THE EIGHT TRACK MIND #16
Virgil Greene...still semi-adrift amongst the Net islands...
October, 1995
The Halloween Issue!
Yes, once again we're in the time when we think about horrors and spirits and the supernatural in a not too serious way. Time to dig up the old horror flicks and stories and maybe even don some form of costume. More on that later.
HEROISM
Telvar stood before the narrow cave opening. The moment of truth was at hand. He'd been told that the legendary Sage of the Ascension would most likely be in a cave like this in these desolate mountains. His heart raced as he sensed his Destiny before him. After a life of quests and adventures and battles he'd achieved enough renown and personal skills that there was virtually no chance the Sage would deny him the great Prize; the Robe of the Overlord and the authority over all peoples that went with it.
He had not achieved his status as the greatest adventurer of the age alone of course. His loyal companions were invaluable. There was Gronnick the Mighty; the one man in the lands who could best him in a straight non-magical fight. Gronnick was none too bright and very limited in his magical skills but he was stronger than any other man Telvar had ever met. He also had courage and loyalty in abundance.
And how could he have escaped the many dangers laid for adventurers in caverns and towers and even in towns without Zek? Zek, whose miserable youth in the streets of the great city of Tonn gave her the skills of a thief that were now turned to greater purposes. She'd prevented Telvar's death on a hundred occasions by sensing traps and ambushes and by striking down foes from the shadows.
Perhaps the most valuable member of Telvar's group was Parlon. She was a master of healing magics who had even brought Telvar back from death after a battle with a dragon, though not without great risk to her own life. Parlon was a quiet and seemingly timid woman, but Telvar knew from many battles that she had great courage and knew from many nights that she had a great deal of hidden passion.
With this group Telvar overcome every challenge he'd faced, and with them he would claim his destiny from the Sage. He walked into the cave. After a short passage they were in a large room that was lit by no visible source. A mist gathered in the center of the room, coalescing into the form of a beautiful white-haired woman clothed in a flowing toga that didn't hide the beauty of her form.
"I am Sara, the Sage of the Ascension and the destined Consort of the Overlord," she said.
"Hot damn!" Telvar thought, "Power and a gorgeous babe!" The quest was definitely worth it. He noticed Parlon looking down, sadly. He figured she shouldn't be that concerned; who says the Overlord can't have both a Consort and a mistress? He still wanted Parlon at his side and occasionally in his bed even with Sara as his Consort. He figured he owed Parlon that.
Sara spoke again, breaking Telvar's reverie. "You are Telvar, son of Rias the goldsmith and Mara the scribe. You have come to claim the Robe of the Overlord, the authority of the Overlord, and the Consort of the Overlord. I shall ask you about some of your exploits so I might assess your worthiness. Are you prepared?" Telvar nodded to affirm his readiness.
"Very well then. Early in your career you cleared the Caverns of Kolob of their Kobold population. Tell me about this."
Telvar had to think a bit to remember that adventure. "The Caverns of Kolob, oh yes!" he said. "We had heard from some villagers that there was a band of Kobolds living there. They told us that some of their children had vanished and that they'd probably been captured and eaten by the Kobolds. The villagers lived in fear of these monsters. So despite being inexperienced, we went into the caves to rid the land of them. There were dozens and dozens of the little creatures, but despite being outnumbered we were victorious!" Telvar smiled, remembering that victory.
"So, how many Kobolds did you take prisoner?" Sara asked.
"None, of course. They were child eating Kobolds!" Telvar said.
"You slew an entire underground village of Kobolds, men and women and children, because some villagers said that they had lost two children in the last year," Sara said. "Did it occur to you that the children might have been eaten by wolves, or that the villagers had never even seen a Kobold, or that a community of 275 Kobolds would need to eat a lot more than just two children a year? Or were you blinded by the villager's stories of a vast treasure that was in the caves?"
"This isn't going well," Telvar thought. "Well...we were young, and everybody knows Kobolds are evil. Killing them off and getting their treasure that they'd probably stolen seemed like a good idea."
"The Kobolds lived off their mushroom gardens and beetle herds, and had accumulated their treasure over centuries of occasional trade. But as you say, you were young and ill-informed. Tell me about your battle with the vampire Lord Walas," the Sage said.
Ah! An easy one! Telvar knew this would be favorable to him. "Well," he began, "we were traveling through the Dark Mountains and came across a moderate sized town. It seemed peaceful enough, but we noticed that many of the women of the town had what looked like bite-marks on their necks. I checked an old book I'd acquired and determined that these were the marks left by a feeding vampire. When we asked the women about the marks, they said that they were from their "tribute of blood" to Lord Walas. We set out for his castle on the mountain overlooking the town. Zek managed to get us into the castle and past the booby traps. We faced an army of rats, and even a wolf pack, before we got to Walas' inner chambers. A sliding wall left me to fight Lord Walas by myself, but with the right battle magics on my sword and a bit of skill I put that vampire in his final grave and freed the town of Walas from any more blood tributes!"
"And what reward did you get from the townsfolk?", Sara asked.
"We didn't go back to the town. We found a hidden treasure room, and one of the magical items there was a portal that would instantly take us to the city that was our original destination. I figured that the townsfolk would learn soon enough that Lord Walas was dead, and we wanted to save some travel time," Telvar said.
"Yes, Lord Walas had quite a treasure accumulated. You and Gronnick's magic armor came from that horde, correct?" Sara asked.
Telvar nodded. "Yes, with that treasure we were able go on to greater adventures."
Sara agreed, "It was a major turning point in your career; you made a name for yourself when you showed up in Tonn with artifacts people had only heard about in stories. But didn't you ever wonder what happened to the town of Walas?"
"I suppose that they were free to get on with their own lives without being oppressed by an evil vampire overlord," Telvar said.
"Not exactly," Sara said. "Lord Walas had been the rightful lord of the land before he became a vampire, and he continued in that role afterward. He had managed to keep thieves and raiders away from the town by his command of the creatures of the night, and took only reasonable taxes and some blood from the unmarried women of the town in return. The women considered it an honor to feed the Lord, and rather enjoyed it. Lord Walas never killed any of his subjects except for the usual punishments for heinous crimes. After you killed him, the raiders came and destroyed the village. They killed all the men after they valiantly tried to fight them off and they carried off the women to be sold as slaves or to serve them."
"I...well...the villagers never told us. We just figured that the vampire was a monster draining the life out of the townsfolk," Telvar stammered.
"And there was all that lovely gold distracting you, too. But of course almost everyone believes vampires to be absolute evil and sometimes they are right. You did show great courage in defeating Lord Walas, for whatever reasons. Tell me about your last adventure, with the dragon," Sara said.
Telvar's confidence was shaken, but this time they surely were in the right. They had been told of the evil of this dragon, after all. "We were asked by Count Lorn to free his lands of the dragon Zoraxax. We tracked him to his lair and defeated him in a great battle. I nearly died...no, actually I did die in that battle. If Gronnick and Zek had not struck final killing blows right at that moment, and had Parlon not risked her own life by casting a dangerous Resurrection spell, I would not be here today. But we saved a lot of lives by killing that dragon, and the Count was grateful for that."
"And the Count rewarded you with the dragon's horde, didn't he? In fact he promised you that reward before you accepted this task," Sara noted.
"Yes, he did. But we rid the land of an evil and we knew that this was an evil!" Telvar said. "You only knew that because he told you that. Unfortunately, Zoraxax was in fact the defender of the common people who gave him offerings of food. His horde was gained from thieves and attacking armies and oppressive rulers. He was the friend of the peasants, and would have interfered in Count Lorn's plans to raise taxes, seize peasant women for his harem, and other oppressive acts."
Telvar sat down dejectedly. "So it seems that I have been wrong every time. But I tried to do the right thing. Didn't I?" he asked.
"Well...no," Sara said. "You tried to justify your actions in each case by claiming to fight evil, but in reality you were seeking glory and treasure. Even when you went up against Lord Walas, you sought the glory of killing a mighty vampire as opposed to freeing the townsfolk.
"You are spoken of as a hero. And by the standards of the travelling minstrels you probably are. But a true Hero is driven by a concern for the greater good of others, and is self-sacrificing. I see little evidence that you are a Hero of that kind. You seek wealth, and power. You wish to be Overlord out of a desire for Power rather than to uphold the greater good.
"There is one in your group who is closer to this ideal. While she failed to steer you from actions that she suspected were wrong, she is driven by love and was willing to die in order to save you. I wish for Parlon to stay with me, and learn."
Telvar was surprised, and he saw that Zek and Gronnick were also. Parlon stepped forward shyly to join the Sage. The Sage dissolved into mist, and coalesced again in the form of a handsome young man. Parlon looked back at Telvar, who could not meet her gaze. She embraced the Sage and both disappeared in a burst of light.
