My First AD&D Character

The nostalgia continues.  Here's the character sheet of my very first character in any version of D&D I (1e AD&D, in this case) from almost thirty years ago:

I realize that this just slightly more age worn that say, the Dead Sea Scrolls, so I'll reiterate some of the key points.  The material document itself is a sheet of typing paper on which the layout of the official AD&D character record form has been re-created in blue ballpoint pen.  The character is Grimlin, a 13th level elven fighter whose hit points have seen a high amount of revision, but now number "1900."  I don't recall how that came to be, but I'm sure there's a story there.  Probably several.  All epic.

This character was inspired by the elven hero of one of the D&D: Endless Quest books.  He had a sword which would light up when he said "Sword of the Magus light this place!" or something similar.  He was definitely a "short" elf, not a tall Tolkiennian one.  I named him "Grimlin" because I had recently discovered the folklore creature of that name, and thought the name sounded cool--this was before the 1984 film.

Now let's take a look at the loot on the back:

I should explain that we played for sometime without a copy of the Dungeon Masters Guide.  The first one I'd ever seen was when I got it for Christmas the year I got my very own copy of the Players Handbook (the new one with the Easley cover).  I say that to illustrate that we had, therefore, never heard of a "Monty Haul campaign."  With that in mind, I'll let you review the list of magic items on your own.

Now despite the vast power of Grimlin and his companions, there was no "ascending to godhood" like I heard mentioned by other players I would meet at Boy Scout camp, or other summer programs, back in the day.  No, Grimlin and his gang were still schlepping it through dungeons--though dungeons which extended to the Outer Planes, admittedly (note that Grimlin had the Rod of Asmodeus in his possession).  Said schlepping required lackeys, and Grimlin has ten alignment-congruent henchmen--Hawk (named for the Slayer?), Taran (named for the pig-keeper?), Goan, Roland, Nordon, Pannon, Gord (before Gygax!), Nar, Jor, and Thor.

I actually have my second character, too--a bard named Robin Goodfellow--but that sheet is in worse condition than this one, and much less epic, as it comes from a less "anything goes" time in our gaming--which is to say still probably pretty damn "anything goes."

But we had a helluva lot of fun, and that's what matters.

A Map from Ages Past

This map was drawn by my cousin, Tim, who introduced me to gaming back in the earlier '80s.  Somehow, it came into my possession years--decades--ago. 

We never gamed in this dungeon.  I don't know if Tim did with another group.  I've thought about using it myself on several occasions, but I don't know if I ever did.  Since the various iterations of my campaign world relate to Tim's rather bare-bones world in a fashion similar to the relationship the Marvel Universe has to Timely Comics, Kazoth has been mentioned at times.  I've always conceived of him as one of those demon/monster/god-things, like Thog, or similar creatures, from Robert E. Howard's oeuvre. 

Looking closely at the map, I see several interesting things:

It amuses me that the innermost sanctum of Kazoth (where he has his own chamber) also houses his vestal virigns "and such" (whatever that might mean) and his sacrificial victims-to-be.  This says to me Kazoth is the kind of god-thing who would have a mini-frdge full of drinks in his den.  He just doesn't want to go far for stuff. 

Its interesting the walls of these chambers are rough-hewn (I assume that's what that means), suggesting it might be older than the rest of the complex.

 Most intriguing is the secret passage surrounding Kazoth's chamber.  I wonder what purpose that serves?  Perhaps its a doctrine of the faith that Kazoth's taking of sacrifices must be recorded in gory detail, so scribes watch unobtrusively to do just that.  Or maybe Kazoth gets cranky if his every need isn't responded to instantly, and its just for convenience?

Moving to the other side of the complex we find the mysterious Room of Illusions.  I assume all the "X's" are locations of various illusions.  Why would a temple complex need this?  I'm not sure. Maybe its for psychological torture to make a sacrificial victim juicer for old Kazoth.

Leaving the Room of Illusions, one encounters several traps (the dotted lined areas) which I suspect are probably trapdoors.  So many traps in one place perhaps argues against my explanation for the illusion room, but perhaps there just here because of those three treasure chests.

On the other hand, the naming of the Passage of No Return reinforces the notion that most who saw the Room of Illusions were on a one way trip.

