The Evil Ones

Back in 1980, Dragon magazine presented an Anti-Palidin. These guys were stereotypical black hat NPCs. The logic behind them was a Palidin pledged themselves to a dark god. The problem with the article was it presented a way to generate an Anti-Palidin. The same idea was repeated a year later with the Drow in Fiend Folio, character stats for monsters. 

The message was "These aren't exactly monsters, they are more like characters." 

People are going to generate evil characters for a lot of reasons. Giving them a tool to do so isn't always a great idea, but the genie is out of the bag. Having evil characters in the party is problematic. How can the party hold together if half the party is trying to kill the other half? 

I never exactly had this issue for a couple of reasons. I would allow mixed-alignment characters in the party. That is the players' problem to sort out. I have found that player characters tend to moderate themselves in a party. Somehow, people find an accord: 

"Out of the goodness of my heart, and 1,000 gold pieces, I can heal you."

"For a dirty thief, you keep good friends."  

The alignment system in D&D is wonky. It doesn't really mean anything. Good player characters can do bad things and evil player characters can do good things in the right circumstances. There aren't any consequences for being good... or evil. If you want to switch, there are even rules for changing alignment that in my opinion, suck. They are geared to a particular campaign in the mind of the author of the books. They don't make sense in every setting. 

I DO have a problem with inherently evil races in D&D and it's a problem you'd never expect. 

I do voices for NPCs. This creates memorable characters, monsters, and scenarios. The downside is it also conveys tone and information that might be a mismatch for players expectations:

Kobold: "I am going to cut your boots off and wear your feet like boots!" 

10th level Paladin: "Snicker. Just you? Or both of you?" 

Kobolds: "Shit." 

Obviously, 2 Kobolds mean nothing to a 10th-level party. Against first-level characters, they represent some sort of threat, but not for battle-hardened characters. This is villain decay large writ. It is inevitable.

In some respects, using voices and tone gives my campaigns a fairytale-like vibe. What was once fearsome has become childish. Kobolds, goblins, orcs, etc. all become not threatening no matter how evil they are. Yes, you can give them some punch by cranking up the number appearing, but that has nothing to do with evil. 1,000 rats, yaks, or kobolds are dangerous to anyone. Plus rats and yaks aren't evil regardless of their numbers. 

Once the player characters hit a certain level, things like "evil" become nuanced. One example is my character, Magarven. He is a Drow PC adapted to be an NPC. He is clearly evil, but he's also an excellent dinner companion. He (probably) won't try to kill you. But he is still evil. He is gunned up like crazy, but the thought of killing isn't the first thing on his mind. 

The same thing happens to the thieves' guild that harrassed the characters at a low level. Compared to a world-ending lich, exactly how evil are they in comparison? They represent a different threat that has nothing to do with what kind of evil they are.  

I think there is an impetus to conflate evil with competence or ability. There are a lot of evil things out there that simply can't be enacted because they are not well thought out. Selfish people sabotage themselves all the time. Sure, he is a go-getter, but what the heck is he go-getting? 

Why do I let "the evil races" like kobolds not behave evilly? Why do I let players play them? 

Really it is a combination of the fairytale aspect of my gaming plus I can't really force the players or the monsters to behave a certain way, despite labels. Honor is nuanced, just because someone does something "good" doesn't mean they are out for the betterment of others. 

The Great and Power Sauron once said, "Don't kill the hobbits! Bring them to me." 

Guess what? Orcs, goblins, and every other minion of his didn't try to kill the hobbits too often. Nice of them, isn't it? No. They are all still evil, no matter how much food and drink they provide Frodo and Sam.

Evil to me means someone isn't honoring the social compact and bonds between living creatures, but it doesn't mean blindly doing so. There is also a component of self-delusion, the idea that doing evil becomes normal and the actor honestly believes that it is totally normal to do evil things. They are going to say they aren't evil at every opportunity. That is yet another violation of the social compact, although this one is oddly internalized. Add in the fact that if the villain sucks at their life and you get a bit of comedy or tragedy. 

That is good storytelling without ramming the PC's into drawing your conclusions or messages. One player might find it funny, a second finds it tragic and the third simply wants to throw dice and fists and sees no problem with whatever these villains are doing so long as justice prevails. The DM has offered a situation to be considered without forcing a particular point of view. 

The same goes for good characters. Are Palidins expected to heal downed enemies because that is what they would do to be kind? Maybe, but probably not. The players may or may not think of it or have another response based on the situation. 

