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The Midderlands Expanded - An OSR Setting Expansion

Created by Glynn Seal

An expansion to The Midderlands OSR Setting and Bestiary. For Old school roleplaying games, in particular Swords & Wizardry (D&D clone)

Latest Updates from Our Project:

Funding Goal reached...
about 6 years ago – Sun, Feb 25, 2018 at 12:25:02 AM

I’ll just leave this here... :)

 

Cern the Antlered God waits...
about 6 years ago – Fri, Feb 23, 2018 at 08:44:25 PM

Hello, glorious folk of Havenland,

Is anyone panicking yet?

How are the fingernails?

If you were part of the first Kickstarter campaign last year, you will know that this is all part of The Midderlands 'experience'. This is how your players should feel while wondering around the grime-smeared landscape of Havenland -- on edge.

Don't panic just yet though, it's looking promising after a huge rallying pledge day yesterday with the heroes at Frog God Games, Tenkar's Tavern, Northwind Adventures, Kort'thalis Publishing, and Gaming & BS to name just a small handful. And especially all you supporting gamers that have shared and spread 'the word' like agents working for the Silver Hand. You have all been tremendous and I am humbled by it. Thank you isn't enough.

So, this is the last update...

...before this campaign closes out... for good or ill. Sit tight, and I hope that I'll be posting more updates as production continues.

Crafted Words (unedited/unchecked)

Aven Forest

This sprawling area of woodland is often called the Cote Wolds by locals. Hamlets and villages nestle in the stream-ridden valleys formed by the rolling hills north of Saltsbury Plain.

Aven Forest
Aven Forest

These woodlands are rife with stone circles, thorned briarlings and some of the biggest deer in Havenland. These large, timid specimens, said to be 8 feet high at the shoulder are rarely seen -- to the point of being thought of as a myth by commonfolk.

Another widely-held myth -- as no-one living has ever seen it – is the 15 feet high, bipedal, half-man, half-white stag known as The Great White Hart, or Cern the Antlered God. Crowned with antlers of iron, Cern is usually attended by his pack of seven huge, loyal white wolves, Actaeone, Aranyane, Cybele, Herne, Nemestrine, Silvane, and Vidae. Cern and his wolf guard are no myth. Deep in the dense heart of Aven Forest in an area known as The Dark Cotes, the ancient trunks of yews and oaks grow touching. Beyond these wooden bulwarks is an old village lost to time where the long-dead still wander. There is a sentience behind the empty eye sockets, fractured skulls and exposed sinew. In the middle of the village square, lies a large pentacle formed of thorns and bramble. Levitating 3 feet above it, standing upright, the Antlered God floats, unblinking and ever-watchful.

Crafted Images

Foreboding Tower by Juan Ochoa
Foreboding Tower by Juan Ochoa

 

 

Important Consignment by Steve Punter
Important Consignment by Steve Punter

 

 

Another Hero (or Villain) by Jim Magnusson
Another Hero (or Villain) by Jim Magnusson

 

 

Yawmouth by Glynn Seal
Yawmouth by Glynn Seal

 

 

Gripeblade by Glynn Seal
Gripeblade by Glynn Seal

 

 

Crown of the Staff of Blood by Glynn Seal
Crown of the Staff of Blood by Glynn Seal

 

 And finally... (possibly, but hopefully not)

Thank you all so much for the support on this campaign, whatever happens, we have all been amazing, and there is nothing better to have achieved than that!

Onwards once more to victory!

Glynn and 'The Midderlands Expanded' team

4 Days Left
about 6 years ago – Tue, Feb 20, 2018 at 07:44:47 PM

Hello Havenlanders,

4 DAYS TO GO!

Your grime-smeared, green-hued Lord needs you!

As before, this is the most exciting time of the campaign! I'm on the edge of my seat, and this rollercoaster is heading for the loop the loop! Now we start the BIG FINAL PUSH to try to achieve our funding.

4 days to go at the time of writing this, and over 2/3rds funded. We did it before, we can do it again. I am sooooo excited to be getting close to be bringing this to fruition.

As always, your support and help to spread the word in every nook and cranny of the interlands is crucial. I am always gobsmacked to find that people didn't hear about Kickstarter campaigns, so I am assuming that there are places where this Kickstarter hasn't reached -- we can do this, GO TEAM MIDDERLANDS!

Video Hangout with Matt Finch

The most kind, Matt Finch (creator of Swords & Wizardry), and myself chatted the other day about the Kickstarter over on Old School Gamer Radio. Check it out and subscribe to his channel.

Also consider joining his Patreon for his actual play campaign Swords of Jordoba.

