Witch & Witchcraft Reading Challenge: Spellfire

"If it's Lady Spellfire they want then it is Lady Spellfire they shall have!" - Shandril Shessair

Shandril is just small town girl, living in a lonely world...a wait. Well, she is lonely and living in a small town. She is an orphan girl working for ex-adventurer Gorstag in his inn.  She dreams of going on an adventure of her own.  So seeing a potential group who are short a thief, she steals their weapons and lets them know that if they want them back they need to take her on.
Soon she is swept up in the glory of adventure...which mean eating bad food being cold and afraid most of the time.
But Shan is special, and she finds herself in the ruins of Myth Dranor, pursued by an evil sorceress and devils. Rescued by the infamous Knights of Myth Dranor and none other than Elminster himself.  It seems Shandril has a power she is only now learning about. She is a spellfire wielder. She can absorb magic and turn it into blasts of flame so hot that with out training she destroys first one, then two and finally three draco-liches (great undead dragons of terrible power).  Keeping mind that most people never even meet one, let alone survive it!
Now she is being chased by the Cult of the Dragon, another group of evil Mages and who knows all else and they all want her secret. or her dead.

This is the first Forgotten Realms novel I have ever read.  There is a vast library of knowledge in and around the Realms and I have been pretty much blind to it for various reasons.  I picked this book a local library book sale.  I was always a fan of the Clyde Caldwell cover art and even have it hanging in my game room.
The book is enjoyable. It is clearly gamer fiction, but it has it's moments.  The author has a lot of affection for these characters, that is obvious, and you can tell there is much more goign on in his head than what is down on paper.  My issues as a newbie here was there were too many characters to keep track of.  Shandril and Narm are likable enough and Gorstag was the most relatable to me.
It did however, make me want to read some more Realms books.  Rather looking forward to it.

2017 Witch & Witchcraft Reading Challenge
Books Read so far: 7
Level: Maiden
Witches in this book: Certainly The Simbul, The Shadowsil and maybe, just maybe, Shandril too.
Are they Good Witches or Bad Witches: All the above
Best RPG to Emulate it: This book screams 2nd edition AD&D even if was published at the end of 1st edition AD&D.  Either would work out well.
Use in WotWQ: Hell yes! I have started on a quest of my own to read about the Seven Sisters (which The Simbul is part of) and use them in my games.


The Witches of the Realms

Let's have look at Symgharyl Maruel also known as the Shadowsil.  She certainly "feels" like a witch. An evil witch to be sure, but recognizable.

According to the Forgotten Realms Villian's Lorebook, The Shadowsil is:

The Shadowsil (Symgharyl Maruel)
human female 18th-level mage
AC 6; MV 12; hp 36; THAC0 15; #AT 1; Dmg by spell; MR Nil; SZ M; ML 18; AL NE; XP 12,000.
S 9, D 16, C 14, I 18, W 15, Ch 15.
Spells: 5/5/5/5/5/3/3/2/1.

Special Equipment: Ring of dragons, ring of protection +2, rope of entanglement, wand of fire.
Description: Tall, slim, and cruel, The Shadowsil was likely a Cult enforcer or high-level operative of some kind. She wore purple robes and was a former apprentice and paramour of Elminster before she turned to cruelty and evil. She died in his arms, proclaiming her love for him and her regret over their lost love.

If I were to turn her into a witch I'd use my Basic Witch rules with the Advanced options and make her 18th level. She would loose a 9th level spell, but gain powers.

This is also a good time to try out a Draconic Tradition.  My son and I have talked about Dragon Witches before, what they might be and how they work.  There are also the Dragon Witches from the Tarot comic and some others.

Symgharyl Maruel, The Shadowsil
18th level Witch (Draconic Tradition)
Female, Chaotic

Strength 9
Intelligence 15
Wisdom 15
Dexterity 16
Constitution 14
Charisma 18

Saving Throws
Death Ray/Poison 7
Magic Wands 8
Paralysis, Polymorph 7
Dragon Breath 10
Rods, Staffs, Spells 9

Hit Points: 63
AC: 1
(leather armor +2, Ring of Protection +2, Dex 16 -2)

THAC0: 14
(I know, THAC0 was not used in Basic D&D. You know what this means)

Occult Powers*  (have not worked these all out yet)
Familiar: pseudo dragon
Lesser: Access Draconic Bloodline (allows the witch to cast MU spells as Ritual Spells)
Minor: Draconic resistence (avoid fear effects and add Cha bonus to saves)

Spells
Cantrips (6): Alarm Ward, Chill, Daze, Ghost Sound, Inflict Minor Wounds, Spark
1st (6+2): Black Fire, Cause Fear, Charm Person, Endure Elements, Ghostly Slashing, Glamour, Light/Darkness, Minor Fighting Prowess
2nd (5+2): Discord, Enthrall, Ghost Touch, Hold Person, Invisibility, Phantasmal Spirit, Spell Missile
3rd (5+2):  Bestow Curse, Dispel Magic, Feral Spirit, Lifeblood, Toad Mind, Witch Wail, Fireball (bloodline spell)
4th (4+1): Analyze Magic, Elemental Armor (Fire), Intangible Cloak of Shadows, Phantom Lacerations, Withering Touch
5th (3): Blade Dance, Dreadful Bloodletting, Waves of Fatigue
6th (3): Death Blade, Mass Agony, True Seeing
7th (3): Death Aura, Greater Arcane Eye, Wave of Mutilation
8th (2): Destroy Life, Mystic Barrier,

#AtoZChallenge2021: I is for Incubus

Something a little different today.  Different in that I talk a lot about the Succubus, but never really anything at all about their male counterpart the Incubus.  Since my next book after the Basic Bestiary is going to be about Demons and Devils, I figure I better get one detailed here.

The Monster Manual and medieval demonologies are replete with all sorts of "male" demons. The Monster Manual itself only has two female demons, the succubus and marilith, and only one female devil, the Erinyes. Four if you include the Night Hag (but more on that later).  Because of this, I have never really seen a need for the Incubus.  There is one "Species" the Succubus and she can shapeshift however she feels fit.  And for what it is worth that is still true.  Though I got to thinking what if the incubus was something else.

Going back to my cover, Fuseli's The Nightmare, there is an imp sitting on the chest of a sleeping woman while a ghostly horse, a Nightmare, looks on.  There are two versions of this painting, but both are the same.

The creature on her is an incubus. This got me thinking.  What if the incubus is NOT the male version of this:

But rather the demonic version of this:

An incubus is an imp-like demon that is a demonic mockery of the cherubic cupids of Renaissance and Victorian art. 

I like it to be honest. They invade women's dreams and appear to be a tall strapping male that makes love to them all night, leaving them drained (Constitution drain).  They are kin to the Succubi (they are both Lilim) and might even be the offspring of succubi and humans.

Now...I am still working on a few things for the demon book.  One of the reasons they are not in the Basic Bestiary is because I have not worked out all the issues with their stat blocks and all the demonic families I have.  I mean are succubi Chaotic Evil, Lawful Evil or Neutral Evil?  I have seen them done all three ways.  Is the Lamia a monster or are they demons?  Still too many unanswered questions.  But until then, here is an Incubus.

Incubus
Small Fiend (Demonic, Lilim)

Frequency: Very Rare
Number Appearing: 1 (1)
Alignment: Chaotic [Neutral Evil]
Movement: 90' (30') [9"]
    Fly: 120' (40') [12"]
   Spirit: 240' (80') [18"]
Armor Class: 6 [13]
Hit Dice: 5d8+15** (38 hp)
   Small:  5d6+15** (33 hp)
THAC0: 15 (+5)
Attacks: 1 claw or special
Damage: 1d4
Special: See below
Save: Monster 5
Morale: 10 (8)
Treasure Hoard Class: None
XP: 575 (OSE) 660 (LL)

The incubus is sometimes considered to be the male counterpart to the succubus.  While a succubus can change shape to male, the incubus is a different, but a related creature.  Like the succubus, the incubus can invade the dreams of their victims.  This is often how they make their first contact with the victim.  In this form, the incubus is merely a spirit and cannot attack or damage.  But once they have made contact and their victim, usually a woman of pure and good standing, they will begin their nightly visits.

The incubus can appear as any sort of creature or person the woman desires.  If that desire is say forbidden such as the love of a man married to her sister or the head of a church, then incubus' connection will be stronger. During these nightly visits, the incubus will drain 1 point of Constitution from the victim.   Any incubus typically has a few victims he sees every night, so one sign of an incubus problem would be many women wasting away over the course of a week.  When they reach zero Constitution the incubus will take their soul to be bartered in the lower planes.  

