(UA) The Lamb (plot)

[James Palmer]

[This is based on a short story by Mervyn Peake, "Boy in Darkness."  It's
notably creepy, and I strongly recommend it.  It's part of the Gormenghast
cycle, but quite hard to find.  All quotes are from this story.]

Samuel Lamb was a noted epideromancer of the late nineteenth century,
particularly obsessed with the evolution of humanity from animal form, and
the traces of those forms left within certain humans, as, he felt, was
expressed by Darwin, the Bible, and other such notable authorities.  Soon
he conceived a theory; that the power of God derived from the recognition
of all creatures that he was their creator.  Then he formed a theory of
magick based around the power that could be gained from the worship of
those you had created.  And naturally, as those who practice two schools
of magick will, he went stark raving mad - although in his case, it wasn't
that big a leap.

He disappeared from society, taking his books and his furniture to a
hidden lair.  There he mutilated his body to gain power - covering his
eyes and removing his heart. With the power gained, he reshaped his form. 
Now he was the Lamb, immortal, glorious, to be worshipped and adored by
his faithful creations.

These creations were the unfortunate men and women he had lured into his
lair.  Drawn to him by his magick, held transfixed by his gaze, they were
gradually reshaped into a form he felt reflected both their animal and
human nature - and then they became part of his society.  They knew no
world outside, no God but the Lamb, no company but the other pathetic
souls bent to the Lamb's pleasure.  The Lion, the Goat, the Pig, the
Mantis, the Spider, the Gazelle, the Crow, the Fish ...

"For his memory was both sharp and capricious, and he could recall not
only a time when his adumbrate hall was filled with supplicants of all
shapes and kinds at differing stages of mutation and dire change, but the
individual characters, ranging as they did, down the centuries each with
its idiosyncrasies of gesture, stance, and feature; each with its peculiar
formations of bone; each with its textures, its mane or its stubble; the
spotted, the striped, the skewball or the featureless.  He had known them
all.  He had gathered them in at will, for in those halcyon days the world
was alive with creatures, and he had but to call in that sweet voice of
his for them to run and cluster at his throne."

But those glory days are gone.  The Lamb's creatures died, collapsing
under the weight of their twisted forms, disintegrating into dry dust,
leaving only white, odd, bones to decorate the floor of his lair.  The
area of his lair has been deserted by mankind, and now his only companions
are the brutish Goat and Hyena.  He longs for new flesh ...

And the PC's are it.  They stumble into wherever you choose to place the
Lamb's lair - preferably underground, in some deserted area.  Mines are
good - the most plausible setting is in England, in a mine abandoned in
the 80's, with the Lamb's previous victims having been drawn from the
unfortunate miners.  Setting it in England also means the PC's are less
likely to be carrying guns, which is good.  

The reasons are up to you;  perhaps they're hiding there, perhaps they're
exploring some caves as a hobby, perhaps mystic secrets are rumoured to be
contained within.  As soon as they enter his domain, the Lamb's dark
consciousness becomes aware of them, and reaches out to lure them further
inwards.  The bleat of the Lamb cannot be denied, and, if a PC is
particularly strong of will, there's always the force of his two servants. 

The atmosphere should be claustrophobic and cloying.  Evidence of the
Lamb's previous kingdom should be apparent - strange works of art, the
peculiar bones underfoot, the table where the Lamb and Spider sat and
pursued "long intellectual battles with some remote affinity to chess."
The PC's should have the opportunity to interact with the Goat and Hyena,
both of whom live in deadly fear of their master, and who have learned to
communicate through lip reading and sign language, as the Lamb's hearing
is so keen as to be able to perceive even the heartbeats of whatever
creatures wander into his realm.  The PC's would do well to adopt the same
tricks, or the Lamb will be aware of whatever plans they make.

Eventually the PC's should be drawn to the Lamb's sanctum, where "he sat
very softly and patiently in a high chair.  Immediately before him was a
table covered with a cloth of exquisite embroidery.  The carpet on which
the table was standing was thick and soft and of a very deep blood-red.
Here, lost in the nether gloom, the lack of colour in the world above
became changed into something that was not merely huelessness but was more
than just colour; it was, for reason of the candles and the lamps, a kind
of vivid stain; almost as though the lit objects burned - or gave out,
rather than absorbed, the light."  

There the Lamb will draw them close to him, to take pleasure in gradually
reshaping their forms.  Their best hope of escape is to distract him for
even a second, to draw that hideous sentience away from them, and so
escape his hypnotic power and dark bleating.  Other possibilities will no
doubt suggest themselves, as appropriate for the group.

The two most likely possible endings are escape, possibly followed by the
old CoC solution of dropping dynamite down the place - but do they really
think the Lamb is likely to be hurt by such measures? - or the slaying of
the Lamb in a moment of distraction.  If this is the case, then I refer
you again to "A Boy in Darkness" -

"He brought it down across the skull of the Lamb so that it split the head
into two pieces which fell down on either side.  There was no blood, nor
anything to be seen in the nature of a brain.  The Boy then slashed at the
woollen body, and at the arms, but it was the same as had been with the
head, a complete emptiness devoid of bones and organs.  The wool lay
everywhere in dazzling curls."

The corrupted remains of a body reshaped by magic?  Or a final Ascension -
and to what form?

If the Goat and the Hyena are still alive, they will become ancient,
decrepit men, with little remembrance of the decades spent under the Lamb
- only the knowledge that a great evil has been slain.  They will lead
the PC's out of the maze of the Lamb's lair, and then disappear into
the darkness forever.

