[BLOG] Year Eight: New Foundations

The Hall of Mirrors stretches beyond the Two Infinities...

This blog started on 5 August 2016, making this part of the year a good  time to take stock and reflect. Things have been going fairly well, although more quietly on this front than others.

The State of the Blog

There is “it’s so over”, there is “we are so back”, and there is “it is what it is”. 2024’s blogging was definitely “it is what it is”. The blogging spirit left me, and that means I wrote all of 10 posts over the year. This was a better option than forcing it: if you do something, you should try to do it well, and I felt I was running out of interesting things to say in the form of blog posts. The nuts-and-bolts talk migrated to Discord and published materials, while I felt like my reviews were getting a bit repetitive. This means some of the truly excellent stuff that came out this year ended up unreviewed. Running a review blog demands having your finger on the pulse of the scene, which I didn’t, so it wouldn’t be a fair sampling either if I picked and chose a few things I liked. Fortunately, new contestants have stepped up to run their own reviews on a consistent basis. Ben Gibson of Coldlight Press writes them regularly (including the random itch.io pick, which is always fun in the same way Russian Roulette is a great party game), and Prince and Bryce are as busy as ever.

For the record, here are the reviews I did do since last time:

• 5 with the Prestigious Monocled Bird of Excellence. This rating was not awarded this year. Wormskin, Anomalous Subsurface Environment, The Tome of Adventure Design, and Yoon-Suin are still up there. I had one candidate, but since the review was not written, the title could not be awarded. This is unfair; perhaps to be fixed at a later time. 
  
• 5 was awarded to one release, Skalbak Sneer: The Stronghold of Snow by Jason Blasso. A grim murder machine in an icy realm, where men’s hearts are warmed by the thought of the blood they have spilled, this is true excellence in the lair assault genre.
• 4 was not awarded this year.
• 3 was awarded to two releases: Shrine of the Demon Goddess by Jonathan Becker – unassuming homemade word doc, strong meat-and-potatoes AD&D; and Benighted Betrothal by Sandor Gebei, a mini-sandbox centred around a Viking marriage, with a strong social dimension and a weaker physical sandbox.
• 2 and 1 were not awarded this year. Shovelware hucksters and assorted crapmongers, this has been your year: * * THE FIERY SWORD OF VENGEANCE * * was merciful… this time.

This produces an annual average of 3.7, quite above the eight-year total of 3.1. With this sample size, the stat is not really meaningful, so it is only noted here for curiosity. However, continuing the trend from last year, it also seems that the true bilge has moved away from old-school gaming, while high-quality material has emerged more prominently. This means nature is healing: if you are looking for good stuff, you are more likely to find it, and you will find more of it. There is a good number of people, many of them new at publishing, who know what they are doing.

Recently, I have gotten back into posting play reports. More short-form and bird’s-eye than previously, I do these on Discord and collect them into blog posts. Discord has a character limit, so it helps you to focus and not overdo it (which used to be a problem, and the reason I had to abandon doing it). This seems to have started a trend on the CAG server, where posters are now posting regular dispatches from their games. This is a good development, as it provides a look into how people run their campaigns, and what their groups are up to. On the community level, it puts the spotlight on actual play, the most worthwhile, but often least visible aspect of gaming (a remarkably private activity). Maybe this brevity is really how it should be done; it recalls early examples from Diplomacy zines that are still enjoyable almost 50 years on.

Sword & Magic at MondoCon, Hungary

The State of the Fanzine & Other Projects

This year, EMDT has published 13 releases, so what was lost on the blogging side was made up elsewhere. These include three larger hardcovers, which took a few years to get into shape. First and foremost are the Sword and Magic 2^nd edition rules and the accompanying Gamemaster’s Guidelines. These books, written for the Hungarian audience, present a complete old-school game that’s not quite canonically “OSR” in its rules (it emulates, but does not reconstruct, old TSR editions), but fits well into the Classic Adventure Gaming spirit, with a strong sword & sorcery vibe. The rules will remain for the local audience (although I am aware of two partial translations into the English, one of which I own as a physical copy!), but the GM’s book shall receive a translation under the title Gamemaster’s Guidelines Beyond Fomalhaut. The shall undergo some editing so it is less rulebook and more OSRIC supplement, but most of it is a translation job – the illustrations, layout, and other bells and whistles are mostly done. This is going to be my main 2025 project.

I have also been publishing the Erillion materials in the Hungarian, which has given me the opportunity to do some polish, commission new illustrations, and add new adventures that didn’t appear in Echoes From Fomalhaut. Ultimately, these will form the basis for Erillion, Land of Adventure, an English hardcover with all the campaign materials in one place. I also had the privilege of publishing T. Foster’s excellent Melonath Falls, with a translation by Istvan Szabadi. Trent is working on an English edition of the full campaign Melonath comes from under the title The Brink of Calamity, so you should watch out for that one when it arrives.

Sword & Magic translations,
courtesy of Cameron Hawkey and Terrible Sorcery

In the English, the main release was Khosura: King of the Wastelands. It got delayed (mostly because of the need to wrap up Sword &Magic, an expected time-sink that turned into the customary even larger time-sink), but in the end, it turned out fine. I have been very happy with the illustrations and cartography; the contributors did a great job on these. Khosura is the sort of regional sandbox I have long wanted to release, with a combination of city, dungeon, and wilderness adventures. Perhaps the best balance is smaller modular adventure/setting materials and the occasional large book like Khosura (first released in bits and pieces over multiple Fight On! issues). Khosura opens the door for further Fomalhaut stuff; a revised players’ gazetteer first (the one in Fight On! is from 2008), and others later (Urmalk the Boundless in Echoes #12 was the first thing from the most recent campaign to see the light).

