Thoughts on A0 Danger at Darkshelf Quarry

“The advantage of a bad memory is that one enjoys several times 

the same good things for the first time.”

― Friedrich Nietzsche

A0 Danger at Darkshelf Quarry

Darkshelf Quarry holds more than limestone and granite. Whispered rumors abound that the quarry’s dwarf overseer isn’t what he pretends to be, and that he’s involved in unscrupulous dealings with foreign threats. Investigation is the only way to learn the truth, but beware! The quarry is well defended, and danger lurks within its dark tunnels and hidden chambers. [A0 - 5]

Skip Williams has had a long history with TSR, first as a part-time clerk at the Lake Geneva game store, then as an administrative odd-jobs man, and finally as a convention coordinator and game designer.

Thirty years after the classic Slavers tournament modules were first published, Chris Perkins asked Skip if he would pen a prequel to the much-revered series for a proposed compilation to mark the anniversary of their release. Skip rose to the challenge.

He most certainly did.

Personally, I think he hit a home run with Danger at Darkshelf Quarry. He adhered the structure of old-school tournaments, but also updated it to today's desire for verisimilitude and story. Nothing seems out of place, unlike some of the ol old adventures; indeed, everything that is included feels like it ought to be there.

It’s set in Nyrond, far from the Pomarj. As it should be. This introduction need be set where the slavers are harvesting their victims, not where those victims end up. So, It could have been set in Keoland if you've a mind to, or in the Holds of the Sea Princes, or Onnwal; so long as it is nowhere near the Pomarj.

Maybe I need to back up for some who may not be as old as I am and not familiar with the A-Series.

So, what’s been happening in Greyhawk, or more specifically, on the waterways of the central Flanaess? Slavers have been raiding the coastlines.

For several years, organized bands of pirates and slavers have made a living by raiding the coastal towns on the Sea of Gearnat. Ranging from Onnwal to the Wild Coast, they have descended quickly and ruthlessly on the small towns and villages, and carried off innocent citizens into the night. [A1 - 2]

Those slavers had been raiding far and wide; had they not, Keoland, Nyrond, or Onnwal might have made short work of them. But as the slavers raided far and wide and without pattern, they had not, and the people were made to suffer the consequences of their inability to do so. Hitherto, those raids had been infrequent, but unbeknownst to the people of Nyrond, the slavers had become far more brazen of late, and the overlords were as yet still unaware of that. Life carried on as it always had.

We now come to our adventure:

Bazali Erek/Brubrok

The overlord of the village of Darkshelf has become wary of the quarry’s new owner and manager, a fiery dwarf named Bazili Erek. Odd things have been heard at the quarry of late, and even though Erek has recently, and conveniently, put and end to the slavers’ raiding in the region, the overlord has grown suspicious of the energetic yet secretive dwarf. Little does he know that Erek is not a dwarf at all, and that the work at the quarry is only a front for a far more sinister enterprise.

If you haven’t read this gem, you ought to; it has a cunning and sinister villain in Brubrok, an elven maid as dark of heart as Markessa in Glyrthiel, and enough goblins and half-orcs to challenge the most hale of adventurers. There is even an Elemental Temple for those who wish to foreshadow far more grim adventures to come.

Temple of the Elemental Eye

I am just as impressed with the quarry itself. There are problems with it: the workings are far to small by far to be a real mine or quarry (as they should be, this being a tournament module and not an endless dungeon dive), and the prospect that any mine would produce both granite and limestone is unlikely—not  impossible, just not probably; but aside from that, I was not insulted by how a working mine is depicted. Why is this so important to me? Because I’ve worked in mining my whole adult life, both in labour and engineering, so it pleases me that Skip Williams took the time to get it right, or mostly right as the case may be.

Ketta

One ought to do a little work beforehand, if this is to kick off the greater Slavers campaign. Leave a clue or two at the temple of the Elemental Eye that ties it to the Scarlet Brotherhood, named as a financier of the slavers in later modules. And I would suggest an encounter or two while in the village of Darkshelf. The overlord has put out a call for adventurers; so, let there be a few in town, and one specifically: Ketta, a slippery sort, brash of tongue, and watchful too. But likeable. The life of the party. Obviously competent; so much so that PCs will wish she were along for the ride. Why Ketta? Because she’s a slave lord, or will be. Let’s say she isn’t one yet; let’s say she answered the same call you did, but didn’t like the pay or the terms of the contract. Either way, she can turn up here and there if you please, and will be a bit of a surprise when she makes her final appearance in A4 In the Dungeon of the Slave Lords.

All in all, Danger at Darkshelf Quarry is a well plotted, well paced, and well written module.

This is an excellent introduction to the A-series, but a party of characters could not possibly jump from this to A1. One might consider it foreshadowing, though, something that the characters do and then move on from, only to find themselves caught up in after it is long forgotten. Perhaps they find themselves drawn to Hommlet after receiving a letter from a relative….

The Art:

A0 Danger at Darkshelf Quarry Cover Art, by Brian Snoddy, 2013

Brubrok, by Rich Longmore, 2013

Temple of the Elemental Eye, by Rich Longmore, 2013

Quarry Main Level cartography, by Mike Schley, 2013

Ketta detail, by Erol Otus, 1981

Source:

9026 T1 The Village of Hommlet, 1979

9039A  A0 Danger at Darkshelf Quarry, 2015

9039 A1 Slave Pits of the Undercity, 1980

9042 A4 In the Dungeons of the Slave Lords, 1981