OSR Commentary On Clark Ashton Smith’s Zothique & Castles & Crusades rpg Campaigning. Session Three Report

Our party in our Clark Ashton Smith Zothique campaign adventure in  the ruins of Xylac! The dungeons of the damned and the devils of  Thasaidon, lord of seven hells was one where we survived by not taking one piece of treasure. Instead we got the artifact we needed and cast the spell on the scroll we were proved with. This was after parleying with a fiend who was feeding on the bones of the royal family of Prince Zotulla.

We left only to find ourselves on an Ilcar trader ship after being stranded out in the Zothique wasteland. Our party has dealt with the sand zombies that started tracking our adventurers. We found ourselves putting these undead things down. We were able to find ourselves in a nameless port after hiring on to a Naat merchants caravan. The party made a few gold pieces from this small job. 

 The player's PC's met their royal contact and handed over the artifact. And the contact paid the party. The adventurers hired on with Ilcar traders on board their merchant ship. Now it was guard duty against sea demons, monsters, and pirates. 
The sea is hijacked with all kinds of demon powers and sea horrors. This goes right into Clark Ashton Smith's descriptions of Zothique; "Clark Ashton Smith himself described the Zothique cycle in a letter to L. Sprague de Camp, dated November 3, 1953:

Zothique, vaguely suggested by Theosophic theories about past and future continents, is the last inhabited continent of earth. The continents of our present cycle have sunken, perhaps several times. Some have remained submerged; others have re-risen, partially, and re-arranged themselves. Zothique, as I conceive it, comprises Asia Minor, Arabia, Persia, India, parts of northern and eastern Africa, and much of the Indonesian archipelago. A new Australia exists somewhere to the south. To the west, there are only a few known islands, such as Naat, in which the black cannibals survive. To the north, are immense unexplored deserts; to the east, an immense unvoyaged sea. The peoples are mainly of Aryan or Semitic descent; but there is a negro kingdom (Ilcar) in the north-west; and scattered blacks are found throughout the other countries, mainly in palace-harems. In the southern islands survive vestiges of Indonesian or Malayan races. The science and machinery of our present civilization have long been forgotten, together with our present religions. But many gods are worshipped; and sorcery and demonism prevail again as in ancient days. Oars and sails alone are used by mariners. There are no fire-arms only the bows, arrows, swords, javelins, etc. of antiquity. The chief language spoken (of which I have provided examples in an unpublished drama) is based on Indo-European roots and is highly inflected, like Sanskrit, Greek and Latin."

   The player's PC's picked up pigit trade language & made another 40 gold pieces. And they came face to face with some  Basatan missionary priests. These priests blessed our voyage with pleasant weather. We watched two sea serpents of incredible size who accompanied these priests. Our own ship's  Ojhal priest was very weary of these priests but kept his counsel until they left. We made note of these priests and kept on guard. 
The seas were calm but there was the feeling that the trade ship was being watched. 

 

Recovery of The Silver State - HOSTILE Situation Report 007 - The Ark - Game Session Report

 "You've detected an Ark ... a ship of sleeping thousands on their way to establish a new human colony. But it is dead, silent and locked in an orbit around a lifeless moon. You are ordered to investigate ... are the sleepers still alive? "

"OR, play as some of the crew, woken by the ship's mainframe, and shocked to find the sleeper ship in some remote orbit, with chaos in the corridors ... " 

The September Group is near the LX 504 system & has to respond to thier employer's orders to  to investigate a depowered star ship. The ship could be the colony starship Silver State. The September Group has too locate survivors of the Silver State  for a financial bonus. The ship, after some investigation (without power or transponder) could be the Silver State, which went missing a couple of months ago en route to establish a new colony on LX606 in Extraction Zone 9 (EZ9 0606).
This is all based on  HOSTILE Situation Report 007 -The Ark  & this isn't the first time I've run this adventure. The players have no idea that thier PC's have come across this situation! 
The player's PC's entered the Silver State cautiously & carefully made thier way through airlocks, main decam, etc. Of course I provided some jump scares and then way down in near engineering the PC's came across the remains of a creature they've never seen before. Something on the scale of a human but silicon based around a carbon frame. 
The PC's cybersneak Petrov began checking the Silver State's diagnostics and came across four hypersleep chambers that had been comprimised. This was just before he was attacked by some sort of giant catipillar like creature! He just managed to croak out that he was attacked and the PC's rushed to Petrov's add. The party learnt that there  are seven dead on the ship (and nine dead people in their hypersleep chambers). 
The party had a meeting in the computer room & thier engineer was messing in the Engineering section. That's when another giant catipillar like creature attacked and then smacked straight into two strange biomechanical like skeleton like monsters. Robert managed to light one of the monsters on fire and ducked out of the section. 

