#sword & sorcery

[chadwickginther]

Fantasy/Horror Worldbuilding Workshop at Raven's End Books!

Thrilled to be doing my first book event at the excellent Raven’s End Books! Myself, Jonathan Ball, and GMB Chomichuk will be hosting a worldbuilding workshop to show others how we approach the topic for our fantasy and horror stories. We’ll be particularly leaning on how we built a world together using the example of our Shared World project. Our Shared World series will also be used to tell a…

[cyallowitz]

Teaser Tuesday: The Vengeance Hounds

Cover Art by Alison Hunt This is an old teaser for War of Nytefall: Ravenous, which had the Vengeance Hounds making an appearance.  I had to change one thing here to block a spoiler, but that shouldn’t be an issue.  The point was the display the banter between the trio. Continue reading Teaser Tuesday: The Vengeance Hounds

[threeravenspublishing]

Raven and the Crow Author Interviewed on TV!

If you’re a fan of the Raven and the Crow series and you’ve never met the author, now’s your chance to at least see him! Michael K. Falciani was recently interviewed by a TV station local to his area. ABC’s KOLO 8 spent a segment covering Michael’s writing career with specific emphasis on his newest release in the Raven and the Crow universe, Shores of Blood. Click the picture to watch the video,…

[lisaav1]

Kindle Vella Madness Voting is Open

Summer Kindle Vella Madness is having a contest, and Lisa’s slot is today. She would appreciate it if you would click on the link and vote for her Vella, An Enchanted Quest: Carasylia Enchanted Season One. Follow the above link to the linktree and find the story title, A Sacred Quest by Lisa Vandiver. Click on the book, and it will take you to the contest. Once you get to that final page, just…

[blogthefiresidechats]

Monthly Release Party - May 2023

I only have one one book on my monthly release party for the month of May. The book is called “Cherish” and it’s the 6th book in Tracy Wolff’s Crave series. I’ve already pre-ordered this book so it’ll be shipped out on the release date. I can’t wait to get my hands on this book and see what happens in the next step in the series. *squeals of delight* Synopsis: The sensational conclusion to the…

[davidjhiggins]

Sword & Scandal, ed. J Manfred Weichsel

Weichsel gathers fantasy tales that accept that worlds filled with mighty-thewed heroes and unspeakable horrors are not magically free of passionate sex and unpleasant death. Continue reading Sword & Scandal, ed. J Manfred Weichsel

[jolenes-book-journey]

Season of the Runer Book 1 by Abigail Linhardt

Season of the Runer: TRIAL OF TWO – Book 1 by Abigail Linhardt – Excerpt “That is orichalcum. It kills monsters. Do you understand?” “I saved you,” she fought back, a little affronted. “You almost killed me!” he screamed back. He stopped and took a breath when his entire body quaked from weakness. “We are monsters, woman. Orichalcum kills us. The sulfates in our veins are not natural.” Her voice…

[ronlanham]

Fate, Evermore

Cunning and quiet, the thief makes a play Dagger raised he leaps into the fray Consumed by dragon fire, thief is no more Warrior strong, bold heads into battle too Axe ready and sure, steady, resolved anew Dragon breath makes him ash at the door Wizard makes magic, wise and fierce Casting ice at the […]Fate, Evermore

[charliadamswriter]

Revenant Prince (Curse of Shavhalla Book 2) by T. A. Hernandez

They survived, but lost one of their own…With Amar now under the enemy’s control, his loyal friends will stop at nothing to rescue him. To succeed, they must fight inner battles more daunting than even the harshest external challenges. New alliances are forged as former adversaries work toward a common goal, but with Kavora on the brink of war, Kesari, Aleida, and the others face mounting…

[countzeroor]

Book Review: Weird of the White Wolf

Weird of the White Wolf is the fourth part of the first of the current set of Elric omnibus volumes, and undoubtedly, this is where things get serious. I mean – there were serious things before, but this is where Elric gets shoved headlong into his destiny (the “Weird” in the title referring the Old English use of the word – Wyrd – meaning destiny) – like it or not (tending towards “or not”). And…

[chadwickginther]

Once Lands Launches Tomorrow, November 6th!

The third Shared World collection of sinister sword and sorcery tales, Once Lands, by GMB Chomichuk and James Gillespie, is live! Once Lands officially launches November 6th, 7pm at McNally Robinson Grant Park in the Atrium and the whole Shared World team will be there. If you’re curious of what the shape of the evening might look like, check out last year’s launch of Khyber and Shared…

[cyallowitz]

#1 of All Time- 7 Tips to Creating Fictional Location Names

The most popular post by a mile first appeared on April 24, 2019. Fictional World Map (Created by Dan Meth) Continuing the topic of naming locations, I’m going to do my best to come up with some useful and humorous tips.  I only had to create one new place in War of Nytefall: Rivalry, so these are going to have to go outside of the new release.  Apelios doesn’t really give me a lot to work with…

[threeravenspublishing]

Do New Year's Resolutions Work?

[kniteracy]

It's never an ordinary walk, is it...

From Friðrós: Well, Her Majesty will want to know about this. So I should document it, I guess. I have a little camera, and Vista’s along with me, so she can help me take some photographs: Huldufólk, much as I wish it weren’t so, aren’t great with technology unless we’re in a Realm that’s bound to something technological. So strangely, I was happier with a mobile phone back home in Iceland than…

[wizardsvslesbians]

This isn't quite Steerswoman but with lesbians, but it's close enough that those who are jonesing might get a buzz. Give it a minute to get going.

