Back to Basic - Vampire.

Reconstruction of Zosia, 17th Century Polish Vampire.

What is a Vampire?

You already know. You'll be able to fill in all the blanks I've left (apologies if you hate that kind of negative space).

This treatment is companion to the Werewolf posts (this and this) I made the other year - trying to draw more on the folklore tradition than on media.

No-one wants to become a vampire; it's not sexy and it's not cool. But it's also traditionally quite an easy thing to do.

The vampire has an affinity with night hags and other sleep paralysis demons, as well as poltergeists, and ghouls.

As system agnostic as old fashioned D&D-ish, with no hard lines between editions and simulacra.

*indicates it's optional.

Appearance.

They look like the people who have died. No fangs. No pointy ears. Not even pale. 

Often look healthy, even chubby (particularly in contrast to their victims). Well-fed, they become rosy, then ruddy, then dark and swollen with blood, skin taut like a drum, blood spilling out of not-just-their-mouth-and-nose.

Alignment: Neutral Hungry (original edition Warhammer) with at least a parenthetical 1e AD&D Evil.

That thing in the cellar is not your mother.

Faerie Fire: 5% chance of being wreathed in faerie fire (even if invisible).

*This rises to 35% in some places (Bulgaria and parts of China, for example). 

Invisibility: 15% chance the Vampire is permanently invisible.

*It turns visible when helpless/resting in its lair.

I'd say Timmy Baterman from Pet Sematary (1989) fits the bill. Killed with fire in the end (and morphine works, too).

Basic Statblock.

As a Zombie (2 HD, Move 50% Normal Human) or Ghoul (2 HD, Move 75% Normal Human) or even just a Normal Human.

Base AC as Unarmoured, or as undead type.

They can have a d12 for their Hit Die, so significantly more hp than when they were alive.

Ability Scores: If Strength was below 16 in life, raise to 16.

No Dexterity adjustment, positive or negative, but keep the score.

20% chance of retaining its intelligence, memories, languages and abilities from life. 

If not, 25% chance of Animal to Semi- (1-4) Intelligence. Can't talk; doesn't understand what's being said.

Otherwise, Low (5-7) Intelligence (AD&D Ghoul). Limited comprehensible speech, but understands what's being said.

Attacks: Unarmed attacks, including grappling and choking. Improvised weapon attacks, including thrown objects.

Bite for d2, d3 or d4 damage. Attacks vs. a biting Vampire are at +4 (tweak for system). 

A successful grapple can be followed up with an auto-bite.

Claw for d2, d3 or d4 damage vs. Unarmoured targets (only crits hit vs. armoured).

Invulnerability.

Vampires are Invulnerable Monsters, and otherwise only harmed by fire or magic; all damage reduced by half.

Special vulnerabilities will bypass immunity, but not usually damage reduction.

Killing/Laying a Vampire: use any traditional method(s). These vary region to region, culture to culture - only fire is universal; otherwise, everyone has more than one opinion. 

The Vampire gets a death save; success means that the method is partly or wholly ineffective in killing it, but if it would logically render it helpless then it does.

If a second/follow-up method is ineffective, then the third one will work (and this sequence of methods will work on others of this strain). 

Total destruction by fire or similar is always effective (no save). Magical methods will also be effective, depending on how magic and undeath works in the setting.

*It takes a lot of fuel and a long time to cremate a corpse in pre-industrial times/IRL.

Regeneration: a Vampire in its grave/lair recovers 7 hit points per rest period. 

*It can even reattach/regrow lost body parts.

Special Vulnerabilities: there's so many to choose from - any or none might work.

*Vampires are nocturnal for the same reasons Thieves are nocturnal. They are no more vulnerable to the sunlight than Orcs and Goblins - unless you choose to make it a special vulnerability.

Undead Immunities: Vampires are entitled to all traditional (logical?) in-game immunities/resistances of the undead monster type.

Worth remembering that the undead category is only so neat in-game - it's a lot looser when folklore motifs come into play (drunken slumbers, drownings, poison etc).

You Cannot Kill That Which Is Already Dead: at 0 hp, the Vampire falls prone/helpless or is driven off (back to its lair).

A helpless/resting Vampire's invulnerability can by bypassed for purposes of killing/laying it.

Special Rules.

Blood Loss.

Feeding on a helpless victim, the Vampire will drain d2 pints of blood over a 10-minute turn.

Basic requirement is 2-3 pints per night, with a soft cap of 7 pints.

Loss of the 1st pint has no mechanical effect on the victim, but every pint thereafter causes the loss of one-third of their hit points and d3 each of CON, DEX, STR and WIS. 

Once 4-5 pints are drained, the victim must make death saves/recovery rolls or be reduced to 0 hp/Casualty state.

Once 6 pints have been drained, it's save or die. Any more than that and it's death, no save.

*Adjust thresholds by +1 for CON and/or STR of 14 or more, and by -1 if 7 or less. Not terribly realistic when it comes to pints per person, but this is for a game.

*You can transfer these rules to other blood loss scenarios, but these have been written specifically for a Vampire feeding on a human(-oid/-sized) victim.

Blood drinking in combat: 1 pint in d3 rounds, and the Vampire cannot defend itself except to resist being pulled from the victim (feats of strength).

*Blood Vomit.

Close/melee range missile attack (save to evade or ranged touch attack), with target as centre of splash: d3 acid damage and effects as Cave Locust spit.

You are also exposed to disease and at risk of becoming a Vampire after death (see below).

Clerical Turning.

As a Vampire (unless you want to do it by Hit Dice).

Astral Vampires (see below) are Turned as Specials; Ghost Vampires (see below) are Turned as Ghosts.

*Contagion.

Anyone killed by a Vampire rises as a new Vampire in d4 days.

Anyone who dies of the disease that accompanies a Vampire must make a death save or rise as a new Vampire in d4 days.

Anyone who has been injured by a Vampire has a % per point of damage of becoming a Vampire when they die (rise in d4 days). This is cumulative across your life (max. 97%).

Anyone who has had contact with the blood of a Vampire has a d4% per incident (+10% for a Blood Vomit target, +3% for a Blood Vomit splash) of becoming a Vampire when they die (rise in d4 days). This is cumulative across your life (max. 97%); 

*(Successful) Vampire hunters are virtually guaranteed to become Vampires on death, which is why they always train successors.

*Preventative Measures: various traditional methods that might work, might not, or might make it more likely you'll become a Vampire on death (esp. eating Vampire grave earth and drinking Vampire blood). 

Some fairly commonplace burial practices are effective/ have anti-Vampire roots.

*Vampire Spawn: new Vampires will be similar to the original one in basic details of stats, abilities, special vulnerabilities (i.e. invisible Vampires spawn more of the same; those that retain their intelligence etc. likewise).

Creating new Vampires can be accidental or deliberate.

New Vampires are not necessarily under the control of their creator, though sire and get will usually at least tolerate each other, if not actively cooperate.

*Disease.

Disease frequently forms the backdrop to a Vampire walking abroad.

It is otherwise normally communicable (and treatable), but those who see, hear, have physical contact with the Vampire or are splashed with its blood, make all relevant rolls at disadvantage/penalty.

