[Slasher Short Chronicle Hook] Bloodbath Rumble

[Cinder]

I know I have other things to complete (not talking about the Dark Era, that will take time and research before I get back to work, I'm referring to smaller stuff), but I really needed to write something fun and a little bit stupid. Here it is, basically a homage to Slasher movie from the '80s. It's campy, it's tongue-in-cheek and goes for black humor and the sort of narm those movies had. Totally intentional. More will come, but it's not a huge project: half of the stuff is already here. Enough to give you an impression of what I'm going for, I think. Hope you'll like it, but I'm aware this is different, possibly dumber, than usual.
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“Prepare for a bloodbath like none ever before!

Bloodbath Rumble, in theaters this fall!

Brought to you by director Sal Murgia, the mastermind behind other successes like Brain Burnout, Virgin Killers from Pluto, Night of the Cannibal Bride and Hell Slumber Party II, Bloodbath Rumble is assured to frighten and excite anyone brave enough to go see it!

Where other movies are too scared and weak to deliver real emotions, Bloodbath Rumble has the guts to do what nobody ever tried to do, putting not one, not two, not three but four - you heard it right, FOUR - unstoppable killers one against each other, in a slaughter for survival that those caught in between can only pray to get through.
Who will live? Who will die? Who will WIN?

You’ll find all the gore-covered answers to this and much more only if you accept the challenge of Bloodbath Rumble!

Bloodbath Rumble: this year, fear will have its new king!”

Filmed and distributed in a limited amount of theaters in the early ‘80s, Bloodbath Rumble is a slasher movie directed by Exploitation movie director Sal Murgia. It was meant to cash in on the success of the then newborn genre but it failed to stand out. It’s not even easy to find out what the original reception was, as if few critics even bothered, but the general consensus is that the public saw it as, to be blunt, a derivative mess with cheap effects and lame protagonists, the only strong point being the over the top killers. While Murgia argued for ages that his movie came out two whole days before Friday the 13th and that John Carpenter is “a talentless hack that has not the balls to show the real deal as he did”, Bloodbath Rumble pretty much fell into oblivion. Some theaters here and there showed it from time to time, but never for more than a few nights, often as part of a cheap double feature.

Still, it survived enough years to be rediscovered. Fans of Murgia’s campy style looked at his filmography and did their best to find copies of the movie. It remains an exceedingly difficult movie to find but it pretty much achieved cult status. It’s a mark of pride among “true horror fans” to just know about Blood Bath Rumble. Those who claim to have seen it are liars most often than not, but there are some people that actually managed to watch it. There are still a handful of theatrical films stocks out there and Four Kings Production, a studio that according to all accounts only produced Bloodbath Rumble before it presumably failed and closed, even paid for a limited amount of VHS and Betamax tapes. Nowadays Bloodbath Rumble is considered a camp classic, memorable for its laughably bad perfomances, gruesome death scene and a complete and remorseless dedication to ignore any semblance of plot only to show slashers slaughtering people and fighting against each other.

Bloodbath Rumble’s story is merely a pretext. A little province town mostly inhabited by horny teenagers and troubled by a glaring lack of modest choices of clothing becomes, for reasons never explained, the meeting point for four different slashers that travel around the country looking for victims. Slaughter ensues. The slashers themselves are blatantly out of place: there’s a man with a gas-breathing mask that poisons people and hacks them with a military knife, a pyromaniac woman covered in bandages, a pagan witch that sacrifices people to the trees and even a scuba in a hulking diver suit that wields a small anchor and shoots people with an harpoon. They have more personality than most of their victims but overall they’re all the same: relentless, violent, cruel. In the finale they meet in the town square and fight, letting a girl, Tina, and his boyfriend Brett escape. Once the two stop at a gas station and Tina goes looking for Brett after he takes too long in the bathroom, she finds her boyfriend’s corpse. Meanwhile, the killers are approaching from all directions. Tina screams, roll credits.

That’s Bloodbath Rumble. What people don’t know is that, when Murgia filmed the movie, the slashers were far too real. Summoned by a higher power to the set and controlled just enough to made the movie possible, the four monsters did what they could do best: kill people. Murgia knew this, his actors and troupe did not. By doing so, Murgia irrevocably bound the movie to the four slashers: those who watch it in its wholeness unknowingly reenact the summoning ritual and bring the slashers to their town. One by one, they appear and remain around as long as the power of the movie compels them. To their credit, when this happens they do their best to remain faithful to the title and do what it promised to deliver: a blood bath.

But how can this be possible? How can one hope to survive and prevent this from happening again? To know more one has to dig a bit deeper and go back to the creators of Bloodbath Rumble.

[Cinder]

Bloodbath Rumble: The Creative Team

David Hirsh, The Screenwriter

David Hirsh was the screenwriter behind Bloodbath Rumble, a project he originally named “The Walzer of the Unrelenting Dark” (title promptly changed by Sal Murgia). Hirsh tried for long time to become a successful Hollywood screenwriter. He hoped to write the story for great movies, the one that earn the love of critics and whose lines become legendary. Sadly for Hirsh, when fame did not came while the bills never stopped, he had no choice but to accept less…”refined” projects. He became an author for B-Movies, churning out page after page of whatever garbage idea the studios asked him to write, often having only a sentence-long pitch from which he had to carve out an entire movie in record times. Even then, Hirsh tried to squeeze in quality in what he wrote, trying to add layers of artistic references and interpretations that had little to do with the kinds of movies he was associated with. Little of that actually survived from page to screen and even less arrived to the audience, but that was the only thing that prevented Hirsh from eating his own gun.

