24 oldal, háttér városi kalandokhoz.

Talán az összes kalandtípus közül a nagyvárosban játszódókra a legnehezebb pontosan felkészülni: a zegzugos utcák, apró terek és grandiózus sugárutak szövevényes hálózatában minden és mindennek az ellenkezője előfordulhat, és könnyen meglehet, hogy a játékosok a kidolgozott kalandhelyszíneket elkerülve ismeretlen terepre merészkednek. A Szörnyek és Kincsek oldalain szereplő véletlen találkozási táblázatok ötletadóként járulnak hozá a hézagok kitöltéséhez és az improvizációhoz: nem csak „szörnyeket”, kalandlehetőségeket generálnak.

Ez a kiadvány hasonló, de mégis más: az oldalain felsorolt 300 találkozás nem általános, hanem jórészt egyedi, egyszer használatos esemény. A bennük rejlő lehetőségek mégis szédítőek! Ha úgy tetszik, a találkozások lehetnek mellékszálak és a fő kalandtól független események. De dönthetünk úgy is, hogy három-négy véletlenül kiválasztott találkozás összefűzésével és némi fantáziával egy teljesen új kalandot hozunk létre; vagy ha a karakterek kidolgozatlan területre tévednek, pár dobással gyorsan megtudhatjuk, miféle lakók népesítik be a városrészt, esetleg ha kell néhány gyors NJK, itt biztosan találunk valamit. Az anyag erénye vázlatossága: a felsorolt találkozások nyitott szituációk, s a játékos társaságon múlik, végül mi kerekedik ki belőlük – dicsőség és halál, vagyon vagy csak egy futó találkozás.

Városi Találkozások I.: Nappali Táblázat — letöltés (360 KB PDF)

8 oldal, kalandmodul 5–7. szintű kalandozók számára.

Tengeri idill? A Vízitündérek szigetének dús erdői és kopár hegyei bukolikus körülményekre utalnak. A vízimadarak, vadjuhok és kecskék békésen szemlélik a kikötő idegeneket. Az éghajlat fantasztikus. Veszélynek semmi nyoma. Csakugyan igaz lenne, és vannak ilyen helyek is? Természetesen nem. A kalandmodulból az is kiderül, miért.

A Vízitündérek Szigete — letöltés (321 KB PDF)

8 oldal, kalandmodul 5–7. szintű kalandozók számára.

Molonei: az elveszett város. Valaha a bőség és élvezetek szimbóluma, ma puszta rom. Azt mondják, Moloneit magára hagyták lakói, de hogy külső támadók, a körükben lábra kapott sötét szenvedélyek vagy a fényűzés tétlen unalma miatt – ki tudja? Annyi bizonyos, valaki még él a sziklaszirtek árnyékában, a nyomok pedig egy különös felfedezéshez vezetnek… A kalandmodul rövid leírást nyújt Moloneiről, rejtőzködő népéről és a titokról, amely mindannyiuk végzete lehet.

Molonei — letöltés (213 KB PDF)

“Rogat Demazien’s house is an old, crumbling building located in the Beggars Quarter of Zothay, right next to its western gate. It is surrounded by empty houses; some of these are sealed to prevent unlawful entry, whereas others are known to be the dwellings of thieves and vagrants. In any case, this is a place where few choose to live, unless they are short on money or don’t mind the proximity of the vilest city scum. Since the entire quarter is protected by a treaty that keeps out the watch, one can only count on his own devices to guarantee the safety of his life and valuables. Despite the squalid conditions, it is precisely this house – formerly a prosperous cloth merchant’s home – which Rogat Demazien purchased a year after the previous owner died without leaving an heir. He paid the authorities a modest yet fair amount and moved in with his simple belongings. Since then, he has become known as an authority on the strange an unusual, with an interest in subtle enchantments and ancient history.”

The House of Rogat Demazien

Design notes: Pretty much a sandbox component: a mysterious locale with a few surprises, non-standard magic and possibilities for expansion or incorporation into a larger Undercity (I am fairly sure it would work in an Empire of the Petal Throne campaign with small adjustments). There is fairly little combat and much more investigation, along with a few navigation-related challenges both above- and underground. The creepiness of the underground segment is emphasised by an encounter that’s pretty much wrong from a modern standpoint – and therefore represents an interesting moral dilemma for the players around the table. The rest is mainly colour, although colour the GM can easily link to his or her own milieu in some way. Rogat Demazien is not the most original or thought-provoking module I have written, but it is easy to use and maybe just right on scale to be truly modular.

