Urban Fantasy Friday: Slasher Flick Director's Cut

At the start of the week, I posted about Horror Movie rules and the Final Girl. The topic of the Steven Jackson Games Magazine's Slasher Flick came up. I had never played that, but I did know about the RPG Slasher Flick: Director's Cut from Spectrum Games. 

I went back to Slasher Flick to see what it has that I can use to help flesh out my ideas for Jackson, IL. Obviously, Slasher Flick leans hard into the whole slasher sub-genre of horror, whereas Jackson is more supernatural horror. The list of movies is, of course, fantastic and a must-have. Reading the video recommendations is really one of the book's treats.

The obvious overlap is in structure. Jackson, IL is not a slasher setting in the strictest sense. There are slashers in it, certainly. There are masked killers, urban legends, haunted campuses, missing girls, old crimes that repeat, and all the usual things that make people in horror movies say, "I'll be right back," right before they absolutely do not come back.

But Jackson is not really about a killer with a knife. Jackson is about the thing under the town.

Slasher Flick is not just a game about killing off teenagers. It is a game about horror movie pacing. It understands that the first third of a horror movie is not really about death. It is about relationships. Who likes whom. Who is lying. Who is jealous. Who is scared. Who is trying to act brave. Who is going to make the wrong choice for exactly the right emotional reason. The book even notes that slasher films often focus on teenagers or college-aged characters, isolation, and the relationships and conflicts among them, especially in the first part of the movie. That is very useful for Jackson.

A Slasher Flick game asks, "Who is killing these kids?"

A Jackson game asks, "Why is this happening again?"

I'll talk more about this next week, but July 2026 marks 40 years since I first rolled up Larina as an AD&D character. So it seems fitting that I try her and her friends out. Compare and contrast their Jackson and Slasher Flick counterparts.

Larina "Nix" Nichols
Primary Character
Stereotype: Weird Bookish Witch Girl
Role: Smart Girl

Brawn: Poor
Physically Small / Not Built for This (-)

Finesse: Normal

Brains: Good
Occult Research (+), Perceptive (+), Knows the Library (+) 

Spirit: Good
Cool When Things Get Weird (+)

Special Ability: Psychic Power

Tidbits: Has a short temper. Has nightmares.

Items: Backpack, compact mirror, library card, Greek II notebook, flashlight, occult book, wristwatch

Stephanie Vale
Primary Character
Stereotype: Sweet Cheerleader
Role: Ms Popular

Brawn: Normal
Healthy (+)

Finesse: Good
Flexible (+)

Brains: Normal

Spirit: Good
Attractive (+), Annoyingly Perky (-)

Special Ability: Wholesome

Tidbits: Feels like she is the only one holding everything together.

Items: Car keys, cosmetics, mace/pepper spray, sunglasses, brush

Faye "Thornie" Thorne
Primary Character
Stereotype: Snarky Goth Girl
Role: Oddball

Brawn: Poor

Finesse: Good

Brains: Normal
Unconvential Thuinker (+) 

Spirit: Good
Bluff (+), Courageous (+), Witty Remarks (+), Overly Sarcastic (-)

Special Ability: Steel Yourself

Tidbits: Doesn't like to be touched, Loves hot peppers, encyclopedic knowledge of music

Items: Pentagram necklace, knife (in boot), knife (in pocket), knife (in jacket sleeve), leather jacket, cigarettes.

Candace "Candy" Mercer
Primary Character
Stereotype: Fun-loving Party Girl
Role: Smartass

Brawn: Normal

Finesse: Good
Breaking & Entering (+), Stealthy (+)

Brains: Normal
Resourceful (+) 

Spirit: Good
Seduction (+), Inappropriate Humor (-)

Special Ability: Dumb Luck

Tidbits: Shockingly good at First Aid. Uses inappropriate humor as a shield. Uses sex as a means of connection.

Items: First Aid kit, knife, baseball bat, lighter, cheap sweet strawberry wine/

Denise "Duchess" Carver
Primary Character
Stereotype: Party Girl with a heart of gold
Role: Rebel

Brawn: Normal
Street fighter (+)

Finesse: Good
Stealthy (+)

Brains: Normal

Spirit: Good
Bluff (+), Courageous (+), Untrusting (-)

Special Ability: Overcome

Tidbits: Knows where all the exits are. Doesn't trust anyone but Candy

Items: Crowbar, cigarettes, perfume, cosmetics, knife

--

Wow. I rather love these. I was thinking that these could be have been the girls in their next adventure, but this feels like early school year 1985. Maybe their second adventure and the first one with all five of them together.

Originally Candy and Denise were going to be Secondary Characters. But like how they evolved in NIGHT SHIFT, I couldn't help but make them Primary characters. These versions are likely the ones we see in Shadows of the Night.

Slasher Flick Adventure: "Hey Mickey, You’re So Dead"

So I want a good "Slasher Flick"- style adventure that keeps all the characters involved. It's easy to keep Larina and Faye involved; they love spooky shit. Denise and Faye are always in trouble, but Stephanie. She was an issue in the beginning. She didn't have a lot of reason to stay with the others despite their magic connection. This helps me solve that. Granted. Your game will have different issues with different characters, but Steph is the stand-in for the Popular Guy/Girl who would normally not be hanging out with the High School weirdos. 

This adventure involves her.

Michele "Mickey" Wren was the head cheerleader in Jackson for the 1965/66 school year. A senior, popular, pretty, and hated by her rivals. So, while decorating for homecoming in the gym at the Old High School, the other cheerleaders and football players decide to prank her by taking away the ladder she was using. Mickey didn't see this and fell to her death.

20 years later, the pep-squad has convinced the school district to hold the Homecoming dance in the old High School Gym (the "new" gym is not ready yet). This wakes up Mickey's vengeful spirit, and she tries to kill the current roster of cheerleaders and football players. This includes Stephanie, Valentino, and Andy. Steph needs Faye, Larina, and strangely enough Candy and Denise to help.

I am including Candy and Denise, well, because I love them, but I also need someone to climb to where Mickey fell to her death, and frankly that screams Candy. She isn't afraid of heights. 

It starts when someone sees a girl in an older cheer uniform, but wearing a Crimson Cougar mask (Steph sees this first). Then killings start. The clues are in the library (old yearbooks, newspapers) the realization that someone has died in the school every year since there was a Jackson Public High School (Larina figures that out). Someone gets cut (allowing Candy to show off her first-aid skills), gets trapped under the old gym (allowing Denise to show them the way out), and, basically, I want everyone to have something to do. Faye is the one who figures out Mickey isn't mad because she died; she is mad because everyone forgot her. In the end, Steph decides that the Homecoming theme is 1965 and Mickey is remembered, so she doesn't come back to kill again. 

Mickey's Slasher Flick components would be:

Hard to Kill

She keeps coming back after being knocked down, drowned, electrocuted, or locked behind doors.

Linked Location: Jackson PHS Old Gym and Auditorium Wing

She is strongest in the old gym, locker rooms, stage, costume storage, catwalk, boiler access, and trophy hallway.

Signature Weapon: Sharpened Spirit Baton

The baton is part cheer prop, part ritual weapon, part murder implement.

Stalking the Prey

She appears in mirrors, trophy case glass, polished locker doors, and the dark windows of the gym before she attacks.

Tidy

Bodies vanish, blood is wiped away, and the school keeps looking normal until the final act. This lets adults doubt the girls. It also makes Steph trust the others because they believe her right away.

Episode Theme Song: Mickey, which Candy will hum when they are supposed to be sneaking around. 

