I’ve mentioned before that my other great lifelong love outside of TTRPGs has always been Halloween. As a child I loved the chance to dress up and pretend to be different characters. During my senior year of high school in 1988 I volunteered at the Cobblestone Arts Center Haunted House, in Rochester, NY. It was during this time that I learned to walk on stilts and have portrayed a 9′ version of Frankenstein’s monster for every year since.
While the crazy bar parties are behind me, I still manage to find an event to haunt every year. This year I was lucky enough to return to the Historic Irvington Halloween Festival in Indianapolis, Indiana. Named after Washington Irving, of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow fame, Irvington is a wonderful Halloween destination. The neighborhood has hosted the Halloween festival every year since 1947. The residents do an amazing job decorating and there are events throughout October leading up to the street festival itself. I’ll be back to regular posting next week but in the meantime, enjoy some spooky pictures.
My other great lifelong love outside of TTRPGs has always been Halloween. As a child I loved the chance to dress up and pretend to be different characters. During my senior year of high school I volunteered at the Cobblestone Arts Center Haunted House, in Rochester, NY. It was during this time that I learned to walk on stilts and have portrayed a 9′ version of Frankenstein’s monster for every year since.
This year we were lucky enough to get some friends together and head up to the Historic Irvington Halloween Festival in Indianapolis. I’ll be back to regular posting next week but in the meantime, enjoy some spooky pictures.
For my 2nd October post I am featuring a sinister squash. As I previously mentioned, sometimes our Halloween sessions are a bit too busy to focus on the meat of the campaign. When this happens, I will try to line up a one-off encounter for the evening.
This week’s entry should not take long at all. When I have used this in the past it has been with a low-level party, usually immediately following their first adventure.
What the Party Knows
The party has just arrived in the sleepy little village of Wiltenshire. The air is crisp and farmers are nearing the end of the harvest season. Despite being what would normally be a festive time of the year, the locals seem subdued.
Having rented rooms at the local inn, the Grinning Gourd, the party is settling in to a well-deserved meal, when a sudden commotion breaks out.
The door to the inn is flung open and a terrified farmer steps inside yelling “Gods save us! He’s back!” At that, he runs back outside and a number of the other patrons immediately stand up from their meals to join him. The individuals remaining behind appear paralyzed with terror, as they seem unable to choose between running for the door or hiding under their tables.
Should the party inquire about the nature of the disturbance. One of the patrons will turn and respond with a wild look in his eyes. “It’s the damned Pumpkin Fiend! He’s come back to kill us all.”
At this point you should tell the party that they smell something burning and can hear maniacal laughter coming from outside.
Wiltenshire. Created in Campaign Cartographer.
What Is Really Going On
Years ago, a young farmer name John Crane fell in love with the daughter of a prominent local official. The two planned to elope but the official did not approve of the pairing. Conspiring with other local farmers, a plan was hatched to dispatch Crane and bury his body in his own pumpkin patch. Each of the individuals taking part in the plot would then divvy up the Crane farmstead for themselves.
Prior to his death at the hands of the conspirators, John Crane vowed his revenge and swore that he would return to burn the village to the ground. The spirit of the wronged farmer clearly intends to make good on his threat and has returned every year during harvest time as the grotesque figure who the locals have dubbed the Pumpkin Fiend.
This creature has a body and limbs composed of twisted, gnarled vines, giving him an eerie and unnatural appearance. His head, the most unsettling feature, is a grotesque jack-o’-lantern with a menacing, malevolent grin. Sinister, flickering flames burn within the hollow confines of the pumpkin, casting eerie shadows.
The Pumpkin Fiend stands tall, his form exuding an aura of twisted vengeance. Vines writhe and twist around his limbs, forming claw-like appendages with thorny protrusions. He moves with an unsettling ease, as if he’s part of the very darkness that cloaks him.
Maniacal laughter escapes from the jagged mouth of his pumpkin head, echoing through the night and striking terror into the hearts of those unfortunate enough to encounter him. This once-wronged farmer has been transformed into a supernatural entity, driven by a sinister desire to exact retribution upon the village that wronged him years ago.
Abilities
Spring-Heeled Leap: As a bonus action, the Pumpkin Fiend can leap up to 30 feet to an unoccupied space that it can see.
Pumpkin Bombs: As a standard action, flaming pumpkins appear in the Pumpkin Fiend’s hands. He hurls these explosive pumpkin bombs at opponents or structures up to 15’ away. Use 10′ area-of-effect (AoE) templates to represent where the bombs land. Players must dodge or take cover to avoid damage.
Burning Debuff: If a player is hit by a pumpkin bomb, they will catch fire, taking damage over time until they use an action to put out the flames.
Fear Aura: The Pumpkin Fiend’s unnatural presence emits a 20’ aura of fear, causing players to make Wisdom saving throws or become frightened. Frightened characters have disadvantage on attacks and ability checks while the aura is active.
Entangle: As a standard action the Pumpkin Fiend can cast Entangle as the spell of the same name.
Wiltenshire. No labels.
The Encounter
There are 8 locations within the main center of the village:
Farmer’s Market
Blacksmith Shop
Grinning Gourd Inn
Stables
Cottage
Mercantile
Cottage
Cottage
Roll a 2d8 once the party decides to take a look outside. The result from the first d8 will indicate a structure that is already on fire by the time the party steps outdoors. The result from the second with indicate the structure that the Pumpkin Fiend is standing on top of, laughing maniacally.
Describe the scene to the party. The villagers themselves do not appear to be cut out for a fight. Some are fleeing, some paralyzed in fear, and the rest are actively trying to put out the fire at the burning structure.
