Commentary On Free The Giants Stair Adventure For The Corum Rpg By Darsyde Productions

 " Rising from the sea to a height of nearly one hundred feet, the Giant's Stairs lie several hundred yards out from the harbor. The massive collection of basalt pillars does indeed resemble a huge staircase when silhouetted against the eastern sky. At most times it is nothing more than a rocky island, but once every seven years on the seventh night of the seventh month two of the fifteen planes intersect here and at gate is opened that allows passage into another plane where dwells a hiddeous giant. If any have ventured through this gate, none have returned to tell of it..."

Over the last couple couple of days I've been doing a lot of  research on the Corum rpg and this included visiting the Darcsyde Productions website. And suprise to surprise the site still has the 'Giants Stair' adventure.

And it's s very interesting little basic adventure for the Corum rpg involving the PC's into the fate of a child deep within the former regions of the five planes. The PC's have to mount a mission to save a child after a dream or nightmare alerts them to the fate of a child.

The child is tied into the island that is shaped like stairs & it's giant inhabitant. There's an adventure hook that ties deeply into the Corum mythology and one of the favored champions of Chaos.
I really don't want to spoilt the back story of 'The Giant's Stairs' but there's enough here where the DM could with a bit of work actually use this adventure with the Stormbringer rpg with little issue. And in point of fact this is how I would use 'Giant's Stairs'.  The PC's are a part of a Corum, Young Kingdom, or Hawkmoon or mixed party of adventurers who experience the dream or nightmare about the child and are transported to the worlds of the five planes. And they have to save the child and during the course of events of' 'The Giant's Stairs' the party finds itself emeshed in the world of Corum.

At only thirteen pages 'The Giant's Stairs' doesn't over stay it's welcome.

The Giant's Stair presents a woven Celtic mythology into the world of Corum. And the PC's are going to have the chance to play the heroes. And also gain the possible aire of the gods of Chaos. And during the events get themselves deeply into the events surrounding the Five Planes. 'The Giant's Stairs' is going to be very alien to the Stormbringer or Dungeons & Dragons players. Seriously Corum's world is vastly alien and weird in all of the right ways. Grab a copy and down load it  for your Stormbringer or even your Runequest third edition group of players. We used 'The Giants Stairs' to get the players into the world of Corum and the five planes. The player's PC's ended up playing through most of '02 through the world of the Five planes. 

Commentary On Free The Giants Stair Adventure For The Corum Rpg By Darsyde Productions

" Rising from the sea to a height of nearly one hundred feet, the Giant's Stairs lie several hundred yards out from the harbor. The massive collection of basalt pillars does indeed resemble a huge staircase when silhouetted against the eastern sky. At most times it is nothing more than a rocky island, but once every seven years on the seventh night of the seventh month two of the fifteen planes intersect here and at gate is opened that allows passage into another plane where dwells a hiddeous giant. If any have ventured through this gate, none have returned to tell of it..."

Over the last couple couple of days I've been doing a lot of  research  on the Corum rpg and this included visiting the Darcsyde Productions website. And suprise to surprise the site still has the 'Giants Stair' adventure. And it's s very interesting little basic adventure for the Corum rpg involving the PC's into the fate of a child deep within the former regions of the five planes. The PC's have to mount a mission to save a child after a dream or nightmare alerts them to the fate of a child. The child is tied into the island that is shaped like stairs & it's giant inhabitant. There's an adventure hook that ties deeply into the Corum mythology and one of the favored champions of Chaos. 
I really don't want to spoilt the back story of 'The Giant's Stairs' but there's enough here where the DM could with a bit of work actually use this adventure with the Stormbringer rpg with little issue. And in point of fact this is how I would use 'Giant's Stairs'. The PC's are a part of a Corum, Young Kingdom, or Hawkmoon or mixed party of adventurers who experience the dream or nightmare about the child and are transported to the worlds of the five planes. And they have to save the child and during the course of events of' 'The Giant's Stairs' the party finds itself emeshed in the world of Corum. 
At only thirteen pages 'The Giant's Stairs' doesn't over stay it's welcome. 

