The Switch-Witch Addendum

I've made an edit to the Switch-Witch to give Kitty Lowrance credit, as the concept was mostly her own, right down to the name. I just elaborated on it.

In other news, Steph Cherrywell will be joining me in illustrating some of our month's beasties! She's already done the Grounded Ghost, and more are coming, including our Halloween Grand Finale.

Finally, a note on stats: I'm probably not going to worry about them. Stating things up well is truly the hardest part, and I don't want to rush it. However, I may retroactively add stats as part of a super-cheap PDF. That will depend on how much interest this garners between now and then.

Creature Feature 4: The Grounded Ghost

(A big, big thanks to Steph Cherrywell, who will be contributing art to these throughout the month! I also made a lot of this entry up based on the image she sent, so she gets extra double special credit for this one)

Many years ago a hoard of troll-like creatures swept through the land. They snatched up and devoured anything they encountered with their prehensile tongues, and tore down forests to build colossal fires for no discernible purpose. Armies that rode out to meet them were slaughtered, discovering too late that while the monsters could be slain, their spirits seeped into the earth with their blood, congealing below the surface and regenerating. Just as soldiers celebrated victory, a new wave of foes would rise from the dirt. Humans called it the Rippling War, because it was fought in a perfect, growing ring as the monsters spread every outward, leaving nothing but fire behind them.

Everything changed when the Druids appeared at the front lines of the Ripple. None realized so many existed until that day, and now most have forgotten the great roaring armies that poured from the forest. They came armed with scimitars of carved bone and long pikes of cedar core. As the monsters fell, the Druids rolled their corpses away and drove the pikes down into the dirt where they once lay. Soon the creatures realized something was wrong, and they retreated. For weeks the Druids hunted them, always marking the spot their blood fell with a cedar post. No new beasts rose, and the Rippling War was over.

Art by Steph Cherrywell

Most of the posts have weathered away, taking the spirit they pinned with them. Others have been buried by time, or paved over, or lost in great cataclysms. But there are some that remain, overgrown and worm eaten in the forest, or tall and lonely in a secluded glen. Disturb one, and you might hear a gruff voice ask your help. “You pull,” it may say, “and I’ll push!”

COMBAT:
Grounded Ghosts are actually ethereal creatures bound beneath the soil by a sacred cedar pole. They cannot move or take any action while the pole remains, and can only speak if the pole is touched or otherwise disturbed. Removing the pole or destroying it by any means will allow the monster to become corporeal again. It will be very hungry.

In the flesh, Grounded Ghosts are large, strong and tough. Their tongues are actually their throat turned out, and have a “mouth” on the end for dragging prey into their huge gullets. The tongue turns back in like a rolled sock as it retracts, enfolding the victim and eventually spitting them into its stomach. The beast can stretch to accommodate prey as big as it is, and prefers to eat things alive. It isn’t above pummeling prey to death or tossing them into a fire first if they struggle too much. Overall, Grounded Ghosts are obsessed with destruction, and will slay, burn and tear apart all they encounter. A free Ghost will likely seek out trapped kin.

Creature Feature 3: The Switch-Witch

EDIT: I am remiss for not crediting Kitty Lowrance for this one, as the concept was almost entirely her own, right down to the name.

These Fey are made of living hickory - extremely long supple branches forming the rough figure of a human. They are the height of an average human, but their lash-like fingers can reach up to 15 feet away to deposit welts on the flesh of their foes.

Switch-Witches grow when the cries of a child unjustly “switched,” spanked, struck or even beaten are heard by sympathetic Fey. These Fey plant the cries, then gather the child’s tears to water them. By the next twilight a Switch-Witch will have grown in the spot. It will then track down and whip the perpetrator mercilessly until dawn. Lashing them unconscious is enough - the Switch-Witch will wait until they recover enough to reawaken, then beat them back under, but won’t beat them to death unless they are attacked with enough power to potentially slay them.

A Switch-Witch will leave at dawn, but will return every night to repeat its retribution for a full lunar cycle. If slain, they’ll regrow from the same spot and return the next night. The only way to dispell them prematurely is to dig up the “seed.” The Switch-Witch itself will never lead anyone back to this spot - at dawn it simply wanders into the woods and dissolves into sticks. Only the child it is revenging can find the seed, via a supernatural intuition.

While the Switch-Witch may seem like a boon - a protector of the weak and small - one must remember it is Fey, and the blessings of the Fey are indistinguishable from their curses. The Switch-Witch punishes a light smack on the bottom that’s immediately regretted just as viciously as a severe beating from an unrepentant abuser. Furthermore, it will often decide anyone who could conceivably have contributed to the situation also need punishing - the rest of the household for not stopping it, someone who contributed to the perpetrator’s bad mood by being rude that day, or the wood wright that carved the paddle used could all wake up to the cruel caress of the Switch-Witch.

COMBAT:
A Switch-Witch can attack with both arms each round, using them as huge whips, with each of six fingers leaving angry red welts. They will tear cloth to shreds - padded armor will be destroyed by the first hit. Other kinds of armor are ignored as the Switch-Witch’s fingers always find gaps, seams and other ways around them. The damage dealt has the potential to be lethal, but the creature will only do enough damage to leave its victim unconscious. It will not extend this concern for anyone that tries to interfere.

Creature Feature 2: The Malignancy

Malignancies are pure hatred, spite and bitterness distilled and made corporeal. In fact, each one represents an entire lifetime of negativity, compressed into a tight wad of churning flesh. The creation of one requires the processing of both the soul and corpse of a humanoid that whiled away an entire lifetime in anger, in a method not dissimilar to refining grain alcohol.

