The Elder Thing Essence For Your Old School Campaigns

"Dr. Wells: What are you going to astound the scientific world with this time?

Professor Saxton: You'll read about it in the Society's annual report. A remarkable fossil.

Dr. Wells: Fossil? But you've got something live in there, I heard it.

Professor Saxton: You're mistaken!

Dr. Wells: You won't need to feed it then.

Professor Saxton: The occupant hasn't eaten in two million years.

Dr. Wells: That's one way to economize on food bills."
Horror Express 1972 

Among the frozen wastes of old Earth the mummified  remains of a certain group of the Voormi race have been found in the furthermost reaches of that ancient world & on far flung Hyperborean colony worlds. These things are not what they appear to be. An ancient circle of one hundred black wizards of the Elder Things had transferred their essence into their Voormi servants. Some retreated to the ice and snows to preserve their legacy while others went out among the stars to continue their long wars with the Yithians & the Spawn of Cthulhu their ancient enemies. From time to time their ether ships can be found floating in the blackness of the Outer Darkness .



They expanded their spirals among a faction of Elder Things who worshiped the toad-god Tsathoggua but were considered outcasts among the others of their kind. Even as the Elder Things retreated below the ice of their undersea city in what would become Antarctic.Many long to return to one of the Elder Thing home worlds located "between Hydra and Argo Navis".

Elder Thing Essence In
Voormi Body 

  No encountered: Unique 

 Alignment:Lawful Evil (with Chaotic tendencies)

 Size: Medium
Move: 50
Dexterity: 11 

Armor: 5
Hit Dice: 3+2
No of Attacks: weapon, melee, or gaze (see below) 

Damage:1d6+2/1d6+2
Saving Throw: 15
Morale:9
Experience: 2000
Treasure:B 

• Can animate 1d30 dead victims treat as zombies 
• Capable of casting 3rd level black wizard spells after 1d8 victims 
• Very dangerous and cunning capable of using or making super science relics

 



Over millions of years time there is debasement of the intellect of these monster's minds until only the base cunning remains. They must spend a great deal of time murdering and gathering the intelligence of their victims to regain their once great minds again. This is done by gaze attack within 20 feet of the victim. The victim must save vs death or have its brain cooked as all of the memories are sucked out in one fell swoop. They will seek out the most intelligent or convenient victims to attack growing & changing their intellects as quickly as they can. Each and every time its abilities are used the eyes glow with a terrible insanity inducing red glow & those around it must save vs fear or flee from those horrid red glowing orbs. Victims will have white pupils & smooth brains from having their minds sucked out and eaten by the essence.
There is a twenty percent chance of detecting the monster through the corruption found in the eons on old eyes of the thing's evil existence.


These monsters intellects grow exponentially & are capable of operating & creating complex mechanisms from far more primitive artifacts or wasteland relics. As time goes on they will jump bodies sending forward their corrupted life essence into another vessel with a 90% chance of taking over a victim. Because of their association & worship of Tsathoggua his favored ones Voormian corruption follows such soul transfers. There will always be a random sign of such horrid alien transference of the life essence within their new vessels.
Random Voormian Corruption Table 

1. Horrid claw the monsters gains a1d6 +1 to all melee damage from the ragged clawed hand of it
2. Red eye of corruption - Something went wrong in the soul transference and one of the vessels eyes is always a glowing shade of red in the darkness 
3. Aura of Fear - The local time space continuum is shot through with micro currents at the creature's soul passage  & all creatures below two hit points will react in fear of the monster's new vessel. 
4. 'I don't remember you' - The soul transfer process has shaken recent memories loose and it might mean a misstep for the monster. 
5. Hair of the Monster - the vessel sprouts alien animal looking hair on its back and arms in odd patches. 
6.  One eye has been blinded during the transfer and its vary obvious to anyone looking at its milky white surface. 
7. Skin of the Animal - A strange mix up has caused a previous victim's essence to rise to the surface and there are alien bits of skin here & there. 
8.  Fangs of Horror - The fangs of the apes things rise up during the soul transference and now the horror gains a 1d4 +3 bite attack 
9. The Claws of the Enemy - The horror gains two claws capable of doing 1d6 per swipe from its ancestors. 
10.  Hold in Fear - The beast's gaze is horrid as it its insane experiences are transferred into its facial expression acting as a hold person spell once per day. Victims will pass out from the visions of the creature's past they see but not remember once the spell is broken. 
11. Song of the Insane - The monster may whistle or sing some snatch of an ancient alien song or tune that completely unnerves its victims  for 1d6 rounds 
12. A Bit About History - The monster reveals some awful truth about existence that momentarily shatters its victim's faith in life itself. The victim is over come with the weight of depression and horror for 1d10 rounds.  
13. Visions of Death - The creature momentarily catch's its victim's eyes foreshadowing some future death vision for a second haunting its victims for 1d6 rounds with fear and loathing 
14. 'The horror of it all'  - There is something completely not right about the new body of the monster and everyone knows it instinctively. 
15. The creature can temporarily level drain its victims for 1d4 rounds and they will become enfeebled by the experience for 1d6 rounds afterward.
16. The monster's hand's change from human to 'other' back again within a few rounds. Anything carried is dropped. 
17. 'The claws!' The creature spontaneously grows claws adding +3 to their damage. But the claws retract painfully into muscle sheaths. 
18. 'Tears of blackness' the creature leaks tar like tears that have a serious poisonous competent to them. Anyone exposed to them must save vs poison. 
19. 'The corruption within' the muscles of the creature spasm & abnormal weird muscles move beneath the skin of the monster. It is both disconcerting & painful at the same time. The monster gains +2 on all strength & constitution checks. 
20. 'The Essence Within' the creature gains +1 on all wisdom rolls as it recalls some ancient nugget of information from one of its past hosts! 
    All information, pictures, etc. are taken from Horror Express a public domain film with Peter Cushing and Sir Christopher Lee.

Set Up, Back Stage, & Lovecraftian Maintenance For Dungeons With Adventurer,Conqueror, King, Arduin, OSR, & Classic Old School Flavors

The concept of the kilodungeon goes back further then most folks realize & pops up in places that dungeon master's least expect it. All the way back to T1 The Village of Hommlet By Gary Gygax. Hommlet's moat house is the perfect metaphor or preview of coming attractions for PC's before they get to the main event.



Everything about Hommlet is the perfect PC base that mirrors many of the elements later found in the the rest of the Temple of Elemental Evil. That is once its been cleared of any & all resistance by the player characters. The dive into the moat house is a dive into the evil of the Underworld infecting the rest of the campaign world. That is to say that its a boil on the face of world & its not one to be taken lightly. This is a mini dungeon setting with plenty of 'shoot from the hip encounters'. The second the PC's enter this place is the second that they're taking on Chaos in all of its glory! Chaos in Advanced or Basic Dungeons & Dragons has always been there as soon as the player or dungeon master has read his first monster alignment that says 'Chaotic' or 'Chaotic Evil'.



Oh and if you don't think that the occult forces of Law & Chaos are just as important in OSR games such as Adventurer,Conqueror, King? Well let me let you feast your eyes on the Kickstarter for Secrets of The Undercity;
"The adventure takes place in the Auran Empire campaign setting, the default setting for ACKS. The eponymous Nethercity lies below the city of Cyfaraun, just fifty miles northwest of Türos Tem, making it a perfect sequel to our introductory adventure The Sinister Stone of Sakkara. But if you don't play in the Auran Empire, don't worry - a special appendix in the book offers advice on how to adapt the adventure for use with our Kanahu setting or with your own favorite campaign world. The Nethercity can be placed under any long-inhabited urban settlement that's changed hands between law and chaos over the centuries."
The really important bit here is,"The Nethercity can be placed under any long-inhabited urban settlement that's changed hands between law and chaos over the centuries."This is exactly what we see in T1 The Temple of Elemental Evil By Gary Gygax & Frank Mentzer. The moat house of Village of Hommlet is the set up for the bigger & nastier temple which we got a taste of.

The Auran Empire campaign setting,has had its major bush fires with Chaos before & destroyed it outright time & again. But Chaos is a festering disease that breeds in the hearts & minds of the campaign setting. The results can be & are catastrophic for a world. Don't believe me? Just take a look at Barsoom whose Green Martians consumed the entire world of Mars & whose presence is found all over early Dungeons & Dragons adventures encounter tables. Edgar Rice Burroughs creations are some of the most destructive warriors your party is ever likely to encounter. And they are the symptom of a much larger disease. The death of your campaign world should the forces of Chaos get the upper hand.


For world of Dave A Hargrave's Arduin there's one dungeon that consumes the heart of chaos & comes back for more that's Death Heart. This living & breathing chaos magnet lays at the core of a tractless wilderness. The place is pure evil, simple & quick to understand as an adventure location. Its a horrid place that deals in pure chaos and should not be placed too close to a civilized area. There's no warm up dungeon location for Death Heart merely a lone sentinel of evil & choke point for the forces of chaos in Arduin.


 Now I've talked about Lovecraft's Dream cycle & I'm going to again. The Underworld of the Dreamlands represents what happens after the battles have been lost & one. There was an apocalyptic battle in the Dreamlands, the cost was horrid for the gods of Earth. A deal was struck & the role of the gods of Earth was reduced to a mere shadow. Then you might ask where are the forces that fought in this apocalyptic event? Does the Vale of Pnath contain them? Yes it does but these of Chaos forces are right where they were when they were banished! The ghouls & ghasts are some of the most common inhabitants of HP Lovecraft's Underworld. But its in the Gugs of HP Lovecraft's The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath (1926) that we get our answers about this apocalypse.
The Gugs were partially responsible for this apocalyptic event, "The gugs were banished to the underworld by the earth’s gods, the Great Ones, for an unnamed blasphemy. Now they reside in a terrifying, underground city, dwelling in lofty, round, cyclopean towers. Nearby, colossal monoliths mark the cemetery of the gugs."

Whose responsible for what happened during all of these events? Well the answer is writ large all over the events of the background of The Dream-quest of Unknown Kadath & its easily Nyarlathotep.

 He holds the keys & the ruination of mankind. Chaos was given a stale mate  but the cost was terrible to the dreams of mankind. There are more hints about it in the writings of Zothique by Clark Ashton Smith.

 The real question for Secrets of the Nethercity what's the mega dungeon that Secrets is warming the characters up for? After the events of the adventure location for Adventurer, Conqueror, King what comes next. This is only taste of what's to come & we get a similar vein of adventure in T1 Village of Hommlet.
Secrets of the Nethercity's Cyfaraun might be the PC's base of operations for connecting the kilodungeons of the Nethercity with some of the upper levels of ACK's Dwimmmermount. Many of the hoards described in this product have direct corroborations with Labyrinth Lord's treasure & horde tables.

