Baptism of Fire Rpg By Rpg Pundit From Mad Scribe Games - Elven Chaos Cults & The Deep Rot of Chaos Session Eleven

 We brought out the short bows & torches as we went deeper into the ruins as well as tunnels. We're picking up from last session on October 27! . We pushed the hobgoblin warriors and their orcs back with really well rolled dice rolls. 

The Elven knights stayed behind acting as generals for the Orcs and their Hobgoblin handlers! The space was crammed and chaotic! Two of the clerics for the Chaos cult was trying to aim poison darts at the player's PC's. A good shot from the Pagan scout of the party took out one of the cleric and it turned out to be one of the minor royals of the court. How was he getting out to the deep wilderness?! Another vile trick of Chaos! We fought our way back to back down too the tunnels under the forest! 

 The tunnels below the forest were ancient and we saw lots, lots, of Roman style ruins and something more ancient! That's when we saw the eyes of a vile beast of Chaos in front of us! 

We regroup back up the tunnels and our priest wasn't impressed at all! We've got to figure out how we're going to dive down the tunnels as our torches are running out! 

Baptism of Fire Rpg By Rpg Pundit From Mad Scribe Games - Elven Chaos Cults & The Deep Rot of Chaos Session Ten

We defeated the werewolves with flame arrows, fire, and lots of violence! The player's PC's snuck deep into the wilderness & came across the werewolf leader's cabin. We set it on fire and then cut off his head as he came out of the cabin's door!  Scratch off one werewolf who is a part of the Polish minor royalty. We also took out some of the Orcs with fire arrows and throwing irons or daggers! We followed the rest of the Orcs back to a ruined Pagan temple deep in the wilderness! 

These ruins were guarded by ancient Elven Hobgoblin warriors and saw two Elven knights giving orders to their troops. The knights move them and the air hums with some weird Chaos magical energies. Then we saw the minor royal who was doing the cluing  with the Elves. 

The hobgoblin were looking for their Orc subordinate warriors and found none. We took out two more hobgoblins but then they found out we were there! The player's scout hurried away as our warriors engaged in battle with the hobgoblins.  As the violence started the Elven knights withdrew back into the dungeon and we feel it might be because there are several Elven royals and the Chaos cult in the ruins! The hobgoblins were enough for our seven players to handle! 

Baptism of Fire Rpg By Rpg Pundit From Mad Scribe Games - Elven Chaos Cults & The Deep Rot of Chaos Session Nine

 Back at base camp in the village the players were able to get the flint arrow head from Veteral The Brave before the thing could make it any deeper into his vitals. This session picks right up from September 17th & the party running back to the village after almost dying from the Orcs and a giant. A pagan shaman from the nearby community was able to stop the artifact of Chaos from borrowing deeper into our fellow adventurer. 

But we felt as if we hadn't shaken the forces of Chaos and boy, were we right! The nearby Pagan community felt off and after the healing we left our comrade in the care of the Pagans. We made our way through the dense forest a short distance to the village but we were attacked by a pack of wolves. Something was very off about these wolves and that's when the pack master directed them and attacked himself! A were wolf directed the attacks & we almost lost! Almost because the villagers came to our add! We beat back the wolf pack with spear and fire! 

We routed the wolves and retreated back to the village! Things were grim until daylight! Then we were able to venture back out into the woods and began by having our tracker back track the pack back to it's lair. While keeping an eye out for Orcs! Something was directing all of these forces of Chaos! And we think it has to be the latest dungeon & we fear that it might be the cult of Chaos that we've been tangling with this entire time! Sure enough we encountered several Orc warriors! And followed them to a small hatch that had been secreted into the side of a hill. We were deep into the wilderness now and retreated back to the village proper before nightfall came! 

Baptism of Fire Rpg By Rpg Pundit From Mad Scribe Games - Elven Chaos Cults & The Deep Rot of Chaos Session Eight

 The player's in tonight's Baptism of Fire rpg campaign learned never count out the opposition. And in this case came face to face with a horde of pig faced Orcs that had been bred deep in the dungeons of the Elves! This session picks right up here from last week. 

The dungeon of the Orcs wasn't unguarded as the players thought. The PC's are deep in the Polish wilderness. And dealing with the guard wasn't what the player's expected when they came face to face with a Chaos worshiping Hill Giant named Artur who proved to be a bit of a nightmare for the party. He launched rocks at them with deadly accuracy. 

Artur took out Sir Gunther a knight from a neighboring kingdom who was on loan to the party. And then the Orcs surged in! They made things even deadlier using a combination of guerrilla tactics and sheer brutality. These monsters caused the party to retreat! 

The Orcs were really nasty poisoning Veteral The Brave with a short bow arrow! The party's healer made sure to clean the wound and dress it. There was a nasty bit of the flint arrow head left in the wound. This was a bit of Fey magic because the piece of arrow head moved deeper into the adventurer. The party fled from the giant and the Orcs. Can they get the arrow head piece out?! 
This is when they were surrounded by Pagan villagers and a few roles provided the party with some unlikely allies. Now they've been taken to the villagers encampment. 

Baptism of Fire Rpg By Rpg Pundit From Mad Scribe Games - Elven Chaos Cults & The Deep Rot of Chaos Session Seven

  We picked right up from August 13th's session as we faced down a party of seven pig faced Orc warriors! These things were remorseless as they closed in taking out any villagers that got in their way. These things of Chaos are working for the Elves cult. 

These things mean business and the PC's were surprised at how effective these warriors of Chaos were. The orcs killed seven villagers until the adventurers stepped in. They were able to lob an arrow rain down on the Orcs causing them to retreat. But the Orc warriors were playing for keeps and flanked the adventurers. 

The orcs killed one of the adventurers with a lucky sword strike. The adventurers overwhelmed two of the Orc warriors! They brought themselves in as they secured the village divining the fact that Orcs were trying to lead them deeper into the wilderness into a trap. 
The party sent one of the adventurers into the wilderness as a scout. And he saw one of the orcs go down a tunnel entrance into the ground. This meant a dungeon! The adventurer's scout were almost ambushed by the Chaos cult. 

The whole village then rallied and took on the straggler Orc warriors that had been left behind as back up. The villagers put them to torch and flame. The party retreated back to the village. This made the group pissed when they found out about the left behind Orc warriors. The adventurers want to take out the dungeon and the cult. 

Baptism of Fire Rpg By Rpg Pundit From Mad Scribe Games - Elven Chaos Cults & The Deep Rot of Chaos Session Six

 This is where we've gotten a royal cult that's forces almost ambushed our party. We pick up from last time here on the blog. This session picks right up from August sixth and now our party is deep in the middle of the wilderness. And then we had guerrilla fighters with short bows looking to pick off our guys. We sniped several of their bowmen and they had our adventurers in a crossfire. But we managed to get out of the crossfire. Then a Chaos priest and minions! He was up to something! We got the drop on him! 

The problem we had is the fact that they a Chaos priest who unleashed a dark relic of Chaos. This was an opportunity for one of our bowmen to get a great shot on this bastard. And he did a natural twenty and the shot was a head shot! And the chaos relic was out of play. We moved in and captured two of the minions!  Tovic Kurr's name came up immediately and then we got ambushed by the remains of the royal Chaos cult. 

We killed the minions once we got the info that the party needed. The party camped in one of the villages that we helped in the past near the edge of the wilderness. The villagers were sick of the influence of Chaos. And knew that that there's deadly Elven presence nearby. We're not sure what we're dealing with another dungeon, mobile pagan cult, or something worse. We need more investigation until we ran into a group of corrupted pig faced Orcs! We'll pick it up next week! 

Baptism of Fire Rpg By Rpg Pundit From Mad Scribe Games - Elven Chaos Cults & The Deep Rot of Chaos Session Five

 We pick up from July fourth with this session of Baptism of Fire which picks right up from  the last one. And now the bastard son of the baron of our little corner of Poland has come out to play after he sought the favor of the Elve's cult of Chaos last game. 

To say that Tovic Kurr was a wee bit sore at us was an understatement. We were ready with our forces and hirelings. But we did feel it was better to shoot an arrow into him then entertain whole cloth discussion. So we ran into the wilderness and our own little lair of a village. We got a line on the fact that Tovic Kurr has a line on another set of Elven ruins and perhaps a gateway into their world. We aim to stop him and put him too the flame. 

We're meeting with another patron for our next leg of the journey into the wilderness. We think that the royal cult's members of which Tovic Kurr is a member are up too something. We knew that the dungeon cult was a royal Chaos cult and this cult was generated by using 101 Sarmatians For Dungeons & Dragons and more By Rpg Pundit.This is another branch of said cult more as we venture deeper into the wilderness next time! 