The true form of an incubus is that of a gargoyle-like imp creature about 3' to 3½' tall. It has small leathery bat-like wings, a pinched evil little face with a mouth full of sharp teeth, and tiny hands with small sharp claws. They are covered in fur and smell of soured milk, body odor, odor, and brimstone. 

An Exorcism spell will remove their spirit forms.  A Protection from Evil spell will keep them at bay for the duration.  They can only be harmed by magic or magical weapons. Killing an incubus sends it back them the lower planes. Once the threat is abolished victims can heal at the rate of 1 Constitution point of bed rest each week. 

Talismans and amulets that protect wearers from demons will work, but only if they are specifically crafted for incubi or succubi. 

--

Not bad.  Not 100% perfect yet, but I have some time.  I still need to work in magic resistance and what demonic abilities all Lilim share. 

The Incubus has three different kinds of movement and of course, has the reduced hp of a small creature.

Reviews, True20 Edition

Some more reviews from DriveThruRPG.  Since I have been on a True20 kick again of late, here are some True20 products.

Colonial Gothic (True20 version)
The world of Colonial Gothic using the True20 system instead of it's normal house system. Typically when a product is converted to a "generic" system some of the style and feel is lost. Though I will say that CG survived with much more of it's soul intact. The system is normally a very easy one to learn so the conversion here does not sacrifice complexity. The game is still same, one of a supernatural New World as it becomes a new country, America.
The conversion does highlight many of the pluses of the game including it's atmosphere and style of play. It also allows you know to bring other True20 that might be helpful. In some ways I prefer this to the original. This one also gets a plus from me as a fan of this time period for play. So kudos for giving revolutionary era America a go.
5 out of 5 stars.

Legends of Excalibur: Arthurian Adventures (True20)
Legends of Excalibur, True20 edition. This conversion of the very, very good d20 edition is also very, very good. In some ways I prefer it since it takes much of the d20 overhead and trims it out. Instead we are now focused on a game that strives to emulate Arthurian Legends with a very tight and neat system. Everything in the d20 version is also here, so this is not a "trimmed down" version of anything except rules. Maybe some of the unique flavor is lost (no prestige classes or new magic systems), but they are all there expressed in terms of the True20 system, so what would have been a class in d20 is now a background feat in true20. I think the system works well in presenting that low fantasy, high romance feel that one often associates with Arthur too. In the end I think the True20 version works better than the d20 one.
I think I even like this better than Pendragon.
5 out of 5 stars.

Gearcraft: Amazing Machines and Their Construction: The True20 Steampunk Sourcebook
Gearpunk and Steampunk for your True20 games. It is in interesting book. Not set in any particular genre or time the illustrations are evocative of Victorian Steampunk, Pulp and even weird science. The rules are fairly straight-forward on how to build various machines; almost as if they were characters in their own right. Feats and skills are discussed. If you have True20 or a TRue20-based game and want to add some gear based machines (no Matric here yet) to it then this a great little book.
4 out of 5 stars.

World of Nevermore (True20)
Ever wonder what the lands of dream are like? Wonder no more with this world guide book, World of Nevermore. Filled cover to cover with a fantastic world where dreams live. A perfect world for someone with True20 and desire to do something very different. Take your characters (and players) out of their reality and into this one. The book reads like one part Lovecraft's dreamlands, one part Shakespeare's land of the fae and one part Ravenloft.
Plenty of new rules for characters including roles, feats and powers. Plenty of new monsters and 200 pages worth of world to play with them. Really fun stuff here.
5 out of 5 stars.

Shadows of Cthulhu
Any game that tries to do H.P. Lovecraft mythos has an uphill battle against the very venerable "Call of Cthulhu" which is arguably not just the best Mythos game, but maybe the best horror game ever. That is some steep competition. Shadows of Cthulhu holds up quite well really. Looking at it as a Modern Supernatural game using True20 it works out really, really well. There are plenty of new roles and backgrounds for characters. SoC does what only CoC has been able to do well and this incorporate a sanity system into the game that makes sense. Here SoC makes good use of the True20 rules and gives us the Sanity Save. Works just like the damage track already used by True20 it works very, very well with the system.
There is a great section on role-playing in the 1920s (as it should have) and a great section on sanity and the Mythos, which includes the magic common to the HPL games. All regulars are here in the bestiary and some of the "gods" of the Cthulhu mythos. I didn't notice anyone was missing. The book ends with a bit on the town of Innsmouth.
SoC had an uphill battle, but I think it did a great job of giving us a good mythos-based RPG. You would think that we were all Cthulhued-out by now, but SoC is so good and makes True20 really shine. Fantastic use of True20 and the rule additions, while not earth shaking, are great all the same. A must buy if you are Cthulhu fan or a True20 fan.
5 out of 5 stars.

The Imperial Age: True20 Edition
True 20 has become a great solution for all sorts of Modern d20 based games for me and Imperial Age shows why. The rules are adapted from the Imperial Age supplements for d20, so a lot here has been seen before, but all of it looks new through the lens of True 20.
All the Imperial Age products ooze style and this one is no different. There may be better Victorian Age games out there, but one can't deny that this is a great product and a welcome addition to any Victorian gaming library.
5 out of 5 stars.


Unlike some of the d20 books, the True20 games even by 3rd party publishers, seem to work together a bit better.  Hope these games are as fun for you as they were for me.

Yamil Zacra: The Infernal Star

I have been a fan of H.P. Lovecraft since high school.  I like his works as much as the next gamer/horror geek (which is to say, a lot), but it was a chance discovery in my college library one day that I happened on a collection of unfinished stories by Clark Ashton Smith.  I had known of CAS for a long time.  I knew he was a friend of HPL and the D&D module X2: Castle Amber, was a pastiche of his ideas.   One story in this collection of unfinished tales was The Infernal Star, a story of a evil star.


Accursed forevermore is Yamil Zacra, star of perdition, who sitteth apart and weaveth the web of his rays like a spider spinning in a garden. Even as far as the light of Yamil Zacra falleth among the worlds, so goeth forth the bane and the bale thereof. And the seed of Yamil Zacra, like a fiery tare, is sown in planets that know him only as the least of the stars .... -Fragment of a Hyperborean tablet.

This story grabbed a hold of my imagination and never really let go.  I could never find that book again in the library, despite my best efforts at looking.  But a couple of years ago I discovered the story online at Eldritch Dark, a CAS devoted website.
http://www.eldritchdark.com/writings/short-stories/101/the-infernal-star-%28fragment%29

This dredged up another half-forgotten memory of Nemesis, the hypothetical red- or brown-dwarf star that obits our sun.  The theory is that Nemesis causes extinction events about 26 million years or so.  The two certainly could be one and the same in a near-apocalyptic game.

Yamil Zacra: The Infernal Star
Somewhere between the stars Polaris and the acknowledged evil star Agol, lies a star nearly invisible to the naked eye; but a star whose ill light shines on Earth still.
The star, Yamil Zacra and it's darker, smaller companion Yuzh, though were once worshipped as evil gods by the Hyboreans and the twisted sorcerers of Mu. Astrologers say that it's foul light was visible when Atlantis sank and the contents moved. In the far future, when many stars have burned out their fuel, they will again be honored by the fell Necromancers of the last continent of Zothique when the Earth is dying.
The ancient Hyboreans believed that this evil star bore the seeds in which all foul magics have grown. That the greatest and most terrible of witches, necromancers and foul wizards were born under it's light.
These magics may be realized when certain amulets of black extraterrestrial metal are grafted into the skin, most often the chest, of those willing. These amulets fell to Earth in ancient times were from the solitary planetary body of Yamil Zacra, a twisted world know as Pnidleethon.

Once in the possession of one of these amulets the dreams of Pnidleethon and Yamil Zacra begin including the means to travel to this chthonic world. When the amulet is finally embedded into the prospective student's chest he forfeits forever his soul and Earthly shell in favor for a form to travel the distances across cold space to the immense world of Pnidleethon.

The scene of these latter dreams was not the Earth, but an immense planet revolving around the sun Yamil Zacra and its dark companion, Yuzh. The name of the world was Pnidleethon. It was a place of exuberant evil life, and its very poles were tropically fertile; and the lowliest of its people was more learned in wizardry, and mightier in necromancy, than the greatest of terrene sorcerers. How he had arrived there, the dreamer did not know, for he was faint and blinded with the glory of Yamil Zacra, burning in mid-heaven with insupportable whiteness beside the blackly flaming orb of Yuzh. He knew, however, that in Pnidleethon he was no longer the master of evil he had been on Earth, but was an humble neophyte who sought admission to a dark hierarchy. As a proof of his fitness, he was to undergo tremendous ordeals, and tests of unimaginable fire and night.

Yamil Zacra in WitchCraft/Buffy/Ghosts of Albion
It is rumored that the possession of such an amulet will increase one's magical energies ten-fold. In game terms increase the character's Sorcery/Magic by +10 or increase their Essence 10 times. While this seems to be great remember at this time there are only two amulets left in the world and the user forfeits their own soul for this power. The soul is not given to some demon or even otherworldly god, but it is consumed whole.

In the Armageddon game I would have Yamil Zacra appear in the nigh sky, a brownish-red blotch on the night sky.  It casts no light, save for those already under Leviathan's influence, but everyone can feel it's heat.

Yamil Zacra in All Tomorrow's Zombies In the present day it is difficult to travel to Yamil Zacra and Pnidleethon other than by eldritch or sorcererous means. But in the future worlds of ATZ such an expedition to a planet that is seemingly dead is different sort of tale.

Option 1: The planet is dead. The crew lands on a planet where there had once been a great, if evil, civilization. Yet something is still out there in the dark picking off the cast one by one. It's Cthulhu meets Aliens, or "Journey To The Seventh Planet" with less suck.

Option 2: The planet is alive. Here the civilization of seemingly advanced humans still thrives. But the cast is trapped. Think of the song Hotel California and apply it to the entire planet. Or, Planet Ravenloft.
Escaping in either case is the goal, the means in each option differ. In Option 1 it is just get back to the ship before you all die. In Option 2 it is figure out how to get back to the ship and get out.

Yamil Zacra in D&D4
Obviously one of the dread and fell stars that grant warlocks their power.

More Revelations of Melech
Yamil Zacra: When civilizations fall, it is the light of Yamil Zacra that falls on them. It is a dark red star barely seen by mortals, those that can see it know it is a portent of doom.

Level 23 Encounter Spell
The Doom of Yamil Zacra                                        Warlock Attack 23
For brief, horrible moment the light of Yamil Zacra shine on your enemy, revealing the doom that must come to all.
Encounter ✦ Arcane, Radiant, Fear, Implement
Standard Action                                                            Ranged 10
Target: One creature
Attack: Constitution vs. Fortitude
Hit: 4d8 + Constitution modifier Radiant damage, and the target grants combat advantage to all your allies until the end of your next turn.
    Star Pact: If this attack hits, the target takes a penalty to Will equal to your Intelligence modifier until the end of your next turn.
    Infernal Pact: If this attack hits, target also takes Fire damage equal to your Intelligence modifier.

BECMI: Basic Set Review

How does one go about reviewing a game I know so well but in a book I know very little about?  More to the point how does one review a classic?

Well as my oldest son says, "with determination."

In this particular case, I am going to review the actual boxed set I was able to pick up a few years ago, the PDFs from DriveThruRPG and I will compare it to the version printed in the UK.

Basic Set (1983)
The third set of books to be released as the "Basic set" was the Mentzer "Red Box" Basic that would become the "B" of the BECMI line.  So many copies of this set have sold that it has become synonymous with "the Basic Set" and "the red Box" in D&D circles.  The set itself contained two books, a Player's Book (to be read first) and a Dungeon Master's Book (to be read by the DM).

Already we have a departure from the previous Holmes (1977) and Moldvay (1981) Basic sets.  While those older sets had one book for rules (48 and 64 pages respectively) and an included adventure (B1 and B2 respectively) this set only has the two books.  This is not the issue it might seem at first since this set features a rather infamous solo adventure and a programmed adventure that can be used with a DM.

The box set also came with dice, a crayon for coloring in the numbers, and some information about the RPGA.

It is helpful to look at the books independently.

The Player's Book

The Player's Book is 64 pages, color art cover, black & white interior art.

This is the familiar D&D game. The title page tells us that this is Dungeons & Dragons created by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson.  The editor, though many will say the actual architect of the BECMI line, is Frank Mentzer.  He is so tied to this edition that it is also called the Mentzer Basic book.

While Holmes did a good job of organizing the Original D&D game into something that could be used as and introduction to the game (or too AD&D maybe), it was the Moldvay edition that really tried to make an introductory game to new players.  The Mentzer set takes this to the next level by giving us a true introduction to the game.

The target audience is 10-12-year-olds but it takes care not to talk down to the audience, there even seems to be a choice in language to try and educate as much as possible too.  TSR expected their target audience to be young, educated, and (for better or worse) male.  But I will touch on that later.

Up first you are taken on one of the most infamous solo adventures ever.  You are playing a fighter and you have to investigate a dungeon.  You meet a cleric named Aleena, and a goblin and an evil wizard named Bargel.  The rest is a tale told in many taverns across the known world. 
While I have a number of issues with the solo adventure, and I'll discuss those elsewhere, it is an effective tool for grabbing people and getting them into the game.  The adventure explains aspects of your character and makes them salient in the situation. In the education biz we call this "situational learning" and it is an effective tool.

After the adventure, we get to the part where your character is explained to you. What the ability scores mean, what the saving throws are for, how to hit with weapons.  It is the "what is Roleplaying" section of every other RPG book writ large.

There is another Solo adventure, with some nods to the two M series for solo dungeons.

So now that the player knows the basics of play the various character classes are introduced. Here we have the Cleric, Fighters, Magic-User, and Thieves for humans and Dwarves, Elves, and Halflings. The text is very, very explanatory.  Great for a brand new player but feels wordy to me now.  Granted, these were not written for someone with 40 years of experience.  Heck, no one had even a quarter of that yet when this was written so my point of view is out of sync with the design goals of this game.

Looking over the classes I notice a few things.  The class descriptions are very self-contained.  Everything you need to know about playing a Cleric for example is right there. Including the Saving Throw tables WITH the class.  A vast improvement over the constant flipping through pages we had to do with AD&D at the same time.   Also, I noticed how weak the thief was then. No comparison to the Rogues of later editions.

The design elements of the self-contained class pages is something we will see again in D&D 4e and 5e.  It is very effective and if you are like me and like to print out your PDFs then it also gives you flexibility in organizing your version of Basic.

There is a solid emphasis throughout the book on how playing together, and working together, as a group is the best experience.  There also seems a little extra emphasis on how the Players are not the Characters.  It feels wonderfully 80s when the was the moral panic that kids would start to act out like their characters and meet the fate of poor Black Leaf and Marci.  Today people online refer to their characters in first person and laud their achievements as their very own.  What a difference some time makes.

We get to alignment with a strong prohibition against playing Chaotic or Evil characters. Retainers and other topics.  There is even a solid Glossary (I mean really who does this anymore? I miss them!) to help in supporting my point of view of D&D as a learning tool.   There is even a small section on using minis, character sheets, and other aids.  There is even a nod to AD&D to remind players that this game, D&D, is not AD&D.

All the basics are covered. No pun intended. Ok. Maybe a little one.
Everything the player needs to get started.  They now just need a DM.  Thankfully the next book covers all that.

The Dungeon Master's Book

The Dungeon Master's book is 48 pages, color art cover, black & white interior art.
This book follows the Player's book in terms of layout and scope.

The title page here is largely the same as the Player's Book, but it is a chance for us to reflect on how this game is really the direct descendent of the Original D&D game. Though there is a reminder that Players are not to read this book! Only DMs!

We get right into the roles of a DM here, after covering some brief introductory materials and some common terms and abbreviations.  Looking over these were are still in a time that Pre-Dates THAC0 as a term.

There are checklists of things to do pre-game and during the game and during combat.  It's a nice clear and spelled out version of the same material seen in the previous Moldvay Basic set.  In fact, there is a lot of material here that looks and reads the same.  This is natural since both sets are drawing from the same sources.  It is a bit like reading something you are already very familiar with, but it is still somewhat different and new.  Like trying to read Danish after learning German.  Or maybe more accurately, reading American Spanish after learning European Spanish.

There is a built-in adventure for new DMs that serves the same purpose as the Solo one in the player's book. It is fine, but I think back to my time in running the Keep on the Borderlands and hoe much I learned from that.

The procedures and rules section is all laid out alphabetically. So "Elves" come before "Mapping" and "Time".  Again, I am reminded of the layout seen in 4e and it is obvious that the designers of 4e were fans of this edition.

The next big section is on Monsters.  This section reads very much like the same section in Molvay Basic, some even down to the exact same words.  I don't find this a problem though.  Some people went from Holmes Basic (77) to Cook/Marsh Expert (81) and some people will come from those earlier Basics to this.  There needs to be a continuity of rules. Minus some organization and some clearer directions these are supposed to be the same games.  Yes there are some differences.  I find them to be minor at worst.

Back to Monsters, the section seems to have all the Usual Suspects, give or take a couple.  I did notice that there is much less art here.  I would have loved to have seen more versions of these classic monsters.  An Elmore drawn Thoul? Yeah, that would have been great! Also, this has the only piece of recycled art I have found.  The dragon breath diagram looks the same here as in Moldvay.  That's actually pretty cool.  All new art?  TSR was putting their best on this.  I'll talk more about the art in a bit.

