Ernest Gary Gygax Jr.'s Marmoreal Tomb Campaign Starter

Twin Tankard, ALL Maps Completed
almost 7 years ago – Tue, Jun 11, 2019 at 07:46:56 PM

Hello backers! Benoist Poire, Ernie Gygax's partner on this project, here to give you another update on the status of the Marmoreal Tomb for GP Adventures.

The work on the Twin Tankard is now done, and with it, the maps of the Marmoreal Tomb are all completed. I will go over how we got to this point in the project, the whole process that led to the final maps of the Twin Tankard, and from there, what remains to be done of the design phase with Ernest, and where we are going from there.

This whole journey on the maps of the Marmoreal Tomb started last year when Ernest was hospitalized and had to change his life and habits in order to recuperate and be back at the top of his game to continue with me on this project. Back then, it was my understanding this change would take some time, regardless of outcomes, and that Ernest would benefit from having less pressure on his back in order to effect all the changes that needed to happen. Not knowing what was in store, and eager to keep the progress on the project going as far as I could take it, I shifted our work plan so I could work on everything that could be worked on without Ernest's direct input, based on what we had already conceptualized and agreed on together.

From what should have been a progressive one map, one key, one final text, rince, repeat, move on process until completion, I ended up frontloading all the maps together and completing them one after the other throughtout the past few months. You've all seen the updates, and this is why there may have been this perception that I was somehow left to my own devices carrying the load of the project on my own, which is not accurate in the sense that I kept contact with Ernest throughout and changed the schedule by choice in order to allow him to take the all the time he needed to settle into his new lifestyle.

With the maps now all completed on the project, but for a few details here and there like key numbers on the Hiveworld of Ur-Shamath and the Twin Tankard, this whole chapter of the making of the Marmoreal Tomb is now closed. I talked with Ernest and we are both ready to move on with the last pass on the keys of the extra content and completing the writing. This work has already begun, as a matter of fact, but before we moved on completely I had to put this update forward for you all to know where things stand and where we are going from there.

THE TWIN TANKARD

The Twin Tankard inn is a completely detailed location that is meant to be part of the Wilderness expansion to the Marmoreal Tomb. It is destined to be a possible fall back position or home base for the player characters, and thus warranted a lot of time to make sure that the maps would work at the game table and would do justice to the game as a recuring location.

The Twin Tankard can be placed anywhere on the maps of the Lower Midlands that comes with the Wilderness expansion. Whether the referee wants to locate it close to the village of Crom Caemloch, or somewhere in the Lower Midlands, it is built in such a way as to allow for customization not only in its placement, but also what any further exploration it leads to.

The base concept is that a group of adventurers led by Bertold, a Cleric of Pawlinia, the Bountiful Mother of All Ales, decided to build this large inn out of the ruins of an ancient temple, and then rededicate the whole to Bertold's Patron. The stone apses and wings of the ancient temple were incorporated with and used as the support for the wooden, medieval-looking extension that is the inn's main structure. Two new towers designed by Cadfan the Dwarf, the retired fighter of the group, would complete the inn and frame the whole. (There is a whole cast of NPCs taking care of the inn besides, including Zeelah, Bertold's mother, his niece Angharad, Delbaeth the Elf magic user, Sernet, a previous hireling of the group, Neb, his halfling partner in crime, Mungo the gentle brute, and more).

The intent was to create an edifice which by its very form and construction, as visible as a map on the game table, is not only pleasing for the eye and great to play with, but also has a history and character of its own, hinting at some depth to the campaign beyond what is seen at the moment the inn comes into play. I will let your own eyes be judge of that, but to me, the results speak for themselves. I think this will be a frank success at the game table.

Now, the inn also has a number of going ons and plugs for additional adventures built into the concept. The main room of the inn for instance features a wooden statue of Pawlinia which can be lifted up from a stage and reveals a large hole that can be used to access the tunnels that were once part of the underground temple complex below. Visitors to the inn could pay a fee and explore the tunnels for entertainment. One of the seeds for scenarios is that the tunnels weren't exactly empty of all potential threats and this ends up backfiring on Bertold and his friends, which then opens up an opportunity for player characters to help get rid of the problem.

There are other such seeds included along with the inn. The idea is always to present a complete set piece that adds to the whole as described, while also allowing for further world building, events, adventures and site creation if desired by the referee.

From the original drafts of the inn, predating the Kickstarter proper, I went through three more sets of drafts first to really try to nail how big the inn needed to be, and how its different levels would work together to provide a believable environment to the game. This had to be a lived-in place, with a garden for vegetables, an out-house and pen for chickens and other small animals, a well, latrines, wood shed, and so on. The proximity of the kitchen to the main room, where the fireplaces are and how they work with the different layouts, all of this had to be thought through in order to make the whole work as a unit.

