Wonder Worker Wednesday 07-09-2014

Rider with Elven Moonstone Stars
by Me (Ed Kann).

Music for DM Writing: Buffalo Springfield - Retrospective
Candle Color: Blue

Half way through the work week!  Woot Woot!  Welcome back for another post in Dungeon Mastering by Candlelight.  Why not hit the "follow" button while you are here?  It costs you nothing but the click.

Today is another wonder worker Wednesday, the day where we look at clerics, magic-users, spells, magic items and all things related.

In this post I will share one class of magic item from my home campaign and the background on an arcane caster faction.

Elven Coins

The elves stopped fashioning coins of their own more than five hundred years ago.  Few are alive today with any personal memory of that age and so elven coins are considered an ancient treasure even among their own kind.  Today elves conduct limited trade with the human kingdoms surrounding the Sea of Harlots and in the North but they use the same Talons, Markers and other coins minted by the kingdoms of men rather than their own coins.

Elven coins can still be found here and there either in old burial places or in the ruins of once proud elven strongholds.  The coins have a slightly magical nature.  They appear as pearls but each with its own color and glow depending on the rarity and denomination.  These stones will float in the air if they are tossed upwards with a gentle flick of the hand and they will follow the person who tossed them in a sort of glowing halo.  The effect is quite beautiful, like the gathering of tiny stars and provides sufficient light depending on the number of the coins equal to candle or even torchlight.

As a rule of thumb ten coins provide a glow equal to the light provided by a struck match.  Twenty provide light equal to a candle.  One hundred coins provide the illumination of a torch.  In olden times elves would use their coins both as currency and as adornment.  Ten coins provides sufficient light to allow the low light vision of an elf to function quite effectively.

While floating the coins have no weight.  Gathered into a hand and placed into the confines of a normal pouch the coins cease to float and become inert.  While in a pouch each elven coin has a weight equal to one half of a gold piece.

The four most common varieties are the Moonstone Star, the Sapphire Star, the Diamond Star and the Ruby Star.  Humans with no first hand knowledge of these coins may consider them magical light sources as the elves once left them floating here and there in alcoves to serve as lamps.

The Azure Order

The Azure Order is one of the five powerful orders of sorcery which make up the Pentagarchy.  The Pentagarchy is a power grabbing organization of loosely united arcane spell casters who see to establish a complete monopoly over all arcane knowledge within the civilized kingdoms.

The Azure Order's colors are blue, white and silver.  Apprentices enter the service of a sponsor or master wearing blue robes and eventually graduate to blue and silver garb.  Masters within the Azure Order wear white robes lined with blue and trimmed with silver.  A magic-user may earn their blue and silver robes at level five.  A magic-user may quest to join the ranks of the Order's masters at starting at level eight but no earlier.  The device of the Azure Order is seven white stars on a field of blue.

The Azure Order is a no nonsense magical order dedicated to strengthening its knowledge, power and political influence throughout the human kingdoms.  Above all other concerns they seek out posts as the advisers to the wealthy and noble.  The Azure Order's motto is "nobility and magic one".  The Azure Order is a traditionalist sect that staunchly supports the right to rule through birth and the noble bloodline of the "Hundred Lords of Man".  Out of the five orders of sorcery within the Pentagarchy they are the most strongly opposed to the rising influence of the steam barons and the secretive technocratic guild associated with them.

The Azure Order is more concerned with its own strength and position over whether or not the Pentagarchy as a whole survives into the next century.  They operate most closely with the Crimson Order and most often find themselves working against the machinations of the Order of Sable.

Well there you have it.  Another blog post come and gone.  Here is hoping you found this little bit of lore fun and a resource for your own campaign!  Remember to click "follow" before you leave.  See you next time and happy gaming!

-Ed

Titan Tuesday

Fire Giant by Dave Trampier

Music Choice:  YES - Close to the Edge
Candle Color:  White

Welcome to my 22nd post for Dungeon Mastering by Candlelight.  Today is Titan Tuesday, which is dedicated to "the big guys" in a campaign, namely the gods, demons, named dragons and supreme villains of your campaign setting.  The number 22 seemed like a lucky number, a sort of small milestone on this journey and I thought I'd start a tradition of dedicating each lucky double number of this blog to the awesome artwork of Dave Trampier.  Dave Trampier was one of perhaps three favorite artists whose work I admired when I first began this gaming journey thirty or so years ago.  You will see something dedicated to him on the 33rd blog post, 44th blog post, 55th blog post and so on.

