Loose Ends & New Beginnings - Cha'alt & Godbound with Adventurer, Conqeuror,King Rpg Campaign & More

So there's been an email request coming in from a patron of this blog wondering if all reason has been abandoned & my Cha'alt/Godbound campaign ended or vanished into the void of OSR nothingness. It has in point of fact hasn't vanished. But let's pick up with the fact that I've checked with my players who want to resume the rotating  Cha'alt/Godbound campaign game to every other week. Happy days!
Because I was in the process of cannibalizing some of my Adventurer,Conqueror,King rpg campaign material for this game.  But I've been thinking about something that I said back on December 29 & the fact that run my games as 'Epic Gothic Weird Fantasy'.  Why?! Because ACK's makes an excellent backbone fantasy game for this sort of campaign & it works well with Venger Satanis's Cha'alt. I've run Omer Joel, &  Alexander Macris's  Barbarian Conquerors of Kanahu with Cha'alt for several mini side games. These OSR resources work well & play well together. 


But my Las Vegas Cha'alt/Godbound campaign has an Anunnaki Grey base out in the middle of Death Valley. These bastards have been abducting human subjects ever since the Cha'alt wave hit the Earth allowing all kinds of horrors & what not to gate into this Prime Earth. The Grey have had unobstructed access to California,Nevada, & Amazon. 

The entire campaign came to screeching halt due to the Corvid 19 epidemic. The PC's had been summoned to this Earth by a secret society & things were reverting over to the Cha'alt continuum across the planet. Demon worms showing up, wasteland raiders, mutants,etc.
The PC's have crossed into Cha'alt a few times & I was looking forward to using AX2: Secrets of the Nethercity from ACK's as a stand in for some of the locations of Cha'alt. This was done from the example of the Mixed DM blog's Cha'alt review here.  Many of the locations depicted in Cha'alt fit nicely the cities depicted in the campaign sections of Cha'alt.



AX2's depictions of the degenerate nature of the Elves of ACK's also fits the chaos worshiping a holes of Cha'alt's Elven degenerate variants. This also fits the background of Rpg Pundit's Dark Albion setting & his Lion & Dragon Rpg. 


I want to take a step back here & talk about the fact that many of the Grey artifacts, relics, technologies, etc. are in my games considered Chaos tainted. Here's where I fall back to my Lion & Dragon, Dark Albion, & especially Cults of Chaos notes.  PC's fooling around with these items is a really good way of earning a chaos mutation or two. Now the reason for this is despite Pundit's review of Cha'alt there are some really good rules for using chaos or dangerous occult items or artifacts in your games. I turn to Gary Gygax's S3 Expediation to The Barrier Peaks module. I'm going to use the mind flayer that's one of the encounters within S3 as the basis for an 'unexpected guest'.


Psionically its been putting 'out the call' to a group of 1d20 Cha'alt scavengers who have been operating in the area. They are on their way into 'attack' the downed Grey craft to free the prisoner  specimen who was taken on a recent Grey expedition to a Flayer colony ship.The Greys will pay handsomely for it or mind blast anyone has the Flayer pod if they can get away with it. 

Saucer Slaughter - An Adventurer, Conqueror, King, & Cha'alt - Adventure Encounter One

Had an email request asking what was going on back in Nevada with my Cha'alt/Godbound campaign. For the last four days I've been fighting a nasty cold or something worse so its put me on my behind. But I've been thinking about something that I said back on December 29 & the fact that run my games as 'Epic Weird Fantasy'. The Cha'alt warp right around Las Vegas  has been causing all kinds of problems for the locals & vast cosmic opportunities for the various factions who have been taking full advantage of the situation. This includes the Greys. Now most would think that Death Valley National Park would be dead & nothing at all would be going on there? Instead the place has been a hive of alien activity as the Grey's have been sending ships in collecting tons of locals, alien dinosaurs, specimens, etc. But now something very unexpected has happened! A saucer ship has crashed! The race is on!



Yasir999 did this incredibly cool Grey artwork!

So now the PC's are hired by the US army through agents to secure the saucer until they can move in. Their forces at the moment are stretched incredibly thin. And the saucer is a huge affair & I'm gonna be taking it directly from  Barbarian Conquerors of Kanahu by Omer Joel, &  Alexander Macris. This thing is Grey abductor page 102 of BCK. And its not as disabled as it appears! The Greys have crashed due to magnetic interference from the Valley's purple crystals that have been growing due to the Cha'alt warp. There are a full completment of sixteen greys & two robots working the area right now. The reason is the cargo hold full of xanthium-183  which was purchased in some of the factory palaces of  S'kbah. 



I want to take a step back here & talk about the fact that many of the Grey artifacts, relics, technologies, etc. are in my games considered Chaos tainted. Here's where I fall back to my Lion & Dragon, Dark Albion, & especially Cults of Chaos notes.  PC's fooling around with these items is a really good way of earning a chaos mutation or two. Now the reason for this is despite Pundit's review of Cha'alt there are some really good rules for using chaos or dangerous occult items or artifacts in your games.



Now there's already a group of 4th level adventurers who have been plundering some of the travelers through Death Valley because of the crystal growth. They've also set themselves up in Scotty's Castle as the local bandit lords. There are twelve of them including two  wizards of 4th level. They know the craft has crashed & are two days ride  from the crash site. But what they don't know is what or whom is amung the abdutees on the craft. Here's where I turn to Gary Gygax's S3 Expediation to The Barrier Peaks module. I'm going to use the mind flayer that's one of the encounters within S3 as the basis for an 'unexpected guest'.



Psionically its been putting 'out the call' to a group of 1d20 Cha'alt scavengers who have been operating in the area. They are on their way into 'attack' the downed Grey craft to free the prisoner  specimen who was taken on a recent Grey expediation to a Flayer colony ship.



Jeff Dee S3 Expediation To the Barrier Peaks iconic inspirational artwork
copyrighted & trade marked to the original arist & owner.
Used without permission

The mind Flayer's cryo pod with it intact is worth 140,000 gold to the right purchaser. The Grey's stuff could set the party up for some major wealth but they'll most likely be double crossed by the purchaser of the wares. Then there is the vengence of the Greys! For the Grey's hoard use the charts found in   Barbarian Conquerors of Kanahu by Omer Joel, &  Alexander Macris.

OSR Commentary - Martian Echoes Of S3 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks By Gary Gygax

"The Grand Duchy of Geoff has recently been plagued by a rash of unusually weird and terrible monsters of an unknown sort. This western area, particularly the mountain fastness which separates the Grand Duchy from the Dry Steppes, has long been renowned for the generation of the most fearsome beasts, and it has been shunned accordingly -- save a handful of hardy souls with exceptional abilities. Within the last few months, however, a walled town not far distant from the area, and four small fortresses as well, have been destroyed by mysterious attacks! "



Last night I worked late into the night, I needed something breezy & quick to read. I turned to 'S3 Expedition the Barrier Peaks' Let's get this module's history out of the way quick;"Expedition to the Barrier Peaks was first played at the Origins II convention in 1976, where it was used to introduce Dungeons & Dragons players to the science fiction game Metamorphosis Alpha. In 1980, TSR published the adventure, updated for first edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons rules. The adventure was not updated for later rules systems, but a Wizards.com article did provide a conversion to Future Tech. It included a separate booklet of illustrations, in both color and black and white." Now I've been lately rereading a lot of pulp magazine sci fi & science fantasy stories which I've been incorporating into my 'Old Solar Solar' system setting. But bizarrely it was rereading  the Killraven mini series from Marvel comics about '03 when I noticed some parallels between the two series & Edgar Rice Burroughs. Killraven first appeared in Amazing Adventures 30 (1970) & I literally grew up with him. He's a gladiator stuck in a Martian area who escapes with fellow gladiators who wander a Martian wasteland that was once our Earth. This invasion was the second or third wave of HG Wells War of the Worlds semi set in the Earth of the alternative Earth-691 that happened in 2001.