Hirsh eventually met Sal Murgia and the two began a long lasting collaboration, much to Hirsh’s chagrin. The bombastic, egocentric and irrespectful Murgia took the original scripts Hirsh wrote and twisted them completely, turning them into what Hirsh called “rancid shit” when feeling more generous than usual. Hirsh hated Murgia with every fiber of his soul, something the director presumably never noticed.
Bloodbath Rumble was meant to be Hirsh’s chance at artistic redemption. Hirsh envisioned it as a work filled with real and well-researched exoteric references, an intellectual horror movie that would win him the respect of the entire community. What William Peter Blatty did with the Exorcist, Hirsh could do better. He started researching, looking for ideas but probably did his job a little too well. Hirsh gained the attention of something even more evil and powerful than Hollywood. Suddenly, ideas starting to flow into his mind. Hirsh did not leave his house for four days. He did not sleep or eat: he just wrote. On the fifth day, the script was done.


Sal Murgia, The Director

Sal Murgia was the kind of rockstar director that could only happen in low-budget New Hollywood. He directed dozens of cheap, garbage movies in a matter of years and looked like he could go on doing that forever. The movies were bad, the effects were bad and the actors were bad, but he was having fun. And booze, women and cocaine. Especially cocaine. Sal Murgia was the kind of director that would punch someone in the face just because they did not like one of his movies then smile, buy everyone a drink and keep going as nothing happened. Some people in L.A. still remember some of his drug-induced shenanigans.

When Murgia first saw the script that would become Bloodbath Rumble, Murgia saw potential in it. Sure, it had to be changed like most of Hirsh’s material had (the guy just had no sense of excitement, writing out some of the most boring stuff Murgia ever read), but Sal was a director for a reason: he was the one that could see the movie before it happened, the one with the vision. He took the script, read it again and again and again, talking with Hirsh about all the changes he had in mind. After a phone call at 4 AM where the two argued and Murgia screamed that “nobody is gonna go to the theaters watch your lame script while I’m gonna make a movie with passion and emotion that’s gonna make them shake in their fucking seats”, Murgia began hearing voices. They told him how to make the movie great, providing him with suggestions and tips. Murgia butchered Hirsh’s script as he did many times before. He also butchered Hirsh and ate his heart, which was a new one. Soon after, he was approached by a group of produces eager to finance his movie.

Nowadays Murgia is nowhere to be found. He’s assumed to be alive, but the truth is he disappeared when Bloodbath Rumble was taken off from the theaters.


The “Producers”

The producers of Bloodbath Rumble are less the heads of a cinematographic studio and more immortal forces of evil. Even for Hollywood standards, the “Four Kings” of Four Kings Studios owe their existence to the infernal powers. There’s mention of them in ancient texts and grimoires of black magic. Ever since times immemorial, they existed and fed on the pain and suffering of mortals. What led them to produce a horror movie was a bet made when the human race was young.

Each of the four is a powerful demon coming from a God-forsaken plane of existence. It’s probably Hell. If asked, they’d say they come from Hell without breaking a sweat. It’s like saying you’re from, say, France, or Portland. They also seem to like the whole demon’s shtick, making pacts, taking souls and tormenting sinners and innocents. It’s just that, nowadays, they’re not doing that too much. They’ve been busy.

The four demons owe a fundamental part of their existence to one of the four classical elements. They’re creature of sin and suffering, but each of one processes their nature through the material connection to one of those elements. Fire, Air, Water and Earth, one day these creatures, brothers and sisters of each other, met and argued about which one of them embodied the strongest element and which one would win in a fight. It was, essentially a drunk bar argument, except there was no alcohol and the bar was more the top of a mountain. Since then, the four have been trying to find ways to prove their supremacy over the others. They tried by causing and comparing natural disasters, they tried by driving Prometheans of different lineages into fights, messing with entire choirs of spirits and many other ideas that eventually led to nothing. Sure, each of these acts allows them to devour the emotional and sympathetic results that resonate with their nature, but the bet was still on.

Bloodbath Rumble is only their latest attempt to settle their bet. When David Hirsh bought an old alchemical text that talked about the Four, he could not know they were there watching. He could not also know that in the previous years each one of them had secretly empowered a Slasher, hoping that the kill count would help them with their discussion. Something that was fun at first but eventually turned boring: the Four looked for a chance to guide their mindless killing machines one against each other. A chance that manifested with Hirsh and Murgia.

Once the Four used Hirsh to write the script, basically whispering the bare plot into his hears, they focused on Murgia. For eternal entities of elemental might, they had a fine understanding of the nature of the movie business. They knew they had to rely on the director. At first, they appeared to Murgia as producers, Mister (or Miss, changing from time to time, Murgia too high and mind-controlled to bother) Red, Brown, Green and Blue. They offered him the money to film the movie, then provided all the supernatural interventions needed to make it possible. They killed the slasher actors and replaced them with their real life inspiration, isolated the town from the rest of the world, shrouded Murgia from the sight of the killers and, when the troupe was eventually slaughtered, resurrected its members as zombies so they could keep doing their job. Stuff like that.

The result was a cursed movie that allows them to send their respective champions against the others and enjoy the collateral damage. Should keep them entertained and busy for a century at least, at which point the Four will likely move to a new idea. Not that it will erase Bloodbath Rumble from the world or make the slashers stop, of course.

