Review & Commentary On Severed Fate By John Keefe and Laurel Nicholson From Smoldering Dung Games For Your Old School Or OSR Campaigns

 "Barely 100 feet away, the repulsive and terrifying monster Furythorn steps into the compound littered with burning corpses. He hasn’t seen you yet, but he will soon. There's no escape. Your band of adventurers are the last ones to stop his destruction and killing.

You ready your weapon, watching bursts of flames erupt from his body. Hideous pus-oozing burns cover his face.

As night deepens, one of his hulking minions spots you and points, grunting. Seeing your group of warriors, Furythorn laughs a chilling cackle, spewing pus into the evening air. “There you are cowards. I’ve been waiting for you.” He holds out his arms. “Come to me and die!”



Kranna, the wizard’s apprentice feverishly clutches the spell components beneath her cloak. “He must die tonight. Otherwise he’ll destroy the whole northern half of the isle.” The only response is the sound of blades pulled from their sheathes. As you charge forward, embers from the monster’s burning flesh float above you in the wind." 

Severed Fate By John Keefe and Laurel Nicholson is a 1st level adventure for five to seven player's PC. Severed Fate is well done 1st or 2nd level adventure for beginning or  experienced players. Severed Fate can be dropped into any campaign & works very well with campaigns with wilderness focuses. And it has as it's central focus an impressive NPC and lots of twists and turns. 
Severed Fate is very much grounded in the old school tradition with some mature themes but it's also grounded into the OSR's more modern aspects. The good aspects of this module are that if run solidly with a good group of players this adventure will cement the touchstone for an exciting campaign. The layout is well done, the fonts easy to read, and the material well done OSR solidly adventure. 
Encounters in Severed Fate can be and are deadly for a group of players who are not used to the fact that death is always waiting around the corner. And in this OSR module  this is never more true. 
The writing is solid for it's seventy two pages and is easily fitted into your old school or OSR campaigns. And this makes this adventure ideal for OSRIC! Drop this adventure in right after B2 Keep on The Borderlands. 

Could Severed Fate be used easily with other OSR systems?! Short answer, yes. This module  could be combined with Castles & Crusades without much fuss. And infact if the DM wanted this module could easily be dropped into Greyhawk or similar campaigns running C&C as it's main system. 
The reasons for this are the focus on the wilderness, the NPC's, flexible locations, and more. Severed Fate is well thought out and needs more leads into it's own campaign setting though. This isn't a criticism however only a minor point of contension on my part as a DM. Over the team of  John Keefe and Laurel Nicholson who once worked for Mayfair Games as a part of the Role Aids adventure modules.The quality of Severed Fate continues this tradition in spades. 

Some Castles & Crusades Thoughts on Judge Guild's House on Hang Man's Hill By Jon Mattson

The nice part about Castles & Crusades is the modular nature of the system. One can go forward or backward on compatibility when it comes to dealing with various editions of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons first & second edition.  Now tonight I'm going to talk about two very different products from first & second edition AD&D respectively.
House on Hangman's Hill was  published by Judges Guild in 1981 &  is a scenario for character levels 3-4. One of my fellow dungeon masters calls it Judge's Guild's other haunted house adventure withe classic Tegel Manor of course taking the lead.  But after a classic Hammer horror film marathon. I was inclined to start tearing into House on Hangman's Hill . Note that this is for my Victorious rpg /Castles & Crusades rpg campaign.  steampunk horror campaign.



Sir Christopher Lee as one of my favorite Draculas from the classic Hammer Horror films.
No copyright or trade mark infirgment is implied. He was just on bad ass Dracula.

Imagine if you will that Castles & Crusade's James Ward's Tainted Lands is a sort of predatory demi plane that feeds off the chaos, carnage, fear, & horror of  its millions of victim's souls. Now imagine that there are agents across the planes who are aware of this. They will & do feed on many, many, victims. Well this is where 2nd edition AD&D's Domain's of Dread comes in. Its a sort of a perfect book end for Tainted Lands in a way.



Andreas P.'s review on Drivethrurpg summarizes everything I love about 'Domains of Dread';"Greatest book for Ravenlolft AD&D 2nd edition. Detailing everything about the history, places, faces and rules of the Ravenloft setting. Very happy I purchased the softcover reprint of the original, it is of excellent quality."
Right so Domains of Dread is the perfect book to transform JG's House on Hangman's Hill into a sort of rogue tainted land adventure location roaming about the plains murdering victims within its halls. And trapping their souls within. For the Castles & Crusades's twist grab a copy of The Codex Slavorum.