[chronotsr]

No. 2 - G2, The Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl (July 1978)

Author(s): Gary Gygax Artist(s): Erol Otus, Dave C. Sutherland III, David A. Trampier (cover) Level range: Average of 9, preferably 5+ players Theme: Standard Swords and Sorcery Major re-releases: G1-3 Against the Giants, GDQ1-7 Queen of the Spiders, Against the Giants: The Liberation of Geoff, Dungeon #199, Tales from the Yawning Portal

On the heels of being more impressed with G1 than I expected, will G2 be similarly impressing? Time to find out!

The intro blurb is mostly a repeat of the text of G1, including admonitions that running stock is for villains. Our motivation remains: figure out why the hill giants did that, no matter how fucking dangerous it is. Interestingly, the other main objective of G1 (give 'em a bloody nose) is not relevant here, because that teleport means that the frost giants aren't a threat to the villagers themselves. In fact, the room teleportation schtick kind of means G2 is filler? Like, the big reveal that the G series leads to the D series is not really impacted by the events of G2. So, oops!

Conveniently, the magical chain teleports out outside the rift so you can once again have a secret cave HQ. I feel like you have a responsibility as a GM to have a giant counterattack to at least one of these caves.

I really like the imagery of the descent into the rift here. I mean, I don't think this illustration really does it justice, imagining the deep blue color of light barely passing through the ice and how that gives the area beneath the surface an eerie oceanic glow at all times other than noon -- that's some good vibes. Gary opts for green, which is a fair enough choice. Unfortunately, Gary is more interested in simulating the mounting climbing than vibes, which means that at least one of your party members is going to fall face first into the snow drift below. Gary "generously" caps the damage at 10d6 (avg 35 dmg) -- a level 9 fighter, to be clear, has 9d10 hp (avg 45 hp) and a level 9 magic user has 9d4 hp (avg 23), so that's not ideal. Also recall that you recover 1hp per full day of rest normally, so if you fall and survive you're probably still fucked unless your cleric has a lot of spells left. I'm also pretty sure your cave HQ is above the cliff face, so, risking the descent seems like suicide to me. You're going to lose people and even leaving to heal them back up is simply taking another chance at oblivion. Take the stairs.

If you have the audacity to slow fall down, you will be blown 75ft off course in a random direction. Very cool Gary!

Another interesting detail: monsters in classic DND have a pretty short attention span and will lose you fairly quickly if you flee around a corner. This is particularly amped up here to a breezy 4 in 6 odds of success, due to blizzards blocking chase.

Anyway, we're into the room by room, so let's do some room by room shit.

There is a kind "spiked heads of our enemies at the gates" situation, with corpses mutilated and frozen in transparent ice as a warning to not intrude. Honestly that's badass. What's not badass is if the players have the wherewithal to try and free the corpses (for loot or kindness), most routes lead to the treasure being destroyed and the roof collapsing -- probably instantly killing your squishies.

The hill giants from G1 are lolling about waiting for an audience, so points for continuity. I have to imagine they're freezing their asses off, though.

There are yetis here? Which, going on the graphic and the listed intelligence score in the MonMan, I have to conclude are sentient bipedial apes but like, NOT like the Frost Giants. Actually apparently the average yeti is smarter than the average frost giant, so I guess it's a Diogenes situation where they choose to live in a shitty cave when everyone else has a nice cave?

The 5 hill giants visiting the Jarl have 1k to 6k gold fur cloaks, which like. Imagine a 6,000 gold cloak. Not only is it got to be huge (Hill Giants are 10.5ft tall), for it to be worth 6k to a vendor that's got to be a one-piece fabric cloak off a particularly rare and good condition animal. I guess the players could use it as the world's fanciest comforter?

The official appearance of a Remoraz! These are awful creatures. They swallow you whole and then superheat their insides to cook you. Nasty side effect: its outsides become furnace-hot and destroy nonmagical items and burn people to death. Look at this horrible thing! And of course it's guarding the swankiest loot to date -- a +2 Giantslaying Sword and a 3 Wishes Ring. It's been a weird trend lately that the best loot is, not owned by the leader of the Giants? The best hoard seems to always belong to Some Guy. Naturally this awesome loot "sinks into the ice" if you use a fireball, because this adventure has an addiction to telling the wizard to fuck off. Note that the sword being lost punishes the fighter for the magic users' decision. Note also that the Remoraz going into superheat mode doesn't do the same thing? It sucks. This clause sucks. Cut it. The actual room itself is kind of neat, the implication is that the Remorhaz melted a spherical hole into the ice to make a den, which is awesome.

Another iconic Garyism: ". They have had audience with the Jarl, and after a special wassail to be held on the morrow they will depart for home with a treaty scroll." Translation: They're goin to have a drinking party tomorrow to celebrate a treaty signing.

And like, one room later, we get "leman", which means lover, and "durance vile", which means long imprisonment. The text implies that basically, she's a hot butch storm giantess being held in chains until she agrees to fuck the Jarl. Gary, simply ask a tall woman out. You don't have to be weird about it.

Rather than torches, the feast hall is lit with jarred fire beetles, which is kinda cute

There is a thick iron bar that "transports whosoever is standing on the floor to the entrance of Snurre's Hall [G3]". The iron bar is a lever, obviously, but is this a lever-operated teleporter? An elevator that goes straight down? G3 eliminates the elevator theory, since apparently you can arrive here via pegasus and there are caves one can access overhead. So it's a literal teleporter, and at least how I'm reading it makes it sound more science fiction than magic. Weird.

On the whole, G2 is a massive step down from G1. G2 lacks the factionalism of G1, punishes players for damn near anything attempted, and is broadly less imaginative than G1. It's a pity, really, because it's a far more interesting locale on paper, but the reality is that you could generate a cave like this by scribbling randomly. Meh. Next time we poke G3, and hope hope hope that it's more like G1 than G2.