Incline Melan's new RPG zine Echoes From Fomalhaut

[rusty_shackleford]

Do you ship to USA?

 

[Melan]

Yup, and that's where the majority of my orders is going. It tends to take orders 10-14 days to ship from the date of postage. US shipping is a flat 8 USD for zines (any quantity), and 28 USD (the hardbacks/boxed set, which are heavier).

 

[Melan]

I am pleased to announce the publication of Weird Fates, vol. 02, a 40-page anthology of four mini-modules by Laszlo Feher. With cover art by Cameron Hawkey, and illustrations by Graphite Prime, Vincentas Saladis, the Original Masters and the Robot Overlords, this collection presents adventures concerned with the strange and unusual, this time mostly in weird dungeons (although an odd, gloomy ruined town is also featured). Each of these scenarios would be suitable as one-shots, or digressions inserted into the ongoing campaign, suitable for 4th to 7th level characters.

“A compilation of four short, open-ended adventure outlines leading to uncanny locales and perplexing situations, this zine offers scenarios that could serve as one-shots or digressions from longer campaigns. Herein, you can visit a comet-struck town living in perpetual gloom, abandoned by its inhabitants but sought by rich eccentrics; resolve an ancient family feud in a place of unravelling time; seek the resting place of a saint in the Undercity to avert a most unusual calamity befalling the City’s dead; and travel beyond space and time to a sanctuary of learning… where the books read you. Some assembly required!”

The print version of the module 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.

(Note that an adventure module called The Well of Frogs, and Echoes From Fomalhaut #11 are also in the works, and should be expected in June. So if you wish to spend some coin on shipping, take that into account.)

 

[Melan]

I am pleased to announce the publication of the eleventh issue of my fanzine, Echoes From Fomalhaut. This is a 64-page fanzine featuring adventures and GM-friendly campaign materials for Advanced old-school RPG rules, with cover art by Vincentas Saladis, and illustrations by Cameron Hawkey, Graphite Prime, the Dead Victorians, and the Robot Overlords. This issue contains...

• Elven Grave: The ruined tomb of an elven lord and his entourage, still ripe for plunder, but only if you beat other parties to the score. Levels 5–7, 19 keyed areas.
• From Brahalt to Hlute: Hex-crawl guide to two isles in the Twelve Kingdoms, describing prosperous castles, druid-haunted forests, windswept shores, and gloomy hinterlands of devastation and ruin – in 89 keyed locations.
• Monsters of the Isles: Eight monsters commonly encountered in the Twelve Kingdoms, and other inhospitable northern lands.
• Eimir: The Abbey’s Secret: An outpost of Law stands on Brahalt’s eastern coast, a fortified refuge of industrious monks surrounded by a ragtag settlement for those who serve them. What lies behind the impregnable walls, and in the tunnels beneath? Discover in this scenario with 18+31 keyed areas.
• Curious Local Customs: Tables to generate odd communities and their eccentric rulers – not just for the Twelve Kingdoms.
• Two double-sided poster maps providing annotated GM’s hex maps for the Twelve Kingdoms, the dungeons included within this zine issue, and a players’ map of Eimir and its environs.

I am also pleased to announce...

The Well of Frogs, a 32-page city and dungeon adventure for 1st to 2nd level characters by Istvan Boldog-Bernad, The Well of Frogs module describes a neighbourhood of the crumbling city of Cassidum, its teeming alleyways the haunts of thieves and lowlives. But below the surface lie worse things still, left over from the days of the old empire or repurposed by dangerous eccentrics. Visiting the underground could not be easier: the Well of Frogs, in the middle of the infamous Piazza Dei Rospi, lies in plain sight, and nobody will prevent the brave and very foolish from descending into its maw. This is a module which has killed a respectable amount of player characters in playtest, more at its debut at North Texas RPG Con, and is ready to kill again. It can be used as a one-off, or as a nexus point for an extended campaign.

