The Cornelius Massacre - The Stormbringer Rpg Memories

 So let's go back in time to early Nineteen Ninety, at a tag sale I ran across a copy of 'The Cornelius Chronicles' and gave it too my uncle our Stormbringer rpg DM at the time. And thought nothing of it, oh boy was that a mistake. Alright let me go back in time, wayback about 1986 Citadel did the Eternal Champion box set and we knew that my uncle had those miniatures. Didn't think anything of it really at the time but man we were in deep trouble. Jerry Cornelius is a prick aspect of the first order of the 'Eternal Champion'. You can find details on the whole set right over here. I would later on use these figures loose to build my GW Pan Tangian army. 

My uncle was getting sicker at the time and so hitting the bottle a bit harder because of cancer. So at the time we were trying to recover an artifact of Law from a lost temple. We had very little in the way of power because of the damping effects of Law on Demon weapons. And we got into the temple, dodged the traps, the demons,etc. 

And then we we were exiting the temple we heard a rumble and then a explosion followed by an avalachance. Those of us who made our rolls were then subject to several soldiers in weird uniforms and a' too cool for school' prick in flared orange pants. The prick was carrying an air compressed dart gun which never existed and proceeded to stitch up every survivor to recover that artifact. The prick in question was another avitar of Jerry Cornelius. Specifically this miniature was on the table top at the time and I remember it well. The one below as was painted by Andrew Tailor but it's the exact same one. 

We would later on awaken back in the Young Kingdoms as if it was all a dream. The player's PC's would later on run across a very different style of Jerry looking like b/w composite image in Clark Ashton Smith's Zothique. And that was where we made the mistake of engaging the prick Jerry Cornelius. He basically insulted, laughed at us, etc. We trapped the prick in a tomb and walked away. 
We didn't have a high nor vaulted opinion about Jerry at all. And we ran into the prick once again at the end of time. 
And this time we were ready for the bastard. We murdered the bastard before he had a chance to catch a beat on us with that dart gun of his and sent his arse back to the 'Swinging Sixties'. 

Twisting Alleyways & Outlaw Thieves - Haven The Free City & The Stormbringer Rpg

 "HAVEN — The Free City can be used with any fantasy role-playing system that accepts the existence of magic and a multi-racial universe, and is designed as an interrelated series with Thieves' Guild™, forming the basis for a complete campaign universe. Ample space is provided for the GM to incorporate features, politics, and personalities from his own campaign into the fabric of the city. This package includes:

• An Overview of the city of Haven and the region of the Ten Cities, and explanations of the terminology used in the books;
• 7 booklets describing the 7 boroughs and neighborhoods of the city, with major families, personalities, shops, taverns, and residences, and possible adventures;
• A booklet of random encounters and statistics for all NPCs described in the text;
• 11 detailed neighborhood maps showing the locations of shops and other places of interest described in the text; (Actually, it's 10 cardstock maps... this is a misprint)
• A poster-sized color map of the entire city, showing over 100 noted landmarks.

"So if your players are looking for a place to spend the ill-gotten gains from their last expedition, seeking to establish a more permanent base of operations for their favorite adventurers, or are just plain tired of skulking around uncharted dungeon corridors for the twentieth week in a row, bring them to HAVEN — The Free City, the biggest and best fantasy city ever published!"

1984 ... Gamelords 3930"

