A Bit Of OSR Campaign Commentary On A0-A4: Against the Slave Lords Compilation Book By David "Zeb" Cook, Allen Hammack, Harold Johnson, & Tom Moldvay

"A1: Slave Pits of the Undercity: It is time to put a stop to the marauders! For years the coastal towns have been burned and looted by the forces of evil. You and your fellow adventurers have been recruited to root out and destroy the source of these raids—as hundreds of good men and women have been taken by the slavers and have never been seen or heard from again!"


One of the things about my introduction to D&D & even AD&D was getting thrown right into the middle of a game! I believe in the school of doing rather then the school of constantly standing on the side lines of this hobby. A1: "Slave Pits of the Under City" (1980), by David "Zeb" Cook is the first of the "A" Slave Lords adventures. It was published in October 1980. And this is a classic module for a lot of reasons & this module only clocks in at twenty eight pages of adventure goodness. The reason is simple because the Slaver series of adventures were tournement modules. No I don't want to get mired down in the whole controversy that surrounds  "the first AD&D Open" you can read about that right here. Yes there are still folks I know who have issues with that event.  Instead I want to talk about what this module is & that is the fact that its based on the first two rounds of that event. Tournament adventure modules were designed to challenge, kill, maim, & have its players thinking on the fly. And that's exactly why I prefer them. I want my players to think in an Advanced Dungeons & Dragons first edition campaign setting.
You need to keep your wits about you & use every single iota of their mind to get through this one. But before I go on grab the A0-A4: Against the Slave Lords compilation book of this classic series. You can think of this as the anti power gamer module as your PC's are stripped down to their butt naked skin & then shoved into the world of  the slavers of Highport. 


This compilation contains the entire run of the Slave Lord series & it dive right into the meat & potatoes of the Slave Lord themselves;

A1: Slave Pits of the Undercity: It is time to put a stop to the marauders! For years the coastal towns have been burned and looted by the forces of evil. You and your fellow adventurers have been recruited to root out and destroy the source of these raids—as hundreds of good men and women have been taken by the slavers and have never been seen or heard from again!

A2: Secret of the Slavers Stockade: The battle against the slavers continues! You and your fellow adventurers have defeated the slavers of Highport, but you have learned of the existence of another slaver stronghold, and you have decided to continue the attack. But beware! Only the most fearless of adventurers could challenge the slavers on their own ground, and live to tell of it!

A3: Assault on the Aerie of the Slave Lords: Into the Drachengrab Mountains! Hot on the trail of the marauding slavers, you and your fellow adventurers plunge deep into hostile Hills. Spurred on by your past success, you now seek the heart of the slaver conspiracy. But hurry! You must move quickly before the slavers recover from your previous forays and attack!

A4: In the Dungeons of the Slave Lords: Trapped in the dungeons of the Slave Lords! The hardy adventurers must find a way out, with only their wits and courage to help them. But can they do it before everything is destroyed by the dreaded Earth Dragon?"
This is the classic campaign that takes the PC's from the very depth of 3rd level catapults them into the upper end of 7th or a bit beyond if they were incredibly lucky. As in lucky to survive!


Classics are classic for a reason & the Slave Lords Series  is set firmly in the world of AD&D's Greyhawk! But there's a fantastic thread on The Piazza site for adapting the Slavers series onto Mystara.  For me I simply had the Slavers popping into other worlds & grabbing whomever they could! This resulted in a diverse party of adventurers in the past. 




I used the same technique for bringing the whole lot of Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea adventurers & Lamentations of the Flame Princess adventurers into the machinations of the Slavers. 


This allowed me to bring in PC's from outside the the world of Greyhawk & pit them against the machinations & violence of the slave lords. But this wasn't an original idea by any means; "Though the original Slave Lord adventures were set in the Pomarj of the Wild Coast, the new "Darkshelf Quarry" adventure is set instead in the Village of Darkshelf in Nyrond — a somewhat distant land, also located on the Sea of Gearnat. Nyrond is a good-aligned kingdom that had previously received its best attention in WGR4: "The Marklands" (1993) — though that's set in the From the Ashes era. "Darkshelf Quarry" offers a rare opportunity to adventure in the normally placid land."
There are several reasons why these modules are classic: 

1. I connected the A0-A4: Against the Slave Lords Compilation with the Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh series. The Sea Witch belonging to the slave lords.
2. This gets the PC's into the clutches of A1: Slave Pits of the Undercity.
3. Several of the slave lords are powerful enough to make excellent pulp villains even in modern times. A word to the wise. 
4. The slavers operations were over once the ring is smashed. The players have to deal with the fall out from the operation being smashed. Bring in new mid level bosses and vile villains. 
5. There's lots of potential with the slave lords from the PC's taking over forts, operations, etc. make sure there are those who seek revenge. 
6. Are the PC's got the real slave lords? In the past I've used body doubles and clones to cause all kinds of mayhem. 
7. A0-A4: Against the Slave Lords  can easily be connected with Against The Giants series of adventures giving years of play & replay value. 
8. NPC's can easily fall into the clutches of the slave lords and cause all kinds of grief with the PC's. 
9. A0-A4: Against the Slave Lords is a very dangerous set of campaign modules and should be used with some caution. 
10. A0-A4: Against the Slave Lords makes an excellent module to send a group of Dungeon Crawl Classics PC's through!