OSR Moorcockian Frankenstein Session Report - Black Blade of the Demon King by Ahimsa Kerp, & Wind Lothamer from Knight Owl Publishing Session Report .

"Buried for 10000 years beneath a mountain of black obsidian, a sword of unfathomable power has just awakened. Now, in a desperate race against time and the elements you must try to reach it before its former master returns from his astral prison."


 'Old habits die hard & there are prices to be paid.' the voice was as gravelly on the other end of the phone as a coffin in a Winter grave yard. 'Apparently you are also an idiot or have you forgotten the debt that you owe us. Its Christmas holiday. The game Eric its about the game. We're coming over & we're grabbing you.' So today apparently DM Steve blew into town & it was time for him to collect his due. Wayback in 2018 Steve had me promise to run a Moorcock style Sword & Sorcery Iceland game. The OSR rules set up for this game was Fantastic Heroes & Witchery  & the 1-3 level adventure in question that would be run was Black Blade of the Demon King by Ahimsa Kerp,  & Wind Lothamer from Knight Owl Publishing. So two hours was had to come up with 4 or 5 NPC agents of Chaos who wanted more then anything to have the blade of the demon king. Fantastic Heroes & Witchery was chosen because it has rules for agents of Law & Chaos even agents of 
 neutrality. 

So what was available for PC's?! All of the PC types for both the Science Fantasy & the Converted PC classes were used.  And how could we justify all of these different types of PC's mingling?! That's simple an Icelandic wizard used a mystic artifact similiar to the one used in the Hawkmoon boxset adventure 'The Shattered Isle. 

Almost immediately Havoc Tulson an agent of Chaos attacked & killed one of the PC fighters so things were off to a roaring start. Monsters & treasure came from Castles & Crusades Monsters & Treasure book & Castles & Crusades Classic Monsters & Treasure book. This is effectively the C&C Monster Manual & Fiend Folio (sorta) but works well with Fantastic Heroes & Witchery. 

There was a lot of moving across wilderness & dealing with weather related events. At certain points out came LoFP's Frost Bitten & Multilated which was Steve's Christmas or Yule present. The Amazons that I quickly rolled up within the two hours before the game were Chaos oriented. With seven players & masks the game moved along with the players basically runing away using a conjured snow storm as cover. 

The second agent of chaos was employing these lady warriors to take out the player's PC's. But the party actually ran before the ladies could press the issue. Black Blade of the Demon King by Ahimsa Kerp,  & Wind Lothamer really creates its own universe & feels very dangerous as well as isolated with a lot happening within it on a Sword & Sorcery level. Pretty much this is a solid Sword & Sorcery love letter to Moorcock. And the whole adventure reminded me very much of Moorcock's John Daker series of novels of the Eternal Champion but with Vikings. 

Will the players survive Black Blade of the Demon King ?! To be honest with only two hours to get ready & then run this adventure its really hard to tell. Prince of Nothing's blog has a very good review of Black Blad of the Demon King right here. 

But Steve making me simply run this from the hip has been an interesting experience. While smiling on the outside my insiders were screaming running this for Steve, his brothers, & my other players. Black Blade of the Demon King reads like a novel but it plays like a movie with a non linear plot that work well. 

Ten things that saved my arse when running Black Blade of the Demon King : 

1. There has been a ton of Fantastic Heroes & Witchery that has been DMed in the past. 
2.  Black Blade of the Demon King is very cinematic & this point makes the adventure really easy for the PC's to grasp. 
3. One of the players is a Chaos oriented occultist & possibly going to be a split class agent of Chaos. And things are going to go down hill for this player's PC fast. Note they are fully aware of this & want to see this through. 
4. There is going to be a lot of death coming up this is expected this is a LoFP adventure after all. 
5. I need a physical copy of  Black Blade of the Demon King & Frost Bitten & Multilated coming up like yesterday. 
6.  Black Blade of the Demon King could easily be a Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerer of Hyperborea rpg adventure. 
   
7. Could  Black Blade of the Demon King be a sustained campaign adventure?! Maybe with a lot of squinting on the DM's part. 
8. Thank God that I'm a paetron of Adventurer,Conqeuror, King rpg because the recent Conjuring, Calling, & Summoning article has the rules on Conjuring which allowed me to drag & drop the PC's into the mix. 
9.  Black Blade of the Demon King has a lot bubbling below the surface to allow the DM to connect it to his or her own campaign. 
10. Demon blades aside  Black Blade of the Demon King is a solid adventure & well worth your time.