Beyond the Fence, Below the Grave

I've just written and released by own rpg for the folklore game jam on itch.io! 

You can download the pdf from itch.io here

It's an investigative role playing game about practitioners of magic in pre-medieval, pre-Christian Scandinavia. Players are tasked with using their magical abilities to investigate supernatural events, determine what kind of entity is responsible for them, and appease that entity before too many lives are lost.

The game dovetails very nicely with the stuff about Vikings I've been writing recently and tries to get into a side of Old Norse belief which is never portrayed with much depth in pop culture. The lines between mythology and folklore, between magic and religion, did not exist in same way in the Viking age as they do today. Much of people's understanding of these subjects is shaped by Snorri Sturluson, who tried to systematize and organize the mythological stories he recounts, in the Prose Edda and other works, into a cohesive whole. Unfortunately, the shape of belief and religious practice in Scandinavia in the 8th-11th centuries was probably much murkier, more complicated, and very different from region to region. I hope my game can portray a little bit of that murkiness.

Perhaps it would have been helpful for players and dms to add a little bit more historical context and explain some of concepts in greater depth, but I think I've done well with what the page limit provided.

 Anyway, I'd appreciate it if you could download and read my game, maybe throw a few dollars my way, or give me the great honor of running it for yourself (please tell me if you do!)

 I'm planning on releasing new scenarios for the system every month as well, so stick around for that.

This post is dedicated to Lee M. Hollander, whose translation of the poetic edda I still rely on

Beware the Nameless Dead

Last time I wrote about the self, how it is constructed, and how it can be broken. Here are some monsters who actually use those rules.

Who am I? I want to be you.
(Source)

When a person dies their self breaks and flies across the dreaming world. All the parts are frightened, spinning and whirling, all except memory.  It knows where to go. It flies across the vast expanse of the dream, over the river of death, to that cold, quiet land from which none return. The other parts are less astute, they have other places to go, bodies of descendants to take root in, halls of ancestors to return to. If a shaman does not guide these parts to their proper home then they might return to their useless skin and try to make it move. Shuddering to half-life, cold, unwhole. This is how the Nameless Dead are born, usually.

Sometimes when a hard fall is taken, when an arrow goes right past the heart, when you lose your breath for just a moment too long your whole self is thrown in disarray. Are we dead? Do we live? You might lay for days, in a shallow grave, not sure of anything. When your parts are all in order, when you rise again, you are missing something. You are not quiet yourself. Not alive. Not whole. Your memory has gone ahead to the land of death without the rest of you. You too are one of the Nameless Dead.

The Nameless Dead wander the world aimlessly. Their faces are all strangely blank, impossible to keep fixed in your mind. When war rages across the steppe or strikes through the forests of the upper river, they follow the war path like scavenging animals. They dig up the recently dead, feeling over the cold flesh, sucking up what dregs of vital energy remain. They wander through looted homesteads, basking in the ashes of extinguished fires. Their skin is like ice, to feel it is to have your life ripped from you, into them. They do not know they can do this. They just grab and grab, so amazed to feel warm again, to be touched again like this. Is that what it felt like? Before?

How soft you are
Love and Pain by Edvard Munch, 1895

They also scavenge for memories. They cannot remember, by definition, but the other parts of the self can still recall being whole. It’s an odd sensation. Each piece knows something different about the past, they cannot agree. They are desperate to feel like a self again, to be somebody instead of this nobody. They pick up trinkets and mementos. They tell themselves stories. This is my walking stick. It was my mother’s walking stick. Now it is mine. Me. I am me. These things become full of memories, heavy with connections and false recollections. One of the Nameless Dead could talk to you for hours about themselves, all their stories, all their friends, in all their objects so lovingly held. They like to hear about your memories too. They can see it, fluttering in you, making you who you are. Somewhere, deep inside themselves, they know they can pull it out of you, like hot air being sucked out of a tent when the flap is opened. It is an instinct not a choice. They must be whole again.

1 in 12 of the Nameless Dead are technically alive, just clutching to life. 

Nameless Dead

Medium Undead, Evil

Armor Class: 12

Hitpoints: 17 (4d8)

Speed: 30ft
STR 12 (+1) DEX 14 (+2) CON 10 INT 10 WIS 12 (+1) CHA 1 (-5)

Damage Immunities: Poison, Necrotic
Condition Immunities: Charmed, Exhaustion, Poisoned

Senses: Darkvision 60 Ft., passive Perception 11

Languages: Whatever it knew in life

Challenge Rating: 1 (200 XP)

Tell me your name. The Nameless Dead have advantage on all attack rolls against creatures whose name it knows. (A note on names: Any title which would cause your ears to perk up if you heard it counts as your name. Even a pseudonym may become a real name if its internalized.)

Still hanging on. All effects which detect the undead (such as Detect Good and Evil) have a 3 in 6 chance of failing to identify the Nameless Dead or of identifying them as living if possible.

Actions:

Draining Touch. Melee Weapon Attack: +2 to hit, reach 5ft, Hit 2d4+2 necrotic damage. The Nameless Dead regains hitpoints equal to half the amount of damage dealt by this attack. Any physical contact a living creature makes with the Nameless Dead (such as grappling it or being grappled by it) causes this attack to automatically hit them. So long as contact is maintained, the living creature is hit by this attack at the start of their turn until contact ends.

Eat Memory. The Nameless Dead may attempt to steal the Memory of an unconscious humanoid it can touch and whose name it knows. The humanoid must succeed a DC 16 Charisma saving throw or lose their memory. Without a Memory:

Your proficiency bonus is -2

You lose all armor proficiencies

You forget everything you know and you cannot form new memories. You can only remember things by using objects and mementos to fix information in your unwhole mind.

All your acquaintances forget you. All your friends, family, enemies, and allies have a 4 in 6 chance of forgetting you. All your closest friends and any animal companions you have have a 2 in 6 chance of forgetting you. Even if you are remembered by a person, your face seems vague and indistinct.

If the Nameless Dead is killed, then the memory it has stolen escapes and is lost in the spirit world, a shaman can retrieve it in exchange for  10d20 gp in gifts and one favor, to be rendered at a later date. The Shaman will then enter a trance to find and return the missing piece, which takes 1d6 days.

 A shaman can also return the stolen memory to your self over the course of a few hours for half the cost if you can bring the Nameless Dead, stolen memory and all, to them. This ceremony will destroy the Nameless Dead. 

Something odd happens when a number of the Nameless Dead get together. They start talking to each other. They share false recollections, fake histories, and come up with a story to explain why they're all out here, missing something. They act the part, picking up or making the appropriate props and giving admittedly hammy performances. When they come upon the living, they try their best to seem normal but their hunger for a memory often overtakes them, especially if their guests refuse to play along or ask too many probing questions. They'll drop the act and fall upon you mercilessly, shouting "WHAT IS YOUR NAME YOUR NAMTELL ME YOUR NAME PLEASE."

If the party encounters a group of the Nameless Dead, roll a d10 on the table below to determine what delusion they abide by. Consider that it might at one point have been true. 

1. They raise tattered banners. They think they are warriors.

2. They wear the skulls of horses. They think they are shamans in a trance.

3. They drag loose reigns along the ground. They think they are lost horsemen.

4. They carry bags of stones and dry grass. They think they are merchants

5. One goes ahead of the rest in a tattered robe. They think they are a chieftain and their retinue

6. They wear wreaths of withered flowers. They think they are a wedding party, but nobody is sure who the bride and groom are

7. They all show off broken chains and burst ropes. They think they are escaped slaves

8. Each has a distinct marker of identity, a busted harp, a rusty sword, ect. They think they are heroes from an old story

9. They carry a bloated corpse (it might be a calf) wrapped in rags. They think they are children looking for a place to bury their mother.
10. They drag the dry carcasses of sheep and dogs behind them. They think they are shepherds.

I am me. Don't you remember?
(Source)

Don’t be naïve. Having the wrong memory is worse than having none. There are scars vividly remembered which don’t appear on the skin. There are thoughts deeply known which the will cannot construct. There are ghosts of passions which the follower cannot understand. There is a terrible sensation. It’s hard to describe. You are you. You are not you, you are somebody else.

Once fitted with a stolen memory, the Nameless Dead wanders back to a home it never knew. It is remembered, connected to false relatives and friends. A beloved daughter returns from battle. A child taken in a raid finds his way back home. A lost farmhand stumbles out of the bush. A spurned lover comes crawling back. Were they this tall? Was he this thin, this pale? Did she talk like that? Was her skin always this cold? Does it really matter? We’re all safe, together again.

This is how a Name Eater is born. It grows fat off of siphoned life force and learns better how to control its growing powers. It is aware of its double nature, of the incongruity within its self. It knows it should be someone else. Here are all these freshly familiar faces. They look so happy. One of them must have the right piece. 

Name Eater

Medium Undead, Evil

Armor Class: 13 (natural armor)

Hitpoints: 52 (8d8+16)

Speed: 30ft
STR 14 (+2) DEX 16 (+3) CON 12 (+1) INT 10 WIS 14 (+2) CHA 8 (-1)

Damage Immunities: Poison, Necrotic
Condition Immunities: Charmed, Exhaustion, Poisoned

Senses: Darkvision 60 Ft., passive Perception 12

Languages: Whatever it knew in life

Challenge Rating: 4 (1100 XP)

Tell me your name. The Name Eater has advantage on all attack rolls against creatures whose name it knows.
Whole Enough. All effects which detect the undead fail to detect the Name Eater or identify them as living if possible
Vampiric Aura. Living humanoids who take a long rest within 200ft of the Name Eater lose 1 hitdice and cannot regain hitdice by any means while within the aura. The Name Eater gains all hit die lost this way and may spend them to use its other abilities. (whenever an action calls for an amount of hit dice, noted as hd, to be rolled, those dice are spent. xhd notes that any number of available hitdice of any size are to be rolled.)

Actions:

Draining Touch: Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5ft, Hit 3d6+2 necrotic damage. The Name Eater regains hitpoints equal to half the amount of damage dealt by this attack. If hit by this attack, the target must succeed a DC 14 Constitution saving throw or have a hit die stolen by the Name Eater.

Siphon Life (1 per day): The Name Eater attempts to pull the life from 1hd creatures who are up to 1hd x 5 feet away from it. Each creature must make a DC 14 Constitution saving throw. A target takes xhd necrotic damage on failed save and half as much on a successful one. The Name Eater regains hit points equal to the amount of damage done by this ability.

Revitalize: The Name Eater consumes some of the energy it has stolen to heal itself. The Name Eater regains xhd hitpoints.

Dislocate (1 per day): The Name Eater may break it's self into it's five parts, becoming a gust of wind with a fly speed of 40ft and dropping everything its wearing. After 4hd rounds it reforms. 

Twist Memory (3 per day): The Name Eater manipulates the memory of a humanoid within 20ft of it. Roll xhd, the Name Eater may alter the target's memory in one of the ways below depending on the result of its roll.

1-3. The Name Eater may alter a major detail in a memory (i.e who you were speaking too)
4-6. The Name Eater may erase a memory (i.e you forget the whole conversation)
7-10. The Name Eater may implant one of its own memories in the target
11-12. The Name Eater may implant a compulsion in the target (i.e a desire to visit the deep wood)
16+. The Name Eater may do all of the below to the target and change their name

 The target of this ability will not notice that it's memory has been changed, but the Name Eater can be seen doing something strange, as if its casting a spell.

Swap Memory (Recharge 5-6): The Name Eater swaps its memory with that of a humanoid it can touch unless they succeed a DC 16 Charisma saving throw. Unconscious creatures do not get a save. The Name Eater may use Swap Memory as a free action against any creature it reduces to 0 hit points. When two people swap memories they exchange:
-The contents of their memories
-All proficncies (skills, weapons, ect)
-Facial features, but eyes remain the same
-Identities and names (i.e if you have Gertrude's memory, you think you are her)
Acquaintances, friends, and enemies will recognize a person based on their whose memory they carry but strangers may notice incongruities (you look awful young for a woman whose says she's seen so many seasons). Don't think of a memory swap as the minds of two people being sorted into different bodies. Rather imagine it as if two new people who should not exist have been created out of old parts. Though identity and the associated memories remain stable, those parts of a person are forced to interact with a different personality. The follower and will of Donar the Barbarian may react differently to the mournful memories of Lord Debonair's lost lady love.What experiences may have caused Lord Debonair to become hopeless and limp may fill Lord Debonair in Donar's skin with brooding and rage.

