Jackson, IL: Am I Evil? NPCs of the Satanic Panic

Last week, I talked about running two different 80s-style teenage horror campaigns. My Sunny Valley, OH game with Dark Places & Demogorgons and my current Jackson, IL one with NIGHT SHIFT. 

I had such a good time talking about it that I wanted to explore these two games together some more. But the trick was finding a good pivot point for both of them. I started thinking, what do these two games have in common that I can really exploit for the 1980s? I came up with too many ideas to be honest, so I started thinking about characters. I decided my frame was going to be the Satanic Panic.

My Mother was a Witch

I recalled that the Dark Places & Demogorgons had a "Black Witch" class. In all my past witches for Sunny Valley, I used the White White class, naturally; all my witches tend to be "good." But I wanted to try something new. So I went to the Dark Places & Demogorgons Players Options & GM's Guide, and checked out their magic classes. I also looked into the Dark Places & Demogorgons Players Ultimate Edition for the Mystic Class. Both are great, really, the mystic is closer to the Mystic found in other Bloat Games products. I tried both, but to jump to the end of this, I went with the Black Witch.

On the O.G.R.E.S. side of things, I pretty much knew I wanted to try out the Sorcerer class from Wasted Lands, not that the class is all that different from the witch class; I did want to use some of the Heroic Touchstones from the Wasted Lands game. Again, long story short, I went with the witch and the sorcerer, but I could have stuck with the witch alone.  I did give them an Heroic Touchstone each, migth end up giving them some others later on. Both NPCs are more powerful than anyone character, that is by design. It also fits their backgrounds better.

I ended up with two NPCs and four character sheets. 

These two are going to be central in my Satanic Panic adventure that is going to pop up later on. How later? Well, game-wise, it is going to be Spring 1986, whenever I get to that. Currently, it is just before the 1985 Christmas break. One NPC is a central cause, the other will be a catalyst.

For these, I wanted to try and get each version as close to the other as I could so it felt like playing the same character in each game. 

Moria Elizabeth Zachary

Moria looks like a good girl. She attends the "other" school in town, St. Michael's Catholic High School. She will interact with the PCs either because she comes to take classes at Jackson Public High School (typically something like Calculus or another math class) or because one or more of the PCs have to go to her school (to take advanced Latin or Greek). This actually happened a few times in my own hometown. 

Moria is unassuming and very pleasant. She stands all of 5'1" and looks like the textbook definition of "harmless."

Trouble is, Moria Zachary is really a half-demon. Her mother was a witch from Sunny Valley, OH, and she moved here. Her father, well, he is not a local. Not to anywhere. He is a demon. Moria has moved her with her "Hellhond larva" dog and wants to stir up trouble now in Jackson. OR if you are using her in DP&D, then she is from Jackson and has moved to Jefferson Town.

Moria Zachary is a "mirror shard" of my own Moria Zami, who in my AD&D game is half-devil. Her job here is not to convince the characters to do evil, but to convince them that tools of "Good" are never going to be enough to stop what is coming, and they will need to "color outside the lines" in order to get things done. Moria doesn't care (and maybe doesn't even know) about the Hollow King. She wants the characters to commit evil acts to fight other evil creatures. In either case, Moria gets what she wants, and this is more evil. Her particular favorite is to corrupt other witches and turn them to evil. Failing that, any psychic class or sage is good. She avoids trying to convert theosophists and spirit riders if she can. Not that they are difficult, but they are no fun.

Moria Zachary (NIGHT SHIFT)
3rd Level Witch, Infernal

*Background: Infernal (half-infernal)

Base Abilities
Strength: 14 (+1) 
Agility: 15 (+1) 
Toughness: 16 (+2) N
Intelligence: 14 (+1) N
Wits: 12 (+0) 
Persona: 20 (+4) A

Fate Points: 1d6
Defense Value: 9
Vitality: 19

Degeneracy: 1
Corruption: 0

Check Bonus (A/N/D): +3/+1/+0
Melee Bonus: +0 (base) 
Ranged Bonus: +0 (base)
Spell Attack: +2
Saves: +3 to Spells and Magical effects (Witch) +3 to Wits saves (Infernal background).

Feed (Infernal): Must get witches to cast "evil" rituals

Witch Abilities
Arcana, Arcane Powers (1): Innate Magic: Glamour

Witch Spells
First Level: Black Flames, Magic Missile
Second Level: Defile

Heroic Touchstones
2nd Level: Mystic Senses (Sense Witches)

Archetype: The Half Demon, false friend, witch rival
Quote: "I’m not trying to make you like me. I’m trying to make you stop hating the part of yourself that already does."
Quirks: Looks harmless, sweet, and innocent.
Theme song: "Am I Evil?" - Metallica

Familiar: "Mephisto Fleas"

---

Moria Zachary (Dark Places & Demogorgons)

Class: Black Witch
Level: 3
Alignment: Evil 
Languages: English, Latin, Greek, Infernal
Age: 15

Attributes
STR: 14 +1
INT: 14 +1
WIS: 12 +0
DEX: 15 +1
CON: 16 +2
CHA: 20 +4
SUR: 18 +3

AC: 10     HP: 23    Attack Bonus +1

Courage: 4
Critical: 3
Death: 5
Mental: 5
Poison: 3

Background
Parents are cultists

Class Abilities
+1 to saves involving magic

Skills
Art +3, Math +4, Science +4, Knowledge (Magic) +5, Paranormal +4, Botany +3

Possessions
Rosary with inverted pentagram, Hellhound Larva "Mephisto Fleas."

Money: $50

Spells
Minor (3), Major (1)
Glammerd Appearance, Magical Insight, Burning Ash hands,

Darren "The Sorcerer" Vale

Darren is different. He is a second cousin to one of my witch NPCs, Stephanie Vale. His family has money, but not as much as Stephanie's. Darren is also a little creep. I'll admit I wanted to make him out every negative stereotype of an 80s gamer I could. Because, let's be honest, we all knew/know someone like Darren growing up. That guy who would say something so profoundly stupid, sexist, or racist that you couldn't believe he was at the same table as you. 

Darren is also interested in witches, but not like Moria is. Darren will say stupid shit like "you know, witches are supposed to love guys named 'Darren'" and then laugh at his own cleverness. 

So in the world of Jackson, IL, "Dungeons & Dragons" was not the Greatest Fantasy RPG in the world. No, everyone plays Spellcraft & Swordplay. That is, except for Darren now. He has just been kicked out of the Jackson Public High School S&S Club for making other players uncomfortable, especially group members Paul, Amy Jo, and Kevin. All four used to get together to play on Friday nights, where discussions would drift into typical gamer talk of "Excalibur" the movie vs "Mists of Avalon" the novel, and how they could replicate the feel in a game. Paul, Amy Jo, and Kevin would want to have a fun but serious discussion; Darren always made it weird. 

Darren is one of those guys who got moved up a grade early on and never really caught up emotionally with his peers. He also became one of those kids who felt intelligence equaled superiority, and because he was a little smarter, he thought that made him better than everyone else. He is jealous of everyone in his school. It is not until he notices the supernatural (or maybe the Supernatural notices him as easy prey) that his jealousy really flares. In particular, why does his cousin Stephanie have power? Or why does a loner like Faye? Or fellow "gifted kid" Larina? He has something in common with all three of them, but he has no power of his own. He dismisses them as flukes and makes excuses for his own lack of power by saying he could have it if he tried. Well, something in the dark answers him.

Darren goes from a 0-level human to a 4th-level Sorcerer/Black Witch almost overnight. Something is granting him power. 

Yeah, maybe I should have called him "The Warlock" but the Stevie Nicks song "Sorcerer" was a big enfluence on this character, and *my* nickname was "Web Warlock" for a long time. And to quote that great hunter of the supernatural, "I'm not with this asshole."

Darren Vale (NIGHT SHIFT)
4th Level Witch, human

Background: Nerd

Base Abilities
Strength: 9 (+0) 
Agility: 9 (+0) 
Toughness: 10 (+0) 
Intelligence: 18 (+3) A
Wits: 12 (+0) N
Persona: 11 (+0) N

Fate Points: 1d6
Defense Value: 9
Vitality: 15

Degeneracy: 3
Corruption: 0

Check Bonus (A/N/D): +3/+2/+0
Melee Bonus: +0 (base) 
Ranged Bonus: +0 (base)
Spell Attack: +3
Saves: +4 to Spells and Magical effects (Witch) +2 to Int saves (Nerd background).

Witch Abilities
Arcana, Arcane Powers (2): Innate Magic: Glamour, Innate Magic: ESP

Witch Spells
First Level: Magic Missile, Protection From Good, Chill Ray
Second Level: Invoke Fear, Beguile Person

Heroic Touchstones
2nd Level: Mystic Senses (Sense Witches)

Archetype: The Misanthrope
Quote: "You can't begin to comprehend my power!"
Quirks: Dresses in nice, expensive clothes but is ill-kempt and generally unhygienic.
Theme song: "Sorcerer" - Stevie Nicks

---

Darren Vale (Dark Places & Demogorgons)

Class: Black Witch
Level: 4
Alignment: Evil 
Languages: English, Latin, Greek
Age: 16

Attributes
STR: 9 +0
INT: 18 +3
WIS: 12 +0
DEX: 9 +0
CON: 10 +0
CHA: 11 +0
SUR: 15 +1

AC: 10     HP: 20    Attack Bonus +0

Courage: 3
Critical: 4
Death: 4
Mental: 6
Poison: 4

Background
Obsessed with Magic and the Occult

Class Abilities
+1 to saves involving magic

Skills
Computers +3, Art +1, Math +4, Science +4, Knowledge (Magic) +4, Paranormal +4, Electronics +2

Possessions
Well-thumbed copy of The Necronomicon with notes and penciled-in "corrections."

Money: $150

Spells
Minor (5)
Blind, Charm, Dark Blast, Pain Touch, Read Minds

Darren is not supposed to be a nice guy; in fact, he is dangerous. He will use his "blind" magic on Amy Jo, and likely his "pain touch" on Kevin or Paul.  BUT I am not sure if the characters should kill him. So, in any case, his demonic (or whatever it is) will abandon him in the end, leaving him dead or insane.

His parents never really paid him any attention before, but after this, his mother will go on a crusade against the evils of RPGs, creating the group P.A.S.S. or Parents Against Spellcraft & Swordplay.

The Satanic Panic

Both of these characters will stir up trouble in my upcoming Satanic Panic adventure. At some point, Moria will go missing, and the students will blame the occult (which is kind of true, in a way). Darren will end up either dead or insane, and his mom will blame Spellcraft & Swordplay (sorry, Jason!). Things will escalate when Darren's mom confronts Sylvia Velasco at El Espejo Oscuro. Sylvia refuses to stay silent. "I sell candles to fools every day. I do not sell knives to children. And I sure as hell did not sell real magic to that pendejo. Your son wanted girls without their consent and power without discipline. That did not come from my shop." Because of this, the mob ends up burning down El Espejo Oscuro.

I haven't worked out all the details for that adventure yet, except that Sylvia will be the obvious target and it will take place after the Hollow King arc. There's still time. I wanted to introduce these two now so both the players and their characters get to know them early. That way, it won't feel like a random new NPC shows up and is automatically innocent.

I want to make it clear that Moria and Darren aren't supposed to be surprise villains who suddenly appear out of nowhere. I want my players to meet Moria ahead of time, maybe seeing her smiling in the hallway at St. Michael's. Darren might be seen hanging around El Espejo Oscuro, making people uncomfortable and acting like it's just a coincidence.

To put it simply, Darren helps me show what NIGHT SHIFT characters are like in Jackson. In RPG terms, it might be easy to just label Darren as 'Evil' and move on. But that wouldn't create the atmosphere I'm aiming for. Darren is dangerous, not because he plays fantasy games or is interested in the occult or magic. Paul, Amy Jo, and Kevin do those things too, and they're good kids. Darren is different because he wants power over others, and he thinks magic will help him get it. At least, that's his plan.

This difference is at the heart of my Satanic Panic adventure.

Even though the Satanic Panic is always driven by hysteria, my adventure will have some real reasons behind the chaos. Something bad will happen and people will get hurt. Maybe Darren will die, or maybe he'll survive but end up in the State Hospital. Moria's disappearance could set off a chain reaction, spreading trouble through the neighborhood. The main point is that scared adults will look for easy answers, blaming games, books, music, occult shops, and any teenagers who seem different. This will eventually lead to the real fire at El Espejo Oscuro.

I don't have everything figured out just yet, but it is going to be a blast. Moria and Darren are going to help me out.

Crossover?

I am considering a crossover between my Jackson, IL, game and my Sunny Valley, OH, game, but I have not figured out how that will work just yet. They are about 420 miles apart. I DO have a pivot point, my witch Larina is an NPC in both games, she could use magic IF I think these games are in parallel universes. But that feels a little like cheating if I am being honest. 

Night Shift Larina "Nix" meets Dark Places & Demogorgons Larina "Creepy."

Running NIGHT SHIFT and Dark Places & Demogorgons: What I've Learned from Two 80s Campaigns

I’ve explored the world of 1980s supernatural gaming before.

I have done it with two OSR-adjacent rule systems, NIGHT SHIFT: Veterans of the Supernatural Wars and SURVIVE THIS!! Dark Places & Demogorgons.  This is not a post about which game is better than the other; I am not doing that. Both games are fantastic, and live very happily next to each other on my shelves and my gaming table. 

This is about what I learned from running two similar-style campaigns using rule systems drawn from the same ecology. 

And what you can learn from all of that.

