Jail Break & Hell - Further Mediations on The Stormbringer rpg & OSR Campaign Memories

 " Rogue Mistress presents a high-powered, dangerous campaign for either the Stormbringer or Hawkmoon roleplaying games. Rogue Mistress features eight chapters, comprehensive listings of new weapons, additional races from which new adventurers can be created, plentiful illustrations, plans, and diagrams, and new rules and clarifications for the Stormbringer roleplaying game."

Michael Shea's Nifft The Lean was the motivator for the next leg of the journey sorta of. The Rogue Trader was/is a scaling ship & a playing piece in the grand game of time. We made an attack on the palace of Media in the Rogue Trader! And this was to grab the Tantir the navigator of the Rogue Trader who was captured by the sorceress Salrenna. We had some history with this witch right from the get go if you've been paying attention last session. 

We busted into the palace of Media & it was a slog of a game session! It was a regular dice chucking session of combat. The game resembled more of a war game then it was a one to one session! We lost two of our six PC's in this melee/jail break! They succumbed to mortal wounds! Ranks were replenished from prisoners within the jail. These died in a total TPK freeing the Tantir from a diabloical sorcerous trap created by the sorceress Salrenna! I'm not gonna spoilt it. More prisoners filled out the party our wizard stayed aboard the Rogue Mistress and survived! 
We scrambled aboard the mistress after taking some pot shots against the queen Media. But quickly scrambled back aboard when her patron Morgan Le Fey appeared! 

We freed a number of prisoners including a young & very dangerous warrior named Medrawt. Who scrambled to the armory of the fortress for his demon sword & enchanted spear. He was fleeing his mother & her destiny for him because he held her off with magics while we scambled to safety! Then came with us?! Medrawt is of course Modred a name rife with betrayal, sin, & murder. So this NPC was right up our alley. 

"Sir Mordred — The Last Battle", from The Book of Romance, edited by Andrew Lang. New York: Longmans, Green and Co., 1902.

We escaped into the second ether aboard the Mistress. But the Rogue Mistress was damaged!? We also had left behind some choice chaos & demon weapons on our dead. Yes there's that whole tradition thing aboard the Rogue Mistress but damn it we had worked our rears off in the forrests of Troos for those artifacts. 

Frank Brunner's 'In The Forest of Troos' was a major influence on our DM.

Now we were lementing those choice demon items when Medrawt pipped up that he knew a place where there were demon weapons rife for the taking near our destination. Hold on to your hats kids here's where Michael Shea's Nifft The Lean was the motivator for the next leg of the journey sorta of. The Mistress can put us on the shores of Hell's chaos wastes  near where the battle of the Fall occurred & we can take our pick of weapons?! 
Now I've got to note that the DM had recently aquired a copy of White Dwarf (Issue 103 - Jul 1988). This issue has an article called Realm of Chaos - Chaos Weapons and their abilities..



It seemed only fitting that we convert that article into the Stormbringer rpg because Games Workshop had 'borrowed' so much from Michael Moorcock's mythos. We agreed as long as Medrawt came with us. 
This whole outting was inspired by Michael Shea's  story 'Come Then, Mortal, We Will Seek Her Soul'. 

The Mistress put into the moist living shore of the outter most level of this area of Hell. And that's when we had our encounter with two demonic doormen who wanted a boon to enter the vulva like Hell Mouth. The boon consisted of two of the most innocent memories of our PC's. Galling to say the least and the promise of a return to this spot for torture when our PC's died. Medrawt passed without comment or incident which told us about his part in this little part of the adventure. 

We entered the Hellmouth without ceramony & within it was mile after mile of broken urban landscape. We passed various decaying angel like creatures nailed to walls or strung in between buildings in spiderlike cables. That's when one of them still animated called to us!? Apparently this was an aspect of  'Queen Xiombarg' who was asking if we were come to join her?! 
We answered, 'No not yet'.  And her response was simply,'Pity'.  

We were a bit freaked out to say the least & made our way to the field of former battle where row after row of angels & demons decaying bodies were spiked and still dying after millions of years. Our wizard picked up seven names of true angels while on that battle field. 
 We picked up weapons here & there but were seen by demon scavengers! We had to fight our way back to the Hellmouth & then use those seven names to get the Hellmouth to open! The doormen's last words to us were, 'See you again soon!'  