Baptism of Fire Rpg By Rpg Pundit From Mad Scribe Games - Elven Chaos Cults & The Deep Rot of Chaos Session Four

 The Elven dungeon which had recently been opened up was crowded with alien and demonic voices echoing off the walls. This session picks right up with the last one last week.. The dungeon had recently been excavated and had the walls shun up with wooden support beams. 

We immediately ran into two goblin guards which we dispatched. They were armed with Chaos Elven weapons. We put them to holy water and moved on! Then we came upon a Chaos ritual in session being run by a masked black wizard & one of the royal advisors to the minor Polish court! Everything here comes from  Dark Albion's Cults of Chaos. The whole place was crowded by Chaos worshipers and there were Elven henges that had become part of the dungeon. 

 The whole scene was quietly observed by our adventurers who slowly circled the entire scene with oil and torches. The oil was dumped and poured down the stairs by our player's PC and then lit! That's right the group didn't wait around to find out what or who were behind the Elven masks. We knew that the dungeon cult was a royal Chaos cult and this cult was generated by using 101 Sarmatians For Dungeons & Dragons and more By Rpg Pundit. We put the whole cult to the flame and flint but we want to see what royals come out to play! 

Baptism of Fire Rpg By Rpg Pundit From Mad Scribe Games - Elven Chaos Cults & The Deep Rot of Chaos Session Three

  We tracked down the black sorcerer to an abandoned defiled pagan shrine and the place had a ton of Chaos Elven ruins and artifacts scattered around that were several thousand years old. The Elves had been put down by heroes of old & scattered to the four winds. We pick right up from the last session here on the blog 

We suspect that the Elves & their agents  have been feeding the other minor Chaos cults in the area with supernatural knowledge and spells. The party killed three or four highly dangerous goblins that worked for the cult. We suspect that these goblins were summoned by the agents of the Elves. Everything here comes from Dark Albion's Cults of Chaos.  We found Chaos treasures and put these to the torch and flame! That's right! 

The trappings of the cult seem to have a royalty theme to them and this ties back into the Chaos cult that PC's uncovered last game. This royal cult comes straight from  101 Sarmatians For Dungeons & Dragons and more By Rpg Pundit. The temple has a huge tunnel that leads deep into a dark Elven dungeon complex. We sent back to our family's castle for our priests and camped outside with three hireling guards. 

We heard voices from the dungeon entrance and saw the black sorcerer that we tracked down to the pagan shrine. The sorcerer had a small army of goblins with him. 
We found the history of the shrine had been erected by the pagans after their heroes had routed the Elves thousands of years in the past. The dungeon entrance had recently been dug out and reinforced with wooden beams. 

Baptism of Fire Rpg By Rpg Pundit From Mad Scribe Games - Battlefield of Horror & Undeath Session Two

 This session of  Baptism of Fire picks right up from the last session. We look deeply into our parents holdings and went back to the battlefield to backtrack through the clues our party looked into.  We ran across a small party of thieves that we found within The Pundit Files: Issue 32 Medieval War Zone Encounters. These thieves were a greater part of another outfit and this party might be connected with other royals. This development ties into the royal family issues we found supplemented with 101 Sarmatians For Dungeons & Dragons and more By Rpg Pundit. So whose moving into our parents holdings. We think it might be a Chaos cult which threatens to derail the Christian conversion. Things and events keep pointing towards a cult that doesn't seem to be materializing closer to home. We've already cleaned out one minor Chaos cult but we're beginning to think it might have been a 'red herring' for the real monsters. 

 The thieves and bandits are working for someone but we suspect that sorcery might be involved.  After the fact that not one of the bandits or the thieves are talking. We've reported to our parents manors and estates with authorities of the local  Christian church authorities.  They wanted us to make contact with the local villagers 10 miles away. 

 We haven't ventured too far from civilization because some of the locals had disappeared.Why?  The wilderness is pressing around our holdings. Our party of adventurers has the feelings that the Chaos cult is far more involved with the local wilderness. We had a request from the locals. 
The second we stepped out of the wilderness the local supernatural made it's presence known. The local pagans made contact with a request for help because of hordes of undead have been murdering & carrying off  their people. 
We started to investigate the area and came across another battlefield that actually looked like a slaughter house. We saw our old friends the scavengers and undead fiends feeding. 
Our party put them too flame and torch but questioned them before. A local dark wizard had been resurrecting some of these poor fools as undead. These undead have orders to weaken the borders by murdering   the locals and any travelers to the area. Next time we track down this black sorcerer. 

Baptism of Fire Rpg By Rpg Pundit From Mad Scribe Games - Battlefield of Horror & Undeath Session One Report

  Our party of adventurers tonight got in way over their collective heads as they got involved in a small scale bandit war in Rpg Pundit's Baptism of Fire rpg.  This blog post picks up here and here on the blog. 

Each of our party were members of minor Polish royal houses & so the party knew each other from court. 101 Sarmatians For Dungeons & Dragons and more By Rpg Pundit got a workout with our players earlier in the last couple of months. 

Renegade smaller royal holdings have been going bandit because of the events at the capital. This ties into the Chaos cult that has been the engine of the bandits. The party has been assembled by the older royal family who want a challenge for their children. 
This is practice for the upcoming wars among the major houses. The player's PC's cleaned out a minor Chaos cult but it took a long time. There were tons of NPC's to deal with because the rot went so deeply into the country side holdings of the player's PC's parents. 
From priests to peasants had to be put to the sword to get things back on an even kilter. 
The bandits actions increased by seizing huge swaths of land and resources. Adventurers came riding into a battle field & came face to face with violence! Today I grabbed The Pundit Files: Issue 32 – Medieval War Zone Encounters which I rolled on several times today to get the PC's deep into the battle field's aura of depravity and horror. 

The PC's had bandits and scavengers waiting for them! They attacked right out and called down the wraith of Heaven on them. 
The party investigated the bodies on the battlefield and they had a ton of Chaos mutations! So the bandits were led by a Chaos sorcerer and the party concluded this after fighting them off. 
There were bodies arranged as an occult sacrifice. And the dead began to stir! We put the undead to sword and torch. These undead didn't stop and it took us hours of game time to put them down. Between magick, miracles, sword and shield the undead were put down. God's mercy and might put the forces of Chaos to route. 
We need to figure out how Chaos keeps rearing it's head in our parents holdings. 

Descent into the Chaos Temple Ruins - Baptism of Fire Rpg Session Report One

 Tonight I was a part of my friend Paul's Baptism of Fire Rpg game campaign one shot adventure. We were playing knights tonight tracking down a chaos cult of 'Mercury' & came face to face with a huge vault of Chaos slime. In the back woods of Poland the cult had taken over an underground temple set of ruins left by Elves of another age. 

We ran into undead and the lethality of the Baptism of Fire game came to the fore as we lost 2 PC's to a horde of zombies. The underground air was oppressive & dangerous with some pockets of poison gas.  We had to hurry through because the torches kept going out when we encountered a pond of highly dangerous Chaos slime! 

The cult of Mercury itself was fully lifted from Dark Albion's Cults of Chaos. This is when we encountered several Chaos mutant fighter guards 2nd level. There was some hard going as we were restricted to a bottle neck. 

 When we cleared out the horrors and came into the Roman style temple were artifacts and statues of weird silver surrounding an Elven Lich. One of our hirelings went down under a hail of weird energies from the lich! We moved forward and pressed on! Two more mutants fell under our swords as we burnt up the scrolls of the lich. And then the lich retreated cursing two other of our knights! We burnt everything in the temple, recovered several spell books, and mapped out the temple location so far. 
We think that DM Paul is going to connect this adventure with The Pundit Files II The Dead City. By A. Changing the adventure's location and linking up with the tunnel that the cultists and Elves were using. 

OSR Commentary on Baptism of Fire Rpg By Rpg Pundit

  When it comes to Baptism of Fire by The Rpg Pundit  the hard copy has been in my  hands over the weeekend. We got together today to discuss our campaign. I hammered home the fact that your PC steps outside of a city within this campaign then you are hip deep in wilderness of Poland. And this blog post picks up from here on the blog. 

 Everything in the wilderness is trying to kill your PC's and this includes many of the Fey. These Fey are completely alien to what the players might be used too. Many of the Pagans within these Poland regions are simply appeasing these spirits and Fey. This means that the Fey courts may have deep ties to the human royals within Baptism of Fire. The courier class is an essential go between the royals & the Fey. 