[Cinder]

Bloodbath Rumble: The Movie

The dark magic that allows Bloodbath Rumble’s curse to function is not tied to a specific copy of the movie: it haunts the concept of the movie itself, meaning that it is triggered both by films and tapes. If someone decides for some reason to make copies of Bloodbath Rumble or maybe convert it to DVD those new copies will be cursed as well, perhaps the most effective cautionary tale against movie piracy.

Merely watching Bloodbath Rumble is a step towards the completion of the summoning ritual that transports the four slashers to town. It’s a simple curse (one that can be activated even by drunk horror fans, which is kinda the point) but, at least at first, it’s not an immediate one. After the first viewing of Bloodbath Rumble happens, the summoning remains on hold. Its strength depends on how many times people watch the movie in the surrounding area in a brief period of time. As long as people keep watching it nothing happens, but if an entire day passes without someone seeing the movie, the ritual is concluded and the slashers are teleported in the neighborhood.

The actual number of killers that arrive depends on how much Bloodbath Rumble was projected. For each viewing (up to a maximum of four, obviously) one of the four slashers, randomly selected, is spirited away from wherever it was and forced to remain around.

The number of days the slashers can’t leave depends on how many of them are around and is multiplicative: a slasher remains for one day, two remain for four, three for nine and four for sixteen (which is usually enough to make a big ugly mess). During this period, the slashers are not compelled to do anything special, they pretty much have free reign, but this usually means they’ll murder tons of people and fight if they happen to meet the others. After the days end though, the slashers always leave quickly, as if they perceive that their presence around did not happen because of their own twisted will but rather because they were manipulated, something they don’t seem to enjoy much.

The magic behind Bloodbath Rumble is rather blunt. The fact that 24 hours must pass after a viewing before the slashers arrive means that those who actually watched the movie might not even be around anymore once the trouble begins. Also, the four slashers are not copies or clones: they’re the actual four killers that inspired the “plot”, meaning that they can’t be in multiple places at once. If there’s a summoning going on or if they’re already at work because someone watched the movie elsewhere, other viewings of Bloodbath Rumble just don’t do anything supernatural. The people watch the movie, have fun and go on with their lives without ever knowing how lucky they were. These two factors are the reasons why the curse of Bloodbath Rumble is not exactly well known even in occult circles. Sure, many know the story about the same four slashers appearing of nowhere and fighting, but to associate the even with the movie is not as immediate as it might seem, while also keeping in mind that Bloodbath Rumble still is a rather obscure (and bad) film.

If a complete evocation happens, the Four also arrive, grab some popcorn and enjoy the show.

The most dangerous fact about Bloodbath Rumble is that as long as the curse exists the four slashers bound to it are basically immortal. They can be killed, either when on their own or during a summoning (which is where this tends to happen the most, as they frequently battle against each other) and will remain dead, but only until a successive summoning ritual happens. On those occasions, whether the slain slashers are among those teleported where the ritual happens or not, they regenerate all the injuries and return to life. This has caused an infinite series of problem to Hunters all over the world, since a threat they thought to have defeated suddenly returned from the grave.

The Hunter Perspective

There are many reasons for which Hunters might have to deal with Bloodbath Rumble.

The most obvious one is when a summoning happens in a place where a Hunter Cell is at work. In this case, they’ll probably won’t have the time to wonder what caused a bunch of unstoppable killing machine to appear out of thin air.

Then, there’s the fact that, its awful cinematographic quality aside, Bloodbath Rumble is a clear proof of the existence of Slashers. Many Hunters try to study the movie, either for its value as proof of the supernatural or even hoping that by doing so they might find a way to control the killers. This has its risks, obviously (Network Zero in particular tend to make really messy mistakes when handling Bloodbath Rumble, often without having the chance to regret them), but offers some rewards.

It must also be considered that, for a vehicle of death and pain spawned from Hell, Bloodbath Rumble is reliable. Some Hunters (or even other Slashers) use the movie with the intention to summon the four slashers. Usually, it’s because a Hunter has a grudge against one of them (and does not know that each summoning brings all the four back to life no matter what), but in this case things tend to go wrong: there’s no way to know which of the four will be summoned, unless, of course, you watch the movie enough times to call all of them, which is exactly as dangerous as it sounds. Many Hunters tried to get a specific Slasher only to die at the hands of one of the others. There’s even some Hunters (*cough* Ashwood Abbey *cough*) that stage viewings of Bloodbath Rumble in order to have fun and be entertained by the results. Again, a very dumb idea.

If a Hunter Cell actually decides to solve the problem of Bloodbath Rumble, there are two methods this can be done, a dangerous but quick and reliable one and one that’s way safer but extremely tedious and offers no certainties. Both solutions are not exactly of public domain, meaning that Hunters will need to investigate about the movie, its productions and the urban legends and slaughters that surround it, but it’s not impossible to learn about them: there are several Hunter Cells that tried to finish the job.

The safe method is rather straightforward: destroy all the copies of Bloodbath Rumble. No movie, no curse. This is harder than it sounds, since copies are rare, scattered and have the tendency to become lost in the aftermath of a killer rampage. Still, it poses few risks: nobody is compelled to watch the movie, after all. If the Hunters work hard enough they can drastically reduce the chances for a summoning ritual to happen. The problems with this method are that copies are exceedingly difficult to find, there’s no way to know for sure when none remains and, even if the Four will ignore the destruction of the majority of the tapes and films, if the total number reduces drastically, they kinda feel obliged to send at least some minions to stop the Hunters or try to bargain with them, following their own peculiar brand of infernal etiquette.

