More Memories S1-4 Realms of Horror by Gary Gygax, & Lawrence Schick For Your Old School Campaigns

Why is the release of  S1-4 Realms of Horror by Gary Gygax, &  Lawrence Schick significant by Wizbros erm Wizards of the Coast?! Well, now the wilds of the RPG market place are flooded with all kinds of OSR product.But one of the only places to get such a collector's item was from Ebay at horrid prices. Now at least the PDF is available for a collection of some of the classic modules of AD&D Tomb of Horrors, White Plume Mountain, Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, and The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth... four modules that are already classics in the AD&D game system but these have been edited & altered into the 'Super module package'.

In Nineteen Eighty Eight everything changed for our little group of players under my uncle's dungeon mastering. Our PC's were facing down & dying like flies in Realm's of Horror's version of  S1 Tomb of Horrors. It was a savage & brutal lesson in death by  party dynamics to learn.


Couple this with plot of  S2 White Plume Mountain which we got deeply involved Your characters are trying to get back magical items stolen from their rightful owners and return them.  This is because this isn't your usual dungeon  traps and creatures are there as defenses for this stolen treasure! Our party died by the score back in '88 & '89. We learned not to take the game that seriously at all as well as not to get too attached to our PC's.
Then it was into the heart of S3 Expediation To The Barrier Peaks or at least S1-4 Realms of Horror version of it. My Uncle used the original module to pad out certain areas for full campaign play & more setting details.

Eventually we made it through to Realm of Horrors's version of  s4 The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth. And this was a long slog through the monsters, treasures, etc. of these modules & the one thing I can tell you about these versions of the classic Advanced Dungeons & Dragons modules as a dungeon master & player is to set up a town or city that is reachable as a home base for the PC's! Seriously it was a pain in the ass to try & outwit at every turn the minions of Drelnza, the vampiric daughter of long-deceased archmage Iggwilv. She was behind the scenes the entire time. Everything and the plot of Realms of Horror falls directly on her shoulders. "The PC's must investigate rumors of a lost treasure that scores of adventurers have perished attempting to find.^[2] The treasure is a remnant of the wealth amassed by the archmage Iggwilv,^[2] former ruler of Perrenland, prior to her presumed death at the hands of the demon Graz'zt, whom she had "imprisoned and forced into servitude." "   Drelnza, the vampiric daughter of long-deceased archmage Iggwilv became a major enemy for our party of nine players over the course of a long three year stretch. To this day I loath her & her twisted family. My uncle would later before the end of the campaign tack onto T1 Temple of Elemental Evil. Why? Well I think that the Wiki entry for the The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth reveals his diabolical plan involving Realms of Horror;
"The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth is a revised and expanded version of The Lost Caverns of Tsojconth, a tournament adventure that Gygax wrote for WinterCon V, a gaming conventionsponsored by the Metro Detroit Gamers (MDG) in 1976.^[4] It is based in part on one of Rob Kuntz's dungeon levels, as Kuntz helped Gygax revise the tournament version.^[5] This original version consisted of eight loose sheets, an outer folder, and a zip-locked bag; only several hundred copies were printed.^[4] In the May 1980 issue of Dragon, Gygax said "Rob Kuntz has the reworked Lost Caverns module which must be finalized" and that "We want to get it into print as soon as possible."^[6] Lawrence Schick later suggested that "there's evidence that Gary considered Tsojcanth part of a longer Greyhawk campaign, placing the adventure between T1–T4 The Temple of Elemental Evil and WG4 The Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun. (By this reckoning, The Village of Hommlet, The Temple of Elemental Evil, and Tsojcanth are thus the "lost" WG1 through WG3 modules.) So, Tsojcanth was published in the S series because it got completed out of order, but was too good to delay.""
My uncle was playing with the fate of the Greyhawk setting dangling us like mice before the  massive horror awaiting us as players in T1-4 Temple of Elemental Evil.


Realms of Horror is like a short hand version of all of the classic AD&D modules of yore Tomb of Horrors, White Plume Mountain, Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, and The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth all laid out in a very nicely edited style. But these are not modules for the faint of heart nor those who are too attached to your PC's. With that in mind even though these modules have been edited together they are at their heart & soul brutal & dangerous as Lawrence Schick describes  The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth in his 1991 book Heroic Worlds, described the adventure as "A monster-filled labyrinth in the classic mode: kill 'em, rob 'em, and leave." I also think that this best  describes Realms of Horror as well. 

