A to Z of Vampires: Soucouyant

Let's head to the Caribbean now, in particular Trinidad. Here we find the shape-shifting, vampiric hag,  the Soucouyant.

In game terms the Soucouyant could either be a hag, a fey, a vampire, or something else entirely.  Today I want to look at how she is a vampire since there are some definitely undead characteristics to her.

The Soucouyant by day appears much as she did in life, an ugly, ancient old crone.  By night though she removes her skin (much like a Boo-Hag) and turns into a floating ball of fire.  Here she flies around looking for small cracks in peoples homes. She resumes human shape, albeit skinless. She sucks blood from their arms and legs, leaving behind blue marks.  She then uses this blood for her magic.
In her fireball form, similar to a Will-0-Wisp or Feu Follet, she is powerless to attack save by blood drain.  If attacked she will speed away to her skin, which she keep in a motar.  To identify the Soucouyant the next morning look for the old woman covered in bruises.

In her human form she can cast spells as a witch.  Her true strengths are her magic and her ability to summon lycanthropes, Loogaroo (a type of werewolf).

To prevent her from entering your home you must leave a pile of rice on the ground or at the local crossroads, which she will be compelled to count.  If she is still counting rice when the sun rises she will be destroyed.  Also if her skin can be found fill the insides with salt. She will not be able to don her skin and die when the sun rises.  The skin of a dead Soucouyant is prized by wizards for it's magical effects.

Game Stats
For Pathfinder a Soucouyant is any hag that the vampire template has been applied to.

Basic Era Games

Soucouyant

Armor Class
- Human form:  7 [12]
- Skinless: 9 [10]
- Fireball form: 2 [17]
Hit Dice: 9d8+9** (50 hp)
No. of Attacks/Damage
- Human form:  witch spells only
- Skinless: Blood drain 1 Con point
- Fireball form: 1d6 fire damage on touch
Special Qualities: Dark vision 60’, Iron Vulnerability, Summon 1d4 werewolves (loogaroo)
Movement: 40’
No. Appearing: 1
Saves As: Witch 10
Morale: 9
Treasure: 6d6 CP, 0 SP, 2d8 GP, Gems: 50% 1d8, Magic 50% any 1d6, 2 potions
Alignment: Chaotic (evil)

The Soucouyant can cast spells and use occult powers as if she were a witch of 7th level of the Demonic Tradition.
A loogaroo is local type of werewolf. They are solitary and can change to large wolf like creatures on the command of the Soucouyant.
The blood drain of the Soucouyant does 1 of Constitution damage. She can only do this while the victim is asleep.
A throwback to their hag/fey origins the Soucouyant is vulnerable to damage from "cold" iron weapons, taking an extra +2 to all damage.

D6 Dracula

David Baymiller, blogger and owner of The OSR Library, has been doing a lot of posts about the D6 system.

I am planning on doing something with D6 over the summer (been working on it for a bit), but this is too good not to share now.

He has stated up Dracula for the D6 system.

http://theosrlibrary.blogspot.com/2015/04/d6-supernatural-monsters-not-show.html

Have a look.

A to Z of Vampires: Rolang

The Rolang is the mysterious vampire of Tibet.  The name "rolang" literally means "the corpse that got up" or "the rising corpse".  It is believed that if the proper funeral rites are not performed then a spirit can re-enter the body and a rolang is formed.    There is also another, more sinister form of rolang, the demonic, that is created when a sorcerer (witch or necromancer) performs a rite to attach a demonic spirit to the body.

Rolang

	Personal	Demonic
Armor Class:	7 [12]	3 [16]
Hit Dice:	7*+3 (35 hp)	10*+5 (50 hp)
No. of Attacks:	2 claw, 1 bite;	2 claw, 1 bite or weapon
Damage:	1d6/1d6/1d4	1d6/1d6/1d4
Special:	Wisdom Drain	Con Drain
Movement:	20'	30'
No. Appearing:	1 (or 2-12)	1
Save As:	Monster 8	Monster 11
Morale:	9	11
Treasure Type:	see below	see below
Alignment:	Chaotic (Neutral)	Chaotic (Evil)
XP:	by system	by system