The most dangerous method involves Sal Murgia. Murgia disappeared, but he’s not dead. Like the slashers, as long as Bloodbath Rumble exists, Murgia is immortal. He’s blessed with a quite different kind of immortality, though: while Murgia does not age anymore, he’s still subjected to all the other dangers an ordinary human is. If he dies, a new Murgia pops in existence at the following dawn. He does not regenerate at all, there’s still a dead Sal Murgia lying somewhere, but what’s essentially a magical clone comes into being, with all the memories of the previous one, moment of death included. The experience has not been kind on Murgia’s mind, which is the reason he disappeared. Having to bury yourself tends to cause some issues and, considering there are dozens of overdosed Murgias, several stabbed ones, a handful of attempted suicides and at least one mauled to death by a tiger, this is something Sal went through a lot.

The first step is to find Murgia, which is difficult but not that much. He’s not a subtle man: people who know where to look at will find traces of him. There are also many ones which would gladly sell him to Hunters, mostly because Murgia is, speaking in clinical terms, quite a dick. The one who would be the happiest to do so is none other than the ghost of David Hirsh, still around and still filled of hate against the director.

Once the Hunter find Murgia, the dangerous part comes. The way to dispel Bloodbath Rumble’s curse involves Murgia and the four slashers. Basically, it calls for Murgia being murdered by each one of the slashers at least once during the same summoning. It’s painfully clear why this is a difficult undertaking at best: it requires for the Hunter to get really close to the slashers and make things happen under specific circumstances. If Murgia is not killed by all the slasher before the summoning ends, the method does not work and the Hunter will have to try again from the beginning. Murgia is aware of this fact and was forced into this crucible several times since the 80s, something he’s not eager to do again and which explain why he’s willing to fight back in order to escape the Hunters.

it is also worth considering that serving a obnoxious but relatively innocent victim (enphasis on "relatively") to a pack of slashers is not exactly the most morally sound choice.

If all goes as planned though, the curse is lifted. The slashers will leave as if the summoning ended (while still defending themselves, obviously) and both them and Murgia will lose their immortality. Bloodbath Rumble stops being a supernaturally cursed movie and simply becomes a rather bad one.

In all fairness, there's also another option to dissolve the curse of Bloodbath Rumble: to persuade the Four to let it go. This would require to be aware the connection between the demons and the movie but, as forces of evil always trying to find news sources of amusement, the Four are surprisingly willing to listen. It would not be an easy feat to talk them into renouncing to one of their favorite toys, as the Four are fond of supernatural slaughters as much as any other horror movie fan, but, if someone offers them a more entertaining (and fresh) idea to keep their bet going that manages to get the attention of each one of the Four, they might be willing to accept the offer. Sure, the kinds of prices, actions and moral compromizes that would bribe the Four into doing that might be worse than what can be gained from the destruction of Bloodbath Rumble, but dealing with demons has never been easy.

Over the years, some Hunters in desperate need of help when fighting against the four Slashers even tried to summon one of the Four to deal with the killers, something that amuses the demons to no end. That's so meta it becomes funny (at least to the Four). Few occultists have the actual power to bound the Four into servitude but, on occasions, the summoned spirits have played along (while also requiring payments and pacts in the meantime, of course) and pretended to help. The fact that, when this happened, the demon in question usually stated the terms of service while carefully avoiding any obligation that would bring it to hurt its own Champion while being free to mess with that of the others is just an added bonus.

Executive Meddling

The Four only reunite if a complete summoning ritual happens (four killers forced to stay around for sixteen days) but, if they do so, the game’s on. The Four are a group of rather powerful spirits (each of them is Rank 6), but part of the rules of their bet forbids them from intervening. Those rules are quite strict and clear but they’re also evil demons, so obviously don’t care much about it.

They won’t do anything directly, of course, but subtler actions are pretty much a given. Each one of the Four cheats and each one is sure to feign ignorance and act shocked when someone is caught in the act. Overall, the Four want for their game to be exciting and will try to limit annoyances. Whether this means that the VASCU agents called to town will fall into a sinkhole or that some doors won’t open, it’s all to be expected. Sudden and violent weather changes are not unheard of as well.

The Four themselves physically stick around when a complete summoning is going on. They appear in many guises but tend to choose their most recent one, where they resemble Hollywood produces whose skin has odd tints and that leave behind traces of their elemental affinity. They’re pretty much invulnerable, meaning that they won’t mind being attacked by the Hunters or the slashers but rather disappear and manifest elsewhere, so they can keep watching in peace

[Cinder]

The Four Slashers

The Slashers associated with Bloodbath Rumble don’t exist because of the movie: they were already carving a path of blood long before the movie happened and, strictly speaking, none of them owes its existence to the Four. The circumstances that triggered their transformation into killing machines have nothing to do with the elemental spirits but, on the other hand, the demons perceived a connection between their own nature and that of the slashers, a connection through which they chose and anointed the Slashers as their personal champions. The Slashers don’t seem to be aware of this, lost as they are in their complete dedication to murder, but it provides them with an additional degree of power and protection that makes them even more dangerous

Each of the champions is a Slasher of the Mask Undertaking. The Four deliberately selected them exactly because their twisted mind has little distraction from the dark purpose of killing people. Their strength and resilience also makes them more entertaining pawns to look at when it comes to fight and slaughter. All the Slashers are known to Hunters to various degrees, each of them having a VASCU file and a bloodstained curriculum. When not forced into a place because of Bloodbath Rumble, the Slasher behave according to their own inscrutable notions of targets, methods and territory. Some are more notorious in certain places, but the magic behind the movie has teleported them in many locations far from their usual abodes

Nowadays, after thirty years of summoning, the four Slashers have fought against each other many times. Inevitably, they also killed or were killed by one of the others. And yet, they don’t seem to exactly hate their fellow killers. They rather appear to recognize each other and then proceed to try to and murder because that’s the only kind of action their condition allows them to enact. During a confrontation they sure are able to show rage and savagery, but it seems as if they process being summoned as a chance to meet kindred spirits and put their skills at test. It’s their human victims that don’t have the luxury to endure their attentions.