Road to Nowhere: From Sunny Valley to Jackson

A few years ago, I played SURVIVE THIS!! Dark Places & Demogorgons from Bloat Games to revisit my love for Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but with a twist. Instead of Sunnydale, California in the late 1990s, I set the story in Sunny Valley, Ohio, in 1984. The characters were still Buffy, Willow, Tara, Faith, vampires, high school drama, and a Hellmouth. But the setting felt different; colder, more Midwestern, and even more 1980s. It was like a 'kids on bikes' story, except one kid had a stake and an epic destiny.

That experiment worked out really great. Dark Places & Demogorgons was the perfect game for this idea. It’s designed for stories about kids in the 1980s facing strange things that adults ignore or don’t believe. In Sunny Valley, the supernatural crept into childhood and early adolescence. The game was all about weekly monsters, school rumors, odd teachers, creepy houses, bad weather, and that feeling of being young and sensing something is wrong, even if you can’t explain it yet.

In short, it did exactly what I wanted. 

Once in a Lifetime

Now I’m working on something similar, but it’s not the same.

Jackson, IL, is another retro-80s supernatural setting. It’s a small Midwestern town with teenagers, high school drama, monsters, ghosts, witches, and things hiding just out of sight. At first glance, you might think, “Oh, this is just like Sunny Valley.”

But it’s not.

Sunny Valley was my way of taking the Buffy mythos and setting and shifting it into a different decade, state, and game system. It was a familiar story in an alternate reality. Jackson is different. It’s not just Sunnydale with a new name, or a copy of Jeffersontown from Dark Places & Demogorgons. Still, I’ll admit Jeffersontown ("J-town" to locals) reminded me of my hometown, Jacksonville ("J-ville" to locals), which inspired me to create Jackson. 

Jackson feels more personal to me.

With Jackson, I’m trying to blend the emotional feel of a real place, Central Illinois folklore, memories of growing up in the 1980s, and the supernatural style of NIGHT SHIFT: Veterans of the Supernatural Wars. I want it to feel like it’s always belonged there.

Don’t You (Forget About Me)

There is also a difference in what the systems want from the characters.

Dark Places & Demogorgons is about kids. That is one of its greatest strengths (if not its greatest strength). It understands the fears and freedoms of being young. The characters are not adults with jobs, mortgages, failed marriages, regrets, and long histories of supernatural trauma. They are kids trying to survive school, family, bullies, monsters, and the creeping suspicion that the world is stranger than anyone told them.

That made it perfect for Sunny Valley.

In that campaign, Buffy and her friends were younger. They were not the characters from the television show yet. They were versions of those characters caught earlier, rawer, and in some ways more vulnerable. Sunny Valley did not need the full emotional architecture of adulthood. It needed bicycles, lockers, cemeteries, malls, high school rivalries, and the occasional vampire getting dusted behind the gym.

I used those characters because there was very obvious "Buffy-DNA" in DP&D. I just let it come to the surface a little bit more.

NIGHT SHIFT, on the other hand, lets me broaden the frame.

Yes, Jackson has teenagers. In fact, teenagers are central to what I am doing with it. But Jackson also has adults who know things. Adults who failed. Adults who lied. Adults who fought the dark before and lost something. Adults trying to keep kids safe, even when they cannot tell them the truth.

That is important.

Jackson is not just a place where kids discover the supernatural. It is a place where the supernatural has always been and has a history. The Veil is thin here. The Bad Land, Mauvaisterre, is not just a monster factory. It is part of the town’s buried geography. The ghosts, witches, hags, psychics, cryptids, old families, school legends, and haunted buildings all connect to something deeper.

It feels like some of the adults are veterans of previous wars and can't do anything to stop the next one.

That feels like NIGHT SHIFT to me.

Jackson, IL, is "Veterans of the Supernatural Wars" as a thesis statement. 

And all to the music of John Mellencamp's "Scarecrow."

Everybody Wants to Rule the World

This is also why I do not see Dark Places & Demogorgons and NIGHT SHIFT as competing games.

Very much the opposite.

Dark Places & Demogorgons is created by Bloat Games, and I am happy to call them friends. I buy their books. They buy our NIGHT SHIFT books. We talk at the cons we are both at. We cheer on each other's successes. That is how this hobby should work. The world has plenty of room for both of us.

I have said before that a rising tide raises all ships, and I honestly believe that. Other designers are not my competition. They are my colleagues. They are my peers. Playing their games makes my games better. Reading their work makes me think harder about my own. Seeing how someone else handles 1980s supernatural horror gives me a better sense of what I want to do, what I want to avoid, and what I want to emphasize. What I want to do different. 

Dark Places & Demogorgons helped me think through Sunny Valley.

NIGHT SHIFT is helping me build Jackson.

Those are related acts of design, but not identical ones.

I Was Born in a Small Town

Sunny Valley was a Buffy-shaped experiment. It asked, "What if Buffy had happened in Ohio in 1984?" A simple question with a very satisfying answer. 

Jackson asks something else.

Jackson asks, "What if the town itself was haunted? What if the supernatural was not an interruption, but a pressure? What if every generation had its own monsters, its own secrets, and its own kids who had to deal with what the adults left behind?"

That is a different kind of game.

In Sunny Valley, the Hellmouth was there, but it was more indistinct. The characters knew something was wrong, but the exact nature of it was part of the joke and part of the mystery. Sunny Valley was ironic. Of course, the place called Sunny Valley was cold, rainy, and full of vampires. Ohio vampires, no less. 

Jackson is not ironic in the same way.

Jackson is a nice town. A real town, at least emotionally. It has high schools, colleges, pizza places, bookstores, old houses, churches, back roads, local legends, old money, bad memories, and teenagers who think they are the first generation to discover everything. It has a public face and a hidden one. That makes it ideal for NIGHT SHIFT, because NIGHT SHIFT is very good at letting the ordinary and the supernatural occupy the same space.

The horror in Jackson is not just "there is a monster."

The horror is "there always has been a monster, and someone knew."

That is a different tone altogether.

Home Sweet Home

The other major difference is ownership.

Sunny Valley was fun because it was a remix. I was taking characters and ideas I already loved and moving them into a different system (that I also loved) and a different decade (that I ... ok, you get it now). It was a creative exercise, and a very useful one. It let me explore Buffy, Willow, Tara, Faith, and the others through a different lens.

Jackson is worldbuilding from the ground up.

It owes something to Jacksonville, Illinois. It owes something to Jeffersontown. It owes something to every small Midwestern town with a haunted school, a local ghost story, a weird patch of woods, and one bookstore owner who knows more than they should. 

But Jackson is becoming its own thing. Sunny Valley allowed me to do a lot of cheating. Jackson is less forgiving. I don't get to crib notes from someone else's creative efforts; I have to do it all on my own.

That matters because Jackson needs to support more than a single campaign idea. It needs to hold high school drama, occult mystery, monster hunting, local history, family secrets, psychic phenomena, witchcraft, cryptids, and the strange gravity of a place where the Veil is too thin.