The Christian faith is the shield against some of more heinious monsters in the game. The priest NPC class is the boots on the ground Christian influence that is converting the Poles and others. These conversions are part of the stablility & order that the church brings to the country. This is still a long ways off. 
The pagan influence is woven throughout this campaign setting. 101 Sarmatians gives a whole cloth groups of the royal families of Poland. 
And this brings up the fact that the Christian  relics from the first era are going to be very valuable to the Poles. This is the adventure plot point of  The Pundit Files – Issue 27: The Bones of St. Florian. The wilderness plays a central point within this adventure as an adversary as much as the monsters do. This is an echo of old school Dungeons & Dragons without a doubt. The Bones of St. Florian is a great adventure to introduce the PC's many of the themes of Baptism of Fire. 

More OSR Commentary On The Baptism By Fire Rpg By Rpg Pundit

 The Baptism By Fire Rpg By Rpg Pundit is one of those games that bares a closer inspection when it comes to Medieval culture. The player's PC's have the chance to change the course of history in the Poland & Europe of the Eleventh century. This commentary picks up from our review of Baptism of Fire on the blog here. 

Baptism By Fire has all of the classic adventure elements we've come to expect in an OSR product. This game takes them into a completely different direction with it's European setting. The monsters and creatures are highly dangerous and the player's PC's are able to take them down. There's plenty of social and politic intrigue baked into this game. All of these elements plug right into the Silk Road campaign settting. The Silk Road campaign setting is filled with tons of NPC's that can help or hinder your PC's from trade to full on warefare in China or the near East. Tons of these NPC's are available within the Heroes & Villains of the Silk Road  supplement. 

These NPC's are deeply connected into the Silk Road setting as a whole. From patrons to playing or generating Ismaili Nazari Assassins. These NPC's are fully realized with histories, background, and even adventure hooks. 
The Silk Road is almost an NPC unto itself and this campaign setting loops back into The Baptism By Fire rpg. There plenty of opportunities for dungeon crawling all the way to full on trading on the road. Eleventh century Poland and Eastern Europe is an area rife with comflict, combat, and warfare. The dynasties that PC's can set up is staggering. Remember that there's also social rank that plays heavy within this setting. Baptism By Fire works in two ways for OSR play one it takes the PC's as center stage. Thier actions are literally making history. The second way is that this rpg takes it's setting as being the center stage for the PC's. Your PC's are the instruments of God and country. This is an Epic rpg and it expects your PC's to do deeds of high adventure. 

Review & Commentary On Baptism of Fire Rpg By Rpg Pundit From Mad Scribe Games

 'Baptism of Fire is an OSR RPG set in the dawn of the Polish monarchy in the early medieval period. It is a complete rulebook and setting. As a setting, it is “medieval authentic,” meaning that it is set in our own historical Earth rather than a fantasy world, but this is the world as the people living in the setting imagined and envisioned it. That is to say, religion, magic, and monsters all exist and function as the paradigm of the early medieval world imagined.'

'The default setting of Baptism of Fire is a society that is transforming from a Dark Age culture to an early Medieval culture. Poland, in the early 11th Century, was moving from a sedentary tribal system of “barbarians” to the beginnings of a feudal society united under a monarchy. As part of the process of successfully making this shift, the Piast rulers had introduced the unifying force of Christianity to the land.'

 Baptism of Fire  Rpg By Rpg Pundit has been on my radar for a little over a year now & I'm picking it up right from here on the blog. So right off the bat this Rpg is a bit different in several aspects. Christianity is an adventure element within this setting. Because this game is set within the boiling pot of 11th century Poland. And this is a wild time for Europe within the early Medieval period. Tribalism is falling out of fashion and the beginnings of feudal society is taking shape. 
The Baptism of Fire rpg system is going to be familar to any old school or OSR player. There are twists such as social rank being very important & there are some real twists on the usual classic classes in old school gaming. Because this game is set within 11th century Poland. Europe during this time period is highly violatile and chaotic. War is on the horizon and yet, Christianity is unifying people together. 

Baptism of Fire is a foundation rpg in my opinion. This game goes a long way towards pushing adventure & a crazy historical campaign play. The OSR rpg system fills the bulk of the game towards solid Polish European adventuring. 

But Baptism of Fire works excellent towards expanding it's potential campaign setting with the Sword & Caravan campaign setting. Because Baptism of Fire is the OSR rpg system jump off point. A Polish adventuring party is perfect to bring onto the Silk Road adventure.  
Baptism of Fire Rpg is a complete OSR system from the ground up. I think it's one of Rpg Pundit's best efforts and in my humble opinion it works on so many levels as an rpg. 
This is because this rpg has all of the makings of letting the player's PC's make thier mark on Poland and Europe of the 11th century for that matter. Baptism of Fire is a solid OSR rpg and it's an easy game for both the novice and the hobbyist to pick up. 

