Blood of the Gorgon

olofortgohedon

presented by

by Nicolas Logue

A Horror Mystery

olofortghoedon

for 8th-- 9th Level Adventurers

by Nicolas Logue

Requires the use of the Dungeons & Dragons Player's Handbook, published by Wizards of the Coast, Inc. This product utilizes updated material from the v.3.5 revision.

Credits

Design: Nicolas Logue Development and Editing: Wolfgang Baur Development and Proofing: Bill Collins Layout: Stephen Wark Cartography: Sean MacDonald Cover Art: McLean Kendree Interior Art: James Keegan, Aaron Acevedo Cover and Interior Calligraphy: Shelly Baur

Playtesters: The Alchemical Union--Peter Smits (DM), Bryan Lund, Clint "c" Bland, Jasmine Lee-Barber,

Tyler Cooper, and Karl Francis Polintan The Blood Doubles--Christian Lindt (DM) Steven Merrill, Wes Kobernick, Jo Benincasa,

and Eric Lytle The Cult Commandos--Gamon Cole Long (DM), Dave Ray, Jeremy Royal, Jeremy Schichor,

Jerry Shipman, and Ben Taft

Blood of the Gorgon is ? 2008 Open Design LLC. All rights reserved. Reference to other copyrighted material in no way constitutes a challenge to the respective copyright holders of that material. Open Design, Free City of Zobeck and all proper names and their associated logos are trademarks of Open Design LLC. Interior art ? 2008 James Keegan, Aaron Acevedo. Used with permission. Cover and Interior Calligraphy ? 2008 Shelly Baur. Used with permission. DUNGEONS & DRAGONS? and Wizards of the Coast? are registered trademarks of Wizards of the Coast, Inc., and are used with permission. The following content is Open: The entirety of Appendix A except for the names Zobeck, Salgra and Tzah-Saleh. All other text not designated as Open under the Open Game License, especially Zobeck, place names and character names, is designated as Product Identity.

Email: open_design@ Open Design Web site:

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Dedication

To the Patrons,

Aaron Acevedo, David Ackerman, Jason Alexander, Kristina Amaloo, Andrew Baggott, Michael Baker, Grant Baxter, John Baxter, Stefan Beate, Chris Bergstresser, Johnathan Bingham, CW Bishell, Robert Biskup, Ignacio Blasco Lopez, David Blizzard, Hans Bolleman, Alfred Bonnabel, Amy Bonnabel, Jason Bostwick, Alain Bourgeois, Francois Bourriaud, Robert Brandon, Paul Breen, Lori Brown, Daniel Brumme, Francis Carelli, Shawn Carlsen, Thomas Carpenter, Tiger Chaplain, Jez Clement, Ted Clements, Derek Cloward, Jim Clunie, Jesse Cole-Goldberg, Bill Collins, Brad Colver, Mark Corsi, Jim Cox, Brian Cross, Christopher Cumming, Patrick Curtin, Matthew Cutter, Adam Daigle, Mark Daymude, Matthew Donle, Robert Doran, Randy Dorman, Frank Dyck, Joseph Effinger, Robert Emerson, Jens Esborg, Julie FarquharNicol, Shawn Feakins, Brad Ferguson, Matthew Filla, Charles Fitzpatrick, Clay Fleischer, Gary Francisco, Dale Friesen, Michael Furlanetto, Scott Gable, Tom Ganz, Mark Gedak, Georg-Simon Gerleigner, Richard Green, Thomas Greenwood, Jeff Greiner, James Groves, Brian Gute, John H, Pat Halverson, Guenther Hamprecht, Robert Harper, Geoffrey Hart, Kristian Hartmann, Robert Hawkshaw, Lachlan Hayes, William Hayhurst, Louis-Rene Hebert, Chad Henderson, Harald Henning, Ian Hewitt, Lutz Hofmann, John Hogland, Ronald Hopkins, Eric Hortop, Keil Hubert, Phillip Ives, Jakub Jaraczewski, Ken Jelinek, David Jones, Anthony Jones,

Clare Jones, Jay Joyner, Matthew Kaiser, Alex Kanous, Joshua Kaufmann, Soren Keis-Thustrup, Robert Keller, Jonathan Kenning, David Keyser, Sascha Kriewel, Daniel Krongaard, Luca Lacchini, Michael Landis, Todd Landrum, Troy Larson, Jeffrey LaSala, DeWitt Latimer, Kevin Lawrence, Christian Linke, Colin Lloyd, Martin Long, Gamon Cole Long, Troy Luginbill, Ron Lundeen, Sean MacDonald, Michael Machado, Clay Mahaffey, Matthew Maranda, Emiliano Marchetti, Anthony Markesino, James May, Jeffrey McAmish, Gary McBride, Benjamin McFarland, BT McTeer, Joel Meador, Eric Mersmann, Jon Michaels, Frank Michienzi, Olivier Miralles, Paul Mollard, Sean Molley, Matthew Monteiro, Brian Mooney, Robert Moore, Chris Mortika, Paul Munson, Charles Myers, Paul Nasrat, Juan Natera, Robert Nichols, Tim Nickel, Andrew Nuxoll, Zachary O'Connor, Lance Ofenloch, Matthew Olivia, John Overath, Jeffrey Oyler, James Pacheco, Andrew Parker, Stephen Parlin, James Patterson, Marco Pennetta, Ernesto Petit Ventura, Mark Peyton, Otto Pfefferkorn, Patrick Plouffe, Nigel Pope, Charles Powell, Callum Prior, Stefan Radermacher, Jonathan Read, Wayne Reid, Andreas Reimer, Brian Rennekamp, Trent Revis, Kevin Reynolds, Joseph Rice, Grayson Richardson, Sebastian Rieger, Peter Rosenburgh, Aaron Sands, Stephan Saraidarian, Angelo Sargentini, Hyrum Savage, Rowdy Scarlett, Eddy Schmidt, Stefan Schulz, Steven Schutt, Kevin Selvidge, Benjamin Sennitt,

