OSR Commentary On Lamenting The Tome of the Unclean By Stephen Chenault, & Kim Hartsfield For The Castles & Crusades Rpg

 "Beyond the darkness and beyond all sense lies a gulf of empty fear where true evil lurks. Born with twisted thought, tainted with stains of malice, they are creatures foul and bent. They dwell in the darkness of time's caverns, in the Abyss, in Hell, in those Wretched Planes of shadow and evil, loss and despair. The echo of the unknown drives them from darkness toward the light. Some few seek salvation, but others to drive the souls of mortals to ultimate darkness and corruption. Tome of the Unclean unleashes all of the power and horror of these wretched planes upon your Castles & Crusades game!"

"From the Lords of the Abyss, to the Legions of Hell, and through to the gray wastes of Gehenna, a host of devils, demons, and daemons await your table! Tome of the Unclean includes all of the familiar denizens of the darker planes. Here you will find Demogorgon and Orcus; Asmodeus, Bael, and Mammon, plus legions of others. All of the major and minor demons, greater and lesser devils, and a veritable host of creatures from your players' worst nightmares await within these pages." 

With Halloween coming upon us soon we were speaking about Castles & Crusades. When it comes Castles & Crusades one of the books that doesn't seem to come up is an old favorite in the form of the Tome of the Unclean.  For Castles & Crusades the demons, devils, and lesser diabolic horrors are perfect to drope into your old school or OSR games. For Castles & Crusades the infernal regions are still the ultimate taboo in a way because of the Eightis Satanic Panic. Screw that! Tome of the Unclean covers the damned & diabolic quite nicely. Nothing up points a C&C paladin or cleric like a diabolic cult to play terror with a party of adventurers. 

With the callenge rating that includes a diverse range of damned & diabloc monsters Tome of the Unclean covers it. And these monsters as the center piece of a cult of the damned it's not hard to see how  an NPC cult leader  villain could offer more then a simple challlenge for your own party. Stephen Chenault, &  Kim Hartsfield have excellent chemistry in the Tome of the Unclean by tapping into the Hellish planes for their renditions of classic demons, devils, & horrors of the Underworld. 

Adventures fearturing monsters from 'The Tome of The Unclean should be incredibly special and because it plugs into Halloween these adventures should be special one shots. One shots offer three things a beginning, middle, and closed end. One shots should also have simple goals, & special treasures. And one shots should have memorable monsters & demons or devils offer those in spades.The Tome of the Unclean is perfectly aligned to offering a demonic cherry on the top of your adventure. The  Tome of the Unclean is in my humble opinion one of the most underrated monster book in C&C's product line. 

Demons & devils can also serve as both phyical & spiritual adventure metaphors for the corruption & horror that have come to pass with events that have happened in a given area experiencing traumatic or horrorific events. And this is the opportunity for adventurers to put things right. Often while this might seem like an old fashioned adventure or campaign goal. Often times players actually love making a marked difference in a campaign where evil with a capital 'E' can be vanquished.  Tome of the Unclean is a perfect book for the C&C dungeon master to add the extra horror of Halloween while offering monsters to crush the justice & good adventurers of a campaign. And these horrors offer challenges beyond the pale for knights, clerics, and paladins to have epic  conflicts with.