The Witch Comes Calling - In The Court of Morgan & Satan : Further Mediations on The Stormbringer rpg & OSR Campaign Memories

 

Frank Brunner's 'In The Forest of Troos' was a major influence on our DM  

For a couple of years we pretty much stuck to the Young Kingdom's Forret of Troos performing mercenary work, avoiding the forces of the Pan Tangian military digging up parts of the forrest looking for powerful chaos artifacts, & generally having a good Stormbringer rpg campaign. The odd cult here, the deadly demon or chaos monster there, & having some truck with a chaos sorcerer or wizard who would pay us for our services. Life was good but dangerous and the life in Young Kingdoms settled into the campaign role or so we thought. 

In early '91 two events happened in the campaign that annoyed the Hell out of the party. One of our DM's aquired a copy of Stormbringer rpg's   'Perils of the Young Kingdoms'. And we found ourselves in the middle of a strange & savage rain storm at the edges of the forrest of Troos. The introduction tag line for  'Perils of the Young Kingdoms'  includes five independent adventures in the world of Elric. each of these adventures explores sites scattered across the world of the Young Kingdoms, revealing marvelous, mysterious, and treacherous locals: a sargasso sea of ruined ships known as the Floating Realm; the Link Machine which slowly mutates the flying race of Myyrhyn; the Storm of Chaos which carries the monstrous legions of Queen Xiombarg hastening the appearance of the Infinite Cathedral of Gormweller the God Seller; the black Fang Island where hideous experiments transform the island dwellers into abomination; Doom Point where a cursed jewel leads to war. A millennium has passed since the great war between the Dharzi and Melnibone. With the fall of the ancient Sorcerers the Melnibon�an Dragon Lords became the undisputed masters of their world and the Bright Empire was born. Far to the north of the Dragon Isle a lesser Melnibone an lord took refuge within the bowels of the Black Isle. Here they transformed the former laboratory of an Dharzi mage into a magnificent stronghold. The years passed and the Bright Empire began it's inevitable decline into decadence and ruin. The caverns of the Black Isle were finally abandoned. Four hundred fifty years later something dark and malevolent now inhabits Fang Island. Here the natural order of living things are being twisted into abominations. Lord Straasha summons champions to the coast of Takesh bordering the Pale Sea and the unholy domain of forbidden Pan Tang. Visions of bloody waves haunt the dreams of these heroes foretelling a great doom should they fail to heed mighty Straasha's call. Can a handful of heroes stand up to the Darkness that again threatens the Young Kingdoms? Includes the adventures: The Floating Realm The Myyrhn Link; The Fang and the Fountain; Stolen Moments; and The Man Who Sold Gods." 
 We dealt with the  'Chaos Storm' & faced down a host of  'Queen Xiombarg''s broos erm chaos beast men hunting down an escapee from Corum's world. These things were nasty servants of chaos and they were on the hunt for a fugative from another plane of the million spheres. 

These events were connected with our dealings with the Chaos god  'The Pyaray Whisperer of Impossible Secrets'.  And Chaos gods do not forget. Things started to go from bad to worse when we ran smack into Unvia Von Bek a very pretty albino woman weilding a sword of Law known as 'The Dawn of the World'. This was bad because we were now on the radar of  The Sword Rulers .  Unvia fought with the beast men of  'Queen Xiombarg'  And we incured her wrath as well! 

We became lost in the Chaos Storm with our NPC charges & began to encounter armored knights in addition to the beast men. The knights captured our little band of adventurers & pulled us into a mysterious area of the forrest with a small castle & works. Inside the castle our characters were questioned by the witch queen Morgan Le Fey whom was the head of a family of immortal witches that were players in the Great Game of Time. Did I happen to mention our old 'friend' Charles D'vere The First Duke of La Roy & the second grand inquistor of the Emperor of Tragic Europe was also in Le Fey's employ. Charles D'vere was a member of the Praying Mantis division of the scared church of science re- introduced himself along with his wolf & boar bodyguards. 

Unvia Von Bek had stolen a magical artifact called 'the Ring of Winter's Regret' & Morgan wanted to hand her over to  'Queen Xiombarg' to be tortured for eternity. She knew that we would become involved & so wanted to turn us over  Charles D'vere. We however had other plans & they didn't include becoming test subjects in the bowels of the emperor of the Tragic Europe's dungeons. We instead used 'The Ring of Winter's Regret' without knowing its true powers! 
'The Ring of Winter's Regret' is a Welsh pre Bronze age  artifact that belonged originally  to  Pwyll, the prince of Dyfed, it allows the owner to travel to a point of great regret in the dreams of time. The artifact is sensitive to whims of Chaos. It was an artifact of the Morgan clan going back centuries given to them by Pwyll for unknown services. We had just activated it! And while we out of the clutches of the NPC's & chaos lords we were on unknown footing. The castle & its inhabitants vanished in a haze of magical power. 

We found ourselves in another rain swepted forrest & soaking wet. After what seemed like an eternity stumbling through the woods we found ourselves on a muddy road. In the distance a small welcoming inn's fire place & chimmy smoke seemed too good to be true. But it was an inn & there was a fire! Could we communicate with the inn keeper!?  The inn was indeed welcoming & belonged to Oslo Von Begg! There were other men already within the wayside inn. Owain mab Urien was part of the Battle of Alclud Ford. We had little part to play in this but were able to rest up, sleep, & recharge. In the morning we were confronted by Satan himself who was wanting a word about our seeking 'The Grail of the Other'. A legendary object said to be mirrored reflection of the 'Holy Grail' itself. Perhaps the anti Game of  Time allowing 'The Great Entropy' of the Higher Worlds to destroy the balance, Chaos, & Law! We didn't even agree & he knew he could count on us. Note that this is Satan & not Lucifier his brother known in Michael Moorcock's The Warhound, & The World's Pain. 

Depiction of Satan (c. 1866) by Gustave Doré