I8 The Ravager of Time Adventure By Graeme Morris and Jim Bambra For Advanced Dungeons & Dragons First Editions And Your Old School Campaigns

"So this is the Ffenargh? Mile after mile of stinking bogs overlain by a swirling mist that clings to the skin and chills to the bone. Ahead, a decrepit causeway rises scant inches above the fetid waters and meanders its way through the twisted forms of stunted trees into the depths of this forsaken land.

For years, these blighted fens have been ignored by the outside world, but now an urgent summons brings you into the Ffenargh, to the Court of the Lords Spiritual at Eylea. A foul murder has been committed. Geoffrey D'Arcy, Lord of Myrkfast, has been slain by his own son and you are called upon to find out why.

Death has always hung heavy over this mire, but now an ancient evil has returned to haunt the mist - an evil whose icy fingers reach out to crush any who dare delve its secrets. You, who have faced death a thousand times, meet it now in its most terrible guise. Can you defeat it, or will you fall victim to the Ravager of Time?"

GRAB IT RIGHT HERE

This is a dark and gritty UK adventure set against the stinking fens and bogs of Ffenargh. A setting right out of the imagination of Robert Howard's Solomon Kane adventures. The grittiness of this adventure rings right straight through even as it uses monsters straight out of the Fiend Folio and Monster Manual II. This is an adventure that I've seen used with  the Rune Quest Third edition, the Warhammer Fantasy rpg  and ported over to The  Palladium Fantasy Rpg  as well as Advanced Dungeons and Dragons first edition. Well see why in a moment.

"So this is the Ffenargh? Mile after mile of stinking bogs overlain by a swirling mist that clings to the skin and chills to the bone. Ahead, a decrepit causeway rises scant inches above the fetid waters and meanders its way through the twisted forms of stunted trees into the depths of this forsaken land.

For years, these blighted fens have been ignored by the outside world, but now an urgent summons brings you into the Ffenargh, to the Court of the Lords Spiritual at Eylea. A foul murder has been committed. Geoffrey D'Arcy, Lord of Myrkfast, has been slain by his own son and you are called upon to find out why.

Death has always hung heavy over this mire, but now an ancient evil has returned to haunt the mist - an evil whose icy fingers reach out to crush any who dare delve its secrets. You, who have faced death a thousand times, meet it now in its most terrible guise. Can you defeat it, or will you fall victim to the Ravager of Time? "



An adventure for 6-10 characters of levels 8th to 10th.
There's always been something different about the UK TSR's efforts and this one is no different, I've seen this module described as the bastard child of  Shakespeare meets sword & sorcery with an English twist. Wiki actually sums up the British sense of this module quite nicely;"The adventure is a TSR UK branch production and features non-player character types, expository style, atmosphere, and situations that are notably different from many of the game modules created in the US."
This module is full of casts of characters with back story, twisted motives, and monsters lots of em and pay close attention to those PC levels because they mean it. There something really twisted about this module, maybe its the monsters or the main villain or the fact that it can be ported right into a few of the other swamp based modules that I've talked about. The adventure is clever and doesn't talk down to its audience at all, in point of fact it takes the dungeon master and expects them to take the PC's and throw them into the dark alleys of old age.
Here's the break down according to Wiki;"Ravager of Time is set in the Ffenarch. The Ffenarch is a dismal, boggy environment with only some small areas of firm ground. The player characters are hired to search the fens for a lord's son who killed his father. While searching, the characters become entangled in an evil plot that is tainting Eylea."
I8 takes your PC's by the short hairs and knows that your outlaws and adventurers. You're expected to have your characters use commonsense and there huge swaths of this adventure that are complete railroads but that's because this was a convention set up back in Eighty Six. Again this is a part of the TSR UK formula from the D&D Classics website;" Like most of the TSR UK adventures, this one is plot heavy, featuring numerous NPCs; a jury trial; and a life-draining sorceress, the eponymous "Ravager of Time." All of the adventuring occurs in towns or wilderness, without a dungeon to be found. This would all be much more typical of the TSR adventures of the 90s, but in the 80s it was almost exclusively the domain of TSR UK and (to a lesser extent) Tracy Hickman. Like many of the other TSR UK adventures, this one makes heavy use of monsters found in the Fiend Folio (1981) and the Monster Manual II (1983)."  But does this make the module bad or unplayable? Not at all, in point of fact Ravager of Time captures and encapsulates a certain time period in writing and game design. The plot, the writing, and adventure are a trial by fire in sword and sorcery terms. The country of Ffenargh could be in central Europe someplace in the 1400's with its gritty trappings and plot that could easily be ported over to Lamentations of the Flame Princess or Dark Albion. Yes I must sound like broken record but believe me because of the familiar nature of royal plot, the dark background adventure elements, twisted motives for the NPC's and the events of the backdrop this adventure fits the contents. Its also a tightly written affair and still widely regarded by the OSR community fondly.
There are three real reasons to use this particular module : 