The Giant's Stair presents a woven Celtic mythology into the world of Corum. And the PC's are going to have the chance to play the heroes. And also gain the possible aire of the gods of Chaos. And during the events get themselves deeply into the events surrounding the Five Planes. 'The Giant's Stairs' is going to be very alien to the Stormbringer or Dungeons & Dragons players. Seriously Corum's world is vastly alien and weird in all of the right ways. Grab a copy and down load it for your Stormbringer or even your Runequest third edition group of players. We used 'The Giants Stairs' to get the players into the world of Corum and the five planes. The player's PC's ended up playing through most of '02 through the world of the Five planes. In the end we used the 

Review & Commentary On The Free Hyperborea Rpg Adventure 1-3 levels 'The Drums of Death (The Drums of the Babi-ngepet)' By Caveman

 'The Drums of Death (The Drums of the Babi-ngepet)' By Caveman came my a couple of days ago & this a perfect adventure for a group looking to start a Hyperborea rpg campaign. There's a little bit of everything in this adventure. The set up is classic Hyperborea rpg Swords & Sorcery goodness; "Set in an inland region, many miles from the coast: From a secure location, night-raids on local farmers, hamlets and villages have been occurring for a few weeks within the territory of a minor lord. The raids have one thing in common, before the attacks occurs, drums can be hears echoing in the night. Many of the villagers are being taken as prisoners by whomever is behind the attacks. But those who flee state that it is a wild gang of marauders, perhaps orcs that came threatening their home." 

Your party is hired to take on the problem of the orcs and solve it. Not so fast there's more going on under the surface of course. 

Clocking in at seven pages Caveman's little adventure does an excellent job of bringing the pain to the PC's with both orcs, and bandits mixed in. This is classic old school encounter & adventure with a bit of a dungeon crawl throwin. There's nothing here that's going to break a campaign in two but there's just enough to provide a group of players with a jump off point. And all of the classic adventure elements are here: 

1. dangerous orcs & thier nasty antics 
2. wandering monsters to ruin a party's day 
3. bandits & dangerous NPC's 
4. a bare bones adventure plot to hang 'The Drums of Death' (The Drums of the Babi-ngepet)'

What 'The Drums of Death' (The Drums of the Babi-ngepet)' does is lay the foundation of a campaign while providing the PC's the laddar they need to get deeper into the world of Hyperborea. This is a great little adventure with just enough to get a party started in the world of Hyperborea. 

The Free Hyperborea Rpg Adventure 1-3 levels  'The Drums of Death (The Drums of the Babi-ngepet)' By Caveman Is Available Right Here. 

OSR Review & Commentary On The 'Free' Davis Chenault's Castles & Crusades 'The Hanged Man' adventure module For Both The Castles & Crusades rpg

 "A long journey under an azure sky filling with brackish, boiling clouds ends at a large oak tree. Here, from a muscled branch, a man hangs limply by a thick rope strangled around his neck. Beyond, a dim, rising, yellow moon silhouette’s a village. Snaking, ashy tendrils of smoke coil above rooftops, lights glitter in windows while a miasmal fog creeps down upon the village from freshly churned fields. Then, as sudden as lightening, a fife and fiddle begin a joyous tune. This stops as abruptly as it started. All that now can be heard is a rope straining and groaning with the weight of the hanged man.

A bizarre and humorous adventure where absolution is as important as keeping one’s head."

Davis Chenault's Castles & Crusades  'The Hanged Man' adventure module in both 5th edition & Castles & Crusades version. This is a free module download when you sign up for the free C&C news letter.   'The Hanged Man' adventure module is a perfect Halloween adventure. 

  'The Hanged Man' adventure module clocks in at a twenty one page & a mid tier PC adventure that has a darkly humorous bent. But this adventure is pretty dark within it own right. 'The Hanged Man' this adventure is designed/written by Davis Chenault, so it could takes place in Inzae, the sort of more grimdark sister world of Aihrde. While this is a mid tier module its NPC's, encounters, etc. are all centered around itself. 'The Hanged Man' the adventure could be used for Ravenloft, Greyhawk, etc. or at the edges of Jim Ward's Tainted Lands'. The central adventure elements really could point up the dire influence of the Tainted Lands.
And in point of C&C's 'The Black Libram of Nartarus' by Casey Christofferson relates to a grand book of evil. And 'The Black Libram of Nartarus' could be the portal between the Tainted Lands & 'The Hanged Man'. 

The Tainted Lands could in point of fact be the point of horror & nastiness that overlaps the Haunted Highlands setting. The elements of the 'The Black Libram of Nartarus' recall the Haunted Highlands setting. And these can call back to Davis Chenault's 'Hanged Man'. 
Davis Chenault's 'Hanged Man' is a very tight & well written mid level adventure. There are some real opportunity for role playing & NPC interaction. The campaign addition of 'The Hanged Man' allows the PC's to transition between tradition D&D style adventures & a comedic or  horror game. This style of play are up to the  the players & the DM.  

'The Hanged Man' is solidly done & highly recommended. The writing is tight, the encounters quick, the central core of the module solid, and the reasoning of the 'Hanged Man' is both fluid & weird enough to keep the players coming back for more. 
Davis Chenault's Castles & Crusades  'The Hanged Man' adventure module Is Available Right Here. 

