On Thursday 9th at Vault Games Clayfield we played Monster of the Week: The Jersey Devil – an improv scenario which I based on the famous monster of American folklore. This game uses the Powered by the Apocalypse (PbtA) rules framework which is simple to learn, fast to play, and supports very player / character driven storytelling.
Our characters were:
· Frank – (Flake) – A Vietnam Veteran who believes in wild conspiracy theories. Has come to the barrens looking for his friend James who disappeared (assumed victim of the Devil) and has reached out to Bill seeking his help.
· Bill – (Expert) – A local living in a small town in the barrens, part of a loose affiliation of paranormal researchers who keep in contact using ham radio and letters. Owns a van stacked with weapons and books.
· Steve – (Mundane) – Frank asked Steve for a lift in his Cadillac to his meeting with Bill. Steve said yes. Otherwise, he works a normal job in north-Jersey across the river from NYC.
· Bob – (Spell-Slinger) – A drunkard and failing wizard who has come to the barrens looking for a mystical book named ‘The Leeds Almanac’ that can help him pass wizard school. Has sought out Bill who he knows sometimes deals in rare and mystical books.
We opened with the group meeting in a roadside diner somewhere off the Atlantic City Expressway in the barrens. Mary, the waitress, brought a fresh round of coffee as the group introduced themselves to each other.
The bell on the door jingled as a burly man in Sheriffs outfit entered the diner, noticing the odd group in a booth and sauntering over to stand near them after ordering his coffee from Mary. After a brief encounter with Sherriff Randall who attempted to intimidate them, the group agreed to take their weapons (Frank had a shotgun sitting next to their table) out and lock them in the Cadillac (parked next to Bills weird van) while they finished their coffee. The sheriff drove off after telling them he’d keep an eye out for them if they intended staying in the area.
After putting the guns in the Cadillac, Mary the waitress approached them quietly and in hushed tones asked if they were monster hunters, as she had overheard some of their conversation including Frank talking about his missing friend. Mary took her break and came back out of the diner with a scrapbook filled with newspaper clippings and notes about ‘The Jersey Devil’. She explained that her brother disappeared a little while ago and she had been obsessed with the devil ever since – Mary was willing to take them out to look for the devil after her shift finished in a couple of hours. The group hung around the small town and Bob got himself a stash of booze from the bottle shop and proceeded to get progressively sauced until sunset.
At sunset, Mary still hadn’t come out of the diner and the older woman who owned it confessed that Mary had left quite some time ago via the back door. Surprised at this, since she seemed so keen earlier, the group asked where she had gone. The lady advised that Mary lives a few miles out behind the diner and that there is a small path through the woods, before she hopped in her car and headed home. Debating what to do, the group heard a scream from the woods out behind the diner – and so Frank immediately dashed off down the path, with Bill chasing him demanding that he stop running through the darkened woods like an idiot. Taking their time, Steve opened the Caddy and got out a baseball bat while Bob took a few more swigs from his bottle while lazily staggering down the woodland trail in the darkening evening.
After a mile or so, Frank lost his way in the dark and was having ‘Nam flashbacks when he was triggered by a bunch of floodlights blinding him shining directly into his face. Raising his shotgun he demanded that the unknown person or persons out there identify themselves, as Bill came up behind him followed quickly by Bob and Steve. The floodlights were switched off to reveal Sherriff Randall sitting atop his Ford Bronco swigging a tin of beer, which he soon tossed on the ground to join several of its friends. Enquiring with the Sherriff, they found that he’d been out here on this dirt road a while swigging beer rather than go home, and certainly hadn’t seen Mary come by – but was certainly worried now. They heard the horrible scream again but the Sheriff quickly got worried about ‘The Devil’ – telling them that was no human noise. Just at that point, an enormous shape swooped over the treetops overhead, which caused the Sheriff to jump into the Bronco and start the engine. Their options being to head back through the darkened woods alone with a monster overhead or hop into the truck with a slightly inebriated sheriff, they chose the latter – Frank sitting in front with the Sherriff as they hurtled off down the dirt road towards Mary’s house with the monster flying overhead.
