A to Z of Adventure! M is for Masters Series

M is for Masters Series.

The Masters series of adventures were created for the BECMI version of D&D.  Typically around here I have BECMI as roughly synonymous with B/X D&D or "Basic D&D" well....the M or Master Series is around to remind me that this is not really the case.

So a bit history.
The first Basic Set was authored by John Eric Holmes in 1977.  Gamers often call this "Blue Book Basic".
The next Basic Set was written by Tom Moldvay and was followed by the Cook/Marsh Expert Set. These books are collectively known as B/X.
The next set would be the last "Basic D&D". It was written and edited by +Frank Mentzer and included the Basic, Expert, Companion, Masters and Immortal sets. Also known as BECMI.
Each set detailed more levels of the game; 1-3, 4-14, 15-25, 26-36, and Immortality, respectively.

The Masters set and M series of modules were designed for experienced players and characters of 26th level and higher.

Only five M series modules were made.

Code	Title	Levels	Author(s)	Published	Notes
M1	Into the Maelstrom	25–30	Bruce Heard, Beatrice Heard	1985
M2	Vengeance of Alphaks	28–32	Skip Williams	1986
M3	Twilight Calling	30–35	Tom Moldvay	1986
M4	Five Coins for a Kingdom	28–32	Allen Varney	1987
M5	Talons of Night	20–25	Jannell Jaquays	1987

Of these I only own M1, M3 and M5.

The simple matter is few characters get to this high of a level and often when they do the DM usually has their own adventures for them.

M1 Into the Maelstrom is a cool adventure with flying ships which became some of a fasination for +Bruce Heard.  If I were to play this one I would naturally have to include material from Bruce's own Calidar, In Stranger Skies setting.  Or set it in Calidar...hmmm this gives me some ideas.

M3 Twilight Calling is from the creative mind of the late Tom Moldvay.  Tom is something of a celebertiy in my home games. Every adventure I have run of his my family likes.  Likes enough to ask who wrote it. After saying Tom Moldvay for the third time (Castle Amber, Isle of Dread, Lost City, Secret of the Slavers Stockade...).   It is my favorite M series module and has the players go on a plane-hopping adventure to finally get to the Plane of Nightmares.  I have often thought it would make for a perfect "Final Adventure" for any party.

M5 Talons of Night by Jannell Jaquays is also fun, and really deadly adventure.  I grabbed it becuase of the dragon on the cover.  If M3 is the finale for my "Come Endless Darkness" game then M5 should be the finale of my "Dragonslayers" game.
Plus, it always reminds me of this song.



I mentioned H4 with it's 18-100 level range, and it is deadly.  But that adventure is just really a scaled up 20th level adventure.  These adventures are qualitatively different.

I am just disappointed that they are not available yet on DriveThruRPG as PDFs, though I am glad I have mine.

A to Z of Adventure! L is for Lendore Isles

L is for Lendore Isles (and Len Lakofka).

I was a fan of Len Lakofka way back in the day when I first discovered his work in Dragon Magazine.

I think it was his articles on the Gods and Goddesses of the Suel Empire that read first. Especially the one on Wee Jas.  Or it could have been his article on the Death Master NPC.

But in any case it was his L series, the Lendore Isles, that most people know his work.

Module L1, The Secret of Bone Hill, is a classic for a number of reasons. First it was Lakofka's first foray into module writing. There is was plenty of background detailed in this module as well, a lot for what amounts to an introductory module.

The typical hack-n-slash or kick in the door plot is given over to what really amounts to a mystery.   The adventure section itself is actually only a small part of the adventure.

I also think it was that Bill Willingham cover.  I made character based on that magic user.

I got the chance to run my kids through this at Gen Con 2014 and we had a great time with it.
I had planned to run L2 Assassin's Knot, which is a great follow-up to L1, but time did not allow it.  By the time I had calculated all the XP the characters were ready for something else anyway.  Which is too bad, there is a great murder mystery in L2 that my youngest would have loved.

L3 Deep Dwarven Delve was completed at the same time as the first two adventures, somewhere around 1979, however it would not see publication til 1999 for the D&D Silver Anniversay Edition set.  I have never actually owned or even read this one. A fact that was lost on me till I started working on this post!  In fact the game it was written and published for, 1st Edition AD&D, was no longer in print and 3rd edition was on the very near horizon. Even the company, TSR, was no more having been bought by Wizards of the Coast.
(eta I checked and I did buy it on PDF at some point)

You would think that 20 years is enough to keep a guy out of the gaming biz. Well Len then released the next installments of the Lendore Isles adventures on the old-school gaming forum Dragons's Foot.

