OSR Commentary On O2: "Blade of Vengeance" (1985), by Jim Bambra with Phil Gallagher For the BCEMI Dungeons & Dragons system & Your OSR or Old School Games

 "You are Erystelle of Dorneryll, famed elfin champion and magic-user. After years of adventuring, you have come home to the Emerlas?the hauntingly beautiful elfin woodland at the tip of Canolbarth forest. A place of legends and of peace."

"The journey has been long, but soon the winding forest track will bring you to Dorneryll, the majestic oak tree home of your childhood. Ahead, you glimpse a plume of smoke curling lazily into the sky. Dorneryll is close, and your mind floods with thoughts of home.

Suddenly, your reverie is shattered! The thin plume of smoke is gone, and in its place a column of red flame leaps high smoke the trees.

Dorneryll is under attack! Gripping your lance, you urge your mount into a gallop. Starbow surges forward; your war dogs close on her heels ". 

Let's get the obvious out of the way first folks and a quick history lesson;"O2: "Blade of Vengeance" (1985), by Jim Bambra with Phil Gallagher, is the second "O" One-on-one adventure for the Basic D&D line. It was published in February 1985" And O2 ranks among some of my friend's favorite one on one adventures. Why?! Mathew on the Amazon O2 review from Feb 2009 sums it up nicely; "I have played through over forty modules in the D&D world. I rank Blade of Vengeance in the top five. I ran this module as a DM. My friend and I just wanted to kill a couple of hours with a one on one adventure. We both enjoyed this module so much that we purchased the rest of Jim Bambra's modules and my friend adopted the pregenerated character as his own. The rules are for the expert set, but I have always just used the storyline and converted the module to whatever format I wanted. This adventure has a rich background story, a linear but engaging storyline, reasonable and creative magic items, bits of mythology, and some tough combat. The adventure is almost Tolkien like. I have played most of the modules recommended by "darkseraphim" (he also reviewd this module)and I tend to agree with all of his reviews. Enjoy this module!" 

What makes O2 "Blade of Vengence" so damn awesome?! We Mathew Leivers sums it up best with his 2011 Amazon review when he says; "While it is written as a One-on-one adventure(one DM, one player) It would be easily be converted to handle an entire party. You'd probably want to enforce all elves who were related and from the starting town. I'm sure you could work in some other races if you considered them adopted children."  And we used the adopted children adventurers angle when my uncle adapted this module back in '86 for our party. We set O2 within Mystara's Alfheim. This made the campaign easily movable when it was time to move over to Greyhawk. 

Because of O2: "Blade of Vengeance" adaptablility this module is a prime canadiate to move over to Castle & Crusades quite easily. Take the adopted by the Elves gambit & suddenly your adventurers have reason to deal with the Elves & fall out. And for a Tolkein bent this is a great module to play one on one with your DM as the origin point for your rangers or other wilderness with the Elves familial tie types. This is especially true for a druid or pagan style adventurer. O2: "Blade of Vengeance" (1985), by Jim Bambra with Phil Gallagher is a classic module & part of another era. And O2 is easily used with both classic & modern OSR retrclone resources. 

OSR Commentary On Dangerous Monsters & Creatures - AC9: D&D Creature Catalogue (Basic) By Jim Bambra, Phil Gallagher, & Graeme Morris For BECMI D&D

 "Are you ready to face the horror of the Hivebrood, the gruesome Geonid, or the dread Dusanu? These and many other baleful beasts lurk within the pages of this manual, waiting to challenge even the mightiest adventurers!

The Creature Catalogue is the first major expansion to the range of D&D game monsters. Within its covers have been collected all the curious creatures first presented in the official D&D adventure modules, plus many more new nasties, designed to challenge and perplex the heartiest heroes. Also included is a comprehensive index of all D&D monsters found in the Basic, Expert, Companion, and Master rule sets.

Whether your players' characters are 1st, 21st, or 31st level, this tome contains many fantastic creatures with which to test their mettle. Armed with the Creature Catalogue, you will be able to find the right fearsome foe to confront even the most foolhardy fellow." 

So last night we my DM's & the players, we were discussing a tome of monsters that can't be beat & that's the  AC9: D&D Creature Catalogue (Basic) By Jim Bambra, Phil Gallagher, &  Graeme Morris. This is a ninety six page monster tome of lot of different monsters  that can cause havoc through out your BECMI D&D campaigns. Looking over the Amazon reviews for AC9 Crimson Bassist has one of the best reviews & break downs I've seen; "YES!!!

