Reference to Dark ("Drow") Elves Dating Back to 1884

"The three 'D Series' modules...owe little, if anything, to fiction. Drow are mentioned in Keightley’s THE FAIRY MYTHOLOGY, as I recall (it might have been THE SECRET COMMONWEALTH—neither book is before me, and it is not all that important anyway), and as Dark Elves of evil nature, they served as an ideal basis for the creation of a unique new mythos designed especially for AD&D. The roles the various drow are designed to play in the series are commensurate with those of prospective player characters. In fact, the race could be used for player characters, providing that appropriate penalties were levied when a drow or half-drow was in the daylight world."
-Gary Gygax, "Books Are Books, and Games Are Games, and Never the Twain...", Dragon #31

Below, is page 64 from the 1884 edition of Thomas Keightley's
The Fairy Mythology: Illustrative of the Romance and Superstition of Various Countries.

Monster of the Week: Leogryph

DESCRIPTION Leogryphs appear with the body of a lion, the wings of an eagle, and two eagle heads. They most often make their nests in the highest peaks of the tallest mountains where they are sometimes used as protectors for special magic artifacts or articles of power. Legend holds that leogryphs were a creation of Tiamat but these dangerous beasts are ironically friendly, except in the presence of any item entrusted to them, in which case they become fiercely protective. The dangerous but friendly duality in the leogryph's nature is mirrored in its breath weapons, with one of the heads able to breathe a cone of fire, and the other head able to breathe a cone of frost (cold). Each of these cones measures 30' long and 10' wide, may be used up to 5 times per day, and does 2d6 damage (on a failed saving throw vs. breath weapon). Like normal eagles, the leogrpyh's eyesight is so keen as to make them unable to be surprised if encountered in their lair at night. Furthermore, if they make a diving attack from 100' feet or higher, they gain a +4 bonus to their "to hit" roll, and do double damage from their claws, but may not make any beak attacks. For both land-based and air-based attacks, if both of a leogryph's fore claws strike successfully, the leogryph may choose to attack with its rear claws, doing and additional 1d6+1 damage per claw attack (on successful "to hit" rolls, double damage bonuses from successful diving attacks apply), but may not make any beak attacks. Leogryphs possess a magical ability to create weather events once per day (per the magic-user spell control weather), for a duration of up to 3 turns, but under the condition that the leogryph must remain airborne over the weather event within a range of 240'.

Oe/1E STATS FREQUENCY: Rare NO. APPEARING: 1-3 ARMOR CLASS: 4 MOVE: 12"/24" HIT DICE: 8 % IN LAIR: 25% TREASURE TYPE: Ux2 NO. OF ATTACKS: 4 DAMAGE/ATTACK: 1d4/1d4/1d6/1d6 SPECIAL ATTACKS: See below SPECIAL DEFENSES: Nil MAGIC RESISTANCE: Standard INTELLIGENCE: Semi- ALIGNMENT: Neutral SIZE: L PSIONIC ABILITY: Nil Attack/Defense Modes: Nil BX STATS ARMOR CLASS: 4 HIT DICE: 8** MOVE: 120'/240' ATTACKS: 2 claws/2 bites DAMAGE: 1d4/1d4/1d6/1d6 NO. APPEARING: 1-3 SAVE AS: Fighter: 8 MORALE: 11 TREASURE TYPE: Ix2 ALIGNMENT: Neutral

The Community Geomorph Project is Alive and Well (a.k.a. "The Submissions that Kicked My Ass!")

I know many of you were starting to think this project died. Well, long story short... I got to a couple of submissions that just sort of made me feel completely daunted (above), just about the same time I started getting really busy with personal life and day job workload. So I just sort of kept putting off those submissions, and putting them off, and putting them off. And then last week decided it was just time to get out the paddles, call "CLEAR", and jump start that bitch.

Now... before Andrew Shields of Fictive Fantasies starts blaming himself for sidetracking this thing... he shouldn't... it's all on me. Like I said, workload on me picked up about the time I found myself staring at his entries. I really just found myself saying to myself, "Okay... how do I need to draw this so people will get it when they see it?" And with my tendency for procrastination mixed with A.D.D., it didn't take much to push this aside. But I've got it going again, and will soon be making an active call for additional submissions.

