Stealer of Souls (1985) is the first part of a two-part adventure for the Stormbringer RPG. Unusually, the events of the adventure are woven around the aftermath of the Michael Moorcock story of the same name.

In the story, Elric reluctantly takes a contract on a merchant issued by four of his competitors. Normally, not Elric’s thing, but the merchant in question hired Theleb K’aarna, sorcerer of Pan Tang, to do security. Elric and Theleb have old beef, so Elric uses the contract as a means to settle it. And settle it he does, but not before some hijinx and maybe a broken oath or two that leaves the merchant dead. The adventure sees the merchant’s daughter, Freyda Nikorn, on a quest for vengeance. In this part, her targets are the merchants who hired Elric and the players are going to help her.

It is a pretty cool adventure. All the merchants are assholes of different types and the assassinations all have a distinct character. Part of me wants to be skeptical of the practice of weaving scenarios directly out of short stories (particularly very good short stories like “Stealer of Souls”), especially when they mean crossing paths (and likely swords) with a beloved character who can effortlessly murder even the strongest of PCs. But this one comes off rather nicely in spite of that (maybe things change when Elric shows up).