Review and Commentary of HM3 - The Chaos Halls of Belzir By Todd Hughes A Free Old School Adventure

Tonight I ran a group of players through a Moorcock Stormbringer style  retroclone game -
"The ancient halls of the long lost wizard/priest of chaos Belzir have been rediscovered. Can the party discover its secrets and find his legendary amulet?"

A module for 4-6 characters of levels 4-6.

Grab it it right over at Dragon's foot right over
HERE!  
Using HM3 - The Chaos Halls of Belzir By Todd Hughes

The adventure can be somewhat deadly and many of the monsters have distinctly Gothic attitude. The PCs were drawn across the retroclones although the levels were within the range of the module.
The maps are very well done. The play is rather quick and offers a pretty solid piece of entertainment for an evening. 

The PC's were drawn from across the multiverse to the Chaos Halls and began the exploration in earnest. The whole adventure went well as the PC's explored and explored further going down the rabbit hole as it were.



There some comments about Three Hearts and Three Lions being somewhat a partial inspiration for this adventure. As one of the PC's bought it at the claws of a rather nasty troll. The adventure seems better suited for a horror campaign rather then a tradition AD&D module and yet it works rather well as a Stormbringer inspired game! 

All characters and creatures are grouped  into "Law" and "Chaos" which suited the PC's just fine! The sword and sorcery tone of the adventure makes it interesting and quick for an evenings entertainment. We shall see if the players which to continue. 

 In the end I can recommend HM3 - The Chaos Halls of Belzir By Todd Hughes. Its quick, fast, and nicely done in a Gothic style for Sword and Sorcery. 

**** out of four stars in only thirty six pages. 

New Years Evil - Storm Bringer Rpg New Year's Actual Play

Every holiday I run a Stormbringer one shot. I kept converting everything over to Swords and Wizardry in my head.Jesus I've got six players for this event and the only thing that came to mind is BOC - Fire of Unknown Origin.Once again Lawrence Schick saves my bacon. The Quest for Tyring has begun in the middle marches! So far there are six players. I'm stone cold sober with a cup of tea sitting by me running this for the guys. The PCs are running their asses off from a chaos pack at the moment.

Information on the Sword can be found right  Here And Tyrfing has a nasty history

The planar ship "All My Sins" dropped them.Basically the PCs are going to recover the remains of the sword from the tomb of Angantyr before the Chaos Pack of the Sword Maiden herself. The sword is the last relic of power needed for the grand cycle of life to continue with the creation of a new cosm. Order has an agent trying to also recover the weapon and the PCs aren't sure who or what that agent is

Two PCs dead! Got eaten by a horde of zombie Goth warriors! The other PCs used flaming oil to burn up the horde and send their comrades to the next life.

The PCs made it back to the planar ship "All my Sins". They've battled with The Hell-Horde of Chaos and just managed to flee back to the ship when the treacherous hireling struck. Actually an agent of Goldar The  Lawful whose death at the hands of Hell-Horde of Chaos bought the group time. They're raising a toast to their fallen comrade at the Four Winds bar. The Hell Horde came from Here
 

This song ties the whole campaign that I run every year together. The planar ship "All My Sins" sails both time and space touching the cycle of violence from all of the wars throughout history and all of its alternatives. Warriors are taken from the various eras by the maimed captain who telepathically speaks to the PCs. These men are promised peace in Tanelorn should they complete their assignments. The ship marks the end of one cycle and the beginning of another. 

Warriors move throughout the multiverse where and when they are needed. The ship is drawn to violence and points of crisis like a moth to a flame. The ship  may or may not be the body of forgotten goddess of Chaos who has been woven into this ship. All about the ship remains mysterious and lost to the mists of time. 

Will the Sins sail again? A small ivory chess piece sits by a multi tiered board in the Time Center right now. A small maimed figurine of jade sits by the board. So should she sail again? Is anyone interested in a hearing about the occasional Stormbringer campaign that sails the planes? 
My thanks to Eric Gross for all of the inspiration for this one! 

Storm Bringer - A Kiss Is Just A Kiss - Actual Play

 

 We started the game off tonight with a bang! We were racing our horses through the corridors of time pursuing a minor enemy from the last campaign! 

