Cults, Chaos, & Dungeons Design Amid War - More D1 Descent Into The Earth By Gary Gygax Commentary

 So PC's have explored Gary Gygax's D1 Descent Into The Depths of the Earth & now the world is safe! The Hundred Years War is wrapping up, all is right, & now events are in motion after  the Battle of Castillon. The party can relax & move on with their lives! Not in the least. Moping up the affairs of Europe are going to years and here's why.

Right so one of the side lines of talking about adapting the Hundred Years War into an actual campaign for Lion & Dragon is that fact Chaos is a constant threat & theme throughout a campaign. But where exactly is chaos coming from?  The simple fact is that the entire countryside of Dark Europe is riddled with ancient prehistoric highways created by the slaves of the Elves thousands of years ago. These tunnel systems lead throughout Paris, the countryside of France, England, Italy. most of Europe, & this includes Spain as well.


Battle of Poitiers (miniature of Froissart)


So where is Chaos coming? The dungeons both within this world of Dark Europe & outside of it in the realms of the Fairylands. This occurred to me reading through Gylnn Seal's Middenlands campaign which uses the idea of Chaos as a mutating and constant threat. Glynn Seal of Monkey Blood Design has a new Middenlands Kickstarter campaign expansion coming up I highly suggest that you support. The Middenlands isn't simply some backwater country area. The setting  exposes the mutating & near constant threat of Chaos.



Top this off with cults of witches & ghouls that are quietly striking at the heart of Europe from within and well scenes like this are all too common in Dark Europe.  You are going to get entire families wiped out by war, famine, & monsters. Titles,lands, & deeds are going to be the rewards of the day. The Church is going to another huge factor when the forces of Chaos are around.



But why are scenes like this common in both folklore & mythology in Dark Europe even admist the turmoil of the Hundred Years War? Because there is a marked history of conflict going all the way back to the Elven empires of thousands of years ago. So whose exposing these dungeons? The monsters are! They're basically operating a brush fire war amid the battles & mini wars of the humans! 



Why?! Because there's no Underdark but an Underworld! The Underworld is both physical & occult touching both the realms of the Fairylands & Earth. This is because it was arranged by the Elves thousands of years ago. The strange radiations & energies of these dungeon lands have very bad effects upon the humans who are exposed to them for too long. This has been happening since the time of the Greeks & well before that into the time of the secondary last Ice Age.

Peter Paul Rubens - Aeneas in the Underworld

So why would these dungeons, ruins, haunted mountains,etc. always be open & have adventurers stumbling into them? Well its the monsters of Chaos & the cults who are opening them up for the alien gods from below. At the end of the day this isn't our world sure it uses real world history as the basis for a campaign but there has to be a balance between the Dungeons & Dragons elements & real world history.

Frans Francken (II) - Orpheus in the Underworld.


The Church & the royals is going to be busy purging the elements of Chaos from amid their lands but for every one they catch two or three may slink back into the darkness. The forces of Satan & the Underworld are vast & very tempting for average man or woman during this time. Cults are going to flourish and dungeons in remote areas could well become full blown menaces to various kingdoms. Dungeons offer meeting places, hidden temple areas, and vast resources for a cult. Add in the alien influence of the Underworld here & well the uptick in secret societies we see during the Rose War is understandable. Clark Asthon Smith's Mother of Toads has some interesting notions about the alien influence of the occult upon the senses of his protagonist.
Given that its a part of the  Averoigne stories it certainly fits the genesis of the themes today.

Orpheus Leading Eurydice from the Underworld

For cults dungeons are full on places of religious significant & all that implies. There are villages where the ruins at the edges of the place are places where forgotten sacrifices ensure a bountiful harvest and this means the difference between life & death. This is especially true during the Hundred Years War. Don't forget that the vast mazes, warrens, etc.  that Gary Gygax describes in Descent Into the Depths of the Earth are a part of a far vaster network & its right below the streets of Paris itself. This puts the heart of Chaos right into the midst of the heart of France! This puts soul searing temptation, danger, & mutation right at the heart of the PC's during the Hundred Years War!

Cults, Chaos, & Dungeons Design Amid War - More D1 Descent Into The Earth By Gary Gygax Commentary

So PC's have explored Gary Gygax's D1 Descent Into The Depths of the Earth & now the world is safe! The Hundred Years War is wrapping up, all is right, & now events are in motion after  the Battle of Castillon. The party can relax & move on with their lives! Not in the least. Moping up the affairs of Europe are going to years and here's why.




Right so one of the side lines of talking about adapting the Hundred Years War into an actual campaign for Lion & Dragon is that fact Chaos is a constant threat & theme throughout a campaign. But where exactly is chaos coming from?  The simple fact is that the entire countryside of Dark Europe is riddled with ancient prehistoric highways created by the slaves of the Elves thousands of years ago. These tunnel systems lead throughout Paris, the countryside of France, England, Italy. most of Europe, & this includes Spain as well.


