OHUNKAKAN:

THE LIVING MYTHS

BY ALINA PETE AND ANTHONY PASTORES

OHUNKAKAN:
THE LIVING MYTHS
The name Ohunkakan
derives from Ohkaka,
a Lakota word meaning
myth or story of the
remote past.
Ohunkakan is
pronounced o-HOONka-kan: o like oh,
HOON like soon,
ka like spa,
and kan like khan.
Ohunkakan was seeded
through a genesis quest,
but when or by whom is
unknown.

Genesis quest, page 138

Ohunkakan spirit,
typical: level 3, tasks
related to telling and
creating stories as level 5

In Ohunkakan, the old stories still live. Taletellers practice their art throughout the
recursion, the constant flux of their tellings and
retellings weaving an ever-changing tapestry
of myth that shapes the fabric of reality.
Landmarks, villages, and even the patterns of
stars shift across the landscape, the familiar
freely mixes with the mythic, and elements of
dim ages stubbornly persist alongside images
pulled from modern Earth. Even today, a tale
told powerfully enough might just become true.
The terrain of Ohunkakan is vivid and
changeable; every object seems to shudder
and breathe with life as if freshly imagined.
Throughout the plains, old men repair even
older cars with parts dug up from middens
deep in the hills intermixed with ancient
serpent bones, and then they trade stories with
far-ranging hunters beside towering tipis of
shimmering hides. Towns of stocky whitewashed
houses by day transform into rings of hoodoos
by night, the townsfolk whispering from within
the stones. Grandmothers watch sitcoms on
flickering screens of painted hide while their

Throughout this
book, youll see page
references to various
items accompanied
by this symbol. These
are page references to
The Strange corebook,
where you can find
additional details
about that item, place,
creature, or concept. It
isnt necessary to look
up the referenced items
in the corebook, but
doing so will provide
useful information for
character creation and
gameplay.

SPIRITS AND ELDER SPIRITS

The inhabitants of Ohunkakan are as variable
and inscrutable as the land. Birthed by the stories
themselves, each was cast out into the world
when their tale was finished with them. Most take
human shape, but others are animals, plants,
or inanimate objects: delicate men whose stag
antlers show only in shadow, sparrow-eyed old
women who reveal a flash of wing when they
dance, and dirty, heavy-footed men with faces
like granite are all possible. As they are already
trained to understand the part their lives play in
the continuing cycle of myth, the incidence of the
spark among them is unusually high.

CREDITS
Monte Cook Games
Editorial Board
Scott C. Bourgeois
David Wilson Brown
Eric Coates
Gareth Hodges
Mila Irek
Jeremy Land
Laura Wilkinson
Marina Wold
George Ziets

Writers/Designers
Alina Pete
Anthony Pastores
Developer
Monte Cook
Creative Director
Shanna Germain
Editor/Proofreader
Ray Vallese
Artist
Winona Nelson
Graphic Designer
Bear Weiter

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grandsons wrestle giants in the wilderness.

Locals find nothing odd or out of place in
this. Though Ohunkakan was spun from the
traditional stories of the Lakota people, the evershifting flood of modern anachronisms shows
these traditions continue to change and evolve.
Arrival: First-time recursors arrive atop the
flattened, quartz-littered crown of Fallen Star
Butte, which offers a sweeping view of the plains.

2015 Monte Cook

Games, LLC
The Strange and its logo
are trademarks of Monte
Cook Games, LLC in the
U.S.A. and other countries.
All Monte Cook Games
characters and character
names, and the distinctive
likenesses thereof, are
trademarks of Monte Cook
Games, LLC.

OHUNKAKAN: THE LIVING MYTHS

OHUNKAKAN ATTRIBUTES
Level: 6
Laws: Magic
Playable Races: Humans
Foci: Carries a Quiver, Entertains, Leads,
Lives in the Wilderness, Shepherds the
Dead, Works Miracles
Skills: Ohunkakan storytelling
Connection to Strange: Where the wills
of elder spirits collide, occasional tears in
reality rip directly through to the Strange. The
battlefields of the Thunderer and the Horned
Serpent are particularly known for this.
Connection to Earth: Various gates, all
located at the sites of deeds celebrated in
story.
Size: Exact size unknown due to
malleable nature, but approximately as
large as the Great Plains of North America
Spark: 80%
Trait: Strange. The difficulty of tasks to
recognize and understand the Strange
and its denizens (including identifying
translated visitors from alternate recursions,
as well as identifying and understanding
cyphers) is reduced by one step.