This series has always sort of shared the Marvel super heroes world with Earth's mightiest heroes dying badly & repeatedly over the years trying to prevent Killraven's world from coming about. Its only now when I reread the '03 updated mini series that I started seeing the subplot of the Martians trying to terra form the Earth into something resembling Edgar Rice Burroughs & Albert Otis Kline's Mars?! Killraven has always had some really weird & funky concepts from Logan Run style gladiator areas, psychic & telepathic Martian soldiers, Martian gene modified beast men, to the Martians themselves. The series history has been interesting & problematic at times;"Co-creator Neal Adams' early ideas for Killraven involved the character being the son of a Doc Savage archetype.^[1] This conception had been reworked by the first issue, a multiple-creator goulash in which the two originators and co-plotters turned the scripting over to another writer, and in which artist co-creator Adams penciled only the first 11 pages and Howard Chaykin the remaining nine. The second issue was fully written by the debut's scripter, Gerry Conway, followed in the third by Marv Wolfman.



After this, the book became the province of writer Don McGregor for an acclaimed run^[2] from #21 (Nov. 1973) to the final issue, #39 (Nov. 1976). Pencillers were Herb Trimpe, Rich Buckler, Gene Colan, and, most prominently, P. Craig Russell from issue #27 on."

"Alan Davis' 2002 miniseries Killraven depicted an alternate-future variation of the original series, set on the parallel universe Marvel Comics designates "Earth-2120"." This mini series comic version of the original saga pays homage to the original series but takes the action in another direction. Mainly we see Killraven & his freemen dealing with the transformation of Earth, its people, and the high cost of peace between Martians & humanity. Its a well done mini series & I highly recommend it.


What strikes me is the artificial nature of the Martian subjugation & transformation of Earth in the original series. This is a very invasive species.  McGregor's writing on the original series has parallels with the nature of concepts laid down in Gary Gygax's writing in S3. According to "McGregor and Russell, however, remain the series' signature creative team; more than two decades after the original series' end, comics historian Peter Sanderson wrote that,It was writer Don McGregor who transformed the Killraven saga ... into a classic. Of all of Marvel's writers, McGregor has the most romantic view of heroism. Killraven and his warrior band were also a community of friends and lovers motivated by a poetic vision of freedom and of humanity's potential greatness. McGregor's finest artistic collaborator on the series was P. Craig Russell, whose sensitive, elaborate artwork, evocative of Art Nouveau illustration, gave the landscape of Killraven's America a nostalgic, pastoral feel, and the Martian architecture the look of futuristic castles"
This same feel in many ways comes across in S3 where the definitions of what D&D is and could be are challenged, bent, & in some places broken. Something that Killraven for me would go on to do with comic books. But back to the monster ecology. The Warden of S3 comes into & transforms the world of Greyhawk introducing an alien ecology that continues to plague that world for centuries. The lessons of both Killraven & 'Expedition To The Barrier Peaks' can be applied easily to the current OSR. Invasive ecologies can serve as the prime motivator for a campaign quite easily. Take as an example many of the monsters of  Clark Ashton Smith or Lovecraft which fit the stereo typical 'outsider' or alien ecologies.


This is something we see time and again in adventures from Lamentations of the Flame Princess & Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea. It was also something that Robert Kuntz saw using many of the well established principals of science fiction and science fantasy to challenge many of the original players of this hobby of ours. Again the same thing happens in Killraven where species continue to plague the world over & over again. We become the monsters under the tendrils of the Martians something that gets repeated again & again as they continue to transform Earth into their new home. All of these themes are something we see again & again in pulp magazines going back to the childhood of both Gygax and McGregor.  The dungeon isn't a static organism or adventure location, instead its a point fixed by both circumstance & opportunity of creation.


