About Ominous Crypt of the Blood Moss

 Ominous Crypt of the Blood Moss is a third party Old-School Essentials dungeon crawl adventure for characters of 2nd to 4th level.

It is written and illustrated by Frederick Foulds and published by Oneiromantic Press and was published in 2020.

In short: a quick adventure (one or two sessions), with a horrific (almost cthuloid) theme, and lots of stuff to interact with.

I've grabbed the hardcover print-on-demand version on DriveThruRPG which is a nice A5 book, counting 60 pages cover-to-cover (the actual adventure, if you don't count the credits and the OGL license, is 43 pages).

The Ominous Crypt itself is a 10 rooms dungeon. Before the dungeon description, you get an introduction, 3 pages of background, 2 pages describing the Blood Moss from the title (which is a creature of sorts), a page with 3 possible hooks to the adventure, and 3 pages describing the village near the crypt, including a map, one NPC and an event which introduces the adventure. 

The (beautiful) dungeon map appears non-linear at first look, but once you notice where the secret doors are, the map actually is a straight line, with just three one-room branches, and the secret room which conveniently reconnects with the entrance room.

At page 21 begins the dungeon proper. As I said, the dungeon is only 10 rooms. Each room is described in 1 to 3 pages, and all of them have a lot going on, with stuff the characters can examine, loot, interact with, and fight.

The room descriptions are structured as bullet points, with colored and bold text where needed. As I said, there's lots of details, but the presentation makes it easy to navigate and find out all the important stuff.

The dungeon has a detailed backstory which involves a (very) holy crypt, now defiled "from the inside" after the corrupted body of a mage was buried in. The defunct mage hosted a fungal being from the void (the titular Blood Moss), which has spread on the floors and reanimated some skeletons. The "alien" moss initially appears as part of the environment, but actually is the "final boss" of the dungeon, with its main node rooted in the mage's corpse.

Some personal considerations.

I like that "solving" the adventure has visible consequences for the village outside the dungeon, and the presentation is top notch, making it very easy to run. I also like that among the treasure is a very good example of a sentient sword, a type of magic item I struggle with. This one, it is well detailed and makes sense within the scenario.

I'm not sure about the treasure. Magic items are more than enough for a 10-room dungeon, but considering the risks, the amount of gold seems a bit low.

Some of the "tricks" (the one that opens a secret door, plus a sort of riddle) aren't perfect (i.e. there aren't many clues for the players to figure them out) but I think it's ok as they are "only" required to get to the big treasure room and to avoid a sort of trap.

So, all in all I like this scenario and actually plan to run it in the next weeks. What I think I'll do is keep the treasure as is, but lower the HD of most creatures by 1, so as to (probably) make it suitable for level 1 characters. Considering the deadliness of the adventure, the degree of player skill it requires, the fact that it's fairly short, it may very well be a valid alternative to the more famous Tomb of the Serpent Kings as an introduction to Old School games!

Holy-Themed Desert Encounters for OSR Games

    New weekend, new table from Lands of Legends!

This week, I offer a d10 table with ten Holy Desert encounters for your OSR sandbox campaign with simple stat references for your classic game of choice, wether is Old-School Essentials, Labyrinth Lord, Sword & Wizardry, or any other clone of OE, B/X, or BECMI Dungeons and Dragons.

Use them to spice up your sandbox!

These are straight from the Areas section of Lands of Legends Holy. Check it out for hundreds more!

But before the table, a little reminder! I've wrapped the five Lands of Legends PDFs into one big sweet BUNDLE available for the duration of the holidays. Hope this counts for making it on the nice list!

