Unseen Conditions - Sword & Sorcery Expansions Of U1 The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh by Dave J. Browne & Don Trunbell

"Desolate and abandoned, the evil alchemist's mansion stands alone on the cliff, looking out towards the sea. Mysterious lights and ghostly hauntings have kept away the people of Saltmarsh, despite rumors of fabulous forgotten treasure. What is its sinister secret?"



I have more then a minor obsession with U1 Sinster Secret of Saltmarsh by Dave J.Brown with Don Turnball. Coming out in 1981 I've run this adventure numerous times including with other systems such as Call of Cthulhu & Jason Vey's Amazing Adventures. But I wanted to get back to my roots. So between doing a bit of shoving  & lots of work I read up on the wiki entry for U1 & ran across the following; "Freelance gaming author James Maliszewski calls it "one of the best low-level modules ever written for Dungeons & Dragons" and "a superb example of adventure design". He listed the positive elements of the module as "the very matter-of-fact way it portrays a fantasy world" and the new spin it gives to "the standard low-level D&D tropes""That's not really what I wanted.. Hmm so my notes on when I ran U1 with the  Call of Cthulhu  rpg were open. There were lots of questions about the alchemist in those notes. The adventure concerns the ghostly ship that has been terrorizing the town of Saltmarsh and haunted mansion of an evil alchemist.
What was the prequel information on the alchemist himself? What was the network of smugglers & pirates that the Sea Ghost  was a part of? U1 Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh was one of the first Advanced Dungeons & Dragons adventurers I cut my teeth on. 

A couple of years ago I ran the adventure with Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea. That's really where Saltmarsh & the alchemist started to come together for me. The Alchemist an  early story by H.P. Lovecraft gave me the NPC of Count Antoine de C a man obsessed with the Exiler of Life & who was actually one of the Slave Lords of A0- A4 Against The Slave Lords trilogy fame. 



Count Antoine de C at the end of the short story by HP Lovecraft takes up his ancestor's quest for the Elixir of Life. But as he lives he finds himself drawn deeper & deeper into the underworld of dark alchemy. Hyperborea offers him the opportunity to study the forbidden works of Hyperborean alchemy. The cost of alchemy is staggering & so his associations with the unsavory elements of the Slavers & their networks of assassins, thieves guilds, & black market necromancers. 

Miguel Hernandez Najera's Alchemist & my NPC artwork for Count Antoine de C
Smuggling, fencing, etc. all became second nature to Count Antoine de C with not even death able to keep him away from the quest. He discovered the secrets of undeath but continued on even after becoming something far less then human. His correspondences with Drelnza, the vampiric daughter of long-deceased archmage Iggwilv allowed him certain insights into his condition of undeath.  When the opportunity came to expand the operations of the slave lords to Hyperborea  Count Antoine de C jumped at the chance. The Green Death had left the extensive alchemical ruins & factory works  of the Lizard Coast. Count Antoine de C has had paid agents &  adventurers exploring those ruins. But his dealings with the Deep Ones has yielded some incredible advances. But recently there's been a souring of relations with both the lizardmen & the Kuo Toa clans of Deep Ones. There are rumors of war coming. 


The town of Saltmash was a casualty of the Green Death and its never quite recovered from the plague in AS&SH. Recently rumors among high tier royals of Hyperborea place the alchemist off world & he has not been seen in quite sometime. Adventurers are begining to want to creep in to check out the mansion despite its fearsome reputation.

This version of UK1 The Sinster Secret of Saltmarsh has an operative of the Slavers checking in with the alchemist & selling arms to the lizard men. The alchemist is entering a delicate cycle of his undeath state over the last ten years. His agents are pouring through Hyperborea for rare herbs & occult items of power. Hence why the place has fallen into disrepair & yet there are rumors of his agents upon X1 The Isle of Dread.

U1 The Sinster Secret of Salt Marsh Actual Play Event

Today I got my revenge on Steve & his crew by running them through UK1 The Sinister Secret of Salt Marsh using the Atonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea rpg as the engine for today's game. There was a sword & sorcery feel today's game as the echoes of Port Greely for AS&SH's adventure were scattered through today's events.

So today was U1 Sinister Secret of Saltmash adapted for the Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea first edition game. This module took about ninety percent of my Sunday & I've used the U series of module as the openers for events of the Mystery At Port Greely before.

