The world of Dragon Warriors

The Dragon Warriors RPG is set in a place called Legend*. But what is the world of Legend like? That was a question a new player in our campaign posed recently. One of the veteran gamers said, ‘All you need is to read the Vance short story “Liane the Wayfarer” and you have the whole thing – the humour, the vibe, the chances of success.’ That surprised me, flattering though the comparison is, as the Legend in my head (which is no more valid than any other, of course) is utterly unlike the Dying Earth. Blood Sword features a higher fantasy variant of DW's Legend, but it still doesn't come close to the flamboyantly fantastical world of Mazirian, Rhialto, Cugel and co. Much as I love Vance’s work, even the relatively restrained Lyonesse** is much more magic-drenched than most of Legend.

Pressed to come up with some sources to convey the flavour of Legend to a newcomer, I started out with movies like The Seventh Seal (Bergman), Dragon’s Return (Grečner), The Hour of the Pig (Megahey), and The Black Death (Smith). None of those looks exactly like Legend but there are elements I recognize. Richard Carpenter's Robin of Sherwood actively inspired me when writing DW, to the extent that Clannad’s ‘The Hooded Man’ was part of our Legend gaming soundtrack in the ‘80s. The show depicted the level of magic that I think people in Legend would believe in, as do Dragonslayer (Robbins) and The Northman (Eggers).

Not quite like Legend but still worth plundering for ideas are Hero (Platts-Mills), which is especially good for the malice and craftiness of the fays, Jabberwocky (Gilliam) for all the mud and shit, Flesh & Blood (Verhoeven) which is set three centuries too late for Legend but reminds us that it’s a time when for many life is nasty, brutish and short, and a claymation film called H (Simpson) to which Ian Livingstone introduced me and which is great for the hallucinatory madness of medieval religion and superstition; it's where the image at the top of the post comes from.

Further out still are a few movies I feel share some common ancestors with Legend. Excalibur (Boorman) and The Singing Ringing Tree (Stefani) are both absolutely shot through with epic fantasy but with a subtle core of folklore. Every time a DW mystic works their magic, you feel the Dragon’s tail give a twitch. Viy (Yershov & Kropachyov) is brimming with febrile fantasy and gloriously rough and dreamlike '60s special effects. I like King Lear (Brook) and Macbeth (Polanski) for flavour. And, surprising though it is to say it, Pillars of the Earth (Mimica-Gezzan) has something to offer to the Legend referee even if it’s only Ian McShane’s performance.

That’s movies. In other media I recommend Kingdom Come: Deliverance (Warhorse Studios) and Crécy (Ellis), both a century or two too late to really reflect Legend. And when it comes to novels, the Legend take on elves was definitely influenced by Poul Anderson’s The Broken Sword and Michael Moorcock’s Silver Hand trilogy. They swiped it all from Scandinavian and Celtic myth, of course.

Talking of Celtic myth brings me at long last to the main point of this month’s post, which is to tell you about David H Keller’s Tales From Cornwall. Some of these were serialized in Weird Tales in 1929-1930 and again in the 1970s by Robert ‘Doc’ Lowndes in his Magazine of Horror, which is where I came across them. They’re in the genre of new folktales, establishing a fantasy history for Keller’s own Cornish ancestors. Here’s a taste:

The stories are slight, at times not quite making sense (they’re very authentically like a lot of Celtic myths in that way), but what I like are the atmosphere and the tone, especially in the Cecil stories that start with ‘The Battle of the Toads’. There’s a subtlety missing from most pulp fantasy too. At a time when most heroines have to be Bêlit the she-pirate, carousing and mixing it up just like the men, Keller’s strong women are clever enough to achieve their goals despite the constraints put on them by their society.

We don’t have the last five stories. If anyone happens to have access to Syracuse University library, they could pop in and read them, but it seems unlikely that they’ll get into wider circulation until at least 2036 (when Dr Keller’s work enters public domain). I just hope Syracuse University keeps the manuscript safe till then.

Still, we have the first ten stories and in them there’s a little bit of the DNA of Legend. Try them -- you’ll find that for century-old yarns they are surprisingly fresh in places, and despite lashings of fantasy it feels like they’re still on the ‘realist’ edge of that long misty border into Elfland.***

*But not by its inhabitants. That is, Legend is a non-diegetic term for the setting. If you ask a DW character they'll call it "the world" or "the middle world".

**There's a Lyonesse RPG of which I happen to be one of the writers.

***This entire post is an abbreviated version of one from my Patreon page. Come and join the fun, even if its only as a free member, and get the complete article and a lot more besides.

Automatic writing

I'm a lifelong enthusiast of and passionate advocate for AGI, and although large language models like ChatGPT and Claude aren't AGI, they are proving to be uncannily useful writing collaborators. I should qualify that. Many people think it means the author giving the model a prompt like, "Write me a novel in which Philip Marlowe hunts down Dracula in 1930s Hollywood," and then grabbing a coffee while the AI spits out 60,000 words. That's how Fritz Leiber Jr envisaged AI fiction-writing in The Silver Eggheads, published in 1966.

Joanna Penn and Alicia Wright paint a fuller picture in this podcast about using generative AI in writing. Every writer finds their own way of making best use of the technology. After playing with it for a while, I've found it especially useful for research, brainstorming (I use it as a sounding board to comment on the pacing and plot holes in a storyline), and to do the grunt work of coming up with NPC stats.

Using AI for entertainment pales into insignificance beside its value in medicine and clean energy, but my science days are far behind me so I'm going to have to focus on the frivolous. For an idea of how LLMs can help with writing research, take this example of a conversation with Claude when I was working on a Faerie Queene scenario for Patreon:

Dave: "Can you give me any examples from late medieval or Tudor literature of a character posing a conundrum that tests the wisdom and moral insight of the listeners? Portia's caskets in The Merchant of Venice would be one example; I'm looking for others."

Claude: "There are several fascinating examples from this period. Let me share a few notable ones. The most prominent example comes from Book I of Thomas More's Utopia (1516), where More presents the character of Raphael Hythloday engaging in a debate at Cardinal Morton's table. Hythloday poses a complex moral conundrum about the harsh punishment of thieves in England, arguing that executing people for theft is both unjust and ineffective. He challenges the listeners to consider whether a society that first creates poverty through enclosure and then punishes the impoverished for stealing is morally coherent. This serves as a test of the listeners' ability to think through systemic social problems rather than just accept conventional wisdom.

"Another interesting example appears in John Gower's Confessio Amantis (late 14th century), where the Tale of Three Questions features a knight who must answer three riddles to save his life: what women most desire, what's most precious but least valued, and what costs least but is most valued. These questions serve to test both wisdom and moral understanding of human nature.

"In the morality play Mankind (c. 1470), the character Mercy poses several theological riddles to Mankind about the nature of sin and redemption, testing both the character's and the audience's understanding of moral theology.

"An unusual example comes from John Skelton's Bowge of Courte (c. 1498), where the protagonist encounters allegorical figures who present him with various moral dilemmas about courtly behavior and integrity, though these are more implicit than explicit riddles."

Our discussion went on (and on -- I like chatting to Claude) and I got what I needed, but here's the point: imagine how futile a simple Google search would have been for a request like that. Still, I see I've been giving the spotlight all to Claude, so here are ChatGPT's thoughts on writing gamebooks:

ChatGPT: "Since a 1000-section gamebook requires long-term consistency, custom formatting, and mechanical coherence, GPT-4-turbo or Claude 3 would be your strongest options. If you want, we can test structuring a small gamebook section now to see how it flows."

Dave: "OK, let's try it. Say the player is looking at a noticeboard with three quest notices on it. We'll use keywords, and each notice has two keywords associated with it. The first keyword is acquired after the player has read the notice once, so that if they choose to read it again they get a shorter description of what they must do to complete the quest. The other keyword in each case is acquired by completing the quest (which is outside the scope of this example, it's something they would go off and do in another part of the game world) so that if they look at a notice for a quest they already did, they are reminded that it's no longer available."

ChatGPT: "Got it! Here's how we can structure this:

1. The player sees a noticeboard with three quest notices.
   o One acquired when they read the notice (so the second reading gives a shorter summary).
   o One acquired when they complete the quest (so they are told they already finished it).
2. Each notice has two keywords:
3. The player chooses which notice to read.
4. The system checks their keywords to determine the output.

I'll draft a structured gamebook section below."

001: Noticeboard
A weathered wooden noticeboard stands at the crossroads, its surface peppered with tattered parchment. Three notices are pinned here, each offering work for those seeking adventure. You can read any of them:

·         [1] The Merchant’s Plea    go to 002

·         [2] The Missing Hunter    go to 003

·         [3] The Bandit Threat        go to 004

Choose which notice to read. If you have already read it, you will see only a summary. If you have completed the quest, you will be informed.

002: The Merchant’s Plea
If you have the keyword READ_MERCHANT, go to 005.
If you have the keyword DONE_MERCHANT, go to 006.

A wealthy merchant named Vargos seeks aid. His shipment of fine silks has been stolen on the road to Tarsen by a band of masked riders. He offers a generous reward to anyone who can recover the stolen goods.

Write down the keyword READ_MERCHANT.
Return to 001.

003: The Missing Hunter
If you have the keyword READ_HUNTER, go to 007.
If you have the keyword DONE_HUNTER, go to 008.

A notice written in hurried script pleads for help. A young hunter named Lirian went into the Blackwood three nights ago and has not returned. His father fears the worst and offers a reward for news of his fate.

Write down the keyword READ_HUNTER.
Return to 001.

004: The Bandit Threat
If you have the keyword READ_BANDIT, go to 009.
If you have the keyword DONE_BANDIT, go to 010.

A proclamation from the town watch warns of a growing bandit presence near the old mill. Travelers have gone missing, and merchants report stolen goods. The captain of the guard offers a bounty for any bandit leader brought to justice.

Write down the keyword READ_BANDIT.
Return to 001.

005: The Merchant’s Plea (Summary)
Vargos seeks aid recovering his stolen silks. A reward is offered.
Return to 001.

006: The Merchant’s Plea (Completed)
You have already helped Vargos. There is nothing more to do here.
Return to 001.

007: The Missing Hunter (Summary)
A hunter is missing in the Blackwood. His father seeks news.
Return to 001.

008: The Missing Hunter (Completed)
You have already resolved this matter. There is nothing more to do here.
Return to 001.

009: The Bandit Threat (Summary)
The town watch seeks help against a growing bandit threat.
Return to 001.

010: The Bandit Threat (Completed)
The bandit threat has been dealt with. The notice is now irrelevant.
Return to 001.

I find that pretty impressive. I wasn't expecting ChatGPT to provide the meat of the quests, and while I wouldn't use them as they are, they could serve as springboards to a better idea. I said to ChatGPT, only half in jest: "I'll soon be obsolete."

"You're far from obsolete," said ChatGPT, eager as always to be supportive. "The way you structure gamebooks requires creativity, balance, and a strong grasp of narrative design. LLMs are just tools to assist in the process. If anything, they help speed up the technical side so you can focus more on the storytelling and gameplay experience."

Which is pretty much what I've been telling everyone all along.

Queen Nyx isn't vanquished overnight

There haven't been a lot of reviews of Vulcanverse -- probably because it's 6115 sections long, and to get to the climactic battle at the end most reviewers are going to cheat. Let's face it, reviewers have to keep the reviews coming. It's not like they can take a two-month break to play through the entire Vulcanverse saga. That's a shame, as there are huge victories to be won and those victories can't be truly appreciated unless they're earned. But if you're a gamebook or solo RPG aficionado, don't let that deter you. If you want the real epic experience, get all five books and be prepared to let them take over your life for a while. (You can create your character right here.) I don't think you'll regret it.

Figures on a hillside

‘Who comes must love lone

places,

Where long-forgotten bone

Lies in the old spaces.’

Fans of the work of English fantasy author John Whitbourn won't want to miss the chance to lay their hands on The Ghosts and Scholars Book of Landscape Figures. This is a hand-numbered limited edition hardcover featuring a selection of weird tales involving chalk giants and other ancient entities slumbering in the hills. Mr Whitbourn's contribution may (so he threatens) be his last short story. We must hope that's not so, but collectors will want to snap up their copy just in case. Forget about NFTs and crypto; give it a year or two and these books will be worth more than their weight in Saxon gold.

As for prehistoric chalk figures -- abiding through the centuries, they evoke a sense of the numinous even in a thoroughgoing materialist like me. They can be variously seen as guardians of the sacred, warnings to intruders, or just marks left by those lived before us to say, "We were here!" In the hands of these skilled writers they lie across the threshold where folk horror and psychogeography meet. I haven't been able to resist using them in my own work, both in the Dragon Warriors scenario "Wayland's Smithy" and, more frivolously, in this letter to the Royal Mythological Society in Mirabilis, the comic I created with Leo Hartas and Martin McKenna.

"Message in a Bottle" (a scenario set in Legend)

Here's a Legend scenario that originally appeared on my Patreon page. Sign up there (you don't have to pay anything) if you want to get these goodies early. We keep hearing these days about fantasy roleplaying being 'colonial'; here's an adventure where the colonials get their comeuppance!

The characters are in Outremer when they learn of the siege of Asun, a city on the coast of the Sea of Lament. It has been blockaded for months by a mercenary fleet financed by trading houses of Ferromaine, and now a Crusader army is closing in on it by land with the intention of wresting it from Zhenir at least long enough to sack the place.

The characters have heard of the wizard Zakhar (his name is actually Zakariya) whose magnificent House of Wonders stands in the Old Quarter of Asun. ‘Too many treasures there for Zakhar to salvage them all,’ reckons one authority on the subject. ‘He’ll escape with the choicest items, but there’s a chance his library will still have a few works not seen in the West for centuries. That’s if the Capellars don’t torch all the books as soon as they get into the city.’

It doesn’t matter whether or not the characters join in the capture of Asun, though it will be more effective if they do, especially if they have to circumvent some magical trap left by Zakhar to protect his home. At any rate, they either find or are subsequently offered a curio found behind a brick in the House of Wonders: a double-shelled bottle with an outer surface of swirling turquoise glass with gaps that reveal a secretive shell of black crystal beneath. The stopper is a gold plug stamped with a sigil unfamiliar to the most learned Coradian scholars. (Or even Ta'ashim scholars, come to that.)

If the stopper is removed, time stands still for all but the characters around the bottle. They become aware that their company now includes one who was not there before, though they have no memory of him joining them.

If they insist on giving him a name, he suggests they could call him Samum. ‘At this hour, when you gather, think on the wish of your hearts. Three wishes I will grant, but only when you speak together, and the wish shall be as the words you speak.’

They awake, realizing they had all dozed off, and the other is no longer with them. Nor can they remember his face.

The jinni will come each day at the same hour, but only if they are all gathered together. They can make one wish each time, and when all three wishes have been spoken the jinni will then bring about the exact opposite, one wish at a time on each of the next three days, the jinni manifesting now beside the bottle at the appointed hour whether or not all the characters assemble there.

Why the reversed wishes? Because the situation was not as it seemed. They did not free the jinni because it was never really trapped in the bottle in the first place. The stopper was a fake – that’s why no one can identify the sigil. The Ta’ashim wizard Zakariya, knowing his city was going to fall to the Coradians, left the jinni as a booby trap. He commanded it (using the last of his own three wishes) to pretend to be imprisoned until the stopper was removed, then to learn the three desires of the Coradians and do the opposite to what they want.

(Was this not a way of Zakariya effectively using his last wish to obtain three more wishes? Jinn are usually alert to such wiles, but in this case the jinni approves so greatly of the malice and ingenuity involved that it's prepared to overlook that.)

If the characters can find the original stopper with Suleiman’s seal (they would know him as 'Salamin', if at all) they might be able to fix things. Zakariya left it with a servant who was supposed to throw it in the well, but instead he sold it to a trader in curiosities in Asun market.