That is bigger than Sunny Valley.

Not better. Bigger.

Sunny Valley was a great place to run a specific kind of game.

Jackson is a full-on Night World.

We Built This City

Looking back, I can see a clear line from one project to the other.

Sunny Valley taught me that moving supernatural horror into the 1980s immediately changes the feel. No cell phones. No internet as we know it. Rumors move through notes in lockers, landlines, malls, classrooms, diners, and late-night phone calls. Research means libraries, newspapers, yearbooks, microfilm, local cranks, and that one teacher who knows too much.

Jackson takes all of that and pushes it further.

In Jackson, the 1980s are not just aesthetic. It is the structure. The period limits what characters can know, how quickly they can know it, and who they have to trust. The town becomes a network of secrets, and the kids are moving through it without a map. And it will be 15-20 years before anyone has GPS.

That is where the two projects really meet.

Sunny Valley was about taking a known supernatural teen drama and asking what it looked like through the lens of Dark Places & Demogorgons.

Jackson is about taking everything I know about 1980s horror, small towns, witches, ghosts, high school, and the supernatural, and asking what it looks like as a NIGHT SHIFT setting.

I guess a natural question is, could I play in Jackson, IL, using Dark Places & Demogorgons? Of course you could! I think if my "Plays Well with Others" posts (many linked below) are any indication, then yes, you could. Maybe I'll try it out one day. I already know Larina works well for both. But for now, I want to stick with NIGHT SHIFT since I have built so much more for it.

The Final Countdown

So no, Jackson is not Sunny Valley. But Sunny Valley helped make Jackson possible.

It gave me a place to test some ideas. It reminded me how well the 1980s work for supernatural gaming. It showed me how much fun there is in moving familiar horror tropes into Midwestern spaces. It also reminded me that the right system matters. Dark Places & Demogorgons served Sunny Valley well because it was about kids in the 1980s facing strange dangers.

NIGHT SHIFT serves Jackson because Jackson is about more than the kids.

It is about the town.

It is about the adults who remember too much, the teens who are just beginning to see, the monsters that never really left, and the old powers under the streets and fields. It is about what happens when the supernatural is not a visitor, but a resident.

Sunny Valley had a Hellmouth. Jackson has history.

That is the difference that makes each campaign unique.

Links

Plays Well With Others

• Plays Well With Others: DP&D Cryptid Manual
• Plays Wells With Others: Dark Places & Demogorgons and Buffy the Vampire Slayer
• Plays Well With Others: Modern Occult Horror Games
• Plays Well With Others: Night Shift and Modern Supernatural Games

Dark Places & Demogorgons

• All DP&D Posts
• Review: Survive This! Dark Places & Demogorgons Companions
• Review: Survive This! Dark Places & Demogorgons

Sunny Valley, OH

• Welcome to Sunny Valley, OH
• Willow & Tara: Survive This! Dark Places & Demogorgons
• Survive This! Dark Places and Demogorgons - Supernatural / Buffy Crossover
• Dark Places & Demogorgons: Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Charmed; How Soon is Now?
• Dark Places & Demogorgons: Buffy the Vampire Slayer and The Hex Girls; Bizarre Love Triangle
• Survive This! Dark Places and Demogorgons - Carmilla / Buffy Crossover
• Monstrous Monday: Melonheads for Dark Places & Demogorgons

NIGHT SHIFT Veterans of the Supernatural Wars

• All NIGHT SHIFT Posts
• Plays Well With Others, Generation HEX, and my Traveller Envy
• Plays Well With Others: Night Shift and Modern Supernatural Games
• Willow & Tara: NIGHT SHIFT Veterans of the Supernatural Wars

Tales from Jackson, IL: Bring on the Dancing Horses

It is just before Christmas break in Jackson, but the supernatural does not rest. The Jackson Public School Football team is headed to the playoffs. Star players and the team co-Captains (despite only being Juniors), Andy Thompson and Valentino "Val" Moreno, promise to take the team all the way to state. But a freak snow storm, and even freakier hoof prints spell more than trouble; they are an old curse coming home.

I have been waiting for a good adventure to feature my "it" couple, Andy and Rowan. I have talked a little bit about them already, and they have been in the background. Andy Thompson is the son of the "first family" of Jackson. His father owns the local stables and horse track, where horse racing is held every weekend over the summer. Andy's father worked to bring betting to the track and turned his already rich family even richer. Rowan is the sweet horse girl who was all awkward knees and elbows and braces in Junior High and came back gorgeous in High School. 

Yes. I am embracing every cliché I can. But only the ones that serve the game.

Andy and Rowan are important to me and to these adventures. And I wanted to introduce them the right way.

Andy and Rowan

Larina: "Who are those two?"
Faye: "Oh. Andy and Rowan. They were born dating."
Stephanie: "I hear Hallmark follows them around for ideas."
Faye: "They came out of their mother's wombs and were holding hands when they left the hospital."
Stephanie: "Yeah, I have seen the pictures."

Andy and Rowan began as The Couple. You know, they were always together, never apart, only had eyes for each other. If this were a John Cougar song, they would be "Jack and Diane." But for me, I wanted a couple that had staying power, ones you could actually see growing old together. Why? Because with all the crazy shit going on in the game, I wanted them to be true. Trouble is, Rowan is a Spirit Rider, and Andy...well, Andy changed on me, and he became a better version of himself. 

Rowan and Andy (and Tempest). Aren't they adorable?

Rowan McGowan

"Some people learn magic. Some people are chosen by it. And a very few… belong to a place so completely that the place answers back. We call those people 'guardians' or 'protectors.' The old name is 'maor fearainna,' but folks also call them Spirit Rider."

- Malcolm "Mac" McGowan

Rowan in my games is many things. Witch. Protector. Guardian. Witch Knight. And I have worked her up in many different ways: 

• Dungeons & Dragons, 3rd Edition
• Pathfinder 2nd Edition
• Wasted Lands
• Advanced Dungeons & Dragons

Here in Jackson, she is not quite all of that. At least not yet. Here, she is just a sweet "horse girl" who loves her grandpa Mac, doesn't remember her mom or dad (who both died when she was a baby), loves her horse "Tempest" (even if he hates everyone else but her), loves getting up before dawn to feed the horses, but most of all, she loves Anderson Thompson. 

She has no idea that she is secretly Jackson, IL's Spirit Rider, and it is because of her love for everything that she has unconsciously built a supernatural wall to keep everything else out. Until the night of the Bell. Now the Hollow King is doing everything he can to erode her will so he can finally break through to Jackson and feed. Even if she knows what is happening, she doesn't yet know how to fight it. So she is not the protector right now; she is the one who needs protecting. She needs the PCs' help. That is, until she accepts her power.

Which is saying something, because she is up before sunrise to get all her work done so she can enjoy her coffee in peace before school. The PCs have their work cut out for them.

