Witch's Hex

(This content contains material from previous posts.)

The Witch's Hex, is a landmark monument in Wizard City Hexcrawl - a big obsidian obelisk dedicated to all those lost to the cause of magic. It is a hallowed place, perhaps the closest thing to both a graveyard and a church in the entire city. A veil of Silence is cast upon the hexagon, disallowing all spells and sound.

One can find a variety of wizards here or in the adjoining districts: the Hex neatly divides the Commercial Zone, Student Ghetto, University Campus, and Ruins, and as such attracts the movements of a number of wizards.

By the wizard gangs, it's considered a neutral ground of sorts: violence is prohibited (and difficult, by the Silence aura), not by law but by gentleman's agreement between all factions: for there isn't an institution, family, or group that hasn't lost someone to the study of magic.

Each Gang has five named Wizards, who might be considered powerful agents or lieutenants within the organization. Either roll 1d6 within a Gang (6 meaning reroll twice), or d100 for a random gangster.

Gang	d100	Name	Details
Better Reality Union	1	Ozmond the Enlightened	White robes, serene expression, balding, calm voice. Like somebody’s nice dad. Pockets full of drugs.
	2	Smiling Barbara	White robes, always smiling. Every part of her face except her mouth is glamored away, so it’s just the smile. Mannequin vibe, like a creepy nurse. Solves cleanliness problems with illusions and nothing else.
	3	Narm	Looks like a villain from Die Hard who joined a cult. Resting bitch face is ‘pissed’. Heavy foreign accent. Sociopathically unconcerned with collateral damage and keeps a small, strong repertoire of illusions: ‘desperate little girl’, ‘wounded dog’, ‘sexy blonde’.
	4	James Freemanson	Remember, he is an ACTOR. Remember that: he’s a professional. Short hair, goatee, slightly overweight. Fresh from the costume department. Crafter of experience. Conductor of reality. Flare, flare, flare, from here to there.
	5	Boo	Glowing floating Akira baby. Paints worlds with their brain. Capable of local reality collapse, but only to the drugged. In brain space, they are a beautiful and terrible god.
Black Dragons	6	Joshua Grave	Failed scientist turned acid spitter. Dripples the stuff from his mouth, ruining all his shirts. Wears a thin glass bib now. Holds a heavy grudge against academic journals and administrators. Spits to the side compulsively. Horribly runny nose.
	7	Drak	Has a head like someone stretched human skin and features over a bloody cow skull. Claws for hands. Covered in black space tattoos. Absolutely suicidal in his devotion to the gang.
	8	Formalyn Green	“Acid cleans...”. Self-professed acrimaniac. Wears a grim-faced glass mask and a chopping glass hand, augmented by thick forest green cloaks. Leper-skinned. Never looks away.
	9	Harry the Rake	Forked-tongue polymorpher. Devious little sociopathic shit. Eats only live vermin. Fond of cruel and painful practical jokes - replacing drinking water with acid, impersonating someone’s boss and firing them, filling a baby carriage full of dynamite, etc.
	10	Meisterin Voe	Dark priestess of the hoard. Compulsive counter, expert accountant. Hides a terrible destructive rage for when things don’t line up. Petrifying gaze. Corrosive touch.
Black Magic Fraternity	11	Mr. Wight	Parabiotic shrivelled geriatric man riding surgically attached back to back with a young thrall. Newer Brothers take turns supporting him as ritual initiation. Tubes of blood and less pleasant liquids run between them. Talks in whispers. Fingernails like soft daggers. Insists he shall live forever!
	12	Quon Anon	You remember talking to him. You remember what he did. You can’t, however, remember what he looked like. No defining features. Well, except maybe one. He was tall...
	13	Brother Toad	Million yard stare. Sees things. Too many things. Incapable of noticing the obvious and not noticing the intractably subtle: the taste of air when someone enters the room, the dances of the ghosts when the sun goes down, the empty spaces between words rather than the words themselves.
	14	Chancy Grace	Speaker for The Unquenchable One. Nobody is sure who or what this is, what it stands for, or what it’s capable of, but he insists you talk to him, not Chancy. Those who talk directly addressing Chancy start to suffer incurable thirst.
	15	The Imperishable Steward	His strong Right Hand gives temporary life. His withered Left Hand taketh it away. “Are you a king?”, he asks, to make mental note. Sleeps upon a poor-man’s throne.