Necromancers & The Power of Hell - Adventurer, Conqeuror, King's Heroic Fantasy Handbook & Axioms issue 2 - Campaign Commentary

 So let's pick it up from right here on the blog and continue the deeper dive into corruption on a grand scale. If we're looking into The Heroic Fantasy Handbook then our Sword & Sorcery Adventurer, Conqueror, King rpg counterpart for the black magician is the necromancr from ACK's Barbarian Conquerors of Kanahu. Why!? Because of the fact that the Necromancer class from ACK's Barbarian Conquerors of Kanhau is perfectly suited for use for an NPC villain or association of villains to spread corruption. Warning I'm using a Biblical qoute to bring home the power of Hell below. 

Fire Demon by Frank Frazetta from 1976 which I'm using without permission hits the high notes of what's at stake when Hell comes to Earth or your ACK's campaigns. And for a moment using the Bible to illustrate what level of corruption we're talking about here. 2 Thessalonians 1:9 says," 17 The wicked go down to the realm of the dead, all the nations that forget God."   That's right nations plural here folks, the necromancer & thier cults here are capable of corrupting entire cultures and nations. Forget the hoverbikes & the technological toys of BCK's here. Strip it back and look at the way the necromancer in ACK's is set up. This is a villain capable of toppling nations. Couple this with the subtle & hamfisted power of the 9 Hells & you've got a recipe for wrecking havoc on a grand scale. 

Remember yesterday I said that the Abyss was the engine & backstage of Hell?! Then the necromancers are it's literal stars of Chaos. These necromancers are leading cults that are the cysts of Hell's influence within a campaign. The demons & devils in a campaign don't want to break the yoke of the gods because each & every soul that they bring to thier masters fuels both the armies of Chaos & the fires themselves. And this is where Necromancers & thier servants begin bringing in the humanoid armies. Fuel & magical corruption allow the whole range of nasties to be generated into a campaign world. Notice I didn't say born, I said generated because the first generation are the most powerful. Axiom issue#2 goes into all of this on Beastmen & thier connection to Chaos. 

The Wages of Sin - Adventurer, Conqeuror, King's Heroic Fantasy Handbook & Axioms issue 1 - Campaign Commentary

 So we're gonna pick it right up from here & we're gonna go for the jugular vein on this one a bit. Tim Brannan reads this blog & I know this is going to step on some toes here. Recently I got asked why I wasn't using Dragon issue 91 with  Ed Greenwood's Nine Hells Revisited.  The short answer is that as a DM I really don't want to. Shocking I know because of the fact that many of my players are also fellow dungeon masters. And they read Tim's The Otherside Blog. They also know that I read it as well. 

“Into the eternal darkness, into fire and into ice. ”
― Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy: The Inferno, the Purgatorio and the Paradiso
Frank Frazetta artwork used without

permission. 

So as a DM I've got to mix things up with my version of Adventurer, Conqueror, King's Hell. And this goes back to something everyone seems to forget about Dragon magazine. That ninety percent of the articles were optional as supplemental material for your game campaign. 

Hell for our games is ever changing & varied. The only things that are a constant are the levels & rings of the nine Hells. 
There are in point of fact demons & devils within this version of Hell that are not present in the 'official 'versions of Hell. Within this version the Abyss is the back stage of Hell if you will 

Demons & devils are brought in by the arch devils to fuel the enternity of torment. And Hell is wall to wall with any number of black wizards & cultists that want to bring Hell to Earth. 

The probem  is that the arch demons & devils all must bend to the will of the Gods. And though they may chaff under it's yoke they can't break this unless the word is given for a particular plane prime.

And this goes back to the Adventurer, Conqueror, King Rpg Heroic Fantasy Handbook. The demons & devils are not simply going to invade the Earth or Plane Prime at the drop of a hat. This goes back to the 

"The Shades of Magic: because power corrupts, and powerful magic corrupts magically" article in Axioms issue#1 . The power of magick may summon a horror of Hell but they want the magician completely corrupted before Hell can take him or her. 

Reposessed & Hell To Burn - Dragon Issue # 20 & Adventurer, Conqeuror, King's Heroic Fantasy Handbook - Campaign Commentary

 Today we're gonna pick right up from where we left off on the blog the other day here. Hell is not going to remain static at all during a Heroic Fantasy Handbook campaign in Adventurer, Conqueror, King. And the first signs of the events coming up are going to be found within the pages of The Dragon magazine issue# 20 November 1 1978. 

