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"High on a fog-shrouded hill sits the ruin of the long-forgotten keep of Lord Winslow Veymar, a cursed Death Knight. Bound by an unbroken vow, he roams the shattered halls in eternal search of his lost love, his muse, Lady Katarina. In the central tower of the ruin rests the Scarlet Heart, a heart-shaped ruby pulsing with ancient magic—the key to Veymar’s curse and his undying torment of lost love. But the truth is far crueler than he knows. Now, the keep is haunted by spectral knights, strange beasts, and restless dead, drawn to their master’s sorrow. A fearless band of heroes is needed to brave the dungeon, uncover the truth and their ultimate fate! Treasures beyond imagination await those bold enough to enter the forsaken halls and confront the Phantom of the Scarlet Heart! Cover art by Justin Davis!"
MMD#3 Maximum Mayhem: Phantom of the Scarlet Heart By Mark Taormino kickstarter just kicked off today. MMD#3 Maximum Mayhem: Phantom of the Scarlet Heart has at it's heart a romance gone into tragedy & horror. The PC's have the chance to set it right. At the heart of this adventure is the protagonist NPC Lord Winslow Veymar, a cursed Death Knight. Whose both nasty customer and the source of the curse in this adventure. Only the adventurers can put things right.
So for Castles & Crusades rpg this adventure MMD#3 Maximum Mayhem: Phantom of the Scarlet Heart is perfect as a pivotal adventure that allows PC's levels five to eight to deal with a highly dangerous mid or upper level foe within thier campaigns. The NPC Lord Winslow Veymar, could well be a highly dangerous enemy that could clash with PC's before the events of MMD#3 Maximum Mayhem: Phantom of the Scarlet Heart. Remember our death knight could easily be a minion of the Red Lord. C&C's Red Lord has been expanding his hold on other dimensions such as Greyhawk.
MMD#3 Maximum Mayhem: Phantom of the Scarlet Heart is perfect to use as middle point adventure for a Castles & Crusades or Advanced Dungeons & Dragons first edition campaign. This adventure combines both a plot driven romp and plent of dungeon crawling.
MMD#3 Maximum Mayhem: Phantom of the Scarlet Heart has everything you need as a middle turn around campaign adventure. Because it gives you a mid or high level big bad. While it provides a reason for it's curse it also provides the DM with plenty of opportunities for heroism on the PC's part. Back this one folks because MMD#3 Maximum Mayhem: Phantom of the Scarlet Heart is going to be a great adventure back this one!
"The holiday season is in peril! The jolly workshop of Santa Claus has been invaded by a horde of mischievous goblins, led by the evil, gluttonous, and greedy Snarfle Waddlebelly! This vile goblin boss and his goons have turned the magical stockade into an evil dungeon, stealing enchanted toys, festive treasures, and the very essence of holiday cheer itself. The local village has assembled a team of brave adventurers to breach the snow-laden walls of the Winter Stockade, navigate its frosty halls, and confront that fat bastard and his mischievous gang of minions! The fate of the holiday lies in your hands as you rescue Santa and his friends, restoring order and the spirit of the season to the world. Amazing riches, a chance to get on the "nice" list for once, a few awesome toys, and the joy of millions of children hang in the balance if you can you save Christmas from the Goblin Raid on the Winter Stockade!"
"Special Edition Module #1: Goblin Raid on the Winter Stockade" By Mark Taormino is a great first level adventure that can easily transport your old school adventuring party to a Winter wonderland of violence and horror. This is a great special edition module to transport your party into the middle of a series of adventures that centers around trying to save the Holiday season. And it's a great module for introducing the PC's into the evil, gluttonous, and greedy Snarfle Waddlebelly!
There are brand new treasures, adventure locations, and plenty of tricks and holiday themed traps to get your adventurers in the middle of the holiday fueled action. Because this is a first level adventure this is a perfect touch stone to launch your campaigns with. Get the PC's deeply involved in your campaign's holiday Winter wonderland and then try to murder them in it! "Special Edition Module #1: Goblin Raid on the Winter Stockade" By Mark Taormino is in my mind an excellent adventure for Castles & Crusades. You've got all of the classic elements holiday mayhem, hidden locations, holiday themed violence, old school goblins, dungeon crawls and more.