Charms	16	Dhac	Imagine a person had every elective plastic surgery possible and they all went wrong. Hangs out in everyday stores and likes to Charm people into conversations about his ‘good looks’. If he ever got in a fight, he would shatter like a porcelain pot.
	17	Milford	Spends all day casting Suggestion on women his age so they can mother him. Makes ‘em do his laundry, clean his apartment, do the dishes, listen to him talk about his coin collection. Insufferable to be around every moment of the day, and completely incapable of performing basic necessities.
	18	Minnie & Molly	Telepathically-linked twins. Finish each other’s sentences. They like to scope out solo rich men at upscale bars and rob them blind. Skilled at memory erasure and negotiating deals with the bar staff so they don’t narc on their gig. Always insist on equal cuts all around.
	19	The Freeze	White-gloved Hold Person specialist. Never works without help. Never takes the initial risk. Bald-headed psychopomp takes great pleasure in paralytic magic. Demeanor of a serial killer with no friends nor family.
	20	‘Confessor’ Mandrake	“Tell me, friend, what are you hiding from me?” An unassuming older man of a priestly demeanor and a snake’s cold heart. Master of a thousand ways to get someone talking. Pretends to be inept at fighting. Feigns weakness, particularly to the authorities.
Dark Forces of the Curselord	21	DEATHKILL	Grumbly-voiced tryhard mercenary. Featherweight assassin too nervous to actually kill anyone. Carries very scary-looking but impossible-to-use weapons like double flails.
	22	Murder Murder Von Murderface	Never killed anyone. Murdered plenty of helpless small animals, though. Psychotic clown with inept makeup. Fake nose keeps falling off.
	23	Steeve	What the hell are you doing in the Dark Forces, Steeve?! The most average man must be having a hard day. Ah well, at least he brought pasta salad.
	24	Gimpy McGrand	Way too into the whole ‘Pain and Suffering’ thing. Makes the other Forces uncomfortable. As useful in a fight as a wet noodle. Good with knots, though.
	25	The Sewer Witch	An actual buck-toothed swamp hag. Covered in toxic mold. Scares the crap out of the other members. Adept at for-real Curses. Could easily displace The Curselord, if she didn’t appreciate the cover of his buffoonery.
Dead Janes	26	Jane Doe	Fairly tall. Different face every week. Pulls them off the corpses. Means her zombies are a bunch of muscle-faced tooth gnashers. Stitches around the jaw, ears, and forehead give it away. Uses an uncomfortable amount of direct eye contact.
	27	Frankie	Nine feet tall. Lustrous flowing black hair. Pearly white teeth straight like military gravestones. Frostbit black lips. Anemic skin. Cow eyes that display a melancholic malice. Unearthly strong. Wily and educated. Could choke the life out of a bull. Doesn’t need magic, but knows it anyway.
	28	Fiona the Clean	Ex-Custodian? They call her “The Garbage Lady”. Knows how to clean up. Knows where to hide the bodies. Knows how to remove their identifying features. Commander of an undead legion of mystery bodies without faces, teeth, tongues, or fingerprints, all surgically cropped to the same dimensions. Identifies them, and everyone else, by numbers or letters.
	29	Wet Sally	Stupid plastered grin. Big extravagant hats. Constantly looks like she’s melting. Part ooze. Pretty friendly, but her touch dissolves flesh. Wounds splatter her like a shattered jelly jar, spraying caustic ooze everywhere.
	30	Madame Exuberance	So loaded with jewelry she could drown in knee-high water. Attended by four gold-gilded skeleton butlers. Platinum teeth. Literal heart of gold. Dripping with sarcasm. Philanthropic with her jewels, but only to the less fortunate.
Dirty Rascals	31	Little Tommy	Little Tommy just needs money for gruel or soup! Little Timmy can also cast Fireball.
	32	Sally Shin Shanks	Pig-tailed doe-eyed little girl. Host of Unseen Servants with invisible knives. Likes cruel jokes involving her ‘Imaginary Friends’.
	33	Jiminy Soot	Lives in a boot. Good at the shoot. Skilled in the root. Has a little horn that go doot doot doot.
	34	En	Frail emaciated child suffering muscle degeneration. Huge veiny pulsing head. Carried around by a lobotomized nursemaid everyone calls ‘Mother’. Intense psychic powers. Can read your thoughts.
	35	Dorothee the Dread Animator	Filthy little urchin covered in dirt and grime. Makes animated mud monstrosities straight from the muck and portends the future in murky street puddles. Probably an oracle and a hydromancer.
