Low Country Crawl: Session Report 1

Hell yeah, Title Card!

So I'm running the Low Country Crawl via Play-by-Post (PbP) on a discord server I manage. I know PbP isn't for everyone, but as a professional and a father, I have little to no time to set aside to run a real-time session. Plus this allows me to play with individuals across the world that I'd normally never have a chance to play with. Regardless, for these "session" reports, I'm going to post up updates as they seem appropriate rather than per "session" as scenes are played out usually over the course of days rather than hours.

We have pool of players for this game who come and go somewhat West Marches style. A few of the players have RPG experience before hand, but none had played GLOG or any OSR system so I've decided to give them a mini tutorial dungeon and a little leeway to learn the ropes.

THE PLAYERS

Georgia Georgie of the Georgie Clan. A member of a clan/coven of swamp witches who make foul pacts with a hideous soul-devouring goose. An impulsive Animist who doesn't take shit from anyone.

Father Mortimer. A Fire and Brimstone style preacher who has come to the Barrier Islands to bring the word of the Authority to the ignorant masses. He preached so hard though, he is now incapable of saying anything but the word of God. A serious Paladin of the Word following the divine plan.

Ghostcutter Wob. Once content to live a solitary life as a lumberjack with his dog as his only companion. However when malicious ghosts took his dog's life, this morose man pledged his cutting power to cutting ghosts rather than wood. A depressed Sword Exorcist who seekers eternal John Wick-style vengeance. 

Brother Dorvus. A spiderling who heard the call to the priesthood early on, only it was the priesthood of the Goddess of Sewers. Polite, excited, and somewhat lackadaisical, Dorvus is always certain that his Goddess has him in good hands. A faithful Night Soil Priest who is ready to clear your pipes.

Piercy Montana. A young hot-headed man with a posse of foul followers and a hunger for revenge. He seeks a man named Dixon Beaumont who killed his father over a parcel of land. He is a man of bold action and is willing to do anything to fulfilled his goals. A strong-willed Fighter who does all his own stunts.

Unpictured and currently inactive are The McCoys, a clan of inbred swamp-hicks who act as single unit ala Many Goblins and Yanny/Laurel, a pipe smoking illusionist.

THE LOCALE

A VERY rough flowchart of the pointcrawl because I am shit with anything that isn't a Windows Office product. The players are starting off in Lord's Landing, a fairly well established port city spread out over a few connected islands. As they opted for a more traditional start, I provided them with a tavern in the residential district of Lord's Landing. As we play, I plan to drop adventure seeds and leave my players access to this map. I feel like it gives them enough of a taste to see what is going on without spoiling much for them.

THE ADVENTURE

Our adventure opens in the Thunderlock Tavern, a little something I'm adapting from the Rolled and Told free July Issue, to give our would-be heroes a stage to test their skills before venturing forth into the Islands. The adventurers gather here on their own accord, each here for their own purposes and serving their own needs. Some are locals, some are new to the area, all of them have something to prove.

After a little bit of time for characterization and introductions, they players tentatively started to interact. Georgia cast Charm Person on the barkeep after not agreeing with their gruff attitude and getting her to open up more as an information resource. After few rounds of drinks rotgut moonshine for everyone, and a peppering of refreshing lemon scent from Dorvus, Wob inquires about local hauntings and receives an earful about how you can't spit without hitting a ghost in the Islands. They learn of the heavily haunted Last Folly Island, of the Hainsely Hall ghost infested Halls, of the unresting Lady Elmyra and her indigo plantations, and several other lesser ghost-related seeds.

Just at this point, Piercy Montana bursts into the scene seeking a party of would be mercenaries to help him avenge the death of his father due to one Dixon Beaumont. Not originally part of any plan of my own, this type of introduction was too good to pass up and I've adapted Beaumont to be one of the larger antagonist background NPCs. Piercy, however, showed himself to be all swagger and no coin, claiming after Georgia's inquiry into the pay that looting Beaumont should be all the pay she'd need. Several patrons point out the madness of this revenge plot, Dorvus and Wob being particularly pessimistic about it. Father Mortimer, however, smelling the chance to put down a corrupt sinner, pledges himself to Piercy's cause. Georgia, being more practical, suggests splitting the loot should everything go well. If everything goes south though, Piercy has agreed to give Georgia all the fingers on his left hand.