Battle of Poitiers (miniature of Froissart)


So where is Chaos coming? The dungeons both within this world of Dark Europe & outside of it in the realms of the Fairylands. This occurred to me reading through Gylnn Seal's Middenlands campaign which uses the idea of Chaos as a mutating and constant threat. Glynn Seal of Monkey Blood Design has a new Middenlands Kickstarter campaign expansion coming up I highly suggest that you support. The Middenlands isn't simply some backwater country area. The setting  exposes the mutating & near constant threat of Chaos.



Top this off with cults of witches & ghouls that are quietly striking at the heart of Europe from within and well scenes like this are all too common in Dark Europe.  You are going to get entire families wiped out by war, famine, & monsters. Titles,lands, & deeds are going to be the rewards of the day. The Church is going to another huge factor when the forces of Chaos are around.



But why are scenes like this common in both folklore & mythology in Dark Europe even admist the turmoil of the Hundred Years War? Because there is a marked history of conflict going all the way back to the Elven empires of thousands of years ago. So whose exposing these dungeons? The monsters are! They're basically operating a brush fire war amid the battles & mini wars of the humans! 



Why?! Because there's no Underdark but an Underworld! The Underworld is both physical & occult touching both the realms of the Fairylands & Earth. This is because it was arranged by the Elves thousands of years ago. The strange radiations & energies of these dungeon lands have very bad effects upon the humans who are exposed to them for too long. This has been happening since the time of the Greeks & well before that into the time of the secondary last Ice Age.

Peter Paul Rubens - Aeneas in the Underworld

So why would these dungeons, ruins, haunted mountains,etc. always be open & have adventurers stumbling into them? Well its the monsters of Chaos & the cults who are opening them up for the alien gods from below. At the end of the day this isn't our world sure it uses real world history as the basis for a campaign but there has to be a balance between the Dungeons & Dragons elements & real world history.

Frans Francken (II) - Orpheus in the Underworld.


The Church & the royals is going to be busy purging the elements of Chaos from amid their lands but for every one they catch two or three may slink back into the darkness. The forces of Satan & the Underworld are vast & very tempting for average man or woman during this time. Cults are going to flourish and dungeons in remote areas could well become full blown menaces to various kingdoms. Dungeons offer meeting places, hidden temple areas, and vast resources for a cult. Add in the alien influence of the Underworld here & well the uptick in secret societies we see during the Rose War is understandable. Clark Asthon Smith's Mother of Toads has some interesting notions about the alien influence of the occult upon the senses of his protagonist.
Given that its a part of the  Averoigne stories it certainly fits the genesis of the themes today.

Orpheus Leading Eurydice from the Underworld

For cults dungeons are full on places of religious significant & all that implies. There are villages where the ruins at the edges of the place are places where forgotten sacrifices ensure a bountiful harvest and this means the difference between life & death. This is especially true during the Hundred Years War.

Don't forget that the vast mazes, warrens, etc.  that Gary Gygax describes in Descent Into the Depths of the Earth are a part of a far vaster network & its right below the streets of Paris itself. This puts the heart of Chaos right into the midst of the heart of France! This puts soul searing temptation, danger, & mutation right at the heart of the PC's during the Hundred Years War!

Return Into The Nightmare Realm of the Underworld - D1 the original Descent into the Depths of the Earth By Gary Gygax

"The final confrontation with the Dark Elves, the Drow, had instigated the giant alliance and its warfare upon mankind and its allied races! "


Wait you've covered D1 Descent Into The Depths of The Earth did you with latter part of the Hundred Years War campaign idea using the  Lion & Dragon rpg system & the Dark Albion campaign as a  source book!?  So well yes & no.  The party is going to have to return to the Underworld once again!
Joan of Arc is dead! Events have turned chaotic & murky as the English take it on the chin & things are not going as the Dark Albion Elves had planned!



"Joan of Arc was captured by the Burgundians at the siege of Compiègne on 23 May 1430. The Burgundians transferred her to the English, who organised a trial headed by Pierre Cauchon, Bishop of Beauvais and member of the English Council at Rouen. Joan was convicted and burned at the stake on 30 May 1431.^[76] (She was rehabilitated 25 years later by Pope Callixtus III.)
After the death of Joan of Arc, the fortunes of war turned dramatically against the English.^[79] Most of Henry's royal advisers were against making peace. Among the factions, the Duke of Bedford wanted to defend Normandy, the Duke of Gloucester was committed to just Calais, whereas Cardinal Beaufort was inclined to peace. Negotiations stalled. It seems that at the congress of Arras, in the summer of 1435, where the duke of Beaufort was mediator, the English were unrealistic in their demands. A few days after the congress ended in September, Philip III, duke of Burgundy, deserted to Charles VII, signing the Treaty of Arras that returned Paris to the King of France. This was a major blow to English sovereignty in France.^[74] The Duke of Bedford died on 14 September 1435 and was later replaced by Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York"

The factions of the Hundred Years war at at each other's throats. The Siege of Orleans has brought things to a turn around point. Things are falling apart and the PC's are going to have to revisit The Underworld where  the factions including Elves , Deep Ones, Svirfneblin, Derro, and many more are scrambling to keep even their own existence together!  Those alliances with the faction of the Underworld that the PC's made earlier are going to come in very handy.  The events here are going to be partially in the underworld & in the world above where the PC's are balanced between the various factions of The Hundred Years War & the Underworld. All the while they're going to have to skirt the powers of the Church whose already had Joan of Arc killed!