The tipsy sheriff soon lost control of the bronco on a bend, flipping it over to land on its roof resting against the pine trees crowding the side of the dirt road. Frank began seeing figures surrounding the damaged vehicle from his upside down vantage point and started freaking out a little. Bill remembered a book he’d read about survival and jimmied his door open as at the other side of the car Bob used his magic to blast his door, which backfired and sent him flying backwards to collect Steve and Bill and hurtle them out of the wrecked vehicle into the trees. Dusting himself off, Bill tried to calm Frank down with soothing words while Steve and Bob dragged the bleeding and unconscious sheriff out of the drivers seat and giving his nasty head wound some first aid treatment. Frank listened to Bill and calmed down and was able to release himself from the vehicle which was now well alight. Deciding that they couldn’t drag the unconscious sheriff thought he woods late at night, they hid him under some bracken and carried on walking down the dirt road to Mary’s house. About a mile from the cash site, one of them looked back and noticed the glow of a forest fire had started from the crashed bronco. Oops.
They came to a small clearing with a handful of old darkened, dilapidated houses in it when the great creature swooped down on them from the sky. Reacting quickly Frank and Bob got shots off with their guns, but realised they had done absolutely no harm to the mystical beast!! The creature swooped in and grabbed Bob in its claws, while Steve leapt into action – grabbing Bobs legs causing him immense pain just as Bob tried to conjure his fire magic to harm the beast holding him in its talons. The fireball scared the beast off which dropped Bob and Steve a short way to the ground.
A light came on at the porch of one of the dark houses, and Mary the waitress stepped out – in a panicked voice she asked what the hell they were doing here before slamming the door and locking it from the other side. The group nominated Steve as the ‘most normal’ to go and talk with her which he tried, but he only scared her further – suspecting that he was a madman. She did however agree to let them in if they threw their weapons in the window she had just opened and tied up Steve’s hands (when had he become the ‘dangerous psychopath’???). They did this and after a short while (as she locked their weapons away in the gun cabinet) she let them into the living room – keeping her own shotgun trained on them in case they became a threat. The group sat down on the couch and asked her what was going on – she said that she had fled in panic before finishing her shift as someone had left a note – which she showed them – that read ‘Don’t go near those strangers or else the creature will come for you next – just like your brother’. She explained that she had run home in terror and barricaded herself in, but was now even more terrified since the strangers had sought her out!
May explained that her brother went missing recently – a victim of the devil – and that his old friend James (who Frank is searching for) also went missing around the same time while looking for her brother. She believes, based on the letter and the patterns of the monster, that someone is controlling it – likely one of the old ‘Leeds’ family who were rumoured to be the origin of the devil mythology. No one goes by the name Leeds hereabouts anymore as it is cursed, but there are many many blood descendants still around today of ‘Mother Leeds’ who birthed the Jersey Devil back in the 1600s. It must be one of them.
Bill wracked his brain trying to think of what he knows about this monster from his collected lore, but realised something important – the creature hadn’t been seen for years but then recently, a few months ago when the monster was sighted again, he had sold a book called ‘The Leeds Almanac’ to a local collector of arcane artifacts. Putting two and two together, bill realised that this book was being used in the summoning of the monster in some way, and that if he remembered correctly, he’d need some sacred oils to ‘unsummon’ the beast with a ritual. He told no-one of this, least of all Bob who had come to him seeking that very book of magic.
Speaking of magic, Bob tried to calm Mary down by demonstrating his magic to her, reasoning that ‘we have powers too, we can take this thing on, so there is nothing to fear’. This went horribly wrong when his fire magic set fire to Mary’s living room and causing her to finally panic and snap – she started shooting. She clipped Frank and winged Steve who dove behind her couch. Bill and Bob and Frank escaped out the front door as Mary retreated down to her basement. Realising that poor Steve was still trapped inside (the pain of his first ever gunshot wound preventing him from moving much), Bill turned action hero and ran back inside to save him – but dropped one of his holy daggers in the process.
As they regrouped out the front of the burning residence, the (now completely weapon-less – as they heard their ammo in the house cooking off as the fire reached it) group heard an engine start out back and a small hatchback came hooning around from the rear and nearly ran them over as it headed straight towards the dirt road – then slammed into a tree. Frank ran over expecting Mary to put up a fight, but instead she slumped in the drivers seat repeating “I’m going to die here” over and over. Frank gingerly reached in the passenger door and picked up her shotgun. The rest of the group came over and were standing with Frank when they heard a voice from up the dirt road – sheriff Randall had walked all this way from the other crash site while they were talking with Mary and was now pointing his pistol at Frank. Randall asked Frank to hand over the shotgun which he did, and then checking that Mary wasn’t badly injured, suggested they all head to one of the other houses (recently belonging to Marys brother) to discuss exactly what the hell was going on here.
Under the cover of the sheriff holding both shotgun and pistol, they pieced together the story as truthfully and completely as they could, with help from the terrified Mary who was certain that she was still marked for death. With some info from Bill about the recent book sale, they determined that it might be young Jeremy Noonan - a local ‘punk kid’ according to sheriff – who would be in possession of the book and therefore able to be linked to the summoning of the Jersey Devil. They resolved to get some sleep here (as many of them were in terrible shape after the crashes, shootings, and monster encounter) and in the morning hike over to the old abandoned mill where Jeremy usually hangs out with his loser friends. Sheriff went upstairs to sleep, taking both shotgun and pistol with him, while the others bunkered down for the night. Bill had read a book on first aid recently and so used up the last of their first aid supplies tending to their wounds and stopping the imminent threat of bleeding to death.
In the morning a furious sheriff woke to find his guns gone and a note left on the hall table – Mary had snuck in and stolen the guns and taken off on her own to confront Jeremy who she was now certain had eliminated her brother and was coming after her. Realising this woman was in danger, they hiked off cross-country after her with sheriff coming along. After many hours traversing the desolate pine barrens woods, near nightfall they heard the babbling of a brook and raucous laughter and loud music coming from ahead. Sheriff Randall charged off ahead angrily, but the group took a stealthier approach under Bills direction, arriving at the abandoned mill quite some time after him. Approaching the first thing bills saw was his van! These bloody kids had smashed the window and nicked it, and worse, someone was in the back throwing his books out into a heap on the dirt and leaves of the forest floor! Bound and gagged tied to a nearby tree was the sheriff.
Bob used his fire magic to scare off many of the youths, leaving behind young Jeremy grovelling before the (now untied) sheriff who had cuffed him across the head several times, they found that Jeremy didn’t have the book – he had bought it on behalf of his uncle – a man named Roger Buckland who lived over in Allantown who Bill had recently had other dealings with of occult literature. Steve wandered around the old mill and found some occult markings – like a summoning circle – and with help from Bob determined that this would have been used for summoning the beast in the past. A newer, fresher summoning circle would likely be found with whoever was controlling it’s current incarnation. Jeremy confirmed that yes Mary had been through here – but being heavily armed and not finding what she wanted, both she and he had decided it best to leave each other alone – she had stormed off through the woods in the direction of Allantown as well.
Now with transport – Bills van! – the group jumped in and headed off towards Allantown, but at a much more careful and sedate pace on these backwoods dirt roads that either sheriff or Mary had employed when both crashing their vehicles of late. As they progressed along the darkened dirt road, they heard the horrible screeches of the creature out in the night and then a loud THUMP-SCRAAAAPE along the van roof as the Jersey Devil landed directly on top of them. Luckily, being an expert and having researched many monsters in his time, Bill had set mystic wards on his van and the creature couldn’t enter it. Turning off the dirt road and onto the main highway again, Bill floored it. As he sped into the darkness the creature repeatedly tried to land atop the vehicle and tear it with its claws before eventually giving up and flying around above them – tracking their path towards Allantown.
Rounding a bend in the road, standing there in the middle of the road was Mary, with raised shotgun! She fired! The glass of the van’s front window shattered, and Bill swerved to avoid a case of vehicular homicide (as Sheriff Randall was sitting next to him in the front seat), pulling up alongside the crazed woman with the shotgun. Having finally had enough, Frank (using a crossbow he’d found in Bills van-stash of weapons) tried to shoot her, while Bob tried to blast her with his magic. Frank got very lucky as Bob knocked him aside in his eagerness – the first shotgun blast tore a hole in the other side of the van as Mary missed Frank, but Bob was not so lucky and copped one to the chest. Steve was just about to shoot her with another crossbow when Bill floored it again and tore off into the night – van door still ajar and Bob bleeding out near death in the back.
This was the opening the creature needed – the magic wards protecting the van had been damaged by the shotgun. The creature landed in the middle of the road in front of them, Bill swerved again, and as they skidded past the beast it reached out with one great talon and tore the entire side of the van – door and all – clean off. Not stopping, Bill urged the dying vehicle to just get them to Allantown, which it did as they pulled up outside of the local doctors house, with the intent of getting Bob some urgent medical attention. The creature took off again into the pitch black night sky – still following.
