Day 13
A green d4. I don't have a complete set yet of all one color, but I am getting there.
I was looking back at some of the movies I have watched and it dawned on me that I have never reviewed Day of the Triffids. My wife mentioned it to me the other day and I told her yes, I have seen many times, but I checked and I have never reviewed it. Odd. I did a monster write-up for it years ago, but never an October Horror Movie Challenge. Let's change that.
The Day of the Triffids (1963)
A meteor shower blinds most of the population of Earth and spreads the spores of the deadly Triffids.
Our hero, Bill Masen played by Howard Keel had been in a hospital with his eyes bandaged, so he was unaffected.
The Triffids quickly overrun everything, firing their spores and killing humans. They seem to be unkillable and constantly regenerate and grow new Triffids.
The movie is a bit slow, and while I enjoy it, I am not ...ehm...blind to it's shortcomings.
The Triffids are all eventually defeated when Masen discovers they can be dissolved in salt water.
The movie takes a few liberties with the source novel. That's all I can recall, I read the novel back in the 1980s, and I am getting it; this movie and the 1981 BBC serial are all confused. Partly because I never got a chance to finish the 1981 version.
This movie is notable for being one of the first appearances on screen of Carol Ann Ford, who would later go on to play Susan Foreman in Doctor Who.
Featured Monster: Shambling Mound (and maybe Shrieker)
There are not a lot of plant monsters in the Monster Manual. Treants have a very obvious genesis, but the Shambling Mound was at least partially influenced by the Triffids, either book or movie. Though the art is more reminiscent of Dc's Swamp Thing and Marvel's Man Thing. The noise the Triffids make is what I always suspected a Shrieker sounds like, only much louder and constant.
The title sequences were created by Terry Gilliam of Monty Python fame. It was a little jarring at first, I was expecting a Monty Python sketch.
Set in England at the time of the Witch trials (16th Century) we have corrupt magistrate Lord Edward Whitman (Vincent Price) determined to seek out and punish witches. It just happens that he and his men only find pretty witches to torment.
He encounters a true coven of witches and has many of their members killed, leaving the old witch Oona (Elisabeth Bergner). She pleads to Satan to send her an avenger to kill Whitman and his family. Which is weird because I thought they were supposed to be worshiping "The Old Religion?"
The first to die is the son, Sean, and then the Lady Patricia.
Oona is discovered by the Priest and Harry Whitman, but not before Maureen is attacked. Oona is killed but she admits that Roderrick (Patrick Mower) is really a Sidhe sent to kill the Whitmans.
Roderrick convinces Maureen he won't harm her until he sees Lord Edward, then he transforms to some sort of beast creature. Maureen grabs a blunderbus and kills Roderick. Lord Edward says with Roderick dead their family curse is lifted and they can leave their home.
Lord Edward goes to visit Roderrick's grave only to discover he isn't in his coffin. He goes back to his carriage to find Harry and Maureen dead and Roderick now driving the carriage.
Featured Monster: Groaning Spirit (Banshee)
Banshees are a creature out of folklore, but there have been some modern, pre-1977, interpretations. This is one, and "Darby O'Gill and the Little People (1959)" is another. Which was likely as much of a source for leprechauns how they are used in the Monster Manual in addition to folklore. I can make this claim easy enough since they were the only two movies I could find prior to 1977 to feature a banshee.
But it is not much of a horror movie really. Darby O'Gill that is. Cry of the Banshee is quite the classic, even if it doesn't have a "real" Banshee in it.
The Banshee in the Monster Manual is the spirit of an elf woman. This comes from the idea that Ban Sidhe or Ban Sith means "Faerie Woman" in Gaelic. It works as far as AD&D goes. But this film makes a good case that the Banshee could also be the spirit of a dead witch.
Maybe that is where I need to take this for D&D and related games.
Two vampire movies with the same plot, 10 years apart. It may not be the best representation of the AD&D Vampire, but in all honesty, I have already watched every vampire movie released before 1977.
Basic Plot: A bunch of criminals get together with the brilliant idea of kidnapping the daughter of some powerful and rich underworld figure for a bunch of money. Only after they are all trapped in the house with the daughter do they discover it is a trap and the daughter is a vampire. I watched Abigail over the summer but wanted to rewatch it once I found Blood Trap.
Blood Trap / Bite (2015)
In this version our lead bad guy is Roman played by Costas Mandylor. He is a retired prison warden you gathers up some of his former inmates to do the kidnapping job. In this case it is Nika played by Elena Mirela.