From behind the bar, a metal door opens and drops a trio of bleeding and burned elves onto the tavern floor, followed by a gruff dwarf-- one of the tavern's owners, Merp Ticklelock. The trio had failed the Thunderlock Pubcrawl and Merp was looking for the net batch of victims volunteers. The task was simple, survive the mini-dungeoncrawl below the tavern and get your picture up on the wall and 100 gold. Piercy, Georgia, Father Mortimer, and Dorvus leap at the chance to prove their skills while Wob, the McCoys, and Yanny hold back to watch things unfold.

To give everyone a potential chance, I've ruled that if a character dies or is incapacitated, they will be teleported out of the dungeoncrawl and the next in line will take their place.

Thus the party of four signed legal papers waiving their rights to seek reparations against the tavern for any harm done to them and stepped through the gates.

The first room was a rather simple one. Two shabby looking demon statues stood holding braziers on either side of an open door. One brazier was lit while the other was cold. Above them a runic phase was written out. As none of the characters implicitly knew dwarvish, I gave them the option to do Intelligence Checks to recognize and read the script, Dorvus with his 16 Intelligence quickly figured out the runes stating "Fire reveals the treasure, but flame conceals the Key." Wasting no time, Dorvus immediately pokes a stick into the lit brazier revealing it to be a magical flame hiding a key.

Piercy, already seeking treasure, recruited the assistance of Father Mortimer to lift the magically lit brazier and drop it and its flame into the cold brazier. I mean they could have figured a way to just get a real fire going in it, but hey whatever works. This caused some mechanisms deeper into the dungeon to grind into place, but otherwise the players do not yet know the effect of this action.

Georgia, tired of the brazier business, gets a look into the next room. A trapped gauntlet if there ever was one, the room is half filled with acid and covered in obvious traps. Piercy shoots and arrow down the hall in hopes of triggering a few of the traps, and it gets less than a quarter of the way before a fire rune trap incinerates it. A little bit of fussing from the rest of the party, and Georgia take the initiative again by stepping into the room. And triggering the trapped spiked wall.

A few successful shoulder rolls later and the party is faced with a hallway of traps ahead of them and a slowly moving spiked wall behind them. Piercy once again uses force to solve the problem by pushing against the wall to give the rest of the group more time to get through the gauntlet. Georgia decided it was time to take out the big guns and used her Animist powers to turn into her spirit-animal, a hideous Canadian Goose with a human face. Using her superior flight speed Georgia flew past all the traps to safety flew directly into the fire trap and got her goose cooked.

A few lucky rolls and Georgia was left burned, scarred, and disabled but alive and the contingency spell set up in their contracts ported her back into the tavern for a shot of moonshine and a few hours of rest. Wob the Ghost-Cutter took her place, appearing right on the edge of a 15' long acid pit. Using a piece of wood kept from his lumberjack days, Wob tested the pit to confirm it was indeed acid. Dorvus, knowing his goddess would protect him, ignored the shoddy wooden planks that acted as bridges and stepped right in with his rubber sewer-wading outfit. I felt that it was a reasonable risk given the things he's normally wading through and gave the item a resistance check. With the blessing of his goddess, Dorvus successfully made it to the other side, though his waders were not going to be able to take another go at that.

Meanwhile Father Mortimer and Wob considered their options while Piercy continued to hold back the wall. Deciding to let fate decide their path, the pair succeeded on a couple of dex checks to roll past the fire trap and balance their way across the acid pit, leaving Piercy alone on the other side. Piercy shows himself to be observant as well as strong as he noticed that the fire trap seems to be on a recharge cycle and is set off by movement. Instead of risking the planks, the young man hauls himself ONTO the spiked wall and holds on for dear life as it begins to make its way across the room again. With the help of Dorvus shooting arrows and Father Mortimer lobbing cheese, they get the fire trap to go off in time for it to reach its recharge state by the time Piercy moved past it.

Father Mortimer, concerned for Piercy's ability to continue holding on, called on the aid of the Authority. He spoke aloud for the first time and intoned, "HOLD" causing Piercy's muscles to strain beyond what he thought possible, giving him a divinely inspired grip on the wall. Once the wall and Piercy reach the other side, he and Father Mortimer work together to keep the wall at bay once again.

