World of Xoth Campaign Update

 Here is another installment of the PCs own game notes of the adventure so far;

Having gone through the dream quest given to me by my god Yaddar the god of secrets I have met a new ally her name is Frisco Shans she appears to be some sort of hunter who can commune with raccoons I think they're her spirit animal it is unnerving to see this but it’s no doubt a handy ability.

During this dream quest we ended up fighting our way through at large stone keep encountering many strange and wondrous things within its black stone walls. Globes that imparted knowledge but blasted our minds at the same time, driving us to madness, a strange haggard sphinx like creature that tried to give us riddles in return for safe passage but it seemed that its mind was broken and it just repeated the same riddle over and over again and no matter how we answered we still fell under the baleful influence of its strange black jewelled necklace which forced into our minds a bloodthirsty rage that meant we attacked each until the pain snapped us out of its baleful influence. We also came across huge grotesque corpse pale worms which seemed to be guarding a deep pit that went through the floor of one of the rooms, but we decided to that it was safer to bypass these terrible creatures.

We managed to sneak past them and into a destroyed library where we found the object of our quest the mask of Nerm, I do not know what this item does, but it must be important if my God sent me into this terrible shadow realm.

It was a shame that we had lost the brave Knight that we had met at the gates of this terrible place, Belmont the Gryphon knight it seemed he was never to return home and we saw no sign of Yarms bejewelled gauntlet but after recovering the mask of Nerm we decided to leave before we met the same fate. The final room held a strange creature half cat half chandelier, which transformed into a terrible feline knight armed and armoured and ready to spill blood. Fortunately, we successfully negotiated with her, and she permitted us to exit the chamber.

 Once we were able to leave her rooms, we were blinded by an immense brightness which drove us to our knees, with tears streaming from our eyes. And then after what felt like years we both awoke to find ourselves in a dirty back alley somewhere in the village of Hirot, back where we had begun but now, we have the mask.

Luckily much to the surprise of Genn who over almost stumbled over us while he was making his way to the village gates to speak to Nothan the sergeant of the night watch. He had been told by Brogan the innkeeper that this man is someone we could trust and after a hurried conversation it seemed to be true as Morgan was betrothed to him. He was able to convince a couple of other guards to come with us telling them it was better to fight than to await death by the Beast. So, with strong allies and the supplies given to us by Brogan we headed out into the rain swept woods towards the sacred circle to rescue Morgan before she could be sacrificed to the Beast.

Leaving the village was fairly easy now and we made all haste to the sacrificial circle hoping to get there before the Beast could take its grim payment and as we made our way through the dark woods through the rain it seemed that the gods smiled upon us as we seemed to be in time, as the beautiful young lady woman was still chained to one of the mighty stones which made up the circle. When she saw us and Nothan jogging towards her she cried out telling us to get back. She was a brave woman, willing to sacrifice herself for the man and village she loved, but we were set on our course and we would not hear of such a thing and so breaking her chains we told her to head back to her father but then from out of the dark woods we heard growls so deep they that made our bone shake and suddenly, impossibly the Beast appeared.

As we were told it took the form of a mighty wolf, bigger than a horse, its eyes blazing red with hunger and the promise of painful death. It's claws causing sparks to fly as it moved across the rocky ground of the circle.

And then suddenly battle was joined, one of the guards took Morgan and fled towards the village whilst the other two made ready buy them time and we also drew our weapons to battle the Beast and sell our lives dearly. It seemed that even though we had done our best to prepare for this moment we were still not ready to defeat this creature as its unholy vigour made it immune to our weapons. And all looked lost until the oil and flaming brands were thrown. The fire and flame were able to drive the Beast back and the purity of the fire did much damage it. The Beasts body now soaked in burning oil caused it to howl in pain, unfortunately the flames meant that we could not use the magic of the net as we feared that flames would destroy it but fortunately the flames were enough to drive the beast back.  It's oil-soaked fur burning now like some great bonfire and with righteous fury slowly destroying its physical form but not it's spirit.

