In Search of the Unknown

"WHO DARES ENTER THIS PLACE AND INTRUDE UPON THE SANCTUARY OF ITS INHABITANTS?" 

"ONLY A GROUP OF FOOLHARDY EXPLORERS DOOMED TO CERTAIN DEATH!"

TSR Adventure Module B1: In Search of the Unknown is an introductory module designed to help teach novice gamemasters. Back in the 1980s, just about everyone who played D&D had run it at some point because there were so few modules and because it was in the blue box version of the rules.*

I did not drop it into my B/X campaign until my player’s characters were around the 4th level so rewrote it more than most. But everyone rewrote B1 because it has the unique feature that most of the dungeon stocking was up to the DM. A list of 25 monsters and 34 treasures was made available for stocking the dungeon (not all of which was designed to be used) so everyone’s dungeon would be slightly different.

In the published In Search of the Unknown, the players find a map to the lair of a pair of famous adventurers of questionable reputation who are reputed to have died far to the north some time ago. Hints in the text suggest that their stronghold, Quasqueton, may have been abandoned up to three decades ago. All that remains now are some of the former inhabitants, human berserkers, orc slaves, and kobold slaves and creatures that have wandered into the caves.

When I ran the adventure using the B/X Moldvay rules in 1982 I stocked the dungeon for levels 3-6 (the original was for levels 1-3) and I had a background plot to make sense of the monsters that the players came across.

I also redrew the maps. I do not remember exactly why I bothered because looking at a copy of the maps now they are not a lot different.  I am posting my maps here.

My Version of Quasqueton

The big difference in the plot in my version was that the owners, Rogahn and Zelligar, had very recently returned. But in their absence, the stronghold had been overrun by Orcs belonging to a tribe the pair had been fighting in the north. The orcs trapped the pair in a magical vault in the cavern level of the stronghold. It was up to the player’s characters to discover that the pair had returned, what had happened to them, and how to release them.

Reading through my version of the adventure I am not very impressed. If I was to redo it now, and it occurs to me that I might, I would go back to something closer to the original plot. Perhaps the kobolds worked for Zelligar and the orcs worked for Rogahn. When their bosses disappeared the Orcs wanted to take over but the kobolds remained loyal and blocked access to the upper levels. Now the orcs use the lower level secret entrance as the main entrance (it is two way now). The orcs have been raiding the local valley and the players’ characters follow their trail up into the hills to the lower level entrance, not even aware that this was once Quasqueton. They have to fight past orcs and then kobolds to gain access to the best treasure in the upper level of the stronghold.

Perhaps it would make something interesting to run online now that we are all trapped indoors because of the pandemic. It would certainly be easy to write up.

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*I was lucky enough to purchase a copy of the 1979 printing in the 1990s when I bought a battered blue box version of the rules at auction.

The Vault of Arik

Occasionally I like to post maps I hand drew back in the 1980s when I first started playing Dungeons & Dragons (Basic Edition).

This one has been sitting in an unused map folder for more than 30 years.  I probably drew it around 1983 but I am not certain.

I ran a long campaign during High School and University with the same group of friends. The first adventure was (B3) The Palace of the Silver Princess.  In this adventure the object is to keep an evil entity known only as Arik from entering the prime material plane My players learned of Arik and stopped him, acquiring his ruby sword in the process (not usable as a weapon).  Later in the campaign, I had the players encounter agents of Arik in a Haunted House adventure. After that, I wanted to have them travel to Arik’s prison and put a stop to him for good. That is how this map came about. The prison/lair is on a rock outcrop in a lake of lava. I never used the map.

The players got side-tracked by other adventures but continued to carry Arik’s ruby sword around with them for years. Eventually, I did write a final confrontation with Arik which we played through when the players had reached 9th level.  It was a very different concept then the prison map shown here. A dimension-hopping series of published TSR adventures (an Adventure Path before they were cool). They were all very heavily re-written to fit the story.

The Vault of Arik

reMarkable Map

I posted the Dungeon of Malice adventure yesterday along with the 3D map I decided
to use as the GM Map. Maybe not entirely practical but I enjoyed creating it. My favorite
maps are probably in the style of the classic blue maps.

The original map of the Dungeon of Malice was sketched out on my reMarkable tablet.
Which is a sort of art tablet. Quite useful for putting down your ideas and hand scrawling
a map.

Old 1980's Map

I just stumbled over my original game world map that I called the Borderlands of Kern. This is from 1982. At the time the only gaming products I owned were the Moldvay Basic boxed set (including the Caves of Chaos), Module B3 and the AD&D PHB and DMG.  You can see I borrowed heavily from these products.

The map was the game world of my first campaign for only a few months. The players explored the Palace of the Silver Princess (B3 on the map), and the J2 The Colossal Caves. I did not have hex paper so I had to create it.

Eventually I dropped the places the players had already visited into a much better world map based roughly on the map from a science/fantasy novel called Guardian.

Old 1980's Game World Map

Catacombs of the Haunted Keep

I have had a lot of fun just doodling up maps of Stillwater and the area around it. So I had planned to go further afield with a map today.  However, I am less than enthused with the results so I think I will leave it for another day.