The OSR rpg system is easy to pick up, has reliable classes, and works on several levels. The PC generation system is fast, convientant and works for the game. As a great OSR rpg this game is a five outta of five in my humble opinion.

Review & Commentary On 101 Sarmatians For Dungeons & Dragons and more By Rpg Pundit

 "The Polish ruling class has several mythologies of their origins. These myths have created a subculture of their own that serves to distinguish the internal culture, codes of honor, and perception of the duties of the Szlachta. This mythology would come to be called “Sarmatism.”"

"Sarmatism, in short, is the theory that the aristocracy of Poland was descended not just from the western Slavs but also from a fearsome Iranian race of warrior-horsemen known as the “Sarmatians.”

Sarmatians gained a reputation in ancient times as very powerful warriors and horsemen, their epicenter was located around the Black Sea, but they expanded in waves of tribal invasions to many areas of Eastern and Central Europe."

101 Sarmatians For Dungeons & Dragons and more By Rpg Pundit  is a great supplement for any OSR rpg or old school fantasy rpg. However, this book is fantastic for the Baptism By Fire Rpg as a sourcebook. I confess that the Baptism By Fire rpg is new to me. 

101 Sarmatians For Dungeons & Dragons and more By Rpg Pundit details each of the major & some minor Polish royal houses. Each noble house has a set of detailed NPC's with adventure hooks built in. All of this is concentrated within a 100 pages with a fresh and solid layout, easy to read font, & it has everything you need to begin to add in these noble houses to your OSR campaign.Equally  there's a solid mythic &  legenday background with the Polish royal houses with the additional adventure element; "Sarmatism, in short, is the theory that the aristocracy of Poland was descended not just from the western Slavs but also from a fearsome Iranian race of warrior-horsemen known as the “Sarmatians." This adds a mythological and historic element to your OSR campaign. 

Take for example House Ciolek, "Ciolek This house is based in the area around Sandomierz, with some holdings of family branches in Greater Poland. Its symbol is a red bull. The members of this house have a reputation for violence and godlessness. The founder of this House was said to have been a German mercenary-knight named Henricus of Wizenburg, who married into a Polish family"

The NPC's are well drawn out & have actual personality about them. The NPC's seem like real & living peoplefor example; "8. Kasimierz Ciolek (Fighter Lv2): A second cousin of the current Magnate, Kasimierz is in his early 30s. He was a second son, and rather than live under the shadow of his brother on his lands, he chose to seek his fortune with the Crown. He quickly ingratiated himself into the Piast court, where his family’s reputation for warfare got him a position in the Piast army under Boleslaw. Still, he didn’t prove to be a particularly skilled warrior (he performed acceptably, but got no great honors). However, he was quickly known as a master carouser, a genius at debauchery, and generally a great guy to have at a party. His social skills quickly gained him the admiration of Mieszko II, who made him one of his own attendants, and also granted him a position of honor when Mieszko II ascended to the throne. However, as time went by and Mieszko sought to be seen as more serious, his old party-friend has become more and more of a liability for him. What no one knows is that Kasimierz has been contacted by agents of Conrad II (Holy Roman Emperor) with the offer to act as a spy."
These NPC's are exactly the folks that you want to have on a Silk Road campaign! And this is exactly what 101 Sarmatians For Dungeons & Dragons has been written for. 

The Polish noble houses would be excellent as patrons for a Sword & Caravan campaign adventuring party. 
There's plenty of opportunities for adventurers to make thier marks on the Silk  Road as traders, merchant princes, etc. 
This means that this supplement is going to get a work out. These Medieval authentic adventures work on many levels. For OSR play and at the table top level these are excellent pieces to use for OSR or old school gaming. 

These books by RPG Pundit are ones that I immediately buy. And this includes 101 Sarmatians For Dungeons & Dragons  becase these books are actually usable and highly functional for old school and OSR play. Note that Rpg Pundit didn't send me this book to review but that I bought it on my own. 