Treasure follows and it is every 1st level character's dreams come true.  Swords to hit those pesky magic monsters! Gold! Platinum! Potions of Healing!! 2-7  hp was all you needed back then to get back into the game.

A nice bit about creating and stocking dungeons with monsters and treasures.  More direction than we got in Holmes or Moldvay to be sure.

We end with some tables for random monsters, saving throws, and a combined index!

Art
The art in both books is fantastic.  Larry Elmore, Jim Holloway, and Jeff Easley at the very top of their game.  They defined how millions view Dungeons & Dragons.  Yes, yes I am a fan of the older stylings of Bill Willingham, Erol Otis, and Jeff Dee, but this was at a new level.  The art was consistent throughout and all of it wonderful.  Sadly it is also a little sparse compared to Moldvay, but I guess there are more pages to fill here.

The UK Edition
The UK edition is a single book about the size of a paperback.  It has the same color (or should I say "colour") cover.  The illustrations are sparse and in this case, all the interior art is by Helen Bedford.

The content is the same, just put into 272 smaller (4.75" x 7.5")  pages. There is even a tiny character sheet that taxes the ability of my glasses.
It sold for £4.95 back in 1986 when my copy was printed.

Legacy
I am going to spend a lot of time this month covering the legacy of the Basic Set and the BECMI series as a whole.  But this is the set. This is the one people think of when you say "Basic Set."
That's a pretty serious legacy.

Join me all month as I talk about all the BECMI books, boxed sets, and related topics.
This week is nothing but Basic.

October Horror Movie Challenge: Sorceress (1995)

I should lose my horror street cred for this one. In my defense, it meets some good horror elements. It has Linda Blair. It has witches in it. There is mayhem, magic, and murder, and I am sure another "M" word will come up. Also, it does have a pentagram on the cover, so it makes this year's cut.

Sorceress (1995)

Where even to begin on this one? Well in the first few frames we treated to a full frontal of Julie Strain (as Erica) performing some sort of magic ritual. She stabs a picture of Howard Reynolds (Edward Albert). Howard is driving home talking to his wife Amelia (Linda Blair) on the phone. Amelia gets some sort of psychic warning and tells Howard to pull over now!  He gets out of the car before it crashes and explodes! Maybe she should have told him not to carry so many explosives in his car.

Anyway, Larry Barnes (Larry Poindexter), a partner in Howard's law firm comes home and his wife is Erica! He catches her casting the spell and next thing we know she is taking a dive off of the second story and is dead on the pavement below. Wow. We have not even rolled the credits yet and Julie Strain is dead. Oh and for *reasons* Toni Naples as Maria leaves with them. 

Later on Larry is getting over Erica's death. He talks about her as if she had cast some sort of spell on him. We get flashbacks of them having sex in the living room, them having sex in the bedroom, them having a threesome with Maria. Meanwhile Howard is at home still recovering and telling his boss John Geiger (played by none other than William "Blacula" Marshall!) he isn't going back to work and the promotion he got can go to someone else. Guess who gets it? Yup. Larry, who is probably remembering a time he and Eric had sex at a 7-Eleven. Ok that is not in the movie.

Larry does start dating fellow lawyer Carol (Rochelle Swanson). He tells her about the threesome, to which she immediately says she won't do that. They fall asleep and Amelia uses her evil altar to invade Carol's dreams. She has her in a threesome with Erica and Maria. 

Amelia is using magic to make Carol act more like Erica including dying her hair brunette. She tells her husband she doing this out of revenge for what Erica did to him. She just about has Carol killing everyone when Howard shoots and kills Amelia and frees Carol. 

THEN Larry sits up in bed in shock and sees Erica standing there asking if he had a bad dream!  Well, I guess they needed her for the sequel.

Ok. So. This is not a great movie, but entertaining in the same way a Russ Meyer film is. You don't go into looking for a plot. There is one here and I will get to that in a bit.

One of the things I noticed while I was looking people up for this is how many of the stars are now dead. Yeah, it is a 27-year-old movie, but still. Julie Strain, William Marshall, Edward Albert, Michael Parks, all gone.

For Use in NIGHT SHIFT and War of the Witch Queens

Oh. I'll make lemonade from this one. The basic plot here are two witches, Erica and Amelia, both fighting a magic war with each other using their men as proxies.  It becomes obvious really fast that while Larry and Howard are the ones bringing in the money, the real power lies with their wives.

For War of Witch Queens, I take this as the default approach. Once the High Witch Queen is dead then the gloves come off and the pointy hats go on. This is what has everyone so afraid. 

For NIGHT SHIFT, well it can kind of work as-is really. The threesomes are up to you and your group.  Elf Lair Games makes no guarantee that playing NIGHT SHIFT will increase the number of threesomes in your life.

October Horror Movie Challenge 2022
Viewed: 29
First Time Views: 22

White Dwarf Wednesday #93

Before going back to September of 1987 for White Dwarf #93 I want to mention that White Dwarf in its present incarnation will become a weekly magazine.  The Press Release was just posted today over at Games Workshop. So an interesting time in the history of WD.

Today's issue features the first Warhamer 40k inspired cover.  When you get right down to it, WH40k is pretty much everything White Dwarf ever did in one game. It's fantasy (like WH, D&D and RQ), it is Sci-Fi (like Traveller), it is horror (like CoC) and it is minis.  I guess it really is no surprise.

Mike Brunton delivers his last editorial urging folks not to read editorials and instead read the rest of the magazine.

Open Quest hits us with five Games Workshop related products.  Block Mania and Mega Mania are board games, Death on the Reik is a supplement for WH, The Talisman Dungeon a board game expansion and GW's reissue of RuneQuest Monsters.  The Talisman Dungeon board game expansion is an interesting one to me since I recently did something similar to my own sets of TSR's Dungeon game (not related).  Also covered are a couple of TSR aAD&D books. The I3-5 Desert of Desolation series (which Jim Bambra liked a lot) and Treasure Hunt a "well crafted and truly creative" adventure from TSR. Something that Carl Sargent says is a rarity these days.  There is a board game called "Chase" from TSR as well.  Mike Brunton calls it easy to learn but easily one of the hardest games to play (in a good way). It sounds interesting but I don't recall it all.

Awesome Lies discusses how soon you will be able to see your own local GW store! There is mention of TSR releasing Car Wars books, I am not sure if that is a typo or something that never came to pass. More on the New Infinities and TSR troubles.  One bit of interest to me is a mention of the GW Dracula game.  Later released as The Fury of Dracula. I rather enjoyed the plot behind this one, 8 years (7 in this article) later Dracula is back and fighting the original hunters.

Critical Mass covers more books, but the only one I had read on the list was Wielding a Red Sword by Piers Anthony.  I also had a number of issues with this book, though not the same as the review.  I tried to read Mirror of Her Dreams, but gave up and decided that Stephen Donaldson just isn't for me.

The first feature article is a Tournament Adventure for AD&D. Getting Away From Most Of It is designed for 8 characters of levels 2-4.   Interestingly enough the idea here is the characters are on vacation and have motivations while they are here (to get a tan, to get drunk, to buy/get souvenirs).  It is a bit tongue in cheek, but the fatality rate looks like it will be pretty high. The adventures are pressed into returning a minor artifact to a demon and they only have 2 hours to do it. That is 2 hours of real time.  Looks like it would be fun with the right people or even in a convention setting.

Vances Evocation of Arcane Delight covers, what else, the "Vancian" magic system of D&D.  The author, Simon Nicholson, states that the magic of Jack Vance is far more interesting than what we typically know of it in AD&D.  Reading through this I am motivated (again) to do more with my *D&D spells and motivated (again) to read the works of Jack Vance.  Spells should have cool names and, well, magic about them. This is one (of 100s of) thing CoC gets right.

The main focus of the issue is next, a huge color supplement/advertising for Warhammer 40,000.

Some miniatures awards are next.

Eureka is a smaller adventure for Warhammer Fantasy.  Though it is overshadowed in my my mind by the next adventure.

"Letters from a Foreign Land" easily wins the golden WTF award for concept.  It is an adventure for Warhammer Fantasy, Call of Cthulhu and MERP. Imagine the Venn Diagram of that. What can possibly be the spot where all three overlap.  And why not just throw AD&D into the mix while you are at it! This is one of those adventures I would want to run just to be able to say I did it. Granted, this is not a crossover, but a triple-stated one.  Still though.  It is a decent size and would take a couple of sessions to run.  If it were smaller, say four hours, it would a fun thing to try at GenCon, running it under a different system each night.

'Eavy Metal covers painting.  I new painting minis is hard, but there are lot more steps here than I ever knew about.

All The Lonely People gives us some NPCs for Judge Dredd.

Sound Familiar? discusses familiars and pets for your FRPG. While nothing I haven't seen elsewhere, it is a nice treatise on familiars and how they can be used.

We end with letters and ads.

In general I have to say the articles are improving. Everything is actually better quality than it was in the last two years.  Yes the focus is shifting, but it mirrors what was going on in gaming at the time too.  At this point in 1987 I wasn't playing much myself. Though there is an interesting note. I introduced a friend to the game around this time and her character later stuck around in my games as an NPC that became a vampire.  That character is still being used in my games today as the only known human to have ever been cured of vampirism.

I keep expecting each issue to have less and less that interests me, and that is roughly true, but the issue themselves have been quite good.

Witch items from other blogs

Not so much of a post today and more of a "hey lets share my research notes".  Here are a list of blogs, many of which you all know, and some items they have posted over the last few years on witches.  Some of these I use in game, others I have adapted to make them work better with my witches. But all I found interesting enough to save them in an unpublished till now post.

Do you know anymore?  If you do share them! I love reading other people's takes on witches, magic and everything like that.

A Paladin in Citadel
Um, I was promised Witches?
http://apaladinincitadel.blogspot.com/2011/04/um-i-was-promised-witches.html

Alien Shores
Mirror Demon
http://knightsky-alienshores.blogspot.com/2013/10/monster-monday-mirror-demon.html

Asshat Paladins
Edith the Harpy Witch
http://asshatpaladins.blogspot.com/2010/01/labyrinth-lord-npc-edith-witch.html

Beyond the Black Gate
Baba Yaga's Hut
http://beyondtheblackgate.blogspot.com/2010/08/baba-yagas-hut.html

Hathras, City of Dreams
http://beyondtheblackgate.blogspot.com/2010/09/omegea-atlas-hathras-city-of-dreams.html

B/X Blackrazor
His B/X Witch Class
http://bxblackrazor.blogspot.com/2011/05/bx-witch.html

Cross Planes
Witch Doves
http://crossplanes.blogspot.com/2014/04/a-to-z-challenge-w-is-for-witch-dove.html

D&D Next Witches
Maiden, Mother, and Crone

Dangerous Brian
Zama: The Drune
http://dangerousbrian.blogspot.com/2011/04/z-of-zama-drune.html

The Houri, Part 1 and Part 2
http://dangerousbrian.blogspot.com/2010/11/new-osric-class-houri-part-i.html
http://dangerousbrian.blogspot.com/2010/11/new-character-class-houri-part-ii.html

Dreams of the Lich House
Mythic Monday: The Witch
http://dreamsinthelichhouse.blogspot.com/2011/01/mythic-monday-witch.html

Any of the Gothic Greyhawk posts
http://dreamsinthelichhouse.blogspot.com/search/label/Gothic%20Greyhawk

Elfmaids & Octopi
d100 Witches
http://elfmaidsandoctopi.blogspot.com/2014/01/d100-witches.html

Greyhawk Grognard
Darker Paths II: The Witch
http://greyhawkgrognard.blogspot.com/2011/10/now-available-witch.html

Witch Preview #3: Familiar Names
http://greyhawkgrognard.blogspot.com/2008/07/witch-preview-3-familiar-names.html

Witch Class Preview: Evil Eye
http://greyhawkgrognard.blogspot.com/2008/07/witch-class-preview-evil-eye.html

Jaron's RANTs and RAVEs
[DND] Character Concept - WAR D&D: Witch Elf
http://jaron95.blogspot.com/2010/03/dnd-character-concept-war-d-witch-elf.html
Based on the WoW Witch Elf, they a close to what I would call a War Witch.

Realms of Chirak
B/X D&D Month XIV: Terragia, the Witch of Galitath
http://realmsofchirak.blogspot.com/2014/04/bx-d-month-xiv-terragia-witch-of.html

Steve's Gamer Blog
Witches & Warlocks (4e)
http://stevesgamerblog.blogspot.com/2011/10/witches-warlocks.html

Scarecrows Part 1 and Part 2

Heroes of the Feywild Preview: Pixie and Witch
http://stevesgamerblog.blogspot.com/2011/10/heroes-of-feywild-preview-pixie-and.html

Strange Magic
Witch for B/X D&D
http://strangemagic.robertsongames.com/2012/03/witch-for-bx-d.html

Tower of the Archmage
New magic Item: Summoner's Candles
http://towerofthearchmage.blogspot.com/2014/03/new-magic-item-summoners-candles.html

New Monster: Fear Gorta
http://towerofthearchmage.blogspot.com/2014/03/new-monster-fear-gorta.html

Venger's old school gaming blog
D&D Ouija or RPG Witch-Board
http://vengersatanis.blogspot.com/2013/11/d-ouija-or-rpg-witch-board.html
Not really playing a witch, but a cool idea if you have a lot of supernatural characters in the mix.

What a Horrible Night to Have a Curse
Beast of the Week: Witch
http://lordgwydion.blogspot.com/2012/11/beast-of-week-witch.html

Updates:

Playing D&D With Porn Stars
D100 Witch Traits
http://dndwithpornstars.blogspot.com/2014/08/d100-witch-traits.html

Rachel Bonuses
Fey-touched Background for 5e
http://rachelghoulgamestuff.blogspot.com/2014/08/in-which-5e-background-is-introduced.html

From the Sorcerer's Skull
Witches of Ix
http://sorcerersskull.blogspot.com/2014/08/witches-of-ix.html

October Horror Movie Challenge: Satanic Sunday

We are in the last week of October. I am sad to see it go.  But we still have the whole week and I am going to watch as much as I can.  I had some movies still on BluRay so I thought I'd make a theme weekend of it. 

Inquisition (1976)

Another Mondo Macabro purchase.  This is Paul Naschy's first directorial effort. The Blu Ray is quite nice, you could almost believe it was originally filmed in HD. The transfer is very good. Naschy is his best leering self and chews up scenery like no one's business. 

It's the 16th century and witches, warlocks and the devil is everywhere.  At least that is what Benard de Fossey thinks.  One by one all the beautiful women in the village are accused of witchcraft and find themselves at the mercy of de Fossey. 

It is largely an excuse to have a bunch of naked women getting tortured. Even so a lot of effort went into this one. There is the witchhunter's manual that is as nicely illustrated as any Monster Manual.  I'd love to get some art like that for a monster book. 

There is a witch, of sorts, and she recruits our star, Catherine (Daniela Giordano).  The scenes of the witches' sabbat are trippy and Naschy pulls double duty as Satan.  Triple duty really since he also plays the Grim Reaper. 

The ending is not entirely unexpected but still, there is a nice twist ar the end. 

The Demons (1973)

Jess Franco is as notorious as Paul Naschy.  But in some ways I like Franco better. It's nothing I can put my finger on, I have just seemed to like his movies a little more. This movie though is a touch sleazier than his others.  This one also reunites Britt Nichols and Anne Libert with Jess Franco. Their last outing together was La fille de Dracula in 1972. Though this time Brit Nichols and Anne Libert play sisters and not cousins. 

This one begins with the trial and burning of a suspected witch.  She curses all who are there, by saying her daughters will avenge her. 

We switch to a convent where two orphans have been raise. One Margaret (Carmen Yazalde appearing as Britt Nichols) is good and pure, but Kathleen (Anne Libert) daydreams (a sure sign of sin) and moans and writhes in her sleep at night.  So she is obviously possessed by the devil.  Sure enough, these two girls are the daughters of the witch.  We are treated with not one, but two scenes of Katheleen being "seduced" by the devil.  

Lady de Winter (Karin Field), an eyewitness to the execution of the witch arrives at the convent. We discover that Kathleen, unlike her good sister, is no longer a virgin.   She is taken, strung up on a wrack, and tortured.  Lady De Winter seems to get off on the torture. While Lord De Winter pities the poor girl.  She is found guilty of witchcraft, of course, and sentenced to be burned.  But Lord De Winter sets her free in the night.  She finds the home of a painter where she stays. 

While that is happening Margaret is back at the coven praying when she is visited by the ghost of her mother and then by a servant of Satan to "initiate" her.  And no Margaret, putting your cross between your legs won't help.  Now a full bride of Satan Margaret starts in on the convent. First by seducing another nun and then getting her to commit suicide.  She soon finds Kiru "Satan's Favorite Wife."

Kathleen is recaptured, but her captor falls in love with her and wants to escape to England with her. But she manages to escape again and is recaptured.

Margaret finds her way to Lady De Winter's home where she seduces her.  But now she has the cool power of being able to kill anyone she has sex with.  I guess we see that again in American Horror Story Coven. 

