Now we're 50!

Today the 50th person joined the ranks of my fantastic followers! That is reason to celebrate! Thanks for hanging out here and thanks for the good feedback. It really helps keeping me motivated to write more articles. A friend of mine asked me yesterday why I haven't gone into publishing some material of my own and maybe make a few dollars, but for now I am actually just really happy to share my thoughts and ideas with people who are interested in the same things as I am.

I think I will go out and celebrate this weekend, and I think you should do the same! I have a pretty cool announcement which I will share with you guys in a couple of days. Have a great weekend!




Havard

Realm of the Egg Part III

Here's the third installment about the Realm of the Egg.

Realm of the Egg Timeline:

The Cthonian Age
The Egg is formed. It is said that it originally had humanoid characteristics, but as centuries passed this has changed...

Tsaothogghua spawns the Sar-Aigu and sends them towards what will become Blackmoor.

1
Empire of Thonia Founded
Emperor Robert I founds Blackmoor as the northernmost province of the Thonian Empire

512
Temple of Id is destroyed

970
The Egg of Coot is first discovered by men of the Duchy of the Peaks.

994
In his rampage through the Duchy of the Peaks, Marfeldt learns of the Egg of Coot and fully realizes what threat this entity poses to all who value freedom in the North. Marfeldt wows to destroy the Egg.

995
The “Weasel” is promoted to Baron of Blackmoor. Learning of threats to the realm, he betrays Thonia and flees to barbarian lands, leaving Blackmoor unprotected.

The Egg launches its first invasion against Blackmoor finding Blackmoor town largely unprotected. A small force lead by Lord Fant sneak into the castle and open the gates from the inside. The Egg’s forces are driven back, but the Town of Blackmoor is all but destroyed. Rebuilding begins. Fant becomes the new baron of Blackmoor.

Captain Krey of Blackmoor sells out to the Egg’s Lieutenant, Soukup, but the treason fails.

997
Large scale invasions of Blackmoor by the Egg of Coot, under the leadership of the Egg’s most trusted lieutenant: Ran. In the second wave of attacks, Blackmoor ‘s defences are breached and the Egg’s forces make it all the way into Blackmoor Castle, slaying everyone in sight.

The Egg places King Funk I of the Orcs in charge of Blackmoor. Too Confident in their own strength, the Egg’s forces expand south, eventually stirring even the Peshwa. The Barons regroup and are aided by Peshwa, elves and Northern Lords, working to regroup.

The Ran of Ah Foo betrays the Egg of Coot, escaping to the Duchy of Ten, taking many of the Egg’s secrets with him. The Egg does not forget betrayal. The Egg’s forces are gradually driven back.

998
Elven forces liberate Blackmoor Town, driving the orcs deep underground. Great Svenny slays Funk I. The Egg licks its wounds.

Moorkok the Slayer leads a Skandaharian attack against the Realm of Coot. The Slayer is captured and turned into a Thrall.

1008
Third invasion attempt by the Egg of Coot. This time the men of Blackmoor are prepared. King Uther repels the invasion.

1015
The Duchy of Ten is occupied by the Afridhi. The Egg is pleased to hear that the Ran has lost his realm, but disappointed that he seems to have escaped.

Working under the command of the Egg, Orc King Funk II launches an attack on Bramwald from the Stormkiller Mountains. Unfortunately for the Egg, the attack is repelled.

1022
Baron Bascom Ungulian leads an attack against the Realm of Coot, but is captured and his attack force is crushed.

1024
Baron Ungulian returns alive from the Egg’s captivity, but has been stripped of any memory of the events.
King Funk’s Orcs of the Black Hand attacks the Crystal Peaks and capture Dwarf-King Khazakhum.

Dwarven attempts to rescue their King fail.

1030
The Present.

El Raja Key and Blackmoor

The more I dig into the stories of the early days of the Blackmoor Campaign, the more I see how much it is connected to the other campaign settings being created at the same time. In order to learn more about the Great Kingdom (which later became Thonia) of the C&C Setting, I have been doing some much needed reading up on Greyhawk. However, it seems like what I just as much should have been doing is to learn more about the worlds of Robert J Kunz.