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NPC's

The Lamb

"But the colours seemed to have no effect upon the Lamb, whose wool
reflected nothing but itself and in one other particular, and that was in
the matter of the eyes.  The pupils were veiled with a dull blue
membranne.  This blue, dim as it was, had nevertheless a disproportionate
effect, for the surrounding features were so angelically white.  Set in
this exquisitie head, the eyes were like two coins.

The Lamb sat very upright, his white hands folded together in his lap.
They were exquisite, like the hands of a child, for they were not only
tiny, but plump."

"The breast of the Lamb was like a little sea - a little sea of curls - of
clustered curls of like the soft white crests of moonlight verdure;
verdure white as death, frozen to the eye, but voluptuously soft to the
touch - and lethal also, for to plunge the hand into that breast would be
to find there was no substance there, but only the curls of the Lamb - no
ribs, no organs; only the yielding, horrible mollience of endless wool!"

Body 30 (feeble)			Speed 20 (F) (stationary)
Mind 80 (brilliant malevolence)		Soul 85 (heartless)

Important Skills: *Bleating* 90%, *Epideromancy* 80% 

Bleating allows the Lamb to attract victims to himself.  The voice of the
Lamb is strangely alluring, and the victims will be drawn closer, and
closer, and closer, hypnotised by that "sweet and liquid sound."  Opposed
rolls against Mind are appropriate.

Harming the Lamb is impossible while he is aware of you, unless you can
make a Violence-7, Helplessness-6, and Self-9 check.  Failure leads to
your collapse before the Lamb, and worship of him.

The Lamb hears everything in his realm, down to the blood pumping through
your veins - unless distracted by some cunning means.  Assume the Lamb can
perform any Epideromancy effect he desires, short of those requiring major
charges.  He prefers to shape flesh slowly, over time, however, in order
to achieve its full effect.

The Goat 

"The face was unlike anything the boy had ever seen before.  It was too
big.  Too long.  Too shaggy.  Too massive altogether for decency, for
there is a kind of malproportion that is best kept away from public view.  

The figure who stood so upright (even to the extend of appearing to lean
backward a little as though recoiling) was dressed in a dark and
ridiculously voluminous suit of some thick material.  The starched cuffs,
which had once been white, were so long and loose that they completely
covered up his hands.

He wore no hat, but a mass of dusty little curls covered his cranium and
spread down the back of his neck.

The protruding and osseous temples appeared to be thrusting their way
through the wig-like hair.  The eyes were horribly pallid and glassy, with
such small pupils as to be virtually invisible."

Body: 60 (large)		Speed: 50 (F) (ponderous)
Mind: 35 (foolish)		Soul: 30 (subsumed)

Body Skills: Run 30%, Grapple 40%
Speed Skills: *Sure-Footed* 50%, Dodge 35%
Mind Skills: Serve Lamb's Needs 35%, Knowledge of Lair 35%, Notice 30%
Soul Skills: Pathetic Charm 20%, Lie 10%

The Goat is a dull, stupid creature, who dreads the Lamb absolutely and
serves him as faithfully as possible.  He calls everyone "my dear,"
"darling," or "little one," and will assume that everyone is in as much
fear of the Lamb as he.  He hungers much of the time, and will offer
food to lure the PC's inwards.  He is slightly afraid of the Hyena.

The Hyena

"His jaws were very powerful, and as he crunched the muscles could be seen
working between his ears and his jaw; and this was made all the more
apparent by the fact that Hyena, in contrast to the Goat, was something of
a dandy, shaving himself with a cut-throat razor with great care every
five or six hours.  For the bristles on his jowl were tough and rapid and
had to be dealt with.  His long forearms were another matter.  Thickly
covered with a brindled growth, they were something to be proud of, and
for this reason Hyena was never to be seen in a jacket."

"There was about him something very foul.  As with the Goat it was
difficult to pin his foulness down to any one feature, horrid enough as
that might have been.  But there was a kind of menace all the same about
Hyena; a menace very different from the vague beastliness of the Goat.
Less unctuous, less stupid, less dirty than the Goat, but bloodier,
crueller, and with a fierce blood-drive, and for all that ease with which
the Goat has shouldered the Boy, a bestial strength of quite a different
order."

He also wears a pair of yellow gloves and carries a walking cane.

Body: 75 (bestial strength)	Speed: 70 (lethal)
Mind: 40 (base cunning only)	Soul: 25 (subsumed)

Body Skills: *Rip You Up* 75%, Bound and Leap 60%
Speed Skills: Chase 65%, Dodge 50%
Mind Skills: Knowledge of Domain 40%, Serve Lamb 40%
Soul Skills: Intimidate 25%

The Hyena is brutish, nasty, vicious, and quite lethal.  His teeth do +3
damage, and he carries a variety of other nasty weapons.  He dislikes the
Goat, and will threaten him but not actually hurt him, for fear of the
Lamb.  He talks in short, mean sentences, and will use threats, and
possibly force, to draw the PC's towards the Lamb.  He takes only minor
damage (tens + ones) from guns, due to his tough hide, and reduces other
damage by 3.

Seeing any of these creatures is an Unnatural-7 check.  Hearing the
bleating of the Lamb is Unnatural-1.
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James

"I still hold [...] that the suburbs ought to be either glorified by
romance and religion or else destroyed by fire from heaven, or even by
firebrands from the earth." - G.K. Chesterton