“Remembrance of
things past is not necessarily the remembrance of things as they were.”
―
―
Needless
to say, spoilers ahead!
 |
| Lowdown in Highport |
What did
the world need during Wotc’s 4th edition era? More AD&D. More
Greyhawk and instalments of the epic Slavers series, specifically. Chris
Perkins obviously thought so. It was he who contacted Skip Williams to write a
prequel to the A-series, so I assume the resulting compilation was his idea. Against
the Slave Lords was published in June of 2013; oddly, that was the same
month that WotC released a further finale to A4 In the Dungeons of the Slave
Lords in Dungeon magazine #215 titled The Last Slave Lord. I say
oddly, because I can’t help but think that the compilation could have only been
made better by its inclusion, not to mention that of what followed in December
in #221: Lowdown in Highport. (Sadly, that was also the final issue of
Dungeon magazine, as well.)
Why
weren’t they included? I don’t know. Maybe they thought the compilation was
long enough as published. Maybe they thought a longer compilation would have
been too expensive. Maybe they wanted to sell more magazines.
No
matter, for whatever reason, they were not included, and I suspect that there
are a lot of people out there who never knew that these adventures even exist.
How could they, many of them having migrated to Pathfinder after the release of
4th edition?
Until
now, that is….
In any
event, Lowdown in Highport follows A0 Danger at Darkshelf Quarry
and precedes A1 Slave Pits of the Undercity. They dovetail nicely into
once another, giving DMs another option to following the path set down in A1-4 The
Scourge of the Slave Lords, published by TSR in 1986.
The
story thus far:
Slavers
were raiding up and down the coastlines of the Flanaess, carrying off noble and
serf alike without regard to station. Those lucky enough to be affluent could
be ransomed, if their families could raise the coin in time, that is. If not,
those families were unlikely to see their loved ones again. Peasants and serfs
were not so lucky. Their fate was sealed.
 |
| Bazili Erek/Brubgrok |
Why
hadn’t Keoland or Onnwal of Nyrond tasked their fleets to put an end to the
Slavers activities? They might have if they hadn’t been embroiled in their own troubles.
They were, and hadn’t, and the Slavers were free to act with impunity.
Such was
the case in Nyrond. Its attention was firmly held by the nightmare unfolding in
the Great Kingdom, and it had little cause to distracted by anything else.
But not
all were so occupied. The overlord of Darkshelf was one such. His was an
otherwise quiet and peaceful district, until he grew suspicious of a certain dwarf
by the name of Bazili Erek, and what might be going on at Darkshelf
Quarry. Events unfolded, as events sometimes do, and evidence was unearthed
that the Erek was not a dwarf after all, and a Slaver to boot! And that the slaves
gathered from Nyrond were being smuggled to Highport, a once wealthy seaport of
the Pomarj that had been overrun by orcs and goblins in the aftermath of the
Hateful Wars.
Forces of righteousness and honor have recently
descended upon Highport, some openly and others in secret, in various attempts
to destroy the machinations of the Slave Lords and abolish the abominable
enterprise that has taken far too many loved ones from home and hearth. One
such doughty servant of goodness is Mikaro Valasteen, a cleric of Trithereon.
Mikaro slipped unnoticed past the crumbling walls of Highport with a single
mission: to rescue and transport as many slaves to their freedom as possible. [Lowdown in Highport, Dungeon Magazine #221 - 2]
But Valasteen cannot succeed in this task alone. He needs
help.
Should you wish to run TSR’s Scourge of the Slave
Lords, you can swap out Jack of the Light for Valasteen.
Mikaro Valasteen is a stout but sinewy man of middling
years, balding on top but with long, stringy dark hair that hangs to below his
shoulders. His locks only partially obscure the fact that one ear is missing.
He sits across the table, silent for a moment. “There are folks who need your
help,” he finally says. “A group of escaped slaves hide in the city because
they can’t flee. The gates are watched. They need a secret route out of town,
and I think you’re the folks to find and clear it for them.”
Mikaro stands and begins to pace, warming to his
subject as he continues. “There are a number of sea caves along the coast below
the city wall, and I believe some connect to the surface above. I’ve already
explored several chambers and tunnels that link the basement of an abandoned
villa where the refugees hide to the sewers below the city. I believe a path
can be traced all the way through.”
