OSR Commentary On Edgar Rice Burroughs's 'A Princess of Mars'

 "“As I gazed upon it I felt a spell of overwhelming fascination—it was Mars, the god of war, and for me, the fighting man, it had always held the power of irresistible enchantment. As I gazed at it on that far-gone night it seemed to call across the unthinkable void…" 
Edgar Rice Burroughs A Princess of Mars 
These words and the Michael Whelan cover set the stage for my own adventures on Edgar Rice Burrough's Barsoom along with John Carter. The year was 1986 and I was in a bookshop in my home town. It was June and we were wrapping up the last leg of an epic AD&D campaign. Now only recently I had reread A Princess of Mars. 

Burroughs did a ton of world builting through the eyes of Captain John Carter. Barsoom seemed to take on a life of it's own. And the novel set my own mind on fire. Barsoom was viberant and very much alive in a sense. Not that it was a real place or anything insane. But it Barsoom breathed from it's canals to the moss covered dead sea bottoms. 
And it's Green Martians seemed very alien indeed. Thier culture, beliefs, etc. seemed to be cut from a different cloth. There was good and evil on Barsoom but also shades of grey. Not as many as real life to be sure. But for a kid Barsoom seemed real enough. And how I wanted an Rpg. And fortunately I was able to use quite a few from Spelljammer to Warriors of the Red Planet. We had run quite a few campaigns on Mars. And I continue to do so to this day. There's something that keeps calling me back to the red planet. There's still a dozen and one adventures on Mars. Every hidden valley and acient ruin seems to have adventure around the corner. And in part I think it has to do with Edgar Rice Burroughs writing. Burroughs wrote to entertain and not to inform per say. His was the writing of the everyman and adventure was ERB's fare. 
'A Princess of Mars' is a book that has all of the best elements of a Pulp adventure. From cliff hanger chapter endings to full on sword battles to war scenes. And it's those memories of the first time reading ERB that keeps me as a reader coming back. 
'A Princess of Mars' as adventure influence can't be understated. I could watch the hours get sucked away as I contemplated the idea of a six limbed White Ape living in a dead sea bottom deserted city. What were the apes eating and how could I sick these White Apes onto my player's PC's?! And then there's the Green Martian hordes that moved endlessly on caravan routes. These savage monters were one of the threats that kept player's PC's outta of the deserted ancient cities. 
And then we walked the streets of greater and lesser Helium dealing with the back alley's intrigue & dangers. It' the lesser city states that adventurers have to watch out for. Adventurers on Barsoom are definitely of the 'dungeon crawl' variety except we didn't know about this in the intial book. 

Monster, Monster: Vampires By Ed Fedory, Andrew Pavlides, Steve Miller From NUELOW Games

" Few monsters are as popular or versatile as the vampire. It’s popularity and presence in the public mind has grown ever larger in every artistic genre from fiction and poetry, to movies and comics, and to roleplaying games."


"They can be physically hideous, or they can be as beautiful as angels. They can be soulless monsters, or they can victims of a curse they wish to be liberated from. When it comes to vampires, only your imagination limits you, because the genre standards for them are fluid and many. Some might even say there are no standards for how to properly portray a vampire in fiction"

Monster, Monster: Vampires By Ed Fedory, Andrew Pavlides, Steve Miller From  NUELOW Games clocks in at forty pages for Fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. But actually Monster, Monster: Vampires has the usual  NUELOW Games Skywald publishing monster comic book story. This is followed by several different types of vampires in monster camps such as this lovely; 
"Feral Vampire Medium undead, Chaotic Evil Armor Class 17 (natural armor, shield) Hit Points 97 (13d8 +39) Speed 30 ft. Str 20 (+5) Dex 16 (+3) Con 16 (+3) Int 12 (+1) Wis 16 (+3) Cha 12 (+1) Saving Throws Strength+8, Wis+6 Skills Intimidation +6, perception+6, stealth+6, survival+6 Damage Resistances necrotic; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from non-magical weapons Condition Immunities charmed, exhaustion, frightened, paralyzed, poisoned, stunned Senses Darkvision 120’, passive Perception 16 Languages Common Challenge 8 (3900 xp)" 
There are some really well written individual species of undead here that are just waiting to suck the life out of even a modern group of adventurers. This makes this exceptionally perfect for Amazing Adventures fifth edition. 

