Colonial Adventures

A latter day Emirikol?

Over the holiday I've been reading The Dark Side of the Enlightenment: Wizards, Alchemists, and Spiritual Seekers in the Age of Reason, and it got me thinking (though not for the first time) about a game set in a slightly alternate history/fantasy version of Colonial America as the Revolutionary War approaches. Such a setting offers plenty of wilderness to be tamed in performance of the Gygaxian ritual, but also political intrigues, mystic cults, and a clash cultures.

Though something like Warhammer Fantasy would work for this, it strikes me that the Adventures in Middle-Earth implementation of D&D 5e would also fit the bill. The de-emphasis of magic better fits a hidden magic or mildly fantastic historical setting. The idea of replacing races with cultures works well. Its Scholar class could probably be a good template for how to implement a Rosicrucian Hermetic Magi, Cabbalist, or Alchemist. The Wanderer could form the basis of a magic-free Frontier Ranger. There would still be some bases to be covered: Some sort of depowered Warlock would be useful for hidden New England witches and a less magically Bard raconteur/agitator (though maybe better handled as a thief?).

Of course this territory has been somewhat mined by game systems to some degree before (Colonial Gothic and Northern Crown, I'm aware of), so there are other places to steal ideas.

Wednesday Comics: Storm: The Creeping Death

My exploration of the long-running euro-comic Storm, continues. Earlier installments can be found here.

Storm: The Creeping Death (1982) (part 3)
(Dutch: De Sluimerende Dood)
Art & script by Don Lawrence

Traveling through the jungle on the way to the place of the Manatecs, Storm comes to a gorge beneath an ancient dam. He makes a crude glider to fly across. It works more or less, but an attack by a giant condor brings him down into the reservoir--and into the hands of the Manatecs. They throw him in a cell with Yukan's son Huatl.

Meanwhile, Yukan's other son is still pining for Ember, despite his father forbidding him to marry her. Yukan has another bride in mind for his son, though Kai isn't interested. That night, Kai sneaks into his father's room to steal the amulet with the cure for Ember, but Yukan awakens and soon Kai is clapped in irons, Yukan plans to keep Kai that way until after the wedding.

Before the wedding, the "gods" rise and another challenge is issued against Yukan. He easily bests the first challenger, but then Kai chooses to challenge his father. Angry with his son, Yukan agrees. Kai is unable to stand against him, but before Yukan can deliver the killing blow he is distracted by Kai's wife to be begging for her groom's life. That distraction is enough for Kai to stab his father and kill him! Now he is the ruler and has the amulet--and Ember.

Back in the Manatec city, Storm has (incredibly) discovered a disassembled ancient laser pistol in a compartment behind a loose tile. He rebuilds it, but needs a piece of metal to make it active. Luckily, the guard that delivers their food as a silver amulet and Storm is able to scam it off him.

With the gun, Storm and Huatl are able to break out, though the gun doesn't have too many shots before it burns out. The escape into the forest, but they are pursued using reptillian creatures called mordillos:

They're treed by the creatures then the guards use a ram-horned mount called a battarax to knock them out of the tree. Storm manages to fight his way free again, but when Huatl is taken, he surrenders rather than leave him behind.

Elsewhere, Kai uses the antidote to cure Ember. As soon as she is awake, he demands she marry him. Her answer is predictable:

Kai's response is equally typical of villains like himself:

TO BE CONTINUED

12 Days of Hydra

Have you been speculating about the goodness of Strange Stars? Wondering if Weird Adventures is worth a look? Or maybe you've been ruminating on getting Ruins & Ronin or fretting a Fever-Dreaming Marlinko purchase? Fret no more! The 12 Days of Hydra Sale is here to help ease those hard decisions!

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Christmas Adventures Left Undone

I managed to do three "Christmas Specials" in my two Weird Adventures campaigns: "Twas the Fight Before Yule," and it's sequel, and "Another Weird Yule." This year, there was a holiday related cameo in my Land of Azurth game.

I still have gotten around to doing the reskin of Slumbering Ursine Dunes involving the Weird Adventures version of the Tunguska Event, the mysterious Siberian cauldrons, a captive Father Yule, and talking bears. Maybe one day!

More Covers That Weren't

Here are some counterfactual covers I did a while back for some AD&D classics:

A Players Handbook using the art of Gideon Brugman.

A Dungeon Masters Guide with a Jesse Santos cover.

and a well-used Monster Manual with a Sanjulian cover.