OSR Review & Commentary On The Free AD&D first edition module N7: 'Mystery beneath the Church' By RC Pinnell For Your AD&D First Edition Campaign or Old School Games

" This is the second part of the Minotaur Marshes trilogy, which began with N6: Mass for the Missing Priest. The characters continue to uncover the secrets of the town of Hogg Bottem. An AD&D adventure for characters of level 1-3."

 N7: 'Mystery beneath the Church' By RC Pinnell goes back down the AD&D first edition rabbit hole that N6: Mass for the Missing Priest trod. N7 does this by advancing the adventure campaign timeline;
"The plot and history behind this adventure need not be repeated in its entirety. In summary, the main reasons the characters may have come to the village of Hogg Bottem is either to find the missing priest, Brother Filus; discover why shipments of crayfish meat are no longer being sent to other parts of the realm; or to find a missing relative. Once the characters arrived, they met the residents and likely explored the abandoned warehouses and church."

We've covered N6: Mass for the Missing Priest previously on this blog here.These adventure locations fuel some solid hooks that we see within our AD&D campaigns. N7: 'Mystery beneath the Church' By RC Pinnell is solid & good because it's a part of a free  mini  campaign. This includes  N6: Mass for the Missing Priest and N7: Mystery Beneath the Church ending with N8 'Monsters in the Mist'.  This comes loud & clear in N7: 'Mystery beneath the Church' set up by  N6: Mass for the Missing Priest. Because this is an AD&D module its got a solid basis to build up a campaign. N7: 'Mystery beneath the Church' is a good middle of the road adventure that acts as an adhesive for the N series campaign. 

So is N7: Mystery Beneath the Church worth the download?! The N7 module is a solid middle point module & offers some really good dungeon delver action. So yes along with the others of the N series of modules are a solid AD&D first edition fest of OSR goodness. 


You can download
 N7: Mystery Beneath The Church Here. 

 

Retooling the Free Module HM6 The Equinox Demon by Todd Hughes For A Sword & Sorcery Campaign

 "On the Equinox, a sacrifice of grain is offered to the Nature Goddess. However last year, during the ceremony, a horrid demon arose, demanding tribute. It did not want grain, but gold and gems! The friar made a stand, but it was not enough and now the hamlet is terrified! Will a band of heroes have the guts to face the Equinox Demon? An adventure for 4-6 characters, level 1-3"
Today we're gonna pick it up with module HM6 The Equinox Demon by Todd Hughes. Why this module!? 



So the idea here is to pick up right from where the last blog entry left off. Namely that the Downs, some of the other adventures in this campaign thread are indeed an actual Sword & Sorcery campaign. We've been using Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea. With a bit of imagination that can & will continue in this vein. The HM - Village of Rashtan Modules are by Todd Hughes & are specifically centered around the village of Rashtan. This really isn't a problem at all because of the fact that Hyperborea is an artificial campaign world setting. That is to say that its a created world out a patch work of cultures, peoples, etc. from Old Earth. 
So why are we using this particular module?! The author's introduction sinks it; 
"This module is designed for novice and intermediate level players. The number of player characters should be between four and six. The recommended level of character experience is from first to third level. Magical items available to the party at the start of the adventure should likewise be restricted. Players may either bring in existing characters of the appropriate level with the DM's approval, or roll up new characters as suggested in Appendix P of the Dungeon Masters Guide" 
So right off the bat we've got the level perfectly established for the fishing & breadbasket region of Hyperborea which already resembles a volcanically fed rich late Roman England/Icelandic hybrid region. There are other perfectly good reasons to use HM6. Four reasons why HM6 The Equinox Demon is a nice fit for AS&SH. The module deals with Pagan sacrifice, this is a nicely put together low level module, & it has a Weird Tales factor written into it. This is put forth right in the introduction; 

"The Hamlet of Stallington is not preparing for the customary spring celebration even though it is nearing the spring equinox. Typically, a sacrifice of grain is made to the nature goddess, on the equinox, at the mouth of a cave in a forest glade. However, last year when the elders gathered to make the sacrifice, a great fog arose, and a horrid demon emerged from the cave entrance. The demon had many smaller servants with it, and they surrounded the elders. The demon spoke in a frightening voice that seemed to rise from the bowels of the earth itself. It demanded tribute or it would destroy the hamlet and slay the residents. The demon did not want grain however, it wanted gold, silver, and gems." 

For Hyperborea the village of Rashtan feels like its a million miles from the middle of everywhere. But given that HM6 The Equinox Demon by Todd Hughes uses many of the familiar Advanced Dungeons & Dragons first edition monsters, NPC classes, and AD&D angles. This is an easy module to cast into the mold of AS&SH. The adventure elements in HM6 feel like they came out of a Clark Ashton Smith story specifically his  Averoigne stories. 

