Gregorius21778: The Tale of Harrot, the Headless Horseman is a role playing game supplement written and published by Kai Pütz a.k.a Gregorius21778. The supplement is written for Lamentations of the Flame Princess and, as such, is covered by the Open Game License with some parts considered to be Open Game Content as a result.
This is a six page PDF that is available from RPGNow as a Pay What You Want supplement. Similar to the author’s The Blood-Drenched Room, this supplement is only for sale at Halloween (once purchased, you can still download it even when the supplement isn’t for sale). One page is the cover, one page contains ads for other supplements and one page is the Open Game License.
The first page comprises of the front matter and an introductory paragraph. It states that the supplement is aimed at Lamentations of the Flame Princess but can be adapted to other OSR games and that it’s best if the characters are below 5th level as a cleric of that level can cast dispel evil and banish the sole threat (although, looking at the Rules & Magic supplement for LotFP, dispel evil needs a ninth level cleric to cast). There’s also a warning that this may be extremely lethal for 1st level characters, but this is something that LotFP seems to pride itself on. The character are assumed to be passing through an area that’s roughly equivalent to 14th to late 15th centuries when they pass through the village of Oakhill. Perhaps they just have a meal at the local tavern; perhaps they stay longer. The innkeeper of the local tavern will tell them a story.
The encounter features that Halloween staple, the Headless Horseman. The background to the story is that, after a feud between two local lords ended, a group of mercenaries hired by the victor decided to stay in the region and became bandits. Herot was the mercenaries’ captain and, when he was finally caught, Herot was executed with the axe he used to take the heads of his victims then buried at a crossroads so his soul couldn’t find rest.
When the characters are in the area of the crossroads, a mist will arise and Herot will attack, looking for a new head so that the ghost can find his grave. Once he has severed the head of a character, should he manage to do so, the character will not immediately die. Herot will attempt to return to his grave and place the head where his own was. The characters will still have a chance to defeat Herot and place the head back on its rightful owner.
Gregorius21778: The Tale of Harrot, the Headless Horseman in Review
The PDF lacks bookmarks but for this length they aren’t needed. The text maintains a single column format and some minor errors were noticed. The links to the LotFP rulebook and the author’s other supplements only take you to the front page of DriveThruRPG, not the specific supplements.
This has a nice little encounter using a well-known Halloween monster that has the potential to be lethal but need not necessarily be. Even if Herot takes a characters head – and as a 5th level fighter with extra benefits there is a good chance – that character can still be saved, so no instakill. LotFP as a system believes that monsters should be unique, and this manages that with a unique, albeit familiar, foe. Should the characters fail to defeat him, Herot will become more dangerous and will seek revenge on those who placed him there. Gregorius21778: The Tale of Harrot, the Headless Horseman is a nice little Halloween encounter and it can be found by clicking here.
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