OSR Commentary On House of the Rising Sun (Arduin Grimoire volume 6) By David A. Hargrave For The Arduin Grimoire series & Your Old School Campaigns

Alright so it's another snowy night here in Connecticut and once again our game has been cancelled due to high winds. Which means that I find myself reaching for one of my favorite alternative old school original Dungeons & Dragons or AD&D first edition supplement series. House of the Rising Sun was published in Eighty Six. 

 In addition to the usual collection of new monsters, spells and magik items, “House of the Rising Sun” provides rare insights into the Arduin campaign setting with presentations covering:

* Background information on many of Arduin’s Noble Houses and Landed Siege Lords

* An in-depth look at the hierarchy, organization and activities of Arduin’s many Street Gangs

* A detailed review of the Beggars Guild and guidelines for the new Beggar character class

* An expose of Arduin’s infamous Assassins Guild, their unique weapons and deadly poisons

* A wide variety of culinary delights including unique appetizers, odd entrées and bizarre beverages

* Medical Wonders to cure numerous ills and maladies

* Unique Arduinian Pets and natural denizens of the wilds

* Legendary Gems and Jewels, magikal artifacts and mythical musical instruments

* A review of the “Elder Gods” – gone but not forgotten religions

* “Dragon Magiks” and a whole lot more!

Please note that all Classic Arduin products were written by David A. Hargrave in the 1970’s and 1980’s and are presented here in their original unchanged format.

 Let's talk about House of the Rising Sun in a  deeper context and talk about the fact that this little supplement from Eighty Six reveals far more on Arduin’s Noble Houses and Landed Siege Lords. These folks are the royals as well as the movers & shakers on Arduin. Back in Eighty Seven our own party of adventurers ran afoul of two of these wankers. And they slapped us in irons and traded us as slaves to one of the Orc tribes. 
Needless to say that we escaped as soon as possible and then got deeply invovled with the thieves guilds and street gangs of Arduin. This led our campaign to go deep into the underworld and criminal elements of Arduin. And this is where the article on the street gangs of Arduin was crutal to my uncle's campaign. 
And we also got different assignments from the Begger's Guild & we had two of these scum in our party. The Begger's guild is deeply tied into the Asassins Guild of Arduin. And so House of the Rising Sun was key to my uncle's campaign 
One of our adventures revovlved around an exotic monster produced ingrediant for a libation of a certain noble. And I believe my uncle was inspired by the meals and bizarre beverages of Arduin. 

And this led to our getting involved with procuring medical ingrediant for some of the potions and poluctices on Arduin especially to the healers of the begger's guild. Yes the begger's guild has it's own doctors and healers. 
And we eventually had to flee one of the Arduin kingdoms because of the crime we never committed. We then got involved with the Bardic Lord of Song who was looking for one of the legendary musical instruments covered in the article of Legendary Gems & Jewels plus magical items. And this led to our involvement with one of the temples of the Elder Gods of Arduins which was covered in the next article. Round this out with our brush with Dragon magick and you pretty much have the entire ark of part of my uncle's campaign.

  House of the Rising Sun (Arduin Grimoire volume 6) By David A. Hargrave  is incredibly useful because Hargrave made all of his articles modular. Sure the DM could use all of some articles for thier own campaigns. And then disregard the next article but most of the Arduin Grimoire supplements were brillant because of the breath and depth of information they give on Arduin.