Candy: (softly) "Oh Mickey, what a pity..."
Faye: "Could you not do that?"
Candy: "Sorry, inappropriate behavior is how I deal with stress."
Denise: "I thought random sex was how you dealt with stress."
Candy: "I have a lot of stress."

Yeah. I like this. I don't think I need NIGHT SHIFT stats for Mickey Wren, but if she comes back, I'll certainly do them. 

This should also be the episode where the players learn that someone has died in the school every year since 1936.

This Old Dragon: Issue #112

 It is August, 1986. I am getting ready to start my senior year in high school. My car was a 1977 Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser, burnt orange. Its redeeming qualities were that it was built like a tank, it had an amazing stereo system thanks to my older brother, and it had a V8 engine. Of course, anytime I drove it over 50 mph, it would shake like crazy.  The "Glory of Love" by Peter Cetera is the number one song (I can't even recall it). Aliens, the action sci-fi sequel to the horror sci-fi movie Alien, is number one at the box office. And on tables and bookshelves everywhere is This Old Dragon #112.

Issue #112 had two standouts for me, and I can recall my reaction to them both very clearly. More clearly than the rest of the magazine to be honest. But that is getting ahead of myself.

My issue is falling apart, but it does make scanning the cover a lot easier. It is another great one from Daniel Horne featuring some dwarves and a flying dragon. Though, given the magazine's content, a dinosaur would be better.  

Letters covers the issues of the month, with some criticisms about the "Death of an Arch-Mage" adventure from the previous issue and "The House in the Frozen Lands" from issue #110.

Kim Mohan's editorial is a brief overview of what he will discuss later.

The Forum has a long discussion about how "realistic" it is to have strength limitations on women characters. The author argues that in practical concern there is no difference between the genders. And counters why we are using "realistic" when it comes to dwarves, elves, and halflings anyway. This is a very good point. 

Dawn of a New Age by Kim Mohan covers the future of Dragon Magazine. I think by late 1986 we saw that there were changes coming to TSR. Dragon changes happened first, followed by D&D. In particular, Mohan himself would be out before year's end. We learn that in addition to the Ares section going away there will be less Science Fiction in general, but more coverage of computer games. This was a trend among all game magazines of the time to pull back and only support the in-house systems.

Our big feature is Dinosaurs by Dragon regula Stephen Inniss. He covers quite a lot of beasts here and gives a lot more detail than what we find in the Monster Manual 2. I have to admit I have always wanted a Dinosaur bestiary for an RPG system. AD&D (like this one) or D&D 5 or anything would be great, really.

Joseph R. Ravitts is up with Revenge of the Nobodies. Or giving the normal humans their due. This would later work well as a basis for the angry villager rules I would use in Ravenloft.

Up next we have one of the articles I remember very well. The very first The Role of Computers from the Lessers; Hartley and Pattie. A few points. First, this one is not copyrighted by them independently of Dragon. Something that we will see in future entries. Secondly, they give us a history of games. Uh...Ok. But does this audience really need this? Third and most importantly, Rogue. After I bought a Color Computer 3 with an INSANE 128k of memory and an external floppy drive, this was the first game I bought for it based on this article alone. And I played the hell out of it. It didn't have the graphics of, say, Dungeons of Daggorath, but it made up for it in terms of re-playability.

Dragon MVP Ed Greenwood is next with Cloaked in Magic, or a bunch of new magical cloaks from what I assume was Elminster's wardrobe. We learn now that Elminster is not just a sage, but also a mage, maybe even an Archmage! Who knew? I can't be 100% sure, but I have my suspecions that Nigel's and Larina's matching Cloaks of Shadows were created after reading this article. Larina would ahve been about a month old at this point and Nigel three years.

An ad for GURPS. One of the "WHAT THE @!¢%*# is GURPS" ads. Making it a very early one.

Also a nice two-page spread for the DC Heroes RPG.

Armor, Piece by Piece by Matt Bandy is for people who want a lot of detail in their armor for D&D but don't want to actually play Rolemaster. What I remember most about this article is I couldn't read it and not have The Tubes "Piece by Piece" off of "Love Bomb" going through my head. Yes. I bought that album and I might be the only person I know outside of a couple of friends who did. Though I am sure someone loved this article and planned out their armor with a lot of care.

TSR Previews is up for October 1986. Of note, the DA1 Adventures in Blackmoor module is on the way. As is I10 Ravenloft II: Gryphon Hill. The Queen of Spiders super module is on the way as is Day of Al'Akbar. I think I bought all of these.

The next big article I remember well is The Dragon Magazine Ultimate Article Index. This covers 10 years of Dragon magazine. Compiled by Jean Black & Wally Black and edited by Kim Mohan, this was a treasure map. True, I did have access to all the locations, but I could make a wish list of articles I wanted to read. I took a highlighter to it and had it all marked up.  And there, on page 64 there was a mention of a Witch Class and a Witchcraft supplement. All I needed to do was get copies of Dragons #5, #20, and #43. Well...according to the ad on page 40, back issues didn't go back that far! Little did I know I only had to wait a couple more months for issue #114. Of course, I had already started my own witch class by this point. But it was exciting to learn that others had also tried their hand at it. 

The dinosaurs continue for a few pages after this. 

William Tracy gives us Dire Invasion, Rom and the Spaceknights, or at least Marvel's comic version of the toy line for the Marvel Superheroes RPG. I liked the idea of Rom and the Spaceknights; it felt a little like the Green Lantern Corps to me, but that is fine. I didn't like the Dire Wraiths, though. It did make me want to do my own dire wraith as an advanced version of the AD&D wraith. 

David "Zeb" Cook is next with For a Fistful of Credits, or more gear to buy for the Star Frontiers game. I know I used these in my own game. This was as close to official content as Gygax writting an AD&D article. 

Convention Calendar covers a few cons for the end of the summer and start of fall 1986. This includes Gen Con. 

Gamers Guide has our small ads, including two artists who will draw your character. Dragon mainstay Anvil Enterprises, and a new one, Walter Moore of Alabama. There is also a small ad for a new game magazine, White Wolf Magazine. I wonder what happened with them?

Dragonmirth has our comics. And we get entries from Snarf Quest and Wormy.

So yes, a pretty solid issue. The Dinosaurs and the Dragon Magazine Index are a must-have, really. Though the index here has been replaced by the Dragondex. 

I spent some time reminiscing over computer games and played some Rogue and Baldur's Gate 3 today, the first and last D&D-adjacent computer games I purchased. They are light-years apart in terms of complexity. Curious note: today in Rogue I was killed by a hobgoblin; later on in Baldur's Gate 3, I was able to make some trades with the hobgoblin Blurg for some needed potions. 

The other big thing for me was that this was the first issue that let me know there had been a witch class in the pages of Dragon, and I was not creating something that no one would want.  I would need to wait for Dragon #114 to see it, but that was only a couple of months away; it wouldn't be until I picked up Best of The Dragon (Volume 1) that I saw the witch from Issue #5. And it would be even longer before I got the Dragon Magazine CD-ROM collection and then saw the witches from issues #20 and #43.

If you are curious, here is what I said about White Dwarf #80, out that same month.

Supergirl Day and Larina for DC Universe

 So last year I got super-hyped for the new Superman movie. I loved it and it was a great new start to a new DC Universe on screen. Tonight I am going to see the new Supergirl movie and I have heard some good things about it. Milly Alcock looks great and I loved her in "House of the Dragon."

I have always been a fan of Supergirl, and I think she works best when she is treated like the survivor of an apocalypse. Kal-el is an adopted son. Kara is the last survivor of a world and should have a lot of unresolved trauma and anger.

I loved Melissa Benoist in the role of Kara, but I am looking forward to seeing this different take on her.

