Gods of the Forbidden North: Volume 3 Pre-Order

Arriving this Christmas 2025!

Gods of the Forbidden North is a massive, three-volume mega-adventure series written for the Old-School Essentials: Advanced Fantasy tabletop role-playing game by Necrotic Gnome. It details a campaign setting, a wilderness hex-crawl, a sprawling underworld connecting to multiple entrances on the surface, and most importantly, an enormous megadungeon.

• Volume 1: The first book covers the arctic frontier's settlements, cultures, religions, and its vast wilderness regions. It includes 1 urban starter quest and 5 low-level dungeons.
• Volume 2: The second book details the underworld below the continent's surface, plutonian settlements, 4 mid-level dungeons, 1 urban investigation adventure, and 1 high-level dungeon.
• Volume 3: The third book explores the last undescribed hex on the wilderness map (hex 10.02) that contains the legendary Castle Thar-Gannon megadungeon, its upper and lower halls, 3 mysterious towers, and 3 vast dungeon levels. It also includes the Cyclopean City of Chaos, with 23 unique tower dungeons, plus the secret entrance into the Tesseract of Time.

The 532-page second volume is designed for a heroic party of 6-8 adventurers to begin at 5th level and reach a minimum of 9th level by the book's conclusion, although most parties will hit 10-12th level if all underworld encounters are exhausted. Though the mega-adventure was originally designed as a sandbox campaign, it also supports episodic adventure path playstyles, as well.

Note: The Premium Edition book comes in a traditional U.S. letter-size format (8.5 x 11") printed using richer ink on heavier 80# matte-coated paper with a glossy, durable, smythe-sewn hardcover. This volume is gorgeously illustrated with black-and-white interior artwork by a team of talented industry professionals and enclosed in a full-color hardcover designed by Hollywood concept artist, Terry Vanatta. It also includes a colored reading ribbon.

Summary

The mega-adventure's third and final forthcoming book is set for a Christmas Day 2025 release date. Volume 3's manuscript is 400+ pages with illustrations and cartography. It explores the fortress-lair of Baalor the Skull God, the dreaded Castle Thar-Gannon: its upper halls, mysterious towers, and dark dungeons. This megadungeon occupies hex 10.02 on the wilderness map, which is the last unexplored hex in the entire adventure. The castle consists of its massive Lower and Upper Halls, the 11-story tower of Dar-Bendor, the 6-story twin towers of Carak Varn and Tharak'thor, the Warrens of Doom, the Under-Vaults of Angornost, and the Dark Pits of Gorgorauth. These high-level adventure locations (9th-14th level) contain hundreds of detailed rooms and challenging encounter areas.

The book also includes the underground ruins of the Cyclopean City of Chaos, which leads to the mega-adventure's epic climax in the Tesseract of Time. There, at the remote boundaries of the cosmos, where all matter, energy, space, and time collapses, the heroes come face to face with Baalor the Skull God...only to discover his losing battle against an Ancient Terror from beyond the known universe.

Here is our approximate production timeline:

• May 2025: Revise Chapters 4, 5, and 6
• June 2025: Revise Chapters 7 and 8
• July 2025: Revise Chapters 9 and 10
• August 2025: Draft Introduction & Appendices A-D
• September 2025: Edit & Proofread Manuscript & Order Artwork
• October 2025: Assign Finished Artwork to Final Manuscript
• November 2025: Send Finalized Manuscript to Layout
• December 2025: Send Finalized Product to Printing Partner
• Christmas 2025: Digital Rewards Fulfillment Day!!!
• January 2026: Coordinate Shipping with Fulfillment Partner
• February 2026: Print Rewards Fulfillment Day!!!

Note: During our last campaign, we promised this same timeline but finished two months early. Our plan is to do that again.