Old School Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Adventures As Micro Campaign Settings Outline and Write Ups

 There are lone lost world settings that your PC's stumble upon and their perfect for pulpy mini campaigns but why?

So over the last couple of months I've been rereading old classic TSR modules and various OSR adventures including the recent World of the Lost From Rafael Chandler and the Lamentations of the Flame Princess rpg line. Right but then I started thinking about some of the classic Advanced Dungeons and Dragons modules especially C1  The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan & I1 Dwellers of The Forbidden City. Both of these modules over the years I've seen sewn together to form an over arching lost world jungle. Something that occurs to me is how these adventures each could be used as a part of a mini lost world campaign.
These two modules back to back are deadly and very dangerous to one another but whose maintaining those ruins, traps, etc in both modules?  In world of the lost we get a glimpse of a campaign mechanism that helps to maintain the world of Khirima's adventure materials. And yes I understand that it takes place in a fantasy Nigeria that  the C1 I1 take place in a faux South American lost world setting but as we shall see there are parallels. Both adventures have incredibly expansive ruins that can be linked up to form a super mini campaign setting but when some fool stumbles upon these places whose maintaining the ruins, resetting the traps, and why are they doing this?
 

If Dwellers in the Forbidden City and Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth then we start to get our answer, its precisely the same sort of setting conceit that we see in the Raiders of the Lost Ark. The Hovitos are a South American  tribe who are descended from the Chachapoyans who came to house their golden Earth mother statue within that elaborate temple. A temple that was maintained for generations and reset. Add in the various factions of the  various power groups and factions within the city, namely the bugbears, mongrelmen, and bullywugs, add to this a boat load of human tribes in both modules and suddenly that jungle is going to be very busy indeed. This brings me to the micro setting aspect. Both of these modules have another commonality with many of the OSR modules we've seen recently. Namely the fact that married together they can be used to create a mini campaign that could go for months. 


Oh for the record don't screw with the Hovitos you will die with lots of poison arrows, and blow gun darts hanging from your PC's. Back to what I was saying many of the faux deities of these modules serve many of the same purposes as the gods in World of the Lost. A safety valve of control over aspects of tribal life and one that PC's might want to think twice about disturbing. Many times the destruction of petty gods or deities is a perfect time for DM's to set NPC assassins and warriors to punish the offenders. A tactic that often times seems to get ignored. World of the Lost presents a very dangerous option in the form of warrior women armed with high tech death tools of the gods should the need arise for the dungeon master.

The other parell between these various lost worlds is the placement of them, the dungeon master has a further option by deciding if he or she wants to make these locations other worldly or simply another lost world location to be exploited. After reading through various modules and pouring over a few OSR articles on the subject.   

I've come to the foregone conclusion of using both options at the table that is the idea of a lost world location that exists extra dimensional but at times impinges on the 'real world' of the campaign drifting into myth and legends of the locals and that can act as another PC sword and sorcery hook to rope them into more adventure. The pseudo African setting of World of the Lost dovetails into a whole sub realm of lost world African legends with dinosaurs and all kinds of high end mythology even crossing over into the ancient gods and UFO mythologies. A fertile ground to plan the next series of death traps and adventures, using a variety of both OSR and old school options DM's have fodder for seven or eight micro campaigns or mini campaigns as they see fit.


This sort of approach of using a limited number of campaign resources allows the DM to save time, energy, and playing time by focusing his or her energies upon the setting, adventures, and campaign motives while maximizing their approach to the role playing material. This gives both the players the best over all playing experience and takes some of the stress off of the DM so they can concentrate on important things like where the PC's might get killed and where the links are to other adventure and campaign elements.

More 'Old Earth' Campaign Inspirations & C1 The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan by Harold Johnson & Jeff R. Leason

 

I'm being squeezed by a giant East Coast snow storm & a head cold but I've got to get my 'Old Earth' hybrid game off the ground. I need to fill out the Western Wastelands of Old Earth quickly & somewhat quietly. So once again I turn to 'an old friend' of Appendix N aficionados namely the 1920's master of dark fantasy A. Merritt.
Namely I'm looking at his 1932 book Dwellers in the Mirage specifically for adapting to use as a hidden ruined landscape for one of the Hyperborean style races in a lost valley in the former location of Alaska.



The book's details are straight on the nose for Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea second edition. The time lost hero with past incarnation syndrome, the two love interests, the ancient lost technologies of another age, the traditional Lovecraftian foes of the various peoples of the valley. The plot as explained by Wiki is pretty spot on for almost all of the themes of AS&SH;

"The novel concerns American Leif Langdon who discovers a warm valley in Alaska. Two races inhabit the valley, the Little People and a branch of an ancient Mongolian race; they worship the evil Kraken named Khalk'ru which they summon from another dimension to offer human sacrifice. The inhabitants recognize Langdon as the reincarnation of their long dead hero, Dwayanu. Dwayanu's spirit possesses Langdon and starts a war with the Little People. Langdon eventually fights off the presence of Dwayanu and destroys the Kraken."

The little people sounds like one of the degenerate little men races of Athuer Machen's novels & Robert E. Howard's Cthulhu mythos entries: 

The Great God Pan, Arthur Machen.
The Shining Pyramid, Arthur Machen.
The Three Impostors, Arthur Machen.
The Little People,Robert E. Howard.
Worms of the Earth, Robert E. Howard. 

People of the Dark, Robert E. Howard.
The Children of the Night, Robert E. Howard
The Shadow Kingdom, Robert E. Howard.

We see even more about the origin of the 'little people' of Robert Howard & HP Lovecraft from their letter in July of 1930. The hidden valley's people smack of the same sort of culture as A.Merritt's Moon Pool but there are echoes of H.P. Lovecraft's subterranean civilization  the realm of K'n-yan from "The Mound" by H. P. Lovecraft (ghostwriter) and Zealia Bishop (original idea). The necromancer tyrants of these lands are long passed on but their legacies & subjects remain especially on 'Old Earth'.

This hidden valley routine reminds me of one of my favorite Advanced Dungeons & Dragons modules C1 The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan by Harold Johnson &  Jeff R. Leason. 

The hidden valley of Tamoachan could be another hold over the necromancer tyrants on 'Old Earth'. A locked away gem in the depths of some new volcanic crater of  Earth created when Hyperborea was ripped into space.


The place is a seething location of sacrifice & corruption by a people who have been brain washed by the technologies of the valley long ago. These peoples believe themselves to be the Olman culture of the World of Greyhawk, but are not simply another lost group of refugees who have been manipulated by a far older and more dangerous elder being (more on this puppet master villain later on). The cults & tales of the Hidden Shrine fuel many of the outside world cults who see the lost valley as a type of religious 'Heaven' while the reality is very different.
I'd be adding even more mythos elements and keep the various A.Merritt story & novel locations as adventure locations for the Western Wastelands. There are several adventure elements already in play that I've got to flesh out. I've used the brainwashed
Olman culture bit before and its worked like a charm. Fantastic Novels v03n03 (1949 09) has a version of the  Dwellers in the Mirage  for download but its the one with the tragic ending. "There are variant endings of the work. In the original, Leif's love dies, but the publisher inartistically has her survive. The original tragic ending has been reinstated in some/many recent reprint"

Commentary On C1 The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan Adventure & Its Free Old School Resources

The player characters explore a stepped pyramid deep in the heart of a tropical jungle—the Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan. The characters must penetrate this Mayan-style temple, which is full of tricks and traps.

C1 The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan has an aura of pulpy danger that seems to call to players like moths to an old school flame. Hidden treasure, danger, & some very weird old school flavor seem to add to trap laden old school play. But what if you want to place it within your favorite old school home game campaign setting? What about a more pulpy sword & sorcery angle?

Alright so let's quickly talk about the second part of this nebulous campaign idea that a friend of mine talked with me about over the Easter holiday. Steve has been poking around the the Vaults of Pandius website & came across another Paleologos article. This time it was the X9/C1 Savage Coast/Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan mash-up by Paleologos. 

So let's talk about what's at the heart of this little bit of Tamoachan magick, "However, given that module C1 is notable for its Mayan and Aztec/Toltec trappings, it would fit almost seamlessly into module X9 "The Savage Coast", which otherwise suffers from a rather lackluster finale." So this might mean that The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan is simultaneously existing as both the the capitol of the Olman empire, which covered much of the continent south of Greyhawk & as a part of the Savage Coast in C1. There is a lot going on here where the "Central and South American flavour is masking far more that's bubbling below the surface of the adventure & the setting from Aztec &  Mayan cultures connects across a myriad of worlds. We already know that the Lovecraft & Clark Ashton Smith elements are in C1. But this connects the weird religion & culture of the the ancient Olman people of Greyhawk, based on the Aztec, Mayan, and Toltec peoples of Earth into a whole new light & turns them into a far greater menace for old school games. Could they have cults spreading like cancers across the planes?  This could help to explain the expansion as well as germination  of the Gibbering Mouther and other Shoggoth like monsters. That were brought with the Olman.



So what does this have to do with Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea? Well a few things, first of all it might interconnect two or more AD&D or D&D B/X campaign worlds with Hyperborea. These connections might even be through the Olman who were originally colonists on one of the myriad versions of the Warden. There is a Easter Egg that I found in the Drivethrurpg entry on C1;"There's also a peculiar connection in C1 to a later Greyhawk adventure. Room 19 of "Shrine" contains a figurine of a spaceship called the "II-Nedraw." Since the ship that crashed in S3: "Expedition to Barrier Peaks" (1980) was based on the Warden from Metamorphosis Alpha (1976), this could suggest a connection between that spaceship and the Tamoachan ruins."  Could the Olman be simply colonists of the Hyperboreas who have come to be degenerate cultists spreading an Old One like religion across the planes & spreading a cancer like growth of dangerous plane sucking magick to various old school campaign settings?
Well they will be in my upcoming campaigns.

