Fuck Yeah DragonQuest! That Damn Font.

For those of you DragonQuest fans that wanted to use the familiar DQ logo font, I have good news- you no longer have to use that ugly pretender to Thalia, the font used on number of SPI games, including Swords & Sorcery, Barbarian Kings, Arena of Death, and, of course, the DragonQuest line. The fake Thalia (which goes by either Thalia, Thalia Regular or Thalia Normal depending on where you find it) that has been available for the past 10+ years can be kicked to the curb where it belongs. 

I would like to direct your attention to Thaleia, a really nicely done clone of Thalia (the real one) that is available at most of the usual places you can find free fonts. Below is a side by side example of "DragonQuest" using both fonts. For the sake of the comparison, I had to almost double the point size of Thalia just to keep them in the same bracket.

It wasn't necessary for me to show the other numerous flaws in Thalia Normal as they are pretty apparent, even without the comparison. It's a really badly done knockoff- so bad that I've refused to use it, even when I could make corrections in Adobe Illustrator. 

Below that are examples, making use of their respective names, with the ubiquitous Helvetica there as a control. The flaws are punch-in-the-face obvious simply using the font's own name. So much pain, so much pain...

Note that the art department at SPI altered the "s" a bit and the cap "D" is both larger and has a lowered baseline than the example here, which hasn't been tinkered with by me.  

Click image for a closer look

Thaleia available for free here as well as a number of other sites. Use it with gusto!

UPDATE: I discovered after I'd posted this article that there is, indeed, a "lazy s" as part of both the original Thalia and new Thaleia character sets. This mean that my statement above about SPI is now null and void.

Why I Love the Internet

A search for model and one-time girlfriend of H.R. Giger, Li Tobler brought me this-

As always, click to enlarge

B/X Notebook- Let's Go to Hell!

[This was written for TSR's Known World/Mystara setting using the B/X ruleset. It incorporates elements of Wrath of the Immortals, the Known World Gazetteer series, Greyhawk, Fiend Folio and Bard Games' Atlantean Trilogy (specifically The Bestiary.) Mitra/Mithras is the stand-in for Jehova/God and is in most respects, the same deity.]

[[Special thanks to Ettin of Hexen for his assistance in tightening this up.]]

I had this idea that Hell, by whatever name, could be represented by the three alignments of D&D, that those alignments could define, in a way, how each realm would operate. These are separate realms (or planes or dimensions) each with its own character, personified by whoever rules there. Orcus and Demogorgon are most likely familiar to long time D&D players, but Veischax is my own creation, based heavily on medieval ideas of Satan and the angelic host as presented in books like the Dictionnaire Infernal, The Magus, and the Lesser and Greater Keys of Solomon. 

Infernus is the creation of Mithras, who has sole dominion over it, despite what Orcus might think. The other two realms were created under very different circumstances, as you'll see. They belong to no particular god or religion, but only to those that inhabit them.

All three planes of Hell have these things in common- they are inhabited by entities commonly known as demons (and less often as devils) and they are places of punishment for the spirits of the dead (typically human) who have in some way displeased their deity or deities. Each realm can be entered, with varying degrees of difficulty and through various means, by mortals. Whether they can make it out again is up to fate and the DM to decide. 

The following undead spirits are found anywhere in the three Hells- spectres, wraiths, shadows & wights. These are the spirits of especially evil people that have been "promoted" above the common undead spirit status. They are not, however, part of any demonic hierarchy.

Infernus

Orcus is both the ruler and a prisoner of Infernus. Condemned there by Mithras, Orcus and his minions were the first occupants. As a realm of Punishment (Law,) Infernus also serves as prison for those souls who break the Sacred Laws of Mithras.

In the center of Infernus stands a cyclopean mountain of basalt and iron, and atop that mountain sits a grand palace, where resides Orcus, the Black Prince of Infernus. The mountain itself is rife with twisting tunnels and foul dungeons where Orcus' slaves mete out punishment to the spirits of the damned. The mountain is, in effect, one big, nasty dungeon.

Beyond the mountain is a blasted wasteland of broken earth, acidic lakes, cutting winds, and boiling rain. Sulfurous fire pits are everywhere, spewing flames and belching noxious clouds into the air. 

As Mithras is not a cruel deity, all souls that enter the Infernal Realm may eventually leave there and enter into Paradise- all save for Orcus and his horde, who are damned to see those they are forced to punish gain freedom and go on to the one place they, themselves, may never again enter.

Legions of Orcus

• Gremlin
• Undead Spirit
• Hell Hound
• Nightmare
• Greater Undead
• Nether Demon
• Broo (Lesser Common Demon)
• Ostegos (Death Demon)
• Winged Demon
• Bargda (Greater Common Demon)
• Empusa
• Cataboligne
• Nightshade (all three types freely roam the land, but none are found in the mountain)

Noth

Veischax rules the realm of the dead called Noth- a grey, cold, impossibly vast city with impassably high walls and barred gates wrought from evil iron. It is a city built by the evil of Man, not the labor of demons. What the souls of sinful men have created, left to their own devices, is a strangling bureaucracy that dominates every aspect of existence in Noth. 

The damned spend most of their existence here standing in endless lines, slaving away in mines, and building or repairing sections of the city. It is a realm of crushing tedium, periodically shattered by attacks from Veischax's minions, thus creating a constant, oppressive aura of Fear (Neutral).

Known to some as the Infinite City it is in fact surrounded by a variety of terrain consisting primarily of a cold, trackless desert and the wilderness. Those that manage to escape the city find themselves hunted by beasts of every stripe. Among the demons there exists a hierarchy, with imps in the lowest positions all the way up to the monstrous kalkydri who have claimed certain districts in Noth as their own. It is Veischax the Dethroned Emperor, however, who is the undisputed master.

Occasionally, various demonic factions will come into conflict and openly wage war on each other. Some wars have been endured for decades and some even centuries and the damned are powerless to stop them. A spirit who has been destroyed in Noth simply disperses into nothingness, only to reform later. 

Legions of Veischax

• Red Imp
• Undead Spirit
• Devil Dog
• Alastor
• Grimalkin
• Bat Horin
• Diabolus
• Demon Locust
• Asura (Pit Devil)
• Nephilim
• Kalkydri

Pandemonium 

Demogorgon rules Pandemonium, a terrifying realm of the damned. It is a patchwork landscape, with areas tailored to suit the tastes of each local demonic lord. Beyond the never ending parade of unimaginable horrors, Pandemonium consists of mounds of smoldering filth and piles of flyblown rotting corpses, broken by an occasional area of shocking beauty and serenity, there to remind the damned of what they can no longer have.

While most enduring domains in Pandemonium are ruled by type V and VI demons, it is Demogorgon's lieutenants, those few exalted demons rewarded with names, that hold the most sway beyond their master's immediate influence. None, however come close to the terrifying might of the Grand Master, himself.
Pandemonium is a place where not only the souls of the damned go beyond death, but those of other evil humanoids (orcs, ogres, etc) as well, where they are subject to horrific physical and mental brutality at the hand of demons. It is a realm of Torment (Chaos).

Legions of Demogorgon

• Goblin
• Undead Spirit
• Hobgoblin
• Bugbear (Nightjack)
• Death Knight
• Retriever
• Hag
• Type I-VI Demon
• Exalted Demon Lords

*Archon = angel.