What kinds of undead would have manifested after an event like the Salem witch trials?


Pathfinder First Edition General Discussion


Causes of death would have been primarily hangings but with plenty of burning. Lets say a handful of people, maybe 2 or 3 at most, would have had magical powers. Population primarily human, with dwarves as a secondary and a smattering of other races.


Just realized I put this in the wrong place -.-
Could a mod move this to General Discussions please?

Silver Crusade Contributor

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Look up the croaker (Pathfinder Module: Hangman's Noose) for the former, and the combusted (Occult Bestiary) or the blast shadow (Pathfinder Adventure Path #15: The Armageddon Echo) for the latter.


Witchfires from Bestiary 2 seem to fit the bill for spellcasters.


Witchfires were undead hags usually, right?


Dragon Knight wrote:
Causes of death would have been primarily hangings but with plenty of burning. Lets say a handful of people, maybe 2 or 3 at most, would have had magical powers. Population primarily human, with dwarves as a secondary and a smattering of other races.

Wait, why dwarves?


I would imagine plenty of ghosts and haunts


Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Gallowdead may be a bit too far from the deaths mentioned, but perhaps you may adapt it a bit. The harionago, being an innocent woman murdered in an unspeakable fashion, could count. Revanants and poltergeists as well, and burning skeletons.

the d20 Pathfinder SRD site has a bunch of 3PP stuff - bloody bones, burning child, and others that sound good but may not quite match the flavor you have.

The Exchange

Burning skeletons? If you want spooky, try burning, bloody skeletons, so each time someone whacks them down and don't deal with them properly, they pop up 1 hr later.

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder PF Special Edition, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Dragon Knight wrote:
Causes of death would have been primarily hangings but with plenty of burning. Lets say a handful of people, maybe 2 or 3 at most, would have had magical powers. Population primarily human, with dwarves as a secondary and a smattering of other races.

Interestingly enough there was no execution by burning in the historical Salem trials

http://www.history.com/news/ask-history/were-witches-burned-at-the-stake-du ring-the-salem-witch-trials

Twenty people were eventually executed as witches, but contrary to popular belief, none of the condemned was burned at the stake. In accordance with English law, 19 of the victims of the Salem Witch Trials were instead taken to the infamous Gallows Hill to die by hanging. The elderly Giles Corey, meanwhile, was pressed to death with heavy stones after he refused to enter an innocent or guilty plea. Still more accused sorcerers died in jail while awaiting trial.

The myth of burnings at the stake in Salem is most likely inspired by European witch trials, where execution by fire was a disturbingly common practice. Medieval law codes such as the Holy Roman Empire’s “Constitutio Criminalis Carolina” stipulated that malevolent witchcraft should be punished by fire, and church leaders and local governments oversaw the burning of witches across parts of modern day Germany, Italy, Scotland, France and Scandinavia. Historians have since estimated that the witch-hunt hysteria that peaked between the 15th and 18th centuries saw some 50,000 people executed as witches in Europe. Many of these victims were hanged or beheaded first, but their bodies were typically incinerated afterwards to protect against postmortem sorcery. Other condemned witches were still alive when they faced the flames, and were left to endure an excruciating death by burning and inhalation of toxic fumes.
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Maybe a huecuva?

What? It could work...


In world with magic, the Salem Witch trials wouldn't be particularly special.

We find them horrible because we don't believe in witches making deals with the devil to gain magical powers and harm their neighbors. If though you take it as a given that such things really do exist, then killing people for being witches makes a great deal more sense.

In a magical world, the Salem witch trials would be a relatively normal exercise of the judicial system.


I like the idea of a Revenant. Not the Leonardo DiCaprio kind, but the Pathfinder kind.

Then you can spice it up from there with templates. For good fun, especially if you have several of them, make one an Undead Lord revenant and another one a Dread Mohrg revenant, etc.


An important missing data is the intended level of the adventure (I assume you want to build an adventure about this).

Revenants sound good for the innocent non-spellcasters, witchfire for the guilty (by guilty, I mean hags, or evil witches), and maybe ghost for the witches that weren't evil, if you have those

Quote:

n world with magic, the Salem Witch trials wouldn't be particularly special.

We find them horrible because we don't believe in witches making deals with the devil to gain magical powers and harm their neighbors. If though you take it as a given that such things really do exist, then killing people for being witches makes a great deal more sense.

In a magical world, the Salem witch trials would be a relatively normal exercise of the judicial system.

It would be equally horrible. Assuming the OP scenario, they killed 20 people to get 2-3 who were actually spellcasters, so 17-18 innocents died for that. And that's me supposing those 2-3 spellcasters were actually evil, devilworshipping, making pacts with evil outsiders, or necromancy. It could very easily be a group of witches with "cure light wound" and a cauldron, making Elixirs of Love for people in the town, killed by the overreaction of a zealot inquisitor. EDIT: comes to mind the scene in Sleepy Hollow, when the little girl is discovered doing a ritual under Johny Depp's bed. It was actually something like "circle of protection", but an overzealous witch hunter could very easily kill the (non evil) witch.