Craig Shackleton, Erfan Shahedi, Delwin Shand, John Sharp, Andrew Shiel, William Shuster, Sean SilvaMiramon, Bret Smith, Peter Smits, Jason Sonia, Jeffrey Spencer, Oliver von Spreckelsen, Trevor Stamper, Stephane Stassen, Craig Stauber, Jim Stenberg, Joshua Stevens, Erik Stiene, Brian Summers, Brian Suskind, John Tanzini, Laura Teddiman, Constantin Terton, Paul Thomas , Justin Thomason, Wayne Tripp, Keith Unger, Eltjo Veentjer, Giorgio Vergani, William Vernon Lovera, Vernon Vincent, Daniel Voyce, Mark Wadlington, Marc Wagner, Michael Waite, Matthew Walsh, Stephen Wark, Jani Waara, Brian Weibeler, Brenton Weirnik, Michael Welham, Steve Weston, Daniel White, Mark Wilkins, James Williams, Michael Wilson, Bogart Wolf, Randell Wolff, Sid Wood, Magnus Wood, Michael Wright, and James Zack.

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Foreword

I haven't ever told anyone this before, but: I am afraid of blood. I can't even give blood without freaking out. I put on my best game-face every time a health professional extracts it from my arm, trying hard not to pass out and crumple to the linoleum as I feel my vitae draining from my veins.

I guess that's why I write about it. I like to face my fears. When I was a kid, I was scared of the dark, so at night I would wait till the world went dead and then wander around my house in the pitch black. The attic, the basement, all those terrible places where shadow holds sway - I would stalk them until I was no longer afraid, until I was the Thing in the Dark.

I've been trying to do the same with blood lately. Spilling it wantonly just isn't an option in this so called "civilized" world we live in, so I write about it instead. When Wolfgang gave me this golden opportunity, I jumped at the chance to explore all the things that terrify me so.

What did I learn? I learned that the word "patrons" doesn't come close to describe you fine fine souls. You are creators. It has been a rare pleasure and honor to work with such brilliant minds. Thank you for letting me play in the Open Design pool with you all. I marvel at the depths of myth, gothic horror, human nature gone to seed, and darkness we have descended into together.

In Blood of the Gorgon we explore the classic Jekyll/ Hyde tale, a story of duplicity, human frailty and the temptations of power. We all have terrible thoughts, but what happens when something spurs us to act on them? When we embrace the foulest children of our id, how can we face ourselves in the morning? How do we justify unspeakable deeds and rationalize living on the suffering of others? These questions are intrinsic to our times, when we can click a mouse and order shoes made by child-labor, or give money to a company that destroys communities simply because their price for sweat socks is 10 cents cheaper. The theme of this

adventure can twist a few nights of fun dice-rolling into something more if the players and GM wish.

Within these pages lie action and adventure, villains and challenges, strange places and people your players will witness, oppose, and dirty themselves with. This is a horror adventure, but the scenes and creatures described within are less chilling than the inherent question hurled at our heroes: How are you any different? Infused with the gorgon's blood, every man, woman or child recognizes what they really harbor in their heart of hearts--a monster more terrifying than those without.

In every choice we make that monster rears its head. Every day. It all matters. Next time we are on the subway and a homeless man passes by asking for change, hopefully we think twice before we turn up our nose at him. Next time we see someone in need of help, hopefully we do the right thing, even though we "have better things to do." So here's to us wrestling that demon to the floor every night, and banishing it to whatever foul pit it crawled up out of.

Okay, that all seems way too soap-boxish for the foreword to an adventure. Ignore it. Instead, pick up your dice, grab a GM screen, invite your best friends over, order the pizza, crack open the Dew, and commence to have the most fun you can scaring and exciting your friends to a near-coronary-experience of adrenaline overload.

I can only hope Armand's exploits are not yet done. If I know gamers, and I think I do, the completion of this adventure's writing is only his first breath. A life of ill deeds awaits him. It is up to your fine and fearsome friends to nurture Armand's hateful existence for years to come. Don't forget to drop me a line sometime and tell me how our boy is doing.

Good gaming to you and yours!

Nicolas Logue

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