The Other OSR: Slate & Chalcedony

The land where the two towers now stand was bright and clean. Then they appeared and from their base grew a circle spreading blight which destroys all that it touches, creating a zone where nothing lives and nothing grows. The rivers are poisoned and empty. No birds fly overhead. Armies have been sent to assault and topple the towers to bring an end to the spreading blight. None have returned. The blight continues to grow. Will the world become a jet-black desert or can anything be done about it? Perhaps brave adventurers will venture forth and investigate the towers? Perhaps they have their objectives—to recover an object from inside one of the towers, to access a gateway to another world inside, to kidnap or rescue someone from inside the tower, and so on… The two towers are not what they seem, though they are the source of the blight. They are the bodies of two powerful sorcerers who travel from world to world, drawing energy from each one, but rarely staying long. The question is, what is it that keeps them in this world? Although each tower is actually the body of a great sorcerer, each is occupied—by sorcerers, Apeman guards, staff, and the occasional monster. Each can be fully navigated and each is full of mysteries.

This is the set-up for Slate & Chalcedony. Slate & Chalcedony is both the names of the two wizards and thus the two towers and the name of an adventure for TROIKA!, the science-fantasy role-playing game of exploring the multiverse. Published by the Melsonian Arts Council, it presents the twisted towers, along with the NPCs and monsters, new spells, and prophecies, as an environment in which to explore and roleplay. Notably, both towers are presented in cross section as a whole, rather floor plans, level-by-level. This adds a certain degree of childish wonder to the weirdness and whimsy that pervades the two towers. This starts from the moment that the Player Characters enter either tower. In Slate they will find diplomatic Delegates in Pressure Suits who have been so harassed by the porcine Gentle Hurmin the Familiar that they have forgotten their purpose; a sphere of black liquid which collates prophecies that can be collected by the mouths in the room below and if drunk, will grant the imbiber some of those prophecies and possibly kill them; a would-be apprentice who specialises in magical dentistry and is so bored, she lets her teeth grow and replenish consistently; and more, whilst overhead Pig Harpies circle and inside the tower, Apemen formidable and loyal patrol and protect the tower, sometimes guarding, sometimes grooming, sometimes curious, sometimes hooting. In Chalcedony, Brain Clusters spark and flash on a great tree, but cannot seem to work or communicate together; Boneroach nests infest the walls; and the tower seems to breath through great gill slits that also happen to be very convenient for climbing. Slate is more extensive, more developed, and more detailed than the other, in places possessing the feel of strange rocket ship or upright submarine, whilst Chalcedony is less developed and not as extensive, being a rougher combination of stone and flesh.

There are short incident or encounter tables for both towers, whilst the first of several appendices provides stats and details of all of the ‘New Enemies’ to be found in both towers. These include the Apemen, Boneroaches, Cerebral Spiders, the Chalcedony Wizard, and a lot more. Their entries include Mien tables too, so that encounters with the various creatures can vary from one encounter to the next. This is especially so with the porcine Gentle Hurmin the Familiar, who can be encountered in either ‘Malevolent’ or ‘Benevolent’ mode. The new spells are inventive, but as weird and as icky as you would expect. Emetomancy forces vomiting and consumption of the result, Megadonsy causes teeth to grow and replace older teeth for as long as the caster wishes; and Metonomasy forces a name change on a victim and it sticks until the caster decides. It should be noted that the lightness of the mechanics to TROIKA! means that Slate & Chalcedony is easily adapted to the Old School Renaissance retroclone of the Game Master’s choice.

Physically, Slate & Chalcedony is very well presented. Even the cover—slate grey on one side and shot through with the red of carnelian on the other half—presages what lies inside, which is illustrated with rich colours. The illustrations are excellent and the cross sections of the two towers present a surprising amount of detail. The writing leans towards the succinct where necessary, adding more detail depending upon the location.

Where Slate & Chalcedony comes up short is in the ‘What If?’. It does not discuss the consequences of the Player Character actions or how exactly they go about preventing the spread of the blight emanating from the two towers. So, no mention of what happens if they stop the blight or what happens if they fail to stop the blight. Options are mentioned in the text, but not developed, leaving the Game Master with a number of questions to answer herself in preparing the scenario. More so than ideally should be necessary. Another issue is that some of the locations within the Slate tower are only accessible via the network of vents, but it is not made clear how those vents are accessed.

Slate & Chalcedony takes the fantasy motif of twin towers and twists them to the weirdness and wonder of TROIKA! The scenario provides a great set-up and situation, and if does not develop any possible outcomes as it really should, it does in the meantime deliver two wondrous and strange environments for the Player Characters to explore and interact with and so provide several sessions of rich adventure.