Spider Jack Meets The Pumpkin Prince

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 

For most people Halloween is a time for fun, games, and candy. For the last two years though, it’s meant something very different in this city. Once a favorite of locals for their wonderfully old trees, and walking trails, Perez Park has taken on a much darker nickname, the Cotton Candy Forest. Cotton Candy Forest might not seem so scary, until you learn of the park’s most famous resident, Spider Jack. 

For the last two years the park has been home to a being beyond space and time. Named by children, he was called to this place for reasons unknown, those who were foolish enough to enter his forest and survive still bare his mark, this is the home of Spider Jack. Although heroes have tried to defeat or send Jack home, it’s that time of year again. The trees are covered in sweet tasting pink silk. Pumpkins have risen up, as if overnight, blocking off the central trees within Perez Park. And, the Jack-O-Lantern 18 stand watch, the spirit of Jack driving them to watch over his home. 

Welcome back Spider Jack. 

Spider Jack Live

We will be hosting a live stream of Spider Jack Meets The Pumpkin Prince Saturday October 22nd. (Link to Twitch Channel) This is part of a 24 charity steam.

Grown On The Black Night 

On the first night of the full moon, October 8th, vines from within the forest stretched out beyond the trees. By the third night, pumpkins so large seeing over them was impossible, blocking the web-covered realm beyond. 

Police have coordinated off the park completely, fearing an incident like last year where people were lost in a strange warp in reality. To protect the locals, police have placed barriers around the park and maintain a round the clock team to prevent anyone from entering.  

Jack-O-Lanterns On The Wall

Before people knew who Spider Jack was, Perez Park was covered with pink threads of what looked like spun sugar. Many mistook this as a harmless prank and deciduous cotton candy. Those that ventured far enough into the park found themselves trapped in Jack’s webs and those that Jack found were changed forever. 

When Jack returned a year later, so did the webs. There were those that were lured into the forests, not knowing, not believing, or hoping to steal some of that pumpkin power who found themselves altered by Jack’s nature. 

Now that the forest is walled off by giant pumpkins, it seems those changed by Jack’s nature have returned as well. They stand at the police barriers, motionless, inches from the barricades. Their faces have turned orange and lined, bodies emaciated, as if living scarecrows, except, they do not move. 

After the Jack-O-Lanterns arrive, crowds begin to follow, this grows and shrinks depending on the time of day and where things are on the Lunar Clock (See Below). In the early evenings kids will gather to sing a rhyme to the people standing vigil. 

Moving A Jack-O-Lantern 

If someone attempts to move one of the Jack-O-Lanterns, they do not appear to resist, but have an unnatural weight to them that seems to anchor them to their place (Very Laborious (40) Brawn Roll). If they are moved, once unrestrained they will return to their place on the wall. 

If they cannot cannot return to their place, the Jack-O-Lantern will begin to wither like a plant deprived of water. If not returned in three days they will die. 

Spider Jack’s Song 

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. 

The Lunar Clock 

As the month progresses things in Perez Park, and later in the night sky will change. After establishing the set up for the adventure, allow the heroes to take any actions, but keep the clock ticking. 

October 8 – 10  (The Full Moon)

The Jack-O-Lanterns arrive at the edge of Perez park, blocked by police barricades. 

October 11 – 15 (Waning Gibbous)

A second ring of pumpkins will appear beyond the forest. These pumpkins are far larger, with a sickly yellow hue. Any attempts to move the Jack-O-Lanterns at the police barricade are now Challenging (50). (See: The Aligning of Five Pillars.) 

October 16 — 18 (Last Quarter) 

As the moon wanes, a crescent appears on the opposing side, it is black, making it nearly invisible, except that it is darker than the sky itself. The Jack-O-Lanterns appear to have spouted vines and roots burrowing into the ground below. Any attempts to move the Jack-O-Lanterns are now Very Challenging (55). (See: A Tide of Nixies)

October 19 – 23 (Waning Crescent) 

At night the park is cast in a vermillion light. The same light rings the growing darkness on the moon. The Jack-O-Lanterns become rotted pumpkin bodies, whatever was left of them is gone. (See: She Who Is Not Forgotten.) 

October 24 (First Day of the New Moon) 

The Black Moon glows vermillion. Inside the park, new bodies of the Jack-O-Lanterns grow from the pumpkin vines. (See: The Vermillion Moon)

October 25 (The New Moon) 

The Jack-O-Lanterns awaken entering the forest as a beam of vermillion energy reaches into space. (See The Prince In Blue Calls)

What Is Spider Jack?  

This is the third year that the park has felt Jack’s presence. The psychic tremors that seemed to herald his arrival in previous years are now absent. The police are taking a watch and wait stance, as Jack has never ventured out of Perez Park, and so they feel damage can be mitigated by preventing anyone from entering. 

What Is Spider Jack? Wisdom + Occult (+ Research), Heroic (65) 

Unlike past events, the heroes have time to research the nature of Spider Jack. 

Note: The Base Difficulty represents a hero knowing the information. If they are researching Spider Jack, this requires 1 Hour, and reduces the Difficulty to Very Hard (60). Spending a Day researching reduces the Difficulty to Very Challenging (50), and spending a full week reduces the Difficulty to Very Laborious (40).

GMs should note the time passing and the Lunar Clock. 

• Failure: There is a nursery rhyme that popped up last year, but little else is revealing itself about Spider Jack. 
• Partial: Whatever Spider Jack is, they are not native to earth. Based on past accounts, it seems that it may be some type of interdimensional being. 
• Success: Around 500 AD West African folklore introduced Anansi God of Stories, Wisdom, Knowledge.
• 1 Degree: Going back further to 3000 BC in Iconium, modern day Konya philosophers first put forward the idea that reality is the construct of a god’s dream.  This predates the Advaita Vedanta by roughly 2300 years. Others propagated the idea that dreams create the dreamers which create the dreams that create the dreamers, and within this cycle, there may be entities that move between these realities, and shape the connections between them. 
• 2 Degrees: While it seems like a stretch to relate the idea of gods and dream stitchers to a tangible being, Spider Jack seems to have been pulled from a space between realities. That is not to say he is some type of god, more that his place might be somewhere between realms and the slumbering mind of others. 
• 3 Degrees: Through more recent history, there have been more confirmed reports of tulpa, living embodiments of collective concepts. Going all the way back to Iconium, perhaps nothing has changed, only now in the age of Metahumans and superpowers are we willing to accept the truth. 
• 4 Degrees: If Spider Jack’s place is in between dimensions, something in Perez park may be anchoring him to the location. 

Communicating with the Jack-O-Lanterns, Parent Attribute + Power*, Very Laborious (40) 

Those affected by Jack’s powers are non-responsive, standing motionless at the police barrier. Characters with Telepathy or similar powers can however attempt to reach the minds of the Jack-O-Lanterns. 

• Failure: The hero is overwhelmed by visions of overlapping and interconnecting realities as they seem trapped in the intersection between them, as if being speared out into a single atom and then used to bind the universe together. The hero suffers 15 Psychic Damage – Any Psyche Armor. If this is enough to trigger an Injury, reduce the Damage by 9 and Take the Injury – Broken (Blinded). If there is enough remaining Damage, treat this as a Staggering Attack, reducing the final Damage by increments of 3, and losing that many Actions. 
• Partial: The hero can see webs piecing worlds together as realities collide, somewhere beyond their reach is the mind of the person before them. The hero suffers 12 Psychic Damage – Any Psyche Armor. If this is enough to trigger an Injury, reduce the Damage by 9 and Take an Injury – Broken (Blinded), otherwise treat this as a Staggering Attack, reducing the final Damage by increments of 3, and losing that many Actions.
• Success: Beyond the web of worlds inky blue veins slip into the threads from some other place. The spirit of the Jack-O-Lantern seems trapped between the filaments, bound to both and fighting to get free. The hero suffers 9 Psychic Damage – Any Psyche Armor. Treat this as a Staggering Attack, reducing the final Damage by increments of 3, and losing that many Actions.  
• 1 Degree: The webbing seems to be protecting the spirit, while at the same time, the spirit fights to free the web from the blue tendrils. The hero suffers 6 Psychic Damage – Any Psyche Armor. Treat this as a Staggering Attack, reducing the final Damage by increments of 3, and losing that many Actions. 
• 2 Degrees: This web connects other souls, all of them fighting to free the silk strands from this intervening force. The hero suffers 3 Psychic Damage – Any Psyche Armor. Treat this as a Staggering Attack, reducing the final Damage by increments of 3, and losing that many Actions.
• 3 Degrees: For a brief moment the hero can see past these anchor strands and into the wider web. There is an entity beyond description that lies in the center and it is slowly being pulled from its home. All it wants is to be at rest, to dream and to let the dream flow across its webs. 

The Aligning of Five Pillars 

On October 11th, the local building for a major bank goes up in flames. GMs can check in with the heroes to see where they are during this time as the pillar of flame can be seen across the city. 

