Blog Update

Things have been slow over here. But I plan on getting back to posting with the new year. I've been playing 1st edition Greyhawk lately and might post some stuff from that. I also have my own fantasy homebrew world (who doesn't?) that I might start fleshing out more. All of this is pending on how I feel and what inspiration strikes. 

Our Lamentations of the Flame Princess campaign came to an end so we may take a break from LotFP for a bit. We also discovered White Star this past year and will probably revisit that at some point. 

With all the crazy stuff going on this year, it was actually pretty good for me creatively. I published three supplements for LotFP this year, which you can check out on Drivethru and Lulu. Not sure what the new year holds, but I'm excited to find out, 2020 can suck it. 

So anyway, just wanted to post something so I get back in the mode. Keep gaming, people! See you soon.

The Witch Shack

 I made another product for LotFP/OSR over at drivethrurpg. This time with a little help from some friends. 

 

Grab yourself a copy over at drivethrurpg. It's PWYW and while you're there check out my other stuff.

Timeline of Weird Events in the 17th Century

 

Timeline of Weird Events in the 17th Century

 1608. Blood Rain in Aix, France. Residents are horrified to find a rain of blood had fallen on their village and on neighboring villages for several miles around. It was thought to be the work of sorcerers, or the Devil himself.

 1609. French explorer Pierre de Champlain records seeing a lake monster on Lake Champlain in the New World.

 

Samuel de Champlain (c. 1567-1635)

 1611. Chinese records show, that as late as 1611, the Emperor is still appointing the post of a "Royal Dragon Feeder."

 1613. In Southampton, England, in the middle of the night “lightning” strikes a house injuring the family within. The wife is burnt on the side of her body and her husband and child, both dead, are burning slowly with no flame. Despite her wounds the wife drags the husband out of the bed and into the street. The corpse continues to burn, smoking with no visible flame, for the space of three days until it is reduced to ash and bone.

 1614. A pamphlet published in London reports a large serpent or dragon living in St. Leonard's Forest near Horsham (about 40 miles south of London). The animal is allegedly about nine feet long, with a long neck and tail; can move as fast as a running man; leaves a slimy trail that smells powerfully noxious; and can spit its poison up to 60’.

 1632. On a winter night around twelve o'clock, a miller, working near the small town of Chester-in-the-Street, England is confronted by the apparition of a young woman with five gruesome wounds on her head.

 1639. Residents of the Massachusetts colony tell of a sea-serpent or snake, that lay coiled upon a rock at Cape Ann.

 1643. John Evelyn witnesses a “shining cloud in the air in the shape of a sword, the point reaching to the north. It was as bright as the moon. It began about 11 at night and vanished not till about one, being seen by all the south of England."

 

John Evelyn (c. 1620-1706)

 1644. Doctors in Lyons, France, while examining a woman's body to determine cause of death, are startled by a large plume of flame bursting from the dead woman's stomach.

 1645. Witchfinder General Matthew Hopkins hangs 18 witches at Bury St. Edmund in Suffolk, England.

 

Matthew Hopkins (c. 1620-1647)

 1653. Two noblemen of Curland drink strong liquors, and die from a flame coming from their stomachs, scorching and suffocating them!

 1660. Swedish clergyman claims in a sworn statement that a fairy or troll requested his wife to deliver a fairy baby. Rahm’s claims she did just that and returned to find a payment of silver strands in their house.

 1661. In May a Rain of Wheat occurs at Tuchbrooke, England.

 1663. The Robozero Marvel of 1663 occurs. A cleric is sent to investigate the incident, and learned that people heard a rumbling noise at midmorning. In the clear blue sky, a glowing red spherical object with blue smoke emerging from its sides and rays of light extending from the front crossed over the lake and disappeared. Less than an hour later, the people came out of church again to see the same or a similar object going in another direction. About noon, the object returned a third time, this time to hover over the lake for 45 minutes. The diameter of the sphere was enormous, equivalent to the height of a 15-storey building; the light rays illuminated the lake all the way to the bottom; and men in a boat could not approach near the object because the heat was so strong. The fish in the lake fled toward the shore and the red light from the object covered parts of the lake with a rusty color.

 1666. Rain of Fish seen over a pasture at Cranstead England.

 1670. A Dutchman, captured and enslaved by Armenian bandits, met a hermit on Mount Ararat. The Dutchman was believed by his captors to possess magical healing powers, and he treated the old man, who in gratitude handed him a piece of hard wood of a dark color and a sparkling stone, both of which the old man said he had taken from under the Ark.

1676. A doctor in Bologna, Italy witnesses a giant globe, appearing twice the size of the moon, pass by overhead.

 1678. The earliest known crop circle, known as the "Mowing Devil," is shown on a woodcut from Hertfordshire, England. The inscription reads, "Being a True Relation of a Farmer, who Bargaining with a Poor Mower, about the Cutting down Three Half Acres of Oats: upon the Mower's asking too much, the Farmer swore That the Devil should Mow it rather than He. And so, that very Night, the Crop of Oat shew'd as if it had been all of a flame: but next Morning appear'd so neatly mow'd by the Devil or some Infernal Spirit, that no Mortal Man was able to do the like. Also, How the said Oats ly now in the Field, and the Owner has not Power to fetch them away."

  1680. Madame Le Voisin, a French fortune teller, commissioned poisoner, and professional provider of sorcery, is executed in Paris. Le Voisin was the head of a coven of fortune tellers providing poison, aphrodisiacs, abortion, magical services and the arranging of black masses. Their clients were among the aristocracy. Her network of commissioned black magic and poison murder is suspected to have killed upwards of 2,500 people.

 

Madame Le Voisin (c. 1640-1680)

 1682. In Fahrenholz, Germany a number of people are put on trial, accused of lycanthropy.

1683. In a basement in Strasbourg, France six rats are found with their tails tied together, dubbed roi des rats, the Rat King.

 

The Rat King

 1683. Shower of Toads invades Acle, England a few miles from Norwich.

 1688. Salem Witch Trials. In Salem, Massachusetts 20 people are executed for witchcraft, nineteen are hanged and one is crushed under heavy stones.

 1692. A giant skeleton, measuring just over seventeen feet, is found in a tomb near Angers, France.

Robert Kirk, a Presbyterian clergyman who served in the Scottish Highlands, had a keen interest in the supernatural lore of the region, and was convinced that fairies existed. He believed his studies could accurately describe the nature of fairy life down to its smallest details. According to Kirk, fairies were of a "middle nature between man and angel" with bodies "somewhat of the nature of a condensed cloud." They dressed and spoke "like the people and country under which they live." Sometimes passing fairies could be heard but not seen. They traveled often, frequently through the air, could steal anything they liked (from food to human babies), and had no particular religion. Mortals with "second sight" (clairvoyance) were most likely to see them, since they were usually invisible to the human eye.

 1693. Spanish sailors capture a 12-foot tall two-headed giant. It kills four of its captors before having a pike driven through its heart.

Calcutta is plagued by a man-eating tiger. Edmond Hoyle discovers it is a shapechanger and kills it.

 

Edmund Hoyle (1672-1769)

 1697. Two glowing wheels are sighted in the sky over Hamburg, Germany.

 

For mundane world events see the 17th Century Timeline.

Updated 17th Century Timeline

I've updated my timeline for the 17th century. LotFP adventures with a fixed date have been inserted.

Here is the PDF, Timeline of the 17th Century.

Timeline of the 17th Century

The Thirty Years War 1618-1648

The English Civil War 1642-1651

Kings of England – James I 1603-1625, Charles I 1625-1649, Charles II 1660-1685, James II & VII 1685-1688, William III & II & Mary II 1689-1702.

Kings of France – Louis XIII 1610-1643, Louis XIV 1643-1715.

Czars of Russia – Michael I 1613-1645, Alexi I 1645-1676, Feodor III 1676-1682, Peter I 1682-1725.

Kings of Spain – Phillip III 1598-1621, Phillip IV 1621-1665, Charles II 1665-1700.

Holy Roman Emperors – Matthias 1612-1619, Ferdinand II 1619-1637, Ferdinand III 1637-1657, Leopold I 1658-1705.

Popes – Paul V 1605-1621 (persecuted Galileo), Gregory XV 1621-1623, Urban VIII 1623-1644, Innocent X 1644-1655, Alexander VII 1655-1667, Clement IX 1667-1669, Clement X 1670-1676, Innocent XI 1676-1689, Alexander VIII 1689-1691, Innocent XII 1691-1700.

1600. Giordano Bruno is burned as a heretic.

English East India Company established.

1600-1603. The God that Crawls.

1603. Ieyasu rules Japan, moves capital to Edo (Tokyo).

Shakespeare's Hamlet is first performed.

1605. Cervantes's Don Quixote de la Mancha, the first modern novel.

1607. Jamestown, Virginia, established—first permanent English colony on American mainland.

Pocahontas, daughter of Chief Powhatan, saves the life of John Smith.

1609. Samuel de Champlain establishes French colony of Quebec.

The Relation, the first newspaper, debuts in Germany.

The telescope is invented by Hans Lippershey, a Dutch scientist.

From 1609 to 1611 Henry Hudson of England, sailing for the Dutch East India Company, explores the Chesapeake, Delaware, and New York bays.

1610. Galileo sees the moons of Jupiter through his telescope.

1611. Gustavus Adolphus elected King of Sweden.

King James Version of the Bible published in England.

Rubens paints his Descent from the Cross.

1614. John Napier discovers logarithms.

1615. The Magnificent Joop van Ooms.

1616. Shakespeare dies.

1617. Blood in the Chocolate.

1618. Start of the Thirty Years' War, Protestants revolt against Catholic oppression; Denmark, Sweden, and France will invade the Holy Roman Empire (Germany) in later phases of the war.

Kepler proposes last of three laws of planetary motion.

1619. A Dutch ship brings the first African slaves to British North America.

1620. Pilgrims, after a three-month voyage on the Mayflower, land at Plymouth Rock.

Francis Bacon's Novum Organum is published.

The first weekly newspaper in Europe begins publication in Amsterdam.

1623. New Netherland founded by Dutch West India Company.

1625. Death Love Doom, Forgive Us, More Than Meets the Eye.

New Amsterdam is founded in July by the Dutch West India Company.

Late 1620’s. No Salvation for Witches.

1630. Midvinter.

Massachusetts Bay Colony established.

1631. Better Than Any Man.

1632. No Rest for the Wicked.

Maryland founded by Lord Baltimore.

1633. Inquisition forces Galileo (astronomer) to recant his belief in Copernican theory.

1635. Fish F***ers.

1642. England Upturn’d.

English Civil War. Cavaliers, supporters of Charles I, fight against Roundheads, parliamentary forces.

Abel Tasman of the Netherlands discovers Tasmania and New Zealand.

Rembrandt paints his Night Watch.

1643. Taj Mahal completed.

1644. End of Ming Dynasty in China—Manchus comes to power.

Descartes's Principles of Philosophy.

1646. Oliver Cromwell defeats Royalists.

1648. End of the Thirty Years' War. German population about half of what it was in 1618 because of war and pestilence.

In England, Parliament demands reforms. Charles I offers concessions, and is brought to trial.

1649. Charles I is beheaded.

The Bank of England is founded. Merchants and tradesmen began to exchange promissory notes as a form of money. The goldsmiths realized that not all of their customers would withdraw their gold at the same time. So it was safe to issue notes for more gold than they actually had. They could then lend money using the extra notes.

1653. Cromwell becomes Lord Protector.

1658. Cromwell dies; son Richard resigns and Puritan government collapses.

1660. English Parliament calls for the restoration of the monarchy; invites Charles II to return from France.

1661. Charles II is crowned King of England.

Louis XIV begins personal rule as absolute monarch; starts to build Versailles.

1664. The British take New Amsterdam from the Dutch, renaming it New York. English limit “Nonconformity” with reestablished Anglican Church.

Isaac Newton experiments with gravity.

1665. Great Plague in London kills 75,000.

1666. Aresde de Torki prints “The Nine Gates of the Kingdom of Shadows”, adapted from the “de la Malonica” a book supposedly written by the devil.

Great Fire of London.

Molière's Misanthrope is printed.

1667. Milton's Paradise Lost is printed, widely considered the greatest epic poem in English.

1682. Pennsylvania founded by William Penn.

1683. War of European powers against the Turks (to 1699). Vienna withstands three-month Turkish siege; high point of Turkish advance in Europe.

1684. The Squid, the Cabal, and the Old Man.

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz's Calculus published.

1685. James II succeeds Charles II in England, calls for freedom of conscience (1687). Protestants fear restoration of Catholicism and demand “Glorious Revolution.” William of Orange invited to England and James II escapes to France (1688). William III and his wife, Mary, crowned.

In France, Edict of Nantes of 1598, granting freedom of worship to Huguenots, is revoked by Louis XIV; thousands of Protestants flee.

1689. Peter the Great becomes Czar of Russia—attempts to westernize nation and build Russia as a military power.

Beginning of the French and Indian Wars (to 1763), campaigns in America linked to a series of wars between France and England for domination of Europe.

1690. William III of England defeats former king James II and Irish rebels at Battle of the Boyne in Ireland.

John Locke's Human Understanding is printed.

1699. End of the War with the Turks.

 

For Weird Events see this timeline.