Wayback in the early two thousands our group of retrobates got deeply involved with using our scale ship for pirating and raids against the Pan Tangian empire. And we needed an off the cuff deeply involved city to unload our ill gotten  goods too. We had a mixed crew of renagade Pan Tangians, Tragic Millenium, Vikings, and Young Kingdom rejects. And my uncle started us with Gamelords Haven The Free City but adapted it straight into a Stormbringer rpg location. Here our Vikings speaking an archaic form of French & Pidget trade language unloaded our ill gotten goods. And man we took a bath on some of the trade goods. We got our scale ship upgraded, traded out our exterior crew, upgraded the dry dock for her, and somehow Haven became our home away from home during the Nineties under my uncle's ever watchful DM's eye. Haven can still be gotten from Game Science right over here. Now our Stormbringer rpg campaigns began to incorporate more outlaws, renagades, and scallywags. And this was due to our almost constant need to keep up with repairs on our scale ship. We kept running into Pan Tangian & Tragic Millenium agents who were trying to find our crew because we were known outlaws. Why didn't we go back to Sancutary?! We weren't exactly welcome back there because our party owed money to every bookie and loanshark in the city. 

So our base of operations became in Haven and it was fitting. To this day Haven has a soft spot in our hearts and our party really fit in among the riff raff of Haven. We also had quite a few urban based adventures among the back alleys and businesses of Haven. 

Then there was the fact that Haven really fit the back alley nature of the thieving, pirate, and renagade life style that our party developed during our Stormbringer play. And then there was the fact that Haven supported piracy with Lair of the Free Booters supplement and adventure. 
Haven had a sorta of aura of adventure about it. Because it fit the Stormbringer, and Avalon Hill Ruinquest Third edition vibe far better then we as players expected. 

When one of our crew was killed we'd spin out the next crew member into our party of scum & villainy. 
Trade Town from Lair of the Freebooters was a perfect little port for piracy. That is until the damn Pan Tangians showed up again. And we really began to concentrate on building our crews with more outlaws and mercenaries after the last encounter. We had the local pirates on our side after the Pan Tangians consigned more then a few of the pirates souls into waiting tentacles of Pyray the Whisperer of Impossible secrets. 

Our party eventually wound up within the Grand Arena having to go undercover, to buy back, escape from, and finally fight our way out of the same arena. Our party ended up in the Grand arena and this is where Avalon Hill's Runequest third edition's Monster Collseum appeared on the table top. And here's where our group actually got deeply into 15 MM miniatures! These miniatures work so well with the Avalon Hill Runequest Monster Coliseum set. If your looking for a very good overview/review of Haven The Free City check out this entry on the Blackgate blog here. 

Commentary On Plane Hoping In The Stormbringer rpg - The Second Entropy Configuration, Clark Ashton Smith's Zothique, and The Pan Tangians

 Last night we our group got together for beers and to talk about Stormbringer and the Rogue Mistress campaign was brought up. And this also brought to the fore front Clark Ashton Smith's Zothique. The events here take place after our experiences at the Inne Between Worlds. 

We had already served aboard the Rogue Mistress by this time and our wizard patron wanted an Entropy congifuration. Why?! We weren't sure but the pay was good and so we were off. This takes place after my uncle's passing. We three DM 's were still working from his notes. 

Nineteen Ninety one saw our crew of retrobates back on Zothique as we faced off against a crew of Pan Tangians headed by a Chaos priest. There's a part of Zothique called the 'wastes of time' that my uncle made up and it's filled with the wreckage of scale ships. Why it was filled with this wreckage we never found out but we did find out it was a demon haunted place of horror. Skeletal crews still were at the helm of some of those ships. And the Pan Tangians were dressed in desert gear and light weight demon armor. We were after a brand new used entropy configuration for a scale ship we were working on. The entropy configuration powers a scale ship's drive systems. And why is it called a 'scale ship'? Well according  to the scale ship entry on Moorcock Multiverse Wiki; "Those who utilize Scale Ships are not reliant upon the Moonbeam Roads, and can travel anywhere in the Multiverse they are capable of navigating to. Scale ships utilize an IT (Intercontinua-Travelling) drive to manipulate mass. Folding/Contracting the ship's mass allows its passengers to "scale down", falling through the scales towards realities of ever higher density." "Unfolding/Dissipating the ship's mass allows it to scale up, rapidly ascending towards realities of ever lower density. Experienced pilots, such as The Rose Von Bek, can skim their ships across the billowing fractals of the Ether like a stone across water." DM Steve & DM Barry took over my uncle's game after this point and had his notes 

We made it into the wreckage of a scale ship & then found out the hardway that it was haunted by a small hoard of Chaos demons. And we also heard that the Pan Tangians had also found out the hard way as well. They lost one of thier number to said demons. The closer we got to one ship's wreckage the worse it got! We found a number of sun bleached corpses and these were actually the former crew of the scale ship that we were exploring. 
And when they animated not one of us was surprised. What were surprised about was that one or two of the skeleton warriors could hurl spells at our PC's!  What we were surprised about was the fact that these skeleton warriors also attacked the Pan Tangians as well! We were inbetween a hard place and Hell itself! 
Our party began to look around for some solution when we came across another scale ship. This scale ship had a huge number of glyphs of Law & we decided to go inside. Inside the interior was an unsusual set up almost entirely biological in nature. We went to remove the 'Entropy Configuration' and heard the following, "Oh if you do that you'll kill me! However you'll make a lovely meal" and that's when the phantoms came out! The guardians of Law or the ship's immune system were more then happy to feed on us. Needless to say that we were able grab the configuration and then leave quickly. The 'ship' lay dying but what it actually was was a minor noble lord of Law. Our theory is/was that the scale ships were part of some great battle at the 'end of time'. 

To this day we have no idea what happened to that group of Pan Tangian reveavers. Our wizard patron who sent us to Zothique wanted his entropy configuration. The 'wizard' wasn't actually a wizard but Balo the Jester of Chaos in disguise. What he actually got was the 'heart of a minor lord of Law'. This artifact would cause us no end of problems later on. And this is one of the reasons why we had to aquire our own scale ship coming up. 

One of the the things that set my uncle's Stormbringer rpg campaigns apart was his frequent use of the 'plane hopping' motif. And this was normal in his view because of the mythic & epic nature of the Stormbringer rpg line of products. We as a party couldn't go jaunting out into the planes per say unless it was through the use of some artifact or patron. So our games never got out of hand per say. Sure we journeyed across the planes but it was through artifacts and sorcery. Or through the machinations of some wizard or powerful patron. We're talking about using a combination of third edition Avalon Hill Rune Quest and Fifth edition Stormbringer rpg systems. Scheduling and timing is going to be the key to getting this off the ground. 

Silence of Chaos & Anarchy - The Stormbringer Rpg Memories

 Last night I was checking out Ebay and looking in on one of my all time favorite Rpg's and that's Stormbringer. Holy crow the cost of the Chaosium Stormbringer has become like gold on Ebay. And it's been a very long time since I wrote anything on the Chaosiums's Stormbringer rpg. Why now? We used to have our Stormbringer rpg sessions in the Summer. So the hot weather always reminds me of chucking dice and demons. 

Over on Rpggeek there was a comment by Barhara Kipling that put the first edition Stormbringer rpg box set into context for the table top;"Great game in its day, though admittedly it makes demons much more important than they ever were in the Elric stories (Note: 5th edition removed this heavy reliance on demons to better reflect the stories). However, we still used the rules for demons, and Stormbringer's early editions gave us many years of enjoyable campaigning. We still play occasionally when we want a break from the RPG du jour." "As a side note, we used these early editions of Stormbringer for adventures in Fred Saberhagen's "Empire of the East" setting before it got its own dedicated rulebook. Lots of fun there!"

So what is it about Stormbringer that seems to draw in so many of us back to her?! The fact is that Stormbringer isn't Dungeons & Dragons is precisely why so many D&D players back in the day seemed to get really into Stormbringer. Thomas Denmark hits it on the head on his RpgGeek Stormbringer comments;"Well written. One of the best fantasy roleplaying games ever designed, and a near perfect translation of the novels to a game. All my nostalgia is with 1st edition, but I have to admit 4th is probably the best as it fixes a few issues like balance and magic" 

We got deeply involved in White Dwarf's The Mad Cap Laughs and after the mini campaign was over we had to move on deeper into the Young Kingdoms. How deep we weren't prepared for. We were moved back in time to play in the fields of the Young Kingdom much earlier in time. 

