Swords & Stitchery - Old Time Sewing & Table Top Rpg Blog

 The PC's were able to get to the tomb of Ethiusu where a copy of a necromatic tome called the Books of Ethiusu which contains the secrets of time and space is held. We picked up from the last session on the blog here. The desert sands were very unkind to the adventurers when a strange strange sand storm blew up. We were using the desert survival rules from the Castles & Crusades Castle Keeper's Guide.

Clark Ashton Smith - ZOTHIQUE.(Ballantine Books 1970)

Will the demon keep it's bargain with our party of 'heroes'?! Or will the ranger's soul be devoured?! This is of course Zothique and all magick is foul and black!

 The PC's almost couldn't cope when the darkness creeped across the landscape and the monsters began to wake up.We lost two operatives last night as the Humpted men closed in on the player's PC's. These things were raving and sobbering humanoid horrors. This picks right up from the last session here on the blog. 
“And I saw how that the Humped Men did seem to be humpt by reason of their being so monstrous thick and mighty of the neck and the shoulder, as that they had been human bulls. And I saw that they were very strong, and by the speed of their climbing, I knew they were swift…” – Ch. 9, “The Dark Pyramid”

 The Humpted Men followed them behind the party almost getting taken and they got two of the PC's who were dragged into the darkness. The party moved on & they found that they were being tracked by an unknown force.The PC's scambled to find a volcanic tube while spraying machine gun fire everytime they heard foot falls. They found the lava tubes and checked the tubes for monsters and found one that was clear. The PC's wanted a better look at what they were up against. 
The party's psionic opened herself up to the influence of the Nightland! This was a bad idea as she was overwhelmed in the incredibly bad influences of the Dark Forces of the Nightland. The PC made her saving throw and was able to shake off these dark influences before she was possessed! 

Deep in the lavatube they found a ton of obsidian arrows from the bows of the Humpted men. These arrows could penatrate most modern body armor. 
The party has moved several boulders into the front of the lava tube. The party survived the night with two guards on the tube's enterance. Outside there were literally dozens of humanoid horrors. These horrors were out there until the red sun rose. The party have fed thier bio implants and then ate thier own food supplies. They were able to cycle out thier guards and they got some sleep. They heard another railed city pulling into the area. The party started toward the railed city and then were attacked by the advanced city guards. The party were shocked by the railed city guards! We ended with the party retreating. Our game ended here!

" Let the grape yield for us its purple flame, And rosy love put off its maidenhood:

"By blackening moons, in lands without a name,
We slew the Incubus and all his brood.
     -- Song of King Hoaraph's Bowmen"

Cover page spread of Clark Ashton Smith’s “The Black Abbot of Puthuum” as it appeared in Weird Tales March 1936.

"Zobal the archer and Cushara the pikebearer had poured many a libation to their friendship in the sanguine liquors of Yoros and the blood of the kingdom's enemies. In that long and lusty amity, broken only by such passing quarrels as concerned the division of a wine-skin or the apportioning of a wench, they had served amid the soldiery of King Hoaraph for a strenuous decade. "

 Clark Ashton Smith’s “The Black Abbot of Puthuum” is a classic yarn of Sword & Sorcery. There are a few incredible details that it classic for use in old school or Sword & Sorcery OSR play. Let's get the story's history outta of the way; "According to Emperor of Dreams: A Clark Ashton Smith Bibliography (1978) by Donald Sidney-Fryer, "The Black Abbot of Puthuum" was first published in the March 1936 issue of Weird Tales. It was included in the books Genius Loci and Other Tales (1948) and Zothique (1970)."

This blog entry picks right up from the Zothique play report on the blog here. 

 The plot is comes straight from the 'The Black Abbot of Putluum wiki entry; "In Yoros, Zobal the archer and Cushara the pike-bearer are assigned by king Hoaraph to retrieve the maiden Rubalsa from Izdrel for the king's harem. They are accompanied by the eunuch Simban." 
Spoilers ahead, first of all you've got the mysterious Black Abbot of Puthuum which in our own campaign has relocated to the capital because of the infestation of lamia and demons. You've got  Ujuk, who is an abbot for the monastery Puthuum & invites the adventurers to a feast. The Zobal the archer and Cushara the pike-bearer remain skeptical to say the least. Ujuk is the spawn of a lamia and then there's the benevolent mummy of the former monk Uldor. And at the story's conclusion the ruins of the Abbot of Puthuum are still there on Zothique. And these ruins  are  still lamia and demon haunted! Sure they disappeared but we get no confirmation that they were destoryed! 

 "(2nd printing -- substantially updated and added to from 1st) The Celts dwelt in a world wholly separate from our own - of stone cromlech, wicker men, dark fey and wild gods. In their world, ancient trees bore the wisdom of time, and the world was alive with spirits. They possessed a language of such haunting beauty that its echoes stir memories within us of a people we once were. The Codex Celtarum delves into the myths of the Celtic peoples, the powers of the world around them, the monsters that hunted them, and the gods that watched over them.

Within the Codex Celtarum lies a wealth of information; gaming material that blows new life into the world of the fey, the druid, the ranger and all characters whose travels carry them through the wooded hills, broken crags and dark forests of our primeval imaginings."

The Codex Celtarum 2nd Printing gives Greyhawk a much more Celtic mythological edge to the campaign world. The Fey & the Celtic gods exist in a sort of uneasy relationship & the world of Greyhawk is changing. The Otherworld takes far more center stage with its influence both helping & hindering Greyhawk at turns. 

