I am going to be posting more content and support for Night Shift here but thought I'd start off with a monster/NPC from my West Haven setting.
Ethyl Critchlow, Urban Hag
Every child, whether human or witch-born, knows to stay away from the house on the corner of Taylor and Bell. Here sits an old run-down house that everyone thought would either fall in on itself or the city would have condemned.
But it is not the house that frightens the children, though it is frightening. Nor is it the small angry dog that everyone remembers from their own childhoods, making it at least 25 years old or older. Rumor in the neighborhood is that once the dog got out and bit the fingers off of a boy who could not run fast enough.
It is not the dog or the house. It is the owner of both that keeps people away.
Ethyl Critchlow looks like a stereotypical old witch, but this is just a glamour, her true form is that of an ancient and hideous old hag. She is an Urban Hag and has been living in West Haven for nearly as long as there has been a West Haven. She hates all children and takes glee in terrorizing them, but a pact made with the City Council keeps her from doing any actual harm to them. Though if their toys land in her yard she will keep them and if any child climbs her fence to get these toys then she will send her "dog" (in actuality a glamoured Hell Hound) Maximillian after them.
Ethyl would also admit that at her age (almost 400) that eating children, especially modern ones, gives her terrible heartburn. Though she did eat a couple of missionaries from East Haven back in the 1960s, but no one came looking for them.
She stays in West Haven because frankly, she has nowhere else to go. The city tolerates her and is just waiting for her to finally die of old age or a magical mishap. She is also a great source of magical knowledge and history. She can be bribed with 18-year-old single malt scotch. Ethyl is a heavy drinker, so bring more than one bottle if you plan to use this for information. Also fair warning, as Ethyl drinks her glamour begins to fade. By the time she has worked through two bottles, her glamour will be gone.
Ethyl Critchlow (Urban Hag)
No. Appearing: 1 (Unique)
AC: 2
Move: 30ft.
Hit Dice: 10
Special: Adapt to locale, Cackle, Horde, Spellcasting, Strength, Vulnerability (iron)
XP VALUE: 10,240
Ethyl casts spells as a 9th-level witch.
Urban Hags are hoarders. Her home is a falling apart pit of junk she has collected over her nearly four centuries of life. Amongst the filth, garbage and debris of decades, there are also some magical treasures. In particular, Ethyl has several magical scrolls with spells that can be used by any witch or scholar. There is also a magical pipe that can lure the undead to sleep. Though one is advised not to go looking for such treasures.
find Ethyl and the other citizens of West Haven in Night Shift: Veterans of the Supernatural Wars.
I love this. Everything about this concept resonates true. I imagine many of us had an Ethyl Critchlow in our childhood neighborhoods and nightmares. Nailed it!
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