"Special Edition Module #1: Goblin Raid on the Winter Stockade" is perfect for C&C because it encapsulates the sense of whimsy and danger that C&C embodies. There's plenty of serious dungeon crawling but there's also an old school feel of dangerous whimsy that many C&C adventures have. This is why Mark Taormino's adventures play so well with C&C. So get in on the action with "Special Edition Module #1: Goblin Raid on the Winter Stockade". Time is running out!
"The holiday season is in peril! The jolly workshop of Santa Claus has been invaded by a horde of mischievous goblins, led by the evil, gluttonous, and greedy Snarfle Waddlebelly! This vile goblin boss and his goons have turned the magical stockade into an evil dungeon, stealing enchanted toys, festive treasures, and the very essence of holiday cheer itself. The local village has assembled a team of brave adventurers to breach the snow-laden walls of the Winter Stockade, navigate its frosty halls, and confront that fat bastard and his mischievous gang of minions! The fate of the holiday lies in your hands as you rescue Santa and his friends, restoring order and the spirit of the season to the world. Amazing riches, a chance to get on the "nice" list for once, a few awesome toys, and the joy of millions of children hang in the balance if you can you save Christmas from the Goblin Raid on the Winter Stockade!"
Mark Taormino of Dark Wizard Games has come up with thier 'Special Edition modules' #1 Goblin Raid on the Winter Stockade which are collectable models that fall outside the normal range of OSR products. And this is a perfect module for a Christmas themed rpg mini campaign especially for Castles & Crusades! Why?! Because eveything is already set up for your player's PC's to dive into the mix!
Castles & Crusades is a great rpg vehicle for 'Special Edition modules' #1 Goblin Raid on the Winter Stockade because the system easily accomidates every encounter, monster, etc. that this adventure sets out to play through. This is a legendary module with the PC's saving Santa and his workshop. You know that it's going to be complete Christmas Chaos!
Dark Wizard games does an excellent job of bringing that Chaos to your table top with new monsters, encounters and horrors. Knowing the guys at Dark Wizard this module is going to have plenty of opportunities to customize this adventure to allow the DM to bring home the horror of the holidays.
Congratulations on my buddy Mark Taormino for snagging legendary AD&D artist Erol Otus for his latest kickstarter TWO BRAND NEW FIRST EDITION modules Maximum Mayhem Dungeons #10: Fantastic Quest of the Whimsical One and Maximum Mayhem Dungeons #11: Lost Tomb of the Mummy Lich! Maximum Mayhem Dungeons #10: Fantastic Quest of the Whimsical One is for PC's levels 3-6 which means that it's going to be both challenging and deadly; " Deep inside a hidden mountain exists a peaceful, magical world of underground caverns filled with colorful oozing slimes, living plants, and a vast array of enchanted creatures. This subterranean paradise was recently corrupted by a mysterious evil creature named Discordia, who appeared from a crack in the depths of the realm, turning the land and its inhabitants into horrible abominations. One lone survivor, an eccentric outcast wyrm named Huffenpuff, managed to escape to the upper level. In a chance encounter with your stalwart group, he explained that his world needs your help. You must retrieve three powerful artifacts; and, if successful, he will gain the courage and power needed to aid you in the final battle against the wicked one. Together, you and this unlikely hero will restore peace and save his mysterious land by undertaking the Fantastic Quest of the Whimsical One!"
It sounds like the first edition Fantastic Quest of the Whimsical One module would be perfect for a fairy tail style Castles & Crusades or AD&D first edition campaign with a Fey bent to it. The whimsy and horror of it oozes from the pours of the module. Personally I'd place this module deep within the confines of a Castles & Crusades Greyhawk. It has the feel of an adventure that James Ward or Gary Gygax would do.
