Valley of the Lost Shell: Details on Kenneth Hite's LotFP Adventure!

Remember that May crowdfunding thing? For the LotFP Rules and Magic hardcover, and, as it turned out, a Kenneth Hite adventure?

Well the hardcover is in layout.

And it's time to give some details about Hite's adventure, Valley of the Lost Shell. Some quotes (from the not-yet-proofed text, mind) to give you an idea of what you're in for:

"The Valley of the Lost Shell is a classic 'exploration' adventure, set in a wet, poisoned sandbox. While the Cylinder is the focus of outside magic-seekers, and makes a convenient 'center of the labyrinth' for goal-directed players, the Qelong Valley is a setting first and foremost."

"Wherever they come from, story elements, once introduced, become part of a narrative in the players’ minds; Referees and players will find themselves almost unconsciously weaving further encounters into the ongoing story. A picaresque adventure – a series of dangers and incidents on the way to somewhere – is the likely result. This kind of adventure maps to general expectations of fantasy quest drama as well as to war stories like Valhalla Rising, Apocalypse Now, and The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (especially the “war over the bridge” sequence), all of which were among my models for this adventure’s design.

They were also among my models for the general “feel” of the adventure. I see the Qelong Valley as a land of steam, smoke, mist, fog – high grasses and low mangroves, like the Dead Marshes or Beowulf’s fen country. All of this grows not in a placid pastoral Olden Tyme, or even a gently corroded Dark Age, but in the path – or technically on the sidelines -- of a great and incomprehensible war. Houses and farms are burned, villagers gaunt and feral. Dogs whine over the carcasses of their masters, then tear out the intestines to feed themselves. Men kill each other for a handful of rice, or for a woman who can be beaten into cooking it. All around, sorcerous echoes and explosions ripple the skies, but as a constant drumbeat of vile thunder, not as anything aimed at anyone in the same country. The Qelong Valley has been poisoned by accident and forgotten by its killers. Only the scavengers remain, and the worms that grow in the corpse."

"If your campaign takes place on Earth or a close analogue, Sajavedra maps generally to Cambodia; the Qelong River valley specifically to the portion south and west of the Cardamom and Elephant Ranges."

Magical fallout, the elephant lich, the hundred-mile-long naga, the Lotus Monks, the insect-possessed myrmidons, and so much more... different than anything LotFP has done so far, that's for sure.

(...and it might be rushing things a bit to get this and the hardcover to print as originally scheduled in October, especially since this adventure needs some actual play time and the hardcover is going to be a pain to do right. Looking at early November to press so we may still be mailing out by the end of that month, plenty of time for you backers to get your packages by Christmas!

Oh, and I hope to have one or maybe two more adventures going to press with this stuff. Have your wallet ready. We've only begun to get Weird.)