Fire Brigade	36	Mantle	Bald cauliflower-eared brute. Carries a notched axe. What are the notches for? Fights? Murders? Personals stolen? He won’t tell, and nobody wants to ask. Always grinning after a fire.
	37	Subchief Loony	Composed like a hobo. Never seen without hard liquor. Can’t feel any pain below the neck. Known to run right into burning buildings to save the booze.
	38	Crowbar	Fire-resistant golem. Coated and equipped with choking suppressant chemicals and a complete lack of subtly. Strong, dumb, and completely unaware of how hot fire actually is.
	39	Subchief Dora	Chief’s protege. Excellent stonewaller. Catchphrase: “What…”. What house? What fire? What looters? What screaming? What extortion? What bribes? What stolen property?
	40	Cannibal Sam	Never seen in public without his or her fire mask. Never says a word, unless it’s a comment about the smell of burning flesh. Has filed teeth. Axe kept meticulously clean.
Fourteen and Five-Eights Street	41	Loyd the Voyd	Keeps a star-studded cloak close to the chest. Not a hair on his body. Eyes are swirling black vortexes. Under that cloak is the vacuum of space. Talks like a wind down an empty alley - all high pitched whistle and rasp.
	42	Betty with the Deep Pockets	Trench coach, shifty eyes. “Gotta watch out for those 4th dimensional shamblers… They can be anywhere and everywhere!” Pockets so deep you could fall in and never be found.
	43	Betty with the Mirror	Never looks at anyone directly. Always reflected through a hand mirror. Stylish and well-groomed. The reflection seems to have a mind of its own.
	44	The Tall Hatter	Real short guy with a stubby chin. Wears a stack of hats two meters high. Bowlers, boaters, tops, cowboys, tricorns, piths, panamas, buckets, trilbies, hombergs, boonies, pork pies, fedoras, ushankas, and a single red fez at the bottom. Each one goes somewhere. Except the fez. That’s just a normal hat.
	45	Broth the Sacker	Tall burly guy, bare arms with muscles like rebar and a big bird’s nest beard. Carries a bunch of burlap sacks for people-snatching. Put ‘em in the sack and they’re gone - fallen to who-knows-where like a reverse rabbit pull.
Good Boyz	46	King	Giant Hagrid-like fellow!... Itty-bitty chihuahua. Absolutely vicious in dog form, completely cowardly and meek while un-polymorphed. Definitely a biter.
	47	Madame Fluffybutt	Pompous cigarette-smoking middle aged lady turned pompous cigarette-smoking corgi. Likes excessively feathered hats and complaining about ‘the serfs’. Has two hat collections: for humans and for corgis.
	48	Damien Knight	Method actor. Completely assumes the role of ‘beloved cute dog that you must painfully put down’. Frequently acts death scenes gratuitously.
	49	Donner	Actually a completely normal greyhound. All the other gang members thinks he’s just really into his role. The real Donner got sick of his role and replaced himself with a real greyhound years ago.
	50	Bull	Gangly college dropout who smells like turd turned full-time vicious, muscly pitbull. Picks fights, culls the weak or vulnerable, would tear the throat out of a baby given the chance.
League of Felonious Gentlemen	51	Mr. Eudicot	Tall, handsome, long flowing hair laced with aromatic flowers. Fond of flattering similes and unreciprocated gifts of roses. Master of gentle bees. Suspected florist and/or beekeeper.
	52	The Grand Duke	A literal silver fox dressed for the queen’s ball. Walks upright, 4ft high, excellent elocution. Agile, wily, classically knowledged and age-wisened. Rumored that his sapphire-studded fox mask grants him this disguise. Suspected librarian.
	53	The Adroit Brush	Practitioner of the exceptionally rare magic of painting. Berrett, spotless suit, paint-splattered mask. Wields a brush as the sword, and is capable of crafting creations from his paints in thin air. Quite elitist. Suspected dye merchant.
	54	The Prince of Hot Drink	Always has tasty warm drinks handy - be it coffee, tea, hot chocolate, milk, or expresso. Famously honest and comforting, particularly to those down on their luck or in trauma. Relies on an orphan network for safety and information, and they will never betray him. He’s like Santa Claus to them. Suspected food vendor.
	55	The Black Knight	Coarse and brooding, works alone. Dark cloak, shadow powers, and secretly has a heart of gold. The other Gentlemen sordidly acknowledge his brusque attitude but recognize his contributions. Suspected dilettante.
Lock-Keye International	56	Damond Black	Tailored suit, oiled black hair. Smooth, and a good liar. Laced with throwing knives. Informant for the Secret Police. Pioneered the Cone of Keys spell.
	57	Lex	Scraggly-haired locksmith turned fixer. Poses like unassuming homeless woman. Sarcastic, clever. Pocket full of locks. Pocket full of master keys. Pocket full of tequila.
	58	Broadside	Somber gorilla golem. Manufactured hands split into sophisticated mechanical lockpicks. Brute force of a wrecking ball. Doesn’t say much.
	59	Omar Price	Stylish professional with dreads full of chiming keys. Hums simple tunes while he works. Briefcase full of Eviction Notices and a folding fire axe.
	60	Great Ma Mary	Unassuming old landlady with a mimic-purse full of teeth. Expert object animator and lock-whisperer. Talks doors off their hinges. Makes friends of the windows and spies of doormats.
Nightmares Steed Club	61	Mikey the Streak	Built like a pillbox. Has an addictive need for speed. Acceleration junkie with a penchant for gravity spells. Thinks if he goes fast enough he’ll burst through the veil into the next dimension.
	62	Alasti	Cosplays the grim reaper. Pilots a bitchin’ chariot pulled by four nightmares fueled by th drug-infused dreams of captive junkies strapped to the wheels. Has a semi-permeable bad trip quality to their existence.
	63	B.F. Guy	B.F. stands for Big Freakin’. The Wizard of GAINS conjures the speediest horseless wagon this side of the Styx. Like riding on the world’s most dangerous roller coaster with a bell boy from hell.
	64	Lil’ Miss	Lil’ Miss Lylin wanted a pony for her 11th birthday. Her parents wouldn’t have it. So, she made a pact with a demon. Now she has a pony. It ate her parents, it ate her competition, and it will eat you. Don’t mess with her, or Sugar Song.
	65	Fareye the Blackguard	Ex-paladin wizard with an obsession with all things metal and sharp. Wields spike-covered chains and sharpened gauntlets like they’re going out of style. Licks the blood of enemies off barbed wire clubs and spiked boots. Doesn’t give two shits.
Rooftop Dueling Federation	66	Grom Morcock	Rugged revolutionary dresses like a poet and talks like one, too. Pontificates like a brimstone preacher. Trains to quicken spell motions atop town square rooftops at noon daily. Wanted for sedition.
	67	Ludy Shoe	Built like a panda bear. Pretty chill guy, on the rooftop and out. Buys folks drinks after their first and last fights. Trains by hurling himself off of consecutively taller buildings to resist the impact. Can survive a five story fall now without injury. Uninterruptible spellcasting.
	68	‘Hard Knock’ Patrick	Seeker of extremes. Trains by exposing himself to increasingly dangerous amounts of fire, cold, electricity, sound, poison, and acid. Body shaped like a solid brick. Bald. Can’t grow eyebrows anymore.
	69	The Inescapable Esotericist	Expert of weird magic fighting styles. Counts on confusing and disarming opponents with esoteric magic. Tailor by trade. Wears fancy colorful robes. Will pay in serious favors (never money) to anyone who can get her new weird magic so she can weaponize it.
	70	Sasha Cloverfield	Skilled warlock. Juggles pacts with a half dozen extra dimensional creatures. Hides horns under fancy hats. Hasher body tactically possessed during fights. Control issues with rage or depression. Possessor of ill-gotten wealth.
Sons of the Serpent	71	Very Fidgety Guy	Eyes dart back and forth. Plaid shirt. Never talks. Forked tongue coiled up in mouth.
	72	Eyes Not Quite Right	One eye has vertical pupil. Constantly humming monotone B-Flat half notes. Langy and emaciated.
	73	Person Definitely Shedding Skin	Skin slides or peels off at the touch. Scaly underneath.
	74	Woman With Forked Tongue...	That Lives In Your Dresser. You open the drawer and she’s just… there. Coiled up. Shedding. Disgusting.
	75	Dude Who Points...	At Everyone And Crescendo Screams: “GwwwaaaaaaAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!”
Sorority of the Cell	76	Stacy Bonelantern	Doctoral candidate in Anatomical Studies.Tight-tied cloak of scaled fingernails. Bioluminescent eyes. Her bone lantern smells delicious like barbeque. But with glowing eyes, what’s the lantern for?
	77	Marrowlicker	Ghoulish. Likes to crack open living things with her bear hands. Not a typo. Bear hands. Looks like a starved yeti. Likes to ‘save bits for later’. Sleeps on a pile of broken bones.