Note: the Slashers are written as per 2nd Edition rules. Some aspects though, namely the specific ones of the Slasher template, still belong to 1st Edition. If Hunter 2nd Edition will change these rules (and it probably will, considering it’s the Slasher Chronicles), I’ll get back to this. The major part of their Merits and Mechanics comes from the 2nd Edition Core and Hurt Locker, with some exception from older Hunter books.



The Champion of Air: The Mojave Gasser

Background: The Mojave Gasser owes his name to the region he was first spotted. His story begins with reports of strange gas attacks all over the Mojave Desert. People would report of odds sensations on their skin, followed by difficult breathing and hallucinations. Then, emerging from clouds of smoke and gas, a tall figure dressed in military gear and wearing a heavy gas mask. What at first appeared like nothing more than collective hysteria turned out to be a grim truth when the bodies started piling up. Those first sighting were probably tests made by the Gasser before getting to the real deal.
The Mojave Gasser started an actual war campaign against the world, attacking lone settlements, exploiting the confusion caused by the gas and then walking in to end the job with his knives. When government forces tried to retaliate, he quickly demonstrated to have way more lethal weapons in his arsenal, the kind of chemical weapons that are forbidden from international law. Attempts to track him down made by military-equipped forces had no success: direct confrontations showed that the Gasser is both extremely resilient and strong, almost immune to bullets and other weapons. It is also clear he is an experienced guerrilla fighter, able to lead his opponents into traps and capitalize on his strengths. Many reports tell of the Gasser intentionally destroying people’s protective equipment and letting them suffocate. He often acts and then goes to hiding, leading people to believe he’s gone until he inevitably reappears. There seems to be some connection between the Mojave Gasser and the Army, but files about him are classified. VASCU agents have managed to piece together some informations about him, but part of those are stories and others are conjectures.
It is painfully obvious the Gasser has access to some huge storage of chemical weapons, but nobody knows how it could have happened. Sure, there are some old tales about a secret facility (the location of which filed as Black Code) in the desert where weapons that were not supposed to be made were fabricated and sored, but official investigations about it are forbidden and punished. Does not matter that many of these tales agree that the facility was shut down after a disastrous security breach that lead to a leak of the dangerous materials and that the few files that survived from the 70s speak of the survivors noticing a figure being trapped behind the security doors, as its skin blistered and fell to the ground. Whatever the truth, the Mojave Gasser has been a serious threat both to innocent people and to those who tried to stop him.

Appearance: the Mojave Gasser is not as physically imposing as other Masks, but his appearance is nonetheless frightening. The Gasser wears, as one could expect, a complete gas mask that covers his head completely. The dark red lenses of the Gasser’s mask hide his eyes completely. He’s also equipped with medium weight that protect him without impairing his movements. The Gasser always carries various canisters of gas with him, as well as smoke and toxic grenades, plus other equipment that can help him spread his poisons around. He wields no firearms, but has several knives with him, including a customized survival knife he uses as main weapon. The Mojave Gasser does not talk, but he has registered a mixture of seemingly random sm sentences cut from radio transmissions and instruction videos in a nonsensical sequence of words he sometimes lets out from a recorder he carries with him. Between the words, the screams of people in pain can also be heard.

Storytelling Hints: The Mojave Gasser is quick and agile. His fighting style involves lots of misdirection and surprise attacks but, as a Mask, he’s still remarkably strong. If forced into a straight fight, he’ll have no qualms about using that strength. The Gasser has, unsurprisingly, several kinds of gases in his arsenal. He tends to use lethal ones just as opening shock attacks or as a weapon against overwhelming forces, but that’s just only because he usually prefers to end the job with his own hands. Those who are trying to survive an encounter with the Mojave Gasser will soon have to learn to protect themselves against his weapons. Even for a Slasher, the Mojave Gasser is remarkably cruel. He enjoys tormenting his victims with poison, making them weep and scream as their eyes burn and their flesh cracks. With the Gasser, death is a slow and painful torture that comes from the air.

Real Name: Unknown
Virtue: Methodical
Vice: Cruel
Mental Attributes: Intelligence 3, Wits 3, Resolve 4
Physical Attributes: Strength 5, Dexterity 4, Stamina 5
Social Attributes: Presence 3, Manipulation 2, Composure 4
Mental Skills: Craft 4 (Military Equipment), Medicine 3 (Poison) Science 4 (Chemical Weapons)
Physical Skills: Athletics 4, Brawl 3, Larceny 1, Stealth 3, Survival 5 (Desert), Weaponry 4
Social Skills: Intimidation 4,
Merits: Area Of Expertise (Chemical Weapons), Direction Sense, Atavism, Murder Expert, Fast Reflexes 2, Fleet Of Foot 3, Hardy 1, Relentless, Light Weapons Style 5
Integrity: 0
Willpower: 8
Size: 5
Initiative: 2
Defense: 8
Speed: 17
Health: 10
Armor: 1/1
Talent: Unstoppable Killing Machine. By virtue of his role as Champion of Air, The Mojave Gasser is also immune to all kinds of airborne toxins and impairments. Smoke and strong winds does not affect his perception and toxic gases do nothing to him. Other kinds of poisons and toxins still affect him, as long as he is not exposed to them by air. If in a situation where the Gasser would take damage because of strong winds, he takes only a point of damage as per the Talent. Other kinds of incidental damage still apply.
Frailties: Blinded By Blood, No Mind But For Murder