Rowan Abigail McGowan
1st level Spirit Rider, Human

Background: Farm Kid

Base Abilities

Strength: 14 (+1)
Agility: 13 (+1) 
Toughness: 14 (+1) n
Intelligence: 13 (+1) 
Wits: 16 (+2) V
Persona: 15 (+4) n

Vit: 5 (1d4)
DV: 9
Fate Points: 1d6

Check Bonus (A/N/D): +2/+1/+0
Attack bonus (base): +0
Melee bonus: +0  Ranged bonus: +0

Languages: English, Spanish  
Skills: Horse Riding, Animal Handling (Farm kid)

Saves: +1 to Wits and Persona-based saves, +1 to Tougness-based (Farm Kid)

Spirit Rider Abilities
Innate Magic, Arcana, Arcane Powers, Commune with Spirit of the Land, Power Limitation (100 miles) Magic Battery

Innate Magic & Arcane Powers
Innate: Speak with Animals
Arcane: Precognition, Empathy

Hair: Red
Eyes: Green
Height: 5'5"

Archetype: The "Horse Girl" / The Protector
Quote: "I trust horses more than most people."
Quirks: Dresses for comfort and work. Drinks coffee so strong that even Faye is impressed.
Theme song: "Wildfire" - Michael Martin Murphey. She is a country girl at heart. 

Her "Farm Kid" background gives her an "Animal Handling" skill and +1 on Toughness-based saves. All that clean living I guess. Technically, she doesn't live on a farm; she lives on a small ranch near stables, which are still within the city limits. But like I said, that is a technicality. Rowan is a farm girl deep in her bones. 

One thing I have decided about this NPC. She never swears. She will say "shoot" and "gosh darn it." Or maybe when she is really, really mad, she will let a "Hell" escape her lips. But never anything worse. She isn't religious, and this has nothing to do with blasphemy or anything like that. She had been taught that a "lady doesn't use those words." Rowan gets up before dawn so she can feed and water the horses, muck out the stalls, lift bales of hay that weigh 100lbs, and do all of this before her classmates even wake up. She doesn't think of herself as a "lady." She just thinks those words are impolite.

Trust me. That is the hardest part about playing her!

Anderson "Andy" Thompson

I had different plans for Andy. But while sitting there working on his backstory for the game, I discovered a few things. Andy and Valentino have been best friends since they were 4 years old, when Val brought a Nerf football to preschool. That image of these two little guys running up and down the playground with that blue-and-orange foam-rubber football was so vivid that all my original plans for Andy were scrapped. 

See, originally Andy was the son of Arawn, the God of Death (and played in my mind by Giancarlo Esposito, because the man was born to play the God of Death!). Rowan was supposed to die in the car crash that killed her parents, and Arawn had been looking for her, but she was protected by her grandfather Mac, a Witch Knight/Spirit Rider. Andy was supposed to collect her soul, but fell in love instead.

I kept the only parts that mattered. Malcolm "Mac" McGowan stayed a witch knight, her parents were still dead, and Andy and Rowan were still in love. And that little kid playing football and pretending to be in the Chicago Bears with the other little kid became his brother in all but blood. I mean, I just couldn't see either of those little guys as evil. 

So now Andy 2.0 is still the star football player, but now he is also just this really nice guy. I wanted to at least avoid the 80s stereotype that the football player meant "dumb jerk." 

Andy moves through the school with ease. He knows everyone's name; an artifact from his "Son of the God of Death" origin, now just because he pays attention (Sage's Lore ability). He asks them about their family, and if they have a game, science fair, band competition, or anything like that, he is the first and loudest to wish the best of luck. He will high-five the baseball team while still giving them grief about their last game, and then he will fist-bump the debate team on their way to state. He is just a good kid. 

During halftime of the football games, he runs out onto the field to join the marching band on trumpet. Coach Zimmerman always complains that his captain is out "being a cheerleader," but he knows nothing gets the crowd going more, and a loud crowd works wonders on the players. And the Coach actually thinks it's kind of fun. Andy will be the first to admit he's not the best trumpet player, but everyone loves seeing him out there to enegize the crowd.

Yeah, his dad can still be a jerk, but he is no longer the God of Death. They are still super rich and owns the stables and track. And most of the buildings are on the growing west end of town.

It was working one summer on the track (his dad called it character building) when Andy first really saw Rowan. The awkward, somewhat geeky "horse girl" was out riding, and Andy's heart stopped. He saw past all his teen nonsense to the woman she would become underneath all braids, braces, acne, and too-thick glasses. Rowan did not trust, or even like, Andy at first, but he spent the summer proving himself to her and to her Grandfather. They began "dating" their freshman year, and no one got it. When they came back their sophomore year, Rowan had grown into herself and was gorgeous. 

When the others finally saw her, Andy just asked, "What took you all so long?"

I also wanted a super stable couple. Because why not? 

The next problem became Andy's class. As the son of the God of the Dead, I had some flexibility. But now he is just a regular human kid. He is well-liked, offers an encouraging word to everyone, and is the model student-athlete. 

What he is is a Bard. Not the horny kind (well...), but he does play a horn. He really is the "face" character, the one who talks to the adults and convinces them that 10-ft tall monster was really just part of an elaborate prank they are playing on the St. Michaels Catholic High School on the East side of town. Of course, they believe him. He is a Thompson after all. 

Sages can cover Bards well and even get some skills to help round him out. I do want to make his Aspect (or Primary) stat to be Persona rather than Intelligence.

Anderson "Andy" Thompson
2nd level Bard (Sage), Human

Background: Jock

Base Abilities

Strength: 16 (+2)
Agility: 17 (+2) n
Toughness: 16 (+2) 
Intelligence: 14 (+1) n
Wits: 15 (+1) 
Persona: 18 (+3) A

Vit: 8 (1d6)
DV: 9
Fate Points: 1d6

Check Bonus (A/N/D): +2/+1/+0
Attack bonus (base): +0
Melee bonus: +0  Ranged bonus: +1

Languages: English, Spanish, French  
Skills: Read Music, Play instruments (trumpet, trombone, saxophone)

Saves: +3 to spells and magic-based saves, +1 to Strength and Toughness-based (Jock)

Sage Abilities
Survivor Skills, Mesmerize ("Fast Talk"), Lore, Languages, Spells

Survivor Skills
Open Locks: 15%
Bypass Traps: 10%
Sleight of Hand: 20%
Move Silently: 20%
Hide in Shadows: 10%

Spells
First-level: Bless ("Rally")

Hair: Black
Eyes: Brown
Height: 5'11"

Archetype: The Popular Kid
Quote: "I’m just saying, maybe let’s not make the worst possible decision first." or "Ok! Let's Go! We can do this!" (in about every situation.)
Quirks: Remembers everyone's name and something about them. Wants to be liked for being a good person, not for his family's money.
Theme song: "Boys of Summer" - Don Henley. But during the "Season Finale" against the Hollow King, Andy will be belting out "The Final Countdown" on his trumpet.