Both S3 'Expedition To The Barrier Peaks' & Killraven are products of their time. They work to create what we know as the modern wasteland dungeon in pop culture. Killraven was/is one of my all time favorite comics, over the years its been a well written and incredible foot note in the incredible pop culture landscape. Both of these products are part of the  legacy of Marvel comics & Dungeons Dragons. Mainly due to the incredible writers and artists of Marvel comics & Gary Gygax.
Without Killraven we would not get the awesomeness of Ape Slayer but that's another blog entry for another time! For now keep those dice rolling.

Review & Commentary on Advanced Dungeons & Dragons - I11: "Needle" By Frank Mentzer For Your Old School Campaign

"The king's notice asked for adventurers to undertake a mission to a far land. It was marked with the rune for "high danger, high reward" so of course you volunteered.

The king has heard of a great obelisk that towers over a ruined city in a far country. He wants to know more about the obelisk and its strange powers. Your job is to find the obelisk and bring back a report to the king. The mission seems absurdly easy...until you reach the jungle.

Don't think the king is through with you if you get back to the capital city alive. You haven't seen the last of that jungle yet. Is a share in the spoils of an ancient civilization worth the risk?

Don't forget to pack you bug repellent!"

Frank Mentzer has been a friend for a number of years of mine on Facebook. But when it comes to I11: "Needle", this is a module with some history with me & its a weird one. Come back down the corridors of time to '88 with me. I got my PC's leveled up after a series  harrowing adventure experiences & then we made a journey into the jungles of I11: "Needle". We were killed off to a man & it was a  total TPK. We were obliterated in ten pages in of a  forty eight pages of the module. 


Let's get the history of this module outta the way; "I11: "Needle" (1987), by Frank Mentzer, is the eleventh adventure in the Intermediate series for AD&D. It was published in February 1987." Even though it says intermediate on the cover this is a deadly module from the ground up. There are reasons for this according to the Drivethrurpg entry's history on "I11: "Needle" ; "After founding the RPGA in 1980, Frank Mentzer immediately began writing tournament modules for his new organization. He recalls writing more than 14 of them, though only the first four were published — appearing as R1: "To the Aid of Falx" (1982) through R4: "Doc's Island" (1982).

When Frank moved over to working on the BECMI Basic D&D Set (1983-1986), TSR decided to revamp the "R" RPGA series as the "RPGA" RPGA series (1983), which began publishing Tracy Hickman modules rather than Mentzer's other works. Mentzer's later "R" adventures were either unpublished or instead appeared in the RPGA's Polyhedron magazine.

This was the fate of an adventure that Mentzer has labeled as R11: "Needle". It was a three-round tournament that featured what Mentzer calls "a pretty silly round 3". The adventure was originally published in Polyhedron #24-26 (May/June 1985 to Sept/Oct 1985) in three parts: "Ruins of Empire", "Retrieval", and "The Powers that Be". A few years later, TSR decided to publish it for the mass-market. Under the editorship of Barbara Young, the tournament adventure appeared as I11: "Needle" (1987)."

So "I11: "Needle"  is a revamped tournament module taken into the mass market AD&D product arena. The module's adventure structure is interesting because it gives an anatomy lesson in tourament adventure design;" "Needle" is neatly divided into three mini-adventures, one for each round of the original tournament: a quest for a magical obelisk; the return of that obelisk to the king; and a journey into strange lands through the obelisk. It's a great example of how to divide a tournament into rounds while still creating a coherent story."
But this same adventure structure makes running I11: "Needle" especially great for old school campaign episode play. This is a great module to run along side of S3 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks By Gary Gygax . The starship in S3 crash lands & it unleashes cosmic destruction on the world.




This event allows the world to experience a shift into weirdness as "I11: "Needle"  takes up where S3 left off. The pregeneration are alright but over the years I've made other PC's take up the mantle of power. The shift allows the PC's to assume the role of heroes far more readily then in middle of the science fantasy action. Because in the latter half of "I11: "Needle"  is filled with science fantasy goodness including a new spider men style monsters; . A new race of intelligent spiders called the Black Chak appear in "Needle". They were later revealed by the Mystara Monstrous Compendium Appendix (1994) to be the same species as Mystara's planar spiders, who appeared in M5: "Talons of Night" (1987) and the "IM" series — particularly IM3: "The Best of Intentions" (1987). Though "Needle" was officially a generic module, this might suggest it's actually set in Mystara.

