#Dungeon23 Tomb of the Vampire Queen, Level 1, Room 11

Across from Room 10 is a similarly configured room.

Photo by Pixabay from Pexels

A secret door in the floor reveals a sack of 150 GP.  The coins are ancient and unknown to the PCs.

#Dungeon23 Tomb of the Vampire Queen, Level 1, Room 10

 Up from Room #8 and across from Room #9 is Room #10.

It appears to be of the same dimensions as the previous rooms 5 through 9. 

Virgil Finlay

Once the room is entered, a group of semi-human Phantoms appears.

The Phantoms can not attack, but a failed saving throw vs. Spells will cause anyone to run out of the room in fear. Once out of the room the fear effect dissipates.

They have 1-1 HD and 1 hp. Magic weapons are required to hit. There are 10 and their AC is 9.

The phantoms can be Turned by a cleric. A bless or dispel evil spell will also destroy them. The entire group is effected by these magics.

Monstrous Mondays: Monstrous Maleficarum

Well...

Photo by Mike B on Pexels

I have to admit, the wind has really been knocked out of my sails here.

My plan was to produce one of these a week, every Monday. And I was well on my way to doing that. I had everything in a great database that auto-calculated everything, including a CR calculation I was very happy with.

I had over 500 monsters with over 300 done.

The desire here has evaporated even if I could find a way to do them. 

This has also killed what I wanted to do for Basic Bestiary.

I still want to do something with all these monsters. I have worked too much on them just to let them lie here, forgotten on my hard drives.  

I am looking into other licenses and other means of publication. But they most certainly will not be for D&D or retro-clones. Not until this OGL nonsense gets sorted.  I have worked well under this safe harbor of the OGL for a long time. Maybe it is time for me to branch out and give some attention to other games I enjoy. 

#Dungeon23 Tomb of the Vampire Queen, Level 1, Room 9

This appears to be another empty room.   

Magic using characters feel a greater unease here.

Image by kues1 on Freepik

A detect magic or similar magic will reveal a small hand-sized portal at about 3 ft off the ground near the middle of the room.  Sticking any mundane item through will cause it to disappear as if stuck into a hole. Pulling it out will have it reappear with no damage.  

If a character puts a hand or arm through the will feel warm breezes (like a summer's day). They can pull their hand out again with no problems.

If the characters keep doing this then the 5th time a hand moves through the portal, something will grab it. A combined strength score of 25 is needed to pull the character free.

The character in question will have a bruise on their wrist from whatever grabbed them.

#Dungeon23 Tomb of the Vampire Queen, Level 1, Room 8

 Across the grand hall from room 7.

Image by kjpargeter on Freepik

This room is also empty.

I figure many of these rooms on level 1 will be empty. As the magic gets greater, there will be more and more encounters.

#Dungeon23 Tomb of the Vampire Queen, Level 1, Room 7

 Across the grand hall down from room 5.

Image by kjpargeter on Freepik

This room is empty.

Character Creation Challenge: Ethyl Critchlow for NIGHT SHIFT

Running a bit late on this one.  Today I am going to show how to use NIGHT SHIFT with one of my often-forgotten witches, the Hedge Witch for Hero's Journey RPG, First Edition.

The Hero's Journey is a great RPG from James M. Spahn.  Designed to capture the feel of a bygone time when people would go on adventures for the sake of adventure. The rules are close enough to Swords & Wizardry to be, oh, 95%-97% compatible. In truth, it is my favorite presentation of the Swords & Wizardry rules.

The class I designed for it is the Hedge Witch. Someone that dabbles in magic but was not a full-on wizard. 

The Hedge Witch

These are lower-powered witches and are thus perfect for dabblers or supernatural species that also gain other abilities. 

The Hedge Witch has the following powers.

Level 1: Supernatural Awareness. This acts as a Detect Evil spell, and the Hedge can determine if someone is a supernatural creature in disguise or not.