Brainless creatures are much easier to play as straight-up evil. Everyone gets that you shouldn't talk to zombies or skeletons. It's all about agency and the undead have none, but your average creature does have agency. 

If there is an Assassin and a Paladin in the party, and one is good and one is evil, what of it? The players have to decide what to do. It makes no difference if I say Half-Orc and Kobold. The players are in control of their actions, just as much as I am in control of the NPCs and monsters. If I decide to do something engaging and the players decide they don't want to fight, then maybe we have Tea with the Black Dragon. 

Which is a classic, BTW. 

Happy Accident - Fiend Folio times 2!

I made a point of getting Nathan physical copies of the D&D 5e rules. He has two different groups that play and it would be dumb if they couldn't do that due to an internet outage, lost computer, or other silly problem. 

Mechanically, 5e is very different than AD&D or any version of B/X but the lore remains largely the same. Drow are Drow, Goblins are Goblins, and so on. Sure some people would like to change that for everyone but once you put an idea out there, good luck changing it. 

Wayback in 2019, I had a campaign where elves and humans were hostile to one another. I couldn't sell it and no one bought it. 

Once an idea is out there, forget about changing it. 

Anyway, I mentioned to Nathan my world's main antagonist is a Drow named Magarven. You can read all about him here. 

Nathan was put back by the mention of Drow. He thought they were new to 5e. Nope. I grabbed my copy of Fiend Folio. His jaw dropped.

"Is that a Githyanki?!?" 

Hell, yeah it is. 

That was the last I saw or thought about my copy of Fiend Folio. Somehow, that struck me funny. I forgot I even had a copy and ordered one POD from DriveThruRPG. Of course, when it arrived, Nathan tried to return my copy. 

I took some pictures and made him pick one. 

The POD copy is a soft cover, but don't let that put you off. The pages are solid and crisp, the print is excellent and the binding is nice. It is a tiny bit smaller than the original, making it a standard-size book. The price for POD was also amazing, far less than the $20 I paid for the original copy back in the day. 

I hope you can tell from the images, the POD's paper is somewhat thicker and the black is very solid. The thicker paper is nicer from the get-go. The softer black ink in the original is likely due to the age. Even though I bought my hardcover 2-3 years ago, it was printed in 1981. No book will hold up over 40+ years.

Anyway, I thought I would share this title as it keeps bringing joy to new and old players. 

#CharacterCreationChallenge - Rules Old School Essentials - Magarven the Mad (Drow, 9th level)

Since I have gone all in on Old School Essentials, I decided to start with a long-time AD&D character that I converted to OSE. His name is Magarven and he is a 9th-level Drow. I think I have uploaded an image of his stats, but I have adjusted them to be more in line with my current campaign. 

As you can see, I am using their character sheet rather than my old AD&D sheet. They have 4 flavors of sheets, ascending AC and descending AC, encumbrance by item, and so on. 

You can download the full PDF for Magarven here. This opens in a new window so you can read this post and the character's stats at the same time. 

Although Magarven is a Drow limited to 10th level, and this version is only 9th level, he is my campaign's Thanos-level threat. He is super smart but lacks matching wisdom. This leads him to believe he has god-like capabilities. And sometimes he does. This causes him a lot of problems. 

I have a strange campaign setting. The key thing you need to know is our world collapsed and the world of fantasy took over. Everything that has happened in our world is the campaign world's distant past. 

Magarven was an atypical Drow, he craves attention in the extreme. He has a massive ego and likes to feed it. He comes up with grandiose stunts and promotes himself heavily, such as the Polyandrion incident. He has written a couple of books and made a few famous discoveries such as the Tribe of Minwan and the House of the Folly. He wants people to believe that he is a great inventor, explorer, and thinker. And, he sort of is. 

He is currently under the sanction of Lolth for some of his past exploits. Before I detail the sanctions, let me tell you how he got her attention. 

Magarven climbed as high as he could adventuring before he decided the world was not big enough for his ego and everyone else's. Using his access to the Commune spell, he contrived a way to locate a ring of wishes and a Deck of Many Things. Using this one spell, he was able to manipulate the Deck so he received the Vizier card followed by the Moon card. He used a wish to reset the deck so he could do this several times. He was after information more than wishes, although the wishes helped. 