So here's the table:

Deserts - Holy Encounters

1. Reverse Sphinx. This sphinx commands the group to ask her a riddle. Players have a few minutes to formulate one. If they can’t come up with a riddle, the creature attacks them. If she (and the DM) cannot answer in 1 minute, then the heroes have passed the test and can go, with the help and blessing of the creature. If the sphinx answers the riddle, she’ll be amused and ask for one more, until she cannot answer, or the group has amused her with three different riddles.
2. Dust Angel. A whirlwind of dust appears and disappears at a distance and seems to follow the group. Later, in the presence of a danger, the whirlwind will appear again, rising around the whole party, wrapping or hiding them from enemies, erasing their tracks or carrying them to a safe place. Inside the whirlwind, the heroes can see a gentle, smiling face.
3. Black Scorpions. The heroes spot or are approached by a black scorpion, as big as an arm. Any guide or native will tell them that it is a sacred scorpion and it mustn’t be killed, even if it tries to sting them. Actually (this is the natives' secret) their venom quenches all thirst and hunger.
4. Mad Hermit. This crazy, babbling old man, dressed in rags, feeding on locusts and desert dew, is the most powerful cleric the world will ever see. If only one could make him listen to reason. Only very patient players should find out the truth.
5. Prophetic Vulture. This big bird, black from the point of its beak to the talons of its feet, is a spirit of doom: it can speak, with a baby’s voice that comes out of its closed beak, and will only say the name of a place known to the characters, and then the sentence “...is doomed”. And it is true.
6. The Ark. In the midst of this arid region lie the remains of a huge, ancient ship. The wreck, preserved by the dry climate, has no masts. Inside there are large and small ramps and stalls and ancient marks of horns and claws. Gigantic parasites may still roam in the lower decks.
7. Living Icons. A gigantic temple stands in an area of rocky formations. Its priests are skilled sculptors and their worship is to create colossal statues of the gods, which they infuse with a sort of divine life-spark. Inside this sanctuary are the images of most known gods, which may be contacted directly to obtain responses or blessings.
8. Nativity. In a secret cave, three magicians have gathered from distant lands to officiate a forbidden ritual: the birth of a god, which will happen in 2d6 days! They have brought special substances, astrological diagrams and dozens of servants. Attracted by a light in the sky, shepherds of the area are flocking to see. What will the new god be like? Randomly determine alignment, morality and power of the new god or make it the avatar of an existing deity.
9. The Herald. A dense flock of red birds comes from the west. They gather in front of the party, assuming the appearance of a god speaking through twittering and fluttering of wings, resulting in a deafening roar (Save vs Spell or be deafened for 1d6 hours). Any god can speak  this “Herald". Today, it warns the group of some danger (roll the next encounter and anticipate part of it, or hint at the features of an area the party is likely to visit).
10. The Octahedron. The party has just found one of the octahedra, which are said to be tears of the goddess of dawn made into geometric crystals by the god of forges. Those who shake an octahedron in their hands before attempting a task will receive the aid of the gods: they can add d8 to a roll they are about to perform. As soon as the octahedron is shaken, it dissolves in a cloud of dust.

If you enjoy this type of content, check my other random tables posts, and my OSR stuff on DrivethruRPG: the Land of Legends series and my pwyw e-zines for Old-School Essentials: Wondrous Weavings Warped and Weird and Mysteriously Missing & Merrily Met!

My next pwyw Old-School Essentials e-zine will be released this month! To find out what it'll be about, and grab it as soon as it's out, follow me on Facebook, Twitter or Telegram!

Fairy Cities for OSR Games

   New weekend, new table from Lands of Legends!

A slow, frustrating Saturday with my kids going through yet another swab, and probably another week off from school because of several covid cases around. And even the school I work at has got half a dozen cases or more. So let's escape to some Fairy City!

This week, I offer a d10 table with ten Fairy Civilization areas for your OSR sandbox campaign with simple stat references for your classic game of choice, wether is Old-School Essentials, Labyrinth Lord, Sword & Wizardry, or any other clone of OE, B/X, or BECMI Dungeons and Dragons.

Use them to spice up your sandbox!

These are straight from the Areas section of Lands of Legends Fairy. Check it out for hundreds more!

But before the table, it's time for an announcement! I've wrapped the five Lands of Legends PDFs into one big sweet BUNDLE available for the duration of the holidays Hope this counts for making it on the nice list!

