Medicae Misconduct

Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Imperium Maledictum is a roleplaying game in which the Player Characters, in the service of their patron, have the opportunity to travel and see worlds far beyond their own, enjoy wealth and comfort that though modest is more than they could have dreamed of, and witness great events that they might have heard of years later by rumour or newscast. In return, they are directed to investigate mysteries and murders, experience horror and heresies, expose corruption and callousness by their patron, whether in pursuit of their patron’s agenda, his faction’s agenda, the Emperor’s will, or all three. This takes place in the Macharian Sector, catastrophically isolated from the rest of the Imperium of Mankind by the Great Rift for far too long, and only recently have communication, trade, and psychic links been reforged and the Imperium begun to re-establish its authority. Who knows what has happened in the time when the connections were broken? What Dark Gods, with their promises and falsehoods, have heretics turned to, how far does corruption run with its waste of Emperor’s resources and wealth, and when will Orks, or worse, Tyranoids, take advantage of the Imperium’s weak grip on the sector to conduct deadly raids or murderous rampages? What this means is that the Macharian Sector is a dangerous place and there is the possibility that the Player Characters might get hurt. Or rather, the Player Characters are definitely going to get hurt. Eventually. When that happens, they are going to need a Medicae Technician.

Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Imperium Maledictum: Diagnostica Obscurus is there to fulfil that need. It presents ‘Three Mendacious Medicae Technicians for your Grim And Treacherous Adventures in the Macharian Sector’. There for when a Player Character suffers more Critical Wounds than he can cope with, the supplement not only describes three NPCs in quite some detail, but it also provides their stats, information as to where they might be found and what their facilities are like, their background—and of course, secrets, and a Treatment Table listing the typical effects of their medical attention. Lastly, each NPC description includes a set of scenario hooks that ends with an apex mission. The latter to be played out once the previous scenarios have been played through and the Player Characters have earned the NPC’s trust—or enmity. In each case, the Game Master will need to develop the scenarios into something that can be readily played, but if she does so, she will have an ongoing story, lasting a session or two each time, which can be slotted into her campaign and played out over time.

The supplement’s three Medicae Technicians consist of Noxia Vex, Karzinth Half-Hand, and Genetor Erudir Phi-VI. Noxia Vex runs a back-alley clinic in the depths of Hive Rokarth, providing cut-rate medical care to all, heedless of their faction, and is protected by well-armed and intensely loyal guards with strangely milky eyes. For some patients though, she will offer her services in return for a favour and this ultimately, will put that patient in a dangerous situation as he is tasked with investigating a viral vector that Noxia is researching in the hope that she can find a cure for the guards who protect her before they go on a murderous rampage!

Karzinth Half-Hand is noticeably missing two fingers from one hand and why he does not replace them with bionics is the subject of some speculation amongst his rich patrons and secretly, a source of shame for him. He primarily offers his surgical expertise to the Mavins of Hive Praemiosus on Asterion, having fled his former position as a Chapter Serf to an Apothecarian and is deeply paranoid that his former masters are still looking for him. Currently he seeks wealth and the means to protect himself, which includes blackmail using information he gathers from certain patients whilst they are anaesthetised and under his knife! Karzinth Half-Hand might become a patron for the Player Characters or he might blackmail them with information gained whilst under his care to work for him. The hooks for Karzinth Half-Hand are not connected, but the apex mission is connected to his activities and is quite detailed in comparison to the others.

Genetor Erudir Phi-VI is an arrogant surgeon with some highly unorthodox ideas that verge on heresy. A member of Adeptus Mechanicus, he has established a clinic at the Grand Docks of Harjus where conducts radical surgical experiments whose subjects find themselves supposedly ‘improved’ with transplants harvested from xeno beasts! This lends itself to the possibility that the Player Characters might find themselves on ‘bug hunts’ looking for specimens to capture for Genetor Erudir Phi-VI’s experiments and one of them involves such as task through the tunnels of the Spear on which the surgeon has his clinic. His associated apex mission involves protecting him against a black mail attempt and like the one for Karzinth Half-Hand is longer and more detailed than that given for Noxia Vex.

The length of the apex missions for Karzinth Half-Hand and Genetor Erudir Phi-VI in comparison to that given for Noxia Vex does unbalance her entry in Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Imperium Maledictum: Diagnostica Obscurus slightly, though she has four missions as opposed to their three. The situations for all three NPCs in the supplement are quite flexible in that they can be as written or shifted to other worlds in the Macharian Sector, and the NPCs themselves used as patrons, as straightforward NPCs, or even as NPCs to be investigated on behalf of the Player Characters’ actual Patron. The latter option will need more development upon the part of the Game Master as it is only suggested in the text.

Physically, Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Imperium Maledictum: Diagnostica Obscurus is well presented and the artwork is excellent. It does need a slight edit.

Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Imperium Maledictum: Diagnostica Obscurus is a great addition for Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Imperium Maledictum. Using all three of its entries might be a challenge, but three skilled, but imperfect Medicae Technicians to add to the Game Master’s campaign complete with secrets and scenarios to be developed and brought into play is exactly what this completely unqualified not-a-Medicae Technician recommends.