Instead I have another installment of old maps from 1982 for my version of The Haunted Keep. The iconic “sample” dungeon provided in the back of the Moldvay Basic rules.

The Catacombs of the Haunted Keep 1982

Earlier I posted my map of the Level 1 and Level 3. Now here is level 2, the Catacombs. Because as a beginning game master having read only a few modules I was sure that a Catacombs was an ideal level for a dungeon. It gave me a chance to use skeletons and zombies, and if I recall there was one wight. I still have the original write for the adventure but it is hand written and packed away.

I can see that one of my favorite ideas makes an appearance, the moving dungeon corridor or room. Corridor #13 moves once the door is opened and I believe room #37 rotated. When I look at the map my players created (below) it does not look that far off considering the use of these classic misdirection rooms.

The Players Map

The Lair of the Lycanthropes

I thought I would post one one of the level maps from one of the first dungeon I every mapped and the map the players created.  This was level 3 of my “Haunted Keep” dungeon based on the introductory dungeon in the Red book rules. It was drawn up in early 1982. I was always just a level ahead of my players when we first started gaming.

The Haunted Keep Level 3: Lair of the Lycanthropes (1982)

Back in 1982 part of the fun was seeing how lost the players could get in the dungeon as you tried to describe what they saw in words and provided minimal help with the mapping. This was exacerbated by the dreaded “natural caverns” style dungeons. Level 3 of my Haunted Keep was called “Lair of the Lycanthropes”.  If you ever read the Red Book rules (1981 version) the introductory adventure hinted that the Rodemus family that built the keep might still be around and were rumored to be wererats. My adventure ended in a cavern on the other side of an underground lake where the Wererat chief held court. To make getting out of the dungeon quicker, there was an elevator on this final level (it was 1982 and I was a high-schooler). It was my first dungeon and I figured the players would not want to roleplay traversing all three levels again to get out.

Below you can see how my players made out on their map of level 3.

The Player's Map of Lair of the Lycanthropes

Probably not my best design choice for a dungeon

Tomb of the Lizard King (revised)

The Tomb of the Lizard King (I2) is a classic TSR module released in 1982. I always wanted to work it into my Campaign I was running in the early 1980’s. My campaign had taken a turn for some serious Dimension hopping with the players trying to find the missing Eyes of Arik (suggested by B3 Palace of the Silver Princess) across seven different worlds. This allowed me to drop in some published modules that would not otherwise fit together.  Since the players were pushing 8-9th level I did a complete re-write of the adventure (and I had to place the eye in amongst the treasure).

The resulting map bore little resemblance to the original. I recall the final tomb of Sakatha (vampire Lizard King) had a number of Type I and II demons guarding it. Attached here is the map I created of the dungeon and the close up I drew of the Tomb. All drawn in mid-1984.

I might translate this into a blue map as well, although it is a little complicated.

Revised Tomb of the Lizard King (1984)

Detail of the Final Tomb (1984)

Pit of Chlodosind

I am posting another one of the Dyson inspired hand inked maps I drew three years ago.  This one was actually inked with blank ink micron pens over a light pencil sketch.

The concept of “The Pit of Chlodosind is an ancient buried temple. A subsidence opens up in a cultivated field revealing a dark tunnel mouth leading to a small chamber. The locals investigate and find nothing but then strange attacks and abductions begin happening in the nearby village and the blame the pit in Farmer Greely’s field.  The players are sent to investigate.

It never got written up so I do not recall what creatures I had planned to place in the dungeon. Again there are a multitude of secret doors.  The doors off chamber #8 are fairly obvious but to open them the statue in the room has to be manipulated. Area #13 was the big treasure room.

Pit of Chlodosind - Author 2-2013

Secret Ways Map

About 3 years ago I ran off a bunch of Dyson-style hand drawn maps.  I was following his website and it inspired me to try out a few myself.

Below is one that never got elaborated upon.  Secret Ways, is a hidden cave with a concealed bandit lair and in turn a secret crypt of undead.  So the bandits are hiding behind a concealed door in some natural caves and unbeknownst to them there is a secret door in their hide-out that leads to an ancient crypt that has undead inhabitants.

Secret Ways Map 2013

The map is usable as a one session encounter in almost any Fantasy game system so it might make an appearance in one of my campaigns at some time.

Old Maps from the 1980s

Here is a map I recently discovered in a box of old papers from when I was a young teen.  This map of “Terminus” that I drew in 1981 places it shortly before I discovered role playing games. I had read “Lord of the Rings” which is apparent from looking at some of the place names. I drew it for fun because I liked the maps that were common in fantasy novels of the time.

Terminus by author 1981

It looks like it is supposed to be a colony of earth that has fallen back into the middle ages in technology level. The inset maps show how the lands of the country of Falsa expanded into the sea with the use of dykes.

It is a logical outcome of the maps I copied out of fantasy novels.  I found it was easier to read a novel and consult the map if I had a copy that was not in the book.

Lankhmar