Underneath System, Insight Resolution System, Campaign Intro, Encounters, GM Forward.
Introduction / Marquette
Venture - Part 1
Venture - Part 2
Venture Hinterlands / US-41 Highway
Venture - Part 2
Venture Hinterlands / US-41 Highway
The Lighthouse
Ghost Ship / Missing Isle
Ghost Ship / Missing Isle
Traffic Jam / The Line / Roadhouse
Magic Woods
DeVart
Orange Lake
End Times
These posts are contain major spoilers for Everlasting Summer. Prospective players be warned!
ONBOARDING
Each Investigator starts with the following:
- A Name. Write it down. It may become important later on...
- 10 Points to distribute amongst their stats: Resolve, Instinct, Body, and Empathy. (See: Underneath)
- An Occupation (e.g. Janitor, Teacher, HVAC Repair Guy, etc.) Be a normal-ass person.
- 5 Inventory Spaces
- 2 Resources, representing cash, credit, or other immediately-accessible liquidity.
- 3 Items of their choice, which would be reasonable for a person of median means in the U.S. to carry with them unassisted. AR-15s and similar firearms are perfectly valid. An FGM-148 Javelin rocket launcher is not. (In my experience, having run this campaign three times, guns rarely make the most useful items anyway.) Anything that would have a limited number of uses like guns, drugs, or battery-powered tools get 3 Uses before they run out.
- A fully charged Smart Phone (plus a charger). This does not take an inventory slot.
- Winter Clothes good for typical Michigan winters. Takes up 1 Inventory Slot
Each Group of Investigators starts with the following, shared between them:
- One normal car, tank half full of gas by the time they reach Venture. By default cars have 15 Inventory Spaces.
- One laptop computer.
Examples of some of the best Items my players decided to take:
- Good Boots
- Chemical Resistant Latex Gloves
- Handcrank Radio
- Prayer Wheel
- Bolt Cutters
- Industrial Multitool
- Dry Suit (for swimming)
- Bottle of Prescription Anti-Psychotics
- UV Flashlight
- First Aid Kit
- 5lb Whey Protein Powder Jar
SLEEP: Getting a night's sleep (8 hours min) recovers 1 Ability Damage for everyone who gets it. Doing so also reveals Insight levels. Each day in which you do not get any sleep produces 1 Resolve damage. Each overnight Sleep, also test one person for Empathy to gives dreams of the person being disappeared that night.
EATING: Every 5 waking hours or so, the PCs must eat a meal. For every 3-4 players, this should take up one use of an expendable food item or some other food source (like junk food in the 8/11)
After this, figure out how all the Investigators know each other. Did they meet in an online chat room? Were they all in the war together? Are they all part of an drug rehab group?
CAMPAIGN LOG
It may be helpful to track your campaign a sheet like this, or something similar.
It took us around 20-30 3-Hr play sessions to finish this campaign. Your experience may vary.
GM INTRODUCTION
This is a mystery campaign. The initial rumors to introduce to the players can be found at the bottom of the post here. But they aren't the ultimate mystery - that needs to be figured out along the way.
Said ultimate mystery is, of course: "Why is the weather weird in Venture?" or
"What does Venture have to do with the waking of A'aqur?"
Which will eventually become: "How do we stop the end of the world?"
Begin the campaign on Day 0, which is January 15th 2030.
On Day 10, January 25th, if the spell "The Banishment of the Northern Wind" is not cast, the world will end and the campaign will be over. The winds of A'aqur will wash over Venture in nuclear fire, killing anything and everything.
Don't fret too much if this happens. Horror campaigns can be fun when they end in tragedy.
Also don't fret too much if things seem to be going off the rails. This is an open-ended campaign. Its ending is not decided, and you can be pleasantly surprised where things will go if you allow your players agency. In one campaign, my players decided to spend half a week in Marquette building a fortified bulldozer to assault the Coal Factory in DeVart. That was pretty cool! I think this campaign works well with a heavy dose of improvisation.
By following up on the rumors and exploring the region, the players will get suggestions and clues pointing to that greater mystery. Eventually, they will hopefully locate the Banishment of the Northern Wind spell, which will bring them into a new phase of the campaign: finding all of the ingredients of the spell to conduct the ritual.
Do not be afraid of player-character death. They are easily replaceable. You can probably make one in 5 minutes. And this is a horror campaign. After Day 9, be not afraid to cut them down like grass with difficult encounters - by then they have run out of time.
