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There are those that say that the monks at St. Fiacre's should not plant their vegetables so close to the churchyard, that it is unseemly to fatten the marrows, squashes, and pumpkins so close to human bones filled with human marrow. Of course, the same voices don't complain when those same vegetables come to market, ripe and full of rich flavor. But that is another tale, and... ...wait, what is this? Who comes here at this hour? A ruffian in disguise, bent on disturbing the bones in the cemetary?! Nay, ruffians plural! Grave robbers, here to trouble those at long rest under stone! And who is this?! A sinister figure, clearly the ringleader. "Go now, and find me that wizard's grave!" A little foxfire around the eyes and mouth of a carved pumpkin will frighten the superstitious into thinking these grave-robbers are haints. "Not one stone in ten is as it was in the old times; be sure where ye dig!" "Wait, lads--what is that light?!" "That's no sexton's lamp! Take to your heels, boys!" It is, perhaps, only fair that those who mock Jack O'The Lantern get to see the original. A variant of Jack In the Green, easily summoned. "BOOOOO!" "YOU WHO TRESPASS ON THE ROW / YOUR FLESH WILL MAKE THE PUMPKINS GROW" "'Tis every man for himself, lads, and devil take the hindmost!" "TAKE THE HINDMOST? SO BE IT!" "AH HA HA HA HAAAAA!" As I said, the pumpkins from St. Fiacre's are always welcome at market. Something about the tender flesh and delicate taste, the kind you don't find elsewhere. Rumors that a wealthy patron of the monastery was a sorcerer are just that--old wives' tales. And the story of a guardian appointed to keep his rest secure 'till doomsday? Obviously also fictitious. Old wives will talk; this is well-known.

"This is the maiden all forlorn That milked the cow with the crumpled horn That tossed the dog that worried the cat that chased the rat that ate the malt that lay in the house that Jack built." A nice crisp sculpt by Bobby Jackson! This lovely young lady served as an NPC in an All Of Them VVitches game I finished recently. The game was based on the nursery rhyme "The House that Jack Built" coupled with an ergotism infection plot. Our PCs were called to investigate into incidents of violence and madness in the town of Millsbach, home of Jock Jocksson's brewery and famous Red Rye Ale. There are rumors of witchcraft, or Devil curses, or the displeasure of the Good Folk. The PCs need to solve this without giving traction to any of these rumors. Beccah Burns here is a fine milkmaid, but the cow up and gored her in the arm last week after getting out of the fence and into the millet and rye fields nearby. She is at the age where everything bad is a catastrophic disaster. Drinking ergotized milk is doing nothing for her emotional state. She is also deeply infatuated with Angus, a local farmer (and he with her) whose chickens have been eating leftover infected grain from the brewery, causing the chickens to savage him whenever possible. (This is the man all tattered and torn in the rhyme.) Fortunately, after several violently hallucinatory episodes, our PCs managed to figure out what was going on and destroy the stocks of tainted rye as well as several giant rat-men who may or may not have actually existed. Angus wound up a bit of a local hero after blowing up a grain mill, and the PCs got invitations to the young lovers' wedding! Fun times. More pix, you know the drill.

I've been working on a Call of Cthulhu variant set in the mid-1600s, All Of Them VVitches. This provides lots of opportunity for cults and cultists! We've seen some of them hitherto. Here are a couple more votaries of the PIPER IN THE WOODS--Reaper's Dark Creeper (02886) with a Gw Skullz mask added, and 02165, Gromtar the Foul. Here's Gromtar. I get a very 'Lovecraft ghoul/ Clark Ashton Smith Mordiggan cultist' vibe off the sculpt. Our Dark Creeper: More angles: They've come out to meet with their colleagues, similarly robed and with horned masks. But what is this they have called down? Behold! the PIPER IN THE WOODS approaches! Quis est iste qui venit?!

The ritual has done its work. From a distance, an eerie light shines through the trees. The ground quakes under the tread of colossal hooves. There is a rushing wind, the sound of snapping branches. An indescribable tune, notes in a strange scale and meter, music from beyond the stars, builds to a skirling crescendo. HE is come. The PIPER IN THE WOODS is here. Burning with potassium flame, attended by HIS servants. Behold! The Horned Lord approaches! Deception and concealment among HIS sacraments! The Masked Messenger, the False-Faced! IA! IA! The power of a God, called to earth! HIS votaries rejoice, even as they cower! WHAT. HAVE. WE. BROUGHT. FORTH (This is a Nolzur's Nightwalker, given a little bit mote pizazz than the all-black example. I knew immediately that with the bone-mask face and the horns, it was the perfect avatar for the cultists. GW contrasts and good setting sunlight on the translucent flames; a GW demon skull from their Skullz set manifested in the upraised hand.) Featuring Dulkathar, Gromtar, Dark Creeper, a couple of Crooked Dice cultists, and Dark Young from RAFM and Reaper. (Reaper's 77516 is the big one in green).