ELFRIC SERPENT-EYE (from Slaine/2000AD) for Basic Games

 

This handsome fellow from 2013, as opposed to David Pugh's monster, Massimo Belardinelli's bloke, or Dermot Power's & Glenn Fabry's blue imp in Demon Killer.
Art: Glenn Fabry.

From the Slaine comic strip in 2000AD. This is Elfric from first appearance in Time Killer, up to the solo gamebook adventures. System is approximately BX/OSE, with later-edition shading.

* = more optional than usual.

Elfric Serpent-Eye

Triple-eyed, blue (or yellow) - skinned extra-dimensional sybarite and sadist; changeling 'son' of the King of Norway, shape-shifter, connoisseur of horrors, equal-opportunity despoiler and degenerate, favoured lieutenant of the Cythrons, personal friend of the Emperor Nero.

Armour Class Unarmoured = Chain + DEX  Hit Dice 6+3  Movement Normal Human Morale 12

Charisma 16, Constitution 15, Dexterity 18, Intelligence 16, Strength 18, Wisdom 15

Elf 6 / Evil Outsider

Hit Dice: roll hp for a 6th level character plus CON adjustment and for a 6+3 HD monster, keep the higher total.

Elf: By name and by nature. All abilities of a 6th level Elf character (or multi-classed Elf Fighter/Magic User). 

*Consolidate/pick-and-choose class/race abilities for Elf characters/monster across available/compatible editions/systems.

Outsider: Elfric is from Els-Where, a dimension at right-angles to our own (get it?). This is where he returns to regenerate if slain on the mortal sphere; he can also return here at any time of his choosing.

Revise for your setting cosmology if you don't want to further muddy the dimensional waters.

*Reclassify Elfric as Fey if you want - he's one of Slaine's world's faerie folk, even if that means something different outside of D&D-ish.

Weapons and Armour: Elfric can use any weapon available, including those he's been impaled on.

Sometimes wields a scythe-axe, the equivalent of Slaine's axe, Brainbiter, but can impale on a crit.

No problems dual-wielding. Probably finds firearms amusing.

Treats armour as costume and cosplay (because - see below) but can improve AC by shield, magical plusses and/or armour better than Chain.

Invulnerable Monster vs. mortals wielding normal weapons (3^rd level or less), and half damage from weapons wielded by 4^th level or higher (including magical ones).

Fabry/Talbot (1985)

Immune to crits, decapitation, dismemberment, impales, massive damage effects and poison/venom.

Immune to 1st - 3rd level spells.

Vulnerable to Iron: Still only causes half damage, but the weapon doesn't need to be enchanted, nor wielded by a Hero.

In Els-Where (his native plane), an iron weapon will bypass his invulnerability and inflict double-damage. 

Cannot Be Killed: He regenerates/reincarnates in 2d6 rounds. 

Elfric even comes back from being impaled and energy-drained by Grimnismal (nine-dimensional dark god of the Cythrons).

Slaine never decisively defeats Elfric, despite slaying him on several occasions. 

Spells: Elfric does not need to prepare spells in advance, requires no components, patrons or spell book, and casts by thought (lowest possible casting time). He has slots equal to a caster of his level (plus bonus for Ability Scores, if applicable).

Prefers bondage, fear and trickery over simple destruction and mass damage.

*Select spells from any class/list, from any edition or supplement, from any compatible system.

Third Eye: As a Cythron's optical leyser, but only once per round, stun vs. 3rd level or less, and melts/shatters the weapon/device you're using against him on a crit. Can be used in melee.

Massimo Bellaridinelli (1985)

Shape-shifter: Can take on the appearance of a known or unknown person. It is sometimes said he cannot transform his third eye, but must physically disguise it.

*Treat as alter self or change self spell from AD&D, or as a Doppelganger (eg. OSE or BFRPG).

*I can't remember Elfric taking non-humanoid or animal form, but that doesn't mean he can't.

*Further Elaboration.

Law of Macrocosm: If you defeat Elfric three times, you have proved yourself immune to him, and he can no longer directly harm you.