Judging people for black magic would be normal in a "real" Golarion, but mass murdering people without real evidences, other than confession under torture, would not be a Good act by pathfinder rules


gustavo iglesias wrote:

An important missing data is the intended level of the adventure (I assume you want to build an adventure about this).

Revenants sound good for the innocent non-spellcasters, witchfire for the guilty (by guilty, I mean hags, or evil witches), and maybe ghost for the witches that weren't evil, if you have those

Quote:

n world with magic, the Salem Witch trials wouldn't be particularly special.

We find them horrible because we don't believe in witches making deals with the devil to gain magical powers and harm their neighbors. If though you take it as a given that such things really do exist, then killing people for being witches makes a great deal more sense.

In a magical world, the Salem witch trials would be a relatively normal exercise of the judicial system.

It would be equally horrible. Assuming the OP scenario, they killed 20 people to get 2-3 who were actually spellcasters, so 17-18 innocents died for that. And that's me supposing those 2-3 spellcasters were actually evil, devilworshipping, making pacts with evil outsiders, or necromancy. It could very easily be a group of witches with "cure light wound" and a cauldron, making Elixirs of Love for people in the town, killed by the overreaction of a zealot inquisitor

Judging people for black magic would be normal in a "real" Golarion, but mass murdering people without real evidences, other than confession under torture, would not be a Good act by pathfinder rules

This is true in a way, but understand that the fundamental error in belief: 'Magic and Witches are real', led to the other errors. If you believe something is real that isn't, then obviously your methods for detecting and evaluating the evidence are flawed. If there are no witches, every method that detects witches is going to be wrong. If there really are witches, that is no longer necessarily true.

I wasn't referring necessarily to the OPs particular scenario, that included the people being innocent of any crime, but rather the general concept we have that witch hunts are bad is predicated on us not believing in witches.

(witch for those people was an intrinsically evil practitioner of black magic, not the Pathfinder class)


One definitely has to be re-flavored as some sort of undead earth elemental, in honor of Giles Corey.

"...more...weight..."


But remember that the absence of proof isn not proof of absence, so NOT detecting as witch doesn't meab,for sure, that you aren't one. And that's where the "overzealous" part comes online. That witchcraft is real doesn't mean the ways to investigate it are perfect. We have real murderers on Earth, and sometimes we make mistakes and jail the wrong people. An overzealous inquisitor (and I'm not sure you can have any other kind) could easily fsll in the trap of saying "that woman doesn't detect as evil, but I have testimony (of tortured neighbours) that say she's a witch. She must be using witchcrsft to mislead my detect evil". Or even worse: " in my opinion, witchcraft is evil. Only divine Magic should heal, his CLW must be tainted"


gustavo iglesias wrote:
But remember that the absence of proof isn not proof of absence, so NOT detecting ss witch doesn't meab,for sure that you sreb't one. Aand that's where the "overzealous" part comes online. That witch craft is real doesn't mean the ways to investigate are perfect. We have real murderers in earth, and sometimes we make mistakes and jail the wrong people. An overzealous inquisitor (and I'm not sure you can have any other mind) could easily fsll in the trap of saying "that woman doesn't detect as evil, but I have testimony (of tortured neighbours) that says she's a witch. She must be using witchcrsft to mislead my detect evil". Or even worse: " in my opinion, witchcraft is evil. Only divine Magic should heal, his CLW must be tainted"

Of course. Judicial systems aren't perfect, and some people are corrupt.

The difference though is if you prosecuting a crime that isn't possible (not the particular instance, but the actual ability for anyone to be a criminal in that fashion) of necessity your methods are going to be wrong. Even the best person will get it wrong if they accept the flawed initial premise.

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder PF Special Edition, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

The answer to the actual question.... If you're the GM.... whatever kind of undead mix you want, you can find a rationialization for it.


Icyshadow wrote:
Witchfires were undead hags usually, right?

Hags or witches. They have a pretty high CR, though.

Shadow Lodge

Dave Justus wrote:

Of course. Judicial systems aren't perfect, and some people are corrupt.

The difference though is if you prosecuting a crime that isn't possible (not the particular instance, but the actual ability for anyone to be a criminal in that fashion) of necessity your methods are going to be wrong. Even the best person will get it wrong if they accept the flawed initial premise.

There is a reason that the phrase "witch hunt" is still relevant today in its metaphorical sense. Judicial systems aren't just imperfect, they're frighteningly prone to being influenced by fears that are, if not entirely groundless, blown completely out of proportion. See the satanic ritual abuse panic, and the investigation of communist and terrorist threats. It's not about whether witches do or don't exist - it's about our willingness to turn on our neighbours.


Eloquently said, Weirdo.


There are increasingly many ways for an evil character to not detect as evil, or even detect as good! Spells exist to make you believe even the most outlandish lies! Evidence can be fabricated with trivial ease, that can fool even the most keen investigation! Nothing is true!

The only way to be safe is to BURN EVERYTHING!

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