I looked at the structures of temples, churches and cathedrals, and built myself a 3D mockup (from the original structure of Cathedral of Chartres) to try to nail the look of the place in my mind's eye. (I will see with Mark Allen about having an actual art piece that depicts the Twin Tankard's perspective in a similar fashion, so we can see the Twin Tankard in-world like this in addition to the maps – I think this will enhance the whole).

I then tested my ideas in the real world, meaning at the game table, reproducing my drafts at miniatures' size to get a feel of where this was going, how big the place felt, how it would work at that level as well.

This whole process took some time but it was ultimately worth it. I finally came up with the final draft of the ground level as seen here:

From there, I built the upper level, attic and cellar of the inn.

Drawing the final versions then was following up on those final drafts, only with little to no margin of error, which ended up to be an infinitely slower process I documented with pictures shared on my Facebook account here, as well as films I am now sharing with you here:

First, the ground level work, which was by far the most time consuming:

Then the upper level, still with commentary and little snippets as I go on shading and hatching at the map:

From there, Attic and Cellar were added without further issues.

You can see the maps fully colored and printed in that last video. The coloring process was itself a challenge, due to the number of details, separate walls, furniture, and all individual components that needed to be individualized appropriately. The results are superimposed and animated as you see them here:

All in all, this was an epic undertaking, perhaps the most complicated set of maps of the whole project, along with the Mellifluous Shrine and Hiveworld of Ur-Shamath (work which was further complicated at the time by my falling sick for three months, if you remember as well as I do). I truly believe the attention to detail is going to pay off in the module and at the game table. Given the nature of the map, and how likely it is to show up at the table time and time again, we had to make this set of maps all that it could be and more. I think we made it there.

With the Twin Tankard completed, the work on the entire set of maps unlocked by this Kickstarter is over. This is a big deal to me, because this also means we are closing the page on this whole tangent started last year and come back full circle with Ernest on the rest of the work, complete it, and then move on with layout, printing, sharing with our partners for conversions, the whole rest of it. I talked with Eric Chaussin yesterday and he is like Ernest and I, eager to get this all done. I think I can talk for us all here and say we couldn't be prouder of where we are going with this. We couldn't have foreseen the obstacles and delays, and oh boy, would we want to have it done yesterday at this point, but we are getting there. One step at a time, closer and closer, this will be done and in your hands, we hope before the end of this year.

Still impossible for me to be more precise than that. I need to be out of the design phase, the extra work on the keys and text with Ernie, to be able to refocus my energies and be much more accurate on fulfillment. I apologize for that, but there is no other way for us to do justice to the work and offer accurate answers in the matter. I do not like making guesses, and if there's one thing this past year taught me, it's to be extra careful when thinking about time tables. My attitude towards this now is that it will be done when it is done, and the sooner the better, all the while making sure the whole is built with the attention and care it deserves. No cutting corners, no slacking off, just doing the work one step at a time.

Now, before I close this update, I have a last little surprise for you all. Back when I was being challenged by the work on the maps, I swore to myself and others that when this whole phase was done, I would build a kind of parody video of all the work that went into all the maps of the project with a Conan the Barbarian soundtrack, to denote the forging of the module and its components in a tongue-in-cheek kind of way. I posted this video online now, and I share it with you all here. Please enjoy.

Next. We get back to work with Ernie on the extra keys for a last pass, put the rest together and finalize the extra text. This work has already begun, truth be told, as I've been reassessing the contents and their articulation in a final format. More on that later. Also expect some previews on the text and content, samples and more in further updates as we go on the completion of the whole.

In the meantime, thank you all for your continued support and encouragements. They both really help, and motivate us along the way. Cheers to you all, and good gaming!

Benoist Poire Founder with Ernest G. Gygax Jr. GP Adventures LLC.

Encounters, figures and factions
over 7 years ago – Mon, Jul 23, 2018 at 09:26:29 AM

Hello backers, 

As we were working on more art for the module and those specific encounters that called for it, we did a lot of work on the elements of the world in motion affecting the final form of the module. This process of interconnectivity between the specific (like the hex or environs maps of the module) and the general (the Lower Midlands and Viscountcy around described in the Wilderness expansion) goes both ways, and thus needed to be nailed in final form in tandem. 

In order for the campaign's development to feel organic and alive, there are different elements that must be described and understood by the referee: what forces exist around the Tomb, sponsored by whom, what their objectives are, what opportunities of adventure and interaction with the PCs and each other they represent, etc. General inhabitants are put in play in wandering monsters and encounters tables, which then can be rolled or picked and chosen from whenever warranted, a big part of the process being the ability of the referee to “own” the material and “role play the world” instinctively from a set of probabilities and data, with or without the dice to determine the results. 

The rules of the Original and Advanced games describe procedures that are very general and generic by their very natures. It clearly became apparent that tables directly relevant to the Lower Midlands would have to be devised. The Original and Advanced wandering monster procedures in the Wilderness, though similar at first brush, are actually quite distinct from one another, with the added separation between the random wilderness of the Outdoors map versus the procedures relevant to the prepared referee's map, which are also distinct from one another in the Original game itself. 

It seemed to us all be a case of opportunity in disguise: we could devise our own specific random encounters tables, articulate them with a system that would (1) reconcile random and prepped wilderness in the Original game, (2) represent a middle ground and synthesis between the Original and Advanced procedures, and finally (3) allow for either the Original, Advanced, or both types of procedures to be used with our own in parallel, or as options and corner cases to one another, in effect linking all of them through the setting of the Duinnsmere. 

This is what we did through our encounter tables and wilderness exploration procedures included in the namesake expansion. We have a degree of granularity close to the Advanced system, a general organization more reminiscent of the Original game that integrate elements like attracting critters out of towns adventure sites traveled by, jousting challenges (we devised a replacement system emulating Chainmail jousting with Advanced rules if the original of 1971 wasn't available or in use at the game table) etc from the random wilderness into the matrix of the Lower Midlands, while updating the types and lists of critters and including new categories like figures and factions to the whole, allowing for interpretative encounters based on specific powerful NPCs or groups that might have agents or envoys travelling around the player characters. 

The figures and factions fulfill the function of “who's who” NPCs who are not in the Tomb itself but are influential or archetypal characters representative of their respective factions who might shake thing up, interact with the PCs and become sponsors, obstacles, competitors, purveyors of side-quests and a million other things in the campaign, while adding to the different layers of description of ethnicities, sites, gods and patrons described in the gazetteer section of the Wilderness expansion. 

We ended up with a list of factions we believe will create different interesting dynamics during the campaign, whether their representatives and servants are met randomly, and/or become significant to the referee's plans for the campaign and development.

Each faction represents a specific Alignment, or Cosmic Team Jersey. That does not mean that each member of a group necessarily shares that alignment to a T, but represents a general outlook and force of destiny (think of these factions as chess pieces in a cosmic chess game between subtle powers beyond the eurth vying for the control of this area) working its way around the PCs with its own specific agenda and objectives within the world. 

From there, we plotted different figures, or exemplar NPCs for each one of the factions, came up with lists of possible encounters that couls occur from there, and this is a visual representation of the sort of direction that takes the whole thing from the abstract to the specific as far as the Lower Midlands are concerned. 

We then plotted this information on the map of the Viscountcy and Lower Midlands, and that told us just how likely it would be to meet and interact with the members of this or that faction, or this or that figure, within certain areas of the map: 

We originally intended to have tables for Animals, Undead, Magical Creatures, etc specific to each color coded sub-area on this map, but as we worked on their detail their redudancy became quickly apparent. The tables themselves involve bell curve probabilities based on d8+d12, and the variations in probabilities from specific area to area would have been aesthetic at best. Each table for types thus remained general for the whole map, except in the case of demi-human types AND the figures and factions themselves. So it is in fact more likely to meet say, halfling in the perimeter of the Viscountcy than it is in the middle of the Grim Wood. It is more likely to meet forces of the Cerulean League within the Viscountcy, and more likely to find servants of Alfrik Agammon, the Wolf's Bane, around Tor Ildanach where he resides. 