When I began work on the mythos for my homebrew campaign I wanted there to be parallels between my campaign mythology and the feel of the earliest D&D mythologies published in that fabled of fabulous books of lore, the Deities and Demigods book.  In that book each of the gods of several pantheons were presented with descriptions, statistics, hit points, armor class and what special powers each one could hurl in battle.  The idea seemed to be that the gods were beings closely bound to the same mortal plane where the players adventured and that they could be sought out, encountered and perhaps even battled and defeated.

This element seemed one of several central themes at the heart of early D&D campaigns.  In my home campaign every god, demon or great power is directly tied to the material plane.  Frequently they dwell in isolated regions, often in shrines or strongholds in secret or perhaps known only to the highest ranking and most trusted of their priests.  The gods and great powers tend to avoid one another for the same reason that they are cautious in their dealings with powerful mortals, namely because it is possible for them to be confronted, battled, defeated and even slain.

Now not all of the gods are strictly humanoid or even of an intelligence other than completely alien to the mind of a mortal.  Many of the great powers that stalk the dark corners of my world are worshiped out of fear more than for any other reason and yet their priests are granted at least a minimal number of divine spells due to their great age and place in the cosmology of my world.  A few may indeed not even be aware that they have worshipers at all.

The majority of the populace in my campaign is polytheistic.  The world contains a good number of powerful "gods" and one governs this sea while another governs a particular city.  Most of the population makes offerings and observances so the gods leave them alone.  Sure there are a few sects who rabidly follow a strict and narrow tradition, the wild eye'd fanatics of my world.  Crazy fanatics make for interesting characters in any good sword and sorcery setting in my opinion, so why not?

With all that rambling aside I should at least post a write up for one of the great powers from my home campaign to share with you.  You are more than welcome to pull this being in part or in full into your home game.

Sheerako

Greater Goddess

Armor Class:  -3

Movement:  Infinite

Hit Points:  200

No. Attacks: 2 (Gaze)

Damage Attacks: 2d12 x 2 or gaze causing save versus charm as the spell.

Alignment: Law

Worshiper's Alignment: Any

Symbol: The Cranberry

Other: Divine as 12th level Cleric, Arcane as a 12th level Wizard.  Melee as an 8th level Fighter.

Sheerako is one of four divine sisters called the Norns.  The Sea of Harlots is said to be their domain.  Sheerako is the goddess of the South Wind and of Love.  Sheerako and her younger sister Silkie are believed to be the most kind hearted of the Norns while the other two sisters are wrathful and unpredictable.  Sailors and merchants who ply the waters of the Sea of Harlots often ask for blessings of their ships in her name.

Priests of Sheerako are granted a miracle at level three and at level five.

Potent Charm:  Level Three

A priest or priestess of Sheerako can cast a potent charm on a target once per day.  Targets receive a saving throw as standard.  A successful save indicates that the target is aware that the priest is meddling with their minds magically and they may respond appropriately.  Failure indicates that the target falls in love with whomever the priest names.  This functions as the magic-user charm spell but can be directed by the priest towards anyone or anything, including animals or objects.  The priest cannot use this spell to cause a target to fall in love with themselves or any other priest of the goddess Sheerako.

Awaken: Level Five

At fifth level the priest of Sheerako can kiss a subject once in a week and awaken them from any mind control or mind influencing magical effect, curse or enchantment.  Only a curse or enchantment cast by another greater god can resist this ability.  This miracle will effect an exorcism on any humanoid currently under the possession of a demon, ghost, spirit or other supernatural being.

Well there you have it.  I hope you enjoyed today's entry.  Hope that you will return to visit again soon!  

Happy Gaming!!

Ed Kann

Monster Monday

Barrow Worum

Hit Dice:  2,4 or 6
Armor Class:  6 [13]
Attacks: Bite 1d4, 1d4+1 for medium and 1d6 for large varieties.
Saving Throw: 16 small, 13 medium, 11 large
Special:  Burrow, Infect
Movement: Scuttle 10, Burrow 6
XP: Small 60, Medium 240, Large 600

Barrow Worum's or simply Grave Bugs as they are sometimes known are a form of centipede like creature with an appetite for bone.  Small varieties hatch from fist sized eggs usually laid along the lower edge of coffins or crypts within graveyards or barrows. The many tooth maw of this creature is vicious and capable of steady gnawing through wooden coffins and even masonry given sufficient numbers.  The Barrow Worum's teeth are made for gnashing through old bones.  It delivers a bite that is deep, uneven and likely to carry infection.

