African Rock: A Role-Playing Adventure

By Michael Kellington and Larissa Ezell

From the dark mines of the savage coast, a strange sliver of metal appears, impervious and sharp, called

African Rock by the miners who survived the experience.

Our intrepid party has volunteered to travel by sea, 2000 miles south, to the last location of the mines in

the jungles, seeking out this miraculous metal. We are to tr

• Language: English
• Publisher: Astral Moon Creations
• Release date: Aug 18, 2023
• ISBN: 9781733591294

Michael Kellington

Michael Kellington has written adventures for role-playing for most of his life. From early childhood, he has been passionate about the story and devoted to his friends' enjoyment and success. A trial attorney practicing in Southern Oregon for over twenty-five years, he has twin daughters who occupy his heart and time. Michael considers himself a student of history and a purveyor of fun.

Book preview

THE TEAM

The adventurers we are hired to protect and assist are a historian, lapidary, an expert miner, a renowned engineer, and a geologist.

The HISTORIAN is a human male, who has a head full of legends, languages, and histories. His role in this mission is to coincide the miners’ stories, and other accounts of the place to the land itself, finding connections that may help locate the mines. He carries a set of a dozen books and 40 scrolls, including maps on leather-back hides that are over 100 years old. His suitcases are full of the musty papers, some of which crackle when they are touched. Aricule Legend-Holder is a Level 2 Wizard with the spells read magic, light, wizard mark and detect magic.

The LAPIDARY is more than just a rock-hound. This mountain dwarf is an expert at gems, cuts, values, and magical qualities. Geiter Stone Master is a Level 4 Fighter HP 35 who is armed with a +2 short sword and has complete kits of rock tools, chisels, knives, viewing instruments (including a crude microscope), and samples, including a 1,250gp ruby set in a platinum ring on his thick left pinky finger.

The MINER is another mountain dwarf who wears a +2 chain mail shirt and has stowed a +3 battle ax that detects evil when held prominently. The old dwarf has survived cave-ins, toxic methane, explosions and earthquakes. Myrtr Longdark has dirt in his teeth, but true grit in his soul. His mission is obvious—what may not be initially apparent (besides his battle ax) is his experience with fighting matters: Myrtr Longdark is a Level 7 Fighter, HP 55.

The ENGINEER is a dragon-born, possessed of great gifts concerning matters that are built. She has created bridges, erected tall fortresses, and mastered the cliff-sides for her kingdom. Rissa Shan is a Level 3 Illusionist who casts the spells color spray, phantasmal force, chromatic orb, change self and invisibility. Her shimmering pearlescent skin is a higher armor class (15) and she is stronger than most illusionists with regard to hit points (40hp). Rissa Shan has 20 or so scrolls, maps, writings, and notes, together with a bound collection of 6 tiny and 8 huge books, all devoted to engineering. She takes on board 4 huge chests filled with awls, saws, miters, plumbs, wires and magnets, together with a huge array of connectors and fasteners.

The GEOLOGIST is a human male, who wears a thick wool robe sashed with black leather belts. Drodney Rangerfield is a Level 4 Druid who has the ability to identify fauna and flora all over the earth, and has an innate ability to locate magnetic fields. Drodney passes without trace and can summon woodland animals, cure light wounds, detect snares and pits, purify water and create water. He has 25hp and wears a suit of leather that makes his armor class 16. He conceals a potion of gaseous form.

THE MISSION

The expedition to the dark coast, several thousands miles south, is to find the mine of Rory Tunderblast and disinter the arcane ore, known only by the miners’ clumsy appellation as African Rock. Our group is commissioned to travel, first by ship over thousands of miles of open ocean, to the Savage Coast on the southern continent, which occupies barely a smudge even on modern maps.

From there, we are to trek inland, through acres of jungle and rivers, to find the abandoned tunnels of the miners, foremost the one connected somehow to an abandoned temple, which the historian’s maps refer to as Antes or Anteon. There, in the tunnels beneath the forest floor, our expedition is to find the fabled metal, perhaps the salvation of our continent, and remove as much as possible to the ships.

Because the way is perilous, we are promised a harness of metal armor fashioned from the fantastic ore, or an equivalent amount of weapons, barding or other metal item. Our trip is also financed and stocked to make our discovery of Rory’s mine more probable, beginning with a modest flotilla of ships and crew, food, and accurate maps.

We are invited to appear, in one week’s time from notice, at the docks of Carvel, in the District of Gronden on the Southern Shores of Blite’s Point. We are instructed to bring our weapons and harness, spell-books and components for at least a month, extra boots, belts and clothes for what should be a sticky overland jungle trek.

The group will find dramatic changes in the landscape have occurred since the legend of African Rock’s discovery. There are great swaths now that resemble more desert than forest.

On the docks, in the cold morning air, the steam wisps off placid waters, as the chests and bales of hay are hauled up the gang-planks. We meet the team of experts here, as they have already arrived by separate ship in the wee dark hours. The journey south and west will take weeks, and we are invited to accustom ourselves to our ships. The flotilla is moored at the harbor’s plank-ways, most of the stowage being already secured before our arrival at sun-break. The ships, their crew and supplies, are described on the page following.

THE FLOTILLA

There are three ships in the group, two galleys and a nimble sloop.

Gran Dame is a large, two-masted galley with 8 oars, four ports to a side. It has a forecastle with a scorpion siege weapon on a swivel, and an elevated aft-deck with a naval onager and buckets of salted gravel for anti-personnel sweeps. The deck sits atop the guest quarters of the ship, captain’s and crew on foredecks; the rowmen below in their center hold. The captain is Piti Slytongue, a Level 5 Fighter 50hp, AC 15 with chainmail jack and a rapier of dueling, a +2 weapon that can knock an opponent’s weapon from his grasp on a successful to hit score. His first mate Patron is a Level 3 Thief 20hp, AC 15 with two black +3 daggers well hidden in his leathers. Three Able Seamen (snicker) assist with the more complicated tasks—tie-downs, tacking and weighing anchor. They are Level 2 Fighters 15hp each, AC 13.

The Dame is the smaller of the 2 galleys, with 6 empty cabins in the aft-decks,