The Wraith King of Asmorgar

The Wraith King of Asmorgar

Pazuran-Sin was the provincial governor of the city of Hasna-di-kifo on the Western border of the Necrogarchy of Leng. A successful garrison leader and cunning magician, he was called before the secret masters sealed beneath the capital city of Pi-Atum three hundred and twenty years ago and ordered to prepare a mighty army for war.

Pazuran-Sin had only ten years to organize and plan for his undertaking and by recruiting and slave raiding throughout the wilderness called the Outlands of Dust, he was able to raise any army of a hundred thousand warriors.

The army of Pazuran-Sin was one of three great armies of the Necrogarchy of Leng which were readied for a full scale invasion of the Kingdoms to the West. Immediately before the invasion, Pazuran-Sin was rewarded for raising such a significant force by being granted the undead form of a lich and the title of Necromaster of Hasna-di-kifo.

The army of Pazuran-Sin was unleashed against the three central Kingdoms of Daria, Etruria and Kyrene. The marching of the armies of Leng into the Dragonsmarch, the violation of the Xianian frontiers of Iranam and the invasion of the Griffonwild began the most devastating period of warfare in the written history of Chimera.

The Nightshade war raged across almost all of the Eastern and Central kingdoms and territories of the known world for one hundred and fifteen years.

Pazuran-Sin suffered a significant defeat at the hands of the Guild Mages of Kyrene and Daria when the Great Weatherstone of Icegale tower was purposely shattered. The destruction of this powerful artifact resulted in the death of most of the Guild Mages involved, the explosion and ruin of the Guild's primary magical fortress in the area, namely Icegale Tower and the plunging of a wide region into a permanent winter.

Fully half of Pazuran-Sin's forces were present at the battle of the Icegale and most of these were flash frozen when the artifact was shattered.

Pazuran-Sin managed to barely escape the disaster but realized that his failure would not escape the punishment of the secret masters of Pi-Atum. Instead of returning to Pi-Atum in chains and in disgrace, Pazuran-Sin fled into the West, protected by a hand picked bodyguard of a hundred of his best troops.

Ultimately Pazuran-Sin left his old identity behind and wandered from place to place until finally arriving by ship in the territories of the Northmen, roughly two hundred years ago.

Once he established himself as a warlord within the barbarian lands of the North, Pazuran-Sin adopted the persona of the Wraith King and successfully subjugated the lands which are now the Kingdoms of Sorthvik, Zavdir, Hraedir, Ostvick and Western Morgwen. All of these lands fell under the red banners of the Kingdom of Asmorgar.

Pazuran-Sin ruled over the Kingdom of Asmorgar under the disguise of the Wraith King for just over a hundred years.

During his reign, Pazuran-Sin managed to seduce roughly half of the Druidic groves in the North into abandoning their devotion to the spirits of nature with promises of immortality and a greater domination and eldritch might wrought from the black void between the stars.

He used the evil spells he was taught during the Nightshade war to impart a supernatural strength and endurance to those warriors who swore to serve him as his Captains. The Wraith King's promises, of course, always came with a hidden cost and while long lived and powerful, all of the Captains of the Wraith King ultimately slipped into the shadow realm of undeath, being cursed forever to dwell as wraiths, entombed and imprisoned by their own master.

The Wraith King always carried with him a massive battle axe, which would have required two hands to wield by any mortal. Pazuran-Sin was so powerful in his Lich form that he could wield the weapon with a single hand and either leave his left hand free for casting spells or use it to bear a shield.

Pazuran-Sin's axe was named Soul Grinder and the blade of the axe was made of a single enormous and faceted red gem. As a lich, Pazuran-Sin was required to secure his own soul within an object and he chose the unlikely location of his primary weapon to serve as his phylactery.

Fifty years into his conquest of the lands which became the final extent of the Kingdom of Asmorgar, Pazuran-Sin embarked upon a crusade to hunt down and kill all of the Druids who had resisted his overtures and who remained loyal to the spirits of nature and to the welfare of the common folk living in the free Warholds of the North.

