Commandments of Desolation - Using I3-5: Desert of Desolation The supermodule by Tracy Hickman, Laura Hickman, & Philip Meyers, With Additional OSR & Old School Resources - Session Report Ten

Among the sands of 'The Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes' — an 18 miles (29 km) stretch of coastline dunes on the Central California Coast, from southern San Luis Obispo County to northern Santa Barbara County a brand new set of pyramids & strange ruined peusdo Egyptian style cities have emerged! Tales of ghostly riders,spectres of pharoahs,  strange ancient ships sailing along coast, & even adventurers who speak of  the sands of Raurin, the incomparable Desert of Dust!  The 'Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes' are now the home of a small ancient military outpost of an empire that never existed here!



The Gates of Rameses
Cecil B. DeMille - The Ten Commandments (1923) Public domain 

All of this was brought about by a storm that lasted three days. This seemingly supernatural storm brought with it tons of new sand & hidden Egpytian city ruins that were seemingly used as set pieces  by Cecil B.Demill during the filming of his magnus opus film 'The Ten Commandments'. But something was very wrong. There were over night the appearance of villages, strange travelers, camels, & even monsters in the confines of a stretch of eighteen miles of California desert & national park beaches!


Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt
Cecil B. DeMille - The Ten Commandments (1923) public domain

There have already been clashes between the settlers here & those of the world of Cha'alt.  The spirit of Amun-Re, the last pharaoh of Bakar, cursed to wander the desert has come to this world looking for adventurers skilled enough to free him from his curse. The desert itself is multidensional & those who wander into its ancient sands are whisked away to another world. But there are rumors that there is a death lord named Queen Tera who has designs upon the otherworldly location. Her cult grows among those who dwell outside of the  'Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes'.

The coming of the Cha'alt warp's planar energies have brought with it another casulity of the events of Ragnrok in the form of I3-5 The Desert of Desolation. I3-5: Desert of Desolation the supermodule collection , by Tracy Hickman, & Laura Hickman, Philip Meyers, and others, is a supermodule for AD&D. It was published in May 1987. It happens to be a particular favorite among the supermodules  of mine. I've been wracking my brains as to how to incorporate it into the Godbound/Cha'alt campaign mix. But then I remembered a story from 2015 on the Smithsonian website by Marissa Fessenden entitled 'There's a Fake Egyptian City Buried in California'.

A bit of imgination & some campaign notes later & the ' I3-5 The Desert of Desolation' was adapted into my on going Cha'alt/Godbound campaign.


So does the black pyramid of Cha'alt call other megadungeons to it on the California coast?! This isn't an ordinary megadungeon & there are other death gods that have interest in this seemingly endless planar desert that has appeared within the confines of the national state park. In fact wizards, adventurers, guides, etc. have begun a cottage industry of exploiting the megadungeon, villages, & other exotic places within the park as a sort of 'exotic Egypt of California'. While the state of California coffers have expanded with taxes the frustration of pharoah's ghost has grown in response.  Other deathlords have taken full advantage of this situation expanding the planar desert realm for thier own benefit while the confines of 'The Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes' national park remain the seemingly the same at least in the daylight. 

The attentions of the lords of Cha'alt have not been unruffled by the appearance of this new hazard to their operations in California. Operatives & agents from both the Black Pryamid & Elysium are trying to penatrate the mysteries of this new developments.


So there's got to be an Adventurer, Conqueror, King rpg angle here? And there is the Lairs & Encounters book which has some fantastic desert encounters that can be put in & some solid mummy style lairs with all kinds of neat sideline adventures to add to the play  mix. This book has a huge number of monsters & encounters with maps & all the other information in a high quality package to run everything outta of the gate! 


Another AD&D book that we seldom hear about today that could also be of use when fleshing out a desert or any adventure or campaign environ is REF3: The Book of Lairs (1986),by James M. Ward and Mike Breault. REF3: The Book of Lairs (1986), by James M. Ward and Mike Breault, is the third AD&D REFerence and the first of the Lairs books of short adventures. It was published in September 1986.
So this book takes some of the iconic Advanced Dungeons & Dragons monsters & gives the dungeon master a range of mini encounters or side adventures for the monster. All of this with cover by  D&D artist Clyde Caldwell. 

