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Tales from the Sanctum

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Welcome

The Sanctum Secorum podcast plumbs the depths of Appendix N as it applies to DCC RPG. Each show reviews one piece of Appendix N media — be it literature or film — and then discusses how to bring aspects of it to the table for your DCC game. We explore how the selected piece might already easily fit into particular modules and DCC settings, and we highlight one specific DCC module that really ties into the Appendix N material.

Enter the Sanctum Secorum… and be inspired.

Sanctum Secorum #35 – Hundra

Get the free Sanctum Secorum #35 Companion HERE!

Born in a tribe of fierce warrior women, Hundra has been raised to despise the influence of men. An archer, fighter and sword fighter, Hundra is superior to any male. Hundra finds her family slain and takes a vow of revenge until one day she meets her match.

Welcome to the Sanctum Secorum podcast. Tonight we discuss the 1983 film Hundra and pair it up with The Trolls of Mistwood!

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Bearmageddon: Bear Bat

Celebrating the new Kickstarter for Bears Want to Kill You, we continue to build on our partnership with Axe Cop co-creator Ethan Nicolle in an effort to warn of the impending bearmageddon as well as bring nightmarish inspiration to your DCC table.

Bear bat
“The Nocturnal bear bat is known for its massive black leathery wings. Bear bats cannot see very well in light and have sensitive ears that can follow the echoes of their roars. The creatures sleep in large caves or hollowed out buildings while hanging upside down. They sleep in groups of ten or more.”
     – Dickinson Killdeer, Dickinson Killdeer’s Guide to Bears of the Apocalypse

These fierce and feared creatures descend from the night sky on leathery wings to bring chaos and death in their wake. Even their cubs are known for their especial cruelty, carrying humans aloft only to drop them screaming earthward to their deaths. Frequently encountered in groups of ten or more (referred to as “devastations”) these creatures are reputed to have been magically engineered by a mad wizard determined to commit suicide in the most horrific manner imaginable. If the legend is true, it appears that he succeeded.

Bear bat: Init +3; Atk bite +4 melee (1d14 + poison) or grab +2 melee (1d10 + grab); AC 15; HD 8d8; MV 40’ or fly 60’; Act 1d20; SP breath weapon, poison; SV Fort +8, Ref +6, Will +3; AL C.

Breath weapon: These arcane horrors produce chloroform, which coats their teeth. Once per round a bear bat may exhale at a target within 5′. The victim must make a DC 10 Fort save or be groggy for 1d3 rounds and suffer a -1d penalty to all actions.

Grab: Victims grabbed by the bear bat must succeed in a DC 18 Strength check to break free. While the victim is held, the bear bat automatically hits with its bite attacks.

Poison: Victims bitten by the bear bat must succeed in a DC 15 Fort save or be knocked unconscious for 2d6 rounds and, after waking, continue to be groggy for an additional 1d3 turns.

Bear bat (both art and concept) are the creation of Axe Cop co-creator Ethan Nicolle (@axecop) and is used with his kind permission. These, and a slew of other ursine horrors can be found in the pages of Bearmageddon as well as within Dickinson Killdeer’s Guide to Bears of the Apocalypse.

Bears Want to Kill you – Pledge Now!

Sanctum Secorum #34 – The Face in the Frost

Get the free Sanctum Secorum #34 Companion HERE!

  Prospero, a tall, skinny misfit of a wizard, lives in the South Kingdom—a patchwork of feuding duchies and small manors, all loosely loyal to one figurehead king. Along with his necromancer friend Roger Bacon, who has been on a quest to find a mysterious book, Prospero must flee his home to escape ominous pursuers. Thus begins an adventure that will lead him to a grove where his old rival, Melichus, is falsely rumored to be buried and to a less-than-hospitable inn in the town of Five Dials—and ultimately into a dangerous battle with origins in a magical glass paperweight.

Welcome to the Sanctum Secorum podcast. Tonight we look at a work by John Bellairs, The Face in the Frost and match it up with Michael Curtis’ Emirikol was Framed!

 

 

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News: March Contest Winners!

