In the spirit of the great potlatch give-away of pulp fantasy books at the Huge Ruined Pile forum, I will be giving away this week four very nice editions of Fritz Leiber's famous Lankhmar series. All four books are late 70s Ace edition paperbacks featuring my favorite cover artist for those books, Jeff Jones. I will give away each of these free of charge--and postage--to blog readers.
There is a catch though.
As much as I am a fan of free gifts I am also a fan of silly contests--and an even bigger fan of harnessing the collective nutiness of you fine folks to help me co-think.
So here's my little end of the year contest. Help me think of names (bonus points for pithy descriptions) for three places and/or people for my Hill Cantons:
1. A decadent metropolis (even more bonus points if you coin a great moniker for it such as "Lankhmar, City of the Black Toga")
2. A nasty villian-type NPC
3. An ancient object of great importance
Contest Rules:
1. You can answer any or all of the above questions in the comments section. The winner for each category will receive one of the free books (it's possible to win more than one category if you are particularly clever) with the best overall answer receiving a bonus book.
2. Please list in order of preference with your comment your choices from the following four:
- Swords and Deviltry
- Swords Against Death
- Swords in the Mist
- Swords and Ice Magic
Fair enough.
ReplyDelete1. Harr-Vull, City of Ten Thousand Fears
2. Captain Vealliver (homage to Beefheart)
I'd prefer the books in your order if I win any!
2. Ortin, the bastard. A city guard who hassles the PCs for contraband and taxation. Has a serious enmity for any PC who rolls anything below a neutral as a reaction roll. The most villainous as dealing with this bastard requires more than stabbety stabbing.
ReplyDeleteSwords in the Mist
Swords and Ice Magic
I already have the other two...
I've got the books, so should I win send 'em to someone more needy, but here's my suggestions:
ReplyDelete1. Ulthnarn of the Hanging Blade
2. Gabrous Swelter, Chief Gaoler, and Toture-Aesthete, of the Pits Below
3. The Calvarium of the First One
1. Olliaz, the Crown of Forbidden Pleasure.
ReplyDelete2. Vorish Konn, Captain-General of the Civic Guard of Olliaz.
3. The Obsidian Crown of Olliaz.
1. Kazhdan, City of the Iron Gates
ReplyDelete2. Smok and Zmag, a two headed black dragon. In order to further its evil plans, this monster often appears amongst men as a one eyed wizard or a black mailed lord. When disguised, its appearance is always draconic in some way and it frequently argues with itself.
3.The Egg of Medusa
I have different editions of the books but I really like the Jones covers too so I'd be happy with any.
Kudos for doing this. :)
ReplyDeleteAwesome, I love participating in this sort of thing! Here's my modest entries:
ReplyDelete1) Finestra - City of a Thousand Mirrored Gazes. Decadent, corrupt, mesmerizing. Finestra is a city taken with its own beauty and the beauty of its citizenry. Fashion,costumery, haute coture; the city is ablaze with thousands of windows, mirrors, gazing pools and other reflective surfaces so the populace can bask in their own reflected glory.
2) Replendant Bloade the Querulous - Society prat and overall smug bastard, everyone one else's business IS Bloade's business. Deft of tongue and blade, Bloade prefers a scandalous (and very public) tongue lashing to actual brutish force. However, many a arguement has been ended by the tip of his blade.
3) Phial of Locution - This small, highly ornate perfume bottle was crafted for Viscount Faenious Gherrity. Commissioned by the Viscount for use at court to sway business deals and beautiful courtesans to his favor; unstoppering it and wafting the sweet aroma ensures the inhaler always has the right words for the occassion.
I should not care if I win or not; just practicing my creative chops for my OSR campaign setting that I'm going to release is always good ;).
1. Upadok, City of Velvet Murder
ReplyDelete2. Dmitri, Purveyor of Wisdom - The "wisdom" Dmitri provides is how to avoid running afoul of his criminal enterprises.
3. The Bloody Ring of Iron
1. Phaeresht, City of the Sighing Springs and Healing Waters.
ReplyDelete2. Galldred the Scabrous, Merchant Prince of the Under Cities
If you can pay his price, he may provide what you desire…
Galldred is fearsome, and often drunk, blaggard. Afflicted with an as yet incurable itch, he is in control of a vast criminal network of fences, pawns, and stolen property scattered throughout the freeholds.
He spends much of his time scheming ways to amass more wealth, in an attempt to find a cure for his itching, and drinking himself into a stupor, in a vain attempt to avoid more scratching.
He is also rumoured to be one of the Evening Star society’s benefactors.
3. The Wheel of Light and Darkness
The Wheel resembles a 5' diameter disc that appears to many to be an unwieldy and highly ornate, ceremonial shield.
It is, in fact, the only known remaining segment of an elaborate siege engine designed to block out the sun and cause cocks to cease crowing and the crops to cease growing.
The plans for this device's construction are kept in a vault beneath the Supernal Orthodox Temple of the Puissant Sun Lord, but the last time they were seen by the clergy was over a year ago.
This is certainly due to a filing error on the part of an unsupervised adept, and the plans must certainly still be somewhere in the vault...
Certainly.
Lohwanda, the Maw of [insert name of nation or continent.]
ReplyDeleteNice ideas presented....Long live Fafhrd & the Grey Mouser - the greatest Swordsmen who ever lived!
ReplyDeleteI can see this is going to be a tough contest to judge already, a testimony to your creativity.
ReplyDeleteFor those of you, who haven't listed a book preference, please do (or say if you already have the books such as Trey).
I will be announcing winners in the first throes of the new year.
Whoops!
ReplyDeleteI'm with Trey, send them on.
Err, sorry - forgot. I have no preference. The only F&GM story I have ever read was part of an anthology of Swords and Sorcery stuff, rather than a complete book. I guess maybe the first of the series would be the place to start, whichever one that is - did you list them chronologically?
ReplyDeleteHoward
@phf
ReplyDeleteYeppers they are indeed in order. I would definitely recommend starting with the first which is simply wonderful from the first paragraphs to the end.