THE BHARGAST

A MIXTAPE MYSTERY FROM THE LANCASHIRE LOOP

There's a dangerous beast attacking people in your hometown. Can you solve the mystery
before anyone else gets hurt?

by MILLIE LAVELLE
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THE BHARGAST THE TRUTH

The beast is an experiment from the Loop. ​Dr Julia
“The Bargest is only to be feared by those doing wrong. It will Miller​has been researching and developing an improved
protect the innocent on their lonely journeys if you ask it to. ​”
- ​The Dales Barghest, 1852 canine assistant for the police force. . Although she is con-
vinced that the genetic and tech enhancements work as
intended, clinical trials and more importantly key demon-
THERE HAVE BEEN a ​number of animal attacks within strations have failed.
the town. Incident reports include descriptions of a large The beast, ​Skriker​as Dr Julia calls it, is designed to
black beast, some say it was the size of a pony, others a sense guilt and essentially be an advanced lie detector and
great dane. All agree that it was a terrifying beast with attack dog rolled into one.
black fur and red glowing eyes. After the clinical tests failed, and so the research was
defunded. Dr Julia was ordered to destroy the beast. She
The first attack was in the evening roughly 2 weeks could not, she had genetically and bio mechanically creat-
ago, John Campbell was attacked when breaking into the ed Skriker it was her life’s work and greatest creation, so
home of a family on holiday, but a family friend Ms Ivy instead she set it free into the local woodlands. Realising
Densmore was feeding their pets. The beast was lurking the animal attacks are her project working correctly Dr
in the garden, and attacked Mr Campbell as he was trying Julia has both a problem and an opportunity to seize.
to shatter the kitchen window. Animal control suggests Dr Julia did not realise that Skriker would be drawn to
that the scream of Ms Densmore and the shattering of the literally fight crime. She now wants to use this as proof of
glass startled the beast, this was lucky for Ms Densmore, concept to prove her research works. She needs to capture
but not so much for Mr Campbell who was savaged. The Skriker before it’s damaged further, and before her supe-
beast fled when it heard the police sirens. Mr Campbell riors realize, she didn’t destroy the project. Her plan is to
claims that it was an accident and that he was just in the regain control of her project, and take it to a competing
garden as he forgot to clean the windows that week and company, who will understand her brilliance.
wanted to do it before the family came home. The Sec- She is also the only one who knows how to care for
ond attack was approximately a week ago, the victim was Skriker. The complication of both biological and techno-
David Johnson and the attack interrupted a mugging of a logical enhancements is not something local vets could
couple on the way home from the cinema (they saw Tron) adequately deal with. While Dr Julia does care about the
The beast jumped on Mr Johnson as he was pushed back beast, but she also cares about her research, in some ways,
into an alley fighting for the handbag of his intended tar- they are the same to her.
get. The police report commented that while it is a con- Poor Claire Miller, the girl from the most recent at-
cern there is a wild and dangerous beast roaming the area, tack, hasn’t come completely clean. It’s safe to say that Jon-
it was lucky for Mr & Mrs Patel, as their would be mugger athan is a little bastard, who took the full force of Skriker,
who had a large knife and was wanted for several other because he doesn’t listen when Claire says “she doesn’t
crimes. want a boyfriend right now thanks.” She doesn’t want to
get Jonathan in trouble, so has stuck with his story “for a
The latest attack was last night, the beast attacked two quiet life,” also who is going to believe that she wouldn’t
love birds as they walked home from cadets. Jonathan be interested in such a nice young man?
Webb and Claire Miller. Jonathan stood his ground and Dr Julia sees Claire as a way to get more information
was savaged by the beast while Claire was able to run back about Skriker, but also knows that the creature should not
to the cadet hut and get help. Johnathan is currently in attack “the innocent.” Dr Julia Miller is growing frustrated
hospital, he was found on the road unconscious with se- with her niece, as she knows there’s more to Claire’s en-
vere wounds. He’s not likely to die, but it will take some counter with her project. If Claire is telling the truth about
time for him to heal and he will be scarred. how Skriker attacked them both, then there is a flaw in

