Some Thoughts on Wererats In Old School Sword & Sorcery Campaigns

 So I started looking back at some of DM Steve's notes on Thieves Guild by Game Lord, LTD. Now back in June of 2020 I covered some of my experiences with Thieves Guild but then that business didn't go anywhere. And I shelved those notes.

Zipping through the Stackexchange I came across this post about to 'To what extent were Dungeons & Dragons were-rats based on The Swords of Lankhmar?'  And the post got me thinking about using were rats controlled thieves guilds as their elite leadership & as one of the controlling forces for the local beggar's guild. And there's an Arduin connection where Daniel Boggs said, 'At this point, no one seems to remember, although the connection seems very likely. However it wasn't Gygax who introduced wererats to the game or coined the term. The were-rat was first one of the Twin Cities monsters introduced by Dave Arneson and his players. Who precisely is responsible is unclear, but wererat first appears in David Megarry's prototype Dungeon! game (1973) and next in Greg Svenson's Tonisborg Dungeon (circa Jan 1974).' 

So this begs the question, 'Are wererats the perfect monster hybrid to bridge the gap in a Sword & Sorcery' game?! I believe the answer is yes & there are several reasons why:

1. Wererats are an urban monster & ideally suited to city life and flourish there. 
2. Wererats are never alone and always socialize in packs. 
3. They have inherit aspect that ties directly into giant rats which go all of the way back to original Dungeons & Dragons. 
4. Wererats are masters of the sewers & the seedier parts of cities. This ideally suits the monsters. 
5. Wererats are a dangerous part of an alien eco system that humanity simply doesn't understand. 

Flying Buffalo Catalyst system books coupled with Thieves Guild books gives legs to a possible network of wererat controlled thieves guild holdings. And as a part of an information selling network a perfect addition to a Sword & Sorcery campaign. 
According to the Forgotten Realms Wiki entry on Wererat's ecology;"Ratmen were cannibals, eating uninfected humans and subsisting on what they could scavenge or steal. Wererats were noted to rarely mate with other wererats, instead mating with uninfected humans. The progeny of a male wererat and a human woman was human, but the child would inherit many of the physical characteristics of its father in his human form. The child of a female wererat and a human male were giant rats with paws that resembled human hands known as ratlings. These ratlings grew to maturity by the age of two and had the ability to transform themselves into human children who appeared to be roughly three times their real age" 

So this speaks to the fact that wererats are being very careful to whom & where they're bestowing their curse or gift upon. 

The wererats are certainly masters of the night & given their abilities within urban environments make formidable NPC adversaries; " Wererats were weaker than normal humans but they were more intelligent. Only silver or magical weapons could harm them and they were adept at surprise attacks.^[6]

Wererats shared the animal instinctiveness of all lycanthropes and were markedly more dexterous than humans as well as a little more hardy. Any damage caused by a weapon not made of silver or coated in alchemical silver would be reduced. Wererats were often carriers of filth fever due to the environments that they lived in". 
I have no idea what 'fifth fever' is but wererats are perfectly suited to the role of thieves guild leader or as chaos priest go between for the forces of darkness. In Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea they were the last surviving true Ancients according to them. An analog surviving hold over of some of the Hyperborean's human slaves. They used foul magicks to curse themselves with the wererat curse. 

OSR Commentary On 'Winds of Chance (Arduin Grimoire volume 8)' By Dave Hargrave & Lord Dunsany's The King of Elfland's Daughter

 
You'll hear a ton of the Arduin Grimoire fans talk about the first  three books of the series lovingly. In the Summer of Ninety Eight things were bad for me. Job loss, depression, & the usual BS that follows gamers seemed to dog my heels that year. Anyhow I still had a raving D&D campaign going & we had the party gate into Arduin through a warp gate. 

In a used book store over a weekend in Boston two books leaped into my hands. The King of Elf Land's Daughter By Lord Dunsany & Dave Hargrave's Winds of Change Arduin Grimoire Eight. What makes Winds of Change so good is the level of detail on Arduin's royals, cults, religions, gods, etc. And it was the detail & care that went into both books that had me. 

“Nobody can tell you about that sword all that there is to be told of it; for those that know of those paths of Space on which its metals once floated, till Earth caught them one by one as she sailed past on her orbit, have little time to waste on such things as magic and so cannot tell you how the sword was made, and those who know whence poetry is, and the need that man has for song, or know any one of the fifty branches of magic, have little time to waste on such things as science, and so cannot tell you whence its ingredients came. Enough that it was once beyond our Earth and was now here amongst our mundane stones; that it was once but as those stones, and now had something in it such as soft music has; let those that can define it.”

― Lord Dunsany, The King of Elfland's Daughter

Everything from Winds of Change by Dave Hargrave fitted on to a nice three by five index card & with a few hooks slotted into the back end of my campaign. The collapse of the events of 'The King of Elfland's Daughter' created the spark that was needed to pull the campaign across the finish line. When Erl is engulfed by Elfland it has repercussions in the mortal world & across the planes. Flash over to Arduin whose trading partner the land of Erl has disappeared! So its up to the PC's to find out what happened to Erl! The gods of Arduin haven't a clue because the events were voluntary. 

It was only with the inclusion of the dreamweaver class that the PC's managed to make it over to Fairyland and find the land of Erl. 
Dave Hargrave was always introducing new optional classes & this included the Dreamweaver class.
  Dave Hargrave's Winds of Change Arduin Grimoire Eight like many of the Grimoires introduced Arduin personalities, world setting notes, etc. 
And because of the form that these took they were able to be slotted right into play. War with several other nations was averted because the PC's were able to present Erl's king & prince. Later, the assassins guilds and thieves guild came into play during the campaign. There are five strengths that we found with 'Winds of Chance (Arduin Grimoire volume 8)' By Dave Hargrave: 

1. Hargrave's works always seemed a bit more approachable to me as a DM. None of you must do A or B stuff. There was always 'you might want to try this' or 'In my experience as a DM A or B might happen'. 
2. The sheer volume of material presented in 'Winds of Chance (Arduin Grimoire volume 8)' made it work and stand out among the Arduin Grimoires. 
3. Hargrave worked his campaigns & points through actual play an early form of play testing & it shows. 
4. The sheer imagination of 'Winds of Chance (Arduin Grimoire volume 8)'  shows through. 
5. As a gaming resource 'Winds of Chance (Arduin Grimoire volume 8)' has been invaluable. 

The Upside Down City - Blood Soaked Travels With Game Lords LTD's Thieves Guild & The Catalyst series By Flying Buffalo - More OSR Campaign Commentary

"A complete rules system for fantasy thieves!
This new, completely revised second edition of the Thieves' Guild™ rules now provides more ways than ever for players to experience the danger-filled life of a medieval brigand, burglar, or cutpurse. Thieves' Guild™ gives thief characters opportunities to use a wide range of thieving skills and abilities to plan and commit the perfect crime. In addition to basic game mechanics, system rules cover every aspect of thieving activity, including:
• Basic Thieving Abilities • Thievish Combat Tactics • Disguises and Diversions • Tailing and Surveillance • Poisons and Venoms • Fencing Stolen Goods • Medieval Justice • Ransoming Prisoners • Underworld Organizations • And Much More!"



Its been a few years since I busted out my box set of Thieves Guild the Fantasy system from 

1984  by  Richard Meyer & Kerry Lloyd & Michael Watkins aka  GL 3901.  This was a glorious box set from a very different era. A glorious era in fantasy table top gaming called Nineteen Eighty Four & Game Lords were a very cool company. You can read all about their history & products right over at the Black Gate Blog here 



