This Old Dragon: Issue #76

Last week I talked about Dragon Magazine #75 and how packed full of material it was. Today I breaking my own rule and going for the very next issue because it has Part 2 of the Devils article. But there is a lot more here than just that. So once again let's sit back, put on a copy of The Polie's "Synchronicity" and drift back to August 1983 for Issue #76 of This Old Dragon.

Ah. Not only do we have a Clyde Caldwell cover this issue, but it is one of my favorites. Sure the redhead is in boob-plate, but at least she is not wearing high heels. The wizard in the background would also be the visual I'd use for my NPC Magnus until it was replaced by another Caldwell piece.  

Letters covers the woes of computer programs, in particular trying to translate BASIC from one system to another. 

An interesting little bit about the Ares magazine appears on page 4. TSR had just bought SPI in 1982 and their magazine Ares. The plane was, in 1983 at least, to keep them separate with Dragon handling the fantasy content and Ares the SciFi. Readers here will know of course that was short-lived and by April of 1984 Ares became a section within Dragon.

Ed Greenwood and Roger E. Moore are up first with The Ecology of the Beholder. Maybe one of my favorite "Ecology of..." articles ever. The "Sage" of the article is doubtless Elminster, though he lacks his normal archaic form of speech. One of the true joys of doing these "This Old Dragons" has been the rediscovery of these Ecology articles. One day I need to track them all down and do a retrospective. One thing I love to do with them is to put them into my Monstrous Compendiums.

Yeah, that might feel like blasphemy to cut up my old Dragons, but I have multiples of this one, and the one I cut up was water damaged anyway. On that Beholder mini? Yeah more on him later.

Ahh...speaking of Magnus. We have the late, great Len Lakofka and his masterpiece, For NPCs Only: The Death Master. Magnus was my NPC Death Master and damn was he great. I mean this was such a great class. There is just so much about this class that just hits right. I am so pleased I am doing this issue in October. 

Up early is the SF/Gaming Convention Calendar for August 1983. Gen Con 16 gets a mention. 

Here we go. The main event. 

Ed Greenwood is back with The Nine Hells, Part II. This one covers the next four layers Malbolge to Nessus. Also featured here are 21 new Devils including Other Side favorite Lilith as the consort to Moloch of all people. Once again Ed is dropping hints about witches here (they serve Lilith).In addition to all the new devils and information on the layers we get seven pages discussing how magic is changed in the Hells.

This would be enough for any other issue, but we are only to page 45.

Next, we have The Dragon Magazine index. A complete index of Dragon magazine issues #1 to #74 and all seven issues of the Strategic Review. It covers 8 pages and would have been fantastic to have. Today it is superseded by the DragonDex and even that doesn't cover everything.

Ads for the Palladium Role-Playing Game and The RPGA take out middle section. 

Carl Smith provides us with a Boot Hill article about the Army in Saved By the Cavalry! Boot Hill largely gets forgotten these days as people remember D&D, Gamma World, and Star Fronters rather fondly. 

Sage Advice answers questions about Baba Yaga, mithral and adamantite, why AD&D Rangers are not Tolkien Rangers. Oh and how to deal with pregnancy in game. I assume they mean characters and not players.

Page Advice covers questions on how to submit articles and get published. 

Off the Shelf gives us some reviews of what was hot in Sci-Fi and Fantasy in the summer of 1983. Of these, I remember reading Spellsinger by Alan Dean Foster and Storm Season by Robert Lynn Asprin, the fourth book in the Thieve's World series.

There is a feature, not really a review, on the Gangbuster game in Expanding the genre of RPGs.

Long ad or review or feature on Eon Publications in Borderlands is Worth the Price. It is a type of fantasy wargame.  Reviews for Cities, Judge Dredd, and Federation Space also appear.  There is another review, a re-review of the Dragonmaster card game.

Nice big ad for AD&D books. Again featuring one of my favorite bits of D&D art.

Small ads are next, Wormy, Snarf Quest #2, and Phil and Dixie go to Sham Con V.

Nice ad in the back for Star Frontiers minis.

So once again we have a Dragon that hits so far out of the park that all you need is the first 45 pages. Yes the index was great for 1983 and everyone still loves the comics, but for $3.00 you could get a mini-rulebook here and that was something special.

100 Days of Halloween: Dungeon Crawl Classics Witch Queen Adventures

Up first is an update and an important one at that. It was while I was reviewing this adventure in 2015 that I thought that the War of the Witch Queens came to me. I figure I should revisit it now.

Dungeon Crawl Classics: Saga of the Witch Queen

PDF from DriveThruRPG. 84 pages. Monochrome cover and black & white interior art.

This is a meaty module.  84 pages, covers, maps, and OGL still leave a lot of pages for content.

First off, if you are not familiar with Dungeon Crawl Classics modules they are meant to emulate a certain feel of early 80s play.  They went on to create the game Dungeon Crawl Classics, but the adventures are still largely OSR compatible. Actually, I didn't see a single thing in this adventure that screamed ts should be used for one system or the other, though on the cover they claim "1e." That is good enough.

This adventure is actually 3 adventures in one.  Legacy of the Savage Kings, The Lost Passage of the Drow, and War of the Witch Queen (which I will discuss later).  Each one is a different part of the Witch Queen's plan.

Reading through this adventure is one part excitement for the new and one part excitement for the nostalgia.  For the new, I wanted to learn more about Kyleth (the eponymous Witch Queen and not to be confused with Keyleth) and the tome Ars Maleficus.  The nostalgia comes from many little easter eggs throughout the pages that call back to adventures of the TSR days.  I am convinced the Mad Hermit here is the same as the one in the Keep on the Borderland for example.  There are also hints of influences from Vault of the Drow, Ravenloft, and even the rest of the GDQ series.  In fact, the second adventure, "The Lost Passage of the Drow" could be slotted into the D series and no one would be the wiser.   Replace Baba Yazoth with the proper Baba Yaga and have one of the many adventures she features in as a side trek.

There are a number of named characters that would work well as witches, Maeve, Baba Yazoth, and of course Kyleth herself.   While using the title of "Witch Queen" Kyleth is only an 8th-level Magic-user.  Make her a 9th or 10th-level witch and then you have something really scary.

Does it work with The Witch? Yes, absolutely.  There is a number of great items and story points in this adventure for any witch character.  In fact, I would say that any good witch would want to see Kyleth taken out on general principle.  Plus there are a number of encounters and NPCs that would benefit from the rules in the Witch.  Night Hags get more spell-casting powers for example and the medusa can also have some levels of the witch class.

Of course, there is the issue of Kyleth being one of The Thirteen. The Thirteen most evil wizards, witches, and necromancers in the world.  She was the newest member, who are the other 12, and what are their plans?  Is anyone up for an adventure against the Legion of Doom?  I might have to come back to this idea. I can see witches, vivamancers, blood mages, evil wizards, and necromancers as part of this evil cabal. Each provides something different.

About the physical book. The book is 80 pages and printed on very heavy paper.  It is softcover, but the binding looks good. With the heavy paper and glossy cover, I expect this to hold up to wear and tear.  The cover is bound on, so no taking it off to use as a GM screen with maps.  I am glad I have this as a PDF too to print out the maps and the handouts.  I am really, really happy with this module.

UPDATE: Of course, I took this idea and ran with it making Kyleth one of the many Witch Queens that is gathering at the Tredecim. Kyleth was my first choice as the murderess of the Witch Queen, but I quickly dropped that idea. If Kyleth had kill the High Queen then her ambitions would be greater. No Kyleth is an opportunist. She sees the tide turning and decides now is her time to strike. 

Dungeon Crawl Classics #17.5: War of the Witch Queen

PDF. 28 pages. Color cover, black & white interior art. 

This is the precursor to the larger Saga of the Witch Queen. I grabbed it to have a complete collection and to see if there were any differences between this and the newer version. I would still love to get my hands on a printed copy.

This adventure is designed for D&D 3.5/d20 OGC.  This means converting it to Pathfinder is really a non-issue. More to the point we can convert Kyleth from an 8th-level Sorcer to an 8th-level witch.

The main differences here between this adventure and the counterpart Saga adventure, War of the Witch Queen is that this is for D&D 3.5e and Saga is for AD&D 1e. They are the same adventures with very minor tweaks.  

Both send the PCs on a quest to stop and kill Kyleth the self-styled Witch Queen. It is a straightforward dungeon crawl. This is not a weakness, but rather its strength. 

The obvious question is do you need this one if you have Saga of the Witch Queen? I say yes since the systems are different (but can be converted). 

Use in War of the Witch Queens

Well...yeah. In fact, many of the reasons I wanted to do a War of the Witch Queens can be found here. The other obviously was my love for all these witches.

Kyleth is fun because she can be so unapologetically evil. Even if I was not doing this campaign she would be a great reoccurring antagonist.

100 Days of Halloween: Reign of Winter

When Pathfinder wanted to introduce us to their witch class they did so with a lot of pomp, circumstance, and many great adventures. The Magnum Opus of this has to be their Adventure Path: Reign of Winter.

Once again we are taken to Irrisen and to the court of Witch Queen Elvanna. Only now her reign is at an end and she won't go quietly.  The PCs have to intervene.

Reign of Winter Adventure Path

Six adventure books, print (oop), and PDF. Full-color covers and interior art. Each book 100 pages.

First a bit about the adventure paths. Paizo created their adventure path idea largely as a means to to support  D&D 3.5 and then their Pathfinder Core RPGs. They were a direct competition the D&D Adventure League (in format anyway).  While D&D has moved on to larger hardcover adventures for 5e now, Pathfinder was still doing the Adventure paths in six or so various softcover adventures for characters 1 to 20.  

Land of Ice and Snow

Reign of Winter dealt with the Witch Queen Elvanna, daughter of Baba Yaga, and her machinations to keep control of Irrisen now that her reign of 100 years is over. There is involvement with Baba Yaga, her dancing hut, the Demon Lord Kostchtchie, The Mad Monk Rasputin, AND none other than THE Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova.  Now I have been a fan of Baba Yaga for decades, but I also am a huge fan of the whole mystery of Anastasia Romanova and whether she could have still been alive.  So all of this and add world hopping on top of it all?  Yeah! Sign me up!

While I have all of the adventures and supplementary materials in PDF, I am missing a couple of the physical books.  I did grab as many of the minis as I could.

Each adventure has an overview outline of the major events to help explain what will happen. Lots of new monsters, NPCs, great-looking maps, and more. I will say this, Paizo goes all out on these.

Each Adventure path module is released every month, so a half of a year from start to finish.

Adventure 1 (of 6): Snows of Summer

The PCs start at 1st level and should end the adventure at or around 4th level. This is the adventure that introduces them to Irrisen.  The hook is winter is moving southwards and encompassing more lands.  It is here that we learn that the Great Witch Baba Yaga has been captured and imprisoned. 

Adventure 2 (of 6): The Shackled Hut

Here the PCs must find Baba Yaga's famous hut and use it to find her. But there is an entire city filled with monsters between them and the hut. And then they have to deal with the Winter Witches. This adventure is for PCs 4th to 7th level.

Adventure 3 (of 6): Maiden, Mother, Crone

The PCs are transported around the world. They end up in another frozen wasteland of Iobaria on the far-off continent of Casmaron. Here they find three magically linked dungeons and the secrets of the Demon Lord Kostchtchie the Deathless.  
A note about Kostchtchie. Back in the late days of TSR the notion came about that Orcus was once a human. I always hated that notion. Now we get the same thing here with Kostchtchie and I like it. It works so much better for him than for Orcus.

This adventure is for PCs levels 7 to 10.

Adventure 4 (of 6): The Frozen Stars

In a true world-hopping adventure the PCs will take the Hut to Triaxus, the seventh world in Golarion’s solar system, now in the midst of its decades-long winter (of course!). Here the gain useful information on the whereabouts of Baba Yaga.

This adventure is for PCs levels 10 to 13.

Adventure 5 (of 6): Rasputin Must Die!

Now THIS is an adventure! You have to go to Baba Yaga's home world of Earth in 1918 to retrieve her and stop her captor the Mad Monk Grigori Rasputin himself. The PCs have to face him, his minions and 20th-century tech of WWI. 

I have to admit for a lot of reasons this one might be my favorite out of all six. 

This adventure is for PCs levels 13 to 15.

Adventure 6 (of 6): The Witch Queen’s Revenge

The PCs have found Baba Yaga but she is trapped in a matryoshka doll. They have to free her AND still defeat Queen Elvanna and put a new Witch Queen on the throne.

This adventure is for PCs levels 15 to 17. Leaving the last three levels for something else I guess. 

Adventure 7? Witchwar Legacy

Interestingly enough the adventure I reviewed a couple of nights ago, The Witchwar Legacy, is for characters level 17 and up. It also features contact with the Witch Queen Elvanna of Irrisen.  In fact it reads like a rough draft to this adventure. It was written by Greg A. Vaughn who wrote the Witch Queen's Revenge.  If I used this then it would need to be the new Queen of Irrisen or Baba Yaga that sends them on their way.  I am safe in saying "new Queen" because if the PCs don't defeat Elvanna in Adventure 6 they will surely be dead.

Personally, I like this plan. Given that I have an overabundance of Winter Witches I could run this independently of my War of the Witch Queens.

Maybe I'll convert the whole thing to Pathfinder 2 or D&D 5/One D&D someday and run that. There is just too much fun stuff here NOT to use.

 

Monstrous Mondays: Twilight Fables (5e & OSR)

Taking a break from Pathfinder for a bit on this first Monstrous Monday of Fall 2022 to do something a little darker.  There is a chill in the air here in Chicago. I have a flannel shirt on and my mood ever shifts more and more to Halloween.  A Halloween bestiary would be nice and thankfully Izegrim Creations has just the thing I need.

Twilight Fables

I swear the Kickstarter for this had just ended and I got my DriveThruRPG notification that the hardcovers were available. 

So for this I Monstrous Monday, I want to talk about both the 5e and OSR versions of this book, the Print on Demand and PDF versions, plus all the other material that makes up this line. 

Overview

Both books are huge volumes at 336 pages (5e) and 326 pages (OSR) each. The covers are full color as is all the interior art.  And the art is fantastic.  

Both books have a solid 5e aesthetic to them; colorful art and backgrounds, text describing the creature and its place in the environment/land/myths, and followed by a stat block.

The 5e book features a standard-looking 5e stat block, the OSR one is largely a modified Basic-era stat block. It includes everything you would expect along with descending and ascending AC, an entry for THAC0, and XP. The art for both books is the same.  There is a good reason for this, the OSR version was added on a little bit later in the Kickstarter.  The 5e version, with art, was done before the kickstart began (minus some edits I am told) so adding on the OSR version was a matter of adding the new stat blocks.  One nitpick there are listings for "DCs" in the OSR version for magic item creation (more on that later). I would have preferred something that felt a little more pre-2000.

Now in most situations, I would fear translation errors, but the author Roderic Waibel had already developed that very successful Chromatic Dungeons RPG (reviewed here) which is solid OSR.  So I know he knows OSR.  My only gripe is kinda wanted the OSR stat blocks to look as nice as the 5e ones!  But that is only a gripe for people that own both.

Like many of Waibel's publications we get nice sidebar discussions from the intelligent and rather civilized Gnoll "Fleabag." It is a very nice touch (I have done something similar with my 'From the Journal of Larina Nix') and it gives these (and his other books) character. 

Regardless of which one you get (get both!) you are in for a treat.

I grabbed both and will be using the OSR version in my Old-School Essentials game. My oldest grabbed the 5e version and is using it in his weekly 5e game. So far he says it is great and he loves all the different sorts of monsters it offers.

The Fables

The name of the book is Twilight Fables.  So you can expect that these are monsters from various myths, legends, and tales. And you would be 100% correct. Waibel has done his reading and there are a lot of great creatures here.  Even ones that might be familiar get new life and feel "new."  

For example, I mentioned one of my favorites, the Basajaun who appears in three different monster books. 

Each one is a little different and yet each one 'feels' right. Perfect for DMs that want a familiar, yet different creature.

The creatures largely come from the myths, legends, and folklore of Europe. This is also what is advertised and leads to the logical assumption of Twilight Fables of other lands for future volumes. One for Africa, one for Asia, one for the Americas, all are possible.

In addition to the monsters, there are various legendary NPCs like Baba Yaga, Beowulf, Cailleach Beira, Cú Chulainn, Guy of Warwick, King Arthur, Little Red Riding Hood, Merlin, Morgan Le Fay, Robin Hood, Scáthach, Queen Úna of Faerie, and Väinämöinen. So yeah. Lots.

There is a section on Mythological Treasures and Magic items. This includes some rules on how to make magic items as well. It is a very nice value add.  You saw this sort of thing with the old Mayfair "Fantastic Treasures" and something you see Troll Lord Games do with their Monster and Treasure books.

Both books also have rules for new character species (wanna play a Pech? You can!) and for 5e there are class options such as Warlock patrons and cleric domains.

There is even a small adventure (20 pages) to introduce these new monsters. 

The Monsters

All that is gravy.  The real meat here are the monsters.

In both cases, the monsters take up full pages. This includes the background and descriptions, the stat blocks, and whatever else is involved with this particular creature such as "Lore & Rumors", any special treasures, habitat, behaviors, and more.  In some cases, the material bleeds over to another entry, but not so much as to be an issue. 

There are, by my count, nearly 220 monsters here ranging in HD from 1-1 to 30+ (OSR) and CR 1/8 to 30 (5e).  So plenty of creatures to challenge any level of characters.

I have to say these are great books and well worth grabbing for your games, 5e or OSR, or both.  There is a lot of material here and plenty to keep many groups engaged for some time.

Extras

When you get the digital copy from DriveThruRPG you also get a bunch of tokens that can be printed and used in f2f table games or digitally online. It is another value add this game offers. There is also an RTF version of the book, a printer-friendly/no background version, and maps for the included adventure.

If you love monsters like I do then this is a must-buy.

100 Days of Halloween: Otherworldly Invocations Advanced Witch Patrons

If you are like me and love witches then Pathfinder is the system that just keeps giving and giving. A case in point today is one of many products I have picked up from Necromancers of the Northwest.

As always, to stay objective I will be following my rules for these reviews.   

Otherworldly Invocations: Advanced Witch Patrons

PDF. 51 pages. 1 page each for cover, back cover, title, and credits. 2 pages of ads. And 2 pages of OGL. 43 pages of content.  Color cover and interior art.

This product contains 10 HIGHLY detailed witch patrons for Pathfinder 1st Edition. 

Each patron is given some history, how they most often appear to mortals and witches, their goals, their typical followers and witches, as well as what sorts of familiars they have.

There is "mechanical" information as well. This includes what spells they offer with their pact, pact boons, and Pact Prices. Think of these as "anti-boons." Often these are tied to the boons they grant. 

