Witches & Witchcraft Reading Challenge: The Last Apprentice/The Spook series

I have been terrible at posting in the Witches & Witchcraft Reading Challenge since June.
Well...no time like the present I guess.

Instead of doing everything I have read since July I'll focus on the "Spook Series" also known as the Wardstone Chronicles or The Last Apprentice books by Joseph Delaney.   I reviewed the first book, The Last Apprentice, back in January.

Yes these are children's books or Young Adult. But my youngest son was reading them so I thought I would read along with him.  Sometime around book four I passed him up.
I remember seeing the first book, The Last Apprentice, when it first came out.  I flipped through it and got the idea then that Spooks were something like rangers, only focused on get rid of ghosts.
The inevitable comparison though is to Harry Potter.  Like Harry, Tom Ward starts out as a young boy and grows into his destiny.  Tom's backstory is not as tragic, but he has plenty of secrets about himself to learn.  I will be honest. These books are not as good as Harry Potter, but that is hardly a slight. Hardly anything is as good as Harry Potter.  But these books do have some charm and they are a really quick read. So here are my reviews, game information will follow.

The Spook's Curse (Published in the USA as The Last Apprentice: Curse of the Bane) - 2005
The second book in the series deals with the death of the Spook's brother and their journey to Priestown. Here Tom are the Spook reunited with Alice, but she is in the hands of the Quisitor.  To make matters worse, the monster imprisoned in the catacombs under Priestown is waking up and exerting more control over the priests to turn them evil.  The Spook, Tom and Alice have to work together to defeat the Bane.
What I liked the most about this one was the development of Alice as a character.  You get the idea that she will be or already is a very powerful witch in her own right.
Number of Witches: Only 1 confirmed

The Spook's Secret (Published in the USA as The Last Apprentice: Night of the Soul Stealer) - 2006
Winter has come to the County and the Spook, Tom and Alice travel to the Spook's winter home.  We learn a lot more about the Spook's background and he is not as "pure" as he claims to be.  We learn he has kept his "wife" and her sister locked up in his cellar because they are Lamia Witches.  We also meet Morgan, a failed apprentice Spook turned Necromancer and now an enemy of John Gregory the Spook.
This book sets up the formula that will appear in other books, Tom and Alice fighting multiple enemies at the same time.  In this case Lamia Witches and Morgan/Golgoth.  The tone in this book is also a bit darker than the first two.  Tom's dad dies and Morgan keeps the soul imprisoned.  Fairly dark. I liked that in his youth the Spook was not so principled.
Number of Witches: 3, plus 1 Necromancer

The Spook's Battle (Published in the USA as The Last Apprentice: Attack of the Fiend) - 2007
Ah, now we are getting into the meat of the series (so far).  Tom's mother "Mam" (I'll admit, I hate that name. She really should have had a proper name) has gone home to Greece to fight the Dark there.  But in the meantime Tom's brother Jack, with Jack's wife and daughter are all captured by Pendle Witches and his mother's trunks are taken.  Alice goes ahead to Pendle, where she still has witch relatives of her own, to find out what is going on.  When she does not return Tom and Spook go into the heart of town populate by three powerful clans of witches.
In addition to learning more about Tom's mother (she was likely a domestic Lamia witch) we learn more about Alice. She is the daughter of two witch clans for example and still has plenty of relatives left.  We also meet one of the coolest characters in the series, Grimalkin the Witch-Assassin.  But the Big Bad of the series is finally revealed; the Fiend or The actual honest to goodness Devil himself.  And he wants Tom.
Number of Witches: 100s

The Spook's Mistake (Published in the USA as The Last Apprentice: Wrath of the Bloodeye) - 2008
Tom has entered next phase of his apprenticeship where he will go train with a different Spook for 6 months.  This time with former apprentice Bill Arkwright.  Here Tom learns more about Water Witches and learns more about the plans the Fiend has in store for him.  He is afraid that Alice is getting closer and closer to the Dark.  He also makes an unlikely ally in the form of Grimalkin.  Here also Tom learns that Alice was not the daughter of two benign witches but the daughter of Bony Lizzy and the Fiend himself.  The Spook wants to put her in a pit but Tom and Bill intervene.  *Note to be fair we learn that Alice is Bony Lizzy's daughter in the "Seventh Son" Movie, I just thought at the time they were being lazy.
Number of Witches: half a dozen or so