He managed to limp back to medical & got patched up enough. The PC's had patched up thier cybersneak who came across the fact that the Silver State had refueled at a local gas giant.  And the party deduced that there was an invasive lifeform on board from the gas giant. Andd then it was 'bug hunt' time  & this took the rest of the night. Not before one of the PC's was killed by one of the strange biomechanical skeleton like monsters! 

Grey Days - Wretched Space( Revised ) & Orbital Decay One Shot Mini Campaign - Session Three - Alpha Blue Middle

 This post is going to pick up straight from here . With the SS Victory stumbling upon the remains of Harmony a planet that has been devestated by the Bugs. Except that the Bugs don't exist in this universe!? And then suddenly one half of the party Glitches out of existence! 

The party is still recovering after thier time on the Hercules space hulk. The party is 'resting' on an Alpha Blue. And the space brothel is actually a recruiting point for grabbing the contracts of other adventurers. The PC's had thier Lupus Garou healed because of the fact that they had taken extraordinary amounts of damage from the Bugs. 

While the rest of the party grabs some well deserved R&R, the Victory's commander Vox Tribous begins to analyze the Glitch doorways in order to come. All of these tie into the Wretched Legions that ties into Wretched Space second edition. 

The first question that the players are asking are how are the Bugs using the Glitch and yet they still have spacecraft?! Where are the Bugs stationed and why can't our psionics and psychics detect them?! Zonetec from Wretched Flesh may know more but aren't saying much to the PC's?! Why?
The players think it's because Zonetec has it's hands full with the effects of the Glitch. 

What really set the player's teeth on edge was learning that the Hercules space hulk from last game Glitched out of existence. So what's going on?! 

Tegel Manor - Worlds Without Number & Cities Without Number Rpg - Green Horde Attack! Session Two Report

 I haven't had time to blink wrong over the last couple of days let alone do a session update. But let's get deep  into it. This blog entry picks up from here. 
The player's PC's got into a fire fight with some Green Martian hordes at the outter edges of the Tegel Manor valley. And one of the PC's got a taste for exactly what the radium rifle ammo can do. Now there are two different Worlds Without Number & Cities Without Number groups of players exploring the manor. And no I'm not explaining why there are two different versions of the manor at this time. 

The players made it too the dead sea bottom & managed to snag some weapons, ammo, and more from the dead Green Martians. They didn't have long as the Green martians about five of them had formed a 'blood squad'. And then closed in for the kill. They picked off two our operators quickly. They weren't dead but in rough shape. 
And then the Greens broke off! The group limped back to the manor house and ran straight into a party of Martian low landers who were preparing to trade with one of the villagers. 

There was a very heated series of rolls for languages and then telepathy. The player's PC's were able to get to a local Martian scientist  who worked under  Ras Thavas. 
There was discussion about the bad reputation of the Tegel Valley and how the locals think it's haunted. Anything coming out of the valley is attacked by the Green Martians. 

Ninety Nine percent of all of our Mars info is coming straight outta of  Warriors of The Red Planet. 
Thrivu Burr the low lander Martian village the PC's met up with a pair of  displaced Martian nobles.   Hemaza Dee our princess turned thief & Nazaa the space noble who is masquerading as a warrior. These two will be taking the place of our two operators who are on the mend for about 4 months. 

These two come straight out of last May's Warriors of the Red Planet rpg mini campaign. Two of our players don't want to be out of the action so they pulled out two older characters. 
These two older characters have cybernetics and not Martian parts so they are pariah among Martian society. 

