OSR Commentary On CM4 Earthshaker! By David 'Zeb' Cook & Adventurer Conqueror, King 1st edition Rpg

 " Into your hands has been thrust a great responsibility: the management of a growing domain. It has been a hard winter. Now, with the coming of spring, the populace looks to you for leadership. It will take a careful and generous hand to restore your subjects' confidence."

"But even as you hold your first courts of the new season, an ominous shadow falls across the land. Earthshaker - wonder of the world - has arrived! Will its arrival be a curse or a blessing? With bold action and skillful diplomacy, you may yet divert disaster. But if you fail, the consequences will certainly be the subject of many a minstrel's tragic songs for years to come!"

CM4 Earthshaker! By David 'Zeb' Cook features the Earthshaker and this means that levels 18-20 are not levels to be trifled with. This is a 'King' level adventure in every sense of the word with a dungeon/menace that is the size of a domain and can flatten one. CM4 features some very high level encounters a high level module with Conqueror to King level encounters we're talking table X (10) encounters. And Earthshaker is a return to both Blackmoor and S3 Expediation to the Barrier Peaks Science Fantasy turf because the Earthshaker is described as follows; " the Earthshaker is described thus: "[It] was built at least 3,000 years ago, probably by a race of evil gods similar in skill to dwarves or gnomes." Since Blackmoor is set 3000 years before the modern day of the Known World, and since its science-fantasy technology is sometimes said to come from "gods," many presume that Blackmoor is the source of the Earthshaker technology." 
And for Adventurer, Conqueror, King's Dwarven Craftmen PC's and NPC's the Earthshaker technology is a return to form. Studying it can yield incredible innovations. And this is a return to form with Autarch's By This Axe: The Cyclopedia of Dwarven Civilization.

 CM4 is a return to menaces that are both the menace and partially the dungeon in one neat package. And make no mistake there are monsters, encounters, menaces that can end a party with a quick snap of a finger. And there are not one but three domains up for conquest according to the CM4 Earthshaker wiki entry; "Expanding the Known World. In case players don't have their own dominion, "Earthshaker!" offers up the dominion of Vyolstagrad for use. It also mentions the nearby dominion of Stamtral. Both are located in Norwold, but as was the case with the Barony of Twolakes Vale in CM2: "Death's Ride," the adventure doesn't specify where exactly. The Italian MMB suggests placing Vyolstagrad southeast of the Azure Lake.

Vyolstragard also marked the first use of a Russian-like culture in Norwold. It's since been associated with the "Vatski" culture."  So this makes adventuring interesting from an ACK's perspective. The players can really make Mystara thier own setting by taming it if they survive! The dungeon crawls are cleverly woven into this one. 
And once again if there was ever a high level adventure that clocks in on the ACK's ten and above level CM4 Earthshaker is it! This adventure has the ACK's Heroic Fantasy Handbook written all over it! 

Deadly encounters, high level politics, a kingdom wrecking warmachine, and more! CM4 Earth shaker can pick up right after the events of  Sabre River (CM3) By Douglas Niles Along With  Bruce Nesmith. In Earthshaker the PC's are the heroes & kings of yore returned to the shores of Mystara especially with ACK's in the campaign wheel house. And now with Adventurer Conqueror King System Imperial Imprint (ACKS II) - Kickstarter happening. Now is the perfect time to get into an ACK's Mystara campaign. 

The Legacy of Lum The Mad & Leuk-O In Greyhawk & The Wilderlands of High Fantasy

There are ton of thoughts roaring through my head today after speaking with DM Steve & DM Ricky. One of those was looking over notes from 2019 concerning our Godbound/Cha'alt game campaign. Some of this goes all of the way back to our 2019 Victorious rpg campaign. That morphed into Godzilla 1889 & then bled into Amazing Adventures. The real question was, in the Wilderlands of High Fantasy was there a Lum The Mad & his collaborator then betrayer  Leuk-O?! 

So why would I be putting these two into my version of the Wilderlands? Well two reasons actually one is the fact that within Greyhawk there's the land of black ice which was the City of the Gods & later Blackmoor.  This is now the kingdom of Greyhawk's version of the  Egg of Coot and a land of eternal ice. The Bleching Vortex has been one of those creeping little cliff hanger adventure hooks that still lingers in Greyhawk. But does it lead to the Wilderlands of High Fantasy?! I think so with  the Secret of Passage card artifact the passage between Greyhawk & the Wilderlands is still available. The connections here are part of the quisi science fictional/science fantasy campaign weirdness of early original Dungeons & Dragons that just won't let go. This goes back to the early Kuntz & Gygax family games of early TSR fame. 

