Sonic Witchcraft • Legacy Death-Curse

Martyr’s Cry

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Martyr’s Cry turns the caster’s impending death into a delayed curse on everyone who heard the final wail. If the caster survives more than two hours, the magic fails.

Martyr’s Cry at a Glance

5.5e / 2024	No direct conversion published here
5e / 2014	No direct conversion published here
Pathfinder 1e	Not a Pathfinder Witch spell by default
D&D 3.5e / Legacy d20	Witch 4, Bard 4

Legacy quick facts: Transmutation [Sonic]; Witch 4, Bard 4; verbal component; 1 full action; all hearers. Death within two hours triggers a permanent Bestow Curse effect the next morning. Will negates; spell resistance applies.

Spell Rules by Edition

5.5e / 20245e / 2014Pathfinder 1eD&D 3.5e / Legacy d20

Martyr’s Cry — 5.5e / 2024

Status: no direct conversion is published here.

Martyr’s Cry — 5e / 2014

Status: no direct conversion is published here.

Martyr’s Cry — Pathfinder 1e

Status: not a Pathfinder Witch spell by default.

Martyr’s Cry — D&D 3.5e / Legacy d20

Historical source: these are the original 2003 third-party d20 rules, retained for legacy play. They are not an official 3.5e conversion.

School	Transmutation [Sonic]
Level	Witch 4, Bard 4
Components	V
Casting Time	1 full action
Range	Self
Targets	All creatures within earshot
Duration	Permanent curse if triggered
Saving Throw	Will negates
Spell Resistance	Yes

When cast, the Witch releases an audible wail. If the caster dies within the following two hours, each creature that heard the cry is affected the next morning as though by Bestow Curse. All affected creatures receive substantially similar curses.

If the caster is restored to life later, existing curses remain. If the caster does not die within two hours, the spell produces no curse.

Who is affected? The spell targets all creatures that heard the casting, including allies. “Within earshot” has no numerical radius in the source. It depends on whether a creature could hear the wail when it was made.

What Changed?

No later-edition conversion is assumed. The delayed Bestow Curse trigger, permanent curse and “within earshot” targeting remain part of the legacy d20 form only.

Counterplay and Rulings

Creatures that never heard the cry are not targets. Silence or distance can therefore matter before the spell resolves. Once the curse exists, use the normal curse-removal rules of the campaign. The source inherits Bestow Curse rather than creating a fear condition. It gives Will negates and spell resistance, but does not explicitly state when to resolve those defences; agree on that timing before the spell is used. Hearing the cry determines eligibility, not automatic failure of the saving throw.

Using Martyr’s Cry in Play

This is a story spell more than a combat spell: last stands, sacrificial oaths, dying coven leaders and revenge plots. A Games Master should make the resulting curse meaningful without using it to remove player choice arbitrarily.

Worked Example: The Two-Hour Window

A Witch casts Martyr’s Cry at 10:00. If the Witch dies at 11:45, the death occurs 105 minutes after the casting, within the two-hour window. Creatures that heard the wail are eligible for the curse the next morning, subject to the listed saving throw and spell resistance. A companion who was too far away to hear it is not a target.

If the Witch survives the full two hours and instead dies at 12:10, this casting produces no curse. If a triggered curse has already taken hold, bringing the Witch back to life does not remove it.

Related Magic

Fear — compare dedicated fear effects in later editions.
Witch Wail — another legacy Witch cry using sonic and fear mechanics.
Remove Curse — a legacy means of removing the Bestow Curse effect after it takes hold.

Mythical Context

In Book 9 of Homer’s Odyssey, the blinded Polyphemus calls on Poseidon to punish Odysseus with a disastrous homecoming. It is a cry for vengeance whose consequences reach beyond the encounter. Polyphemus survives, so the episode supplies a comparison for delayed retribution, not Martyr’s Cry’s death-trigger rule.

Homer, Odyssey 9: Polyphemus’s appeal to Poseidon

Historical Context

The British Museum preserves a fragment of a lead tablet bearing a curse inscription in the Greek alphabet. Such an object records a deliberate attempt to direct misfortune through written words. It is evidence of historical curse practice, rather than proof of a supernatural curse triggered by its author’s death.

British Museum: lead curse-tablet fragment, 1890,0304.3

Rules Sources and Licensing

Legacy source: Liber Mysterium: The Netbook of Witches and Warlocks, © 2003 Timothy S. Brannan and the Netbook of Witches Team, pp. 146–147. Its spell-list summary says one hour, while the full spell description gives two hours. This entry follows the complete spell description. Later-edition panels are status notes, not conversions.

Read the source-book transcription

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