Small varieties are about the size of a typical city rat.  After consuming the dead for a period of weeks they can grow to a medium size equal to that of a cat or small dog.  Large varieties have been encountered deep in tombs.  These are the egg laying, mature adult sort and they can be as long as a man is tall.

When a Barrow Worum makes a successful bite attack against a target roll 1d6.  On a roll of a 1 or 2 the target must make a saving throw against infection.  Standard infections cause a fever within 48 hours which reduce movement by 25% and inflict a -1 penalty on all rolls.  This infection lingers until the sick individual makes a successful saving throw at the start of each day or until a cure disease spell is applied.

Rarely, Barrow Worums of the large variety carry a disease known as Crypt Rot.  A failed saving throw indicates that the sick character loses one point of temporary Intelligence each day until they are reduced to an intelligence score of five.  In this state the victim of Crypt Rot has an overwhelming urge to consume the marrow from bones as their own marrow becomes somewhat deficient.  Victims of crypt rot are sometimes called half ghouls.  They are not true ghouls but they possess pale skin and light sensitive eyes.  They become only primitive in intelligence and often exist below ground in cannibalistic colonies which come to the surface after dark seeking the marrow of the living.

Soulful Sunday: 07/06/2014

Today's post is about kids and D&D.  The question being, would you or should you introduce your children to the fantasy roleplaying hobby and at what age?

Clearly this is a sensitive topic for gamer parents and my guess is that opinions span the gamut.  My own feeling is that whether D&D is appropriate largely depends on the maturity and personality of the individual kid in question multiplied by how patient and willing to teach for the parent involved.

My own kids are pictured here right around the age of eight years old enjoying a clink of cups over their first real experience playing D&D Basic by the rules.  Both of my boys are patient and get along reasonably well over a board game so I knew the bickering would be at a fairly low roar.  The boy on the left has a neck, he just has his shirt pulled up to his chin because he is pretending his shirt is the beard of his dwarf for the photo.

D&D continues to be a largely occasional experience for my boys.  They are just now gaining an interest in more of an ongoing campaign with a few friends.  By the time they are half way through the 4th grade I hope to provide that experience for them, using the Rules Cyclopedia as their edition of introduction and the World of Mystara as their first hunting grounds.

As a side note they are both becoming interested in Warhammer.  An expensive hobby that I never actually tried out.  Just yesterday we spent a few hours together working on a box of Eldar and Tyranid models.  Teaching them how to put a plastic model together with a file to get the nubs off and hobby glue was fun and a good learning experience for them.  I think in another two sessions they will be largely able to assemble their own Warhammer models as long as the models are fairly simple without a whole lot of assistance or guidance from me.  This is also an opportunity for me to teach them how to paint a miniature and one boy in particular I think will really enjoy that process.  We will see.  There is a hobby store only a half mile from the house where they have a tournament in two Saturdays.  I plan to take them so they can sit in and learn a little more about how to play.  I hear there are other kids close to their age, 11 and 12 year olds...actually playing in the tournament.

So why would you not share your RPG hobby with your kid?  I suppose one reason would be if your child struggled with social relations.  What???  Preposterous right?  Well hear me out.  I think that there are kids who could benefit from waiting for their introduction to social games like D&D for a later age when they are either a little more mature or a little more able to understand the rules.  Its important that THEY have fun and that other kids in their group get to have fun too.  It should never about Dad or Mom getting to have an extra game night where the kids are forced to play something they simply are not interested in.

Personally my hope is that both boys will find the RPG hobby and now Warhammer at least a fun side interest if not their main one.  If they consider it something fun they want to do a few times a month or even a few times a quarter then I can feel good about bringing them with me to places like Gen Con.  That is something I've looked forward to as a Dad.

The only parent I think would avoid introducing their kid to the hobby altogether might be someone who plays but feels a certain amount of religious inspired guilt.  This, to me, is patent sillyness of course but I am sure there are parents who worry that introducing their own kids to D&D might start them down the dark road to damnation with the rest of us hooligans.  That makes me feel a little sad for the kids involved more than anything else but there are certainly more things in life than playing a six hour game of D&D.

