Nightshift Veterans of the Supernatural Wars by Jason Vey & Tim Brannan Rpg & B3 'Palace of the Silver Princess' By Jean Wells & Tom Moldvay OSR Campaign Commentary

 B3 'Palace of the Silver Princess' By Jean Wells & Tom Moldvay has an adventure location lost and frozen in time. Now what would happen if this module echoes its circumstances on our modern Earth?! Can you imagine what might happen as B3 Palace of the Silver Princess's  spell weaves its way towards Earth?! 

 Now let's pick it up with someone possibly one of the player characters being the 'chosen one' ala Nightshift's PC classes. They've been plagued by terrible dreams & nightmares. They are drawn back to Haven  a small pocket dimension plane or demi plane. The waking world & the dream realms were never meant to meet. Chaos storms begin to rage across the Earth and they bring with them all kinds of problems including the rise of the supernaturals. 
The rise of the chaos storms across the Earth brings the monsters from Haven  onto the local time space continuum. And this brings home the fact that this allows the Fey of Haven to walk on our Earth. 

This isn't the first time I've covered this module on this blog. You can find out more here.  The Unreality of the Misty Swamp brings home that all is not right on the demi plane of  Haven. And it well might come down to the wizard of Haven. 
The wizard is someone taking full advantage of the plot using it to establish his own other dimensional domain hellscape. The wizard might be from Hyperborea, the leader of a powerful faction of a  Lovecraftian chaos cult. I'm still tossing this around in my mind but the events of the Palace could recycle themselves over and over again. This makes Haven & its environs a weird pulpy sword & sorcery location with lots of old school potential.

The local supernaturals are going to be dealing with some real hard core fall out from Haven even if they take care of ending the out of time cycle. The story book like feel of  B3 'Palace of the Silver Princess' By Jean Wells & Tom Moldvay hides the deadliness of the module. There far more going on beneath the surface within the module. Because the module situation feels like there's been far more seeded by the wizard & perhaps a cult of chaos. 

The Fey of the Nightshift & B3 'Palace of the Silver Princess' By Jean Wells More OSR Campaign Commentary

 "Almost overnight the tiny kingdom fell into ruin. Now only ruins and rumors remain, and what legends there are tell of a fabulous treasure still buried somewhere within the Palace of the Silver Princess."


 Let's hit em high & low at the same time today! The OSR is reeling a bit because of our use of both B3's Palace of the Silver Princess modules! That's right both modules  the one by Jean Wells & the rewrite by Tom Moldvay!  So this is gonna pick up right from this morning's blog post here. 

Now with the land of 'The Princess Argenta ' washing against the reality of Earth. Things are going to go from bad to worse for our heroes.  If we go back into the Jean Wells version of this module then its pretty much open season on our PC heroes especially if we're using the Nightshift Veterans of the Supernatural Wars By Jason Vey & Timothy Brannan. Hersey! I heard this early this morning. Well, yes & yes! In a way. Way back in July of 2010 on the Otherside blog Timothy Brannan suggested in his blog post,' Returning to the Palace of the Silver Princess' the following;"I think I'll take a suggestion from Wizards and run this as "Return to the Palace of the Silver Princess".  The events of the "green" cover happened many years ago, but something went wrong that lead to the events of "orange" cover.  The Eye of Arik wasn't destroyed properly and soon the entire area became cursed.  Ellis the Strong (The Silver Warrior) became the the cause in the minds of the locals.  While the evil energies pouring out of the fragmented eye caused mutations in all living things in the castle.  Plants became vampire roses and archer bushes, the staff became Ubues (gotta explain them somehow), Aliegha, Catharandamus and the dwarves Boron and Xyzom were adventurers that came here previously and are now coming under the affects of the Eye.  Catharandamus is going insane, thinking he can summon Arik, Aliegh is turning into a wolf (or bear or a bear-wolf crossbred-thingy) and the dwarves are slowly becoming orcs.  I do plan on using Candella and Duchess, as randomish NPCs, but they had just gotten there and have not started to mutate yet. I just liked that picture of the two of them being caught by surprise. " I love that picture too Tim. 
Something is going very wrong indeed & its time for the Nightshift to come into play. Because the curse is spreading across the Earth & the realms of Fey or Fairy are reacting as well! Sure there are some excellent OSR resources for Fairy but there's two that spring to mind are the free  Ford's Faeries: A Bestiary Inspired by Henry Justice Ford. 

As the curse spreads the Fey come to implore the PC's to help with it. Now is the primetime to introduce Fey or Fairy PC's into the fray. Ford's Faeries: A Bestiary Inspired by Henry Justice Ford has some excellent Fey monsters that can be converted into PC Fey races for Nightshift. The second resource would be the  Enchanter Class for Labyrinth Lord and OSR From Weird Realm Games. These two resources would add an excellent Fey booster shot to the events of B3. 

