Journey to the Center of Áereth

DCC #91: Journey to the Center of Áereth is a 4th level adventure written by Harley Stroh. Art is by Doug Kovacs, William McAusland, Brad McDevitt, Peter Mullen, Russ Nicholson, and Stefan Poag. Cartography is by Mark Allen and Doug Kovacs. The publisher is Goodman Games.

Disclosure: I have writing credits on two supplemental products to this adventure.

This adventure is, in part, explicitly inspired by Robert E. Howard’s Tower of the Elephant and Worms of the Earth, Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Pellucidar, and H.P. Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness.

I would think that it was also inspired by Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth, as well as modules D 1-2 Descent into the Depths of the Earth and D3 Vault of the Drow by Gary Gygax for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. As one approaches the depths of the planet, gravity is reduced, making your PCs stronger in a way that is reminiscent of Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter/Barsoom novels.

Lin Carter's Zanthodon novels, while not explicitly mentioned, could also be used as a source for expanding this adventure...and there is definitely room for expansion! In effect, the aspiring judge is given a whole new world to play with - one that is as strange and compelling as the Purple Planet.

The basic conceit of the adventure is pretty simple: your PCs discover a way into passages leading to the Center of Áereth. The adventure is roughly divided into getting access to the passages, traversing the passages, and what you find once you reach the end. What you may discover in the Center of Áereth is further expanded upon in DCC #91.1: The Lost City of Barako and DCC #91.2: Lairs of Lost Agharta. One could also use the Adamantine Mole from The Imperishable Sorceress to reach the Center of Áereth...which implies that the Builders may make some appearance in your home-brewed adventures there, or some later adventure(s) published by Goodman Games.

It should come as no surprise that the long journey has to be glossed over to some degree. There is no way that an adventure of any reasonable size could lay out all of the potential routes and sidetracks of such an exploration on a 10' x 10' square scale. As a result, the judge may make any number of expansions on this section, adding whatever degree of granularity is desired. Just be careful to finally get to the main event. The adventure does include a table of random encounters and events that can occur during the journey, as well as tables for various sections of the destination.

The destination itself is painted in broad strokes....which it must be, because it represents a whole new campaign "world" that could easily be as large as a surface continent...or larger. This could easily have been a boxed set.

The stories have reached you: A world beneath our own, lit by a brilliant sun and ruled by sages beyond reproach, where magic has replaced the spoken word, the weakest slave is like unto a superman, and the domes gleam with hammered gold.

You’ve spilled enough blood to know better.

Your trek to discover the truth will take you through endless caverns, ancient causeways and along unknown rivers. An expedition worthy of true explorers, Journey to the Center of Áereth offers characters the adventure of a lifetime – or the means to a quick doom.

The Journey awaits!

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Lairs of Lost Agharta

DCC #91.2: Lairs of Lost Agharta: Creatures and Lairs in the Center of Aereth is a supplement to DCC #91: Journey to the Center of Áereth. It was written by Steven Bean, Daniel J. Bishop, Tim Callahan, Stephen Newton, and Terry Olson, with Harley Stroh. Art is by Doug Kovacs (cover only), Steve Crompton, and Stefan Poag. Cartography is by Steve Crompton. The publisher is Goodman Games.

Disclosure: I am one of the authors on this project.Specifically, if your characters fall victim to the Maleves or the No-Men, you have me to blame.

This work is fairly new at the time of this writing, and is a compliation of creatures and beings you might encounter in the Center of the Áereth, along with random encounter tables and an appendix to generate "Marooned Mortals" on the dim shores of the inner world.

There are 13 creatures/lairs in this digest-sized book, but there are more than 50 pages of material, so nothing is given short shrift. Of course, anything can be reskinned to fit other campaign milieus, but everything you encounter herein has been designed with Lost Agharta in mind. While it should go without saying that combat may occur, not everything herein is necessarily a "combat encounter", either.

Sages will aver that the denizens of the underworld are, by necessity, alien to surface dwellers such as ourselves. Few will ever stand on the ink-black shores of the Lost Agharta, and even fewer will return to tell the tale. Those that do, report creatures transmuted by their deadly environs and the weird gloom. These creatures of legend owe no allegiance or kinship to the beasts of our lit-realms, and woe to the adventurer who mistakes them for a familiar foes.