As rolled at random, our winners are

1st Place – Anton Wilsbach’s Illumination
* 1 copy of Super No. 1 Food Tower
* 1 sheet of pregen characters

2nd Place – Ian Shears’ Sunbolt
* 1 copy of DAW 373 The Keeper’s Price by Marion Zimmer Bradley and the Friends of Darkover

Honorable Mention – Christopher Lee’s Drain Vitality
* 1 copy of Ghost Ships, Gales & Forgotten Tales (straight from Bob Brinkman’s maritime research library)

Look for these fantastic entries in the next Sanctum Secorum Companion!

Sanctum Secorum #33 – The Powder of Hyperborea

Get the free Sanctum Secorum #33 Companion HERE!

Retired master-thief Satampra, Zerios of Uzuldaroum recounts an adventure from days gone by when he and his two companions (Vixeela and the dubious magician/alchemist Veezi Phenquor) endeavored to rob the temple of the moon god Leniqua, and steal away with the Thirty-Nine girdles of virginity by means of stealth, cunning, and a little bit of hyperborean chemistry. Originally published in the Saturn Science Fiction & Fantasy, it is the last of Clark’s Hyperborea cycle.

Welcome to the Sanctum Secorum podcast. Tonight we look at a work by Clark Ashton Smith, The Powder of Hyperborea and match it up with Edgar Johnson’s delightful Street Kids of Ur-Hadad.

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News: Contest Entry Uncensored

To be allowed to place the DCC logo on any product, there are only a few restrictions. Chief among them is that all content must be family friendly (including no nipples). Because of that, while not offensive or in poor taste, we needed to show only detail from Jon Hook’s entry for the Harringo in issue #32.

Before taking that measure we reached out to Jon for his permission to do so, which he readily granted.  Below the jump is his entry, accompanied by the entire illustration.  Enjoy the nightmare fuel!

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News: February Contest Winners!

As rolled at random, our winners are

1st Place – R.S. Tilton’s The Huntsman
* 1 copy of Super No. 1 Food Tower
* 1 sheet of pregen characters

2nd Pace – Ari-Matti Piippo’s Ancient Hyperborean (in Companion #32)
* 1 copy of Cthulhu’s Reign edited by Darrell Schweitzer
* Sanctum Secorum and DCC swag

Look for R.S. Tilton’s winning entry in the forthcoming Sanctum Secorum Companion #33!

 

News: February Contest Deadline Approaching

Just 36 hours remain to submit your original DCC Character class for the Sanctum Secorum’s February drawing. Some lucky winner is walking away with a copy of Super No. 1 Food Tower while the runner up receives some great fiction to continue inspiring them.

Send your entries to TheHub@Sanctum.media

We need at least one more entry else we are forced to roll the February entry over into March…and you wouldn’t want that right? So get that entry in and win yourself some swag!

http://sanctum.media/blog/index.php/2018/02/09/news-february-contest-information/

Sanctum Secorum #32 – Attack from Atlantis

Get the free Sanctum Secorum #32 Companion HERE!

At age seventeen Don Miller is already an accomplished electronics technician, helping his uncle, Dr. Edward Simpson, with the testing of a new kind of submarine, the Triton I. Accompanied everywhere by his dog Shep, he is aboard the boat for its sea trials. The test run is successful, in spite of some problems with the control systems and stress on certain crew members that has made them believe that they have seen, on the television screens that give a view of the outside of the submarine, men encased in form-fitting bubbles.

For the full test run the Triton will descend into the Milwaukee Deep, north of Puerto Rico. As they descend they find that they are losing control of the boat and, further, that they are being rammed by a whale. Unable to maneuver, they come down on an undersea plateau, twelve hundred fathoms (7200 feet) below the surface.

When the bubble-men attack openly in full force, cementing rocks to Triton’s hull, they drive her down to the bottom.

Three miles below the surface they come to a town of about 20,000 people that they call Atlantis. Lying under a larger version of the bubbles that enclose the people surrounding the submarine. The Atlanteans take the crew captive. Can they free themselves and save the surface world?

Welcome to the Sanctum Secorum podcast. Tonight we look at a work by Lester Del Rey, Attack from Atlantis and match it up with Michael Curtis’ classic adventure, The Sea Queen Escapes.

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