The 38-year old Dungeons and Dragons campaign

Robert Wardhaugh, a history professor at the University of Western Ontario, has been running a Dungeons and Dragons campaign for thirty-eight years.

The campaign setting sounds rather interesting:

"Being a history professor and always loving history, I wanted to create a world where I was able to use the history of our world. My world is an alternate Earth, so you can be Roman, you can be Greek, you can be Sumerian, you can be Babylonian, you can be First Nations," explains Wardhaugh.

I’m really quite impressed by this accomplishment. It’s one thing to have played various role-playing games—including some extended campaigns—for many decades. (I’ve been playing, off and on, for almost four decades now.) But to keep the same campaign going for so many years it truly remarkable. 

Also, I was amused to learn that this campaign is based in London Ontario. I grew up in London—it’s where I learned to play role-playing games, and where I ran various AD&D and MERP campaigns (as well as dabbling in numerous other games) from around grade five until the end of high-school. (I would not describe London as an especially exciting city—it’s definitely the world’s #2 London—so it may be easier to keep a game going there over many years than, say, Toronto.)

This is a great accomplishment. I’m envious of Wardhaugh for what sounds like an amazing campaign. But I’m depressed when I realize that, should I keep my current Greyhawk campaign going for another 38 years, I’ll be dangerously close to the “venerable” age category for humans! 

Conan wanders through Canada

By Crom! This is brilliant: artist Kris Friesen has inserted Conan (the Cimmerian with mighty thews) into a number of murals throughout western Canada (especially Edmonton).

Here’s the barbarian slurping noodles in ancient Khitai, er, I mean China:

And here is Conan—perhaps repenting for his previous praise for hearing the ‘lamentations of the women’—marching in a women’s rights march:

Finally, here he is being splashed in a pool:

I suspect that that mustachioed hipster will soon regret his action…

Cthulhu Canada: The Sanatorium

August 1923 -- Toronto


The investigators – Prof. Nigel Blackthorne and Dr. Pierre Rioux – spend a full month on leave from their respective jobs, recovering from the wounds, both physical and psychic, acquired from their investigation into the curious case of Mr. Corbitt.

During this time, Pierre receives a letter from one of his former professors from medical school, Dr. Aldous Brewer.  In the letter, Brewer invites Pierre to visit him at his experimental sanatorium on Mid-Lake Island (which, as its name implies, lies in the middle of Lake Ontario).  Desirous to get away from the city for a few days, Pierre decides to accept the invitation, and convinces Nigel to come along with him.

Pierre and Nigel take a motorboat, controlled by an ancient Australian mariner who now works for Dr. Brewer, to Mid-Lake Island.  Once there, they discover that something has gone horribly wrong at the sanatorium.  All of the staff appears to have been slain – including Pierre’s former teacher, Dr. Brewer!  Much to their distress, the investigators discern that Brewer apparently was slain as part of some kind of dark, blasphemous ritual.

Nigel is puzzled to discover several books on ancient Egypt, including several newspaper clippings, in Brewer’s library.  Apparently these books and clippings are related to one of the inmates, ‘Darlene,’ who had been found years earlier in the backstreets of Montreal, with no memory of her identity.

The remaining inmates are attended to by Pierre as best he can.  Investigating for the rest of the night and throughout the next day, while ensuring that the inmates come to no harm, Pierre and Nigel learn that a terrible creature from another world inadvertently has been summoned by one of the inmates, an especially sensitive but schizophrenic poet.  The investigators discover that the creature sucked the ‘life force’ from the sanatorium’s maid, leaving her corpse a withered husk.

While exploring the rest of the island, Pierre and Nigel come across a rock with strange carvings, and disturbingly recent blood stains.  They also explore a lighthouse.  Much to their dismay, the lighthouse proves to be occupied by the creature that previously ravaged the sanatorium!  The creature is a roiling mass of gassy spheres, nearly transparent in the summer daylight, with a shifting, oily iridescence.

Barely escaping with their lives, the investigators return to the sanatorium.  There they discover, in the maintenance shed, one of the sanatorium’s former orderlies, Mr. Johnson, standing over the sacrificed body of one of the inmates, engraving bloody eldritch symbols onto her flesh.  Horrified, Pierre and Nigel shoot Johnson dead, and infer that he had fallen under the control of the creature from another world.

Following various leads from their investigations, and especially the notes of Dr. Brewer, Pierre decides to hypnotize Darlene, believing that she may have submerged memories from a previous life relevant to their present dire situation.  They learn that one of her personalities in an earlier life was that of the Egyptian princess ‘Annephis,’ a priestess of the cult of Bast.  During her time, Annephis turned back a horrific race of beings referred to only as ‘Those Who Wait.’  Annephis learned from her goddess how to destroy the creatures, and constructed many Elder Signs with which she and her followers drove the creatures into the Nile where they perished.  With the help of ‘Annephis,’ the investigators construct their own Elder Sign.

Nigel and Pierre then debate what to do.  They decide to load up a wheelbarrow with cans of gasoline, and return to the lighthouse.  They spread the gasoline on the stairs and floor of the lighthouse.  Igniting the gasoline, the eldritch creature is forced from the building.  Unfortunately, one of the creature’s pseudopods hits Pierre on the head, scarring his face with burning acid.  The pitiable physician collapses unconscious, his life force rapidly draining away.  Fortunately, the pseudopod withdraws in reaction to Nigel’s brandishing of the Elder Sign.  After a terrible struggle, Nigel uses the Elder Sign to force the creature over the side of the cliff.  Upon falling into the lake, the creature is destroyed, as fresh water is one of its (surprisingly mundane) weaknesses.

