Rubber-hose Ghosts and a train for the afterlife: analysis of the bosses from Vagrantsong board game

Vagrantsong is a board game developed by Wyrd Games with art by Nguyen Mai Diem. The game has a peculiar setting and aesthetic: rubber-hose ghosts inside an afterlife train in the USA around the 1930s. Yes, the setting is that peculiar. While the main characters are runaways and people at the margin of society, who boarded the train to avoid a storm, the enemies are disturbing ghosts looking for peace. But of course, peace will come only after a long fight. Because the player’s challenge is to break the ghosts by increasing their “humanity.”

In this context, Vagrantsong is a boss battle game with a unique scenario, where every battle is a piece of a bigger story. Each fight is long, challenging, and with many variables, including exploration points or secondary challenges, which can unlock milestones crucial for the different endings. The ghosts have many peculiar attacks, and each battle feels very different. Moreover, ghosts have at least two different behaviors, with completely different attacks, powers, and patterns when switching from one to the other.

The art-style is inspired by old rubber-hose cartoons, a strange and peculiar contrast with the creepy setting and theme of the game. The ghosts have a complex design, all sharing similar theme and connected by the green color, an otherworldly energy keeping together all the ghosts. Inside the game box, there are around 20 ghosts, coming as acrylic standees, a detail that enhances the “cursed cartoon” feeling of the game.

In this article, I will analyze some of the most interesting ghosts of Vagrantsong, both for design and battle. Moreover, some ghosts are inspired or connected with old American urban legends or apparitions, creating even more interesting and rooted creatures. When I could connect the information, I will also briefly provide the legend or the ghost inspiring the creature.

Maco Joe

Maco Joe is one of the first enemies in the game, but nonetheless a challenging and interesting foe. Maco Joe is missing his head, and he is constantly looking for it while bringing around a lantern. Dressed as a train conductor, Maco Joe is a dangerous enemy able to control fire by using a lantern. He will be constantly looking for his head, walking toward the sack containing it. This is a battle of quick reflexes since the player can also try to reach the head before Maco Joe. During the normal fight, Maco Joe mainly uses the lantern to blind characters with intense light. However, after recovering his head, Maco Joe will become much more aggressive, throwing fire and burning everything. Luckily, soon he will lose again the head, and the weird chase will resume. Interestingly, Maco Joe is inspired by an American urban legend about a train machinist, Joe Baldwin, who lost his head while trying to signal with the lantern about an imminent danger. The poor machinist became a ghost, haunting that train line and forever looking for his head.

The Flayed Man

The Flayed Man has something really weird going on. He misses every bone, and moves around like a scattered pile of clothes. And, of course, he is wielding a knife. Trust me, the Flayed man is a really terrifying being. One of the first battles inside the train, the Flayed Man is a dangerous ghost able to attack with his knife, or by elongating the elastic body. The ghost is a truly nightmarish being that can freely modify his body, stretching it to reach far targets, and even bloating like a balloon to become more aggressive. However, his most dangerous attack is the ability to “envelope” the characters with his body, damaging and immobilizing them, till they don’t find a needle to blow him off. The Flayed Man can also detach body parts, especially the hands, but there is no limit to this power. In fact, in a couple of occasions, while investigating the train, the player could find his shattering teeth or a breathing lung around the train. The Flayed Man provides a very interesting battle against a terrifying being, with many possibilities during the fight. For example, the player can even steal his hat for a bonus item. But the ghost will not take this offence very lightly. The Flayed Man is basically just skin flying around, the horrible result of somebody skinned alive. Several ghosts in urban legend from USA fit this description, but the most famous is probably Skinned Tom, a ghost missing the skin haunting lonely lovers in southern USA .

