Manifestation of the Yellow Stone Horror - A Mini Campaign Idea Using The Victorious Rpg & Wreched Eqoque Session Eight - The Devil Is In The Details

 
Lord Malakor appeared before the PC's and offered them a way out of their situation with the Dark Martians! He simply wanted them to pick up a bauble from another Yellow Stone park. Nothing too dangerous at all?! Tick tok my party of heroes?! This session picks right up from Sunday November 2's session here. 

The party didn't heistate with the vile villain and agreed. Secretly they would make sure that the bauble wouldn't fall into his evil hands. They'd dealt with 'The Plane Despoiler' before a few times in London. These ended with the party of adventurers almost always beating him. The party exited the narrow ruined alleyways into another reality just as two Martian handling machines came around the corner! 

A Handling-Machine from War of the Worlds: Goliath.

Lord Malakor, "The Planar Despoiler"

Lord Malakor is a pulp-era reality-hopping villain who exploits the delicate boundaries between dimensions. Driven by a desire for power and resources, he doesn't just conquer worlds; he drains them, moving to the next plane of existence once his current domain is barren. He appears as a man of refined taste in 1930s fashion, but with subtly unnatural features—perhaps eyes that shift color uncontrollably, or skin that is always slightly too cold. He is always accompanied by a shimmering, unstable rift in space, a doorway to the terrifying Void where he draws his power.

Description

Malakor is an imposing figure in an immaculate charcoal-gray pinstripe suit and matching fedora, a sharp contrast to his bizarre powers. He carries a cane that appears to be made of solidified void energy. His voice is smooth and charismatic, easily convincing others that his reality-warping experiments are for the greater good—until it is too late.

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Stats for Victorious RPG

Victorious (published by Troll Lord Games) uses a 2d10 roll-under system based on attributes, with an emphasis on narrative control and pulp-style heroics using VPs (Victorious Points).

Attributes (Target Number to Roll Under)

Attribute	Score
Brawn	8
Grace	12
Mind	14
Will	16

Capabilities & Skills

• Punches: 1 (Damage modifier for physical attacks)
• Brains: 2 (Intelligence modifier)
• Saves:
  • Soak: 3 (Reduces physical damage)
  • Dodge: 2
  • Mental: 4 (High resistance to mental effects)

Skills: Malakor is highly skilled in areas that aid his manipulation and planar travel. (Roll 2d10 under the relevant Attribute + Skill Level).

• Occult Lore (Mind + 3): Extensive knowledge of different dimensions, magical artifacts, and planar weaknesses.
• Manipulation (Will + 4): A master manipulator and liar.
• Science/Mad Science (Mind + 2): Knowledge of exotic energy and pseudo-scientific theories used for his dimensional engine.
• Persuasion (Will + 3): Can talk his way into high society or out of immediate danger.

Powers (Uses VPs for effect)

Malakor uses his unique powers sparingly but devastatingly, often forcing heroes to use their own VPs to counter him.

• Void Step (Dimensional Teleportation): Malakor can instantly teleport within line of sight, appearing or disappearing in a crackle of reality-bending energy. He can spend 1 VP to bring one other person or object with him.
• Reality Anchor: As a defense, Malakor can spend 1 VP to force a hero's attack (physical or mental) to "miss" as a localized reality shift occurs, making the hero briefly strike nothingness or forget their action.
• Planar Drain (Signature Attack): Malakor focuses energy through his cane (a Will check). If successful, he drains vitality directly from the target's "home reality anchor."
  • Effect: Deals mental damage (using his Brains modifier + 1 punch die for damage) that bypasses standard Soak. If he spends 1 VP on this attack, the target must also spend 1 VP or be temporarily stunned, their connection to their own reality wavering.
• Summon Minions (The Void Stalkers): Malakor spends 1 VP to pull 1-2 minor henchmen (use Thug stats) or a single, small, reality-warped monstrosity into the current plane through his stable rift.

Role in a Campaign

Lord Malakor is a recurring villain who pops up in major cities around the globe. He is never focused on a single battle; he is focused on his escape plan and his long-term goals.