Where to get it:
The Judges Guild Site (The House of Rogat Demazien, Castles&Crusades)

“Zothay is a small walled town on the coasts of Damkina Bay, a mostly calm haven of the vast Winedark Sea. The lands about are varied: to the north and northeast lie desolate wastelands with a few small rivers winding their ways through deep canyons. Only hardy weeds and stunted trees grow here, although a few Altanian herdsmen also try to make a living. To the southwest, one can find thick, almost junglelike forests where live the elves of Onhir – these master gemcutters are friendly to the inhabitants of the town and are found there in large numbers, especially higher class areas and the fertile peninsula to the southeast. Further to the west, the rugged peaks of the Ered Perack loom over unknown valleys. Many have been lost looking for abandoned tombs and the like. The virgin priestesses of Hecate live in their domed temple on the lower slopes. Their divinations and omens are sought by the wealthy and the foolish – for these services never come without a price.”

“The city supplement you are reading right now is a fan’s vision of Zothay, a smaller city state found in the lands of Barbarian Altanis. The information found below is not intended to be taken for official – indeed, as its elements were drawn from my home campaign, there are certain differences between this interpretation and what is found on the pages of the Player’s Guide to the Wilderlands or the forthcoming Wilderlands of High Fantasy boxed set, both published by Necromancer Games and Judges Guild.”

Zothay: City State by The Winedark Sea

Design notes: Zothay is a mostly successful experiment in creating a complex city environment suitable for gaming use. While I have always found it easy to get my players involved in city intrigue, crazy heist schemes, meetings with bizarre and often malevolent NPCs or just random calamities, most of these were never committed to paper and probably never will. The greatest boon of cities is openness and the plethora of choices at almost any point in time (as opposed to most small and medium-sized dungeons, which are self-contained and only present a limited array of obvious choices at once), but this also makes them hard to distil into written form. The best of the experience – the crazy dynamism, the way player and NPC agendas reshape not just the environment they all operate in but also the goals, methods and broader scope of adventure – cannot be replicated, and trying to make a set of people enjoy the same course of cool events as their predecessors is a self-defeating proposal.

Labyrinthine Streets: The Beggars' Quarter

Therefore, the information in Zothay deliberately focuses on things that lead into more adventures: the interconnected strands of rumours, adventure hooks, NPC relations and group interests serve to get the players involved – first in missions, but eventually also in the culture, politics and complex environment of the city state. The way all of these blocks of information are stacked against each other, it only takes a minor disturbance from the players to set things into motion and send them crashing down in some direction. (It may be an interesting lesson to recount the two campaigns where the party adventured in Zothay: in the first, the visit was cut short when the characters mistakenly picked a fight with the local thieves guild and were forced to flee before being discovered by the authorities; in the second, the actions of the players eventually lead to an undead invasion from the sea and the city state’s partial destruction.) Zothay is, thus, an instrument to generate adventure (interaction), and through that interaction, context.

Beyond that, there are some interesting explorations of ideas I personally find intriguing. There is my fascination with enclaves, exclaves and parallel power structures – as a subjugated city state, Zothay basically had to give over its inner city to criminals, spies and vagrants, and while there is an uneasy coexistence, a clash between agendas of containment from the outside and subversion from the enclave can become a dominant issue in the campaign (enclaves make a return in Khosura: City State of the Four Mysteries with its religious and tradition-based jurisdictions reminiscent of Old Berlin and Jerusalem, as well as a different look at the same concept in the partially tested City of Vultures). The supplement also has a selection of “hidden places” – opportunities to discover locales sealed in the distant past, expeditions into other realities and a possibility to discover things that can completely change the players’ understanding of their present environment. Finally, what’s better to do in a city than shop? Zothay has plenty of opportunities to do that, and in addition to getting those coils of 50’ rope and iron rations, there are baths, exotic items and potent drugs to waste money on. This element of bargain-hunting, gambling (because who knows what that 450 gp spent on a magical cloak embroidered with golden flies will really get you) and more discovery adds a new, entertaining spin to the city experience.