And if we look at Wayne's book site we've got a front row seat for this late Halloween style issue:"ARTICLES: A New Look at Witches in D&D; GenCon Photo Album; Imperium Clarifications & Addenda; D&D Death Stats; Mythos of Polynesia in D&D; Demonology in D&D; Demonic Possession in D&D; more"  We've got a plethora of demonic topics in classic Dungeons & Dragons. Everything that could make any Satanic Panic era mom salivate with demonic dread. 
Let's look at this from a completely different perspective. And that's the idea here that clerics in a classic or ACK's campaign are going to be up too thier eyeballs in signs & portents of the demonic activity to come. 
And according to the article  Demonic Possession in D&D article"  by Chas. Sagui we're going to be playing with the big boys of the Abyss; "Only demons of level IV or greater and the Princes are capable of possessing bodies of adventurers. The rule of the thumb is that only those demons that are immune to all but magical weapons and therefore exist upon two planes at once may possess. The corporeal body of the demon is sent to another plane while the spiritual essence remains in a room, cave, dungeon hall or other area. The amulet of the demon must remain on the plane and world in which the possession takes place. It need not be in the same room but must remain within one mile of the place of possession. Although the demon should be placed by the DM, the member of the party affected should be at random (First person into the room, last person, fourth person or whatever) so that any member of the party" 

Is this in line with Advnturer, Conqeuror, King's Heroic Fantasy Handbook!? Yes it is because it gives high level clerics another entire advenue to deal with. 

Possessors are not simply some run of the mill demon. Nope these things are out & out spirits of Hell. And yes I know all about the "Demonology in D&D" article by Gregory Rihn in which he lays out who the wizards engaging in such nafarious doings of the black arts; "In Dungeons & Dragons®, magic users have other, more immediately rewarding enterprises to occupy their time, such as spell research and the manufacture of magic items, not to mention adventuring. However, the demonic heirarchies laid out in the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual make it attractive for D & D magic users to delve into the dubious science of demonology." 

And thus its also true for the black wizards of the Heroic Fantasy Handbook as well. Here we've got a rash of heroic level demons waiting to be exploited or to exploit the population of the campaign's surrounding countryside. 

Clerics & other religious PC types are going to be key here for freeing the local governor's wife or family members from the clutches of some demonic prince or it's minions. The truth of the matter if we're looking at Hell and or the Abyss getting a foothold into reality. It's gonna be through the machinations of some black wizard's blunderings with the black arts. 

And this is where the dungeons of ACK's come into play the 'dungeon' is a 'sink of evil' with the ACK's appendix of the rule book. And these sinks could hold the artifact or verse that might free the hostage of said possession. 

How does this relate to the idea of dragging our PC's down into the depths?! Hell is not mocked nor the devil or demon cheated. That dungeon may be the NPC's salvation but the PC's doom. The forces of Hell may just come after the PC's for such an affont to Hell itself. And the gods may wait to see if the PC's mettle is up to the task. How and why we'll get into next time. 

Hell To Burn & The Lord of the Flies - Dragon Issue # 28 & Adventurer, Conqeuror, King's Heroic Fantasy Handbook - Campaign Commentary

 

Dragon (Issue 28 - Aug 1979) contained one of the most controversial articles by "The Politics of Hell" by Alexander von Thorn covers "A history of Satan and the other fallen angels after the war against heavan and they had been cast down."  And its the unseen player that we get one of our primary antagonistic villains. Baalzebul get's his due in this article and according to Greyhawk on line; "In Dragon # 28, the article "The Politics of Hell" by Alexander von Thorn gives a different history to that detailed above, and includes statistics for Satan, Belial and Astaroth. Satan is more powerful than any other Devil, but lacks support, having been exiled from hell by Beelzebub following a revolution. Beelzebub ("Lord of the Archdevils") was himself overthrown by Asmodeus and is forever after known as Baalzebul ("Lord of the Flies," with "flies" meaning "little devils" in this context)."