And while there's vampires actually in AA, these variants allow the DM to present quite a bit of variety & a bit of mystery for example this lovely ripe for creation or conversion into an NPC; "Demonic Vampire Medium undead, Chaotic Evil Armor Class 17 (natural armor, shield) Hit Points 97 (13d8 +39) Speed 30 ft. Str 20 (+5) Dex 16 (+3) Con 16 (+3) Int 12 (+1) Wis 16 (+3) Cha 12 (+1) Saving Throws Strength+8, Wis+6 Skills Intimidation +6, Perception +6, Stealth +6, Survival +6 Damage Resistances necrotic; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from non magical weapons Condition Immunities charmed, exhaustion, frightened, paralyzed, poisoned, stunned Senses Darkvision 120’, passive Perception 16 Languages Common Challenge 8 (3900 xp)" 

And thus we get even more vampire varieties but its the set up, proper monster ecology, & we even get some NPC's to throw into your fifth edition games. But these are perfectly complicated enough to add into a modernish Pulp game. Take for example Black Anne please! She's perfectly suited for a modern game; "For decades, Black Anne and her cult of witches terrorized remote northern islands. While coven members came and went—claimed by old age, sacrifice to the dark powers they drew power from, or the weapons of righteous adventurers, Anne avoided death’s icy grip. She was a favored servant of a god of ultimate evil, and she maintained her your through evil rites that involved bathing in the blood of children." 
And we get more loveliness as time goes on. Is this new or wholly innovative?! No but that's not the point here.  Monster, Monster: Vampires is perfect for the DM with no time that wants to inject a good dose of vampire blood into their own home campaigns. 
 

1d10 Random Magical Caskets of the Damned & Unclaimed For Your Old School Sword & Sorcery Campaigns

The Three Caskets, Plate 2, Stories from Old English Poetry

In ancient temples, ruins long forgotten, & dungeons undreamt of by man there are objects of occult power & supernatural violence that exist in forgotten corners. They hold the bones of the damned & saints of the unholy whose voices have been forgotten by history itself. The oceans have drank the continents & the seas have eroded the shores but these things remain holding the bones & skulls of the forgotten damned whose souls burn to power the blackest & coldest Hells. These caskets hold not only these unholy relics but sometimes riches beyond compare. Beware adventurers these ancient relic holders sometimes hold far more then the expected.



1d10 Random Magical Caskets of the Damned & Unclaimed 

1. Ranoz - This casket of jade & jet holds the remains of an ancient alien emperor from the coldest moons of Saturn. His remains are interned here & there are three priceless diamonds that contain his soul. The casket is worth 300 gold pieces & allows one that holds it to remove the soul of anyone mortally wounded under the light of the new moon. The casket can also perform a cure wounds spell at the same time but there is a price. The victim must make a save vs death or a fragment of the  essence of the alien emperor will possess them. They shall become zombie under the control of the essence with double the hit points of a normal zombie & begin to cause havoc. 
2. Oasis's Vengeance - this casket contains the bones of a priest of Oasis who damned himself in the service of his god by falling in love with princess. Those holding the casket can command his ghost to act as a cleric for two days for the party.He will have all of the normal abilities of a 5 level cleric. There are twelve small gold bars inside the casket. Those who take the bars will incense the god & twelve mummies will rise to take the fools to the underworld. The cleric is free to speak to the owner as if he was a living person & has acted as advisor to many kings & priests for centuries. The casket is being sought by the cult of Oasis who may murder or pay handsomely for it. 
3. Zraus the Fallen - This fallen foul anti paladin of Orcus's remains are cursed to wander the underworld for eternity & his body's remains have fourteen bones missing. These reside in the casket & allow the anti paladin to continue to wreck vengence upon the living. Anyone holding this casket has access to all abilities of an anti paladin once per day. And they allow the user to summon the ghosts of 11 victims of Zraus the Fallen. They can be used to find treasure or attack user's enemies but upon the 12th month of ownership of this casket the owner will be visited by Orcus. The demon lord will ask the whereabouts of Zraus the Fallen. Failing to indicate the casket forfeits the owner's soul to the demon lord. 
