Thoughts of LF1 The 9

“O, be some other name!

What's in a name? That which we call a rose

By any other name would smell as sweet”

– Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare

LF1 The 9

The Great Empire once stood as a testimony to the heights to which man might aspire – but no more. Decades of corrosion from within the realm and the weight of a terrible war left the once-proud nation’s common folk helpless prey for the nightmarish horrors that now stalk its bounds. While few remain to defend these innocents, one such group is the 9^th Division of the Sign of the Crimson Wyvern.

This is their tale.

– The 9

Those who read my blog regularly will know that I’ve been doing a deep dive into the See of Medegia these past weeks; so it’s fortuitous that Carlos Lising has published a module – a bit if a gazetteer, really – set within the ill-fated province of the See of Vanthrace – that rose by any other name.

I’m pleased that he did, because modules set in the east map of the Greyhawk setting are few and far between; so sparse, in fact, that I’ve resorted to listing generic adventure modules from Dragon and Dungeon Magazines under the headings for “Adventures in this country…” and “… in nearby areas…” for more than a few of of my Primers for regions along the Solnor coast.

That lack has been addressed in The 9.

The rotting corpse of the Great Empire spans much of the continent’s eastern coastline, the vast expanse of the Sollonor Ocean lapping upon its rocky shores. At one time, this was a land of peace and plenty. […]

Horrors Aplenty Stalk the Land

Horrors aplenty stalk the land, now, picking the bones of the skeletal farms and homes for what scant valuables might remain within them. These humanoids, once set upon them by even more wicked men, have entrenched themselves in these places, ever eager for the fray – for the chance to kill and to take whatever might be of use from the cooling bodies of those so foolish as to challenge them. Worse, even the humanoids must fear the unspeakable horrors of that given birth in the most terrifying of places within this cursed land – that place known as the Womb of the Black Goat, which must be the very heart of darkness itself. [LF The 9 – 1]

That passage sums up what we know about the See of Medegia, doesn’t it?

Medegia passed into history. […] [T]he Overking ordered an orgy of brutality and destruction inflicted on it and its inhabitants. Rape, pillage, torture, and the suffering of every man and woman in Medegia were what Ivid ordered, and his army was pleased to obey. Medegia was utterly despoiled, and what remains of it is barren and underpopulated. Its few surviving inhabitants are bitter, twisted, and half-mad people tormented by fiends and petty despots.

Throughout the remains of the Great Kingdom, the ordinary people are wretched, desperate, and embroiled in chaos and madness. The rich resources of the lands are utterly neglected, despoiled, or ignored. Mutual trust is virtually nonexistent, even within the ties of blood and family in many instances. Aerdy is in utter turmoil, and perhaps even Istus herself knows not the fate of these lands in such times. [FtAA – 27]

Medegia is thus a land of absolute anarchy. Its population is decimated. Only the pathetically poor, feeble-minded, aged, infirm, and those too sunk into despair and stricken with terror remain.

Outside of Pontylver, not many fiends stalk the lands. However, there are orcs, deserting soldiers, and ex-mercenaries who have taken to a life of pillaging what they can from this land.

Fields are unsewn with seed and tuber here, and most livestock has long been eaten. Many of those left are close to starvation, and they suffer deficiency diseases (scurvy, rickets, and the like) as a result. Medegia is grim indeed. [Ivid – 104]

Beset by Chaos and Banditry

That paints a rather grim place to place a campaign setting. Who would wish to adventure there? None – or very few – I expect.

Perhaps one ought to, though. Why? Because The 9 is very much like an earlier adventure module we all know and love.

I speak of B2 The Keep on the Borderlands.

The Realm of mankind is narrow and constricted. Always the forces of Chaos press upon its borders, seeking to enslave its populace, rape its riches, and steal its treasures. If it were not for a stout few, many in the Realm would indeed fall prey to the evil which surrounds them. [B2 Keep on the Borderlands – 6]

The two bear striking similarities. They ought to because Carlos Lising has said as much. The 9 is his homage to that very adventure, to that lone keep on a hill, beset by Chaos and Banditry; and those who stand against it.

[T]here are always certain exceptional and brave members of humanity, as well as similar individuals among its allies — dwarves, elves, and halflings — who rise above the common level and join battle to stave off the darkness which would otherwise overwhelm the land. [B2 – 6]

The Keep on the Borderlands

Ahead, up the winding road, atop a sheer-walled mount of stone, looms the great KEEP. Here, at one of civilization's strongholds between good lands and bad [.] [B2 – 6]

The place is known as Bulwark.