I also published an issue of Echoes, although it could have been two – the next one’s probably for early next year. Chomy’s No Artpunk winning Webs of Past and Present received an edition, along with Cloister of the Frog-God and Drifting Lands, a campaign gazetteer for the setting where Erillion, the Twelve Kingdoms, and Kassadia are set. This has been a fairly good year, all things considered.

"The Keep on the Borderlands for Assholes"
Rides Again

The State of the Old School: Strongholds

Old-school gaming started as a highly specific thing: a movement to rediscover old D&D versions, play styles, and design concepts. There was always slightly more to it – Gamma World and Encounter Critical were early examples of non-D&D systems that fit into this sphere – but ultimately, it was about identifying and separating a distinct form of gaming that was very different from the modern mainstream. Over time, as the concept of old-school games broadened, the “OSR” became something that could be about anything as long as it was tentatively connected to the mechanics, concepts, or overall vibe of old D&D; or not even that. The term became meaningless, and “anything goes, everyone is welcome” just led to the consequences these phrases always do: an unintelligible mess. Whatever meaning the OSR label had was lost.

Fortunately, this trend has not led to the complete dissolution of old-school gaming. On the contrary, the fascination with this particular tradition has been revived in smaller, more precisely focused communities. This involves a return to the original creative wellspring, but ironically, also the early old-school gaming of the 2000s, a “revival of a revival”. This took a few years to re-emerge in a coherent way, but these centres are now sufficiently strong and lively again to sustain activity, organise contest, and cultivate excellence in old-school gaming. There is a renewed community in place that’s smaller, but just large enough to occupy a good place on the hobbyist / small press boundary, and strongly quality-oriented. The Classic Adventure Gaming Discord in particular has become a good hub for both old hands and new people, and maintains a high signal-to-noise ratio.

This community is not wide open. It is a walled garden, or perhaps a stronghold on the borderlands, standing proud against the lowly horders of the Mörklings and other artpunk mutants. Jokes aside, while the OSR became a movement about “anything”, CAG is about “something”. It has more strongly defined preferences about doing things, and hews closer to the original games, particularly Gygaxian AD&D. That carries the spirit of exclusion, of setting boundaries, and of more strict definitions. There are gates that are being kept and watched. Some things don’t belong neatly, or at all. This is the price of emphasising the specific, but also the precondition for maintaining a distinct creative vision. This should be familiar to observers of the modern world in general: communities have to be a bit defensive and a bit active in policing their boundaries to maintain their cohesion against the great flattening and interchangeability of hyper-globalisation. This offers benefits of cultivating something not found elsewhere, something with its own flavour or intellectual distinction, and a community capable of making something high-quality. Anyone can make generic parmesan cheese or dessert wine in industrial quantities, but proper Parmigiano Reggiano or Tokaji are a cut above the rest, and they are that way because there are limitations and quality standards in place with respect to who can make it, and how. These qualities deserve protection.

A Tough Nut to Crack

Striving for excellence in the emerging CAG community has been particularly fruitful. No Artpunk has emerged as a module writing contest with a strong creative vision, a healthy competitive spirit, and a relentless dedication to quality. NAP-III, dedicated to high-level adventuring, has produced 700 pages worth of strong material in a neglected genre. This is a return to AD&D tradition, a lot of which was dedicated to levels 9 and up. It was reinvigorating to rediscover low-level “survival D&D”, but it is just as exhilarating to see powerful characters operating in a complex, highly challenging environments. The contest provided just that kind of material, in spades. While Prince of Nothing (who should be known as King of Nothing based on recent developments) will be taking a break from running the contest this year, NAP has a worthy successor in the Adventure Sites Contest (although these are short-form adventures, which do sacrifice some worthwhile complexity). Standalone adventures, drawing on CAG principles, are now starting to appear.

Other signs of revival are also afoot. In Europe, Cauldron Con is now in its second year, and set to expand in 2025 after running out of space in 2024 (available registrations were filled up in a few days, leaving only a long waiting list). Fight On! has finally returned from its long slumber, riding on a mighty purple worm while being pursued by dragon-riding adventurers. A strong issue #15 has been produced, and #16 is in the works. It is delightful to see it back, and particularly that it is not an afterthought or a nostalgia ride – it is just Fight On! as it has always been.

There are challenges left. There is the risk of dilution – expanding too quickly but losing the culture, as had happened before. However, the main one is found in the dominant communication platform. Discord is an excellent venue for real-time discussion and building a community; however, it is less accessible than forums and blogs if you are not on that particular server, or you have missed the last few weeks’ talk. This is a structural weakness that has also affected 4chan’s /osrg/ megathread, which has a good focus, but little preserved memory. You can dig up Dragonsfoot, K&KA or OD&D Discussion threads from 2005, but Discord talk from three weeks ago is just gone. This places a long-term emphasis on actual, published materials which can stand the test of time, and on codifying what is being discussed in zine articles, well-reasoned blog posts, and other kinds of effortposting.

What works for our new domain, though, is its scale: it is small enough to be personal, relatable and cohesive, but large enough to leave a footprint and provide value to the participants. Gaming is rooted in friend groups organised on the bottom-up principle and voluntary association, and this spirit of camaraderie and fruitful exchange is what makes creative communities flourish. May ours withstand the great tests, and achieve even greater glories! Here is to new horizons!

And we shall look at the OSR in the sun
from the Salisbury Plain...

[CAMPAIGN JOURNAL] News on the March! Episode III.

This post continues the series of brief play reports I have been posting on Discord. This does not cover every single session (sometimes, recon and setup is what happens), but it covers our ongoing games.

