Back to Basics & Beyond - Dungeons & Dragons Set 1: The Basic Rules the Mentzer Edition & Tom Moldvay's B4 The Lost City

"This box contains all you need to start having FUN:

Programmed adventures for easy learning and HOURS of FUN

The PLAYER'S GUIDE for beginning characters - with simple and expert combat rules, magic spells, and role playing tips" 
So reads the back of one of the most iconic editions of Dungeons & Dragons Set 1: The Basic Rules  the Mentzer Edition. 

Yes I totally keep stealing these photos from Wayne's books. 
He's a friend & you should totally order vintage gaming supplies from him. 

 What is so iconic about Mentzer edition Dungeons & Dragons? Well, besides it being responsible for reorganizing the rules of Dungeons & Dragons Basic as we know it? Well I've always gotten the feeling that Frank Mentzer is one guy who knew his editing. The layout & editing of his edition of Dungeons & Dragons is top notch. But its really the interior line art done by Larry Elmore & Jeff Easley that totally made me buy this edition. I started thinking about first level characters in the Hollow World & Mystara. How do you cope as a first level PC in these settings?! In the Hollow World almost everything is trying to eat you & everyday is like the Jurassic Park films. What kinda impact is that gonna have on PC's coping with the day to day struggle of staying alive. But only the most lucky, stupid, or intelligent are going to live long enough to become adventurers. 

"Within the sphere of the Known World is another world, the Hollow World. There your characters will meet ancient Nithians, long disappeared from the surface world and thought extinct: Blacklore Elves, living in a magical valley and served by automatons --devices that take care of everything, from serving their food to trimming their grass: Azcans, terrifying, war-mongering natives whose taste for battle extends even into their favorite game -- the losers always die -- and many more. Monsters abound as well, from dinosaurs to aurochs."


Take one party of mixed race Mystara & Hollow World adventurers have them deal with some of the adventure threads implied in the Sons of Azca book. Here's the truth The Sons of Azca take slaves for sacrifice. And having a party escape their clutches is the perfect excuse to get the PC's involved in the events of the Hollow World. Now putting a band of Azca slave hunters on their tail is going to get the PC's deeply involved in trying to deal with the Hollow World wilderness. Be sure to use the Hollow World random encounter tables for this.


Another possibility is idea of being captured by the Kingdom of Nithia & used as slaves in that empire. Here's where the PC's might escape & stumble upon B4 Tom Moldvay's The Lost City  within the Nithia desert. Now here's where things can get tricky. The Vaults of Pandius has a free & highly valuable sourcebook for B4 The Lost City. Be sure to download it. Now here's my idea this version of 'The Lost City' isn't the same one sitting out in the deserts of Mystara! 



This city  instead is another of Zargon's beach heads upon Mystara & the place has may of the suggestions about the Cynidiceans in place. Gone are the insane animal headed people & instead is a lost race ruled by Great Old One. There are swaths of sections abandoned & dungeons to be explored but there's a sane race with lots of survivor factions competing with each to deal with the mega dungeon of city & its relics. Half Edgar Rice Burroughs & Robert E. Howard as the player's PC's suddenly have to deal with machinations of the serpent men the real rulers of the Cynidicean's lost city. Their looking for a mysterious relic to free themselves from becoming prey to the serpent men. They've been prey animals for centuries & things are getting more desperate as time goes on.
Is the 'lost city' connected to the one in the deserts of Mystara? You better believe it through a teleportation or planar gateway. They might make a forray into the world above in Mystara. Resupply & head back to do battle with the primeval horrors of the lost city. They might even use some set of rooms as a base to conduct raids & dungeon crawls from.

Actual Session Report Part II - A Sword & Sorcery Hundred Years War, Dark Albion, & More Classic X2 Castle Amber By Tom Moldvay ( sort of)

"A desperate sorceress, a land wracked by war, & a very dangerous war open gateways better left closed. The mysterious Castle Amber, you find yourselves cut off form the world you know. The castle is fraught with peril. Members of the strange Amber family, some insane, some merely deadly, lurk around every corner. Somewhere in the castle is the key to your escape."