The adventure features illustrations by Dorottya Fulop (who also did the cover), Ferenc Fabian, Vincentas Saladis, Graphite Prime, as well as the Dead Victorians and the Robot Overlords. A foldout map sheet is included with city and dungeon maps.

“Down below, beneath Cassidum’s stinking alleys and crumbling palaces, lie twisting passages and musty chambers with the secrets of the old days, and the subterranean dens of lowlife scum. But now, sordid disappearances haunt the Piazza dei Rospi, while the Literators’ Guild and Barbers’ Guild wage a bloody turf war for the surrounding streets. The key to these mysteries is a richly carved marble well decorated with the carvings of four ugly bullfrogs, whose depths hide things worse still. Some who descend shall win riches and battle-glory, while others will only find horrid death… down in The Well of Frogs!”

The print versions of the fanzine and the module are available from https://emdt.bigcartel.com/

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.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Couldn't resist:

Spoiler

Erol Otus cover for adventure module I1 Dwellers of the Forbidden City by David Zeb Cook

Erol Otus color illustration of a Froghemoth in adventure module S3 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks by Gary Gygax

Denis Beauvais cover for adventure module DA2 Temple of the Frog by Dave Arneson & David Ritchie

Mark Nelson interior illustration for adventure module DA2 Temple of the Frog by Dave Arneson & David Ritchie

David Sutherland's (probably) interior illustration for the AD&D Monster Manual by Gary Gygax

 

[Rincewind]

Oh man, I love ink illustrations from fantasy & sci-fi magazines. Glorious stuff.

 

[Melan]

Definitely a lot of frogs in the module. Can confirm as a player (although my character got killed by undead legionaires).

 

[Melan]

Speaking of frogs, here is more of them.

I am pleased to announce the publication of two adventure modules, The Webs of Past and Present and Cloister of the Frog-God.

The Webs of Past and Present is a 28-page dungeon module by Gabor Csomos for 4th to 5th level characters, with 39 keyed areas. The module features cover art by Graphite Prime, and interior illustrations by Ferenc Fabian, Cameron Hawkey, the Dead Victorians, and the Robot Overlords. It takes adventurers to the decaying elven pleasure-palace of Túr Eridenal, now a monster-haunted ruin still clinging to its past glories. Exploration-oriented gameplay in an open-ended environment is combined with complex puzzle-solving, a ticking clock, and evil flying elven heads. The booklet comes with a fold-out GM’s map of Túr Eridenal. This adventure was the winner of the 2001 No Artpunk Contest, a mighty accomplishment.

“A group of adventurers took a job they were unable to finish. They went into the ruins of Túr Eridenal, an abandoned elven palace of some kind, and never returned. The characters’ mission is to find out what happened to them, rescue the survivors, and – if possible – finish the job they started. Besides the predatory creature the adventurers were hunting, the ruins are overrun with all kinds of monsters, and corrupted by a sinister curse. There are survivors, however, whom the party may rescue if they are smart... even more than just some lost adventurers. All shall be caught in… The Webs of Past and Present!”

* * *

I am also pleased to announce the publication of Cloister of the Frog-God, a 40-page wilderness and dungeon module for 4th to 6th level characters, with 15 + 77 keyed areas and more frogs than you can shake a stick at. The module features cover art by Denis McCarthy (who also did a bunch of the interiors), and interior illustrations by Andrew Walter, Matthew Ray, Stefan Poag, the Dead Victorians, and the Robot Overlords. The module’s wilderness section describes the Marshlands, a labyrinth of waterways, strange denizens, and swamp monsters. However, it is the frog-cultists who truly rule the land from a half-ruined cloister complex, sitting on top of ancient catacombs that reach far down – and just as far back in time, before the coming of Man. The cloister is a large, interconnected dungeon environment with multiple access points, different sub-sections, and challenges to test both the cautious and the daring. The booklet comes with a fold-out GM’s map of the Marshlands, as well as the Cloister complex.