As the PC's journey deeper into the dungeons & events of B3'Palace of the Silver Princess' they journeying deeper into the curse itself. The events are part of the mindscape of  The Princess Argenta. The Eye itself is infected by its curse & so may have a new chosen one to deal with these dangerous effect. The additional PC classes & information in 'The Night Companion' are gonna be just the thing to add into such a campaign setting. 

With the addition of the Fey courts & their modern rulers PC's are going to have walk a very dangerous balance between the modern world & the dreamlands of B3 

The Night Shift & B3 'Palace of the Silver Princess' By Jean Wells & Tom Moldvay OSR Campaign Commentary

" Not long ago, the valley was green and animals ran free through golden fields of grain. The Princess Argenta ruled over this peaceful land and the people were secure and happy. Then one day, a warrior riding a white dragon appeared in the skies over the castle, and almost overnight the tiny kingdom fell into ruin. Now only ruins and rumors remain, and what legends there are tell of a fabulous treasure still buried somewhere within the Palace of the Silver Princess."

There was a long & rather drawn out discussion that I had the other day about using & dealing with dream realms with modern OSR audiences & players. Especially when it came to running classic modules that have been customized for modern B/X style games especially Nightshift Veterans of the Supernatural Wars by Jason Vey & Tim Brannan. The classic module that would be the most use is Jean Wells & Tom Moldvay's B3 Palace of the Silver Princess. Now if you want to know the complete history of this module go here.  Now let's pick it up with someone possibly one of the player characters being the 'chosen one' ala Nightshift's PC classes. They've been plagued by terrible dreams & nightmares. They are drawn back to Argenta a small pocket dimension plane or demi plane. The waking world & the dream realms were never meant to meet. Chaos storms begin to rage across the Earth and they bring with them all kinds of problems including the rise of the supernaturals. 

B3 Palace of the Silver Princess reminds me of Bronze age 70's & 80's  Marvel comic books Sword & Sorcery. The parts & pieces of both the green Moldvay rework module & Genie Wells original module both have this weird dream & nightmare quality. For a modern B/X based game such as Nightshift Veterans of the Supernatural game. I'd either rework the two original modules into one strange shifting like Gothic Ravenloft like mini campaign setting. Or something akin to Lamentations of the Flame Princess with a modernish twist. 
And one thing comes to mind 'The Chaos  Gods Come To Meatlandia' By Wind Lothamer and Ahimsa Kerp.


Wait before you leave this blog entry in disgust hear me out. The mess that is B3 both versions can be made whole by the fact that a cabal of  black wizards from Meatlandia is behind the events of the modules. They've been sapping the abilities of the 'chosen one' for years all in the name of occult power.  The chaos storms are only the start of it as things go from bad worse. The Misty Swamp is actually a chaos manifestation of the forces that the cabal is using; "Misty Swamp No one knows exactly what lies behind the veil of ever present mist that hovers over the swamp. Some old timers say that the dwarves who make Anterian Brandy live in the swamp near their secret ingredient, the swamp water. This is speculation, as no one really knows what the secret ingredient of Anterian Brandy is. Others whisper tales of an evil wizard living there in a massive tower of shiny black stone. Sometimes, in the dead of winter, fierce thunderstorms can be heard near the swamp, but no one ever sees any lightning. The only thing people who live near the swamp will agree on is that most magic users and elves had best stay clear of it or they will find that their spells will not function properly. One young magic user tried to catch a rabbit with a web spell near the swamp one day and ended up with dozens of rabbits, all neatly webbed, scattered about her feet. She didn’t really mind having the extra rabbits, but the fact that she couldn’t control her magic scared her (as it does many other spell casters). She was one of the fortunate ones; others have not been so lucky." 
The rise of the supernatural has been because of the two world's unrealities  clashing so fast. Energies are leaking into the Earth's reality. Pusher Gnomes on the corners of major cities, Kaldines terrorizing small towns, and worse.
All of this has to do  Tim Brannan's review of Meatlania; "I thought this was an adventure, but it is actually a mini-setting of Meatlandia and the opposing factions. There are meat mages (you really have to buy this to see them) and various types of bards (three in total). So new classes, new magic (15 pages of meat mage spells), a city, new monsters, new magic items, and just some gonzo-level weirdness. I have to say that it is not for everyone, BUT there is an audience that will absolutely love this. Has a solid Dungeon Crawl Classic meets Lamentations of the Flame Princes meets 80s weird horror. If it were a movie Roger Corman would have been the director or producer and Tom Savini would have starred and consulted on the monster effects. The whole thing is 90 pages long so you are getting a lot. Not sure where I am going to use it, but it really begs to be used somewhere. Retooled just a tiny bit could turn it from gonzo to some serious horror. That is the direction I am likely to go." And playing this mini campaign for serious horror brings it to another level. Add in the fantasy realm of B3 & you've got a mini campaign to bring PC's from level one to four easily. The additional PC classes & information in 'The Night Companion' are gonna be just the thing to add into such a campaign setting. 