The party of operators is considered  a party of panthans. A panthan is a Martian soldier of fortune. The low lander villages consider them as a vital resource but among places like Helium and other royal cities there could be trouble. The party exchanged thier Green weaponry for low lander weapons. 
What the players don't know is that  Hemaza Dee our princess turned thief & Nazaa the space noble both have a 'blood debt' on thier heads from a clan of Deodanths. 

Grey Days - Wretched Space( Revised ) & Orbital Decay One Shot Mini Campaign - Session Three - Something to Bug You With

 So last week The Red Room released Wretched Darkness Second Edition  & this caused a bit of a stir among my players. Let me explain the crew of the USS Victory is made up of 'special operatives' of the Federation. Many of these include those suffering from supernatural conditions. Now the player's wanted  upgrade thier PC's to second edition Wretched Space & Wretched Darkness. There weren't deep changes but enough to the factions to make these changes necessary. And this session report picks up right from here! 

All was quiet on the Hercules and then the player's PC's heard talking?! The PC's rounded corner & came face to face with a space pirate party & they were loading artifacts onto a floater skiff. The players PC's were about to engage in melee when they heard a distinctive howl! 
And the players came face to face with a very large and dangerous Bug! How the Hell did that get here?! The bug in question actually came out of Nightowl Workshop's Colonial Trooper rpg's Knight Hawks! 

And the bug in this case was the size of two buses and this will give you a bit of scale when it comes to the Hercules space hulk. The melee was scrapped and space pirates plus the party beat feet as the party's two Loup Garou PC's played with the bug to allow the party to escape. 

Grey Days - Wretched Space( Revised ) & Orbital Decay One Shot Mini Campaign - Session Two

 Call me old fashioned but venturing into a deadly space going tomb is not on my agenda for a good time. The idi erm adventurers of our party had the Epic align itself with the space hulk. The 'Hercules' is particularly dangerous and dubious looking. This picks up right from here on the blog. 

The power came on as soon as the Epic docked with the Hercules.And it was then after the party boarded that they came face to face with a bunch of robotic drones. These drones had human body parts attached to them. The PC's took some wounds but they made short work of them. What further horrors await our player's PC's.1`

Grey Days - Wretched Space( Revised ) & Orbital Decay One Shot Mini Campaign - Session Report One

 "In the sordid underbelly of the galaxy, only the crafty and callous survive. Wretched Space is an OSR RPG where you don’t play as heroes on a noble crusade, but rather as roguish anti-heroes just looking to get by in a harsh universe. You aren’t out to save the world – you’re out to save your own skin. And maybe make some credits along the way if opportunity knocks. This game revels in greyness of morality, where doing the right thing takes a backseat to doing what needs to be done. Idealism is a luxury you can’t afford out here."

"This book contains a setting, the space opera version of the Wretchedverse, and plenty of ideas for you to come up with new worlds. To be true to the Wretched spirit, the default setting casts the players as members of the Wretched Legion, a special corps of the Galactic Federation law enforcement made up of pardoned criminals given an old, battered starship and second-rate weaponry, and deployed to enforce the law on backwater worlds. If this prospect doesn’t appeal to you, there’s a whole universe of wretchedness out there…" 

Tonight we got together to do a quick character workshop to revamp the party because for two reasons. Reason one was Wretched Space Revised came out and this was followed by Orbital Decay getting a revamp. And tonight's game picked up with the PC's getting plastered in the bowels of the 'Epic' after the defeat and destruction of La Sa Faire. 

The 'Epic' ended up in the Visitor's Commerical Empire sector. This sector has a bunch of former client races within it including several tribes of Space Elves, Reptilians, Dwarves, and a boat load of former human tribes that haven't existed on Earth for thousands of years. 
These races were until recently enslaved by the Grey Masters. 
Within the last 20 years there's been a bloody rebellion and war within the Visiter's Commerical Empire. 
What no one realizes is that the Greys have a secret and its the fact that it wasn't the rebellion that brought down thier empire. 
Nope it was far more nasty. Something from outside the Grey's universe had begun to take over the Grey race. 
The Grey's suddenly began bringing in outside mercenary forces as thier empire imploded from within. Terms were quickly reached with thier former 'slave stock races' to help bolster. 
The 'Invaders' have been summoning things from the Beyond to help further destabilize the 'Commerical Empire' further. 