The Spook's Sacrifice (Published in the USA as The Last Apprentice: Clash of the Demons) - 2009

Tom, Alice, his mother, Bill Arkwright and a reluctant Spook join forces with the Pendle Witches to travel to Greece to battle one of the Fiend's greatest allies, the Ordeen. We learn a lot more in this book.  Tom's mother is not just a lamia witch, she is Lamia herself and all Lamia witches are her offspring.  She has been fighting the Dark now for centuries.  We meet some Greek Spooks who have different ways of fighting the Dark and Grimalkin continues to be a bad ass.  Tom has to make a very choice between two equally bad options and ends up under the power of the Fiend.  Alice then uses more Dark magic to keep him out.
Number of Witches: 100s

The Spook's Nightmare (Published in the USA as The Last Apprentice: Rise of the Huntress) - 2010
Tom, Alice and the Spook return home to find the County ravaged by war and the Spook's home destroyed.  Tom and Alice have to step up and do more of the work as the Spook is in a funk.  They end up on the Ilse of Mona where they encounter fear and resistance from the people.  They also discover a shaman, a cache of black magic energy, a half-demon, a demonic monster and Alice's mother Bony Lizzy.  One of the things I liked about this one was how witches become more powerful when they turn 40.  As someone in my 40s I think that is a great idea! We are also introduced to a Bird Witch which can summon birds to do her bidding.
Number of Witches: 4 or 5

The Spook's Destiny (Published in the USA as The Last Apprentice: Rage of the Fallen) - 2011
"Never go to Ireland" is the warning given to Tom by the Morrigan.  But Tom has no choice and he follows Alice and the Spook to Ireland where they have to deal with a group of "Goat Mages" attempting to summon the old god Pan.  Here Tom spends a lot of time tied up, unconscious or away from the Spook.  Alice is actually captured by the Fiend at one point and taken to Hell.  Tom must battle The Morrigan and the twin sister of a witch he and Bill Arkwright once dealt with.
He meets the god Pan (who is not as bad as everyone makes him out to be) and he even has a chance to visit Cú Chulainn in a sidhe mound.
This one started out slow for me, but I was excited they were in Ireland.  The meeting of Cú Chulainn was great and gaining the Sword of Destiny was cool too.  But the best part was more interaction with Grimalkin.  I won't spoil the end for you, but it is cool.
<spoiler>Tom defeats the Fiend and gets Alice back from hell.</spoiler>

It has been a fun series to say the least.

Need to pick up the last few books...for my son of course.

Books read: 25
Current Level: Crone,  Read 16 – 20 Witchy Books

Class Struggles: Mara Witch Tradition

Witch by ivangod

Today's Class Struggles is going to be a total cheat.  After two weeks of psychic classes, I have read a bunch of psychic and occult material which, of course, gets me thinking about witches.  Since I spent a lot of time yesterday with Wee Jas and to a much smaller degree Hecate, I wanted to talk about the witches of Wee Jas as influenced by the witches of Hecate I have used in the past.

The Mara Witch Tradition

The Mara is a witch tradition that is very, very old.  They share more than just a little relationship with Night Hags, which some scholars believe may have been some of the first Mara Witches.
The Mara understand, maybe more so than most, the life is a constant struggle not against death, but towards it.  This struggle of competing forces is what the Mara seek out. Life and Death in a constant struggle to the inevitable end.

Role: These witches most often serve gods or goddesses of Death, Transition, Change or even Destruction.  There tend to be two basic archetypes of Mara detailed below, the chaotic Mara and the lawful Mara.

Joining this Tradition: To join this tradition the witch must realize that life if nothing but a transitory period between oblivions.  Even if there is life after death in the form of reincarnation the witch is not aware of it on this plane now.So the witch chooses not to be apart of this charade anymore and embrace the death in all of us.