Now flash forward to the Nineties when lo & behold I was able to pick up the whole range of Game Lords product on the cheap. Then I began to run a first edition AD&D style game with sprinkles of Flying Buffalo Catalyst system books you remember those right?! Butcher,Baker, Candlestick maker well the line had one particularly nasty book called Deadly Nightside. As the Amazon reviewer called 'the dude' puts it; "Admittedly, the art is a bit stiff, but the stories make up for it. There are settings like "The Bloodmoon School" for training in the martial arts - replete with a thematic system of advancement and a mysterious sensei with a hidden purpose. There are organizations like the "Beggar's Guild" that establishes an information network and suggests that your best friend might secretly be one of the "changelings" exchanged for deformed children at birth. There's an assassin's "guild" called "The Steel Man" that is over the top on atmosphere. But best of all is the metaplot - there's a connection between the "Steel Man", the "Shadow Riders" (caravan raiders on the route into town), and a slave trader. Played right, it's an epic campaign... And I haven't even mentioned the time traveler!"
Now back in the 90's I used the Thieves Guild box set to give legs at the table top level among my players with the Flying Buffalo Catalyst rpg seamless  system. 


Now I used Deadly Nightside  quite lines up nicely with its sister book Citybook V: Sideshow which both of these line up almost but not quite with 'The Thieves Guild' books. Christ, I got a ton of use out of the Catalyst series of books including using them for a Vampire Dark Ages game in the early to late 00's.  But now seems like the perfect time to bust out Thieves Guild & the Catalyst series.  The inhuman terrorist cell, the strange almost Night Breed businesses, and more all cry out to be used including Thieves Guild. I have a cunning plan! 


What I'm going to do is add in these books to my Castles & Crusades rpg/Victorious rpg campaign now that the player's PC's have been brought to New York City in 1870;

"Imagine if you will that usual hum drum city of 1870's New York isn't, imagine just for a moment that half a step away & around the corner is another city a world away. A city if you will full of danger,excitement, fairies,dragons, & thieves. Now imagine that at certain hours, days, & times of the year that people can cross between these worlds only a foot fall away. "  Imagine if you will desperate thieves & adventurers stalking the night of 1870's New York City for any booty they can find. A shot rings out & the player's PC's find themselves in a whole cloth different world! The Upside Down city a far from conventional York City of the Castles & Crusades or Dungeons & Dragons variety with overtones of Lord Dunsany thrown into the mix. Elves, gods, & worse exist right around the corner in this fictionalized heavy dark fantasy New York..


As for Games Lord LTD. they still exist after a fashion right over here.  This campaign aspect is still brewing in my head at this point but this is what I've come up with tonight.
Apparently Tunnels & Trolls rpg has a humble bundle & Eric Tenkar is covering that here. 

Deeper Into Appendix N - A Different Version of B1 In Search of the Unknown by Mike Carr For my Cha'alt/Godbound Campaign Update

To really dive into the back end of Appendix N fantasy there are two writers that I've constantly used  besides Clark Ashton Smith. I'm speaking of  Anglo-Irish fantasy writer Lord Dunsany, & English civil servant and author, writing epic fantasy author Eric Rücker Eddison.  Today I want to quickly concentrate on Lord Dunsany, today & use his book 'The Gods of Pegāna' as a bit of a campaign setting basis & sort of update.


Over the last couple of days I've been going over "The Sea-Wolf's Daughter' by Jeffrey P. Talanian  & going over my monochrome copies of  various Dungeons & Dragons & Advanced Dungeons & Dragons module titles if you've been following my Twitter account. But what you might not know is the fact that I've been thinking about revisiting B1 In Search of the Unknown by Mike Carr.  Also I'm not planning on using it as its written either.

"At the edge of the world of Hyperborea while the Boreas winds blow by there stands the ruins of a castle that might have belonged to the mighty Hyperborean adventurers Rogahn the Fearless and Zelligar the Unknown. But who knows?! Deep with the wilderness of Hyperborea another version of this ancient castle also sits now in ruins. "

So basically I'm taking B1 In Search of the Unknown by Mike Carr classic  maps, adventure locations, etc. & adapting it to Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea rpg world edge as a sort of negative Lovecraftian version of itself. This adventure  location is going have me taking full advantage of the resources that are being offered at the Dragon's foot site here.  Dunsany's gods are intimately tied into the fates of  the Hyperborean  versions of adventurers Rogahn the Fearless and Zelligar the Unknown. The  Caverns of Quasqueton in my campaign are infected with a hive of Nightgaunts & a very hideous cult of the god Nodens. I'm still working on this angle of the campaign but needless to say I'll be using Dark Albion's Cults of Chaos. 

