Points of Light Borderlands and the Scourge of the Demon Wolf

Recently I was asked this question about combine two things I written, the Borderland setting from Points of Light and Scourge of the Demon Wolf.

Hey Robert, I've been reading Scourge of the Demon Wolf and it occurs to me I might want to attach it to a side of the Borderland setting from your Points of Light book. Do you have a quick thought about how you would staple the two together?

The Borderlands
For those you don't know Borderlands is one of four hexcrawl formatted setting in Points of Light. It depicts a time period when the Bright Empire was torn apart in a religious and political civil war. A conflict between factions supporting Sarrath the God of Order (Lawful Evil) and Delaquain the Goddess of Honor and Justice (Lawful Good).

In the setting the civil war has been going on for a few years. Parts of the region are divided between the faction, parts are devastated, and parts are neutral just trying to hang on.

The Scourge of the Demon Wolf
The Scourge of the Demon Wolf centers on a manor village terrorized by a pack of wolves. To adapt it for Borderlands I drew a map and recommended the following.

1416 is the Beggar Camp
1615 is the sacrifice site
1617 is the Bandit Cave in a bluff overlooking Cailly River and the swamp.

Instead of the Baron of Westtower as giving the mission I recommended that role be given to Count Travlin of Darcion. Instead of the baron's huntsmen in the stocks, it's Sheriff Melan of Saurton in the stocks

The Church of Mitra in Kensla would now be a Ecumenical Imperial Church of the four Gods with the statue of Delaquain removed. The personality of the priest remains the same. The bailiff that was killed was an agent of Divolic and an adherent of Sarrath and there is little love for him in the village.

As an added wrinkle Count Travlin is looking for leverage against the Mages of Order of Thoth in the Golden House in order to enlist their aid for Duke Divolic in the civil war. However would be more of a bonus as Count Travlin is not aware of the supernatural nature of the Demon Wolf or even the Demon Wolf exists. If made aware of the full circumstance Count Travlin would provide a handsome reward as the information would provide considerable leverage over the mages.

An alternative start is that a cleric or paladin gets a call from Veritas, Thoth or Delaquain. From the call the party starts with knowing that it has something to do with the Sheriff Melan of Saurton being thrown in the stocks in Darcion. Since the stocks are in the public square the party could question the sheriff which will lead them to Kensla and the adventure.

Once again the party will have to decide what to do with the information about how mage are connected to the Demon Wolf. Except this time they are nominally the "good" guys.

Finally a start I didn't mention earlier was that the characters were sent by the Duke of Stoneburg to Darcion to investigate why Sheriff Melan was thrown in the stocks. It would be similar to the above but without the religious overtones. Since the Duke has the support of the remnants of the old imperial church and the still loyal priests of Thoth and Veritas. The resolution of the adventure could be the foundation for an alliance between the Duke and the mage of the Golden House.

Click to Expand

Wrapping it up.
As a general note, all the Points of Light setting and Blackmarsh are part of the same loose background. Although set in different time period. Borderlands is the earliest time period depicted set during the civil war that ripped the Bright Empire apart. Wildland represents the aftermath after the collapse of the empire. While Southland and Blackmarsh are set in later centuries during the rise of the Grand Kingdom.

The settings of Points of Light II are also set during the Grand Kingdom period. They focuses on the expansion overseas to the New World of the setting and the colonial rivalry between the Grand Kingdom and the Ochre Empire.

Scourge of the Demon Wolf sale!

The PDF copy of Scourge of the Demon Wolf is on sale for $6 on RPGNow (or DriveThruRPG).

Three died. They were mauled beyond recognition. The Baron sent his huntsmen to kill the beasts and for a fortnight they tramped across the countryside. Between their whoring and drinking they killed twelve wolves, parading their skins through the village. They were hung on poles as trophies of victory. Then the huntsmen left, the beasts slain, the village saved… so we thought.

As the fields turned golden under the summer sun the killings began again. Four more died. Then the Baron's man, the bailiff, was killed on the high meadow in sight of Mitra's Temple. His screams could be heard well into the village. He was only identified after we reassembled the pieces.

With the priest's help I wrote a report to our liege, the Baron of Westtower. My report ended with,

There will be no harvest until the beast is slain and the killings stopped.

A 72 page adventure compatible with the Swords & Wizardry  rules and a setting supplement to the Majestic Wilderlands. detailing a small barony, a complete fantasy village, a conclave of mages, a crossroads hamlet, and a camp of wandering beggars.

Setting Scourge of the Demon Wolf in the Wilderlands of High Fantasy

My Majestic Wilderlands setting uses a modified map and expanded scale (12.5 miles per hex)

However my Scourge of the Demon Wolf adventure/supplement can be used in the Wilderlands of High Fantasy.

Set it up as follows on the CSIO Map 1 (JG), Map 5 (Necromancer)

• Kensla in hex 2329 to the northwest of Dearthmead village and near Herald Peak, and south of Green Gate Passing. 
• Denison's Crossing in hex 2428
• The Golden House in hex 2328
• Put the rest of the locales in the same relative positions around those three locales.
• Then change the hook to from Baron Micheal to Lord Oramek of Dearthmead.

A Map

Another Review of Scourge of the Demon Wolf

Over on The RPG Site is another excellent review of Scourge of the Demon Wolf. It by Brendan of Bedrock Games. He published an interesting Roman Era RPG called the Servants of Gaius.

Note that we do have a professional association in that I drew the maps for the upcoming Arrows of Indra authored by the RPG Pundit and published by Bedrock Games. Arrows of Indra is similar to my Majestic Wilderlands except it implements the original 1974 roleplaying game for mythological India. It includes classes, spells, monsters, races, and magic items designed to work with the India of Vedic myth.

A excellent review of the Scourge of the Demon Wolf

Peter over at Dungeon Fantastic has written an excellent review on the Scouge of the Demon Wolf. It excellent not because he gave it a high rating, although that great in of itself, but he goes into its strength and shortcomings and explains WHY. As a small press publisher this kind of feedback is invaluable.

One of the comments led to a moment of "Oh shit, why did I forget to explain that?". Now I am posting this not as a defense but rather as what I hope to be an interesting look into the creative process.

Peter mentions why did the bad guy opt to run away rather than one of several other alternatives that he thought were likely. And he is right to question that as I forgot to provide any detail about the motivations of the bad guy.

Did I just forget to write up an important detail? Or was there another reason? Well I looked over my notes and turned out to be a little of both. I did have the motivation of the bad guy written down. But didn't right up the adventure from those notes. I wrote the adventure half from the extensive notes I made while playtesting the module. I figured it would be better than the originals as it would reflect what I used in actual play.

And as it turned out, despite a dozen playtests, it never came up once in the penultimate encounter. The bad guy always had enough time to overhear the PCs and act well before they found the person out.  So when I wrote up it, it got dropped. Because it was only briefly mentioned in the original notes, I overlooked it as far as the penultimate encounter goes. Although some of it appeared in the summary at the beginning of the adventure and other elements in the supplement half.

I wrote up a summary of the bad guy's motivations during the final encounter here and will update RPGNow bundle to include it. I also wrote up why the NPCs are so ready to shield bad guy from the adventurers.

One thing I will add this is that Scourge is a freeform adventure. The general approach I take is to setup the situation, hook the players into it, and then adlib it from there based on the circumstances and the movitations of the NPCs. What written in Scourge is a general account of me doing this a dozen times. The upshot is that if you think the adventure will benefit from certain NPCs act in different ways then you are most definitely playing the module as I intended it to be played.

Another point of interest is that Scourge was originally written as an adventure for 100 to 150 pt GURPS Fantasy characters back around 2000.  I played it through once using GURPS. A second time using Dungeons and Dragons 3.0 around 2002. Then starting in 2009 playtested nine more times using Swords and Wizardry plus my MW Supplement at game stores and cons.