As the 'Epic' was refueling & several refuel station employees came aboard the starship to speak with the PC's. The employees told the PC's with a job of clearing out a 'space hulk' that had entered the local system. The Greys also shared the fact that a cell of the Invaders had landed aboard the 'Hercules' space hulk. The PC's were given a stipen to purchase weapons and equipment as well as a 10,000 credit retainer. 
So what's actually going on here?! Well a week or so ago I bought  a copy of  Night Owl Worshop's Loathsome Horrors. So the invaders have summoned something rather nasty aboard the 'Hercules'. The question is what else is aboard the 'space hulk' and waiting?! 

Love, War, Epic & La Za Faire - Wretched Space( Revised ) /Wretched Vigilantes One Shot - Session Report 2 & Quick Review of Wretched Space Revised

 So the players last night wanted to get back into our  Wretched Space/Wretched Vigilantes One Shot. And this was because my friend Silva C. of the Red Room's had her birthday and she had her book Epic for Wretched Space on offer for free.. In the meantime Silva's husband released Wretched Space Revised. So I ended up scanning & incorporating four hundred and ten pages of background into our Wretched game! 
And yes I realize that it's all A.I. generated artwork throughout the book. 

Wretched Space Revised is a monster of a book, it incorporates a ton new gear, new dueling rules, new space craft, a ton of new PC options, gobs of revised tables on colonies, the Federation gets expanded, the Wretched Legion gets a work out, and much more. Wretched Space Revised is a massive improvement on the original Wretched Space book? 
In a word yes! There are tons and tons of new material in Wretched Space Revised and it works. And it works very well! Wretched Space Revised is a massive improvement to an already great game! 

La Sa Faire took a massive effort last night to finish him off and I threw everything at the group playing the NPC villain! He killed off Night Stalker's Daughter after feeding off of her life force and then snapping her neck. The party hated the fact that the vampire was active during the day! Why wouldn't he rest or take breaks?! And the reason is simple about two days ago I bought a copy of  Night Owl Worshop's Loathsome Horrors.  DM Steve doesn't know about Loathsome Horrors nor the fact that La Za Faire has been taken over by a 'Cosmic Wanderer'. according to Loathsome Horrors a Cosmic Wanderer; "A Cosmic Wanderer is a lost soul condemned to wander the cosmos in search of a home it will never find.A Cosmic Wanderer is a lost soul condemned to wander the cosmos in search of a home it will never find. Whether an explorer who lost his way, a wizard experimenting with magic he didn’t understand, or a cursed individual tossed into the ether, they have been traveling for so long that they’ve lost all comprehension of time and space" 

The party finally managed to set off a small tactical  nuke to get rid of the monster & fled the scene. They drew the monster out into the open and set off the nuke and fled with the temple staff! 

After wrapping up this leg of the mini adventure the players want to revamp thier PC's in alignment with Wretched Space Revised. This means I've got to do a quick PC workshop next week. Is Wretched Space Revised worth getting?! In a word, yes! There are a number of reasons for this! 

Love, War, Epic & La Za Faire - Wretched Space/Wretched Vigilantes One Shot - Session Report 1

 So  yesterday was my friend Silva C. of the Red Room's birthday and she had her book Epic for Wretched Space on offer for free.. The basic gist of the book is that PC's are on patrol out on the  the Outer Rim and follows a group of Wretched Legionaries, the Federation's low-budget patrol troops for Fringe space. 