This is IT!!
A whole softcovered book dedicated to the monsters of Basic Dungeons & Dragons!! This book, along with Chapter 14 of the D&D Rules Cyclopedia is all that is needed to have a whole slew of beasts to pit against your players. The monsters in this book are both new, and some are collected from modules and accesories from the 80's. Great, great, book. The only flaw I see, is that the monsters are not listed as one per page like in AD&D. Sometimes you will have 2 or 3 monsters on one page and the description of one of them will bleed over to the next page. But since the book is setup like this .... there is a BUTTLOAD of monsters here!

Keep in mind, this is NOT Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. This is NOT 3.0/3.5/4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons.
This is BASIC Dungeons & Dragons. To use this book effectively, you'll need the Basic D&D Rules Cyclopedia book. This book like the Cyclopedia book may be quite expensive now, but both are worth each and every penny spent!" 
 What makes AC9: D&D Creature Catalogue (Basic) By Jim Bambra, Phil Gallagher, &  Graeme Morris For BECMI D&D worth it?! Simply put this book is essentially the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Fiend Folio for the D&D Rules Cyclopedia. 

There are well over 200 monsters that have been culled & included within the pages of AC9: D&D Creature Catalogue. And this means a Hell of a lot of creatures can be used with  the Basic D&D Rules Cyclopedia book. 
And it also means that many of these monsters are going to be unknown to the average modern gamer today. That as we found out last night is fact with Fifth edition players who are migrating away from Fifth edition into the OSR. 
 Jim Bambra, Phil Gallagher, &  Graeme Morris bring some excellent creepies & crawlies with a book with a singular U.K. TSR  art style & sensibility about them. Many of these monsters harken into the BECMI D&D focus on wilderness & beyond the dungeon adventures. Many of the monsters in the 'Conjurations' section are very deadly & powerful. Many of these horrors would not see the light of day again until the OSR kicked in '04. Because AC9 is made for BECMI D&D it's very easy to swing these monsters & races into an OSR game campaign such as Lamentations of the Flame Princess or other OSR retroclone systems. 

AC9: D&D Creature Catalogue is a joy to work with as a DM. The monsters here are new, and subtly different from the AD&D first edition style. Here the monsters have a far more hand crafted aspect. 

And each & everyone feels like it could easily be dropped into a weird historic or strange European campaign easily. 

Here the crossover with D&D's Mystara is in ernest with AC9: D&D Creature Catalogue having the vibe of Mystara without the heavy laden background & location mythological glut that comes with the venerable campaign settting. 

In my humble opinion AC9: D&D Creature Catalogue is a hidden gem from another age.
AC9: D&D Creature Catalogue could easily be used with many other retroclones today including the Hyperborea rpg & many others. And it's the attention to detail that makes the AC9: D&D Creature Catalogue so invaluable to DM's even today. 

B10 Night's Dark Terror By Jim Bambra, Graeme Morris, Phil Gallagher For Your Old School Pulp Adventure Campaign

 "Barely one day's march from Kelven, the uncharted tracts of the Dymrak forest conceal horrors enough to freeze the blood of civilized folk. Those who have ventured there tell how death comes quick to the unwary - for the woods at night are far worse than any dungeon. But you are adventurers, veterans of many battles, and the call of the will is strong. Will you answer the call, or are you afraid of the dark terrors of the night?

Way back in the early Eighties I read a lot of X men comic books & I noticed that the group did a ton of wilderness based adventures. In fact if you begin looking into super hero comic books & graphic novels there's tons of lost world & such settings thrown into the mix. B10 Night's Dark Terror.  B10: Night’s Dark Terror (1986) was made  the TSR UK brain trust of Jim Bambra, Graeme Morris, and Phil Gallagher. 


B10: Night’s Dark Terror (1986) is an old school adventure that I've used time & again with a wide variety of old school & OSR retroclones. Dungeon mastering B10: Night’s Dark Terror (1986) includes OSR systems like  Dark Albion & Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea 2nd edition recently.

But I can already hear the groans from the reading audience, what the hell does one module have to do with two OSR game systems  & does this tie into the Thirty Year War? Wherever Chaos touches or washes against reality we've got mutation, supernatural issues, and the old Elven hills & pagan groves in some places are still opening upon Fairyland."The characters encounter a town under siege by goblins, a ruined city, and a lost valley" The Elves are doubling down on taking over a wide variety of realities & Fairyland is basically using old fairy rings & ruins across the planes. How does this work?
Fairyland is a rolling planar demi realm accessed as a higher parasitic dimension that touch on other realities.


