The dapper ("Springheeled") Jack Shear over at Tales of the Grotesque & Dungeonesque, ran a contest recently. I chose the title "The Hunt For Red John" as my contribution to Jack's Penny Dreadful cavalcade and it is submitted here for your approval...
THE HUNT FOR RED JOHN
When you're a child, adults are quite fond of telling you
about the will o wisps, or the wicked whispers in the larch grove, or Posey
Mathers who stole naughty children from their beds and sold them to trolls for
soup. I knew such stories were only told as a way to goad my sisters and I into
drinking our beet tea and making tidy Mother's parlor.
However, my half-mad Uncle Vincent's tales were something
else altogether. His stories weren't cautionary fables for us to abide, they
were tales of the wondrous and horrible things he had seen during his
wanderings.
When he would come to stay with us, Uncle Vincent would
drink an entire kilderkin of strong ale with supper and sit before the fire.
The thick clouds of cinnamon-scented smoke from his pipe would bring us from
all corners of the house. We would sit while he regaled us with stories of
gypsies and wizards and blind women who could fly like birds.
But it was after my sisters were made to go to bed, that my
uncle would tell me great bloody tales of the mad kings of Rictus or the Thing
in the Vault of Caronos, or the terrible story of Red John.
Red John was a young man who lived in a village called
Sparrow's Point. John was wrongly accused of a terrible crime. He was hung by
his wrists in a dungeon for years and years, and in the darkness, John cursed
his accusers and wished for revenge.
Finally, a demon heard John's wish and released him from his
prison. John's arms had been stretched grotesquely long and his body was
nothing more than bone under a thin sheath of pale yellow skin. His hair had
fallen from his head. His eyes, perhaps most ghastly of all, had turned red as blood.
In return for his freedom and his chance at vengeance, Red
John agreed to serve the demon for the rest of eternity.
Red John strangled the life out of every last man, woman and
child in Sparrow's Point, and the ones who managed to escape his bony clutch,
were stricken dead by the very sight of his nightmarish visage.
When there was nothing left alive in Sparrow's Point, Red
John told the demon that his vengeance was not complete, for there was one
family who had escaped.
Red John roamed the land, searching for all the living descendants to
the missing family from Sparrow's Point. Pulling them from their beds, choking
the life out of them and then finally, devouring their warm spleens.
The demon followed, waiting for the day when he could
finally take possession of Red John's soul. But his lonesome demon worried that somehow he himself would wind up facing Red John's wrath.
RED JOHN
Movement: 40'
Armor Class: 2
Hit Dice: 8 (68 hp)
No. of Attacks: 2 claws/bite
Damage: 1d6 / 1d6
Morale: n/a
Save As: 8th level Fighter
Special Abilities:
Red Eyes: Players must make a saving throw vs. paralysis when first
seeing Red John or be frozen in fear for 1d4 rounds.
Strangle: If Red John successfully attacks with his claws he
can strangle for 1d6 damage per round until a successful attack is made against
him.
Red John is between 7 and 8 feet tall. His arms are long and
his knuckles rest on the ground. His movements make no sound and he is
extremely quick.
He is extremely vulnerable to light and only appears after
dark. Anyone holding a lantern or torch will be the first to be attacked.
Whenever Red John is near, the Lonesome Demon will be found
drinking in a local bar room. He appears as a tall man in a long black coat,
hat, and gloves. As soon as Red John's task is complete, the Lonesome Demon
will settle his bill and quietly vanish into the night.
If the Lonesome Demon is offered a bottle of whiskey, he
will gladly offer Red John's fate for another soul that he deems suitable. If a
bargain is struck, Red John will then return to his shackles in the dungeon
beneath Sparrow’s Point.
Later, when I lay in bed and thought about my submission, I realized that I had created an origin story for Slender Man by way of the Croglin Grange legend.