Well that is it for today's installment.  See you next time and as always - Happy Gaming!!

Ed Kann

Setting Saturdays - July 5th, 2014

Today's Music to Create By:  Jethro Tull
Candle Color: Green

Happy Saturday and welcome to Dungeon Mastering by Candlelight, the blog where we put on some classic rock and roll, light a candle to set the mood and create cool old school fantasy campaign material for your gaming group.

Last week we started out by sharing about how home RPG fantasy campaign building had really seen a decline until the fairly recent arrival of the old school renaissance or OSR movement.

So you've decided to kick off your own completely self built campaign.  Good deal!  Where do you begin?

The first thing you need to do is create a few maps.  Unless you are a veteran Dungeon Master and know you will keep at writing and mapping material your players may never see for the fun of it (and it is fun), you probably want to stick to maps that will have actual meaning in your campaign.

The first sample map to the right is a good example of the simplistic but functional map style I currently use for just about everything involving overland and city maps in my current game.  All you need is a pen and a box of inexpensive colored pencils to get the job done.  Each color on the map represents a different broad type of encounter location.  This map of a fairly enormous city, the starting city in my current game, is scaled at approximately three square city blocks per square on the grid.  Each color represents a different neighborhood.  Each neighborhood on the map represents a different encounter / adventure difficult level very much like the levels of a classic dungeon.

Anyone can make a great map like this one in an hour or so, rather than hours and hours.  All that extra time you have can be plugged into writing up the non-player characters, adventure locations, shops and such within the city.  You can key these directly into the map or you can do what I do and just create a stack of brief 3x5 note card write ups related to each color coded encounter area on the map.  As the players explore and realize that certain areas are more dangerous, sometimes much more dangerous than others they will learn to skirt those areas or at least be on their guard when they pass through them.

This exact simplistic style can be used for overland maps as well.  I use a one square equals one mile for what I call my "adventure scale" maps used in my campaign.  You can create four color coded maps with the starting town or village in the center and usually wind up with about a thirty to fifty mile diameter circle of highly detailed out terrain surrounding it with this method.  Most player groups I have DM'd for will remain fairly close to the starting village or town for four to five levels of advancement and in OSR games where experience points run into the thousands and tens of thousands at those levels this usually equals three to six months of play.

A note on experience points and the rules.

Follow the rules.  Start at level one.  Be patient.  Let the players grow their hero up from nothing.  Allow them to experience danger and failure from time to time.  Don't be a helicopter DM - always hovering over your players and coming in to rescue them from poor decisions, no planning and poor dice rolls.  Let them run out of food and water.  Let them run out of arrows in a fight.  Keep track of these things.  Its not hard.  It only takes a minor amount of effort on your part.  Your game will improve dramatically if you do.  The sense of having to plan together, work as a team and explore will be built back into your game or possibly you will experience it for the first time.  Do not always fudge the dice rolls.  That should be a rarity and not the rule of thumb.  Dungeon Masters in the old books were called the referee for a reason.  A good referee knows the rules and follows them.  He does not make it all up off the cuff.  This ruins the integrity of the game world you are creating for the players and it becomes less about the game and more about them sitting around and listening to you wax poetic and make things up.  In my opinion a good OSR referee and DM creates a  campaign with some details, a good dungeon with clever bits and then gets out of the way so the game can play out as it was meant to according to the rules as they were written.  This does not mean you should not house rule certain things but once you create a house rule and introduce it into cannon for your game then stick to that rule, always.

Starting Village - Onlidale

Onlidale Village Map
Drawn by Edward Kann (me)

The map to the right is for the human and halfling village of Onlidale.  This was part of a cooperative, open project I contributed to and so it is free for you to use.  The map is already supplied with a key.

This is a more traditional hand drawn map for a village and more and more I am going back to this more artistic style for smaller encounter locations where the grid based style does not provide enough visual reference for me.

So for me, overland and city maps are basic grid maps with color codes and village and the big grand campaign map are more of a later period OSR hand drawn map style like this one to the right.

Obviously you can go with whatever you like but to start you'll need a starting village or city and some miles of terrain surround it.  If you plan to kick things off with a dungeon adventure think about placing it in the wilderness so that the characters have to go find it.  For example, the ruins of the mad mage have been avoided for the last century and the path leading to it has all but disappeared.  It still exists for those brave or insane enough to go explore it although few return who do so.  It is in the woods to the West of town, well off the main road.  Other than that the locals have no other clear direction on how to find the place and so the players have to get provisions and plan an expedition to go find it.

