Hyperborea rpg Commentary On I2 Tomb of the Lizard King By Mark Acres For Advanced Dungeons & Dragons First Edition

 "The southlands of Eor are being despoiled. Merchants will no longer run their caravans on the main highway past the quiet village of Waycombe. The peasants are fleeing their lands, and all are demanding protection from the powerful Count of Eor. The goodly count has sent a troop of his trusted fighters to exterminate the brigands believed responsible for these outrages, but weeks have passed, and still there is no word from this force."

 

"Now John Brunis, Count of Eor, has turned to you for aid. After taking counsel with the High Priest of Eor, he believes that a small party of cunning, bold adventurers may succeed where armed might has failed. You find yourselves faced with many mysteries!"

 

"Why has robbery suddenly erupted in the peaceful southlands? How could mere brigands be as powerful as the foes described to you by their numerous victims? Is this really mere robbery? Or is there some truth to the rumors, told only in hushed whispers, about the beginnings of a hideous plot being hatched by an ancient, vile, and evil foe of all mankind?"

One of the modules that I've been mulling on running again for the Hyperborea rpg is I2 Tomb of the Lizard King By Mark Arces an adventure for players 5-7 level. Transporting this module from Greyhawk to Hyperborea is going to present some challenges to the DM. First is the fact that it should be run in the mid beginning of Spring on Hyperborea. And secondly it should be run with either a Norse or Keltic bent. And for myself I'd go with a Keltic kingdom not too far from the capital of Hyperborea presenting a real Sword & Sorcery threat to the heart of the campaign setting. Bandits are attacking the roads outside of Swampgate and John Brunis, Count of Eor is responsible for maintaining these roads. So his head is on chopping block of the merchant guilds, traders, slavers, etc. So he's put out a call for adventuring parties. 
 There will be rival adventuring groups of NPC's until the party is brought into the presence of John Brunis, Count of Eor. And PC's should be offered lands & a minor title to go along with the high stakes of this adventure. Waycombe is a place with a lot of history & danger around it. And its really the key to running this adventure on Hyperborea. Waycombe used to be the seat of the lizardmen empire on Hyperborea. Especially the area around the villages, ruins, etc. all around the ancient lands. The key here for running this is the sleight of hand set up of the module;"Tomb of the Lizard King is a three-part adventure involving a wilderness trek, a battle against brigands, and a foray into the tomb of the Lizard King" The lizard men are forth ring down servant races of the ancient Serpent Men and so Waycombe was really a vassel area. 

This vassal area is a part of the old Serpent Men empire that now extends down into Underborea. And so the lizard king himself is actually carrying out the will of his former masters the serpentmen. The cult of the Serpent Men is ancient & old extending back into the capital of Hyperborea and all of the way out to the steppes. This area is where the ancient  serpent men had the seat of their empire and because of I2 Tomb of the Lizard King's deep Greyhawk connections I've had several star gates connecting back into the old school classic campaign.  Continuing what I said in my review of N1, The reptile cult should be a thinking man's enemy, they play for keeps & fit right into the Robert Howard/Clark Ashton Smith mold.

 

I2 Tomb of the Lizard King By Mark Acres  isn't for the faint of heart players of old school games. And it could well be the follow up to N1 Against the Reptile Cult By Doug Niles. On Hyperborea this is all a part of a grand plan by the Serpent People to restore part of their empire and hold on Hyperborea. The Hyperboreans themselves ages ago threw off the yoke of the serpentmen & their attendant races. This makes  I2 Tomb of the Lizard King By Mark Acres a follow up to these events in its own right. Is I2 Tomb of the Lizard King By Mark Acres no it has its own flaws. 

Commentary On I2 Tomb of the Lizard King By Mark Acres For Advanced Dungeons & Dragons First Edition

"The southlands of Eor are being despoiled. Merchants will no longer run their caravans on the main highway past the quiet village of Waycombe. The peasants are fleeing their lands, and all are demanding protection from the powerful Count of Eor. The goodly count has sent a troop of his trusted fighters to exterminate the brigands believed responsible for these outrages, but weeks have passed, and still there is no word from this force.

Now John Brunis, Count of Eor, has turned to you for aid. After taking counsel with the High Priest of Eor, he believes that a small party of cunning, bold adventurers may succeed where armed might has failed. You find yourselves faced with many mysteries!

Why has robbery suddenly erupted in the peaceful southlands? How could mere brigands be as powerful as the foes described to you by their numerous victims? Is this really mere robbery? Or is there some truth to the rumors, told only in hushed whispers, about the beginnings of a hideous plot being hatched by an ancient, vile, and evil foe of all mankind?"

After having a beer with a friend we started to dissect & get into the backbone of I2 Tomb of the Lizard King by Mark Acres. This is one of the 'I' series which stands for intermediate player characters; believe me I2 lives up to its for " large groups of characters of level 5-7, or smaller groups with higher levels." reputation which makes this a perfect module to run for convention set ups. While I've covered Tomb of the Reptile Men the focus here on my commentary is going to be a bit different.

There are modules that rely on getting the PC's right into the thick of things & Tomb of The Lizard King is one of those. Straight out of the gate the PC's are involved in a set piece encounter & delivered into the southlands of Eor . A friend of mine this evening gave me a heads up with an article called Modules and adventures in Mystara by Bouv which allows I2 to be placed within Mystara but also has a killer custom map of Grand Duchy of Karameikos.
But where is Eor & the viallage of Waycombe in Hyperborea? Well that's an easy one because the pulpy action of I2 takes place within the fields of Vol. Eor is a decadent remnant near swamp gate. The lizard men are trying to muscle in on the human fodder because of the events of Port Greely. Humans are one of the resources for many of the inhuman races on Hyperborea. If the PC's have gone through N1 Against the Cult of the Reptile God then the PC's should be ready to tackle I2 because they've raised up levels or their PC's are dead.

Waycombe is really one of the keys here bordering the Lug wastelands ancestral homelands of the lizard men & one of the last bastions of the serpent men before the Green Death wiped most of the evidence of the seat of their ancient empire on Hyperborea. The key here for running this is the sleight of hand set up of the module;"Tomb of the Lizard King is a three-part adventure involving a wilderness trek, a battle against brigands, and a foray into the tomb of the Lizard King" This gives an incredibly dangerous guided tour of one of the underpinnings of the reptile cult on Hyperborea. I've used this to take the cult all the way to the old serpent men works on the Hyperborean steppes. This means that you get twice the dungeon crawling potential from one or two modules. I've said before that the lizard men on the whole are actually the forth tier down on the rung of inhuman slaves to the former serpent men kings on my version of Hyperborea. The villain at the heart of I2 Tomb of the Lizard King might not be wholly unique there might be others of his ilk and condition. 

Because of the deep Greyhawk connection today that Tomb of the Lizard King has I've back tied in a star gate into the steppes of Hyperborea. Once again my version of Greyhawk is a sword & sorcery driven land not that drivel that passed off as the the western Flanaess of today. Because the county of Eor was 'officially' folded into Greyhawk, I used that knowledge to turn campaign matters & setting things on its ear by turning the realm of Eor into a decedent backwater with its own flavor & 'ahem' regional charm. A place where the reptile cult not only flourishes but continuous the way it has for centuries. Continuing what I said in my review of N1, The reptile cult should be a thinking man's enemy, they play for keeps & fit right into the Robert Howard/Clark Ashton Smith mold.


A faction of epic proportions that can challenge and lock horns with a fairly large group of players as I2 is designed to. Make no mistake Tomb of the Lizard King delivers but its only the beginning really for a dungeon master to take events to the next level. Even experienced players have told me that they dread this module with good reason. "Doug Cowie reviewed I2 favorably for Imagine magazine,^[5] calling it a "one off exercise with various encounters occurring in widely differing settings" and praising the well-drawn maps.^[5] Although he found the outline and "source of villainy" very similar to module N1, Cowie thought I2 was a better-presented adventure than N1 as it provides an "interesting setting, good NPCs, and some very dangerous underground encounters"" make note of those encounters because they can easily TPK a large party of experienced players with little effort. So be careful or not before running this classic for your players. I really wish that Mark Acres had done more AD&D modules of this quality, he was an incredible game designer and writer.  I2 Tomb of the Lizard King By Mark Acres remains a classic and mainstay of the old school hobby. Its accessible, easy to run, fun, and very dangerous everything I want from a sword & sorcery adventure.