The next adventures were L4 Devilspawn and L5 The Kroten Adventures.
Plus material to support these adventures.

I have ready through these other adventures and I can't help but feel that they might work great for Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea. They have the same feel to me and think they would compliment each other very nicely.

A to Z of Adventure! K is for the Known World

K is for the Known World.

Long before the game world of the D&D BECMI sets was called "Mystara", it was simply "The Known World" of the D&D B/X sets.

I posted some history here, but for me the best and first Known World module was X1 Isle of Dread.  I am going to wait though and detail that one on X day.

Back in the early days of the 80s we didn't have a developed campaign world like Greyhawk if you played B/X D&D.  That is until the Expert set came out and teased us with the maps of the Known World.  We took these little tidbits of the world and we built our own.  That is one of the reasons why my Glantri is a Theological Oligarchy but the official one is a Magecracy of Principalities.

This was my home for much of the early 80s. Building worlds, trying to fit square pegs into round holes.  Buffing out the rough spots.

The world that grew out my experiments in the Known World was later something that the Internet had already named; Mystoerth.  Now my kids are exploring this world and there are still new things to be found.  In some ways I would have liked to have created a world whole cloth then I'd have something to publish today. But in truth I rather like my hodge-podge mix of various pieces of other worlds. I can relate to the Mystara folk and the Greyhawk folk. If need a new area figure out, I grab something from my shelf.

That is the best thing about these adventures. There are always more and more places to have them.

A to Z of Adventure! J is for Jeff Dee Adventures

J is for Jeff Dee Adventures.

These adventures are not classics. In fact they are only a few years old. But they do have a solid pedigree.  They were both designed and illustrated by legendary TSR artist, and co-creator of the Villians and Vigilantes game, +Jeff Dee.

JD1 Cess-Pit of the Bog-Mother
This is a fun little adventure for characters level 1-3 for your favorite Old-School game.
At just under 10 pages it is perfect for a quick afternoon game. It would work great while traveling to another adventure or in-between towns. The map is repeated in b&w (blue and white) and full-color versions.

JD2 Darkland Moors
Another mini-adventure, this time for a little bit higher lever adventurers. The basic idea here is to investigate the moor and defeat a cyclops causing trouble.  There are three black and white maps.  Given this is about a cyclops I could work it into the Giants series pretty easily.

Both adventures are under $2.50 and you get an adventure you can run in an afternoon.  Perfect for slotting in between other adventures or even to break up the campaign a little.

A to Z of Adventure! I is for Intermediate

I is for Intermediate.

The Intermediate adventures for experienced adventures but not quite what we call "name" level (9th and above).  This is also what many call the prime adventuring levels.  Also many of these were ranked in the 30 greatest adventures of all time.

While not linked in any particular way, they do sometimes have links to other I modules.  I3, 4 and 5 are a mini-campaign. I6 and I10 are sequels.

I1 Dwellers of the Forbidden City was ranked as the 13th greatest adventure of all time.  Ravenloft I6 was ranked at #2.  I3, 4 and 5, aka the Desert of Desolation series were ranked collectively as the 6th greatest adventure.

Now I have spoken about Ravenloft so many times that I really don't think I need to do it again here.  The same goes for it's sequel I10 The House on Gryphon Hill.

I had started Egg of the Phoenix many years ago. In fact it was the last adventure my long time High School DM ever took me through.  After that I was in college and he was doing other things.  I would like to run that one too, just because of unfinished business.

A lot of these adventures make up what I am calling my "Second Campaign". Dwellers of the Forbidden City and the Desert of Desolation will make up a good bulk of that series for me.   I just really need to find a new copy of Day of Al'Ackbar.  I lost mine years ago.

Code	Title	Levels	Author(s)	Pub. Year
I1	Dwellers of the Forbidden City	4–7	David Cook	1981
I2	Tomb of the Lizard King	5-7	Mark Acres	1982
I3	Pharaoh	5–7	Tracy & Laura Hickman	1982
I4	Oasis of the White Palm	6–8	Philip Meyers & Tracy Hickman	1983
I5	Lost Tomb of Martek	7–9	Tracy Hickman	1983
I6	Ravenloft	5–7	Tracy & Laura Hickman	1983
I7	Baltron's Beacon	4-8	Philip Meyers	1985
I8	Ravager of Time	8–10	Graeme Morris & Jim Bambra	1986
I9	Day of Al'Akbar	8–10	Allen Hammack	1986
I10	Ravenloft II: The House on Gryphon Hill	8–10	Tracy & Laura Hickman	1986
I11	Needle	8–10	Frank Mentzer	1987
I12	Egg of the Phoenix	5-9	Frank Mentzer and Jennel Jaquays	1987
I13	Adventure Pack I	All	Deborah Christian (ed.)	1987
I14	Swords of the Iron Legion	1–15+	Skip Williams (ed.)	1988

I am really considering running I10: Ravenloft II for my kids using the new 5th Edition Ravenloft/Curse of Strahd book.  I just need to figure out a good place to slot it in.  It would have to go before the GDQ series.