OSR Review & Commentary The Pundit Files Issue 25 – The Wild West Timeline By The Rpg Pundit

 "New Pundit File: Wilde West Timeline. a real chronological guide to the peak period of the American "Wild West", focusing on the major icons of the West and the major locations, like Deadwood, Dodge City, Las Vegas, and Tombstone. It's particularly crafted for providing adventuring opportunities in a Western setting, such as Wretched Country. "

 The Pundit Files The Wild West Timeline is a solid Old Western timeline that covers all of the major and minor pieces of the events of the Old West. 
This makes it easier for the dungeon master to create and design old school Wild West adventures. 
For old school sphegetti Western adventure this means The Pundit Files The Wild West Timeline. 
The adventure locations such as Deadwood, Dodge City, Las Vegas, and Tombstone are highlighted on this timeline. 

For an Old West campaign that's using Wretched Country rpg second edition the Pundit Files The Wild West Timeline is invaluable.  
To know where the gun fights, criminials, gangs, and more helps too bring the Wild West to life. 

Wretched Country Second Edition has the movie anti heroes PC's. For awhile the PC's could become the outlaw adventurers that terrorize the West. That is until the Pinkertons come after them. 
The PC's as outlaws & The Pundit Files The Wild West Timeline fits right into a campaign with little issue. And this enables the DM to inject real world history into thier campaign. 
And there's plenty of room for the crimes of the PC's as they make thier marks on history. Time is going to catch up to the PC's but what a ride. 

As far as Rpg Pundit presents titles this one is a super addition to the DM's tool box. This is a solid title that will be great for the Old West Rpg  hobbyist. 

The Blood, Chaos, Passion, & Horrors of The Legend of El Cid For Your Old School Campaign

 

"He asked nothing but justice of Heaven, and of man he asked only a fair field."
Chronicle of the Cid, trans. Robert Southey (1808), Book I, §3, p. 4

A fallen hero, strange alliances, magic swords,mercenary warlords, violent triple crosses, & the fate of nations in the balance! The latest Hollywood thriller with a budget of millions?!  No one of the legends of the real world legends steeped in the blood shed of history.


Jura de Santa Gadea

Peeling back the pages of bloodshed & ancient history last night I came across my campaign notes on El Cid. The history, mythology, & legends of the Cid were something that grew up with. For me he's the arch type of the AD&D paladin without the baggage. Over the years I've heard El Cid's history compared to King Arthur's legends & mythology. A kingdom gained & lost along the trails of time. This is one national hero I've used time & again in my adventures & games. But who really was El Cid?



This simple blog entry can't go into the multi demensional history of the warfare & times that spawned the El Cid. He came from a time when the sword arm & warhorse were the tanks of their time. The heads of enemies decorated pikes outside of nation city state's walls. Wiki has a compact  breakdown but there are literally entire histories of the Cid as thick as a New York phone book;

"Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar (c. 1043 – 1099) was a Castilian nobleman and military leader in medieval Spain. The Moors called him El Cid, which meant the Lord (probably from the original Arabic al-Sayyid, السیِّد), and the Christians, El Campeador, which stood for Outstanding Warrior or The one who stands out in the battlefield. He was born in Vivar, a town near the city of Burgos. After his death, he became Castile's celebrated national hero and the protagonist of the most significant medieval Spanish epic poem, El Cantar de Mio Cid.^[1]

Born a member of the minor nobility, El Cid was brought up at the court of King Ferdinand the Great and served Ferdinand's son, Sancho II of León and Castile. He rose to become the commander and royal standard-bearer (armiger regis) of Castile upon Sancho's ascension in 1065. Rodrigo went on to lead the Castilian military campaigns against Sancho's brothers, Alfonso VI of León and García II of Galicia, as well as in the Muslim kingdoms in Al-Andalus. He became renowned for his military prowess in these campaigns, which helped expand Castilian territory at the expense of the Muslims and Sancho's brothers' kingdoms. When conspirators murdered Sancho in 1072, Rodrigo found himself in a difficult situation. Since Sancho was childless, the throne passed to his brother Alfonso, the same whom El Cid had helped remove from power. Although Rodrigo continued to serve the Castilian sovereign, he lost his ranking in the new court which treated him at arm's length and suspiciously. Finally, in 1081, he was ordered into exile.^[2]

