New Adventure, Character and Resources

Kinda buried at work this week.
So I'll share some resources and new adventure I am reading.

First up is the adventure.
The Witch of Monte Rosa is from Bill Barsh over at Pacesetter Games.
For 12 bucks you get an old-school like adventure and PDF.  This adventure is for low-level characters using OSRIC or your favorite OSR rule-set.
It is a sanbox adventure designed to be dropped into any campaign and is adaptable to higher levels.  The main focus though is the titular witch and the damage she is causing to nearby life.
There are some new monsters and some new magic items that look like a lot of fun.
The main antagonist is Helena, a "Cauldron Witch".
It would not take much at all to retune this to work with my Witch class.  "Cauldron Witch" becomes a tradition with some alchemy based powers.  Instead of Magic-User spells, give her witch spells.

Here is my take on her.

Helena
9th level Witch, Cauldron Tradition
Chaotic Evil

Strength: 15
Dexterity: 10
Constitution: 13
Intelligence: 18
Wisdom: 10
Charisma: 17

Saves
Death Ray or Poison:  11
Magic wand or devices: 12
Paralysis, Polymorph or Turn to Stone: 11
Dragon Breath: 14
Rods, Staffs, and Spells: 13

Hit Points: 50
AC: 7 (Leather Armor)
To hit AC 0: 16
Weapon: Staff (1d6+2)

Occult Powers
Familiar:  Cauldron*  (her connection to her cauldron is explained in the adventure)
Lesser: Immune to the Affects of Undead

Spells
Cantrips (6): Black Flame, Ghost Sound, Inflict Minor Wounds, Quick Sleeping, Spark, Summon Vermin
First (3+2): Bewitch, Black Fire, Burning Hands, Cause Fear, Charm Person
Second (3+2): Agony, Biting Blade, Blast Shield, Hold Person, Spell Missile
Third (2+2): Bestow Curse, Danse Macabre, Ghost Ward, Scry
Fourth (2+1):  Arcane Eye, Elemental Armor, Spiritual Dagger
Fifth (1): Death Curse

Certainly a worthy opponent!

What sold me on this adventure was that she was described as a "Witch Queen, long forgotten."
Kinda makes it perfect for my War of the Witch Queens adventures. So perfect in fact I am going to use this as the introduction to the series.

Going to be a blast really!

Here are free resources on witches and witchcraft.

• The Cornell University Witchcraft Collection
• Medieval Sourcebook: Witchcraft Documents [15th Century]
• Penn Libraries: History of Witchcraft - Research Guide
• Mysterious Britain & Ireland: The Occult / Traditions / Witchcraft
  
• Of course: Pacesetter H2 The Witch of Monte Rosa

Though if you are like me these are all very familiar sites.

It's Swords & Wizardry Wednesday!

Was in the middle of a meeting today and my bell rang.  This was waiting for me on my front porch.

My Swords & Wizardry hardcover!

I mentioned in the past I wasn't keen on the cover art, but that has changed since then.  Now that I have it in my hands I can really appreciate it.

The interior art though is so freaking good.

There is more. A lot more.

The book compares favorably to its predecessors.

Both versions of the character sheets have their own unique charm.  I'll use both.

I have been thinking alot about S&W lately. How I am planning to do something with it for the Witch.

Expect to see more that in the future.

Whatever I do I want it to be worth your time and money to buy and worth my time to write.  Well...I know it is worth my time to write.  I enjoy writing about these things.

New Releases Tuesday: Blue Rose AGE Edition

I always pictured her as a blonde

It's Tuesday. That means new releases all over the place.  Today at DriveThruRPG we have the new release of Blue Rose: AGE Edition.
I scooped this up before I even got to my second pot of coffee!

There will be a full review later, but right now I want to say this book is gorgeous! The art is fantastic and all 384 pages are in full color. It just looks so good.
But this is not a coffee table book, it is an RPG book.  Well for that it will take more detailed reading, but I love what I see so far.

Some highlights

• The World of Aldea has moved forward in time. Some NPCs are gone, some are now married (!), and there are plenty of new and interesting NPCs to be had.
• Blue Rose maps onto the AGE system so well that I might actually drop the True20 version.  In fact it seems (from my readings so far) it works BETTER.
• A lot of the material from the True20 Blue Rose line made it to this book.  At 384 pages it is packed.
• There are no True20 to AGE conversion rules that I have seen yet.  Personally I am taking the "Forgotten Realms" approach and having a particular event in the new book signal a shift in paradigm. Classes and levels though do convert on a one to one basis and so do many of the "powers".
• The book is divided into a Player's Section, a World of Aldea Section and a Narrator's (GM) Section. 
• The Narrator's section is the most expanded and updated.  Benefits of having 10+ years of game play.
• The PDF is fully bookmarked (I know, that should be a given now-a-days, but you would be surprised how many I run into that are not).
• Did I mention how gorgeous the art is?

Sea-folk, Human, Vata, Rhy-cat, Night Person, Rhy-wolf

Chances are if you liked the True20 Blue Rose you will enjoy this one even more.

I have both Fantasy AGE and DragonAge and there is a lot of material that would work well between all three books.  

The tone of this book is more swashbuckling adventure and acts of derring-do now. Not that it has moved away from Romantic Fantasy (far from it).  In fact the feeling is that Aldea is entering into a new age.  I would liken it to the reigns of Queens Elizabeth I and Victoria. The True20 version was the cusp of Queen Jaellin's reign and now this is a new Golden Age of opportunity and adventure. 

I can't wait to get into this book!

Witch & Witchcraft Reading Challenge: Witch Child (2002)

“In the town live witches nine: three in worsted, three in rags, and three in velvet fine...” 

Witch Child by Celia Rees details the story of Mary Newbury and her journey from a witch trial in England that nearly cost her life, to her newNew England near Salem in 1659.  Told in diary format as a series of entries we get Mary's first-hand account of her grandmother's trial and her journey to the dangerous new land of America.

Reading this story I am once again struck how easily superstition can take ahold of an ignorant populace and drive them to madness.  We see this in England, on the ship to the new world and in New England as well.

Mary's magic is a subtle sort. Despite some fantastic embellishments the scenes with magic could be explained via science and imagination or they could honestly be magic.
The book itself is a quick read and the conclusion, while what I expected, was still enjoyable.  The story could have been set in the same time and place as The Witch, Eyes of Fire and the Daylight Gate.

I will admit the cover struck me. It reminds me of the cover of the WitchCraft RPG.

There is a sequel to this, but I have not picked it up yet.

2017 Witch & Witchcraft Reading Challenge
Books Read so far: 2
Level: Initiate
Witches in this book: 3
Are Good Witches or Bad Witches: 3 at least.
Best RPG to Emulate it: Again, Colonial Gothic 3.0
Use in WotWQ: Maybe. I love the idea of the scared villagers as a potential "monster" here.
http://www.celiarees.com/books/witchchild.html

Lazy Sunday: Continuing Education Edition, Magic in the Middle Ages

It's Sunday. I am sitting here drinking my coffee and watching my son make sushi for lunch.
(Of course, I had some for breakfast!)

I saw another blog posting about a Coursera class on Magic in the Middle Ages.

For those that don't know, Coursera is an online MOOC, a Massive Oline Open Classroom. Professors from different universities around the world put up an online classroom to learn various topics.  They can be fairly fun and educational. I am a fan. (My second Ph.D. field of study was on how people build communities on learners online).  So I signed up.

The course is sponsored by the University of Barcelona ("Universitat de Barcelona") and taught by a team of professors and instructors.

It is a five-week course with video, discussions, reading and quizzes.  Now as a college professor myself I HATE quizzes for college age students, but for a MOOC you kinda need them.

The course looks like it is a lot of fun AND it is still open if you want to sign up as well.
https://www.coursera.org/learn/magic-middle-ages
Week 3, Magic to Witchcraft looks like the most fun for me.

The course is $49.00 (less if you have a code) or FREE if you opt for the non-certificate option.
I took the non-certificate choice. I really don't need any continuing education credits anymore.

I think it is going to be great.

Larina gets "Rather Gamey" (?)

So last year (snerk-December) I was talking with Shawn at +Studio Arkhein and the mad genius over at Rather Gamey. I really enjoy his posts and art and thought it might be fun to get some custom art in his style.

Well here are the fruits of his labor!

I have to say I am pretty thrilled with this.

She looks like she is getting ready for some moonlight dancing by the fires of Beltane.
Actually, the NSFW version on his site is more appropriate for moonlight dancing by a bonfire.

Love the little differences artists can bring to my character.

Witch & Witchcraft Reading Challenge: The Daylight Gate (2012)

"You are stubborn," said Roger Nowell. 
"I am not tame," said Alice Nutter.

By no means she is.

Jeanette Winterson's "The Daylight Gate" is a retelling of one of England's most infamous witch episodes; the Lancaster Witches.
I have covered this ground before both William Harrison Ainsworth's "The Lancashire Witches" and in a more fantastic version with "The Last Apprentice: books by Joseph Delaney.  The case is also related to "The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster" and even more remote "A Discovery of Witches" by Deborah Harkness.

Winterson takes the story of the witches of Pendle Hill in Lancaster and retells it from the point of view of Alice Nutter, the odd one out in the witch trials.  Unlike all the others accused she was well off, rich even, and more than a match for the powerful men in this tale.

Really that is what this about; the differences between men and women, the powerful and powerless, the so-called just and the victims.   It is easy to hate the men of religion in this and see the "witches" as helpless victims of circumstance.  Indeed it would have been all too easy for Winterson to write that tale.  Thankfully she is much more skilled than that.

While she does not deviate from history's ending (much) there is some room for her to play around with this tale.   The cameos of John Dee and Shakespeare were also quite fun. All in all I thought it was a great, fast read.

What attracted me to this book was the time.  King James was terrified of witches. He was a learned man, seemingly rational. Very well read and well educated.  And utterly terrified of witches.

The title refers to the "liminal hour" between daylight and night.  Here I have talked about liminals and "in-betweens" forever. Witches are in-between Wizards and Clerics. My own Petty God, Nox and her companion Syla are also reflective of this.  Nox is the Goddess of this time. I called it the "Near Dark" but the "Daylight Gate" is also appropriate. Syla herself is a liminal. She is between mortal and divine, as well as human and elf.

The summoning that Alice Nutter uses at the liminal gate (and taught to her by John Dee) would also make a great spell to summon Nox.

2017 Witch & Witchcraft Reading Challenge
Books Read so far: 1
Level: Initiate
Witches in this book: 0, 2, or more than a dozen depending on how you look at it.
Are Good Witches or Bad Witches: A little of both.
Best RPG to Emulate it: Colonial Gothic 3.0
Use in WotWQ: Alice Nutter is totally a Witch Queen! Maybe not in power, but certainly her attitude.