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Frostbitten Mutilated: Sample File

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Frostbitten Mutilated: Sample File

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Brauner
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
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Fr ostbitten

&M utilated
Zak Smith

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pl
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Fr ostbitten
&M utilated e
Writing and art by Zak Smith
Editing by Joshua Blackketter
Design by Luka Rejec
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LFP0047
Text and Art ©2018 Zak Smith
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Issued under exclusive license to:


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www.lotfp.com
ISBN Print: 978-952-7238-02-8
ISBN PDF: 978-952-7238-03-5
Printed in Finland by Otava Book Printing, Ltd.
First Printing: 5000 copies
Lamentations of the Flame Princess
is a registered trademark owned
by James Edward Raggi IV
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Dedication
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On page 27 of the first D&D book’s first
volume there appears an illustration of
two creatures—”Beautiful Witch” (left) and
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“Amazon” (right)—drawn by one Cookie
Corey. They are, true to that volume’s
subtitle (“Men & Magic”), not described
anywhere in the text. The image therefore
represents not only the first work done
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by a woman in RPGs and the first female


characters published in an RPG but also
the first hack of an RPG. So: this one is for
Cookie Corey.
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Zak Smith, 2017


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Note on the appropriation of traditional Nordic cultures
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This book woefully misrepresents Norse
culture. I mean—probably it does, it has
monsters I made up in it—I don’t know I’m
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Jewish. Anyway, enjoy.
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“Outside in the cold night the wind moaned and
died down, like an idiot in an icy black pit.”
-Richard Wright, Native Son
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Table of Contents
How to use this book . . . . . . . . . .
e . 9 Drowning Demons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Some advice for the referee . . . . . . . 10 Frost Giants of the Hatemountain . . 42
Recommended . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Goat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Map of the Devoured Land . . . . . . . . 12 Horses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
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Adventures in the Devoured Land . . . 13 King Ovv . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Getting there . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Misshaped Animals . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
The Necrobutcher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Inhabitants . . . . . . . . 15 Nidhoggr . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Amazons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 The Noctambulant . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
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The Frostbitten Moons . . . . . . . . . . 18 Owls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54


The Maggot Sisterhood . . . . . . . . . 22 Pearlholders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
The Thirteen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 The Plaguewielder . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
The Ulvenbrigad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Ratatoskr . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Animals in General . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Rats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
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Arctic Foxes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Serpents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62


Arsonists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Snakkur . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Avalanche . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Snow Leopards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Belphegor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Trolls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Bjära . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Werewolves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Boars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Witch Sisters Three . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Crows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Wolves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Dogs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Worms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
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Calendar and Map . . 79 How to Make a
Wilderness Sandbox . 121
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Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
The Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Locations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 Random Tables . . . . 123
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Adventure Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
The Dim Fortress . . . 91 Adventure Locations . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 Amazon Divination Games . . . . . . . 128
Locations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 Amazon Tribes, New . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Breaking Curses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Sevenfold Tower . . . 96
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Confrontations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 Deformations of the Misshaping Pool 133
I Search the Body . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Character classes, spells, If You Look Closely . . . . . . . . . . . 135
substances, and survival Injuries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
skills . . . . . . . . . . . 101
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Random Encounters . . . . . . . . . . . 138


Amazon Warriors . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 Rival NPC Parties . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Witches as Player Characters . . . . . . 106
Witch Spells of the Devoured Land . .112 Index . . . . . . . . . . . 141
New Substances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Survival Skills in the Devoured Land 119 Endpapers . . . . . . . 145
THE GODS FROZE SOUNDS— pered into one in each one
making words—and set the hundred thousand right ears,
creatures working, to cut saying “Twenty-one words
languages from the ice. A are poison, but I know not
troll was set to grinding and which. Take no sense from
was resentful, despising all the tongues of men. Go now
improvement. The grinding uncorrupted.”
troll worked, but poisoned

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twenty-one words in every When women were assem-
tongue—so they would work bled, one in one hundred
a mischief in the mouths of thousand were given these

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men and bring them to ruin. ears and this mark—that they
would be made weary by the
The She-Goat knew what the speech of men, and avoid it.
gods did not, and sought They dwell now alone in the
to thwart the grinding-troll. long cold crawling—heeding
She went to the Place of the no-one.
Ears of Women and whis-
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How to use this book
This book basically has three parts:
†† tools and toys to help you make
adventures featuring extremely metal
things like warrior women, frost
giants, and apocalyptic monsters