It is said that the edifice has gazed down upon the countryside within the region for hundreds of years. [LF – 10]

This whole place is well-organized for security and for defense. In time of need, many civilians will arm and help man the walls, while non-combatants bring ammunition, food, and water to the walls and help the wounded. Sentries are alert. A party of guards patrols the walls irregularly, and a commander checks every half hour to hour. [B2 – 6]

So it is that Bulwark still gazes down upon the lands of Vanthrace from the heights of the stones from which it was raised. But any joy or merriment that might be found there has long fled the fortification. Instead, it has been replaced by a grim, fatalistic reality. Vanthrace is yet overrun by bandit gangs, rapacious humanoids, fiends hailing from the deepest bowels of Hell itself, and unknowable creatures that seem to rebuke reality for their very existence. [LF – 10]

There are differences, obviously. The Keep on the Borderlands did not guard against such horrors as Bulwark does, but the intent is very much the same. Bulwark is the vanguard. Should it fall, the entire countryside would fall with it.

That said, The Keep… and The 9 are very much alike in that they are written for low level play. How might that be so?! Medegia… Vanthrace is overrun by devils and demons! How might low level characters survive against such foes? Because they shouldn't have to, not at first; because once upon a time there was a little thing referred to as the Flight of Fiends.

 Fiends Stalk the Lands

In Coldeven of 586 CY, word spread through Furyondy of an extraordinary event. [TAB – 19]

In a stirring private ceremony attended by the entire College of Bishops, Canon Hazen (along, it is said, with help from the archmage Bigby of Mitrik) employed the fabulous artifact to trigger the Flight of Fiends, a wholesale purge of demons throughout the Flanaess. [LGG – 130]

There are still fiends in Vanthrace, however. Not many, but some lesser fiends still stalk the land.

Although few fiends stalk the lands here, bloodthirsty humanoids, amoral deserters from the Emperor’s armies, and cutthroat bandit gangs are plentiful across the See’s landscape, pillaging what they can from this land in order to survive. [LF – 6]

It is against these that Bulwark stands: orcs, hobgoblins, bandits, mercenaries, slavers, and imperial soldiers. All low level encounters. And in that The 9 most resembles The Keep on the Borderlands.

The Keep on the Borderlands, INTRODUCTORY MODULE FOR CHARACTER LEVELS 1-3

Lord Morrow Lyrwick

The 9, INTRODUCTORY MODULE FOR CHARACTER LEVELS 1-3

The 9 has been designed to allow four to seven 1^st level PCs to play out many adventures, gradually working up to second or third level of experience in the process. [LF1 – 8]

So yes, even the fiends and are low level encounters.

Both B2 and LF1 are mini gazetteers, both are sandbox adventures, and both are designed for low level play.

Both have a keep on a hill, both have a number of overland encounters, and both have a dungeon to be explored. Carlos Lising’s The 9, to my mind, is a little more focussed than Gary Gygax’s Keep on the Borderlands, insofar as it appears that the residents of Bulwark are far more desperate and thus all are pulling together in the same direction (kind of); but that said, any sandbox gazetteer can be what you make it to be.

What The 9 has that Keep lacks is pregens. There are 7 all told, each with a backstory that helps fill in local lore. I love that; it reminds me of those in Tamoachan and Isle of the Ape.

Bulwark takes up a sizable chunk of the early pages. NPCs are named and detailed. They are given a backstory and motivation – something buried in subtext in Gygax’s Keep.

Beyond Bulwark...

Beyond Bulwark’s formidable walls are a number of encounter areas, none mapped but one. One could criticize this lack, but Carlos has focussed his energies on where he believes most of the action will revolve around: the Keep and the Dungeon. How are those maps? Serviceable. There are better out there (check out early TSR UK modules for those keeps I consider the best); and I have yet to encounter a D&D Mine that I would call realistic (mining was my stock in trade, so don’t argue with me; I know of what I speak); that said, the maps are at the very least on par with those in B2 (and I wonder how many people criticized those, then or now?).

Carlos does detail wandering monsters admirably, most of which are of the “Use Standard Encounter Table” variety, or Human in nature. Fiends are few and far between, as they should be – they will likely probably never even be encountered, in fact.

Most of this weighty tome features Caldera’s Burrow, the dungeon. It is there that this module heats up. And it is there that only the truly cautious should venture.

