Module Introduction
The Fangwitch’s Falls is a fantasy adventure by EmemyCo. It’s written for Cairn, but easily adapted to anything rules light, and is a fantastic example of the “talking to weird guys in the woods” style of module that I’m a big fan of.
It features a point crawl navigation of the strange Fangwoods, beset by calamity as the legendary Fangwitch thrashes about as it wakes. Six of the seven locations have a unique calamity that can occur as a result of the Fangwitch’s movements, although if enough actually suffer them the entire location will destabilize and be totally destroyed.
Much of the setup and content is randomized, from big details like what the Fangwitch is and what it wants down to small details like “why are those fishermen having a bad time and is it too much fish?”. I think the same group could probably run this twice without getting bored, but if nothing else running it multiple times as a GM means you get to see something new each time.
There’s a sizeable collection of the weirdo NPCs and creatures to be found, complete with fantastically adorable artwork, an encounter table (execution left to the GM), and a nice set of local events and rumors to help get the players invested.
I fell in love with this module while reading it, and have been looking forward to running it since then. The group I ran it with leans a little in the direction of “murder hobo” so it’s maybe not exactly the intended audience, but I think the ensuing friction was great fun.
You can pick up The Fangwitch’s Falls by itself here, or along with a new module by Em by the name of Try the Beetle Milk, currently being kickstarted and promising to be more of the same off-the-wall goodness.
System
I’m letting this mini-campaign also serve as playtesting for my system Brighter Worlds. In brief, Brighter Worlds is a game of modular crunch intended to let players muck about with the individual mechanics they enjoy without weighing down the game for everyone else at the table. It’s a more whimsical take on the OSR/NSR, as seen through the lens of Evlyn Moreau’s artwork, and I think is a good match in tone for the Fangwitch’s Falls. Mechanically it’s based on Cairn, Electric Bastionland, and Macchiato Monsters.
Grab it here (for free) if you’d like to read more, or check out the SRD here.
Player Characters
Granny Hexwhistle
Granny Hexwhistle is a Witch, and also an unforgivably awful human being. Her familiar, which assists her with spellcasting, is a tiny frog which secretes hallucinogenic poison. The frog is a prince she transmuted years ago, and can’t (or won’t) turn back. She has a broom to fly upon, as all proper witches should.
She’s here to try and weasel out any ancient witch secrets from the appropriately named Fangwitch.
Mercutio Smock
Mercutio is a Runewright, master of the subtle but flexible art of creating magical effects by chaining together rune elements. He specializes in adding logic elements to his runes, allowing them to be activated based on “if, then” statements.
He’s here to try and uncover the Rune of Mud, supposedly used as part of the original binding of the Fangwitch.
Pele
Pele is a Cleric of Small Gods, specifically of the God of Magmatic Renewal who takes the form of a small volcano headed golem. She can speak through her god to change the world within its domain.
She’s here because the waking of the Fangwitch is the end of a great cycle, something her and her god wish to witness.
Session One
The party arrives in Mahruko, a small town at the edge of the Fangwood, to a scene of widespread malaise. The road’s been washed out behind them, the square is filled with people fleeing a nearby town that was swallowed by sink holes, and a general sense of foreboding. They follow the sounds of activity to The Coiled Mare, a local bar where someone is blowing through their savings to buy drinks for anyone present.
Never one to turn down drinks, they tuck in while chatting up locals to find out what’s going on. A few interesting tidbits appear:
- The groundskeeper for the local cemetery hasn’t been seen in a few days.
- Someone swears they overheard some ghosts having an argument near the Old Well.
- Everyone in town has been having the same dream: the whale sized Fangwitch thrashing about in a mass of coils and spines.
The party hits the road to investigate the ghost argument rumors, despite the other townsfolk suggesting that old Bill was just drunk.
GM’s Note: There are no explicit instructions for navigating the point crawl in module. I don’t mind this, as it’s so dependent on system and group that I’d likely have ended up ignoring it anyway. For this playthrough, since the module operates on the scale of days with the calamities, I’m having it take about 6 hours to get to a new location and a similar amount of time to thoroughly explore it. This way the party can visit around two locations per in game day. I’m also rolling on the Encounters table once every 6 hours.
