Fuccubus Friday - Lilith

Lilith, a woodcut on paper by Ernst Barlach, c. 1922

Secret of The Black Crag Review

Written and illustrated by Chance Dudinack and published by Silver Arm, Secret of the Black Crag is an OSE pirate adventure. Designed for characters 1-5, it's an island-crawl sandbox. Clocking in at 95 pages, this hardcover is packed full of OSE content. Inspired by Atlantis: The Lost Empire, Indiana Jones, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Monkey Island, the adventure is a great mix of action and quirky humor. 

The adventure starts in Port Fortune, a wealthy port in the archipelago known as Salamander Islands, unofficially ruled by the pirate lord, Red Roger. A legendary dark island with a mysterious past has risen from the depths. This island holds ancient secrets and the plunder of the legendary pirate Janzoon.  

Great detail is given to Port Fortune. Ten locations (each with an important NPC) are detailed (some a little more than others). Pirates, whores, and even an enchanted sea hag occupy the town. Every location has some sort of hook to get the characters invested. Pirate crews, a pirate generator, plus rumor and encounter tables help bring the port to life.

I wouldn't expect an island hopping adventure to have a traditional dungeon, but that is what the titular Black Crag is. There are two cavern levels, a fallen city, and a palace to explore. There are four different factions the party can play off each other. Some cool roleplay opportunities are presented. The island is tied to ancient aliens which adds some fun sci-fi elements to the whole adventure. 

While Black Crag is the ultimate focus and impetus of the adventure, it's an island-crawl so of course there are other islands (to um... crawl upon). The map of the Salamander Islands includes 20+ islands. Many of these are keyed locations, though there are also several unidentified ones that you can do whatever you'd like with them. There's nice variety of locations. My favorite location is the Temple of the Monkeys. Intelligent monkeys and a gorilla dressed as a pirate captain? Hell yeah! There's also a nice nod to The Odyssey in Nereus the cyclops. Plenty of encounter charts are given to help a GM populate the unidentified islands. Expect a future post discussing how I'd expand the adventure. 

There are four appendices. The first features several pages of monsters. The second presents a few pages of new magic items. This is followed by some quick and dirty underwater adventuring rules. Finally there is a list of inspiration, which includes the franchises I mentioned above (as well as a few other).  

I really dig the art and the pieces in this post are my favorites . The writing is excellent too. Chance gives enough information for a GM to use, but doesn't over do it. There are many courses the party can chart, which allows for a variety of play styles. Even the Black Crag itself has multiple entrances, paths, and routes. Another aspect of the design I like is that the traps are telegraphed. Much like the impaled skeletons in Indiana Jones films that warn Indy of traps, chance includes set pieces like this to warn canny players. 

If you want some nautical OSE fun, this is a must have. I definitely want to run it soon. You can pick up the pdf on DriveThru RPG here. A print copy can be ordered from Games Unlimited here.

More Hellboy Cryptid Fun

Here are two more HB cryptid pics from the fantastic Kate Komics. Links to previous pieces in this series can be found here.

I thought this was a Pope Lick thing, but this is about a different goat monster. Still cool!

Hellboy and Mothie meet the Thunderbird.

Add Something Wild To Your OSE Games

Here are a couple of unusual classes I’ve found for Old-School Essentials. The first is a throwback to a classic old school module and second would make Black Phillip proud.

Phanaton  by Spes Magna Games - Anyone that's played X1 The Island of Dread probably remembers these halfling-sized humanoid. Looking like a cross between a lemur and raccoon (with a little bit of flying squirrel thrown in). They can climb, glide, fight, and have a prehensile tail. I think these would make a great addition to any game that features Secret of the Black Crag.

The Uncanny Goat by Yesterweird is a class that lets you live deliciously. This class literally lets you play a goat. Not a normal one, mind you. They are as intelligent as any other adventurer and can speak and read Common and Barnyard. They are hardy, expert climbers, and get strange gifts as they grow in level. I think my favorite part of this class is the d20 What Made The Goat Go Wrong chart that explains why you are such an uncanny goat. 

Music Monday - Harpy Hare

I discovered this fae tune last week and can't get it out of my head. The accompanying illustrated video makes me love it even more. This will definitely be a bardic song in my games. 