Meanwhile Wob has started to inspect what awaited them on the other side of the acid pit. A pair of shoddy dwarf statues faced each other across the hallway, their mouth open in a silent scream. Sensing another trap, Wob pulls out his Sword of Exocism and its nigh indestructible sheath and waved it in front of the statues, keeping his arm out of reach. One statue loosens a deafening thunderous blast while the other vomits putrid fungal mist. A number of lucky saves leaves everyone safe, but the dangers of the traps are established.

After a little dinking around with the statues, Wob takes action. He first tossed his blanket from his pack over the fungal statue, its heavy curtain causing the spores to float safely to the floor rather than being dispensed across the room. Their careful pokings at the statue revealed them to be made of wood rather than stone. Wob's lumberjack instincts kicked in as he pulled out his old ax and with a good roll beheaded the thunder-statue.

Dorvus, not even pausing to investigate further, mutters "Cloacia Protects" and steps forth. The pressure plate between the statues sinks into the floor and unleashes a spray of deadly arrows from the walls. Well...should be deadly. I completely fail every attack roll against all of the characters. In stunned disbelief, the party leaves the trapped hallway and approaches their next challenge.

NOTES

I believe we got ourselves to a good start on this one. We have folks from non-RPG backgrounds and non-OSR backgrounds, but they are making use of their resources and environments in a creative manner. Rolls continue to be either Great or Terrible with very little in between. I'm finding that play PbP is great for this as it gives me a reference for rules I made, I only ever have to scroll up the log to remember how I handled similar situations. All art once again is a donation from http://monsieurlebattlier.tumblr.com/

Low Country Point Crawl Prep: Barrier Island Generator

Driftwood or treant corpse?

So, I've gone off the deep end and I've decided to start an attempt to create a pointcrawl, having no personal experience running a hexcrawl, a pointcrawl, or even creating my own dungeon from scratch! So I've decided to create something based upon my home area in the Low Country region of the South Carolina and Georgia coast. A nice home for my Root Doctor and a great place to set some of Skerples' GROG Pirate hack.

One of my primary goals, of course, is to make the Point Crawl itself, which I have sketched out over several handfuls of crumpled steno-pad sheets. I've got locations, an approximation of distances and travel times, etc. etc. I just so happen to be shit at using various mapping and art programs, so until I get a little more practice posting something up digitally is on hold. However! I do have a fun little resource here that I plan to use.

The Sea Islands, also called Barrier Islands, there are many dozens of coast-hugging, small, constantly changing islands of various sorts. From little sandbars that come and go with erosion, to larger islands with established vegetation, to islands that only a few fisherman know of and treat like their own little sanctuary. Erosion, habitation, rice plantations, and the fishing industry have all contributed to this ever changing landscape and thus I felt it would be a great chance for a random table.

When your island hopping adventurers decide to go off the beaten path, bring their boat down river, or get horribly lost in the marsh, roll a few times on the table below. There is a 2-in-6 chance of the island already being inhabited by "civilized" or "native" folk of one type or another, otherwise it is uninhabited, exploitable wilderness.

Roll	Adjective	Noun	Size	Environment
1	Savage	John’s	Small	Sandbar
2	Red	Jenny’s
3	Black	Crane
4	Timid	Bull
5	Old	Snake		Marshland
6	Dark	Alligator
7	Long	Buzzard
8	Short	Toad
9	Saint	Wren		Rocky
10	Sweet	Helena’s
11	Green	Harold’s	Medium
12	Lost	Folly’s		Forested
13	Last	Point
14	Dead	Turtle
15	Hermit	Palm		Structures
16	Big	End
17	Little	Crab
18	Crazy	Head		Other
19	Surly	Man’s	Large
20	Young	Lady’s

Sizes

Small- Between a few acres and up to a quarter square mile, a Small Island could be a small sandbar that vanishes in the high tide or it can be large enough for a small hamlet and a dew docks. Islands like these are perfect places for buried pirate treasure, lonely hermits, a lagoon of hungry alligators, village of inbred marsh-dwelling rednecks, island get away of rich elite, an isolated lighthouse etc.

