The Broken Lands

With our Nightmoor Abbey game going on hiatus, I decided to try running an online BX game for the same crew. I didn't want to run Nightmoor Abbey as for some strange personal reasons I want to play it at the table. Therefore, I sent the following to the players...

Goal: A picaresque, episodic, beer-n-pretzels game

• Using Google Hangouts
• Designed to let me use a bunch of classic and OSR modules
• There will always be 2-4 adventure hooks available to choose from (initial 3 below)
• A few house rules
• Dice rolls are honour system. I will try to roll the DM dice on the camera.

Characters:

• 3d6 in order
• Any class/race for BX or Labyrinth Lord is usable (just run it by me first so I know the source)

The Broken Lands

Welcome to Jekarra the Wicked, the city of thieves, the city of adventure. Throughout the known world, no city is half so notorious. Blackened by fire, soiled by pestilence, and scarred by war, its sandy collection of spiderwebbed tenements and rat-ridden bazaars have birthed some of the worst rogues and villains to ever stalk the storied thrones of the south.

But the City of Thieves, is also a city of chance and adventure, where fortunes are won in a night and lost before dawn. Where gems glint and flare in the lamplight, the might of magic knows no bounds, and a warrior's quick blade and shirt of mail are his best defense. The City of Jekarra sits atop the Cliffs of Leng. The huge 1,000-foot cliff face is pocked with caves, balconies and passageways - some made by the residents of Jekarra over the centuries for uses both mundane and illicit and some predate the founding of the city by millenia.

Cutting across the face of the Cliffs of Leng, the Tartarus Road descends from the city to the Broken Lands below. What caused the terrible landscape of the Broken Lands none know. It is a blasted and forsaken land full of pits, ruins, and dungeons. Wandering this inhospitable land are fearsome monsters, religious fanatics, savage raiders, and worse. However, it is also rumoured to contain treasures beyond measure.

So loosen your sword, keep a hand on your coin pouch, and take these first steps out of the tavern, and through the shadowy, torch-lit streets. A black mist is roiling beyond the precipice of the Leng, and adventure beckons below…

Initial Adventure Hooks:

1. Gerod, the Silver Man, sold you a map for 1 sp. He swore it will lead you to the Tower of Birds in the Broken Lands which contains the Blood Egg, a fantastic red gem.
2. You’ve been hearing rumours of a strange event near the bottom of the Tartarus Road. About two months ago, lightning filled the skies over a monastery dedicated to the Iron God. Rumours say all the buildings of the temple were destroyed in one night by hundreds of bolts of lightning. Some say that the Iron God destroyed his own monks as a punishment for their greed; they claim that the heretical monks had been accumulating great treasures in the underground catacombs beneath the temple instead of maintaining the spartan life required by their God. So far, no one has dared to explore the catacombs, so the monks’ ill-gotten treasures must still be there, ripe for the taking.
3. Long ago a wizard built a tower atop some barrows just south of the Red Massif overlooking the Road of Tombs. Rumour has it the wizard made extensive cellars and tunnels underneath the tower in search of ancient treasures. Fifty years ago the tower was engulfed in green flame. Several of his human servants escaped the holocaust, saying their master had been destroyed by some powerful force he had unleashed in the depths of the tower. The supernatural conflagration destroyed the tower, but tales persist of magical treasures still hidden in the cellars.

Many will likely recognize the hooks.