The Adventure of the Black Bile

These are Todd Nilson adventure notes from his incredible Celtic Campaign. While it's story form may be a bit confusing to the reader initially, I am sure you will find it as a useful if not a complete adventure for you add to your campaign.

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T’ealc has to leave his home to escape from the Thing which hunts him. The young druid brings a horse, supplies, his ceremonial vestments and what little money he has.

The lands of Louth are festering with corruption. Black bile burbles up from the swamps and the trees twist into hideous shapes that affright the unwary night traveler. Strange mockeries of men stalk the land in animalistic bands, robbing both warriors and families. The crops fail and the land seems to be cursed.

T’ealc finds the sick wherever he goes. It is draining for him, but he renders what aid he can with the Mother’s Touch. In his travels, he wanders into some woods. These are the very woods traveled in by Angus and Elan as well as the lost and disoriented Crassus.

For Crassus the woods have become dark and foreboding. The land here is wounded in some way that reminds him of his homeland. He had heard rumors of blasted woodlands and thinks for a time that he may be approaching home.

He comes to a house. In the house is an old pigkeeper named Gwyll. He is blind and old, but has managed these pigs for a long time. He initially attacks Crassus, thinking him one of the mockeries which now haunt these woods. But Gwyll takes in the hungry wizard and feeds him from his own meagre provender.

Around this time, T’ealc runs directly into Angus and Elan. They are initially startled, but realize that the other means no harm. At about this time, however, the mockeries attack from all sides. Though the fight initially goes well, they are rushed and knocked unconscious. They awake and find themselves suspended over a bubbling pit of black bile. They are given the choice of joining the tribe by performing the Black Dance to appease their god or be fed to the same dark deity.

Escape is possible, but the characters will be hotly pursued. Of course, they may always dance the dance, which some other captured prisoners choose to do. Those who dance are transformed into mockeries of their former human appearance.

Meanwhile, Gwyll and Crassus are attacked by the mockeries and Gwyll is carried off into the woods. Crassus is left with no other choice than to pursue, being a man of good conscience in spite of himself. If he does not, the mockeries will capture him as well.

With the dawn, all of those who do not agree to do the dance will be fed to the black pit. An opportunity comes for escape when a white stag charges through the clearing. The camp goes into an uproar and the mockeries make ready to follow. More than half of the mockeries take off for the hunt, allowing the heroes ample time to make and succeed in an escape attempt.

The leader of the mockeries is over eight feet tall and has a second head which argues with him all of the time. He is infected by some kind of fungus, which makes the fomori infectious to the touch.

Fungal Touch: The victim must make a Stamina roll (difficulty 7) or begin losing one point from all Physical attributes, as well as Appearance, per day (the fungus slowly covers him). The infection may only be cured by supernatural means. The fungus covers his body, causing him to exude a foul stench that subtracts 2 from attackers’ dice pools.

The leader also has Extra Speed, allowing him to take one extra action each turn without splitting his dice pools.

Here are some rank and file mockeries:

Addicted to the black bile, this creature has been gifted with a scaly green tail, which it used to lash enemies for Strength + 2 damage. Roll Dexterity + Brawl, difficulty 7.

Pathetic and disgusting, one of the monsters is a mass of peeling and crusting skin tissue. It has an additional arm coming out of its chest, which it uses to attack, though it needs to split its dice pools to do so.

Many of the mockeries are infested with worms, which occassionally crawl into and out of bodily orifices. They need to vomit once a day or the parasites will begin to choke them and block necessary body passages. They have either claws, fangs or horns.

Bite diff 5 Strength + 1

Claw diff 6 Strength + 2

Gore diff 7 Strength + 2 (+4 if character charges)

A few are as Ugly as Sin and are simply disgusting to look at. They have the ability to Sense the Unnatural (supernatural beings, hidden or otherwise - Perception + Occult, difficulty 6. An additional roll of Intelligence + Enigmas is required to tell what kind of supernatural creature has been scented. These creatures have the ability to vomit the Black Bile as a projectile weapon on a Dexterity + Brawl roll (difficulty 7). The blast does a health level of damage and an additonal level each turn until it is washed off (it is possible to soak this damage).

There are about forty of these creatures, total. Their lair is little more than a clearing in the woods which is the location of a large black pit of slime. A particularly grotesque tree hangs over the pit from which the mockeries throw their victims into the pit. The pit grows with each new sacrifice. Around the outskirts of this pit are a series of rough shelters, all of very poor quality. The goods from countless victims are a constant source of squabbling among the rabble. Some of the finer items which remain unruined include:

Fine perfume, Soap, A two-handed sword, a cauldron, a war hammer, and a variety of garish but very fine silks.

The creatures also guard five milking cows and a number of chickens. Some of these creatures have been tainted by their proximity to the black bile.

The Pursui

Following Crassus’ mighty magicks, the startled creatures run howling into the woods, led by Blai, the two-headed mockery.

Blai quickly realizes that a wizard has been the cause of the great thunderclap and devises a plan to attack these adventurers before they leave the woods. Realizing that his "men" will not desire to go after the adventurers directly, he devises a series of nasty traps and instructs his followers to lay traps across the woods.

Traps in the Wood

An overturned log blocks the path. The first person to step over the log without looking, will have his foot caught in a loop (roll 3 dice, difficulty 6, to see if the trap succeeds). The victim must roll Dexterity + Athletics, difficulty 10, to step out in time. If, however, the victim looks before stepping over the log, a Perception roll, difficulty 7, will detect it. If caught in the trap, the character will be pulled upside down, hanging from a flexible sapling. The trap is more disorienting than anything else, except the bells and scrap metal are hanging from the tree and will jingle, alerting all nearby that someone has been caught.

A concealed rope across the path releases a shower or stones and rocks onto whoever happens to be below. A group of ten mockeries will try to chase characters into the path of this trap. The rocks fall on the characters for 3 dice of damage (difficulty 6).

A pit of spikes is covered with branches. The pit is fairly obvious (Perception, difficulty 6). However, the main part of the trap is on the path following the pit. A concealed rope (Perception, difficulty 8), when tripped, sets off a pulled back branch about waist high. The branch hits with a Strength of 3, requiring a Dexterity + Athletics roll of difficulty 9 to avoid being propelled back into the pit. Falling into the spiked pit does six dice of damage--a potentially killing trap if one is not careful.

The Pig Keeper’s House

Gwyll’s home is not what it originally appeared to be to Crassus. It is a ruined farm house, whose roof has collapsed in and is now open to the sky. There is little or nothing of value here, but while here, there is a feeling of peace not present in other areas of the woods. Perception + Investigation rolls (difficulty 6) reveal a hawthorn rod underneath the table. The table is inscribed with Ogham lettering.

Awareness rolls reveal that the rod was a foci and contains Tass.

Attempts to translate the Ogham will take time, but they reveal the story of Gwyll’s curse.