Evil Christmas and Adventures within New York City

Last game the players ended up saving Christmas. The holiday is still a week away but it was our last game together so I made a holiday themed adventure on the epic side of things.

Santa was for some reason in the Appalachian mountains, corrupted by the Book of Terrible things (or the Naughty List as most might know it) which has been recording the sins of humanity for so long it seems to have gained sentience.

The players fought some giant toy tanks and life-sized tin soldiers with permanent stuck on smiles. They did pretty well, though known of them can pilot a tank for shit and this almost got them blown up several times.

Santa's elves were building these war machines because of all the evil corruption going and the players decided it might be a good idea to stop this. That, and they discovered that Santa planned on shifting the poles which would have nearly destroyed the magnetosphere, which would have been bad for pretty much the entire planet.

Other highlights of the adventure include the players narrowly escaping a weeping angel made of ice, befriending a top hat-wearing ice elemental named Frosty, and getting there names written in a book that messed them up pretty bad.

The final fight with Santa included mind control on both sides, homicidal knife-wielding elves, flying reindeer, and two characters nearly dieing. This battle was made even more complicated by the fact that the players were getting dose with magic that increased their powers. But also made their bodies pour out energy and their abilities go haywire. Think telekinetic storms, swarms of summoned spiders, and floods.

Most of the time the players looked like this. I've been watching a lot of Doctor Who recently.

They ended up surviving the process and freeing Santa from his possession. As a reward he offered to teleport them and the car they are so fond of to wherever they wanted to go. They recently found out about a shady business called the Nero Corporation in New York City so that's where they chose to go.

It was an incredible session. Several of the players told me how it was out best game yet and ended up being quite epic. We won't play again until after our winter break so that was basically a season finale for us.

And I could not have a better option for a season premier. Throughout this campaign I've had vague ideas about what can be found throughout this semi-magical Earth I've been building. I've tried to keep most of these ideas loose so I can easily respond to the players.

New York is a big place even without supernatural elements. It's safe to say a lot goes on there. You could spend an entire campaign in the city in a variety of genres. I'm not sure how long the players will want to stay in New York but getting into the Nero Corporation won't be easy so chances are they'll be spending at least a couple sessions there.

I'm trying not to let myself get overwhelmed with what all I could put together but there are a few things I want to focus on. I'll probably expand on these in a later post:

-An area of decadence: The upper crust of society hiding out in high-rise penthouse apartments. Making multi-million dollar business deals and spending the gains on often times corrupt hobbies. This could include personal armies of adventurers to gather artifacts for them, dealing with expensive, and often times enchanted, artwork, throwing elaborate parties, and secret murders or potential rivals.

-An area of delinquency: Like the show misfits minus the accents. Everything is punk rock, recreational drug use, one-night stands, and superpowers. Nearly everyone in this area has a criminal record of some kind though it's often. Everybody is scrounging around to make a decent living but a select few have a wish of theirs answered by a gaining a superpower one day. This of course creates quite a bit of chaos.

Not sure yet what all this is going to entail but I'll try and keep posting about it. Let me know what you think especially if you have any ideas of your own.

A Chart of Terrible Things

My players are about to go up against someone very much like Santa (the holidays are coming up) and his first mode of attack after they mess with his shit is trying to figure out their names.

Once he does that he can add them to The Naughty list. At least that's what he calls it, it's also a slightly telepathic book of really evil things and causes terrible things to happen to those who have their names written in it.

Before you say anything, this is totally like the Book of Vile Darkness and the Death Note from the show Death Note. I'm glad it is because those things are cool.

Here's what can happen to you if your name is written in the book. Feel free to use it as a random curse chart as well.


1- random possession turned to coal
2- shadows writhe around you and attack at ill-opportune moments
3- vomit up stomach contents and can't keep anything down very easily
4- confronted by your worst fear
5- a loved one turns on you
6- you feel constantly embarrassed and uncomfortable, this makes it hard to do most things especially talk to people
7- vital organ is separated from rest of body, still functions but is very vulnerable, must be carried and protected
8- greatest weakness is exaggerated
9- hears constant whispering, can't hear as well, will eventually go mad
10- all body hair turns to webs, at best this is highly itchy, they will bite if someone tries to remove them, if player has venom/poison so will the spiders
11- a terrible deed you once did is now done to you
12- you develop a craving for your own flesh
13- Terrible luck, critical failure three times as often
14- you sweat blood, also pours from eyes, ears, nose, and mouth
15- teeth grow extremely long and twist together, cannot talk or eat unless broken or fixed
16- become brittle like glass, when your struck you tend to crack or shatter
17- dead loved one rises as murderous intelligent zombie and will come after you (think blackest night) they'll likely rise where they were buried (though they may just appear near you) either way you'll feel the dread as they track you down
18- people around you are compelled to tell you terrible things and critique you
19- change genders (may not be so bad)
20- your own personal plague follows you around, this can be anything from locusts to a cloud of fire, it'll act fairly randomly but mostly in your disinterest

I'll leave it up to you on how player's can reverse these curses. For me it's going to be some heavy duty magic or ritual, or maybe just invisible ink over their names. The book's pages are normally indestructible so you can't just tear your name out.

There's also a Nice list and having your name in that can cancel out any effects of the Naughty list. Just having your name in that book gives you a random benefit that I may post later.
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