#22 The Mystara Magazine ADVENTURES & campaigns The twenty-second issue of the Mystara Magazine brings you straight into adventure, from Karameikos to Corunglain, from the Great Waste to Returned Blackmoor! pandius.com thepiazza.org.uk Previous Issues Previous Issues Previous issues of THRESHOLD - the Mystara Also available at the same location are higher Magazine, are available for download from the resolution versions of the maps that were Vaults of Pandius website. included in the issue’s PDF, allowing greater detail to be viewed. #1 - “Karameikos” #2 - “Vaults of Pandius” #3 - “The Sea of Dread” #4 - “Return to Dread” #5 - “Exploring Davania” #6 - “The Northlands” #7 - “Exploring Norwold” #8 - “Warlordsof Norwold” #9 - “Hollow World” #10 - “Elven Realms” #11 - “Thyatis & Alphatia” #12 - “Ages Past” #13 - “A Crucible of Creatures” #14 - “the Shadowdeep” #15 - “Mystaraspace” #16 - “Dwarves, Gnomes & Hin” #17 - “Western Brun” #18 - “Savage Coast” #19 - “Planes and Immortals” #20 - “Skothar” #21 - “Specularum” THRESHOLD: The Mystara Magazine Issue #22 Issue Contents Issue #22 Editorial..............................................................................................3 This Issue s Contributors...................................................................4 Call for Contributors..........................................................................6 A Mystara Glossary.............................................................................7 Icons for Mystara................................................................................8 “So, You All Meet in a Tavern….”.....................................................19 Campaigning in Karameikos............................................................23 Thoughts About Civil War................................................................77 Threshold Black Market...................................................................85 Adapting Classic AD&D Modules to a Mystara Campaign...............91 Escape from Hule...........................................................................105 The Egg Be Dammed!.....................................................................135 Deep Cover.....................................................................................154 Artwork Sources and Credits.........................................................176 Next Issue.......................................................................................182 Threshold: The Mystara Magazine is a non-commercial, fan-produced magazine. There is no intention to infringe on anyone's rights, and in particular not on those of Wizards of the Coast, which holds all rights to the original material on which the magazine is based. THRESHOLD: The Mystara Magazine Issue #22 Editorial Editorial Credits Threshold Editorial Team: Editor-in-Chief, Issue 22: Francesco Defferrari (Sturm) Allan Palmer (AllanP) Giampaolo Agosta (Agathokles) Giampaolo Agosta (Agathokles) John Calvin (Chimpman) Layout: Francesco Defferrari (Sturm) Allan Palmer (AllanP) Art: Editors Emeriti Giampaolo Agosta Andrew Theisen (Cthulhudrew) Justin Pfeil Ashtagon Hausman Santos Angel Tarragon (The Angelic Dragon) Mario Ciuffini Geoff Gander (Seer of Y'hog) Toni Roads Håvard Robin Jesper Andersen (Spellweaver) V Shane Joseph Setorius (Julius Cleaver) William McAusland Leland (Argentmantle) LoZompatore Cartography: Micky Allan Palmer (AllanP) Robert Nuttman (RobJN) Brian Rubinfeld Simone Neri (Zendrolion) David Keyser Thorfinn Tait (Thorf) Demos Sachlas Troy Terrell (CmdrCorsiken) Irving Galvez Omnibius Thorfinn Tait Sean Robert Meaney THRESHOLD logo designed by Thorf Additional Reviewers & Proofreaders: Allan Palmer (AllanP), Giampaolo Agosta Harri Maki (hihama); Rob Koper Robin, Shawn Stanley Thanks To: The Mystara Community, for your support, hard work, and dedication to Mystara. The aims of Threshold magazine: ▪ to provide a venue for community members to present material ▪ to promote the Vaults of Pandius and the material there ▪ to increase the exposure of existing and new articles ▪ to encourage authors to revisit and revitalise existing articles ▪ to motivate interest in Mystara in general 2 THRESHOLD: The Mystara Magazine Issue #22 Editorial Onward to Adventure! This issue is fully dedicated to the life blood Dave Keyser creates in his article, Escape of role playing, adventures and campaigns! from Hule, a detailed sequel to X5 and ideal We start with an article by Giampaolo Agosta third act of the Master of the Desert Nomads (Agathokles) which will guide Mystara and series, presenting several possible routes for 13th Age fans in adapting the 13th Age Icon the PCs who have to return back home to the Relationships to a Mystara campaigns. Then Known World. In this issue