DRYH: The Raven King

The Raven King is an alternative pre-industrial imagining of the Mad City for the Don't Rest Your Head RPG (Fred Hicks/Evil Hat). This is the Mad City that was before the Mad City that is. Or one of them, anyway. For those familiar with the Mad City that is, some of the Nightmares and Quarters of the city will be recognizable for what they will one day become, but younger, less refined versions of themselves. Some will feel utterly alien, Nightmares at the height of their power, Quarters as solid as bulwarks in the Mad City that was - but no longer known powers or places in the Mad City that is.

HOUSE RULES

Below are some supplemental rules that I use when running DRYH games in the Raven King setting. Otherwise refer to the rules as written in the DRYH core book.

Beacon [pp 2]

When a sleeper Awakens his presence is felt and known by the major Nightmares of the Mad city. They become aware of the Awake. This is somewhat more specifically defined in the Raven King setting. Boss Nightmares can sense an Awake from anywhere within the Mad City (even if the Awake is in the City Slumbering). Lieutenants can typically sense the Awake within their own Quarter of the Mad City, and Minions can sense them only when actually confronting the Awake.

The Call - Some minions in the Raven King setting can be briefly manipulated as outlined in their description and the Awake are able to call local minions to them by 'flashing' their beacon within the Mad City. This will summon the nearest minion type to the Awake's location. If multiple minions are clustered together, they all come calling. The Awakened must defeat the Minion(s) to make use of them (as per their description). Pain is low for minions as a general rule, but should Pain dominate the Awake's Beacon flares to the heavens, alerting every Nightmare in that Quarter to their exact location.

First Scar [pp 11; 71-72]

What Just Happened To You? - The Raven King setting can be a touch more brutal than the default setting for Don't Rest Your Head, and the players' introductions will reflect this. Question 2 of the Five Questions addresses what 'just' happened to the character before the start of gameplay. In The Raven King it will also be the character's first Scar, functioning exactly as scars function in the rules-as-written. So the scene you come up with should be compelling. Something your character can draw on later for strength, insight, transformation, or even redemption from relentless exhaustion.

Helping [pp 24-25]

Discipline Cap - The rules-as-written allow any character to lend their 3 discipline dice to the main protagonist's roll, affecting the total number of successes but not the strength of the roll. In the Raven King setting, the total number of donated discipline dice cannot exceed the the combined number of Exhaustion and Madness dice in the main protagonist's pool for that roll (the main protagonist's discipline dice are not counted against this comparison, only donated dice). So if the main protagonist has two exhaustion dice in his pool and three madness dice the most discipline dice he is able to make use of from other players would be five. Individual characters are still limited by their total number of discipline dice as to what they can individually contribute.

As per the rules-as-written, anyone who helps is subject to the consequences if Pain, Madness, or Discipline dominate.

Coins of Despair - When Pain dominates, the GM gains a Coin of Despair for each protagonist participating in the action. [Note: This hack is primarily in place to escalate the coin currency and ensure the players end up with enough Coins of Hope to keep their characters from prematurely teetering over the edge].

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NIGHTMARES BY QUARTER

In the time of the Raven King, the Mad City is divided into Quarters, and each Quarter is Ruled by a major Nightmare and its various lieutenants and minions. The following section describes each region and details those who might be encountered there, their Pain ratings, and any special talents they might have.

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The Black Keep

Though not a Quarter in its own right, the Black Keep is where the Raven King holds court. Towering out of the center of the Mad City, the Black Keep is an impressive edifice of primitive majesty. Jagged blades of black obsidian stretch towards the night sky and reflect strange stars. No windows adorn the outer surface of the Keep. No gates or doors offer entrance.

The Black Keep and the Thirteenth Hour: At each of the twelve hours of the watch, the obsidian towers of the Black Keep resonate with the haunting echoes of ghostly bells that can be heard in every quarter. Until the Thirteenth Hour. At the Thirteenth Hour the bell rings clear. Thirteen chimes. And the Black Keep fades from the City, replaced by the Black Cathedral until the first hour rings again and ghostly echoes announce the return of the Raven King's Keep.

It is rumored that the Raven King is unable to walk the Mad City during the Thirteenth Hour, but must spend it locked away in his Keep until the Cathedral again fades.

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The Raven King - Pain 12

The Raven King confines himself to no Quarter. The whole of the Mad City is his domain, and he rules it with a ruthless passivity that is unfathomable. At a distance, the Raven King is seen as the silhouette of a tall, gaunt man swathed in robes of blackness and starlight, and from the vast cowl of his vestiments the silhouette of a great black beak can be seen jutting forth. Until he approaches or allows himself to be approached, at which point the great black beak will pull away, revealing itself to be the dripping blade of a great scythe in scarred bone hands, his revealed face a bare human skull, bleached white within the black robes, with venomous green flames flickering in the empty eye sockets.

