Tuesday, October 2, 2018

Black Jenny for The Forest Hymn & Picnic

Cecil Howe from Sword Peddler has a Kickstarter for a print version of his game The Forest Hymn & Picnic. (Full disclosure: after looking at the available preview content, I decided to back this Kickstarter.)
   
The most recent Kickstarter update is a set of rules for procedurally generating a forest monster, and an invitation to give it a try. Since I am very fond of proc gen, I decided to generate a monster.
   
   
Black Jenny
   
Galloping out of the Spookwood with a sound like a dozen tin cans dragging through the gravel behind her - here comes Black Jenny, out to wreak havocry on the good People of the woods. Jenny has the head of a donkey with eyes like black pools of endless night. She has no neck, her head just floats above her body, a child's body dressed in a shabby girl's school uniform. Her body floats too, hovering over her donkey Black Bottom, fur so depthless black it looks like a silhouette. Jenny looks like a child, but don't be fooled, she's incorporeal, and nothing can touch her.
   
Black Jenny rides to stop the People of the woods from singing or enjoying music. The community needs music - for celebrations and gatherings, to keep our courage up on lonely nights. Black Jenny makes the music go away. She opens wide her mouth to speak noise like a metal ocean, noise that crashes in waves, that breaks and withdraws and returns in a horrible rhythm. Jenny's noise is cacophony, a hundred metal voices screaming, and good People who hear it are like to get spooked and run away. (Make a Q&A roll with Resolve modifier and Sortilege grade against 10. If you fail, you are spooked and can't attack. Jenny makes this noise once when she arrives and again right before she leaves.)
   
One more thing, don't look too close at Jenny's black eyes, or in her mouth when she's screaming, or at Black Bottom beneath her. Anyone who stares at them gets to feel like drowning, and might could faint. (Make a Q&A roll with Intellect modifier and Funambulist grade against 10. If you succeed, you feel like waves of black ocean water washed over you, and you come to soaking wet. If you fail you fall unconscious and need a friend to wake you up. This is not a gaze attack, you only need to roll if you choose to stare at or examine Jenny's darkest parts.)
   
   
I don't know exactly what Black Jenny's scream sounds like, but I imagine it's something like the Pree-Sisters Swallowing a Donkey's Eye.

4 comments:

  1. nice! always batting it out the park

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  2. Great flavor! I backed the Kickstarter as well.

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    Replies
    1. All the bits and pieces I've seen have really appealed to me. I'm looking forward to seeing the whole thing put together.

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