Arduin,Barsoom,& Tegel Manor - Worlds Without Number & Cities Without Number Rpg

Over the years Worlds Without Number continues to come up on the pile of books that needs to be exploited. Now with the release of Cities Without Number it's time to put some of our campaigns ideas into focus from of the past. Campaigns I've run in the past especially with Tegel Manor. 

Martin Ralya from a 2014  Rpg Geek entry  captures what makes Tegel Manor so damn good in his comments; "This is such a cool module. One paragraph of backstory, and then straight to the funhouse -- and what a funhouse it is: dozens of rooms, a separate dungeon, portraits with magical effects, monsters jammed into every corner, magical statues, and weird encounter after weird encounter. Every room gets just a sentence or two of description, the sort of brevity I love in modules.

The huge map of the manor is fantastic, as is the player map showing only its outline; that's a nice touch. In 29 pages (discounting the covers and table of contents), plus a map, this module covers a tremendous amount of ground. It feels much, much longer than that.

Tegel Manor is nutty as a fruitcake, and I love it. It looks like a hoot to play, and would take a good many sessions to explore fully.

Added bonus: best typo in a module ever, "sunopsises" for "synopses.""

Our Tegel Manor was a time and planar jumping haunted fun house of horror that moved from one plane to another. The valley and all of the environs of the haunted house travelled with it. We had a brief run recently with it. 

Lately it's got me thinking about Worlds Without Number & the fact that the manor figured so high within our Mars/Barsoom games in the past. 

Now if the manor can appear anywhere. Could this massive haunted house appear within a massive cyberpunk urban cityscape & yes I'm thinking about a massive urban crawl using Cities Without Number with classic Tegel Manor. 
So if the manor wanders across time & space & we've had portals to Barsoom near the manor in the past. Then it makes perfect sense that these portals would also crossover with the Nexus gates of Arduin. 

Now in the past I've had the manor appear on a post apocalpytic Empire of the Petal Throne Mars via the  same gateway that  opens onto the Mars of Empire of the Petal Throne's Rpg via Brett Slocum's Warriors of The Lost Planet free Warriors of the Red Planet Add on campaign book.  And this goes back into my own take on the classic Barsoomian books. 

  

OSR Commentary On 'Winds of Chance (Arduin Grimoire volume 8)' By Dave Hargrave & Lord Dunsany's The King of Elfland's Daughter

 
You'll hear a ton of the Arduin Grimoire fans talk about the first  three books of the series lovingly. In the Summer of Ninety Eight things were bad for me. Job loss, depression, & the usual BS that follows gamers seemed to dog my heels that year. Anyhow I still had a raving D&D campaign going & we had the party gate into Arduin through a warp gate. 

In a used book store over a weekend in Boston two books leaped into my hands. The King of Elf Land's Daughter By Lord Dunsany & Dave Hargrave's Winds of Change Arduin Grimoire Eight. What makes Winds of Change so good is the level of detail on Arduin's royals, cults, religions, gods, etc. And it was the detail & care that went into both books that had me. 

“Nobody can tell you about that sword all that there is to be told of it; for those that know of those paths of Space on which its metals once floated, till Earth caught them one by one as she sailed past on her orbit, have little time to waste on such things as magic and so cannot tell you how the sword was made, and those who know whence poetry is, and the need that man has for song, or know any one of the fifty branches of magic, have little time to waste on such things as science, and so cannot tell you whence its ingredients came. Enough that it was once beyond our Earth and was now here amongst our mundane stones; that it was once but as those stones, and now had something in it such as soft music has; let those that can define it.”

― Lord Dunsany, The King of Elfland's Daughter

Everything from Winds of Change by Dave Hargrave fitted on to a nice three by five index card & with a few hooks slotted into the back end of my campaign. The collapse of the events of 'The King of Elfland's Daughter' created the spark that was needed to pull the campaign across the finish line. When Erl is engulfed by Elfland it has repercussions in the mortal world & across the planes. Flash over to Arduin whose trading partner the land of Erl has disappeared! So its up to the PC's to find out what happened to Erl! The gods of Arduin haven't a clue because the events were voluntary. 