But the big unknown is the spawning pools of the Deep Ones deep below Paris. The party's meeting with Blibdoolpoolp, the Sea Mother of the Deep Ones was no accident at all. There are hundreds of spawning pools deep within the dungeon tunnels of Paris that the Elves have no idea about. In Dark Albion these are directly responsible for the take over of Paris not so during the Rose War of the Lion & Dragon game . Witch cults of the Deep Ones & their alleys are going to have to be put to the sword lest the corruption of chaos spread to cause more problems later!



The alien gold reserves of the Deep Ones are cleaned out and these help to fund the efforts of shaky alliances with Burgondy. Blibdoolpoolp, the Sea Mother of the Deep Ones is driven back with the help of key paladins & knights of Burgundy. But these alliances are fickle at best & shaky with violence at worst.  The PC's are going to expect double crosses & triple alliances as key families rise & fall with the whims of battle!


The Battle of Formigny (1450)


Events here are keyed to set up the French Recurrence because the PC's deal several blows to the Elves in the Underworld location of their ancestral cities in the Underworld. Then comes the next phase of the Hundred Years War.
"The allegiance of Burgundy remained fickle, but the English focus on expanding their domains in the Low Countries left them little energy to intervene in the rest of France.^[80] The long truces that marked the war gave Charles time to centralize the French state and reorganize his army and government, replacing his feudal levies with a more modern professional army that could put its superior numbers to good use. A castle that once could only be captured after a prolonged siege would now fall after a few days from cannon bombardment. The French artillery developed a reputation as the best in the world.^[79]
By 1449, the French had retaken Rouen. In 1450 the Count of Clermont and Arthur de Richemont, Earl of Richmond, of the Montfort family (the future Arthur III, Duke of Brittany), caught an English army attempting to relieve Caen and defeated it at the Battle of Formigny. Richemont's force attacked the English army from the flank and rear just as they were on the verge of beating Clermont's army"




Here we're going to see new arrangements on the Chess board of Europe as Charles VII's successful Normandy campaign in 1450. So party members & adventurers are going to change once again. The old haunts & battle fields are going to give way to new ruins & dungeons. The real key here is their alliance with the Deep Gnomes which are some of the most powerful allies the PC's can make & they need it.


The Battle of Castillon on 17 July 1453 is the real pivot point in the real world but the PC's are going to be skirting the edge of Hell itself as they fathom what supernatural forces the Elves might bring to bare on the weak humans!
But don't think that the Deep Ones are completely out of the picture for they still have numbers out in the countryside surrounding Paris. They will be pushing back against the extinction of their old familiar breeding grounds.
"And yet I saw them in a limitless stream—flopping, hopping, croaking, bleating—urging inhumanly through the spectral moonlight in a grotesque, malignant saraband of fantastic nightmare. And some of them had tall tiaras of that nameless whitish-gold metal . . . and some were strangely robed . . . and one, who led the way, was clad in a ghoulishly humped black coat and striped trousers, and had a man's felt hat perched on the shapeless thing that answered for a head.
I think their predominant colour was a greyish-green, though they had white bellies. They were mostly shiny and slippery, but the ridges of their backs were scaly. Their forms vaguely suggested the anthropoid, while their heads were the heads of fish, with prodigious bulging eyes that never closed. At the sides of their necks were palpitating gills, and their long paws were webbed. They hopped irregularly, sometimes on two legs and sometimes on four. I was somehow glad that they had no more than four limbs. Their croaking, baying voices, clearly used for articulate speech, held all the dark shades of expression which their staring faces lacked.
But for all of their monstrousness they were not unfamiliar to me. I knew too well what they must be—for was not the memory of the evil tiara at Newburyport still fresh? They were the blasphemous fish-frogs of the nameless design—living and horrible—and as I saw them I knew also of what that humped, tiaraed priest in the black church basement had fearsomely reminded me. Their number was past guessing. It seemed to me that there were limitless swarms of them and certainly my momentary glimpse could have shewn only the least fraction. In another instant everything was blotted out by a merciful fit of fainting; the first I had ever had."
The Shadow Over Innsmouth by H. P. Lovecraft

The PC's are going to need every ounce of strength that their families have to push back against the tides of Chaos. Dark Albion's Cults of Chaos is a must here! The factions are now even more dangerous because they've been pushed to the breaking point. Tread carefully or this could be a family TPK as the Hundred Years War draws to a close and we dive in even more into the deep end next time!

The party gets pumped up to explore deeper into the underworld.
(Erol Otus, AD&D module Descent into the Depths of the Earth by Gary Gygax, TSR,)

Below The Blood Soaked Battle Fields - Gary Gygax's D2 "Shrine of the Kuo-Toa" (1978)

"Having put down a rising of giants, it was discovered that the motivating force behind their depredations was that of long-forgotten evil: the Dark Elves. Determined to seek out these creatures, a body of doughty adventurers mounted an expedition to learn the strength of the Drow and bring retribution to them."
So I mentioned the second part of the Hundred Years War campaign idea using the  Lion & Dragon rpg system & Dark Albion as campaign source book. Here adventure events  are going to start heating up because the appearance of  Joan of Arc on the scene. France has been beat down before this & the powers of chaos have been taking full advantage. All of this goes back to events from  Gary Gygax's D2 "Shrine of the Kuo-Toa" (1978). You see for centuries before the events of the Hundred Years War the Deep Ones have been secretly planning to take over Paris & all of France. During the Hundred Years war they've been making in roads to do exactly this.


