Kaleidoscope Blue Preview

Hiya!

I've been cooking up a little something for Liminal Horror, and I'm starting to finish writing some parts. I thought I'd drop a little preview :3

The project's title is Kaleidoscope Blue. There are three missing people in the town of Monarch, Kentucky. A small town built up around a liberal arts college and a nature preserve, a mysterious new drug, and loads of anxiety. I'm stealing a lot from The Fisherman and X-Files for this one. I also ran it, like a year ago, and the players seemed to really like it.

Anyway, here's some stuff from the doc!

Introduction

A swarm of butterflies is called a kaleidoscope. Isn’t that fun?

It's the witching hour. Three AM in the morning, and she leans over her balcony smoking a cigarette. Her tired eyes flick around the quiet nightscape outside her apartment illuminated by the light of a waning moon. Verdant summer leaves glisten with dew, and her cigarette drops four stories to the bushes below.

Nine PM on a Thursday. Club music pushes through the walls of a frat house, colorful lights glancing off the cool surface of a pool. The music becomes clear for a second, then the slam of a door muffles it again. Two young men scramble away from an embrace.

Lunchtime at Monarch Elementary. Boys sit at the edge of the woods, children gleefully screaming in the distance. The taste of peanut butter. Cruel laughter. Tight throat.

Handler has contacted you with a new request and activated your cell. There have been disappearances in the town of Monarch, and talk has been that they have not been under normal circumstances. Monarch is a small town, with the small liberal arts Ashland College as its main industry ever since the mines closed. Your Handler has given you $500 and two fake FBI badges. They will fool local cops, but they will not work on Feds. Find the missing people, contain any anomalous activity, and maintain the Veil. You set out for Monarch first thing on a early autumn Saturday morning from your office park in the suburbs of Columbus, OH.
The following excerpt was intercepted after being submitted to the scientific journal Nature. 

The Northern Blue Morpho, Psychonotus kaleida

Lana M. Rhopa, Ph.D

Abstract:

The Psychonotus kaleida, commonly referred to as the Northern Blue Morpho, is a novel species of Lycaenidae. In its summer range, it is native to Northern Kentucky, between Cincinnati and Lexington, and has a single cave where all known members of the species gather to mate on a 27 year cycle, located in Monarch, KY. Its winter range is currently unknown. P.kaleida does not feed on plants, as is common for others of the Lycaenidae family, but has developed a rather unique metabolic system. Larvae feed on the neurotransmitter and hormone epinephrine, common name adrenaline. Larva are the size of a loaf of bread, and are covered in spiky black hairs. P.kaleida larvae spin silk from their mouth to bind prey inebriated by the wing scales of their mature counterparts. Larvae feed by ejecting their intestines from their anus (similar to Pisaster ochraceus or Eupentacta quinquesemita) and engulfing the face of the prey, penetrating nasal cavities, mouth, and any other openings. Intestines burrow to the brain, injecting unknown compound to induce anxiety-like symptoms. Mature P.kaleida have wing scales different from any known species of Lycaenidae, seemingly evolutionarily unique. Scales have a spiral  pattern and are arranged in the shape of a  skull on the wings, and prove to be potent hallucinogens when ingested.
Prey: People with high anxiety, high adrenaline, allergies

• Effects:

• Transported to a swirling blue cave beneath the earth (walls are actually just butterflies moving their wings in a hypnotic pattern).

• Kaleidoscope Scales induce LSD-like effects, with a focus on recreating anxiety inducing memories.

• Bites induce fever and anxiety, like taking an stimulant.

• Caterpillars covered in long black setae. They coat arms and legs in silk, eject stomachs out that pulse over the faces of victims, and eat the epinephrine from subjects. Victims regularly die of adrenaline induced heart failure.

Morpho Scales

Stress

The psychedelic and anxiety inducing Morpho Scales are left behind anyplace the butterflies have appeared. They settle to any flat surface, and movement causes them to puff up in glittery clouds. When inhaled, they cause characters to flash back to an anxiety inducing moment in their life, reliving their worst moments. Rapid heart beat, chest pain, shortness of breath, feelings of impending doom.
Even if a character does not suffer from anxiety, they still receive the symptoms of acute anxiety disorder. Any character that experiences this takes 1 Stress for their first encounter, increasing 1 dice size (1d4, 1d6, 1d8, and so forth) each subsequent encounter. They also experience a Flash, and if they take Critical Stress they may roll on the Fallout Table. Characters already prone to anxiety start out rolling 1d4. Characters wearing breathing protection (gas masks, KN95s, respirators, etc.) may make a CTRL save to halve the Stress.  

Flashes

Flashes are what Morpho Scales are all about. They allow you to relive the absolute worst moments of your life. You may wonder why anyone would put themselves through this, and thats a good question. There’s lots of answers to it. The real one is that Morpho Scales are highly addictive, so you’re immediately hooked the first time you try them. But there are lots of ways to lie to yourself. You could say that you’ll have it under control, next time it’ll be a better trip. Maybe you deserve it, it’s your punishment that will help you become a better person. It could just be a good way to hide from what’s happening in front of you.

When you Flash, you are transported within your memories to the moment that drove your adrenaline through the roof. This is great for feeding Morpho caterpillars. You jump through the memory, your body taking all the stress you experienced in that moment and going through it another time, which may be even worse for you than the first. It is exceptionally hard to pull away, as it is a full body sense memory. 

