Morgan's Illusion Horror Community Con 2025 Excellent Adventures

I guess attendees of Illusion Horror Con think waiting a whole year is too long, so they got together and put together an impromptu online convention mid-year.

I signed up for several games and only got into two. But both games were excellent.

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Fri 4-8pm (4 hrs)

The Salvation of Honest Jakob

System: Legends of the Khurst Riders

GM: Jerod Leupold (JerodLeupold)

6 PCs (3 signed up): Robert (rocinante_on_focus as Kid Wekeyo), Leslie (ImaginationAscendent as Tennessee Azir), Morgan Hua as Shen Black

New Players Welcome

Pre-game discussion, X-Card, Lines and Veils

Pre-generated characters will be provided

Content Warnings: Demonic Possession, Saloon of Ill Repute, Squirmy Body Horror

No VTT - Theater of the Mind only.

One of the workers at Paradise South, the finest saloon of finest entertainments, has come down with something a little more serious than the morbs. The Baroness would love to get a favor from the owner. If Madame Lili can’t handle it, it must be something not right.

Each of the Riders is sworn 1 soul if they figure out what is infecting Gail Toussant and stop it from spreading. Bring your iron, gird your beliefs, the soul you save may be your own.

Interesting system. Roll a dice pool of d6s. Each 6 = +Legend pt; each 1 = +doom pt (for the GM, much like Modiphius 2d20 system). Pick two dice out of your dice pool (generally the two highest) and sum them. Success requires a 9. But you can spend Legend pts to add dice from your dice pool to your die roll (one for one). For combat, it's an opposed roll, same rule applies. For example if you rolled 4d6 (6, 4, 3, 2) = 10, but if you spend the Legend pt gained in the roll, it'll be 13; and if you spend a banked Legend pt, it'll be 15.

PCs have only 3 Attributes (Brawns, Brains, Belief) each with their dice pools, and 6 Skills (Bully'n, Charm'n, Fight'n, Find'n, Fix'n, Weasel'n) each with their dice pools. Add Attribute + Skill = dice pool. My PC's dice pools ranged from 3 to 7. Attributes were used for save throws.

My PC's dice pools

PCs had special talents that let you break the rules, gain or spend Legend points. PCs started with 1 Legend pt.

Overall, we had a good table of players and a good scenario. Also an excellent GM.

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We're sent to find out what's ailing Gail. The bar is full of quack doctors trying to find a cure for her and as we arrive, one flees screaming about a million moths. There's a 10 silver reward for curing her.

After poking around a bit, the PCs learn that Gail had recently visited a travelling preacher, Honest Jakob, in a tent revival.

We eventually enter her room upstairs and find her tied down in the bed. Before she can commit defenestration by telekinetically shoving a night stand at one of us, Tennessee just strides into the room and punches her (Quick Draw talent). Shen then Banishes the Dead and forces a flood of worms out of her mouth, finally squishing the last remaining one, the largest, under his boot. Gail is cured and we get paid. She does tell us she was baptized in big silver bowl when she visited the preacher. She also told us the caravan was heading to New London via Purity.

We trail the caravan to a valley and see some locals heading home from the revival tent already set up, further back is their camp with Conestoga wagons and one wooden Gypsy wagon around a campfire.

PCs sneak to the Gypsy wagon with Tennessee hanging back with a rifle. Kid and Shen notice a light in the wagon, but can't see inside. The camp followers are a bit weird, sort of zombie-like. Shen lights a small fire at one of the wagon wheels of the Gypsy wagon. Kid and Shen sneak away to see what happens.

An alarm is raised. The fire is being put out, but the preacher rushes inside the Gypsy wagon and rescues his undead bride who is holding a book. He kisses her dead mouth and she kisses back (so much ick).