Chaos never sleeps & sooner or later the PC's are going to be confronting it again. This is where Dark Albion comes in very handy. Cults of Chaos for Dark Albion goes down exactly the same route as Barbarian Conquerors of Kanahu . Lovecraft's mythos forces are chaos unbound in all their glory & they're dangerous as Hell itself.
This is the same treatment that we see of the Mythos from the Arduin books where Lovecraft's creations jump from one civilized world to another destroying wantonly and dangerously again & again.

Most folks don't know that the Arduin books don't have this take in the main rule books but in the adventures themselves as a part of the monsters & NPC forces of the dungeons of Dave A. Hargrave. These forces though are left overs from apocalyptic events of Arduin's campaign setting.
Here are six rules for bringing the pain of the Mythos to your favorite science fantasy game setting: 

1. Its not always about Cthulhu, there are literally legions of Great Old Ones & Outer Gods to use in adventure settings. 
2. Alien artifacts & treasure can convey far more then miles of exposition during an adventure leading to rolls to help figure out the item 
3. Make up stuff on your own, got a Lovecraft scholar among your ranks than create your own Old One or Outer god for fun & profit during adventures. 
4. Don't get bound by the scale & BS of the Mythos. If you need a god or other thing to be certain way for an adventure then change it. There are so many contradictions in the Weird Tales literature. 
5. Make the Mythos your own & let it work to enrich & not hinder your campaign world. 
6. Earn treasure & items as needed during adventures especially with a cult or mythos flavor.

Using places of Mystery & Magick along with 1d10 Random Ancient Places Of Magic And Mystery Encounter Table For Your Old School Campaigns

   There are places of ancient power that the flow of time and power moves around as water seemingly flows around a rock in a fast running stream. Places were the flow of magic and mystery call to adventurers,out laws and thieves.These ancient relics of a bygone age hold power and wizards seek to tap into the web of the occult that reach across the timeless void and dimensions. Here then are a small selection of wasteland locations that will snare your adventurers in webs of mystery danger and the deep end of magic. 

1d10 Random Ancient Places Of Magic 

And Mystery Encounter Table 

1. An ancient pile of standing stones and henges that are aligned with the comings and goings of damned stars. Anyone tapping into the powers of this place will receive 1d4 random spells and 10% chance of encountering some ancient Lovecratain guardian horror. 
2. A stone obelisk so ancient that the writing has worn from its surface.This black ancient place of mystery is a portal an ancient gate into some hellish dimension. Things lay in wait for any foolish magician, occultist, or other greedy person. There is a small treasure of 50,000 gold pieces secreted someplace on the site and a cult of ghouls guards the place. 
3. The ruins of some ancient downed airship that has been converted into a temple to the Old Ones. Here mutants come to worship, the place sparks with weird occult power and there are numerous artifacts scattered throughout the place. 
4. A pyramid of cut crystal glass blocks lock easily into place. The pyramid is the home to an ancient horror's soul and it will devour anyone's soul who gets close. The place is a draw for those seeking treasures. 
5. A massive underground pit of a ruin that seethes with raw occult power and grants 1d4 spells to those who wish to listen to those who listen to the wisdom from beyond the pale. 
6. A massive copper coloured structure calls to adventurers and is actually the projection of a god's essence trapped in stone. Those accessing this power will be struck by a horrid vision of insanity and power. They receive 1d6 spells but will be stunned for 1d10 hours. 
7. A massive floating castle upon a cloud is actually a beautiful location of some ancient tragic event. The place is time haunted by the ghosts of the ancients and they're relics and artifacts have been left behind. The place grants access to spells from the white and grey schools of magic. Ancient wraiths prowl halls of this place. 
8. A massive downed wreckage of some strange dimensional craft exists in many locations in space time and is guarded by elemental demons. There are ancient alien books and scrolls that will grant 1d8 spells to those spending 1d6 days here. 
9. There is a massive copper door set into the ground that leads to a deep well like dungeon and set of tunnels. These were home to a highly advance race of weird bat creatures and cave demons. There are weird echoing songs that will teach 1d4 spells of the Gray set to those who know the words of power. 
10. An incredible dungeon complex set within the skull of a being of power's head. The place still echoes with the monsters who share the place with the decayed portion of this thing's brain. It will telepathically teach two levels of spells but has a 30% chance of driving the supplicant insane temporarily.

Ancient places of power are rarely used for old school adventures these days in the past we've seen tons of ruins, tumbled down partially destroyed dungeons. But when was the last time that we've seen an temple of ancient astronomy or special stellar alignments used for an old school game. There are several OSR adventures such as Lamentations of the Flame Princess's Tower of the Star Gazer. But I have yet to see an adventure spun around the idea of an Archaeoastronomy location used for summoning demons, Lovecraftian gates & monsters,etc. And yet there are hints throughout old school several modules, most notably S4 The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth by Gary Gygax  which has this entire theme of weirdness & star spawned  dread throughout. Sure its in Greyhawk but your party knows is in a place of occult power & deadly intent.


