“And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.”
- Agrippa, Bible, Revelation 9:11

A fiend, and at one point lost in time also a celestial, fallen from grace, or orchestrated to fall from grace, will always remain a mystery. He is known by more then a handful of names–The Destroyer, The King of the Locusts, The Angel-Prince of the Bottomless Pits–and the fiend that spread Hell across the globe by forcing open the Hellmouth and releasing his army of locusts onto the land. Abadoon is a creature of a naturally massive size that can grow to gigantic proportions at will with a wing spread that some say covers the sky when he flies over head.A globe of flame flares to activity over his bestial head, between his gigantic horns. It radiates more heat and gets larger the angrier Abaddon gets.

Abaddon’s presence on the world has died down since the Hellfire Wars between the fiends and the dragons ended. That is not to say he doesn’t roam the land, survivors have felt the cold shadow of his tremendous wings pass over them during a clear star filled night. Some say he is slumbering in the depths of the ocean.

His locusts still remain active for him and report constantly as to the goings on in the world so he is by no means unaware of the major players and the major events transpiring while he sleeps. Abaddon can not be stopped once he starts roaming the land; he moves with a purpose only he is aware of, and when done what he sets out to do, he returns to the sea to slumber again. The chaos is most of the time very destructive but short lived, and that’s the best all civilization can hope for.

Locusts

The minions on Abaddon, faithful to death, only to be reborn from the Hellmouth to serve again, they are clearly fearless and unmerciful. They look like large muscular horses with human faces, large leathery wings and a scorpion tail with a sting that can put the strongest of men is mortal pain for months. They are normally never encountered alone but in packs of six or more at a time. When they fly across the land, the sounds of a thousand cavelry men fills the air sending chills into every living soul.

Some places and items are so evil that exposure to them marks, or taints, a character in a very real and difficult-to-cleanse way. Taint is evil. It is a corruption so deep it warps the very plane of reality. A weapon used to slaughter thousands of innocents, a forest grown on land soaked in the blood of an evil entity, a book bound in the flesh of an archfiend for his own horrible purposes, and the presence of an evil entity are all sources of taint.

Characters without taint may act altruistically or selfishly, kindly or cruelly, generously or miserly, as their personalities dictate. Taint makes evil a physical threat to the well-being of characters. It can have a lasting impact on characters, even killing those who remain exposed too long. While characters with a minor amount of taint aren’t necessarily evil, they probably are. The more taint they acquire, the more evil they become. The GM should monitor taint carefully and provide a warning when a character disregards its effect.

Becoming Tainted

Initial exposure to a tainted place, tainted object or tainted enemy forces the character to have strong will power to resist the taint. For every 24 hours spent in a tainted place, or spent carrying a tainted object, a character will go through tests of will to fight off the exposure. This becomes more difficult every day they resist it successfully. Multiple simultaneous exposures (such as carrying a tainted weapon in a tainted place) also increase the efforts required to fight the taint off. If the character fails to resist the taint, they become changed by the taint; first it’s minor but becomes more serious after each day’s mental battle.

Effects Of Taint

Taint Effects: Mild

• Occasional nausea or vomiting
• Pain in joints
• Hair goes white
• Mild paranoia
• Disorientation
• Increased aggressiveness
• Mild hallucinations
• Phlegmy, wracking cough
• Eyelid swells, obscuring vision
• Pale, grayish, dead complexion
• Sunken eyes, cracked lips
• Skin seeps greasy, yellowish “sweat”
• Skin thickens, cracks, and turns leathery

Taint Effects: Moderate

• Bones begin to warp and thicken
• Black, lichenlike growth across skin itches incessantly
• Reddened, burnlike sores and scars
• Eye clouds or blood vessels break, obscuring vision
• Lips shrink back from gums
• Gums swell, bleed, and rot
• Bleeding from eyes, nose, mouth, ears, or lips
• Hair falls out
• Uncontrollable seizures that wrack the body with spasms
• Eruption of painful sores
• Sores ooze blood, pus, foul-smelling ooze, spiders or insects, thick pasty substance, maggots, or acidic green slime
• Hears voices of evil spirits
• Severe paranoia
• Fits of uncontrollable, disturbing laughter
• Disregard for hygiene and cultural mores