The thing to remember about Andy is that he is a good kid deep down. He is the guy cheering you on, telling you that you can do it because he believes you can. And you end up believing him as well. 

Neither characters are powerhouses. They have low Vitality (hit points) and not a lot in the way of powers. In fact, they don't think what they do is magic at all. Andy's "Bless" spell is just his natural enthusiasm for everything. People *do* better with around because they think he is in their corner. And they are right.  Rowan calls her empathy and precognition "just good old 'horse sense'." She calls her ability to speak to animals just knowing how to listen. They are the least pretentious non-player characters in the entire game.

I have an adventure that features them coming up. A headless horseman tied to Rowan's past, but we did not get to it this past weekend, so all I did was introduce them. 

Spoilers

Rowan and Andy get married right out of high school. His father is mad and threatens to disown him, but his grandmother intervenes. Instead of U of I, he goes to Illinois Beecher College in town, plays on the football team, and gets his degree in Education to return to JPHS to teach and coach, eventually replacing the retiring Coach Zimmerman. Rowan, now the Spirit Rider of Jackson, runs the stables (Andy bought them from his dad with his college savings) and has turned part of them into a hippotherapy center for children. Rowan also attended Illinois Beecher College and earned her degree in psychology and occupational therapy. 

Adult Rowan's wards around Jackson are described by witches as "formidable" and by supernatural threats as...well, they don't describe them at all; Rowan usually dispatches them long before they ever get the chance. Rowan would rather calm a frightened horse or help a child learn to ride, but when it comes to defending Jackson, she is brutal and efficient. It is just another chore to be done, like mucking out a stall.

In truth, I love these two and wish them a ton of happiness.

Night Shift^® is a registered trademark of Elf Lair, LLC.

Mirror Mondays: The Witches of 1986. Two Books, One Spell

Monday has often been Monstrous Monday here at The Other Side for a very long time. A mirror into what I am working on at any given point in time. But for the next few months, I am turning the mirror in a manner of speaking. And the mirror is an apt metaphor for what I am doing. 

The monsters will still be present; they always are. This time, though, I'm focusing on the witches who confront them, call them into being, control them, get rid of them, or even turn into them. I want to think of 1986 not just as a date, but as a breeding ground for imagination.

For me, 1986 isn't about warm, fuzzy nostalgia. It is a lens to focus my attention. 

It's the hardback Advanced Dungeons & Dragons books on the table, odd paperbacks found in used bookstores, heavy metal music, scary films, late-night TV, school libraries, local stories, and that feeling of books your parents wouldn't let you read. It's the year when fantasy games, talk of the occult, and being a teenager all felt crammed into one shadowy room, with a general sense of fear from the Satanic Panic and a sense that something…more existed. 

That's where two things I'm working on intersect.

One is Advanced Witches & Warlocks, my take on a retro witch book, as if the AD&D witch finally got the attention she deserved around 1986. It's aiming for release around Halloween 2026, which feels fitting. Witches should appear in October.

The other is Jackson, IL, a modern supernatural setting in the Midwest, centered on odd towns in the middle of the country, teenage witches, haunted schools, local monsters, hidden family histories, and the strangeness of growing up in 1986. This one is different; it doesn't have a release date. It might not even be published in a typical way. It's going to be about 80,000 words before I can even say it's a book, and it isn't there yet, but it’s progressing.

However, these two projects are constantly influencing each other.

They aren't the same book, or even the same style of book. Advanced Witches & Warlocks is all about fantasy gaming, character classes, occult magic, witch lore, warlock groups, magical spells, animal helpers (familiars), and what the witch should be like alongside the Cleric, Magic-User, Druid and Illusionist.

Jackson, IL, is small-town horror. It’s the high school hall, the library, the old graveyard, the pizza place, the road leading past the cornfields, the local university, the occult store in town, and the house that everyone knows about but nobody discusses. It's about teenage witches in a world where adults have carefully constructed their lives to act as if the supernatural isn't genuine. 

One is the witch as a character in AD&D.

One is the witch as the girl in homeroom who understands the mirror is showing a false image. 

And the central question for both of them is the same:

When 1986 is the focus of the imagination lens, what does a witch actually look like?

In a fantasy setting inspired by 1986, a witch is much more than just someone on a broom who casts spells; her origins lie in folklore, fairy tales, frightening tales, hidden knowledge, the books Appendix N lists, and the stranger parts of fantasy. She’s part of a group of witches, follows certain customs and has powerful figures she answers to, observes forbidden practices, performs ceremonies under the moon, and taps into ancient powers that aren't easily contained in spellbooks or churches. 

She isn't a Cleric. Clerics have a church, a god, and openly stated beliefs. And she isn't a Magic-User, because Magic-Users study, have specific formulas, and believe the universe can be written down completely.

A Witch has something much older and more personal; she has connections. Connections to spirits, the land, her ancestors, the moon, old gods, and, really, to be honest, things that are best left unmentioned. She understands magic isn't only something you learn, but something you receive from family, get through deals, endure, and occasionally live through. 

And that’s how it is in fantasy.

But in 1986, in the real world, the witch is a bit different, although not as different as you'd think.

She’s the new student who seems to know a lot, the quiet one who hears things in empty rooms, the head cheerleader who keeps everyone protected but won't admit to how afraid she is, the outsider with the family that's been around forever, or the girl who happens to find the right (or wrong) book at the library…and it’s as if the book was waiting for her.

She exists amongst lockers, telephone landlines, cassette tapes, school bells, what everyone in town is saying, and teachers who might not be entirely human. The school after hours is her dungeon, the roads leading out of town are her wilderness, and her temple is the bedroom floor late at night, with candles, a notebook, and a mirror that shows more than it should. 

Both of these witches are liminal, in-between people.

And that’s the essential point.

A witch is on the boundary. The edge of town, the edge of social groups, the edge of the church, the edge of family, the edge of becoming an adult, the edge of the map. She knows where the lines are because she's crossed them, and sometimes she chose to, other times she was forced.

That’s why witches work so well in old-fashioned gaming. Dungeons & Dragons always liked boundaries: dungeons and the wild, law and chaos, the village and the ruins, human and monster, the living and the divine. A witch belongs in that boundary zone.

And that’s also why they suit teenage horror. Being a teenager is a boundary zone. You aren't a child, but you're not an adult yet, and everyone is misleading you about both. You’re expected to follow rules you didn't create, you're given a future you might not even want, you're observed, evaluated, underestimated, and told to stay away from doors that someone else has already opened.

That’s where a witch finds her place.

The Midwest is important here as well.

These aren't Salem witches, not exactly, and not the glamorous witches of Hollywood. The witch of the Midwest lives amongst brick school buildings, university towns, country roads, old cemeteries, the changeable prairie weather, church potlucks, basement playrooms, and libraries with surprisingly good collections of occult books.

