Thursday, March 29, 2018

Omens of Murder, War, & Chaos In SC3 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks By Gary Gygax

"The Grand Duchy of Geoff has recently been plagued by a rash of unusually weird and terrible monsters of an unknown sort. This western area, particularly the mountain fastness which separates the Grand Duchy from the Dry Steppes, has long been renowned for the generation of the most fearsome beasts, and it has been shunned accordingly -- save a handful of hardy souls with exceptional abilities. Within the last few months, however, a walled town not far distant from the area, and four small fortresses as well, have been destroyed by mysterious attacks!"
When it comes to S3  Expedition to the Barrier Peaks its been a favorite of mine for years & I haven't looked at it in some months now. That changed tonight after looking at Howard Hawks 1951 Thing From Another world film. I began to think about S3 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks and how it might play out in Lion & Dragon rpg Thirty Year War Europe.  The Elves have been making their own great push & losing thus  creating power vacuum.
Tsathoggua still holds power through his witch covens in France & St.Stephen  The Rock  offers council to other Chaos forces. Meanwhile something unexpected happens in the skies of  Germany!


There have been unexplained nightmares happening to all of the royal wizards of Europe. The skies over Europe are filled with strange signs & omens. Then skies of Germany opened up and something unexpected happened!

"Although we have seen, shortly one after another, many kinds of signs on the heaven, which are sent to us by the almighty God, to bring us to repentance, we still are, unfortunately, so ungrateful that we despise such high signs and miracles of God. Or we speak of them with ridicule and discard them to the wind, in order that God may send us a frightening punishment on account of our ungratefulness. After all, the God-fearing will by no means discard these signs, but will take it to heart as a warning of their merciful Father in heaven, will mend their lives and faithfully beg God, that He may avert His wrath, including the well-deserved punishment, on us, so that we may temporarily here and perpetually there, live as his children. For it, may God grant us his help, Amen. By Hanns Glaser, letter-painter of Nurnberg"

Flugblatt of Basel 1566Flugblatt of Basel 1566
"Otto Billig made an effort to provide a historical context for the apparition in his comments. He notes Nuremberg was one of the most prestigious cities of the late Middle Ages, a ‘Free and Imperial City’ known for its wealth and nobility. It tried to maintain a neutrality during the furious warring between Catholics and Protestants during the Reformation, but when one Protestant prince was rebuffed when he insisted on financial tributes to fund his battles, the city was besieged and its trade cut off. Though ultimately successful in defending itself, the rebuilding of fortifications in Nuremberg necessitated a new round of taxation and the city suffered hard times in its aftermath. On Good Friday, 1554 another siege happened and one broadsheet publisher described mock suns that prognosticated God’s will wanted confession of sinful ways – i.e. the victims brought it on themselves. Another sky apparition followed in July of knights fighting each other with fiery swords, thus warning a coming Day of Judgment. Very similar apparitions of knights fighting in the skies were frequently reported during the Thirty Years' War. Many similar broadsheets of wondrous signs exist in German and Swiss archives and Nuremberg seems the focus of a number of them, presumably because of the hardships and conflicts of the ex-prosperous. Such conditions typically accentuate apocalyptic thought"
Apocalyptic thought is exactly the thought that the otherworldly demi god has been sewing through his own star based Chaos cults. The seers across Europe have been receiving visions from the Egg of Coot's Grey minions. These are cults are detailed in Cults of Chaos for Dark Albion.

Not only has the Egg brought down the 'Warden ' but several of the chaser & engineering ships creating more ruins, dungeons, & adventure locations in not only the hidden valley near Black Forrest of Germany but in the deep wilderness of Bohemia & even to the steppes of Russia.


Several technological artifacts have been recovered by the Church & the dangers of these items concerns them. But among the royals across Europe there is already a mini 'Gold Rush' on towards these dungeons even as reports & rumors of horrid monsters of legend are appearing. The royals are already looking for a leg up against their enemies and there are rumors of Plague spreading where these aberrations appeared in the sky.




Now for adding in some other science fiction technological weapons systems into this mix for either the Lion & Dragon retroclone system or any OSR game I highly recommend
Let's face it S3 Expedition to the Barrier peaks is very iconic & by switching out some of the items that the parties of adventurers find it will add a bit of spice to this infamous adventure. 
S3 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks is going to be a mini campaign for Lion & Dragon & its not going to be easy to complete. There are going to be a multiplicity of theaters of adventure across Europe. If the ship's remains are causing radiation damage or an alien disease there could be some very nasty PC deaths right out of the gate. This was a tournament module & this cold take months to sort out with a large group of players. Lion & Dragon offers up some solid tools for dealing with this sort of adventure including a quick combat systems, cross compatible OSR & old school friendly systems, & a good foundation for playing across a war torn Europe during the  Medieval historical periods.




This is going to be a thinking DM's mini campaign where the not only are the players going to half to contend with the literal fall out of these space ships but their going to be dealing with the invasive species of monsters infecting the countryside.


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