So here's the table:

Civilizations - Fairy Areas

1. The Floating Castle. This castle floats 200’ above the ground. It is home to the Three Archmage Brothers, served by 12 animated crystal statues and protected by 90 gargoyles. They travel through kingdoms researching knowledge, rare alchemical components and, very rarely, apprentices.
2. Goblin City. An accumulation of hovels, shacks and huts stacked on one another on many levels, around a network of muddy streets and alleys. Structures are built with a jumble of parts randomly juxtaposed, totally unsafe, and about to fall down. Bridges, roads and stairs, completely unnecessary, go back and forth without reason, with blind alleys and twisted meanders. Construction sites, scaffoldings and excavations are found everywhere, with the most unlikely workers. The Goblin Committee rules the city, hosting emissaries from distant tribes. Navigating the city requires an INT check, and failure may result in a monster encounter or a nasty cave-in or collapsing building (3d6 damage).
3. Modern Times. In this metropolis all the hard work is done by golems and mechanical servants; sewer oozes digest the waste, bulettes are used for digging tunnels and mines, the breath of dragons is employed in forges and alchemical workshops, rust monsters serve the scrap dealers and so on. Each monster in the bestiary has been tamed for a particular use, including many humanoids, who live in the nearby slum, while humans are employed as geometers, architects and superintendents. But who is on top of the hierarchy?
4. Webtown. This town hangs from magically protected ropes attached to the huge rocks at the sides of a ravine, because the region is so infested with wild beasts that the only safe place to live in is the air. Hundreds of hammock-houses in rope, leather and fabric hang over the abyss below, with rope bridges and ladders connecting the two sides of the ravine to the houses.
5. Armilla, Town of Nymphs. This once beautiful city has been abandoned for centuries. Among the ruins, the beautiful baths, aqueducts, fountains and basins work perfectly and do not seem aged by a day. Beautiful girls are often seen swimming in pools and fountains, disappearing at will in the pipes and reappearing somewhere else, at another point reached by water. Consecrated to the goddess of water, Armilla is inhabited only by this group of water nymphs, protecting it against invaders and the passage of time.
6. Of Giants and Men. This town is inhabited by giants, but there is also an entire population of humans. To the giants, the humans in the city are what mice are to men, hiding in caves, behind walls or under the stairs, pilfering from their larders, barns and cellars. The giants fight off men as parasites, or capture and cage them like pets. They also use big panthers to dig out their unwanted guests.
7. The Well of Wonders. This village is famous for its enchanted well: those who dare drink its water undergo some kind of change. Roll a d10. Each individual can only be affected once! 1-3: reroll a random ability with 4d6; 4: rejuvenate 2d6+5 years; 5: gain a random first level spell as a natural ability; 6: loose a level; 7: become immune to poison; 8: gain a level; 9: change sex; 10: randomly change race.
8. Slumbertown. This cursed village is generally avoided: all its inhabitants sleep and nothing wakes them up. No one grows old, nothing decays. If a visitor attempts to harm someone or take something, all visitors are teleported to the last bed where they slept, remembering their visit as a dream. The only way to lift the curse is to find an empty bed in the village and sleep for a whole night. Poltergeists will try to wake up the newcomers, so five rolls (WIS checks) must be failed. The witch that cursed Slumbertown might be displeased, though!
9. The Clockwork City. This whole city is a complex construct. Roads, stairs, walls, palaces and towers are wired together and can move and change configuration under the control of the City Masters for special needs such as sieges, wars, urban planning, curfews, and so on. 
10. Maple Town. This place, also called The Farmyard, is inhabited by anthropomorphic animals who follow a complex code of honor (carnivores cannot eat humanoid or humanized animals), trying to create a utopian society. They gather from around the world to formulate a common statute and an early universal declaration of animal rights, so the city is like a great parliament. Humanoids are welcome, but often viewed with suspicion.

If you enjoy this type of content, check my other random tables posts, and my OSR stuff on DrivethruRPG: the Land of Legends series and my pwyw e-zines for Old-School Essentials: Wondrous Weavings Warped and Weird and Mysteriously Missing & Merrily Met!

My next pwyw Old-School Essentials e-zine will be released this month! To find out what it'll be about, and grab it as soon as it's out, follow me on Facebook, Twitter or Telegram!