Sword Against Death - Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser

 Reading it. 

More sword and sorcery Goodman says.  

Trivia -

• Hot bloodedand furred snakes of the north, Fafhrd let’s us know.  Any chance this is related to dnd’s  burning hot insectoid worm giant monster? 
• MISTAKE The bubble of Nehwon thing is different here… mentioned on pg 16 as a mere made up spur of the moment thing. 
• MISTAKE The wizard warlock Sheelba … is seen for the first time in his walking hut. But in Swords of Lankhmar, Mouser is surprised when it walks. And Fafhrd I believe near the end indicates he never saw the hut before (right?). 
• Pg 16, fireflies exist here… other books had fire beetles.

More words n phrases to use

• Time in “when the first stars show”
• Hearing it whippoorwill might be a bad omen.. Anaugry of a bad omen. An augury of ill omen.
• And the day of the toad a bad day to enter a deserted home. Bad luck.
• Building… outjutting cornices and friezes
• Mayhap
• Feather you with arrows 
• Make yourself scarce
• Almost got home an attack
• Sibilant (hiss like sound)
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D&d origins

• Pg 34has a list of dnd dungineering gear. Rope, mallet and pry-bar. Wedges. Candles. Flint. Chisels.A pick. etc
• Pg. 43 his “good luck” amulets, talismans, … prayers and cantrips. 
• Pg. 49, fear… a spell? Described well. 
• Pg. 66, mentions leather, with studs of brass.  The maybe not real studded leather of dnd?
• Pg. 68, good room descr. “It was a large room full of alcoves, and like the rest of the building, of dark smooth stone walls and floor. On a heavy cypress table four earthenware lamps paced randomly lit the place. “ That’s paraphrasing. 
• Pg.72 and earlier… a skull and a hand (pair of hands?) … bejeweled… able to kill by strangulation if menaced. Vecna inspiration?

Need to read

• The Tale of Satampra Zeiros by Clark Ashton Smith. It is very D&D, also. Says commenter on Grognardia about Jewels In the Forest and Swords Against Death… https://grognardia.blogspot.com/2021/04/pulp-fantasy-library-jewels-in-forest.html

Book lists

 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=u8CFFCVBRP4&t=325s

Long running series or shared worlds with various authors. 

Dragonriders of Prrn had more than I knew. 

Elric has new ones. 

Magic item ideas

 Time 10:37 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_wxKYt_www&t=611s

• Ring of the mole - digs thru dirt or ice at 10’ per old school Turn, aka 10 minutes 
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Origins, Charm Person spell, fire-beetles, sea nymphs , slime monsters, Lankhmar

Btw, lotsa good info and pictures here https://www.blackgate.com/2018/04/10/danger-in-every-dark-alley-40-years-of-adventuring-in-lankhmar-fritz-leibers-great-fantasy-metropolis/

 The Swords of Lankhmar by Fritz Leiber has 'em, fire beetles, on pg 95.

“Fire-beetles, glow-wasps, and night-bees supping at the Closet flowers…”. Though they are meant to be as fireflies and glowworms…not actual fire.

SPOILERS

• Gray Mouser has a silver tiny needle in his forehead… magically charming him to the wererat chick, Hisvet. 
• Also…woo nymph and sea nymph mentioned arounf pg 97.
• Mentions slime monster dividing in two to reproduce. Like adnd slimes often do. Pg 100.
• Ghouls, though half transparent… looking more like skeletons. 
• Dire rats all over… size of housecats..
• Pg 109… mentioned possible potion for evil eye kill (eye bite), clairvoyant spying, … potion to incr cunning or mental smarts.
• Animals more in the salt marsh - water cobras, giant worms (size of a rat maybe, but surely gave Gygax ideas for purple worms), sea leeches, poison eels, saw beaked cadaver birds falapping low, claw footed salt soiders.
• More Origins here in my other post: https://trilodroid.blogspot.com/2026/07/fafhrd-and-gray-mouser-book-one-i-read.html

The deep voiced creepy wizard Sheelba of the Eyeless is very influential on DCC. This guy hides his face in a hood, never seen, has no eyes so far by page 105-110 (Mouser imagines blind? Skin Flesh instead of eyes?  AntennaE? A skull?… perhaps Skeletor comes from him also.). Sheelba also never shows his fingers, if he has any. Gray Mouser wonders if he has a chin or elbows. All this points to maybe tentacles for arms, eh?.  Compare to DCC magic user types and the corruption - scroll way down https://deathtrap-games.blogspot.com/2020/07/game-review-dungeon-crawl-classics-rpg.html

Fun phrase - “ten hundred and one [gods] of Lankhmar…” referring to the thousands and thousands of gods.