The Garden of Punches

04/08/2024

News from the fallen empire of Kassadia! On the way to the Garden of Punches to kidnap two proscribed murderers, the company was joined by two shipwrecked adventurers, Cherogh (a Northman “merchant”) and Numa Pompilius (a Cleric). After repelling a skeleton ambush along the coast, they arrived at the Garden – an abandoned coastal village in the shadow of a derelict lighthouse, now a fighting school for several bare-chested wrestlers and pugilists. They introduced themselves to the school's master Settimo the Bone-Breaker, pretending to be looking for prize fighters for an upcoming tournament. The two killers, Tullio and Rubiano were there in the crowd and easily spotted, but not that easily separated from their new comrades. Meanwhile, another castaway, Paprica (a blond barbarian) emerged from a stone hut, and demonstrated his fighting prowess in a wrestling match, first against a lightweight wrestler, then the heavyweight One-Eye, both of whom he defeated – winning an invitation to sign up for the school. Meanwhile, Cherogh approached Tullio, trying to lure him away from the village. Tullio invited him behind the huts to discuss it away from the others, and quickly wrung poor Cherogh's neck, casting his body into the sea.

The Ruined Village

 He was thus replaced by yet another castaway PC, Marcus Tullius Secundus. Eventually, Tullio was drawn away from the crowd with a command spell (“Follow!”), subdued, and hidden in a getaway boat. Now it was Rubiano's turn: he agreed to a meeting at a nearby ruined farmstead, but he was transparently planning something. A counter-ambush was thus set, and when Rubiano approached with a gang of wrestlers in tow, he was peppered with arrows and killed, the rest breaking morale and fleeing. This was fortunately smoothed over with Settimo the Bone-Breaker, who had not known the murderers for long, and, noting Cherogh's disappearance as well, was inclined to believe the men were killers. So they parted ways, sailing back along the coast. During the night, the campsite on the shore was attacked by five young green dragons. Now this was deadly, but a concentrated effort killed off four beasts, while Jovial Faustulus, the party Ranger, subdued one with a net and some good old-fashioned dragon subdual. The monster was not receptive to taming, so it was securely bound on the ship.

The next day, they sailed back to Pellagris to collect their reward. In port, though, they fell afoul of Umberto Gatto, an over-zealous customs official, who objected heavily to bringing a dragon in town – and just pocketed the bribe they offered him. So the dragon was left with one half of the company, while the others did their business in town, and planned their revenge on the corrupt Umberto. The sleazy bureaucrat was enjoying his evening bath, and on the way back home, he was ambushed and captured. The man, it turns out, was carrying coins, a valuable golden jug, and two priceless gemstones on his person – a small fortune, especially for a petty customs official! Umberto was brought on board and expropriated; lamenting that his life would be forfeit once Stormy Asmodeo, the pirate lord he was working for noticed the loss. Fortunately, the party was just planning on an expedition to the nearby Isle of the Oaks, where he might be marooned. Indeed, he was asked to go on shore in the forests of the island along with the captured dragon, where Jovial Faustulus, parting from the company for a while, sacrificed them both according to the tried traditions of the Druidic faith. The rest of the landing party followed a mysterious trail to a collection of peaks, and there found an exiled nobleman named Cosimo di Lucio of the Purple Hand. Cosimo asked the party's help in saving him, and taking vengeance on his perfidious brother who had had him exiled, and was sending assassins after him even to this island. They left the island with Cosimo on board, and set sail for the city of Borontium to dispose of the gems, purchase equipment, and engage in some high-quality revelry...

Underground Tombs

11/08/2024

News from the fallen Empire of Kassadia! In the city of Borontium, the Cleric Numa Pompilius overheard his companions talking about a strange entrance and possible treasures beneath the abandoned Colantonio Manor, and deciding to beat them to the score, assembled a team of three veteran adventurers (Claude the Coffeemaker, a survivor of Shadow of the City-God, and Targus the Sailor, a survivor of The Forest of Gornate), outfitted with several henchmen. They travelled through pastoral Frabotia to the abandoned villa, finding it occupied by a group of vintners. The entrance was there, and lead deep beneath Colantonio Manor, to a network of caverns which served as both catacombs and a sanctuary from some sort of blasphemous chthonic deity. Augustus the heavy footman and Tomas the porter were killed in two battles with masses of skeletons, but small treasures were also found, and eventually, caverns with built crypts serving as the resting place of the ancient Colantonios. One of these was the mausoleum of Ercole Colantonio, a giant skeleton with an enormous sword, who also killed Filippo the Longing, light footman and Julius the heavy footman in furious battle before he was brought down. His bracers and a gold-bladed gladius +1 (a mere dagger on the giant’s belt) were the main prizes. Further, in a side-cavern, a hecatomb of 40 skeletons guarded treasures detected by a spell from Numa Pompilius, and destroyed to the last using a bottleneck position: coinage, a magic ring, and 15 amber-tipped arrows +2 were captured.

Shafts led even deeper down, into yet another large cavern with separate family mausoleums. Here, Targus climbed a roof to look around, and found himself looking down on * * M i n o s a u r o s * *, a minotaur skeleton with a giant axe and a triceratops head! The charging beast's roar froze some in terror, and while some climbed the roof, Jerios the porter was left behind and massacred. The beasts even climbed the walls of the crypt where the defenders hid, killing Caesar the heavy footman, but being defeated by the surviving PCs, who also took his great axe and skull. His true crypt – hidden behind a false one – hid a hoard of golden vessels, gems, and coinage. However, they triggered a secret button which sounded a gong and sealed the entrance with heavy bars: and only Numa Pompilius' one-use spell to call on his deity's emissary could get them out – an unassuming man who opened the barred entrance before taking a reward of treasure and disappearing. However, the man's final warning to be careful proved prophetic: * * M i n o s a u r o s * *, revived from death, came forth from his crypt again, headless: and as the characters ran from the mausolean caverns, he replaced the skull on his mighty neck, and came roaring with terrible fury! It was now time to run, and the adventurers fled the caverns, to emerge back in the idyllic landscape of Frabotia, and return with their treasures and great deeds to the big city...