Leaving this Tradition: Typically the witch has such conviction that the only way out is her death.

Occult Powers: The occult powers of the Mara are derived by the struggle of life and death.  There is magic in both life and in death.  There is magic and power in the transition.  While evil Mara are often accused (and rightly so) of killing newborn babies, good Mara also are there to wish children pleasant dreams and act as guardians.

Least, 1st Level: Familiar. The Mara witch gains a familiar.  The familiar is often a floating skull, a ghost or some other omen of death made real (a banshee, a barghest, a black dog). The witch can communicate with this familiar regardless of the form it takes.

Lesser, 7th Level: Dream Invasion. Once per day, the Mara Witch can invade the dreams, the so-called deaths of every day, of others.  She can use this invasion to gather information, learn about various targets or even drain the victim's on life force for herself.  She can drain a total of 1 point of Constitution per night for three nights (3 points total).  This draining she can add to her own pool of hitpoints. Each point of Constitution grants her 3 hp over and above what she normally has.  After the third day, she forfeits her ill-gained health and her victim will recover at the rate of 1 con point per week.

Minor, 13th Level: Nightmare Shape. Once per day, the Mara witch can polymorph herself into any type of undead creature and back. The creature in question must be of comparable size. The witch gains the powers of the creature and retains her ability to cast spells, but she also suffers from that creature’s associated weaknesses. She retains her own hit points and level.  If she is "turned" by a cleric then she is forced back into her "human" form and can not switch back till the next new moon.

Once the mara witch reaches this level, she gains the undead's intolerance of silver. Any silvered weapon will do an additional 1d6 points of damage to the witch if touched, similar in the way Holy Water damages undead. Unless a weapon is specifically listed as being silvered iron, then assume it is not.  The witch is vulnerable to silver in any form she takes.

Greater, 19th Level: Witch’s Curse. The witch can place a powerful Curse on one creature once per day. The curse can be of any sort, but will usually bestow a -4 to all to hit rolls and -2 to any saving throw rolls. Witch curses are quite powerful and require the use of two (2) remove curse spells to be fully removed.

Major, 25th Level: Dead Zone Mind. The mara witch has become so accustomed to turning into a nearly undead creature and moving closer and closer to death herself that her mind is no longer that of a living breathing person.  She becomes immune to charm and hold spells. Her mind can't not be probed or read via telepathy, ESP or similar powers.

Superior, 31th Level: Kiss of Death. The witch gains a Kiss of Death. When the witch wishes, she
can give a target a Kiss of Death. If the person has 9 or fewer hit die he dies, if he is over 9 hit die he must save vs. death or die. This may not be used in battle, only in a non-combat situations.

Special Benefits and Restrictions: Mara witches can use spells normally reserved for necromancers.  They are though barred from using any spell that could return a person back to life such as Raise Dead, Resurrection or Reincarnate.

Equipment:  Nothing special.

Preferred/Barred Covens: Typically evil covens.  There are usually a Night Hag or two present in their covens as well.

Relationship to the Patron: For chaotic Mara the Patron is usually the Bringer of Death. This is usually a bloodthirsty god or goddess that revels in death and destruction.  Lawful Mara have a Patron that is the Protector or Steward of the Dead.
The greatest Patron of the Mara is an ancient Hag named  Marzanna (in Polish), Morė (in Lithuanian), Morana (in Czech and Slovene), or Morena (in Slovak and Russian). She is an ancient creature associated with Winter and Death, but also the rebirth of the seasons.  Other Mara patrons include Hecate, Lilith, and Wee Jas.  The Aztec Goddess of vice, Tlazolteol, also has many Mara followers.

Source/Views of Magic: Magic comes from the struggle of Life against Death. People live and they die and this creates powerful magic in the world.  While the chaotic Mara might focus on just the death magic, the lawful Mara also know there is magic in life and in the celebration of life.  Especially the celebration of life in the face of certain death.

