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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.

NEWS: Rock God Death-Fugue now available

Steven Bean, author of both Null Singularity and World-Quest of the Winter Calendar, has released Rock God Death-Fugue.

“ROCK GOD DEATH-FUGUE is a one-shot adventure that uses the Dungeon Crawl Classics (DCC) RPG rules to turn players into a heavy metal band on the German leg of its first world tour.

The PCs are “rock gods” weaving musical “magic” and indulging in all the debaucheries and dangerous habits of the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle. To make matters worse, the PCs all show up listening to Writhe Through Shadow by the band Atramentous – also known as “The Cursed Album.” It’s certain they’re headed for a bad end, the only question is whether they go out in a blaze of glory or as sad self-parodies like Axl, Elvis or the Ozzy of The Osbournes era.

The adventure alternates between encounters on the road that threaten to derail the tour – or worse – and the band’s shows. In concert, egos, insecurities & aspirations to true artistry take over, creating PvP musical duels. The outcome of these duels determine how history remembers each rock god!”

Now available on Drive-thru RPG.

News: New Year’s Contest!

The Sanctum Secorum will be celebrating the new year with a discussion of Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs, and pairing that with the Treasure Vaults of Zadabad. So, in order to kick off 2017 with the bang it deserves we are holding our first ever contest!

The Keepers of Mysteries will be giving away a copy of the featured adventure (a great bit of work by our friends over at Stormlord Publishing). To enter, all you need to do is submit a piece of Tarzan/Jungle related content for the Sanctum Secorum companion zine. We will choose on submission at random to win our prize (and there may be other Appendix N-ish goodies in the pot if we get enough entries – so submit often). Entries are due by 12:01am EST on December 28th and the winner will be announced on our next episode (airing Jan 6, 2017).

The “legalese” is pretty simple. By submitting an entry you grant Sanctum Media non-exclusive rights to print your submission (in other words, we can publish it, but so too can anyone else you choose) while retaining all of your own copyrights. One or more entries will be selected at random to receive a prize (Treasure Vaults of Zadabad is guaranteed to be awarded).

Send your submissions (monsters, items, patrons, art, NPCs, etc) to TheHub@Sanctum.Media

Enter early, enter often!

Sanctum Secorum #19 – Steel Magic

Get the free Sanctum Secorum #19 Companion HERE!

episode-19-covers     “A girl and her two brothers are transported across time to the Avalon of King Arthur, where they must return three magic talismans to their rightful owners or remain trapped forever in the distant past. The adventure begins when Sara Lowry wins a picnic basket at the Firemen’s Strawberry Festival. She and her brothers, Greg and Eric, are staying with their uncle at his Hudson Valley estate while their parents are in Japan. Fascinated by the haunting history of the old manor, they pack a picnic lunch and begin their search for the legendary lost lake. They discover a medieval castle – and suddenly they’re enveloped by a gray mist that transports them back to the time of King Arthur! There, they are given an urgent mission to recover three lost talismans: Arthur’s sword, Excalibur; Merlin’s ring; and the horn of Huon, Warden of the West. Can Sara, Greg, and Eric fulfill their quest and save Avalon – the only place that stands between the Powers of Darkness and the mortal realm – and return to their own time?”

 

Welcome to the Sanctum Secorum podcast…

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Online Inspiration: The Grizzly Boar

Often one may stumble across an online image that is wholly inspiring for game purposes. Ethan Nicolle (co-creator of Axe Cop) posted a story to the Bearmageddon News Network website and it was so fantastic that we simply had to reach out to him for permission to share our inspiration. Ethan has graciously allowed to use the image commissioned by BNN so that we can bring you the horror that is the Grizzly Boar.

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Sanctum Secorum #18 – The People of the Pit

Get the free Sanctum Secorum #18 Companion HERE!

episode-18-covers“People of the Pit features a pair of prospectors, Starr Anderson and the narrator, Frank, who are exploring the North, looking for gold. There are hints of a backstory between the two men, painting them as more than mere prospectors and it creates an anticipation for oddness to come. We are then introduced to a secondary narrator. A man who, in classic fashion, crawls (near-dead) into the men’s camp. And the manner of his crawling is horrific in itself. This is no collapsing half-stagger, no dragging himself along the floor, but as the narrator says, ‘it was like a baby crawling upstairs. The forepaws lifted themselves in grotesquely infantile fashion’ . On top of this, he wears a band of gold round his waist, and a chain. Gold, of course, is what has brought the explorers to this place, but when they remove it, ‘it was like no gold I had ever handled. […]  it had an unclean, viscid life of its own. It clung to the file. […] It was – loathsome’ . Something is clearly not right when a man in search of gold actively throws it away.
The story then turns to the tale of the narrator, telling a story of a lost civilisation in the bottom of a ravine. Not any old ravine, however, but ‘Imagine the Grand Canyon five times as wide and with the bottom dropped out’. As one can expect, it gets a lot weirder from there…”

Welcome to the Sanctum Secorum podcast where even attending a convention cannot disrupt things. While the Keepers of Mysteries attend Gamehole Con I, the Gatekeeper of the Sanctum, bring you the latest episode. Tonight the Keepers discuss a story by Abraham Merritt and bring it to your DCC table!

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Programming Note

ghc4logoWith Gamehole Con looming in the horizon, there is much to be done. The latest episode of the Sanctum Secorum will air on time (this Friday, November 4th). The episode’s companion zine however, will not release until Friday, November 11th. The frantic Keepers of Mysteries thank you for your understanding.

Sanctum Secorum #17 – A Night in the Lonesome October

Get the free Sanctum Secorum #17 Companion here!

episode-17-covers“A Night in the Lonesome October is narrated from the point-of-view of Snuff, a dog who is Jack the Ripper‘s companion. The story reveals that once every few decades when the moon is full on the night of Halloween, the fabric of reality thins and doors may be opened between this world and the realm of the Great Old Ones. When these conditions are right, men and women with occult knowledge may gather at a specific ritual site to hold the doors closed, or to help fling them open. Should the Closers win, then the world will remain as it is until the next turning… but should the Openers succeed, then the Great Old Ones will come to Earth, to remake the world in their own image (enslaving or slaughtering the human race in the process). The Openers have never yet won. These meetings are often referred to as “The Game” or “The Great Game” by the participants, who try to keep the goings-on secret from the mundane population.
    Each Player has a familiar – an animal companion with near-human intelligence that helps complete the numerous preparations for the ritual. The majority of the story describes the interactions and discussions of these animals, all from Snuff’s point of view. Throughout the book, the Players slowly take sides, form alliances, make deals, oppose one another, and even kill off their enemies. The plot accelerates until the night of October 31st, when the ritual takes place and the fate of the world is decided.”

Welcome to the Sanctum Secorum podcast. No storm can breach the Sanctum Secorum’s walls and once again the doors open to give shelter and to provide enlightenment. In this, special length anniversary episode, we prepare for Halloween with a work by Roger Zelazny. In addition, we have bonus content to bring to your DCC RPG table!

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