Monday, October 14, 2019

Monstrous Mondays: Zugarramurdi Brujas for Basic era Games AND Night Shift

A while back I featured a monster I was quite happy with, the Zugarramurdi Bruja, a mix of hag, vampire, and undead witch.  Since then I have read more about these witches and want to use them more.

So here they are, again for Labyrinth Lord, other Basic-era games, and for Night Shift.



Zugarramurdi Brujas

The Zugarramurdi Brujas are undead witches that are believed to have come from the village of Zugarramurdi, Spain.  Zugarramurdi was the scene of a huge witch trail in the 17th century.  It was believed that these witches sold their souls to a devil named Akerbeltz, he gave them magical powers, silver and a toad familiar.  When alive they had power of animals and members of the opposite sex.  It was believed that these witches could also spit poison.  To maintain their power they had to sacrifice children on the night of the Summer Solstice.
Some of the accused died before they saw trail, but many of the witches were tried and executed.  Their remains, which could not be buried in hallowed ground, were tossed into a cave where the witches used to meet; Cuevas de las Brujas ("Cave of the Witches").
It is said they returned from the dead on the next Summer Solstice.

The term now is used to refer to any witch that comes back from the dead due to improper burial.  As an undead creature, they are more powerful than they were in life, though most of their spellcasting ability is diminished.
They attack with a claw/claw/bite routine as their primary form of attack.  On a successful critical hit (natural 20) on any attack, they also drain 1 point of Wisdom and 1 point of Charisma from their victims.  Any victim reduced to 0 in either ability will become a zombie under control of the Zugarramurdi Bruja who killed it.

They also are surprised only on a 1 in 6.
They also cast the following spells as a 10th level witch: Bewitch III, Charm, ESP, Eyebite, Greater Command, Shriek, Withering Touch, and Undead Enslavement.

Zugarramurdi Brujas are vulnerable to silver, magic weapons and holy items.  Holy water does 1d8 hp of damage to them. They can be turned by a good cleric as if they were vampires.  A lawful witch can also turn these creatures as if she were a cleric of the same level, such is their abomination of all things the lawful witch holds sacred.   Like a vampire, these creatures cannot enter into a personal dwelling unless they are granted permission nor can they ever enter hallowed ground, such as a place of lawful worship or a graveyard.  Doing so causes them 1d8 hp damage per round.

Zugarramurdi Brujas
(Labyrinth Lord, Pumpkin Spice Editon)
No. Enc.: 1 (3)
Alignment: Chaotic (evil)
Movement: 30' (90')
Armor Class: 2
Hit Dice: 10+5*** (50 hp)
Attacks: 3 (claw/claw/bite)
Damage: 1d4/1d4/1d6
Special: Wisdom & Charisma drain
Save: Witch 10
Morale: 10
Hoard Class: XVII
XP: 2,600

Zugarramurdi Brujas
(Blueholme Journeymanne Rules)
AC: 2
HD: 10d8+5
Move: 30
Attacks: 2 claw (1d6-1 x2), 1 bite (1d6) + Wisdom & Charisma drain
Alignment: Chaotic
Treasure:
XP: 2,600

Zugarramurdi Brujas
(Old-School Essentials)
AC 2 [17], HD 10 (50hp), Att 2 claw (1d6-1 x2), 1 bite (1d6) + Wisdom & Charisma drain, THAC0 17 [+2], MV 90’ (30’), SV D11 W12 P11 B14 S12 (10), ML 10, AL Chaotic, XP 2,600, NA 1 (1-3), TT None
 Wisdom & Charisma drain: Natural 20 hit drains one-point of each.
 Vulnerability: Vulnerable to silver, magic weapons and holy items.  Holy water does 1d8 hp of damage to them. Cannot enter hallowed ground.
 Undead: Immune to mind-influencing effects, poison, disease, and similar effects. Not subject to critical hits, subdual damage, ability damage, energy drain, or death from massive damage.

Zugarramurdi Brujas
(Night Shift)
No. Appearing: 1-3
AC: 2
Move: 40ft.
Hit Dice: 10
Special: 3 attacks (2 claw, bite), wisdom drain, witch spells.
Weakness: Vulnerable to silver, magic weapons and holy items.  Holy water does 1d6+1 hp of damage to them. Cannot enter hallowed ground.

Zugarramurdi Brujas exist to the modern-day, their last known encounter was in 2013.



This is my 1st Entry for the RPG Blog Carnival for this month.   Hosted by of Dice and Dragons.
This month features From beyond the grave.  Perfect my blog and October!