Here are ten reasons why I2 Tomb of the Lizard King By Mark Acres
works:

1. Classic set up and easy adventure & campaign insertion into an old school set up. 
2. A great module for large groups of players for an investigation style adventure with plenty of old school action and encounters. 
3. Deadly and challenging encounters for mid level tier PC's. 
4. Twist and turns for old school adventures & perfect set ups for sword & sorcery action. 
5. Weird tales style monsters with room for expansion into further adventures with hooks built right into the adventure 
6. A small sampler of Eighties AD&D first edition encounters and danger. 
7. Corruption danger, and depravity in the countryside 
8. A great weekend book end adventure for a mini campaign with you and ten of your friends. 
9. Twisted and weird fun with lizard men 
10. Plenty of treasure and danger to satifsy the old school gamers!

Commentary On I2 Tomb of the Lizard King By Mark Acres For Advanced Dungeons & Dragons First Edition

"The southlands of Eor are being despoiled. Merchants will no longer run their caravans on the main highway past the quiet village of Waycombe. The peasants are fleeing their lands, and all are demanding protection from the powerful Count of Eor. The goodly count has sent a troop of his trusted fighters to exterminate the brigands believed responsible for these outrages, but weeks have passed, and still there is no word from this force.

Now John Brunis, Count of Eor, has turned to you for aid. After taking counsel with the High Priest of Eor, he believes that a small party of cunning, bold adventurers may succeed where armed might has failed. You find yourselves faced with many mysteries!

Why has robbery suddenly erupted in the peaceful southlands? How could mere brigands be as powerful as the foes described to you by their numerous victims? Is this really mere robbery? Or is there some truth to the rumors, told only in hushed whispers, about the beginnings of a hideous plot being hatched by an ancient, vile, and evil foe of all mankind?"

After having a beer with a friend we started to dissect & get into the backbone of I2 Tomb of the Lizard King by Mark Acres. This is one of the 'I' series which stands for intermediate player characters; believe me I2 lives up to its for " large groups of characters of level 5-7, or smaller groups with higher levels." reputation which makes this a perfect module to run for convention set ups. While I've covered Tomb of the Reptile Men the focus here on my commentary is going to be a bit different.

There are modules that rely on getting the PC's right into the thick of things & Tomb of The Lizard King is one of those. Straight out of the gate the PC's are involved in a set piece encounter & delivered into the southlands of Eor . A friend of mine this evening gave me a heads up with an article called Modules and adventures in Mystara by Bouv which allows I2 to be placed within Mystara but also has a killer custom map of Grand Duchy of Karameikos.

But where is Eor & the viallage of Waycombe in Hyperborea? Well that's an easy one because the pulpy action of I2 takes place within the fields of Vol. Eor is a decadent remnant near swamp gate. The lizard men are trying to muscle in on the human fodder because of the events of Port Greely. Humans are one of the resources for many of the inhuman races on Hyperborea. If the PC's have gone through N1 Against the Cult of the Reptile God then the PC's should be ready to tackle I2 because they've raised up levels or their PC's are dead.

Waycombe is really one of the keys here bordering the Lug wastelands ancestral homelands of the lizard men & one of the last bastions of the serpent men before the Green Death wiped most of the evidence of the seat of their ancient empire on Hyperborea. The key here for running this is the sleight of hand set up of the module;"Tomb of the Lizard King is a three-part adventure involving a wilderness trek, a battle against brigands, and a foray into the tomb of the Lizard King" This gives an incredibly dangerous guided tour of one of the underpinnings of the reptile cult on Hyperborea. I've used this to take the cult all the way to the old serpent men works on the Hyperborean steppes. This means that you get twice the dungeon crawling potential from one or two modules. I've said before that the lizard men on the whole are actually the forth tier down on the rung of inhuman slaves to the former serpent men kings on my version of Hyperborea. The villain at the heart of I2 Tomb of the Lizard King might not be wholly unique there might be others of his ilk and condition.