1. The Ravager of Time has a very dark resonance with its audience and a pulpy grittiness that really tests players to their limits. Because the setting is generic you can drop this adventure into any campaign world and it will work. 
2. I8 has lots of investigation, hunting, and is a real mental workout it can be customized for DYI work and can be broken and still work for your old school or retroclone campaigns. 
3. Because of the connection with both the Monster Manual II and the Fiend Folio lots of old favorites show up and can actually get a deadly workout at the table lending this module a bit of an old world horror flavor. Bring spare characters and sheets, PC's should be of the appropriate level. 

So would the Ravager of Time be a good fit for a game of sword and sorcery pulp action for a game such as Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea? The short answer is a solid yes and the reasons why are very simple. The adventure is distinctly British in both tone, artwork, feel, and content or at the very least pseudo historical in its treatment of Ffenargh. The setting could easily be work of Celtic settlers in shattered shadow of Lemuria, Atlantis, or Hyperborea from Old Earth. The motives and feel of the adventure is sort of a woven dream of a corrupted pulpy landscape pregent with adventure waiting for the right match to come along and set the campaign on fire. This adventure has the feel and elements  of Mac Beth set against the world of Howard and Lovecraft. But this is an adventure for experienced players and PC's in every sense of the word.


Forget the usual solving everything with your sword arm and getting things done with a boot up a monster's backside. This adventure involves thinking things through very carefully and then taking swift action. Because this adventure came out in the shadow of the White Dwarf magazine era. I've seen this adventure converted over to Rune Quest and later on over to the Palladium Fantasy Rpg. This was because of the generic and well thought out way that the U.K. TSR crew put this one together. Its tightly designed, deadly as sin, and capable of taking PC's up a few levels and is a great jump off point for extended bits of old school campaign play. This is not an adventure to be taken lightly. I've seen several TPK's with I8 The Ravager of Time. Is it well done? Yes absolutely it is. Is it worth your time? Yes in a heartbeat. This is also one of the more reasonable used adventures on the open market clocking in at ten dollars for a used copy on Amazon.

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

I8 The Ravager of Time Adventure By Graeme Morris and Jim Bambra For Advanced Dungeons & Dragons First Editions And Your Old School Campaigns

GRAB IT RIGHT HERE

This is a dark and gritty UK adventure set against the stinking fens and bogs of Ffenargh. A setting right out of the imagination of Robert Howard's Solomon Kane adventures. The grittiness of this adventure rings right straight through even as it uses monsters straight out of the Fiend Folio and Monster Manual II. This is an adventure that I've seen used with  the Rune Quest Third edition, the Warhammer Fantasy rpg  and ported over to The  Palladium Fantasy Rpg  as well as Advanced Dungeons and Dragons first edition. Well see why in a moment.

"So this is the Ffenargh? Mile after mile of stinking bogs overlain by a swirling mist that clings to the skin and chills to the bone. Ahead, a decrepit causeway rises scant inches above the fetid waters and meanders its way through the twisted forms of stunted trees into the depths of this forsaken land.

For years, these blighted fens have been ignored by the outside world, but now an urgent summons brings you into the Ffenargh, to the Court of the Lords Spiritual at Eylea. A foul murder has been committed. Geoffrey D'Arcy, Lord of Myrkfast, has been slain by his own son and you are called upon to find out why.

Death has always hung heavy over this mire, but now an ancient evil has returned to haunt the mist - an evil whose icy fingers reach out to crush any who dare delve its secrets. You, who have faced death a thousand times, meet it now in its most terrible guise. Can you defeat it, or will you fall victim to the Ravager of Time? "