Nightgaunt by King of Rats from Deviant Art. 
Ultimately this is going to tie back to the black pryamid of Cha'alt that's wrecking havoc in California within my campaign. But The Caverns of Quasqueton are also going to be directly tied into the dungeons of  the ACK's version of Dwimmermount . I got the idea of this while reading through Tom Moldvay's X2 Castle Amber which might also be connected to the The Caverns of Quasqueton.

I'm going back over old notes from my Castles & Crusades game & another OSR resource is The Codex Celtarum by Brian Young for some of the Celtic weirdness that I want to bring to bear on this part of the campaign. 



This all ties back into my use of ACK's Barbarians of Kanau by Omer Joel, Alexander Macris. Now I don't really care if these folks get along or like each other politically. This is my personal campaign & I'll use what I want, which systems & authors,etc. 

The Jaws of Gnolls - Session Report Number Two - Appendix N Goodness

 Gnolls by LadyofHats 

In tonight's Cha'alt/Godbound Las Vegas campaign  the PC's freed a number of slaves from a group of Skeevers slavers who were operating right on the outside of main city. The PC's had to deal with two groups of Skeevers with over forty slaves in toe.  The Skeevers were infiltrated with the Hyena men or Gnolls. They were led by several Flints. What the Flints actually were a cell of the cult of Yeenoghu. 

Flint straight from the Fiend Folio.

 The gnolls have some very interesting Appenix N origins according to the Wiki Gnoll entry; "The creature described as the gnole first appeared in 1912, in Lord Dunsany's story "How Nuth Would Have Practised His Art upon the Gnoles", and reappeared in Margaret St. Clair's The Man Who Sold Rope to the Gnoles. In Middle English the word noll could refer to a stupid or very drunk person.^[2]

Lord Dunsany's story gives little or nothing in the way of physical description of the gnoles, but they live on the edge of a sinister wood and watch intruders through holes bored in trees. They are said to own emeralds of very large size. In St. Clair's story, they also live on the edge of a wood, watch through holes bored in trees and prize emeralds, but a "senior gnole" is described as looking "like a Jerusalem artichoke" and, although he has feet, has tentacles rather than arms and no ears. His eyes are small, red and faceted like a gemstone."
Lord Dunsany was the originator for many of the later pulp writers. The inspiration for tonight's wasteland terror came straight from Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea. 


Gnolls make excellent bounty hunters & escaped slave trackers. Flinds are smart enough to use relics & minor artifact weapons. With the added benefit of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st edition Monster Manual's demon lord Yeenoghu.  
At first it might seem that AS&SH might not be a good fit for the wastelands of Cha'alt. But that's simply not the case here given the alien wilderness & wastelands of Cha'alt. The gnoll tribes  & their flint leaders are the perfect addition to the already horrid alien wastes of Cha'alt. AS&SH just provided the right hint of science fantasy goodness. 
B4 The Lost City by Tom Moldvay is still extremely useful even if the players might remain remember the module.  Once again this is where Tim Branna & myself completely disagree in the several points. For example there are tons of lost levels that the module has & Cha'alt  can provide just the right amount of science fantasy goodness.  
The second near TPK encounter in tonight's game was the spider droid that was haunting the ruins around in the ghost town sanctuary. But it looks like the players are not gonna go for this sanctuary at all. The spider droid really seems to have them spooked. What they don't know about is the cult of Zargon operating near the outskirts of Vegas. They will next week!

Blood Spattered Cults - Dark Albion, HP Lovecraft's Dreamlands, & More Dark Old School Settings

Dark Albion's setting centers around its politics but the cracks of Chaos around Europe are nasty & very dangerous by virtue of its cults. The shadow of the Elves of Avalon is dark, dank,& deeply rooted in the creation of the Welsh. But when one begins to blend in H.P. Lovecraft's Dream cycle things get very dangerous & weird. And sure most would mention Clark Ashton Smith because I have with his Averoigne  cycle.
The CAS cycle is iconic & heavily influential especially given the fictional Averoigne's history 

as well as the connection to 81's  X2 Castle Amber By Tom Moldvay. To look at this cycle is too look at the history, culture, & snap shot of the region of Averoigne. 

Beast of Averoigne, The (1933)
Colossus of Ylourgne, The (1933)
Disinterment of Venus, The (1934)
Enchantress of Sylaire, The (1941)
End of the Story, The (1930)
Holiness of Azédarc, The (1933)
Maker of Gargoyles, The (1932)
Mandrakes, The (1933)
Mother of Toads (1934)
Rendezvous in Averoigne, A (1931)
Satyr, The (1931) [Variant Conclusion to "The Satyr"]

But the real appendix 'N' connections in Albion happen when we look at an alternative dream worlds mainly those of Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany (/dʌnˈseɪni/; 24 July 1878 – 25 October 1957), an Anglo-Irish writer and dramatist; his work, mostly in the fantasy genre, was published under the name Lord Dunsany.
The King of Elfland's Daughter published in 1924 has everything that we need for Albion & reflects the state of affairs between a mortal & his  huldra ("hidden being") queen. As I've stated the huldra ("hidden being") are the slaves & servants of the Elves of Albion. None of this is in the Dark Albion setting books  or Lion & Dragon Retroclone system.The King of Elfland's Daughter's plot is central to understanding why it works as pseudo Lovecraftian Dreamland setting for Dark Albion;
"The lord of Erl is told by the parliament of his people that they want to be ruled by a magic lord. Obeying the immemorial custom, the lord sends his son Alveric to fetch the King of Elfland's daughter, Lirazel, to be his bride. He makes his way to Elfland, where time passes at a rate far slower than the real world, and wins her. They return to Erl and have a son, but in the manner of fairy brides of folklore, she fits uneasily with his people. She returns to the waiting arms of her father in Elfland, and her lovesick husband goes searching for her, abandoning the kingdom of Erl and wandering in a now-hopeless quest. However, Lirazel becomes lonesome for her mortal husband and son. Seeing that she is unhappy, the King of Elfland uses a powerful magic to engulf the land of Erl. Erl is transformed into a part of Elfland, and Lirazel and her loved ones are reunited forever in an eternal, enchanted world.

During the course of the novel, the King of Elfland uses up all of the three powerful magic spells he had been reserving for the defense of his realm."

The kingdom of Elfland's gateway places it near Elveden ("elves' hill") in  Suffolk England. The kingdom of Erl might well be a Welsh or minor borderland affair left over from the time of the Roman Occupation. The king of Elfland's spells are actually powerful occult weapons. They were prepared to repel the returning Elven powers as the rightful owners of Elfland. But circumstances insist that these spells  be used to alter reality on a grand scale. The themes of chaos ala Dark Albion are present in Lord Dunsany's  The King of Elfland's Daughter. Many of the themes of this novel also mirror feelings that lurked in the background of modern folks.
The war between Law & Chaos are in Lord Dusany in the background but the setting presented in this book seems very much like the worlds presented in Three Hearts & Three Lions by Poul Anderson.
"Holger Carlsen is an American-trained Danish engineer who joins the Danish Resistance to the Nazis in World War II. At the shore near Elsinore, he is among the group of resistance fighters trying to cover the escape to Sweden of an important scientist (evidently the nuclear physicist Niels Bohr). With a German force closing in, Carlsen is shot – and suddenly finds himself transported to a parallel universe, a world where northern European legend concerning Charlemagne ("The Matter of France") is real. This world is divided between the forces of Chaos, inhabiting the "Middle World" (which includes Faerie), and the forces of Law based in the human world, which is in turn divided between the Holy Roman Empire and the Saracens. He finds the equipment and horse of a medieval knight waiting for him. The shield is emblazoned with three hearts and three lions. He finds the clothes and armor fit him perfectly, and he knows how to use the weapons and ride the horse as well as speak fluently the local language, a very archaic form of French"