Collected herein are thirteen of the stranger beings explorers may encounter upon their arrival at the very center of our hollow globe. This is certainly not an exhaustive list, if such a thing could even exist – for the underworld is vast, and our knowledge is slight.

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The Lost City of Barako

DCC #91.1: The Lost City of Barako is a 6th level adventure written by Harley Stroh, Steven Bean, Daniel J. Bishop, Tim Callahan, and Terry Olson. Art is by Doug Kovacs, Peter Mullen, and Stefan Poag. The publisher is Goodman Games.

Disclosure: I did some supplemental writing for this product. Specifically, I wrote the Drippling, Head Hunter, and Underbelly Stalker, so if any of your PCs fall to these menaces, you have me to blame.

Although described as a 6th level adventure, this "city at the center of Áereth" is more of a stakes-raising supplement to DCC #91: Journey to the Center of Áereth than anything else. It describes the lost pleasure palace of Barako, complete with tables to describe areas where game play might occur, creatures that might be found there, and information on the extremely creepy and potentially dangerous Akashic Library of Barako.

The product is new enough, and cool enough, that I don't want to spoil any of the surprises the lost city has in store. Suffice it to say that my contributions are far from the best material you will find herein.

That said, I was already considering how the Builders and the Adamantine Mole from The Imperishable Sorceress might fit into Áereth's inner world. If you notice a potential link between the Head Hunters, the No-Men in Lairs of Lost Agharta, and the Builders, I would encourage you to expand upon it!

It strikes me that the lost city is named after a certain former President of the United States. This might be coincidence...after all, I am told that Punjar wasn't named after a collection of money at the center of the gaming table, filled with the ill-gotten loot of numerous groaners. Nonetheless, once you see it, you cannot un-see it.

The pleasure palace of Barako rises above the Bleak Shores atop enormous stone pylons. The palace arches towards the cavernous gloom, lit by a thousand lanterns fueled by the rendered flesh of a thousand lamenting souls. Within the city, hellish figures dart and whirl in the flickering light, prostrating themselves before their Aghartan masters, all to the cacophonic beat of a thousand alien instruments. What adventures will you find here?

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The Gong Farmer's Almanac 2017 Vol 2

The 2017 Gongfarmer’s Almanac Volume 2: Pandemonium Locations, Part I, was written by Marc Bruner, Jeff Goad, Keith Nelson, SGT Dave, Dan Steeby, and Harley Stroh. Artwork is by Doug Kovacs, Marc Radle, Patrick Regan, Clayton Williams, and William McAusland. Cartography is by Alden Bruner, Marc Bruner, Bobby Jackson, SGT Dave, and Shyloh Wideman. The publisher is the Gongfarmer's Local #282.

Unlike previous years' Gongfarmer's Almanacs, five volumes of the 2017 edition have an overarching theme - the roiling, ever-changing plane of Pandemonium.

"Awash in the roiling seas of phlogiston, home to alien horrors and unknown powers, the ever-changing lands of Pandemonium remain a mystery to even the most powerful of wizards and sorcerers. Few explorers choose to travel the chaos-way, and even fewer return. To most, Pandemonium is a myth, an impossible place where the land and sky are all mutable, where the land itself can be an ally or foe, and where a powerful will can transform reality." - Harley Stroh

This volume describes some of the hexes of Pandemonium. Let's look inside.

The Big Rock Candy Mountains: If, like me, you enjoyed O Brother, Where Art Thou?, you might be expecting a different description of the Big Rock Candy Mountains! In Pandemonium, this is a form of Candyland where children become sugar thralls (or worse). Monsters resemble well-known children's games and confectionery treats, but author Jeff Goad displays a wickedly twisted sense of humor, and doesn't leave it at that. This hex could easily be used in conjunction with Faerie Tales From Unlit Shores, Perils of the Cinder Claws, or Lamentations of the Gingerbread Princess.

The Big Festering Giant: Perhaps you think BFG stands for Big Friendly Giant? Perhaps not to be outdone by Jeff Goad in twisting childhood memories author Keith Nelson introduces the Big Festering Giant, a colossal near-corpse that you can squick about inside. This is actually a lovingly rendered text of a rather unlovely subject, and includes the rather interesting Among the Mite-Goblins on the Shores of Lake Urine: An Introductory Encounter to the BFG.

Monsters of the Big Festering Giant: Keith Nelson also includes "a brief selection of the mundane and bizarre inhabitants and active perils of the creature colloquially known as the Big Festering Giant, or BFG." A full dozen monsters are listed, some with varieties thereunto. Here are some encounters I worked on, which might also be usable in the BFG.

