You Can't Keep A Good Villain Down - OSR Commentary On ' The Lamentable Companion' By Andrew Marrington From Grimm Aramil Publishing

 It's been a few weeks since I did anything with the  Lamentations of the Flame Princess rpg  & so once again The Lamentable Companion has been on the hard drive staring at me. So last night at about three A.M. I took a look a the demonic pacts section & especially the demonic resurrection. 

So in my experiences as a DM the only players who actually would use a demonic resurrection are black magicians or necromancers yes even in LoFP games. And that's fine actually. The real folks who benefit from a demonic resurrection are actually NPC villains. According to the guidelines; ". The Referee must determine who your character has ‘‘replaced’’. This will generally be a cultist who has offered their soul to the same demon patron who has already completed their ‘‘great work’’, although sometimes it will be a cultist who otherwise offered their soul without such a geas, or perhaps an unfortunate victim of the cult." 

That's fine but there really needs to be further random tables to determine more random background goodness for the 'resurrected' body. 
Random Demonic Resurrection Complications Table  1d10 

1.   The resurrected has a demonic sigil  mark on their body that is impossible to hide pointing to exactly to whom the resurrected soul really belongs to. 
2. There's a strong odor of the grave that lingers just below the body's normal day to day scent. 
3. The resurrected breath and body temperature is always cold no matter the temperature outside or within a room. Those who talk to the resurrected will see a trail of exhauled breath as if they were talking on a cold day. Their skin & nails are light blue in certain shades of light. 
4. A slight facial tick every 10 to 15 rounds randomly crawls across the face of the resurrected. 
5. Veins on the back of the resurrected's neck bugle & writh with odd spasms every 1d6 rounds. 
6. -2 to their Charisma as the palour of the grave gives small children & animals a tremor of the underworld. There is something quite off about the resurrected but others can't quite put their finger on it. 
7. The resurrected's fingers are twisted and bent at unnatural angles add odd times & then suddenly return to normal with a bone shattering twisting sound. 
8. No one can stare into the eyes of the resurrected without turning away in 1d6 rounds as the spector of the grave hovers in the eye of those who have undergone this unatural rite. 
9. Grass dies under the feet of the resurrected after 2 rounds at sunset. 
10. Holy water burns the flesh lightly of the resurrected only to unnaturally healed within a five to ten minutes. 

The resurrected soul is perfect as an unkillable NPC burning for revenge & to visit horror upon the players time & again. In a recent LoFP game a couple of months ago I witnessed first hand a PC's magician making a further pact with an NPC's patron to keep the soul within Hell! The DM as the demon actually manipulated said magician into entering Hell to defeat the NPC villain only to not let either soul go! The party decided to leave them both there & move on with the game. 

Those who dally with such powers themselves sometimes have a whiff of the brimstone as the party later found out. They found themselves with a witch finder on their trail after that! 

Review & Commentary On The Free A Book of Miscellaneous Spells Volume 2 By Andrew Hamilton For Advanced Dungeons & Dragons First Edition & The OSRIC Rpg

 "This volume contains more than 110 brand new spells for the four AD&D spell casting classes. This includes more than 30 spells for clerics, druids, and illusionists -- plus 78 new magic-user spells of all levels. [Yeah, Andrew has a thing for magic-user spells!]

That's enough, right? Right?

Wrong.

This collection includes spells for the Witch NPC class (from Dragon Magazine issue #114), one of Andrew's favorite NPC baddies.

Plus it contains spells for clerics of the Cult of Juiblex. Never heard of this cult? It will be a nasty surprise for your players!

If that isn't enough, look for the spells for Frost Giant and Gnoll shaman! Bad guys need more power to combat those dratted forces of Good! This gives it to them ...

All told, this volume contains more than 150 new spells for use with all the D& D games of the 70's and 80's and their retro-clones." 

A Book of Miscellaneous Spells Volume 2 By Andrew Hamilton is a perfect Advanced Dungeons & Dragons free resource for the clerics & wizard PC classes as well as NPC's. And it's the latter is my own use for A Book of Miscellaneous Spells Volume 2 is very useful to a dungeon master. Because OSRIC is mix of AD&D first edition Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide, & Monster Manual.  A Book of Miscellaneous Spells Volume 2 lines up vert well for the magic using PC classes & monsters. Each section of the 150 new spells are bracketted & aligned for PC's, NPC's, & their player character classes. 
There are some nasty surprises within A Book of Miscellaneous Spells Volume 2 and these include clerics of the Cult of Juiblex, the Witch,  & Frost Giant and Gnoll shaman entries. This gives the average dungeon master even more fire power for NPC's. And it's the application for high Fantasy & mid point magick  campagins where A Book of Miscellaneous Spells Volume 2. And A Book of Miscellaneous Spells Volume 2 would fit perfectly into AD&D first edition's Greyhawk or even Bloody, Bloody, Arduin. 

 

A Book of Miscellaneous Spells Volume 2 By Andrew Hamilton layout, the fonts, entries, and more are solidly done. Andrew Hamilton does an excellent job with this material & his imagination's fuel is solid. He really loves his spells & his touch on the game design is a love affair of epic proporations with OSRIC's spells. The fact that this whole supplement is free is a long game for & magazine because A Book of Miscellaneous Spells Volume 2 By Andrew Hamilton is an excellent tool kit for AD&D first edition & OSRIC.

 A Book of Miscellaneous Spells Volume 2 By Andrew Hamilton For Advanced Dungeons & Dragons First Edition & The  OSRIC Rpg Is Availabe Here