El Cid found work fighting for the Muslim rulers of Zaragoza, whom he defended from their traditional enemies, Aragon and Barcelona. While in exile, he regained his reputation as a strategist and formidable military leader. He repeatedly turned out victorious in battle against the Muslim rulers of Lérida and their Christian allies, as well as against a large Christian army under King Sancho Ramírez of Aragon. In 1086, an expeditionary army of North African Almoravids inflicted a severe defeat to Castile, compelling Alfonso to overcome the resentments he harbored against El Cid. The terms for the return to the Christian service must have been attractive enough since Rodrigo soon found himself fighting for his former Lord. Over the next several years, however, El Cid set his sights on the kingdom-city of Valencia, operating more or less independently of Alfonso while politically supporting the Banu Hud and other Muslim dynasties opposed to the Almoravids. He gradually increased his control over Valencia; the Islamic ruler, al-Qadir, became his tributary in 1092. When the Almoravids instigated an uprising that resulted in the death of al-Qadir, El Cid responded by laying siege to the city. Valencia finally fell in 1094, and El Cid established an independent principality on the Mediterranean coast of Spain. He ruled over a pluralistic society with the popular support of Christians and Muslims alike.^[3]

El Cid's final years were spent fighting the Almoravid Berbers. He inflicted upon them their first major defeat in 1094, on the plains of Caurte, outside Valencia, and continued resisting them until his death. Although Rodrigo remained undefeated in Valencia, his only son, and heir, Diego Rodríguez died fighting against the Almoravids in the service of Alfonso in 1097. After El Cid's death in 1099, his wife, Jimena Díaz, succeeded him as ruler of Valencia, but she was eventually forced to surrender the principality to the Almoravids in 1102."
In old school adventure terms there's a ton of potential adventure hooks from taken treasures to the ruins of dungeon locations. El Cid's wrath knew bounds for he made warfare across the pages of history. There have been rumors of the treasure of King Sancho Ramírez of Aragon centuries. The cup of the Islamic ruler, al-Qadir was lost in the uprising of the Almoravids &  is still out in the Spanish countryside. There are literally tons of mini dungeons & other adventure ruins scattered in the wake of the Cid & the armies of his adversaries.


In  Lion & Dragon terms El Cid might be from a very long tradition of knights & warlords who were the resistance to the Elves of old. The demons from the Underworld & Hell have a long tradition in the Spanish countryside. There have been numerous legends & a rich tradition of Christian & Pre Christian heresies in the area enabling a DM to create mixed parties of adventurers to deal with monsters of Chaos & other horrors.
Over the years I've used a number of time lost warriors & knights from the court of El Cid in Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea second edition.

The +3 two handed sword Tizona, of El Cid has been passed into a national museum where its intelligent essence still sleeps.

"A weapon traditionally identified as El Cid's sword, Tizona, used to be displayed in the Army Museum (Museo del Ejército) in Toledo. In 1999, a small sample of the blade underwent metallurgical analysis which confirmed that the blade was made in Moorish Córdoba in the eleventh century and contained amounts of Damascus steel.^[13]
In 2007, the Autonomous Community of Castile and León bought the sword for 1.6 million Euros, and it is currently on display at the Museum of Burgos."
El Cid's other sword Colada is still lost or according to legend has been passed down the bloodline of Martín Antolínez one of the Cid's knights. This +2 sword of sharpness has a thirst for the blood of demons & dark wizards. There have been instances of these swords being used against monsters that could be straight out of a tale by H.P. Lovecraft.

 There several instances when various knights of El Cid according to legend fought a cult that seems to have been very similar to the cultists of A. Merritt's Dwellers in the Mirage.



The knights under the command of the Cid were violent, vicious warriors from a time when thrones made from the skulls of one's enemies were still the norm. The fact is that this was a time with plenty of room for both mythology & legend to mix into the paradoxes of history. The perfect frame work to add in your own party of adventurers or to take from the legends a bevy of opportunities for campaign elements or NPC's.

In Castles & Crusades terms these paladins & knights along with the fighters are the backbone of such a campaign. And these are going to be rank and file for crusades against far more entrenched cults and the like. This also means that rich lands could be up for grabs once thier cleared out. And this works well with the Castles & Crusades  Adventurer's Backpack. 

 El Cid takes the best of the Crusades and the elements of the Athurian legends. And there's plenty of room for campaign expansion. And this is also in the middle the events of El Cid's mythology that we as players encounter Elric and Moonglum. And this is where things got interesting when we went to recover a crusader's sword. We were able to recover it only after the two mauraders got a hold of an enchanted grail of Chaos. We slipped away from Elric's men while they dealt with the horror that was guarding the grail. 

Later on we would encounter El Cid's men and returned the sword to it's rightful owner's family. We were granted a 'small reward' in the form of a holy relic which actually was a powerful dagger that belonged to a saint. Unknown to the forces of El Cid the dagger was a relic of Law. And once again our wizard patron rewarded us richly.