Purple Blackness & Ancient Swords in The Back Alleys - War 1870 - Campaign Background Session Report

"Another item connected with the legend of the lich Vecna is the Sword of Kas, his onetime bodyguard. This sword is said to have a thin grey blade of some metallic substance. It's powers are only dimly hinted at by legend, but Kas was said to have been the mightiest swordsman of his age."



Today I broke out my copy of Eldritch Wizardry & I began to reread the artifact section on the Sword of Kas. The sword has been travelling  across my game campaign settings for ages now leaving a trail of murder & mayhem in its wake. I'm not even kidding this goes back to my Godbound/Cha'alt campaign in October of last year.  The sword found a new host body & its been cutting a bloody swath across the prime material planes for months now.
The sword has been looking for something & now tonight its made its way to my 1870's War campaign in New York City. This is a part of my diabolical plan to uncloak one of my main big nasties in my Castles & Crusades/ Victorious rpg  hybrid campaign.



All across New York City there have been undead sightings, ghostly activities, & undead incursions.Slayers & heroes are getting a work out from this past weekend's game. The Earth is on edge & not because of the appearance of Tegel Manor.. The manor has been drawn here by something big & very nasty. The PC's have a contract to retrieve the body of a nobleman in this  for a resurrection at the temple of Thor. They've been hearing rumors of several cults worshiping dark occult forces on the water front.

The cult of the Ever Expanding Eye & The Hand of Ultimate Salvation have both been hitting the air waves & bill boards of this alternative Steampunk Earth. Day & night the commercials have been really hammering home the creepy message of these new & exciting street religions.
There have been signs of Greyhawk's portals merging with the city here & there across the city. The unmistakable air of something nasty, dangerous, & truly dire coming to the city that never sleeps.



Yet what is happening in Yemen, California, Cario, & across the Earth?! There are whispers of a black pyramid, strange men appearing in the underworld, murders,  dangerous technologies, dark sorceries, and worse in these corners of the globe! The alien men & women from Elsyuim are making their way into the thieves guilds of the underworld of New York. And what is strange new drug  xanthium-183 that many of the wizards,psychics, & occultists of New York are buzzing about!? 


On three fronts dark forces are tracking our PC's! The snares have been laid out & now the simply wait for our PC's to blunder in.. 

Matters Metal, Cosmic, & Demonic - Divinity, Higher Dimensional Entities, & The Old School Campaign

I've got a real problem with owing anyone any favors or debts. This goes back a very long way too my childhood & beyond. So today when I had the chance come up I backed Rafael Chandler's Metallic Tome kickstarter.  When my pay check came up today  I back this kickstarter quick..
Why?!


I got my fifty coming up fast & Rafael Chandler is a really nice guy but I wanna support my friends efforts. But there's a selfish reason for backing this kickstarter. I've already got plans for this setting coming up. Years ago I'd ask for a review copy of a particular OSR rpg or I'd get sent one. These days not anymore. Today I buy what I like or want. Not need for actual play. There in lay the two middle grounds of play. 'Like' & 'need' are vastly different things.. I'm I really excited about the  'Metallic Tome' yes because I know the author's mind set. On one of the social media platforms Mr.Chandler said there's a shared background universe to his gaming works. makes it clear that there's monsters among the Chandlerverse's planes 'The Teratic Tome' that are truly end campaign horrors. 

"This enchiridion of entities should only be used by DMs inclined towards malfeasance, sadism, and base wrongdoing.

Torn from the pages of the Books of Pandemonium, these horrific fiends -- including the grotesquely talented Curhadac, the sadistic Eremite, and the death-singing Acronical -- will test the mettle of any adventuring party."

But are they really?! The more I've read of  'The Teratic Tome' the more I'm convinced that these 'monsters' while are monsters are actually just other NPC planar travelers among the larger scope of an incredibly dangerous multiverse. This book is filled with the minor minions & major players in this. What can we take away that I'm trying to make myself feel better for pledging or that's an author's fictional universe agenda at work here? Well, let's start with the fact that I believe the latter without giving the former any mental fodder. But who or what is watching at a distance?!
One set of gods of chaos opposes another & in this case Cha'alt speaks volumes into & unto itself.
Alien entities so alien that they are for all intents & purposes gods inimical to mankind. 

The Black Pyramid smacks of the 'cosmic indifferentism' of the same lines of the monsters of the  'The Teratic Tome'. Two sides of the same forces warring over the resources of our population; "Though cosmicism appears deeply pessimistic, H.P. Lovecraft thought of himself as neither a pessimist nor an optimist but rather a "scientific" or "cosmic" indifferentist,^[15] a theme expressed in his fiction. In Lovecraft's work, human beings are often subject to powerful beings and other cosmic forces, but these forces are not so much malevolent as they are indifferent toward humanity.^[16] This indifference is an important theme in cosmicism. The noted Lovecraft scholar S. T. Joshi asserts that "Lovecraft constantly engaged in (more or less) genial debates on religion with several colleagues, notably the pious writer and teacher Maurice W. Moe. Lovecraft was a strong and antireligious atheist; he considered religion not merely false but dangerous to social and political progress."^[17] As such, Lovecraft's cosmicism is not religious at all, but rather a version of his mechanistic materialism. Lovecraft thus embraced a philosophy of cosmic indifferentism. He believed in a meaningless, mechanical, and uncaring universe that human beings, with their naturally limited faculties, could never fully understand." 
This is the same passion of design that we see in G1-3 Against The Giants by Gary Gygax . No I'm not comparing either authors with Gary Gygax's module tour de force. Instead I'm pointing out the fact that forces beyond the ken of mankind are in control of the lives, existence, & even the reality of their victims & targets. All the while indifferent to the suffering  among the humans that they cause.

The giants are the willing pawns of powerful forces beyond the ken of men that goes back thousands of years. This makes the point even with 'cosmicism' at its center is the fact that  heroes are needed even more. The weight of history cries out to the blood of player's PC's focus's on the map of their world setting. The  'Metallic Tome' smacks of the violence & horrors in a huge metal rock & roll world of horrors.

Is the world setting of the 'Metallic Tome' subject to similar horrors as   'The Teratic Tome'? In a word I believe so because all of these creations are part & parcel of the mind of the writer. So has this world of metal horror been the future of a world not unlike Cha'alt in way? A far more twisted fantasy version of a fantasy module classic such as B4 The Lost City by Tom Moldvay?

 

All planar Prime quantum echoes of higher dimensional alien entities completely indifferent to the insects called humanity. Meanwhile minions scatter, caper, & dance to the alien tunes of their masters while these things war with each other? The mind boggles at the possibility as the cosmic indifference of affairs allows them to go on with their alien agenda.



The 'metal PC's' of Thrash Dwarves, Black Paladins, Death Rangers, Glam Wizards, and Doom Thieves of  the 'Metallic Tome' are the sort of player characters who are perfectly suited to take on alien monsters of Cha'alt. Could the PC's actually not only take back portions of Cha'alt but win for themselves vast wasteland domains?! The gods & monsters warring among themselves puts vast group of victi erm  humans at risk. I'm taking many of my 'P''s & 'Q''s from classic sources such as "Supplement IV" Gods, Demi-Gods and Heroes by James M. Ward & Robert Kuntz. 

 But what's really happening is that I'm digging out my copy of Eldritch Wizardry. Why?! Because a version of the Rod of Orcus has been floating around my campaign settings for awhile now. Its time that I got serious about this particular artifact and that brings me back to  'The Teratic Tome'. 


Several of the undead horrors in that book are absolutely primed to be used by a servant of the foul demon lord of the Undead. Is there a connection between Cha'alt black pyramid & the demon  lord of the undead? Absolutely there is but what this is has yet to be revealed to the players! 

DM Raj & The Axe of Dwarven Lords For Your Old School Campaigns

So once again I ran into an old friend in the grocery store, this time it was DM  Raj. Raj is an interesting guy whom we went Grammer school with. He's got a group of D&D players who work with him in the local hospital where he works as an anesthesiologist by day & a dungeon master of doom by weekends once a month. He's a huge fan of Spelljammer but he's been running it with first edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons for years. We were discussing my Cha'alt elevator pitch for Godbound today. But then he started brainstorming about a recent encounter his players had with one of the Axes of the Dwarven Lords. The Axe of the Dwarven Lord first appeared in original Dungeons & Dragons Eldritch Wizardry 1976, Dungeon Master's Guide (1979), Book of Artifacts (1993),^[5] Encyclopedia Magica Vol. 1 (1994), & the  Axe of the Dwarvish Lords (module, 1999).
The Drivethrurpg  " Axe of the Dwarvish Lords'  write up has a pretty consistent history on the items; "The Axe of the Dwarvish Lords is one of D&D's legendary artifacts, first appearing in Supplement III: Eldritch Wizardry (1976) by Gary Gygax and Brian Blume. There's no record of the artifact's author or his intention. At the time it was simply described as an "axe … forged from the heart of a volcano by a dwarvish king long forgotten."

As with most of D&D's classic artifacts, the Axe reappeared first in the Dungeon Masters Guide (1979), then in the Book of Artifacts (1993). However, the descriptions in these references wasn't particularly consistent. The first said the Axe was lost in the "Invoked Devastation", an early event in the World of Greyhawk. The second instead said it was lost in the civil war that followed when "Brassbeard slew his uncle, King Irontooth of Moradinson". Axe of the Dwarvish Lords uses the latter history (and expands upon it), removing the Axe from the world of Greyhawk … but unlike some of D&D's other primordial artifacts, its links were never that strong.

Both Book of Artifacts and Axe of the Dwarvish Lords claim that the Axe is one of five artifacts. The others are "the Brutal Pick, the Earthheart Forge, the Anvil of Songs, and the Shaping Hammer", while the Axe is actually known as "the Fierce Axe"." 

Back to DM Raj who runs a game of Spell Jammer & his adventurers run across a massive abandoned  Dwarven Citadel ship; "More than mere vessels, citadels were also bases and homes to the dwarves inhabiting them. They were equipped with a different kind of spelljamming helm known as forges, which were powered by the mining activities of its inhabitants as they explored minerals within the asteroid itself.^[1]

Capable of moving citadels up to 700 tons in size, forges provided energy for spelljamming and produced about 10,000 gp worth of dwarven items per month.^[3] A typical citadel was capable of providing ores and prime materials for a limited amount of time, depending on its size. A 300-ton citadel, the smallest variant, could last between 6 and 24 years.^[1]

After having been depleted of its resources, a citadel was emptied by its inhabitants and the whole clan, along with the forge, was transferred to a new asteroid. Abandoned citadels typically became lairs of monsters or pirates. They also tended to attract adventurers in search of treasure that might have been left behind" The party sneaks aboard to find out why there's a massive Dwarven Citadel ship sitting around a dead star. Inside they find the whole works abandoned except for the usual dungeon dwellers but at the heart of the citadel they find the remains of lots of dead dwarven warriors & a temple with one of the 'Axes of the Dwarven Lords'!


This was a war forge citadel & used for forging weapons for Dwarven warriors, priests, etc. The ship had been abandoned for a long time & there were signs of violence all over the place. Raj's players didn't have long to stick around to get in on the action as the neogi ships   started to show up. And the undead remains of the Dwarven warriors began to animate. The citadel's soul came alive & the party left the citadel barely escaping with their lives. In case your wondering this was a jihad ship. According to the Forgotten Realms wiki entry on Dwarven Citadel ships ; "Most citadels were living ships, home to their inhabitants and dedicated to exploration or trade, according to their populations' wishes. However, some citadels, known as jihad ships, were dedicated to waging war against sworn enemies of the dwarven race. Such crusades were declared by a council of representatives of several dwarven pantheons. Planets and ships belonging to their enemies were attacked on sight relentlessly.^[1]

Large citadels were hard and difficult to maintain and for that reason were quite rare. Even larger citadels existed, of over 700 tons. However, those bases could not achieve spelljamming speeds and were most frequently used as stationary or orbiting bases"

Raj & got to talking because of the fact that what was to happen if in the far future of Clark Ashton Smith's Zothique all of the Dwarves are extinct?! What would happen if a jihad ship made orbit around an Earth like planet or worse still Earth?! Well that's where the Axe of the Dwarven Lords comes in.. According to Supplement III: Eldritch Wizardry (1976) by Gary Gygax and Brian Blume the Axe of the Dwarven Lords; "This axe was forged from the heart of a volcano by a dwarvish king long forgotten. It passed from father to son until it disappeared in battle over a thousand years ago. Since then it has been rumored to have appeared in various places around the world. The axe has all of the fighting qualities of a sword of sharpness. In addition it confers on its user all of the natural abilities of dwarves, i.e., infravisions. the ability to detect sloping passages, traps and new construction. After prolonged use it tends to make its user resemble a dwarf; he becomes shorter, stockier and grows a profuse beard. Also it has One power from TABLE II. one from TABLE III, one from TABLE IV, and one from TABLE V."
Raj was telling me that there were rumors among certain Dwarf  Dungeons & Dragons fans  that the Axe could in fact  not only change the owner into a proto Dwarf like being but others as well! Imagine what might happen if that  citadel jihad ship made planet fall & the owner of the Axe of Dwarven Lords wanted shock troops or others for war that never ended?! Innocents might be turned into the next projentors of the Dwarven race! 

There are mythological precendes for this sort of thing to occur especially in the European mythology;"Norse mythology provides different origins for the beings, as recorded in the Poetic Edda (compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources) and the Prose Edda (written by Snorri Sturluson in the 13th century). The Poetic Edda poem Völuspá details that the dwarfs were the product of the primordial blood of the being Brimir and the bones of Bláinn (generally considered to be different names for the primordial being Ymir). The Prose Edda, however, describes dwarfs as beings similar to maggots that festered in the flesh of Ymir before being gifted with reason by the gods. The Poetic Edda and Prose Edda contain over 100 dwarf names, while the Prose Edda gives the four dwarfs Norðri, Suðri, Austri and Vestri (Old Norse 'North, South, East, and West') a cosmological role: they hold up the sky.^[1] In addition, scholars have noted that the Svartálfar (Old Norse 'black elves') appear to be the same beings as dwarfs, given that both are described in the Prose Edda as the denizens of Svartálfaheimr.^[5]

Very few beings explicitly identifiable as dwarfs appear in the Poetic Edda and Prose Edda, and they have quite diverse roles: murderous creators who create the mead of poetry, 'reluctant donors' of important artifacts with magical qualities, or sexual predators who lust after goddesses.^[6] They are primarily associated with metalsmithing, and also with death, as in the story of King Sveigðir in Ynglinga saga, the first segment of the Heimskringla—the doorways in the mountains that they guard may be regarded as doors between worlds.^[7] One dwarf named Alvíss claimed the hand of Thor's daughter Þrúðr in marriage, but he was kept talking until daybreak and turned to stone, much like some accounts of trolls.^[8]

After the Christianization of the Germanic peoples, tales of dwarfs continued to be told in the folklore of areas of Europe where Germanic languages were (and are) spoken.^[9] In the late legendary sagas, dwarfs demonstrate skill in healing as well as in smithing.^[10] In the early Norse sources, there is no mention of their being short; in the legendary sagas, however, they are "small and usually ugly".^[1] Anatoly Liberman suggests that dwarfs may have originally been thought of as lesser supernatural beings, which became literal smallness after Christianization.^[11] Old Norse dwarf names include Fullangr ('tall enough') and Hár ('high'), whereas Anglo-Saxon glosses use dweorg to render Latin terms such as nanus and pygmaeus ('pygmy').^[12][13]

Dwarfs in folklore are usually described as old men with long beards.^[13] Female dwarfs are hardly ever mentioned. Dvalinn the dwarf has daughters, and the 14th-century romantic saga Þjalar Jóns saga gives the feminine form of Old Norse dyrgja, but the few folklore examples cited by Grimm in Teutonic Mythology may be identified as other beings.^[14][15] However, in the Swedish ballad "Herr Peder och Dvärgens Dotter" (Swedish 'Sir Peder and the Dwarf's Daughter'), the role of supernatural temptress is played by a dwarf's daughter."

The Dwarves guarded doorways between worlds?! These beings have contact with Drow like Elves & the whole affair reeks of Norse & German mytholog? This is a perfect opporunity to introduce the Axe of the Dwarven Lords. The citadel makes planet fall on modern day Earth & the PC's are called into stop the process of evolutuin. Gods & heroes can handle this sort of thing?! Maybe! 

The encounter with the Dwarven citadel highlights the fact that this is a very high level encounter and there's lots of room for potential wrangling on the part of the players..  

1. Raj was totally discounting the  adventure module Axe of the Dwarvish Lords^[5] involving the Axe and written by long-time Dungeons & Dragons designer Skip Williams 
2. What other treasures & artifacts does the Dwarven Citadel have aboard. 
3. Could the the Axe of the Dwarven Lords be a full blown weapon lost to time? 
4. What other factions might be after this Axe of the Dwarven Lords?
5. Could the beholders of Spelljammer be after this artifact?! The chances are highly positive. 
6. Monsters could be well ahead of the curve & after citadel because of a variety of items 
7. Avoid using the endless mines of Moria symdrome and instead focus on the urban crawl age. 
8. The PC's should be well aware that they are on board a very dangerous space dungeon 
9. The mind of the citadel might be twisted in many ways leading to all kinds of insanity 
10. Plenty of fun dungeon romps with the potenial for death & mayhem. Dwarves love to create traps & tricks.