They are all great, but for me the section on Baba Yaga is worth the price of the PDF alone. The rest are gravy.  Though Thyrvinistar, Don of Dragons is also rather fun.

Obviously, these are for use with Pathfinder.  BUT a little tweaking would make them work well with my own OSR witches or even D&D 5e's Warlocks. 

The artwork is largely stock photos but they make them work for this. Again the text here is what is important to me. 

It is just under $8, so figure about 80¢ per patron. Not bad really. 

100 Days of Halloween: Publisher's Choice - Colin C. Throm (Baba Yaga)

More stock art tonight and this one is a treat, some Baba Yaga.

Publisher's Choice - Colin C. Throm (Baba Yaga)

Another one I bought a while back but I have not had the chance to use this one yet.

Though looking at it now I think I have the perfect place for it now.

I mean really, who wouldn't to have Baba Yaga in an adventure or book?

Skylla: Pathfinder 2nd Edition

I thought it might be nice to break up the reviews here and see if I can build one of my favorite characters for Pathfinder Second Edition.  And that means I am building a witch.

My girl Skylla here has gotten a lot more popular since I started this series almost 10 years ago. Since then she has gotten new official D&D 5 stats, a mini, and a new action figure release. All of that in the last year alone.  I'd love to take credit for it, but it is really just part of the same thing I was doing 10 years ago; discovering a cool, but under-used character.

What is great about this is I can compare and contrast the official D&D5 Warlock Skylla to a possible Pathfinder 2e Skylla.  I can also compare and contrast her with the Pathfinder 1st edition witch I did years ago.   

In this case, I cleaved a little closer to her Base stats found in module XL1 Quest for the Heartstone and her warlock stats found in The Wild Beyond The Witchlight.

For this build I kept her at 6th level to correspond base stats and the D&D5 stats and not the 7th level I have typically been using.  I have not seen a lot of Pathfinder 2e statblocks online, so I am going with my own format here.

Skylla
6th level Witch, Human (Wintertouched)
CE Medium Humanoid

Background:  Student of Magic

Ability Scores
Strength: -1 (8)
Dexterity: 0 (10)
Constitution: +2 (14)
Intellignece: +4 (19)
Wisdom: +3 (16)
Charisma: +3 (16) 

AC: 18 (+8 prof)
HP: 62
Perception: +11

Saving Throws
Fortitude: +12
Reflex: +8
Will: +13

Resistances and Immunities: Cold 3

Speed: 25

Melee Strikes
Staff +7, 1d4 (1d8 two-handed) +1d6 electricity

Skills
Acrobatics +0, Arcana +12, Athletics -1, Crafting +4, Deception +13, Diplomacy +11, Intimidation +13, Lore (Academia +12), Medicine +3, Nature +11, Occultism +12, Performance +3, Religion +11, Society +4, Stealth +8, Survival +11, Thivery +0

Feats

Ancestry Feats and Abilities
Wintertouched Human, Adapted Cantrip, Adaptive Adept

Skill Feats
Recognize Spell, Arcane Sense, Charming Liar, Intimidating Glare

General Feats
Toughness

Class (Witch) Feats and Abilities
Hexes, Familiar, Basic Lesson, Rites of Convocation, Magical Fortitude, Steady Spellcasting

Spells

Spell Attack Roll: +12
Spell DC: 22
Traditions: Occult
Focus Points: 2

Inante Spells: Detect Magic
Focus Spells: Blood Ward, Phase Familiar, Spirit Object

Cantrips: Chill Touch, Daze, Detect Magic, Light, Mage Hand, Prestidigitation, Protect Companion
1st Level: Charm, Chilling Spray, Floating Disk, Mage Armor, Magic Missile
2nd Level: Dispel Magic, Invisibility, Knock
3rd Level: Enthrall, Lightning Bolt

--

I like this. She compares well to her D&D5 counterpart. Lots of spells all over the place and LOTS of feats, but that's Pathfinder Second Edition.  

In both cases her Patron is Baba Yaga. So that's really nice. I thought about taking a magical tatoo to cover her mark from Baba Yaga, but I am still reading through the Secrets of Magic book so I am not sure that works just yet.

I feel she might have more magical might than her D&D5 counterpart. I thought this would happen which is why I wanted to set her at the same level (6th level) for a better comparison.

Review: Castles & Crusades Codex Slavorum

Coming up on some myths I know the least about and maybe the most excited to read.  There is a lot of great stories I have read and watched over the years.  What I like, so far, is that these are mostly new stories to me.  Well. Not entirely new. I have been using Baba Yaga for years and my first published Ghosts of Albion adventure deals with Chernbog (Czernobog in this book).  

So let's instead say I am less familiar with all of these.

Castles & Crusades Codex Slavorum

For this review, I am considering the PDF and hardcover book.  The book is 94 pages. Color covers, black & white art. Written once again by Brian Young.  He doesn't say it in the books, but it is Brian N. Young, Ph.D.  He worked hard and earned his degree and it should be recognized.  

Chapter 1: In Bygone Years

Like the previous volumes, this chapter covers both the real-world history and the myths of the area.  The area in question surrounds the Black Sea in Eastern Europe.  

We get some pre-history, but the people we call the Slavs will get their start in this volume with Byzantine Empire.  The time period here is parallel to both the Germanica and Nodica books.

The myths of the area are all new to me and while Young (the author) does a good job in his summary, it leaves me wanting to seek out more.  I suppose that is the point right?

Chapter 2: The Whole World & That Which is Beyond

This goes into detail about the lands of the Slavs and these myths.  I have now gone through five of these Codecies and I am thinking that a Castles & Crusades game in Mythic Earth is a great idea.  There is a nice map of the Slavic Kingdoms.  

The second half of this covers the mythic lands of the Slavs; the three worlds.  Like the Norse, these are placed on the World Tree, the Drugi Svet. Young even mentions that combination is possible but does not (correctly) tell you how since it would depend on YOUR world.  The three worlds are Parv (or Iriy or Vyrjy), the realms of light, the lands of summer, and the home of the Gods. Lav (or Yav) is the middle realm of men, and Nav the Underworld.  Here Czernobog becomes the Devil-like figure.  Indeed it might be hard to tease out what is Czernobog and what is "Lucifer" in modern depictions of "the Devil."  Svarog is our creator deity of light. 

In a case of supporting my "One Man's God" series, there is Peklo, the Abyss, which is the home of various demons.  Demons it seems very much in the AD&D mindset.

