Echoes From Fomalhaut #08: Welcome to Castle Sullogh
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| Welcome to Castle Sullogh |
Yrrtwano’s Repose: The great hunter Lord Yrrtwano sleeps uneasy under the ruined husk of Varorlum Manor – if you dare disturb his rest, his enchanted horn may be yours! Dungeon module for 3rd to 4th level characters, 15 keyed loations.
You Meet in a Tavern…: and then what? Start campaigns with a bang using a tried and true cliché!
Castle Sullogh: A fabled castle reputed to be as old as mankind has lived on the Isle of Erillion (and perhaps older), now ruined but not at all abandoned. Four levels with 55 keyed areas containing challenges for 5th to 9th level characters, including a strange museum created by a famous adventuress, a tower of three powerful witches, and an old mystery. Beware the sullogh!
Thasan: Beyond the City of Vultures: Hex-crawl guide to the strange lands of Thasan surrounding the sinful city, describing its burning wastelands, glittering seas, ruined cities and bizarre phantasms in 103 keyed locations.
Two map sheets: one with a map of Castle Sullogh, one with the lands of Thasan – and a separate sheet with a colour player’s hex map of the Isle of Erillion!
Baklin: Jewel of the Seas
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| Baklin: Jewel of the Seas |
In any case, Baklin is meant to be played: it is focused on city intrigue, exploration, and dungeon crawling. Go shopping for great deals in port or at the stores of the reclusive Masters’ Guild; be careful not to fall afoul of the Sea Laws or anger the Knights of Yolanthus Kar; discover what lurks in the Tower of Gulls; and brave the Shrine of Roxana and the Thrones of Judgement!
This is two identical-length modules in one: a city guide with 39 major locations and a dungeon setting with 112 keyed areas, connected and bound together via multiple secret entrances, plot threads, and NPC agendas.
“Oh Baklin, Jewel of the Seas, great gateway of Erillion! Minstrels sing of its wealth and marine power; and of the refinement and taste of its magnates and nobility. Minstrels of all kinds, of course, are prone to grandiloquence; and perhaps Baklin is neither as mighty nor as fair as the ballads claim. And yet, there is reason the minstrels sing so, for Baklin has wealthy patrons, its fleet is not inconsiderable – and are its streets not the loveliest within so many weeks of travel? Indeed, those who brave the high seas often believe so… and they will gladly pay for a song to remember their visit. This booklet presents a complete city supplements describing the streets, personalities, and conflicts of a bustling port town, from the heights of power to the deepest undercellars. In Baklin, all streets lead to adventure – and a single life would not be enough to complete all of them.”
This supplement has been illustrated by Denis McCarthy (who also did the cover), Stefan Poag, Graphite Prime, Jerry Boucher, and the Dead Victorians.
Trail of the Sea Demon
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| Trail of the Sea Demon |
The House of Rogat Demazien: The mysterious sculptor and magician is out of town, and his house lies unguarded. What treasures and dangers are to be found in the Beggars’ Quarter, and where does it all lead to? 37 keyed areas.
Temple of the Sea Demon: Hidden somewhere in the city, a strange temple awaits. Who will outwit the secretive priests and magical guardians to claim its treasures, and who will risk the wrath of the Sea Demon doing so? 19 keyed areas.
Shadow Court: a true bazaar of the bizarre where shadowy merchants mingle with those looking for exotic wares – and deceit lurks around every corner. Yet why does nobody here speak of the abandoned garden shrine and its nightly visitors? 20 keyed areas, and the strange merchants of Shadow Court are revealed in this module!
“The Temple has stood in an abandoned plaza since time immemorial. It is part of the city, but no known street or alleyway leads to it. Only those who wait for the appointed time can embark on a pilgrimage of shadows and dreams to walk new ways through the silent and dark city. It is said that only a select few know the way except for the fanatical priests who worship the destructive powers of the sea. Those who have sought the Sea Demon’s advice seek it rarely; those who seek its riches have never returned to tell the tale. But now, the city’s past may grant a key to solve an occult mystery… Trail of the Sea Demon is a collection of three short adventures concerning the way to the Sea Demon’s sinister temple, the secrets and perils that await therein, and what may follow afterwards.”
