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 which 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, 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 the reader 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 let 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 previously, 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.

Companion Chronicles #2: The Adventure of the Loathsome Wyrm and the Machrel of the Sea

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 use with Pendragon, Sixth Edition. This can be 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?

The Adventure of the Loathsome Wyrm and the Machrel of the Sea is a scenario for use with Pendragon, Sixth Edition which details a request to rid the lands of a knight of a fearsome wyram! However not all is as it seems...

It is a full colour, twenty-five page, 32.72 MB PDF.

The layout is tidy and it is nicely illustrated.

It needs a slight edit.

Where is the Quest Set?

The Adventure of the Loathsome Wyrm and the Machrel of the Sea is set within the lands of a knight whose manor is located on the coast.

Who should go on this Quest?

The Adventure of the Loathsome Wyrm and the Machrel of the Sea requires Player-knights with a good mix of combat and non-combat skills. The Sing skill will be of use in the scenario.

It is best suited for play by a group of Player-knights rather than one or two.

What does the Quest require?

The Adventure of the Loathsome Wyrm and the Machrel of the Sea requires the Pendragon, Sixth Edition rules or the Pendragon Starter Set.

Where will the Quest take the Knights?

The Adventure of the Loathsome Wyrm and the Machrel of the Sea starts with the Player-knights being asked by their liege lord to fulfil a request for help from another knight, Lord Tywyn. He has of late returned from a pilgrimage to the Holy Land to find his lands beset by a dragon, which so far has killed the seven knights sent to deal with it by his wife and defeated himself. No single knight can best it, so he requests that a group try instead.

Both Lord Tywyn and his wife, the Lady Allison, will be keen for the Player-knights to ride out the next day and face the dragon where it lairs near the village of Salthaven. There they will discover that something odd is going on and with some slightly challenging roleplaying discover what has been going on, though there is the likelihood that the players will have realised what this is before their knights! This will lead to quite a nasty confrontation and combat, and following that, a number of interesting moral situations in terms of resolving the scenario. In particular, these are nicely laid out for the benefit of the Game Master and so help in the resolution of the scenario.

In addition, the scenario provides a wide number of NPCs for the Player-knights to interact with, and learn rumours and clues from, both in the manor house of Lord Tywyn and Lady Allison, and in the village of Salthaven. There is also an inventive selection of rewards that the Player-knights can be presented with for dealing with the ‘infestation’ of the dragon. There is also one NPC who could become a most singular wife were a Player-knight so inclined and up to the challenge!

The Adventure of the Loathsome Wyrm and the Machrel of the Sea is inspired by The Laily Worm and the Machrel of the Sea (Spoiler Alert!). This is included in the scenario.

Should the Knights ride out on this Quest?

There is a classic fairy tale feel to The Adventure of the Loathsome Wyrm and the Machrel of the Sea, unsurprising given that its source of inspiration is a folk song. There is the possibility that the players may work out what the plot is before their knights do, but as players they should obviously roleplay what their knights do know. This will enable them to enjoy a nicely engaging adaptation of a folk song into a tale of greed and ambition.

Jonstown Jottings #93: The Gate of Dusk

Much like the Miskatonic Repository for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition, the Jonstown Compendium is a curated platform for user-made content, but for material set in Greg Stafford’s mythic universe of Glorantha. It enables creators to sell their own original content for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, 13th Age Glorantha, and HeroQuest Glorantha (Questworlds). This can include original scenarios, background material, cults, mythology, details of NPCs and monsters, and so on, but none of this content should be considered to be ‘canon’, but rather fall under ‘Your Glorantha Will Vary’. This means that there is still scope for the authors to create interesting and useful content that others can bring to their Glorantha-set campaigns.

—oOo—

What is it?

The Gate of Dusk is a scenario for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha in which the Player Characters are hired to provide protection during a ritual in which the participant wants to prove himself worthy to be king of his tribe.

It is a possible corollary to the scenario, ‘The Pegasus Plateau’, from The Pegasus Plateau & Other Stories: Seven Ready-to-Play Adventures for RuneQuest.

It is the first part of a series of scenarios which explores the future of the Locaem tribe.

It is a full colour, forty-two page, 117.50 MB PDF.

The layout is clean and tidy and it is decently illustrated, especially the NPCs.

The cartography is excellent.

Where is it set?

The Gate of Dusk takes place at the titular ruins located at the western tip of lands belonging to the Locaem tribe.

It is set after the DragonRise in 1625 or early 1626.

Who do you play?
The Gate of Dusk does not require any specific character type, but Player Characters who are capable warriors are highly recommended.

What do you need?
The Gate of Dusk requires RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, the RuneQuest: Glorantha Bestiary, and The Pegasus Plateau & Other Stories: Seven Ready-to-Play Adventures for RuneQuest.

The Gate of Dusk also references The Smoking Ruin & Other Stories, The Book of

Heortling Mythology, Sartar: Kingdom of Heroes, and the Sartar Companion. None of these are required to run the adventure.

What do you get?

The Gate of Dusk is a tale of intrigue and desperation set after trying times have befallen the Locaem Tribe. Beset by potential rivals, if not enemies all around, the tribe has been greatly weakened by the Dragonrise, which killed both its king, Gavial Brightspear, and many of the heads of the tribes’ clans who would have been candidates to take his place. Several of the clans have put forward candidates to undertake the Crown Tests that will ultimately confirm one candidate as king. This includes the Wind Lords, Farinst of the Richberry Clan and Krulta of the Zethnoring Clan, both rivals. However, Farinst is planning to undergo a ritual at the Gate of Dusk that will improve his chances of being acclaimed king.

The Player Characters will accompany Farinst to the Gate of Dusk and are expected to protect him over night. However, his rival, Krulta, has other plans and by the time the Farinst and the Player Characters arrive, she will already have set them in motion. The Player Characters have the opportunity to explore the Gate of Dusk and potentially realise that something is amiss. The scenario will culminate in attacks on those within the Gate of Dusk. Honour forbids Krulta from killing anyone associated with her tribe, but that does not extend to the Player Characters, nor does it include others who are interested in disrupting the ritual.

Ideally, the Player Characters will be able to protect Farinst and hold off the attackers, whilst Farinst successfully undergoes the ritual. He will become an important contact and possible ally for them. However, this is not the only possible outcome, and The Gate of Dusk discusses these as well as possible adventure hooks for the Player Characters, and the idea that a Player Character might want to pursue the path to become king of the Locaem tribe! The scenario also explores a number of possible sequels and adventure ideas in terms of followup.

In terms of background material, The Gate of Dusk provides an overview of the Locaem Tribe and its most notable members, a detailed description of the Gate of Dusk, the nature of Crown Tests for the Locaem Tribe, and more. There is also a set of twenty-five rather nice foldable characters and defenders, which along with the maps can be imported into a VTT or cut out and used on the table.

Is it worth your time?

Yes—The Gate of Dusk is an easy to set up, one or two session scenario that lays the groundwork for further scenarios and the future of the Locaem Tribe, and good for a Sartar-set campaign.

No—The Gate of Dusk is too combat-focused and either the Game Master is not running a campaign set in Sartar or not near the Locaem Tribal lands, or the Locaem Tribe might be enemies of the Player Characters. (That said, have a king of a rival tribe owing you a favour...)

Maybe—The Gate of Dusk is easy to run and add to a campaign, but its defensive nature feels familiar and perhaps the politics of the plot will not interest the Player Characters?

Machenesque Mysteries

In the wake of the Great War, men brought the horrors of the trenches on the Western Front home with them. Yet there was no respite, for there were horrors on the home front. As the Jazz players trumpeted a new golden age and the Bright Young Things danced into the light, some returned to the dark, bucolic wilds of Wales. Promises of sleep free of terrible memories lead to labour of another kind to build edifices deep mountains, of solitary walkers dragged away by creatures out of legend never to be seen again, of young girls playing with new friends in the woods only to return the following day having aged years, of witch-driven cults dedicated to ancient practices that promise healthy harvests. Others returned to the metropolis to become ensnared in dark doings in grimy alleys and fog-shrouded back streets, dank basements, and behind the façades of genteel clubs and societies. Scientists explore beyond the rationality of reason in pursuit of knowledge that only their ancestors understood the dangers of. The Cult of Dionysus spreads its influence as it inducts civil servants and other officials into its ranks. Creatures out of myth and legend prey on the lonely and the lost, unnoticed amongst the city’s teeming masses. There are signs of the occult and weirdness everywhere if you know what to look and have had your eyes opened. There is worse beyond, for on the other side of the Veil lies the Otherworld, which goes by many names—‘TírnAill’ in Ireland, ‘Annwn’ in Wales, ‘Avalon’ in Arthurian legend—and is a strange and twisted domain, home to gods whom our ancestors gave form and name, such as Arawn, Pan, Nodens… There are points where the Veil between this world and the Otherworld is at its weakest and that is when the influence of the Otherworld begins to seep through and worse, even let its gods in.

Fortunately, there is a group of people who know about the Otherworld and investigate signs of the weird and the horrific and the terror it triggers. The Gold Tiberius Society was founded in 1906 as a collective to investigate such occurrences and as these took their toll upon the founding members, it began to look for new members at the beginning of the Jazz Age. Those it invites are of independent means and have the time and inclination to investigate, delve deep into the society’s archives scattered across London, and continue working on the Scarlet Map, a geographical representation of the Veins that seem to connect and criss-cross the capital as well as lead back into the Welsh countryside.

This is the set-up for The Terror Beneath: An Investigative Roleplaying Games of Weird Folk Horror. Published by Osprey Games, best known for roleplaying games such as Hard City: Noir Roleplaying and Jackals – Bronze Age Fantasy Roleplaying, it is written by the author of Romance of the Perilous Land: A Roleplaying Game of British Folklore. It is roleplaying game based on the works of Arthur Machen, the Welsh horror writer, author of books such as The Great God Pan, The White People, and The Inmost Light, who explored themes such as decadence, the degeneration of the human soul, the corruption of the innocent, scientists combining technology with the occult, the revelation that murderous beings from the other side lie behind common folklore, pagan practices to ancient deities, and more. There are elements of folk horror here, but also eldritch horror, such that Machen’s work is seen as a precursor to and influence upon the works of H.P. Lovecraft. The latter is important in The Terror Beneath in several ways.

The Terror Beneath is written for use with The GUMSHOE System, most notably used in the roleplaying game Trail of Cthulhu, published by Pelgrane Press. Originally designed for the roleplaying games, The Esoterrorists and Fear Itself, the concept behind The GUMSHOE System is that investigative scenarios are difficult to run with most role-playing games. What it does is make sure that not only are the clues needed to push the story and the investigation forward easy to find, but also that the Investigators are competent to find them. Further, if the players and their Investigators want more information, they can look for it and if they have the area of expertise and the points to pay for it, they find that too. Then it is up to the players to interpret what their Investigators have found. The Terror Beneath uses the most recent version of The GUMSHOE System, most recently seen in Cthulhu Confidential and Night’s Black Agents: Solo Ops. What this means is that Investigative Abilities do not have points, but instead have Pushes, which the player can spend to gain the extra information or a benefit. Nevertheless, this means that The Terror Beneath is compatible with Trail of Cthulhu, Pelgrane Press’ roleplaying game of Lovecraftian investigative horror, and as its inspiration is the precursor to much of Lovecraft’s fiction, it has links to Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition published by Chaosium, Inc.. For example, Noden appears in the Keeper Rulebook for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition, and Machen’s ‘Little People’ appear in the scenario, ‘Plant Y Daear’, in the anthology, Sacraments of Evil.

In terms of framing, The Terror Beneath is set during the 1920s though much of Machen’s fiction was written and takes place before the Great War. The Gold Tiberius Society is a device designed to facilitate investigations and provide a reason for the Investigators to delve into the horrors that lurk in the shadows. It is thus set a decade before Trail of Cthulhu, which takes place in the Desperate Decade of the thirties, but it shares the same squalid metropolis as Bookhounds of London and perhaps a reverence for Britain with Fearful Symmetries. Perhaps as the Roaring Twenties draws to a close, a campaign for The Terror Beneath could dovetail into one or the other, if not both?