He will, however, take delight in causing as much indirect harm to you as he can thereafter - especially via those people and things you value the most. Up to and including atrocities against your descendants, or even the future nation state that encompasses your homeland.

(This is doesn't feature again after the end of Time Killer, as far as I can tell, and maybe can be explained as only applying in Els-Where).

David Pugh (1985).

Summoning: Elfric is several times shown calling up monsters - Elementals at Clontarf; a swarm of bat-things in Els-Where; Diluvials in Roman Britain.

You can give him summoning abilities as a Vampire, reskinning the rats, bats and wolves or swapping them out for similar HD equivalents.

The Elementals are mindless, monstrous and hungry. They will stop what they're doing to feast on fallen mortals 1-2 on a d6 each round. They're more like Hordlings than D&D-ish elementals.

Favoured lieutenant of the Cythrons: It's not wholly clear (from my reading) whether Elfric's form and powers are entirely his, or whether they are gifts of the Cythrons.

Having been defeated three times by Slaine, Elfric asks the Guledig not to be sent back to Els-Where, that he enjoys human form, implying that both his form and freedom of movement are at the Guledig's sufferance.

The Fetch: Elfric can appear as the double of his chosen enemy, a traditional omen of death.

Being equally matched, the original cannot defeat the Fetch except by special means.

Mechanically, this is a lot easier than mythic narrative allows, but maybe rule that Elfric is otherwise completely immune to your attacks unless you are using a gae bolga (a traditional 'secret weapon' of Celtic myth) or a tathlum.

*El-Stones: Something like the amulet/talisman of a 1e AD&D devil or demon?

Not established as being part of the lore in the early stories featuring Elfric.

*El-Women: By no means as tough as Elfric (adding to the idea that some of his power is granted by the Cythrons), you can just use Drow stats and abilities with the vulnerability to iron added.

When you kill them they turn back into weird slug-like creatures - presumably also their and Elfric's original form. They don't regenerate.

Commentary.

Out of the 19 (maybe more now) Slaine comic books, Elfric's in only 2 as major antagonist - I had him down as Slaine's eternal nemesis and that's how I prefer to think of him. But that's what happens when you read in an achronological narrow band.

That the Replicant of Slaine in The Secret Commonwealth isn't Elfric, from my perspective, is a wasted opportunity - I have other criticisms, but that's my main one.

Slaine and Elfric are evil twins. Elfric is Slaine with no ties, no restraints - but compare the atrocities they commit during Demon Killer. Slaine thinks he is right. Elfric just likes it.

Elfric's queer-coding is all over the place, and doesn't leave a very good taste in the mouth. Slaine and Elfric do at least snog at one point (depending on choices made in a solo adventure).

My pet theory is that the reason the lore of Slaine is inconsistent is because of Elfric and Slaine's appearance at the Battle of Clontarf in 1014 (and presumably Elfric was embedded in the Norwegian royal family for at least some time before), and the paradoxes that spin-off from it.

Pretty sure this is by Glenn Fabry, but Dermot Power started his run during Demon Killer (1993).

He was yellow-skinned in the collected US reprints of Time Killer, but I think Pat Mills probably had good reasons for why he would be blue.

THE DARK JUDGES (FEAR, FIRE and MORTIS) (2000AD) for Old School Fantasy & Horror.

 

Kev O'Neill

Eternal co-conspirators and bosom chums of Judge Death. 

In terms of basic mechanics/stats, treat the Dark Judges much the same as Judge Death.

Asterisk (*) indicates optional.

Morale: 10 (they're not self-destructive idiots) or 12 (they're indestructible super-fiends).

*Hit Dice: If they're not equal to Judge Death (and this could also depend on the host body and whether it's been treated with Dead Fluids), then they are probably no more than a step behind in terms of total HD, size of die used, or number of hp per die.

Invulnerable Monsters: In addition, Judge Fire is immune to fire and vs. magical (and dragon) fire, takes half or no damage.

*Fire and Mortis can also have damage/weapon resistances like Skeletons.

*Fire is immune to web, entangle and similar. Because he's on fire.

Attack with Filthy Claws: You're guaranteed to contract Mummy disease when fighting Mortis.