Manipulating such powerful forces drew Lolth's attention. She was curious as to how and why one of her supplicants used 4 wishes in a row. For a moment, she could not find him which was worrying. When she did locate him, he had already obtained his objective: The Demon Core.

Long ago, The Demon Core played a part in creating the world as it is now. The Earth of Old fell, in part due to the force of and like The Demon Core. 

One song says:

"They brought The Demon Core, blood hexes, and shells.

"We moved like eidolons hunting, as the skies erupted with hot brass and steel rain.
“Desperation rose within us, fanned by orisons, curses, and automatic fire.
"You tell them we stood.

"But fell before The Demon Core." 

Lolth knew that no mortal should possess such terrible power. Magarven had already plumbed The Demon Core's power and was going to give it to her. All 23 kilotons of nuclear death so he could rise to take her place. There was a brief conflict as Lolth brought all her powers against Magarven, even going so far as to invoke the Weavers of Fate to erase Magarven from existence. 

It was not enough. 

Magarven used all of his knowledge and his remaining wishes to bend reality and keep his fate and existence. He managed to reach an accord with Lolth. 

He would give up all of his naturally bestowed Drow abilities save his infravision, which was greatly weakened. He also gave up the ability to cast several spells like Darkness, Web, and Cause Wounds. All of this was offered to Lolth. 

She cursed him in several ways. First, his ring of wishes was fused to his left hand as punishment. Next, his Deck of Many Things was demagiked and it follows him like a bad penny. This prevents him from obtaining or using a second. Third, she greatly enhanced his drive for self-aggrandizement but also punished him by causing him to lose knowledge just at the moment when he should capitalize on it. There is a 5 in 6 chance of losing a level instead of going up a level. 

To the Fates, he surrendered his ability to wish or see one fulfilled. Not only can't he invoke a wish, but he also is not subject to any other beings' wishes, for good or bad. 

Interestingly, Magarven managed to retain The Demon Core but seemingly lacks the desire to use it. He is now driven to feed his ego rather than cause destruction or subjugate the people of the world or their gods. 

Magarven has a lot of magical equipment, but most of it feeds his vanity and ego. He likes to appear unencumbered, so has a Bag of Holding for all of his gear. Often, his armor and weapons are stuffed in the backpack-shaped Bag of Holding. His sword is named Defender's Boon. It is a +2 weapon which also improves his AC. If he strikes hard enough to kill, he can speak the word "Boon" and the target will fall asleep rather than die. He is not terribly bloodthirsty, but he will occasionally bump people off secretly. Boon allows him a bit of cover to do this. 

He has other quirky items such as two flasks that perform very much like a Bag of Holding for liquids. They hold 36 gallons of water and brandy. He has a Pearl of Wisdom that he doesn't quite trust. His armor is impressive, a suit of Mithril Chainmail and a ring of protection +2 plus the power of Defender's Boon. 

Another quirk is Magarven loves horses and often swaps his horse for a new one, often at a loss. Of late he has taken to research and writing. He even knows some fictional languages like Latin and Esperanto. He is never without a writing instrument and often feeds people for details and tales of distant lands. He considers direct payments disdainful. He is also a great collector of books. 

Magarven is a very interesting anti-villain. He is as dangerous as I need him to be. Physically, he doesn't put on airs, but he is no slouch. However, he doesn't like to fight fair or publically. He will mostly do people in by withholding knowledge or if that is not possible, use magic to wipe them out at a distance. 

Taking Stock - Part Two - The Reality With a Preview of Things to Come

As you can probably guess, I am really excited about Old School Essentials. It's an OGL product and they have a handy instruction page right here. So this year, I will be looking at all of my products and reworking them into OSE-type products. 

Two of my works are perpetually frozen because they are too specific or too generic: 

1. The Hex Pack is too generic to rework in any meaningful way. It is what it is, a pack of colorful hex templates. It cannot change much, if at all. Unless someone asks me to change something, I won't. 

By the way, this title was changed based on feedback from a single person, so by all means, mention your needs. I do like feedback.

2. My Character Sheet for AD&D is linked specifically to Unearthed Arcana. The charm is that it's a scanned image of a character sheet created in the 80s. It is immune to change. 

Because they cannot change, I gave them their own little corner to the left side of the blog. 

That leaves my other 4 works that I would like to revamp. These are the two rule-agnostic mini-settings, Kobold's Folly and The Compass Rose Inn. These two don't have to change so I have also given them a less prominent spot on the left. I would like to flesh them out into actual modules for OSE. 