What The Terror Beneath does share with Trail of Cthulhu is Modes of Play. In Trail of Cthulhu, these are ‘Pulp’ and ‘Purist’. In The Terror Beneath, they are ‘Terror’ and ‘Pulp’. In ‘Terror’ mode, the Investigators can suffer less Shock and fewer Injury Cards than in ‘Pulp’ Mode, which is slightly more forgiving. That said, The Terror Beneath draws a distinction between ‘Terror’ and ‘Horror’. Terror is the feeling of dread and uncertainty before the actual horror is revealed, and it is this terror that the Game Master should be striving to invoke in her players and their Investigators.

An Investigator in The Terror Beneath is defined by two types of Abilities—Investigative Abilities and General Abilities. Investigative Abilities, such as Assess Honesty, Essayist, Folklore, Occultism, and Streetwise, are used to gain information. If the Investigator has the Investigative Ability, he receives the information or the clue. General Abilities, like Driving, Fighting, Health and Sense Trouble, are more traditional in that their use requires dice to be rolled and a test passed to determine the outcome. He also has a name and a Drive, which motivates the Investigator to expose himself to the terror of the horrors that lie out there, such as ‘Adventure’, ‘Duty’, or ‘Morbid Fascination’. Investigator creation is actually easy and fast. A player selects an Occupation Kit like Antiquarian, Museum Curator, and Scientist, and combines it with a Background Kit such as Conscripted Soldier, Farmhand, Munitions Factory Worker, and Shipbuilder. The Occupation Kit provides the Investigative Abilities, whilst the Background Kit provides the General Abilities.

Name: Winifred Messam
Drive: Show-Off
Occupation Kit: Bright Young Thing
Background Kit: Silver Spoon
Investigative Abilities: Charm, Culture, Inspiration, Society
General Abilities: Athletics 5, Composure 7, Driving 4, Fighting 5, First Aid2, Health 6, Mechanics 0, Preparedness 2, Sense Trouble 1, Sneaking 0

There are some notably different Investigative Abilities. ‘Dérive’ is the ability to notice the strange changes and differences in London from walking the streets regularly, whilst ‘Essayist’ represents the writer's ability to navigate literary London, understand its numerous figures and their relationships, and present a coherent argument on the page and in person.

Mechanically, an Investigator in The Terror Beneath only spends Pushes for Investigative Abilities to gain extra clues beyond the basic, and then points from the General Abilities to perform actions. In general, an Investigator does not necessarily fail in a task, but instead fails forward, perhaps finding another way to approach the task or succeeding with a complication. A Push is used in conjunction with an Investigative Ability. For example, if used in conjunction with Linguistics, the Investigator might acquire an occult tome for a better price, set up a working relationship with an expert philologist, notice that a tome is a palimpsest, and so on. Once spent, there will be moments in play when the points from General Abilities and Pushes can be refreshed.

Combat in The Terror Beneath is designed to have a narrative flow and be brutal. Initiative order is determined by the number of points from the Fighting General Ability invested in the fight and then the progress of the fight is tracked by the margin between the Difficulty number for the foe and the die result each player rolls. Individually, if the result is less than the Difficulty number, then the Investigator will suffer the effects of the foe’s Minor Injury or Major Injury Card, depending upon how low the margin is. If the result is equal to, or higher than, the Difficulty number, then the Investigator succeeds and the player can narrate how his Investigator carries out the objectives set out at the beginning of the fight. If it is three or more, it is kept at three and the Investigator will receive a Fight Benefit, such as a Push or a refreshed General Ability, at the end of the combat. Even if the Investigator succeeds, he still suffers a Toll, the effect of actually fighting the foe. Typically, this will be a levy of a single General Ability Point, which can come from Athletics, Fighting, or Health. At the end of the round, the running total the margins determines if the fight is going in the Investigators’ favour or against them.