Companion Chronicles #3: Squires Rampant

Much like the Miskatonic Repository for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition and the Jonstown Compendium for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, The Companions of Arthur is a curated platform for user-made content, but for material set in Greg Stafford’s masterpiece of Arthurian legend and romance, Pendragon. It enables creators to sell their own original content for Pendragon, Sixth Edition. This can original scenarios, background material, alternate Arthurian settings, and more, but none of this content should be considered to be ‘canon’, but rather fall under ‘Your Pendragon Will Vary’. This means that there is still scope for the authors to create interesting and useful content that others can bring to their Pendragon campaigns.

—oOo—

What is the Nature of the Quest?

Squires Rampant is a supplement for use with Pendragon, Sixth Edition which details twenty squires who might each accompany a Player-knight and so be a help or a hindrance.

It is a full colour, nine page, 8.9 MB PDF.

The layout is tidy and it is nicely illustrated.

Where is the Quest Set?

Squires Rampant does not require any specific setting and will wherever the Player-knights are.

Who should go on this Quest?

Squires Rampant requires Player-knights with at least one positive Trait, such as Valorous, Suspicious, Honest, and so on.

What does the Quest require?

Squires Rampant requires the Pendragon, Sixth Edition rules or the Pendragon Starter Set.

Where will the Quest take the Knights?

Squires Rampant is subtitled ‘Twenty squires for Player-knights’, but is better described as ‘Twenty ANNOYING squires for Player-knights’ and that should be enough for any Pendragon Game Master to add this to her campaign. The idea behind the supplement is that as much as squires are a help to the Player-knights, looking after their horses, setting up camp, pulling them from the tourney field if they are unhorsed or injured, and so on, they should also be irritating and exasperating. In other words, they should have personality and wants of their own, and if in irking their individual knights and players, the interactions between them encourage good roleplaying and comedy, then so much the better.

Each squire in Squires Rampant is simply defined by a description, a quote, a special Skill that the squire is good at, and a requirement for the Player-knight. The squire also has two names, one male, one female, depending upon gender. Thus, for example, the randomly rolled example is ‘The Drunken Squire’. Anna is described as a “[H]appy, red-nosed lass, who is always of good humour.” She is loyal and does a serviceable enough job, but obviously drinks too much, has a loose tongue when she does, readily letting slip her knight’s foibles and desires—such as his secret love or subject of his feud, and then in morning has completely forgotten what she has said and to whom. She also has a sore head! Her special Skill is Intrigue, but is unable to use it wisely. Her knight should have a high score in the Temperate Trait because he needs to be sober enough to deal with the consequences of Anna’s partying the night before! If this squire is male, his name is Alec.

The twenty entries, or squires, in Squires Rampant, are all like this. There is the Outspoken Squire, the Awkward Squire, the Dim Squire, the Cowardly Squire, and more. Essentially, there are more than enough squires to attach to the Player-knights and keep the Game Master amused as well as the other players whose squires have not quite yet got their knights into difficulty. Plus, of course, the Game Master will fun roleplaying each and every one of the entries in the supplement. If that is not enough, then the supplement also includes ‘Squires Redux’, a table of another twenty squires ready for the Game Master to develop.

Lastly, it should be noted that Squires Rampant is a development of an article that originally appeared in the Pendragon fanzine, Beamains, in the 1990s. Thus, the Companions of Arthur follows in the footsteps of the Jonstown Compendium in developing and updating content for a community content programme that previously appeared in fanzines and other fan-based content in the last century.

Should the Knights ride out on this Quest?

Knights have to quest and squires have to squire, so they need all the personality they can get. Squires Rampant provides personality aplenty as well comedic opportunities for annoying, dangerous, or even odd situations, as well as good roleplaying.

Short, Sharp Cthulhu II

Collections of short scenarios for Call of Cthulhu are nothing new—there was the 1997 anthology Minions, but that was for Call of Cthulhu, Fifth Edition. It was also a simple collection of short scenarios, whereas the more recent Gateways to Terror: Three Evenings of Horror in being both a collection of short scenarios and something different. Published by Chaosium, Inc. for use with either Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition or the Call of Cthulhu Starter Set, it is a trio of very short scenarios—scenarios designed to be played in an hour, designed to introduce players to Call of Cthulhu, and designed to demonstrate Call of Cthulhu. All three have scope to be expanded to last longer than an hour, come with pre-generated investigators as well as numerous handouts, and are designed to be played by four players—though guidance is given as to which investigators to use with less than four players for each scenario, right down to just a single player and the Keeper. All three are set in different years and locations, but each is set in a single location, each is played against the clock—whether they are played in an hour or two hours—before a monster appears, and each showcases the classic elements of a Call of Cthulhu scenario. So the players and their investigators are presented with a mystery, then an investigation in which they hunt for and interpret clues, and lastly, they are forced into a Sanity-depleting confrontation with a monster.

No Time to Scream: Three Evenings of Terror is the sequel. It is again designed to be used with either the Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition full rules or the Call of Cthulhu Starter Set, and again, it contains three scenarios. However, each is more expansive and plays out in a larger area than the single locations to be found in the scenarios for Gateways to Terror. Consequently, the three scenarios in No Time to Scream are longer, intended to be played in two hours rather than the one, That said, they can each be played in an hour and each comes with a rough timeline for such a playing length. Whether played in an hour or two hours any of the three scenarios works as as evening’s entertainment, or as a demonstration or convention scenario. All three are suitable for players new to Call of Cthulhu, whilst still offering an enjoyable experience for veteran players.