Medium- More then a quarter square mile and less than twenty square miles, with around ten being the standard. These islands are big enough for a reasonably sized town or a large hunting reserve or a plantation. Could also be the locations of sea-forts, pirate lairs, sea turtle nesting sites, native burial grounds, hidden lizardman marsh-villages.

Large- More than twenty square miles less than forty. The largest of the Sea Islands are between 60-70 square miles are are primary setting pieces for the Point Crawl, so any randomly generated Large Island should be less in size than those. Large Islands of this nature tend to have a reason they are not on the main map, infested with wild creatures, inhabited by dangerous natives, the site of a horrible magical accident, a secret government facility etc. But it could also very well be simply be place that the still recent colonizers have yet to explore.

Enviroments

Sandbar: Truly the most common sort of Barrier Island, these islands are more or less just a pile of sand and slit that have formed due to current and wave patterns. More often than not these form at the mouths of various rivers and creeks that meet the ocean and tend to vanish and reappear with the changing of the tides. What might seem like a safe sandy shore to rest upon might be ten feet underwater a few hours later. A large sandbar would be something like a desert island, possibly with a few stubborn bits of vegetation holding on and likely crawling with filter feeding crabs trying to beat the tides. 

Marshlands: With Barrier Islands, you generally encounter two types of marshland, Salt Marsh and Freshwater Tidal Marshes with Salt Marshes being predominate. Salt Marshes have two zones, a Low Marsh and a High Marsh. The Low Marsh is a biome that is affected by the daily tides and is dominated by a rich muddy of "pluff mud" and a thick growth of halophyte (salt resistant) plants such as cord grass. The thick almost sludge-like mud made of decayed plant detritus and silt makes it difficult for large animals to traverse, but encourages a large echo system of creatures and algae who feed upon the decaying nutrient rich mud and are in turned preyed upon up the chain. Oysters, snails, shrimp and crabs make up most of the bottom of the food chain with predatory birds, otters, large fish and turtles make up the upper tier, although occasionally alligators come down river for a snack. In the rivers around marshlands it is not uncommon for sharks, porpoises, manatees, and dolphins to also be present.

High Marsh, on the other hand, is only affected by the bi-monthly Spring Tides that are much higher than daily tides. These areas tend to have high salinity soil and much of its vegetation is stunted or specialized such as sweetgrass or needlerush. Creatures living in this area tend to be scavengers who obtain most of their food from the low marsh then retreat to the high marsh at high tide. Raccoons, opossums, nutria, snakes, coyotes and such would be common here.

A large enough Marshland Island might have enough height to have swampy areas or even small groves of pine and oak where the tides do not affect their growth.  

Rocky: Actually very uncommon in areas that form Barrier Islands due to the manner that currents interact with the shoreline, a rocky island in this case would be made of a sort of erosion resistant rock that hasn't been beaten into sand by the ocean. More often than not these would simply be jagged outcroppings, more a threat to shipping lanes than adventurers. But perhaps there is sunken treasure nearby or sahuagins laying traps or big dye producing snails worth a few gold a piece. Very large rocky islands are aberrant for this region and might be artificial or volcanic in origin. 

Forested: Often found on larger islands or islands that have a higher than average height, forested Barrier Islands tend to have a ring of marshland around them while the interior tends to be either swampy in composition or have trees able withstand some level of salinity and sandy soil. Expansive Live Oaks, Tidewater Cypruss, Sweetgum, Yellow Pine, Mangroves, Palms of various sorts, and all kinds of robust ferns are the most common large plants here with almost all of them festooned with spanish moss. The make up of these islands are often impacted by the needs of nearby civilized peoples as Live Oak is highly valued as a ship building resource and Yellow Pine are prime home construction material. Forested islands might be inhabited by black bears, bob cats, white tailed deer, wild boar, turkey, fox and so forth. In the fresh water lagoons common near these forested islands, alligators often amass in sizable congregations. 

Structures: This island has been cleared of most of its natural environment to make space for human or humanoid habitation. It might be a military base or a plantation or a pirate lair or a whole small urban center. These are not always necessarily inhabited as the threat of disease from mosquitoes, regular flooding, hurricanes, and other natural phenomena is ever present. Expect there to be several docks and possibly small bridges to other nearby islands.

Other: This is the space for the weird oddball islands that fantasy might throw at you occasionally. If you roll Other, roll again on the list below or make something gonzo up.