This one has quite a bit of blood and violence in it. Even the babies in it are vampires.
The babies are all Nika's, from over 238 years, though most are too human to be able to feed on their own. She is looking for someone who can provide her with a healthy baby.
Nika manages to capture one of the criminals, loads him up with viagra, and proceed conceive a new kid. Then she turns him. In the end her father comes back and complains about the mess and Nika looks about 5 months pregnant.
Abigail (2024)
This one is much better. In this one our vampire is Abigail, a child of about 7 or 8 and played AMAZINGLY by Alisha Weir. In this our criminals seem more professional and less like "Resivoir Dogs meet The Daughter of Dracula."
This one also features up and comer in the horror movie scene, Kathryn Newton, who is great.
In our X-Men connection between the movies Abigail has Kevin Durand, using his normal Quebecois accent which was cool, played The Blob / Fred Dukes in "X-Men Origins: Wolverine." Blood Trap has Vinnie Jones played Juggernaut / Cain Marko in "X-Men: The Last Stand."
Watching this ultra violent little girl kill off all the criminals except one was such a delight. Plenty of good scares too.
In this one Abigail's father, Christof Lazar, shows up played by Matthew Goode who also plays the vampire in "Discovery of Witches." There is some evidence that he might be Dracula.
Featured Monster: Vampire
Vampires are easy. There are over 3,000 vampire titles on IMDB alone. So, finding a vampire movie is easy, but finding a good one is hard.
There are not many that feature vampires like those found in AD&D, that is, with "level drain," but maybe Lifeforce comes close. So, instead, I like looking for different sorts of vampire movies, so these two certainly count.Mina is hypnotized. More plans are made.
11 October, Evening.—Jonathan Harker has asked me to note this, as he says he is hardly equal to the task, and he wants an exact record kept.
I think that none of us were surprised when we were asked to see Mrs. Harker a little before the time of sunset. We have of late come to understand that sunrise and sunset are to her times of peculiar freedom; when her old self can be manifest without any controlling force subduing or restraining her, or inciting her to action. This mood or condition begins some half hour or more before actual sunrise or sunset, and lasts till either the sun is high, or whilst the clouds are still aglow with the rays streaming above the horizon. At first there is a sort of negative condition, as if some tie were loosened, and then the absolute freedom quickly follows; when, however, the freedom ceases the change-back or relapse comes quickly, preceded only by a spell of warning silence.
To-night, when we met, she was somewhat constrained, and bore all the signs of an internal struggle. I put it down myself to her making a violent effort at the earliest instant she could do so. A very few minutes, however, gave her complete control of herself; then, motioning her husband to sit beside her on the sofa where she was half reclining, she made the rest of us bring chairs up close. Taking her husband’s hand in hers began:—
“We are all here together in freedom, for perhaps the last time! I know, dear; I know that you will always be with me to the end.” This was to her husband whose hand had, as we could see, tightened upon hers. “In the morning we go out upon our task, and God alone knows what may be in store for any of us. You are going to be so good to me as to take me with you. I know that all that brave earnest men can do for a poor weak woman, whose soul perhaps is lost—no, no, not yet, but is at any rate at stake—you will do. But you must remember that I am not as you are. There is a poison in my blood, in my soul, which may destroy me; which must destroy me, unless some relief comes to us. Oh, my friends, you know as well as I do, that my soul is at stake; and though I know there is one way out for me, you must not and I must not take it!” She looked appealingly to us all in turn, beginning and ending with her husband.
“What is that way?” asked Van Helsing in a hoarse voice. “What is that way, which we must not—may not—take?”
“That I may die now, either by my own hand or that of another, before the greater evil is entirely wrought. I know, and you know, that were I once dead you could and would set free my immortal spirit, even as you did my poor Lucy’s. Were death, or the fear of death, the only thing that stood in the way I would not shrink to die here, now, amidst the friends who love me. But death is not all. I cannot believe that to die in such a case, when there is hope before us and a bitter task to be done, is God’s will. Therefore, I, on my part, give up here the certainty of eternal rest, and go out into the dark where may be the blackest things that the world or the nether world holds!” We were all silent, for we knew instinctively that this was only a prelude. The faces of the others were set and Harker’s grew ashen grey; perhaps he guessed better than any of us what was coming. She continued:—
“This is what I can give into the hotch-pot.” I could not but note the quaint legal phrase which she used in such a place, and with all seriousness. “What will each of you give? Your lives I know,” she went on quickly, “that is easy for brave men. Your lives are God’s, and you can give them back to Him; but what will you give to me?” She looked again questioningly, but this time avoided her husband’s face. Quincey seemed to understand; he nodded, and her face lit up. “Then I shall tell you plainly what I want, for there must be no doubtful matter in this connection between us now. You must promise me, one and all—even you, my beloved husband—that, should the time come, you will kill me.”
“What is that time?” The voice was Quincey’s, but it was low and strained.
“When you shall be convinced that I am so changed that it is better that I die than I may live. When I am thus dead in the flesh, then you will, without a moment’s delay, drive a stake through me and cut off my head; or do whatever else may be wanting to give me rest!”
Quincey was the first to rise after the pause. He knelt down before her and taking her hand in his said solemnly:—
“I’m only a rough fellow, who hasn’t, perhaps, lived as a man should to win such a distinction, but I swear to you by all that I hold sacred and dear that, should the time ever come, I shall not flinch from the duty that you have set us. And I promise you, too, that I shall make all certain, for if I am only doubtful I shall take it that the time has come!”
“My true friend!” was all she could say amid her fast-falling tears, as, bending over, she kissed his hand.
“I swear the same, my dear Madam Mina!” said Van Helsing.
“And I!” said Lord Godalming, each of them in turn kneeling to her to take the oath. I followed, myself. Then her husband turned to her wan-eyed and with a greenish pallor which subdued the snowy whiteness of his hair, and asked:—
“And must I, too, make such a promise, oh, my wife?”
“You too, my dearest,” she said, with infinite yearning of pity in her voice and eyes. “You must not shrink. You are nearest and dearest and all the world to me; our souls are knit into one, for all life and all time. Think, dear, that there have been times when brave men have killed their wives and their womenkind, to keep them from falling into the hands of the enemy. Their hands did not falter any the more because those that they loved implored them to slay them. It is men’s duty towards those whom they love, in such times of sore trial! And oh, my dear, if it is to be that I must meet death at any hand, let it be at the hand of him that loves me best. Dr. Van Helsing, I have not forgotten your mercy in poor Lucy’s case to him who loved”—she stopped with a flying blush, and changed her phrase—“to him who had best right to give her peace. If that time shall come again, I look to you to make it a happy memory of my husband’s life that it was his loving hand which set me free from the awful thrall upon me.”
“Again I swear!” came the Professor’s resonant voice. Mrs. Harker smiled, positively smiled, as with a sigh of relief she leaned back and said:—
“And now one word of warning, a warning which you must never forget: this time, if it ever come, may come quickly and unexpectedly, and in such case you must lose no time in using your opportunity. At such a time I myself might be—nay! if the time ever comes, shall be—leagued with your enemy against you.”
“One more request;” she became very solemn as she said this, “it is not vital and necessary like the other, but I want you to do one thing for me, if you will.” We all acquiesced, but no one spoke; there was no need to speak:—
“I want you to read the Burial Service.” She was interrupted by a deep groan from her husband; taking his hand in hers, she held it over her heart, and continued: “You must read it over me some day. Whatever may be the issue of all this fearful state of things, it will be a sweet thought to all or some of us. You, my dearest, will I hope read it, for then it will be in your voice in my memory for ever—come what may!”
“But oh, my dear one,” he pleaded, “death is afar off from you.”
“Nay,” she said, holding up a warning hand. “I am deeper in death at this moment than if the weight of an earthly grave lay heavy upon me!”
“Oh, my wife, must I read it?” he said, before he began.
“It would comfort me, my husband!” was all she said; and he began to read when she had got the book ready.
“How can I—how could any one—tell of that strange scene, its solemnity, its gloom, its sadness, its horror; and, withal, its sweetness. Even a sceptic, who can see nothing but a travesty of bitter truth in anything holy or emotional, would have been melted to the heart had he seen that little group of loving and devoted friends kneeling round that stricken and sorrowing lady; or heard the tender passion of her husband’s voice, as in tones so broken with emotion that often he had to pause, he read the simple and beautiful service from the Burial of the Dead. I—I cannot go on—words—and—v-voice—f-fail m-me!”
She was right in her instinct. Strange as it all was, bizarre as it may hereafter seem even to us who felt its potent influence at the time, it comforted us much; and the silence, which showed Mrs. Harker’s coming relapse from her freedom of soul, did not seem so full of despair to any of us as we had dreaded.
Notes: Moon Phase: Waning Gibbous
While travelling was Seward recording his diary via phonograph still? I don't think he was.
During the times of sunrise and sunset, Mina has more control over herself and can see through the Count's eyes, or at least ascertain his whereabouts. Does the Count know this? I believe he does given actions later on in this chase.
Mina is worried that she will die, either by the vampire or her own hand. She makes everyone promise that they will kill her if she becomes too far gone. Only Harker doesn't make the vow and Mina charges Van Helsing to make sure he does.
It will be another few days before we meet up with our hunters again.
1992. By Scott Bennie and Colin McComb. Cover art by Jeff Easley. Interior art by Ron Hill, John Knecht and Jaime Lombardo, art and maps by David C. Sutherland III.
For this review I am only considering the PDF from DriveThruRPG. There is no Print on Demand copy yet and I lost my original a long time ago.
This book contains new "island" domains and their darklords. Many pulled from or influenced by other TSR campaign worlds.
Nidala. This realm is the domain of a Lawful Good Paladin turned crazed zealot. She is now just a Lawful Evil fighter and rules her land with an iron fist. Of course she still sees herself as acting for the good of all. I liked this one because I played a lot of Paladins in my time, and Elena was a great example of her "Lawfulness" overpowering her "Goodness." Plus she still thinks she is a Paladin because the Dark Powers are now granting her her former paladin powers.
Elena Faith-hold is connected to Kateri Shadowborn from the Darklords book (Ebonbane). Given the descriptions of each and their lands, I am inclined to say they were all from Oerth, the World of Greyhawk.
The Wildlands. This is an African-influenced, fable-like, domain full of talking animals. The animals act like humans in other domains and they are all terrified of the land's Darklord King Crocodile. This darklord is a huge crocodile with the abilities of a 12th-level fighter.
Scaena. This domain is a theatre controlled by its author-lord, Lemot Sediam Juste. It is a "travelling show" that floats from place to place. It can appear as anything that Juste wishes (writes) it is just a theater building. The obvious influence here is Lon Chaney's Phantom of the Opera movie.
I'Cath. This land is obviously from Kara-Tur and one of the few I had used from this book.
Saragoss. This watery domain is from the Forgotten Realms' Sea of Stars. BUT I misread it back in the day and though it was from Krynn. Remember it was 1992, not much of an internet yet and I did not have ready access to either Dragonlance or Forgotten Realms books. The darklord here is a Pirate Captain who can change into a shark and is a Priest of Umberlee. It is an interesting one and I wanted to use in my failed nautical AD&D 2nd Ed game.
Timor. This is a large, Victorian-like city where the darklord is the Hive Queen of the Marikith. We would see something similar with the 10th Doctor in the Doctor Who episode, The Runaway Bride. The city of Timor is filled with food, no one goes hungry. Why, because the Hive Queen wants to keep the populace fattened up for her children to feed on. Outside of Ravenloft this would make for a nice scary one shot.
Pharazia. While not specifically stated, this land could have originated in the Al-Qadim setting. The darklord, Diamabel is an interesting sort. He sees himself as not just good, but the embodiment of goodly virtues. He is where he is because he has been betrayed by the entire world.
Staunton Bluffs. I am not sure this one was needed. It does a lot of things that other domains also do. Gothic. Ghosts. We have seen this all before. A man jealous of his brother and his brother's position in the the family. BUT there is a little clue here that gives me some hope. One of the nearby duchies on their homeworld was Avergne. Now this could be the Auvergne of France OR the Averoigne of Glantri and Castle Amber. I am inclined to go with Glantril and Mystara here. Especially since there was a great magical rite performed by the would-be darklord Torrence Bleysmith (also cribbed from Strahd).
Bleysmith is now a ghost. He leaves his people alone, likely due to guilt, and their lives are better for it.
Nosos. In a horror tale a little too close to reality, this is the land of what happens when the wealthy control everything. It is a vast industrial wasteland of pollution and disease.
We wrap-up the book with four "new" monsters. I say "new" because we have seen some of these before, but with new Ravenloft writeups. One, the Sea Zombie was first published in the AD&D 1st Ed Greyhawk Adventures book with AD&D 2nd Ed stats.
Over-all a good set of new domains and darklords for your Ravenloft game. Like a lot of the Ravenloft books the game stats are limited, so you could adapt this to and edition of Ravenloft you are playing with little to no effort at all.