October Horror Movie Challenge: Warlock Trilogy

The first movie is a fun one I won't deny it. It is not exactly horror, but it has all the tropes. The others, well let's see how it goes. Its the weekend, so let's go on a Warlock bender.

Warlock (1989)

This is the movie that introduced most of the world to the hammy overacting of Julian Sands.  Ok, my not all that over the top, but he does chew up the scenery with gleeful abandon.  It also features a young Richard E. Grant and Lori Singer who was at the time the biggest star on the cast. 

The plot is thin but fun. Julian Sands plays the Warlock, the one true son of Satan. Grant plays Redfern the witch hunter.  The Warlock escapes judgment from Redfern by traveling in time from 1691 to 1991 (presumably) Los Angeles. He runs into Lori singer who has a part of The Grand Grimoire. He curses her to cause her to age 20 years. If she doesn't find a way to stop him (with Redfern in tow) she will die of old age in a matter of days.  There are some nice witchcraft hijinks like the warlock needing the fat of an unbaptized boy to make his flying potion, nails in the witch's footprints will hurt the witch, using salt to keep the warlock away, and using the witch's blood in a compass.  You know. Fun stuff.

The Warlock travels from LA to Boston putting together the Grand Grimoire so he can summon Satan to Earth, but he stopped at the end. 

Warlock II The Armageddon (1993)

A sequel was inevitable. Julian Sands is back as The Warlock, but that is it. This one is kind of a mess. There is a bit about a group of Druids in modern-day being charged by God (yeah...I don't know either) who are supposed to protect the world from the forces of Satan.  Anyway, our two leads, Kenny and Samantha, learn they are the last two Druid warriors. Though they have to die first before they can fight the warlock.  

So there is this bit with these elemental stones that can only be used during a lunar eclipse. Again the goal here is bring Satan to Earth. But he is defeated finally by, no joke, the lights of a truck.

So I saw this one when it was new and completely forgot most it. Now I remember why.

Warlock III The End of Innocence (1999)

Ok. So this one is completely different. Bruce Payne is in for Julian Sands, but I am not sure if he is supposed to be the same character or not.  Ok in this case back in the past the Warlock needs to sacrifice a particular girl to well...not entirely clear on that. More power I think. Anyway, a young woman named Kris Miller (Ashley Laurence) learns she is the heir to an old house that is about to be torn down. Since she doesn't know anything about her family she opts to go. She goes to the house, alone, and surprise she gets some scares. Actually, some of the scares are pretty good ones. This one already ups the scare content. 

Eventually, her friends show up and stay the night. The next day the Warlock shows up pretending to be an art historian. One by one he turns her friends against her by magically granting them what they want most.  Only Robin, played by the always wonderful Botti Bliss, sees the warlock for what he is. She is a witch and has a magic battle with him. She is no match of course and is killed.   One by one her friends fall leaving only Kris.  We learn that Kris was the girl from the past and her mother, a powerful witch, sent her to the present and gave her the means to kill the warlock, a knife hidden inside her old doll. 

 So this one, while off from the formula of the first two, might actually be a better movie. 

Use for War of the Witch Queens

I know that real murderer of the High Witch Queen is a wizard, so I plan to use some ideas about warlocks to inform this particular character though I don't think I want him to be a warlock per see as defined by D&D.

Use for NIGHT SHIFT

There is a lot here. Warlocks in NIGHT SHIFT are broadly defined, so I can do with them as I need. A warlock like this would work great for my Ordinary World setting. The careful balance of the witches, vampires and other monsters in hiding is disrupted by a new Warlock coming to town to, I don't know, raise up the Devil. He the warlock thought dealing with witchhunters was bad wait till he deals with a family full powerful witches that don't want their nice lives disrupted by this nonsense. 

October Horror Movie Challenge 2022
Viewed: 10
First Time Views: 7

100 Days of Halloween: Reign of Winter

When Pathfinder wanted to introduce us to their witch class they did so with a lot of pomp, circumstance, and many great adventures. The Magnum Opus of this has to be their Adventure Path: Reign of Winter.

Once again we are taken to Irrisen and to the court of Witch Queen Elvanna. Only now her reign is at an end and she won't go quietly.  The PCs have to intervene.

Reign of Winter Adventure Path

Six adventure books, print (oop), and PDF. Full-color covers and interior art. Each book 100 pages.

First a bit about the adventure paths. Paizo created their adventure path idea largely as a means to to support  D&D 3.5 and then their Pathfinder Core RPGs. They were a direct competition the D&D Adventure League (in format anyway).  While D&D has moved on to larger hardcover adventures for 5e now, Pathfinder was still doing the Adventure paths in six or so various softcover adventures for characters 1 to 20.  

Land of Ice and Snow

Reign of Winter dealt with the Witch Queen Elvanna, daughter of Baba Yaga, and her machinations to keep control of Irrisen now that her reign of 100 years is over. There is involvement with Baba Yaga, her dancing hut, the Demon Lord Kostchtchie, The Mad Monk Rasputin, AND none other than THE Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova.  Now I have been a fan of Baba Yaga for decades, but I also am a huge fan of the whole mystery of Anastasia Romanova and whether she could have still been alive.  So all of this and add world hopping on top of it all?  Yeah! Sign me up!

While I have all of the adventures and supplementary materials in PDF, I am missing a couple of the physical books.  I did grab as many of the minis as I could.

