OSR Wretched RPG Campaign Idea - Wretched Époque rpg 'Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror II The Second Movement '

 So this morning, our group of gamers spent time at the local coffee shop having a brew & talking gaming. The usual conversation came up but we came back to the Wretched Époque rpg ;"The Wretched Époque takes place in the period known as the Belle Époque. This is the time and the fictional place where Umberto Eco's Simone Simonini crosses paths with Jacques Tardi's Adèle Blanc-Sec, Edgar Allan Poe's Chevalier Auguste Dupin and Maurice Leblanc's Arsène Lupin, amidst anarchist bombings, the echoes of the Dreyfus affair, the catastrophic side effects of secret societies conspiring in the shadows and the mysterious results of experiences conducted by mad geniuses" 

Why?! Because we came back to one of the most influencal vampire films created Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror (German: Nosferatu – Eine Symphonie des Grauens) a 1922 silent German Expressionist horror film directed by F. W. Murnau and starring Max Schreck as Count Orlok. And when we look at the wiki entry on Nosferatu's plot; "In 1838, in the fictional German town of Wisborg,^[1][6] Thomas Hutter is sent to Transylvania by his employer, estate agent Herr Knock, to visit a new client named Count Orlok who plans to buy a house across from Hutter's own home. While embarking on his journey, Hutter stops at an inn where the locals become frightened by the mere mention of Orlok's name."  So all of the events of Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror take place in 1838 very much outside of the events of the Belle Époque which takes place in 1871–80 and the outbreak of World War I in 1914. What if Count Orlok wasn't destroyed in the sunlight by Ellen's valiant sacrifice. Instead Orlok's essence flees back to his coffin where he reforms until 1872 & then makes his move on Paris this time instead of Germany. 

Orlok makes his move by having his corpse & coffin shipped to a castle on the outskirts of Paris & begins to create mayhem with plague rats moving across the countryside. Plague begins to take over as he feeds on the human essence and fear. Count Orlok isn't your average vampire but one who has a deep & abiding connection to the Beyond allowing him to feed on not only the blood but the very souls of humanity. 
This will be a massive campaign with the player's PC's getting an updated 'Book of the Vampires' with the ancient tome being studied & updated by the L' Institut Scientifique Pour l'Étude Des Phénomènes Occultes (ISEPO). The vampires of Paris see this ancient upstart as out & out predatory competition to their herd population within the city of lights. This is a sprawling campaign involving both villains & heroes who will have to work together to rid the country of this upstart & his plague of vileness that has invaded the French countryside! 

Wretched Époque rpg 'Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror II The Second Movement ' Foes & Encounter Ideas: 

1. The PC's could come face to face with plague infected animals under the control of Count Orlok. There could well be all kinds horrors that await the player's PC's. 
2. Hordes of undead plague victims to cause the players delays, weird encounters, and more. 
3. The player's PC's are called before the vampires of Paris to discuss destroying Orlok freeing France from the grip of the invasive undead horror. 
4. Abandoned towns, villages, etc. become the hunting ground of ghosts & far worse as the dead do not remain quiet. France is known for its ghosts but Orlok's plague creates far more then the living know. 
5. France begins to slip into the grip of the beyond as dead shift the balance of power from the living to the supernatural. Things begin to cross between worlds. 

1d10 Random Alien & Lovecraftian Menaces From Within The Vampire's Corpse Table For Your Old School Campaigns

There are things that survive the killing of a major undead horror such as a vampire especially around Christmas time. The true nature of these horrors is revealed in this world & the alien negative material plane. Parasites, alien things, and worse that live within the bodies of the lords of the undead reveal themselves. PC's should be aware of task that they take on for themselves when one of these monsters is destroyed. 

Efficiunt Daemones, ut quae non sunt, sic tamen quasi sint, conspicienda hominibus exhibeant.
(Devils so work that things which are not appear to men as if they were real.)

—Lactantius

HP Lovecraft 
The Festival 1925 

Sometimes vampires  journey  to the far edges of reality or worse. They often bring back invasive species of supernatural or preternatural infestations that can cause plagues that ravage local villages, or even the populations that they feed on. Adventurers may be called in to deal with such infestations because they have no connection to the local community. Vampires often have extensive treasures, relics, and more because of their undead 'immortality' & connection to the supernatural realms. Wizards who showed especially good service to their Lovecraftian gods are sometimes 'rewarded' with the condition of undeath & vampirism. 


Parasites & weird lifeforms found in the corpses may not exceed 2 hit points and can be menaces in their own rights. Alien things that can cause infestations, plagues or worse. Cure light wounds or remove curse spells will outright destroy such horrors as well as holy water which will act as acid on the flesh of these monsters. These sorts of horrors will seek out a host as soon as possible to avoid the rays of the sun. They are mostly AC8 or 9 but have a move of 10" per round. 