Margaret and Kathleen escape, but when Margaret uses her sex magic on Kathleen's lover (who had hunted their mother) she turns Margaret in.

On the pyre, Margret requests a last kiss from the Lord Justice and she kills him.  She laughs while she burns.  In the end, Kathleen finds Kiru.

Not a bad flick, but a little all over the place. The BluRay has a couple of nice features, but not a lot. 

Britt Nichols and Anne Lipert would also later go on to be in A Virgin Among the Living Dead (1973), another Franco movie.  Between 1972 and 1973 they would appear in six movies together. They stopped filming with Franco also at the same time that Lina Romay started.  I am going to try not to read too much into that.

Mark of the Devil (1970)

Also known as "Hexen bis aufs Blut gequält", or "Witches Tortured till They Bleed."

Bleed is appropriate here since this movie is overflowing with blood.   

This features a young Udo Kier as a magistrate over the European Witch Trials in Austria. Naturally, he falls in love with a woman accused of witchcraft.   There is some goings on with the local witch-finder and his gang and church appointed witchfinder.  But honestly, it is just an excuse to make a torture-porn movie. 

The torture is vivid and done well with the effects of the time, but after an hour or so it gets routine.  Starting off the movie with the rape of some nuns sets the desensitizing dial pretty high, everything after is just more brutality.  Or maybe since this is the third movie of roughly the same subject I am getting burned out.

I guess the film was fairly notorious back in the day. I have seen copies of this go for really ridiculous amounts. Not as much "sexploitation" in this as "tortureploitation" as some of the other movies about this time. 

The highlight of this one is Udo Kier, who even then, showed a great talent for acting. 

I looked for "Mark of the Devil Part II" since it featured Erika Blanc, but all I found was a really terrible copy on YouTube.

NIGHT SHIFT and Old-school Content:  A few notes.

A tortured innocent will say many names, but a real witch will never reveal who her sisters are. 
I also need more prophetic dreams for my witches.

Lady De Winter looks like she could be part of the Winters family of witches. She enjoys the torture of the other witches a little too much. But the deviousness with the blonde hair and blue eyes almost makes her a family member by defualt.

Margaret's death by sex is a cool Occult power (for one of my Old-School witches) but it has limited utility in a game.

Nuns and witch covens have a lot in common. 

I also need more witch hunts in my games.  Something for my witches to act against. Especially skeezy ones like from Mark of the Devil.

Watched: 48
New: 32

New Monster: Urhag

She came to me in a dream.  

I could tell by her voice that she was of regal bearing and intelligence, but at first I could not see her.  I was looking out over a darkend grey and cold plain.  In the far distance I saw mountains; mountains I know I had never beheld before with mortal eyes yet no less real.  In the sky above flew beasts, for that was the only world for them.  They appeared as mad paintings of Hieronymus Bosch, a mass of flying, winged semi-human creatures.  Their appearance was as women, save shamefully unclothed, though it was difficult to see this from the filth that covered them.  The smell was worse than any charnel house I could recall; the decay of death, the reek of excrement, and the sour odour of unwashed sweaty bodies.   Their hair was wild. Their teeth were long, yellowed and many were broken.  This is how I knew I was still in the dream. Such details would have escaped me given their distance. In truth, I wanted to be no closer to these hideous creatures.  Their eyes burned red like coals of hellfire.

I watched as they flew and they attacked and ate other beasts in sky.  They were aware of me and my companion, but made no move towards us.

"What are they?" I asked and I turned to meet my unseen companion.  To my shock she appeared as they did, save she was not a filthy degenerate creature, but a woman of regal bearing. She had the same clawed hands, the same large bat-like wings and most horribly the same eyes.

"They are Ur-hags." she had said.  "They are our sisters."

- From the Journal of Larina Nix

I have been rereading H.P. Lovecraft's "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath" a story that both fascinated me and frustrated me in my youth.  For my group of gaming friends and our extended group of their older brothers, it was always an unspoken, but a well-understood rule that it didn't really matter what Lovecraft story you began with, but your last one had to be "Kadath".  So I am rereading it for the first time since 1987.

It is just as phantasmagorical as I recalled. Reading it now is also a treat that I have better understanding of the mythos and the creatures mentioned throughout are now well known to me.
But one creature captured my attention that I had not seen before and forgot.  The Urhags.
That night I had a dream about Maleficent, so I knew I had something here.

I checked various games that cover Lovecraft-type monsters such as The Realms of Crawling Chaos, Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea and various Call of Cthulhu books but only found one mention of them in H.P. Lovecraft's Dreamlands.   They are interesting, but I kinda liek what I came up with a little more.  These urhags are released from their Dreamlands origins and brought closer to Ur-Hags.

"High over its jagged rim huge ravens flapped and croaked, and vague whirrings in the unseen depths told of bats or urhags or less mentionable presences haunting the endless blackness."

- H.P. Lovecraft, Dream-Quest Of Unknown Kadath

Here is my take on the urhag.  In "Basic Era" format to use with The Witch.

The follow is considered Open under the terms of the Open Gaming License.
OGL Section 15: "Urhag" Copyright © 2015, Timothy S. Brannan

Urhag

	Degenerate	Noble
Armor Class:	3 [16]	4 [15]
Hit Dice:	5*+2 (25 hp)	8*+13 (50 hp)
No. of Attacks:	2 claw, 1 bite; stench	2 claw or weapon, spell
Damage:	1d4/1d4/1d6	1d4/1d4 or by weapon type
Special:	Stench, Magic, see below	Magic, Harmed by iron, see below
Movement:	30' / 90' fly	30' / 90' fly
No. Appearing:	1	1
Save As:	Witch 5	Witch 8
Morale:	7	9
Treasure Type:	Special	Special
Alignment:	Chaotic (Evil)	Chaotic (Evil)
XP:	by system	by system

Scholars debate the relationship between the races of hags. While many look to the vile and evil Night Hags as their progenitor, scholars who have pierced the veil between Reality and Dream claim that such a progenitor race is known as the urhags.

The Urhags are found in two basic varieties, the Degenerate and the far less common Noble.

The Degenerate Urhag appears to be a hideously ugly humanoid woman. She appears naked, but covered in filth, with long clawed fingers, wild hair and inhumanly long feet and toes. What is the most curious feature of the urhag are her large bat-like wings.  One is immediately reminded of a harpy; which scholars also claim are an offspring of this creature.  The urhag does not speak, but only screams and shrieks.  The urhag can attack with a claw/claw/bite routine which is their most typical attack.  They are also surrounded by a horrible stench. Characters within 10' of the Urhag must save vs. Poison (Constitution, Fortitude) or suffer a -2 on all attacks against the creature.  The urhag may also cast spells as a 3rd level witch.  Spells that attack and due damage are preferred over all others.
Urhags are immune to all cold-based effects and are immune to cold and cold based spells. Dengerate urhags are carnivorous and their preferred  source of meat is humanoid flesh.  They are able to enter the dreams of people sleeping in their territories; usually within 300 yards.  Through this special attack the urhag will Charm a sleeping male into breeding with them. Once complete the urhag will then wake thee male to kill and eat him.  They prefer to wake their victims because they enjoy hear the sounds of their screams.  Within 3 months the urhag will lay a leathery egg in which a juvenile urhag will emerge. The new urhag will not expect any care or succor from her mother; in fact the mother is just as likely to eat her offspring as she did her offspring's father.

The Noble urhag is a different creature, though no less evil.  Like the degenerate urhag, the noble appears to be a winged woman with long taloned hands and feet.  Noble urhags also have horns growing from their heads that often causes them to be mistaken for some sort succubus or other demonic creature.  While not demonic, the noble urhag is still quite evil.  While the degenerate urhag is hideous and covered in filth, the noble urhag is regal, attractive, and clothed in only the fines wares. Her features are sharp and possibly indicate a relationship to the fae that other, more common hags, share.   The noble urhag can be harmed by iron in the same fashion that fae are; iron weapons cause +2 damage and +1 to hit.
The noble urhags can cast spells as a 7th level witch.  She may also take the occult powers of a Malefic or Faerie tradition witch.

While the degenerate urhag is indiscriminate about her choice of mating partners, the noble urhag prefers only the finest quality human males.  They do not care for elves since elves do not dream in the same manner as do men.  Also noble urhags do not always eat the men the lay with.  Some prefering to return to the same male time and time again as instinct drives them to reproduce.

Unlike common hags urhagss of either sort are not tied to a particular locale or environment.  Degenerate urhags do prefer colder wastes and demon-haunted lands and the noble urhag prefers temperate forests there are no restrictions on either.
Unlike night hags, urhags are not interested in the transport of souls or the outer planes.
Urhags can, in theory form coveys as other hags do and maybe even with other  hags, but none have been observed doing so.

