OSR Nexus The Infinite City - Actual Play Report - Ghouls In The City

 "Welcome to Nexus, the Infinite City. The city where all realities meet. A place where Ancient Babylon is just down the street, and the next off ramp leads to the lost cities of Mars. Rub shoulders with alien gangbangers. Party it up with the creatures of the night. Fight alongside Aztec cyberpunks and Roman centurions. Rumble with street mages. Lock down trade deals with avaricious dinosaurs. Unravel the mysteries of the metaverse. And make it to the club in time to check out the latest shriekrap bands."

So DM Steve has had an on going Nexus The Infinite City game going on using Worlds Without End rpg system. The idea of an infinite city spawl tucked in with rifte Babylon & alien artitecture is one that he's been doing now since Stars Without Numbers Revised hit the OSR scene. The idea here is that humans have been turning themselves into Elves through a transhuman process. The 'real forces of the Fey' are vastly upset by this! They consider this an abomination. And last night we crossed paths with another OSR powerhouse. But we ran away! 

Now across the dimensional threshold 'The Eld' of The Misty Isle of the Eld fame are taking on the newly created Elves as slaves & Eld technological fodder. Ahh but not all is well for the newly created Elves. Some of their lot are subcombing to a horrid plague that turns the new elves into ravingly hungry ghouls!   The Eld simply burn the newly formed ghouls & its another cost of doing business to them. There's more going on here then meets the eye. 


Dave Sutherland Ghoul from the AD&D 
Monster Manual 

The occult technologies that are being used by the humans maybe to blame. No one knows where it came from. Simply that it was found in an abandoned temple in some forgotten side street & it was overrun with you guessed it ghouls. The Elves are immune to the paralysing touch of the ghouls but the local humans including the medlies are not. Our group of adventurers has been hired to check out this temple. But I'm not convinced. There's something more going on here?! So around the street we start checking. Yes there's lots of minor undead around the place. The usual zombies, the occasional ghost, etc. Somerthing about this neighborhood doesn't smell right to us players. I'm playing a cleric of Hel in this game. Needless to say that my PC isn't amused by the humans trying to escape their fate of death. Something is beyond not right with this situation. And we need to talk with the 'Fey' coming up next game. But I've a feeling I know whose behind the undead aspect & that's OD&D or B/X's version of the demon lord Orcus. 

Commentary On The Hydra Cooperative's Chris Kutalik, & Robert Parker's Misty Isles of the Eld & Fever-Dreaming Marlinko In Your Old School Campaigns

I haven't done anything in a very long time with the Hydra Cooperative's OSR material (umm guys if you could you might wanna update your website) & that's a damn shame. Again this is on me & I've been doing a lot of thinking on Chris Kutalik, & Robert Parker's Misty Isles of the Eld. While this is not a new book there are lots of interesting ideas inbetween the covers.  Chris Kutalik & Robert Parker really pull out the stops here as a part of the Hill Canton's OSR setting. But taken on its own Misty Isles of the Eld brings to the table some very interesing & dangerous soft Science Fantasy ideals of their own.



And I've been thinking about the Eld in context to gods of mythology. What if the Eld were hunting gods for use as a power source of occult energies. I had this dream last night about a god of some minor patheon running through a field & suddenly the Jack Kirby like  vehicles of the Eld hunting the poor divine  bastard down. They pin him with several techno occult artifacts & the vatmen come to put a small weird device on his forehead. A royal Eld floats over the scene & decantantly looks on as the mists of the Misty Isle enclose the scene. The hunting party is plane shifted back to the isle. God hunting is the essence of decedance of the Eld. An expression of the superiority of Eld & their optimoized society view. Their cults of spies & slaves are always on the look out for dieties to snatch. The gods that they harvest become nothing more then power sources of occult energies. Copper tops that are drained dry. 

Now because Misty Isles of the Eld is a planar point crawl I can see the Eld basically opening where & when their master's occult mechanisms need to. The Eld have a god that's their prisoner in one of their prisons & this goes back to a major plot point in  Fever-Dreaming Marlinko. 



