The Morkevagten Dim Troldes

The notes from my hard drive which inspired the homebrew treatment of Trolls posted yesterday is copied below. As mentioned, this is a collection of ideas intended to flesh out Calithena's Dark Trolls in the FO! group megadungeon project. I renamed them from Dark Troll to Dim Trolde when I realized I had let the information get a bit out of control. Eventually this Trolde tribe will find a home in a future dungeon. As you can see, some of the planned areas for the level are in italics, such as the Endless Mines, Smelting Pits, Grand Smithy, Fungus Farms, Central Brewery, Muumilaakso, and Raptor Holes. The dungeon is half-way written just from these notes.









Morkevagten Dim Troldes

The Uklartrolde (Dim Trolde) of Ulin-Uthor are an expansive, extended subterranean tribe. Their kind clawed their way to dominance within these ancient tunnels and caves before mankind ever set foot upon the barren lands above. This tribe, called the Morkevagten, has, through the ages, developed a somewhat advanced, in underworld terms, societal structure. The Morkevagten have developed the crafts of mining and smelting, bronze working, masonry and architecture, rat and raptor husbandry, currency, fungus brewing and distilling, and, perhaps most importantly, slavery and extortion.

Most of the Morkevagten labor is performed by slaves, and much of their continued income is derived from extortion. The Dim Troldes demand gold from the various intelligent inhabitants of Ulin-Uthor, in return for protection. Those that do not pay are thrown into slavery, or eaten. The Morkevagten also have agents who perform these same duties on the surface world; rounding up potential slaves, and extorting local businesses, in exchange for various rewards. These agents range from all manner of goblin kin to evil men threatening to ‘bring down the wrath of the Troldes’ upon their intimidated victims. These are not always hollow threats, as the Dim Troldes do from time to time raid the surface to gather slaves, and pillage nearby areas. These raids are more or less a show of strength in order to maintain their stature in and around Ulin-Uthor. The Morkevagten are still, despite the civilized trappings, an evil, corrupt and selfish lot, prone to theft, betrayal and murder within their very tribe. Station in the Morkevagten is not through birthright, but through wealth and power. The Dim Troldes spend more time dealing with threats from their own kin than those from the world around them. It is hard to dispute the fact that the Morkevagten have risen to power in spite of themselves, but their kind is certainly not to be taken lightly.

Mining, Smelting and Bronze working:
Ginkul: Copper, Rikaa: Tin, Vaett: Bronze.
Chalcocite, cassiterite and native copper minerals are mined by Scourge driven Slaves, in a complex, haphazard series of vertical shafts and galleries in the Endless Mines. The shafts follow the ores far below, as deep as 75 feet in some cases. Ore crushing is performed in the galleries with heavy stones, then hauled up to storage pits before being transported to the furnaces. Raptor-stomach bellows are used to stoke the charcoal fueled, clay lined, sandstone furnaces in the Smelting Pits to allow the Slags to produce ingots of copper (ginkul) and tin (rikaa), which are then combined again to produce bronze (vaett). The bronze is poured into molds then worked with hammer, tongs and anvil by a Sapper in the Grand Smithy.

Arms and Armor:
All Trolde Arms & Armor are forged in Bronze.
Lamellar: Hauberks of interlinking bronze scales, equal to AC 5.
Plate Armor: Hammered bronze chest pieces equal to AC 3.
Embossed Morelwood Shield: Round shields with hammered bronze facing.
Weaponry: includes Daggers, Swords, Maces, Axes and Spears, the Spear being more or less a light lance used from a mounted position, never as a missile. Dim Troldes might also employ heavy weighted Throwing Nets and Bolas; both of sinew and bronze weights, serving as the only actual missile weapons of the Morkevagten.

Currency:
Saard Rod (SR): Recast gold coins formed in the Smelting Pits into small rod shaped ingots. Each is worth 10 GP. Wt. ½ lb.
Ginkul Ingot (GI): Flat copper ingots from the Smelting Pits. Often used as currency, each is worth 200 CP’s or 1 GP. Wt. 10 lbs.
Rikaa Ingot (RI): Flat tin ingots from the Smelting Pits, as the Ginkul but worth 5 GP. Wt. 10 lbs.