Armed with the genuine stopper, they could trick the jinni into returning to the bottle using the old ploy of ‘I can’t believe you could fit inside this…’ The jinni appears each day at the same hour, even after hearing the three wishes and then conjuring their opposite, in order to relish their misery. Naturally the jinni is just as aware of old myths as they are, but will happily enter the bottle because it thinks they have only the fake stopper, which has no power to seal it inside.

If they succeed in trapping the jinni and then release it for real, it is obliged to grant three wishes – this time playing it straight and doing exactly as they ask, not the reverse. It’s quite likely they’ll need at least one of those true wishes to fix the trouble the bad wishes caused, and of course if a wish is not phrased just right it can cause fresh problems of its own, even when granted properly.

How should the jinni look? You may have quite a job reclaiming the terrifying majesty of the concept from the creaky stage and screen versions we’re all used to. In movies jinn are almost never depicted as native to the region where they were originally minor deities. In Pasolini’s Il Fiore Delle Mille e una Note, the jinni has red hair. My favourite screen jinn are both played by John Leguizamo in Peter Barnes’s Arabian Nights miniseries, but Leguizamo is Spanish-Columbian. The Thief of Bagdad began a long tradition of having African-Americans play jinn (the magnificent Rex Ingram in this case) and I shudder to think that’s perhaps because Hollywood producers associate commanding a jinni with having a slave though, to be fair, later Arabic folktales also often portray a jinni’s natural form as black-skinned.

I like this sinister, mouldering, bandage-wrapped interpretation from the videogame The Thaumaturge. It does seem more Egyptian than Arabian, but neatly gets around any accusations of racism. And it fairly reeks of sorcerous power.

But how about if we look back to the original myths? Jinn there are creatures of smokeless fire (which is possibly how ancient Arabs described light) so maybe the jinni could manifest as a dazzling glow with a flickering face inside. Trouble is, that’s getting too FX-ish, which is the very opposite of magical. So in the end I opted to just make this one the classic shape changer, so protean that it was like an ambiguous figure met in a dream. And the jinn freely change their appearance in The Thousand and One Nights, so who could hope to pin them down any more than we can know how many quarks are dancing on the head of a proton?

"Samum" incidentally is a desert wind that brings sickness. A player might look that up and suspect a trap, but after all isn’t it exactly the kind of thing you’d expect a jinni to be called?

The Thaumaturge

Most of the time, what's marketed as fantasy is anything but fantastical. Fantasy movies are too often singularly lacking in magic, jokey romps with the visual styling of a medieval theme park. Fantasy novels, steered by imagined trends that publishing executives might just as well derive from staring at birds, are cookie-cutter remixes of the Last Big Thing*. And CRPGs? Face it, they're usually just D&D under a different label.

In such times, who would admit to liking fantasy? Tentatively my hand goes up. I'm a fan of fantasy fiction in the same way that Diogenes was a fan of honest men. So finding something really, really good in the genre is sweet water to parched lips. And that's The Thaumaturge, developed by Fool's Theory, which Jamie and I have been playing obsessively this month.

The game is set in Poland in 1905 and involves the experiences of Wiktor Szulski, who is one of a clandestine group of mages who derive their power by binding unseen beings called salutors. After the violent death of his father, from whom he was estranged, Wiktor returns home to Warsaw and investigates the possibility of murder while getting embroiled in family tensions and the politics and social intrigues of the day.

Twin pique

The sense of atmosphere is superbly evoked, both for the historical period and the feeling of uncanny magic deriving from Eastern European folklore. The occasional black humour is nicely judged and doesn't rely on anachronisms. The characters -- including some famous names you'll have heard of -- are rounded, complex and believable, and in investigating the stories of their Flaws (the character traits that led to a salutor attaching itself to them) you'll often find that your first or even second guess is wide of the mark. The story unfolds in surprising ways, always richly inventive, and with plot twists that are more interesting and make more sense than you'll find in many a movie or TV show.

Hello, Darkness, my old friend

Add to that the resonance with modern real-life events, which pervades the story without ever being hammered home, and you have what is not just the best CRPG for several years but the best fantasy story in any medium. The actors nail these characters. Listen to Maciej Nawrocki's pitch-perfect aristocratic drawl as Wiktor, Filip Lipiecki delivering Abaurycys edge-of hysteria braggadocio (Richard Widmark couldn't have done it better) or Ewa Prus blending Ligia's heartfelt concern for her brother with the needling urge to scold him.

The writing team comprises Paweł Nowak, Magdalena Bialek, Alicja Korzewska, and Paula Mejsner, and this open-world game is so story- and character-centred that I'm bound to emphasize their work, but the credit goes not just to the writers but to the visual designers and the other developers who built up the meticulous details of the game world. Just look at the personality conveyed by the macabre and silent Upyr, oldest of your salutors, a nightmarish presence who feels also like a faithful companion and by that contrast draws you into what it feels like to be a thaumaturge with one foot in reality and the other in a different world. There is real creative genius here. My faith in fantasy, at least for another year, is restored.

* The other day a friend was telling me about a bestselling series set in a school for teen dragon-riders. "Of course it's just Anne McCaffrey meets J K Rowling," they said, "but with a TikTok vibe for readers who've never read a Pern or Harry Potter book."

Elf or devil?

A cross-post today from my Patreon page, in a brazen attempt to lure you from the antechamber that is the FL blog into the Aladdin's Cave of true treasures. It is of course specific to the fantasy world of Legend from Dragon Warriors; other medieval imaginaries are available.

*  *  *

How can you tell a faerie from a devil? The first thing is to ask why it should matter. The fays of Legend were once deities. They embody the gamut of human passions and, though capricious, they’re fond of wagers and contests and they are bound by codes of behaviour that oblige them to keep to the letter of an oath. (Pay attention at the back; these details could save your life.)

Devils on the other hand are not merely whimsical but outright malicious. They will lie and deceive and are so eager to break their word (unless sworn on a symbol of the True Faith) that their very contrariness is one of the few ways to outwit them.

Faeries fear cold iron and have a distaste for holy things. Devils fear faith and goodness and can be harmed and driven off by holy things.

But this world is not a place built on scientific principles. Ask a village priest if Ned from Gallows Wood (The Elven Crystals) is a goblin or a devil and he’ll tell you they’re the same thing: 'Whatever is not godly is ungodly.' What about a White Lady? Is she a ghost? A faerie? A devil? An enchantress? A pagan goddess? At this point our friend the priest may be fixing you with a suspicious eye and wondering where he’s left the holy water.

As most people take their lead in such matters from their priest, everyday folk don’t draw a conscious distinction between the fay and the diabolic. They might say, ‘Old Robin in the spinney, ’e’s no ’arm to man nor beast. Might occasionally carry off a baby, but only if it was set to be a wrong ’un.' Or alternatively: ‘If’n you see red eyes looking out at you from the ol’ barn, you turn tail and you run. Looks like a mangy cat, but that’s an imp right out of hell, that is.’

So in the acceptance of some locally cherished goblins you may sense an echo of the time when they were propitiated, whereas the devils that came tumbling along in the wake of early missionaries are shunned and feared.

Scholars are the only ones who would perceive and debate the difference. In Ellesland that means educated clergy or wizards or both. ‘The Gentle Folk are known to be shapechangers,’ says Brother Mulk of Osterlin, ‘but we might say they are more often met in a form somewhat like a man or woman, even if gnarled or covered in thorns, though also sometimes in unblemished forms of dangerous beauty. Devils enjoy appearing in the shape of a cat or toad or rooster, especially when acting as familiar to some damned soul, but they too will sometimes appear with two arms and two legs – often with the addition of little wings, horns, or cloven hooves. Bat wings, that is, bald and leathery; the Lords and Ladies, they’d favour gossamer wings if any. But none of these rules are hard and fast. The mortal form given to us by God is one they all like to copy, the only distinction being that it’s harder for devils to put on such a shape without some disfigurement to mark out their unholiness.’

'Faerie glamour is a kind of illusion, is it not?'

'No mere mirage. Faerie glamour is a weft and warp that overlays reality. If we are to call it illusion, it is illusion that fools the senses of the world. Devils, on the other hand, more usually manifest by possessing the body of a blameless creature. We have the example in scripture of the Gergesene swine.'

‘There are stories of bargains to be done with such creatures, both fay and devils.’

Brother Mulk throws up his hand as if to ward off a blow. ‘Devils bargain for one thing only, and for that they can never offer enough. It’s true that the others can be held to a deal, for their words are anciently forceful and have power to bind even themselves. Thus in parts of Chaubrette you hear tales of the sotay or sotré, a sprite that inhabits a household and takes a proprietorial pride in keeping it swept and the cows milked in just the same way that the lares and penates of the ancient Selentines watched over the family homestead. If you meet such a one, who may take the form of a wizened old man as swarthy as a charcoal burner, you must be careful to treat him with the nicest manners. Do not compliment him directly, but even more importantly do not slight his appearance or make any reference to his incongruous clothing.’

‘What about his clothing?’

Mulk admits he is only relating what he’s heard. ‘Perhaps they affect the toga of the Selentine nobles. But the strictest rule you must follow is never to draw attention to the unusual nature of the fellow.’

‘Is that why you refer to them as “the good people”?’

‘You know that the Kindly Ones were anything but. You would not call them by their older name. God is our protector, but why tempt fate?’

‘Is there no sure way to tell a faerie from a devil?’ you might ask.

Brother Mulk (no doubt wincing at the term ‘faerie’, for he is careful to respect the fallen gods even though he knows they can do nothing against the True Faith) might reply, ‘There are signs for those who would see. The reek of brimstone hangs around devils, for example, as they have always one foot in the infernal realm. And colours too may guide you. Green is often taken to betoken the elfin folk, while many take the red of licking flames to denote a devilish presence.’ He spreads his hands. ‘But nothing is certain.’

‘Except faith.’

He nods, a pensive frown on his face. ‘Except faith.’

The Poughkeepsie problem

It turns out I need to set the record straight about my attitude to The Lord of the Rings. As I confessed in an earlier post, I haven’t read it. When I tried the first book, back in my mid-teens, the cosy Little England prose style didn’t grab me. I was more into Elric and Conan and the whole sword-&-sorcery side of fantasy. It might be different now, but the intervening years have made the plot so familiar that I’m not sure when I’ll get around to it.

All of that doesn’t mean I don’t respect Tolkien’s craft. I’m sure he knew what he was doing, and he did it with imagination and elegance. It’s much like my opinion of the Earthsea and Discworld books. I’ve dipped into them, I can see they’re done well, I admire the authors; the books just aren’t for me. And that’s a very different thing from disdaining them.

This cropped up recently when a friend told me he was planning a roleplaying campaign about defiance and resistance in the face of political repression. “There’ll be difficult compromises and harsh moral choices,” he promised. “And it’s all set in a brutalist industrial landscape.”

Sounded intriguing. I was almost hooked. But then he added: “And it’s got elves!”

Instant heartsink. "Oh," I said. "You had me until the elves.”

“It’s a long way from traditional D&D,” he protested. “The elves aren’t the Tolkien kind. It’s mysterious. It's dark and gritty urban fantasy.”

Imagine you were an HBO exec in 2016, you'd just heard Jesse Armstrong's story pitch for Succession, and then he'd concluded with: "And they're all orcs!" 

I'm against torture, but...

So -- disgust, obviously. But what really gave me pause was that my friend must have got the impression I despise Tolkien’s use of elves. Not a bit of it. From what I’ve seen, Tolkien put a lot of thought into them, and given that he was attempting a European (indeed, British) flavour of fantasy their presence makes sense. It’s worlds always from a recent bestselling fantasy polylogy I had the misfortune to come across, which had elves with guns and mobile phones in a Middle-Earth meets Blade Runner setting. Why elves? The author might as well have called them Romulans or Vikings or Cossacks, all equally out of place in an urban fantasy environment. This is using the surface styling of a fantasy trope without any of the context that forms its roots. It’s cosplay masquerading as storytelling. Ursula K Le Guin would have plenty to say about it -- and did, in her essay “From Elfland to Poughkeepsie”:

"The lords of Elfland are true lords, the only true lords, the kind that do not exist on this earth; their lordship is the outward sign or symbol of real inward greatness."

Le Guin is not talking about moral greatness, by the way. The elves she refers to aren’t angels. In at least one of her examples the elf is being petty – but grandly petty, gloriously self-centred, whining as only a silver-tongued immortal can.

Talking of the stir-it-all-in approach, the modern mangling of myth, she says:

“It is not fantasy, for all its equipment of heroes and wizards […] A writer may deploy acres of sagebrush and rimrock without achieving a real Western. He may use spaceships and strains of mutant bacteria all he pleases, and never be anywhere near real science fiction.”

Le Guin recognized that Tolkien had the genuine fantasy touch. When I say that I haven’t read The Lord of the Rings, that’s not a judgement on the quality of the work. I could have mentioned Dune, another series I never got into only because it doesn’t happen to chime with me. That doesn’t mean it isn’t good. There are plenty of absolute stinkers in the fantasy & SF genres (Sturgeon’s Law tells us that) but also some gems, and those gems are worth celebrating, so I just wanted to be clear where I stand.

More about elves next time. The proper kind of elves, I mean.

Reality "in here" vs reality "out there"

"Many people think that there must be something more to the fabric of reality than what science can explain," said The Economist in a recent review of a book about the philosopher Henri Bergson, who once said of Einstein's theory of relativity that "it is not science, it is a metaphysics grafted upon science."

Bergson obviously understood nothing about relativity, and The Economist is often surprisingly prone to magical thinking for a paper devoted to the dismal science, but the comment happened to coincide with this interesting post by "A Motley Fool" on Substack and the above video by Grim Jim Desborough, both dealing with the question of the mystical vs the material.

It isn't a contest, and only non-scientists imagine that faith in science puts the two in conflict. (A point that Grim makes in his video.) I am a rationalist. I believe that the universe is simply a set of processes, "mechanical" if you like. But I also believe that we live in a mental model of the universe, and our mental model includes mystical phenomena. Those things are not real outside the world of ideas, as Alan Moore puts it, but in that that world they matter.

In other words, both gravity and love are real and important, but they are not real and important in the same way. To think so, and to try to insist that mystical ideas are also important to the universe -- that they're part of the fabric of reality, as The Economist insists -- is a category error. We're apes, and apes with clever little brains that imagine all sorts of art and feelings, but the universe doesn't give a stuff about that -- unless you can believe in an immanent deity that thinks like an ape. Einstein would have had no need to refute Andrew Marvell's statement of time

But at my back I always hear
Time’s wingèd chariot hurrying near;
And yonder all before us lie
Deserts of vast eternity.

because, unlike Bergson, Marvell wasn't Dunning-Kruger (or even Donneing-Kruger) in thinking he was saying something fundamental about the objective nature of time.

It's the 21st century. We should have got past human exceptionalism by now, and also past the clomping kind of philosophy that still thinks science and intuition are describing the same kind of reality. For us they exist as a superposition, but that only matters on this tiny blip of matter in this tiny sliver of time to this one primate species. When humans are gone, the universe will still have red shift and black holes and gravitational waves but the notions of Bergson will be gone forever in the abyss of time.

The comfort zone

This excerpt from the D&D Dungeon Master's Guide has been getting shared on social media recently, turning into a gaming shibboleth after Elon Musk commented on it. (I'm surprised he had the time between tweeting puerile 'jokes', supporting fascists, and spreading misinformation about UK & European politics, but a brain soaked in ketamine has unusual priorities, I guess.)

It's a matter of etiquette rather than rules, and the DM's Guide approach isn't how I'd personally handle sensitivity among players. Consider two different games that you might join. One umpire (or DM if you must) offers the comfort tools outlined above. If you object to anything in the game you can stop the action and ask for something to be changed or deleted, much like a censor watching the pre-release cut of a movie. The other umpire starts off by saying that if you have any red lines you're better off not joining the game. So that's the equivalent of going to a movie theatre and checking the age ratings so you don't take your kids into an NC-17.

