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

 "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. 

 Congratulations on my buddy Mark Taormino for snagging  legendary AD&D artist Erol Otus for his latest kickstarter TWO BRAND NEW FIRST EDITION modules Maximum Mayhem Dungeons #10: Fantastic Quest of the Whimsical One and Maximum Mayhem Dungeons #11: Lost Tomb of the Mummy Lich! 
Maximum Mayhem Dungeons #10: Fantastic Quest of the Whimsical One is for PC's levels 3-6 which means that it's going to be both challenging and deadly; "
Deep inside a hidden mountain exists a peaceful, magical world of underground caverns filled with colorful oozing slimes, living plants, and a vast array of enchanted creatures. This subterranean paradise was recently corrupted by a mysterious evil creature named Discordia, who appeared from a crack in the depths of the realm, turning the land and its inhabitants into horrible abominations. One lone survivor, an eccentric outcast wyrm named Huffenpuff, managed to escape to the upper level. In a chance encounter with your stalwart group, he explained that his world needs your help. You must retrieve three powerful artifacts; and, if successful, he will gain the courage and power needed to aid you in the final battle against the wicked one. Together, you and this unlikely hero will restore peace and save his mysterious land by undertaking the Fantastic Quest of the Whimsical One!"

It sounds like the first edition Fantastic Quest of the Whimsical One module would be perfect for a fairy tail style Castles & Crusades or AD&D first edition campaign with a Fey bent to it. The whimsy and horror of it oozes from the pours of the module. Personally I'd place this module deep within the confines of a Castles & Crusades Greyhawk. It has the feel of an adventure that James Ward or Gary Gygax would do. 

Yes Virgina there is a log floom  ride in MMD#10 art by Jacob Blackmon

The second module Maximum Mayhem Dungeons #11: Lost Tomb of the Mummy Lich has my interest. This module has a bit of everything of the classic Dark Wizard modules and that's deep adventure plot, diobolical tricks & traps, and deadly dungeons. All of this is reflected in the  Lost Tomb of the Mummy Lich's adventure plot; "A recent earthquake has unearthed the hidden tomb of the long-forgotten Pharaoh Ankhen-Hotep. Deep inside the ruins, a dark cult has taken over the site, worshipping the mummy. With his new followers, the lich has awakened from sleep and is now raising an undead army to march on the living, seeking to use his evil magic to dominate the region. A fearless band of heroes is needed to infiltrate the dungeon, navigate the deadly traps and monsters, thwart the cult's wicked plans, and destroy the undead Pharaoh before his dark reign begins anew. Fortune and glory await the brave souls who can survive and escape from the Lost Tomb of the Mummy Lich!"

 The  Lost Tomb of the Mummy Lich's adventure has a bit of everything for the DM on the move. You've got an uncovered dungeon, an underground cult, powerful monsters, and a baked in NPC vile villain. MM#11 is perfect adventure to add into the world of the Hyperborea rpg. Take  the  Lost Tomb of the Mummy Lich & add it into the Dimond Desert. The Diamond Desert is perfect as a blank slate for the DM to add in the Tomb of the Lich King as both history and kingdom. Add in the cult and things get very 'Sword of Conan' like very quickly. 
The Lich king had a giant kingdom in the ancient history of Hyperborea. This means that the Tomb of the Lich King can act as a touch stone for both this dungeon and other massive mega dungeon locations. At the center of it is the lich king himself who could act as a massive NPC villain just waiting to burst into the lives the PC's! 
You can support  Mark Taormino's Kickstarter right here. 

 "This adventure is about a Magic-User who had a mid-life crisis at the age of forty-sevens and decided to pursue his life long dream of being a Court Jester doing funny routines with puppets! There's only one little problem... Nobody thought he was funny and countless villages, hamlets and cities run him and his disgusting "comedy act" out of town. Living in the wilds as an outcast and growing madder as the days turned to months and months to years he finally found his audience, a tribe of goblins who saw him as hilarious and elected him their new leader. Together with the goblins he enchanted an old castle and turned it into his "fun house" dungeon with nightly puppet shows only for those brave enough to enter and defeat all challenges for the riches within!" 