4. The casket of Obb - This casket contains the alien warrior Obb's remains that were consumed by an ancient alien fungus. The owner of the casket can once per day call upon these fungus to appear. They will act as living council for the owner & answer three questions of decay & decomposition. Further they can also give a legend lore about any treasure or relic that is presented before them. The casket itself is a jewel encrusted relic worth a small king's ransom & any fool trying to destroy this relic will have 1d10  myconid warriors to contend with. Obb himself is still decaying thousands of years later inside this thing & will occasionally moan or wail to warn the owner of danger. 
5. Dsaru The Bloody Handed One - This casket contains nothing but blackness & foulness between the coldest stars. Anyone opening it will be sucked into the 'void of nothingness' never to be seen again. The casket has seven figures of alien warriors etched in precious rubies & they may be summoned by causing one point of damage & smearing blood on these rubies. This does not have to be the owner's blood. There is a cult of warriors seeking this unholy relic & the thing will call to them. Anything placed inside this casket is gone but rumors persist that a dungeon exists inside of it. 
6. Htrdsprsi - This strange green & red swirled casket of alien stone glows & swirls with the colours not found in reality. The thing can add 1d10 years of life to those holding it but demands the first dream of its owner. It can also once per year produce a almost flawless diamond that may be used to summon the demon king Htrdsprsi. Htrdsprsi's damned soul is the casket itself & the demon king  is always looking for it.The lords of chaos tease him by moving it across the planes. 
7. The Casket of the Unclaimed - This casket holds the soul of an evil fairy demi god & is made from the bones of all who tried to claim his riches. He uses this casket as his anchor to the material plane & once per day manifests as a lich of incredible evil. This thing has no name but those holding the casket can summon 1d8 zombie elfin warriors from beyond the pale of man. These things act as 6th level fighters & were strangely magical plate mail as well having magic swords of +2 quality. The casket can heal leprosy or any magical disease that the lich then takes on for 1d10 years. 
8. The Casket of the Shambler - This casket is made of pure silver & is covered in strange jeweled vines. Inside is the beating heart of an arch druid made of pure red jade & wrought with veins of precious metals. The casket can three times per day summon 1d4 shambling mounds of double hit points whom will serve the owner. Should the heart be disturbed then they will appear to attack the owner. The casket can teleport the owner once per day to the nearest sacred druid grove or to the heart of the nearest forest. The casket can once per day over flow with pure spring water that will act as a cure light wounds spell. But there is a coven of evil druids seeking this casket & they are severed by 6th level assassins. 
9. The Casket of the Vanquished - This casket holds the remains of seven evil demons & it demands the blood of anyone slain in its presence. The demons feast on the evil & violence of any combat in a 5 mile radius of this casket. But they grant the owner 100 years of peace & prosperity. They will however turn on any righteous or good warriors they can! They attack by manifesting if they can get away with it once per day. The casket carried into battle will allow the owner to summon 1d10 warriors of seventh level once per day to fight & act on his or her behalf. The owner's soul should he or she die in battle belongs to the demons. 
10.  The Casket of the Dozen Damned - This casket is made of twelve red Atlantean gold plates, these move & slide of their own accord. This casket holds the alien soul of a long dead god whose name is lost to history. The thing can once per day raise the dead but the price is awful. Those raised are half of what they once were & damned to the service of the god of the casket. They will act normal until the full moon upon which they will become wights in the service of their alien master. They murder without providence & cause mayhem for the nights of the full moon. But the casket will provide 100 gold pieces of the red Atlantean gold  as a sort of bribe for the owner. The casket can also increase the owner's intelligence or wisdom by 1d6 points. The thing will act as diabolically insane but very clever council for the owner as well. It will also provide a 10% magic resistance a mere fraction of its original insane grandeur. This casket can provide itself to twelve owners before it begins to take over & possibly possess them. These twelve act as its vessels on the planes. 