Review & Commentary on Advanced Dungeons & Dragons - I10: Ravenloft II: The House on Gryphon Hill For Your Old School Campaigns

""I AM THE ANCIENT ... I AM THE LAND ..."
Your screams still echo in your room. Cold sweat soaks the bedsheets and trickles down your back.
It seemed so real! The great towers of a darksome place called Ravenloft ... it's misty vales and the terrible tragedy of a man who had sold his soul to unlife. Now the sunlight streams through the window with the promise of a new day. The dread nightmare at last is over.
In the cold sunlight of a dying autumn, you step from your room at the inn and stroll along the friendly streets of Mordentshire. But, from the back of your mind the dream creeps forward to haunt you. Why do the faces of those who have befriended you now seem those of strangers? Why do those who called you here in terror, now seem to dismiss your task as a folly?
More .. why are you advised so strongly, to forget about the House on Gryphon Hill ... the domain of the fair haired Count Von Zarovich, a name that cries out from your dark nightmare?

You halt, as the swirl of events grow more confusing with every passing minute. Which is the dream ... and which the reality?"


After yesterday's review I decided to dig out my copy of the other Ravenloft module that no one speaks about. Yes I'm talking I10: "Ravenloft II: House on Gryphon Hill" (1986). If there's a forgotten module that defines Ravenloft then this is it.  Let's get the back history out of the way first ;" I10: "Ravenloft II: House on Gryphon Hill" (1986), by Tracy and Laura Hickman, is the tenth module in the long-running Intermediate series of adventures for AD&D and the second Ravenloft adventure. It was released in September 1986." Tracy & Laura Hickman are at their best here but the other authors on the adventure made this a very uneven adventure in places.
  But I10"Ravenloft II: House on Gryphon Hill" (1986) does is lay the ground work for later Advanced Dungeons & Dragons forays into the Ravenloft setting. Yep, I said that.   Why?! Because of the time line of the main villain & monster. The monster is the central axis of this  adventure & as a squeal to the original module as whole cloth its gotten a very bad reputation. But I don't really think that its a fair assumpition at all  & given Tracy Hickman's history on  I10  "Ravenloft II: House on Gryphon Hill" I can see why. According to the Drivethrurpg entry on the I10  "Ravenloft II: House on Gryphon Hill" ;
 "Origins: It's Alive!. After his success coauthoring the Dragonlance Chronicles (1984-1985) and Dragonlance Legends (1986) novels, Tracy Hickman decided to leave TSR and try his hand as a professional freelance writer. His last month at TSR was April 1985, a short three years after his arrival there.
However, before his departure Hickman put together an outline for a sequel to his classic adventure, I6: "Ravenloft" (1983). A team of four writers then actually wrote the book: David Cook, Jeff Grubb, Harold Johnson, and Douglas Niles. Hickman says that not much of his original outline survived, but nonetheless a sequel to "Ravenloft" was born"

Now I had said that I10  "Ravenloft II: House on Gryphon Hill" is important for the Ravenloft setting; "Exploring Ravenloft. Strahd from "Ravenloft" is back, but he's now a recent arrival to the new setting of Mordentshire. So how does that fit with his original adventure? As it turns out, the answer is "not well". "Gryphon Hill" suggests that the original "Ravenloft" could be a dream. Or maybe this one is. Or maybe they're alternate realities. Combining them into one chronology doesn't seem possible. (The original "Ravenloft" has been the favored background for Strahd in more recent appearances.)

Despite that, "Gryphon Hill" is a critical historical link between the original I6: "Ravenloft" (1983) and the later Ravenloft: Realm of Terror (1990) and Ravenloft Campaign Setting (1994). It introduces Mordent, the second of the demiplane's domains — and in fact remains the best source of information on the domain thanks to its extensive maps and background for Mordentshire"

I10  "Ravenloft II: House on Gryphon Hill" is the House of Frankenstein 1944 of the Ravenloft modules. That is to say a huge number of NPC's & monsters with the potential for lots of great opportunities for role playing. The module even employs some of the classic elements of horror & science fiction including the ever popular 'body switching' trope. All of the adventure elements here would come into play later on in the classic 1990 Ravenloft box set.  This includes some of the most important NPC's of Ravenloft. In fact I'd go one better & use this module as an unofficial Ravenloft campaign setting  adventure  add on. A powerful module critical to the personal campaign setting  history  that PC's might experience.


These include  Count Strahd of course & the lich Azalin, but also Germain d’Honaire, Nathan Timothy, and the Weathermays all of whom are vital to the action of Ravenloft's power structure. But even given all of that I10  "Ravenloft II: House on Gryphon Hill" is not an easy module to get through let alone survive. This is the perfect opportunity to test the mettle of high level player characters.   I10  "Ravenloft II: House on Gryphon Hill" has a ton going for it if taken on its own. The sheer variety of monsters in this module makes it a very interesting mix  from skeletons, zombies, even  werewolves, spectres, and a very powerful  lich. That brings me to the end of the road here where I caution on not using  I10  "Ravenloft II: House on Gryphon Hill" unless you're a really well versed dungeon master. The module's Gothic adventure elements  & ideas seem solid & well done but in the hands of someone's whose expecting a typical AD&D adventure this isn't going to end well. Four outta of five in my book. 

