Demon Streets and Made Men

This teaser is the first posting for my “Demon Streets and Made Men” setting for Savage Worlds. This is one of the four settings covered in my “Savage Characters Volume 1” publication (for sale starting November 2014 at DriveThruRpg). The setting itself is in development and playtest with some new rules to govern the corruption of your soul, new creatures of nightmares, new edges, and hindrances. Sign up for the Dragonlaird Gaming website or like our Facebook group to keep updated on happenings at Dragonlaird Gaming.

Demon Streets and Made Men

Final pages of the diary of Father Joseph Wentworth, Holy Cross Parish, West 46th Street

“I write these words knowing full well I may die tonight. I have served God in humble ways, giving succor to the poor, keeping the doors of this church open against all forces that have tried to close it. I have always felt God’s love but I have waited fifty years to feel God’s charge. God has now laid His path for me, to walk through the wickedness and strike down evil. Now I know what I must do.

“The beasts first appeared to me two months ago. At first they were shadows and whispers and I feared I was going mad. Then I saw one in the form of a man walking with Sarah. I know what she does for money but this was no simple John. I ran after them fearing for her life and disregarding my own.

“I saw the beast clear under a street light as it looked at me. At first, I thought him a giant of a man, perhaps seven feet tall. He was bare to the waist and his body covered with tattoos. He had the muscles of a bodybuilder on drugs—grotesque. His face was shadowed except for his eyes which glowed red like the fires of Hell. I confess I was terrified and stood there until the beast walked away, disappearing into shadows.

“Soon after that, my flock grew thin and then stopped coming to the church altogether. One woman tried but screamed in pain as she neared the threshold. Her skin was burned by new blue drug marks. I gave mass at the edge of the church property but they said communion burned their tongues and would not take it. I tried to learn what I could but all I discovered is that they were all drug users and had gotten hooked on a new poison. They call it Liberation on the street but all I saw it do was liberate users from any moral compass.

“With no one to serve in the church, I began to walk the streets, watching for the creatures or other signs. I knew many good souls in the five boroughs, keeping their heads down, trying to make a good life. I’ve sat too long inside God’s House and lost touch. I knew the streets of New York were run by gangs and the Five Families. They say corruption is in the city’s blood. It’s always been this way but now there is more… more fear… more decay… more souls in peril. The more I sought hope, the more vice and corruption I found.

“The beasts are at the heart of all of it. Many of these abominations appear to serve just one of the crime families of the city, the Irish Mob led by the Coghlans. I saw Coghlan men giving a beast orders and another time saw a serpent the size of a man strike a gunmen of a rival family. The Devil is truly on the Coghlan’s side. To my own despair, He has found welcome home in the hearts of our city.

“But the Lord also gave me hope. I have felt powerful these last weeks in a way I’ve never felt before. I’ve taken to carrying the heavy crucifix from the church as it seems to frighten these abominations as well it should! Their skin burns at its touch. Even the Devil himself cannot turn his face full on to the grace of God and survive.

“I think I am alone in this struggle. Even those innocents being attacked by these creatures cannot see them for what they truly are. One young man who was clawed near to death by a Devil’s beast swore it was just a large, vicious dog. I know better. God gives me eyes to see the truth that others refuse to see.

“What I could not understand was how it had happened. I had seen the evil of man in countless forms but now I was seeing evil incarnate walking the Earth. It was not clear to me until I met Dr. Varga. He is truly blind to faith and the powers of good and evil. In a way, he is tragically innocent. He only sees science and dismisses faith. In his ignorance about what is truly important, I fear he opened the door.

“He has been experimenting with seeing another dimension, a place here and yet not here. He even showed me by putting a set of strange goggles on me. I saw a misty, shadowy version of our own world lit by a sickly green glow. At first I thought the goggles were just making the room look that way, but then I saw things moving there that weren’t there. I was truly frightened and felt the eyes of these evil things upon me before I could tear the goggles from my eyes.

“The doctor believes it is another dimension, another realm inhabiting the same physical space as our own. He calls it Ethereal Space but I know what I saw. He has discovered a window to Hell.

“I tried to explain to him that what he was doing was terribly dangerous. Unknown to him he was doing the Devil’s own work. When I saw the machine he was building to open a permanent door to this Hell space, I demanded that he cease at once and destroy everything he had done. He grew furious and summoned the Mob thugs who guard him. I tried to tear the computer apart but they beat me and threw me into the street.

“My path is clear. I have asked favors of men with blood on their hands. I have chosen to wield weapons of death and destruction. I gird my soul with the armor of the Lord. I must go back to destroy Varga’s machines.”