Overwhelm... Edition

Fantasy groups - agree, but in the case of S&S teams not necessarily. In my team (Conan on engine Adventurers and now BoL) there iin't any sorcerer or magic-bearer. They want to be mighty barbarians

Al Livingstone wrote:

I'd also recommend a BoL scenario called 'Wakhara, City of the Walking Dead' by Terje Nordin. It is specifically set in Lemuria. Unfortunately I can't remember where I downloaded it from.

Probably from the BoL Yahoo Group (https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/barbariansoflemuria/info)


 

Now THIS is what I like to read about! Some folks like to run their games set in the Conan universe, others like using BoL for other types of  worlds, but for me, the BEST world for BoL is Lemuria!

The Yellow Mist of Madness

The people of a small city near the Festrel Swamp were once plagued by a Demon of Morgazzon which took the form of a luminous yellow mist. This demon could possess the living by forcing its gaseous form into their lungs with their breath; its malign control transformed a succession of the city's rulers into insanely tyrannical despots. Eventually the people turned to Jholan-Mu the Wonder-Maker, a whimsical sorcerer-alchemist, to save them.

The Wonder-Maker used his sorcery to draw the demon from its aristocratic host and drive it into the body of a slave-girl. He covered her skin with runic scars and tattoos to bind the demon within for as long as she lives, and created an alchemical elixir which placed the slave-girl in a perfect state of suspended animation – inactive, unchanging, and immortal. The sorcerer-alchemist advised that the application of this elixir must be repeated each year lest the passage of time come upon the slave-girl all at once, ending her existence and setting the demon free. A half-dozen lifetimes have passed since the time of Jholan-Mu.

The slave-girl's name is not a matter of record but she is known as 'the Maiden of Jholan-Mu', or 'the Rune-Maid'. She has lain in state for centuries as a symbol of the ruler's power – a public reminder that, no matter how awful the contemporary ruler is, there is a far worse alternative.

However, in addition to leaving sufficient elixir for four hundred and forty four applications, Jholan-Mu tore the formula into three pieces and gave each to a different civic dignitary. The Wonder-Maker considered the formula too dangerous to leave with any one person, so he chose the three most ambitious rivals he could find to be the custodians of its secret. The fragments of parchment have descended through the generations, along with the title 'Keeper of the Secret'. However one part of the formula was lost recently when its Keeper went insane and destroyed it (along with the city's small remaining stock of elixir) before committing suicide. It is whispered that the demon was somehow able to influence the mad Keeper, though every last one of the city's magicians and seers has sworn by the Twenty Gods that the Wonder-Maker's binding holds true. It is whispered nonetheless.

In desperation the two remaining Keepers have assisted the city's alchemists to devise a replacement formula, though there is uncertainty regarding its efficacy. There is just enough time to formulate this new elixir before the annual renewal must take place. However the required ingredients are dangerous to obtain – the heart of a chark, the oily sap of a rare tree that grows in the jungle depths, etc. Anyone who can bring these things to the Keepers in time would be richly rewarded. Will the new formula work, and can the demon somehow be defeated if it doesn't?

Last edited by Al Livingstone (2/18/2015 1:17 pm)