She knows the local ghost stories. She knows which road to avoid in the dark. She knows who lived in that house before the current family changed the name. She understands that not all monsters come from Transylvania or from Hell; some are created by the cursed land surrounding the old town, in the drainage ditch, beneath the old bridge, or in the quiet that exists between what everyone says and what nobody will talk about.

That’s where Jackson, IL is.

And that's where Advanced Witches & Warlocks is also finding a new foundation.

The fantasy witch and the teenage witch aren't separated in my mind; they are each other’s reflections. One wears a purple dress and a black cloak, the other wears jeans, boots, and an excessive amount of eyeliner for a Monday. One has a familiar and a Book of Shadows, the other has a cat that isn't quite a cat and a notebook hidden under her mattress.

Both of them understand the same truth. 

People who are respectable act as if magic isn't real, because acknowledging it would change everything.

This series, Mirror Mondays: The Witches of 1986, is where I’m going to look at that reflection.

Some weeks I’ll be more focused on Advanced Witches & Warlocks; talking about witch types, magical practices, familiars, traditions, warlocks, spells, monsters, and creating a witch's book that feels as if it could have existed in the AD&D period without just copying old texts. 

Other weeks I’ll focus on Jackson, Illinois; teenage witches, haunted schools, folklore from the Midwest, local monsters, bad roads, strange teachers, shops with occult items, and why 1986 is the perfect year for supernatural horror.

Most weeks will be somewhere in the middle.

That's the unusual intersection where both projects come together.

The mirror is now open.

Mirror Shards: The Mirror Between Larina Nichols and Larina Nix

Not every magical object starts as something valuable. 

Some begin as a simple question.

A witch looks in the mirror and sees herself...but not the person standing in the room. She sees another life, another world, another version of the same soul. One that is older, stronger, stranger, and maybe even more dangerous.

For Advanced Witches & Warlocks, this mirror might be an ancient magical object, a way to see into the future or a risky way for witches to get in touch with alternate selves, echoes of their mentors or their future selves.

But for Jackson, Illinois, it's more personal. A teenage witch sees the woman she could become, or the woman she was somewhere else, or the woman who is protecting her from a fantasy world that shouldn't be real.

The mirror doesn't question in a straightforward way. That would be too simple.

It shows what could be.

It shows a warning.

It shows power.

And sometimes, when the room is dark and the house is quiet, the image in the mirror moves first.

I am focusing on this witch in particular because she has a pedigree. She was created as an AD&D character in 1986. She is my window into this liminal and reflected world. She was a playtest character for every version of the witch class I ever wrote, including AD&D and NIGHT SHIFT.

I have another post I am picking at, "What I Learned Playing the Same Character for 40 Years," and some of that insight feeds into this and vice versa. She is the test bed, as I have said before, my "Drosophila melanogaster" of these tests. When playing a game, I ask, "What would Larina do here?" When designing one, I ask, "How can I do Larina here?" Both questions have served me well over the last 4 decades. 

There are a handful of witches, both characters and personalities, as well as more simple archetypes, that I use when testing any game I play and any game I write. Larina is the most forward-facing of these witches. She isn't the only one. Elowen still gets a lot of play, as does Moria, Amaranth, and others. But Larina has a lot of history, both in games and in the real world. 

A Mirror Shard in both games is a means to communicate with other versions of yourself. Or other versions of others. It is a sneaky little device I have thrown into my games when I want to try out one version of a character in another's universe. Valerie Beaumont is a regular abuser of these mirror shards. She isn't even my character, and she keeps crashing into my games. 

Which brings up an interesting point. 

In Advanced Witches & Warlocks, the "mirror shards" are the magic items connected to the magical mirrors.

In Jackson, IL, "mirror shards" are the people you see in the mirror that are not you.

Both developed from the same fundamental idea and then took on different meanings in my writing. I don't really feel the need to reconcile these differences. Different games. Different universes. But there is something fairly evocative about calling these characters mirror shards. 

Larina is a mirror shard. Valerie is a mirror shard. Even someone like Jenny Everywhere is a mirror shard.

Greg: "I feel sorry for the guy who tries to buy them a drink!"

Candy and Denise in Jackson, IL, are mirror shards of Candella and Duchess in Glantri. Or is that the other way around?

It is because they are "mirror shards" that they heard the Bell in Jackson, IL, when only supernatural creatures heard it. They are not supernatural, but they are special. 

An out-of-game idea for one is giving me an in-game solution for another. 

I have quite a lot more to say on all of this.

Flashback Friday: Color Computer fun

 I just picked up a new Color Computer hardware emulator to go along with my various software emulators. As seen here:

• My Old School Gaming Project
• The OTHER Old School Gaming
• The OTHER Old School Gaming, Part 2

This new one only does Color Computer programs since it is hardware emulation.

So far, it is pretty great. 

Currently copying over files, including my BARD AD&D Combat Emulator. And I even have some characters ready to go.

Yes, that is Larina and Johan up there. Larina is a 5th-level witch/1st-level wizard in 1991.

I can't help but think she looks like this.

Which means a Jackson, IL video game would look like this!

You can almost hear the 8-bit music for them as they walk!

Any of those images takes up more memory than the Color Computer 3 originally had! 128k out of the box, 512k upgradable and 2meg with after market upgrades.

Thinking of gutting my other CoCo Pi 4 and putting this little machine in as its new brain. I don't really need another Linux-running Pi machine when I have my TRS-80 Pi. Plus I can put some of the hardware into my TRS-80. I'll have to 3D print some new things for them both, and get some different hardware bits, but it could be fun. A Color Computer case that runs a hardware-emulated Color Computer 3. 

I should start writing ALL my Jackson, IL posts on it!

Monstrous Mondays: MoChem the Morgan Chemical Monster

 Going back today to Jackson, IL, my current NIGHT SHIFT^® campaign and my all-consuming obsession. 

Today I have a monster that I have been trying to bring into a game for the better part of 47 years. Not that this guy is a hard monster to figure out, it's just that his history is so tied up in my hometown that he didn't really fit into any other game I have done before.

This particular monster was created by me one afternoon in the summer of 1979 when I was 10. I had been reading a lot of Daniel Cohen's "monster books" thanks to our town's well-stocked Carnegie grant library. 

I lamented that our town didn't have their own local monster (the word "cryptid" was not in my vocabulary yet) though this was way before the internet and before I discovered microfiche to discover my hometown did indeed have it's own history of monsters, ghosts, and other things. 

I figured my creation was as "real" as anything I had been reading (age 10 was the start of my real exploration into skepticism, which led me to the conclusion that the supernatural was all bullshit). While I still enjoyed reading it all, I thought it was as real as, say, "Star Wars."

So in a fit of childhood bravado and creativity that I subject you all too every day, I made a monster.