	78	Sombersong	True to her name, quite a downer in person. Pitch black hair to the floor, like a cloak. Apt at dirges. Can smell terminal illness. Comes with creative ways to describe them: “A sad dog”, “A ghost is clawing at the walls”, “The last bubbles of a liver drowning.”
	79	Pippy	Super-excited hyperactive bubblegum bacteria girl. Loaded with vials of endospores and cotton swabs. Looks like cotton candy but smells like rotten cooked fish. CONSTANTLY. SWABBING. EVERYTHING.
	80	Lisa	Sophomore, Sister, Secret Snake Person. Constant anxiety attacks - it’s a lot of pressure juggling the responsibilities of good grades, maintaining your social status within the Sorority, and secretly being a snake person who will eventually betray everyone and swallow them screaming whole.
Steeves	81	Sorry Steeve	The Most Average Man. Compulsively apologizes.
	82	Sadistic Steeve	The Most Average Man. Carries a bullwhip. Loves inflicting pain.
	83	Starved Steeve	The Most Average Man. Had his stomach cursed, so he vomits up most of his food.
	84	Sad Steeve	The Most Average Man. Gets picked on by the other Steeves so he’s depressed and ripe for betrayal.
	85	Scarred Steeve	The Most Average Man. Has scar on left eye.
Third Eyes	86	Kilo of Titanback	Constantly busy-ing about, eyes darting like pinballs. Antler-headdress holds aloft various lottery or racing tickets. Hates being touched.
	87	Lucky Carl	Toga made of peacock feathers. Pointed shoes. Halfling. Reality bends over backwards to give him good luck. Takes extreme risks and freely berates the powerful.
	88	Goom of Heraldhope	4ft tall ridiculously bejeweled hat and overweight. Carted about on a Floating Disk like Jabba the Hut. Knows prophecy, but never tells anyone the exact truth.
	89	Slonar the Serendipitous	Pretends to be a talking marble statue. He would be a Bernini masterpiece. Apt at voice-throwing and standing very still. Only moves when people aren’t looking.
	90	Dubbadob	Can foresee with perfect clarity only unimportant things in the future (i.e. what you’ll have for lunch tomorrow). Size-too-small fez, crooked teeth, and a big messy beard.
Transmutation Mafia	91	Jimmy Whispers	Sells broken ‘gold’ watches out of holed-jacket. Wrings hands constantly. Assumes everyone who isn’t buying a watch is an undercover cop.
	92	Garson Wells	“Hey, kid… You want knives for hands? What kid your age doesn’t want knives for hands?” His hands are, indeed, made of switchblades. Worst. Handshake. Ever.
	93	Marceline Wineblud	Gradually transmuted her blood into wine. High functioning alcoholic alemental. Sporadically cuts her wrists to drink from the wounds. Wine-colored robes.
	94	Alman	Turned skin to aluminum. Think Iron Man, but far lighter and much less durable. Bears a thousand tacky scratches that make him look like cheap used pewter silverware. Can’t bend at the waist anymore. Very insecure.
	95	‘Gene’ Winnie	Gives out money like candy - all of it fake. Throws it into crowded streets, hands it to every beggar and every person she meets. Finds it hilarious that they’ll discover it’s just pocket lint. Big billowy robes and a wide hat.
Woodworker’s Alliance	96	Dorothee Blake	Ex-Librarian, present mercenary, tracker for the Cartel. Looks like any librarian you’d ever see: covered in blood and occult symbols, reeking of existential dread, carrying a portable card catalog that could cut stone and a lethal assortment of pens.
	97	‘Big Fist’ Nob	Unassuming skinny guy with no arms and no shirt, but a ton of bruises. Conjures huge telekinetic hands by headbanging and dance. Big fighter on the circuit. His headbutt has ended many careers. Big attitude.
	98	Mariah the Magic Missile	How many Magic Missile wands is too many? Mariah knows. Apparently it’s not 26. Wands strapped to limbs. Wands stuffed in pockets. Wands feathering her hat. Little wands for dentures. Can fire wands akimbo.
	99	Lenny Scabstab	How many scabs has Lenny stabbed? Is it one for each facial scar? One for each freckle? One for each mole? Each broken tooth? Each pound in excess of 200? In any case, it’s a lot. He’s stabbed a lot of people.
	100	Killer Whale	Urban hermit turned hitman for the Woodworkers. Lurks around the docks. Springs from still waters to gobble up trespassers and thieves. Said to have a razor-toothed mouth that runs from head to hip.