Flash Scenarios

You can work with players to come up with sources of anxiety that their character has, but I think its fun to come up scenarios to throw their characters into. The Background table from Liminal Horror is a great place to start. Pick a profession, and think of a time where a character would be too scared to act, and how it effects their body.

Here’s some examples:

• A journalist, hands shaking as they hold a recorder, unable to ask a pointed question to a far right extremist with a gun.

• A store clerk, knees weak, their manager screaming at a mother trying to steal a bag of rice, they can’t stop him.

• A gig-worker, slamming the gas, not pulling over to stop the cruelty enacted by teens on a homeless man.

Now work your way back, to the situations that drove them into these situations, and the anxiety that perched there as well:

• The journalist, sitting in their office in the dark, chest heaving. The stench of death threats in letters from ex-police-chiefs moldering in their desk. Their last article an abject failure.

• The store clerk, after their children have gone to bed. In a rabid silence, tearing the seats off the couch, looking for lint-coated quarters that fell behind, trying to keep the lights on.

• The gig-worker, kicked out of home by their father at 18. The car is on its last leg, the apartment flooded last week, mom still needs money for her meds.

Fallout

When a character takes Critical Stress, they can roll or choose an entry from the Kaleidoscope Blue Fallout Table. They may only have one, and it takes up an Inventory Slot. 

Effect	Description
1 The Mausoleum	In times of extreme stress, the character may take a one-way trip to the Mausoleum. High up in the hill that borders the Reservoir, in a clearing of the great red forest. A white marble mausoleum of vast proportion, steps of blocks made for beings ten times the size of man, plain columns that would take for than 20 armspans to encircle, It is cold with death, tombs arrayed in a crescent, fitting the proportions of our massive precursors. Each has a carving of a face looming above it in marble; smooth and bulbous, but undeniably human.
2 Morpho Wings	Butterfly wings sprout from back. Can fly short distances, leaving a trail of Morpho Scales.
3 Id Babbler	The stale salt water of the Reservoir can always be tasted, and you have an intense connection with your double that floats in the Id. If you can get someone to taste the brine, they will spout the obscenities of their double for 1d6 minutes.
4 Shepherd	You dream always of the Giant Red Cattle of Geryon, grazing peacefully on the Sunset Isles. Your max STR increases by 1d6 (max 18) and you may gain the traits of a bull (increased size, speed, etc.). Recharge this ability by gorging yourself on a meal of raw beef and milk.
5 Hookbound	Your death has been foretold. You will be bait on the hook used to finally reel in the Leviathan. The first time any of your stats reach 0, ignore it and clear this Fallout from your inventory.
6 Storyteller	You can capture the attention of those around you, hypnotizing them and altering their sense of time, either speeding it up or slowing it down, for as long as you can keep your tongue wagging.
7 Leviathan Borne	The cold blood of the Leviathan pulses through you. Your max WIL increases by 1d6 (max 18). Once a day, while making eye contact with someone, you may banish them to the Reservoir.
8 Brine-Touched	Your skin itches as scales sprout from your skin. It gets harder to breath, as lungs begin to form from gashes in your neck. You feel the draw of the cold and murky depths of the sea.
9 Closet walker	Can teleport after spending short periods focusing in a dark enclosed space. Range of a small town.
10 Star-addled	There’s something… off about how the stars are arranged in our night sky. Moon and sun should not exist. You will never know sleep until you return to the Reservoir and glimpse the true placement of the stars above.
11 Silk spinner	A new gland has grown, appearing as a second adam’s apple beneath your own. You feel the silk working its way up your throat, always. It is strong as steel wire, and sticks to everything, except your saliva.
12 Trust fall	You have lost your sense of height, and anytime you fall you are caught safely in the grip of a giant and invisible hand, no matter the height.
13 Ear worm	Your tongue has grown long and silver. Slip it into someone’s ear and they will follow your whispered instructions for the next 12 hours. This only works once, as they quickly become inoculated.
14 Speaker for the dead	When you are in possession of a corpse’s jawbone, you know the right words to whisper to make it speak again. The dead will spout forth their vile unconscious thoughts, but there are often things to be gleaned from them.
15 Symbology Savant	Language comes to you in your dreams. When you awaken every morning, you may gain mastery of a new language, human or otherwise. You must be careful, however, as the more you think in other languages the more likely you are to lose your native tongue forever.
16 Pulled Taught	Your tendons twist until they have the tensile strength of steel. Max STR increases by 1d8 (max 18). If you ever reach 0 STR, your body snaps and releases a small explosion, obliterating everything within a Blast radius, including yourself.
17 Voice of the Storm	Your breath is wind. Scream to knock people off their feet. Jump and blow, and lift yourself off the ground.
18 Hand of the Crimson King	Bone and flesh bends to your will. Find a subject and enough material, and mold their body like clay.
19 Servant of Carcosa	You have a bone deep understanding of the alchemical recipe to craft a familiar. Start by mixing 1:1 clay and meat and leave it out under a new moon. Within 10 minutes of sunrise, mix in every (and I mean every) type of fluid that can come out of a human and form to desired shape. Wrap in a piece of old clothing and let ferment for a fortnight. A creature of mild intelligence will emerge, and serve your every command.
20 Demise of the Progenitor	Speak the Word. You may erase someone or something completely from existence. All memories of it/them fade, even from you.