Originally published in Fight On! magazine, these adventures have been revised and expanded based on further play, and presented in an accessible, user-friendly format in the current edition, with new illustrations by Peter Mullen (whose cover is one for the ages), Graphite Prime, Jerry Boucher, and Stefan Poag.
In the Shadow of the City-God
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| In the Shadow of the City-God |
“Mur’s fortunes have been built on tear salt, and merchants from distant lands travel to the city for this healing elixir. There are two tear salt springs in town, owned by two rival patrician families: the Falconi and the Capullo. Mur’s laws forbid open conflict, and like most crimes against citizens, the punishment for breaking the peace is severe: live entombment within the living city’s ever-growing walls! Nevertheless, cloak-and-dagger intrigue always claims new victims, and discord between the two families has now escalated into almost open warfare after the elderly Ercol Falconi’s young wife has disappeared. Time is ticking away, and only a bold company of outsiders can resolve the feuds and discover the masterminds behind it all… under the watchful eyes of the City-God!”
This module by Istvan Boldog-Bernad has been translated into the English, with illustrations by Denis McCarthy (who also did the cover), Stefan Poag, and the Dead Victorians.
Reviews:
Bryce Lynch, Ten Foot Pole: "I’m ending this review early to go pass out. It’s the day after election, I’ve been ignoring all of the news channels and instead drinking."
Echoes From Fomalhaut #07: From Beneath the Glacier
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| From Beneath the Glacier |
From Beneath the Glacier: Venture into the ice caves underneath a melting glacier, and discover the source of the nighttime raids on the mountain valleys. Dungeon module for 5th to 7th level characters, 21 keyed loations.
The Hecatomb of Morthevole: Morthevole has skeletons in the basement, and he needs to have them cleared out. Fun side job soon turns into horrible slaughterfest. Mini-dungeon for 2nd to 4th level adventurers (or plucky first-levelers!), 12 keyed locations.
The Tomb of Ali Shulwar: An article presenting one of the major Underworld complexes beneath the City of Vultures. Two entrance levels, three main levels and multiple sub-levels, from the hideouts of fantastic conspiracies to locked-away secrets and an enchanted forest beneath the face of the earth! 4th to 6th level (mostly), 66 keyed areas.
The White Hand: Crime-fighting vigilante organisation or armed thugs carrying out extrajudicial killings? Or something much worse? Look behind the face of this secret society and those who seek to control its every movement in this article.
Review:
Bryce Lynch, Ten Foot Pole: "The preview, at ten pages, shows you sixteen of the glacier rooms as well as the map. It’s a great preview."
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| Castle Xyntillan |
“The immense, rambling complex of Castle Xyntillan has stood in its mountain valley for many years. Built over several generations, it has now been deserted by its former owners, and left to time and the elements. However, that is not the end of the story, for Xyntillan’s fabulous treasures and Machiavellian deathtraps continue to fascinate the fortune-seekers of a dozen lands – and never mind the ghost stories!”
A 132-page hardcover describing the three massive levels of the eponymous funhouse megadungeon, Castle Xyntillan has been designed for the Swords&Wizardry game, and is suitable for 1st to 6th level characters. Built on surrealism and dream logic, Castle Xyntillan has been designed to be versatile, open-ended, complex, and accessible - and always a bit mysterious. From the soaring tower of the Donjon to the inky depths of the Oubliette (and beyond), this module should provide ample opportunities for exploration, confrontation, and subterfuge. Whether you would like a dungeon for one-off expeditions and convention play, or repeated forays and full campaigns, this book should suit the demands of your campaign!
With cover art by Peter Mullen, and interior illustrations by Denis McCarthy, Stefan Poag, Peter Mullen (again) and The Dead Victorians, Castle Xyntillan ships with four map sheets featuring GM’s and player’s cartography of the labyrinthine complex (the work of Robert S. Conley).
Reviews:
Grodog, From Kuroth's Quill (part 1, part 2): "Castle Xyntillan is a brilliant product, and it achieves what I wish T1-4 The Temple of Elemental Evil had turned out to be---a living, breathing large-scale adventuring environment with a distinct flavor of its own that calls out to me to fill it out further!"
