The Seventh Seal (1957)

The Criterion Collection is leaving +Hulu . The Halloween season is upon us.

So The Seventh Seal seemed an appropriate movie.

For those who've never seen it, you should. Highly recommended.

It's one of Ingmar Berman's masterpieces. A crusader, Antonius Block, returning home from 10 years of war in the Crusades, during the time of the Black Death, is weary of spirit and sees a personification of Death who has come for him. Here we see perhaps the first use of Death playing a game to delay the inevitable.

This methodology was put to great comedic effect in Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey. I'd forgotten when I saw Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey, that they cribbed even the look of Death from The Seventh Seal.



As a personification, Death here is, well, mild. He knows he has all the time in the world. He plays with Antonius and is in turned "played" by the crusader, but the viewer never knows if those plays by Antonius are successful or just Death allowing them to appear such.

As a personification, it could be "higher" than the Gods in a standard fantasy campaign. It doesn't need to be malicious like Bhaal or other Death Gods tend to be in the Forgotten Realms and Greyhawk. It's just something that happens.

Antonius Block is an interesting character if one were to look for inspiration for role-playing traits and motivations.

The later leads into the former.

Antonius is tired of NOT hearing God. He's always questioning. He's always seeking that big truth. He seeks it from Death, who remains silent on the matter. He seeks it from the Church, which provides no answers. He seeks it from fellow pilgrims and travelers. He is always questioning the overall purpose and arc of life itself, of his life itself. This questioning provides a tragic frame to Antonius, much like Warlock from Marvel Comics or Elric, seeking to fight his nature but being trapped in the world, must eventually yield to it.

His squire, Jons, is a man of the real world. He knows what life is and it's not happy. Described as a nihilist, he nonetheless isn't evil. He saves a woman from being raped and killed for example. He sees evil being done and would rise against it to another woman condemned to die as a witch. He merely sees things the way he thinks they are and is frank about it. This stoic nature makes him a great contrast to his seeking master.

There's also the setting. The Black Plague is everywhere. People die from it frequently. It's referenced as the end of the world. It sets the stage for a death that cannot be reasoned with. Cannot be bargained with. A death that strikes noble knight and lowly leper with equal ease.

Then there's the background of where the knight's coming from, the Crusades and 10 years of war. During the trip back to the knight's manor, Jon finds the priest who convinced his master to go to the Crusades in the middle of stealing from the dead and about to rape and murder a servant girl. Jon is not happy. His master's demeanor changed by the horrors of war and he lets the fallen priest know, should they meet again, Jon will mark the priest so others know what a liar and fiend he is.

These huge events, the Black Plague, and the Crusade, showcase how vast and uncaring the world is. There can be several things going on in your campaign at the same time and they should all have an impact to those that must experience them.

There is no raising one's hands and begging enough. There is no exception for already having suffered from one calamity. There is just life and the events that must be endured.

This is a movie I could watch again and again. The black and white filming, the nature of the questor and his stoic squire, the background characters, the threat of plague, the damnation of a man spent 10 years in war... it's all powerful stuff and well told.

A is For Abyss

In Dungeons and Dragons, the Abyss is an plane with endless lairs. The majority of creatures that make there home there, fall under the Demon category. These creatures are 'Outsiders', not-native to the Prime Material Plane.

The Abyss has a long history in Dungeons and Dragons. It made huge waves in 2nd edition. TSR had many campaign settings in that era, and one of those was Planescape. Here something called the 'Blood War' raged. In that war, on one side were limitless numbers of demons against a strict military hierarchy of devils from the Nine Hells. The Blood War made a great backdrop to other aspects of the Planescape campaign and could be dropped in and made a prime part or the entirety of the campaign, or something that the players only heard of.



One of the nice things about 3rd edition, was the the OGL and d20 license, allowed third parties to take a whack at the whole of the Dungeons and Dragons cosmology. One of those companies was Green Ronin and one of the books that came out, and was eventually updated, was the Book of Fiends.



One of the nifty things about the Book of Fiends is it brought a new type of Outsider to the Abyss, obyrith. These were the original rulers of the Abyss. The original 'proto-demons' if you will. Their reign did not last the eternity they thought it would. The great thing the author did though, was he insured that there were still a few of them left, and still a few unique ones left. This allows the Game Master to spring something fresh and new against the players when they least expect it.

The Abyss though, is so much more than the things that inhabit it. Don't let official products like the 3.5 book, Hordes of the Abyss fool you!



Because it is limitless, there only limitations that a Game Master has, is what he decides a particular plane is.

While mainly the Abyss has been used to detail the horrors that live there, there's nothing stopping the Game Master from having the players stranded in the Abyss, trying to return home. Perhaps every step they take brings them to a plane that they think is a Prime Material Plane, but is actually a warped version of it. Think Sliders or Fringe but with much heavier doses of the worst of the Twilight Zone or other series.

What if the players are located on a layer of the Abyss that is being destroyed? What if they discover something actually eating the plane one layer at a time? Some primordial creature that is eating it's way out of some other prison and cannot be freed until it eats the Abyss. How does one eat the infinite?

The Abyss is a great potential setting and can be used for low level characters who must dash out as soon as possible, to higher level characters launching attacks against the likes of Orcus or Demogoron as was done in the Paizo directed Adventure Path, Savage Tide, published for Dungeons and Dragons 3.5.

A Moorland Hanging by Michael Jecks

Book Three in the Knights Templar Mystery series, A Moorland Hanging, written by Michael Jecks, brings the reader  back to medieval times with Simon Puttock and Sir Baldwin Furnshill as they investigate a murder on the moors.

Michael Jecks is able to bring the reader into a situation that has two solid factions, the landowning nobles and the tin miners. Each with their own goals and motivations and each a thorn in the other's side, but forced to deal with one another as both serve the king.

Jecks does a solid job of providing information on the importance of the tin mining. The need the king had of vast wealth allows the tin miners many rights that superseded even those of the noble landowners This puts the landowners in a weak position when the tin miners come around and threaten to claim various parts of the land in order to find tin.

And yet at the same time, much like in Japan and their own falling caste of Samurai, the nobles here are arrogant and militant. They have a great deal of power thanks to their own ability to fight and while wars may not necessarily wage without end in the moors, there are always wars where some type of glory may be won.

The mystery itself has some parts that are stronger than others. This could be a deliberate choice. One of the big 'reveals' should be obvious to anyone who's paying attention, but I'll admit to having the completely wrong idea on the killer until nearly the end as vital pieces of information are brought into visibility.

A Moorland Hanging follows the strength of The Merchant's Partner and is a solid mystery novel for those looking for some background on how things might have been in this far away time.

Below I'll be hitting spoilers specific to the novel and discussing how I'll try to keep it in mind when running my ongoing Dungeons and Dragons campaign using the King Maker adventure path by Paizo.

1. Outsiders: While the tin miners have been present for years, there are those who've dwelt on the moor for much longer, generations. To those old inhabitants, the tin miners are a blight on the land. To those who've been here not as long as the old inhabitants, any new inhabitants, like those seeking to make a new life for himself, are another brand of outsider.

2. Isolation: There are old beliefs on the Moors. When you're cut for from civilization and don't travel, the old beliefs have no reason to die out. They've encountered no resistance. This is still true today. In areas that aren't major hubs or on water ways, the people do as they've always done, believe as they've always believed. This can be jarring for people who visit as first off, they're automatically labeled outsiders, and now their outsiders that don't share the same beliefs.

This isolation can take other forms too though. THere are several instances in the novel where the characters feel isolated and cut off from civilization. That they've entered another time and place and that they are gone from the standard realms of men.

3. Bandits: In all the novels thus far, the fall of knight hood as a way of earning a living is reflected on again and again. Those seeking to earn their way may have to travel afar to places such as Italy. Again there are parallels with the Samurai who become ronin, masterless men. The other bit though, that dovetails nicely into the River Kingdoms, is that people may come from other parts of the world to 'get away' from their past. Without an easy way to quickly check the background and history of someone new to the area, wolves may assume the guise of sheep.

4. Protected Interest: While the moors are isolated, the value of the tin miners is obvious to the king. Because of that, they have numerous rights. While this isn't necessarily anything like that in the River Kingdoms, the River Kingdoms does have it's own laws, it's own Six River Freedoms as they are known. Bring in reasons that the players can't just run roughshod over everything and everyone.

5. Visibility: This is one I've always had a problem with. There are numerous mentions that thanks to the even level of the ground and the lack of forests or hills, that people can spot each other for miles around. This can add a bit of suspense if the players know they are being hunted and can see the opposing party rushing and wearing them down. However, given the extreme range of some spells and missile weapons, this could easily backfire!

6. Depth: One of the things that's enjoyable about the series, is that many of the characters have aspects to their past that they would rather not come up. If anyone's seen the movie Snowpiercer, will know what I'm talking about. Having each major NPC have such a secret, have such a past, is something that can put the characters in a completely different frame of mind when they see that person again.

A Moorland Hanging brings the isolation to life and is a solid piece that should be able to inspire many a role playing session.