The Mail Call Commentary - Campaign Session Commentary Report 1a

So the United States Post Office finally came through on Friday & decided to deliver my order to me from The Collector's Store. Note that this wasn't Covid 19 related but the second time that we're gonna lose your package. I put in a case & everything with the United States Post Office this was after the The Collector's Store screwed up my order with details on my address. The first order is someplace down in Hartford & I can kiss that good bye. Too bad there was a copy of James Ward's Elemental Spells in that package. I did the research & this was solid book to have for the C&C system.  The package for the moment has vanished! I don't think its coming back.



Alright back to my weekend & the fact that Friday my package shows up! Yahh!  The Collector's Store did make it right. The order comes in & everything's there! The order is the lesser of two evils filled with lots of Castles & Crusades goodness plus some 3.5 books to help fill out my collection. 

The order helps fill in some of the gaps for my on going  Tegel Manor campaign. The C&C material is on point for what I've got in mind for this campaign run. The manor has appeared in the middle of an alternative Earth right at the on set of the Franco Prussian war. 

But this is a world with a Steampunk twist with Mike Stewart's Victorious rpg  but there are deep ties into classic Advanced Dungeons & Dragons modules especially the U series of modules & U1 Sinister Secret of Salt Marsh. But the real old school resource is the Slaver series A0-A4: Against The Slave Lords. 



Here's the where the Gonzo campaign connection in works where the Slavers have deals with many of the powers of Venger Satanis's Cha'alt. Weapons, advisors, etc. have been filtered through the Slavers into this Prime Plane. This has been a major pain in the arse for my player's PC's! Now according to Venger on Cha'alt: Fuchsia Malaise kickstarter project this isn't just a small book but a major campaign expansion. There will be an upcoming interview with Venger about this coming up on the blog. But I'm holding back from my players about this for the campaign & keeping this element boiling in the campaign's background. 



But what happens from here?! The events here are following the blood lines of the PC's in the game & their not even aware of it. There is a heavy Gothic/Gonzo element in this campaign with deep ties into Greyhawk. We'll have to see where the party takes this game. Will they survive?! Only time & play will tell! 



Note that using Castles & Crusades has helped to solve a ton of problems as far as the OSR overview on many of the individual issues of the campaign.

Lions, Dragons, Dinosaurs, & Slavers - Wrapping the Campaign World Setting Up -Tegel Manor Session Zero Play Report Part II

Off the California coast strange prehistoric beasts have been seen. The locals are trying to mount an expedition but there's been rumors of strange lights, 1400 century pirate ships,etc. Alright so I converted my old copy of X1 Isle of Dread over to my current Castles & Crusades campaign.



I'm getting a real Valley of Gwangi feel about this version of X1 in the campaign setting so I'm moving the isle down more into Baja California coast region. For 1870 this means that the isle of dread itself has some very dark & sort of sinister connotations for the locals. 

This is an island of the lost & of castaways with a strong connection to the elemental plane of water. For my games these isles have a very nefarious history with several of my Lion & Dragon rpg games in the past. Strange otherworldly pirates praying on vessels off the English coast only to vanish when given chase. System wise with Castles & Crusades converting the Lion & Dragon rpg shouldn't be a problem at all. That means that on the isle of dread or my version of it there's a small colony of Albion castaways

You can think of my games as the sort of underbelly of the OSR & I have zero problems with that. But now whose been using the dimensionally unstable isle of dread as their home base across any number of planes?! The one group that I can think of that I've used in the past  couple of months has been 'the slavers' from A0-A4: Against the Slave Lords by David "Zeb" Cook, Allen Hammack, Harold Johnson, & Tom Moldvay.


All of this goes back to me running the U1 Sinister Secret of Salt Marsh modules. The Sea Wasp was actually a ship in my games belonging to the slavers. The alchemist wasn't simply a corpse but a lich who was operating in his old haunts for the slavers with connections to the local Deep Ones. Yes this flies completely in the face of U1 but it worked out very well at the time for the Castles & Crusades game I had going. 


I used the Slavers organization like something straight outta of Palladium Fantasy or Rifts. I've done this repeatedly over the years & my players continue to use the various campaign histories tangled together. Why because they like me DMing Castles & Crusades like a free wheeling Rifts game & I'm perfectly happy to do so. More as this as it develops tonight.


Tegel Manor is going to cross over all of this material coming up depending upon how the PC's go with the adventure elements. 