Fire does not harbour Mummy disease, but you take d8 hp fire damage per round of melee. Because he's on fire.

Grasp Heart: As Judge Death. Judge Fear only.

Stench of Death: As Judge Death. Judge Mortis only. 

*Fire smells like a conflagration in an overcrowded prison, with the same effects as the Stench of Death except: does not make you sick on a crit; you can't gain immunity.

Mournful Charm: As Judge Death. The other three Dark Judges lack Death's barely-controllable compulsion to kill charmed victims.

*Fire doesn't use this ability; it's not his style.

*Superhuman Strength: as optional for all or each of them as it is for Judge Death.

You Cannot Kill That Which Does Not Live: In gaseous form, they only have the ability to attempt possession.

Fire's disembodied spirit is especially threatening, because he looks like a roving fireball (or Skullghast) - but he can't set anything alight like this, and gives off no heat (he might not even cast illumination, just outlined in the dark as with faerie fire).

*No worries if you want to give them Mournful Charm and/or Stench of Death in this form, though - they are super-fiends after all.

Judge Fear - Special Rules.

Brian Bolland

Mantraps: carries at least two at all times; thrown weapons; regular rules for mantraps or mancatchers or grapple-at-range. 

Damage as for Filthy Claws +1.

Padlock: hold portal and wizard lock on any door, gate, hatch etc. Effective enough against normal humans and low-level psychics/spell-casters.

An object from a low-magic universe, attuned to a powerful supernatural being: it is Fear's willpower you challenge, not an intrinsic enchantment.

Gaze Into The Face of Fear: Fear can open his helmet and expose his face to a single target, who must immediately save or die.

If you're unlevelled, you survive only a crit success; if levelled, you survive on a normal success and are immune to the effect for the rest of the encounter on a critical success.

*If 4th level or above, you are immune (rest of the encounter) on a success. If 8th level above, immunity is permanent.

Judge Fire - Special Rules.

Greg Staples

Beneficiary of nominative determinism, arson-inclined mortal Judge Fuego became Judge Fire.

Flaming Trident: Base damage and properties as a regular trident with adjustments/effects as a flame tongue sword.

An object from a low-magic universe, it could be alien, magi- or necro-tech rather than enchanted.

The trident can be thrown as a 2d6 fireball (normal fire), and can project a 20' line or 10'x10' cone of flames for the same amount of damage. Normal saves apply.

Anyone who gets hold of Fire's trident can potentially use it, but will suffer d8 hp damage per round because it's ON FIRE! 

Judge Fire is attuned to the trident so he knows where it is, if someone else is using it, and can call it to him if nearby (strength/grapple contest if you're wielding it when he does so).

Special Vulnerability: Takes unsoakable non-lethal damage from water and fire extinguishers – you can subdue him this way, but it won’t stop him reigniting later and it won’t force him into gaseous form.

*Combustible Hosts: Unless treated with Dead Fluids, a host body burns at a rate of d8 hp per minute  then flares up as a 2d6 fireball (normal fire) at 0 hp. The host is reduced to ash and Fire assumes gaseous form.

Judge Mortis - Special Rules.

Carlos Ezquerra

Death, Fear, Fire and Mortis has a good rhythm to it, but why not just Judge Decay? That is his schtick after all.

Based on a reading of the character in Fall of Deadworld, Mortis is an aesthete (and enthusiast) of death and decay.

Maybe he chose the Mortis nom de guerre out of respect for Death?

Touch of Decay: Mortis makes a touch attack equivalent to the attack of a Mummy (d12 rot/necrotic damage, plus infection with horrible rotting disease - no save).

Claw damage stacks with the touch attack.

Special Vulnerability: Weapons of pure metals, such as gold or silver, bypass his Invulnerability (for half-damage).

Contact does not discomfort or harm him; they're just unaffected by his touch.

*Decomposing Hosts: Unless treated with Dead Fluids, a host body rots at a rate of d12 hp per minute. The host is reduced to dust/slime and Mortis assumes gaseous form.

*Further Elaboration.

Judge Fear’s Helmet is also Warduke’s helmet (XL1 Quest for the Heartstone: gives infravision to 60’).