There are few things to remember about C1 The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan is a competition module for PC's five to seventh level. It was created for  the Official Advanced Dungeons & Dragons tournament at the 1979 Origins International Game Expo (Origins '79). So players brought their best & brightest PC's to pit against the adventure location and the dungeon. Not only are the PC's in compitition mode against other parties but against the dungeon itself. The Olman designed the entire works as a sacrifice engine to the gods and it could be doing exactly that across all of those campaign worlds including Hyperborea. So where is the magical energy from those sacrifices going? Could the Olman be a far greater danger to the planes then anyone releases? I personally think so.


So my buddy Steve clued me to a few resources on the Vaults of Pandius website:
X9/C1 Savage Coast/Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan mash-up by Paleologos. 

 

"Mystaraizing" the Savage Tide: The Sea Wyvern's Wake

by David Keyser

Finally there is Ierendi Jones: Raiders Of The Blackmoorian Ark

by Kevin Power  

 which is a mash up that can be used to boast campaign in a totally weird direction. This mash up might be used with a Raiders! of The Lost Artifacts campaign but that's a whole other blog entry. But it can be used to pimp out Isle of Dread into this hot weird pulpy sweaty jungle sword & sorcery mess.

Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea Second Edition 'Old Earth' Campaign Inspirations & C1 The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan by Harold Johnson & Jeff R. Leason

 

I'm being squeezed by a giant East Coast snow storm & a head cold but I've got to get my 'Old Earth' hybrid game off the ground. I need to fill out the Western Wastelands of Old Earth quickly & somewhat quietly. So once again I turn to 'an old friend' of Appendix N aficionados namely the 1920's master of dark fantasy A. Merritt.
Namely I'm looking at his 1932 book Dwellers in the Mirage specifically for adapting to use as a hidden ruined landscape for one of the Hyperborean style races in a lost valley in the former location of Alaska.

The book's details are straight on the nose for Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea second edition. The time lost hero with past incarnation syndrome, the two love interests, the ancient lost technologies of another age, the traditional Lovecraftian foes of the various peoples of the valley. The plot as explained by Wiki is pretty spot on for almost all of the themes of AS&SH;

"The novel concerns American Leif Langdon who discovers a warm valley in Alaska. Two races inhabit the valley, the Little People and a branch of an ancient Mongolian race; they worship the evil Kraken named Khalk'ru which they summon from another dimension to offer human sacrifice. The inhabitants recognize Langdon as the reincarnation of their long dead hero, Dwayanu. Dwayanu's spirit possesses Langdon and starts a war with the Little People. Langdon eventually fights off the presence of Dwayanu and destroys the Kraken."

The little people sounds like one of the degenerate little men races of Athuer Machen's novels & Robert E. Howard's Cthulhu mythos entries: The Great God Pan, Arthur Machen.
The Shining Pyramid, Arthur Machen.
The Three Impostors, Arthur Machen.
Worms of the Earth, Robert E. Howard.
The Little People, Robert E. Howard.
People of the Dark, Robert E. Howard.
The Children of the Night, Robert E. Howard
The Shadow Kingdom, Robert E. Howard.

We see even more about the origin of the 'little people' of Robert Howard & HP Lovecraft from their letter in Jul of 1930. The hidden valley's people smack of the same sort of culture as A.Merritt's Moon Pool but there are echoes of H.P. Lovecraft's subterranean civilization  the realm of K'n-yan from "The Mound" by H. P. Lovecraft (ghostwriter) and Zealia Bishop (original idea). The necromancer tyrants of these lands are long passed on but their legacies & subjects remain especially on 'Old Earth'.

This hidden valley routine reminds me of one of my favorite Advanced Dungeons & Dragons modules C1 The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan by Harold Johnson &  Jeff R. Leason. 

The hidden valley of Tamoachan could be another hold over the necromancer tyrants on 'Old Earth'. A locked away gem in the depths of some new volcanoic crater of  Earth created when Hyperborea was ripped into space.


The place is a seething location of sacrifice & corruption by a people who have been brain washed by the technologies of the valley long ago. These peoples believe themselves to be the Olman culture of the World of Greyhawk, but are not simply another lost group of refugees who have been manipulated by a far older and more dangerous elder being (more on this puppet master villain later on). The cults & tales of the Hidden Shrine fuel many of the outside world cults who see the lost valley as a type of religious 'Heaven' while the reality is very different.
I'd be adding even more mythos elements and keep the various A.Merritt story & novel locations as adventure locations for the Western Wastelands. There are several adventure elements already in play that I've got to flesh out. I've used the brainwashed
Olman culture bit before and its worked like a charm. Fantastic Novels v03n03 (1949 09) has a version of the  Dwellers in the Mirage  for download but its the one with the tragic ending. "There are variant endings of the work. In the original, Leif's love dies, but the publisher inartistically has her survive. The original tragic ending has been reinstated in some/many recent reprint"

Hidden Lovecraftian Connections Within C1 The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan By Harold Johnson & Jeff R. Leason

So last night I was watching John Carpenter's The Thing with my dad for the thirteenth billionth time. I'm a 'Thing head' one of those fans obsessed by the film in all of its aspects. But especially its connection with The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan. Say what?! Which was the reaction of a friend of mine on the phone when we were talking about the adventure. 
 

"The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan was originally printed for the 1979 Origins International Game Expo,^[2] the module was made available to the general public in 1980. The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan is an adventure module for the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) fantasy role-playing game, set in the World of Greyhawk campaign setting for use with the 1st edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons rules. It is the first in the C-series of modules, a set of unrelated adventures originally designed for competitive play, with the C representing the first letter in the word competition"  It was originally written by Harold Johnson,  &  Jeff R. Leason. 

The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan is one of those module that I've used in the past with great effect, it introduced the ancient Olman people of Greyhawk, based on the Aztec, Mayan, and Toltec peoples of Earth. Yeah except I didn't place module on Greyhawk at all. Last year I ran the module for Steve & his players with Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea first edition on Mars or more specifically my version of 'Old Mars' as part of a hidden jungle oasis near the poles. Why? Because the hidden shrine and its contents are a part of a space craft that crashed on Mars a hundred thousand years ago. There's a room within the adventure that explains this, the following commentary comes from the official Wizards of the Coast entry;"There's also a peculiar connection in C1 to a later Greyhawk adventure. Room 19 of "Shrine" contains a figurine of a spaceship called the "II-Nedraw." Since the ship that crashed in S3: "Expedition to Barrier Peaks" (1980) was based on the Warden from Metamorphosis Alpha (1976), this could suggest a connection between that spaceship and the Tamoachan ruins. But it's probably just a fun easter egg." Remember just a few days ago I talked about Dave Arneson's City of the Gods & Expedition to the Barrier Peaks.


Well 'The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan' also was the first appearance of the gibbering mouther & just this morning I was looking through my table top copy of Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea and look what I read on their version of the gibbering mouther. Its now a degenerate form of shoggoth. Yeah that doesn't prove jack?!

Well the shoggoths were created by HP Lovecraft in his only science fiction novella At The Mountains of Madness. Well stealy eyed editor and sci fi guru John W. Campbell created not only the Thing From Another World with its shape shifting alien but predecessor story called 'The Brain Stealers from Mars.' “The Brain-Stealers of Mars” (1936) by science fiction editor John W. Campbell Jr. &  illustrated by pulp artist Alex Schomburg.I became aware of the story in its reprinted form from the 1952 issue of Wonder Story Annual magazine. I begged my adopted uncle for a copy of it & on my 14th birthday I got it.So after the adventurers  in 'the Brain stealers of Mars' finish off their proto shaggoth enemies & recover the technologies left behind by the Stealers creators.  By placing the shrine on Mars the three angle connection between Earth,Mars, & the Mountains of Madness made things very interesting. The players immediately started talking about Aztec style dimensional gate ways & quoting John Carpenter's Thing.


There's more connections when we bring in Clark Ashton Smith whose god Ubbo-Sathla was used by the Elder Things as the basis for all life on Earth either as a joke or as mere fodder.


'There, in the grey beginning of Earth, the formless mass that was Ubbo-Sathla reposed amid the slime and the vapors. Headless, without organs or members, it sloughed from its oozy sides, in a slow, ceaseless wave, the amoebic forms that were the archetypes of earthly life. Horrible it was, if there had been aught to apprehend the horror; and loathsome, if there had been any to feel loathing. About it, prone or tilted in the mire, there lay the mighty tablets of star-quarried stone that were writ with the inconceivable wisdom of the pre-mundane gods.
—Clark Ashton Smith, Ubbo-Sathla'
The connections don't stop there. The adventurers noted a map from the city Igarth from Mar's old  quarter & a statue of the alien Martian Old One Vulthoom within the temple complex. All of this connects back to 'Old Earth' where the Hyperboreans & Mount Voormithadreth once again looms on the horizon of the old planet. Could the same thing be happening below the red sands where the dweller lying in wait on Mars in the underground city of Ravormos is only bidding its time.  There could be far more menaces waiting in the various hidden rooms of  'The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan' to be fleshed out by the dungeon master then the players have a clue of!