" Adtherpe the Spontaneous collected all sorts of information on the multi-verse, its natural resources and the numerous creatures that inhabit it. Within this small tome he has included knowledge on their locations, composition, and the valuable materials they can provide. Also included are notes and recipes for using and crafting herbal mixtures, alchemical compounds, and guidance on harvesting the valuable materials needed for them. A sample of useful material that will enhance any gamemaster’s table!"

  We've got together despite the weather and snow here! We've got a diverse group of New Flesh rpg  party. These guys are sent into an alternative timeline to plunder for technology. In this case, it's the far future of William Hope Hodgeson's Nightland & the party ended up in the twilight zone of the railed cities which chase the giant red sun before the cold horrors of the Nightland close in. 

So basically I built on some of the ideas of the Wretchedvese's temporal wormhole generators for alternative timeline travel. See the Wretched web comics & plugged in some of  William Hope Hodgeson's material. 

" The ancient Lich Malcon the Fire Bringer brings you his next installment. This tome includes many new magic items for your campaign. There are many new class specific items to reward your dungeon delvers with after a hard fought expedition into the depths. "

"Additionally there are a handful of new artifiacts and relics to test the foolhardy adventurers who would try to bend these things to their will. "

Malcon's Tome of Magic Volume Two by Malcon The Fire Bringer & Joseph Mohr  is the latest title that I was looking through for our Castles & Crusades rpg campaign. Why?! Because more then two of my players have ordered from Troll Lord Games. So they know thier way around Castles & Crusades rpg and the supplements. They don't know thier way around this thirty four page supplement for OSRIC. Troll Lord Games Castles & Crusades is designed too work with older resources and this includes the magic items. 

 The PC's met with Queen Bell Avtuv Stygian queen of the wastelands who was banished from her throne of the beginning of the Cimmeria Age to Clark Ashton Smith's Zothique. She's searching for a necromatic tome called the Books of Ethiusu which contains the secrets of time and space. She's hired the PC's to search for this magical artifact.

The PC's themselves travelled to Zothique using the planar byways via thier Astral Knight Sir Tristan. The astral knight was looking for a route back to Greyhawk and rolled very badly. And so wound up back on Zothique. 

The PC's are in Xylac after following the astral thread left by Sir Tristan. The port city of Xylac is according to the Zothique wiki entry;"Xylac is a major state of northwestern Zothique, governed by an emperor. Its principal city is Ummaos. It has a western coastline which includes the port cities of Mirouane^[12] and of Oroth, from which one can sail to Yoros.^[13] Land routes lead southward from Ummaos through the Celotian Waste and past the city of Zul-Bha-Sair to the kingdom of Tasuun."

We're not leaving Xylac quite yet because our clerics and wizards are consulting the scrolls and holy books of the local gods.Yes, this is costing our party a bit of gold but the research is invaluable. Our cleric consulted the Scrolls of  Vergama; 

“...he gave thanks to Vergama who, throughout the whole continent of Zothique, was deemed the most powerful and mysterious of the genii, and was thought to rule over the heavens as well as the earth.” — The Last Hieroglyph, CAS 1934

Meanwhile Zargo the Spellweaver met with the priests and sorcerers of Thasaidon “prince of all turpitudes." From the Scrolls of Vergama we learned that the Books of Ethiusu are held within the temple palaces of Naat. And from  the priests and sorcerers guild  of Thasaidon “prince of all turpitudes." we found out that the books are sacred to ALILA “Queen of perdition and goddess of all iniquities”.These books are guarded by a tribe of lamia & contain the spells of the doors of Yog-Sothoth .The party isn't exactly happy about this and Naat isn't a kingdom to screw with because we've got to charter a boat to travel across the Black River. So that's where we ended when we went back to the Talon of the Necromancer Tavern & discussed our next move. 

So of course we're using Zothique D20 by George Hager available right over here.  However, most of our PC's are straight from the Castles & Crusades player's handbook available right over here. 

That being said we're diving deeply into the Adventurer's Backpack for some of our other more esoteric PC classes. Zothique is a complete wasteland and highly dangerous so we've had to modify some of our equipment, armor, etc. We've also had to make contacts in both the Zothique adventurer's guild, the priest and wizard's guild and other factions. More to come! 

 "High on a fog-shrouded hill sits the ruin of the long-forgotten keep of Lord Winslow Veymar, a cursed Death Knight. Bound by an unbroken vow, he roams the shattered halls in eternal search of his lost love, his muse, Lady Katarina. In the central tower of the ruin rests the Scarlet Heart, a heart-shaped ruby pulsing with ancient magic—the key to Veymar’s curse and his undying torment of lost love. But the truth is far crueler than he knows. Now, the keep is haunted by spectral knights, strange beasts, and restless dead, drawn to their master’s sorrow. A fearless band of heroes is needed to brave the dungeon, uncover the truth and their ultimate fate! Treasures beyond imagination await those bold enough to enter the forsaken halls and confront the Phantom of the Scarlet Heart! Cover art by Justin Davis!"

MMD#3 Maximum Mayhem: Phantom of the Scarlet Heart is perfect to use as middle point adventure for a Castles & Crusades or Advanced Dungeons & Dragons first edition campaign. This adventure combines both a plot driven romp and plent of dungeon crawling.