An adventure for 6-10 characters of levels 8th to 10th.
There's always been something different about the UK TSR's efforts and this one is no different, I've seen this module described as the bastard child of  Shakespeare meets sword & sorcery with an English twist. Wiki actually sums up the British sense of this module quite nicely;"The adventure is a TSR UK branch production and features non-player character types, expository style, atmosphere, and situations that are notably different from many of the game modules created in the US."
This module is full of casts of characters with back story, twisted motives, and monsters lots of em and pay close attention to those PC levels because they mean it. There something really twisted about this module, maybe its the monsters or the main villain or the fact that it can be ported right into a few of the other swamp based modules that I've talked about. The adventure is clever and doesn't talk down to its audience at all, in point of fact it takes the dungeon master and expects them to take the PC's and throw them into the dark alleys of old age.
Here's the break down according to Wiki;"Ravager of Time is set in the Ffenarch. The Ffenarch is a dismal, boggy environment with only some small areas of firm ground. The player characters are hired to search the fens for a lord's son who killed his father. While searching, the characters become entangled in an evil plot that is tainting Eylea."
I8 takes your PC's by the short hairs and knows that your outlaws and adventurers. You're expected to have your characters use commonsense and there huge swaths of this adventure that are complete railroads but that's because this was a convention set up back in Eighty Six. Again this is a part of the TSR UK formula from the D&D Classics website;" Like most of the TSR UK adventures, this one is plot heavy, featuring numerous NPCs; a jury trial; and a life-draining sorceress, the eponymous "Ravager of Time." All of the adventuring occurs in towns or wilderness, without a dungeon to be found. This would all be much more typical of the TSR adventures of the 90s, but in the 80s it was almost exclusively the domain of TSR UK and (to a lesser extent) Tracy Hickman. Like many of the other TSR UK adventures, this one makes heavy use of monsters found in the Fiend Folio (1981) and the Monster Manual II (1983)."  But does this make the module bad or unplayable? Not at all, in point of fact Ravager of Time captures and encapsulates a certain time period in writing and game design. The plot, the writing, and adventure are a trial by fire in sword and sorcery terms. The country of Ffenargh could be in central Europe someplace in the 1400's with its gritty trappings and plot that could easily be ported over to Lamentations of the Flame Princess or Dark Albion. Yes I must sound like broken record but believe me because of the familiar nature of royal plot, the dark background adventure elements, twisted motives for the NPC's and the events of the backdrop this adventure fits the contents. Its also a tightly written affair and still widely regarded by the OSR community fondly.
There are three real reasons to use this particular module : 

1. The Ravager of Time has a very dark resonance with its audience and a pulpy grittiness that really tests players to their limits. Because the setting is generic you can drop this adventure into any campaign world and it will work. 
2. I8 has lots of investigation, hunting, and is a real mental workout it can be customized for DYI work and can be broken and still work for your old school or retroclone campaigns. 
3. Because of the connection with both the Monster Manual II and the Fiend Folio lots of old favorites show up and can actually get a deadly workout at the table lending this module a bit of an old world horror flavor. Bring spare characters and sheets, PC's should be of the appropriate level. 

So would the Ravager of Time be a good fit for a game of sword and sorcery pulp action for a game such as Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea? The short answer is a solid yes and the reasons why are very simple. The adventure is distinctly British in both tone, artwork, feel, and content or at the very least pseudo historical in its treatment of Ffenargh. The setting could easily be work of Celtic settlers in shattered shadow of Lemuria, Atlantis, or Hyperborea from Old Earth. The motives and feel of the adventure is sort of a woven dream of a corrupted pulpy landscape pregent with adventure waiting for the right match to come along and set the campaign on fire. This adventure has the feel and elements  of Mac Beth set against the world of Howard and Lovecraft. But this is an adventure for experienced players and PC's in every sense of the word.


Forget the usual solving everything with your sword arm and getting things done with a boot up a monster's backside. This adventure involves thinking things through very carefully and then taking swift action. Because this adventure came out in the shadow of the White Dwarf magazine era. I've seen this adventure converted over to Rune Quest and later on over to the Palladium Fantasy Rpg. This was because of the generic and well thought out way that the U.K. TSR crew put this one together. Its tightly designed, deadly as sin, and capable of taking PC's up a few levels and is a great jump off point for extended bits of old school campaign play. This is not an adventure to be taken lightly. I've seen several TPK's with I8 The Ravager of Time. Is it well done? Yes absolutely it is. Is it worth your time? Yes in a heartbeat. This is also one of the more reasonable used adventures on the open market clocking in at ten dollars for a used copy on Amazon.

Retro Review For UK4 When A Star Falls By Graeme Morris For Advanced Dungeons & Dragons First Edition & Your Old School Campaigns

I've always had a particular love of this adventure & many years ago got a chance to play UK 4 When A Star Falls at the Orc's Nest in London back in the Nineties. Here's what I'm going to tell you about When A Star Falls right away, bring six or more players. This is a decidedly UK style of adventure and it can be very deadly, gritty, and has a bit of a reputation among certain circles of OSR gamers. This is a mid level adventure in every sense of the word. A nice mix of outdoor adventure and dungeon crawling, this is a fun playing adventure  and well put together with all of the elements that we've come to expect from Graeme Morris.
There are several reasons to use this adventure as a mid level adventure for your PC's:

• Because of When A Star Fall's unique adventure structure, this module can easily be back ported into an existing campaign. The material here is rather unique and stands head and shoulders above the usual AD&D setting echoes and corny adventure setting patterns. UK4 will take players off guard with its clever back handed writing and design 
• This adventure has a well deserved gritty and interesting reputation even while it offers some unique adventure opportunities. 
• Copies of this module are relatively inexpensive compared to other classic AD&D adventures but the quality of this product has its roots right in the sword and sorcery wheelhouse. Many of UK4's adventure elements fit right into the Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea rpg sword and sorcery themes and ideals making this a rather interesting mid point adventure.

Here's the blurb from the back cover;
"The power of prophecy is given to few. Wise are they who guard this gift well, for those who thirst after such knowledge are not always men of principle. Bastion of destiny, the Tower of the Heavens stands silhouetted against the star-studded night sky. From within his darkened observatory, perched like an eyrie on the highest turret, a figure in white charts the course of a shooting-star as it disappears behind the snow-capped peaks of the Tegefed mountains. The old man smiles grimly to himself; the event foretold has come to pass! Power, glory, riches - it takes years to acquire them. The uncanny accuracy of their predictions has brought all these and more to the sages of the Tower of the Heavens. But what is hard to win is often easier to lose, and the future of the tower now hangs in the balance. For it is written that the day of reckoning draws nearer when a star falls..."
This is an adventure that I've seen hold the interest of the most jaded group of London players you've ever seen. From start to finish this adventure has a mix of complex plot, weird happenings, the PC's have  to deal with greedy derro, deceptive Sverfneblin and treacherous clerics  and the deadly happenings in the back of the plot of this adventure. The  Wiki the plot overview really doesn't do this adventure the justice it deserves; "The adventurers must return the fallen star to its rightful owner. The journey takes many twists and turns as the star's secrets are gradually revealed.^[3] The PCs have an encounter with a monster called a memory web on the moors south-east of the Tegefed mountains, and learn of a falling star that reached the earth. They are encouraged to find it and bring it to Shalfey, an Elder Sage of the Tower of the Heavens."
There are several elements that make UK4 unique, there's no real lead in except your PC's are fighting a horrid monster known as the memory web and get flooded with past victims memories.


This is another of those adventures that seems steeped right into the background of When A Star Falls. The over all feel of the adventure seems to draw itself deep into the interior parts of  AS&SH's Hyperborea and its tailor made to be altered to fit into the back drop of the world. UK4 is also decidedly gritty and at points very tense into how it communicates its adventure goals but yet it is neither pushy nor hurried in its execution. A real credit to the writing and design of this module.



There are several things I really love about UK4, among them is the fact that lots of non standard monsters are used in the module. Many of these are from the UK TSR 's Fiend Folio. This was the first module to really bring this from the backdrop into a main body of an adventure. The other thing is that some of the good guys in this adventure are really kinda complete jerks and their very well fleshed out. This  adventure also dovetails into the idea of DYI D&D customization. The unique writing, creative presentations, and more mean that this adventure fits the bill for sword and sorcery action with plenty of opportunity for role playing as well as the huge chunk of dungeon and wilderness crawling build into its structure. Many of the events described in When a Star Falls could easily take place in some custom piece of pseudo historical rpg adventure system such as Lamentations of the Flame Princess or Dark Albion. But here the adventure takes a bit of a dark turn and the use of its setting is rather unique.

Two things about the setting for HK4, this is an adventure that while it does have unique locations takes full adventure of an underworld that draws in adventurers like moths to an open flame. The set up for the UK isn't the Underdark at all but there''s parallels with Derro  lairs, the deep dark locations & places as well as more.  This underworld makes an excellent stand in for Underborea which we've read about in the AS&SH. Several of the threads running through UK4 fit a dark fantasy Europe making When a Star Falls perfect for setting the action in either a deep Russian or Romanian location especially if this adventure is being used as a part of an alternative Earth setting.



Another thing about When A Star Falls is the fact that we never quite get a name of this adventure's world but the implication is that it might be Grayhawk. This means that UK4's setting could easily be moved right into the deep interior of Hyperborea or another sword and sorcery world setting. UK4 is unique in that it not only has solid writing and design but sports an intricate plot that manages to maintain adventure balance and player's interest. This is a weird balanced approach to an adventure that sports on of the more then its fair share of nasty and dangerous encounters while moving the over arching plot along at a rather quick pace.



In the end of all of this UK 4 When a Star Falls is a classic of the series and a great opportunity for both the DM to really challenge play with the  experienced, jaded , and snobbiest of players. UK4 is a classic adventure with all of the elements built into it so that a DM can have it ready to go for even a large group of players! There's a ton of bang for your buck that When a Star Falls offers. Highly recommend this adventure to kick off a sword and sorcery campaign.