For my money move the module  in a completely different direction & make HM6 feel more like late Roman Britian when the empire has left. The whole of England felt vulnerable to raiders. There's an uneasiness to this module & it shows. You've got Hyperborea's bread basket established in 'the Downs' & with the Kroten area itself pirates & privateers. So then the village of Rashtan is one of the commodity distributing points. But all bets are off when the coffers run empty; "The local priest Friar Dane went, along with his acolyte Tames, to confront the demon. The Friar’s body was discovered outside of town the next day and Tames was never seen again. The elders gathered the villagers together and it was agreed that the tribute must be paid. In so doing the village drained most of its coffers and the people were left with very little to pay for this season’s supplies. As a result, the people are hungry and have very little food and much of the livestock died over the winter from lack of feed." 

So we've got all of the classic Sword & Sorcery elements. Starving villagers, a desperate situation, Weird Tales monsters, & no money in the coffers for the Winter. Winters on Hyperborea are beyond cold & again the Iceland analogy fits here quite well. This means that the people here in the village of Rashtan are fodder for any of the horrors of AS&SH. These people don't need a miracle they need adventurers fast! HM6 also sinks rather nicely with N3 Destiny of Kings which we've covered on this blog as a counter adventure to book end adventure & campaign events. 
HM6 The Equinox Demon by Todd Hughes is a perfect beginning adventure for AS&SH. The module has all of the classic AD&D elements but all of these can easily be turned into a get up for Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea. 

HM6 The Equinox Demon by Todd Hughes Is Available Right Here For Free 

OSR Campaign Starter Commentary - The Dave Hargrave Arduin Angle With An OSR Twist Up

 

So going over some OSRIC notes from 2006 there's  a whole section on Dave Hargrave's Arduin?! Hmm that might be a tad hard for some OSR folks. If only there was a far more easier way to combined these two?! By using OSRIC with Ruins of Arduin for Swords & Wizardry Light this might give us exactly the sorta of Gonzo that would work! But what's the advantage here?! 

Well besides getting all of the goodness of two well edited OSR products here's an old school flare without the fiddly bits of some of the original copies. This would be a cultclassic echo of the origins but with a more modern flare. 

Now you might be asking yourself why do this?! Several reasons but the biggest?! There are a ton of OSRIC adventures that could potentially be run as lower tier Arduin adventures. This is because of a comment that Ken Moscardini made on one of our Facebook posts; "
One of the issues is a lot of the talk is about the first book an its impact on the hobby. The first book stands alone. The second and third book begin to introduce us to his actual game style. He created a system for example where low and high level characters could adventure together. In a sense the first book stands alone as a supp. to Grayhawk, in fact he copied tables from Grayhawk to add to his book. The other two books form a duality in that you need both to get all the information. After that the rest of the books were used to share details of his world." 
So this got us thinking why not go with OSRIC as a possible Arduin style rpg & then go back into many of the classic adventures of the OSR?! This gives the player's PC's an 'in' into Arduin without killing the player's PC's outright. This goes against the 'Bloody,Bloody, Arduin'  grain in a way. This is the formula for a more successful campaign set up.  Couple this with a classic OSR adventure such as Dragon Foot's 'The Village With No Name' By Robert James & the PC's are off to the races! 


 If we want to keep the spirit of Arduin's power attracts power then suggest combined this adventure with Jon Thompson's 'The Beast of Geshtein'.  Now your off & running with a month or two of OSR adventure goodness. 


From here's a simple leap frog into the world of Dave Hargrave's Arduin using OSR refined rpg retroclone systems. The DM can easily transition into the warped Gonzo world Hargrave adventure goodness! 

Review & Commentary on The Free OSR Module 'Terror under the Sea' By Joseph Mohr For Advanced Dungeons & Dragons first edition & Your Old School OR OSR Campaigns

 

"Cthulhu still lives, too, I suppose, again in that chasm of stone which has shielded him since the sun was young. His accursed city is sunken once more, for the Vigilant sailed over the spot after the April storm; but his ministers on earth still bellow and prance and slay around idol-capped monoliths in lonely places. He must have been trapped by the sinking whilst within his black abyss, or else the world would by now be screaming with fright and frenzy. Who knows the end?"
Weird Tales (vol. 11, no. 2)  (February 1928)  edited by Farnsworth Wright
The Call of Cthulhu by H. P. Lovecraft


"Your ship has come across a strange island where none should be. Are you brave enough to explore this strange, unsettling place? A Cthulhu Mythos based adventure for characters of at least 10th level"

Terror under the Sea is full on & free  throttle Lovecraftian AD&D first edition horror just in time for Halloween 2020. Does the author know something we don't?! 