Dave leads us we move to the first and foremost place for through the Escape by Air and by Land, while adventures in Mystara, the nation of the next issue of Threshold will contain the Karameikos, with an article by Robert Escape by Sea. Nuttman (RobJN) on how to use rumors in your campaign. Then there is my own article, In the Egg be Damned adventure, Brian Campaigning in Karameikos, a guide to Rubinfeld brings us back to Returned connect and use all the published canon Blackmoor, previously detailed in issue #20 adventures and several fan ones in several of Threshold magazine, to explore an Campaign Paths or in one unique massive abandoned dam full of dangers and mutated Path against the machinations of Orcus! horrors. Hausman Santos and Giampaolo then give us some Thoughts About the Karameikos Civil Finally in his Deep Cover adventure, set in War, a possible development for the planned Corunglain, Darokin, Geoff Gander presents Mystara Fan Almanac for the year 1,020 AC. a cloak and dagger scenario with zhochal Irving Galvez instead leads us to discover the PCs, the Lovecraftian alien race he developed most secret place in Threshold, the Thieves and detailed in Threshold issue #20. Guild Black Market. The Threshold Editorial Team and the After that we leave our beloved Karameikos authors hope you will enjoy this new issue as to other adventures. Demos Sachlas guides much as we enjoyed putting it together, and us in adapting several very famous AD&D stay tuned for the next issue, again dedicated modules to Mystara: Against the Giants in the to Adventures and Campaigns and featuring Northern Reaches, against the Slave Lords of a voyage to the Land of the Red Sun! the Gulf of Hule, then inside the Forbidden City of the Yuan-Ti in the Serpent Peninsula or the Hidden Shrine of Risilvar in the lands of the Wallara. Francesco Defferrari (Sturm) Editor-in-Chief, Threshold Issue #22 3 THRESHOLD: The Mystara Magazine Issue #22 This Issue s Contributors This Issue’s Contributors David Keyser has run four long-term Hausman Santos is an art educator and campaigns set in Mystara since the 1980s, drawing professor. An enthusiast in Mystara using published adventure and support since 1995 when he met in Brazil the AD&D materials as much as possible. He denies boxed set of Karameikos. having any creative talent himself. It's just that He has narrated campaigns for game groups if you put him with a group of friends who in Thyatis, Alphatia, Rockhome and Glantri are willing to work with him to provide an and keeps some of these groups since 2002. evening of entertainment, there's a He manages a page for Mystara Brazilian fans momentary spark like the scratch of flint on on the internet. Currently he has gathered steel...and then something magical happens. much of the material that he developed into game sessions with his group from projects Demos Sachlas is back to running like the Mystaran Almanac and discussed campaigns in Mystara for the next generation. with the members of the Old Almanac Team His group is presently toiling across Merle about the old and unfinished plotlines Rasmussen's Wild Lands and their foray into (around AC 1016-1017) in order to resume David Cook's Forbidden City won't soon be them. forgotten. He's eager to try out some of his ideas involving the Slave Lords in the Gulf of Irving Galvez (a.k.a. Oleck) Mexican Hule on the survivors. player since the early 80s, amateur Mystara writer since 1996. The time passes and when Giampaolo Agosta (a.k.a. Agathokles) the days of fantasy flew away with the age agrees with Schiller that “man is only and you reach the stage of responsibilities, completely a man when he plays". Therefore, work, family and everyday problems, you he makes a point of taking gaming seriously, look back and take those dusty books of and real life casually. Besides Mystara, his D&D, and escape a moment to your gaming interests include (among others) childhood. Keep on playing!!! Dark Sun, Planescape, Ravenloft, Birthright, Call of Cthulhu, Star Wars and Witchcraft RPG. Justin Pfeil draws comics, is a historical fencer in the Italian tradition, makes armor Geoff Gander has been heavily involved in for his friends, and has played D&D since the Mystaran community for longer than he the Red Box was first published. His current cares to remember. He has since been project is a webcomic about characters published by Solstice Publishing, Metahuman attempting to survive The Keep on the Press, AE SciFi, and Expeditious Retreat Press. Borderlands module from the players He primarily writes horror and dark fantasy, perspective. but is willing to give anything a whirl. When he isn't writing or toiling on a cube farm, Brian Rubinfeld: despite never being as Geoff spends his time reading, entertaining