The world of Gurgaxia.

Here is the world of Gurgaxia - home of the Hoarfrost Halls Saga.

My current notes about this world:

The world turns and every few thousand years the Great Cosmic Dragon returns to stomp out life and create it anew. The world of GURGAXIA exists inside the footprint of the Cosmic Dragon. It is now the 5th Age of Gurgaxia over the last 40,000 years. 

The Original Dawn of Gurgaxia
 -An age of discovery, wild lands populated by primitive societies. Little organization, chaos reigned supreme. Mad Wizards ruled and delved deep to create their lairs.

The 1st Age
 -Society advanced, and codified rules of law were set down. There were still wild pockets of Chaos and Mad Wizards.

The 2nd Age
 -Multiple world settlements occured, the culture was bland and diluted. 

The 3rd Age
 -A new age for Gurgaxia, a land rules by mighty heroes with feats of derring-do. The gates to multiple worlds were opened, and could not be closed again.

The 4th Age
 -In an effort to close off the other worlds, heroes became gods amongst men. Society was unrecognizable to those who might have lived in the earlier ages. 

The 5th Age
 -The 5th age dawns and man emerges into a world with remnants of earlier ages and worlds still trapped in Gurgaxia. 

The world turns and every few thousand years the Great Cosmic Dragon returns to stomp out life and create it anew.

Here we see part of the continent at the top of the world being assembled in map form, while the world cat naps..

Here is the map as it currently exists on 9 panels of thick card board. The upper right mountain range has a small area of "lost world", with volcano included.

New Map of the Hoarfrost Saga (reboot)...

I am working on a reboot of the Hoarfrost Saga, now the mega-dungeon is the long abandoned dwarf citadel known as the Hoarfrost Halls. It is the northern most white icon in the middle map. The northern city (in the middle map) is called Gjoll. 

The hexes are 10 mile hexes and the smaller hexes are 2 miles. 

I am still working on details obviously. 

ALFAR OF HOARFROST SAGA

The Alfar are visitors from another world, with large pupil-less eyes and shambling gait. Their chameleon-like coloration allows them to easily blend in with the environment and allow them to surprise their opponents 50% of the time. They are typically armed with long, wicked knives of an alien substance (treat as non-magical +1 short-swords). 

Alfar
No. Enc. 2d4 (4d10)
Alignment: Chaotic
Movement: 120' (40')
Armor Class: 7
Hit Dice: 2
Attacks: 1
Damage: 1d8 (or weapon)
Save: F2
Hoard Class: XIX
XP: 25

BEASTMEN OF THE HOARFROST SAGA

The Beastmen of the Hoarfrost Saga are savage creatures of Chaos with the body of a man and the head of a beast. They relish violence and kill for sport. They wear no armor, and fight with swords or axes. Some even use horns or antlers to gore their opponents. 

Hoarfrost Beastman
No. Enc. 1d6 (3d10)
Alignment: Chaotic
Movement: 120' (40')
Armor Class: 8
Hit Dice: 2+2
Attacks: 2
Damage: 1d8 (or weapon)
Save: F2
Hoard Class: XX
XP: 25

KAL-NATH-TAN

Today we delve into a little of the back story of the ruined city of Kal-Nath-Tan (known as the Hoarfrost Halls to the Vikings), and a few of the current rumors floating around the Mead Hall.

Built before the great pyramids, long before the biblical flood of antiquity, the city of Kal-Nath-Tan has stood as a witness to all of human history. Built by hands long forgotten, their ruins lay sheltered in a fog-shrouded valley of the frozen north. Who were these builders and their alien gods seen depicted upon their temple walls? Their language an undecipherable riddle etched into pillars supporting great palace ceilings. Great green blocks of stone arrayed in perfect lines define their walls and buildings, stone whose origin is unknown to any now living. What treasures might lie undisturbed for ages within those silent walls? What alien terrors might lurk within?

Already Frodhi has entered this realm and returned with great treasures of gold and silver disks. Alien in make, but pure in metal, these were smelted down and used to fund his second summer expedition. Now he lives as Jarl in Frodhburg, while others explore for their share of forgotten treasure.

Rumors of foul beasts are told over horns of honey mead at the Mead House. Here are told tales of subhuman beast men and their great white apes, creatures strong enough to tear a berserker’s limbs from his body. Then there is the Cult of the Bear, another vile group of sub-humans, said to be shape-changers, who worship an ancient Cave bear. Others tell of the misty Iron Pillar located within the city, and its horrid guardian, able to melt flesh and bone.

Hoarfrost Halls Player Map of Upper Ruins

The mega-dungeon of the Hoarfrost Saga is actually the ruins of an advanced ancient civilization (more to be posted on this civilization in the future) hidden in a glacial valley. The dungeons will be individual set pieces (the upper ruins) as well as a massive underground sections which may or may not connect to the upper level ruins. 

To the right, you will find the initial players map of the upper city ruins. There is a paved road leading up the slopes of the mountain and into sheltered valley (the road leads straight to the Gatehouse). The outer walls are all noted on the map, as well as the major landmarks that can be seen from the gate. These are the Iron Pillar, the Prison, the Crystal Dome, and the Palace. (These and other hidden sites will be described in later posts). 

FRODHBURG (Base Camp)

FRODHBURG (pronounced Frothburg) lies on the Northwest shore of Finland. Established two summers ago as a trading camp, it has since grown after the discovery of the ruins of Hoarfrost Halls in the mountains.

Frodhi the Bold established a trade partnership with the local Finnish clans that roam these lands, trading household  goods (pots, knives, cups, etc.) for furs, amber, and ivory. While roaming the lands as a trader, Frodhi stumbled upon the ruins of Hoarfrost and explored the ruins finding strange artifacts and odd gold and silver disks. With winter approaching, he was forced to return home, but he returned the next summer with a small fleet of ships and built his trade town. His crew began exploring the ruins and found more gold and silver as well as strange creatures and nasty death.

News has spread throughout the lands, and as spring approaches crews make ready to visit Frodhburg and seek their glories in the ruins of Hoarfrost Halls.

The town itself consists of 4 longhouses:

1. Frodhi’s house
2. Ale House (for all to use, no fighting allowed – weapons must be stacked at the door)
3. Storage house (for Frodhi’s trade goods)
4. Communal house (for rent to local treasure seekers)

There are also some tents and huts scattered about the inside of the earthen rampart that has been built to protect the town. These belong to poor adventurers and the thralls of Frodhi.

RUNE MAGIC

Today's post is the first describing the runes available to Runecasters. I cannot post exact duplicates of the Viking Campaign sourcebook obviously - so these are all tweaked in one way or another and renamed for my campaign. 

Speak with the Animals – Rune

This rune allows the Runecaster to understand the speech of one animal. The specific animal must be named in the casting of the rune.  Once cast, the rune allows the caster to speak with and understand the animal. The animal will be friendly and assist as it may.  This rune lasts for 24 hours.

Fury of the Berserker – Rune

This rune can be carved into the haft of a weapon (typically spear or axe) and must include the name of the person and the description of the battle to be affected. This rune is most often used in duels and before known battles.

This rune provides a +1 to the character's A.C., and provides a +2 to hit and damage rolls. This effect lasts until the target is dead, retreats from battle, uses a different weapon, or is out of combat for more than 3 rounds.

Honey Mead – Rune

This rune must be carved into the rim of a cup or drinking horn, and must name the target in the casting. This rune will protect the drinker from poison for 24 hours. If poison is placed into the cup, the vessel will shatter when touched by the target.

Lucky Catch – Rune

This rune must be cast on either a pair of leather gloves, or a copper wrist band.  The name of the person and the description of the place of battle must be inscribed at the time of casting for this rune to work (i.e. “this band of copper is for Hrothgar the Loud in his battle against the Finns we are about to slaughter”).

This rune is effective for 24 hours and allows the target an attempt to catch any weapon thrown at him (spears, daggers, axes, etc.). To catch a thrown weapon the character must make a DEX ability check vs. 4d6 (roll equal or under DEX score on 4d6). If successful the character takes no damage and may make an immediate thrown weapon attack at the attacker who threw the weapon. If the DEX ability check fails, the character takes damage as normal.

One with Nature – Rune

This rune must be cast on a bone, feather, or hide of the animal the caster wishes to become. Once cast the caster changes shape to become the specific animal chosen. No equipment, clothing, or weapons change with the caster – so the caster becomes the animal in regards to A.C., movement, attack ability, and damage. The caster retains his own hit points. This rune lasts for 1d8 hours or until the caster wishes to end it.

The Runecaster

Here is my version of the Runecaster from the Viking Campaign Sourcebook for Labyrinth Lord rules. I am still working on the actual rules for rune-casting and will post them soon. Below is the general write up for the class. You can find the class here, and in the updated version of the Viking Saga rules in my Downloads sidebar.

RUNECASTER

Requirements: STR 12+, INT 15+

Prime Requisite: INT

Hit Dice: 1d8

Legendary warriors with the ability to craft powerful “rune-magic”. They fight and save as normal Fighters, but they advance more slowly. They are able to use all magic items that any normal fighter can.

Runes: Runecasters have knowledge of runes that control magical properties. Runes must be learned and are not “cast” or forgotten as normal spells. It requires time to craft a rune and failure is possible. Runecasters have a very limited selection of runes, and will always be looking to learn more. At first level a Runecaster starts the game knowing 1d3 runes (selected randomly or assigned by the GM – they are not freely chosen by the player).  At each new experience level, the character can attempt to learn a new rune (based on the character’s INT score). If the check is successful, he adds the rune to his list of known runes. If  the result fails, the character cannot attempt to learn that rune until he gains another level of experience.

Ominous Reputation: A Runecaster can only have ½ the number of followers or henchmen as allowed by his CHA score.

Hoarfrost Saga Campaign Kick Off

This is my new blog to kick off my Viking mega-dungeon campaign.  I have updated my Viking themed classes to use the Labyrinth Lord system and it is available in my Downloads section. This campaign is heavily influenced by The Black City (by Beedo) at the Dreams In theLich House blog, though I will only use it as a base and not take anything directly from his game (so players will not have any previous knowledge about what to expect in my game).

In the coming days I plan to update the rules with the Runecaster class and some other odds & ends. Then I will start detailing the setting, and the maps that will be used during the game, so stay tuned as this site will be updated regularly.