"In Legions of Hell by Chris Pramas, Beelzebub (as he's called in that source) is described as a fallen throne archon. His servants in that book include Amitiel, the Archon of Truth; Flauros, who is consulted in divinations; Meresin, who controls lightning storms; Moloch, a former angelic patron of children who now welcomes child sacrifice; Murmur, who questions souls arriving in the Seventh Circle; Nergal, the Fetid Prince; Rahbad, Lord of the Lightless Seas; and Tamiel, Angel of the Deep." " 

What does Baalzebul have to do with Adventurer, Conqueror,, King rpg's Heroic Fantasy Handbook?!? Well a bit of everything really as we get write up's for new heroic style monsters and this includes cacodemons. Cacodemons range in power from imps capable of being a nuisance to ones that are capable of ripping dragons in half. 

 Baalzebul ("Lord of the Flies," with "flies" meaning "little devils" in this context)." here could easily mean Cacodemons. And if Baalzebul is in point of fact still one of the most powerful background entities within Hell. Than it stands to reason that he has a network of these horrors capable of moving between the 9 Hells. 
Now according to the Cacodemon's entry on Wik:"A cacodemon (or cacodaemon) is an evil spirit or (in the modern sense of the word) a demon. The opposite of a cacodemon is an agathodaemon or eudaemon, a good spirit or angel. The word cacodemon comes through Latin from the Ancient Greek κακοδαίμων kakodaimōn, meaning an "evil spirit", whereas daimon would be a neutral spirit in Greek. It is believed to be capable of shapeshifting.^[1] A cacodemon is also said to be a malevolent person.

"In psychology, cacodemonia (or cacodemonomania) is a form of insanity in which the patient believes that they are possessed by an evil spirit. The first known occurrence of the word cacodemon dates to 1593. In William Shakespeare's Richard III Act 1 Scene 3, Queen Margaret calls Richard a "cacodemon" for his foul deeds and manipulations.^[2] In John Fletcher's The Knight of Malta, Norandine calls Mountferrat, the play's villain, a "cacodemon" in the final scene.^[3] In The Arbatel de Magi Veterum, written in 1575, the word Cacodemon is described as one of the Seven."

"In astrology, the 12th house was once called the Cacodemon for its association with evil.^[4][5] Defined it as "a noise-making devil", Jane Davidson has noted an illustrated example of a cacodemon in editions of Ulisse Aldrovandi’s Monstrum Historia (Story of Monsters) as late as 1696.^{[6]" "} 

^{So not only are Cacodemons powerful but thier far more formable
 then thier Hero}ic Fantasy Handbook entry suggests. And this puts 

them well in a league of thier own.  And Baalezbub knew how valuble these 

members of the Falare/were as this is reflected in the 'Politics of Hell' article;"

 Beelzebub does seem to have had a point. However, Beelzebub had difficulty controlling the devils. He could not order them about the way Satan had, because he had gained power by promising more freedom of action. In fact, some of the more powerful arch-devils told him (in a roundabout way) that his authority would be in jeopardy if he tried to assert himself too much. So, the only means that Beelzebub could use to get things done in Hell were by persuasion or by doing favors for the devils. Needless to say, these were not enough, even if Beelzebub had had the time to talk to all the arch-devils in order to explain why things had to be done, or to do all the errands that he had to do to get things done. The devils ended up aiding humans against each other, with little coordination, so that they fell into disrepute because they could not fulfill their conflicting promises."  And it's this confusion that borne the influence of the cacodemons within Hell. 

Why I'm I referencing Cacodemons so much tonight?! Because these horrors were some of the main horrors that decimated our party back in '86. These horrors also caused us no end of infernal issues for us players. Why? Because they were connected with the unique devils back on the first plane of Hell. We had to defeat some of the least cacodemons & believe me those were the worst. Why?! Because these cacodemons while not hugely powerful were none the less incredibly dangerous. These horrors often masquraded as perverse magic items and other trinkets while influencing thier owners. 

Why was Baalzebul picking on our player's PC's?! Simply put we had defeated his pet black wizard who had a pact with the archdevil & was his primary agent on Earth at the time. And when we killed him the arch devil appeared and took us with him! The PC's had to deal with being lost on the first plane and events began to get worse as time went on. 
Each time we got a few steps ahead, we'd get knocked back two spaces. We recruited three slayers from the prisons of Mammon. Baalzbul however was always lurking in the background. The Forgotten Realms Wiki entry on Baalzebul hones in one of the archdevil's flaws his personality; "Of Baazelbul's numerous flaws, his most crippling was his perfectionist extremism. His unfiltered dedication to achieving physical flawlessness and greater dominion was what caused his initial fall from the Seven Heavens, as such callous ambition was more befitting of a devil.^[2][8] Seemingly incapable of realizing when he had gone too far, his utter arrogance led him to undermine his own plans by overreaching.^[1][4] He might have even been able to defeat his rival Mephistopheles if in his overconfident scheming he didn't also aim to defeat Asmodeus, causing him to fall even further than before.^{[4]" Our party of adventurers were part of an elaborate plan to reclaim his kingdom.}