The players in last week's game was a follow up to one of the most dangerous session reports I've dungeon mastered . This is a follow up session report for last week's game session. The  tower of the sorceress Istarelle exists across time  & space leering its shadow into Avalon,  Averoigne during 1940 & 1337 at the start of the Hundred Years War, & even beyond. The PC's have been smuggled in during the occupation of 1940 as consultants & occult trouble shooters to the French resistance.  The players had made their way through the tower after encountered a number of Nazi group #12 soldiers who were running from something? What they encountered was the chaos mutated warriors of  the  Breton Ankou .

"This character is reported by Anatole Le Braz, a 19th-century writer and collector of legends. Here is what he wrote about the Ankou in his best-seller The Legend of Death:

The Ankou is the henchman of Death (oberour ar maro) and he is also known as the grave yard watcher, they said that he protects the graveyard and the souls around it for some unknown reason and he collects the lost souls on his land. The last dead of the year, in each parish, becomes the Ankou of his parish for all of the following year. When there has been, in a year, more deaths than usual, one says about the Ankou:

– War ma fé, heman zo eun Anko drouk. ("On my faith, this one is a nasty Ankou.")

"There are many tales involving Ankou, who appears as a man or skeleton wearing a cloak and wielding a scythe, and in some stories he is described as a shadow, often atop a cart for collecting the dead. He is said to wear a black robe with a large hat which conceals his face.^[1] According to some^[who?], he was the first child of Adam and Eve. Other versions have it that the Ankou is the first dead person of the year (though he is always depicted as adult, and male), charged with collecting the others' souls before he can go to the afterlife.^{[citation needed]} He is said to drive a large, black coach pulled by four black horses; accompanied by two ghostly figures on foot."

The characters dispatched any warriors they came across. The PC's hid as they heard the sound of tiny tinkling bells & the sound of a creaking old wagon wheels. Two strange death like ghostly figures grabbed two of the soldiers & yanked the soldier's souls from their bodies.
The PC's ran from the tower & straight into the woods surrounding the place right into Averoigne  in Albion. Averoigne is a  'region in France, heavily forested — located somewhere between Tours and Moulins; a "main highway" between those two cities goes through it (The End of the Story, Clark Ashton Smith)




The player's PC's got a chance to interview a few of the Nazi soldiers who had seen the  Breton Ankou. The freeing of the  Breton Ankou allows other chaos based horrors to grow bold enough to escape the confines of Fairyland. A band of chaos infected 3rd level human warriors trapped since Roman times is not out of the question. These infected might be the former chaos cult of  the  Breton Ankou. Trapped for all eternity to do the bidding of this demonic monster of death & destruction. Two resources that were key to  this game  are Dark Albion  & Dark Albion Cults of Chaos. The player's PC's sought the lychgates where the  Breton Ankon's tomb was in fairyland. Instead they found themselves facing the Castle Amber (or Château d'Amberville).


The PC's began to comb through the manor & there were some really choices to make. Within about 3 hours the PC's ran smack into an Avalon Inquisition crew & there was an exchange of arrows & some small gun fire.  The PC's are trying to reach the secret occult & laboratory of Stephen  d'Amberville. What will happen to them?! In the meantime here's the complete cycle of Clark Ashton Smith's  Averoigne

• Beast of Averoigne, The (1933)
• Colossus of Ylourgne, The (1933)
• Disinterment of Venus, The (1934)
• Enchantress of Sylaire, The (1941)
• End of the Story, The (1930)
• Holiness of Azédarc, The (1933)
• Maker of Gargoyles, The (1932)
• Mandrakes, The (1933)
• Mother of Toads (1934)
• Rendezvous in Averoigne, A (1931)
• Satyr, The (1931) [Variant Conclusion to "The Satyr"]

Will the player's characters survive?! 

A Sword & Sorcery Hundred Years War, Dark Albion, & More Classic X2 Castle Amber By Tom Moldvay ( sort of)

'A desperate sorceress, a land wracked by war, & a very dangerous war open gateways better left closed. The mysterious Castle Amber, you find yourselves cut off form the world you know. The castle is fraught with peril. Members of the strange Amber family, some insane, some merely deadly, lurk around every corner. Somewhere in the castle is the key to your escape."

The year is 1940 & Paris is occupied by Nazis forces across the country small elite teams of SS are combing a small backwater village & its accompanying cathedral. They are seeking the ruins of the Castle Amber (Chateau d' Amberville) for the skull of the sorceress Istarelle, the sorceress of Averoigne. Said to be in the possession of the the wizard-noble Stephen Amber (Etienne d'Amberville).  What the SS soldiers don't know is that they have crossed a boundary of the lych way. Setting in motion the shattering of time around the castle ruins & beyond. 



The fools have released the  Breton Ankou, who was trapped in a tomb in Fairyland at the end of the lych way . Already two of the S.S. soldiers are dead & neither the living nor the dead are safe from this creature of Chaos. Meanwhile, tower of the sorceress Istarelle exists across time  & space leering its shadow into Avalon,  Averoigne during 1940 & 1337 at the start of the Hundred Years War, & even beyond. The PC's have been smuggled in during the occupation of 1940 as consultants & occult trouble shooters to the French resistance. Should they encounter  a living shadow of Istarelle they must save vs charm or perhaps fall in love with the sorceress. The tower boasts a living shadow of Istarelle  reputed to be the daughter of Satan himself. She is aware of the  Breton Ankou ( the equivalent  of a Pit Fiend AD&D Monster Manual first edition). But she must have the ring of Ebon to cast the ritual  of banishment. The ring rests within the Chateau d' Amberville. But the PC's may become trapped there. 


Another shadow caught in the mists of the Chateau d' Amberville are the events of the Hundred Years War set in motion in another echo outside of time & space. 

In Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, Puck says:

Now it is the time of night, That the graves all gaping wide, Every one lets forth his sprite, In the church-way paths to glide.

"The Hundred Years' War was a series of conflicts waged from 1337 to 1453 by the House of Plantagenet, rulers of the Kingdom of England, against the French House of Valois, over the right to rule the Kingdom of France"
 This is one of the places where Dark Albion  & Dark Albion Cults of Chaos is key.
The freeing of the  Breton Ankou allows other chaos based horrors to grow bold enough to escape the confines of Fairyland. A band of chaos infected 3rd level human warriors trapped since Roman times is not out of the question. These infected might be the former chaos cult of  the  Breton Ankou. Trapped for all eternity to do the bidding of this demonic monster of death & destruction. 


The PC's might encounter Will O'Wisps or worse that accompany the wagon or the warriors of the Breton Ankou. Corpse Candle lights will be the first indication of this monster's presence;
"A corpse candle or light is a flame or ball of light, often blue, that is seen to travel just above the ground on the route from the cemetery to the dying person's house and back again, and is particularly associated with Wales.^[7] A corpse fire is very similar as the name comes from lights appearing specifically within graveyards where it was believed the lights were an omen of death or coming tragedy and would mark the route of a future funeral, from the victim's house to the graveyard, where it would vanish into the ground at the site of the burial. The appearance was often said to be on the night before a death." 

Should the PC's fail in their attempt to recover the ring of Ebon to set things right. The tower of the sorceress may drift back to Fairyland or even Earth's Dreamlands. The fact is that neither the Castle Amber (Chateau d' Amberville) nor  Averoigne are wholly of Earth. 

