5 Years Later

Looking Back: A Five-Year Update on Three Projects

In 2020, I posted an unambitious list of personal goals:

• Book of Valkyries
• Tarniss Campaign Setting
• Princess of the Red Planet adventure

Five years on, it’s time to look at where those projects stand.

Book of Valkyries

Between 2013 and 2020, like many others, I got hooked on Vikings—a gritty, not-terribly-accurate, but highly entertaining show that helped revive popular interest in Norse mythology. It also reignited my own long-standing fascination with old Norse lore.

I’d been wanting to tackle a large personal art project, and the idea took shape: an illustrated book focused on Valkyries, inspired by the classic Knights art book by Julek Heller. While Norse mythology has been explored thoroughly in gaming and art, Valkyries felt like a less-trodden path, rich with potential.

I originally thought this would take a year or two. It hasn’t. The project has grown into something larger and more ambitious, about 50% finished now. You can view much of the work in progress under the “Norse Mythology” label on this blog.

Naturally, this won’t just be an art book. A fully-statted OSR companion volume is in the works as well. In the meantime, I’ve released a smaller, related OSR book: Norse Beasties.

Tarniss

Before I ever played D&D, I was sketching characters, monsters, maps and making up stories. Like many who discovered the game in middle school, D&D became the outlet for a world that had been developing in my imagination for years.

That world is Tarniss—a sprawling, high-weirdness setting that first showed up in flavor text on Dungeoneer cards, then resurfaced in bits and pieces across other projects. It’s my version of kitchen-sink fantasy.

Eventually I rebranded the setting as Hawkmoor, after the capital city, and published a short primer. A major update to that primer is coming soon.

How close is it to being done? Hard to say. Like any living setting, it’s always evolving. But the core campaign book is about 65% complete.

Princess of the Red Planet

Warriors of the Red Planet was a love letter to sword-and-planet fiction, and sometime after its release I got the idea to follow it with a proper adventure, a tribute to A Princess of Mars, the novel that started it all.

The novel itself isn’t long, so it should have been easy. But I got caught up trying to recapture the realism of the original: the grounded prologue in the American Southwest, followed by the leap to fantastical Barsoom. I tried various OSR westerns to capture that opening, none quite worked.

So I did what any unreasonable person would do: I made my own. That led to Gunslinger, an old-school Western RPG that took over two years to finish.

During the pandemic, I ran a lot of games for my kids in a homebrew system that merged BX and 5e elements, something not too far off from what Gunslinger's system is. The backer edition of that game included a preview of On the Arizona Hills, the prequel to Princess of the Red Planet. If Arizona Hills is like Village of Hommlet in size and scope, Red Planet is like Temple of Elemental Evil. The full version is nearly finished.

Altogether, Princess of the Red Planet is a bit over 50% complete and moving steadily forward.

2025 Is the Year

For a host of reasons, creative, personal, and practical, I’m committed to wrapping up these long-running projects. This summer I’ll be devoting myself fully to finishing them and getting them into your hands.

Thanks for reading, and for your continued interest in these projects.

Original post:

https://dungeoneering.blogspot.com/2020/06/2020-vision-map.html

Wizard Tower - Watchtower of Arom the Shadowy Count

 Arom, the shadowy Count of the province of Gasharakim, in western Baulephor, was known for dabbling in spells of surveillance and far seeing. He was particularly interested in the outer realms beyond the sphere of the world where alien worlds revolved in a peculiar dance around the sun. He became paranoid and was convinced a fleet of invaders would descend on Tarniss in skyships of battle and wage war on the domains. His most powerful scrying device, an enormous whirling sphere of mirrors and glass globes is said to still be intact in his great watchtower.

Arom passed away long ago, his warnings of interplanetary invaders never coming to fruition, but some of his cult still believe the Count was correct and it is only a matter of time until the invasion begins.

Inspired by Adventure Bot: Adventure Module GG1 Furious Watchtower of Arom the Shadowy Count 

Wizard Tower of Karogul the Grotesque

Karogul was a misshapen and grotesque man. Born with terrible birth defects and a hideous appearance, he was nonetheless a kind soul and an extremely gifted wizard.

When he completed his apprenticeship and left his master to find his way, he traveled to many of the most impressive cities in the lands. He took copious notes of architecture and was determined to make his own wizard tower a lustrous spire of great beauty. He succeeded. He passed away ages ago, but his legacy remains. The spire has withstood the test of time.

Dark forces have infiltrated the spire from the caverns below and are defiling this great monument to a great wizard.

 

Wizard Tower - Cancerous Spire of Hyjel the Pestilential Harbinger

 Every era has a harbinger that represents the Spirit of the Age. At the end of the reign of the Eldritch Lords the darkest Harbinger, named Hyjel arrived who represented pestilence. Hyjel, whose name means cancerous rot in the foul tongue of demons, built a sinister spire that spread cancer throughout the land, a darkened blot on the peaceful countryside.

A conclave of wizards, clerics of light, and paladins joined forces to conquer Hyjel. A great battle ensued and Hyjel was forced to flee back to the Abyss he came from. His tower however remained, a dark and malevolent force that may contain great treasures and knowledge of dark sorceries.

Wizard Tower of Gaindrac-Kefas

Gaindrac-Kefas was an apprentice of Dorac the Dreadful. He was a kinder soul, less given to the dark arts and once he achieved the rank of Master he hoped his tower of learning would be a beacon of light. Dorac did not take kindly to his former apprentice departing from the dark path, and so cursed him. Gaindrac-Kefas has not been seen since. 

A two-part tower, the upper section held aloft by strange arcana. A portal connects level 1 to level 4 (and back) if the correct incantation is known to activate it.

Making of video: https://youtu.be/6LDwY0zEjkQ

Wizard Tower of Kelon-Süm - Updated

A made a few adjustments to the previous Wizard Tower map to make it a little more legible.

I think I like the underground portions drawn this way, goes with the map better. Originally I was thinking of those great cutaways in the original D&D books with the solid black fill.

 

Wizard Tower of Kelon-Süm

 Kelon-Süm was an admirer of the legendary wizard Selta Kolnai. He longed to be as innovative and powerful as that might wizard of long ago. He emulated him and copied his spells to learn how to master the arcane arts. While he was never as creative, he was good at recombining the discoveries of other wizards in powerful new ways.

He built a tower, not far from the draken haunted Shadowhaven mountains, in this tower he gathered some of the greatest works of arcane lore. Deep under the tower he made a shrine to Nakari the goddess of darkness and magic. This endows the tower with the powerful essence of magic energy.

Discussion thread and making of video:

https://nightowlworkshop.freeforums.net/thread/22/wizard-towers

51 Foot Rope

 From the Tarniss RPG. Describing the Dungeoneer game in classic OSR terms.

The humble 50' rope is an essential item for the aspiring dungeoneer. With this simple tool pits can be traversed, sheer cliffs can be climbed, and dangerous foes can be tied up. So what is a 51' rope?

In ancient times the eldritch lords dabbled in the darkest arts. One humble apprentice of an evil wizard whose heart had not yet been corrupted read through his master's forbidden tomes and tried a simple prestidigitation that would bring life to an inanimate object. He held an old hemp rope and spooled it out as he spoke the words of enchantment, but he fumbled the words a bit at the last moment and accidentally permanently enchanted the rope. This rope was 51' long, and no matter how many times it was cut it would be exactly 51' and the cut pieces would duplicate some of the magical properties of the original. Though its duplicates did not have the unique ability of creating additional copies of themselves, they did retain certain magical properties that protected its owner from traps, and could at times sacrifice itself to prevent a wound.

51' Rope
Enchanted Item
This rope provides +2 versus traps and falling in pits. It may be sacrificed to prevent 1 wound from a fall or trap.

Bug-A-Bear Sketch

Working on an update to the art for each of the Dungeoneer monsters in the conversion to the Tarniss RPG.

Here is an idea for the Bug-A-Bear, and also a bonus sketch of a Druid because she was on the same page in my sketchbook :)

Bug-A-Bear

From the Tarniss RPG. Describing the Dungeoneer monsters in classic OSR terms.

Bug-A-Bear

Fiend

HD: 4 (12hp)
AC: 16
Atk: 2 claws (1d4x2)
Save: 13
Move: 9
Morale: 9
Treasure: A
CL/XP: 4/400
Special: dying scream when killed, everyone within 20' radius take 1d6 damage, Save for half damage.

The Bug-A-Bear is a horrific monstrosity created by the corrupted wizards of Ilbor Paiden from the husks of giant beetles and carcasses of viridian bears from the Taraka mountains. They are highly territorial and constantly ravenous. There is a saying in Dolmar that is told to children when they won't mind "Beware of the Bug-a-Bear".

Here was the original sketch, this dates from around 1999.

Talindor (Tarniss) Inked Drawing

At some point in the 90's I drew an inked version of Tarniss, the fantasy setting for the Dungeoneer card game, which was at the time being called Talindor. The map drawing has a heavily illustrated border with important characters and scenes from the world. It wasn't completed because I didn't like how the illos were dominating the map. Looking back at it now it isn't as terrible as I thought.

The illustrations are, clockwise from top left:
Princess Perilina: she was a princess with super-powers, inspired a bit by the nameless protagonist in Tanith Lee's novel The Birthgrave.
Draken Lairs: the Shadowhaven mountains are infested with Drakens, basically small dragons.
Fire Pits of Shadar: no specific memories of anything specific about this other than lava pools being a great adventure locale.
Temple of Cholizar: this eventually became the Realm of the Ice Witch expansion for Dungeoneer.
The Kargak: basically like the tarrasque from the first edition Monster Manual 2
Hope, Revelation, Despair: kind of like the Norns from Norse Mythology
Kez the Unwaking: a great hero in stasis who could be reawakened when his sword is put back together.
Dimension: the goddess of 3 dimensional space and time
Broken Sword of Kez: yeah, Kez's sword was broken in 3 parts.
Palanthion: the capital of Dolmaranthus.
Gwildor: a great paladin who battled the demons back to hell, he was obliterated when the gate to hell was sealed. His holy armor spread into the Sea of Souls. He is later named Gvandir in the lore.
Gates of Bandimar: a seal on a portal to hell that is manifested as a great thunder, lightning, and fire storm that whirls over the island of Bandimar.
Haunted Mistenwoods: this became The Haunted Woods of Malthorin expansion for Dungeoneer.
Lilus Arcana: a magic plant
Arcanuz the God-King: the big bad guy of the world. Part lich part insane eldritch lord. He was the servant of the 13 demon lords that once ruled ancient Talindor (Tarniss).

This map is a photo copy in my old high school D&D campaign binder, I don't know if the original drawing still exists or if it's stored in the garage somewhere.