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Sunday, May 6, 2018

Horror Set Pieces: Children of the Night (Fate Accelerated)

Listen to them, the children of the night.
What music they make!

- Bram Stoker, Dracula
As the release date of the Fate Horror Toolkit draws closer and my excitement grows, I decided to write up some more bits and bobs to use in a Fate Accelerated horror campaign. Animals forced to do the bidding of evil powers is a classic horror trope. Using the same idea behind the mob of angry villagers from last time, here are some of the children of the night ready to confront a party of supernatural investigators.

Pack of Wolves
Aspect: Pack Mentality
Skilled (+2) at: Nocturnal Hunting, Tracking by Scent, Keen Hearing, Howling
Bad (-2) at: Diurnal Activity, Resisting the Master’s Call
Stress: ⬜⬜⬜ (6 wolves)
For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack. - Rudyard Kipling, The Second Jungle Book (The Law for the Wolves)

Cloud of Bats
Aspect: Night Hunters
Skilled (+2) at: Flying, Echolocation, Obscuring Vision, Spreading Disease
Bad (-2) at: Light and Fire, Diurnal Activity
Stress: ⬜⬜⬜⬜ (50-100 bats)
Clip their wings? Man, could you just shoot their damn heads off? And don't miss. - Jimmy Sands, sʇɐ𐐒 (1999 Destination Films)

Horde of Rats
Aspect: Roiling Mass of Teeth and Claws
Skilled (+2) at: Squeezing through Tight Spaces, Seeing in the Dark, Swimming, Spreading Disease
Bad (-2) at: Light, Detecting Rat Poison, Cats
Stress: ⬜⬜⬜⬜ (50-100 rats)
For on every side of the chamber the walls were alive with nauseous sound—the verminous slithering of ravenous, gigantic rats. - H.P. Lovecraft, The Rats in the Walls

Swarm of Bees
Aspect: Hive Mind
Skilled (+2) at: Stinging, Flying, Pollination, Making Honey
Bad (-2) at: Smoke and Fire, Bears
Stress: ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ (~500 bees)
Nearby there was an apiary. Dozens of hives, filled with hungry bees. They smashed the hive and stole the honeycomb and smeared it over his prone, naked body. Candyman was stung to death by the bees. - Professor Philip Purcell, Candyman (1992 PolyGram Filmed Entertainment)
Not the bees!!!!!! - Edward Malus, The Wicker Man (2006 Warner Brothers)

Plague of Locusts
Aspect: Retribution from Above
Skilled (+2) at: Flying, Deafening Chirping, Blotting Out the Sun, Destroying Crops and Wooden Structures
Bad (-2) at: Birds, Pesticides, Ultrasonic Interference
Stress: ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ (~1000 locusts)
Then out of the smoke came locusts upon the earth, and power was given them… - Revelations 9:3

Scourge of Mosquitoes
Aspect: Bloodsucking Parasites
Skilled (+2) at: Flying, Biting, Swamps and Jungles, Malaria
Bad (-2) at: Avoiding Getting Swatted, Insect Repellents
Stress: ⬜⬜⬜ (~100 mosquitoes)
It is astonishing how much worse one mosquito can be than a swarm. A swarm can be prepared against, but one mosquito takes on a personality—a hatefulness, a sinister quality of the struggle to the death. - F. Scott Fitzgerald, On Booze

Infestation of Flies
Aspect: Common Nuisance or Sign of the Devil’s Presence?
Skilled (+2) at: Flying Backwards, Biting, Dodging Fly Swatters, Landing on Food
Bad (-2) at: Windows and Screens, Fly Paper
Stress: ⬜⬜⬜ (~100 flies)
You never walk alone. Even the devil is the lord of flies. - Gilles Deleuze
Flies are the dead man's revenge. - George R.R. Martin, A Storm of Swords

Swarm of Scarab Beetles
Aspect: Flesh-Eating Defenders of Ancient Egyptian Tombs
Skilled (+2) at: Desert Environments, Stripping Flesh to the Bone, Spreading Disease, Rolling Dung Balls
Bad (-2) at: Fire, Cold
Stress: ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ (~500 scarab beetles)
All people who enter this tomb, make evil against this tomb and destroy it, may the scarabs descend upon them and feast upon their flesh until only their bones remain as a warning to others. - Ancient Egyptian Curse of the Pharaohs