Crack & Lash Blackmoor & Beyond - Using A0-A4: Against the Slave By Lords David "Zeb" Cook, Allen Hammack, Harold Johnson, & Tom Moldvay For Your Old School Campaigns

Taking a long look at that slave lords organization from A0-A4  Against the Slave Lords specifically the collected 'super module' that came out way back in 2016 or so. I think that slave lords is a perfect example of a Pulp era Swords & Sorcery secret villain organization. They & the organization's members are specifically like a revolving door of scum & villainy. The slave lords are the perfect organization to use as a planes reaching villains who are out to exploit the masses.




In the history of Greyhawk the slave lords are inimical to the classic setting's history & peoples. They are the exploitable resources to the masters & monsters of the slave lords line up especially from info from the D&D wiki ;

"In 574 CY, Klim and his allies returned to Suderham, where they slew its last king, Roderic and took control of the town. By 576, the organization had become known as the Slave Lords, though its ruling council was still known as the Nine. Known members of the Nine from 576-580 include:

• Stalman Klim (also known as Mordrammo).
• Eanwulf (Also known as Feelta), a human pirate lord.
• Edralve, an exiled drow priestess of Lolth from Erelhei-Cinlu.
• Lamonsten the Lazy, an illusionist from Dyvers.
• Nerelas, a human assassin.
• Slippery Ketta, a human rogue.
• Ajakstu, a human wizard.
• Brother Milerjoi, a human monk of the Scarlet Brotherhood.
• Brother Kerin, a human monk of the Scarlet Brotherhood, Milerjoi's assistant.
• Theg Narlot, a half-orc assassin.

From 576 to 580 CY, the Slave Lords thrived, raiding for slaves in a number of towns on the Gearnat coast, making slaves one of the Pomarj's most valuable exports. The Slave Lords' operations came to an end in 580, due to the machinations of adventurers hired by a coalition of legal authorities known as the Lords of Gearnat, and the destruction of Suderham by a volcanic eruption.

Other known members of the Slave Lords during this period, who were not members of the Nine, include:

• Markessa, an elven wizard who performed arcane experiments.
• Icar, a blind human fighter, perhaps of Touv stock.
• Blackthorn, an ogre mage.
• Wimpell Frump, a human illusionist.
• Sturm Blucholtz, a human rogue."

When the overall details of the slave lords are devolved into & analyzed they could be easily used in say Mystara. Demos Sachlas has an excellent little article on the vaults of Pandius site on using the Slave Lords series on classic Mystara called  Setting modules A1-4/Slave Lords in the Gulf of Hule.

What makes the slave lords so universally despised is the fact that their villainy rings true across the classic D&D settings. So much so that I've seen multiple incarnations of the slavers used in campaign cycles & adventure paths.



Piazza member BotWizo had a fantastic idea in the[Adapting Modules] A1-4 Scourge of the Slave Lords  adapting the following ; "Do you have a plan to bring the whole mega campaign path to Mystara?
This would be;
Temple of Elemental Evil T1-4
Slavers A1-4
Queen of Spiders GDQ1-7

I had set this path in Mystara in the late 80s so now I have to see if I still have notes on what I did and where things were set.
At the time I did not have Gazetteers, I was just using "known world" material, I didn't know about the setting being called Mystara until later.

So now the implementation of setting this path in Mystara probably would be much different than my first approach.

Off the cuff, Temple somewhere in known world or thyatis, Slavers on or near Isle of dawn, Queen of spiders (location ?) .

I would also change the make-up of opponents in some of the products to be more elemental themed throughout."

Personally as a dungeon master I'd go further back then that & use some of the time & plane slip magic that the slavers have access to & drop them right into classic Dave Arneson & David J Richie's  DA1 Blackmoor. 

The reason why this works is the time frame of Dave Arneson & David J Richie's  DA1 Blackmoor.  The slavers easily slip into the Blackmoor setting without a nod & wink continuing to carry on their nefarious business with hardly a nod & a wink! 
I've used this scenario countless times with Dave Arneson & David J Richie's  DA1 Blackmoor. A couple of mini game campaigns with this set up & it works like a charm. The players loath & hate the slavers with a burning passion. And these modules fit the times & the setting of Blackmoor like an armored glove. Smashing & destroying one small part of the slave lords operation isn't going to be the end of it as we shall see coming up.

A Bit Of OSR Campaign Commentary On Gary Gygax's G1-3 Against the Giants & A0-A4: Against the Slave Lords Compilation Book By David "Zeb" Cook, Allen Hammack, Harold Johnson, & Tom Moldvay

"Giants have been raiding the lands of men in large bands, with giants of different sorts in these marauding groups. Death and destruction have been laid heavily upon every place these monsters have visited. A party of the bravest and most powerful adventurers has been assembled and given the charge to punish the miscreant giants. "
Here's the back history on G1-3 according to the Drivethrurpg lore;
"G1-3: "Against the Giants" (1981), by Gary Gygax, is a collection of three previous adventures (1978). The collection appeared in 1981, after the final copies of the original standalone adventures had dropped out of print. The intent was to upgrade the older modules to match the new trade dress of Q1: "Queen of the Demonweb Pits" (1980)." What many people may not know is the fact that that according to the same entry; "Gygax says that the G-series modules were inspired by the "heroic adventuring" of The Incomplete Enchanter by Fletcher Pratt and L. Sprague deCamp" What this means is that while the vast conspiracy of the Drow machine is working the giants are really the unknown 'mob factor' involved in this adventure classic. This means that the DM has to connect the adventures via the actions of the player's PC's. This isn't an accident;  "When the parts of G1-G3 were originally published as three separate modules, they were a big deal. They were the first adventures ever for the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons game (which wasn't even complete at the time), and they were also TSR's first foray into adventure publication. Like other early adventures, the G-series modules originally had simple monochrome colors (brown, blue, and orange - all appropriate for the giants contained within). The original adventures were also among the shortest adventures that TSR ever published at 8, 8, and 16 pages, respectively." 



Everything begins in Greyhawk from the giants trying to destabilize the human lands & it all links back into Deeper & Deeper - The Connections between D3 Vault of the Drow & the Slavers 'A' series of Modules.  Alright now that everyone's on the same page this series of adventures links up with a series of adventures that includes D1: "Descent into the Depths of the Earth," D2: "Shrine of the Kuo-Toa," D3: "Vault of the Drow," and Q1: "Queen of the Demonweb Pits." This is why the slavers series links up so well with everything that's happening in Greyhawk, the Drow are already incharge of a number of infrastructures & backdoor slaver's guild networks all across Greyhawk. The Slave lords already did all of the work for them. The Drow may be chaotic evil but their far from stupid.


And if you think that Greyhakw  is the only world where the slave lord have be active in? I'd love to direct your attention to the Vault of Pandius article by Demos Sachlas called Setting modules A1-4/Slave Lords in the Gulf of Hule. This gives the A1-4 modules a very Mystara feel about them. 



I'm not jumping around in this timeline or this article what I'm trying to show is the variety of options that are available to the dungeon master if they know what they want from these classic old school modules.
Demos Sachlas comes through again on the Vaults of Pandius site with his other article "Setting module G1-2-3/Against the Giants in the Northern Reaches." He had previously written  Kick-starting a Northern Reaches campaign using module B9.. Once again this all goes back to using G1-3 as the set up for this campaign run. Why?! Well let's get into our ten notes on running this classic:

1. G1-3 Against the Giants has some of the best NPC's around & I personally save these giants for later use especially on Greyhawk. 
2. The giants are an organized army & are independent of the various factions but especially of the slave lords themselves. Even they know not to tread a bit too closely. 
3. These giants are like the barbarian tribes of Europe in the proto Roman Greco eras not something to screw with.Remember their reach is into other world worlds and that's something players are not going to expect. 
4. On Mystara they giants are going to have unexpected alliances among the dragons & various monstrous races. 
5. There may be Immortals involved on Mystara egging on some of the factions in G1-3 and be sure to take advantage of that factor. 
6. The conspiracy of G1-3 is going to have far reaching effects on the royals of various campaign settings. 
7. The spoils of war may be taken off world allowing the DM to exploit this for further adventures. 
8. Adventuring in Hule makes it the perfect location to pick up that half ogre or orc PC you've been dying to use; "The population of Hule is described to be a mixture of humans and non-humans, mainly orcs, gnolls, bugbears, kobolds, and ogres" 
9. There's plenty of opportunity to run domain level play in these where the PC's take over newly claim lands. They may run into a giant level problem as relatives & others hear of the exploits & murders of their kin. 
10. G1-3 is the perfect series to take a Dungeon Crawl Classics party through! 