Only from his throne in the Black Keep does he wear his full Raven visage where all can see. The gaunt fingers that clutch the arms of that throne are covered in black feathers and end in vicious black talons.

The Raven King only rarely approaches or allows the approach of the Awakened, and he never speaks with them directly. It is said his very voice is death to mortal ears [Pain 15]. Instead he watches from afar, interacting only through his lieutenants and minions. If pressed, the Raven King can open portals anywhere within the Mad City that open at any other location(s) he chooses within the Mad City [Pain 15 to force a creature into the portal unwilling].

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The Raven King's Court

The following Nightmares answer to the Raven King directly and faithfully. If the Raven King is holding Court within the Quarter of the Black Keep, they will typically all be present, but otherwise might be found anywhere within the Mad City unless their description indicates otehrwise. When Pain shows 2 numbers for one of the court, the first number is for when they are encountered at large in other Quarters of the Mad City, and the second number is for when they are encountered within the Black Keep itself.

The Fool - Pain 5/7

The Fool is a thin androgynous figure in black and white motley and an oval mask, half black, half white with only a bare rectangular slit for each eye and the mouth. Like many of the Raven King's court the Fool does not speak, but can communicate quite fluidly through pantomime. In certain light, with certain movements, the observer would swear the Fool to be a lean young man under that mask, while in other light with certain other movements, the observer would be equally certain the mask hides a slim young girl.

The Fool is the Raven King's primary means of communicating directly with the Awake when he wishes, though the Fool will often set forth on its own agenda.

While at the Black Keep the Fool is often seen juggling fire, dancing, tumbling, performing pratfalls, and otherwise amusing the court, but by all accounts the Fool is the Raven King's chief adviser.

The Castellan - Pain 4

The Castellan never leaves the Black Keep, so only has one pain rating, but he only rarely faces anyone on his own, able to call Doorkeepers to his side with but a word. The Castellan is responsible for the Black Keep itself, its running, its defense, its upkeep, and the needs of its Lord and its Guests.

The Castellan himself appears as a stocky man in a smart black uniform of military cut, practical and severe. His face is swarthy and dark. So is his other face. And the third one too. Each face is strong and severe and set side by side in a triangle around his head. He has no beards, nor hair, nor ears, though he seems able to hear just fine.

He controls access to the rooms and corridors of the Black Keep absolutely.

Unlike most of the rest of the Court, the Castellan speaks just fine. Deferentially to his betters and special Guests. Barked orders to most others.

The Doorkeepers - Pain 5

Like the Castellan, the doorkeepers never leave the keep and they always appear in pairs (Pain 5 is for the pair of them) and if defeated will vanish in pairs. Guests of the Keep will typically see only two Doorkeepers at any given time, standing one on each side of the nearest door, in black chain mail and tabard, bearing a black pike with a sharp, curved blade at its tip. Each Guest will perceive each Doorkeeper's face as identical to their own. Long observation will show that the Doorkeepers never move away from their doors. They do not traverse hallways or move into the rooms they guard. They can, however, use any doorway as a portal to any other doorway within the Black Keep.

Only when attacked by a Guest or summoned by the Castellan do they move into a room or hallway to fight. Otherwise, their only function seems to be to stand aflank their particular doorway or in front of it, pikes crossed, barring entry.

Doorkeepers never speak.

The Willow Women - Pain 1

The Willow Women also answer to the Castellan. They are the maids, cooks, and servants of the Black Keep. Lithe and flexible and tall, the Willow Women are fair skinned with extremely long limbs and hands and feet and toes and fingers and their hair drops down all about them in a curtain of fine pale braids, like the hanging branches of the willow tree, hiding their faces and most of their form. The Willow Women will not willingly move aside their braids and look directly on a Guest of the Black Keep and tend to keep their heads down and their faces hidden, but if a guest were to part those pale braids, stark black eyes with no color or whites would stare back. Anyone caught in that naked gaze faces Pain 6 in a confrontation that cannot be avoided. In this special encounter all 6s rolled for Pain count towards Madness instead when determining dominance.

Not only do the Willow Women never speak, they have no mouths to do so.

Special: The Willow Women cannot be 'called' unless they are already outside the Black Keep. But when they are successfully called and defeated they (each) add one madness die to the character's next roll. This die does not count against the total madness dice allowed and does not add to the strength of the roll in any way. The Willow Women die when the roll is made.

Note: Even if other characters help defeat the Willow Women, only the main protagonist in that confrontation gets the extra die.