"Needle" also makes good use of both bullywugs and grippli, revealing that they were once one nation that was sundered by a civil war. Most adventures of the era would instead have used lizard men for this role." 

The choice of monsters shifts the action into high gear with the PC's experiencing the best of science fantasy action. 
While everything is geared around the tournament adventure style threw caution to the and to develop that sweet old school adventure campaign action. With all of the essence of  "I11: "Needle"  oriented towards tourament and session module exploration.  "I11: "Needle"  is a great intermediate adventure for both DM's & players who want that sweet action without the backdrop of an entire mini campaign right in their PC's back yard. 

Reconsidering S3 Expediation To The Barrier Peaks By Gary Gygax As Campaign Fodder

Well last night I was speaking with Steve & we began speaking about our trial by fire through the 'S' series of modules for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. The 'S' series stands for special and these were some of the most memorable of the adventures we played;"other adventures in the S series include S1 Tomb of Horrors, S2 White Plume Mountain, and S4 Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth." But it was 'Expedition To The Barrier Peaks' that slaughtered us time in and out back in the Eighties. For those of you who don't know;"Expedition to the Barrier Peaks was first played at the Origins II convention in 1976, where it was used to introduce Dungeons & Dragons players to the science fiction game Metamorphosis Alpha. In 1980, TSR published the adventure, updated for first edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragonsrules."
I've got a long & storied history with this module; it took our AD&D party over to Gamma World through a matter transporter accident (that was Steve's Gamma World campaign so he added in that element). Plus there were a few forays back again not part of the original folks.



But last night he sent me this video & it brought back some of the distinct memories of this module. So the basic plot of S3 goes something like this;" It takes place on a downed spaceship; the ship's crew has died of an unspecified disease, but functioning robots and strange creatures still inhabit the ship. The player characters fight monsters and robots, and gather the futuristic weapons and colored access cards that are necessary for advancing the story."

"Expedition to the Barrier Peaks's 32-page adventure guide is divided into six sections. These describe the crew's quarters, the lounge area, the gardens and menagerie, and the activity deck. Along the way, the characters find colored access cards and futuristic devices such as blaster rifles and suits of powered armor that they can use to aid their journey. The first two sections involve various monsters, vegepygmys—short humanoid plant creatures—who have commandeered the crew's quarters, and a repair robot that follows instructions before its batteries run out. There is also a medical robot trying in vain to find a cure for the virus that killed the ship's crew. In the lounge area, a "Dining Servo Robot" still works, although the "food" it serves is now moldy poison.

The gardens and menagerie area includes an encounter with a "cute little bunnyoid on the stump".^[5]:15 It looks like a horned rabbit on a tree stump, but when approached, the stump develops fangs and its roots become tentacles, which it then uses to attack the characters. The next encounter involves a froghemoth, a large alien frog-like creature with tentacles and three eyes on an eyestalk. In the sixth and final section, the activity deck, the players' characters must contend with various sports robots, including a "boxing and wrestling trainer" and a "karate master".^[5]:18 If the characters can communicate with the karate master and tell it that boxing is superior to karate, it will attack the boxing robot until both are destroyed, else they will both attack the characters. The last area of the activity deck is the loading area, where the characters can leave the spaceship."

  The Expedition to the Barrier Peaks takes place around  the Grand Duchy of Geoff  (which seems to be a happening place in EG's home campaign) which is under constant attack by a succession of monsters that have been emerging from a cave in the mountains.

This module can also be used to introduce lots of traditional AD&D elements and bring on the post apocalyptic vibe in spades while turning up the players onto the Metamorphosis Alpha background music.

