Well Inferno is done..text wise that is, now all that needs done I guess is conversion to 3.5 (course is open for C&C or OSRIC)
http://p105.ezboard.com/fnecromancergam ... 71&stop=72

ShaneG.

Plaag wrote:Well Inferno is done..text wise that is, now all that needs done I guess is conversion to 3.5 (course is open for C&C or OSRIC)
http://p105.ezboard.com/fnecromancergam ... 71&stop=72

ShaneG.

yeah i also got an e-mail from Paul ELkmann about this just this morning.

will sit down and have a good read! i also suggested about the 1E route too. would love to see it published in that format too, as that would appeal to me far more than a 3.5 one would.

Al

killjoy32 wrote:
yeah i also got an e-mail from Paul ELkmann about this just this morning.

will sit down and have a good read! i also suggested about the 1E route too. would love to see it published in that format too, as that would appeal to me far more than a 3.5 one would.

And I will third (3RD) that as well. I really enjoyed Inferno and was very disappointed when I learned JG was not going to make volume 2.

This is indeed GOOD news for the New Year

Geoff Dale wrote:Its a long story about that second JG volume, or maybe more than 1 story...

Status:  Am very close to finishing the monster and NPC conversions (working on the last couple monsters of Circle 8, with maybe another 10 to 12 to go after that).  Soon I'll be looking for a d20 editor or two to look the monsters over.  The treasure and magic item conversions go faster than the monsters.

On to artwork sometime this Spring maybe?  Since I'm not having any luck with the remaining d20 publishers, I'll have to pull something myself together to get Inferno out.  Maybe there will be a website up next year to help gauge the interest and print run.  Sometime after it comes out in 3E I'd like to do a 1E crosswalk, but probably as a PDF.

BTW Killjoy...what'd you think of the sample?

Geoff  

You would probably be able to sell a print version of a 1E version of this as well, so something to ask if you put a website up to gauge interest.

ShaneG.

Geoff

great to see and thanks so much for updating us all. now THIS baby, i really am interested in!!!

and if you put it out in 1E compitable format.... YAY!!!

i will definately be purchasing...but then anything 1E comp, i will purchase too.

top man!

Al

Geoff Dale wrote:
I've also converted the monsters in Lindoran to 3E, and drawn up some sketches for a new ruined-city section around its entrance, sketched a new third (middle) level and an aquaduct and cistern....I go back a type a few paragraphs when Inferno gets too frustrating.


Geoff

As I recall, Geoff, you said the Treasure Vaults of Lindoran was published in a different form than you first envisioned.

I had the distinct impression that there was a lot more background and surrounding area information that got edited out or envisioned but never created.

In my own 3.5 campaign, I eliminated the red dragon at the door and placed the key in a crypt.  I placed the elven city (which was obviously what you planned to be there) surrounding the vaults beneath a lava flow.  

I replaced the red dragon theme with a group of young red dragons who were nesting in a rift in the lava flow...amongst the ruins of the city.  The rift went all the way to the heart of the volcano, but the party did not go there.

Naturally, I had to modify the interior to account for the different style of play that has developed since Treasure Vaults of Lindoran was published.  I souped-up the monsters and added more elements of horror.  

(As I recall, I placed a group of undead elves in the crypt...trapped there by events as Lindoran was destroyed by volcanic eruption.)

A re-write would need to address why the elves left clues to help find their treasure. Such clues were a common theme in the modules of that time...but they seem strange now.

Mark  

Its been a few years but I don't recall Lindoran as being published substantially differently than it was written.  JG wasn't very good at editing in those days, even when the module needed it (looking back from today's point of view, Inferno certainly did).  There was more backstory to Lindoran than got into the module, and elements of the same history can be found in the artifact writeups in Inferno -- neither are set in the JG Wilderlands.  I never had more than a few vague sketches of the city of Lindoran since it was pretty far from the main action in that campaign (unlike Inferno, I did playtest Treasure Vaults of Lindoran in my campaign).

For Lindoran the basic story was the elves had been settled for a long time in an oval valley surrounded by mountain ranges, the center of the valley filled by a large lake (Lake Elmen ?), maybe 200 miles long by 40 miles miles, with a major river running northward out of the valley and through the mountains to an estuary off the sea, maybe 350 miles away.  The capital city was Lindoran, located in the southeast corner of the valley near several large waterfalls coming off a particular mountain, forming a river running into the lake.  The king's cousin was a mage specializing in mind/spirit related spells (I may have written about Life-Mages in the JG Journal but I don't remember right now); one of his magic rituals backfires, causing him to develop an evil god-complex, and he goes into seclusion for a couple of hundred years while building an appropriately evil fortress.  Eventually the cousin comes back out under a new name and starts to incite rebellion among the elves, taking advantage of some royal scandals, crop failures which he helped induce, and a surge in monster incursions.  In the end the noble elven king, along with his outnumbered palace guard unit, rides out to defend his besieged capital knowing he isn't coming back.  Before he leaves he seals up the Vaults, hoping some future royal elf will come to claim the contents, but trying to defend it against mere treasure seekers.  Lindoran gets sacked and burned by the insane cousin and the surviving population takes to boats. fleeing north up the river, eventually founding a new city on the sea about 500 miles to the north.  The insane cousin goes back to his evil fortress and is still around somewhere.  That may sound like a common 1980's plot, but when I wrote it I was only 19, had been playing D&D only about 2 years, and had just read the Tolkien canon for the first time about 8 months earlier.

