Halloween is often dim but rarely dark. The full moon is fixed in Halloween’s midnight sky, bright and clear except when streaming clouds veil it. Leering pumpkins lit by goblin lamplighters stare from windows and walls, bonfires on surrounding hilltops are tended by witch covens, and the firefly gleams from trick-or-treaters’ candles dot the narrow streets.
Halloween is a mammoth city, but its neighborhoods are as unique as different varieties of candy. A few boroughs are sweet and light, others are bitter and mysterious, some are dark and rich, and several contain hidden razor blades that can sicken or kill the unwary. It’s difficult to escape the smell of autumn leaves and candied apples, to blot out the sound of distant screams and maniac laughter, or to avoid the attention of slinking black cats with eyes as green as glow-in-the dark toys.
The edges of Halloween stretch off into foggy woods that invariably turn travelers around so that they find themselves retracing their original departure path.
The foci that player characters can choose in Halloween—as well as any foci that are dragged into the recursion—are modified by Halloween’s context, as appropriate. For example, if someone drags Wields Two Weapons at Once into Halloween, the two light weapons chosen might burn with ghostly radiance. If someone chooses two blunt weapons (like maces or clubs), the heads of each weapon might resemble a pumpkin head carved in iron. And so on.
Other foci listed in the Halloween Attributes box are modified even further, as described below.
PRACTICES SOUL SORCERY
In this context, the focus Practices Soul Sorcery doesn’t call on spirits of Ardeyn, but spirits of Halloween. Other modifications include the following.
Tier 1: Phylactery. The phylactery resembles a leering creature or witch’s mask. It could also be a hat or living black cat.
Tier 2: Clothe Spirit. A target body used to clothe the spirit could be a cloth doll or a wooden or straw-stuffed scarecrow.
Tier 4: Vicious Soul. The spirit isn’t a qephilim, and it takes up residence in a piece of candy, which must be eaten to transfer the benefits.
Tier 6: Escape the Vault. The spirits of creatures with the spark that are killed in Halloween enter the Graveyard; otherwise, this ability works similarly.
METAMORPHOSIZES
In Halloween, the focus Metamorphosizes is different (but similar) to the version described in The Strange corebook. Those with the focus do not transform into battle chrysalides. Instead, they transform into some kind of fearsome Halloween-themed beast, such as a werewolf, a mummy, a creature from dark waters, or a massive black crow. Otherwise, this focus works essentially as described, without alteration to the stat and special ability boosts.
TRICK-OR-TREATS
Trick-or-Treats is a focus available in various recursions spawned by the Halloween holiday.
When not wandering the streets begging or vandalizing, native trick-or-treaters return to their homes, which could be in any of the urban neighborhoods, including the Hollows. Some trick-or-treaters have families they support through their activity, others do it for the rush, and some just fell into it as children and never grew older or wiser. Trick-or-treaters are motivated to play tricks because each time they pull one off without getting caught, they earn prestige from their acts of bravery— prestige that’s worth honors, stories, and most important, hard candy currency.
Most Powers of the Night abide by rules they agreed to in order to keep the city from devolving into bloody chaos. Those accords are codified in long scrolls. Several of the Powers have copies. The Accords essentially boil down to the following.
The accords spell out the boundaries of each city neighborhood, such as the Hollows, the House on the Hill, the Graveyard, and all the rest.
People found wandering an unsafe neighborhood who aren’t trick-or-treaters are dealt with as if they were trick-or-treaters who got caught. The Vow of Begging endows real trick-or-treaters with an easily identifiable essence that any other native of Halloween can sense by spending an action studying the subject while within immediate range.
When Powers come into conflict, the Accords describe the process of arbitration. Powers, or their representatives, meet at the Midnight Circus every eleven nights (it’s always night in Halloween, but there’s night, and then there’s night). Disputes are aired, debated, and resolved by all the attending Powers as a group. Sometimes resolution is determined through Trial by Monster, in which each Power selects a champion (or, far more rarely, represents herself) for a fight to the death at a designated time.
Trick-or-treaters are Halloween natives who took the magical Vow of Begging instead of settling down to a traditional trade. They’re a special class of citizen. They enjoy a protected status, but at the same time are viable prey for any monster of Halloween who can beat trick-or-treaters at their own game. To remain safe while wandering the neighborhoods and begging door to door, trick-or-treaters must abide by three primary rules.
1. A trick-or-treater must not eat or use anything offered to her while she is on her rounds, but instead must save it for later. If she is caught eating a treat or using a gift while on her rounds, she loses her protected status for one night.
2. A trick-or-treater on her rounds must burn her candle to show her status. One who is found to be burning her candle while engaged in some other activity loses her protected status for one night.