Roll	Other Island
1	Roll on Environment again, nominally that result, actually a giant turtle. 1-in-6 chance of being a massive stinking corpse.
2	Repeating Island: Island is caught in a time loop and repeats the same day over and over again. Must break the loop to escape, no time apparently passed outside.
3	Haunted Island, can't spit without hitting a headstone and waking up a ghoul
4	Tip of an underwater mountain, sea-dwaves have hollowed out the underside.
5	Illusional Island: can only step foot on it if you are also an illusion.
6	100-Year Island: Avalon or some shit, only appears for one night every hundred years.
7	Doll Island: Weird hermit has covered this island in hundreds of dolls.
8	Animal Island: Left overs from weird government experiments, this island is dominated by a single out of place species. Roll once on the Biological Mutation Chart, all of the dominate animal species possesses that mutation
9	Prison Island: This entire island is a prison complex for dangerous criminals or lepers who don't know how to swim.
10	Statue Island: It..it's all statues. All the way down.
11	Floating Island: This island is literally floating, an enterprising madman might have put a big ass mast and rudder on it one of these days.
12	Flying Island: Laputa or some shit. If its inhabited, folks are probably just here for a visit, if it isn't old security drones might be still wandering around.
13	Eyland: IT'S NOT AN ISLAND, IT'S A GIANT EYE, REVERSE REVERSE!
14	Castle Island: A single tower peaking up from the water, the rest is below.
15	Woven Island: Made out of reeds, trapped air, and maybe a bit of faith, this artificial floating island is half raft half hamlet. Prone to fire.
16	Anti-Island: The reserve of an island, this is actually an extremely deep hole, may or may not occasionally produce a maelstrom.
17	Sargasso Gyre: Due to weird current patterns, this artificial island is made up of sargasso, ship wrecks, and detritus.
18	Mimic Island: Looks like beach resort paradise with friendly inhabitants, beautiful sights, and comfortable beds. Oddly no animals, even insects. Inhabitants are always touching the ground in some way. Everything is actually a single massive mimic, mouths can appear anywhere.
19	Cannibal Island: Everything living on this island can only survive by eating creatures of the same time. Rations don't work unless they are made of whatever you are made of. The Island itself eats other islands every few score years.
20	Artificial Island: A perfect metal cube of terribly large proportions with no sign of rust. What's inside? Where's the door?

Who do that Hoodoo?

I'm going to walk you down a road of old oaks and hanging spanish moss. I'm going to guide you down to my home in the Lowcountry of the southern US, a place of superstition and magic. Growing up, I was surrounded by stories and folk beliefs. I heard the tales of Brer Rabbit, I was warned about the Boohag and the Plat-eye, I was told why the shutters were robin's egg blue and why you always left a broom by the front door. For, you see, magic was being worked all around me, a magic called The Root.

The Root is both a broad term for the hoodoo folk beliefs of the area and a specific term for a type of gris-gris or medicine bag that is a common charm associated with the beliefs. Rootwork comes in many forms, from the creation of small Root talismans to protect from the evil eye, to the painting of windows Haint Blue to ward off spirits, to "chewing the root" to curse those who would do you harm. My home area was known for a number of Root Doctors, such as Doctor Bug and Doctor Eagle, but the two most infamous were Doctor Buzzard and Sheriff James E. McTeer. Stephney Robinson was and still is considered the greatest Root Doctor of all time and his Mantle of Doctor Buzzard continues to be passed down, with his grandson still practicing Rootwork under the ancestral title. Sheriff McTeer was his archnemesis, a lawman who practiced the Root and used these tools to combat those using The Root to con and scare people.

James Edward McTeer, Root Doctor and Sheriff

There are dozens of stories of Sheriff McTeer's and Doctor Buzzard's conflicts and each time Doctor Buzzard would escape through his trickery. From catching bullets to escaping from coffins as a black cat, there seemed to be nothing that could hold the old Root Doctor. Even the court of law could get no airtight cases around him, as he sat before the judge in his purple tinted shades, chewing the root. In fact his ability to avoid the law was so profound that many of his "customers" would pay for him to make a powder that could be sprinkled in the court room to confound lawyers and witnesses. Supposedly, he quit his more criminal ways after Sheriff McTeer placed a Root on one of Doctor Buzzard's sons, resulting in the young man crashing his car off of one of the many local bridges and drowning in the Port Royal sound.