Each adventure has an overview outline of the major events to help explain what will happen. Lots of new monsters, NPCs, great-looking maps, and more. I will say this, Paizo goes all out on these.

Each Adventure path module is released every month, so a half of a year from start to finish.

Adventure 1 (of 6): Snows of Summer

The PCs start at 1st level and should end the adventure at or around 4th level. This is the adventure that introduces them to Irrisen.  The hook is winter is moving southwards and encompassing more lands.  It is here that we learn that the Great Witch Baba Yaga has been captured and imprisoned. 

Adventure 2 (of 6): The Shackled Hut

Here the PCs must find Baba Yaga's famous hut and use it to find her. But there is an entire city filled with monsters between them and the hut. And then they have to deal with the Winter Witches. This adventure is for PCs 4th to 7th level.

Adventure 3 (of 6): Maiden, Mother, Crone

The PCs are transported around the world. They end up in another frozen wasteland of Iobaria on the far-off continent of Casmaron. Here they find three magically linked dungeons and the secrets of the Demon Lord Kostchtchie the Deathless.  
A note about Kostchtchie. Back in the late days of TSR the notion came about that Orcus was once a human. I always hated that notion. Now we get the same thing here with Kostchtchie and I like it. It works so much better for him than for Orcus.

This adventure is for PCs levels 7 to 10.

Adventure 4 (of 6): The Frozen Stars

In a true world-hopping adventure the PCs will take the Hut to Triaxus, the seventh world in Golarion’s solar system, now in the midst of its decades-long winter (of course!). Here the gain useful information on the whereabouts of Baba Yaga.

This adventure is for PCs levels 10 to 13.

Adventure 5 (of 6): Rasputin Must Die!

Now THIS is an adventure! You have to go to Baba Yaga's home world of Earth in 1918 to retrieve her and stop her captor the Mad Monk Grigori Rasputin himself. The PCs have to face him, his minions and 20th-century tech of WWI. 

I have to admit for a lot of reasons this one might be my favorite out of all six. 

This adventure is for PCs levels 13 to 15.

Adventure 6 (of 6): The Witch Queen’s Revenge

The PCs have found Baba Yaga but she is trapped in a matryoshka doll. They have to free her AND still defeat Queen Elvanna and put a new Witch Queen on the throne.

This adventure is for PCs levels 15 to 17. Leaving the last three levels for something else I guess. 

Adventure 7? Witchwar Legacy

Interestingly enough the adventure I reviewed a couple of nights ago, The Witchwar Legacy, is for characters level 17 and up. It also features contact with the Witch Queen Elvanna of Irrisen.  In fact it reads like a rough draft to this adventure. It was written by Greg A. Vaughn who wrote the Witch Queen's Revenge.  If I used this then it would need to be the new Queen of Irrisen or Baba Yaga that sends them on their way.  I am safe in saying "new Queen" because if the PCs don't defeat Elvanna in Adventure 6 they will surely be dead.

Personally, I like this plan. Given that I have an overabundance of Winter Witches I could run this independently of my War of the Witch Queens.

Maybe I'll convert the whole thing to Pathfinder 2 or D&D 5/One D&D someday and run that. There is just too much fun stuff here NOT to use.

 

October Horror Movie Challenge: The Antichrist (1974)

Another 1974 flick.  I was not kidding when I said it was a good year for horror.  But is this one a good movie?

It is almost like the creators of this movie saw The Exorcists and thought "yeah, that's good, but it needs more sex. And maybe a dash of incest too."

You would be excused if on the surface this one sounded like "Enter the Devil" from the same year. There are religious overtones, demonic possession, incest, psycharity, and lots of demonic activity. 

Briefly, Ippolita (Carla Gravina) was paralyzed in a car crash that had killed her mother. While she goes to holy shrines in hopes that God will heal her, her father Massimo (Mel Ferrer) is busy cavorting with his new young lover Greta (Anita Strindberg).  

All the doctors have told Massimo that Ippolita's condition is psychosomatic. So on the advice of his brother a Cardinal they take her to see a psychiatrist Dr. Sinibaldi (Umberto Orsini). Under hypnosis, Ippolita talks about her past life as a witch and how she was burned at the stake. The hypnosis is successful, Ipplolita is able to walk again, but she is possessed by her past life that gave her soul to Satan.  So in addition to walking Ippolita now spits up green goo, has telekinesis, and has sex with her own brother. You know. The usual. 

There are at least three different attempts to exorcise her. Meanwhile, she manages to kill a few people. Finally in the end the devil (or witch, it is unclear now) is forced out by church bells and puts her hands on an iron cross.

So. There are some neat things here and certainly an attempt at some special effects. 

It's not a bad flick, but suffers too much from Exorcism Envy really. It also has long stretches where nothing at all is really moving the plot forward.

Use for War of the Witch Queens

Like I mentioned with "Enter the Devil" there is not enough of the common folk being afraid of demons and devils for what they represent (Eternal Evil) and not as "Monsters with a lot of XP."

Use for NIGHT SHIFT

This would be a good history one too. Come back 48 years later. Ippolita had a daughter from her incestuous affair. They gave that girl for adoption to the church who tried to raise the demon child. One night she escaped. When she was discovered again she was pregnant. Now that baby, Ippolita's granddaughter, is back looking for her grandmother. Maybe she is now possessed of the same witch but can better control it. 