Maximum Mayhem Dungeons #8: Funhouse of the Puppet Jester By Mark Taormino is going to be coming up here. And knowing Mark's adventure modules as I do this is going to be a great one. And this module is perfect for our Tainted Greyhawk setting. DM Steve is really excited for Mark's latest Kickstarter. The following is all speculation & commentary based on Dark Wizard Games past modules. 
The Court Jester seems almost like a Ravenloft Dark Lord in some horror respects & aspects. It's the adaptability of Mark's modules that plugs into AD&D first edition and other OSR rpg systems that makes them excellent. For Greyhawk the Court Jester's dungeon & facilities are perfect right before the wilderness really begins. And it would fit just outside of the capital and between the wilderness. 
Running Maximum Mayhem Dungeons #8: Funhouse of the Puppet Jester is gonna be a snap with Castles & Crusades. The stat blocks, expanded encounters, etc are all going to be perfect for levels five to ten. In terms of Castles & Crusades this puts MMD#8 right in the mid level for PC's. 

Plot and encounter wise Dark Wizard Games modules have definitively lethal element to them. And this isn't a bad thing with challenging encounters for even the most jaded of players. Mark's modules also can turn dangerous with innocent seeming encounters and this is also going to happen in Maximum Mayhem Dungeons #8: Funhouse of the Puppet Jester. And this lends to the fact that we can place the Funhouse of the Puppet Jester and it's environs literally into your own OSR  campaign setting with little issue. So we're really looking forward to Maximum Mayhem Dungeons #8: Funhouse of the Puppet Jester By Mark Taormino Kickstarter Coming Up! 

 So tonight's Castles & Crusades Vampire Queen session hits hard because DM Steve did an entire sub fortress before the main castle. This is a small manor and fortress that was tucked away on the far side of the map. This session report picks right up from here on the blog. And this brooding small stone walled fortress surrounded a central manor house. And we snuck into during the day good plan right?! 

Wrong, we got our asses handed to us by two tribes of orcs and thier hobgoblin overlords. And these things were nasty! The hobgoblins were slightly stronger then normal doing an extra +2 to all hand to hand damge due to vampire blood. The things guarded a manor house and we made it over the wall into the lower tunnels under the place. That's when we ran straight into the orc shaman and his horde of zombies!?! 

And then there was another stone coffin that we only caught a glimpse of before our cleric got nailed by a poison blow gun dart! Fortunately it was only sleep toxin other wise we'd be in in deep spit. We fought past two orc skeletons to retreat back into the woods. Fortunately we didn't alert the whole place to our presence. 

Now we're in the woods and licking our wounds from the damn orcs and the shamans. But we want to know whose in that manor house?! Our fighter got a nasty cut above his head and the cleric was down so it's retreat time for the moment. But we've got a map sketched out of the manor, the fortress, and tunnels under the place which is in the side of a small mountainous area. 

 So as you know from the last session last week I'm deeply engrained with DM Steve's Tainted Greyhawk campaign where we're treading on the outer edges of the vampire queen's domain. We finished off the last of the zombie bandits from last game. This wasn't an easy fight to say the least. But then we came across the bandit king's lair during the daylight hours. And the bastard was a vampire and that lair was guarded by giant rats and giant bats. 

We're playing a variation of Hanging Coffins of The Vampire Queen. Which  is fantastic module  available from Dark Wizard Games here.  Back to the band king vampire, there was no way that we were going to let this thing keep existing but it was going to be a slog to get to him. We were conserving our mages and so forth. So it was down to dirty tricks and two caskets of burning oil down the enterance of the cavern lair. 
The free willed intelligent zombies are part of the vampire queen's mercenary forces and have been one of the hazards that we've run into twice now. This part time we were ready. There were passive dangers from the bandit king's lair including dart traps, pit traps, green slime (always a crowd pleaser), and rot grub pits. All passive defenses. And then there were the numerous giant rats, and bats to contend with not to mention the unintelligent zombies and two intelligent ghoul body guards. We had to think our way past everything. And we had to do it by sunset with all of the traps designed to slow us down. And finally we got to the stone coffin and it was a false set up with an intellgent slime monster. And here's where the wizard's fire ball spell came in truly handy. 

 During tonight's game we ran straight into the arms of undead bandits. And it wasn't pretty but a fortunate fireball from one of our wizards saved our hides. We're geting close to the Vampire queen's castle and the undead are getting worse. Hanging Coffins of The Vampire Queen is available from Dark Wizard Games here.  

And all of this kicked off from a week or so ago's Castles & Crusade's Hanging Coffins of the Vampire Queen session right here on the blog!  DM Steve is using a variation on James Ward Tainted Lands and the undead mixed with the Hanging Coffins. And these things have been tough but the real headache was running into a party of pig faced Orc adventurers! These things were mercenaries working for the vampire queen. And scattered throughout out the vampire queen's lands have been her mercenaries and forces. We've recovered some treasure but it's mostly been supplies and such! We're on the outer edges of the vampire queen's domain. 

We were going to hook up with the local resistence to the vampire queen and instead walked right into an ambush by undesd bandits. And these things are free willed and intelligent zombies with passion for violence and an appetite for flesh or brains. We were ready for them this time however! 
This is a Tainted Lands version of Greyhawk where the lands have been subverted by the presence of dark lord like rulers. And the Tainted Lands has extended its reach across Greyhawk. Castles & Crusades is ideally suited to this style of campaign. But it has been tough going to say the least! 

So we pick up right where we left off on the blog here. We're playing in a Tainted Lands version of Greyhawk. And we've been forced to flee the skeleton forces of the Vampire Queen & go deeper into the wilderness whilst circling around back to the track where the vampire queen's lair & castle are. 

During session two we've encountered packs of wolves and had been forced to flee toward a trapper's cabin to restock and supply. Even with higher level PC's this has proven to be a bit on the daunting side with lots of dodging and weaving. Our two cleric have been put upon for both martial and first aid while we found the trapper's cabin with no one home. We've left appropriate gold coin as recompense as we've gathered new arrows, torches, etc. 

We left the cabin as soon as possible and fled into the woods at daybreak at break neck pace with the wolf packs on our tail. The night found us in a cave back on the trail we needed and our backs against the cavern wall. We're counting torches and conserving arrows. We heard pig faced orcs down in the valley below and saw that they had a shaman. This is bad news. This means that the vampire queen is using mercenary forces to shore up her own. We ended here for now. 
 This is beginning to feel like a horror movie instead of a Castles & Crusades game given that we're using James Ward's Tainted Lands as a sorta of a background element for Greyhawk this isn't a bad thing. 

Over the years I've been obessed with my buddy Mark Taormino's Hanging Coffins of the Vampire Queen. There's less then twenty four hours left for the Kickstarter. So when I got invited to bring in one of my high level PC's into DM Steve's Tainted Lands game. I was jumping at the chance to get out from behind the screen. Lazlo The Amazing my 10th level wizard was finally getting a work out.  This blog post picks right up from this commentary  here on the blog. 

 So we're using a combination of Castles & Crusades with higher level PC's. And it's going pretty solidly with the players having to think on thier feet when it comes to dealing with deadlier intelligent undead. These undead are organized, intelligent, and going to town on the local populace with these being the norm for James Ward's Tainted Lands

 "Hope everyone is well! If you're a fan of "Funhouse Dungeons" then be sure to check out the new Dark Wizard Games Kickstarter Project NOW LIVE! It is for the brand new FIRST PRINTING softcover of Hanging Coffins of the Vampire Queen for 5TH EDITION! The FIFTH EDITION module has a FULL COLOR map on the inside of the cover as well as some new black and white artwork in the booklet! You can also pick up the new 10 Year ANNIVERSARY EDITION softcover of the ORIGINAL 1E module which is only available via KICKSTARTER grab a copy NOW because you don't want to miss out if you a collector or major fan of that module! One last treasure you can acquire in the KS is the softcover of the Recipes from the Inn of the Whistling Pig which contains 16 rustic, real world items you can cook with for you family and friends! https://www.kickstarter.com/.../vampire-queen-5e-and-10..."