Archetypes: There are two basic archetypes of Mara.  The "evil" Chaotic Mara. These witches revel in death and destruction.  The more death they are around, whether they cause it or not, grants them power.  The Lawful Mara could be considered "good", but in truth they also see the need for death.  Everything must die to allow new things to live and grow which in turn must die. Neutral Mara, generally speaking, do not exist as there is no middle ground between life and death.

The Mara for Other Witches

For Adventurer Conquer King's Player Companion from +Alexander Macris and +Tavis Allison the witch is limited to 14th level.  The 6 occult powers can be spread out over these levels.  I would remove the Witch's Curse and then evenly spread out the remaining five.

Similar plan for +Jeff Talanian's Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea's witch.  Though in this case I would also remove the option for "Lawful" Mara.  Mara in this world setting are nothing but evil.

For +Joseph Bloch's Adventures Dark & Deep, The Witch the BEST thing is adding spells from his Necromancer class.  Spread out the powers, replacing the ones listed for the Witch.

+Jonathan Becker's Complete B/X Adventurer also has a witch class. His witch lacks outright powers, but has plenty of spells.   So if you want to convert ANY of my witches to one of his make the Occult Powers into Witch Spells only that kind of witch can use.  Here is a quick anf dirty guide.

Basic Witch Occult Power	B/X Witch Spell Level
Least, 1st Level	1st level Witch Spell, 1st level witch
Lesser, 7th Level	3rd level Witch Spell, 6th level witch
Minor, 13th Level	5th level Witch Spell, 12th level witch
Greater, 19th Level	7th level Witch Spell, 21st level witch
Major, 25th Level	8th level Witch Spell, 25th level witch
Superior, 31th Level	9th level Witch Spell, 30th level witch

For his 10th level spells you would have to come up with something appropriately cool.
Heck I might grab his 10th level spells for my own witch games!

Becker also spends some time with a Holmes-style witch, but I am not sure these sorts of powers would work for that.

So now regardless of what OSR Witch you use noe you can unleash the Mara on your players!

Wee Jas

Wee Jas, The Suel Goddess of Magic, Death, Law and...a bunch of stuff really.

Could she be more 80s chic?

Been thinking a lot about Wee Jas lately.
Ever since I first "discovered" her in the pages of Dragon magazine #88 I was enthralled with her.

She first appeared (I learned almost right after) in the World of Greyhawk boxed set.  All we knew about her then was she was a greater Suel goddess of magic and death.

Lenard Lakofka's article though gave us the most detail really.  That is where the picture on the right is from.
What do we learn about her?  Well at this point she is still a greater goddess of magic and death.  She knows every magic-user spell and all other spells to 5th level (why only 5th??).  She can cast up to 9 spell levels worth of spells each round; so 1 9th level spell or 9 1st level or any combination.  She has 90% magic resistance and a globe of invulnerability that floats around her.

She is attractive (Charisma 20) and always appears so.
If she is anything she is very lawful.  To the point where good and evil are mostly meaningless to her just as long as you are not chaotic.  In fact she pretty much hates anything chaotic except for the chaotic neutral god Norebo; who is her brother (or half-brother) and occasional lover.  Gods. Go figure.
In the letters section in a couple Dragons later it is mentioned that Norebo's entry mentions Wee Jas, but Wee Jas' doesn't.  The editors reply that it is because Wee Jas is loathe to admit it and Norebo could also be bragging.

By this point, this was all I knew about her. She was not yet known as "The Witch Goddess" but that is what I used her for.  Besides, take a look at her name.
Wee (We) and Jas (Ja), we ja or "we ya".  Or to spell it differently Ouija.  Her name certainly comes from Oui Ja, the French and German words for "Yes" and the basis of the name of the Ouija board. Plus magic and death.  Seems a dead give away.

After this Wee Jas' story gets weirder.  She is demoted, promoted, gains and loses domains.  Gets more evil, less evil. Picks up the title of Witch Queen somewhere along the way as well.  Canonfire, the great Greyhawk website, has spilled a lot of bits and bytes on this.