What do I mean by Deep Ones?! The immortal frog fish men straight out of H.P. Lovecraft's The Shadow Over Innesmouth?! The Deep Ones are survivals straight out of mythological myth & legend with cities all over the oceans including Europe and that includes the swamps of Paris which was once one of their seats of power. They mean to have that particular center of power back and in Dark Albion they gain it during the Rose War.

"Thar's whar it all begun—that cursed place of all wickedness whar the deep water starts. Gate o' hell—sheer drop daown to a bottom no saoundin'-line kin tech. Ol' Cap'n Obed done it—him that faound aout more'n was good fer him in the Saouth Sea islands.

"Everybody was in a bad way them days. Trade fallin' off, mills losin' business—even the new ones—an' the best of our menfolks kilt aprivateerin' in the War of 1812 or lost with the Elizy brig an' the Ranger scow—both on 'em Gilman venters. Obed Marsh he had three ships afloat—brigantine Columby, brig Hefty, an' barque Sumatry Queen. He was the only one as kep' on with the East-Injy an' Pacific trade, though Esdras Martin's barkentine Malay Bride made a venter as late as twenty-eight.

"Never was nobody like Cap'n Obed—old limb o' Satan! Heh, heh! I kin mind him a-tellin' abaout furren parts, an' callin' all the folks stupid for goin' to Christian meetin' an' bearin' their burdns meek an' lowly. Says they'd orter git better gods like some o' the folks in the Injies—gods as ud bring 'em good fishin' in return for their sacrifices, an' ud reely answer folks's prayers.

"Matt Eliot his fust mate, talked a lot too, only he was again' folks's doin' any heathen things. Told abaout an island east of Othaheite whar they was a lot o' stone ruins older'n anybody knew anying abaout, kind o' like them on Ponape, in the Carolines, but with carven's of faces that looked like the big statues on Easter Island. Thar was a little volcanic island near thar, too, whar they was other ruins with diff'rent carvin'—ruins all wore away like they'd ben under the sea onct, an' with picters of awful monsters all over 'em.

"Wal, Sir, Matt he says the natives anound thar had all the fish they cud ketch, an' sported bracelets an' armlets an' head rigs made aout o' a queer kind o' gold an' covered with picters o' monsters jest like the ones carved over the ruins on the little island—sorter fish-like frogs or froglike fishes that was drawed in all kinds o' positions likes they was human bein's. Nobody cud get aout o' them whar they got all the stuff, an' all the other natives wondered haow they managed to find fish in plenty even when the very next island had lean pickin's. Matt he got to wonderon' too an' so did Cap'n Obed. Obed he notices, besides, that lots of the hn'some young folks ud drop aout o' sight fer good from year to year, an' that they wan't many old folks around. Also, he thinks some of the folks looked dinned queer even for Kanakys.

"It took Obed to git the truth aout o' them heathen. I dun't know haow he done it, but be begun by tradin' fer the gold-like things they wore. Ast 'em whar they come from, an' ef they cud git more, an' finally wormed the story aout o' the old chief -- Walakea, they called him. Nobody but Obed ud ever a believed the old yeller devil, but the Cap'n cud read folks like they was books. Heh, heh! Nobody never believes me naow when I tell 'em, an' I dun't s'pose you will, young feller—though come to look at ye, ye hev kind o' got them sharp-readin' eyes like Obed had."

HP Lovecraft The Shadow Over Innsmouth 1936

All throughout the countryside the Frogmen's witch covens & cults have been sewing mayhem & evil weakening France. The Frogmen are in direct competition with the Dr ermm Elves for all of the marbles during the Hundred Years War. But God is not mocked & Dagon's brood are in for a rude awakening in the form of "The Maid of Orléans" (French: La Pucelle d'Orléans).

"Joan of Arc (French: Jeanne d'Arc,^[5] IPA: [ʒan daʁk]; 6 January c. 1412^[6] – 30 May 1431), nicknamed "The Maid of Orléans" (French: La Pucelle d'Orléans), is considered a heroine of France for her role during the Lancastrian phase of the Hundred Years' War and was canonized as a Roman Catholic saint. Joan of Arc was born to Jacques d'Arc and Isabelle Romée, a peasant family, at Domrémy in north-east France. Joan said she received visions of the Archangel Michael, Saint Margaret, and Saint Catherine of Alexandria instructing her to support Charles VII and recover France from English domination late in the Hundred Years' War. The uncrowned King Charles VII sent Joan to the siege of Orléans as part of a relief mission. She gained prominence after the siege was lifted only nine days later. Several additional swift victories led to Charles VII's coronation at Reims. This long-awaited event boosted French morale and paved the way for the final French victory.

On 23 May 1430, she was captured at Compiègne by the Burgundian faction, which was allied with the English. She was later handed over to the English^[7] and put on trial by the pro-English Bishop of Beauvais Pierre Cauchon on a variety of charges.^[8] After Cauchon declared her guilty she was burned at the stake on 30 May 1431, dying at about nineteen years of age.^[9]

In 1456, an inquisitorial court authorized by Pope Callixtus III examined the trial, debunked the charges against her, pronounced her innocent, and declared her a martyr"

So not only is she and her forces instrumental for boasting the morale of France but she's instrumental in stopping the push by the Deep Ones during  the Lancastrian phase of the Hundred Years' War. 

Everything here depends upon several pivotal battles which didn't happen in Dark Albion enabling the Deep Ones to take France. The dungeons of Gary Gygax's D2 "Shrine of the Kuo-Toa" (1978) are directly under Paris & spread out into the countryside. The Sviberfneblin are straight out of French Fairytale books from the late 1800's & later on the 20's. There is some evidence that the Sviberfneblin might also reference certain Arthurian fairies.

Blibdoolpoolp might well be another chaos god avatar of the Deep Ones she has all of the required Lovecraftian elements & lends a large amount of weight to the encounter with her. She's an interesting contrasting chaos goddess symbol for various witch cults especially given the implications that the  French population had not recovered to its size previous to the Black Death of the mid-14th century. This was a time when ripe for violence across the countryside.


PC's are going to have to bring their 'A' game playing through a Lion & Dragon campaign set up for Gary Gygax's D2 "Shrine of the Kuo-Toa" (1978) especially during the Lancastrian phase of the Hundred Years' War. 

This is going to require a great deal of thought & careful planning or the party is going to end up very dead or worse. This is a location based adventure with lots of twists & turns that is going to effect the greater outcome of the Hundred Years War. As well see these events turn things inside out for the Lions & Dragons game soon.

Damnation & The Final Confrontation In Q1 Queen of the Demonweb Pits By Gary Gygax & David C. Sutherland III

"How different things seem now from when you undertook the crushing of a few rebellious hill giants! What seemed a simple adventure has turned into a major expedition. Much time has passed since you discovered the conspiracy that led you to the frost giants, fire giants, and eventually to the long-forgotten Drow. Through your encounter with the dark elves, you have found the true source of the evil -- the demon queen Lolth!"


So three things happened last night, one I was able to order the Lion & Dragon hardcover because the current code for Lulu publishing  is LULU20 which gives 20% off of all print books. The second thing that happened is that I started to talk with a friend about Q1 Queen of the Demon Web Pits By David C. Sutherland III, & Gary Gygax.

I have very mixed feeling about this module so much so that it gave me pause to put up a blog entry last night. Q1 hit the shelves in 1980 & our group didn't get to play it until about '87 after we had completed a number of higher level Wagner inspired Norse opera adventures. Our group of players in '87  slogged our way through Q1 losing about six of our beloved PC's on the way. It was glorious! This is a level ten through fourteen PC adventure with all of the bells & death that go with it.
For me personally it also marks one of the turning points in classic era TSR writing & design according to the Drivethrurpg entry for Q1 the real story behind the scenes comes out;"
It turns out that Gygax was putting on a good face, and that Q1 was in fact produced against his express wishes, apparently at the insistence of Gygax's partner, Brian Blume. It would be the first outward sign of a division in the company that would lead to its takeover by Brian and his brother Kevin in 1982, and Gygax's subsequent exile to California (where he'd get the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon on the air).
If you look closer at Q1, you can see the cracks - i.e., that it's not actually the sequel Gygax intended. A careful reading of the G- and D-series modules suggests that the villain of the piece was the Eilservs drow clan, who worshiped the Elder Elemental God. If anything, Lolth should have been an erstwhile ally for the player characters in a final adventure against the EEG, rather than a final foe.
Gygax said that the villain got changed after Sutherland discovered the "demonweb" pattern in a hand towel and talked Blume into making Lolth the Big Bad."

The whole module is problematic from a Medieval stand point & there's a whole bunch of back story stuff that has to be changed right off the mark. The fact is that the placement of Q1 Queen of the Demonweb Pits would have to take place in the Underworld. I'm talking about the classic pseudo  Greek Underworld of classic literature which borders on the lands of fairyland & the Christian Hell. This adventure is going to border on the Lamentations of the Flame Princess style where the PC's are thrown to the wolves erm spiders.