Each face is my own.
The Kiss by Edvard Much, 1897

A Name Eater is a jealous force, more like a shadow that moves through people than a person itself. All it wants is to say is "I am me" and know it is true. It constantly switches memories, sorting them into wrong bodies, causing others to suffer from the same anguish as itself. It can't fully comprehend what it's doing. It just does. It can only steal recollections, dim awareness that something is deeply wrong are borrowed and cycled through the same persons over and over again. The Name Eater does not know that each attempt to repair itself has failed. It sees the contentment it was starved for drain out of the faces of those it thinks are family. It loses track of which memory went where. These faces are all so marred now. Who are you? Are you me? Are you my mother, my friend, my brother? I'm so sorry. Let me fix you, let me try. Who are you?  Are you me?

Name Eaters know they can fight and how but they do not want to. If they can tell that someone is close to uncovering their horrible secret that they themselves don't fully understand they will try to isolate and neutralize them by altering their memory or stealing it. If they are threatened with violence they will be cautious about using their powers, they try to conserve hitdice. If out numbered or outgunned they will be quick to dislocate themselves and flee, usually picking up another memory somewhere else.

Notes on running a Name Eater: For each npc who might have their memory shoved into a player's character, write down a few formative memories, opinions, and important relationships to help with role playing as well as whatever proficiencies they have. A farmer or laborer might be trained in nature, animal handling, or survival. The monster manual states that commoners have 1d8 as hitdice but I think 2d4 works a bit better for the purposes of running a Name Eater.

To help keep track of how many hitdice a Name Eater has stolen, you can make a simple table with all the different dice sizes, like so:

Stolen Hitdice

d4s:

d6s:

d8s:

d10s:

d12s:

Possible Scenarios/Adventure Seeds:

1. Simple, an isolated farmstead has a Name Eater in its midst. The residents have noticed the strange goings on, they think the farm is haunted by an evil spirit living in a nearby mound.

2. A group of soldiers is transporting one of the Nameless Dead which had stolen a companion's memory to a shaman. It became a Name Eater during the journey and now the party is tearing itself apart with paranoia. 

3. A Name Eater has stolen the memory of a shaman and understood what it is. It wants to get its true memory back from beyond the river of death. 

4. A string of murders, people are reported dead and then seen killing others. A Name Eater is behind the slaughter. 

A person is a question. Now answer me.
(Source)

What cure is there?

Name Eaters leave wakes of agony and grief behind them. Memories which don't fit their other parts, scars of loss and distrust. Sure, life can go on with mismatched memories but nothing will ever be the same. A shaman can help, but most don't know how to break the self apart, only how to heal it. The Lapuans have shamans who would be willing to perform the correct rites and certain unscrupulous magicians, those who deal with evil spirits, also know how to crack the self and put it together again.

If none of these options are available, there is a more dangerous route. If two people with swapped memories each take near lethal damage at the same time then there is a chance that their memories will be knocked out of them and return to their correct owner. I'd say that chance is around 3 in 6, 4 in 6 if you manage to get both people unconscious at the exact same moment. 

Take care, my dearest
Mother and Son, Osip Braz, 1896

Not much can be done for the Nameless Dead. If their memory really is gone beyond the river, only a miracle could bring it back. A mother's lamentation can often do the trick, it's happened before. A great spirit would have to intervene though, One Eyed Chief, Mother Huldra, Sky Father.

But it's not always that bad. There's a 2 in 6 chance that the lost memory is caught in the fens and the stones around the river, or denied passage across the cold water. This chance rises to 5 in 6 if the Nameless Dead is technically still alive, just clinging to life.

It is dangerous to go that far through the dreaming world. A shaman will demand a great favor indeed and his journey will take 2d6 days. They'll return absolutely exhausted but warmth, life, will begin to return to whoever it is who has been made whole again. They'll spend 1d4+1 weeks in a coma but they can make a full recovery. There is a 4 in 6 chance that they've brought something back with them from the land of death, roll 1d4 on the table below, the item will found clutched in their left hand. 

