#Dungeon23 Tomb of the Vampire Queen, Level 4, Room 21

Going to the right in Room 20 leads to a small tunnel that opens into a huge cave.  The cave is bright with eldritch light.  But that is not all that is strange about this room.

The walls are covered in thousands of eyes. All sorts of eyes. Human eyes, demon eyes, elf eyes, dragon eyes.

The eyes watch all movement in the room and follow the party as they walk through.  If any of the eyes are stabbed, then they bleed.  At some point, all the eyes will shut and the cave will go completely dark.

If the characters spend more than a turn in this room they need to make a save vs. Petrification. A failed save means the character will try to get out of the room as quickly as they can.

There is no monsters or treasure in this room.

The Rose Sisters, Witches of the Hill (B5 Horror on the Hill)

I was going through all my notes for my 1979 Campaign centered around the Keep on the Borderlands as a Pathfinder-like adventure path.

I have found that there are a lot of people out there who are equally fascinated with the B1 and B2 adventures, that this is something I spend a long time doing. I would not even have to add anything else to it all.

So, of course, what am I doing?  Adding something else to it.  

I noticed I did not have a copy of B5 Horror on the Hill. I always kind of wanted it since I knew a little bit about it and it was from the "Golden Age" of D&D. I had never bought a copy because by 1983 (when it was published) I had moved on to AD&D instead.  More folly for me I guess.  The recent GM's Day Sale at DriveThru had it on sale, so I grabbed the PDF and Print on Demand versions.  While waiting for the print I read through it a bit and found it would make a great addition to the surrounding of Keep. In fact, I think I would merge Guido's Fort and the Keep into one place. I am certainly not the first to think this or try this.

I was reading through the rumor table and saw this:

I don't think you quite get the thrill I get when I am reading an older D&D product and there are witches in it! It is not something I am going to get to experience much more of, but it is always special.

So B5, Horror on the Hill has a rumor about an evil witch, and it is marked as TRUE?  Hell yeah!

Well, not so fast. There are two spellcasting women living on the Hill. But they are not really witches and they are a far cry from evil.

At least it is encounter #13.  

I am fine with them not being evil, but a cleric and a magic user? Must be something in the water around here that they all decide to live together. But I also know an opportunity when I see it.

We have two elderly women, Rosabella, 5th level and Rosalinda, 6th level, living near an area where there are ghouls, hobgoblins, rumors of a dragon, and more? In a cabin that is bigger on the inside?

Yeah, they are certainly witches.  But what kind?

Since this is overtly a BECMI product and from 1983 no less, I think my earliest OSR Witch book would be best suited for these two.  I also could not help but think of the sisters Ada Brook and Agnes van Rhijn in The Gilded Age on HBO played by Cynthia Nixon and Christine Baranski, as Rosabella and Rosalinda, respectively.

Rosabella & Rosalinda, The Rose Sisters

How these two witches came to live on the Hill is something lost to time out of mind. It is known that they are the last of the Rose Witch Coven that had operated in the area for many years and they inherited their magic home from their mother.  

Both sisters are Family Tradition witches, with their knowledge of witchcraft handed down throughout the ages. Rosalinda had a son, but he seems to have had no intention of marrying and has so far not produced any female heirs to their family's tradition.

They now live in this cabin/mansion and barter and trade with the local Keep when possible and with the various demi-humans who fear them.

Rosabella
5th level Witch, Family Tradition
Neutral 

S: 12 I: 13 W: 14 D: 12 C: 13 Ch: 17

AC: 6 (Ring of Protection +3)
HP: 20

Attack: 1, by spell

Occult Powers: Familar (Spirit of a long-dead ancestor)

Spells
Cantrips: (5) Alarm Ward, Clean, Detect Curse, Mend Minor Wounds, Quick Sleeping
First Level: (2) Detect Invisible, Magic Circle vs. Evil
Second Level: (2) Hold Person, Scare
Third Level: (1) Stop Thief

Rosalinda
6th level Witch, Family Tradition
Neutral

S: 10 I: 13 W: 12 D: 10 C: 10 Ch: 15

AC: 9
HP: 17

Attack: 1, by spell

Occult Powers: Familar (Spirit of a long-dead ancestor)

Spells
Cantrips: (4) Arcane Mark, Daze, Mend, Spark
First Level: (3) Cause Fear, Sleep, Spirit Dart
Second Level: (2) Minor Image, Phantasmal Spirit
Third Level: (2) Fly, Mirror Image

Pretty good if you ask me. They are high-level to characters of the 1st to 3rd level to be sure.  Though I think they should be higher to keep the various monsters at bay.  Mind you they have desire to fight them, just scare them a little. 

And like all proper witches, they have a Tea Ritual. They are not above adding a sleeping draught to the tea of rude guests and sending them on their way. 

Looking forward to seeing what else I can do with this adventure!

#AtoZChallenge2023: Doctor Who Quatermass

The Tenth Doctor: You named a unit of measurement after yourself?
Malcom: Well, it didn't do Mr. Watt any harm. Furthermore, 100 Malcoms equal a Bernard.
The Tenth Doctor: Who's that, your dad?
Malcom: Don't be ridiculous, that's Quatermass.
The Tenth Doctor: Right. 