The Pillar of Coins 

Heroes that are in the financial district can respond after the first Turn. Heroes on patrol in other districts can respond on the second Turn. All other heroes can respond on Turn three. If a hero has a New Movement Boon that can be applied, reduce the time required to reach the scene by 1 Turn if they have both Rapid Acceleration and Boost Speed, or two instances of Boost Speed. If the hero has Rapid Acceleration and Boost Speed 3, they can always arrive on Turn 1.  

GMs should roll each Turn, even if the heroes are not present. This can result in the buildings burning down before they even arrive. 

• Stakes: The Prince in Blue ignites the Pillar of Coins.   
• Size 3 – Burning A Large Office Building 
• Ferocity 6 – Burns with the heat of a dying star. 
• Target 40
• Damage 9
• Success Threshold 11
• Starting Advantage 8 

On each subsequent day another building in a different district is set ablaze. Use the Disaster above for each. If the group uses a map of the City, the GM should be able to draw a circle around the park based on the locations. 

• October 12th – The Pillar of Swords: The second night, the mayor’s office goes up. 
• October 13th – The Pillar of Cups: The third night, the public school administration office is attacked. 
• October 14th – The Pillar of Wands:  A local strip mall is attacked the fourth night. 
• October 15th – The Tower: On the fifth night, the largest public library in the city burns. 

Spotting The Prince, Sense + Perception, Laborious (35) Difficulty 

Heroes who are on the scene when the fires start have to see who is responsible, if they take a Turn to look. 

On a Partial Success or better, grant the heroes an additional degree of Success if they look for the Prince at the next location. 

• Failure: There is no sign of who started the fires.
• Partial: The hero catches a glimpse of someone with a blue cape turning and running into the crowd before disappearing in the mass of confusion. 
• Success: There is a split second where an older man, perhaps in their sixties or seventies, wearing a blue cape, eyes linger on the flames perhaps a moment too long before they turn slipping into the crowd. 
• 1 Degree: The old man doesn’t just disappear into the crowd, he disappears completely. 

Meaning Behind The Fires, Wisdom + Occult (+ Research), Very Hard (60) 

The Base Difficulty represents a hero knowing the information. If they are researching Spider Jack, this requires 1 Hour, and reduces the Difficulty to Very Challenging (50). Spending a Day researching reduces the Difficulty to Very Laborious (40), and spending a full week reduces the Difficulty to Very Advanced (30). 

Allow the heroes to roll at any time. After The Tower burns, treat the Difficulty as 10 lower. If this changes the outcome of the results, provide the heroes the additional information as a revelation as they see the Prince’s actions unfolding. 

GMs should note the time passing and the Lunar Clock. 

• Failure: With Spider Jack potentially returning, people may be getting agitated. The heroes should be on the lookout for other crimes as well. 
• Partial: It’s unlikely that the arson is random or unintentional. However, it seems unrelated to the events in Perez Park.  
• Success: Each of the locations may have some kind of mystical significance. 
• 1 Degree: Connecting the five points draws a circle around Perez Park. 
• 2 Degrees If the hero rolls before the 5th Day, they can predict “The Tower” as part of some type of ritual. This allows them to stop the fire before it starts, reducing the Disasters Starting successes to 1. 
• 3 Degrees: (Only available after the 5th day): Whoever is setting the fires may be attempting some form of binding ritual. 

A Tide Of Nixies

At 3 AM on October 17th the water pipes around Perez Park explode, unleashing a hoard of Nixies. They appear as tiny humanoid-like creatures made up of the waters from below. The Jacklings will awaken from their torpor in this moment, erecting a dome of branches to prevent the water spirits from entering the park.  

The Nixies Take Perez Park

Use the The Pillar of Coins travel notes to determine when the heroes arrive. 

• Stakes: The Nix crush the Jack-O-Lanterns, and slaughter the police on site, and enter the park. 
• Size 4 – Impacts the area around the park. 
• Ferocity 4 – The Nix are deadly to normal humans. 
• Target 45
• Damage 7
• Success Threshold 13
• Starting Advantage 6 
• Notes: 
  • As long as the heroes arrive before the Nix breach the park: 
    • The police will aid the heroes offering a +5 to a hero’s Attack rolls. 
    • The Jacklings will provide a +5 to any actions that defend the park or others. 
  • Fire and Heat based powers gain extra Successes on 6s. 

