Io Saturnalia, everyone! Today I’m prepping my first Monster of the Week campaign session to follow from the Halloween one-shot I wrote and ran. This adventure is also holiday themed! In this post we’re going to make a new monster, the Krampus, and prepare the story elements of the adventure. To prepare this adventure I’m following a mix of The Eight Steps from Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master by Mike Shea and the mystery preparation guidelines from Monster of the Week by Michael Sands. Our heroes will track down a Krampus and in so doing uncover a centuries-old conspiracy. If you run Monster of the Week, check in with me and let me know how you prepare your sessions on Mastodon: @[email protected]

Setting the Scene

A local middle-school child, Luca Barlow, has been experiencing frightening omens for the last week. The omens include frogs and worms filling Luca’s school desk, a murder of crows following him everywhere, being always dirty no matter how much he bathes, and visions of a horned creature at night. The omens are signs that a Krampus has chosen Luca for its victim as part of a centuries-old bargain between it and the human community. Every hundred years, the community voluntarily gives the worst child to the Krampus and in return the Krampus protects the community from natural disasters. The community has forgotten the bargain. As the deadline slips, all the natural disasters that the Krampus prevented begin to manifest…

In the adventure the party has a dual goal–save Luca and protect the town. The tension I want to play for fun is that Luca is literally the worst child in the community. He’s an obnoxious, meanspirited, rude bully. This kid is going to be an amalgamation of every horrible child I’ve encountered, yet the party still must save him.

Involving the Party

Shelley Barlow, Luca’s mother and a devout Catholic, took the omens to mean her son was possessed by a demon. She wrote to the bishop of her diocese petitioning him to send an exorcist to free her son from the ostensible demonic threat. The church, knowing Luca’s reputation for mischief, replied that demonic possession was not real, and that Shelley should take Luca to youth-focused church events to improve his character. When Shelley pled for aid in person someone referred her to Sister Mary Catherine, one of the player characters.

Sister Mary Catherine uses the Divine playbook. She’s a holy warrior and defender of the faithful but keeps all that on the down low. Shelley writes a letter to Sister Mary Catherine, inviting her to meet Luca and drive out the demon. We’ll begin play with the party at the Barlow residence. This is where we will put our strong start.

Establishing a Strong Start

Luca is not, in fact, possessed. He is being stalked by the Krampus. For a strong start I want the Krampus to hint at its presence and to establish the session’s stakes. The strong start should lead into a period of investigation which in turn leads to confronting the Krampus.

Hinting at the Krampus:

• A chain animates and attacks the party.
• They see a shadow of a horned figure.
• For a moment Luca appears to have a clawed hand covered in coarse black hair on his shoulder.
• Luca dreamt of being whipped with bundles of sticks (birch rods). Upon waking he still feels sore.

Establishing stakes:

• Luca reports a voice at night saying it’s going to take him.
• Any magical probing of Luca triggers a small earthquake.

I look at those elements and think we can turn them into a strong start. The party shows up at the Barlow house. Shelley introduces them to Luca, who acts like an ass. They glimpse a few signs of the Krampus. Shelley begs Sister Mary Catherine to say a prayer that’ll protect her son. Upon doing any magical stuff, the earth shakes and the chain attacks. After everything dies down, Luca is sufficiently scared to tell the party about his dream and the other signs. The party can’t get any more information at Barlow house and must go forth to investigate.

Secrets and Clues

For the freeform investigation section, the party goes off however they like to talk to their contacts, research in archives, whatever. I’ll keep this list of secrets and clues handy and reveal them as appropriate.

• The Krampus followed a group of Austrian immigrants to the city in North America where this adventure takes place. They brought the bargain with them.
• The Krampus was attracted by strange energy vortexes. Its lair is atop one such vortex.
• Two hundred years ago the church tried to expel the Krampus and failed. The Krampus slew a priest and an earthquake leveled much of the town.
• A hundred years ago, Father Fritz Morris delivered another child to the Krampus. Bobby Walker was never found. Morris was tried for murder. Father Morris refused council and remained silent through the trial. Morris died in prison in 1961. On his death bed he confessed to delivering Bobby to the Krampus.
• The Krampus’s lair is on the highest mountain in the town’s vicinity.

The Krampus

Here’s where we design the dark heart of our adventure, our monster. I want our Krampus to reference folk tales while adding something. Above all, the monster should be frightening and powerful. My players dropped the ghoul they fought last time a little too easily. Also, I want its weaknesses related to the Santa Claus character who accompanies the Krampus in Alpine folklore.

The Krampus is a hulking, hair, horned, clawed demon with a lolling forked tongue. On its wrists are manacles the trail chains. It carries a sack which holds the trapped spirits of the children it has stolen. The Krampus is vulnerable to some gifts traditionally given by Santa Claus to good children in Krampus folklore.

Monster: Torturer (motivation: to hurt and terrify)

Powers:

• Appears from nowhere: The Krampus can teleport about the local area.
• Telepathic link: The Krampus is aware of the surroundings of a child that it plans to take.
• Dark bargain: The Krampus gains additional powers from bargains it makes with human communities. (e.g. control of weather, crop harvests, presence of mineral wealth)

Attacks:

• Claws (1-harm hand)
• Chain lash (2-harm close)
• Fire blast (3-harm close)

Armor: The Krampus’s thick hide counts as 1-armor.

Weaknesses:

• Smoke from walnut shells prevents the Krampus from teleporting.
• Citrus oil negates the Krampus’s armor.
• The Krampus cowers from a raised cross. It will normally teleport away to its lair.
• The Krampus will not approach groups engaged in merrymaking or gambling, a reference to Saturnalia.
• The Krampus can be tricked for a time with a symbolic sacrifice, a reference to Romans offering tokens to Saturn in place–supposedly–of human sacrifice.

Harm Capacity: 12 Harm.

In the Krampus’s lair is a rift in space that has begun to split open. The Krampus did not make the rift; it found the rift. The rift serves as a loose thread to incorporate into the campaign arc.

The Krampus pushed natural disasters into this rift using powers gained from its bargain with the community. Gazing into the rift (roll +weird to avoid psychic harm) grants one visions of the many natural disasters that would have struck the community. The party learns about the rift and can research how to close it. In the meantime, the party can perform a ritual to push the natural disasters deeper into the rift to prevent them from manifesting.

All the natural disasters that the Krampus pushed into the rift created pressure beyond the boundaries of our existence that drew another entity, ancient and maleficent, near to our reality…

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And there we have our adventure! We have a few NPCs, a monster, and a problem only the heroes can solve. Until next time, happy Saturnalia or whatever holiday you may celebrate. If you haven’t yet, why not come join the decentralized algorithm-free, ad-free world of Mastodon? Wish me a happy Saturnalia over at @[email protected]

Feature Image “Anarchy” by Phil Foglio copyright 1995 Wizards of the Coast