Those might be examples of Isaiah Berlin's two forms of liberty, though I'll leave it to the philosophers out there to tell us which is which. As I said in an old post, there's no point in subjecting anybody to an experience they're going to disapprove of, and both approaches deal with that. I prefer the certificate method to the x-card one, given that I very often aim to include extremely disquieting horror elements in my scenarios, and once called off a campaign rather than exclude one of my players who objected to the tone I was planning for the game. And I agree with Hubert Selby Jr that self-censorship is creatively stifling, and that would include group self-censorship. But if the creative outcome, the art, is not your main reason for roleplaying then you're perfectly entitled to join the self-censoring group. It all depends on what you're after.

Here's another way (from Upon a Distant Shore, a D&D campaign book) to handle players objecting to stuff in the game. It seems fair enough to me, but social media immediately lit up with people objecting that it wasn't using comfort "tools" the way they insist on framing them:

Folks get irate because not everyone uses their preferred gaming-table etiquette. But why? As long as you're told the etiquette upfront and so can ensure you aren't going to get unexpectedly upset or offended, isn't that all that matters? You go and watch Paddington in Peru, I'll watch Titus Andronicus, and we're both happy. So I'm not quite sure why the issue divides people into warring camps, other than the fact that pretty much anything does that these days; we're right back in the era of the Blues and the Greens. And Elon Musk is using that fact to buy control of the Western world, so we'd better all smarten the fuck up before it's too late.

This again?

'You should read some history, sonny boy. Read about the Black Shirts and the Gestapo and concentration camps.'

'That's not the same thing as Lisa Treadgold. Hitler was a fiend. Lisa's just a very beautiful woman with strong opinions. Do you mind her being so beautiful?' Timothy asked innocently.

These words made Fanny so angry she stopped the car. 'Listen, dumbo,' she said, glaring. 'I realize I'm no oil painting, and I'm not rich, and I'm not famous, and no one wants my autograph--'

'And you smoke too much,' Timothy said cheekily, trying to make her smile. Really, he was quite afraid of her at that moment. She looked fierce.

'And I smoke too much,' Fanny agreed. 'But there's one thing I'll tell you, and it's this. Learn to be frightened. When you see some magic-type person, a public person, hogging the media to talk about bringing back the birch and hanging, it's time to get a little nervous. Because the person who gets beaten or hanged might turn out to be someone you know. You with me so far?'

Timothy said, 'Okay so far.'

'But when that sort of person talks about action groups and banded together brotherhoods of citizens and vigilantes, get terrified. Because the person who gets dragged away in the middle of the night for a flogging might turn out to be you. Yes, you. Simply because you're a decent, normal, pleasant, dim human being. The sort of person who just happens to get in the way of the bully boys and bully girls. Do you understand, Timothy?'

Nicholas Fisk's novel You Remember Me! was originally published in 1986 but has been forgotten where other kids/YA fantasies, less uncompromising, have endured. Too bad. In it, a TV star founds a right-wing populist political movement with promises to make the country great again. A generation raised on stories like that might not be making the mistake of putting people like this in power -- because, once they have it, they intend to hold onto it, and to do so they will uncaringly wreck the democratic institutions and regulations that have taken generations to set up.

Narcissists and plutocrats served by a coterie of sycophants and compliant dopes insincerely pandering to the electorate's sense of inadequacy with crude slogans... it's a stuck record and you'd think people would be fed up to the back teeth of it, but it seems that politics, like entertainment, just consists of the same old clichés endlessly recycled.

I'm not delusional; I realize there's no going back to 'normality' now. Western democracy is in its end-of-the-republic phase, authoritarian regimes are thriving, and the world is cooking its own goose. Still, track down a copy of Mr Fisk's book if you can find one. Or at least listen to the hosts of the Backlisted podcast discuss it with author Sam Leith. Or watch Asif Kapadia's new movie 2073. Too grim? Hey, it's less disheartening than watching the news. 

More about Elon Musk tomorrow, I'm sorry to say.

In the Ashes

In The Ashes is a solo roleplaying gamebook written by Pablo Aguilera and published by Devir. Pablo was kind enough to send me a couple of copies. It's a handsome hardback with rich colour illustrations adorning almost every page and I’ve spent some immersive hours diving into its beautifully intricate world. 

First off, as you can see in the video, this is by no means your typical gamebook. The story itself is classic high fantasy, taking place on the magical island of Obor and beginning with a scene of great dramatic force and horror: a public execution. You assume control of several different characters over the first three (of four) acts, with the game introducing you to each in turn. While the plot remains mostly linear, your actions still matter, influencing how events unfold in later acts.

One of the standout features of the gamebook is its deck-building mechanic. Yes, deck-building -- In The Ashes integrates cards into its core gameplay. You’ll begin with a small set of cards and gain more as you progress, and those cards are all laid out on the page. While you never physically shuffle them, you’ll strategically choose cards during encounters, making for a uniquely tactical experience.

In fact that's a unifying feature of the game: everything, including your tactical moves, is written directly into the book, right there on the page. Another example: the symbols that you mark on later pages. These are like keywords in a book like Vulcanverse, but with a more subtle affect. You'll reach that page, see that you've marked a symbol, and immediately you know that what's about to happen is a consequence of an earlier choice you made. You can see why you might want two copies.

Though the gameplay is dense, the prose is clean and to the point, keeping the pace brisk without sacrificing the richness of the world. This is crucial for a gamebook that wants you to focus on its mechanics and tactical decisions as much as its story. You’re not just reading—you’re strategizing, managing your resources, and executing complex plans, all while the narrative unfolds.

The variety in character mechanics, the tactical depth, and the smooth integration of board game elements make In The Ashes an experience worth savoring. If you're a fan of solo roleplaying games, especially those with a classic fantasy quest structure and a focus on strategy, this book is definitely worth seeking out.

And while I'm doing the recommendation thing, a couple of other juicy items are, firstly, The Casket of Fays #15 -- the usual superb Dragon Warriors/Legend gaming material. It's pay-what-you-want but don't be stingy. I especially liked Tom Clare's article on doppelgangers, which begins:

"Sometimes, at particular hours on particular nights, one looks into a candlelit mirror and gets the distinct feeling that the person reflected there is somebody else. This is a sign the veil between our world and the murky, warped otherworld of the mirror people has grown thin. And if in that moment the mirror is touched, there is a chance that the gossamer barrier will yield and one’s double will step out into the real world. (Highly reflective ponds count as mirrors for this purpose and, if touched in bright moonlight, have an even greater chance of releasing a double.)"

That's very Legend, that. But I said two juicy items. The other is Travelling at Night, a luscious-looking character-driven CRPG from Weather Factory. It's set in a skewed alternate Cold War period. I've recently been drawn to The Thaumaturge and have been incubating a mid-20th century game of my own involving politics, espionage and ideological tensions, so maybe it's an idea whose time has come. (Relatively speaking, that is; I'm sure orcs and fireballs will continue to hold the top spot for most gamers.)

Gaunt dead that cannot die

"One hundred years of vampire cinema: opera capes and neck-nuzzling, glowing beauties and monster-kid wish-fulfilment. Gone! The whole lot swallowed up by this eerie bacchanal of sex and death."

That's Alec Worley on Substack, talking about Robert Eggers' 2024 remake of Nosferatu. Personally I found the movie disappointing after Eggers' previous work (especially The Lighthouse and The Northman) and would have spent my time better re-watching Werner Herzog's version or F W Murnau's 1922 original -- both so much eerier. (Spoiler-free review here if you're interested.)

My own preference is for the unglamorous and grave-cold variety of vampire, not the kind that snarls and growls and prowls like a big cat. It's a taste that may have been formed originally by Gerald W Page's short story "Thirst", which swept away my childhood notions of the vampire, acquired from reading Dracula when I was 10 years old*, and gave my teen self an unplugged, proto-punk take on the myth. Mr Page was kind enough to find the time to correspond with aspiring writers like me, so he may have discussed his reasons for wanting to break the mold. When I have time I shall go through his letters (which of course I have kept these fifty-three years) to see what he had to say about the story.

Later in my teens I was inspired by Gryphon's song "The Unquiet Grave" -- not specifically vampiric, admittedly, but chilling all the same with lines like this:

"My lips they are as cold as clay, my breath smells earthy strong,
And if you kiss my cold grey lips, your days they won't be long."