The bride senses Shen and Jakob sends his minions to find us. Tennessee blows away the brides head, exploding it like a watermelon, she drops the book. Kid runs drawing away the camp followers. Shen curses Jakob with the 100 Year Dance where he dances uncontrollably. The zombies hesitate when the bride's head explodes, but they recover. The headless corpse still moves. Tennessee shoots her again, blowing away her ribcage. Shen picks up the book, finds it has a small taint, but nothing with the power he is seeing, so he uses the book to punt the bride into the campfire. Shen throws the book into the fire too. The corpse screams as it burns.

In the end, Jakob explains that he had made a deal with a cross-roads demon to bring his bride back to life, but her enchantment kept him from seeing her true form. Part of the deal was that he must feed the worms in an old sealed vase, but the worms (too small to see) get into the baptismal font and infect people.

GM also told us we were the fastest group to put down Gail. We did it in the first round. In one game, a PC got pushed out of the window and then got visited with horrible visions when he rushed back into her room.

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Sat 10am-2pm (4 hrs)

Winter Drums

System: Vaesen

GM: David Whitworth (dr_haegldagz)

5 PCs: Martin (penny676  as Chauncy 'Brick' Morgan - pugilist), SaccharineChokingHazard as Sergiusz Szymanski - soldier, Arbor (ItsArborDay as William Gidwin - writer), Joel (WanderingWonderer as Dagmar - vagabond),  Morgan Hua as Johann Ludwig - doctor

New Players Welcome, Beginner Friendly

Pre-game discussion, X-Card, Lines and Veils

Pre-generated characters will be provided

Content Warnings: Lost love, death, war

No VTT - Theater of the Mind only.

A young boy appears to be under some form of spell and has taken to wondering around the frozen Norfolk Broads at night. His father is worried about him and has sent a letter to the Society to ask for help. As members of the Order of Artemis you travel to the Victorian town of Potter Heigham to investigate the strange goings on and delve into the history of lost loves, a changing environment and the perils of war. This is the second of a series of Vaesen scenarios I am working on based in the East Anglian country side and the myths and legends from this haunted land.

GM based the game on the folklore from his local area, East Anglian in the UK.

We had a good smart table, but maybe too many Players. I did like this scenario more than the other game I played in because this was a little bit less straight forward as we tried to understand what was going on.

Excellent GM and good atmospheric effects.

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The town, Potter Heigham, is turning into a touristy area and there's tension between the poor locals and the well-to-do tourists. After navigating this maze of hate, the PCs learn that Thomas Wiston, the Drummer Boy, is a local legend. He disappeared when trying to meet his love on the frozen lake. Stories are that his ghost can be seen skating on the lake. Drumming can be heard. 8-9 teen locals have disappeared over the decades.

At some point, the PCs weren't sure whether the ghost was of Thomas the Drummer Boy or his love, Gwendolyn. Or a combination of both, two ghosts trying to locate each other.

PCs recover his uniform, drum, and drumsticks from Thomas's living relatives. And Gwendolyn's locket from her granddaughter. After doing a seance, the PCs learn they need to tell the ghost its story to put it to rest.

PCs follow Hubert Fields at night, who's in a trance, to the Broad. The PCs split up, 1/2 row a boat (with the recovered items), 1/2 follow Hubert and shine a Hurricane Lamp, so the rowboat can follow.

The ghost shows up, skating on the water. PCs tell both the ghost and Hubert the story. The PCs in the boat, who are floating above the boy's unburied corpse, give the locket and drumsticks to the ghost. The ghost takes the offerings and disappears. Hubert's trance is broken, before he puts on his skates and drowns in the Broad, and the PCs onshore take him back home.

This seems a bit straight forward, but we had to follow various clue trails to get all the items and figure out what was going on. This involved talking to people, looking at paintings, looking for missing newspaper articles, looking up local legends, etc..

Overall, I really liked the mystery and the atmosphere, especially the drumming that Hubert makes when he was under the spell. Also all the lost love dreams the PCs had while in Potter Heigham.

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