Kuntz was kind enough to direct me to one of his own current projects: El Raja Key. In this upcoming book, Kuntz also details the impact a few adventures in Blackmoor had on the Greyhawk campaign:

"Within 4-6 weeks of our first adventure into Blackmoor Gary had a rough first draft of the new rules and several levels of the new dungeon, Greyhawk, to play-test these.  His daughters and Ernie were the first adventurers; the second one consisted of myself (Robilar), my brother Terry (Terik), Ernie Gygax (Tenser) and Elise Gygax (Ahlissa).  Within 4 weeks of this second adventure and the ones that followed on a daily and nightly basis, I crafted the first levels of El Raja Key, at first with the intent of only judging Gary therein, as he had been pulling double duty with writing the D&D rules as well as designing the levels beneath Greyhawk Castle.  After starting his PCs Yrag and Mordenkainen within it, Gary took his first step at making me the co-DM of the Greyhawk “Campaign” as then understood.  As the play-tests had been fast and furious,  many of the earliest PCs had grown very quickly in level and were moving to the outdoor.  I was allowed to DM these outdoor adventures just prior to completing my journey as Robilar to “China” (which earned me the co-DM mantle permanently and on all levels). ..."

 Robilar and Mordenkeinen may have been Greyhawk PCs, but as they also appeared in Arneson's campaign, they should also be considered part of the history of Blackmoor. It would not be inappropriate to use them as NPCS in Blackmoor along with the Wizard of the Woods, the Great Svenny and all those others.

-Havard

Harpies

I've never really regarded the Harpy as a particularly Blackmoorian creature, but on Friday, A Paladin in Citadel made me remember the legendary harpy illustration from Supplement II. I wonder to what extent the monster selection from Supplement II should be an indication of which creatures are the most common in Blackmoor. Based on who wrote what in that supplement, perhaps not so much, but then again, the book does have the Blackmoor label on the cover and Dave didnt seem to mind having it associated with himself even in later years.



-Havard

Realm of the Egg Part II

Here's the second installment of my take on the Realm of the Egg. 

The Land

The Realm of the Egg is a place filled with sinister disorienting mists. Large towering structures can be seen surrounded by smaller ruined and abandoned buildings. Cities and towns appear desolate, although there are always creatures lurking in the shadows. Structures originally built by Merfolk can be seen among ruins.

Travelling through the land, the landscape will seem surreal to explorers. Magical experiments, permanent gates to other planes of existence and rampages of demonic creatures have turned the lands of the peninsula into a bizarre twisted realm.  Woodlands such as the Thornwood, the Forest of the Druj and the Weirdring Woods are dark and sinister places, where even plantlife seems hostile. These are not green wonders of nature, but black and thorny areas bearing little resemblance to forests in other lands. Mountains and hilly landscapes can be found in the humanoid infested Trollop Mountains and the infernal Locust Hills.

Four major settlements are hidden in this terrifying landscape; The Egg’s Nest, Ohmfet, Trollgate and Harbol.

The Egg’s Strongholds
The Egg’s Nest is an impenetrable fortress. Colossal rocks enforced by rusting steel bars and huge iron doors are some of the most prominent features of the Nest. Going deeper underground, the halls are a mixture of metal rails, cold rock, mushy swamp like growths covering some of the walls and slime dripping from the ceilings.

In addition to the Nest, three other strongholds guard the corners of the realm: Ohmfet, Harbol and Trollgate. Harbol lies to the south. It is from this nefarious place that constant attacks towards the Glendover are sent. Baron Bascom Ungulian made an attack on this fortress, but was captured and stripped of any memories of the place. Ohmfet occasionally sends envoys to meet with the people of the Duchy of the Peaks, but the people of the Peaks are frustrated that these envoys are oblivious to the temptations the Peaks have to offer. Trollgate guards the northern border. As the name implies, this stronghold is populated by Trolls and other humanoids who carry our raids on the Skandaharian and Frisian neighbours. At times, they Skandaharians have attempted to fight back, taking the war to the Egg. The last time they did this was a raid lead by one of the Skandahar’s greatest warriors; Moorkok the Slayer. When Moorkok succumbed to the domination of the Egg, the Skandaharians fled. They have not forgotten this loss.

