The Caverns of Minosauros

15/08/2024

News from the fallen empire of Kassadia! Following a letter from Numa Pompilius, the leader of the previous expedition, the main party set out for Colantonio Manor and the caverns of Minosauros. Descending into the ancient burial passages, most of the time was spent in exploration, although the worms of the earth – terrible, segmented creatures with gaping, toothy maws – came to assault the party again and again. At a magic circle, some sort of conjuration was triggered, and masses of the horrors came swarming out of the cavern ground, but were driven back with swords and flaming oil. Then, caverns were re-discovered with free-standing mausoleums. The mausoleum of Pierluigi Colantonio, “whose mask is a face, but whose face is a mask”, a juju zombie with a weird lead mask, was dispatched and some blasphemous religious artifacts collected. There was less success in the mausoleum of Ataleo Colantonio, whose entrance ominously read “He who enters here shall share in his grief.” A small trinket was retrieved from the sarcophagus by fishing it out with a javelin, but then opening the lid for good to get the coinage triggered a trap, sealing the entrance with a stone slab! All fled successfully except a henchman, Gracchus the Mute, who was now trapped within Ataleo’s resting place! A second inscription was found faintly graven into the side of the structure: “IN PACE REQUIESCAT”. With that, the company returned to the surface to see what kind of tools they might retrieve from the manor to help their armed companion...

Outskirts

08/09/2024

News from ULTRAREALITY! The exploration of the City of the Ape-Men continued on the plateau of the Isle of the Dream-Spices. At first, the company stuck to the city outskirts: exploring a ruined palace and defeating two two-headed lions, and Murat the thief climbing up into a ruined tower and discovering it was the nest of strange, intelligent spider-creatures with a somewhat humanoid upper body (but retreating to safety instead of risking a one-on-five confrontation). A half-collapsed cistern was also located, and the giant toads inhabiting it poisoned with a vial of deadly poison. It seems the cistern hid some underwater structure, but this was left for another time.

Striking through the jungle, a grotto entrance was found, and an idol whose electrum sceptre shot powerful electric bolts – which was removed from its grasp. But there was more: a carefully hidden door behind the statue, to... a system of meandering cave passages. Not far from the entrance was a gruesome display of stuffed ape-men on pedestals, but soon, a group of more finely dressed and articulate apes approached, inquiring of the visitors’ purpose, and particularly the “vessel” they came to this world, which interested them considerably until they learned it was not a spacecraft. This was, however, an illusion: the company was ambushed from behind by more of the spider-creatures, who proved to have telepathic and mental domination abilities. Four were killed in pitched battle and one subdued, but then killed due to the dangers of their telepathy. Considering the place too dangerous, a retreat was made to the lions’ palace for a night's rest. On the way back, though, the tower of the spider-things was fireballed by Bocephus, bringing the unstable structure down in a cascade of rocks.

The Lower Caverns

05/09/2024

News from the fallen empire of Kassadia! The Lion Pack continued their explorations of the Caverns of Minosauros beneath Colantonio Manor. First, a quick rescue operation was mounted to rescue Gracchus the Mute, entombed within the crypt of Ataleo Colantonio by a rising stone block trap. A reduce spell turned the stone block smaller; it pivoted forward and crushed Cato the heavy footman to death, but at least Gracchus was freed. The company retreated to the manor, to enjoy food and wine among the vineyard workers.

The next day, more exploration followed, but most of the locations found were already cleared by Numa Pompilius’ group. However, a crypt of wights was breached, and miraculously, the undead put down with turning and lots of holy water. A way down to a lower level was guarded by a magical spiral glyph. (“Spirals don't mean good things in the Zylarthen campaign.” “They don't mean good things anywhere else either.”) Larth Ulthes Velznach broke the glyph, and narrowly avoided being sucked into nilspace. The lower level was a system of caverns, leading to a lightless lake and a grotto with a talking crystal skull, the family's forefather, Lucius Manilius Colantonius. The skull believed the company to be his distant descendants, and after generous gifts, told how Colantonius Minosauros could be put to rest by cleansing his sarcophagus. With this knowledge, the company could ambush the beast, who was killed without casualties. In a hidden true tomb (missed by Numa's group), his sarcophagus was cleansed with holy water and a bless spell, and a bounty of coins, gems, and golden dishes plundered. Returning to the surface, the company walked into a predictable ambush: Heraclio the Vintner and his men were there, demanding the loot! But Trupo Gizmegas was ready, enshrouding the place with magical fog, and in the confusion, they fled, hearing Heraclio’s curses from far behind.

The Subterranean Lake

15/09/2024

The next adventure followed after downtime in Pellagris, where Trupo brewed a potion of spider climbing, and Axem Borbatuk created extra holy water. The Lion Pack returned to Colantonio Manor, now deserted by the vintner-bandits. Exploration continued on the cavern level, around the lightless lake. On its south were caverns with a fungal infestation, carefully avoided. In the lake's middle rose a small island with a circle of standing stones. On the shores, the characters were attacked by heavy, sacklike creatures hanging from the ceiling, but they were defeated with missile fire. A grapnel with rope was thrown to the island, enough to shimmy across. After slaying more hanging creatures, the standing stones proved to be not druidic, but some sort of evil chthonic ritual site with bas-reliefs describing live burial. Deciding not to bother this unhallowed ground, they retreated, but Trupo, who fell into the lake, was almost torn apart by lurking zombies.

