Messiah of Evil 1973 As Halloween Adventure Location For The Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea Rpg

What do we know … of the world and the universe about us? Our means of receiving impressions are absurdly few, and our notions of surrounding objects infinitely narrow. We see things only as we are constructed to see them, and can gain no idea of their absolute nature. With five feeble senses we pretend to comprehend the boundlessly complex cosmos, yet other beings with wider, stronger, or different range of senses might not only see very differently the things we see, but might see and study whole worlds of matter, energy, and life which lie close at hand yet can never be detected with the senses we have.

"From Beyond" Written November 16, 1920, published June 1934 in The Fantasy Fan, 1

Out among the ashes of the Boreas winds are worlds left by the gods as playthings. Things as a child might leave as they are done playing with them.   The World of the Dark Stranger is one of these. Some madmen and mages believe the place belongs to Aster or one of the other Old Ones. Many scholars and parties of adventurers come for the Old Earth artifacts, artworks, and treasures simply lying in around to be taken. 

 They are wrong for the world belongs to the demon lord of the Undead Orcus and his avatar the 'Dark Stranger'.  The Dark Stranger is part of the universe of Dune point which has folded itself away from normal time and space.  The place is caught within a time loop and each night  the Old Earth town of Dune Point is part of the so called Waiting. A time when a blood red full moon rises in the night sky. 
The true nature of the residents of Dune Point is revealed. All thirty thousand residents show themselves as true Ghoul blooded monsters. 

Each night at the town strange things happen, shadows crawl about on the skylights, and the town crawls with monsters. Each has a  body temperature is 85 degrees. Each is dead, but thinking and moving about, and suggests a connection to the legends of  vampires as fully sentient and aware of what they do. there are some who  feel remorse and  actively fight  the 'condition'. Meanwhile, each night, creatures gather on the beach in front of bonfires, staring straight up at the moon. The locals call it 'The Waiting'. These 'vampires' will eat anything: dead vampires, dead people, live people, live animals, etc.

 Each day 'order' returns to Point Dune.

With the rising of the Blood Moon things quickly get completely crazy , every resident turns into a monster, and the titular Messiah of Evil - the dark stranger, a former minister, and a Donner Party survivor from the late 19th century turned vampire/cannibal, returns. He says he has come to lead his people up the coast and inland, to spread his 'religion'. Those still living get bitten on the neck only to spread the religion of evil and horror. 

Standard saving throws  from AS&SH must passed or the repercussions are dire. 

Those bitten gain +2 on strength and dexterity but -4 to intelligence as well as wisdom when the Blood Moon rises. They are truly of the undead forever caught between life and as a play thing of the Dark Stranger.  He will instantly know all they know and have access to their emotions, emotions, and become toys to the terrifying hungers of the Dark Stranger.
They will not age but they must feed every 1d4 days on human flesh for nothing else will slate this abnormal hunger.

Reaching Dune Point

une Point is another world caught within the grasp of the Boreas Winds beyond Hyperborea. 
The world appears at the whims of the Dark Stranger and Orcus himself. Those wishing access must make the journey aware that they may or may not be aware of those who trespass upon one of their sacred worlds. Simply vibrational attunement  or the correct magical artifact may in fact allow those to make the crossing to this parallell world. 
Many of the treasures found upon this world may be infected with the curse of the Dark Stranger and those who pilfer such things must have them vitally cleansed. 
Many necomancers make the pilgrimage to this world to learn the secrets of the Dark Stranger but few return to use their knowledge. Many simply become ghoul blooded themselves never to return. 

Plot and Commentary of Dark Messiah


Messiah of Evil is one of those trippy weird nineteen seventies films that has drifted into the public domain but it seldom used. Not unlike Carnival of Souls this film has undead, many Lovecratian elements and  a strange dreamlike atmosphere. I've used this one for a number of OSR games in the past and wanted to see if I could get away with it for AS&SH.
Its a weird one shot that might actually work with the right group of players. This was an interesting Halloween thought experiment. There is lots to mine here but this was originally an 'R' rated film.

The full plot according to wiki :

A young woman named Arletty (Marianna Hill) drives to the beach town of Point Dune, California, to visit her estranged father, an artist. She finds his house, abandoned. He left a diary in which he addresses her specifically. In it he complains about darkness consuming the town, and horrible nightmares he is having, and implores Arletty to never, ever look for him. His letter tells her to talk to the owner of the art gallery, who sells his paintings. The gallery owner says he has none of her father's paintings, does not sell them, no one ever comes in looking to buy his works, and says he doesn't know where he went. He says Point Dune is 'an artist colony', and he only vaguely remembers her father (his paintings are eerie pop art portraits of groups of people in black, white, and gray, standing; the men are always dressed in black suits, white shirts, and black ties, like dead men at a funeral). It is never clear if these are townspeople, or figures from his visions, or both.

By chance, Arletty meets a Portuguese-American aristocrat Thom (Michael Greer) and his two extremely provocative, groupie-like female companions, Toni (Joy Bang) and Laura (Anitra Ford). They are drinking, smoking, and walking around in states of undress, except for the man. He always wears an ivory three piece suit, 24 hours a day. He is fascinated by the town, and the legend that a blood moon rises above it periodically, and darkness then consumes the town. Back at his motel, he is interviewing Charlie (Elisha Cook, Jr.) a village idiot/'wino'-type character. He tape records his bizarre rants. Charlie speaks at length about 'the blood moon' and 'the dark stranger' and how he has lived through both. He says very soon it will be the 100 year anniversary of the first appearance of the 'dark stranger', he will return, the moon will turn red, and the town will be overrun with evil. He says the stranger's followers do not kill him as they think he is a harmless hobo—they let him sleep on the sidewalk undisturbed every night. Charlie warns Arletty about her father, he says he is 'one of them' now, and must be killed, but with fire, as only fire will do the job. Moments later he is murdered off screen. Thom tells Arletty he also went to the gallery, and saw one of her father's paintings in the window.

The man and his women are kicked out of the motel, supposedly because the police questioned them about the wino, and it bothered the management (all the police in town are 'normal' and clueless about the vampires massing at night). They all move in together, at Arletty's father's house. Each night at the house, strange things happen, shadows crawl about on the skylights, and Arletty reads more of the diary. In it, her father reveals his body temperature is 85 degrees. This proves he is dead, but thinking and moving about, and suggests the local vampires are fully sentient and aware of what they do, and only Arletty's father feels remorse and is actively fighting his 'condition'. Meanwhile, each night, creatures gather on the beach in front of bonfires, staring straight up at the moon. The locals call it 'The Waiting'. These 'vampires' will eat anything: dead vampires, dead people, live people, live animals, etc. Each day 'order' returns to Point Dune.

These vampires are especially interested in eating Arletty, Thom, Toni, and Laura. First to die is Laura, devoured inside a Ralphssupermarket, in one of the film's two semi-famous scenes. Next to die is Toni, in the other semi-famous scene, she is literally devoured in a movie theater filled with blood red seats and greenish vampire-like creatures. These 'things' act like vampires, bite their victims' necks, but then eat them like George Romero's zombies. The night Toni is eaten alive, Thom races downtown, realizing she is in danger. But he's too late. Things quickly get completely crazy as the 'blood moon' rises, every resident turns into a monster, and the titular Messiah of Evil - the dark stranger, a former minister, and a Donner Party survivor from the late 19th century turned vampire/cannibal, returns. He says he has come to lead his people up the coast and inland, to spread his 'religion'. Thom gets bitten on the neck, and then suddenly two policemen in riot gear drive up, and fire their guns into a swarm of townspeople/vampire/zombies; however one of them suddenly begins to bleed, causing his now-former partner to shoot him and flee. Undaunted, the undead cop shoots his former ally and he and the other vampire/zombies go to feast on his flesh.

Thom drives to the beach house, but Arletty is half-crazed; she is cold, cannot feel pain, thinks she may be dead or un-dead...she even finds a bug crawling around in her mouth and immediately vomits up various beetles, mealworms and an anole. Startled by Thom, she stabs him with garden shears. Later bandaged up and ready to go, the two of them flee to the beach. It is swarming with the ersatz vampires. They swim out to the breakers. Thom drowns, but Arletty survives. Instead of being eaten, she is tied up, to be 'sacrificed to the Messiah'. Instead of killing her, he turns her loose, and tells her to spread word of his religious movement throughout California and the world. Of course, once she is freed Arletty tries to spread word of the menace and of his cult. This causes her to be locked up in an insane asylum. She is the woman seen dancing in the hallway at the beginning of the film. Each day, all day, she sits in the sun painting. But she says she is really waiting for, and dreading the day the Messiah and his followers come to her asylum, and she is taken away to live forever as his bride.

Dune Point is at this point simply another cosmic plaything to Orcus himself.
From time to time the demon lord amuses himself by letting adventurers access to this world and its dread secrets.