Riddles in the Dark - the alternative version

An Adventure for Every Monster - Devil, Barbed

Barbed Devil

 Frequency   Uncommon
No. appearing  1-2 or 3-12
Armour class  0
Move  12” 
Hit Dice   8
Percentage in lair  50%   
Treasure type Nil
No. of attacks 3
Damage per attack  2-8/2-8/3-12   
Special attack  See below  
Special defences  See below
Magic Resistance 35%
Intelligence Very
Alignment Lawful Evil
Size  M (7’ tall)
THAC0  12
XP value 1425 + 10/hp

Abilities include

Charm Person
Suggestion
Illusion
Infravision
Teleportation (no error)
Know Alignment
Cause Fear
Animate Dead
Pyrotechnics
Produce Flame
Hold Person
Summon another barbed devil (30% chance of success)

Life isn’t always peachy for a devil. Powerful embodiment of evil though it is, there is often someone more powerful about and that’s what happened to this barbed devil, who had the misfortune to encounter, cross and get punished by that powerful someone. The magic used to punish the devil must have had a twisted side because it transformed him into an Iron Maiden, with all his barbs on the inside and only decorative ones outside.

Thus trapped, the devil vanished from history and from the thoughts of his vanquisher, who may well eventually have come up against somebody more powerful still (but that’s another story). But there’s always a catch with these imprisoning spells, isn’t there and this particular one is no exception. Over the years, every person tortured and killed in the Iron Maiden has weakened the magic as the slain soul is consumed by the bound devil. Now, he’s getting very close to his target; perhaps a handful of souls is all that is required to release him so that he can take his true form once again and wreak havoc on the Prime Material Plane.

None of this, of course, is known to the party. The Iron Maiden has had many owners down the years and now somebody who would like to own it has hired the party to obtain it from its current owner. They do not, of course, have the faintest idea what it really is or what might happen to it very soon.

It is in the hands of (1d6)

1. Mad collector – he’ll have plenty of other objets d’art, knick-knacks and artefacts about which even he knows little. He will be paranoid about other collectors stealing his property and will no doubt have security and traps aplenty. Much of what’s in his collection is going to have curses on or eldritch guardians because that’s the sort of stuff he goes for.

2. Cultist, non-diabolical. He’ll have sinister connections but apart from that, his collection, such as it is, will not be heavily guarded. He’ll have it hidden in a secret room with perhaps a few traps here and there but nothing like no.1. More interesting will be the members of the cult itself. It’s probably a secret but not particularly nasty group, a bit like the Freemasons.

3. Devil worshipping cultists – these chaps will know that the Iron Maiden has something very powerful inside it and will be trying to work out how to set it free. They may view the arrival of the party as a gift from the infernal powers. They will probably contrive some way of using the party as a sacrifice or trapping them inside the Iron Maiden.

4. Torturer, private – he happily tortures people on a pay-by-results basis and his lair has many torture instruments, all of which get used regularly. He take a professional’s pride in his work, being very serious about it, ensuring all his equipment is maintained and familiarising himself with the latest torture methods. If he gets wind of the party’s arrival, he will be looking forward to experimenting on them.

5. Official State Torturer – a civil servant whose job it happens to be. He is no sadist and tries to torture people within the rules, such as they are, but will get upset if he thinks that enemies of the state are trying to sabotage the security system. He will be perturbed if the true nature of the Iron Maiden is revealed to him and will probably insist it be impounded for investigation. The resources of the state will be available for his use if he is threatened or coerced in any way.

6. Harmless antiques nut who happens to have a liking for ancient torture instruments. Probably the easiest of the six options;  his collection will resemble no.4 but all the torture instruments will be old, worn or rusty – but labelled and catalogued nevertheless. He may be the target for thieves who think that he has something valuable on the premises. The devil inside the Iron Maiden may well find this fellow, with his somewhat weak mind, easy prey to corrupt and seduce. It may be that this fellow also has connections amongst the antiques fraternity who may take a dim view of anyone trying to rob their friend.

Seven Princes by John R Fultz

(Spoilers ahead)

I wanted to like this book a lot more than I actually did, which is not to say that I disliked it.

The opening scene, where a sinister sorcerer visits the royal court, survives two executions (and to be fair to the King, one of those executions is pretty thorough) and then animates the dead of the city’s catacombs to rip apart the King and sundry other courtiers is a pretty good start. However, Fultz then breaks stride to start bringing in his cast of characters, the eponymous Seven Princes. A caveat – the cover suggests that somehow this regal heptad assembles, much like the recent Avengers, to take revenge against the sorcerer of the first chapter. This is rather misleading, since at no point in the book are all seven either together or on the same side.

Nevertheless, the book bounds along like an over-large puppy who is so excited to see you that it doesn’t notice the smashed ornaments and muddy pawprints.  In this instance, allow me to extend my analogy – at certain points, plot logic takes a back seat to the needs of the plot; one particular instance is when two of the princes are hurrying from location A to location B and suddenly realise that they won’t get there in time, whereupon a colossal (and literally true) deus ex machina eliminates all that fussy travelling.  There are also a couple of instances of “With one bound he was free” which get characters out of seemingly fatal scrapes.

And those muddy pawprints – the prose is pretty good for the most part but there are areas where we veer into the Colour Purple. Fultz might have benefitted from a stricter editor at these points as my eyes started to glaze over and I found myself flicking ahead to the next action sequence (fortunately, there are quite a lot of these).

But damn me if that over-large puppy didn’t grab me by the teeth and pull me from one end of the book to the other. I found that I did want to find out what happened to the characters; they are sufficiently well-developed that they stand out and Fultz does seem to throw everything he possibly can at them to keep the reader entertained (alas, poor characters, however; they don’t all survive!).

I think it’s best to approach this book with few expectations; it’s not the next Tolkien, Joe Abercrombie or George R R Martin but it’s not Terry Goodkind, Robert Newcomb or Jim Theis either. If you don’t expect perfection, you may be pleasantly surprised.

Hawk Quest by Robert Lyndon

To what can I compare this book?  In terms of the geographical distances travelled by its characters, it’s on a par with Lord of the Rings.  Regarding its depth of historical immersion, it reminded me of the early House of Niccolo novels by Dorothy Dunnett. It’s gritty without being bleak, heroic without being cliché, heartbreaking without being over-emotional and it’s clear that Lyndon loves his subject and, more importantly, respects both his characters and his readers.

The book weigh in at 658 pages, which is about two thirds of the length of LotR. However, such is Lyndon’s skill at bringing his settings to life that I don’t think a single one of those pages was wasted. He knows when to home in on a section of the journey and tease out every last detail of the landscape, the weather and the hazards that his characters face, whilst capable and willing to pull back if the pace of the novel requires it.

The setting is Europe in the year 1072, a scant six years after the Norman Conquest. A knight has been captured by Seljuk Turks at the battle of Manzikert and a message is dispatched to his family in northern England, requesting a ransom for his release. That message starts the Quest itself – to find four rare white gyrfalcons and bring them to Anatolia in a matter of months. We follow Frankish mercenary Vallon and his Sicilian companion Hero as they begin to gather their own fellowship and set off on a journey that will cover thousands of miles and more dangers than you can shake a stick at. In fact, it seems at times as if everything that can happen to them does so; however, Lyndon’s ability to draw sympathetic (if not likeable) characters means that you empathise with their plight, cheer their victories and mourn their losses.

Although my recommendation is (virtually) unreserved, I would add that there are sections that are not for the faint-hearted; Lyndon doesn’t stint on the gore and detail of combat. There was one scene, however, that will reward fans of Monty Python; a character comes within an inch of being disembowelled and then remarks to the character stitching him back together that “it was only a flesh wound”.

The back cover proclaims that this book was ten years in the making; it’s weird to think that I was reading a book that was started when my son was born. I would hazard a guess that a lot of that time was spent on the research, for it absolutely drips period realism without ever overloading the reader. The landscapes were extremely well-described, so much so that I could imagine myself slogging alongside the fellowship on their epic journey.

You may not think that historical novels are for you; perhaps they’re over-detailed or uninteresting, concentrating on the history rather than the characters or plot. Let me assure you that this is not a criticism that can be levelled at Hawk Quest.

Best of all, I hear that Lyndon is now at work on a sequel to this epic tale. When I got that news, I experienced the thrill that a fan of Lord of the Rings might have felt had they learned that Tolkien had started work on a follow-up in the 1960s. I just hope it's not another ten years before I encounter Lyndon's fellowship again.

Whatever happened to Daddy Grognard?

It's been quite a while since I last posted but I am still alive and kicking, just very busy at present. Other needs are taking up computer time and with the long school holidays meaning it's very difficult to assemble all the Team Adventure players at the same time, that's on a hiatus until early September.

I am still reading (and have some reviews to get out to you all), playing a PBEM Call of Cthulhu game and jotting down ideas for Adventure For Every Monster posts as they occur to me; however, finding time to put up stuff of any length right now is a no-no.