BTW, The Swords of Lankhmar was written in chunks. Check out this 1961 piece called "Scylla's Daughter" that was just the ship section with the "dragons" and the German:

• https://sffremembrance.com/2022/12/03/novella-review-scyllas-daughter-by-fritz-leiber/
• https://writingatlas.com/story/1499/fritz-leiber-scylla-s-daughter/
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Draw Steel game, MCDM

 Says it is tactical and 4e influenced in a good way. 

https://www.enworld.org/threads/draw-steel-fake-variety-helps-no-one.714344/

Read https://medium.com/@pictor_dice_camp/draw-steel-is-a-lot-6843841de2f4 it

Says 

• You are big damn heroes. A level 1 character in Draw Steel is powerful, you can do some great things. The game describes you as already being a hero at a local level. You may already be a legend in your home village. You should expect to be world-famous figures by level 9 or 10. You don’t track torches and rations, for the most part, you don’t even really track money. Strap on your armour, pick up your sword, and go be a hero.
• This game has a HEAVY focus on tactical, action-based combat, with minis, on a grid. Not only does it require a grid, but it expects you will be spending a large portion of your time there. It also has a big focus on movement, including forced. Throws, slams, sending your opponent into a wall, or off the edge of the cliff. It doesn’t want anyone standing still.

Throne of the gods, adnd item, fun ideas; free 1e modules

 Page121 says https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkhGHabBa1E&t=301s

 https://adnd2e.fandom.com/wiki/Throne_of_the_Gods_(Magic_Throne)

https://tenfootpole.org/ironspike/?p=5574

https://1d6chan.miraheze.org/wiki/Throne_of_the_Gods

Free 1e stuff here - https://www.dragonsfoot.org/

For,Gold and Glory is a 2e OSR game

Mr. Rourke says it is good and streamlined.  

Btw, the Brit adnd, becmi, etc. guy youtuber - 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6FNbPlG0nM&t=304s

PF 1e Spell stuff

 

This guy responding pretty much always thinks level 2 spells aren't enough dmg so... with a grain of salt, but definitely some smart analysis too:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Pathfinder_RPG/comments/1m8yipv/daily_spell_discussion_for_jul_25_2025_burning/ 

Guess I'm going with same old same old burning sphere, to get hits each round while maybe doing other things. It takes a MOVE action in PF 1e tho so careful. 

I got the flurry of snowballs too, since it is a nice 30 ft cone. Might be casting it "from my bonded object amulet" once a day thing. 

Origin for gods’ avatars

 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=80-_rLlRm90&t=145s

Book name: Greyhawk Adventures by Jim Ward  

The Greyhawk Graungnard around time 2:00 or so. 

Explains how you could no longer “kill gods” as of this last 1e adnd book that is transitioning to 2e. 

Has nee monsters and spells. 

Maugli Junglebook Timing vs. Tarzan - Origins?

 Maugli earlier eh 1894ish-- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mowgli

Tarzan soon after 1912 -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarzan

And this old Burian art shows just how Tarzany the Maugli books were: https://www.daildeli.cz/buriankipling1.html

Part of Kipling's inspiration for the story of Mowgli is believed to have been William Henry Sleeman's account of six cases in India in which wild children had been raised by wolves.^[3] That account was first published in the first volume of Sleeman's Journey Through the Kingdom of Oude in 1848-1850 (1858)^[4] and reprinted in 1852 as An Account of Wolves Nurturing Children in Their Dens, by an Indian Official and in The Zoologist (1888 12 (135): 87-98).^[5] One most notable feral child was found in the wolf's den at the Bulandshahr district in 1867 and subsequently brought to the Sikandra orphanage at Agra, where he was given the name Dina Sanichar.^[6][7]

Blogs to see- D&D picts and campaign blogs, Paleo Art

WARNING some of these lead to not safe for work or home type drawings. But there are a lot of good D&D picts in the right blogs. 

 This guy, https://www.blogger.com/profile/06752759150344487501,  has many, like:

https://slumberingwarlock.blogspot.com/

https://sonofabitchdd.blogspot.com/ (this is that 2012 campaign, some cool picts, one cool map, some funnies)

https://to-the-north-and-beyond.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2014-03-10T18:39:00Z&max-results=7   is yet another campaign, lotsa good picts. 

=====other dudes/blogs below=====

https://neat-stuff-blog.blogspot.com/search/label/Zdenek%20Burian

I think above is from the Paleoartist guy from 1950s  and 1960s and 1970s  especially: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zden%C4%9Bk_Burian

https://kakhtus.tumblr.com/post/73552993949/old-school-paleoart-by-the-great-zdenek-burian

WHOLE BUNCH OF BURIAN: https://www.daildeli.cz/burian.html

• Maugli, Junglebook, Rudger Kipling: https://www.daildeli.cz/buriankipling1.html

Grogu Mandalorian movie Easter egg, Kenner toy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nshwo-WbwJE

Time 5:06, the INT-4 was a good looking toy.  

Here is toy https://www.carousell.sg/p/vintage-star-wars-kenner-int-4-interceptor-1179828208/

HP can represent stamina, luck, toughness, ….

 Great list time 1:15 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVXvY12mepA&pp=0gcJCUwLAYcqIYzv

• Stamina
• Luck
• Touhness
• Divine favor
• Grit
• Bruises
• Near misses
• Scrapes
• Glancing blows
• Shield hits
• Armor hits

BTW, the video is about doing permanent damage on crits or even less frequently crits with max dmg. Borrowing from old Runequest, where apparently you were constantly maimed bigtime.