Even other reviewers noted the background intentions with S4; "Jim Bambra reviewed the adventure for White Dwarf. He gave it 9/10 overall, with 9/10 for presentation, rules, playability, enjoyment, skill, and complexity. Bambra noted that the module ended a long time off for Gary Gygax, and was "very tough" and that good play was stressed in the introduction. Sub par play quickly ended the story, but the rewards of powerful magic and the satisfaction of completing a difficult task made it worthwhile. He also noted that the adventure came with a 32-page booklet with 30 new monsters and a small amount of new magic. Not all the new creatures are featured in the plot, but they can be used by the DM in other adventures. Also, magical diagrams are given an in-depth treatment, including their creation and effectiveness"
And this sort of air permeates  S4 The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth by Gary Gygax  effectively pulling in the players & dungeon masters with a classic module. 

Two Great Tastes Of Purple - Adventurer, Conqueror, King Rpg Combined With Venger Satanis's Megadungeon Cha'alt

I've been doing a lot of rereading of the Adventurer, Conqueror, King rpg over the last couple of days. And its gonna be a couple of days before I get back to DM Steve's game again. As a long haul trucker he's got a full schedule & lots going on. But I've been thinking about Kort'thalis Publishing's mega dungeon Cha'alt by Venger Satanis. Now this seems like an unlikely pairing but its not as far off as you might think. I'd take Venger's megadungeon & then pair it off with ACK's Barbarian Conquerors of Kanahu™ (BCK)  by Omer Joel, & Alexander Macris.



So not only are there Lovecraftian races, science fantasy PC classes, etc. but much of the setting material for BCK fits the Cha'alt by Venger Satanis standard it incorporates it quite nicely. In fact given the material some of Cha'alt might be prime real estate that our PC's might want to take over! There are lots of systems in Cha'alt that can be used to enhance BCK in a workable way for PC's. But if I was going to do exactly this I'd love to incorporate another VS creation I'm talking about Gamma Turquoise: Santa Fe Starport.  Drop the Alpha Blue Rpg rules for space craft & then use your own from ACK's Barbarian Conquerors of Kanahu™ (BCK) 


Cha'alt has lots of things going for it but the megadungeon really could be used to enhance an existing OSR setting. Gamma Turquoise: Santa Fe Starport gives a place for the characters to take over & to get a really solid way of generating cash for themselves between adventures as well as prime opportunity to steal several space craft. Given you've got an astronaut class from BCK's this is prime opportunity to get the Earthers to Cha'alt or Kanahu.
 Megadungeons don't exist in a void & these are often the source of great evil in the universe. Think about it, there is an appendix in ACK's  for  incorporating supposed heat sinks of evil into campaigns. Power begets power and a place like Cha'alt are going to attract every scum & outlaw from across the planes. Its only going to be a matter of time before Earthers are gonna expand onto some mess like the Black Pyramid.
 

The question becomes what happens to the rest of humans stuck on Cha'alt. Will the PC's use their growing power for good or evil? There are other options as well a review of the Adventurer, Conqueror, King rpg from Green Skeleton gaming from 2016 gives several opinions on the game in the comments section. These are insightful for the sort of book keeping involved. The wandering gamest blog gives some very disconcerting opinions about the bookkeeping involved in such a campaign also from 2016.
But then gives several house rules & PC class options that are pretty sweet?!
There's also the option of running such a science fantasy campaign with Castles & Crusades which believe it or not is possible. 
 But as always I'm gonna have to wait to run such a campaign until DM Steve gets back into town. Or is this my only option? Watch this space for updates on this. 

Six More Ways To Get The Most Out of David A. Hargrave's Arduin Grimoires For Your Old School Games

So the usual controversies have been brewing in OSR land & pretty much I'm getting back into reading through the original Dungeons & Dragons along side David A. Hargrave's  Arduin Grimoires again. This is going to be about the fifth or sixth time I've tripped through The Arduin Grimoire, Welcome to Skull Tower, and The Runes Of Doom.


The best way of handling this material is to look at the modularity Arduin systems. Then decide what your players want & need for the campaign setting. The rules set has a certain familiarity to those gamers who have delved into Arduin at their leisure. Gamers & dungeon masters know that a  complete, viable, and playable Old School game system is found in the original Arduin books. Accessing that system can seem daunting at times.


 

Don't get intimidated by the Arduin books or material, deciding what to use is the key to bringing the old school flavor into the game for the players.


So here are six ways of bringing more Arduin into your adventures;

1. You are not David A. Hargrave & you don't have to run Arudin as he would. Gasp, yes that's right you don't have to bend over backwards to try & fill the shoes of another dungeon master. One of the keys to Arduin or even Gary Gygax's material is the accessibility of it. Find your rhythm & flow as a dungeon master when reading Arduin & then apply it as necessary. The players will often without realizing it give you the yard stick needed during conversation & play. 
2. Adjust the weirdness & gonzo level as the game dictates. I can't stress this enough. There's a solid set of actual playable races, PC classes, etc. within these systems. Let the players guide the game through actual play & not 'adventure' script writing. 
3. There's a lot of give & take within the Arduin magic systems so apply it as it comes when the wizard players start delving into it. Don't get discouraged & there's nothing wrong with going back to D&D's Vancian  spell system. 
4. Monsters can be extremely lethal from Arduin because this system was from a time when it was players vs dungeon master. If the players want to play this way & I've been in a few of these games then more power too them. 
5. Arduin systems are best used before & during actual play. The Arduin system & books are fun. They can & should be shared with players to get the most fun & utility out of them. 
6. Arduin dungeons have a lot to offer but take them sparingly when mixing them with published TSR modules. There are two different approaches to game design when looking at the Arduin dungeons vs the classic TSR modules. The modules are formulaic in some regards & the Arduin dungeons are competition convention  modules unto themselves.In fact in many ways they form the basis for the competition or tournament style adventures. I've learned a lot from reading, studying, going through tournament modules. There's a lot of good stuff hiding within the Arduin adventures & dungeons.