My first book should also get the OSE treatment, Zero to Hero: Uncommon Commoners. Ironically, it was written before I saw Old School Essentials. The professions listed in it are almost a verbatim match for the list that appears in those books. Realistically, it just needs editing down and to conform to the ability check mechanics as per those rules. Easy to say, but a rather lengthy project in execution.

The last title, The Swashbuckler Character Class bothers me. I am tempted to delete it. It is too heavily based on AD&D 1e, it is less than useful for B/X. Altering it would be like polishing a turd. 

I also have a couple other ideas. First, I am going to sit down and play some games. I have OSE, Battletech with some nice figures, and a couple of others I would like to feature here. Assuming I can get in the swing of this, I should have time to produce other content. 

Second, I have recently acquired a 3d printer. I need to learn how to produce models using it, mostly to supplement my games, but also to produce products to sell.  I might be doing terrain, robots, cars, characters, etc. I have no idea what I am doing, so we will see what happens.

Speaking of other content to sell, my OSE campaign will feed into a completely new project. 

Currently, I am reading a series of books called: A Handbook for Travellers in Northern Italy. It comes in 3 parts, northern, central, and southern Italy. Not only is it in the public domain, but it was also written in a strange time period before Italy unified into a single country. It was published in the mid-1800s, so it was only accurate for a decade or two. The editor goes out of his way to mention the publisher indirectly and never mentions his name or the names of the writing correspondents. 

This gives the whole thing a very odd but familiar vibe. Here are 3 books about a place we all know with passing familiarity, but it gives details that are not current, accurate, or even the whole story. On purpose... Probably because the publisher and editor realized the world was changing too fast to be a useful reference and didn't want to slap their names on it. They hide this with an air of humility.

It sounds like a D&D module. Theoretically, all modules exist within your homebrew campaign world with references to the goings-on of people who you don't know, but also theoretically exist in your campaign world. 

I hope to use these three books as a framework to produce modules and a campaign book for my homebrew campaign. It would come in two parts, a lore book which is directly modeled on those old handbooks of Italy, and the campaign book which would reframe the lore into specific modules and setting details that DMs with find useful. 

The funny bit is this stuff almost writes itself. Where the real-world handbook is cloaked in humility to sell copies, my version is written by an evil, selfish person working on heavy self-aggrandizement. As a sample, I offer the preface of this work: 

Volume One

PREFACE TO THE SEVENTH EDITION

═ ═ ═ ═ ═ ═ ═ ═ ═ ═ ═ ═

The length of time that has elapsed since the first publication of this (1274) Handbook has made many additions and alterations necessary.  The extension of roadways, trails, and ferries in several nations of the Northern portion of the Peninsula, important changes in the distribution, and descriptions of several Routes became indispensable. Some new Routes have been added. 

It has been the Editor’s endeavor to render this New Edition as a complete guidebook of the region that it professes to describe, as Drowishly possible; in doing so, I, Magarven the Great Traveller, must acknowledge my obligation to numerous kind Correspondents, Spies, and those who I have lavishly interrogated on numerous occasions, who have transmitted to me valuable, practical information for the purpose. These lesser people and contributors, second always to me as the Great Traveller, allow the author of this work to claim perfection. I must solicit from those who use THE HANDBOOK FOR TRAVELLERS IN THE NORTHERN PENINSULA, any additions, or forsooth, corrections, founded on personal experience, they may be able to transmit to me or any information generally of a practical character, useful to travellers on the Peninsula. Assuming, of course, that they are more correct than I am. Which is unlikely.  

I, Magarven the Great Traveller, the Editor Extrodinare of this work think that it is proper and just to leave out the name of the author who penned the first edition of The HANDBOOK FOR TRAVELLERS IN THE NORTHERN PENINSULA. That lesser person has had nothing to do with the six subsequent editions, except as regards those portions which were appropriated and rewritten, to an exceptional standard, through the hard work of myself and perhaps the few minor and lesser contributors who I have righteously selected as better correspondents than the original hack.

I warn the reader that any mistakes or misinterpretations of this guidebook must be attributed to the scribes or a failure of the reader’s intellect. As mentioned before, this is My greatest work, a simple and humble Perfection. 

Porto di Nazza, Juno, 1361

2023, I hope will be a very good year. While I doubt I will be able to meet every goal I've listed, having them spelled out will help me attain a couple of them. 

