Out From Under The Thumb Of The Dungeon Master - More OSR Thoughts On 'The Realm' of The Dungeons & Dragons Cartoon

 

The older I'm getting the more I'm  beginning to understand the common sense that Eric The Cavalier in the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon had. Understand I'm not taking apart Gary Gygax or Ernie Gygax's legacy with the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon.No I'm talking about the fact that there's a ton of skeletons hiding in Dungeon Master's little lawful good closet.



Run Eric, Run as fast as you can but you can't escape 'The Realm'

 Within 'the realm' the Dungeon Master is the smallest god on the block but he's also the caretaker of the setting of 'the realm'. He isn't all powerful but rather his hands are tied if something happens within the bounds of nature. This means that he needs to act through agents or pupils, & there have been lots of em over the centuries. All of this thought experiment kicked off with me stumbling across this set of mini's from Antediluvian miniatures called the dungeon explorers. A set of adult miniature homages to the dungeon master's 'young pupils' from the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon. But what's the dungeon master's end game or agenda? That's simple its the protection of the realm & there's a reason why he's using kids.

The kids have decades to help the little maniac protect 'the realm' from all kinds of threats from Tiamat to the crimson stained hands of Venger himself. But the little mad man is bound by rules & rules that can not be broken. So the dungeon master subverts the rules  in a rather clever fashion. He uses agents he trains as his pupils & he's done this many,many, times.

Our familiar six kids who took that faithful ride on the amusment park are only the latest in a long line of suck erm 'pupils' who took the dungeon master's ride. This has been happening for centuries upon centuries throughout Earth's history.



Do I have evidence of this? Sure just take a look at Strongheart the Good Cleric & the fact that during the D&D cartoon 'Servant of Evil' we're introduced to Strongheart The Paladin. He states that he once had a magic hammer similiar to the kids magic weapons.



There's a reason for this & that's because the all of the magic items come from the Dragon's Graveyard the ancestral lair of Tiamat. She's not just hanging out on the first plane of Hell in her lair & seeding the planes with her spawn but Tiamat is a godess. She's the key goddess  too the creation of 'the realms' at least one of them. She guards the 'magic weapons' for the next group of adventurers who come into 'the realms'. Originally I think she might have been worshipped by the dragons of the realm & later on the lizardmen who were some of the original inhabitants of the mini plane.



 But what of all of the other heroes & adventurers who have come to 'the realm'? Did they vanish or die at the hands of Venger? Some might have but mostly they were buried in the 'Hall of Bones' where their spirits awaited the call by 'Dungeon Master' to defend 'the realm'.
The hall is later destroyed as the spirits attack Venger but my guess is that there are many such halls scattered throughtout 'the realm'.


But 'the realm' shares many characteristics of  Peter Pan's Neverland, no not the Disney spoon fed version but;"the works of J. M. Barrie and those based on them." 'The realms' share many characteristics of Neverland & are in fact a fairyland; "Barrie explains that the Neverlands are found in the minds of children, and that although each is "always more or less an island", and they have a family resemblance, they are not the same from one child to the next. For example, John Darling's had "a lagoon with flamingos flying over it", while his little brother Michael's had "a flamingo with lagoons flying over it". The novel says the Neverlands are compact enough that adventures are never far between. It says that a map of a child's mind would resemble a map of Neverland, with no boundaries at all.^[1]

The exact situation of Neverland is ambiguous and vague. In Barrie's original tale, the name for the real world is the Mainland, which suggests Neverland is a small island, reached by flight. Peter tells Wendy the way to Neverland is "second to the right, and straight on till morning", but he is described as saying "anything that came into his head". In the novel, the children are said to have found the island only because it was "out looking for them". Barrie also writes that Neverland is near the "stars of the milky way" and it is reached "always at the time of sunrise"." 


Illustration of Peter Pan playing the pipes, with Neverland in the background, by F. D. Bedford, from the novel Peter and Wendy published in 1911.

Not unlike Neverland murder,bloodshed, & evil are all too real. Not only are the threats to 'the realm' real but so is the murder & its evil has a name. 'The Nameless One' is the corruption of the evil & chaos that flows just outside the plane. From time to time its essence flows into 'the realm' & orcs, trolls, & other monsterous humanoids prosper. Venger was corrupted by this force & served it for ages but his original purpose of 'testing the pupils' was never forgotten. Even though Venger served 'The nameless one' his true purpose of testing the pupils turned to destorying them ( he never did) & coveting the rulership of 'the realm'. This conquest almost happened but Venger had a warped sense of honor & even some goodness. But 'the nameless one' warped him into insanity & with a heightened sense of paranoia that fueled his martial conquest of  most of 'the realm'. 