Taint Effects: Severe

• Flesh of nose rots away, leaving skull-like openings
• Mutated, deformed fingers, toes, leg, arm, head, ear, eye, or teeth begin to grow on inappropriate parts of the body, then shrivel, rot, and eventually fall off
• Spine twists, back hunches
• Severe warping of skeleton; skull enlarges and deforms
• Great swollen growths on the body
• Lungs eaten away from inside—wet, labored, and painful breathing
• Eye falls out, leaving gaping socket that glows with eerie green light
• Skin peels off in papery sloughs at the slightest touch, leaving raw, red flesh beneath
• Fingers or toes begin to web and fuse
• Irresistible murderous urges
• Reduced to primitive behavior
• Eats inedible or still-living things

Effects of Taint

The most common effect of taint is the imposition of drawbacks. These drawbacks may include things normally considered complications, like personality quirks, unusual appearance, addictions, and so forth., beyond the feature alteration suggested above.

Ability Loss

A particular drawback of taint may be loss of strength, agility, intellegence or common sense. This could become so extreme as to debilitate the character. This effect is best for taint representing a kind of disease or other slow erosion of the character’s physical or mental health.

Embracing Taint

After lossing about ten fights against the taint (assuming he is still alive), they may seek out forces of great evil and pledge himself to their cause. Often evil cults, temples of evil deities, and the militaries of evil warlords eagerly accept such pledges, giving the character access to new sources of power.

Cleansing Taint

It is possible to remove taint from characters in several ways, including through the use of special powers, the performance of good deeds, and cleansing in a sacred zone. Taint cannot be removed unless the tainted character wants to be cleansed.

Powers

Beings or prodigies that can heal or remove disease can reduce taint scores when cast outside tainted areas. No character can have their taint score reduced by any particular power more than once per day (though different powers can reduce taint if cast on the same character in the same day).

Good Deeds

Simple good deeds are not enough to remove taint. A character wishing to reduce his taint score through good deeds must undertake a particular ritual determined by a spiritual leader. The ritual prepares the character to undertake the deed.

For example, church followers may choose to put on garments sacred to their faith (and which identify their faith to anyone who sees them) and patrol a particular part of their home as part of the militia or city guard. Adventuring is never part of a good deed, and a character who undertakes an adventure prior to completing his good deed must begin again with the ritual.

Deeds must be repeated every day for a week. Upon completion, the character’s taint is reduced by one effect (one failed day’s battle resisting the taint). The character may continue the deed for another week to continue losing taint, or may return to the temple to undertake the ritual again and begin a different deed.

Alternatively, deeds may be quests undertaken on behalf of the celestial realm. After the quest ends, the character’s taint score is reduced by 1 point per week required to complete the quest.

Sacred Zones

Zones sacred to a particular celestial source are located in remote regions, requiring long and dangerous travel to reach. For each day a character spends resting and cleansing himself at a sacred zone, his taint score is reduced more quickly (one taint effect a day instead of per week). A character using this method to reduce their taint score can undertake no activities other than resting, eating, sleeping, and normal conversation. The major city of Sanctuary is considered the largest and most publicly recognized sacred zone.

Enemies with Taint Threat

Exceptionally evil monsters, and fiends may have a “Taint Threat” based on its evil power and strength of will. When encounters with villains with a Taint Threat occur, characters feel the taint try to take hold of them and have to fight it using their force of will.

Creatures with Taint Threat can equally become tainted by good. Sacred places and sacred objects (weapons and items) can exist that taint evil characters with the essence of good. Taint of this type is usually located in Sacred Zones and harms evil creatures by causing them possible pain while in the Sacred Zone’s sacred aura. The pain caused is based on the power of the being that sanctified the object or area. Some cities, like Sanctuary are a bane to most evil creatures and almost all fiends.

Prodigy Possibilities

Some individuals may be marked by the celestial realm and are better protected from the effects of taint. They receive mental help when resisting the effects of the taint. This can range from a mild calming effect to a mental fortification against any and all taint effects.

There are prodigies in the world who have become “taint sensitives” meaning that they can detect an area, person or object that is affected by the taint.Normally the prodigy needs to be in an area of taint or within very close ranges. More powerful prodigies can detect it within visual sight or get a sense of it within feet or even miles from the source.

New Equipment

Holy Stone: A holy stone is an object blessed by spiritual leaders with the essence of the celestial realms. This object absorbs the effects of taint attack until it eventually becomes drained and must be blessed once again or spends 24 hours in a Sacred Zone.

Divine Rod: This rod glows red when it detects taint in a 100-foot radius.

Celestial Ring: Wearing one of these rings protects the wearer from taint effectively making them immune to its effects. Taint is still acquired but taint-based drawbacks are ignored. If the ring is ever removed, the wearer is immediately affected by taint-based drawbacks equal to their number of successful taint attacks.

[Most of this article is based on OGL content. Anything originally found as part of the original OGL source is open. Anything else (places, people, names and events, etc) are closed content. [OGL License]]

There is a strange individual who people have come to refer to as “The Horde”. No one knows this individual’s real name or history. Many armies across the land, and particularly near or around Odlund, have had to cut down a mass of barely armored barbaric humans during a surprise night attack or as the first offensive wave of a field battle. After being killed, observers witness the body crumbling to ash.

The reality behind this encounter is that there is a man–somewhere–that can multiply himself to the point of generating his own small army. The problem is that the more duplicates he generates, the less intelligent the whole lot of them become. Once one of The Horde dies, the body crumbles to dust and knowledge gained by the individual is returned to the remaining copies until there is once again only one copy of The Horde left.

This gives The Horde an almost immortal quality but it is assumed that if one can destroy every duplicate, The Horde will be no more. No one really knows if his intentions are good or bad as it seems that he has, on more than one case, been seen battling copies of himself against opposing factions during battle.

The Horde is recognized by shadier members of society as a fountain of knowledge about the goings-on of most parts of the world. The Horde is normally in his most effective state of mind with the most effective memory retention capabilities when no more than about two dozen copies exist in the world. There is a point during mass duplications that some knowledge might be forever lost due to his reduced mental awareness and memory retention capabilities of all his copies. Mass armies like this are done only rarely and only for the right amount of money; and even then with a controlled strategy for the survival of at least one copy laid out before hand.

There is a covert organization called the Mind Hunters who offer their services to the highest bidder. The Mind Hunters are special individuals who have trained their minds and will to extraordinary levels. Agents of the organization have manifested special abilities and most of them can communicate telepathically and read the minds of people.

They originated in Perusia but have trained others from all over the lands with their trades. Many novices don’t make it through the arduous training that prepares the mind for evolution.

The metropolis of Cog Town has a special kind of defense force that protect the city’s perimeter. They are called Clockwork Knights; battle armor optimized for halflings that gives them extra strength, protection and powerful weaponry. Halflings trained to become part of the Clockwork Knights are usually new generation halflings, young and enthusiastic to carve a place out in the new world for their people.

Some older Clockwork Knight armor is actually sold to highest bidders in Cog Town once a newer model is built that’ll be more effective in perimeter defense. This “retired armor” usually gets donned by other small races or enthusiastic halflings wishing to seek adventure or provide independent services outside of the militant order’s jurisdiction. These Clockwork Knights are painted black opposed to the raw brass, iron and wood components of their original state.

There is a group of knights centered in Sanctuary who exist to serve Lady Celine. Many of these knights are the original warriors who fought along side Celine during the civilian march out of Terra Nova. The ranks are always filled when a knight passes away or dies in combat. The actual total of knights isn’t 1000; it sits between 800 and 1100.

Many act as defenders of the region around the City of Sanctuary but also set up Militant Outposts along trade routes or political borders; these knights are normally lead by Knights of the Trumpet. Some even go as far as Macedon and Cog Town, either through political agreements or voluntary action; these are normally led by Knights of the Spear. Celine still has a certain power over the ranks but lets each knight make the choices they need to make in order to protect the innocent.

The main notion that remains constant and consistent amongst the Thousand Knights’ ranks is the ability to maintain communications and co-ordinate offensive and defensive action when necessary; the top most rank of knights who help organize the different sects and lead massive operations are the Knights of the Chalice.

