The alcove on the near right in Room 26 hides a secret door. This one is expected is not a bit obvious.
There is a corridor that goes on for some 100 feet. As the party moves on the corridor twists and turns as well as widens. It opens into a chamber. At the other end of the chamber there is a flight of stairs that goes down as far as the eye can see.
Inspecting these stairs show signs that they one had been grand but have suffered damage from the volcanic activity. Closer inspection reveals the source of this activity, many open portals to the Plane of Fire where lava and fire are coming through.
The alcove on the far right in Room 26 opens to a long hall. As the party moves down they hear growling.
In this part of the hall has the heads of various demons fixed to the walls like trophies, which is exactly what they are.
As the party approaches the demons growl and hiss. The party can read a plaque under each one, it has the demon's name and the date it was killed by the Vampire Queen. The characters need to be careful, getting too close and the demon head can bite for 2d6 hp of damage.
Each head is still "alive" but lock in a sort of perpetual death. They can't regenerate their bodies and they can't die.
The demons demand to be released, but they honestly have no idea how that can be accomplished.
A few times in my life are clearly defined as "Before" and "After."
Graduations. Marriage. Kids. But one that has left a significant mark on me (and my wife Natalie) was Before and After hearing "The Lion and the Cobra" by Sinéad O’Connor. Seeing her in concert remains one of the best shows I have ever been to in my life.
I do not believe in any sort of afterlife at all. But I hope she finally found some sort of peace.
The effect her music, especially her first few albums, had on me is quite frankly immeasurable. Not surprisingly, she also inspired some of my favorite RPG moments.
I am not going to say there would have been no "The Dragon and the Phoenix," my epic Buffy RPG campaign without Sinéad's "The Lion and the Cobra," but it and everything that came after it (my work on the Buffy RPG, Ghosts of Albion) would have looked very different.
Back in 1988, listening to "The Lion & the Cobra" (for like the 1000th time likely), I had an idea of a character that loved someone so much that they breached the walls of death and came back to that person. It was a powerful image and something I wanted to do ever since. Eventually, that image from so long ago became a central theme of "The Dragon & the Phoenix." The song was "Troy" (as in Trojans) and the final adventure was named "No Other Troy." Both for the Sinéad O'Connor song and the Yeats poem.
The build-up for this adventure, an interlude, was set to "Drink Before the War," also from "The Lion and the Cobra."
While "The Lion and the Cobra" had a HUGE impact on my life, it was not her only album. Another contributing factor to both my Ravenloft games of the 1990s and "The Dragon and the Phoenix" was "I am Stretched on Your Grave" from her wildly successful "I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got."
Another element added to the soundtrack of my early 2000s games was her 1994 album "Universal Mother," with "Fire On Babylon" being the main choice.
Sinéad also appeared on many other albums. One song of hers really help me find the tone I was looking for for my The Dragon and the Phoenix game. It is "Empire" off of Bomb the Bass's album "Clear."
Other Games
Though back in the late 80s / early 90s the Buffy RPG was not even an idea yet. What was an idea were my ideas for a Star Trek TNG game after picking up some FASA Trek material for TNG. Back then the idea of a Ghost Ship and the song was "Jackie" also from "The Lion and the Cobra."
This was, no doubt, inspired by what I was doing back then. A lot of horror role-playing.
Another song, which while by itself did not lead to any RPG ideas, it lead me to Enya which more or less was my soundtrack for writing Ghosts of Albion. The song was "Never Get Old" also from "The Lion and the Cobra."
Other Videos
I can't have a proper tribute without mentioning "Nothing Compares 2 U." I was at a party one night back in college. People were drinking and generally doing what you do at an underage college keg party. The TV was on MTV as background noise. Sinéad came on with "Nothing Compares 2 U" and I swear the whole place ground to a halt so people could watch her. Ok, maybe not to a halt, but it was early enough in the release of the song that not many had seen the video yet. I already had heard the song many times, I bought the album on the day it was released, so I knew it. I think I may have even seen the video. But now everyone else was discovering something I already knew. Just how fantastic she was.
