Cemetery of the Sepulchral Monolith
I’ve uploaded a new adventure to my itch page…
Somewhere near the edge of Bastion on the borders of Deep Country a monolith stands. A pockmarked slab of a strange mineral-like material, the monolith is in fact alive and it consumes ghosts to survive!
Cemetery of the Sepulchral Monolith is a brochure adventure for Chris McDowall’s Into the Odd, but can be used for similar games. In it you will encounter a monolith that generates ghosts in order to consume them, three factions, and a number of other interesting locales.
The price tag is 3USD, but feel free to download a community copy for any reason.
And if you’d like, you can support me on patreon. You get glimpses of WIPs, early access to anything I make, and a weekly post of morbid introspection!
Doesn’t that sound fun?
19th Century Eccentric Dandy Simulator
The 19TH CENTURY ECCENTRIC DANDY SIMULATOR is a solo journaling game based on the novel À rebours by JK Huysmans. In this game you play as an eccentric dandy surrounded by all that you cherish. Your walls are stout. Your tastes are impeccable. You will strive to create a world closer to your ideal.
And you will fail.
Over two weeks of game time you will be wracked by internal torments that push you towards an act of ultimate desperation.
CONTENT WARNING
The 19TH CENTURY ECCENTRIC DANDY SIMULATOR deals with topics of suicide, sexually transmitted disease, Roman Catholicism, and cruelty to turtles.
MATERIALS
These rules
Two six-sided dice (2D6)
Preferred journaling device
…
Enjoy!
Balloon Tomb of the Ancient Aeronaut
Remember all those UFO and “spy” balloon shenanigans from a month or so ago?
They got me imagining a whole upper atmosphere region populated with lost kites, desiccated corpses of early aviation pioneers, and strange creatures like in that old Arthur Conan Doyle story “The Horror of the Heights”:
“A visitor might descend upon this planet a thousand times and never see a tiger. Yet if he chanced to come down into a jungle he might be devoured. There are jungles of the upper air, and worse things than tigers inhabit them.”
Anyway…dare you enter the Balloon Tomb of the Ancient Aeronaut?
Balloon Tomb of the Ancient Aeronaut is a brochure adventure for Chris McDowall’s Into the Odd and similar games. In it you will explore an ancient airborne bouncy dungeon tomb. The price tag is 3USD, but you should feel free to download a community copy.
Find it here: https://yesterweird.itch.io/the-balloon-tomb
Some GM tips from the playtest:
- Don’t sweat the getting there. An experimental Researchery airship dropped the party off and would pick them up when they wanted to leave.
- To describe the tomb builder’s culture I said: “Imagine the ancient Egyptians except all their jewelery is made from balloons.” “Inflatable ancient Egyptian stuff” went a long way when giving descriptions.
- I didn’t require any movement checks to move inside the tomb, but I maximized the bouncing. For this I used a d8 to determine direction then rerolling if they hit something before moving the full amount. Maximize the bounce!
- The first encounter was turbulence. This bounced characters apart and split the party. I recommend throwing that at them right away. It’s likely you won’t have to contrive things to do this because if they land at the top they will definitely be tempted to investigate the pilot balloons, thereby disturbing them, and making the whole tomb veer towards turbulence.
- The monsters might or might not be tough, but the fear of falling out of the tomb was a lot stronger.
February 2023 Reads
AUSTIN OSMAN SPARE: THE LIFE AND LEGEND OF LONDON’S LOST ARTIST by Phil Baker
Fun stuff, but 80% of artist biographies are basically “stayed home, drew” so the interesting bits are on the periphery. That periphery here involves occultists, the world wars, the end of one world, the start of a new, and the rise and fall of art movements. Reading about art magazines from the early 1900s is similar to reading about feuds in any zine scene except involving WB Yeats and George Bernard Shaw. And then there are the wizard fights in 1950s London in which everyone is taking some nonsense completely seriously. It’s a fun read even if it’s mostly a downward spiral about people over-thinking having a wank.
TO WRITE AS IF ALREADY DEAD by Kate Zambreno.
An autofiction novel far from my usual wheel house. It’s a novel about not writing a novel, friendships after friendship, and pandemics after pandemics. I liked it but felt like a stranger exploring an unfamiliar genre landscape. Not sure how much of this I could read in a row. Also, modern philosophers should all be forced to wear clown clothes.
LEECH by Hiron Ennes
This read like Gormenghast/Fifth Head of Cerberus narrated by a surgeon who happens to be John Carpenter’s The Thing. (The world of the story has universal health care but all the doctors are infected hosts for the Thing keeping tabs on the world, which I thought a neat idea.) Some gory body horror scenes as you’d expect. CWs abound: infestation, bodily autonomy, abuse of multiple sorts, a gory birth scene, dogs survive but children don’t. It’s a horror novel. I liked it!
OPERATION SOLSTICE RAIN by Kai Tave (Massif Press)
I remain impressed by the modules made for the Lancer TTRPG. This one is an introductory adventure where the players get caught-up in a diplomatic mission gone bad. I am not much of a fan of military SF, but Lancer could make me one. Not that I would ever run a game, but play? Certainly a definite maybe.
Some Yesterweird Books
I make it a habit to check new uploads to Project Gutenberg.
Some recent highlights:
Freak Trees of the State of New York by Gurth Adelbert Whipple. Gurth Adelbert Whipple is a great name. Here people send Mr. Whipple pictures of freak trees and Mr. Whipple decides the freakiest! “Treebeard, you so nasty!”
Was It a Ghost? The Murders in Bussey’s Wood : An Extraordinary Narrative by Brent. This is about this awful murder case in Boston that features a criminal named “Scratch Gravel”. The Jamaica Plain Historical Society has an informative write up of the case.
Early British Trackways, Moats, Mounds, Camps, and Sites by Alfred Watkins. I love the cover. Leylines come from this book but it’s likely Mr. Watkins would not be happy to know what the New Age Movement has done to his theories,
Meanwhile on the Patreon, I’m doing a read through of JK Huysmans Against the Grain. It’s a novel about a guy who doesn’t leave the house and is great fun. You can join here to follow along. You’ll also get access to the game stuff I make before it shows up on itch and elsewhere. (Or while it’s a WIP that hasn’t come together yet. Looking at you Champion’s Mark, my Orlando Furioso inspired fantasy supplement.)
Later this month I’ll be releasing an adventure inspired by all the UFOs and “spy” balloons the USA has been shooting down lately: Balloon Tomb of the Ancient Aeronaut. It’s designed for Into the Odd and has players exploring an ancient airborne bouncy castle. Join my Patreon and you can grab that now!
Books January 2023
Here’s the stuff I read and liked in January 2023.
Under Hill, By Water by Josh McCrowell
My gaming group’s current game. It’s silly. It’s fun. It suits what my group wants from games at the moment. And the Shire we’ve made has become something of a playground for revolving GMs. This is good. If your game group likes to have a small game on the back burner in case someone needs to take a break this game is perfect for that.
Inspiration for my solo game One Too Many.
The Peripheral by William Gibson
I enjoyed this, but could understand someone putting it down. The plot feels driverless. The idea of it, however, is fascinating. It’s hard to explain what’s going on in it. Basically a version of time travel exists but it only allows signals to pass between eras. This means it’s possible to skype and remote work in different timelines. And then of course there’s a murder.
A Stitch In Time by Andrew J. Robinson
A Star Trek novel about Garak written by the actor who played him. It shares some DNA with John Le Carre’s earlier (more genre) novels. Plotwise it’s pretty jumpy, but, honestly, Garak’s the only Star Trek character where shame and self-loathing are integral to the character and I can relate to that. I hear all this got retconned out of existence by the Picard show, which is too bad. It’s a fun read.
The Last Days of New Paris by China Mieville
A novel set in the 1950s in a Paris where World War Two remains ongoing and surrealism makes literal weapons. This read as a love letter to the Surrealists, but the best bits had more John Blanche (of Games Workshop/Warhammer fame) than Max Ernst.
The Cadaver of Gideon Wyck by Alexander Laing
This was a weird novel. Written and set in the 1930s, it’s very much for readers who read Lovecraft a decade earlier but had then moved on to mysteries. Gideon Wyck is an awful professor at an isolated medical school in rural New England. His experiments are decidedly strange and he earns the animosity of most everyone he meets. Various events unfold and the whole thing walks a fine line between a natural or supernatural explanation. A decent read, but pretty grisly at times in a clinically medical way.
One Too Many
One Too Many is a one-page game about being a hobbit who has had one too many drinks down at the pub and now has to walk home. Usually, the Shire is a peaceful place, but these days you can’t be so sure. Strange folk are on the roads: rangers, black riders, and even hobbit gangs running off with their family’s heirloom jewelry. Most nights, it’s a short walk from the pub to your front door. But tonight? Well, you never know.
Materials: a 6-sided die or two, paper and pencil to document your journey home. Make a story of it!
One Too Many uses a hexflower to generate your journey. You can read more about Hex Flowers at this blog post. They are neat. Further inspiration came from the game Under Hill, By Water by Rise Up Comus.
Note: In playtests it was possible to get stuck in loops. To mitigate this use the following house rule: you have 3 items with you (a pipe, a walking stick, and a handkerchief) and can sacrifice an item to roll three dice and choose whichever 2-dice combination you want.
Orlando Furioso, Canto XLVI – THE END!
This is it. This is the end!
Ariosto starts with a bit of meta about himself being on board a ship and piloting it to shore where all his friends and favorite writers are there waiting eagerly for him. He thanks his patrons and their wives, their holdings, their subjects. Needless to say he goes on. (But I will admit if he you look up most of the people he mentions on wikipedia, such as Julia Gonzaga they’re interesting rabbit holes to get lost in.) At last, we get back to the story.
“Enough of this delay: the wind is right
And of my course remains but little more.”
Everyone’s searching for Ruggiero. Melissa really wants Ruggiero and Bradamante to wed, so Melissa uses her magic powers to send spirits out searching for him. The spirits find him in the gloomy woods and Melissa hies herself over there. Along the way she bumps into Leon and convinces him to accompany her.
They find Ruggiero near death. Leon asks why he suffers and Ruggiero explains the whole thing. He loves Bradamante and suffers for the sake of love, especially now that his actions have allowed him, Prince Leon, to marry her. Leon’s moved by all this and quite surprisingly he relinquishes any desire he had for Bradamante. He will not stand in Ruggiero’s way. At this, Melissa does another magic and brings all of them back to Paris.
Ruggiero recovers in an abbey. Frontino gets saddled. Ruggiero dons his armor again that hides who he is. All three head to court where they come upon a group of Bulgars. It turns out the Bulgars want to make Ruggiero their king. Leon then addresses the assembled court.
He points to Ruggiero and says this is the knight who fought Bradamante. Everyone’s confused because they all thought it was Leon. Marfisa draws her sword and gets ready to attack the knight. It’s then that Ruggiero reveals who he is and at this everyone’s delighted. Marfisa embraces him. Orlando. Sobrino. The whole crew gives him hugs. Leon gives the full account. This moves everyone even Aymon, Bradamante’s dad. He relents and grants Ruggiero permission to marry his daughter. Of course, it also helps that Ruggiero is now also the King of the Bulgars.
A wedding gets planned, and heralds travel the land proclaiming the news. Melissa magics over a pavilion from Turkey. It once belonged to Cassandra the Trojan Princess. The one who had the gift of prophecy, and the tent’s decorated all over with pictures from the life of Ariosto’s patron. Ruggiero and Bradamante stay there to entertain their guests. I don’t go into it here but Ariosto goes on and on about the pictures on the tent.
In the end the wedding party goes on for nine days. On the ninth day there is a tumult. A fearsome knight approaches. Who’s this now? It’s Rodomonte.
Rodomonte was last seen taking a vow to pray for a year after his defeat at the hands of Bradamante. He’s heard all about Agramante’s defeat, but stuck to his vow. Only now that it’s done will he raise his hand. He rides into Paris showing the inhabitants contempt and makes straight to Ruggiero who he calls apostate for abandoning the faith. All the gathered knights are ready to fight on Ruggiero’s behalf, but he’s like no, I got this.
And so a duel commences. The last duel.
It’s the usual lance shattering escapade. Swords are drawn. Horses gambol nimbly as their riders slash and make stabbity-stabbity upon each other. Balisard is much to be feared, especially since Rodomonte abandoned his dragon scale armor after his defeat at Bradamante’s hand. But his strength is great. Soon he’s smashing Ruggiero on the head until the poor knight’s stunned. Rodomonte’s sword shatters. Enraged, he lifts Ruggiero from Frontino’s saddle and throws him to the ground. The crowd gasps. Bradamante’s face turns crimson with rage and fear. Seeing this Ruggerio steadies himself. Rodomonte spurs his horse forward. Ruggiero stabs him in the leg and thigh. He drags Rodomonte down from the horse. They stand there a moment, gasping. Rodomonte throws the remnants of his sword at Ruggiero. Ruggiero’s stunned. Rodomonte charges, but the wound in his leg makes him slip. Ruggiero wastes no time and charges. Rodomonte’s knocked down, but he gets up gain. He takes hold of Ruggiero and puts him in a clinch. It’s now a full on wrestling match with Rodomonte losing blood the whole while. At last, Ruggiero manages to break free and throw Rodomonte across the ground. Rodomonte makes to stand but barely can. His blood loss is too great. Ruggiero crosses over to him and kneels on his chest. Out comes a dagger.
“Ruggiero holds the dagger at the sights
Of Rodomonte’s helm; he makes it clear
By threats that his surrender he invites,
And says that in exchange his life he’ll spare.”
Rodomonte tries to throw Ruggiero off. Realizing this is hopeless, he draws his own dagger. It’s poised to strike Ruggiero in the back. But Ruggiero sees it there and knows Rodomonte will never surrender.
Only death will end this feud.
“He plunged his dagger in that awesome brow,
Retrieving it not once, but more than twice.”
And so Rodomonte dies, a dagger to the eyes. And that’s it. Another few lines as Rodomonte’s soul flies free and then Finis.
The end.
The book is over.
Done.
Pretty wild, huh?
CANTO SCORE CARD
Knights: Ruggiero, Prince Leon, Marfisa, Bradamante, Rinaldo, Orlando, Dudone, Oliver, Sobrino, King Charles, Rodomonte
Parents: Aymon
Mages: Melissa
Horses: Frontino
Swords: Balisarda
Magic Items: Cassandra’s Pavilion, Hector’s Armor worn by Ruggiero
Orlando Furioso, Canto XLV
The penultimate canto… let’s do it!
To start we get some expounding on the nature of fortune and how “Good follows Evil, Evil follows Good, shame ends in glory, glory ends in shame.” Ruggiero has just wrought havoc upon the Greeks. Now he wants to sleep. He arrives at an inn but is recognized. The Greek king has him abducted, and the king’s sister urges him to treat Ruggiero harshly since he killed her son in the battle. In the end Ruggiero gets locked away in some deep dungeon full of snakes, where he’s chained around hands and feet and forced to eat moldy bread.
Back in France, word spreads about Bradamante’s oath to only marry a man who can defeat her in battle. This has made her parents furious. Much moping ensues.
Back in Greece, Prince Leon hears how the knight that defeated the price’s army is being held captive in a dungeon. Leon “loves” this knight because his kink is apparently masochistic self-destruction by proxy. He goes down to the dungeon with his assassin henchmen. They trick the gaoler to open the prisoner’s cell, then the henchman kills the gaoler.
They go into the cell where Ruggiero is on the brink of death. Leon professes his love/admiration for Ruggiero and together all leave the dungeon, Ruggiero pledging himself to assist Leon in any way he would wish. It’s about now that Bradamante’s challenge to any suitor reaches Leon, and he starts hatching a plan.
We can all see where this is going here.
Leon will accept the challenge, then he’ll have Ruggiero fight wearing his armor, then when Ruggiero defeats Bradamante, he’ll say it was himself and marry her.
When Ruggiero hears the plan he gets all torn and twisted. But chivalry is chivalry and his word is his bond and all that. He accepts and they head off for Paris. There’s a good bit here where Ruggiero hammers the edge off his blade so as not to harm Bradamante, while Bradamante sharpens her sword thinking she’s going to have a chance to kill Prince Leon.
The duel begins.