This begs the question what will happen when the Inquisition of Albion finds out about the forces of chaos being let loose on Earth? More then likely a squad of troops will be dispatched or a smaller force of Inquisition investigators.  This might start with the appearance of witch balls or baubles appearing in various places around Averoigne;

"This was part of a broader fear of spirits that might flit into dwellings. Witch bottles were common throughout Europe – bottles or glass spheres containing a mass of threads, often with charms entangled in them. Its purpose was to draw in and trap evil and negative energy directed at its owner. Folk magic contends that the witch bottle protects against evil spirits and magical attack, and counteracts spells cast by witches, also forestalling the passage into habitations of witches flying about at night.^[25] A witch ball was much the same; however, a more light-hearted belief was that the witch saw her distorted face in the curved glass and was frightened away. The term witch ball is probably a corruption of watch ball because it was used as a guard against evil spirits.

If straight lines did not hinder the passage of spirits, then convoluted or tangled "lines" could ensnare them and ancient stone and turf labyrinths, found in many parts of Europe and Scandinavia, could serve the purpose of capturing evil "

And what of the wizard-noble Stephen Amber (Etienne d'Amberville)? Will he stand idly by whist the occult barriers of time & space are smashed in his very backyard while a monster of Chaos roams his lands?! I doubt it! The fact is that the Ambers are a blood line of incredibly dangerous occultists in the tradition Clark Ashton Smith.  Albion's authorities know how dangerous the Dreamlands & the Celtic Otherworld is. They've seen Fairyland wash normal reality away at the very edges of their empire. Note that that this from my personal Dark Albion campaign. 

Note that this is just the start of this campaign idea which came from a discussion I had with my friend Steve over the Christmas & New Year holiday. More coming up soon!

I literally just came across this resource post on Facebook from the Atlas of Mystara site. 
Fantastic map & resource for Mystara. 

Further Meditations on B4 The Lost City Adventure For Use with the Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set And The Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea

"Lost in the desert! The only hope for survival lies in a ruined city rising out of the sands. Food, water, and wealth await heroic adventures inside and ancient pyramid ruled by a strange race of masked beings. "

I busted out my old copy of B4 The Lost City and began to thumb through it thinking about the adventure and setting it on its own within a desert mini plane all on its own. B4 The Lost City was by Tom Moldvay 

and it represents some very early efforts by him. There is something very subtle about the sinister sword and sorcery nature of this module. All of the elements work in this module these include the desert pyramid, the masked factions, the insane society, &  the Lovecraftian  Zargon.So I pulled out the Lost City and began to think about how would I use this module with my current campaign. Part of this involved actually using the various peoples and factions from within the module itself. Thanks to the Vaults of Pandius website most of the hard work was done for me.

This freed me up to start mapping and writing out expansions for my own home game campaign. A nice guide to this is in a thread on Dragon's foot here



B4 has Moldvey's style all over it from the ground up and locating the adventure within your own home campaign means really doing a bit of work especially if your using Greyhawk or Blackmoor. There are so much room for expansion and because this adventure works within your campaign and is possibly one of the best DYI adventures around. Its sort of like a mini Tomb Of Horrors for OD&D. Its also one of the modules that really brings home Moldavy style in spades. The scale of the Lost City is what really gets to me, this could be a mini campaign that could take years to deal with. The real heart and soul of the module are the factions of Cynidicea which remind me of some of the Cryptic Alliances from first and second edition Gamma World.
And in fact I have. One of the strengths of  The Lost City is the fact that it stands on its own as an adventure setting apart from a regular campaign setting.

So what's all of this have to do with The Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea rpg? Quite a bit actually I've been rereading and digesting  Beneath the Comet, and the other recent adventures and thinking about the classics such as B4. These adventures work as isolated one offs taking parties to the edge of the map and beyond. They don't affect the regular campaign world at all. But really there are reasons for this and why it works both in old school and neo OSR systems like AS&SH.

