Back to the Wilderlands of High Fantasy - Hacking the Wilderlands With Castles & Crusades - Mines of Custalcon By Bryan Hinnen

 "A booklet with full-color cover includes Mini-dungeon, Histories, Descriptions, NPCs, Maps, and Tables for two villages and 476 square miles of wilderness.  The first of a new "Wilderness Series" of playing aids that maps in great detail the Judges Guild's City State wilderness area, using the Campaign Hexagon System.  Twenty-two five-mile hexes, covering over 476 square miles of wilderness, are mapped out, as are the two villages in this area, Byrny and Trollslore. Keyed shops, inns and taverns, as well as histories and ways of life of these villages are provided.  Wilderness encounter tables and a three-level mini-dungeon in the ancient mines of a lost civilization beneath Trollslore are also included"

Mines of Custalcon is really dependant on two villages in this area, Byrny and Trollslore which are kinda almost but not quite blank canvases for the DM.  Byrny & Trollslore as well as the environs are really islands within the wilderness of the Wilderlands series by Judges Guild. 

 Mines of Custalcon By Bryan Hinnen is prime for a Neolithic group of peoples who established the villages of  Byrny and Trollslore. Trollslore itself is rife to become a base of lost peoples with deep connections to the Fae. And the whole area is perfectly suited to transition from Neolithic into Bronze  age civilizations echoing ancient  Great Britian according to Wiki; "Recent tooth enamel isotope research on bodies found in early Bronze Age graves around Stonehenge indicates that at least some of the migrants came from the area of modern Switzerland. Another example site is Must Farm, near Whittlesey, which has recently been host to the most complete Bronze Age wheel ever to be found. The Beaker culture displayed different behaviors from the earlier Neolithic people, and cultural change was significant. Integration is thought to have been peaceful, as many of the early henge sites were seemingly adopted by the newcomers. The rich Wessex culture developed in southern Britain at this time. Additionally, the climate was deteriorating; where once the weather was warm and dry it became much wetter as the Bronze Age continued, forcing the population away from easily defended sites in the hills and into the fertile valleys. Large livestock farms developed in the lowlands and appear to have contributed to economic growth and inspired increasing forest clearances. "
This gradual transition takes the wilderness from cleared land back into the deep wilderness of the Wilderland. This could help to explain the reestablishment of the monsters back into the 476 square miles of wilderness & the reason for the mini dungeon of the Mines of Custalcon.
The Roman style technology within the area is the exception & not the rule around the Mines of Custalcon. The City State of The Invincible Overlord's military forces have a vested interest within the Trollslore region. The real power of the area is the Fae & the close ties with the  two villages in this area, Byrny &  Trollslore. 
These powers concentrate some of thier power within the witches of the regions including the hags who are a part of the backbone of 'Witches of Court Marshes'. This plugs directly into the themes & wants of the Castles & Crusades Codex Celtarum 2nd Edition By Brian Young.

So we have Neolithic, Bronze, & Iron age style cultures interacting through the lens of the Wilderlands around Byrny and Trollslore. Castles & Crusades DM's would have to put in a lot of work with Mines of Custalcon By Bryan Hinnen. But this module's adventure  could easily become a part of a Wilderlands C&C campaign. We'll expand upon this coming! 

Back to the Wilderlands of High Fantasy - Hacking the Wilderlands Wi'th Castles & Crusades Through The 'Witches of Court Marshes' By Bryan Hinnen From Judges Guild - Updated

  "The fifth book in the "Wilderness Series", danger awaits on All Hallow's Eve, Witches of the world are gathering en masse, the peasants of the area are going to leave, unless you can stop the wicked Black Mass.  26-pages of maps detail the area around the Witches Court Marshes and the village of Grita Heath.  Complete description of the Witch character class.  Many witch NPCs are detailed.  Three level lair of Mordridda Dungeon under the Marshes contains fabulous wealth and dangerous adventure."

So last night after work we finally got together with our friends at our favorite 'watering hole' which isn't known to the other local animals. We're going over campaign adventure options  for the Wilderlands of High Fantasy that we've been planning. And this one uses the Castles & Crusades options that James Mishler & co did over the years. Someone brought up the Wilderness series from Judge's Guild: 
The Wilderness Series
Mines of Custalcon
Spies of Lightelf
Pirates of Hagrost
Shield Maidens of Sea Rune
Witches Court Marshes

Everything here begins with 'Mines of Custalcon'
 which has its own internal Wilderlands history, mini dungeon, etc. which sorta of interconnects to the others in the series. Well comeback to 'The Mines of Custalcon' soon because of its important part that it plays out in 'The Wilderness series'. 