Deeper & Deeper - The Connections between D3 Vault of the Drow & the Slavers 'A' series of Modules

" As a member of a bold party of adventurers, you and your associates have trekked far into what seems to be a whole underworld of subterranean tunnels -- arteries connecting endless caves and caverns which honeycomb the foundations of the lands beneath the sun. Your expedition has dogged the heels of the Dark Elves who caused great woe and then fled underground. "

Is there a connection between the  Slavers 'A' series of adventures & D3 Descent Into The Depths of The Earth By Gary Gygax? You bet your PC's skin there is! That little package goes by the name of Edralve  a choatic evil cleric of Lolth whose been 'exiled'.  And has been acting as a slave lord throughout the whole 'A' series of adventures. According to the D&D Wiki;

"A native of Erelhei-Cinlu, Edralve was an exile from that city for some time during the late 560s to early 570s. By 574 CY, however, she had joined with Stalman Klim and other persons of malicious intent to form the Slave Lords, settling in the hidden city of Suderham in the Pomarj.

After the Slave Lords lost power in 580 CY, Edralve left the organization and returned to Erelhei-Cinlu."

"Edralve is a former protégé of Eclavdra and a former member of the Slave Lords."



Yes that's right she survives the events of the slave lords modules & comes back to wreck havoc on the world! Some consider " The old Slavers series, the Yoko Ono of classic modules!" But what if the Slavers were part of a net work of conspiracy on Greyhawk & across the planes causing chaos in their wake. What if Edralve was working for the Drow the entire time of the events of the 'A' series of modules. 
"As a member of a bold party of adventurers, you and your associates have trekked far into what seems to be a whole underworld of subterranean tunnels -- arteries connecting endless caves and caverns which honeycomb the foundations of the lands beneath the sun. Your expedition has dogged the heels of the Dark Elves who caused great woe and then fled underground. "

What if the Drow are behind all of the events of G1-G3: "Against the Giants"; D1-D2: "Descent into the Depths"; and Q1: "Queen of the Demonweb Pits"  including the slavers themselves. They finance the slavers like some 'Cold War' network of terrorists & spies weakening the infrastructure of Greyhawk & other campaign worlds making them ripe for the picking. This is after all the Drow way. They play the surface dwellers including the giants like fools.



This is exactly how & why Lolth operates pitting one group of monsters against the humans whilst playing two ends against the middle. Their gold is holding up the giants from the 'G' series of adventures, their expertise is behind the rise in human on human violence, not to mention the raids in the middle of the night. The rise in the instability of the Greyhawk infrastructure is all their doing! The drow have the resources, the will, & the reasoning behind taking down the humans.

Oh I can hear the grumbling already what possible reason would the Drow be trying & succeeding to destablize the inner workings of Greyhawk. Hello, its organized chaos & mayhem two things the Drow not only excel at but make events bow to their wills! The destabilize the surface & then humanity follows!

We can't stress how important these unseen connections of conspiracy are. They allow a DM to weave through decades of clutter & what not to be able to run the game that you want. The connection between Eclavdra may also lead into another of Highpoint's lucrative pass times namely piracy. This article contains a nice overview highpoit of this infamous adventure locations & more. Could the Drow be financing the slaver operation seen in U1 The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh?

 

I believe the answer is yes & the connections are  much stronger then is implied in these simple modules for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. The connections of conspiracy are there but what is the end game that the Drow are playing? We'll get into that tomorrow sometime.

A Bit Of OSR Campaign Commentary On A0-A4: Against the Slave Lords Compilation Book By David "Zeb" Cook, Allen Hammack, Harold Johnson, & Tom Moldvay

"A1: Slave Pits of the Undercity: It is time to put a stop to the marauders! For years the coastal towns have been burned and looted by the forces of evil. You and your fellow adventurers have been recruited to root out and destroy the source of these raids—as hundreds of good men and women have been taken by the slavers and have never been seen or heard from again!"