Exploration

Exploration is one of the three pillars of a good D&D campaign.  Always include this into your game when possible.  Exploration, roleplaying the character in speaking encounters, negotiations and such with npc allies, foes and the other characters and combat are the three pillars of a good campaign.  A great many DM's just hand locations to players.  They build roads leading right to the dungeon.  Stop doing this.  Drop the dungeon in a swamp or forest.  Make it creepy and difficult to find.  Put other interesting fights and combats and hazards along the way.  Give the players a good reason to go there.  Your game will improve because you do these things.

Well that is a wrap for today's blog entry.

Thanks for reading and see you next tomorrow!

Ed Kann

Freaky Friday - 4th of July

Jeff Jones Artwork
Solomon Kane

Today is Freaky Friday and what I pulled at random from the vault on this fabulous 4th of July is a character class I created for my home campaign.

Here it is for your adoption or tweaking into your own home OSR / Swords and Wizardry / OSRIC or AD&D campaign.

Hallow

The Hallows are a secret cabal under the support and protection of the Order of Pale, one of the five powerful orders of sorcery which make up the Pentagarchy.  The Society of the Hallow'd Ground and its members are responsible for the investigation and clearing of undead infestations and in particular the cleansing of villages turned into Haunts within the territories currently afflicted by the Pattern Storms.

The first of the Pattern Storms arose during the time of the Nightshade War between the Necrogarchy of Leng in the East and the Kingdoms of Daria, Etaerkos and Kyrene in the West.  The widespread suffering inflicted by the use of war spells during that period ushered in the political ascension of the Pentagarchy and its platform that arcane magic by its very nature is dangerous and must be regulated, indeed controlled exclusively by the five houses of sorcery that make up the order.

Today arcane magic is only "legal" in the hands of a Pentagarchy sorcerer (magic-user) and independent arcane casters of any other tradition or school are sought out as heretics for imprisonment and more and more frequently, execution.

The Hallow is the instrument of the Order of Pale as it attempts to broaden its influence by taking back territory which has long been lost to the blight left over by the last great war.  The Society maintains small chapter houses scattered throughout most of the civilized kingdoms which surround the Sea of Harlots but in particular is concentrated in the Kingdom of Daria where most of the undead taint lingers.

Primary Attribute:  Wisdom of 13+  (Grants xp bonus if that is used in your rules set.)
Hit Dice:  4+1d6 at 1st level and 1d6 at each level of advancement after first.
Armor and Shield Permitted:  Light or Medium Armor Types and Shield.  Heavy Armor types are avoided as they tend to hamper the Hallow's ability to turn tail and flee when circumstances require it.
Weapon Permitted:  Any Melee, Slings, Crossbows.
Race:  Human, Half-Elf, Half-Orc
Magic:  Some divine magic starting at third level.  A Hallow stands somewhere in the gray area between a specially trained fighter and a specialty priest of the God of Death.  He campaigns to place the restless dead back into the ground where they belong.
Starting Skill:  Field Medicine
Special:  Limited Clerical Spells, Turn Undead, Trained Destroyers of Undead, Agent of the Pentagarchy.

Alignment:  Hallows are usually of Lawful or Neutral alignment.  A Hallow who violates the tenants of the Cult of Death into which they are indoctrinated by level three will lose access to their divine spells until making appropriate amends.

Clerical Spells:  A Hallow who survives to level three begins to receive divine spells from the god, Death.  While they are not technically priests or clerics, Death favors these sworn agents of his as they seek to return the natural order to the world.

Magic Items:  Hallows can read and use divine scrolls starting at level five.  They can use magic items like a Fighter class character.

Attack Table:  Hallows use the cleric attack table.

Trained Destroyer:  Certain types of undead require specific targeted shots to impale them with a stake in the heart, cut off their head, shoot them in the brain with a crossbow bolt.  Typically this inflicts a four point penalty to the attack roll of a character.  Hallows are trained to destroy undead and ignore any penalty for targeting a specific vulnerable body part in any undead creature they face.

Death's Agent:  At level three a Hallow gains +1d4 hit points plus the Hallow's current level, when they destroy an undead of two hit dice or greater.  They may only receive this bonus once in a day.  The bonus hit points linger for one hour before fading after they have been gained.