The anthology begins with an overview of its three scenarios and an extensive introduction—or reintroduction—to the core rules of Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition. This is to help the Keeper introduce the rules herself to her fellow players, whether sat round the table at home, playing online, or at a convention. In turn it discusses the investigator sheet, using Luck, skill rolls, bonus and penalty dice, combat, and of course, Sanity. Included here are references to both the Call of Cthulhu: Keeper Rulebook and the Call of Cthulhu Starter Set with pertinent points marked. The only thing not included here that perhaps might have been useful is a list of these references, possibly at the end of the section. It notes too, that the scenarios contain text to be read aloud to the players and two types of clues. ‘Obvious’ clues are meant to be found as part of the investigative as they are vital to its progression and they do not require any skill check to be found, whereas ‘Obscure’ add further detail and background, but are not vital to the completion of the scenario. They are typically discovered following a skill check. If an ‘Obvious’ clue does require a skill check, it is typically to see how it took the Investigator to find and to see if there are any complications from finding it. Otherwise this is all very useful, if not as a reminder, then at least as a means of the Keeper having to avoid flipping through another book.

Each of the three scenarios is tightly structured and follows the same format. This starts with advice on the scenario’s structure, specifically the timings if the Keeper is running it as a one-hour game. Then it discusses each of the four investigators for the scenario, including their notable traits and roleplaying hooks, what to do if there are fewer than four players, and what if there are more than four, before delving into the meat of the scenario itself. All three are very nicely presented, clear and easy to read off the page in terms of what skill rolls are needed and what the investigators learn from them. As well as decent maps, each scenario comes with a sheaf of handouts, suggestions as to how each of its four investigators react when they go insane, which includes possible Involuntary Actions and Bouts of Madness, and lastly, details of the four investigators. These are not done on the standard Investigator sheets for Call of Cthulhu, but those and the handouts are available to download.

The first scenario is ‘A Lonely Thread’, which takes place at the well-appointed country cabin of an elderly Professor of Archaeology who teaches part-time at Miskatonic University. A learned and avuncular man, he regularly invites guests to stay at his home, and this time that includes the Investigators. Unfortunately, it soon becomes apparent that the professor is unwell, is he acting oddly, and seems forgetful. Is that because he is ill, or is there something else going on here? Striking the right note of oddness takes some roleplaying skill upon the part of the Keeper and the players using what their Investigators know about him as given and suggested on the Investigator sheets. Just how soon the players and their Investigators notice and just how soon they act will greatly influence the outcome of the scenario.

The professor is definitely not himself, having become possessed by an alien wire-like entity, which he was investigating as part of his research into the Mythos and inadvertently set free. The creature has also threaded itself through the body of his housekeeper and is quietly gestating its new form in the wood cellar below the house (so, this scenario does prove that is something in woodshed). Once the Investigators have worked out that something is wrong, confronted the professor, fought and discovered his situation, then they will have the whole house to explore as well as his workshop. There is the opportunity to gain some clues before doing so, but the scenario’s time limit is reached when the creature-that-was-once-the-professor’s-housekeeper completes its transition and begins to stalk the Investigators through his house.

The ending is likely to be quite physical in nature, though the option is given for fleeing, as is setting fire to the professor’s cabin and workshop. This is actually covered in some detail and mechanically uses a Luck roll to determine if the Investigators are successful. Overall, this is a decent scenario and straightforward to run.

The second scenario, ‘Bits & Pieces’, moves the action to Arkham itself and the city’s morgue. This is where the Investigators will find themselves in 1927 after they receive a telephone call from a disgraced physician in which he mutters about cultists, resurrection, and the need for cleansing fire. The call brings a disparate group of people together, first at his apartment and then at the morgue, where once they have broken in (because it is closed for the night), they find the doctor almost dead, his final words being, “Don’t’ let them out.” So, whomever stabbed him in the neck with a scalpel is still in the morgue and not only that, but the corpse that the doctor was obviously working on, is not on the slab. So where has that gone? Once the Investigators start looking, they do not find anyone. However… what they do find are parts of a body and every single part wants to fight back.

‘Bits & Pieces’ feels very much inspired by the film Reanimator, because these body parts are animated and not only do want to get back together, they prepared to fight to do so. This scenario is huge, silly fun. It manages to combine both horror and what is effectively, slapstick. Plus, the body parts all do different things to the Investigators. The arms will lay traps and stab them, the legs kick them and run away, the torso barges them, and best all, the head not only bites them, it actually calls the police to try and get ride of the Investigators! The aim for Investigators is to grab all of the body parts and get them to the furnace to burn all of the evidence—if they can work out how to operate it. The time limit on the scenario is when the morgue opens up in the morning. This is a brilliantly fun scenario, very physical, and is going to be highly memorable one to play and run.

The third and last scenario is ‘Aurora Blue’. This is the most mature and complex of the three scenarios in terms of its themes and tone. This is because it sees a clash of the marginalised. It takes place in late winter, 1932 and the Investigators are agents if the Bureau of prohibition, marginalised because their backgrounds and their assignment. The Investigators consist of an African American, of mixed African American and Inuit heritage, an older African American, and a woman. Consequently, given the attitudes the Bureau of Prohibition, their careers have found them marginalised to the backwater of Alaska, at the time a U.S. territory rather than a state. This is because after first believing that a new source of very popular bootleg alcohol was Canada, their bosses want to blame the delay in actually investigating and dealing with the source, a farm in the Chugach Mountains, Alaska, and anything that might go wrong, squarely on the Investigators. ‘Aurora Blue’ helpfully includes a sidebar with advice on the portrayal of the marginalised quartet and the attitudes towards them, but also suggests that the Keeper refer to ‘Realism: Reality and the Game’ from Harlem Unbound.