James Mishler, Adventures in Gaming: "Castle Xyntillan goes a step beyond mere homage, and creates a new pinnacle from which to measure "Fun-house Dungeons." It is the Ultimate Gothic Fun-house Dungeon; it is an instant classic. It is the kind of game book that you can lose yourself in for hours, as you trace all the interconnected characters and situations presented in the adventure. It is so thorough -- and yet, still so eminently and easily playable -- that one must assume that Gabor Lux discovered some lost classic of Gothic horror and cribbed off of it to create this huge, ruined pile of awesomeness."
Bryce Lynch, Ten Foot Pole: "A perfect OD&D product, with whimsy and wonder without going off in to Funhouse territory."
Bryce Lynch, Ten Foot Pole: "A perfect OD&D product, with whimsy and wonder without going off in to Funhouse territory."
The Byzantine, Espharel: "The content inside doesn't disappoint. It oozes flavor, and there's no shortage of ideas I've already stolen. Joseph Manola, in the ever-useful post 'Conceptual Density', asks how many actual ideas there are on each page. For my money, Castle Xyntillan maintains a solid rate of at least one per page. (...) The real draw here, especially for analysis, is the layout."
Echoes From Fomalhaut #06: The Gallery of Rising Tombs
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| The Gallery of Rising Tombs |
A 44-page fanzine featuring adventures and GM-friendly campaign materials for Advanced old-school RPG rules, with cover art by Stefan Poag, and illustrations by Denis McCarthy, Stefan Poag, and the Dead Victorians. This issue contains...
The Wandering Glade: A wilderness module for (mostly) 4th to 6th level characters, describing an enchanted forest that may be found in different corners of the land, and hides lost treasures and the mysteries of bygone eras. For some, the challenge is getting in… and for some, it is getting out in one piece! 26+13 keyed locations. |
| The Nocturnal Table |
A 60-page game aid dedicated to city-based adventures, lavishly illustrated by Matthew Ray (cover), Peter Mullen, Stefan Poag and Denis McCarthy. This is a game aid designed for regular table use, and formatted to be comfortable and accessible, offering a handy guide to design and run adventure scenarios in a large, sinful city filled with action and intrigue.
“The City is a maze. A labyrinth of alleyways, plazas, shortcuts and hidden thoroughfares, it isn’t any less treacherous to navigate than a dungeon. At least during the day, the worst one can expect is a greedy patrol of guards eager for a shakedown, or a thief in the crowd, ready to make a grab and run for it. At night, the sensible and the timid hurry home and bolt their doors. Ecstatic revellers, madmen, assassins, religious fanatics, thrill-seekers, enigmatic apparitions and tiger-headed opium nightmares prowl the streets. And the guards are still not helping. The Nocturnal Table is a supplement intended to bring you this city by way of an encounter system, random inspiration tables, NPC and monster statistics, as well as a giant nighttime random encounter table, whose three hundred entries can serve as interludes as well as springboards for complicated investigative scenarios and fantastic conspiracies.”
At the core of The Nocturnal Table is a 300-entry table of random encounters and odd events you can run into at night in a busy fantasy metropolis. From a patrol of guards carrying a slain comrade, to a sinister beggar-catcher soliciting the aid of dishonest adventurers, or a skeleton covered in grey ooze, its eyes glittering gemstones shambling towards the party, all the wonder and menace of a city-crawl are at hand. But that is not all. With The Nocturnal Table, you can…
- ...create general encounters with the aid of a comprehensive encounter system…
- …generate merchants selling strange and fantastic goods (as seen in Echoes From Fomalhaut #01)…
- …find out what’s in their pockets…
- …generate local colour on the fly…
- …stock warehouses with exotic goods to plunder…
- …and set up secret meetings and investigation sites!
Guidelines are also offered to re-use the encounters and chart contents for the construction of bizarre plotlines and sinister conspiracies which rule from the shadows… while the City sleeps. All that, and more are at your disposal in… The Nocturnal Table!
Echoes From Fomalhaut #05: The Enchantment of Vashundara
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| The Enchantment of Vashundara |
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