Where to get it:
The Judges Guild Site (Zothay, proto-C&C, various maps)

“In his life, the wizard Ardaxas was feared by everyone, including his few apprentices. At the end of his living days, he retreated below his mansion and built himself a tomb befitting an overlord, with all sorts of magical traps to protect his remains. With all other work finished, Ardaxas achieved lichdom and went beyond the limits of human existence. All he left to his apprentices was a set of instructions to reach him if they sought consultation with their old master. These instructions were later copied and passed on to others, but the location of the vault was eventually forgotten, and the keys to its secrets became useless. In the City of Vultures, a section of the slums is still called „the Wizard’s Maze”, but the connection to Ardaxas is rarely if ever made.”

Description and contents: A trilogy of sequential adventures based in the City State of Kauran (Barbarian Atlantis 4502, named the City of Vultures in my campaign): an encounter with squabbling merchants leading into a murder investigation scenario, followed by a chase through the Undercity with a very deadly tomb-robbing scenario on the side, and finally ending with an assault on an abandoned bathhouse held by a gang of thieves. To this date, only the Undercity section has been released (omitting the aboveground merchant’s house, which would make for a short but decent break-in scenario on its own): in addition to areas mostly for colour, it features a wizard’s tomb jam-packed with traps so deadly that only the careful and correct interpretation of clues left behind by the builder will see a party through safely. The bathhouse, although it was an exciting and tension-filled exercise in tactical combat, was designed with 3.0 thieves in mind, and would therefore need some thought to work in classical systems.

Bathhouse Grounds and Environs - The Emerald Stairs, The Mausoleum of Tastan the Warlord, Ruins Inhabited by Cannibalistic Beggars etc.

If people read the module with its “touch with extreme care” traps, the demi-lich in the final room, the linearity in its design and the hints to extreme antiquity, they may think Below the City was created in the mould of The Tomb of Horrors. Almost, but not quite: the exact source of inspiration is not the AD&D tournament scenario, but the first mission in Calendra’s Legacy, a masterful (and I would say definitive) trilogy of fan missions for Thief 2 the computer game. Arkhyn’s tomb, a side-mission in an otherwise rather peaceful level, is author Anthony Huso’s homage to The Tomb of Horrors; Below the City, therefore, is a homage to a homage while it also incorporates a few ideas from The Vigil, a different mission by Jussi Lehtinen (notably the tomb’s fourfold entrance puzzle).

In design, the scenario is significantly more forgiving than Gygax’s masterpiece: although the traps are deadly, there are clearly identified clues for all but the final room, and a group of expert puzzle-solvers would probably plow through the lot without a hassle (this does not even take into account augury spells, which any cleric worth his price should keep as many copies of as possible). As it was, a fight with animated statues that broke magic weapons destroyed a lot of the party’s wealth, who finally decided to take their losses and forget about the place when Brantar, a long-surviving and much beloved cleric character (who had been to, and survived expeditions into The Tomb of Abysthor and Rappan Athuk – no small thing) was ignominiously flattened by a crushing block trap after making a wrong step.

The interesting thing about the encounter with the demi-lich at the end is that a lot like The Tomb of Horrors, it is best handled by staying away from combat: Ardaxas is an extremely deadly opponent with special immunities, but he can be bargained with, and may offer the party better things than treasure – becoming an oracle or even a patron. This course of action may be completely counterintuitive to someone whose gaming experiences were based on the heroic fantasy tradition; to our group, veterans in backstabbing and making questionable moral decisions (Brantar himself had previously saved his life from the Skeleton King Saracek by agreeing to convert to evil, a decision that haunted him until he could get his original good alignment back), it would have been self-explanatory.