These were the Ragged Cloak Druids, who were also lycanthropes, shape shifters and skin changers. It is interesting that a part of the process of joining Pazuran-Sin and becoming a member of the Druids of the Henge, was the curing of the lycanthrope disease which each of the Druids carried.

Pazuran-Sin hunted down as many of the Ragged Cloak Druids as he could find, often personally, like a wealthy lord might run down a fox using hounds and mounted hunters.

Near the end of his reign barely a dozen of the shape shifters were left and all of these were isolated to the lands of the Kingdom of Skyerga, the territory controlled by the then young and beautiful Queen Gerrid.

In fact, it was Queen Gerrid herself who organized an ambush of the Wraith King, using one of her shape shifting brothers as bait to lure Pazuran-Sin into a hunt and eventually cornering him somewhere within the Ogre's March Hills.

A vicious and bloody battle was fought. The Wraith King was destroyed. His mighty enchanted battle axe Soul Grinder was shattered into four pieces and the North was finally free from the tyranny of that undead monster.

Queen Gerrid kept one of the four jagged pieces of Pazuran-Sin's enchanted battle axe. Aided by her friends among the Dwarves living in the settlement of Two-Beards Delving, Gerrid had the shard fashioned into an enchanted dagger.

Gerrid's enchanted dagger is named Dark Splinter. It is a +2 enchanted dagger to both attack and damage. It contains none of the artifact powers once possessed by the battle axe Soul Grinder, except that it can slice through any unenchanted material with a single, strong blow.

Example: If Gerrid is confronted by an enemy carrying a two handed steel great sword, she can draw forth Dark Splinter and slice straight through the blade of the great sword as if it were constructed of paper.

Yet, final victory was not to be handed to Queen Gerrid so easily.

The Wraith King's allies among the Druids of the Henge arrived just on the setting of the sun on the day when Pazuran-Sin was slain. Before the Queen could grind and burn the bones of the Lich to ash and further destroy the fragments of Soul Grinder, the evil Druids arrived in force. They managed to drive off Gerrid and her shape shifting allies and secured the skull of Pazuran-Sin along with all three of the other fragments of his enchanted great axe, Soul Grinder.

Because his skull was not destroyed, and because the magical weapon used as his phylactery still exists, albeit in several pieces, it is possible, that the Wraith King could be returned to his Lich form.

If this were to happen, Pazuran-Sin, The Wraith King of Asmorgar would almost certainly desire to rain down horrible retribution upon all those who had contributed to his defeat. He would almost certainly attempt to rebuild the lost Kingdom of Asmorgar.

It is equally true that the Druids of the Henge would immediately rise to serve at the side of the Wraith King.

Pazuran-Sin was defeated and destroyed a little more than a century ago. While all of the former towers and strongholds of the Kingdom of Asmorgar have been pulled down or otherwise exist only as ruins, the Warholds which once were contained within its territory have only known freedom for a few short generations.

Tea Ceremony and Dungeon Mastering

Tea ceremony is a beautiful cultural treasure of Japan which has resonated through history for hundreds of years.

I see some parallels between tea ceremony and Dungeon Mastering.

Tea ceremony requires attention to detail, personal preparation, the creation of a space where a theme or experience can be shared among a small group of friends.

Tea ceremony is not performed for personal gain or for profit.  It is an art which incorporates many different forms of artistry into bringing people together in a present space.

Now, for many of us Dungeon Mastering might be the sloppy American cousin of tea ceremony complete with orange stained fingers and Mountain Dew, but there are some interesting parallels and it makes me think, and maybe hope, that Dungeon Mastering can ascend to be something a little more, a little better than unprepared off the cuff adventures and bags of nacho cheese Doritos.

