Incline Melan's new RPG zine Echoes From Fomalhaut

[Melan]

And, after several long sessions of Advanced Papers & Paychecks, I can finally present...

That is, I am pleased to announce the publication of the somewhat delayed fourth issue of Echoes From Fomalhaut! As before, this is a mostly quarterly zine dedicated to adventure scenarios and useful campaign materials for OSRIC and other Advanced RPG rules. This issue features cover art by Matthew Ray, and illustrations by Denis McCarthy, Stefan Poag, and Andrew Walter. At 40 pages, it includes...

• The Technological Table: Destructive futuristic weapons and sinister technological artifacts from Fomalhaut’s fallen utopias and underworld realms.
• Revenge of the Frogs: A wilderness adventure module for 3rd to 5th level PCs. Certain doom awaits the dying port town of Silvash, and its only chance of survival lies in the marshlands, a place of bizarre inhabitants, labyrinthine waterways, and lots and lots of… well, let’s not spoil it.
• Arfel: City State of the Charnel God: Dominated by a great temple-complex that forms a vast necropolis, death looms over Arfel like a funereal shroud. Yet beyond the haunts of the veiled priests and the silent palaces of a reclusive aristocracy, the alleyways are busy both day and night, and adventure awaits those who would explore the city’s mysteries.
• Erillion, West: an article describing the western half of the Isle of Erillion, from lost places of pilgrimage to brooding manor houses, and lowly bandits’ nests to sites of high wizardry.
• Also... a detailed fold-out players’ map of the City State of Arfel!

The print version of the fanzine is available from my Bigcartel store; the PDF edition will be published through DriveThruRPG with a few months’ delay. As always, customers who buy the print edition will receive the PDF version free of charge.

 

[nikolokolus]

I'm getting a little Zothique/Zul-bha-sair vibe off of Arfel. Nice.

 

[Melan]

Not a coincidence - the place is a Zothique/Dreamlands homage.

In other news, one basket's worth of zines shipped today, and another one getting filled up with packed orders that's going out on Monday.

 

[Melan]

I am pleased to announce the publication of the fifth issue of my fanzine, Echoes From Fomalhaut. As before, this is a 40-page zine dedicated to adventures and GM-friendly campaign materials for Advanced old-school rules, with cover art by and illustrations by Denis McCarthy, Stefan Poag, and the Dead Victorians. The current issue includes...

• The Enchantment of Vashundara: An otherworldly adventure module for 3rd to 4th level PCs. Explore the fabulous palace of a god in peril, brave its dangers and outwit the invaders who have seized it for their own evil purposes… or die trying. 21 keyed locations.
• The Divided Town of Tirwas: Once an overgrown village governed by communal customs, and now a small town divided among a group of feudal Landlords, Tirwas is a place of perpetual tension. Can it be changed for the good, or can its hidden conflicts be exploited for personal gain? The answer lies in your scenarios, and your players’ decisions. 18 keyed locations.
• Plunder of the Stone Sacks: Formerly a set of communal shelters under the town of Tirwas, now a half-abandoned set of storerooms and a repository of discarded things. A dungeon module for 3rd to 5th level characters, 45 keyed locations.
• All is Well in Sleepy Haven: An idyllic, quiet little coastal town – an ideal springboard for more dangerous adventures on the high seas, or in the monster-haunted wilderness. Or does something more insidious lurk in this friendly community? Is Sleepy Haven’s peace and quiet a comfortable illusion? You be the Judge. 8 keyed locations.
  and... fold-out players' maps of both towns (obverse and reverse sides)!

The print version of the fanzine is available from my Bigcartel store; the PDF edition will be published through DriveThruRPG with a few months’ delay. As always, customers who buy the print edition will receive the PDF version free of charge.

Also available... The Lost Valley of Kishar! A 32-page adventure module for 6th to 8th level player characters, this is a wilderness scenario with multiple mini-dungeons spread out over 28 keyed locations. Venture into a lost world of savage beasts and ancient sorceries – and discover an old mystery from beyond the stars! Whether you have come for the strange fruits of an enchanted tree, in pursuit of a great winged ape, the gold of a lost temple or a magic mirror, glory and death await in equal measure in… The Lost Valley of Kishar!

