We just finished a three-session Blood Prairie campaign and, holy shit, I am stoked for the next one.
We’ve been cooking on this one for a while. Last time we played, my daughter hadn’t been born, and I was still living in Mexico. Blood Prairie’s changed a bit too; it’s about 10k words longer than it was. Big changes for both us and the game!
If you don’t recognize Blood Prairie from our (now-shuttered) Instagram, it’s our post-apocalyptic horror fantasy western setting. Does that explain anything? No, not really. Let me try this:
The Blood Prairie Pitch
They say God came to Earth in the form of his own Son to teach us compassion, non-judgment, and faith – to forgive us our sins and lead us to a promised land.
We showed him what we do to folks like that around here.
Now, God is dead and buried somewhere in the vast expanse of the Blood Prairie. The sun no longer shines on this cursed land; a perfect black disc blocks it, the spread wings of the Angel Leliel. Vampire Cattlemen drive human herds across the carnivorous grass. The Oil Baron, humanity’s last ruler, trades kerosene for fealty and angel feathers. Hungry winds drive men to madness, while witches hold strange black sabbaths on cold white snows.
Death is cheap.
Light is expensive.
Hope is lost.
Can you carve a fortune from the darkness?
The Set-Up
Yours truly was sitting in the GM seat, opposite Gabriel and Chelsea as the two players. Gabriel played Salos, an optimistic, but unemployed Angel still reeling from the loss of their employer. Chelsea chose to play a Hard Case and rolled up a Nephilim-descended knife-fightin’ sex-worker named Virginia Slim.
Our adventure began with the odd fellows crossing a vast graveyard, over 50 kilometres in diameter, when they came across a place called Nephilim’s Rest — a crooked, dilapidated church resting on a hill thrust abruptly from the flat expanse of the prairie. A campfire rose from the hill. The heroes went to investigate and there encountered a priest who introduced himself as Gulliver McGovern.
As Gulliver and Salos touched to shake hands, Salos saw through the priest’s human disguise and recognized him as Sachiel, a fellow former Angel. Weeping with joy, Sachiel began explaining that he had made a great discovery, a spell that could resurrect God from his grave. He already possessed most of the necessart reagents: morning dew, engine’s steam, rich man’s spit, snowmelt, and spring rain. He only needed three more: icemelt from a comet, water that drowned a witch, and a tear shed for the death a wicked soul.
Session #1
With directions to the nearby village of Three-Witches, the heroes proceeded west.
The first encounter they hit was three gamblers, hanging out in the graveyard playing dice. Virginia Slim sat to play dice with the strangers, planning to cheat them. When she discovered that one of the gamblers had loaded the dice, the man went for his gun. Virginia flung a knife into his throat before he could touch iron, and the Blood Prairie claimed another victim. Salos, horrified, went to heal the man, but even their angelic miracles couldn’t close his throat wound before the man bled out. The other two gamblers, having seen Virginia in action, chose not to press the issue.
The Posse headed further west, choosing to sleep as the moon fell. The next ‘day’, they finally cleared the outer limits of the massive graveyard. They came to a river, which flowed from the northwest, and chose to follow it to Three-Witches.
On the way, they passed a circle of covered wagons, but chose not to check it out. A total shame: there was a wagon-mounted Machine Gun in there and I was hoping to test out those rules this adventure. Oh well. Next time!
At the end of their second day of travel, they came to a ‘farm’ next to a gigantic ark. The fields were fallow under the eclipse, but a pair of oil derricks in the back were still pumping away. The proprieter, Shadrach Khan, was suspicious and threatened the PCs with a shotgun, but they managed to talk him down. He introduced them to his two children and invited them inside for a meal. Salos, at the expense of a bit of his own divine light, performed the Miracle of Loaves and Fishes, leaving the stunned family with more food than they started with.
After the rest of the group went to bed, Shadrach explained to Salos that he believed God was only pretending to be dead and would soon return and flood the world as punishment for his murder. Salos salved the man’s fears. As they left the next day, the older of the two boys gave Virginia a deringer loaded with a silver bullet to thank the Posse for their kindness.
They travelled north, encountering no resistance before hitting the Town of Three-Witches (although they did find the bloody hoof-prints of a pack of carnivorous horses; luckily they didn’t encounter the beasts). They found the town poorly named; Baba Yaga Ironteeth ruled the town alone, with the other two founding witches being either dead or missing.
Virginia decided to ply her trade in town while Salos questioned the locals. He managed to wring a tear for the missing Ms Draupadi Singh from one of the locals. We had a brief discussion about wether or not witches were, by definition, wicked souls in this campaign setting; we ultimately decided that they were not, but anyone who was both a witch and a politician was unlikely to be totally innocent.
Feeling that they’d probably secured the first reagent, they then headed further west across a river, hoping to confirm Singh’s death, the reagent’s power, and find the comet she allegedly owned. There was only one problem: the far side of the river was Vampire country. The ferryman told them it was free across the river, but costly to return.
As our session came to a close, the Posse crossed paths with two figures near Draupadi’s house. Negotitations quickly broke down. The little one screamed to attack. The big one threw off his robe, revealing a horrifying stitch-zombie underneath, complete with horrific flapping wings.
We broke off there for the night. All told, it was a three hour session, including character creation. Pretty good! Virginia took a boost to her Grit and Salos chose a New Purpose; now everytime they saved a human life, they could replenish a bit of their divine light.
Session #2
We returned to the Blood Praire as combat popped off. Salos went first, pouring angelic power into the stitch-zombie. The light burst from between the stitch-seams of the creature, as its component corpses began trying to claw their way away from each other. The monster’s creator fired his deringer at Virginia Slim, leaving a grazing wound that did not prevent her from using her knives on him. The combat was over with three seconds.
They got to the house, used Salos’s powers to punch through an icy enchantment sealing it shut, and then explored the lower floor.
They avoided most of the trouble there (and all random encounters) until they heard a bump from upstairs. Still nursing that gunshot wound, Virginia talked Salos into resting in the house’s ruined ballroom, hidden under some debris. With a little angelic help and some improbable random encounter rolls, they managed to rest long enough to get Virginia back in fighting form.
Ready for action, they headed upstairs where they quickly found some. They kicked open the door to Draupadi’s bedroom, only to find her corpse. Attracted by the sound, the vampire Caliban Dwyer burst from one of the adjacent rooms and attacked the party. It sprang forward, only to meet Virginia’s silver knife and a bottle of holy water flung by Salos. It bubbled and blackened as its undead form melted away.
Important playtest lesson: silver knives were too cheap!
Anyways, they methodically looted the house, getting away with a cannister containing a frozen comet, a demon in a bottle, a bunch of grimoires, some jewels, and some wine. There was a brief kerfuffle with some Unquiet Dead in the basement, but the team managed it without injury. Furthermore, Salos put Draupadi’s ghost to rest, offering her absolution in exchange for helping him resurrect God.
The Posse left the house and went to a nearby lake. Uncertain if the local water had drowned a witch, they decided to try their luck using a ritual they found in one of the grimoires. They summoned an entity called the Drowned King (their magic circle held) and struck up a bargain; in exchange for a sacrifice of a cask of wine every time Virginia crosses running water, the demon would provide service for her. Failure to provide this tithe would result in the Drowned King scuttling every ship she tries to board.
As a start, the creature indicated that this lake was a Man-Eating Lake, inhabited by his demonic child. The lake that drowned Chastity Bakunina (the witch drowned by Baba Yaga Ironteeth) was a bit further west.
The players made a forced march west. Salos endured most of it, but Virginia (who was still a little injured) collapsed exhausted when they reached their destination. Bad timing! A group of scavengers with bloodtaps in their neck lead by a vampiric cattleman discovered the Posse. The creature played nice as it sized up Salos and the unconcious Virginia. We left off on this cliffhanger.
Session #3
Salos got through the night without revealing they were an angel, so the vampire, already well-fed and not looking for trouble, merely offered to buy Virginia. Salos refused, naturally. The Vampire left to patrol and Salos went about using thier miracle powers to heal both Virginia and the assembled human cattle.
Still limping, Virginia left with Salos the next morning. They forced march back to Draupadi’s where the random encounter table indicated they encountered an escaped human cattle — naturally, it had to be one of the group they just met, looking for Salos, inspired by the healing. With the benefit of a safe, warm place, the group healed. They also restocked on (now ritually important) wine.
The Posse returned to the Blood Praire, headed east across the river. They paid the ferryman in cash stolen from Draupadi’s house and, unfortunately for Game Masters everywhere, remembered to perform the Drowned King’s ritual.
I’m as devastated as you are.
Anyway, they returned to Three-Witches, spent their loot on fresh equipment and some horses. They rested briefly, then headed back south. They passed Shadrach’s farm and stayed there for a night. The next day, they rode for Nephilim’s Rest, in possession of all three reagents. On the way, they passed that circle of covered wagons again and, again, did not interact with it. The gatling gun would have come in handy during the next part.
A Very Blood Prairie Climax
So they returned to Sachiel and he began casting the spell. Mixing together the different waters in a silver bathtube, the concoction began to glow with silver, life-giving energy. A tendril of water began to reach up from the water, spiraling through the rotting roof and towards the sky.
The sky filled with enchanted clouds, and rain began to pour upon the earth. From their vantage point atop the hill, Virginia and Salos could see the vast graveyard, stretching out in every direction, begin to buckle and heave like the sea under a storm. As the disruptions grew greater, the dead began to pull their way free from the earth and, screaming with the voices of ten thousand damned, began advancing on the church.
“Just a little side-effect,” called Sachiel. “Keep them away from the spell.”
The Posse sprang into action. They tried to use their firearms to hold back the hordes climbing up the hill, but as the creatures got closer, Virginia’s silver knife and Salos’s ability to turn the rain into holy water splash attacks proved more useful than their lead ammunition. The hill they were on began to collapse. All too late they realized why the place was called Nephilim’s Rest; the hill they were on was a giant’s burial mound. A massive undead arm slammed into the church. The building collapsed. The heroes barely evaded death.
In the midst of battle, the skies parted, revealing that the sky had been replaced by an upside down ocean, seething and dark. A massive glowing eye surfaced, and a tentacle snaked down to snatch up Sachiel, throwing him into a toothed maw. The Posse had succeeded in returning a God to the world — but what terrible God had they found?
As the creature announced its new dominion, Salos acted fast. Using the Bless Water Miracle, they turned the sea into holy water, banishing the eldritch entity back to the hell dimension that spawned it. The ocean retreated, the sky returned, and the dead collapsed upon a great flat landscap pockmarked by their open graves.
Aftermath
A good game!
The crew looted the church for Gulliver’s loose cash and the silver scraps of the bathtub. God remained dead, but they were both slightly richer and wiser and, somehow, miraculously not dead themselves. Salos picked a perk that would let him replenish his light, not just by saving souls, but also by indulging in human hedonism. Virginia took the perk Mother’s Milk, which lets her use Spirits and Liquor as Medicine.
I guess they were both a little traumatized.
Final Thoughts
Anyways, Blood Prairie’s the most fun I’ve had running games in a while. I can’t wait to show it to more people. Leave a comment if you’re interested in helping playtest it. I can either send you an ashcan version when it’s ready or maybe run a game for you!
You may have noticed this blog post comes on a Friday, rather than adhering to our traditional Tuesday/Thursday rythmn. Well, prepare for more disruption! Starting next week, expect posts on Wednesdays only. If you want more of our content, you’ll have to subscribe to our mailing list! Either way, I hope you join us Wednesdays for great TTRPG blog posts!
Like horror fantasy, but not so hot on westerns? Try the Mad Moors! We’ve also got really fun vampire adventures for both 5e and Quest. Go take a look!