Wednesday Comics: Storm: The Creeping Death

My exploration of the long-running euro-comic Storm, continues. Earlier installments can be found here.

Storm: The Creeping Death (1982) (part 2)
(Dutch: De Sluimerende Dood)
Art & script by Don Lawrence

Storm is brought before the warrior's leader, Yucan. Yucan boasts he is the only one who knows the antidote for Ember, but he won't divulge it, even after Storm roughs him up a bit. He wants to make Storm a trade. Yucan's son Huatl has been taken captive by the Manatecs that live in a city beyond a vast wall. If Storm will recue him, Yucan will give him the antidote. Storm agrees.

Suddenly, there is a call that the gods are coming. The populous runs in the square and kneel before great steel doors. The door rises and:

The ancient, automated missiles rise to point in the direction to launch at enemies long dead. A horn sounds. Yucan explains that when the gods come, it is time for a ritual challenge for rulership. If no challenger appears, a prisoner is sacrificed. Yucan makes short work of the sacrifice:

The missiles retract and the spectacle is over. Storm goes to tend Ember. Yucan tells him she will die in 10 days and introduces his son, Kai. He outlines the obstacles to reaching the Manatecs to Storm, but he only has eyes for Ember.

After Storm leaves, Yucan visits his father and asks to be allowed to marry Ember when Storm fails, and dies. Yucan refuses to allow it, citing tradition against marrying outsiders. Besides, Yucan points out, she will die without the antidote he keeps in his amulet--and no one will get that while he is alive. Kai agrees: While his father is alive.

TO BE CONTINUED

Escape from the Den of the Dragonettes

Last time in our Land of Azurth 5e campaign, the group was stranded on a weird mesa after having been attacked by wooden gargoyle puppets. After noticing the gargoyle corpses were still held a bit off the ground by the strings, the party thought they might use those to climb down, but the strings were too thin. However, they serendipitously discover that the gargoyle wings still have some lift to them; enough that they are able to ride gargoyle corpses to the ground like gliders.

Using the stage deocration-like trees and bushes they cut down as camoflage, the party tried to make their way around another mesa, skirting the wooden gargoyle town and getting to the mountain on the opposite side they believe might hold a way out. When they're spotted, they just make a break for it, and it's a spell-slinging, bow-firing chase to mountain. Luckily, there is a cave entrance.

Once inside (where the gargoyle's can't go because of their strings), our heroes follow the twisting trail up inside the mountain until they reach a larger cave. There's a whispering in the darkness, and the party is greeted by:

The Dragomen: Humans dressed in bad dragon costumes who serve someone called "the Dragonettes" and believe by sacrifice they will be reborn as those creatures and after many cycles, dragons. The Dragonettes live in the next cave over and come for a sacrifice every week.

Not wanting to linger long among these idiots, the party moves on to the next cave. There they are stopped by diminutive reptilian creatures with spears:

These are the Dragonettes. They can barely disguise their snickering at how they've gulled the Dragomen, whom (it is fairly obvious) they are using as a food source. They refuse to let the party pass, but Kully puts them to sleep. Investigating the adjacent caves uncovers a great hall (which the party avoids), a garbage pit filled with human bones, and a kitchen. There Erekose kills a fleeing Dragonette, so the party begins to move with more urgency.

They uncover a shrine where a winged Dragonette priest and his acolytes are raising a sacrificial platform (pilled with human parts and a Dragonette corpse) up into an aperture in the ceiling to the "Mother Dragon."

Several party members want to kill the priests and take the platform to the aperture, but Shade convinces them to parlay. When the priest hears they want to willing take the platform up, he's more than happy to let them go meet the Mother. He's sure such a sacrifice will prime him for dragon evolution for sure!

The party ascends into darkness. Those with dark vision see a cave littered with bones and overfilled with a very old, sleeping dragon. Stealthy investigation reveals a manhole-size opening in the ceiling that goes up through rock to reveal the night sky. There are no other exits.

With few options, the party sends the frogling Waylon climbing up to investigate. He finds himself on a cold and wind-swept mountain peak. Then, he hears the sound of bells! He lights his lantern and to his wondering eyes appears a flying sleigh pulled by deer!

Art by GENZOMAN

Father Yule knows him by name, and acquiesces to Waylon's request for rope. His friends quickly scramble up out of the dragon's den, and since Father Yule is on his way to the Land of Azurth, he gives them a ride.

He deposits the party in Rivertown, with a gift each.

This entire series of adventures was liberally adapted from Frank L. Baum's Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz.