Guts, Gore, & Hellfire Splatterd Blood In The Volcano Lands Olathoë' Session Report Ten

"In the lands of fire & ruin the remains of war now form the basis for peoples to scratch out an existence.
Violence & death are the rule but this land of liquid rock & ruin is rich in gems, artifacts, & its people trade for the niceties of life. Now the demonic Hyena men from the South have come to raid & pillage! Can the PC's survive the onslaught! "

So the other half is visiting & wanted to try a bit of hybrid OSR play. So we generated a mercenary PC up for her. Then we slotted her mercenary PC into the action of the Hyperborea caravan winding its into the volcano lands. The Volcano Lands were the site of many a  battle during the Hyperborean Wars of Old Earth's history. A lowly mercenary has risen to defend his charge against the rampaging hordes of hyena men. After a quick on the table play of combat my other half managed to kill two of the raiders but now the players are going to be contending with the remainder of the horde tonight.



The volcano lands are rich in both the remains of war machines, demons, & loads of chaos  mutant horrors from beyond the pale of the Void. There are many isolated tribes of humans & abhumans living in jungle micro environs scattered throughout the valley floors of the more extinct volcanoes. Prehistoric monsters roam in some of the valleys with much worse ruling over the Entropy weapon infected wreckage scattered across the region.


Now driven by the Lovecraftian demon worshiping queens of the hyena  men they've begun spreading down into the Volcano Lands to stop the spread of the the Inutos--"squat, hellish yellow fiends who...appeared out of the unknown west" & counter the "the hairy cannibal Gnophkehs". The abhuman hyena men were once the servants of the the underground realm of K'n-yan
Meanwhile already there have been Flind scouts seen prowling around the humans dwelling in the fire shadow drenched lands of the humans.



The jade, gold, and trade goods have been flowing into the caravan making it a likely target for the chaotic bug bear mercenaries working for the hyena men warriors. Their long guns have taken a few of the minor traders here & there but one of the caravan's wizards summoned" an arch slime demon" last week from the depths of the tortured Earth.


A whole pack of bug bears were devoured & no trace of the warriors were found. Another wizard at once banished the madness inducing horror but he vanished without a trace! What will tonight's raid bring to our players?
Here things are beginning to come together as the players are entering the ending cycle  for the mini campaign. Many of the players have heard rumors that the Volcano Lands hold the secret of both the Silver & Green Deaths. But is there time for them to exploit it??!

"Dire was the Silver Death; and none knew the secret of its contagion or the cure. Swift as the desert wind, it came into Yoros from the devastated realm of Tasuun, overtaking the very messengers who ran by night to give warning of its nearness. Those who were smitten felt an icy, freezing cold, an instant rigor, as if the outermost gulf had breathed upon them. Their faces and bodies whitened strangely, gleaming with a wan luster, and became stiff as long-dead corpses, all in an interim of minutes."

“The Isle of the Torturers”  Completed July 1932.
First published in Weird Tales, March 1933.