Witchcraft Wednesday: Left Hand Path work and more Moria

 The Left Hand Path is moving on a good pace, not as far as I wanted to be right now, but I can live with that. I did want to show off another bit of new art for the book.

That's how it appears in the book. I'll add the artists names when I am doing laying out. I might tweak the page a bit, but you get the right idea. 

Here is a closeup.

The artist is Bill Blue, and you can see more of his art on his site.

Last night I wrapped up the first adventure for my 1357 DR Forgotten Realms campaign. As a GMPC, Moria only gets a fraction of the XP earned, so she has not leveled up yet. My oldest bought some HeroForge minis for some of his characters. I joked with him about it asking are you sure you want to spend money on minis, the characters could be dead before they get here! He said it was fine since a couple of characters in the group are based on characters he has going in other games, so they will get use. Wonder where he got that from?

Of course, I had to make a mini of Moria and Mesphito Fleas. Shout out to Pun Isaac for sending me suggestions for her mini!

 I am not going to buy a mini of her for the same reasons I told my son not buy his minis, she might be dead before they come in the mail! Maybe I'll just buy the STL and print here at home.

Yeah, she still only had 4hp and three spells (using my Advanced rules), but Fleas did kill a goblin last night by biting it. So maybe her chances are not so bad after all. 

We started adventure C3 The Lost Islands of Castanamir last night. I decided that Castanamir was a Red Wizard of Thay, but broke away from them to continue his own esoteric research.  This is one of the adventures I got from the Grenda Collection, so it is fun to use. 

There is a room with two thieves, Doblin and Joblo (really??). Well, I misread the entry and thought those were the names of the Leprechauns. When Liam got to the room where the thieves were, I didn't have names for them. That's OK, it was Duchess & Candella to the rescue! They were looting investigating a wizard's tower in Glantri when they got pulled in here. Obviously Castanmir was seeking advice from the wizards in Glantri with help for his tower. 

I am going to certainly be bringing them back as comic relief. I said they don't really fit in the Realms, but who am I kidding? They fit everywhere!

Speaking of reoccurring characters. I am certainly going to be using Grenda's Briana Highstar as an antagonist. They are not ready to meet her yet. I know she is an enemy to "balance," but she also serves Mephistopheles. She could even start out as ally. I don't know yet. I will see how it plays out.

I already have a mini for her!

This one is labeled as "Black Robed Mage of High Sorcery" so that works great for me. She also looks she is wearing a feathered cloak of some sort. 

This will be fun!

Character Creation Challenge: Briana Highstar

After discovering yesterday's healer, I have to admit I went searching through this large stack of characters looking for a witch. I found one and she was not who I suspected she was going to be. So for this special Witchcraft Wednesday of the Character Creation Challenge, I give you Briana Highstar.

Now that name sticks out. Grenda was very, very careful with his family names. He had (and you have seen here) dynasties of characters. The Addingdales are the prime example. So when he names someone "Highstar" especially at the time when Morgan Highstar was such a prominent character of his, it means something. 

Sadly, there is not much here on Briana Highstar. She is listed as an NPC. She does not show up in our shared timeline, and I have not been able to dig up anything else about her. So, a witch (a class I made) related to his major Riddlemaster (a class he made). There is a story here!

I know she is one of my witches, largely due to the spells. I mean, yeah, he could have been using another witch class and my spells. 1993 is about the time I finished my first big "publication" draft that combined all my notes and handwritten playtest documents. I still have it here, I just printed it out on a "new" type of printer, an inkjet. 

So what can I speculate about Briana Highstar?

Her sheet says that she is a diabolic witch and her patron devil is Mephistopheles. She is Lawful Evil. That's about it.

Given Grenda's frame of mind at the time (2/11/1993) I'll make the following assumptions.

She is the younger half-sister of Morgan Highstar; they share the same father but different mothers.  I'll tear a page from Arthurian legends and have their relationship (at least the antagonism) be the same as Arthur and Morgan le Fey's. The attitude would likely be Briana feels wronged by Morgan and Morgan doesn't even know who she is.

To amp up this antagonism, I'd have Briana look a lot like Morgan; black hair, gray eyes. Hell, she might look a bit like Katie McGrath's Morgana from Merlin. I'll admit it, I am a fan of her's. 

Maybe her motivation is to destroy his School of Riddlemasters. Or maybe she just wants to avenge herself on him. I don't know yet. She is Lawful Evil to his True Neutral, so maybe her plans are more complicated. Maybe "her" plans are not her's but Mephistopheles' instead. Who knows, I would have to put her into play and see what she does.

Briana Highstar

Class: Witch
Level: 8
Species: Human
Alignment: Evil Dark
Background: Cultist

Abilities
Strength: 12 (+0) 
Agility: 16 (+2) 
Toughness: 13 (+1) 
Intelligence: 17 (+2) N
Wits: 17 (+2) A
Persona: 15 (+1) N

Fate Points: 1d10
Defense Value: 1
Vitality: 26
Degeneracy: 32
Corruption: 1 (eyes glow an unnatural way, like a cats)

Check Bonus (A/N/D): +4/+3/+1
Melee Bonus: +1 (base) 
Ranged Bonus: +1 (base)
Saves: +4 vs spells and magical effects

Arcane Abilities
Beguile, Precognition, Shadow Walking

Heroic/Divine Touchstones 
1st Level: Additional 1st level Spell
3rd Level: Favored Weapon, Whip
5th Level: Spirit Guide: Cat Familiar 
7th Level: Magical Recovery

Heroic (Divine) Archetype: Domination

Spells
First Level (4+1): Armor of Earth, Black Flames, Chill Ray, Phantom Lights, Read Languages
Second Level (3): Eternal Flame, Invisibility, See Invisible
Third Level (3): Animal Summoning 2, Dark Lightning, Globe of Darkness
Fourth Level (2): Black Tentacles, Kiss of the Succubus

Gear
Whip

Briana has a vendetta against all Riddlemasters. She wants to kill them all, but that is an impossible task, so she will settle on doing as much damage to them as she can. Her Patron, Mephistopheles, is using her to strike a blow to Balance, the force that Riddlemasters represent. 

I will certainly be using Briana more in adventures. Don't worry Grenda, I'll take care of her.

You can get the Wasted Lands RPG and the NIGHT SHIFT RPG at Elf Lair Games.