A N A D V E N T U R E F O R

N E O C L A S S I C A L
G E E K R E V I V A L
AND OSR ADVENTURE GAMES
BY ZZARCHOV KOWOLSKI
 COVER ART
GEMSEN IN EINER ALPINEN LANDSCHAFT
BY MORITZ MÜLLER

WORDS
ZZARCHOV KOWOLSKI

EDITING
JAMES MALISZEWSKI

LAYOUT & ILLUSTRATION

ALEX MAYO

©2014 ZZARCHOV KOWOLSKI

PRINTED IN CANADA
ISBN 978-0-9920472-8-3
BACKGROUND Brenner has set up a large amount of alchemical
equipment in the chalet, and is mostly preoccupied

I n a sleepy little village located in one of many

sleepy alpine valleys, a growing fear has begun
spreading among the populace. A young boy gath-
with fetching samples from nearby glaciers and
distilling the water. There are vials upon vials of
water, stoppered with silver solder and labelled with
ering tinder from the pines on the mountainside date ranges. He is obsessed with water frozen in
stumbled upon a stone statue of a bear. Fetching his different eras for use in potions. There are also two
parents, there was no doubt that it must be a bear moderately sized lead casks containing a substance
turned to stone. Speaking to the men in the village, suspiciously like kerosene labelled “Dwarf Tears”. In
worry grew when no one had seen anyone from the one of the rooms is a strongbox with 12,000 silver
Kosovel's farmstead at yesterday's market and a coins in treasure.
wandering merchant had mentioned to the alewife
that he had seen a statue of a cow on his ride into Dr. Brenner is not involved in the local spate of pet-
town yesterday. The alewife had assumed he was rifications, but does have interest in the matter. He
trying to set up some awkward joke and had ignored will offer to pay 2,000 silver coins for the remnants
the quip until now. The townsfolk are wondering of the item or creature causing the issue. He sus-
if the strange foreigner from the other side of the pects a gorgon.
mountain who lives in his mountainside chalet
might be a warlock who is behind these occurrences. NGR: Dr. Brenner is 4th level. He is 2 part wizard
The town elder has promised a barrel of ale if some- (Sage, Anti-Magic: Dispel, Psychic Potential) and
one can put the issue to rest. one part rogue (Expert). He has a random grimoire
(see Hark! A Wizard!)
THE CHALET OF DOCTOR BRENNER

D r. Brenner arrived at the start of last winter

with a small entourage of servants in tow. He
quietly crossed over the mountains from the cantons
OSR: Dr. Brenner is a 4th level magic-user or alche-
mist with a random assortment of spells.

on the other side, something that is exceedingly rare THE FOREST

T
for those who aren't fleeing the law. Combined with he young boy or his parents can easily be per-
the other two strikes of being rich and foreign, his suaded to show the party the statue of the stone
suspicious method of entry put the entire town on bear for a token amount (as little as 2 copper pen-
edge. An emissary will come to town once a month nies). While they will be skittish, they do know the
to buy sundries with hard currency, so he has been direct route. There will be a statue of a bear digging
tolerated by the town under the unsaid agreement into a rotted log, its head and neck craned to one
that he remain apart from them. side, as if looking over its shoulder at an unexpected
sound. It is indeed a bear turned to stone. If the par-
He lives in a rented chalet along the mountain side. ty explores the area, they may stumble across trees
It is a lovely three-story wooden building, with a marked with notches. These trees have snare traps
large stone chimney and two-story windows made for small game at their bases. If these are tracked,
of actual glass. The interior of the chalet is largely they will lead to a small log cabin that serves as a
an open concept room dominated by a large hearth. hunting camp. A party may also find heavy hoof-
There are a small number of sleeping rooms off the prints in the area. If they track them from whence
main chamber. they came, they will lead to a fairly steep cliff with
evidence that something ox-sized rolled and fell
Dr. Brenner is an alchemist who is living here with down said cliff, breaking their fall on the boughs of a
his six servants. One servant is an elderly Danish tree. Scaling the cliff will lead to the party to the Val-
woman, while the other five are large muscular ley. If they follow the tracks in the other direction
men of Saami ancestry, who appear to be mute. Dr. they will find the pasture.

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THE HUNTING CAMP THE VALLEY

I f the party follows up on the game trails they

will come to a small log cabin surrounded by a
wicker fence. Inside the wicker fence is a fire pit and
I f the players scale the twenty foot cliff face, they
will reach a small ledge and a still quite steep
slope leading to a small meadow valley, no more
several animal pelts being stretched and dried. The than 5 acres in size. The valley is largely empty
sole inhabitant of the cabin is Ol'Lady Bibic. She is other than a small cave containing a hot spring and
a crass mountain woman of the decrepit age of 27. a stone statue of a chamois (similar to a mountain
She's been called Ol'Lady Bibic since she was 21 as goat). The area shows obvious signs that a large her-
her hair turned grey prematurely. She makes a liv- bivore has been living in the valley for some time,
ing hunting, trapping, and foraging for mushrooms. wintering in the cave.
Technically, she is a
poacher, but the local THE PASTURE

I
lord is an absentee f the players come to
landlord, so nobody the pastures sur-
cares. She witnessed rounding the Kosovel
the bear being turned farm, they will
to stone. She heard notice a clearly
a loud crash echo visible stone cow
through the for- in a hillside pas-
est and moved to ture, staring off
investigate. She into the treeline.
saw a beast like If they examine
a large ox with further into the
an oversized pastures they
misshapen will see a field
head and containing a
coat of snake dozen living
scales run- sheep, three
ning down its stone sheep,
back in a stripe. and a stone
It wandered about sheepdog with its
aimlessly eating small teeth bared and its
plants until it ran into hackles raised. Given
the bear which seems all of the large hoof
to have startled it. prints from the cow,
The beast started back it will be difficult to tell
in fright until it locked which way any creature
eyes with the bear, which travelled. A difficult tracking
turned to stone. It quickly recovered check will show something moving from
its composure and seemed to become more aggres- the woods, through the fields in a zig-zagging mo-
sive. It pawed at some trees with its hooves and then tion, then bee lining directly towards the farmstead
ambled down towards the pastures. in a run from a point near the location of the stone
dog.

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THE FARMSTEAD pilgrims is a priest and is willing to bless the leader

T he Kosovel farmhouse is a single-story wood of the party if they promise to end the menace of the
plank building with a brushwood roof. There creature.
was a wooden porch, but it has been destroyed in
some massive impact. There is also a large wooden THE CATOBLEPAS
barn, and a few other small outbuildings (sheds, an
outhouse, similar things). Poor Polde Kosovel was T he beast is hiding in a small grove of trees near
a spring. It has suffered some pretty obvious
scrapes and bruises from the slide down the cliff.
turned to stone by the beast, his frightened wife
(Ivana) and son (Anton) have barricaded themselves It will defend itself but will try to flee if able, and
in the house, only having once left to drag his statue only attack back if cornered or unable to flee. As you
inside. They will be relieved to be rescued and beg have probably guessed, the beast is currently Polde
the party to slay the beast. Ivana describes it much Kosovel. When it meets the gaze of another creature,
the same as Ol'Lady Bibic: it came bolting from the first their minds switch and then the target is turned
pastures at full speed and rammed into the side of to stone. For this reason, a sentient mind inhabiting
the porch, seemingly intent on uprooting the porch. the body of the Catoblepas will meet the gaze of an
Polde ran out from the barn with a crossbow and the attacker only as a last resort. An animal is not able
beast hunched down and seemed to almost stalk to- to make that deduction. Reversing the petrification
wards Polde, turning him to stone as their gaze met on a statue, will not reverse the mind switch. Killing
right before Polde could fire. Then the beast raised the Catoblepas will not undo the petrifications. The
to its full height and slowly walked over to Polde. It Catoblepas can hear, and depending on the mind
stared at him up and down for a few minutes until inside, may even understand speech, but it cannot
Ivana went running out with a hot fire poker. The speak.
beast seemed to be spooked, as it never even both-
ered to look around, it just bolted wildly towards the NGR: The Catoblepas is as big as an ox (size modi-
road, at one point knocking over the pigeon coop. fier 2) with tremendous strength (16 strength), and
a hearty constitution (12 health), but it has great
If asked, Anton will ramble about the events in frag- difficulty seeing (5 awareness). Its intelligence,
ments, getting more and more worked up. If con- social, and spirit scores are determined by the mind
vinced that it is important (NGR: Social Conflict, currently inhabiting the body. Its head is that of an
OSR: Charisma check), he tells all of the details, oversized boar with ox horns, making it count as
noting that the beast had its tail tucked between wearing a helm. Its scaled back and thickened hide
its legs and seemed almost to be yelping when it count as partial mail and light armour respectively.
ran back and rammed into the porch. If asked why The hooves of a Catoblepas count as large blunt
Polde had a crossbow ready, it is because some large weapons. It can also make a gaze attack. It may
animal had been attacking their flock. make a detection roll against an opponent with open
eyes. An opponent specifically keeping their eyes
CHAOS ON THE MAIN ROAD closed or hidden behind a shield is immune (though

A team of pilgrims is trying to fix their hand- they would suffer their own penalties). A successful
pulled cart that contains all of their food and hit causes a d20 of potential damage and the same
camping supplies. They are whittling a sapling into amount of potential stress. If the target would both
a new axle. A large misshapen ox-like creature came be killed and driven insane, the target has their
barrelling through them and broke their wagon. It mind switched with the Catoblepas and they are
came from the direction of the Kosovel farm and turned to stone. Otherwise there is no effect. Tech-
went deeper into the woods. The tracks are very evi- nically this is an innate spell “Curse of the Cato-
dent. The beast hit their wagon and went into a roll. blepas”, and the beast has a mana pool of 50, though
It was not looking where it was going. One of the only an elf or a wizard with the “Create Spell” power
would be able to control it as such. A Catoblepas's

3
eyes reduce the cost of the spell to 1 per power level, and bolted away, knocking over the pigeon coop and
though once the Catoblepas is dead they are con- bounding over the road, crashing into the wagon, as
sumed in the casting. he couldn't see. Eventually, he opened his eyes when
he was certain he was alone and hid as he tried to
The Catoblepas has taken 1 point of damage from figure out what to do next.
the fall.

OSR: The Catoblepas has 5 hit dice and may attack SPELLS
by kicking for 2d8 damage, or make a gaze attack, Curse of the Catoblepas
requiring a saving throw versus petrification or the Template: PETRIFY
target switches minds with the Catoblepas and is Difficulty: 5 per power level
then turned to stone. The Catoblepas has armour as Cost: 20 per power level
hide armour or scale mail. It has taken 4 points of Range: Short Missile Range
damage from the fall. Complexity: 4
This spell allows the caster to either turn the target
THE CHAIN OF EVENTS to stone immediately AFTER swapping minds with

F or decades uncounted, the Catoblepas was

trapped alone in the alpine valley. That changed
just yesterday when a pack of chamois ( similar to
the target. This is permanent unless dispelled, but
dispelling the stone will not undo the mental swap.
This spell deals the equivalent of a d20 potential
mountain goats) managed to go up the cliff and damage per power level and the same result of
down the valley. Sure enough, the Catoblepas met potential stress. If this potential damage would kill
gaze with a goat. Not understanding it wasn't a the target and the potential stress would also drive
chamois, it tried to escape with the rest of its herd them insane, they are turned to stone after swapping
out of the valley. It barely made it up the slope, minds. Partial damage can be ignored as described
only to fall when it tried to use its now non-existent in “Immunity to Normal Weapons”.
climbing skills to make it down the cliff. Slightly
injured, it wandered the woods, nibbling on plants
until it stumbled upon a bear. In the surprise, they
locked vision. After some slight confusion, the bear
became agitated at the trees and wandered down to
attack some livestock. It stalked a cow and rushed
out of the woods to attack, catching the cow's gaze.
As a spooked cow, it sauntered back towards the
other animals, where it met gaze with a ewe, who
in turn met gaze with a ram, and then another ewe,
as the animals panicked and the dog began barking
and moving in to attack the Catoblepas. The Cato-
blepas, thinking it was a ewe, ran towards the dog
for protection, meeting its gaze. Not understanding
what was happening, the dog-minded Catoblepas
ran back to hide under the porch, but it of course
would no longer fit. When Polde can running out of
the barn yelling, the Catoblepas thought it was in
trouble and skulked over, meeting Polde's gaze. Pol-
de was stunned at the shift, but, to his credit, quickly
realized the gist of what was happening. When Ivana
came running out of the house, he closed his eyes

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©2014 ZZARCHOV KOWOLSKI
PRINTED IN CANADA
ISBN 978-0-9920472-8-3