A word to the wise: This can be a very lethal module. Can be? It is. But it is a very satisfying one, too.

There are rumours to entice, new spells, new monsters, those aforementioned Lesser and Proto Fiends. Some are created for the DM, but there are tables on how to create new ones, too.

So, how can there be fiends in Vanthrace when they were put to flight? That is explained within. To mention how, here, would be to spoil Carlo’s adventure – and we can’t, and shouldn’t have that, should we.

The 9 was written with the OSRIC game system in mind, most easily adapted to AD&D 1e.

The 9 has been designed in such a way that it can be placed in any published or homebrewed Campaign Setting with little difficulty. It has been written so as to be usable with the OSRIC™ Role-Playing System and is thus easily adapted to many of the most popular fantasy RPG rulesets. It can easily be adapted for use as either a one-shot adventure or worked into an ongoing Campaign with little in the way of alteration on the part of the Game Master (GM). [LF – 1]

Hell-on-Oerth

The question is: Should one drop their hard-earned money on Carlo’s The 9?

Well… do you adventure in Greyhawk? Have you though about adventuring on the east side of the map? If the answer to either of those questions is yes, I would say the answer is yes. The 9 is more than just an adventure module. It’s a gazetteer. And it’s a teaching tool, too. It takes the terror out of the supposed fiend-infested province of Medegia and makes it manageable. Realistically. Imagine, if you will, if there truly still were fiends ravaging Medegia (or Vanthrace, if you will); how long then would it be before those fiends overwhelmed the whole of the Flanaess? Who could stop them? Most men-at-arms are only 0-level, and even most adventurers less than 5^th (realistically); so, how long then could they stand against that unrestrained Hell-on-Oerth? Carlos levels the field, so to speak, but he does not make Medegia a cakewalk. Far be it. Doom looms over Vanthrace. You'll understand why when you read The 9.

I must say that you get a lot of bang for your buck in this publication! At the time of this posting LF1 is $20-26, depending on your choice of purchase. That’s cheap for over 100 pages of content. It does lack interior art, but which would you rather, a page or two of illustrations or text? It does have excellent regional and local maps, and exhaustive maps of both Bulwark and Caldera’s Burrow.

Perhaps the most important reason to purchase this publication is that Carlos Lising is creating new content that can be slipped into Greyhawk. Few others are.

So, what say you? Will you answer the call? Will you rise up and face the evil that has laid Medegia so low?

“Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”

― Winston Churchill

Or is Medegia to be lost for all time?

“There are no heroes...in life, the monsters win.”

― George R. R. Martin

One must always give credit where credit is due. This piece is made possible primarily by the Imaginings of Gary Gygax and his Old Guard, Lenard Lakofka among them, and the new old guards, Carl Sargant, James Ward, Roger E. Moore. And Erik Mona, Gary Holian, Sean Reynolds, Frederick Weining. The list is interminable.

Very special thanks to Carlos Lising, without whose efforts, this piece could never have existed.

The Art:

The 9, by Daniel Govar, from LF1 The 9, 2021

Fiends!, by Daniel Govar, from LF1 The 9, 2021

The Caves of Chaos, by Jim Roslof, from B2 The Keep on the Borderlands, 1980,1981

The Keep on the Hill, by Erol Otus, from B2 The Keep on the Borderlands, 1980,1981

Flesh-Monsters-Sleazy-Geezer by misterfeelgood

Lord Morrow Lyrwick, by Cayde Anderson, from LF1 The 9, 2021

The Hermit, by Erol Otus, from B2 The Keep on the Borderlands, 1980,1981

Zombies by duster132

Source:

1015 World of Greyhawk Boxed Set, 1983

1064 From the Ashes Boxed Set, 1992

2011A Dungeon Masters Guide, 1^st Ed., 1979

2010, Players Handbook, 1^st Ed, 1978

9025 World of Greyhawk Folio, 1980

9032 C1 The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan, 1980,1981

9034 B2 The Keep on the Borderlands, 1980,1981

9153 WG6 Isle of the Ape, 1985

9577 The Adventure Begins, 1998

WGR7 Ivid the Undying, 1995

11743 Living Greyhawk Gazetteer, 2000

OSRIC, 2006

Thoughts on A6 Die, Marquessa, Die!

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal:

it is the courage to continue that counts.”

― Winston S. Churchill

A6 Die, Marquessa, Die!

A brave fellowship of heroes failed last year to bring the notorious villainess known as The Marquessa to justice—and as a result, the innocent folk of the land have suffered greatly. However, the elusive and sinister enchantress has been located once again, giving the forces of weal another opportunity to extinguish the grim silhouette she casts across the region.  [A6 – cover]

Thus begins Carlos Lising’s second installment of his continuing expansion of his A series, where the said fellowship of heroes again endeavour to put an end to “Marquessa’s” dastardly deeds, once and for all.

Markessa

Who is Marquessa? She’s an homage to Markessa. See my post Thoughts on A5 Kill Markessa! for further details. If you aren’t familiar with who Markessa is, then you haven’t been reading this blog, or own the original A series of tournament modules released by TSR in 1980 and 1981. The short version is that Markessa is one of the Flesh Traders [Slavelords] who terrorized the Tanraeg [Gearnat] Sea and Wooly Bay coasts in 584 CY, and returned in Chris Pramas’ and Sean Reynold’s sequel (in 2000 AD, not CY) to do it all over again.

Be advised that I will adhere to Carlos’ spelling throughout this review [except where noted].

This, like Carlos’ A5 adventure, is a tournament module, first played at GaryCon in Lake Geneva in 2017. It was designed for OSRIC, very much a sibling to 1^st edition AD&D, so if you have that elderly rule set you will be able to run it without any conversion. It’s intended for characters 7^th to 11^th level. A Wandering Monster Table is included for campaign play, not tournament play.

Have I played it? No. Have I Dm’ed it? No. You can cease reading here now, if that admission renders my opinion irrelevant to you. I do own a hardcopy of the adventure, and Carlos has graciously bequeathed me a digital copy that I might review his effort. I have read it, obviously—commenting on the adventure would have been difficult, otherwise—extensively, I might mention. With a critical eye.

Still with me?

As noted above, the heroes failed in that endeavour the prior year at GaryCon 2016. (That might depend on the session, but their failure is presumed in the blurb on the cover.) One should not be too harsh. It’s no easy task defeating high level NPCs. The odds were stacked against them, what with Marquessa’s paranoia. Security in her complex was tight.

Once a party of adventurers is detected inside the fortification complex, the guards will raise the alarm. This will generally be done by means of an alarm switch (with which every room is equipped) that sounds a great klaxon within the facility. […] Should the alarm switch be thrown, the entirety of the fortification will be alerted at the end of the turn in which it is sounded. [A5 – 2]

Is this a spoiler? One might think so, but this strategy is all but identical to that in A2.

And she had always prepared means of escape.

Markessa has a contingency spell cast upon herself that should she be reduced to 10 or fewer hit points, she will be teleported to the home of a charmed ally in Furyondy. [Slavers – 105]

Aside from that, she has always fought smart. She wants to win. And she wants to survive.

If things are going badly for her she will either cast her darkness spell and flee or she will pick up a flask off of a shelf and throw it down to smash on the floor. The contents of the flask will form a blue cloud of smoke, 10‘ radius, that cannot be seen through. Anyone caught in the smoke will find that it stings their eyes and blinds them for 1 round after they leave the cloud. [A2 - 27]

We know that the fellowship of heroes put Marquessa’s minions to the sword in A5, but while doing so the alarm was raised and Marquessa escaped, or if she was confronted, she fled when she deemed her defense hopeless; either way, they failed in their quest, and one of the Flanaess’ most heinous villains escaped, yet again.

Unfortunately, this new fellowship failed in their aim. Though they managed to kill Marquessa's loyal henchman, the sly Storm Zothculb, the enchantress herself learned of their presence in her labyrinthine stronghold and used her potent magics to teleport herself away to a position of safety. [A6 – 1]

Far be it for Marquessa not to hold a grudge.

Leander Hatgled

Marquessa is not the sort of woman who takes threats upon her person lightly or with any sort of sense of humor. After the failure of Hatgled's mercenaries to lay her low, it was a relatively simple process for her agents in Diver to discover his role in the attempted assassination. Afterwards, she mustered the Fulvous Reavers – a powerful group of men and humanoids that have remained loyal to the Flesh Traders and their lieutenants even a decade after their defeat in Mahredus – and set them upon the mage's tower with a mandate to bring its master before her to face the consequences of his impetuousness. This collection of villains and blackhearts found far more success than Hatgled's mercenaries in this venture, dispatching most of the wizard's henchmen and men-at-arms on their way to overwhelming and subduing the lord of the tower. His fate, left to Marquessa's tender mercies, is better left to the imagination than explicitly described. [A6 – 2]

And far be it for Marquessa to not be thorough in her retribution.