These dream worlds are the last remains of the minor planes of dream left after the sinking of Atlantis during the last Ice Age. The fall of the classic gods of mythology left the servants of the Elven races on full retreat into HP Lovecraft's Dreamlands & other minor cosmological realms of imagination. Many forgotten gods of classic mythology are now under the thumb & protection of H.P. Lovecraft's mythos gods.
Many of the demonic dark Powers & forces of Albion have their basis in the chaos because of the fall from the status of gods to demonic forces that the events of history have wrought. This parallels the changing role of the mystery cults of the Romans to the secretive & destructive  cults outlined in Dark Albion's Cults of Chaos. 

Cults of Chaos is a perfect setting book to add to Labyrinth Lord because it fits into the mold of other Goblinoid Games products such as the Realms of Crawling Chaos.


Nest time the Underworld, Dungeons, Adventure Locations, Lovecraftian Dreamlands, & the Mythos all coupled with Dark Albion

Dungeons & Dragons, HP Lovecraft, Cats, Time, Mist, & Arduin Adventures

So I'm recounting my own introduction into the other side of playing in Arduin lately. Dave Hargrave's Arduin Grimoire series back in the early Nineties wasn't something you mentioned in the company of certain dungeon masters. The 'other three little brown books' as they were know at my local hang out had a more then slightly sleazy reputation & there was more then a little outright hatred. This was especially true among those who took a more traditional second edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Forgotten Realms approach.




We on the other hand stuck with both original Dungeons & Dragons,a smattering of B/X Dungeons & Dragons, & Advanced Dungeons & Dragons first edition. All of it was on the cheap back then because no one really cared. The harmonized dungeons, cookie cutter world settings, & super tons of modules had pretty much rendered the 'do it yourself''  aesthetic of early Dungeons & Dragons null & void back then.  Oh sure there were a few die hard dungeon masters who took me under their wing & made sure I knew how to do things the right way. Our group had long since moved its game base by then from West Hartford Connecticut. The problem during this time is that my other 'three little brown books'

 were burnt  toast at this time long torched up in an apartment fire in my flat in Boston. This meant that I had to beg, borrow, or steal a set!? Well fortunately a friend of mine lent me his whist we were playing. Eventually, I bought my own set which I kept for many years but a  ex friend of mine made off with those. Everything was about to change for the better with a box of books on the side of the road. I'm not exactly sure where the box turned up but on one of my many trips out to play at our dungeon master's house I spotted & grabbed a box of paperback's. There was the usual collections of Edgar Allan Poe, a few Conan pastiches, a ton of Lovecraft, Gordon R. Dickson, & Lord Dunsany.
The King of Elf Land's Daughter was/is one of my all time favorites & there's more then a few nasty surprises that a dungeon master could lift for his or her campaign.


I made a huge mistake showing that box to our dungeon master or did I? Richard was a clever bastard who lived down in New Town who lived around the corner from  a used book store. Within the two week period that we had our last game & got our experience points he had gotten a copy of every book in that box. This included Gordon R. Dickson's fix up time travel novel Time Storm. Its a weird time travel novel that has a man waking up from a mist filled landscape where time storms have taken away half of the human population.

Suddenly our parties were facing down mist filled valleys, strange dungeons with abandoned machinery, Deodanth clans hunting Elven glades, & Trelves hell bent on extermination of our party! All of this would later on come to bite Richard in the behind when I took him into Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea second edition as a Lovecraftian cat! The party's PC's passed through a certain bank of fog like mist. But this was no ordinary mist no this was a mist from a certain valley in Arduin. The exploration of Underborea became a lot more challenging. Or was it?
Lombard School c1700 Cats being instructed In the art of mouse-catching by an owl.