1d10 Random Weird & Ancient Tombs and Contents Table For Weird Tales or Swords & Sorcery Old School Campaigns

1d10 Random Weird & Ancient Tombs and Contents Table 

1. This ancient and weathered necropolis stands definitely against the elements for hundreds and hundreds of years now. Upon certain nights of the year the great wrought brass door stands slightly a jar and from within a howling and growling of great beasts can be heard. The tombs occupants have long ago have been sucked into the nameless darkness between stars of damnation. The tomb's doorway opens into the void between the planes and on certain days of the year lean and thirsty demon hounds come for the souls of foolish adventurers. They come to drag back to the depth of those nameless hells anything they can catch. The bones of those they eat and strip of any metals are left behind. Their souls become playthings and sweet meats for these demon hounds. 
2. This ornate tomb has been reared to a disgraced princess of forgotten MU. Her soul and body lay trapped within the tomb but she has recently been freed by some foolish adventurer and now prowls the night as a vampire. Her sister has become a lamia and now guards the tomb by day feasting on local children. They are contemplating taking over a village and have begun a cult. Every Spring offerings have started to appear. During the fall months both horrors sleep. There is a stone box near the tomb that holds what treasures they have gathered to help pay for a mercenary army in the Summer months. 
3. This tomb is the home to the ghost of a wizard sealed within by his father lest his son's power allow the monster to escape. A bricked  door covered with inscriptions of binding holds the fiend in place. His ghost howls its anger and frustration but only at the new moon can the ghost haunt the land. It kills anyone it finds around the moors of the area during those times. An unrusting +2 sword has been driven through the entrance above the door. The sword's magic keeps the damned soul from both escape and final reward. The pain of the sword keeps the ghost from reason and intelligence as well. The ghost bides its time trying to watch the world and learn of the changes that time has wrought. Its knowledge is spotty and insane at best. 
4. This weirdly wrought tomb is a mass of bio sculpted flesh of a demonic monster enchanted never to decay or move. It's undying Yithian occupant sits guarding the entrance to a massive underground mega dungeon Great Race outpost sits and waiting for new tenants who shall never come. The occupant is held in a near death and unliving state by Great Race super science. His abilities are still useable and he is very dangerous. There are thousands of volumes of forbidden knowledge of the race's experiments of time, space, and magic here. They are just waiting and the occupant is getting bored with eternity. 
5. This tomb is the current headquarters of a cult of necromancers who have gathered hundred of necomatic items of forbidden magic. There is a fully functioning laboratory here as well. There are always 1d8 free willed zombies guarding the place armed with Atlantian radium weapons. The tomb was the burial place of a great king but the cult has moved his corpse and treasure to another location. Ever three months 130 cultists gather here. A lich heads this cult but he is seldom present. There is a 20% chance he will be in attendance when the cult gathers. 
6. This tomb is the resting place of a Deep One of Royal blood killed, exiled, and entombed on dry land where she may do no harm to own kind. She is buried with a treasure but she still lives on in an undeath state. She is chained within her coffin with enchanted chains. 1d8 Deep One zombies guard her and bring her victims occasionally to feed on tearing bits and pieces for her meals. There is a 40% chance of a major technological artifact entombed here as well for safe keeping by a Deep One wizard of renown. 
7. This is the tomb of a barbarian king curse by his own people to a living hell upon Earth. His ghost is chained between this life and undeath. The thing wanders the land looking for victims to slay with a great ax. Upon certain nights when the alignment of the stars is right. Death births come to feast on this decaying flesh. They may 20% tell his story and grant a prophecy. Or they may curse the fool who disturbs them in their hellish duties. 
8. This weird tomb of brass and iron holds the decaying body of a demon within. His body burns upon Earth while his spirit has been sealed inside a stoppered bottle nearby the white hot coffin. All of this was done by a wizard thousands of years ago. Anyone disturbing the bottle will be burnt by cold hell fire for 1d6 points of damage. Upon a pedestal near the coffin is a book which contains all of the demon's prophecies. The book magically inscribes them as the damned soul writhes in agony. There is a 70% chance of a secret or bit of forbidden knowledge that a PC needs is writ within the book. The book will magically return to the tomb if taken. 
9. This tomb is the resting place of a infamous bandit king who still uses the place as a hide out. His flesh is long decayed but he commands twenty 2nd level fighters who attend him as a saint of Rell. He is a free willed zombie and owns a brass Atlantian energy weapons that does 1d6 points of damage. He has a small personal treasure and is in love with a young nearby noble woman. She has no idea of the horror that has begun to stalk her. Eventually the monster will kill her as he has others throughout the centuries. They're corpses surround his coffin staring into eternity. 
10. This is the resting place of a Star Spawn of Cthulhu. A tomb has been built over it and within rests a 6th level priest who corpse still serves the horror even in death. There are ancient Atlantian machines that keep the thing in a state of sleep as its energies continue to be used by the local cult to try and contact the thing's master. They gather every autumn for a celebration. The priest's soul haunts the lands surround the tomb. Children in the area have begun to be born with the mark.  Anyone disturbing the ancient machinery will be shocked and burned for 1d8 points of damage. Their soul will be eaten by the Spawn in agony! 

Free Appendix N Download - Oriental Stories v01n01 [1930-10/11] For Your Old School Inspiration

When it comes to the obscure Pulp magazines few outside of certain collectors of the Pulp esoterica have heard of 'Oriental Stories'. For me this was a semial series of the pulps because it contains one of my all time favorites by Robert E. Howard. No not Conan but a modernish Pulp ballad known as 'The  Voice of El-Lil' . This little tale of Babylonian survivals in an African lost world setting has a fiendish sacrifical device worthy of Grimtooth himself.


This isn't a 'white man conquers the natives' tale, oh no this is a men have stumbled upon pocket of horror that has survived into the 20th century. But the history of Oriental Stories is a typical Farnsworth Wright tale; "Oriental Stories, later retitled The Magic Carpet Magazine, was an American pulp magazine of 1930-34, an offshoot of the famous Weird Tales.

Like its parent, it was published by J.C. Henneberger's Popular Fiction Publishing and edited by Farnsworth Wright. As its titles indicate, the magazine specialized in adventure and fantasy stories with Oriental settings and elements. Its stories were largely written by the same distinctive group of authors that filled the pages of Weird Tales, including Robert E. Howard,^[1] Otis Adelbert Kline, E. Hoffmann Price, Clark Ashton Smith, and Frank Owen, among others.^[2]

The magazine struggled financially for the entirety of its existence (as indeed did Weird Tales); it was published first bi-monthly, then quarterly, during the grimmest years of the Great Depression. Volume 1 of Oriental Stories consisted of 6 issues that appeared on newsstands from October 1930 through Autumn 1931; Volume 2 comprised only 3 issues in the first half of 1932 (Winter, Spring, Summer). After a six-month hiatus, the first of four quarterly issues of Volume 3 appeared in January 1933, but with the new title The Magic Carpet. ("Oriental Stories combined with The Magic Carpet Magazine," read the masthead of Vol. 3 No. 1, January 1933.) One notable contributor to The Magic Carpet was popular pulp author H. Bedford-Jones.^[2] Still unable to muster sufficient circulation, Volume 4 started and ended with the single issue No. 1 in January 1934. The Magic Carpet was then defunct."

