Tegel Manor - Worlds Without Number & Cities Without Number Rpg -B6 The Veiled Society By David Cook

 "Dawn's light reached through the window to shine on the man who sat brooding in the chair. Cartha Radu, brother to Anton Radu (the leader of the Veiled Society), was thinking. "Today is the day," he said to himself. "Today is the day to bring my plan into action," Cartha smiled. Below his tower window, the cityfolk slowly awoke. Today was the Festival of Lucor. The goodwives flung open their shutters to the morning. Fishmongers and hawkers heartened their cries. Actors and jugglers filled the streets, up from their beds of straw in the stables." 

" On a dusty road a few miles outside the city, a small group roused itself. Some stretched their cramped bones, pained by a night on the damp grass. Others polished their swords and armor. With little ado, they packed their small camp and set out on the road once more. The excitement tingled among them, for today they would reach the city of Specularum — the home of their new fortune" 

So the other day I put up on twitter a picture of B6 The Veiled Society by David Cook. Now I've been thinking about this classic module for a couple of days. And there's been a crazy idea in the back of my head. What if  the city of Specularum was a part of an interplanetary society that has been cut off from the rest of the universe by some unknown indimensional event. Or alternative which we might go with is the idea here that the PC's from our Tegel Manor campaign find themselves with the manor shifting into the city of Specularum. The festival is coming up and the free familes are at it again & new prosepects are out to prove themselves. The Radu, The Torenescu, &  the Vorloi family are separate corporations and family run rivals who control the city. They each have thier own distinctive cybernetics and ways. The mega city has five thousand people within it's gates and is run with 'The Purge' style night of the 'Festival of Lucor'. The city of Specularum is situated within what used to be Italy or near the ruins of Europe. 
The inns, the encounters, etc. all remain the same because of the fact that atmosphere of B6 The Veiled Society was created as a tourist destination for the ultrarich. The fact that these families are at an urban war with one another has continued for generations. And this plugs into the ideas of Cities Without Numbers rpg cyberpunk asthetic. 

Our PC's are going to be dropped into the middle of the urban warfare as things are heating up between the families before the festival. Insults, fights, etc. all come into the mix within the city before the 'Festival of Lucor' kicks events off. And the PC's are put in the middle of this. And then there's fact that there could be a connection to The Barony of Horn & the events surround 'The Legion of Gold'. The PC's have the intel on the Legion and they have to escape the facility, get back to the mansion before it jumps, and survive the machinations of Tegel Manor. 

So this leads the PC's to taking on the machinations of the events of B6 The Veiled Society. And possibly forging new alliances. 

The David 'Zeb' Cook Connection - I1 Dwellers of the Forbidden City By David 'Zeb' Cook & More OSR Campaign Madness

Its Monday & I've had Winter storm Abel blow in & its given me some time to think about the following.  Between snow blowing & shoving I've had a bit of time to think about my Cha'alt/Godbound rpg campaign which has been in full swing. Now I've been doing a lot of thinking about megadungeons. In my current campaign Cha'alt planar location dimension warps itself into a modern Las Vegas. The whole space time warp has been expanding its influence around Nevada, Arizona, & California. The first effects of this has been the appearance of the X1 The Isle of Dread off of the coast of California.
How would a mega dungeon or dungeon locations effect the local economies, residents,etc. of this Earth? Well imagine if David Zeb Cook's Dwellers of the Forbidden City materialized just a few miles away from the isle of Dread. "Somewhere in the heart of the steaming jungle lies the answer to the whispered tales - rumors of a magnificent city and foul, horrid rituals! Here a brave party might find riches and wonders - or death! Is your party brave enough to face the terrors of the unknown and find the Forbidden City!?"Down around the docks of  Long Beach there's tales being told of  an island of deformed plants and deadly beasts in the jungle. The whole city is teaming with contraband, new drugs, tales of a new snake cult with horrid rites. There's been cargo stolen from cargo ships coming into port & the adventurers are hired to find out what's happened to the containers. 