Robert Dale, with his deep knowledge of British folklore, encouraged this predilection with his very chilling depiction of Pyron the reaper, a vampire in the Brymstone campaign. Oliver Johnson a few decades later gave us another feral vampire in his Lightbringers game. This is from the game write-up:

"A pitiful mewling cry came from a thorn thicket to the south of the clearing. It sounded like a small child in distress or perhaps a snared bird. A narrow crawl way snaked deep into the thorns towards the sound. Nafaj squirmed into the tunnel. The thorns snagged cruelly at his clothing and skin. When he was several yards into the thicket, he saw a boyish white face staring back at him down the darkened tunnel of thorns. Though he had steeled himself for such an encounter, his will deserted him as the creature started whispering its blandishments. To his horror he found himself crawling forward. Soon he was next to the vampire. All its limbs had been ripped off; it was but a torso and a head.  The vampire drank Nafaj’s blood and instructed him to return later that night.

"Nafaj emerged from the thicket. The setting sun causing him discomfort, he had thrown the hood of his cloak over his head, but none of the others thought to question why this was. He was carrying a dead bird and explained the noise had been its dying song. The others were eager to be gone from the accursed place, but the marquis’ horse was suddenly lame and this caused a delay. Darkness fell, a temporary camp was made and watches held throughout the night."

The natural habitat of these revenants isn't a Victorian drawing room, nor even a Gothic castle. They are the dead who won't stay quiet, clawing their way up out of the dirt of the graveyard and crawling along ditches and over country lanes because enough of a spark of consciousness remains that they are jealous of the living and want to steal their warmth and lifeblood.

Such walking-corpse vampires can still have uncanny powers, like Gerwin in the Jewelspider scenario "Death Is Only The Beginning" who is able to hide himself from mortal sight after dark, though I prefer them to be nothing more than bloodless cadavers with a raging thirst, like the thing that visits you in your sleep in Workshop of the Gods:

‘Wake up!’

‘My friend... I dreamt a beautiful vampire was about to drink my blood.’

‘Beautiful?’ cries your companion in a voice thick with horror. ‘It is a monster. See!’

You look where he’s pointing and in a split-second you’re on your feet, heart pounding with adrenaline. Because only the vampire’s appearance was a dream. The rest is all too real. You see the vampire now as she really is – not a pale and beautiful woman, but a rotted corpse with maggots writhing in her pock-marked cheeks and lustreless eyes that leak brown slime. Clammy strips of dead flesh hang from her bones. The room is filled with the stench of decay.

She lurches forward, swollen grey fingers reaching for you, her lipless teeth clacking eagerly.

Sleep tight!

* To be fair to Mr Stoker, the Count is not intended to be a typical vampire. His wives and Lucy Westenra present as chillingly inhuman, nearly mindless vessels of simple appetite.

Alternate reality: "The Black Flower"

If you read White Dwarf back in its heyday, perhaps you saw this scenario in issue #31 for June/July 1982:

"The Black Flower"

This RuneQuest scenario is more plot-driven than a traditional dungeon crawl. It involves intrigue, mystery, and the investigation of an ancient curse tied to a mysterious black flower. Like much of Dave Morris's later work, it emphasizes storytelling, atmosphere, and character interaction over straightforward combat, making it stand out for players who enjoy more narrative depth in their adventures.

Doesn’t ring any bells? Ah, then you must be in the real universe. In the sometimes-hallucinatory world of ChatGPT-4, this was the cover:

Flattered by ChatGPT's high opinion of my work, I asked it for more info:

Overview:

“The Black Flower” is a RuneQuest adventure by Dave Morris centred around a mysterious black flower with a dark and tragic history. The adventure is for 3-6 player-characters and blends investigative mystery with supernatural elements, encouraging players to explore a series of strange and unsettling events. Typical skill percentages may range from 30% to 50% in their primary skills, with a few specialties possibly reaching 60% or more.

The story begins with the discovery of a rare and sinister black flower in a small town. This flower, once thought to be a mere legend, is associated with curses, madness, and death. The adventure leads the players into an investigation involving a cursed family, ancient magic, and a series of unexplained deaths. As they delve deeper, they uncover secrets about the flower's origins and the dark forces it draws upon.

The adventure emphasizes narrative and atmosphere over combat, with much of the tension arising from the unravelling mystery and eerie interactions with NPCs. It's filled with plot twists, and the players must use their wits to solve the mystery and confront the supernatural force behind the curse.

The adventure’s tone emphasizes mystery and dark atmosphere. The players are drawn into a world where folklore and supernatural forces have tangible effects, and their investigation becomes a race against time as the curse spreads. The focus on mystery-solving, atmosphere, and narrative richness is typical of Dave Morris’s style, which makes “The Black Flower” a standout scenario in White Dwarf.

Introduction to "The Black Flower"

There is a saying among the people of the southern plains: ‘Once you have touched the black flower, there is no turning back.’ For centuries, the black flower has been spoken of only in hushed whispers, a symbol of doom and death. Many believe it to be no more than an old wives’ tale, yet recently, the flower has bloomed once again.

In the small, nondescript village of Erondale, a rare black flower has been found growing at the site of an ancient burial ground. The villagers are frightened, recalling old stories about the curse of the black flower—a curse that brings madness, illness, and death to those who come into contact with it. Several strange incidents have already begun to occur, and the local lord has hired the adventurers to investigate the growing unrest in the village.

The black flower is said to be tied to an ancient family curse, one that has lingered for generations. As the players investigate the village, they will encounter a web of secrets, superstitions, and strange occurrences, all pointing to the malevolent magic behind the flower. But the truth is darker and more complex than they could have imagined, and they must tread carefully or risk becoming part of the legend themselves.

The setting

Erondale is a small, remote village with an eerie atmosphere, located in a misty valley surrounded by dark woods and hills. It is known for its unsettling quiet and the strange, almost dreamlike haze that lingers over the land, which the villagers attribute to old faerie tales. The villagers live simple lives, but the village’s dark history with the cursed black flower haunts their every step.

The Investigation

The investigation is the heart of the adventure, driving the players deeper into the story’s dark lore and cursed history. As investigators, the players must uncover several layers of mystery, dealing with increasingly strange and ominous events. Here’s how it typically unfolds:

1. Arrival and Initial Inquiry

• The players arrive in a village already tense with fear. The villagers are reluctant to talk about the black flower, but there are rumours of strange deaths and madness befalling those who have come into contact with it. 
• Their investigation starts by speaking with key NPCs, including the local lord (who commissioned their involvement), suspicious villagers, and any scholars or wise folk who know local folklore. 
• The black flower is found near an ancient burial ground, adding to the air of superstition. Villagers will offer conflicting stories, some claiming the curse is nothing but legend, while others are convinced it's real. 

2. Unexplained Deaths and Madness

• As they investigate, the players will hear about or witness several unusual occurrences: people who touched the flower have died from strange illnesses, others have succumbed to madness, and a few have gone missing. 
• These encounters are designed to create an eerie, supernatural atmosphere. Players will find themselves chasing clues such as half-written journal entries, cryptic warnings from the local wise-woman, or strange markings on walls and bodies. 

3. The Curse of the Family 

• The black flower is linked to a curse on a noble family from the area, stretching back centuries. The players will have to dig into old records, interview reluctant family members, and even visit old ruins or burial sites to piece together the history of the flower and its connection to this family.
• The curse originates from a tragic event, such as an ancient betrayal or forbidden magic that was tied to the black flower. The cursed family may even have direct or indirect responsibility for the flower’s recent appearance. 

4. Supernatural Encounters

• As the players unravel the curse, they’ll begin to experience ghostly apparitions, twisted dreams, or confront strange creatures tied to the flower’s magic. These encounters are more atmospheric than combative, though the players may occasionally face physical threats. 
• The players might also uncover the truth about the origins of the curse. Perhaps the flower was used in a dark ritual or serves as a gateway for some malevolent spirit or entity that feeds on death and madness. 

5. The Resolution

• The adventure culminates in the players needing to break the curse. This may involve a dangerous ritual, destroying the black flower at its source, or confronting the malevolent force tied to the curse.
• How they choose to resolve the situation will depend on the information they’ve gathered throughout the investigation. The ending could be tragic or triumphant, depending on their choices and success in uncovering the truth.

Structure of "The Black Flower"

The adventure is more open-ended than a typical dungeon crawl, structured like a mystery that unfolds through investigation and player-driven exploration. Here’s a breakdown of the general structure:

1. Introduction/Setup

The players are introduced to the central problem: a black flower has bloomed in the village, bringing with it rumours of a curse. The local lord hires them to investigate the source of recent strange occurrences. 

The adventure’s tension is established early on with accounts of death and madness, as well as the unease among the villagers.

2. Exploration Phase

The village and surrounding areas serve as the primary setting for exploration. The players have several leads to follow: 

• Talking to key NPCs (the lord, villagers, scholars, and members of the cursed family). 
• Investigating the location where the flower was found (an ancient burial ground or ruin). 
• Examining strange deaths, madness, and other phenomena tied to the flower. 

During this phase, they uncover clues about the family curse, the history of the black flower, and any possible supernatural involvement.

3. Escalation/Encounters

As the players delve deeper, the atmosphere becomes increasingly tense. They may encounter supernatural manifestations tied to the curse, including ghostly visions, strange creatures, or psychological effects like nightmares and hallucinations. They may also find themselves pursued by an antagonist or malevolent force (possibly tied to the curse or someone seeking to protect the family’s secrets). 

Events in the village escalate: more villagers may succumb to madness, and fear grips the population. The players are under pressure to act quickly.

4. The Climax/Final Confrontation

The investigation leads to a final revelation: the true nature of the curse and how to break it. This could involve uncovering the site of the original ritual that created the black flower or locating a lost artifact needed to end the curse.

The climax is likely a high-stakes confrontation with the supernatural force behind the flower, or perhaps a moral decision about how to deal with the cursed family or destroy the flower. The players may have to perform a dangerous ritual or battle some form of guardian or cursed spirit tied to the black flower.

5. Resolution

The adventure ends with the curse either being lifted or the situation taking a darker turn if the players fail. The resolution may also depend on how well the players have pieced together the history of the curse and whether they choose to confront or work with the cursed family. 

The village’s fate is tied to the players’ actions. They may be celebrated as heroes or cursed themselves if things go wrong.

Key Themes

• Mystery and investigation: The core of the adventure is solving the mystery behind the black flower and the curse. Players are encouraged to use wit and diplomacy, rather than brute force, to uncover clues. 
• Supernatural atmosphere: The story is designed to build tension through eerie encounters and a growing sense of dread as the players unravel the dark history of the black flower. 
• Moral choices: There may be ethical dilemmas tied to the cursed family and how the players choose to resolve the curse, allowing for a more nuanced conclusion to the adventure.

“The Black Flower” is a perfect example of an adventure where atmosphere, intrigue, and player agency take precedence over combat.

Major NPCs

The NPCs in this adventure drive much of the investigation forward, providing clues, red herrings, and even danger. The key NPCs are often conflicted, with their own agendas, secrets, and relationships to the curse of the black flower. Here are some of the most significant figures players will interact with:

Lord Caradon

Role: The local noble who hires the players.

Description: A middle-aged nobleman who is well-meaning but deeply concerned about the recent strange events in his village. While not superstitious himself, he is under immense pressure from the frightened villagers to find a solution.

Background: Unbeknownst to the players, Lord Caradon’s ancestors were tied to the cursed family, although this connection is buried in forgotten history. His involvement in hiring the players is not entirely altruistic—he may be trying to atone for his family’s ancient sins. 

Clues: He provides the players with their initial information about the black flower and offers some vague knowledge about old legends. However, he knows more than he initially lets on and may gradually reveal this, especially if the players gain his trust.

Eldra the Wise Woman 

Role: Local healer and herbalist. 

Description: An elderly woman who lives on the outskirts of the village. Eldra is both respected and feared due to her knowledge of herbs, magic, and local folklore. She is one of the few villagers who takes the curse of the black flower seriously. 

Background: Eldra has long studied the dark history of the region and may even have some ties to the supernatural forces at work. She is a reluctant ally, torn between her fear of the curse and her sense of duty to protect the village. 

Clues: Eldra knows a great deal about the legends surrounding the black flower, including its ties to the cursed family. She can offer insight into breaking the curse but will be cryptic, forcing the players to interpret her riddles and warnings. 

Encounters: Players can visit her for knowledge, but she may also become a target of the supernatural forces as the curse escalates.

Sir Gereth, the Cursed Knight

Role: The last living member of the cursed family. 

Description: Sir Gereth is a haunted figure, a knight whose family has been plagued by tragedy for generations. He is the most direct link to the curse but is reluctant to speak about it. 

Background: Sir Gereth’s family was once powerful but fell into ruin due to the curse associated with the black flower. He is racked with guilt and fear, believing that his family’s past sins are the cause of the current events. He may initially appear as an antagonist, but he is more tragic than villainous. 

Clues: Gereth holds key information about the origin of the curse, including details about his ancestors’ role in the dark rituals that gave rise to the black flower. However, he is reluctant to help, fearing the curse will claim him if he gets too involved. 

Encounters: Players may need to convince or force Gereth to reveal his knowledge. Depending on how they interact with him, he could become an ally or a source of further danger.

Mira, the Flower's Guardian 

Role: The protector of the black flower (or the force controlling it). 

Description: Mira may appear as a mysterious woman tied to the supernatural elements of the story, possibly a spirit or an ancient being tasked with guarding the cursed flower. 

Background: She may be connected to the original ritual that created the curse and now serves as a manifestation of the flower’s dark magic. Her motivations are ambiguous—she might want to protect the flower to prevent greater harm or use its power for her own ends. 

Clues: Mira holds critical information about how the flower can be destroyed or controlled. However, her intentions are unclear, and trusting her could lead the players astray. 

Encounters: Mira is likely to appear in the final stages of the adventure, perhaps offering to help the players—though her true motives may remain hidden until the climax.

Key Encounters

The encounters in "The Black Flower" are designed to build tension and heighten the sense of unease. They focus on atmosphere, puzzle-solving, and occasional supernatural confrontations rather than straight combat.

The Discovery of the Flower 

Location: Ancient burial ground near the village. 

Description: Early in the investigation, the players visit the site where the black flower was discovered. The area is filled with eerie silence, and strange carvings can be found on nearby stones. The flower itself is a dark, unnatural-looking plant, surrounded by the decaying remains of animals or people who have come into contact with it. 

Challenge: Players must examine the site carefully, looking for clues about the flower’s origin. They may need to avoid disturbing the flower too much, as touching it can cause illness, madness, or worse. 

Potential Encounter: Ghostly apparitions may appear at the site, warning the players to leave or showing glimpses of the past events that caused the curse. This encounter is more atmospheric than combative, setting the tone for the rest of the adventure.

Visions and Dreams 

Location: Various locations (inn, village, etc.) 

Description: As the players investigate, they begin to experience unsettling dreams or visions tied to the black flower’s magic. These may occur when they sleep or even while they are awake, providing cryptic clues or warnings about the curse’s nature. 

Challenge: Players must interpret the meaning of these visions. The dreams could include imagery of the cursed family’s past sins, the ritual that created the flower, or glimpses of what might happen if they fail to lift the curse. 

Potential Encounter: In one vision, the players might see the family performing a ritual to summon a dark entity that is now bound to the flower. They may encounter this entity later in the story, either as a spirit or a physical threat.

Supernatural Attacks 

Location: Throughout the village and surrounding countryside. 

Description: As the players dig deeper into the mystery, supernatural forces tied to the flower begin to attack the village. People may be found dead or driven insane, animals act strangely, and the natural world seems to turn hostile. 

Challenge: These supernatural events are meant to escalate the tension. For example, villagers may fall ill with no apparent cause, or their eyes may turn black like the flower’s petals. Players need to find ways to protect themselves and others from these forces while continuing their investigation. 

Potential Encounter: At night, the players could be attacked by creatures born from the curse—perhaps ghostly figures, or even corrupted animals controlled by the flower’s magic. These are physical threats, but they serve to increase the players’ sense of urgency.

The Ritual Chamber 

Location: Ruins or crypt connected to the cursed family. 

Description: The players eventually discover a hidden chamber or ruins where the black flower was originally used in a dark ritual. This location is crucial to lifting the curse, but it is also heavily guarded by supernatural forces. 

Challenge: Players must decipher old inscriptions, locate a key artifact, or perform a counter-ritual to end the curse. The room itself may have traps, magical wards, or illusions designed to protect the flower’s power. 

Potential Encounter: A final confrontation with a spirit or demon bound to the flower occurs here. This could be the original entity summoned during the family’s ritual or the cursed spirit of one of the ancestors themselves. Combat here would be challenging, with the entity drawing power from the flower, making it difficult to defeat.

Confronting the Guardian 

Location: Near the black flower. 

Description: If the players meet Mira or another guardian figure, this confrontation represents a key decision point in the adventure. Depending on how they’ve handled the investigation, Mira may offer to help them destroy the flower or mislead them into performing a ritual that strengthens the curse. 

Challenge: This is a moral and intellectual challenge as much as a physical one. Players must decide whether to trust the guardian and follow their advice or take matters into their own hands. The outcome will influence how the curse is lifted or whether the players inadvertently make things worse. 

Potential Encounter: If the players reject Mira’s guidance, she may turn on them, revealing her true nature. This could lead to a final battle or a tense negotiation.

Outcome

The adventure culminates in the players either successfully lifting the curse, which may involve destroying the black flower or dispelling the dark magic tied to it, or failing, allowing the curse to continue or even grow stronger. The resolution may depend heavily on the decisions made in the ritual chamber and their interactions with the NPCs, particularly Mira and Sir Gereth.

The outcome can range from a tragic ending where the curse consumes the village, to a bittersweet resolution where the players end the curse but at great personal cost.

The stat blocks for "The Black Flower" primarily cover supernatural entities, cursed creatures, and the guardian of the black flower. Here’s an outline of potential stat blocks for key encounters.

Cursed Villager (Minor NPC/Encounter)

These cursed villagers serve as minor threats, affected by the black flower’s influence. They act erratically, and in some cases, violently. 

STR 10-12
CON 10-11
SIZ 9-11
DEX 8-10
POW 5-8
INT 7-9
CHA 6-8 

HP 11 

Skills: 

• Dodge: 25% 
• Melee Weapons: 30% 
• Unarmed Attack: 35%

Abilities: 

• Cursed Mind: Due to the influence of the black flower, these villagers are under the control of the supernatural entity. They may become violent or act irrationally. 
• Madness Check: Players who spend too much time near them might experience hallucinations or nightmares. 
• Madness: 1d4 sanity loss when interacting with a cursed villager (GM discretion).

Black Flower Guardian (Major NPC/Encounter)

This could be a spirit or entity tied to the flower, guarding it from destruction. Mira, as described earlier, could take on this role. 

STR 8-10
CON 12
SIZ 13-14
DEX 15
POW 16
INT 13
CHA 15 

HP 15 

Skills: 

• Dodge: 55% 
• Melee Weapon (Dagger or Staff): 40% 
• Manipulation (Magic): 75% 
• Stealth: 60% 
• Lore (Ancient Rituals): 70%

Abilities: 

• Spellcasting (RuneQuest magic system): 
• Dominate Human: Forces a target to obey commands (POW vs POW roll). 
• Spirit Combat: Engages in ethereal combat with other spirits or characters tied to the spiritual plane. 
• Curse: Affects the target with a temporary debilitating curse, reducing one characteristic (like POW or STR) for a set duration (1d6 days). 
• Illusionary Presence: The guardian can create illusory duplicates of themselves or other creatures to confuse players. 
• Roll against POW to disbelieve illusions. 
• Aura of Fear: Any who come within 10 feet of the guardian must roll against POW or be paralyzed by fear (failure means they lose an action for 1d4 rounds).

Weaknesses: 

• Vulnerable to certain rituals or objects tied to the black flower’s origin. Players might discover a way to weaken the guardian using ancient knowledge.

Cursed Spirit (Mid-Level Combat Encounter)

This spirit represents the malevolent force bound to the black flower, often tied to the cursed family’s dark history. This could be a wraith, shade, or similar entity. 

STR 8-10
CON 13
SIZ 10-12
DEX 14
POW 16-18
INT 10
CHA 10 

HP 12 

Skills: 

• Dodge: 45% 
• Unarmed Combat (Spirit Strike): 50% 
• Stealth: 60% 
• Intimidation: 70% 
• Spirit Combat: 75%

Abilities: 

• Spirit Strike: Deals POW damage to an enemy in spiritual combat. If the target loses POW, they may lose access to their magic for a certain number of rounds. 
• Ethereal Form: Can phase through physical objects and attacks, though magical weapons or spells can still harm the spirit. 
• Aura of Despair: Any living being near the spirit must make a POW check or suffer from visions of their worst fears (reducing their effectiveness in combat by -10% to all rolls for 1d4 rounds). 
• Drain Life: On a successful attack, the cursed spirit can drain 1d4 points of POW from the victim. If the victim reaches 0 POW, they die, and their body is left as a desiccated husk.

Weaknesses: 

• Bound to the Black Flower: The spirit’s strength comes from the black flower’s magic. If the players begin a ritual to destroy the flower or sever the curse, the spirit loses 1 HP per round until it dissipates.

Black Flower’s Final Manifestation (Major Combat Encounter)

In the final stages of the adventure, the black flower might manifest as a powerful supernatural force, combining both physical and magical threats. 

STR 16
CON 15
SIZ 16
DEX 12
POW 20
INT 8
CHA 5 

HP 18 

Skills: 

• Dodge: 30% 
• Tentacle/Root Strike: 60% 
• Magic Resistance: 80%

Abilities: 

• Tentacle/Root Strike: The flower can lash out with magical roots or tendrils. This attack deals 1d8 damage and can restrain targets, forcing a STR vs STR roll to break free. 
• Corrupting Pollen: The flower releases toxic pollen that weakens the players’ resolve. All within a 20-foot radius must make a CON check or suffer from a -20% penalty on all rolls for 1d4 rounds. 
• Aura of Corruption: Any living being within 10 feet of the flower must make a POW check or suffer from the "Cursed" condition. This reduces their maximum POW by 1 point for every round spent near the flower. The POW can be restored with a powerful ritual after the flower is destroyed. 
• Summon Cursed Spirits: Every few rounds, the flower can call upon 1d4 cursed spirits or cursed villagers to fight for it. These spirits are weaker than the primary cursed spirit but still dangerous.

Weaknesses: 

• Tied to the Ritual: The flower’s power can only be weakened or destroyed by completing a specific ritual or using an artifact discovered during the investigation. 
• Vulnerable to Magic: The flower is particularly susceptible to magic that counters curses or purification spells. Attacks involving fire, holy symbols, or salt might deal extra damage.

General Notes for Encounters in "The Black Flower" 

The encounters are designed to build atmosphere and tension, with a mix of psychological and physical challenges. Many of these stat blocks assume that players will need to use magic, wit, or specific knowledge (gleaned from the investigation) to gain an advantage in combat. 

The adventure encourages players to engage with NPCs and utilize their skills creatively, meaning that not all interactions will require high skill percentages. Clever role-playing, teamwork, and narrative creativity can lead to successful outcomes even when skill checks are low. 

Morale and Sanity: Players may face sanity checks or POW rolls during particularly intense encounters, as the supernatural elements could erode their mental resilience over time. 

Weaknesses: Most creatures are tied to the black flower and draw their strength from its curse. Players can exploit this if they discover ways to weaken the flower or dispel its magic. 

Clearly ChatGPT hasn't quite got the hang of how scenarios were written back then, but its notes for "The Black Flower" are considerably more extensive than anyone actually needs to whip up a game session. (If it were really my scenario I'd make the black flower curse a MacGuffin and have the meat of the adventure involve somebody exploiting the curse for reasons of their own.) If you feel like giving it a go, tell us all about it in the comments. And if you're one of those who is fretful about AI in general, this article will help dispel some of the more paranoid myths.