Now personally we've never been involved with 'Witches of Court Marshes'. But knowing its place in 'The Wilderness series' of adventures things have motivated me to grab it from my friend's thumb drive. Now interesting enough  'Witches of Court Marshes' isn't simply an adventure but a Wilderlands mini 

campaign sourcebook unto itself.  But we digress here, this is a massive Wilderlands campaign arch that came out in '82 & was written by Bryan Hinnen. This isn't a joke here. This module details out  the village of Grita Heath & the dungeons three level lair of Mordridda Dungeon under the Marshes. These dungeon works are no joke. The witches detailed here are nasty business. These witches  are right in line to the hags of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons.  In fact the whole module reeks of Celtic influences right down the core of it. This isn't a bad thing at all. 

Black Annis from AD&D Monster Manual II 

Given how this played up a bit in some of the Wilderlands modules we can assume that there's a whole cloth feel to this source book/adventure that we didn't get from some of the other Wilderlands books. And there's a very good reason for this according to a blurb that we found on Rpgnet's entry on 'Witches Court Marshes';"An eighty page sourcebook detailing the wilderness west of the City-State of the Invincible Overlord and the witchy inhabitants who make it worth a visit. As one of Judges Guild's later supplements, not approved for D&D, it uses their "Universal Fantasy" stats system to describe the area's resident monsters & humans, as well as a long description of the witch character class, including new spells. There are 26 hex-mapped pages of wilderness and a three-level dungeoncrawl"

This doesn't take away from the actual usefulness of the 'Witches of Court Marshes' at all. In fact if we were looking for a breakdown of  peusdo Celtic fortifications for the humans of the Wilderlands. A number of human race's settlements might look like the oppida. An oppida is 
 a large fortified Iron Age settlement that makes an excellent example for the Wilderlands of High Fantasy. These fortifications are perfect for the surroundings of the the Witches Court Marshes. 

 Kenny Arne Lang Antonsen - artwork of 

Celtic Oppidum Central Europe 1st century B.C.

These fortifications are perfect adventure set pieces because they allow the DM to tap into real world history to give that little inch of campaign promise to the players as seen in the  oppida wiki entry;"Oppidum is a Latin word meaning the main settlement in any administrative area of ancient Rome, and applied more generally in Latin to smaller urban settlements than cities, equating to "town" in English (bearing in mind that ancient "cities" could be very small by modern standards). The word is derived from the earlier Latin ob-pedum, "enclosed space", possibly from the Proto-Indo-European *pedóm-, "occupied space" or "footprint".

In his Commentarii de Bello Gallico, Julius Caesar described the larger Celtic Iron Age settlements he encountered in Gaul during the Gallic Wars in 58 to 52 BC as oppida. Although he did not explicitly define what features qualified a settlement to be called an oppidum, the main requirements emerge.^[1]

They were important economic sites, places where goods were produced, stored and traded, and sometimes Roman merchants had settled and the Roman legions could obtain supplies. They were also political centres, the seat of authorities who made decisions that affected large numbers of people, such as the appointment of Vercingetorix as head of the Gallic revolt in 52 BC". 

This plugs directly into the themes & wants of the Castles & Crusades Codex Celtarum 2nd Edition By Brian Young. The mythology of the 'Witches of Court Marshes' would have to be altered quite a bit but it could easily fit into the back bone of the themes of the Codex Celtarum 2nd Edition . 
The Iron Age settlements would have to have deeper ties to the Fae then previously mentioned to get the full use out of  the Castles & Crusades Codex Celtarum 2nd Edition By Brian Young.

The problem comes about when combining too much of these things into a flowing campaign. The fact is that one adventure element at a time should be used. The 'Witches of Court Marshes' By Bryan Hinnen is that lens first that needs to be looked at by the dungeon master. Everything else will fall into place. The 'Witches of Court Marshes' By Bryan Hinnen is a huge campaign arch & the events of the module will have lasting effects within a campaign. The module could consolidate the power of the witch's coven within this area of the Wilderlands if the PC's fail. The 'Witches of Court Marshes' By Bryan Hinnen is a classic & still works quite effectively as a campaign motivator module.