Brewing/Distillation:
Vast sublevel Fungus Farms are cultivated and harvested by Scourge overseen Slaves. The fungi is collected and brought to the Central Brewery for use by the Swillers in their various concoctions and compounds. Fermentation tanks, copper distilleries, morelwood casks and barrels for aging, charcoal kilns, and various fire pits are all used to produce the masterfully crafted fungus byproducts.

Fungus Byproducts:
Lichen Brew: Pungent, bitter beer. Low alcohol content. For PC’s drinking: Upchuck chance (2in6). Heals 1d6 damage if ingested.
Toadstool Tonic: Intense, aged smoky liquor. High alcohol content. For PC’s drinking: Upchuck chance (3in6). Neutralizes poison if ingested.
Moss Wine: Super dry black wine. Medium alcohol content. For PC’s drinking: Upchuck chance (1in6). Cures or halts mental or physical maladies.
Mold Mix: Mortar for masonry.
Morelwood: Unique aged stone-morel, properties of very hard wood. Primarily used to create charcoal for fueling the smelting furnaces. Burns hotter, longer and cleaner than standard wood charcoal.
Capper: Poison. Used as an ingested Sleeping Powder on Troldes. Outright kills men in 1d6 rounds of hallucination and convulsions when used as a weapon coating.
Simmer: Cauterizes flesh, bubbles and froths when used. Allows Troldes to cleanse then sever burnt or acid blasted wounds to promote regeneration again. Causes a severe open wound to men.

Rat Husbandry:
Dim Troldes have perfected the art of Rat Husbandry. A particularly delectable strain of Rats, called Muumi, has been cultivated for centuries through stockbreeding, producing a plump, round, furry white rat, with a large snout and unusually large, almost quizzical eyes. They are tended by the ratherding Sloggers, overseen by the Great Tove in the heavily guarded Muumilaakso. In addition to the Muumi, the Great Tove oversees to the tending of sundry Rat strains which are raised for the less discerning palate. To non-Troldes, it all just tastes like Rat.

Food:
Muumi: (Rat): Served Stewed, Roasted, Broiled, Baked, Fried, Minced, Blackened, Spiced, Sautéed, Poached, Boiled, Pickled, Grilled, Fricasseed, in a Ball, on a Stick or the standard Rat Tartare.
Catch of the Day: Self-explanatory.

Raptor Husbandry:
Much in the way the Morkevagten have used stockbreeding through the ages to control Rat strains, they have been perfecting the crossbreeding of various subterranean bird-like theropod dinosaurs (Dromaeosauridae). Their ultimate achievement has been the Cave Raptor, a large strain bred to serve as a fighting mount for the Dim Trolde Seekers and Sentinels. An ongoing, difficult to master project for the Swagjags has been the Feathered Raptor. The Feathered Raptor’s purpose is to guard the Raptor Holes and their priceless eggs, but the little predators are prone to roving the upper areas of the caves seeking out prey. The Feathered Raptors will not attack Troldes, nor anyone in the presence of one, but have created much havoc over the years with their relentless bloodthirsty hunting tactics. The Swagjags might never learn to control the small man-eaters, but they seem to enjoy watching the fruits of their labor pitted against one another in Pit Fights, or shredding apart an intruder. Raptor Pit Fighting is an enjoyable spectator sport and gambling event for the Morkevagten.

Raptors:
Cave Raptor (Utahraptor): AC: 4, Move: 12, HD: 10, Damage 2d6. 10 feet long (20 with tail), 7 feet tall, and weighing about 1,500 lbs. Covered in dark brown feathers, with massive jaws, long tails and bird-like feet topped by a single massive curved hind-claw. Cave Raptors are trained to bite rather than use their formidable dagger like claws so as to not unsaddle their riders. These huge dinosaurs can trample opponents if able to charge into melee, causing 2d6 to all in a 5’ wide by 20’ long path. Save vs. Paralyze to avoid being bowled over and spending one round gaining footing.