"The scenario is the first of the Underwater (U) series of modules set in Saltmarsh, and details a ghostly ship and the haunted mansion of an evil alchemist"
I kept the bare bones of the module but we've got weapons being smuggled into Saltmarsh. The legacy of a twisted undead black alchemist with ties to the Lizard Men/Deep Ones being exploited.
"Desolate and abandoned, the evil alchemist's mansion stands alone on the cliff, looking out towards the sea. Mysterious lights and ghostly hauntings have kept away the people of Saltmarsh, despite rumors of fabulous forgotten treasure. What is its sinister secret?"

Today the players found some of the cargo of the Sea Witch was strange & sinister super science relics from a cache of Hyperborean technology from long before the Green Death. There was a map of the Forgotten Fane of The Coiled Goddess adventure in there as well. A hook for a future exploration of that nearby lost fragment of Hyperborea.  So why the Sinister Secret of Salt Marsh? Well,because it has just the RIGHT mix of problem solving and bad-guy fighting. It's also low level enough where the events and ideas of the module can be molded and fitted into the AS&SH mode of play. In today's adventure you've got events being molded through human agents and their witch cults.

The PC's got caught right in the center between the smugglers & the hide out of the witch cult as the connections between the two are pretty tight going all of the way back to the time before the Green Death. The PC know that several ships belonging to the Fishmongers’ Guild have gone missing over the last couple of months. And the the peculiar town of Port Greely was renowned as a prolific exporter of crustaceans but now the  Greely lobster men severed all ties with outside partners. This is all tied in with the background of U1. The fish supply to the capital of Hyperborea in dangerous peril and more violent happenings? This looks like a prime opportunity for the PC's to make some gold pieces & get involved in the events leading up to Danger At Dunwater.

The gritty feel of the adventure, how it handles magic and some of its low level adventure elements are ideally suited for AS&SH. The players managed to get through
The Haunted House and Sea Ghost parts of U1. There were more then few close calls in today's adventure but the whole thing had the air of a set up for events that will be forth coming.
There are a few reasons why U1 The Sinister Secret Of Saltmarsh still works:

1. The fact is that Saltmarsh is flexable & has a complete town that can be fleshed out as the DM desires. 
2. There's a bit of everything from dungeon exploration to some excellent encounters with NPC's. 
3. There are tons of opportunities or DYI D&D adventure with Saltmarsh 
4. You can tailor the monster encounters to suit all kinds of style of campaign adventure play. 
5. Saltmarsh is as much a character in this adventure as any of the NPC's. The place has character that the DM can modify as they see fit. 
6. There are enough twists and turns to keep even experienced players interested. 
7. Dangerous monsters guarding ancient relics but its the humans who are the most dangerous enemies in this one. 
8. Plenty of swashbuckling action if the DM wants it to happen. 
9. Lovecraftian elements are easily inserted into U1 when and where needed in Sinister Secret of Salt Marsh. 
10. Because this is a low level adventure its not one that's going to get away from the dungeon master. This means that the adventure won't get away from the DM. 

"I have an odd craving to whisper about those few frightful hours in that ill-rumoured and evilly shadowed seaport of death and blasphemous abnormality. The mere telling helps me to restore confidence in my own faculties; to reassure myself that I was not simply the first to succumb to a contagious nightmare hallucination. It helps me, too, in making up my mind regarding a certain terrible step which lies ahead of me."
HP Lovecraft The Shadow Over Insmouth.

More Frog Men, Dark Albion, & U2 Danger at Dunwater For Your Old School

Good day, I've had an email request for my thoughts on combining Dark Albion & U2 Danger At Dunwater especially sprinkling in The Mystery At Port Greely for the Astonishing Swords & Sorcerers of Hyperborea as the campaign backbone. Your going to want to read here & here for more of the background of this thought exercise. So why would the PC's who are going to be middle mangement royals working for the royal court & possibly as Inquistion agents be investigating the alchemist's house from U1 Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh?
Desolate and abandoned, the evil alchemist's mansion stands alone on the cliff, looking out towards the sea. Mysterious lights and ghostly hauntings have kept away the people of Saltmarsh, despite rumors of fabulous forgotten treasure. What is its sinister secret?This all has to do with the Rose War and the state of the realm; "

The rule of male primogeniture generally applied to the royal succession. Since the civil war known as The Anarchy, caused by the death of King Henry I of England in 1135 without a male heir, was brought to an end by the accession of his grandson Henry II, there had been no major conflicts over the succession.

Following defeat in the Hundred Years' War, English landowners complained vociferously about the financial losses resulting from the loss of their continental holdings; this is often considered a contributory cause of the Wars of the Roses" Basically your carrying out the wishes of your master whose acquired the mansion as a part of the spoils of war. Running The Mystery At Port Greely first is going send your party into the heart of Lovecraftian corruption on the coast of Spain or France. Should they survive the experience they're going to know the extent of the danger to Albion itself.
This style of campaign is going to be a mix of horror (The Mystery At Port Greely), investigative work & inquisition style adventure (U1 The Sinster Secret of Saltmarsh) & straight up messing with even more horror( Danger At Dunwater).

Townies by Del Teigeler

Danger At Dunwater picks up where U1 ends & begins to expand upon the central themes in spades with the introduction of the adventure location of Saltmarsh itself ."Saltmarsh is a small fishing village facing serious problems. Lizard Men are gathering a force nearby and buying many sophisticated weapons. A party of adventurers is hired by the town council to investigate the Lizard Men so the villagers can live in peace"  So where did the lizard men come from in England? Well they've always been there from when before the time when the oceans drank Atlantis. The Picts of Robert Howard's Worms of the Earth are the starting connection here & as we're about to bring it around again to Dark Albion. According to Wiki;"
At 13, Howard, being of Scottish descent, began his studies of Scottish history and became fascinated with what he calls "the small dark Mediterranean aborigines of Britain."^[1] As these Picts were portrayed as inferior to later tribes, Howard imagined them as a link between modern and ancient times.
His Picts originated on a group of islands near what was once Valusia, the kingdom of the Atlantean Kull. When Atlantis, Lemuria, and Valusia sank into the sea, the Picts survived and were flung into a period of cultural decline. They forgot the art of metalworking and returned to the technique of flintknapping.
They migrated to the North until they reached Caledon, the northern lands of the later British Isles. They drove the extant tribes northward until the Aryans, Celts, and Germans invaded.^[2]
The Picts were pushed to the North, where they mingled with the tribes they had defeated earlier. Forgetting most of their technological skills, they became brutish and skilled in warcraft.^[3]
Although Bran Mak Morn has dark eyes, he does not resemble the Caledonian Picts as Howard depicts them. He refers to himself as a Mediterranean, possibly meaning that he associates himself with the more ancient Picts."  The Picts of Robert Howard's Worms of the Earth & Children of the Night are the last remains of the slaves of the Elves of Dark Albion. Centuries of breeding,warfare, & Elven cult acclivities have driven them almost to extinction. By the time of the Roman occupation of Britain the final nail has been driven into the coffin or so it seems. The Elves of Dark Albion have been using the Picts to make war on the Lizard Men or Worms of the Earth for centuries.

According to Pundit & his genesis for Dark Albion Cults of Chaos; "Elves in Albion are a bit of a mix between darker faerie stories and aliens from abductee accounts.  Creepy, inhuman, decadent, alien of thought, incredibly powerful.   In Cults of Chaos you'll get more details about the ancient history of when the Elves ruled Albion, where they live now, where they still show up and how, and what they do when they do show up. You'll also get some straightforward old-school info: encounter types and sizes, Elven equipment and powers.   Info also on elven magic items, and changelings."
This sounds exactly like the tactics of the 'Worms of the Earth' themselves according to the Cthulhu Wiki entry on the Worms;"The worms of the earth, also called the Children of the Night, are a race of almost-human beings created by Robert E. Howard. It is said that they came to the British Isles at a very early time. They were followed by the Picts and later the Celts, who fought the "worms" and drove them out. By the time of Bran Mak Morn (somewhere between 100 and 300 C.E.), the "worms" were horribly degenerate things that lived underground, and by modern times could be expected to have fallen even further from stock humanity. Howard's stories make it clear that the "worms" are descended from humans and had once been human, before degenerating into bestial, sub-human, nocturnal things reminiscent of reptiles or serpents.
In the time of Bran Mak Morn they appeared to be individually weak but wielded powerful magic as a group. They lived in the west of the British Isles near what they call the Dagon-Moor. There they kept a Black Stone as an idol. The worms can be bargained with like men, and those who steal the idol can force the worms to do their bidding in exchange for the return of their prize, though any who would do so should beware the treachery of the worms.
The "worms" are master engineers, having digged great honeycombs of passages and vaults beneath the earth, and master stonemasons, and can tunnel through rock, pulling entire fortresses down into the earth. They also seem able to enter rooms from underground without being seen. Those taken by the "worms" into their subterranean hell-world will be hard-pressed to stay sane. The "worms" may also keep more human-looking people or "witches" - the wild, half-mad, bastard changeling offspring the worms have born upon their unfortunate human captives - above their caves as collaborators and spies to send adventurers to them or away as needed." 