In addition, the scenario also includes a ‘Memory’ for each of the Investigators, triggered by a scene or encounter, in which they each have the opportunity to recall a similar moment in which they were faced with the prejudices against them and what happened as a result. These flashbacks are a moment to highlight and personalise their status and for each player to roleplay his or her Investigator.

The scenario also suggests that the Keeper refer to the Color Out of Space—both the short story by H.P. Lovecraft and the film from 2019—for the look and style of ‘Aurora Blue’, as this is the threat at the heart of the scenario. Scenarios for Call of Cthulhu that involve a Color Out of Space tend to be quite traditional, the alien creature landing near a farm and its poisonous aura first causing unparalleled fecundity and change before a rot sets in that renders everything into a grey infertility. The difference between them is the set-up and who the Investigators are, and in this case, the Investigators are agents of the Bureau of Prohibition, and the set-up focuses on the clash between their desperation in being given a bad, possibility career-ending assignment and the economic desperation of the farm that is producing Aurora Blue, the brand of the bootleg alcohol which the Agents have been sent to investigate.

In many ways, ‘Aurora Blue’ is not a subtle affair, its horror on show from the start and its mutated fecundity and hints of its barren blight to come pervading the scenario throughout. The main opportunity for roleplaying is with the farmer’s daughter, ill-treated and then rendered mute by the effects of the Color Out of Space, with only crayons and paper as her only means of communication and with her drawings serving as clues that the players have to interpret. The scenario is also more sophisticated in terms of its outcomes. The Agents can succeed in completing their assignment and they can potentially defeat the Color Out of Space, but this is optional—fleeing the farm without destroying the Color Out of Space is an acceptable option. It may also be possible to get away with the farmer’s daughter, but the scenario does not really make clear to the Agents and their players the strength of the connection between her and the Color Out of Space and how, if possible, it can be broken. Consequently, the optimum outcome of ‘Aurora Blue’ is not as clear as perhaps it should be for a scenario that is as short as this and for a scenario that is designed in part to demonstrate the roleplaying game.

The book is rounded out with two appendices and a set of indices. The first of the appendices contains the handouts for all three scenarios,, whilst the second has the bibliographies of the authors. The indices consist of four—a general index and then one for each of the three scenarios.

Physically, No Time to Scream is very well presented, with decently done maps and a great deal of the artwork can be used to show the players during play. The handouts are also well done, the crayon drawings for the farmer’s daughter from ‘Aurora Blue’ standing out for being singularly different. Lastly, it should be noted that the running length of all three scenarios makes them fairly easy to prepare and have ready to run.

No Time to Scream: Three Evenings of Terror is good sequel to Gateways to Terror: Three Evenings of Horror. The three scenarios in this new anthology get better and more interesting as they go along. ‘Bits & Pieces’ stands out as a very rare combination for Call of Cthulhu—slapstick and horror—whilst ‘Aurora Blue’ is an excellent combination of back woods horror and poisoned hope with the need of the Investigators to prove themselves. As a collection of one-shots, demonstration scenarios, and convention scenarios, No Time to Scream: Three Evenings of Terror delivers three more, short doses of horror and does so in an engaging, well designed, and multi-functional fashion.

Solitaire: Colostle – Dungeons

Beyond the walls of your hometown or village lie the Roomlands. A vast castle that covers the whole of the known world and beyond, whose individual rooms, corridors, stairs, and rafters contain whole environments of their own. Mountains, lakes, deserts, forests, caves, and ancient ruins. Oceans stretch across rooms as far as the eye can see and beyond. Desert sands whip and whirl down long corridors. Forests climb the stairs that seem to rise to nowhere. Rooks—walking castles—lurk, a constant danger. Stone giants that seem to have no purpose, other than to wander aimlessly until something captures their attention and then they erupt in incredible aggression. This is world of a near limitless castle known as Colostle, into which brave adventurers set forth, perhaps to undertake tasks and quests for the Hunter’s Guild, perhaps to explore on their own, to hunt Rooks for the precious, often magical resources they contain, or simply to protect a village or settlement from rampaging Rooks or bandits. Explorers have explored far and wide and even through doors to other realms where the earth is broken and chunks of it float in the sky, where sky ships, their hulls carved from Rook husks cross overhead, and the Rooks stalk Rooms on thin, finely balanced legs and wield weapons with deadly finesse than the brute force of at home. Yet what if instead of going out into the Roomlands or up to the Rafters, or even into other realms, you went down?

Colostle – Dungeons expands Colostle: A Solo RPG Adventure, definitely the prettiest solo journalling game on the market, by taking it down into the ground. It is the third expansion for Colostle: A Solo RPG Adventure, following on from Colostle – The Roomlands and Colostle – Kyodaina, and one that makes absolute sense. After all, if the scale of the castle in Colostle: A Solo RPG Adventure is literally colossal, that does not mean that it cannot have dungeons, even if they are of a similar scale. In taking the player and his character deep underground, it opens up a whole new environment, dark and dank, of cathedral-sized chambers, populated by strange new types of Rooks, riven with an infection that is both a blessing and curse, protected by Guardians who stand watch over fabulous treasures, and home to a whole new society. All of this, plus treasures to be found and advanced rules for the explorer, as well as pre-written Major Labyrinths for them to delve into, which all together form a campaign.