OSR Commentary On "The Ruins of Andril" was written and designed by Ian Melluish From Dragon Issue #81

Dragon issue #81  was released in January of 1984. & it contains two of my favorite articles on the 'Ecology of the Basklisk by Ed Greenwood & a "Taking the sting out of poison: Another view on how to use toxic cocktails" by  Chris Landsea. Plus an article on "Chariots for characters: Adapting ancient vehicles for AD&D play" by  Pete Mohney.
All of these articles serve as a mini source book for "The Ruins of Andril" was written and designed by Ian Melluish, & published in Dragon Magazine #81 (January 1984) as the winner of the Dungeon Design Content (category A-3, a dungeon adventure for 4-8 AD&D PCs of levels 8-11 ) announced in Dragon #65 (September 1982).  This is an Egyptian themed & styled dungeon with several interesting features to it. 



Not only does the dungeon have a central Egyptian theme but the set up is pure golden age of Dragon magazine all of the way; "At the entrance to a mountain pass, surrounded by tropical forests and tilled fields, is the tiny village of Ruatha. Lying on the end of a local trade road, Ruatha offers little to most adventurers. There are rumors, however, that beyond the mountains lie the ruins of an ancient city, surrounded by desert waste. As with all such ruins, tales circulate of great treasures to be found there. The problem is, according to these tales, that the treasure is only available once every two years for reasons no one knows. Rumor has it that the time is now at hand for the ruins to be entered again. These rumors note that few have ever returned from the ruins, most treasure-seekers instead becoming trapped within them. The adventurers are assumed to have arrived in Ruatha at the start of this scenario. They may have arrived separately or together, and may cooperate as a group or compete in a race to get to the ruins and whatever treasure lies within them. No one knows what dangers are ahead, but the adventurers are among the most powerful there are in this land; if anyone can get into the ruins and out of them again, they can."

Yes  "The Ruins of Andril" not only revels in the ancient world theme but also gives the players a base to adventure from in the form of  the tiny village of Ruatha; "The village of Ruatha The adult population of Ruatha numbers scarcely more than 100, with four times as many children. Farming is the major occupation. The village has only one inn, of low quality and exorbitant prices. Because Ruatha is a closely knit community, newcomers will be immediately obvious as such to everyone. Villagers will watch everything the party does, spreading gossip about them daily. The first thing all villagers will think (correctly) is that the adventurers are here to find out about the ruins beyond the mountains. Adventurers may find it disconcerting that everyone seems to know so much about their business. Worse still, the villagers will try to make ridiculous profits from talking to the adventurers, as detailed below." Yes the villagers are out to exploit the adventurers for every dime part of the life blood of Ruatha is the ruins of Andril themselves. Not only is the "The Ruins of Andril" was written and designed by Ian Melluish very well done but it could be used as a gate way adventure into I3 Pharaoh By Tracy Hickman  and Laura Hickman! Everything is there to really stir the pot of Egyptian themed old school adventure.

"The Ruins of Andril" has everything a down & dirty table top level game adventure needs from memorable traps, lots of mid level traps & tricks, plus all of the old world action a party of adventurers can handle. The elements here could converge into an entire mini campaign? Yes I think so the adventure handles its encounters with a deft hand. But why add in  I3 Pharaoh By Tracy Hickman  and Laura Hickman well there are several reasons why including the positive press & review it recieved in Space Gamer; "Harley Bates reviewed the Daystar West edition of the adventure in The Space Gamer No. 54.^[3] He commented that "It's a nice break from standard ongoing campaigns, and gives both players and judges attainable goals in shorter steps."^[3] Bates added that "The inhabitants of the tomb are far from the ordinary fare and provide the players and the judge with fascinating role-playing. There are many clues and puzzles scattered throughout the adventure. All in all, it's a very tightly-woven adventure which should be enjoyable for all involved."^[3] He criticized that "The only real flaw is that there are too many typographical errors. Most of the play supplements available today suffer from this. Couldn't designers and publishers spend just a little more time proofreading?"^[3] Bates concluded his review by stating: "Given the overall quality we are presented in this product, the typos can be overlooked [...] It's a great buy, considering the time, effort, and thought evident throughout."
This attention to detail as well as the play through makes the whole affair seem ideal suited to each other.
So could "The Ruins of Andril"  written and designed by Ian Melluish, be used with OSR systems & retroclones?! In a wild ride sort of way this isn't any thing new. If we used Venger Satanis's latest effort Cha'alt then we get a very wild ride indeed. The map of Cha'alt reveals something very interesting, the areas of the map support Venger Satanis's opinion that the megadungeon module's setting  could be used to house the "The Ruins of Andril". 