“Somewhere, only a few days’ travel from a busy trade route, there lies a valley surrounded by untamed wilderness. It is surrounded by cliffs forming the shape a ring, unnaturally steep and tall, as if they had been wrought by human hand. No one remembers who had originally erected the ruins standing within the valley, and who had nurtured the wondrous tree which had once drawn pilgrims from distant lands. Kishar’s priestesses have been long forgotten – but the tree’s blessed radiance persists. As if under an odd compulsion, all manner of beasts have been drawn to the valley, and in time, there emerged others. Those who came from far beyond human imagination, and were already here before the first priestesses…”

This module was originally written for a 2018 adventure writing contest I was judging, and won first place. This edition has been translated into the English, with illustrations by Peter Mullen (who also did a damn fine cover), Stefan Poag, and Denis McCarthy.

 

[Melan]

Aaaand I am happy to announce the publication of The Nocturnal Table, a 60-page game aid dedicated to city-based adventures, lavishly illustrated by Matthew Ray (cover), Peter Mullen, Stefan Poag and Denis McCarthy. Originally conceived in 2010 as an article for Knockspell Magazine (but only published in the Hungarian), the supplement has since gone through a lot of active play over multiple campaigns, and been expanded with additional material to offer a handy guide to design and run adventure scenarios in a large, sinful city filled with action and intrigue. This is a game aid designed for regular table use, and formatted to be comfortable and accessible. Whether your pick is Lankhmar, the City State, the City of Vultures or Imperial Rome, this supplement will help generate much of the texture of the streets – from illicit warehouses to the monsters and madmen who prowl the night! Citing the back cover…

“The City is a maze. A labyrinth of alleyways, plazas, shortcuts and hidden thoroughfares, it isn’t any less treacherous to navigate than a dungeon. At least during the day, the worst one can expect is a greedy patrol of guards eager for a shakedown, or a thief in the crowd, ready to make a grab and run for it. At night, the sensible and the timid hurry home and bolt their doors. Ecstatic revellers, madmen, assassins, religious fanatics, thrill-seekers, enigmatic apparitions and tiger-headed opium nightmares prowl the streets. And the guards are still not helping.

The Nocturnal Table is a supplement intended to bring you this city by way of an encounter system, random inspiration tables, NPC and monster statistics, as well as a giant nighttime random encounter table, whose three hundred entries can serve as interludes as well as springboards for complicated investigative scenarios and fantastic conspiracies.”

At the core of The Nocturnal Table is a 300-entry table of random encounters and odd events you can run into at night in a busy fantasy metropolis. From a patrol of guards carrying a slain comrade, to a sinister beggar-catcher soliciting the aid of dishonest adventurers, or a skeleton covered in grey ooze, its eyes glittering gemstones shambling towards the party, all the wonder and menace of a city-crawl are at hand. But that is not all. With The Nocturnal Table, you can…

• …create general encounters with the aid of a comprehensive encounter system. A caravan in Hightown threatening the party? Six jackalweres offering secret information near the port at night? Or a magic-user accusing a PC in the bazaars? That could be the beginning of a story (or the end of one).
• …generate merchants selling strange and fantastic goods (as seen in Echoes From Fomalhaut #01 – that table would have been a crime not to reprint here). Is that jovial guard selling weapons as a form of bait? Are that credible horseman’s sugared fruits really from a foreign dimension?
• …find out what’s in their pockets. The guard came up with a pouch of 12 gold and a folded hood, but that horseman? His 50 silver, 5 electrum and 10 gp was also accompanied by a weird diagram.
• …generate local colour on the fly. Ominous, gurgling pipes overhead? A drunk who insists he has just seen a party member go the same way “just a while ago”?
• …stock warehouses with exotic goods to plunder! Leave those odd, primitive swords and the rustic carpets collecting dust in the corner, and find out how much those ceremonial globes may be worth.
• …and set up secret meetings and investigation sites. The meeting will place behind the old, crumbling mosaic – but don’t touch the drink. And the trail leads on, by the sign near the mortuary… just take care: the children are spies!

Guidelines are also offered to re-use the encounters and chart contents for the construction of bizarre plotlines and sinister conspiracies which rule from the shadows… while the City sleeps (these guidelines have been previewed on my blog). All that, and more are at your disposal in… The Nocturnal Table!

The print version of the supplement is available from my Bigcartel store; the PDF edition will be published through DriveThruRPG with a few months’ delay. As always, customers who buy the print edition will receive the PDF version free of charge.