Essentially, once the player has drawn a card indicating the entrance to a Labyrinth, he can decide to enter it and explore. This opens up its own set of ‘Labyrinth Tables’ with which the player can create chambers, determine their look, and populate them with a guardian and rewards. The rewards often take the form of treasures such as valuable rings, cups that can heal when drank from, keys some of which are marked with glyphs that open doors to other locations, and shards. The latter appear to have been broken off a larger tablet, and are typically seen as worthless. However, there are some interested in collecting them if the explorer knows where to find them. What the significance of the tablet is, if it can be reconstructed, nobody knows. Some of the treasures are worth a few coins, others a bit more, but there are rare treasures which will grant the explorer advantages when exploring future Labyrinths. The treasures are also important culturally to the peoples who live in the Dungeonlands.

As with exploring the Roomlands up above, there are dangers to be found in the Dungeonlands. The most notable of these are two odd types of Rook. Lichen Rooks are like the Rooks from above, but infested by lichen move in zombie-like fashion, being infested with a strange lichen that they can send out like tendrils and missiles, and worse, this lichen can infect the explorer as ‘Rookrot’. Once infected by Rookrot, an explorer is immune to reinfection, and the bioluminescence it generates is enough light by which the explorer can see in the Dungeons. In some ways, the other type of Rook found in the Colostle – Dungeons, the Spectral Rook, is more a challenge. They are incorporeal and silent, making themselves corporeal to strike at a wayward explorer, before turning incorporeal. The explorer has to learn to strike back at the very moment he is attacked!

Colostle – Dungeons does not add any new Callings, motivations for why an explorer goes out on adventures, or Classes, which determines how he explores the world, how he fights, and what weapon he wields. Instead, it provides something wholly new—a ‘Character Upgrade Class’. This is ‘The Infused’, able to craft powerful potions and concoctions that can be infused into an explorer’s equipment. For example, the Poison Elixir will make the explorer’s weapon paralyse people, whilst the Erosion Elixir will make the weapon erode the very stone that Rooks are made off. However, to become an Infused, the Explorer must find the city of Oubliette in the Dungeonlands and enrol in the Apothecary Militia and undertake months of training which involves delving into numerous Labyrinths. These can played out one by one, or the book allows for the player to simply write about the experiences of that training.

Oubliette, also known as the hanging city, is rumoured to hang directly underneath the city of Parapette in the Roomlands up above. Its spires point down rather than up and its many buildings are connected by bridges, and it is rife with crime, but the inhabitants accept this as the norm. It is dominated by four clans—the Clan of Cups, the Clan of Rings, the Clan of Keys, and the Clan of Shards. The Clan of Cups helps the needy and offers healing, the Clan of Rings are merchants and valuators, the Clan of Keys is made up of explorers and sages of the Dungeonlands, and the Clan of Shards is a highly secretive collector of shards. Each of the leaders of the four clans are detailed, but the explorer’s interaction with them is designed to be done in steps, so that each description gives entries for his first, second, and third visits, and then recorded in an unfolding narrative. Oubliette itself, has its own set of tables for generating encounters whilst the explorer visits and interacts with the merchants and other inhabitants.

Although Colostle – Dungeons provides the ready means for the player to create and explore his own Labyrinths, these will only be the minor Labyrinths to be found in the Dungeonlands. There are Major Labyrinths and over half of Colostle – Dungeons is devoted to these and the campaign they are tied to. There are five such Major Labyrinths, each very different in nature, each having their own discovery and entry requirements, and each mapped out as a series of nodes that the explorer can navigate between. The campaign has a final chapter in which major secrets about the Dungeonlands will be revealed as a well as a dangerous enemy that hopefully, the Explorer will be able to stop. There are notes on continuing the exploration of the Dungeonlands beyond the campaign as well as a hint at the nature of the next book—and potentially the book after that. The campaign will take the Explorer back and forth from Oubliette through the Dungeonlands, making discoveries, finding treasures, trading them, interreacting with the clan leaders, and so on. Of course, it takes some trust upon the part of the reader, since none of the campaign is hidden and the only thing stopping himself from reading further is himself. That said, the campaign is really good, drawing the reader in and making him want to play more to find out and that is combined with the elements that Colostle – Dungeons gives the reader to not only interact with, but also write about. So the weird new Rooks, the infectious Lichen, the strange city of Oubliette and the mysteries of the treasures, as well as the bigger undertakings of exploring the Major Labyrinths.

Physically, Colostle – Dungeons is as stunning as both Colostle: A Solo RPG Adventure and Colostle – The Roomlands were before it. The artwork is superb, beautifully depicting the wondrous world below the Roomlands, dark and dank, awaiting the arrival of the explorer to shine a light on its depths and secrets. It does need a slight edit in places.

Colostle – Dungeons is a beautiful book. Its artwork alone—just as with the previous two books—is enough to draw the viewer into wanting to explore this world. The play of Colostle – Dungeons does not differ all that much from the standard play of Colostle: A Solo RPG Adventure, except of course that it really focuses it in the closed world of the Dungeonlands and then just a little further in the campaign that comes in its pages. That campaign gives the player the opportunity to tell a great story as his explorer delves deeper and exposes one secret after another. Fans of Colostle: A Solo RPG Adventure will welcome this return to the world of Colostle with Colostle – Dungeons, which literally lets them go deeper—and deeper in an obvious direction.

