Using OSR Pluto For Your Old School Campaigns Updated

 

So of course Pluto has been in the news every single night this week with some incredible and awesome images from the New Horizen's probe. According to NASA,

 "After a decade-long journey through our solar system, our New Horizons spacecraft made its closest approach to Pluto today, about 7,750 miles above the surface -- roughly the same distance from New York to Mumbai, India - making it the first-ever space mission to explore a world so far from Earth. For details and the high-res image, visit: http://go.nasa.gov/1L5MiF5"

Now everyone is jumping on the band wagon of using Pluto as a possible adventure location, now this Outer World has been appearing in Sci Fi going back to the Nineteen hundreds. And there already has been a ton of material written by HP Lovecraft regarding Yuggoth.

Yuggoth... is a strange dark orb at the very rim of our solar system... There are mighty cities on Yuggoth—great tiers of terraced towers built of black stone... The sun shines there no brighter than a star, but the beings need no light. They have other subtler senses, and put no windows in their great houses and temples... The black rivers of pitch that flow under those mysterious cyclopean bridges—things built by some elder race extinct and forgotten before the beings came to Yuggoth from the ultimate voids—ought to be enough to make any man a Dante or Poe if he can keep sane long enough to tell what he has seen...

—H. P. Lovecraft, "The Whisperer in Darkness"

According to Wiki: Yuggoth is the planet where the extraterrestrial Mi-go have established a colony. The Mi-go's city sits at the edge of a pit wherein dwells an ancient and horrifying entity feared by the Mi-Go. They periodically abandon the city on those occasions when it rises from the pit and can be seen directly.

The being Cxaxukluth, along with Tsathoggua and his parents, migrated to Yuggoth from Xoth. A dysfunctional family in their own right, Cxaxukluth's progeny abandoned their patriarch and sought refuge deep in the bowels of Yuggoth, owing to Cxaxukluth's cannibalistic tendencies. Soon thereafter they fled Yuggoth, though Cxaxukluth still dwells there to this day. This also includes a very special metal,

On Yuggoth, the Mi-go mine a strange metal known as tok'l. Tok'l-metal is used in the manufacture of the Mi-go's notorious "brain cylinders", but it also has other ritual uses as well.Nithon is a cloud-laden moon of Yuggoth. It is covered by fungi and has luminescent clouds that block all sunlight

Thog and Thok are twin moons of Yuggoth. Very little is known about these moons, though Thog is said to be a pitch-black world. On the surface of Thog is the fabled Ghooric Zone—a green-litten subterranean cavern containing a putrid lake where "puffed shoggoths splash"

There already is a great OSR module that includes a  perfect adventure set up to have your PC's end up on the wrong side of a brain cylinder. This is a pay as you go module as well called YS1 The Outpost of the Outer Ones From Jeremy Reaban. Its available right over HERE 

An old school module with a very straight forward and yet complicated plot. There already is a review for it right over HERE

Now when it comes to using a ready made pop up Pluto for your old school space games or space opera, you might need a map and Captain Future by Robert Hamilton has you covered with a great old school retrofuture Pluto! Add in adventure locations and perhaps a Lovecraftian monster or two and your ready to go!

If humanity moved onto Pluto looking into the remains of the Mi Go cities then they might be in for disappointment because of the fact that Yuggoth itself isn't on Pluto but might have been in deep orbit near pluto. According the H.P. Lovecraft wiki's entry on Yuggoth;"

Yuggoth has its own mini-solar system including Zaman, Nithon, the binary planet Thog and Thok, and the Ghooric Zone. It orbits at ninety degrees from the plane of the elliptical. It is the natal home of an "Elder Race" of Yuggothians who died out (perhaps due to the cannibalistic habits of Cxaxukluth?) before the planet became an “outpost” of the Mi-Go territory. Relics of the Elder Race exist including, according to The Revelations of Gla'aki, a city of green pyramids, and a pit that might be “the Pit of Shoggoths”. A dark inhospitable world; its surface is ravaged by high winds, while its "seas" and "rivers" consist of a warm, oily substance that flows sluggishly under basalt bridges. Cities, towers, and mines exist on both land and sea." So this begs the question where did the Mi Go?! As the favored ones of the Old Ones & the Outer Gods they might have had advanced warning to leave the solar system decades ago. Mankind is going to be scrubbing all of Pluto, it's moonlets, and other objects for any signs of the Mi Go. There's far more dangers in the darkness of those worlds then they might be expecting. The cult of Hastur at the top eschelons of certain corporate positions has bounties on any Mi Go that humanity runs across but this only known in certain occult  circles. 