Chaos Fey, The Wildness series of Judges Guild Adventures, & Arthur Machen's Works Within 'The Wilderlands of High Fantasy' Campaign Setting

' Nurse put me down on the soft moss under a tree, and she said: "She can't get to the pond now." So they left me there, and I sat quite still and watched, and out of the water and out of the wood came two wonderful white people, and they began to play and dance and sing. They were a kind of creamy white like the old ivory figure in the drawing-room; one was a beautiful lady with kind dark eyes, and a grave face, and long black hair, and she smiled such a strange sad smile at the other, who laughed and came to her. They played together, and danced round and round the pool, and they sang a song till I fell asleep. Nurse woke me up when she came back, and she was looking something like the lady had looked, so I told her all about it, and asked her why she looked like that. At first she cried, and then she looked very frightened, and turned quite pale. She put me down on the grass and stared at me, and I could see she was shaking all over. Then she said I had been dreaming, but I knew I hadn't. "
The White People (Machen) by Arthur Machen
The Green Book

The Foundry Lilith figure 

The Wildness series of Judges Guild  adventures is the perfect  Wilderlands of High Fantasy campaign series of adventures to modify into a fantastic jump point for a Celtic Sword & Sorcery campaign. The Wilderness series is as follows  :

The Wilderness Series
Mines of Custalcon
Spies of Lightelf
Pirates of Hagrost
Shield Maidens of Sea Rune
Witches Court Marshes

 










There are several races of god/Elves in my game campaigns that let's simply call them very nasty & evil. These things align themselves with far more Sword & Sorcery & mythology then they do with the regular garden variety of original  Dungeons & Dragons  or Advanced Dungeons & Dragons first edition's depictions of  Elves. In fact the Elves of AD&D first edition are known huldra ("hidden being") in Scandinavian languages these life force  are a food staple for these Pagan  gods. 

These pagan gods are almost but not quite demonic harkening back to the time of the post Biblical flood. These entities are most likely a member  Nephilim family stretching back millions of years. They pass themselves off as 'gods' gaining food from the spiritual aspects of human scarafice & worse. I found a good version of these beings in The Foundry's Revenant Elves army. 

These things are perfect powers to be behind the affairs of Witches Court Marshes. Their favors are going to be fickle at the best of times & solidly nasty later on. The Witches are powers within their own right with all kinds of adventure or campaign possibilities. 

 

This version of the 'Wilderlands of High Fantasy' draws very deeply from the Castles & Crusades material James & Jody Mishler Games had out a couple of years ago. 
But this time it seems that with Arthur Machen's influence upon me once again. There are far more Machenian survivals out among the misty stones & ruins of the wilderness of the Wilderlands. A world before the world so to speak  & the original Elves Dungeons & Dragons owe more to Appendix N writers & less to Machen's vision; "A pioneering work of the fantasy genre was The King of Elfland's Daughter, a 1924 novel by Lord Dunsany. The Elves of Middle-earth played a central role in Tolkien's legendarium, notably The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings; this legendarium was enormously influential on subsequent fantasy writing. Tolkien's writing had such influence that in the 1960s and afterwards, elves speaking an elvish language similar to those in Tolkien's novels became staple non-human characters in high fantasy works and in fantasy role-playing games. Tolkien also appears to be the first author to have introduced the notion that elves are immortal.^{[citation needed]} Post-Tolkien fantasy elves (which feature not only in novels but also in role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons) are often portrayed as being wiser and more beautiful than humans, with sharper senses and perceptions as well. They are said to be gifted in magic, mentally sharp and lovers of nature, art, and song. They are often skilled archers. A hallmark of many fantasy elves is their pointed ears"

Dungeons & Dragons Elves have their own taboos that they do not speak of & like the American Indians simply leave the area when these ancient & nameless things are spoken abo

Älvalek, "Elf Play" by August Malmström (1866)

These ancient god Elven like things often use not traditional sources of military action but disease like curses & spreading maladies of occult origin. When hard pressed they will construct very alien & archaic constructions such as the Teratic Tome's Obsidian Giants. These monsterosities are capable of going toe to toe with mecha & even giant kin as well as kind. The Obsidan Giants are constructed  things or war machine that  are fueled by regular Elven slaves that have been captured. And married to these foul creations. 

The question is out in the middle of the unknown & savage Wilderland of High Fantasy are there artifacts & structures such as Arthur Machen's Shining Pyramide!?! Not only do I think so but many of the original Judge's Guilds Wilderlands of High Fantasy adventures bare this out. 

These are ancient Pagan gods that are far more arrogant, alien, & utterly inhuman in their take torward humanity & even their own supposed kin. Dwarves, Elves,etc. all of the demi human races of Dungeons & Dragons are their prey. They come from a time when the hills ran red with their sacrifices, & altar stones ran wild with their revelries! 

Back to the Wilderlands of High Fantasy - Hacking the Wilderlands With Castles & Crusades Through The 'Witches of Court Marshes' By Bryan Hinnen From Judges Guild

 "The fifth book in the "Wilderness Series", danger awaits on All Hallow's Eve, Witches of the world are gathering en masse, the peasants of the area are going to leave, unless you can stop the wicked Black Mass.  26-pages of maps detail the area around the Witches Court Marshes and the village of Grita Heath.  Complete description of the Witch character class.  Many witch NPCs are detailed.  Three level lair of Mordridda Dungeon under the Marshes contains fabulous wealth and dangerous adventure."