Edited to add: Now available, Night Shift: Veterans of the Supernatural Wars.
You can get the PDF from DriveThruRPG and both the standard and special edition hardcovers from Elf Lair Games.


Sunday, October 13, 2019

October Horror Movie Challenge: Satanic Saturday

Staying in all day. Let's have a Satanic Sunday!

Jaws of Satan (1981)
Druids, Witches, Cursed Priests, and Satan.  It sounds like a great mix. And a young Christiana Applegate and her real-life mother to boot!  Well... the movie is not great, but for 1981 it is not bad.

Satan comes to terrorize a small town in the form of a snake.  Not a giant snake, just a regular-sized snake. But I guess it does some strange things to the corpses and moves really fast, so that is something right?

Well, the Devil-as-a-Snake controls all the other snakes in the area so that is kinda fun.  This is more of a snake movie than a Satanic one.  Though I am not sure what is worse though, the snake or the casual misogyny and racism.  Well, this is the danger I knew I would run when I decided to go through every horror movie in the "Basic Era" (1977-1981).

The priest does have a nice "magical" battle with the Satan Snake, so that is cool.  Something I would have loved my cleric to have done back in the days of Basic D&D.

Monster Idea: Demonic Snakes.

Demonoid (1980)
A mine in Mexico uncovers a Satanic cult long buried. The soundtrack is pure 70s, but the movie stands up to be honest.  Again, if you don't mind the casual racism and sexism (are nurses supposed to show that much cleavage?). The movie is not great mind you, but the basic premise is solid.   The movie doesn't really pick up until about a third of the way in.  At no point, however, do the events depicted in the poster actually occur in the movie itself.

Though I expected a little more emotion from the protagonist.  She takes the death of her husband and then him getting up and walking from his grave in stride.

I could not help but think about how this would be a good set up for any sort of evil hand-like artifact focused adventure.  The hand gives up strange powers but at a cost.  Combine it with a bit of the Doctor Who serial "Hand of Fear" and the Hand of Vecna.

Monster/Plot Idea:  Demonic Hands.

Evilspeak (1981 or 1982)
An evil priest,  Father Estaban (an almost unrecognizable Richard Moll), is excommunicated by other priests in Middle Ages Spain.  Estaban shows how evil he is by cutting off the head of a perfectly nice Spanish girl.
We come to the modern age where we meet Stanley Coopersmith, an orphan in a military-like school played by B-Movie stalwart Clint Howard.  Coopersmith is picked on by everyone, the other kids, the teachers, even the priest.  While cleaning the chapel he finds Estaban's diary.  The diary, of course, is full of Satanic fun.  Coopersmith in true early 80s fashion types it all into a computer and it translates it automatically.  He begins to put more information into his schools' Apple 2e and soon he has the power.  Not sure if this is first mix of Satanic rites and computer technology but I am hard-pressed to name something that would have scared the Religious Right of the 1980s more.  I do love the Atari 2600 sound effects though.

This movie follows a cliched formula of the odd kid getting picked on and the kid turning to evil to get revenge.  We saw this to better effect in "Fade to Black" and the trope turned completely around in the Harry Potter books and movies.

The ending though is really fun with Coopersmith getting revenge on everyone by summoning up undead pigs from hell.  Interestingly enough, in the end, Coopersmith was admitted to the Sunnydale Asylum.   I have to admit this one was a lot of fun.

Monster Idea: Devil Swine

Lorna the Exorcist (1974)
Ok, this one is fairly notorious even by Jesús Franco's normal standards.  When I did my Franco October series a while back I had heard about it, but could not find a copy.  This year I did and saved it for tonight.  After all, if  Hall of the Nephilim can make Succubus Sundays a thing, I can contribute.
So right out of the gate.  "Lorna" is not an Exorcist. Nor are there any exorcists in this movie.  I can only assume that the English name was used to capitalize on the recent "The Exorcist" movie.  The original title in French is "Les possédées du diable" or roughly "Possessed by the Devil".  That's a better title really.
There is another bit to get over too.  There are two versions of this movie, an 81 minutes NR version and a 99 minute X rated one.  The X rated one features some rather graphic scenes featuring Lorna (Pamela Stanford) and Linda (a very young Lina Romay).

The plot is basically Rumplestilskin with demons.  Patrick Mariel is an out of his luck man who makes a deal with a woman named Lorna. She will make Patrick wealthy, but in 18 years he must give her his daughter.   He doesn't believe her but becomes wealthy all the same.  Nearly 18 years later his daughter Linda is a wild teen and Lorna has come back to make her claim on the girl.
Lorna can only really be described as a succubus (that would also explain the green eye makeup).  She seems to invade Linda's dreams where the two have some fairly graphic sex.  Likely these are the part of the edited out 18 mins.  There are also a few other scenes that are fairly notorious like the crabs' scene and one between Linda and her father Patrick.  The most notorious has to be the one where Lorna finally claims Linda as her own.