Because of the deep Greyhawk connection today that Tomb of the Lizard King has I've back tied in a star gate into the steppes of Hyperborea. Once again my version of Greyhawk is a sword & sorcery driven land not that drivel that passed off as the the western Flanaess of today. Because the county of Eor was 'officially' folded into Greyhawk, I used that knowledge to turn campaign matters & setting things on its ear by turning the realm of Eor into a decedent backwater with its own flavor & 'ahem' regional charm. A place where the reptile cult not only flourishes but continuous the way it has for centuries. Continuing what I said in my review of N1, The reptile cult should be a thinking man's enemy, they play for keeps & fit right into the Robert Howard/Clark Ashton Smith mold.


A faction of epic proportions that can challenge and lock horns with a fairly large group of players as I2 is designed to. Make no mistake Tomb of the Lizard King delivers but its only the beginning really for a dungeon master to take events to the next level. Even experienced players have told me that they dread this module with good reason. "Doug Cowie reviewed I2 favorably for Imagine magazine,^[5] calling it a "one off exercise with various encounters occurring in widely differing settings" and praising the well-drawn maps.^[5] Although he found the outline and "source of villainy" very similar to module N1, Cowie thought I2 was a better-presented adventure than N1 as it provides an "interesting setting, good NPCs, and some very dangerous underground encounters"" make note of those encounters because they can easily TPK a large party of experienced players with little effort. So be careful or not before running this classic for your players. I really wish that Mark Acres had done more AD&D modules of this quality, he was an incredible game designer and writer.  I2 Tomb of the Lizard King By Mark Acres remains a classic and mainstay of the old school hobby. Its accessible, easy to run, fun, and very dangerous everything I want from a sword & sorcery adventure.

Here are ten reasons why I2 Tomb of the Lizard King By Mark Acres
works:

1. Classic set up and easy adventure & campaign insertion into an old school set up. 
2. A great module for large groups of players for an investigation style adventure with plenty of old school action and encounters. 
3. Deadly and challenging encounters for mid level tier PC's. 
4. Twist and turns for old school adventures & perfect set ups for sword & sorcery action. 
5. Weird tales style monsters with room for expansion into further adventures with hooks built right into the adventure 
6. A small sampler of Eighties AD&D first edition encounters and danger. 
7. Corruption danger, and depravity in the countryside 
8. A great weekend book end adventure for a mini campaign with you and ten of your friends. 
9. Twisted and weird fun with lizard men 
10. Plenty of treasure and danger to satifsy the old school gamers!  

Old School Foursome Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Adventure Campaign Setting Outline and Write Up

So this morning while cruising around the internet looking for some reference material on Advanced Dungeons and Dragons first edition modules I came across the following picture. There is a variety of modules here that can be all interconnected into a righteous sword and sorcery campaign. This of course for me makes a perfect Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea side trip.


The real key stone block here is Sakatha, his black dragon, and the legacy of Lovecraftian taint that spreads from his clawed hands. His agenda upon awakening and spreading his influence could set the stage for the PC's to discover the maps, scrolls, and other esoterica that the wizard lizard vampire was planning as part of his hidden agenda. By making Sakatha the big bad you can have a ready made sword and sorcery campaign of epic proportions.