Labyrinth Lord Free Across The Planes! The One Man Crusade Continues!

So yeah, I've been on this one man crusade for Labyrinth Lord for the past three or four weeks now. Why?! Well because the game doesn't get enough attention damn it! So its been an interesting uphill battle to say the least.
So I've gone back to the source material in this case way back to the Saturday, April 21st, 2012 Black Gate article by Daniel Proctor as to why he created Labyrinth Lord.

Edit and now it seems that Dan just launched the Kickstarter for the Labryth Lord Advanced Companion with a dozen kickstarter cover options available today!

Already the kickstarter is half way funded! Seems that LL's on the uptick again! But how does the game stack up against Swords & Wizardry?Well in my research on the game I came across,  How does Swords & Wizardry differ from Labyrinth Lord?

Yes I totally posted this the other day but then I contrasted it with this Dragon foot forum thread; " BECMI, B/X, Dark Dungeons or Labyrinth Lord?"

" LL is derived from Moldvay/Cook/Marsh Basic/Expert but instead of a level 14 cap it goes up to level 20. LL is nice as it may not take your character up to level 36, but you do get to level 20 (with some classes) instead of level 14."
This was posted by MageInBlack
But the interesting bit was using classic AD&D modules with Basic

"Oh yeah, I use AD&D modules all the time. I convert the module to suit the PC's, not the other way around. Except for the obvious basics such as Armor Class, Damage, Hit Dice, Monsters, Saving Throws and Spells, there's really not a whole lot of conversion to do. Honestly, most of it can be quickly taken care of "on the fly" while running the module. As long as you're familiar with whatever version of "Classic D&D" you've chosen, it's really a no brainer."
This is entirely unnecessary when it comes to Labyrinth Lord because of the Labyrinth Lord Advanced Companion. The no art versions of LL & The Advance Companion are  entirely free by the way here.

If you still don't believe me then check out this thread over here at the RPG Geek site from 2014 about the Advanced Companion. 

Why would you want such a clone when B/X Dungeons & Dragons is readily available?! Not everyone has access to the B/X books folks. Seriously there are folks who still in 2018 don't have access to the internet & don't even know about the OSR. We have a tendency to think that the OSR is high profile. Recently I gave copies of both the Labyrinth Lord Rule book & the Advanced Labyrinth Lord Companion to a friend whose only now getting into the OSR.

One of this gentleman's players was a former Spelljammer dungeon master & was complaining that the OSR doesn't have any campaign settings like the classic second edition setting.
Now I've posted about this little matter before but another OSR clone that I love that I don't talk about is Dark Dungeons From Gurbintroll Games.

This wonderful little OSR retroclone has a number of  one very interesting wrinkles in it. One of those happens to be cross compatible rules for planejammers in it! They're not called that but that's exactly what they are so have at thee across the planes! Did I mention that Dark Dungeons is also a free PDF? Its one of my all time favorite clones & does an excellent job!

Dark Dungeons Is Available Free Here!

Set Up, Back Stage, & Lovecraftian Maintenance For Dungeons With Adventurer,Conqueror, King, Arduin, OSR, & Classic Old School Flavors

Its about 2:00 A.M., I've been off line most of the day with work & some of the general necessities of life. As it stands at this moment several of Dark Albion's elements have been re introduced again into my general campaign.  The concept of the kilodungeon has shifted its way back into the consciousness of the OSR with Autarch’s eighth Kickstarter project: The Secrets of the Nethercity. The concept of the kilodungeon goes back further then most folks realize & pops up in places that dungeon master's least expect it. All the way back to T1 The Village of Hommlet By Gary Gygax. Hommlet's moat house is the perfect metaphor or preview of coming attractions for PC's before they get to the main event.



Everything about Hommlet is the perfect PC base that mirrors many of the elements later found in the the rest of the Temple of Elemental Evil. That is once its been cleared of any & all resistance by the player characters. The dive into the moat house is a dive into the evil of the Underworld infecting the rest of the campaign world. That is to say that its a boil on the face of world & its not one to be taken lightly. This is a mini dungeon setting with plenty of 'shoot from the hip encounters'. The second the PC's enter this place is the second that they're taking on Chaos in all of its glory! Chaos in Advanced or Basic Dungeons & Dragons has always been there as soon as the player or dungeon master has read his first monster alignment that says 'Chaotic' or 'Chaotic Evil'.



Oh and if you don't think that the occult forces of Law & Chaos are just as important in OSR games such as Adventurer,Conqueror, King? Well let me let you feast your eyes on the Kickstarter for Secrets of The Undercity;
"The adventure takes place in the Auran Empire campaign setting, the default setting for ACKS. The eponymous Nethercity lies below the city of Cyfaraun, just fifty miles northwest of Türos Tem, making it a perfect sequel to our introductory adventure The Sinister Stone of Sakkara. But if you don't play in the Auran Empire, don't worry - a special appendix in the book offers advice on how to adapt the adventure for use with our Kanahu setting or with your own favorite campaign world. The Nethercity can be placed under any long-inhabited urban settlement that's changed hands between law and chaos over the centuries."
The really important bit here is,"The Nethercity can be placed under any long-inhabited urban settlement that's changed hands between law and chaos over the centuries."
This is exactly what we see in T1 The Temple of Elemental Evil By Gary Gygax & Frank Mentzer. The moat house of Village of Hommlet is the set up for the bigger & nastier temple which we got a taste of.