The 666 - Alchol (01)

Alchol the Baneful Brewmaster (Standard Order Demon)

The ancient demon known as Alchol claims to be the first to introduce fermentation to mortals. Despite his skeletal appearance, his charming demeanor and smooth words often allow him to join in mortal festivities. He's even been known to offer boons to those that can provide a new intoxicating experience to the old fiend (not an easy task). The demon delights in encouraging mortals to excess, spreading chaos through drunken debauchery. One more drink couldn't hurt, right?

Armor Class 2 [17]

Hit Dice 8 (36 HP) 

Attacks 2 X Mug (1d4)

THAC0 12[+7]

Movement 120' (60')

Saving Throws D 8 W 9 P 10 B 10 S 12

Morale 8

Alignment Chaotic

XP 1200

Number Appearing Unique

Treasure Type F 

• Demon 
• Gate:  incubus/succubus (65% probability of success)
• Drunken aura: Any mortal creature within 30' of Alchol must make a save versus poison each round or become intoxicated (suffering a -2 to hit until they rest).
• Everfull Mug: Can fill any drinking vessel in his presence with an alcohol of his choice he's encountered.
• Summoning Toast: Alchol always knows when his name has been invoked in a toast and can teleport to that location.

The Quintessential Dungeon

I'm a big fan of Ben's reviews over at Questing Beast.  Recently I watched his video for The Quintessential Dungeon and I wanted to share this fantastic one-page dungeon with you wonderful folks. The illustration and writing was done by Will Doyle over at Beholder Pie. The layout is easy to read and what the text doesn't give you, the illustrations do. It really has anything you could want in a beginning dungeon. First of all the dungeon has a dragon, because the game is called Dungeons & Dragons. There are some D&D deep lore cuts too. The adventure starts at The Green Griffin Inn and the infamous wizard Bargle (RIP Aleena) is the mastermind behind everything.

The adventure has no stats, but everything mentioned can be pulled from the bestiary of whatever elf game you are using. 

Download the adventure here today.

Fuccubus Friday - Going Batty

 Love this new piece by Cassandra Dunn Art.

OSE Fiends

I was reading Three Curses for Sister Saren again and I love the idea of unique fiends. It got me thinking:

 Wouldn't it be fun to create some? 

I think so. Then I thought: 

Wouldn't it be more fun to create 666?

Ambitious? Ridiculous. Well, yeah, but I think it will be a blast and I'm not setting a deadline. This will just be something I do when the mood strikes me. To be clear, when I say unique fiend, I don't mean I won't present some classics, such as succubi or imps. However, individual representatives of those types of fiend with their own personality and lore/info is what you'll find.  

I'm going to stat them for Old-School Essentials. As of the initial time of posting there are no official demons or devils stats for OSE (at least in the core books). Necrotic Gnome is working on something.  Appendix N Entertainment has released both Demonology and Deviltry books, and while I want to grab them, I haven't yet. Therefore I'm going to use the one's from Labyrinth Lord's Advanced Edition Companion. You'll find those below and I'll hyperlink back to this post instead of repeating them with each new fiend.

I'm going to try to scour the internet for public domain pieces to represent them. 

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Demon Traits

Demons have no formal hierarchy, it's helpful to order them by their powerful level. These are lower order (1-4 HD), standard order (5-8 HD), higher order (9+ HD), and demon lords (21+)

• Infravision (90')
• Half damage from cold-based attacks
• Half-damage from electrical-based attacks
• Hall damage from fire-based attacks
• Half damage from gas-based attacks
• Gate (varies in expression, not available to lower demons)
• Telepathy (allows all languages to be understood)
• Teleport (not available lower order demons)

Demon spell-like abilities (unless otherwise noted) function at the minimum class level required to use the similar spell, or as the demon's HD, which is higher. They are usable once each round.

Devil Traits

• Charm Person
• Half damage from cold-based attacks
• Half damage from gas-based attacks
• Immunity to fire-based attacks
• Infravision (90')
• Know Alignment
• Phantasmal Force
• Teleport 
• Gate
• Telepathy (allows all languages to be understood)
• Lower devils (1-4 HD) can be harmed by ordinary weapons. Greater devils (9+ HD to 20 HD) and Archdevils (21+ HD) may only be harmed by magical weapons or weapons made from silver.

Devil's spell-like abilities (unless otherwise noted) function at the minimum class level required to use the similar spell, or as the devil's HD, which is higher. They are usable once each round.

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I'll post my fiend this weekend.