Cholera, plague, yellow fever and tuberculosis are all suitable for a Vampire epidemic. Less commonly, smallpox.

Mystery Vampire Disease: symptoms of anaemia, lassitude, thirst, loss of appetite, narcolepsy, catatonia/coma, hydrophobia, photosensitivity, feelings of being choked or stifled, somnambulism. In the later stages, hallucinations but also the ability to see invisible Vampires.

*Favoured Enemy of Dogs and Wolves.

Dogs and Wolves have benefits vs. Vampires as a Ranger vs. humanoids/Favoured Enemy. 

*Attacks bypass invulnerability.

*Horrible Stench.

As a Ghast/Troglodyte. Sometimes it's just their breath.

*Sometimes mistaken for the 'odour of sanctity', and the Vampire mistaken for a saint.

*Paralysis.

If you are alone and see a Vampire, save vs. paralysis or be helpless until d3 rounds after the Vampire moves out of sight, or the arrival/intervention of an intelligent living being.

Invisible Vampires paralyse by touch, and you do not need to be alone.

*Save at -2 if it's staring directly into your eyes.

This one from 1977's not even (un)dead.

Astral Vampires.

Sometimes the Vampire is a projection, a sending. It looks like a Vampire, maybe a little translucent or wispy.

The projection is semi-material, with equivalent of descending Armour Class 0, and is otherwise the same as a Vampire in stats and abilities. It is not an Invulnerable Monster, but still reduces all damage by half.

If the projection suffers damage while abroad, it immediately withdraws and returns to its grave. It may not go abroad until days have passed equal to the hit points it lost.

If the projection is destroyed before it can return to its grave, then make a death save to see if this kills/lays the Vampire. If not, it may not go abroad until days have passed equal to its total hit points.

The corpse remains in the grave and is physically vulnerable (though it is still an Invulnerable Monster). Damage to the projection does not affect the corpse and vice versa. 

If the grave is discovered/disturbed, the projection immediately returns to defend itself, arriving in up to d100 rounds (or as many as necessary for realism or drama, depending on how you do these things).

The Vampire can choose to have the projection defend the corpse, or merge with and reanimate it to defend itself (as a corporeal Invulnerable Monster with a round of helplessness). If the Vampire merges, then it can use the better hit points of the body or projection.

*Some astral vampires are projections of the living. The behaviour of the projection will at best be put down to an impostor, at worst be seen as deliberate acts by the individual. Projections of the living may go out without the awareness, consent or control of the projector.

Elder Vampires.

I don't mean ancient bloodlines and mythical sires. 

I mean that most Vampires are lucky to survive months, seasons, before they are dug up and dealt with.

There are two main reasons why a Vampire might survive longer than usual.

First, ineffective destruction/disposal methods can trap the helpless Vampire in its grave, awaiting future revival by accident or design. Sometimes this is long enough for fading of the memory of the threat it poses and the methods to deal with it properly. 

Second, depopulation and abandonment of the territory following disease and predation. Vampires don't like or think to range very far, so it will just go back to its grave. It will roam its old haunt for want of anything else to do, and eagerly fall upon passing prey, but must mainly subsist on the Renfield diet or slip into a restless and miserable torpor. 

If it can survive longer than a mortal lifetime, then it will start to exhibit weird physical changes.

Consult the tables for Hordlings (1e and 2e AD&D) and Appendix D from the 1e AD&D DMG, for ideas or to roll on. You can be as traditional or as outrageous as you want.

*An Elder Vampire drains 1 pint of blood per round, more if has outsize fangs, tusks etc.

*Per Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, wings on a Vampire is a rare and prestigious thing.

*Per Buffy the Vampire Slayer, cloven (pincer?) hands and feet are the sign of a very old Vampire. But how do you define 'very old'?

*Elder Vampires feed off other Vampires, including their spawn.

Ghost Vampires.

Sometimes the Vampire is a Ghost.

Stats etc. remain the same, but it is incorporeal and can only be harmed by magic (or on the Ethereal Plane equivalent for the setting). 

It must become semi-material to feed (or otherwise interact physically), at which point it has the equivalent of descending Armour Class 0.

The corpse remains in the grave and is physically vulnerable (though it is still an Invulnerable Monster). Each round the grave is open and the body exposed, roll an additional d6. Any 1s (or if hit point damage is caused) and the Ghost rushes back to defend its tie to the material world.

All damage cause to the corpse is also suffered by the Ghost (bypassing its incorporeality or AC 0).

Destroying the Ghost (except by special method) without also dealing with the body will only neutralise it for d6 days before it reforms and gets back to business.

Methods of disposal must generally be applied to the corpse to kill/lay the Vampire - you can't stake even a semi-material heart, for example.

Commentary.

The common rpg Vampire (and certainly the D&D-ish version) is Dracula - book, movies, comics.

Maybe the rulebook Vampire should be renamed the Dracula. There's already precedent - it's why they are Pegasi and not Winged Horses. 

The Vampire is one of the Important Monsters. It's the model of the monster-supervillain, and the first monster (give or take the regenerating Troll) that you can't just fight to death. It also often has one of the most in-depth entries in a bestiary.

The vampire is the ancestor of the zombie flesh-eater (via I Am Legend, then Night of the Living Dead).

There are so many ways of putting yourself at risk of becoming a vampire after death that it's a wonder we aren't overrun.

Paul Barber's Vampires, Burial & Death (1988 and 2010): the vampire is a corpse behaving normally.

It was rarely a mystery who and what the vampire was, and everyone knew how to recognise and deal with them. 

The D&D-ish convolution of blood-drinking vampires being a variant of the energy-drainer.

Note that it doesn't matter how much blood you have in your (character's) body, but how much you lose, and that it's intended to bypass the extreme survivability of high level characters.

In China Mieville's Bas-Lag setting, vampires are the lowest class of undead in the city-state of High Cromlech, forced to beg on the streets for blood - basically junkies. 

I know almost nothing about Vampire: the Masquerade. Should I remedy that?

In some folklore, blood is the last thing on list of things the vampire eats and only after normal food, livestock, other corpses, even bits of itself. The Dark Sun Fael is not far off this kind of thing.

See also: Croglin Vampire.

BFRPG for giving the Vampire an awkward bite attack - thank you.

A Ghastly Affair for blood-letting rules - thank you.

ELFRIC SERPENT-EYE (from Slaine/2000AD) for Basic Games

 

This handsome fellow from 2013, as opposed to David Pugh's monster, Massimo Belardinelli's bloke, or Dermot Power's & Glenn Fabry's blue imp in Demon Killer.
Art: Glenn Fabry.

From the Slaine comic strip in 2000AD. This is Elfric from first appearance in Time Killer, up to the solo gamebook adventures. System is approximately BX/OSE, with later-edition shading.

* = more optional than usual.

Elfric Serpent-Eye

Triple-eyed, blue (or yellow) - skinned extra-dimensional sybarite and sadist; changeling 'son' of the King of Norway, shape-shifter, connoisseur of horrors, equal-opportunity despoiler and degenerate, favoured lieutenant of the Cythrons, personal friend of the Emperor Nero.