Yes Virgina there is a log floom ride in MMD#10 art by Jacob Blackmon
The second module Maximum Mayhem Dungeons #11: Lost Tomb of the Mummy Lich has my interest. This module has a bit of everything of the classic Dark Wizard modules and that's deep adventure plot, diobolical tricks & traps, and deadly dungeons. All of this is reflected in the Lost Tomb of the Mummy Lich's adventure plot; "A recent earthquake has unearthed the hidden tomb of the long-forgotten Pharaoh Ankhen-Hotep. Deep inside the ruins, a dark cult has taken over the site, worshipping the mummy. With his new followers, the lich has awakened from sleep and is now raising an undead army to march on the living, seeking to use his evil magic to dominate the region. A fearless band of heroes is needed to infiltrate the dungeon, navigate the deadly traps and monsters, thwart the cult's wicked plans, and destroy the undead Pharaoh before his dark reign begins anew. Fortune and glory await the brave souls who can survive and escape from the Lost Tomb of the Mummy Lich!"
The Lost Tomb of the Mummy Lich's adventure has a bit of everything for the DM on the move. You've got an uncovered dungeon, an underground cult, powerful monsters, and a baked in NPC vile villain. MM#11 is perfect adventure to add into the world of the Hyperborea rpg. Take the Lost Tomb of the Mummy Lich & add it into the Dimond Desert. The Diamond Desert is perfect as a blank slate for the DM to add in the Tomb of the Lich King as both history and kingdom. Add in the cult and things get very 'Sword of Conan' like very quickly. The Lich king had a giant kingdom in the ancient history of Hyperborea. This means that the Tomb of the Lich King can act as a touch stone for both this dungeon and other massive mega dungeon locations. At the center of it is the lich king himself who could act as a massive NPC villain just waiting to burst into the lives the PC's! You can support Mark Taormino's Kickstarter right here.
It's been a long while since I've done anthing with our Clark Ashton Smith Zothique Castles & Crusades campaign. A friend and fellow player wants together together over the weekend & pick up with our Zothique campaign in a minor kingdom around the region of Zul-Bha-Sair. We've definitely had our times around that region wayback in January of 2024. My friend Mark Taormino has a new Kickstarter for his OSR imprint Dark Wizard Games. And I'm thinking of incorporating Mark's Dark Wizard Adventure Slime Pits of the Sewer Witch our Clark Ashton Smith's Zothique Castles & Crusades campaign. Here's how we do it.
Rodney Mathews artwork used without permission
""Take heed lest you utter blasphemy," admonished the innkeeper. "Mordiggian is old and omnipotent as death. He was worshipped in former continents, before the lifting of Zothique from out the sea. Through him, we are saved from corruption and the worm. Even as the people of other places devote their dead to the consuming flame, so we of Zul-Bha-Sair deliver ours to the god. Awful is the fane, a place of terror and obscure shadow untrod by the sun, into which the dead are borne by his priests and are laid on a vast table of stone to await his coming from the nether vault in which he dwells. No living men, other than the priests, have ever beheld him; and the faces of the priests are hidden behind masks of silver, and even their hands are shrouded, that men may not gaze on them that have seen Mordiggian."" The Carnel God By Clark Ashton Smith
So right off the bat the town of Sudengrove becomes a smaller kingdom of Zul-Bha-Sair. And here's where the addenture plot thickens;
" The small town of Sudengrove has a big problem: something lurking in the underground sewers has been causing the disappearance of many men, women, and even children during the night! The locals have assembled a team of heroes to venture into the treacherous Slime Pits to unravel the mysteries, deadly traps, and the nefarious plans of the foul creatures that hide within. Lurking deep within the murky labyrinth, your ultimate challenge awaits: a battle against the malevolent sewer witch herself, Hagatha Toadsludge! Filthy riches await those who dare to challenge and survive the Slime Pits of the Sewer Witch!"