The Chainforger - Pain 8

Rarely seen, the Chainforger seems to double as the Black Keep's Gaoler and Armorer. Fleshless, the Chainforger is made entirely of intermeshed and interlocking plates and chains of blackest iron. Human in shape, the Chainforger is faceless, but eyes of every shape and color wink from within every link of chain in and on his body.

Guests who catch a glimpse of the Chainforger are probably already bound for his special care.

Legend has it that if one were to peel back the great iron plate over his heart a pair of Raven eyes would stare back.

Though the Chainforger shares the Court's general moratorium against speech, when he wishes to communicate, he can make his voice heard in anyone's mind like rust being scraped off of old iron. Pain 2 to communicate in this fashion. It cannot be blocked out.

The Eyeless

The Eyeless Occupy the cells beneath the Black Keep. They are denizens of the Mad City, rather than actual Nightmares, and so have no Pain rating, but in their own ways can cause trouble if they think it will inch them closer to freedom. As their name implies, these men and women have no eyes, but sallow amber flames flicker in their empty eye sockets.

The Huntsman - Pain 5/3

The Huntsman is the one member of the Raven King's Court who is considerably more powerful outside the keep than he is within. Inside the Black Keep, the Huntsman is little more than a glorified kennel master. But out in the Quarters he Hunts with the Raven King's own authority.

Clad in tough fighting leathers and loose cowl, the scent of old blood clings to the Huntsman. His face jutting from the cowl is the bare white skull of a great wolf with an eerie blue flame dancing in the empty sockets - a flame that drifts closer to red as the Huntsman closes with his prey.

Despite his appearance, the Huntsman can and does speak, though usually only to his Hounds.

The Huntsman only hunts on the order of the Raven King, sending his Death Hounds out ahead of him, but keeping two at his flanks at all times outside the Keep.

Minion level Nightmares, except his Death Hounds, will avoid the Huntsman, fleeing from his presence. Lieutenant level Nightmares outside the Raven King's court will viciously and immediately attack him on sight. When being attacked by other Nightmares, the Huntsman's Pain increases by 2 + 1 for each additional Nightmare beyond the first to a maximum Pain rating of 12. If a Boss level Nightmare attacks the Huntsman, he will blow his Horn to summon the Raven King.

The Huntsman's Horn

The Huntsman bears a great hollow ram's horn which he can blow to summon the Raven King. He will only do so under conditions set by the Raven King.

Death Hounds - Pain 2/1

Large and lanky dogs, pale and furless with bare skulls for heads, the Death Hounds are usually found hunting at the Huntsman's behest, running ahead of him to bring his prey to ground or at his flanks as guardians. Like the Huntsman, their eye sockets glow a cold blue until they near their intended prey, then they begin to glow violet, and ultimately crimson as they get closer. Like the Huntsman, the scent of old blood clings to them.

When in sight of their prey the Death Hounds will howl - Pain 5 - which has the effect of triggering the Beacon of their prey to flare if not successfully resisted. It also summons the Huntsman.

Death Hounds don't always hunt with or for the Huntsman, however. Packs of them can be found roaming the quarters, their eye sockets empty of light, though the smell of old blood still clings to them.

Special: Feral Death Hounds (those not of the Huntsman's pack) can be 'called' and if defeated can be sent to interfere with the Huntsman's Hounds actively out on the hunt.

The Headsman - Pain 6

The Headsman is the Raven King's Executioner. When fulfilling his office add 2 to his Pain rating.

Clad in black with a great halberd, the Headsman towers over the tallest men. And has no head of his own. This doesn't seem to keep him from hearing or seeing just fine, but like many of the Raven King's Court, he does not speak.

The Headsman is almost exclusively encountered at the Raven King's shoulder awaiting an order of execution.

Inklings Pain 1/3

Hands in the dark, the Inklings of the Black Keep answer to the Headsman, holding his prey in place for the axe. Made of shadow, inklings resemble children in form but with huge hands and feet and great grinning maws full of shadowy teeth. Inklings are three dimensional in form, but being made of the stuff of shadow they are somewhat translucent, except for the inside of their mouths beyond their shadowy teeth. That is black as never.

Inklings are never seen in the Black Keep except when called for an execution, but they are everywhere, watching from the shadows and acting as the Raven King's eyes.

It is without the Black Keep that Inklings are most to be feared. Though weaker in the Quarters than they are within the keep, they are utterly invisible in the shadows and when they attack they attack in swarms. They do have to leave the shadows to attack, however. Their hands have no grip and their teeth have no bite if their bodies are in shadow.

And, of course, Inklings do not speak.

