A Visit to the Mule

Last weekend I had the chance to head up to the city with one of my players and visit some of the folks behind The Mule Abides blog, Tavis and Charlatan.  A pair of kiddos came with, so we ended up with a group of 3 kids and 4 adults (plus the DM) for a nice 3-4 hour game.  It was a chance to see a bit how Tavis's approach to the Saltbox works, play some ACKS (Adventurer Conquer King), use an alternate type of 0-level funnel, and then get in some general RPG discussion.

As is the case with most games with kids, it ended with death and violence in the classic tradition; by borrowing tactics from cartoons.  After being marooned on an island by a dislikable captain, the party excavated an entrance to some caves beneath the island.  Confronted by a long, slime-filled tunnel deeper in the cave complex, the adult players puzzled over how to safely navigate the treacherous length of cave - walk carefully and probe with poles, tie ropes and rappel down?  Cutting the proverbial Gordian knot, two of the kids quickly fashioned a toboggan out of wooden planks and went zooming down the tunnel through the slime, hooting and hollering.   It seemed like so much fun at the time, but then there was the giant slug, and the guys that slipped and slid down the tunnel after them, and then the screaming and the dying.  (In other words, a successful D&D game).

Other observations:

Gaming with Kids
I've run a bunch of mixed games with kids and dads, and we've used two approaches - running a kid's game that happened to have dads in attendance, or running a regular game that happened to have kids.  The difference is focus.  For the kid's game approach, the dads are like silent partners; the dads can offer suggestions on strategy, but the kids make all the major decisions and have to discuss amongst themselves (come what may).  That approach tends to keep the kids really engaged.

However, sitting amongst the players in a mixed group of kids and dads in a regular game session, I noticed that the conversation has a tendency to go beyond what 9 and 10 year olds can process; it's a good practice to slow down at key decision points, explain the issues simply, and make sure the kids get a chance to offer their opinions and vote.  It seems like common sense that you should expend some effort making sure everyone is engaged, but it's easy to get out of the habit without an occasional reminder.

The ACKS Funnel
We were heartily encouraged to have retainers; to that end, a number of stat lines were generated up front (3d6 in order, yeah baby!) and the best chosen as the PC; retainers were selected from amongst the other rolled stats and paid like mercenaries (zero level men).  The party easily had 30+ guys - plenty of fodder, and replacement guys that could receive a promotion if a PC died.  Not all 30 guys went into the dungeon.

Playing ACKS
When ACKS is released, folks will notice there's almost no learning curve.  AC and to-hit rolls are calculated slightly differently, but it's otherwise all very familiar.  Proficiencies - a basic skill system - were unobtrusive and didn't change the table experience - we were still pushing, pulling, prodding and cajoling in an old school way (nary a spot check or diplomacy roll in sight).

One thing I found interesting - Individual Initiative!  Okay, I know this has been an optional rule in many variants (and LOTFP used a version of it), but I've used the Moldvay BX style of Initiative by Side for as long as I can remember, with different combat actions happening in sequence - movement, missile, magic and melee, and then the other side goes.

Initiative by Side lends itself to detailed group strategies; the players are forced to coordinate their tactics closely as actions happen in sequence.  I found Individual Initiative to be much more chaotic; it could also have been because this was a one-shot (more like a convention game, since we weren't Tavis's regular group).  Do other folks have similar observations - group initiative leads to more strategic coordination across the party, whereas individual initiative creates a more free form, chaotic muddle during the battle?  The experiences were very different and I can see pros and cons to each - group initiative is explicitly a game mechanic, individual initiative throws more "fog of war" and "din of battle" into the mix.

The other big difference is zero hit points and dying. It's been a hot topic for me lately in the home game as we're switching from using the death at -10 hp AD&D rule to the Swords & Wizardry approach.  ACKS has a much different death at zero rule; it's interesting enough that its worth its own post.

The other thing I'll save for another post is the idea of using Troupe-Style Play in D&D; the campaign roles and domain rules in ACKs make you want to try out the mid-range and high level stuff sooner than waiting 2-3 years to get there organically, so I think it's worth considering if there are sensible ways to structure a campaign to support multiple ranges of character levels.

Adventure 14 - The God in the Box

Continuing the series of short (horror themed) September adventures...

PLACEMENT
The setting is the poor Immigrant Quarter in the city during Halloween or a similar holiday in the fantasy world.  A stalwart priest has been warned to leave the quarter on Halloween night, but he's committed to staying the course.

A few ways come to mind on getting characters involved with the situation; if they have ties to the church through a PC cleric, perhaps a senior church official, worried about the priest, asks the PC to hold vigil with him on the holiday night; the Immigrant Quarter hasn't been kind to church property.  Another simple hook would be the stalwart priest himself seeks some mercenaries to help protect his little chapel.

SETTING THE SCENE
The church has always had trouble keeping the chapel of Saint Whatzit (pick a good name for your world) open in the Immigrant Quarter; last year, the chapel was burnt to the ground and the previous priest lost in the blaze.  The stalwart priest has received friendly warnings to leave on Halloween night, 'for his own good', but he insists on keeping the chapel open for the needy.

The Immigrant Quarter is festive in the afternoon before Halloween evening, including lots of appropriate harvest festival activities - let's go with an anachronistic American spirit for the day - bobbing for apples, baking contests, masks and costumes, pumpkin carving, and so on.  Some kindly folks have even decorated the chapel with corn dollies and festival decorations.

The stalwart priest will arrange to have the characters arrive before sundown, so they're in the quarter before the gates close.  The watchmen point out that it's city policy not to patrol the Immigrant Quarter after dark on this night, and the characters will be on their own.  Shortly after sundown, the streets are mostly empty and deserted, the many cottages and tenements barred against the night.

WHAT'S GOING ON
Some of the immigrants here have come from across the sea, but most are from the hinterland.  Though they outwardly converted to the Church, many persevered in their old beliefs and brought their practices with them, including the "god in the box".  This relic of the pagan faith required a harvest sacrifice to ensure a good harvest the following year; when those old time immigrants left their distant fields for the city, they dug up the god in the box and carried it with them, burying the icon beneath the cobblestones.  For a while, the annual ritual of blood sacrifice (in the form of an execution) was held at an intersection called Bloody Corners, and this ensured the hungry god in the box was sated.  Eventually those pagan practices were completely outlawed, and followers of the old faith have needed to come up with more creative ways to see that the god gets its due.  This year, the stalwart priest has been denoted as the sacrifice; the many corn dollies and other harvest decorations draped around the front of the chapel include markers for the god in the box.

As night settles on the quarter and the moon rises, the characters might hear a scream or two elsewhere in the quarter as a passerby catches glimpses of the god seeking out its due.  If the characters are in the chapel, build up the sense of impending trouble as the ground starts to shake with the footsteps of an approaching titan; there's the sound of heavy breathing like a large beast snuffling just past the door; and then the chapel starts to shake as the wall is tentatively pushed (before being smashed in next round).  It'll be even more exciting if they wait outside!

The god in the box appears like a huge four-legged skeletal beast, part armored bull and half wolverine claws and half snarling wolf, with vestigial bat wings and what appears to be the skull of a longhorn steer (for stats, something like the AD&D Bulette stats should horrify low and mid-level characters - two claws and a nasty chomp - it should also be immune to non-magic weapons and have regeneration).

The god will smash and rampage through the chapel trying to get at its intended victims.  When it smashes through walls and doors, there's a round or two where its head is stuck, giving characters a chance for some free shots (or running).  The horror theme here is DANGER - a big unstoppable monster is trying to eat you, so how do you put ground and obstacles between you and the monster?  A good tactical map of both the chapel and Immigrant Quarter would be useful for staging a chase.  The rest of the city is gated off, but characters could consider climbing the walls.  They might flee into the sewers, or try and reach the harbor and escape on the water.  Once the characters have been marked, the god in the box is an infallible tracker and will follow them throughout the night, continually smashing buildings to get at them, but it can't pursue outside the Immigrant Quarter.

To provide some vicarious horror, the DM could ensure the stalwart priest had some zero level men on hand to help watch the chapel as well; this gives the DM plenty of folks to munch first while working its way toward the PC's.  Crunching a zero level guy for 50 damage is where it's at - show the PCs what's coming!  Remember, you don’t have to outrun the god, just the hired help.

RESOLUTIONS
It's suggested that characters hear about the plot hook such that they meet the stalwart priest just before sundown - enough time to hear the spooky history of the chapel, get second thoughts about spending the night, but not enough time to do deeper research until the day after.  It may not work out that way, and its fine if the players are better prepared.  It's possible suspicious players will suspect there's something wonky with the festival decorations, and redirect them elsewhere before sundown - if thrown out, perhaps an innocent person trash picks them on the way home.  That's fine, too, let the god in the box rampage elsewhere - as long as it's loud and violent, it'll still be fun!

If the characters try and gather information, one place might be the old grizzled captain of the guard, who remembers "Bloody Corners", the place where people that followed the old faith were known to conduct a stoning or similar executions.  Those folks were cleaned out many years ago, arrested, and the church converted everyone in the quarter to the true faith, but it still seems that every year, something bad would happen near Bloody Corners around Halloween time.  After a riot some years back, now the guard just vacates on Halloween.  Some years it's vandalism, or street violence, or arson like the chapel burning last year.  One way or another, the god is fed on Halloween.

There are other sources of information to check into besides the watchmen; the characters could "convince" one of the older immigrants to talk about the pagan practices - "My mother learned from her mother and this is passed on mother to daughter, blah blah blah" about the darker reason for the festivities.  Searching church records in the church's headquarters (the diocese) will reveal how many priests have been killed serving in the quarter.

A daytime search of Bloody Corners might not reveal anything obvious, but detection spells like Detect Evil will immediately identify an evil aura in a spot where the cobblestones can be pried up, and a large box uncovered; inside is what appears to be an ancient cow skull, with horns and sharp teeth and fangs instead of flat cow teeth.  Destroying the skull releases the curse that allows the god in the box to manifest each Halloween.

SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED
Locales:  the Immigrant Quarter of the city; a chapel; Bloody Corners
NPCs:  the Stalwart Priest, the grizzled guard captain
Monsters:  the god in the box
Artifacts:  the god in the box

Turn Undead, Meet the Nerf Bat

As a Dungeon Master, there are few abilities I loathe more than Turn Undead.  It's the one ability that neuters an entire class of encounters; in the post-zombie hype world, it turns an entire style of campaign - the undead zombie apocalypse - into a non-starter.  After 30 years of D&D, Turn Undead is a fairly iconic power of the cleric, but other than Hammer Horror films, it doesn't have a strong literary tradition.  (Clerics turning fairies is another matter…)

There are some options.  A DM could accept the status quo, and just use lots of other monster types - default D&D is fairly "wahoo" and full of monsters; when undead are encountered, the cleric just racks up auto-wins for the party.  When an undead is important to the adventure, the DM makes sure it's a much higher level, hurting the chances it gets affected by the "I Win" power of the cleric.

Apparently Gary Gygax had issues with the ease that clerics Turn low level undead, seeing as even the introductory adventure,  Keep on the Borderlands, features a cave full of undead each with an amulet making it harder to turn.  There's an important lesson there; when the DM doesn't like a power the players have, it's okay to cheat and nerf it.  No - I'm lying - that's a horrible solution, especially coming from the author of the rules.

In AD&D, the DMG presents an optional way to nerf the power - if the undead are in a group, the DM may opt to make the undead unable to be turned unless the strongest undead can be turned.  It's a variation on the option above - don't let the Cleric be awesome by making sure the threat is outside of his range - but now it extends an umbrella to the minions, too.

