Friday Fantasy: Beyond the Black Gate

It begins with a great crashing and splashing. The Player Characters are aboard the Morro, caught in a fearsome storm of raging winds and seas that is driving the ship ever closer onto the jagged rocks below towering black cliffs. Despite their efforts, and those of the crew, with a mighty crack, the ship is thrown onto the rock and shattered, and the Player Characters cast into the water. Before them lies the cliffs or a dark cave mouth… Whichever course the Player Characters take, they will find themselves in a Fallen Chapel, guided by a large black goat, a cat, an enormous boar, a raven, a trio of toads, a large snake, a wide-eyed owl, and more before a Witches’ Sabbat where they will learn the true reason behind their current situation. The thirteenth of the robed figures, a hag known as Baba Iaga (yes, really…) will tell them that the coven’s master, the Horned King, lord of the Wild Hunt, who bestows his blessing upon heathen witches, barbarian shamans, and warriors that exalt the wild savage hidden within, has lost his vigour. Instead of riding forth, at the head of pack of hounds, he lazes atop his throne of bones, thrall to the ice giant’s daughter. Baba Iaga tells them to enter the Thrice-Tenth Kingdom that is the Horned Lord’s realm and once in his citadel, steal the great antlered crown from his head and come back through the Black Gate render it into her care! In return, she and the Witches of Asur shall reward them mightily!

This is the set-up for Dungeon Crawl Classics #72: Beyond the Black Gate, the sixth scenario to be published by Goodman Games for use with the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game. Designed by Harley Stroh for a group of six to ten Fifth Level Player Characters, which takes beyond the far North into the mystic realms of Thrice-Tenth Kingdom, encrusted in snow and ice and there confront the Ice Giants who have turned his citadel into a foul fane. It has an unworldly feel, grim and dank, and has some fantastic encounters, such as two larger giants bullying a younger one for his cowardice and forcing him to fight the Player Characters alone, refuse chambers full of bones and plague rats, and an ice-mirrored hall slick with frost and ice that turn the cave into a maze of refracted light from the Player Characters’ torches and the hunting ground of a blind, aging Ice Giant Warrior. The Ice Giants are tough challenging, especially when faced in groups, but careful, even cautious play upon the part of the players and their characters will enable them to pick them off one by one.

Penultimately, the Player Characters will confront the gaunt, drained, and haunted figure of the Horned King slumped upon his throne before a Giantess, dancing, twirling, and spinning for this pleasure, whilst the vile, vampiric salamander, feeds upon the Horned King’s blood. She is Vefreyja, the Ice Giant’s Daughter, and the Player Characters should be beware of her kiss, whilst the salamander has secrets of his own. It is a grand fight, but ultimately, the Player Characters have a choice in what they do. They can simply take the crown of the Horned King or kill him, they can free him and take him as Patron, and they can even kill Baba Iaga and her coven. Whatever they decide to do, there are consequences to the Player Characters’ actions. If they return to the Crown of the Horned King to Baba Iaga, she will genuinely reward them—there is no betrayal of the Player Characters here! The Horned King will reward them with his patronage if they rescue him, but alternatively, one of the Player Characters could take the Horned Crown and ascend the throne of the Thrice-Tenth Kingdom. There are great duties involved in bearing the Horned Crown, but great benefits too. This is not as fully explored in the scenario as it should be, but the potential is there and the Judge will need to develop this more fully herself. In addition, there are a number of good magical items to be found and also be earned as a reward if the Player Characters give the Horned Crown to Baba Iaga, so it will not feel as if one player and his character is being rewarded more than another by taking the Horned Crown.

To support the scenario and beyond, Dungeon Crawl Classics #72: Beyond the Black Gate includes details of the Horned King as a Patron, which gives the Patron Invoke effect, Patron Taint, and the spell, Slaying Strike. This is followed by details of the Horned Crown and the other magical items in the scenario.

If there is an issue to the scenario, it is that it is linear and the set-up forces the Player Characters to follow Baba Iaga’s diktats, so it will not seem as if they have much in the way of choice. There is some truth to this, but the players and their characters do have plenty of choice in how they resolve the scenario. Another issue is the maps of the Citadel of the Horned King and the Dungeons of Horned King below it and their accompany descriptions. The description of the dungeon comes in the middle of the Citadel of the Horned King which makes it feel as if the description is forcing the Player Characters to explore below before coming back upstairs to face the Horned King. The inclusion of the dungeon is important because it offers another way into the Citadel of the Horned King, but the inclusion of its description in the middle of the description of the Citadel is an annoying intrusion. It would have made more sense to keep the descriptions separate.

Like the Dungeon Crawl Classics #71: The 13th Skull before it, Dungeon Crawl Classics #72: Beyond the Black Gate includes a second, smaller scenario. This is Terry Olson’s ‘Crash of the Sky People’, a short, Science Fantasy scenario designed for four to six Player Characters of Third Level. Designed for convention play and thus having a running time of roughly four hours, it opens with a starship of the infamous winged sky-pirates from the planet Tahlmohl crashing to earth near the Player Characters. When they go to investigate, they discover the wreckage is guarded by robots and strange traps the likes of which they will never have seen before. The scenario has the feel of S3 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, though on a very much smaller scale. Ultimately though, this is all a set-up to get the Player Characters into a Sky Joust with other Tahlmohlian sky-pirates! The scenario is decent enough for a convention scenario and could easily be tied into other scenarios for Dungeon Crawl Classics which have a similar Science Fantasy feel.

Physically, Dungeon Crawl Classics #72: Beyond the Black Gate is decently presented. The artwork is good and the maps clear and easy to use. In comparison, ‘Crash of the Sky People’ feels more perfunctorily presented, but is okay rather than poor in terms of its appearance.

Dungeon Crawl Classics #72: Beyond the Black Gate is a short, but epic and entertaining Swords & Sorcery scenario. It has a grim grandeur and is brilliantly brutal in taking the Player Characters to the winter of the Mystic North and back again in a thoroughly enjoyable scenario.