Armour Class Unarmoured = Chain + DEX  Hit Dice 6+3  Movement Normal Human Morale 12

Charisma 16, Constitution 15, Dexterity 18, Intelligence 16, Strength 18, Wisdom 15

Elf 6 / Evil Outsider

Hit Dice: roll hp for a 6th level character plus CON adjustment and for a 6+3 HD monster, keep the higher total.

Elf: By name and by nature. All abilities of a 6th level Elf character (or multi-classed Elf Fighter/Magic User). 

*Consolidate/pick-and-choose class/race abilities for Elf characters/monster across available/compatible editions/systems.

Outsider: Elfric is from Els-Where, a dimension at right-angles to our own (get it?). This is where he returns to regenerate if slain on the mortal sphere; he can also return here at any time of his choosing.

Revise for your setting cosmology if you don't want to further muddy the dimensional waters.

*Reclassify Elfric as Fey if you want - he's one of Slaine's world's faerie folk, even if that means something different outside of D&D-ish.

Weapons and Armour: Elfric can use any weapon available, including those he's been impaled on.

Sometimes wields a scythe-axe, the equivalent of Slaine's axe, Brainbiter, but can impale on a crit.

No problems dual-wielding. Probably finds firearms amusing.

Treats armour as costume and cosplay (because - see below) but can improve AC by shield, magical plusses and/or armour better than Chain.

Invulnerable Monster vs. mortals wielding normal weapons (3^rd level or less), and half damage from weapons wielded by 4^th level or higher (including magical ones).

Fabry/Talbot (1985)

Immune to crits, decapitation, dismemberment, impales, massive damage effects and poison/venom.

Immune to 1st - 3rd level spells.

Vulnerable to Iron: Still only causes half damage, but the weapon doesn't need to be enchanted, nor wielded by a Hero.

In Els-Where (his native plane), an iron weapon will bypass his invulnerability and inflict double-damage. 

Cannot Be Killed: He regenerates/reincarnates in 2d6 rounds. 

Elfric even comes back from being impaled and energy-drained by Grimnismal (nine-dimensional dark god of the Cythrons).

Slaine never decisively defeats Elfric, despite slaying him on several occasions. 

Spells: Elfric does not need to prepare spells in advance, requires no components, patrons or spell book, and casts by thought (lowest possible casting time). He has slots equal to a caster of his level (plus bonus for Ability Scores, if applicable).

Prefers bondage, fear and trickery over simple destruction and mass damage.

*Select spells from any class/list, from any edition or supplement, from any compatible system.

Third Eye: As a Cythron's optical leyser, but only once per round, stun vs. 3rd level or less, and melts/shatters the weapon/device you're using against him on a crit. Can be used in melee.

Massimo Bellaridinelli (1985)

Shape-shifter: Can take on the appearance of a known or unknown person. It is sometimes said he cannot transform his third eye, but must physically disguise it.

*Treat as alter self or change self spell from AD&D, or as a Doppelganger (eg. OSE or BFRPG).

*I can't remember Elfric taking non-humanoid or animal form, but that doesn't mean he can't.

*Further Elaboration.

Law of Macrocosm: If you defeat Elfric three times, you have proved yourself immune to him, and he can no longer directly harm you.

He will, however, take delight in causing as much indirect harm to you as he can thereafter - especially via those people and things you value the most. Up to and including atrocities against your descendants, or even the future nation state that encompasses your homeland.

(This is doesn't feature again after the end of Time Killer, as far as I can tell, and maybe can be explained as only applying in Els-Where).

David Pugh (1985).

Summoning: Elfric is several times shown calling up monsters - Elementals at Clontarf; a swarm of bat-things in Els-Where; Diluvials in Roman Britain.

You can give him summoning abilities as a Vampire, reskinning the rats, bats and wolves or swapping them out for similar HD equivalents.

The Elementals are mindless, monstrous and hungry. They will stop what they're doing to feast on fallen mortals 1-2 on a d6 each round. They're more like Hordlings than D&D-ish elementals.

Favoured lieutenant of the Cythrons: It's not wholly clear (from my reading) whether Elfric's form and powers are entirely his, or whether they are gifts of the Cythrons.

Having been defeated three times by Slaine, Elfric asks the Guledig not to be sent back to Els-Where, that he enjoys human form, implying that both his form and freedom of movement are at the Guledig's sufferance.

The Fetch: Elfric can appear as the double of his chosen enemy, a traditional omen of death.

Being equally matched, the original cannot defeat the Fetch except by special means.

Mechanically, this is a lot easier than mythic narrative allows, but maybe rule that Elfric is otherwise completely immune to your attacks unless you are using a gae bolga (a traditional 'secret weapon' of Celtic myth) or a tathlum.

*El-Stones: Something like the amulet/talisman of a 1e AD&D devil or demon?

Not established as being part of the lore in the early stories featuring Elfric.

*El-Women: By no means as tough as Elfric (adding to the idea that some of his power is granted by the Cythrons), you can just use Drow stats and abilities with the vulnerability to iron added.

When you kill them they turn back into weird slug-like creatures - presumably also their and Elfric's original form. They don't regenerate.

Commentary.

Out of the 19 (maybe more now) Slaine comic books, Elfric's in only 2 as major antagonist - I had him down as Slaine's eternal nemesis and that's how I prefer to think of him. But that's what happens when you read in an achronological narrow band.

That the Replicant of Slaine in The Secret Commonwealth isn't Elfric, from my perspective, is a wasted opportunity - I have other criticisms, but that's my main one.

Slaine and Elfric are evil twins. Elfric is Slaine with no ties, no restraints - but compare the atrocities they commit during Demon Killer. Slaine thinks he is right. Elfric just likes it.

Elfric's queer-coding is all over the place, and doesn't leave a very good taste in the mouth. Slaine and Elfric do at least snog at one point (depending on choices made in a solo adventure).

My pet theory is that the reason the lore of Slaine is inconsistent is because of Elfric and Slaine's appearance at the Battle of Clontarf in 1014 (and presumably Elfric was embedded in the Norwegian royal family for at least some time before), and the paradoxes that spin-off from it.

Pretty sure this is by Glenn Fabry, but Dermot Power started his run during Demon Killer (1993).

He was yellow-skinned in the collected US reprints of Time Killer, but I think Pat Mills probably had good reasons for why he would be blue.

THE DARK JUDGES (FEAR, FIRE and MORTIS) (2000AD) for Old School Fantasy & Horror.

 

Kev O'Neill

Eternal co-conspirators and bosom chums of Judge Death. 

In terms of basic mechanics/stats, treat the Dark Judges much the same as Judge Death.

Asterisk (*) indicates optional.

Morale: 10 (they're not self-destructive idiots) or 12 (they're indestructible super-fiends).

*Hit Dice: If they're not equal to Judge Death (and this could also depend on the host body and whether it's been treated with Dead Fluids), then they are probably no more than a step behind in terms of total HD, size of die used, or number of hp per die.

Invulnerable Monsters: In addition, Judge Fire is immune to fire and vs. magical (and dragon) fire, takes half or no damage.

*Fire and Mortis can also have damage/weapon resistances like Skeletons.

*Fire is immune to web, entangle and similar. Because he's on fire.