Meanwhile strange natives not of Earth have been circulating among the locals looking for the son of one of their chiefs. They tell tales of strange mind controlling plants whose influence make the dead do their bidding. Most of California goes about its daily life but little by little it appears to be slipping into a strange  Sword & Sorcery Dungeons & Dragon world little by little. Strange murderers & raiders have made parts of California unlivable. People are disappearing out on the outer fringes of society & the US government is starting to notice. Artifacts, odd cults, & bizarre murder are becoming all too common. Even though this is California things are starting to get noticed. Reports of odd humanoids that appeared over night in some of the parks, residents yards, & more becoming very common. The Tasloi have become very common in some neighborhoods but who they are or how they got there isn't known. 


Sailors report running into horrid monsters resembling a dead humans with fish like features. There was an incredible wrongness about them near islands that their captains claim had never been there before. Those who go to these islands do not return or return changed.
If the rumors are to be believed the black pyramid of Vegas  has deep connections to a dooms day cult that has sprung up in the valley near Long Beach. The movement  of the tendril has been gaining favor among some Hollywood celebrities.


Some of the  planes & lowlands  near the old neighborhoods near Long Beach have been flooded by the rising waters of the cycles of the sea. Strange but valuable jewelry has wash up on the shore & some folks have made a killing selling the stuff on the internet moving out of the area as a result.
Everything within I1 is geared for a South East Asian style adventure with its own unique Lovecraftian style twist this makes adapting it to the melting pot of California a snap. Having visited Thailand I can honestly say that the Yuan-ti can easily be  traded in for the Serpent men  of Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea.

Meanwhile in the back alleys of Long Beach & some of the resident neighborhoods strange 'demons' prowl the shadows. Assassins & masked cut throats kill anyone they run across  that doesn't fit their otherworldly agenda. The secret society of B6 The Veiled Society by David Zeb Cook  fits this grim & gritty mixture of a world.


The society seems to have spies everywhere here but what their purpose is few can say. They seem to have some unknown goal or agenda all of their own. In another part of the city strange Greek like religious movements preach the words of salvation of a strange squat & bat like god from another world. His pale skinned & tall acolytes, priests, wizards are moving clandestine among the population.


Creatures from the deepest parts of the para elemental planes feed off the rich & deadly pollutants of Long Beaches harbor. All this  whist strange rumors of vampire queens & strange lights just off of the harbors abound. Any ships approaching these lights vanish without a trace.
There are certain islands that supposedly team with strange animal men that sometimes wash up dead in isolate salt marsh tide catch pools & basins. Just outside of Bluff Park (coastal bluffs) the daughters of Iggwilv have begun to gather under the new moons. 

Outside of Los Angles the highways have been the domain of road raiders & bandits. Police & state police find themselves increasingly out gunned. There have been sightings of bands of mercenaries imported in from the Nevada badlands & the Los Vegas time space warp.


Several groups of hippy like religious groups predict the coming of 'the Warden' & the space brothers. The locals are very wary of these 'Refaire Rejects' as they call them. There have been several violent clashes with these groups who are under the control of some other worldly influence.
Odd purple glows on the horizon often accompany the appear of strange apparitions in the sky. These groups talk of the 'blessed trans-version' event. 

Mentzer Expert Dungeons & Dragons Box Set & Low Level Grand Duchy of Karameikos Campaign Action

When it comes to grabbing onto the gusto of Mentzer Expert Dungeons & Dragons edition there's no better edition to add onto Basic Dungeons & Dragons. 'The D&D Expert Rules Set (1983), by Frank Mentzer, is the second iteration of the boxed Expert Rules for Basic D&D and the second volume in Mentzer's BECMI rules series. It was published in August 1983.' 
With Expert the players & their PC's have been playing & adventuring for bit now. But perhaps its time that they make the next leap within their adventuring career. They'll need a home base but within striking distance of their adventure patrons.


Mystara's Karameikos is unique in that regard because the PC's are in the center of the action & able to deal with the day to day matters of the kingdom. They find themselves swept along with royal ebb & flow. GAZ1: "The Grand Duchy of Karameikos" (1987), by Aaron Allston, is the first book in the "GAZ" series of Gazetteers for the Known World. It was published in April 1987. This is a must have for the DM & puts the information on the capital right at the DM's finger tips. Couple this campaign setting with Mentzer Basic & Expert D&D, then its off you go to play right in the middle of the empire. 


Your adventurers are going to want to put themselves down on the street level of the Grand Duchy of Karameikos. Here they'll embroil themselves in the thick of adventure. But there are some other 'add ons' books that can save a ton of time for the dungeon master. Especially when running a brand new campaign. 

"Venture into the bustling capital city of the Grand Duchy of Karameikos! Learn of its colourful history and meet many personalities who call it “home”! Find your way through its maze of streets to a friendly (or perhaps unfriendly) tavern, to a boarding house to rest your limbs, to many businesses that sustain adventurers in the wilderness lands beyond the city! Specularum is a very cosmopolitan place - you’ll never know who you might meet there. Around any corner your characters may find someone or something that may lead them on a new quest. It may lead them out of the city, but the intrigue and power struggles (not to mention crime) means that the streets and buildings of the city contain as much adventure as might be found in the wilderness. They say there are more than fifty thousand stories in this city - will you be part of one?"

So from yesterday's post I had a ton of questions emailed to me especially about where could a party of beginning characters begin in Mystara, what module do you grab to get the PC's off to a very epic start, & what's the best way to get them into the thick of Mystara adventuring. So let's start with the basics first off as a DM grab a free  copy of Threshold Magazine issue 21 v3.  So why is this an important add on to your campaign? Because its going to put your adventurers center stage at ground zero within the bustling capital city of the Grand Duchy of Karameikos.

"The vast city is not only a place to obtain supplies to enable adventurers to equip themselves for their quests or somewhere to store or sell the treasure they may acquire in their missions, it is a place of adventure itself. Along every street, around every corner, there are opportunities. The many trades and nationalities that inhabit the buildings all have stories to tell, rumors to share, and so much more.
The articles in the the magazine will tell you more about the history of the city, of some of the people and groups you might encounter; there are maps of the distinctive neighborhoods and information about some of the landmarks you might find your way to, and much about the intrigue behind the scenes. "
I consider Threshold issue 21 v3.  essential reading for running a Mystara campaign set in  the Grand Duchy of Karameikos. But the module to couple with this material might surprise you. DDA3: "Eye of Traldar" (1991), by Carl Sargent is simple, easy to run, & offers the PC's some quick & dirty dungeon crawl action. This is a good module to get the players hooked on a campaign quickly & efficiently Couple this with Mentzer's expert set & play is going to go as smooth as glass. Why?! Because DDA3: "Eye of Traldar" (1991), by Carl Sargent can be linked into another TSR classic era module. 

B6 The Veiled Society By David 'Zeb' Cook is a classic but more importantly it hooks into Specularum, the capitol of the Grand Duchy of Karameikos. The "Veiled Society"  becomes an integral building block for a  Known World campaign.

Now your ready to take on some of the secret conspiracies, back room dungeon deals, & high flying dagger filled fun of Specularum, the capitol of the Grand Duchy of Karameikos. The reason for choosing B6 The Veiled Society By David 'Zeb' Cook is simple. The adventure is plot driven, this is going make the players think a bit more, & they'll have to deal with both events & NPC's in perfect measure. The framework of these modules will introduce important NPC's to the campaign that as a DM I strongly suggest that you take advantage of. All of these modules take full advantage of Frank Mentzer's Dungeons & Dragons Expert set. The combat is streamlined, the material in Expert is handled well, the iconic artwork is all there. But most importantly this is a very well heeled & handled set up which is easy to run for the dungeon master & actually enjoyable for the players. 

OSR Campaign - I1 Dwellers In The Forbidden City By David 'Zeb' Cook & Clark Ashton Smith's Zothique

"Somewhere in the heart of the steaming jungle lies the answer to the whispered tales - rumors of a magnificent city and foul, horrid rituals! Here a brave party might find riches and wonders - or death! Is your party brave enough to face the terrors of the unknown and find the Forbidden City!?"
 David "Zeb" Cook's I1: "Dwellers of the Forbidden City" (1981) was the first adventure in TSR's new "intermediate" series of adventures. It was unleashed on the world in 1981 & the world of Sword & Sorcery Dungeons & Dragons was never the same!
"Somewhere in the heart of the steaming jungle lies the answer to the whispered tales - rumors of a magnificent city and foul, horrid rituals! Here a brave party might find riches and wonders - or death! Is your party brave enough to face the terrors of the unknown and find - the Forbidden City! Information is presented here to reconstruct this exciting tournament and even more has been given to expand play. Here characters may adventure several times in a unique and interesting mini-campaign. Included in this module are background and tournament notes, referee's keys, new monsters, pre- generated characters, and eight different maps."
So begins the infamous I1 Dwellers of the Forbidden City: An Adventure for Character Levels 4-7 (Advanced Dungeons & Dragons) by David Cook published in 1981. 




Now I've talked about I1 "Dwellers of the Forbidden City" but what I haven't spoken of is how this using a mash up article  X6/I1 Quagmire/Dwellers of the Forbidden City mash-up by Demos Sachlas article over on the Vaults of Pandius. But this article  ties directly into mating up Clark Ashton Smith's Zothique with this for an over arching campaign. Because this is one of the prime modules for Dungeons & Dragons it has one of the best flavors for capturing the weird far future world of Zothique. The planes & lowlands have been flooded by the rising waters of the cycles of the sea. Zothique is perfectly suited for the I1 Quagmire/Dwellers mash up because of its description by CAS himself in a letter to another Lovecraft circle writer; 

"Clark Ashton Smith himself described the Zothique cycle in a letter to L. Sprague de Camp, dated November 3, 1953:

Zothique, vaguely suggested by Theosophic theories about past and future continents, is the last inhabited continent of earth. The continents of our present cycle have sunken, perhaps several times. Some have remained submerged; others have re-risen, partially, and re-arranged themselves. Zothique, as I conceive it, comprises Asia Minor, Arabia, Persia, India, parts of northern and eastern Africa, and much of the Indonesian archipelago. A new Australia exists somewhere to the south. To the west, there are only a few known islands, such as Naat, in which the black cannibals survive. To the north, are immense unexplored deserts; to the east, an immense unvoyaged sea. The peoples are mainly of Aryan or Semitic descent; but there is a negro kingdom (Ilcar) in the north-west; and scattered blacks are found throughout the other countries, mainly in palace-harems. In the southern islands survive vestiges of Indonesian or Malayan races. The science and machinery of our present civilization have long been forgotten, together with our present religions. But many gods are worshipped; and sorcery and demonism prevail again as in ancient days. Oars and sails alone are used by mariners. There are no fire-arms—only the bows, arrows, swords, javelins, etc. of antiquity. The chief language spoken (of which I have provided examples in an unpublished drama) is based on Indo-European roots and is highly inflected, like Sanskrit, Greek and Latin."

 I1 "Dwellers of the Forbidden City" is one of those modules that drips with pulpy goodness & lacks the stodginess of late Eighties AD&D. "The module was written by game designer David "Zeb" Cook, who partly ascribes his hiring by TSR to his work on this module. In the adventure, the characters are hired to find an object taken to a lost oriental-style city, which has been taken over by a cult of snake-worshipers, the yuan-ti, and their servants, the mongrelmen and tasloi." 

Everything within I1 is geared for a South East Asian style adventure with its own unique Lovecraftian style twist. Having visited Thailand I can honestly say that the Yuan-ti can easily traded in for the Serpent of Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea. Mr.Cook pulls a great deal of his monsters from the Fiend Folio making adapting this adventure one of the more easy tricks to pull off and easily adapted for AS&SH.


"I put the Hidden Shrine of Taomochan into the city" this makes perfect sense and there's some really great resources in the Expanding I1 The Dwellers In The Forbidden City Thread on Dragon's foot's forums. 
Another great set of suggestions is by Ulan Dhor:
"Imade some changes to the module detailed here:

viewtopic.php?f=42&t=71580&p=1673164&hilit=forbidden#p1673164


My campaign journal for our run through the module is detailed here:

viewtopic.php?f=26&t=67564&start=90#p1642464

Have fun with it, I found it to be one of my favorite runs through a published module, lots of open ended potential.

Cheers,

Ulan Dhor"

Over the years I've kept thinking about the arrangement of the Forbidden City & its jungle environs as well as the areas around it. There's a certain Heart of Darkness feel to the whole thing or more to the point Robert Howard's Conan story, "The Pool of The Black One" which first appeared in Weird Tales October 1933. The oppressive atmosphere, the jungle motif, & the tone of the story all echo I1 even though Red Nails with its factions and lost city out of time might fit better. 'The Pool of the Black One' has that same sense of the lost in it that one finds in Dwellers of the Forbidden City. In fact the entire plot of the Pool of the Black One could be lifted & I1 could be mated with The Island of Dread to create a completely different take on old school adventure.


The roles of the various factions in I1 could be expanded as the adventure locations might bare out what exactly happened to the original inhabitants of the city. There are many weird Lovecraftian touches in I1 that could lead to even more adventure hooks and possibilities amid the ruins. One of my favorite monsters from the Fiend Folio is the Yellow Musk Creeper & Zombie. The Clark Ashton Smith story The Seed from the Sepulchre has some awesome suggestions about using such a Lovecraftian or is it Smithian monster.

Because of its very nature this monster has the potential to really abuse a party of adventurers ala Alien Covenant in ways they're not expecting. Not only does this make the monster memorable but very unique because it can be placed in a wide variety of points in the sandbox nature of ' Dwellers of the Forbidden City' In a similar vein is CAS 's The Demon of the Flower which can unleash all kinds of Hell upon a party and might be grown by the Yu erm serpent men.

There is the potential for a lot of movers & shakers from behind the scenes of the adventure as well including the aboleth who are some the craftiest bastards in AD&D first edition.The importance of these creatures should never be understated. These monsters can truly be some of the most dangerous NPC's a party can face. They're often used with cults and lots of minions in my games.


Used carefully & I1 Dwellers in The Forbidden City is still one of the best old school adventure campaign resources. It has lots old school adventure resource goodness to offer a DM for creating truly memorable campaigns.

+Dyson Logos  generously pointed out that he's done a number of maps for various locations throughout I1 Dwellers In The Forbidden City. "I've done some maps to detail some parts of the city when we last played through it."

https://rpgcharacters.wordpress.com/2015/09/29/tuesday-map-temple-complex-ruins-of-the-forbidden-city/

https://rpgcharacters.wordpress.com/2015/09/11/friday-map-the-ruined-hatak-temple/

https://rpgcharacters.wordpress.com/2015/12/11/friday-map-temple-of-the-snake/

https://rpgcharacters.wordpress.com/2015/08/21/friday-map-redstone-shrine-with-time-lapse-video/

" And for those planning on running it, here's a cleaned up scan of the main map with all DM notations removed - particularly handy if the party enters via the giant tree access point which gives them a good overview of the city"

https://rpgcharacters.wordpress.com/2015/06/07/dwellers-in-the-forbidden-city-the-city-map/

OSR Campaign Commentary - B6 'The Veiled Society' By David Cook & Clark Ashton Smith's Zothique

"The widow insists there are demons in her house. She hears them at night in her root cellar, and now they call out to her. But she is old and nervous and her mind often plays tricks on her.
Two men, their heads fully sheathed in large, black hoods, dig quickly in the darkness of the cellar. The hole grows deeper as their shovels bite into the earth. "This will teach those meddlers their place," the shorter, slim figure says haltingly. 

"But don't you see the advantage?" snaps the tall man. "They will fear us now. They will fear for their lives."
Grunting, they heave a sailcloth bundle into the hole. As it falls, a woman's hand dangles lifelessly form the folds.

Who is the woman? Why will her death trigger riots and unrest in the city of Specularum? And the assassins: Are they Torenescu, Radu, or Vorloi? Or, curse of curses, the Veiled Society?"
David Cook was on a roll back in '84 & tonight I've had a request to delving further into the deeper rooted urban blight & weirdness that is B6 'The Veiled Society'. More specifically Cowgal '87 wanted to know what my take was on this endearing classic & how I was planning on using it with Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea second edition before diving head long back into the swamp lands of the Quagmire mash up that we talked about yesterday. 
"The Veiled Society," by David "Zeb" Cook, was published in 1984 & still remains one of my all time favorite Basic Dungeons & Dragons modules. 

Over the last seven or so years I've used B6 'The Veiled Society' to establish the urban mess  &  decrepit nature of  the City-State of Khromarium. The criminal network of the module is an excellent example of how to run a 'thieves' or 'assassin' guild network with all of the add on's & none of the hassle. I've connected B6 'The Veiled Society' with AS&SH's The Rats In The Walls' adventure “The Brazen Bull”. The seedy buildings, the offer of another form of Lotus, & all of the weird elements meld with the backdrop of B6 to produce something unique. You see David 'Zeb' Cook sets his adventure right in  Specularum, the capitol of the Grand Duchy of Karameikos making the "Veiled Society" immediately became an integral building block for the Known World. But in our case we're taking this classic module to build up the atmosphere & strangeness of the City-State of Khromarium. How?? We're using the module to build the PC's from 1st straight up to fourth level if their lucky enough to survive the mayhem of B6 'The Veiled Society' .  The key piece of reference for the city of Specularum, the capitol of the Grand Duchy of Karameikos is Threshold issue #24 which has a fantastic fan created reference gazetteer. A lot of hard work went into this issue.


So what happens if the events of the past couple of modules are only a small part of an over arching plot. What if the affairs of  N1: "Against the Cult of the Reptile God" (1982) are also connected with all of this & the enemies of the Hyperborean crown are looking to all strike at once!? 

When it comes to  B6 'The Veiled Society'  to Zothique the unusual choice is actually CAS's Isle of The Torturers. There are several reasons for this one is the fact here's what happens when one crosses the society. They end up on exactly the sort of location we see in the Isle of the Torturers. There's also the beginning of the 'end of era' that we see later in Zothique & Hyperborea that we see in AS&SH. 
The depravity seen in CAS's Isle of The Torturers is exactly the same sort of thing that we'd see in the Grand Duchy of Karameikos. Flipping back to the reptile cult from Tomb of the Lizard King is the fact that the Lizard Kings were the royal servants & vassal class of the serpent men. This comes from the fact that the serpent men once ruled the Lizard coast of Hyperborea. Again this is something that we see X6 'Quagmire'.


All of this alien influence flows through the undercurrent of the underworld society of both Hyperborea & Zothique itself. Underborea is rife with the continuing influence of the serpent men within the ruins of what was humanity's last great empire. Those ruins extent far into the Dreamlands Underworld even though the gates are sealed up. 


Various witch cults & secret society's within the City-State of Khromarium have deep & abiding ties to one or more factions of serpent men. The 'Veiled Society' itself might even have ties to the cults of Zargon & have several inner circle cabals connected with the 'Lost City' out in the Diamond Desert.


The rat faction might boast several were rat assassin masters among their ranks who are partially responsible for carrying out the 'Veiled Society's support of the 'Master'. Hule's ascension upon the world stage was no accident but a carefully planned chess move to have a viable enemy & puppet to rally royal support for an enemy that would destabilize the rulers of Hyperborea. Cause as much mayhem as possible & the true scaled rulers of Hyperborea & Zothique could take their rightful place. But B6 'The Veiled Society' would take years to be routed from the corrupt & horrid halls of power in the City-State of Khromarium. But the corruption goes so much more deeper then anyone truly suspects. We'll get into that tomorrow.  

OSR Commentary On The Assasin's Webs Of 'B6 The Veiled Society' By David 'Zeb' Cook For Your Old School Campaigns

"The widow insists there are demons in her house. She hears them at night in her root cellar, and now they call out to her. But she is old and nervous and her mind often plays tricks on her.
Two men, their heads fully sheathed in large, black hoods, dig quickly in the darkness of the cellar. The hole grows deeper as their shovels bite into the earth. "This will teach those meddlers their place," the shorter, slim figure says haltingly.

"But don't you see the advantage?" snaps the tall man. "They will fear us now. They will fear for their lives."
Grunting, they heave a sailcloth bundle into the hole. As it falls, a woman's hand dangles lifelessly form the folds.
Who is the woman? Why will her death trigger riots and unrest in the city of Specularum? And the assassins: Are they Torenescu, Radu, or Vorloi? Or, curse of curses, the Veiled Society?"
 

I've been thinking today about B6 'The Veiled Society' By David 'Zeb' Cook & its  placement within a Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea Second edition Hyperborean campaign. Yeah I know its supposedly only going to fit in Hyperborea when its set in Specularum, the capitol of the Grand Duchy of Karameikos. So what if we gut the module & turn the city of Specularum into Khormarium. The PC's are going to find themselves in a three sided triangle war with the the Veiled Society. The adventure is a bit rail roadie & somewhat melodramatic in places but this is truly an urban adventure. Everything in B6 The Veil Society needs to be punched up for a Swords & Sorcery adventure. Because B6 is an event driven adventure it needs a bit more action to act as glue between events. I've run The Veiled Society as an assassin driven adventure & made the  Vorloi, Radu, and Torenescu families Atlantian royal survival families in Khormarium & played out several assassination plots twisted around these families of infamous kings, rogues and black wizards playing amid the ruins of once great nations. I would take B6 in a more Clark Ashton Smith direction making Khormarium the playground of assassins & thieves guilds. Take one part Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet & mix liberally with Sword & Sorcery elements. But there's a bit of extra seasoning to add. 


I was watching the original film production of The Phantom of the Opera from 1925; part of the focus on the film was the urban, and underworld aspect of the film that reminded me of B6. The pulpy elements of the film are a bit melodramatic but its the mysterious nature of the Veiled Society that has plenty of room for DYI elements. In fact a rather interesting bit was suggested by a friend of mine last night. Could a mysterious lich like being actually be behind the events of B6? Someone with a similar origin point to 'Phantom'? It was this bit from Wiki that got me thinking; "he is an escapee from Devil's Island and an expert in "the Black Arts". Could the Phantom be molded into a Sword & Sorcery lich operating, manipulating, and playing everyone in the module?
Who better to head up the  assassin's guilds & be manipulating the families of the 'Veiled Society'  from the shadows.


Khormarium's population would be closer to 60,000 then the usual 5,000 from the original module. This is more in keeping with the Bruce Heard TSR Gazetteer products estimates & makes far more sense for an urban pulp Sword & Sorcery tale. The underworld of
Khormarium would be a massive and rather ruinous affair with the original city being built on top of by the humans who took over the capital. At the heart of the adventure is the
a struggle between the city's three major families (the Vorloi, Radu, and Torenescu) each of which is using the dungeons, ruins, etc. under the city to further their own ends. This brings up the 1943 Claude Rains Phantom of the Opera  poster which really brought this idea home last night.


B6 could be used to create killers & assassins murdering each other in the ruins of a crumbling empire while a fiend manipulates the whole affair from the shadows in a sick game of chess with real people. The Veiled Society has spies everywhere so this becomes a three tiered game of spy vs spy with adventurers caught in the war unaware of their position. Their decisions have dire consequences & real costs.

