infernal Ritual Spells:

➢ Keep demons from entering an area until the next sunrise.

Sample Necromancy Ritual Spells:

➢ Keep undead from entering an area until the next sunrise.

+3 Resist Dark Magic

Poke Around / Hunt

Assign +1, +1, and +0 to the remaining Moves.

 Battle axe or claymore (4 harm, close, iron)

 Gain +1 Poke Around / Hunt

 Gain +1 Daring Action

You draw your strength of conviction from your faith in;

You and another PC are tied together through;

Resist Dark Magic

+2 Poke Around / Hunt

Assign +1, +1, and +0 to the remaining Moves.

➢ What was lost here – physical or metaphorical?

 Gain +1 Resist Dark Magic.

You became a wanderer;

You joined up with the other heroes;

+2 Resist Dark Magic

Poke Around / Hunt

Assign +1, +1, +0, +0 to the remaining Moves.

➢ What evils are slumbering here?

 See in total darkness.

➢ Who owned this last?

 Gain +1 to Daring Action.

 Gain +1 to Poke Around / Hunt.

The sleepers have a connection to you because;

+1 Resist Dark Magic

+1 Poke Around / Hunt

Assign +3, +2, and +0 to the remaining Moves.

➢ What do the people here fear the most?

 Gain +1 to Knowledge / Lore

 Gain +1 to Resist Dark Magic

 Gain +1 to Poke Around / Hunt

You strayed from the path of evil due to;

The other PCs met you when;

Resist Dark Magic

+2 Poke Around / Hunt

Assign +1, +1, and +0 to the remaining Moves.

 Battle Axe or Claymore (4 harm, close)

 Slayer of Many: Choose an additional monster type to be a Slayer of.

 Gain +1 Resist Dark Magic

Monster hunting has become your life because;

You joined up with the other hunters because;