1d10 Random Alien & Lovecraftian 
Menaces From Within A  Vampire's Corpse Table

1. 1d10 Black slugs from beyond that will animate a corpse or living host as a Ju Ju zombie. They are completely alien & weird. 
2. 1d6 alien macro life forms that spread 'The Red Death' as they infect hosts with this horrid plague. 
3. 1d8 black bat like  life forms that enter in through the host's mouth and create animated plague wraiths. They spread a cancerous form of an alien disease. 
4. 1d4 alien life forms the size of a small lap dog that bite, claw, and try to spread a horrid form or rabies or Ghoul plague. 
5. 1d8 black goo like mini black puddings that will slowly change those they bite with form of wasting disease that turn the victims into B/X shadows within 1d6 hours 
6. A strange colour life form exits the vampire's rib cage will seek to drain 1d6 victims of life force before spreading to another village or county within 1 mile. 
7. 1d10 parts & pieces of the vampire come to undead life on their own and crawl off to bite & claw others with a form of least zombism creating 1d10 minor zombies or skeletons. 
8. The skeleton of the vampire breaks free of the corpse & becomes a menace in its own right having a more twisted & destorted version of the damned soul of the vampire. It will seek to create 1d6 others of its kind. The skeleton is weirdly spongy & twisted in odd ways. 
9. 1d8 alien organs burst from the corpse on weird angel like miniature wings & seek to create 1d6 ghouls of strange & hungering aspect. These organs can be used in dangerous necrotic magic. 
10. The alien shadow essence that inhabited the vampire is now free to wreck mayhem & seeks to infect the countryside with its evil. It will seek to create 1d10 other shadows from the souls of nearby villagers or victims to consume & come back to quasi life.

Now as the twilight's doubtful interval
Closes with night's accomplished certainty,
A wizard wind goes crying eerily,
And on the wold misshapen shadows crawl,
Miming the trees, whose voices climb and fall,
Imploring, in Sabbatic ecstacy,
The sky where vapor-mounted phantoms flee
From the scythed moon impendent over all.

Twin veils of covering cloud and silence, thrown
Across the movement and the sound of things,
Make blank the night, till in the broken west
The moon's ensanguined blade awhile is shown....
The night grows whole again....The shadows rest,
Gathered beneath a greater shadow's wings.

The Eldritch Dark  (1912)
by Clark Ashton Smith

1d10 Random Alien & Lovecraftian Menaces From Within The Vampire's Corpse Table For Your Old School Campaigns

There are things that survive the killing of a major undead horror such as a vampire especially around Christmas time. The true nature of these horrors is revealed in this world & the alien negative material plane. Parasites, alien things, and worse that live within the bodies of the lords of the undead reveal themselves. PC's should be aware of task that they take on for themselves when one of these monsters is destroyed.

Efficiunt Daemones, ut quae non sunt, sic tamen quasi sint, conspicienda hominibus exhibeant.
(Devils so work that things which are not appear to men as if they were real.)

—Lactantius

HP Lovecraft
The Festival 1925

Sometimes vampires  journey  to the far edges of reality or worse. They often bring back invasive species of supernatural or preternatural infestations that can cause plagues that ravage local villages, or even the populations that they feed on. Adventurers may be called in to deal with such infestations because they have no connection to the local community. Vampires often have extensive treasures, relics, and more because of their undead 'immortality' & connection to the supernatural realms. Wizards who showed especially good service to their Lovecraftian gods are sometimes 'rewarded' with the condition of undeath & vampirism.


Parasites & weird lifeforms found in the corpses may not exceed 2 hit points and can be menaces in their own rights. Alien things that can cause infestations, plagues or worse. Cure light wounds or remove curse spells will outright destroy such horrors as well as holy water which will act as acid on the flesh of these monsters. These sorts of horrors will seek out a host as soon as possible to avoid the rays of the sun. They are mostly AC8 or 9 but have a move of 10" per round.