During the conflict it is unclear if the Jack-O-Lanterns are helping the police or not. However, they seem devoted to making sure the Nix do not enter the park, creating root walls and tendrils that also have the effect of helping the police. 

She Who Is Not Forgotten 

A blink and you miss it news story, author Lucia Vanderhyde appears to have been kidnapped from her downtown condo. Vanderhyde is known for a series of books deconstructing mythology and how ancient stories helped to shape modern day gender stereotypes. The news quickly jumps to the events at Perez Park and Jack-Watch. 

Who Is Lucia Vanderhyde? Intelligence + Research + Study: Mythology, Advanced (25) Difficulty 

• Failure: A mildly successful author, there is little more about her than what is covered in the news. 
• Partial: Her first book “Be Crabby” focused on how women are often depicted in Greek and later Roman myth. 
• Success: Vanderhyde has published eight books over the course of her career. While none of them are explicitly feminist, they all explore the bias of male interpretation. 
• 1 Degree: Living alone, Lucia does not seem to have any close friends or family. 
• 2 Degrees: Digging into some fan websites, and unofficial biographies, it seems Vanderhyde became estranged from her family after college. 
• 3 Degrees: While only an internet rumor, it seems that neither of her parents were really present from middle school on. There is no real explanation as to why she and her brother stopped communicating.

Investigating Lucia Vanderhyde’s Condo, Sense + Forensics, Advanced (25) Difficulty

The heroes can investigate the condo, assuming they can get past the police. 

• Failure: Outside of a disheveled living room, there is little sign of a struggle. 
• Partial: Lucia has a collection of her works in her bookcase. However, one of the books appears to be missing. (Heroes with at least a partial success on Who is Luicia Vanderhyde will know it’s “Be Crabby”, her first book. 
• Success: A framed picture from the wall is on the floor. It looks to be partly burned. Examining the picture, it appears to be Lucia as a late teen or in her early twenties and a man about the same age, with a familiar resemblance. (If anyone received a Success on Spotting The Prince, they will recognize him, only much younger. 

Who Is That Man, Intelligence + Research, Very  Laborious (40) Difficulty 

After seeing the Prince in Blue at the pillars, and then in Lucia’s home, some heroes may want to research this man. 

If the hero has a Background or Career based around institutional therapy, they may add this to the roll. 

• Failure: Nothing comes up around the pair. 
• Partial: This may be Lucia’s younger brother, but no other information can be found on him. 
• Success: The man’s name is Linton Vanderhyde. There is little on him, and it appears that he all but disappeared after college. 
• 1 Degree: Licia and Linton attended college together, being only a year apart in age. However, Linton appears to have had a breakdown in November of his senior year. 
• 2 Degrees: Following his breakdown, Linton Vanderhyde was committed to the Schulz Treatment Center until it was destroyed on Halloween four years ago. This is the same year that Jack O’Lantern, the modern spirit of Halloween, attempted to extend the night into eternity. (See Jack O’Lantern Rising) 
• 3 Degrees: Everyone at the treatment center was presumed dead, but several bodies were never found, this includes Linton Vanderhyde.

The Vermillion Moon

If the heroes have not been monitoring the Jack-O-Lanterns, on the morning of October 24th, as the sun first rises, the Jacklings that have stood vigil over the park will collapse, as empty rotted husks of themselves. Climbing over the pumpkin wall that has risen up, the heroes can see smaller pumpkins growing at the edge of the forest that are shaped like human bodies. 

If the heroes enter the park to examine the new pumpkins, it feels like jumping into deep water at least initially.

Getting close to the pumpkins, there are clear signs that they are the Jacklings, or maintain the appearances of these people. At the edge of the forest, not all the terrain seems natural. Additionally, looking back towards the city, the skyline has changed.

As the heroes move, reality seems to warp to draw them into, and keep them in the forest. This can be more or less involved depending on the group. However, something seems to be both keeping the heroes in the forest, and keeping them safe from the alien landscape and creatures that are now appearing. 

Characters with telepathic abilities can attempt to contact whatever presence is keeping them in the forest. Use the results from Communicating with the Jack-O-Lanterns, with the added note that on a Success or higher, it seems that the Jacklinjgs are doing what they can to protect Spider Jack, and that includes keeping the heroes in the park for whatever reason. 

The Prince In Blue Calls

As the night falls on October 25th, the pillars that were able to burn reignite. At the same time, an older man, in a blue cape appears. Beneath the cape, he wears a stained blue shirt and black slacks. With him is Lucia Vanderhyde, bands of vermillion energy shackle her wrists and seem to force her to follow behind him. 

