Adapting I7 Baltron's Beacon by Philip Meyers For Swords & Wizardry & The White Star Rpg

""A strangely delivered advertisement has led you to a sage named Demetrios. He needs a rare component to complete a desperately needed potion. The journey to retrieve it will take you through a large, unexplored swamp to a ruined keep, the former headquarters of a vile cult that once claimed the lives of many innocent youths."

"You cautiously accept the mission. But who knows what monsters lurk in the vast marsh? Are the old ruins occupied, perhaps by things even more dangerous than the previous residents? Beware, for the eerie green light shining upward from the central tower, the beacon that guides your way, may attract others as well. To succeed, you must penetrate the keep and find a unique Black Flame worshipped by the old cult. Could those evil ones be lurking about still? You will know soon..."
So I7 Baltron's Beacon by Philip Meyers came out in '85 or so, but we didn't get a hold of it until '86 or so. I7 is one of those modules that could be set anywhere but most often it either happens to be situatated in Mystara or Greyhawk. For us Batlron Beacon was situated & set within Greyhawk. 
That being said a few years ago we set Baltron's Beacon within an isolated & backwater world for the White Star Rpg. We kept Baltron being from Greyhawk with his history from the Greyhawk wiki's entry on I7 here; "Baltron (Baltronus Zemnus of Linth^[2])- a 16th level magic user, who inhabited the keep a year before the module starts, and was destroyed in an attempt to summon the spirit of the swamp,Nakimas. This created the beacon^(p.2). Dragon Magazine #304 states that Baltron first entered the keep 20 years ago (about 571CY) and was seeking the lost magic of the Suel House of Malhel in the Dreadwood^[2](p.90), while Living Greyhawk Journal #01 states that Baltron was banished only a few years prior to 591cy" We changed up the history of Nakimas to being a spirit of the Void & the keep being an old Void Knight fortress. I7 is a mid tier module and doublely so for a Swords & Wizardry or White Star party. This is because everything within I7 was expanded; "The keep and it's history was expanded further into Greyhawk lore in Dragon Magazine #304, Places of Mystery, 'The Hool Beacon'

I7 needs to take place directly after the events of  I2: Tomb of the Lizard King. The reason for this is the fact that I7 Baltron's Beacon by Philip Meyers is a classic Wilderness adventure. Everything about I7 centers around the whole of the Wilderness as foe & NPC. When we used this classic module for White Star we also had a gateway leading back to Greyhawk. This enabled the PC's to have a real connection with the events of the module. And also a perfect excuse if we want to transport the PC's over to Greyhawk. Once again we see the classic Advanced Dungeons & Dragons first edition tourament style rear it's head within I7. This can be used by the DM looking to exploit the black flame & it's connections to Demetrios- quest giver and eccentric sage. We kept certain aspects of Nakimas when using the spirit with White Star;"Nakimas^(p.6,21)- a spirit of the marsh, which Baltron believed was not an individual, but the composite lifeforce of the swamp. Dragon Magazine #304 states that Nakimas (Suel), or Bwimb (Oeridian), is a Mud Lord from the Paraelemental Plane of Ooze" The paraelemental planes have connections to the void because of their connection to elemental destruction and return to natural entropy. This ties directly back into DYS Games Between Star & Void within it's philosphy of the Star Knights & the Void Knights. With the Seekers party of adventurers becoming a possible rival party of adventurers after the events of I7. 

The cult of the black flame became a real thorn in the sides of our White Star party because they could & would crop up anyplace on any colony world or even on Greyhawk multiple times.

Retro - Review & Commentary On I7 Baltron's Beacon By Philip Meyers For Your Old School Advanced Dungeons And Dragons First Edition Game Campaigns

A strangely delivered advertisement has led you to a sage named Demetrios. He needs a rare component to complete a desperately needed potion. The journey to retrieve it will take you through a large, unexplored swamp to a ruined keep, the former headquarters of a vile cult that once claimed the lives of many innocent youths.