So would The Hill Cantons be a good addition to a Godbound rpg campaign setting along with its  labyrinth lord rpg underpinnings?! Yes I believe so & the reason why is the comic book mythological styles of Luka Rejec's artwork in Misty Isles of the Eld. The godbound adventurer's might be called in to undo some of the bio sorcery  creations & abominations that they love to use.
I'm really looking into  Fever-Dreaming Marlinko for more setting material because the acid trip that is the Hill Cantons speaks deeply to the acid dream of Slavic mythology.  I love the factions within in the Hill Cantons setting & how they interact verus the point crawl.


Fever-Dreaming Marlinko is one of the best urban supplements ever written. There's lot of potential here to bring the weird Slavic Dungeons & Dragons campaign elements into your own old school or OSR campaign. The amount of mythological material is scary when combined with the sand box elements of the Hill Cantons. This expands the focus for the dungeon master's vision for his players. Overall I think that these books are sources that I'm going to put on the back burner but come back to once the campagin get's going.. For the moment keep it weird folks. 

Slavery & Savagery In the Darkness Actual Pulp Era Campaign Event Ten !!

Slaves are taken, double crosses come to light, special guest stars arrive, & the PC's get way in over their heads in last night's game session!


Some place along the line my independence gene kicked in when it came to the OSR & the table top hobby in general. Last night's game proved this once again, the PC's flew over to the New Jersey facility of Turck Research Dynamics. This game picked up had core right after last week's exploration crawl  & combat session.For this week's session I drew quite liberally from the AD&D 1st edition Dungeon Master's Guide & several OSR titles. 

The PC's sky ship came in over the facility only to be confronted by two little green bastard saucers & a strange bio mechanical dirigible. With quick thinking the players opened up on the ground crew before they could get weapon encampments to bare on their position!? Several blasts with the PC's cannon & the ground crew's weird weaponry was made short work of. A failed morale roll & the PC's sky ship was able to land. They had a bit of time to get off some lucky shots at an alien bubble car just as it was leaving.
A quick search of the offices revealed that much of the staff & several alien species were tied up with weird living ropes that seemed to be anti magick. The whole thing smelled of an off world slave market deal. What secrets has Desmond Turck here? The PC's freed the prisoners & then went about blasting several alien technicians but then came across another small bread box sized power generator wirelessly powering what?!
The answer was an FTL communicator device & possible gateway. The party wasn't happy about this. They dismantled what they could but were warned of several dangerous components after several successful tech rolls.


Going from room to room the player's PC's discovered more humans being processed for off world shipping?! The party's bard & wizard went back to the
strange bio mechanical dirigible where they found strange humans in weird slick suits going over the slave stock. Who are these new bastards?! Why they're Vatmen from the Misty Isles of the Eld by Chris Kutalik, & Robert Parker. Wait, What the Hell are the Vatmen doing in this campaign?!
Surprise, surprise, when old friends show up!!? The Eld have very bad relations with the Astral Drifters & their cousin tribes the Astral Raiders! The PC's didn't even heistate when these alien bastards showed up.

Are there relations between the Eld & 1904 Germany!? German Emperor  Wilhelm II (Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Albert von Hohenzollern). German Emperor  Wilhelm II unlike his real world counterpart seems to be an incredibly ruthless & deadly individual with deep ties to the Greys & their side relations the Visitors. Is there far more behind the rise of colonialism not only on Earth but beyond? Are the  German colonial empire forces in for far more then they bargained for especially now that the Eld are aware of Earth? Tune in to the next game of retro pulp Renegade Heroes, Tyrannical Conquerors, & Wasteland Kings which an  OSR mix of Adventurer, Conqueror, King's Barbarian Conquerors of Kanahu, Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea second edition along with other OSR resources! The European connections heat up & things get very interesting as the PCs are brought to a boil in next week's game!


Deutsches Kolonialreich Eagle By David Liuzzo

Friends, Eld, & Tegel Manor - OSR Campaign Update & Actual Play Adventure Construction

I've been working my butt off today with sewing machine repairs but a friend stopped by earlier to chew the fat & talk about Venger Satanis, Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea, Tegel Manor, & the Eld!
Steve has run parties of players through  Misty Isles of the Eld multiple times and is a huge fan of Chris Kutalik, & Robert Parker's work. 

So he's someone I whose brain I wanted to pick for my Fall campaign and there was this neat dream too. 

Look at them so peaceful just waiting to be picked off by the Eld!

So last night I had this wicked dream about Seventies style space stations being invaded by the Eld and thousands of slaves being taken. Yes those same jerks from Misty Isles of the Eld by Chris Kutalik, & Robert Parker. But how can that happen I can hear folks saying? The Eld are an aggressive & highly dangerous adventure faction element of  the Hill Cantons campaign setting.

How are they related to my own version of  Tegel Manor? Well in 'the Old Solar System' setting Hyperborea is out near Saturn with its own mini sun & 'Old Earth' is sitting in its usual place in the Sol solar system. This also means that the events of The Battle for the Islands of Purple Putrescence(Kickstarter is almost over) while not directly impacting on the campaign will be referenced as the  islands are directly in the Hyperborean seas  in my campaign.

So how is this all going to fit together? The 'nesting doll method' of campaigning  this is something that a friend & I recently spoke about at length. Basic different areas of Tegel manor's ground & village are going to be dimensionally porous there will be different areas that lead to all kinds of other settings and such. This is something that is built right into the infamous DYI haunted house setting. The entry on the Tegel Manor Game Science edition entry over at the acaeum site gives some solid clues about this!

'Parties will encounter numerous adventure situations as they make their way through Tegel Village and the grounds surrounding the manor.  Once inside that ancient edifice. they can explore its more than 200 rooms and hallways--libraries, temples, galleries and much more--as well as its four underground-level dungeons.
 

This infamous haunted manse is fraught with deadly perils!  In its labyrinth passageways lurk menaces, monstrosities and magicks fell and loud?  A moderately experienced Gamemaster will find that the extensively detailed room descriptions quickly set the scene and mood for the excitement to follow.  In addition to the usual quests for wealth, powerful magicks or glory. GMs will easily find more than 50 compelling reasons for sending heroic adventurers into TEGEL MANOR: Can they find the accursed gem, the Heart of Darkness?  Can they root out the evil which emanates from the fortress to threaten the surrounding countryside?  Can they locate the Cauldron of Regeneration or the other potent wizardry hidden here-flying carpets, magical statues and more? Can they liberate a most unique prisoner and complete a quest for justice?  Or close the portal to Hell itself?  In addition to werewolves, vampires and liches, evil spirits and sinister secrets, one may encounter wry humor or fiendish puns-and perhaps the rare tome or important alchemist's aid to be found therein.'

So where do the Eld fit in? Well there will be a raiding party of Eld mercenaries that the PC's are going to have to deal with very soon coming up. There's also a deadly connection coming with the Eld this coming Fall details are coming very soon! All right here Are Ten Ways The Eld fit In:

1. The Eld are aggressive slavers, traders, & demented David Bowie/Jack Kirby warriors with access to super science weapons to make PC's very unhappy.

2. There are lots of room to inject the Hill Canton's brand of chaos into a sword & strangeness setting.

3. The players hate the Eld & want a chance to take chunk out of them again. The last time didn't go so well.

4. Eld have a different feel then other types of alien weirdos and are uniquely dangerous.

5. Vatmen

6. The overly aggressively PC's have a chance or two give some very hard knocks.

7. PC's have a chance to get their hands on Jack Kirby style super science items and this never goes right.

8. More chaos is a good thing and the chaos index says so.

9. The Cold Hells look it up on the Hill Canton blog. 

10. Plenty of room for the PC's to run afoul of the Hill Canton's campaign setting and really muck things up because the Misty Isles of the Eld kicks OSR ass!

So the islands of Purple Haunted Putrescence are going to play a bit of a larger role in the Fall campaign but that's going to be a wait and see sort of a thing. Don't forget to get in on the The Battle for the Islands of Purple Putrescence Kickstarter whic  is almost over!

Commentary On Misty Isles of the Eld By Chris Kutalik & Robert Parker From The Hydra Cooperative For A Dark Albion Campaign Twist

I had a beer with some friends tonight and we were talking OSR settings the Misty Isles of the Eld reared its head. Here's how this happened.


I was rereading The Misty Isles of the Eld From Hydra Cooperative & Dark Albion's The Rose War plus Dark Albion's Cults of Chaos .

When there were several demented thoughts rushing through my head about the cults on the fringes of Dark Albion. What if the cults of Elves were really Eld  & the Misty Isles existed on the fringes of Dark Albion in all of their glory with Vatmen,etc. It got me thinking long & hard about the effects of the occult technologies of the Eld. Perhaps the fact the various dungeons presented in the  Misty Isles might exist on the edges of the Dark Albion setting just out of reach of the borders of reality. This might mean replacing the Elves out of Dark Albion but there are other reasons for this as we shall see. First of all the Eld are complete & utter jerks make no mistake about that. They might have isolated isles of unreality in the form of their misty isles that sometimes drift into the reality of Dark Albion. I know surely there can't be any historical prescient for this? Well not so much historical but mythological that ties directly into the setting of Dark Albion's alternative Earth.


In the Celtic tradition there are the various vanishing islands such as Brasil, which according to Wiki;"Brasil, also known as Hy-Brasil or several other variants,^[1] is a phantom island said to lie in the Atlantic Ocean^[2] west of Ireland. Irish myths described it as cloaked in mist except for one day every seven years, when it became visible but still could not be reached." An isle in the mists that can only appear every seven years?


Journeys into the 'other world' were chaotic, dangerous, & often times really weird sounds similar to the Misty Isle to me. But the chaos index of the isles really does it for me, a sense of unreality that causes normality to go out the window just waiting to take over? Yeah that could be very dangerous if you've got cults of vatmen within the structure of Dark Albion society. So why haven't the Eld simply taken over England and Europe? Well besides the usual magick issues, incompatible realities, and legendary guards against this perhaps there hasn't be the needed blood shed?



Well that's where the War of the Roses (15th century) comes blazing in full guns with violence & desparate people willing to cut deals with the Eld for favor, occult technologies, & all of the corruption that the Eld can bring to Dark Albion. But the problem is that the Eld are straight up nasty when it comes to dealing with humanity. If they can get more then a toe hold in Europe and Albion then your going to see lots of chaos ensuing.
Or will you? The fact is that the inquisition of Albion may have had more then its fair share of dealing with the cults of the Eld. Perhaps this isn't the first time they've seen these jokers on Albion soil. The church of the Unconquered Sun has the tools to deal with these upstarts but it will take valuable manpower and time. These are two things that the Rose War is going to eat up in equal measure.


When it comes to the Eld eying Albion there are several reasons why including slave stock, resources, and pure expansionist empire building. They also a perfect fit for the 'Celtic Other World' But the Eld are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to that other world there could be many menaces that could potentially cause all kinds of harm to parties of Dark Albion adventurers.

"In Gaelic and Brittonic mythology it is usually described as a supernatural realm of everlasting youth, beauty, health, abundance and joy.^[1] The Otherworld is usually elusive, but various mythical heroes visit it either through chance or after being invited by one of its residents. They often reach it by entering ancient burial mounds or caves, or by going under water or across the western sea.^[1] Sometimes, the Otherworld is said to exist alongside our own and intrudes into this one; signaled by phenomena such as magic mist, sudden changes in the weather, or the appearance of divine beings or unusual animals.^[2] An otherworldly woman may invite the hero into the Otherworld by offering an apple or a silver apple branch, or a ball of thread to follow as it unwinds" Misty Isles of the Eld fits quite nicely into the dreamlike weirdness of the Celtic Otherworld.

But the Eld are not the only menace that is going to trouble adventurers, alright let's suppose that some minor noble has made contact with the Eld & has a chaos cult of these bastards in some hidden swamp, manor glen, or ruined temple in the English countryside.
The Frog men just might have something to say about the incursion of the Eld back into the local time space continuum.
Margaret of Anjou through human agents and their witch cults would be able to keep an eye on the situation if such an incursion were to occur. The real world ruler had an extensive spy network was extremely well connected & would have her fingers on the pulse of such a situation. All of this leads me to believe that one of the rival houses would most likely be the ones to cut a deal with the Eld. Most likely ending up on a gallows, dead or most unlucky being dragged away into the not so forgiving clutches of the Eld themselves.