Adapting S3 To OSR games 
So this morning about four A.M. or so, I was on the phone with Steve and we're talking about hashing out details about using S3. Both he & I have been toying around with a conversion of the module for the Adventurer, Conqueror, King rpg. This came about because of the following conversation. I said, 'Its too bad that we don't know who or what caused the plague on board the star ship.'
Steve says to me,'Of course we do! It was the black goo from the movie Prometheus' 'The star gods reappeared with Vulcan near Mercury.' 'An expedition was sent, they collected some biological specimens & the black goo caused a plague on board' 

"The hyperspace engines created a dimensional rift in time & space bring it to Hyperborea. There the ship crashes into a remote kingdom and the trouble begins'
'Here's the catch a group of Hyperborean space god engineers are on their way to claim their prize.' 

'So the clock is ticking & they're breathen on Vulcan in their living suits are waiting in Hyperborean space aren't they?'  'Yeah because it all about claiming their Clark Aston Smith legacy of the star ship & its goodies.' 'I suppose your going to want to have me stick a Dlukus tribesmen in there as well?' 'Well I think we're going to have to get across the dangerous nature of the Hyperboreans.'

Dlukus by Spearhafoc from
'The Immortals of Mercury' By Clark Aston Smith

But Steve wasn't through yet by a long chalk,"So you know how the ship crashed into Greyhawk' 'Yeah?'  'Well what if it crashed into Dark Albion!' 'Imagine this thing coming down like some wormwood comet of doom into Black Forest of Germany!'
'The thing's coming might have been foretold by the various cults of chaos!' Its a joyous event for them!'
'That's going to cause all kinds of chaos in Europe especially during the events of the Rose War.'
'Exactly!' 


'Dark Albion has lots of interesting variations to use with Expedition to the Barrier Peaks & you've used classic AD&D modules with it before.' 'Yeah but the gonzo factor would have to be toned down & there could be a Cults of Chaos connection'

This is an idea that I want to develop further & might mean a much deeper blog entry down the road. 


'The best option might actually be Apes Victorious especially given the Star Ships & Spacemen second edition having a much heavier Mutant Future connection'  'Given the connections of the world of Apekind in the game setting the fit is far easier but the PC's would have to have a much heavier hand to succeed in this one.' 'The former upper state of New York might be the ideal location for this!' 

'Yeah it fits but it would take some doing!'


Basically S3 is one of the more adaptable of the 'S' series of classic TSR era modules & one of my all time favorites. With a bit of creativity and some willing players it can easily be used as a diverse & deadly module of incredibly epic proportions in your OSR games!

Mutant Massacre In The Capital Last Night's Actual Play Session Report

In last night's game the adventurers came face to face with some of the followers of Entropy. Mutant abominations. horrors that were the result of twisted mockeries created by those Immortals who seek the end of all things. If you've been following the controversial blog posts that I've been doing on The Immortals Box set by Frank Mentzer & Aaron Allston's Wrath Of The Immortals Box Sets respectively.  Then you probably have been following some of what's been happening. The freed slaves were brought into a local hospital & a few were infected with weird rot grub like abominations. Government troops in bio hazard suits were brought in with flame throwers. This game follows what happened back on June 1st, 2019. 

One of the PC's borrowed some of the items that an 'orderly' who was trying to break into one of the hospital wards was carrying after almost getting his head blown off Scanner's style. The orderly was quickly dispatched & the flame throwers came out.


Then a fight was happening deeper in the Riccian capital as Entropy cult forces were trying to break into a local museum. One of the PC's managed to get the drop on several cult members while government clawites helped the party out. The party's psycher managed to communicate with the clawites & direct them when picked up one of their tridents.  Every few moments the monster's would use pyrokinesis to light knots of the mutant abominations on fire. These mutants use the classic gargoyle stats from the AD&D Monster Manual with the additional mutations of esp, pyrokininis, & some random psionic mutations.




What the players don't know is the ganger/cultists have brought in one of their treasures an assault suit from the Warden from  S3 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks by Gary Gygax. Basically I'm trying to stall a bit until my other players catch up with us hopefully next week. 

What the players don't know is that power stations set up around the city are opening planar gateways while providing unlimited energy  for power to the capital of the Riccans. Meanwhile the plot thickens as the assault armor abomination closes in. Can the other player's PC's reach the party in time?




Whist all of this is occurring an aspect of the Egg of Coot looks on amused & the horror show continues.

Raid on the Ware House! Last Night's Actual Play Session Report

In last night's session I pulled in a ton of S3 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks by Gary Gygax when the player's PC's did a raid on an Egg of Coot slaving center. There were row after row of cryotubes packed back to back.  The players encountered egg minions in light scout armor based on some of the artwork from S3. The Egg kept taunting the party as it attacked the minions with the knowledge that they were killing off 'innocents'.


With some help from some local heroes the party finally made its way to the warehouse's office which had been 'converted' by the Egg into a data node. The whole floor was covered in a russet mold & at its center was a psychic crystal. The whole affair was guarded by a group of veggie pygmies who would not leave the twenty foot proximity of the crystal or the egg's influence.

All of this started because of the party of adventurers had fought and killed a strong minion of the Egg. They were able to down load the data base from the cyborg & then burnt the body. But they were able to claim a bounty on the bastard from the Riccians. Even though its a pirate nation the Riccians don't want any unauthorized slaving going on. Currently the party is completely unaware of St.Stephen of the Rock's manipulations behind the scenes  but its only a matter of time. They made about four hundred gold & I'm going to get them back to Zothique or the California wastelands very soon. The Riccians sent in a squad of guys with flame throwers to clean the place up.



The Riccian warehouse was part of an experimental  power complex that I based on the Kelenföld Power Station from Hungry. The place is amazing & so inspirational for old school science fantasy role playing. I'm thinking the Egg of Coot is attracted by the power fields generated from the place.

 Former Kelenföld Power Plant. From Lágymányos Bay park. Industrial monument. ID 1097 - Hengermalom Street & Budafoki Street cnr. - Budapest District XII., Hungary.
Photo by Globetrotter19
So what happens from here? One of the Riccians mad scientists is doing an examination of the slaves who were recovered in the cyro tubes & seeing if there is any cybernetics that have been left behind. The party has been invited to witness the event. 

Battle For Far Go - The 'Famine In Far-Go' Adventure by Michael Price War Campaign

"Far-Go is dying... the people are afraid... the animals are wasting away... the crops are withering the fields. No one, even Arx Skystone, the high priest, knows what has caused Far-Go's misfortune.
YOU are part of a group of young adventurers about to begin the sacred Rite of Adulthood. The last hope of survival for Far-Go rests with your party. On your journey to the Forest of Knowledge, you must search for clues to the origin of the mysterious plague. This quest may led you into great danger... and great knowledge. As you travel through the savage wilderness, all you have are your companions, your wits, your strength... and your dreams!!"

Way back down the annals of Eighty two, 'Famine In Far-Go' by Michael Price was the Gamma World adventure to really get into. This is a series of segment adventure encounters centered around the rite of passage bit in old school adventures. The PC's are part of  the agricultural community of Far-Go, preparing to embark on the Rite of Adulthood. They must quest for the Forrest of Knowledge and experience the One Truth after eating certain sacred berries. I never really cleaved to the heart and soul of the rail road plot line of GW2 and instead focused on letting the players wander from one hex to another. This is quite deadly module in its own right, add to this the meteor that's fallen from the sky which I think gave the whole adventure a weird Lovecraftian quality ala the Colour Out of Space. 
The alien mutant life form is in its own right a fully functioning faction/monster with abilities that could transcend time & space. 


Colour out of Space artwork by Virgil Finlay.

There are several factors to remember when dealing with 'Famine In Fargo' in conjunction with old school adventure campaigns. The PC's gain the advantage with a fully functioning Preholocaust chicken factory.  The  La Prix Industries Automated Chicken Processing Factory and its army of mutated machine gun wielding chickenoids are nothing to sneeze at. The fact is that the Egg of Coot could in fact be angling in its forces to take over the entire facility.


