Mordant Castle
Mordant Castle is an initial campaign area consisting of a "home base" castle atop a complex of dungeon levels, and is designed as the centerpiece of the West Ain-Igriv campaign for the 1974 Dungeons & Dragons rules. It is assumed that all play will take place within this prescribed area until otherwise announced, at which time play will be expanded to include a larger wilderness area based on the Outdoor Survival gameboard by Avalon Hill.
The aboveground portion of the initial campaign area consists a small fortified castle based on B2 The Keep on the Borderlands. Early expansions will include the nearby village, terrain features, and monster lairs. The subterranean portion of the complex will eventually comprise at least ten main dungeon levels, with myriad sub-levels and pocket dimensions.
Inspirations
Inspiration for this project, and the larger campaign, is drawn from the original fantasy campaigns of Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson; classic published adventures including B1 In Search of the Unknown, B2 The Keep on the Borderlands, C2 Ghost Tower of Inverness, D1 Descent Into the Depths of the Earth, D2 Shrine of the Kuo-Toa, D3 Vault of the Drow, EX1 Dungeonland, EX2 The Land Beyond the Magic Mirror, L1 Secret of Bone Hill, Q1 Queen of the Demonweb Pits, S1 Tomb of Horrors, S2 White Plume Mountain, S4 Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth, T1 Village of Hommlet, U1 Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh, WG4 Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun, X2 Castle Amber, Tegel Manor, Caverns of Thracia, City State of the Invincible Overlord, Wilderlands of High Fantasy, The Enemy Within, Shadows over Bogenhafen, and Death on the Reik; and my usual non-gaming fountainheads, with an emphasis on classic horror movies, stories, and comics.
This is not a public domain project, and is intended solely for personal game play, not publication, mostly because I'm lifting material wholesale from a wide variety of copyrighted sources.
Background
House Mordant is the archetypal clan of "generations of insane wizards and mad geniuses." Little is known of their genesis or early history, although the current state of affairs suggests that predispositions to arcane prowess and certain disturbing proclivities were present from the beginning.
The family never enjoyed a sterling reputation among its vassal populace, as tales spread of inbreeding, madness, and lives prolonged far past the mortal allotment of years by necromancy and blasphemous rites. As generations of Mordants grew more versed in their forbidden lore and more steeped in their alarming eccentricities, they commenced a great construction of staggering scale, carving a huge underground edifice below Mordant Castle. There can be no doubt that otherworldly labor and unimaginably potent sorceries were brought to bear, for no stone was ever seen quarried or excavated, though unearthly clangors and brimstone reeks filled the air both day and night.
The eldest Mordants were the first to quit the sunlight, taking with them their fabled treasures and the most irrevocably damned of their servants. Within a few centuries, administration of the Castle itself and the surrounding countryside was given over completely to retainers as the last of the Mordants retreated to the realms below. It cannot be said that the local villagers were distressed in the least by this development.
Eventually, it seems, the Mordants fell completely quiescent in their netherworld, and silence reigned below. It has now been generations since a Mordant sat in the Castle's Great Hall, but the Castle's sitting lord is still called, by custom, the Castellan, for despite its ill repute, King Dryb has never seen fit to strip House Mordant of its titles or lands.
Most villagers and Castle denizens now think of the Mordants only as boogeymen and fireside tales with which to frighten children and credulous travelers. Recently, however, strange omens and awful portents have plagued the region. Though the new Castellan has thus far kept his own counsel, he clearly harbors some peculiar concern, for he has sent out an unprecedented call for would-be heroes to descend into the dungeons beneath Mordant Castle.
(Rumor has it that the Castellan intends to grant salvage rights to prospective delvers, and it is universally held that the Mordants were spectacularly wealthy by any standard. Therefore, a greater than typical incidence of would-be heroism is expected.)
Oh, man, I really want to jump on board, but I've been having bad luck with PBP lately. Plus, I'm moving next week, and probably will be too busy to contribute meaningfully.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds interesting. How often are you looking for players to post? Where would the PbP be played?
ReplyDelete@blizack: You know you're always welcome if things work out.
ReplyDelete@Greywolf: I can post something meaningful at a minimum of once per day, and since I'd be refereeing, usually more often. I'd like for players to be able to post once a day or so on a consistent basis, at least on weekdays. In my experience, weekends are usually slower.
The game will be hosted on a phpBB-based forum I've set up and will be administering; that way I can have as many sub-forums, private forums, and so on as I like, and it seems to work out better than doing it on a non-dedicated public forum.