The whole affair would find new life as 'The Magic Carpet Magazine' & any Weird Tales fan knows the ins & outs of that magazine as well as its fate. But I'm not really doing this issue justice & the contents are very inspirational to the 'Weird Tales' or Call of Cthlhu style dungeon master that we've come to expect in the OSR:

Oriental Stories [v1 #1, October-November 1930] ed. Farnsworth Wright (Popular Fiction Publishing Company, 25¢, 144pp+, pulp)
fc. · Singapore Nights · von Gelb · cv
4 · The Yellow River · Hung Long Tom · pm
6 · Singapore Nights · Frank Owen · nv
20 · The Man Who Limped [Hamed The Attar] · Otis Adelbert Kline · ss
32 · The White Queen · Francis Hard · nv
49 · Flower Profiles · Hung Long Tom · pm
50 · Strange Bedfellows [Bugs Sinnat] · S. B. H. Hurst · nv
68 · The Tiger’s Eye · Pearl Norton Swet · ss
76 · Eyes Of The Dead · Lieutenant Edgar Gardiner · ss
83 · The Desert Woman · Richard Kent · ss
89 · The Cobra Den · Paul Ernst · ss
98 · The Black Camel · G. G. Pendarves · ss
111 · The Curse · Captain Ed Smith · ss
116 · The Voice Of El-Lil · Robert E. Howard · nv
132 · The Circle Of Illusion · Lottie Lesh · ss
139 · The Souk · [The Editor] · cl
_140 · [extracts from correspondence about transliteration of Arabic names] · T. E. Lawrrence · ms (r)
_140 · [extract from letter] · E. Hoffmann Price · lt

The interior of this issue reads like a who's who of Weird Tales era Pulp magazine tale spinners. The action here is fast, the explanations loose, with plenty of room for the DM to make up his or her own for their campaigns. The same style of Pulp magazine would later on be adapted by The Magic Carpet Magazine in October 1933.



But back to  'The Voice Of El-Lil' by Robert E. Howard, this is an advanced Babylonian style lost civilivaztion that could be straight out of Hyperborea or an other old school style campaign. Their vicious, deadly, & have the right sort of menace to be another cult faction of the Great Old Ones or some other desparate cult in a lost world. The antagonists featured in the 'The Voice Of El-Lil' by Robert E. Howard are just the sort of edge of the supernatural enemies that might represent a back water cult of a god straight out of Kuntz & Ward's Deities & Demigods. A backwater survival just on the edge of a verdant lost world still feeding their god much needed divine power. Something we see time & again in Robert E. Howard's work. 


There are splashes of racism in these Pulps but if we continue to bury the existence of such pieces of our collective history then we are doomed to repeat them. These splashes of history should & must be dragged out into the light to show how ridiculous  they are.

Oriental Stories & 'The Voice Of El-Lil' by Robert E. Howard remain some of my favorite influences on my old school & OSR games. 
You Can Download 

Oriental Stories v01n01
[1930-10/11]
Here

Commentary On The Hyperborean Legacy Of Atlantis On The 'Old Mars' Campaign Setting

"Know, oh prince, that between the years when the oceans drank Atlantis and the gleaming cities, and the years of the rise of the Sons of Aryas, there was an Age undreamed of, when shining kingdoms lay spread across the world like blue mantles beneath the stars"
Robert Howard's Conan
Upon Hyperborea there are remnants & ruins of Old Earth's Atlantis but these are pale reflections of the glory and power of ancient empire. Scattered across space & time are the echoes of this once mighty nation. Now only the Deep Ones remain to claim the glory & power of this once great legacy or do they?


Throughout Hyperborea there are pockets & fully integrated populations of Deep Ones. They walk among mankind unnoticed and unchallenged. But there are rumors of older races of fish like men and aquatic peoples with gills who do not have the taint of the Deep Ones running through their veins nor hear the song of Tulu. Atlantis faced destruction & its colonies on 'Old Venus' & 'Old Mars' were their only hope of survival. Clark Aston Smith wrote about this in the Poseidonis cycle of stories. Poseidonis is the last remaining island of doomed Atlantis and there are hints in those stories that perhaps the Atlanteans adapted themselves to their watery environment.