Joseph Mohr is a machine & while poking around Dragon's foot I came across a copy of a module that I wasn't aware of that he did. 'Terror under the Sea' is a high level Advanced Dungeons & Dragons module  that hits the Lovecraft vein hard. This is a tenth level module and its a nasty one to boot. The intro gives the set up;

"The storm put us way off course. When it ended we drifted for days on end. Without wind we were left at the mercy of the gods to get us to our destination. On day thirteen we spotted an island in the distance. It was not on our charts but we were desperate for provisions. We were very low on water and had nearly run out of food. The island had a peculiar spire rising out of it. The design was like nothing we had ever seen. Our brave wizard decided that we should explore this place. Perhaps there might be great treasure here. In the end it would have been better not to have found this accursed place. Living without food and water would have been far preferable to the screams I wake up to each night. What is truly terrifying...is that the screams are my own....."

This module takes the AD&D Deities & Demigods Lovecraft section & turns it up to eleven. The PC's find themselves in the middle of the most infamous island in the Lovecraft mythos! And they have to survive! This is a world shattering module for 2020. The premise lays someplace between oh my God  that's metal to full on how the heck would I run this!?! 

The nice part is that you don't have to own a copy of the AD&D Deities & Demigods book because everything is provided right there here for you in the module. A very nice change up. 
This is really a nice little module & its not bare bones but it fills in quite a bit of the Chthulu mythology for the end times of a campaign. This is world & campaign breaker stuff here within 'Terror under the Sea'. The encounters are fierce, deadly, & sanity shattering for a party & I'm not saying this lightly. 
Deep Ones,Shoggoths, and many of the heavy hitters are here in this module and its for more then mere affect here. 'Terror under the Sea' is the bloody big leagues & the adventure should not be used lightly. The layout is well done, the cartography is solid, and this is a perfect high level campaign Lovecraftian  game runner. 

Now with all of that said this is a perfect module to use with the  Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea rpg! This is a perfect module to use as a follow up to the events within The Mystery at Port Greely. 
The PC's are sailing away from that module when the  'Terror under the Sea' comes to sweep them into its clutches! 

Bottom line  'Terror under the Sea' is a nice & solid no nonsense AD&D first edition Lovecraftian module with lots of possibilities if used right by the DM. 

OSR Review & Commentary On the Free Beginning Castles & Crusades Adventure 'Under a Funeral Moon' By Scott Myers For Your Old School Game System Campaign

 

When it comes to Castles & Crusades a beginning free mid range adventure is Under a Funeral Moon By Scott Myers is a solid little adventure for six or more PC's levels 1-2. This  Scott Myers has done a solid job of working out a beginning & the introduction makes it clears from the beginning;"This adventure is for 3-5 1st to 2nd level characters and is set in the Eastern Marches of Havvengarde near the town of Magefall. I have tried to make this adventure easily adaptable for any game world. The Eastern Marches of Havvengarde are the ‘less civilized’ area of the country, stretching from Kampenheim and the Woods of Ypres to the Eastern Wall. The area is still filled with large expanses of wilderness, monsters, and ruins from ages past. ‘Under a Funeral Moon’ begins with the characters escorting a merchant houses supply wagons (and the corpse of a recently deceased noble) from the town of Waldrand and over to the village of Magefall where the supplies will be loaded into caravans and taken south to Ivywood."

Because Castles & Crusades Player's Handbook has been free since the start of the Pandemic & since this is the case Under a Funeral Moon is a solid choice for a starting adventure. Why?! Because of the level of the encounters & the care that has been put in. 

And the beginning of Under a Funeral Moon makes it quite clear that  is an adventure that throws the player's PC's deep into the C&C world in spades;"The players had been holed up in the town of Waldrand, taking odd jobs and merchant wagon escorts for most of the winter. As winter draws to a close a merchant company hires them to escort a wagon of seed and supplies to the village of Magefall (a 3 and a quarter day trip)." Under a Funeral Moon clocks in at thirty three pages & these are filled with nastiness & death. But its well written nastiness & death designed from the ground up to make things interesting, random, & very deadly. 

There's all of the little things that go a long way to making Under a Funeral Moon just that little bit of deadly. Random encounters, a bit of an adventure plot, & just enough action to make this a short but quick series of sessions. 
Do you need the Castle Keeper's Guide with Under a Funeral Moon? Nope every thing is self contained within the adventure to get a campaign off the ground in short order. 

Where could Under a Funeral Moon be set?! In the classic AD&D first edition world of Greyhawk Under a Funeral Moon  fits very easily. The danger, the random encounters, the menaces, & even the adventure  place names could fit easily into Greyhawk. 

The world setting of Castles & Crusades Aihrde can easily accommodate Under a Funeral Moon but with a bit of minor modification on the DM's part. The material is readily pulled into the official home of Castles & Crusades. 

But another viable possibility for Under a Funeral Moon might be the Haunted Highlands with the menace & adventure plot really lending itself as a possible beginning for the highly venerable C&C setting. 
But this option means some really quick & dirty rearrangement of plot,places, & adventure menace. Not impossible but simply a challenge unless the dungeon master is experienced at this sort of thing. 