"Uhhh, gee boss, does this mean you don't get to rule the world?" Gronnick asked.
"Pretty much," Telvar acknowledged.
"What a rip-off!" Zek grumbled.
"Oh, who wants all that responsibility anyway? Let's head to the nearest town to celebrate Parlon's good fortune," Telvar said. Life goes on, after all. And maybe Zek will comfort me this evening, he thought, smiling.
**************************************
I was somewhat inspired to write the above by all the fuss about baseball player Cal Ripkin beating Lou Gehrig's record for not missing a ball game. Some folk proclaimed him to be a hero. While I will acknowledge that he accomplished a great feat, I don't see it as "heroic". Essentially he just never missed a day of work. I also note that Lou Gehrig set his record while suffering from a disabling disease that eventually killed him; Mr. Ripkin is pretty much in perfect health.
"Hero" is perhaps an overused term. People's heroes are sports figures or actors or musicians. What is heroic about those endeavours? Not much, really. Even people who take great risks to accomplish some feat like climbing a mountain or flying experimental aircraft or travelling in space aren't exactly "heroes"; certainly they are brave but there usually isn't that bit of sacrifice for others that seems to me to be true heroism.
How heroic are our PCs in our various RPG campaigns? Often we see characters that are "super-heroes"; they may be fighting for good and for others but they really aren't risking their lives. Heroism also involves a willingness to take a risk for that greater good. The high level party that cleans out a nest of low level thieves certainly serves the greater good but they risk nothing. Of course as often as not a party is out for profit, rather than the greater good.
How do we have "heroic" PCs? Assuming that we actually want them, of course. Assess a situation to determine that we're actually on the side of good. Be willing to take risks. And be willing to sacrifice our (player character) selves for the greater good. This doesn't mean that we play suicidally, but that our PCs at some points act to benefit others and for higher purposes.
Official Topic....
TOOLS
Hmmmm. This is kind of a hard one. What could I have that nobody else has thought of? How about a tool that doesn't work?
Years ago the folk at Lion Rampant (the originators of Ars Magica) had a product called Whimsy Cards. When Lion Rampant merged with White Wolf, White Wolf produced Story Path cards that were genre specific. Only "The Path of Intrigue" and "The Path of Horror" were ever produced.
The idea was that players started with a hand of cards, and they could use the cards to influence the path of a role-playing session. Players cause an NPC to be added, or an encounter to occur, or other things. When cards are played, a player can draw a replacement at the GM's discretion
I tried these in a one shot session. It was a RuneQuest game using a map from the Twerps supplement "Fly By Knights", some Call of Cthulhu monsters in addition to the normal RQ creatures, pre-made characters, and Story Path Cards.
It was fun, actually. When a card was played, I as the GM had to interpret the card and got to make up a lot of stuff on the spot while still sticking to the module plotline. The most memorable occurrence was when a troll healer played by The Esteemed Editor had an arm torn off (for the second time in the session; Pete's characters tend to get hurt in my games for some reason) and he played the card "Uncovered Weakness" and suggested that trolls were poisonous to Hunting Horrors! Sounded good to me, so the Hunting Horror dropped dead instead of trashing the party.
So why am I saying that Story Path cards don't work? I think they only work in a very non-serious game where a lot of changes in the storyline and a lot of improvisation are positive things. In a continuing campaign it may not be desirable for the players to be adding encounters and NPCs and so on pretty much at random. Pete noted that his character didn't beat the hunting horror; his having a card and a clever idea beat the horror and that wasn't a result of role-playing.
I'm interested in how well the cards used in TORG and some other West End Games work; if any contributors have experience I'd like to hear about it.
WARNING!WARNING!WARNING!
The Following involves vampires. If one is sick to death of bloodsuckers one may want to steer clear.
THE REASONABLE VAMPIRE
Lorann finished her meal. She licked the wounds until they healed, and then kissed her lover on the cheek. He slept, oblivious to her attentions. This is a good one, she thought. A considerate lover, good conversationalist, and he shared her fondness for Chinese food. He didn't smoke or do drugs; those tended to make the blood taste wrong, in addition to making men unappealing. She only wished that he could become a vampire and share her life.
She showered, and dressed. As she checked herself in the mirror, she thought about her situation. She'd been dating this man for over two years and it was very, very nice. Tonight they'd gone to dinner and a movie, and then to his place (too many things to inspire questions at hers). A round of pleasant lovemaking, and then after he'd gone to sleep she fed on his blood; sweet ecstasy. But now he was talking about marriage, and children, and growing old together.