If you're playing a low magic setting modeled after the pulp fiction, monsters are rare and undead feature heavily in those types of settings; a zombie or skeleton would be an unnerving experience in such a setting.  But not if there's a level 1 or 2 cleric nearby - Turn Undead is a deal breaker.  I like the approach Raggi took in LOTFP, converting Turn Undead into a level 1 spell.  It's still a "I Win" power, but now it brings the ability into the realm of strategic and tactical choices, as well as resource management.  Turn Undead becomes more like a Sleep spell - potentially decisive, but requiring a meaningful choice.  I like that approach better than the artificial patches - constantly equipping the undead with "Amulets of Protection from Turning" or jiggering the "important" undead encounters to overload the cleric.

But maybe that's just me - seems like a good time for a new poll - posted up to the right.  Do you nerf* Turn Undead in your game?

• We use it as is; clerics are awesome
• We use mixed groups of high and low undead
• I limit its daily use (like LOTFP)
• We don't use clerics
• House rules - see comments

*Nerf:  reducing the effectiveness of a game element (named after the popular foam toys...)  I figure most gamers know the term, but you never know...

Aiming that Fireball

The Talmudic analysis of D&D's myriad rules continues out in the blogosphere… in this case, the "lifelong reading of the text" belongs to Delta over at Delta's D&D Hotspot, where he's done an analysis of the fireball spell through the ages.

Here are the problems:  when does the fireball explode?  Can a caster aim it at a spot in the air, causing an airburst, precisely measuring the beginning of the blast radius to maximize hitting the enemies and avoid the friendly's?  If it requires aim, why isn't there a to-hit roll?  I don't recall seeing any language in any versions of fireball like the magic missile rule.  Should grenade fire rules apply, allowing the fireball to miss its spot?

The discussion is very topical for me, because a) we sometimes use minis and a vinyl grid with erase markers, and b) the players have a wand of fireballs with a ton of charges.  Whenever they can see the grid, they're always micro-managing the location of their figures in a room to line up the best possible fireball placements (or Silence 15' radius placement, or Prayer and Bless radius, etc).  Using the grid, it's hard to argue against lining up a fireball that burns the monsters in melee with the party's front rank, while stopping just short of the front line fighters.

The Cook/Marsh Expert set and Rules Cyclopedia both require the fireball to strike a target.  To me, this precludes the airburst technique and makes fireballs much riskier to target when the front line is engaged in melee - it only blows up when it hits somebody or something.  Labyrinth Lord and the Advanced Edition Companion go with AD&D 1E style "point your finger, pick a range and distance and that's where it blows up" - supporting the idea of an omniscient Magic User with perfect awareness of spatial relationships and distances who can always calculate exact ranges and trajectories while gesturing and tossing out material components.  Bah.

Adventurer Conqueror King maintains the AD&D approach (point finger, enjoy your perfect air burst) whereas Raggi-style LOTFP bans the fireball entirely - you munchkins with your flashy magic - although prior to his divorce from flashy magic, he supported targeting a location, too.

My players would flip out if I started using a grenade-style rule for adjudicating whether the fireball goes short, long, or off to the side, even though that does mirror the risks in real-world artillery - and that's basically how fireballs are used - "Incoming!".  So I'll probably need to reconcile myself to allowing perfect placement of fireballs, all the time.  :sigh:

How about you guys?  It's one thing when you're using exact "measurements" by counting squares on the grid, do any of you adjudicate fireball differently when combat is purely abstract?  When the player says, "I place the fireball 20' behind the front line of monsters, in the air, so the burst catches the monsters battling our party's front line, but doesn't burn any of our guys" - is the Magic User always infallible?

Otherwise you run the risk of douchery - "I said the front line *seemed* to be 15' away from you, but appearances are deceiving in the misty air of the dungeon, and your fighters were actually 20' away and got caught in the blast - fighters, start making saving throws…"

This discussion seems really similar to the "firing a ranged weapon into a melee" discussion.  I need to check out Delta's place and see if he did the text comparison on that one; I know that Moldvay BX and Labyrinth Lord allow unfettered firing into a melee, whereas AD&D has the random chance of shooting your friend in the back (as does LOTFP).  One way of adjudicating the "precision fireball burst" might be a straight percentage chance that melee combatants on the edge of the burst get caught in the flames - even if the Magic User lined up the perfect placement, the little forward and backward steps, circling and dodging of melee means that the fighters could step into the blast radius while swinging.

I don't know that any grenade House Rules are forthcoming - it goes against 30 years of accumulated experience with infallible placement of fireballs.  It's a situation exploited when using minis and the grid; it's probably easier in abstract combat to disallow the ability to place the fireballs so neatly that it harms some combatants and misses others.

Adventure 13 - I was a Teenage Demon

Continuing the September series of short (horror themed) adventures...



Megan Fox:  coming to a D&D table near you

 PLACEMENT
Any hamlet or settlement small enough to call a town meeting - a less dangerous civilized backwater is preferred.  Ideal for when the PCs are just passing through.

SETTING THE SCENE
A teenaged boy has been found dead in the copse of trees near the old mill house, and torches and pitchforks are out!  The dried out nature of the corpse (life energy drained) has everyone thinking a foul spirit, ghost, undead or similar monster is lurking nearby.  The reeve or constable is organizing patrols.

Player characters might be staying at the crossroads inn or tavern, and will certainly overhear the ruckus as townsfolk gather in the market square.  In a manorial system, the local reeve is likely in charge, while word has been sent to the lord and sheriff for extra help.  The characters might have the chance to see the distraught parents ("He was just sneaking out to see some girl he was sweet on…").  They might also pitch in and help with the patrols, etc.

Old Man White, the creepy guy with the run down farm out near Raven's Bluff, even shows up with his gorgeous teenage daughter, "Megan".  Perceptive characters will notice how many of the village boys try and get Megan's attention, who blushes demurely, while the father ushers her around protectively.  Old Man White gives some sensible advice about searching the graveyard, points out that he's too old to help with the search himself, and reminds everyone that he needs to get his daughter out of the night air.  "She has a delicate condition, and she needs special herbs and teas each evening so she doesn't develop the same condition that killed her mother, bless her departed soul…"

WHAT'S GOING ON
In folklore, the offspring of a devil and a human is a Cambion.  The succubus story from last post got me thinking how much fun it would be to have an adventure that featured such a creature.  In AD&D, there's a creature called an Alu-Demon that's the offspring of a Succubus (demon) and a human; and that works well enough here.

Old Man White is a chaotic Magic User that has "retired" to this little backwater village to raise his daughter and hide; Megan is the unknowing offspring of a Succubus.  For a campaign twist, assume there is a cult out there that works on arranging these human-demon pairings with Succubi and Incubi and caring for the issue, and Old Man White stole away his own offspring, fleeing the cult and seeking anonymity.  This works a little bit of the Rosemary's Baby theme into the story; even now the cult hunts him (though that may not matter in this particular situation).

Megan has been kept ignorant of her Abyssal heritage; she's been brought up since childhood with the belief that her delicate constitution will make her sick in the night air, and she drinks a daily infusion of herbs and teas (actually a potion similar to demon control) that keeps the demonic side of her soul suppressed.  She's a sweet teenager with unearthly charisma and beauty owing to her Succubus mother.

Unfortunately, as she matures into a woman, the potions are losing effectiveness, and demonic transformations are beginning to happen at night - she sprouts bat wings, claws, fangs, and flies off in search of life energy to suck.  Amorous trysts arranged by gorgeous teenage "Megan" often end up with the victim dead at the hands of her demonic alter ego.  At best, Megan remembers it in snatches of nightmare, which her worried father does his best to dispel the next morning.

I love this set up for a number of reasons - one, it travels the well-worn ground of hormonal teenagers getting smoked in the woods by a monster.  I loved the horror movie Jennifer's Body and it cracks me up to put Megan Fox in a D&D game.  On a darker note, the situation presents moral questions for a party of adventurers that could require them to step back and consider options; the teenager Megan appears to be completely innocent.  Her father, while once part of a dark cult, seems to be trying to turn a new leaf.  If they're confronted, I'd work to make Megan and Old Man White come across as innocent as possible to muddy the waters.  And yet there is a monster in the village.  Have fun!

RESOLUTIONS
The situation is meant to be somewhat fluid and free-form, so the adventure could evolve different ways based on player action.  The pitchfork and torches patrols won't find anything (though it would be a great red herring to root out a ghoul or some minor undead lurking in the graveyard, to throw off the hunt).

But boys will continue to court Megan, who just keeps looking better and better, and teenage corpses will be found shriveled and sucked of life.

Assuming players move on or don't intervene, Megan will soon piece together that the dying boys are the same ones she's meeting; her foggy dreams and nightmare snatches are her own fragmented memories, and she'll confront her father to learn the truth - the classic, "Father, am I a monster?" scene.  Where does it go from there? My default position would be that the release of suppressed memories, when she learns the truth, merges her two personalities, and the Alu-demon form becomes the dominant persona going forward.  After slaying her weak father, she goes off in search of Mom's side of the family.  Of course, other DM's might take a more sympathetic approach.

SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED
Locale:  a small hamlet
NPCs:  the Reeve, distraught peasants, Old Man White, beautiful Megan
Monsters:  Megan, the Alu-Demon
Artifacts: Old Man White's demon control infusion


Other Blogs Posting September Short Adventures:
Here's a handy link to all the OSR blogs taking part in the challenge - 25 adventures in September:

Adventure 12 - The Night Visitor

Continuing the September of Short Adventures...

PLACEMENT
The churches in the city are under attack; priests are found dead in their quarters.  Similar deaths happened to a number of smaller churches and parishes out in the countryside.  Can the characters help unravel the mystery?

SETTING THE SCENE
There are a number of ways player characters could learn about the dying priests; PC clerics get informed by their order, and are asked to investigate; injured characters returning from a delve learn about the shortage of healing and clerical magic; characters with no ties to the church might be approached due to their reputation as professional adventurers.

The city is the seat of a bishopric, with a number of smaller churches around the city led by priests and acolytes.  Assume there's a bishop, canon or curate, 6+ priests, and 1-2 dozen acolytes.  At the time of the adventure, the bishop, a priest, and one of the acolytes has been found dead.  Word has been sent to a larger church city - the seat of the archbishop - but it will be weeks before help arrives.

WHAT'S GOING ON
The church is militant in it's crusade against evil and the influence of outsiders; what's to say the forces of darkness don't launch their own campaigns to strike back?

In a setting like Gothic Greyhawk, there's a powerful monotheistic church (the Church of the Eternal Spirit, also called the Blinding Light) that reinforces a European Medieval vibe, and witches are cast in the Medieval stereotype - servants of evil that gain spells from pacts with infernal entities.

A powerful witch has gained control of a demon's amulet, allowing her to summon and control a succubus.  She's launched her own one-person crusade against the church, and has wiped out numerous smaller churches in the surrounding towns and villages before coming to the city.

The witch's strategy is straightforward; a scrying mirror is used to spy on clergy and gain knowledge of a target's movements and habits.  The succubus is able to use clairaudience and teleport without error to bypass all manner of physical security and enter the most secret chambers.  In the darkness, the thing uses its shape change and ESP to assume the most alluring guise imaginable before slipping out of the darkness, augmenting its overwhelming beauty with charm and suggestion to quickly disarm any resistance, allowing the succubus to feast.  After returning to the witch's lair, the creature is returned to its magical circle prison until the witch has picked another target.

RESOLUTIONS
The theme here is information scarcity: it's unclear how the priests are dying and what is doing the attacking; there are dozens of targets to protect, and its also unclear who will be targeted next.  There might be some internal politics as well and general secretiveness of the clergy ala The Name of the Rose that might make information gathering difficult at first; these attacks could lead to a loss of faith and confidence in the congregations, and it could prove embarrassing when  it's learned that a succubus is behind the attacks (even if the seductive demon is achieving its ends through magic).

Once they have the trust of the key members in the local hierarchy, give the players full access to the accumulated spells of the surviving church clergy so they have access to magic that will help gather facts - things like Augury, Speak with the Dead, etc - assuming the PC's don't have it themselves.  What kind of precautions might prove effective to stop the attacks?  The witch has also compromised a servant or worker that has access to the churches, and this way she's getting personal effects, clippings of hair, and other trappings that are allowing her to scry the individual clergy - that might be another lead.  Meanwhile, the deaths continue to pile up, creating a sense of time pressure.  If the witch learns about the investigation through her cat's paw, maybe the succubus is turned loose on one of the characters.

This would be a fun problem solving adventure - the group first needs to decipher what's happening, then identify a demon is at involved, then try to find the witch's lair in the city and confront her.

If the succubus is destroyed in combat, the amulet crumbles away; if the amulet is somehow forced from the witch's grasp during a confrontation, the succubus will immediately teleport to the witch, and carry her off to the Abyss, for an eternity as a demon's pet.

SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED
Locale:  The city, various refectories and churches
NPCs:  Various clergy
Monsters:  A witch, a succubus
Artifacts: the demon's amulet, the scrying mirror


Other Blogs Posting September Short Adventures:
Here's a handy link to all the OSR blogs taking part in the challenge - 25 adventures in September:

OSR Mashup Idea - The Red Tides of Stonehell

Outside the sorcerer-ruled city of Tien Lung, a cruel vizier built a unique prison to house the city's many criminals.  It was a dungeon, a prison dungeon, that would be dug deeper by the prisoners themselves.  The prison dungeons would be vast and holde countless criminals; in this way, the sorcerers of Tien Lung would be assured an ongoing supply of victims to use in their cruel magical experiments.

But then, a century ago, a corruption took hold in the dungeons, twisting prisoners into monsters and driving out the guards; Soon control of the the prison was lost to the inmates. It's been theorized that the corrupting mist of the Red Tide somehow reached into the heart of the island, finding a fertile womb in the minds of the mentally imbalanced and despairful prisoners.  Over the past hundred years, all manner of monsters and corruptions have crept into the ruined halls of the prison.  Something dark lurks in the heart of the dungeon; the sorcerers of Tien Lung are aware of it, and it frightens them.  They've begun offering rewards for adventurers that return with maps, captives, and most importantly, information.

Here's an idea that needs to go right into The Junkyard - a mash up of Red Tide, Stonehell, Vornheim, and maybe even Lesserton and Mor.  If you're new here, The Junkyard isn't a bad place - it's a place where I park campaign ideas that I don't quite have time to work on right now; it's part of my Gamer ADD mitigation strategy.  Instead of scrapping my current campaign whenever a kick-ass idea comes along, I write some notes about the idea and park it for future rediscovery.

There have been some really excellent campaign supplements published in the past year or two since I've returned to old school gaming; last time I posted about Stonehell: Down Night Haunted Halls, I mentioned how Stonehell and Lesserton & Mor would work really well together, or how Stonehell would be cool as an Oriental Adventures dungeon.  (Stonehell is a 5-level megadungeon, with 20+ small dungeon levels in it; Lesserton & Mor is a well detailed home base town and a nearby ruined city.)

Thus, the mash up.  Stonehell would also work really well with Red Tide.  The dungeon was built as a prison by a cruel despot and vizier, and could sit nicely near one of the darker-themed Red Tide cities on the main island like Tien Lung.  The corrupting influence of the Red Tide, Dream Lords, and Tidespawn compliment Stonehell's themes of madness and insanity and outside influences.

A DM using these two together would be able to start a campaign with a solid, 5-level megadungeon, and have a full-blown sandbox setting at his fingertips whenever the PC's wanted to wander elsewhere.

Then there's Vornheim and Lesserton and Mor.  Vornheim is a kit for generating city adventures and would help with adjudicating the large cities in the Asian-themed areas of Red Tide (I don't have a review of Vornheim up, but there are plenty out there).  And there's plenty of room on the islands to place Lesserton & Mor in a borderlands region.  It's an instant sandbox campaign with fully realized mega dungeon and multiple adventure sites.

This one goes right on the front burner if there's a TPK in the regular campaign.  There are even Vikings in Red Tide and an arctic area, for whenever I get the Black City done.