It was only with the inclusion of the dreamweaver class that the PC's managed to make it over to Fairyland and find the land of Erl. 
Dave Hargrave was always introducing new optional classes & this included the Dreamweaver class.
  Dave Hargrave's Winds of Change Arduin Grimoire Eight like many of the Grimoires introduced Arduin personalities, world setting notes, etc. 
And because of the form that these took they were able to be slotted right into play. War with several other nations was averted because the PC's were able to present Erl's king & prince. Later, the assassins guilds and thieves guild came into play during the campaign. There are five strengths that we found with 'Winds of Chance (Arduin Grimoire volume 8)' By Dave Hargrave: 

1. Hargrave's works always seemed a bit more approachable to me as a DM. None of you must do A or B stuff. There was always 'you might want to try this' or 'In my experience as a DM A or B might happen'. 
2. The sheer volume of material presented in 'Winds of Chance (Arduin Grimoire volume 8)' made it work and stand out among the Arduin Grimoires. 
3. Hargrave worked his campaigns & points through actual play an early form of play testing & it shows. 
4. The sheer imagination of 'Winds of Chance (Arduin Grimoire volume 8)'  shows through. 
5. As a gaming resource 'Winds of Chance (Arduin Grimoire volume 8)' has been invaluable. 

Arduin,Barsoom,& Tegel Manor - Deadly Campaign Connections In My Castles & Crusades Game

Deodanth concept art by Greg Espinosa for the Arduin Monster Cards,1977
Nothing exists in isolation & I haven't canceled a game in months but today because of work I've had to. We're very busy & its getting to be a bit much for me. So I went ahead & last night after taking on so much sewing machine repair work. But there's an Arduin side came up in my Tegel Manor campaign notes! Arduin itself is a world of planar doors & there's been lots of campaign interaction between Greyhawk, Arduin, & Tegel Manor going back years in our games. The dimensional wandering Tegel Manor spreads its evil across the planes subtly. The Rumps infiltrating & investing in many ventures & their corruption turns up in the most surprising places.



That's right there's a blood feud between my bard player's PC & a group of deodanth bounty hunters going back to 2019.  The bard has a death wish & wants revenge on these after the bounty hunters were hired by certain powers of Cha'alt black pyramid. Yes there's a horde of bounty hunters roaming the planes with the PC's wanted posters in their back pockets. 


Then in my wanderings across the internet I stumbled across this video which brought home using certain aspects of Arduin. This a brief but concise video of many of the Arduin products of yesteryear.

But how does one go about using Arduin with Castles & Crusades?! This is a Swords & Wizardry homage to the original Arduin & its free! Completely  compatible with Swords & Wizardry, fast, its free, & its very easy to use!

For the Castles & Crusades crowd that wants to use a Deodanth hit squad I recommend the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons first edition states over at the Underworld Cleaning Service blog from 2012. 
Now with the original Judge's Guild  Tegel Manor there's another lesser know Edgar Rice Burroughs Barsoom book  aspect to JG's Tegel Manor. There's a group of Green Martian Warriors that were roaming & fighting in the original random encounter charts!


So someplace on the Manor grounds there's a planar  portal Barsoom & I as the dungeon master have been taking full advantage over the years to slip in the occasional Warriors of the Red Planet rpg monster. But this isn't the only Mars I've slipped in under the player's noses. There's a bit more Barsoom with a group of NPC adventurers whose make up is straight outta of Jason Vey's conversion of Doc's OD&D Mars material.  All of these remind me of the classic Frazetta covers from my youth.


This same gateway opens onto the Mars of Empire of the Petal Throne's Rpg via Brett Slocum's Warriors of The Lost Planet free Warriors of the Red Planet Add on campaign book. 



This is my homage to my uncle's Empire of the Petal Throne rpg campaign that we played in '84 through '91. All of these elements are cross compatible with the science fictional/science fantasy elements found in the Castle Keeper's Guide. 



Now what does this have to do with lich lord The Duke De Lamont & his connection's to the Prussian's special projects division?! How will the players react to all of this via their PC's?! I'm gonna have to wait till next week to find out! There's a ton of stuff happening & my players are down with all of it. 

Black Roads & Deodanths of Destruction - Play Session Report Cha'alt/Godbound Campaign

Today's  Godbound/Cha'alt game has been an adventure unto itself. The Corona virus scare has made my gaming & even blogging very interesting in Connecticut. Half of my day was gathering supplies,shopping, & then finally settling in for my usual Friday night game. In tonight's game I have a gang of Deodanth acting as a  hit squad warriors to take out the party. The Deodanths are working for the Egg of Coot. They've been tracking the party for the better part of three months. 
Dealing with these Deodanth took up a good proportion of the evening. The Deodanths had replaced a good portion of the dragon king's soldiers & almost succeeding in doing in the party. 


The Deodanths in tonight's games came from the Underworld Cleaning Service blog from 2012. The most evil race of nasties this side of bloody,bloody, Arduin. We had encountered a Deodanth war party.
 The Deodanths are a race of chaotic evil undead, demonic, Elven/catmen race  created as a biological weapon from the  far future by an unknown power. They have been sent back or escaped back in time to the Arduin campaign setting/multiverse.


Deodanth concept art by Greg Espinosa for the Arduin Monster Cards,1977

The in my experience Deodanths are truly nasty customers & should never be underestimated in any way,shape, or form.. Now if I was going to run Arduin then I'd want to run it smooth, simple, & OSR quick. That brings me to  J. Miskimen's Ruins of Arduin. This is a Swords & Wizardry homage to the original Arduin & its free! Completely  compatible with Swords & Wizardry, fast, its free, & its very easy to use!



The deodanths infiltrated the mob that was attacking the walls of the dragon king's city state. The walls of the city state were attacked by clock work cybernetic zombies working for the Egg as fodder. The zombies senses were connected to the Egg itself.


Deodanth with trophy head available from Emperor's Choice Games here. 
Off in the distance a cackling cybernetic presence tries to open a night road below the castle's walls but the PC's weren't having it. The portal mage fought off the attack as a horde of deodanth knights were prepared to mob our heroes.

The gods of the black pyramid are amused & are using the Egg of Coot in their machinations but what will happen coming!? 

Demons & Gods - Some Obsevations Of The Arduin rpg Demons & the Black Hells

So let's talk Arduin rpg books  here for a moment & one of Dave Hargrave's themes in my opinion. That is that power attracts power ergo divine power attracts divine power, affairs, gods  & themes of the powers cosmic. Now for months now I've been talking about this Cha'alt/Godbound rpg set in Las Vegas for months. Yes I've gotten away from the setting for a moment or two. Why? Because I'm thinking about the overall effects of the Godbound rpg & its effects on the campaign world.


Now I've seen the Godbound rpg compared to White Wolf's 1st & 2nd Edition Exalted rpg systems respectively. Yes it shares many influences from both of those games but its got more in common with other OSR & old school rpg systems then simply Exalted. Yes, the Kevin Crawford has infact cited those two editions of the Exalted games as influences.

What's this got to do with the Arduin Rpg books & Cha'alt? Well a bit of everything because the minute that you turn your Godbound onto the campaign  setting & dungeon that you've created they might be in real trouble!
There are 21 Hells in Arduin each of which is a different dead planet on a plane of damnation. Some of the single most dangerous old school demons come from hallow pages of Arduin. Even with some of the most verstile words & miracles a party of Godbound PC's might well run out of steam long before they can take on these sorts of demons. It would take an experienced party of Godbound to take on a wind demon.



The mega dungeons of Cha'alt are another matter entirely as the PC's might well have to go above & beyond here. The reason I say this is because the dark gods of the Black Pyramids have their own alien agendas that Venger makes crystal clear. The gods of Cha'alt want to bring back to power their own unlife existence. There's a machine at work within the confines of the adventure of Cha'alt. Could the black pyramid have its own unearthly agenda? Absolutely it could!




We're not talking subtle monters but engines of destruction on a very large city scale form of destruction. This goes all of the way back to the halcyon days of 1977. Destruction & corruption is the name of the game on a grand scale. If you haven't grabbed the free Swords & Wizardry book Ruins of Arduin then I strongly suggest that you do. 



My point is that if your going to run a campaign using gods then demons are a good choice for enemies & foes. I've personally seen this sort of a situation using the  Castles & Crusades rpg system  several times.  Demons of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons variety are incredidbly powerful & can be mini gods within their own right. They have cults, a wide variety of powers, lots of abilities including shape shifting, & even influence on the mortal realm not to mention the backing of the infinite layers of the Abyss. The Abyss is the planar  glue that often seems to hold the layers of the various Hells together. Demons can be vary subtle though. Often it seems to me that many old school dungeon masters think of demons merely as blunt trauma monster hammers.

In fact if we crack open Mayfair Games Demons II box set we see an alternative set of subtle & very dangerous infernal monsters. These things used correctly can torture even gods & demigods. But the dungeon master must understand the care & feeding of these demonic horrors.


Demons have to be used in a round about way subtly corrupting, causing chaos, & using every trick in the book and after life to discredit, corrupt, tempt, & lead entire teams of players down the rocky path of Hell. 

The Deodanth Gamit & The Free Swords & Wizardry Book J. Miskimen's Ruins of Arduin

So last night I was sitting around with DM Steve at the usual watering hole & we were going over my notes for the upcoming Las Vagas Godbound/Cha'alt game. He's thumbing through Cha'alt & comes in with there's too many God damn Elves in this game! And this starts us off on a discussion about original Dungeons & Dragons & Advanced Dungeons's PC Elven race. This gets us involved in our running through Judge's Guild's Portals of Tosh in high school & our party of adventurers had escaped through a teleportation device! We found ourselves on a world of humans & lizardmen with a smattering of humanoid races. There's two towns one lizard man & one human plus the wizard lizard's tower. Just outside of the wizard lizard's tower is where we encounter them!  The most evil race of nasties this side of bloody,bloody, Arduin. We had encountered a Deodanth war party.
 The Deodanths are a race of chaotic evil undead, demonic, Elven/catmen race  created as a biological weapon from the  far future by an unknown power. They have been sent back or escaped back in time to the Arduin campaign setting/multiverse.


Deodanth concept art by Greg Espinosa for the Arduin Monster Cards,1977

We never got to complete Judge's Guild's Portals of Tosh  & instead our party of adventurers  got slaughtered, tortured for days, the Elves in our party were killed to a man, & some of the human's organs were taken for trophies. Now why had this happened?! Well its probably because certain clitches within the players were taking Elven PC's for almost every game cycle.
My uncle at that point had had it with the PC Elves & wanted some variety in his games. Or perhaps he just wanted to wipe out the cocky kids once in awhile using Arduin. Now if I was going to run Arduin then I'd want to run it smooth, simple, & OSR quick. That brings me to  J. Miskimen's Ruins of Arduin. This is a Swords & Wizardry homage to the original Arduin & its free! Completly  compatible with Swords & Wizardry, fast, its free, & its very easy to use!


Now lately I've been getting a lot of flack because supposedly I haven't been supporting Castles & Crusades. This is utter drek & not true at all. For the Castles & Crusades crowd that wants to use a Deodanth hit squad I recommend the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons first edition states over at the Underworld Cleaning Service blog from 2012. 

In my experience Deodanths are truly nasty customers & should never be underestimated in any way,shape, or form. But are they going into my current campaign? Well of course! I've also got an encounter written up for the upcoming game! 


Deodanth with trophy head available from Emperor's Choice Games here. 

Bloody, bloody, Arduin forever!

Infernal Evil For Advanced Dungeons & Dragons From The Dragon Issue #42 & How to Counter It OSR Style

So last night I dragged The Dragon issue#42 out in into the light. This issue has some fantastic stuff for the dungeon master looking for something spooky but all of his or her players have memorized every Ravenloft & monster manual around.




The issue only runs about sixty pages but these are solid additions to any dungeon master's tool box; "
 The Mansion of Mad Professor Ludlow - A spooky AD&D adventure; Demons, Devils, and Spirits; The Possessors; Patron Demons; The Restless Dead; Day of the Dwarf; Minarian Legends - The history of Pon; Giants in the Earth; Electric Eye - Adventuring by computer.