Erol Otus, Q1 Queen of the Demonweb Pits


The forces of the Elves are getting squeezed at the Gods get involved with the arrival of the Black Death on Europe's door step. The war's time line moves along with every battle & massive event of the Hundred Years war right in time to the PC's hex crawling along.
"In 1348, the Black Death, which had just arrived in Paris, began to ravage Europe.^[32] In 1355, after the plague had passed and England was able to recover financially,^{[citation needed]} King Edward's son and namesake, the Prince of Wales, later known as the Black Prince, led a Chevauchée from Gascony into France, during which he pillaged Avignonet and Castelnaudary, sacked Carcassonne, and plundered Narbonne. The next year during another Chevauchée he ravaged Auvergne, Limousin, and Berry but failed to take Bourges. He offered terms of peace to King John II of France (known as John the Good), who had outflanked him near Poitiers, but refused to surrender himself as the price of their acceptance. This led to the Battle of Poitiers (19 September 1356) where his army routed the French.^[33] During the battle, the Gascon noble Jean de Grailly, captal de Buch led a mounted unit that was concealed in a forest. The French advance was contained, at which point de Grailly led a flanking movement with his horsemen cutting off the French retreat and succeeding in capturing King John and many of his nobles.^[34][35] With John held hostage, his son the Dauphin (later to become Charles V) assumed the powers of the king as regent." France is being ravaged as the Deep Ones take full advantage by releasing the Black Death as a WMD only to have it ravage the entire human population that their trying to enslave. The PC's are stuck in the Underworld trying to get back topside trying deal with the BS of the Underworld whist dodging the Elves & demonic forces! The portals to Fairyland are the goddess of death turning the wheel to gain more of her hold as the coming plague ravages Europe.

Battle of Crécy, 1346

Meanwhile alliances of witch cults, humanoid chaos mutants, and much worse allows deadly epidemics, famines, and bandit free-companies of mercenaries reduced the population of Europe to a much more manageable size. This all interweaves through  Lolth's webs, where the PC's are confronted by Lolth's minions, slaves, guards and captives but these are her agents spreading her evil throughout Europe. By the time we get to Battle of Agincourt Europe is becoming exhausted.
We've got the Death of Clarence (1421) & The English Success right in the middle of the Hundred Years war as Q1 Queen of the Demon Web Pits wraps up. That's it right?!? Nope although it seems as if the Death Goddess of Elves is down & out the Elves forces have only taken it on the chin. Sure she's down but the Frog Princes have cemented their hold on France for the moment.

Fifteenth-century miniature depicting the Battle of Agincourt.

This is not going to be good for 'the Church' at all. They'll have to rally their own forces in the priests & clerics especially for France. The Deep Ones are not going to be expecting the appearance of Joan of Arc at the siege of Orléans sparked a revival of French spirit, and the tide began to turn against the English. Here the forces of the gods & God are going to take a hand to make sure Europe isn't lost.
One thing to  understand is the scale of Q1 Queen of the Demon Web Pits & the Hundred Years War. These are epic clashes and it sure seemed like the end of the civilized world at the time for Europe.
The black plague unleashed upon Europe was spread by humanity, so could there be other forces at work within the underworld almost about to unleash horrors from Tarartus itself?



PC's that survive their time in the Underworld are never going to be the same again. They're going to be rich but also within the purview of powers beyond their reason. The Church is going to have them dead within their sights & they're also going to be families of renowned within court. I don't see these folks being from the lower strata of society & also not being of lower social standing.
We're right in the middle of the events of the Hundred Years War & so other family members & party members are going to have to take the places of earlier adventurers. This is something that any Pendragon player is going to be familiar with. Some D&D DM's & players may have done something similar. This of course is all alternative history with real world elements mixed in. 


Anyone whose a fan of Clark Ashton Smith is going to see the resemblance of Lolth to CAS's Atlach-Nacha. I've seen more then a few folks switch out these deities in the past to get a more Smithian constant to Q1 Queen of the Demon Web Pits. The cults could be interchanged but there would have to be an uptick into using Dark Albion's Cults of Chaos to flesh out a bit more of the elves chaos witch cults in my humble opinion. Q1 Queen of the Demon Webpits isn't the end because we're right in the middle of the Hundred Years War.

Deeper In Blood & War D3 Vault of the Drow By Gary Gygax As War Campaign

"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."

So one of the things I've been doing is staying away from the near constant "commercial whine of the social media OSR" & once again the near fire hose releases of retroclone systems & adventures. This means keeping my head down & once in awhile reviewing product as my schedule allows. And I've been getting back into the classic modules that I so much love. Which gets me into D3 Vault of the Drow by Gary Gygax which puts the PC's in the middle of some old school cross hairs in the world of the Elves. Yes, I said Elves and not Drow because I'm modifying out the module!? Why? Well, because I'm saving my pennies for a hard cover version of Lion & Dragon. 
I already know its going to be a great quality purchase & I've got ideas rolling around in my head for the latest campaign project. I've already talked with RpgPundit about it. He's already got an adventure for Lion & Dragon called RPGPundit Presents #14: The Secret Order of the Red Lady. This sounds great but I really want a classic adventure here and I'll get around to reviewing the adventure sometime in the coming week as my work schedule allows. If you've been following my latest modification of  D1-2 Descent Into the Depths of the Earth By Gary Gygax then you know what's coming.