Again thanks to Peter for his excellent review and please check out his many GURPS books.

Scourge of the Demon Wolf Print released on RPGNow

Bat in the Attic Games is proud announce the release of the Print Edition of Scourge of the Demon Wolf on RPGNOW  

Three died. They were mauled beyond recognition. The Baron sent his huntsmen to kill the beasts and for a fortnight they tramped across the countryside. Between their whoring and drinking they killed twelve wolves, parading their skins through the village. They were hung on poles as trophies of victory. Then the huntsmen left, the beasts slain, the village saved… so we thought. As the fields turned golden under the summer sun the killings began again. Four more died. Then the Baron's man, the bailiff, was killed on the high meadow in sight of Mitra's Temple. His screams could be heard well into the village. He was only identified after we reassembled the pieces. With the priest's help I wrote a report to our liege, the Baron of Westtower. My report ended with,

There will be no harvest until the beast is slain and the killings stopped. 

 A 72 page adventure compatible with the Swords & Wizardry rules and a setting supplement to the Majestic Wilderlands. detailing a small barony, a complete fantasy village, a conclave of mages, a crossroads hamlet, and a camp of wandering beggars.

 For those of you who don't own the Majestic Wilderlands I also have a special $12 PDF only bundle of both the Majestic Wilderlands and the Scourge of the Demon Wolf.

For those who already bought the Scourge of the Demon Wolf PDF on RPGNow I have created a special $5 price for you to buy the print copy. As with Majestic Wilderlands I always intended the PDF to be free  with the purchase of the Print Version.

For those who prefer to take your business on Lulu, the coupon code NOVBOOKS12 can be used to get 20% off the PDF or Print. Unfortunately Lulu doesn't have the tools to allow the PDF to be free with the purchase of the print edition.

Price Break on Scourge of the Demon Wolf

Lulu has a 20% off sale using the code JEKYLL.  So if you looking to buy the print copy of Scourge of the Demon Wolf on Lulu you can buy it at a discount until the 26th.

Scourge of the Demon (Print, Lulu, Saddle Stitch binding, PDF NOT Included) $15 (available now)
Scourge of the Demon (PDF, Lulu) $10 (available now)

Scourge of the Demon Wolf is Released

Scourge of the Demon (Print, Lulu, Saddle Stitch binding, PDF NOT Included) $15 (available now)
Scourge of the Demon (PDF, Lulu) $10 (available now)
Scourge of the Demon (PDF, RPGNOw) $10 (available now)*
 *There will be a print option on RPGNow in about two to three weeks. 


Three died. They were mauled beyond recognition. The Baron sent his huntsmen to kill the beasts and for a fortnight they tramped across the countryside. Between their whoring and drinking they killed twelve wolves, parading their skins through the village. They were hung on poles as trophies of victory. Then the huntsmen left, the beasts slain, the village saved… so we thought.

As the fields turned golden under the summer sun the killings began again. Four more died. Then the Baron's man, the bailiff, was killed on the high meadow in sight of Mitra's Temple. His screams could be heard well into the village. He was only identified after we reassembled the pieces.

With the priest's help I wrote a report to our liege, the Baron of Westtower. My report ended with,
 
There will be no harvest until the beast is slain and the killings stopped.

A 72 page adventure compatible with the Swords and Wizardry rules and a setting supplement to the Majestic Wilderlands. detailing a small barony, a complete fantasy village, a conclave of mages, a crossroads hamlet, and a camp of wandering beggars.