The issue is going to arrise with Hagatha Toadsludge & her victims because while the Ghoul god cares not whose killed. The dead literally belong to him and undead are an abomination to the cult of Mordiggian. Undead sure are tasty! Technically the PC's could be hired by the temples of Mordiggian to clear out the Sewer Witch. The Sewer Witch might be tolerated for a time until the cult has had it with people going missings. Preadventures involving the Sewer Witch might have her moving into the area bringing goblin minions with her. The PC's get hired by a town or the temple to clear her out. She seems destroyed only to move bases into a nearby area. When we reach the events of Mini adventure #2 she's violated the covenant between the humans and the Greater Ghouls by experimenting on the local populace. This comes on the heels of increasing goblin attacks in the area
This opens the adventurers to the events of Mini adventure two when the PC's come face to face with the Sewer Witch's experiments and the weirdness surround them. Then things get much more dire as the PC's get thier noses deep with the affairs of the Sewer Witch. And then things are going to go from bad to worse. Maximum Mayhem Dungeons - Mini Adventure #2: Slime Pits of the Sewer Witch is going to pick right up from the events of the pre adventure meeting with the Slime Witch and then all Hell is going to break loose. You can support the Kickstarter right here.
"This adventure is about a Magic-User who had a mid-life crisis at the age of forty-sevens and decided to pursue his life long dream of being a Court Jester doing funny routines with puppets! There's only one little problem... Nobody thought he was funny and countless villages, hamlets and cities run him and his disgusting "comedy act" out of town. Living in the wilds as an outcast and growing madder as the days turned to months and months to years he finally found his audience, a tribe of goblins who saw him as hilarious and elected him their new leader. Together with the goblins he enchanted an old castle and turned it into his "fun house" dungeon with nightly puppet shows only for those brave enough to enter and defeat all challenges for the riches within!"
Maximum Mayhem Dungeons #8: Funhouse of the Puppet Jester By Mark Taormino is going to be coming up here. And knowing Mark's adventure modules as I do this is going to be a great one. And this module is perfect for our Tainted Greyhawk setting. DM Steve is really excited for Mark's latest Kickstarter. The following is all speculation & commentary based on Dark Wizard Games past modules. The Court Jester seems almost like a Ravenloft Dark Lord in some horror respects & aspects. It's the adaptability of Mark's modules that plugs into AD&D first edition and other OSR rpg systems that makes them excellent. For Greyhawk the Court Jester's dungeon & facilities are perfect right before the wilderness really begins. And it would fit just outside of the capital and between the wilderness. Running Maximum Mayhem Dungeons #8: Funhouse of the Puppet Jester is gonna be a snap with Castles & Crusades. The stat blocks, expanded encounters, etc are all going to be perfect for levels five to ten. In terms of Castles & Crusades this puts MMD#8 right in the mid level for PC's.
Plot and encounter wise Dark Wizard Games modules have definitively lethal element to them. And this isn't a bad thing with challenging encounters for even the most jaded of players. Mark's modules also can turn dangerous with innocent seeming encounters and this is also going to happen in Maximum Mayhem Dungeons #8: Funhouse of the Puppet Jester. And this lends to the fact that we can place the Funhouse of the Puppet Jester and it's environs literally into your own OSR campaign setting with little issue. So we're really looking forward to Maximum Mayhem Dungeons #8: Funhouse of the Puppet Jester By Mark Taormino Kickstarter Coming Up!
So tonight's Castles & Crusades Vampire Queen session hits hard because DM Steve did an entire sub fortress before the main castle. This is a small manor and fortress that was tucked away on the far side of the map. This session report picks right up from here on the blog. And this brooding small stone walled fortress surrounded a central manor house. And we snuck into during the day good plan right?!
Wrong, we got our asses handed to us by two tribes of orcs and thier hobgoblin overlords. And these things were nasty! The hobgoblins were slightly stronger then normal doing an extra +2 to all hand to hand damge due to vampire blood. The things guarded a manor house and we made it over the wall into the lower tunnels under the place. That's when we ran straight into the orc shaman and his horde of zombies!?!
And then there was another stone coffin that we only caught a glimpse of before our cleric got nailed by a poison blow gun dart! Fortunately it was only sleep toxin other wise we'd be in in deep spit. We fought past two orc skeletons to retreat back into the woods. Fortunately we didn't alert the whole place to our presence.
Now we're in the woods and licking our wounds from the damn orcs and the shamans. But we want to know whose in that manor house?! Our fighter got a nasty cut above his head and the cleric was down so it's retreat time for the moment. But we've got a map sketched out of the manor, the fortress, and tunnels under the place which is in the side of a small mountainous area.