On the way, the party runs into a couple remarkably fat chickens pecking at worms on the road. Upon seeing these chickens, Granny Hexwhistle immediately decides she wants to catch and eat them. She captures one with magic while Pele, always willing to go with the flow, speaks through her god to turn the ground to mud and catches the second chicken.
On closer examination the chickens exude a sulfurous smell, and have a malicious look in their eyes. Granny Hexwhistle considers this, then snaps their necks but decides not to eat them.
Dead chickens in hand the party arrives at the Old Well. Mercutio approaches to drain it with some runework but finds is already drained due to a crack at the bottom, likely a result of recent tremors.
Granny snaps a chicken bone to perform the Bone Sense ritual to scout the area before flying down on her broom into a small space through the crack. Inside is a skeleton huddling beneath a blanket, a skull sitting on some armor, and a strange spectral figure dancing around the room.
The skull introduces himself as the Seer. After shaking him like a magic 8 ball and asking questions it’s discovered that that spirit is the spectral form of the Fangwitch. The party is unsure what to do with this information as the spirit seems unable or unwilling to answer questions. The skull accepts a new skeleton (one of the suspicious chicken corpses) in trade for his armor which Mercutio enhances with a set of runes to make it unyielding as stone.
GM Note: The Seer “speaks in poorly rhyming verse when able.” Super fun to try and come up with rhymes on the fly, but also quite difficult. Was made more fun by making the struggle to come up with good verse “in character”, it’s the Seer struggling! Not me!
The party continues on towards the Lake, passing some strange stone structures on the way, and arrives at a small hut set on the shore. The hut belongs to the Yamuna sisters, who are unsettling elongated fish ladies (long and tall) who invite them in for a cup of tea.
Over the tea they engage in a nice, not at all strange and foreboding chat, in which the party learns some local lore. After parsing the strange singsongy parlance of the sisters, the party learns:
- The Fangwitch is apparently behind the Falls that feed into the Lake
- There is an ancient Mask (possibly the source of the Runes Mercutio is looking for) at the bottom of the Lake.
- The Lake is home to a huge saurian creature by the name of Old Tago which may be an obstacle, although it apparently appreciates a good meal.
The Yamuna Sisters kindly offer the party a place to sleep, although Mercutio decides to set up a tent outside so as to not intrude on an otherwise all ladies night. After whipping up a quick dehydration rune the drizzle poses no problem.
Partway through the night Mercutio is awoken by a strange, skeletal creature approaching in the air. After rushing inside and waking the others, Granny Hexwhistle bursts outside to see who disturbed her slumber.
Turns out it’s the Seer! Now sporting a demonic skeleton! The chicken corpse they gave him was actually a demon cursed into the form, and the Seer was able to break the curse after gaining control of the body. The Seer stops in to thank the party for this wonderful gift, and heads off.
GM Note: The random encounter is demons cursed into chicken form, everything that followed was pure hilarious happenstance.
Session One Thoughts
So far, my players and I are having a blast. The module is fairly loose in structure, which some GMs may find insufficient without further prep. Personally, after just reading through it a couple times it provided me enough meat to go off of without having so much structure that I felt constrained. It gave me guidance but nothing I invented on the spot ever felt like it would contradict something else later.
The NPCs are lively, original, and very fun to play. The setting is fun and entwined enough that no matter which way my players decided to go I knew there’d be something to do, and it would connect to further locations to carry them along.
The only complaint I got was about the lack of combat, as mentioned this group leans a bit murder hobo-y, but don’t worry. In session 2 they found a way to solve that problem themselves. Read on now: https://academyofdoors.blogspot.com/2022/09/the-fangwitchs-falls-session-two-play.html
If this sounds fun, pick up the module here or alongside Try The Beetle Milk, Em’s currently kickstarting module which promises to be more fun of the same variety.