For my purposes of 'The Otheworld' is another aspect of the realm of Fairyland that reflects the weirdness & the dangerous occult chaos of the other dimensional realm of the Elves. Each & every time these higher parasitic dimensions touch a reality they bring the subtle energies of chaos with them. So essentially each time a cult accesses an aspect of Fairyland it brings these places back into the world along with the chaotic ecological system. Dungeons are not simply created their borne of the chaos of the realm of Fairy.


D&D Supplement IV: Gods, Demi-Gods & Heroes (1976), by Rob Kuntz & James Ward, is the fourth of four supplements for the OD&D game. It was published in July 1976 & has a solid roster of Celtic gods & heroes who have fought the powers of Fairyland to a stand still.  The 'Otherworld' is also an origin source of kings, heroes, & the destiny place  of warriors, knights, & wizards.

"The Otherworld was also seen as a source of authority. In the tale Baile in Scáil ("the phantom's ecstatic vision"), Conn of the Hundred Battles visits an Otherworld hall, where the god Lugh legitimizes his kingship and that of his successors.^{[1]"These various rolling dimensional aspects of  'the Otherworld' empower both the adventurers & heroes as well as fuel the whole of Fairyland. The original purpose of the place has been perverted.}
B10: Night’s Dark Terror (1986) is a perfect pulp adventure to use because  this is a transition module and takes PC's into the big leagues! That's right set B10: Night’s Dark Terror (1986) in some back part of Europe in middle of the Pulp Age or  the Golden Age of Superheroes and they're going to get noticed big time! 

Modern weapons are not going to be a huge deciding factor if your adventurer or pulp hero is looking down the business end of an owl bear! Way back in the Eighties many of the independent comic book companies had their own super hero & pulp teams encountering & recruiting wizards, clerics, thieves, etc. from Dungeons & Dragons style worlds into their ranks.

No one batted an eye & the number of Arthurian heroes that Marvel & D.C. used is numerous. The fact is that dungeon masters back in the Seventies & Eighties used whatever mythical or  fictional characters they needed as NPC's.

B10: Night’s Dark Terror (1986) is a stepping stone module & even with modern pulp style adventurers is going to be a challenge. 
So let's update this a bit with some more background. Dark Albion action with the Elves of Fairyland going full invasion with OZ & Wonderland playing a huge part in DM Steve's game last night & it took place in an alternative Earth 19th century. A campaign that I wrote by the way. But already DM Steve has been modifying & messing with it. 



So what does this have to do with B10: Night’s Dark Terror (1986)?! Everything as our PC's found themselves in the Otherworld & even playing a werewolf I had B10 wilderness messing with me because it was a part of Fairyland. Imagine it like this, the whole of Earth has been pushing agaisnt the wilderness with the second Industrial Revolution in full swing due to the Martian Invasion round one. The Elves, Fey,etc. are taking a very dim view of this & have been exploding Wilderness from their world into ours! The chaos & weirdness of their world has been converting lots of folks on the fringes into Elven cults straight outta of Dark Albion: Cults of Chaos



Now all of this ties back into Brian Young's Castles & Crusades Codex Celtarum 2nd Edition. Which outlines the Castles & Crusades take on the Celtic Fey & their cycles. Some of the factions of the Fey have been helping the PC's And some have been actively hindering them in very nasty ways. 




Much of what's in Brian Young's Castles & Crusades Codex Celtarum 2nd Edition easily ties into the works of Welsh author Arthur Machen. More on this all later. 

An Alternative Campaign Path For B10 Night's Dark Terror by Jim Bambra, Graeme Morris, & Phil Gallagher

"Barely one day's march from Kelven, the uncharted tracts of the Dymrak forest conceal horrors enough to freeze the blood of civilized folk. Those who have ventured there tell how death comes quick to the unwary - for the woods at night are far worse than any dungeon. 

But you are adventurers, veterans of many battles, and the call of the will is strong. Will you answer the call, or are you afraid of the dark terrors of the night?

