Review: Forgive Us (2014)
A review of Kelvin Green's highly contagious dungeoncrawl for Lamentations of the Flame Princess.
Written and illustrated by Kelvin Green, with layout and book design by Eero Tuovinen.
Forgive Us is a collection of low level adventures published in 2014 for Lamentations of the Flame Princess, centered around Norwich, England in 1625. In addition to the titular dungeon crawl, Forgive Us, there are two perfunctory adventures included: In Heaven, Everything is Fine, and Funeral for a Friend. I ran the former, but not the latter.
SPOILERS BELOW
In Heaven, Everything is Fine
The Story
In Heaven, Everything is Fine is a five page adventure that sends the players to the village of Ashmanhaugh to investigate rumors of a ghost. The village has actually fallen prey to a parasitic alien that has been feeding on its population while projecting the illusion of peace and prosperity. The ghost, as it turns out, is one of the few remaining living villagers, and isn't perceived by the alien. Tales of the ghost are just his attempts to break through the illusion to ward off visitors. The alien has disguised itself as the resurrected infant son of a local farmer who is more than happy to believe it is a miracle.
The Book
Green provides the setup to the story, and a means to an end, but little for everything in between. There are five NPCs and a table for "paranormal" encounters, all of which are malleable enough to improvise with. There's an illusory dungeon that promises riches, but it's mostly a red herring designed to prolong the PCs presence within the alien's sphere of influence. It is up to the players to string it all together.
Running the Game
After feeding my players a bunch of quest hooks, this was the one they chose to pursue first. All they knew going in, was that they were investigating rumors of a ghost, and that they would be rewarded handsomely if they arrested whomever was responsible.
After Action Report
My players happened to arrive in town on a Sunday, so to avoid accusations of recusancy, they attended the church service. The Vicar, when questioned about strange happenings, mentioned the resurrection of the baby, but thought it was a miracle (which are only performed by Saints and are heretical to protestants, oops). Immediately realizing that this baby was probably the devil, the party was still reluctant to kill an infant without confirmation.
Suddenly, a spooky manor appeared in the distance! And everyone in town recalled that it had always been there, and it was haunted by the ghost of a corrupt merchant—oh did we forget to mention that? They say his treasure is still inside! There is no provided dungeon in this adventure, so I grabbed some random tables and rolled one up. Given its obvious falsehood, I didn't want to make it too long or have it drag on. I kept mine to three rooms, which felt right for the begrudging silliness.
After opting to burn the manor to the ground, the party tried to leave, only to find themselves in a loop on the road out of town. Seeing no other option, they returned to ice that baby. With its back against the wall, the alien resorted to Army of Darkness type shenanigans to save its own life: spawning a clone that leapt between rooftops, blew raspberries at the players, and flipped them the finger. The real "baby" then leapt from his father's arms, made a sprint across the village center, and was torn limb from limb by the party's war dogs.
Final Thoughts
This was a serviceable adventure. There's no real immediate danger and only one clear solution, so what it all boils down to is: do your players have what it takes to kill a baby? On reflection, that is basically the same premise of Kelvin Green's own Midvinter, which was better than this, so if this question interests you, check that adventure out instead. I think slotting it into a wider campaign as an optional quest was the best way to do it. I don't know that I would have sat my group down to specifically play this one—there are better one shots to run out there—but they were self motivated to pursue this quest so it worked out!
Map of Norwich by William Cunninghan, 1558.
Forgive Us
The Story
Norwich is the domain of The Tenebrous Hand, a criminal organization that keeps the authorities under its thumb through a campaign of bribery and blackmail. One day, some of their enterprising members broke into the house of a local merchant looking for easy money, and instead discovered a shrine to a god of pestilence. Turns out the merchant is a cultist in the Brotherhood of Pus, a secret society that believes disease to be a blessing. They stole one of his artifacts and took it back to their complex. Naturally, some idiot messed with it and unleashed a highly contagious plague that mutated its victims. After a vicious struggle, the Hand managed to contain the infection by locking the complex down and barricading themselves within the vaults.
Forgive Us is set two days after the initial outbreak. The players have been tasked to break into the Hand's complex and recover the blackmail held in those very vaults. Their commission will lead them to direct contact with this highly infectious disease, a horde of its carriers, and the risk of total outbreak across the city and perhaps island.
The Book
The bulk of this adventure is the keyed dungeon: a complex of nine, multi-story, interlinked buildings. It's an intricate setting, but the book is so well written and laid out you could probably run it with 15 or so minutes of prep. Most buildings of the dungeon are limited to a single page, but there are a few spreads with illustrative maps on one side and concise descriptions on the other. There's usually enough room leftover for an illustration as well. Much like Midvinter, this module was a breeze to run. The only real notes I took were on my changes to the backstory, and highlighting some key descriptors for the rooms. Following the dungeon are some additional story elements you can use to flesh out the adventure, like the merchant's home and a rival band of mercenaries to crash their party.
Running the Game
Since I was weaving this into a sandbox, I had the opportunity to sow the seeds of this adventure on their first journey through Norwich to Ashmanhaugh. Entering the city, my players encountered some members of the Hand robbing buskers in broad daylight. They put the bandits down, returned the money, and spoke to the only local authority willing to listen—a Serpico type sheriff that lamented the fact that the Hand not-so-secretly ran Norwich.
Upon the party's return from Ashmanhaugh, they met with the High Sheriff, Sir Thomas Windham: a monstrous, blighted, Baron Harkonnen type that enjoyed the generosity of the city's merchants—The Brotherhood of Pus—a little too much.