The Black Iron Citadel: Dan Steeby offers a scorched desert cavernscape, dominated by a "massive structure with the shape of a colossal humanoid form, seemingly crouching in a pitiful, cowering position, with massive arms thrown over its tusked face as in a final ward against its doom." This is the Black Iron Citadel, ruled by the demon prince Pazuzu. PCs may also meet his "supremely bored and petulant" daughter, Lilitu.

The Boreal Wastes: This hex, by Harley Stroh, with additional material by Marc Bruner, is exactly what it sounds like: a vast icy wasteland with enormous ice ridges and ruins half-buried in the snow and ice. Most of the hexes thus far have been based on twisted childhood themes or hellscapes, so the Boreal Wastes come as a nice change. I am left wondering whether some of this material was unused from the beginning of Journey to the Center of Áereth?

The Carousel of Doom:  This hex, "a mutated carnival of insanity, guilt, and agony" also deals with childhood themes. It also includes platypus cultists and marsupial face huggers, so a good time is sure to be had by all. If your players visit this hex of Pandemonium, be sure to thank SGT Dave, the writer, for delving into the Ruins of Make-believe.

The Forest of Nedra: Finally, Marc Bruner offers "A shadow land of grey twilight" existing "between states of reality, filled with objects both half-formed and those seemingly etched into the fabric of creation itself." A faerie-based hex, this has a Dark River that strongly reminds me of the enchanted stream through Mirkwood in The Hobbit. A portal could easily link this hex to Goblins of the Faerie Woods or the Goblin Market in Creeping Beauties of the Wood. Or both.

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Death Among the Pines

DCC #83.2 Death Among the Pines was written by Michael Curtis, and is part of the Shudder Mountain series started with The Chained Cofffin. The cover, by Doug Kovacs, is excerpted from the cover from The Chained Coffin. Interior art is by Peter Mullen and Stefan Poag. Mark Allen did the cartography. Goodman Games is the publisher.

This practice of re-using cover art to indicate that something is part of the same setting started with the supplements to Harley Stroh's Peril on the Purple Planet, and is also used in the materials supplementing Journey to the Center of Aereth. It is a good system to indicate that a new produce belongs with a particular setting, along with the module numbering and the digest-sized format.

Death Among the Pines is a 3rd level adventure, which takes place while the PCs are travelling from Point A to Point B. Although it fits perfectly into the Shudder Mountains setting, it would take very little work to make the adventure fit into most Dungeon Crawl Classics campaign milieus, which makes the adventure doubly useful. In addition to the prevalent influence of Manly Wade Wellman, which is strong throughout the Shudder Mountains material, there is a strong Robert E. Howard influence (at least, it seems so to me), particularly in reference to his Kull stories.

Welcome to pastoral Holler Hollow, a quaint hamlet deep in the Shudder Mountains. Here you’ll find friendly Shudfolk, downhome cooking, and a jug of stump whiskey if you mind your manners. But not all is what is seems in the Hollow: a restless spirit stalks the lane at midnight, terrifying the locals. Staunch-hearted heroes are needed to unearth the secrets of Holler Hollow and lay the spirit to rest. Are you up to the task?

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Silent Nightfall

CE 5: Silent Nightfall is a part of the Campaign Elements series designed to challenge 2nd level or higher characters. It was written by Daniel J. Bishop with art by Jacob Blackmon and Tim Hartin (cartography). The publisher is Purple Duck Games.

Disclosure: I am the author.

Before there was Mutant Crawl Classics, Silent Nightfall provided a quick way to create mutant critters. Before there was Blessings of the Vile Brotherhood, Silent Nightfall provided details on the Radiant Brotherhood. Before there was DCC Empire of the East, Silent Nightfall introduced a demon who was the result of a contained nuclear explosion.

All this and more because Silent Nightfall is, in part, an homage to The Changeling Earth and Hiero's Journey! 

Those quick mutation rules, by the way, are still usable in games such as Mutant Crawl Classics. In addition, you gain rules for demi-patrons and learning new languages through game play. Did I mention that statistics for tetanus are also included?