New Project - New Direction

In my last post, I spoke about a book. This book will be the kernel of how I present my campaign world to others. When people start new campaigns, they compartmentalize the world to limit the scope of what the DM has to present to the players. For example, they start with a small town and perhaps a dungeon or keep then expand to larger ideas. It is a good bit of advice for gamers, however, there has always been an inclination to have a roadmap to a larger world and events.  Maybe you don't start large and go larger, but making a whole world (a good-sized continent) does require some sort of roadmap. 

In this case, I am starting with a massive idea and breaking it into chunks that might not be obvious from the outset. The main idea of this campaign setting is romanticism. The Peninsula of Plenty has many locations, cities, towns, kingdoms, and other places that will be described in detail by an in-universe author name Magarven the Mad.

Magarven, although crazed, has a pretty good handle on what is happening in his world. It is an era of peace and prosperity at the largest level, which does not preclude mysteries and conflict at a local level. For the most part, this campaign world has left the medieval age behind. He has stumbled on the idea of describing what is happening with imperfect information. Or more correctly, information he has not validated but wants to be true. He is operating from his ego over his guts. He wants fame for bringing knowledge to the masses. He doesn't see any possible harm because he believes this one volume of books accurately describes the world. It does but only poorly.  

You might guess correctly that I am a history major. This process occurred in various parts of the world back in the 18th century and peaked in the mid-1800s. It spread from Europe to Russia and to both North and South America. This was not exactly a peaceful era, but romantics often portrayed it as such. This was really not a good time to take a romantic perspective or a good place to evoke powerful emotions. Emotion and feelings took precedence over logic and facts, which had a dreadful effect on historiography and the natural sciences of this era. People were basically making their own rules and creating their own version of history which was radically different from reality. As all of this was taking place, things were falling apart. 

In writing as he does, Magarven is actually sending people with torches and weapons to marvel at the wonders of a world made of powder kegs. 

While akin to a hexcrawl, it places the characters in civilized danger. There are patches of wilderness here and there but the real problems lay just outside of cities and towns. Obviously, many of the bits of wilderness and hinterlands were left empty on purpose and as a result, play off of the wildness found in the so-called civilized bits. 

In this world, it would not be too surprising for a country fair to cover up a coven of witches or a massive clambake ending with a sacrifice to a dragon. A vampire could be the mayor of an idyllic village. Or a lonely abandoned boathouse is a gateway to the underworld. 

New Project - Meet the Author

I have started a new project, a deep dive into my campaign world. My campaign setting is a small part of a single continent. I never saw much need to expand it much further. What it lacks in size it makes up in depth. 

Virtually all of the races found in the D&D game books appear in this one place. However, some are just visitors to the main continent. 

I have many oddball characters running around. One of them is Magarven the Mad. He is a Drow in the same vein as 1e. He is obviously evil (or chaotic) and were it not for his flaws, he would be dangerous. Early in his life, he made a name for himself as an adventurer. He loves fame. He will do anything in pursuit of it, including casting himself as a heroic explorer. 

The reason I mention him is, he is the author of a handbook to my game world. In reality, I am modeling this book on many of the works produced in the 1800s by romantics touring Europe in search of something... romantic. Except, this Handbook is written by a madman. 

This project will be a two-parter: The Handbook of Lore and Background written from an in-universe perspective, plus the second matching book of adventures and events that DM's can plug into their world. The Peninsula is divided into many nations and city-states, so a game master is free to carve out a tiny piece of their map to plunk one or more of my bits. 

As you can tell, Magarven (and myself) have grandiose plans, as this book is "Volume One". As I work on this, I will share little bits of lore and perhaps a mini-adventure or two. 

I plan on making it my first item for sale on DriveThruRPG. As a flesh out bits, I will share them now and then. If it seems well received, I might even attempt to do a print copy instead of PDF. 

Let me know what you think. 

Prepping A New Project

I have a handful of ideas in mind for new projects, hopefully, to offer on DriveThruRPG. This one requires a lot of stippling and some digital magic which means I need to start practicing now. The interesting thing about prepping is the samples I produce as the practice often don't look anything like the imagined project. 

For this item for example: 

Obviously, it is a spaceship in the theme of Star Smuggler. My project requires a fairly large map of a landscape so it is a conceptual mismatch. The other item I am working on could end up as framed art. Again, it doesn't remotely look like a map.  

But there is a method to the madness. I don't want to work on landscapes or maps while practicing so I don't burn out in the middle of a large project where I need to produce a large landscape map. 

As far as digital magic goes, I started this portion last year, before this new map idea came to mind. That was a simple test of my digital abilities, removing and then adding text to a series of extant images. 

These are the tiles for Star Smuggler. The original set came with a series of tiles that required flipping one tile upside down to create a planet. I flipped the images, removed all of the text, healed the background of that text, and added new text to replace the old text. They came out pretty nice, but once I was done, I noticed that my healing of the background image looked different than the original, so I had to repeat the process to get a complete set of matching tiles. 

A lot of people have created their own world tiles for Star Smuggler, but I have never seen anyone use the original art.  You can check out some nice ones on Board Game Geek in the link. These are very slick and modern looking as opposed to the 70s or 80s look of my copies. 

(I'm sorry, but due to the distro notices on this game, I can't share my files. Mr. Sustare didn't get paid for this game but has graciously allowed the above websites to produce digital versions of the game. It seems fair enough to me. If you know Mr. Sustare... maybe you can get us in touch so I can ask permission or give him the files to post. It's not really mine so they need a good warden.) 

So, what is this project? I have a B/X/AD&D campaign world that has 40ish years of history and I would like to see it in print. The first part of the project is the map of The Peninsula of Plenty. It is a vast area that does not lend itself to hex mapping. 

In this world, there are many strange things. For example, there are magical rail lines, newspapers, and consumer-grade magic items. I have reporters, treasure hunters, and historians of great renown populating the world. Magarven is the Peninsula's most outrageous self-promoter believing himself to be all three. Take a look at his Last Polyandrion, a map of a magical edifice of unknown meaning and purpose. 

I imagine that Magarven would very much like everyone to know what a smart and well-traveled Drow he is, so I would like to publish a series of books by him. This series will have an in-universe perspective and would contain 9 or more volumes. The collection is rules agnostic as it will be a traveller's handbook to the Peninsula. 

The reader would rapidly come to the conclusion that Magarven the Mad is not all there. As The World's Most Popular Drow, one who embraces both his heritage and fame, he will do or say anything to perpetuate being a hero when he is not. He is clearly not at fault when his human fans disappear, he has no idea where they went, and tales of sacrifices to Lolth are completely out of bounds. She was never a demon queen. How unfair to speak such untruths.   

The last part of this project would be to create a series of player's or DM's handbooks to account for noticeable differences between my campaign universe and the default B/X/AD&D setting. This would be a series that would stat out major parts of the world described by Magarven's Handbooks. 

I have rambled too much. But let me throw in one last plug. The notebook imaged above is available on RedBubble if you are into such things. There is a really good sale right now, so you can score one for less than 9 bucks. 

The End to War

In my post about the Last Polyandrion, I introduced Magarven, a magic user and explorer. He is a dark elf or Drow. Where do the Drow fit into the Peninsula of Plenty? They are ever present, but have a shadowy purpose based on their first encounters with the denizens of the Peninsula. The Drow who roam about the surface world portray themselves a good and lawful people. For the most part, the citizens know not to trust them because they all have a dark heart, no matter their outward appearances and protestations.

My last post was The Prelude to the End of War. In this post, the story comes to its conclusion. As the Combine forces retreated from the Capital, the Emperor was able to shift forces and bring in fleets with supplies. For a few days, it looked as if the Empire would only have to deal with the economic devastation of losing a third of their slaves. How wrong they were.

The real reason for the withdraw of the Combine forces was new combatant. Just 30 miles away from the Capital, the Combine forces were bottled up by a new invaders, the Drow. Instead of coming through the mountains, they broke through from underneath. The breech was a location called the Web of Lolth, a cave system in the Chalice Mountains. The Combine was now beleaguered by the dark elves, fighting a retreat to their walled cities all across the Peninsula.

The Capital utilized the break in combat with Combine to resupply their coastal cities and rearrange troop deployments. The Drow were a land locked opponent, unlike the Combine. The Empire was able to bring in their fleet to assist with the massive resupply effort. Over the next ten days, the Capital was as strong as it ever been.

Both the Empire and Combine forces found the Drow to be a threat unlike anything met before. Their eldrich powers challenged every dwarf, elf and legion on the field of battle. While they couldn't breech the walls of the peninsula's cities, the Drow trapped every force behind walls, and the world darkened and closed in upon the besieged.