Ravager of Time is an interesting one really.  It was written in the UK, but is not part of the UK series of adventure modules.  Also the main antagonist, Nuala, is a witch in all but name.

So here is Nuala, converted to a Basic Era Witch.  This might be a good adventure to add to my War of the Witch Queens.

Nuala
14th level Witch, Mara Tradition

Strength: 15
Dexterity: 16
Constitution: 16
Intelligence: 16
Wisdom: 9
Charisma: 17

Saves
Death Ray or Poison:  9
Magic wand or devices: 10
Paralysis, Polymorph or Turn to Stone: 9
Dragon Breath: 12
Rods, Staffs and Spells: 11

Hit Points: 55
Alignment: Neutral Evil (Chaotic)
AC: 0 (Scale Mail Armor +3)*
(thanks to the Life Bane she can wear armor and attack as if she had "Minor Fighting Prowess" cast on her at all times.)

Short Sword +3
Dagger of Venom

To hit AC 0: 13 (sword), 14 (dagger)

Occult Powers
Familiar:  Imp "Jarzizt"
Herb use
Lesser: Dream Invasion
Minor: Nightmare Shape

Spells
Cantrips: (6) Alarm Ward, Black Flame, Chill, Ghost Sounds, Inflict Minor Wounds, Object Reading
First: (5+2) Burning Hands, Chill Touch, Command, Ghostly Slashing, Protect Familiar, Shatter the Hourglass, Spirit Dart
Second: (4+2) Detect Thoughts, Invisibility, Spell Missile, Suggestion, Whispering Winds, Youthful
Third: (4+1) Dispel Magic (x2), Life Blood, Mirror Image, Witch Wail
Fourth:  (3+1) Analyze Magic, Magic Circle against Good 10', Moonlit Way, Phantom Lacerations
Fifth: (3) Animate Dead, Shriek, Steal Youth
Sixth: (2) Break the Spirit, Restore Youth (Healing)
Seventh: (2) Call the Restless Soul, Wave of Mutilation

Not too bad really.

A to Z of Adventure! H is for High Level / Bloodstone

H is for High Level / Bloodstone.

The H series is an odd one, even in a group that includes a lot of odd ones.  There is a connecting story, of sorts; dealing with the interference of Orcus, but there are other things going here.
The first adventure, H1 Bloodstone Pass was for 1st edition AD&D but was also part of their new Battlesystem mass warfare rules.  H2 Mines of Bloodstone is more of a straightforward adventure.  H3 brings us back to Battlesystem and finally H4...well, let me get to H4 in just a bit.

H1 Bloodstone Pass 13–17
H2 The Mines of Bloodstone 16–18
H3 The Bloodstone Wars 17–20
H4 The Throne of Bloodstone 18-100

H4 The Throne of Bloodstone was fairly notorious back in the day.  It was another adventure I bought and then gave to my DM with screams of "run this!"  We ran it the first summer I was home from college.

The basic plot is that all the trouble caused in the previous modules was not just due to a cult of the Demon Prince Orcus, but Orcus himself.  In H4 the characters went to his lair in the Abyss and killed him.  Ok...where to begin with this one!

Well let's start with that cover.

This is the only adventure in the series that is labeled for the Forgotten Realms.  The first, H1, assumed any world.   There is Orcus himself coming out of the mouth hell or something (the Abyss really).   Oh and the recommended levels...let's see, 18 to 100!  100th level characters?

I have to admit that was one of the reasons why I grabbed this.  We had been playing a LONG time and I have many characters well past the by-the-book levels.  AD&D at the time really only went to about 25th level, but figuring out higher levels was not that big of a deal.  Generally speaking, adventures topped off at 20th level.
So I took some characters, right around 20th - 25th level...and a couple of them died right away!  This was not an adventure to screw around with.

The other thing you notice with this adventure is that it is long. The module itself is like 96 pages and tons of maps.  I seem to recall it took us a while to get through it too, most of the summer I was home from college.