I think the name of the last area I'll comment on may give away its inspiration.  The Room of Souls may have at least acquired its its title from the Well of Souls in Raiders of the Lost Ark--I would suspect specificly from Kenner's Well of Souls Playset. 

I could see the statues there supporting a Raiders connection as well, though I'm sure these statues come to life at some inopportune time for the players.

At least that's how I'd do it.

Free Comic Book Day!

In honor of Free Comic Book Day, my friend and sometime collaborator, Jim, over at the Flashback Universe Blog, has posted a comic I wrote called Hell-bent: Infamous Monsters.  This is the first of two Hell-bent stories I wrote to actually see completion.  Both feature the exploits of former Rough Rider, Sam McCord, and his gang of eclectic troubleshooters--Turner the former buffalo soldier, Pursuivant the wealthy adventuress, Alba the laconic Apache, and Morgan the sharpshooting movie cowboy--in the years just prior to World War I.

This story finds McCord and his crew facing off with an unusual Los Angeles gang that might be somewhat familiar.

The comic was illustrated by the very able, Diego Candia, with lettering and production design from Jim.

So anyway, check it out here with the Flashback Universe web comic viewer.

Cryptids Revealed!

Browsing Scott Francis' The Monster Spotter's Guide to North America, gave me some inspiration.  Here are Labyrinth Lord stats for a couple of "zooform phenomena" of our world--and maybe others....

SKUNK APE

No. Enc.: 1d4
Alignment: Neutral
Movement: 120'(40')
Armor Class: 6
Hit Dice: 3
Attacks: 2 (any combo of claw & bite)
Damage: 1d4/1d4
Save: F2
Morale: 7
Hoard Class: None
Special Abilities: Stench: save vs. poison or -1 on attack roles.

Skunk apes are shaggy-furred primates native to warm, swampy areas--like Florida, where their most often sighted.

Skunk apes are notable for eyes that appear to glow in the darkness, and the strong stench that they exude--so strong that dogs will often refuse to track them. Skunk apes sometimes appear to leave three-toe tracks, which is unheard of for a primate, particularly when they have five fingers.

HOPKINSVILLE GOBLIN

No. Enc.: 2d4
Alignment: Chaotic
Movement: 60'(20') (but can leap 20')
Armor Class: 5
Hit Dice: 1
Attacks: 1 (thrown rock) and Special
Damage: 1d3, Special
Save: E1
Morale: 10
Hoard Class: None
Special Abilities: Immune to nonmagical weapons; Bedevilment: save vs. spell or opponents are harried by the goblins prankish antics they suffer -2 on attack roles, or have concentration spoiled.

Hopskinville goblins are named for the (earthly) place they made their first--and only--appearance, though they are almost certainly extraterrestrial or ultraterrestrial in origin. They appear as roughly 3' tall humanoids with luminous, silver skin, large ears, and large eyes on the sides of their heads.

The goblins have clawed fingers, but never seem to use these to do real damage to people or animals. Instead, they hurl the occasional rock, and generally cause irritation and fear by making a weird nuisance of themselves--following people around, grasping at them or their belonging, scratching or scraping things to make irritating noises, etc.

In the one record encounter with these creatures, a family farm-house in Kentucky was beset by them one summer night in 1955. The goblins generally acted menacingly, but never caused much actual harm. They were, however, completely impervious to gunfire. The attack ended at sunrise, as mysteriously as it began.

Character Creation in the Old West

Last year, I started playing in the very occasional Boot Hill game of Regina, she of the web-serialized, historical novel Five Dollar Mail. Gina's group likes to go somewhat rules-lite. Gina gave me a page of information on the setting, basically boiling down to "a small town with a pony express stop in the Nebraska Territory of the early 1860s" and "magic exists, but it's not flashy, more historic-feeling." And she said: "come up with the character you want to play."