Her critics (and there are so many of them) are all quick to point out that Prince wrote this song. Yes. Yes he did and Prince is amazing. He has written so many songs for so many artists. But when Prince wrote this he was singing about a lover. Sinéad was singing about her abusive mother and how she really just wanted to be loved by her the same way she loved her.
Tell me that doesn't make it hit harder.
Speaking of critics.
At the concert to celebrate Bob Dylan's birthday right after the Pope thing, she came on stage and was booed by the crowd. Singer Kris Kristofferson came out, gave her a hug, and told her, "Don't let the bastards get you down." She did her song and fled the stage, where Kristofferson was there to give her a hug. My admiration of him went up several notches after that. In 2009 he recorded an acoustic song, "Sister Sinead."
I'm singing this song for my sister Sinead Concerning the god awful mess that she made She told them her truth just as hard as she could Her message profoundly was misunderstood
There's humans entrusted with guarding our gold And humans in charge of the saving of souls And humans responded all over the world Condemning that bald headed brave little girl
And maybe she's crazy and maybe she ain't But so was Picasso and so were the saints And she's never been partial to shackles or chains She's too old for breaking and too young to tame
It's askin' for trouble to stick out your neck In terms of a target a big silhouette But some candles flicker and some candles fade And some burn as true as my sister Sinead
Ok...maybe a little self-serving here. Ok. A lot. But I spent some time organizing my social media profiles and thought I'd share them all here for ease.
Here is my new Link in Bio from bit.ly.
Oddly, iframes are not working with this one.
As you can see, you can now find me on bsky (BlueSky), Mastodon, and Threads, in addition to all the other places I have been at forever.
Share yours below and connect with others. With social media a vast and unconnected set of sites, it is hard to find out what cool things people are doing now. Or at least keep track of them.
I guess this is one of the reasons why I continue to blog here, it is my corner of the Internet, and I can do what I like, as I like.
The closer alcove on the left back in room 26 appears to be a short alcove with another bas-relief of the Vampire Queen (similar to Level 2, Room 18) this time she is playing the violin.
It is fairly obvious that the violin is of different construction than the rest of the bas-relief.
A thief can use a find traps roll or an elf with a secret door roll to discover this secret door.
Wow. What a month. I have been heads down playtesting The Wasted Lands all month. The Kickstarter was funded and was completed just about 2 hours ago.
All the documents are ready. Now comes the layout and buying the last bits of art. It has been a wild ride, really. I can't wait to get my copies.
Wasted Lands core rules mock-up
Gen Con & AI
Sadly I am not headed to Gen Con this year despite being invited by a couple of publishers I have worked with in the past year. Honestly, prep for the Fall term is kicking my ass and despite the volume of posts here, most have been pre-written days ahead. In addition to my normal course load (ok, it is actually more this year) I am also part of the team that is working on finding ways to prevent students from using AI for plagiarism. I have never felt more akin to Sisyphus in my life, to be honest. But I do what the Gods command. So I have been eyeballs deep in all sorts of AI tools (and brushing up on my Python) since December just to keep up. I have all these cool AI tools to play with, but the goal is to figure out how to keep students from using them OR how they can use them in ethical ways. One thing though is abundantly clear, these tools are not going away.
So, no Gen Con for me this year. Looks like I'll be at Gary Con again in 2024. Not a bad place to be to celebrate 50 years of D&D.
Monster Mash II
I released Monster Mash II to only a little fanfare. I really need to talk about it more. I am rather happy with it and the art is AMAZING!
Looking Ahead to October
Again I'll be hosting the RPG Blog Carnival in October. My theme is "Gods and Monsters." I hope to talk more about Gods, demons, and monsters. It should be a lot of fun.
Since the beginning of the year, I have also been taking Spanish, so I am going to try my hand at watching nothing but Spanish-language horror movies. Part of my "continuous improvement" this year. I have lost 40 lbs, brought my A1C down to normal for six straight months, and will be off my high-blood pressure meds! Not too bad, really.
Sinéad O'Connor
I can't let the day pass without some mention of Sinéad O'Connor. I am planning a tribute post tomorrow. To say she had an impact on my life is a massive understatement.