There are more lands and frankly, the more I read the more I want to use all of this in a game. 

Chapter 3: Did Dwell Many Peoples

Our monster chapter.  Monsters are "false creations" (my words, not so much Young's) of Czernobog.  And there are some GREAT monsters here. Nearly 50 monsters here. Some are familiar to any D&D players, but many are new to *D&D games or at least in this form.  

There are a couple new "races" that characters can be.  The Zmajevit, or the "Dragon born" are humans with dragon blood in them. The Zduhac, or the Elemenatal ones, are elemental influenced humans. 

There is also a new class here, the Vampirdzhija or the Vampire Hunter. This is a Wisdom-based class. Essentially the Vampire Slayer of the Slavic cultures. 

Chapter 4: Filled with Great Magic

Another favorite section this one covers magic and new magic-using classes.   The Kolduny is a new type of wizard that is Wisdom-based.   The Molfar is the Slavic shaman, also Wisdom-based.

There are a few names mentioned for other types of spell casters. These are just names for other types, but do not have their own class per se. 

Chapter 5: Of Mighty Gods and Spirits

This chapter takes the myths and reshapes them into something that can be used with Castles & Crusades but of course any other game.  And there are a lot of gods here! Some are familiar to me, but most are brand new.  

There is some text on the pagan religions of the Slavs and their practices. 

Chapter 6: Battle Strong and Heroic

This is typically the "fighters" chapter. This one covers the weapons used by the Slavs and mentions of the heroes and groups of heroes of their tales. 

Chapter 7: Castle Keeper Info

This is the GM's or Castle Keeper's information on running a game using these rules. Like the others in this series, this includes names and the various laws of the lands. 

More so than the other books this one left me wanting more.  This is a good thing and not a fault of the book. It is due to my own unfamiliarity with these myths and stories.  It would work well with the Germanic and Nordic books for greater world-building.  Now I want books like this for all the big myths of the world. 

Maybe one for Spain and Al-Andalus should be next?  What do you think Dr. Young?

Review: The Witch-Queen's Lament (OSRIC Adventure)

A couple of weeks back I noticed a posting in one of the Greyhawk groups on Facebook about a new adventure. It was called The Witch-Queen's Lament so you know it immediately had my attention. The adventure was designed for OSRIC and had an old-school module look and feel to it.  I didn't know much about it to be honest, but I was sure I was going to get it.  I went over the publisher's website, casl Entertainment, and bought a copy of the PDF and perfect bound softcover.  While I was predisposed to like it, getting the PDF made me quite excited for it.

The Witch-Queen’s Lament

An adventure for character levels 6-9 (70,002 total experience points) for OSRIC or compatible games. PDF and softcover available, 95 pages.

This adventure is "compliant" (I think "compatible" is the word they want, it is "compliant" with the OGL) with OSRIC.  This really means it can (read should) be used with AD&D 1st Edition.  It will work with other games too, but more on that.

This adventure is designed for Tournament play. That is why we have the 70,002 XP value on it and there is a tournament scoring sheet.  IF you wish to play this adventure with tournament rules and scoring my advice is do not change anything about it.  I have run a few tournament adventures with scoring and this one feels like it put together well. My concern would only be can you fit it into the four-hour time slot?  I am 100% certain that author Carlos A.S. Lising has and has done so many times.  I am not sure *I* could do it.  That all being said I want to look at this from the point of view of a campaign, and my War of the Witch Queens campaign in particular. 

So let's start back at the beginning.  This adventure was the official Tourneyment adventure for GrogCon 2021.  Looking over their catalog it looks like they have run a few adventures at other old-school cons as well.  This bodes well.  The adventure was written by Carlos A.S. Lising, with cover and interior art by Daniel Govar, and cartography from Glynn Seal.  Carlos A.S. Lising is a huge fan of module S4 The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth which is also one of my favorites. This makes me optimistic for this adventure.

Now when this was announced for sale there was a little bit of wailing from the usual suspects in regard to the module code, G2, on the cover.  With many complaining that this was not really G2.  Sorry but the TSR G2 The Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl is over 40 years old now and neither TSR nor Gygax owned the letter G.  I am sure the G, in this case, stood for "GrogCon."  If this bugs you, be like Elsa and let it go.

On to the adventure proper.  We learn right away that the eponymous Witch-Queen is none other than "Natasha the Dark" aka Tasha, aka Tashanna, aka Zyblina, aka Iggwilv herself!  Ok. You now have my undivided attention.  We get a bit of backstory on Natasha the Dark including her becoming a Daughter of Baba Yaga, and her sisters Vasilisa (Elena) the Fair and Anya the Plain.  Anya is going to be our focus here since she has gone missing with Natasha's matryoshka doll. This was no ordinary doll, this nesting doll held a bit of Natasha's soul/life force and has kept her immortal for centuries.  Natasha, it a bit uncharacteristic token of love, gave the newly enchanted doll to Anya for safe-keeping, knowing her sister would love it and cherish it. The side effect has been that as long as Anya has the doll she will also be immortal, just stuck in the form of a 12-year-old girl.

The doll, and Anya, has now been stolen and IggwilvNatasha needs you all to get it back.

As far as adventure hooks goes this one is a good one.  The doll is in the hands of an evil Wizard named Andrei Anazinov who knows it is special and knows Anya has never aged. He trying to discover its secrets.  So get the doll before the wizard figures out Natasha's immortality.  The adventure overtly makes it about saving Natasha's immortality, but as you read it the real reason is also uncovered, the ancient Witch Queen still loves her little sister. Undoing the immortality would be bad for Natasha, but it is also likely she has many safeguards in place.  It would however kill Anya outright.

I don't want to go too much deeper than this in case potential players read this.  It is a MacGuffin search, but a fun one and a chance to interact with one of the more notorious characters in D&D lore.

Comments on the Adventure

A few comments.  I can completely understand why Natasha wants the doll and Anya back.  I even understand why she wants good adventurers to do it.  I am not sure why someone of Natasha's caliber would a. let the adventurers know who she is and b. what the doll is.  It seems to me that good or evil the party might want to hide or destroy the doll to stop an evil witch queen.  When I run this I am going to need another reason.

The maps are great. I am glad I have to PDF to print them out on my own.

There are some cool new monsters (a must in any adventure) and magic items.  There is even a pronunciation guide. 

One nitpick. None of the pages have page numbers on them. Seems a touch odd, but I can deal.

