Blood & Duels In The Darkness of New York - OSR Actual Campaign Setting Event

"The laser rapier sang in the air burning  the molecules as it slice through the air on its way to cut off the head of the Count. It was countered by an expert block of someone whom had countless times had taken the life of younger opponents & rivals. In the shadows of Blackwood park the duelists continued their dance of plasma enhanced violence.  The night was lit by the multi colored exchange of energies. Then there was a telling blow across the cheek of the young Calvary officer. The wound was cauterized before its young owner could recover.
"End this exchange Wells & let our honor be satisfied?!"


"Never!" the young officer in the clown costume's recovery & blow was swift as it was cut off by his opponent low aimed blow to the heart met home.
The blood of these young half Huldra runs so hot as does their passion. He fought well but this duel was both unnecessary & very costly. Jacobs see that the funeral is paid for & my condolences given to his parents. They are after all friends of the family. "
Inhuman eyes watched the proceedings with something bordering on alien amusement & hunger. Even as the seconds & friends  removed the officer's corpse from the snow the man's soul was captured in a glass jar by a nearby Meazel necromancer to sell at one of New York City's numerous black occult underground markets. Nnori the royals Astral Drifter body guard sensed the capture & chuckled but did nothing.
'What is it? Nnori?'
'Tis nothing my lord'

A Russ Nicholson Meazel
from the first edition AD&D Fiend Folio

Welcome to New York critica 1909 after the Martian Invasion with the world on the edge of war & Europe boiling in its own juices. This is Pan America a world experiencing a gold rush of technological heights & otherworldly explorations even as it plunges head first towards world war! Back alley gangs of thieves & mafia via with black wizards for the spoils of an invasion that has propelled the world into the brink of suicidal warfare even as cults prey to the powers of chaos in back alleys!

So I've been working with the Heroic Fantasy Handbook & Barbarian Conquerors of Kanahu
to create a few NPC's & work up this alternative world version of Earth on the very edge of WWI. So through a combination of OD&D, Dark Albion, & ACK's I've gotten this world fleshed out very quickly.


The fact is that with second the Boer War on the horizon behind them & the exploration of the worlds of the solar system ahead of them the world powers are on a razor's edge.
"Britain abandoned the policy of holding aloof from the continental powers, so called "Splendid Isolation", in the 1900s after being isolated during the Boer War. Britain concluded agreements, limited to colonial affairs, with her two major colonial rivals, the Entente Cordiale with France in 1904 and the Anglo-Russian Entente of 1907. Some historians see Britain's alignment as principally a reaction to an assertive German foreign policy and the buildup of its navy from 1898 which led to the Anglo-German naval arms race."
Many of the spells, proficiencies, & powers of  ACK's The Heroic Handbook compliment the Dark Albion setting making the supernatural of that world easily portable into any OSR setting hence why I'm sliding this over into my alternative Earth.



Dark Albion Cults of Chaos does a good side by side with the ceremonial magic of ACK's Heroic Handbook and many of the more traditional occult elements of OD&D's various settings & campaign worlds such as Blackmoor & Greyhawk. This gives weight & gravitas to the adventure elements of a game campaign world setting. The high society of Pan America are intrigued & enchanted with the eldritch casters, ceremonialists, and spellsingers of  The Heroic Handbook but little do they suspect the true power of these occult casters. Meanwhile I'm curious to see the various magicks of this book in action against a WWI tank or other modern siege engine.

Spells such as rain of vitriol, sunder structure, or even starfall could quite well transform a battle field into a killing ground of an evil undreamt of on the European theater. Meanwhile men & women of honor & courage battle Dark Forces  in the darkened alleys of Pan America & explore the tombs under Manhattan! 

Occultist and Dread Wraith, Jeff Binder