Attack with Filthy Claws: You're guaranteed to contract Mummy disease when fighting Mortis.

Fire does not harbour Mummy disease, but you take d8 hp fire damage per round of melee. Because he's on fire.

Grasp Heart: As Judge Death. Judge Fear only.

Stench of Death: As Judge Death. Judge Mortis only. 

*Fire smells like a conflagration in an overcrowded prison, with the same effects as the Stench of Death except: does not make you sick on a crit; you can't gain immunity.

Mournful Charm: As Judge Death. The other three Dark Judges lack Death's barely-controllable compulsion to kill charmed victims.

*Fire doesn't use this ability; it's not his style.

*Superhuman Strength: as optional for all or each of them as it is for Judge Death.

You Cannot Kill That Which Does Not Live: In gaseous form, they only have the ability to attempt possession.

Fire's disembodied spirit is especially threatening, because he looks like a roving fireball (or Skullghast) - but he can't set anything alight like this, and gives off no heat (he might not even cast illumination, just outlined in the dark as with faerie fire).

*No worries if you want to give them Mournful Charm and/or Stench of Death in this form, though - they are super-fiends after all.

Judge Fear - Special Rules.

Brian Bolland

Mantraps: carries at least two at all times; thrown weapons; regular rules for mantraps or mancatchers or grapple-at-range. 

Damage as for Filthy Claws +1.

Padlock: hold portal and wizard lock on any door, gate, hatch etc. Effective enough against normal humans and low-level psychics/spell-casters.

An object from a low-magic universe, attuned to a powerful supernatural being: it is Fear's willpower you challenge, not an intrinsic enchantment.

Gaze Into The Face of Fear: Fear can open his helmet and expose his face to a single target, who must immediately save or die.

If you're unlevelled, you survive only a crit success; if levelled, you survive on a normal success and are immune to the effect for the rest of the encounter on a critical success.

*If 4th level or above, you are immune (rest of the encounter) on a success. If 8th level above, immunity is permanent.

Judge Fire - Special Rules.

Greg Staples

Beneficiary of nominative determinism, arson-inclined mortal Judge Fuego became Judge Fire.

Flaming Trident: Base damage and properties as a regular trident with adjustments/effects as a flame tongue sword.

An object from a low-magic universe, it could be alien, magi- or necro-tech rather than enchanted.

The trident can be thrown as a 2d6 fireball (normal fire), and can project a 20' line or 10'x10' cone of flames for the same amount of damage. Normal saves apply.

Anyone who gets hold of Fire's trident can potentially use it, but will suffer d8 hp damage per round because it's ON FIRE! 

Judge Fire is attuned to the trident so he knows where it is, if someone else is using it, and can call it to him if nearby (strength/grapple contest if you're wielding it when he does so).

Special Vulnerability: Takes unsoakable non-lethal damage from water and fire extinguishers – you can subdue him this way, but it won’t stop him reigniting later and it won’t force him into gaseous form.

*Combustible Hosts: Unless treated with Dead Fluids, a host body burns at a rate of d8 hp per minute  then flares up as a 2d6 fireball (normal fire) at 0 hp. The host is reduced to ash and Fire assumes gaseous form.

Judge Mortis - Special Rules.

Carlos Ezquerra

Death, Fear, Fire and Mortis has a good rhythm to it, but why not just Judge Decay? That is his schtick after all.

Based on a reading of the character in Fall of Deadworld, Mortis is an aesthete (and enthusiast) of death and decay.

Maybe he chose the Mortis nom de guerre out of respect for Death?

Touch of Decay: Mortis makes a touch attack equivalent to the attack of a Mummy (d12 rot/necrotic damage, plus infection with horrible rotting disease - no save).

Claw damage stacks with the touch attack.

Special Vulnerability: Weapons of pure metals, such as gold or silver, bypass his Invulnerability (for half-damage).

Contact does not discomfort or harm him; they're just unaffected by his touch.

*Decomposing Hosts: Unless treated with Dead Fluids, a host body rots at a rate of d12 hp per minute. The host is reduced to dust/slime and Mortis assumes gaseous form.

*Further Elaboration.

Judge Fear’s Helmet is also Warduke’s helmet (XL1 Quest for the Heartstone: gives infravision to 60’).

If Fear is on the same plane, he knows where it is, and will seek out the wearer to possess them. 

He will whisper to them in dreams to encourage them to do horrible things ("Hey - why is this parent-friendly commercial tie-in fantasy villain being so relentlessly edgy and grimdark?").

While Fear will possess Warduke if possible, he’d rather possess Warduke’s conqueror and spend a bit of time pretending to be the villain back from the dead before reverting to type and trying to bring his necrotic buddies along.

Perfect opportunity to turn Greyhawk into your local Deadworld.

Commentary.

Jim Murray

I'm not saying it's definitely the reference.

An Unseasonal Treat - The Shitting Log of Catalonia as Elder Horror.

Vance at Leicester's Ramble got my Secret Santicorn 2024 prompt: "The Real Monster of which the Shitting Log of Catalonia is the sanity-protecting bowdlerization". 

The Tio de Nadal (Christmas Log - which you feed and then beat so it shits out some sweet treats for the kids) looks something like this:

Jumping off point was the blind paladins of Vance's iteration. Serendipity ensues.

Usual statement that this is mechanically based on old-fashioned D&D-ish but meant to be broadly agnostic, and asterisk means especially optional.

SRAIM, The Shitting Log of Catalonia.

A drifting star-spawn, designated 'Sraim', (crash)lands on Earth and is worshipped as a god by pre-historic humans/humanoids (details to taste).

The sorcerers can tap it for mana, but once the priesthood and the people oust the sorcerers, it becomes clear that this is a useless god - all it does is eat sacrifices and not answer prayers.

The people turn to other gods (either safely remote or more immediately transactional), and Sraim is all but forgotten save for a cult remnant of fanatics. Eventually humiliated (details to taste), the cult remnant turns on Sraim and takes out their frustrations on its body.

Sraim cannot be killed, because even a useless god is still a god. And because it is a god, the bits that come off or out of it have their own power - if you host that bit of the god, you take on that power.

Centuries of secret experiments refine the rituals of the exo-flagellant cult, and they learn to wound Sraim in ways to produce predictable results. Whether the cult believes their actions honour or enslave the god is up to you.

Whispers of the cult - the things it does, the Thing it centres on - disperse across Europe, bump up against and merge with other folk beliefs until they become the Tio de Nadal. Even then, the darker truth of the cult is superficially indistinguishable from common European folklore concerning witchcraft, familiar spirits and devil-worship.

It looks something like this:

John Blanche illo. from White Dwarf 48.
How fortuitous!

The head-part resembles the most recently consumed sacrifice (animal or otherwise), then breaks down between feedings.

Roll d3 to see what it would fit in/on:

1. An altar, a basket, a bucket, a plastic bag, a basin, a sink, a fireplace (1 HD).
2. A bed, a flat-topped standing stone, a coffin, a body-bag, the boot (trunk) of a car (3 HD).
3. A crude shrine, a barn, a cellar, a well, a cave, the back of a truck (6 to 8 HD).