• Wee Jas Dissected, Part I
• Wee Jas Dissected, Part II
• Wee Jas Resurrected

The Wee Jas Resurrected article is insteresting because it attempts to bring in a lot of these inconsistences and bring together to a complete and understandable whole.  For me the the bits on the rivalry of Wee Jas and Iggwilv were very interesting as well as making her one of the Suel gods/goddesses of Sex. Totally make sense really.  She even gains a "reformed" succubus, Zem'Jil, as a servant.

In truth the model for Wee Jas from our own world is Hecate, the Goddess of Magic, Witches, Ghosts, Necromancy and the Crossroads.   It is said that Wee Jas gaurds the doorways to the dead and the same is true for Hecate.  In fact I have used them rather interchangeblly for years.

I think for my own version of Wee Jas, I would start with the Dragon 88 version, add a little bit of what we saw in D&D 3.x, and then change her "Death" portfolio to "Spirits".  She can summon undead, and her priests may do so as well, but no raise dead spells.  I rather liked the Raven Queen from D&D4, so pass of Wee Jas' control of Death (save for spirits) to the Raven Queen.  Since the Raven Queen is described as a young or new Godess, it could even be that she is the daughter of Wee Jas.  Have to investigate this line further.

I would also change her Globe of Invulnerability into a ruby skull that floats and protectors her.  Maybe a former lover.  Keep Zem'Jil because that is just cool to have a succubus ally.  Give Zem'Jil some levels in witch too, since Wee Jas would be her patron.

Certainly would have to have her in my War of the Witch Queens adventure.

Kid's Games

I totally missed Friday Night Videos the other night.  Sorry. Insane day at work. I didn't even know about Paris till I got home Friday night.

OneBookshelf is running their annual "Teach your Kids to Game Week" with lots of sales on introductory material for kids.

While I totally applaud such efforts, I think back to how I learned and how I taught my own kids and we all started with D&D.

In fact my oldest son has been playing for close to 11 years now.  He is still playing his first character in our Dragonslayers game.  We began the game in early 2005 with "The Cave of the Stinky Goblin" and now have a host of epic-level bad asses.

This weekend we even took some time to play the children of the Dragonslayers, the Order of the Platinum Dragon in the next part of the Slaver's series.  The big "reveal" is coming soon and I can't wait to spring it on my players.

Zatannurday: Featuring the Enchantress

The December 2015 issue of Empire is coming out and the covers feature characters from the upcoming Suicide Squad movie, including Carla Delevingne as the Enchantress.

Enchantress, aka June Moone, is also one of the magical using types in Justice League Dark.   From the brief interviews it sounds like we are going to see a bit of June before she becomes (or is taken over by) the Enchantress.

Let's not forget that Marvel also has an Enchantress. She likes wearing green too.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enchantress_(DC_Comics)
http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Enchantress

Kickstart Your Weekend: Bring Back MST3K

Not a gaming Kickstarter...unless you happen to be me.

I have said it before. My Appendix N is full of cheesy sci-fi, horror and fantasy movies.  The only people that loved these movies more than me were the Best Brain behind Mystery Science Theatre 3000.    In the 90s, this was my show. The one I tapped and never missed.  Still have 18 or so 6-hour tapes full of episodes.  To bad I have no idea where a work VCR is.

But no fear because MST3k is coming back through the magic of Kickstarter and fans like us.

Bring Back MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mst3k/bringbackmst3k/

In truth they don't need my help to publicize this, but they are getting it anyway.
Heck they made $1 Million in their first 24 hours.

Really looking forward to this one!

Blustery Day

So no post today.  I have been writing my posts at night or very early in the morning to post later in day lately.  Last night I could not work on anything because I was too busy working on the Chili for my work's annual Chili Cookoff.

I do a different recipe every year.  This year I went with one my son and I called "The Mississippi Queen".




Well it paid off.  I got 1st Place!

My winning ingredients?  Bacon grease (not so secret) and Ghost Peppers fresh from the garden.

Regular blogging tomorrow.