Old School Domain Level Play With S2 White Plume Mountain As Old School Sword & Sorcery Campaign Jump Off Point

"White Plume Mountain has always been a subject of superstitious awe to the neighboring villagers. People still travel many miles to gaze upon this natural wonder, though few will approach it closely, as it is reputed to be the haunt of various demons and devils."So let's talk S2 White Plume Mountain here for a moment, this is one of the classics & has to be run for a group of experienced players. When it comes to classics this one of the more twisted ones, with the designation of special & it lives up to that designation. Its also one of the higher level modules that whilst designed for the world of Greyhawk can be adapted for other worlds. That's what we're going to be talking about today.


At S2's heart & soul are the three Moorcock style weapons,"precipitated by the theft of three magical, sentient weapons:^[6] a trident named Wave, a war hammer named Whelm, and a sword named Blackrazor (all three were introduced in this adventure).", this adventure puts the PC's in the cross hairs of danger where they belong. "It is also the favorite adventure of Wired magazine's Ken Denmead, who described it as the "amusement park of dungeons", & this comment is where we're going to kick things off. Because with a bit of clever dungeon mastering S2 can be moved lock, stock, and puzzles right over to your favorite campaign world in this case Hyperborea. Why Hyperborea? Well last night I got into a discussion with one of my players. What was Hyperborea like before the Green Death? The high level weirdness and puzzles of White Plume Mountain for me answer the question. A decedent adventure location that has been taken over by wizards & all sorts over the centuries. But what does this have to do with domain level play? Everything really. S2 is the ultimate expression of the fun house dungeon with a ton of intimidating monster encounters. There are several reasons for this.



Why? Because the entire module is built around that premise. Its built to quite literally rip PC's apart. "The recommended number of players is four to ten, with levels ranging from fifth to tenth." This is a convention level group of players but many times over the years I heard of groups of smaller players completing the adventure. How? By taking the parts and pieces of S2 apart and dealing with the parts rather then the whole over time of game play. In other words using S2 as an episodic television series type of game. Which brings me to the domain element of S2 White Plume Mountain, this adventure is dungeon creator Keraptis the 1,300-year-old wizard's front & back yard there's whole range of other high level horrors living within the adventure location. This is because in Adventurer, Conqueror, King terms S2 White Plume Mountain is a sink of evil in the worst way possible. If you've been paying attention to the Heroic Fantasy & Barbarian Conquerors Collection Kickstarter then you've been seeing some of the leaked updates that Autarch has put out then you know exactly what I'm talking about. Sacrilege is going to be the cry from certain corners of the OSR but hear me out here. "White Plume Mountain" is very loosely connected to Greyhawk & given the amount of weirdness of the place I've used it as a mini domain of fairy multiple times.
This one is a favorite of mine because the Great Swamp, White Plume Mountain, and Castle Mukos didn't match up with anything else within Greyhawk though the text of the adventure clearly places White Plume Mountain in the Shield Lands, near the Great Rift. It can easily be moved where the DM needs it go. I've even seen a customization or two place White Plume within a fantasy version of Iceland and Greenland for a game of Lamentations of the Flame Princess. I could also see using White Plume as a part of a very gritty and dangerous Dark Albion campaign. Hence why I've said that it works for domain level play.

There are several reasons why S2 White Plume Mountains works for sword & sorcery style play:

1. Players are going to take years turning this place into a domain by clearing out every nook and cranny of the dungeons of White Plume. 
2. There's lots of weird occult tech that keeps White Plume running and its perfect fodder to connect with Expedition to the Barrier Peaks 
3. Make no mistake those three Stormbringer style weapons are perfect fodder & excuses for war with other Hyperborean nations. Yeah their certainly that powerful and dangerous
4. Anything from the DM's aresenal of monsters and horrors can be customized to add to White Plume Mountain. 
5. Dealing with some of S2's NPC's is going to be campaign play unto itself. 
6. There are several hooks scattered throughout S2 that can be used to cement S2 into the volcanic lands of Hyperborea which could tie in other dangerous AS&SH NPC's. 
7. Piece meal play of White Plume Mountain means that the DM has more time to avoid DM burnout and far more time to make S2 their own for campaign play. 
8. Adding in more mini levels and to S2 is one way connect S2 up with B4 The Lost City  and I've seen this done several times with AS&SH's Ghost Ship of the Desert Dunes 
9.  Taking over White Plume Mountain is going to be very tricky for the PC's & there's plenty of opportunity to add another layer of danger to this sort of an operation. 
10. More locations and more trouble DM's should take full advantage of the dangers of domain play from their favorite rules sets.
    
    
    Classics are classic for a reason and this one still holds up and because of the high level nature of the adventure it attracts players like moths to an old school torch flame.
    Keep em rolling folks.