OSR Adventure Encounter The Temple Of The Book - A Lamentations of the Flame Princess/ Astonishing Swords & Sorcerers of Hyperborea Mash Up

 Adventure Encounter  Set Up

& Construction

“There have been times when only a hair's-breadth has intervened betwixt myself and the seething devil-ridden world of madness; for the hideous knowledge, the horror- blackened memories which I have carried so long, were never meant to be borne by the human intellect. ”
― Clark Ashton Smith


   Today was a one rule book and one adventure kinda day, make no mistake about Lamentations of the Flame Princess its a Gothic horror game at its core.And so the challenge today was to take that one rulebook and create an adventure encounter around it for the Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea campaign. For three reasons, one to make sure I was up on the rules of the game, two to prove a point that the rule book is as much a game reference device and three to show that sword and sorcery has many pulpy angles to it. And what's with the Blind Dead fan book? We'll get to that in a moment.



First thing is about the Lamentations of the Flame Princess game, there is a ton of resources that the rule book brings to the table. This includes the fact that most often in many of the recent supplements real life history plays a part in the adventure or sourcebook. A great example of this 'No Salvation For Witches' which uses some real world history and a very dangerous series of encounters for the PC's. But what does this have to with our adventure construction example today? Well let's talk about, "The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon (Latin: Pauperes commilitones Christi Templique Salomonici), commonly known as the Knights Templar, the Order of Solomon's Temple (French: Ordre du Temple or Templiers) or simply as Templars, were among the wealthiest and most powerful of the Western Christian military orders^[4] and were prominent actors in Christian finance. The organisation existed for nearly two centuries during the Middle Ages."




No other group has been used in conspiracy theory, quasi reality archeology history television shows and horror movies. Specifically one of my all time favorites The Blind Dead series but the problem? Well one of my players who came to pick me arrived a bit early for my game this afternoon.

So is this going to be a problem? Because already our noisy player thinks he knows what's in store? Umm no I actually left these books out for that very purpose. All is not as it seems with our Templar connection. And what does this all have to do with Hyperborea?

  The Lost Temple Of The  Book
History & Background

The following is all fiction and the set up for the adventure during  The Battle of Hattin which took place on July 4, 1187, between the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem and the forces of the Kurdish Ayyubid sultan Salah ad-Din, known in the West as Saladin,certain artifacts and holy treasures were removed by the Templars and taken back to a small church  on the banks of Cyprus. Among these were the lost pages of the Greek text of the Necronomicon. This version contains a version of the summoning spell from the Lamentations of the Flame Princess game. One of the knights was examining the text and misspoke summoning something hideous beyond the ken of men.


The slaughter was hideous beyond mere words and the church upon its isolated little isle was removed from our local space time continuum until now. The church along with its occupants have recently surfaced upon the oceans of Hyperborea. A few gold coins and some other trinkets have washed up on some of the local shores and already adventurers are hearing the tales of the lost treasure and its mysterious temple.
So the set up is simple the knights are undead and their are other more horrific things waiting for a party of adventurers in the church. The place is cursed and exists outside of space and time. It will only be on Hyperborea for 1d20 days and the hours are ticking which any wizard can figure out by watching the skies for 1d10 minutes above the church.

So what's in the church is going to depend upon the size of the party of adventurers, there will be 1d10 zombie Templar knights. But there will also be at least 1d6 or more weird monsters all generated using the summoning spell from the  LotFP Rules & Magic Free Version. 

The challenge of course was to create this whole encounter using the one book from the ground up. What's behind the events here? I would suggest using the demon generator from No Salvation For Witches. The things in that book would give a party a run for their money.

So here's what I came up with for a random Treasure list for The Lost Temple. The temple encounter could also be used as a funnel for a Dungeon Crawl Classics game party set up as fishermen,or locals row out to the island.
1D20 Random Treasures of
The Lost Temple Of  The Book

1.   An Ivory statue of a goddess worth about 100 gold pieces 
2. A silver plate worth 60 gold pieces along with various other silver pieces 
3. A carved ivory chess set with an inlaid board worth about 100 gold pieces to the right collector 
4. unworn chain mail, sword, and shield  worth 70 gold pieces for they are very worn with blood and gore. 
5.  Semi precious stone carved vase worth 100 gold to the right collector 
6. A scroll of healing in a metal scroll case 
7. A rosary carved from amber worth 200 gold pieces 
8. Astrology charts and star maps worth 200 gold pieces with lots of details on Venus 
9. Scroll of Protection blood soaked and unused, sealed with a wax seal 
10. A +1 sword of the head of this church,embedded in a pew 
11. Gold wedding ring with a semi precious stone worth 120 gold pieces 
12. A unusual telescope like instrument worth 300 gold pieces to the right collector or wizard. 
13. Weird gold like wand capped with three triple silver bands worth 60 gold pieces to a wizard. 
14. 6 pieces of fist sized amber worth 200 gold pieces because of the clarity and jewelry potential 
15. A diary of a wizard in archaic Arabic with tons of sanity eroding diagrams and drawings. The thing is worth 600 gold pieces to the right wizard but certain knightly orders will kill the owner to take possession of this book. 
16. A human arm turned to silver with the bones sticking out of it. The thing is useful to certain demonic cults. They will kill or pay the owner handsomely determined by the DM 
17. An ivory cask containing twenty cards used in demon summoning.There are twelve cards missing but they are still worth 100 gold to the right collector or the person's life. 
18. A blood soaked ruby worth 70 gold 
19. A parchment of sorcererous  horror that will cause 1d4 points of damage to the fool holding it, this piece is made from dried demon skin contains a first level summoning spell. The thing is worth 300 gold pieces but it is cursed. 
20. The head of a knight has been turned into a mechanical treasure with emeralds and rubies for eyes. The thing is worth 400 gold pieces to a collector of demonic lore.