Bradamante’s doing her best, but Ruggiero is like a rock. This goes on all day. Finally the sun goes down, and since Bradamante couldn’t defeat the challenger it’s declared that she lost and was bested. Ruggiero however doesn’t stick around. Once he can he rides straight away returning to Leon. Leon’s delighted. He showers Ruggiero with hugs and kisses. Once that’s done Ruggiero rides off to mope in the nearest dark forest.
Meanwhile Bradamante’s pretty upset. She doesn’t want to marry Leone and is thinking of poisoning him. Fortunately, she has a pal in Marfisa who goes to King Charles and says Bradamante can’t marry Leone because she already married Ruggiero in a ceremony she witnessed. This sends the court into a tizzy. Prince Leone is disappointed but takes things in stride. It’s Aymon, Bradamante’s dad who is a complete ass over this news. How can a Christian marry a Muslim? Etc. Etc. Assholery.
King Charles can’t decide what’s what, so Marfisa steps in again and says how about we have Ruggiero fight Leone and decide it that way. Leon says that’s fine. He thinks he can have his secret knight fight Ruggiero. (Yeah, he doesn’t know the knight’s name only that he is a great warrior.) But when he gets back to his tents, there’s no Ruggiero there and no one can tell him where he’s gone.
One canto left!
CANTO SCORE CARD
Knights: Ruggiero, Ungiardo, Bradamante, Leon the Greek Prince, Marfisa, King Charlemagne
Awful Parents: Constantine the Greek King, Theodora his sister, Aymon, Beatrice
Swords: Balisard
Horses: Frontino
Henchmen: Assassin
Magic Items: Hector’s Armor
Orlando Furioso, Canto XLIV
We start with everyone in the hermit’s cell congratulating Ruggiero. When Rinaldo learns Ruggiero’s betrothed to his sister he’s delighted by the news. Unfortunately, Ariosto reveals the fact that their parents already pledged Bradamante’s hand to Leon, the Greek prince of Byzantium. Neither Rinaldo nor Bradamante’s knows about this yet, so Rinaldo has no reason not to be delighted.
I gotta hand it to Ariosto. He’s down to the last three cantos and he’s still going to introduce a love triangle.
Everybody goes back to France except Prester John who goes back to Africa. When he and his army get there all their magic boats and horses turn back into leaves and rocks. Astolfo flies back to France on the hippogriff, but releases it when he arrives there. This was part of his pledge to Saint John back in the Earthly paradise. His horn’s also lost its power. He reaches Marseilles just as everyone else is arriving. Charlemagne greets them all and there’s much rejoicing. The war’s over. The Christians have won. Everything is great, until Rinaldo mentions to his dad how happy he is to have Ruggiero as a brother-in-law. And that’s when the truth is revealed. Ruggiero’s practically a beggar. Bradamante can’t marry him. They’ve arranged her marriage to Prince Leon.
This triggers all sorts of trouble. Bradamante and Ruggiero get mopey and depressed, because of course they do. Rinaldo and Bradamante can’t disobey their parents. Still, Bradamamnte goes to Charlemagne and gets him to agree that no man may marry her unless they defeat her in battle. This angers her parents who drag Bradamamnte off to one of their fortresses. And this sends Ruggiero spiraling, and being the man of violence he is he figures the only way to solve this problem is to go to Greece and kill Prince Leon.
Leon and his dad are at the moment waging war on the Bulgars and doing all right. The Bulgars are nearly crushed, and would have been if not for Ruggiero showing up during the decisive battle. He rallies the Bulgars and sends the Greeks running. Unfortunately he can’t get his hands on either Prince Leon or his dad. But all his violence impresses Prince Leon, and the Prince falls in love with Ruggiero. Now that’s kinky! The Bulgars plan on giving their kingdom to Ruggiero, but he takes off after Leon before they can. They both take shelter in the same city. The ruler of it gets word to King Constantine, saying the mysterious knight who defeated his armies is here. The King wants the knight captured, and so…
Until next canto!
CANTO SCORE CARD
Knights: Ruggiero, Orlando, Astolfo, Oliver, Sobrino, Rinaldo, Marfisa, Bradamante, Prince Leon and his dad King Constantine, King Vatran of the Bulgars, Ungiardo (a vassal of Constantine’s)
Awful Parents: Aymon, Beatrice
Swords: Balisarda
Horses: Frontino
Mages: Holy Hermit
Yesterweird 