Hungry Hollow Playtest #3 (and new art)
Where our Investigators delve flesh first into the weird and buzzing doom that has befallen Hungry Hollow.
Just an important reminder that you can follow the BackerKit preview for Hungry Hollow: The Parthenogenesis of Hungry Hollow for Liminal Horror is COMING SOON!!! (backerkit.com)
Here’s a peak at the draft map being made by Josh Domanski:
Last Week On…
Playtest #1 Summary:
With a mission from their mysterious patron The Archivist, the gang drives their Winnebago into Hungry Hollows in search of Resonant Artifacts and to determine the source of the missing people (including an old colleague Brea. They stopped at the diner (which was empty, poorly run, and only seemed to serve meat) and learned about Brea’s upcoming baby shower. They then went to the mechanic and were attacked, barely able to subdue the raging proprietor. They found a receipt for a bunch of tvs and tracked that down to see that a lot of electronics are being bought up in the area. They then hunker down for the night, and break into a trailer that happens to be owned by Bureau agents (they don’t like this), they stage an ambush and hold the agents hostage to see what they know.
Read it in detail here: https://goblinarchives.substack.com/p/liminal-horror-the-parthenogenesis
Playtest #2 Summary:
They find out that the bureau is spying on the town, and has a special resonant artifact. In the end the group tranquilized the two and turned on the propane in the trailer. These weren’t the first Bureau agents they have had to kill before, but it still wasn’t an easy thing to do. The gang drives away, tired and decides to sleep in the church parking lot. When they awake they find their associate gone. They explore the church, weird vibes, one of the priests reclusive (he has a sick bike though). They get pulled over and the officer apologizes for the mechanic and hopes they won’t press charges. They go to the rec center and meet Bev who is setting up for Brea’s baby shower. They go to the bakery and meet the first normal people (and normal food). They leave their contact info at animal control (for Brea) and go get rooms at Outpost 13. As they settle in they get a ping from their lost associate (at the Abandoned Salmon Cannery).
Read it in detail here: https://goblinarchives.substack.com/p/hungry-hollow-playtest-2
Our Cast of Characters:
Skittles: Rolled Final Girl - Tyler chose his character from The Mall… the wrinkle being that she had been replaced in the climax of that adventure. If this were a tv series, that inconsistency would be emphasized but never explicitly addressed...her having the mycelium threads throughout her body, 20 years later, seemingly survived the events has left her very Sarah Connor in Terminator 2.
From Hungry Hollow- Final Girl: Your life has already been touched by the paranatural and there is no going back to what was... you are driven to find answers. You start with a Fallout (LIMINAL HORROR Investigators p. 20).
Twisted Strands: Strands of mycelia twist under your skin, bulging like varicose veins. Digging into muscle, they act as extra ligaments. Roll d4 and add it to your STR (max 18). (LH Investigators p. 21)
Ricardo: Rolled Relic Touched and ended up with the Resonant Artifacts - thumb tacks (enables necromancy). John rolled a background to give more flavor to his Investigator and got Artist. After determining that his medium was carving marble, we decided to shift the RA to being picks used in stone sculpting. As for previous adventures, they’ve always been successful, but not usually through anything he’s done.
From Hungry Hollow - Relic-Touched: A resonant artifact is in your possession. Not only do you have access to its power, but being its keeper puts a target on your back. Sometimes being on the offensive is a better tactic. You start with a resonant artifact in your possession (LIMINAL HORROR Investigators p. 24).
Thumb Tacks. Activation: Push a tack into the forehead of a dead body. User can puppet the dead body (HP 2 Maim: d4). Gives an instance of Fatigue. Voices of the dead whisper in the back of their mind. (LH Investigators p. 24)
Danny Diablo: Rolled Burned by The Bureau. His character wrote a song that became super popular after the events of The Bloom, but The Bureau psyoped it and claimed ownership. This ruined his life and career.
From Hungry Hollow- Burned: The Bureau interfered with your life, and you want to find enough evidence to bring them to justice. During one of their operations they may have: contributed to the death or loss of a loved one, instituted a cover up that destabilized your life, you narrowly escaped their grasp.