Another strong possibility is to take Under a Funeral Moon & set it within a dark Europe home brew campaign set within a mythological dark age. This allows the DM the advantages of an OSR home brew advantage & none of the dangerous baggage of the players having a touchstone with the world for a home team advantage. But that's a part of the flexibility of Under a Funeral Moon. Do I personally think that Under a Funeral Moon is worth your time to down load & use in an OSR or Castles & Crusades game?! In a word yes! 

Past Incarnations, Free Classic Adventure Fiction Downloads, Domain Management, & Old School Campaigns

 I was speaking with an old friend of mine last night about Appendix N from the first edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master's Guide. What came up in conversation was the fact that there have always been connections within shared universes & heroes of fiction's incarnations. The first name that popped up was Michael Moorcock's Eternal Champions books. But the challenge was in using some less traditional sources for campaign building.

But actually the idea goes back much further and crosses into the Lost Worlds genre in several places. One of my favorites is the  prehistoric adventures of James Allison's pre-incarnations in the Aesir stories of Robert E.Howard. Here the protagonist James Allison is a crippled shell of a man dying in the heat of the Texas day who can remember all of his past incarnations including Niord who leads his stout warriors across the face of the world until they come upon a nation of Picts and then things get really bloody. Swords swing bodies fly and then reason takes over one of the Pictish tribesmen is spared & our hero's tribe settles into a former valley of the Cataclysm. The two tribes intermarry things settle down, time moves on, and eventually a splinter group goes out into the world to settle into another ruined jungle valley. This is the set up for the rest of the story as Niord goes out and faces not one monster but in fact four the last one being the Lovecraftian horror of the Worm. This thing is something out of a Lovecraftian nightmare, another of Howard's Mythos hold overs hiding out in a hidden valley. The worm leaves quite the impression though as a thing born from the imagination of Howard via his own take on his mythos.
"... a night-born demoniac intelligence such as men in dreams vaguely sense throbbing titanically in the black gulfs outside our material universe."


Down Load The James Allison Collection
By Robert E. Howard HERE
There are a lot of things to mine from the story. The second James Allison story in the public domain is Garden of Fear, it touches on many of the same themes as Valley of the Worm. But many Howard fans don't consider it in the league of Valley but it touches on another incarnation of James Allison & has a few trappings that can be mined for old school gaming. According to Wiki;The Garden of Fear and Other Stories is an anthology of fantasy and science fiction stories anonymously edited by William L. Crawford. It was published as A Crawford Publication in 1949 in an edition of 48,000 copies. The H. P. Lovecraft story first appeared in the magazine The Rainbow. The other stories originally appeared in the magazine Marvel Tales."
Howard has many of his central concepts on show in these stories such as the migrations of his Hyborian tribes and races, hidden gems of lost world valleys filled with steaming jungles & mysterious god like survivors of his Cataclysm. Many of these tales of Howard have entire eons, city states, heroes, and eons separated by cycles of death and rebirth with only ancestral blood ties binding our heroes together. Or so it would seem but in Kings of the Night by Robert Howard we have Bran Mak Morn conjuring up the spirit of King Kull to do battle with the Romans! Some of the  themes of racial superiority don't go over well today, they can be taken in stride as part of that era's outlook. They are are relics of their time and deserve to be left there but that doesn't take away from the fact that these stories kick ass and are still a fun read even today.
The second offering today is "The Eternal Lover" (The Eternal Lover Part 1) All-Story Weekly, March 7, 1914 which is an Edgar Rice Burroughs novella that appeared in All- Story Weekly and could be considered one of Burroughs shared universe Lost World/ Custer novels. The Custer novels are interesting because events of the Mad King happen between the events of 'The Eternal Lovers" or that is to say;"While the four Custer sibling novellas were first published in an alternating fashion; chronologically-speaking, the events of the two halves of The Eternal Lover/Savage occur between the two halves of The Mad King" Barney Custer is cast into the role of the king of Lutha set against the backdrop of WWI and the Eternal Lover comes right into the middle of the events of the novel.


You Can Download The Mad King HERE
The Eternal Savage concerns,"Barney's sister Victoria Custer. These stories take place between Barney's two Luthan adventures, when he and his sister are the guests of Tarzan on the latter's African estate. When cave man Nu is released from suspended animation, Virginia discovers that she is the reincarnation of his great love Nat-ul. The story covers her adventures with Nu."

You Can Down load The Eternal Savage From Gutenberg Australia as All four novellas—as they were serialized in All-Story Weekly—are in the public domain in the United States but check your home country for details before downloading.