Sixteen pages are given over to the 8 pre-gen characters.  So that is nice.  There are also tournament scoring sheets.

Adapting for War of the Witch Queens

I bought this adventure with idea of adapting it over to my War of the Witch Queen campaign.  This is not the first "Witch Queen" adventure I have bought, nor will it be my last I am sure.   The fact that it includes Natasha/Iggwilv just makes it more perfect to be honest.

So here are my changes.

I am not running this as a tournament since I am going to be using OSE-Advanced Fantasy for it. There will be some more tweaks for the rules, but I think it is going to work out just fantastic really.

Natasha/Iggwilv is not going to let the adventurers know who she is or why she wants the doll back.  I am going to have her disguise herself as Elena the Fair and "Elena" will be hiring them to rescue her sister Anya. This way she feels she is not lying about her mission.  In the end, Anya will out "Elena" as Iggwilv, but the terms of their agreement will remain.  Maybe Vasilisa the Beautiful will show up to take Anya.  I have Elena and Vasilisa as two separate characters. 

I love the whole Russian feel to all of this, but I am going to take out Andrei Anazinov and replace him with Kelek.  Kelek has had some dealings with Iggwilv already and he is the "big bad" of the War of the Witch Queens.  I need an adventure to get him in front of the PCs instead of making him a behind the shadows guy.  Andrei is a 14th level wizard. I made Kelek a 15th level magic-user/necromancer.  Also in my games Kelek is looking for ways to make himself ever young, he thinks Anya (not the doll) is the answer.  Kelek is a misanthrope, so kidnapping and experimenting on a little kid is kinda on-brand for him So this all fits.  

Plus I have these great minis to use. 

There might be other little tweaks along the way. More winter wolves and worgs to be sure. I am certainly going to steal ideas from the newer 5e versions of Iggwilv and Kelek and I am also going to steal ideas from the Pathfinder Witch War series.

There are more adventures on the casl Entertainment website. Including one, C11 - When Comes the Witching Hour, that looks like it could be Iggwilv on the cover.  So I am going to need to check that one out as well.  Just watched this video and yup, looks like it is! I have to go get it now.

The NPCs of "The Wild Beyond The Witchlight"

While "The Wild Beyond The Witchlight" has a lot going for it the reason, well one of the reasons, I really wanted it was because we were getting some official D&D 5th Edition stats to some classic NPCs, in particular, Skylla and Kelek two "iconic" characters that I am using in my War of the Witch Queens campaign. So I want to look at these old friends and maybe a couple of new ones too.  I'll leave poor old Thaco alone with his pipe and bitterness today.  Plus it is October and Horror month, so I really just want to talk about my favorites, the bad guys.

Who Are These Characters?

Long before the use of the term Iconic Characters to refer to reoccurring D&D characters in publication, there were names like Warduke, Strongheart, Ringlerun, and Kelek.  They appeared in the AD&D toy line from LJN and in other media including coloring books, stickers, adventures, and sometimes even the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon.   It is also one of the reasons why I have to laugh when people today will see a stuffed Owlbear and complain that "WotC is selling out and ruining D&D."  They must have forgotten the Official Advanced Dungeons & Dragons^™ Yoyo or Sunglasses.

Of all of these characters, there were a few standouts who got extra attention.  Ringlerun, the Good Wizard would be the cover boy for the Jeff Easley recover of the AD&D Player's Handook, although many at the time did not see the connection.  Kelek and Warduke would go on to get a guest spot on the D&D cartoon.  Warduke in particular would go on to be a minor celebrity in D&D iconic circles, getting 1st Ed (well...Basic really), 3rd Ed, and now 5th Ed Ed stats.

We would get all their official D&D Basic and Expert set stats, not AD&D, in the product AC1 The Shady Dragon Inn.  This was sort of a Rogues Gallery for BECMI D&D. You can read my review of it here. 

What I would like to do here today is compare these characters from the Wild Beyond the Witchlight to their Shady Dragon Inn and Quest for the Heartstone counterparts. 

The League of Malevolence

Heroes are great, but give me a "good" villain any day of the week.  Here are five iconic D&D villains. I will compare them to their D&D Basic versions to see what has changed and what has stayed the same.

Kelek

First up is the leader of the League of Malevolence, our Legion of Doom for D&D.  All these characters are Chaotic Evil which tracks well to their original alignments of Chaotic.  

In Basic D&D Kelek was an "Evil Sorcerer" of course at this time a "Sorcerer" was the level title for a 7th level Magic-user.  In 5e his class has become a Sorcerer.  This actually make a lot of sense and I approve of this change.  His stats are pretty much the same from edition to edition with the exception of his Charisma which goes from 7 to 17.  Charisma is the "prime" stat for sorcerers. Here he is described as a sociopath. That tracks with how I have seen him in the past. 

Part of this adventure is searching for a lost Unicorn horn. Well that was more or less the plot of the only D&D Cartoon to feature Kelek.  If nothing else I am saying he is still after unicorn horns. 

Skylla

Ah. My beloved Skylla.  I was the most excited and the most worried to see what the Wizard's dev team was going to do to you.  I have to say I am not disappointed. In Quest of the Heartstone, she is listed as a 6th level Warlock. Again, this time "Warlock" meaning 6th level magic-user. I do note that the TSR team avoided calling her a "Witch" at the time. Likely due to the Satanic Panic (but Warlock is fine?).  Like her former boss Kelek, the level title is translated to Class here and she is a 6th level Warlock. It fits well if you ask me. 

Skylla's stats are mostly the same with some tweaks to improve what she needs to be a Warlock.  Though the best changes are in her background.  For starters, her patron is not a demon (like I did) but rather with Baba Yaga (like...I did).  Additionally they tackle the Skylla/Charmay art issue head-on as sometimes Skylla goes by the name Charmay.  It's different than what I do with her, but it works out fine in my mind.

For the record, they got Skylla as close to a "witch: as D&D 5e's rules will currently allow.  I think they did a great job with her.  Kelek too.

Warduke

I do have to ask. Why does everyone like this guy so much? I never quite got it, but hey someone out there is looking at my nearly 30 posts about Skylla and scratching their head. 

That all being said, Warduke here is fairly impressive. I think the fans will be happy.  His stats are all the same in both versions.  His Dread Helm in Basic gave him Infravision to 60'.  The D&D 5e version only makes his eyes glow red.  Well, as I have said many times, I have a pencil.

Zarak

The half-orc Assassin was just an odd dude in Basic D&D that didn't have half-orcs as monsters, let alone as a character race, nor did it have assassins.  Yet there he is on page 18 of my Quest for the Heartstone. In D&D 5 he also has some strangeness. He is a full orc here BUT he is a short one to fit the AD&D/D&D Basic orcs.  Though he is still a Chaotic Evil Assassin.  His Dexterity gets a buff in 5e, but he loses his "boomerang" dagger!

Zargash

The evil cleric is back.  He is 7th level, so that makes him an evil Bishop. Zargash is still Chaotic Evil and he worships Orcus. Stats are tweaked a bit, but otherwise he is largely the same.

Missing Evil Characters™ include, Grimsword (Evil Knight aka Anti-Paladin), Zorgan (Evil Barbarian) and Drex (Evil Warrior) all from Quest for the Heartstone. Fox Fingers (Thief) and Raven (Evil Cleric) from Shaddy Dragon Inn.  In might be fun to make Raven. She is evil (but maybe not totally), and in love with Warduke. She was once friend with Mericon. Who is up in the next batch.

Valor's Call

Our group of good hereos had the real chance of being boring on one hand and overly sanctimonious on the other.  Thankfully were spared the worse.  They are not as interesting as our bad guys, but they are still fun and there are still some tweaks that make them worth reading and using.

Elkhorn

Our Lawful Good dwarf might have been one of the more popular figures right behind Warduke.  His stats are the same in both versions.  I do like how they took an essentially blank canvas and made a dwarf that is not a Flint Fireforge clone or a Dime store Thorin and gave him some goals.  He is a staunch enemy of evil.  If Strongheart is the founder of Valor's call, then Elkhorn is its heart.

Mercion

Ok. She is no Aleena, but Mercion is the cleric of the group. Her stats are tweaked a bit to give her better Strength and a higher level, but the Mercion in 5e is much more interesting.  In what I feel is a real homage to her Basic D&D roots, she does not worship a god but rather an ideal. She believes that truth gives life to artistry and beauty.  It's kind of a cool concept. If I were to use her as an NPC I would make sure she never lies about anything, ever. In fact, the brutal truth is better for her than a sweet lie. 

Molliver

Molliver the good thief was not in the Shady Dragon Inn product but can be found in the Quest for the Heartstone. In Quest no gender is given for Molliver, so in the 5e book their pronouns are "they."  I like it. I like it because a.) it works for the character and b.) it will certainly piss off the ones that need pissing off.

Molliver is also the only Chaotic Good member of the party. A "Lawful" thief does not make much sense really. Stats are largely the same with a buff for Dex. They even have their boots of levitation, handy for a thief.  

Ringlerun

Our Lawful Good Wizard from Basic remains a Lawful Good Wizard in 5e.  Never as interesting as Kelek, Elminster, or Mordenkainen he was on the cover of the Player's Handbook and a popular figure. 

His arm must be tired

He is still largely a generic wizard. He has kind of a James Randi in his later years look about him.  In my games he is dead; died of old age, but that doesn't really make sense for a wizard I guess.  I have some ideas forming that I might explore later.  Or not. After all he was never very interesting.

Strongheart

If I have one purely AD&D gripe it is that I rarely see anyone playing a paladin a good way.  "Sanctimonious Asshole" is not a Paladin. Neither is "Grim, tortured because there is so much evil in the world" isn't either.   I was worried that Strongheart was going to fall into one of those two camps. Or even worse, weak Sturm Brightblade clone.

Thankfully, that is not what we got. Instead, 5e Strongheart is the kind of paladin who is all about "we should get together to defeat evil because there is so much good in the world to enjoy!" He makes a good leader.  Again his stats are slightly tweaked to give him a better Strength (13 to 15) which, by the way, his D&D Basic stats were not good enough to make him an AD&D Paladin!

He was the character I was prepared to dislike the most (I have played paladins in EVERY version of D&D) and his actually was pretty cool.

It is mentioned that there are more characters in Valor's Call, off doing Good elsewhere.  They do have a solid feel of "The Superfriends" here. Not s big surprise I guess. Potential other members from Quest of the Heartstone include Peralay (Elf Fighter/Mage), Figgen (Halfling Fighter or Fighter/Thief), Deeth (Fighter), Hawkler (a totally NOT the Beastmaster Ranger), Bowmarc (Good "Crusader") and Valkeer, a half-giant warrior.  Of these Valkeer might the most fun to update to 5e.  Of these Peralay also appears in The Shady Dragon Inn.  

Other NPCs

There are plenty of other really interesting NPCs in this book.  Many I plan to lift and convert back to D&D Basic for use in my War of the Witch Queens campaign.

Burly the Hobgoblin

Before D&D, a hobgoblin was more a trickster as exemplified by Puck or Robin Goodfellow. In Witchlight we have Burly a Neutral Good Hobgoblin.  Ok, I'll go with that. My favorite bit is he is a hobgoblin who wears a pumpkin on his head.  Now, where have I seen that before?

Bugbear. Hobgoblin.  The differences are largely academic.

Likewise, Chucklehead is a goblin with a  head shaped like a taffy apple.

Iggwilv the Witch Queen

Yes! Getting Skylla was one thing, getting a new Iggwilv?  That's just crazy good.

This is Iggwilv after she has left the Abyss and has been hiding out in the Feywild for centuries. Here she is also known as Tasha, Natasha, and Zybilna.  There is an interaction here with Kelek that plays so well into my plans it is hard not to use it all.  There is an interesting Maiden-Mother-Crone aspect of Iggwilv here in the form of Tasha-Zybilna-Iggwilv.

Now I am perfectly happy with the formerly Chaotic Evil Iggwilv becoming more Chaotic Neutral as time goes on.  What I am not 100% sure about is her desire to abandon all her research on the Abyss and Demons in favor of learning about the Feywild instead.  But...I can live with it.

The Hour Glass Coven

I like them. Very interesting bunch of witches and hags.

The Minis

This is such an interesting group of NPCs it makes sense that there is also an equally interesting group of minis to go with them.  Sadly the supply chain breakdown has pushed many of these minis till 2022.  But I am really looking forward to them.

Kelek

Skylla

Zyblina

Looking forward to them.

Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft, Part 4. Do You Wanna Build a Darklord II?

Nothing exists in a vacuum. RPGs are no exception to this rule. While Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft is a great tool for a DM wanting to add horror to a D&D game and it is the tool to use to run a D&D 5e Ravenloft game, it is by no means the only tool.  