Level 4: Craft Potions. The stock and trade of the Hedge witch are her potions. Guidelines are the same as in the Witch for the Hero's Journey book. Essentially she can replicate any spell she knows.

Level 7: Evil Eye. She can cast the Evil Eye spell once per day at any target.

Level 10: Curse. The hedge witch can curse one target per day.

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I did Ethyl Critchlow a while back as an Urban Hag, but I always wanted to give her some levels in witch.

Ethyl Critchlow
9th Level Hedge Witch / Urban Hag

Strength: 17 (+2)
Dexterity: 17 (+2)
Constitution: 18 (+3) s
Intelligence: 16 (+2) P
Wisdom: 16 (+2) S
Charisma: 8 (-1) 

HP: 78
Alignment: Dark / Chaos
AC: 2
Attack: +1

Fate Points: 1d10

Check Bonus (P/S/T): +5/+3/+1
Melee bonus: +2 Ranged bonus: +2
Saves: +3 against spells and magical effects

Witch Abilities

Arcana, Supernatural Senses, Spells, Arcane Powers

Arcane (Occult) Powers
Supernatural Awareness, Craft potions, Evil Eye

Skills
Knowledge (supernatural), Knowledge (occultism), survival

Background
400 year-old hag

Spells
First Level(4): Bad Luck, Far Sight, Glamour, Minor Curse
Second Level(3): ESP, Evil Eye, Night's Companion
Third Level(3): Clairvoyance, Mind Shield, Scry 
Fourth Level(2): Discern Lies, Remove Curse 
Fifth Level(1): Primal Scream

Note Ethyl uses Intelligence as her prime for spell casting. 

Every child, whether human or witch-born, knows to stay away from the house on the corner of Taylor and Bell.  Here sits an old run-down house that everyone thought would either fall in on itself or the city would have condemned.  

But it is not the house that frightens the children, though it is frightening.  Nor is it the small angry dog everyone remembers from their childhoods, making it at least 25 years old or older.  Rumor in the neighborhood is that once the dog got out and bit the fingers off of a boy who could not run fast enough. 

It is not the dog or the house. It is the owner of both that keeps people away.

Ethyl Critchlow looks like a stereotypical old witch, but this is just a glamour, her true form is that of an ancient and hideous old hag.  She is an Urban Hag and has been living in West Haven for nearly as long as there has been a West Haven.  She hates all children and takes glee in terrorizing them, but a pact made with the City Council keeps her from doing any actual harm to them.  Though if their toys land in her yard she will keep them and if any child climbs her fence to get these toys then she will send her "dog" (in actuality a glamoured Hell Hound) Maximillian after them.  

Ethyl would also admit that at her age (almost 400), eating children, especially modern ones, gives her terrible heartburn.  Though she did eat a couple of missionaries from East Haven back in the 1960s, but no one came looking for them.  

She stays in West Haven because she has nowhere else to go. The city tolerates her and is just waiting for her to finally die of old age or a magical mishap.   She is also a great source of magical knowledge and history. She can be bribed with 18-year-old single malt scotch. Ethyl is a heavy drinker, so bring more than one bottle if you plan to use this for information.  Also, fair warning, as Ethyl drinks, her glamour begins to fade. Her glamour will be gone when she has worked through two bottles.

Urban Hags are hoarders. Her home is a falling apart pit of junk she has collected over her nearly four centuries of life.  Amongst the filth, garbage, and debris of decades, there are also some magical treasures.  In particular, Ethyl has several magical scrolls with spells that can be used by any witch or scholar. There is also a magical pipe that can lure the undead to sleep. Though one is advised not to go looking for such treasures.

You can get NIGHT SHIFT in print and pdf.  You can get my the Witch for Hero's Journey RPG here.

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Want to see more of the #CharacterCreationChallenge? Stop by Tardis Captain's Blog and the #CharacterCreationChallenge on Twitter for more!