Further Explorations of Dungeon issue # 69 & Its Use In Old School Sword & Sorcery Game Campaigns

Way, way, back in the hoary days of Nineteen Ninety Eight Dungeon magazine was still a thing & there were some killer issues on the spinner racks. There was one issue that stood out & that was Dungeon issue #69. No its not for the issue number its for the adventure  Slave Vats of the Yuan-ti by Jason Kuhl, Illustrated by Terry Dykstra, Cartography by Diesel. p. 10-27. If you can find it then by all means grab this issue!
 

Forget the fantastic Easily cover its the  Jason Kuhl adventure that has it all. This is the perfect little mid point adventure for a Sword & Sorcery retroclone like Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea. Not only could this easily be inserted around   the dismal City-State of Khromarium but it could be used as a piggy back  middle jump adventure for the PC's to get them into some of the more dangerous AS&SH adventures. But this is all gonna have to take place after taking them through Rats In The Walls & Other Perils.  As well as the basic introductory adventure that takes place in the Town of Swampgate  from the main AS&SH rule book. 

On the whole the entire adventure cycle of the "Mere of Dead Men" takes the PC's into the heart of the corrupted serpent men ermm I mean Yuan-ti.Then drops them in to back end of a rather nasty problem. "This adventure is part 1 of the "Mere of Dead Men" series and involves an exploration of the Wolfhill House overlooking the Mere and encounters with the yuan-ti"
There area of 'Mere of the Dead Men' in the Forgotten Realms was created to evoke a dangerous historical event tied directly into the history of the realms; "The name "Mere of Dead Men" referred to the thousands of dwarves, elves, and humans of the Fallen Kingdom who were slain here during the invasion of an orc army." Now if we use this same area & do a bit of fiddling then it can be named in our home Hyperborea campaign game as the place where the armies of Hyperboreans, men of the West, & the Atlanteans fell by the thousands to an invading orc army. 
This is just one of the strengths of Dungeon magazine, the flexibility of the adventures & how they could be adapted for your own home games.
This brings me to something that I've been playing with the over the last couple of days the Cthulhu mythos of the Deities & Demigods of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. Slave Vats of the Yuan-ti by Jason Kuhl, could easily be tied into the bubbling & burbling cult of  Shub niggurath that I spoke about in this blog entry. 


Given the totality of this style of adventure cycle the player's PC's could quite easily gain a couple of levels & then tackle the moat house of T1 The Village of Hommlet by Gary Gygax. This would to help explain the party being down on their luck & down to the last gold piece before the adventure begins.