Rolangs come in two varieties. The Personal rolang has it's own spirit attached, the Demonic rolang instead has a demonic spirit.
The personal rolang rises up from improper burial rites. It is stiff, unable to bend it's joints very well and it walks with a strange straight legged gait like a zombie. Thus it is not very fast.  It can not speak at all. It will make it's way home to be with family.  It can't enter the home, but must be brought in.  If so it will begin to drain Wisdom from everyone in the home at the rate of 1 point per night.  Once a victim reaches 0 points of wisdom they will die.  When everyone is dead the rolang will leave the home and attack anyone it sees.  It can only use the wisdom draining effect on their own family.
The demonic rolang is much the same save that a demonic spirit is now inhabiting the body.  The demonic rolang is a bit more agile but it still can not bend at the waist.  Many homes in fact have low entrances requiring a person to bow or duck to enter to keep rolangs out.  Unlike the personal rolang the demonic rolang can talk. Also the demonic rolang drains blood in the form of Constitution points (2 per night) instead of Wisdom.  The demonic rolang will attempt to drain as many people as possible.  Victims killed by a rolang become a personal rolang under control of the demonic one.  In this case when a demonic rolang is dicovered there is a 30% chance that there will be 2-12 (2d6) personal rolang in operation at the same time.  An entire village or town could be over run with them.

Both types of rolang appear to be walking corpses with long black claws. Often their tongue protrudes from their mouth as a corpses might.  They have long fangs and will attack with them for biting damage.   A demonic rolang can not drain unless they get a "critical hit" (a natural roll of 19 or 20) with a bite.  At that point they will also drain 2 points of Con in addition to normal biting damage.


Method of destruction.
To destroy either type of rolang a shaman (cleric or priest) must hold down the rolang and remove it's tongue.  The tongue is then burned to ashes while praying.  If done correctly the body of the rolang will turn to gold.  The gold must then be divided among the church and the family of the rolang. PCs destroying the rolang should expect 1000 gp for a personal rolang and 5000 gp for a demonic.
Rolangs are kept at bay by a salt line, burning incense, or by laying out a line of rice.
Rolangs are not destroyed by sunlight as are other vampires, but they become unable to move and the sunlight reveals them for what they truly are.
Notably the rolang have a weakness that is almost unique among the undead.  If knocked over they can not get up.  Rolang are very strong and knocking them over is difficult.  Personal rolang have a strength of 18 and demonic rolang have a strength of 20.  They must be knocked completely prone. At this point they are helpless.

A to Z of Vampires: Vampire Queen

Something a little different today.   I want to talk about the Queen of the Vampires and her relationship with my gaming. BTW, there is a "Q" Vampire, but only one I have found. The Quaxates is a vampire from Mexico that makes women cry before they feed on them.  That is all I have been able to find.

Last year I did Witch Queen but there is a longer history of Vampire Queens in gaming.

The first Vampire Queen was also the very first published adventure for D&D back in the early, early days of 1976.  Palace of the Vampire Queen was written by Pete and Judy Kerestan.  I should also note that the very first published adventure was also co-written by woman; so yes women have always been a vital part of this hobby.
This adventure was always something of a holy grail for me.  I knew about it, but had only seen bits and pieces.  I didn't know much more than it was the first published adventure and it was really, really rare.  Sites like the Acaeum helped fill in the blanks.  Copies are still very rare, but I managed to score a couple of official reprints from Pacesetter.  As well as the sequels Crypts of the Living and Castle Blood.

I have run the original PotVQ before and it was great fun.   The adventure is so barebones by even the standards of the early 80s that it is easy to use anywhere.  The next two are more "story" driven.  I have run Castle Blood, but it didn't quite live up to the promise of the Vampire Queen.
Personally I would like to take all three and recraft them into something else.  Keep the Vampire Queen elements of course, but introduce some more background.