He turns and places his hands on the table, giving you
an intense stare. “Will you do this thing for me? Will you help these people,
these longsuffering victims, return to their lives and loved ones?” [Dungeon #221 - 3]
Thus begins Thomas M. Reid’s Lowdown in Highport. It’s a
short adventure and by no means sufficient to bridge the XP gap between A0 and
A1, but it’s a good one, I think, also reminiscent of the tournament modules it
was meant to compliment. It’s also a dungeon crawl, but in this case, it works.
The question rises: How did the PCs meet Valasteen? If
you’re running this module as a tournament, it doesn’t matter. If you are
running this as a link in the greater Slavers’ campaign, then you have your
work cut out for you. Not only are you going to have to motivate the PCs to
come here, you’re going to have to plausibly introduce Valasteen and map out
Highport a little, because the PCs are going to want to go there.
There’s a fair description of the sundered city within:
 |
| Highport |
The town of Highport sits on a small sheltered inlet
along the northern coast of the Pomarj peninsula, facing the Wooly Bay. It is
divided into two main parts: numerous docks and a port district right on the
shore, and a walled urban area at the top of a steep bluff. When humans
controlled and lived in Highport, both sections of the town were kept in good
order. Since the humanoid invasion, much of the place has fallen into ruin,
either razed during the initial attacks or through subsequent neglect.
The port district is little more than a shanty town,
filled with ramshackle wooden buildings constructed out of spare planks,
boards, and netting. The unstable structures often lean at odd angles, and the
“streets” are really narrow, twisting alleys that frequently dead end. Only a
handful of original structures still stand, including a couple of inns and
several warehouses. Life in the port district is a dangerous, vermin-filled
affair that frequently ends in bloody death.
The High City, as the upper area is known, has more
breathing room, although its conditions are little better than the port
district below. It was once surrounded by a high stone wall to protect it from
the depredations of the marauding humanoids that roamed the hills beyond, but
much of that protective barrier was demolished in the attacks. The High City is
now a wasteland of rubble-strewn streets, and one building in three is a
burnt-out shell.
A switchback road cut into the face of the bluff leads
from one part of Highport to the other, still protected at each turn by a gated
guardhouse. Though sufficient for all the foot traffic that once traveled along
it, the road was too narrow to handle all the merchant wagons that needed to
move between the two sections of the town, so a number of stout cranes of
dwarven design were installed along the bluff to hoist cargo up and down. These
are no longer functioning, and only two even remain in place. The rest were
cast down during the invasion, crushing hundreds of refugees waiting to flee
Highport by boat in the port district below. Those have since been
disassembled, their parts used for constructing hovels. [Dungeon #221 - 4]
You may wish to remain true to the original intent of the
series.
Several bands of adventurers have been gathered
together and will be sent to infiltrate the base and destroy the leaders of
this evil band. Caution is recommended, for the true strength and extent of
this slave ring is not known, but they seem to be stronger and better organized
than encounters with their small raiding parties would indicate. [A1 - 2]
Carrying on afterwards is easy. The forward plot is sketched
out within.
He offers them a chance to work with him again,
helping more slaves to escape. If they agree, an entire series of daring
rescues could take place, using the abandoned villa and the tunnels down to the
sea caves as an underground railroad of sorts.
If the characters have come to Highport in pursuit of
the slavers responsible for the looting and pillaging along the Wild Coast (as
detailed in the adventure Danger at Darkshelf Quarry), he points them in the
direction of a temple taken over by the Slave Lords (adventure module A1: Slave
Pits of the Undercity) and tells them he believes that the source of the
slaving activity can be found somewhere within.
Mikaro can become a regular source of information and
aid for the characters. Conversely, he could be captured and later found as a
prisoner of the slavers deeper within the A-series adventures. [Dungeon #221 - 15]
The Art:
Lowdown in Highport illustration, by Ben Wooten, Dungeon Magazine #221, 2013
Sources:
Lowdown in Highport, by Thomas M. Reid, Dungeon
magazine #221, 2013
The
Last Slave Lord, by Robert J. Schwalb, Dungeon magazine #215,
2013
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
9167
A1-4 Scourge of the Slave Lords, 1986
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