The Woods Memorial Bridge in Beaufort, SC.

I feel that the concept of Root Doctors could be made a class in and of itself, but I'm going to save that for another time. For now, I'm going to hand out a few resources that could bring a little Lowcountry Root flavor to your game.

Root Monsters

Don't let the Boo Hag ride you!

The Boohag

HD 5
Appearance: In the day, a scrawny, crooked, mean tempered old woman; in the night, a bloody red skinless spirit.
Wants: To ride your chest, steal your breath, and haunt your dreams
Armour: Leather, incorporeal immune to non-magical weapons at night
Move: 1/2 Normal during day, 2x Normal (Fly) at night
Morale: 8
Damage: See below

Steal Breath: Once per night, Boohag may target a sleeping creature. This creature falls into a deeper nightmare filled sleep and be unable to wake until they are exposed to natural light. During this time, the Boohag will ride wildly upon their chest and suck away their breath, dealing 1d6 CON damage. If a creature dies from this effect, the Boohag increases their HD by 1 and the creature is unable to be resurrected by anything less than a Wish effect.

Claw: In either form, the Boohag has terrible sharp nails that deal damage as a dagger.

Spellcasting:  The Boohag often works as a proficient Root Worker and can use any of the Root Magic listed or can use Necromancer Spells as a Magic User of half her HD in levels.

The Boohag is a terrible creature who wears human flesh in the day, and sloughs it off to seek victims in the night. During the day, the Boohag appears as a terrible old lady looking all the part of a hideous witch. During the night, the Boohag strips her flesh away and flies forth as a bloody wild spirit. She will choose a sleeping victim and "ride" them, sitting on their chest and filling them with nightmares while she steals their breath. Many victims of night terrors and sleep paralysis are in fact victims of a Boohag. There are a few certain ways to protect oneself from a Boohag. The most common are to leave a broom or a flour sifter outside your front door. She will become so busy with counting the bristles or holes that she'll soon need to flee the dawning sun. The other fool proof method is to carry a Boo-Daddy, a type of charm described below. The only way to permanently destroy a Boohag is to burn their skin while they are out of it. You can also torture and banish a boohag by rubbing salt and chili powder into the skin.

This, plus it is screaming at you in Aunt Mildred's voice.

Plat-Eye

HD 3
Appearance: A shifting shadow with a single plate sized glowing eye, often takes the form of a large black dog.
Wants: To lead you astray, to protect hidden treasure.
Armour: Chain, immune to non-magical weapons
Move: 2x Normal
Morale: 12- conditional
Damage: See below.

Terrible Transformation: The Plat-Eye can turn itself into anything out of nightmare, such a giant maggot riddled dog or a screaming inverted head or anything out of Veins of the Earth. This does not change its stats or attack, but each time it transforms it may target one creature who is then affected by Cause Fear. If using the GLOG system, assume a 4 [Dice] casting.

Corrupting Touch: The Plat-Eye's mere touch is harmful to living flesh. Its attack bypasses all non magical armor and deals 1d4 damage that cannot be healed without the presence of sunlight. 

The Plat-eye is a hideous type of undead warden created by those who wish to protect buried treasure. They are created when one versed in The Root buries the head of one they consider an enemy along side whatever it is they wish to protect. From the head, a vile solid shadow arises and keeps an eternal vigil. When confronted, the creature transforms itself into various awful forms, meant to frighten away would be treasure-seekers. Bringing a Plat-Eye to 0 HP banishes it for the night, but it will regenerate on the next moonrise. The only way to permanently defeat the Plat-Eye is to dig up its buried head and either destroy it utterly or give it its last rights. Confronting a Plat-Eye with a boodaddy or part of its original body will half its Morale score.

It's not called Root for nothing folks!

Root Magic Items

Any Root Worker can create one of these items given the materials and time. Each one is made specifically for an individual and thus will not work for another unless freely given.