 As when its body collapsed into a flaming mass, a shadowy mist with a foul-smelling odour escaped the burning body. This mist seemed to form a howling wolfs face before it was whipped away by the wind towards the marshes. We were victorious and had learned vital clues about the Beast, it may be immune to normal weapons, but it was not immune to fire. Though the battles was won it had cost us much, A guard was dead his body ripped asunder and his entrails were now strewn across the sacrificial stones and some of our party were wounded in the battle but with the Beast only driven away we still had to make sure it wouldn't come back. We needed weapons, weapons that could fight and destroy the Beast. So, with Morgan hopefully heading back towards the village and the safety of her father. We decided to head to the Serpent mound, the tomb of Ulfheonar where this had all started when those grave robbing fools had tried to   enter it all those days ago. Thus, releasing the Beast to cause havoc and to punish those who had not stopped them.

So, after bandaging ourselves up and taken a swig or two from the flasks of hard liquor given to us by Brogan, we convinced one of the guards to at least take us close to the forbidden tomb.

So, we headed to the tomb in search of the legendary Wolf spear a weapon so deadly, so blessed by the gods it would surely send the Beast straight back to the underworld.

After around an hour or so of hacking through the ever-present  brambles and the pouring rain we arrive at the clearing of the Serpent tomb it sat alone and it was truly a forbidding site even nature itself seemed to give it a wide berth, there was no sound of birds or insects in the surrounding area and even the moonlight seemed afraid to shine upon its cursed form. And so, the clearing itself was somehow darker than the surrounding woods. We searched the exterior and quickly found a strong door. It was still secured and it was covered in strange sigils, but there was no sign that it had ever been opened. Then one of us cried out, it seemed that the nearby stream had been diverted by time and the water had broken through one of the walls washing away the dirt and carving a channel through the stones. It wasn't much but it was enough for us to crawl through and gain entry into the tomb beyond.

This seems to be the same way that the tomb robbers had entered the tomb as well as we found pieces of fabric trapped by the thorns of the bramble bushes which ripped through clothing and skin with equal ease. So, after a tense moment or two where we had to submerge ourselves into this river to get into the tomb, we finally found ourselves inside a room. It was made-up of huge stone slabs mortared together with mud and dirt the stone walls were covered in strange paintings of serpents and writing that we could not decipher, lighting our torches we moved deeper into the tomb soon finding ourselves in a labyrinth of stone corridors. We were not sure which way to go and then a scuttling was heard and before we had time to prepare, we were attacked by the undead. No normal undead were these unfortunate creatures but human bodies hollowed out and controlled somehow by massive serpents that sprang from the dead bodies as we chopped them down.  

Again, we were strongly pressed finding ourselves fighting for our lives but after taking some grievous wounds we were able to dispose of the undead as well as the strange snakes that inhabited them. The snakes did not just deal physical damage though as their bite carried a terrible poison and we could only hope that the medicinal herbs carried by the strange hunter Frisco Shans would be enough to counter the effects of this poison as that would be no way for hero to die. So, with the first attack defeated we gathered ourselves and again began to move deeper into the tomb.

Review of The Faceless Howl part one

 Kabuki Kaiser was most generous to provide me a copy of his latest adventure. I am really thrilled to offer my opinion once finished reading. Unfortunately, at this time, I am unable to review after a playthrough. The Faceless Howl is a 42-page sword and sorcery nightmare for Many Sought Adventure and other OSR games, and concerns PCs stumbling into the trouble to be found in a troubled village. And I enjoy having a good catalogue of this village is suffering... scenarios on hand. But I am using one currently. DCC's Doom of the Savage Kings...

and then one of the PCs couldn't make the session and an old player resurfaced and I immediately grabbed The Faceless Howl off the shelf and contrived reasons for this material to fit into the current happenings in the game. The one thread I have to work is with the current player who hits all the sessions. Not his character though. No, he is on a new PC, but this is the second time in so many adventure arcs the price of success/aid is with dedicating oneself to marriage with the patron dispensing the goods. I decided there is a contest between the gods (as there always is) which requires mortal betrothal with a magical being.

Here is the PC Jacque, Knight of Jet's perspective of the insertion of this adventure material on the fly..