Well our group of Legionaries is different and have been in cryo sleep since the early 1900's. The Wretched Seven have been on ice since then. But one of thier number has escaped and it's up to the PC's to take him down. 
The French anti hero La Za Faire is on a mission to possess the Cronos Crystal. Since the first World War the Wretch Seven have been a part of the Legion's roaster. They are unfrozen only in the most dire of circumstances. The Wretched Seven are straight out of Wretched Vigilantes. 
The French anti hero La Za Faire himself has been generated using Wretched Époque – Second Edition. He is not only an acomplished gang leader, but also a vampire of 6th level. He's familar with guns, knives, and carries an enchanted rapier. La Za Faire awoke from Cryo cut a swath through the prison station and gated to Proxima IV through a D Gate. After draining guards, murdering the gate operator, & destroying the gate so he wouldn't be followed. He's on his way to destroy the local temple of Chronos. 

The player's PC's tracked him down to Proxima IV & were dropped off using the Epic. The player's PC's managed to find his arrival point and the assassin  droids he left for them. The PC's used the Epic for support and it's a good thing they did because the dice really went against them. Two of our heroes ended up in medbay back on the Epic. 

The rest of the 'heroes' tracked La Za Faire to the local Federation office and found he had drained dry all of the staff! Note that he's not acting in line with his Legionarion file! And the reason is simple about two days ago I bought a copy of  Night Owl Worshop's Loathsome Horrors. Now DM Steve follows and buys everything that the Red Room does. This is on my recommendation. However DM Steve doesn't know about Loathsome Horrors nor the fact that La Za Faire has been taken over by a 'Cosmic Wanderer'. This horror has found the vampire the perfect vessel and what is a cosmic wanderer? Well according to Loathsome Horrors a Cosmic Wanderer; "A Cosmic Wanderer is a lost soul condemned to wander the cosmos in search of a home it will never find.A Cosmic Wanderer is a lost soul condemned to wander the cosmos in search of a home it will never find. Whether an explorer who lost his way, a wizard experimenting with magic he didn’t understand, or a cursed individual tossed into the ether, they have been traveling for so long that they’ve lost all comprehension of time and space" 

The Federation is well aware of La Za Faire's condition but neglected to mention it too his former teammates. And this gets into the fact that we used Bad Guys Always Lose  for this leg of the mini adventure. One of the PC's found the Federation file on La Za Faire and what the Hell is inhabiting thier former team mate. But will they survive to tell anyone?!  Tune in Next Week! 

The Dwarven View Point & Maximum Mayhem Dungeons#4 Vault of Dwarven King In Castles & Crusades Sword & Sorcery

 Pulling down the idea of the Dwarves as a Fey power within our Swords & Sorcery campaign isn't as far fetched as one might think. Let's picked up right from here on the blog. And if we're using Dieties & Demigods by Kuntz & Ward's Celtic mythological section then there's very little in the way of tie ins with the Dwarves. 

However once we skip back into the the Codex Celtarum with it's section on 'Fairy Metals' now we've got our motives for the Dwarven kingdoms deep in the Fairylands. How does this fit in with the role of the Dwarves within  within Maximum Mayhem Dungeons#4 Vault of Dwarven King. written by Alan Chamberlain & Mark Taormino. The Dwarven kingdoms of the 'Ancient World' have held the line when it comes to protecting mankind long enough within thier view. 

"“The little poets sing of little things:

Hope, cheer, and faith, small queens and puppet kings;
Lovers who kissed and then were made as one,
And modest flowers waving in the sun.

The mighty poets write in blood and tears
And agony that, flame-like, bites and sears.
They reach their mad blind hands into the night,
To plumb abysses dead to human sight;
To drag from gulfs where lunacy lies curled,
Mad, monstrous nightmare shapes to blast the world." 
Robert E. Howard.. 

The events seen within Maximum Mayhem Dungeons#4 Vault of Dwarven King are highly dangerous and very violetile in the Dwarven view. 

The Dwarven nations here are the more modern dwarves who have been trading with mankind for eons after the Norse and Germanic gods have put them into thier roles as the guardians and caretakers of mankind. This is something that the politics deep in   Autarch's By This Axe: The Cyclopedia of Dwarven Civilization gets into. The Dwarven nations as abitors of the technologies of civilization and Law. 