When the police attempt to stop him, he glides through any obstacles as if flickering in and out of reality. As he enters the park, an inhuman wet howl can be heard from inside the park. 

If the heroes are in the park already, a path will open up leading them to where Jack is located. This allows them to arrive before the Prince in Blue. 

Bands of vermillion bind Spider Jack to the ground which seems to be both breaking apart into a cosmic void, and at the same time retaining gravity. 

Heroes Trapped In The Forest 

The heroes have a Turn to try and free Spider Jack, or kill him. Allow the heroes to roll as per The Final Rites below, reducing the starting number of Successes based on their actions. 

On the following Turn, the Prince In Blue will arrive, GMs adjust the scene based on the heroes’ actions. 

Following The Prince In Blue 

If the heroes arrive after the Prince In Blue, they will see Spider Jack in the same position. However, the man in the blue cape has positioned Lucia Vanderhyde in front of Spider Jack, an obsidian dagger in his hands. 

“My sister, know that it is your ridicule that has brought us to this place! You see now that Schattil Haogro, Dreamer of Dreamers is real! And, you shall be the catalyst for my ascension!”

Monologuing

Linton Vanderhyde can be lured into talking. There’s no roll required, he’s got some stuff to get off his chest. As long as he doesn’t realize the heroes are taking an aggressive action he will monologue for three Turns. 

Turn 1: 

“This is never what I wanted. Yet since our birth, it was my destiny. Our parents spoke of the old ways, the endless cycle of dreams crafting landscapes that were spun into reality by beings older than time itself. They told us we could pray to these old gods and be rewarded. They lied!”

Turn 2: 

“Year after year, I prayed, I hoped, and nothing! Nothing, save the ridicule of my own sister! I devoted myself to the old gods and nothing! She had me committed! Locked away for love, for belief. And still the gods did nothing! So I decided if the gods would no longer listen, I would make them hear.”

Turn 3:

“Schattil Haogro, Dreamer of Dreamers, see him laid low before us all! Now I shall become the Dreamer, and the gods will hear us once again!” 

With that he will begin the final ritual to transcend his mortal form and become the Pumpkin Prince. 

The Final Rites

• Stakes: Lucia is sacrificed and Linton absorbs the powers of Schattil Haogro (Spider Jack) becoming a living conduit to beings beyond existence. This will tear a hole in the fabric of reality destroying the city and everything for miles around. 
• Size 5 – Impacts the local region. 
• Ferocity 4 – Linton summons a hodgepodge of creatures to defend him, warding himself and his sister, but cannot focus his full attention. 
• Target 50
• Damage 9
• Success Threshold 15
• Starting Advantage 6
• Notes: 
  • For each Pillar the heroes stopped, reduce the Starting Advantage by 1.
  • This is treated as a Supernatural Disaster for Occult and Religion. 
  • If killed, Spider Jack will melt into the ground rotting, it will take him another year to rebuild a body. 
  • If the heroes gain a Success in freeing Spider Jack he will give all heroes a +10 to all their offensive Rolls, or rolls to disrupt the ritual each Turn thereafter. At the end of the conflict, Spider Jack will open a portal to return home. Hopefully this time for good. 

Aftermath 

If the heroes are able to save Luicia and prevent Lindon from taking Spider Jack’s powers: 

“No, no! It took me years to bind him, and you, you’ve ruined it all, again…” Lindon will collapse, broken by his defeat.

“You cheese head! I was protecting you. You never listened.” She will walk over to him, continuing to speak with no compassion in her voice. “I’m the one who kept Schattil Haogro at bay, yet you could only hear our parents’ insane stories! I should have known this pumpkin lunacy was your fault these last few years.” 

After composing herself, she will ask the heroes to try and get her brother the care he needs. 

If Spider Jack dies, the pumpkins in Perez Park, including the Jacklings will rot on the vine. 

If Jack survives and is able to return home, the Jackling pumpkins will break open as the heroes exit the forest revealing the people inside. They are healed completely and any signs of Spider Jack’s influence are gone. 

Heroes can take Lucia Vanderhyde as a Contact, if they find care for Linton instead of letting him be sent to prison. She is an occult and religious scholar specializing in how myths are interpreted. 

If Spider Jack survives, the heroes can take him as a Contact. As the Dreamer of Dreams, he will occasionally send them visions while they are sleeping. This can be used to help locate virtually anything, or be used as a plot hook for any visions the GM wishes to bestow on the hero. 

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