Nigel returns to sanatorium, bringing the unconscious Pierre with him in the wheelbarrow.  Unable to leave the island (as the motorboat had been destroyed by the mad Mr. Johnson), and lacking any way to communicate with the outside world, the investigators wait for the police to arrive.  In the meantime they bury the bodies left by the creature’s wave of destruction, and take care of the surviving inmates.

The investigators’ time on Mid-Lake Island proved to be anything but the idyllic escape that they had hoped it would be!

Fortunately, the subsequent two years proved to be far more prosaic for Nigel and Pierre…

Cthulhu Canada: Mr. Corbitt

June 1923 Toronto

Still shaken by the terrible events of May (as recounted in ‘The Edge of Darkness’), Prof. Nigel Blackthorne visits his friend Dr. Pierre Rioux’s home on Palmerstone Avenue (Toronto) for some food and drinks.  After dinner, as dusk turns into night, they spy Pierre’s neighbour, Mr. Corbitt, returning home with two large sacks.  Out of one sack falls an object that Pierre believes to be a limp human arm!

Alarmed, but without sufficient grounds to involve the police, the two friends spend several days trying to learn more about the enigmatic Mr. Corbitt.  They learn that Corbitt’s father died while on a trip to India with him fourteen years ago.  Moreover, his wife had died in childbirth, along with his son, a dozen years ago.  They also learn that Corbitt is an importer of exotic goods from the far reaches of the globe, and in particular South and East Asia.

Eventually, Pierre meets with Corbitt at his house, pretending to be interested in employing Corbitt’s services in order to import certain exotic artifacts from the Orient.  While Pierre distracts Corbitt, Nigel investigates the greenhouse at the back of the property, wherein he discovers plants with vile toxins, and, quite shockingly, an entirely alien plant!  Nigel also absconds with a vial containing a strange compound, which later is identified as ‘soma,’ a substance used by Indian cultists.

Fortunately for the investigators, Corbitt leaves Toronto for several days on business.  Becoming increasingly frightened, the two friends purchase gas masks and handguns.  Pierre and Nigel then break into Corbitt’s greenhouse.  Protected against the spores from the alien plant by their gas masks, they collect various samples.

The investigators then enter the house itself.  Therein they discover Corbitt’s journal, which describes his terrible investigations into forbidden knowledge and black sorcery. It seems that the businessman had become a follower of an Indian demon named ‘Ramasekva,’ which forced Corbitt to allow it to impregnate his wife.  One of the demon’s ‘sons’ lives to this day!

They subsequently kill one of Corbitt’s horrible ‘experiments,’ as well as the terrifying ‘son’ of Ramasekva, referred to by Corbitt in his journal as the ‘Man-Bagari.’  To the creature’s spherical, pustular body had been appended the pale, quivering limbs of numerous slain children.  Disgusted, and with their sanity somewhat shaken, the two friends flee the house.

[The Man-Bagari]

Mr. Cobitt returns two days later.  Upon discovering his slain ‘child,’ he sets his house on fire and kills himself with a shotgun.  All evidence of his foul activities blessedly is destroyed by the subsequent conflagration.

Finally, Pierre and Nigel study the text of eldritch lore that they had acquired during their exploration of Corbitt’s house – the blasphemous grimoire True Magick by Theophilus Wenn – from which they learn certain terrible things…

Dominion Day 2011

Happy Dominion Day! (Yes, I know that it's been called 'Canada Day' since 1982, but I have a nostalgic attachment to the older name.)

Above is an image of the Canadian flag from 1921 (which reminds me, I really need to update my 'Cthulhu Canada' campaign log!).

I hope that everyone in North America enjoys the long weekend! Sláinte!

OSRCon Toronto: I’ll be Running a Swords and Wizardry Game

That was quick! Only hours after finding out about OSRCon, I’m signed up to run a Swords and Wizardry game – using my Akratic Wizardry house rules, of course!

Here’s the blurb for my game (to take place the morning of August 13):

Shipwrecked! The characters have washed up on an eldritch shore, and must work together in order to survive. Can a conniving merchant, a savage barbarian, an unscrupulous burglar, a decadent nobleman, and an enigmatic sorcerer overcome their mutual distrust and find a way off this unnatural island? (This is a ‘swords and sorcery’ themed adventure, using the GM’s ‘Akratic Wizardry’ house rules. Characters provided.)

I also will be taking part in a RuneQuest game (not sure which edition) and one of James Maliszewski’s ‘Dwimmermount’ games.

The current schedule of games is here. More likely will be added.

This should be fun! It’s been years since I’ve done any gaming at a con.

If you’ll be in or near Toronto August 12 or 13, try to come by and roll some dice.

Cthulhu Canada Campaign Index

This is the index for my current Call of Cthulhu campaign, set in 1920s Canada (initially, 1923 Toronto).

This post will be updated with relevant links to other posts concerning this campaign as it progresses.

Regarding the Characters:

Investigators Pierre Rioux and Nigel Blackthorne

Adventure Reports:

Adventure 1: The Edge of Darkness

Adventure 2: Mr. Corbitt

Adventure 3: The Sanatorium

Miscellaneous Posts:

Lovecraft's Philosophy

Photograph of 1923 Toronto (intersection of Queen Street and Bay Street; City Hall to the right of picture).

Cthulhu awakens: