Retooling L1 'The Secret of Bone Hill' by Lenard Lakofka (Author) For An OSR Sword & Sorcery Campaign

 
"Danger lurks in the Lendore Isles. Bands of evil creatures prowl the hills overlooking the town of Restenford, seeking unwary victims. Now you have come to this sleepy little village looking for adventure and excitement. You seek to fathom the unexplored reaches of Bone Hill and unlock the mysteries of Restenford."



Dreams are funny things & last night there was this dream about L1 'The Secret of Bone Hill' by Lenard Lakofka. Personally about 90% of the time Len doesn't get half of the credit he deserves in old school gaming. Let's get the history of L1 out of the way here;" L1: "The Secret of Bone Hill" (1981) is the first adventure in Lenard Lakofka's "Lendore Isle" trilogy. It was published in 1981" Fantastic but how does any of this relate to the Downs from our previous blog entry on  N3 'Destiny of Kings' By Stephen Bourne?! Well its got everything to do with it! The Downs might be Sword & Sorcery Arthurian England with splash of H.P. Lovecraft & Clark Ashton Smith. Then 'L1 The Secret of Bone Hill' by Lenard Lakofka is the mythic Icelandic & pirate venture throw in together. The town of Restenford with a bit of redressing could easily become the perfect pirate venture location for Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea. If we're talking about Icelandic fishing villages here why are you showing a Neolithic Italian village below?! The reasons are two fold, one is the melting pot of cultures that is this country. Remember Hyperborea is a place of the 'lost' as well refugee  settlers from 'Old Earth'. 

The photo is by Giuale - Own work of the  Reconstruction of the Neolithic village of Travo

This is a photo of a monument which is part of cultural heritage of Italy. This monument participates in the contest Wiki Loves Monuments Italia 2016. 

The second reason is the fact that the town of Restenford is inherited by the settlers of the town. They literally moved in after the 'Green Death' plague took out the Hyperboreans. The town of Restenford is also a great town for making Saltmarsh the unsavory sub village where all of the sea scum hang out. The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh written by Dave J. Browne with Don Turnbull is the perfect add on for  L1 'The Secret of Bone Hill' by Lenard Lakofka.

The royal linage of the kingdoms of Dunador control rich volcanic fields of ' The Downs' and the rich fishing grounds of the town of Restenford. But there's a bit of a secret to these kingdoms. Ship building, raiding, and much more but its the merchant trading that the town of Restenford's coffers full. The royal linage of the kingdoms of Dunador look the other way on a bit of privateering. But its the literal hundreds of trade ships that get get sent out & come into the port that keeps the coffers of the kingdom full. Sure you've got to have Sword & Sorcery action in Hyperborea. But there has to be places of stability amid the Lovecraftian chaos. 

Now last time we talked about the Hyperborean vaults below 'The Downs' & some of their impact on the kingdom's future fortunes. But let's kick it up a notch for a moment if these first or even fourth level PC's are assigned to a trading vessel & go out into the world then the events around the 'U series' of modules can unfold right when they get back! The Alchemist is actually a lich that's been operating for years in the town of Restenford & he's been stoking the fires between the Deep Ones & the tribes of Lizardmen. 

Why?! Because of AS&SH's planar connections with Greyhawk of course! Greyhawk plays a key part in this whole affair. Half of my campaign version of Hyperborea's population came from Greyhawk from one of the many horrid disasters of that plagued that campaign setting. 

And yes there's a ton of Len's world on Dragon's foot for free. Sometimes a DM doesn't want to overwhelm his players with all of that yet. We'll get those next week.