Authored by Rob Conley

Scourge of the Demon Wolf Preview

Both the Lulu proof copy and the RPGNow proof copy are on their way. If everything goes well Scourge of the Demon Wolf should be out in two weeks. The product is both an adventure and a supplement. The first half is a 32 page adventure and the second half a 40 page supplement for the Majestic Wilderlands. For the supplement portion I took some of the locale that I lightly describe in the adventure and flesh them out in more detail. They work together similarly to how the rules and campaign guide does in  the Majestic Wilderlands Supplement. Either one can stand alone but I think it makes for a better product to have them both together. The adventure has immediate use, and the supplement give value to the book after the adventure is completed.

To get a taste of what you are going to be able to get in two weeks here is a 18 page preview. It has the first 9 pages so you can get a sense of what the adventure is about. It has one of adventure's encounters, a Bandit cave. And from supplement half, the crossroads hamlet of Denison's Crossing. It also showcases the excellent art of Jason Sholtis and John Larrey. And has a map of the Golden House.

For those of you that were disappointed that I didn't include one of my signature hexcrawls in the Majestic Wilderlands, I fixed that with Scourge. It is only a small Barony but should give you a taste of what my setting looks like on a local level.

This book represents the most common type of adventure I run in my Majestic Wilderlands. There is a dangerous situation, a bunch of people with conflicts and the player characters are right in the middle of it all. I am a little nervous about the presentation as the I have to pick some order to present the various possible encounters the character can run into on the adventure.

Every time I ran this, stuff occurred in different ways at different times. I tried not to leave the impression that the order in which I present the encounters is the way the adventure has to be run.

 The book will be $15 and the PDF $10. 

Demon Wolf Progress Report

Finished the layout of the main text of Scourge of the Demon Wolf last night.  Almost didn't happen as Microsoft Publisher choked on creating the PDF. Fixed it by switching the default printer to the the Microsoft XPS Driver. What left in layout is the front inside cover with the credits, the table of contents, and the OGL License. Plus I am waiting for a handful of art pieces for the supplement half of the book.

Afterwards I will  get it uploaded and order some proof copies from Lulu and RPGNow. I am shooting for a release in the 2nd or 3rd week of September and hopefully will have a preview PDF up before then.

Scrouge of the Demon Wolf progress with a preview

Tim and I are doing the second round of edit where we get together on Skype and read through the entire document. We got a quarter of the way through. Tighten up a few things and reworded some awkward phrasing.

Here is a preview of one of the encounters.

Rob Notes: I generally find it easier to write the highlights and improvise the roleplaying rather than read a section of prepared text. Sometimes I will include a short section of dialog to help me remember the personality of the character.

The Greenhaven Inn
If the party stops at the Greenhaven Inn in Denison’s Crossing (#1 Denison Crossing Map), they will be greeted warmly by Thomas Avarlis the Innkeeper.  He offers them the roast mutton with bread and cheese along with a choice of mead or beer for 2d.  His special for the day is two hares in blackberry sauce which comes with bread, cheese and drink for 4d.  He also has three varieties of wines costing 1d, 2d and 5d a goblet (Dearthmead Red, Caelam Red, and Vontal White).  The meals are of excellent quality. 

Thomas the Innkeeper doesn’t know much of what’s going on in Kensla, but hopes that the troubles don’t reach Denison’s Crossing.  He is confident that the toll guards stationed here will handle any trouble.  If asked about the baron’s chief huntsman, Sir Padrin, the innkeeper becomes animated.
 
The best four days of business I’ve ever had.  They drank their fill at least three times and eat four courses every meal.  And to me surprise! They pay their bill promptly! I haven’t had so much coin since the fussy mages came through on their way to their Golden House.  I can tell you they were not nearly as fun.  Although I have to say that when they came back bearing those wolf pelts I had to air out the place something fierce, took two days with the windows open and three changes of the rushes.

Thomas will then inquire after the chief huntsman health.  If informed about the huntsman being in the stock he looks crestfallen and mutters that he hopes that it gets sorted out.

If asked about the Golden House, Thomas will explain that it is a group of mages taken to living in the wilderness about 10 to 15 miles northwest of Denison Crossing.

Since my grandfather’s day, they been up in the Herald Hills doing their magic and wizardry.