Deeper Lovecraftian Commentary On The AD&D Adventure Module C1 The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan For Your Old School Campaigns

I've been down for the count with a brutal head cold for several weeks now which I caught from my wife to be coming in from Heathrow. Today I put her on a bus back to New York City and a flight for the U.K. again but we managed to see Alien Covenant.  It reminded me of this post on C1 The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan.

Alien Covenent is an interesting bridge gap between Prometheus & the first Alien film. There were several things that got my old school dungeon master's gears turning about the film. It left more questions then answers. But that's a blog post for another time.

The central character axis  of Alien Covenant is of course David who actually reminds me of HG Wells  Doctor Moreau from the classic H.G.Wells novel The Island of Doctor Moreau. In fact Alien Covenant reminds me of Wells comments on his own novel;" Wells described the novel as "an exercise in youthful blasphemy"" In fact the novel The Island of Doctor Moreau has many of the same themes as Alien Covenant;"The novel deals with a number of philosophical themes, including pain and cruelty, moral responsibility, human identity, and human interference with nature."



So what does all of this have to do with the Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan?  Not only are there parallels between both the film & H.G. Wells novel but there is also a twist with this old school competition adventure. "The player characters explore a stepped pyramid deep in the heart of a tropical jungle—the Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan.^[4] The characters must penetrate this Mayan-style temple, which is full of tricks and traps.^[2] Some of the traps include cursed items, firebombs, and triggered statues." This hidden pyramid complex in the jungle is a prime example of survival of the fittist in miniature maintained by the Olman people. ""Shrine" introduces the ancient Olman people of Greyhawk, based on the Aztec, Mayan, and Toltec peoples of Earth. This was probably the first meaningful expansion of Greyhawk by anyone other than Gary Gygax or Rob Kuntz.

There's also a peculiar connection in C1 to a later Greyhawk adventure. Room 19 of "Shrine" contains a figurine of a spaceship called the "II-Nedraw." Since the ship that crashed in S3: "Expedition to Barrier Peaks" (1980) was based on the Warden from Metamorphosis Alpha (1976), this could suggest a connection between that spaceship and the Tamoachan ruins. But it's probably just a fun easter egg."
Yeah probably just a fun Easter egg umm no I don't think so because this pyramid temple introduces on of the most dangerous Lovecraftian monsters ever the Shoggoth. ERrmm  I mean the Gibbering Mouther or do I?
I've stated before about how the  Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan is a perfect ancient lab facility for PC's to stumble into but who really set it up? Could this be one of the hidden sinks of evil that Adventurer, Conqueror, King talks about? I not only thinks so but I think that the Olman people were not the originators of the Hidden Shrine.  Just as the Engineers are not the creators of humanity or the Aliens
The question becomes whose actually behind the operation of the Hidden Shrine today?


The Oldmans are actually the caretakers of the holy knowledge of the shrine and instead inside it possibly in some hidden room or headquarter location is the owners of the shrine - The Elder Things.  The Oldmans have been refining, experimenting, & creating variations of Shoggoths for centuries playing Vivamancer

They've been emulating the 'holy work' of their progenitors for so many centuries that now they've created a PC class shoggoth for some alien purpose.   What does this all mean? Well there is far more going on below the surface then the simple grab the treasure & explore the ruin narrative here.



Not only is the Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan a dangerous module for PC's but its an engine of monster creation & campaign axis point for Lovecraftian mythos weirdness in a campaign. Because those who survive the trials of the 'gods' are worthy to become a blessed Gibbering Mouther PC or NPC class to add another wrinkle to layer cake that is C1.The reasons for this are built right into the ACK's rules where wizardly cross breeding ala OD&D is the norm & rule. This brings the question into focus whose 'David' in C1 the Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan & whose benefiting from the operations of the temple? Whose getting that sweet divine nectar from the continued operation of the pyramid complex? If the Shrine is on Hyperborea then are the Elder Things still in charge & how many years have they been using the Olman people as cultists & operative?



Ten Lovecraftian Old School Tie Ins for C1 The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan

1. As an adventure location its a nasty & legendary place that can be used again and again to challenge the higher level fools erm adventurers for treasure and fame. There should be a dangerous and sanity blasting under current to the place. 
2. The legendary status of the Shrine should be used to tease everything dark and dangerous about the cults of the Olmans. This could be used as a motivator for artifacts or treasure within a game setting. 
3. C1 could be its own engine of horror churning out forbidden artifacts or treasure as an engine of Lovecraftian mythos divinity.
4. Hyperborea needs several such locations as stop gaps for the kinds of horror that these monsters & cults offer. 
5. There is a wide variety of horror that C1 can be used for and its a perfect Raiders of the Lost Artifacts adventure setting.
6. Sword & Sorcery needs more hidden pulpy temples & shrines this adventure makes a perfect location for horrid cult of the Olmans. 
7. Several Lovecraft connections can be made to other AD&D settings using C1. This means that lures, adventure hooks, and more can be interwoven between old school campaign settings. 
8. The world always needs more Shoggoths 
9. Several of the Olman artifacts can be used to tie into the world of Adventurer, Conqueror, King 
10. C1 could be operating for hundreds of years causing all kinds of Lovecraftian cult mayhem in your campaign causing an expedition to this horrid jungle location.