I will try to get some stuff up this month when things calm down a bit.

Apologies for the lack of content. 

The Lion of Cairo by Scott Oden

I don’t often use the word ‘excellent’ when talking about books; there’s often some niggling little thing that detracts from the performance that an author has crammed into the space between the front and back covers. However, in this instance, I think the word ‘excellent’ is justified.

I found this one through following up on The Desert of Souls by Howard Jones (another cracking read). I’ve become less enamoured of modern fantasy, finding the rush towards the Edge of Grit a bit off-putting; perhaps as I’ve got older, I’ve started to hanker for the more heroic lustre of the fiction I used to read. In Oden’s book, I think I’ve found it.

The Lion of Cairo is set in the Middle East of the mid 12th century, a time when caliphs and viziers, Mamelukes and eunuchs vied for power in the greatest city of Egypt. Add to that the presence of the Crusaders, their military hardmen the Templars and a generous sprinkling of sinister sorcerous shenanigans and you’ve got a recipe for intrigue, skulduggery and high adventure.

The main character is Assad, a member of the Nizari Ismailis, otherwise known as the hashishiyya, the original Assassins. He is a fascinating fellow who carries a sword that has echoes of Stormbringer; there’s more to his weapon than meets the eye and I suspect we’ll find out more about it in future volumes. Oden brings a good-sized cast onto his stage and gives them all plenty of time in the limelight with a shifting focus depending on the needs of the plot. I liked this technique and didn’t find it distracting; it personalises even the minor characters effectively. Speaking of which, a major historical figure in the Crusades appears here as a minor character; he’s one to watch, as I suspect that his part in future adventures of Assad will be key.

Oden’s pace is cracking; there’s never a dull moment and even when there’s no swordplay, he manages to keep the tension high. The plot runs right to the very end as well. No winding down in the last few pages for this writer. He really can write as well; his descriptions evoke a real sense of place that should be a lesson to many fantasy writers who, it seems to me, struggle somewhat with imaginary cities and fall back on the bog-standard mediaeval European setting.  Oden’s Cairo really does drip with atmosphere; perhaps a map might have come in handy but often I find that when there is one, I’m popping to the front of the book to check where we are rather than paying attention to the action.

And speaking of action, there’s a lot of it. Deaths aplenty and swords spend a lot of time bloodied. It’s rippingly good stuff. Here’s a taster

“…his broadsword licking out to shear through a Turkish neck. The heathen’s head rode a geyser of blood as his body tumbled to the ground…”

Oden references Harold Lamb and Robert E. Howard in his introduction. Howard’s Gates of Empire covers this period as does Lamb’s Swords from the West. It’s a worthy tradition and Oden is a fine inheritor of it.  I hear that this is the first book in a planned trilogy and I hope Volume 2 hurries along soon; I’ll be waiting.

Team Adventure - Fifty Not Out

You join us on this blog's 400th post and Team Adventure's 50th session. I like the way that's worked out. Despite the hot weather, we had a good day's play but due to overlapping holiday commitments on the part of the lads, it's uncertain when we'll game again before September. Still, onwards and upwards, as they say. We join our gallant band having just left the temple at the foot of the pyramid, feeling rather pleased with themselves.

Having lifted the curse on the Pyramid, the party gathered itself together, filling water bottles from the new stream that was slowly irrigating the desert, checking weapons, making sure their horses were all right, setting their sights westward. Elysia had remembered seeing a distant line of mountains in the west with what looked like a pass and beyond it a vast area of flat green-grey. Alurax recalled that when they had first met Benbo, the hobbit had mentioned a vast swamp and wondered if that had any connection.

On their first day out, the party spotted, in the distance, what appeared to be ruins in the sand. They approached with caution and Elysia sent in the air force to scout it out. The flying friends returned, having seen a mysterious creature that appeared to be half lion, half woman, lurking amongst the fallen stones. Galadeus, ever cautious, went galloping off toward the ruins, keen to find out what it was - and kill it. The rest of the party followed on, albeit slightly more slowly.

When he arrived at the ruins, Galadeus started to scout around and heard a faint cry for help, coming from a set of stairs which descended into the ground. He slowly crept down them and found, in a dark chamber, a woman in flimsy garments, chained to the wall by her ankles. She told him that she had been captured by a monster and begged him to free her. Galadeus was about to do so when he suspected something and paused in his efforts. As he was about to resume his attempts to free the woman, the rest of the party came clattering down the stairs. Alagon and Lydia felt their hackles rise at once - they knew that they were in the presence of evil.

