OSR Commentary On SURVIVE THIS!! What Shadows Hide: The Roleplaying Game & Nightshift: Veterans of the Supernatural Wars rpg - What Shadows Hide Cthulhu Sourcebook - Session Five

 "Created by Eric Bloat & Josh Palmer, SURVIVE THIS!! What Shadows Hide  is a standalone roleplaying game and does not require any additional gaming material to play. However, as part of the SURVIVE THIS!! game line, What Shadows Hide is 100% fully compatible with SURVIVE THIS!! ZOMBIES!, DARK PLACES & DEMOGORGONS, VIGILANTE CITY, and SURVIVE THIS!! FANTASY, We Die Young, and can be used to mix and match to create your own custom play experiences."

We've been dealing with the horde of vampires that had been unleashed on The Tabitha Township from October 1st session. We picked up after sacrificing one of the blessed statues that we'd recovered from the vampire's lair. Explosives and holy water plus blessed shrapnel took out the rest of the swarm of vampires. We knew the head vampire was leaving these hordes to slow us down. But whom was his contact in town?

We looked into our local contact Irwin 'Patch' Ferrelli the local pawn shop & occult expert. When our party arrived we found the shop bathed in a harsh blue light and the front door open! Patch was no where to be found but we heard multiple demonic whispers coming from the walls and the ceiling. In the back of the shop we found 'Patch' floating above the floor with his black stone near by. 
We came face to face with the 'Architect' a supernatural entity wreathed in blue flayed skin and leather. 'Oh you've come from your friend have you? He's but a bit of bait to get you here' The game goes on and we continue to play' You may have your friend back for now after all he's used goods'. Patch fell to the floor in a heap covered in a multitude of cuts and scars that were already starting to fade?! 'Come East if you dare and your friend knows the way'. 

Patch, the Pawn Shop Proprietor

• Name: "Patch" (he rarely gives his real name)
• Appearance: A man in his late 50s or early 60s, with a gruff but kind face. He has a jagged, faded scar running from his left temple down across the bridge of his nose and over his right eye. He often wears a worn, leather-and-patchwork vest over a plain shirt and his hands show signs of hard work and a few old bullet wounds.
• Personality:
  • Quirk: He has a habit of polishing a small, smooth, black stone he keeps in his vest pocket, always seeming to talk to it under his breath.
  • Catchphrase: "Things ain't always what they seem, kid. Especially not in this city."
  • Disposition: Gruff and wary, but with a hidden sense of humor. He doesn't suffer fools but will help those he sees as genuine. He has a deep-seated respect for the supernatural, born of hard-earned experience.
• Role in the Game:
  • Information Broker: Patch's pawn shop is a hub for rumors and gossip. He can provide information on supernatural activity, strange occurrences, and people of interest, though he may require a favor or a trade for it.
  • Unique Gear Merchant: While his shop has a stock of ordinary goods, he often has bizarre and occasionally powerful supernatural artifacts or items he's acquired over the years. Some may be mundane but have a strange story, while others might be genuinely useful (or dangerous).
• Goals:
  • Survival: His primary goal is to survive another day, which he does by staying ahead of the supernatural world's dangers and trading to keep his business afloat.
  • Redemption: He carries a heavy burden of guilt from past mistakes made during the supernatural wars and might be looking for a way to atone for them.
• Connection to the Players: Players might seek him out for a rare item, a piece of information, or even to get rid of something they found. Patch can serve as an unexpected ally, a quest-giver, or an old friend who's seen it all. He can also provide an opportunity for the players to impact the world by helping him, getting him out of a jam, or using his knowledge to their advantage. 

Over the next few days we nursed Patch back too health and he gave us 

the Gaalvantic compass. This occult item belonged to the 'Flayed Hand' cult 

and always pointed in the direction of 'Hell's' influence. 

We packed up our kit 
& began the process of moving on knowing that the vampire horde 

were 'mercenaries' working for the greater supernatural threat. 

Time to move on.  