NPC Investigator- Bluebird. Rolled Indebted. Bluebird also rolled the background Bus Driver (LH Investigators p. 7). Went into massive debt after hitting a monster (vampire) and crashing a bus. The Bureau coverup had a fake family of the “victim” sue him. Archivist providing opportunities to get out of debt. He’s a pretty laid back and practice person.
From Hungry Hollow- Indebted: Your debts became too large to bear. Is the Archivist your means out or does he own your debt (and you want a way out from under his thumb)?
Episode 3 - “What crawls beneath the flesh”
Exterior: Outpost 13
The party just received a ping from Bluebird indicating his phone is at the Abandoned Salmon Cannery.
During their setup of the room and security measures, they used the surveillance equipment to listen in on the only other occupied room (room #11). They hear sounds of dirt (walking on and digging in) for a while until it dies down.
The audio equipment directed outside also picks up some strange sounds a little way over.
Exterior: Alleys of Hungry Hollow
Skittles steps out for a smoke and to see if she can pick up something better. The sounds are peculiar enough that she goes to investigate. Sneaking a few streets over.
Rolled on the Voidcrawl - Night Encounter #2: 2 Apiarist Workers (p.x) on all fours, gorging themselves on a recent kill.
What the party encounters is an odd scene. In a dark alleyway, there seemed to be two people standing over a third. The wet sounds of eating and vomiting in a continued cycle. Danny and Ricardo try to engage. Ricardo sneaks a picture, and the Apiarists turn to talk to them. The body on the ground is not moving, and they try to start up a conversation. It is stilted and confused, the strangers clearly hiding whatever is going on behind them. The gang has a pretty good idea that they are looking at some form of meat-eating cannibalism but decide that confronting/shooting the people would not end in their favor (bring way too much attention). They awkwardly disengage from the conversation and try to leave a different way to throw off any tail.
They sneak back to the car. The come down from the almost violent encounter and the past two days is hard, and the beds are enticing, but they cannot ignore the potential lead on Bluebird.
Exterior: Abandoned Salmon Cannery
The team is cautious to park close to the cannery but out of main view, which is easy since this space is so poorly maintained.
What once was a source of economic prosperity for the town has fallen into ruin. The large boxy structure onto the bank of the river was used to process the catches from throughout the region.
A rickety plank bridge extends from the shore to the front entrance.
Almost all of the glass has been broken after years of being abandoned.
The interior is in disarray, as much of the original machinery has been removed and what’s left has rusted away. The smell of rotting fish permeates the building.
The group heads on in, armed with the lights on their smartphones and night vision goggles (stolen from the late Bureau agents). They are cautious in their approach, trying to quickly get through the space while keeping an eye out for their missing friend.
Near the back they see two doors, while examining around, the group finds what they believe to be the answer to what has happened to the pets in town.
Behind the old equipment are piles of sticky red mass. A few pet collars can be found among the flesh combs.
Down into the Buzzing Dark
Double steel doors lead to the basement, and an overwhelming smell of rotting meat.
Concrete walls are covered in a fleshy thick fleshy substance
The group figured that whatever was down there (and was making that rotting smell) was probably connected to their missing friend. They decided to dial the phone, they could hear ringing down below.
The stairs and hall underneath the building was jammed tight with thick honeycomb and rotting meat. Eventually they approached a large doorway with thick plastic as a divider. Using the the night vision they can see that there are two people in the other room.
Two Husks are busy assembling a small hive to incubate new Parasitic Bees
The gang goes into the room, weapons up: “Freeze we’re with the Bureau” they lie.
The light finally shine one what was in the room…something very much not human:
Husk
Bodies that have had their flesh honeycombed and converted to walking hives to incubate Parasite Bees. While some cognitive and baseline bodily functions remain, they are driven by the will of the Hive Mind.
Given the basic functioning level of husks, the threat of “The Bureau” was ignored as the husks lunge at them to attack Battle ensues, with gunshots ringing in the fleshy darkness. One of the husks falls, releasing a swarm.
Swarm
Swarm Tactics: All attacks made against the swarm with conventional single target weapons are impaired. Attacks with the blast tag are enhanced.
