The Broken Sword by Poul Anderson

The Broken Sword
Written by Poul Anderson
$6.15 Amazon Kindle
208 pages


Let loose the red tide! Let the men be heaped like reaped golden wheat! Fall back in this telling in one book what would take modern authors a dozen times more pages!

Poul Anderson, one of the original quoted Appendix N authors in the original Dungeon Master's Guide, brings a tale of Norse revenge across generations.

If you are a fan of the show Vikings, if you're a fan of Elric of Melnibone, of cursed swords, of dire destinies, or cruel, uncaring gods, or things that never were but fit into the tales of old lore, then you should read The Broken Sword.

Poul Anderson weaves together some things that we say now are not true, such as the winged helmets of the Vikings, as well as land conquest as England suffers the raids of the Vikings. Of the rise of the One True God against those gods who used to rule. It showcases many different elements of mythology into one where there are still differences, but the mythological world is shared.

The gods of old Ireland are half gods, the elves here, not mere mortals with long hair who are good with bows. The trolls here are ancient and elderly powerful creatures that are not mere brutes that only know how to howl, but how to plan, how to set forth on ships warded against the wild seas, of using weapons of massive stone and bone because their strength allows them to do so.

The elves here are masters of magic, they control the weather, they can heal, they speak with the dead and are all things cruel and capricious. But they are few in number and even as they are timeless, they are not immortal. So when the opportunity arises to steal a man-child and add his mortal strength to their own, they take it.

Sadly they take this man child from a family that has wronged natives of England, and one woman who survives grows powerful in the dark arts of Witchery and sells all including her soul to darker powers to cast dark fate against the family that slew her own.

Into this mix comes the elves who when they capture the man-child, replace him with a troll born changeling. A heartless brute who has sisters and brothers and who will find his destiny leading the trolls against the elves and their kin.

Here the elves and trolls share a weakness to iron, they share magics even if the trolls are not as advanced as the elves, the two are both moral-less entities that are unseen by men as their battles are not fought in the mortal world. They both dislike the sunlight...

Poul Anderson crafts the tale and moves through the lives of these twins, the elf raised Skafloc, a champion more elf than man, more inhuman than human, and his pale troll kin shadow, Valgard.
Their lives intersect in unknown ways as the witch sets her sights on Valgard, a non-human raised among men whose brutish lusts for battle and his desire for the women who manipulate him through the whole of the story.

So much happens in The Broken Sword, that Poul only hints at some of it. When Skafloc must seek to mend the Broken Sword, this cursed weapon forged long ago, a weapon whose fate spirals down time with such doom, that mighty Thor himself shattered it, Skafloc seeks out the heroes of Ireland. He sails with the lord of the Sea to the lands of Jotun where the sword is forged anew but the travel there and back is merely hinted at.

Even at the start of the tale, when we are introduced to how much of the culture of elves flows through Skafloc, we are given a description of Imric, the ruler of the elves, the one who stole Skafloc, fighting against "with a troop of exiled gods, grown thin and shrunken and mad in their loneliness but still wielding fearsome powers."

That in and of itself sounds worthy of more pages! Who were these old mad things that were once gods?

Other gods, more familiar, are still about. The Dark Prince himself, claims to have known Odin in the guise of Loki and liked not the one-eyed Lord. Odin, the master manipulator, the one who pulls strings, who would be a good fit for Merlin from Excalibur, weaves a fate to the son of Skafloc that is again, only hinted at here. The final fate of the gods, or mankind, or the Broken Sword itself? Vague prophecy but no finality.

And for this book? It works perfectly. It casts the net of the tale against a background much larger than what we see here. We are visitors to the tragedy that besets violence and only for a limited time. We see how the effects of the coming of a new religion forces out the old, we see those ancient powers still mighty, still magnificent in their own realms, know that their time is limited even as they themselves are timeless.

Poul Anderson brings us no glowing heroes. There are none here who escape without the reader seeing their faults. The elves, proud and haughty, the witch consumed by vengeance, the old gods striving to survive, the trolls, equally proud and equally haughty, the old glory of Ireland, the sorrow of the fauns who survived the passing of the old Gods of Greece and Rome... it's a tale that set forth so much more than modern readers, especially those who say enjoy A Game of Thrones, might even be aware of.

If you want to see where the roots of modern fantasy come from if you want a rousing Viking tale of old gods and cursed blades, The Broken Sword by Poul Anderson is the perfect fit.

Ragnarok: Last God Standing by Walter Simonson

Walter Simonson is probably best known for his work on Marvel Comic's character, Thor. His tales epic in scope and size.

So imagine what happens when he does his own series based on Norse myths? You get Ragnarok and in this collection, Last God Standing, collecting issues 1-6, you get a Thor after Ragnarok, an undead Thunder God. One whose hammer still has power but is designed more like the mythological version with the short handle.

Yes, Thor as an undead god of Thunder. With Walter's traditional touches. He brings the character to life as few could.

In this tale, someone wants Thor gone and sends a dark elf assassin to do the job. It's a nice touch as the dark elves have a long a tradition in Norse mythology. Her comments to others remind me of what an adventurer would be like.

That in and of itself could almost be the start of half of Dungeons and Dragons games the way people online talk.


And Thor himself? Still a god of action.

Walter's art does a fantastic job of selling this new world and this new mythological vision. We see Thor awaken and learn how to deal with this new world. Not as strong as he once was, not as wise as Odin, we see Thor trying to piece together the bits of the new world from what remains of the old world.

One of the most powerful bits to me? When Thor finds the old Well and its seer, Mimir. Like Odin, Thor must sacrifice an eye for knowledge. But after the well is drained? There are two eyes left in it. One Thor's freshly sacrificed eye, the other? The original eye of Odin. Thor places it into his skull to gain his father's knowledge. It's a powerful sight and touching at the same time.

Thor's tragedy here is lain at the reader's feet with every step Thor takes in this new world. When he visits Asgard and sees his dead wife and children? When he uses a Fire Giant's essence to set aflame old Asgard as a proper monument to their time? It shows the weight and cost of Thor's sleep.

But Thor is not the only inhabitant in the world. The Dark Elf assassin had a husband who seeks to finish her work and the hunt is on. Gifted with a cursed sword that must draw blood, Regn and his daughter, Drifa, seek out the Thunder God to bring him down.

This collection ends with Thor in the ruins of Asgard and Regn and Drifa seeking him out with a cursed sword.

In addition to the comics, this collection includes the full covers as well as sketches. Walt's sketches in various degrees of completion. It's a wonder to see the art unfold from one stage to the other.

Right now Last God Standing is part of the IDW sale and is going for $3.99.

The Wizard's Mask by Ed Greenwood (Gaming Notes Edition)

The Wizard's MaskWritten by Ed Greenwood
400 b & w pages
High Fantasy
Pathfinder Tales
$9.99

Below will be some things that ticked in my brain when reading The Wizard's Mask in terms of gaming inspiration. There will be spoilers so if you don't want any spoilers, read no further.

Named Items: I actually mentioned this in the book review portion but named items tend to have more personality. When you make the items actually intelligent like The Whispering Blade, a blade that speaks to its victims and informs them of how sweet it's razor sharp touch feels, well, then it gets more interesting.

This doesn't always click though as, on the cover, the "Masked" is holding up a gauntlet, a specific magic gauntlet, and it has what I'd consider a boring name: The Fearsome Gauntlet. Mind you, if the Gauntlet didn't throw around numerous force effects and instead actually did 'Fearsome' things, I might have a different opinion on it.

And here's the thing, names are personal taste. Some people might be going, "Man, Joe, you're crazy! The Whispering Blade is so lame and the Fearsome Gauntlet, now that's awesome!" You'll have to wing it on your own names but if I may add one suggestion. Give them a 'real' name and then the generic moniker. Tarakul, the Fearsome Gauntlet for example.

Limited Charge Items: Turns out that the Fearsome Gauntlet wasn't that fearsome. After an epic battle, the gauntlet's magic simply runs out and it falls apart. In addition, during the course of the novel, the duo manage to drink numerous potions.

If you want your players to hit above their weight level on a temporary basis, throw them some cool magic items that only work for a limited time. Or even some 'mundane' items that they might need to overcome an specific enemy that only work for a set number of times. Creature needs a +4 magic item to effect? A wand that grants items a cumulative plus for 10 rounds at a time can help that out and be drained quickly.

But keep in mind that by hitting above their weight level, the characters are going to be gaining more experience and access to things that they might not normally have.

Cursed Items: One of the heroes, The Masked, is known so because he stole a cursed magical mask. It is slowly eating away his face. If the mask suffers damage, he suffers damage. Note that this last bit isn't necessarily that rare even for non-cursed powerful items.

For example, after Marvel comics killed off Thor in the Avengers Disassembled storyline, when they eventually brought him back in Michael Straczynski's run, his hammer was damaged. With the help of Doctor Strange, the hammer was repaired and bound to Thor's life force. If the hammer was damaged, Thor could die as a result.