So the the Lizard Men & Elves have been fighting for centuries; Bran Mak Morn might have been the last of the human kings ruling on behalf of the Elves when the Romans showed up. The Worms might have pushed the Romans back for a time but by the time of Dark Albion this is a blip on the historical map. But the Royals of Dark Albion have a long memory & they know about the fate of the Roman Commander from Worms of The Earth. Now why would there be cooperation between the frog/fishmen/Deep Ones of France & the lizardmen of Dark Albion?


If we are using the Worms of the Earth novella then the answer is very simple, Dagon Moor itself where the action takes place with the Worm is key. According to the Cthlhu Wiki;"Dagon-Moor is in the west of the British Isles, near Wales. The moor contains several oddities. These include a large and possibly bottomless pool, where an "unspeakable creature" lives, probably Dagon. Similarly a circle of standing stones also is said to be connected with Dagon." So some aspect of Dagon itself resides in Dagon Moor surrounded by witch cults & changlings. Given the events and civil unrest of the War of the Roses this is a prime opportunity for the non humans to mount an offense against humanity & put the uppity humans back under the heel of non human control once again. Bran Mak Morn is a figure of legend and worship among the humans; another figurehead for the chaos & witch cults to use to stir the people on. So what does all this have to do with Saltmarsh as a whole? Well given the climate of the time of the War of the Roses Saltmarsh is an important but minor point for spies, smugglers, outlaws, & witch cults.
"This growing civil discontent, the abundance of feuding nobles with private armies, and corruption in Henry VI's court formed a political climate ripe for civil war. With the king so easily manipulated, power rested with those closest to him at court, in other words, Somerset and the Lancastrian faction. Richard and the Yorkist faction, who tended to be physically placed further away from the seat of power, found their power slowly being stripped away. Royal power and finances also started to slip, as Henry was persuaded to grant many royal lands and estates to the Lancastrians, thereby losing their revenue."


Margaret of Anjou through human agents and their witch cults is using her control of the pulse of Worms to stir the old hatreds of the Elves, the Worms(lizard men), and the Frog Men.  But she's not the only player with Frogmen backing. As we shall see in further installments of this series. Make no mistake  Margaret of Anjou was a real life spy mistress & royal manipulator of great skill. Her role in Dark Albion is not to be under estimated and as an NPC she can be a party's undoing. 


So where are the lizard men, monsters, etc. getting all of their numbers of warriors & troops? Well from the local population which they've been inbreeding with for centuries. All of these sources especially HP Lovecraft & Robert Howard had cross breeding going on in all of their stories as does myth & legend. All of this goes right back to the influences of Pundit on Dark Albion; "The idea in Albion of the supernatural and inhuman being found mostly in the margins of society and the geographical frontiers (borderlands?) of the setting is also a natural extension of default D&D play."

So all of this is going to hinge on the fact that the link between France & England is going to be the lesser cousins of the French frogmen. These witch cults are going to act as a buffer between the two groups. Why? Because the very presence of Dagon & that god's word is going to make all of the difference. Why not take full advantage of the blood shed & silly wars of the humans? Lesser Boglings II - Wilderness Encounters - Otherworld Miniatures (x3 figs)



All of this has to do with the Mystery At Port Greely because of the connection between the events of the U1 Sinister Secret of Salt Marsh. If your PC's were lucky enough to escape the events of Port Greely & then continue to slowly uncover the smuggling going on in Saltmarsh. Then the affair of U2 Danger At Dunwater is simply going to be another cog in how deep & high the corruption goes in Albion.

