Suitable Campaign Age: Golden, Bronze, Dark, or Cinematic 

Adventure Tone: Macabre Action 

Recommended Power Level: Low or Classic 

Content Warning: The following adventure contains elements of the macabre and grotesque. This adventure places children in danger, and involves scenes that may be considered body horror. GM’s are encouraged to read through completely and decide how best to handle children in the story based on the Campaign’s Lines and Veils.

Overview 

Halloween draws near, for most it’s candy dreams and masked fantasies, the time of pumpkin spice is upon them. Fake cobwebs and police tape adorn homes across the land with giggles and laughs to be had by all. For the survivors of Perez Park, all these things are reminders of the creature that changed them forever, Spider Jack.  

Since last year, Perez Park has been the home to a number of pranks and jokes. Patches of all white ghost pumpkins now grow wild in rings around the park grove. Children sneak in at night throwing wads of cotton candy into the trees as they sing Jack’s song. 

Spider Jack Live 

Join us Saturday, October 30th, 6:30 PM Eastern. We will be broadcasting on Twitch thanks to the Wandering DM!  (Link to the Stream)

Patreon Bonus Content

Want to expand the tale of Spider Jack? Join our Patreon for additional lore to expand the universe and details on Elder Speech, an ancient language any can understand, if they can steady their mind.

Foreshadowing Scenes

The following scenes are optional. Hard Candy Shell is appropriate for heroes with psychic powers or some form of dimensional based powers. Double Dare is appropriate for all games. 

Hard Candy Shell 

The Harvest Moon, one lunar cycle before the Hunter’s Moon (Halloween). 

Trapped under the earth, your arms reach out breaking through. It has been so long since they’ve felt the touch of wind. The longing swells inside of you. So long have you traveled, so long have you slept, and all you want, remains beyond your grasp. 

Arms bend in ways they should never do to pull your severed head from the ground. Strength only for your mouth to reach the surface. Time enough for a single gasp of air. Something runs through all that you are. There is a heaving that regurgitates through you before vomiting forth spiders, thousands upon thousands of spiders. 

Biting down with all the force you can muster. Teeth shatter. Spiders break your jaw to make room for more. Waking, four words spill out like the last spiders refusing to stay in the realm of dreams. 

“Jack can’t go back.”

Double Dare 

The call was a pounding in their head. The scars, they never faded. As he draws near, they return. Flesh grows hard as the mind wanders back to the forest. At night it’s worse. When sleep comes, so does the call.  They find themselves walking out into the night. Fortified by his blessing, cold means nothing.  

The other’s stand at the edge, silent. Waiting. The call pounds against their heads, and eyes glow with the red orange vision once more. A pair of children run past, laughing as they sing, one calls, the other responds. 

He walks through trees 

He’s the cotton candy tease 

Where is Spider Jack? 

Where is Spider Jack? 

Where is Spider Jack? 

See his glowing lantern smile 

Where is Spider Jack?

Where is Spider Jack? 

Yellow eyes watch from the trees 

Where is Spider Jack?

Where is Spider Jack? 

He spins cotton candy webs 

Where is Spider Jack?

Where is Spider Jack? 

The lost ones found spun and bound 

Where is Spider Jack?

Where is Spider Jack? 

Making pumpkins out of you. 

For them it is a game. Handfuls of cotton candy thrown into the trees. They do not realize, he calls them too. Vines shift, laughter turns to a scream, then they are gone. 

The Park’s Closed 

In the early morning, police cordoned off the park, blocking all non-essential personnel. News reports show that standing on the edge of the woods are eighteen humanoid people of different sizes. Their bodies, orange and bloated, with a thick, rigid looking skin. Their eyes radiate a yellow glow, as they stare unblinking into the forest. 

While their identities cannot be confirmed at this time, media outlets are already speculating that these are the Jack-o-Lantern 18, victims of the mysterious creature dubbed Spider Jack who appeared last year and was defeated by a team of heroes. News stations are also reporting that a pair of children have gone missing overnight, around the time 18 began appearing at the park. Witnesses claim that the 18 moved in a trance-like state, and did not respond to questions. 

When the heroes arrive, there is a growing crowd on the outskirts of the park. Reporters are clearly camped out to monitor the events as they unfold. 

Gathering Data 

Speaking to the Police, Expression + Etiquette + Law, Average (15) Difficulty 

• Failure: The police seem preoccupied as they move in barricades and try to make sure no one else is in the park. 
• Partial: There is something the police are not releasing or saying that’s also going on. 
• Success: While it may come as no surprise, the people in a trance-like state are the Jack-o-Lantern 18. 
• 1 Degree: Four officers have gone into the forest to search for the children. 
• 2 Degree: They have since gone missing as well, and the remaining officers on site have been ordered not to go in. 

Speaking to the Press, Expression + Etiquette + Occult, Expert (20) Difficulty   

• Failure: It’s impossible to find someone not doing a live cast or other work that the heroes can get information from. Reporters are happy to put the heroes on camera though. 
• Partial: Someone will review the events of last year, saying that Jack covered the forest in webbing that looked and by multiple reports tasted like cotton candy. When people started going missing heroes came in to investigate and were able to rescue the Jack-o-Lantern 18. 
• Success: Since the events of last year, Spider Jack has gained a kind of cult status with children. It’s a boogeyman and so the park has become host to a number of Jack pranks, typically involving young kids throwing cotton candy, or older ones hiding in the trees and dumping things on their friends in the woods. 
• 1 Degree: There have been no reports of Jack or cotton candy webs since last year. 
• 2 Degrees: No one knows who planted the pumpkin patch, but a number of locals tended to them over the last year. 
• 2 Degrees: There have been stories of psychics and occultists claiming that the park still has some connection, or resonance that connects to Spider Jack or wherever it came from. (Note: If the heroes helped send Spider Jack home last year, this is in line with the events, otherwise, the origins of Spider Jack were never discovered.) 

During this time, the pumpkins that have grown out from the forest begin to explode. Orange tendrils reach in every direction creating a latticework of visceral mass between the trees. The substance seems to glow with a faint red aura. Shapes in the energy begin to emerge, and distorted faces form into bodies made of pumpkin juice that run into the forest quickly disappearing. 

What Was That, Sense + Occult, Very Advanced (30) Difficulty 

(Or, Wisdom + Occult, Very Laborious (40) Difficulty if the hero did not witness the event and has to rely on someone to explain what happened) 

• Failure: Yeah, those are pumpkin monsters. 
• Partial: Whatever the creatures were, they seemed to be unfinished, or still growing. 
• Success: Compared to the visible aura, the more imp like creatures are a fragment of their final size. 
• 1 Degree: Inspecting the pumpkins and sinew lattice left behind, everything is dried and brittle. So much so that touching the leaves one’s skin feeling dry on point of contact. 
• 2 Degrees: There are a number of beings that survive on the lifeforce of others and leave behind a husk, vampires, some ghosts, the life force of a pumpkin though? 
• 3 Degrees: The aura from the pumpkins and how it took shape implies some type of spirit that needed a conduit to interact with the world.  
• 4 Degrees: Some spirits are tied to an element, either creating it or craving it. With the way the spirits formed their bodies they may be some kind of nature spirit.  
• 5 Degrees: Nix, or Nixies are depicted as water spirits, or spirits that form bodies from water. There are varying interpretations of these spirits from benevolent water horses to sea hags that would lure others to a drowning death. 

In the moments following these events, the sky will begin to darken as if it were night, but the sky seems alien, some other place. Overlaid with the day that should be there, everything is cast in a twilight of orange and red. 

At the same time the Jack-o-Lantern 18 will collapse, as they desperately try to burrow their fingers and toes into the earth. Attempts to stop them are met with supernatural strength, but they don’t attack, only resist, and if pulled from the ground will quickly begin to look emaciated. Those that are left will root themselves before becoming motionless again. 

If the heroes have not already found out, a police officer will tell them about the others in the forest. 