Khormarium could be like Rome in the 6th century with parts of it abandoned & hundreds of tombs, vaults, etc. all holding treasures, demons, etc. that these families have been fighting over. There has to be more modivation for the PC's to become involved in the events of B6. This is an adventure that could lead to a far more extended campaign if used correctly. With a bit of work on the DM's part B6 The Veiled Society could be molded into a pulpy urban Sword & Sorcery adventure with some real edge to it. Just more Halloween fodder for your old school games.

Retro Review & Commentary On The OD&D Adventure Module- B6 The Veiled Society For Your Old School OD&D Campaigns

The Veiled Society is a basic module with lots of problems right out of the gate, its an unusual beast on many levels. First its an urban crawl with lots of twisted pseudo European factions in the city of the violent city of Specularum. According to the Wiki entry on The Veiled Society, "In his review of B1-9 In Search of Adventure in Dragon magazine No. 128 (December 1987), Ken Rolston calls David "Zeb" Cook's The Veiled Society one of the "two exceptionally fine adventures" in the compilation, and "a rare example of a political and diplomatic adventure in an urban setting for low-level D&D game characters""
Its very rail roadie and feels stuck someplace between a Italian or German city state drama with secret societies and a Gothic horror trying to get out wrapped in a murder mystery. It requires some very hard thought on the player's part and a solid way of weaving itself in and out of its own plot.


The plot outline sounds pretty interesting according to Wiki; "The Veiled Society is set in the city of Specularum, where the players must determine which of three rival factions is responsible for a murder.^[1] In the violent city of Specularum, the Veiled Society has spies everywhere.^[2] Specularum is the capital of the Grand Duchy of Karameikos, and the adventure involves the party in a struggle between the city's three major families (the Vorloi, Radu, and Torenescu)."
The execution leaves a lot to be desired, its sort a bit well bland to be honest. The encounters with the families need to be punched up a bit and perhaps this module might work well as an assassin studded Russian style cold blooded war of murders poisons and duels someplace between Solomon Kane and a Gothic horror novel. The  Vorloi, Radu, and Torenescu all need some dark secrets in their bloodlines and some Lamentations of the Flame Princess style family secrets lurking in the background. I've never been able to figure out what irritates me about the Veiled Society? Perhaps its the useless card stock figures and the tower.
This is one of those modules that I was expecting more and even as I get older and I've run B6, there are aspects of it that I've changed over time. I've taken B6 out of context several times and made the   Vorloi, Radu, and Torenescu families Atlantian royal survival families in Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea and played out several assassination plots twisted around these families of infamous kings, rogues and black wizards playing amid the ruins of once great nations.

And what of the Veiled Society itself? Well, over several decades they've been my go to assassination and terrorist assassin's guild prowling the byways of several campaigns even a splinter faction highlighting a recent appearance in a pulp D&D urban adventure. There's always been a bit of a Lovecraftian creepy almost Warhammer feel about The Veiled Society and if that's brought the fore then this module has a ton of potential to inject an unexpected twist into the usual run of the mill dungeon crawl itself.


 If  The Veiled Society is used with a sword & sorcery style game such as Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hypborea suddenly some of the lesser know classes such as the bards, assassins, and other urban style classes can have highlighted roles. This is one of the things that I love to take B6 and highlight some of the lesser known PC classes and make them vital suddenly. Another thing that can be done with B6 is to take and twist this adventure into a fun house mirror for a classic Shakespeare's style Romeo and Juliet situation and allow it to degenerate into a Robert Howard Red Nails action where families are not only feuding but collecting minor bounties on each other.  This situation allows for exploitation on multiple sides with only basic PC's baring the brunt of the action in B6 The Veiled Society. This truly is a diamond in the rough but with the right dungeon Master B6 The Veiled Society has the potential to shine and put the PC's right into the spot light center stage.