Jeff Easily & Tim Truman illustrations from the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon line.

OSR Commentary - Lands of the Jotunn & G1 Steading of the Hill Giant Chief By Gary Gygax (1978)

 " Giants have been raiding the lands of men in large bands, with giants of different sorts in these marauding groups. Death and destruction have been laid heavily upon every place these monsters have visited. A party of the bravest and most powerful adventurers has been assembled and given the charge to punish the miscreant giants"

I've been thinking heavily about G1 Steading of the Hill Giant Chief  By Gary Gygax (1978) & looking into how this style of tourament module could be used in a Pulp style game & before you head off give me a chance. Since these are a part of the classic Against the Giants series of modules by Gary Gygax let's get a little insight;"Against the Giants is an adventure module written by Gary Gygax and published by TSR in 1981 for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game." G1 Steading of the Hill Giant Chief  By Gary Gygax  takes place within Jotunn in Greyhawk & if that location was rifted into the modern world then events get very horrific & dangerous. Now I was reading through Dungeon of Sighs review of G1-3 Against the Giants from 2017. I was struck by the following; "he Hill Giant steading is a balance between two common stock communities - the barbarian ‘meadhall’ and the cannibal ‘hillbilly’ clan compound.  One can easily push it in either direction, depending on how one sees Hill Giants.  Certainly the Hill Giant of the 5th edition (and perhaps the Monster Manual) is driven by gluttony and seems like something out of “The Hills Have Eyes” more than a Fomorian of Celtic myth.  This second idea, Hill Giants as oversized classical celtic with monstrous table manners is closer to the 1978 G1.  Giants cover everything in furs and love decorative jewelry, living in a hall as an extended clan, the warrior elite lording over their captives and servants.  The little art in G1 straddles these two conceptions as well, with giants clad in furs, or sometimes dressed in 19th century looking prairie dresses and depending on one’s campaign going in either direction could be very fun. " 
Now let's say that lands of the Jotunn plannarly merged with modern day England & that's when the real trouble starts. In Norse mythology this place is literally the land of giants, trolls, and other Dungeons & Dragons humanoids. For some reason H.G. Wells Food of the Gods stuck with me here & the idea that the Hill Giants might be feeding some of the locals on their own food or Eitr. Yeah this is right outta of the Bob Something Godbound/Scion: Titanspawns play book. The hill giants have been turning the locals into cannon fodder, slaves,etc.
Now this isn't the first time I've thought about doing this & for a Godbound/Dungeons & Dragons campaign this isn't a bad way to go. Scientists who are studying the food of the gods or Ambrosia are extremely dangerous circumstances. The food of the gods comes from Greco/Roman mythology; "Ambrosia is very closely related to the gods' other form of sustenance, nectar. The two terms may not have originally been distinguished;^[6] though in Homer's poems nectar is usually the drink and ambrosia the food of the gods; it was with ambrosia Hera "cleansed all defilement from her lovely flesh",^[7] and with ambrosia Athena prepared Penelope in her sleep,^[8] so that when she appeared for the final time before her suitors, the effects of years had been stripped away, and they were inflamed with passion at the sight of her. On the other hand, in Alcman,^[9] nectar is the food, and in Sappho^[10] and Anaxandrides, ambrosia is the drink.^[11] A character in Aristophanes' Knights says, "I dreamed the goddess poured ambrosia over your head—out of a ladle." Both descriptions could be correct, as ambrosia could be a liquid considered a food (such as honey).

The consumption of ambrosia was typically reserved for divine beings. Upon his assumption into immortality on Olympus, Heracles is given ambrosia by Athena, while the hero Tydeus is denied the same thing when the goddess discovers him eating human brains. In one version of the myth of Tantalus, part of Tantalus' crime is that after tasting ambrosia himself, he attempts to steal some away to give to other mortals.^[12] Those who consume ambrosia typically had not blood in their veins, but ichor the blood of immortals.^[13]

Both nectar and ambrosia are fragrant, and may be used as perfume: in the Odyssey Menelaus and his men are disguised as seals in untanned seal skins, "...and the deadly smell of the seal skins vexed us sore; but the goddess saved us; she brought ambrosia and put it under our nostrils."^[14] Homer speaks of ambrosial raiment, ambrosial locks of hair, even the gods' ambrosial sandals."

So let's say that the hill giants are using the local youth for part of an army of muscle & cult recruitment. Surely there couldn't be someone among them whose got the brains to organize hill giants into such a back handed group of muscle & dominance right? Well enter Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae ("The History of The Kings of Britain", 12th century), & Gogmagog. "He was a giant inhabitant of Albion, thrown off a cliff during a wrestling match with Corineus (a companion of Brutus of Troy). Gogmagog was the last of the Giants found by Brutus and his men inhabiting the land of Albion."




Its no accident that I mentioned that G1 Steading of the Hill Giant Chief  By Gary Gygax (1978) might be transported to a modern England this goes back to Gogmagog (also Goemagot, Goemagog, Goëmagot and Gogmagoc); "Gogmagog ("Goemagot", "Goemagog") in the legend of the founding of Britain as written by Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae (1136). Gogmagog was a giant of Albion who was slain by Corineus, a member of the invading Trojan colonizers headed by Brutus. Corineus was subsequently granted a piece of land that was named "Cornwall" eponymously after him.

The Historia details the encounter as follows: Gogmagog, accompanied by twenty fellow giants, attacked the Trojan settlement and caused great slaughter. The Trojans rallied back and killed all giants, except for "one detestable monster named Gogmagog, in stature twelve cubits, and of such prodigious strength that at one shake he pulled up an oak as if it had been a hazel wand". He is captured so that Corineus can wrestle with him. The giant breaks three of Corineus's ribs, which so enrages him that he picks up the giant and carries him on his shoulders to the top of a high rock, from which he throws the giant down into the sea. The place where he fell was known as "Gogmagog's Leap" to posterity."

So why would  Gogmagog return with hordes of hill giants & the like to modern England? To track down his modern day descendants & use them in an army of the Apocalypse to destroy modern society; "The Lord Mayor's account of Gogmagog says that the Roman Emperor Diocletian had thirty-three wicked daughters. He found thirty-three husbands for them to curb their wicked ways; they chafed at this, and under the leadership of the eldest sister, Alba, they murdered their husbands. For this crime they were set adrift at sea; they washed ashore on a windswept island, which they named "Albion"—after Alba. Here they coupled with demons and gave birth to a race of giants, whose descendants included Gog and Magog" 

There's always been a mix here of gods & giants going back to Norse mythology
 the primary example here being Loki.
 But there are many others & to take this back to Dark Albion if  G1 Steading of the Hill Giant Chief  By Gary Gygax (1978) & placed it within Dark  Albion or Lion & Dragon  with our additions the effects could be devestating. Ambroisa being used as a sacrement for a cult of the hill giants on the local populace would have incredibly dangerous effects. The supplicant's strength gains  +4 & perhaps a +2 on dexterity.But their intelligence & wisdom go down by -2 points after two weeks of being on the Ambroisia. The cult's members become creatures of chaos before too long gaining unsightly & unnatural muscles. Originally these monsters were used as shock troops by the Elves in ages past & now these monsters have returned!




Hill giants have always been creatures of chaos within my mind anyway. Dangerous in the exgtreme, prone to violence, quick tempered, & representive of a different order then humanity entirely. 

And this gets into the fact that all of the above could potentially be used with a Troll Lords Mythos dark Europe. Let me explain, while may seem a bit convoluted and far fetched the forces of chaos could in point of fact be returning from Fairy and planning a full scale invasion of Europe! 
And the Mythos line of books from Troll Lord Games supports this! The Fey could easy taint the wells of surrounding  towns and other locations such as the Borderlands. And again here's where I'd pull quite a bit Adventurer, Conqueror, King's take on the forces of Chaos! 

It Came From A Cold Hell - The Ecology of the Xill in the Fiend Folio & Beyond

 The following is based partially on my conversation with DM Raj yesterday & his experiences with the Xill in all of their alien glory in his own games. Make no mistake he makes his player's PC's fight for every inch of space dungeon & salvaged treasure from the depths of his Spelljammer campaign. There are sprinkles & seeds from other OGL sources as we'll see. And the horrors of the Xill have been visited upon the Castles & Crusades game as well.. 

So let's get back to the Fiend Folio for a New York minute & my continuing writing for a Godbound rpg campaign. I've been quietly watching & reading of a number of bloggers since 2017 when the Kevin Crawford game came out who have converted Games Workshop 40K material.  But why?! The Fiend Folio already has an otherworldly quisi devil like creature that may or maynot have a chaos cult dedicated to their cause. That cause is the implantation, propegation, & continuation of this invasive planar species straight outta of the Fiend Folio. Yeah, I'm speaking of the Xill.



Hailing straight outta of the Ethreal & into menacing your PC's. The Xill are supposedly ripe to make a comeback in my games! They excellent proto devils just waiting to spread their madness on others as they implant an eggs & spread the infection of their race. A xill stands 4 to 5 feet tall and weighs about 100 pounds. Xills speak Infernal. Make no mistake about it these things are utterly alien & they represent entities from before even the time of gods or Hell itself.  The Xill grapples you and then parazlysis the hapless victim.
Those bitten by the xill must save vs paralyisis or be suffer paralyisis for 1d4 hours.  An xill can lay eggs inside a paralyzed creature. The young emerge about 90 days later, literally devouring the host from inside. A remove disease spell rids a victim of the egg.

The Xill are in the OGL & here we get even more info on them, they have dark vision up to  60 ft. Meaning that these bastards are from a dark environment.They can plane walk but its not at will according to their OGL entry;"

"These planar travelers like to slip between the folds of space to attack enemies as though from thin air. They can cross from the Ethereal Plane with a move action but take 2 rounds to cross back, during which time they are immobile. As a xill fades away, it becomes harder to hit: Opponents have a 20% miss chance in the first round and a 50% miss chance in the second. A xill can planewalk with a willing or helpless creature."

If the Xill sound like an alien entity straight from the Alien 1977 playbook you might not be too far off. Pathfinder in 2015 introduced the Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Occult Bestiary. This gave us the  xill matriarch. This monsterous queen's big advantage over her minions is two fold one is the speed she can implant her eggs & the cult she can create around herself; "a xill matriarch can lay 4d6 eggs in a helpless creature. These eggs hatch in 24 hours, at which point the young consume the host from within, dealing 1 point of Constitution damage per hour per young until the host dies. The young then emerge and planewalk to the Ethereal Plane, if possible."

"Xill matriarchs can take mental control of creatures in which they have implanted eggs as a full-round action. This functions as dominate monster (CL 13th) and works at any distance, even between the Ethereal Plane and Material Plane. The host takes a –4 penalty on the saving throw to resist the matriarch's control. While dominated, the victim is immune to xills' paralysis ability. The matriarch can use greater scrying on the dominated victim at will (no saving throw). A matriarch can maintain one such link at a time; if she wants to use dominate monster or greater scrying on a different creature implanted with her eggs, she must end the effects on her current victim (though she can switch back later)."
It doesn't take much to translate this into an OSR game system & so Xill matriarchs can easily be brought over into the OSR with little fan fare. These alien menaces from the coldest hells around dead stars are exactly the sort of things that the gods would be battling straight out of a Jack Kirby comic book. 


The Apotheosis of the Medici: Cosimo III sat central between his two sons and his brother below him, Palazzo Medici-Riccardi
It doesn't take much to thinking that a group of Xill will come outta of the Ethreal pick on some isloted country village & begin using the place whole cloth as an incubation vessel for their young. The adventurers are part of a strike force of the gods brought in to cleanse the land of this infection when they run into an Xill matriarchs and then things get complicated. The Xill are completly alien & it doesn't matter to these alien things if your PC's are gods,demigods, or adventurers its all a matter of the survival of the species. In many ways this reflects the mind set of H.P. Lovecraft while paying homage to the uncaring nature of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons first edition. 

There are many reasons why the Xill work in campaigns: 

1. The Xill can pop up literally anywhere making them an alien menace of epic proporations. 
2. These bastards have a very dark infernal component to their make up making them easily mentionable as a race in  blasphemous tome. This means that they might easily summoned to the plane Prime ala the summoning spell from Lamentations of the Flame Princess. 
3. Ghosts & other undead resulting from an infection by the Xill might be an early warning for these monsters. 
4. Gods don't like them because they cause havoc among the psychic landscape of worshipers offerin the DM an opportunity to add them to a campaign as a possible side quest. 
5. Xill are excellent 40K stand in menaces that can act as a dangerous one shot or as a possible on going chaos cult within campaigns. 
6. Royals who have an infestation of Xill are going to be under tremedous pressure to deal with them giving opportunity for treasure or more importantly influence. 
7. Crashed space craft, ruined temple complex, deep in the dungeon there are million ways to bring Xill into your campaigns. 
8. Xill infestations could easily disrupt the flow of divine engeries in a campaign bringing to bare the full weight of the gods upon adventurers as their clerics get screwed as the holy warriors of the gods. 
9.  Xill matriarchs are part of a vast array of an alien ecology that the PC's are only beginning to grasp. 
10. The Xill fit nicely into the insanity of many of the megadungeons that populate the OSR & old school landscape giving them a two fold purpose within games. Destroying the campaign from within & taking away valuable populations without for their own reproduction. 

Immortality Inc., Eldritch Wizardry, & Godbound rpg 'Its The End of Earth As You Don't Know It' Play Session Report 10

 

D&D Supplement III: Eldritch Wizardry (1976), by Gary Gygax & Brian Blume, is the third of four supplements for the OD&D game. It was published in May 1976. This book represents one of the backbones of my Godbound campaign that's been on going on & off now for three or so years. The appearance of an immortal of Entropy & Chaos has signaled the possible death kneel of an Earth across space & time. 

The Hulder Corporation is offering 'immortality' to the one percent of their Earth, a chance that to live forever as a creature of the Silvan world! 'We offer you all of eternity from the hidden parts of your soul! Bring out the inner you today!'
Well yes & mostly no! The person's essence is transferred into a brand new trans elemental style body and they do become a proto Silvan creature aka an Elf or Fey. But this divinity technology is from a source of anything but divine. Welcome to the Friday night Godbound rpg session. Strap in! 

This technology is brought to our little Godbound game via a D&D BECMI immortal named Negans. An immortal of entropy & chaos whose taken it upon itself to spread this technology across the planet. And its causing all kinds of havoc. 
The old gods are not happy about this turn of events. And so they've changed the PC's with stopping this. This all goes back to September of 2019. And the appearance upon this Earth of The Mighty Servant of Leuk-o.

Ängsälvor (Swedish "Meadow Elves") by Nils Blommér (1850)

Already the pilot of ' The Mighty Servant of Leuk-o' has raised an army of undead from the corpses of those who have turned to black magick to awaken the old gods. These cultists want their bid for immortality. But in point of fact that have unleashed the forces of Hell. The night roads have vomited up other horrors from their depths at this Earth. Godbound left & right are coming into their own! The question is why?! And what does this have to do with the appearance of Tegal Manor in New York City's Central Park?

Cha'alt / Godbound rpg Session Report - Bite of the Crocodile God

 Over the weekend there's been a rash of interest in our  Godbound/Cha'alt campaign that's been on going for the past two years. And to a certain degree there's been movement on a faction that wasn't expected & that's the Greco Roman version of Sebek. This version of the god appeared in Imagine issue#16 back in July of '85. Why do I say Greco Roman?! Because of the fact that ancient city of Alexandria had a thriving worship in many of the Egyptians gods with a Greek & later Roman spin on them. 

In the article 'Ancient Egypt A Brief Survey' By Graeme Davis we are introduced to a rather interesting & rather nasty version of the Egyptian god Sebek with a Neutral Evil dispostion. But wait I thought this game was taking place in Arizona, Nevada, California, etc. According to Mummies.com there was an exposition in California in  1884 and this was the source of one of the past lives of a Godbound cleric within our campaign. The other source?! Imagine magazine issue #16 July Eighty five. And this also relates to the source of some of the cleric's spells which are modified versions of the 'Magic of Ancient Egypt' by Rod Stevenson. 

But wait you've got a copy of Castles & Crusades's  Codex Egyptium?! Simply put this was player preference & she wanted her Godbound to be a bit different from our other Egyptian wizard. So with a bit of Eighty five sly flourish Constaince Keely daughter of Sebek  was born into our campaign. She's in dire opposition to our godbound wizard. Three museums are up for plundering by the forces of Cha'alt to destroy the mummies of three very important scribes who know the secrets of summoning some very ancient gods back to Earth. 
Our cleric of Sebek ate one of the ministers of Cha'alt's main corporations literally. Now its a race to the museum to see if they can save the mummies of these priests. 

Cha'alt Three Kickstarter 'Dancing in the Streets' or Saving Cha'alt - Cha'alt/Godbound Campaign Update

 So there hasn't been a lot of movement on the Cha'alt/Godbound campaign front for a few weeks now. Mostly because of scheduling & Covid related player issues. Then a barrage of emais came in from players, 'Have you seen Venger's new Cha'alt kickstarter?' or 'Did you know about what's happening to Cha'alt?' 
Cha'alt has been a major NPC player in my campaigns ever since the first book came out last year & now DM Greg emailed me the following; " The first adventure is titled Six Hours To Save Cha'alt.  It's about a meteor on a collision course with the planet.  Only the PCs can avert disaster.  They have to venture inside a sleeping spawn of an Old One in order to find the tech that can save Cha'alt."  'We can do this!'


When the Cha'alt wave hit the multiverse there was a ripple effect causing chaos of all kinds & alerting the gods. And this has been on going campaign to kill lots of the cults crossing over into Earth from Cha'alt. 

This gets into the idea of several bands of Swords & Wizardry light  PC's mixing it up with Ruins of Arduin rpg NPC parties & this includes deodanth bounty hunter blood parties out to end several party members. Ruins of Arduin is this sixty five page OSR book that ports over much of the Arduin awesomeness over to Swords & Wizardry. You can still get it for free right here.  The Deodanths are in the employ of a crime lord from Cha'alt 

The Deodanths would like nothing more then to eat the heart of a godbound or two but their real target is a renegade  Mystara immortal whose been helping the PC's from the side lines. Its highly unlikely they will achieve this goal. But the guidelines from The Vaults of Panduis Guide to the Immortals available right here. 

Let's face facts here the Mystara Immortals are the busy bodies of the multiverse & stick their noses into everything. Their entire ethos is opposed to everything Cha'alt stands for. So its game on between the rivals. When & where this game campaign will pick up again is still anyone's guess because of Covid at the moment but we'll keep you posted. 

'Doing the Michael Moorcock Twist' Using Classic Dungeons & Dragons Edition Free Resources To Create The Elric Mythos Campaigns

 DM Steve has been using some of my ideas from last year's efforts on his own Godbound campaign.  That seems like a lifetime ago living in a post Covid 19 world. But just night I joined in on a jolly little Stormbringer rpg Facebook group that actually seems pretty solid. But now he wants to add in some Michael Moorcock Elric mythos elements from original Dungeons & Dragons Gods, Demigods, & Heroes by Kuntz & Ward. 

The real problem is that while Godbound does have rules on corruption for the foul magics & works of Chaos. It doesn't have the right Stormbringer or Moorcockian flavor. This is where the modular nature of B/X  & original Dungeons & Dragons comes in very handy. 

Enter Jason Vey's The Age of Conan, a 'hack' of  original Dungeons & Dragons. As a free book it comes in very handy. Not only is it a full on Sword & Sorcery set of rules but he's also got the Age of Conan II: Secrets of Acheron a sorcerers' source book just waiting there. It captures the Stormbringer demon ritual magic perfectly. And the Age of Conan III: Secrets of the Black Circle is pefect for getting your OD&D Lovecraftian weirdness on. This is going to easily simulate the dire magics of the doomed  world of Elric. All of the nastiness of chaos is right there and the corruption comes through in spades. 

This is where the mythology of Stormbringer the demonic sword itself comes into play as the wiki entry on Stormbringer explains; "This powerful enchanted black blade is a member of a demon race that takes on the form of a sword, and as such is an agent of Chaos. Stormbringer's edge is capable of cutting through virtually any material not protected by potent sorcery, and it can drink the soul from (and thereby kill) an unprotected human upon delivering any wound, even a scratch. Its most distinctive features are that it has a mind and will of its own, and that it feeds upon the souls of those it kills. Elric loathes the sword but is almost helpless without the strength and vitality it confers on him.^[3]

Stormbringer's hunger for souls is such that it frequently betrays Elric by creating a bloodlust in his mind, turning in his hands and killing friends and lovers. The cursed nature of the sword adds to Elric's guilt and self-loathing, even as he feels pleasure when the stolen lifeforce enters his body.

Stormbringer has a "brother" sword named Mournblade, which was at one time wielded by Elric's cousin and enemy Yyrkoon. It is identical to Stormbringer in most regards. Later stories reveal that there are thousands of identical demons, all taking the form of swords. Three such sibling blades appear in The Revenge of the Rose and many more "brother blades" are seen in the novel Stormbringer, but only Mournblade and Stormbringer are named.

In Elric of Melniboné, Elric and cousin Yyrkoon find the runeblades in a realm of Limbo and commence battle. Elric and Stormbringer disarm Yyrkoon, and Mournblade disappears. Yyrkoon is defeated, and Elric and his cousin return to Imrryr.

In The Weird of the White Wolf, Elric returns to Imrryr after a long journey and confronts Yyrkoon, who usurped the throne in his absence. Yyrkoon has regained Mournblade through unknown means and uses it to attack. Elric and Stormbringer kill Yyrkoon, and no further mention is made of Mournblade until it is later disclosed that it was recovered by the Seers of Nihrain, to be wielded by Elric's cousin, Dyvim Slorm. Imrryr is sacked, though the pillagers' fate is not much better, being pursued by the golden battle barges and the few dragons who were awakened, led by Dyvim Tvar. Only Elric's ship escapes, propelled by the aid of his sorcery.

In Stormbringer, Elric learns that the representatives of Fate, which serve neither Chaos nor Law, recovered Mournblade from the netherworld. They present it to Elric and explain that the runeblades were designed to be wielded by those with Melnibonéan royal blood as a check against the might of the Dead Gods of Chaos. Elric gives Mournblade to his kinsman, Dyvim Slorm, and the two men become embroiled in a confrontation between the gods. Elric summons others of Stormbringer's demonic race (also in the form of swords) to fight against a number of Dukes of Hell, brought to the Young Kingdoms by Jagreen Lern, theocrat of Pan Tang."

The demon weapons are representives of the types of magical weapons that get to place themselves into the 'war of the gods' over the eons.  Both Stormbringer & Mournblade could be considered the 'gods' of these demon blades. They are more then capable of tipping the balance of entire universes. They should always be used with cautions by dungeon masters.. 

Cha'alt & Breaking The House Campaign Session Prep - PC Death Breeds Opportunity ! Now With More Fiend Folio!

 

'So now you've made a fine mess of it!' this was the conversation at six A.M. from DM Steve. But DM Steve was in 'idiot mode' so we'll let him go for the moment. Let's fade back several months to when the  Godbound/Cha'alt campaign set in Las Vegas was in full force before Corvid 19 hit & hit hard. Back then I was quietly using several original Dungeons & Dragons third party books this included Dragon Tree Press's 'Amazon Mutual Wants You'. So why is this important?! Because this '82 book's premise was simple & very effective its adventure hook;"Amazon Mutual Wants You!: Volume One consists of four adventures in which the player characters are hired by Amazon Mutual Life Insurance to recover bodies of policyholders'. Is it a good book? Its up to many of the books by Dragon Tree press during the Summer of '82. 

Here's the problem? Rick's Godbound paladin had a contract with Amazon Mutual's god division. Or in his case the demi god division. His soul is now part of Hel's underworld or more specifically The Wilderlands of High Fantasy version of Hel.So now his contract is pending & I'm gonna tap Terrence to grab his soul from the Underworld. But how did we get here? Well Rick's PC was made using James Mishler's Demigod PC rules & then ported over to the Godbound rpg. Was he unbeatable or unkillable? Hel no! 

Now was I a complete bastard for killing off his PC?! Well in a way no! The roll of the dice determined the outcome! Is the player complaining? Nope this was in the cards when we started this campaign. But the PC's death breeds adventure opportunity. In this case his patron goddess wants his soul back & Terrence is the hired gun to get it back! 
But now its time to bring up the big bad Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Fiend Folio.  Rick's paladin PC soul is in the delicate han erm claws of  Hel's mezzodemons.

And what's this got to do with Cha'alt?! Well there's a gang of half demons who happen to be a hit squad  working for the Elsyium corporation who want not nothing more then to murder any godbound they come across. There are number of mezzodemons among their ranks. 

The Chaos hit squad of NPC's is taking shape as we speak. This Halloween prepare to get your demon on! The Nalfeshnee-Kin Racial Class for Labyrinth Lord is perfect for the sort of bastards who will be on Terrence's trail coming. I've talked with Terrence's player already & he'll be on the trail soon!