We were being pursued by  The Hell-Horde of Chaos!  We lost 2 of our number to these chaos spawned hell creatures! These bastards serve  Xiombarg! We had neither the magic nor numbers to face them &so it was a case of race the Devil!  They wore chain mail armor or plate mail armor, helms, had swords, knives, spears and shields and mounted knights-like creatures. They cared nothing for any resistance we put up  & so kept on moving from century to century. The world spun beneath our hoofs. My chaos aligned warrior mage looked back & spotted the crest of  Gaynor the Damned! 

Oh how we were screwed six ways from Sunday!
 This was not going well & we needed to shake the Pack very quickly. A well placed spell made the whole time passage collapse around us! The magic echoed through time & space itself causing us to be egeticed into an unknown era & on another world not of our making. We numbered 6 since the character who had fallen from the deadly arrows of the Chaos Pack was replaced. How or when we do not know.
We ended up in some nameless desert!
 

 The demon of  time that provided the spell in the first place had no answers, We had lost the pack for now & the horses were safe. We had some food, rations, & water.
Nearby was the most incredible war machine lying in ruins we had ever seen!
 

We had to find shelter with the heat of the sun baring down on us & Gaynor would be on our heels soon enough.
 

We had foiled a scheme of Xiombarg, last campaign but this style of vengeance wasn't something  we were expecting. We have within our ranks a scout from the weeping desert known as  C'nmoon a warrior &archer without peer. The player rolled for the nearest source of water &off  we went. We have no idea what year it is, where we are, etc.
We do know that this plane is aligned with law & magic is iffy at best. We found the remains of an old fort & decided to make camp for the night. Everything was going well. We found water & the place was deserted. It wasn't !
During the night we posted guards & about 3 am we were awakened to the sound of  scrapping claws on stone!

  

A pack of ghouls attacked! They numbered 12 & used swords & shields as well. These weren't stupid undead! These were Lovecraftian ghouls. They looked very thin & starved! This wasn't going to be good! The melee lasted about an hour between dice rolls & spells cast by the beasties. Finally just before dawn we managed to drive the bastards off. We sought shelter & slept  rest of the day. We decided to travel at night & ended the first session right here. There's lots of questions that I've got. But we've jumped into the deep end of the pool with this one!
Information on Gaynor the Damned can be found right Here
 What was the deal with Southwood the warrior we were chasing in the first place? Was he nearby & did he still have the so called Bag of the Winds of Change?
 

Storm Bringer Rpg Actual Play - A Kiss Is Just A Kiss

 

'Set within the shell shocked Middle East in 1947 the characters are summoned to the lair of a devotee of  Chaos who has crossed the threshold of sanity & reality to a world much darker then his own.'

This is all I know about tonight's game. So I bid you a due & I'm off to play. Good night expect a report later after Larry's game.  

I was told to download this pdf today by my friend Larry for his game.So I thought that I would offer it too you. 

'The last of Chaosium’s published Stormbringer monographs, Old Hrolmar was also Richard Watts’ last full project he would complete for the line. Stormbringerrpg.com is proud to be able to release this monograph free to all fans of Richard’s work and the Stormbringer line.'  You can down load this right Here 

Stormbringer -Actual Play

So tonight I played in another round of my friend Larry's Stormbringer game. This is a new round & a new arch in which we found ourselves with Dakwinsi Steppes investigating the strange ruins found within the side of a mountain. I'm playing a priest knight of  Law in this game. We picked up a WWI veteran from the foot of a mountain pass barely hanging on to life as we were almost overtaken by a tribe of horrors known as Alforian hermaphrodites. They rode weird beasts & my companions quickly rode their horses into a froth. 

Through wit, very nice rolls, & some quick thinking we avoided combat & made it to the homes of a local steppe tribe. There we were able to spend a couple of days (game time), the group is mostly mixed with 7 players total. Most of them being scoundrels & warriors.
  

 Or charge began to recover slowly & the tribe's wise woman was able to bring him back from the brink with some coin in her pouch.

Upon the 5th day a rider approached the camp  &  hailed himself as peaceful & friendly.
 

A young royal scholar in search of some ruins in the mountains. The fortress of  Modrutha left over from some  god forsaken age. He was looking for sell swords to accompany him. Count Kauld seemed harmless enough to the rest of the players but I had doubts. As he retired with one of the tribal wenches I consulted the other players.
 We ate venison &  drank wine as we discussed business terms.
 The next morning we set out on horse back to accompany our new employer. 