To solve the mysteries of "Baltron's Beacon," the characters must excel in handling wilderness, building ruins, traps, puzzles, and new monsters. This adventure, originally designed for tournament use, is now available for your own campaign.
GRAB IT RIGHT HERE

    I7 Baltron's Beacon By Philip Meyers is an adventure that you can drop right into the background of an existing campaign and no one will be the wiser. The there are simple reasons for this and are at the heart of why this adventure works so well for Advanced Dungeons and Dragons. This module is a throwback to other earlier adventures. It's pure dungeon crawling fun in places for a mid level adventure that wears its adventure over plotline on its sleeve. This adventure is one part DYI dungeon adventure location with a very limited backstory that allows a DM to customize it as they see fit. Its an incredibly dangerous dungeon crawl based adventure with adventure content that consists almost entirely of dungeon-crawling, including having adventures through a gatehouse, a keep, and at its core a dungeon filled with a couple of levels of exploration and danger.
It should be remembered that at its core this was originally a tournament module and the adventure is designed for a large group of players and presents a challenge on a number of levels for PC's.


Over the years I've seen  WG4 The Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun For AD&D 1st Edition get a ton of respect and love but one of the modules that over the years I've seen used with   I7 Baltron's Beacon By Philip Meyers where the cultists from one module have constructed the Beacon. Over the years I've seen the Cult of the Black Flame and the Crystal of the Ebon Flame  both tied into the background and setting of I7 many times. This makes it perfect as fodder for retroclone systems including Lamentations of the Flame Princess, Dark Albion, and especially Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea. According to D&D classics.com; "There's a limited backstory for how some of the inhabitants came to reside in the Beacon, but there's not much attempt beyond that to create an ecology for the dungeon." which makes this a perfect candidate to add into the background of your sword and sorcery campaigns.
 

Another adventure setting piece is the fact that the adventure has people trying to move into the area around the structure and it sort of reminds me of the fact that the Green Plague has swept through and wrecks parts of Hyperborea. This really brings home the fact that the cult of course would idolize the ruins and dungeon as part of myth and legend from the glory days of the cult. For Dark Albion or the pseudo historic setting of Lamentations this makes the cult a prime target for mercenaries working for the Inquisition placing the cult perhaps at the heart of the Black Forrest or some other border area of Germany or even an isolated region of France or Spain.

 I've also seen this module worked up as a part of the environs surrounding the Frank Mentzer adventure I11 because of the ruins of the Beacon and DM's wanting an area of large expanses of ruins and dungeons. Another interesting character is the sage named Demetrios whose a bit of a non entity except at the beginning of the module, I've seen several friends flesh this NPC to become a central core of a campaign where the PC's were running after the scribe at various times for other adventures in the campaign Similar to the plot line of  the classic Sinbad and Eye of The Tiger.

I've also seen several DM's switch out the Black Flame itself for Lin Carter's Aphoom-Zhah (The Cold Flame) for a more Lovecraftian feel to the module itself. The deity is right in line with cult ideas and Cthulhu mythos elements especially when it comes to adapting the module into a far more sword and sorcery mode for OSR style adventures. The bottom line is that I7 Baltron's Beacon By Philip Meyers  is good solid dungeon crawl adventure that can easily be adapted right into your home old school campaigns and easily fit a wide variety of needs for a sword and sorcery campaign

Reaper Fire elemental which could with the right paint job act as a stand in for Aphoom-Zhah (The Cold Flame)with the right paint job. But I digress I7 Baltron's Beacon By Philip Meyers remains a good old fashioned dungeon crawl that can serve a wide variety of needs with the right motivation and group of players!

Retro Commentary On The Reskinning Of I4 Oasis of the White Palm (1e) By Tracy Hickman & Philip Meyers For Your Old School Campaigns

"Tired and sore, you struggle over the burning sands toward the long-forgotten city. Will you reach the place in time to save yourselves from the evil efreeti? The sun beats down, making your wounds stiff and worsening the constant thirst that plagues anyone who travels these waterless wastes. But there is hope - are those the ruins over there?"