Escape From the Shadow-Sluts

To the north was a hall of deep shadows and closed pits, as well as a dark statue with an inscription reading “SINISTRO”. This was also avoided. The company eventually came back to the cavern of the mausoleums. The mausoleum of “VOPISCVS TITINIVS COLANTONIVS: CONCVBINATOR, TRIVMPHATOR, DECIMATOR” was guarded by a satyr's head, and the door was opened from a distance with a rope, avoiding a magical trap. The tomb seemed uninhabited at first, but the Lion Pack got surrounded by the wraith of Vopiscus Titinius and his shadowy concubines. The undead aristocrat was slain by Arden Oakbark’s flame blade, but poor Gracchus the Mute was claimed by the shadow sluts as their plaything. The characters ran, the shadows, temporarily held at bay with oil fire – but the day was saved by Trupo, who could quickly ascend a vertical shaft with the potion of spider climbing and lower a rope for the others. The company left behind the manor with minor treasure, swearing not to return until accumulating more power!

Quotes:

Arden Oakbark: “I can sacrifice either 400 gp, or you.”

Diomedes to Arden Oakbark, laden down with one of the weighty hanging creatures still clinging to him in death: “You are a druid after all, in symbiosis with nature.”

Arden: “Windowless… Just because it is a crypt, it could have windows.”

Diomedes, after escaping in shameful defeat from the mausoleum of Vopiscus Titinius: “Well, lads, I didn’t think I would feel nostalgic for the Minosauros.”

The Sealed Library

15/09/2024

News from ULTRAREALITY! Exploration of the city ruins continued under generous rainfall. The first destination was a round, domed building, which proved to be a temple with the idol of a speaking statue calling herself GODDESS. GODDESS spoke of the city's warring apes, one of whose factions were evil conquerors, and two on the good side - and she tasked the company to help these "good" apes to bring peace to the city. This was promised, but doubts lingered about the voice's divinity. Next, the hill to the west, where stood an abandoned, crumbling library. The entrance was walled up; Murat, exploring the rooftops, found a crack in a cupola, but also a nest of giant spiders, whom they didn't wish to fight for now.

Deeper into the City

Instead, they descended back to the city centre. A swarm of flying manta rays ambushed them from the top chamber of a crumbling pyramid. This structure proved to hold buried treasures, as well as a polished golden mirror with astronomical diagrams, and tablets with some sort of complex calculations, and a warning they would have to be taken at the zenith, close to the sky. Further on was a derelict palace that was still inhabited by elegantly-dressed nobles among rot and ruin; they introduced themselves as members of the ruling clan, but their behaviour was very odd: the company took a quick farewell. They surmised it would be best to talk to the friendly ape-men, one of whom they suspected to reside in a lone tower on a hill on the city's eastern outskirts. This place proved uninhabited, so camp was made while supplies ran dangerously low. The following day, a bold decision was taken to scout out one of the buildings with a heavy presence of ape-men. Lilith decided to introduce herself as an incarnation of GODDESS (as the trick had worked before); but this time, the apes denounced them as imposters, sending a hunting party after the fleeing adventurers. These foes were slain, and the explorers decided to return to the Viridian Star to rest and replenish their supplies...

[CAMPAIGN JOURNAL] News on the March! Episode II.

Hags No Mo

This post continues the series of brief play reports I have been posting on Discord. It does not cover every single session (sometimes, recon and setup is what happens), but it covers our ongoing games.

16/06/2024

News from the Twelve Kingdoms! Following a quest received at a mysterious druidic altar, King Hjorl and his companions set out across the desolate hinterlands of Port Perdol to come to the aid of Izvald, a minstrel-judge. Not far from a stone circle, they learned from Izvald’s wife, Zilia, that the nearby garrison was attacked by the forces of the King of the Two Lands, and the survivors, along with Izvald, were the prisoners of three witches living in a nearby hall. The building, built of enormous timbers, proved much larger and palatial on the inside than outside, with tall ceilings and images of ferocious bears at various places. The hags’ trome (troll-gnome) servitors were fireballed in the great hall where they were feasting after their successful raid. Exploring the labyrinthine halls, they finally emerged in the witches’ steam bath, where they were caught in a pincer move: one hag from the north, one from the south with trome reinforcements, and a third from the west with a stone golem in the shape of a man-eating bear, with two enormous ruby eyes! The attackers’ spirit was broken after two hags were killed and one fled, and the golem was eventually brought down by King Hjorl (as he was the only one who could successfully engage it). Pursuing the last hag, she was confronted and killed in her own kitchen, where the sisters were cooking a soup of three captured soldiers.

The spoils were considerable: two enormous rubies from the golem; a great hoard of gold, a portable hole, an elixir of life, and potions brewed by the hags. Alas, while testing the potions, Tobias the Secretive opened a fire bomb, and the blast killed the party’s new follower, Severian the Executioner’s Apprentice (Fighter 2). However, Izvald and some soldiers were freed from prison. The way to Port Perdol across the wilderness was no less perilous. King Selvir’s armies were fighting a two-front war on the kingdom’s marches against the invading Empire of Sark, while lawless men and monsters roamed the countryside. Thus, on the way to the city, two large groups of barbarians and a pack of dire wolves were fought and defeated – but the adventurers won, and the characters finally arrived in Port Perdol, city of towers.