Ok. Have a course to finish up today and I promised a colleague that I would read over theirs before tomorrow.
The first alcove on the left hides a secret door. In leads down a small flight of stairs to a room filling with water. The water though, turns to steam nearly as fast.
Rising from the steam is a demonic figure, similar to the small demons from Room 11, but this one is much larger.
Steam Mephit Lord: HD 8; AC 3 [16]; THAC0 11 [+8]; Atk 2 claws (1d8); Move 120' (40') [Fly 240' (80')]; Save D8 W9 P10 B11 S12 (8); Morale 10; AL C; Special: Breathe steam cloud (3d6, save for half), gaseous form.
This creature is twice as large as the mephits encountered earlier. It appears to be "melting," but that seems to be part of its form.
The Mephit Lord is trapped here, like many other creatures, by the Vampire Queen.
I have not been talking much about the various Judges Guild books in a while because of how racist current stewards Bob Bledsaw II and III have been. Really put a sad blemish on what I had always enjoyed as a "local" company.
But that also, unfortunately, did Bob Bledsaw the First and all the other fine authors (like Daniel Hauffe and Jennell Jaquays) a huge disservice. So I want to revisit some of the Judges Guild books of my youth and see how they could play into my current games. In particular, my War of the Witch Queens or my 1979 Campaign.
Since I always look for witches, I will start with Alcastra and The Illhiedrin Book.
I don't have the cover as the top image. The reason is simple, when this post gets shared on social media, whatever image is first is used as a thumbnail, and the cover was suggestive by 1981 standards and likely to get me into Facebook jail by 2023 standards. Shame, really. It is one of the more recognizable covers.
The adventure is a rare example of an Advanced Dungeons & Dragons adventure from Judges Guild (not just a Dungeons & Dragons one) and a low-level adventure at that.
Like many older adventures, much detail is given to Alcastra's tower and its occupants, but only a little on the spell-caster herself. In fact, this is all we really know about her:
This is a pity. Though it is interesting (to me anyway) that her class is "Wizard" and not "Magic-user," as expected.
Why is she naked on the cover? I am going with it is hot where she is at.
Of course, I would instead use her as a witch. Given her general appearance, I am tempted to make her into an Egyptian witch of the Classical Tradition. For this, I will use my syncretized Greco-Egyptian Gods and use my Classical Witch Tradition book. I would swap out some of the Classical Witch spells for some others, likely from my Witch book for Basic-era games though I should also look into some of my other books.
Saves
Breath Attacks: 12
Poison or Death: 9 Petrify or Paralysis: 9
Wands: 10
Spells and Spell-like device: 11
Hit Points: 33
Alignment: Chaotic Good
AC: 3 (Bracers of defense) To hit AC 0: 16
Occult Powers
Familiar: Hawk (+1 to Wisdom and Dexterity checks)
Lesser: Gift of Prophecy
Minor: Drawing Down the Moon
Spells
First: Cause Fear, Charm Person, Read Languages, Sleep
Second: ESP, Hold Person, Invisibility, Spell Missile
Third: Dispel Magic, Scry, Spark of Insight
Fourth: Fate, Polymorph Other, Witch Power
Fifth: Flame Strike, Teleport
Sixth: Anit-Magic Shell, Bones of the Earth
Seventh: Sirocco
Equipment
Bracers of Defence Dagger +2
Staff of Ra. Acts as a Staff of Striking and can cast the following spells: 3/day: Color Spray, Light 1/day: Flame Strike, Fury of the Sun, Sun Blessing
--
A good build to be honest. She also has two apprentices, Mirranscheim (human) and Rhall (half-elf), both 3rd level. The only stats we get for them are their Charisma scores. I am tempted to make Rhall a desert elf. Just to give her a more interesting background. But in my game, desert elves don't have anything to do with humans if they can avoid them. Rhall could be an outcast.
I might detail them since they could accompany the party on this adventure. To make sure their mistress' plan is carried out. Not sure if they run around naked as well. Let's say no.