The resulting being barely maintains the form of a human head, writhing with temporary sensory organs, digits and mouths that re-submerge just as quickly as they arise. Disturbingly, taken alone these pieces are often very attractive - supple lips, long dark eye-lashes and comely noses only add to the horror of the overall mass.

Malignancies float at roughly head-level, and it's not uncommon for the twisted sorcerers that make them to sew on expensive wigs, attach fine jewels and drape cloaks that trail below them and create the illusion of a full figure.  

COMBAT
Malignancies and corporeal undead, but their ooze-like nature allows them to ignore most bashing wounds, and quickly seal up other kinds of damage.

Each mouth unleashes a string of intensely foul curses that assault the will of its victims, trying to drag them into the same spiral of misery that birthed it. By focusing its fueling force, it can also spawn a great black orb of an eye, filled with such supernatural loathing that its gaze can boil flowing blood, damaging the constitution of it's target. This assault is particularly draining, though, and weakens the creature equally. The Malignancy is primarily interested in feeding on the facial tissue of its victims, though. It will try to weaken them via other attacks, then get close enough to use it's multiple bite attacks until killing the prey.

Curiously, the Malignancy seems only interested in eating the face, suggesting that it gains nothing but psychological satisfaction from the act.

As a closing note, there are legends of Malignancies being instantly vanquished by the site of an item that reminds them of a lone happy moment in their life, or proof that they were not as spurned as they believed. Whether these tales hold truth is unconfirmed.

Creature Feature 1: That Which Was Taken Outside

According to common lore, these creatures are the twisted revenants of dead newborns. Only those left to die by exposure in cold climates become the phantasmal beasts - in some places placing a baby in the wilderness is the preferred method of infanticide, an attempt to somehow defer guilt upon Nature itself.

Regardless of origin, Those Which Were Taken Outside are a very real phenomenon when traversing the wintry woods. Haunting the few scenes of their short lives, those on the ethereal plane can see them clearly as a naked and frostbitten child, sitting on the cold ground and staring. On that plane they are at their weakest; they use it only to hide and sneak. They can enter our own plane at will, in the form of an over-sized, child-like thing with a massive, softened head and cord-like, withered limbs.

IN COMBAT
Those Which Were Taken Outside attack by manifesting in physical form directly before their chosen victim, usually the party member that reminds them most of the parent that abandoned them. A manifestation is preceded for a round by the sound of a baby crying, giving anyone familiar with such creatures a chance to avoid being taken off guard. Otherwise, the attack comes as a complete surprise, as the child-thing lurches forward and “embraces” its victim in a death-grip. While some speculate Those Which Were Taken Outside seek only the warmth and love denied them, in truth they leech heat out of all they touch, and those in their arms are doomed if they cannot break free.

To add the the horror, the monster grows larger as it drains warmth and, finally, life. This makes it harder to escape the longer one is trapped, and the beast only moves on to the next victim after dropping the frost-burned, stiffened corpse of the prior. All the while, its gaping mouth never stops emitting the piercing cry of an abandoned babe slowly succumbing to the chill night air.

Announcing: 31 Days, 31 Creature Features!

October is my month, and Halloween my day. I've loved it all my life, for as long as I can remember. As a teen I could never shake the feeling Halloween would one day change my life for the better. As it happens, I married a woman born on Halloween. I proposed in a graveyard in Salem, MA on (the weekend before, close enough!) Halloween, and we married a year later on... you guessed it... Halloween.

I am hardcore about Halloween.

Thus it felt fitting to celebrate the month that justifies the existence of every other month with all of you. The best way I can think to do that is gifts, 31 of them, handed out one at a time.

Each day from 10/1 to 10/31 I will post a completely original beast, monster, undead horror, uncouth abomination or particularly unpleasant person. I will try and post some kind of original art with them, but no promises. I also can't promise stats - I'll try to give D&D 3e stats, at least, but as that's the most time consuming part I may skip it. Hey, I'm giving you 31 ideas for monsters here! It's kind of a big commitment! Besides, make up your own stats and you can use them in Call of Cthulhu, GURPS or whatever you wish.

I hope you find Make Believe's menagerie tricky for your players and a treat for all involved. We'll see you tomorrow... meh heh heh...

Meet the Players

Spucky Conkerbucket - Art by Steph Cherrywell

My online campaign has now progressed across four sessions, two of them one-on-ones with the individual players. So who are these illustrious players that have felled giant trapdoor spiders, hit little girls with rocks, and dodged mad cows?
On her laptop a few feet away, trying not to peek at my giant monitor(s), there's Kitty Lowrance. One trick to playing online, when two of you are actually in the same room, is being careful to type anything game-related in chat so as not to exclude the other player. Thus we have two conversations going at once - Kitty, your turn. "You hungry?" I'm go to swing my greataxe at the dark-haired guy. Um, what do I add to that roll? "Yeah... let's make popcorn!" Since you're raging? I think it's + 6. "Okay. After my turn I'll go start it."

Kitty plays Agartha Daggath the "barbarian." Her background and motivation remains a cipher, but her personality had quickly developed - hot-tempered but nobody's fool, mildly self-interested, argumentative. Without realizing it my wife is role-playing the same archetype as Han Solo.

At 5' 10" and 270lb, Agartha swings a greataxe the size of a halfling with murderous strength, and when she goes into a rage, she's already shown the ability to drop typical level 1 opponents from full life to -10 HP in a single blow. The Barbarian is not just a weaker version of the Fighter.