Silent Nightfall has come up on the Sanctum Secorum podcast several times - most notably when it was chosen as the featured product when discussing Changeling Earth. It also came up in Episodes 2 (The Last Castle), 9 (H.P. Lovecraft), 10 (The Maker of Gargoyles), and 20 (The Dying Earth). It was discussed on Spellburn in Episodes 55 (DCC Fan Favorites) and 87 (Upon Further Reviews).

I have discussed this adventure several times in Raven Crowking's Nest, including a run through with 8th level PCs. For examples, see this post, or this post, or this series of three posts. I have also run this adventure at a variety of cons, both online and in person. Overall, I think that it has aged well, and I am always surprised by how the adventure ends - explosively or otherwise - and what steps PCs are able to take to avoid their own destruction. 

When I proposed the CE Series, I asked Tim Hartin to draw a number of small maps with which to spark ideas. The purpose of the CE Series is to provide the judge with world-building materials, small areas that can potentially be explored in a single session (when all the regulars are unavailable) and materials that can continue to be of use throughout a campaign. By those measures, I believe Silent Nightfall succeeds. 

There are often periods of greater or lesser magical influence in the world. Millennia ago, during a period of reduced magical activity, there was a nuclear power station at this location. When magical influences began to spread once more, the nuclear core became unstable, and began to develop a form of malevolent sentience. The ancients placed the core in a shaft three miles deep, the last 500 feet of which were filled with heavy water. This shaft, and its attendant control center, were given the codename “Silent Nightfall”.

In the ages since, much of the complex has collapsed or ceased to function, but the main shaft still remains, going three miles deep into the ground. The rooms that remain have undergone great changes, having been used for many different purposes and by many different creatures over the centuries. As a result, the original purpose of the shaft, rooms, and corridors has become obscured.

One of those who used the area was the wizard Mortmallion the Pale, who stole the Whispering Stone from Elfland. He hid himself and the stone in the Silent Nightfall complex, but the weird energies coming up from below changed him. Mortmallion can still be found, deep below, as the shaft crawler. Over time, the Whispering Stone became confused with the area where it is now found, and some texts refer to it as “Silent Nightfall” without making it clear why the stone has this name.

Currently, they are used as the nesting ground of owl-like humanoids that call themselves the grallistrix. Incubating their eggs in the Silent Nightfall complex has changed them, and they have become dangerous nocturnal predators in the region. The grallistrix hunt in triads, and locate prey by an extraordinary sense of hearing. As a result, communities nearby observe unexpected quiet at night – there are no late night gatherings. Inns and taverns close their doors with the fall of night.

Finally, the nuclear core itself has gained sentience and a malevolent, demonic intelligence. Imprisoned at the bottom of the shaft, it knows no other name than Silent Nightfall. So long as the demon remains bound, it is no great threat to the PCs or their world. In fact, they may be able to deal with it in order to gain magical aid.

In this way, the term “Silent Nightfall” has come to mean the following within the context of this location – the remains of the nuclear complex, the practice of avoiding loud noises after dark, the Whispering Stone, and the great demon imprisoned at the bottom of the shaft. This gives the judge many ways to lead the PCs into this material. It also allows the judge to make finding information difficult, as the many uses of “Silent Nightfall” spill into each other.

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Tales of the Shudder Mountains

DCC 83.1: Tales of the Shudder Mountains was written by Michael Curtis. Art is by Doug Kovacs (cover), S.S. Crompton (cartography), Stefan Poag, and Michael Wilson. The publisher is Goodman Games.

This product is three short adventures (or "Tales") which take place in the Shudder Mountains (first introduced in The Chained Coffin).

This product continues the practice of re-using cover art to indicate that something is part of the same setting, similar to Harley Stroh's Peril on the Purple Planet and Journey to the Center of Aereth. It is a good system to indicate that a new produce belongs with a particular setting, along with the module numbering and the digest-sized format.

The "Tale" format in this product has each adventure starting with a short bit of folklore that the PCs might be told around the fire when visiting the Shudfolk. This is fantastic, as it feeds directly into the setting itself. and is reminiscent of the source material. A clever judge could seed these "Tales" (and similar) early in a Shudder Mountains campaign, so that when the PCs encountered the reality behind the tale there would be a wonderful sense of frisson.

Tale 1: The Grave Pool (level 4): Sooner or later a PC is going to die, and what if your party is brave foolhardy enough to try to bring them back? Adventures like Blades Against Death and The Revelation of Mulmo aren't appropriate for the Shudder Mountains, but this one is. There is a nice reference to Manly Wade Wellman's The Little Black Train.