FIGURES OF THE LOWER MIDLANDS 

Elfine de la Rochevaude du Clot LN, Blade of Neron, (fighter) Cleric, human, f. [Iron Siege] 
Aylot Jonsell, Cursed Knight in the North LN, Fighter, human, m. [Knights Immaculate]
Alhiandra Pengannon, Viscountess of Poy LG, Magic-user, human, f. [Cerulean League]
Hawksley of Nilbor, Lord of the Jolly Men LG, (thief) Fighter, human, m. [Twin Perytons]
Mundel of Kantz, the Knight Errant NG, (magic-user) Ranger, human, m. [Order Of Gray]
Eriop of the Flame, Prisoner of the Seven Shrines NG, Magic-user, human, m. [Golden Branch]
Kheyron the Centaur, Guardian of the Wreath TN, Druid, centaur, m. [The Wreath]
The Knight of the Wheel TN, Fighter/Magic-User, Immortal, m. [The Wheel]
Preion Obestus of the Obesti TN, (cleric) Magic-user, human, m. [Black Abbey]
Alfrik Agammon, The Wolf's Bane CG, Fighter/Thief/Magic-User, half-elf, m. [Tor Ildanach]
Alceirin Ercamyon, The Emerald Mage CG, Cleric/Magic-user, elf, m. [Emain Athras]
The Amaranth, Mistress of the Cowl CN, (Magic-user) Assassin, human, f. [The Amaranth]
Oisynn, The Mad King CN, Fighter/Illusionist, ancient elf/human, m. [Mag Mell]
Krassus the Cambion CE, Abyssal Stone Giant, m. [Vile Legion]
Eliathar Abrannon, The Golden Cadaver CE, Fighter/Magic-User, m. [Silted Court]
Osmandius, The Mirrored Mage NE, Illusionist, human, m. [Black Fang]
Caelius Gargantes, Beggar King of Aksalskhaton NE, Fighter, human, m. [Vagrant Army]
Gilles de Conomor, the Sea Dog, Bluebeard LE, (fighter) Thief, m. [Pirates of the Maimed]
Iyeselda d'Ayltheia, the Maid of Arymanne LE, Magic-user, human, f. [Shadow Kingdom] 

Some of these figures are the leaders (official, ad hoc and otherwise) of their factions, others regional lieutenants thereof. These are important characters who's envoys or subalterns can come in contact with the party, or develop an interest in the Marmoreal Tomb and/or the area around it over time. We have tried to make each of them a fair representation of their respective alignment, while adding depth and twists where appropriate.

There are two factions and two figures per specific alignment (three for the True Neutral alignment), thus allowing to explore different takes and avoid pigeonholing each alignment with a specific figure. Likewise, there is an exploration of a gamut of classes combinations (with more than a fair use of dual-classing as shown by the classes between parenthesis on the list), which should be representative of characters of heroic and superheroic level, but they are overwhelmingly human, by design, to stress the distance existing between the affairs of humans and the communities of demi-humans usually steering clear of entanglements with them. Elves are ironically particularly prone to this but also figure prominently on our list, for the conflicts of the Grim Wood against the corrupting forces at its core and the madness destroying the underground kingdom of Mag Mell below the Viscountcy's surface are most likely to play a part in the immediate development of the campaign. Likewise, women are few, but they are especially influential when in positions of power in the region. 

In addition to these characters, each specific description involves the development of direct servants or associates, and each description of a faction itself comes with its sample characters, albeit far less detailed, as these are meant to be samples for the referee to pick up and describe on his own, or serve as templates and variations from which to draw inspiration and create one's own. 

The factions relate to one another in various ways. First there are the alignments they represent, and how, for instance, a group of Chaotic Evil NPCs might react to an organization serving Law and Weal (Good). These relations around the wheel of alignments can be instinctively understood and extrapolated upon by the referee. Then there are the political allegiances, and how for instance the powers of the Iron Siege, related to the Archbarony of Hartst, would relate with their rivals from the Vicountcy of Poy, such as the Cerulean League. Then you have particular echoes or relationships to explore, such as the three monarchs of the Lower Midlands (Eliathar, also named the Silted King, Oisynn King of Mag Mell, and Caelius Gargantes the Beggar King) who would almost certainly enter into competition and conflict with one another during the campaign.

And then there is this twentieth group not mentioned here, the Six-fingered Hand, which acts as a sort of supra-organization that is in its formation stages at the start of the campaign and could gradually bring together a who's who of bad guys around the Tomb under the command and aegis of Eliathar Abrannon, the Golden Cadaver and Silted King of the Wild. The Six-fingered Hand could become a serious threat in later stages of the campaign, for a group of adventurers aligned with the forces of Good, or toyed with by individual referees in a variety of ways to create more organic events and drama having nothing to do with the PCs, but which they could come in contact with at different stages of the campaign. 

You get the gist of the dynamism and layering that is being applied, hopefully. I trust the samples to follow will bring the point further home. Combine and layer these elements together with the Gazetteer that is a part of in the Wilderness expansion, along with the ethnicities, patron deities and geographic locations of the map contained therein, and you have a dynamic regional context, along with the operative elements you need to run the world in motion around the Tomb. These elements make sense together in the specific context of the eurth and setting of the Duinnsmere, or can be implemented piecemeal or adapted into your own setting. This gives that additional background and world depth around the adventure site itself which one would expect from the Wilderness Expansion. 

Next up: Meet the Knights Immaculate (Sample figure and faction).