Forget the whole Transylvania is the land of vampire's B.S. its actually Russia that's the Slavic Hellscape for the undead. Use 'The Codex Slavorum'  add in the Tainted Lands with a twist of Ravenloft! Then whamo you've got a great on going Gothic Slavic campaign! The setting here is pure Castles & Crusades Slavic adventure setting with a solid overview of both the Slavic/Russian 'real world' & the spiritual world. This includes a good array of monsters, spells, Gods, interactions, low & behold a good damn solidly usable Slavic Shaman class!

House on Hangman's Hill shows up in your campaign, people go missing, the local undead population reaches & all time high, & murderous rival demonic & vampire slayers start killing everyone in sight. Suddenly there's a campaign!


Having run House on Hangman's Hill your probably talking about three or four months of a mini campaign at best & a two or three session one shot at worst. This is a deadly little twenty something page module. And I literally present this adventure as the rival to my planar traveling version of Tegel Manor. While it doesn't have Tegel manor's history or is as well known. This makes House on Hangman's Hill just that touch more deadly in my humble opinion. 

OSR Review & Commentary On The Free 1st Level Adventure Frank Schmidt's F1 Zombie Curse

There are very few Ravenloft modules but with Halloween coming up I've been quietly searching around. The Undead are a must just around Halloween & fortunately there are a few lower tier & lower level adventures floating around. Frank Schmidt's F1 Zombie Curse just happens to be one & today was a bank holiday here in the States. So I had a moment of time to check over the  Dragon's foot site once again & here's Frank Schmidt's F1 Zombie Curse .

"As you begin your travels to fame and glory you have discovered the road is actually paved mostly with dirt and boredom. You have heard of the caravan attacks at Feastelburg and have begun to make your way to fame and fortune. As light begins to fade from the sky you have come upon a sign welcoming you to the small lake community of Crystal Shores. What appears to be a smoldering funeral pyre is near the lake’s edge and a small group of children play near the road. Your journey to the caravan raiders is halfway there. A few more days and you will begin your life as adventurers!"
 Frank Schmidt's F1 Zombie Curse  is an Advanced Dungeons & Dragons module that clocks in at twenty three pages & while its not extremely well done. It hits the high notes for being easily customizable & easily adapted to Ravenloft. 


The tone of  Feastelburg is a dark one as the zombie plague ravages to the village. The adventurers are going to have to do some fast figuring as the adventure set pieces are outlined. The cartography could have used a bit more work but the layout is readable. This is a first level adventure & dungeon masters might want to add a bit more to fill out the meet of this adventure. The undead & locations are exactly what it says on the tin.
There's an artifact causing problems & the party could be easily overwhelmed at first level if the players are not careful.

The zombie, as depicted in the original Monster Manual (1977).

Crystal Shores promises some action & it does deliver but DM's are going to have to work a bit to add it into the mists of Ravenloft. Frank Schmidt's F1 Zombie Curse  is a useful adventure  with possibilities for continuation into a small campaign or into the larger mist filled horrors of Ravenloft. And this is exactly the sort of an adventure layout I'm looking for. Could Frank Schmidt's F1 Zombie Curse  be used for other retroclone systems?! Yes & I'm looking directly at Lamentations of the Flame Princess. Frank Schmidt's F1 Zombie Curse  could introduce the PC's to the world of Dark Europe. The shadow of the Black Death looms & a dark supernatural horror has taken on its ominous tone here in Crystal Shore. Undead are the perfect way to add in that element of the occult without wiping out the entire party right off unless they are very unlucky.


Sure I'm going against the grain of Lamentations but F1 Zombie Curse gets the PC's into the action without completely vaporizing the party that later LoFP adventures have the potential to do. Yes I can entirely see using F1 Zombie Curse  with Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea. Crystal Shores is sparse enough to mold the setting into the Pulpy weirdness of Hyperborea. But I can see using F1 Zombie Curse  with Ravenloft where the zombie sickness is connected with the mists. As Crystal  Shores drifts closer to the domain of dread the undeath state intensifies. The realm of terror claims the region as another horror crazy quilt piece in its ever expanding reign of evil. That is unless the characters can stave off the rise of the undead.


While  F1 Zombie Curse  isn't going to set the OSR world on fire its a good solid introduction into a horror filled OSR or old school campaign. The adventure even states this in its introduction; "Zombie curse is designed to start a new adventuring party on their road to fame and fortune. The party should have already formed itself and begun a journey to some other location and have to deal with this problem initially. When entering Crystal Shores they will notice mostly normal if not sickly villagers. This village can be the location of some of their adventuring gear they will require. While in the village they should be able to speak with the townspeople and discover a lot of them are becoming ill for unknown reasons. A funeral pyre at the outskirts will be explained that two of their kinsmen turned into zombies and attacked the community" I think that that  F1 Zombie Curse  is a great little module to introduce players into the world of OSR horror Dungeons & Dragons or old school Ravenloft. 

