Children of Gevaudan- A Halloween Adventure using the Adventure Funnel method

 Gevaudanwolf.jpg



Children of Gevaudan
A Fudge Adventure by Justina Revolution

The mountains of South Central France ring out with the anguished wails of bereaved mothers. A terrible beast stalks the people and kills with impunity. Some say it is a wolf. Others say it is a devil from the pits of hell. Neither prayer nor weapons have thus far brought the beast down. It is the summer of 1767 and many have died to the fangs and talons of this monster.

The creature fears cattle for some reason. It does not eat animals. It beheads and partially devours humans. It plays games and torments the families of those it has slaughtered. Homes stand empty. Farms fallow. Louis the 15th has issued repeated rewards for the beast’s death but nothing seems to come of it.

A sort of nihilism has settled into the village of Benoit. Father Pierre is praying daily for God to deliver the people of Gevaudan from the Devil.

Goal: Survive until Dawn as the beast stalks your village and kills everyone in an orgy of death and destruction.

Obstacles
  1. Brittle buildings
  2. The Beast
  3. Quiet night
  4. Father Pierre
  5. The dogs are working for it!

Details

  1. Buildings in Benoit are all made of mud and wattle
  2. Father Pierre has taken to worshiping the Beast
  3. Martin is the local huntsman. He will work to protect the villagers.
  4. Martin dies early and horrifically
  5. The Beast is a weird regenerating lupine monster
  6. Jean Paul is a brave 12 year old who will work to rally the kids (He will die horribly)
  7. Alice is an elderly, kind baker. She will seek to shelter some children in the oven. The beast will bake them alive.
  8. The night is very quiet. Sneaking is +1 difficulty
  9. There are two muskets and three sabers available in the town.
  10. Mayor Alphonse’s house has one musket but he has gone mad and murdered his family. He is quite violent and dangerous.
  11. Martin’s gun is resting near his body in the village common
  12. Jacque’s saber is over his mantle piece in his small home
  13. The sturdiest buildings are Mayor Alphonse’s House, The Church, and the Bakery
  14. Mayor Alphonse’s family was Marie- Wife, William- son age 13, Emily- daughter age 17
  15. Alphonse can be stopped before he murders his family.
  16. Father Pierre is pushing people into the church undercroft, trapping them in the lava tubes.
  17. Some of the disappeared folks are still alive in the tunnels and can be rescued if Pierre’s treachery is uncovered.
  18. The Beast wants to inflict suffering on the humans
  19. Father Pierre has been a good man until his mind broke from the years of murders and death.
  20. The Beast can take many forms.
  21. The creature is cunning, graceful, and violent.
  22. The creature has the ability to command canines.
  23. The beast can be killed by a bull’s horns or cow bones.



    These are the notes I used to run an incredibly memorable adventure. The players all decided to play young girls in the town and three of them decided to be active in the local choir. To keep players engaged, I allowed deceased PC's to interact with the living ones as ghosts who could not affect the physical world in any way. The three young singers were killed in spectacular fashion but one player managed to rig up a bull horn pike and kill the Beast in the end. The dead characters all started singing together and distracted the Beast long enough for our final girl to land the killing blow and survive that fateful Halloween night.

    You will notice that the adventure was run from this very terse outline and I didn't bother

with mapping anything. You can definitely add those things and flesh this out but I tend to keep my game prep light and fast so I can improvise as the players impact the setting.

Note that the adventure has a clear verb: Survive.
The parameters for winning are also set out in the goal: Make it until dawn.
 
    I had planned on it likely being a game of evasion and stealth and that was partially true until the PC's had a gut full of running and hiding and decided to face the creature. It was bloody, spectacular
and unexpected. I hope you enjoy this little outline and use it at your table if you like. I appreciate
you reading this.

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