The Auran Empire campaign setting,has had its major bush fires with Chaos before & destroyed it outright time & again. But Chaos is a festering disease that breeds in the hearts & minds of the campaign setting. The results can be & are catastrophic for a world. Don't believe me? Just take a look at Barsoom whose Green Martians consumed the entire world of Mars & whose presence is found all over early Dungeons & Dragons adventures encounter tables. Edgar Rice Burroughs creations are some of the most destructive warriors your party is ever likely to encounter. And they are the symptom of a much larger disease. The death of your campaign world should the forces of Chaos get the upper hand.


For world of Dave A Hargrave's Arduin there's one dungeon that consumes the heart of chaos & comes back for more that's Death Heart. This living & breathing chaos magnet lays at the core of a tractless wilderness. The place is pure evil, simple & quick to understand as an adventure location. Its a horrid place that deals in pure chaos and should not be placed too close to a civilized area. There's no warm up dungeon location for Death Heart merely a lone sentinel of evil & choke point for the forces of chaos in Arduin.


 Now I've talked about Lovecraft's Dream cycle & I'm going to again. The Underworld of the Dreamlands represents what happens after the battles have been lost & one. There was an apocalyptic battle in the Dreamlands, the cost was horrid for the gods of Earth. A deal was struck & the role of the gods of Earth was reduced to a mere shadow. Then you might ask where are the forces that fought in this apocalyptic event? Does the Vale of Pnath contain them? Yes it does but these of Chaos forces are right where they were when they were banished! The ghouls & ghasts are some of the most common inhabitants of HP Lovecraft's Underworld. But its in the Gugs of HP Lovecraft's The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath (1926) that we get our answers about this apocalypse.
The Gugs were partially responsible for this apocalyptic event, "The gugs were banished to the underworld by the earth’s gods, the Great Ones, for an unnamed blasphemy. Now they reside in a terrifying, underground city, dwelling in lofty, round, cyclopean towers. Nearby, colossal monoliths mark the cemetery of the gugs."

Whose responsible for what happened during all of these events? Well the answer is writ large all over the events of the background of The Dream-quest of Unknown Kadath & its easily Nyarlathotep.

 He holds the keys & the ruination of mankind. Chaos was given a stale mate  but the cost was terrible to the dreams of mankind. There are more hints about it in the writings of Zothique by Clark Ashton Smith.

 The real question for Secrets of the Nethercity what's the mega dungeon that Secrets is warming the characters up for? After the events of the adventure location for Adventurer, Conqueror, King what comes next. This is only taste of what's to come & we get a similar vein of adventure in T1 Village of Hommlet.
Secrets of the Nethercity's Cyfaraun might be the PC's base of operations for connecting the kilodungeons of the Nethercity with some of the upper levels of ACK's Dwimmmermount. Many of the hoards described in this product have direct corroborations with Labyrinth Lord's treasure & horde tables.

Chaos never sleeps & sooner or later the PC's are going to be confronting it again. This is where Dark Albion comes in very handy. Cults of Chaos for Dark Albion goes down exactly the same route as Barbarian Conquerors of Kanahu . Lovecraft's mythos forces are chaos unbound in all their glory & they're dangerous as Hell itself. 
This is the same treatment that we see of the Mythos from the Arduin books where Lovecraft's creations jump from one civilized world to another destroying wantonly and dangerously again & again.

Most folks don't know that the Arduin books don't have this take in the main rule books but in the adventures themselves as a part of the monsters & NPC forces of the dungeons of Dave A. Hargrave. These forces though are left overs from apocalyptic events of Arduin's campaign setting.
Here are six rules for bringing the pain of the Mythos to your favorite science fantasy game setting: 

1. Its not always about Cthulhu, there are literally legions of Great Old Ones & Outer Gods to use in adventure settings. 
2. Alien artifacts & treasure can convey far more then miles of exposition during an adventure leading to rolls to help figure out the item 
3. Make up stuff on your own, got a Lovecraft scholar among your ranks than create your own Old One or Outer god for fun & profit during adventures. 
4. Don't get bound by the scale & BS of the Mythos. If you need a god or other thing to be certain way for an adventure then change it. There are so many contradictions in the Weird Tales literature. 
5. Make the Mythos your own & let it work to enrich & not hinder your campaign world. 
6. Earn treasure & items as needed during adventures especially with a cult or mythos flavor.
   

Arduin,The Underworld, Lovecraft, 'Kilodungeons', & More Science Fantasy & OSR Dungeon Commentary

Sewing machine repair work  pretty much defines my life & its been taking up most of my day today. I've had the thought bubbles about 'Kilodungeons' which seem to clock in at about 200 or more rooms. These dungeons have been brought back to attention by Adventurer, Conqueror, King's latest kickstarter for Secrets of the Nethercity;
"An epic "kilodungeon" with 240 location entries spread across 20 different dungeon sub-regions that can be explored in a nonlinear fashion over the course of your campaign."
The concept is much older then that however & it goes all the way back to Judge's Guild product lines. No scratch that, the concept belonged to Gary Gygax's Keep On The Borderlands .

