Pilgrim: The Haunted Frontier
Six ships left England together.
Only one reached the shore.
The journal of the Mercy of Providence
Late Autumn, 1605
The sound wakes me. A scraping. Slow and low beneath the hull.
It is not yet dawn. The sky is the grey of old ash. The Mercy of Providence is on the rocks. I can feel it through my feet, the hull pressing and grinding each time the sea moves through.
The watch says there was a fog last night. Came in fast. He rang the bell. He held course.
Six ships left England together. Now there are none.
The preacher comes up through the hatch with a lantern held low against the wind. For a moment the flame holds. Then the wind finds it. It gutters. Goes out. He stands there a second longer, as if it might come back.
It doesn’t.
Behind the beach the treeline rises, massive and dark, the canopy sealing the sky away. No path. No gap. The wind reaches the edge of the forest and goes quiet.
We will have to leave the ship. No one moves first. Someone will have to.
There is fog on the beach. Slow moving, low to the ground. And in it, where it thins between two tall stones…
there is a face.
Hollow. Eyeless. Gone.
The first morning
The fires tonight. The trees tomorrow.
The Mercy cannot be repaired before winter, and what is in her hold will not last. The only shelter lies through the trees behind the beach.
On the climb above the shore stand three heaps of driftwood, set as if for beacons. You do not know who piled them.
- I
You are not here to fight.
Nothing on this beach attacks the body. What drifts in the fog hunts your Faith.
- II
Fire is the only thing they fear.
Light the beacons before dark, and pray they hold.
- III
Keep your Faith.
When it fails, the treeline begins to pull, and the trees do not give anyone back.
Beyond the shore
What waits in the woods
The beach is only the first morning. The Frontier is older than any map, and it is not empty.
Hold up the lantern. Look, if you must.
I
The Shades
They cannot be struck. They cannot be wounded. They only need you to lose hope.
II
The Hidebehinds
Something keeps behind the trunks. Turn, and they are gone. Never walk alone.
III
The Black Dog
Two pale eyes at the edge of the firelight. It is patient. It has always been patient.
IV
The Scarecrows
A homestead ringed by dead corn, and figures far too tall on their posts. Godwin swears one turned its head.
V
The Witches
Someone has been gathering in these woods since long before the ships came.
VI
The Revenants
What the Frontier takes may not remain gone. Some of the faces in the trees will be familiar.
VII
The Wendigo
Bare footprints, too large to be human, lead into the trees. Antlered. Motionless. Watching.
There are older things in these woods than any we have named.
They stop. They turn their head as if answering a voice you cannot hear.
Then they walk into the dark, and the dark does not give them back.
The Hollow Shore
Where the Mercy came to rest.
The ship lies broken in the surf and a single fire burns on the sand. Each night the fog comes up off the water, and it does not come alone.
Free learn-to-play scenario
Set foot on the Hollow Shore.
Three pilgrims. Six shadows. One torch. A complete first chapter you can play tonight, with figures you already own and a handful of six-sided dice.
The shore let you live. It did not let you leave.
The Haunted Frontier is coming to Gamefound. Follow the campaign and be there when the fires are lit.
Thanks for walking with us into the woods.