1d10 Random Alien & Lovecraftian
Menaces From Within A  Vampire's Corpse Table

1. 1d10 Black slugs from beyond that will animate a corpse or living host as a Ju Ju zombie. They are completely alien & weird. 
2. 1d6 alien macro life forms that spread 'The Red Death' as they infect hosts with this horrid plague. 
3. 1d8 black bat like  life forms that enter in through the host's mouth and create animated plague wraiths. They spread a cancerous form of an alien disease. 
4. 1d4 alien life forms the size of a small lap dog that bite, claw, and try to spread a horrid form or rabies or Ghoul plague. 
5. 1d8 black goo like mini black puddings that will slowly change those they bite with form of wasting disease that turn the victims into B/X shadows within 1d6 hours 
6. A strange colour life form exits the vampire's rib cage will seek to drain 1d6 victims of life force before spreading to another village or county within 1 mile. 
7. 1d10 parts & pieces of the vampire come to undead life on their own and crawl off to bite & claw others with a form of least zombism creating 1d10 minor zombies or skeletons. 
8. The skeleton of the vampire breaks free of the corpse & becomes a menace in its own right having a more twisted & destorted version of the damned soul of the vampire. It will seek to create 1d6 others of its kind. The skeleton is weirdly spongy & twisted in odd ways. 
9. 1d8 alien organs burst from the corpse on weird angel like miniature wings & seek to create 1d6 ghouls of strange & hungering aspect. These organs can be used in dangerous necrotic magic. 
10. The alien shadow essence that inhabited the vampire is now free to wreck mayhem & seeks to infect the countryside with its evil. It will seek to create 1d10 other shadows from the souls of nearby villagers or victims to consume & come back to quasi life.

Now as the twilight's doubtful interval
Closes with night's accomplished certainty,
A wizard wind goes crying eerily,
And on the wold misshapen shadows crawl,
Miming the trees, whose voices climb and fall,
Imploring, in Sabbatic ecstacy,
The sky where vapor-mounted phantoms flee
From the scythed moon impendent over all.

Twin veils of covering cloud and silence, thrown
Across the movement and the sound of things,
Make blank the night, till in the broken west
The moon's ensanguined blade awhile is shown....
The night grows whole again....The shadows rest,
Gathered beneath a greater shadow's wings.

The Eldritch Dark  (1912)
by Clark Ashton Smith

Some Random Thoughts on Vampires, Salem's Lot (1979),The Fiend Folio & Old School Campaigns

This morning in Connecticut is gray & nasty, I was thumbing through the Advanced Dungeons & Dragon's Fiend Folio this morning especially the undead. So touring through internet I came across the break down of the Fiend Folio undead on Dragon's Foot in a thread. 

Here's the quick break down that Geoffrey McKinney did of the eleven monsters that are of the undead species  in the Fiend Folio:

apparition
coffer corpse
death knight
huecuva
penanggalan
poltergeist
revenant
sheet ghoul
sheet phantom
skeleton warrior
son of Kyuss

If there was one film that brought home & burned in the evil infection nature of the undead on my nine year old brain then it was the Steven King 'Salem's Lot' made for television mini series that premiered on CBS. That artifact of television history burned its way into my brain like not too many other television mini series.Well, maybe The Thorn Birds or JR's Shooting on Dallas. But I digress.

So what does this have to do with the Fiend Folio? Well, besides the themes of small town corruption, evil, the complete stripping of every vestige of Americana from the town, loss of innocence, the mini series working as a homage to the classic monster movies of a bygone era & it being one of Tobe Hooper's best films?
"Directed by Tobe Hooper and starring David Soul and James Mason, the plot revolves around a writer returning to his hometown and discovers the citizens are turning into vampires. It combines elements of both the vampire film and haunted house subgenres."
Its the way that the evil of the Marston house attracts houses the vampire nest. There is a sense that evil attracts evil theme in the film that pervades throughout. Salem's Lot presented vampires as an evil to be vanquished, with no gray areas given. These undead monsters are mockeries of their living selves. This is one of the ways that I've always seen undead monsters from Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. An infection rotting away towns, city states, & even isolated communities often working with other undead creatures to further some alien agenda.

The nature of the undead is attracted to the sink of evil that is presented by each urban, village or countryside haunted house. These locations seem to draw & reign in these types of horrors.This approach works well with death knights, apparitions, huecuva,etc.  This might also  be especially true of the vampires of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual. Of course all of this would be soon replaced by the Ravenloft setting. This took the sink of evil idea to new heights.

I've always used vampires in conjunction with many of the top undead from the Fiend Folio. Vampires make excellent co rulers or domain level threats because their abilities especially from the Monster Manual :

• Vampires live in two planes at once - the material and the negative material.
• Vampires have an 18/76 strength.
• If it hits an enemy, the enemy loses two levels.

That purple, rat-like faced bastard from Salem's Lot made quite the impression on my nine year old brain making monsters working in adventure & dungeon locations a theme I've used for years. James Mishler's Vampires of the Olden Lands plugs right into this very OSR setting trope.


Jack Shear's Tales of the Grotesque & Dungeonsque series is a great addition to a DM's arsenal looking to beef up and pull out all of the stops to taking their games into the realms of the Gothic that Salem's Lot draws so heavily from. In fact I'd say that Mr.Shear's material is some of the best out there to add in set dressing, additional powers and abilities and breath new life into undead horrors and add in new life to a Gothic D&D setting. The beauty of the Fiend Folio in my humble opinion is the flexiblity & weirdness of the book. How it easily adapts to all different styles of play & how with a bit of creativity it can be molded to what the DM wants it to do.

Remember folks keep it weird!