- Weapons
Knife. Damage 2, Initiative -2, Strength 2, Size 2
Smoke Grenades, Tear Gas Grenades (Hurt Locker, page 137)

-Gases.
Here’s a selection of some of the gases the Mojave Gasser most often employs.
Muscle Relaxant. Exposure to this gas cause the Drugged Tilt, with a -3 penalty to Strength and Defense and a -4 penalty to all rolls in combat.
Hallucinogen. Exposure to this gas calls for a Stamina + Resolve - 4, the Toxicity of the Hallocinogen. On a failure the character gains the Insensate Tilt for the remainder of the scene.
Narcotic. Exposure to the gas cause a cumulative -1 penalty to all rolls each turn. Once the penalties are equal to the character’s Stamina, he must spend a point of Willpower or lose consciousness. If he remains active, each round of exposure requires another Willpower expenditure. The negative modifier wears off after 10 minutes, but a target rendered unconscious remains in that state for at least half an hour.
Blinding. Those whose eyes are exposed to this gas gain the Blinded Tilt at -5 penalty. This tilt cannot be ended as long as the eyes are not washed carefully, at which point the character will slowly regain sight, reducing the penalty by 1 every thirty minutes.
Chlorine. This showy yellow gas is highly toxic. It has Toxicity 5 and inflicts damage each turn. The only way to avoid the damage is to leave the exposed area. Chlorine causes chemical burns of various degrees, blisters and damages both eyes and the entire respiratory system.



The Champion of Earth: The Thorned Hag

Background: those who look at the Thorned Hag or find themselves on the wrong end of her claws would not imagine that the wizened creature used used a sweet little girl. The VASCU agents that travelled to the cold forests where she started her rampage had to do little in order to learn about what turned her into the monster that she is know, as she had long achieved the status of urban legend. The Thorned Hag once responded to the name of Amanda Catwell, back when she lived with alone with her grandmother. The Catwells were pariahs among the community, having the reputation of being a family of witches and warlocks. If that was ever true, by the time Amanda was born the only thing Grandma Catwell was guilty of was her knowledge of traditional medicine and her expertise about ancient folk tradition and plants, something she taught to her granddaughter as part of the family’s tradition. Still, perhaps there was really some trace of power in their bloodline, since Amanda possessed several supernatural skills. Nothing major or dangerous, more a subtle connection with the woods and earth than anything, but still enough for her grandmother to tell her to keep it secret and still enough to get noticed no matter what.
The Catwells were as innocent as someone can be but, during a year where several tragedies hit the community, bringing death, pain and hunger, everyone was looking for someone to blame. It was then that people remembered about the Catwell, the voices that surrounded them and all the bizarre rituals they had. It was only a matter of time before the whispers about Amanda’s power reached the ears of the wrong people. As the mob burned down her house with her grandmother still inside, Amanda ran into the woods, chased by people and dogs. Exhausted and terrified, her arms and legs bleeding from running through the branches, Amanda could not avoid falling into a steep crevasse. When people heard her screams of pains coming from below getting weaker and die into her throat, they realized they had just murdered a ten year old and left, ashamed. They could not know that Amanda survived.The trauma unlocked Amanda’s powers and allowed her metamorphosis to happen
Trapped in the dark, her broken body pierced by sharp rocks and roots, Amanda merged with the environment around her. While her body changed and became a grotesque parody of a human, her mind was twisted by neverending pain and anger. Amanda remained down there for sixty years, gathering the strength necessary to heal and escape. The thing that climbed out of the crevasse was not Amanda, the innocent girl who loved her grandma and the woods she lived in: it was the Thorned Hag, an insane and cruel being whose only remaining thoughts focused only on vengeance and murder. Soon, the legends about the witch in the woods that kidnapped people in the night and watered the plants with their blood began to spread.

Appearance: Amanda’s powers to change her body and adapt to her surroundings were somehow magnified to unthinkable degrees by her ordeal. The Thorned Hag resembles a distored hybrid between a man and a plant, the sort of horror you get by merging a drained, gaunt corpse with the things growing in the depths of the woods. As her name suggests, the Thorned Hag skins is covered with sharp thorns, not unlike those of a bramblebush. At times, diseased and nauseous flowers bloom from her. The Hag’s flesh has the consistency of tree bark and there’s no semblance of humanity in her.

The Thorned Hag’s visage is locked in an insane rictus, the only sounds passing through her sharp teeth being inarticulate sputters and whispered glossolalia. The Hag moves like a nocturnal predator, crooked and furtive. When she spots a target, the Thorned Hag enters a killing frenzy like few others, glowing claws from her fingers and using her powers to attack her victims

Storytelling Hints: the Thorned Hag is a dangerous slasher, as hardy and strong as any other Mask, but her true strength lies in her innate supernatural powers. The Hag is able to modify her body with easy, shifting her attributes and creating weapons and armor out of nothing. She’s also a powerful geokinetic, meaning she can manipulate the ground with ease and throw stones at her opponents

The Thorned Hag is smart, but her intellect is that of a clever animal rather than that of a human. The Hag prefers to cripple her victims, pick them up and kill them, as messily and as bloodily as possible, in places where her corrupted mind suggests her the earth would gain from such sacrifice but she’s unable to control herself enough for this to be a reliable habit. If angered or in danger, she would just slay her enemies. The primal mockery of blood ritual she makes have no real power, but they still tend to attract the attention of spirits and, of course, gain the approval of the demon of Earth that chose the Thorned Hag as its champion.