Updated Dragon's Foot OSR Free Adventure - LG1: Terror in the Forest of Gizzick By Claude M. LeBrun For Your Old School Campaigns

 

GRAB IT RIGHT HERE

Good evening kids, your uncle Eric is back with another bit of commentary this time we go back to Dragon's foot for a free adventure download with lots of potential. I'm speaking of LG1: Terror in the Forest of Gizzick By Claude M. LeBrun. This is a free fifteen page AD&D 1st edition style adventure that takes full advantage of its PC levels right out of the gate. There is an element of danger and the adventure involves some humanoid races that don't get much air play these days and this is an adventure that takes the old school investigative style and pumps it up by an order of magnitude;"Many years ago Ronan Haverstack was an apprentice to the count’s personal wizard Jax Narhl. Ronan was an excellent student, working as hard as he could to learn all the tricks of spell casting. Ronan with a large thirst for knowledge would spend hours reading and studying all the tomes and spell books in Jax’s library. Jax kept one tome magically locked in a strongbox and would not allow Ronan to look at it. “I keep that tome locked away to prevent its evil from ever seeing the light of day”, Jax would say. Ronan coveted that book, and eventually figured out how to break the magical seal. Jax caught Ronan removing the book from the strongbox and tried to take it away. A fight ensued which ended in Ronan killing Jax. It wasn’t long before Jax’s murder was discovered and Ronan had to flee the kingdom. To avoid discovery Ronan Haverstack changed his name to Gandilor. Gandilor wandered for several months and eventually found refuge in a fishing village on the southern coast."  Things only get worse from this point and that's where your PC's get involved.The adventure picks up right from here and pulls your party of adventurers into the deep wasters of the plot of LG1: Terror in the Forest .The module places the PC's right into the middle of the action right out of the gate and keeps them there with a series of demanding and solid encounters. Its also an adventure that can be customized as you need to and its perfect for a DYI side quest or campaign opener;"Locate the hobgoblin’s lair in any forest in a non-populated area near a rural community, farmland, or village. Place in this area a few farms and settlements that have been raided by the hobgoblins." Believe it or not for a fifteen page adventure there actually is a subplot to this adventure and it has a ton to do with the background and history of the  Forest of Gizzick. Because of the nature of this adventure I was wishing there was more to it.


There are enough twists and turns to take this adventure in many different directions depending upon the retroclone system that your using at your table. The idea here is that LG1: Terror in the Forest of Gizzick could be used in a Dark Albion setting especially on the outer fringes of the empire of Albion and the like. Or it could be used in the mythic and twisted lonely places of the Lamentations of the Flame Princess retro clone system. There is enough meat on the bones of this adventure to adapt it into the back end of an old school campaign so that it can be used as a jump off point or as a side quest for the PC's. There is enough here to take the adventure down a dark and dangerous path. But is it worth the download?
The short answer is yes but the longer one is where do you as the dungeon master want to place this adventure. There are several dangerous and strong NPC's in this adventure and that could work to a DM's advantage if they wish to write a bit more to suit their own campaign. There are several opportunities for a dungeon master with a bit of a DYI D&D streak to take full advantage of these horrors, opportunities, and NPC's and make them their own.
While it is a fun adventure many of the more understated sword and sorcery elements in LG1: Terror in the Forest of Gizzick  might need to be brought forward for front and center to really move the plot along and get the DM's own campaign elements to take center stage.
All in all this is a great free module with lots of potential for a fully created and staged side quest or this adventure could be used to launch a great side campaign of the DM's own design. For a free module its pretty damn sweet and well constructed.

Dark Magick & High Crimes - HP Lovecraft's Dream Cycle, Dark Albion's Cults of Chaos , & Lamentations of the Flame Princess

 So recently I was going over my campaign notes on an old Lamentations of the Flame Princess rpg campaign which used quite a bit of H.P. Lovecraft's Dreamlands as campaign fodder. Now at the time the  Dark Albion rpg setting hit the wild. The crossovers that we used between the two OSR products  were extensive. The connection was a variant of the usual Summon spell but in this case it was a dreamlands variant. 



