Conan: Aquilonia: Flower of the West

[Raven Blackwell]

I too plan on getting it, but considering that in the first adventure ended with my party having to flee Aquilonia for their lives just ahead of the army, I don't think they'll be returning soon. So thus the book isn't a high priority at this time. 8)

Raven, who won't be getting Beyond the Black River soon either as the only Pict in the group died....

 

[Old Bear]

I too plan on getting it, but considering that in the first adventure ended with my party having to flee Aquilonia for their lives just ahead of the army, I don't think they'll be returning soon. So thus the book isn't a high priority at this time. 8)

Raven, who won't be getting Beyond the Black River soon either as the only Pict in the group died....

Hey, if they fled Aquilonia the Pictish Wilderness is a great place to hide and get scalped...

 

[Raven Blackwell]

Well, they actually did consider it, since they were working with the Picts at the time [long story], but as the leader of the Pict raiding party put it- 'you wouldn't survive'. So being nearer to Argos they fled over a little known pass, stumbled into a demonic cult's lair, teamed up with a Zamorian thief and arrived in Messantia just in time to join a pirate crew and get shipwrecked on a isle on top of a Deep One colony [see the 'Conan and Cthluhu' if you want that story] and are now trapped in an air pocket in a sunken wreck fending off a were shark and Lovecraftian horrors.

Raven, who wonders why her players keep coming back to the table.....they must know it's going to hurt when they do that by now. 8)

 

[sanseveria]

Sounds like a blast !!

SS

 

[Old Bear]

Well, they actually did consider it, since they were working with the Picts at the time [long story], but as the leader of the Pict raiding party put it- 'you wouldn't survive'. So being nearer to Argos they fled over a little known pass, stumbled into a demonic cult's lair, teamed up with a Zamorian thief and arrived in Messantia just in time to join a pirate crew and get shipwrecked on a isle on top of a Deep One colony [see the 'Conan and Cthluhu' if you want that story] and are now trapped in an air pocket in a sunken wreck fending off a were shark and Lovecraftian horrors.

Raven, who wonders why her players keep coming back to the table.....they must know it's going to hurt when they do that by now. 8)

Now that's Hyboria!

 

[Raven Blackwell]

Sounds like a blast !!

SS

Thanks- I try. My players seem to like it too- one of them is hosting an all night gaming session this weekend. With my alumni coming back from college, I want to see where this all goes.

That and my fiction writing starting to come together too. Who knows- maybe I'll appear in Sign and Portents sometime. 8)

Raven, creator.

 

[sanseveria]

I think your story telling skills are very good, I hope you do submit to S&P.

If I may ask, how many players in your group and how often and for how long do you guys game?

SS

 

[Raven Blackwell]

Three to six players on average, once or twice weekly. As I stated, we have an overnight campaign planend tomorrow.

I should have good storytelling skills- I have been GMing for 17 years- before the original D&D Basic Set ever came out. 8)

Raven, veteran

 

[VincentDarlage]

I should have good storytelling skills- I have been GMing for 17 years- before the original D&D Basic Set ever came out. 8)

Raven, veteran

AD&D came out 27 years ago (1978), so the basic set must have come out before then... I have been a GM for 24 years (since 1981), which was long after the basic set came out.

Advanced D&D 2nd Edition came out 16 years ago (1989), so you must have started right before that came out.

 

[GregLynch]

I should have good storytelling skills- I have been GMing for 17 years- before the original D&D Basic Set ever came out. 8)

Raven, veteran

AD&D came out 27 years ago, so the basic set must have come out before then... I have been a GM for 24 years (since 1981), which was long after the basic set came out.

If we're talking about the red box with the Otus picture on the front of people fighting a dragon, I think that was '78 or '79. Somewhere in my parents' house lurks something even older - the little white box with the three brown cover books (with the crooked typesetting and atrocious art) that I believe came out in '75 or '76. Could be all wrong here - just going off of hazy memories.

And the thought that I've been gaming for close to three decades kinda frightens me. At least now I'm making money at it.

 

[Arkobla Conn]

I should have good storytelling skills- I have been GMing for 17 years- before the original D&D Basic Set ever came out. 8)

Raven, veteran

AD&D came out 27 years ago, so the basic set must have come out before then... I have been a GM for 24 years (since 1981), which was long after the basic set came out.