OSR Commentary On SURVIVE THIS!! What Shadows Hide: The Roleplaying Game & Nightshift: Veterans of the Supernatural Wars rpg - What Shadows Hide Cthulhu Sourcebook - Session Four

 "Created by Eric Bloat & Josh Palmer, SURVIVE THIS!! What Shadows Hide is a standalone roleplaying game and does not require any additional gaming material to play. However, as part of the SURVIVE THIS!! game line, What Shadows Hide is 100% fully compatible with SURVIVE THIS!! ZOMBIES!, DARK PLACES & DEMOGORGONS, VIGILANTE CITY, and SURVIVE THIS!! FANTASY, We Die Young, and can be used to mix and match to create your own custom play experiences."

We pick right up with us going back too our lair and then we noticed a cloud of what seemed like ashes moving against the wind. They weren't ashes! Instead they were more of the cult of wild vampires that we fought the last time coming to finish off the job! We got out a pair of small flame throwers and boy did they come in handy. While they lasted! 

 We started in with a horde of wild vampires coming onto our heroes hot. They started attacking our ride a customized Eighties jeep/bus hybrid. And this session picks right up from our last session on September 15th.  We fought them then with tooth and claw as well as spells. The monsters came thick and fast as we figured out what happened to Tabitha Township! The vampires had come to town and consumed the whole thing! 
We fought hard and managed to put a dent into the horde! Father Merick our Catholic priest used a blessed spell right in the middle of the horde and things went side ways for a moment as we lost them! We made it back to our lair! 

OSR Commentary On SURVIVE THIS!! What Shadows Hide: The Roleplaying Game & Nightshift: Veterans of the Supernatural Wars rpg - What Shadows Hide Cthulhu Sourcebook - Session III

  "Created by Eric Bloat & Josh Palmer, SURVIVE THIS!! What Shadows Hide is a standalone roleplaying game and does not require any additional gaming material to play. However, as part of the SURVIVE THIS!! game line, What Shadows Hide is 100% fully compatible with SURVIVE THIS!! ZOMBIES!, DARK PLACES & DEMOGORGONS, VIGILANTE CITY, and SURVIVE THIS!! FANTASY, We Die Young, and can be used to mix and match to create your own custom play experiences."

After dealing with most of the cult from last adventure session, our werewolf was almost overwhelmed by a bunch of vampire spawn. These horrors nearly drained him dry by over whelming him and dragging the poor bastard underground. 

We followed hot on their trail and managed to recover 6 kids then let the authorities know about the other kids in the underground facility. We found Walley E. our werewolf almost drained of all blood. We weren't ready for the Spider From Leng that had been summoned from the Nightmare dimensions. This thing almost took out our entire party! It took all seven of us to route this thing and force it back from whence it came. 

The vampire spawn escaped which means we're going to have to track, slay, and stake these undead horrors. This is a major pain in the arse for our party of adventurers. 
The vampire spawn had left a wounded member of their kind behind and our ghoul was able to feed on it's brain. We got the low down on where they were headed and that was back to the lair of the cult of Nyarlathotep's lair deep in the countryside. We're still on the track of our missing team mates. More coming up! 

OSR Commentary On SURVIVE THIS!! What Shadows Hide: The Roleplaying Game & Nightshift: Veterans of the Supernatural Wars rpg - What Shadows Hide Cthulhu Sourcebook Session Report II

 " Created by Eric Bloat & Josh Palmer, SURVIVE THIS!! What Shadows Hide is a standalone roleplaying game and does not require any additional gaming material to play. However, as part of the SURVIVE THIS!! game line, What Shadows Hide is 100% fully compatible with SURVIVE THIS!! ZOMBIES!, DARK PLACES & DEMOGORGONS, VIGILANTE CITY, and SURVIVE THIS!! FANTASY, We Die Young, and can be used to mix and match to create your own custom play experiences."

 The street fair was a bit of a disaster when assassins showed up to ruin the PC's night. This session picks up from the last game session. Some of these assassins weren't human and the supernaturals at the street fair went into panic mode. The PC's started running damage control and still managed to kill off two of the doppelganger assassins.

The PC's then went into 'raid' mode to take out the a cult of Nyarlathotep who was operating out of a bookshop called Wagner's Occult & Esoteric Books. This book shop was actually the front for an entity called  The Book Master. The cult had fled and left a ticking time bomb in their place. The party's gadgeteer had the bomb disarmed in two hours. The rest of the party were outside of the bookshop and were ambushed by cult members armed with machine guns.  We're using Nightshift Veterans of The Supernatural Wars as the base rpg system. Which means that two of the PC's were kidnapped by the cult members as a sacrifice to the Crawling Chaos. 