The party could suddenly go where & when they wanted to! Their eyes were sharper & their claws keen for closing in on the wizard's trail. The fact was I took most of my ques from HP Lovecraft's Dunsanian Dreamland novels & stories for this little excursion.
"It is said that in Ulthar, which lies beyond the river Skai, no man may kill a cat; and this I can verily believe as I gaze upon him who sitteth purring before the fire. For the cat is cryptic, and close to strange things which men cannot see. He is the soul of antique Aegyptus, and bearer of tales from forgotten cities in Meroe and Ophir. He is the kin of the jungle's lords, and heir to the secrets of hoary and sinister Africa. The Sphinx is his cousin, and he speaks her language; but he is more ancient than the Sphinx, and remembers that which she hath forgotten."

• H. P. Lovecraft, "The Cats of Ulthar".
  
  

Things got a little dicey though when the party ran into one of the Cat generals from Ulthar on their way back to the mist curtain though. They barely escaped being taken back to HPL's Dreamlands for questioning. But some clever talking & mutual respect got them back into human form!



Théophile Steinlen's Summer: Cat on a Balustrade was the inspiration for the wildly dangerous NPC cat general who watches over the tunnels from AS&SH's Hyperborea. He & his pack are still watching those tunnels & occasionally my players still talk about their encounters down there!

Free Appendix 'N' OSR Resource From Creative Mountain Games - The Book of Wonder (Fantasy Classics) From Creative Mountain Games As Well As Time & The Gods By Lord Dunsany

When it comes to dark fantasy they don't come any more important then the name Lord Dunsany. He was admired by H.P. Lovecraft, mocked by Olivia Manning & still loved by millions. This includes Gary Gygax and many of the other mothers & fathers of OD&D, AD&D, & even the OSR retroclone systems. But how many of us have actually read his works? And which can be used to create old school adventures? Well, thanks to my buddies at Creative Mountain Games wonder no more.

Lord Dunsany's The Book of Wonder? Now is your chance to catch up with this Fantasy Classic in PDF (eBook) format. Inside are such classic short stories as...

• THE BRIDE OF THE MAN-HORSE
• DISTRESSING TALE OF THANGOBRIND THE JEWELLER
• THE HOUSE OF THE SPHINX
• PROBABLE ADVENTURE OF THE THREE LITERARY MEN
• THE INJUDICOUS PRAYERS OF POMBO THE IDOLATER
• THE LOOT OF BOMBASHARNA
• MISS CUBBIDGE AND THE DRAGON OF ROMANCE
• THE QUEST OF THE QUEEN'S TEARS
• THE HOARD OF THE GIBBELINS
• HOW NUTH WOULD HAVE PRACTISED HIS ART UPON THE GNOLES
• HOW ONE CAME, AS WAS FORETOLD, TO THE CITY OF NEVER
• THE CORONATION OF MR. THOMAS SHAP
• CHU-BU AND SHEEMISH
• THE WONDERFUL WINDOW

So why is this important to D&D system games? Well because this is another option to use at the table to take your adventurers into another old school fantasy setting that can use your PC's help. There's a dangerous uneasiness to the works of Dunsany's Book of Wonders. They might simply be passed off as easy & quick fantasy reading, their anything but. These are tales from another time, far more alien, and weird then they first appear. These are the sorts of stories that stay with you long after you've put down the book & moved on to thinking about your next adventure, these literary affairs will bleed into your imagination then onto the paper.


It doesn't take much to assume that just around the corner from HP Lovecraft's Dreamlands or down the astral road from Hyperborea is the worlds of Lord Dunsany. All of these tales have had some incredible influence on game designers, many science fiction, sword & sorcery, & even modern comic book writers from J. R. R. Tolkien, H. P. Lovecraft, Ursula K. Le Guin & even Allen Moore plus Neil Gaiman. These are just a few of the legions of names of admirers & fans. 


GRAB THE BOOK OF WONDER RIGHT OVER HERE
 But I would be remiss if I didn't mention that way Time and the Gods, "was issued by the Modern Library in an unauthorized combined edition with The Book of Wonder under the latter's title in 1918."
You can download that as well for free right over here & enjoy one of the classics of fantasy.


I hope you all enjoy these classics of  Fantasy &
that you make all your saves this weekend !


Be sure to check out some of the
other classic OSR titles from Creative Mountain Games!