Faces of the Tarnished Souk: The Mad Wench Maelgatryx by Rite Publishing

This product is 21 pages long. It starts with a cover and credits. (2 pages)

Stat blocks (8 pages) It starts off with a history, lore section, rules and suggestions on how to use her with the setting book Coliseum Morpheuon. There is three stat blocks of different power levels for this NPC. There is also stats for her familiar. CR 20, rune-carved, rakshasa-spawned tiefling, barbarian (drunken brute) 1/witch 16 CR 14, rune-carved, rakshasa-spawned tiefling, barbarian (drunken brute) 1/witch 10 CR 7, rakshasa-spawned tiefling, barbarian (drunken brute) 1/witch 5

Extra (8 pages) A minor artifact, 9 new feats, 2 new traits, 1 new witch patron(dreams), 1 incantation, 3 new spells, 2 new magic items, 1 template (rune-carved), and 10 variations of tiefling stats. Along with a random table of tiefling special abilities with almost 100 abilities.

It ends with a OGL, Ads. (3 pages)

Closing thoughts. There is almost no art at all, the cover imaged is shown once more and then there is one more piece of black and white art. Editing and layout are good. I did notice one part that seemed poorly worded. The two magic items, one of them is a greater and the other a lesser version of the same item. The lesser says it works like the greater accept it is further enhanced with a ability. I am guessing that is just worded incorrectly since if it was the same with only one more power then it would be the greater and cost more. My guess is it's magic ability power replaces the Greater one as it is weaker version of it and other than that works the same.

I like the NPC, she is a very interesting NPC that could be a lot of fun to use and torment your PC's with. So what's my rating? Well the NPC is well written and interesting, there is a lot of extra and most of that is very good as well. I did notice the one thing about the magic items which stood out to me, a minor error granted. So I am going to give it a 4.5 review.

Trust me, I'm a Succubus.

This 8th installment of the Faces of the Tarnished Souk series is 21 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page SRD and 2 pages advertisements, leaving a whopping 16 pages of content - nice! Let's check it out!

As with all installments of the FoTS-series, we start off with a one-page introduction to the character, including information on dream-burning, a lore-section and a how-to-use sidebox for DMs looking to use the witch in their campaigns. Witch? Yep, we get full APG-support in this installment, further establishing this line to use more than just the relatively common core-rules. Just take a look at the cover. She looks mad, yes. And crazy. And boy, she is. Not in the nice mad-hatter kind of way, but rather in the potentially extremely deadly, unpleasant kind of way.She is truly a dastardly, drunken, mean-spirited proprietor of a place where the worst of the worse the Coliseum has to offer go to drink, battle and, perhaps even, die horribly.

Potential SPOILERS abound, thus I'd encourage potential players to skip to the conclusion.

Still here? All right.

Maelgatryx is actually the descendant of a VERY important major player of the coliseum and secretly wants to be accepted by this dreadful entity. Once again, her CR 20 incarnation is a beauty to behold (even when the coarse witch isn't) and gets two templates and a cool level that ensures that her drinking habit reflects heavily into her fighting style. She also gets a full stat-block for her cacodaemon familiar and a minor artifact weapon. Ready for some stroke of genius? There you go: Her signature weapon are the shrunken heads (!!!!) of a half-fiendish ettin (!!!) with whom she talks and which she uses as both a bola (!!!) AND a dire-flail. (!!!) Do I have to say more? I was cackling with diabolical glee all the time while reading this. We also get 8 new feats, centering on "witchy" stuff like creating shrunken heads and her familiar. That's not where the additional content stops, though: We also get a new witch's patron, "Dreams" and two new dream-traits, as per the Coliseum rules. Moreover, we get a new incantation (and I love incantations, especially when they're about adding insult to injury and consuming souls of fallen enemies!), 3 spells and 2 magical bodices for all the ladies, who, like mine, think that oxygen is for wusses.

Her mid-level incarnation also rocks, but, in contrast to other FoTS-installments, my favorite one is actually the low-level version, possibly due to her familiar at this level, "Mistah Eatey-Eye", an albino raven. Great and iconic idea. But that's not where this pdf stops: Rather, we get the rune-carved template and, more importantly, rules for variant tieflings: You can choose from 10 basic ability sets, depending on your fiendish ancestry, and yes, qlippoths and even onis are included. More importantly, you can roll (or choose if you take a feat) on a list of a whopping 100 abilities to customize the hell out of your tiefling.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are top-notch, I didn't notice any glitches. Layout adheres to the tried-and-true b/w-two-column standard and the B/w-artworks are nice. Writing adheres to the high and evocative quality we've come to expect from Rite Publishing and the amount of content for this price is rather unprecedented - we get so much more out of this installment than in even any of the other, chock-full pdfs of this series and the selection of e.g. cool items and support for incantations just rocks. Try as I might, I can't with any good conscience nit-pick at any part of this file. It's just a great little pdf and subsequently deserves ANOTHER 5-star-rating, which makes this the 3rd 5-star-verdict in a row for this series. Which is by the way the record for any rpg-product line I've reviewed so far. Congratulations!

One look at the art on the cover and I knew that the word “mad” in her title might be an understatement. Before you even get to looking at the shrunken heads she is holding, her eyes say “craaaaazy!” What a deliciously evil foil for players to encounter. The addition of Maelgatryx provides a needed antagonist in the society of the Tarnished Souk. Although it would be a relatively simple matter to place the Mad Wench and her tavern anywhere. The tavern, known as the Rotgut Cauldron, is an establishment that makes seedy taverns look like temples of a lawful god.

Now for the good stuff, potential players shouldn’t read further.

Yes indeed she’s a witch. She looks, acts, and no doubt smells like one. Oh boy is this lady crazy. She talks to her shrunken heads and they don’t talk back, except perhaps only inside her own warped mind. She is rude and crude and mean drunk, which is most of the time; but she is even meaner when not drunk. This should make for some epic roleplay! I can’t wait to throw this one at my own players.

Of course with all the other Tarnished Souk character supplements this one comes with Dreamburning notes, rumors, adventure hooks and information for GMs on how to use this NPC. And of course there are several stat blocks of the Mad Wench at various CR ratings, the highest being CR 20, complete with gear and notes on special abilities. I absolutely adore her Waxen Image ability. It gives me giggles just thinking on how I can use this to mess with my players PCs. Maelgatryx also has a cacodaemon familiar and her pet shrunken heads, Hoscoe and Bogg, which are actually a minor artifact in her possession.

There are quite a few new feats and a new witch patron with associated abilities specific to the Mad Wench. There are also a few new spells which also appear in the 101 Spells series. In addition there is a section on the Rune-carved creature template. As if all this was not enough, there is also a section on variant tieflings with tables.

If you are a GM who intends to run a high level campaign whether in or out of the Plane of Dreams you need this “lady” to torment your players. Her Rotgut Cauldron tavern is a setting perfect for nefarious dealings and chaotic goings-on. If you are a GM who intends to take your players into the Coliseum Morpheuon, then I haven’t even mentioned the best part of the Mad Wench. She is a delightfully mischievous player of the Tarnished Souk and her connection to the Khan of Nightmares goes deeper than any know. Maelgatryx is a must-have high level NPC. Five stars for this supplement. Keep it up team Rite!