The Yokozan Empire has a faction of elite soldiers dedicated to preserving the law. These soldiers are created with high science and necromancy. Soldiers injured (but not killed) in combat are given medical attention and stabilized. Once stable they go through a bureaucratic process to see if they are eligible for the Biodroid Program.

Many passionate soldiers look forward to being upgraded in this manner. Some go through it because they feel it’s part of their life duty—no matter how long their life lasts. A few still, have no choice—it just is what it is.

Some biodroids “reject” and flee the Yokozan Empire looking for a new purpose to life. Some go insane through this process, the machine taking the dominant role, the humanity slipping away.

In the early years after Cog Town was estalished as a major city and the Hellfire Wars were over, fiends and dragons went silent—and in a time when peace was given the chance to prosper, the taint of evil managed to retain a lingering hold on the darker fringes of society.

Street gangs, secret societies and city leaders carved out sections of Cog Town for themselves, ironically helping the city grow faster by increasing its “underworld” framework. During a turf war, the Worthington family was caught in the middle of the struggle and all died but one young teenage boy by the name of Cole.

That teenage boy became obsessed with death—how it happened, what came afterwards, where spirits went for peace, and other such topics. He trained his body and mind in a hidden cave up a cliff side that over looked Cog Town. Every day he thought of those who had died, those who were still dying, and those who had Death on their heels. He would watch them for years until the day when his mind opened up to the spirit world and all of its secrets.

The next night came and he entered into a section of Cog Town now called Black Feathers by the locals. This was the place where the Moore family was killed—and the gang that killed them resided. First he would let Death guide his hand in dealing death upon those who offended life. Cole would leave a raven’s feather at each scene of death to let the locals know that the judgment was done fairly and by the hand of their protector. Second he would claim Black Feathers as his section of town, under his protection, under his laws.

Enemies now fear the one people call Raven Nevermore. Civilians believe it is the revenant of the dead Cole come to rid the city of evil; they feel safer under his piercing eyes and silent protective resilience; their protector of the dead and spirit guide to the afterlife.

When the Hellmouth erupted a mysterious unidentified object broke through Erath’s atmosphere and crash landed in a wheat-filled, catastrophe-riden, countryside of The Dustlands. The object turned out to be an alien shuttle, and in it was an infant boy.

A couple, Marian and Herold Joseph, who just lost their two young children in an earthquake the previous day witnessed the “falling star”. The couple took that as a sign from the heavens to seek it out. Once they arrived at the location of the alien crash site they knelt and prayed to the roaring sounds of the hellish cataclysm across the country side. When the shuttle opened up like a metalic flower, the sound of a crying infant was the only sound that the couple could hear; the cataclysm nothing more than a room full of whispers.

They took up the young boy as their own and named him Adam Joseph. As he grew up, he got stronger and stronger, tougher and tougher, faster and faster. His adoptive parents hid his abilities from the countryfolk, but when the fiends of the Abyss started scattering across the land, Adam Joseph wanted to help. Being totally indestructible, he joined the Dustland Resistance with a mask to hide his identity. It was during this time that his fellow soldiers gave him the nickname: Godman.

Godman is dedicated to protecting the freedom of the Dustland people and sees them as his own kin that he is destined to protect.

In the slums of Cog Town there has been an increase of murders and disappearances. Some of the best halfling detectives have investigated the case and in some cases even closed the books on finding the murderer. A month or so later a new victim would appear and the investigations would begin anew.

No matter how many murderers get captured or killed, there seems to always be another to take their place. the only consistency is that their victims are always female and always “non-pure”. In the cases where bodies where actually discovered, they’ve always been sliced open from the clavicle to the lower abdomen with their hearts missing.

The main adversary of these atrocities–unknown to Cog Town’s population–is a fiend simply called “Jack” by his followers; a cult of dedicated power mongers who vow to bring Jack the body or heart of a “tainted maiden” once a week. This sacrifice allows Jack to empower his followers with special abilities and maintain his secret headquarters in the deep Gutter Zone tunnels of Cog Town.