• The Hook: He appears in 1930s New York City or London, disguised as a wealthy industrialist or mystic. He begins subtly stealing rare artifacts or powerful individuals required to fuel his Dimensional Engine, a massive machine hidden in an abandoned warehouse or deep beneath a subway line.
• The Conflict: Heroes must figure out his true nature, stop his initial nefarious scheme, and chase him through the unstable rift as he jumps to a new reality (or the next chapter of the campaign).
• The Ongoing Threat: Malakor is the kind of villain who always returns, having escaped at the last second, leaving the heroes to deal with the chaotic effects of his reality-warping engine.

 The party found itself staring across the Yellow Stone vista and all seemed right?! But the air tasted off and there was a slight buzzing in the air. Here and there were wrecked tracked vechicles over grown with weeds. Giant wasps and bees flew around the party! Malakor stood nearby enjoying the party taking in the local sights. 'Breath taking isn't it! The air, the ruins, the mutated animals that want to kill us?! Errm you I should say. I want the locket of my dead wife which is in the ruins below. When you find the cameo then give me a call. Here's a device to do exactly that. Good luck heroes'  

We're using a modified Siege engine rpg system using the Victorious rpg system  & the Belle Epogue rpg from the Red Room  This gives the players a range of PC options. 

Manifestation of the Yellow Stone Horror - A Mini Campaign Idea Using The Victorious Rpg & Wreched Eqoque Session Eight - Martian Capture

 The PC's were captured by the Martians! The PC's got in over their heads after the  alien Otyugh telepathically called in the Martians! They arrived within 10 minutes because they were looking for the PC's. They had power neutralizing collars for em! 

A Handling-Machine from War of the Worlds: Goliath.

The aliens made life a bit of a Hell after hitting the PC's with stun beams (actually modified heat rays) and overwhelming numbers. This leg of the campaign picks up from October 22's session here on the blog!  The players are going to have to think their way out of this situation after the Resistance turned tail and ran! 

The PC's were handed over to several war machines with baskets after the power damping collars had been applied. They were going to be taken to a human processing facility near the edge of London. The PC's were not happy at all. But they had a plan and it involved Sir Tristan because his enchanted sword!  And the arcanists of the party didn't have any effect on their magic or items by the collars of the Black Martians! 

During a lull the party cut their way free from the Martian cages and fire balled one of the war machines!  They escaped! And they almost got heat rayed by the war machine but managed to escape the war machine with a scroll of fire ball that had been prepared ages ago to deal with the Yellow Stone horrors! 

They heard the honking signal of the last war machine calling others to it! They heard another squeal back from another nearby warmachine! The party needed to generate a way to escape the Martians! They did this  by creating a steam cloud with the fire and water powers of two of the heroes! 

Manifestation of the Yellow Stone Horror - A Mini Campaign Idea Using The Victorious Rpg & Wreched Eqoque Session Eight - Martian Attack!

The player's PC's were raiding the Justifier's HG below the streets of London. But they are not alone at all! 

 We raided the Justifier's Hall for equipment and weaponry to upgrade the party of adventurers. This session picks right up from the last session. The Justifier's Hall was mostly in ruins but the underground space was mostly intact. Something didn't feel right to the group. 

We looked at the weapons vault and heard shifting rock from deeper down in the vault's tunnels. And that's when the Dark Martian handling machine's pilot vehicles came into view! These pilot vehicles each had a Martian engineer/warrior within. 

A Handling-Machine from War of the Worlds: Goliath.

They started blasting the second they came into view and we engaged them the second they came into view. And our adventurers went fully on the attack taking out the handling machine's pilot vehicles by taking out a large section of walls and ceiling. We didn't want these alien bastards by calling in a three tier Dark Martian set of war machines! We did enough damage with the full group of seven PC's taking out the pilot machines. 

 We don't want to encounter any more of the Dark Martians and a voice from the dark call us deeper into the darkness. That proved both fortunate and bad as we encountered a group of other adventurers including Resistance fighters and other heroes who are operating in the shadows. We were told to 'Hurry' and left the head quarter's ruins and ran into the London sewers! And this is when we came face to face with an alien Otyugh brought to Earth by the Martians! 