HEX

A quick one while I work on new material.  Plus it helps set up some things I want post in the future.
HEX is a supernatural chiller from the UK taht aired for two seasons on SkyOne back in 2004-2005.

   The story centers on Cassie Hughes, a shy and unassuming student at Medenham Hall, a 6th form College, with a mysterious past.  Cassie longs to “dumb and popular” rather than shy and smart.  She doesn’t know her father, her mother is in a mental hospital and the only one that truly loves her is her roommate and best friend Thelma.

   Soon, with the discovery of an old artifact, Cassie learns the world is far different than she expected, and far more dangerous.

   Cassie is begins to develop strange new powers. She can move things with her mind, she starts fires, she can see people that no one else can, and a strange man is stalking her.  She reveals all of this to Thelma and thinks she is going crazy.

   Cassie learns, in time, that her real name is Cassie McBain, and she a direct descendent of Rachel McBain, the former Mistress of the Medenham Estate.  Rachel was obsessed with the religion of the African slaves on her estate. So with the sacrifice of her maid Jenny in 1743, she summoned Azazel, leader of the Nephilim to teach her witchcraft as he did in the days of old.  Of course Azazeal, a 6,000 year old fallen angel, has his own plans, ones that now Cassie might be able to carry out.  Cassie is a Medenham Witch.

   Azazeal kidnaps Thelma after Thelma divulges her love for Cassie.  Cassie confronts Azazeal, where he tells her he needs a new sacrifice, but it must be willing and it must be one of love.  Cassie refuses to let Thelma be killed so she offers herself. Thelma rushes to save Cassie, but is killed in the process.  As Thelma dies in Cassie’s arms, we see Azazeal take on his full fallen angel form.

   At Thelma’s funeral, Cassie is devastated.  It is called it a suicide, but only Cassie and Azazeal, who is watching in the distance, know the truth.  Cassie is joined at the end by Thelma who comments about how everyone is getting off on her being dead and how she slept with the female minister presiding over the funeral.

Thelma (at her own funeral): They're bloody loving this, “Don't be a dyke or you’ll end up topping yourself.”
− Hex, Series 1, Episode 1

   Thelma, now a ghost, and Cassie, a witch, are the only ones that know about Azazeal, though they don’t know of his plans or what to do about him. Yet.

Cassie (to Azazeal): You’re going to fuck me up aren’t you?
Azazeal (kissing her neck): Probably.
− Hex, Series 1, Episode 4

HEX was actually rather good.  I'll go through Series (Season 1) here and hopefully get an update to Season 2 up soon.

   Cassie sees ghosts that are links to her own past, but like Spider−man, just because she has powers she does not immediately know what to do.  Also borrowing from Spider−man Cassie starts off by abusing her powers, moving things with mind because she can, getting back at guys that pissed her off.  It is not until Thelma is killed, much like Uncle Ben, that Cassie learns that she has to stop Azazeal because she is the only that can.

  Of course HEX would be rather pale if not for Thelma.  Thelma is one of the few genuine characters in the show.  While her death could have been a big cliché (I know I am for one tired of seeing lesbians getting killed in every show), the writers make it work.  Thelma of course can’t touch anyone, but she makes up for it by invading the dreams of Cassie and some of the other girls.  And she does find a nice ghost from the 1920’s to get cozy with, but Thelma is more than a comic element, she is Cassie’s guiding spirit, figuratively and literally.  In the last episode of Series 1, Thelma doesn’t even tell Cassie that her actions, which are good for the world, will also cause Thelma to be permanently dead, because Thelma knows what must be done.

   Some people watching the show on the net have complained that it moves a bit slow, and yes while it is slower than the BANG−BANG−BANG rapid fire of American fare, it moves at the pace it needs to.  There is a mystery unfolding here, one that has to be played out.  Plus there is real interaction between the characters.  It actually feels like they could be going through the things they are.  The dialog is real, not just some pop cultural references that so many use in place of intelligent writing. And that is a key element, while Hex takes place in 2004, it could easily be set any time with no change to the story, that is because the themantic elements are timeless; good and evil, love, desire and lust. When Thelma and Cassie have their first fight over their relationship, you honestly emphasize with Thelma.  You want to like Cassie then, but it is too easy to see that Thelma is right and Cassie had been using her.

HEX in Your Game
   To me, HEX just screams Unisystem. But which one?  I had considered using Classic Unisystem since everything depicted on the show can be found in Armageddon, but there are some subtle differences.  The Nephelim of HEX are the fallen 200 angels that fell in love with human women. In Armageddon the Nephilim are the children of the same angels. A minor quibble to be sure. Azazeal appears in Armageddon as Azazel, the High Archangel and leader of the Watchers.

   Cassie could be a Gifted or Lesser Gifted, but in any case she has not come into her full powers yet, nor has she performed anything like an invocation. Thelma would work fine as a WitchCraft/Armageddon ghost.

   In the end though I opted to go with Cinematic Unisystem.  Cassie can have the “Witch” quality, and there are “Ghost” qualities (the new Cinematic Unisystem game “Ghosts of Albion” will deal with Ghosts, and the English, in greater detail).  That leaves only Azazeal.  For him I imported the Nephilim quality from Armageddon and kept it the same, much how I lifted the Kerubim quality to make the Cinematic Keribum (note the spelling differences) quality.  In HEX they use the spelling “Nephelim”, so I’ll adopt that as the quality name for Cinematic Unisystem.

   There is also the logic that as a television program, HEX would fit with the system used to mimic the non−reality reality of a TV show.  HEX is a little more broader in it’s scope that some other TV shows, but it still follows a general established form.  The combat and the tossing of flashy magics is on the light side, but Unisystem is great for cerebral style play as well.

   HEX can be added to most games with little effort.  Perhaps on a trip to England a wildly dressed ghost realizes that you can see her.  She introduces you to her friend, Cassie, a bright young girl who is unfortunately loosing her mind.  There is a cause of course, and maybe the Cast can help her.

HEX in Ghosts of Albion

   HEX and Ghosts have quite a lot in common really.  The ghosts of both shows seem to follow the same rules (they can touch inanimate object and each other, but not living things, only magically inclined people can see them), they are both English, so there is a shared mythology and feel.  Amber Benson describes “Ghosts” as a supernatural mystery with horror added in. Hex creators Johnny Capps and Julian Murphy describe their show as a high concept supernatural chiller.  This also ties in nice with Eden’s games.

   There is a depth of history hinted at in HEX, not only at Medenham Hall, but dating back to ancient Egypt.  What was Azazeal doing during the time of the Swifts?  After all, the Protectors of Albion would certainly be interested in the machinations of a fallen angel in their lands.  How would the Protectors react to the Medenham witches?  Are they good or evil? A threat or potential ally?  These are questions that you would have to decide.

   Hex is a good choice for anyone gaming that has ever thought, “wow there are a lot of demons here, where are all the angels?”  I also brings up some really interesting plot points, one for example is the conflict of who is more evil, a demon or a fallen angel.  Especially a fallen angel that feels he is still doing the will of God.  HEX has the darker side of Good, not just evil people trying to “redeem” themselves, or good people committing horrific acts.  The differences are subtle and therein lies the potential for new games.

Cassie Hughes/McBain

Thelma: You have a rough deal Cassie McBain. Your dad has disappeared. Your mom’s a nutter.
Cassie: My best friend is a lesbian ghost.
Thelma: Life sucks.
Cassie: Oh and there was one other thing. Apparently I am a witch.
Thelma: Well I could have told you that.
− Hex, Series 1, Episode 3

Drama Points 20
Life Points 30

Attributes
Strength: 2
Dexterity: 3
Constitution: 3
Intelligence: 4
Perception: 2
Willpower: 4

Useful Information
Initiative: 1d10 + 3
Perception: 1d10 + 6
Additional Actions: 1
Fear Modifier: 8
Survival: 7

Qualities
Artist
Attractiveness 3
Psychic Visions
Psychometry
Witch 2 (includes TK and PK at level 2)

Drawbacks
Addiction, Minor, Smoking
Adversary (Azazeal) 3
Cruelty, Minor
Dependent (Mother) 1
Haunted
Love, Platonic, Tragic (Thelma)
Love, Romantic (Troy) or at least in lust with him
Magical Family
Misfit
Potential Mental Problems (0 point Drawback)
Secret (witch, secretly smokes, mother is crazy, had an abortion) 1

Skills 
Acrobatics 1
Art 4
Computers 2
Crime 0
Doctor 1
Driving 1
Getting Medieval 1
Gun Fu 0
Influence 1
Knowledge 3
Kung Fu 0
Languages 2
Mr. Fix−It 0
Notice 2
Occultism 3
Science 2
Sports 1
Wild Card

Combat
Maneuver    Bonus    Base Damage    Notes
Punch        +4    4        Bash
Kick        +3    6        Bash
Dodge        +4    —        Defense action
Grapple    +6    —        Resisted by Dodge
Telekinesis    +6
Pyrokinesis    +6    4xSL        Will x SL + Fire damage

Age: 17
Gender: Female
Hair: Blond
Eyes: Blue
Mother: Lilith Hughes
Father: David McBain
Allies: Thelma, Jo Watkins (teacher), David Tyrel (Head Master)
Loves: Troy, Thelma
Enemies: Azazeal, ghosts of the Medenham witches/sacrifices

Cassie Hughes is the latest in a line of witches descended from Rachel McBain.  This gives her some magical powers, namely telekinesis and pyrokinesis, but it also makes her rather prone to madness.  It also makes her a perfect vessel for the son of a fallen angel, something Azazeal has in mind.