A score of his mercenaries, each one a potent warrior, were found slaughtered within his home. The wizard was never seen again. Perhaps even more terrible, after he returned to the village of his birth from his failed mission, the redoubtable paladin amongst the fellowship discovered that the entirety of the community had disappeared. His family, his friends...all vanished like morning dew beneath sunrise. All that remained was a simple note, written in an elegant feminine script:

Freedom, fleeting as the petal of a rose. –M.

[A6 – 1]

Marquessa’s reaction is typical of what we would expect of her. She’s, if anything, thorough. She’s a survivor, after all. Granted, one or two were likely to slip her net; someone who, perchance, might already be looking over her shoulder….

Skye, The Lioness

Still, a scant few of Leander Hatgled's allies managed to survive the assault upon his home. One of these was a woman named Skye, the Lioness, who had ascended to a place of trust within the mage's retinue. A wizard of no small power herself, Hatgled was unaware that Skye was in truth an agent of the mysterious Colorless Mage of Perrengaard, reporting his activities and noteworthy information she collected while performing duties as his henchman. With her allegiances elsewhere, it bothered Skye little to go into hiding with her familiar (a massive grizzly bear named Ursula) when it was clear that the battle with the Fulvous Reavers had turned in the favor of the enemy, teleporting to a place of safety far from the fray.

Yet, even as a black plume of roiling smoke rose from the top of the sacked tower of Leander Hatgled, Skye would receive a sending from her master to remain in Diver. Warriors from the north would arrive in but a night to reinforce her and aid her in a new mission. The task of reforging the fellowship that had failed to lay Marquessa the Enchantress low before had fallen to her. This group of powerful worthies would be sent forth once more to finish the job they had started and regain their honor, in the process. [A6 – 2]

The stage is set. The props do raise some questions, though.

Skye seems a little dodgy, to my mind. Her loyalty lies elsewhere, and not to Leander Hatgled, at all. Who might this Colourless Mage of Perrengaard be? Why does he care what goes on in the Tanraeg? It matters not a whit if you are just running this as a tournament. Motivations and McGuffins are a means to an end. These questions need answering, however, should this adventure be slipped into an ongoing campaign.

So, who exactly is this Colourless Mage? What’s he all about? Why does he hate Marquessa so, that he sent a trusted agent into harms way to spy on Leander Hatgled and report on his ongoing war with the dire elf?

Grist for the mill, I’d say.

As to the powerful worthies sent forth, these Pregens are the same as those made available in A5. Their gear is identical. They include:

Our Heroes

Marya Hammerfist, 8th level Dwarf Female Fighter

Quenden Tasander, 6th level Elf Male Fighter / 6th level Magic-User

Sildan Enathwrel, 8th level Elf Male Magic-User

Ilsandre Sunshower, 6th level Gnome Female Illusionist / 6th level Thief

Jaran Braxx, 7th level Half-Elf Male Ranger

Telvas Thistlewine, 8th level Halfling Male Thief

Khâzratha Ironthews, 7th level Half-Orc Female Cleric

Lyandra Yrsanthi, 6th level Human Female Cleric / 6th level Magic-User

Merranen Eagleheart, 8th level Human Male Druid

Ravella Zaar, 8th level Human Female Illusionist

Brother Lyrwend, 8th level Human Male Monk

Kendrel Rilsheven, 7th level Human Male Paladin

Players may choose among them, or play their own characters, advice given in every classic adventure module ever published.

OSRIC

I will not spoil what happens within the adventure’s covers. Carlos wants to sell it, after all.

I will say that it will be challenging for players, more so than A5 was, I wager; as it should be: Marquessa has been tipped off by that earlier assault that there are worthy adversaries hunting her; and one might expect that after that earlier ordeal, she will be better prepared, and that she will be holed up in a far more secure bunker than she was the first time. This is not to say that A5 was a cake walk. I expect it was not.

One should expect that she has surrounded herself with equally worthy minions. Because she has. All are fugitives, in one way or another; and all are fitting companions to their mistress.

In her employ are a hot-tempered sociopath, Hargrath Gernad, the Headless Lion of Hicrets [Sterich]; a paranoid Lesser Heirarch of the Six-Fingered Society [the Horned Society], named Ranzir, on the run from the Empire of Zuii [Iuz]; and Lady Tazmin il-Varzii, a fallen Paladin who was once in the service of the Great God of the North [—an albino noted as Xuloise {Suloise}, I’ll go out on a limb and say that she’s Schnai]. Marquessa’s right hand man is the extremely formidable Azaak Tolin, from The Black Heath [Blackmoor].