And this spell was one that dipped into the deepest parts of nightmare & this meant that anything is utterly things of Chaos. But not simply any chaos but deeply rooted into Dark Albion's Cults of Chaos. Why because of the Greco Roman connections  to a a fantasy medieval setting which heavily influenced a black powder aesthetic of Europe of my LoFP campaign. 
Cults of Chaos, perfectly suits the Chaos influence that the Dreamlands presents upon the waking world especially if there are dream cults that spring up around this campaign lead in & why? Well let's look into Cults of Chaos's intro for a moment; 


"There are two main sections in the supplement: the first presents rules on generating a chaos-worshiping cult, usable to create a wide variety of possible secret sects and conspiracies in the service of Chaos through multiple groups and social classes. The emphasis of these sects is on having a degree of ‘medieval authenticity’, presenting the cults with fantasy elements but with direct inspiration from real-world medieval ideas on witch-craft, heresies, priestly corruption, aristocratic hedonism, etc., many derived directly from either real history or medieval folk-beliefs. T he second section presents rules on Chaos mutations: transformations to a character’s mind, body or spirit which come about as a result of some form of exposure to the warping power of raw Chaos. There have been many excellent rules in other products (both OSR and other fantasy games) on corruption or mutation for fantasy games, to say nothing of post-apocalyptic games; but these mutation rules are somewhat distinct on account of their being based, again, on real medieval ideas and folklore about witches, monsters and curses."




 "This includes witch-marks, madness-inducing spirits, and rules on familiars which change familiars back from the RPG standard of ‘friendly magic animal companion’ into a powerful but corrupting demon-spawned animal link to the infernal." 

So could there be far more lurking in the dreamlands than we think?! Perhaps the alien elven gods of ancient mankind?! I think perhaps that the dreamlands as we know them may be one of the refuges of the ancient elven gods of mankind. And their cults simply wait to take back what's theirs in the waking world; 

"I shall never sleep calmly again when I think of the horrors that lurk ceaselessly behind life in time and in space, and of those unhallowed blasphemies from elder stars which dream beneath the sea, known and favoured by a nightmare cult ready and eager to loose them upon the world whenever another earthquake shall heave their monstrous stone city again to the sun and air" 
HP Lovecraft. 

There are out in the wild place of Europe & even in North America cells of dream cults working to undermine the very fabric of reality. And these are not simply scary tentacled horrors but other deities masquerading as 'gods' within the Dream cycle of  Lovecraft; 
That cycle includes the following: 

• "Polaris" (1918)
• "The White Ship" (1919)
• "The Doom That Came to Sarnath" (1919)
• "The Cats of Ulthar" (1920)
• "Celephaïs" (1920)
• "Ex Oblivione" (1920)
• "Nyarlathotep" (1920)
• "The Quest of Iranon" (1921)
• "The Nameless City" (reference only) (1921)
• "The Other Gods" (1921)
• "Azathoth" (1922)
• "The Hound" (reference only) (1922)
• "Hypnos" (1922)
• "What the Moon Brings" (1922)
• The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath (1926)
• "The Outsider" (1926)
• "The Silver Key" (1926)
• "The Strange High House in the Mist" (1926)
• The Case of Charles Dexter Ward (reference only) (1927)
• "The Thing in the Moonlight" (Based on a letter written to Donald Wandrei. Written by J. Chapman Miske) (1927. Published 1941)
• At the Mountains of Madness (reference only) (1931)
• "The Dreams in the Witch House" (roughly connected) (1932)
• "Through the Gates of the Silver Key" (with E. Hoffmann Price) (1932)

We're not talking simply witch covens here but full blown cells of cults bound & determined to bring reality as we know it to allow conquerors of old to retake the Earth. 

The Saga Of Crystar - As Influence On Your Sword And Science Fantasy Campaign

 

Way back in 1983 there was a comic book series that seems to have faded into the background of the pop cultural landscape. The other day I was looking into my comic bins and came across this cultural relic from the Mighty House of Marvel.
I'm speaking of course of Crystar Crystal Warrior one of a wave of comics that came out during the height of the sword and sorcery craze of 1983.
According to Wiki : 

The Saga of Crystar, Crystal Warrior was a 1983 11-issue fantasy-based Marvel comic book with an associated toy line from Remco, consisting of seven figures, some vehicles and accessories.

The plot : 

Years ago, The Demon Lord sent his demon armies to conquer the world of Crystallium. The King of Crystallium led the fight against the Demon Lord in the Chaos War, but he was killed during the war. The forces of Order then sent the wizard Ogeode and the Prisma-Crystal to drive away The Demon Lord's minions and the forces of Chaos. In his defeat, the Demon Lord made the "Prophecy of Chaos", that he would one day send another of his servants to divide the planet against itself and bring ruin to all.