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†† a specific setting (The Devoured Land)
with specific places in it and maps and
specific people and monsters that want

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specific stuff that you can use if you want
†† a calendar of events that begins when
the party arrives in The Devoured Land
and which will move forward if the
party doesn’t do anything about them

some of these parts without anything bad


happening. However, I don’t recommend using
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…you should be able to use all-, most-, or
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none of them—I mean I don’t know your situa-
tion personally but probably if you do that your
game will suck and you’ll die weeping on a pile
of rags, universally despised.
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Some advice
for the Referee
Get the right music. Then, before you run of their face, their many ways, their words.
the game, create the quietest, darkest situation Give it some time there. Know that you are

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you can. human, that to despise is human and what is
Sit without moving, with your finger resting common to your kind is natural. It is of nature.
lightly on the music button—whichever it is: Knowing this hate, knowing this unity, know

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play, enter, the click, the rightward arrow. this too: this is how the landscape feels about
Think of an empty landscape—only the drag your players’ characters. This is it how it views
of a flatlining horizon separates white sky from their trespass, the formlessness of the way they
white earth. There is one thing: a lone thin slather themselves across itself. Their steps set
black tree, bare, reaching like a python. It is a the entire cold world to seething. It needs, and
distant but clear shape. e seeks, their downfall. By force and by calcula-
Imagine it. Imagine it and hear your own tion. By means known and as yet unknown. It
breath. In and then out again. Touch the will devise methods. This is nature: it will inno-
button. vate to extend the reach of its hate.
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There’s a second silhouette that emerges Turn the light back on, your players are com-
beneath and it is the silhouette of the worst per- ing—but look at your hand and make a claw,
son you know. Imagine, summon and indulge then from the claw make a fist. Hold what you
real emotion—a person for whom you feel (not have learned there in that fist. Keep it away—
believe you should feel—but feel) total enmity, these are, after all, your friends. It is important
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total opposition—and if you subscribe to a to have allies in this life and you owe them all
philosophy whereby these emotions are to be you can spare—you owe them all the warmth in
suppressed, put away that philosophy now. It is the world. Give them snacks—give them what-
given to you to know that for this foe there is no ever will please them most, tell them jokes. For-
hope of reform and no other life where punish- tify them against less merciful futures.
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ment will be administered. They stand, seeing But when you are at play and must play the
you as you see them. cold world described in this book and its mani-
In the sound and the dark, totally experience festations, you now know its heart. You hold it
your hatred of them, the heat of it, the hatred quietly in one hand, and may consult it.

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Recommended
Read these:
The Arthur Gilchrist Brodeur 1916 trans-
lation of the Gylfaginning in Snorri Sturlson’s

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Younger Edda is a good place to start—that’s
where you can read about how they made the
sky out of a rime-giant’s skull and whatnot. The

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rest of the Eddas are recommended by anyone
who writes an RPG book with viking stuff in it.
Fritz Leiber’s The Snow Women is the best
Fafhrd and Grey Mouser short story and one of
the best short stories period and one of the best
things period. So read it even if you don’t ever
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play a game again.
Walt Simonson’s Thor issues 337-367 and 380,
the all-full-page-art issue where Thor fights the
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Midgard Serpent.
Mallory Ortberg’s Early Signs of Pregnancy.

Maybe this:
I have very dim memories of being read Ste-
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ven Bauer’s novel Satyrday as a child and it


probably influenced my treatment of animals
here. I almost gave the moon stats.

Listen to this:
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For True Norwegian Black Metal,


Immortal is my favorite, and “All Shall
Fall” is the maximum dose. For the
Amazons themselves the soundtrack is Thorr’s
Hammer, Jex Thoth, Kylesa, and 13 (the
13 that did “Whore” “Hollow” and “Writhe”).
Svartsinn is good to have on in dungeons
and Wolves in the Throne Room is good
everywhere else.