A relevant history is given for each of Marquessa’s entourage. So too their personalities. These will be far more useful for the module’s inclusion into a larger, and longer, campaign, but will also help the DM give each life should the PCs get chatty with their opponents before engaging with them.

The history of Marquessa’s fortress is given in the Campaign notes, as well. You might imagine it’s a dark one, and in that you’d be correct.

The maps given are simple, concise, and functional. Room descriptions are equally clear and concise.

The bound maps are grey in colour, and look to be computer generated. Carlos was kind enough to donate a digital copy for my review purpose (to which I am grateful), and that has B&W maps. I prefer these. I printed copies of the maps and doodled in what was described for each room, to better understand the layout and how the furniture might help or hinder combat and can say that everything stated fits with ease. I’ve always found dungeon rooms to be a little large for my liking—let’s call them unnecessarily spacious—what with what I know about subterranean excavations, and these are no different. The 40’ span of certain rooms appear enormous to my mind’s eye. Why are they so large, I wonder? Battle maps, maybe? Minis? I wonder why the adventure is laid out as it is, too. I assume because doing so afforded the greatest challenge to players. Carlos has a reputation as a masterful, and much sought after, DM at conventions, so I don’t doubt that it is so for just that reason. One thing is certain: should the players by chance choose a specific route they would bypass much, if not most, of the potential encounters and expedite their confrontation with Marquessa, the only way they could possibly face Her Vileness, what with the security measures she has in place.

They had best be quick about it, too, if they’re going to catch the Sculptress of Flesh, because if they learned anything last time, she’s a tough nut to crack, and if they fail again, they had better fear what she’ll do to exact revenge afterwards!

Is this a good adventure module? I think it is.

Is it worth the money? I think it is, too. Especially if you’re a fan of the Greyhawk setting. Little has been created for it outside of fandom, most of it either in Canonfire! And the Oerth Journal. Indeed, the setting was all but unsupported for decades since the Living Greyhawk Campaign folded decades earlier. In fact, I might suggest that fans of the setting would be remiss to not support those authors and game designers willing to take the time and effort to create and publish new content for the venerable Flanaess.

What do you get for your money?

The adventure hardcopy is staple bound, with glossy cardstock cover. The actual adventure is 20 pages in length of the total 64 pages. There is no interior artwork. Marquessa is extensively detailed, as are 4 of her lieutenants; and each PC is given 2 full pages, ideal as handouts. There are new monsters and new magic items. There is a page for tournament scoring, one for the Open Gaming Licence, and 2 for maps.

Just remember that should the players fail again, they should take heart, because:

“Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.”

― Winston S. Churchill

The Art:

Die, Marquessa, Die! cover art, by Chet Minton, 2017

Markessa by mli13, originally published in A0-4 Against the Slavers, 2013

Markessa detail, by Bill Willingham (?), from A2 Secret of the Slavers Stockade, 1981

Scrying-Stone by meluran

Witch-Ball by trashcn

In-the-Darker-Dungeon by ashpwright

OSRIC cover, by Mark Ahmed, 2006

Die, Marquessa, Die! map, from the digital copy, 2017

 

Source:

2011A Dungeon Masters Guide, 1^st Ed., 1979

2010, Players Handbook, 1^st Ed, 1978

2160 Dungeon Masters Guide Revised, 2^nd Ed., 1989/1995

2159, Players Handbook Revised, 2^nd Ed., 1989/1995

OSRIC, 2006

9040 A2 Secret of the Slaver’s Stockade, 1981

11621 Slavers, 2000

A5 Kill Marquessa! casl Entertainment, 2016

A6 Die, Marquessa, Die! casl Entertainment, 2017

A7 Marquessa, Thy Name is Evil, casl Entertainment, 2018

Thoughts on A5 Kill Marquessa!

 

“So new to him,' she muttered, 'so old to me; so strange to him, so familiar to me; so melancholy to both of us!”

― Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

A5 Kill Marquessa!

Of the infamous Flesh Traders, perhaps none was more fearsome than the twisted elven enchantress known simply as the Marquessa. Her unspeakable experiments that twisted the flesh and bones of the innocent into horrific abominations continue to fill the good folk of the land with dread, even now, fifteen years since the slavers ring was smashed by a band of legendary heroes and she was forced to flee into the night. [A5 Kill Marquessa! - cover]

Sound thrilling?