The real question becomes not only can they save their own reality but the sanity of the 'silver princess' there's a price to be had for fairy tales even if they are nightmares. 

Among The Fairy Haunted Halls of B3 Palace of the Silver Princess By Moldvay & Wells For Your Old School Campaigns

Are there hidden agents of chaos scattered across Dark Europe? Have there been cults of chaos within European confines for thousands of years since before the time of the Roman occupation of Europe? What are  the connections to a TSR classic adventure & Arthurian legend?
Let dive right into the deep end of the royal gene pool!

Now I've talked about the '81 John Boorman cultclassic film Excilbur on yesterday's blog post & some of the familial connections its had in my games over years. And let's talk a bit about the connections between adventure locations, NPC bloodlines, & classic era TSR adventures. Everything revolves around the Le Fey family  because they're  the last bastion of the Elven bloodlines on Earth in Dark Europe.
Because there isn't just one Morgan Le Fey there are many daughters in the Le Fey line especially when we get into the 13th-century Old French romances of the Lancelot-Grail (the Vulgate Cycle) & some of the early Arthurian works:
"Morgan first appears by name in Vita Merlini, written by Norman-Welsh cleric Geoffrey of Monmouth. Purportedly an account of the wizard Merlin's later adventures, it elaborates some episodes from Geoffrey's more famous earlier work, Historia Regum Britanniae (1136). In Historia, Geoffrey relates how King Arthur, seriously wounded by Mordred at the Battle of Camlann, is taken off to the blessed Isle of Apple Trees (Latin Insula Pomorum), Avalon, to be healed. In Vita Merlini, he describes this island in more detail and names Morgen as the chief of nine magical queen sisters who dwell there, capable of shapeshifting and flying,^[13] and using their powers only for good.^[14] Her sisters' names are Moronoe, Mazoe, Gliten, Glitonea, Gliton, Tyronoe, Thiten and Thiton.^[15][16][17] Morgan retains this role as Arthur's other-worldly healer in much later literature, and Geoffrey might have been inspired by the 1st-century Roman cartographer Pomponius Mela, who described an oracle at the Île de Sein off the coast of Brittany and its nine virgin priestesses believed by the Gauls to have the powers of curing disease and performing various other marvelous magic, such as controlling the sea through incantations, foretelling future, and changing themselves into any animal.^[18] In Lanzelet, written by the end of the 12th century by Ulrich von Zatzikhoven, the infant Lancelot is spirited away by a water fairy (merfeine in Old High German) and raised in her paradise island country of Meidelant ("Land of Maidens"); his water fairy queen might be related to Geoffrey's Morgen of Avalon."
That's right kids the relationship between the Morgan line & Arthur's is  as complex & convoluted as anything you'll find in Tolkein or Game of Thrones. Because the Morgan line are Elven bloodlines that have been watching & tending mankind this entire time all across Europe. Each one has a witch cult,grove, or mystery cult as well as  other connection to Fairyland and even perhaps gasp HP Lovecraft's Deep Ones?! There are a number of lost under water kingdoms in Celtic folklore that might have connections to various locations taken back by the Deep Ones. Again another blog entry for another time.



Why would the royals of  Morgan line be allowed to continue across Europe then?! Because as I said their relationship to the crown heads of Europe is complex and familial. The families have produced some of the premiere doctors, healers, lawyers, merchants etc. in all of Europe some of whom are beyond reproach;

"Prior to the cyclical Old French prose, the appearances of Morgan are few. The 12th-century French poet Chrétien de Troyes mentions her in his first romance Erec and Enide, completed around 1170. In it, a love of Morgan is Guinguemar, the Lord of the Isle of Avalon and a nephew of King Arthur, a derivative of the legendary Breton hero Guingamor.^[19] Guingamor's own tale by Marie de France has him in relation to the beautiful magical entity known only as the "fairy mistress",^[20] who was later identified by Thomas Chestre's Sir Launfal as Dame Tryamour, the daughter of the King of the Celtic Otherworld, and who shares many characteristics with Chrétien's Morgan.^[21][22] It was noted that even Chrétien' earliest mention of Morgan already shows an enmity between her and Queen Guinevere, and although Morgan is represented only in benign role by Chrétien, she resides in a mysterious place known as the Vale Perilous (which some later authors say she has created as a place of punishment for unfaithful knights).^[18][23] She is later mentioned in the same poem when Arthur provides the wounded hero Erec with a healing balm made by his sister Morgan. This episode both affirms her early role as a healer and provides the first mention of Morgan as Arthur's sister; healing is Morgan's chief ability, but Chrétien also hints at her potential to harm.^[24] Chrétien again refers to Morgan as a great healer in his later romance Yvain, the Knight of the Lion, in an episode in which the Lady of Norison restores the maddened hero to his senses with a magical potion provided by Morgan the Wise. While Modron is the mother of Owain mab Urien in Welsh literature, and Morgan would be assigned this role in later French literature, this first continental association between Sir Ywain and Morgan does not imply they are son and mother; she is first mentioned as Ywain's mother in the early 13th-century Breton lai Tyolet."

The Morgan line are not simply healers but tacticians, events did not go as planned with the Camelot affair & after Arthur's death Avalon's return to the world of men didn't happen.

A detail of The Last Sleep of Arthur in Avalon by Edward Burne-Jones (1898)

How bad did events get?! Well when dealing with Chaos & the occult events are unpredictable & highly dangerous. B3 Palace of the Silver Princess might be the perfect old school example of another adventure location taken off to Fairyland whose chaos energies have warped the entire classic adventure location. Let me get this bit out of the way; "Palace of the Silver Princess is an adventure module for the Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set. It was recalled on the same day it was released, then rewritten and re-released some months later. The original version, with an orange cover, was written in 1980 by Jean Wells.^[2][3] When the orange version was recalled (and most copies destroyed), the module was rewritten by Tom Moldvay and released with a green cover. Writing credit on the second version was given to both Moldvay and Wells, although there was very little of Wells' original content in Moldvay's version."

So The Thirty Years War is raging across Europe and the PC's are on the border of France's wastelands and battlefields. The PC encounter evil creatures that have taken over the palace after one of the more bloody battles which puts events of B3 right around the Catholic Intervention.
So why the Catholic Intervention? Because the violence & bloodshed has warped the country depicted in B3 right back into the world. The Morgan line's curse was responsible for its disappearance in the first place. All of this time its been in Fairyland its been warped by the energies of chaos. What sort of possible Lovecraftian powers might have had a claw in this? Clark Ashton Smith's Mother of Toads (1934) goes into the dark connections to a possible source?!

This isn't a simple dungeon crawl as its a fight for survival against some terrible odds against the backdrop of the Thirty Years War. Because B3's adventure location has been warping in and out of reality for a long time and time does not pass in our world as it does in the palace. So there are bound to be an NPC cast  of adventurers and fortune seekers from across history within the palace.  The palace's inhabitants and monsters are native to Fairyland but is there evidence of the Morgan line's connection to the palace and events of The Thirty Years War?! Will the Morgans let the PC's live if they manage to escape the palace?

Contemporary painting showing the Battle of White Mountain (1620), where Imperial-Spanish forces under Johann Tserclaes, Count of Tilly won a decisive victory.

Let's face it, B3 Palace of the Silver Princess is a mess of an adventure but it adaptable to a wide variety of campaign settings and circumstances. By weaving a bit of Arthurian literature into the mix and some real world history we get a great backdrop for an alternative  Lion & Dragon retroclone setting. More to come! 

Session Report - The Amazing B3 Palace of The Silver Princess By Tom Moldvey & Jean Wells Campaign Set Up

"Not long ago, the valley was green and animals ran free through golden fields of grain. The Princess Argenta ruled over this peaceful land and the people were secure and happy. Then one day, a warrior riding a white dragon appeared in the skies over the castle, and almost overnight the tiny kingdom fell into ruin. Now only ruins and rumors remain, and what legends there are tell of a fabulous treasure still buried somewhere within the Palace of the Silver Princess."

During the Hundred Year War there were literally hundreds of minor kingdoms & fiefdoms that were obliterated from the pages of history. What may have happened to a classic TSR module caught within the violence & horrors of plague, famine, war, & only the gods knows what else. We all know the history of the module now but the official version went something like this; "B3: "Palace of the Silver Princess" (1981), by Tom Moldvay and Jean Wells, was released by TSR in 1981, around the time that the Basic Dungeons & Dragons line was revised with a new Basic Set by Tom Moldvay (1981) and a new Expert Set (1981) by David "Zeb" Cook. "



During the Hundred Years War Gasony becomes a major issue; "In the 11th century, Gascony in south-west France had been incorporated into Aquitaine (also known as Guyenne or Guienne) and formed with it the province of Guyenne and Gascony (French: Guyenne-et-Gascogne). The Angevin kings of England became Dukes of Aquitaine after Henry II married the former Queen of France, Eleanor of Aquitaine, in 1152, from which point the lands were held in vassalage to the French Crown. By the 13th century the terms Aquitaine, Guyenne and Gascony were virtually synonymous.^[6][7] At the beginning of Edward III's reign on 1 February 1327, the only part of Aquitaine that remained in his hands was the Duchy of Gascony. The term Gascony came to be used for the territory held by the Angevin (Plantagenet) Kings of England in south-west France, although they still used the title Duke of Aquitaine.^[7][8]

For the first 10 years of Edward III's reign, Gascony had been a major point of friction. The English argued that, as Charles IV had not acted in a proper way towards his tenant, Edward should be able to hold the duchy free of any French suzerainty. This argument was rejected by the French, so in 1329, the 17-year-old Edward III paid homage to Philip VI. Tradition demanded that vassals approach their liege unarmed with heads bare. Edward protested by attending the ceremony wearing his crown and sword.^[9] Even after this pledge of homage, the French continued to pressure the English administration.^[10]

Gascony was not the only sore point. One of Edward's influential advisers was Robert III of Artois. Robert was an exile from the French court, having fallen out with Philip VI over an inheritance claim. He urged Edward to start a war to reclaim France, and was able to provide extensive intelligence on the French court."

The major point of friction becomes a massive issue with the families of the fiefdom of the Chateau of the Silver Princess. The politics of the times cause this family & its holdings to come to the attention of a cabal of witches & wizards sympathetic to the English cause. Rituals & workings are held & the  warrior riding a white dragon appeared in the skies over the castle everything fell into ruins. 


Map of Gascony in 1328 By Goran tek-en 

So Chateau of the Silver Princess is taken off to Fairyland & the cabal of occultists go on with the war. This isn't the end of the story at all, a few years after the curse the wizard-noble Stephen Amber (Etienne d'Amberville) sends in a team of adventurers. Their never heard from again except for the fact that a very interesting statue of occult significance makes it way back to wizard-noble Stephen Amber  through hirelings hands. Down through the ages this statue passes from one hand to another until a wealthy American businessman buys the statue. Finally in 1919 it makes its way into New York state U.S. into the Adirondack mountains. 



Caught outside of time & space the Chateau of the Silver Princess's leaking of chaotic energies continue to open doorways into its strange & Fey hallways. The inhabitants still caught up in the mad dash of horror & weirdness forever. The mansion in the Adirondack mountains now lays in ruins but the statue continues to snare hikers, backpackers, & others looking prestine & beautiful. It opens doors into the the Chateau of the Silver Princess. But now a wealthy businessman's daughter has gone missing & he's hiring adventurers on the quiet to go looking for her. The stakes are high because the chaotic energies of the place have been spilling out & they've been mutating some of the local wildlife. Twisted things, weird coloured lights in the sky, & other phenomena have been seen.
Your not the only adventurers who are on the case now. Several capes & local heroes have gone in but none have come out. The locals are talking, the state police are scared, & the doorways across space & time are open.



Several heroes from across time including the year 2100 have made their way to the site & things are starting to get interesting. The PC's have been ported over from my regular Amazing Adventures! rpg classic game but will they survive the horrors that they find inside of the Chateau of the Silver Princess!? Stay tuned 

Hidden Blood & Damnation With B3 Palace of The Silver Princess By Tom Moldvay and Jean Wells

Are hidden agents of Chaos manipulating the crown heads of Pan America? Are far more going on in the hidden alleys of New York & can it be traced back to back water areas of Europe?! What does this have to do with the blood lines of King Arthur & a TSR classic? Quite a bit actually.



The upper strata of  European & American society has for centuries been the play ground of the Le Fay line of women. Why because there isn't just one Morgan Le Fey but many.There are many daughters in the Le Fey line especially when we get into the 13th-century Old French romances of the Lancelot-Grail (the Vulgate Cycle) & some of the early Arthurian works. Yes all of this ties back into my earlier history of this alternative Earth from back in February of 2018. And the still on going bits of that campaign.



How Mordred was Slain by Arthur, and How by Him Arthur was Hurt to the Death by Arthur Rackham (1917)

The the Lancelot-Grail (the Vulgate Cycle) picks up with two very important books;
"The Estoire del Saint Grail (The History of the Holy Grail), about Joseph of Arimathea and his son Josephus bringing the Grail to Britain (mostly derived from Robert de Boron)." And "The Mort Artu (Death of Arthur), about the king's death at the hands of Mordred and the collapse of the kingdom."
Arthur's son Modred is the key here allowing the bloodlines of Pendragon's  Chaos tainted blood to filter down through the royal houses of Europe into the present day of 1904-5. The rest of his half brothers heirs also have their own
"In earlier literature, he was considered the legitimate son of Morgause, also known as Anna, with her husband King Lot of Orkney. His brothers or half-brothers are Gawain, Agravain, Gaheris, and Gareth."

So this gives the dungeon master at least four possible familial bloodlines for PC's to choose from when creating royal characters! Buts its the NPC mother whose really one of the manipulators behind the scenes here.
"Morgause /mɔːrˈɡeɪz/, also known as Morgawse and other spellings and names, is a character in later Arthurian traditions. In Thomas Malory's 15th-century text Le Morte d'Arthur, she is the mother of Gawain and Mordred, both key players in the story of King Arthur and his downfall. Mordred is the offspring of Arthur's inadvertent incest with Morgause, the king's estranged half-sister.^{[Notes 1]} She is also a sister of Morgan le Fay and the wife of King Lot of Orkney, as well as the mother of Gareth, Agravain, and Gaheris."