 

[Melan]

​

Note, this will be Deal of the Day tomorrow on DriveThruRPG (50% off).

 

[Melan]

I am happy to present the sixth issue of Echoes From Fomalhaut: The Gallery of Rising Tombs!

As before, this is a 44-page fanzine featuring adventures and GM-friendly campaign materials for Advanced old-school RPG rules, with cover art by Stefan Poag, and illustrations by Denis McCarthy, Stefan Poag, and the Dead Victorians. This issue contains...

• The Wandering Glade: A wilderness module for (mostly) 4th to 6th level characters, describing an enchanted forest that may be found in different corners of the land, and hides lost treasures and the mysteries of bygone eras. For some, the challenge is getting in… and for some, it is getting out in one piece! 26+13 keyed locations.
• The City of Vultures: Visit the decaying metropolis of the City of Vultures, domain of the great Mirvander Khan, where every street conceals a lure for the unwary, and where fabulous wealth and grinding poverty exist side by side! This primer introduces the City and its subjugated rivals, its coterie of gods and mystery cults, its peculiar customs, and the conspiracies which lurk behind the façade of its crumbling buildings.
• The Gallery of Rising Tombs: An article presenting on of the four great Underworld complexes beneath the City of Vultures. Three entrance levels and numerous sub-levels combine for dungeoneering over 81 keyed areas; from a seedy caravanserai to the under-temple of the rat god, the domain of a damned warrior yearning for his lost love, and more! Characters level 4 to 6 (but sufficiently open-ended to accommodate greater power differences).
• The Armoury: A storehouse of 30 enchanted weapons. Confound your foes with The Sword of Barriers, master the treacherous Axe of Many Runes, or take up the choice of champions, mighty Frogbringer!
• Also... a double-sided players' map of the City of Vultures, as well as the arid lands of Thasan!

The zine is currently available in print from my BigCartel store. Please note that your print order also makes you eligible for free PDF copies of your ordered items when they become available (should be a few months after the print edition). PDFs will be delivered via DriveThruRPG to your regular e-mail address, unless you request otherwise.

IMPORTANT SHIPPING NOTE: Due to project meetings and conference season, orders between September 28 and October 11 may ship with some delay. I will try to do my best, but I will spend most of this time out of town.

 

[Melan]

Now announcing the forthcoming Castle Xyntillan, a Swords&Wizardry funhouse megadungeon for levels 1 to 6:

“The immense, rambling complex of Castle Xyntillan has stood in its mountain valley for many years. Built over several generations, it has now been deserted by its former owners, and left to time and the elements. However, that is not the end of the story, for Xyntillan’s fabulous treasures and Machiavellian deathtraps continue to fascinate the fortune-seekers of a dozen lands – and never mind the ghost stories!”

I am happy to announce the (now truly) forthcoming publication of Castle Xyntillan, a funhouse megadungeon for the Swords&Wizardry game. Xyntillan will be a 132-page hardcover, describing the three massive levels of the eponymous haunted castle, from the soaring tower of the Donjon to the inky depths of the Oubliette (and beyond). The module will ship with four map sheets with both GM’s and player’s cartography by Rob Conley, cover art by Peter Mullen (whose work, above, should speak for itself), and interior illustrations by Denis McCarthy, Stefan Poag, Peter Mullen (again), and The Dead Victorians. The hardcover set should sell for $40 plus shipping, and should be available at the end of November or very early December – allowing ample time for delivery before Christmas.

Product details, design principles, and a two-page sample are posted on my blog.

 

[Dorateen]

I just read the two page sample. This is great, fun stuff.

 

[Melan]

I would like to announce the publication of Castle Xyntillan, a funhouse megadungeon for the Swords&Wizardry game and other old-school systems. Suitable for 1st to 6th level characters, Castle Xyntillan has been designed to be versatile, open-ended, complex, and accessible - and always a bit mysterious. From the soaring tower of the Donjon to the inky depths of the Oubliette (and beyond), this module should provide ample opportunities for exploration, confrontation, and subterfuge. Whether you would like a dungeon for one-off expeditions and convention play, or repeated forays and full campaigns, this book should suit the demands of your campaign!

The print edition includes cartography from Rob Conley, cover art by Peter Mullen, and interior illustrations by Stefan Poag, Denis McCarthy and Peter Mullen (again). It ships as a handsome 132-page hardcover with four map sheets (detailed GM's and blank player's maps). Orders submitted this week should be sure to reach your location before Christmas! It is available at my Bigcartel store, with a flat $18/$22 shipping fee (Europe/worldwide; no cost for multiple copies or extra items). The PDF edition will be published through DriveThruRPG with a few months’ delay. As always, customers who buy the print edition will receive the PDF version free of charge.

A preview, a GM's Worksheet, and extra player maps are available from my blog.

This has been a long time in the making (parts of it date back to 2006!), but it is here. I think I need a drink. :D

 

[Dorateen]

Melan look what arrived just in time for Christmas.

I am impressed with the quality of the printing and over all content. The Echoes from Fomalhaut has been very inspiring, and it is nice to have a full sized adventure. Happy to add Castle Xyntillan to the collection in the tradition of TSR hard-covered reference books.

 

[Melan]

Glad to know you like it! Good to see it finally arriving at people's addresses (a very late copy showed up on a friend's porch on Christmas day!), and I really hope the play reports are next. This module was planned to be easy to get into, and play without a hassle. We've recently held a release party with the OD&D rules (little brown books only), and may have a followup game between Christmas and New Year's.

Enjoy!

 

[Melan]

I am pleased to announce the publication of the seventh issue of my fanzine, Echoes From Fomalhaut. This is a 40-page zine dedicated to adventures and GM-friendly campaign materials for Advanced old-school rules, with cover art by Matthew Ray, and illustrations by Graphite Prime, Denis McCarthy, Stefan Poag, and the Dead Victorians.

The Bat Plague may still be out there, but now so is this zine (and YOU can be the judge which one you like better). Not all restrictions are gone, but they are suitably relaxed to resume print sales and shipping. Delivery is bound to be slower than usual for a while – I am hearing that packages, which had taken five or six days to reach European addresses now take twelve days or so – but at least it seems to work without major problems. If you can trust the Post, you can perhaps trust the rest of our civilisation as well.

And so, we have this issue! The common theme this time seems to be “things that go deeper than anticipated” – at least this is one aspect which, by some act of Fortune, unites the four articles. There is something quite fascinating going into an adventure, and discovering that the dungeon you expected to end has a deep well going down to a new level; the plot threads you have almost had in your hand suddenly trail off again in new directions, or the room beyond the secret door has a second secret door, hidden even more carefully. What lies beyond the door, the well, or the almost solved plotline? Only one way to find out!

The titular adventure, From Beneath the Glacier, takes the characters to the high mountains where something has gone wrong. Where do the nighttime raids and strange corpses washed down the rivers come from? The answers are found in this scenario, with 21 keyed areas, offering challenges related to navigation, exploration, and confrontation – not to mention a major dilemma once the company is victorious. This is an adventure for mid-level characters, levels 5-7 (our test party was slightly stronger by the time they got there, and had an easier time).

Of course, sometimes an undead-haunted cellar is just an undead-haunted cellar – The Hecatomb of Morthevole is a take on the proverbial “help this guy with rats in his cellar” dungeon, except it is not rats, and the cellar goes deeper than you might think (levels 2-4, 12 keyed areas, which is not bad for a two-pager – I am thinking there will be more smallish scenarios in future issues).

This issue’s centrepiece, drawn from The City of Vultures, is the best known of its Underworld complexes. The Tomb of Ali Shulwar is fairly well known among the city’s thieves and smugglers, but few know of its deeper layers, and none before have mapped its connections, secret sections and true depths. This article presents two entrance levels and three main levels of the tomb (more precisely, what lies below the tomb… if the tomb is even the real tomb) in 66 keyed areas. The dungeons are mostly for the 4th to 6th level range, with outliers (and tougher side-areas, to be presented next issue).

The issue’s final article, The White Hand, introduces one of the City’s lesser conspiracies. A vigilante group formed to mete out “good old-fashioned street justice” to market thieves (and everyone the members believe to be one!) would usually merit little discussion beyond “Thugs (3d6)”… but something is off here. Links to now extinct organisations, infiltration attempts by other conspiracies, odd musical tastes and bizarre characters hanging around the White Hand make it a gateway into an entire world of hidden meanings and secret warfare. Who is using whom? Who watches the watchers watching the watchers? Most importantly, what happens when it all falls apart at the slightest shove? Whether used in the City of Vultures or somewhere else (which would be easier than it first looks), it will be fascinating to find out.

The issue’s map supplement this time is an unkeyed dungeon level. Or it is multiple smaller dungeon levels on one sheet? You be the judge!

The print version of the fanzine is available from my reopened Bigcartel store; the PDF edition will be published through DriveThruRPG with a few months’ delay. As always, customers who buy the print edition will receive the PDF version free of charge.

 

[Snorkack]

Lol I just realized that Castle Xyntillan, which I recommended in the best prewritten modules ever-thread, was written by a fellow codexer
Am assembling a group to play it atm, really looking forward to playing it! Currently I only have the Drivethrurpg pdf, but this is something I'd prefer to have as physical copy. Do you already have a date for when you will continue with the hardcover sales?

 

[Melan]

Thanks!

The hardcover is once again available (and a second printing is also on the way). If you have bought the PDF edition, I can give you a discount on your print order (since the print includes the free PDF). Mail me at beyond DOT fomalhaut AT gmail with a shipping address, and I will send you a PayPal invoice.

 

[Melan]

I am pleased to announce the publication of two new adventure modules, In the Shadow of the City-God and Trail of the Sea Demon. Both of them are delayed releases, which might have been ready for Spring, but then the Bat Plague happened, and the modules did not. However, they are now ready at last.

Written by Istvan Boldog-Bernad, and illustrated by Denis McCarthy (who also did the cover art) and Stefan Poag, In the Shadow of the City-God is a 32-page adventure module for 3rd to 4th level characters. The module is an effortless combination of urban intrigue, cloak-and-dagger action, and dungeon crawling in Mur, a city-state worshipped and forever constructed by its citizens as a living god. Inspired by Shakespeare and the bloody renaissance authors who had preceded him, Mur is one of the great charismatic locations in fantasy RPGs, and an excellent place to set your own adventures – after you have played this one. In fact, a further wilderness scenario is also included in the booklet (yes, it is positively packed). The module comes with a players’ map of the city.

“Mur’s fortunes have been built on tear salt, and merchants from distant lands travel to the city for this healing elixir. There are two tear salt springs in town, owned by two rival patrician families: the Falconi and the Capullo. Mur’s laws forbid open conflict, and like most crimes against citizens, the punishment for breaking the peace is severe: live entombment within the living city’s ever-growing walls! Nevertheless, cloak-and-dagger intrigue always claims new victims, and discord between the two families has now escalated into almost open warfare after the elderly Ercol Falconi’s young wife has disappeared. Time is ticking away, and only a bold company of outsiders can resolve the feuds and discover the masterminds behind it all… under the watchful eyes of the City-God!”

***

The second module, Trail of the Sea Demon, is a 32-page collection of three loosely connected weird fantasy scenarios for 3rd to 5th level characters. These mini-adventures revolve around a secretive mystery-religion, and the hidden paths which lead to it in a fantastic, labyrinthine city. They can be inserted into any sinful fantasy metropolis, and may be smoothly integrated into an ongoing campaign. Originally published in Fight On! magazine, the adventures have been revised, expanded, and presented in a much more user-friendly format in the current edition, including new illustrations by Peter Mullen (whose cover is one for the ages), Graphite Prime, Jerry Boucher, and Stefan Poag.

“The Temple has stood in an abandoned plaza since time immemorial. It is part of the city, but no known street or alleyway leads to it. Only those who wait for the appointed time can embark on a pilgrimage of shadows and dreams to walk new ways through the silent and dark city. It is said that only a select few know the way except for the fanatical priests who worship the destructive powers of the sea. Those who have sought the Sea Demon’s advice seek it rarely; those who seek its riches have never returned to tell the tale. But now, the city’s past may grant a key to solve an occult mystery… Trail of the Sea Demon is a collection of three short adventures concerning the way to the Sea Demon’s sinister temple, the secrets and perils that await therein, and what may follow afterwards.”

As usual, the print versions of the modules are available from my Bigcartel store; the PDF edition will be published through DriveThruRPG with three months’ delay. As always, customers who buy the print edition will receive the PDF version free of charge.

 

[nikolokolus]

Ordered.

 

[Melan]

I am pleased to announce the publication of Baklin: Jewel of the Seas, a supplement describing the eponymous merchant city, including its rulers, criminal underworld, establishments, and three-level Undercity.

Illustrated by Denis McCarthy (who also did the cover art), Stefan Poag, Graphite Prime, and Jerry Boucher, Baklin is more than twice the size of the average module – 72 pages’ worth of adventure-ready material, a players’ map of the city (with a players’ map of Erillion on the back side), and a GM’s map including the labelled city map, and three dungeon maps describing the Undercity’s storerooms, forgotten shrines, and weirdo inhabitants. This is two identical-length modules in one: a city guide with 39 major locations and a dungeon setting with 112 keyed areas, connected and bound together via multiple secret entrances, plot threads, and NPC agendas.

Baklin is meant as both a campaign hub a party can depart from and return to (with numerous hooks for wilderness adventures), and as a complex adventure location of its own. It can be used along with the materials published for the Isle of Erillion mini-setting (Echoes #02–05), or it can double as almost any neutral-aligned port town in your own setting. In any case, Baklin is meant to be played: it is focused on city intrigue, exploration, and dungeon crawling. Go shopping for great deals in port or at the stores of the reclusive Masters’ Guild; be careful not to fall afoul of the Sea Laws or anger the Knights of Yolanthus Kar; discover what lurks in the Tower of Gulls; and brave the Shrine of Roxana and the Thrones of Judgement!

“Oh Baklin, Jewel of the Seas, great gateway of Erillion! Minstrels sing of its wealth and marine power; and of the refinement and taste of its magnates and nobility. Minstrels of all kinds, of course, are prone to grandiloquence; and perhaps Baklin is neither as mighty nor as fair as the ballads claim. And yet, there is reason the minstrels sing so, for Baklin has wealthy patrons, its fleet is not inconsiderable – and are its streets not the loveliest within so many weeks of travel? Indeed, those who brave the high seas often believe so… and they will gladly pay for a song to remember their visit. This booklet presents a complete city supplements describing the streets, personalities, and conflicts of a bustling port town, from the heights of power to the deepest undercellars. In Baklin, all streets lead to adventure – and a single life would not be enough to complete all of them.”

The print version of the modules is now available from my Bigcartel store, while the PDF edition will be published through DriveThruRPG with three months’ delay. As always, customers who buy the print edition will receive the PDF version free of charge.

 

[Melan]

I am pleased to announce the publication of the eighth issue of my fanzine, Echoes From Fomalhaut. This is a 52-page zine dedicated to adventures and GM-friendly campaign materials for Advanced old-school rules, with cover art by Stefan Poag, and illustrations by Denis McCarthy, Graphite Prime, and the Dead Victorians.

The first adventure in the zine takes players to the shores of the Twelve Kingdoms, a cold land of rival petty kingdoms and strange wonders. Here stands Yrrtwano’s Repose, a ruined manor house whose walls now protect an entire village. Lord Yrrtwano’s time has long passed, but he sleeps under the manor still, and the great hunter is said to slumber most uneasily! This is a dungeon adventure with 15 keyed areas, for levels 3-4 (my players brought a small company of NPC knights to share the glories and the dangers).

The sullogh are coming! The zine’s titular scenario, Castle Sullogh, was the penultimate adventure in our Isle of Erillion campaign. This woodland ruin had stood in its place from the beginning, just within reach, but always too formidable to tackle until the adventurers had no other choice left. It is suitable for levels 5-9 (much depending on the party’s approach – ours was repelled pretty badly on their first foray, and had to turn to more careful infiltration on subsequent tries), and covers 55 keyed areas, including buried secrets, the quarters of three powerful witches, and the halls of the murderous sullogh who were brewed for murder!

This issue also describes the western half of the lands of Thasan, “beyond the City of Vultures”. Arid wastelands dotted with tiny pockets of lush vegetation lie next to deep blue seas where islands hide weird inhabitants and unknown dangers, and two great empires, one ancient and sinful, one recent and fanatically pure, clash over parched wastes devastated by ancient catastrophe. Venture into the dreaming ruins of Zangul and shadowy Korlag Thyr; walk the Road of Iskarades, and try your guile against the wily masterminds of Virkat and its great Judgement Machine! Great phantasms and jewelled palaces await – and therein lurk beauty, strangeness and death in equal measure. This is a large hex-crawl describing half of one map sheet with 103 keyed and briefly described locales (which is where our games were located).