Feathered Raptor (Velociraptor): AC: 2/7, Move: 18, HD: 2, Damage 1d3+special. 3 feet long (7 with tail), 2 feet high at the hip, and weighing about 35 lbs. Covered in grey and black feathers, with strong razor fang filled jaws, long thin tails and bird-like feet topped with a single sharp, curved hind-claw. Feathered Raptors are the ultimate hunters; fast moving, silent, sly, cunning and always hungry. They hunt in large packs, and work in unison to flush prey into ambushes, or simply overwhelm larger, slower moving targets with their vicious bites. The sharp hind-claws are normally used to puncture a target, pinning them in place, or allowing the Raptor to cling to the target as they lock their jaws down for the kill. Once a Feathered Raptor has hit a target, it will cling to it and deal 3 damage per round thereafter. Up to four of these murderous little predators can attack a man each round. Feathered Raptors are lightning quick, as reflected in their superior AC, which is reduced to 7 after they have locked their jaw in for a kill. Slain Raptors will have to be carefully removed from their prey by prying open those deadly jaws.

Trolde Titles:
7+3 HD variety
Sapper: Bronze workers
Slag: Metallurgists
Shylock: Sharks, Extortionists
Slaver: Slave Merchants
Slogger: Ratherders
Swiller: Fungus Farmers
Sketcher: Planners

8+3 HD variety
Scourge: Taskmasters
Stomper: Muscle
Swagjag: Raptorherders

9+3 HD variety
Seeker: Rangers
Sentinel: Heavy Knights
Scaggle: Crime Bosses
Svaerost: King of the Morkevagten

Non-Troldes:
Dagendreng (Agents): virtually any double-dealing, greedy, devious NPC can apply.

Feel free to borrow, copy, paste what have you. I think a damned fun dungeon level will spring forth from this information eventually.

~Sham, Quixotic Referee

The Trolde

Last year, when I was kicking around ideas for the FO! dungeon The Darkness Beneath, I began to tinker around with ideas for one of the important denizens in Calithena's megadungeon, the Dark Trolls. One thing led to another, and I ended up with a few pages of notes on these monsters and their world beneath the surface. Afterwards I decided it was time I gave the venerable Troll a treatment of homebrew, so I went back and redefined the entire species. Admittedly, there is a very strong and intentional Gygax 1st Edition flavor given to these OD&D versions, but their primary heritage is Scandinavian mythology and folklore. With the renaming of many of the standard monsters in my growing Solstice/Dismal Depths work, Trolls became Troldes. I recently edited this piece and although I have no actual home for this information at this point, I thought it might be of interest here. Essentially, these are actually Trolls, but using the alternate spelling does serve to differentiate the Trolde from the standard TSR Troll.

Tomorrow I will copy the notes which were originally intended to be the Dark Trolls, and became the Morkevagten Dim Troldes. The Morkevagten are destined to have a major chunk of real estate in Ulin-Uthor, or perhaps some areas of The Dismal Depths.


Troldes

Troldes, also known as Throlls or Trolls, are repulsive abominations created from the essence of the earth by a long forgotten power of chaos and night. There are numerous types of these vile, preternatural monsters, including but not limited to the ones described here. Troldes share some common characteristics, most notably that males of their kind are best described as large, brutish, ugly humanoids with great strength, elongated ears, big noses, knuckle-dragging arms and thick earth tone hides. Amongst individual male Troldes one might find many other beastly peculiarities, including such things as tusks, scraggly or quill-like hair, cyclopic eyes, and splotchy hides with crags, bumps and warts.

Female Troldes are certainly the fairer members of the race, appearing as seductive women with normally hidden cow tails. Female Troldes come and go between the world of man and that of Troldedom. Often described as erotic seductresses, legends exist of female Troldes that have actually married men and become mortal, successfully hiding their true nature for the rest of their days. The more notorious female Troldes seduce men and take their seed back to Troldedom. Others abduct infants from mankind and likewise return them to the world of the Troldes. What becomes of these young humans is not known, but many societies of the land blame deviant behavior on Trolde upbringings. Troldespawn is an unflattering term used to describe the worst sorts of men. Female Troldes are rarely encountered alongside their male counterparts, being altogether elusive and virtually undetectable within Troldedom. Little is known of them and it is assumed that they are one with the earth, emerging only to reproduce or mingle with mankind.