Sraim's size depends on how well fed it is.

It can bite and chew for one die of damage per round, or it can drain Ability Scores at d3 points per round (CON, DEX and STR is sucking blood; CHA, INT and WIS is soul sucking).

It must be presented with victims as it cannot hunt by itself.

Special Abilities:

Can't Be Killed: Sraim is equivalent to a helpless Unarmoured target, but all damage is non-lethal.

Regenerates: at a rate of 1 hp per 10 minute turn normally, and at 3 hp per combat round, starting 3 rounds after it has been injured.

Spell Immunity: it is unaffected by all spells that do not cause points of damage.

*except appropriate binding and dismissal rituals.

Dream Communication: anyone with a Gift parasite can be visited in their dreams (including induced Altered States). Sraim does not have anything to communicate other than pain, madness and what it can see/sense - there is no intelligence or personality (as we would understand it) directing these visions.

The Gifts.

Whether they are part of Sraim or incidental inhabitants, the Gifts of Sraim are parasites, born of the brutality carried out on the god's corpus, and bestow boons and/or banes on those they infest. Hosting is usually internal, but they can also attach like a leech.

The chance of ritual wounding producing a parasite is base 1% per point of damage (or as narrative dictates). The method and detail of the ritual wounding influences the properties of the Gift. This has been recorded, refined and ritualised by the cult over centuries; in fact, it makes up the bulk of their cultic literature.

Parasites need blood to survive, with or without a host. They do not share Sraim's special abilities. 

Mechanically, treat these fragments as anything small and invasive (eg. Rot Grub, Scum Creeper, though the Sea Spawn, Minion is probably uppermost in my mind). Interpret a Reaction Roll or Morale Check or whatever to see if it tries to escape, rejoin the main body, or attempts to find a host.

1. Charisma/Ill-favour: for one year, you make all Charisma (and related rolls) at advantage/disadvantage, or adjusted +/-2. This includes Reaction Rolls. A sample of your natural secretions exhibits weird properties.
2. Cleric: you're now a Cleric of Sraim; you can speak (and read, if literate) the secret cult language; you affect undead and cast spells like a reverse-Cleric. You need to host an additional parasite every time you gain a level. Lose your parasite(s), lose your granted abilities until you can host more.
3. Toughness/Weakness: for one year, you make all Constitution (and related) rolls at advantage/disadvantage, or adjusted +/-2. This includes rolls for hit points. A sample of your flesh and/or bone exhibits weird properties.
4. Death: if it's straight save or die, Sraim will eat you up shortly. Otherwise, you have to survive a year without benefit of natural or magical healing - tread lightly.
5. Locate Object: for one year, unlimited by space and time, you know where something is and how to get there, no matter if it is impractical.
6. Good Luck/Cursed: for one year, you can choose to reroll any failure (and if 20s/crits count for nothing at your table, then they do now!) but must abide by the new result (though 1s/crit fails count for nothing, if they did before). Cursed is worse than just the opposite of Good Luck - it's also (either) equal to a year-long curse or all rolls are at disadvantage/penalty.
7. Madness: pulp/horror madness of various types; you understand the secret cult language (but not automatically speak or read it) - any hallucinatory voices will be speaking it. The madness will be interpreted as freedom from moral/mortal constraint, revelation of Sraim, forbidden understanding of cosmic secrets etc.; otherwise, as a monstrous change in personality. You recover in one year.
8. Psionics: roll to see if you develop psionics or become a wild talent; otherwise, you get one use of one power per day for a year, and it's really the parasite doing it on your behalf. If your powers were awakened by a parasite (rather than embodied in it), you do not need to host another one - although you have no reason to know/believe this.
9. Spell: for one year, you can use a specific arcane spell once per day. This includes transcribing and teaching it. The spell is associated with the part of the body where the parasite resides.
10. Strength/Weakness: for one year, you are under a strength/weakness spell-effect, or you make all Strength (and related) rolls at advantage/disadvantage, or adjusted +/-2. This includes rolls for damage. a sample of your blood exhibits weird properties.
11. Thrall: you understand the secret cult language and easily learn to read and speak it; you always know in which direction Sraim lies; you sense other Thralls nearby but do not automatically know them. You must save to resist obeying spoken commands of Clerics of Sraim. You will always come when Sraim is under threat. Thralls do not automatically attack those harming/threatening Sraim, and Sraim does not automatically command them to do so. Thralldom lasts one year, but you will attempt to return to Sraim and take a new parasite.
12. Undeath: whether instantly or after death by other means (or within the one year , you will rise as a Zombie or Mummy with half your mortal INT; you cannot speak, but you understand the secret cult language. You always know in which direction Sraim lies. The parasite does not survive the process, nor are you a viable host thereafter.

Parasites purged and/or destroyed by your preferred method(s).

THE BLIND DEAD, Guardians of Sraim?

El ataque de los meurtos sin ojos (1973).

Undead Knights Templar, either pledged to keep down the cult they once purged, or they were the cult and Sraim was their Baphomet. Whatever their relationship to Sraim, they rise from their tombs to make sure no-one can get to it.

Basic stats as any Undead (up to Mummy) with abilities as 4th level Fighters, 3rd level Paladins (1e or 2e AD&D) or Cavaliers, or 3rd level Cavalier-Paladins (1e UA-style). 

Ignore or modify any incompatibilities arising from a strict interpretation of the written rules. 

They are blind, with all that mechanically entails, but can hear your breath and your heartbeat even when you're hiding.

They sometimes ride horses, which seem to be mundane animals rather than monsters - make of that detail what you will.

Ten together (or fewer if this seems underpowered) can cast a sleep spell. 

If they bite you, save vs. disease or you come back as a Zombie/Ghoul after death. You go after the people you knew in life rather than join up with the Templars.

Mostly wield swords, but also use axes, spears, whips and flaming torches.

*All are equipped as a character of their class, level and background, but any magical equipment is there to be used against them rather than by them. While this is especially true of magic weapons, they will benefit from the passive effects of rings, amulets etc.

*They're on a seven year cycle, rising up to terrorise the neighbourhood and do whatever they need to do to Sraim (feed it, or make sure it's not fed, or to extract Gifts to maintain their existence etc). 

*A blood sacrifice made to Sraim will call them up prematurely, or keep them from walking abroad (as appropriate).

The Cult Today.