Lum The Mad is still out in  the plane of Limbo in the middle of the swirling eddies according to our campaign notes due to his connection to the machine. This was explored in Vortex of Madness from 2000 by Jennifer Clarke-Wilkes, Harold Johnson, & Chris Pramas. And yes it was for second edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. But the fact is that if there is a wilderlands version of these two tyrantical  madmen then its possible their still out there someplace in Limbo waiting. In the Wilderlands of High Fantasy its possible that they destroyed a huge swath of land with their occult tech artifacts. And my thought is that the demon lands might be exactly where these two squared off. 

And this has got us thinking about adding this into the back end of running an AS&SH game using the Higherlands of High Fantasy. But it might be time that our group looks into Castles & Crusades?! But if the Earth Shaker mech is uncovered what then?! 
So if the Earth Shaker mecha is found & this further uncovers more secrets of the 'Legacy of Giants & Amazons'. Then does this put both the Wilderlands & Hyperborea on track for the hypothetic events of Havard's DA10 God War  By David J Ritchie & Dave Arneson?! 

These occult technologies should have a very dangerous & infernal feel to them. This is another lesson from the Lamentations of the Flame Princess rpg & early Dungeons & Dragons. Any artifact or occult technologies should be absolutely dangerous as well as beneficial to PC's. 

'You've Got Mystara in My Wilderlands' - Weird Tales Judges Guild Wilderlands of High Fantasy- The Havard Blackmoor Option

 All of the following started early this morning with me tooling around the Piazza & talking with fellow DM's about Jeff Grub releasing a sourcebook for Mystara. 

So its been a very busy day here & through it I was able to met with a bunch of my co dungeon masters. And then DM Ricky started in on me about Mystara & using Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea rpg to run the Wilderlands of High Fantasy. Over the weekend I talked about using various OSR  resources to help shore up aspects of the Wilderlands. But DM Ricky feels that Mystara is getting short changed. Well that all changed when we plugged into Google Wilderlands of High Fantasy in Mystara & came across Blackmoor Regional Maps the work of my friend Havard. And this means that the City of the Gods 

This means quite literally that DA3 City of the Gods By David J Ritchie & Dave Arneson could potentially take place on a version of ancient Mystara with City State of The Invincible Overlord around the corner. This has some very disturbing connotations unto itself. Why?! 

This means that the gods themselves if they die in a  Ragnarök  event then they get replaced by the immortals of Mystara in the far future. And it also puts Steven of the Rock's DA2 Temple of the Frog By David J Ritchie & Dave Arneson  within the sphere of influence of Hyperborea. Hyperborea in the past of our games has had a Temple of The Frog. But the temple of the frog  had a far more reaching cult then on Blackmoor. 

The Froggies on Hyperborea were quite literally very well entrenched with their cult. They were one of the leading religions because of the mix of their occult technologies & the favor of Tsathoggua. Saint Steven of the Rock  was manipulating everything behind the scenes through the head of the cult. But is it actually Tsathoggua whose providing the priests their power?! And is there far more to the temples then it seems on Hyperborea? 

This puts the events of the Sea Wolf's Daughter AS&SH adventure into a whole new light?! The entire end point dungeon suddenly takes on a whole new meaning . 

So if the Earth Shaker mecha is found & this further uncovers more secrets of the 'Legacy of Giants & Amazons'. Then does this put both the Wilderlands & Hyperborea on track for the hypothetic events of Havard's DA10 God War  By David J Ritchie & Dave Arneson?! 

And where does this leave The Egg of Coot?! Could the Egg be a relic from a earlier Law vs Chaos  war or time period?!


Could the Egg itself be a minor Chaos lord from another universe similar to the two divine beings that we saw in Lamentations of the Flame Princess's  Qelong by Kennith Hite. The implications here are pretty damn staggering in a way?! Where does this leave the legacy of Roghan the Fearless and Zelligar the Unknown?! This campaign setting would be ancient Blackmoor & possibly not even Mystara in our view at this point. But there's far more to consider here before going forward with this idea especially if the nexus gates of World of the Lost are on the campaign docket. 

And could St. Stephen The Rock keep his hands out of other times & places that the Nexus Gate ways of such a campaign offer??! Going back to game sessions in 2018?! Umm no he did not at all. 
But that's a blog post for another time. You can find Harvard Blackmoor's blog here. 

Legacy of Giants & Amazons OSR Commentary - Weird Tales Judges Guild Wilderlands of High Fantasy- Shield Maidens of Sea Rune by Bryan Hinnen & CM4 Earthshaker By David 'Zeb' Cook

 "The third book in the "Wilderness Series" with 22 wilderness hexes for Campaign Map 1 are detailed in this book along with description and maps of the major points of interest.  Warrior Women plot to regain their home lost to the barbarous Skandiks, fearsome sea reavers all.  Torn between their Gods of the North and the Druidic worship of nature, the Skandiks grow weak.  Beware the cruel and evil Anti-Paladin who stalks this area looking for blood; he may be the death of you yet!  Can you thread the perilous path to fame and riches in this saga of unforgettable Adventure?"

Shield Maidens of Sea Rune by Bryan Hinnen has some very interesting connections with the rest of the history of the Wilderlands of High Fantasy. This one of the best of the Wilderness series & it presents an implied sci fi background history for the Amazon tribes  of the area. And since we're going to be running the old school Wilderlands of High Fantasy campaign setting  with the OSR's Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea rpg let's dive back in. 

Like we talked about in yesterday's blog entry  some rather nasty business happened in the ancient past of the Wilderlands. Some planar event shattered the Wilderlands reality & this lead to the Nexus Gates being created. An educated guess by DM Steve is that it might have been an all out war with the powers of Law & Chaos or something much worse. Kevin Kiersky in his Amazon review of Shield Maidens of Sea Rune; "This super-module is cleverly set to work well with Calandia [City-State of the Invincible Overlord and Wilderlands] as closely or loosely as needed or wanted. It's also easy to work with various versions of gaming -- even if fairly directly set for AD&D-like gaming. There is even a distinct sci-fi aspect implied by both the general history and local history. Semi-Celtic and semi-Nordic cultural aspects are presented -- but, as usual, neither over-done nor under-done -- like the good gaming gender balance -- even via the lurid-and-lush cover art -- afterall she's got a reclining male lion behind her +++" 

Semi Celtic & Semi Nordic cultures  sounds very familiar to the Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerer of Hyperborea DMs among my players. Even though these people's names  have slightly different spellings in AS&SH. Perhaps these folks made the nexus gate crossing hundreds or thousands of years ago. Why?! 

We get clues as to the why back here in B1 In Search of the Unknown by Mike Carr. Many of the classic rooms of the upper levels of Quasqueton speak about a pretty solid knowledge of occult & supernatural workings far in advance of many other rank & file  Sword & Sorcery wizards. Why?! Because the campaign worlds of both Hyperborea & 'The Wilderlands of High Fantasy' imply a war with the gods. And not just any war. I'm talking about  Ragnarök  here of the many gods of Earth. Just look at the fragmented pantheons of both AS&SH & the Wilderlands. They don't make sense or do they?! Those gods who are left over after the dust settles are the survivors. AS&SH rpg  can take place thousand or millions of years in the future. The science fantasy artifacts made far more sense scattered across Hyperborea if it was one of the battle fields of mankind in the ancient past. If the Wilderlands have their own Blackmoor then that means that they also  means that CM4 Earthshaker by David Zeb Cook is also on the menu. 

That's right the Blackmoor technologies of early original Dungeons & Dragons is on tap & the Wizards of the Coast ad for CM4 puts it rather squarely in the realms of science fantasy; 

"Mixing science-fiction with fantasy was very popular in D&D during the 70s, starting with TSR's premiere adventure, "The Temple of the Frog," found originally in Supplement II: Blackmoor (1975). The most famous instance of science fantasy in D&D is probably S3: "Expedition to the Barrier Peaks" (1980), which centers on a crashed space craft. "Earthshaker!" - with its steam-powered giant robot - is thus a return to form.

The in-game origin of the Earthshaker is described thus: "[It] was built at least 3,000 years ago, probably by a race of evil gods similar in skill to dwarves or gnomes." Since Blackmoor is set 3000 years before the modern day of the Known World, and since its science-fantasy technology is sometimes said to come from "gods," many presume that Blackmoor is the source of the Earthshaker technology." 

So we know that Blackmoor is a part of the Wilderlands & possibly a resting place for all kinds of artifacts of war. This means that CM4 could be taking place in the Wilderlands of High Fantasy with only the City of the Gods as a possible source for stopping the giant. But does this mean that Hyperborea wastelands hold similar weapons of war?! Could parts of the Diamond Desert & other abandoned wastelands be housing incredible artifacts of alien construction?! And could the Amazon tribes of various worlds scattered to the four winds be the only other source for any techno occult information?! Is there a connection between  Shield Maidens of Sea Rune by Bryan Hinnen & a Nexus Gate that we see in World of the Lost?! It's very possible indeed. 

 

Could the Earth Shaker technologies actually have been created to fight the incredible beings from Qelong by Kennith Hite?! And as we've said in the past do these beings actually represent members of the courts of Law & Chaos?! DM Steve made the point that the Earthshakers couldn't touch the weaponry of the divine beings of Qelong. 

Let's not forget the mystic & deadly green diamonds of Ghost Ship of the Desert  Dunes. The perfect power source & weapon for an Earthshaker! There may have been far more to the works of  Quasqueton then even those who live there know about. Are these campaign lands nothing more then chess boards to the gods & the entities of Law & Chaos?! The answer may be, yes!