Artwork & Text

Dog Spiders

  • Hit Dice: 2
  • Armor Class: 6 [13]
  • Attacks: 1 bite (1d8), poison
  • Saving Throw: 16
  • Special: A successful bite injects a powerful paralysing poison, +2 save or paralysed for 1d6 rounds. Surprise on 1-5 in 6.
  • Move: 12/Climb 12
  • Alignment: Chaos
  • Challenge Level/XP: 4/120

Dog Spiders are found all over Havenland and Oldenwale and are aptly named. They resemble wolf spiders the size of large dogs. They live inside the refuge of leafy trees, preferring evergreens, such as conifers and pine trees. They don’t build webs, instead favouring brutally effective surprise attacks, and the effectiveness of their paralysing poison delivered through their rows of sharp fangs. If left to its own devices, a dog spider will attempt to drag a paralysed victim into a tree and suck out all the juice, leaving an empty husk in a couple of hours. Some say these are the spawn of Morgontula, descending from the heavens above as remnants of glittering trails left behind by meteors, and landing as tiny replicas of the horrors that they will become.

Book of the Muckulus

An incredibly rare, yet small tome bound in the hide of a Muckulus. The front has three, red and black-slitted muckulus eyes which occasionally blink. The eyes on the cover occasionally cry, secreting an oily substance that has the smell of sulphur. Two green ribbons made from plaited demon mane are sewn into the binding with hairs plucked from the corpses of drawn and quartered murderers.

The book contains dark and evil writings detailing infernal demon pacts and devil-tongued, licentious rituals. Folk that read the book usually hold it at arm’s length, whilst rotating the book trying to make sense of what they are seeing, and pulling faces as if sucking a lemon; muttering things like “Ewwww” and “What. The. Hell?” whilst trying in vain to look away from the despicable imagery.

A full read of the book imbues the reader with horrific nightmares until they die. They only gain half (rounded up) of the beneficial effects from a full 8-hour rest, lose 1 point of Wisdom permanently and become vulnerable to iron weapons taking an extra 1d4 damage. They do however, gain 1 point of Intelligence, Dexterity, Constitution, and their Armour Class increases by 1 point due to hard calluses all over their body.

Value: 20,000 gold quids.

Jellyglooms

Around the coastlines, currents carry jellyfish by the thousand, but in certain stretches of water -- particularly off the coast of Oldenwale out towards Twain Island – the Jellyglooms float. Huge translucent-lime blobs measuring four feet across lurk just beneath the surface. Overboard sailors and other sea creatures fall foul of the dangerous dangling tendrils that cause almost instant paralysis. Nothing can clear a seaside town bay, harbour or estuary like a shoal of jellyglooms. The bell-shaped hoods of Jellygloom’s can be carefully prepared for cooking and are quite the delicacy on the island of Lundy.

Slitherling in the Tunnels by Glynn Seal
Slitherling in the Tunnels by Glynn Seal

 

Overlooking the Town by Juan Ochoa
Overlooking the Town by Juan Ochoa

 

Sister Inaya Benedict by Jim Magnusson
Sister Inaya Benedict by Jim Magnusson
Queensmyr by Glynn Seal
Queensmyr by Glynn Seal

 

Jellygloom by Glynn Seal
Jellygloom by Glynn Seal

 

Book of the Muckulus by Glynn Seal
Book of the Muckulus by Glynn Seal

Serpentking Leather Cover

So, I had this idea about making the leather for the Serpentking covers (via Backerkit only) out of Snakeskin! Well, not real snakeskin obviously... Two nice little samples for your amusement.

Snakeskin Sample 1
Snakeskin Sample 1

 

Snakeskin Sample 2
Snakeskin Sample 2

The Final Push

There is likely to be one final update before the end of the campaign. That said, let's buckle up for the wild ride to come... :P

Many thanks, Glynn and the Midderlands Team.

Onwards to victory!!

The Final Week Looms... like an angry Branchspite Golem
about 6 years ago – Fri, Feb 16, 2018 at 07:37:10 PM

Hello Midderlanders,

Just keeping you up to speed as we head towards the final week of the campaign. The team are engaged in their respective tasks working towards getting things to move quickly after funding.

Thanks so much to the midfolk that are sharing and posting about the campaign. Your support, passion and enthusiasm is what makes running these campaigns such a pleasure.

Funding Goal

We are still not quite there, but the last campaign rallied hard in the last few days of the campaign and gathered pretty much the same funding goal that we need to fund on this campaign. Here's an interesting graph showing the comparative Running Daily Pledge amounts for this campaign and the one for the first book...

Comparative Running Daily Pledge amounts
Comparative Running Daily Pledge amounts

Also, this is the Backerkit analysis...

Hang on to your hats...
Hang on to your hats...

You can see that a final big push should make this thing happen, but I understand that there is no room for complacency.

Some Artwork & Text

Kelderburn Forest

Kelderburn Forest
Kelderburn Forest

Legend has it that the spirits of the long-dead haunt this deciduous forest. The main route from the south passes through it on its way north to Middercastle, and the legends—true or not--tend to keep most folk on the trade route and discourage them from venturing further into the forest. In the southern part of the forest southeast of the Kelderwater, is a harras of equinians led by a noble-looking beast by the name of Grugalian Arfenwhist of the Dark Boughs. They have been seen snatching giant dragonfly off the Kelderwater.

In the north of the forest a darker creature resides. An angry, spite-filled golem, twelve feet tall and formed of dead branches, dry leaves and forest detritus. The smell of decaying vegetation pervades the air. Inside, a heart of gloomium beats, filling arteries and veins with malice and evil. A single eye of glowing green light atop its vague-shaped head, sees all things in the forest for hundreds of feet around. It has dragged countless travellers into the ground to squeeze them free of their lives.

Branchspite Golem by Jim Magnusson
Branchspite Golem by Jim Magnusson

 

The Streets by Glynn Seal
The Streets by Glynn Seal

 

Devil from the Marsh by Juan Ochoa
Devil from the Marsh by Juan Ochoa

Competition to win the Filler Art book

Just a reminder that the Competition to win the filler art book is still in the offing. Apart from pledgers, I have only found 1 valid entry for a post, and that's on Twitter. It uses the correct hashtag and also the correct URL (it's special and allows me to track pledges using that particular link). I also found a correct hashtag entry on the Rpg.net forum, the hashtag is correct but the URL is not the correct one.

If you have posted and wonder why your entry is not valid - please check, and make sure your post qualifies. The rules are here:

http://monkeyblooddesign.co.uk/competition

Feel free to go back in and amend any posts you might have made that didn't qualify.

Other Kickstarter Campaigns

I'm involved in two other Kickstarter campaigns that are currently running, which have very little time left and also are worth checking out. Both are funded at this time, so help out both creators if you can spare it.

Slave, Soldier, and King: A Make 100 Anthology

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/424112640/slave-soldier-and-king-a-make-100-anthology

Chance Phillips, creator of On the Shoulder of Giants, and one of LotFP's Revolting Youth wants help to print a compendium of three of Robert E. Howard's first Kull stories containing original illustrations by artist Stefan Poag.

Off the Beaten Path, Desert Excursions

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/throwigames/off-the-beaten-path-desert-excursions-0

Thom Wilson of Throwigames is back with another in the Excursions series of short adventures. A minimum 26 page book, filled with one to two page adventures usable by any system. Based on the Patreon project by NomadGaming.

Finally...

Please feel free to push the campaign as hard as you want in the closing days. WE ARE SO CLOSE looking at the graphs, and the second book is going to be great.

Thanks all, you are awesome!

Glynn and the Team

Halfway through the campaign...
about 6 years ago – Sat, Feb 10, 2018 at 11:43:41 AM

Hey Midderfolk,

It's the weekend! Wooot! Huzzah! Yes! Ding, ding! I hope you all have a great one!

So, we are halfway through the campaign. Your pledges and support have been huge and welcome. Thanks so much for the support. There is still a way to go to break through the funding goal, but we did it in the first campaign, so we can do it again.

2 weeks left.

I have had the delight in seeing some of Mark and Edwin's work, and also Juan and Jim have turned in some fabulous pieces. Steven is going to have a piece to show very soon.

Some Text... (unedited)

Chillingtern Wolds

These colossal woods sprawl into seven counties, yet it is Wilting & Avenshire that has the most coverage per hectare.

Deep beneath Chillingtern Wolds between Havenhenge and the River Tesset lies the largest population of henge rats in all of Havenland. In the Upper Middergloom, surrounded by gnawed bones and crusted droppings, a king dwells. In the gloomium-infused glow of fungi and crystals, King Grimetooth sits on a makeshift throne of dead rats. Unlike the scurrying and fearless henge rats he rules, the king is careful and cautious. Standing upright on hind legs, and towering over seven feet, he wears a mish-mash of rusting chainmail and tattered leather. He wields a glowing scythe covered in the blood, skin and fur from rats caught in his furious rages.

King Grimetooth has a retinue of three, somewhat smaller, but equally upright-standing and armour-wearing rats that do his dark, secret and manipulative bidding in the world above.

Chillingtern Wolds
Chillingtern Wolds

Some Art...

A Secret Meeting by Juan Ochoa
A Secret Meeting by Juan Ochoa

 

Bark at the Moon by Glynn Seal
Bark at the Moon by Glynn Seal

 

Omma Coming... by Jim Magnusson
Omma Coming... by Jim Magnusson

Have a great weekend!

Glynn and the team.