Commentary On C1 The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan Adventure & Its Free Old School Resources

C1 The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan has an aura of pulpy danger that seems to call to players like moths to an old school flame. Hidden treasure, danger, & some very weird old school flavor seem to add to trap laden old school play. But what if you want to place it within your favorite old school home game campaign setting? What about a more pulpy sword & sorcery angle?

Alright so let's quickly talk about the second part of this nebulous campaign idea that a friend of mine talked with me about over the Easter holiday. Steve has been poking around the the Vaults of Pandius website & came across another Paleologos article. This time it was the X9/C1 Savage Coast/Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan mash-up by Paleologos. 

So let's talk about what's at the heart of this little bit of Tamoachan magick, "However, given that module C1 is notable for its Mayan and Aztec/Toltec trappings, it would fit almost seamlessly into module X9 "The Savage Coast", which otherwise suffers from a rather lackluster finale." So this might mean that The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan is simultaneously existing as both the the capitol of the Olman empire, which covered much of the continent south of Greyhawk & as a part of the Savage Coast in C1. There is a lot going on here where the "Central and South American flavour is masking far more that's bubbling below the surface of the adventure & the setting from Aztec &  Mayan cultures connects across a myriad of worlds. We already know that the Lovecraft & Clark Ashton Smith elements are in C1. But this connects the weird religion & culture of the the ancient Olman people of Greyhawk, based on the Aztec, Mayan, and Toltec peoples of Earth into a whole new light & turns them into a far greater menace for old school games. Could they have cults spreading like cancers across the planes?  This could help to explain the expansion as well as germination  of the Gibbering Mouther and other Shoggoth like monsters. That were brought with the Olman.



So what does this have to do with Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea? Well a few things, first of all it might interconnect two or more AD&D or D&D B/X campaign worlds with Hyperborea. These connections might even be through the Olman who were originally colonists on one of the myriad versions of the Warden. There is a Easter Egg that I found in the Drivethrurpg entry on C1;"There's also a peculiar connection in C1 to a later Greyhawk adventure. Room 19 of "Shrine" contains a figurine of a spaceship called the "II-Nedraw." Since the ship that crashed in S3: "Expedition to Barrier Peaks" (1980) was based on the Warden from Metamorphosis Alpha (1976), this could suggest a connection between that spaceship and the Tamoachan ruins."  Could the Olman be simply colonists of the Hyperboreas who have come to be degenerate cultists spreading an Old One like religion across the planes & spreading a cancer like growth of dangerous plane sucking magick to various old school campaign settings?
Well they will be in my upcoming campaigns.

There are few things to remember about C1 The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan is a competition module for PC's five to seventh level. It was created for  the Official Advanced Dungeons & Dragons tournament at the 1979 Origins International Game Expo (Origins '79). So players brought their best & brightest PC's to pit against the adventure location and the dungeon. Not only are the PC's in compitition mode against other parties but against the dungeon itself. The Olman designed the entire works as a sacrifice engine to the gods and it could be doing exactly that across all of those campaign worlds including Hyperborea. So where is the magical energy from those sacrifices going? Could the Olman be a far greater danger to the planes then anyone releases? I personally think so.


So my buddy Steve clued me to a few resources on the Vaults of Pandius website:
X9/C1 Savage Coast/Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan mash-up by Paleologos. 

 

"Mystaraizing" the Savage Tide: The Sea Wyvern's Wake

by David Keyser

Finally there is Ierendi Jones: Raiders Of The Blackmoorian Ark

by Kevin Power  

 which is a mash up that can be used to boast campaign in a totally weird direction. This mash up might be used with a Raiders! of The Lost Artifacts campaign but that's a whole other blog entry. But it can be used to pimp out Isle of Dread into this hot weird pulpy sweaty jungle sword & sorcery mess

 

Further Meditations on B4 The Lost City Adventure For Use With C1 The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan For Domain Level Competion Play & Sword & Sorcery Campaign

Alright I spoke about C1 The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan today but a friend on G+ mentioned B4 The Lost City. And well any excuse to speak about B4 is good enough for me. I've used the two modules together before but tomorrow I'll dive into the rest of the 'C' series. Let's talk about using B4 & C1 together as mega campaign for a moment.