We enter the shadow realm of dreams and gods, and must enter the transformed Jarls' hall, which is now a mighty Keep, to recover the Mask of Nerm. Jaques is at first scared by this realm of shadows and the lack of colour, but is relieved to come across a beautiful woman who seems to know her way around this monochrome realm. She swaggers up and introduces herself as Frisco Shans, a hunter, and she seems to have expected to meet Jaques. So, with some suspicion but believing that this has something to do with his god Yadar, he agrees to team up with this wild woman. We then head towards the black yet gleaming curtain wall of the Keep and begin climbing up the broken statue-lined slope which leads to the Keep's massive gateway, and where we meet an armoured figure standing patiently by the open gates as if waiting for us. We approach slowly, ready for combat, but the figure greets us warmly and introduces himself as Sir Belamont, a knight of the Order of the Gryphon. And he is very glad to see us. He believes we have been sent to aid him in his quest to recover the infamous bejeweled gauntlet. This artefact will enable him to return home after many years of questing. So after a brief talk, we agreed to help him as it seemed the easiest way to get into the Keep and its Libarium for the item we needed. Gaining entry to the Keep is suspiciously easy, but as we cross the threshold, the temperature drops, as well as the portcullis; it seems we are now locked into recovering these artefacts, as well as the Libarium..

I am channeling the Shadow Plane from Moorcock's first book in his Elric series. Also the idea of different "champions" of the gods uniting to aid each other in similar goals I am lifting right from Moorcock as well. The second book in the Elric series, called Sailing on the Seas of Fate, has multiple versions of the same champion uniting into a single group dedicated to completing a deadly mission on behalf of the gods. So I'm working with competing nuptials in some mad contest of the gods involving the PCs (living and dead) for some greater goal. If I play faithful to genre tropes this should leave the main characters of the story doomed, with minds shredded and bones jellied. But this is roleplaying games so there must be an avenue of success. An opportunity to beat the odds and somehow win out.

How is the module working? Organized well to be able to use at the table very fast. This is because of the adventures layout. Large titles, bullet points and terse, evocative text gives a Game Master a decent chance of keeping the encounter coherent while leaning into the adventure's original features.

What are these features? I'll give my thoughts after this week's game session. We should finish the adventure and so I won't be giving out any spoilers.

Chronicals of Xoth, Handful of Stars Session Report

The latest description of recent events of the campaign as described by Jaques, one of the PCs;

We flee from Khadar city and head into the hills. As we climb higher into the mountains, we come across a mixed column of militia and villagers, who are taking a young woman (Morgan) to a stone circle. After talking to a few of the villagers, we find out that the young woman is to be sacrificed to a demon hound, saving the lives of the other villagers.

We decide to get involved, so unable to fight the guards decide to head back to their village to gather more information. The village is called Hirot. The large man we saw leading the column is the Jarl of the village; he is worn but still a bear of a man, especially when clad in his armour and wolf pelt and he leads a small group of similarly armored men.

Heading into the somber village, we see that some of the buildings look to have been destroyed by something, and there are not a lot of people out in the streets, and the whole village seems to be under a cloud of despair. So we quickly make our way to the squat and solidly built Inn, The Sign of the Wolf Spear

The Inn is owned by a man called Brogan, who is also the father of Morgan . We ask the few tired patrons about the sacrifice and are told about a group of adventurers who came through several weeks ago, who claimed to be searching for the tomb of a mighty warlord named Ulfheonar. The tomb is shaped like a vast serpent and contains vast wealth and a mighty weapon of immense power. Those we talked to say that they must have failed and released the tomb's guardian, a demon hound, a hound that now stalks them. Nothing seems to be able to stop it, not walls, not guards, not the Jarl or the Priest. The hound was smashing its way into homes and ripping apart families and coating whole sections of the village in blood. None of those who attempted to fight back or track it survived.

The Jarl now hides in his hall along with what remains of his guard, and his seer Syliler Ru, the man who came up with the sacrifice draw. Some of the villagers hide in the Chapel with the insane Priest Beacom, who was driven to despair and thus madness. He now believes that the only salvation is through the mortification of the flesh. His chapel is now filled with people whipping themselves until the blood flows from their ragged backs, as the Priest has told them that only through their blood and suffering can the beast be appeased.

The Inn isn't the only place to stay, as there is a shelter called the Three Rats, which seems to be aptly named. So far, we have had no reason to go there, finding the Wolf Spear more to our tastes.

So, hearing the villagers' tales, we committed to helping them as much as we could, knowing that we would get no help from the broken Jarl. We began to make plans. We now know that the tomb is to the north of the village, whilst the demon dog heads to the swamps to the northeast after it's kills, and both may need to be investigated. The Priest is spoken to, but Beecom believes that only by the mortification of the flesh can the hound be stopped. As his god Justica has told him that this and the surrendering of all earthly wealth is the only way to wash away their sins and get her protection.

The ancient chapel has a beautiful stained glass window which shows Justica defeating this demon hound using a mighty warhammer. This hammer still exists but is kept in the chapel waiting for the worthy; the Priest will not use it nor will he let others. The Priest has two acolytes who help him guard the hammer and are half-crazed due to them constantly whipping themselves.

Genn stays at the Inn, gathering more information about the lottery, the Seer and the Priest and learns that some suspect that the hound is not a demon but rather a real creature trained by someone. When asked why someone would do this, he is told that scared people are easier to control and those who had the means to leave have left, leaving only the lost and desperate in the village awaiting their fate.

Jacques leaves in search of a large net and is told that the widow Yamay is the best weaver for miles around, and if anyone could make a net strong enough to hold the hound, it would be her. Knocking at her hut, he is met by an old crone, and it becomes quickly evident that she is much more than just an old woman. She knows a lot about the situation and tells Jacques that she can indeed make a net strong enough to hold the hound, but she will need something in return, and what she wants is a husband. Jacques is taken aback somewhat but agrees as he sees that she is old like him, and it wouldn't be a long marraige and he could end up with some money and a home. Also, if he survives the hound, the villagers and Jarl would surely be grateful. Yamay laughing gets up from in front of her fire and reaches up to the roof beams and begins to pull down withered heads. She removes the few strands of hair that still cling to their dead flesh and begins to turn the wheel, weaving the hair into a large net as a now worried Jacques looks on in horror.

Genn, meanwhile, has arranged to get some supplies, including a lot of flammable material and, more importantly, a few others who will help us fight this creature. He also manages to get us a way to leave the village after the gates are closed, as one of the Jarl's men who guards the gate is in love with Morgan, his daughter (the woman currently chained to one of the standing stones) and can be convinced to help. The young man's name is Nothan of the night watch.

The village adventure comes with a priest, so I needed to add a new go

JUSTICA, THE IRON SCALES God of the Susrahn Hillmen Origins & Nature Before the great river-cities of Susrahn rose their ziggurat temples to gods of grain and celestial fire, the hill clans of the interior highlands worshipped older, crueler powers. Justica is the eldest of these — not a god of justice as the civilized lowlanders might understand the word, but of primal reckoning: the inexorable settling of debts, the balancing of blood for blood, the grinding inevitability of consequence. He is imagined as a colossal figure carved from black mountain granite, his face expressionless and featureless save for two hollow pits where eyes should be. In one hand he holds a great set of scales fashioned from iron and bone. In the other, a flint-headed maul the size of a war-elephant. He does not pursue. He does not rage. He simply waits, and the scales always come level in the end. The hillmen say he was old when the world was young — that he watched the giant-kings raise their cyclopean fortresses and said nothing, knowing their ledger would one day balance. It did.

The 3D6 Seven, Nine, Eleven, Thirteen, Fifteen Spread

 These are your degree of difficulty, failure, and success array built into the first fantasy roleplaying game, and has been returned to again and again by modern game design to leverage the powerful resolution mechanic it is. 

This is your yes, but; yes, and; no you fucking die "complication" written into this bell-curve and is at least the core mechanic of the Hero System. It is easy to appreciate. Seven thru fifteen is a tight spread you can expect to land somewhere in on an "average" basis, and has enough shade to not seem completely binary. 

Difficulty Class is set on a less swingy basis when using 3D6 than if a D20 is rolled, but still chance rules and there is tension built into each roll, which is routinely exploited at the table for the better enjoyment of all. Coming up with a Difficulty "Class" or Difficulty "#" takes seconds to decide, and with further thought what degrees of success and/or failure  would look like start to paint their way into the picture.