INTRO READ-ALOUD FOR PLAYERS
The date is January 15th, 2030. Climate change has destroyed the last of the endothermic prison-seals containing A'AQUR, the Wind of the North. Political dysfunction and rampant misinformation allow the problem to fester: the breakaway event is reported but dismissed as propaganda. A'AQUR's cult operates in plain sight, wreathed in manufactured indifference. Tomorrow, another scandal is on the news. The stock market is fine.
But you know something is wrong. You've seen it. A small town in the Michigan Upper Peninsula known as Venture has been experiencing temperatures upwards of 30 degrees Celsius in the heart of winter: a never-ending summer surrounded by blizzards and choking snow. It has been dismissed as a meteorological anomaly, as proof that climate change is a hoax, as merely "Michigan weather". Video footage doesn't matter. Reporting doesn't matter. The Post-Truth world doesn't care. Nobody cares. Except you.
MARQUETTE
Investigators start in Marquette, MI. Unlike the rest of the locations in this campaign, Marquette is a real place. You can look it up if you want to see what kinds of things it normally has.
...Or, if you prefer to get right to it, you can start them at the Crossroads.
Marquette, Michigan, is a relatively safe port for this campaign. It's 15 degrees Fahrenheit. There are no random encounters within Marquette. There's all the amenities a modern investigator might need: a hospital, a university, hotels, and a supermarket.
The only thing the PCs have to lose is time and money. When in doubt, activities in Marquette consume 1 Resource. A visit to the Emergency Room of the hospital? 1 Resource (with health insurance). Groceries at a supermarket? 1 Resource. Tank of gas? 1 Resource.
CONTINGENCY: If the DeVart Police have blockaded the road, then Marquette will become inaccessible by road, and moving through the woods around them safely will take 6 Hours minimum.
THE VEIL OF WINTER
Northern Michigan has long straight roads. Miles upon miles flanked with snow-dusted trees in hollowed forests. On Day 0 it's snowed 2 inches so far, and it'll snow another 2 feet before the night is done.
Driving down Highway US-41, the snow brushes away like a curtain unfurling, like entering a building with industrial grade air conditioning. The snow gives way to clear skies. The trees bloom green like in the depths of Summer. It's 30 degrees Celsius. The car will start to warm up considerably, making those Winter Clothes uncomfortable. What is happening here is impossible. It's not just "Michigan weather".
THE CROSSROADS
An exit off US-41 takes you on a nameless dirt road for about 5 miles, where it then intersects with Independence Way. Continue following the nameless road a few miles, and there's Venture. You can see it from the Crossroads, down a slope.
Roll a Random Encounter here, using the Town encounter list. The investigators will have 0 Insight, so it'll be in its hidden form, and likely relatively undangerous.
TIMELINE OF MISSING PERSONS
Each day, someone is going to go missing. In the middle of the night they will be disappeared.
The end of the world is nigh. As the end approaches, monsters crawl out of the woodwork and the fey corners of reality to pillage the world and dance like witches under the full moon. Magic crawls back into reality and nothing is as it initially seems.
(Campaign begins on Day 0, Tuesday)
* On Day 8, the Redhound Bus appears in front of the Motel 7 at 8:30am. It will leave on Day 9 at 5:30pm.
**On Day 9, all Town and Universal tables are replaced with the Wizard’s Kill Squad: 4 HD. A truck full of Cultist Hunters armed with AR-15s and a truck-mounted machine gun. EXTREMELY DEADLY.
THE PROGRESSION OF EVIL
Every 2 Days, or every time one of the five initial mysteries is solved (whichever is sooner), a new hazard will appear in Venture. Pace them out longer or shorter at your discretion. Either roll for them randomly or pick one that seems most appropriate given what the investigators have done.
1. Time Leap
Roll a d6 every Hour. On 1-2, time skips ahead an additional half-hour. That time is simply gone.
2. Something's Hunting You
Something stalks the Woods. Something horrible. A 4HD Something lurks just beyond the boundaries of roadwork and mowed grass. Appears on 11-20. This will continue to occur until the Something is dealt with.
3. Witch's Curse
All decomposable food sources in Venture and held in inventories immediately becomes infested with flies and maggots. All hunted meat and carcasses spoil within an hour.
4.Ghouls in Venture
Cannibalistic ghouls (2HD) are added to the Town Encounter List, which changes to a d20 roll. Appears on 11-20. This effect is permanent. Ghouls are hostile whether their Insight Threshold is met or not.
5. Lights in the Night Sky
Strange swirling auroras in the night sky. No matter which location you're in it's possible to have the Lighthouse Light encounter during the night (6:00pm-8:00am). 1 in 6 chance every 6 Hours. Won't affect Investigators inside who have no line of sight to the night sky.