By using  Tomb of the Lizard King as the starting point and putting Dwellers of the Forbidden City back to back with The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan, one gains a full megadungeon experience that can be incorporated in as a set of Atlantian or other ancient extinct Hyperborean adventure locations. This could hint at a series of  forgotten Lizardmen or Atlantian holdings that have since become epic megadungesons.
"Just when my fancy merged into real sight I cannot tell; but there came a gradual glow ahead, and all at once I knew that I saw the dim outlines of the corridor and the cases, revealed by some unknown subterranean phosphorescence. For a little while all was exactly as I had imagined it, since the glow was very faint; but as I mechanically kept on stumbling ahead into the stronger light I realized that my fancy had been but feeble. This hall was no relic of crudity like the temples in the city above, but a monument of the most magnificent and exotic art. Rich, vivid, and daringly fantastic designs and pictures formed a continuous scheme of mural painting whose lines and colours were beyond description. The cases were of a strange golden wood, with fronts of exquisite glass, and contained the mummified forms of creatures outreaching in grotesqueness the most chaotic dreams of man." HP Lovecraft The Nameless City

All of which could in point of fact be easily connected up with Forgotten Fane of The Coiled Goddess
after completing the Dwellers of the Forbidden City and Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan location. This forms an over arching lost world mega campaign with lots of hints and tricks for a Lovcaftian series of factions and elements that could be used for years and years of game play.

This all could be back connected to the Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerer of Hyperborea series of adventures Under The Comet and Ghost Ship of the Desert Dunes. The massive world spanning campaign tale could take several dire spins and cross points to pull off.
The final key it to the campaign adventure piece is the Ghost Tower of Inverness. The Duke of the Ghost Tower is one of the key royals and NPC players  of the old school foursome allowing the Hyperborean royals and minor courts  to be the glue that holds the modules together as a tapestry of sword and sorcery adventure. This is a world shaking and spanning campaign idea and could easily take out PC's left, right, and center as the serpent/lizard man conspiracy takes flight over Hyperborea in spades. The true extent and power structure would be staggering and could take years to unravel the whole truth of the taint that winds its way through the Hyperborean aristocracy.



There is plenty of room here for DM's to customize this sort of a campaign into their own vision of Hyperborea and could place players on high alert each time this sort of a campaign might take place. The possibilities are nearly limitless where you could take this sort of a sword & sorcery campaign  and it could test both the players and DM's. That being said the quality of such a game of Astonishing swordsmen and sorcerers of Hyperborea would be both epic and damn fun.

The Ghost Tower could hold all sorts of secrets and pieces of forbidden knowledge from the time before the oceans drank Atlantis. The idea here is to both use the existing adventure but at the same time customizing it so that you can back bleed its influence throughout this campaign.
Perhaps the Ghost Tower is in fact a serpent men's laboratory, and on going experiment. This was an idea that I stole from an old friend many moons ago, the adventurers being nothing more then guinea pigs in a maze of terror. Treasure and encounters become much more life and death in this sort of a situation.


In the end for this sort of a campaign to work I think that a dungeon master should work with a co dungeon master or two to be able to pull this sort of a job off. There's lots of preparations that need to be made, some sort of a time line, minor NPC's to create and perhaps a village or town or two for the campaign backdrop. That being said I think that this campaign idea if fleshed out would be a perfect touch stone point to bridge the old and the new for a dynamic and dangerous Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea campaign of incredible proportions.

Retro - Review & Commentary On I2 Tomb of The Lizard King By Mark Acres For Your Old School Advanced Dungeons And Dragons First Edition Game Campaigns

 

Welcome back kids to another bit of patter about the days of yore and high adventure in other words I'm looking into another module for a bit of OSR sword and sorcery fun. There are modules and then there are modules that can give a play or a dungeon master fits and bouts of madness. For me this would be I2 Tomb of the Lizard King.  This module is devious, devilish, and twisted in its old school style for an Advanced Dungeons and Dragons adventure.
GRAB IT RIGHT HERE

The southlands of Eor are being despoiled. Merchants will no longer run their caravans on the main highway past the quiet village of Waycombe. The peasants are fleeing their lands, and all are demanding protection from the powerful Count of Eor. The goodly count has sent a troop of his trusted fighters to exterminate the brigands believed responsible for these outrages, but weeks have passed, and still there is no word from this force.

Now John Brunis, Count of Eor, has turned to you for aid. After taking counsel with the High Priest of Eor, he believes that a small party of cunning, bold adventurers may succeed where armed might has failed. You find yourselves faced with many mysteries!