It will be a cold day in Hell when any faction on Gamma Terra is going to let a fully functioning Holocaust facility fall into the hands of a Stone Age level tribe of motley mutant humanoids. Arx Skystone, the high priest, might have more then he bargained for unless there are others aiding him. The Egg of Coots forces gated in from Greyhawk may be far more hassle then the PC's realize.

Warmachine Cryx Witch Coven of Garlgast
are a great stand in for the witches of The Egg of Coot. 

The big deciding factor that no one ever discusses about Gamma World is actually Greyhawk! Greyhawk is intimately tied to the events  world of Gamma Terra. There have been numerous adventure cross overs between my Greyhawk adventurers & the forces of Gamma World. The divine forces of Greyhawk pantheon are going to take a very keen interest in the goings on Gamma Terra. They are very aware of the disasters that befell Gamma Terra & have no wish for a repeat of the Time of Colorless Rain.


Mystara is another unknown to both St.Stephen of the Rock & The biomechanical/magical  forces of the Egg of Coot. The magics of both of these worlds are quite capable of moving the destiny of worlds. Blackmoor is both the past of Mystara & a world campaign setting in its own right.


The other factors that no one is going to be counting on is the fact that both St.Stephen of the Rock & the Egg of Coot have been spreading their influence to other worlds. Some of these worlds are in the midst of a Pulp & super hero era. The Amazing Adventures Book of Powers for the Amazing Adventures RPG is an excellent tool for using both super heroes & pulp adventurers into the mix without compromising the balance of play. 

The battle for human history is just heating up across the planes & the factions are starting to assemble their forces. The winds of chaos are blowing across the planes as horror breaths down the necks of a band of desperate adventurers. 

The Sacking of S3 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks & The Military Campaign Beyond It!

"A genius mad man with access with the technology of the stars. The keys & gates have been broken  all of time & space is open to his madness. Can our heroes stop the horrors  before he moves on to other worlds to pillage & plunder?! "

I've been running around like a mad man but let's get back right now to Saint Stephen of The Rock & S3  Expedition to the Barrier Peaks By Gary Gygax. Let's assume then the events of Thursday, March 29, 2018 had already have happened & St. Stephen has had his day with the 'Warden' science vessel. Saint Steven  has opened a planar gate into the corridors of Earth's history now. The Froggies with the help of their god  Tsathoggua are looking to conquer & spread the faith of the Froggies cult. 

So the events of human history march on but with the vision & reach of the mad wizard of the family d'Amberville  there will be very interested parties in the sacking of the Warden science. We know for a fact that  the Averoigne region survives due to the efforts of the Amber royal family. But we also know that a wide variety of black wizards of  CAS's Maal Dweb status might have also had a hand.

So with this type of interdimenional warp gate technologies available to St.Stephen Gamma Terra seems ripe for conquest by his Chaos based forces So why would St.Stephen the Rock be interested in Gamma Terra? The expansion of his own Chaos based cult of the Toad god right in the heart of another plane is perfect. 


The problem is that Gamma Terra already has a faction of nastiness that's been ruling from the shadows for years now. He's been devoting years to gaining his cybernetic life forms a foot hold on the world of the 25th century. The Egg of Coot has been quietly sending in its forces into North America & Europe for years from Greyhawk. 



Unfortunately for the Egg of Coot there are many god level A.I.'s that have started mini brush fire wars with the entity. The Reaper A.I. from the Warden Science vessel has not responded well to its former master & been using its own troops to harry locals into attacking the Egg's cybernetic life forms.
Heroes from across time & space are at a great deal of risk dealing with these forces. They can quite literally appear anyplace to cause undue horror.  But there are other agendas at play even though the player's or their PC's might not even realize it.




The fact is that these are not the only factions that have been using the prime material planes as a chess board. There are other horrors that are slithering through & around the pillars of history & space. We'll cover those coming up!