Root Mojo: The most basic form of Root, this talisman is a small sewn up packet filled with special roots, herbs, bones, and other items of magical significance. It should be small enough to hang on a necklace or fit in a pocket. These mojo are mainly concerned with affecting the bearer's luck and can provide a +2 to roll associated with the mojo's purpose. These purposes are usually for things such as fertility, finding fortune/work, being safe at sea etc. These mojos can be used inversely by burying them on property owned by a target, thus "burying" their luck. This causes a -2 penalty instead and can only be dispelled by digging up and disposing of the Root.

Boodaddy: Created from a mixture of marsh mud, Spanish moss, sweet grass and salt water, the Boodaddy is a small humanoid doll with a bloated head and an atrophied body. After incubating it in an oyster shell for one week, the Boodaddy is infused with protective magic. A single Boodaddy will provide protection from 1 HD worth of Undead or Root Monster, rendering them unable to attack you. Attacking the creature yourself will break this protective magic. Multiple Boodaddies stack and the homes of those targeted by especially dangerous spirits might be covered in the small dolls. Every full moon, the Boodaddies animate and troop down to the closest river to sip oyster nectar and renew their power.

Goofer Dust: Raw magical reagents ground into a powder, Goofer Dust can act similarly to a potion or a scroll depending upon method of use. One could spread it across an area or toss it at a target, similarly one may mix it into water and drink it. Normally a specific spell might be prepared into the Goofer Dust, however an especially mischievous Root Worker may leave the dust unfocused and full of wild magic. This is your excuse to pull out whatever wild magic or Rod of Wonder effects table you might like. The only consistent theme of Goofer Dust is that it is used for malevolent or subversive purposes.

Black Cat Bone: Take a black cat and boil it alive. It will speak as a man and try to tempt you and stop you, but you must ignore it. Put the boiled cat in a canvas bag then pour it out over a swift moving river. One of its bones will float to the surface and move upstream rather than downstream. Collect this bone and ensure it doesn't see the light of day. By including this bone in a mojo or by holding it in your mouth, you may turn invisible as long as there is a shadow to hide in. The bone will eventually become brittle and lose its power on the following full moon, but remains a potent component for general use in Goofer Dust or Mojos.

Hoodoo Water, GMO and Pesticide Free!

Root Spells

There are many possible spells I could design here, but as I plan on making a Root Doctor class eventually, I'll just lay down a few.

High John The Conqueror

R: Touch T: creature D: [dice] hours or until used
A literal root spell, this creates a temporary talisman from a type of jalap root called John the Conqueror Root. The bearer of this root is enchanted to "get lucky." This will allow the user to have a +2 bonus to any seduction relate rolls and will ensure conception after any sexual congress. The user can alternatively use up all the luck at once and add [Sum] to any roll where luck or gambling is the primary determining factor of the roll.


Hotfoot Powder
R: 2x[sum] feet radius T: Area D: [Dice] Hours
A temporary protection against those who would do you harm, Hotfoot Powder is spread in an approximate circle around an area and creates an inpenetrable ward against disembodied undead. When cast, the caster can also identify a single unique being of 2x[dice] HD to be similarly warded against. If the caster, or whomever spreads the Hotfoot Powder, steps over the circle, the magic is nullified.


Two Headed (Wo)Man
R: 0 T: Self D: [dice] x 10 minutes/Permanent
As Wizard Vision, except it can only be cast on oneself. The caster can also mitigate the Permanent aspects of the spell by wearing purple tinted spectacles. Root Lore Note: Called this because the caster has a "head in both worlds."

Haint Blue for warding off Haints, Hags, and other Horribles.

Root Superstitions

1. The Bottle Tree: A tree with blue glass bottles hanging upon it, evil spirits seek refuge in the bottles but are then trapped and destroyed with the rising sun.
2. Haint Blue: Painting doors, shutters, or porch ceilings "Haint Blue", kind of a robin's egg blue, will provide protection from hostile spirits.
3. The Written Word: By placing a parchment with writing in your shoe or papering the walls of a home with printed word, you may protect yourself from spirits as they must slowly read every word before they are able to possess or attack you.
4. Wasps and Snakes: Stinging insects and snakes will not fully die until sundown, rending even their ashes as potent and dangerous until then.
5. Knives: Carrying a new knife that has never been used on wood can be used to combat evil spirits.
6. Rabbit Foot: A rabbit's foot brings good luck. The left hind foot of a rabbit that lived in a graveyard brings the best luck.