"Lost in the desert! The only hope for survival lies in a ruined city rising out of the sands. Food, water, and wealth await heroic adventures inside and ancient pyramid ruled by a strange race of masked beings. " Sounds like something out of a pulp magazine of the weird tales variety and this wasn't lost on the author Tom Moldvay . 
We're talking iconic modules here and over the years I've used C1 and B4 together as a strung together 'lost world' Conan style 'Red Nails' situation. The various factions of B4 The Lost City are the remains of an ancient people now long gone. The Olman peoples, traps,etc. of C1 The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan might be at war with the various factions of 'The Lost City' hence the deadly level of tricks and traps. All of this adventure set up could be for religious reasons.  I refer back to Robert Howard's Red Nails novella.

"Techotl pointed to a black column of ebony which stood behind the dais. Hundreds of red dots scarred its polished surface — the bright scarlet heads of heavy copper nails driven into the black wood. "Five red nails for five Xotalanca lives!" exulted Techotl, and the horrible exultation in the faces of the listeners made them inhuman.

— Robert E. Howard, "Red Nails""

The two adventure settings connect up via a smaller dungeon tunnel system and into the lost  valley of "C1 The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan" . This puts a very different spin on the domain level play of such a campaign where hidden passages, weird Lovecraftian monsters, and even hidden factions could ply the tunnels between adventure locations. This also means that perhaps the players might be taken on one or more of the domain locations. The hidden sinks of evil sub system of magic in Adventurer, Conqueror, King has some perfect fodder for the weird pulpy occult background of such a campaign set up. Thanks to the Vaults of Pandius website there are tons of resources for B4 The Lost City to plunder. 

 B4 The Lost City has some of the best mini campaign elements for D&D DIY since Tomb of Horrors for Competition play as well. This means that with a larger and experienced D&D group a DM could use and expand the tricks and traps of B4 into a mega competition module with "C1 The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan" as the next expansion. Bring plenty of PC's the mayhem and death will put the average DCC module to shame.  Infact the mercenaries and hirelings of B4 can be used to help round out parties of adventurers.


So what does this have to do with Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea? Plenty actually, I've been rereading  Novalyne Price Ellis, One Who Walked Alone which I highly recommend for the Robert Howard fan and his themes of cultural decline and decadence;"
The theme of cultural decadence maintained its grip on Howard's imagination. In early 1935 he remarked to Novalyne Price:
"You see, girl, when a civilization begins to decay and die, the only thing men or women think about is the gratification of their body's desires. They become preoccupied with sex. It colors their laws, their religion – every aspect of their lives.
[...]
"Girl, I'm working on a yarn like that now – a Conan yarn. Listen to me. When you have a dying civilization, the normal, accepted life style ain't strong enough to satisfy the damned insatiable appetites of the courtesans and, finally, of all the people. They turn to Lesbianism and things like that to satisfy their desires...I am going to call it 'The Red Flame of Passion.'" — Novalyne Price Ellis, One Who Walked Alone"
These themes are central to the ideas and motivations for competition among the various factions, peoples.etc. of these modules. This leads to the perfect in for players wanting to carve out their own little petty kingdom of weirdness among the ruins. This is central theme to several adventures of both Adventurer, Conqueror, King & especially Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea.
"Eibon saw that Zhothaqquah was indeed a god of his word: for the scene beyond the panel was nothing that could ever find a legitimate place in the topography of Mhu Thulan or of any terrestrial region. It did not altogether appeal to him; but there was no alternative, save the inquisitorial cells of the goddess Yhoundeh. Envisaging in thought the various refinements and complications of torture which Morghi would have now prepared, he sprang through the opening into Cykranosh with an agility that was quite juvenile for a wizard of mature years."
The Door To Saturn
Clark Aston Smith


Competition, combat, blood, sex, and adventure figure around the central axis of black magick, weirdness, and the dangerous nature of these two modules. The fact is that these are perfect fodder for getting the blood flowing both around the dice and on the map. There are lots of reasons why a cross campaign works with these two modules: 

1. Drop the Lost City in first & run the whole affair as a mini campaign with the understanding that  "C1 The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan" is going to be the follow up the PC's will encounter some corpses of Aztec warriors in B4 and the seeds are planted. There are plenty of opportunities for domain seeds throughout B4. 
2. Deadly little dungeons are scattered throughout B4 and the factions add even more weirdness to the whole affair, an air of insanity hangs over The Lost City just as Robert Howard's Red Nails. 
3. Undead are your friends for coloring the war between the city states backstory for this which gives an especially weird Edgar Rice Burroughs feel to the whole thing. 
4. Trapped Lovecaftian Gods are only the tip of the ice berg here and there can be a story within a competition or domain level adventure here scatter a few legends or adventure locations within. 
5. Clive Barker vacation spot this is the perfect marriage to drop in a demon or other mid level boss monster with an agenda of its own. Weird city locations are excellent for just this sort of strangeness. 
6. Strange Character classes - isolated locations are the perfect locations to try out NPC's with strange character classes to see how what works and doesn't. They'll be aced or killed at some point so these NPC's can easily be used to build tension. 
7. Weird tales for two - This is a good opportunity to build NPC with crazy backstories that are build into the campaign world. Lots of pulps did this time and again. This works especially well for Lamentations of the Flame Princess. 
8. Competition from Beyond - The rival adventurers are a perfect foil to introduce in mini campaigns such as this and giving them the weird or powerful magic item will piss players off especially if they by passed them in the past. 
9. These adventures are DM DIY D&D friendly and deadly as sin take full advantage of this fact especially with sword and sorcery themes. 
10. Have Plenty of Extra PC's and use the scoring system of  "C1 The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan" because if the players understand this they will want and demand to come back for more. This is one of the reasons why Dungeon Crawl Classics has been so successful. 