And of course it attacks our little party because we stumbled into it's nest! Now it's a fight to not die in the offal of the sewers! The party wasn't expecting one of these alien horrors! The Resistance fighters and other heroes leaned into the encounter and we still had our hands full! The horror blasted out raw sewage toward our party. And we ended deep into the melee! 

Manifestation of the Yellow Stone Horror - A Mini Campaign Idea Using The Victorious Rpg & Wreched Eqoque Session Seven - Deep In The Red Zone

 We pick right up from last session and find ourselves deep on the road to London but a quite alien one! 

London has been choked out by the Red Weed of HG Well's War of the Worlds novel. And the PC's were none too happy to be here. In this timeline the Dark Martians won and were going about terriforming the Earth. 

Red Weed from the 2005 War of the Worlds film with Tom Cruise 

This wasn't the first time visiting this timeline and it took 5 weeks of campaign time to escape this branch of time. And during that game the party of adventurers encountered tripods, dealt with Martian blood farms, and saved the resistence's lives countless times. They also encountered several Martian brains and dealt with the Martian collective several times. 

 Immediately, the party were reaching for ray guns, hiding, and sneaking around. The began to make their way toward London and it was evident that they saw several ruined tripods as they went. The PC's came across a Handling Machine assembling more tripods. The adventurers made note of it for later on but had no desire to tangle with such a horror and alerting the Martians to their presence. 

We also saw a Martian power station that had been made from a converted Victorian factory. Knowing full well of the horrors that were inside we had no wish to tangle with the Martians so we moved on. We were looking for the secret  entrance to 'The Justifier's Hall'. Everywhere we went was choked by vine after vine of the Red Weed. But we did manage to find the secret door  to the lair of the Justifiers. 
We found Brenda Banks aka Lady Luck half outta of her mind but Dr. Zoltan our Mesmerist was able to snap her out of her temporary insanity. And she told us about the invasion and she was the last Justifier left on duty. Dr. Zoltan let her talk but put her under for a good night's rest. We've got to contact the rest of the heroes of Britain. 

Manifestation of the Yellow Stone Horror - A Mini Campaign Idea Using The Victorious Rpg & Wreched Eqoque Session Six

 We began rounding up the two cults that had been operating in Yellow Stone after the incident with the  Rake  last session on October 3.  And we turned over the members to the sherrif's department out of the local two towns. We didn't trust the department after we uncovered documents within the cabin belonging to the head of the cult. 

We were not sorry to see this leg of our campaign end. But we uncovered that the local mayor was actually the head of the cult! And this led us to having our suspicions that the local police were in on the act. We wrapped things up by having the Pinkertons come in on the advice of the Smithsonian's paranormal recovery and evaluation division department. This organization is not favorably looked on by our mages and arcanists. 

We boarded our skyship and began to head back to London on a two day journey. There was some mighty strange weather we hit going over the Atlantic and this lead deep into a strange vortex of lightning, thunder, light, and shadow! Then our party of adventurers found themselves flying just outside of a ruined London! 

Where the Hell and when the heck were we?! 
And that's when we saw the walking Dark Martian Tripods! The streets, the countryside was full of them and the Red Weed! We began to look for a place to set down! There was a normal looking forest just outside of London and we set down there trying as hard as we could not to attract any unwanted Martian  attention!  

We made camp and camouflaged our flyer as soon as possible. We were good with provisions and such. We've got to figure out what's happening to our party! 

For this leg of the campaign I broke out my copy of Wretched Apocalypse second edition, Victorious: Hunter & Hunter Catalog By Mike Stewart & Victorious Rule Britannia. The wasteland is being designed from Wretched Apocalypse while the stats for the Martian Walkers are from the Victorious Hunter & Hunter catalog, details on Britain's heroes and villains comes from Victorious Rule Britannia   

Manifestation of the Yellow Stone Horror - A Mini Campaign Idea Using The Victorious Rpg & Wreched Eqoque Part Five

  The party was resting after the last session, we picked up in the Yellowstone hotel & there's the rub. Firecrow's was resting in his room and we had White Claw our martial arts PC guarding his door. 

Yellow claw is one of the many sons of Fu Manchu who walk among Western society. Our party turned in for the night to rest and recharge. Little did we know that we were only beginning of the nastiness. 
We first heard Gemstone scream at three A.M. and two of our heroes bust into her room! The adventurers came face to face with a Rake! 

This thing was sitting on her bed and had manifested from under the bed. And there was an aura of absolute fear and the temperature of the room was very cold. There was a feeling of revulsion and disgust clinging to every corner of the room. 
Sir Christopher our knight whipped out his cross and backed this thing up onto the ceiling. And it spit an acid at our knight and it's attack was blocked by Captain New York's magical shield. 

A wash of trauma and horror washed over the party and it was banished by the spells of Lightmaster! 
This put the rake at a disadvantage and it sought a nearby window. This gave Sir Christopher the opportunity to attack it with a small blessed throwing knife! 

It took two more blessed knives right to the gut and it began dissolving back to the greater Darkness! We checked out every single room and then lodged a blessed candle into every room of our PC's. And then everyone went to sleep! 

Manifestation of the Yellow Stone Horror - A Mini Campaign Idea Using The Victorious Rpg & Wreched Eqoque Part Four

 After the cult retreated deeply into the Yellowstone wilderness our group of heroes gave chase! Last night's game session had the player's confront the local Yellowstone hero Firecrow who had to save the heroes from three dogmen medicine men/skinwalkers. These things had inflict damage spells ready and laid hands on the heroes causing all kinds of havoc. They were howling and violence to the player's PC's. Rick was playing Firecrow and the character has music based powers. 
He was able to shut down the gate that the villains were using. And the player's PC's mopped up the demons that were guarding the gates. This session picks right up from Sept. 11's session. 

Two of the cultists have abilities that were granted by the demons that were summoned. The park serves as a demonic prison for some prehistoric horror that's been imprisoned for eons. The two nameless cultists who were granted powers tried to escape only to be captured by Sir Christopher The Brave the resident knight from some other Authurian timeline. 

Sir Christopher held the two cultists while Lightmaster blasted Brian Howland. Howland is the head of the cult and infused deeply with demonic power. 

This represented the last of the demonic cult, and we turned all of the cultists as well as Brian Howland over to the authorities. The cult was imprisoned and arrested as they posed a clear and present danger to the local towns. Our party of adventurers regrouped at the Yellowstone hotel. And we ended here. 

Manifestation of the Yellow Stone Horror - A Mini Campaign Idea Using The Victorious Rpg & Wreched Eqoque Part III

 Our adventurers made it deep into Yellowstone's woods and that's when the PC's ran straight into the cultists who were gathered around the sacrificial altar that lay in the middle of the woods. The PC's were knocked around by two dogmen who were standing guard!  This session picks right up from the last one. 
We're using the Victorious rpg & we're hip deep into 1872 Yellowstone! 

The party ran straight into these things and they were massive! They were similar to wolfmen but seemed bigger. They saw Brian Holland the teen who was first infected by the dark energies of the spell book. The party of adventurer's weather hero killed one of these dogmen with a lightning bolt full force! 
We're using an updated version of Belle Époque & some of it's resources. This is when the party saw three zombies & the party's contraponist threw a grenade into their midst. The zombies blew a part into lots and lots of smaller demonic creatures. 

The adventurer's priest/cleric blasted the demonic imps with holy spells. And they degenerated into white fish like horrors. 
The cult's head Brian Holland howled in demonic fury. There was a strange demonic aura around the cult's head. In his hand was a demonic eye and with it he blasted Light Master our light based hero. 
He got too close too the cult's head and got zapped! The rest of our party of adventurers closed in and with fire, lightning, and flame put down the other monsters the cult was using. And managed to save Light Master! The cult retreated deeply into the Yellowstone wilderness! 

Manifestation of the Yellow Stone Horror - A Mini Campaign Idea Using The Victorious Rpg & Wreched Eqoque Part II

 So this weekend I picked up an old Victorious The Steampunk Role Playing Game of Supermankind By Mike Stewart from this campaign.   This campaign goes back to March 2023 and on Friday my notes fell out of an old folder. 

So after a brief recap the PC's settled into the newly renovated & rebuilt hotel overlooking the Yellow Stone state park they began to investigate the disappearances and murders that had been happening in the state park. The year is 1871 & things are hopping at the park! Occult energies are off the chart according to the party's arcanist Dr. Mollery.