Witch cults, twisted mutated human mutant hybrids, dark magicks, corruption at the highest levels & intrigue is going to make things very dangerous for the PC's at every turn. If this sounds like it might be a Inquisitor campaign that Dark Albion's Cults of Chaos talks then it could possibly be played that way but remember the corruption goes all the way too the top here. Your PC's are going to be in extreme danger at every turn.

Dark Albion and Cults of Chaos has both a pdf and print run on Lulu. Its a great addition to the arsenals of a DM! 
Grab The Mystery At Port Greely Here
More coming
very soon with U3 The Final Enemy!

Frogmen, Dark Albion, & UK1 The Sinister Secret of Salt Marsh For Your Old School Campaigns

This isn't going to make a whole lot of sense unless you've read this mash up commentary from yesterday.

So let's talk about taking these ideas and incorporating them towards Dark Albion's England. This is going to involve some guidelines & conceits for this pulpy sword & sorcery mash up to work.
The first part of this mash up of a campaign is going to involve the classic U1 series of AD&D modules 'The Sinister Secret of Salt Marsh'. Let's quickly get into the social rank conceit of the fact that your party are going to have to be mid level royal court nobodies in Dark Albion whose lords expect your party of adventurers to step and fetch for them.

Thing two is the fact that lots of folks think that this is a Scooby Doo style module and that's fine with those meddling adventurers getting into the thick of it. That's not going to do a damn thing to how this might come off. So why the Sinister Secret of Salt Marsh? Well,because it has just the RIGHT mix of problem solving and bad-guy fighting. It's also low level enough where the events and ideas of the module can be molded and fitted into the Dark Albion mode of play.




The Sinister Secret of Salt Marsh is going to take place early in the events of the War of the Roses. The strife is building, things are beginning to heat up & the Frogmen are beginning to lend a hand to Margaret of Anjou through human agents and their witch cults. The PC's are going to get caught right in the middle of all of this and its only the start of something much more dangerous as we shall see in future installments.



"Desolate and abandoned, the evil alchemist's mansion stands alone on the cliff, looking out towards the sea. Mysterious lights and ghostly hauntings have kept away the people of Saltmarsh, despite rumors of fabulous forgotten treasure. What is its sinister secret?"


The PC's are going to get caught right in the center between the smugglers & the hide out of the witch cult as the connections between the two are pretty tight going all of the way back to the time of the Roman occupation of England & France a fact that the frogmen have taken full advantage of. Because of the instability of England the frogmen are beginning to make they're move. There have always been connections between witches, storms, and black magick in Europe & remember Dark Albion isn't our world. Why are the frogmen more primitive then they are in France? Well the frogmen of England are actually traditionalists and adhere more closely to the old religions of Dagon and his ilk. Because this isn't a haunted house scenario things are going to go in unexpected directions & The Mystery At Port Greely was only the start of it. These cults have been at play for centuries & the smugglers are all tainted by the worship of the frogmen. The old religions fell but they never left; Robert E Howard and The Worms of the Earth make mention of Dagon as does legend & history. So its not a far throw to use this angle to bring the action of the adventure right into play here.


If we delve into Pundits origins of the frogmen we also get this little nugget of wisdom from his blog entry on the subject;"As to the Frogmen's origin, I would hearken them back to ancient times, before humans dominated the world.  We know from Albion's prehistory that when humans were created as slaves for the ancient Elves, it was the Elves and the Dragons who ruled over most of the world, the two not always friendly with each other.  I would like to think that things like lizardmen and frogmen were created by Dragons in the Dragons' image, to act as slaves and ground troops to oppose the humans and goblinkind that the Elves had created.
You'll note that in The Wash, Albion's own swamps, there are also Frogmen, who are primitive and degenerate, rather than the sophisticated variety that rule Frogland.  They were probably left over there from the time of the Dragons."
So the frogmen & lizardmen were created in dragon kind's own image?! Well dragons have been a part of English culture for a very long time and perhaps its all much older then Rome's occupation of English soil. This might also mean that perhaps the genetic line in the sand between fishmen, lizard kind, and frogmen isn't so far. Given the corrupting nature of chaos in Dark Albion this isn't so far fetched. Remember this is a lower level adventure and many of my ideas come from this review of the Sinister Secret of Salt Marsh


