[DL] Fearmongers (spoilers, long)

[Brom Clancy <spleen23@webtrolls.com>]

SPOILERS
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The unrevised edition of deadlands had the concept of 
the “Fearmonger”, the boss creature in a area whose 
deliberately seeks to raise the local fear level. The 
concept seems to have been dropped in the revised 
edition, at least by the name of Fearmonger.

Some ideas about them has been rattling around in the 
back of my head so here is some variations of who 
might become a Fearmonger and what they get out of 
raising the fear levels.

The Abomination Fearmonger:
This is the classis idea of the “boss monster” of the 
area being the biggest and baddest and in charge of 
all the rest. The recongners pretty much give one of 
their servants the tap on the head and send them down 
to cause trouble. The abomination has inhuman 
motivations and is out either to raise fear levels 
for the thrill of it, or to tap into the power of the 
fear to make them selves more powerful; some examples,

The burnt man: A group of outlaws hole up in a church 
and hold off the posse chasing them overnight, after 
suffering several loses the head of the posse decided 
to burn the church down with the outlaws inside 
rather then lose any more men, he does so leaving the 
outlaws with the choice of running out and getting 
shot down or burning alive. The burnt remains of the 
church get a bad reputation and the fear level goes 
up one. During the following dry summer several 
accidental fires start and get blamed on the ghosts 
of the outlaws, the fear level goes up another notch, 
and a abomination in the form of a corpse with all 
its skin burned away arises from the ashes. The 
abomination start hunting down the survivors of the 
posse, setting fires on their homesteads and letting 
only the former posse members catch a glimpse of it, 
the fear level rises, and the recongners reward the 
abomination with some extra fire based powers. The 
burnt man starts burning down houses with the former 
posse member inside and get the fear level up some 
more, and gain the power to raise up its victims as 
walking dead with a immunity to fire, then it start 
eyeing up future victims.


The Unknowing Fearmonger:
Some people may raise the fear level with out knowing 
any thing at all about the recongners, they just like 
to be feared. Each time they raise the fear level, 
they gain a point of corruption, when the corruption 
is equal to their spirit, they have become addicted 
to fear and attract the attention of the recongners.

The Bad man: Imagine a outlaw who deliberately makes 
people fear him, he shoots his own men on a regular 
basis, kills all the hostages and burns a few 
building in every town he robs just because he can. 
If chased by a posse he ambushes them and kills them 
in the worst possible ways. Pretty soon his name is 
feared and just the thought of the possibility of his 
coming to a town is enough to raise the fear level. 
The locations of his possible hide out become places 
to be feared and avoided.  The recongners love these 
kinda guys and would like to see them continue for a 
long time, they can always bring him back as a 
harrowed, but the reputation he makes before he dies 
will only make the thought of him raising from the 
dead even scarier. So after his corruption points top 
out he gets a level of harrowed powers for each level 
of fear, he starts to git a little faster, a little 
stronger, and even better when he’s angry. 

The masked avenger: A young man returns to the 
homestead that had belonged to his parent, the local 
cattle baron had killed his family in order to take 
over the land and the young man had spend the last 4 
years training for his revenge. But one man could not 
do it alone, not unless he could become something to 
be feared. Then he thinks of the stories of giant 
flying devil-bats in the area, the next night a pair 
of the cattle barons men are attacked in the middle 
of beating up a muckraker by a man dressed as a giant 
bat. A rather imaginative picture is published in the 
local paper and the cattle barons men start to get 
scared and the level start to rise even as a good man 
start to bring down a bad one.
 
The Faustian Fearmonger:
Some people know just enough to be dangerous. You 
read a few books and call up a agent of darkness and 
you make your deal, and hope they keep their side of 
it.

The tale teller: An old man takes great joy in 
scaring children with his stories of the dark man who 
hides in the shadows, but when he moves on and the 
next night the killings start, the children start to 
get believed. The old man hate being old and decided 
to do something about it, he made a deal, he plants 
the story, and then pushes his mind into his own 
shadow to do the killing, and as the fear level goes 
up, the old man get a few years younger. Of course 
when the fear level goes back down, he gets those 
years right back, but he would have gotten away with 
it, if it weren’t fro those meddling kids.

The Cultist Fearmonger:
Another classic Fearmonger, you get a idol, a few 
gullible marks, and start raising hell, you raise the 
fear level, gain another black magic power, raise it 
some more, gain a abomination for a bodyguard, pump 
it up a little more and a few of your more capable 
followers get in on the black magic action.