I admit that I am attracted to the idea of Dungeon Mastering or Game Mastering being a distant but similar relative to tea ceremony.  I believe that informal schools of different styles of Dungeon Mastering have been evolving over the last decade.  Certainly running a top notch RPG for friends can demand a range of artistic talents.  There is writing up the adventure, the making of maps and an entire dramatic world to immerse the player characters into, even if the world is tiny, only a few dozen miles from end to end to start with.  There are those who prepare terrain or draw battle maps, paint miniatures, pick out appropriate music or sound sets for their games.  Some of us invest a certain amount of time and preparation into the gaming space, including the sharing of food with friends which can range from pizza and pop to sushi and glasses of wine.

When you list out all of these specialized artistic endeavors involved in preparing for a top notch RPG night with friends and you look at the list of art and protocols involved in preparing for sharing tea ceremony with guests you can see that these two social gatherings are both profoundly different and profoundly similar.

I also love the notion that working to become a master of tea ceremony is an act very much worthy within its own right.  You don't need any other reason to want to master tea ceremony other than the personal dedication that this is a part of who you are and who you want to further become.  In the same way I feel that it is perfectly worthy to want to improve and master the art of DMing or GMing your favorite RPG game for your group of friends.  There needs to be no other outside reason for doing so.

The desire to be a great Dungeon Master is sufficient in itself. 

Druids Lair

I was going to do this picture later in the week but decided to put it together during a short break in writing.

This is the home of the evil Druid, hidden away within the shadows of the Old Woods.

Week of March 20th - 24th

This week is largely devoted to the continued writing of my book.  On Wednesday or Thursday I plan to finish out one of two final encounter maps for that project and I will probably post it up here.

With so much of my time this week concentrated specifically upon writing I am not sure where that will leave the blog.  Probably a little quieter than I have been over the last month.

I would like to do a new vlog entry which I will share here.  In it I will discuss some of the plot hooks in the adventure I am working on.  This will mean spoilers for any players who might decide to play through this adventure.  No direct spoilers of the two adventures included in the book itself, just on personalities and back story / history information.

The book will run at eight chapters with two and possibly three appendix sections when it is complete.  It will contain many encounters and two full and very different types of adventure.

I hope to run some people through parts of the adventures in the book during the month of June with the goal in mind of seeing it released into the wild by late July.

I am not sure of the final page count.  I will be breaking the project into different pieces to put it in front of some friends for editing and review.  Likely no one will get handed more than fifty pages of the thing and it might well come in at around a hundred and fifty pages in total when everything is said and done.

Interior Map for the Giant's Crown Inn.

Here is today's map.  The interior map for the Giant's Crown Inn, illustrated in the previous post.

Today I also finished two important client map projects so no write ups for NPC's or the interior as of yet.  That will have to wait a little longer.

Today's morning map is an exterior illustration of The Giant's Crown Inn. I plan to pair this up with an interior map.

If you came to visit looking for the map just be patient.  I should have that up and attached to this same blog post over the weekend.  I plan to include a full write up of the Inn, the NPC's who own and operate it and a couple of interesting guests.

The Giant's Crown is a small roadside Inn located along the Eastern end of the Sodden Ride within the borders of Ostvick Warhold.

In this part of the North, few Inns or shops hang an actual sign. In many cases the owner will paint an illustration representing the name of the place onto a round shield and have this next to the door. I did a sort of tribal image of a giant holding out a crown for this.

Growing on the left side of the entrance is an herb garden with a common plant called Weedle. Weedle in the South is literally an invasive weed which is usually burned. Here in the North they realized that if you dry certain parts of the plant and grind them into a powder like tea leaves you can put this into large jars and ferment the stuff in the sun. Exactly like making sun tea. The drink is a weak but easy to produce alcohol and has a pleasant taste which can be mixed with berries.

To the right of the entrance is a large clay pot containing fresh water. This is part of a custom whereby guests are expected to rinse off their hands and (if they are feeling especially polite) dampen and comb out their hair and beards before entering a house. Most homes have such a pot somewhere close to the door and any Inn or Tavern of quality makes it a point to have one.

In the upper floor a guest has slung his round shield so it is displayed out of the window. This is a tradition used by warriors currently available for work to let others know that they are present and willing to negotiate their services in exchange for coin.

D&D is not a storytelling game...