Perhaps all of this hearken back to a triangulated three ended war between human kind, lizard men, and the frogmen these conflicts boiling up and out because both the lizard men and the frogmen are opportunists of the highest caliber with really long memories. Given the events of The Rose War is it any wonder that they would  take advantage of the situation.
But perhaps this all goes back into 'Saint George and the Dragon'  which according to legend;" The town had a small lake with a plague-bearing dragon living in it and poisoning the countryside. To appease the dragon, the people of Silene fed it two sheep every day. When they ran out of sheep they started feeding it their children, chosen by lottery. One time the lot fell on the king's daughter.^[9] The king, in his grief, told the people they could have all his gold and silver and half of his kingdom if his daughter were spared; the people refused. The daughter was sent out to the lake, dressed as a bride, to be fed to the dragon.^[8]
Saint George by chance rode past the lake. The princess tried to send him away, but he vowed to remain. The dragon emerged from the lake while they were conversing. Saint George made the Sign of the Cross and charged it on horseback, seriously wounding it with his lance. He then called to the princess to throw him her girdle, and he put it around the dragon's neck. When she did so, the dragon followed the girl like a meek beast on a leash. The princess and Saint George led the dragon back to the city of Silene, where it terrified the populace. Saint George offered to kill the dragon if they consented to become Christians and be baptised. Fifteen thousand men including the king of Silene converted to Christianity. George then killed the dragon, and the body was carted out of the city on four ox-carts. The king built a church to the Blessed Virgin Mary and Saint George on the site where the dragon died and a spring flowed from its altar with water that cured all disease"
All of this sounds very much like a perfect fit for an allegory of the Deep One/Frogmen whose daughters are being given over to the Dagon ermm dragon & the hero of  Sol Invictus comes along to save the day.

One alternative legend of Saint George has George putting away all of his doubts & fears to 'slay the dragon' in a golden box. This might actually be St.George using the help of the cults & state religion to drive back the forces of darkness in allegorical style;"One version of the tale tells St. George as losing the battle with the dragon early on in the encounter. St. George retreats, and wanders down to the river. He prays over his challenges, and removes his armor to melt it down. He takes the melted metal and forges it into a metal box. He places his fears, doubts, and lack of faith inside the box, and goes out to face the dragon again, without armor. St. George instantly slays the dragon."
Casks & chests  have a long and storied history in English mythology and Arthurian legend. Perhaps there was more to this legend. The box might still be out there in some lost ruin containing the soul of St.George guarded by something far more sinister then frog or lizard men. Perhaps the alchemist was working on something far more then what meets the eye, and perhaps the smugglers of Salt Marsh are merely more pawns in the ever expanding game of  The War of Roses.
All of this ties back into The Sea Witch and the events of Port Greely, if the PC's have seen too much and dealt with the frog men of the port then they know the level of horror that could be unleashed upon the world. This could all be tied back to Margaret of Anjou and her connections with the frogmen which could cost the characters their lives, lands, and even sanity.
Well get into how this all ties in with the lizard men, the arms deals and U2 in the next installment.

Dark Albion and Cults of Chaos is available right here
The Mystery At Port Greely is Available right here

Ecology of the Crab Men from Advanced Dungeons & Dragons First Edition & The Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea Rpg Systems For Your Old School Campaigns

So you thought that all of my posting about the 'U' series of modules and then The Secret of Bone Hill was over and finished? Well your Uncle Eric is back with a twist or two to bedevil your players with yet and it involves crabs. But this just doesn't involve just any crabs but space going Lovecraftian humanoids crab men from  Poseidonis. The U series main villains are the Sahuagin who once the characters have cleared out the entire run of the Salt Marsh run of modules. Who will fill the vacuum once they've been taken out? Well once again Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers comes to the rescue. The Referee's Manual contains one of the more advanced alien races are the Crabmen. These monstrous humanoids are actually an advanced race of alien humanoids who have settled in Hyperborea  from their home world  of Poseidonis in spacecraft.

 These humanoids are advanced tool users and have high technology, they're very weird and dangerous. Certain species of Picts worship these humanoid bastards and the Crabmen are expansionists  as well. With such a void left by the defeat of  the Sahuagin or Deep Ones this will be seen as weakness by the Crabmen who will see such a defeat as prime opportunity. The residents of Salt Marsh and the Lenore isles might be caught within a cross fire of such an underwater war. This is a prime opportunity to bring the PC's into the action where heroism might help turn the tides of blood back. These Crabmen also use laser pistols and more. They are are highly organized, intelligent, and dangerous to those races around them. Not to much is known about them though. There was some speculation among players of mine who have encountered them that these Crabmen might not be cognitive or even conscious in the traditional sense of the word. They could share a gestalt telepathic hive mind that centers around a higher controlling intelligence. These beings might have different species or rolls within the Crabmen's hierarchy or colonies.

 Crabmen are prime opportunists of the highest order looking out for the needs of the colony and creating soldiers, workers, hivers, and others as the details of the colony's needs dictates.
There are certain conceits within the text of these monsters but why would they bother with the humans around them besides being prime sources of protein? For that we must look to the original source material for the Crab Men. In this case its the Fiend Folio from Advanced Dungeons and Dragons first edition. The original Crab Men worker class is described as attacking anyone who might have silver or silver items upon their person? Why would a species of aquatic humanoids be attracted to silver a metal which has the properties of purity and luster according to myths and legends? The Crab Men of the First Edition Fiend Folio attack anyone suspected of carrying the metal. " Crabmen greatly value silver and will go to any lengths to obtain it, even attacking a character suspected of carrying any item made of this metal. In normal circumstances, however, they are quite pacific creatures, though from time to time an instinct makes them leave their coastal dwelling to mount a savage raid inland, roaming in bands of 30 or 40 creatures and pillaging all property in their path, not hesitating to attack those who would defend." The answer is quite simple really the commonly encountered Crab men are workers who have an inbred instinct to collect the metal for their colony. 

For ages silver has always had an association with magick & mysticism as well as the occult. The crab men use the material for time space gates in their space craft's faster then light drive systems, it holds a special religious place because of its significance within their lives. Live, breed, and continue to expand. The interesting part is the fact that the Deep Ones have kept the Crab men in check all these years in the U series and the Sinister Secret of Salt Marsh. Other OSR campaign settings and retroclones spring to mind,especially those of a weird or dark fantastic bent. Imagine Crab Men coming to shore off the coast of Spain ala 2001 Lovecraftian horror film after the Deep Ones have been defeated to slaughter anyone left on shore. The Deep Ones might be the only thing keeping these things from expanding onto the harbors and dry land. Shades of Lamentations of the Flame Princess or Realms of Crawling Chaos from Labyrinth Lord suddenly spring to mind here.

What will happen now that the Deep Ones have been defeated and their colony's machinations have failed? How will Salt Marsh, Restenford, and the Lenore Isles cope? Well my dear friends that is going to be up to you and your dungeon master.


Please note that none of this speculation and campaign notes are a part of the main story line or Setting of Hyperborea or of the Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea game. Nor is this an attempt to violate the trademarks or copyrights of the holders of that game nor of the U series of Advanced Dungeons and Dragons modules or the L1 series. This is all of my own invention for a personal table top rpg adventure campaign. This post is for entertainment and educational purposes only.

Retro- Review & Dark Fantastic Campaign Commentary On L1 The Secret of Bone Hill For Advanced Dungeons and Dragons First Edition

Well, I wrote the reviews and background of U series of Advanced Dungeons and Dragons First Edition adventures but I almost left off L1 The Secret of Bone Hill by  Lenard Lakofka for PC's level two to four.  The cover blurb is classic Eighties TSR;
"Danger lurks in the Lendore Isles. Bands of evil creatures prowl the hills overlooking the town of Restenford, seeking unwary victims. Now you have come to this sleepy little village looking for adventure and excitement. You seek to fathom the unexplored reaches of Bone Hill and unlock the mysteries of Restenford."

