Mortzengersturm...EXPOSED!

Once again, I'll be running a session of Mortzengersturm, The Mad Manticore of the Prismatic Peak at North Texas RPG Con in Jone, which (assuming everything goes well with the printer) will also be the debut of the print edition of the adventure at the Hydra Co-op booth!

Here are ten things about the Mortzengersturm adventure even a dedicated reader of this blog might not know:

1. The adventure grew out of an adaptation of Jason Sholtis's Zogorion, Lord of the Hippogriffs for my Land of Azurth game, originally played on June 15 and July 19, 2015.
2. The name Mortzengersturm was arrived at by smashing together the titles of Poe's "Metzengerstein" and Hugh Cave's "Murgunstrumm." Neither story have I read (though I did see a film adaptation of the Poe story).
3. This John R. Neill drawing was the initial inspiration for the look of Mortzengersturm, and possibly the source of the idea that he would be a manticore:

4. The goblins' song in the published version of the adventure should be sang to the tune of "God Save the Tsar!" the former national anthem of the Russian Empire.
5. Slime-spawned goblins was an idea I had back in 2012. I finally got to use in print, in a modified form.
6. Thedabara is, of course, named for the silent film vamp Theda Bara (1885-1955).
7. The Oubliette of Mistakes wasn't in the adventure as originally run and basically got included because I had thought up The Moonster and needed a place to put him. The name was likely inspired by the Island of Misfit Toys from Rankin-Bass' Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964).
8. There are a few references to Chicago's Columbia World Exposition of 1893 in the adventure which no party has yet investigated.
9. A brand of cigarettes from the City and Weird Adventures makes a cameo.
10. The parrot-bear (and the whole idea of Mortzengersturm's mixed up animals) came from an illustration by Jeff Call--who later wound up illustrating the adventure.