Special: Inklings are perhaps the easiest minions to Call and most likely to be closest when one of the Awake does call. They never come alone. If they are defeated, however, they may be consumed by any of the Awake to earn their ability to become shadow when within shadow, unseen until the Thirteenth Hour. Even their Beacon is silent until the Cathedral Bell chimes the hour.

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The Black Cathedral

The Black Cathedral is an odd edifice of towering narrow spires rising up from a foundation shaped like an equilateral cross, but the spires and towers all lean in towards the center. It looks like a rough pyramid of skyward straining icicles of hewn black stone, cleverly fitted and shaped with a gigantic iron bell hung from chains high over the Cathedral's center. Each arm of the cross ends in a wall pierced by a high Gothic arch. But only one of those doors looks into the Cathedral itself. The other three, respectively, look into a high and empty night sky, void of stars or clouds; a raging ocean, grey with storm and monstrous waves; and an endless realm of magma and fire that casts no light but can be seen.

The fourth arch leads into the Cathedral itself, in the center of which is a towering oak tree, from which a bearded naked giant of a man hangs, his left foot nailed to the trunk. His arms are bound behind his back and his right leg is tucked behind the left in an inverted figure 4. A spear pierces the man's liver and his throat has been slit. His silver eyes stare at all who come through the door with intelligence, compassion, and no small touch of madness.

From within the Cathedral the Open Arch looks out on the Mad City. The Arch of Night looks out on a blazing sun. The Arch of Storm looks out on a barren desert. And the Arch of Fire looks out on a windswept glacier with no horizon.

The Black Cathedral and the Thriteenth Hour: The Black Cathedral only occupies its place in the center of the Mad City during the Thirteenth Hour. At the end of that hour, it fades from existence again, replaced by the Black Keep of the Raven King until the Thirteenth Hour chimes again. Characters inside the Black Cathedral when it vanishes are deposited outside the Raven King's Keep in the Mad City.

The Cathedral Bell: The great iron bell that hangs over the heart of the Black Cathedral rings every hour, even when the Cathedral is not within the Mad City. Its chimes heard in the ghostly echo of the towers of the Black Keep from the first hour through the twelfth. When the Cathedral returns with the striking of the Thirteenth Hour, the Bell peals madly through the whole of the city, clear and pure and violent.

The Slain God - Pain 9

The Slain God hangs from his tree and answers the Questions of those who come to him. From the denizens of the Mad City he takes what they have to give. Cherished memories, ideas, songs. He offers them no pain. Despite his own considerable torment. Nightmares not sworn to the Cathedral find themselves flung through one of the four gates should they dare enter the Black Cathedral.

The Awake are allowed entrance, but if they seek an answer they must face pain, exhaustion or madness to receive word from the Slain God. The first time a character comes with a question, roll versus the Slain God's Pain rating of 9, constructing the pools just like any other contest. If the roll succeeds, and exhaustion or madness dominate, move a Coin of Despair to the Hope coffer (if the Despair coffer is empty, the Hope coffer still gets the coin). If the roll succeeds and discipline dominates, move all Coins of Despair to the Hope coffer (if there are one or fewer Despair Coins in the coffer, the Hope coffer gets at least two coins). If Pain dominates, the GM gains an extra Coin of Despair beyond what he would normally earn.

A failed contest yields normal results for the strength of the roll.

The Awake always get an answer to their question. On a successful roll, the answer is detailed and complete. On a failed roll a key detail is left out of the answer.

Coins of Hope and Despair cannot be spent while the Awake are within the Black Cathedral.

Special: An Awake may ask only one question per visit, but on subsequent visits, the Slain God's Pain rating goes up by one more die each time to a maximum of 12. When the Slain God's pain rating would reach 13 (after the Awake has come to him with 4 questions) that character is no longer able to enter the Black Cathedral, even for succor.

The Cathedral Gargoyles - Pain 4

Draped about the upper reaches of the Cathedral without and within are black stone Gargoyles that do the Slain God's bidding during the 13th hour, acting as spies, messengers, and flying transport to bring those the Slain God would summon.

The Blood Acolytes - Pain 1

Boys in appearance between 10 and 16 years of age in black cassocks cinched in plain black rope attend the Slain God within the Cathedral, ushering in visitors, bringing him water or food, and otherwise doing as they are bid. Their brows and hands are scarred ad drip with fresh blood and their bare feet leave bloody footprints. Blood streaks their faces and necks and their eyes are empty.

The Blood Acolytes constantly chant and sing.

Blood Acolytes cannot leave the Cathedral and will not respond to the Call of the Awakened.

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The Spires

The Nightling Gale

Brutal Black Wind

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The Catacombs

The Guardian

minotaur