There are plenty of Franco hallmarks in this. Gratuitous nudity, jazzy soundtrack, casinos, weird almost psychedelic cinematography, and Franco himself making a cameo appearance.   He once talked about how much he loved seeing Lina Romay (aka the future Mrs. Franco) in all these scenes and how much she enjoyed them herself.  I will give her credit in this one. She actually is putting forward a good performance.  There is a marked difference in Linda before and after Lorna.  It also seems to me that Lorna turned Linda into a succubus herself.
There is also a bit with a madwoman, who I took to be a former lover of Lorna who still seems connected to her.
Franco is hit or miss, and mostly miss, to be honest, but this is one of the better ones I have watched.

Monster Idea: Succubus

Watched: 19
New: 14



Saturday, October 12, 2019

October Horror Movie Challenge: Made for TV Movies

Yesterday's Midnight Offerings made me want to search a little more a movie that has been "haunting" me forever.  This movie is about witches and the occult; satanism in particular.  It was on TV on Halloween night. It had to be between 1977 and 1982, I know a huge time frame. I think it was a made for TV movie. The movie had a girl with psychic powers or witchcraft; they were often synonymous in the late 70s.  There is a scene near the end of the movie of a girl (not sure if it is the same one) lying on an altar.  Either she about to be sacrificed OR this is supposed to give her powers.  All I can remember was there a long progression of cultists going up a circular staircase up in a tower and each one put a drop of blood on the girl's forehead.  That is the clearest thing I remember.

For the life of me, I can't figure out what the movie was.  But I have been trying.

So I spent the day searching and here are the fruits of my labors.

Spectre (1977)
First up is Robert Culp, John Hurt, and Majel Barrett in Spectre a great little tale of Asmodeus and Lilith in modern times. Culp plays a criminologist who now studies the occult.  Gig Young play Dr. Hamliton; Watson to Culp's Holmes.  He gets attack by a succubus, whom Culp manages to send back to hell. This leads to an investigations of the Cyon family in England where we get to see a young John Hurt.  Turns out the family are cultists and they are playing to sacrifice the daughter, whom the succubus had taken the form of, to Asmodeus.
We do get a scene of cultists and a woman being sacrificed.  But that is about as close as we got.
The movie comes to us from Gene "Star Trek" Roddenberry. I guess it was supposed to be a pilot movie for a new series.  It might have been fun to be honest.  The story is good and the acting fine but somehow it just doesn't come together right.  Ah well.

Verdict: Not the movie I was looking for.

Stranger in Our House / Summer of Fear (1978)
Our next choice is a Linda Blair starring TV movie Stranger in Our House, based on the book Summer of Fear.  A housekeeper, inhabiting the body of a suspected dead cousin (Lee Purcell) is taken in by Rachel's (Blair) family and strange things begin to happen.  How do we know Julia is a witch?  Her penchant for black flimsy dresses and her white and red eyes.
This was Linda Blair's next movie after the critically panned Exorcist II.  This one in truth is not much better, but I have soft spot in my heart for Blair.  Still we get a decent enough Wes Craven film here.  I had forgotten how much cars exploded all the time in the 70s. Actually, this is something my dad and I always watched for when we would watch these terrible movies together.   Near the end of the movie Julia's car explodes before it is even half-way down the mountain.  The whole thing has a serious Stephen J. Cannell vibe about it.

Verdict: Not the movie I was looking for. The fact that it premiered on Halloween night 1978 on NBC I was sure this was the movie.

Moving on.

Alison's Birthday (1981)
On paper, this sounds like it is it.  Girls playing with an Ouija board and discover that a strange fate meets Alison on her 19th birthday.  It even has an evil coven of witches.  I had high hopes for this one but a couple of things let me know right away that this was not it.  First, the movie is Australian. I am not sure about a lot of things when it comes to this vague memory but I think I would have remembered that.  Plus I am also sure this was not a made-for-TV movie.
Now there is a scene at the end with cultists, but no girl with psychic powers to speak of.

Verdict: Nope. Not the movie I was looking for. Some of the elements are right, but not enough of them.

Invitation to Hell (1984)
Let's see.  It's 1984 and I need an attractive TV actress to paly a hell-spawn.  That's right! It's All My Children's Erica Kane, aka Susan Lucci playing Jessica Jones (!!) in Wes Craven's next made for TV film, Invitation to Hell.   It starred Robert Urich (one of those actors you never heard a bad word about) and Joanna Cassidy as a couple moving into a new town. Here they join a new Country Club but discover it is actually a doorway to Hell.  Which makes it like most Country Clubs I have dealt with.