The Eostros folks are interested in Lindoran as one of their updated JG releases.  I think I can do a revised Lindoran in around 100 pages - something to do when Inferno is too overwhelming.

I've never been very impressed with the goth/horror genre and so you won't see any new horror elements from me, it just doesn't work with my understanding of elves....now the drow might be different.  Now the lava flow idea fits right in...there were active volcanoes in that mountain range nearby so layers of ash or lave work.

Thanks for the info Robert - I've collected Niven for a long time.

Geoff

The lava flow idea allows for the vaults to be in a logical location.  It also provides a readily available rationale for why the elves are no longer there...beside...you know...being dead and all that.

When I say "horror" I just mean that there was a harder and more grim edge to the adventure than the module captures.  Like a lot of the modules that JG chose to print, Treasure Vaults of Lindoran has a fairly light-hearted feel (at least to me).  Even a JG module with a name like Hell Pits of Nightfang still comes across as kind of humorous...possibly because of the artwork.  Verbosh is outright funny.  Another module features bubble people and the theft of a giant's baby...by Satan.  

I believe I used a D20 "dread wraith" in Lindoran...against a fairly low level party.

I must say that Lindoran seems to be one of the rarer JG products.  I seldom see one for sale on Ebay.  I think I see Dark Tower or even Inferno more.  

(I feel lucky to have gotten Inferno for around $20 when I did!)

Your background description implies to me that the treasure vaults were located inside Lindoran...and the addition of a ruined city map would give the module the kind of scope that DM's like me absolutely love.  If the vaults had been only a rumor among the elves...and the entrance was buried in some way by the city's destruction, then it would explain why the evil cousin life wizard guy didn't take all the treasure long ago.

One way to give a harder edge to the module might be a ruin of some sort that conveys the feeling of lost beauty...of old tragedy that still lingers.  That would give Lindoran a real edge.

I did a similar thing for Caverns of Thracia.  The module seemed to suggest to me a far more extensive set of ruins than just an abandoned shrine.  I created a ruined city, still occupied by minotuars with a d20 uber-beast minotaur lairing at its center.  (The problem being, of course, that the city upstaged the dungeon crawl...should have thought of that.)

Treasure Vaults of Lindoran could also use some highly interesting treasure items...something that might be highly motivating for player-characters, but also likely to cause problems for them.  I may be being daft, but I do not remember a specific trouble-treasure in the module.

One problem with almost all JG modules was an uneven mix of monsters.  In Caverns of Thracia one might meet a small group of gnolls, or a flaming killer statue.  In Verbosh, Schuang Nau Tower (which I have since learned is the name of a real castle in Bavaria) has kobolds on its first level and a demon lord at the top.  That is one factor to watch for in a revised version of Lindoran.

Mark  

With all the Circles through 5 converted, the Bestiary done, the Denizens (NPC's) done, Enchanted Items complete through Circle 5, and most of the Generic section done, this could be played in 3E, [I'm guessing here...] taking 4 to 6 game sessions to get through this first half of Inferno (and maybe another couple of Circles will be done by then).  If interested, sign your soul away with the "nice" Type 9A Devil in King Samael's Tower and watch out for his Secretary, she's a.....

On the publishing front for Inferno: still no publisher, the printer quotes I've gotten are too high, and financing is anything but secure. On the plus side I'm talking to some art students about maps and interior art.

Geoff

Geoff Dale wrote:
On the publishing front for Inferno: still no publisher, the printer quotes I've gotten are too high, and financing is anything but secure. On the plus side I'm talking to some art students about maps and interior art.

Geoff

Hope you can find a publisher, but its cool that you are seeking young art talent.

Geoff Dale wrote:If I really get back to Lindoran (maybe late this year) I'd like to supply a map of what remains of the city after 5 or 6 centuries along with a few more encounter areas. There will also be another way into the Vaults and a new level with maybe 15 to 20 rooms on it. I'm also thinking about a mountain cave with some keys or something useful to the Vaults.

Shane: I know that I wrote more about mage sub-classes than the one journal article; maybe that article was in the mass of material that was lost when things closed down? I still use the multiple-mage or mage/priest ritual magic kind of spells in my campaign !!

BTW I was once asked about how to pronounce Lindoran: it's "lin-door-ann"

Geoff Twisted  

See now that Lindoran would be another cool module.

As for the article, its possible, or its possible that it wasn't included in the Table of Contents by accident, I did only use those and not peruse the magazines to look for what you submitted.

ShaneG.