Items:

1. A feather from Desires-to-Know. A large raven’s feather which glitters all colours in the moonlight. Hold it and you will remember everything perfectly. Burn it and inhale the smoke and you will learn one secret. Roll 1d4: 1. The location of a forgotten treasure 2. The secret weakness of a powerful monster 3. The name of an ancient ancestor 4. The greatest fear of a great leader

2. A stone from the bank of the River of Death. It is round, blue, cold as ice. If you clench it in your hand its chill flows through your body. The dead and the undead will recognize you as one of their own.

3. A swan feather. Long and white, running your finger through the barbs makes them crackle with cold electricity. Carry it on you and your self cannot be broken in the mortal world. However, death is closer to you. To succeed a death save you must roll a 13 or higher.

4. A piece of a hero. He was chopped up and thrown in the river a long time ago. This is a part of him, his viscera and his bone. Anybody who eats it is put into a coma forever. They do not age and cannot die. If a whole village and all its livestock mourn for the comatose person for a week they will wake. They will tell you death was the best sleep they've ever had.

This post is dedicated to my friends. You know who you are. 

You Are Five

The Self is a maze. Please take care.
(The Lonely Ones by Edvard Munch, 1899)

You are not you. I know, it’s hard to understand. You are not one person, one thing. You are five. They are all whole, not parts. You are not any of them. You are their tendency to stay together. But they wander, oh they wander so.

First is your Skin. It is the heaviest part of you and the easiest to change. It is your face, it is your shape, it is your limbs. It is one thing your parents give to you. It stays right where you left it when you dream. It is your breath and your life. But take care of your skin, my friend, there are sorcerers who want to take it and wear it themselves. They will do terrible things to your Skin. And if you choose to change your Skin, do not forget what you once were.

Second is your Memory. It is a little bird. A sparrow, a magpie, a dove. Its feathers are all you know. It flies to your side days after you are born and joins your unwhole wholeness. When you sleep, it glides through the dreaming world. But, oh, my dear, take care of your Memory. There is a huge raven called Desires-to-Know and he will dive at your Memory in the dreaming world and pluck out your feathers. This is called forgetting.

Third is your Follower. It is the last to become part of you. When you begin to teeth, you will know that it is with you now. It takes many shapes. A fish, a mammal, a bird, a man, a woman, a shapelessness. It is your personality, your sense of who you are. It keeps you safe. Evil spirits fear it and it can be made mighty in the dreaming and the waking world. But, oh, my sweetness, take care of your Follower. If it is destroyed, your whole self will be undone. If it is estranged from you, you will sicken and die. It goes ahead of you, not behind. So worry for your Follower, your enemies will see it in their dreams before they see you on the road.

Fourth is your Will. It is a bird also. A hunter, it soars in the clouds. It is your mind’s sharpness and the speed of your wit. It stays with you and does not wander in the dream but it may if you know how. In the dreaming world, it is a great protector. It can fly with your Follower, it can fly with your Memory and they will be safer from the hidden forces of the dreaming world. It can find lost spirits and bring broken selves together once again. But, my darling, take care of your Will. It desires things which should not be desired and in the vast expanses of the dreaming world it is easily tempted, it is easily lost. If you lose your Will, your thoughts will unravel and you will sicken and die. Keep your Will close, my dearest.

Last is your Luck. It is your eyes, bright and strong or dull and weak. It is your capacity to succeed. If your parent had a good Luck, hope it passes onto you when they die. It is always with you, your Luck. You cannot part from it no matter how hard you try and nothing can take it from you. Do not worry for it. Love it and carry it like a banner in the sun. When you have nothing left, you will have your Luck and it will draw your whole self together in such a way that nothing can stop you from finding victory. 

It’s so hard, my sweetness, to keep yourself together. You have so many parts to lose. But keep trying, one day, soon, you will feel whole.

It is made of lost things
(Source)

Losing Your Self

To see is to be seen, to touch is to be touched. When one thread is pulled the whole tapestry can be unraveled. Your luck and your skin are usually safe, but your memory, follower, and will are often in jeopardy. There are evil spirits who can steal these things from you in the spirit world and in the mortal one. If part of you is taken by such a creature, there is usually a way to reclaim it.