October 1980 ... 60 pages". Now this little bright spot of October goodness came about because of Wayne's Books whose The Dragon magazine resources are spot on unlike other internet sources. This is the issue that put the Satanic in Panic & will put the fear of Hell in your players. You got the Demons, Devils and Spirits by  T. Moldvay for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons first edition. These are some very powerful devils straight out of Hebrew,Greek, & occult mythology such as :

SARAPHS Saraph (from the Hebrew, Shin, Resh, Pe—to burn or devour with fire)
FREQUENCY: Very Rare
NO. APPEARING: 1
ARMOR CLASS: -1
MOVE: 9”
HIT DICE: 10
% IN LAIR: Nil
TREASURE TYPE: Nil
NO. OF ATTACKS: 3/2
DAMAGE/ATTACK: 1-8(+ 7)
 SPECIAL ATTACKS: +4 to hit
SPECIAL DEFENSES: See below
MAGIC RESISTANCE: Standard
INTELLIGENCE: Very
 ALIGNMENT: Neutral (tending toward Lawful Good)
SIZE: M PSIONIC ABILITY: Nil
Within their homeland there is, presumably, a large variety of classes and types of Saraphs. Outside their home, however, one meets only members of the Brotherhood of the Sun. These warrior Lords wear a red surcoat with a flaming golden sun in its center, over a suit of scale mail which appears to be made from some cooper-gold alloy (though it is as strong as steel). The Saraphs’ helmets, greaves, and bracers are made from the same material, as is the longsword and dagger belted at their sides. The sun motif on a red field is repeated on their shields. Saraphs are a hominid race which lives on the Elemental Plane of Fire. They appear as seven-foot-tall, ruddy-skinned individuals with bright red hair and pink-irised eyes. Since they come from a highly magical Plane, Saraphs’ armor and weapons acquire magical properties on the Physical Plane. Treat as Scale Mail + 1, Shield + 1, Sword + 1 (Flame Tongue), and Dagger + 1. The magical bonuses apply only when the armor and weapons are used by Saraphs. Individuals of the Saraph race are generally larger than humans, and have quicker reflexes, coming from the Plane of Fire. As the Brothers of the Sun are chosen for maximum strength and dexterity, treat any brother as having 18/00 Strength and 18 Dexterity, with all appropriate bonuses.Saraphs may cast the following spells once per day (as a 10th level Magic-User): Fireball, Fire Shield, Fire Charm, Burning Hands, Detect Magic, Detect Invisible, Dispel Magic. They can Produce Flame or cause Pyrotechnics as often as desired. Fire-based attacks do no damage on Saraphs if the fire is non-magical; magical fire attacks are at - 1 on both “to hit” and damage dice
The Saraphs are at war with the Efreeti. The war occasionally spills over to the Prime Material Plane since Saraphs hunt Efreeti through the Physical Plane and vice versa. The Efreeti have made an alliance with Fire Giants. Saraphs have countered this alliance with one between themselves and Golden Dragons. The Brothers of the Sun are few in number, and, outside of the Plane of Fire, will always be encountered singly. Saraphs appear on the Physical Plane to track down and kill Efreeti. They also serve Gold Dragons who have aided the Saraph race in the past, often acting as treasure guards when the dragons are out feeding. Saraphs have been known to contract service with high-level characters (particularly lawful good or neutral Magic-Users) in return for that character’s aid. Contracts will specify the length and nature of service for both parties. Note that such contracts depend solely on the good will of either side; service is a matter of conscience, not coercion.

Yeah that's right these are the arch enemies of the Efreeti & everyone seems to forget just how dangerous the Efreeti really are. Everyone points to the demons & devils of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons but its actually the Efreeti who cause all kinds of havoc according the Monster Manual.



DAT Monster Manual Efreeti illustration.

The rest of the article digs into the other inhabitants of the Tom Moldvay devils & demonic horrors but its the note at the beginning I want to reprint; "(Author’s note: Few things spice up an adventure more than having characters confronted by a monster they have never seen before. The monsters described below are based on traditional names from the ancient magical grimoires. Using a translation of the name as inspiration, four new monsters were created. Devils and Demons (Asperim and Hacamuli, respectively) follow the general guidelines for such creatures as set down in the AD&D Monster Manual. Spirits (Apollyon and Saraphs) infer a creature or category of creatures whose power base is primal, primordial, or elemental. Such beings often originate in planes other than the Prime Material Plane and would usually occur very rarely. Spirits would generally be of one of the seven alignments exclusive of Chaotic Evil and Lawful Evil.)"
What it infers here is the fact that many of the monsters & systems presented in The Dragon even at the time were always optional for the players & DM. This gets into some of the most evil & nasty vile monsters that I've seen & had the unfortunate experience to encounter "The Possessors By A. Parker ; "Hell raged around the crag-faced mountain top, bringing down monstrous strokes of white lightning from the cloudy black sky. The air was choked and stifled with the smell of brimstone and the terrible cries of the abyss. Plutonian mists encircled the base of the great mountain, and, at the peak, there was carved a throne of bone. The throne was hellishly ornated with red rubies and blue diamonds, all set into the bleached white bone of the royal seat. Upon it sat the ruler of this domain: Satan, the Lord of Hell. Satan pondered the evils he had done and the things he had wrought. For uncounted months he had set upon the bony throne, his contemplations continually returning to his experiments in the loathsome pits of the everlasting fire. He had experimented upon many things, in many ways, using many devices, but still he had not the results he desired. His creations did not serve his complete purposes, and, realizing this, he had begun his search for a new evil. He discovered it easily, for it was fundamental to his essence. He discovered temptation! Temptation was then set to work upon the people of the world. Soon many men (and even some elves) became engrossed in this proposal of Satan, which was: Serve him and he will grant much power. So were born the undead. But this had been long ago, and Satan still was not able to accomplish all of his designs. So he sat upon his throne, thinking. He questioned himself continually, but his great intellect had failed to equal its reputation . . . until now! Suddenly all of Hell screamed, in answer to Satan’s discovery, with an unholy fury that was never again to be matched. The Lord of the Abyss no longer sat upon his throne, but instead he stood upon the precipice of the mountain, calling up the horrors of Hell. Souls were writhing in unbearable pain, for Satan was rejoicing, and celebrations in Hell, more often than not, contented only the Prince of Darkness. As the churnings of Hell subsided, Satan went to his darkest, most vile pits, and he began to call upon unholy rites. For days Hell was unruled, chaotic, and the souls trapped therein knew unprecedented relief from the tortures of Satan. Upon the sixth day, Satan completed his evil scheme, and, then torture was reborn and multiplied in the pits of the Dark Realm. The possessors had been spawned."

Posssessors are lawful evil, have been ruled by the same Arch devil since the beginning of the events of The Dragon #28, “The Politics of Hell” by Alexander von Thorn article. And are very nasty indeed ; "Possessors are wholly and completely incorporeal beings. They have no mass, and, thus, they cannot be attacked in any normal way. They must be summoned to and from the material plane by a powerful being because they cannot travel the planes alone. They are absolutely not affected by any weapon or any magic with the exception of certain spells (listed below). The material forms that they appear in, however, can be slain normally. "
Now if you think that the local clerics & other priestly orders ( pagan ones included here of course) are helpless in the face of such devil spirits then you are sadly mistaken! Exorcise, 4th level cleric spell, page 48 of the Player's Handbook! Dispel evil, spiritwrack, exorcise, banishment, succor, holy word are perfect for making frail friar so & so a very kick ass name taker when it comes to other worldly horrors. 


If it was me I  would House-rule the 'Turn Undead' ability for Clerics to include Exorcism. But there's a whole cloth thread on this on the Dragon's foot forums.  This got me thinking about the Arduin Grimoire here. Why?! Because of the fact the planes of the early issues of The Dragon magazine were very experiemental.
Twenty Two planes of the Arduin Hells were burnt out planets, planes, etc. which to merely step on too meant death & damnation. Let's not mention the demons & devils of the twenty Hells. 

There are several optional spells in the Arduin Grimoires that allow one banish such things 'The possessors' & can bring them to their spirtual knees. The fact is that exocisisms make really boring adventures after the third time.  But I might be bringing back the third optional AD&D campaign background for my campaigns coming up.
Having a solidly strong priest class is essential in an old school or OSR game in my humble opinion. This is where Dark Albion  comes in offering a very interesting alternative to the usual options. But Dark Albion Cults of Chaos with its inquistor campaign option that might actually be the order of the day here. 


Another slightly unorthodox option might be to use the shamans, runegravers, etc from Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea. There are several ways of bringing over the horrors & weirdness of demonic entities while battling on the planes of Hyperborea. The work of Clark Ashton Smith was filled to the brim with dangerous devil spawned entities.