The Prison Pits of Larubia
Somewhere beyond this veil of tears lies the Akashic Library, its endless shelves stretching out past the horizon of infinity. What mischievous miscellany shall we pore over today? Enter, friend, and find out . . .
Once again it’s that magical time of year—Kickstarter time! As I’ve been threatening to do, I launched the Kickstarter campaign for The Prison Pits of Larubia. It launched just over a week ago, on November 11, and funded on Sunday. Huzzah!
But hitting my funding goal only means that I have just barely enough money to produce the book, with no extra art. Don’t you think it would be better with more art? I do, and that’s why I’m asking you to take a look and spread the word. We still have a week to go and I’m optimistic this one will do better than my last Kickstarter.
Speaking of artwork, check out these beautiful illustrations I commissioned . . .
BEHOLD THE PRISON PITS OF LARUBIA!
You’d heard that Larubia was a great city to visit, but somehow—surely it was all a misunderstanding!—you were arrested and sentenced to hard labor in the prison pits outside of town. Now you and your friends have no armor and no weapons, just the rags on your back and pickaxes for mining the magical mystery mineral phyrene.
As you descend into the prison pits you’ll face cannibal miners, killer insects, sirens, phyrene mutations, and more. Ultimately you may discover the long-lost subterranean kingdom of Eskragor, home to ancient automatons, high-tech ray guns, and a mad Emperor obsessed with invading the surface world.
Enter the Prison Pits of Larubia—If you dare!
The Prison Pits of Larubia is an Old School pulp sword & sorcery adventure designed for use with the Million-Colored Sun RPG. It's written by Leighton Connor, eerily illustrated by Perplexing Ruins, and features a dynamite cover by Joshua LH Burnett.
The adventure can be inserted into practically any fantasy setting. An existing PC party can travel to Larubia, or the party can form when they meet as prisoners.
The caverns the PCs explore are vast and endless, with countless paths branching off, looping around, and dead-ending. To simplify tracking the PCs’ progress, the prison pit is presented as a “point crawl,” where we have only plotted out the most interesting areas. These points of interest are connected to each other by abstracted paths showing where they are in relation to one another.
Players are free to explore the prison pits as they wish; the narrative emerges from their choices.
Prison Pits of Larubia includes random phyrene effects, rules for creating a character with the Eskragorian bloodline, rayguns, robots, and more. You can back it here!
COEN BROTHERS UPDATE
I really thought I’d be done by this point, but I only managed one Coen Brothers movie since last time. At least I started Buster Scruggs. Once I’ve finished that, I’ve only got the solo movies—Joel’s Macbeth and Ethan’s two lesbian noirs—to go.
A day in the life of a studio fixer in 1950s Hollywood, as he has to deal with, among other things, a movie star getting kidnapped by communists.
This movie’s a chill, pleasant time. I saw it when it came out in the theater and liked it but didn’t give it much thought. Watching it again I’m impressed by how it’s so thoroughly animated with the Coens’ love of old-timey movies. They use this loose story as their chance to play with genres nobody makes anymore, and include a full scene of a singing cowboy, as well as a tapdancing sailor, a mermaid ballet, and more. The Coens make bleak existential tragedies, and they also make lighthearted comedies, and this is a good example of the latter.
TREES AND MORE FOR SALE
I drew that tree up there shortly after I received some devastating news and I was grieving. It was therapeutic and, to me, the drawing has a haunting quality. It made me feel a little better in a dark time; perhaps it will make you feel better, too, if you hang it in your living room?
I’m still selling art to raise money for people in Gaza, though I haven’t added anything to the Etsy store for awhile. I was busy for a couple of months drawing that big tree I showed you last time. I’ll try to get some stuff added soon but, you know, take a look at the stuff that’s in there already. And if you don’t care for any of that, you could commission the drawing that you truly yearn for.
BOOKS I'VE READ SINCE LAST TIME
Between Two Fires, Christopher Buehlman
Josh recommended I read this book, and I wrote the title down so I’d remember. Then a few weeks later I found the note and thought, “What the hell does ‘Between Two Fires’ mean?” Over the next few months Josh recommended it a couple more times and then eventually gave up and gifted me a copy for my birthday. Thanks, Josh!
And, what do you know, Josh was right, it’s a good book. It’s 1348 in France, during the Black Death. A knight, a priest, and a weird little girl—is she a saint, or is she a witch?—go on a journey to Avignon. There are lots of adventures along the way, monsters and miracles and just the regular horrors of the Black Death. Most of the novel is episodic—or picaresque, that’s probably the better term—with some memorable scenes along the way. But when they eventually make it to Avignon, things kick into high gear and it’s pretty incredible, with angels, demons, and more. Wow, thinking about this book kinda makes me want to read it again. High praise!
WHAT A DEAL!
If you act now, you can subscribe to this newsletter ABSOLUTELY FREE, and get an update from me every month. There’s no set-up fee, no additional charges. You can’t afford to pass up a deal like this! Act now!
TV SHOWS I’VE WATCHED
Leverage season 5
Fiona and Cake season 2
Death Note
Nobody Wants This season 1
Plur1bus season 1
My family has been watching Leverage a little bit at a time for months and, alas, we’ve run out of episodes. In case you haven’t seen it, the premise is: “The rich and powerful take what they want. We steal it back for you. Sometimes bad guys make the best good guys. We provide. . . leverage.” I really wish there was a Leverage team in the real world. Though if there was, I wouldn’t know about it, would I? So I guess I wish there were several Leverage teams in the real world, working overtime to bring the rich and powerful to justice. Just totally wrecking those guys.
Watched the first three episodes of Vince Gilligan’s new science-fiction show Plur1bus and I’m excited to see more. I have no idea where this is going or what the rest of the season’s going to be about. And that’s fun!
MOVIES I’VE WATCHED
Barbarian
Sinners
Hail, Caesar!
Frankenstein
Guillermo del Toro’s new Frankenstein movie was produced by Netflix, and you can watch it there right now. I have Netflix, so I could’ve seen it in my home for no extra charge, but I wanted to see it on the big screen. So while the movie enjoyed its limited theatrical release, I bought tickets and my son Jackson and I went to see it at a local theater. This demonstrates that I am a true movie lover even though, as I have scrupulously documented in this newsletter, I barely watch any movies.
Jacob Elordi is great as the creature and Oscar Isaac is great as Victor. I almost typed “Dr. Frankenstein” but in this movie, as in the original novel, Victor doesn’t have a bachelor’s degree, much less a doctorate. The reasons he leaves college are different in the movie than in the book—actually all the details are different, every single one, yet the movie still captures the spirit of the book. I only have one serious criticism, a narrative choice that lessened my enjoyment of the movie, but I don’t want to get into it because of spoilers. So go watch it and we’ll talk later.
That about wraps things up . . . oh wait, I haven’t mentioned U-Con. I went to U-Con, a gaming convention in Ypsilanti, last weekend. I had a great time playing games and hanging out with Josh and other fun folks. I played Dukk Borg (woo-oo!), Pirate Borg, and Delving Deeper.
On Saturday I ran The Prison Pits of Larubia and had a really good group of players. It was not just fun, it was also useful playtesting and inspired some revisions in the text. I’m working to make this adventure as good as it can be! Did I mention there’s a Kickstarter?
LOL, we have good times here, don’t we? Thanks for your support, friend. And, if you celebrate, have a happy Thanksgiving!
Your Friend,
Leighton