It was also an effort to maybe do a bit of tinkering, a-la Bruce Heard's Voyage of the Princess Ark series from Dragon Magazine.
Maybe, I thought, I'll write about the travels of a druid in Karameikos. The familiar Karameikos of Gaz 1, but with my own spin. My own twists. Familiar, I hoped, but also fresh.
I have been working on this project since mid-to-late 2008.
My take on Mystara is perhaps a bit darker. Demons long banished still haunt the world, their shadows longer and darker than that of even long lost Blackmoor.
But what good are villains without heroes to oppose them? Thus was the band of adventurers thought up: The fighter Varis, recently released from service in the Grand Duke's Mountainguard; the bowman Gilliam, one to bet on just about anything; the shy servant of the Silver Flame, Ana, bid by the Keeper of her order to travel the lands of Brun. They met up with the druid called Thorn in the mountain pass between Darokin and Karameikos, lending aid to two dwarven brothers and their charge, a pale, mysterious girl with hair like spun gold and eyes the same silver as moonlight.
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| cover design by Havard, of Blackmoor Blog fame. |
This meeting is chronicled in the first arc, "The Rise of the Winter King." They meet the scoundrel Bargle, foil one of his schemes, only to become entangled in another, and the true nature of their mysterious companion comes to light.
The Castle Mistamere portion went on to become the first adventure in the Thorn's Chronicle Adventure Path: TC1: The Baron's Favor, downloadable here.
If message boards aren't your thing, you can download the first arc of the Chronicle here, in epub format, or find it in two parts at the Vaults of Pandius, in PDF.
The second arc, "Wake of the White Witch's Wrath," tells of the fallout and resolution of events which separated the group towards the end of the events surrounding the defeat of the Winter King.
You can find the second arc at the Vaults of Pandius, in PDF.
The third, current arc unfolding at the Piazza and here on the blog involves the heroes' pursuit of the villain Bargle, and recovering the stolen Eyes of Traldar. It is only by doing this service to the Grand Duchy that the heroes will be allowed to return.
A group of side-characters from the second arc took on lives of their
own, perhaps emboldened by their initial capture by (and of) the renegade Bargle. Their side-story tackles Tim Beach's "Hail the Heroes" adventure, and is detailed in First Quest: "Handmaidens of Petra" posts.
You can find this compiled story at the Vaults of Pandius in PDF.
The second arc is currently unfolding at the Piazza, as well as here on the blog.
The Labels
The prose material is all labeled "fluff," and is subdivided into either "Thorn's Chronicle" or "Handmaidens of Petra" categories. Anything with game mechanics attached gets a "crunch" label. Posts outlining the Thorn's Chronicle take on Blackmoor are labeled "World That Was." More than likely, these posts go into details about historical figures so prominent they get their own label: "Daughters of Uther." Anything related to the play by post running over at the Comeback Inn is tagged with "PbP" and "Throne of Stars."
Thorn's Chronicle takes the fifth: The label "Project Dragonwatch" calls out material written with the 5th Edition of the Dungeons & Dragons rules in mind. This material primarily will consist of bits and pieces of Mystara's past, dealing with a one-on-one campaign unfolding in the Sylvan Realm, in the century or so prior to Ilsundal's creation of the Tree of Life.
Thanks for visiting! Please feel free to leave feedback in the comments section, or you can email me directly.
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