Friday 6 November 2009

B4 The Lost City

This to me is the pinnacle of TSRs achievement pretty much ever.......by Tom Moldvay as we all know.
In a 30 page "module" he managed to cram in a whole campaign as well as a what was at the time a traditional standalone dungeon the DM could run as one of the usual series of those times and walk away from......but.....
Aside from the adventure itself theres a whole underground city to develop from a map and some adventure hooks...........at least some of which will appeal to everybody
I ran this with my brother 20 some years ago and while some of the encounters in the lower pyramid were incongruous it took a while and from dim recollection 8 or 9 character levels to complete fully. The party elected to be saviours of Cynidicea, managed to ally themselves with two of the three factions - Gorm and Madarua - do away with the Magi. I always saw Auriga Sirkinos as a bit of a slimy type anyway (!) and I think a certain barbarian hero hooked up with Pandora of the Warrior Maidens and founded a dynasty..........*cliche alert"
Anyway, one thing I'd always wanted to do was pretty much strip the whole thing out and start again making more play on the factions and politics.........yes I know the Cult of Zargon are the bad guys B-)
So...thus far I've decided to do away with the hobgoblins and goblins in the caves and replace them with a slave race not dissimilar to the Hadal from Jeff Longs novel's (thanks DG!)
Next I've decided to up the levels of the more important NPCs - not by much but so as they justify being a Grandmaster or champion as opposed to puny 3rd level types.
The lower levels of the pyramid it seemed rather obvious to me 20 years ago and now I'm lots older I'm going to have populated with a fourth "faction" the restless dead of Cynidicea - headed by a delusionary noble in a magic mask (because they all wear them).........so most of what I referred to as the "non sensical encounters" earlier will be going - maybe not the genie though....because that fits with the Arabian themed setting I'm doing.
Zargon himself needs an "upgrade" but not by much .......
Encounters I've put together so far:
Wererat assassins.............mwhahaha
A Ghoul pack
Some stuff on the organisation of the Church of Zargon
Assorted "helpful" ghosts - a kind of expansion of the King encounter........

and thats it..............if its still pouring down this weekend I might get summon the Sacred Flash Drive and get some more done...............in between the painting of a certain Half Orc......

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