The Visitor

The darkness has a face and body, and in Vagrantsong this is the Visitor. Living in the depth of a devouring hole inside the train, which tries to swallow everything, the Visitor exists in pure darkness. A skeletal and disturbing figure, the Visitor is completely immaterial and fused with the darkness. Only the light of candles will reveal the creature, otherwise impossible to damage. But it doesn’t work the other way around, and it can still attack the player when shrouded in darkness. The Visitor will first manifest itself accompanied by disturbing sounds, including teeth-chattering and clacking. The creature is a prisoner in this hole, craving to go outside and see the light again. However, judging by how dangerous it is, and since the Visitor is the only prisoner in a train of malicious ghosts, this doesn’t sound like a smart idea. Judging by the name and appearance, the Visitor is probably not an ordinary ghost, but something more, probably an eldritch being confined here for some unknown purpose. Other than merging with darkness, the Visitor has several mental attacks to use. The creature can paralyze the player with pure terror, inducing paranoia, and creepily whispering inside the characters’ ears. Moreover, the Visitor can control the darkness, spreading it and trying to suffocate the players. The Visitor is a challenging battle where candles are the only ally to attack this creepy being, creating one of the most dreadful and intense battles in Vagrantsong.

Lady Limestone

This female ghost communicate melancholy and tragedy since the very beginning. When entering the train car, the player is welcomed by rows of similar statues of a girl lost in her tears. Interestingly, the statues look like a religious Saint Mary, veiled and in a sorrowful pose. Then, like a green lightening, a statue starts to irradiate energy from the inside, beginningtarting the battle. And this light originates from a dead body is buried inside the statue. Somebody punished a poor woman by encasing her, probably alive, inside a statue. Hints in the book suggest that the woman was a witch, and that this was her punishment declared by townspeople or witch-hunters. The battle is extremely challenging and divided in two phases. In the beginning, the ghost will teleport around, entering each time in a different immobile statue. It is almost impossible to damage her, and the player can only try to cleanse the statues while avoiding her deadly singing and cursing. During the second phase, Lady Limestone will control only one statue, breaking it free from the stone roots. The ghost will walk around inside the statue, becoming a deadly and powerful machine, stomping, smashing, and opening holes inside the train. Lady Limestone is a tragic figure with a powerful aesthetic and background, but she is also a challenging battle against an almost immortal enemy well-divided in two neat phases.

The Man of Many Limbs

This ghost is definitively the most disturbing enemy inside Vagrantsong, and one of the most dangerous adversaries. The Man or Many Limbs is a creepy figure dressed in a black robe, with glowing eyes and a multitude of long tentacle-like arms going out from the robe. The arms have very classic rubber-hose aesthetic, making of this character a truly nightmarish representation of old cartoons. The Man was created when the train destroyed a graveyard, fusing together the dead bodies in this insane abominations. In fact, the Man of Many Limbs is merely an artificial ghosts created by fusing together the butchered limbs of dead bodies. And the most disturbing thing is that the other ghosts are still fighting inside this abomination to take control and remember. The creature is a tough enemy that, in the beginning, attacks with multiple slaps. The Man can also disassemble and recompose somewhere else using the grotesque power of its sewed body. When angry, the Man will change slaps for deadly punches, and will attacks twice in a single turn. And if this was not enough, the Man or Many Limbs can also heal from damages. This ghost probably has one of the most disturbing appearances and backgrounds, creating an anxious battle where trying to make the ghosts inside its body to quickly remember is more important than attacking the enemy.

The Boiler Men

The Boiler Men is a disturbing amalgam of three ghosts melted together by ice, snow, and fire. But the three ghosts are not the only element composing the entity, since also a burning boiler got merged in the disturbing design. Human bodies and pieces of machinery mixed together in a twisted amalgam create a truly unique and disturbing ghost. One of the main enemies in the cold environment, the Boiler Men has a peculiar way of attacking. Each turn, one of the three ghosts will take control, bringing their behavior and special attacks into the fight. They are all very connected with fire, but with quite different sets of attacks, including AoE explosions, burning the target, or ejecting deadly steam from the holes around the train. The Boiler Men has a killing aesthetic, perfectly mixing and fitting the train theme with old cartoons and ghosts, creating a deadly abomination with the highest number of different behaviors.

Disclaimer: The images in the article are from the official Wyrd Games page, Nguyen artstation (https://thesnipster.artstation.com/albums/4544874) and pictures of my own manual.

From cats to wolves: the animals as afterlife symbolism in The Cat Lady and its spiritual sequel Burnhouse Lane

If you played The Cat Lady, or in general games from “the Devil Came Through Here” trilogy, you surely know how the afterlife is a central topic in all of them. The afterlife is a scary, chaotic, and incomprehensible place sculpted by complex laws and ruled by the Queen of Maggots. This recently changed when Burnhouse Lane got released as a proper spiritual sequel of Cat Lady. Because while the afterlife in Cat Lady was the final destination, with the exception of the blessed “champions” of the Queen, able to steal other people lives by blowing off candles, Burnhouse Lane follows very different rules. In fact, it is not a proper afterlife, but an intermediate limbo accessible only by terminally ill patients. A place close to the afterlife, but welcoming people still alive. However, those places share very interesting similarities.

These different forms of afterlife have inhabitants, including clueless ordinary people that felt in these realms, guardians and dangerous beings, and of course a ruler. In Cat Lady and Lorelai’s afterlife, the Queen of Maggot is the unquestionable ruler, while the situation is slightly less clear in Burnhouse Lane. But for sure, the Burned Cat is one of the most powerful being there. As you probably realised, while people and buildings shape these surreal environments with totemic landmarks, other creatures are also part of these variegated biomes. And animals, or more often anthropomorphic creatures, are often working as symbolic elements and embodied rules.

Why animals are key elements to describe the afterlife? Especially for ancient cultures, the afterlife was always a place of difficult access, except for some totemic animals. For example, birds are often associated with otherworldly messengers, due to their flying ability, interpreted as a mechanism to bring souls toward the afterlife. Other animals, including cats, for example in Ancient Egypt, were also associated with the afterlife and in general with the divine. Dogs have prevalently a more fierce and aggressive job in classic afterlives, usually acting as tormentors or guardians. After all, the three-headed dog Cerberus is probably the most notorious guardian of Hell.

Cat Lady, Lorelai, and Burnhouse Lane use animal-based creatures and characters as central elements to provide functionality to the mysteries of the underworld. In the following article, I will especially focus on analysing crows, pigs, wolves, and, of course, cats.

The Crow is an enigmatic figure present in Cat Lady’s afterlife. It is deeply connected with Susan, the immortal protagonist of the game, guiding her fate and tricking her decisions. In fact, the name of the Crow is not a random one. As previously explained, in several cultures, birds and especially crows are associated with the afterlife, having the role of psychopomps. More specifically, the crows are guides for the deceased souls, responsible to highlight the correct path for them to the underworld. Also in Cat Lady, the Crow is the guide in the afterlife of Susan, the one knowing the paths she has to follow and the destiny awaiting her. But the Crow is not a trustable guide, nor the totemic animal of the folklore, but a subtle entity playing with fate, life, and secrets. The creepiest detail is that the Crow is represented by a real-life eye inside a television, always moving and scanning around in a very disturbing way. Moreover, the Crow has also two daughters, which are oversized dolls.

I will not extend much the analysis of the Crow because I previously wrote an article about it and its daughters for the section “Creepy Characters” that you can find here: Cat Lady: the Crow and his daughters [Creepy Characters]

There is not much about the Pig in the ancient hell and afterlife. There are only marginal examples of demons with pig head tormenting souls in Asian hell, or the pig employed as punitive transformation for corrupted souls (such as in Naraka for Buddhism). In the Devil Came Through Here trilogy, a pig head is always found, together with other animal heads, on top of the gate welcoming the souls to the residence of the Queen of Maggots. However, in Lorelai, the Pig became a symbol of one of the only deadly and aggressive creatures inside the game. After Lorelai’s family meets a brutal departure, the protagonist will “assemble” the pig from her parents’ severed heads. Once the Pig is assembled, the creature will try to stab the protagonist with a key, the only item able to allow access to the otherworld and the Queen’s house. The Pig here is a proper Hell guardian, an aggressive being that must be defeated, also composed of three heads as the infamous Cerberus.

