Review & Commentary on The Free OSR Module 'Terror under the Sea' By Joseph Mohr For Advanced Dungeons & Dragons first edition & Your Old School OR OSR Campaigns

 

"Cthulhu still lives, too, I suppose, again in that chasm of stone which has shielded him since the sun was young. His accursed city is sunken once more, for the Vigilant sailed over the spot after the April storm; but his ministers on earth still bellow and prance and slay around idol-capped monoliths in lonely places. He must have been trapped by the sinking whilst within his black abyss, or else the world would by now be screaming with fright and frenzy. Who knows the end?"
Weird Tales (vol. 11, no. 2)  (February 1928)  edited by Farnsworth Wright
The Call of Cthulhu by H. P. Lovecraft


"Your ship has come across a strange island where none should be. Are you brave enough to explore this strange, unsettling place? A Cthulhu Mythos based adventure for characters of at least 10th level"

Terror under the Sea is full on & free  throttle Lovecraftian AD&D first edition horror just in time for Halloween 2020. Does the author know something we don't?! 

Joseph Mohr is a machine & while poking around Dragon's foot I came across a copy of a module that I wasn't aware of that he did. 'Terror under the Sea' is a high level Advanced Dungeons & Dragons module  that hits the Lovecraft vein hard. This is a tenth level module and its a nasty one to boot. The intro gives the set up;

"The storm put us way off course. When it ended we drifted for days on end. Without wind we were left at the mercy of the gods to get us to our destination. On day thirteen we spotted an island in the distance. It was not on our charts but we were desperate for provisions. We were very low on water and had nearly run out of food. The island had a peculiar spire rising out of it. The design was like nothing we had ever seen. Our brave wizard decided that we should explore this place. Perhaps there might be great treasure here. In the end it would have been better not to have found this accursed place. Living without food and water would have been far preferable to the screams I wake up to each night. What is truly terrifying...is that the screams are my own....."

This module takes the AD&D Deities & Demigods Lovecraft section & turns it up to eleven. The PC's find themselves in the middle of the most infamous island in the Lovecraft mythos! And they have to survive! This is a world shattering module for 2020. The premise lays someplace between oh my God  that's metal to full on how the heck would I run this!?! 

The nice part is that you don't have to own a copy of the AD&D Deities & Demigods book because everything is provided right there here for you in the module. A very nice change up. 
This is really a nice little module & its not bare bones but it fills in quite a bit of the Chthulu mythology for the end times of a campaign. This is world & campaign breaker stuff here within 'Terror under the Sea'. The encounters are fierce, deadly, & sanity shattering for a party & I'm not saying this lightly. 
Deep Ones,Shoggoths, and many of the heavy hitters are here in this module and its for more then mere affect here. 'Terror under the Sea' is the bloody big leagues & the adventure should not be used lightly. The layout is well done, the cartography is solid, and this is a perfect high level campaign Lovecraftian  game runner. 

Now with all of that said this is a perfect module to use with the  Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea rpg! This is a perfect module to use as a follow up to the events within The Mystery at Port Greely. 
The PC's are sailing away from that module when the  'Terror under the Sea' comes to sweep them into its clutches! 

Bottom line  'Terror under the Sea' is a nice & solid no nonsense AD&D first edition Lovecraftian module with lots of possibilities if used right by the DM.