New Art for the module and expansions
almost 8 years ago – Fri, Jun 15, 2018 at 08:27:01 PM

Hello backers, 

Since we last interacted on this page, we've been continually working on the project's matter, particularly elements of the world in motion affecting the final form of the Marmoreal Tomb module. In order for the Hex of the Tomb and the Environs to fit into the greater picture of the Wilderness seamlessly, the modes of determination of random encounters, factions and figures around the Tomb had to be refined further along. More about this with the sample figures and factions that will follow.

As that work progressed, we have been at work in parallel with Mark Allen on the extra art for the module and expansions. Mark Allen who has been at our side and working with us diligently, and I cannot express how important it is to have competent, dedicated artists to share our vision with, who spend the time and really try to learn our ways to apply them in whatever they do, and bring so much to the feel and reality of the project in so doing. Mark Allen took this work to heart, and discussed many details of the setting with us in order to do get it right and realize the vision we share with this unique undertaking. 

First piece I would like to share with you is something we thought was lacking from the core module illustrations: A frontal look at the gates of the Marmoreal Tomb, and a feel of what it looks like all around which, combined with other illustrations we already have ready (the harpies' tower and the giant troll's bridge, namely), will create a sort of panorama of the area around the Marmoreal Mound (the tall, large hill or small mountain sitting on top of the Tomb) from separate angles and points of view. 

I'll just let Goffin Gorgor take it from here: 

“Bertold told me you wanted a word.

That’s right. I’m one of those dwarves who still hang around the Bitter Peaks. Got no clan or family. Just an old fool who made a pittance risking his life is what. One of the few who could guide you through those trails no one knows about, except perhaps those Nu’ana who make it their business to tread those heights.

Been guiding parties through the whole area. Got my foot chopped off for it, as you can see, so that adventuring business, it’s a thing of the past for me, but I did send the poor bastard who cut it off back to those slimy pits he came from, and with interests at that!

See this? Yeah. Those are real Blood Tusks alright.

What? I was guiding a group through Viper Head Pass, that’s how. That group of stardusters — elves, man. Bountiful Mother of All Ales! — they didn’t know when to back down. That “hero disorder” thing, you know? Bloody hells. Got them all killed for it. Right in front of the Gates of Grunn Ghaleb. The Tomb yes.

I remember. The huge gate carved right off the rock. The giant slabs of green marble. The tall statues with the shields and runes of the stone-cutters. Bodies, pieces of armour and equipment everywhere. Even after all this time, the goblins, the Gaelish barbarians, the orcs... none of the scavengers has come close to clean up the place yet. Only the waterfall pouring from the cliffs and the occasional ring of the chimes atop the mound break the silence of this place.

Look. I’ll take your gold and draw you a map, but you have to promise me: don’t go there alone. And don’t go there thinking you’re going to engage in some grand heroics. That’s what got those elves killed in the first place! That stump doesn’t look pretty eh? Remember it! You could be next. So if you get into trouble, by the All-Mother, retreat to fight another day. Don’t be stupid like they were.

Fine. Pass me that piece of parchment. Now here’s how you get there...” 

This is just one sample way in which a party could get in contact with rumours of the existence of the Tomb and means to get there. Multiple other ways or “hooks” are laid out in the module and attached to relevant material, such as the factions of the Wilderness expansion. 

The next piece sees the Utukku, the puffer-fish men, facing an Obrachaean skirmisher and his flunkies as they vie for the control of Plummutuu, the gem frog living within the vicinity of the Amber Pyramidion of Amun Paal in the network of caverns around the Tomb: 

The Utukku are fishmen who can puff up to protect themselves and surprise their targets, as well as project quills to strike their opponents. Their history is related to that of the Sobekki, the Crocodile folk you might have first encountered in Ernest and Luke Gygax's Lost City of Gaxmoor, and the Mobekke, the Whale folk of the Duinnsmere which you will meet within the Tomb as well. The Obrachaean skirmishers are octopoid humanoids who can solidify and liquify cartillage within their bodies at will, thus being able to stand upright or become squishy at a moment's notice, or form weapons, ornaments and headdresses out of the same, as you can see here one of them doing so with a narwhal like spear and blades to its fingers. Plummutuu is an anomaly, a giant frog made of quartz the primitive folks within the tunnels consider as an idol or a totem animal potentially bringing them good luck. It is thus a potential point of contention between the various inhabitants, and could used as leverage for negotiations by a smart party. 

The Environs include areas that present potential adventures or developments during the campaign (the aforementioned Amber Pyramidion, for instance), elements that could be extrapolated upon, where referees could create their own lairs and dungeons around the Tomb, even. Others are mere complications, such as this particular element showing us the bones of a minotaur encased in vines deep inside the network of tunnels around the Tomb: 

Being in contact with the vines, or picking up the items left behind, could induce hallucinations that would complicate encounters later on in various degrees. We are really adding different illustrations to the mix to represent a fair diversity of elements visually, and balance the whole aesthetically. 