If Fear is on the same plane, he knows where it is, and will seek out the wearer to possess them. 

He will whisper to them in dreams to encourage them to do horrible things ("Hey - why is this parent-friendly commercial tie-in fantasy villain being so relentlessly edgy and grimdark?").

While Fear will possess Warduke if possible, he’d rather possess Warduke’s conqueror and spend a bit of time pretending to be the villain back from the dead before reverting to type and trying to bring his necrotic buddies along.

Perfect opportunity to turn Greyhawk into your local Deadworld.

Commentary.

Jim Murray

I'm not saying it's definitely the reference.

An Unseasonal Treat - The Shitting Log of Catalonia as Elder Horror.

Vance at Leicester's Ramble got my Secret Santicorn 2024 prompt: "The Real Monster of which the Shitting Log of Catalonia is the sanity-protecting bowdlerization". 

The Tio de Nadal (Christmas Log - which you feed and then beat so it shits out some sweet treats for the kids) looks something like this:

Jumping off point was the blind paladins of Vance's iteration. Serendipity ensues.

Usual statement that this is mechanically based on old-fashioned D&D-ish but meant to be broadly agnostic, and asterisk means especially optional.

SRAIM, The Shitting Log of Catalonia.

A drifting star-spawn, designated 'Sraim', (crash)lands on Earth and is worshipped as a god by pre-historic humans/humanoids (details to taste).

The sorcerers can tap it for mana, but once the priesthood and the people oust the sorcerers, it becomes clear that this is a useless god - all it does is eat sacrifices and not answer prayers.

The people turn to other gods (either safely remote or more immediately transactional), and Sraim is all but forgotten save for a cult remnant of fanatics. Eventually humiliated (details to taste), the cult remnant turns on Sraim and takes out their frustrations on its body.

Sraim cannot be killed, because even a useless god is still a god. And because it is a god, the bits that come off or out of it have their own power - if you host that bit of the god, you take on that power.

Centuries of secret experiments refine the rituals of the exo-flagellant cult, and they learn to wound Sraim in ways to produce predictable results. Whether the cult believes their actions honour or enslave the god is up to you.

Whispers of the cult - the things it does, the Thing it centres on - disperse across Europe, bump up against and merge with other folk beliefs until they become the Tio de Nadal. Even then, the darker truth of the cult is superficially indistinguishable from common European folklore concerning witchcraft, familiar spirits and devil-worship.

It looks something like this:

John Blanche illo. from White Dwarf 48.
How fortuitous!

The head-part resembles the most recently consumed sacrifice (animal or otherwise), then breaks down between feedings.

Roll d3 to see what it would fit in/on:

1. An altar, a basket, a bucket, a plastic bag, a basin, a sink, a fireplace (1 HD).
2. A bed, a flat-topped standing stone, a coffin, a body-bag, the boot (trunk) of a car (3 HD).
3. A crude shrine, a barn, a cellar, a well, a cave, the back of a truck (6 to 8 HD).

Sraim's size depends on how well fed it is.

It can bite and chew for one die of damage per round, or it can drain Ability Scores at d3 points per round (CON, DEX and STR is sucking blood; CHA, INT and WIS is soul sucking).

It must be presented with victims as it cannot hunt by itself.

Special Abilities:

Can't Be Killed: Sraim is equivalent to a helpless Unarmoured target, but all damage is non-lethal.

Regenerates: at a rate of 1 hp per 10 minute turn normally, and at 3 hp per combat round, starting 3 rounds after it has been injured.

Spell Immunity: it is unaffected by all spells that do not cause points of damage.

*except appropriate binding and dismissal rituals.

Dream Communication: anyone with a Gift parasite can be visited in their dreams (including induced Altered States). Sraim does not have anything to communicate other than pain, madness and what it can see/sense - there is no intelligence or personality (as we would understand it) directing these visions.

The Gifts.

Whether they are part of Sraim or incidental inhabitants, the Gifts of Sraim are parasites, born of the brutality carried out on the god's corpus, and bestow boons and/or banes on those they infest. Hosting is usually internal, but they can also attach like a leech.

