1d6 Items Found in Coastal Maine
Encounter Roleplay asked me to write some trinkets to tie in to their game The Haunting of Seawall Orphanage. which is a modern horror game in the vein of Stephen King’s Castle Rock novels. This is one of my favourite genres to play in and writing these was very satisfying!
If you would like your own set of trinkets, drop me a tip on Ko-Fi.
- A brass lamp with a carnival glass lampshade painted with dancing children. They are smiling, but something about the way their mouths twist is deeply unsettling.
- A boat made from folded newspaper and sealed with paraffin wax to make it waterproof. One of the stories on the page used to make it seems to be about the disappearance of a local child, though most of it is lost in the folds of the boat.
- A thick book bound in faded red cloth. The title is embossed in flaking gold leaf, in strange symbols that do not look like any real language. The pages inside contain script in the same language, and the paper feels like it was once submerged in water. The inside front cover holds a bookplate from the Flagg Public Library. The only person to ever withdraw it was called Randall, though their surname is missing.
- A small painting, oil on canvas, in a driftwood frame. It depicts Pretty Marsh Harbor on a stormy night. High waves crash against the docks while a bright moon peaks out from behind heavy clouds, picking out the figure of a woman in white with her back to the viewer as she strides into the water. It almost seems like she moves slightly every time you look away.
- An old brass key sealed in a rectangular block of glass. The key is coated with verdigris and what appears to be bioluminescent algae which is somehow still alive even though the glass must be air-tight.
- A shrunken head. It is gaunt to the point of emaciation, the skin pulled tight over the bones so that they jut out at strange angles. The eyes sit deep in their sockets and the lips appear tattered and torn. There is a strange reddish brown stain around the mouth.
If you would like your own set of trinkets, drop me a tip on Ko-Fi.
Image Credit: A storm at sea, with a sailing ship being wrecked on rocks, scavengers on the shore haul in booty. Etching. Credit: Wellcome Collection. Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)