"Blood On The Beach" An Old School Campaign Set Up For War - Using L1 The Secret of Bone Hill By Lenard Lakofka OSR Commentary

"Danger lurks in the Lendore Isles. Bands of evil creatures prowl the hills overlooking the town of Restenford, seeking unwary victims. Now you have come to this sleepy little village looking for adventure and excitement. You seek to fathom the unexplored reaches of Bone Hill and unlock the mysteries of Restenford."

 
 Lets get the details out of the way first;"The Secret of Bone Hill is an adventure module written by Lenard Lakofka for the first edition of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons and published by TSR in 1981. It is designed for novice and intermediate players with characters of levels 2-4. The module received mixed reviews from critics." L1 The Secret of Bone Hill is an old favorite & its perfect for modification into a Sword & Sorcery location especially if we're using the Saltmarsh series of adventures as a part of the adventure path for PC's. This works especially well with my 'Old Earth' setting for Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea second edition.


So if we're looking into the Saltmarsh adventure path it takes the PC's from level one through five but what background do we really have for the town of Saltmarsh itself? Absolutely nothing really. But I've seen over the last couple of years several threads about taking merging the fishing port of Restenford & the U series of adventures.
This unto itself unlocks several possibilities especially within my own home campaign where Iceland & Greenland were ripped from the Earth and put into the orbit around Saturn become the campaign's setting version of Hyperborea after the Hyperborea Wars. This event led to the rise of the remains of Atlantis out around Spain & its surrounding environs all tying back into Clark Aston Smith's Poseidonis cycle but with a far more Lovecraft Deep Ones style twist to it. Smith's Poseidonis is "the last isle of foundering Atlantis" & makes a great background for the fishing port of Restenford. These people count themselves as the last remains of Atlantis in an almost cargo cult like way. This whole adventure path is set up for an all out war with the Deep Ones that I don't know if the PC's can survive?
Once again the cycle for Clark Ashton Smith's Poseidonis cycle is:

• Atlantis (1912)
• Death of Malygris, The (1933)
• Double Shadow, The (1933)
• Last Incantation, The (1930)
• Muse of Atlantis, The (1922)
• Tolometh (1958)
• Vintage from Atlantis, A (1933)
• Voyage to Sfanomoe, A (1931)

L2 Assasins Knot would also fit the vibe of the U1 series as well as CAS's
Poseidonis cycle. The adventure  background & NPC's could further flesh out the entire affair with style and easy.



This campaign path will take the PC's from first all the way through fifth level with an option being to use Douglas Niles N1 Against the Reptile Cult as a way of dealing with the political  friction of the lizard men in the U series of adventures. This is a whole other blog entry for another time.



All of these adventures all center around the PC levels of 1-5 with some really interesting Clark Aston Smith & Lovecraftian details being able to be slipped into the campaign mix. All of this old school play sets the PC's up to face down the mysteries of another horrid situation  coming from the Port Greely area of the campaign. If the PC's have kept the Sea Witch from U1 Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh then its a perfect set up for the party to sail into North Wind Adventures  The Mystery At Port Greely.
"Until about three years ago, the peculiar town of Port Greely was renowned as a prolific exporter of crustaceans. Then the Greely lobstermen severed all ties with outside partners. Subsequent attempts at renegotiation were shunned." What is the extent of the Deep One taint in the region? Is there a full blown Deep One cult there? This is going to be a part investigation
Now the PC's can see the full on fury of the menace that the Deep Ones represent and maybe survive the bloody onslaught. By doing the U1 series, plus L1 and maybe a side quest into N1 the PC's might have enough experience & backbone to take on the menace of Port Greely.



So where do the horrors of this style of campaign go? Well I've got ideas about this too coming up!

There is a ton of free resources for the Lenore Islands over at Dragon's Foot but some of the material would have to be extensively modified to fit this campaign path. 
Still there's some killer OSR material over there for free. 

Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea Unboxing & Campaign Building Commentary

If you've been following this blog for awhile now then you know of my all consuming love of Jeff Talanian's Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea second edition from North Wind Adventures.

 So imagine my surprise when I received a great big package( alright don't because I was informed bout this about a month ago by the author himself. I nearly nerdgarmed right on the email. Merry Christmas to Jeff, The North Wind Adventure crew  & The Talanian family)!

The North wind packing & packaging was excellent. They did this the right way unlike some of my packages in the past from lulu publishing which has gotten better.

 But this fantastic Christmas present got me thinking about the on the table use of classic B/X Dungeons & Dragons & Advanced Dungeons & Dragons adventures with AS&SH. This comes adapting other OSR adventures as well but we'll get to that in a second.