The Other OSR: Dungeons & Death

Dungeons & Death is supplement for Forbidden Psalm and Forbidden Psalm: End Times Edition is a miniatures game published by Space Penguin Ink. It is a 28 mm skirmish level miniatures game playable with just five miniatures per warband per player and as a systems-agnostic setting, those miniatures can be from any range and publisher. It is also notable for a number of things. First, its background means that it is compatible with Mörk Borg, the Swedish pre-apocalypse Old School Renaissance style roleplaying game designed by Ockult Örtmästare Games and Stockholm Kartell and published by Free League Publishing. That means that Player Characters from the roleplaying game can be converted for use with Forbidden Psalm and with a bit of effort, content for Forbidden Psalm, could be adapted to Mörk Borg if a more physical, combative game is desired. Or the Game Master and her players want to scale their game up to handle skirmish encounters on a battlefield rather than in the theatre of the mind.

Dungeons & Death is itself notable for the fact that it contains three scenarios created from fantastic terrain created and painted by the members of the Forbidden Psalm Community. The supplement makes a point of including photographs taken of these three pieces of terrain and each of these is amazing! Not only do the photographs show off the skills of the contributors in terms of sculpting and painting, but they are great handouts should the Game Master want to show them to her players to give them an idea on what they are facing. Otherwise, Dungeons & Death is a short anthology that contains three scenarios and a new set of rules for creating random dungeons that players can take their warbands delving into their depths.

All three scenarios follow the standard format for Forbidden Psalm scenarios, which are presented on two-page spreads. On the left-hand side are entries for the scenario’s ‘Goal’, ‘Reward’, ‘Set-up and Treasure’, ‘Deployment’, and ‘Threats’, plus suggestions for ‘Solo Play’ and ‘Co-op’ play. A time limit is given last. On the right-hand side are mechanics and elements specific to the scenario, which typically includes the stats for monsters and the rules particular to the scenario, a basic map of the set-up, plus a piece of descriptive text to be read out when the players’ warband arriving at the objective for the scenario.

The first of the scenarios is ‘Skull Cave’. Based on a fantastic model and painting of a skull, partially overgrown with vines, its jaw lying separate, and its mouth, gaping wide open. It is claimed that this the skull of giant and it still contains the calcified remains of the giant’s brain. If the Player Characters can get inside the cave, then they can mine the brain fragments. These can be sold for gold or they can be consumed to remove all conditions and heal damage. However, neither the mining of the skull or consuming of the brain fragments is without its risks. The skull could collapse and consuming a brain fragment could transform the Player Character into a monster! A monster that he and his compatriots fought earlier at the mouth of the cave. ‘Skull Cave’ basically takes a classic fantasy roleplaying adventure, that of discovering a body, typically that of a god or a giant, which can then be explored and navigated as it were a dungeon, and turns it in a wargaming encounter.

‘Pies and Lies’ is the second scenario and starts with the Player Characters inside a pie shop. A very quaint pie shop with some utterly lovely pies on display. They have come to steal the pies, but unfortunately, the shop furniture has other ideas and is going to batter the Player Characters as they make a run for it with pies in hand. The treasure consists of the pies themselves and so the aim is to get out of the windows before the pie shop easts someone. Otherwise, ‘Pies and Lies’ is a bit silly.

‘The Statue’ is set in Dawnblight, where the Player Characters suddenly come across a square where a band of hooded people stand around a strange goat-headed statue, chanting for it to awaken. The Player Characters a limited amount of time before the hooded strangers complete their ritual and the statue comes alive! If the statue wakes up, the battle gets even more difficult, but if its is defeated, its skull can be worn as the Helm of the Goat, which has some fun magical effects.

‘Endless Dungeons’ is a set of tables for creating dungeons—networks of corridors and rooms below Dawnblight—which can be mapped out by hand or using dungeon tiles. The starting room is always a standard size, but once a Character opens a door, he can begin rolling dice on the various included tables. These include room size, contents, doors, conditions, monsters either from the Forbidden Psalm rulebook or the Footsteps supplement, NPCs, and so on. The NPCs are daft, including an ‘Intelligent Sock Stealing Goblin’ and a ‘Little Saucepan Man’, who will both join the Player Characters on their search of the dungeon. There is a table of special events that is more sensible. Essentially, a dungeon played using these rules can be played for a long as player wants and can still get the members of warband out of the dungeon. The environment, of course, is dangerous, but there is plenty of opportunity for reward too.

Physically, Dungeons & Death is decently presented, with only a hint of the artpunk styling of Mörk Borg. The wargaming scenarios are clearly laid out and easy to read, and the rules for creating dungeons are easy to use at the table. The illustrations are not too bad, but the photographs are good.

Dungeons & Death is a solid enough expansion for Forbidden Psalm. The scenarios are easy to set up and play and do not demand too much in the way of miniatures or terrain, which is what you expect of Forbidden Psalm. Plus, the dungeon rules are serviceable, but there is an element of silliness which runs counter to the tone of Mörk Borg and some may find to be out of place. Dungeons & Death is not as much use for Mörk Borg—since Mörk Borg and Forbidden Psalm are compatible—and the scenarios are more single encounters than proper adventures. That makes them easy to add to campaign though.