Here the PC's adventure in and around the fishing port of Restenford and the sandbox nature of L1 comes out very quickly. The mini campaign setting settles itself right around the Lenore Isles and is more of a mini sandbox dungeon then anything else.   Restenford a small town that has secrets and many of them are deadly. This adventure was a revelation to me as a dungeon master perhaps more so then Keep on The Border Lands because of the fact that you've got an entire community with NPC's, small back histories, and not one or two small dungeon locations.  But  several locations  with a main bit of dungeon crawling at the adventure location itself.
 I knew  Len Lakofka's name in wargaming circles for years, the man knows his stuff and then some. The Secret of Bone Hill was an adventure location from his own home campaign which later on became part of his own Lenore Isles campaign it was run for the Nystul family from approximately 1978-1985.
Bone Hill is a wholly realized community in the sense that its a sort of AD&D Lovecraftian Peyton Place. There are secrets within the confines of the module's location, its peoples, and some really strange background elements. Everyone within the module has stat blocks including guards, innkeepers, cooks, etc. This alone makes it a fun walks through for the DM but there's more to it.
There's a certain dungeon or adventure location ecology to the place the bug bears hold Bone Hill during the day and then the undead come out to play. There's also a weird sense that something very weird and tragic happened here ages ago and the party is coming in late on the events. There's a weird horror to it that echos some of the eeriness of Sinister Secret to Salt Marsh. Its also low level and very friendly for dungeon masters who want to introduce the environs of Restenford.
So what does all of this have to do with Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea and the previous articles on adapting the U series? Quite a bit actually, there is as I a sense that the inhabitants of Restenford are not the original settlers of the place. There's a weird Lovecraftian style of history to the place born out of the extensive rumors table and subtle background hints in some of the dungeons and adventure locations  in the adventure.  The Restenford project has a vast amount of resources for the DM who wants to adapt this adventure as the town that described in the Sinister Secret of Salt Marsh. One of the things I've done running The Secret of Bone Hill is to strengthen the ties between the Deep Ones and the wizard of the tower. This gives a far more eerie take on the events of U3 and takes the PC's deeper into the mysteries that L1 presents. This means that the succession of wizards, the corrupt king of the castle and more all have back ties to the founding of the castle.
Then there are humanoid races and tribes in the area as well as the all pervading sense of evil to the castle and its surroundings. The magick and corruption of Bone Hill speaks of chaos and weird horror from foul sorcery heavily influencing the location. Men and elves have recently occupied the location but the locals don't even seem to be aware of why? Then there's the spectator which is only summoned to guard very valuable treasures for over one hundred and one years. Who in the succession of wizards and undead has summoned such a horror and why? This would be a fourteenth level wizard or highe, this is not a light weight spell caster. This is a gray wizard of considerable power and occult knowledge.
There are other adventure events going on here such as why humanoid tribes and wolves are stacked up on one another and how do they exist? My solution to this was the spontaneous dungeon life form generation first created by James Mishler  This is not only happening but replenishing the ranks of the local gnolls, orcs, and other humanoids while the undead of Bone Hill own the night and are mostly unchallenged.

This gives the adventure location of Bone Hill some horrific background elements and history but it also creates a perfect breeding ground for more adventures in the hills of the place amid the lost ruins and weird locations. There are several smaller dungeons in town that hint at not only dangers below the town but a sense of corruption that creeps just below the radar of the town itself. This includes a new monster called the 'spectator' a beholder kin who has several interesting features that fits more into the realm  of the film 'Big Trouble In Little China' then AD&D.  There are several monsters from the OSR or AS&SH that can easily take the place of the spectator if necessary.

What the spectator really points out is the presence of some very powerful black wizards or neutrally aligned wizards in L1. A trend that would continue with the L series as we shall see soon in other entries. Bone Hill and its other adventure locations hint at some very dark history in its background. This fact can easily be used to re enforce the dark connections between the the sahuagin or deep one communities off the coasts of the Lenore isles. This face can easily be exploited to give a game of Lamentations of the Flame Princess a much more grounded and dark fantastic nautical feel. I myself did this by placing the Salt Marsh and its setting materials into a twisted version of Earth using the coast of Spain as the stand in. The 2001 Spanish horror film Dagon takes place in "Imboca", a Spanish adaption of "Innsmouth".




But I digress from my original take on The Secret of Bone Hill, its subject matter and very nature
Puts the entire Secret of Bone Hill and the 'U' series into the AS&SH pulpy Weird Tales wheel house but  the locations of Restenford and the Lenore isles as a whole can be ported directly over to Hyperborea without a single tear drop. This option enables a dungeon master to tie all of the loose ends of the 'U' series together in a nice single wrapped up campaign ready to play. Now I've heard several folks ask me about higher level adventures and actually Mr. Lenard Lakofka  with the addition of the L5 series which takes place entirely within the Lenore Isles themselves. This is a free addition that can not only continue the adventures but to help fill in some of the missing bits and pieces of The Secret of Bone Hill. As a mini sand box Bone Hill is not only a flexible frame work but can give you as the DM everything you need to continue your adventures within a nasty, dangerous and dark fantastic frame work of adventure. More coming up soon.