October Horror Movie Challenge: Dark Spell (2021)

Tonight a Russian horror film/cautionary tale.

Evgenia (played by Yana Yenzhayeva) is in a loveless relationship with her partner Kira (Konstantin Beloshapka). Well, she loves him, but he doesn't love her the same way.

She goes to see a mystic who gives her a spell to make him fall in love with her. But love cannot be created so during her friends wedding she "steals" their love (causing the wedding to end) and bring Kira back to her. 

It works too well. Suddent Kira is obsessed with her, he can only focus on her and jealous of anyone, including their baby, that comes between them.

Even when Kira is killed he keeps coming back.

Ok, this one is was fun and the horror is obviously in the obsession part and with Zombie/Revenant Kira still pursuing Evgenia.

My version on Tubi was dubbed, I guess there is a subtitled version as well with slight name changes. It was hard for me to judge the acting. Konstantin Beloshapka playedboth self-obessed and later Evgenia-obessed Kira well. I could not tell if Yana Yenzhayeva's acting was wooden or it was the dubbing. I am going with the dubbing. Later on when the true meaning of what she had done hits her she at least emotes well even if her English can't keep up.

For various reasons I have wanted to check out more Russian horror movies. This one was beautifully shot and the effects are not bad. So this has encouraged me to find some more.

October Horror Movie Challenge 2022
Viewed: 15
First Time Views: 12

Old-School Essentials Class Compendium

Ok, this is not a product you can buy, but one made out of necessity.

My War of the Witch Queens is moving along rather nicely, to be honest. I would like to get more games in but that is the way things go when you kids are older and have lives of their own.  My oldest, for example, has his own games going. For his annual all-weekend-long Halloween horror game-athon he is going to be running his first Old-School Essentials game.

That, plus War of the Witch Queens, has prompted me to collect all the various classes and class information from all the OSE (and related) products I have.

So I gathered up all my OSE books, all my copies of Carcaa Crawler, some Complete Vivimancer, Wormskin, Octhorrorfest, my witch and warlock, and more and printed them all out.

I also added all the spells and some equipment. Everything the player needs to start their characters. 

It is a nice addition to my growing collection of OSE material.  It will be a "table" copy along with my spiral-bound classic rules.

100 Days of Halloween: Curse of the Web Witch & Return of the Warlock

Two adventures tonight for me to consider for my War of the Witch Queens and both are from Creation's Edge Games.

Return of the Warlock

PDF. 10 (14 with maps) pages. Color cover. Black & White interior art.
For 4-6 adventurers of levels 2nd to 4th.

A skull taken as a trophy has the trapped spirit of our warlock here, one Kalis Magefire. He has escaped and has taken hostages demanding to fight the heroes that killed him. Too bad those heroes have been dead for years.

The adventure sounds simple enough. The warlock's spirit has taken control over the hall built dedicated to the heroes that defeated him. He know wants to fight those heroes. Failing that you all will do.

Sneak in, defeat the warlock, save the hostages. 

The strength in this adventure will be how easy it can be adapted to nearly any setting or set-up. 

I would recommend that the "heroes" used here be from your own campaign. If you (like most of my fellow graybeards) are now playing with a different group the name drops might not have the same resonance, but it will still be fun.

Curse of the Web Witch

PDF. 10 (14 with maps) pages. Color cover. Black & White interior art.
For 4-6 adventurers of levels 2nd to 4th.

Another mini-adventure that could be run in the afternoon. A cursed artifact from a forgotten god has transformed a priestess into a horrible monster, a web witch!

The PCs have to track her down (not too hard) and destroy the artifact.

This one has a few new monsters including the Web Witch.  All in all quite a fun little romp.

The web witch here is fun and I like the stats, but I think I would rather use the web witches I made a few years before this one.

Again, like the Return of the Warlock this one can be easily adapted to any world. In fact, it is recommended you do so. 

About Dungeons of Dazegoneby

Both of these adventures are part of their "Dungeons of Dazegoneby" line of adventures. Here is what the author Matt Kline has to say about that:

I can remember a time in my distant past when I could head to the local mall walk into one of the two bookstores they had at the time, plunk down around five dollars, and walk out with a brand new Dungeons & Dragons module. Our Dungeons of Dazegoneby line is a tribute to old-school gaming, paying homage to a time filled with graph paper maps, wandering monster tables, hand-drawn character sheets, and lazy afternoons filled with adventure and wonder. We hope you enjoy playing these products as much as we enjoyed making them.

Damn. I could have written that myself! So yeah I get what they are doing here and I am happy they are doing it.  The maps from Dyson Logos really help.

