Blackwater Creek Question

[ronin]

I just finished reading Blackwater Creek, I like it quite a bit. I plan to run my group through it sometime soon. I have a question concerning the corrupting influence of the Mother's Gift. If the group is successful in destroying the Earth's Womb what happens to any characters who were corrupted? Would they eventually heal or would the effects remain with the character? 

[Scott Dorward]

The default in the scenario is that the investigators retain any taint they acquired, even if they destroy the Earth's Womb. That said, I've heard of Keepers reducing or undoing the effects, which seems entirely reasonable to me. It all depends on how horrible you want to be to the investigators.

[SplitYourSanity]

I'm running that one now, and am thinking of maintaining the gift if any survive. 

My current issue is the womb was destroyed while the Carmody farm was not yet explored. . .

[Spartanicus]

My PCs were frightened of visiting the Carmodys - but two of them managed to destroy the womb - and get a lot of taint in the process (falling in the water within the cave, etc). My plan is for those who are completely corrupted - like Brendon - to go even more insane (if that's imaginable) once their tether to Blackwater Creek is snipped - and this will make them only more dangerous. For those who are not completely corrupted, perhaps up to stage four or five, they will slowly recover over many weeks and months. The Mother's Gift will continue to be distributed in the existing bottles and casks of whiskey, however - and will remain a problem until that source is depleted or destroyed. I think this approach allows for the storyline to continue easily after the womb has been destroyed while also providing for a good denouement.  🙂

Edited December 5, 2020 by Spartanicus

[UrHighLord]

This scenario is legendary with my players. Luckily for them, they are paranoid, so they brought supplies with them. But to this day this are nervous about water.... . Not the best scenario for new players, but it is a great scenario and is highly recommended.

[SentinelHillPress]

If you can find a copy of it the scenario "Behold the Mother" would be of interest; it is in Dead Reckonings,  short scenario collection that is out of print.

 

SPOILERS

The scenario is divided between Arkham and Dunwich and involved a Shub-Niggurath cultist attempting to birth a demi-goddess into the world using her own children.  You could easily make the cultist a former or current resident of Blackwater Creek wholly consumed (in more ways than one) by her devotion to the Mother. Since the investigators are tainted by their encounter, they would be attuned to the stirring of the terrible creature from the scenario, a psychic linkage or somesuch, creating an interesting hook.  The creature might also target them or others exposed to the tainted liquor, connecting the two scenarios further.

[ColoradoCthulhu]

On 12/8/2020 at 12:47 AM, SentinelHillPress said:

If you can find a copy of it the scenario "Behold the Mother" would be of interest; it is in Dead Reckonings,  short scenario collection that is out of print.

 

SPOILERS

The scenario is divided between Arkham and Dunwich and involved a Shub-Niggurath cultist attempting to birth a demi-goddess into the world using her own children.  You could easily make the cultist a former or current resident of Blackwater Creek wholly consumed (in more ways than one) by her devotion to the Mother. Since the investigators are tainted by their encounter, they would be attuned to the stirring of the terrible creature from the scenario, a psychic linkage or somesuch, creating an interesting hook.  The creature might also target them or others exposed to the tainted liquor, connecting the two scenarios further.

I was able to get a like-new print copy of Dead Reckonings for $72 + shipping this past Black Friday (a steal). Our group will run the "Behold, the Mother" scenario as a sequel to "Blackwater Creek" when we return to the 1920s setting, probably in a year or so.

[EldorfDragonsbane]

When I ran it I had the corrupted players keep the corruption initially and after enough time (approx 1/2 to 1 1/2 years in game time) passed I let the players roll to see if they were free of the corruption or if they were still corrupted. The player who did fail decided to explain it as that every couple months he secretly had been consuming tainted whiskey that he had stashed. The player then decided to "retire" her character to a mental asylum, the new character was a relative that had the original character admitted to the asylum under the pretense he was trying to help her Uncle, when in actuality he wanted her uncles money.

[ColoradoCthulhu]

16 minutes ago, EldorfDragonsbane said:

When I ran it I had the corrupted players keep the corruption initially and after enough time (approx 1/2 to 1 1/2 years in game time) passed I let the players roll to see if they were free of the corruption or if they were still corrupted. The player who did fail decided to explain it as that every couple months he secretly had been consuming tainted whiskey that he had stashed. The player then decided to "retire" her character to a mental asylum, the new character was a relative that had the original character admitted to the asylum under the pretense he was trying to help her Uncle, when in actuality he wanted her uncles money.

For my group, I had the stat damage (APP, etc) from The Water of Life heal after several weeks' game time. However, the invisible "taint" and subtle psychic bond to Shub-Niggurath from those afflicted still lingers, connecting the players to Blackwater Creek...

[EldorfDragonsbane]

I decided to be a nice keeper as 3 of the players are between 9 and 13 while the other two are the parents. I didn't want to discourage the young players with too many penalties starting off.

I did let them know as we get more sessions I wont be going as easy on the characters, especially if they want to try their hand at a longer campaign such as Masks, Orient, Mountains, Fungi from Yuggoth, or Shadow of Yog-Sothoth, as these campaigns can be brutal and players can easily go though multiple characters due to death and insanity before reaching the end of them.