If you are in a trance state or traveling in the dreaming world free of your skin and are unexpectedly brought back to the mortal world you have a 1 in 6 chance of losing your memory, a 1 in 6 chance of losing your follower, and a 1 in 6 chance of losing your will.

Your skin. It is hard to remove, but there are tools to do so. One Eyed Chief has a knife which can. All shape shifting involves mastering, transforming, or replacing this part of your self. Often, you must remove one skin to don another. Then it is vulnerable to those who would love to wear it themselves.
If you are without a skin:
Your speed is 5
You have only one hand
You have disadvantage on all d20 rolls
You will die in 2 days.
A creature without a skin doesn't just look a creature which has been skinned. Skinless, a creature is malformed and strange, no distinct limbs, always leaking, somehow resembling all animals and none.

Your memory. It is not just the contents of your mind. Losing your memory is not just a case of amnesia. It is losing the ability to remember at all. The locus of your connection to so many things is kept in this part of you.
If you lose your memory:
Your proficiency bonus is -2
You lose all armor proficiencies
You forget everything you know and you cannot form new memories. You can only remember things by using objects and mementos to fix information in your unwhole self.
All your acquaintances forget you. All your friends, family, enemies, and allies have a 4 in 6 chance of forgetting you. All your closest friends and any animal companions you have have a 2 in 6 chance of forgetting you. Even if you are remembered by a person, your face seems vague and indistinct.

Your follower. Your follower is your conduit to the dreaming world, it connects you to other spirits. Without it, you seem listless, dull, passionless. Even the naturally melancholic seem to have lost something vital to their personality without a follower.
If you lose your follower:
You automatically fail all saves against magical effects. (making a Dex save to avoid being struck by a fireball spell is not saving against a magical effect, but saving against a charm person spell is)
Any bonuses you gain from pacts made with spirits or boons provided by guardian spirits are lost
You cannot cast spells or make use of magic items which require attunement
You gain a point of exhaustion which cannot be removed in any way every 2 days.

Your will. Without a will you seem like yourself, personality intact, mind whole, but then it becomes clear that your sense of humor is gone, your ability to make conversation is shot, and you can't sing worth a damn. You also can't want anything. You may need food or water or love but never can your self be driven into motion to get those things.
If you lose your will:
You can't make your own decisions, you must follow another person's orders.
You automatically fail all WIS, INT, and CHA ability checks which aren't related to recalling information.
You gain a point of exhaustion which cannot be removed in any way every 2 days.

Your luck. It can be replaced very rarely but it can never be removed from you entirely.

 Hunt by Nikolai Triik, 1913.

Putting Your Self Together 

Getting your self back is not easy. If you're missing your skin, you must either take it off whoever is wearing it now or get a new one. If a creature or spirit has stolen another part of you, there will usually some specialized way of getting it back.

 If your follower, will, or memory is lost in the Dreaming world, it's easiest to hire a shaman to find your missing parts. It will cost 10d20 gp in gifts and one favor, to be rendered at a later date. The Shaman will then enter a trance to find and return the missing piece, which takes 1d6 days.

Speaking with Whole Parts

Each part of you is whole. Each can speak in its own way in the dreaming world. Usually, it's hard to isolate any single part of a self, but when somebody has died recently their parts fly in every direction. A shaman can catch one and bring it with you to speak with in your dreams, usually for a fee of 3d20 GP in gifts or a single lamb. 

Skins can speak, they are lethargic and forgetful. They talk about food and adrenaline and love to show you all the dances they once knew. 

Memories can speak, they are fast talking and nimble. They will twitter on about people and places and things. There is very little to connect all these recollections of theirs but they enjoy telling you nonetheless. 

Followers can speak, they seem like their person but more extreme, flaws and passions made more perfect. They'll like to tell you about grudges and crimes and deeds in a way which would suit their their personality. 

Wills can speak, they are subtle and curious. They have such plans, so many things they have yet to do. They will ask you questions, lots of them. They want your secrets, your schemes. They have hated being locked up with these four other idiots who lack their vision but they can't wait to be slotted in again with another four. 

Lucks can speak, they are either filled with conviction or weak with failure. They remember the long lineage of selves they have been a part of. Their lineages, which they love to remind you of, are often not perfectly genealogical. 

This post is dedicated to St. Thomas the Apostle, who doubted.