OSR Catch Up & Campaign Round Up - A0-A4: Against the Slave Lords & OSR Deep Dive

"A1: Slave Pits of the Undercity: It is time to put a stop to the marauders! For years the coastal towns have been burned and looted by the forces of evil. You and your fellow adventurers have been recruited to root out and destroy the source of these raids—as hundreds of good men and women have been taken by the slavers and have never been seen or heard from again!"



I've been battling a cold for the better part of three days now & my patience is razor thin. Its not razor thin with anyone in particular but with myself. If there's one unifying force of destruction in my old school & OSR campaigns its been various members of the classic Slavers of A0-A4: Against the Slave Lords. 

 Even across worlds or especially across worlds the Slavers have been a force to be reckoned with. The way I use the Slave Lords is simple these are world spanning secret pulp group of criminals who are more then capable of handling raids on multiple planes Prime. The other day I spoke about the alchemist from U1 Sinster Secret of Saltmarsh by Dave J.Brown with Don Turnball. 

But I find myself going over the notes of my Cha'alt/Godbound rpg campaign & thinking about the links between the Slavers & "X1: "The Isle of Dread" (1981), by David "Zeb" Cook and Tom Moldvay. What links you ask? Well, the fact that The Isle of Dread has appeared off of the California coast in my campaign. This campaign takes place during early stages  the time of Ragnarok when the Lovecraftian forces of darkness are trying to retake the surface world.  The Slavers forces are taking full advantage of this fact & raiding various towns along the California coast.



But this isn't the only island that's appeared deep in the waters of the andesite line that  follows the western edge of the islands off California and passes south of the Aleutian arc. Nope the Isle of Purple Haunted Putrescence is also nearby & already causing havoc. The slavers know about the Cha'alt rift near Las Vegas but their not concerned. No their more concerned about the loss to profits that the monsters coming from the island are causing. Blood shed & mayhem are bad for business over the long haul. But along with natives, plants, animals, & native humanoids the slavers are interested in the magics of the X1 The Isle of Dread.
One of their number of slavers has heard rumors in the deep wastelands of the Cha'alt rift about a drug knon as Fuchsia Malaise.  The drug has many potential effects that the wizards of the slavers are very interested; "This drug, xanthium-183, is known to many on Cha'alt as fuchsia malaise because of its lethargic effect upon the planet's humanoid population. Those imbibing it stare up at the fuchsia sky for hours at a time, mesmerized, until forced to mine zoth after running out of their precious drug." 


Yes this spider is totally from new Venger Satanis Kickstarter 


What nobody knows is that  hover bike gangers &  mauraders from Cha'alt with sacks of Fuchsia Malaise are already working their way through the underworld of Nevada & California. Their led by an evil wizard name Chang Fruc of the Evil Eye of Thrus. His forces tangled with the player's PCs two  weeks ago. Chang is a former discipline of the Ixian wizard Xui Cor from Hyperborea. Chang was a product of the deep state wizard schools of Ix a nation of the blackest hearted necrcomancers to walk the planes Prime.


Meanwhile the slavers have been quietly selling many of those captured on raids to inhuman masters from the deepest pits of the inner Earth. But what's gonna happen when the players run into some of the forces of these factions?! Well tonight we'll find out!