So as you know from the last session last week I'm deeply engrained with DM Steve's Tainted Greyhawk campaign where we're treading on the outer edges of the vampire queen's domain. We finished off the last of the zombie bandits from last game. This wasn't an easy fight to say the least. But then we came across the bandit king's lair during the daylight hours. And the bastard was a vampire and that lair was guarded by giant rats and giant bats.
We're playing a variation of Hanging Coffins of The Vampire Queen. Which is fantastic module available from Dark Wizard Games here. Back to the band king vampire, there was no way that we were going to let this thing keep existing but it was going to be a slog to get to him. We were conserving our mages and so forth. So it was down to dirty tricks and two caskets of burning oil down the enterance of the cavern lair. The free willed intelligent zombies are part of the vampire queen's mercenary forces and have been one of the hazards that we've run into twice now. This part time we were ready. There were passive dangers from the bandit king's lair including dart traps, pit traps, green slime (always a crowd pleaser), and rot grub pits. All passive defenses. And then there were the numerous giant rats, and bats to contend with not to mention the unintelligent zombies and two intelligent ghoul body guards. We had to think our way past everything. And we had to do it by sunset with all of the traps designed to slow us down. And finally we got to the stone coffin and it was a false set up with an intellgent slime monster. And here's where the wizard's fire ball spell came in truly handy.
This is so DM Steve, slow us down and let the NPC rise to finish us off. Not this time, we have two thieves and they found the secret door to the bandit king's tomb behind a false mozaic of the undead bastard who was apparently some minor knoble in life. We staked hime, cut off the head, stuffed the head with garlic, and then staked the body out for sunrise while we waited in the bushes for his forces to come! This is where we ended the session.
During tonight's game we ran straight into the arms of undead bandits. And it wasn't pretty but a fortunate fireball from one of our wizards saved our hides. We're geting close to the Vampire queen's castle and the undead are getting worse. Hanging Coffins of The Vampire Queen is available from Dark Wizard Games here.
And all of this kicked off from a week or so ago's Castles & Crusade's Hanging Coffins of the Vampire Queen session right here on the blog! DM Steve is using a variation on James Ward Tainted Lands and the undead mixed with the Hanging Coffins. And these things have been tough but the real headache was running into a party of pig faced Orc adventurers! These things were mercenaries working for the vampire queen. And scattered throughout out the vampire queen's lands have been her mercenaries and forces. We've recovered some treasure but it's mostly been supplies and such! We're on the outer edges of the vampire queen's domain.
We were going to hook up with the local resistence to the vampire queen and instead walked right into an ambush by undesd bandits. And these things are free willed and intelligent zombies with passion for violence and an appetite for flesh or brains. We were ready for them this time however! This is a Tainted Lands version of Greyhawk where the lands have been subverted by the presence of dark lord like rulers. And the Tainted Lands has extended its reach across Greyhawk. Castles & Crusades is ideally suited to this style of campaign. But it has been tough going to say the least!
So we pick up right where we left off on the blog here. We're playing in a Tainted Lands version of Greyhawk. And we've been forced to flee the skeleton forces of the Vampire Queen & go deeper into the wilderness whilst circling around back to the track where the vampire queen's lair & castle are.
During session two we've encountered packs of wolves and had been forced to flee toward a trapper's cabin to restock and supply. Even with higher level PC's this has proven to be a bit on the daunting side with lots of dodging and weaving. Our two cleric have been put upon for both martial and first aid while we found the trapper's cabin with no one home. We've left appropriate gold coin as recompense as we've gathered new arrows, torches, etc.
We left the cabin as soon as possible and fled into the woods at daybreak at break neck pace with the wolf packs on our tail. The night found us in a cave back on the trail we needed and our backs against the cavern wall. We're counting torches and conserving arrows. We heard pig faced orcs down in the valley below and saw that they had a shaman. This is bad news. This means that the vampire queen is using mercenary forces to shore up her own. We ended here for now. This is beginning to feel like a horror movie instead of a Castles & Crusades game given that we're using James Ward's Tainted Lands as a sorta of a background element for Greyhawk this isn't a bad thing.