6. Heat Wave
Swirling winds bring a terrible blistering heat. Temperatures around Venture and DeVart become 110 degrees Fahrenheit. Every six hours without air conditioning or a similar cooling mechanism prompts a Body check or lose 1 Resolve or 1 Instinct, whichever is higher.
7. Electrical Devices Possessed
All electrical devices, including phones and cars, become possessed by strange lights. 2 in 6 chance that they'll be functional. Otherwise replacements will be needed. The Electric Cult will monitor events through dysfunctional devices.
8. Holes
An inexplicable 'absence' creeps in from the margins of the scenery. All locations in which an NPC has 'disappeared' are replaced with 1 HD Holes which deal Empathy damage to those who remain by them.
9. Acid Rain
A dreary smog overtakes the peninsula. It becomes difficult to breathe, and metal exposed to the elements begins to quickly rust. -1 Body to all Investigators.
10. Water Sources Tainted
All tap and stagnant water sources become infected with the Lake's orange water. Drinking it will transform one into a mutant. You'll need to subsist off of Nestle Ice Mountain water bottles.
SPECIAL PROGRESSIONS
These effects are triggered due to special circumstances that may arise during the campaign. Each of these can only happen once.
Sheriff Patrols
Trigger: Party member gets arrested by police or brought in for questioning by a Leviathan agent.
Blockades are established on highway US-41. Travel to and from Marquette by highway is impossible. Blockade runners will be shot. Similar to the west of town. Additional blockade established on US-41 outside of DeVart. Increases travel time by 1 Hour, and must have encounter with sheriff's deputies when traveling between Venture and DeVart.
Witnessed Horror
Trigger: Witness something truly monstrous and incomprehensible, such as a particularly gruesome death, a horrid transformation, or someone in the party committing an unjust murder.
All Investigators must test Resolve or lose 1 Resolve.
The Chinese Theater
Trigger: In Venture, Insight > 10
The Chinese Theater appears in the place of the Road Commission. One may go there to trade Resources for Magic Spells.
THE NEMESIS
During the course of the campaign, you as the GM should be mindful of establishing a Nemesis for the investigators - a mysterious and deadly force which will stalk them throughout the campaign. In my experience, you can't really plan ahead of time what this will be. It needs to be discovered.
It may be allegorical in nature, like your traditional horror monsters. Of all the foes in the campaign, the Nemesis should be the ultimate one: virtually invincible, mysterious, and distant but slowly approaching.
The Troll
Found At: The Lighthouse
A regenerating bear-like hulk that stalks the woods. Its eyes are red in the dark and its teeth gleam in the shadows. It can only be prevented from returning with its Banishment spell. She was once a person - Dana DeVart, turned abomination by her husband The Wizard long ago. The Troll is the sick love letter of a mad man to the shade of his wife. It is the avenging demon of transgression and hubris.
The Most Dangerous Game
Found At: Townend Taxidermy
Eddy Wozniak becomes the prey becomes the hunter. A horrible amalgam of deer parts and redneck hunter madness created in a mad ritual. It is the Wilds incarnate, seeking vengeance against mankind - against you. It stalks the woods, cackling like a lunatic. It also has a gun. The Most Dangerous Game is a deadly inversion, and can be used with similar themes that use it.
The Wizard
Found At: Orange Lake
Ancient capitalist Edward DeVart, with far too much money and power, who discovered spells to prolong his life and craft horrors. Willing to sacrifice anything and anyone in the pursuit of control. Before the horrible gods we made he is but an ant. You are even less than he. He represents the spiraling corruption of economics, politics, and culture.
The Unicorn
Found At: The Magic Woods
A cyclopic deer, given strange powers by its congenital affliction. It tolerates the pure and destroys the wicked. Guess which of those you are. From its horrific singular eye it conjures shadows from beyond this reality to stalk and torment the wicked. How wickedness and purity are defined will largely affect the course of this nemesis.
Leviathan
Found: Anywhere
The prenatal god of the State has a vested interest in the end of the world to come. It blindly seeks to understand itself, through bureaucracy and law, maps and registries, and by capturing the hearts and loyalties of men. The men in black are here, but will not stop what is to come. They want to control it. In the process, they will hinder the investigators at every turn, acting as a rival adventuring party of sorts, but with all the tools of the national security apparatus at their disposal.
PLAYTESTERS
I would like to thank my playtesters, who across three different campaigns powered through scheduling difficulties and insomnia to play this game.
I feel like after my 5th full reread of this post I owe a comment--this is amazing. Extremely evocative. Normally, I read blogs like a collection of microfiction, rather than game content, but this is one I really feel an itch to run.
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