Finding itself hemmed in again, the Capital planned a desperate, possibly suicidal mission. The 3rd and 12th legion launched a rare nighttime attack on the Drow. Shocked and surprised by the human tactics, the Drow lines were shattered and a large contingent of humans broke out of the capital. The Drow closed the breech and sent a 1000 elf force after the escapees.

The Drow pursuers were outnumbered ten to one, but they were expecting to slaughter noncombatants. The thousand found that they pursued not a raft of human refugees, but an rag-tag auxiliary force. Of the 10,000 men, women and even children, there were 400 battle hardened veteran troops supported by over a hundred spell casters of every stripe. After a few brief clashes, the Drow settled in to gather intelligence and dog the auxiliary force until reinforcements arrived.

They discovered two things. First, this rag-tag band was drilling daily, hardly covering just 6-12 miles a day. The Drow laughed as these green troops played soldier. Clearly, aside from the veterans, the average auxiliary had no battlecraft. Even more comical, human prisoners revealed that this force was seeking the Web of Lolth itself. If the humans were going to walk into the Demon Queen's webs on purpose, then the Drow would be happy to let them in.

The Drow shadowed the auxiliary forces for three weeks, gently guiding the humans to the caves where the Drow had emerged on the Peninsula. The humans finally reached the mouth of hell, the opening to the demon Queens realm. The Drow now outnumber the humans 3 to 1, but the foolish humans arrayed themselves as if they were a true legion, not citizen farmers on a mad adventure.

On the morning Last Day of War, the humans deployed, trapped by web of Lolth, the Drow army on their front and the recon force and mountains behind them. Battle was joined in the late afternoon. By dusk, the humans had inflicted negligible losses on the Drow while losing a third of their force. Instead of breaking and routing, the humans lit fires and lamps against the night. The Drow howled in laughter as the humans readied themselves to break into the dark kingdom's web by night.

As twilight faded to dark, the humans began their assault on the Web of Lolth. Truly charmed by this obvious folly, the Drow sent 7000 troops out to flank the humans and keep them moving forward into the Web of Lolth. To their delight, the humans obliged them by pressing forward.

Then the unthinkable happened. The humans snatched victory from the mandibles of Lolth. Brave and women men placed on the edges of the human army uncaged four secret weapons: The Symbols of Sol Invictus. Chaos ensued as the Drow were washed by the light of the Unconquered Sun. Blinded, they withdrew, allowing the humans to reach the mouth of the Web of Lolth to unleash their second secret weapon.

The Empire's archers and slingers were armed with strange ammunition. The Empire had created hundreds of sling bullets and arrows with a tiny, natural resin ball encased in clay. Each of these resin balls had a continual light spell cast upon it. When the missile impacted, the clay broke, allowing the blinding light to saturate the area. The resin balls bounced and caromed around the battlefield, confusing and confounding the Drow.

Smashed back into the caves, the Drow cursed the evil, tricky humans. Dazzling light flashed and swayed in the confines of the cave, denying the Drow their superiority in darkness. Worse, mages unleashed fireballs and lightning within the closed spaces. Not only did this crush the Drow attempting to resist, it had a tendency of driving the glowing resin spheres deeper into the caves, clearing a path to the main vault. The humans were able to seal the entrance to the cave and hold off the 7000 Drow, now trapped outside.

Lolth, if she was there, fled to her supernatural realm, leaving her children blind, burned and dying.

As the Sun rose, the humans turned to finish off the Drow outside. News of the defeat of the Drow at the hands of the Empire terrified the Combine leadership. A new age of peace through fear and terror descended on the Peninsula.

One final tale of the End of War needs to be told. The Combine had a secret weapon of their own, a second sword called Dolorem. The weapon was a prototype to the sword Liberty, and like it's brother, it has a common name: "Sorrow". Rather than unleash this weapon on the Empire, the Combine decided to hide it away. However, the Halfling King made an impassioned plea to be given the weapon. The Combine denied the request only to find out that agents of the Halfling King had stolen it.

The weapon was never brought to bear on the Empire or used to kill humans. Instead, a special tragedy transpired among the Halfling King's own house over the use of Sorrow.

In the next few days, the tragedy of Sorrow and its loss will be told.

Magarven's Last Polyandrion

Magarven is a famous treasure hunter in from the Capital Region of the Empire. He was known to find and preserve Antiquities from ages past. A little over a decade ago, a torrential flood followed by landslides revealed a crypt or a tomb just miles from the Capital. Magarven was the first to enter the tomb and as was his habit, mapped it. The scale of his map is 2 yards or six feet per square.

Inside, he found many strange items, the large bed (B) in the main hallway attracted his attention. He felt that it contained secrets. Bypassing it, he entered and diagrammed the two oval lobes and all of the items contained within. He forbid anyone from moving anything. As he progressed down the main hall to the south, he stopped at the four strange works in the center of the hall (M). 

Something about them raised his alarm and he went no further. He ordered his men to begin excavation along the sides of the entry way. He ordered that the tunnels be no larger than the blocks that the tomb was made of. They began the western side and progressed to the western oval vault when he oddly ordered them to stop.

Magarven entered the new tunnel, inspecting the block walls from the outside. The workers heard him casting spells as he went. When he was done, he roped off the entrance behind him and repeated the casting inside the main hallway. Bored and unneeded, his crew left for the day.

In the morning, Magarven was found lying on the bed, with his map. He had marked off odd diagonal lines through the blocks of his diagram.

"It's broken. All is broken," he muttered. "Enter no more, if you value your life."

His command was followed for a few months, until it was obvious that he would not return to complete his work. A local thief and mage were brought in to explore the tomb. Armed with his map, the mage determined that the diagonal lines were paths of magical force. When the thief took a turn at the map, he decided he, too would not venture past the strange works (M) in the middle of the hallway. His rationale was that if the great Magarven would not cross that point, he wouldn't either. Nothing indicates what is wrong with the space.

Unlike other weird tales, Magarven is not accursed, mad or dead. He merely refuses to speak of his Last Polyandrion. He has taken to writing of his adventures that lead him to the Polyandrion, telling his followers and fanatics that the last chapter will explain the mystery.

As yet, items B through N-sub-2 have not been described and the last handful items at the end of the hall are a complete mystery.

Posts for Lettering and Logos: Gemstone IV Game

This tab displays posts, maps and logos for fans of GSIV. They should be considered in-character works and inherently flawed. Please feel free to download and use for artwork on your fan site. Use the comments to make suggestions, I would be happy to convert or map areas as time permits. 

If citation is required, you may mark them as the work of "Magarven the Mad", the fictional creator. These maps are based do the style of Dyson Logos, found at Dyson's Dodecahedron. 

Runestaff Collection for Gemstone IV

Magarven is lucky. He has found three rune staves in three weeks, bringing his collection to 4 four.

He first is a blackened orase runestaff, which is +20 and ensorcelled.

The second is a deringo runestaff that carries two different enhancements. It adds +2 to my mana and +6 to Dexterity. It has an odd bonus of +14. It is currently fully charged.

The third is a baby blue kakore runestaff, which adds to my mana regeneration. It is also ensorcelled. This one has bonus of +9 and flares with fire.

The last and most recent discovery is a banded faewood runestaff. It does not appear to have any special statistics other than the +20 to defense.

Pretty soon I will need a golf bag for all of my staves.

Back in the Rest

I finally reactivated my account and now have my main character, Magarven back in River’s Rest.

A lot has change since I left three years ago. Sorcerer’s have Balefire (713) and a new version of Nightmare (713). I managed to curse myself right in front of a bunch of trolls. Actual trolls, tomb trolls.

Years ago, I used to be a master of this area. I would lay down a cloud of Nightmare and then rely on Maelstrom (710) or Pain (711) to wipe out the trolls. That doesn’t seem to work anymore. The trolls have far too many HP. Perhaps they were tweaked or perhaps I am rusty. In any event, I discovered that the lower levels of the Citadel are more to my liking.

As a Volner, I am enjoying the changes to the Order. Symbol of Mana is much better and Symbol of Seeking is amazing. The ability to seek out undead and teleport there from any monastery is wonderful.

As I explore all of the updates, I hope to see you in the game.

Runestave Collection

Magarven is lucky. He has found three rune staves in three weeks, bringing his collection to 4 four.

He first is a blackened orase runestaff, which is +20 and ensorcelled.

The second is a deringo runestaff that carries two different enhancements. It adds +2 to my mana and +6 to Dexterity. It has an odd bonus of +14. It is currently fully charged.

The third is a baby blue kakore runestaff, which adds to my mana regeneration. It is also ensorcelled. This one has bonus of +9 and flares with fire.

The last and most recent discovery is a banded faewood runestaff. It does not appear to have any special statistics other than the +20 to defense.

Pretty soon I will need a golf bag for all of my staves.