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the project, and Dr Julia needs to collect as much data as

possible before she can sell it to another party. THE BHARGAST
Someone at The Ministry of Agriculture Farms &
Fisheries has begun to suspect that a project they can- The Barghast is a confused creature. Part enhanced
celled isn’t as buried as they hope. If Dr Julia cannot find animal, part strange machinery, it’s not a happy beast.
Skriker before MAFF does, it will be shot and killed. If In layman's terms it can smell guilt, and “fresh” guilt
“The MAFF Man '' catches Dr Julia she will “disappear,” is stronger to its senses. A genetic hybrid with cyber en-
they are aware of her potential defection. hancements, it’s almost as intelligent as the average 10
MAFF will rally the local authorities, and farms to year old. It’s compelled by it’s cyber enhancements to seek
chase out the beast from the local woodland, kids who out and stop “bad things.”
have parents who work for the local police or fire de- At a very basic level Skriker will conform to The
partment will know more, as would Hicks whose parents Three Laws of Robotics. It will threaten and scare “the
will be told to secure all barns and outbuildings incase the guilty” and only seek to hurt them if “an Innocent” is in
beast seeks refuge whilst the hunt is being conducted. more danger. Skriker will never kill a human, no matter
what the MAFF suggest, it’s cybernetic failsafe will kick in
and incapacitate it.
THE COUNTDOWN Skriker has had several weeks of being uncared for in
1. Dr Julia comes to talk to Claire, and is kicked out the woodlands near the loop, it has managed to feed itself
for upseting the young lady. and find shelter, but it is looking worse for wear, and it’s
2. Dr Julia is escorted off hospital property after ha- cybernetic components are suffering. It needs to be taken
rassing Johnathan back to the Loop Facility to be fully restored and working
3. Shriker prevents four teenagers attacking and van- optimally
dalising the train station. Teenagers hurt Skriker.
4. Skriker saves a person at an ATM from mugging.
Mugger is “worried” until Police show up.
5. Dr Julia asks kids to help her find Skriker as they
know the area.
6. MAFF begins a search for the beast, and organises
people to search farm lands / areas where the kids hideout
is. STORY HOOKS
7. Skriker is found and killed. MAFF has a cover story
and a large dog corpse ready for news reports. ■ ● The kids find the remains of Skrik-
8. Dr Julia is found taken away by MAFF. Little news er’s last meal near their hideout, or
reports but her relatives hear she has taken a job in anoth- spot it’s red eyes in the darkness when
er MAFF Facility. they're there late in the evening.
■ ● Claire is one of the kids' babysitters
and they witness Dr Julia being thrown
out of the Miller home for upsetting
Claire with “rude” questions.

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THE LANCASHIRE LOOP THANKS
The Lancashire Loop is a "hometown hack" for the Thanks to Simon, Lucy, Graham, Yassien, Gareth and
North West UK, but this mystery can be set in anwhere. Catherine for being my play testers.
The mystery is based on some of the folklore from the
area. Adittionally thank you to Graham, Corina, Jason, Karl
The Lancashire Loop Mix Tape is 8 short mysteries and Oz for your proof reading and editing.
based around the area, and were written to be played in
one 3 - 5 hour session, including charater creation. Great The final thanks goes to the folks who helped support
for introduction games or to be ran at a convention, or me in writing this via the Role to Hit Patreon
worked togeather to form a Mystery Landscape for longer
play.
If you play this mystery with your friends, I’d love to
know. You can find me via Twitter @MillieTheGM

ACTUAL PLAY PODACST

You can listen to the first playtest of this mystery! It's
part of the Role to Hit podcast, you can find on Spotify,
iTunes and many other podcast websites and apps. It's also
available on the Role to Hit website.