Soon Matt's (Urich) wife and son become posessed and he has to put on a space suit to get them from Hell.  You read that right.  This also features Soleil Moon Frye, aka Punk Brewster, as the daughter.

Anyway, the movie is kinda all over the place and fairly forgettable.  I'll admit to nodding off a couple of times to rewind it.  But Urich saves his family in the end.  No one was going to win any Emmys for this one though...oh sorry Susan.

Verdict: Not the movie I was looking for. But I also suspected it wasn't.  It's a little outside of the time frame I was thinking it should be in and this movie is solidly 80s.  Hell, it looks like it was filmed in the same suburb as Poltergeist.

While I am thanking my Roku for all these gems. I am getting blind here staring at my TV screen.  Plus these are all beginning to blur in my memory now even as I write this.

Maybe I will continue my search next week.   Maybe I can also find some good witches for a change.

I think with these four though I have some good ideas for the Cult of Asmodeus I was working on.

Watched: 15
New: 10






Zatannurday: The Jewel of Gravesend

And even more Zatanna releases! And this one is new to me too.

Zatanna: The Jewel of Gravesend, is a new Young Adult graphic novel featuring the Other Side's favorite sorceress.

Written by Alys Arden with art by Jacquelin De Leon this new Zatanna story features "a 'Brooklyn-centric' YA story, Zatanna: The Jewel Gravesend spotlights a younger Zatanna than comic fans have traditionally seen."

The art looks great.



Not sure who the others are, but I love the art for Tibbar. 

Can't wait to read the book.

You can find them on the web here:

Alys Arden 


Jacquelin De Leon






Friday, October 11, 2019

October Horror Movie Challenge: Midnight Offerings (1981)

A made for TV movie about early 80s witchcraft?  Sign me up!  I am a little shocked I have never seen this one.  Maybe I did, hard to say, but I certainly don't remember it.

The move features a who's who of early 80s TV stars.  We have Melissa Sue Anderson (Little House on the Prairie) as evil witch Vivian, Mary Beth McDonough (The Waltons) as good witch Robin. Cathryn Damon (Soap) played Vivan's mom and Gordon Jump (WKRP in Cincinnati) played her dad. And everyone's favorite mom Marion Ross played the older witch Emily.

The plot is simple, even a little weak, but still a lot of fun. Writer Juanita Bartlett tried to use everything popular about witchcraft in this tale and it works really.  I mean I have seen better, but I have also seen much worse.  It was a fun bit of 80s TV horror.

Also, I do believe that this is where we get the "Noctila" from the AD&D 1st ed Monster Manual II. The timing is just about perfect really. Yews, yes the word existed before this, but I am talking about her particular inclusion in the Monster Manual as a Lady of Hell.

In any case, this was a fun little trip.

Watched: 11
New: 6



Night Shift: The Craft

The Kickstarter for Night Shift is now in full swing. We got off to a great start and would love to see so more pledges.  I *REALLY* want to get this game out you all, it has been so much fun.

If you are long-time reader here you know of my desire to have a system that lets me play or stat any character I want.   So it should not be a surprise then that I am trying out Night Shift with a lot of different types.

Here are some that should be familiar to everyone here.  I rewatched the movie this week and have been running them for this week's The Other Side Rewind.  Here they are, the dangerous types, the girls of the Craft!

Note:  Sarah, Bonnie, Nancy, and Rochelle are all owned by Columbia Pictures.  These are my playtest versions to see if I could make them Rules-as-Written.



Sarah Bailey
Relax... its only magic. Now, who's pathetic?

Str -1 Dex +0 Con +0 Int +2 Wis +2 Cha +3
XP: 42,000 (Level 5)
Hit Dice: 5d4 Hit Points: 17 AC: 9  Attack Bonus: +1 Check Bonus: +3 (Primary) +2 (Secondary) +1 (Tertiary)
Armor: none
Saves: +4 vs. spells and magical effects
Class Abilities: Arcana 75%, Spellcasting 75%
Other Special Abilities: Arcane Bond (with Nancy, Bonnie and Rochelle), Telekinesis.

Spells: 1st level-charm person, cure light wounds, minor illusion  2nd-level protection from evil, phantasmal image, 3rd-level fly

Gear: Book of Shadows, Spell Components

Nancy Downs
You know, if I were as pathetic as you are, I would have killed myself *ages* ago. You should get on with it.