Virtue: Nurturing
Vice: Vengeful
Mental Attributes: Intelligence 3, Wits 2, Resolve 5
Physical Attributes: Strength 5, Dexterity 2, Stamina 5
Social Attributes: Presence 4, Manipulation 2, Composure 5
Mental Skills: Craft 1, Investigation 1, Medicine 1, Occult 4 (Blood Sacrifice), Science 1 (Botanic)
Physical Skills: Athletics 3, Brawl 4, Stealth 4, Survival 5 (Woods), Weaponry 1
Social Skills: Animal Ken 2, Intimidation 5, Merits: Atavism, Danger Sense, Direction Sense, Indomitable, Ambidextrous, Hardy 2, Biokinesis 5, Biomimicry 4 (Hurt Locker, page 72), Fighting Style: Berserker 2 (Hurt Locker, page 47), Clairvoyance, Psychokinesis 5 (Geokinesis),
Integrity: 0
Willpower: 10
Size: 5
Initiative: 7
Defense: 6
Speed: 12
Health: 10
Talent: Unstoppable Killing Machine. By virtue of his role as Champion of Earth, the Thorned Hag is immune to crush damage caused by rocks, dirt or trees and, if buried alive, won't suffocate. She is also immune to fall damage, provided she lands on a natural surface. The dirt of a country road apply, but concrete does not. Other kinds of incidental damage still apply.
Frailties: Blinded By Blood, No Mind But For Murder



The Champion of Water: The Ancient Mariner

Background: the Slasher known as the Ancient Mariner might not be as maniacally destructive as his three opponents, but he’s an unstoppable killer who has been doing this for a long, long time. As far as those who tried to learn more about the Ancient Mariner can tell, the slasher began his murderous rampage across the Atlantic coast in the late 19th century. This is also suggested by the appearance of the cumbersome diving suit the Mariner always wears, whose design resemble the baroque looks of the equipments of that age. Nobody has seen the Mariner without the suit and lived to tell the tale.

There are many stories about the Ancient Mariner, many versions about his origin. Some tell of a sailor thrown overboard by his crewmates, other of a diver believed dead and abandoned and there are even some that tell of an explorer that dared to plunge into the darkness of the abyss and lost his mind after seeing something that was not supposed to exist. The truth behind these tales has eluded Hunters and scholars for more than a century. The only certainty about the Ancient Mariner is that the killer spends most of this time underwater, emerging at regular intervals when the urge to murder commands his to. Sometimes it takes months, sometimes years and there are even occasions when it was only a matter of weeks, but the Mariner always returns. The Mariner tends to be less aggressive than other slashers, but he’s fond of his solitude and will slaughter anyone that disturbs him. The Mariner is also an expert craftsmen, but his works belong to the sort of wonders that cause nightmares. The VASCU agents have discovered several of his lairs over the years, sometimes hidden in the basements of abandoned lighthouses or dark coastal caves illuminated by oil lamps. Here, the Ancient Mariner hides his treasures: hauntingly beautiful nautical maps drawn on dried human leather, scrimshaw made with bones who clearly don’t come from animals or trophies and dioramas obtained by hunting unusual kinds of prey. The Marines shows a clear and unforgiving care for his crafts and hideouts but, since he after all does not spend much time out of the water, brave hunters might venture in with relative safety, perhaps even hoping to save any eventual captives, but they better not be around when the killer returns.

More than any of the Slashers bound to Bloodbath Rumble, the Ancient Mariner feels out of place when summoned. He unleashes this frustration on whoever he finds around, but the Mariner is also the one that leaves faster when the powers that keep him in there fade, slowly but steadily walking towards the closest sea.

Appearance: the Ancient Mariner is a giant wearing a bizarre, bulky diver suit that fits his size. The heave suit is a formidable armor that covers his body completely and the cyclopic lens in the middle of the helmet does not allow to see through from the outside. The Mariner might have been human once, but now belongs to the ocean: his figure is covered in seaweed and the rusty, encrusted suit bears the marks of a century spent under the sea.

Even for someone wearing such a heavy suit, the Ancient Mariner moves slowly but there are few things out there that can stop it once it gets in motion. He does not make a sound, if one excludes the low, hate-filled and distorted howls that sometimes manage to be heard coming through the helmet.

Storytelling Hints: the Ancient Mariner, because of his weight and difficulties of movement when out of water, is probably the easiest of the four champions to avoid or run away from, but he’s also one of the hardest to take down. His armor protects him from most source of harm and, when that fails, the Mariner is no less hardy than any other Mask.

The Mariner’s fighting style takes full advantage of his strength and size: the slasher tears down walls and obstacles with ease, even managing to use his absurd weapon of choice, a naval anchor, as if it were nothing. If given the choice, the Mariner is also able to use a whaling harpoon or a harpoon gun to wound his targets, with more accuracy people would expect from someone that slow.

