Mullonga (The Nightmare Court)

The aboriginal witch Mullonga is one of the most active members of the Nightmare Court. She may look like an old woman who is so small as to be harmless, but she is evil and malicious. She thrives on the fear and apprehension of others.

Mullonga appears as a hunched, leathery, brown-skinned old woman dressed in animal skins and carrying a gnarled staff. Her flesh looks as if it has been parched in the hottest desert, beneath a blazing, unforgiving sun. As no visible sun shines over the Nightmare Lands, perhaps it is the pure evil that emanates from this witch that withers her flesh so.

Her connection to the dream plane gives Mullonga access to many languages, all of which are spoken with a voice as dry and brittle as a mummy’s wrappings.

Combat: Mullonga often attempts to insinuate herself into a company of wanderers, using illusions to cast herself as a mage lost in the mists. If she is accepted into a company, she begins to sow false information. She does this in an effort to create fear in the wanderers – fear she can later use in dreams.

If forced into physical conflict, Mullonga’s gnarled hands become grotesquely extended claws that can strike twice in a round and inflict 2d6 points of damage each. While she has no problem with personally spilling blood, she prefers to use spells or minions to handle most victims.

Mullonga has the arcane powers of a 13th-level wizard, though her connection to the dream plane allows her to cast spells in an instant; she has no need of material, somatic, or verbal components. Further, she does not memorize spells in the same manner as mortal wizards.

Mullonga pulls her spells from the dream web, so she can fill up her spell selection in one hour. She needs to return to a secure location in the Ghettoes and make physical contact with her relic, so those she is terrorizing may rest a short period while she is thus engaged.

The witch normally has the following list of spells ready, but she can choose from all spells available to her experience level. 1st level – burning hands, change self, chill touch, hypnotism, magic missile; 2nd level – alter self, blindness, ESP, scare, spectral hand; 3rd level – delude, fireball, hold person, protection from good, 10 feet radius, slow; 4th level – confusion, Evard’s black tentacles, fear, polyomorph self; 5th level – chaos, distance distortion, shadow magic, summon shadow; 6th level – invisible stalker, permanent illusion.

Mullonga is served by ennui, arcane heads, and a variety of golems and other arcane creations.

Habitat/Society: Mullonga controls the Ghettoes in the City of Nod. The shifting streets of this roving neighborhood are an extension of the witch. See the rules book of the Nightmare Lands (TSR The Nightmare Lands) for more information.

In the Ghettoes, Mullonga has a number of workshops where she can conduct her arcane experiments. These experiments have seen the creation of the arcane heads and other terrors that now serve the witch. Of course, the Ghettoes are also haunted by things that did not turn out the way the witch had planned.

Ecology: Mullonga thrives on fear, and her dream-scapes are sinister, terror-filled locations. In the Terrain Between, she constantly searches for wanderers to fuel her arcane powers.