The S'kbah is the perfect location to house the Sea of Dust & the secrets of the "The Ruins of Andril". The roving gangs, the odd mutant horrors, the weird occasions of the Great Old Ones all point to situation where in the world of Cha'alt could house fantastic treasures & relics beyond imagining.

But that's just it Cha'alt isn't simply a mega dungeon but a highly adaptable source book & mega dungeon setting. I'm going to quietly be weaving & dropping its seeds into my upcoming game adventures as we start heading into the Autumn season. "The Ruins of Andril" feels very Hammer horror to me & makes me think of the Hammer horror classics especially 'Blood From The Mummy's Tomb'.

Cha'alt has this gonzo & Weird Tales vibe going for it & I'm not the only dungeon master noticing this. Vincent Florio The Evil DM has also taken quite the shine to Cha'lt as well.

Cha'alt reminds me of the classic gonzo setting where slipping anything into the module isn't gonna break. He man, Conan, Martians, etc. could all crop up on this world making Cha'lt and not even make a ripple in the weirdness of the adventure. This means that "The Ruins of Andril"  is easily gonna fit the bill for a high level but dangerous adventure in the old school style. More on this as the campaign develops! 

Reshuffling & Reassignment of Amazing World War One Campaign Elements & Notes Or What Do With A Setback

Well originally this was going to be a post about Gary Gygax's Necropolis D20 book & how to expand it into an alternative WWI supers & Pulp campaign using the Amazing Adventures! Rpg & the Victorious Rpg. But that went out the window because some of my players read Troll Lord's Amazing Adventures! rpg official Facebook group. 

So on phone call later from one of my newer players who isn't crazy about the Gary Gygax  D20  book blah,blah, etc. & I've had to rethink a major portion of this campaign. Well, when your a dungeon master & you need to think outside of the box then you go back to the well spring. In this case I went back to the original concept for part of this WWI campaign the HP Lovecraft story ghost written with Harry Houdini called "Imprisoned with the Pharaohs".


Harry Houdini was pleased with the result of Lovecraft's work 
and collaborated on several other projects with him prior to Houdini's death in 1926.

""Imprisoned with the Pharaohs" (called "Under the Pyramids" in draft form, also published as "Entombed with the Pharaohs"^[1]) is a short story written by American fantasy author H. P. Lovecraft in collaboration with Harry Houdini in February 1924. Commissioned by Weird Tales founder and owner J. C. Henneberger, the narrative tells a fictionalized account in the first-person perspective of an allegedly true experience of escape artist Harry Houdini. Set in 1910, in Egypt, Houdini finds himself kidnapped by a tour guide, who resembles an ancient pharaoh, and thrown down a deep hole near the Great Sphinx of Giza. While attempting to find his way out, he stumbles upon a gigantic ceremonial cavern and encounters the real-life deity that inspired the building of the Sphinx."


We're never really told who or what the Lovecraftian monstrosities were within the Sphinx but I've gotta more then a theory from my Uncle's old notes from ""Imprisoned with the Pharaohs" ;

"At length I succeeded in reaching the steps and began to climb; keeping close to the wall, on which I observed decorations of the most hideous sort, and relying for safety on the absorbed, ecstatic interest with which the monstrosities watched the foul-breezed aperture and the impious objects of nourishment they had flung on the pavement before it. Though the staircase was huge and steep, fashioned of vast porphyry blocks as if for the feet of a giant, the ascent seemed virtually interminable. Dread of discovery and the pain which renewed exercise had brought to my wounds combined to make that upward crawl a thing of agonizing memory. I had intended, on reaching the landing, to climb immediately onward along whatever upper staircase might mount from there; stopping for no last look at the carrion abominations that pawed and genuflected some seventy or eighty feet below—yet a sudden repetition of that thunderous corpse-gurgle and death-rattle chorus, coming as I had nearly gained the top of the flight and showing by its ceremonial rhythm that it was not an alarm of my discovery, caused me to pause and peer cautiously over the parapet.