- The Planet of the Dead

Few things are as quintessentially British sci-fi as Doctor Who. Unless of course, you are talking about Quatermass.

First a bit of background.

Prof. Benard Quatermass is a brilliant scientist and part of the (fictional) British Experimental Rocket Group.  In his work he is constantly dealing with all sorts of alien threats.  Sound familiar?  The Quatermass stories have a solid sci-fi bend to them but are not afraid to do a little bit of horror, as in Quatermass and the Pit. 

The Doctor Who Connections

Lots really. I mentioned in my review of Quatermass and the Pit that finding an ancient skeleton older than humanity has been covered by Who in Image of the Fendahl and in horror by The Creeping Flesh. But that is just a story. The connections run deeper.

The whole Jon Pertwee (Third Doctor) was designed to have a solid Quatermass feel to it; brilliant scientist fighting off alien threats with the aid (to his annoyance) of the military and some secret organization. Are we talking about The British Rocket Group or U.N.I.T. here? 

In the 1988 series "Remembrance of the Daleks," which takes place in 1963,  military, scientific advisor Alison Williams remarks to her colleague Dr. Rachel Jensen, "I wish Bernard was here." Rachel replies, "British Rocket Group's got its own problems."  Even the episode "Hide" set in 1974 featured a very Quatermass-like character in the form of Professor Alec Palmer, who was supposed to be Benard Quatermass but they could not get the rights cleared.  

"The Planet of the Dead" has an energy reading in Benards which is 100 Malcoms. Named in honor of Quatermass.

In "The Christmas Invasion," David Tennant's first turn as the Doctor, a British Rocket Group logo can be seen in the command center of Guinevere 1. This one is especially interesting because of the very recent (2005) "The Quatermass Experiment," which featured David Tennant playing a Doctor. Not the Doctor, but he did get the roll in Doctor Who while working on this show. 

In addition to David Tennant this show featured Mark Gatiss, a regular Doctor Who actor and writer. Gatiss also wrote a Doctor Who novel "Nightshade" about a serial that exists in the Doctor Who universe that is not quite Doctor Who and not quite Quatermass. 

Some fans have even suggested that the reason Ace calls her Doctor, "Professor" all the time is because of her familiarity with Quatermass. 

I'd love to see a full-on crossover with Doctor Who and Quatermass. Set it in the late 1950s or early 1960s. That would be a lot of fun.

If nothing else, then it would make for a good Doctor Who RPG adventure!

All images are used with permission from the BBC and are copyrighted 2023 by the BBC.

#Dungeon23 Tomb of the Vampire Queen, Level 4, Room 20

 Moving on to Room #20 these tunnels seem to have a more "finished" or carved feel to them. 

In this cave are three very large Cave Bears. 

The eldritch glow of these caves is much stronger here and it is reflected in these bears' eyes.

They look like they could be sick, but in reality, it is just the necromantic energies feeding on them; they are every bit as strong, fierce, and angry as their normal counterparts.  Because of the necromantic energies, these bears are starving and only living blood will satisfy them.  For this reason, their morale is set to 12.

These bears have no treasure and have wandered into this cave from other parts of this level.

#AtoZChallenge2023: Doctor Who PBS (and Pluto)

"Support for this PBS station comes from Viewers like you."

- The Unofficial Start of Every Doctor Who episode in my youth.

At the risk of sounding like a grumpy old man. Doctor Who fans today have it easy. We have DVDs, Blu-Rays, BBC America, BritBox, Pluto (more on that) and untold ways to watch our favorite episodes of Doctor Who.

In the 80s this was not the case. Back in the 1980s we had ONE choice to watch Doctor Who and that was our local PBS station. If your station didn't carry it, well you had to hope you had a friend who did have access and access to a VCR to record them. 

For me that was KETC PBS Channel 9 out of St. Louis, MO. 

I grew up on Channel 9. As a little kid I watched Sesame Street and the Electric Company. As I got older I watched Cosmos with Carl Sagan and 3-2-1 Contact.  I tried to watch Upstairs, Downstairs and Masterpiece Theater. I knew they were good, but I never caught them often enough to know what was going on. But I, Claudius, was amazing.  I was primed to accept that anything on this channel was quality.

So when I was introduced to Doctor Who in the early 80s (1983) I was ready to accept it as the best thing ever on TV. It was A.) British and B.) on PBS. So of course it was great. Sadly it was not on till 10:30 pm on a Sunday night and I had school and a morning paper route to do on Monday morning. I got into a lot of trouble trying to watch it.

Another issue for me? I only had an old Black & White TV, so my first experiences with Doctor (namely the Key to Time series) were all in Black & White!  I didn't get my first color TV until I, and this is no kidding, traded my 18 ft long Doctor Who scarf for one.

I think there is a sort of rite of passage with older Doctor Who fans. We all can readily identify which PBS stations we watched them on.  KETC always took the individual parts and showed them as one complete story.  Other stations showed 1 or 2 parts a night. This was the case for WTTW in Chicago. I did not get that station then, but now it is my local station.