This is going to be set up during the Hundred Years War, the events of Against the Giants have already happened. The world has been rocked by the Elven princess/ priestess Eclavdra whose been stirring the pot of war behind the scenes. The events of Against the Giants parallel the war in France & the sucession issues in England. Why!? Because the Elves have been interfering with the birth of male princes & the issues of Scotland. " The question of female succession to the French throne was raised after the death of Louis X in 1316. Louis X left only a daughter, and his posthumous son John I lived only a few days. Philip, Count of Poitiers, brother of Louis X, asserted that women were ineligible to succeed to the French throne. Through his political sagacity he won over his adversaries and succeeded to the French throne as Philip V. By the same law that he procured, his daughters were denied the succession, which passed to his younger brother, Charles IV, in 1322."
"Charles IV died in 1328, leaving a daughter and a pregnant wife. If the unborn child was male, he would become king; if not, Charles left the choice of his successor to the nobles. A girl ended up being born, therefore rendering the main male line of the House of Capet extinct.
By proximity of blood, the nearest male relative of Charles IV was his nephew Edward III of England. Edward was the son of Isabella, the sister of the dead Charles IV, but the question arose whether she should be able to transmit a right to inherit that she did not herself possess. The French nobility, moreover, balked at the prospect of being ruled by Isabelle and her lover Roger Mortimer, who were widely suspected of having murdered the previous English king, Edward II. The assemblies of the French barons and prelates and the University of Paris decided that males who derive their right to inheritance through their mother should be excluded. Thus the nearest heir through male ancestry was Charles IV's first cousin, Philip, Count of Valois, and it was decided that he should be crowned Philip VI. In 1340 the Avignon papacy confirmed that under Salic law males should not be able to inherit through their mothers.^[8][9]

Eventually, Edward III reluctantly recognized Philip VI and paid him homage for his French fiefs. He made concessions in Guyenne, but reserved the right to reclaim territories arbitrarily confiscated. After that, he expected to be left undisturbed while he made war on Scotland."
The war on Scotland is a big deal because its one of the Elves ancient seats of power on Earth. When it comes to power so above as so below. The Elves in question here are the worshipers of a death god or goddess depending upon on which group of Elves we're talking about. So this gets into issues raised in Dark Albion's Cults of Chaos especially their version of Elves. So what do the Elves gain here? A morass of  war, blood shed, and the perfect opportunity to take back what they feel is theirs namely all of Europe. Bankrupt the humans through various cults, witch cells, violence, food riots, etc. And set everything up for their human agents to act on it.

Les Grandes Chroniques de France, Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris. Reproduction in "Les Rois de France", Hachette.

This sets everything up that's happening in the Underworld as the PC's struggle to deal with the very alien world of the Elves. There are numerous settlements, opportunities, alliances etc. that the PC's are going to have to deal with. Every single monster encounter in D3 Vault of the Drow is aligned with the Drow (Elves) because these were the strong hold of the death god or goddess. Elven blooded PC's are a must here & its well worth remembering that D3 was a competition module. This is a hex crawl in every single sense of the word.


These are the last of the great Elven states with militaries, well organized societies, cults, etc. All waiting to inflict pain & huge amounts of suffering on the world of Europe above. The dark European world wouldn't know what hit it. Already we've seen the set up for a possible French invasion from the Frogmen in the form of  the Kuo-Toa or Deep Ones. Everything here is aligned for the ongoing war between England & France. "Relations with Flanders were also tied to the English wool trade, since Flanders' principal cities relied heavily on textile production and England supplied much of the raw material they needed. Edward III had commanded that his chancellor sit on the woolsack in council as a symbol of the pre-eminence of the wool trade.^[24] At the time there were about 110,000 sheep in Sussex alone.^[25] The great medieval English monasteries produced large surpluses of wool that were sold to mainland Europe. Successive governments were able to make large amounts of money by taxing it.^[24] France's sea power led to economic disruptions for England, shrinking the wool trade to Flanders and the wine trade from Gascony." Wizards & black powder are a must as the PC's navigate the alliances & triple crosses between the factions of this series.

Battle of Sluys from a manuscript of Froissart's Chronicles, Bruge, c.1470


So not only are the stakes going to be very high but the blood shed is going to monumental. PC's are going to die, retire, & generally have to deal with some very weird alliances as the module series progresses. Fairy mounds & other doorways to forgotten bits of  the countryside could get the PC's home or killed very easily as the witch cults of Europe do their best to cause all kinds of murder, mayhem & chaos. There's going to be witch hunts and trials in the middle of the events of  The Hundred Years War.
"Becfola and the Snarling Horde," by Arthur Rackham (Irish Fairy Tales, 1920)

The Church is going going to be a huge mover & shaker in this campaign with their interests at stake  as well as the crowns of Europe.The Church could see these events as an all out war with Satan's forces. They just might be right as Elves pull out the stops & triple crosses are the norm not the rule. The lower tier hit points for PC's are going to put player's teeth on edge but anyone can die anytime is something we've seen before in Dark Albion. The PC's are going to move into the movers & shakers circle of the Hundred Years War if they survive D3 Vault of the Drow.