The chance of ritual wounding producing a parasite is base 1% per point of damage (or as narrative dictates). The method and detail of the ritual wounding influences the properties of the Gift. This has been recorded, refined and ritualised by the cult over centuries; in fact, it makes up the bulk of their cultic literature.

Parasites need blood to survive, with or without a host. They do not share Sraim's special abilities. 

Mechanically, treat these fragments as anything small and invasive (eg. Rot Grub, Scum Creeper, though the Sea Spawn, Minion is probably uppermost in my mind). Interpret a Reaction Roll or Morale Check or whatever to see if it tries to escape, rejoin the main body, or attempts to find a host.

1. Charisma/Ill-favour: for one year, you make all Charisma (and related rolls) at advantage/disadvantage, or adjusted +/-2. This includes Reaction Rolls. A sample of your natural secretions exhibits weird properties.
2. Cleric: you're now a Cleric of Sraim; you can speak (and read, if literate) the secret cult language; you affect undead and cast spells like a reverse-Cleric. You need to host an additional parasite every time you gain a level. Lose your parasite(s), lose your granted abilities until you can host more.
3. Toughness/Weakness: for one year, you make all Constitution (and related) rolls at advantage/disadvantage, or adjusted +/-2. This includes rolls for hit points. A sample of your flesh and/or bone exhibits weird properties.
4. Death: if it's straight save or die, Sraim will eat you up shortly. Otherwise, you have to survive a year without benefit of natural or magical healing - tread lightly.
5. Locate Object: for one year, unlimited by space and time, you know where something is and how to get there, no matter if it is impractical.
6. Good Luck/Cursed: for one year, you can choose to reroll any failure (and if 20s/crits count for nothing at your table, then they do now!) but must abide by the new result (though 1s/crit fails count for nothing, if they did before). Cursed is worse than just the opposite of Good Luck - it's also (either) equal to a year-long curse or all rolls are at disadvantage/penalty.
7. Madness: pulp/horror madness of various types; you understand the secret cult language (but not automatically speak or read it) - any hallucinatory voices will be speaking it. The madness will be interpreted as freedom from moral/mortal constraint, revelation of Sraim, forbidden understanding of cosmic secrets etc.; otherwise, as a monstrous change in personality. You recover in one year.
8. Psionics: roll to see if you develop psionics or become a wild talent; otherwise, you get one use of one power per day for a year, and it's really the parasite doing it on your behalf. If your powers were awakened by a parasite (rather than embodied in it), you do not need to host another one - although you have no reason to know/believe this.
9. Spell: for one year, you can use a specific arcane spell once per day. This includes transcribing and teaching it. The spell is associated with the part of the body where the parasite resides.
10. Strength/Weakness: for one year, you are under a strength/weakness spell-effect, or you make all Strength (and related) rolls at advantage/disadvantage, or adjusted +/-2. This includes rolls for damage. a sample of your blood exhibits weird properties.
11. Thrall: you understand the secret cult language and easily learn to read and speak it; you always know in which direction Sraim lies; you sense other Thralls nearby but do not automatically know them. You must save to resist obeying spoken commands of Clerics of Sraim. You will always come when Sraim is under threat. Thralls do not automatically attack those harming/threatening Sraim, and Sraim does not automatically command them to do so. Thralldom lasts one year, but you will attempt to return to Sraim and take a new parasite.
12. Undeath: whether instantly or after death by other means (or within the one year , you will rise as a Zombie or Mummy with half your mortal INT; you cannot speak, but you understand the secret cult language. You always know in which direction Sraim lies. The parasite does not survive the process, nor are you a viable host thereafter.

Parasites purged and/or destroyed by your preferred method(s).

THE BLIND DEAD, Guardians of Sraim?

El ataque de los meurtos sin ojos (1973).

Undead Knights Templar, either pledged to keep down the cult they once purged, or they were the cult and Sraim was their Baphomet. Whatever their relationship to Sraim, they rise from their tombs to make sure no-one can get to it.

Basic stats as any Undead (up to Mummy) with abilities as 4th level Fighters, 3rd level Paladins (1e or 2e AD&D) or Cavaliers, or 3rd level Cavalier-Paladins (1e UA-style). 

Ignore or modify any incompatibilities arising from a strict interpretation of the written rules. 

They are blind, with all that mechanically entails, but can hear your breath and your heartbeat even when you're hiding.

They sometimes ride horses, which seem to be mundane animals rather than monsters - make of that detail what you will.

Ten together (or fewer if this seems underpowered) can cast a sleep spell. 

If they bite you, save vs. disease or you come back as a Zombie/Ghoul after death. You go after the people you knew in life rather than join up with the Templars.

Mostly wield swords, but also use axes, spears, whips and flaming torches.

*All are equipped as a character of their class, level and background, but any magical equipment is there to be used against them rather than by them. While this is especially true of magic weapons, they will benefit from the passive effects of rings, amulets etc.

*They're on a seven year cycle, rising up to terrorise the neighbourhood and do whatever they need to do to Sraim (feed it, or make sure it's not fed, or to extract Gifts to maintain their existence etc). 

*A blood sacrifice made to Sraim will call them up prematurely, or keep them from walking abroad (as appropriate).

The Cult Today.

1. The cult does not exist - it is dead and forgotten. Sraim lies dormant and hungry. The Blind Dead have not walked abroad in centuries. Cult writings and objects for ritual wounding lie forgotten in abandoned places, or uncatalogued and unrecognised in historical collections. Notorious local historical figures or a particular family have a tradition of secretive behaviour, unexplained wealth/power and gruesome ends, but there is no organised cult.
2. The cult is a modern esoteric secret society that styles itself after the Knights Templar (or at least the legend of them) and are at several removes from the reality of Sraim. They will have access to original artefacts and writings, but their ambitions are worldly, their faith is superficial and untested.
3. The cult is a stereotypically Goya-esque coven of witches and warlocks. Sraim and its parasites are the main source of their power, but that doesn't mean they can't be Druids and Magic Users in their own right. These are the witches and warlocks that give the others a bad reputation and feed the fantasies of the witch-hunters - Sraim is symbolically the sacrament they spit upon, the cross they trample, and they definitely feed it stolen little babies.
4. The cult is made up of individual seekers after forbidden secret powers, who have all followed the same research routes to Sraim. Periodic Thralldom and Cleric-hood make them aware of each other and intimate with Sraim, and they agree to cooperate or at least not interfere in each others' plans. While their cult association will not be known, even in occult circles, their effectiveness will.
5. A network of misguided pagans and researchers (academic and amateur) digging down into the roots of folk traditions. Those closest to the centre form the active cult (or cults/factions within), but the ripples spread into wider society/sub-culture. The Blind Dead will storm a music festival, initially being mistaken for cosplayers or a metal band.
6. A local conspiracy, folk horror-style, and compatible with the other options above. They are all about cover-up and discouraging curious outsiders. Apart from their unique but otherwise mundane variation on the Tio de Nadal tradition (details to taste), which will hint if they see things in a positive or negative light, cultic behaviour is likely to focus on the Blind Dead, as the tangible manifestation of circumstances.

Commentary.

Vance's blind paladins meant that the Blind Dead were going in there, keeping up the Iberian flavour.

The farmer unearthing something awful put me in mind of Clive Barker's Rawhead Rex (especially the Les Edwards graphic version). And the (written) reality of an ancient penis-monster (wanking and pissing as well as ravening and devouring) is at least as terrible/ridiculous as an eldritch turd-worm.

Cleaving close to the Blind Dead mythos puts Sraim-central in an abandoned medieval town on the Spain/Portugal border. This is the opposite side of the country to Catalonia, but it's strongly implied above that Sraim is portable.

If the Templars are antagonist towards Sraim, they might be Dagon or Tsathoggua cultists - judging by their idol in La noche de las gaviotas (1975).

Sraim is named for the illustration, depicting one of Dave Morris's demons from his articles in White Dwarf. Stats for RQ/CoC/BRP in issue 45; converted for AD&D by Liz Fletcher in issue 48. I love how it turns out to be even closer to the popular image of the Tio de Nadal than I remembered.

The Tio de Nadal is supposed to have ancient pagan origins, but I feel that's often just code for 'we don't know'.