Wednesday, June 7, 2023

OSR Mini Campaign Commentary - 'His Flesh Becomes My My Key' By Venger Satanis - An Invisible College And Wretched Darkness Crossover mini campaign
























"Then the last days were upon me, and the ugly trifles of existence began to drive me to madness like the small drops of water that torturers let fall ceaselessly upon one spot of their victims body, I loved the irradiate refuge of sleep. In my dreams I found a little of the beauty I had vainly sought in life, and wandered through old gardens and enchanted woods."
Ex Oblivione  (1921) 
by H. P. Lovecraft


 I keep seeing Venger and the Red Room advertising The Outer Presence & the Wretchedverse rpg material together. Ages ago I ran Venger's His Flesh Becomes My Key with Wretchploitation but after a quick rereading of the adventure I was mistaken. The better of the Wretchedverse games would definitely be Wretched Darkness and the Invisible College rpg for this game adventure. The PC's here would have to be anti heroes with connections to the cops, the mafia, or organized crime or both. These PC's might also have to have some supernatural angle. His Flesh Becomes My Key is going to be centered around thier campaign city setting. And having run this adventure during Covid, the use of a pandemic running riot in the background might be interesting. The PC's are called into the manhunt of a serial killer by an old partner Richard Black. And this is a serial killer  who is racking up the body count;"I'm not sure what this latest serial killer wants. That's what I'm struggling with now, why I called you. His pattern seems random… and yet, there's something here, possibly something I can use to catch him. This latest victim makes three - a young woman, a college student. She was returning home from a lecture at Miskatonic University. The bastard cut into her - mutilated her body with symbols. I'm still researching them. Have you ever read the work of Thomas Alhazred Lovejoy? Here's a better idea - let's go over the case in person. Have your group meet me for coffee later tonight. I could really use a second opinion, any insight that'll help us track this son of a bitch down." Richard Black doesn't show and things spiral into obilvion from there.This promotion for the Wretched Darkness rpg really plugs into weirdness and vile aspect of "His Flesh Becomes My Key.' 



For the Invisible College of magus the events of 'His Flesh Becomes My Key' are spiraling outta of control. The cult of Typhon is going to be behind some of the events of this adventure but there's far more going on here. Reality itself could be unravelling and the players are going to need every trick in thier arsenal to reel it back in if its not too late. 


































"The other gods! The other gods! The gods of the outer hells that guard the feeble gods of earth! . . . Look away . . . Go back . . . Do not see! Do not see! The vengeance of the infinite abysses . . . That cursed, that damnable pit ."
The Other Gods
by H. P. Lovecraft

'His Flesh Becomes My Key' isn't simply investigation but it's got some real teeth to actually change a campaign across the board. And the player's PC's could be right in the middle of it. How? The player's PC's are deep into an almost but not quite John Carpenter apocalpyse film trilogy style situation. So there are going to be some very adult and hard choices along the way in this adventure. 
And this is what makes 'His Flesh Become My Key' solid for this style of campaign. The choices have real impact within the confines of the 'cosmicism' of the adventure. There has to be heroics or anti heroics against the framework within the adventure. This 'philosphy' isn't what we as DM's and players think it is, the wiki entry goes; "The philosophy of cosmicism states that "there is no recognizable divine presence, such as a god, in the universe, and that humans are particularly insignificant in the larger scheme of intergalactic existence."
And this blatantly goes deeply against the grain of the magickal underpinnings of the 'Invisible College' rpg and even to certain extent 'Wretched Darkness'. 
And in fact the key adventure events could lead into Wretched New Flesh Post Cards From Avalidad's Novanexus adventure. 





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