WHAT A RECURSOR KNOWS ABOUT

OHUNKAKAN
Ohunkakan operates under the law of
Magic and is a place where stories, fears,
and dreams are made manifest.
Though the inhabitants of Ohunkakan
appear human, most originate in
traditional Lakota narratives, having a
deeper nature that, if deduced, might be
used to predict their behavior.
The reality of Ohunkakan is somewhat
unstable, and the more powerful beings
of the recursioncalled elder spirits
warp this reality simply by existing.
Two of the more powerful elder spirits,
the Thunderer and the Horned Serpent,
are actively antagonistic toward each
other, and their periodic struggles leave
great swaths of destruction across the
landscape.

The oldest and greatest of these figures are

truly legendary. These eldersCoyote, Iktomi,
the Stone Child, the Blood-Clot Man, and many
otherscarry with them a pocket of warped
reality in which the logic of their own particular
story dominates. Within these bubbles of
myth-time, ancient dramas spring up naturally,
incorporating unsuspecting wanderers as
fresh actors in living stories. Often escape is
impossible until the individual tale is brought to
a satisfactory conclusion, though clever victims
often find ways to spin new endings onto old tales.
For example, where Coyote walks the world
is tinged with absurd humor, and foolishness
always leads to comedic consequences. Those
passing must be wary of being caught up in
his elaborate pranks. Similarly, the Grandfather
of Bears might force passers-by to hold up a
mountain with uncanny strength so he may dig
for grubs underneath, becoming angry if they
cannot accomplish the task.
Other, less-revered spirits slip across the
landscape as well, playing out their own endless
retellings in the wilds. In distant and dangerous
places, fearsome things stalksome are wellknown figures of story and song, while others
are only vague memories of beasts slain long
ago in half-forgotten tales. These giants, maneaters, and double-faced horrors lure uncertain
victims down dangerous paths with their trickery,
tempting heroes to venture forth and slay them.
But as long as they are spoken of, the monsters
will return, for killing a story is a difficult thing.

Easily fooled despite his

swagger, Coyotes frightful
resilience allows him to
bounce back from any
setback.
Grandfather of Bears:
level 8; stories ensnare
targets within short
range and hold them in
thrall until the story is
concluded; can confer
limited supernatural
abilities on targets while
they are in thrall to a
story

STORYTELLING
A peculiar kind of narrative magic is practiced
in Ohunkakan, allowing storytellers to alter
the world around them with the power of their
words. This ability is highly esteemed, and those
with powerful stories to tell are welcome in
every village. Skilled storytellers might move a
village away from an oncoming storm, calm a
long-standing feud between families, or produce
many other fantastic effects.
Some professional tale-tellers act as healers,
collecting curing tales to help the weary fend off
magical maladies or curses. Each cure requires
participation from the patient to complete the tale.
Often this is a simple processperhaps bathing
in cedar smoke or spending a night atop a sacred
bluff with a red ribbon tied around ones hands.
But more complex curses require more complex

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Coyote: level 6, trickery

and deception as level
8, resist trickery and
deception as level 2;
regains 2 points of health
each round

Storyteller: level 5, tasks

related to telling and
creating stories as level 7;
can create story bubbles
within immediate range
Creating story bubbles
is similar to creating
recursions, except no
nexus is required and a
good story, properly told,
takes the place of the
reality seed.

Rules for Creating

Recursions, page 138

The Thunderer: level

10; attacks with flashes
of lightning from his
eyes; if killed, reforms in
the clouds of the next
thunderstorm
The Thunderer GM
intrusions: Actions
near the Thunderer are
reversed in target, effect,
or intent.
The Horned Serpent:
level 10; gaze attack
causes victim to writhe
in pain and vomit black
earth; if killed, reforms
after one week beneath
the nearest lake
The Horned Serpent
GM intrusions: The
area around the Horned
Serpent floods with water,
hindering the movement
of those around it.

cures, and pity to the recursor whose ailment can

be cured only by a scale from the Horned Serpent.
Other tellers specialize in retelling the stories
of those who have passed on, calling echoes of
departed spirits back into the narrative of the
present to take an empty spot around the ritual
fire and answer questions for a short time. A rare
few even have the ability to create story bubbles
of their own, places in which their own sort of
story logic reigns, just as the elder spirits do.