3. Though it’s expected that trick-or-treaters will attempt pranks, tricks, cons, or thefts, they must not get caught while doing so, or get caught trespassing inside a private residence if not invited in. If caught, a trick-or-treater loses her protected status for one night.
Powers can do whatever they want to a trick-or-treater who breaks the rules. Some Powers are lenient and merely lay a geas on the miscreant. But most Powers are unforgiving and take the trickster as a slave, feature her in an elaborate sacrificial ritual, eat her (perhaps as part of a pie, or roasted on a spit), or do something else equally horrific. (A geas (pronounced “gesh”) is a magically binding obligation to perform a task or quest for whoever sets the geas. A recursor saddled with a geas can temporarily escape it by translating to a recursion that doesn’t operate under the law of Magic.)
Instead of appearing as a human, a recursor could choose to translate into the recursion as a Halloween goblin. A Halloween goblin looks somewhat like the original recursor but is about 4 feet (1 m) tall, with green-hued skin and a predisposition for a pointy nose. In addition, the difficulty of all tasks related to deception and resisting fear is decreased by one step. (This latter quality cancels out the Scary trait of the recursion for Halloween goblins.)
The following are only a sampling of the many neighborhoods in Halloween; more neighborhoods seem to melt into existence each year, while others can fade away over time.
The Hollows neighborhood is characterized by crowded, tall, and somewhat spindly buildings that often lean over the streets. The architecture forms dark “hollows” through which streets meander in a mazelike fashion. Even those who know their way around sometimes get lost and end up in blind, dead-end alleys haunted by lost and vengeful ghosts, or by shambling pumpkin golems that indiscriminately attack anything they come upon. That said, the Hollows is one of the “safe” neighborhoods of Halloween, and recursors can usually move about without being assaulted in the streets by monsters.
Ghost: level 4, stealth tasks as level 7, tasks related to frightening others as level 6; immune to mundane damage, takes half damage from most other sources; short-range Intellect attack inflicts 4 points of ambient damage and freezes foe in place; can move through solid objects
Pumpkin golems resemble scarecrows with a lit pumpkin in place of a head.
Pumpkin golem: level 3; health 20; while pumpkin head is lit, golem has Armor 2 and attempts all tasks, attacks, and defenses as if level 5
The neighborhood is ruled by Gomez Snake, a Power of the Night. Gomez keeps a room at the Old Hangman Pub and holds court in the common room there. Besides ruling the Hollows, Gomez is an information broker who is cognizant of the Strange and other recursions. He pays (either with hard candy or with information of his own) for knowledge he doesn’t already have about current events, especially those that stretch beyond the confines of Halloween. He also happens to be a friend of a cross-recursion criminal mastermind named Moriarty, which means Gomez is far more connected than it might otherwise seem. The friendship also means that Moriarty sometimes takes a room at the Old Hangman Pub.
Gomez Snake: level 5; tasks related to politics, knowledge of current events, and learning secrets as level 6; health 30; Armor 2 from scales; short-range poison attack inflicts 6 points of Speed damage
This misty “neighborhood” covers a large portion of Halloween and borders many other neighborhoods. Thus, the rutted roads through the gravestones, mausoleums, and leafless trees can be used to get around quickly, even though the Graveyard isn’t “safe” for anyone but trick-or-treaters or those who’ve made a previous arrangement. The Graveyard is definitely not safe for naive strangers, natives not currently under the protection of the Accords, or those without a written right-of-passage (and sometimes even those safeguards are no guarantee). Danger manifests in the form of the ghosts, spirits, and ghouls that haunt the place, not to mention the Night Watchman.
Anyone killed in Halloween (even someone from another recursion) continues to exist as a spirit. The spirit is drawn to the Graveyard, where it may eventually find peace if its remains are interred there and allowed to decompose naturally. Spirits remain plentiful because ghouls, hungry for flesh (even rotting flesh), dig up about one in ten fresh graves. Ghouls in Halloween are goblins who have developed a taste for the flesh of their fellows.
Halloween spirit: level 1; flesh-rotting touch deals 1 point of ambient damage
Ghoul: level 3; two claw attacks as a single action inflict 4 points of damage each; on reaching 0 health, the ghoul immediately makes one final claw attack before expiring
The Night Watchman is a ghoul, and he allows his “children” their occasional feasts to keep them in line. But far more succulent than a dead body is one that’s still alive and kicking while it’s chewed on. The Night Watchman is a Power of the Night. He’s in charge of seeing to the orderly interment of Halloween’s dead and wrangling the spirits that drift like cloud wisps across the dark ground when they manifest.
