Review & OSR Commentary AX5 Eyrie of the Dread Eye By Courtney Campbell For Adventurer, Conqueror, King Rpg & ACKS II rpg

" From the imagination of Courtney Campbell, creator of the popular OSR blog  Hack & Slash, comes a terrifying new adventure for characters level 6 to 8.

The Eye Is Opening.

Thousands of years ago, living gods named Khepri wielded powers beyond understanding. Their  bizarre magics rived a rent in reality itself. This portal  the Oculus  led to the deepest realms of Chthonic Darkness, but it was not yet fully open. Malign forces, opposed to all life, infested the Oculus, and waited. The Khepri kept vigil over the Oculus till time moved her hand. When the Khepri vanished in the Day Without Night, their Elven epigones took up the watch. In time, the Elves were conquered by the diabolic Thrassian race, and they in turn were subjugated by the Zaharans. Through the millennia, the caretakers of the Oculus studied, waited, and watched."

 AX5 Eyrie of the Dread Eye By Courtney Canpbell is one of those adventures that made me reconsider ACK's in the past. Now I recognize that AX5 is a homage to Il Dwellers of the Forbidden City. The encounters here, traps, tricks and what not within Eyrie of the Dread Eye is deep in the dye adventure that tests PC's to their limits. The reason that it does this is by making this adventure a homage to all things Lovecraftian and old school TSR. 
AX5 takes all of the dungeon and adventure elements then distills the essence down into the rpg adventure itself. And what about ACKsII? Does the adventure material & rpg systems  within AX5 differ significantly from this newest incarnation of ACKs? Not really. 
ACKs II has sigificant changes within it's wording after the entire OGL debacle. Something that other OSR companies such as Troll Lord Games for example also dealt with. 

AX5 is a location and encounter driven adventure that adds to the ACK's campaign setting. The action centers around the oculus and it's minions. This is a god within an adventure location that could potentially TPK a party of player's PC's. ACKs II plugs into that epic feel that we get from the best of the ACK's adventures. The history of the Ahuran setting proves this out. Take for example the Zaharan empire. 
The Zaharan empire was a font of corruption that spread a huge swath of Chaos across the face of the campaign setting. They also spread out the humanoid races a bringers of Chaos across the face of it.  AX5 does the job of plugging into this history and bringing it into the present of the adventurers. 
ACKs II blows the foreknowledge of this history into the present to the PC in very vivid ways. Chaos becoming a rising force within  the campaign setting is a very strong possibility especially since AX5 makes it clear that this is a reality. The PC's can stem this tide somewhat but Chaos will pop up in other places especially through the humanoid armies. Orcs and other humanoids are the tools of the Lovecraftian lords of Chaos within ACKs I & II. 

Events within AX5 bares this out & then bring home the ancient danger of the ancient gods! ACKs II brings the epicness & heroic nature of the rpg system. I don't say this lightly at all. 

Barbarian Warlords of Greyhawk Part 15 - " The Eye Is Opening." AX5 Eyrie of the Dread Eye By Courtney Campbell Commentary On The Lands of Greyhawk

Now let's pick this up where we left off on the blog the other day on the blog here.  The player's PC's have meet the enemies of "Five Shall Be One" & brought the multi tribal mess of Greyhawk into a focussed series of united armies. Has Chaos been idle?! The answer is no because the Chaos worshipping Elves have been on the move & sacrificing various pawns & knights in their chess game on the chess board of Greyhawk. And this is because events of  T1-4 Temple of Elemental Evil have already taken place! And the PC's have secured the Keep from B2 Keep on the Borderlands & put down the forces of the village of Hommlet. 

And this proceeds the coming of the main event 'The Eye Opening!' Because this follows on the heels of AX5 Eyrie of the Dread Eye; " The Eye Is Opening."

"Thousands of years ago, living gods named Khepri wielded powers beyond understanding. Their bizarre magics rived a rent in reality itself. This portal—the Oculus—led to the deepest realms of Chthonic Darkness, but it was not yet fully open. Malign forces, opposed to all life, infested the Oculus, and waited. The Khepri kept vigil over the Oculus till time moved her hand. When the Khepri vanished in the Day Without Night, their Elven epigones took up the watch. In time, the Elves were conquered by the diabolic Thrassian race, and they in turn were subjugated by the Zaharans. Through the millennia, the caretakers of the Oculus studied, waited, and watched."

"Now the Awakening is near, the Spheres are coming into alignment, and the Oculus is beginning to open. The dark power is reaching out and for the first time in an age the Eyrie of the Dread Eye is accessible again. As the Eye opens, reality itself comes under further and further  strain. And as rumors of a new valley containing an underground forgotten city filled with untold riches spread out from the Dark Wall, the Oculus continues to open ever wider. " That's right the  living gods named Khepri are coming to call once again on Greyhawk! The events of T1 Village of Hommlet were only the start! The awakening of the Elemental Evil cult has lead to one of the other forces behind the cult  the living gods named Khepri!  These Khepri living gods are served by armies of sword wraiths so devoted to thier alien masters that even in undeath they continue to serve thier alien masters! 

We get hints of all of all this in Matthew Skail,  & Alexander Macris's AX1 The Sinister Stone of Sakkara as well as the first hints located within B2 Keep of the Borderlands By Gary Gygax.              

These two modules are key to keeping the borderlands secure & the PCs are by now witnin the 'conqueror' or 'king' level allowing them to take the leadership roles in the Greyhawk military that they were meant to be. And remember Greyhawk's Suloise barbarians are key to saving the Borderlands themselves. And PC's being a part of the marshalling of them is a key pivot point within this campaign. The return of the Khepri was hinted at within the AX2 The Secrets of the Nethercity & those were only some of the living god royals. AX5 is one of the main shows then in the Barbarian Warlords of Greyhawk campaign but it's not the only one!