If you are a fan of shows like Critical Role, you might easily be under the impression that Dungeons and Dragons is a storytelling game.

I should preface this by saying that I have enjoyed the heck out of Critical Role but I realized early on that it is a scripted show with actors and a more or less predefined end point.  I love the actors involved.  Matt Mercer runs a great game of 5th edition D&D but the show and others like it should not be confused with running an actual live campaign of dungeons and dragons.  Critical Role would be in a very unfortunate position if the dice rolled poorly one episode and they experienced a TPK only three shows into the new season.  Likely they start out with a known beginning, Matt has a clear idea of where the story should go, the actors follow his lead and do not deviate from the course he has set out for them.  Along the way the voice actors play D&D more or less and engage in some hilarious and fun improvisational theatre.  Towards the end of the show though everything has to get steered to the predefined end point for that particular episode, otherwise the whole thing would never work.

In a real D&D campaign of any edition are there stories to be told?  Absolutely.  Every DM writes up histories, mythologies about the gods, details about magic and how it works in their campaign or at the very least writes up a brief history of the dungeon to be explored or outlines the encounter or mission at hand.  This is all pre-game story.  When the players arrive, pick up their character sheets and their dice however, the DM steps out of their role in writing pre-game story and turns the reins over to the players.

What happens next is that the players explore the world, the adventure module, adventure book or the encounter that the DM has laid out for them.  The players may decide to go into the haunted tower next to the starting village, or they might not.  They might decide instead to become a group of highway bandits or they might strike off into the wilderness to explore and see what they might find in a nearby forest.  Story is happening...and the players are in it but the DM is not telling or driving the story.  The story has become whatever the player characters decide to engage in during that night's game.  The story has become what they will retell their friends and reminisce about with the other players, twenty years later about the fun they had exploring and roleplaying their characters in the DM's world. 

There are roleplaying games specifically designed to be storytelling games.  Dungeons and Dragons is not one of them and has never really been constructed to be that sort of experience.  Dungeons and Dragons is about immersing your imagination in the fantasy world your character is in.  It is about exploring that world and overcoming great obstacles.  Sure...there can be a ton of lore or back story all throughout the campaign but when play begins, the DM stops being the one to drive and write the story and everything is turned over to the players.

The DM should never come to the table with a strictly linear game leading the players by the nose from encounter to encounter and always to the same plot ending no matter what happens.  Well, ok they can, and many do exactly that but that can be the worst possible style of DMing imaginable, especially when you have experienced the other kind.

Being a DM, drawing maps, populating the maps, writing up interesting and compelling NPC characters and populating your maps with all sorts of histories and encounters, treasures, traps and other wonders is a demanding task.  A good DM who is running their campaign, not just off the cuff but with some deliberate thought and preparation; can easily spend days, weeks or even months preparing everything so that the player characters can immerse themselves.

In the old days you used to describe how you'd search the hall for pit traps.  If you found a chest you'd cautiously test it for lethal spring devices and when you opened it, you were careful to describe to the DM that you were not standing right in front of the thing.  If you had to climb a wall but you didn't have a dice roll to fall back on, you asked the DM to describe the wall.  Was it perfectly smooth?  How steep is it?  Are there any obvious hand holds?  Can I jam some iron spikes into the cracks to help me climb it?  OK, I take off my plate armor because that isn't going to help me, secure it in a bundle and tie it off with a rope so I can haul it up behind me once I'm up.  Over the years the game has evolved from an open system, or mostly open system (thanks Rob Kuntz for clueing me in on this reality) to a closed system.

With everything codified now you just roll to climb a wall or search a hall or check for a trap.  All of that glorious immersion and detail where you placed your imagination into the center of a world full of wizards and dark dungeon corridors is a weak shadow of what it once was.

It turns out that Dungeon Mastery is not for everybody and indeed there are damn few DM's who invest more than a handful of hours in preparing for their campaign.  This is unfortunate because investing some real time and hard work into your world can be very entertaining and rewarding, easily as much fun as playing the game itself.

That's all for tonight.  See you on the flip-side tomorrow.