Into The Unknown 

The Perez Park forest is dark, darker than it should or could be. Heroes who try to fly above the trees will lose contact with their group. The foliage is too dense to see through. Stranger, radio communication will fail, even telepathic bonds are cut off except for vague feelings. If the heroes have a means to communicate interdimensionally, that will remain unaffected. 

On the ground, things begin to shift into strangeness quickly. 

Did You See That, Sense + Intuition, Very Advanced (30) Difficulty 

• Failure: The hero bristles for reasons they can’t explain. 
• Partial:  From the corner of their eye, the hero sees something move on the ground, or maybe on a tree. 
• Success: There is a thin line of worms that seem to stitch in and out of the ground, and trees. 
• 1 Degree: The worms aren’t exactly on the ground, or in the trees, sure some are, others look like they may be floating and disappear as if burrowing into something invisible. 
• 2 Degrees: Definitely floating, and moving in and out of reality. 
• 3 Degrees: The hero catches a glimpse of what the worms burrow into and it is as if they are entering another universe all together. The holes close behind them as they move. 

Orange and red roots swim through the ground. The deeper the heroes go, the leaves of trees shift between pink and magenta. Plants begin to crop up that look completely alien. Crescent shaped pitchers with a pair of hanging tongues that seemingly reach out for the heroes. Long white stalks that turn black and curl away as the heroes near them. Branches curl into wicket snarls when one looks up, and what little of the sky that can be seen is strange, looming with two large planets. 

The Heart of the Forest 

As the heroes travel deeper into the forest, it becomes increasingly alien. Rolls should focus on trying to find their way to the center of the forest where Spider Jack was found last year. Strange creatures that look like a mixture of insect and primate swarm the heroes, along with cat-like creatures, carnivorous plants, and strange toxic clouds. GMs can rotate the challenges as best fits the narrative, and expand on the strangeness as needed.

• Stakes: The Nix complete their ritual before the heroes can intervene.     
• Size 3 – Impacts a large park forest
• Ferocity 4 – Wherever you are, it is deadly to normal humans. 
• Target 40
• Damage 6
• Success Threshold 11
• Starting Advantage 6
• Optional: There are missing children and police officers in the forest. Finding them will increase the time needed to find the source of the dimensional anomaly. However, leaving them in the forest could mean they are trapped in this alternate reality. Remind the players that reality seems to be shifting further into this new place and time appears important. If they opt to try and locate the missing people increase the Starting Advantage by 2. If the heroes abandon this objective they can reduce the Disaster’s Successes by 1. The following can be added, in any order, on Turns the heroes have a net positive number of Successes. 
  • Missing People 
    • The Children, Andy & Nancy: They are together, hiding under a cluster of thorn bushes. They have piled rocks and dirt around them to keep hidden. 
    • Officer Beagle: Hanging in one of the trees, Beale will signal to the heroes before coming down. He tries to make it clear that he’s not a coward, but after facing the humanoid insects, knew he was out of his league and wanted to gain information.
    • Officer Smith: Standing on a mound of dead cat-beasts, Smith grips his baton in mad panic. His uniform shredded, body covered in blood and gore, it is unclear what is his, and what is the beasts. 
      • Dark Age Option: After driving off or defeating a group of cat-like creatures, Smith’s remains can be found. 
    • Officer Taylor: Half in a large pitcher plant, the officer uses their shotgun to keep the mouth from closing and fights to hold on as tendrils wrap around him. 
    • Officer Warburton: Lunging at one of the heroes from the shadows, Warburton comes at them with a military boot knife. It only takes a moment for him to realize that the heroes are not a threat. 
  • Bonus: Upon successfully reaching the heart of the forest and saving all the missing people, award each hero 1 Willpower. 

As the heroes near the heart of the forest, things begin to dry up. Grass is brown and dead, trees brittle without leaves. The grove ahead glows in dim red light and Spider Jack seems to be interacting with watery imps. 

Heart of the Matter 

The grove’s grass is wilted and dead. The trees look lacquered with cotton candy and the impish creatures from the pumpkins are now nearly a meter in size. Their bodies made of murky liquid.  Spider Jack seems to be making a cocoon, or sphere, and there is webbing that runs in multiple directions connecting to the trees. 