Meeting Sir Thomas Windham, High Sheriff of Norwich, June 1640. Art by me.
Needless to say, they politely declined to enter his service, opting to help the trustworthy Sheriff instead. He wanted the blackmail documents held by the Hand so that he could oust the corrupt city councilors. The party resolved to break into the complex under the cover of darkness, and the adventure began…
After Action Report
Wanting to keep a low profile, my players decided to visibly leave Norwich, then re-enter the next night through the cramped chalk tunnels beneath the city. Down in the dark, they randomly encountered a group of Hand members, and in the ensuing chaos, the party's magic-user was accidentally shot and killed by a friendly.
"We're in a small enclosed tunnel, if he misses this shot, will one of us get hit instead?"
"Nah nah, only if he rolls a crit fail."
It was already a disaster, but they won the fight and interrogated the Hand for intel: "The complex has been on lockdown for days now. No one in or out". After hauling their dead friend back to their horses, they pressed on to the Hand's complex. The thief climbed the gate to the alley, spotted the hungry dogs in the courtyard, then broke into the carpenter's shop and immediately happened upon the bloody scene depicted on the cover of the book. Excellent way to set the stage. Exploration proceeded exactly like the Norwegian base in The Thing. William Hyde, crazed sole survivor, was deemed bothersome—although his sense of responsibility for quarantining was lauded—and he was killed.
The party eventually unlocked the Hand's secret vault, where the horde of Things had built their nest. They planned to use the pit trap outside the door as the moat for their fallback point. Anything chasing after them would be funneled into the pit and burned alive.
Three brave souls ventured into the gloomy vaults.
"Is there a sconce we can light?"
Above them, a hive, writhing. First panic, then gunfire. No time to think.
They retreated and funneled the horde into their bonfire pit trap. Six were consumed by the flames, but it was clear they were overrun. The party was split in two as they all fled through the nearest exits and barricaded the doors behind them. The fighter, who had been first into the vault—and coincidentally, the man responsible for the friendly fire and aggroing the horde—was infected in the escape.
If a tentacle hits the victim, they must save versus Poison or become infected. Thereafter, the victim must save versus Poison once per hour until either they fail a number of times equal to their Hit Dice or Cure Disease is cast on them. With each failure the victim becomes more and more mutated, until on the final failed roll they – in a Carpenteresque explosion of gore – turn into a mutant thing.
Art by Kelvin Green
The next 15 minutes played out a scene familiar to anyone that has seen a zombie movie. The fighter started downplaying the infection and pleading for help, but unfortunately for him, my party is ruthless, and just happened to finish an Alien campaign where they indiscriminately put down anyone suspected of infection. Realizing his certain demise, he changed tactics and appealed to the holier members of the party to seek a cure from the church. They obliged and set off across town.
While they were out getting help, the party's priest had the idea to bless a trough of water and submerge the fighter until he was cleansed of the demonic presence. The fighter was somehow convinced to relinquish his guns and bind himself for this exorcism. Once bound, he was submerged and held under holy water as he burned and gasped for air. His screams reverberated through the silent streets (it was probably not the first witching hour murder the neighbors had ignored). Alas, the infection proved to be stronger than its host, and after much suffering, the fighter was drowned before he could be cleansed.
As GM, How would you adjudicate this? I had the PC and the monster NPC—set at half health due to its immaturity—roll Poison saving throws each round. On a failed save, I rolled damage. If the monster had died first, the PC would have been cleansed of the infection (and probably traumatized from drowning and burning alive). If they had given up before either outcome, the “anointing” would have probably awarded a bonus to the next disease save.
By dawn, with the help of their sheriff friend Serpico, a perimeter had been established around the complex. Naturally, a large crowd followed. One foolhardy townsman tried to stir up a mob to overpower the demons in the basement and was chastised for his stupidity. Still, the party accepted the help of the eager men and posted them on the roof of the complex with guns. When the dog in the butcher's shop—which had been pounding on the door the entire time—finally escaped, everyone fired. Only one man hit though: the foolhardy townsman. Overconfident, he jumped down into the courtyard to settle the matter with an ax and had his throat ripped out in kind. The mutant dog was eventually slain, and one player character, who had been plying the Hand's hungry war dogs with rations all night, finally befriended them and claimed them for the party.
Art by Kelvin Green
With that matter settled, the party returned their attention to the loot in the vaults. Using whale oil, they burned and smoked out the remaining infected in the cellars. Instructing everyone to wait outside while they made sure it was clear, they then ransacked the vaults, leaving behind just the copper pieces as a consolation prize. Most everything fit in their backpacks, save the large cumbersome mirror, which they insisted to everyone was cursed and that they should stay back.
In speaking with Serpico before leaving town, they learned that William Burnaby, the merchant who's artifact had unleashed this plague, was a friend of the creepy High Sheriff. That would be a problem for another day though. They had loot to pawn.
Final Thoughts
I loved this. I have always struggled with the "rational" explanation behind dungeoncraft, but Forgive Us is set in a location that makes sense while retaining the classic dungeoncrawl experience. The stakes here are high, and to sell them, you must be willing to commit to completely derailing your campaign by turning it into a zombie apocalypse game. I made my threat clear, and as a result my players' creativity and determination rose to meet the challenge. This is the promise of the OSR.
You can purchase Forgive Us by Kelvin Green on DriveThruRPG.