“The cloister has stood on a desolate ridge overlooking vast swamps since time immemorial. Dedicated to the great and terrible Tsathoggus, this edifice of evil was destroyed again and again through history, only to re-emerge from its slumber once the forces of Law grew lax and the terrible deeds of the frog-cultists became forgotten. Now a new order rises among the old walls, while older evils stir in stone grottoes and underground sanctuaries. Spies visit the settlements of the marshlands, and offerings make their way to the cloister where the monks hold their vigils as their ancestors have, guarding a nightmare that refuses to die.”

NOTE: This is a scenario whose two parts have been released before, and are now combined into a single adventure. The Cloister dungeons were published as a chapter in Frog God Games’ Rappan Athuk (and are reprinted with permission), while the Marshlands were published in Echoes From Fomalhaut #04. The current edition has been re-edited for greater accessibility.

* * *

The print versions of the modules are 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 three new releases, including a hardcover sandbox supplement with city, dungeon and wilderness adventures; a players’ setting gazetteer, and the newest volume of my zine. That’s a handful!

“Those risen against me, I pillaged their kingdoms, and placed my foot on their proud necks before the coming of the end...” Overking Srabmar, He Who Buys and Sells, is no more, and the twelve cities he has left in rubble are mere heaps of stone in a destroyed land. Yet many years later, the City-State of the Four Mysteries still stands on the shores of a salt lake, dreaming of past and future glories, from its gilded palaces to the depths of its Undercity. This is Khosura, King of the Wastelands! Visit a sword & sorcery city-state of ancient customs, dark sorceries, and secretive mystery religions – built on a wasteland wrecked by ancient wars, divine retribution, and successive cycles of harsh, tyrannical kings. Descend into an extensive Undercity, go up against treacherous mirages and cruel plans, and plunder the treasures of a land where might makes right, life is harsh, and the glory of heroes is earned at the cost of spilled blood.”

First and foremost, I am really pleased to announce the much-delayed release of Khosura: King of the Wastelands. Based on multiple campaigns in weird desert lands, this is a rather large, 164-page hardcover describing Khosura, a city-state in the world of Fomalhaut, its extensive Undercity, and the surrounding wastelands. Designed for characters of level 3–8, and compatible with OSRIC rules, the supplement offers a wide, deep playing environment (a sandbox with lots of sand in it) to set your own adventures. It includes the following materials:

• An adventure-friendly description of the city-state of Khosura, with its customs, factions, rumours, rumour and encounter charts, and 28 keyed areas, from teeming markets to the palaces of the high and mighty!
• An interconnected, vast Undercity divided among 8 levels and several sub-levels to a total of 176 keyed areas, including tomb-complexes, hidden holy sites, magical enigmas, and the remnants of ancient times!
• A wilderness section describing the Desert of Regulator, a place of deadly mirages and antique ruins, in a hex-crawl format. 45 keyed hexes can serve as springboards for further adventures to crumbling ziggurats, warlike enclaves, grandiose monuments, and places haunted by deadly dreams. Complex wilderness encounter tables are included to handle travel across the points of interest.
• A grab-bag of supplemental materials: Stone Gullet, a wasteland outpost (and true keep on the borderland); a selection of caravans and NPCs to meet on the road; and three smaller adventures leading deep into wasteland mirages.
• An appendix of new monsters and magic items.
• A separate map pack of four foldout map sheets with GM and player cartography.

Khosura: King of the Wastelands is illustrated by Peter Mullen (who did the cover and various interiors), Cameron Hawkey, Graphite Prime, Vincentas Saladis, Sean Stone, as well as the Dead Victorians, the Antique Alumni, and the Robot Overlords. The cartography was done by Robert S. Conley (city and dungeon maps), Sean Stone (who did the excellent bird’s eye players’ map of the city), and myself (wilderness hex map).