If the party does not engage the Pumpkin Fiend, he will use his actions to continue leaping from building to building and light them ablaze with his pumpkin bombs. If he manages to light all 8 structures, he will caper off into the night, never to be heard from again.
However, If the party attempts to intervene, they will immediately draw the ire of the Pumpkin Fiend. He will attempt to use his Entangle ability to root the party and then burn them with his pumpkin bombs.
If the party defeats the Pumpkin Fiend, all that will remain of him will be his carved pumpkin head. Lifting this lid off this pumpkin will reveal the following items:
Ever-Burning Candle: This seemingly mundane candle will radiate magic. It functions as an ordinary candle and may be blown out. However, it does not melt and never needs to be replaced.
3 Packets of Pumpkin Spice: All non-magical food and drink sprinkled with one of these spice packets will be rendered free of poison and disease.
Mysterious Potion: A potion with an orange hue, labeled “Drink me” When consumed, it grants temporary visions that show the person who consumed it the fate of John Crane. Over the course of a few moments, the whole story of betrayal and murder will play out before their eyes. What the party chooses to do with that information is up to them.
Wrap Up
A selection of our pumpkins from a couple years back.
Thank you for joining me for another week. I’ll be keeping with the Halloween theme for the rest of the month. How about you? Do you decorate at all for Halloween? Do you carve pumpkins of your own? Let me know in the comments below. I appreciate you stopping by.
Halloween has always held a special place in my heart. As a child, it was a time of magic, when dressing up in costumes transformed me into anything I could imagine. Growing up in the 1970s, I can recall donning the guise of a pirate, a gorilla from The Plant of the Apes, and a Sleestak, all before the age of 7.
Those early years of pretend play laid the foundation for a lifelong love of storytelling. As I started reading books, my imagination grew, and when I was introduced to tabletop role-playing games everything truly blossomed.
With the leaves starting to change, my thoughts are turning to Halloween. I love to incorporate the spooky season into my game night, so I thought I share some things I have done in the past. I am going to share some links but only to provide examples. I am in no way affiliated with any of these sites.
Squaring off with the Invisible Man at the Midwest Haunter’s Convention 2012.
Set the Stage
It doesn’t take much to make your gaming space take on a spooky appearance. Simply dimming the lights, lightning a few candles, and playing some ambient Halloween music can go a long way. To take things a step further, some basic decorations can usually be found without making too great of an investment. For overachievers, consider asking each of your players to bring a carved jack-o-lantern to the session.
Perhaps Add Some Food
I have mentioned before that our game nights tend to be accompanied by a meal. Well, for our Halloween session we try to really turn things up a notch. Last year we paired these pizza skulls with hot dog mummies and both were a big hit around the table.
We provided these cocktails, which we dubbed “Spooky Sunsets” for the occasion. For our friends who don’t drink, we whipped up a batch of this copycat Hi-C Ecto Cooler.
Too much bother? Simply buying a bag of Halloween candy and sprinkling it on your gaming table is sure to be a hit with your players.
Run A Spooky Game
Despite definitely getting together for a Halloween session, we often avoid our regular campaign for this night. Sometimes we’ll opt for a one-shot, while on other occasions we may roll with something other than an RPG. Here are a few examples that have fit the bill over the years.
I must have run the classic I6 Ravenloft at least a dozen times for Halloween related sessions since the 1980s. Here’s a link to a great video about turning this old standby into something fit for a single evening’s play.
This is a steal at $4 and if you’ve never tried Call of Cthulhu, you won’t find a better point of entry.
You’d be hard pressed to get much creepier than Call of Cthulhu. Even if you’ve never dipped a toe into this legendary game of Lovecraftian horror, you have plenty of time to prepare (and the price is right). Chaosium is offering the Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition Quick-Start Rules for whopping price of $.04 over on DriveThruRPG. Not only does this include everything needed to get up and running but it also includes the classic adventure The Haunting.
I ran The Haunting a couple years ago for a group that had never touched CoC and everyone was on the edge of their seat. If you do decide to go this route, I strongly suggest watching a couple videos ahead of time, to get a feel for how to best run the adventure. Here is a great example.
While not a traditional RPG, Alice is Missingmight be a good fit. Alice Briarwood, a high school junior, has gone missing and it’s up to the players to get to the bottom of it. Alice Is Missing is a unique kind of roleplaying game in which players only communicate using their phones, sending text messages to each other as they unearth clues about what happened to Alice.
While I’m told this can be played online, we played in person and that seemed to really ratchet up the tension. This one can get a little heavy, so it may be best to play with folks you know well. We had a good time with it and it lead to a lot of good conversation after the session.
Occasionally we’ll forego playing a RPG altogether and opt for enjoying a board game for the evening. There are a number that fit the bill but we’ve found that Betrayal at House on the Hilland Mysteriumboth work nicely.
Add Some Spooky Elements to Your Ongoing Campaign
It’s certainly possible that you want to roll right along with your ongoing game while still giving things a little touch of Halloween. If that’s the case, I’ll try to lend a hand. For the rest of the month, I will focus my posts on maps and little plot hooks that should be easy to fit into an existing campaign. I’ll do my best to help spread a little Halloween cheer that you can share with your players.
Closing
So, do You Incorporate Halloween Into Your Game Night? If so, please take a moment and leave a comment to let me know what you do with your group. I’m always curious to pick up some new suggestions.
While I’ve got you, do you recall any favorite Halloween costumes from your youth (or more recently)? I’m a stilt-walker in my spare time and have spent the past 35 years as a 9’ tall version of Frankenstein’s monster.
That’s all for now. Thanks for taking the time to stop by and have a great week.
For information about the Village of Cross Tree, go here.
Talaraska 