After the end of the Chaos War, the wizards Ogeode and Zardeth visited two princes, the brothers Crystar and Moltar, who had to decide whether their people would ally with Chaos or Order. Crystar chose Order and its champion, Ogeode. As Moltar considered Chaos, their uncle Feldspar tried to convince him that Chaos was evil. Moltar, feeling that his uncle had always favored Crystar, became enraged and fought Crystar, injuring Feldspar in the process. Leaving them for dead, Moltar led his followers to the Fountain of Fire to find the wizard Zardeth and ally with Chaos.

Ogeode saves Crystar's life by merging him with the great Prisma-Crystal, rendering the prince's body into crystalline form. Similarly, at the Fountain of Fire, Zardeth magically transforms Moltar and his followers with the power of lava. Moltar and his magma men then attempt to conquer the city of Galax. Crystar and his warriors, feeling that flesh and blood would prove ineffective against the transformed armies of Moltar, selected an elite group to be transformed into crystal form like Crystar: Koth, Stalax, and Kalibar.

 The weird thing was that Crystar never had a cartoon show, but there were a boat load of action figures, and he never had any appearances in any really major Marvel comic book series except Alpha Flight and a few of the Marvel second stringers appearances. They were great Marvel second stringers but still. 

The comic book series was set parallel to the Marvel Universe and featured guest appearances by Doctor Strange, Nightcrawler and Alpha Flight.|

The comic only lasted eleven issues and there was a ton that Marvel was trying to do be hind the scenes with the property. It was a time when toy properties with synergistic multi-media marketing tie ins were the word. Remember this was the Eighties 

Who's Who On Crystallium

 The following is a quick overview from Wiki :

Order[edit]

• Crystar - One of the twin princes of Crystallium. Leader of the Crystal Warriors for Order.
• Ambara - Former valet to Lavour. During the conflict between the princes, Ambara and Crystar develop a romantic relationship.
• Warbow - Crystal Warrior. Warbow shot Zardeth in the left eye with an arrow. Losing the eye, but otherwise unfazed by the injury, Zardeth shot out Warbow's left eye in return, leaving Warbow mortally wounded. Ogeode used the Prisma-Crystal on Warbow as he did on Crystar to save his life. Warbow secretly has romantic feelings for Ambara.
• Koth - Crystal Warrior with a ribald sense of humor.
• Stalax - Youngest of the Crystal Warriors.
• Kalibar - Crystal Warrior.
• Ogeode - Wizard champion of Order. An old man with a bald head and white beard. Father of Ika, whom he willingly sacrificed to become a crystal being in an experiment to learn the secrets of the crystal warrior physiology (so that he might learn how to heal one of Crystar's injured followers). Frequently, Ogeode claims to be of diminished mystical ability and of little use to the Crystal warriors thanks to the strain of turning the tide during the great war, yet manages to perform mystical feats during times of crisis.
• Ika - Half-enchantress daughter of Ogeode. Ika was compelled by her father to undergo a transformation to turn her body into crystal so that he could learn the secrets of the Crystal Warrior physiology.

Chaos[edit]

• Moltar - One of the twin princes of Crystallium. Leader of the Magma Men for Chaos.
• Zardeth - Wizard leader of Chaos. Lost his left eye in an altercation with Warbow.
• Lavour - Betrothed to Crystar before the princes went to war. After she thought Crystar was dead, Lavour allied herself with Moltar for the opportunity to become queen of Crystallium.
• Magma Men - The rank and file of Moltar's army.

Feldspar[edit]

• Feldspar - The appointed regent of Crystallium since the death of his brother, the King of Crystallium. Uncle of Prince Crystar and Prince Moltar, Feldspar has taken authority over the planet until the princes have settled their conflict. He arranged for both Ogeode and Zardeth to alter his body into a partly crystalline and partly molten form to symbolize neutrality in their dispute.

Using Crystar For Your Old School Sword and Science Fantasy Campaign 

Crystar Is weird sword and sorcery comic with lots of potential. There are elements here of the struggle of Law vs Chaos with warriors transformed into Quisi Elemental creatures from the pages of the Monster Manaul II or they might be giants. I've had these races as giants transformed by the powers of Law and Chaos.
In a recent Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea some of my PC's ran across Moltar and his crew. They counted as Fire Giants and if you take a look at the scale of the figure compared to Crystar. They're fire giants alright at least in the AS&SH universe.