Turn Undead:  A fifth level Hallow begins to turn undead as a 1st level Cleric.  They turn undead as if they were a Cleric four levels below their current level.  The Hallow uses the holy symbol of the god Death to turn undead, this is a black velvet bag filled with a full set of 10 humanoid knuckle bones.

Death's Avenger:  At seventh level the Hallow may wield two medium or small sized weapons, one in each hand.  They suffer no penalty to attack rolls while fighting with two weapons but sacrifice all attack bonuses granted by having a high Strength score.  They retain damage bonuses based on having a high Strength while using this ability.

Hallow's Level        Experience Points
1st                          Zero
2nd                         2,500
3rd                         5,000
4th                         10,000
5th                         20,000
6th                         40,000
7th                         80,000
8th                        160,000
9th                        260,000
10th                      360,000
11th                      460,000
12th                      560,000

Saving Throws:  Starts at a 15 at level one and improves by one point at each level of advancement until it reaches a Save of 8 at 8th level.  From there saves improve by one every other level.

Hallow Divine Spells
Hallow Level       Cleric Spells
3rd Level              1x 1st Level
4th Level              1 x 1st Level
5th Level              2 x 1st Level
6th Level              2 x 1st Level
7th Level              2 x 1st Level, 1 x 2nd Level
8th Level              2 x 1st Level, 1 x 2nd Level
9th Level              3 x 1st Level, 2 x 2nd Level
10th Level            3 x 1st Level, 2 x 2nd Level,  1 x 3rd Level
11th Level            4 x 1st Level, 3 x 2nd Level,  1 x 3rd Level
12th Level            4 x 1st Level, 3 x 2nd Level,  2 x 3rd Level, 1 x 4th Level

There you have it.  Today's Freaky Friday grab bag topic for Dungeon Mastering by Candlelight.

Happy Gaming and Happy 4th of July!!

Ed Kann

Terra Firma Thursday

Well I have been absent a day or two.  Moving sans internet at home with kids ultimately shot holes in my eager plans to keep posting.  Internet is now here at the new apartment and so I am returning to Dungeon Mastering by Candlelight.

Thursday is dedicated to interesting locations pulled from my home campaign and share with you for incorporation in part or whole into your own game.

The Worg's Bite and Stonhagel Village.

The Worg's Bite is a treacherous region of flatirons and foothills rising right at the Southern base of the Goblinspite Mountains.  Although it remained a wild place even during the best of times the narrow gap of the Worg's Bite offered a necessary passage into and ultimately through the Goblinspite almost directly North to South making this rugged landscape an important and much sought after trade route.

Rambling and sputtering along the shadowed bottom of this connected series of mountain valleys is the Welsprith River.  Up until ten years ago and the arrival of the Pattern Storms into this region the Welsprith was flanked here and there by at least a dozen settlements of some three to five hundred souls each.

Stonhagel Village is one such settlement and like most of the rest it has become a dreary, silent and abandoned place during the day.  It is more than a ghost town.  Shattered doors and exterior walls stained with old splashes of blood now washed and aged to dim spots of blackish tar speak of horrible things watching and waiting within the shadows of the buildings here.  In point of fact Stonhagel Village is a "Haunt" which is any place abandoned and taken over by the wandering undead spawned by the relentless passage of the Pattern Storms.

Stonhagel is marked with a sold black banner placed at the four corners of its perimeter.  By the law of the Elven Duke of Threnodial whose borders skirt this region to the South, it is unlawful for any fortune hunter to disturb the undead in this region in an attempt to seek plunder.  Violence in a Haunt not only makes the local undead far more aggressive, active and prone to wander, it seems to attract any other incidental undead dwelling in the surrounding region to make the situation in the Haunt even worse.

Those caught within such a place are treated as common bandits.  For the first offense they are branded on the cheek with a V for villain.  The second time they are caught the mark is removed, by removing the offenders head from their body.

Only a member of the "Hallows", a secret society dedicated to the investigation and destruction of undead, are granted lawful entry in a village like Stonhagel.  Usually the Hallow will find a good many lesser undead and perhaps two to four more powerful types which seem to command the monsters dwelling in the Haunt.

Well there you have it.  A short entry but better than nothing as I get back into the swing of making daily AD&D and Swords and Wizardry blog entries here at Dungeon Mastering by Candlelight.

Have a great night and see you back tomorrow.