'A Dog Has His Day' - Further Mediations on The Stormbringer rpg & OSR Campaign Memories

 

We played a ton of Stormbringer rpg sessions in '91 but it was the visit to a variation of Jack London's Scarlet Plague Earth that nearly broke our backs. Our party was making its way to the museum to locate the 'Other Grail'. We had survived our encounter with  Karl Edward Wagner Kane as an NPC last session. It was when we ran into the  'The Thing in the Red Robe' 's Chaos Hell hounds that things turned really nasty. Try to imagine a Chaos Hell hound made from the fevered damned soul of the dead of the Scarlet Plague. Even with demon weapons we did not even try to take on these things. 

Hell hounds artwork by  

000Fesbra000 on Deviant Art 

Each & everytime we'd tear into one of these bastard spawn of Chaos it would reform from the molten soul stuff around us. Eventually we figured out that there was pack leader containing all of the souls & were able to kill it before it reformed again. 

We made it too the museum where we  had to face down a riddling demon with a sword warpact on it guarding the 'Grail of the Other'. The walls were covered in the praises of the 'Sword Queen'.  Now things got very interesting. This was our old friend   'Queen Xiombarg''s doing & her handy work was about the museum in the form of her beast men. 

I wasn't a fan of her's then & I'm not now. The demon thing had eight riddles & wouldn't give up or else required the soul of one of the adventurers of the party. Yeah, like that was gonna ever happen. 

Just as we solved the last one 'The Thing in the Red Robe' appeared behind us. He was the embodiment of 'the Scarlet Plague' that  walked this Earth & a formitable lord of Chaos. It aparently did not like trespassers or visitors to its domain. 

 Illustration of Prince Prospero confronting the "Red Death" by Arthur Rackham, 1935. One our number went down as its blood soaked hands touched Arthur's PC & he died in a sputter of blood & his soul was devoured! 

We didn't even try to fight we grabbed 'The Grail of the Other' & instantly activated a demon of transportation! Our party had no idea where we'd end up nor how close we came to dying, again. 
This would not be the last we'd see of the 'The Thing In The Red Robe' but we arrived just in time to see the sun rise on a strange peaceful looking village. Things were looking up just in time to see a strange pale warrior with a huge sword on his back. He was  leaving a tavern followed in to by a strange looking little steele limbed fellow a head shorter then him. 
We let Elric & Moonglum go off on their merry way & ran straight into the NPC Dog! The warrior & former crewmen of the Rogue Mistress. As I said before 1991 was a Hell of a year for the Stormbringer rpg and one of the most epic campaign adventure  books published for the game was Rogue Mistress.  Rogue Mistress was by Fred Behrendt, Lane Grate, Keith Herber, Michael Szymanski, Lawrence Whitaker. 

We were confronted by the NPC mercenary Dog who was working for our old 'friend' Charles D'vere The First Duke of La Roy & the second grand inquistor of the Emperor of Tragic Europe. Dog introduced himself by killing off two of our party immediately. Dog was a combination of a Shakespherian character & '90's Marvel Sabertooth or that's how our DM Charles played 'em. He wore demonic armor & carried a rather nasty sword. He wanted the 'Other Grail' & we'd already hidden it in the local money guild's vaults. We knew La Fey wasn't going to take no for an answer. There was no way we could stand up to Dog who also had other NPC bandits/mercs with him. The numbers were simply aganist us. So we ran! That's right a band of hardy adventurers turned tail & ran! A tactic that kept us alive so many times in the Stormbringer rpg. We zig zagged through a bunch of alleyways & with a few successful dice rolls we lost 'Dog & his company'. 
As soon as we got back to our hotel , the clerk said that there was a man of wealth & taste waiting the hotel resturant. Yes, we could with the seven of us afford to stay in a hotel. And sitting behind a rather nice table was Satan in a rather nice get up. 
We set four of our number to the money guild to get the grail all of the while watching out for 'Dog' and co. They made it back with some lucky die rolls & Satan had 'the other grail'. Business concluded right?! We get a boon & the chaos lord of Hell gets his artifact right?! 

Satan got the 'other grail' & we were down two PC's! We also incurred the wraith of Morgan Le Fey. A wraith that is still on going by the way. More on that later on! Satan insisted that we get paid for our efforts but the group held back on that one. An 'infernal ace in the hole' so to speak. Because what happened next session we'd need it. We went to a local watering hole & got plastered!!? Welll sortal, instead what we did was to go search for local talent to replace the two dead NPC's. 
So instead we left the 'Great Beast' with his grail & high tailed it outta of there. 

The Study in Scarlet - Meeting Kane - Further Mediations on The Stormbringer rpg & OSR Campaign Memories

 

After last session we needed a plan & to somehow regroup from our latest assignment. 'The Great Beast' had literally left & we were on our way to our PC's rooms. But a knock on our door got us involved with a bigger issue & NPC. A stranger came to call, a  man with hooded eyes,reddish hair, & the stare of a killer from beyond recorded time. He introduced himself as simply as 'General Kane' an 'interested party' of our exploits. Some of us already had read Karl Edward Wagner Kane stories we knew who & what we were dealing with. 

Frank Frazetta artwork used without permission. Fine artprints available
through them here. 

We had to tread carefully with this NPC & we all knew it, he told us he knew where 

'The Grail of the Other' was if we were willing to turn over the 'The Ring of Winter's Regret'. Well we actually did & to wit he had provisions, gear, etc. for our party. Our party of adventurers got sleep & then in the morning we found Kane nowhere to be found. Much to our relief. But we got the surprise of our life when we opened the door of the inn all around us was ruined city  after city blocks. And a letter from Kane warning us of the chaos lord, 'The Thing in the Red Robe' the ruler of this plane. 
 By now it was late Autumn '91 & we had switched to the fourth edition of  'The Stormbringer rpg ' there were three reasons for this. The game was relatively inexpensive, readly available as many players had ditched their copies, & two game shops that sold used games. The system was at once familiar & easily grasped. 

As our party wandered the empty streets of the urban landscape there were abandoned shops, lots of animals, etc. We then almost got our heads torn off by a bunch of Young Kingdom cultists & humans transforming into beastmen. These  belonged  to our our old friend   'Queen Xiombarg'. But had a break as strange red & ragged demonic dogs tore into them! We had a map to follow leading us to the city's largest museum. We also found the rapidly decaying body of a boar warrior the face red & bloated as if wearing a red mask. 
We knew that our dungeon master was a fan of Edgar Allen Poe but there was another writer he was fond of the American writer Jack London. Jack London wrote 'The Scarlet Plague'.



And 'The Thing in the Red Robe' was a direct reference to the lord of chaos of this domain. The embodiment of 'the Scarlet Plague' walked this Earth. It aparently did not like trespassers or visitors to its domain. 

Illustration of Prince Prospero confronting the "Red Death" by Arthur Rackham, 1935

So how the Hell were we going to escape this plane?! Sure our party had demons of transportation but we were on a mission & we knew that the 'The Thing in the Red Robe' was waiting for us. We needed answers, help, & some insight into our circumstances or the party was dead! 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



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

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

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

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

'Hope You Guessed My Name' - Further Mediations on The Stormbringer rpg & OSR Campaign Memories

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



We were feeling pretty good having just double crossed Dog crazed NPC mercenary & all around bad ass. Back at our hotel things were quiet for a bit & unlike Dungeons & Dragons games we needed some down time to actually rest, buy equipment, & start looking around this world. This session picked right up from here. 
We had made our way to Albyon a sorta of quisi European world of the million spheres. The technological level was 16th century European so  the rise of Western civilization and the Age of the Islamic Gunpowders where in full swing. We had seen Elric & Moonglum leave which was fine with us because had absolutely no intention of returning to the Young Kingdoms except for a flying visit or two. We didn't just have one chaos lord on our collective asses but two at this point. 

We as players knew that we were breaking the Rogue Mistress's adventure plot train. But as players we had to recruit other PC's, so we dived into the deepest  darkest hives of scum & villainy for our new PC's. We found three mercenaries in the employ of a priest of Law who were getting a bit sick of their current 'gig' & then hooked up with Edward Burns Jones a black wizard of the deepest dye. Edward Burns Jones was an agent of chaos. Specifically he was an agent of 'Satan' & apparently we had some issues with 'Lucifer'! Edward Burns Jones was named after the painter & the PC looked like his classic art piece 'The Wizard'. The girl in the painting is Edward's demon of desire familiar. 


According to our latest recruit 'Lucfier'  the version that appeared in Michael Moorcock's The War Hound & The World's Pain. And we knew there was gonna be Hell to pay. This wasn't an entity we had any desire to meet up with. We had only a day or so to get our next recruit before 'Lucy' caught up with us. And we had a member of the Bon Vek family in our midst. 

So we did the next best thing & signed up with the Rogue Mistress as crew with the promise of a new recruit to join us. That night this bitch showed up & we got our demon hearts in our PC's! We doomed to follow her orders & major plot point came in!? Umm no! 

We still had a major boon by Satan in our back pocket! And that was called in! He removed the demon hearts! And our party had a major mad on against this sorceress! So we had an enchantment that made her think we were still implanted with the hearts. We then had another encounter with 'Dog' & his mercenaries! 
The party managed to recruit a 'down on his luck' martial arist, assassin, & former servant of Chaos named Fo Fuk Fenn. Fo was a disgraced  Shaolin monk half Chinese & Irish who had turned to the worship of Chaos after losing everything during the Boxer Rebellion. He was based on a miniature that I've never seen after '91. The closest that I've seen are some of the Foundry's   1st China War (1st Opium War) 1839-42 miniatures. 

Fo had turned to drink after losing his demon weapon staff & had washed out with his old mercenary outfit. He had horrific visions of our party dying in a Hellish landscape. Our DM had recently read Nifft the Lean (Nifft the Lean #1)  by  Michael Shea.  The book is definitely Appendix N worthy & sorta of Sword & Sorcery meets Journey To the Center of the Underworld written by H.P. Lovecraft. Shea's dialogue & storytelling are top notch. 

We as players had a feeling that Satan's part of Hell was modeled on Shea's vision! We got back to our hotel rooms & there was a letter from Karl Edgar Wagner's Kane warning us of the monumental planar shifts about to happen on the plane. We reported for duty aboard the Rogue Mistress in the morning. Our problems were only starting! 

We went back to hotel to collect our equipment, check out, & made a short cut between some woods. And Morgan Le Fey snagged us! Where was the ring she demanded?! Why have you aligned yourself with the dark powers?! Morgan was in her goddess aspect and it was only the intervention of Marie De Pistola & her crew because we were late that managed to escape! This NPC was based on "Venus between Terminal Gods" 1895 Drawing with india ink by Aubrey Beardsley. Found at the Cecil Higgins Art Gallery, Bedford, United Kingdom.