So my buddy Mark Taormino's Dark Wizard Games has a brand new Kickstarter for the 10th Anniversary of  'The Hanging Coffins of the Vampire Princess'. And My player's Castles & Crusades PC's were wiped out during the events of #1. Hanging Coffins has the PC's in peril right out of the gate; "Death or freedom? The Vampire Queen has challenged a small band of her worst prisoners to escape from her wicked dungeon lair. With all of your original weapons, magic items and possessions, it is up to you to outwit and fight your way through terrible traps, beastly monsters, and all the horrific surprises she has arranged for you! The Module that started it all is sure to delight and challenge the most skilled players!"'
We set 'Hanging Coffins' in Greyhawk just outside of the city of Greyhawk ruins. The vampire princess recently woken up by the movements of the humanoid tribes just outside of her hidden valley. And this lines up with material described in James Ward's Greyhawk Aventures. 

 "The Village of Hommlet has grown up around a crossroads in a woodland. Once far from any important activity, it became embroiled in the struggle between gods and demons when the Temple of Elemental Evil arose but a few leagues away. Luckily of its inhabitants, the Temple and its evil hordes were destroyed a decade ago, but Hommlet still suffers from incursions of bandits and strange monsters.." 

The village of Hommlet itself is an enagma for two reasons one is the fact that the village is a neglected area now. And two is the way that it went from a cross roads of commerence into sharp decline. Now let's look at adventure plot summery of the Wiki entry on T1-4 Temple of Elemental Evil;"In the module T1 The Village of Hommlet, the player characters must defeat the raiders operating out of a ruined fort nearby, and thereafter the characters can use Hommlet as a base for their adventures.^[1] The adventure begins in the eponymous village of Hommlet, situated near the site of a past battle against evil forces operating from the Temple. The adventurers travel through Hommlet and are drawn into a web of conspiracy and deception.

"The module is intended for first-level characters, who begin the adventure "weary, weak, and practically void of money".^[3] They travel to a town with a reputation as having a great opportunity to earn fortunes and to defeat enemy creatures, but also to lose one's life.^[3] While the town initially appears hospitable, the characters soon learn that many of its inhabitants are powerful spies for minions of evil" " For the Hyperborea rpg this changes nothing at all because of the fact that it wasn't the decline of the Temple that caused it to go dormant. 
And in point of fact it's the Green Death that caused all of Hyperborea including the Borderlands region to go silent on Hyperborea. And this is true for the entire whole of Hyperborea itself. 

And now the cycle continues with the humans who have taken over Hommlet and the surrounding lands. The village of Hommlet & the moathouse  serves as another gateway into the Borderlands. And its these same lands are now the place where the forces of Chaos are breeding from centuries old generators ala the video game Gauntlet. 
The temple itself hasn't even come to full life.. yet. But it's demonic influence is felt on the surrounding environs ala the Caves of Chaos from B2. And the fact that there are dozens & dozens of humanoid tribemen who are under the Elemental Evil's influence and don't tear each other apart. 
How does  Mark Taormino's Maximum Mayhem Dungeons #0 Village of the Borderlands fit into the backround of Gary Gygax's B2 Keep on the Borderlands & T1 The Village of Hommlet? That's simple really these places are part of the spy network that is in place as the armies of Chaos are set to take over! 

 B/X Dungeons & Dragons is once  once again on my . The Dungeons & Dragons Basic Rules (1981), by Tom Moldvay seems like its still the 'new' set for me. For me the magenta box sets are the standard for Dungeons & Dragons set to a certain extent. For me Moldvay/Cook is just a continuation of original Dungeons & Dragons warts & all. This blog entry is going to tie back into our July third one here!

