Review & Commentary On Ford's Faeries: A Bestiary Inspired by Henry Justice Ford From Studio Kortex For Your Old School Campaigns

So I've been looking for a Dreamlands inspired monsters & stumbled across a 'free resource' for Original Dungeons & Dragons. That's when I stumbled upon Ford's Faeries: A Bestiary Inspired by Henry Justice Ford! This is a free Pdf of a hundred & ten pages of old school monster induced goodness. Perfectly suited to get the vibe of HP Lovecraft, Edgar Allen Poe, Lord Dunsany, or even Jack Vance into the ruins & dungeons!



Clocking in at about a hundred & ten pages this book is a perfect addition to any old school game adventure where creatures that the players are not familiar are needed. The addition of the high fantasy & fairy tale element is the icing on the cake for this book. Here's a sample creature called the Aurora child
Armour class: as leather
Hit dice: 1-1 Move: fast on snow and ice, normal otherwise
Attacks: knife (d4) or bow (d6)
No. Appearing: see below
 Morale: 5
Treasure: stolen goods 800 GP
Alignment: chaotic
Special: speak with animals

 In the dead of winter, the children of the frozen taigas escape their kingdom of ice and darkness through the emerald gates that sometimes appear with aurora borealis. They venture into the woods to hunt and find supplies, often resorting to rob travelers and plunder isolated settlements. Many stories are told about unpleasant encounters with beautifully dressed, innocent looking children who act like thieves and murderers. Aurora Children do not care for valuables unless they can be worn or sewn into their clothing; they take food and supplies over gold and even magical items. Aurora children can speak with animals, asking them for favours in exchange for food and shelter. They are cunning adversaries, setting traps, using every ruse to avoid life loss on their side, though they have no qualms about killing, or abandoning travellers naked in the snow. Children under eleven are always spared, and sometimes asked to join the Aurora tribe.
When Aurora Children are encountered, roll d6:
1. 2d6 children traveling, mounted on reindeers
2. 2d10 children setting up an ambush
 3. 1d10 children and a pack polar bear, looking for supplies
4. 3d10 children going on a raid, d6 mounted on giant snowy owls
 5. 1d10x1d10 children making camp, with assorted helping beasts
6. 1 child, intent on leading adventurers into a trap (roll again)

So very close to Original Dungeons & Dragons rules & territory here with a very close to both the Sword & Sorcery aspect of the original books as well as the high fantasy found in fairy tales of yesteryear. Yes this book is done with public domain fairy tale artwork from the works of Henry Justice Ford but its very well done. The monsters here are exciting enough to generate adventures in the dungeon master's imagination.



While the Pdf is free the book of Ford's Faeries: A Bestiary Inspired by Henry Justice Ford is around six dollars US from Drivethrurpg. This is going to be one of my next purchases from Drivethrupg coming up!



The layout is clean, the monsters well done, & the execution very well presented. This is a must have for any old school dungeon master who wants a pack of monsters that are a bit weird, different but actually useful. I dare say that these monsters are perfect for fitting into any old school adventure where a bridge gap is needed between fairy tales & mythology. The dungeon master is given just enough of a thumb nail sketch for them to add these monsters into an existing campaign & not have to look back. Solidly done & very nicely handled I can see using these monsters in just about any campaign. A very well done four out of five because I wish there had been a few more!


You can download & buy a physical copy of
 Ford's Faeries: A Bestiary Inspired
by Henry Justice Ford
here 

'Roman Holiday' A Mid Level An OSR Adventure Encounter Idea For Your Old School Campaigns

'The Fairies are coming to take us away, away, back to Fairyland to stay to stay!'
The children's nursery rhyme has sinister undercurrents to it.



So tonight I began to wrack my brain for an idea or two that might act as a mid point adventure encounter for either a Dark Albion or a Lion & Dragon game or any old school game. In AD 410 the last Romans left England & it was the dawn of a new era for history. But there was one particular Roman town that has a very dark history & to this day we don't know its name. There have been legends of fairy activity near the town of Wrexham for centuries interconnected with the Roman Empire.

"Approximately 8,000 years ago Mesolithic man ventured to what is now the Wrexham area. These people were hunter-gatherers and led a nomadic existence. They left little tangible evidence of their existence, save a number of small flint tools called microliths that have been found in the Borras area.^[1]

A number of Neolithic (4300 - 2300 BC) stone axe heads have been found in Borras, Darland and Johnstown.

Two Bronze age mounds are situated within the town at Fairy Mount, Fairy Road and Hillbury on Hillbury Road. Both of these mounds lie within the grounds of Victorian properties in the south west of the town. It is likely that construction work within this area during the early 20th century eradicated other related features. The Acton Park Hoard^[2] of skilfully made early Middle Bronze Age axe heads found in Wrexham suggests that this area was a centre for advanced and innovative metalworking industry.

The area surrounding Wrexham is well served by several rivers, including the Clywedog, Alyn and Gwenfro, all of which are tributaries of the Dee. These rivers would have served as highways for early man. Finds within the Alyn area reveal that trade was taking place along this river with places as far away as Ireland during the Bronze Age.

A number of Iron Age hillforts also exist within the surrounding area, perhaps marking a tribal boundary. These include Bryn Alyn (near Bradley), Y Gaer (near Broughton, Flintshire) and Y Gardden (near Ruabon).

At the time of the Roman conquest of Roman Britain, the area which Wrexham formed part of was held by a tribe called the Cornovii. The Cornovii held the lowland forests of Cheshire and Shropshire. Their tribal capital was at Wroxeter, near Shrewsbury. The original hill fort hillfort capital of the tribe was located on the Wrekin hill and one theory for the origins of the name ‘Wrexham’ is that it developed as a description of a settlement of men from the neighbourhood of the Wrekin: the ‘Wrocansaetan’ or ‘Wreocensaetan’.

In 48 A.D the Roman Legions reached Wroxeter and then proceeded to attack a tribe called the Deceangli who were based in what is now Flintshire. Around 70 - 75 A.D the Legionary fortress of Deva was constructed (modern-day Chester) and for the next 300 years was the home of the Twentieth Legion. " For my purposes my purposes a small Roman settlement of some twenty villagers was build near a fairy mound to guard against the encroachment of these vile creatures of chaos back into the world of men. They've decided to take back what belongs to them and in this case the fairy are going to take the village, the inhabitants, & the land around them!

If you as the dungeon master begin to look at many of the fairy creatures in The Monster Manual, The Fiend Folio, & The Monster Manual II there is more then a certain amount of malevolence about them. Add to the fact that Mab The Fairy Queen is in fact an aspect of Morgan le Fay of Arthurian legend.
Here the players are quite literally going to be up against the forces of chaos & they're going to need the help of one of the local druids. This adventure encounter is also pivotal point between the ending of one era & the beginning of another. Chaos is taking full advantage of this occult event.


Grabbing your copy of Deities & Demigods with the Arthurian Section might not be a bad idea.
They're basically pulling back all of their assets into one whole event for a possible future England. So its going to take lot of team work on the part of a party of experienced adventurers to riddle out what's happening. So perhaps a small contingent of knights, warriors, and adventurers plus a wizard might be just the party to start to do some of the investigative work for this.


So why does this adventure encounter work for the Dragon & Eagle Rpg system?! There are a few reasons first is the fact that its an England centric adventure idea set right at the dawn of the Medieval age. The occult & mythological overtones are all there to begin with & can be used to draw in adventurers as needed.



Coming into this adventure as a hack & slash adventure will get the PC's killed! Careful investigative work, occult consultation, paying attention to the native NPC's will yield results. But can the PC's prevent the fairies from taking away the village? Some careful reading into the legends of Queen of Elphame & another from Mythology Magazine have me convinced that its possible.

Several of the monsters of the Fiend Folio from AD&D first edition are tailor made for this style of adventure. The interactions between fairy & the mortal realm are perfect for dreams preceding events before the disaster happens.



There have always been strong connotations between 'the Underworld' of Roman mythology & fairy legends. There could be deeper connections with a Dark Albion Cults of Chaos not to mention a full blown Dark Albion Elven cult operating behind the scenes! This could also tie into an possible fully realized Fairyland cross over.

1d20 Random Places of Myth & Legend In The Wasteland An Encounter Table For Your Old School Game Campaigns

There are time haunted places that cross the borders of reality bleeding through the very pores of worlds to cross the threshold of our realities and come to create their own dream in the wastelands. These are places of forbidden myth and legend that come into our world in the least expected places. They often have their own rules, peoples and legends. They can offer great riches, great danger to adventurers and travelers in the wastes. Some of these places border Fairy & dream itself some of these places can't be explained in terms of purely intellectual terms. Here is where the most danger greets the adventurer in whose path these places appear.


“White spiders, demon-headed and large as monkeys, had woven their webs in the hollow arches of the bones; and they swarmed out interminably as Nushain approached; and the skeleton seemed to stir and quiver as they seethed over it abhorrently and dropped to the ground before the astrologer. Behind them others poured in a countless army, crowding and mantling every ossicle.”
― Clark Ashton Smith

1d20 Random Places of Myth & Legend In The Wasteland An Encounter Table

1.  An ancient city of people lost in time and space whose souls were swallowed by fairy during the 16th century but who are unaware of their fate. They are guarded by demons and ghouls who harvest the souls of travelers. 
2. An ancient palace time lost to a long dream of a demon god whose awakening dissolves the place back into unreality. There are 1d6 knights who are trapped in between realities. 
3. A caravan of gold and spices that was swallowed by the wastelands whose ancient souls were swallowed by demons of dream and they now manifest during certain days. The gold tempts the foolish. 
4. A palace of criminals and fools manifests upon a ridge above the wastelands and on certain days the smell of food and drink drifts on the wind tempting the foolish. A gnome illusionist's body has been taken over by a demon spirit rules over the place dealing in the souls of those who fall for his poison and drink. 
5. A castle from the depth of Hell itself manifest offering reprise from the heat and poison of the wastes only to claim the damned, the unjust, and the foolish who give into its treasure vaults of damned gold and miraculous artifacts. 
6. A troupe of fairy bards, artists, and entertainers travels the wastelands entertaining villages and survivors but claiming their souls and dreams in the process. They come with each new moon and leave with sunrise. 1d6 ghouls follow in their wake claiming the bodies of those who commit suicide in the wake of these performances. 
7. An ancient temple of faded gods tempts the faithful to use its chambers only to offer horrid demonic interiors filled with murder and horror. There are legends of golden alter relics and chalices that tempt outlaws and adventurers into its bowels of murder and mayhem. 
8. An ancient oasis offers eternal health and youth in one of its pools but it is guarded by 1d8 hook horrors who rest within its sands. They will eat anyone who uses the cursed waters of the pool. These fools are actually those who stay in the oasis over night when it disappears in the morning's light. 
9. There are rumors of a bunker full of artifacts and relics but actually an abode of terrible evil elemental Earth gnomes who claim the souls of those who come here. 
10. An evil humanoid dragon comes down from the stars into the wastelands to claim any farm animals, any souls it can find and worse. A knight will try to enlist adventurers in his fight eternal with the evil beast but both will fade back into the darkness with the coming light. Those who continue to fight the beast will have to remain by the knight's side. 
11. A temple of a chalice of evil appears with the new moons and offers treasure and salvation for the souls of those who suffer from mutation. It does cure them but with the kiss of death. There are 1d20 ghosts who will try to warn any future victims but there are 1d20 relics and weapons from previous victims. 
12. An ancient demon dragon guards a cache of fairy gold and artifacts until the day time ends and then shall these things be used to fulfill a prophecy of legend. Those who brave the dragon may join in the eternal struggle or choose one treasure. Those who try and slay the dragon will join it as its undead minions. There are 1d10 minor undead warriors currently at its side. 
13. An ancient curse causes a city of ancient myth and legend to appear and those who cross its threshold find themselves in a minor heavenly oasis like place of peace and perfection. Those who stay within the walls when the sun goes down find themselves in a city of phantoms and ghosts who might be joining the damned. 
14.  An ancient temple of a goddess of love manifests and the priestess of the place go out into the wastelands preaching their brand of religion and love. They give a single gold coin with the symbol of their goddess on it. Those who take it will gain +2 on charisma temporarily but they feel compelled to visit the temple on the night of the full moon. There they will become the 'golden sacrifices' to the hungry goddess of love and the cycle will begin someplace else. There is also a golden treasure.
15.  A fortress where an enchanted sword of myth has been stored appears and draws warriors and adventurers from far and wide. The blade holds great power and pride for those who hear its siren call. Actually the blade is the resting place for a pit fiend lord and those who draw it will be taken over and possessed by the demon thing. 
16. An ancient temple of three fairy goddesses appears in the wasteland and offers blessings for those who use its services for healing. The goddess's magick can cure many aliments and sicknesses as well as mutation but they want the first born of certain clans. They are looking for someone and murder those who don't meet their criteria. 
17.  This place is the ancient abode of a spirit of wrath and anger trapped within a diamond of the rarest clarity the crystal is actually a cursed god object and will draw in the souls of those who are charmed by its glamour. A cult of 1d20 1st level warriors guards the thing. There is a Type B treasure that is scattered about the ruins.
18.  The ancient spirit of a fairy god mother has been trapped here between dimensions and she manifests as a terrible demonic monster that tries to help travelers and adventurers. Those who can set her free will be granted a minor treasure. But she appears as demon queen of terrible aspect trapped in the ruins of a former palace.
19.  This is a castle made of the sands of time, those who come here may become trapped within the illusions of their own pasts. The place is filled with statues that appear to be ancient adventurers many of which have enchanted weapons but there is a 40% chance of them animating as JuJu zombies during the nights of the full moon.
20.  An ancient warrior's home palace appears in the wastelands filled with pre war relics and ancient servant robots but in actuality this place is an illusionary trap where the wall themselves are made from the flesh and souls of those who tried to take the treasures of this place. Ancient fairies guard the place and feast on those who try to steal its treasures. This place moves around dimensionally.
    