So last night after work we finally got together with our friends at our favorite 'watering hole' which isn't known to the other local animals. We're going over campaign adventure options  for the Wilderlands of High Fantasy that we've been planning. And this one uses the Castles & Crusades options that James Mishler & co did over the years. Someone brought up the Wilderness series from Judge's Guild: 
The Wilderness Series
Mines of Custalcon
Spies of Lightelf
Pirates of Hagrost
Shield Maidens of Sea Rune
Witches Court Marshes

Everything here begins with 'Mines of Custalcon'
 which has its own internal Wilderlands history, mini dungeon, etc. which sorta of interconnects to the others in the series. Well comeback to 'The Mines of Custalcon' soon because of its important part that it plays out in 'The Wilderness series'. 

Now personally we've never been involved with 'Witches of Court Marshes'. But knowing its place in 'The Wilderness series' of adventures things have motivated me to grab it from my friend's thumb drive. Now interesting enough  'Witches of Court Marshes' isn't simply an adventure but a Wilderlands mini 

campaign sourcebook unto itself.  But we digress here, this is a massive Wilderlands campaign arch that came out in '82 & was written by Bryan Hinnen. This isn't a joke here. This module details out  the village of Grita Heath & the dungeons three level lair of Mordridda Dungeon under the Marshes. These dungeon works are no joke. The witches detailed here are nasty business. These witches  are right in line to the hags of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons.  In fact the whole module reeks of Celtic influences right down the core of it. This isn't a bad thing at all. 

Black Annis from AD&D Monster Manual II 

Given how this played up a bit in some of the Wilderlands modules we can assume that there's a whole cloth feel to this source book/adventure that we didn't get from some of the other Wilderlands books. And there's a very good reason for this according to a blurb that we found on Rpgnet's entry on 'Witches Court Marshes';"An eighty page sourcebook detailing the wilderness west of the City-State of the Invincible Overlord and the witchy inhabitants who make it worth a visit. As one of Judges Guild's later supplements, not approved for D&D, it uses their "Universal Fantasy" stats system to describe the area's resident monsters & humans, as well as a long description of the witch character class, including new spells. There are 26 hex-mapped pages of wilderness and a three-level dungeoncrawl"

This doesn't take away from the actual usefulness of the 'Witches of Court Marshes' at all. In fact if we were looking for a breakdown of  peusdo Celtic fortifications for the humans of the Wilderlands. A number of human race's settlements might look like the oppida. An oppida is 
 a large fortified Iron Age settlement that makes an excellent example for the Wilderlands of High Fantasy. These fortifications are perfect for the surroundings of the the Witches Court Marshes. 

 Kenny Arne Lang Antonsen - artwork of 

Celtic Oppidum Central Europe 1st century B.C.

These fortifications are perfect adventure set pieces because they allow the DM to tap into real world history to give that little inch of campaign promise to the players as seen in the  oppida wiki entry;"Oppidum is a Latin word meaning the main settlement in any administrative area of ancient Rome, and applied more generally in Latin to smaller urban settlements than cities, equating to "town" in English (bearing in mind that ancient "cities" could be very small by modern standards). The word is derived from the earlier Latin ob-pedum, "enclosed space", possibly from the Proto-Indo-European *pedóm-, "occupied space" or "footprint".

In his Commentarii de Bello Gallico, Julius Caesar described the larger Celtic Iron Age settlements he encountered in Gaul during the Gallic Wars in 58 to 52 BC as oppida. Although he did not explicitly define what features qualified a settlement to be called an oppidum, the main requirements emerge.^[1]

They were important economic sites, places where goods were produced, stored and traded, and sometimes Roman merchants had settled and the Roman legions could obtain supplies. They were also political centres, the seat of authorities who made decisions that affected large numbers of people, such as the appointment of Vercingetorix as head of the Gallic revolt in 52 BC". 

This plugs directly into the themes & wants of the Castles & Crusades Codex Celtarum 2nd Edition By Brian Young. The mythology of the 'Witches of Court Marshes' would have to be altered quite a bit but it could easily fit into the back bone of the themes of the Codex Celtarum 2nd Edition . 

The problem comes about when combining too much of these things into a flowing campaign. The fact is that one adventure element at a time should be used. The 'Witches of Court Marshes' By Bryan Hinnen is that lens first that needs to be looked at by the dungeon master. Everything else will fall into place. The 'Witches of Court Marshes' By Bryan Hinnen is a huge campaign arch & the events of the module will have lasting effects within a campaign. The module could consolidate the power of the witch's coven within this area of the Wilderlands if the PC's fail. The 'Witches of Court Marshes' By Bryan Hinnen is a classic & still works quite effectively as a campaign motivator module.