You do get to fight Orcus in the end, as well as Tiamat, Baphomet, a giant Red Dragon, and potentially Asmodeus.  It is just a deadly, deadly module.

After this, I retired all the characters that went through.  After all what was left for them to do?

Fighting Orcus is a theme that D&D would come back to again and again.  The HPE series for 4e, especially the Epic modules.  In 2nd edition, the events of this module would later play out as part of the Dead Gods' adventure.

For me, today, this adventure is a template for other high-level adventures.  While the module said up to 100th level, there are not really many qualitative differences between a 25th level character and a 100th level one.  Fighters top off in attacks. Clerics top off on undead turning at 14th level and so on.   I was a little disappointed that the AD&D designers did not take a page from the D&D team in this case.  At this point in time AD&D and D&D were two different, but similar, systems.  D&D characters could go to 36th level and even become immortal.  Some of that would have been helpful here.

Much like the E modules, this module is likely to use as a source of material, but not so much as the adventure itself.  Still...running it could be a lot of fun.

In truth fighting Orcus is always a good idea. He is a demon, he wants to destroy everything AND in the E series, he desires to become a god.  This H series and the E series only scratches the surface when it comes to fighting Orcus.  And even if you do kill him there is still the Dead Gods adventure that deals with him coming back from the dead. In fact, there is no lack of products out there to let you match up against the Demon Prince Orcus.

This is certainly an end-game adventure after this buy that castle in southern Nyrond, hang your +5 Holy Avenger over the mantle, hire some Valley Elves to make some wine and kick up your heels and smoke pipeweed to end of your days.

A to Z of Adventure! G is for Giants

G is for Giants.

Ah. Few adventures get my geek nostalgia into overload quite like the Giants series.  The opening act of the great GDQ series.  G1-3 Against the Giants

The premise is simple.  Giants are making forays into human-occupied settlements and raiding.  The adventurers must find out why and stop them.
Raids by hill giants lead to encampments of frost and then fire giants.  Each controlling the weaker till finally it is discovered that all are being controlled by the evil drow of the D series.

The original adventures were:

• G1 Steading of the Hill Giant Chief
• G2 Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl
• G3 Hall of the Fire Giant King

There are even some stone and cloud giants thrown into the mix, but no Storm Giants that I recall.

I always wondered though, what were the Stone, Cloud and Storm giants doing while their kin were being played by the drow?  Well many years later (and now some years ago) more Giant adventures were written by fan R.C. Pinnel.  These new adventures rounded out the other Giant kin.

• G4 Sanctum of the Stone Giant Lord
• G5 Curse of the Cloud Giant Queen
• G6 Forge of the Formian Smith Lord
• G7 Giants in the Deep
• G8 Manor of the Mountain Giant King
• G9 Secret of the Swamp Giant Steward
• The Verbeeg Valley

They turn an opening chord of a concert into a Spinal Tap guitar solo!
All together the adventure is over 100 pages.  This is a bit more than I wanted to be honest.  The Giants are tied up pretty close to the Drow of the next series. So for me the Giants are just the pawns of the Drow.  The Stone and Mountain giants I can see.  Maybe even the Cloud, if they are more on the evil side.  I have not read all the adventures yet, but maybe the Cloud Giant queen has something to do with the Sun being blocked out in my adventure.  Plus I have an awesome female cloud Giant mini I could use.

l-r Hill, Frost, Fire, Storm, Stone and Cloud

The really nice thing about running these classics so many years later is all the material out there to support them.  For a while there WotC was publishing maps for the Giants series (among others).

Plus there has been at least two waves of minis that support the Giants.

Linking the A Series to the GDQ
The G modules introduce the Drow as the "big bad" and one of those big bad drow is list as "EHP" or "Evil High Priestess".  Her name is given as "Eclavdra" and I talked about her on D Day.  Her protégé is the drow priestess Edralve in the A series.  In my campaign Eclavdra and Edralve represent the drow interests in the Slave Lords.  Both were clerics of Lolth but have become warlocks of Tharizdûn; whom they know of as the Elder Elemental Eye.

Eclavdra is one of the big NPCs of the Greyhawk world and I think I'll need to dedicate a full post to her one day.

Links

• The Original Against The Giants, G123
• G4-9, offered for free on Google Drive
• Map a Week from Wizards of the Coast
• Against the Giants -- May 2006
• Against the Giants -- July 2006
• Crumbling Hall of the Frost Giant Jarl

So lots of great stuff out there. I might need to print these all out and get them into a binder or something.