Night Watchman: level 6; two claw attacks as a single action inflict 7 points of damage each; regains 2 points of health each round; carries a jacko’- lantern artifact
The House on the Hill isn’t really a neighborhood in the strictest sense, but the house is so large and rambling, and the walled grounds that surround the structure cover so much territory, that it’s actually larger than some traditional city neighborhoods.
A handful of well-kept rooms in the east wing are let out to denizens of Halloween and to recursors who are brave (or stupid) enough to follow the signs that advertise a vacancy. Those who stay are usually safe as long as they remain in their rooms and don’t look for the source of strange noises or enter doors that weren’t there the night before. (The latter is a trap set by the resident bogeyman.)
The House on the Hill is owned by the witch Hazel Jenkins. Unlike the witch covens that inhabit Forest Hills, Hazel Jenkins works alone except for her familiar, Black Posie (a cat with paws like tiny human hands). She is also served by a household of scurrying slaves that she’s made of trick-or-treaters and a few recursors she’s caught on her property. (Over time, she’s caught an order of magnitude more trick-or-treaters than currently work for her as slaves because most catches become ingredients for her stew pot or her many experiments.)
Though it’s an ill-kept secret among other Powers of the Night, Hazel Jenkins is a monster-maker. She fashions monstrous creatures through magic, forced breeding, and bloody and painful surgeries. The entire attic level of her mansion is devoted to these practices, and many of the hopeless screams that echo out over Halloween originate from these slant-ceilinged rooms. She’s the one who created the pumpkin golems that now wander the Hollows. Her newest creations are swarms of bats with tiny faces of human children that cry like infants as they fly. Individually creepy, a swarm of crying bats is terrifying and can strip victims of their flesh in minutes, leaving nothing but bones.
Hazel Jenkins: level 7; health 32; Armor 3 from a spell; long-range fire attack inflicts 9 points of damage or turns victim into Hazel’s slave for one minute from a spell; fly a long distance each round on witch’s broom artifact
A large, hilly region on the outskirts and partly surrounding Halloween is home to several witch covens. The covens generally get along with one another, though sometimes magical turf wars, hard-fought with hexes and curses, light up the sky. The Coven of the Rusted Knife is the current Power of the Night that controls the neighborhood, which means the witches making it up share authority. The Rusted Knife recently fought off an attempt by the Starry Cauldron coven to usurp its position. Rusted Knife was finally victorious because its champion in a Trial by Monster proved the better witch, but a deep hatred between the two covens simmers just beneath the surface.
Each coven maintains a house or cave hidden in Forest Hills, usually accessible via the narrow paths that wind through the dark groves and jagged hills. Only some of these paths are safe. Knowing which coven is looking for trade and which wants fresh meat for the stew pot is information best garnered before wandering into the neighborhood. Once a visitor sees a black cat or other familiar staring back from the window of a dark house in the woods, it’s too late to flee.
Black Posie: level 4, all tasks related to stealth as level 6; able to manipulate objects as well as a human despite feline form
Crying bat swarm: level 5; melee attack inflicts 4 points of ambient damage on all targets within immediate range of each other
Witch: level 5, deception and disguise as level 7, Speed defense as level 6 due to familiar; health 21; attacks include shrivel and charm; can cast spell to gain +11 to health and +3 to Armor for one minute
Witch’s familiar: level 3; Armor 1; modifies a witch’s Speed defense by one step to the witch’s benefit
A broad stretch of property in Halloween is set aside for the Midnight Circus. Hundreds of patchwork tents, rickety rides, sideshow carts, games of chance, and sweets dealers move about from night to night. But the red-and-white big top tent is always visible at the center of the sprawl, usually glowing and flashing with entertainments going on within. (The big top tent is also where the Powers meet every eleven nights.) Rides, exhibitions, games, and special events are routinely staffed by shrunken “carnies” whose mouths have been sewn closed.
The Tattooed Woman is the Power controlling the Midnight Circus. When addressed, she prefers “Your Inked Majesty.” Her tattoos are elaborate and beautiful in a horrific sort of way and feature Halloween monsters—ghosts, witches, zombies, ghouls, skeletons, and so on. At her command, the tattoos animate, wiggle free from her skin, and do as she asks. This ability makes the Tattooed Woman one of the most feared Powers, and it helps to explain why the others agree to meet in the Midnight Circus instead of somewhere else.
Tattooed Woman: level 7; health 32; Armor 1; action to animate one or more personal tattoos that serve her without question
Animate tattoo creature: level 4; a killed victim fades and appears as another image on the Tattooed Woman’s flesh
Fabien: level 5, deception tasks as level 6
The Midnight Circus is a “safe” neighborhood to wander. But that’s not true of some of the rides, exhibitions, and games, including the Carousel of Chance and the exhibit featuring the Five-Headed Thing.