Also staying at the inn is a group of merchants.  They consist of four humans of Ghinorian ancestry and a dwarf.  They are heading towards Twinhorn Pass in order to go west to do some trading around the Romaillion Sea.  One of the merchants is Master Luidwald, he is a talkative person and will take any chance to speak with the players. During the conversation Luidwald will relate that when they arrived this morning, a tinker named Anvald finished eating, then headed down the road to Kensla.  He knows very little about the Golden House other than the turnoff is six miles north from Denison Crossing on the way to Twinhorn Pass.

Observant members of the party may perceive at -5 [-25%] that one of the inn’s servants is listening to everything they say.  This servant is Carden Malsin, agent of the Overlord’s Black Lotus. He is assigned here to monitor the traffic to the Twinhorn Pass and report anything unusual.

Carden Malsin, Black Lotus Agent; AC 8[12]; 3rd level Burglar; HP 10; HTB +0;
Atk 1 Dmg 1d4; Move 120’; Save: 13;  
ABL Climbing +2, Eavesdropping +2, Legerdemain +3, Perception +2, Stealth +3;  
Posses: Dagger, 10d.

Rob’s Note: Like the chief huntsmen encounter, some parties rushed through Denison’s Crossing as fast as they could while others visited the inn.  I threw in Carden Malsin as a red herring. None of the parties who noticed him tried to interact with him. The most one party did was keep a close eye out for anybody following them.

Scourge of the Demon Wolf Update

Just got done with the first round of edits for Scourge of the Demon Wolf, send it back to Tim and also sent it to selected friends and associates for comments and suggestions.

It looking like it will be in the 48 to 64 page range, closer to 64 than 48. It will be packed with stuff in the supplement. So folks should be able to get a lot of use out of the book after the adventure is completed. A conclave of magic-users ranging from 1st to 12th level, an entire village presented a level of detail similar to the village of hommlet, a mini sandbox detailing a barony and more. 

Complimentary Copies of the Manor and Knowledge Illuminates

*ALL COPIES SPOKEN FOR*

As thanks to Tim for editing Scourge I made an offer to pay for ten orders of a copy of Knowledge Illuminates or an issue of a Manor. What I didn't do is think the logistics through and this post is going to fix that.

Four have spoken up leaving seven copies available.

You can email me at

robert s conley (remove the spaces)
(at)
gmail
(d-o-t)
com

Sorry for the weird formatting hopefully it won't be scraped by spammers.

Update: All Copies Spoken For I will get this setup with Tim and let you know what going on.

Nemo235 for Knowledge Illuminates * I need you to email me
David Macauley for The Manor *I got your email so you are all good.
Mike F. for Knowledge Illuminates *I got your email so you are all good.
John P for the Manor *I got your email so you are all good.
David B for Knowledge Illuminates *I got your email so you are all good.
John A for the Manor *I got your email so you are all good.
Josh S for the Manor *I got your email so you are all good.
A Chase for ? I emailed you about your selection
C.T. Grew Knowledge Illuminates *I got your email so you are all good.
Kerry H. For Knowledge Illuminates *I got your email so you are all good.

Scourge News, Edits Round One is complete

Tim of Gothridge Manor spent all day Sunday finishing up the edits of the Scourge of the Demon Wolf. Now I need to review them and work on any action items he identified. For example this

Thomas the Innkeeper doesn’t know much of what’s going on in Kensla, but hopes that the troubles don’t reach Denison’s Crossing.  He is confident that the toll guards stationed here will be able to handle any trouble.  If asked about the baron’s huntsman, Sir Padrin, the Innkeeper becomes animated.  He exclaims that was the best four days of business he had in a long time.  Not since those mages stopped here on their way to the Golden House.  The huntsman and his party eat ate and drank lavishly and then paid their bill promptly each time they left.  Although the wolf skins he huntsman brought the second time stunk.  Thomas will inquire after the huntsman health.  If informed about the huntsman being in the stock he looks crestfallen and mutters that he hopes that it gets sorted out.

