DISCLAIMER: This contains grim and dark material, which is unusual for me (I mean, I made a game where kids play Carebears, for crying out loud.). If you do not like grim and dark material, you should skip this post.
I’ve been reading up on hermits lately, because it’s an NPC trope I like and I’ve got some hermits in the Dreamwoods that I want to flesh out. I went to Wikipedia, looked up Hermits and got reading. While not applicable to my setting right now, I came upon a strange idea that spoke to me and gave me an idea for a horror story/ horror game idea. Now, I myself don’t like to play horror. Reading it, sure, fine, but playing it (or even sometimes watching it) is a bit much for me, but I thought some of the readers might like it.
Anchorages, according to Wikipedia are a specific kind of religious hermits that seek seclusion in a drastic way. They get sealed in to something ranging from a cottage to a single cell. Sometimes outside of society but mostly in the city, sometimes built against the church. Sometimes the sealing-in happens by bricking up the door. The anchorage gets their food and other essentials delivered by people and gets to devote their entire life to prayer and devotion. They might be called upon to give advice or being asked to pray for something by people, but otherwise they don’t really have a social life. They can come from any station, clergy or not, and often are people who have nothing to lose, like elderly people, or widows, but not always.
Now, I think you understand the title of this post by now, being a not very subtle reference to the Poem: The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe. Let me tell you this story seed.
1) In the town of Amontillado (do feel free to change it up to any town in your current world that fits for the story) a certain young widow has taken the vow of the Anchorage. She takes place in a cell built against the church and is bricked in. People provide food and she gets her time to devote herself to her Lord.
2) People come to ask for her prayers, which she gladly does. In time she starts giving advice as well. The people appreciate it and they start to love her greatly. She starts receiving visions, which she records in her cell and sometimes shares. Specifically when it’s about the person coming to ask for advice.
3) People come more and more and listen to her advice and teachings. They believe to be in the presence of a living saint. There might even be some miracles that happen because of her. Finding lost livestock, healing of sickness, etc.
4) At one point a local noble or other person of import comes to her for prayer. He asks her to pray for forgiveness for him as he has killed his wife and buried her secretly. Overflowing in divine grace, she prays for his forgiveness, and becomes concerned for him.
5) A year later he comes to her again, and asks for the same thing. He had remarried and in a bout of jealous rage, killed his wife again. Again, she forgives, but is concerned and asks him to change his ways.
6) A year after that, the same thing happens again. He got married again, but oops, he got angry again and killed another wife. “Please pray for my forgiveness.” But this time she refuses. The lord will not forgive the unrepentant. He must first change his ways.
7) A young woman comes to her, asking her to pray a blessing over her upcoming marriage. It is with the local noble. The Anchorage warns her not to do it, that he is not a good man, but has evil in his heart. The young woman takes the advice to heart and breaks off the engagement. She is never seen again.
8) The local noble, furious about the Anchorage, starts spreading lies about her. That she’s a witch, and that her visions and miracles are witchcraft, given to her by the devil himself. He starts spreading rumors that he’s seen her talking to a snake. That she’s in her cell naked. That at the night of the full moon she escapes in the form of a bat to go dance naked in the moonlight in a witches cabal.
9) People start doubting her, and many things that would be normal are seen as suspicious now. The food is dwindling, people start spreading rumors, exaggerating former rumors, etc. In the end, they brick up even her windows and let her starve to death.
10) Recently, a big crash was heard, and the sealed door has burst open. Her ghostly appearance has been seen, taking vengeance upon the people, sometimes accompanied by the ghosts of the killed wives. The target? The noble and his household specifically, and the town in general.
You could start at the end and have a ghost-haunted town to have an adventure in, but you could also use this as an impending doom, starting from the top, kind of like Dungeon World and its fronts.