Why has robbery suddenly erupted in the peaceful southlands? How could mere brigands be as powerful as the foes described to you by their numerous victims? Is this really mere robbery? Or is there some truth to the rumors, told only in hushed whispers, about the beginnings of a hideous plot being hatched by an ancient, vile, and evil foe of all mankind? So the PC's are employed by the Count of Eor to investigate a monstrous force that has been terrorizing caravans and peasants near the village of Waycombe. This is one of those adventures that fits very well for a larger group of PC's and is easy to use as a convention set adventure. With the levels being set at five through seventh level, this adventure could also be used with smaller groups of adventurers of higher levels and still remain very,very challenging. This is a adventure that has three main parts to it including a trek through the wilderness, a battle against high end brigands and finally a confrontation with the Lizard King in his tomb. I've seen and died numerous times as folks over the years have linked this adventure with Against The Cult of the Reptile God .

Something about this adventure has always made me think that somehow the Lizardmen in this one were somehow connected with the Lovecraft/Howard cycles of the Earth bit from the Cthulhu mythos. Somehow this became lodged in my brain as the PC's were battling their way across adventure. According to Wiki I2 was shunted into Greyhawk but it wasn't meant to be; "While Tomb of the Lizard King could originally be played in any setting, it has since been retroactively placed into the World of Greyhawk campaign setting. In an article by Gary Holian in Living Greyhawk Journal, No. 1, it was revealed that the County of Eor had been absorbed into the Kingdom of Keoland"  

Personally because of its very nature I can see this adventure being retroconned into deep parts of the fens and swamp lands of Russia for Lamentations of the Flame Princess or into the dire deeps of Dark Albion.  Its one of the better adventures to feature the Black Dragon of Monster Manual fame and a very interesting variation of the Lizard Men in the form of a vampiric offshoot. Something that hearkens back to the Conan comics from Marvel. Encounters with things and monsters from another era that intrude onto the normal scheme of mundane reality. This is a module for those players who want to be thoughtful, opportunistic and resourceful, this is a thinking man's module in the sense that players have to think about actions or death could easily follow closely on their heels.

The module is a play on words of the real lizard king of the Doors rock band even if it might have been unintentional. The material here is pure pulp driven adventure with an adventure path that follows closely on itself; "It starts out with a set-piece plot encounter (which was fairly unknown in 1982), continues with a short episodic wilderness trek, and then moves into a village. From there the adventure contains more traditional dungeon delving: into an ancient temple, a brigand's lair, and then a tomb" This doesn't take away from the fact that players have a very challenging time dealing with the driving forces of this adventure and if their not careful could end up very dead.
This is a module with very detailed NPC's with motives and backstory enough to be branched off into other campaign opportunities if the DM wants them. They can also be very dangerous antagonists even in a minor way to PC's reflecting the old school nature of this adventure. One factor here in Tomb of the Lizard King is the idea that the PC's are walking on the graves of a long lost empire some place from the campaign's past. An adventure element that a DM could fully exploit with a long term campaign in spades.



 

This seems like a standard dungeon crawl with a standard dungeon, it isn't at all. This instead is a tightly packed adventure with several challenging events that once the trigger for these events are pulled the adventure proceeds. A note about I2 is the fact that there is an element of the Lizard men  Lovecraftian taint among the adventure and several times now I've seen this element exploited by several AD&D groups I've been a part of. This makes the Tomb of the Lizard King something of an interesting mix of dungeoneering and some aspects of investigative adventuring all within the confines of a thirty two page adventure.

I2 Tomb of The Lizard King suddenly fleshes out Lizard Kings from the Fiend Folio, it gives these bastards weight and more background. Couple this with N1: "Against the Cult of the Reptile God" (1982), and you've got the makings of a sweet jump off point for a mini campaign or fully flesh out investigative horror adventure in spades. This makes Tomb of the Lizard King one of my go to adventures for a weird Lovecraftian horror fueled sword and sorcery nightmares for a Saturday night.