Male Troldes will return to their natural state if bathed long enough in the light of day, turning to stone and losing their magical life-giving essence. The spirit of the now inanimate Trolde will return from whence it came, dead and gone forever. For this reason, male Troldes are either nocturnal or subterranean. As long as a Trolde is in contact with earth, be it soil, dirt, sand, rock or stone, its form will regenerate wounds at an astounding rate. Certain types of damage may not be thusly healed, such as wounds from acid, fire or lightning. Troldes are immune to damage from cold, whether it is natural or magical, but take extra damage from lightning. Wounds upon a Trolde dealt by stone, wood, bronze or even silver weapons will inflict reduced damage in all cases. Iron is the only metal which will cause a Trolde full damage, whether it is magical or mundane. Furthermore, Troldes despise iron, and are loathe to touch it.

Troldes have their own language, called Trolsprog, with a wide range of words which hold meaning only to their kind, owing partially to their acute olfactory senses. Trolsprog is noted for long S’s and hisses. Troldes can see naturally in the dark, and are only surprised on a roll of 1in12. Given the right circumstances, a Trolde can track down non-natives while in its own environs.

While Troldes are an unnatural union of earth, chaos and night, their kind consists of both young and old. The larger Mountain and Forest Troldes tend to be solitary, longer lived, and far less reproductive than the Mound and Dim Troldes. Mound and Dim Troldes exist in varying levels of clan based groups. Male Troldes are stooped and hunched. Their effective height is normally equal to their HD minus one in feet. A HD 7+3 Mound Trolde would be about 6 feet tall, a HD 10+3 Forest Trolde would be about 9 feet tall, both would be considerably taller if actually upright and vertical.

Haugtrolde (Mound Trolde): Chaotic, # Appearing: 3-12, AC: 6, Move: 12, HD: 6+3 to 8+3, Damage by weapon +1, Avg Int: 8. Troldes that tend to roam quite often, establishing new mound and tunnel homes, or returning to older ones as they continually expand their hunting grounds

Bjergtrolde (Mountain Trolde): Neutral, # Appearing: 1, AC: 3, Move: 9, HD: 9+3 to 11+3, Damage 2d6+2, Avg Int: 10. The largest of all Troldes, given to extended periods of hibernation in vast cavernous regions beneath and within mountains.

Skovtrolde (Forest Trolde): Neutral, # Appearing: 1, AC: 4, Move: 9, HD: 8+3 to 10+3, Damage 2d6+1, Avg Int: 9. Larger than their Mound and Dim cousins, these Troldes forge homes in deep, thick forests, and are prone to seasonal periods of hibernation

Uklartrolde (Dim Trolde): Chaotic, # Appearing: 2-12+, AC: varies, Move: 9, HD: 7+3 to 9+3, Damage by weapon +2, Avg Int: 11. Dim Troldes have a base AC 6, but most wear bronze lamellar or plate armor resulting in AC 5, 4 or even 3 if using a shield. These Troldes continually work toward carving out a permanent home deep in the underworld, to varying degrees of success.

Turn to Stone: Troldes will turn to stone and perish after 1 turn in full day light. After 5 rounds movement is reduced to one-half.
Immune to Cold: All forms cause 0 damage.
Non-iron weapons: Deal one-half damage to Troldes.
Iron weapons: Cause +1 damage when striking Troldes.
Attacks upon iron-armored targets: Troldes have a -1 penalty to hit such targets.
Lightning Damage: Causes +2 points per die against Troldes, and may not be regenerated.
Fire/Acid Damage: May not be regenerated.
Trolde Regeneration: Troldes begin to regenerate damage at a rate of 3/round at the beginning of the third round after damage has been sustained (for example, if a Trolde takes damage in round 2, it will start to regenerate as round 5 begins). Only acid, fire or lightning damage may not be regenerated. Trolde Regeneration continues unabated even if the monster is hacked to pieces. Unless the entire Trolde is burnt or exposed to acid, it will eventually rise up at full health. The various limbs and remains of a slain Trolde will either crawl back together and regenerate, or form a new body from the largest remaining piece. Severed parts seem to possess a will of their own, and will continue to grab, claw, bite or scuttle about independently during a conflict. Dim Troldes in particular are known to have devised methods for ensuring that their fallen are able to regenerate in a safe location.