This also got me thinking about the "new" DC Comics-related RPGs we have coming out.

The first is the overdue DC Heroes Role-Playing Game 40th Anniversary Kickstarter to get us the classic Mayfair DC Heroes game.  I am still excited for this one and can't wait to give it a spin.

There is also the new Justice League Unlimited: The Roleplaying Game coming out soon. There is a fun quickstart rules, and I can't wait to try out the full game. 

I was spending some quality time last night with Larina for another post next month and thinking about DC. I have stats for her for Mayfair's DC Heroes, and by the way of Mutants & Masterminds 3.0, I have them for DC Adventures. 

But what I have never posted are her stats for the DC Universe game. 

There is a good reason. I owned it briefly in the mid 2000s but ended up selling it at a game auction. I like the D6 system and want to do more with it, there is something about it that has just never clicked with me.  No slight on the system, I think I just need to try it more. 

So I have a sheet for her, but it was incomplete. So I went to the D6 Legend open gaming SRD and tried to put her together. I was up far too late last night doing this. In truth, I don't even know if I did it right.

Larina Nichols / Nix the Witch Queen

Real Name: Larina Nichols
Occupation: Witch, Librarian, Occult Investigator
Base of Operations: West Haven
Gender: Female
Marital Status: Divorced
Height: 5'4"
Weight: 135 lbs.
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Red
Race: Human / Homo Magi
Tech Level: Modern (1)
Motivation: Responsibility of Power
Enemy: Mordru, The Dark Lord

Reflexes 2D
brawling 3D, dodge 4D, driving 3D, sneak 3D

Coordination 2D
catch 3D, sleight of hand 3D, throwing 3D

Physique 2D
flying 4D, resistance 3D, running 3D

Knowledge 4D
arcane lore 8D, criminology 3D, languages 5D, medicine 3D, research 6D, scholar 5D
Specialties: arcane lore: demons +1D, arcane lore: witches +2D, research: occult texts +1D

Perception 3D
artist/music 3D, hide 4D, know-how/witchcraft 7D, search 5D, shadowing 3D

Presence 4D
animal handling 5D, charm 5D, command 4D, persuasion 5D, willpower 7D

Speed: 30
PDV: 3
Unarmed BDV: 2D
P/L Bonus: +2
Hero Points: 12
Villain Points: 0
Character Points: 105
Body Points: 32

Advantages
Attractive +2D, Ally: Cotton the Familiar -2D, Connections: A.R.T.E.M.I.S. -2D, Connections: Occult Underground -2D, Courage -2D, Magically Adept -5D, Scholar -2D, 

Disadvantages
Sense of Duty: young witches and the Gifted +3D, Secret Identity +2D, Reputation: feared and respected in occult circles +2D, Power Limitation: incantations and gestures required +4D, Relationship: Cotton +2D, Enemy: Mordru +4D.

Powers

Witchcraft 10D
Limitations: incantations and gestures required -3D, magical/occult effects only -2D, backlash on critical failure -1D.
Enhancements: broad spell flexibility +3D, ritual magic +2D.

Second Sight 6D
Limitations: magical, supernatural, and dimensional phenomena only -2D.
Enhancements: detect magic, occult residue, spiritual presences, active spells, and magical beings.

Flight 5D
Limitation: broom, charm, or active levitation spell required -2D.

Teleportation 5D
Limitations: mirror, water, polished glass, or reflective surface required -3D.
Enhancements: accurate +2D, extended range +1D.

Mystic Shield 8D
Limitations: must be conscious and able to cast -2D.
Enhancements: protects against magic and supernatural attacks +2D.

Magic Blast 8D
Limitation: witchfire, force, or occult energy only -1D.

Illusion 6D
Limitations: glamour and sensory deception only -2D.

Mind Control 5D
Limitations: charms, binding words, fear, sleep, or compulsion only -2D; resisted by Willpower -1D.

Summon Familiar 4D
Cotton is a small incorporeal white cat familiar with danger sense, mental link, stealth, spirit perception, and limited independent action.

Common Spell Effects

Witchfire Bolt: Magic Blast 8D, ranged attack using know-how/witchcraft or Witchcraft.

Witchfire Ward: Mystic Shield 8D, usable on Larina or one nearby ally.

Binding Curse: Witchcraft 10D opposed by the target’s Willpower or Spirit resistance. Success restrains, silences, slows, or mystically marks the target.

Part the Veil: Teleportation 5D through a reflective surface.

Divination: Second Sight 6D plus arcane lore or research. Reads magical traces, past impressions, omens, and supernatural patterns.

Glamour: Illusion 6D, usually subtle rather than combat-flashy.

Call Cotton: Summon Familiar 4D. Cotton can scout, warn, distract, or perceive spirits.

Equipment

Occult library access, notebooks, charms, ritual kit, protective jewelry, cell phone, library credentials, broom or broom-charm, Cotton’s anchor token.

Strategy & Tactics

Larina does not fight like a brick or a blaster. She opens with Second Sight, research, and wards, then uses binding magic, glamours, and mirror movement to control the field. Against normal criminals, she uses fear, sleep, misdirection, and restraint. Against supernatural threats, she escalates quickly to Witchfire, wards, banishment circles, and ritual magic.

She carries a charm that turns into a broom so she can fly. 

I like giving her Mordru as an antagonist. The dude fascinated me as a kid, and I thought he was a great bad guy. Felt a little like an evil Dr. Strange in the DC universe.

This also gives me an opportunity to bring back A.R.T.E.M.I.S. Maybe I need to work it into my West Haven game. It is a bit too modern, and its scope is a bit too much for Jackson. 

This also reminds me I still have a lot of games here I need to dig into more.

The Witches of Appendix N: A. Merritt

Abraham Grace Merritt, also known by his byline A. Merritt, was a new name to me when I was reading through Appendix N for the first time many, many years ago. Not a surprise, really. He was a contemporary of Howard and Lovecraft, publishing in the same magazines, but he was older (20 and 10 years or so respectively) than both. He was also more successful in terms of publishing and earnings. However, he lacked what made Howard and Lovecraft household names: strong, recognizable characters. He had them, but they were largely cut from the same cloth.

In Appendix N, Gygax mentions three of A. Merritt's tales: "Creep, Shadow!" "The Moon Pool," and "Dwellers in the Mirage". He even said in the DMG, "The most immediate influences upon AD&D were probably de Camp & Pratt, REH, Fritz Leiber, Jack Vance, HPL, and A. Merritt." That's a strong endorsement. 

In Merritt’s tales, you will find intrepid, but often normal, folk making their way out of the world they know and into territories subject to much older rules. Often "occult" in nature, with the "hidden" meaning of occult being the main focus. There are lost civilizations down in the earth, monsters that are holdovers from another time rather than simple beasts, ancient and forgotten religious practices, and a blurring of the line between sorcery and the super-science of antiquity. That same sort of imagination is at work in D&D’s underworlds and its odd ruins or cities that should not be there, right down to the dark domain of the drow and their queen. In a way, Merritt puts it into perspective: the dungeon is a threshold, not just a collection of rooms. 

Merritt was a collector of the odd, with an air about him that could have been plucked from one of his own tales. He would go traveling and come back with masks, carvings, weapons, and the like, or whatever unusual instrument he could find. At home, he put in order a private library of occult works that ran to several thousand volumes, and he even had a hand in growing plants with a history of poison, witchcraft, and visions.

I mention this because it goes some way to explaining the quality of his fiction. When Merritt put down a priestess or a lost god, he wasn’t working from the kind of thin pulp vocabulary you might expect. His head was full of folklore, botany, ritual, and the occasional nightmare, as well as his share of anthropology and occult theory. Read his best, and you get the sense of a room walled with forbidden books, each shelf suggesting a world far older and less human than we care to think. He was doing the same sort of research into writing his tales as I am doing into reading them.