Hell To Burn - Dragon Issue #75 & Adventurer, Conqeuror, King's Heroic Fantasy Handbook - Campaign Commentary

t

 

Dragon issue 75 was released in July of 1983 & it featured "From the Sorcerer's Scroll: New denizens of devildom" by Gary Gygax which had a listing of the following as a mini preview for the upcoming Monster Manual II :

• Abishai
• Bael
• Belial
• Glasya
• Mammon
• Mephistopheles
• Moloch

And this issue of The Dragon magazine also featured "The Nine Hells, Part I" By Ed Greenwood which had detailed  descriptions of the first 5 layers of the Nine Hells (and their inhabitants) . Both of these articles were hugely influencial on us Eighties kids. And in fact my uncle at the time our DM sent our party  straight to Hell! There were two reasons for this one we were studying the Roman Slave Rebellions: First Servile War & Dante's Divine Comedy. But my uncle really punched those two articles up by drawing more from Dante. Each time we were killed we were put into a lower level in the nine Hells. You didn't just die you lost XP and levels. This got me thinking about ACK's & the Hells! Could an ACK's campaign survive in the Hells?! Then I started thinking about the ACK's Heroic Fantasy Handbook. The ACK's Heroic Fantasy Handbook is almost another side optional rulebook having heroic & Pulpy PC classes,alternative rules, and much more. But is it enough to survive the nine Hells?! 

We spend the first couple of months on Avernus avoiding Tiamat,her consorts, her children, and picking sport with the machinations of the unique devils. The unique devils picked us off one by one more then once; "The uppermost plane of the Nine Hells is ruled by Tiamat, the Chromatic Dragon, and serves as a home to all lesser unique devils. These are devils with individual names and characteristics, and powers of greater magnitude than those of a pit fiend (for all such unique devils of lesser power are soon destroyed by their enemies and the cruelty of their fellows), which are not otherwise placed in the hells as ruling archdevils or their direct servants."

Don't count out the unique devils because they handed more then a few PC's their behinds multiple times. We were screwing around on the first level & only made it too Dis after 5 month of game time. We spent a great deal of time as 'guests' of Mammon wading our necks up in the filth and horrors of Minauros famous swamps. 
Eventually after completing missions & combat sorties for several arch devils & their respective misstresses our party escaped from the Hells. However we each brought a piece of Hell with our PC's. The experience changed our characters we were no longer welcomed in our usual haunts. The PC's were rumored to have been dead or worse 'damned'. We carried this stigma for years as PC's and were the 'bad guys' hunted by paladins and knights because of our association with the Hells. Now my interest is peaked again to see if the players wouldn't mind a bit of time in the Hells. 

Spectres of Hawkmoon & New PC's! Further Mediations on The Stormbringer rpg & OSR Campaign Memories

 

  " Rogue Mistress presents a high-powered, dangerous campaign for either the Stormbringer or Hawkmoon roleplaying games. Rogue Mistress features eight chapters, comprehensive listings of new weapons, additional races from which new adventurers can be created, plentiful illustrations, plans, and diagrams, and new rules and clarifications for the Stormbringer roleplaying game."

Yeah you don't know the half of it, we picked up quite a bit of damage to the Rogue Mistress during our engagements & trip to Hell. We were going to half to earn our stripes as crewmen. We had chaos weapons & now it was time to use em! 
 So before the 'Entropy Configuration' entirely cracked & shattered, we made our way to a nasty little plane of Chaos.

The plane of Klaadii is a plane after Chaos has had its way with it entirely. The ever changing roiling unmercy of change, mutation, endless variety kicks in hard core & your left with a zero pulse entropy plane. All of the life, energy, etc., are gone to the way of lifeless, barren, & the echoes of eternity. This is the final resting place of the O Sidata & her crew. A  Scaling Ship whpse wreck has beached itself on an out cropping of rock on the plane of Klaadi. Let me start by saying that this is one of the hardest parts of the Rogue Mistress campaign. The monsters that are on that plane are brutal, the plane itself is not a place to stay for any reason, & after my  fourth PC death our party had enough . We grabbed the configuration & killed the O Sidata to put it out of its misery. Trust me its not something we could leave. 

Afterward we had to get the 'Entropy Configuration' installed & that's when we broke through the second ether to arrive in some back water little plane. We brought the Rogue Mistress into dry dock. And we paid a visit to a wizard friend of Marie De Pistola & just outside of the wizard's dry dock we came face to face with boar & wolf warriors clad in full armor! 

We came face to face with our third 'old friend' Charles D'vere & his bodyguards on an extended leave from his emperor the ruler of The Tragic Milleanum Europe. Charles D'vere The First Duke of La Roy & the second grand inquistor of the Emperor of Europe. A member of the Praying Mantis division of the scared church of science  introduced himself along with his wolf & boar bodyguards. King King Huon, also called Huon the Immortal was very much interested or obessed with the scaling technologies. He wanted its secrets & there was no way we were going to let that mad m erm creature get a hold of it! The mad ruler of the Dark Empire of Granbretan was already eying other worlds & planes. His armies had made military expediations into several nearby planes. 

Our group fought like demons until  Charles D'vere himself joined the fray & unleashed an artifact of Law on us! We lost two of our number as he cut our men's throats for resisting & wasting his time. Did I happen to mention that this guy was sheer evil on a plate. We grabbed two prisoners (experimental subjects) that he was shipping back to  the Dark Empire of Granbretan for experimentation. Needless to say he didn't come within fifty miles of the entropy configuration! Our replacement characters included a cat like chaos mutant named Mila who was perfectly normal until she entered combat then she flew into a beserker rage. The second was Pan Tangian mercenary named Raz The Bloodless Handed. He was based upon this old Games Workshop figure here. 

Raz had no interest in serving the Pan Tangian empire as the emperor had a lot to do with murdering his entire famial line in ritual sacrifice to the Chaos gods! Charles D'vere himself threw two grenades at our group but we had some experience already with his tactics. So we ducked behind cover as they exploded harmlessly (there were a lot of dead city dwellers which we helped) but he made his escape. 
We encountered his other present on the way back to the drydock, a nasty virtue of Law named Edgar. This thing was shape shifting technological robotic or cybernetic life form. All the abilities of a demon with the unflinching attitude of a divine servant of Law.  
Our sorcerer Edward Burns Jones whose patron was Satan summoned a Hellmouth to take the thing out. Edward Burns Jones was named after the painter & the PC looked like his classic art piece 'The Wizard'. The girl in the painting is Edward's demon of desire familiar. 

The player handling that PC who was originally an NPC was pissed since it cost him big time. Edgar was taken care of but we had wounded urbanites all around us. We attended to them because our former Sholin Monk who was now Chaos worshiping martial arts specialist was our party's consciouss.  The 'down on his luck' martial artist, assassin, & former servant of Chaos named Fo Fuk Fenn was very good at navigating cultural waters.  Fo was a disgraced  Shaolin monk half Chinese & Irish who had turned to the worship of Chaos after losing everything during the Boxer Rebellion. Recently while the party was in Hell,  he had gained a metal & jet  staff with a demon of combat bound into it. The staff  was keyed with the explosive power in it. 

Our party needed to be proactive & fast! There were major threats after us! Hell we didn't even know the plane we were on!?! As I strove to make a new character that night the DM & began to discuss playing a sorcerer/warrior. That night in '91 Melmoth the Damned was born, basically he was a sorcerer who'd taken on the pact of Melmoth the Wanderer. A man destined to die when his alotted time was up dragged down to Hell  by the powers of Chaos. Melmoth the Damned carried a chaos blade named 'Nail Biter' with the power of ice forged on the broken back of a traitor  in the final circle of Hell under the gaze of Satan. He gained his sorcererous knowledge from his demonic pact. Melmoth was a very 90's character grim dark, utterly Gothic, complicated, who had taken on the pact after saving his half sister & her child. He had a complex relationship with his half sister having shades of Manfred. His family banished him to wander across the worlds because his father was a black magician himself. Did I happen to mention that this was a good guy?! 
Literally this is only the beginning of where things start getting really wooly & wild! Buckle up its gonna be a bumpy ride! Express elevator going down! 

Jail Break & Hell - Further Mediations on The Stormbringer rpg & OSR Campaign Memories

 " Rogue Mistress presents a high-powered, dangerous campaign for either the Stormbringer or Hawkmoon roleplaying games. Rogue Mistress features eight chapters, comprehensive listings of new weapons, additional races from which new adventurers can be created, plentiful illustrations, plans, and diagrams, and new rules and clarifications for the Stormbringer roleplaying game."

Michael Shea's Nifft The Lean was the motivator for the next leg of the journey sorta of. The Rogue Trader was/is a scaling ship & a playing piece in the grand game of time. We made an attack on the palace of Media in the Rogue Trader! And this was to grab the Tantir the navigator of the Rogue Trader who was captured by the sorceress Salrenna. We had some history with this witch right from the get go if you've been paying attention last session. 

We busted into the palace of Media & it was a slog of a game session! It was a regular dice chucking session of combat. The game resembled more of a war game then it was a one to one session! We lost two of our six PC's in this melee/jail break! They succumbed to mortal wounds! Ranks were replenished from prisoners within the jail. These died in a total TPK freeing the Tantir from a diabloical sorcerous trap created by the sorceress Salrenna! I'm not gonna spoilt it. More prisoners filled out the party our wizard stayed aboard the Rogue Mistress and survived! 
We scrambled aboard the mistress after taking some pot shots against the queen Media. But quickly scrambled back aboard when her patron Morgan Le Fey appeared! 

We freed a number of prisoners including a young & very dangerous warrior named Medrawt. Who scrambled to the armory of the fortress for his demon sword & enchanted spear. He was fleeing his mother & her destiny for him because he held her off with magics while we scambled to safety! Then came with us?! Medrawt is of course Modred a name rife with betrayal, sin, & murder. So this NPC was right up our alley. 

"Sir Mordred — The Last Battle", from The Book of Romance, edited by Andrew Lang. New York: Longmans, Green and Co., 1902.

We escaped into the second ether aboard the Mistress. But the Rogue Mistress was damaged!? We also had left behind some choice chaos & demon weapons on our dead. Yes there's that whole tradition thing aboard the Rogue Mistress but damn it we had worked our rears off in the forrests of Troos for those artifacts. 

Frank Brunner's 'In The Forest of Troos' was a major influence on our DM.

Now we were lementing those choice demon items when Medrawt pipped up that he knew a place where there were demon weapons rife for the taking near our destination. Hold on to your hats kids here's where Michael Shea's Nifft The Lean was the motivator for the next leg of the journey sorta of. The Mistress can put us on the shores of Hell's chaos wastes  near where the battle of the Fall occurred & we can take our pick of weapons?! 
Now I've got to note that the DM had recently aquired a copy of White Dwarf (Issue 103 - Jul 1988). This issue has an article called Realm of Chaos - Chaos Weapons and their abilities..



It seemed only fitting that we convert that article into the Stormbringer rpg because Games Workshop had 'borrowed' so much from Michael Moorcock's mythos. We agreed as long as Medrawt came with us. 
This whole outting was inspired by Michael Shea's  story 'Come Then, Mortal, We Will Seek Her Soul'. 

The Mistress put into the moist living shore of the outter most level of this area of Hell. And that's when we had our encounter with two demonic doormen who wanted a boon to enter the vulva like Hell Mouth. The boon consisted of two of the most innocent memories of our PC's. Galling to say the least and the promise of a return to this spot for torture when our PC's died. Medrawt passed without comment or incident which told us about his part in this little part of the adventure. 

We entered the Hellmouth without ceramony & within it was mile after mile of broken urban landscape. We passed various decaying angel like creatures nailed to walls or strung in between buildings in spiderlike cables. That's when one of them still animated called to us!? Apparently this was an aspect of  'Queen Xiombarg' who was asking if we were come to join her?! 
We answered, 'No not yet'.  And her response was simply,'Pity'.  

We were a bit freaked out to say the least & made our way to the field of former battle where row after row of angels & demons decaying bodies were spiked and still dying after millions of years. Our wizard picked up seven names of true angels while on that battle field. 
 We picked up weapons here & there but were seen by demon scavengers! We had to fight our way back to the Hellmouth & then use those seven names to get the Hellmouth to open! The doormen's last words to us were, 'See you again soon!'