The rest of the party were busy fighting zombies left behind by the cult's necromancer! We managed to put down the undead but it was too late for our party members. What the cult doesn't know that they've got a werewolf on their hands! We'll pick up next time! 

OSR Commentary On SURVIVE THIS!! What Shadows Hide: The Roleplaying Game & Nightshift: Veterans of the Supernatural Wars rpg - What Shadows Hide Cthulhu Sourcebook Session Report

 " Created by Eric Bloat & Josh Palmer, SURVIVE THIS!! What Shadows Hide is a standalone roleplaying game and does not require any additional gaming material to play. However, as part of the SURVIVE THIS!! game line, What Shadows Hide is 100% fully compatible with SURVIVE THIS!! ZOMBIES!, DARK PLACES & DEMOGORGONS, VIGILANTE CITY, and SURVIVE THIS!! FANTASY, We Die Young, and can be used to mix and match to create your own custom play experiences."

 

 We were on the case of a cult of Nyarlathotep who was operating out of a bookshop called Wagner's Occult & Esoteric Books. This book shop was actually the front for an entity called The Book Master. This entity has been supplying supernatural items & deadly black magic spell books to people corrupting them. This leads to these peoples becoming the heads of cults & expanding the role of the Mythos in the corruption of humanity. 
This session picks right up from here on the blog. The party picked up the from the fact that the urbanmancers that the PC's were dealing with disappeared. This was along with the homeless camp they were staying with. So we're using Nightshift Veterans of The Supernatural Wars as the base rpg system.

The PC's were attacked by cultists looking to gain power from supernaturals through sacrifice and worse. The players were shocked when a van pulled up to them on the street and armed men got out with guns locked. This happened at night at a street fair and our werewolves took these folks out with little problem. 

We took one of the corpses for one of our senior adventurers who happens to be a ghoul and necromancer. He stripped off the juicy bits and got the name of the bookshop. 

Now our party is in the planning stages of a raid on the bookshop. And we decided to go to the Dark End Street Fair. This is a quarterly street fair that moves across the city and sets up for the supernaturals and mundanes. This is where we closed this session. 

OSR Commentary On SURVIVE THIS!! What Shadows Hide: The Roleplaying Game & Nightshift: Veterans of the Supernatural Wars rpg - Campaign Update

" Created by Eric Bloat & Josh Palmer, SURVIVE THIS!! What Shadows Hide is a standalone roleplaying game and does not require any additional gaming material to play. However, as part of the SURVIVE THIS!! game line, What Shadows Hide is 100% fully compatible with SURVIVE THIS!! ZOMBIES!, DARK PLACES & DEMOGORGONS, VIGILANTE CITY, and SURVIVE THIS!! FANTASY, We Die Young, and can be used to mix and match to create your own custom play experiences."

SURVIVE THIS!! What Shadows Hide: The Roleplaying Game hasn't closed my desk for a while. This game came back on my radar because of DM Bloodworth's video on this game. He's mentioned the fact that you can crossover ANY of the Bloat Games rpg's. Now in the last campaign incarnation of how my group had gotten into Survive This! What Shadows Hide in a combination game with Nightshift: Veterans of the Supernatural Wars rpg. The powers and factions within Survive This! What Shadows Hide rpg were going to war. The conflict starts to boiling over into the cities of Man. 

The corruption of the night is spreading across the cities of Man. You are the only thing that stands in the way as the hills run wild with cults and heinous crimes. This allows the DM to leverage the Cthulhu mythos and horrors of the night. 
And then the campaign fell apart because of tragic events in two of my player's lives. Two years later I'm left with a ton of notes on adventures ready to go. 
The adventures I had written have an escalation of the factions and powers of the  'What Shadows Hide' and this goes back to events within Seattle.  There was a vampire & werewolves war back in 90's. This conflict extends into present day! 

The systems are easily cross compatible & they play well with others. The O.G.R.E. rpg system works very well and can easily be swapped out. The whole cloth rpg of both rpg games works very well.