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Lankhmar Unleashed.Indd UUnleashednleashed Credits Contents Authors: Themes of Lankhmar 2 Simon Beal and Aaron Dembski-Bowden Nehwon Characters 7 Editor: Lankhmar: City of Thieves 24 Richard Ford The Land of Lankhmar 61 Cover: Drazenka Kimpel The East 76 Layout & Graphic Design: The Northlands & Beyond 90 Will Chapman Guilds and Cults 112 Interior Illustrations: Sample fileCreatures of Nehwon 124 Alistair Borthwick, Marco Caradona, Alex Drummond, Loren Fetterman, Nathan Of Sheel & Ning 133 Furman, Alejandro Gutierrez, Richard Longmore, Robbie Ruffs, Per Sjogren, Magic 139 Chronicles of Lankhmar 155 Borders and Box Art: Scott Clark Swords Against Blood 175 Proofreader: Appendix – NPC Statistics 186 Charlotte Law Index 198 Copyright Information Lankhmar Unleashed ©2009 Mongoose Publishing. All rights reserved. Reproduction of of this work by any means without the written permission of the publisher is expressly forbidden. All signifi cant characters, names, places, items, art and text herein are copyrighted by Mongoose Publishing. Produced under license from The Estate of Fritz Leiber. This game product contains no Open Game Content. No portion of this work may be reproduced in any form without written permission. To learn more about the Open Game License, please go to www.mongoosepublishing.com. This material is protected under the copyright laws of the United Kingdom. This product is a work of fi ction. Any similarity to actual people, organisations, places or events is purely coincidental. RuneQuest is a trademark (TM) of Issaries, Inc. Produced under license from Issaries. All rights reserved. Printed in the USA. Themes of Lankhmar his book contains all the background information responsibility of the working world and obeying its laws, T needed to start a RuneQuest campaign in the classic exchanging these elements of life for the chance to make a living sword and sorcery world of Nehwon, home of the infamous off your own back, playing by your own rules. In Nehwon, city of Lankhmar. Games Masters will need the RuneQuest Core walking this path stains a soul with shades of grey, at times Rulebook to make full use of the material presented here and making the black and white of good and evil a touch unclear. although not required, the RuneQuest Companion and Arms & Equipment might also prove useful. Sword & Sorcery In Lankhmar on one murky night, if we can believe the runic books Lankhmar’s characters, both in literature and the personalities that of Sheelba of the Eyeless Face, there met for the fi rst time those two players will create in their own games, are not cut from the same dubious heroes and whimsical scoundrels, Fafhrd and the Grey cloth as many fantasy protagonists. The Sword & Sorcery genre has Mouser. Fafhrd’s origins were easy to perceive in his near seven-foot signifi cant differences to the Fantasy over-genre – differences which height and limber-looking ranginess, his hammered ornaments and were born in the writings of authors like Fritz Leiber. The themes huge longsword: he was clearly a barbarian from the Cold Waste, and the atmosphere of Sword & Sorcery will affect all characters in north even of the Eight Cities and the Trollstep Mountains. The a Lankhmar campaign, as well as have a notable infl uence on the Mouser’s antecedents were more cryptic and hardly to be deduced kinds of stories told and the adventures that characters have. from his childlike stature, grey garb, mouse-skin hood shadowing fl at swart face and deceptively dainty rapier; but somewhere about him By Wit and the Blade was the suggestion of cities and the south, the dark streets and also Characters in Lankhmar are self-suffi cient above all – at least, the sun-drenched spaces. As the twain eyed each other challengingly the ones wishing to one day become legends are. Self-suffi ciency through the murky fog lit indirectly by distant torches, they were is a strong theme in the Sword & Sorcery genre. In the world of already dimly aware that they were two long-sundered, matching Nehwon, characters rely on their minds, their courage and their fragments of a greater hero and that each had found a comrade who skills. No almighty deities exist in the heavens, ready to dispense Themes of Lankhmar of Themes would outlast a thousands quests and a lifetime – or a hundred incredible magic to aid their heroic followers. No white-robed lifetimes – of adventuring. Sample magicianfile will appear to save the characters at the last minute. – Induction, Swords Against Deviltry No supernatural healing awaits the adventurers if they can just reach the next town. They are on their own, living or dying by Fritz Leiber was among a small number of fantasy writers that their own actions and abilities. truly coined the notion of adventuring