The old ruins of a Iyathari temple close to the Tomb is another one of those development seeds. If visited early on in the campaign, there isn't much danger there besides a couple undead here and there, but as more sense is made of the history of the place it could be that this avatar of Iyorthar the Old One, the Spirit of Iyon, could be animated and defend the magic of the place... 

Meanwhile, as the party explores, the energies of Chaos deep under the dwarf settlement and the Tomb have been slowly warping reality, and even some of the stone giants of the Kingdom of Aktum buried there over the ages of the world. Here are the combined concubines, the stone giants that once served Garn Patuul, melded together by such forces, and now haunting the corridors of the burial grounds: 

This also includes illustrations we have to provide for creatures that act as replacements for critters that might not be OGL, but benefit in being retooled and becoming something quite different, still reminiscent of the original inspiration, but hopefully with more detail to them and more ways to make them interesting in the game. This is the case with the Cadaverous Caterpillar, which is our large roaming critter inspired form the Carrion Crawler. 

Here's the entry in the Monsters appendix of the module: 

CADAVEROUS CATERPILLAR

Frequency: Uncommon 
Number Appearing: 2-6
Armor Class: 6
Movement: 6''
Hit Dice: 3+2
% in Lair: 40%
Treasure Type: B
No. of Attacks: 4 tentacles.
Damage: 1-3 and paralysis per tentacle (x4)
Special Attacks: Surprise 1-5, Paralysis, Lay eggs.
Special Defences: Camouflage, soft structure, no harm from blunt weapons.
Magic Resistance: Standard.
Intelligence: Semi.
 Alignment: Chaotic.
Size: M (4 feet large). 

The Cadaverous Caterpillar appears as a white, bulbous, worm-like creature with two sets of tiny black eyes and four translucent, gooey tentacles spreading from the rim of its sharp-toothed mouth. 

The fat, giant larva has a natural ability to blend in its surroundings. It seeks to paralyse its victims in order to use them as hosts for its eggs in a dreadful reproduction cycle. There, it will inject 2-8 eggs inside the stomach of the unfortunate carrier. These eggs will burst out and kill their host in 5-10 days. Only a complex, six hours procedure involving 500 GP worth of medicine per egg and culminating with the casting of Feign Death and Cure Disease can get rid of them. The glands of the Cadaverous Caterpillar secreting its paralyzing slime at the base of each one of its tentacles can each be treated alchemically to replace one dose of medicine during the procedure. The cost of the alchemical process is 200 GP per gland (one per tentacle, four per caterpillar). 

The Cadaverous Caterpillar can consume and combine minerals and metals with its own flesh to regurgitate a jelly like substance that can act as a host replacement, albeit with much greater losses of viable larvae (90% or more) during the gestation phase due to the lack of nutrients a body would otherwise provide.

When camouflaged the caterpillar can surprise on 1-5. Because of its soft body structure, the caterpillar can drop from any height without suffering any concussion damage. Likewise, it is completely impervious to blunt weapons. The caterpillar is an excellent climber, like most of its smaller cousins. 

Once the Cadaverous Caterpillar has laid eggs and fattened itself to commensurate proportions, the creature will make its way to a site where it can produce a large chrysalis and begin its metamorphosis. After 2 to 8 weeks, the caterpillar will emerge as a CHAOS CICADAS (q.v.). 

There are very few thrills rivalling the pleasure felt by a creator seeing his brain children come to life under an artist's competent hand. It is one thing to imagine a creature or situation and draw or photoshop something around it ourselves, and completely another to see someone else grab that thing and make it “real” by virtue of being interpreted by someone else with talent. In a way this is also the blessing of the role-playing medium itself, in the sense that when we see others play and run our module, we are seeing another type of transference of imagination and realization of an idea in someone else's mind and play. 

Mark Allen is working on more pieces for us right now. He's been with us from the start, and has stuck with us as one of our closest collaborators on this project. We feel his art lends this sense of “owned universe”, penciled style that referees can then grab and use as a springboad for their own imaginations, as if the module was a set of notes put together by one referee for another, which is what this whole thing is meant to be, conceptually speaking. Hence the penciled illustrations and maps and all that. 

We will get to the figures and factions next. We hope you enjoyed the new art as much as we do. We'll have more to show as work progresses.