Is there are far more sinister connection between King Arthur's ancient reign & the events of the Hundred Years war as old alliances come to call? There is a strong connection between Queen Mab  & the Elven princess/ priestess Eclavdra  especially around Ireland & Scotland.
"the Irish folklore of the last High Queen of the Daoine Sidhe - and wife of the High King Finvarra - was named Una (or Oonagh, or Oona, or Uonaidh etc.). In the ballad tradition of Northern England and Lowland Scotland, she was called the Queen of Elphame "  The Elven forces at work within the Underworld of Europe stirring the pot of the war placing the PC's right in the cross hairs! The PC's are going to be very deep behind enemy lines when the module finally wraps up & better be on the Church's good side! Svirfneblin (or deep gnomes) are another left over faction of a time long past when humanity worked side by side with these slaves of the Elves. Ancient alliances are not forgotten. But is the price of alliance to high for even the most strident party of adventurers? Will the party have a good relationship after D1-2?



Svirfneblin by Russ Nicholson from the first edition Fiend Folio.

Erelhei-Cinlu is a perfect ancient hold over from thousands of years ago when the Elves were at the height of their power. The place is wicked and perfectly suited to give even the most jaded gamer pause. The power of the place even to this day sends a shiver up the spine of many AD&D players. Simply changing some of the window dressing and adding a historical veneer is one of the challenges of adapting these classics to home campaigns and having a blast with them.

Blood, Power, & Violence Using D1-2 Descent Into the Depths of the Earth By Gary Gygax As War Campaign Foundation

"The final confrontation with the giant, King Snurre, and the entry of mighty adventurers into the cavers under his stronghold discovered that Dark Elves, the Drow, had instigated the giant alliance and its warfare upon mankind and its allied races."

So I'm thinking tonight about one of the all time classic modules Descent Into The Depths of the Earth by Gary Gygax. I'm thinking about how I would use D1-D2 as a template for a Dark Europe derived from Dark Albion but without the Albion part of setting. But the adventure would be set in a quasi mythical/ historical Europe none the less. Perhaps during the chaos of the Hundred Years War.

The  Against the Giants series events have already played out and humanity is at full stop war against itself as Europe is burning in the fires of conflict. Meanwhile behind the scenes a sinister force is pushing buttons of local conflicts. All across Europe the Elven princess/ priestess Eclavdra has been stirring up the fairy race's cults after she's come out of stasis. The war between human kind & the various giant races hasn't worked out in Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Germany, etc.  This is a high level campaign race with the PC's tackling head on the war & its problems behind the scenes. Because everything hinges on the Elves! 

I've been out most of today & I've been thinking about Dark Albion's Cults of Chaos especially their version of Elves. Elves are a low down terror straight out of European mythology. The baby stealing, murdering in the night,slavers of humanity, & those who consider humanity as nothing more then slaves. In other words these Elves are monsters and beasts of the highest order. They form cults, create havoc & chaos among humanity especially the various royal families of Europe. The Elven princess/ priestess Eclavdra 

has been setting up various cults within royal families making alliances & setting humans against each other's throats.  This 'underdark' isn't the one of Forgotten Realms fame but the far more alien & weird underworld of European myth & legend where the underworld literally touches the realms of the dead. Descent into the Depths of the Earth I've seen described as the outline of an adventure which means that you as the dungeon master are going to have to dip into the occult mythological traditions to flesh out the monsters, encounters, & put a very different spin on events.



Here the cults of the elves are going to take center stage because there isn't a single 'Dark Elf' to get in your way. Simply these are going to be the alien elves of legend whose legacy is reaching back through the mists of time to put a collar of slavery back around humanity's neck. There are no half elves here but there are Elven blooded descendants who know far more of the horrors of their former masters. Thinking about it perhaps Dark Albion might have far more baring on this sort of a campaign.


This is a very high level adventure module couple this module with the events of the Hundred Years war & you've got the makings of a very lethal campaign. There is going to be desperation writ large across the events of Europe. The PC's are going to be coming straight into the historical remains of the Elven civil war below the Earth & the war of humanity raging above. So instead of D1 being a primer for the Drow its now the primer for the various bits & pieces of Elven history left behind in the underworld including factions & encounters.

There's also the fact that French frog princes & kings have been for centuries trying to check the English power & expansion. But could there be far more to it as the frog princes know what's really behind the throne of England?!?
"The French kings had endeavored, over the centuries, to reduce these possessions, to the effect that, roughly, only Gascony was left to the English. The confiscation or threat of confiscating this duchy had been part of French policy to check the growth of English power, particularly whenever the English were at war with the Kingdom of Scotland, an ally of France." Scotland was once a seat of Elven power on Earth and one of the sites of humanity's rebellion against the Elves.

The Elven princess/ priestess Eclavdra is beyond dangerous in this adventure as adversary. She's on the run, at the height of her power, and is crazed prone to almost any action.  She is basically a party of adventurers worst nightmare. She's a survivor of the Elven civil war from the dawn of humanity & a renegade worshiper of the death god to boot.


The PC's in this campaign are beyond a low level annoyance they're merely a hindrance and she's got the power & numbers of Elves to back it up. She's treading on the ancient inheritances of the Elves. Descent Into The Depths of the Earth assumes a large party of players. I've run this adventure as a convention set up;  a large party of 7-9 characters are really need. Otherwise smaller parties should enlist the help of local human adventurers if possible. Anyhow this is just the initial set up for a completely different take on D1-D2 Descent Into The Depths of the Earth.