Last year I backed the DCC Annual Kickstarter and also grabbed a copy of the updated adventure/mini campaign setting, The Chained Coffin, of which I posted some pics, down in the DCC thread of the RPG section. For those not familiar with the adventure, Michael Curtis, the creator and author has set the adventure in a location known as the Shudder Mountains which is inspired by the people and folklore of our own historic Appalachian Mountains of yesteryear.
Here's a snippet from the PDF with more detail:
Being a fan of works from the more well known authors like Tolkien, Howard, Lovecraft, etc., this mention of Wellman's stories piqued my interest so I decided to scour the interwebs to see what I could find.You’re about to take a journey to a place that possesses both heartbreaking beauty and bone-chilling horror. A land filled with some of the kindest, goodly-hearted people you’ll ever have the pleasure of meeting as well as the blackest souls to ever wander the earth. A stretch of worn-down hills and pine-shadowed hollows known as the Shudder Mountains.
The Shudder Mountains were born from an eccentric idea I had to pay homage to the works of Appendix N author, Manly Wade Wellman. My goal was to transform the rich culture and folklore of the Appalachian Mountains, so evocatively portrayed by Wellman in his Silver John series of stories, into the sword & sorcery genre. It seemed a wild scheme but Joseph Goodman was both generous and equally crazy enough to grant his permission. The result was DCC #83 The Chained Coffin.
I only managed to scratch the surface of the Shudder Mountains in that adventure and I eagerly told Joseph that, if the adventure proved a popular one, I’d be willing to return to the Shudders as there was a lot left unsaid about the place. Luckily for me, I wouldn’t have to wait that long. Thanks to the success of The Chained Coffin Kickstarter campaign, I was given the opportunity to go back to the mountains and reveal some more of its secrets.
I did manage to locate a complete collection of Wellman's work in a Planet Stories edition, but it was published back in something 2010 by Paizo, and unfortunately, is no longer in print. I checked the local used books stores here, but had zero luck. I found a copy on eBay a week or so back for a much higher price than I wanted to pay, but it would seem options are slim to non-existent so I bit the bullet and grabbed it anyhow. Hopefully it will arrive by end of this week or early next.
I'd never heard of Manly Wade Wellman or his stories of Silver John prior to reading The Chained Coffin but I like the adventure and setting and it sounds like these stories are something worth adding to my literary collection.
The stories are rich in the customs and lore of the region and many of the folk songs John sings are authentic as well. Wellman did introduce some original songs and legends but his creations blend seamlessly with the traditional material. Whereas Tolkien integrated Northern mythology into his mythos, and C.S. Lewis the European Fairy Tales of yore, Wellman’s stories are drenched in the folktales and songs of old Americana; the haunting stories of the slaves and the tall tales of the Revolution, strange beasts, witch-women, and dark apparitions. As famed author Karl Edward Wagner wrote: "These stories are chilling and enchanting, magical and down-to-earth, full of wonder and humanity. They are fun. They are like nothing else you’ve read before."
