Showing posts with label Clandestine Societies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Clandestine Societies. Show all posts

Monday, January 5, 2026

Grave Robbers Inc

 


Grave Robbers Inc


Sometimes there are jobs that are necessary but are considered to unsavory for most people to do. One such job is exhuming the dead. Now there may be all sorts of reasons why you need a body dug up, ritual components, resurrection, feeding, whatever... but it's a dirty backbreaking job that just seems to have a bad taint about it. But there is a demand, so of course there are those willing to do the work. That's just what this little posse of losers has done. After being outcasts in a niche of society that is pretty much composed of outcasts these folks got together and carved out their own little pocket by doing what nobody else will do. No questions asked. For the right price.

Of course their prices aren't cheap but what's the alternative, doing it yourself? Nobody wants to do that. So as a base rate to pull a fresh body out of the ground and have it picked up at a location of their choosing you will pay an easy five grand. Add another grand for every week it's been buried. Add a grand if the customer chooses the pick up location. Tag on another two if they have to move the body from the transport and into a location. Just need specific parts of a body? Well that's a grand each.

These guys don't take plastic so be ready to pay cash in hand or bitcoin. On a very rare occasion they have been willing to do the deed for a trade. But whatever you are offering it had better be pretty valuable AND be something they really want.

One thing though, getting in touch with them isn't that tough. If you ask around the various occult circles enough you will hear about them and somebody will hand you a phone number. On the other end of that number will be the sweetest voice you’ve ever heard.


Significant NPC's


Tim Price, aka The Boss

Tim is from a long family line of morticians. He has all the education and apprenticeship necessary to follow that path as well. But he decided to spend some more time in college while chasing after lost bits of occult knowledge. While he possesses no magical or supernatural abilities himself he does know a great deal more than most others and has a nearly photographic memory to boot.

He's the one who started Grave Robbers Inc up. Having the know how and access to the equipment needed for the job put him in the position of being in charge.

Chrissy, aka The Voice

When you need to meet GRI to discuss business this is who you will talk to. All of five feet tall, dressed in black from head to toe with combat boots, she is the stereotype appearance of modern goth. Until she speaks. Her tone and inflection are perfect and anyone listening to her feels immediately at ease, calm and don't have an angry bone in their body. Some say she from a bloodline of muses, but nobody knows for sure. She may not even know herself.

Other members of the crew tend to vary. From a few outcasts just looking to earn some money on the side to jocks from the local college hoping to impress Chrissy. Just disposable guys to work the shovels and do the dirty work.


Artifacts of Note


Privacy Lantern. This appears to be an old turn of the century railway oil lantern. Very worn, dinged up and dented but still functional. When filled with oil, lit and a bit of magic is used it creates an optical illusion. Anything activity within the circle of light is rendered invisible from outside viewing. Used while digging up a grave so that casual passer by or a police patrol can't see the activity happening. This illusion is broken if the lantern is moved more than a few inches.

Piece of your Mind Pipe. This appears to be a long smoking pipe made to resemble a Native American 'peace pipe' or at least what they looked like on television. This is activated when a person loads the pipe up and lights then takes a puff while spending a bit of magic. Then when they hand it off to another and they take a hit that’s when the person who lit the thing says out a number of a days and the person will pass out. When they wake back up they will have forgotten most of the specified number of days. Only some very foggy and faint images will remain.


Story hooks.


If you have a group with player characters who are down on their luck and needing money well here is an option. Tim is always looking for a few good folks to do the heavy lifting. The more they know about the occult and supernatural goings on the more he’ll like them. So time to see if your players can handle a bit of graveyard desecration.

The Graverobbers have dug up the remains of somebody very important. Now there is a price on their head until the body is returned preferably intact. Maybe your group will be the ones hunting them down. Or maybe GRI is paying the characters to get the body back from the people who had them dig it up in the first place. Maybe they didn’t even dig it up in the first place and they are being framed.




Saturday, December 27, 2025

Clandestine Societies is on DrivethruRPG

 


Okay so I tried something a bit different with this release. I put it up on my Kofi page first, then I put it on my itch io page a week later. This has resulted in, checks notes, zero sales. So now it's time to put it up on DrivethruRPG and see what happens. 

So head on over there and check out Clandestine Societies Issue Two. It's a small collection of supernatural, horror and occult articles. Mostly system agnostic, but when mechanics are supplied it's done using the WaRP OGL from Atlas Games.  Hey it's only a buck so check it out if you don't mind.

Hopefully I'll have issue three ready to go here in a two to three months. I know I've got plenty of material to dig through to fill it up with. 

Saturday, December 20, 2025

Clandestine Societies Issue Two on KoFi and itch

 


Clandestine Societies my little ezine of supernatural, horror and occult gaming material finally has a second issue out. Issue two is now up and available on two storefronts. 

First it's up on my Ko-Fi page available to supporting members for free. As well as several other pdfs should they choose to support me on that platform.

Second it's up over on itch io for only a buck. Most of my other products are available there as well.

Next Saturday I will be putting it up on DrivethruRPG. 

Hoping to have a third issue out in the first quarter of 2026. If everything goes smoothly. 

Thursday, December 4, 2025

Working on Clandestine Societies Issue 2

 


A few years back I had started work on what I intended to be a series of releases for Supernatural - Horror - Occult gaming. Just a small release with some different articles inside all falling into that vibe. I called this Clandestine Societies, referencing the secret societies and groups that would be created by the existence of such things in our world. 

I managed to get issue one completed and ready to go and was working on issue two. The idea was to get three done before I released the first. A planned release schedule. But then I caught Covid, and it hit me like a ton of bricks. Ended up in Barnes Hospital in St. Louis on a ventilator, it got bad, up to the point where they told my wife she may want to start thinking about making 'arrangements' because my outlook was bleak. But right after that call my body started turning around and I survived. 

Went through in facility physical therapy to recover from both muscle atrophy and lung damage. When I finally got home that brain fog people talk about was all to real and really rough. But I recovered enough that sat down and went ahead and released Issue One on 6/12/21. But it would be a while before I could focus enough on writing and creating anything.

Now it's been a few years. While I still fight with some mental and memory issues I am back to where I feel I can start making material again. I attribute a lot of my recovery to doing face to face gaming again and getting a job where I exercise my brain a bit. 

So two years ago I released a new Squad Names, but it was something I had partially written and didn't require to much work. Then recently I released Cyberpunk Random Charts. Now I'm working on Clandestine Societies Issue Two. 

It's all written and done. I've got the cover image figured out and I'm looking for other pieces of stock art for the articles inside. While I'm doing all that I'm rereading everything for the fifth or sixth time. Layout is going to be done on LibreOffice cause I just don't feel like relearning how to use Scribus again after all this. I'm going to be using the words "Not professional, not slick, but cheap" quite often from now on. 

I'm thinking of making the release date January to start the new year off with something. I'll probably keep the regular price I charge of a dollar since it looks to end up around eleven or twelve pages. Got a few other things I'm slowly working on and hopefully I'll get them rolled out as well as 2026 progresses. 

This went on for a bit longer than I anticipated. Thanks for those who read through it all.