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See pages 82–83.
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Adventures in the
Devoured Land
Sometimes the snow will not stop. Under its Gold
particled screen like layers of veil that would Something plunders those caravans that

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make of the world a bride to an unknown, vast never come back. Some say there are greedy
and unseen groom all civilization is wonder- frost giants with great hoards, but some say
ing from its hearths and stone corners: What this is a lie told by cowards to disguise having

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is to be done about the women? They spit and fled frightened from armed women.
rage, they drown the taxmen, they hack the
bellies of snakes and eat what they find, they Anarchy
abort babies and squeeze their milk into the The lawless Devoured Land is a place for a
bellies of troll-cats, they dwell apart among party to hide if they are fugitives and a place
the wide white peaks, raiding, scheming, e for them to scour if they are in pursuit of one.
speaking to animals, willful and without trade
or diplomatic discourse—the witch-women Wisdom
and amazons. They dominate and divide the It may be the oldest place in the world.
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Devoured Land. Who can see this ending well? Some claim the Darkthrone of Ovv, the first
Why might you travel to the Devoured king, lies somewhere deep in the mountains’
Land—a death-place where mountains, belly. Some say the worst three witches live in
ice-crowned, claw at the sky and nothing is the Devoured Land, and that they will incul-
ordinary? cate the end of all things. There is magic here
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not seen since night first divided from day.

Embryoctony
Midwives in every city whisper that the
Amazons know the secrets to safely unseat a
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child before it can escape a womb to inhale and


swallow a soul, and that the herbs of Mount
Hellebor make the procedure painless. Desper-
ate women of good families have been known
to disguise themselves and quietly hire bands of
armed escorts to take them north, while claim-
ing to be visiting aunts in warm climes.

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Getting there
You are not yet in the
Devoured Land, where there
are no men alive and the world
is ripped away from itself. You
will be soon. The unexplored

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wastes are large, do what you
like with them. Outside the map
you will be given, with 64 areas

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partially filled in for you, there
are only four things to remem-
ber: the sea—from which flows
the River Slith, the Hatemoun-
tain—where the frost giants live,
and two outposts of what men e
do, and women often do not, call
“civilization”. They are:

Nornrik
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This is a city, with a castle and lords
and everything. Sophisticated, brittle,
mannered. As large as you’re comfortable
making it. If you prefer a historical city, you Although this module is set in the same
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can use Trondheim, which was the Norwegian world as my book Vornheim: The Complete City
capital during the Viking era and is eminently Kit, it can as easily be set in a semi-historical
Googleable. Norway. Just remember Norway has no East
coast, so its equivalent of Rottingkroner would
Rottingkroner be somewhere to the west of the Devoured
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The closest harbor to the Devoured Land, Land map provided.


also known as Rotting Crowns—named We’re going to the Devoured Land now,
for the enfolding shape of the abraded rock which will first be described by describing who
formations comprising the surrounding fjord. lives there in alphabetical order. This is sur-
Merchants and seaman come to be tattooed, prisingly convenient: It starts with Amazons,
regaled with rumor, murdered, and inveigled Animals, and Avalanches, and finishes with
into any other grotty seaport cliché your cam- Witches and Wolves and Worms.
paign requires.

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Inhabitants
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The Devoured Land is distant, unfathomed. explicit. The shadow falls across the rock, and the
They say the cleft peaks are the uneaten half left rock despises that. The oldest witch is here, the
torn when the first Cannibal God bit the world. proudest stag, the most vicious wolf, the fattest
Things there are as things were in the day before hog and most lustful goat, the most avid crow, the
all days, when all that is now knew a common most resentful of rats, and worms so lazy they have
tongue and a young, smoother moon hung pearl- been here since “here” began.
like in a black bed gestating the unborn stars. There are trees that grew in first rain, and horses
The ice is clearer, the wind sharper, every sound that have never known a rider, stones cut by the
echoes, and all time unravels with a clear and open hand of the first women and recut by thousands
order. The ancient tolerance with which each con- after, parasites grown from the guts of the first
temporary thing regards and gnaws at the thing men, there are fortresses buried since the first bat-
adjacent in our sensical and passive-aggressive tle. It’s said time started and will end in this place.
world is here undone, and all struggle is known,

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16 Inhabitants
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A M A Z O N S
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Who says this? The Amazons. But then: they will These are the daughters of the she-goat and they
say anything. To you, anyway. I know because have chosen another path.
you can read this and I wrote it and I wrote it in Their diet is meat mixed with things found
a language of cities and so if you can read it you while looking for meat, every craft they possess
are not one of them. So they will lie to you. Or tell is taught after having learned the lessons of axes,
you the truth. Whichever is more likely to frighten bonebreaking, and the taking of blood. Amazons
you away. If their knives, their war animals, their that are neither hunters nor reavers nor witches
bacchanals, their cultured exotoxins, their enmity, are called children—they have stats as ordinary
cuisine, enigmatic gods, complex obstetrics, and humans and will bite for d4 damage.
internecine warfare have not frightened you first. These are a few of their tribes.

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