Like much of the Lamentations of the Flame Princess corpus, The Pale Lady cannot be pigeonholed into a single, convenient, category. It’s fantasy, it’s adventure, it’s horror. It’s Dungeons and Dragons but isn’t, well, bland1. It’s an exploration of male fears, and raises philosophical questions about the nature of the self. All this is achieved in less than 12 pages, and for five US dollars.
But let’s start at the beginning. There’s an abbey, not far from the woods. In the woods lives a witch called the Pale Lady, only she’s not really a witch. That’s just what the peasants say. She’s a faerie queen. Every spring, she leads a column of strange man-beasts out of the forest to abduct the sons of the populace. None of them have ever been seen again. Until now.
One of the sons made it out of the forest two years ago. He told everyone who would listen about what happened, but nobody believed him, apart from the nuns in the abbey. The Abbess took him in, and is now seeking hardy adventurers to get to the truth of the matter. The survivor’s story has convinced her that The Pale Lady is in possession of a word of creation, a source of miracles, and she wants it.
The lost son’s tale is a harrowing one: of unmanning, endless backbreaking work, near-starvation, the cruelty of inhuman guards, and of the callous indifference of The Pale Lady. He has seen elves and magicians seek her audience, and the magicians leave aged and decrepit, but brimming with power. One of them taught him the magic of entering and leaving the Lady’s domain, and he fled.
As for the rest, it happens in the Pale Lady’s domain and it would be rude to reveal too much. Fair warning, though, there is the distinct possibility that the Pale Lady will spend the night with a male character. Some may find this distasteful or inappropriate, but I see it as being in keeping with the folkloric nature of this adventure. Folklore, after all, is about our aspirations and fears. The old fairy tales are dark, and reflect dark times. If Little Red Riding Hood can be viewed as a cautionary tale for girls in dangerous times, then what does The Pale Lady say about us in the here and now?
It makes for excellent thought-fodder, and that is what sets this adventure apart. While it might treat with the familiar tropes of the battle between good and evil, of heroic types saving the downtrodden from tyranny, and the routine hack-and-slash of fantasy roleplaying, The Pale Lady goes much further, with an interesting subtext that is capable of sparking discussion and genuine reflection. Not bad for an Elf game.
Available in pdf on drivethrurpg
Author: Zzacharov Kowolshi
Art: Chris Huth
If you’re interested in Lamentations adventures, take a look at Magic Eater, The Pale Lady, The Yellow book of Brechewold, or Lamentations of the Gingerbread Princess. All dogs go to Hell is free on Drivethrurpg.
Resource books include the Core Rulebook and Mayhemic Missile Method, and The Works of John Williams.
- Pablum is a better word. I have more, but that will have to do. ↩︎