Adventurer, Conqueror, King Along The Moonbeam Roads - Greyhawk to Greyhawk - The Queen of Air & Darkness

 Sometimes campaigns take on a life of their own & this Adventurer, Conqueror, King Heroic Fantasy  Handbook . And in this case its been the fact that we've been discussing using some pretty esoteric  resources  including  Original Dungeons & Dragons  Supplement I Greyhawk. Because this blog entry picks up right from here. 

There are several reasons for this including the use of the Gate spell & its uses with the powers of Law & Chaos; "Gate: Employment of this spell opens a cosmic portal and allows an ultra-powerful being (such as Odin, Crom, Set, Cthulhu, the Shining One, a demi-god, or whatever) to come to this plane. It is recommended that the user of this spell have a highly valid reason for summoning such aid. The name of the being desired must be called when the spell is cast. There is a 95% chance that the called being will come, 5% chance for some other being coming instead. There is also a 5% chance that whatever shows up will simply return immediately after observing the situation."  
And this brings up the OSR Grimoire's blog entry on Gary Gygax's 'Keep on the Borderlands' and the module's place within the struggle with the force Law & Chaos; "The Realm:

Much has been written suggesting the American frontier as the ideological framework behind D&D in general, and "The Keep on the Borderlands" in particular, (see comments for this post from Grognardia as far back as 2008, as well as this post from Blog of Holding in 2016).

While an important perspective, the later module B5 "Horror on the Hill" (1983) makes a better case for this argument.  By comparison, the near apocalyptic setting described in the background for module B2 presents an endangered civilization under siege:

The Realm of mankind is narrow and constricted. Always the forces of Chaos press upon its borders, seeking to enslave its populace, rape its riches, and steal its treasures. If it were not for a stout few, many in the Realm would indeed fall prey to the evil which surrounds them. Yet, there are always certain exceptional and brave members of humanity, as well as similar individuals among its allies - dwarves, elves, and halflings - who rise above the common level and join battle to stave off the darkness which would otherwise overwhelm the land. Bold adventurers from the Realm set off for the Borderlands to seek their fortune. It is these adventurers who, provided they survive the challenge, carry the battle to the enemy. Such adventurers meet the forces of Chaos in a testing ground where only the fittest will return to relate the tale. Here, these individuals will become skilled in their profession, be it fighter or magic-user, cleric or thief. They will be tried in the fire of combat, those who return, hardened and more fit. True, some few who do survive the process will turn from Law and good and serve the masters of Chaos, but most will remain faithful and ready to fight chaos wherever it threatens to infect the Realm.

from B2 "The Keep on the Borderlands"

The conflict between Law and Chaos described above is an example of the influence of Poul Anderson's "Three Hearts and Three Lions" and Michael Moorcock's Elric of Melniboné series on the implicit cosmology of the original D&D game." 

But what does this have to do with the Holy Grail & the Fisher Kings?! Well a bit of everything really. The connection between 'The Realm' & Greyawk's campaign setting is deep. This is especially true of one of Greyhawk's Fey queens 'the so called Queen of Air & Darkness whose played the villain in numerous campaigns of ours especially our Stormbringer campaigns. Where her Fey were a major source of contention for our player's PC's. And all of this comes back to the fact that 'The Queen of Air & Darkness' came from ;" The name comes from the title of T. H. White's Arthurian novel The Queen of Air and Darkness, the second volume in his work The Once and Future King."  And this ties into the mythos of Poul Anderson's Law & Chaos as well as other fantasy authors; "

In White's novel, the queen of the title is King Arthur's half-sister Morgause. She is an amateur witch who enchants the young king into sleeping with her, producing the traitorous child Mordred.

