Across The Gulf - A1 Slave Pits of the Undercity By David "Zeb" Cook & Castles & Crusades Greyhawk

 "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!" 

A1 Slave Pits of the Undercity By David "Zeb" Cook is set firmly within the Greyhawk region of Highport, a city south of the Wild Coast, in the Pomarj — a peninsula overrun by humanoids. Right out of the gate we've got the humanoid tribes and forces being incredibly organized & coordinated. And this goes back into the fact that A1 is perfect for bridging the gap between dungeon exploration and solid cooperative game play by the players. For 1981 or so A1 was a turning point in our campaigns with my uncle as DM. The humanoid armies of Chaos and Despair were on the move. Let's get A1 Slave pits of the Undercity's history out of the way;"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" 
The humanoid armies are highly organized and this recalls the  solid Sword & Sorcery style affair of A1  in the vein of a Robert Howard Conan story. There's lots & lots of Orientalist Hobgoblins throughout the A series. 

The Hobgoblin mercenary forces have been sent forth by the Orge Magi khanate and want to take slavers on behalf of the ruling Slavers council. These forces had crossed over from Castles & Crusades Mythos Earth
And all of the action is set around the fact that the PC's are going to get dragged into  the  middle of the conflict with the 'slavers' in the Drachensgrab Hills fortress in A2. This of course ties back into what we discussed yesterday on the blog here. 

Throughout A1 the PC's are going to have to cooperate because of the fact that the humanoids are of a slightly higher technological axoim and hit the skids at a late Roman Empire. So there are shades of Adventurer, Conqeuror, King here. We've got the party struggling through monsters, several puzzles, and perhaps a side quest in A1. 
Dungeon #221 (December 2013) contains the adventure " Lowdown in Highport" and this is the prequel adventure to A1. Here we get an overview of the machinations of the humanoid forces that come to dominate Highport. Again the Slavers series is firmly set within Greyhawk. 
All of these events are set firmly within Greyhawk meaning that we have the perfect blend to present the beginnings of a Castles & Crusades Sword and Sorcery Greyhawk campaign set within Highport. Since there's very little written about Highpoint its the perfect opportunity for the DM to make the city thier own. They could return to it after the 'Slavers' series to rebuild. 
But why would the humanoids descend on highport? And the answer is the human resources found within the city. Both as a slave and food source for the coming days. The Slavers crossing from one plane to another descending on highport smacks of desparation. 
Hobgoblins and the humanoid armies are perfectly suited to raiding the humans and then dominating the lands around them. There's plenty of time for adventurers to get way in over thier heads. Especially since the humanoids dominate  the Drachensgrab Hills 

 The humanoid tribes of   the Drachensgrab Hills pave the way for the hobgoblin armies with orcs, flinds, and gnolls playing thier part in the take over. They get thier share of human slaves and chattle..