The Frog men might make an alliance with the Eld to make full war on Albion
Why not take full advantage of the blood shed & silly wars of the humans? Lesser Boglings II - Wilderness Encounters - Otherworld Miniatures (x3 figs)



What about the Eld themselves could their reality be simply one more in the onion layered madness that surrounds  Dark Albion? Could the Ursine Dunes reality be the actual Russia of Dark Albion? A place blasted beyond the pale of mankind where the story book like reality has subplanted the true reality of Dark Albion's Europe? The mind boggles with the possible implications of this sort of a weird cross politicization of OSR settings.
A variation of the Eld are featured in Dwimmermount  perhaps that great mega dungeon's location might be in Siberia. Its fell siren call beckoning adventurers across the centuries to their doom.


Could one of the factions of the Rose War send off a expedition to the legendary megadungeon in search of some occult advantage during the civil war? A mythological wonder weapon hidden away for centuries?



This sort of a mix lends itself to half violent fairy tale, part pulpy old school adventure, & high weirdness under the alternative light of the history of Dark Albion indeed it is a heady mix folks!

Unboxing The Misty Isles of the Eld Book By Chris Kutalik & Robert Parker From The Hydra Cooperative For Your Old School Campaigns

My copy of Misty Isles of the Eld By Chris Kutalik & Robert Parker arrived today! My advice is to keep your PC's out of their clutches and here's why.

When it comes to the Misty Isles the psychical book is far better then the PDF in my humble opinion. The the ideas come across far more clearly to my ancient brain. The Isles are a mix of  Frank L. Baum, William Burroughs, & the elves that always seem to be lurking in the sinister corners of fairy tales. You know the dark ones in the back of certain weird and esoteric Eighties gaming magazines twisted through the imagination of Chris Kutalik, & Robert Parker. 

 


My impression from going over the book again is the fact that these evil David Bowie space elves could show up anywhere and be a menace to adventurers in a campaign for a long time to come. The Eld are complete and utterly alien within their own right. I've done a review and campaign ideas in several blog entries.

It really took a while for the ideas & weirdness of the Eld to settle in, the fact is that many of the mini plane's themes, setting material, and more draw from a ton of sources distilled into this nightmare morass of weirdness that is the Misty Isles of the Eld. This is one of the reasons why the Hill Cantons campaign setting has caught on.

 I think that there are several reasons why Misty Isles of the Eld works for me as a DM:

• The Eld and their weirdness fulfill a complete take on the alien 'other' menace in a campaign while maintaining enough familiarity to keep PC's on their toes. They have both enough of the Fey about them to be dangerous but are really their own creation. 
• The mists of Eld could lead to all kinds of worlds and they might have access to a plethora of inter dimensional locations. This means that you could plug them into many old school or retroclone settings seamlessly. 
• The Eld while not as inimical to mankind as some retroclone creations are dangerous and should be used with caution. 

 The book quality isn't bad at all and the binding is quite nice. The text and font are on par with other POD efforts I've seen and the material is easy on the eyes. So not bad for a book that fits those demands. The transitional cover of the book really gives that other dimensional weirdness of the Eld. And that's one of the areas that ties in the various adventure locations that your PC's hexcrawl through. These are some of the tools that Misty Isles brings to the table.  The Eld are evil, weird, and alien as their environment which ties  into the the Psychonaut PC class possibly as bridge gap into other campaign settings. Think about it the Psychonaut is a bridge into other OSR material such as  Weird Adventures by Trey Causey.  The Eld are perfect foils for the weirdness of  'The City' and could easily transition over giving adventurers in that setting more then a run for their money. And that's part of the charm of the Misty Isles of the Eld that universal weirdness that plugs into the back brain of the old school gamers. 

The artwork is nice & there's that fairy tale gone complete wrong mixed with science fantasy pulp magazine bits and pieces to the Eld. They make excellent other dimensional stand in menaces that PC's blunder into. The outcome isn't going to be pretty but it will be amusing on any number of levels.

There's an element of DYI Eld building going on here for the DM where he can take the bits he wants and add in or subtract material without breaking it. Basically this is a setting book that is greater then the sum of its parts with lots and lots of good OSR material pumping through its otherworldly twisted 19th century alternative fairy tale like modern setting. The various tables enable the DM to take and give what they need to create material original enough and yet accessible enough to work in their own home games with Misty Isles of the Eld.