 I can see how she distracts unwary adventurers now

The woman did not respond to their enquiries as to who she was and what she was doing until she saw Elysia, who used the Star they had found in the pyramid to determine the woman's true form. She was revealed as a Lamia, who preyed on lone travellers, luring them into the ruins, draining them of wisdom and then killing and eating them. Now, however, recognising the magic user as her sole chance of survival, she flung herself on her mercy, offering choice magic items in return for her freedom. Elysia agreed and took delivery of two potions and a sword, whereupon the party left the chamber and the ruins soon afterwards.

The next day, the party saw a tiny shape flying towards them. Unwilling to wait to be attacked, the air force was once again sent out to see what it was;  they soon returned, in the company of a creature who had the body of a lion, the wings of an eagle and the head of a bearded man. He greeted the party and introduced himself as Lammasu, a servant of the forces of good. The boisterousness of the party was frustrating his attempts to communicate vocally, so he used his telepathic powers to speak directly with Elysia's mind.

If in doubt. go with Tramp

She told him that they were on a quest for the Holy Avenger; he replied that they were on the right road. It was housed in a tomb over the mountains in a gloomy and dangerous swamp, guarded by evil and horror. However, he revealed that there lurked in the mountains a source of great evil and they would, in all likelihood, have to deal with it before they could proceed.

As a bonus, Lammasu also told Elysia that there would come soon a great test of courage and integrity for the paladins, which would prove their worth to wield such a mighty weapon of good. He could (or would) say no more about it and left the party soon afterwards, heading east on a mission from Good.

The day after that, the party came across the remnants of a merchant party which had perished in the desert. Anything of value had already been looted and there was nothing worth taking - unless your name was Ferros. He animated eight of the bodies to join his shambling Undead Army.

The mountains were getting ever closer now, towering over the party where before they had been a mere line on the horizon. The pass was clearly visible and it was towards this that the party headed. The party encountered a small group of jackals, which were no threat to them, but Galadeus used his Ring of Mammal Control to commandeer them; the party's menagerie grew ever larger.

Galadeus' new henchmen

Following the pass up into the mountains, the party pressed on for a couple of days. Then, on 21st September , they found a river cascading down a ravine, crossed by a stone bridge. On the far side of the bridge were two stone towers which flanked an entrance into the mountain itself.

Crouching in the rocks on the far side, the party watched the towers and the entrance. Galadeus decided to send his jackals in to investigate the towers but unfortunately, they could not find a way in. Elysia sent in the air force to see what was on top of the towers. They flew down but then shied away very quickly. When they returned to the party, both Elysia and Ferros got images of tall, spined and barbed figures who were standing sentry. Galadeus broke control of the jackals and they headed back across the bridge and down the pass towards the desert as fast as they could.

What was needed now was a plan and after a while the party came up with one. Galadeus decided that Florin the phoenix was to fly up to the left-hand tower and deliberately allow herself to be killed so that she would detonate a fireball and then return to figurine status. Galadeus himself edged onto the middle of the bridge, whilst Alurax took up position at its far end. Whilst Alagon, Wolf and Lydia waited on the far side, amongst the rocks, Elysia would fly Gullhor and Larsh (in figurine form) up to the right hand tower, then Elysia would go back for Ferros.

The plan got off to a bad start straight away as Florin detonated but when the fire faded away, the creature on the tower was unharmed. It bent down, picked up the phoenix figure, then vanished.

Elysia landed with Gullhor. The creature facing them sent out a wave of fear to deter them but neither was affected and whilst Elysia took off again, Gullhor activated Larsh and they attacked the creature. At this point, the creature which had vanished with Florin reappeared on the right-hand tower, joining in the attack on Larsh. Desperate to get revenge for the theft of his phoenix, Galadeus tried to climb up the tower, only to fall off - twice.

Having landed Ferros on the tower, Elysia now flew down to pick up the luckless ranger. On the top of the tower, the battle was raging. One of the creatures tried to Hold Gullhor but had no success, while the other creature pressed home its attack on the polar bear.

I'll take the phoenix, Steve, you deal with the polar bear.

Under the weight of the party's attack, the first creature was killed; the second continued to attack Larsh, who was now looking pretty battered. Nevertheless, the party fought on; Galadeus landed behind the creature and in a fierce round of combat, Larsh was reduced to figurine form and Galadeus got the killing blow in on the creature, scoring his revenge in a very impressive fashion.

Whilst Alurax was investigating the main cave entrance between the two towers, the rest of the party were more interested in an entrance at the rear of the right hand tower that led to a tunnel running into the mountain. Where did it go? And more importantly, where was Florin?