The Drivethrurpg entry on  the D&D Basic Set Rulebook (B/X ed.) (Basic) by
by Shannon Appelcline, the author of Designers & Dragons breaks down the differences between Holmes & Moldvay cleanly;
"Whereas Holmes' Basic D&D was mostly a matter of organization and explanation, Moldvay's Basic D&D also engaged in simplification. Thus, for example, there were no longer separate character classes and races. The twelve race-and-class combinations of Holmes' Basic D&D (including things such as the elven fighter/magic-user multiclass) became just seven classes in the new Basic D&D: clerics, dwarves, elves, fighters (which had still been "fighting men" under Holmes), halflings, magic-users, and thieves.
Moldvay's second edition also cleaned up character alignment, constrained spell choice, and even improved the layout of the book. All around, every effort was made to upgrade the game for starting players. As for the results, even former editor Holmes said, "I think the new Basic Set rules are an improvement over the first edition. Not a big quantum jump ahead, but better in a number of minor ways."
Moldvay's Basic D&D was enough of a change from the previous edition of the game that it was actually a "new edition" as it's understood in the modern roleplaying market, which was a pretty rare occurrence in the 70s or early 80s.
The Basic Set was (as planned) released simultaneously with the new Expert Set by David "Zeb" Cook, which expanded Basic D&D to levels 4-14. Gary Gygax mentioned a "Masters Set" around the same time, which was to cover levels 15-36, but that wouldn't appear during Basic D&D's second edition."

The  Expert Set edited by Dave Cook  is still one of the best continuations of the B/X game out there. Folks are still playing Expert & continuing on with the legacy started by Gary Gygax. To a certain extent I'm waxing nostalgic for B/X. The game seemed more open for customization  totally different then conforming ways of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons first edition. B/X was the choice for many of us who want to run a pick up game.



Just last night I was talking with a friend of mine about a game he ran with a group of new players who were friends of his son's  from school. Taking the free module from Dragon's foot.org HM1 - The Disappearance of Harold the Hedge Mage by Todd Hughs. He had the group set up with PC's, the map laid out, & the players set up in less then a half an hour.



There are several areas that could be used in Harold to hook up with B2 Keep on The Borderlands by Gary Gygax. This also means that HM1 could be used as a buffer adventure on the way to the climax of  T1-4 Temple of Elemental Evil by Gary Gygax & Frank Mentzer.
The mines of HM1 might link up with B2 Keep on the Borderland's Caves of Chaos or some of the other underground works of the moat house of The Village of Hommlet. There would be a series of tunnels that could be used to stretch event into  ZA1: The Temple Of Chaos By Joseph Mohr



The goal of course is for the players to have fun but this sort of an adventure path is going to result in more then a few of the PC's dying by the hands of the humanoids & monsters scattered throughout. I'd make sure I'd have a few extra PC sheets on hand. The set up here is the expanding growth of the cults of Chaos & intertwined elemental evil religion gaining far more then a toe hold in the region of your campaign or Greyhawk. Power is on the rise & the altars of evil will be slick with the blood of sacrifices but only the PC's can stop the blood bath in time! 
And this ties into the fact that these areas are a part of the 'hidden' kingdoms within Hyperborea where the border fortresses are along the valleys tying this back into Mark Taormino's Maximum Mayhem Dungeons #0 Village of the Borderlands

 The Monster Manual II remains a favorite of mine for a couple of reasons. Let's get the obvious history lesson out of the way first;" Monster Manual II (1983), largely by Gary Gygax, is TSR's sixth hardcover for the AD&D game, and its third book of monsters. Though Gygax prepared at least an initial version of the manuscript in September 1982, Monster Manual II wasn't published until GenCon XVI (1983), breaking the pattern of a new AD&D hardcover appearing every year, as had been the case from 1977 through 1981." 
Now this is from the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual II Drivethrurpg entry but it's actually the MMI  Wiki entry that has the meat of today's research.

The Borderlands is a place under the purview of Chaos & evil. The MMII and it's monsters are not that well known today by the modern player. So this is a feature for us and not a bug.