Str 0 Dex +1 Con +0 Int +2 Wis +1 Cha +2
XP: 42,000 (Level 5)
Hit Dice: 5d4 Hit Points: 18 AC: 7  Attack Bonus: +1 Check Bonus: +3 (Primary) +2 (Secondary) +1 (Tertiary)
Armor: leather jacket
Saves: +4 vs. spells and magical effects
Class Abilities: Arcana 75%, Spellcasting 75%
Other Special Abilities: Arcane Bond (with Sarah, Bonnie and Rochelle), Telekinesis.

Spells: 1st level-charm person, command, disguise self  2nd-level cause fear, phantasmal image, 3rd-level fly

Gear: Book of Shadows, Knife, Spell Components

Bonnie Harper
A new wholeness and with it a new balance. Earth, air, water, fire. Maybe it's our fourth.

Str -1 Dex -1 Con +0 Int +2 Wis +2 Cha +3
XP: 42,000 (Level 5)
Hit Dice: 5d4 Hit Points: 15 AC: 10  Attack Bonus: +1 Check Bonus: +3 (Primary) +2 (Secondary) +1 (Tertiary)
Armor: none
Saves: +4 vs. spells and magical effects
Class Abilities: Arcana 75%, Spellcasting 75%
Other Special Abilities: Arcane Bond (with Sarah, Nancy and Rochelle), Telekinesis.

Spells: 1st level-charm person, detect magic, light, 2nd-level continual flame, levitate, 3rd-level fly

Gear: Book of Shadows, Spell Components

Rochelle Zimmerman
She doesn't want to be white trash anymore. I told her, You're white honey! Just get over it.

Str +1 Dex +2 Con +1 Int +2 Wis +2 Cha +3
XP: 42,000 (Level 5)
Hit Dice: 5d4 Hit Points: 21 AC: 7  Attack Bonus: +1 Check Bonus: +3 (Primary) +2 (Secondary) +1 (Tertiary)
Armor: none
Saves: +4 vs. spells and magical effects
Class Abilities: Arcana 75%, Spellcasting 75%
Other Special Abilities: Arcane Bond (with Sarah, Nancy and Bonnie), Telekinesis.

Spells: 1st level- bane, charm person, inflict light wounds, 2nd-level levitate, suggestion 3rd-level fly

Gear: Book of Shadows, Spell Components

What do you think?



Edited to add: Now available, Night Shift: Veterans of the Supernatural Wars.
You can get the PDF from DriveThruRPG and both the standard and special edition hardcovers from Elf Lair Games.


Thursday, October 10, 2019

October Horror Movie Challenge: Saga of the Draculas (1973)

This is quite a bizarre movie but I enjoyed it.  I remember watching it on VHS back when I was in college and it became part of my own Dracula mythology for my AD&D 2nd Ed games.  I guess this was back in the very early 90s.

I never saw any reference to it in the various books on Dracula-related movies and it seemed to have been largely forgotten.   I did see a DVD of it at a Half-Price Books a few years ago for $350.00.
I went back to check on it and someone actually had bought it.  I recently found it again on Amazon Prime Video and knew I had to watch it again.

The movie itself is odd, but not bad.  It is dated feeling and the pace is slow.  But the tale holds up nearly 50 years later.

Berta de Tepes the now pregnant granddaughter of the current Count Dracula (not his famous ancestor) has returned home to her family's ancestral castle with her new husband.  Here she expects to meet with her Grandfather and her cousins only discover graves of all her family and the household staff.  She is a little surprised when they all ask her to dinner later that night.

Dracula's new wife seduces Berta's new husband Hans (with Dracula's approval) and then his two nieces take a turn with Hans as well.   Berta suspects something but is soon rendered helpless by her imagination and pregnancy.

We get some random murders, vampires gotta eat.  And then there is Dracula's inbred heir, Valerio, a one-eyed monster boy that likes to eat gypsy girls.

The story, interestingly enough, is close to the first few chapters of Dracula with Berta in the Harker role.

Berta eventually gives birth, but the baby appears to be still-born.  Berta then goes through the castle killing everyone.  She gets back into her bed and dies herself.  The baby, now alive, feeds on the blood of his mother.

The voice-over at the end implies that the spirit of the old Dracula entered into the new baby to live again.

The movie held up rather well, to be honest.  While it was never a cinematic masterpiece it was a good a Dracula flick.   Narciso Ibáñez Menta will not be remember as one of the great Draculas, which is kind of a shame because he put in a good performance here.

Cristina Suriani, who played Dracula's granddaughter Irinia looks a lot like Abigail Cowen who plays Dorcas on Netflix's Chilling Adventures of Sabrina.




Watched: 10
New: 5