The whole "Viewers Like you" thing hit me hard too. I felt like I was watching Doctor Who but not a real fan since I didn't help PBS out. So one year I finally asked my parents to send in support. I paid them back and got this sweet TARDIS key chain that I still have to this day.

Still pretty pleased to have that.

The TARDIS Data Core wiki has a great history on PBS and its association with Doctor Who.

Doctor Who on Pluto

Nowadays you can get Doctor Who nearly anywhere, but the closest experience to the old PBS stations is watching Doctor Who on PlutoTV.

There are "Doctor Who" channels that play the Classic Doctor episodes 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

I have been catching them as I can and it has been fantastic.  If you are new Who fan it is worth checking out. Plus Pluto is 100% free! You can even watch it on any device.

Additionally, on Tubi, you can catch the old Doctor Who Dalek movies.

Something I never expected to happen back in the 1980s, sometime after 10:30 pm on a Sunday night when I was supposed to be asleep. 

All images are used with permission from the BBC and are copyrighted 2023 by the BBC.

#Dungeon23 Tomb of the Vampire Queen, Level 4, Room 19

 The secret door, really just a hidden one, is to the right from the perspective of heading toward Room 20. There are a few stones to move (combined strength of 20 required, up to three characters) the biggest obstacle is the dark.

This appears to be the Grimlock's larder. In here are four Trolls. They are tied up and their limbs have been hacked off.  The grimlocks have captured them and are keeping them near death as a regenerating food source.  Their limbs are growing back at odd angles and lots of mutations.

Each troll only has 1d4 HP each. They can be easily killed but only give 10 XP each.

There are a few magic items here too. One is a sword +1/+3 vs. trolls. It glows in the present of trolls. When the trolls are dead the glow will stop.  The trolls were afraid of it, and the grimlocks hated the light.

There is a wand of magic missiles here as well. It has 2d6+4 charges remaining.

Wasted Lands Playtest: Ereshkigal

We are in the midst of the Wasted Lands playtest right now. It is fun to play a game I am at the same time familiar with (it is very similar to NIGHT SHIFT) and yet brand new at the same time.  For me, there is extra fun here since I can use so much of my own One Man's God material in my home games.  

My home game, right now, is a bit of a riff on my "Second Campaign" ideas.  Recall that in the Wasted Lands during the "Dreaming Age," the first generation of humanity (or proto-humanity) has thrown off the yoke of the Old Ones (the stars went "wrong" again), and now they have an Earth to themselves.  It is part Mythical Age and part Post-Apocylptic. 

With the Old Ones gone, humanity renews its battles with their most significant threats, the reptiles. So I have reptiles and Snake People as my big bads here, at least for this trail run of the game.

Since the characters will become the gods of our myths and legends, I want to try out some of my favorite gods here.

Up first is one I have called "The World's First Goth Girl" Ereshkigal.

She was the Queen of the Underworld and the Goddess of the Dead in Sumerian mythology. In the Dreaming Age, though, she is now just a 1st Level Necromancer.  This is good for me since my very first D&D character was a cleric dedicated to destroying the undead. So a nice little flip side to that.

Wasted Lands: The Dreaming Age uses the same O.G.R.E.S. rules as NIGHT SHIFT does. So following along here will be easy. 

So. Let us see what we can do.

Siouxsie Sioux as Ereshkigal

Ereshkigal

Class: Necromancer (Persona Aspect)
Level: 1
Species: Human

Alignment: Dark Neutral

Abilities
Strength: 16 (+2)
Agility: 13 (+1)
Toughness: 15 (+1) N +1
Intelligence: 13 (+1)
Wits: 15 (+1) N +1
Persona: 17 (+2) A +2

Fate Points: 
Defense Value: 7
Vitality: 5 (d6)
Degeneracy:
Corruption:

Check Bonus (A/N/D): +2/+1/0
Melee Bonus: +2
Ranged Bonus: +1
Saves: +3 to Persona based

Special Abilities
Channel the Dead 22%
See Dead People
Summon the Dead 15%
Command (Spirits)
Protection from Undead
Turn Undead 20%

Divine Notes: Death, Earth Psychopomp
Background: Undertaker

Gear
Leather armor: DV 8
Dagger: 1d4

Here is my concept for her.

At this time, Ereshkigal of Irkalla & Kur is the daughter of Nanna, an oracle of the moon. It has been her task to take care of the dead of the city and in particular, the dead that have been killed by dark magics. 

I have yet to do much with her, but rolling her up was as easy as rolling up any D&D-like character. Faster even if you are a fan of NIGHT SHIFT. Now I don't have everything figured out just yet, but I want to get her into a game to figure it all out. 

The campaign I am working up will be against a cult of Snale Men that are trying to rise up in the vacuum left by the Old Ones. Humanity is on the brink of being wiped out before they even begin and only one group will inherit the Earth. 

Since I see Ereshkigal as the world's first goth girl, it only makes sense that she is portrayed in my games by Siouxsie Sioux.

Want to know more about The Wasted Lands? Head on over to Jason's blog to read more.