The party immediately runs into Dwight Dalley one of two teenagers who found an old spell book in the woods and opened a gateway to the netherworld. The party is immediately attacked by two large infernal trolls covered in warts and sores. The second teen has become infected with the baleful energies of the underworld and a priest for the dark forces that are trapped in Yellow Stone. The party is given the spell book minus two pages. The second teen Brian Holland is now the vessel for some dark force and not in his right mind. He is on the verge of starting a cult.. as the party found out in two night's game. It was he who summoned the infernal trolls. The party used fire and lightning based attacks to destroy and burn the trolls followed dissolving the remains in acid! 

The party found out out that Brian Holland had also found two ancient scrolls that were secreted within a hollowed out tree within the park. 
The dark forces weren't taking any chances with the party as a set of possessed wolves appeared at night right outside of the hotel and stalked down the halls. They were not harmed a sleep bomb created by our Contraptionist put them out. Deep in the woods we followed them back to their den near a sacrificial altar. That's when we were surrounded by cultists

We're using an updated version of  Belle Époque & some of it's resources. Especially some of the demonic creatures. 

Holy Martian Terror, Warriors of the Red Planet & The Gods of Mars By Edgar Rice Burroughs

 It's been a New York minute since I've written anything about Mars and the last time was back on March 29th. Our Warriors of the Red Planet rpg/Hyperborea rpg campaign has been on hiatus because of two of our player's personal business.  This hasn't kept me away from the Mars Appendix N material in this case the second book of the Edgar Rice Burroughs Barsoom books 'The Gods of Mars'. 

Everything Barsoomian that you loved from 'A Princess of Mars' is now turned up to eleven. We've got details on the shame behind the Martian religion is and how the worshipers become plantman food. Let's take a look at 'The Gods of Mars' plot summery from the Wiki entry; "As usual for him, Burroughs begins with a frame story that explains how he (Burroughs) came into possession of the text. At the end of the first book, A Princess of Mars, John Carter was unwillingly transported back to Earth. The story proper begins with his arrival back on Barsoom (Mars) after a ten-year separation with Dejah Thoris, their unborn child, and the Red Martian people of the nation of Helium, whom he has adopted as his own. Unfortunately, Carter materializes in the one place on Barsoom from which nobody is allowed to depart: the Valley Dor, which is the Barsoomian afterlife." 
'It's actually the second part of the plot summation that contains an interesting tid bit;"After John Carter's arrival, a boat of Green Martians on the River Iss are ambushed by the previously unknown Plant Men. The lone survivor is his friend Tars Tarkas, the Jeddak of Thark, who has taken the pilgrimage to the Valley Dor to find Carter. Having saved their own lives, Carter and Tars Tarkas discover that the Therns, a white-skinned race of self-proclaimed gods, have for eons deceived the Barsoomians elsewhere with the lie that the pilgrimage to the Valley Dor is a journey to paradise. Most arrivals are killed by the beasts who dwell here, and the survivors enslaved or eaten by Therns." 
The Holy Therns are not simply shame priests but a cult of holy cannibals who feed on spectrum of Barsoomian tribesmen and life. Let me put this into perspective for you as a player playing in a post Gods of Mars & Warlord of Mars  Barsoom.  The Holy Therns are on the run and very desparate! Who are they?! According to the Encyclopedia Barsoomia entry on the Cult of the  Holy Therns;"  The Holy Therns were a vicious Martian cult populated by the therns. Inhabitants of the Valley Dor, they worshipped the "living goddess" Issus (who is actually merely an ancient Black Martian woman), and sought to keep her happy with human sacrifices. For centuries, they enthusiastically promoted the idea that the Valley Dor is the gateway to Martian Heaven and decreed that any Martian who had reached 1,000 years of age or merely tired of living should travel to the valley to either spend the rest of eternity in paradise or be reborn. When the unsuspecting pilgrims reached the valley, they found a beautiful land where fruit and water were plentiful... which also happened to be heavily inhabited by white apes and plant men. Those who survived those creatures ended up enslaved by the Holy Therns, who would work them to death before feeding them to Issus or the Tenth Cycle. The Holy Therns' downfall came in 1886, when John Carter suddenly returned to Mars." 
The Therns are part of the social logical technological   pyramid of power on Barsoom with the Black Pirates, the Therns, and then The Red Men behind the movements of Barsoomian society. The Holy Thern cult is able to manipulate many of the Royal houses on Barsoom subtly. This is evident in the Dynamite series 'A Warlord of Mars'. The Therns agenda is one of survival, domination, rulership, and total power.  Then finally consumption through cannibalism. 