I can see PC's dealing with the various locations absolutely terrified that they might not live through the experience of dealing with the Misty Isle's and its people. There are lots of twist & very dangerous NPC's scattered throughout the book. These resemble in many respects otherworldly takes on familiar fairytales laced through with the author's weird take on all of this. This is something we've seen repeatedly in the Hill Canton's material. But is all of this gamable? In a word yes perhaps a bit too much. In many respects after going over the Misty Isles I suspect one might want to piece meal this book and spoon feed it into a campaign one very cool bit at a time. This is something that I've found with a Red and Pleasant Land by Zak Smith. There is so much cool material that you don't want the players to become jaded or over wrought with the coolness.

 The adventure locations from the  meth-fruit Plantation House to the
The Vat Complex could take months to go through and its all packed in with some really neat bits. The Hydra Cooperative doesn't disappoint when it comes to products of imagination. I could see DMing entire adventure campaigns using this one book. There's tons of potential for all kinds of mayhem.

 Another way to use the Misty Isles of the Eld is to take a classic fairy tale and then rewrite it through the lens of the book, in fact an entire campaign could be done this way. Sleeping Beauty or another classic could have its roots in the weird of the Misty Isles where all kinds of twists and turns could keep PC's busy for a long time.  The Eld are perfect DM foils who can out weird and out deal PC's and adventurers at every turn and this book gives you the tools to do so.

The artwork and cartography suits this book to a tee and the more I look the more weirdness is lurking within. This is a book that has clicked with me and I really enjoy it each time I flip it open.

My bottom line and advice on this book is to grab a copy & start taking the pieces you want right out of here. This is a great little book to expose your PC's to the twisted world of the Eld but mind your manners with them or you might regret it. Remember keep those bones rolling.

Another OSR Campaign Idea - Misty Isles of the Eld By Chris Kutalik & Robert Parker From The Hydra Cooperative Vs. Elven Powers of Dark Albion

So I was away a good portion of the day today with my father at the doctors in my home town. There really wasn't much that I could do and I decided to get away from my old school D&D books and the OSR material to help me get some perspective on this new arch for the Warlords of the Outer Worlds campaign. I was thinking about mixing in old school D&D material, a couple of favorite OSR titles, and a bit of science fantasy. Alright more like a lot of science fantasy in this case with the post apocalyptic theme turned up a bit.
For my version of Russia in Warlords, the human race isn't at the top of the food chain of dominance anymore. I kept thinking about the classic Thundarr The Barbarian cartoon from 'Eighty One' all day. In each and every episode we find out that the human race has ceased to be top of the food chain. That aspect I'm keeping with mankind huddled in technologically advanced city states kept working by almost magick relic technologies.

The Fey  races have returned to the wastelands & wilderness; along with the other mythological races and their sinister progenitors. Where the PC's are right now is right in the cross hairs of a metaphorical stand off as to greater powers are in a protracted cold war over the human population. The Eld and Elves of Dark Albion fame have been in a bloody & very dangerous hot/cold  war over the humans as resources. They're literally fighting  over the bodies, and souls of the local humans. Part of the greater problem is the fact that the humans willingly go to the elves because that's what's been done for generations.  The guidelines that have been given in Cults of Chaos make this very easy to fit into a campaign. It also makes them foes for the fickle and very dangerous Eld.

The two Elven powers mine the dreams of the human population, ravage their souls, & feed off their emotions all of the while dealing with them as resources and slaves. Warfare takes the form  of weird poetry readings, magickal story contests, and high hunts where humans are released and two teams of hunters go after and hunt down the prey. All of this is done in the most alien and civilized terms but it is still warfare none the less.


The humans deal with ancient gods, cut deals with other demons and wizards, and try to forget about the high handed ritual combat going on in the Veil & The Beyond around the corner from reality. Sometimes these wars split reality and the locals are caught in the cross fire. Meanwhile adventurers and wastelands pick up the scraps and relics left behind by the combatants. High Elves & fairies try to protect the humans but ultimate are just as alien as the others but the odd half elves or fey touched are produced now and then. These beings are often drawn into the clutches of the elves because magick and chaos sings in their blood. The siren call is often too strong for them. They are taken by cults & often end up on the sacrifice block or worse.



Magick mutation, and chaos leave its wake many mutants,monsters, and horror stories waiting for adventurers to blunder into communities touched by these beings. Entire villages and isolated societies have had generations of contact with the various Elven and Eld power blocks. Many of the traditional Russian gods and priests take a very dim view of these alien interlopers. Shamans and priests of law often bring down purges or hunts to such places with divine assistance. But still the roots of chaos run far too deep to cause any real extinction in such ancient practices.


As for the Eld they find all of this terribly amusing in a cold blooded and calculating way. They're fickle and highly dangerous nature are a match for the Elven powers of Dark Albion. The Chess game of theirs continues apace with no real end in sight for now.


This is simply another wrinkle I'm working on for my Tuesday night game. Dark Albion's Cults of Chaos isn't out quite yet but Misty Isles of the Eld from The Hydra Cooperative is currently available.
This idea occurred to me the other day when I was going over my notes for the Eld Vs the Astral Raiders blog entry I did a couple of days back.

Misty Isles of the Eld By Chris Kutalik & Robert Parker From The Hydra Cooperative Vs. The Astral Raiders Campaign Set Up

I had a friend come over last night because it was my birthday, there was beer and tequila involved. But there was also a ton of muddled OSR conversations about Basil Wolverton, HP Lovecraft, Misty Isles of the Eld By Chris Kutalik & Robert Parker, and The Astral Raiders from Ancient Vaults blog.
Let me see if I got this right because there was beer and tequila involved.
This as a part of my Warlords Of the Outer Worlds campaign gambit this would work. "An ancient fragment kingdom from Oz part of the dreams of mankind has broken off and drifted into the skies out around the Outer Worlds where the ancient demons and Lovecraftian gods have been held in check by the forces mankind and mutant alike. But only barely'
But then a new wrinkle has been added as the Eld's forces want an ancient artifact on this fragment of the dreaming of mankind's collective unconsciousness. They're not going to get it though because the Astral Raiders and their beasts from beyond want to lay claim to the artifact and the place. The result is all out war!  The Raiders release one of their astral beasts upon one of the colony worlds."


The PC's are brought in as mercenary commandos to sneak in under the noses of both sides and get that artifact for the humans side. The PC's have a limited amount of time because the fragment is still drifting out of orbit and they've got to avoid the vatmen, the forces of the Eld and watch the various factions of the Astral Raiders including avoiding the princess/wizardress
heading their forces.


So what's happening with this campaign idea? Well here's an example of the sort of play that can be used with Misty Isles of the Eld By Chris Kutalik & Robert Parker From The Hydra Cooperative combined with Adventurer, Conqueror, King. The idea of my Warlords of the Outer Worlds setting is to take domain play into the realms of  Dreams, The Astral, and The Lovecraftian. The Misty Isles is a perfect compliment and vehicle for this sort of OSR style game.

Review & Commentary On Misty Isles of the Eld By Chris Kutalik & Robert Parker From The Hydra Cooperative For Your Old School Campaigns

The Misty Isles of the Eld From Hydra Cooperative is a hundred and four page acid trip of a setting if Frank Baum and William Burroughs had gotten together to create a setting over a weekend of drink and drugs. Is it good though and playable? In a word, yes it is because its both engaging and original in its approach to itself. This is the kind of a setting that you want to drop PC's into if they have yen for something weird and more then slightly dangerous.


  Grab It Right Here

I got a chance to take a quick read through a physical copy last night before my game and it's a really unique and more then slightly disturbing setting. The setting does live up to its press too:"Come visit the acid fantasy mini-sandbox of the Misty Isles, a hellish pocket plane that's brutally displaced a bucolic paradise. Marvel at its massive grub-ridges, shake at the body horror of its protein vats—and watch as your players dynamically unleash the Anti-Chaos Index through their own in-game actions. Misty Isles of the Eld is a stand-alone sequel to Slumbering Ursine Dunes and Fever-Dreaming Marlinko."
I'm happy to report that its a packed tool kit of adventure weirdness and the kind of a setting that has lots and lots of useful tools and OSR adventure locations to drop your players and characters into.
There are some really weird and pulpy adventure pieces and dungeon locations to drop PC's into:

•  The Vat Complex (with its menacing sealed off-west wing, body-horrific industrial process and pocket dimensions), this was one of my favorite dungeon locations and reminded me of a mix of something out of a  Cronenberg film and several chapters of Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs
•  The flying god-prison Monument Five has a ton of potential for several OSR campaigns worth of adventure and I could see using this with Labyrinth Lord or even Lamentations of the Flame Princess.
• The meth-fruit Plantation House is an adventure location that reeks of Conrad's Heart of Darkness meets Narcosa with lots of helpings of Hellboy thrown into the mix.
• Colonel Zogg's Pagoda Bunker is a location that I want to throw into Mutant Future as a side adventure on another plane. 
• There is a freaking ton of other worldly beasties and monsters that beg to be used for other adventures. 
• Lots and lots of  technological Eldish artifacts and treasure its really worth it to pick this book up for those alone but this chapter includes a random generator for miscellaneous artifacts picked up and adventure fodder. 
• The Psychonaut is a well done and actually useful class for any OSR game with lots and lots of weirdness and themes to it. I can't begin to explain how damn useful the class is for generating adventure fodder on its own. 

Basically this is a setting book that is greater then the sum of its parts with lots and lots of good OSR material pumping through its otherworldly twisted 19th century alternative fairy tale like modern setting. Misty Isles of the Eld is like something a drug idled historian of the 1900's would write if locked inside a library with nothing but mythology & early  science fiction to pull from. I say this in the best possible way because its got lots going for it. This is one of those books your going to want to pull out and run if A.You got off beat players who like a setting with lots of stuff to explore and get in trouble with and B. Are fans of this sort of material of off beat high weirdness in the best Little Nemo in Dreamland style weirdness.

Ten Ways To Use Misty Isles of the Eld
For Your Old School Campaigns

1.  Because of the unique nature of the other worldly nature wilderness crawl spreads itself across the setting and enables a Dungeon Master to pick and choose where as well as when they want their party of adventurers to deal with the various Misty Isle elements. 
2. Because of the twisted fairy tale nature of bits and pieces of Eld, I think that this book is a good fit for a more modern occult Lamentations of the Flame Princess occult side quest. 
3. Another retroclone setting that might work well here as a side set piece is Zak's a Red and Pleasant Land with the Misty Isles and its environs. 
4. This setting could be worked in as a drop in setting piece for OD&D because of places like Arduin given the proto modern occult tech of the Eld's artifacts which are worth the price of admission. 
5. Misty Isles of the Eld could be used with either Labryth Lord or OSRIC with some adjustments but on the whole it has a rather unique feel. 
6. Mutant Future is another great side set piece to use with the Eld because this is a great setting book to use to pump some life into a campaign. The unique monsters, high weirdness, and Eld artifacts are perfect ways to induce your mutants to the horrors of the Misty Isles but some adjustment might need to be made. 
7. D&D gnomes might be horrified or fascinated by the tech and weirdness of the Eld; perhaps its time to organize an expedition to the setting. 
8. There are plenty of cross over potential including for a game such as Boot Hill, hear me out here. Given the almost weirdness of the Eld the technological levels are very similar, quick dimensional door and instant cross over. 
9. A variation of the Eld are featured in Dwimmermount are perhaps one of the ancient sources of the Eld of the Misty Isles. Maybe the Eld of the Misty Isles might have a clue or legend about that ancient megadungeon. Once again plenty of crossover potential between products for the dungeon master to exploit.
10.  Misty Isles of the Eld has lots of potential to be used as an OSR setting in its own right and many of the various adventure Easter Eggs scattered throughout the book could be used to built a rather interesting and unique dungeon adventure location setting for the retroclone of the DM and players choice. 

 Misty Isles of the Eld is a rather unique and certainly gaming changing campaign setting for any DM looking for a completely off beat and yet servicable world setting for their OSR game campaigns. This book has all of the potential to bring a retroclone or D&D game to another level; the setting reminds me a lot of another Hydra Collective product  Weird Adventures by  Trey Causey  has a ton in common with many of the elements of the Misty Isles of the Eld and I feel they have lots of potential to work well together.
 I personally give the  Misty Isles of the Eld  a four out of five with lots of room for the DM to create and give their own thumb print on the pulpy goodness of the this great setting book