After a bit of consideration, this is what I sent her:

From The Western Gunfighter Encyclopedia (Wheeler, 1975):

CROWE, GIDEON (1820-?) - gunman, spiritualist, and carnival performer. Born into a once prominent Baltimore family, Crowe was the son of a former minister and a fortune-teller and sometime-actress, described as "of Gipsie [sic] blood" and purported to be the illegitimate daughter of infamous occultist/confidence artist Alessandro di Cagliostro (Giuseppe Balsamo). Crowe allegedly fought in the service of the British East India Company in the latter days of the campaign against the Thuggee cult. Returning to North American, he was obscurely involved with the East Texas Regulator-Moderator War. He joined John Joel Glanton and his scalphunters, but deserted them shortly before the band fled Chihuahua as outlaws. He performed sharpshooting shows, and European-style phantasmagoria--"ghost shows," utilizing a primitive antecedent of the slide projector, for several years in theaters and dance-halls in San Francisco's Barbary Coast. His ultimate fate is unrecorded.

Despite being little known today, Crowe was the the inspiration for a dime novel serial, "The Sideshow of Prof. Crowe" in Mundsen & Grandee's Old West Library (1880). Here the carnival aspects are played up, and Crowe has accomplices in the form of "the mighty Negro, Samson," a mute strong-man; and "the sultry Gypsie, Appollonia," a medium. In addition to being a "dead shot with a pistol, " Crowe was said to be "master of the esoteric sciences" and "adept in the secrets of the Hindoo." In the pulp era, he served as the inspiration for a series of short stories by T. Mallory beginning in 1934 with "Satan's Gunman" in Western Mystery. Here, his associates were much the same, but Crowe himself is gifted with more of a supernatural nature. He is a skilled medium and occultist, and referred to as "the Frontier Faust." It is intimated that he is under some contract to send evil-doers to hell and is--at least once--called "the Devil's Pinkerton" by an adversary. The pulp stories, in turn, served to inspire Italian horror filmmaker Lucio Balsamo to pounce on the "Spaghetti Western" craze with Pistolero del Diavolo (1967, U.S. title: Satan's Gun). Gideon Crowe was portrayed by an actor credited (likely pseudonymously) as "Max Shreck," who is practically a Lee Van Cleef lookalike--which makes him not a bad likeness of the real Crowe given the one daguerreotype extant, believed to date from the mid-1850s.

My purpose here--writing it as "fictional non-fiction"--was to suggest hooks and interesting tidbits that might be of interest to the GM without necessarily assuming what was "true" in her world. Historically removed and masked by legend, who's to say what the truth of Gideon Crowe--the character who would result--was?

It's the sort of thing I would be able to get behind as a GM, but I was unsure how Gina would take it.

Luckily, she took it completely in the spirit intended. A few days later she emailed me the character with game abilities, fleshed out with tidbits inspired by the write-up.

I don't suggest something like this would work for ever campaign, or every player-GM team, but I think the collaborative nature of game worldbuilding should start from the very beginning, not just when the adventure begins.

Wednesday Bonus Art

Given that Warlord Wednesday was msotly a reprint issue, I figured I should meet my quota of entertainment with some artwork I've scavenged--er, collected:

"Those aren't orcs!"

"Alas, the skull is not for sale...":

To the victor goes the spoils:

(This ones for Paladin in the Citadel :) )  Dejah Thoris walks her dog?:

Warlord Wednesday: Flashback

Let's enter the lost world with a briefer than usual installment of my issue by issue examination of DC Comic's Warlord, the earlier installments of which can be found here...

"Flashback"

Warlord (vol. 1) #11 (February 1978-March 1978)

Written and Illustrated by Mike Grell

Synopsis: Chased by a charging triceratops, Morgan, Machiste, and Mariah manage to find safety in a cave. Mariah's cold, so Machiste lights a fire. Morgan stands by the opening and keeps watch, but by the time the triceratops leaves, Mariah and Machiste have fallen asleep. Alone with his thoughts in the dim glow of the fire, Morgan reflects on how he came to Skartaris and how he met Tara.

Emerging from his reminiscence with renewed resolve, Morgan swears, sword raised, to find his lost love.

Things to Notice:

• The title page marks the debut of the tag phrase the series will carry in most issues for the rest of its run: "In the savage world of Skartaris, life is a constant struggle for survival. Here, beneath an unblinking orb of eternal sunlight, one simple law prevails: If you let down your guard for an instant you will soon be very dead."
• Our heroes are quick to leave their horses to fend for themselves.
• It's origin recap time, and for the second time in the series' short run--though this time is a direct reprint.

Where It Comes From:
Other than the framing sequence, this issue is a reprint of material from "Land of Fear", First Issue Special #8.