Morgan le Fay has centuries ago put her lot in with the Elves during the Thirty Years War. Now with WWI looming the family puts its power behind a very different set of powers. Morgause has a far darker & much more ambitious nature & we find out much more about her from Thomas Malory's 1485 compilation of Arthurian legends Le Morte d'Arthur,

"Her character is fully developed in Thomas Malory's 1485 compilation of Arthurian legends Le Morte d'Arthur, in which Morgause (Margawse) is one of three daughters born to Gorlois of Tintagel, Duke of Cornwall, and the Lady Igraine. According to Malory, her mother is widowed and then remarried to Uther Pendragon, after which she and her sisters, Elaine and Morgan ("le Fay", later the mother of Ywain), are married off to allies or vassals of their stepfather. Morgause is wed to the Orcadian King Lot and bears him four sons, all of whom go on to serve Arthur as Knights of the Round Table: Gawain, one of his greatest knights; Agravain, a wretched and twisted traitor; Gaheris; and Gareth, a gentle and loving knight.

Years later, her spouse joins the failed rebellions against Arthur that follow in the wake of King Uther's death and the subsequent coronation of his heir. Shortly after her husband's defeat, Morgause visits the young King Arthur in his bedchamber, ignorant of their familial relationship, and they conceive Mordred. Her husband, who has unsuspectingly raised Mordred as his own son, is slain in battle by King Pellinore. Her sons depart their father's court to take service at Camelot, where Gawain and Gaheris avenge Lot's death by killing Pellinore, thereby launching a blood feud between the two families.

Nevertheless, Morgause has an affair with Sir Lamorak, a son of Pellinore and one of Arthur's best knights. Her son Gaheris discovers them in flagrante and swiftly beheads Morgause in bed, but spares her unarmed lover. Gaheris is consequently banished from court (though he reappears later in the narrative)."

After she was beheaded Morgause didn't die, she quickly & easily contacted the powers of Hell & cut a deal with a circle of Hags. Since then she's been building power bases behind the scenes through "spiritualism" circles & secret societies throughout Europe. Since then there's been an on going 'slow war' over the centuries between Morgause & Morgan Le Fey's family. This sisterly spat has moved & counter moved warriors, knights, & adventurers in a deadly game through the centuries.
B3 Palace of the Silver Princess still exists held locked in stasis in the chaos laden tides of the unreality of Fairyland. Its treasures, artifacts, etc. drawn back to it on the tides of magick & weirdness.


So once again the prize of B3 is being dangled in front of the noses of occultists, adventurers, etc. by 'the Elves' as a prize while two immortal families go at it in blood & thunder against the backdrop of alternative history. Much to the amusement of the Elven gods of Fairyland & the powers of Hell, their immortal play things are going through their dances.

So what the Hell is going on here?! We'll I'm using bits & pieces of Lion & Dragon's cosmology mixed with a healthy dosing of OD&D Gods, Demi Gods & Heroes to work through the cosmological issues of this campaign stretch.

"I have walked my way since the beginning of time. Sometimes I give, sometimes I take, it is mine to know which and when!"
Merlin Excalibur 1981

More Bloody Fey Haunted Darkness In B3 Palace of the Silver Princess By Moldvay & Wells For Your Old School Campaigns

What are the deeper powers of chaos within Dark Europe right within the backyard of the English countryside? Why do dark cult roots run deep within the confines of the darker corners of Europe? What does this have to do with another part of a classic TSR adventure? Let's pull the sword from the stone and get right on to the throne.

I've already spoken about the 81 John Boorman Excalibur film at length but I want to go deeper still into some of the background and depths of running this with the Lion & Dragon Rretroclone system.



Now the other day I was speaking about B3 Palace of the Silver Princess & it being cursed by the Morgan Le Fey line to be taken off to Fairyland? 

Now why would they do that? Well because the adventure  location of B3 might hold what might be considered one of the  holy relics of Christendom in the Holy Grail. Or least that's the thought of the forces of the Catholics during the Catholic Intervention.

What's actually in the dungeons of B3 is much more dangerous.  The palace has warped back into the Welsh countryside in a nice little hidden valley and the following rumor has been making its rounds within the groves of various witch cults and into local taverns across England.


"Not long ago, the valley was green and animals ran free through golden fields of grain. The Princess Argenta ruled over this peaceful land and the people were secure and happy. Then one day, a warrior riding a white dragon appeared in the skies over the castle, and almost overnight the tiny kingdom fell into ruin. Now only ruins and rumors remain, and what legends there are tell of a fabulous treasure still buried somewhere within the Palace of the Silver Princess."
There is a faction of upper English royals who have been at the helm of steering England's course in world events for a very long time & they're inner circle has been lead & advised by the unliving head of Bran The Blessed.