The idea of the adventurer base campaign location being  right off the adventure location dungeon is a homage callback to B2 .
"A home base (the city of Cyfaraun) for use by your adventurers in between dungeon delves. The city is presented in summary format in the adventure itself, and the city and the sewers below it are presented in more detail in a supplement called Capital of the Borderlands (available at $20 and above pledge level). With every bonus goal, we'll expand the city and sewer levels!"




But its more then just a simple homage, when the PC's enter the lower levels of a dungeon such as the Caves of Chaos or even your home campaign they're treading on the entrances to the Underworld.

I mentioned the apocalpytic events of opening of mega dungeons the other day on this blog.

That wasn't by accident folks. The fact is that many early old school dungeons had levels or rooms that I've played in connected with the Underworld. In Dave Hargraves three Arduin books you've got the twenty two Hells & they're ripe with fallen cities, ancient ruins of alien civilizations, etc.




The Lovecraft circle of writers including Clark Ashton Smith all cite to varying degrees different aspects of the Underworld.  H.P. Lovecraft has his own version of the Underworld & in Lovecraft's novella The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath (1926) we get a glimpse of it.But there were hints of the alien nature of the Underworld going all the way back to Edgar Allen Poe & even older writers of weird fiction.
But all of these hint at the Fall of ancient & alien civilizations predating mankind but whose survivals live on in our dreams. Could it be that dungeons are actually sinks of evil which connect to these alien places attracting greater evil. A sort of ecology of madness & depravity which must be cleaned out from time to time lest the surrounding countryside & urban areas be destroyed?!
We get hints of this in Labyrinth Lord's Realms of Crawling Chaos but elsewhere in the Labyrinth Lord rules set. This actually goes back to original Dungeons & Dragons even the Basic/Expert rules have it with.



Make no mistake the mythos of H.P Lovecraft is chaos, horror, & insanity unbound, its the evil outside the door & its scratching to come in. Rpg Pundit's Dark Albion setting & Dark Albion's Cults of Chaos are perfect for rooting out & destroying the mythos in an inquisitor style game. All of this ties in perfectly with the dream worlds of Lord Dunsany where the Underworld is used to extremely good effect and he's essential reading for anyone looking to create solid dungeon worlds. 

When it comes to tying all of this in with science fantasy here's where it counts:

1. There are always hints of an ancient & forgotten civilization which is often alien & corrupt but don't give out too much detail during adventures let the players fill in the details. 
2. The hint of chaos is in the monsters & dungeon surroundings, again the adventure location is everything. 
3. Let the players do all of the heavy lifting when it comes to getting the most out of the science fantasy or the fantastic 
4. The adventure play is everything & the players have a good time but let them earn it in sweat, blood, and mud 
5. The Lovecraft circle of writers isn't the end all. Be sure to expand your scope into other writers to provide you the DM with everything.
6. Spare the treasure in favor of the mundane as well was the fantastic. Don't over indudge the players in this setting.

Next time more OSR material, the dangers of the other Apocalyptic Events of Mythology & the dungeons

Arduin, The Labyrinth Lord retroclone system, Science Fantasy & The OSR Dungeon Commentary

One of the things I've learned to do is to keep dungeon mastering tastes on a short leash. This means basically keeping my 'flip book animated attention' span in check when it comes to dungeon mastering. I own a good chunk of the Dave A. Hargrave rpg books & last night I 'ohhed' & 'ahhed' over certain science fantasy aspects of the books. But its not about me at all its about the players & their PC's struggles ascending up the long level ladder. The play is the thing thanks to Gary Gygax & David Lance "Dave" Arneson. Some days it feels like I'm the only one in my little corner of Connecticut doing my OSR thing. But I'm not! More on that another time!


You may not have noticed this but over the last week or so I've been on a one man quiet crusade for the Labyrinth Lord retroclone system. I've dialed it back down to a dull roar but Labyrinth Lord is the backbone the system for Adventurer, Conqueror, King rpg system. And I've taken it on the chin because of advancing the hobby cause of both Alexander Marcus & Rpg Pundit. But this is nothing new. This blog has gone from two thousand views to eight hundred to four hundred to two hundred. I'm not trying to reach everyone. I'm trying to reach those advancing the table top hobby of old school & OSR games. We need new blood in this hobby & taught in both the new techniques & to preserve the old ways of gaming. Do you want to make this hobby inclusive? Here's a character sheet, some dice, roll up a character, & let's get playing. Did your PC die? Roll up another one!


There are large differences between the values of Labyrinth Lord & say Swords & Wizardry. Don't believe me? Check this comparison out here. Swords & Wizardry has a dedicated fan base & community, this is fine. But for me LL is the choice especially for doing science fantasy style games.
I've said restraint is the really the watch word here & you can see that in Alexander Marcus's latest Adventurer, Conqueror, King rpg kick starter. The PC's advance in regular adventure path pattern even though the adventure campaign is far from ordinary;
"Secrets of the Nethercity is designed for a party of experienced mid-level adventurers and is stocked with sufficient monsters and treasure to advance them by four to six levels. As such it serves as a mid-level environment in which the adventurers can acquire the wealth and power they need to advance into high-level play. "



High level play is often fun but only when its achieved by slugging through PC levels. Dungeon masters have to realize that patience is a virtue for a DM & its about the play as much as the players enjoyment. This is where the meet point is for both old school & OSR game systems.
Lately for me I've been drooling over the old Planet Stories covers from the Forties & Fifties. These covers were great inspiration for my Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea second edition game campaign I've got coming up. The players seem excited by the prospect but its background is drawn more from Clark Ashton Smith then it is from Edgar Rice Burroughs.