• Atlantis (1912)
• Death of Malygris, The (1933)
• Double Shadow, The (1933)
• Last Incantation, The (1930)
• Muse of Atlantis, The (1922)
• Tolometh (1958)
• Vintage from Atlantis, A (1933)
• Voyage to Sfanomoe, A (1931)

Throughout Lovecraft's Mythos stories there are hints about the Cthulhu cult & its world spanning organization that goes all the way back to the days of Atlantis perhaps even before. The Deep One's influence was felt all the way back to before the fall of Atlantis destroyed the mighty empire totally. The technologically advanced empire had pockets of mystery cults operating within various temples & woven into fabric of the worship of Dagon & Mother Hydra The Great Old Ones. Throughout the Atlantean empire there were renegade temples, mystery cults, proto-cults operating within the shadows of the technological achievements of the once mighty empire then turned decedent. Echoes of these can be seen within the Church of Starry Wisdom  & many of its later pre-mutations 

The thread of the Clthuhu cult continues well into the twentieth century & beyond if we except that Hyprborea is the far future of Earth. Dagon, Mother Hydra & the Great Old Ones continue their corruption well beyond the foundations laid down in Lovecraft's writing;
"men—at least, a certain sort of men; though the creatures were shown disporting like fishes in the waters of some marine grotto, or paying homage at some monolithic shrine which appeared to be under the waves as well... [T]hey were damnably human in general outline despite webbed hands and feet, shockingly wide and flabby lips, glassy, bulging eyes, and other features less pleasant to recall. Curiously enough, they seemed to have been chiseled badly out of proportion with their scenic background; for one of the creatures was shown in the act of killing a whale represented as but little larger than himself"
Dagon"  by H. P. Lovecraft,  July 1910

But what about the Atlanteans themselves there were pockets of other Old Ones & Outer Gods worshiped throughout the empire and there is evidence that lots these entities preserved their little corners of Atlantis on the sea bottom.

"It is well that the reader accept nothing which follows as objective truth, for since the events transcend natural law, they are necessarily the subjective and unreal creations of my overtaxed mind. When I attained the conning tower I found the sea in general far less luminous than I had expected. There was no animal or vegetable phosphorescence about, and the city that sloped down to the river was invisible in blackness. What I did see was not spectacular, not grotesque or terrifying, yet it removed my last vestige of trust in my consciousness. For the door and windows of the undersea temple hewn from the rocky hill were vividly aglow with a flickering radiance, as from a mighty altar-flame far within."
The Temple HP Lovecraft 1920


Lovecraft wasn't the only writer who chronicled the survival of Atlanteans, in 1929 Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote The Marcot Deep but you might know it by its Nineteen Seven Eight title Warlords of Atlantis.

In The Marcot Deep we have all of the classic elements of Warlords of Atlantis & more;

"The novel begins with preparations for the dive, off the coast of Africa. Prof. Maracot claims to have located the deepest trench in the Atlantic and is vehement that he shall go down in the specially prepared submersible actually a bathysphere along with Headley and Scanlan. On reaching the edge of the trench, a description of the undersea world is presented. The team comes face to face with a giant crustacean who cuts off their line and hurls them down into the trench. Down in the trench, the team is rescued by the Atlanteans who are the last survivors of the land that was Atlantis.

Although the description of Atlantis may not sound quite futuristic and may seem fantastic, the fact that the novel was written in 1929 should be taken into account. One device in particular is often made use of. This is a thought projector which visualizes the thoughts of a person for others to see. This helps the team and the Atlanteans to communicate.

Descriptions of work habits, culture and various sea creatures are provided. The Atlanteans forage for their food from the sea bed and their slaves, Greeks who are the descendants of the original slaves of the kingdom of Atlantis work in undersea mines. This is made possible thanks to an exceptionally strong and light transparent material which is fashioned into helmets to enable people to work underwater.

The team eventually uses the levity of these spheres to escape to the surface. Headley elopes with the daughter of Manda, leader of the Atlanteans.

In the later part of the novel, Headley describes the encounter with the Lord of the Dark Face, a supernatural being who led the Atlanteans to their doom and was the cause of untold miseries to humanity ever since. This being is likened to the Phoenician god Baal who was demonized by later religions and cultures.


The being is defeated by Prof. Maracot who becomes possessed by the spirit of Warda, the man who managed to convince a handful of Atlanteans to prepare for the worst and thus built an Ark which saved them from the cataclysm which destroyed their land."
You Can Download The Maracot Deep By Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Here

We know that some of the Atlanteans escaped their doomed world and fled into the solar system some even settled on 'Old Mars'. They brought with them some of  their guardian animals, prehistoric monsters, & other life forms.  This was chronicled in Aelita, or The Decline of Mars is a 1923 science fiction novel by Russian author Aleksey Tolstoy. It was later filmed as a classic silent film in 1924. It is one of the first science fiction films from Russia but what does it have to do with Atlantis? There's a fantastic article by Den Valdron that places our  Russian Princess on Burroughs Mars. Originally Aelita's Martian colony is a survival of Atlantis.