"The survivors are told by a mortally wounded Bran to cut off his head and to return it to Britain.^[3] For seven years the seven survivors stay in Harlech, where they are entertained by Bran's head, which continues to speak. They later move on to Gwales (often identified with Grassholm Island off Dyfed) where they live for eighty years without perceiving the passing of time. Eventually, Heilyn fab Gwyn opens the door of the hall facing Cornwall and the sorrow of what had befallen them returns. As instructed they take the now silent head to the Gwynfryn, the "White Hill" (thought to be the location where the Tower of London now stands), where they bury it facing France so as to ward off invasion. The imagery of the talking head is widely considered to derive from the ancient Celtic "cult of the head"; the head was considered the home of the soul."
Bran begins to appear in the adventurers dreams warning them of the dire threat they face within the dungeons of the palace. Wizards & other occultists might be familiar with him through his legendary presence within the production of brazen heads.



The Catholic forces think that one of the final resting places of the Holy Grail is within the Palace but in actuality its the unliving abomination in the form of 
Efnisien! An undead giant who sacrificed himself to destroy Bran's Cauldron of Rebirth against his half brother's enemies! But the dead don't rest easy once touched by the occult forces of chaos!


The bloodline of  Efnisien runs straight through Mordred's veins & has been the source for much of the headaches for the Morgan line! Many of the characteristics of both run from the source.

"Mordred (referred to as Modredus) is found in Geoffrey's Historia, written around 1136; here, he is portrayed as the nephew of and traitor to Arthur. The account describes Arthur leaving Mordred in charge of his throne as he crossed the English Channel to wage war on Emperor Lucius of Rome. During Arthur's absence, Mordred crowns himself king and lives in an adulterous union with Arthur's wife, Guinevere. Geoffrey does not make it clear how complicit Guinevere is with Mordred's actions, simply stating that the Queen had "broken her vows" and "about this matter... [he] prefers to say nothing."^[8] This forces Arthur to return to Britain to fight at the Battle of Camlann, where Mordred is ultimately slain. Arthur, having been mortally wounded in battle, is sent to Avalon.

A number of Welsh sources also refer to Medraut, usually in relation to Camlann. One triad, based on Geoffrey's Historia, provides an account of his betrayal of Arthur;^[9] in another, he is described as the author of one of the "Three Unrestrained Ravagings of the Isle of Britain" – he came to Arthur's court at Kelliwic in Cornwall, devoured all of the food and drink, and even dragged Gwenhwyfar (Guinevere) from her throne and beat her."

Certain radical factions among the witch cults want to see the monster of Efnisien released among humanity. The legacy of Efnisien is that he is now worshiped as a twisted chaos resurrection god?!



Because of the palace's time within Fairyland tossed about like a ship upon the forces of weirdness & chaos. Efnisien has become even more twisted then he was before & only the PC's can keep him chained up in the dungeon. There's also the fact that someone or something has been putting the pieces of Bran's cauldron of resurrection back together again with magic most foul. What sort of possible Lovecraftian powers might have had a claw in this? Clark Ashton Smith's Mother of Toads (1934) goes into the dark connections to a possible source for the Frog Princes behind the powers of the other side of the Le Fey lines. 

The Modred bloodline is another area where familial events got away from the Le Fey royal  family & this certainly displeased the other family's occult sponsors. There isn't simply one set of Deep Ones but two the second are the Frog Princes who are a subspecies scattered throughout the French regions. Notice that in the Lion & Dragon rule book both the Frog Men & the Fish Men are listed on the same page. The Frog Princes watch from plain sight within the swamps of  Paris while the Hundred Years War rages on around Europe. 

The Modred bloodline exists & from time to time an anti paladin or anti hero of the people is produced. Or perhaps these champions of chaos are the true heroes? Looking into the Arthurian literature we find yet another Le Fey candidate for Modred  in Arthur's half sister of Morgause.

"Tradition varies on his relationship to Arthur, but he is best known today as Arthur's illegitimate son by his half-sister Morgause, though in many modern adaptations she is merged with the character of Morgan le Fay. In earlier literature, he was considered the legitimate son of Morgause, also known as Anna, with her husband King Lot of Orkney. His brothers or half-brothers are Gawain, Agravain, Gaheris, and Gareth.

Medraut is never considered Arthur's son in Welsh texts, only his nephew, though The Dream of Rhonabwy mentions that the king had been his foster father. However, Mordred's later characterization as the king's villainous son has a precedent in the figure of Amhar (or Amr), a son of Arthur's known from only two references. The more important of these, found in an appendix to the Historia Britonum, describes his marvellous grave beside the Herefordshire spring where he had been slain by his own father in some unchronicled tragedy.^[11][12] What connection exists between the stories of Amr and Mordred, if there is one, has never been satisfactorily explained.