Tale 2: Moonricket Bridge (level 1): This one is a ghost story. And, while there is something to fight, like the best ghost stories understanding and compassion lead to the best possible outcome. Too often, ghost stories are not really about understanding the past. This one is. It plays to the strengths of the setting, and it plays to the strengths of Dungeon Crawl Classics. It is thoroughly Appendix N of the Who Fears the Devil? type.

Tale 3: The WitchMan of Darkweather Mountain (level 5): Here is another example of an adventure where the PCs may Quest For It and get something other than what they bargained for. Or they may get exactly what they are after, if they can both overcome the opposition and are reasonably lucky. Neither this tale nor The Grave Pool simply messes with player hopes...but PCs do take risks to gain the benefits they hope for!

If you needed any more proof of Michael Curtis' firm mastery of folkloric Appalachian-style Dungeon Crawl Classics, this product delivers. Much of the Shudder Mountains material (if not all!) would rock mightily in a Weird Frontiers game as well, and a judge could easily use the Shudder Mountains as a conduit between worlds, like the "thinnies" in Stephen King's The Dark Tower series. Honestly, as tied as these adventures are into the feel of the Shudder Mountains, nothing would prevent a judge from making slight modifications and placing them in another campaign milieu.

This digest-sized adventure module presents three short encounters in the Shudder Mountains. All are compatible with the setting presented in DCC #83: The Chained Coffin, and this module is the perfect size to be stored in your boxed set! The adventures are inspired by the works of Manly Wade Wellman and continue the “backwoods fantasy” theme established in DCC #83: The Chained Coffin.

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DCC RPG/Xcrawl Free RPG Day 2013

The DCC RPG/Xcrawl Free RPG Day 2013 offering was written by Daniel J. Bishop and Brendan LaSalle, with art by Doug Kovacs, Jeremy Mohler, and Brad McDevitt. It was published by Goodman Games.

Disclosure: I am the writer of the Dungeon Crawl Classics adventure in this product.

This product contains two adventures, The Imperishable Sorceress for Dungeon Crawl Classics, and Maximum Xcrawl: 2013 Studio City Crawl by Brendan LaSalle for the Pathfinder version of Xcrawl.

The Imperishable Sorceress was the first writing that I had done for Goodman Games, and it came about as a request from Joseph Goodman for a short adventure. I was imagining that he was gearing up for the first DCC Annual, or that he was looking for a second adventure for another module (like The Balance Blade is included in The 13th Skull), but that turned out to not be the case. The Dark Master accepted the first pitch I offered, with the minor exception that I was considering recruitment offers leading the PCs to the Cleft Mountain, ala Fritz Leiber's Stardock.

I had just finished reading Stanley Weinbaum's The Black Flame when I made this pitch, and, along with Stardock, it was a primary inspiration. The original text included mountain climbing tables to more closely reflect Stardock, but playtests indicated that too many encounters on the relatively linear mountainside detracted from the whole. If you like the "secret doors" in the adventure, you have Joseph Goodman to thank. He wanted at least one, and I had to devise a way to make a secret door work in an ancient structure like this.

The Builders are, of course, inspired by H.P. Lovecraft. The “Adamantine Mole” was inspired by the "Iron Mole" from Edgar Rice Burrough's At the Earth's Core, and may lead PCs to Harley Stroh's Lost Agharta from Journey to the Center of Aereth and The Lost City of Barako.

Ivrian the Unkind is named for the Gray Mouser's paramour in Ill Met in Lankhmar and, in particular, The Unholy Grail.

The ghosts of fish were inspired, in part, from the 1986 film From Beyond, itself based off a story of the same name by H.P. Lovecraft.

Brendan LaSalle's Maximum Xcrawl: 2013 Studio City Crawl was written for Pathfinder, although it could be converted to Dungeon Crawl Classics. Nonetheless, because it is not a DCC product, it will not be getting in-depth discussion here.

There are already three converted Xcrawl adventures available for Dungeon Crawl Classics, and a DCC version of Xcrawl is in the works. Afficianados of the Dungeon Crawl Classics game will know Brendan LaSalle from The Hole in the Sky, as well as (possibly, if you are lucky) his judging at many conventions. At the time of this writing, he featured on the most recent Spellburn podcast, where his newest DCC adventure, Neon Knights, is mentioned.

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