October Horror Movie Challenge 2022
Viewed: 7
First Time Views: 6

Kickstart Your Weekend: OSE Style

A couple of Kickstarters designed for Old-School Essentials (the new hotness in the OSR scene) are up.  Let's have a look.

Dark Places & Demogorgons for Old-School Essentials

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ericfrombloatgames/dark-places-and-demogorgons-for-old-school-essentials?ref=theotherside

This one is the Peanut Butter and Chocolate of the OSR right now. Dark Places and Demogorgons is a fun setting, OSE is a great rule system. Two great tastes that are great together.

Honestly, outside of NIGHT SHIFT, these are the only two games that excite me right now. AND they both live on the same shelf, so this is kind of a no-brainer for me.

And this one has now hit its funding goal and headed for stretch goals!  And the stretch goals look FANTASTIC.  I am in on an early bird special, so I am looking forward to all the great stuff this one is going to get for me.

Gateway To Adventure Trilogy For Old-School Essentials

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gamersandgrognards/gateway-to-adventure-trilogy-for-old-school-essentials?ref=theotherside

Appendix N is kickstarting a trio of books for Old-School Essentials. So the "Gateway to Adventure" is quite appropriate.

From the campaign page,

Within the Gateway To Adventure trilogy you will receive optional rules and classes based on the Mid-Realm campaigns of R.J. Thompson, as well as lore for the various kin and classes. All of this information will be presented in a way that will be easily transferable into any campaign setting! These books are meant to be cherry picked by referees and players alike to create the campaign that they want to have! Similarly to how we present our adventures, so that every table's experience is different, so too with our rules variants, we want everyone to have their own unique game! All of this in an A5 format so these books fit on your shelf right next to the core Old-School Essentials line!

Sounds like a lot of fun and OSE is my current OSR clone of choice.

100 Days of Halloween: Winter of the Witch

My search for my Winter Witch for War of the Witch Queens continues. Today's candidate comes in two flavors 4e and 5e. She gets a few extra bonuses as well.

As always I will be following my rules for these reviews.

Dungeon #162 (4e) - Winter of the Witch

PDF. 111 pages, color covers and interior art.

I am not reviewing the entire issue of Dungeon here, though I will briefly talk about the other contents. Robert J. Schwalb has two adventures here. A Scales of War Adventure Path adventure and “Depths of Madness” from the Madness trilogy. Schwalb does great work and I am sure these are both top-notch. 

Winter of the Witch is by Stephen Radney-MacFarland with illustrations by Dave Allsop, Eric Deschamps, Izzy, William O'Connor, Wayne Reynolds, Amelia Stoner, Sam Wood, and cartography by Jason A. Engle, and Sean Macdonald. 

This adventure calls the characters back to Winterhaven to the Keep on the Shadowfell. The plot is similar to what we would later see with the Night King and Winterfell in Game of Thrones. (But this was published in 2009.) Koliada is marching south with her army of Undead and winter follows after her. This could easily be tied in with the HPE series of adventures from 4e if you could find a way to slot them in. All the right elements are here it is a matter of working it out. OR it would make for a great epic-level adventure for some other D&DF 4 campaign. It is set for levels 21-30.

Personally, the adventure is fine, but the true star here is Koliada the Winter Witch. She is so much fun that I have used her in BECMI D&D and made my own D&D 5 stats for her. I also thought she might make a great Dark Lord if part of Pathfinder's Irrisen got sucked into Ravenloft as Ikkesen.  She is a standout character and one I love to keep coming back to.  The fantastic Wayne Reynolds art doesn't hurt either.

The adventure is a tight 34 pages.

Winter of the Witch (5e)

PDF. 32 pages. No art.

This conversion is from Michael "solomani" Mifsud making use of the WotC fan license to convert older products. This is a conversion of the Monsters (and just the monsters) from the Winter of the Witch adventure from Dungeon 162.

Monster stats are limited to one per page to make printing easy with the notable exceptions of our white dragon Kurikveaeri and Koliada herself.  His stats don't match mine save where we both drew from the original, but he has a some good ideas here to be sure.

The product doesn't not try to convert the whole adventure. It also doesn't claim to try to convert it all either, this is just the monsters.  For just under $2 that's not bad, but I would have liked some more. Still this is a lot of work and plenty to get me going.

--

For use in War of the Witch Queens

I can use this adventure largely as is, I would drop the Orcus involvement altogether. She is interesting enough on her own.

Why is Koliada invading now? Simple the High Witch Queen, whom even she feared, is now dead and she thinks there is no one to stop her. Even the PCs should have time trying to stop her to be honest. Regardless of how I use her, she is too interesting to NOT use.

October Horror Movie Challenge: Devil's Possessed (1974)

When is a Paul Naschy movie not a Paul Naschy movie?  When it is directed by León Klimovsky and it is 1974's the Devil's Possessed.

The movie is a semi-retelling of the story of Gilles de Rais with Naschy as Barón Gilles de Lancré.  His wife, Georgelle (Norma Sebre) is in cahoots with alchemist/charlatan Simon de Braqueville (Eduardo Calvo).  At first, de Lancré doesn't want to participate in the killing of virgins (I feel this one is going to come up a lot this month; save yourself from demonic sacrifice, have sex early and often).