It should. Could there be a viler villain in all of Greyhawk than Markessa? Unlikely. Iggwilv would surely give her a run for the title, but where Iggwilv might have consorted with demons, her main goal appears to be power and conquest.

Not so Markessa, or might I say, the Marquessa.

Hold on, you say! Marquessa? Who the deuce is Marquessa?

Markessa

Could Marquessa be construed as Markessa? There are parallels. Indeed, inspiration. Unfortunately, a little thing called Intellectual Property stands in the way of calling A ROSE anything but a ROZE. Suffice it to say, while WotC may not be publishing new material in the Greyhawk setting, they have not opened up the IP to fan content on DMs Guild, either. Therefore, anyone who wishes to set their adventures in the venerable old setting will have to do a little slight of hand, if they want to sell the fruit of their labour. They could give it away free, legal under the fan content clause, but why then would they go through the trouble is producing EXPENSIVE physical product. To sell adventures, they have to do something called “shaving off the IP.” Change names, etc.

Maybe I shouldn’t be saying this, just in case WotC is reading this humble blog…. I suppose it doesn’t matter, seeing that those who do this have voiced what they do on online streams.

Getting back to Marquessa, what do we know about her? She’s beautiful.

She is a small female elf with ivory white skin, golden hair and an evil slant to her amber eyes. [A2 - 27]

And yeah, she's evil. Iggwilv doesn’t really measure up to Marquessa's kind of evil. Marquessa experiments on people. She’s a cross between Josef Mengele and Doctor Moreau. That puts Marquessa on a completely different plane of sinister depravity.

[What] catches the party’s attention are the two tables in the center of the room, from one of which rises a strange caricature of a man—long and thin, with a horribly deformed mouth and a long clawed arm. It emits a brutal croaking sound [A2 - 27]

The creature on the table was once a human slave, but is now a crazed experiment of Markessa. Markessa is chaotic evil and an agent of the Slave Lords and in charge of the running of this branch of the slaver operation. Markessa is also performing private experiments on some of the captured slaves in order to create the perfect slave. […] Unfortunately, most of her experiments have gone awry, for she operates without anesthesia and most of her experiments are driven insane by the pain. [A2 - 27]

Some were successful:

The party sees a female elf with ivory skin, golden hair and amber colored eyes. She is wearing studded leather armor and carrying a shortsword and throwing darts. She is seated at a work table writing on a length of parchment. [A2 - 33]

Actually she is one of Markessa's more successful experiments, a double who has been surgically and magically altered to look like Markessa, then brainwashed to obey Markessa's commands. [A2 - 33]

Why? So she can be in more than one place at a time, I suppose. Chris Pramas and Sean K. Reynolds puts this to great effect in their 1999 sequel to the Slavers series, Slavers.

When confronted by Markessa’s experiments, the PCs ought to be horrified, and desire to put an end to hem, and her.

I’ve suggested in prior posts that if the PCs manage to kill the real Markessa, the deceased ought to be one of her successful experiments. I will be so bold as to suggest that even the writers of the module, Harold Johnson and Tom Moldvay, intended Markessa to escape:

If things are going badly for her she will either cast her darkness spell and flee or she will pick up a flask off of a shelf and throw it down to smash on the floor. The contents of the flask will form a blue cloud of smoke, 10' radius, that cannot be seen through. Anyone caught in the smoke will find that it stings their eyes and blinds them for 1 round after they leave the cloud. [A2 - 27]

Behind the fireplace on the east wall is a secret door opened by adjusting the flue with a poker. When the secret door is opened the wooden chandelier on the ceiling will come crashing to the floor to distract attention. The fireplace will then swing out into the room revealing the secret passage beyond it. This is Markessa's escape tunnel if she is pursued to her chambers. [A2 - 33]

Part way down the tunnel, Markessa's escape tunnel exits through a secret door in the west wall into this passage. The secret door looks like part of the stone wall and is opened by pushing up on a nearby rock outcropping. [A2 - 35]

The tunnel opens into a large natural cavern. In the southeast corner of the cavern are a number of black-skinned elves leading slaves who are carrying packs. [A2 - 35]

It was because she escaped that Markessa's depravities were able to continue in Slavers. Did Markessa survive the assault on Kalen Lekos in Slavers?

You bet your ass she did.