Note that the heroines of Planet Stories always had some really well fleshed out backgrounds. I'm reminded of several of the charts in Arduin that I'd seen for PC backgrounds as the PC's levels go up with their experience.


Yes I posted this on G+ but doesn't that gun look like something straight out of AS&SH's radium pistol section. The fact is that science fantasy elements can be mixed in with traditional Dungeons & Dragons for more then mere window dressing. There are six ways that I observed that the Arduin rpg books did it successfully in my opinion;

1. Historical technologies & odd artifacts were mixed in liberally not over the top within dungeons & these were often artifact level treasures with whole adventure concepts built around them. They gave kingdoms a step up and advantage in warfare & battle. 
2. The mundane were often used as both window dressing & to give a more traditional veneer to the fantasy adventure but the science fantasy bubbled under the surface of the Arduin material.
3. Adventurers suffer for anything their taking out of the dungeon & suffer hard for any material that gets taken from a dungeon have a techno or scientist hireling to take care of treasures.
4. Science fantasy  adventure elements of the fantastic were often it seems mini adventure settings themselves isolated from main campaign locations in Arduin 
5. Arduin seems to owe more to Lord Dunsany in its fantasy as much as to Tolkien & Robert Howard. The conceits are very Seventies Sword & Sorcery here with the science fantasy taking a back seat when needed. 
6. PC's earn everything from the dungeons in blood, sweat, tears, & PC's. Arduin is harsh on the players as an old school game adventure should be.
   
   Next time Dark Albion & The Lovecraft underworld plus much more so stay tuned!

The Eyes of Satan aka The Elder Thing Essence Eyes For Your Old School Campaigns

Once the Elder Thing essence body jumps it leaves behind its corruption in the host body of its former victim. The eyes may be the window to the soul but these horrors beyond imaging leave some of their corruption & insanity in the corpses of their victims. The terror & corruption of the toad-god Tsathoggua is captured inside the souls of these monsters and spreads through the windows of the souls themselves.

The eyes of the essences victims retain the visions of all the horrors that the monster has seen & experienced. They float in the eye's fluid surfacing and sinking back into the alien horror's ocular organs. There will incredible secrets and hidden alien truths of the universe waiting to corrupt all who view these discarded organs. They are worth between 60,000 to 90,000 gold pieces each to certain alien alchemists & black wizards. These often mount the eyes into glass globes with a preservative liquid & then a light source is cast behind them to show the procession of forbidden ages of the monster has lived through. A wisdom check must be made for every 1d6 months of using the eyes to ensure the sanity of the wizard or cleric using them doesn't degrade too far.
Random 'What Have We Seen
In The Eyes of Satan?' Table




1. The true face of the horror that Elder Things worshiped and created life on Earth from! You will be stunned for 1d6 days with the dread cosmic horrors of it all but gain two new black magic spells.

2.The prehistoric primeval world is rife with terror as you see a shoggoth in all its glory feeding on a dinosaur's corpse sucking and oozing all of the gore and weirdness of it!
3.You see the true face of a Lovecraftian god! Pass out unless a save vs fear is made. You gain a cosmic insight and go up by two wisdom points but fear grips you for weeks afterward.
4. Around you are dozens of Mi Go warriors which you mow down with a strange bio mechanical god weapon of weird design, its constructional formula floods your human ape brain and you are stunned for 1d4 rounds with the cosmic insights but gain a point of intelligence.
5. A time space vortex opens infront of you as the ape thing at your feet pleads for its life but you toss it into the void for the Outer God to devour its soul. Suddenly the alien mind of the key and gate reveal a horrid cosmic truth and you gain 1d4 black magic spells.
6. A serpent man ruin stands around you and for a moment you can read the heady runes of the great serpent gods and have a brief understanding of the cosmic serpent and for a time can teleport 1d4 light years.
7. The cursed Yithians tower before you with their electric guns but you are quicker with a spell that does 1d8 points of damage to them in a 20 foot radius and now in the fragile human frame you might cast it again.
8. This orb contains the minds of countless Elder Things and you are going to transfer their souls forward in time. You know the sanity bending ways of time travel but pass out from the terrible revelations.
9. You see above you the horror of the monster priests of Cthulhu but you are chanting and chanting to some ancient horror beyond imagining to banish them. You know the chant of unmaking and may for 1d6 days banish any Mythos creature.
10. Your mind is filled with the summoning and command words of the Shoggoths use these things wisely.
11. The great cosmic truths of Delgar are yours for a time and you can summon the formless ones under the Earth and beyond the stars themselves. Summon Formless Spawn is a spell in your mind today.
12. The sign of twelve insanities cross over your tongue and for the next 1d6 hours you can create a symbol of insanity.
13. You know the secret words of command built into the dinosaur's genetic structure.
14. Before you is the treasure of the Elder Things and all you hear is the screams of the insane but those are your screams. Can you still recall what it was that was so valuable?
15. You know the location of the mother of all Shoggoths & what lies in the Outer Void. Gain 3 points of intelligence but can you stop screaming because of the dread cosmic revelations?