Not as the plants and flowers of Earth, growing peacefully beneath a simple sun, were the blossoms of the planet Lophai. Coiling and uncoiling in double dawns; tossing tumultuously under vast suns of jade green and balas-ruby orange; swaying and weltering in rich twilights, in aurora-curtained nights, they resembled fields of rooted serpents that dance eternally to an other-worldly music.
Read more at: http://www.azquotes.com/quote/391291

 Strangers In A Much Stranger Land

Not as the plants and flowers of Earth, growing peacefully beneath a simple sun, were the blossoms of the planet Lophai. Coiling and uncoiling in double dawns; tossing tumultuously under vast suns of jade green and balas-ruby orange; swaying and weltering in rich twilights, in aurora-curtained nights, they resembled fields of rooted serpents that dance eternally to an other-worldly music.

Clark Ashton Smith

Read more at: http://www.azquotes.com/author/18891-Clark_Ashton_Smith

Not as the plants and flowers of Earth, growing peacefully beneath a simple sun, were the blossoms of the planet Lophai. Coiling and uncoiling in double dawns; tossing tumultuously under vast suns of jade green and balas-ruby orange; swaying and weltering in rich twilights, in aurora-curtained nights, they resembled fields of rooted serpents that dance eternally to an other-worldly music.

Clark Ashton Smith

Read more at: http://www.azquotes.com/author/18891-Clark_Ashton_Smith

"Eibon saw that Zhothaqquah was indeed a god of his word: for the scene beyond the panel was nothing that could ever find a legitimate place in the topography of Mhu Thulan or of any terrestrial region. It did not altogether appeal to him; but there was no alternative, save the inquisitorial cells of the goddess Yhoundeh. Envisaging in thought the various refinements and complications of torture which Morghi would have now prepared, he sprang through the opening into Cykranosh with an agility that was quite juvenile for a wizard of mature years."
The Door To Saturn
Clark Aston Smith

The reason why The Lost City and any of these adventures work is because the strange and unusual upon the party. They're literally exploring and exploiting adventure locations across the board even when their dealing with the ins and outs of wandering monsters, hazards, and more. That's where the DYI aspect of these adventures like the Lost City comes in. The adventure can be made or twisted in the direction that the DM really wants. One of the things that I've noticed is how easy it is for players to become jaded and disenchanted with the usual trappings of D&D and even dark fantasy.
This is one of the places that the Lost City can help and one of the reasons why it can be made very unusual indeed:

1. The wandering monsters are all insane members of the various factions and there is room for role playing as much as killing. 
2. If there is something unexpected that you always wanted to stick into an adventure that won't wreck you're campaign then do it in this module. The unexpected isn't simply welcome its something that should be done. 
3. Shadows in Basic are not undead and that fact can be brought forward and into AS&SH for some very dangerous moments for PC's. 
4. Undead are your friend as the DM and there are tons of rooms, hallways, etc. that you can use to populate them with but be careful. This module is very easy for a total party wipe. 
5. If there is a weird or unusual magic item that you've always wanted to but have never used in a game now is the time to drop it in. Seriously this is a lost world or city location that can be used to house all kinds of strange and unusual items. 
6. The Lost City is the perfect location from which to launch campaign threatening back story for your campaign. Here's the perfect location to turn in a Robert Howard or HP Lovecraft world threaten set of gods or beings from. This is also a perfect venue for a horror themed adventure location and one that I've used to great effect over the years for Lamentations of the Flame Princess. 
7. Need a location for Spelljammer or other defunct science fantasy technologies? This is a perfect location for wizards to seek it out infact that was the perfect excuse to get my player's wizards and occultists to seek out this adventure location of insanity. 
8. Zargon's cult makes perfect Call of Cthulhu fodder and or fodder for a modern occult pulp game and they work very well as assassins for other lower tier modern games. 
9. Go back to Basic and Expert D&D for variations on monsters that PC's have encountered before for some very dangerous twists and then place them within B4 saying that the location's magical emanations cause strange effects. Players both worry and get very intrigued at this. 
10. Exploit the high holy hell out The Lost City for campaign and world building. This is one of the most underappreciated campaign/adventure resources currently available.

Retro Review & Commentary On The OD&D Adventure Module- X2 Castle Amber By Tom Moldvay For Your Old School Campaigns

Castle Amber is only thirty two  pages but its one of the most expansive adventure modules I own, it packs a dollop of an adventure into its confines. It combines all of the pulp and Gothic basics of  Clark Aston Smith's The Colossus of Ylourgne with the flourish of Poe's Fall of the House of Usher mixed in with some nasty monsters this side of HP Lovecraft. Then there are horrific bits scattered throughout the module with its NPC encounters, varied puzzles, solid traps,tricks, and though its a 'fun house' adventure. It has its own internal consistence and horrors throughout its thirty two pages. According to Wiki it was published  in Nineteen Eighty one  as a thirty two page booklet with an outer folder and a cover designed by Erol Otus

The set up for this adventure is unlike many other OD&D adventures that came before it, the players are drawn into the literal world of  fictional medieval French province of Averoigne by Clark Aston Smith. The set up according to Wiki is classic and very creepy;
"During their night's rest on their way to Glantri, the player characters are unexpectedly drawn into a large castle surrounded by an impenetrable, deadly mist. This is the result of a curse the wizard-noble Stephen Amber (Etienne d'Amberville) put on his treacherous relatives for murdering him." The first thing to note is the mists that surround the castle and its environs. These predate Ravenloft and its environs but they remind me of both Ravenloft and Roger Zelasny's 'Amber Chronicles'. This is not a low level adventure at all, in point of fact this adventure has wiped out a number of PC's I've run through it.

The module was developed by Dave Cook, Allen Hammack, Kevin Hendryx, Harold Johnson, Tom Moldvay, and Jon Pickens, and the adventure has  got a feel someplace between HP. Lovecraft and Edgar Allen Poe. There's some really creepy NPC's, lots of adventure set pieces that are folded back into themselves and an internal consistency to the adventure that adds more then a bit of depth. But over the years of searching through Clark Aston Smith novels I was disappointed to find out that the Amber family (d'Amberville in French) is actually an invention for this adventure. None the less there's an entire reason why all of the characters seem to belong to another famous family according to Wiki is 'the Amber family name, a couple personas of the Amber family members in the module, and the Grey Mist and curse, are all directly inspired by Roger Zelasny's 'Amber Chronicles' fantasy series.' This lesser known fact is something over the years I exploited to create links between the families of the Amber Chronicles,Mystara, Ravenloft, and Averoigne. Today I'd be far more original and create an entire mythology around the environs, monsters, and horrors of  Castle Amber.


Castle Amber isn't an adventure to be taken lightly on the part of the dungeon master, there is a ton of weirdness going on within the grounds of the castle and bits of the surrounding countryside. The horror and Gothic elements are going to depend upon a sense of consistency and fluidity on the DM's part to get through and around the NPC's in this adventure. So do yourself a favor and read then reread the adventure a couple of times. The ideas and encounters found within Amber are both fun but extremely deadly, pay close attention to the recommended PC levels before running this one. Another thing about this module is that this world has both an Inquisition and magick is frowned upon. Your going to be dealing with wizards and spell caster's being burnt at the stake if the PC's decide to settle down in France of the Castle Amber adventure.
Another thing too is the fact that Amber has at its heart some very Lovecraftian monsters but with a Poe skin around the Dungeons and Dragons system. Its a weird mix that works. Now over the years that I've run Castle Amber there been more then a few experiences that have taught me one very valuable lesson. Keep the adventure and all of Castle Amber isolated from your own campaign world. The adventure is a world unto itself and has little in common with the outside world; the place loses its mystique when it's history, background, and magick spin into the 'real' world of your campaigns. Background, setting elements, adventure NPC's and more are there for the players to experience and explore. There is as much investigation in this adventure as blood shed and violence. Hack and slash players are going to be in for a very bad time in some areas of Amber. Thinking in Amber is primary to PC's survival and this adventure has taught me that in spades. This is also an adventure for a large group of players, seriously to do this adventure justice your going to need between six to ten PCs of levels three through six.

There are elements of dungeon crawling, wilderness hex investigation, mystery and investigation, and some good old fashioned ultra violence. The Dungeon master should be very familiar with the works of Clark Aston Smith, there's a nice resource for  the complete works of Clark Ashton Smith over at EldritchDark.com.
The monsters in Castle Amber are deadly, horrid, and straight out of HP Lovecraft's imagination. They're are some very inventive encounters but be warned this module is straight up deadly at times. Believe it or not this is one of the modules where role playing is key to the entire adventure. Magic items are weird and have some very interesting uses just like in Clark Aston Smith's stories. Castle Amber boasts some of the most over arching plot elements for an old school OD&D adventure many have described these as rail road like and take the PC's deep into the adventure's plot elements. This isn't a single session module, this whole OD&D adventure is a mini campaign that may take weeks and sessions of play to complete.

Unlike Isle of Dread, Castle Amber is what I like to call a journey module. The PC's are taken on a journey deep into the world and campaign environment of the adventure setting. This isn't a normal sword and sorcery adventure but recently I've heard of a dungeon master running this with Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea. The module's locations and other environs being echoes of Old Earth. I had to say that it was an original take on the Castle of Amber adventure and setting.


Personally if I was going to run Castle Amber now in my life, I'd use either OD&D, Swords and Wizardry or first choice would be Lamentations of the Flame Princess. This adventure has so many Gothic elements, weird NPC's and Lovecraftian horrors that its a natural progression. The last time that I ran X2 Castle Amber was actually with Jack Shear's Tales of the Grotesque and Dungeonesque setting. It was very, very, interesting and not all of the PC's are here today to tell the tale. X2 Castle Amber is a favorite of mine and has so much to offer a DM willing to embrace its strange elements and high weirdness.

Retro Review & Commentary On The OD&D Adventure Module - B4 - The Lost City By Tom Moldvay For Your Old School Campaigns

A howling sand storm blows across the desert sands forcing your party to take shelter in a set of ruins that has been lost to the ages. Welcome to the B4 adventure The Lost City, for original Dungeons and Dragons!

There are OD&D modules that I avoid not out of ill reputation but of a certain amount of respect for the material. I'll try to explain why, way back in the annals of first getting back into my second round of D&D role playing with the Basic Set of Dungeons & Dragon's The Lost City By Tom Moldvay
was the go too module. It has everything I really required for playing a basic swords and sorcery adventure.
A lost ruin in the middle of a desert environment, odd factions living under weird conditions, black magic of the pulp variety, and all of it tailored to hand walk a dungeon master through his first pulpy mega dungeon in the middle of a lost world setting.
Believe it or not Wiki actually has a very good breakdown of the plot components of this adventure; "

The adventure follows a city buried in the desert, which is torn between warring factions.^[1] Much of the adventure takes place within a huge step pyramid.^[1] Other areas of the city are merely outlined, with suggestions provided for the DM to provide detail.^[1]

At the beginning of the adventure, the characters become lost in a desert sandstorm and stumble upon the entrance to a pyramid. The pyramid and the underground city beneath it are located on the site of the ancient ruined city of Cynidicea and inhabited by the descendants of the city's people. These Cynidiceans, now regressed to a subterranean species, are addicted to narcotics and spend most of their time in drug-induced reveries, wandering around in costumes and masks."
You've basically got a mix of Robert Howard's Red Nail style factions with Michael Moorcock's  Meliboreans mixed in with bits and pieces of the Morlocks and the Lotus Eaters. Another issue were the traps there were a ton of them and they were both logical and deadly. Your thieves had to think on their feet.

"As the adventure progresses, the characters discover that a monster known as Zargon was responsible for the downfall of Cynidicea. The monster still lives, and a cult of evil human priests and various other monsters has grown up around it. Besides the priests of Zargon, there also exist three other factions of relatively normal Cynidiceans. They worship the city's ancient Gods and are dedicated to the overthrow of the priests of Zargon and the restoration of Cynidicea's lost glory, but their diverging faiths have disallowed them from working together against their common enemy."  Another thing about the dungeon crawling within the city's urban decayed and ruined landscape was the lack of treasure B4 was a tad on the light side of the loot. But that was how many of these early efforts were.
And here's where the Lost City shined and caused many dungeon master's complete head aches.

"Although only the upper half of the pyramid is detailed, enough information on the lower half and the underground city is provided for the DM to expand the adventure. After clearing the upper pyramid the players can become involved in the struggle for Cynidicea and, if they grow powerful enough, confront Zargon in his lair and destroy him."
Basically the Lost City is a DM primer on the care and feeding of mega-dungeons, you've got a ton of things all happening within the ruined city regardless if your PC's come along or not and its really up to the DM to keep the action going. This module was really my first exposure to the great art  by Jim Holloway.



There are elements of HP Lovecraft within the module especially the 'god' Zargon, the doomed mushroom farmers are straight out of Robert Howard's Red Nails along with the very weird but dangerous factions. There are a ton of 'Lost World' setting details that remind me of the later books of the Pellucidar series by Edgar Rice Burroughs. The real potental of the Lost City is the fact that its so flexible and interesting there's plenty that can be done with it. A dungeon master could keep a mini campaign going in this ruined urban environment for months pitting on group against another while exploring forgotten rooms and weird twisting bits of ruined galleries.


One of the things I've seen done with the Lost City over the years is to go back time and again to explore one or more galleries of the one hundred rooms while trying to avoid the various factions still fighting after the destruction of the 'god' of the piece. This was one of the first modules to really challenge the metal of the PC's while taking them on a journey into the heart of Cynidiceans and their twisted history. Plenty of this adventure reminded me of Red Nails by Robert Howard. I strongly suggest reading this Howard piece before attempting to run B4.

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

— Robert E. Howard, "Red Nails"


But is the adventure still relevant to players today? Not only is it but the clear, concise advice on world and campaign building is sharp to the point and makes a very clear cut answers when it came to up keep and creation of dungeons, ruins, and monsters. Indeed the mini sandbox nature of The Lost City is as strong today as it was when it came out. It puts the creation aspect of its dungeon squarely on the shoulders of the dungeon master and it doesn't let up on that point.

 The other aspect of the Lost City is the sheer brilliance and weirdness that the adventure oozes from every single corner of it. The sand storm, the urban ruined landscape, the sheer amount of dungeon crawling. Everything fits together like a hand and glove while dealing with some major adventure elements in the middle of all of the ballyhoo. Things are designed take full advantage of the dungeon master's skill by providing a ton of support in the back drop but really all of the later section encounters are yours to fill in and take advantage of your adventure set ups and monster encounters along with room content, treasure, etc., etc. I can pull the module off the shelf and run it with just about any edition of the game. There are ton of very interesting and colorful NPC's in the Lost City if A. The PC's don't kill them and B. They are used by the DM well. The NPC's can be used to hang the entire adventure together if used carefully.


You can pretty much use this adventure straight out of the box with no issue at all, this makes the adventure appealing for a whole host of OD&D style retroclone systems. Everything from Lamentations of the Flame Princess to Swords and Wizardry in addition to Labyrinth Lord. All in all B4 The Lost City remains one of my all time favorite modules to reach for. Its easy to run, very cool, well designed, tightly written and one of the easiest to customize to your own campaigns