Buy me a coffeeSawney Bean
Meet Sawney Bean: Scotland’s terrifying cannibal king who feasted on travelers and vanished into legend!
Sawney Bean is a dark legend whispered in the remote highlands and coastal caves of Scotland, a figure that blurs the line between myth and nightmare. Born in the shadowy recesses, Sawney Bean was said to be the progenitor and leader of a secretive clan of cannibals who preyed on unsuspecting travelers. His origins are murky—some say he was a cursed outcast, shunned by society for unnatural acts; others whisper that he was touched by dark fey or a sinister forest spirit, twisted by malevolent forces into something monstrous.
For decades, the Bean clan allegedly dwelled in labyrinthine coastal caves, emerging only to ambush wayfarers, harvesting flesh to sustain their growing family. Their acts of horror became so infamous that local authorities launched hunts to eradicate them. Whether fact or folklore, Sawney Bean’s legacy remains a chilling reminder of humanity’s capacity for savagery and darkness.
Personality & Motivation:
Sawney Bean embodies primal cruelty and cunning survivalism. Unlike chaotic beasts driven purely by hunger, he exhibits a sinister intelligence, orchestrating ambushes and maintaining a brutal hierarchy within his clan. Motivated by a perverse sense of family loyalty and survival, he views the outside world as hostile territory to be exploited and dominated. Though savage, Sawney can be eerily calm and calculating when necessary, capable of deceit and manipulation.
His motivations extend beyond mere survival; he revels in the terror his name evokes and seeks to expand his dark domain, growing his clan’s influence through fear and bloodshed.
Influence on the World:
Legends of Sawney Bean have cast a long shadow on the surrounding lands, inspiring fearful warnings told around hearth fires and spawning numerous ghost stories and cautionary tales. Travelers who dare journey through the coastal wilderness tread carefully, fearing unseen eyes lurking in the shadows. In some corners of the realm, cults and dark sects have twisted his tale, venerating him as a symbol of the primal, untamable forces beneath civilization’s veneer.
Physical Description:
Sawney Bean is a hulking, gaunt figure, standing slightly taller than most men but hunched from years of crawling through caves. His skin is sallow and scarred, mottled with patches of dirt and dried blood. His tangled, matted black hair and wild beard cloak a face marked by deep-set, piercing eyes that gleam with ruthless intelligence. Jagged, broken teeth protrude from his mouth—some filed to points, some missing entirely.
His hands are thick and calloused, with nails darkened and sharpened like claws. Clothes are tattered scraps of cloth and leather, crudely stitched together from the remnants of his victims. An eerie aura of decay and menace surrounds him, with the faint stench of saltwater and rot trailing wherever he moves.
Tab Title 1
Tab Title 2
Tab Title 3
Alexander “Sawney” Bean is the head of a 48-member clan in Scotland, reponsible for the mass murder and cannibalisation of over 1,000 people.
Alexander Bean was born in East Lothian, his father was a ditch digger and hedge trimmer, and Bean tried to take up the family trade but quickly realized that he had little taste for honest labour.
He left home with a vicious ogress who shared his inclinations. The couple ended up at a coastal cave in Bannane Head near Galloway where they lived undiscovered for some twenty-five years. The cave entrance is hidden during high tide being blocked by water.
Their many children and grandchildren were products of incest and lawlessness. The brood comes to include eight sons, six daughters, eighteen grandsons and fourteen granddaughters. The clan thrive by laying careful ambushes at night to rob and murder individuals or small groups. The bodies were brought back to the cave where they were dismembered and cannibalised. Leftovers were pickled, and discarded body parts sometimes wash up on nearby beaches.
The body parts and disappearances did not go unnoticed by the local villagers, but the Beans stayed in the caves by day and took their victims at night. The clan was so secretive that the villagers were not aware of the fifty murderers living nearby.
As more significant notice of the disappearances was taken, several organized searches were launched to find the culprits. One search took note of the telltale cave but the men refused to believe anything human could live in it. Frustrated and in a frenetic quest for justice, the townspeople lynched several innocents, and the disappearances continued. Suspicion often fell on local innkeepers since they were the last to see many of the missing people alive.
One fateful night, the Beans ambushed a married couple riding from a fair on one horse, but the man was skilled in combat, deftly holding off the clan with sword and pistol. The clan fatally mauled the wife when she fell to the ground in the conflict. Before they could take the resilient husband, a large group of fairgoers appeared on the trail and the Beans fled.
With the Beans’ existence finally revealed to the world, it was not long before the King of Scotland heard of the atrocities and decided to lead a manhunt with a team of 400 men and several bloodhounds, soon finding the Beans’ previously overlooked cave in Bannane Head. The cave was rife with human remains, having been the scene of hundreds of murders and cannibalistic acts.
The clan was captured alive and taken in chains to the Tolbooth Jail in Edinburgh, then transferred to Leith or Glasgow where they were promptly executed without trial; the men had their genitalia cut off, hands and feet severed and were allowed to bleed to death, and the women and children, after watching the men die, were burned alive. (This recalls, in essence if not in detail, the punishments of hanging, drawing and quartering decreed for men convicted of treason while women convicted of the same were burned. Presumably- whether or not the story had an actual basis – cannibalism was considered the equivalent of treason.)
The town of Girvan, located near the crime scene, has another legend about the cannibal clan. It is said that one of Bean’s daughters eventually left the clan and settled in Girvan, where she planted the Hairy tree. After her family’s capture, the daughter’s identity was revealed by angry locals who hanged her from the bough of the Hairy Tree.
| Name Sawney Beane Ogre CR 10 XP 9600 Chaotic Evil Large Humanoid Rogue level 2 (skill points 16) Trap Expert (Cutpurse ) Rogue level 3 (skill points 24) Scout (Bandit) Assasin level 3 (skill points 12) Assasin Init +2; Senses Darkvision 60, Low-light Vision; Perception +12
DEFENSE
AC 19, Touch 11, flat footed 17 ( Studded Leather, Shield, none) (+2 Dexterity, +5 Natural, -1 size, +3 armour) OFFENSE
Speed 40 STATISTICS
Strength 23 + 2 = 25, Dexterity 14, Constitution 17, Intelligence 10, Wisdom 10, Charisma 5 ECOLOGY
Environment Temperate hills SPECIAL ABILITIES
Evasion Reflex save no damage instead of 1/2 MAGIC ITEMS (max value 10050)
Belt of giant strength (+2) +2 Strength (4000gp) Bag of holding (type II) 500 lb (5000gp) +1 Ogre hook (2300gp) Total Value = 11300 |