in the way we, as players of roleplaying games, understand it today. Adventuring in its The characters in a campaign, whether blue-blooded nobles or purest form is living by the wit and the blade, opting out of lowborn barbarians, have turned their backs on the traditional normal society and getting by as part-vagabond, part-scoundrel ways of life in their respective societies. Instead, they have chosen and part-mercenary. For those with a band of moral fi bre the unpredictable path of the adventurer. Their goals are rarely within them, they can add ‘part-hero’ to that list. Adventurers heroism in the name of saving the world but simple survival in a rarely have an overall life goal beyond surviving another day world with many dangers and unknowable mysteries. and making enough money to eat, though they generally have lofty ambitions that involve vast riches, fame and no shortage of Beyond survival, Sword & Sorcery characters are also looking glory. Put bluntly, adventuring is a career dedicated to enjoying out for themselves and seeking personal gain through their life and making the most out of a man’s span of years in the adventures. This is what drives so many of them to become world – answering to none, relying on instincts and true friends thieves and robbers of the bodies of the men they slay. There and always keeping an eye out for the next great opportunity to would be little point in risking one’s life in a life of adventure see something new or make some easy money. if the rewards to be had were not that much greater than those attainable in a more mundane existence. When a barbarian The characters of The Lord of the Rings had a specifi c, world- turns into a wandering sell-sword or a townsman becomes a altering quest to complete. Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser were swordsman and a thief, both have done so because they seek the never bound by such responsibility and that is at the heart of (often fi nancial) rewards of adventure as well as the thrills. being an adventurer in the world of Nehwon. You trade the 2 Few Sword & Sorcery characters are reluctant adventurers specifi cally in a city as decadent as Lankhmar, could these men labouring under a destiny which was forced upon them. and women be considered heroes. Yet heroes they are. They are escaped slaves who wish to see the world and never be confi ned by the chains of responsibility again. They are Living By Your Own Code wanderers who burn with the desire to see as much of the world A central theme of Sword & Sorcery is that the heroes kill their as possible before they die. They are fi ghters who feel fl ushes of enemies and feel no great guilt at doing so. Some antagonists pride at testing their steel against the blades of others. They are might escape, others might prove too much for the protagonists the thieves who relish a heist well done and enjoy every penny of and force the characters to fl ee but heroes in the genre – heroes the profi ts. They are the nobles who turn to the street life to fl ee in Lankhmar – will usually kill their enemies given the chance. from the boundaries of their social position. Among almost all Lankhmar characters will be a lust for life that drives them into Much of this attitude comes down to a character’s own code of new lands and new experiences, even as their grumbling bellies conduct and honour rather than any ingrained bloodlust but and empty coin-purses demand that they take the very next job rage-driven murders certainly have their place in the setting offered to them. as well. A character may avenge a loved one’s death or lose control in bouts of strong emotion – but these are exceptions This is not to say such characters are without heroism. Quite the to the tradition. The fact of the matter is that codes of conduct opposite – their wanderings and treasure hunts bring them face to and honour come down to perceptions of good, evil and face with sinister and malicious entities, and slaying these beings cold necessity. When confronted by their enemies, human or does serve the nebulous ‘cause’ of good. Characters are rarely otherwise, Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser think nothing of killing altruistic heroes, out to save others because of a pure-beating these foes. Lankhmar characters have grown up in a world of heart, but heroism peeks out through the shades of grey. decadence, mystery and immorality – killing in a fair fi ght might be a crime against the law but it is not a crime against a man’s Themes of Lankhmar of Themes Heroism in Shades of Grey honour. If you draw blade against another man, you are making The characters of Lankhmar are heroes with rather loose ethics it clear that you are ready to end his life or lose yours trying.
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