Our party met mid point between Hommlet and serveral other classic Greyhawk locations. Yes this is a Tainted lands version of Greyhawk. We encountered skeleton riders part way down the road as a random encounter. This was tough fight as these bastard undead were taking human prisoners to the vampire for tonight's feast. Two of our number bought it with cross bolts to the chest. We retreated with the skeletons giving chase. And then sounding a horn for reenforcements. Needless to say that things were not going as planned. We retreated deep into the woodlands and hastely buried our dead. The sounds of horns awakened us! The undead were on our trail! This was not supposed to go like this. We stumbled into an ideallic looking cabin in the woods and a full array of skeletons camped out by it! Our party had to get back on the offensive and attacked immediately. This time we were able to defeat the skeleton warriors.
So we're using a combination of Castles & Crusades with higher level PC's. And it's going pretty solidly with the players having to think on thier feet when it comes to dealing with deadlier intelligent undead. These undead are organized, intelligent, and going to town on the local populace with these being the norm for James Ward's Tainted Lands
"Hope everyone is well! If you're a fan of "Funhouse Dungeons" then be sure to check out the new Dark Wizard Games Kickstarter Project NOW LIVE! It is for the brand new FIRST PRINTING softcover of Hanging Coffins of the Vampire Queen for 5TH EDITION! The FIFTH EDITION module has a FULL COLOR map on the inside of the cover as well as some new black and white artwork in the booklet! You can also pick up the new 10 Year ANNIVERSARY EDITION softcover of the ORIGINAL 1E module which is only available via KICKSTARTER grab a copy NOW because you don't want to miss out if you a collector or major fan of that module! One last treasure you can acquire in the KS is the softcover of the Recipes from the Inn of the Whistling Pig which contains 16 rustic, real world items you can cook with for you family and friends! https://www.kickstarter.com/.../vampire-queen-5e-and-10..."
So my buddy Mark Taormino's Dark Wizard Games has a brand new Kickstarter for the 10th Anniversary of 'The Hanging Coffins of the Vampire Princess'. And My player's Castles & Crusades PC's were wiped out during the events of #1. Hanging Coffins has the PC's in peril right out of the gate; "Death or freedom? The Vampire Queen has challenged a small band of her worst prisoners to escape from her wicked dungeon lair. With all of your original weapons, magic items and possessions, it is up to you to outwit and fight your way through terrible traps, beastly monsters, and all the horrific surprises she has arranged for you! The Module that started it all is sure to delight and challenge the most skilled players!"' We set 'Hanging Coffins' in Greyhawk just outside of the city of Greyhawk ruins. The vampire princess recently woken up by the movements of the humanoid tribes just outside of her hidden valley. And this lines up with material described in James Ward's Greyhawk Aventures.
The vampire princess is trying to reassert her power base around her hidden valley. She's been capturing adventurers to shore up her knowledge of modern politic of Greyhawk. And there's plenty of evidence of this in 'The Hanging Coffins of the Vampire Princess' 'Hanging coffins' isn't for the faint of heart clocking in at levels 10-14 which is going to be the middle 7th and above in Castles & Crusades. The vampire princess's dungeons and ruins are definitely build to test the adventurers. What makes 'Hangings Coffins' solid is really good maps, encounters, cartography, etc. and it made it a formula that Dark Wizard Games has followed. And this is something that allows a DM to really take advantage of the Greyhawk campaign setting. A fact that could be used to simply drop 'Hanging Coffins' into Greyhawk ad hoc. 'Hanging Coffin' is solid as a high level mid level adventure & is perfect to introduce the vampire princess as a reoccuring NPC villainess. An NPC that can return again and again as a villain who can't seem too be put into her coffin. 'Hanging Coffins' has demons and other vampires in the wander monster table. Liches, demons, succubi, greater devils, nearly 50 vampires in total. These can end a party of adventurers without any problems. The Greyhawk angle plays well with the vampire princess as a minor evil influence manuplating several minor humanoid army. The demons, liches, vampires listed in the random encounters could easily be the vampire princess's royals and former family. These minor royals could play a larger part to the party as the vampire princess gains more of a foothold within her former kingdom. While the vampire princess might be a minor royal in the grand scheme of Greyhawk. She could become a major pain for the PC's.