We know that the Atlanteans & the Deep Ones were competing for the same natural resources, materials, & land areas  this made competition & infiltration inevitable.  This collision course would once again rear itself when on 'Old Earth' when in  3994 a group of Deep One tainted river pirates under the control of Captain Kordon, Queen of the River Pirates attempted to steal the treasure of the Moks the fire lances of the ancients. This happened near Norfolk Virginia in the Treasure of the Moks episode of Thundarr The Barbarian. Later near Mount Rushmore, South Dakota Thundarr & co. would tackle a group of  Atlanteans Amazons who had used Great Race time travel technology to cast their minds ahead in time. Their queen had her rule taken over by Stryia, a Deep One tainted evil witch. These forces appeared in the
Attack of the Amazon Women of Thundarr The excellent The World of Thundarr The Barbarian Sourcebook -- Final Version For Mutant Future contains a great version of Stryia and her underwater Amazons.
Both C.L. Moore & Leigh Brackett would use similar artifacts to connect their work with both Edgar Rice Burroughs & Robert Howard's King Kull of Atlantis. When in The Mirrors of Tuzun Thune King Kull's consciousness is almost drawn away into an alternative world someplace in the time stream.

"Then came a day when Kull seemed to catch glimpses of strange lands; there flitted across his consciousness dim thoughts and recognitions. Day by day he had seemed to lose touch with the world; all things had seemed each succeeding day more ghostly and unreal; only the man in the mirror seemed like reality. Now Kull seemed to be close to the doors of some mightier worlds; giant vistas gleamed fleetingly; the fogs of unreality thinned; “form is shadow, substance is illusion; they are but shadows” sounded as if from some far country of his consciousness. He remembered the wizard’s words and it seemed to him that now he almost understood — form and substance, could not he change himself at will, if he knew the master key that opened this door? What worlds within what worlds awaited the bold explorer?
The man in the mirror seemed smiling at him closer, closer — a fog enwrapped all and the reflection dimmed suddenly — Kull knew a sensation of fading, of change, of merging...
“Kull!” the yell split the silence into a million vibratory fragments!
Mountains crashed and worlds tottered as Kull, hurled back by the frantic shout, made a superhuman effort, how or why he did not know.

A crash, and Kull stood in the room of Tuzun Thune before a shattered mirror, mazed and half blind with bewilderment. There before him lay the body of Tuzun Thune, whose time had come at last, and above him stood Brule the Spear-slayer, sword dripping red and eyes wide with a kind of horror."

Does this mean that in fact the Barsoomians of 'Old Mars' are actually Atlanteans? Could the Deep Ones of Venus from ERB's Escape on Venus & numerous other 'Old Venus' science fantasy stories hint at a symbolic relationship between the humans & near humanoid races of the old solar system? I think so.


Leigh Brackett & C.L. Moore map out the relationship between the god like alien races that have their roots in HP Lovecraft & the Lovecraft circle's Mythos based mythology. Otis Albert Kline's Venus follows the same type of vein & there are Atlantean roots & ruins within his Planet Of Peril series.



The legacy of Atlantis can be seen throughout the Old Solar System & the influence of Atlantis echoes through out tradition of weird fiction and old school science fantasy gaming.

More To Come

This post is not an attempt to violate the copyrights or trademarks of any 
of the films nor properties named in this post. All ideas are for a 
private table top rpg campaign. None of the ideas or opinions expressed 
in this post are meant to violate the trademarks nor copy rights of any 
of the table top rpgs discussed nor are they in away responsible for the
 thoughts or opinions of the author. The writing, ideas, and opinions 
are copyrighted and trade marked to the author and Dark Corner 
productions. This post is for entertainment & educational purposes 
only. 

Cha'alt By Venger Satanis For Crimson Dragon Slayer D20, O5R, & OSR Game Session Report Number One

"Who has the balls to confront this dark psychic force?

Cha'alt is the beast of a book (218 pages) I've been working on for the past year.  It's a ruined world focusing on a couple of introductory dungeons before getting to the main event - the megadungeon known as The Black Pyramid.  

The Black Pyramid is like nothing you've ever seen before.  Unique design, purpose, feel, magic items, NPCs, monsters, factions, motives, agendas, strangeness, the works!"

Well, actually we've got the balls to actually play a bit of Cha'alt  & its pretty massive megadungeon especially if your on the other side of the screen. DM Steve my friend & fellow dungeon master reminded me that I owed him a game today. So he's been prepping his own game of the megadungeon of Cha'alt. This game session goes all of the way back to last year when I got a chance to get down & dirty with DM Steve's Liberation of the Demon Slayer game session.  We died about half way through the module over the course of three 0r f0ur months of play. I would later gain my review on the Islands of Purple Putrescence. 