Outside of town was a chemical plant. Now, I am not sharing the name because my blog gets hit by bots I have found material I have written here for games passed off as "truth."  Details about the Hex Girls and Astral Spiders, just to name two. So there is no reason to drag a real company with real employees into something invented by a 10-year-old. But I am keeping the monster's name.

So let's switch over to the fictional Jackson, IL and it's resident mutant.

The Story of MoChem and the MoChem Monster

Just east of town, the Mauvaisterre splits into various creeks and smaller bodies of water. One of these runs by the now-closed Morgan Chemical plant. Morgan Chemical came to Jackson in the late 1800s, and was founded by Jacobi Morgan and Sons. Morgan Chemical produced fertilizer, pesticides, and other agricultural chemicals needed by the growing farming boom in Central Illinois post-Civil War economy. The plant was well-run, provided hundreds of jobs for locals, and brought money into the local economy. So successful was the plant that the road on which the plant was located was renamed Morgan Ave, and businesses began to pop up all along the east-west corridor. So much so that it eventually took businesses away from the North-South Main Street. 

Jacobi Mogan was very typical of many of the entrepreneurs who had settled in the area at the time. "Work Hard. Tend to Family. Fear God" was his motto. In all fairness, he was, for the time, a good boss. His employees did work hard, and he paid them a fair wage. The company grew on his solid Presbyterian-Protestant work ethic and the belief that anything is possible with faith and hard work. He was an early benefactor to MacAlister College and helped build one of Jackson's famous Gothic-revival style churches.

His sons, however, were not so charitably minded. When the sons took control of the company in the early 1900s, they saw ways to increase profits by cutting some safety standards. They also got involved in the Great War, providing "fuel additives," but it was well known they had taken a side contract in weapons research. When World War II came around, Morgan Chemical provided gas masks, and rumor says the chemicals the gas masks protected against. 

With each generation, the Morgan family motto (metaphorically speaking) lost another word until, in practice, only “Work Hard” remained. By the 1960s, under the fourth generation of Morgans, the plant had become notorious among workers for failing safety standards, careless disposal practices, and toxic leaks. Waste seeped into the groundwater and into the channels that fed the Mauvaisterre. Cattle downstream sickened or died. Children born to workers were whispered about in hushed voices. Whatever prosperity the company had once brought to Jackson now came at a terrible cost.

It was in this poisoned environment that MoChem first came to be known.

No one agrees on what MoChem truly is. Some claim it was born in the tainted water itself, shaped by chemical waste and bad earth. Others whisper that it was once a deformed child, discarded by frightened parents after the plant poisoned too many families. Another tale says it had been a worker who fell into a vat and came back wrong. The most popular story holds that MoChem was an undercover reporter from St. Louis or Chicago who came to expose Morgan Chemical, got too close to the truth, and was murdered and dumped in the waste.

What is known for certain is that in 1973 Morgan Chemical was fined, shuttered, and abandoned. Cleanup was promised. Very little was ever done.

Soon after that, sightings began.

MoChem (AD&D 1st Edition)

Frequency: Very rare
No. Appearing: 1 (Unique)
Armor Class: 5
Move: 9”
Hit Dice: 4+4
% in Lair: 55%
Treasure Type: Nil
No. of Attacks: 2 or 1
Damage/Attack: 1-6/1-6 or special
Special Attacks: Blood drain, engulf small prey
Special Defenses: Semi-liquid form, surprise
Magic Resistance: Standard
Intelligence: Low to Semi-
Alignment: Neutral (Evil)
Size: M
Psionic Ability: Nil
Attack/Defense Modes: Nil
Level/X.P. Value: IV / 240 + 5 per hit point

MoChem (NIGHT SHIFT)

No. Appearing: 1 (Unique)
DV: 6
Move: 45 ft.; may flow through narrow gaps at 30 ft.
Vitality Dice: 4
Attacks: 2 slams/claws
Damage: 1d6/1d6
Special: Semi-liquid form, blood drain, engulf, surprise, light sensitivity, sunlight damage, double damage from fire
XP Value: 140

MoChem is a malformed humanoid horror spawned from decades of illegal chemical dumping. Roughly man-sized but squat and thick-bodied, it has overlong arms, short, powerful legs, a single milky eye in its upper torso, and a flexible feeding maw below. Its body is coated in a red oily secretion often mistaken for blood.

Combat: MoChem attacks with two heavy slams or claws for 1-6 points of damage each. It may instead attempt to batter, grapple with, or press itself against prey to feed. It is cunning only in an animal way, preferring darkness, ambush, narrow spaces, and prey that are alone or already frightened.

Special Abilities

Blood Drain: Whenever MoChem scores a critical hit, it opens feeding pores or its maw against exposed flesh, draining 1-4 additional hit points of blood and vital fluids. This is in addition to normal damage. A drained victim may appear pale, weak, and chemically burned around the wound. This is not a vampiric or magical effect.

Semi-Liquid Form: MoChem may compress itself into a half-fluid shape, allowing it to pass through bars, storm drains, culverts, wide cracks, broken windows, pipe openings, or any aperture large enough for a cat or small dog. In this form, it cannot attack normally, but it may move through spaces inaccessible to most man-sized creatures. It may resume its full shape in the following round. Because of this ability, it cannot be held by ordinary ropes or manacles, and non-magical grappling attacks against it suffer a -2 penalty.

Engulf Small Prey: Creatures of small build, as well as animals the size of dogs or smaller, may be engulfed if MoChem successfully hits with both attacks in a single round. The victim must save vs. petrification or be pinned within its semi-fluid mass. Thereafter, the victim suffers 1-4 hit points of damage per round until freed or dead. Small animals may simply be swallowed whole at the DM’s discretion.

Surprise: In darkness, sewers, culverts, abandoned industrial works, or wet ground near polluted runoff, MoChem surprises on 1-4 on 1d6.

Light Aversion: Bright light causes MoChem pain and disorientation. A strong lantern beam, continual light spell, or similar bright illumination forces it to attack at -2. If trapped in such light for more than 3 consecutive rounds, it will retreat if possible. A light spell cast directly upon or very near it inflicts 1-4 hit points of damage.

Sunlight: Direct natural sunlight inflicts 1-6 hit points of damage per round and prevents use of its semi-liquid form. MoChem avoids daylit areas whenever possible.

Vulnerability to Fire: All fire-based attacks inflict double damage.

MoChem is not undead, nor is it a true elemental or demon. It is a pollution-born predator, a toxic life form awakened in bad ground and abandoned waste. It lairs in culverts, runoff tunnels, chemical pits, and flooded industrial ruins.

MoChem possesses a rudimentary intelligence. Enough to know it despises its own existence, but not enough to know how to end it. It fears light and the sun and avoids both at all costs. According to scholars on local BBS sites, if you could lure it into direct sunlight, it would dry up and die. Others speculate that such a death would not be permanent unless the creature was also burned.

--

I kinda wish 10-year-old me could see this!

Night Shift^® is a registered trademark of Elf Lair, LLC.