Tomorrow watch for the Morkevagten Dim Troldes intended for a vast, as yet unmapped dungeon level in an upcoming adventure.

~Sham, Quixotic Referee

Vardo Winx

My first D&D character in...well, in a very long time is named Vardo Winx, and will be my initial foray into the world of Play-By-Post gaming. I was lured into trying this game form out by Driver's upcoming Wilderlands OD&D campaign. Scott encourages players to make an 'old school' character sheet, to share with the other players (and earn a small bonus later in the campaign, provided you make it past first level).

So, since I'm fairly sure the forum for this campaign is closed, due to the fact that Scott will be running more than a single party of adventurers through the same world, I thought I'd share my own character sheet for Vardo Winx, Acolyte of The Cult of The Thousand Face.


What is the Cult of The Thousand Face? Hugoman, patron Deity of The Thousand Face, takes on countless forms. The members of said Cult believe that each and every Deity is simply another face of Hugoman, and that in fact, we all have a little Hugoman inside of us. Well, that's my version. How Scott plays this in the campaign is up to him, but that's what I envisioned when he said we could make up our own Deity or Cult.

Being new to PBP gaming, I blew most of my gold (I started with 80 GP) on armor, and included some delving gear from the get go. I'm walking around with but 8 GP now. I still need someone to bring along a hammer or mallet for using the dozen Iron Spikes I invested in. I wanted to start with a Hammer as a weapon, for utility, but only a Mace was available. Besides, I can still toss them down deep, dark holes and listen for the 'clang', or use them to fend off Rust Monsters which might be looking to dine on my Mail armor. I like Iron Spikes.

There won't be any updates per se, for the multi-group reasons, but if and when Vardo meets his demise in the Wilderlands, I'll let you know.

~Sham, Quixotic Referee

Junk From My Closet: Wizard's Aide

Here's an old bit of gaming history that's been tucked in my collection since the early 80's. Wizard's Aide by Matt Whalley. Back when I purchased this booklet from Patowmack Toys in Columbia, MD, I was entrenched in my old AD&D/Arduin campaigns. I leafed through the booklet once or twice, and shelved it. It's designed for OD&D. What is it?, you might ask...well, for me it's no more than a relic of gaming days past. As I've mentioned before, I have a soft spot for game booklets, and I used to buy any booklet, especially brown or beige ones, related to D&D.

The booklet includes Birth, Social Class, Wealth and Skills Tables, Class and Racial Skills (such as Fortune Teller, Taxidermist, Barrister), Random Character Abilities, a Spell Point conversion system, a handful of Magic Rings, a Reincarnation Table, and a Random Name Generation Chart. In other words, a real mish-mash of home brew from Matt Whalley's old D&D campaigns.

Clearly a lot of ideas and labor went into this project. It's crude and oh so old school. I decided long ago that I would never make any use of this booklet at all, and even now as an OD&D convert, I find it of little value other than a relic of gaming history, or Blog material.

I did leave out what I consider to be the meat of Wizard's Aide, Mr. Whalley's conversion of the OD&D Combat and Saving Throw Tables to percentile dice instead of 20-siders. Effectively, this method has done what I myself did in later years with my home brew Blackthorn rules; get rid of the 'chunky' advancement from character level to character level. With a larger numeric range to work with, the character can realize some increase in both Combat and Saves with each and every level, rather than every three, four or five levels. I like this, but I don't like using percentile dice for Combat and Saves.

But a big thumbs up for thinking outside of the box in 1977 is owed to Matt Whalley. I'm curious to see if any of my readers own or have seen this book? I've never seen any references or mention of it before.