The 14th-century Scottish chronicler John of Fordun even claimed that Mordred was the rightful heir to the throne of Britain, as Arthur was an illegitimate child (in his account, Mordred was the legitimate son of Lot and Anna). This sentiment was elaborated upon by Walter Bower and by Hector Boece, who in his Historia Gentis Scotorum goes so far as to say Arthur and Gawain were traitors and villains who stole the throne from Mordred."

The dream of Camelot ended on a battlefield & with the shattered bonds of the knights scattered in blood & wreckage. The Elven gambit did not go as planned but they fed on the remains & were able to take Arthur and the sword of power back to Avalon.

Meanwhile the elder frog royalty far below the streets of Paris has continued to turn their unblinking eyes by erasing their own retaking of the legendary city of Ys from human memory.

"Ys was built on land reclaimed from the sea^[1] by Gradlon (Gralon in Breton), King of Cornouaille (Kerne in Breton), upon the request of his daughter Dahut (also called Ahes)^[2], who loved the sea. To protect Ys from inundation, a dike was built with a gate that was opened for ships during low tide. The one key that opened the gate was held by the king.^[3]

Ys is described as a city rich in commerce and the arts, with Gradlon's palace being made of marble, cedar and gold.^[3]

Other versions of the legend tell that Ys was founded more than 2,000 years before Gradlon's reign in a then-dry location off the current coast of the Bay of Douarnenez, but the Breton coast had slowly given way to the sea so that Ys was under it at each high tide when Gradlon's reign began.^{[citation needed]}

Most versions of the legend present Gradlon as a pious man with a wayward daughter, princess Dahut, who “had made a crown of her vices and taken for her pages the seven capital sins.”^[3] Princess Dahut had a lover for whom she threw a secret banquet and, under the influence of wine, she stole the key to the gate from her father and opened the gate, and the water submerged the entire city.^[3] Another version of the legend says that she stole the silver key to admit her lover, mistakenly opening the sluices in the dark. ^[3]

St Gwénnolé, who, according to one version, had foretold the city's ruin due to its luxury, woke the king and commanded him to flee. He mounted his horse and took his daughter with him. As the water was about to overtake him, a voice called out: “Throw the demon thou carriest into the sea, if thou dost not desire to perish.” Dahut fell from the horse's back, and Gradlon was saved.^[3]

Though this is the most common version, there's an ancient ballad that blames Gradlon himself for leading his people to extravagances of every kind and says that Dahut received the key from him."

There are large fresco & artworks in the palace of B3 that depict not only Ys but its connection to the Elven rebellion & its occult  connections to the Deep One royalty. There are shades of both Lovecraft & Clark Ashton Smith here. There are echoes here of CAS's The Holiness of Azédarc.



The return of the palace of B3 could be a tipping point for the Protestant's decline within Bohemia. The witch cults are soundly & quietly defeated in certain key areas of Europe & key occult forces are soundly defeated.

"The Catholic League's army (which included René Descartes in its ranks as an observer) pacified Upper Austria, while Imperial forces under Johan Tzerclaes, Count of Tilly, pacified Lower Austria. The two armies united and moved north into Bohemia. Ferdinand II decisively defeated Frederick V at the Battle of White Mountain, near Prague, on 8 November 1620. In addition to becoming Catholic, Bohemia remained in Habsburg hands for nearly 300 years. This defeat led to the dissolution of the League of Evangelical Union and the loss of Frederick V's holdings despite the tenacious defence of Trebon, Bohemia (under Colonel Seton) until 1622 and Frankenthal (under Colonel Vere) the following year.^[35] Frederick was outlawed from the Holy Roman Empire, and his territories, the Rhenish Palatinate, were given to Catholic nobles. His title of elector of the Palatinate was given to his distant cousin, Duke Maximilian of Bavaria. Frederick, now landless, made himself a prominent exile abroad and tried to curry support for his cause in Sweden, the Netherlands, and Denmark-Norway.

This was a serious blow to Protestant ambitions in the region. As the rebellion collapsed, the widespread confiscation of property and suppression of the Bohemian nobility ensured the country would return to the Catholic side after more than two centuries of Hussite and other religious dissent. The Spanish, seeking to outflank the Dutch in preparation for renewal of the Eighty Years' War, took Frederick's lands, the Electorate of the Palatinate. The first phase of the war in eastern Germany ended 31 December 1621, when the prince of Transylvania and the emperor signed the Peace of Nikolsburg, which gave Transylvania a number of territories in Royal Hungary."

Events had only begun in Germany and old haunts within the Black Forrest were stirring! Mankind had made strides and gains
But these gains were paid in blood & more chaos allowing the forces of the growing  darkness to move across Europe mostly unchecked & unseen. This sets up the things very nicely in Germany coming up!