So my little corner of Connecticut got hit with a pretty good mix of snow & crap yesterday. I spent most of the day shoving my eight hundred & fifty foot drive by hand hence why this blog entry is late. But some corner of my mind has been busy at work thinking about the next portion of my Ancient & Accursed Terra adventure locations after speaking with friends the other night. The second part of 'I' series of modules is I4 Oasis of the White Palm (1e) By Tracy Hickman & Laura Hickman. This adventure was heavily modified by me for a group  players back in 2013 and the Oasis became Iram of the Pillars- Iram of the Pillars (Arabic: إرَم ذات العماد‎‎, Iram dhāt al-ʿimād), also called "Aram", "Irum", "Irem", "Erum", or the "City of the tent poles," is a reference to a lost city, country or area mentioned in the Qur’an & the writings of the Lovecraft circle.

Photo by 9591353082
This place is in Souther Oman (Dhofar)

It was originally  a city of the cloud giant hybrid rulers but was struck by dimensional weapon from the Nameless City before vanishing across the planes. The PC's had to recover a mad wizard's journal which had an incantation in it based upon this little tid bit ;"Another identified source is the 9th Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica, whose description of "Irem, the City of Pillars"  Lovecraft copied into his commonplace book: "which yet, after the annihilation of its tenants, remains entire, so Arabs say, invisible to ordinary eyes, but occasionally, and at rare intervals, revealed to some heaven-favoured traveller." "

The reason why I've been thinking about using I4 with Adventurer, Conqueror, King is the numerous opportunities for role playing & interacting with notable NPCs had been an important element of  classic era TSR adventures since at least T1: "The Village of Hommlet" (1979), but the idea of political differences being a focus is a part of I4. The PC's have the opportunity to build alliances, forge new in roads, and build up the ranks towards domain play. There's also the opportunity for a Lovecraftian twist.There are plenty of opportunities within I4 to expand upon the various cults of the adventure to create your own  in roads for various other adventures later on. "In Oasis of the White Palm, the PCs arrive at the Oasis of the White Palm, which is on the brink of turmoil. Shadalah, who is to be the bride of the sheikh's eldest son, has been kidnapped. The sheikh believes her to be held by his enemies somewhere in the oasis" Behind the plot is  my version of Ghazia an old public domain jungle comic book character that I heavily modified. Ghazia was a Terran  7th level priestess & witch  who worshiped a vulture headed demonic aspect of the Black Pharaoh. She has deep ties with the Cthulhu Cult that uses the lost city and its environs. This also ties back into " the mystery before the PC's can progress further.^[3] Once the characters make the contacts they need at the oasis, they continue to the temple of Set and the crypt of Badr al-Mosak, and the adventure concludes in the city of Phoenix; there, the PCs must obtain the three Star Gems (the one from Amun-Re's tomb in the previous adventure and two more introduced here) and free the djinni if they plan to move on to the next module."



The complicated bit is balancing both cults, plus the weird adventure aspects along with the traps, tricks, and adventure locations with Oasis of the White Palm especially within the  temple of Set and the crypt of Badr al-Mosak. Even though the PC's had made it this far & had gone up levels there were certain traps that really rattled the players such as the Pit of Everfall which took out three PC's in one go. This was a trap that echoed something straight out of Indiana Jones.


The PC's had picked up vital clues within The Lost City (B4)  by Tom Moldvay. Even though this was a black powder era style pulpy adventure, guns did not make that much of a difference. Alliances, role playing and politic seemed to get the party much further. This wasn't strictly a sword and sorcery adventure. This was an OSR hybrid with bits and pieces of several systems in play.


The introduction of black powder weapons was a really big deal for one or two of the players who thought it gave some great advantage to the characters within the system. I've run a number of Lamentations of the Flame Princess games along with various old school campaigns and in my experience black powder is far more a liability then a hindrance  for game play. This is one of the reasons why Guns of War from Adventurer, Conqueror, King is on the table for this style of pulpy adventure.