Old School Domain Level Play With C1 The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan As Old School Sword & Sorcery Campaign Jump Off Point

I've been thinking a lot about C1 The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan & the idea of the module's force's taking far more proactive adventure advantage in an old school campaign world. In case you don't know, "It is the first in the C-series of modules, a set of unrelated adventures originally designed for competitive play, with the C representing the first letter in the word competition." So right out of the gate its a deadly little adventure for Con style play. And its also a classic with all that implies because its a trap heavy adventure that introduces a Central and South American flavored setting drawn from Aztec & Mayan culture as well as mythology influences. I use those terms very loosely because it introduces some stuff that seems like it came straight out of a '30's Weird Tales issue that hit the stands way back when.

"
"The adventure itself takes place in the Amedio Jungle at a disused temple near the ruined city of Tamoachan which center around the Olmen culture. And that's where things get interesting because what if the culture isn't waiting for adventurers to find them 'lost world' style. What if these warriors are on the road to warfare and conflict with the surrounding tribes, warriors, and others. This might make sense for all of the tricks and traps that could actual mechanisms for the PC's to be released into the temple complex & there to be used in as bait and or as a gift to the gods. This makes a lot of sense especially since the PC's are given over to;"The original tournament play of the adventure had the player characters fall into the lowest level of the shrine (a ziggurat) whilst fleeing from pursuers". Suddenly things are starting to make more sense as the empire is expanding and the PC's heads are on the block for the 'gods. The perfect level to run PC's through this adventure is really 6th-8th(perhaps a 3rd through 6th level for AS&SH PC's) level characters adventure fest and reasonable for those levels of characters.


The original photograph on Flickr was taken by AlkaliSoaps

Because of the isolated & trap heavy dangerous nature of C1 The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan makes it perfect for sword  & sorcery games such as an adjusted game of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons first edition or ever a retroclone such as Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea . Because C1 is a competiton module there is a chance that the parts can be used separately from the whole. There was some talk several years ago among the DM's that I hang with that C1 could be used with some heavy modification as a part of a pulpy domain level take over game with a system such as Adventurer, Conqueror, King. The PC's circumvent capture and slowly knock out obstacles, traps, and more this is followed by them taking over the whole lost world temple complex and kingdom. This is going to require months of work on the DM's and players part. This means that you've got a built in lost world and pulpy campaign for months to come.


Of course all of this hinges on the PC's surviving the entire experience and I have a feeling your going to see three or more PC's for each player involved. The traps are that deadly & the most's that one can hope to gain from C1 is a reasonable treasure or two but even those are somewhat lacking for the most treasures, the real asset is the temple itself along with the Olmen culture. Given Adventurer, Conqueror, King or AS&SH this sort of a take over could have the PC's taking over by campaign end.There are several reasons why this will work  :

1. The PC's are going to be within the driver's seat for a take over after completing  the whole leg of the C1 The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan adventure. By the time that's happened the Olmen culture might be in a state of pulpy shock ready for an Edgar Rice Burroughs novel coup. The PC's might just come out on top if the dice are favorable. 
2. Factions within the Olman culture & government might have been eliminated by the PC's actions in  C1 The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan adventure. This is going to bring the enemies out into the open for the PC's to pick off and new ones to take their place. There's nothing like a palace revolt to bring out the worst of the worst. 
3. This sort of a running adventure campaign is a pulp classic seen in Weird Fiction & sword & sorcery time & again. 
4. DM opportunity with a bit of clever slight of hand on the player's part along with the DM they can take the campaign in a whole other direction or adventure cycle. This sort of a campaign style is what empire building is about. 
5. The reverse might also happen and the PC's expose the Olmen culture to Greyhawk which might lead to plans of conquest on their parts. This would be the least thing that the players or the world of Greyhawk would be expecting.

With some clever bits its incredible to see just how flexible the classic era TSR  modules can be as both adventure & tool kit.

In terms of design and function C1 does exactly what it sets out to do as a tournament functioning adventure with its own internal scoring system at conventions. But what we're talking about here is to take the bones and then run with it in other directions either way C1 The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan is classic era TSR at some of its best and most lethal.