The monstrosities were hailing something which had poked itself out of the nauseous aperture to seize the hellish fare proffered it. It was something quite ponderous, even as seen from my height; something yellowish and hairy, and endowed with a sort of nervous motion. It was as large, perhaps, as a good-sized hippopotamus, but very curiously shaped. It seemed to have no neck, but five separate shaggy heads springing in a row from a roughly cylindrical trunk; the first very small, the second good-sized, the third and fourth equal and largest of all, and the fifth rather small, though not so small as the first.

Out of these heads darted curious rigid tentacles which seized ravenously on the excessively great quantities of unmentionable food placed before the aperture. Once in a while the thing would leap up, and occasionally it would retreat into its den in a very odd manner. Its locomotion was so inexplicable that I stared in fascination, wishing it would emerge farther from the cavernous lair beneath me.

Then it did emerge. . .  it did emerge, and at the sight I turned and fled into the darkness up the higher staircase that rose behind me; fled unknowingly up incredible steps and ladders and inclined planes to which no human sight or logic guided me, and which I must ever relegate to the world of dreams for want of any confirmation. It must have been a dream, or the dawn would never have found me breathing on the sands of Gizeh before the sardonic dawn-flushed face of the Great Sphinx."

What if the operations in & around Egypt in 1908 were actually a cover for the extermination of something very dangerous? Say the last surviving cults of Stygia of the Robert Howard Conan stories. 


Franz Stuck: The Kiss of the Sphinx 

Human foes he did not fear, nor any death by steel or fire. But this was a black land of sorcery and nameless horror. Set the Old Serpent, men said, banished long ago from the Hyborian races, yet lurked in the shadows of the cryptic temples, and awful and mysterious were the deeds done in the nighted shrines." -- Robert E. Howard: "The Hour of the Dragon"

What if the ancient priests of  Atlantis &  Stygia awakened in Egypt around 1900 to 1914  & began to reestablish their hold on the country in secret & earnest. Did the German  Intelligence Bureau for the East know some of the horrifying secrets that various rebels were conspiring with?
What if there were much more ancient tombs under the sands of Memphis & Gaza? The Spring rains may have uncovered exactly the sort of occult help that some of the forces were looking for?  

The German mission in Istanbul

How you may ask? Well after the events of  I3-5 Desert of Desolation  the local time space continuum has cracked because of the occult forces of the tower of Martek. Now these events have drawn several members of the immoral  Æsir to the areas around Egypt because of the cults activities & summoning especially within the Persian and Egyptian satellite states. So whose behind all of this? 

The hooded priest is in  fact another survivor of Atlantis  similar to Robert Howard's Skull Face. 

An Atlantian survivor of the worst kind that interweaves with Robert  Howard's Steve Costigan character.
"The story stars a character called Steve Costigan but this is not Howard's recurring character, Sailor Steve Costigan. The story is clearly influenced by Sax Rohmer's opus Fu Manchu but substitutes the main Asian villain with a resuscitated Atlantean necromancer (very similar to Kull's arch-foe Thulsa Doom) sitting at the center of a web of crime and intrigue meant to end White/Western world domination."
There is evidence to suggest that Kathulos might have actually been a part of a secret order of necromancers from Atlantis similar to Clark Ashton Smith's The Empire of the Necromancers. Possibly echoing lost survivors of ancient Atlantis showing up in later future epochs of Earth such as Zothique.
What the implications of the appearance of such a cult within World War I is pretty horrid. The main Amazing Adventures ! Rpg rule book  & the Manual of Monsters actually has several Egpytian themed horrors build right in. The mummy lesser & greater are a must, the lich is a perfect stand in for a Kathulos stand in, plus there are several boss level Egyptian horrors build right into the book.

Even bringing capes & beings of extraordinary powers to such a fight isn't going to make one ioata of difference. The War goes on next time other fronts! 

Concluding the The Amazing Shifting Sands Of I3-5 Desert of Desolation By Tracy Hickman, Laura Hickman, Philip Meyers, Peter L. Rice

"Your sleek cloudskate skims across the Skysea. It is midnight. All day long, the glass sea soaked up the scorching desert sunlight. Now, that heat lifts your ship a few inches off the glass and fills its sails. The only sound you hear is the soft swish of the diamond-edged rudder as it cuts a path across the Skysea. 

One thousand years ago, the wizard Martek knew that you would come to find his Sphere of Power. Now, one of his glowing Star Gems shows you the way. The starlight, reflected in the glass beneath you, flickers peacefully. 