Shy and introverted, until she is possessed by Azazeal then she becomes a “slutier version of Brittney Spears”, Cassie longs to be popular, longs to Troy’s girlfriend and just wishes her life could go back to normal.

As a Medenham Witch Cassie gets a number of ‘benfits’. First she can use telekinesis or pyrokinesis as she chooses.  She also gets psychic flashes of memory and can read psychic impressions. These also have a tendency to drive the witch mad.

Roleplaying Cassie
Just because she can see things and has magic does not mean Cassie knows what is going on or how to stop it.  She is only beginning to explore her powers and she is bound to make some mistakes.

Thelma Bates

Thelma: Beneath this fluffy exterior beats the heart of a bull dyke.
− Hex, Series 1, Episode 1

Drama Points 20
Life Points 30

Attributes
Strength: 2
Dexterity: 2
Constitution: 3
Intelligence: 3
Perception: 3
Willpower: 5


Useful Information
Initiative: 1d10 + 2
Perception: 1d10 + 7
Additional Actions: +1
Fear Modifier: 10


Qualities
Artist
Attractiveness 1
Ghost*
Dreamer** 3


Drawabacks
Adversary (Azazeal) 2
Covetous, Lecherous
Love Tragic (Cassie)
Minority, Lesbian
Misfit


Skills
Acrobatics 1
Art 3
Computers 2
Crime 2 (always nicking crisps)
Doctor 1
Driving 1
Getting Medieval 2
Gun Fu 0
Influence 3
Knowledge 3
Kung Fu 1
Languages 2
Mr. Fix−It 3
Notice 4
Occultism 4 (a lot of Thelma’s new experience is considered Occult knowledge)
Science 1
Sports 2
Wild Card (Lucid Dreaming)** 3


Combat***
Maneuver    Bonus    Base Damage    Notes
Punch        +3    4        Bash
Kick        +2    6        Bash
Dodge        +3    —        Defense action
Grapple    +5    —        Resisted by Dodge


Age: 17
Gender: Female
Hair: Brunette
Eyes: Hazel
Allies: Cassie, Peggy (another ghost)
Loves: Cassie
Enemies: Azazeal, ghosts of the Medenham witches


* Ghost quality is based on the Ghost qualities from Ghosts of Albion and the WitchCraft Mystery Codex

** The MindDream Metaphysics and Lucid Dreamer skill are from the WitchCraft Book of Hod.  Here they are considered to be part of a new Quality (Dreamer), that grants powers similar per level to an equal level of Mind Dream, Art and Mind Dream, Strength.

*** Physical combat only against other Ghosts and select supernatural creatures.

Thelma, when alive, was so completely herself. She didn’t care if she was popular, or even liked for that matter, she knew who she was and what she wanted.  The trouble was, she wanted Cassie. It was not some mere infatuation because Cassie was her roommate, Thelma knew Cassie loved her.  But she never got the chance to find out. Thelma, because she loved Cassie, was sacrificed by Azazeal to give him more life on Earth.

Now Thelma is a ghost. Wearing the same clothes she had on the night she died, she tries to provide Cassie a sense of reason.  Well that, stealing potato chips and entering (and manipulating) the dreams of her former female classmates.   It is Thelma that discovers Cassie’s secrets, even the ones Cassie herself does not know about and it is Thelma (along with Peggy and ghost from the 1920’s) that discovers Azazeal’s plans.

Roleplaying Thelma
More than anything, Thelma loves Cassie, and she believes that Cassie loves her as well.  This is not a delusion on her part, Cassie does love her.  Thelma will do anything for Cassie, although watching her with Troy makes her very uncomfortable, she respects that it is what Cassie wants.

Thelma is little lecherous, she is not above watching Cassie shower or invading dreams of her former classmates, but this is harmless fun for her.

Azazeal
Cassie: Don’t you ever get bored?
Azazeal: What?
Cassie: Same game with different women over 300 years?
Azazeal: I find ways to amuse myself.
− Hex, Series 1, Episode 4

Drama Points 10
Life Points 30

Attributes
Strength: 4
Dexterity: 3
Constitution: 8
Intelligence: 9
Perception: 4
Willpower: 8

Useful Information
Initiative: 1d10 + 3
Perception: 1d10 +11
Additional Actions: +1
Fear Modifier: 16


Qualities
Age 60 (6,000+ years old)
Attractiveness 3
Charisma
Nephilim****
Resources 6


Drawabacks
Addiction, Minor, Drinking
Addiction, Minor, Sex
Addiction, Minor, Smoking
Adversary (Cassie) 2
Love, Tragic (Hella (first wife), Rachel McBain, Ester McBain)
Love (Cassie, Lilith Hughes)
Mental Problems, Lecherous
Mental Problems, Covetous
Mental Problems, Obsession (have a son)

Skills
Acrobatics 2
Art 1
Computers 0
Crime 4
Doctor 2
Driving 0
Getting Medieval 6
Gun Fu 0
Influence 9
Knowledge 10
Kung Fu 6
Languages 10 (he could know even more)
Mr. Fix−It 3
Notice 7
Occultism 10
Science 2
Sports 6
Wild Card

Combat
Maneuver    Bonus    Base Damage    Notes
Punch        +9    8        Bash
Kick        +8    10        Bash
Dodge        +9    —        Defense action
Grapple    +11    —        Resisted by Dodge


Age: 6,000+
Gender: Male
Hair: Brunette
Eyes: Blue
Allies: The 200 fallen Nephelim
Loves: Cassie
Enemies: Cassie, God


****Nephelim quality is derived from the Nephilim quality from Armageddon.

Azazeal was once one of the pride of the Heavenly Host. He was sent to Earth to watch over the humans. The trouble was that Azazeal, or Azazel as he is sometimes known, fell in love with a human woman.  The “Watchers” as they were described in the Book of Enoch then taught their human lovers the art of witchcraft and taught their lovers’ husbands the art of war.  Enraged, God, cast them to the Abyss where they were to remain till the final days.

In 1743 however, Rachel McBain discovered a way to release Azazeal.  In thanks he taught her witchcraft and then drove her insane.  He then preyed on Ehster McBain attempting to conceive a child with her that would allow the rest of the Nephelim to be released from the Abyss.  She was killed by angry villagers that believed (and rightly so in this case) that she was a witch.

In 2004 Azazeal returned, but weakened. He needed a new sacrifice so that he may conceive a child with the McBain witches heir, Cassie.  Thelma, in an attempt to prevent Cassie from being killed, sacrificed herself.

Azazeal, returned to full power intends on finishing his quest.

Roleplaying Azazeal
The thing to remember is Azazeal is ancient. He has seen everything and is never (or rarely) surprised.  He plans ahead, not because he is some megalomaniacal genius, he might be but that is beside the point, but because he has had centuries to plan this out. He has seen it all and knows what and who to manipulate when. Everyone is normally two or three steps behind him if they are any good, most others are usually much further behind.

If Azazeal has a weakness, it is he has become too human.  All the vices of humanity are temptation to him. Despite the level of his addiction his Willpower is always considered to be 2 lower when dealing with any addictive vice.  He can be found drinking and smoking in seedy downtown London sex−clubs, that is when he is not sleeping with 17 year olds or their mothers and teachers.

Azazeal’s Powers
Azazeal has a true form, something like that of a twisted angel, or even a demon, but only witches like Cassie or ghosts like Thelma can see it, and then only when he desires it.  His physical stats remain unchanged.  It is possible that this is the form is always in and the ‘human’ one is nothing more than a Glamour.

Azazeal can also possess others to do his will or to lower their inhibitions. Victims are allowed a contested Will check.  People possessed by Azazeal can be noticed on a Difficult Perception check by the blood pooling in the whites of their eyes.