A FRACTURED LANDSCAPE
The Thunderer and the Horned Serpent have
been at war since time began. Their continuous
struggle, as regular and as unavoidable as weather,
is terrible and awe-inspiring to behold. Each
possesses a will so powerful that the very nature
of Ohunkakan cracks as their stories collide,
exploding in ribbons of amorphous blackness
across land and sky. Near these storms, threads of
separate tales freely mix and overlap, birthing new
horrors to slink off into the night and terrorize the
people. These broken threads must be woven back
together by skilled storytellers, lest their nullity
spread and open Ohunkakan to the Strange.

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The Thunderer: He lives in thunder, rumbling

in the distant light of the west. The Thunderer
appears suddenly, taking the form of a great
bird or a horned rider with a blackened face,
wrapped in flaming cloud and circled in rainbow,
to walk or wing or ride across the heavens,
scattering hail in his wake. His realm is the sky,
and a great wall of black clouds goes before him.
The Thunderer inspires bravery and punishes
cowardice, and his presence twists all things
backward. Not purely destructive, where he
passes life springs up vibrant and renewed.
The Horned Serpent: It lives in lakes and
streams, and when it approaches, the water
grows choppy and boils with crimson light.
The Horned Serpent has been slain many
timesthe hills are strewn with its bonesand
returned in many shapes, both lizardlike and
serpentine, but it is always sinuous and crowned
with horns. It slides from pool to pool beneath
the earth, whispering from deep places to lure
people to watery graves and shaking the land
with its thrashing. Not always fell and malign,
the Horned Serpent accepts offerings floated to
its realm to ensure a good bounty each autumn.

OHUNKAKAN: THE LIVING MYTHS

OHUNKAKAN ARTIFACTS
FLUTE OF THE ELDER SPIRIT
Level: 1d6 + 1
Form: A delicate wooden flute with the symbol
of an elder spirit carved upon it.
Effect: There are as many kinds of flutes as
there are elder spirits. When played, the flute
confers an ability of the elder spirit carved
upon it for one hour. The kinds of flutes
include (but are not limited to) the following:
Owl: Flautists Intellect Edge increases by 1
Wolf: Flautists Speed Edge increases by 1
Bear: Flautist adds 3 points to Might Pool
Hawk: Difficulty of all perception tasks for the
flautist decreases by two steps
Snake: Flautist deals 2 additional points of
venom damage on a successful melee attack
Transformation: The flute transforms the flautist
into an animal of a specified type. The
flautist takes on the physical characteristics
and abilities of the animal for the duration
but retains his own mind.
Love: Flautist can specify one character. That
character falls in love with the flautist for the
duration of the flutes song.
Blood: Flautist can willingly inflict 2 points
of damage on himself. His spilled blood
coagulates and becomes a tiny man-shaped
construct that can communicate a short
message to anyone in the recursion whose
name the flautist knows.
Sometimes the user of an activated animal
flute exhibits some of the behavioral
characteristics of the animal carved upon the
flute, even for non-transformational flutes.
Depletion: 1 in 1d20

TRICKSTERS CHARM
Level: 1d6 + 4
Form: A yellow stone painted with a bestial eye
Effect: The incidence of foolishness increases
dramatically near the tricksters charm. Any
d20 rolls the bearer makes provoke GM
intrusions on a result that is 1 higher than
normal, which usually means 1 or 2 instead
of just 1. This effect does not require a
depletion roll.
The bearer also gains the ability to get a major
effect on any task roll, even a failed roll.
The player and the GM should work out the
details, but the consequences of failure cant

TALES ACROSS GENERATIONS

Iktomis Web: Iktomi, the trickster-spider of many tales, knows of other
worlds and desires to travel to them. He struts bandy-legged about
Ohunkakan spinning a thousand snares, weaving a web to catch worldwalkers so he might pry the secrets of translation from them. Had
he access to an inapposite gate, he would wreak unpredictable and
terrifying havoc on the fabric of other worlds with his narrative powers.
The Spreading Silence: In the distant east a hole rips across the
world, growing as legend and speculation fly to swallow up stories
in a star-filled stain of night-blue absence. Around its edges reality
devours itself and spits out horrors: trees with serpent branches
writhing themselves apart, animals giving birth to monsters, and
blood spilled across dust accreting into manlike shapes that sprint
off on rabbit legs. The hole will unravel the world if not woven an
ending of its own.