-Havard

[Rafael]The Lodoss War

Another entry from Official Guest Blogger Rafael on sources of inspiration for his Blackmoor games:

In my (apparently developing?!) series about things of all kind that might make a good inspiration for Blackmoor, I sooo want to take a closer look to a series, or better, a setting I mentioned in the “Northlanders” review:

The World of “The Lodoss War”, where “The Lady of Pharis”, another extraordinary comic book is set: Having long become an all-time classic among anime-fans all over the world, “The Record of Lodoss War” OVA (=direct-to-video-series) is the best product of a franchise that can basically be described as “Japanese D&D”.

Being based on ACTUAL OD&D SESSIONS in which the main author and developer, Ryo Mizuno participated, this is like the closest you can get to classic D&D fiction without relying on ebay, or WotC periodical republications (kudos to Wizbro for rereleasing a lot of the old stuff from time to time, btw).

An entire universe on its own, “Lodoss War” and the RPG it is “officially” based upon, the Japanese “Sword World”, span dozens of gaming books, novels, graphic novels, artbooks, musical CDs and even a few video games. – And, Yours Truly absolutely loves it.

You can perfectly be a friend of fantasy literature today without knowing “A Song of Ice and Fire”, “The Dragonbone Chair”, or “The Name of the Wind”. – However, if you miss “Lodoss War”, especially the first OVA, this is like not having seen Peter Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings”, at least as far as I am concerned.

What connection, you may ask, is there between some Japanese RPG to “my” or “The Maiden’s” Blackmoor? – “Lodoss War” is, more or less, how I visualize D&D for myself! The dragons in my mind look like the Lodoss Dragons, and the Elves look like Lodoss Elves, and the “Evil Island Marmo” is pretty much how thought of the darker places in “The Grim Winter”.

It’s been years since I first suggested the 1990 “Record of Lodoss War” OVA to my players as the kind of introductory material they would want to watch to get into my style of  D&D. For my personal view of roleplaying and fantasy, I think, it’s safe to say that the Lodoss universe was the one that influenced me the most, at least in the last few years.







-Rafael

(Edited by Havard)

Realm of the Egg Part I

The Realm of the Egg

Overview
• Location: North of Blackmoor.
• Area: 7000 sq. mi. Population: 20,000. Languages: Thonian. Coinage: Egg (pp), Prince (gp),
• Government Type: Dictatorial Magocracy. The Egg is the law within its realm.
• Industries: Piracy, slavery.
• Notable Sites: The Egg's Nest (pop. 6000), capital city.
• History: About 25 years ago, the seas to the north of Blackmoor mysteriously receded, as a rocky peninsula rose from its depths. Shortly thereafter, messengers bearing tidings from the Egg of Coot, lord of the northern peninsula, traveled to all the major cities in the North.
• Important Figures: The Egg of Coot (MU?). Moorkok the Slayer (F17), Prince of the Egg, Soukup (Balrog), Abler (MU)
• Flora and Fauna: Due to the experimentations of realms sorcerers, and the nature of the realm itself, encounters with nearly any sort of monster imaginable are possible.

Background
The origins and true nature of the Egg remain a mystery. For centuries, it rested deep underwater. Untill something, or someone awakened the evil entity from its slumbers. Some sages speculate that it was the sea folk who first discovered the Egg somewhere within their realm. Others claim that evil wizards, perhaps from the Red Coven, or even Abler the Demonologist himself.

The men of the Duchy of the Peaks were the first who reported to have made contact with the servants of the Egg, as early as in NC 970. The Egg used its powers to raise its city, Coot’s Nest, from the bottom of the Black Sea and at the same time made the surrounding lands sink below the level of the ocean. This greatly reduced the kingdom of the Redwood Elves. The changing of the landmass also connected the Black Sea to the North Sea which in turn gave access to the Black sea to the Skandaharian Raiders of the East. It is unknown what havoc these dramatic geological upheavals caused for the Black Sea Merfolk, but they have obviously no love for the Egg.

(Notes: Some of this information was based on the works of Andrew Theisen and David Ross)

-Havard