The House of Thieves in its complete, unreleased form is probably also worthy of discussion to draw attention to the differences between a document intended for home use and a released module. As written, the 20-page manuscript presents a completely linear adventure, where heavy assumptions are made about the characters accepting adventure hooks and behaving in certain ways. If released without changes, the material would justifiably face accusations of severe railroading. And here is the difference: these assumptions were not only made on the basis of knowing the players after years of play, but also on the understanding that any action that got the party off track would immediately transform a linear adventure into a sandbox scenario: a collection of locales, NPCs, agendas and potential encounters which, shifting into a different pattern like a kaleidoscope, could still be used piecemeal for slightly different purposes (and of course abandoned if everything went off the tracks). This, however, assumes the Gamemaster’s willingness to adapt to changed circumstances; even among people who know better, the power of written words is so high that they introduce dangerous mental blocks which could make the difference between a great and an abysmal experience at the table. Therefore, The House of Thieves as a complete, published scenario is probably left unexplored, while its component parts could become valuable pieces in another game’s puzzle.

Where to get it:
The Judges Guild Site (Below the City)

“It is said that there is a valley in the southern jungles which has been long forgotten by the short memories of the city people. Until now, even its existence had been a well-kept secret, and only the wise knew of its lost civilisation and cannibalistic half-men. But with the return of the explorer and adventurer Mal Bazhar, all has changed. His improbable stories about the strange garden and its magical fruit trees have drawn the attention of many. Who would write the final page in the history of a people sunk into evil? Who would find the treasures of the wizard Ladgloun or the hidden temple of the monsters lurking underearth? And finally, who would dare face the power that (or who) had already destroyed Mal-Bazhar’s company? The Garden of al-Astorion is only the first, but as we hope, not last among Hungarian-developed d20 adventure modules. On its pages, the Gamemaster can find everything needed – adventure hooks, detailed maps and the descriptions of the main adventure sites as much as the statistics of new magic items and creatures.”

Description and contents: Conceived as a throwaway encounter with a demented hermit (“Shalastar: hermit, follower of Emoré [LN]. Seventy years, has been living in small valley for thirty. Hates druids!” – see image below) but quickly expanded into a much more expansive adventure under a single evening before a game convention, The Garden of al-Astorion is probably best described as a wilderness dungeon branching off into multiple self-contained mini-dungeons incorporating various sword&sorcery and weird fantasy ideas. The legacies of fallen cultures and failed people living on beyond their allotted time is the central focus that binds together a lot of rather deadly encounters that otherwise wouldn’t belong together; the experience, although quite non-linear, is likely to conclude with the exploration of an abandoned garden populated by the horrors of plant life and the still living remnants of people who had attempted to discover its secrets.

The Grove of Shalastar: Proto-al-Astorion

The initial manuscript is surprisingly short at 20 handwritten pages (four a later addition to detail the Temple of the Old Ones, only mentioned in passing in the original) – as a finished product running 44 pages in the English d20 version, it is one of the larger things I have written. In one package, al-Astorion contained most of the things I was enchanted with at the time – degenerate ape-men, evil gods, shameless and somewhat misguided Cthulhu exploitation which I now partially regret, the magic-meets-technology of the Wilderlands and Leigh Brackett, and more. As Geoffrey McKinney has noted in his review, there is a lot of magic in the module that doesn’t conform to the standards of the rulebooks, or at least not directly: as I often write materials without rulebooks conveniently at hand, this was part necessity, part blessing; in recent years, it has evolved into a conscious, if tempered design approach.

The length and colourful grab-bag nature of the module was why it was selected to be my foray into amateur d20 self-publishing: I wanted it to be not just an introduction to the idea that ordinary gamers can outdo the pros in imagination and raw content per page, but also as a showcase of the things I found cool in old school and missing from the rather dogmatic Hungarian gaming scene. It was a typical, arrogant folly: I scaled down the font size until it was just readable in a 32-page A5 booklet, then, after being horrified by the rates real printers were asking, had the thing manufactured at a friendly (and gamer-run) print/copy shop at a bargain rate that allowed for a cover price of only $2.5. Out of the 70 copies, 50 were sold through various game stores (they were doing me a favour) and the rest were distributed to various friends and accomplices – some complimentary copies were even shipped overseas to Clark Peterson, Bill Webb, Bob Bledsaw and a few others as a way of thanks.