Use in my War of the Witch Queens

Return of the Warlock is an easy one to fit in. The Witch Queen dies and the Warlock breaks free.  The Curse of the Web Witch will need a bit more work, but just a little. With the obvious spider theme here it might a fun one to do with a bunch of new characters, but the same players, after they do the GDQ series. Have this as an artifact of Lolth.

October Horror Movie Challenge: The Witchmaker (1969)

Also known as "The Legend of Witch Hollow" this one is surprisingly risque for 1969. 

Someone is killing young women, draining all their blood, and leaving a "hex mark" on their bodies.  Into this "swampy nowhere" we get Alvy Moore (Mr. Kimball from Green Acres) as Dr. Ralph Hayes a psychic investigator along with him is a  crew of experts including "sensitive" Anastasia aka Tasha (played by German/Norwegian/American/Canadian bombshell Thordis Brandt) and reporter Victor Gordon (Anthony Eisley).  Here they are investigating the story that these murders may have something to do with a witch.

Our killer from the first scene, Luther the Berserk (John Lodge), cast some sort of "Spell of the Stones" on Tasha, but it only makes her scream. He is apparently a "Sabbat Master" so he summons Old Jessie (wow, that sounds SO familiar) played by Helene Winston to help he convert Tasha to their coven, which they pronounce like "k-OH-ven."  They make a deal together. Luther gets Tasha and Jessie gets to be young again (she is 200 now).

Back at the swamp cabin, they try to get a fix on the location of the psychic emanations. Tasha reaches out and Jessie takes control of the vision and makes Tasha scream.     

Later Jessie makes Tasha lure poor student Sharon (Robyn Millan) out to the swamp where Luther kills her.  Her virgin blood now drained Jessie begins the spell to transform her back to youth (becoming Warrene Ott in the process). 

We get a lot of semi-academic exposition from Dr. Hayes that is not too bad really...if this was a documentary and not a horror movie. The acting here is not great though so it all comes off as a bad lecture. 

Luther and Jessie get Tasha to lure out Owen where they kill him and Tasha gets initiated as a witch. When later confronted about Owen's death she spontaneously casts a spell. Something that is ignored almost as fast.

The summoning of the witches and warlocks is really fun. The Luther stuff feels like a different movie to be honest. The cabin folk are so dull and all the witches are wonderfully animated and evil.  

The plan is subistiute wild pig blood for Maggie's blood so when the witches go to drink it, it is poison to them.  This way they take out all the witches except Luther. They manage to get him out into the swamp where the quicksand gets him.  

In the end Tasha turns the tables and kills Victor. She is a full witch now!

--

I am going to forego the usual game application notes here because...I think I already have. I think I have seen this movie. It had to be a long time ago but there is too much here that I vaguely recall.  For example, I always have used ogres and trolls as lackeys for Makava hags like Luther and Jessie. Speaking of Jessie, I used the same name with a slightly different spelling as the witch that introduces Larina to witchcraft in one of my earliest books. She also can change to a younger version of herself, much like the Jessie in this movie. 

Luther the Beserk would be called a Beserker in most D&D games. His good-alinged cousin appears as a Warden or even a Witch Knight in my books. 

There is also the "Tasha" connection, but that is pretty flimsy to be honest.

The posters for this are just too familiar to me.  I am sure I have seen it, but I am going to count it as a First Time View.

October Horror Movie Challenge 2022
Viewed: 14
First Time Views: 11

 

Monstrous Mondays: Books of Vile Darkness

It is the spooky season out there and we need spooky material to work with. So today I am going to cover the two different Books of Vile Darkness for the D&D 3.0 and D&D 4.0 games.  But first a bit of an explanatory note.

History

The Book of Vile Darkness was a magic item / semi-artifact found in the original Dungeon Master's Guide. It was a book of power for evil clerics. It raised your wisdom by 1 point and gave you enough XP to move up one level. Its counterpart for good was the Book of Exalted Deeds. 

For both reviews, I am using my physical copies and the PDFs from DriveThruRPG

Book of Vile Darkness (3e)

PDF and Hardcover. 192 pages. Color covers and interior art.

This one caused a bit of a stir when it was first released. For starters, there was a warning label on the cover "WARNING! Content is intended for mature audiences only." There were discussions online about it before it was released, many thinking there was nothing but shock value here. It even took some hits from Dragonlance co-creator Tracy Hickman. The book does cover more than a few topics people might find distasteful and there is more nudity in this book than ever seen in an official D&D book.

The book however was less shocking than expected and it even received praise for the author Monte Cook.

The book is filled with all sorts of ideas and if you are planning to send your players to any of the lower planes then this is a book you should consider. 

The first six chapters are, briefly:

Chapter 1: The Nature of Evil. This covers evil as a very real force in the multiverse of Dungeons & Dragons. There are a few new evil gods, some purely evil races, and notes on creating evil villains and some examples. There is a very cool demon-possessed blue dragon, Enesstrere.

Chapter 2: Variant Rules. This short chapter has rules for possession, sacrifice, disease, curses, and aspects of evil. 

Chapter 3: Evil Equipment gives us torture devices, execution equipment, drug, magic, and quasi-magical alchemical items. 

Chapter 4: Feats and Chapter 5: Prestige Classes have our D&D 3.0-specific materials.  Some of the Prestige Classes are rather fun like Demonologist and the Diabolist. Many Devils also get a "Disciple of ..." prestige class.  Demons likewise get a "Thrall of ..." class.  I will note that the Thrall of Graz'zt on page 69 features art very reminiscent of the witch on the cover of Dragon #114. Not the pose mind you, but it could be the same character.

Chapter 6: Magic is exactly that. Spells and magic items of an evil nature. There are lot of spells here and quite a few evil magic items all the way up to evil major artifacts including the Ruby Rod of Asmodeus. 

Chapter 7: Lords of Evil and Chapter 8: Evil Monsters are the chapters that bring this book to my attention today.

Lords of Evil gives us a brief description of the lower planes and a bit of background on the Blood War. then it gets to the good stuff. Up first are all our Demon Lords. Most of the big names are here too, Demogorgon (before his Netflix fame, though I am not a fan of the art), Graz'zt, Juiblex, Orcus, and Yeenoghu. Arch-devils are also covered. Bel is lord of the First layer here, latest (well for 2003) in a line of lords of the First. Dispater, Mammon (looking like Geryon), the incestuous Belial/Fierna (if you look closely you can see she it flipping the bird in the art on page 152), Levistus, the Hag Countess as Lord of the Sixth (a new one for me back then), Baalzebul, Mephistopheles (now a master of Hellfire), and Asmodeus. Each one is listed with major servants, lieutenants, and followers.

Evil Monsters gives us a bunch of old favorites and some new ones. In particular, we got the new Eye of Fear and Flame and the reptile-insect monsters, the Kython.

While I would not buy this for the monsters alone, it is worthwhile for the Lords and the magic chapters.

Book of Vile Darkness (4e)

PDF 128 pages. Two soft-cover books 96 and 32 pages. Color covers and interior art.

This one is a bit different. The physical edition comes in two softcover books in a cardstock slipcase/sleeve.

The 32-page book is a replica of the Book of Vile Darkness on outside (great to show players) and on the inside has character options (in line with the original BoVD). This includes character themes, of the Cultist, the Disgraced Nobel, Infernal Slave, Reaver, and my favorite the Vile Scholar. Paragon Paths include the Blood-Crazed Berserker, Contract Killer, Demonlogist, Idol of Darkness, and the Vermin Lord. We get one Epic Destiny, the Exemplar of Evil. 

The 96-page book covers many of the same topics from the 3e version. This includes the nature of evil and running evil games. But does not go into the detail that the 3.0 version did.

There are some monsters here, but not a lot. There are Fallen Angels, something new to this book. A demon, a devil, and a new type of hag.  So not as dark as its predecessor. 

Still, it is one of the 4e books I have held on to because there are some good ideas here. 

100 Days of Halloween: The Witch of Wydfield

A while back I downloaded the adventure The Witch of Wydfield by Brave Halfling Publishing.  It is a fun adventure and is designed for 0-level characters for Dungeon Crawl Classics. I used it as a "Session 0" with new B/X characters for the War of the Witch Queens.

I'd love to put up a review of the adventure itself, but it is no longer available from DriveThruRPG. It is however still available if you download the Map Bundle.

The Witch of Wydfield (Adventure)

PDF. 10 pages, color cover, black & white interior. 

By John Adams & Colin Chapman. Art by Steve Zieser & Mark Allen.

This is a Level 0 Adventure for the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG, something they call "the funnel" it is a great idea but I used it for B/X, handing out copies of the Moldvay Basic red book to all the players.

The adventure is pretty strait forward. It is a classic Hammer Horror-style Witch Hunt. Honestly, put on Rush's Witch Hunt or The Necromancer and you have the vibe perfectly.