Retro - Review & Commentary On I7 Baltron's Beacon By Philip Meyers For Your Old School Advanced Dungeons And Dragons First Edition Game Campaigns

A strangely delivered advertisement has led you to a sage named Demetrios. He needs a rare component to complete a desperately needed potion. The journey to retrieve it will take you through a large, unexplored swamp to a ruined keep, the former headquarters of a vile cult that once claimed the lives of many innocent youths.

To solve the mysteries of "Baltron's Beacon," the characters must excel in handling wilderness, building ruins, traps, puzzles, and new monsters. This adventure, originally designed for tournament use, is now available for your own campaign.
GRAB IT RIGHT HERE

    I7 Baltron's Beacon By Philip Meyers is an adventure that you can drop right into the background of an existing campaign and no one will be the wiser. The there are simple reasons for this and are at the heart of why this adventure works so well for Advanced Dungeons and Dragons. This module is a throwback to other earlier adventures. It's pure dungeon crawling fun in places for a mid level adventure that wears its adventure over plotline on its sleeve. This adventure is one part DYI dungeon adventure location with a very limited backstory that allows a DM to customize it as they see fit. Its an incredibly dangerous dungeon crawl based adventure with adventure content that consists almost entirely of dungeon-crawling, including having adventures through a gatehouse, a keep, and at its core a dungeon filled with a couple of levels of exploration and danger.
It should be remembered that at its core this was originally a tournament module and the adventure is designed for a large group of players and presents a challenge on a number of levels for PC's.


Over the years I've seen  WG4 The Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun For AD&D 1st Edition get a ton of respect and love but one of the modules that over the years I've seen used with   I7 Baltron's Beacon By Philip Meyers where the cultists from one module have constructed the Beacon. Over the years I've seen the Cult of the Black Flame and the Crystal of the Ebon Flame  both tied into the background and setting of I7 many times. This makes it perfect as fodder for retroclone systems including Lamentations of the Flame Princess, Dark Albion, and especially Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea. According to D&D classics.com; "There's a limited backstory for how some of the inhabitants came to reside in the Beacon, but there's not much attempt beyond that to create an ecology for the dungeon." which makes this a perfect candidate to add into the background of your sword and sorcery campaigns.
 

Another adventure setting piece is the fact that the adventure has people trying to move into the area around the structure and it sort of reminds me of the fact that the Green Plague has swept through and wrecks parts of Hyperborea. This really brings home the fact that the cult of course would idolize the ruins and dungeon as part of myth and legend from the glory days of the cult. For Dark Albion or the pseudo historic setting of Lamentations this makes the cult a prime target for mercenaries working for the Inquisition placing the cult perhaps at the heart of the Black Forrest or some other border area of Germany or even an isolated region of France or Spain.

 I've also seen this module worked up as a part of the environs surrounding the Frank Mentzer adventure I11 because of the ruins of the Beacon and DM's wanting an area of large expanses of ruins and dungeons. Another interesting character is the sage named Demetrios whose a bit of a non entity except at the beginning of the module, I've seen several friends flesh this NPC to become a central core of a campaign where the PC's were running after the scribe at various times for other adventures in the campaign Similar to the plot line of  the classic Sinbad and Eye of The Tiger.

I've also seen several DM's switch out the Black Flame itself for Lin Carter's Aphoom-Zhah (The Cold Flame) for a more Lovecraftian feel to the module itself. The deity is right in line with cult ideas and Cthulhu mythos elements especially when it comes to adapting the module into a far more sword and sorcery mode for OSR style adventures. The bottom line is that I7 Baltron's Beacon By Philip Meyers  is good solid dungeon crawl adventure that can easily be adapted right into your home old school campaigns and easily fit a wide variety of needs for a sword and sorcery campaign

Reaper Fire elemental which could with the right paint job act as a stand in for Aphoom-Zhah (The Cold Flame)with the right paint job. But I digress I7 Baltron's Beacon By Philip Meyers remains a good old fashioned dungeon crawl that can serve a wide variety of needs with the right motivation and group of players!