So I've with drawn my review of Venger Satanis's Cha'alt book from Drivethurpg.  And before anyone even starts with me about how there was any shenanigans between me & Venger. Well, he doesn't even know about me taking down the Cha'alt review. I was playing my wizard Shifty McManner & several of our group of players were using characters that I'd seen a couple of years ago in Revelry in Torth . So we're dealing with masked wearing bandits, warriors, & clerics from some of the most treasonous bastards to walk across the shifting sands. We had a sum total of five players & our PC's were bound together  by a mission to the Black Pyramid. We started out in a local bar & immediately got into a fight with a local map seller. He was a part of some sleazoid thieves guild & things started to go wrong right out of the gate. We used Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea with a mix of Venger's Cha'alt material. So tonight's game had a very heavy mix of Sword & Sorcery coupled with a miasma of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert Howard, & lots of Lovecraft. We had masked displaced royals mixed in with former cultists turned cleric.
This wasn't my usual party of adventurers but a group of masked bastards Hell bent on getting to the Black Pyramid. All of our party were for the most part humans with some Elves scattered in. 

A sword thrust into the map maker made things very complicated for our party right outta of the gate. We fled into the desert as the crossbow bolts made us fleet into the depths of the Incel Cantina. We almost got set up by a crew of skeevers! The plan was to capture our two Amazon warriors & murder us. We got the drop on two of the bastards & my wizard cast a sleep spell on the rest making short work of them.  Then doubling back around we re entered Gamma Incel Cantina. The place is filled with the slime of several universes & we weren't about to let our guard down. We caught up with Yerck: Human; scruffy; stained overalls; tech specialist; has done side-work for sexual performance art and terrorist cell Tangerine Wet Dream. Again not an alien to trust. After a rather lengthy bargaining session we were able to secure passage on a caravan going through the desert. But then our cleric got into a fight with a demonic mercenary just outside the cantina. We got booted outta the place & luckily just managed to survive the bouncer thing that ejected us.
Outside of the cantina we picked up a strange albino wizard as a hireling. He was looking for employment & we could us an extra spell slinger. Chella the Amazing  was stranded on Cha'alt after the events of the Liberation of the Demon Slayer module.


We ended the session taking our place on some lizard thing mounts & a trading caravan we booked passage on as caravan guards. All together the session went very well & Cha'alt plays a lot better then it first read in my estimation. Personally I need to lighten up a bit when it comes to fifth edition games. Over all the Cha'alt setting plays very well & Glynn Seal of Monkey Blood's cartography was rock solid once again.
Overall I'd give Cha'alt a solid five for play, writing, and design after actually playing it. 

Lycanoid Mutates A Monster For Your Old School Campaigns

Lycanoid Mutates

No Encountered :1d6

Alignment: Chaotic

Movement:120'

Armor Class: 5

Hit dice:3

Attacks: Bite or  1(weapon)

Damage: 1d4 or weapon

Save:F4

Morale:9

Hoard Class:X

XP:20

 A product of Hodgkin's Law of Parallel Planet Development are these monsters who come from a world where WW II boiled down into the worst dirty Atomic War seen out side of Earth's past. These monsters are unholy experiments combining the worst of werewolves, man, & orc strands into these hybrid abominations. These creatures will work for anyone or anything who can meet their price & their standards of service. 

These monstrous hybrids travel the space lanes raping, pillaging, & looting where they can & however they can. They use a combination of WWII style weapons combined with lightning quick raids.

They are cannibals of the highest order & will not hesitate to kill in the blink of an eye. While they can not shape change they can go into a berserk mode before combat gaining +1 to all attacks. 

After 3 rounds have passed since they received wounds  they will regenerate 3 hit points per round there after. They rule their tribes through a combination of brutal force, military style discipline & pure carnage.

 They use knives, guns, blood, & thunder as their hall marks. They will steal any space craft present to add to their arsenal.

 

The world where they originally came from is now so much atomic rubble but since they are a product of  Nazi super science, unholy religion, & pure madness they continue to terrorize the space lanes. Many will commit suicide rather then fall into the hands of these vermin.

 

These units operate in 6 man teams & are armed with archaic weapons from WWII. Most often machine guns doing 1d4 damage with a range of 60'. They may do a biting attack as well for 1d3 points of damage & with a 30% of causing a disease of a most heinous nature such as the red death or plague. They may be rebuked or turned by a cleric due to their unholy natures.

 

They typically have space craft capable of  making a limited number of jumps 1d4 & with a range of 1d20 light years.

All images belong to their respective copy right holders & this is a fan creation. An American Werewolf In London is copyrighted trademarked  to Universal Pictures. This has been done under the fair trade & use act.  All images found through google image search.