be nullified completely. Usage of this ability

requires a depletion roll.
Depletion: 1 in 1d10

WIND COCOON
Level:1d6 + 1
Form:A fist-sized butterfly cocoon, rattling with
potency
Effect:The wielder activates the cocoon by
prying it open manually, releasing the
whirlwind trapped inside to manifest at a
location the wielder can see within long
range. The whirlwind buffets objects and
skews passing physical projectiles (modified
by two steps in the defenders favor) within
an immediate distance of its origin point.
If used outdoors, the whirlwind also raises a
cloud of swirling dust that obscures sight
and chokes breath. Living creatures that
breathe that are caught in the cloud suffer a
fit of coughing that renders them unable to
act in the following round.
The whirlwind lingers for a number of rounds
equal to the artifacts level. Normally, it
then rushes back into its cocoon, but if the
depletion roll indicates that the artifact is
depleted, the whirlwind instead spins off in a
random direction, to wander the world of its
own volition.
Depletion:13 in 1d20

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Iktomi: level 6, trickery

and deception as level
8, resist trickery and
deception as level 4;
anyone ensnared in a
trap woven by Iktomi
must succeed on an
Intellect defense roll or
act as the trickster-spider
directs for up to one day
after being released from
the trap

Inapposite gate,
page 135

DOUBLE FACE

There also exist

manyfaces with three
or more faces swirling
about their form, each
allowing an additional
gaze attack each round.

GM Intrusion: The
double faces entire
body shudders and
shrugs as its cackling
secondary face swims and
stretches across its form,
immediately subjecting
all within short range to
its gaze.

4 (12)

Two visages mark the double face. One it displays on the front of its head, kindly and calm. The second
it hides elsewhere on its body, grimacing, hideous, and hateful. The beast is otherwise well formed and
pleasing to look upon, able to conceal its monstrousness behind a human faade. Its loathsome nature
becomes apparent only when a second face emerges to gaze into the eyes of its intended victims.
The double face is a creature of human ills. Greed, impatience, lust, and gluttony define it. It
lures human prey deep into the wilderness or back to its smoke-stained home to cook them alive in
boiling kettles of human gore. Despite the creatures preference for solitary hunting, these dwellings
are often home to human relatives and degenerate cohabitants who assist the double face in the
preparation of its gruesome meals.
Motive: Hungers for flesh
Environment (Ohunkakan | Magic): Out on the plains, alone and beckoning
Health: 18
Damage Inflicted: 6 points
Movement: Short
Modifications: Trick and deceive as level 6 as it lies from one mouth while smiling with the other.
Combat: The double face strikes with ghastly strength, using fists, claws, or whatever weapons are available.
As part of the same action it uses to strike one creature, the double face can also attempt a gaze
attack against another creature within short range of the initial target. Victims must succeed
on an Intellect defense roll or become paralyzed for one round and suffer 4 points of Intellect
damage (ignores Armor) as their face and limbs twitch in exaggerated paroxysms of fear. The
faces of those killed by this attack are frozen in grisly inhuman contortions.
A double face corpse that has been burned, gutted, or rotted away leaves behind many unspoiled
tools and treasures. Carrying any of these allows the ghost of the double face a chance to
possess the holders body and drive him to evil if he fails an Intellect defense roll. A possessed
victim is eventually distorted into a new double face.
Interaction: A double face will say anything to ensnare its victims, offering food, shelter, flattery, or
declarations of eternal love to lure them into a position of vulnerability. The creature displays a
gentle teasing manner that slowly gives way to impatience and anger.
Use: The double face appears in the wilderness when the PCs are at their most desperate, offering
to lead them to a place of respite.
Loot: A double faces lair is filled with the former possessions of its victims, hidden among their
cleaned bones.

SUGGESTED READING
STORY ANTHOLOGIES

CHILDRENS BOOKS

Stories of the Sioux, New Edition by Luther Standing Bear

(Bison Books, 2006)
A go-to for Lakota legends. The language is somewhat
dated, but the stories are very traditional.

Tasunka: A Lakota Horse Legend by Donald F. Montileaux

(South Dakota State Historical, 2014)
A young warrior discovers an entirely new type of animal.
Based on a traditional story told by elder Alex White Plume.

Old Indian Legends (Zitkla-a, 1901)

Another good but dated resource. Includes six Iktomi
stories. Difficult to find in print, but archived at:
http://web.archive.org/web/20080907033833/http://
etext.lib.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/ZitLege.html

The Star People by S. D. Nelson (Harry N. Abrams, 2003)

Somewhat loosely based on the original, but has a surreal
vibe that works well as inspiration.
Uncegilas Seventh Spot: A Lakota Legend by Jill Rubalcaba
(Clarion Books, 1995)
Twin brothers (one of whom is blind) set off to fight the
Horned Serpent.

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