Hitting that nostalgia feeling hard is another adventure, The Hanging Coffins of the Vampire Queen. This adventure, written by Mark Taormino might be an homage to the first Palace of the Vampire Queen adventure, but it is more likely an homage to those meat-grinder, total-party kill, fun-house dungeons of the late 70s early 80s.  There is a basic plot here, enough to get you in the door and moving along, but really this adventure is about killing things and avoiding getting killed.  Example, in one of your first encounters you have to run a gauntlet and get past a bunch of fire giants. Eight of them. And their hell hound pets.  This is "room 1".  It is downhill from there.  It has demons and other vampires in the wander monster table. Liches, demons, succubi, greater devils, nearly 50 vampires in total, tons of other monsters and of course the Queen herself, Lady Neeblack.
This is not an adventure to challenge the resolve of hardy role-players. This is an adventure to survive and leave a trail of bodies behind you.  It is old-school, but old-school through the eyes of 40-somethings looking back on their times as teens.
The adventure itself has a great lead in to get you interested, but that is just the carrot on a stick, most people buying and playing this module are going to want to jump right in.  Another example (this is not a spoiler), you are captured by Lady Neeblack and told you have to run through her crypts for her amusement.  The conceit is the characters will feel coerced into doing this, so they slide down a passage to the previously mentioned Fire Giants.  In truth my players wanted to jump in like they were doing a dive at the pool.
Though to claim people will play this for nostalgia reasons is completely unfair.  Mark did a great job of this. The rooms are detailed and what detail!  There are interesting encounters and Lady Neeblack herself should really move up the ranks as one of the more memorable NPCs ever.  In fact I am hoping that she comes back for a sequel sometime soon.  Just like a good Hammer villain she should find ways to come back from the dead.  +Mark Taormino, this needs to happen.
The text of the book is big, easy to read and despite the "old school" claims still has boxed text to read (screw you Grognards! I still like boxed text even when I don't use it.)  Each room is unique and feels like it belongs.  Plus the "Hanging Coffins" themselves are the coolest idea in vampire graves since the Lost Boys.
The proof of any adventure is not in the reading, but in the playing.  So I played it. It rocked.
Now the game is designed for OSRIC, but can played with 1st or 2nd Ed AD&D.   I played it with 5th Edition D&D.  I just replaced the monsters and made a character sheet for Lady Neeblack.   I ran the same group of people that I had taken through the original Palace of the Vampire Queen and we all treated it as an unofficial sequel.  I worked out well enough.  We all had fun, but if this module reads as a deathtrap on paper it's a killer in the playing. So make of that what you like.
Personally I would love to run it again using AD&D1.
In any case this is one of those adventures that will have your players talking for a long time.

One I would like to take all these and combine them in a longer campaign, or part of a campaign.

A to Z of Vampires: Pĕnanggalan

The Pĕnanggalan really is an interesting vampire and really one of the reasons why this whole theme even exists.   Back in the early days of my gaming I picked up the Fiend Folio hardback for AD&D. Had to be about 1982, the book was new enough that not everyone had it yet.

I am flipping through this book full of weird monsters and I see this crazy looking flying head with it's guts hanging out. Turns out it is also a vampire!  I had no idea there were any other types of vampires.

Lots of research later, which in 1982 meant getting on my bike and riding to the public library, I discovered there were all sorts of vampires out there.  But this is the first one I discovered.

What got me most about the Pĕnanggalan in the Fiend Folio was how much like a vampire it wasn't, save for the sucking of blood.   It was just a weird creature and I liked it.

What I also like was that this was one of the first vampires I read about that made a link between vampires and witches, two of my favorite topics.
The Pathfinder game has a Pĕnanggalan witch.

The Pĕnanggalan comes from Malaysian folklore and may be distantly related to the Aswang.

Pĕnanggalan (Vampire) (S&W stats)
Hit Dice: 8 (see below)
Armor Class 2[17];
Attacks: 1 bite (1d6 + blood drain);
Move: 12 (Fly 12);
Save: 8
Alignment: Chaos
Challenge Level/XP: 11/1700;
Special: Immune to non-magic weapons, regenerate (3/round), charm gaze, drain 1d4 Constitution points per bite.

The pĕnanggalan head will take 4 HD worth of damage (half what the full creature has) before it flies back to it's body in retreat.
To drain Constitution the pĕnanggalan must attack a victim she has charmed or is sleeping, she can not  drain constitution in a combat situation.  Male drained to 0 Con become Ghouls under her control. Females drained to 0 Con become pĕnanggalan, but free of being controlled.  For this reason pĕnanggalan attack males most times.

The pĕnanggalan will look like a normal woman during the daylight hours. Any attempts at divination (ESP, Know Alignment) will reveal she is a normal woman.  Once the sun sets she will retire to a secret place where her head will rise out of her body and fly out in search of blood.  Her lair will be protected from the sun and will also contain jugs of vinegar. The pĕnanggalan must soak her organs in vinegar before she can return to her own body after a night's feeding.

The pĕnanggalan can use her charm ability during the day to charm men.  If they fail their save she will return to them at night and drain their blood.  The men will believe they had an amorous encounter with the woman.  Typically the pĕnanggalan will have charmed several men and spread out her feedings so not to spread suspicion when they start to die.

