#ose

How do you avoid the curse of RPG doom invoked when you put a number 1 on your cover? You release volume 2 at the same time! This is Adventure Anthology 2 (2024) and it is good. Again, cover by Frank Scacalossi, who is fast becoming my favorite OSR-ish artist. Again, four short scenarios for Old-School Essentials, each with a different creative team.

“Barrow of the Bone Blaggards” is written by Chance Dudinack and illustrated by Letty Wilson. Here we find a typical barrow infested with undead, but with a very untypical root cause. This is one of the funnier adventures I’ve encountered in a while.

“Shrine of the Oozing Serpent” is by Nate Treme and accompanied by Peter Pagano’s art. Here players investigate a long abandoned gnomish forge temple now inhabited by frog folk and…a grease dragon? I didn’t realize that dragons could be so…gross.

“Cathedral of the Crimson Death” reunites Diogo Nogueira and Justine Jones (previously of Halls of the Blood King). It isn’t a sequel, but it isn’t not a sequel either. Very similar vibes. Which I am good with. Give me more. Justine’s got an unbelievable death knight, an unbelievable evil bell, an unbelievable evil bishop. Her illustrations are worth the price of the whole book.

Ose is one of Sitri's twin deity sons (as a goddess of fertility and sex, she's a mother of thousand youngs, but Ose and Haures are her favorites), a chaos and illusion deity who isn't very inclined to communicate with people due to a twisted sense of humor and perverted communication methods; he rarely takes apprentices and servants, and his castle, under the cover of an illusion, looks like a huge pit full of creatures and souls who have lost their minds, but still try to take care of each other

...ofc Velvette made right decision and made a deal with him only a year after her first death, desiring to stay powerful, young and beautiful forever

yep, he wears a wooden mask to hide real face

Ose was so delighted with her recklessness that he didn't even turn her into a mindless slave

he sees her as a student full of potential and even thinks that she can become one of Melinoë's faces in the fourth epoch, and no one else but him has the right to harm her

this, of course, doesn't negate the fact that Velvette is many times weaker than him and didn't immediately become a powerful witch (no deal with a deity from the local pantheon will be 100% profitable only for the petitioner), but she was surprisingly lucky

from time to time, he sends Velvette to attend his mother's sacred orgies

Velvette takes her own poisons and engages in group sex in an altered state of consciousness , but never with him

she always tests potions not only on her maids, but also on herself to make sure they are complete

I adapted my one-level dungeon crawl to Old School Essentials!