OSR Commentary - Bloody Arduin Rpg Monster Ecology of The Doomguard

'Robic The Fierce crawled along the crypt wall and heard the sound of a plate suit of armor and sweat began to roll down his forehead. Robic saw the gem like glowing eye at the corner of the crypt. He didn't see the doomguard next to him until he ducked as the sword hit the wall next to him! How did the doomguard move so fast?! '  

Doomguards are one of my favorite Arduin rpg monsters to use & they can be found just about anywhere. These animated suits of armor are the bane of adventurers everywhere. They can easily take on even experienced adventurers. 

Doomguard are animated by black magicians & evil wizards through the ages. These black magicians often yank the souls out of thier victims out of thier bodies. The animated doomguards are equipped with magical swords & weapons.The doomguard act as guardians of treasures of tombs, crypts, wizard's tower & other adventure locations. 

The Doomguard are animated by a semi evil lifeforce bonded to the damned soul trapped within it. Yet, the doomguard seem to be more constructs then the magical rituals to animate them indicate. 

The doomguard have an eye like gem that are centered within thier helms. These enchanted gems have dark vision, and are able to sense invisible, etc. The doomguard are immune to many spell like effects that they share with undead. 

Get on the wrong side of the doomguard then they will track you to the ends of the Earth. They are able to teleport behind thier victims unerringly. They can easily surprise thier victims.  The doomguard often found in many of the ruins, dungeons, and adventure locations along the border of Arduin. 

The doomguards are some of the most relentless monsters on Arduin able to track thier targets across dungeons and ruins! 

Octogorilla At The Ancient Fort - Bloody Arduin mixed with classic Castles & Crusades - Session Report

 And we're back after I came down with a 24 hour illness! The cobwebs are cleared & I got a chance to run a bit of Castles & Crusades mixed with Bloody Arduin. So I took over a C&C game from DM Charles and the players were exploring an 'abandoned' fort on the edge of a frontier era. Think late Roman Empire mixed with Castles & Crusades. It's just a little past sunset & the party is getting ready to clear out the first level of this fort! 
The party awaits outside the fort to see what predators are awakening. Suddenly there is a shrill cry & the party see the shape of an octogorilla shimmy down the outside of one of the fort's towers! 

The party has zero desire to mess with this apex predator! The sound of it's heavy breathing and shrill cry echos across the field and then it speeds off into the under growth and there is the sound of a scream from a nearby elk! The fiend has brought down a buck! And it powerful tentacles wrap around it's kill and head off into it's alternative lair! 
The party skulks off into the darkness toward the ruined tower on the left & have on good information that fantastic treasure was left behind because the forces of Chaos bore down on the fort too quick. They overran the place and moved on. Thus leaving behind the guadians of Order's banner, spear of destiny, and most of all the treasury. They had this on good authority after paying a veteran soldier of the fortress for that info and a map. 
The party made it's way to the ruined tower and the gapping hole that was the side wall. They planted spikes, ropes, and immediately lowered themselves into the gloom. The smell was unbearable as the scattered bones and remains of dozens and dozens of humanoids were visible all around them. There toward the back were the chests, banner, and spear glowing in the gloom. As they made thier way too them. Two blackish rays and beams hit the party square sending the fighters balling across the carnage. 
The thing that rose in the gloom looks decayed and horrid a moster covered in eyes from a nightmare! There are few words to describe the thing but it rises from under the bones a vision of terror made real! 
The party has the advantage and needs to press it! The Eldritch Eye takes stock of it's latest victims and begins to dish out punshment. The eye rays crack the air in three places as the party's magus attacks with a fire ball! The illusionist uses a rapidly revolving light show for a distraction and there's one of the fighters making a rapid recovery. 
The beam hits the Dwarven warrior turning him instantly to stone and skins the hand of the Elven prince. Darius is able to shrug off most of the effects but his bow is rendered useless and he only aquired it three towns back! 
The thieves scramble over the rubble and quickly check the treasures and give a thumbs up in the torch light! And this is when the party's  violence brings the shrill hoot & squak of a familar octogorilla back! 
 Tentacles begin slowly lowering into the gloom of the bone choked room! The party is trapped between these two titans! This is where we ended it until next week! 

The undead  Eldritch  Eye of course comes from James Mishler Games's Expanded Monsters: Eldritch Eyes!  The Eldritch Eye was left behind by the forces of Chaos as they moved through the area as a sort of living landmine. 

OSR Campaign Commentary - Back To Original Dungeons & Dragons With A Twist of OSR Conan & Bloody, Bloody, Arduin rpg

 This past week my Spring headcold has been kicking my ass. And no it's not Covid I've gotten tested. So I've been doing a lot of thinking lately about going back to original Dungeons & Dragons with all of the bells & whistles. And this brings me back to Jason Vey's Conan materials. The addition here would be using Bloody,Bloody, Arduin with it. Why? 

Stephen Fabian artwork used without permission 

Well first of all is that I want to get back to Carcosa &  Bloody,Bloody, Arduin fits the bill more. And the optional PC classes seem to be on the table with my players. Yes we're in the middle of a campaign or three already but we need to get back to our table I was told. This means going back to OD&D basics with the supplemental  options on the table. 

If the Nexus gates blow open & there's a raid into the PC's world this is how this campaign should kick off. The gates are guarded by various factions of Elves & humans at some of the fortresses surrounding the gates. But with multi colored warriors armed to the teeth pouring through with 'Jack Kirby' style weapons things should get very interesting. This is where we're going to kick things off coming up. Another PC  optional set of rules is Lost Carcosa by Tristan Tanner. The reason is simple, the alternative PC races such as Zoogs & Ghouls is very tempting to the players. The real draw from what I've heard from players  are the Lovecraftian  cleric & magic user spells. 

Where we take this will depend this week with the players but I'm hoping to plug back into Cha'alt if the players play things correctly. As we've moved up the Cha'alt timeline