Mirranscheim and Rhall
The adventure itself is pretty basic. It could be built up by making "The Creature" a bit tougher.
The passageway opens into a large circular room. In the center is a large fire. There are four alcoves spaced about the room walls. The scene on the ceiling is though a sight out of a nightmare.
Near the top of the room, writhing on the thermals, are four (4) elemental fire Leeches.
These creatures are native to the Elemental Plane of Fire where they are analogous to Giant Leeches. Instead of draining blood the drain heat.
There are also 1d4+4 Fire Opals found on the ground here, worth 100x1d6 GP each. They are from the Elemental Plane of Fire and are worth twice as much to an alchemist or wizard specializing in fire magic.
To recover from their massive PR screw-up involving the OGL, Wizards of the Coast swang the completely other direction and released the D&D 5 SRD under the Creative Commons License.
I know much less about this license than I do about the OGL. I am pretty competent in the OGL and have been part of the Open Gaming Foundation since its beginning. So yeah, I have had nearly 23 years of practice with it.
The Arcanum 30th Anniversary Edition is an update to the venerable Arcanum and Compleat books from the 1980s. I always have had a soft spot in my heart for this series. The 30th Anniversary Edition also does a good job of updating these rules and provides a nice history.
All three are worthy updates to their original versions. If somewhat thicker.
The rules have not really changed all that much. The presentation of all three is also better, with Swords & Wizardry inching out as the best-looking update.
This might be just what I needed to help get over my creative hump on my High Witchcraft book I have been playing around with for years.
Past the corridor there is a split going left and right. The right leads to a door that is locked, barred, and magiced.
Removing the bar requires a combined Strength of 28 to lift. After that a thief with need a successful remove traps roll. Then a magic-user (or witch) will need to cast a dispel magic or remove curse on the lock.
Inside the room is a bound Ifrit.
Bound in a Thaumaturgic Triangle is an Ifrit. Not just any Ifrit, but Princess Azadiha. She has been bound her for over 1,000 years.
She will beg the PCs for her freedom saying she will grant each one wish (treat as a limited wish spell). She won't try to "twist" the wishes, but they will not be very powerful all the same.
She is telling the truth and wants to kill the one her put in this circle. Not the Vampire Queen, but one of her chief summoners. (Insightful GMs can use the name of a local or personal NPC for the summoner here).
The Princess is dangerous but honest. The Vampire Queen is not her interest, but if the PCs mention they are hunting for her, she will be inclined to aid them.
For freeing her the PCs gain 3,000 XP. She has no treasure.
The corridor goes on and on for several hundred feet. There are slight turns here and there and there is a gradual decline.
The corridor open into a large, as in giant cave, the floor has fallen away as the volcanic activity of this level as gotten to this section. Whatever room was here has fallen into the lava bed below.
Ahead there is a bridge that leads to the other side. The heat and smoke in this room are great, characters must save vs. paralysis to keep from choking. A failed save means the character can't move and must rest for five minutes. Characters need to make a save once when entering this chamber and once again at the bridge. Any character that fails also moves at a reduced half, rate of speed.
Lava flows in small "lava falls" from above.
It is 1000 ft from the opening of this chamber to the other side of the bridge.
The corridor beyond widens. The passageway is an art gallery with portraits of the Vampire Queen (you are unable to tell), each in what looks like a wedding portrait. In each one, she is with a different husband.
There are dates under each portrait. The years are unknown to the party, but it seems every few years the Vampire Queen remarries.
The ornate frames are guided and fitted with all sorts of gems. The frames with portraits are worth 1,000 gp each (x4). The pieces separated will only bring in 2,500 GP total.
Going back to Room #18 and taking the door behind Gzor'nak this leads to a long hallway covered in gravel. When the party reaches a large chamber (Room 21) the gravel begins to move and form itself into a giant monster.
The monster has the stats of a Stone Giant. It regenerates 2 hp per round.
If it is reduced to 0 hp it will fall apart but reform when it reaches 10 hp.
This can be prevented by mixing the gravel with volcanic ash (everywhere prior to room 10) and water. OR by use of a Dispel Magic.