Suddenly, the Skysea before you bursts up into a thousand shards of splintered glass, showering into the moonlight! A horrible creature is silhouetted against the moon. You strain against the rudder to keep your ship upright.

Too late! Your cloudskate tips onto one runner, and then tumbles over, skidding to a stop on the glass. As your companions struggle to right the ship, you turn and face the monster. You must hold the creature back to give them time. Without the ship, none of you can get off the glass before the sun rises in the morning. 

Martek's prophecy spoke of heroes, tests, and dangers. Are you the heroes? What are the tests? What dangers and riches lie ahead? "
Yesterday we talked about The Oasis of the White Palm module but now we move on "I5: "Lost Tomb of Martek" (1983) . 
You know the official history of this module,"I5: "Lost Tomb of Martek" (1983) was the third adventure in the Desert of Desolation trilogy and the fifth adventure in TSR's "I" series of Intermediate-level adventures. It was published in July 1983." Everything here is going to hinge on the PC's succeeding in the City of the Phoenix. At some point the PC's have crossed over from the real world of alternative Earth WWI over into the fantasy world of your home campaign. This is essential for bringing home the 'other worldly pseudo Pulp Egyptian qualities' I5: "Lost Tomb of Martek" (1983). 



The PC's are going to need every trick in the book to survive the major issues of traps & tricks that surround the Star Gems. There are monsters & horrors hidden within & surrounding the I5: "Lost Tomb of Martek". This might be a good time to introduce new heroes & C&C PC's to the fold. There is more then a little other world quality to this module. This module  combines wilderness and dungeon adventures with an underlying storyline but it does so with some very deadly random wilderness encounters. When I ran  I5: "Lost Tomb of Martek" using the alternative WWI background I did so with the fact that time & the spirit realms were very fractured. So I was able to pluck different eras of WWI soldiers, capes, & adventurers into the mix.

Personnel from the Armenian volunteers
including Khetcho, Dro, and Armen Garo, 1914.
 
We had a very mixed party of high level adventurers playing this super module because of its design.  The Mobius Tower, whose levels are magically linked in a loop & whose inhabitants appear to be frozen are actually part of a higher vibrational dimension. So this was beginning to fracture & affect the local time space continuum. The two movers & shakers of the conclusion of  I3-5" Desert of Desolation" are the wizard Martek and the efreeti. But its the PC's who are the heroes! This is something to very much keep in the center of the action of play when running  I5: "Lost Tomb of Martek".



Once I5: "Lost Tomb of Martek" concludes it might be time to take a small break & then move on with a Gothic World War I style game. The gates have been shattered even

though the PC's have succeeded in their endevours with the star gems! There is a possibility of using  adapting 2nd edition Ravenloft  RA3 Touch of Death (2e) by Bruce Nesmith  to expand the ancient evils of the Mists into this alternative world C&C game. 


On the whole running through   I3-5 Desert of Desolation  is going to take the better part of a year & half of actual non stop play to go through every  dangerous factions, with the super module's twists & turns of epic campaign level play.


Where I3-5" Desert of Desolation" succeeds is on the actual table top during play. There are all kinds of possiblities that open up with having run through the entire I3-5" Desert of Desolation" triliogy. On the whole there are some really nice narrative adventure lines of play that can be fleshed out. Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition Ravenloft  RA3 Touch of Death (2e) by Bruce Nesmith adventure isn't the only option either to flesh out more of a Gothic World War I/pulp supers game either. But we'll get into that tomorrow.  The two essential books here are the Amazing Adventures Manual of Monsters & the C&C Monsters & Treasure book.   
Both of these books expand the possibilities of the adventure campaign  add ons & the  loot from the I3-5" Desert of Desolation" . 

Amazing Transformations with I4 Oasis of the White Palm By Tracy Hickman, Laura Hickman, Philip Meyers, Peter L. Rice.

"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!"
Here begins the second part of  the revised I3-5 Desert of Desolation series by Tracy Hickman, Laura Hickman, Philip Meyers, Peter L. Rice. The Oasis of the White Palm is very dangerous in several regards. The events here are world shaking & there is a solid push on the role playing aspect. 

Now at first I4 Oasis of the White Palm seems like a straight forward module that could even as part of the Desert of Desolation series be easily adaptable to the WWI alternative series that I've been talking about. But in fact there are several wrinkles here starting with the super module itself; "In 1982, TSR published Pharaoh as a thirty-two-page booklet with two outer folders, for the first edition of AD&D.^[7]:101 It was designed for 6-8 player characters of levels 5-7,^[10] and formed the first of the three-part Desert of Desolation module series.^[1][7]:101

Oasis of the White Palm is the sequel to the Pharaoh module.^[2][7]:102 TSR published this adventure in 1983 as a thirty-two-page booklet with two outer folders, and the adventure was written by Tracy Hickman and Philip Meyers with cover art by Jim Holloway and interior illustrations by Keith Parkinson.^[7]:102 It was intended for 6 to 8 characters of levels 6-8.^[11] Lost Tomb of Martek is the third module in the series, and was designed by Tracy Hickman, for 7th-9th level characters.^[7]:102[5] Lost Tomb of Martek was published in 1983 as a 32-page booklet with two outer folders.^[7]:102

The compilation module Desert of Desolation was printed in 1987.^[12] The compilation features a cover by Keith Parkinson.^[7]:101 It is a revision of the I3, I4, and I5 AD&D game modules, with additional design and revision by Peter Rice and William John Wheeler.^[13] Wheeler attempted to expand on the originals, without altering their tone.^[14] The adventures in Desert of Desolation are designed for a 5th-10th level party and have been reworked to fit into the Forgotten Realms setting, and the material was made compatible with the Wilderness Survival Guide rules.^[3] In the revision, the designers added additional background material, as well as staging tips for the Dungeon Master.^[13] The details of various elements that had been open-ended elements were spelled out." Seems pretty clear add in Oasis of the White Palm to WWI Egypt & away you go.
Well. no. The interactions between the  the sheikh's  tribe &
the politics of the situation needs to be mapped out. These tribes of 'Arab style nomads' know
about the fellow tribesmen on Earth & they'll use the PC's to smuggle in support, weapons,
 supplies, etc., This is going to give the dungeon master 

one more 'carrot & stick' opportunities for WWI's Middle East situation during the war. 


Not only are the PC's having to balance this political beast within the oasis but they will have
balance going to the temple of Set and the crypt of Badr al-Mosak. Not to mention the sacred relics of the peoples of the Oasis with the gems being pivotal to the module's conclusion. 

I3-5: Desert of Desolation, by Tracy Hickman, Laura Hickman, Philip Meyers, and others,also expands upon the original module & fleshes out lots of the I4 backgrounds. Dungeon masters need to be aware of this fact or disaster could result.

Set artwork by Jeff Dahl 

This module is going to take place long before the 1920 discovery of Tutankhamen's tomb by Howard Carter. This is not to taken lightly as it allows the dungeon master to sneak in lots of adventure or campaign  little side notes. There's lots of room for expansion with some of the  wilderness of these modules taking center stage. The Amazing Adventures! rpg Companion is going to be a massive help here. From magic to equipment this is the book with all of the bases covered.

Outside of the Egyptian state WWI Egypt is extremely dangerous to say the least; "In 1914
 the Egyptian Army was a largely native home-defence force. It comprised 17 battalions of infantry (8 Sudanese and 9 Egyptian), 3 companies of mounted infantry, a Camel Corps, support services and various local militia groups. It was organised, expanded and equipped by the British during the prewar years, and led by British officers. Although a few field artillery units participated voluntarily in the defense of the Suez Canal in early 1915, the Egyptian Army was primarily employed to maintain order in the troubled Sudan.^[3][4] It has been estimated that a million Egyptian soldiers participated in the First World War during the reign of Hussein Kamel of Egypt, of whom half a million perished!"

The dungeon master might want to be aware of the role that Hussein Kamel of Egypt played in WW1 and the complexities of the balance that the Egyptian peoples played during this time.



 Hussein Kamel of Egypt

Supernatural & occult goings on in the desert created by the White Palm situation will not be looked on favorably. Add in the possibilities that adventurers & capes present not to mention Castles & Crusades fantasy characters & running afoul of the authorities could become a real problem. Oasis of the White Palm is not an adventure to be taken lightly & should be run with the understanding of the dangers that are present within its pages.
There are few reasons to consider I4 Oasis of the White Palm; 

1. The dangers of the I4 Oasis of the White Palm are very real & quite pulpy in context of the confines of the adventure. Players should not underestimate them. 
2. Wilderness & random encounters can be quite nasty in I4 Oasis of the White Palm
3. PC & pulp powers will not unbalance this adventure. 
4. Likewise fire arms are not going to effect if the PC's die or live. They are not a game adventure breaker. 
5. There's more politics within I4 Oasis of the White Palm then the players will be expecting 
6. Monsters in I4 play for keeps & they will destroy PC's without hesitation 
7. Stupidity isn't repaid at all in this module. Keep extra character sheets. 
8. The vision of the module has a clear objective & players need to consider that. 
9. The frame work & adventure locations can serve a continuing campaign in the region which will become very important next adventure. 
10. The  three Star Gems (the one from Amun-Re's tomb in the previous adventure and two more introduced here) are going to be handy not only for this adventure but for future excursions into the region of I4. 

The Amazing Shifting Sands of The Beginning Of I3-5 Desert of Desolation By Tracy Hickman, Laura Hickman, Philip Meyers, Peter L. Rice Part I

"Deep blue mists of the night swirl over the sands of Raurin, the incomparable Desert of Dust.

As the cool night air drains the heat from the sand, you & your friends huddle around your campfire, glancing nervously at the giant pyramid in the distance.

Gradually, the winds change direction, bearing a thin streak of white mist toward you from the pyramid.

It swirls & takes shape as a faceless man dressed in ancient robes & an ornate head-piece; moonlight shining through his ghostly body & robes, he lifts his arms toward the pyramid & speaks.

It was magic that conveyed you all to Bralizar, & an ancient map that guided you through the pass in The Dustwall.

But it was, after all, the tales that finally brought you to this place - tales of endless wealth, of spirit-guarded pyramids, of crystalline obelisks, of gemstones with mysterious properties.

Now, as the haunted voice of the spectre before you begins his tale, you wonder if the treasure & the quest are worth the price...perhaps your very lives.

Are you really the heroes of the prophecies, those who will overcome the foretold tests, & those for whom the treasure awaits?"

So begins the collected I3-5 Desert of Desolation  modules by Tracy Hickman, Laura Hickman, Philip Meyers, Peter L. Rice but to adapt them to a pulp style AA! game is going to take a bit of historical & dungeon master slight of hand. The Middle Eastern Theater of War WW1 is both very dynamic & down right terrifying.   The Egpytian style pulp themes with its lost ghost pharaoh wandering the sands is easily moved over to the edge of the Egyptian/African border enabling the PC's to encounter the spirit of Amun-Re, a pharaoh cursed to wander the desert until his tomb is robbed. Amun-Re begs the PCs to remove his staff of ruling and Star Gem from his tomb to break his curse.  The fact is that powers & abilities of capes or adventurers are not going to make a blind bit of difference to solving & playing this module. If the module can be adapted to Mystara then it can be adapted to WWI Earth. 

This adventure is going to be pre  the 1922 discovery by Howard Carter of Tutankhamun's tomb & the PC's are going to have to rely on the local Arab tribes for guidance into the wilds of Egypt's Empty Quarter or the The Rub' al Khali desert. This place has an occult history of touching many other worlds & its the perfect location for  I3-5 Desert of Desolation. In fact the PC's might be dealing heavily with the the British protectorate of the Sultanate of Egypt. Thieves, raiders, rangers, & all of the combat heavies along with druids are a must here. Make sure you've got a copy of Castles & Crusades handy. The module is going to take the player's party from their world into your pulp fantasy version of Egypt.  

PC's could get easily in way over their heads with the first part of this module. The two essential books here are the Amazing Adventures Manual of Monsters & the C&C Monsters & Treasure book.  Why?! Because of something I noticed in a review of the module; Harley Bates reviewed the Daystar West edition of the adventure in The Space Gamer No. 54.^[3] He commented that "It's a nice break from standard ongoing campaigns, and gives both players and judges attainable goals in shorter steps."^[3] Bates added that "The inhabitants of the tomb are far from the ordinary fare and provide the players and the judge with fascinating role-playing. There are many clues and puzzles scattered throughout the adventure. All in all, it's a very tightly-woven adventure which should be enjoyable for all involved."The monsters of I3 are very dangerous & encounters could end a party unless their very careful. DM's should tailor things to their player's PCs as needed.. Notice I said as needed.

Once the players get a taste for I3 then they'll want to continue on & the DM is going need to familiarize themselves with the twists & turns of these modules coming up.  I3-5 Desert of Desolation  has some truly dangerous factions, twists & turns. This sets things up very nicely for a mega campaign by possibly adapting 2nd edition Ravenloft  

RA3 Touch of Death (2e) by Bruce Nesmith into a Gothic WW1 campaign. But for the moment I'm going to concentrate on   I3-5 Desert of Desolation.

 Player's PC's are quite literally going to be at the mercy of many of the internal adventure elements of  I3-5 Desert of Desolation. They'll have to do some strong role playing & really think on their feet to survive the machinations of the module.  The DM is going to be doing a balancing act between history & the weird realities of the module. The Raiders of the Lost Ark themes here are evident