Echoes #08 is a larger than usual issue, with a double map sheet: one of them a splendid players’ colour map of the Isle of Erillion, courtesy of Istvan Boldog-Bernad, who made it in Wonderdraft. (He also played Armand the Scumbag, human assassin, in our campaign.) The other sheet contains GM’s maps: one of Castle Sullogh, and one of Thasan and its strange lands. The print version of the fanzine is available from my Bigcartel store; the PDF edition will be published through DriveThruRPG with a few months’ delay. As always, customers who buy the print edition will receive the PDF version free of charge.

 

[Melan]

I am pleased to announce the publication of the ninth issue ofEchoes From Fomalhaut! At 56 pages, this is another big one, with cover art by Graphite Prime, and illustrations by Vincentas Saladis, Cameron Hawkey, Denis McCarthy, Stefan B. Poag, and the Dead Victorians.

The issue serves to introduce the Twelve Kingdoms, a divided northern region to the northwest of Erillion, cut off from the rest of human civilisation. Two hex map sheets describe the five larger, four medium-sized, and numerous smaller islands ruled by rival petty kingdoms, and ravaged by incessant warfare. Ruined castles, faerie-haunted forests, barren coasts and cold mountain ranges await those who adventure here; druids, reclusive eccentrics, jealous wizards’ orders and mysterious monasteries complicate the network of temporary alliances. This is a land fit for exploration, plunder... or will that be conquest? Let the players decide, and live with the consequences!

The titular adventure, Beyond the Gates of Sorrow, takes the company to a small archipelago on the borders of the Kingdoms. Uninhabited and barely sustainable to sustain life, there is nevertheless much danger here. Can a shipwrecked party find a means of escape from their predicament? Or can another find a person or item of special significance while racing against a rival group of explorers? 19 wilderness and 18 dungeon locations describe the archipelago’s dangers and occasional treasures in this scenario for levels 2-4.

Echoes #09 also includes a larger dungeon adventure, The Vaults of Volokarnos. Originally published as a stand-alone introductory module for the Casemates and Companies RPG, and now converted to the B/X lineage of old-school games, the Vaults are specifically designed for beginning characters, and potentially players who are new to old-school gaming in general. A fully stocked dungeon level awaits with 52 keyed reas, and more orcs than you can shake a stick at. Explore a dungeon complex that had once served as a catacomb system, thermal bath, touristic attraction... at the same time. Find out what the orcs are up to, what lies in burial vaults yet unconquered, and what the patricians of the nearby town do not want you to know... and where character sheets and followers are concerned, bring spares. It shall not hurt.

In addition to the Vaults, the issue also describes the isle republic of Arak Brannia. This two-page setting can serve as the background for the Vaults of Volokarnos, or a springboard for further adventures on the northern coastlands of the declining Kassadian Empire...

The print version of the fanzine is available from my Bigcartel store; the PDF edition will be published through DriveThruRPG with a few months’ delay. As always, customers who buy the print edition will receive the PDF version free of charge.

 

[Melan]

I am pleased to announce the year’s last EMDT release, the publication of Weird Fates, vol. 1, a 40-page anthology of four mini-modules by Laszlo Feher. With cover art by Peter Mullen, and illustrations by Graphite Prime, Cameron Hawkey, and Vincentas Saladis, this collection epitomises “weird fantasy” with its outlandish concepts, strange denizens, and grotesque situations. Meant for an evening or two of play each for 3rd to 6th level characters (more or less), the mini-adventures are open-ended outlines with a strong emphasis on player creativity and a non-linear structure. Short, sweet, and high on imagination (in multiple senses), this is a sure pick for GMs who enjoy a little improvisation.

“A cornucopia of four short, open-ended adventure outlines leading to lands of pure imagination, this collection should astound and entertain any company of players interested in exotic locales, strange individuals, and a generous helping of satire. Herein, you will journey to a tropical island to answer the eternal question, “What is Art?” (or die trying); confront a reclusive artist with a peculiar scheme to enlarge his audience; find the fabled graveyard of the elephants and partake of the fruits of the Tree of Forever Return; and judge a pie-baking contest in a rural backwater where nothing could possibly go wrong... or could it? Some assembly required!”