Virtue: Relentless
Vice: Slow
Mental Attributes: Intelligence 2, Wits 2, Resolve 5
Physical Attributes: Strength 5, Dexterity 2, Stamina 5
Social Attributes: Presence 3, Manipulation 2, Composure 5
Mental Skills: Academics 2 (Nautical Lore), Craft 5 (Diving Equipment),
Physical Skills: Athletics 4 (Underwater), Brawl 4, Firearms 2 (Harpoon Gun), Survival 5 (Sea), Weaponry 4
Social Skills: Intimidation 3, Merits: Indomitable, Patient, Demolisher 3, Giant, Hardy 3, Choke Hold, Fighting Style: Heavy Weapons 5, Atavism.
Integrity: 0
Willpower: 10
Size: 6
Initiative: 7
Defense: 6 (3)
Armor: 4/3
Speed: 12 (8)
Health: 11
Talent: Unstoppable Killing Machine. By virtue of his role as Champion of Water the Ancient Mariner does not need to breath underwater and is immune to the cold, pressure and other environmental dangers of the depths. Other kinds of incidental damage still apply.
Frailties: Blinded By Blood, No Mind But For Murder

Equipment:
Heavy Diving Suit: Rating 4/3, Strength 4, Defense -3, Speed -4, Coverage (Head, Torso, Arms, Legs)
Anchor: Damage 4, Initiative -6, Strength 5, Size 4, 9-again, Two Handed
Harpoon: Damage 2, Initiative -2, Strength 2, Size 2, Reach, Throw
Harpoon Gun: Damage 2, Ranges 15/30/60, Clip 1, Initiative -5, Strength 3, Size 3
The harpoon gun take three turns to reload between shots. It can be used to deliver a stake through the heart (–3 penalty to attack rolls; must deal at least 5 damage in one attack)



The Champion of Fire: The Burning Woman

The Burning Woman is described on page 225 of World of Darkness: Slasher

[LostLight]

I must admit- when I read the pitch for that idea in your homebrew sig, I was a bit skeptic- but that looks really nice! Something fun and light to scare the hell out of your Hunter players, while still having a real depth into it. Good job- I'll be watching this (like the Four surely are).

[Cinder]

I must admit- when I read the pitch for that idea in your homebrew sig, I was a bit skeptic- but that looks really nice! Something fun and light to scare the hell out of your Hunter players, while still having a real depth into it. Good job- I'll be watching this (like the Four surely are).

Thanks! Yeah, I guess the pitch sounds rather weird and awkward, but I won't deny this is a weird and awkward idea. It basically started when I was making up some Slashers and decided to make some vaguely related to the four elements, just as inspiration and not an actual supernatural connection. Then I had fun with the idea, and this is the result. Glad you're liking it so far! It's a simple ploot hook for a more straightforward Story, just Hunter having to deal with Slashers without much else to worry about.

Second part is up, by the way. Should be able to write the Slashers before Friday.

[Master Aquatosic]

Are the Spirits just sick normal spirits or are they infernal?

[Cinder]

Are the Spirits just sick normal spirits or are they infernal?

Left it open so one can use them even without Inferno, but they're inspired by the sort of spirits that one can find in 80s Slasher movie, where everything supernatural was Hell (or Leprechauns). I thought of them as having a several Malapraxes all connected to their respective element.

In my mind and games, they're definitely infernal.

[Caitiff Primogen]

I read this and I can't help but think of Neon Maniacs.

[Cinder]

I read this and I can't help but think of Neon Maniacs.

There's a bit of that here, yeah. Mostly "thematic" slashers who look out of place all having fun together. You spotted one of my main inspirations here, kudos.

[Cinder]

The first slasher is done. I won't push the thread up for each one of them, just one final time when I'm done, but I gotta ask a thing right now so I can write the others differently if needed: what do you think of it? I kinda wrote it in a vacuum, looking at him as if I had to write a Slasher that had nothing to do with the cursed movie. I feel like that's the right way to go (and allows to use them separately without having to involve movie directors and demons) but I'm not 100% sure so I could use a second opinion

[LostLight]

you know, I've just thought about another way one may end the curse of the movie- making a deal with the Four to remove the curse in exchange for something more interesting. On the other hand, I'm not sure how well that may end up :P

In fact, I assume it could be quit ironic if one of the players finds information about the Four while investigating the subject, and decides to summon one of them in order to "fight evil with evil". I assume the summoned demon would be very amused.

[Cinder]

you know, I've just thought about another way one may end the curse of the movie- making a deal with the Four to remove the curse in exchange for something more interesting. On the other hand, I'm not sure how well that may end up :P

In fact, I assume it could be quit ironic if one of the players finds information about the Four while investigating the subject, and decides to summon one of them in order to "fight evil with evil". I assume the summoned demon would be very amused.

Ha! That sounds fun. I'll add a bunch of lines about this "method" as well when I got the time to get back writing. Amused hammy demons are entertaining, as movies and books taught us

Do you like the other methods and the first Slasher?

[LostLight]

Ha! That sounds fun. I'll add a bunch of lines about this "method" as well when I got the time to get back writing. Amused hammy demons are entertaining, as movies and books taught us

Do you like the other methods and the first Slasher?

so far so good (or bad, depends on which side of the game are you). No complains in here.

[Cinder]

Ok, all the Slashers are done, I added paragraphs following LostLight's suggestions and, as I tend to do when I want to have fun, I hid some easter eggs and silly symbolism all over the place.

I really needed to distract myself and write something easy but fun. I think that, for what I aimed for, the result is decent. Hammy and dumb, but decent. Taking everything out, it's still some ready-made scary slashers which can be used as needed. That said, I do hope you enjoy the final result as a whole as well.

Another pitch from my list made into reality, let's cross that out and move forward. 'Till next time, people!

(Obviously, criticism, ideas and comments are welcomed as usual. For example, I'd like to know what your favorite slasher is, if any)