The caller for the Carousel of Chance is Fabien, a dapper clown dressed in orange. He advertises rides for 1 hard candy—or free for those willing to take a chance. “A great reward could be yours,” he claims, “if you’re willing to risk it all!” Those who take Fabien up on a ride without paying whirl around on a painted wooden horse for several fun-filled revolutions. When the carousel stops, these free-riders roll a d20. On a 17–20, the rider gains either a random cypher or 10 hard candies. On a 1 (or a GM Intrusion), the rider must succeed on a difficulty 5 Might-based task or become one of the shrunken, mouthless carnies who serve the Midnight Circus, or a tattoo on the Tattooed Woman’s flesh. This curse can be lifted, but only if a friend of the victim agrees to risk her own ride. On any roll other than a 1, the curse is lifted. On a 1, the carousel claims yet another victim.
A painted sign at the door of a yellow tent reads, “See the Five-Headed Thing! But never alone.” Tent visitors who ring a bell are graced by the appearance of a large hooded humanoid who enters the tent viewing area from the rear. When the humanoid draws the voluminous hood from its “head,” what’s revealed are five human-sized heads nestled in the upper body of a fat man. Four of the heads are gagged. The head that’s free to speak is cultured and urbane, but it doesn’t answer questions about the other heads. It offers to reveal a special secret to one visitor, but anyone else present must first leave the tent. Anyone left alone with the Five-Headed Thing is usually never seen again—though isn’t it odd how the gagged heads resemble the missing?
Five-headed thing: level 6; touch inflicts 4 points of Intellect damage (ignores Armor); killed victims incorporated as new face on thing
A trick-or-treater in the Hollows is long overdue, and the missing person’s children are desperate for someone brave enough to go looking for their parent in the House on the Hill. That’s where the trick-or-treater went to play a prank on Hazel Jenkins.
Even the covens seem terrified of a new presence that has invaded Forest Hills, a strange mist that has burned entire coven houses—and all the witches and warlocks unable to escape—to so much ash.
A shoemaker needs a champion to prove his claim against the Night Watchman and retrieve the spirit of his son from the Graveyard.
A Power of the Night who controls a relatively small neighborhood known as Wax Lane is looking for a model for a new series of wax mannequins. The pay is good, but models have a way of becoming an integral part of the work.
Level: 1d6+3
Origin: Halloween (emergent)
Law: Magic
Form: Blackened, rusted iron crown
Effect: When the wearer activates the crown, creatures within short range view him as a terrifying vision for one minute. An affected creature either stands frozen or runs away. If the wearer moves to within immediate range of an affected target and menaces that target, its terror is magnified; the target takes 3 points of damage that ignore Armor and can take no actions for one round. Each round in which the wearer menaces a single target requires an additional depletion roll.
Depletion: 1 in 1d20
| PLAYING THE GAME OF SCREAMS
To play a simplified game, the GM can have the players roll d20s on their turn and keep track of their total; the first player to reach 100 wins, if they’ve also got a Trick and a Treat. Each time a player rolls 5 or less on the d20, a Halloween-themed creature appears out of the game and menaces them until killed. When killed, a creature drops either a Trick (such as a loose tooth, a bag of dung, and so on) or a Treat (such as a hard candy, a cypher, or the like). |
Level: 1d6+4
Origin: Halloween (emergent)
Law: Magic
Form: Board game in a wooden box with a d20 and seven playing pieces
Effect: The game is linked to the recursion of Halloween and mediates effects between the two locations through game play. The basic rules are as follows: “Roll the die to move your token. The first one to reach the end with a Trick and a Treat wins. But beware: do not start unless you intend to finish. Finishing is the safest way to release those who become trapped.” See Playing the Game of Screams.
The game has a special property allowing it to translate between recursions as a cypher, though it does not count against a character’s cypher limit.
Depletion: 1 in 1d20 (Roll for depletion after a game is completed. If depleted, the game disappears and reappears in a random recursion.)
Level: 1d6+3
Origin: Halloween (mythological)
Law: Magic
Form: Brass lantern sculpted to resemble a
traditional Halloween pumpkin
Effect: When lit, the lantern provides bright light within immediate range and dim light within short range for one hour. The user can also call on various abilities of the lantern, including the following:
Depletion: 1 in 1d20
Level: 1d6+2
Origin: Halloween (mythological)
Law: Magic
Form: A 6-foot-long (2 m) wooden broom
Effect: As a vehicle, the broom can be ridden a long can move up to 100 miles (160 km) per hour.
Additionally, a witch's broom can induce a powerful hallucinogenic state in a user who desires it. Hallucinations last for four hours, during which time the difficulty of all tasks is increased by one step. After the hallucinations end, the difficulty of Intellect-based tasks is decreased by one step for ten minutes.
Depletion: 1 in 1d20