In the end, the venture was mildly profitable, but the intended sequels – a re-release of Pazuzu, a strange investigation scenario, and Ravit Island, a module that would have been written by my partner in publishing – were never realised. Was it lack of enthusiasm? The theft of my gaming materials and corresponding disillusionment with 3.0? The comment of a real publisher that this was all nice but he should be reporting me to Wizards for (accurately) supposing that I was not paying taxes on the sales? The lack of people following my example? Laziness? Hard to say; it was not the lack of feedback, since it was abundant and enthusiastic. In any event, al-Astorion is Hungary’s only domestically produced semi-commercial d20 module, and with the withdrawal of the license, is bound to stay that way. My “publishing outfit” (if you can call it that), E.M.D.T. (for First Hungarian D20 Society), only returned, some lessons learned, with the Kard és Mágia rules in late 2008.

To return to the module contents, the wilderness dungeon follows a successful “central loop and spokes” layout: a network of central encounters and spokes leading to short and mostly linear mini-scenarios. This is not quite as open as a truly non-linear sandbox (like a hex-crawl), but better than most. The mini-scenarios may be explored on the party’s terms, and contribute to the discovery of the things going on in the valley, although they are not required to complete the main objective (actually, during playtest, the players resolved every possible issue but the central one – they figured it was going to be too hard after suffering severe losses in an entirely optional side-area).

The Garden of al-Astorion

It is a major feature of al-Astorion and a philosophy I have consistently tried to apply to my games ever since that background information is not necessarily acquired in a predetermined order. Context is acquired as the characters come into contact with the environment, and it is up to them to come up with their own interpretation of what-does-what. In fact, I have even used this technique outside roleplaying games: in my missions for the Thief computer games, the player is placed in a fairly open environment with only a general idea on what is going on – and it is up to him or her to interpret the fairly ambiguous clues to piece together a more detailed but invariably personal picture. Using background information in this way encourages player imagination and involvement, and is also much less obtrusive than the force-fed boxed text of several professionally released modules.

Finally, three random bits of trivia. People who pay attention will quickly notice how the map of the wilderness resembles the skull of a primitive human (or a man-ape hybrid). Some would say this is something of an easter-egg, a nod to the themes of the module and an important set of encounters. To their disappointment, I would have to say it was entirely unintentional, and I only spotted the uncanny resemblance years and years later. Second, people have drawn parallels between the module and the Clark Ashton Smith story The Garden of Adompha; given the other, very direct CAS references, they would be entirely justified – but entirely wrong. At the time of the module’s writing, I had not read the story yet; it was The Flower Women, detailing an adventure of the wizard Maal-Dweb, which might have been an unconscious model. Finally, as seen on the scanned first page, the main antagonist was originally named Shalastar: I am not sure how I arrived at the much less lame al-Astorion, but it was either Jack Vance’s Alastor trilogy or, maybe more likely, Budapest’s Astoria metro station that became my inspiration. In either case, it was a last-minute change and I am much happier for it.

Where to get it:
The Judges Guild Site (The Garden of al-Astorion – OGL and C&C versions)

“The treasure-filled burial mound of an ancient warlord! The news spread like wildfire along the coast, right after reports of raids by hyena-men hungering for human flesh. But if the treasures have rested so long underground, what manner of traps, guardians and enigmas might protect them? Who will be the one to challenge the infernal cunning of a long-dead mind? (Not to mention the hyena-men…) The labyrinth of Strabonus has already claimed many lives, and it will take a man of great cunning to unveil its long-kept secrets.”

Description and contents: Strabonus was conceived for our second Wilderlands adventure series, the Wormshead Peninsula campaign (City State map, hex 4006), and was unfortunately the last hooray for my old group early 2004: after two sessions spent exploring the tomb, multiple participants moved away (two as far as Great Britain) or got overwhelmed by real life. As a relatively small but very compactly designed scenario, Strabonus involves demanding mapping, combat and puzzle-solving challenges in a six-level dungeon, with very generous rewards for those who brave it to the end.

Original manuscript cover - featuring a horribly executed d20 trademark notice

The entrance segment introduces very dangerous combat situations with the gnoll inhabitants of the upper levels, who are tough and organised enough to surround and destroy an overconfident group. As humanoid opponents, gnolls are an ideal challenge for characters entering the mid-level range: their 2 HD makes dropping them with one melee attack uncertain, and they do enough damage with halberds and javelins to be dangerous in a prolonged combat situation. (They also lack the “been there, seen that” factor of orcs and goblins.)