It was 3:00 in the morning, and in Boston the trains do not run that late. She could take a cab, but Lorann wanted to walk home and think about what she had to do. She couldn't tell him the truth; well, she could but why? The bottom line was that she couldn't give him what he wanted and deserved. Besides, there seemed to be a shortage of men who weren't complete bastards; so many stories of abuse and murder and the like. Why should she rob some mortal woman of a chance at happiness?
So it was settled. She would tell him that she couldn't see him anymore. She'd find a new lover, or maybe she'd go back to drinking cow blood alone in her home while watching bad movies. Of course some of her people satisfied their needs by sneaking into people's homes and feeding on sleepers, and she knew that there were some who were prostitutes. Vampires make great prostitutes ; they carry no diseases, can't get pregnant, seduce clients with ease, and always leave them happy . But that was not the way for Lorann. Feeding was just too intimate to indulge in with a stranger and sex was something that shouldn't be sold.
Lorann was depressed enough that she almost didn't notice that she was being followed. But her senses were just too sharp to miss the man following her, clearly stalking her. Hmm, a mugger? A rapist? She almost smiled at the thought. He'd certainly get a lot more than he bargained for. She wondered if this would be someone who just needed a good scare or if he was an irredeemable vermin that she should eliminate. She was too full to feed from him, but these sorts seemed to always taste bad anyway. She drew the small knife she always carried with her (can't very well leave teeth marks) and turned to face him.
He stopped. He was about thirty feet away from Lorann. She waited for him to make his move; after all, to his eyes she was an average sized woman who probably couldn't fight him off. She would give him a chance to back off, but she was ready for him should he come for her. Her pulse raced with excitement; she almost understood the appeal of the hunt. But she didn't expect him pull a loaded crossbow from under his overcoat.
Oh hell, she thought. A vampire hunter. On Beacon Street in Brookline, Massachusetts. This doesn't happen very often. Lorann dodged, but not before he got his shot off. PAIN! The crossbow bolt caught her in the shoulder; if she hadn't dodged she might have been hit in the heart. She pulled the bolt from her shoulder and ran at the man.
The vampire hunter dropped the crossbow and pulled a large cross from under his coat. "Stay back, undead fiend!" he screamed.
Lorann grabbed him by the neck and picked him up, holding him off the ground. "You might be interested to know that I go to night church services at Christmas and Easter, occasionally. I don't fear the cross," she said. "I'm also not undead, or particularly a fiend. What's your story?"
"I'm a librarian. I was doing some research on vampires and other legends when I saw a picture of a supposed vampress; a remarkably beautiful woman. Later, I saw you on the subway and heard you mention your name; Lorann, the same name as this lady vampire. You were her double; perhaps a descendent, I figured. I decided to follow you off the train in hopes of talking to you about this. I lost sight of you for a minute and when I next saw you you were slashing open a man's neck with a knife and then gorging yourself on his blood. I watched in shock, and then ran for my life. I determined that I must rid the world of such a dangerous monster."
Lorann sighed. "You didn't see everything. That man grabbed me, dragged me into an alley and tried to rape me. I grabbed the knife away from him and defended myself. I was justified in killing him, and I see little point in wasting perfectly good blood. Of course he had no chance against me, but better that he meet his end at my hands than that find someone less able to defend herself."
"But can I believe you? How do I know that you won't satisfy your blood hunger by killing homeless people? I suppose you'll decide to kill me in order to protect your secret!"
Lorann put him down. "I don't think that will be necessary," she said. "I think you just need a bit of an education about vampires." She unbuttoned her right sleeve and rolled it up. Then she took her knife and cut her arm. She put the bleeding wound to his mouth and ordered, "Drink. Deeply." She used some mental coercion and he started drinking her blood; at first hesitantly, then eagerly. Lorann sighed. She'd forgotten just how good this felt, but she also felt guilty about forcing this man to become her servant. As soon as he tasted her blood, he was hers for life until she released him. Heck, she didn't even know his name!
At her apartment, she began his lessons. "First off, vampires aren't animated corpses, or undead, or whatever. We are living, breathing people. We don't age, we heal very rapidly, and we need to drink blood. It doesn't have to be human blood, but it is extremely pleasurable to take blood from a human. We have some mental powers, and we're very strong, but other than that we're like anybody else."
"If you're not undead, then how did you become a vampire?" Ian (she finally asked his name) asked.
"As near as I can tell, you're born with the potential to become a vampire. Vampires can see a potential vampire due to differences in their aura. If the potential vampire drinks the blood of a vampire, they will become a vampire," Lorann said.
"So I'm going to turn into a vampire?" Ian asked.
"No...," Lorann said uncomfortably, "you don't have that potential. You are now my, uhhh, servant. You will obey any command I give you, and you are addicted to my blood. When I had a servant in the past, I had him run errands for me in the daytime since sunlight burns vampires. A servant isn't as necessary these days since most services are available at night. A servant is also a handy source of blood."
"Wonderful. I'm a slave and a dinner. But can you live on just my blood?"
"Ah, a popular misconception! Actually, while we must have blood we also can eat ordinary food. I'm partial to Chinese food, myself. There have been a few of us who lived on nothing but blood, but they were a bit crazy. I will only drink from you about twice a week unless we become lovers,"
"What!"
"...and elements in my saliva will cause you to replace the blood I take very quickly. You will need to take some blood from me once a week."
"Unless we become lovers?" Ian asked.
Lorann smiled. "Yes, I suppose so. Look, I'm not fond of forcing my will on you. But you did try to kill me after all, and you almost succeeded. Had your bolt gone through my heart I would have died unless it had been pulled out almost immediately so I could heal. As long as you are my servant you won't be able to try and harm me, and I can try to convince you that I'm not evil. And as long you drink my blood, you will age more slowly. I'll protect and help you anyway I can."
Ian nodded. "I think I'm starting to see at least that you aren't evil. And you are truly beautiful; I think I could rather enjoy this relationship."
"I'm happy to hear you say that. I've had to break off a relationship..."
"That man I saw you with tonight?"
"Yes. I couldn't tell him what I've told you. Umm, it's 6:00 and the trolleys are running if you wish to leave."
"I think I'd like to stay. Would you care for breakfast?"
"Hmm? Ohhhh...."
Lorann soon found out that Ian was a very satisfactory replacement. *****************************************
That's not exactly what I'd originally intended. :) The points I wanted to make were that a vampire would most likely be a living person with an addiction to, actually more of a physical need for, blood. They'd not kill people usually because that would attract unnecessary attention. They would likely have mental, psionic abilities. They'd heal rapidly; the reason a stake kills them is that prevents the heart from healing. They'd be allergic to light, but they'd not burst into flames. I threw in the bit about making a servant by having them drink the vampire's blood because I like that. :)
However, vampires still eat normal food, live in normal buildings (usually; I suppose there could be homeless vampires living in sewers and abandoned tunnels), fall in love, have (nonreproductive) sex, work at jobs, and pretty much all the normal stuff humans do.
The net result for game purposes is that a vampire isn't a pure creature of evil, but could still be evil and would be pretty effective as a villain. We're pretty much eliminating the "claw, claw, bite" monster that only craves blood and replacing him with a person who is strong, hard to kill, and may have had centuries to hone his skills. I think that's more interesting.
REVIEW
The Cairo Guidebook
Authors: Marion Anderson, with Phil Anderson and Mark Rybek
From Chaosium, $16.95, for Call of Cthulhu
The Cairo Sourcebook is just that; a sourcebook. It isn't a campaign book and doesn't have real scenarios although it does have lots of plot hooks that could be expanded or incorporated into existing campaign. Actually, it's really the Egypt sourcebook; while Cairo is certainly the most developed area there's information on Alexandria and smaller cities, and major ancient sites such as Luxor and Giza.
The book contains just about much everything a real traveler to 1920s Egypt would need to know; hotels in Cairo and other cities in Egypt, customs, useful phrases, and other helpful information. There's also a lot of historical information, and scenario hooks in convenient indicated grey boxed text interspersed through the general text. Mythos connections are noted more in the scenario hooks than in the general text which is pretty much real world and straight forward. It could actually be used with any game set in Egypt in the 1920s and with a little care games set in the late 1800s. With some creativity it could be used with games set elsewhere in the Middle East or even in fantasy settings; old Cairo could easily be converted into a fantasy city and the customs of the Bedouins would work for a fantasy nomad people, for instance.
I found the Glossary to be fun and entertaining. It is in four parts; the first part is a glossary of common Egyptian and Arabic terms, the second is an English to Arabic dictionary, the third has useful Arabic phrases, and the fourth part (perhaps the most fun) has Arabic proverbs in English. I'm particularly fond of "He who speaks the truth had better have one foot in the stirrup"; very true. Some take a bit of thought to understand, though.
Nit-Picks
On page 37, it is noted that a wooden frieze in the Mosque of Ibn-Tulan is said to be made from wood from Noah's Ark, found by Ibn Tulan on top of Mount Ararat. Unless I'm mistaken, Muslims believe that the Ark ended up on a different mountain near Ararat, but not on Mount Ararat.
Quotes from Lovecraft's (with Harry Houdini) story "Imprisoned with the Pharaohs" that head several sections are credited as being from "Trapped with the Pharaohs".
On page 56, cocaine is referred to as an opium derivative; it actually come from a different plant entirely.
The Scenario Hook on page 65 involving the Black Pharaoh is pretty long and probably should have been a fully developed scenario.
Considering that the Library of Alexandria had 700,000 volumes and was burned in a fire in 391 A.D. and was finally destroyed in 640 A.D. one would think that there'd be a lot of scenario potential. While there couldn't have been a copy of Al'Azif (the Necronomicon) in it there certainly have been copies of the Pnakotic Manuscripts and other blasphemous texts that might encourage the Library's destruction. But there's no scenario hook as such for the Library.
These are minor problems; overall this is a highly useful sourcebook for CoC and other games set in the Twenties. I think with a bit of work it could be used in modern times, or in fantastic settings.
HALLOWEEN MOVIES
I figure that Halloween is a good time to dig up the old horror movies, and here's some of my suggestions.
Nosferatu
This German silent picture was the first (unauthorized) version of Dracula although with names and places changed. I find it to be a scarier film than the later (authorized) version with Bela Legosi that people are familiar with. There's more of an overall mood of fear, and the connection of the vampire to plague is interesting.
The Mummy
If you think of mummies as being zombies with bandages, you should watch this Karloff film. The story involves forbidden, obsessive love that transcends time and the extent to which Karloff's character will go in order to achieve it. Really. It's much better in dealing with the "Love never dies" than the Francis Ford Coppola Dracula.
The War of the Worlds
I think this is the best alien invasion film ever. While it certainly departs from Well's story, it is head and shoulders above the other 50's invasion films in which humanity beats superior aliens by absurd levels of cleverness. The Martian war machines are truly impressive and the scenes of destruction quite good.
The Haunted Palace
I like Roger Corman's Poe films. This one is billed as a Poe film but only the title and some lines from the poem of the same name have any real connection to Poe. It's really an adaptation of "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward" by H.P. Lovecraft. Elements are changed for no good reason; it's moved back into the 1800's, it takes place in Arkham instead of Providence, and some stuff from "The Dunwich Horror" is thrown in. But Vincent Price is very good as Charles Ward/Joseph Curwin and it is overall a well done film; better than the recent adaptation, The Resurrected.
Alien
This first in the series of "Alien" films is the only one that I think really qualifies as a horror film. Aliens was pretty much an action adventure. Alien 3 was more of a suspense film for all that there was a monster and was so different in feel from the other two films that most folk didn't care for it.
One could argue (and it has been) that Alien is really just The Thing (1950's version) on a spaceship. But we had a truly frightening monster and really a pretty decent overall story. Sure, we hard care SF folk can poke holes in the story but the movie worked.
The Thing
I'm talking here about the John Carpenter version, not the 50's version. This film followed John Campbell's original story, "Who Goes There?" very closely and very effectively and kept the most important element of the story which was thrown out in the older film; the notion that the Thing could be anybody. It's a bit gory, but the story is great and scary.
Warlock
This film is a rather different take on an evil Diabolist wizard. Essentially, pretty much all the old stories about evil witches are true in the film, so when a witch hunter from the 1600's finds himself hunting the most evil of all warlocks in the 20th Century he is able to track him through traditional means. The Warlock seeks the pieces of The Grand Grimoire so that he can destroy the world (Why? Just 'cause, I suppose). He travels from California to Boston pursued by the witch hunter and a modern woman who helps the hunter function in our rather changed world. Julian Sands is very good as the very evil (but oddly appealing) Warlock.
Other suggestions
One could just get a bunch of Twilight Zone and Outer Limits episodes. I'd suggest "To Serve Man" from TZ and "Demon With a Glass Hand" from OL. Or get a hold of some episodes of Mystery Science Theatre 3000 ; try the episodes with Robot Monster or Manos: the Hands of Fate perhaps.
LINKS