For me, he feels like a go-to author for the ideas about "Occult D&D," a hidden world just behind the real world we all know. Even sometimes this hidden world is both metaphorically hidden, as in "Burn, Witch, Burn," and geographically hidden, as in "The Moon Pool." 

To explore this, I am going to go beyond the three tales Gygax mentions and into his other works; again, the focus here is not just on the contributions to AD&D/D&D but on how witches or witch-like characters appear in his stories.

Burn, Witch, Burn! (1932)

This is obviously an important one. 

In addtion to the titular witch(es) we get an idea that is very central to my notion of what occult magic needs to be in an AD&D game, namely an older form of magic. In "BWB" the witchcraft of the animated dolls is an older "Science" in Occult D&D witchcraft is an older magic. Both are occult in their nature. 

Based on his essays published at the time this story was heavily influenced by his own interest in witches, witchcraft and the plants used by witches. Madame Mandelip, the antagonist of the tale, gets her name from the Mandrake root used by witches and is also consequently seen as a miniature man. 

I was also impressed by his use of the nine-knot "witch's ladder" in the tale, a nice attention to detail. "Attention to detail" is key, Merritt's style includes a lot of detailed descriptions of what is happening and what things look like. 

The origin of the doll maker, Madame Mandelip, from Prague, reminds me of the tale of The Golem.

This story was also loosely adapted into the screenplay for the 1936 Tod Browning (Dracula, Freaks) movie, The Devil Doll. 

A. Merritt on Modern Witchcraft (1942)

Appearing later on in his career, this brief reflection deals with a case he witnessed of Pennsylvania Dutch Powwowing, or Witchcraft. Here, an anemic child was tied to a bloody sacrificed ewe and was "miraculously" healed. Honestly, it would have been as likely to kill the poor girl, too, but as Merritt points out, there might be some hitherto unknown science going on here. 

While the "hex doctor" here could have negative connotations ("hex" = "evil") this is obviously the case of healing sympathetic magic. The blood, or even the life force, of the ewe is being transferred to the little girl. 

I should note that Merritt's description of his participation here parallels that of many of his protagonists: a man of reason thrust into a world dominated by the supernatural. There is plenty of anecdotal evidence that such practices occurred in Pennsylvania Dutch, Appalachian, and European folk magic. Did Merritt actually see this happen? I have no idea, but I am willing to take him on his word.

The Doctor in both tales is named Dr. Lowell.

Special thanks to Chrisladams Bizarretales and the A. Merritt Fan Group on Facebook for helping track this article down. 

The Dwellers in the Mirage (1932)

Here we have a lost Alaskan valley, a cult that worships an octopoid godlike being, human sacrifice, and the whole notion of reincarnation. Then there is the modern hero who finds himself confused with, or drawn into, some mythic identity of yore. Here again is another lost world and one many have seen as the prelude to Lovecraft's "At the Mountains of Madness."

Khalk'ru certainly feels like another name for Cthulhu. You can almost squint and see that the names are related. 

There is a lot here that is foundational to D&D from an Appendix N perspective. 

Lur the witch woman is practically flirting with me. Strong, powerful, red hair, blue eyes. She is like Larina's distant ancestor. She is called the witch woman, but she doesn't do much that is really witchy, save for talking to wolves and stirring up memories in Leif/Dwayanu, though that could also have been just him or the past-life memories.  Or a "subconscious intracutaneous retro-fold memory loop" as Donna Noble would have called it. 

Lur has a witchy quality by virtue of being part of the threshold; she is of the hidden world and remains so until the hero gets his head around it. She is privy to the names and old identities, the cultic duties, the wolf-roads, and the emotional underpinnings of a place that ought not to be here any longer. You could call her a fine Appendix N witch for that, spell-casting or not. Put it in D&D parlance: she is the one who has an idea of what the dungeon is all about long before the party has found the stairs.

Certainly, the cover of this edition could have influenced the cover of the most witch-coded of the original D&D covers, Eldritch Wizardry.

Still quite an engaging tale.

The Moon Pool (1919)

I remember picking up "The Moon Pool" many years ago, reading it, thinking it was very good, and then never reading anything else of his after that.  Which is too bad, because he is quite good, and he sits at a nice intersection of fantasy and horror. 

There are many elements here similar to those of The Dwellers in the Mirage. Lost lands, lost races, powerful entities, the battle of good vs evil. 

Yolara, Priestess of the Shining One, plays the role of the tempter witch here...sort of. She uses her beauty as a weapon, but it is not her only one. She participates in rituals (called a Witches' Sabbath) and channels the power of the Shining Ones. She has glamours and even something like an evil eye. So even though her powers seem more like lost science than magic, she has more witch-coded powers than Lur the Witch Woman. She is even called an evil witch at one point.

For D&D, what appeals to me is that Yolara is more than just a "female magic-user." You have a priestess and a politician in her as much as a seductress or an occult technician. She has a firm grasp on the rules of her world and how to put them to work. That is exactly where Merritt is useful for Witches of Appendix N. His women of power are not always witches in the fairy-tale sense, but they often occupy the same role a witch occupies in myth and gaming. They are the ones who can stand in the presence of old power and know how to talk to it.

Ship of Ishtar by Virgil Finlay

The Ship of Ishtar (1924)

Sharane, priestess of Ishtar, is another near-witch figure. She is the priestess of a lost and secretive religion. Sharane is a good example of the divine witch. She has witch-like magic and serves Ishtar in a supernatural environment. 

She is what I would call a Witch Priestess. 

Sharane is especially useful because she shows how close the witch and the priestess can be in Appendix N fantasy. To be sure, she is in service to a goddess, but you would not mistake her for some tidy D&D cleric in his mail armor with a cure spell on his lips and a holy symbol at hand. Her world is one of beauty and desire, of temple mystery and curse, of mythic time. She hails from a more ancient religious sensibility where the divine is as intimate as it is perilous, and love, magic and death are all facets of the same issue. Where you have Yolara the tempter or Lur the wild witch of the hidden valley, Sharane is the sacred witch; her authority is drawn from the goddess, from rite and old obligations.

We certainly get the Charm Person spell from here. Or at least one source of it.  

The Near Witches

These tales have women who are near witches. They are not witches per se, but live in a world where witches could live. 

The Women of the Wood (1926)

While not a witch per se, this tale offers another glimpse into the idea of a hidden world next to our own. In the French countryside, a man encounters a woman who is not what she appears to be and then is exactly what she appears to be. Also, if you are not playing your dryads like this, you are missing out. 

Seven Footprints to Satan (1927)

While not really Satan (or his he?), this tale treats the world of crime and its underground, akin to an occult underground. While there are no witches here, it is a great tale on how to possibly use a criminal organization. Again, here is Eve, who is not a witch, but she does have some occult, as in hidden, knowledge.

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You could say Merritt’s greatest gift to the concept of the Occult in D&D is his treatment of magic as an old science rather than a simple list of spells. He has put his stamp on it with the idea of an older order of powers just beneath the surface of what we know. You will find cults and priesthoods, forbidden things that have survived the ages, secret rites, odd plants, and ancient deities; modern folk may write them off as superstition because they can't think of anything better. A rational sort might come by this world, but he won’t find it easy to master. Case in point, nearly every Merritt hero. 

Then there are the Witches of Appendix N. Merritt presents the witch as one who stands at the threshold. Whether she is a villain or a queen, a living idol or a guide, she is the one who understands the world’s older rules ahead of the hero. Certainly, before the hero does. 

She might be Madame Mandilip in her shop with her murderous dolls, or Yolara, the priestess of the Shining One. Perhaps she is Lur, all red hair and danger in some forgotten Alaskan valley, or Sharane, Ishtar’s darling and victim to a divine curse you couldn’t put a date on. 

He didn’t hand D&D the witch class on a plate, but he has provided a shelf full of witch-shaped ideas for us. In my book, that is enough to work with.

Tales of Jackson, IL: Not-so Mystic Locales

 One of the things I really wanted when I began putting together Jackson was it to feel real. I wanted places these characters could hang out and locations that felt like something from the Midwest in the mid 1980s. 

So while I love my haunted houses, hidden underground tunnels, and everything else the "bad land" has to offer, there are far more "normal" places to visit that will come into play. 

Colleges

In addition to two High Schools (Jackson Public High and Saint Michael's Catholic), Jackson has two small four-year colleges offering full bachelor's degrees in a variety of subjects, along with technical degrees and, at MacAlister, a robust RN program and an RN-to-BSN program.

While the colleges have their ghosts and their own stories, they are to most people mundane institutions of higher learning. 

MacAlister College
The East Side College, "Mac"

Founded in the early 1830s, MacAlister College for Women broke ground before Talcott College did, but did not begin enrolling students until after Talcott was established. It began with a group of Scottish immigrants looking to provide a strong Presbyterian education for young women. Its School of Nursing began strongly in its first years and continues to provide one of the best medical educations outside of the University of Illinois. After struggling somewhat in the 1870s, Mac (as it is known) opened its doors to men and women, competing with the more successful Talcott College, which had begun offering degrees in accounting and chemistry. The chemistry classrooms became the first co-ed classrooms in the entire Midwest. 

Now more than 150 years old, MacAlister is showing its age, but is beloved by students, faculty, and alumni alike. Since the 1970s, enrollment has been declining, rarely reaching its cap of 900 students. 

Illinois Beecher College 
The West Side College, The Harvard of the Heartland

Founded in the mid-19th century, what is now Illinois Beecher College began as Talcott Collegiate Institute in 1856, an ambitious attempt to establish a center of higher learning on the Illinois frontier. Its founders were educators, reformers, and idealists, some with quiet but firm ties to abolitionist networks moving through the region. They came to Jackson with one goal in mind: to provide a world-class, Protestant education to the new frontier, and in particular, the "Thebes of the West," as Jackson had been called. They even went as far as to proclaim the new college as the "Harvard of the Heartland!" Indeed, for several decades, Talcott College produced several notable scholars, orators, and political figures who would shape the state through to the 20th century. 

Talcott was renamed Illinois Beecher College in 1918, during a period of reorganization backed by Chicago financiers, railroad money, and several prominent alumni families. Talcott Hall remained the main campus building until 1975, when the new Harriet Tubman Hall was built to house the college’s expanding computer lab and business programs. The name was not an attempt to curry favor with changing times, but a concrete statement acknowledging the college’s strong abolitionist sympathies dating back to its foundation.

Stores

Lots of places to spend money in town, but only a few are of interest to our characters, and some places are better than others to find some NPCs.

El Espejo Oscuro - Illinois Ave, near Illinois Beecher College

Owner and Propriator Sylvia Velasco. 

El Espejo Oscuro sits on Illinois Avenue, not far from Illinois Beecher College, though most students are careful to say they only go there "as a joke." The name means "The Dark Mirror," and the shop lives up to it: black-painted shelves, old mirrors, candles that smell too sweet, imported books, tarot decks, silver jewelry, saints’ medals, dried herbs, and occult titles that no one in Jackson admits to buying. The owner, Sylvia Velasco, claims to be from Spain, dresses like she stepped out of a perfume ad, and somehow affords a brand-new red Ferrari despite the fact that the store never seems to have any customers. El Espejo Oscuro is both a resource and a warning. People who need answers can find them there, but Sylvia never gives anything away for free, even when she is smiling.

This is also a good place to find Vera Rook and Renee Jäneläinen, though not usually at the same time.

Paula's Bookstore - Downtown Square

Paula’s Bookstore sits on the northwest side of the Square, with a faded sign, crowded front windows, and more books than the building has any reasonable right to hold. Paula Belakis sells new books, used paperbacks, magazines, comics, local histories, poetry, study guides, and the occasional odd volume that no one remembers ordering. Unlike Strawberry Fields, Paula’s is not trying to be cool, and unlike El Espejo Oscuro, it is not trying to be dangerous. It is just a bookstore, or at least that is what everyone says. Students from Jackson Public, Saint Michael’s, Beecher, and MacAlister drift in looking for paperbacks, textbooks, horror novels, fantasy trilogies, romance novels, GED guides, and a place to hide for twenty minutes. The store has a harmless ghost, or maybe a helpful one, depending on whom you ask, and Paula has learned not to question why certain books fall off certain shelves when certain customers walk in.

This is also where you will find Larina most Saturday mornings or Roderick Morgan on Friday nights.

Paula does not have a very high opinion of Sylvia Velasco. And the feeling is mutual. But they at least respect each other as women business owners, so they try not to make things difficult for each other and try to cater to different clientele. 

Strawberry Fields - Jackson Town Mall

Located on the near west side of town, on Morgan Street, Strawberry Fields is a cramped record/head shop selling records, tapes, incense, posters, tarot decks, used books, magazines, cheap occult novelties, and dull display weapons. Parents think it is dangerous. Teens think it is magic. PASS thinks it is proof of moral collapse. The rumor that it sells weed is false, but the rumor never dies. For years the rumor has been if you ask at the counter for "Mellow Yellow" they will sell you something made from "bannana peels." The owners, finding the rumor funny, will just tell them, "Sorry, we only have Mt. Dew." 

This is one of the places where the PCs can also find Faye Thorne. She works here to avoid, well, pretty much everyone, but mostly her two strict aunts. Faye knows a lot about music, but still thinks your choices suck.

Places to Eat

Jackson has its own collection of fast food staples, including McDonald's, Hardee's, IHOP, and one of the few remaining Burger Chefs. 

Salvatore's Pizzeria ("Sal's Pizza") - Near Downtown Square

Owner, Operator, head pizza chef, and sometimes waiter, Salvatore Vitale is full of old-school charm and work ethic, and he yells at anyone who doesn't share his desire to work 80 hours a week. This is THE pizza place in town, and with good reason. Sal's puts his heart into everything, and a lot of garlic. The place is usually packed every Friday night and Saturday all day. Forget getting a table during any homecoming weekend for any of the schools in town. Yes, the food is that good. You can't get deep-dish style pizza here, only thin crust, but no one ever complains.

This is also one of the places where the PCs can run into Denise. Largely because she is the only one who can deal with Sal. In truth, they actually like each other because they can deal with each other's yelling.

Sal: "You should fire you!"
Denise: "You can't fire me, no one else will work here!"
Sal: "Sei proprio una ragazza pigra!"
Denise: "Ugh! We are in America! Speak American!"

Later on, when Denise Carver wins recognition for her work as a social worker, Sal puts up a framed copy of the newspaper article about her in his restaurant, where he tells everyone that Denise was "the best waitress he ever had!"  

There are more places. Many I am leaving purposefully vague until I need them. Others are a little too haunted to deal with right now. Case in point, I have plans for the Court House and the old Governor's Mansion. I still have the hospitals to detail as well.

I have already talked about the Library as both a place of adventure and a Mystic Locale. I have already figured out that there is a copy of "A Wrinkle in Time" where Larina can leave a note, and her alternate universe self in the Dark Places & Demogorgons universe will find it in the copy in her library. One of the notes Jackson Larina "Nix" sends to Cabon Vale, IL, Larina "Creepy", is "watch out for Moria."

I might get a map of my old hometown and start putting "X"s on it, marking these locations. 

Mirror Mondays: The Witches of 1986. The Familiar Is Not a Pet

Calling a witch’s familiar a pet is like calling a spellbook a notebook. It is technically close enough to be wrong.

In Advanced Witches & Warlocks, the familiar is one of the key things that separates the Witch from the Magic-User. A Magic-User might have a familiar as an arcane aid. A Witch’s familiar is a relationship. It is part ally, part omen, part witness, part magical bond, part eyes and ears of their patron, and sometimes part debt.

A magic-user has access to the Find Familiar spell at 1st level, but few in practice take it at 1st level. It uses up a spell that could have been Magic Missile or Sleep. And as someone with typically the lowest hit points in the party, the loss of a familiar is a dangerous prospect. Though for AD&D, the spell is a good choice. Wizards are associated with familiars, but not as much as witches are. 

In Jackson, IL, the familiar becomes even more personal. It is the cat that keeps showing up outside the school. The crow on the power line. The dog that growls at a teacher no one else distrusts. The thing under the porch that only one girl can understand. The familiar is proof that the witch is no longer alone, but also proof that something has noticed her.  In Jackson, having magic means you can see things, but things can also see you. 

I will be honest. I have not thought a lot about familiars for my Jackson, IL game. I suppose technically my three witch NPCs (and stand-ins for your characters) have familiars. Larina very often has her white cat "Cotton-ball" and I have jotted down some ideas for him, but that is really about it. NIGHT SHIFT does have familiar rules, and with the Arcane Bond power, I can make them really special, but I just haven't yet.

If I had Elowen in Jackson, she would have Mirepoix. But I have not added her, and I am not likely to, since in my mind she always plays the role of Larina's adopted daughter. That is fine, she plays a bigger role in my West Haven games anyway.

Like everything else I have been talking about here, familiars are a relationship.

The familiar is not just a cute (or weird) animal that sits on the witch’s shoulder while she casts spells. It is not an accessory. It is not a mascot. It is not there to make the character look more witchy.

The familiar is a sign that the supernatural world has seen the witch.

Familiars are an extension of their patron. In Advanced Witches & Warlocks, patrons are often active and known to the witch. They have traditions, they beseech their Patrons. In Jackson, though, they may not be known at all. In fact this is one of the features of the Jackson setting; witches are never 100% sure where their power comes from. A familiar is proof that the patrons are there, but not very forthcoming. 

OR

Maybe the familiar was already there waiting. That animal is always there where it shouldn't be. The one that shows up right before things get really, really strange. 

Of course, it isn't really an animal at all. Not really. It is a spirit wearing the shape of an animal. This is why it can't really be a pet. A pet loves you. A familiar knows who you are.  

A pet will sleep by the witch's bed. A familiar sleeps by her bed because it knows that the Night Hag visits every night at 3:33 am. 

In fantasy, the familiar is part of the witch’s mythic presentation. The black cat on the shoulder. The raven in the tree. The toad in the garden. The serpent in the sleeve. The owl watching from the rafters.

In Jackson, the familiar has to live in the ordinary world.

That makes it stranger.

A cat can enter a teenager’s bedroom in a way a demon never could. A crow can watch the school from the football field lights. A dog can follow the characters down a street and make everyone think nothing odd is happening. A mouse can live in the walls of the library. A spider can listen in the girls’ bathroom.

A demon or a monster in the school hallway changes what the adventure is about in a rather dramatic way. A cat? That is different, but which one is more "supernatural?" Which one is a larger portent of what is going on here?  A cat in the hallway changes nothing, until it turns to look at the witch and she hears it say, "Not that door."

Most of all familiars tell me two things.

First, while AW&W and Jackson, IL as projects feature witches (and in a couple of cases the same witch), they can take on very different tones and be very different sorts of witches.

Secondly, while I have a lot figured out, I still don't have it all figured out yet. Familiars are a perfect example. 

Mirror Shard: Cotton-ball, the Mirror-Cat

On the surface, Cotton-ball in Jackson is an unremarkable white cat. Which is as it should be; it is his finest defense. He is small and soft with bright eyes, and he has no objection to being underestimated. The characters will find him where he has no business being, or gone in an instant when the adults come looking for him. He has a way of putting himself to sleep on top of whatever book or hand mirror Larina (or your characters) needs at the moment.

The majority of folks are under the impression he is nothing more than a cat. Yeah. That is exactly what I want.

Cotton-ball is Larina’s familiar in Jackson, though whether she understands that at first is another matter. He begins as the cat that follows her home, waits outside the school, appears on the library steps, or watches her from the cemetery fence. He is not dramatic. He does not arrive in lightning. He arrives like a cat.

Cotton-ball has an affinity for mirrors. He knows which ones are ordinary and which ones are pretending. He will not look into some mirrors at all. Others he stares into for long minutes, tail twitching, as if something on the other side is talking to him. When a mirror is about to show more than a reflection, Cotton-ball is often already in the room. Waiting and watching.

When you are running a game in Jackson, make of him what you will: a guide, an omen, a little agent of the Veil. But don’t have him laying things out for you. He is a cat. Let him communicate by knocking something off a shelf, by the way he looks at you, or by refusing to go through a doorway. He will be there at the worst possible time.

He can put Larina on notice that magic is in the air. He has a nose for ghosts, hags, and other witches, and can put himself in places she has only seen in her dreams. 

There are things he doesn't like: church bells, wet shoes, cheap perfume, or anyone who has been making deals with the things under the town. Give him cream and warm laundry and moonlight and old books, and he will be happy enough, particularly if there are secrets being told and he can listen in.

In Advanced Witches & Warlocks, the Mirror-Cat can be used as a special familiar. It appears most often to witches with mirror magic, moon magic, spirit sight, or ties to other selves. A Mirror-Cat grants the witch an instinctive awareness of false reflections, glamours, scrying attempts, and spirits using reflective surfaces.

The Mirror-Cat cannot answer every question. It can tell the witch where to look. And that is usually enough. Or, more to the point, that is usually all you are going to get. 

Again. I still a lot more work to do on this idea. 

Witchcraft Wednesdays: It Takes Three to Make A Thing Go Right

 With all apologies to MC Rod Base and DJ EZ Rock (nobody rocked harder dressed like a pack of Newports, RIP), there is a reason you see covens of witches vs solitaries. 

I have said it here before, but witches are social. They see patterns in social dynamics and in social constructs. A cleric might ask why someone read a book on demonology. A wizard might ask why they read this particular book on demons. A witch will notice why the book is grouped with local maps and notes on when the graveyard was first used. They seek out the connections between people and each other; the living and the dead, people and the divine, and people and the arcane. 

And there is a reason that NIGHT SHIFT is called "Veterans of the Supernatural Wars."

People who fight the darkness rarely get to retire, and when they do, it is only to pass the fight down to the next generation. 

Today I want to talk a bit about Stephanie, Faye, and Larina in Jackson, or not really them specifically, what and who they are in the game. For me, they are the stand-ins for the PCs as I playtest and write. If and/or when I am able to move this from my computer and game table to yours, they might not even be there; your characters will. They will have their own organization and social dynamic, and they will have one, but more importantly, they will have a history. Not a backstory per se, but a history, things that went on before them. The people who fought this battle before they did. Some won. Most lost.

Let's look into how this plays out in my game.

So, before these witches walked the halls of Jackson,

Stephanie, Faye, and Larina (1986)

These witches did.