Does this fit the ideals of a world of Sword & Sorcery?! Upon examination it does in so many ways. The magick of the world isn't dying but it is giving way to the newer orders of mankind. The world of the Ancients isn't giving up without a fight needless to say that Elemental Evil rulers are another form of Chaos just waiting to unleash themselves on the world. And where do the policies of mankind play into this?! Mankind in the Dwarven  view are fleeting at best and a nucience at worst. And this plays into the Fey approach seen in 

Castles & Crusades Codex Celtarum 2nd Printing.

You have divisions between the Fey Courts, the Dwarven nations, the European worshipers, and more. Not all of these interactions are going are going to be peaceful and at worst tinged by warfare. And this goes all the way back into a couple of cities that were mentioned in the 1980's Role Aids Dwarven book as far kingdoms and not well liked among the more 'modern' Dwarves of Fairyland.

'" Here Be Dragons" A Sword & Sorcery Campaign Using The Castles & Crusades Mythos Series & Dark Wizard Games Maximum Mayhem Dungeons#4 Vault of Dwarven King Session Report#2

“Time and times are but cogwheels, unmatched, grinding on oblivious to one another. Occasionally - oh, very rarely! - the cogs fit; the pieces of the plot snap together momentarily and give men faint glimpses beyond the veil of this everyday blindness we call reality.― Robert E. Howard, Bran Mak Morn: The Last King: A Novel


We're making full use of the the entire whole of  the Bundle: Castles & Crusades Mythos Series -- Print here for our Sword & Sorcery campaign. So last night I got reminded by the players that in the past there have been Dwarven kingdoms deep in the Fairylands and these weren't readily detailed. And then a player mentioned a ancient Dwarven kingdom deep within the past of our older campaigns. So I grabbed my copy of Role Aids Dwarves and began knitting this in with our current Dwarven campaign from last session here. 

I pulled a couple of cities that were mentioned in the 1980's Role Aids Dwarven book as far kingdoms and not well liked among the more 'modern' Dwarves of Fairyland. 

These cities are traditionalists and far closer to the Norse Dwarven mythologies and beliefs. They feel that they are 'superior' to other Dwarven communities because they remain true to the 'Old Dwarven Ways'

And this theme plays into the ideals presented within Maximum Mayhem Dungeons#4 Vault of Dwarven King. Written by Alan Chamberlain & Mark Taormino. The Dwarven kingdoms of the 'Ancient World' have held the line when it comes to protecting mankind long enough within thier view. The attitudes of the goblins are one of 'let the gods' sort the humans & Dwarven kingdoms out. There's a lot more bubbling below the surface of this adventure and we've been dealing with the politics deep in   Autarch's By This Axe: The Cyclopedia of Dwarven Civilization.

This fits within the events depicted within Maximum Mayhem Dungeons#4 Vault of Dwarven King.Without giving too much away many of the events depicted within MMD#4 are going to hit the high marks for certain key points within the Celtic Codex Second edition. Why?! Because the Fey courts are conspiring to bring down the empires of the Dwarves. 

Are the goblins  innocent or are they act in concert within other Fey?! The party in last night's game got deeply involved in the investigative side of things looking at loot, remains, and other evidence left behind by the slaying of the goblin mercenaries in last week's game. 
There's also evidence that the Dwarven nations have had deep trading relations with the local human empires for ores, metals, and other materials. 

While this doesn't seem major it's become a point of contention with the Elven & Dwarven players which is kinda dumb because thier actually a part of the same court. And it was settled by our party leader in very quick sucession reminding the players of thier PC's mission. And then our adventurers ran across the goblin mercenaries camp and things got very interesting! They were captured! 

'" Here Be Dragons" A Sword & Sorcery Campaign Using The Castles & Crusades Mythos Series - Germany Destabilized!

 So I've been back hard at work on the 'Ancient World' Castles & Crusades campaign & it's easy to really discount certain Mythos books. One of these is the Castles & Crusades Codex Germania but this is a mistake on my part. Codex Germania has two very distinct classes that can easily be applied to our campaign world. These are the dragon slayer and the witch which comes straight out of German mythology. 

This is important for two reasons, one the NPC villain is actually a dragon slayer and a bit of fantical one at that. He's Hell bent on slaying a gold dragon whose wife is a major NPC patron of the player's PC's. 
And things are going to go downhill from there. The party has it's hands full with the recent Dwarven fracus we just had unleashed. 
Codex Germania fills in some of the major gaps in the Indo European mythologies of the region within our campaign. This ties into several of the major Dwarven elements of our 'Here Be Dragon' canmpaign events. 

The secondary player's class that we'll be using for an NPC villain is the witch class. And this version of the witch is the one straight from mythology and this is something that we'll be plugging into. This the Germany of both an alternative late Roman empire and one that hits the high notes of mythology. Meaning that this is a period of high instability within our version of Europe. 
And it's this period of conflict that has awakened forces of creation from deep within the Earth detailed within  Maximum Mayhem Dungeons#4 Vault of Dwarven King.
Tieing all of this together is easily done with the dark version of Europe that we find within  the Bundle: Castles & Crusades Mythos Series -- Print here. All of this goes back to the start points that find within Autarch's By This Axe: The Cyclopedia of Dwarven Civilization. A German barbarian empire deep within the throws of conflict awakening the dark forces within the Earth. 

The Dwarves are really the guardians of the future fate of mankind and the custodins of the Gods. How long can we see them continue this role that they've held so long within myth and legend?! 

'" Here Be Dragons" A Sword & Sorcery Campaign Using The Castles & Crusades Mythos Series & Dark Wizard Games Maximum Mayhem Dungeons#4 Vault of Dwarven King Session Report

 

The PC's journeyed deep into the Fairylands after being recruited tonight by the party's wizard. Things got very complicated as the players found out that they'd be working for the Dwarven royals. 

“Time and times are but cogwheels, unmatched, grinding on oblivious to one another. Occasionally - oh, very rarely! - the cogs fit; the pieces of the plot snap together momentarily and give men faint glimpses beyond the veil of this everyday blindness we call reality.― Robert E. Howard, Bran Mak Morn: The Last King: A Novel

So tonight I did a bit of juggling to get our 'Ancient World' Sword & Sorcery campaign setting off the ground using Castles & Crusades with Maximum Mayhem Dungeons#4 Vault of Dwarven King. Written by Alan Chamberlain & Mark Taormino Vault of the Dwarven King works out quite nicely to be fitted into the campaign with PC's at the center of  events; "The Dwarven King of Brundurum has summoned you to his throne room within the Smokey Mountain. Brave souls are needed for a noble quest into the depths of the earth to retrieve the legendary hammer known as Fireheart. But beware – the Goblin King and his evil hordes believe the hammer woke a Lava Titan and they will seek to possess it at all costs. Who is telling the truth? Who is really kin to this ultimate weapon? What secret powers are at play in this tale of suspicion, intrigue and betrayal? Only your stalwart group of adventurers will find out and walk away with more fortune and glory than ever… if you can escape the Vault of the Dwarven King!" We were using the entire whole of  the Bundle: Castles & Crusades Mythos Series -- Print here. 

The Celtic Codex 2nd edition was front & center tonight as the party was called into the courts of the Fey. They were brought before Sir Erick a gold dragon & his wife Bridgette a paladin. These two were acting as envoys to the court of Brundurum. Originally these two NPC's were left by the Romans after leaving England for the empire. The reason the party has been called in is that the Goblin King has broken the peace with the humans, the Dwarves, and the rest of the Fey.
These are going from bad to worse as the goblins have disturbed one of the ancient elemental evil deep below thier kingdoms. For tonight's game too really help fill in the details on our Dwarven nations I used Autarch's By This Axe: The Cyclopedia of Dwarven Civilization.
This fits within the events depicted within Maximum Mayhem Dungeons#4 Vault of Dwarven King. The PC's are all from families which are all survivors from the lands of myth & legend. So while not human royals they are members of ancient royal families. 

The party of adventurers have begun to make the journey to the Dwarven lands and already encountered goblin raiders in tonight's game session. And things got interesting from there as the PC's engaged them but after they were killed off it turns out that a brief examination revealed that the goblins were mercenaries and bandits. Are they related?!  Found out next week.