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OSR, elves, and a mini

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                 [Gildor and the Wandering Elves (Max Carr)] Moldvay wrote that elves love 'frolicking in wooded glades.' Some, Tolkien says, 'lingered in the twilight of our Sun and Moon. Others lived ages in the 'Faerie' West and grew 'fairer and wiser and more learned'. Here are elvish songs and magic items, and some elves I've lately met. *** The songs of elves are filled with nightwalks, stars, and memories of beauty. Gildor and the wandering elves sang of Elbereth the Starkindle r: Gilthoniel! O Elbereth!         Clear are thy eyes and bright thy breath! Snow-white! Snow-white! We sing to thee          In a far land beyond the Sea. Be side the river Nimrodel, the wood-elf Legolas sang 'in a soft voice hardly to be heard amid the rustle of the leaves.' Where now she wanders none can tell,        In sunlight or in sha...
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OSR and good yarns

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Now if it's yarns you're longin' for, I can tell you of two, maybe three - even me, I can read 'em with the pictures. *** The first one's Lovecraft, The Colour Out of Space . Here's Virgil Finlays' picture - there you see 'em - first hand witnesses of the 'gleaming, eruptive cataclysm" that shot-up from old Nahum's well! [illustration by Virgil Finlay (1941), reprinted in the Annotated H.P. Lovecraft] Folks say it was aliens. Before he died, old Nahum had said: ...it comes from some place whar things ain't as they is here...one of them professors said so...he was right. Look out Ammi, it'll do suthin more...sucks the life out... *** Now, a mellower light glows in Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island . Look here at Newell Wyeth's painting of Bill Bones, a buccaneer, hangin' 'round the cove, or upon the cliffs, with his brass telescope.'   [painting by N.C. Wyeth (1911), copied from Treasure Island , Antheneum B...
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OSR, a solo game, and a sea-trog

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Along the Mistral Sea wanderers tell of 'sea-trogs.' Not hateful creatures, most say, but unpredictable. In a solo game, I met one... [close-up, Khumai ( Ral Partha Miniatures, sculpted by John Robertson] *** North from OneKeep, an elven acolyte named Vol carried an empty bag and poked for cockles. He wanted enough for board at the rangers' place. Around a cove, he sited a giant crab (AC2, HD3, 2 x pincer (2d6). Vol ran for life.  Finally away, he poured two thimbles of elvish whiskey, each like torches burning. Later that afternoon, Vol had a bagful of cockles. That's when he saw the sea-trog, shin deep in the surf, its knobby, green tail uncurled to his face.  [a 'Khumai' ( Ral Partha Miniatures, sculpted by John Robertson] What's more, Vol saw that the sea-trog saw him. [Initiative: Vol 6 vs. sea-trog 7] It raised an arm. It pointed a finger. Under the sea-trog's sway, Vol dreamed of tides and the rollicking sea.   An hour or so later, he woke-up ...
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