Returning war hero and friend of the Baron, Gaston de Malebranche (Guillermo Bredeston) returns to town and quickly learns of de Lancré's crimes.  He joins up with a group of bandits to go after the Baron. 

At this point, I am halfway through the film and I have not seen many horrors or any of the other things I normally associate with a Naschy movie.  Hardly any blood, no nudity, and honestly very little in the terms of creep factor.   The movie is better classified as a horror adventure.  A good one (ok maybe not "good") to get some ideas on how to run a village attacking a vampire lord.  

The movie is from 74 but it feels older, like from the early 60s only not in bright technicolor despite what the poster claims.

In the end it just isn't very good.

Use for War of the Witch Queens

I think one of the things that gets lost in heroic fantasy is how much the thought of the Devil terrified the common folk. They were ignorant and filled with superstitions and living in a world that was designed to keep them that way. PCs hear "the Devil" and think "that's a whole lot of XP!" and not "our immortal souls are at risk!" 

Use for NIGHT SHIFT

This one is more a "Dark Age" setting, but Gilles de Rais is a perennial favorite among occultists today, so maybe this can be the history piece of a new tale.  Essentially the same thing but having the descendants repeating the actions of their ancestors. Sounds like a Giallo movie to me. 

October Horror Movie Challenge 2022
Viewed: 6
First Time Views: 5

Board Game: Wizards (1982)

I was reorganizing my shelves trying to find some room for some new books when I found this little gem hiding in my lower shelves.  I totally forgot I had this!

Wizards (1982)

Wizards is described as "Avalon Hill's game of fantasy adventure."  It is easy to see why they would want to make this game too.

1982 was some prime years for Fantasy RPGs and D&D in particular. 

There are board game elements to this as well as plenty of RPG elements.  For example you can choose what sort of wizard character (Order) you will play; Wizard, Sorcerer, or Druid. Each also has four levels (Ranks).

The first part of the game is setting up all the locations of the various islands on the hex grid sea map.

After that the various wizards race around the map to collect various gems for the High Druid. There are seven, six are needed to win.

While this is going on there are various Event and Task cards that send your wizard on quests, trap them or other hazards. These add time it takes to complete your missions but they can also raise your Wizard rank and make you more powerful. 

From the rule book. Here is what is needed to play and win.

1. Join a Magical Order. Without that, you may not accept any Tasks or gain points of any kind.
2. Acquire Tasks and complete them for points of Knowledge, Power and/or Perception.
3. Fight the Evil Powers that take over the islands, making them inaccessible.
4. Advance to Rank 4 in your Order. 
5. When you are at Rank 4, collect all 6 Gems from the High Wizards.
6. When you have the Gems, pass them to the High Druid Rüktal in the Center of the Sacred Circle to win the game.

The game uses two six-sided dice.  

I love the *idea* of this game, but while I enjoyed the set up I could not get anyone to play it here.  My wife does not care for board games with RPG elements and my kids would rather play D&D.

I am adopting some ideas from this game though for my own games, most notably the War of the Witch Queens, but certainly others as well.

Traveller Envy and the Avalon Isles

I have talked a bit about my Traveller Envy here in the past. To finally overcome this I am taking all the various board games I am going to cover this month and create a new area of my world; the Isles of Avalon. The origins here should be pretty obvious, I am going to base a lot of the mythology of the lands on England, Ireland, and the various islands around them. Also, I am drawing heavily from the Avalon Hill games, so much so that the currently unnamed main island has a place called Avalon Hill. It will be my world's Glastonbury Tor.  There is a volcano on one of the islands (this will be an archipelago) where a famous Warlock lives.  With a volcano I can also get representations of all the elements; Earth, Water, Air and Fire.

There will be a smaller island nearby that I am calling the Island of the Necromancers.

I will spend this month detailing this place further.

If I get nothing else out of these board games then I think I will be fine.

100 Days of Halloween: The Witchwar Legacy

Switching worlds, editions, and even systems now.  

This adventure was released in 2010 and is a prelude to their Reign of Winter adventure path released in 2013.

I am not entirely sure to be honest, but I think this is the adventure that prompted Paizo to make the Reign of Winter adventure path. 

The Witchwar Legacy

PDF and Print 32 pages. Color covers and interior art.

This adventure is for characters level 17 and essentially is a MacGuffin hunt for the Torc of Kostchtchie. The characters can choose to aid Elvanna, the Witch Queen of Irrisen gain the Torc or the demon-lord Kostchtchie. 

It is a short adventure, essentially a single location with a lot of monsters and NPCs.

It is a quick one, to be honest for such a high-level adventure. If it wasn't so high level it would be a great introduction to the Reign of Winter series. 

I feel like it could be run in the afternoon, but I also think I would like to adjust the threats to make it a little lower level. I would also tweak it a bit to fit the Reign of Winter series. 

My Snow/Ice/Winter Witch?

Elvanna is fantastic, but she never shows up here. She is a good witch...well an evil witch, but she is great at that. The Reign of Winter also features Elvanna but in a different sort of role and she dies in the end...or at least could die. Plus she is so wrapped up in everything I would have to change the Reign of Winter to work for War of the Witch Queens.

Still, she is rather great and I really want to use her. BUT I am also covering the "Reign of Winter" campaign in a couple of days and that, well, changes things. Tune back in for that.