After dealing with the gnolls, the scenario moves on to puzzles, interspersed with the odd undead encounter. In retrospective, the puzzles in Strabonus are some of the better ones I have written, which is pretty good considering I always have an easier time thinking of descriptive detail, combat situations and layout when designing dungeons. They are perhaps optimal in their balance between danger and rewards (the final encounter expected – that’s a rather unfair one), while the various companions of the tomb’s builder add a nice touch of variety, including an interesting detour (Tagon the Thick, whose ditty is a thing worth being proud of – both Hungarian and English versions have that shameless, smirking attitude which really establishes a personality only mentioned in passing).

I think what makes Strabonus work really well are graduality and the reuse of space: the nature of challenges changes as the characters explore further, and previous elements which seemed to be simple colour gain a new meaning and a reason for revisiting them. It would be an interesting challenge to try creating an even more complex module without resorting to the annoying key >> obstacle >> key >> obstacle pattern of progression. A module in that mould would be equal to a true sandbox from the players’ perspective without really being one.

Where to get it:
http://www.cncplayer.net/ (Castles&Crusades)

“In the wastelands beyond civilisation, raw might triumphs over all: he who can best others by weapon, treachery or magic holds wealth and power. But not even the wealthy and powerful are immortal, and the wasteland is more powerful than any of them. This module contains the description of a desert outpost where crafty adventurers can find shelter and get involved in dark designs; the descriptions of caravans and NPCs who may become strong allies or implacable enemies… and two adventures for those who would test themselves against the power of the wasteland.”

“The Quean Wastes is the second large supplement I have created from the materials of my Wilderlands campaigns. Unlike Zothay, which was a medium-sized city state treated in a compact and thorough manner, Queans Waste is much more modular. Beyond some simple background information, it is essentially a colourful mosaic of locations for use by the Judge. There are multiple mini-dungeons, a village and no less than four small strongholds described herein, with a number of ruins, relics and lairs to round out the picture. Together, they form a sort of perspective into how I imagine the setting, and how I use it in actual play. In several ways, this use is divergent from the officially released Wilderlands materials, which should be evident on a brief perusal. A number of differences have been noted in the next section. Such changes aren’t just accepted, they are highly recommended – as it has been written elsewhere, „please alter, illuminate, expand, modify, extrapolate, interpolate, shrink, and further manipulate all contained to suit the tenor of your campaign.”

Description and contents: The fragmentary materials that eventually came together in the introductory module/sourcebook Törött Puszták (Broken Wastes) have origins in my third Wilderlands campaign. Indeed, were it not for Clark Peterson and Bill Webb’s decision to entrust me with The Tegel Project, it would have formed a weighty sandbox module and a companion piece to The City State of Zothay under the title The Quean Wastes. That piece about the wastelands is not kidding: the original random encounter table has entries for the “Beast of 1000 Eyes”, Chimerae, Type I. Demons and Snakes, Big Fucking. The original ambitions of the project were never fulfilled, but the core elements of it were relocated to Fomalhaut, and have seen publication in Fight On! Magazine. At its full, the supplement would have included:

The Quean Wastes

Snake Tower: a Pilgrimage Site

The Temple of Hekate

Design notes: Much as the unpublished foreword states, this is the sand that goes into a sandbox. The adventures and encounters are sword&sorcery-inspired with a touch of the unreal. I imagined the wastelands surrounding the roads as truly dead places where reality does not have a complete sway over the land, and evil dreams intrude where it breaks down. The strongest elements of the package, I Thirst, The Tower of Birds and Stone Gullet make for a formidable sequence that can put a campaign on track right from the start, and Wasteland Travellers is a good source for memorable minor NPCs (since many of them were written later, some of Fomalhaut’s weirdness creeps into what was originally straight-faced sword&sorcery). The other civilised sites have a lot of adventure hooks in store for a party that actively seeks conflict, but they may seem lacking for “default good” adventurers whose philosophy is to avoid it. Nevertheless, survival is a great motivation and it worked in both campaigns the materials were used. In the first, action started with the player characters exiled into the wastelands by the men of the Invincible Overlord for unknown infractions, and eventually ended with the partial destruction of Zothay by undead hordes from the sea; in the second, the arc was run as an immediate sequel to Systema Tartarobasis, and concluded with the party’s capture in a failed kidnapping attempt and their consignment to Khosura’s Pits of Lamentation.

Where to get it:
Fight On! #2 (The Tower of Birds)
Fight On! #6 (Stone Gullet, Wasteland Travellers)
Fight On! #8 (I Thirst)

“So many worlds! It has been said of the seas that there are no two isles alike in them, and ten lives would not be enough to map them all. Although this saying is questioned by many, it is certain that he who embarks on a sea voyage sets sail towards lost empires, megalomaniacal tyrants and ancient ruins. Among the isles, everything and everything’s opposite is possible. This module contains the maps and descriptions of five major isle realms, several lesser islands and a handful of marine encounters. And those who would prevail over all: they are none other than Sea Lords!”

Description and contents: A collection of adventure modules centred on a lost civilisations theme. Serialised in Knockspell Magazine as Isles on an Emerald Sea and collected in the Hungarian as A Tengerek Urai (Sea Lords). The overlap is imperfect, as the former has not yet been concluded, while the latter lacks two major islands which will probably have to go into a sequel or separate collection. The whole series includes:

The Isle of Birds: “A bare realm of two great rock piles and surrounding shallows on the Sea of Emerald Idols: this is the Isle of Birds, where castaways have died in lament and curse. Some ran ashore on the reefs, which are treacherous and swarming with giant crabs; others were sent here by malefices or curses to perish so far from human help. Yet those who are courageous and cunning may win free – and even gain treasure and knowledge in the bargain. The Isle of Birds is so named for a multitude of chattering seagulls who nest in the rocks and hunt in the sea; but also the great roc that makes its lair on top of the taller outcropping.”
The Isle of Arsinoi: “The domain of the goddess is now quietly gone, the villas faded pink ruins, the halcyon glades possessed of gentle melancholy. In ponderous decay, parklands have turned into a wilderness, where the only common inhabitants are quail and packs of feral dogs. Here and there are old remains of human habitation, from decorative busts to bucolic retreats.”
The Isle of Barzon: “Power on the world of Fomalhaut takes many forms, from pragmatic appeals to human self interest to naked coercion. The worship of divine beings can manifest in either of these sterile extremes, as well as a dozen varieties between the two: there are as many specific arrangements as there are gods. Yet the power of gods (who, like all of us, should themselves be entitled to the right to act in accordance with their own welfare) more often than not serves the weal of their direct subordinates before their worshippers – or, it is said, the gods themselves. So it was on the Isle of Barzon, a small island ruled by an empire not much larger…”

Isles on an Emerald Sea

Design notes: A series that has given me a lot of pleasure in writing, running and then again writing it. Island-based campaigns offer a lot of latitude in populating a game region with a series of colourful but only tangentially related scenarios, and this time was no different. From the random odyssey of the player characters (who had been cast here after an improperly worded command to a powerful Underworld spirit in the finest homage to Eyes of the Overworld) emerged a powerful sequence of adventures mostly in the spirit of Clark Ashton Smith and Leigh Brackett. I am generally proud of the economical prose, and especially of The Isle of Barzon, which is just a very open-ended and tightly written scenario with themes going back to Systema Tartarobasis. The Isle of Armul Urthag is a reflection on Geoffrey McKinney’s excellent if troubling Carcosa campaign (also echoed in Isles of the Ur-Stones), while The Isle of Molonei has the distinction of being a dungeon module designed entirely by improvisation (a Referee who would like his or her players to spend more time in the locale should do some expansion, probably linking in the now underdeveloped overworld areas).

Other highlights of the Isles campaign segment include a multi-session expedition into the ruined labyrinth-city of Immah Wel (using a Fomalhautian redesign of The Tomb of the Bull King, a great Mazes&Minotaurs dungeon by Carlos de la Cruz Morales), Giant Death Crabs of Doom (well-armoured and deadly opponents from the depths of the sea) as well as intrigue and deception in the city state of Khonón.

Where to get it:
Knockspell #1 (The Isle of Birds, The Isle of Arsinoi, misc.)
Knockspell #2 (The Isle of Barzon, The Isle of Armul Urthag, misc.)
Knockspell #4 (The Isle of Molonei, misc.)