As of right now, there are 30 completed pages (that's 120 individual geomorphs), including the 9 most recent pages below. As of right now, there is only one received submission that has not been re-drawn yet (a cool submission from Welbo that I'm looking forward to finally executing). I will be sending out PDF versions soon (probably this week) to the various parties whose submissions have already been redrawn (Christian Sturke, Boric G., Matthew Schmeer, Chris Creel, and Andrew Shields) for a review of my version vs. their original submission (BTW, I'll send JPGs of the submissions out with the PDFs in case you don't have them handy). And then, hopefully, get those refined over the next few weeks.

Starting some time this summer (mid-June?), I'll probably start making calls for thematic submissions that I feel like the book could use (e.g., "send me 1 page of 4 central temple areas" or "send me 1 page of 4 tribal/lair living areas" or "send me a page of labs and libraries").

As always, you can download the master sheets from the Community Geomorph Project Page and keep sketching and sending me geomorphs as you draw them.

Without further ado... the newest 9 pages of geomorphs (a.k.a. "round 3"),
including the 2 pages that kicked my ass.



Go back and check out Round 1 >>
Go back and check out Round 2 >>

Harryhausen Blogfest: "New" Monster - Ymir

In honor of the Ray Harryhausen Memorial Blogfest, I present my version of the ymir from 20 Million Miles to Earth. I have taken a little creative license with the original, but I've tried to keep true to the original spirit of the creature.

DESCRIPTION The ymir is a strange beast. Daunting though its appearance may be, it is generally docile unless provoked. These reptilian giants are akin to troglodytes, but their coloration is almost bird-like, with red coloration around the eyes, a red streak that runs down the back and along the length of the tail, an ochre-coloration around the lower legs and across the chest and stomach, and a bright blue tongue. These imposing beasts are sulfur eaters and are, therefore, most often found in areas with hot springs and volcanic activity, or areas that are populated with salt domes. This sulfurous diet enables them to belch a 20'x20'x20' cloud of stinking gas up to 3 times per day. On a failed saving throw vs. breath weapons, this gas will cause victims caught in the cloud to become helpless (due to nausea) for 2d6 rounds. An ymir will usually only use this breath weapon if cornered or overwhelmed, preferring to attack with the claws on its 2 powerful hands. Although the ymir makes its diet of sulphur and tends to live underground, it has a strange ability that presents itself only in the presence of both direct sunlight and relatively "fresh" air; after 2-5 (1d4+1) turns under these conditions, an ymir will grow an additional 2-5 (1d4+1) feet, and gains 5-8 (1d4+4) hit points (but still attacks and saves a 9HD monster). The ymir will retain these size and hit point gains as long as both the light and air requirements are met, and for 2-5 (1d4+1) additional turns once the conditions are no longer present.

Oe/1E STATS FREQUENCY: Very Rare NO. APPEARING: 1 ARMOR CLASS: 2 MOVE: 12" HIT DICE: 9 % IN LAIR: 75% TREASURE TYPE: I NO. OF ATTACKS: 2 DAMAGE/ATTACK: 3-16/3-16 SPECIAL ATTACKS: See below SPECIAL DEFENSES: Nil MAGIC RESISTANCE: Standard INTELLIGENCE: Animal ALIGNMENT: Neutral SIZE: L (20' tall) PSIONIC ABILITY: Nil Attack/Defense Modes: Nil BX STATS ARMOR CLASS: 2 HIT DICE: 9* MOVE: 120' ATTACKS: 2 claws DAMAGE: 3-16/3-16 NO. APPEARING: 1 SAVE AS: Fighter: 9 MORALE: 10 TREASURE TYPE: I ALIGNMENT: Neutral

Module Meme: Which of Your Modules Has Taken the Most Use and Abuse?

I was referencing X1 this morning trying to remember how the rope bridges were treated on the Phanaton platforms, and it struck me... "no matter how much care I tried to take of my stuff, I still have poor bastards like this one." The cover's come apart, and the last page (the one with the hex map for the players to fill in) is missing. It's not all marked up like my copy of Keep on the Borderlands, but Id rather have scars than missing limbs any day.

I'm sure the missing hit points from this copy of The Isle of Dread are only flesh wounds by comparison to some of your stuff. So... which of your modules (or sourcebooks, for that matter) has taken the most use and abuse? And as a visual person, I think it's cooler to show than tell.

Update to the Player Handout Mapfrom Valley of the Five Fires

I reframed this from the earlier version of the player handout map for The Valley of the Five Fires to visually concentrate on the areas where the pre-generated adventures are placed, not to mention where most of the adventure seeds point.

Preview of Player Handout Mapfrom Valley of the Five Fires