    

1d10 Random Finds From Across Space And The Planes Table Inspired By A Red and Pleasant Land

Grab It
HERE

Adventurers and reprobate heroes are likely to run across random and somewhat dangerous items that seem to be attracted by the floats om and jetsam  of Voivodja. The place is a whirl pool of hoary and dangerously imaginative evocative weirdness that picks up on the collective unconsciousness of the fairy tale like madness of the place and its vampire faction inhabitants. Here then are a chart of 1d10 bits and pieces of strange, unusual, sometimes destructive items that are found along the fairy pathways, roads, and worse as you make your way to the lands of the high weird.

1d10 Random Finds From Across Space And The Planes Table

1. A gossamer shroud of shadow stuff belonging to some noble vampire whose family is worried sick about the missing shadow. The semi living stuff is looking for some male or female vampire's soul to attach to. This treasured stuff can slip into the sbackground of a PC, it allows them to hide in shadows and see the invisible. 
2. An ornate knife that allows its user to cut and stab beings that are seemingly immune to the effects of physical objects and magical weapons. This knife has a secret compartment that holds a dram of demon's blood. The knife can also slice half truths well and was forged in the heart blood of a thousand lawyers. 
3. A short sword made of the remains of  several pairs of glass slippers. The sword is a +2 weapon and will glow in the presence of demons or demon blooded. The thing is named Mystic Willow. 
4. A small ornate box containing several miniature marbles which each contain a scene from a near by farm. The marbles will explode of 2d6 points of damage. The mtarbles were drawn from the fairylands and odd dreamscapes. 
5. A spinning wheel that will spin the owner a new skein from old dreams and nightmares. The owner will be a monster every new moon. The wheel will prick whomever is using it and activate with a drop of blood.  
6. An ancient deck of Tarot cards each deck is unique and has been created by an artist with hand painted cards each one able to bestow a vision of a possible future. The dreams and visions will animate by fairies bound within the cards. 
7. A dagger fashioned from a piece of wrought iron from Hell. The dagger is cold and icy able to cut the heart from a vampire. 
8. A collar for a griffon made from dwarven gold able to resist any escape attempt but able to be removed with a whispered song of old. The collar could be used for a human and it will add +1 to charisma. 
9. A silver pocket watch able to stop time for one minute. The powers itself from the blood of its owner with  giant silver needle that will do two points of damage every new moon.  The needle is a small +1 dagger in its own right. 
10. A small set of silver and gold fangs carefully artistically created to magically fit into a person's mouth. The fangs will add one point of damage each time they are used to draw blood. The fangs will telepathically and magically relate the latest gossip from fairy land and magically make its owner feel awake and alive. The fangs add +2 points during seduction and feeding attempts. 

This is merely a small selection of the objects and treasure floating around planes and byways near Voivodja

These types of treasure will most likely have weird and strange guardians nearby to destroy any interlopers into the realm of Voivodja. The undead hordes will try to stay one step ahead of  adventurers who come into possession of these items. 

A Red And Pleasant Land By Zak S. As Old School Plane & Time War Campaign

Grab It Right Over
HERE

Fairytales are massive parts of the human unconsciousness that we take on as children and realize just how nightmarish and dangerous they are as adults. We look back and we're thankful that we survive the experience.
Which brings us to A Red and Pleasant Land and its use as fodder for expansion into a whole cloth campaign and adventure campaign setting.

I came across Handy Haversack's review of A Red And Pleasant Land on Dragon's foot's forums which had some very interesting and valid points as well as a revelation.  You can read it HERE
Here's the bit of the review that got me right between the eyes: 

"The front endpapers of the print book (or two printable pages in the PDF) show the map of Voivodja, bounded north and east by the Carpathian Mountains, west and south by the Terrible Goblin Woods. These, of course, mean that you can tuck the Place of Unreason pretty much anywhere on your campaign map. The map here is about 300 miles by 400 miles, though the area between the boundary terrain is more like 200 by 300. I think that in practice this could probably be scaled down (e.g., I'm thinking of placing it in the Valley of Mists on the Hyperborea map for Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea). Also, because of the nature of the place, Voivodja does not have to take up as much space on your "real world" campaign map as it does on its own. Voivodja is strange. Time and space and manners and emotions and laws and gravity and loyalty can all be subjective here, sometimes all at once. Don't worry. There are tables for this."