"The Queen of Air and Darkness" is also a short story by Poul Anderson which plays on fairy mythology in a science fiction setting.

The Queen of Air and Darkness also appears as the Queen of the Unseelie Court in fiction such as Laurell K. Hamilton's Merry Gentry series and Emma Bull's War For the Oaks"  
Her Fey forces of darkness will be in evidence coming up; "The Queen of Air and Darkness is blamed with the creation of all evil fey races, including quicklings and spriggans" 

Adventurer, Conqueror, King Along The Moonbeam Roads - The Grail & Beyond

 So today I had a get together with some of my fellow DM's for the next leg of the Winter campaign & we've been talking about Adventurer, Conqueror, King. Or more to the point the ACK's Heroic Fantasy Handbook. And there's been some hemming & hawing about doing an ACK's Stormbringer campaign. Now today's blog entry is going to pick up right from our last one. 

In the past it hasn't been Stormbringer that's been the focus of our Stormbringer rpg campaigns. But instead Arthurian legend & the Holy Grail have taken centerstage. And according to the Stormbringer Wiki there's a Moorcock explanation that underpins quite a few of the author's series; "The Holy Grail is a cosmic archetype that manifests most often as a jeweled, golden chalice. The Holy Grail could be anything. It could be a cup, a helmet, or an entire universe. The truth of the holy grail is that it is a manifestation of the Moonbeam Roads, the Runestaff and the Spammer Gain. It is the key to the Multiverse, and is therefore also called the cure for the World's Pain, for it unlocks ultimate freedom. The Von Bek family is bound to the Grail and they are its keepers and its seekers."
All of this is a part of the Warhound & the World's Pain 

We've had agents of both Law & Chaos work with Von Bek's in the past & now the fact is that Chaos has been stirring in the wastelands again. If your not familiar with the wastelands of Arthurian legend here's the wiki entry on it; "The Wasteland is a Celtic motif that ties the barrenness of a land with a curse that must be lifted by a hero. It occurs in Irish mythology and French Grail romances, and hints of it may be found in the Welsh Mabinogion.

An example from Irish literature occurs in the Echtrae Airt meic Cuinn (Echtra, or adventure in the Otherworld, of Art mac Cuinn). Recorded in the 14th century but likely taken from an older oral tradition, Echtrae Airt meic Cuinn is nominally about Art, though the adventures of his father Conn of the Hundred Battles take up the first part of the narrative. Conn is High King of Ireland, but his land turns to waste when he marries the wicked Bé Chuma, an unacceptable action for the king. He searches for a way to restore his country by sailing towards the mystical western lands, and eventually washes up on an island inhabited by the niece of the sea god Manannan and her husband. He attends an otherworldly banquet, and when he returns his wife is banished, presumably lifting the curse.

In the Arthurian Grail material, the Wasteland's condition is usually tied to the impotence of its leader. Often the infirmity is preceded by some form of the Dolorous Stroke, in which the king is injured tragically for his sins but kept alive by the Grail. In Chrétien de Troyes' Perceval, the Story of the Grail, the Fisher King has been wounded in a misfortune that is not revealed in the incomplete text, and his land suffers with him. He can be healed only if the hero Perceval asks the appropriate question about whom the Grail serves, but warned against talking too much, Perceval remains silent. In the First Continuation of Chrétien's work, the anonymous author recounts how Gawain partially heals the land, but is not destined to complete the restoration. Over the course of time romances place less emphasis on the Wasteland and more on the king's wound. In the Lancelot-Grail Cycle the link between the devastated land and the wounded king is not absolute, and in the Post-Vulgate Cycle much more emphasis is placed on King Pellehan's injury by Sir Balin than on the devastation this causes to his kingdom." 