October Horror Movie Challenge: Enter the Devil (1974)

1974 is a sweet spot for cheesy Italian Giallo horror. I don't think I have seen them all, but I have seen a lot.  

This one is also known as "L'ossessa" and "The Eerie Midnight Horror Show" (complete with Rocky Horror-style lips) it revolves around a religious statue of crucified Jesus purchased by Danila (Stella Carnacina). Luisa (Lucretia Love) It is obvious from the start that the "statue" is an actor (Ivan Rassimov) in heavy makeup but that is fine.

It is 1974, so the Exorcist is on EVERY Horror filmmaker's mind and this movie is no exception. 

Danila is some sort of art expert so she is working with the statue.  But while at a party she watches her mother,  in some sort of S&M affair with a younger man she leaves to go back to work. There she is all alone with the statue.  When he starts to move it is no surprise, but I wonder what the audiences in 1974 thought?  Likely they saw the same things we do now.   Eventually, the statue transforms into a human and in one stroke rips off ALL of Danila's clothes (neat trick that) they have very enthusiastic sex while the place burns...or not. It could all be in Danila's mind.  But she does keep experiencing things and no one believes her.   

Naturally, she is possessed and tries to seduce her own father. They bring over a psychiatrist whose professional opinion is that she is unduly affected by her work. They head out to the country ("Better than any medicine" according to the medical professional) but they get a flat and Danila wanders off into an "Etruscan temple to Baal" where she sees an ancient ceremony to Satan.  In mid-hallucination, she is back in her own bed again freaking out. When the doctor examines her she does have the stigmata wounds inflicted on her in her hallucination.

I give the movie credit, they try really hard to make this a serious movie about an exorcism.  They get a priest in and I can't help but notice her room is set up similar to Regan's in The Exorcist.

The later half is basically Danila going crazy and various priests trying to exorcise her and it sorta falls apart here. 

Still, a neat idea even if not executed as well as the filmmaker might have liked.

Use for War of the Witch Queens

I love the idea of the old statue coming to life and the "Etruscan temple to Baal" just screams Orcus to me for D&D use.

Use for NIGHT SHIFT

All I could think of while watching this one was I need to figure out a way to do a psychiatrist or psychologist in NIGHT SHIFT.

October Horror Movie Challenge 2022
Viewed: 5
First Time Views: 4

100 Days of Halloween: FIGHTING FANTASY - Caverns of the Snow Witch

Last night I covered an adventure that mentions the Ice Queen, but no more details than a mention. This works fine for me since I have a plethora of choices. Here is the first one I considered, but not my only one.

FIGHTING FANTASY - Caverns of the Snow Witch

PDF and Print. 45 pages. Color covers, black & white interiors.

This adventure has a solid pedigree.  It is based on Ian Livingstone's Fighting Fantasy books from 1984.  This adventure is for the d20 system / D&D 3.0 system published in 2003. So nearly 20 apart, here I am nearly 20 years after that reviewing it. 

This adventure covers the same plot and situations from the Fighting Fantasy "choose your own adventure" book.  

The adventure is designed for one character or a small group of adventures.  Reading through it does follow the same plot lines as the Fighting Fantasy book. 

This adventure also features the Luck saves from the original book. It has some changes to the d20 ruleset. There are a few new monsters (including a Yeti!), some new spells, campaign notes, and some new NPCs.

There are a lot of location-based adventures, essentially a collection of encounters the PCs jump from one to the next. The advantage here is that it is easy to convert from d20 to what I am planning to use it with, Old-School Adventures.  

The Snow Witch in this adventure is a sorcerer/vampire which works great for d20/3.0. For my adventures, I would make her a proper witch. 

The adventure is fine, but I think I might be viewing it through what my "Nostalgia Goggles."  Am I reading a good adventure or am I reading something because it was enjoyable to me in the 1980s?

I guess in the end it doesn't matter, as long as I am having fun with it. 

Is She My Snow/Ice Witch?

Well, I guess I should really ask do I just need one? I have a few more choices but this one has some serious old-school street cred. My other Snow/Ice/Winter witches though are a little more interesting.

Still, this is a fun adventure and one I am looking forward to using.

 

October Horror Movie Challenge: Sacrilege (2020)

I was not expecting much with this one and that is pretty much what I got. 

Four old friends, Kayla, Blake, Stacey, and Trish, decide to have a girls' weekend together. They rent out an old cabin at the Mabon Inn while an ancient Pagan festival is also going on. During the ceremony, the girls write down their fears on paper and burn them.  While they proceed to partake in the drugs, drinking, and dancing, one of the parishioners, Mrs. March, warns the girls not to stay till the end and that they should leave now.

They return home and head to bed. Kayla begins to hear noises and sees a hallucination of "Tyler" (some dude from her past that is never really explained). Blake goes for a swim and sees a dog coming for her. Stacey, who is always taking selfies, sees herself getting old.  For Trish, it is insects and bugs.

Weird stuff starts to happen, but everything is just so slow. Even the sex scene is dull.

Our first victim, Stacey, gets it while seeing herself getting old again in a mirror. She slips on her own blood and impales herself in the head on a bit of garden equipment.  The others go looking for her, but the creepy gardener has already hidden her.