Crystallium itself is a demi plane that shifts its position throughout multiverse. I had the Evil Elemental princes( from the Fiend Folio) try to take over the demi plane 

Crystallium which caused an alliance among the forces of Chaos and Order. There are also loads of artifacts left over from the Chaos Wars still on the demi plane guarded by both Crystar and Moltar's minor minions. They're just begging to be taken. All in all most folks have forgotten about Crystar which gives the DM ample opportunity to trot out this relic world and its crystal inhabitants. The fact is that the these brothers are cursed to fight forever after all they're made from the very forces of Chaos and Order itself. What is thirty years to these poor souls. 

On line support :
Every Thing You Ever Wanted To Know Crystalium
Crystar Himself
Moltar
Zardeth Chaos Wizard
Oegeode The Wizard Of Order
Once again this is a fan based entry and for entertainment purposes only. This is not a challenge to Marvel, its trademarks, copyrights, or anything of the kind. Crystar and its characters belong to their respective copyright and trademark holders. 

1d10 Random Lovecraftian Items and Finds After The UFO Leaves Encounter Table For Your Old School Science Fantasy Campaign

 

What do we know … of the world and the universe about us? Our means of receiving impressions are absurdly few, and our notions of surrounding objects infinitely narrow. We see things only as we are constructed to see them, and can gain no idea of their absolute nature. With five feeble senses we pretend to comprehend the boundlessly complex cosmos, yet other beings with wider, stronger, or different range of senses might not only see very differently the things we see, but might see and study whole worlds of matter, energy, and life which lie close at hand yet can never be detected with the senses we have.

"From Beyond" Written November 16, 1920, published June 1934 in The Fantasy Fan, 1

 HP Lovecraft 

The PC's suddenly have an alien encounter with a sanity shattering alien presence from beyond their  campaign world and something truly alien was left behind! But what? Some of the following items have appeared in this handy random 1d10 generator of horror and insanity.

1d10 Random Lovecraftian Items and

Finds After The UFO Leaves Encounter Table 

1. A pile 1d100 tons of squirming rot grubs that appears to be getting bigger every 1d4 rounds. The smell of rot and rancid flesh fills the air. 
2. A strange machine about the size of a bread box pulses with unnatural energies and weird colours from beyond the pale of mankind. Any PC's exposed to it must make a mutation check and find themselves upon another plane where the hounds of Tindalos await them. 
3. A single statue of some alien entity made from the discarded junk and trash of the surrounding villages and cities. Then the thing begins to move and speak. There is a 20% chance of it being a minor Outer God. 
4. A single sheet of oddly coloured living flesh, it is about bed sheet size. The thing looks alive with hair, pores, and it is slick with sweat when an eye and mouth open upon the surface of the thing. 
5. A statue of cut crystal and glass with still living humanoid organs within it. The thing is humming with chanting and insanity. It is warm and wet to the touch. Once per round it will try to reach into the holder's mind to whisper secrets of a most disturbing nature. The mind of a wizard of sixth level is trapped within it from another universe. 
6. A pile of wet remains of some small humanoid are piled at the center of a burn make in the soil. There is a small burnt up device of some oil based case that has been melted into the thing's hand. Then the chanting starts. 
7. A single demon skull covered with strange and alien writing. There are two cut crystal eyes that seem to sparkle and swim when you look at them. The will open a dimensional door every two and a half hours four meters from the skull. Random location but something awaits you and you know deep in the bowels of your soul that you may not return. 
8. A jar of alien soil that conceals a swarm of odd green coloured glowing worms. They telepathically implore you to put one in your ear. They claim to mean you know harm and they have come from a dying star. They may impart minor psychic abilities but they have a dire hidden agenda. They would speak with you about the coming of Hastur. 
9. The brain parts of some vast alien entity lie glowing and scattered about the place. There is a 20% chance of them belonging to a very pissed off Star Spawn of Cthulhu. The thing will arrive within 1d4 hours and begin looking for those responsible. The thing's brain parts may grow into small horrid glowing troll like monsters with tendriled faces. They will try to kill anything present. The regenerate as trolls and will grow into full sized monsters with 20 minutes from the time of you finding this. 
10. You find a staff made of glowing bio organic material shaped by years of weathering and age from countless years. There are incredibly horrid and gross designs of a bio-mechanical aspect worked into the thing. As soon as one touches it they will be in contact with the mind of Azathoth. The thing may try to possess them and reek havoc on the countryside. The staff is the property of some alien half demonic wizard who is seeking his staff. It will stop at nothing to recover it.