The Halloween Man
Art by Brad Hicks for the OctoberNomicon Art Contest
The Halloween Man appears as a very tall, stick-thin figure, bent and arthritic. He dresses in tattered black dress clothes including high collared tuxedo coat with tails, spats, dress gloves, and an unusually tall and thin stovepipe top hat, bent and battered like the rest of his clothes. Where a face should be is nothing but blackness, out of which burn two pupiless fiery eyes and a jagged glowing jack o’lantern mouth. An old carved jack o’lantern turnip sways from a rusty chain in one hand, green hellfire and sulfuric smoke wafting from its blazing features; over his shoulder the Halloween Man carries a large black sack. Like the Halloween version of Santa Claus, he visits children on Halloween night, but snatches them up in his sack and carts them off to his lair, never to be seen again. His pockets are stuffed with sweet Halloween treats to help ensnare children: candy apples, chocolates, candy corn, etc.
The Halloween Man’s lair is an old moss-encrusted crooked cottage somewhere in the Dreamlands’ Underworld. The stone and log building is oddly tall and peaked with crooked windows of diamond panes of thick wavy glass and a heavy wooden door. Smoke curls from the twisted chimney, and a fire always blazes in a large hearth within. Hundreds of blazing jack o’lanterns decorate the spooky grotto wherein the Halloween Man’s cottage resides, stacked in the tall scrubby grass, against the cottage walls, and hanging from the branches of ancient bent oaks. The interior of the cottage is similarly decorated with scores of jack o’lanterns on heavy wooden furniture and the cobblestone floor. Around the enormous hearth are scattered piles of small bones – the remnants of children brought back and eaten by the Halloween Man. Heavy iron cages stocked with children are also found within the building, leftovers waiting their turn in the Halloween man’s fireplace.
Like all Great Ones – the gods of the Dreamlands — the Halloween Man is exiled in the Dreamlands, imprisoned there and watched over by Nyarlathotep, himself. He is forbidden to enter the waking world but one night of the year – Halloween. From sundown on October 31st until sunup on November 1st, the Halloween Man has free reign in the world of waking men, and busies himself with filling his larder for the long rolling year.
CULT: the Halloween Man has no cult, and is known only as an urban legend in the waking world.
ATTACKS & SPECIAL EFFECTS: the Halloween Man’s most significant power is snatching up children in his magical sack. An enchanted artifact, the Halloween Man’s sack can only be harmed or destroyed with spells or magic. It has an unlimited capacity, so the Great One can deposit as many victims in his bag as he wishes; once within the enchanted sack, victims are trapped and unable to escape until released by the Great One. He can snatch one victim each round: a Dodge roll can be used to avoid his boney reach. Only the Halloween Man can wield his magical bag – in the hands of mortals it is just a heavy cloth sack.
The Halloween Man’s green fire- and smoke-billowing turnip jack o’lantern is also enchanted, and all within a twenty foot radius must resist POT 16 or be overcome by the fumes and the sputtering flames. Those who resist cough and choke and suffer 1 hit point of damage. Those who are overcome fall under the hypnotic sway of the Halloween Man, doing whatever the bent, shadowy creature tells them. Typically, the Great One tells children to come to him, whereas adults are ordered to flee in terror. The effect of the fumes lasts 20-CON minutes. All within radius of the smoke and fumes must resist and suffer the same effects every round until out of range of the infernal jack o’lantern.
THE HALLOWEEN MAN, The Lord of All-Hallows
STR 15 CON 24 SIZ 16 INT 19 POW 20
DEX 15 APP N/A Move 8 HP 20
Damage Bonus: +1D4
Weapons: Snatch Children 75%, damage special (see above)
Hypnosis, damage POW vs. 16 POT, 1 or under the control of the Halloween Man (see above)
Boney Fist 75%, damage 1D4+db
Armor: 2-point clothes, plus only harmed by magic or iron weapons. May regenerate 1 hit point per POW expended
Skills: Dodge 75%
Spells: any Dreamlands or madness-inducing or mind-controlling spells, as desired by the keeper.
Sanity Loss: 0/1D6 Sanity points to see the Halloween Man.
Malleus Monstrorum, Undead & Unbound, Singers of Strange Songs