1. The cult does not exist - it is dead and forgotten. Sraim lies dormant and hungry. The Blind Dead have not walked abroad in centuries. Cult writings and objects for ritual wounding lie forgotten in abandoned places, or uncatalogued and unrecognised in historical collections. Notorious local historical figures or a particular family have a tradition of secretive behaviour, unexplained wealth/power and gruesome ends, but there is no organised cult.
2. The cult is a modern esoteric secret society that styles itself after the Knights Templar (or at least the legend of them) and are at several removes from the reality of Sraim. They will have access to original artefacts and writings, but their ambitions are worldly, their faith is superficial and untested.
3. The cult is a stereotypically Goya-esque coven of witches and warlocks. Sraim and its parasites are the main source of their power, but that doesn't mean they can't be Druids and Magic Users in their own right. These are the witches and warlocks that give the others a bad reputation and feed the fantasies of the witch-hunters - Sraim is symbolically the sacrament they spit upon, the cross they trample, and they definitely feed it stolen little babies.
4. The cult is made up of individual seekers after forbidden secret powers, who have all followed the same research routes to Sraim. Periodic Thralldom and Cleric-hood make them aware of each other and intimate with Sraim, and they agree to cooperate or at least not interfere in each others' plans. While their cult association will not be known, even in occult circles, their effectiveness will.
5. A network of misguided pagans and researchers (academic and amateur) digging down into the roots of folk traditions. Those closest to the centre form the active cult (or cults/factions within), but the ripples spread into wider society/sub-culture. The Blind Dead will storm a music festival, initially being mistaken for cosplayers or a metal band.
6. A local conspiracy, folk horror-style, and compatible with the other options above. They are all about cover-up and discouraging curious outsiders. Apart from their unique but otherwise mundane variation on the Tio de Nadal tradition (details to taste), which will hint if they see things in a positive or negative light, cultic behaviour is likely to focus on the Blind Dead, as the tangible manifestation of circumstances.

Commentary.

Vance's blind paladins meant that the Blind Dead were going in there, keeping up the Iberian flavour.

The farmer unearthing something awful put me in mind of Clive Barker's Rawhead Rex (especially the Les Edwards graphic version). And the (written) reality of an ancient penis-monster (wanking and pissing as well as ravening and devouring) is at least as terrible/ridiculous as an eldritch turd-worm.

Cleaving close to the Blind Dead mythos puts Sraim-central in an abandoned medieval town on the Spain/Portugal border. This is the opposite side of the country to Catalonia, but it's strongly implied above that Sraim is portable.

If the Templars are antagonist towards Sraim, they might be Dagon or Tsathoggua cultists - judging by their idol in La noche de las gaviotas (1975).

Sraim is named for the illustration, depicting one of Dave Morris's demons from his articles in White Dwarf. Stats for RQ/CoC/BRP in issue 45; converted for AD&D by Liz Fletcher in issue 48. I love how it turns out to be even closer to the popular image of the Tio de Nadal than I remembered.

The Tio de Nadal is supposed to have ancient pagan origins, but I feel that's often just code for 'we don't know'.

"No Holidays This Season!" - Secret Santicor(e/n) 2024

Prompt from Errant Thinking was:

"No Holidays this Season!" a paperboy cries the headlines in the cold. The player characters found themselves snowed in at this depressing place where its less city living & more dystopian surviving. The city's inhabitants either limp along in rags or have bundled up their black hearts in silk next to their bulging wallets. People are vile to one another and take what they can get. Craft a short adventure for the players to bring the holiday cheer to the folks of this dreary city. A heist against the rich to redistribute the wealth? A violent revolution? Honest toil to aid a burly bearded man in red? Reminding the rich of the holiday spirit? Detail the setting, key characters, & rumors that motivate potential solutions (or inform sources of the conflict).

Not so much an adventure - a campaign/setting, sketched in a similar vein to the Barrowmere and Noisy Valley, or one of the old White Dwarf Fiend factory scenarios, or any of my d66 [monsters] of [location] posts.

The 'missing module' for the Quariks to feature in.

The Setting.

The world is in the grip of an Ice Age and you are all Men, Isolated in a/the City that it is, to all intents and purposes, all that remains of humanity.

The City (and civilisation) is sustained by the heat and power of the Sacred Flame.

The Sacred Flame in the Palace of the Fire Lords is the centre of this little universe. The Palace lies at the heart of the Labyrinth, surrounded by the City. 

It's much like a normal settlement, considering the circumstances - but this is all anyone has known for generations. Wretched inbred hundreds in tottering shacks or a bustling metropolis under impenetrable crystal domes. It can be New Stone Age, pseudo-medieval, science-fantastic, steampunk, science-fictional. In the end, the set-up is the same.

There might be some surviving mortal who remembers the end of the world that was, but more likely you'll need to plunder forgotten/sealed archives, hold a seance, locate a supressed archaeological dig.

Everyone wants to stay close to the Sacred Flame - it's life sustaining.

The City sits on a rock just breaking the surface of the Sea of Bones - limitless snow and ice in all directions, littered with remains of giants, great beasts, defeated armies, desperate fugitives, vessels and machinery of the past.

Beyond that, the Great Void - the howling/silent dark where the sun is too feeble to shine. Why would you even try to get there? So far from the Sacred Flame, at/beyond the limit of endurance and supplies.

Low-level. Metal-poor. Limited magic. 

Economy, Ecology and Technology.

Things get made and things get traded, and special things get scavenged or improvised from bits found on the Sea of Bones. The equivalents of a merchant and a leisure class. Specialists. Celebrities? Outcasts? Journalism and social media? Monorails and pneumatic elevators, if you like.

Mainly hand-weapons and low/no armour. If it was Earth all along (or similar) there might be firearms from the world before. Energy weapons perceived as arcane or divine.

The narrative convenience of dungeon analogues for common resources. Including edible monsters and the things they feed on. Mutant mushrooms that serve as a timber analogue.

Have sufficient bland rations and clean water emerge from the Labyrinth periodically - "Thank the Fire Lords!" 

There's definitely rats (big and small) in the City. Maybe foxes/jackals. Giant spiders.

Monster predators and prey out on the ice rely on micro-ecosystems for support - the pyramid based in dungeon flora inside mountain peaks, ice burrows, and the more extensive wrecks. 

The Cast.

By statblock/description, rather than RAW. 

Normal Humans: that's most folks in the City. 

They work the mines for fuel, forage the Sea of Bones for materials, ply what trades they can, obey the Fire Lords through the Acolytes, and wait either for the Change and to go to the Fire Lords, or for the sun to set forever.

From AC9 - this applies generally to the people of the City:

• take great pride in their culture and achievements
• willingly die for their leaders believing that in doing so they become supernatural beings
• it is considered a great honour to be called to the Firelords' Palace, where it is believed the person dwells in ecstasy forever
• they do not doubt the wisdom of their leaders and they point to the warmth and majesty of their city as proof of the Firelords' power and beneficence
• see themselves as a people blessed, for their gods live amongst them
• it is not their place in life to doubt the actions of the gods
• none of them are aware of the Firelords' true appearance

This is a para/post-apocalyptic dystopia, of course, but that doesn't mean it can't be superficially pleasant and fulfilling.

Man, Isolated - Quarik (AC9 Creature Catalogue/DMR2 Creature Catalog): most folks should be showing signs of the Change by their twenties, and advance to 2 HD. 

They also get a special feature, so roll d6:

1. Strength 15-18
2. Death-white skin
3. Pale blue eyes and hair
4. Protruding fangs
5. Hairy feet
6. Sharp downward curving claws which are used to grip the ice

On a 5 or 6, the Acolytes deem you ready to go to the Fire Lords. 

For narrative purposes, no one has made the connection between being deemed ready to go to the Fire Lords and having clawed and/or hairy feet, and think it is divined by the arcane science of the Acolytes of the Fire Lords.

Man, Isolated - Cynidiceans (B4 The Lost City; AC9 Creature Catalogue/DMR2 Creature Catalog): those who don't show signs of the Change turn to dreams, drink and drugs. After all, they cannot go to the Fire Lords.