I need to rewrite the section so that it is speaking in Thomas' voice. So throughout the week I will be working on this and the rest of the document.

As a small part of my thanks for Tim, if you haven't bought a copy of the Manor or Knowledge Illuminates, both by Tim, take a look of at them and if you like them I would appreciate you buying a copy. As extra incentive I will pay for one copy of either to the first ten individuals who email me.

Update: One of Ten claimed.

Fixed it so you can email me from my profile. (hopefully) Sorry about that.

Editing the Demon Wolf

Tim of Gothridge Manor describes some of the editing process for my upcoming adventure/supplement Scourge of the Demon Wolf.

Already have a few items to take care of; revising a map to make the number key more easily readable, writing a brief summary of the encounters of the adventure so that the referee can get an overview of the action, and writing up some brief background notes so that referee can roleplay the cultural conflicts better.

 Adding to the previews here is the format I decided for the monster stat block

Wolf Pack Leaders, AC 6[13], HD 3+2; HP 15; ATK 1; HTB +3; DMG 1d6 (bite); MV 180’; Save: 15; Harvest: Pelt 10d.

NPC stat block

Ochard, Bandit Lieutenant; AC 7[12], 2nd Lvl Thug; HP 9; ATK 2; HTB -2; DMG 1d6+2/1d6+2; MV 120’; Save: 14; ABL Athletic: +1 Area Knowledge: +1, Intimidation:+1, Locution:+1; Posses: Leather Armor, Shortword [2], Dagger, 50d; Note; Dual wields two Shortwords two attacks at -2 each

The only addition I made to the base Swords & Wizardry stats are abilities from Majestic Wilderlands. They can be ignored if the referee doesn't use them.

Money is generally given in silver denoted by the d symbol. 50d is 50 silver pieces. The d symbol comes from the english notation for a silver penny and it stands for denarius the roman silver coin.

In the supplement half of the book I have some more detailed descriptions for some of the magic users. The supplement fleshes out the locales briefly described in the adventure and written so that the referee will find the product useful after completing the adventure. I give more details for the magic users figuring even if the Golden House locale is not used it would be handy to have a fully described magic-user similar to some of the NPCs described in TSR's Rogue Gallery supplement.

Swarton; Male, Master, Meditus Society, Age 52, Apprentices 1
AC 5[14]; 9th level Mage; HP 25, ATK 1; HTB +6; DMG 1d6+3; Mv 120’; Save 7 (+2 vs Spells), [100% Shield of Magic]; ABL Natural Philosophy +3, Herblore +3, Research +3, Thaumatalogy+5 ;
Spells: Charm Person, Sleep, Magic Missile x2, 2nd; Web, Mirror Image, Phantasmal Force, 3rd; Lightning Bolt, Fireball, Fly, 4th; Ice Storm, Confusion, 5th; Teleport

Posses: +3 Staff (1d6) with Wizard’s Touch with Teleport Charm, +2 Dagger (1d4) with Return to Hand, +2 Ring of Protection Ring of Spell Storing 3rd x 1, 1st x 2 (Lightning Bolt, Magic Missile x2), Medallion of ESP 30ft, Cloak of Protection +1, 250d.
Ritual: 500d; Viz: 10;
Scrolls: Charm Person, ESP, Invisibility, Lightning Bolt, Dimension Door, Teleport Potions: Healing x2, Extra-Healing x2, Fire Resistance, Invisibility

There are few Majestic Items specific item like Ritual components and Viz that can be ignored if the referee doesn't want to use them.

Bat in the Attic Game News

I finally got done writing the Scourge of the Demon Wolf and shipped it off to be edited.

While that happening I will be working on the stand alone version of the Wild North. Mainly altering the southern edge to fit with Blackmarsh and creating a bunch of mini-maps for towns and other locales.