The Grail itself is quite safe but the other items associated with it have been missing for a long time. The Shroud of Turin, the spear of Longinus, & the swords of the Fisher Kings.  The swords are powerful artifacts of Law lost in the land of legend?! They've floated in & out of our campaigns for years beyond the reach of the player's PC's. Several of our high level ACK's PC's over the years have retired to Fairyland to rule over kingdoms of dreams. But now there's been rumbles among the players that they should be questing for the Fisher King's Swords. Such powerful items along with the Grail regalia should not fall into the hands of one of the lords of Chaos.

And this brings things back to the Wasteland of Arthurian legend being equivalent to the wilderness of original Dungeons & Dragons. Within original Dungeons & Dragons Volume Three Underworld & Wilderness Adventures page 14 -15; "THE WILDERNESS: The so-called Wilderness really consists of unexplored land, cities and castles, not to mention the area immediately surrounding the castle (ruined or otherwise) which housed the dungeons. The referee must do several things in order to conduct wilderness adventure games. First, he must have a ground level map of his dungeons, a map of the terrain immediately surrounding this, and finally a map of the town or village closest to the dungeons (where adventruers will be most likely to base themselves). 14 "Blackmoor" is a village of small size (a one-horse town), while "Grayhawk" is a large city. Both have maps with streets and buildings indicated, and players can have town adventures roaming around the bazaars, inns, taverns, shops, temples, and so on. Venture into the Thieves' Quarter only at your own risk! The terrain beyond the immediate surroundings of the dungeon area should be unknown to all but the referee. Off-hand adventures in the wilderness are made on the OUTDOOR SURVIVAL playing board (explained below). Exploratory journies, such as expeditions to find land suitable for a castle or in search of some legendary treasure are handled in an entirely different manner." 
And this unexplored wilderness becomes a part of the multiverse as PC's trip along the moonbeam roads. 

What are the moonbeam roads?! Well according to the Multiversal wiki; "

The Moonbeam Roads are the ethereal pathways through the Multiverse, leading between universes, from world to world.

The roads pass through the Higher Worlds, and run between the universes. A traveler upon the Moonbeams can percieve the entire Multiverse around them.

The Moonbeam Roads are a manifestation of the Holy Grail and therefore also a manifestation of the Runestaff and the Spammer Gain." Time & again we've used to carve out pieces & universe  for our player's PC's to take over across the multiverse. 

 

 

Adventurer,Conqueror, King.. Stormbringer?!

 While searching around for ACK's material, I stumbled upon an ACK's Stormbringer character sheet?! This changes everything! Seems like someone used the Adventurer, Conqueror, King rpg for a D20  Dragonlords of Melnibone campaign. 

So this brings up a fine campaign point about the hanging adventure issue that still lingers even today. The fact that the animal headed forces of the empire of Granbretan were on the trail of our heroes only a couple of years ago means that we might get back to this end of our campaign sooner rather then later. You can read about that here.  A mantis headed scientist sorcerer is still out there with his troops. And the PC's encountered him and his entourage within a pocket world. 

Needless to say that the player's PC's lost him within Nexus The Infinite City as they got back aboard the Rogue Mistress. Now let's talk about how the Rogue Mistress Stormbringer rpg adventure was dealt with. We co DM's took apart the Rogue Mistress & took adventure elements as the campaign needed. We've never used the adventure as a 'rail road' campaign per say. And Rogue Mistress brought up a very good point which I've used ever since. PC's taking over planar domains as rewards or punishments from their patrons of Law or Chaos. 

 

The Rogue Mistress had pulled into Nexus The Infinite City for repairs & cargo. And the PC's had gone to paint the town red! They ran smack into the the appearance of the Infinite Cathedral of Gormweller the God Seller this was a part of the 'Perils of the Young Kingdoms'. And it was here that the PC's came to the attention of the Chaos Goddess  Queen Xiombarg! 

The question becomes where do we go from here?! We'll be talking with our fellow Co DM's coming up soon.