Layers of design and work done on the Tomb
almost 8 years ago – Tue, May 29, 2018 at 11:39:01 AM

As most of you are aware, we have been keeping people updated every few days, on the comments section of the Kickstarter page, as well as our main social media platforms, since we last posted on this update tab here.

It was always my intention to post a full blown update when the writing of the Marmoreal Tomb's main module would be over and done with. We are now very close to it being finally done. A number of backers have however remarked that an update was past its due, especially for those of us not checking out the comments section of the KS or following us anywhere else for that matter.

After first resisting the urge and wanting to stay the course until completion, keep working at the module until done, then post here to explain the process and be much more precise on the question of ETA and fulfillment, I finally came to the conclusion, in agreement with the backers who encouraged me to do so, that something needed to change. So I will start by going over the epic journey that has been this writing phase so far, and will resume regular updates here on the updates tab of the Kickstarter from now on. This will change our priorities regarding the communications on this Kickstarter before we had a chance to finish on the module and expansions, but we now feel this needs to be done to ensure better communication between everyone involved.

First, we have been constantly at work this whole time on all aspects of the module's design. We still have the funds raised by this Kickstarter. We still have some work to do once done with the main module with Ernest (mostly on the Hiveworld and the Shoko-Jumi area, the alternate shade of the eurth that presents the land of Sammi-Zowa to the players), and he is still here with us throughout this journey. We have not gone anywhere, we still have the money to fulfill this Kickstarter, and we very much intend to do so. End of this year is our current estimation.

During the time since our last update, we have been working on some layouts for those maps which needed a background and came up with a logo for the Tomb in the process. It is our intend to identify each moving part of the world of the Duinnsmere and the Hobby Shop Dungeon with a different thematic logo, and thus I mention it here. You can see the result of the work we did on the backgrounds here, and the logo following those samples:

We also did some printing tests for the maps to make sure they would work well when enlarged, and those tests were conclusive: 

 As writing through the keys of the module was proceeding, I noticed some discrepancies and some added elements that needed to be made sense of in the greater picture of the module plus expansions, and the world around it. This started with a complete rewrite of the timeline of events from the fall of the Prism that would become the Beryline Throne on level 3 of the Tomb some 30,000 years prior to the assumed time frame of the campaign, all the way down the ages, back to “present day”. 

This took a while, but it was worth it: It allowed for the full description of the Kingdom of the Beryline Throne and Eskhalon, the domain of Orum Heb who could be considered the (or one of the) “big bad” of the Hearth of Chaos on level 3 of the Marmoreal Tomb, to the Lithic Kingdom of Aktum which is the realm of the Stone Giants that followed it and gave us the Burial Vaults and Crypts of Level 2, to all sorts of events and details that connect directly with different areas of either the hex and environs of the Tomb, or the Tomb itself. 

This work in turn affected the wider history of the world of the Duinnsmere around the Tomb, and that led to more work to keep everything consistent and make sure that the whole throughout our future endeavors will remain consistent as we publish the other parts of the settings. 

The more elements you have in a non-linear system such as a sandbox like the Marmoreal Tomb, the greater the complexity and volume of the work. Essentially, the more elements you have, the more potential connections you have between them, which makes it not a matter of added work on a linear sort of line, but exponential instead (see diagram). This is something we knew going in, and we were very aware that the content unlocked by the Kickstarter would make that work that much more complicated. What we couldn't know was just how much more complicated it would get until we got there. The fact that the maps were frontloaded all together and that the writing would take place all in one go made it that much more complicated, with no breather in between, and quite challenging at times, truth be told. 

Since the Marmoreal Tomb acts as the opening campaign starter to the rest of the world it is the most complicated to set up, since there are no prior elements set in stone, aside from very specific areas like the Haunted Halls of the Beggar King, Sammi-Zowa, and the structure of the Hobby Shop Dungeon proper which already exists. 

I should mention now how work on a product like this has a sort of layering that connects to various parts in and out of the world, each with their own demands and dimension to be met. First you have the connections between each elements of the keys on a map. These elements themselves connect with the elements on the other maps of the module (for instance, Area H-02 on the Tomb's Hex map presents the remnants of a petrified legion fighting a creature of Iyon, one of the moons of the setting, a monstrous lycanthrope, if the lycanthrope is reanimated and defeated, it in turns yields circlets which can be placed back in an old Iyathari temple at area E-08 on the Environs map, or the Gaelish head-hunters praising the headless at area H-19 may be very thankful to recover the real head of the statue that is in area LC-22 of the Crypts beneath the Burial Vaults of the giants, and so on). Then you have the elements around the dungeon, like the factions and figures around the area, that interact with the whole. 