The print version of the module is available from my Bigcartel store; the PDF edition will be published through DriveThruRPG with three months’ delay. As always, customers who buy the print edition will receive the PDF version free of charge.

 

[Bara]

PDF version of Beyond the Gates of Sorrow is up on dtrpg if anyone was waiting for the digital release.

 

[udm]

Congrats on having a large number of your products in the Silver/Electrum Bestseller category! Melan

 

[Melan]

I am pleased to announce the publication of the tenth issue of my fanzine, Echoes From Fomalhaut. This is a 52-page zine dedicated to adventures and GM-friendly campaign materials for Advanced old-school rules, with cover art by Cameron Hawkey, and illustrations by Vincentas Saladis, Graphite Prime, and Sean Stone. This ANNIVERSARY issue contains...

• The Illustrious Index of Incline: Could you forego the temptation of bragging a bit about all the stuff you have published in your zine? I couldn’t. 2 pages should be enough of that stuff. It is exactly one article shy of 50, not a bad number. You can grab the article here.
• The Temple of Polyphema: The temple of the cyclopean goddess has been taken over by a band of marauding gnolls. Are you a bad enough dude to drive them out, and avert the terrible curse that would befall Polyphema’s gutless followers? Levels 2-4, 25 keyed areas.
• Guests of the Beggar King: Welcome to Caer Iselond, kingly seat of an impoverished monarch, and his merry order of bandit-knights! Caer Iselond is a great place to visit… but trouble is brewing in the surrounding lands, and intrigue is afoot in the castle’s ancient halls. 24 keyed areas.
• Gorge of the Unmortal Hermit: A strange recluse is said to inhabit a wooded gorge deep in the Vexwood, who steals mens’ eyes and is said to possess some manner of immortality. Are the rumours true? Find out in this 13-area wilderness adventure (levels 2–5).
• Oom the Many: A shadowy face haunts the City of Vultures, a single visage shared by several men of magic. What are their designs and how do they operate? This article describes the secret society’s goals, key persons, and multiple sites associated with it.
• The Temple of Jeng: A mighty and violent faith that rules over much of the City of Vultures with its extensive spy network, and an army of fanatical nomads. Who are the priests controlling the mobs, and what lies behind their sermons of hatred? Find out in the Temple of Jeng (levels 5–9, can get vicious)!
• A double-sided poster map describing an interconnected Underworld featuring the House of Oom, the Temple of Jeng, The Tomb of Ali Shulwar, and more.

The print version of the fanzine is available from my Bigcartel store; the PDF edition will be published through DriveThruRPG with a few months’ delay. As always, customers who buy the print edition will receive the PDF version free of charge.

 

[Melan]

I am pleased to announce the publication of The Forest of Gornate. With cover art by Denis McCarthy, and illustrations by Stefan Poag and Jerry Boucher, this is a 32-page module for characters level 3rd to 5th, describing an expansive forest in the pointcrawl format, as well as the mini-dungeons therein. Located next to the city of Mur (described In the Shadow of the City-God, a module that connects to, but is not essential for enjoying this one), the Forest of Gornate is a place of fallen civilisations, strange denizens, and natural wonders. Seek the treasures of a mysterious villa, the secrets of a reclusive bandit leader, win the patronage of the ancient and sinister Guild of Judges, or strike out on your own to seek fame and fortune in the forests, and the lands beyond. This is a scenario with 42+39 keyed areas, adventure hooks, rumours, and random encounters offering numerous possibilities for open-ended exploration and player-driven adventure inspired by Scorpion Swamp, the Fighting Fantasy classic.

“South of the dark walls of Mur, an overgrown forest lies between two mountain ranges. Its namesake, the immortal beast Gornate, noted for his thirty-six eyes and a peculiar taste for collecting human spinal columns, has made no sign of his presence in many years. Even so, the woodlands hide numerous dangers. Robber bands, man-eating beasts, abandoned manor houses and mysterious ruins dot a land divided by rivers and mountain ridges. The people of the city rarely venture into the forest, but recently, three notabilities have expressed an interest in sponsoring a hazardous, but lucrative ex-pedition. While serving three masters may be too much for a single adventure, a resourceful and lucky company could return rich from… the Forest of Gornate!”

The print version of the fanzine is available from my Bigcartel store; the PDF edition will be published through DriveThruRPG with a few months’ delay. As always, customers who buy the print edition will receive the PDF version free of charge.