This campaign adventure is for characters just beginning Expert play (levels 2-4) and hurls them into the exciting outdoor world which awaits in the Expert rulebook. "
B10 Night's Dark Terror by Jim Bambra, Graeme Morris, &  Phil Gallagher show cases everything that Mentzer's Expert Dungeons & Dragons set was meant to do. That is drown the PC's into a situation that will test the players to their limits. DM'ed correctly & this adventure could take the PC's into some solidly dangerous situations & could result in a TPK.




This module premiered in '86 & there's a unique history behind its publication; "B10: Night’s Dark Terror (1986), by the TSR UK crew of Jim Bambra, Graeme Morris, and Phil Gallagher, was the tenth adventure produced for the D&D Basic Set (1981). It was also a return to basics after the home office in Wisconsin had stopped producing new Basic Set adventures in 1985. It was published in February 1986."
B10: Night’s Dark Terror (1986), presents the wilderness as both foe & setting for a mid range party of adventurers & it does an excellent job of presenting the adventures with an 'edge of the  frontier' setting that reminds me of the best of Robert H Howard's "Beyond the Black River" The player's PC's are literally up to their necks in the depths of a hostile environment. They'll need to be fast, quick witted, & wily to survive the machinations of the module. The DM needs to pay attention to the contents of this adventure & yes I said contents; "With a 64-page booklet, 2 double-panel covers, and complete scans of the orioginal double-sided mapsheet, this super-module provides all you need for epic wilderness and dungeon adventuring." The journey across the Grand Duchy of Karameikos is a very dangerous one indeed for the players are going to need their wits about them. There are several instances where the updated fan made maps available from the Piazza are a must.  Created by Sarastro Magnifico
The module is basically an adventure tour of the campaign setting of the the Grand Duchy of Karameikos & the DM has to keep the action moving. Done correctly & this module goes like an 80's action movie. All of the while it show cases many of the advantages of Mentzer D&D Expert Rules highlights & really showcases the streamlining of the systems. 



But I want to bring up the Graeme Davis review of Night's Dark Terror from White Dwarf No. 78 from the B10 wiki entry; 

"Graeme Davis reviewed Night's Dark Terror for White Dwarf No. 78. Davis felt that the farmstead in the adventure's opening was nicely detailed, and that the counters to play out the action on the 25mm scale map for that location were a nice idea. He commented on the plot of the adventure, "There is enough here to keep the fastest-moving party going for some time, and a section of suggestions for further adventures can help the GM to open out a long-running campaign in the area."^[2] Davis did note that the numbering system for wilderness locations was confusing, with an example where a location has one designation at one part in the module, and at a later point the location has a different designation which does not correspond with anything on the map. However, Davis felt that everything else in the module was written and laid out very well, and that the module would be a tremendous help for any game master learning the Expert rules"
This confusion with the wilderness locations on the maps has been corrected in that fan made maps from the Piazza by Sarastro Magnifico. The Dragon's foot site has a good thread of suggestions for running B10 as well.

 But now I've got an idea for slipping in B8: Journey to the Rock as a campaign shake up before continuing onto X10 Red Arrow, Black Shield By  Michael Dobson. Not only does this give the player's a more even adventure path but it gives them time to go up the levels needed to tackle some of the challenges seen in X10. 



Of course this is going to depend upon if they survive the horrors, weirdness, events, & weather of 'B10: Night’s Dark Terror (1986)'. Because B8: Journey to the Rock builds upon the foundations of B10: Night's Dark Terror's wilderness exportation in spades & aces.
There are several reasons to do this: 

1. Using B8: Journey to the Rock with B10 Night's Dark Terror gives the module a frame work to build the campaign upon. 
2. There could be a connection between B10's baddies & the wizard which gives the PC's more puzzles. 
3. The deeper one goes with this there could be ties with X10 Red Arrow, Black Shield By  Michael Dobson's forces. 
4. The campaign context makes the armies of the humanoids very dangerous especially if coupled with B2 Keep on the Borderlands. 
5. The war depicted in this module, The Grand Duchy of Karameikos, has all of its moving parts & pieces in place. 
6. The forces of  Karameikos, are going to need all of the outside help they can get that's where the PC's form the internal chain. 
7. The wizard of B8 might have vital information to the cause of the PC's and done correctly this might spur them on. 
8. The wilderness of both B10 & B8 could hide any number of mini dungeons & these are the perfect bits for any campaign side quests. 
9. Be sure to take full advantage of the random encounter & weather tables when running these two modules. 
10. The PC's could become military spies or assets for Karameikos,& the DM should take full advantage of this.