What does this mean for adventurers on Mars or Barsoom?! The fact is that the player's PC's could stumble upon Holy Thern operations & then be branded as outlaws in all Barsoomian society. At the center of this is the 'goddess' Issus  the Goddess of Life Eternal, Daughter of the Lesser Moon, Mother of the Nearer Moon, and the Goddess of Death. She is 'incharge' of the Holy Therns & the First Born. The Therns manipulate both her & all of Barsoom. Adventuring on a Pre John Carter Mars could be a death sentence for the adventurers. Or the means of living the outlaw life on a Mars  without the yoke of the First Born and the Therns.. 

There is literally no citystate on Mars that the influence of the Holy Therns can't reach which means that an outlaw PC campaign would have the player's PC's surviving in the city ruins along the dried up seas. There is literally no where the PC's can escape the Holy Therns in a pre John Carter campaign. The power of the Therns is legendary among Martians and thier evil agenda is one of power and domination throughout Barsoom. 

OSR Module Redux - EX1 Dungeonland (1e) By Gary Gygax For Old School Campaign Use

 "As adventurers, you may think you have seen everything: certainly your skills have brought you through unimaginable dangers. But now you suddenly find yourself in a place unlike any through which you have traveled: astounding, dangerous, and even amusing things confront you as you journey, both indoors and outdoors, through unique and wondrous realm of Dungeonland. "

Let's get the basics out of the way right off the bat & use the EX1 Dungeonland Wiki entry to get the very basics of the module out of the way; "Dungeonland (EX1) is an adventure module for the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) roleplaying game, written by Gary Gygax for use with the First Edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D) rules. It is an adaptation of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, with the various characters from the book translated into AD&D terms" Personally I think its one of Gary Gygax's more inventive & interesting modules. 

Hoping everyone had a brilliant Christmas holiday or whatever your celebrating. I've been doing a lot of thinking about demi planes or specifically those associated with EX1 & EX2 for Dungeons & Dragons. EX1 Dungeonland by Gary Gygax is intimately tied in with Castle Greyhawk. It has a reputation for both deadliness & a sense of whimsy. But this is one of those module series with a quietly underlying fairytale madness to both modules laced with lots of Gary Gygax's warped sense of humor.  But its the idea that both EX1 "Dungeonland" & EX2: "The Land Beyond the Magic Mirror" exist as both mini campaign & as demi planes tied to Castle Greyhawk. But where else are these module's tied to?! This question came up over the Christmas holiday speaking with friends. Reading through the EX1 Dungeonland product description on Drivethru rpg we get a solid history of the module's background in Gary Gygax's home game ( maybe it seems that there are some doubts about this but let's go with it. Read the comments section the module's Drivethrurpg entry.); "About Castle Greyhawk. Gary Gygax probably created Castle Greyhawk in late 1972, taking the idea of exploring dungeons beneath a castle from Dave Arneson's own Castle Blackmoor. Castle Greyhawk was thus perhaps the first actual D&D adventure location - which makes it all the more surprising that in the decade afterward, Gygax never produced a Castle Greyhawk supplement for TSR.

 

He offered hints of Castle Greyhawk's contents as early as Supplement I: Greyhawk (1975), when he mentioned the dungeon's "living room" and the fact that the dungeons contained a fountain of endless snakes. However, it wasn't until Gygax produced the World of Greyhawk Folio (1980) that he finally committed to detailing D&D's primordial dungeon, saying in The Dragon #35 (March 1980) that he was now hoping to produce "a huge map of the City of Greyhawk, modules based on the original Castle Greyhawk, and a series of offerings which depict the Elemental Planes of Greyhawk."