If we're talking about the red box with the Otus picture on the front of people fighting a dragon, I think that was '78 or '79. Somewhere in my parents' house lurks something even older - the little white box with the three brown cover books (with the crooked typesetting and atrocious art) that I believe came out in '75 or '76. Could be all wrong here - just going off of hazy memories.

And the thought that I've been gaming for close to three decades kinda frightens me. At least now I'm making money at it.

I had those books...and congrats on making money on your hobby...what a concept

 

[Raven Blackwell]

Did it? Ah well, it certainly wasn't being sold where I lived, becase I didn't see it on the shelf until the early eighties. [Remember, some of us live pretty far out in the boonies] All I had to first work with a coverless single book that was still calling a Type V demon a Balrog, Tolkien estate be damned.

Raven

 

[Camelon75]

This has probably been covered eleswhere but i cannot find it.

If ordained priests of Mitra cannot use nor associate with anyone who uses sorcery as page 61.

how come Dexitheus the Archpreist of Mitra knows 2 sorcery styles and few spells page 89

 

[J-Star]

I too have been confounded at times by whether or not priests of Mitra can use any forms of magic. In Black Colossus Howard clearly at least implies that they have some kind of oracular or divination ability...

Putting this ambiguity aside however, Aquilonia - Flower of the West is a superb book! I've only skimmed certain sections - I just bought it yesterday - and already I love it. Thank you Vincent Darlage!

I am so looking forward to more regional sourcebooks, particularly on the lands of the northern barbarians - Cimmiera and Nordheim - and the eastern Hyborian Kingdoms - Nemedia, Corinthia, Brythunia, Ophir, etc.

 

[VincentDarlage]

This has probably been covered eleswhere but i cannot find it.

If ordained priests of Mitra cannot use nor associate with anyone who uses sorcery as page 61.

how come Dexitheus the Archpreist of Mitra knows 2 sorcery styles and few spells page 89

That was changed for the Atlantean Edition. If you look at the original printing, page 290, under Requirements of Ordained Priesthood, Mitran priests could not be sorcerers. However, that was changed in the Atlantean Edition (page 289). For some reason, the text in Aquilonia - Flower of the West on page 61 uses the original printing text. I don't remember, but it may have been because the Atlantean text was not yet available to me (I finished writing Aquilonia in early August 2004, and I didn't get the Atlantean Edition until GenCon - and I don't remember when that was), or I just flubbed it. I argued heavily for the change from the original to the Atlantean, but I just don't remember why I used the wrong text.

Anyway, the revised Atlantean Edition text is correct, and that one line on page 61 is incorrect.

Largely, the comments in Black Colossus, as well as the use of Dexitheus in L. Sprague de Camp's stories, were the source of my argument with the original wording.

 

[VincentDarlage]

Putting this ambiguity aside however, Aquilonia - Flower of the West is a superb book! I've only skimmed certain sections - I just bought it yesterday - and already I love it.

Thank you!

 

[J-Star]

I noticed the change in the Atlantean Edition as well, which is why I was confused by that bit in Aquilonia. Thanks for clearing it up Vincent. BTW, what DeCamp stories does this Dexitheus character appear in?

 

[VincentDarlage]

He appears in the Black Stranger rewrite, "The Treasure of Tranicos," as well as the novel, "Conan the Liberator" and "Conan of the Isles."

He also appeared in the Conan the King comic series until he was killed by Crassus.

 

[J-Star]

Funny you mention Conan the Liberator... I have that one on my shelf but never got around to reading it. I guess it was b/c they republished Howard's original stories in trade paperback and once I'd gotten a taste of the master himself, little else seemed worth reading.

Thanks again for clearing up the issue regarding priests of Mitra and the use of sorcery. I think we can say it's established that some of them do use divination spells. What about counterspells? Those also seem fitting IMO, though none of the other sorcery styles seem appropriate. After all, Mitra is supposed to be the closest thing to a good god in the Hyborian Age.

 

[VincentDarlage]

As it says on page 63 of Aquilonia, "Priests of Mitra are cast of the order if they found to be practising black magic, as Orastes says he was in The Hour of the Dragon.... For purposes of Conan the Roleplaying Game, the following sorcery styles are considered black magic to the priests of Mitra: Curses; Hypnotism; Nature Magic; Necromancy; Oriental Magic; and Summonings. From The Scrolls of Skelos, the styles of Cosmic Sorcery and Immortality are also considered black magic."