~Sham, Quixotic Referee

Junk From My Closet: Egal's Pit

Here's a short background blurb in regard to an adventure my old gaming crew undertook to recover a long-lost artifact. Notice the ALL CAPS phase has ended. I'd date this piece circa 1988 or so, during a different campaign than the ALL CAPS stuff. The dungeon was called Egal's Pit, and all the party knew was that it was rumored to be the vault within which the Silver Chalice of Life was hidden. The Chalice was a magic item from one of the Arduin booklets, which I used as an artifact in my campaign. It provided eternal life as long as it's owner drank from it each night (essentially, the user didn't age at all during the following day after having partaken in the Chalice's life preserving magic).

The dungeon had been designed by Egal to keep out the Prince of Deception and his demonic minions, in order that he might remain reclusive, never aging, and continuing his sorcerous research and studies for all time. Needless to say, it was a well protected dungeon. As it goes on to say, the Demon Assassin accomplished his mission, sending Egal's soul to it's rightful owner. Then, the Demon was ordered to remain and guard the Chalice.

The Demon Assassin was indeed waiting in ambush in the vault, and provided quite a nasty surprise for the brave dungeon delvers, precisely when they were about to nab the Chalice from the depths of a well-built anti-Demon dungeon.



As to the Chalice itself? Silly eternal-life magic is often lost upon players in a D&D campaign. It sat for months in John's Portable Hole. John, I apologize for spilling the beans all these years later...BUT! John's character secretly SOLD the Chalice on the black market for a princely sum. All of the other players had forgotten about the Chalice, and never (until now-if they are reading this) knew about what John's devious character did with it. I can't remember the exact selling price, but it was truly a fortune in rare gems. I'm fairly sure John's character blew it on wine and women.

~Sham, Quixotic Referee

Junk From My Closet: The Donjon

Since this is a good week for me to throw out such lazy posts, I'll continue with more stuff I worked on in the past. With that in mind, here's another one gathering dust in my basement gaming closet of oddities from yesteryear. This isn't quite as old as the ALL CAPS pieces. This map was the next to last level in the dungeon Sham's Furnace. The Donjon was, essentially, my version of S1: Tomb of Horrors in that it was chock full of deadly traps, with only one or two actual monsters. I recall that running this level was a great deal of fun.



I'm not sure where the notes are, but I think room 9 required a pair of keys to activate the portal which lead to the lowest dungeon level. You can see the keys drawn on the map in rooms 14 and 20. It looks like a computer game map, heh.

Like all of my 'best' maps, this level had some water flowing in it. This would've been from my never finished Antholerin campaign, circa 1996 or so. The same campaign that I drew the Devil's Throne map for.

~Sham, Quixotic Referee

Junk From My Closet: Old '48 and Dethiaous

Here's a double-header of old ALL CAPS pieces from the gaming closet, circa 1981-82 for our crazy teenage kitchen sink campaign of the Reagan Era. First up is something I envisioned would be used for future extra-planar adventures. I'm pretty sure the damned thing was too complicated and ended up getting used in a game a few times at most. The group had pinched the artifact from an extremely nasty Ancient Red Dragon named Belphast. I can't remember the diversionary tactics used to trick the dragon out of some of his loot, but I do remember that the party was always worried that Belphast was going to track them down and melt their faces for stealing his favorite toy, the Magic Steam Engine, Old '48.

There's more on the back about movement and cost in various rare metals to power the engine. Man, some of the stuff I made back then was funky, to say the least. Old '48:



Next up is a scan of an old hand-out from the same campaign. This message is rather confusing to me now, over 25 years after I wrote it.

If I recall correctly, the message was before the next to last room of a long dungeon crawl. The story involved two warring schools of magic who had destroyed one another. Dethiaous Delian (He of the Fearful Thought, and Grand Wizard of the School of the Fearful Discipline) had been entombed by Elan Eurotal (Weaver Lord of the Invisible School of Thaumaturgy, and Wizard to Emperor Toltan). Both Schools were decimated but their legend grew in the decades following the titanic struggle.



Dethiaous was a Lich, and there was a method provided by Elan to 'put to rest' this foul undead being. Doing so would free the Invisible School from the terrible curse which Dethiaous had placed upon them (and allow their own return to power).