The Drowning Pool 

When the heroes arrive, the imps will attack immediately. There is no hiding inside the grove, something allows them to sense everyone. The imps move with an unnatural alacrity as their bodies distort and shift to reach the heroes.  

Nix Horde (Classic Water Spirits + Advanced + Brawler + Sneak + Striker + Immune: Physical Attacks + Immune: Water Attacks + Absorption Water + Vulnerability: Fire/Heat, Major Mob) 

Fairy tails have relegated the Nix, or Nixie, to beautiful water sprites, or horses made of water. The truth is far different. From the Realm of Seas, Nix are hunters, seeking water wherever it may be found. They can channel powerful droughts of water, but prefer to drain their victims dry, leaving behind only a desiccated husk. They often serve to create tethers between the Realm of Seas and other bodies of water, making it easier for others to pass through. As spirits, they must make a physical form from the water they inhabit or can drain into a form. 

Basic Rolls 12 + 3d6

Stamina 9/9/9

Defense 18 Dice 3 Armor 5/7/9 Notes: Immune to Physical or Water based Attacks Water Heal Nix 3 Stamina. Vulnerability: Fire/Heat: Damage is Penetrating. 

Offense Deluge 12/17/22 Dice 3 Range Short Damage 6   

Offense Steal Moisture 24/29/34 Dice 5 Range Close Damage 12  

Stealth 18 Dice 4

Jack Holds Back

Spider Jack’s partial cocoon acts as cover and provides the following: Bonus Defense 10 Armor 4. Additionally, Spider Jack will not attack unless provoked. Instead it speaks in a language that sounds like nails being driven through metal and wood. If Spider Jack goes unprovoked on Turn 3 a gate will open, like a tear in time and space. Simply seeing this can cause vertigo. Once the portal is open, it will consume anything within the grove.  

Spider Jack (High Powered Eldritch Horror + Advanced (2) + Reinforced (2) + Brawler + Sneak (2) + Striker + Tough + Cluster + Trapper (5))

Basic Rolls 20 + 4d6

Stamina 48

Defense Speedy with an Unbreakable Hide 44 Dice 5 Armor 8 

Offense Pumpkin Spiced Bile 20 Dice 4 Range Short – Close Radius Damage 4 (Halved for Trapping) Notes Trapping Escape Difficulty 40 (or 30 with 2 Successes)   

Offense Stinger 34 Dice 6 Range Close Damage 8 Notes Trapping (Untouchable Trap) Escape Difficulty 40 (or 30 with 2 Successes) Paralytic, Escape with Constitution + Fitness rolls.   

Sneak 36 Dice 6

Portal To the Unknown 

Once open the portal will pull anything Difficulty Very Challenging (50) to resist. This requires 1 Action per Turn the portal is open. For every 2 Degrees of Success, a hero can automatically help another person in the scene, removing the need for them to make a roll. 

Spider Jack will immediately jump through on their next action, unless prevented by the heroes. The portal will remain open for 1 Turn after Spider Jack passes through. The portal is strong enough to pull the Nix through. 

Attacking Spider Jack will distract them from the ritual opening the portal. 

Bystanders 

If the heroes rescue the police officers they gain a +6 Support bonus to any Attacks as the cops do their best to back up the heroes. (Even if that makes them little more than a distraction to the Nix.) 

If the portal is opened the heroes will need to try and save the children and officers making a roll for each of them with the same Very Challenging (50) Difficulty. 

Two Paths to Victory 

Head On 

If the heroes take on both the Nix and Spider Jack they can end the dimensional instability, splitting the two dimensions once again. As a reminder: Spider Jack cannot be killed on this plane of existence. They simply break down into pumpkin guts, only to return. 

Because the ritual wasn’t completed, there are still interdimensional anomalies that linger. Allow the heroes a Sense + Forensics Roll, Very Advanced (30) Difficulty, on the way out. On a successful roll, they notice one of the small crescent moon plants.  