Jesus you could kill someone with this book don't mind my hairy Bigfoot like arm in the picture but check the quality of the binding on the side that's what I want to see in games.

The whole centeral focus of AS&SH system & campaign settings  are the writings of Clark Ashton Smith  & the Lovecraft circle of writers 
But the DM shouldn't feel crippled by an official setting for AS&SH at all. Instead they should be making it their own. But the fact is that a lot of DM's & for that matter players don't have the time to do a lot of prep work & whatnot today. So instead their going to focus no classically published B/X D&D or AD&D first edition adventures. But I just briefly want to talk about the focus & flavor of AS&SH second edition. On the whole it can seem right out regular Dungeons & Dragons but its not. Instead the setting echoes the classic pulp era with HP Lovecraft & Robert Howard's mythos writing but it might also be the far future where Hyperborea is in its last gasps before the whole mass sinks into that bloated red sun.

 
I really appreciate the sentiment Jeffrey seriously I do & right back at you.

For my 'Old Earth' campaign setting Hyperborea is a echo of a bygone war torn age. But for running something like the T1 The Village of Hommlet, the place is a bastion of civilization in the wilderness of cavemen,giants, etc. that are waiting to meet & eat your PC's head on. The PC's are going to need the Keep from The Borderlands  & want a base of operations straight out when adventuring on Hyperborea.The town of Swampgate & the introductory adventure does the exact classic bastion of civilization. The technological levels of AS&SH run from secondary Ice Age cavemen to Greek & perhaps in some of the most civilized areas mid period empire Rome. This means that wilderness adventuring  can be the rule not the exception on Hyperborea. And its that Weird Tales wilderness where villages & entire farms can be swallowed up by some Lovecraftian horror or nameless thing. Classic campaign run modules such as the Temple of Elemental Evil should be adapted to AS&SH not the other way around. There are the classic D&D monsters but in AS&SH they've been given a Hyperborean coating. Should the DM work with them they can surprise & kill even seasoned veteran player's PC's easily.

The page meet is solid meaning that the binding is quality.Notice where the meet points are & how the pages are balanced.

This means that AS&SH is wearing its Sword & Sorcery origins quite literally on its sleeves. So I have a tendency to run classic Dungeons & Dragons modules with a twist or two that the players who have played the classics before are not expecting. Because let's face it 'gamers' in general are a pop culture wary & jaded lot. AS&SH's Hyperborea isn't drawing from one cycle of  Clark Ashton Smith's cycles or H.P. Lovecraft's writings its drawing from many of them. Stealing from them in the night & then moving on. This makes campaign play not only doable but it demands it. This isn't to say that you as a player or DM can't run one shot adventures in fact I would suggest a television episode style of adventures to expand & flesh out their Hyperborea setting because Sword and sorcery commonly overlaps with heroic fantasy.

The color plates really do add to the spice of the setting and give the DM fodder. They lay the ground work with regards to the hows & why's of Hyperborea as a living breathing campaign adventure setting. They're gorgeous.

On the whole AS&SH is a classic OSR retro clone system & many of the fine OSR adventure products on the market can easily be adapted to the system. This also includes settings as well. Because in my mind AS&SH takes place in the far future its easy to adapt them to the AS&SH system. I reading some of this minor blog entry I make the whole thing sound plodding & as a stick in the mud serious retroclone. AS&SH can easily do classic Saturday morning cartoons such as 'The Herculoids' or 'Thundarr The Barbarian' as easily as Robert Howard's Conan.

I haven't talked much about North Wind Adventures other official adventures like Beneath the Comet , Forgotten Fane of the Coiled Goddess, or Ghost Ship of the Desert Dunes 

but especially The Mystery at Port Greely. 

The Mystery at Port Greely is a recasting of  HP Lovecraft's The Shadow over Innsmouth onto Hyperborean shores. This adventure has given me the most campaign adventure hooks, player reactions, & TPK's of the AS&SH line. Why? Because its one of the defining Lovecraftian  adventures of Hyperborea. The adventure seems to fade from players minds for some reason but the events of the adventure point to a world baring threat with implications of Lovecraftian wars brewing on Hyperborea. This adventure has some very dire implications for my own 'Old Earth' campaign but we'll get to that soon enough. Mental note to self get a physical copy ASAP. Seriously I keep forgetting to order the physical copies of these adventures because last year I gave them to a friend as a Christmas present.


For me Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea second edition isn't just a gorgeous book but a setting that I want to play in  again & again.

 If You Want Your own copy of Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea second edition Grab It Here

Have a great afternoon & Trouble says hi folks. Remember to keep those dice rolling!