 

None of those ever come about. However, before he was forced to leave TSR, Gygax did manage to produce three adventures based on "demiplanes" - which were strange places that you could get to from Castle Greyhawk. EX1: "Dungeonland" (1983) and EX2: "The Land Beyond the Magic Mirror"(1983) detailed the first of them."

So the official Castle Greyhawk is dust & rubble in the worlds of TSR. But I'm not at all concerned about that instead I'm more interested in what happens to the demi plane of Dungeonland. We know that Mystara & Blackmoor have adventure elements of "Alice in Wonderland"  & Edgar Allen Poe in their background. The fact that both of these worlds might be connected to the demi plane of dreams is out there floating on the internet. Be damned if I can find it this morning but its out there.


 What if Dungeonland got a bit more aggressive? What if this dreamland wanted out & got a bit greedy for its own sense of self preservation. After all the barrel entrance to the realm was destroyed in Castle Greyhawk. If the realm of Dungeonland was a subrealm of Fairy or Fairyland then its quirky & deadliness makes a whole lot of sense. This is right in line with some of the themes of Edgar Allen Poe & even Clark Ashton Smith. The idea of the decaying dream realm becoming parasitic.

"By a route obscure and lonely,
⁠Haunted by ill angels only,
⁠Where an Eidolon, named Night,
⁠On a black throne reigns upright,
⁠I have reached these lands but newly
⁠From an ultimate dim Thule—
From a wild weird clime that lieth, sublime,
⁠Out of Space—out of Time.

⁠Bottomless vales and boundless floods,
⁠And chasms, and caves, and Titan woods,
⁠With forms that no man can discover
⁠For the dews that drip all over;
⁠Mountains toppling evermore
⁠Into seas without a shore;
⁠Seas that restlessly aspire,
⁠Surging, unto skies of fire;
⁠Lakes that endlessly outspread
⁠Their lone waters—lone and dead,—
⁠Their still waters—still and chilly
⁠With the snows of the lolling lily.

⁠By the lakes that thus outspread
⁠Their lone waters, lone and dead,—
⁠Their sad waters, sad and chilly
⁠With the snows of the lolling lily,—
⁠By the mountains—near the river
⁠Murmuring lowly, murmuring ever,—
⁠By the grey woods,—by the swamp
⁠Where the toad and the newt encamp,—
⁠By the dismal tarns and pools
⁠Where dwell the Ghouls,—
⁠By each spot the most unholy—
⁠In each nook most melancholy,—
⁠There the traveller meets aghast
⁠Sheeted Memories of the Past—
⁠Shrouded forms that start and sigh
⁠As they pass the wanderer by—
⁠White-robed forms of friends long given,
⁠In agony, to the Earth—and Heaven.

⁠For the heart whose woes are legion
⁠'Tis a peaceful, soothing region—
⁠For the spirit that walks in shadow
⁠'Tis—oh 'tis an Eldorado!
⁠But the traveller, travelling through it,
⁠May not—dare not openly view it;
⁠Never its mysteries are exposed
⁠To the weak human eye unclosed;
⁠So wills its King, who hath forbid
⁠The uplifting of the fringed lid;
⁠And thus the sad Soul that here passes
⁠Beholds it but through darkened glasses.

⁠By a route obscure and lonely,
⁠Haunted by ill angels only,
⁠Where an Eidolon, named Night,
⁠On a black throne reigns upright,
⁠I have wandered home but newly
⁠From this ultimate dim Thule."

The Works of the Late Edgar Allan Poe
Volume II. Poems and Tales Dream-Land

EX1 & EX2 are very high level adventures & have some quietly nasty surprises in store for the PC's & it makes sense. This demi plane is going to have to fight for existence among the myriad of planes. But Dungeonland isn't a place that ticks with the horrors of an 'in your face monster'. No this is the demi plane that feels like a fever dream happening all around your PC's. Its just as deadly but has the patience to take its time with the PC's & this is 'Alice in Wonderland' translated by the lens of Gary Gygax. There are some seriously dangerous NPC's to hand pick from these modules to get the motifs just so. Imagine PC's encountering these NPC's in a dark alley in their own home campaign & the confuse it would create. A slightly charred barrel lays at the back of the alley innocently. I've got some more twisted ideas about EX2 The Land Beyond The Magic Mirror.