Survival Mode 

Once the portal closes, the heroes will be left in their home dimension once again. The break between worlds is clean, and there is no sign of dimensional anomalies as the heroes leave the forest. 

The Path to Madness 

It is very possible that heroes are pulled through the portal, or even choose to go through if bystanders or teammates fail their rolls to hold on. There are notes in the Aftermath section for heroes being lost on the other side.

Aftermath 

Following the events of Spider Jack Can’t Go Back, there are a number of possible outcomes: 

• Spider Jack Defeated: There is a looming otherworldliness that lingers over Perez Park. Perez Park becomes known for people going missing in the months that follow as others are lost to the park. 
  • Bystanders: If the heroes did not rescue the missing people they are never found. When the dimensional anomaly ended, they were left on the other side.  
  • Rewards: In addition to any Session rewards the heroes can select a new Drive based around missing people, loss, or failure. The heroes may take a Drive based on encountering the supernatural or exploring other dimensions.   
• The Portal Closed with Everyone Pulled Through: The dimensional anomalies in Perez Park subside. If the bystanders were not rescued, they will be found throughout the park as it returns to normal. Not that the heroes have time to think about that. The heroes have fallen between the cracks of reality into a new dimension. Something older and nightmare like that operates under its own rules. The heroes will need to find their way home. If they rescued the bystanders, this only complicates things further. GM’s get creative and use this jumping off point for a new adventure(s), or a full campaign, don’t be afraid to get weird.  
  • Rewards: In addition to any Session rewards the heroes can select a new Drive based around exploring or traveling through other dimensions. If the bystanders are with the heroes, they may also take a Drive representing a bond with one of them, and the need to protect them. 
• The Portal Closed with Someone Pulled Trough: The dimensional anomalies in Perez Park subside. If the bystanders were not rescued, they will be found throughout the park as it returns to normal. However, not everyone made it. The group should have a discussion around the next adventure, deciding if they want the heroes who made it try to save those that went through, or from the perspective of the heroes pulled into another dimension. This is an opportunity to swap out characters as well, or have players try out temporary characters who help the lost heroes return, ensuring that everyone has a character in either story.  
  • Rewards: In addition to any Session rewards the heroes who are lost can select a new Drive based around exploring or traveling through other dimensions. If the bystanders are with the heroes, they may also take a Drive representing a bond with one of them, and the need to protect them. Heroes who stayed behind can select a new Drive around breaking through the dimensional barriers. 
• The Portal Closed with No One Pulled Trough: The dimensional anomalies in Perez Park subside. If the bystanders were not rescued, they will be found throughout the park as it returns to normal. If the heroes return with the missing people there is a celebration. 
  • Rewards: In addition to any Session rewards the heroes can select a new Drive based around dimensional curiosity, add any of the bystanders as Drives, or gain a Contact with the Police.  

In all of the instances, the Jack-o-Lantern 18 will return to their senses after Jack is either defeated or escapes. 

Afterward 

“Going to be a good harvest next year.” They say pulling their hat low and turning. No matter what, come next July, the park’s pumpkin patch will return… 

Appendix 

Wondering about those pumpkins? What happens to the ones people took home before they had exploded, or when the next crop comes in next year? If someone takes a pumpkin outside of Perez Park, it will rot almost immediately. Cutting into one while inside the park will reveal a pulsating mass that quickly shrivels once the exterior is breached. There is a thin coating of what looks like cotton candy inside. 

Bonus Background Character 

Nix, Single (Classic Water Spirits + Advanced + Brawler + Sneak + Striker + Immune: Physical Attacks + Immune: Water Attacks + Absorption Water + Vulnerability: Fire/Heat)

Basic Rolls 12 + 3d6

Stamina 9

Defense 18 Dice 3 Armor 3 Notes: Immune to Physical or Water based Attacks Water Heal Nix 3 Stamina. Vulnerability: Fire/Heat: Damage is Penetrating. 

Offense Deluge 12 Dice 3 Range Short Damage 6   

Offense Steal Moisture 24 Dice 5 Range Close Damage 12  

Stealth 18 Dice 4