I have so many horror RPGs that I have tools for just about any type of horror game I ever want to run.  I have not even gotten into doing things like adding WitchCraft's Book of Hod to Ravenloft (and I have been doing it for years) or even getting into the material from World of Darkness or Call of Cthulhu RPGs.  

WitchCraft, World of Darkness, and Call of Cthulhu are all fantastic games.  Each one has a different approach to their own types of horror.  If I am fighting against the cosmic horrors then CoC is my game.  If I want to explore the horrors of existence within myself as a monster tr something that is no longer truly human then WoD.  If I want a mixture of the two with a grounding in philosophies of the world as all being true then WitchCraft/Armageddon is my game of choice.  This is only three games. I can grab from Chill, Kult, Little Fears, and more.   All are great. All are fun. Not every one of them is great for a Ravenloft game.

So. Let's build another Darklord like I did last week with Darlessa. I am not going to go into the same level of detail as I did with her.  Instead, I am going to use some other horror sources to do my heavy lifting.  NOW to be sure, I don't NEED to add anything to Ravenloft for me to use it.  Everything I am doing here I could do from scratch from the material in Chapter 2 of VRGtR. I happen to also have all these other books with great ideas. 

I have this thing that happens with all my campaigns.  I collect a lot of data, materials, products whatever for a campaign. I pick, I choose, I write, I rewrite and in the end, I get something that is often not at all exactly like what I wanted, but that is great really. But I also have this stack of other "Stuff" that I didn't use but is still compelling to me.  My campaign "Ogre Battle" grew out of my old "Shadow War" for example.  I ran this huge war that worked as a prequel to this big AD&D campaign.  The Second Campaign grew right out of Come Endless Darkness.  Right now my big campaign taking a lot of my creative energy is War of the Witch Queens.  I have barely got into it (characters are 3rd level) and I already have leftovers and plot threads that have grown larger than the campaign can handle.

Before I pull that into this conversation let me shift gears and talk about Pathfinder.

Pathfinder is the biggest alternative to D&D out there.  They gained a lot of traction in the 3e days and boomed in the 4e days as the go-to choice for D&D-like games.  I have a lot of really cool, really well-written Pathfinder books. None of them are currently in use because I am not currently playing Pathfinder.

For Ravenloft, the best Pathfinder book you can get is Pathfinder Horror Adventures.  I reviewed this book a while back and there is a lot overlap between what this book does and what Ravenloft does. The Pathfinder book is more "Domain agnostic" so it has more room for things like new classes and spells.  The Pathfinder book also covers sanity, fear, and madness.  I mentioned in my overview of Ravenloft that I usually don't like how most games do "madness." What they do here works well, for Pathfinder, I am not sure how it would work for D&D 5.   I do like Pathfinder's approach to Darklords in their Dread Lords. I am going to keep this in mind for the next bit.

Note: The Horrific Inspirations on pages 252 to 253 in Horror Adventures covers movies, television, and print for the same types of Horror Genres found in Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft. 

Land of the Ice and Snow

Pathfinder forever gets a special place in my heart because it gave me Irrisen, the land of the Witch Queens. Home to the Daughters of Baba Yaga and has included such notables as Tasha/Tashana/Iggwilv. I have a bunch of material from the Winter Witch Queen adventure path from Pathfinder and other books.   I love the idea of Winter Witches, both in fiction and history.   If I am going to pull in some Pathfinder bits from various books then why not build a Dark Domain that is Pathfinder based.

So. Let's do this.  Irrisen is a land ruled by a Witch Queen and she gets 100 years to rule until Baba Yaga comes in a pulls her out. There have been a few that rebelled and try to go longer and there is always a rivalry between the various Daughters of Baba Yaga over who will get to rule. Queen Elvanna is a good example. There is a lot of potential her then for someone to be a little more pissed off and try to kill her rivals. Now. That in of itself is not a good enough reason to drag someone into the mists. In fact, Baba Yaga encourages such machinations to guarantee the strongest one will rule. It's hard to imagine then what a Witch Queen would need to do to get the mists' attention.  One would have to assume a crime or act so vile that mists have to take notice.

Let's take an easy example.  I'll start with Elvanna, but I don't have to.  Let's just say any Winter Witch Queen.  We don't know what happens to these queens when Baba Yaga is done with them.  Tashanna is the only we do know about, but she has been banned from returning to Golarion.  We can assume that Grandmother Bony Legs doesn't let them retire to a beach home in Florida.

When Elvanna was defeated let's say she came up with a plan, if she could not rule Irrisen then no one could.  She whips up a ritual to destroy the whole land in a winter that even the inhabitants of Irrisen would fear.  She started her ritual managed to wipe out a village or two, the key here is that people important to Baba Yaga have been killed. Either the mists open up to grab her OR maybe Baba Yaga has the power to summon them. One thing is for certain.  She killed her own sister, who was going to be the next Queen. Her name likely ends in "-anna."

I would steal some ideas from the 4e adventure Winter of the Witch.  I could even use Koliada the Winter Witch. I did 5e stats for her, but I really don't need stats.  I also have access to the Snow Queen a Winter Fey creature from Kobold Press' Tome of Beasts for 5e.

If it looks like I am going for evil Elsa, then you would be right. Well. Elsa actually was evil before Disney got to her.

The idea with this Domain is to use the rules presented in Pathfinder Horror Adventures to get my ideas and then the rules from Ravenloft Chapter 2  to detail them. 

I do admit, I am likely to steal some ideas from the old Domain of Vorostokov from the 2nd Ed Darklords book.  The Darklord of that land, Zolnik, was not all that interesting as a Darklord, but the land was.

Think of a landlocked in an endless deadly winter.  Everyone is poor, miserable, cold and the only source of food is what the hunters can bring in.  I would call it Ikkesen.  Combining the Norwegian word for "not" (Ikke) and Irrisen. 

The Dark Domain (5e) / Realm (Pathfinder) is one of Dark Fantasy, but it is also really Survival Horror and just enough Folk Horror to keep you on your toes. Ikkesen rarely gets above sub-zero temps and never above freezing.  It is a dark land of endless winter.  Wolves of the worst sort roam the woods. There are skinwalkers, wendigos, undead and worst things. It is what happens if Ragnarök occurred and the Frost Giants won. 

I will detail this one some more, but I am also waiting to see what I have leftover from War of the Witch Queens.