The Coasts of Pellagris

27/06/2024

News from the fallen empire of Kassadia! Having escaped from the fighting pits beneath the villa of Basilius Antonius Proculus, the company found itself in a forest shrouded in eternal night, and crisscrossed by twisting paths. There were also strange relics here; a standing stone with a magical inscription that brought beings of moss and earth to fight against the characters, strange beasts lurking beyond the narrow trails, and a talking chasm. From a burial mound came the sounds of revelry and a woman’s pleading, and the characters snuck down to find a feast of bandits about to do harm to a fair maiden. Charging the miscreants, this turned out to be an illusion created by an enormous tentacular monster clinging to the ceiling. Brondo Flintstonemount (Dwarf Cleric 3) was seized and devoured by the monstrosity, along with Arvonius Pidax (NPC Thief 1, rescued from beneath the villa). The rest of the group fled with their mere lives.

Later, they eventually found a way out of the forest, emerging in a sunlit landscape. The forest behind them was just a small wooded hill, and around them were gentle rolling hills and pleasant sunlit fields. They headed towards a ruined manor house they saw from their vantage point, finding it mostly deserted. After discovering an exsanguinated corpse, they explored the attic, where they fought vampire bats and found a small chest of electrum and a pricy dagger. Here, they were joined by a new traveller: Arden the Druid, looking for the mysteries of the wooded hill (the replacement PC). At another manor close by, they finally found a group of vineyard workers, and information about the nearby estates. Eastwards was the town of Pellagris, and westwards, far away, a village and a larger manor on the old imperial road to Borontium. However, they first explored a roadside cemetery – failing to enter the locked crypt – then found a hidden old road to a cliff plateau over the churning sea. This was a sacred site to Galerius Demarcator, God of Milestones and Boundaries (one of the main imperial cults) and a burial site too. Larth Ulthes Velznach, the sailor, sacrificed a little blood and electrum, but somehow did something wrong, bringing the god’s wrath, and a demand for a much greater sacrifice. But Larth tarried, and decided to wait. Thus, he was cursed henceforth with the curse of the Blood-Drinkers, to only heal naturally if he would drink fresh blood! And so came a new night to the group of adventurers, on the coasts of fair Frabotia.

Isle of the Dream-Spices

07/07/2024

News from ULTRAREALITY! A large group of adventurers set sail from the pirate town of Linquar, whose former lord they have overthrown in favour of a new contender. Their aim was the City of the Ape-Men, a set of mysterious ruins on the plateau of the Isle of the Dream-Spices. They circumnavigated half of the island, and finally followed one of the rivers falling from the misty plateau. The ape-men ambushed their boats on the upriver trek, but their hurled spears proved useless against the good bronze of these valiant conquistadors! Approaching one of their outposts, Lilith, Champion of Ishtar, stepped forward to parlay, and was immediately “recognised” as an emissary of their Goddess! Requesting a guide, they now found a way up to the plateau, where they spent the night by an azure lake... a giant snake almost strangled Lilith, but it was eventually defeated.

The next day, two two-headed lions were fought on a yellow brick road, one driven off and one defeated with a sticks to snakes spell. However, their guide fled into the jungles. Seeking higher ground, they climbed one of the island’s taller mountains, getting a good view of the southern plateau. Yet a crater also beckoned higher up. This place hid something new: a red lake, with an enormous, half-submerged metal disk lying in it! Two brave (and invisible) characters advanced, gaining access to the interior, but finding it hard to proceed. A few jars of a green gel were recovered before they had to flee from a metallic sentry. Fortunately, they also saved against the strange sickness of the weird craft! Now heading for the City of the Ape-Men, they camped out on the outskirts, and eventually explored one of the palaces. Filled by erotic statuary and haunted by figments of dancing girls, they found a central chamber, where they were met by a very beautiful and very dangerous demoness: she charmed one party member, and controlled another, but finally gated out at 1 Hp. The adventurers shall continue from here!

"I can fix her" -- Ion the Fighting-Man.

City Investigations

10/07/2024

News from the fallen empire of Kassadia! Having arrived in the coastal town of Pellagris, the company learned of sinister events. A young girl implored them to free her beloved, a young guard who was caught smuggling, and was now imprisoned in the building of the Judges Guild, awaiting his trial and execution. After some investigation, it turned out the smuggled item was a heretical artifact, and the trail lead to The Charming Princess, a ship whose crew kept suspiciously to itself. Visiting the waterfront at night, they hatched a plan to go on board, and dangle the promise of retrieving the item for a bounty. The ship’s presumed master, a sinister, turbaned fellow, agreed to the scheme. They also noted rats were leaving the ship in large numbers. On the way back, they encountered a group of smugglers loading merchandise on a boat; things soon came to a fight, where the smugglers were killed, and the group fled on a stolen boat under crossbow fire from a nearby ship – luckily, unrecognised and with no witnesses. The next day, Larth Ulthes Velznach and Diomedes Fulmino visited the temple of Galerius Demarcator, god of boundaries and milestones, and its high priest, the conservative patrician Marsilio de Albertonibus, responsible for stamping out heresies and also presiding at the Judges Guild. They made a report of the ship and its crew, and agreed to a plan whereby they would bring a fake artifact on board at night, and draw out the ship’s master while a larger force would wait among the waterfront warehouses for backup. Meanwhile, the other half of the party shadowed one of the crewmen through the alleyways to an old building, where he consulted with someone through barred windows –  suspected to be a wererat.

At night, they returned to the Charming Princess, showing the crewmembers the real chest with a lump of stone. They were invited below decks by one of the sailors, who was killed while he wasn’t looking. Now among enemies, they continued exploring the ship until they ran into more crew (some heavily diseased), and more of the nomads, swearing by the name of the demon Juiblex! A pitched battle developed, and eventually, the ship’s master, the evil cleric Zalamar also emerged from his den on the lowest deck. The party would have been slaughtered, but at the same time, the city’s forces rushed the upper deck, where half of the crew were put down in a brutal fight. Zalamar used his command spell to draw in Larth Ulthes, who would have surely been killed by the assassins Shalmur and Ilzabar if it were not for the help of his companions. But Zalamar was killed by Shalmur himself, commanded to do so by the hobbit cleric Axem Borbatuk. Cornered, most of the remaining crewmen surrendered, and were captured for later trial; but Shalmur, fighting desperately, had to be put down. The company captured Zalamar’s treasures, a spellbook, but also a demonic rat in a cage who offered power and riches if he were merely freed.

Don't Cross This Guy

18/07/2024

News from the fallen empire of Kassadia! Having slain the cultists on board of the Charming Princess, the company was invited for a meeting with Crimson Catullo, the most powerful magnate of Pellagris. The next day, they sought him out, and the corpulent Catullo made them an offer they could not refuse: he paid them a neat salvage price for the ship, and invited them to join the Condottieri, a mercenary guild that would open many opportunities, and also offer protection from various “accidents” of the adventuring trade – all for a modest 10% cut of income earned in adventuring. This was a very generous offer that was graciously accepted, and the charter was written for the Lion Pack, as the company would now be named. Catullo also gave an assignment to the newly formed Condottieri group: hunt down the brawlers Tullio and Rubiano, now fugitives due to beating a senator’s son to death.

The investigation led to the harbour, but here, the company was approached by a distraught merchant, Iacopo Mascari, lamenting a robbery wherein a family heirloom was taken from him by a thug called the Dog. Following the trail of the miscreant (with Iacopo in tow), they eventually wound up in a bordello near the harbour. Instead of “the Dog”, they found a bunch of bandits who tried to ambush and rob them, while Iacopo turned out to be a magic-user! Eventually, some robbers were slain,  Iacopo made his escape, and the survivors were let go in exchange for some information.

Further investigation in the slums of the town found no clues, but they had more luck in the Full Cauldron Tavern, a waterfront place for troublemakers. Proposing a match for valuable prizes, it turned out a school for brawlers and puglisits existed on the coast, named The Garden of Punches. It seems the fugitives fled there recently. The Young Lass, a small sailboat, was bought from a retiring old smuggler to sail along the coastline – and here is where we shall continue!

Beyond Cape Medusae

01/08/2024

News from the fallen empire of Kassadia! A small group of adventurers set sail from Pellagris to bring two killers to justice – reputed to be hiding in a coastal brawlers’ school called The Garden of Punches. Circumnavigating Cape Medusae, the lookout spotted a mound standing on the coastal plateau. Exploring the burial mound decorated with bas-reliefs of bulls, several vampire bats were fought at a great cost of blood – and the place was already looted, so the prize was only a fistful of electrum.

The company came to the conclusion that they must have bypassed the Garden, so the next day, they sailed back along the coast, then struck inland under a terrible storm. On the edge of a forest, they found cultivated lands, and a walled manor house with a garden of statues next to it. The local farmers were terrified of Ferox Aper’s caveman visage, thinking him a bandit slaver, and started crying for help. The company retreated to the garden, weathering the worst of the storm in a mysterious lakeside gazebo. An old man in a different cottage shared some information about the area (and the human-sacrificing druids who had carried off the brother of the major domo). It seemed the Garden was not in this area, so the decision was made to return to ship and sail south along the coast some more.

On the sea, however, zombies rose from the waves to climb on board. In pitched battle, they were slain (a mirror image spell and holy water proving invaluable), but Ferox Aper was torn apart by the living dead. At this point, they were back to the place where the burial mound was: and they carried the caveman’s body up to the coastal plateau, laying him to rest in the former sarcophagus of the Bull-Slaying Lord.

Against the Google

Addendum: the enshittification of Blogger continues. Year by year, a perfectly functional service gets worse and worse. Can it get worse? Can it get much worse? The jury is still out on that one! Thanks, Google, you are the best!

[MODULE/ZINE] Khosura: King of the Wastelands, Drifting Lands, Echoes From Fomalhaut #12 (NOW AVAILABLE!)

A Triumvirate of Adventure

I am pleased to announce the publication of three new release, including a hardcover sandbox supplement with city, dungeon and wilderness adventures; a players’ setting gazetteer, and the newest volume of my zine. That’s a handful!

Khosura: King of
the Wastelands

“Those risen against me, I pillaged their kingdoms, and placed my foot on their proud necks before the coming of the end...” Overking Srabmar, He Who Buys and Sells, is no more, and the twelve cities he has left in rubble are mere heaps of stone in a destroyed land. Yet many years later, the City-State of the Four Mysteries still stands on the shores of a salt lake, dreaming of past and future glories, from its gilded palaces to the depths of its Undercity. This is Khosura, King of the Wastelands! Visit a sword & sorcery city-state of ancient customs, dark sorceries, and secretive mystery religions – built on a wasteland wrecked by ancient wars, divine retribution, and successive cycles of harsh, tyrannical kings. Descend into an extensive Undercity, go up against treacherous mirages and cruel plans, and plunder the treasures of a land where might makes right, life is harsh, and the glory of heroes is earned at the cost of spilled blood.”

First and foremost, I am really pleased to announce the much-delayed release of Khosura: King of the Wastelands. Based on multiple campaigns in weird desert lands, this is a rather large, 164-page hardcover describing Khosura, a city-state in the world of Fomalhaut, its extensive Undercity, and the surrounding wastelands. Designed for characters of level 3–8, and compatible with OSRIC rules, the supplement offers a wide, deep playing environment (a sandbox with lots of sand in it) to set your own adventures. It includes the following materials:

• An adventure-friendly description of the city-state of Khosura, with its customs, factions, rumours, rumour and encounter charts, and 28 keyed areas, from teeming markets to the palaces of the high and mighty!
• An interconnected, vast Undercity divided among 8 levels and several sub-levels to a total of 176 keyed areas, including tomb-complexes, hidden holy sites, magical enigmas, and the remnants of ancient times!
• A wilderness section describing the Desert of Regulator, a place of deadly mirages and antique ruins, in a hex-crawl format. 45 keyed hexes can serve as springboards for further adventures to crumbling ziggurats, warlike enclaves, grandiose monuments, and  places haunted by deadly dreams. Complex wilderness encounter tables are included to handle travel across the points of interest.
• A grab-bag of supplemental materials: Stone Gullet, a wasteland outpost (and true keep on the borderland); a selection of caravans and NPCs to meet on the road; and three smaller adventures leading deep into wasteland mirages.
• An appendix of new monsters and magic items.
• A separate map pack of four foldout map sheets with GM and player cartography.

Khosura: King of the Wastelands is illustrated by Peter Mullen (who did the cover and various interiors), Cameron Hawkey, Graphite Prime, Vincentas Saladis, Sean Stone, as well as the Dead Victorians, the Antique Alumni, and the Robot Overlords. The cartography was done by Robert S. Conley (city and dungeon maps), Sean Stone (who did the excellent bird’s eye players’ map of the city), and myself (wilderness hex map).

Drifting Lands

“In a barbaric age where old certainties are gone, everything is possible. This booklet describes lands in turmoil. Old powers have fallen, civilisation has retreated to a few refugia, and barbarism is on the move. On the Isle of Erillion, a successful island kingdom has secured coastal footholds, but has made few inroads in the isle’s old forests and high mountains. The Twelve Kingdoms, a collection of small feudal realms, have descended into civil war and mutual destruction while an arctic empire dreams of conquest. And in the Kassadian Empire, the long decline of a high civilisation has created a landscape of rival city-states, militaristic frontier-towns, and barbarous hinterlands – against the shadows of an Empire that bitterly clings to its life. Here are lands ripe for adventure, plunder, and conquest. Here are thrones to win, dark fates to avert, and frontiers to tame – here is a world to be reshaped by the able and shrewd! And here is your opportunity!”

I am also pleased to announce Drifting Lands, a players’ gazetteer to my (more or less) vanilla fantasy setting, which has previously been released in bits and pieces over multiple zine issues as our campaigns progressed therein. This is a 52-bage booklet that expands on and consolidates these materials into a player-friendly guidebook. It includes the following materials:

• A bird’s eye big-picture description of the setting and its known regions, from the Isle of Erillion to the Empire of Pand.
• 34 gods and heresies, from fleet-footed Apelles, God of Messengers; and Galerius Demarcator, God of Boundaries and milestones, one of the three imperial cults; to the extinct (?) cult of the Purchased God and everyone’s favourite, the frog-god Tsathoggus. Notes are also offered on the Omnipotent Index, the Kassadian Empire’s monstrously outdated and utterly unjust legal code to classify approved and heretical religions.
• More detailed guides to three regions, focusing on customs, places of interest, and conflicts that call for adventurers to resolve.
• A separate map pack with six fold-out hex map sheets: players’ and GM’s cartogrtaphy for Erillion, the Twelve Kingdoms (two sheets), Kassadia (two sheets), and the blank slate Savage Peninsula.

Drifting Lands features a cover image by an unknown alumnus (culled from an ancient US college yearbook, it is a striking piece that makes quite an impression), and interior illustrations by Cameron Hawkey, Vincentas Saladis, the Dead Victorians, and the Antique Alumni.

Treasures of
the Necropolis

Also furthermore, I am pleased to announce the publication of the twelfth issue of my fanzine, Echoes From Fomalhaut. As usual, this is a 56-page zine dedicated to adventures and GM-friendly campaign materials for OSRIC and other old-school systems. It is the most lavishly illustrated issue yet, with cover art by Peter Mullen, and interior illustrations by Cameron Hawkey, Vincentas Saladis, Graphite Prime, Ferenc Fabian, the Dead Victorians, and the Antique Alumni. This issue features a varied assortment of scenarios, three of which have been tested in both campaign and convention play. The following materials are included:

• Urmalk the Boundless (levels 3–5, 24+24 keyed areas), an open-ended, site-based adventure describing a weird necropolis next to a large city. A place of burial since primordial eras, this is a site of crumbling (and sometimes repurposed) mausoleums, catacomb passages, and more oddities. Beyond its campaign origins, the module saw extensive playtesting at Cauldron Con 2023, Society of Adventurers Con XI, and beyond. It makes for a tournament-style scenario, a side-adventure, or a permanent campaign ficture.
• Catacombs of the Pariahs (levels 3–7, 50 keyed areas), one of the subterranean complexes beneath the City of Vultures. Located under the crooked streets of the Beggars’ District (also described), this is a section of the undercity that goes from reasonably simple to remarkably deadly. From the Court of the Pariah-King to the Domain of Virotán and the Ceramic Space, it just gets stranger and more vicious.
• Castle of the Rose Knight (levels 5–7, 30 keyed areas), an enchanted castle found in the Twelve Kingdoms, easily glimpsed from afar, but unreachable by all but a few, this is a place to test a questing knight’s mettle! All is not what seems, and the Knight of Roses, the visitors’ mysterious host, is not someone to be trifled with.
• Tower of the Thief (levels 3–5, 15 keyed areas): what it says on the tin – the tower of a retired thief, also located in the Beggars’ District. Sort of a small adventure site.

Two foldout map sheets with player and GM maps. While supplies last, a third sheet will also be included in orders (I accidentally sent off a wrong map file to the printer, so this became an extra).

* * *

The print versions of the modules and the zine are available from my Bigcartel store; the PDF edition will be published through DriveThruRPG with a few months’ delay. As always, customers who buy the print edition will receive the PDF version free of charge.