Inherent Goof: Consider this a near off topic ramble. During the story, Tantaera, the short halfling, loses her hand thanks to the kiss of the Whispering Blade. Remember how I mentioned that the Fearsome Gauntlet simply ran out of juice? It turns out that after spending a great deal of money, Tantaera was able to replace her hand with the Gauntlet which will still probably retain some powers that she's unaware of in this novel but may come into play in future novels.

I call it a goof because when you have specific magic items that people are looking to chop their own limbs off and replace them with, having the option to have one of your own limbs replaced with a magical item seems like it'd be MORE expensive than having a spell to replace the actual limb cast.

But that's why I call it an inherent goof. You see similar things in comics all the time. "I'm a bad ass cyborg!" or "I'm just going to run around WITHOUT an eye because I look cooler with a patch!" And usually, it's part of the torture porn you see in comics.

For example, Wolverine has a healing factor and despite being a 'great fighter', gets tore up all the time. Vision and Red Tornado? Poor bastards. Machines so they get destroyed all the time.

 Even Cyborg whose FACE is still human gets put into situations where you're like, "Uh, why wouldn't you always have a faceplate on dude? You're not an actor, you're a guy in the comic. We don't need to see your face." But they rarely go for that instead destroying an arm or leg or something.

Just keep it in mind when you're putting the players in a goofy situation that's dedicated in part by the rules that the players will go with those rules.

The Wizard's Mask is high fantasy and high action with some focus on rogues that tends to be rare in a world where every series is about a farmboy destined to save the world.

Berserk 36 by Kentaro Miura

I'm out of touch. I didn't even know the new Berserk came out until I saw that a new animate 'movie' came out. Immediately bought both. Don't know if I'll be talking about the movie outside of "m'eh" and yet it's a "m'eh" with potential if they cover the core story elements cut out like Puck and Skullknight and actually, you know continue it.

Anyway, Berserk 36 was like visiting an angry old friend. Kentaro's art reminds me of Goerge Perez or Jim Lee in that his detailed line work is awesome. I still refer to my art book despite the fact that the text is all in Japanese. I figure it's an art book right?

The book continues to make use of some elements that I find would be right at home in most campaigns.

1. Curse Magic Items. Elric had Stormbringer. Guts has the Berserk Armor. With it pain and injuries that don't outright kill him are... well, not healed by the armor, but modified enough that he keeps fighting. Bad news is that in this state he makes a frenzied berserker look sane. Still, unlike Elric, Guts has at least one comrade wo can pull him out of the frenzy.

2. Ritual Magic is very powerful. Despite the limited knowledge of magic that Lady Farnese has, she is able to do a ritual magic that prevents magical entities from entry. A mystical barrier if you will to prevent fully monstrous magical creatures from entering it. While it's use is somewhat limited and it doesn't stop those things that are hybrids of magic, it's powerful enough to stop those that are fully of 'the other world'. Many games use some type of this effort but often have such long casting times or high material component costs that they're not very practical. Here the same is true but they do have the time and knowledge to use it.

3. The Foe Too Big To Face! Many times a character will encounter something that they just shouldn't be able to defeat. In Star Wars, A New Hope, the rebels have no chance against the death star but it does have a certain famous weakness. In How To Train Your Dragon, Toothless, as powerful and unique as he is, is not where near powerful enough to battle 'the Red Death'. Here, Guts comes face to face with 'The Sea God'. It's so enormous that the ship sized creatures that he has been fighting with the ship he's taken passage on, are essentially it's whisker's and decides the only way to kill it is by going to it's heart!

This is old hat as they say. I've seen Thor do it with Celestials and other heroes with Ego the living planet and I'm sure other people could point out numerous instances of the foe too powerful to simply beat down. In 4e, it might be possible to use a Skill Challenge to model how best to overcome this entity. In another game, it might be possible to just model many of the 'antibodies' or other efforts of the host body to repel the invaders. Make the players realize what a do or die situation they're in and don't hold back!

4. New Character Bring It. Isma has just joined the crew but already in this new world, she's shown that she fits right in as she is capable of turning into a mermaid. In traditional games, the power level of the core group may grow and grow to such a point that a fresh character starting at the recommended baseline power level wouldn't have a chance to survive much less contribute to the game. There are numerous ways around this including splitting the party or the focus of the campaign and giving the lower level characters appropriate enemies and side liens and goals and then they're the way Kentaro takes and that's to make the new character have a 'hook' or a unique ability that lets them jump right into the fray.

The only problem with Berserk 36 is that despite it's hefty length, we're left with essentially a very long high level fight which means that we've got to wait until the next issue to get resolution. Damn you Kentaro!