Injuries are handled as Injury Cards, which can be Major or Minor. For example, the Minor Injury Card for a Hound of Annwn is ‘Annwn Bite’ and the Major Injury Card is ‘Annwn Paralysis’. Mental hazards require a Composure test and, on a failure, the Investigator will suffer a Minor Shock or a Major Shock. For example, when the Investigator enters a foreboding place, the Minor Shock is ‘Foreboding Place’, but the Major Shock is ‘Terrible Place’. These typically last for the length of an investigation, and impose penalties upon an Investigator’s actions. An Investigator cannot have three Injury Cards or three Shock Cards, although he could have two of either. However, if the third and final Card is an Injury Card, the Investigator is dead, or loses grip on reality if a Shock Card. Either way, the player has the opportunity to narrate the outcome. The Terror Beneath lists all of the Shock and Injury Cards in the back of the book.

Combat focuses on brawling rather than shootouts. In fact, there are no stats for guns in The Terror Beneath, but this does not mean that they are not present in the Roaring Twenties it portrays. Rather they are in the hands of NPCs rather than the Investigators. For example, the Gangster is armed and it is possible for an Investigator to be shot. This is represented by a Minor Injury Card and a Major Injury Card, ‘Grazed’ and ‘Shot’ respectively. Melee attacks are handled in the same way, such as the ‘Cudgel Blow’ and ‘A Thorough Thrashing’ Injury Cards. There is thus a brutality to combat and the Investigators are trying to avoid suffering damage and its deleterious effect as much as inflicting it on their foes or stopping what they are doing. Combat in The Terror Beneath is something to be avoided.

Similar to a Mental hazard, it takes a Composure test to perform sorcery and if failed the caster suffers a Major Shock. There may also be a Toll on the caster’s Athletics, Fighting, or Health, even if successful. This can be one, two, or three points, so it is often better to cast spells as a group. Some spells require a higher Bleed value for the spell to be cast without penalty. The list of spells in The Terror Beneath is not extensive, but this is not a roleplaying in which the Investigators will be casting a lot of spells.

In terms of setting and background, The Terror Beneath presents a broad overview, that over the course of the book looks at Arthur Machen’s fiction, weird folk horror investigations, the Gold Tiberius Society, and both London and Wales, the two contrasting locations for Machen’s fiction. For London there are descriptions of the various cults and secret societies in the city, whilst for Wales there are the places of power in the rural countryside and the pagan cults found there. Both cults and societies provide numerous human threats with links to the Otherworld and the terrors that the Game Master can develop as the basis for her scenarios. Besides the gods of the Otherworld and numerous creatures drawn from folklore and definitely dark and dangerous, there is advice for the Game Master on handling both Terror and Horror, primarily by building points where Terror might strike into a scenario, building backwards from the horror to create the mystery and basis of the investigation, laying out clues, and so on.

The Terror Beneath includes a scenario, ‘Mystery: Don’t Sleep’. The Investigators are called in to look into the sudden disappearance of a London dock worker. This is set in the capital—there is no mystery set in rural Wales in The Terror Beneath—and takes the Investigator into the communities of London’s docks and veterans of the Great War to discover the consequences of a secret military project conducted during the war. It explores Machen’s theme of misused science and its vile consequences.

Physically, The Terror Beneath is a relatively slim book. The book is well written, though lightly illustrated with dark, murky artwork which swirls with threat and peculiarity.

The Terror Beneath is published at a time when the interest in folk horror continues to grow and grow, yet it offers more than that. Its horror is eldritch and ancient, verging on the unknowable, yet rooted in folkloric explanations for the unknown, so there is a familiarity to elements of it. This is more cultural in origin as opposed to the unknowable we have learned from the pen of H.P. Lovecraft and through roleplaying games such as Call of Cthulhu and Trail of Cthulhu. Setting The Terror Beneath in the Roaring Twenties means that we can explore a period normally associated with Lovecraftian investigative horror and do so without the negative aspects of Lovecraft’s writings. Ultimately, The Terror Beneath: An Investigative Roleplaying Games of Weird Folk Horror enables us to explore the horror of Arthur Machen, his precursor, primordial and peculiar, veiled and vile, and regarded as the first modern writer of the genre.