Sunday, January 24, 2010

[Labyrinth Lord] NPC: Edith the Witch

Last Friday, I ran a short Labyrinth Lord/Basic D&D game in my Ashford Valley setting. The PCs encountered a witch named Edith and one of them suspected she was a harpy.

And, well, yes, that's true.

Edith the Witch is a Harpy. She's retired from the usual Harpy business (charming people, torturing them, raping them and finally eating them) for several decades now. Bloodthirstiness and lust don't have any power over her anymore. Amazingly, she makes a better living as a witch.

She's ugly, old and grumpy, can't see very well and hops around her hut wrapped in a dirty cloak that drags on the floor. It'll take a sharp PC to determine she's actually a Harpy.

She spends most of her days brewing potions, talking to her cats (she has a dozen or so live ones as well as at least 18 cat heads stuffed and mounted on the walls), and playing with her collection of Dwarven metal toy figures.

The potions she brews are:
  • Summon Fish (imbibe, 1 hour duration, summons up to 10 fish, range: half mile stretch of water, must be used near water where fish live, works 30% of the time)
  • Scare Away Crows (imbibe or spread on the ground, 12 hour duration, range: 1 mile radius, treat as Fear spell against crows, works 70% of the time)
  • Glue (spread on object, permanently sticks things together, works 100% of the time)
  • Love (imbibe, 1 hour duration, treat as Charm Person spell against object of affection, save per object of affection, works 30% of the time)
  • Curse (imbibe or skin contact, 1 hour duration, treat as Curse spell on affected person, save per affected person, works 50% of the time)
  • And any other potion that seems appropriate (GMs choice)
Trade with Edith is very simple. Food and gold are good but Dwarven metal toy figurines are best (the chance a PC has one during his first visit with Edith is a 1 on 1d6).

Finding Edith the first time is easy. The PCs will spot a thin stream of smoke about 100 yards in from the side of the High Bridge Road and they'll soon find her cabin after about 15 minutes of walking. Thereafter, it'll be hard - the PCs will only find her at a dramatically appropriate time (GMs choice) as her cabin moves about on it's own and with no thought to customer convenience.

Edith the Witch; No. Encountered: 1; Alignment: Neutral; Armor Class: 7; Hit Dice: 3d8; Hit Points: 16; Attacks: two claws (1d4) and dagger (1d4); Save: F3; morale: 7; Special abilities: Magical song (treat as Charm Person spell), magical resistance (+2 saving throw on all saving rolls), magical moving cabin.

2 comments:

  1. I love it. Very cool take on an old foe. I laughed when I read that she had retired from the raping business. Freaking classic!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks. I almost didn't include that part but figure that Harpies are less than polite with their human captives.

    ReplyDelete

Unfortunately, due to spam, I have set up comment moderation. I will review and approve your comment as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience.