Ghrolthakon - The Eater of Stars and Her Descendants

To prevent the catastrophic cosmic collapse of a dying star, the most powerful interdimensional wizards gathered on a fragile planet to summon Ghrolthakon - The Eater of Stars. 

They built an immense stone tower that reached from the planet's crust and into the empty void of space. At the top of the tower, they performed a thousand year ritual to build a dimensional prison around the star. 

When they finished, they offered up the disintegrating planet as a sacrifice to Ghrolthakon. Ghrolthakon swam through the black sea of space and devoured the dying star.

Ghrolthakon swims between worlds, in the boiling seas of newborn planets, through the gaseous hearts of red giants. Her brood falls through invisible chasms of space and time and into known and unknown worlds where they grew into silver-skinned collosi that swam beneath the waves or giants of mud and rock that writhed within the fiery chambers of the earth.

The sea-born and the two-legged beasts of the woods came to know them, and together they made pacts and sacred covenants with those of Ghrolthakon's kindred - among them were the Atalacamani - the sea-born women who would change their shape to walk among creatures both foul and fair. Ghrolthakon's eldest daughter Abakhatan is their queen and she swims in an ancient ocean of primordial blood at the core of the world.

The Atalacamani are a dark reflection of the selkies and sirens that have vexed sailors for centuries. They are the cousins of the horrible pennangalan, naga, and sigbin of Asiatic folklore, the foul and infamous legendarium of the Plateau of Leng, and of the shape-changing Buryat of Olhonsk who offered sacrifices to their hostess of the sea. Secret cults of men worshipped the Atalacamani by flagellating themselves with seaweed and finally castrating themselves, delivering their blood and genitals to the hungry sea.

2013 Go Away

Hola amigos, I know it's been a while since I last rapped at you.

Well, farewell to thee 2013. This has been a year filled with loss, grief, giant rodents, toenail fungus and psychiatry. I figured I would throw together a post about the current gamabilities that are currently stuck in my craw, as well as some high and lowlights of the year.

1. My long-time gaming group dissolved. I had kept them crawling through underground ruins and caverns for so long, I finally got them to the surface and ready to go blow the magic horn to wake up the dragon to take on the evil Necromancer that was posing as the Priest-King of a sect of monks.
Anyway, one member moved to the Netherlands, and two others just fell off the radar, although one of them did reach out to admonish me for saying mean things about Olson Scott Card, so whatever.

2. Actually got to play some D&D and Flailsnails! A one shot here, a one shot there. Actually playing and not running a game. Awesome.

3. I still couldn't care at all about D&D Next, however, I guess I'm becoming slightly curious to see the cover at this point.

This. In full day-glo colors! (Glowing Green for demon blood! Electric Blue for swords and armor! Preternatural Pink for demon skin! Yarrow Yellow for backgrounds and demon eyes!) 

4. Did not finish my OSR-B/X-LL projects - the Shadowdrift setting book (which I think now will probably just be a long list of d100 settings, situations and monsters) The Shadowdrift setting book is basically complete, it's just in a bunch of various legal pads and graph paper journals. I have toyed with the idea of starting a kickstarter for $40 to help cover the cost of a fifth of Fernet Branca while I sit and type it all up.

5. Acquired near-mint copy of Bushido. Still have not played Bushido. Will play Bushido in 2014.

6. Ran the first of my "BATTLES IN THE NORTH" FROSTY-GRIMMMM campaigns. One player was in it to win it, got his character killed under an hour into the game, and then seemed genuinely surprised that his character was actually dead. I'll run part two very soon.

7. The Mythos bug I caught is now a full-on infection. I've been reading up on what makes Trail of Cthulhu different from Call of Cthulhu. Something that I have noticed is that used Chaosium/CoC books are way more scarce on the used market than...well...anything else for that matter. My Cthulhu Mythos meets Big Trouble in Little China novella is in the works as well as my "Parlor Larp" clothing-optional-Cthulhu-post-punk-mystery-dinner-theater role-playing-group-think.

8. Did not acquire the OD&D collector set for the simple reason that it looks too nice. I want my gaming stuff to be scuffed, drawn-in, written-on, coffee-stained and dog eared. Well-used, well-worn, well-loved.

Long-forgotten tome of dubious intent? No, it's my copy of the Dungeon Masters Guide.

9. My demo was picked up and released by Fragile Branch as a very cool, limited edition cassette. You can acquire one here.

10. On a much more important note, and an emotional one - my friend Robert Stewart has been missing since December 6th. He was last seen after work in downtown Annapolis. They have searched the water, his friends and I have searched the town, and there is no trace. The detective in charge of the case officially said that they're at a dead end. So my year ends on a somber note.

About a month before Rob went missing, we talked about a sci-fi RPG that he was interested in putting together. Sort of a post-apocalyptic thing with lots of philosophy and math, which was what he dug. He was a brilliant guy and I was really excited about helping him put some ideas together.

I miss you, Robert. I wish you'd come home.

Happy new year.

Robert (l) and me. February 2012 at Red Wine Bar in Annapolis.

Art Drop Make Story

Going through folders filled with artwork and photographs. 

There's an epic campaign hook in here. I just need to find it.