One of the things about my introduction to D&D & even AD&D was getting thrown right into the middle of a game! I believe in the school of doing rather then the school of constantly standing on the side lines of this hobby. A1: "Slave Pits of the Under City" (1980), by David "Zeb" Cook is the first of the "A" Slave Lords adventures. It was published in October 1980. And this is a classic module for a lot of reasons & this module only clocks in at twenty eight pages of adventure goodness. The reason is simple because the Slaver series of adventures were tournement modules. No I don't want to get mired down in the whole controversy that surrounds  "the first AD&D Open" you can read about that right here. Yes there are still folks I know who have issues with that event.  Instead I want to talk about what this module is & that is the fact that its based on the first two rounds of that event. Tournament adventure modules were designed to challenge, kill, maim, & have its players thinking on the fly. And that's exactly why I prefer them. I want my players to think in an Advanced Dungeons & Dragons first edition campaign setting.
You need to keep your wits about you & use every single iota of their mind to get through this one. But before I go on grab the A0-A4: Against the Slave Lords compilation book of this classic series. You can think of this as the anti power gamer module as your PC's are stripped down to their butt naked skin & then shoved into the world of  the slavers of Highport. 


This compilation contains the entire run of the Slave Lord series & it dive right into the meat & potatoes of the Slave Lord themselves;

A1: Slave Pits of the Undercity: It is time to put a stop to the marauders! For years the coastal towns have been burned and looted by the forces of evil. You and your fellow adventurers have been recruited to root out and destroy the source of these raids—as hundreds of good men and women have been taken by the slavers and have never been seen or heard from again!

A2: Secret of the Slavers Stockade: The battle against the slavers continues! You and your fellow adventurers have defeated the slavers of Highport, but you have learned of the existence of another slaver stronghold, and you have decided to continue the attack. But beware! Only the most fearless of adventurers could challenge the slavers on their own ground, and live to tell of it!

A3: Assault on the Aerie of the Slave Lords: Into the Drachengrab Mountains! Hot on the trail of the marauding slavers, you and your fellow adventurers plunge deep into hostile Hills. Spurred on by your past success, you now seek the heart of the slaver conspiracy. But hurry! You must move quickly before the slavers recover from your previous forays and attack!

A4: In the Dungeons of the Slave Lords: Trapped in the dungeons of the Slave Lords! The hardy adventurers must find a way out, with only their wits and courage to help them. But can they do it before everything is destroyed by the dreaded Earth Dragon?"
This is the classic campaign that takes the PC's from the very depth of 3rd level catapults them into the upper end of 7th or a bit beyond if they were incredibly lucky. As in lucky to survive!


Classics are classic for a reason & the Slave Lords Series  is set firmly in the world of AD&D's Greyhawk! But there's a fantastic thread on The Piazza site for adapting the Slavers series onto Mystara.  For me I simply had the Slavers popping into other worlds & grabbing whomever they could! This resulted in a diverse party of adventurers in the past. 




I used the same technique for bringing the whole lot of Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea adventurers & Lamentations of the Flame Princess adventurers into the machinations of the Slavers. 


This allowed me to bring in PC's from outside the the world of Greyhawk & pit them against the machinations & violence of the slave lords. But this wasn't an original idea by any means; "Though the original Slave Lord adventures were set in the Pomarj of the Wild Coast, the new "Darkshelf Quarry" adventure is set instead in the Village of Darkshelf in Nyrond — a somewhat distant land, also located on the Sea of Gearnat. Nyrond is a good-aligned kingdom that had previously received its best attention in WGR4: "The Marklands" (1993) — though that's set in the From the Ashes era. "Darkshelf Quarry" offers a rare opportunity to adventure in the normally placid land."
There are several reasons why these modules are classic: 

1. I connected the A0-A4: Against the Slave Lords Compilation with the Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh series. The Sea Witch belonging to the slave lords.
2. This gets the PC's into the clutches of A1: Slave Pits of the Undercity.
3. Several of the slave lords are powerful enough to make excellent pulp villains even in modern times. A word to the wise. 
4. The slavers operations were over once the ring is smashed. The players have to deal with the fall out from the operation being smashed. Bring in new mid level bosses and vile villains. 
5. There's lots of potential with the slave lords from the PC's taking over forts, operations, etc. make sure there are those who seek revenge. 
6. Are the PC's got the real slave lords? In the past I've used body doubles and clones to cause all kinds of mayhem. 
7. A0-A4: Against the Slave Lords  can easily be connected with Against The Giants series of adventures giving years of play & replay value. 
8. NPC's can easily fall into the clutches of the slave lords and cause all kinds of grief with the PC's. 
9. A0-A4: Against the Slave Lords is a very dangerous set of campaign modules and should be used with some caution. 
10. A0-A4: Against the Slave Lords makes an excellent module to send a group of Dungeon Crawl Classics PC's through!