The pĕnanggalan must return to vinegar jugs before dawn.  If sunlight strikes her organs she will be paralyzed. If she remains in the sunlight for 10 round she will destroyed.
Likewise running water will destroy her and a line of salt will keep her at bay.

To destroy a pĕnanggalan you must discover her lair and destroy her vinegar jugs and burn her headless body.

The most common remedy prescribed to protect against a pĕnanggalan attack is to scatter the thorny leaves of any of the subspecies of a local plant known as Mengkuang, which has sharp thorny leaves and would either trap or injure the exposed lungs, stomach and intestines of the pĕnanggalan as it flies in search of its prey

Friday Night Videos: Vampire Music The 90s

Welcome back to Friday Night Videos as we continue the Vampire theme for Vampire Month here at the Other Side.

The early 90s were a great time for Vampires.  Think it is good now?  Back then in the RPG scene we had White Wolf's Vampire the Masquerade, Chill 2nd edition, Ravenloft and plenty of other games. We even had one of my most favorite Rifts books ever, Vampire Kingdoms.

We also had singers like Suzanne Vega with her "Blood Makes Noise".  Suzanne Vega also kinda looks like a vampire.



That the one song that always got me in the mood to do some writing or run a game was Faith No More's The Morning After from their epic album The Real Thing.



Sinéad O'Connor's second album I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got was without a doubt the most anticipated album of 1990.  Well. At least by me.  In 1988 I discovered Sinéad and The Lion and The Cobra.  My best friend at the time and I blew off class to pick it up.  I later bought her a copy of the EP of I Am Stretched on Your Grave.  It became one of my favorite songs on the album.

Was the woman singing the vampire in this? Or was the grave she was lying on?  (yeah I know it a song about a woman talking to her dead mother, but vampires worked better for me).



That best friend?  Yeah I ended up marrying her five years later.

Another artist that isn't normally associated with vampire or the 90s is Thomas Dolby. Many remember Dolby from "She Blinded Me With Science", but he had a number of later released that were critically praised but not great sellers. One was 1989's Aliens Ate My Buick with the haunting "Budapest By Blimp" a song I always thought was about a vampire returning to his ancestral home to only be sad by how much it had changed.




Dolby does have street cred when it comes to Gothic Horror. He worked on the soundtrack for the movie Gothic which recounts the tale of Lord Byron, John Polidori, Percy and Mary Shelly.  A weird little movie from the guy that gave us Lair of the White Worm, starring the Warlock, Wormtail., the guy who almost survived Keyser Söze, and the Handmaid.

In the early 90s nothing was bigger than Concrete Blonde.  I remember seeing them opening up for Sting on the last leg of his Soul Cages tour.  "Tomorrow Wendy" might not be a song about vampires, but it oozes pathos and thanatos.  Frankly it captured those early days of Vampire the Masquerade perfectly.

A to Z of Vampires: Ovegua

Note: This is my A to Z Challenge post for O.  If you are looking for my S&W Appreciation Day post, go here.

Let's head back to Africa today, in particular to visit Guinea, Africa and their local pest the Ovegua.

The Ovegua is actually very similar to a lot of creatures, Asanbosam, Owenga, Ovengwa, Otgiruru and many more found in West Africa.  They all likely share some linguistic root.
This creature is created when a sorcerer or witch is killed.  It can take the shape of a dog and has hooks for hands, or sometimes hooks for feet.  The Ovegua will hang out in forests at night and call out to a victim by name.  If the victim answers them the vampire will then target them by sucking blood through their thumb.  During the day they hide in dark caves.

Ovegua has all the standard weaknesses of all vampires. They can not cross running water, sunlight destroys them and religious items keep them at bay.
To destroy one you must locate it's cave. Nail it to the ground and burn the body to ashes.

The Ovegua can shapeshift to a wild dog and mist. It has two claws and a bite attack. It's drain attack drains 1 point of Constitution per night; regardless of number of attacks. It can only drain sleeping victims, not in combat. It is only a little stronger than the average human (Str 14) but not much faster.   Ovegua would be a weak vampire but it retains some of the knowledge it had as a sorcerer.  It can cast spells as a 3rd level witch.  Additionally it only regenerates 1 hp/round vs. the typical 3.

Since today is Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day, here he is in S&W format.

Ovegua (Vampire)
Hit Dice: 7
Armor Class: 2 [17]
Attacks: Bite (1d6 + CON drain)
Saving Throw: 9
Special: vampire powers, witch spells
Move: 12
Alignment: Chaos
Challenge Level/XP: 7 HD (9/1,100)