Mass Sting: (d4 Damage, d4 Stress)
Pretty early on in the back and forth Skittles realizes that simple guns won’t be enough. She sees the lost phone (but no Bluebird) and quickly grabs and and turns tail to run to the car, remembering the gas canisters attached to the outside of the Winnebago
As the battle continues, close quarter combat with a walking hive results in Diablo getting a Wound (deep bruising). Skittles has been running back to the basement, pouring gas as she goes. Skittles calls for the group to exit as she stands at the doors to the basement. Both run up, but as they escape Ricardo gets critical damage from a bee and it starts to burrow in.
Mass Sting: (d4 Damage, d4 Stress) The bees smarm onto their victim, repeatedly injecting them with venom. If Critical Damage is triggered by a sting, a bee latches onto their victim and begins the burrowing process toward the base of the skull.
The gang threw the remaining can down into the dark, slammed the doors closed, lit a match, and set the cannery ablaze.
As they rushed out in the Winnebago, they realized a bigger problem…the bee was making its way inside Ricardo’s arm. Diablo, with a pocketknife, decided to embark on back seat surgery to extricate the parasite. Needless to say, he got the bee out after some digging. They stored the still living bee in a Gatorade bottle.
Hiding the car, they hoofed it back to Outpost 13. Back in their room, they tried to relax, but tensions were high. The audio recording equipment still showed that someone was moving around on a seeming layer of dirt in room 11. Skittles made the executive decision that they couldn’t let there be a potential threat next door while they sleep.
Best Left Buried…
The gang pounded on the door.
I rolled on the Appendix Residents and Tourists Table, two 15 entry tables for Citizens and Apiarists and got: Walter (he/him). Is off putting and currently Unemployed. He has long unkempt hair, patchy beard and wears a yellow rain slicker that is stained brown. He’s constantly mumbling about how “They need to be perfect.”
The door cracked slightly, revealing a room that was dark, with the smell of sickly sweet mixed with fresh dirt wafted out. He was deflecting the party but the odd presentation only made Skittles more sure of what needed to happen. Looking around for witnesses, she proceeded to kick the door in.
Room 11 always has a do not disturb sign.
The interior has been filled with fresh soil. Its occupant has spent the last week gathering dirt from the nearby.
Buried throughout the room is rotting meat
The tussle was over quickly as the team subdued Walter. They tried interrogating him but his odd answers only made it more worrisome. After finding the rotting meat throughout they began discussing what to do with this obviously infected person. At that he lunged for their weapon and they shot Walter in the head.
Ricardo had to know and looked in the ruin of what was Walter to find the bee that had been lodged in his skull. Ricardo swiftly killed it and decided to kill the one in their possession. Turning to his companions, Ricardo revealed the true scope of his Resonant Artifact. Inserting the spike, he made the body of Walter stand up. Affixing a hoodie to hide his features, Ricardo directed Walter to drop off some cash at the front office, being sure to be seen by the cameras. Then the group went into the forested area behind. Ricardo puppetted the Reanimated Dead body to dig a decent sized grave before removing the spike and burying the evidence.
Just as dawn broke, and the fire at the cannery subsided, the gang headed to bed (taking shifts to do watch in case any negative blowback happened from their night out.
Next week we’ll find out how our Investigators will solve the mystery of HUNGRY HOLLOW (we completed it last night 4/10 and I’ll do another write up next week) …
Remember
You can follow the BackerKit preview for Hungry Hollow: The Parthenogenesis of Hungry Hollow for Liminal Horror is COMING SOON!!! (backerkit.com)
Items in print
LIMINAL HORROR INVESTIGATORS Edition https://spacepenguin.ink/collections/liminal-horror/products/liminal-horror-investigators
This is uncoated and includes multiple character sheets, so it’s perfect for players at the table.
One Night At The Shelterwood Inn https://spacepenguin.ink/collections/liminal-horror/products/one-night-at-the-shelterwood-inn
The Bloom https://spacepenguin.ink/collections/liminal-horror/products/the-bloom
The Bureau https://www.exaltedfuneral.com/products/the-bureau?_pos=1&_psq=The+bureau&_ss=e&_v=1.0