Editorial
by Giampaolo Agosta from Threshold Magazine issue 6
Bring me the fairest creature northward born,
Where Phoebus’ fire scarce thaws the icicles,
And let us make incision for your love
To prove whose blood is reddest, his or mine.
William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, Act 2, Scene I.
Like the Prince of Morocco in Shakespeare’s comedy, we too have
challenged the North -- perhaps against our better judgement, since
the challenge was eagerly met. The Threshold Editorial Team received
almost four hundred pages of material! So, what you hold
in your hands is only the first in a series of three issues Threshold
Magazine will devote to the North, which will include Norwold, the
Northern Reaches and other, more exotic Northern lands. Additionally,
Norse-inspired cultures, Immortals, fearless explorers, and pioneers
will populate these issues.
To welcome you to the Northlands of Mystara, dear reader, we have
collected a choice selection of articles, including
a preview of the long-awaited F-Gaz “The Open
Arms of Leeha”. We also
have an interview with Marco Dalmonte, author of the Codex
Immortalis, who discussed his fascination with the mad wizard
Gargantua, as well as his recent campaign set in Northern Alphatia.
To help build a Norwold campaign, we open this issue with an article discussing the themes, adversaries, organizations and monsters of Norwold, as well as the adaptation of resources from other campaign settings and generic AD&D modules. “The Viking mentality”, on the other hand, provides guidelines to play Northern Reaches characters true to the flavor of real world vikings.
Adventures are included as well in this issue, with a new level for Koskatep, our mega-dungeon, and an adaptation of AD&D campaign module “The Night Below” to the Soderfjord Jarldoms.
We complete this issue with the final instalments of “History of Ierendi and Minrothad” and the “Thyatian Senators” gallery, along with our established column on books, Mystaranomicon, which in this issue deals with books from Norwold and the Heldannic Territories.
So, without further ado, we welcome you to the Northlands!
Giampaolo Agosta (Agathokles)
Editor-in-chief, Threshold Issue 6