Road To Mentzer - Dungeons & Dragons Mentzer Expert to Companion & the X1 The Isle of Dread By David Cook & Tom Moldvay

"This box contains all you need to continue the Adventure:

• Endless hours of adventures.
• The D&D Expert Set for character levels 4-14, including more combat rules, magic spells, treasures, monsters and added rules for Wilderness adventures.
• Module X1, Isle of Dread. A combined wilderness and dungeon adventure on a remote island filled with savages and prehistoric monsters!
• All the dice you need - six different kinds included, with marker crayon."
  

Over the last couple of days I've allowed myself to get drawn way to deeply into several controversies that are literally swirling over the OSR & table top hobby. Well that's gonna stop & I want to get back into Mentzer Expert Dungeons & Dragons 

The reason why the Eighty Three Mentzer Expert edition was a bit of a game changer was the change up in well just about everything: " The D&D Expert Set for character levels 4-14, including more combat rules, magic spells, treasures, monsters and added rules for Wilderness adventures."

See its the wilderness adventures that mean everything here or the great frontier. In Gamma World its the wasteland but in the Menzter blue box its the 'wilderness' of the adventures that allows the PC's to really get ready for next jump in the box sets! Expert is where your slugging through wilderness & dungeons to become the next royals. The Mentzer box set more then any other in the Mentzer boxes is the cross point into whole cloth of Dungeons & Dragons Set three Companion rules. 

For our group it was Companion where things started to get very dangerous indeed. The players started to realize that we could & would either form alliances, treaties, and back stab the crap outta of each other in Eighty four. This is because we had seen that X1 Isle of Dread was very exploitable. Sure various old school & OSR folks will talk about having played X1 Isle of Dread but did they every talk about making treaties with the native rulers or exploiting the dungeons surrounding the island?! 

With excellent Tim Truman cover artwork this is one of my favorites & the Vaults of Pandius website has issue #3 of  Threshold magazine which contains a whole slew of articles on exploiting the Seas of Dread. The The Minor Islands of the Sea of Dread by Simone Neri from Threshold Magazine issue 3 is perfect for expanding the dungeons or ruins of the former empires of the seas! 

This gives the player's PC's the perfect opportunity to jump levels & layers of PC baggage whist getting them on the road of royal play. 

Incidents At the Isle of Dread - The Seas of Mystery & Rise of The Cults of Tsathoggua

"Hundreds of miles from the mainland, surrounded by dangerous waters, lies an island known only as the Isle of Dread. Dark jungles and treacherous swamps await those who are brave enough to travel inland in search of the lost plateau, where the ruins of a once mighty civilization hold many treasures - and many secrets!"


So off the California coast wreathed in perpetual storms, fog, & weather phenomenon I've got X1: "The Isle of Dread" (1981), by David "Zeb" Cook and Tom Moldvay. The Isle is part of a chain of islands that connect to Venger Satanis's Islands of Purple Haunted Putrescence.  These island chains  exist in on both Earth & Hyperborea simultaneously. Ships have been getting lost or destroyed for centuries. There's also a deadly connection with some of the elite cults that have been operating in the Hollywood hills. The Baleful Sorcerers of Tsathag'kha have been initiating & sacrificing the elite in rituals dedicated to  the Clark Ashton Smith Great Old One Tsathoggua.



So I've had this Godbound/Cha'alt campaign going for quite awhile. The cults of Tsathoggua have been making massive in roads into the hills of Hollywood. I dusted off Venger's Slaves of Tsathoggua adventure & there have been hints of something very powerful & supernaturally dangerous in  a cave on one of the purple islands. Here the The Baleful Sorcerers of Tsathag'kha have reign over an ancient village where a treasure is rumored to be guarded by incredibly deadly monsters. Only those blessed by Tsathoggua & part of the inner mysteries of the Old One may enter the caverns. So why use The Islands of Purple Haunted Putrescence? Its not only a great hex crawl, but it’s also a great little campaign source book. Part of the background that was hinted in last week's game is about  the primeval war between Earth's Atlanteans & the monstrous, mind-bending creatures known as kopru.
The Kopru are living weapons left over from the Deep Ones who were actually behind the extinction of the Atlanteans. This brings me to the fact that the church of Dagon is using the Isle of Dread to make a big push to return to Earth & awaken their brethren beneath the seas of Earth.

Jeffrey Talanian's Mystery At Port Greeley adventure  has this happening on Hyperborea. The adventure hints at the church of Dagon  about to engulf AS&SH! I've decided to make the fantastic adventure a part of my campaign by having my AS&SH find out about the link between the church & their plans for Earth! 



There are deep links between  the cults of Tsathoggua & the church of Dagon! Both see Earth as a prime opportunity & resource to be harvested. Those within the Black Pyramid of Cha'alt wait & watch with fetid eyes!
Two killer free resources that that I've used with this campaign for this leg are Threshold magazine issue #3 Sea of Dread & Issue #4 Sea of Dread. 


Between the maps, the information, the background, etc. within these two issues there's a ton of material to really help flesh out even more of the Isle of Dread & the seas that surround it. These can be incredibly useful for OSR games!