Friday Fantasy: Mercy on the Day of the Eel

Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #12: Mercy on the Day of the Eel is a scenario for Goodman Games’ Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game and the eleventh scenario for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar Boxed Set. Scenarios for Dungeon Crawl Classics tend be darker, grimmer, and even pulpier than traditional Dungeons & Dragons scenarios, even veering close to the Swords & Sorcery subgenre. Scenarios for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar Boxed Set are set in and around the City of the Black Toga, Lankhmar, the home to the adventures of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, the creation of author Fritz Leiber. The city is described as an urban jungle, rife with cutpurses and corruption, guilds and graft, temples and trouble, whores and wonders, and more. Under the cover the frequent fogs and smogs, the streets of the city are home to thieves, pickpockets, burglars, cutpurses, muggers, and anyone else who would skulk in the night! Which includes the Player Characters. And it is these roles which the Player Characters get to be in Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #12: Mercy on the Day of the Eel, small time crooks trying to make a living and a name for themselves, but without attracting the attention of either the city constabulary or worse, the Thieves’ Guild!

Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #12: Mercy on the Day of the Eel is a scenario for Second Level Player Characters and is both an archetypal scenario for use with the Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar Boxed Set, and a slightly weirder one, and also a completely weird one. Of course, the Player Characters have to perform a robbery, because after all, they are thieves and burglars, and this is a scenario set in a city of thieves. It is only slightly weird, because after performing the robbery, the Player Characters have to take what they have stolen and put it back. Almost in true cinema heist fashion. Where it gets really weird is in what the purloined item is and what it will do to the Player Characters—and that is to dump into what is effectively a cartoon tale. Which is enough of a twist to pull on the Player Characters in a standard game of Dungeon Crawl Classics—and to be honest, one they should probably expect by now if they have been played for any length of time—but one hell of a twist to pull on Player Characters for Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar!

The scenario begins with the Player Characters being held captive. Somehow—and the how is something that each player should decide upon for his character—the Player Characters have each fallen foul of the Thieves’ Guild. The reason can be a collective one, shared by all of the Player Characters, or be individual to each Player Character. In this way, the scenario can also be used as a ‘Meetup’, the equivalent of a ‘Character Funnel’ in Dungeon Crawl Classics. A Character Funnel is a scenario specifically designed for Zero Level Player Characters in which initially, a player is expected to roll up three or four Level Zero characters and have them play through a generally nasty, deadly adventure, which surviving will prove a challenge. Those that do survive receive enough Experience Points to advance to First Level and gain all of the advantages of their Class. Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar does have its own Character Funnels, but they are not a major aspect of the setting and its play. What is the ‘Meetup’ in which the Player Characters simply meet on a mission or a burglary or other activity, and instead of getting into a fight about completing the objective, decide to work together and share the rewards. However, most Meetups for Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar are for Zero Level or First Level, rather than Second Level as is Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #12: Mercy on the Day of the Eel. This is, of course, because the players typically want to roleplay their character from First Level rather than Second Level. However, since the Player Characters are held captive and this is a Meetup, they need not know each other, and this could be used as a means to introduce a new Player Character, whether because a previous one died or because there is a new player.

Having fallen foul of the Thieves’ Guild, the Player Characters are offered a way of earning a reprieve by the current guild master. Of course, the Player Characters could have actually done nothing wrong and the guild master might simply want a band of easy muggins who will do a job for him without question and without the other actual members of the guild finding what he is actually up to. Then again, that would be really conniving of him and no master of the Thieves’ Guild would think like that… ever. Anyway, what he actually wants is the Player Characters to do is break into a private members’ club for rich wastrels, steal the taxidermised head of a behemoth, take it a designated point, hand it over, and then, take it back to the private members’ club for rich wastrels, put it back in place, and do all of this before midnight, without getting spotted. This is a lot to ask, but doable. The facilities of the private members club, The Platinum Pelican, are not that large and the staff are few in number, plus it is locked up for most of the day.

Stealing the taxidermised head of a behemoth from the premises of a private members’ club for rich wastrels is the easy bit. The problems for the Player Characters start when they get outside and cats start yowling at them, children starting humming and dancing as they pass by, and any Wizard in the party has the sound of a song in his ear that he just cannot get rid of. They also get worse for the Player Characters because they are not the only ones who want the taxidermised head of the behemoth, or at least what is inside it. What is inside it is a map which depicts a wooded, almost fairy-tale like forested land and it is from this map that the song the Wizard can hear is coming from, and should the Player Characters take the time to examine it—and they should, because it takes a third of the scenario and the Judge has prepared it, after all—it is into this forested land that the Player Characters find themselves cast into!

What the Player Characters find themselves in is the mini-wilderness equivalent of a funhouse dungeon. They will encounter such strange things as a lance-wielding rabbits with snails as their mounts, a River King and his army that is definitely not looking for a fight, and stalked by a beatific hedgehog! All of which is illustrated on flat vellum and in bright, illuminated colours and complete silence! It is a fun world to explore and experience, though relatively short due to the space constraints of the module. Of course, having found themselves inside an illuminated world, the Player Characters have to find their way back, hopefully back to the City of the Sevenscore Smokes and when they do, they will need to decide what to do with the strange map that they have sprung themselves from!

Physically, Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #12: Mercy on the Day of the Eel is well presented. The artwork is good, including that depicting the illuminated world of the map, whilst the cartography nicely serves the scenario.

Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #12: Mercy on the Day of the Eel is as a whole both mundane and magical, the one contrasting sharply with the other. It works because of the nature of the magical item being stolen that as an adventure location, essentially asks what would it be like to adventure in something like a Bag of Holding. Yet if the Player Characters are not drawn into the magical aspect of the scenario, then they do not learn as much about that part of the plot of the scenario, leaving the mundane part. Which is decent enough on its own, but not a great or memorable affair. The said, there is scope for a sequel with regard to the magical item at the heart of Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #12: Mercy on the Day of the Eel, as there is nothing to say that nobody will be able to find their way out once they their find their way in. Might they need a rescue attempt?

Overall, Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #12: Mercy on the Day of the Eel is best used as whole rather than in parts, because it possible to miss the part that makes the scenario memoerable.

Friday Fiction: The Dunwich Horror

The Dunwich Horror is one of horror author H.P. Lovecraft’s most famous stories. It takes place in the mouldering decrepit parts of Massachusetts where the ravines seem to run deep and the trees appear to leap up to ring the stone-topped hills from strange sounds emanate, and few if any of the villagers appear to work their boulder strewn pastures. Here stands Dunwich, a refuge for those fleeing the witch trials of Salem, decayed and shunned in equal measure, where no man of the cloth has set foot for centuries. The Bishops and the Whatelys, the leading families, such as they are, send their few scions to study at Harvard and elsewhere, and some do indeed return to Dunwich. Yet the worst of these scions, and most precocious—both physically and mentally—is Wilbur Whately, who leaves of his own accord, in search of knowledge that will enable him to make contact with his true father. A mere fifteen when he goes in search of this knowledge, it will ultimately be his undoing and his death will have terrible consequences for the village of Dunwich and the men who accompany Doctor Henry Armitage to deal with the aftermath of Wilbur’s attempts to obtain information from the eldritch tomes kept in the stacks of the Miskatonic University library.

Originally published in April 1929 issue of Weird Tales, The Dunwich Horror has been published many times since and in more recent years adapted into films, graphic novels, audio dramas and radio plays, and even a stage play. One of the latest adaptations is none of these, but an illustrated version of the short story. The Dunwich Horror is published by Free League Publishing, a publisher best known for roleplaying games such as Mutant: Year Zero – Roleplaying at the End of Days, Vaesen – Nordic Horror Roleplaying, The One Ring: Roleplaying in the World of Lord of the Rings, and Alien: The Roleplaying Game. It is not the publisher’s first such title. That would be The Call of Cthulhu, the classic of American horror literature and the short story that is arguably H.P. Lovecraft’s most well-known. It has since been followed with At the Mountains of Madness, H.P. Lovecraft’s most famous and only novel, published as two parts, Volume I and Volume II. As with these classics, the Free League Publishing edition of The Dunwich Horror is fully illustrated by French artist François Baranger and presented in a large 10½ by 14 inches folio format.

Much like Lovecraft himself, Baranger draws the reader long up the Miskatonic River to its headwaters amongst the dark hills that surround the village of Dunwich. There is a sense of isolation and decay, shrouded in mist and a gloom of long nights and secrets, the latter brightened by hilltops blazes around which men and things cavort and conspire. Perhaps the most marked sign of decay is the depiction of the traditional New England covered bridge, the wooden walkway leading to it twisted and broken, the bridge itself missing planks and the remaining construction already rotting above the dank waters. As the seasons come and go, the folk of Dunwich comment and chart the strangeness of Wilbur Whately himself and the ongoing construction at the family home. Twice the gloom is broken by fire atop the hillsides, the brightness marred by the unholy reasons for them being lit, once for the birth of Wilbur, then again for his search for answers. It is this search that takes Wilbur to Miskatonic University and here is perhaps the only light in the story, an austere bastion of knowledge caught in the pale winter sun as the looming figure of Wilbur Whately approaches the Orne Library.

Yet this is the only moment of contrast in the depiction of The Dunwich Horror by François Baranger, a moment of calm between Wilbur’s unseemly growth and the thirst for knowledge that will not only kill him and so revealing the ghostly true nature of his form, but also unleash a monstrous horror upon the blighted farming folk of Dunwich. The second half of the novel—the first half being described as a prologue—details for the reasons for reader’s return to Dunwich, the dangerous nature of Wilbur’s researches and the unearthly presence in the village, unseen as it lumbers from one scene of destruction to another. This time though, we are in the company of Doctor Armitage, he and his colleagues equipped with the dread knowledge necessary to banish what that presence might be. The head librarian has already paid the price in the cost to his composure in conducting that research, making clear the insidious effects of looking too much into things that man was not meant to know. The short story and Baranger’s illustrations draw in closer and closer, leaving the expansiveness of the horror’s wake, behind to climb the hill where the fires were once lit. Here in one terrible moment, just as the first half of story revealed Wilbur’s true form in inhuman twistedness, both Lovecraft and Baranger shows us the real ‘Dunwich Horror’.

The third of H.P. Lovecraft’s stories to be adapted by François Baranger, his depiction of The Dunwich Horror is one of brooding claustrophobia and leaden shadows, seeming only to up when the tale looks skyward and to the monstrosity unleashed by Wilbur Whately’s branch of the family. As before, the likelihood is that the reader of this book will have read H.P. Lovecraft’s story before, probably more than once, but François Baranger brings the story to life in sombre tones and startling revelations that match the text perfectly as it reveals much about the Whatelys and the mythology Lovecraft was creating. This new depiction of The Dunwich Horror is perfect for dark nights upon which new readers can discover this classic horror story, whilst old fans can come back to stalk the crepuscular valleys and hills of this corner of New England and be reviled at its secrets once again.