Nu is no one to screw with as a cliff dweller from 100,000 years ago whose kept up his hunt with Oo a sabertooth tiger of deadly aspect. There's all sorts of other worldly weirdness about the Eternal Savage but the bottom line here is that time as it stands in the ERB universe is flexible and the action in the Eternal Savage is fast paced with lots of prehistoric hi jinks to keep the reader interested. There's also a ton of ideas here to mine the least of which being to take PC's out of their context and place them as their needed in an adventure.


So what does this have to do with OSR gaming? Quite a bit actually, one of the topics that came up in conversation were the links between sword & sorcery & Ruritanian romance. The
Ruritanian romance is defined as follows;"
Ruritanian romance is a genre of literature, film and theatre comprising novels, stories, plays and films set in a fictional country, usually in Central or Eastern Europe, such as the "Ruritania" that gave the genre its name.^[1] Such stories are typically swashbuckling adventure novels, tales of high romance and intrigue, centered on the ruling classes, almost always aristocracy and royalty,^[1] although (for instance) Winston Churchill's novel Savrola, in every other way a typical example of the genre, concerns a revolution to restore rightful parliamentary government in the republican country of Laurania. The themes of honor, loyalty and love predominate, and the works frequently feature the restoration of legitimate government after a period of usurpation or dictatorship." 
One thing that I've noticed with Ruritanian romance sword & sorcery cross over games is that domain management is key for the end campaign game. This means that DM's have to be ready for domain mangement when one of their PC's seats their behinds on the throne.

For domain management in such Ruritanian romance sword & sorcery cross over games I'd use either Dark Albion The Rose War or Adventurer, Conqueror, King, or both since these systems actually play very well together.
I was recently involved in an OSR game with my buddy Steve where we were all playing AS&SH Hyperborean castaways facing down the terrors of Basic Fantasy's Monkey Island while the real villains of the lost world adventure were actually Dark Albion royals hell bent on claiming the island for their king. We were helping the liege of the island to be restored to her rightful throne. The Dark Albion royals had guns and there were other time lost castaways on the island who were incarnations or parodies of famous sword & sorcery figures. While it was a fun game there were implications that the royalty of the island was not what she appeared to be.  There was also an indication that we the party might actually be incarnations of WWI soldiers ourselves lost to time and space.

There were subtle & evil magicks involved as our party came across several items that the players recognized as WWI era items scattered about in the queen's chambers but it was a book of real world black magick that sealed the deal for the players. The game however has yet to be resolved but what it showed me was that potential for mixing and matching classic old school fiction and OSR material.  All of this ties in with my Atlantandria Port City of Accursed Atlantis as the PC's have unfinished business with some wily Dark Albion merchants there.

Review & Commentary On The Free B/X Dungeons & Dragons Adventure XC Catacombs of Death By RC Pinnell For Your OSR & Old School Campaigns

'Catacombs of Death'  is a sort of rare beast of a high level  adventure from Dragon's foot by author RC Pinnell because of the upper level of the PC's needed and the deadliness of the adventure.

The plot is something straight out of the pages of an old Dragon or Dungeon magazine in a good way, its got all of that hard core wilderness/ and dungeon action surrounding a nice plot of sword and sorcery action. But this one is an upper level crawl and lives up to its premise in spades; "An old friend requires your help to rid themselves of a curse, but can you survive the Catacombs of Death. An Expert-Companion adventure for character levels 12-15."

Grab it Free Right Over

HERE

The author lays out the ground work for 'Catacombs of Death' straight out of the gate.

This adventure is designed for characters at the upper range of the "Expert" levels of play--12 to 14. Players running demi-human types should have attained at least Attack Rank C, as provided in the Companion Manual of instructions, that their characters may be able to experience the adventure on a more or less equal footing with the human types.

This is not an open sand box style of adventure instead this is a carefully plotted adventure that follows PC's into the mid range of character development and the pit falls that go along with later life of such characters.

The encounters are a challenge for these characters and the adventure centers around several locations of very dangerous aspect and a rather nasty dungeon.

Action, NPC's, and plot are interwoven throughout the Catacombs of Death, the author making no secret of the lethality and challenge of its plot and story line. This isn't an adventure location but a set of interwoven plots in the style of the older adventures for Basic D&D and retroclone systems.

Think of this module in terms of the Expert module such as the Slave Lord series because there is a very similar vibe running throughout the adventure, a set of circumstances that will haunt the characters for years to come surrounding events already set into motion.

This is an adventure about old vendettas, ancient history, and hair trigger circumstance all putting the PC's at the center of its Egyptian style setting adventure & campaign style  material.

There is a ton of new monsters, set pieces and more right between the pages of this one. It really is a well done but upper level adventure & used well can propel characters into a whole other realm of character back story and development. But those playing this one are going to be changed forever by what happens out in the sands in the Catacombs of Death. Take a look and download this one.