Blah, blah...anyway the characters won and all was well.

Just another strange piece of paper turning yellow in my gaming closet chock full of such relics.

~Sham, Quixotic Referee

Junk From My Closet: Cloudburst

I've dug up some more junk from the gaming closet in the basement. I'm going way back with this piece. If I had to guess, I'd say this one is circa 1981-82 or so. I wrote in ALL CAPS back in 9th and 10th Grades. I think I stopped doing so somewhere in 11th or 12th Grade. So, the relics in ALL CAPS normally clue me in that they fall into the '79-'82 or '83 period.



Anyway, this is typical of some of the over-the-top stuff we were indulging in back then. Artifacts were commonplace, characters were all in their 20's, and we thought that "The Day of the Dwarf" (by Roger Moore, from Dragon #42-sorry can't find a link) was a recipe for succesful campaign play (not really, we got a kick out of that story, though).

Often, the artifacts and monsters I home brewed were meant to 'wow' the players, and make them swoon at not only my creative genius, but also the sheer power of the artifact or monster I was introducing at the time.

So sue me, I was 15 years old.

Sadly, this little gem was never used as more than a situational weapon. That alone should clue you in to the ridiculous power level of that particular long running campaign. Everyone worth their salt had a far more powerful 'Sword of Opposition'. The swords were a collection (whose number grew whenever I took the time to make a new one) of mighty weapons, each a unique artifact, and each taking up both sides of a full page of paper. Yep, two page long artifacts. Heh.

In hindsight, those were some of the best gaming sessions I ever ran. Even if everyone ended up trying to kill one another, and the nigh godlike Swords of Opposition took the limelight. That was their purpose anyway, and the players gleefully let those swords lead the way to annihilation. Somehow, the campaign and our friendships survived.

I suppose I'll have to find some of those swords to scan in sometime.

~Sham, Quixotic Referee

Junk From My Closet: Devil's Throne

This is the first installment of Junk From My Closet. Hat's off to Jeff for the idea. I can waste plenty of time scanning in old garbage and yacking about it, and...that's what I plan to do.

My first offering is an old map I dug up from my never finished Antholerin campaign. I'll probably find more Junk from that setting in the closet, but this is a map I always liked and I never used in actual play. Antholerin was a long running campaign, centered around multiple levels of 'undercities' which led, eventually, to the Deep Down, my version of Arduin's Great Wyrm Road, or the Underdark. The lowest reaches of the Deep Down were drawn out on a hex map, ala D1-3 inspired by Gygax's map, with keyed hexes. Devil's Throne was one of those hexes, in this case the hex directly under Antholerin.

Devil's Throne was probably drawn around 1995 or so, so it's fairly recent as far as most of the Junk From My Closet goes.



Devil's Throne is the legendary Trollhome. Within resides clans of Giant Trolls, Trolls, and Troglodytes, as well as the Great Troll Overlord. Here's a rough outline of the keyed areas.

1: Temple of Vathakk. Region shared by two clans, the Vor Clan (ruled by Gelbar) and the Nes clan (ruled by Irenis).
2: Byrfellag, the Great Citadel. Ruled over by Aragen the Massive, the Great Troll Overlord. To the south, Slave Pits and Royal Mines, and the Rior clan of Giant Trolls.
3: Walled Siv clan home (ruled by H'ree).
4: Temple of Kavring. Region shared by two clans, the Pel clan (ruled by Ridues) to the far north, and the Ain clan (ruled by Eakeh) surrounding the Temple.
5: Temple of Gorog-Nor (The Hungry One), surrounded by the Une clan (ruled by Natue).
6: Walled Pril clan home (ruled by Vorad).
7: Walled Eiun clan home (ruled by Leum).

Devil's Throne has eight Troll clans, totaling over 10,000 Trolls, and one Giant Troll clan of 600.

I can no longer remember, but some of the Temples might be named after Demons from Arduin.

This region occupied hex number 21 on the Deep Down overview. If I find that hex map, I'll scan it along with the other hex notes.

~Sham, Quixotic Referee