Turns out the girls were the sacrifice and the "Goddess Mabon" is killing them with their own fears. While Trish and Kayla are learning this from Mrs. March, Blake is being chased by dogs. Runs until she is impaled on the antlers mounted on the gardener's truck.  I sense a pattern here.

The two remaining girls try to call 999 but this splits them up and Trish starts hallucinating about bugs and Kayla about Tyler.  Trish ends up drinking some drain cleaner or bleach because she thinks there are bugs in her mouth.  Kayla tries to drive her the hospital, but the way is blocked by the pagans.

In what has to be known as Chekhov's Flare Gun Kayla uses the Flare gun from early in the movie to shoot the wooden effigy of "Mabon" and break the Pagans' hold on them. Reminds me of a Batman comic I had read back in 1988 or so, but can't recall which one it was. 

We end with Kayla and Trish professing their love for each other as Kayla tries to drive them to a hospital.

I like the elements of the old creepy Pagan cult still lingering in the untamed places in rural England. That is fun, but this movie doesn't offer much more than that.

Use for War of the Witch Queens

Plenty of good background for folk horror, which is why I watched this one. But as usual, the writers don't quite get things right with mythology. Or more to the point they get it all wrong enough to be irritating.

Use for NIGHT SHIFT

Pretty much any movie I watch this month is going to have uses in NIGHT SHIFT.  For this one, I would love to use the old creepy pagan cult that still lives on in the dark and quiet places of the world. Though the original Wicker Man might be a better model for this.

October Horror Movie Challenge 2022
Viewed: 4
First Time Views: 3

Mail Call: Blue Rose Six of Cups

Getting a new book in the mail is always a joy. Getting one you helped create is even better!

I got my author's copy of Blue Rose Six of Cups.

The PDF has been available for a bit and now the print book can be ordered from Green Ronin's online store.

As I have said in the past I adore Blue Rose. I just love the world, the system, everything about it. It is such a refresher after decades of "grim dark" RPGs.

I am particularly happy with this one. It has a new character I am particularly fond of.  My homage to the Piasa Bird and places I used to frequent. Another distateful member of the less than pleasant Meacham family. But most of all it was a joy and an honor to write something for Aldea. 

The Storm of the Century

The project lead, Joseph D. Carriker, for this book posted in Green Ronin News a little about this book. In particular, he talked about the "Storm of the Century" theme.  This was not something I (or to my knowledge) any of the other authors tried to do. I was pretty much working in my silo just to get this done with my only contact being Joseph. Who, please allow me to add, was great to work with.

Here is what he had to say about the storm.

One of the things I asked of our authors was to send me proposals for their adventures and gazetteers. In short order, it became apparent that (perhaps inspired by the elemental association of Cups with water) no less than three of the stories feature a massive coastal storm. Rather than require some of the authors to change their ideas, I thought I could include them all to highlight one of the interesting ways to use generally unrelated adventures.

Finding a common thread to run between adventures is an awesome way of building a sort of “accidental” campaign. The tumultuous weather plays a role in all three of the stories, and they are not written as being interrelated. An enterprising Narrator might, however, come up with some connecting concepts to help tie them together. Perhaps these are all part of a single, major storm system of some kind, a sort of terrifying storm of the century to strike the southern coast of Aldis? Or, perhaps there is something (or someone…) nefarious at work, hurling storm after storm into the world.

I do love this idea and the thought of a great storm coming to the southern coast of Aldis is too good to pass up. 

Personally, I think this is one of Blue Rose's greatest strengths when compared to D&D.  D&D can do a lot of great things. But it is largely still a game about and centered around combat.  In Blue Rose, you could make an adventure where the central focus was protecting a small coastal town from the coming storm. Not by fighting some demonic force or elemental, but as the Sovereign's Finest playing the role the National Guard does here. Organizing relief efforts, building sandbag walls, and figuring out what to do. Fantastic role-playing opportunity.  

So my darkfiend Dorgogz is not the cause of this massive storm, but rather he is here because of it. 

The adventures are leveled from 1 to 8 (mine for example is level 2-4). A new adventure, say levels 8-10 called "The Storm of the Century" would be this giant coastal storm.  Hmm...I am getting some ideas here.  With this sort of build-up, one could see that there is something connected and nefarious here. 

Can't wait to try out the other adventures in this book. They look great.

100 Days of Halloween: A Witch's Desire - Adventure for Old-School Essentials

Honestly, I could not pass this one up. It is a low-level adventure featuring a witch, it is quick and it is for Old-School Essentials.  So yeah, I had to grab it.  But how does it play?  Let's look into it.

As always I will be following my rules for these reviews.

A Witch's Desire - Adventure for Old-School Essentials

PDF and PoD. 27 pages. Color covers and interior art.

The designed levels for this are 1 to 3, but I find that it works well as an "interlude" adventure, that is as the characters are moving from one major adventure to the other.  Not to say that this can't be a major adventure, it can. But for me, I wanted to feel more like the characters "wandered into a dream" sort of deal. 

To start with, and what helps fuel this notion of an interlude, are some rules for travel.  While the PCs are moving from their last adventure to this one using these rules helps give this one it's own feel. Yes they can be used elsewhere and adapted. Adding to this is the section after the travel and before the adventure proper, and that is the influence the witch has on the lands near her. I have been using something similar for my War of the Witch Queens based on the old superstition of Hex Signs, but the rules here are more explicit in their application.

 The adventure is a "straightforward" mission to get some water for the Witch of the Wilds they meet at the start of the adventure. I say "straightforward" because obviously, it isn't.  They are plenty of hazards along the way and foes to fight. The adventure is scaleable so that is also quite good. 

There are no stats for the witch herself, nor should there be. The PCs should not be fighting her.

This adventure is set in the Forever Winter setting. Honestly a name like screams to be used.  Also, there is mention of the Ice Queen and her rivalry with the Witch of the Wilds.  The Ice Queen is not mentioned much here save for a sidebar, but the potential is great.  So great in fact that I have an idea of how to work the Ice Queen (also a witch in my world naturally) into my War of the Witch Queens.  I'll discuss her tomorrow. It is likely that their A Wintry Death adventures could be used in conjunction with this one, but I am pretty pleased with it as is to be honest.

While the art is wonderful for this it does make you think the Witch of the Wild could be something of an evil-ish character, certainly otherworldly.  While reading through this I kept asking myself, what if this witch was good and just really needed the character's help?

Suddenly all I could think of was Ginny Di's character Morelia the Wood Witch.  She would need the water for her potions obviously. Changes the whole tenor of the adventure.   Not that I have any problems coming up with witches. It would also change the nature of the relationship between the Witch of the Wilds and the Ice Queen. They are still rivals, but now it is different.

VS

Note: I just noticed that Morelia's familiar Crimini is a cat with white fur and gold eyes. Much like the art for the Witch of the Wilds. Maybe Morelia polymorphs Crimini to act as the scary Witch of the Wild? She then hides in the background so that the PCs she is hiring don't know she really is about as dangerous as a bunny. A lot like Balok in the classic Trek episode "The Corbomite Maneuver."  Instead of tranya she offers them tea of course. Yeah, I like this idea. 

In either case, the Witch of this adventure would need to be a potential ally for the characters in my game.  I can't actually see Morelia getting mad with them anyway. And I really want to use Morelia. I just don't think I can pull off the voice Ginny Di uses for her!

In any case a fun adventure with a lot of ideas for use in my home campaign. The PDF version comes with separate maps. The PDF also features layers so you can turn on the background image for readability. That's worth an extra star in my book to be honest. 

October Horror Movie Challenge: Witchouse (1999)

My "soft theme" this challenge is "films with pentagrams on the cover." Silly I know, but I have subscribed to a few streaming services and I was adding a bunch of movies and noticed many of them had pentagrams on the covers. So I decided to just kept going with it.

Tonight I am already questioning the logic of this plan.

Witchouse (1999)

This comes to us from 1999 and Full Moon Features. Now I love Full Moon. Their movies are short, silly, and usually fun. You can expect some kids to get themselves into stupid situations and usually dying in dumb ways.

Our plot concerns Elizabeth LaFey (yes that is her name) inviting a bunch of her old high school friends to her new house for a party. The house has a "dark history" as does LaFey.  It also has copies of "Le Necronomicon." The characters are less than characters and really little more than clichés. But that is fine because you are not really supposed to be relating to them as characters but rather as relatable archetypes. The stoner, the football player, the cheerleader, the hot girl who doesn't know she is hot, the juvenile delinquent, the nerd, and so on. 

Elizabeth plans to sacrifice her friends on May 1 to resurrect her ancient witch ancestor.  Nothing shocking or surprising here really, but it was still kind of fun. The acting, for the most part, is pretty terrible. Honestly, it looks like it was filmed in a single night. 

This one has been on my list for a bit largely just based on the name. 

Directed by David DeCoteau, responsible for, I have no idea how many Full Moon movies.  This one even features scenes from Dark Angel: The Ascent. Actually, the scenes of Hell here have been in at least two other movies.

October Horror Movie Challenge 2022
Viewed: 3
First Time Views: 2

Monstrous Mondays: Fiend Folio (3e)

Welcome to October. If there is any time of year to remind me of my love of monsters it is now. Watching horror movies (or "monster movies" as my dad and I used to call them when I was little) is so deeply tied into my love of both Halloween and D&D that it is hard to tease them apart.  

This month I want to cover some horror-themed monster books for review. My ultimate goal here is to get a good feeling of what makes a monster book "good" and what doesn't. Or maybe what makes them good for me. All year I have been focusing on D&D monster books of all sorts. My second goal is to wrap up this process before 2023 when I do something a little different.

Given I have some D&D 3.x books still cover and five Mondays in October I am going to cover some of these or at least the ones that have the most horror elements to them.

Up first, the Fiend Folio.

Fiend Folio (3e)

PDF and Hardcover. 226 pages. Color covers and interior art.

This is the third "Fiend Folio" we have gotten for *D&D over the last 20+ years.  Like the first one for 1st Ed AD&D, this one is a hardcover book. Like the second one for 2nd AD&D, this one expands the list of monsters. 

This Fiend Folio lives up to its title a little bit more by giving us a lot more fiends. There are demons and devils here as well as the demodands (originally from the AD&D Monster Manual II). Here they get the alignment of "often Neutral Evil."  There are plenty of new demons and devils here too.