From there, the elements and the whole of the Tomb connect with the world and elements thereof, as for instance examplified by the combination represented by the synergy between the Marmoreal Tomb on one hand, and the Hobby Shop Dungeon proper on the other hand, which have elements and thematics mirroring one another in non-linear ways. 

Then you have the rest of the world and the elements I have already alluded to. But it does not end there, since this addition of detail and depth has to be matched to the greater picture of the world and its multiple dimensions. For instance how all its elements take part in greater picture of Lake Geneva fantasy, as a thing on their own part of a greater tradition. This is reflected with nods, like the way we went about melding a fantasy version of the US coast lines with European history and elements of medievalism that make it its own thing different from anything that came before. 

Or the heraldry of the world, which is another aspect that was already present but got detailed that much more over the past few months of work on the Marmoreal Tomb module. We went through great pains to detail elements such as how the Viscountcy of Poy works, the different political areas around the Lower Midlands, the fiefs and who they belong to, how they interact with one another, and so on, so forth. This was reflected by the coat of arms and how they relate to one another. 

In all, we have more than 100 coat of arms for the Duinnsmere that sprang out of this work on the module, we had to work out the way dwarves and elves and gnomes built their own and why, all of it connecting back to the history of the world and how it was shaped to become what it is today. 

We applied the same attention to consistency to the way the arms of different kingdoms and factions were derived over time and became what they are now: 

The applications here are multiple, since not only does it convey a lot about the history of the world, its realms and people, but it also provide us with that many designs and art pieces to place in the module and expansions where relevant, or as chapter enders, symbols for factions, and more. 

This is the type of work I am talking about when speaking the layering or multiple dimensions of design of the Marmoreal Tomb. The same attention to detail went into refining those elements that needed it most, like the moons of the Eurth, Iyon, Iyarth and Iyuggoth, since all of them interact with the Marmoreal Tomb proper, its depths, as well as its environs. 

Likewise, the entire area of the Lower Midlands where the Tomb resides and which is covered in the Wilderness expansion gained exponentially in detail and depth, from which fief belongs to whom, the precise political regions as mentioned prior, or even the population density in various areas of the map. 

I realize I have not touched on so many other aspects I very much wanted to talk about, such as the factions of the Lower Midlands, how that works with the encounters around the Tomb, the figures or main NPCs and their treatment, the chapter openers, how the moons connect to the dungeon specifically, or the multiple hooks for the Tomb, but I realize this update is already huge such as it is, and will leave it at this for now. I also intend to go into the structure of the module, table of contents etc once we are done with it. 

TL;DR The upshot of this update is this: We have been constantly at work on the module since our last update, and have treated the work with utmost seriousness. We have poured hours upon hours of work on all aspects of the design at a level of detail we think will make the module and expansions stand apart in the future. ETA at this juncture is end of this year, but we will become much more precise past the writing, well before we hit that mark.

Though we have tried to keep everyone updated and aware of the going-ons on this project, we now realize that some backers expected more from us, and especially these updates to be communicated here. So we have taken note of it and will treat this venue as the primary link between us and you backers. We apologize to those, in particular, who feel they have been left in the dark. This was not our intent. 

You should expect more updates from us on a more regular basis from now on.

ETA Marmoreal Tomb Kickstarter
about 8 years ago – Sun, Jan 21, 2018 at 05:12:24 PM

Hello backers, this is Benoist Poire, the co-designer, cartographer and partner of Ernest G. Gygax Jr. on this project. 

I've been receiving an unusual number of questions and I've even seen some misinformed people propagating rumors like we'd somehow quit the Marmoreal Tomb project or something.

This isn't true, obviously.

As of now it looks like we're heading to beginning of next year for the module and expansions. I understand people are nervous, especially since the implosion of the Empyrea kickstarter.

We're still here Ernie and I, still working at the completion on the text on the extra maps and putting the whole together once and for all. We knew when we took this on that it would be a marathon, not a speed race, and we're sticking to doing this right, however long that takes. Everything is in order on our end. We're pursuing the work and we will complete it.

I will be posting an official update on the writing some time soon. As of now, if you see anyone expressing doubts about our commitment, you can tell them we are still very much plowing at it. I think people are just naturally worried after the events of the past few weeks that had nothing to do with us whatsoever but still prompt questions by repercussion, and that's okay.

In addition to the Kickstarter page, you can find me on facebook or get to our GP group on the same for additional updates. 

I usually answer comments on the Kickstarter page itself within 24 hours.

In conclusion: We are working at it with Ernest, everything is looking good, though it's taking more time than we ever anticipated. For that I'm very sorry. We'll just do it right, however long it takes. It's been our commitment from the very start and we intend to keep it.