And just like that I hadn't even thought about using A Red and Pleasant Land with Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers. My mind was awash with possibilities of  Voivodja  and its twisted vampire factions. The whole setting is rotten with Vampires. If they could be connected with AS&SH where else might they be connected into? Carcosa perhaps? But how does Lost Carcosa connect with Voivodja ? 

I began to think about the twisted fairy tale setting and its vampires? How were they connected with Old Earth? Are they the remains of some Old Earth colony that became twisted by  Voivodja's essence in the distant past or some dim future? I thought about Clark Aston Smith's Hyperborean Cycle (found HERE) and his other creation of Zothique.

Zothique really holds the answer to my perplexing and vexing question. How to connect Carcosa and Voivodja? According to Clark Aston Smith: 

Zothique, vaguely suggested by Theosophic theories about past and future continents, is the last inhabited continent of earth. The continents of our present cycle have sunken, perhaps several times. Some have remained submerged; others have re-risen, partially, and re-arranged themselves. Zothique, as I conceive it, comprises Asia Minor, Arabia, Persia, India, parts of northern and eastern Africa, and much of the Indonesian archipelago. A new Australia exists somewhere to the south. To the west, there are only a few known islands, such as Naat, in which the black cannibals survive. To the north, are immense unexplored deserts; to the east, an immense unvoyaged sea. The peoples are mainly of Aryan or Semitic descent; but there is a negro kingdom (Ilcar) in the north- west; and scattered blacks are found throughout the other countries, mainly in palace-harems. In the southern islands survive vestiges of Indonesian or Malayan races. The science and machinery of our present civilization have long been forgotten, together with our present religions. But many gods are worshipped; and sorcery and demonism prevail again as in ancient days. Oars and sails alone are used by mariners. There are no fire-arms—only the bows, arrows, swords, javelins, etc. of antiquity. The chief language spoken (of which I have provided examples in an unpublished drama) is based on Indo-European roots and is highly inflected, like Sanskrit, Greek and Latin.

Clark Ashton Smith himself described the Zothique cycle in a letter to L. Sprague de Camp, dated November 3, 1953.

Darrell Schweitzer suggests the idea of writing about a far future land may have come from William Hope Hodgson's novel The Night Land, noting that Smith was an admirer of Hodgson's work.

More right over HERE

This campaign revolves around very old and very strange planes, worlds, timelines, all part of a Plane & Time War fought across alternative worlds and dimensions where time and space intersect. 

Sometime in the future the powers of Quas, Misrule, and Unreason fight a protracted war against the forces of  Law, Order, Reason and the very gods themselves against the backdrop of the ultimate saga of a perishing cosmos.

The very fabric of time its rife with holes and man's kingdoms are strange, old, weird,and the PC's are drawn into the middle of it all. 

Hyperborea, Voivodja, Carcosa, The Unknown Island, The Night Lands, etc are all worlds connected across branches of pseudo European timelines. Time is not an arrow but a river full of eddies and branches fought over by monsters, gods, demons, and more.
More to come folks. 

A Red & Pleasant Land By Zak S. From Lamentations Of The Flame Princess On The Dark Corner Blog

Today on the blog we follow Zak Smith down the rabbit hole with his vicious and dangerously beautiful take on Alice In Wonderland with A Red and Pleasant Land on The Dark Corner Blog. A vampiric and wonderfully wicked setting called Voivodja.
Right Over
HERE

Part II Of The "Real" Sleeping Beauty' A Public Domain Resource For Your Old School Horror Campaign On The Dark Corner Blog

Darkness, Death, Enchanted Sleep, the horrors of Fairy and much more then what you'll see on the big screen instead its going on right at your gaming table and over at The Dark Corner Blog!
HERE

Disney's Maleficent Teaser Trailer and The 'Real' Public Domain 'Sleeping Beauty' For Your Old School Campaigns On The Dark Corner Blog

Disney has released the first teaser trailer for Maleficent but do you know the deeper, dark, far more terrible tales of Snow White?
Dare you take a look and discover the original tales of cannibalism, horror, weird curses, fairy realms, ogresses and far more over at the Dark Corner?
Right Over
HERE