These were dangerous passes to say the least & the last encounter with the  Alforian hermaphrodites had convinced us to bring some of the tribemen on as retainers. 
What of our stranger companion who had woken up? What secrets did he hold? 
There were so many unanswered questions to be had yet even as we approached the ruins.  

These will have to wait till next week's game!

Storm Bringer Actual Play - Character Generation

The Meal 
 Last night as I said  as we had last spoken, I had gotten a ride over to my friend Larry's house. We were greeted by the usual round table of players. The meal was already piping hot & waiting. The fire was roaring & we ate as well as BSed catching up with old friends, etc.
The meal coincided of  roast pork, string beans, a lovely wine, & home made apple pie for desert. The whole thing went very well.
The pitch 

After the desert we were given our character sheets & given the pitch! 

The pitch was in essence's Larry's latest vision for the campaign.
" While the church of the Pan Tang has been gain more & more converts you are members of a lonely outpost at the edge of the world. The forces of chaos have over it run the citadel & now your party has escaped into the world! 

A chaos pack is on your heels & so run, run for your lives! Along the way you might scavenge weapons, armor, & anything else you might need but move for the very devils of hell are after you!"
That is until you stumble across a man in strange garb with an odd weapon! What will you do?
 

We grabbed him & got the hell out of there.
The characters will be mostly from the same area, place, & time with weapons picked up along the way.

There's not a lot to go on for now. This was playing in the background while we were eating. A very odd little tune to be sure. Did I mention Larry's a WWI mini war game enthusiast? This is all we were given & told to go! 

Stormbringer Saturday, Actual Play!

So I'm off to play in another of my friend Larry's Stormbringer games. Where will this be set? What era will our characters be in? After the last game ended in WWII & the Outer Void, I haven't got a clue. There will be a full report coming up on Sunday..So tonight is meal & the character workshop. We're given an outline sketch for a character & told to go make one. Well be using 5th edition Stormbringer rules. Some of the resources which we'll be using are from this wonderful website Here
Please note to any of the other six players such as John, Phil, or the other Eric. Any changes to character generation rules must be approved by the DM. That's Larry. 

  So Stay Tuned!

Storm Bringer Actual Play - I died! The Final Movement

So today I got the chance to play in my friend Larry's Stormbringer campaign. After some lovely fish & cigars we retired to the game room. 

The action was pretty fierce as we got back to the Young Kingdoms & the  party saw the first of the tigers as we exited the Crystal of Ages. 

We were surrounded by Pan Tangian Forces!

I wish that I could say that my character fought valiantly & gave a good account of himself or that Rat spit my demon sword drained the souls of a great many warriors. 

The truth was I died by arrow. Lots of them turning me into a pin cushion because last year my character had a brief affair with a Pan Tangian officer's wife! 

He's been dogging the party for months now.

I exited the crystal & the arrows flew. The dice were not kind at all.
Smack down & I'm a pin cushion! 

Already I'm thinking of another character because now the party is in chains on its way to Pan Tang!

The Crystal Of Ages lays unguarded & alone mourning eternity. 

All in all a rocking game! 

Storm Bringer - The Final Movement Campaign - Actual Play

Larry's Storm Bringer game tonight was fantastic. We started the even's meal with roast beef, veggie & rice soup as we listen to the strains of Edith Piaf. Then it was cigars & the game. Edith came in because music features heavily in Larry's games. The campaign takes place during the twilight of the Young Kingdoms. The demon sword Rat Spit hung on my character's side. We acquired the Crystal of Time from a mad sorcerer & were transported to some nameless desert.
In fact the party of 6 had moved across space & time to Africa of the 40s where we faced down Nazis soldiers from Hitler's Thule division. A couple of folks in the party grabbed machine guns but these aren't going to work in The Young Kingdom.Edith Piaf foreshadowed the death of one of the Npc love interests. One of the characters. Zelgar The Azure Archer's love interest bought in on the bullets of one of the Nazi soldiers. He became pin cushion. Rat Spit drank heavily tonight of 5 soldiers souls. All in All a good game. Food, friends, & fun.