They pounded on the door of the doctors house, and the elderly Dr Brown was slow in answering – having been asleep and needing to empty his bladder and put on proper attire before accepting visitors. Unable to wait, with the creature now stalking the streets of the small hamlet, Bob summoned his remaining energy and blasted the door in – collecting the elderly Dr Brown on the other side and knocking him unconscious. Frank and Steve rushed into the house looking for medical supplies (Brown he was a doctor after all…) while Bill looked after the unconscious doctor and Bob continued to bleed out in the front hallway.
Frank opened the wrong door, and was shot in the chest by Mrs Brown who thought this was a home invasion situation. Bill screamed out at her that it was him and some friends, and recognising the voice of a local she immediately realised that she’d maybe killed an innocent man. Steve helped Mrs Brown find some medical supplies and she gave Frank a hefty shot of morphine to ‘dull the pain’ which also unfortunately dulled his senses. The creature snaked its serpentine half scaly, half furry neck in the front door – it’s head like a horses but filled with razor sharp teeth and its eyes glowing an evil red. It went directly for the easiest target – Bill who was bent over Dr Brown caring for him. Bill slashed it with his remaining magic dagger, slightly harming the beast, but it tossed him around viciously in its fanged maw, leaving him slumped in pain against a wall. Bob used his magic again and managed to drive the creature off for now, but he was fast losing his grip on life with his shotgun wound gushing blood everywhere.
Steve helped Mrs Brown give some first aid to those who needed it, stopping Bob from dying, while the sheriff picked up her rifle. They heard a car screech to a halt out the front and none other than Mary hopped out – shotgun at the ready (she must have carjacked some late night driver). But curiously, she wasn’t headed for them. She marched up to a house two doors down and began banging on it shouting “Roger Buckland, you come out here and face me you coward! Send a monster after me, will you? I’m here for you and I’m going to end this!”. Frank (now also bandaged up) decided this distraction was his chance, and slipped out the back door of the doctors house. He had time to notice the rear porch light come on two doors down at that house Mary was banging on, before the Jersey Devil picked him up in its talons and flew up into the sky. The man now identified as Roger Buckland shouted out something along the lines of “You all better back off and leave me alone, or the Devil is going to drop your friend from a great height”. The sheriff stepped out onto the back porch, raised the rifle, and fired – missing Buckland, who ducked back into his home. Frank, crossbow still in hand, fired a gut-shot directly up into the beastie, which dropped him to splatter on the pavement below – dead.
Bill dashed over to the Buckland house and was quickly engaged in a fistfight with Buckland, before Steve ran in behind him and pulled Buckland off – fighting him himself and allowing Bill to start searching the house for the ritual book, magic summoning circle, and holy oil he’d require to stop the beast. As an expert in these things, Bill knew that all evil summonings happened in creepy basements, and so headed straight down. Bob staggered in behind them – perhaps from the booze, or perhaps from the major wounds – and was quickly cut off as the Jersey Devil snaked its snapping maw into the hallway behind him – Bob again setting fire to a building as he used his fire magic to attack the beast and cause it some great harm before running upstairs looking for the ‘Leeds Almanac’ that he was certain would be up there. Thinking fast, Steve pulled a sweet judo move and threw Buckland directly into the mouth of his own monster, and with a crunching and snapping of bones, he was soon devoured.
Down in the basement of the burning Buckland house, Bill found the summoning circle and a captive who identified himself as James – friend of Frank. Saddened, Bill did not tell him immediately about his army buddies demise, but set about (with the untied James’ assistance) to sprinkle the holy oils around in preparation for the banishment. Upstairs, Bob was looking for the almanac amongst the conflagration when a misstep caused him to fall through the burning floorboards and down two levels to the basement – nearly landing atop his ally Bill. Steve took up his last crossbow bolt and aimed directly at the creature before unleashing – smashing its face and penetrating through its neck, leaving the creature dying on the floor in front of him – it’s great body stretched out the doorway and into the yard beyond. As it heaved its last beaths, fallen to the floor of this burning house, he watched it dying and felt the thrill of his first monster kill. This mild mannered, mundane workaday man, who was only here because he’d given a lift to a veteran in need, was now changed forever. He was a monster hunter.
Mary burst though the front door having shot the hinges off, and with the shotgun ran up beside Steve, unloading both barrels into the head of the Jersey Devil just as down in the basement Bill, Bob, and James completed sprinkling the oils and saying the magic words. The creature slowly disintegrated and vanished into whisps of smoky ether.
The end.
The characters each had an epilogue that the players narrated, but I’ll leave that for them to share if they want to.
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