Also in this case, I wrote an analysis of this creature for “Monster of the Week.” You can read the full analysis and the associated symbolism here: Monster of the Week: the multiple-bodies monster of Lorelai

The Cat is a crucial element for Burnhouse Lane, last game released but also the one with a major shifting in its definition of the afterlife. Because while the afterlife ruled by the Queen of Maggots was a personal and almost definitive place, in Burnhouse Lane, all the terminal ill people are co-living in this suburban area. They can decide how to spend time here: by living isolated waiting for the end (explaining all the locked doors), by giving up to suicide, or by creating their own personal place. Other than ordinary people terminally ill, the only living creature allowed to access Burnhouse Lane are cats. The felines can freely roam the town by switching from the two realities. And not only that, because cats seems more sentient in Burnhouse Lane, guiding trustworthy people and providing them with supernatural gifts, such as controlling dead bodies or asking for an undeniable truth. Cats are guides and messengers of this reality, silent protagonists of the unwelcoming world of Burnhouse Lane. And if ordinary cats can access Burnhouse Lane, the Burned Cat is the closest example to a ruler in this world. Gigantic feline with muscles but skeletal body, the Burned Cat is an intelligent and sophisticated being, able to fluently communicate with humans. The creature is a sort of personal guide, imprisoned in this world and providing ways to the chosen one to escape from their destiny. The Burned Cat is an ambiguous being that plays with fate, providing incomprehensible and disturbing challenges to the ones that aim for salvation. And this task can be really disturbing, including feeding your blood to a cannibal or sending an evil man as sacrifice to Burnhouse Lane. In this regard, the Burned Cat can also act as an executioner, devouring mischievous humans that trespassed in this world. The Burned Cat shows similarities with the Crow in terms of working as cryptic guide and oracle, however, the creature is much more present and humanised than the disturbing Crow, still working inside a gray morality, but with much more transparency. And who knows, if you are lucky enough, in the end maybe the Burned Cat will not be a bad influence.

The Wolf is the last emblematic animal that I will analyse, and probably the most mysterious character in Burnhouse Lane. Wolves are not very connected with afterlife in folklore. Sure, some Nordic civilizations, such as in Canada and Alaska, believed that wolves were guardian of the afterlife, and several wolves appear as fierce otherworldly beings in Viking folklore. However, the connection with the afterlife is very thin. Moreover, the wolf often appears as a dangerous guardian or a savage beast, a constantly hungry devoured. And this is not far from the Wolf in Burnhouse Lane. The Burned Cat will warn you of his arrival, specifically saying to never say a word to him, just to placate his hunger. And you really should never say a word to him, because the consequences could be quite dramatic. The Wolf will come at night, completely mute and emotionless. The only thing that you know, is that you must feed him. And he will eat every edible-ish meal that you will provide him. But his appetite can never be satiate… or it can be, but only after devouring a dead body. After being satiated, the Wolf will guide the chosen one toward their final task. But still during the way, nobody should talk to him.

The Wolf is ferocious and deadly, as the wolves in mythologic afterlife, but it is not working as a guardian in Burnhouse Lane. To be precise, the Wolf is the most coherent guide in this bizarre afterlife. He is not hiding behind riddles, prophecies or half lies. If you provide him the correct food, the Wolf will silently guide you to the final destination. As the deadly ferryman Charon in Greek underworld, if you pay the ride with silver coins he will bring you to the otherside. Just in this case, the silver coins are dead bodies. Moreover, after the night and the travels are over, when the dawn is approaching, the Wolf will change behaviour, speaking very calmly and politely, highlighting a far less aggressive nature.

Cat Lady, Lorelai, and now Burnhouse Lane created a very complex afterlife, full of symbolism and surreal moments, intricated and dreamlike places that will definitively stay with the player after finishing the game. And the mysterious and cryptic characters, in this case linked with totemic animals and psychopomps from myths and folklore, add an additional layer of connection with the our reality.