“In a barbaric age where old certainties are gone, everything is possible. This booklet describes lands in turmoil. Old powers have fallen, civilisation has retreated to a few refugia, and barbarism is on the move. On the Isle of Erillion, a successful island kingdom has secured coastal footholds, but has made few inroads in the isle’s old forests and high mountains. The Twelve Kingdoms, a collection of small feudal realms, have descended into civil war and mutual destruction while an arctic empire dreams of conquest. And in the Kassadian Empire, the long decline of a high civilisation has created a landscape of rival city-states, militaristic frontier-towns, and barbarous hinterlands – against the shadows of an Empire that bitterly clings to its life. Here are lands ripe for adventure, plunder, and conquest. Here are thrones to win, dark fates to avert, and frontiers to tame – here is a world to be reshaped by the able and shrewd! And here is your opportunity!”

I am also pleased to announce Drifting Lands, a players’ gazetteer to my (more or less) vanilla fantasy setting, which has previously been released in bits and pieces over multiple zine issues as our campaigns progressed therein. This is a 52-bage booklet that expands on and consolidates these materials into a player-friendly guidebook. It includes the following materials:

• A bird’s eye big-picture description of the setting and its known regions, from the Isle of Erillion to the Empire of Pand.
• 34 gods and heresies, from fleet-footed Apelles, God of Messengers; and Galerius Demarcator, God of Boundaries and milestones, one of the three imperial cults; to the extinct (?) cult of the Purchased God and everyone’s favourite, the frog-god Tsathoggus. Notes are also offered on the Omnipotent Index, the Kassadian Empire’s monstrously outdated and utterly unjust legal code to classify approved and heretical religions.
• More detailed guides to three regions, focusing on customs, places of interest, and conflicts that call for adventurers to resolve.
• A separate map pack with six fold-out hex map sheets: players’ and GM’s cartogrtaphy for Erillion, the Twelve Kingdoms (two sheets), Kassadia (two sheets), and the blank slate Savage Peninsula.

Drifting Lands features a cover image by an unknown alumnus (culled from an ancient US college yearbook, it is a striking piece that makes quite an impression), and interior illustrations by Cameron Hawkey, Vincentas Saladis, the Dead Victorians, and the Antique Alumni.

Also furthermore, I am pleased to announce the publication of the twelfth issue of my fanzine, Echoes From Fomalhaut. As usual, this is a 56-page zine dedicated to adventures and GM-friendly campaign materials for OSRIC and other old-school systems. It is the most lavishly illustrated issue yet, with cover art by Peter Mullen, and interior illustrations by Cameron Hawkey, Vincentas Saladis, Graphite Prime, Ferenc Fabian, the Dead Victorians, and the Antique Alumni. This issue features a varied assortment of scenarios, three of which have been tested in both campaign and convention play. The following materials are included:

• Urmalk the Boundless (levels 3–5, 24+24 keyed areas), an open-ended, site-based adventure describing a weird necropolis next to a large city. A place of burial since primordial eras, this is a site of crumbling (and sometimes repurposed) mausoleums, catacomb passages, and more oddities. Beyond its campaign origins, the module saw extensive playtesting at Cauldron Con 2023, Society of Adventurers Con XI, and beyond. It makes for a tournament-style scenario, a side-adventure, or a permanent campaign ficture.
• Catacombs of the Pariahs (levels 3–7, 50 keyed areas), one of the subterranean complexes beneath the City of Vultures. Located under the crooked streets of the Beggars’ District (also described), this is a section of the undercity that goes from reasonably simple to remarkably deadly. From the Court of the Pariah-King to the Domain of Virotán and the Ceramic Space, it just gets stranger and more vicious.
• Castle of the Rose Knight (levels 5–7, 30 keyed areas), an enchanted castle found in the Twelve Kingdoms, easily glimpsed from afar, but unreachable by all but a few, this is a place to test a questing knight’s mettle! All is not what seems, and the Knight of Roses, the visitors’ mysterious host, is not someone to be trifled with.
• Tower of the Thief (levels 3–5, 15 keyed areas): what it says on the tin – the tower of a retired thief, also located in the Beggars’ District. Sort of a small adventure site.
• Two foldout map sheets with player and GM maps. While supplies last, a third sheet will also be included in orders (I accidentally sent off a wrong map file to the printer, so this became an extra).

* * *
The print versions of the modules and the zine are 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.