Their hit penalty is because they're perpetually addled, but they can otherwise continue their trades. 

They spend their leisure time in hallucinatory activities off of the d12 table in B4 The Lost City.

Even if their behaviour is open and tolerated, it is looked on with pity and/or distaste. How illegal and supressed it is will depend on how you're running the City.

Acolytes: Guardians and interpreters of the will of the Fire Lords. Touched by their divinity.

Responsible for the day-to-day running of the City. Acolytes are a very visible presence. 

They will have d3 special features of the Change.

If a 5 or 6 comes up, they are ready to go to the Fire Lords. But are they truly believers?

If an Acolyte has spells, they are drawn from the following list:

1. haste - double actions and win Initiative 1 round/level
2. dance - as a Tarantella's bite, 1 subject/level
3. blink - as a Blink Dog, once per round, 1 round/level
4. awe - all within sight with HD/level equal or less than the character are unable to act for max. 1 round/level or until they are out of sight (no save)
5. fireball - for d6 htk per level, +1 adjacent target per level, burns as for flaming oil
6. charm - as a Vampire for 1 round/level, max. 1 subject/level
7. deafen & stun - +1 adjacent target per level, duration 1 round/level
8. chain lightning - for d6 htc per level, +1 nearby target per level (preference for metal armoured/equipped), anyone taken to 0 hp or less must save or die (otherwise, non-lethal)

Mediums: Dwellers in the Labyrinth, secret eyes and ears of the Fire Lords

They will have d3 special features of the Change.

If a 5 or 6 comes up, they are ready to go the Fire Lords. But do they want to rule rather than to serve?

They have only strictly controlled access to communal spellbooks, meaning that no Medium will have memorised the same spell(s) as another under normal circumstances.

Mediums are a secret presence in the City. The Acolytes may not even be aware of them, depending on how you envisage the power-structures of the setting.

The PCs: However you make up the party, you are were all born and raised in the City - there's been nothing else for generations. Most of you will be Fighters or Thieves (or even unlevelled).

If you're a Cynidicean, you might even be (these particular) Druids.

If you're an Acolyte, you have Cleric levels and responsibilities. 

If you're a Medium, you have a secret identity (unless you're playing an all-Medium game) and secret orders (even if you're playing an all-Medium game).

You could all be cohort of Quariks ready to go to the Fire Lords, decked out in flame-coloured finery.

Reskin ye olde demi-human races-as-class characters as humans belonging to specialist professions or a particular caste (eg. miner-engineers, scavenger-rangers, scouts/spies).

The Fire Lords.

Per AC9 Creature Catalogue/DMR2 Creature Catalog): eight living gods who dwell forever in the Palace and sustain the City. 

Only their benevolent maintenance of the Sacred Flame can sustain humanity against the final setting of the sun.

No one has seen them and survived their glory, except - presumably - those who go to them with proper pomp and ceremony. Doctrine tells us this is a good thing, but also remains a mystery.

Tradition and artistic licence portrays them as well-built, luxuriantly bearded, dressed in flame-coloured garments trimmed with the fur of extinct/mythical beasts. Often, they are given branching antlers and/or haloes to signify their divinity.

They don't have to be villainously evil (see below), but they aren't selfless by any stretch and they definitely think they're your betters.

From AC 9:

• the Firelords control all aspects of the city (in our case, via the Acolytes and Mediums)
• they ensure (survival) in the harsh conditions
• the Firelords live in a majestic palace.... from where they control/provide heating for the city
• appear as mighty supernatural beings (though they rarely, if ever, put in appearance)
• as written, 8th to 15th level Magic Users
• as written, the Firelords exploit their subjects' fanaticism by actively preying on them
• as written, those entering the palace are consumed alive by the cannibalistic Firelords
• as written, the Firelords have an unimposing appearance; they are short and thin, with straggly grey hair and sharp needle-like teeth.

The Ninth Fire Lord: whisper it - there is another. 

Say it out loud enough, you get a visit from the Acolytes (everyone will know what happens to you) or the Mediums (no one will know what happened to you).

The ninth Fire Lord is usually represented - if it all - as a glowing red orb, sometimes a mere dot against the black of the sky or the white of the ice. Very rare depictions portray them as smaller than the other Fire Lords, in orange garments trimmed with commonplace furs, and a beard of icicles.

The ninth Fire Lord is in opposition (in thought, if not deed) to the others, but that does not mean they are any less self-serving or villainous.

The Holiday/The Season.

Calendar is kept by marking tally or counting machines. You might be able use the distant stars at night, but the weak sun barely separates day from night. The snow and ice means that it can be Christmas every day for all we care.

Every nine months, there is a period of celebration as those going through the Change are found to be ready to go to the Fire Lords. Somewhat incidental to this is the general celebration of the birth of a new generation, the continued survival of the City and the people, and the ever-loving glory of the Fire Lords.

The celebrations can be as austere or as bacchanalian, as private and personal or as public, as you prefer for your table. Blood sacrifice and ritual immolations to taste. Reminders that the City is blessed and its people grateful and obedient, and not to think too hard or look elsewhere for answers.

The main event is the latest cohort to go to the Fire Lords entering the Labyrinth to journey to the Palace and therein dwell in ecstasy forever.

Why No Holidays This Season?

1. No one is ready to go to the Fire Lords. The Acolytes can still pick a cohort to send into the Labyrinth (because they control the divination/lottery), but it shakes their faith keeping up the pretence. If this has been going on for a while, it's generating discontented whispers.
2. No new generation has been born - or the new generation has not survived/has gone missing.
3. The Fire Lords have fallen silent in the Palace. No prayers are heard, no prophecies spoken. Does the light seem dimmer? The atmosphere colder, less comfortable? Ambitious rivals look to fill the power vacuum.
4. The Sacred Flame is guttering (literally or figuratively). Could it go out entirely? This might mean that the mines are running dry, that the Ice Devil is growing stronger, that those faceless traceless saboteurs we've been warned about are real. 
5. There's Something in/on the Ice and it wants to get inside. Real, imagined, constructed - tensions rise, trust is hard to come by. Could be protean predator mimic. Could be intelligent White (Snow) Apes.
6. Discontented whispers through all parts of society. Malcontents are forming alliances. Will the Fire Lords stand by and just let the Acolytes and Mediums deal with it, or will they act directly? Is it a genuine movement, or a false flag as part of cruel political machinations?

The Sacred Flame.

What the Sacred Flame actually is provides important context. 

The people of the City do not need to know the details - it's all the blessing of the Fire Lords.

1. Fire Elementals. Controlled by the Fire Lords, per AC9. Not necessarily grateful or quick to depart if freed.
2. Geothermal/Volcanic. So the City can go out in a pulp-adventure blaze of fire and brimstone. Plus, lava tunnels and poison gas zones as dungeon locations.
3. Coal-fired/Steampunk. For gritty industrial chic. NPCs have appropriate regional accents (Cornish, Geordie, Welsh, and Yorkshire for me).
4. Nuclear Power. Crashed space-ship or remnant of the world before. Possibly magitech. Possibly an undischarged super-weapon.
5. Failure to Launch. The engine of the last/only Ark meant to outrun the encroaching Ice Age and take humanity to more hospitable stars.
6. Fire Demons. A pact that must be maintained (every nine months, you say?) or all Hell will break loose.

*The Ice Devil.

The asterisk is for optional.

That the Sacred Flame provides heat, light, power is incidental. 

Its main purpose is to contain the Ice Devil.

The visual I have in mind is this one by Gary Ward & Edward Crosby from Caverns of the Snow Witch, but - if it comes to it - you can use the D&D Ice Devil/Gelugon statblock.

A perpetual state of thaw means it cannot fully manifest in the mortal sphere, nor can it safely dematerialise and return to the netherworlds.

* The satanic steam generated can also turn tartarean turbines to provide pandemoniacal power. Can also provide therapeutic/mutating steam baths.

Roll d6:

1. The Fire Lords worship it as a captive god.
2. The Fire Lords hold it hostage to tap for mana.
3. The Fire Lords contain it so that humanity can survive (it would destroy the City and drag everyone to Hell).
4. The Fire Lords contain it to prevent the final freezing of the world (they, through their mishandling of the Ice Devil, are responsible for the Ice Age).
5. The Fire Lords do not know about the Ice Devil - it is actually slowly accumulating over generations and its eventual full manifestation as the herald of Fimbulvetr can only be delayed.
6. The Fire Lords do not know about the Ice Devil - it is trapped by accident, not design, and would be (somewhat) grateful if freed (either by full freeze or benign dismissal).

Portentous Discoveries.

1. It's a Cookbook! The basic portentous discovery, that the Fire Lords are not benevolent gods but in fact feeding on the people. If straight cannibalism isn't enough, then they could be Vampires or Minotaurs or each is the head of some kind of dracohydra.
2. The Great Forest. At the limits of endurance (unless you had, say, hairy feet and ice claws) and supplies and cartography there is a taiga/tundra zone. It's just an Ice Age - not the end of the world.
3. The Land Beyond the Great Forest. In a further apocalyptic plot twist, there's nothing but blood suckers beyond the taiga/tundra, and they're starting to encroach in numbers. You might favour a new world order of Vampires looking to breed humanity like cattle; I favour swarms of furry Stirges ravening for the last warm blood as the sun finally sets.
4. Forbidden Artefacts. However they come to light, they point to a very different way of life than the one laid down by the Fire Lords. Faith is shaken, mysteries demand resolution, bargains and betrayals. These things carry a curse - radiation or just that someone will kill you over them. Even the little doll that says "mama".
5. Cave Paintings. Showing the eight Fire Lords as skull-faced, horned, bedecked in entrails and flayed skins, devouring Quariks with hairy feet and ice claws. The ninth Fire Lord shown at some remove, in an attitude of disgust and/or remorse, and pointing away from the Sacred Flame. Other revelations to taste.
6. A New Sun. Just the faintest glimmer of red on the horizon, getting stronger as the darkness deepens. Theologically, it must be a false light - the ninth Fire Lord tempting the faithful to turn their backs on truth and salvation. Could it be another City? Or yet another extinction level event in the making?
7. You Were Made. Genetically engineered to adapt to the Ice Age conditions descending on the world. Once fully Changed, you would be able to survive in the new world without need of the Fire Lords and the Sacred Flame. 
8. You're Not the Only Ones. Out on the ice, under the ground, in the Great Forest, living in other Cities. Engineered adaptations might mean they look very little like you - how about a Change that brings Cryions into play?

Obviously, that there's an Ice Devil at the centre of your little universe would count, too.

*Feature Monsters.

Gargoyles. No more than 2-16 within d3 hexes/travel days of the City. 

A raid on the City will be made by d3 Gargoyles, and they attempt to carry off one juicy human. Their fearsome reputation and apparent invulnerability makes this an almost foregone conclusion. 

If the Acolytes cannot field enough offensive spell-casting to prevent it, they will diagnose a lack of faith.

Defeat a Gargoyle to be seen as unusually capable/powerful - only multiple desperate souls with Acolyte support have even managed to drive them off.

Gargoyle lairs are piled high with the bones of years of meals.

If you encounter a Gargoyle more than 3 travel days/hexes from the City, then it is within d3 hexes/travel days of an alternative long-term source of toothsome prey.

Giant Fire Beetles: Found almost everywhere - natural anti-freeze and a lack of predators. Mostly non-aggressive.

In the City, they are thought of better than rats and foxes (which they help keep down the numbers of), as long as they don't get in your business.

Their glowing nodules are sought as decorations during the holiday season.

They are barely edible and you can't survive on them for any length of time without accumulative poisoning.

Hellhounds: The lower the HD, the more are potentially encountered (ie. 1 @ 7 HD, 2 to 8 @ 3 HD).

No one has tracked their sulphurous snow-melt trail and the appetising aroma of roasted flesh back to a lair, to the extent that it is thought that they live permanently on the ice, that they do not sleep, that they reproduce by parthenogenesis or fission.

As no one survives a direct confrontation with them, they have been styled by the Acolytes as ceaselessly vigilant guardians of the City and another blessing of the Fire Lords. It might even be true, in a way (check for gold bracelets - see below).

If a scavenger or miner on the Sea of Bones is dragged off, then the diagnosis is lack of faith.

Ice Age Megafauna: if there's a taiga/tundra zone, for sure. Otherwise, exceptional individuals in extreme hibernation that will not last out the Fimbulvetr and wake up extremely grouchy if disturbed.

They have a cumulatively diminishing dice roll penalty on awakening, as their muscles loosen up and senses sharpen with activity. They will be hungry.

Living Statues: these seem like absolutely thematically appropriate monsters for the Labyrinth and the Palace.

Each wears a gold bracelet that acts as conduit for their control by the Fire Lords (and/or the Acolytes and/or the Mediums). It is also affects living beings that put one on or has one put on them.

Crystal Living Statues can be Ice instead - adjust statblock/abilities accordingly..

Iron Living Statues can be red-hot (and possibly filled with molten metal) - adjust statblock/abilities accordingly.

*Survival Mode.

Do Not Let Us Die In The Dark Night Of This Cold Winter and There's Something In The Ice both have cold-weather, resource-management mechanics.

My rules for cold and snow.

My rules for radiation, if needed.

Commentary.

Easy to see that B4 The Lost City is an important antecedent.

You won't go far wrong mining the Frostpunk wiki for useful supplemental material (I love mining wikis of games I've never/will never play).

Joseph D'Lacey's MEAT and Cormac McCarthy's The Road to think about the economics/ecology of cannibalism.

The Palace of the Fire Lords using a map of the spiral cities from X6 Quagmire!

The Caverns of Kalte (Lone Wolf gamebook - Joe Dever, Gary Chalk). Absolutely formative.

Planet of the Apes (1968) and the sequels, and the Fire Lords as rough analogues of the team based at U.S Outpost 31.

Dark Sun in Antarctica.

Santa's reindeer, if you hadn't noticed.

Confession that the prompt was the one that I least wanted at the time, but I've had a lot of fun with it.

Now: Observe Winterval for the allotted time.