Lena, Alyssa, and Keely (1983)

Selene "Lena" Marquette, Alyssa Argent, and Keely "Q" Ellison were Jackson's witch protectors in the time before Larina got here and before Faye started paying attention. Lena was smart, popular, and already one foot out the door to study at MacAlister the summer of 83. Keely was popular, had a smile for everyone, and was on the cheerleading, dance, gymnastics teams, and the choir. Everyone loved her. Not liked, loved. And Alyssa. She wasn't the smartest girl in the room. She was the smartest person in the whole damn town. Brilliant, chaotic, she read theoretical physics for fun, translated languages in her spare time, and had a full-ride scholarship to pretty much every Ivy League school. 

And their story is tragic. I normally don't like to make characters fail, but sometimes they do, and that is the horror. In Jackson, horror is everywhere.

One night, when dealing with a monster, Lena and Keely never made it back. Alyssa did, but her mind was no longer intact. The official story is that Lena and Keely were coming back from school late at night and someone grabbed them. Upon hearing the story, Alyssa broke down. But the town's people knew something was not right. Lena and Keely were friends, but there was no reason for them both to be leaving the school that late at night and together. Alyssa had a nervous breakdown, which surprised no one, but it had been a long time coming, and whether it really had anything to do with the official events is anyone's guess.  Alyssa spent the next year at the Illinois State Mental Hospital in town. She didn't even get to go to the funeral of the two girls she called "sisters."

Last page of the Jackson PHS 1983 yearbook

One of the features I have with Jackson is that it is based on my real-life high school. One of those real Jacksonville things was that every year in high school, one or more students would die. Gruesome, right. Yeah, now imagine it is a small school of just over 1,500 students total. We used to say the school was cursed. I have no idea if it is still happening.

You can begin to see why I have so much material for this project.

It's not just that Lena and Q died. It's not even that they died because of Jackson's supernatural elements, or that it left the once-brilliant Alyssa a shell of her former self.

It's when Stephanie, Faye, and Larina (or YOUR characters) are walking the halls, the adults say things like "Oh, Larina, she is just like Alyssa," and then they go quiet. Or even "Stephanie Vale lights up a room, just like Keely used to."  But the worst part is the adults who never say anything at all. They watch the girls walk by laughing conspiratorially, and inside, they are thinking, "No. Please. Not again."

The fight in Jackson is old. It has been going on for a long time. And I want to impress upon the characters and the players that they are not the first here, they won't be the last. These are the Veterans of the Supernatural Wars. Kids that are not even old enough to drink (legally) or, in some cases, vote.

But Lena, Alyssa, and Q hold another lesson too.

You can't do this alone.

I am not sure of the details yet, but I do know this: they failed and died because they were not working together. Look. I don't want to blame them for their deaths. It was a horrible thing, and honestly? I have only had them for a couple of days, and I feel terrible. But they died because, as witches, they were not working together.

I love Stephanie, Faye, and Larina. I do. I want them to live happily ever after in the Jackson Game world for as long as I can. But I also know how I typically play these characters, and honestly, I am a little surprised that Jackson-Larina has not met the same fate as other Larinas on other worlds. 

In the past I have described Larina as "the girl who sets herself on fire to light the way for others," and yes, she has died. Many times on many worlds. I have a binder filled with her character sheets. But here in Jackson, her lesson (and the PC's lesson) is, you can't and should not do this alone. My own rule also says I can't raise her from the dead. Sorry, witches can't raise the dead, and this is an absolute rule in my games. So, Larina, as my iconic witch, cannot break that rule.

For witches and any character, these connections are important. I have not implemented coven casting rules in NIGHT SHIFT outside of the Arcane Bond power, but I really should. 

Coven casting is not just "three witches get together, and the spell gets bigger." That is wizard-thinking. That is math. Witches can do math, but that is not where the magic lives. 

The coven is the circuit for a witch. There is one to name the thing, one to hold the line, and another to mind the human toll. Put in different witches, and you have a different spell. Stephanie, Faye, and Larina are not some interchangeable cogs in a machine. Stephanie will be on to the lies people tell and the social fallout. Faye has her finger on the room’s emotional pulse. Larina spots the occult design. Put them together, and they can pull off things no one of them should be able to do by herself.

More to the point, they can survive it. Or at least they have a better chance.

I want to make that a rule in Jackson. Coven magic can give you an edge on a roll, but it should be more about sharing the danger, the cost, the insight. Let one witch absorb the psychic backlash while another steadies the ritual or makes sure the door does not shut. Or let one put her foot down and say "No, we’re done," and have it count for something in the mechanics. 

Lena, Alyssa, and Q lost that. Or perhaps they never really had it to begin with. I don't know, and niether will the players or characters.

Alyssa had power. Terrible power that made everyone stop and look. She was capable of more than Larina ever could be. But there is a difference between brilliance and wisdom, between power and the connection of a coven. On her own, a witch is a weapon, a flame, or a ghost story to be told in hushed tones in the hallways. A coven puts the humanity back in her. A coven gives that power a focus and meaning.

Jackson is full of monsters, of course. Haunted colleges, the bad land, old tragedies, and the odd book in the library where the Veil is thin. But it is also about the girl in the hallway beside you. The one who knows your real name and your worst ideas, and when you are lying or afraid. The one who will take your hand and tell you, "No, you are not alone."

That is witchcraft. I love my circles, candles, and athamés as much as the next person (ok, maybe more so than the next person), but this is more than spells or familiars. It is true connection made dangerous. Friendship with teeth. Love in a circle aimed at the dark.

I want Jackson to remember that. Lena, Alyssa, and Q are a reminder that the fight was here before your characters got to it. Stephanie, Faye, and Larina show us you don’t get to just assume you will make it. Your characters ought to feel the weight of all those names when they walk these halls.

The defeated and dead aren’t there to put a damper on the game. They are there to remind the living how to stand together.

Mirror Mondays: The Witches of 1986. The Public Library as Dungeon

 There is a very good reason my main witch character, Larina, is often cast as a librarian.

My introduction to “real” witches was in the library. Not the kind made of flesh and blood, but the ones you find in the pages of a book, in history, or in mythology. You could say libraries are where witches live, and I am not using that as some kind of metaphor all these years on. That is simply how it was for me.

The public library was among the first places where the world seemed to expand and grow stranger at once. You would come in off a perfectly ordinary Midwestern afternoon, make your way past the desk and the new books and whatever they had on display for the month, and then in the stacks you were liable to run across ghosts, demons, gods, vampires, lost cities, ancient rites, and other things your school teachers never thought to mention and certainly never on the "staff picks" section. 

There is a trick to a library. It is meant to be safe. Quiet, ordered, respectable. It has its rules and its due dates and its card catalogs. The librarians know where everything is. But this is precisely what makes for a fine dungeon.

Because a dungeon is more than a hole in the ground with monsters in it. It is a place of hidden knowledge, danger, and memory, with its maps, keys, locked doors, old names, and false leads. A good one will have treasures that alter the person who brings them out. An old public library has all of that.

Take my fictional Jackson, which is rooted in the real Jacksonville, Illinois. The Public Library there has the right bones for it. As a Carnegie library, built in 1902 and put to use in 1903, it has the sort of grand Classical Revival air about it that suggests books are of consequence, and perhaps a touch perilous if you give them any thought. It feels like it is holding secrets even before you start making any up. A building like this isn’t holding just ordinary books; it has something special. 

I don’t want the library in Jackson to be sinister, though. There is a difference between "evil" and being "important". It is not a haunted mansion in disguise. It is doing what it does: preserving, collecting, cataloging, remembering. There is enough danger in just that.  I mean, didn't the Satanic Panic try to teach us that books were dangerous?

A town or a local family can tell you lies, or what they want you to hear. A church can. A newspaper will be careful with what it puts in print. But the library keeps things. Not without fault; you will find things misfiled or stolen or damaged or just plain forgotten. But in a game, that is useful. A missing book means someone saw fit to put it away. A yearbook with a face marked out says more than the picture alone.

For the purposes of Advanced Witches & Warlocks, the library is the old occult archive. A Magic-user will be after his spellbooks and grimoires, a Cleric his demonologies and forbidden heresies. But a Witch? She sees relationships. The volume on local flora sitting beside one on funeral rites. A genealogy that seems to orbit the same three names over and over. Consider the old map with a road that curves for no reason. Well. No apparent reason. The church record is missing a winter. A travel diary, making note of a hill nobody goes to anymore. Or a trial transcript where they all seem to be talking around one particular fact.

This is what we call occult knowledge. It is not just about fireballs and lightning. It is the kind of thing you can see if you know how to read the shape of it, right in plain view.

Which explains the witch’s affinity for libraries. She is after more than spells; she wants to find the pattern that runs under the town, the detail everyone has overlooked because they haven’t asked the right question about it yet. In Jackson, IL, this is all the more pressing.

Take a teenage witch in 1986 like Larina. There is no internet to comb through at midnight, no way to put ten sources side by side in half a minute, or access some digital archive. If she wants to understand why the cemetery has an empty grave, or why a teacher’s name is in a yearbook from two decades back, or what happened to the old road’s name, she has to make the trip. She has to go down into the dungeon.

The public library provides something modern games are too quick to discard: a place for your information. And that is a big deal. If the answer is in the library, your characters have to be there. They have to put in the work to be seen, to ask for help, to charm the librarian or wait for the building to quiet down so the ghosts can move between the shelves. They have to get their hands on the old book.

It makes research physical. Gameable.

You can have encounters in a library. Not necessarily combat, but the real sort. The librarian who holds her tongue when she knows better. The classmate watching which book you check out. Some old man with his newspaper who puts you on the spot about your family. A child tells you there is a lady in the local history room, but you see nothing. You might come across a locked cabinet, a missing index card, a book out of place in the children’s section, or the smell of candle smoke by the microfilm.

Sometimes the library is of more use than a haunted house. One will give you a secret; the other gives you the town’s secrets, all sorted by subject. I put them in my own witch work for that reason. My Appendix O is littered with books on everything from vampires and monsters to Jung and the supernatural. Some were dubious (ok, more than some), some were serious, and some you would be a fool to call scholarship, but all are worth mining for a game.

A library does not just put facts in your head. It teaches you to wander. You start out for one title and end up with three. You put down a tome on mythology and pick up one on ghosts. You are looking into witchcraft, and before you know it, you are in demonology, then horror films, then local history, until you have found something that nags at you and becomes a character or a spell years down the line.

That is how you build a witch. Shelf by shelf. Book by book.

You won’t find much of an accident in Larina’s vocation as a librarian. If anything, it is one of the most honest things about her. She is meant to be with books because that is where you will find the doors; the doors to rooms in your mind. Some are opened with a sword, some with a spell, but a library card will open more than either of those if you have the patience and curiosity for it and are just a little reckless.

It is also where Jackson, IL, and Advanced Witches & Warlocks come together.

In Advanced Witches & Warlocks, the occult library is your hoard. Not of gold, but something better: names, maps, rituals, marginalia, correspondences, the weaknesses of monsters, forgotten gods, and that single bit of information which makes a hopeless fight a dangerous proposition. In Jackson, the public library is all that and then some, only with fluorescent lights, carpet, and summer reading posters. You won’t be in a ruined tower; you’ll be downtown. Your mother could drive by while you are in there, or your English teacher might be at the desk. Someone from school may well notice what you are holding.

There is a danger to a forbidden book in a fantasy dungeon, sure. It might call a demon. The same book in Jackson is dangerous because it can do that and get you grounded into the bargain. Both are problems you don’t want.

Then there is the matter of democracy. A wizard’s tower is his, for the cleric the temple is the god’s, and a witch has her house. The library claims to belong to the town. Anyone can put in an appearance and make a private discovery. The smart girl, the jock with nothing to do, the kid skulking from bullies, the would-be warlock after a shortcut, the old woman with her genealogy, the teacher who has put in too many hours. Even the monster in human skin who comes in on Thursdays to read the obituaries. For a horror game, it is hard to beat a public place like that. Harder still in 1986.

The card catalog has the feel of a summoning machine. You can tell who had a book before you by the checkout card in the front. The microfilm reader puts out a hum like some kind of artifact; the local paper archive is a time tunnel, and the yearbooks are grimoires of social magic with their dedications and signatures and people making an effort to look normal for posterity. The library holds these like a silent guardian of bygone truths. 

It keeps the version of the town that wants to be remembered and the one it couldn’t quite put away. That is where the witches fit in. She will spot the failure. The crack in the catalog, the year with an odd number of obituaries, a family name that vanishes and reappears under a different spelling. She will see the photograph was cut, not torn, and the map folded so often along one road the paper is thinning.

I don’t want a magic shop or a wizard school for the Jackson Public Library. I want a building with a long memory where you can walk in broad daylight and sense the dungeon beneath you. Where the ghosts are to be found under Local History. A place of better questions than answers. There is an occult section, not a big one, but you will somehow come across the very book you were dreading to put your hands on. For the Advanced Witches & Warlocks crowd, it is the same with the fantasy game. Any town that has a witch in it ought to have its library.

It could be a shelf in the priest’s study or a chest of scrolls under the wise woman’s bed. A ruined scriptorium. A set of bones with names carved in them. Or perhaps a ring of old women who commit nothing to paper and remember everything; I would call that the most dangerous library of all. The Witch doesn’t just read the book. She reads the silence about it, the hand that made the note in the margin, the missing page, the town trying to put it out of mind. In that sense the public library is a dungeon. The doors are open, the treasure is there for the taking and so are the monsters, who can read as well as anyone.

The Mirror Shard: The Locked History Room

Take the case of the Locked Local History Room. Every haunted town has one. It needn’t be locked in any literal sense. It may be behind the desk or in the basement. Maybe they only let you in during certain hours, which is its own kind of lock. Or maybe it is wide open, but no one under eighteen is to go in uninvited. That suffices.

Jackson uses this room for the things that don’t make the official tour: the old yearbooks, the church histories, the funeral cards and maps, the donated family papers and clippings. There are photographs in here no one bothered to label because at the time you knew who they were. And horror has a way of living in “at the time.”

In your game, this is the village archive, the temple record room, the witch’s cabinet of names. This is where you get the first true account of the curse, not the tavern version. In Jackson, IL, a young witch discovers that the town has been lying by omission.

The room is quiet in a way that feels wrong. It is not empty, it is listening. You can smell the dust and old print on the carpet. The file cabinets are stiff, and the table bears pencil marks from the long dead. On a shelf are yearbooks with cracked spines and an excess of smiling faces.

A good clue from this place should make the mystery personal, not put an end to it. A young witch comes across her own surname in a clipping from before she was born. A player spots his grandmother next to a man who was dead by 1935. They find a map of Mauvaisterre that someone has tried to rub out, or a yearbook with the words “You heard the bell too” scrawled in it.

There is usually a guardian to the room, though not always a monster. It could be the librarian, a retired teacher, a ghost, or a rule in red ink on an index card. He won’t tell you, “you can’t come in,” that is too simple. He will ask, “What are you looking for?” which is far worse. In a room like this, the wrong answer can still give you exactly what you are looking for. Just maybe not in the way you expect it should.