Using Catacombs Of Death

 For Your Old School Campaigns

Using 'Catacombs of Death' for your Old School Retroclones is going to require a bit more of a challenge because of the very nature of the module, this isn't a sandbox or kitchen sink adventure but one that requires some preparation and careful thought by the DM.

Because of the very nature of its story and plot a careful working by the DM is needed. A nice idea is to work the events from the back drop into the PC's career early into a campaign and then use Catacombs as a send off or mid range adventure for upper level characters.

That being said there are other ways of dealing with the circumstances surrounding the adventure.

Another idea is to have another high level  rival party hook up with the adventurers and one of their number set the plot and events of 'Catacombs of Death' into motion. This adventure is interesting, complex, and full of adventure and surprises. There are a myriad of uses for it but for a game such as Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea some real solid adjustments of level and a handful of solid conversion work needs to be done by the DM. The material will fit a such a game but it would require some work on the DM's part.

This is a module well worth the time, energy, and circumstance to take a look at and its very well done. For a free module is blurs the line once again between fan and pro. I personally think that 'Catacombs of Death' is worth your time to down load & a solid addition to any DM's adventure backlog of modules. 

Free Castles & Crusades Along With Free Module & 'Pay What You Want' OSR & Fifth Edition Adventure Round up

In today's 'free stuff being offered in the Pandemic' category we have a really motley OSR assortment of rule book & adventure material for your download perusal.  The 'light at the end of the tunnel' deal comes from Troll Lord Games whose offering the Castles & Crusades main rule book for free along with the 'Wandering God' fiction book. 





The second up is Levi Combs along with  the folks at Sockitos present   Power Wood Adventure which is ;" a free kid-friendly coloring book that you can share with your kiddos while we’re all tryingto get through this COVID-19 quarantine. It’s tough out there right now, but hope-fully this brings a little bit of extra joy to your household."
Power Word Adventure is cute & solid for what it does.


And finally there's 'BX3Temple of Mercy' by Ben Barsh which is an awesome 'pay what you like' B/X adventure. Now this adventure clocks in at twenty four pages of B/X joy and it really does a nice job of taking the Sword & Sorcery vibe into B/X Dungeons & Dragons.




This is an adventure for experienced PC's & its no joke. The traps are lethal, the danger is real, & the execution is well done. The nice part about BX3 The Temple of Mercy is that its completely set up & go; "The Temple of Mercy is an adventure module designed for the BX RPG system. Temple of Mercy is designed for six, third level characters using the Basic and Expert game rules. This adventure will advance the characters to fourth level by the conclusion. Many years ago, a fanatic cult claimed a sanctuary as a base for plotting their wicked ways. They named their redoubt the Temple of Mercy because it is where new followers would journey to repent of their sins and be granted mercy. It is unclear how the cult was defeated, but they vanished nearly 120 years ago. The temple has been quite since the disappearance of the vile clan. Recently, a religious order of holy priests has been interested in claiming the temple as their own. They are looking for bold adventurers to slay sinister monsters, evade treacherous traps, and bring glory to the forgotten Temple of Mercy! "
This is a solid says what it does on the tin adventure. The DM can simply drop it into their on going campaign & run it! Very nice & generous from Pacesetter. My opinion is to grab it. The layout, set up, & cartography is nice.

Finally I ran across  TGK1 Assault on Theramour Keep by Tim Krause. Even though this is a fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons product its got a few cool bits to it.




  TGK1 Assault on Theramour Keep by Tim Krause  is a fifth edition 'pay what you want' module but its easily adapted to Castles & Crusades! This is a really interesting module because of the following;"Assault on Theramour’s Keep (TGK1) is intended to accomplish what might easily, and best, be described as some kind of mash-up of the three D&D module examples but with some key differences. First, this adventure really is intended for first-level characters who will have to rely more on their tactical abilities than on player characteristics to be successful. Second, the scale of the battles is more significant, and will be more challenging, for the DM. Last, however, the module is designed to truly aid the DM in managing an environment that attempts to provide some structure. However, it should nevertheless provide players the flexibility to think about a large number of ways to find a solution and protect the Keep. In doing so, there is a rather extensive Appendix that is designed to provide resources so that the DM can effectively, accurately, and efficiently help his players have a rich and rewarding experience with this module. " 

So its sort of an entire module, & mini wargaming system unto itself. I like the design, layout, & some of the cartography. But where the module shines is the competing armies. This brings a different & unique perspective to TGK1 Assault on Theramour Keep & could keep the module & play action going. I can't wait to try TGK1 Assault on Theramour Keep! 
I want to thanks all of the designers, writers, & companies that have stepped up during the world wide Pandemic. I especially want to thank all of the essential employees out there putting their lives on the line to keep things going. Thanks everyone! Stay positive & healthy.