There is one location, the witch's cabin. The monsters are her minions. We ran it all on cold winter's afternoon and evening.  Kill the witch, save the girl, and collect the treasure.

The adventure is gritty DCC RPG which is a great start for me and this campaign.

The Witch of Wydfield (Map)

My family loves terrain, minis, and maps. So the map for this was a big incentive for them to play. I spent a Christmas afternoon printing out the maps and gluing them to cardboard. I did the outside on one side  (with flaps for secret areas) and the witch's lair on the other. Worked so fantastic that I really want to use it for something else now.

We augmented it all with some terrain my youngest 3D printed and some trees and other materials we bought from Michael's craft store. 

Note: If you buy the Map and Adventure bundle you do not need to buy the map alone. But the Map and Adventure bundle is the only way to get the adventure now. 

War of the Witch Queens

This was the first adventure I used for my War of the Witch Queens campaign. I knew the campaign was going to use some flavor of Basic D&D rules. 

Since this is a DCC adventure for 0-level characters I had everyone roll up three characters.  All very simple. I used the classic Moldvay Basic rules and had everyone choose Cleric, Fighter, Magic-User, or Thief at 0 level.  Once everyone got to 1st level I had them specialize into an OSE Advanced Class. My goal was to say "yes" first and then direct them to something that works.

I had everyone roll 2d6+3 for stats. Yes, that made them all rather low on their abilities, but they are also just starting. I then had them roll another 1d6 per ability (arrange as wanted) when they got to the 1st level.  This did make their abilities a touch higher than average.  I am ok with that. 

Since they were super low-level and below-average at that point I said they are all refugees from another village destroyed by terrible weather. This was of course the first "attack" of the evil witches with the Witch Queen now dead.  No queen means the more evil elements of the witchcraft world are running free.  The witch of this adventure is another such witch.

Also, I had Yulina's dying words be "the Queen is dead."  Dela the girl they saved also said this as they gave her back to her parents in the village. The phrase has come up a few more times since this adventure. 

I had plenty of copies of Moldvay Basic so everyone had one.  I used my Old-School Essentials book and my GM1a Game Master's Screen from New Big Dragon Games Unlimited.  Since one of my goals is to use as many different kinds of OSR products as I can, I think I am off to a good start. Everyone had so much fun.

October Horror Movie Challenge: Werewolf Night

I always try to get in a few werewolf movies during my October Challenge. My wife, who hates horror movies, does enjoy werewolf movies. Since tonight is the full moon it's a good time to do it. So let's go!

Werewolf by Night (2022)

A special one to start with. A Marvel Studios adaptation of the Werewolf by Night comic. Marvel's horror comics were always my thing, but I never read much of this one. This was a one-shot featuring Jack Russell/Werewolf by Night, Man-Thing, and Elsa Bloodstone. The always fantastic Laura Donnelly stars as Elsa Bloodstone. She has been wonderful in everything I have seen her in, especially Outlander, so I am really hoping that we are going to more of her in this.

Mexican actor Gael García Bernal stars as Jack Russell. I have not seen him in anything before this but he was rather great.

The movie was shot in all black and white with only the Bloodstone in vibrant red. The feel is that of the Universal Monster movies. It would be great if the promise of the Monsterverse was fulfilled by the Marvel Monster comics, that is Horror of Dracula, Blade, and Werewolf by Night (along with Dr. Strange and Ghost Rider).

It was good and I now want more.

Wolves (2014)

This one was promising on paper. New werewolf movie, featuring Jason Momoa as a badass werewolf alpha. Melanie Scrofano as the boozy comic relief. I mean that is enough for me. Turns out it is not really enough. Oh the story is not bad, but the acting is a bit sub-par from everyone else. I liked a lot about it really. The town, Lupine Ridge, as a sort of werewolf sanctuary, and even the characters, are kind of interesting.  It just did live up to my wants really.

Again, Momoa and Scrofano are great. Stephen McHattie also is good as the as older werewolf that tells new kid Lucas Till about his history.  I have seen Till in other things and he is generally good, better than he was in this. 

The version I saw was heavily edited, even the swearing was dubbed out. 

Among the Shadows (2019)

This one interestingly enough takes place in 2022, though they get the date of the full moon wrong.  

And that is not all. I was looking forward to the return of Lindsey Lohan, but the rest of this movie was pretty horrible. There are rival gangs of werewolves fighting for control of the "United States of Europe." These seem to be hereditary sorts of werewolves.  

I could give you all a run down of the plot, but really, this one is rather terrible.

October Horror Movie Challenge 2022
Viewed: 13
First Time Views: 10