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Credits Contents

RUINS OF HYBORIARUINS OF HYBORIA

Conan: Ruins of Hyboria is © 2006 Conan Properties International LLC. CONAN®, CONAN THE BARBARIAN® and related logos, character, names and distinctive likenesses thereof are trademarks of Conan Properties International LLC unless otherwise noted. All Rights Reserved. Mongoose Publishing Ltd Authorised User. Conan the Roleplaying Gameis released under version 1.0 of the Open Game License. Reproduction of non-Open Game Content of this work by any means without the written permission of the pulisher is expressly forbidden. See page 160 for the text of this license. With the exception of the character creation rules detailing the mechanics of assigning dice roll results to abilities and the advancement of character levels, all game mechanics and statistics (including the game mechanics of all feats, skills, classes, creatures, spells and the combat chapter) are declared open content. Printed in China.

Introduction 2

Creating Ruins 3

Cultures and Ruins 26

City of the Winged One 49

City of the Ghouls 55

Dagoth Hill 64

Green Stone Cities 67

Gazal 70

The Isle of Iron Statues 75

Isle of the Black Ones 78

Khet 83

Kutchemes 86

Pteion the Damned 93

Tombs and Pyramids 99

Xuchotl 109

Exploring Ruins 126

Monsters of the Ruins 137

Index 155

License 160

AuthorVincent N. Darlage

EditorRichard Ford

Additional TextNick Bergquist & W. Jason Peck

Cover ArtChris Quilliams

Interior ArtistsEric Bergeron, Jim Brady, Slawomir Maniak, Danilo Moretti, Philip Renne & Chad Sergesketter

RPG ManagerIan Belcher

Production DirectorAlexander Fennell

ProofreadingRon Bedison

PlaytestersBrian Bertrand, Mark Billanie, Tina Cook, Cindy Freeman, Craig Freeman, Brian Gellineault, Jamie Godfrey, Daryl Guignon, Richard Haines, Daniel Haslam, Brian Herrell, Mark Howe, Lucas Mackay, Danny Maloney, Alan Moore, Paul Palmer, Kevin Peterson, Robert Poulin, Ray Regular, Daniel Scothorne & Michael J. Young

Special ThanksThommy Wojciechowski & Fredrik Malmberg at Conan Properties.

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Int

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ion Introduction

Ancient ruins and lost cultures are a mainstay of sword-and-sorcery fi ction, especially Conan fi ction. This book contains new rules for creating ruins, including a random generator. This generator takes the Games Master through the culture that built the ruins, the history of the ruins, how the structure came to be a ruin, its layout including defences, size and physical state, the cultural remnants of the ruin, and the alien nature of most ruins in the Hyborian Age.

After that follows a lengthy discussion on what sorts of ruins can be found in the Hyborian Age, each listed by current nationalities and cultures. Nemedian ruins are different than Turanian ruins, but how so? Also listed are sample ruins found in the various stories of the Hyborian Age, ranging from ruins mentioned by Robert E. Howard, to the multitude of ruins found in the books and comics that followed Howard’s initial tales.

Some individual ruins are explored in greater detail. The City of the Winged One, from Howard’s Queen of the Black Coast, is given an in-depth treatment, including the winged ape and the were-hyenas Conan fought.

The City of the Ghouls, mentioned in passing in Howard’s The Hour of the Dragon, is presented for the fi rst time with a map and a considerable amount of

detail. Do you want to send chills of horror down the spines of your players? The City of the Ghouls should

fi ll that need nicely.

The ruins of Dagoth Hill, mentioned as the place of conception for the dread Tsotha-lanti of

The Scarlet Citadel, is explored for the fi rst time. A map and a few legends concerning the place are presented along with a detailed description.

Gazal, from a rough draft of Robert E. Howard’s, is presented, as is Howard’s Isle of Iron Statues. The Isle of the Black One (from The Pool of the Black One) is also presented.

Khet, Kuthchemes and Pteion are Stygian ruins detailed and given maps for the

fi rst time for Conan the Roleplaying Game. Players and Games

Master’s alike will relish the exploration of these historic artefacts of Stygia’s past.

A particular favourite of many Conan fans is the green city of Xuchotl, described by Howard in Red Nails.Detailed maps of each of these tiers are presented for Games Masters. Be careful – it is easy to get lost

in Xuchotl without a map to show the way.

Further, maps presenting generic Green Stone Ruins

for the Games Master’s own use are also provided.

All of this is followed by a section on exploring ruins, which includes rules for cave-ins and traps, as well as a trio of new feats for ruin explorers.

The fi nal section is a bestiary of monsters commonly found in Hyborian Age ruins and a section on making monsters more unique. This bestiary includes serpent-men (which feature in de Camp’s Conan stories and Howard’s Kull stories) and the child of Set (from The God in the Bowl).

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Creating RuinsA Random Ruin Generator

Sometimes an idea for a ruin forms in a Games Master’s mind and there is no diffi culty translating that to the game. Other times, the Games Master may know he wants a ruin but cannot decide on his specifi c needs and it seems like all the ideas are ripped straight from the pages of Robert E. Howard without hardly any modifi cation. The following generator is intended to spark the imagination so it can be used for random elements or pick and choose the elements that seem most relevant. Use the generator in any order desired; there is no particular reason to use it in the order it is presented. Sometimes beginning with the history may suggest things about the structure of the ruin. On the other hand, knowing the layout and some things about the structure may suggest its history.

Cultural Nature of the Builders

Sometimes knowing something about the culture of the race that built the ruins can help spur the direction of its history or its structure. A warrior culture will have more castles and battlements in its ruins while a primarily agrarian culture will have more canals and irrigation ditches. Roll a d20 (or simply choose) for a cultural type from the table below. There is no reason to limit yourself to just one roll if you want a more complex society. A noble/warrior culture might be feudal in nature, while an agricultural/religious centre will possibly worship nature gods.

Cultural Typed20 Basic Cultural Type01-02 Agricultural03 Artistic04 Capital05-06 Decadent07 Industrial08 Noble09 Pirate10-13 Religious14-15 Scholarly16 Thief17-18 Trader19-20 Warrior

Agricultural: The culture has developed a strong agriculture and can deal with harsh seasons most of the time. The ruin is unlikely to be large if it had a mostly pastoral/agrarian culture. This also includes fi shing settlements.

Artistic: An artistic culture is a city primarily devoted to the arts; the ruin may once have been an artistic commune or a settlement of craftsmen serving a larger city.

Capital: The city is the seat of government for a larger area. A capital may have another cultural type attached to it.

Decadent: The culture could coax sustenance from the air and was so used to luxury it grew stagnant. The people were given to great extremes of hedonism and had few morals or standards.

Industrial: The settlement had achieved a marked advancement in technology (although still low by modern standards), perhaps utilising water power to grist mills or saws. Logging villages or mining towns may be of this sort.

Noble: A noble culture exists to serve the wealthy. Art and diplomacy are the name of the game in these cultures. The lower classes are oppressed and/or ignored.

Pirate: A pirate culture is often governed by some sort of charter or set of articles that the various crews agree to uphold.

Religious: The city existed for religious reasons; it was a religious centre for an entire culture devoted to a god or set of gods. This is often a temple building society dedicated to using a vast amount of its resources to honour the gods. Often the culture was dominated by a strong theocracy. Stygia is an example of this sort of society.

Scholarly: Much like the Stygian city of Kheshatta, this culture was driven by scholarly pursuits, science and intellectual acumen. Libraries, laboratories and academies probably dominate the ruin.

Thief: A thief culture would resemble the City of Thieves in Zamora. The culture was dominated by gangs and crime families.

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Trader: A trader culture is geared toward getting goods from one place to another. The city may use land routes, river routes or may be (or once have been) on the shore of a lake or ocean. The ruin was once an important market.

Warrior: A warrior culture treats war as its main activity. The whole culture leans toward war and its rulers are veteran combatants. This culture is not necessarily violent on an individual level – it may view war as an art and philosophy,

or the settlement may just have a defensive function for a larger culture, such as Sukhmet in Stygia. The culture

may be crude and brutal in its methods or it may be sophisticated, using forms of martial arts.

Ethnic Type

If desired, a Games Master can roll or choose a racial or ethnic type for the ruins and their builders. Keep in mind that having a racial type does not necessarily indicate location. Robert E. Howard’s stories were replete with Shemite or Kothic cities founded in the Black Kingdoms, Aquilonian cities on Cimmerian soil or Aquilonian cities in the Pictish Wilderness; and other pastiches have included Corinthian cities founded in Zamora and Nemedian cities founded in the Border Kingdom. If not already known, a second roll can be made to randomly determine the ruin’s location.

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Ethnic Typed100 Ethnicity01-02 Aboriginal03-04 Acheronian05-06 Aquilonian07-08 Argossean09 Ashur (see page 40)10 Barachan11 Border Kingdom12-13 Brythunian14 Cimmerian15-17 Corinthian18-19 Darfari20 Ghulistani21-22 Giant-King23-29 Green-stone Builder30-31 Hyperborean32-33 Hyrkanian34-35 Iranistani36-37 Keshani38-39 Khari40 Khaurani41-43 Khitan44 Khorajan45-47 Kothic48 Kushite49 Mutare (see page 41)50-54 Nemedian55-56 Nordheimer57-58 Ophirean59-65 Other66 Pictish67-73 Pre-human74 Puntish75-77 Shemite78 Southern Black Kingdom79-82 Stygian83-84 Turanian85-90 Unknown91-92 Vendhyan93-94 Zamorian95-96 Zembabwan97-98 Zhemri99-100 Zingaran

HistoricalNature of the

RuinHistory is important for getting a feel for a ruin. How old is the ruin? Is the ruin a village abandoned 10 years ago for mysterious reasons or is it an ancient citadel thousands of years old? Howard’s ruins almost always included historical elements with characters often discovering the history through interaction with the inhabitants or through dreams and visions. History makes the ruin seem more real and concrete in the minds of the Players, instead of just being a random dot on the map.

The tables below can be used to generate (or inspire) a skeletal history for your ruin. Roll as many times as needed or desired on the tables to piece together a general framework. Specifi cs, however, will need to be provided from your imagination.

The Beginnings of the Civilisation

This part of the history is optional. It is okay to leave the beginnings of the civilisation vague or lost to time. The beginning of the Acheronians and the Giant-Kings fall into this category.

This list is by no means exhaustive but is intended to spark the imagination. Many of the details will need to be fi lled in by the Games Master; these tables provide the merest skeleton of the culture’s beginning.

In The Beginningd20 Source of Culture1-2 Atlantean or pre-Cataclysmic Thurian Culture3-4 Cataclysm5-6 Colony7-8 Death of Prior Culture9-10 Good Location11-12 Migration13-14 Omen15-16 Outpost17-20 Unknown

Atlantean or pre-Cataclysmic Thurian Culture:The culture sprang from something pre-Cataclysmic, such as the Zhemri or the Picts.

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Cataclysm: The culture’s beginnings are rooted in either the Great Cataclysm or the lesser cataclysm.

Colony: The ruin had its beginnings as a colony for a larger civilisation.

Death of Prior Culture: Another culture had a cataclysmic end and the builders of the current structure simply built on top of their ruins – or just occupied their space.

Good Location: The site was chosen because of defensibility or access to natural resources.

Migration: Like the culture that built Xuchotl, the people migrated from elsewhere to the ruin.

Omen: The culture decides to build a civilisation because of an omen. The Aztecs are reputed to have built their

civilisation after an eagle was seen perching on a cactus, a sign they were told to look for.

Outpost: The ruin had its beginnings as an outpost for a larger civilisation.

Unknown: The beginnings of the civilisation are lost to prehistory;

the shroud of time is too thick to pierce.

AncientEvents &

PeriodsPossibly some events from the ancient history of the civilisation are known. Generally only the greatest of events will be recorded for posterity that date back to the

earliest era of a culture. Cultures may have a classic era (golden age), a post-classic era and/or a pre-classic era.

Post-Classic Era: Changes cause the end of the classic age of the

culture. Growth may continue or may falter. Some cultures have more than one post-classic era, such as an

early, middle and late post-classic era, each with its own events.

Pre-Classic Era: Societal forms are developing. Some cultures have more than one pre-classic era, such as an early, middle and late pre-classic era, each with its own events.

Ancient Events & Periodsd20 Event or Period01 Builder Era02 Discovery03 Enslavement04 Epic War05 Expansion of Nobility06 Expansionary Period07 Founding08 Golden Age09 Grand Edifi ce Constructed10 Great Cataclysm or Lesser Cataclysm11 Legendary Figure12-13 Lesser Cataclysmic Change14-15 Natural Disaster16 Period of Peace17 Period of War18 Plague19 Religion20 Renaissance Period

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