There are some Fiend Folio "repeats" here, or my updates is the better term.Just eyeballing it there is the Blood Hawk, Caryatid Column, Dark Creeper and Stalker, Death Dog, Disenchanter, Flame/Fire Snake, Fossergrim, Huecuva (now a template), Iron Cobra, Kelpie, Necrophidius, Skulk, Slaad, Yellow Musk Creeper, and Zombie.

No flumphs though. 

There are also plenty of new monsters too, like the Bacchae and Feytouched which are fun. All in all 167 monsters for D&D 3.0 (3.5 is still a couple of months off).  We are a point in the 3.x development cycle where the monsters still run from one to the next, like the original Fiend Folio. 

This book also includes some Prestige Classes, some Grafts and Symbionts, 

There was a free "Web Enhancement" back when this was new called Fiendish Fun which extended some of the ideas in the Fiend Folio. It is still out there thanks to Archive.org.

This is one of the books I consider central for a D&D 3.x horror campaign. The rest, well that is what the rest of this month is for. 

100 Days of Halloween: When Comes the Witching Hour

Another adventure from casl Entertainment featuring the "Witch Queen" which may or may not be Iggwilv. 

When Comes the Witching Hour

PDF and Print. 80 Pages. Color covers. Black & White art.

This adventure is designed for levels 9 to 12 for the OSRIC game, which is the clone of AD&D 1st Edition.

I grabbed this adventure back in February after reviewing The Witch-Queen's Lament, a later, but lower-level adventure.

There is a nudge-nudge-wink-wink commentary on how to fit this adventure into the World of Greyhawk. But it is also fully usable in any world. 

The adventure is overtly the search for a missing princess. What makes this different is the missing princess is likely in the Dungeons of the Mad Archmage and might have something to do with the Queen of Witches.

Now. Before I get too much further let me point out what this adventure can do. Obviously, there are the fans of the World of Greayhawk who can use this to expand on their game worlds. You can grab nearly any other version of the Castle or Dungeons of the Mad Arch Mage.  It is really a nice piece that could fit into a lot of campaigns. 

The adventure is a wonderful romp through some of the storied locations of the World of Greyhawk, if in a thinly veiled manner. Also, anything that involves Iggwilv or the Witch Queen is a must-buy in my mind.

The adventure covers the first half of the book. The last half has new monsters including many unique demons, new magic items, pre-gen characters, and finally the maps. Note. The print version maps are a little difficult to read. I have the PDF so I printed them out.

One other nitpick. There are no page numbers printed on each page. 

--

For Use in War of the Witch Queens

This one is so on brand for my War of the Witch Queens that I am shocked how well it works for me. It covers several bases for me. For starters, it is OSRIC thus satisfying my need to involve all sorts of OSR rule sets. It is set in Greyhawk which satisfies my desire to involve many of the game worlds as I can. And most of all it features the machinations of not just "A" Witch Queen, but "THE" Witch Queen. I mean really. If I have any complaints about this adventure it is I didn't write it myself.

For Use in NIGHT SHIFT

While I love to use some of these adventures for NIGHT SHIFT not everything will fit. This is a perfect example, while I love the idea of this adventure it would not be good for NIGHT SHIFT. This adventure is too deeply tied to the World of D&D and especially Greyhawk.

October Horror Movie Challenge: Hagazussa (2017)

This one had been on my radar for a bit. Described as a "gothic folk tale" I knew I had to check it out. The name of the movie also comes from the old German word for "Witch."

Hagazussa (2017)

Told in four acts with very little dialog we see how the local villagers treated a goat-herding woman and later her daughter, Albrun, as witches.

In the first act young Albrun begin to menstruate, but before she can even talk about it with her mother all sorts of strange things happen. They are accosted one night by men wearing masks. Soon after Mother comes down with the Bubonic plague.

While attending to her mother Albrun is sexually assaulted by her mother, who is losing her mind.  At some point, Mother runs out of their cabin and dies in the night. Alburn finds her dead mother the next day covered in snakes. 

Act 2 takes place 15 years later. Alburn is still living in her cabin and now how has a baby of her own. She lives alone and is a little strange now. She is treated as a pariah in the local town where the local boys pick on her, and the local priest gives her the decorated skull of her mother.  She befriends another local woman, Swinda. But when Swinda sees the skull of Alburn's mother set up on an altar. Swinda later takes Alburn up into the mountains where they encounter a man Swinda knows. Swinda holds down Alburn while the man rapes her.  In revenge, she takes a dead rat and blood and poisons the water supply.

Act 3 Alburn comes to town with her baby and sees a lot of people dead and dying. She walks into the woods and eats some mushrooms. She begins to hallucinate and accidentally drowns her baby. 

Act 4 Alburn wakes up and discovers her baby is dead. So she cooks the baby in a stew and eats it. She gets sick. Her hallucinations come back as she hears her mother talking to her. She wanders outside and catches fire in the rising sun.

The horror of this movie is the abuse of Alburn from her childhood to her adulthood. She would be considered a witch or hag in the legends of the local village and that is the tragedy of this tale.  It is not a feel-good movie. 

Use for War of the Witch Queens

This movie has something of a timeless feel about it. It takes place in the 14th century or thereabouts, so it would be a good background for any sort of lower-level witch. To quote the TV show Magicians "magic is pain" and Alburn knows pain.  From this, you can assume there is really no such thing as a happy witch.

It is also a good example of how others treat these women, outside of outright hate. 

October Horror Movie Challenge 2022
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First Time Views: 1