Markessa has a contingency spell cast upon herself that should she be reduced to 10 or fewer hit points, she will be teleported to the home of a charmed ally in Furyondy. [Slavers – 105]

Aside from that, she will fight smart. She wants to win. And she wants to survive. Wouldn’t you?

Markessa is incredibly intelligent and extremely wicked, and will use her spells to neutralize her opponents. If she thinks she’s outclassed, she’ll use her project image spell to harry people from afar (in addition to sending guards after them) and dimension door away if things look bad (failing that, her contingency spell should save her). [Slavers – 105]

All this matters if you’ve been playing the A series in sequence, and in a larger campaign.

You may have never played the original tournament modules.

But if you had, or if you wish to, the story need not end, or have ended, with Slavers. Our heroes might have chased the survivors down. And one or two might have slipped through their fingers.

Which brings me to A4 Kill Marquessa!

Even now, fifteen years later, the tales of her unspeakable experiments upon the flesh of the innocent fills the hearts of good folk with dread and brings spider-legs to climb the ladderwork of their spines.

Of those that cannot forget the nighmares found in Marquessa’s laboratories is Leander Hatgeld. [A5 - 1]

Leander Hatgeld is none other than Dread Delgeth of A2, one of the pre-generated characters of the A-series. A middling mage all those years ago, he has grown in skill, and in the intervening years, he has spent his life dealing with the aftermath of that epic struggle. [He] quickly discovered that [many of the Flesh Traders] survived and thirsted for revenge against those that had laid leaders low. [A5 – 1]

The Slavers tried to assassinate him for his efforts, a score of times. They failed. And those who tried died.

None of his fellow heroes that stood at his side during that final battle [in A4] had been so lucky, each one felled by blade, spell, or poisoned cup. [A5 – 1]

Hatgeld [Delgeth] fled to Divers [Dyvers] and from there, dedicated his life to tracking down those slavers who had managed to escape the fall.

Recently, Hatgeld has learned much regarding one of the most fearsome of all the Flesh Traders: The brilliant and depraved elven enchantress Marquessa. [A5 - 1]

He’s divined her fortresses, and even discerned a pattern to her movements.

He’s assembled the PCs to strike at her least defended fortification. Too, he is shrewd enough ensure that each one of these heroes has some personal score to settle with the Flesh Traders and their agents. [A5 - 1]

Sounds exciting.

Leander Hatgeld

There’s one flaw here that I can discern, why not go himself? He’s powerful. He’s capable. And he, if anyone, has a score to settle with Marquessa.

It’s a small issue, one easily resolved: Hatgeld has narrowed the possibilities to two within the time frame pinpointed. He and his team will strike the more difficult of the two. There, done. As I said, it’s a small bone of contention.

What can Hatgeld tell them about her lair? Little. It has defied scrying. So, how does he know about it then? Activity of her minions, outside and nearby, maybe?

Let’s not be too critical. This was Carlos Lising’s first kick at the can, and he was writing a tournament module, not a campaign set-up as Pramas and Reynolds were. If you wish to slip this into a long running Slavers campaign, you’ll have to do a little work, as would have been required to develop all the scenarios leading up to and around A1 through A4. There’s no denying that will be a lot of work. It will be; but therein lies the difference between running a one-shot tournament module and a long-running campaign.

There are two potential starts to the adventure. One for tournament play, the other for campaign play.

As one would expect, the PCs begin play at the fortress entrance in tournament play. Campaign play can begin in Diver [Dyvers], where they set out overland or by sea. Wilderness and Water Encounter Table are included.

In either case, a map was provided to the PCs, but not included, owing to the adventure being originally intended for convention tournament play. The text describing the surrounding terrain is vivid enough for the DM to create on with a little imagination.

The story begins at the fortress entrance.

A Wandering Monsters Encounter Table is provided for the fortress, but only intended for campaign play. That has always been the case for tournament play. NO wandering monsters. There’s little enough time to reach the end of the adventure in the allotted time as is, likely impossible if the party is stumbling across patrols, or their pets.

OSRIC

I won’t go into the particulars of the adventure.

It’s new, after all, published in 2016; and not mine to disclose.

What I will disclose is the adventure was penned for the OSRIC Reference and Index Compendium. It’s a close cousin to the AD&D ruleset, so if you have one, you won’t need the other.

It’s designed for 7^th to 11^th Level characters, and more difficult than the original tournament modules. It would have to be, wouldn’t it? It has been years since Marquessa was “defeated” in the Drachensgrab Hills and forced to flee. One ought to expect that she would have grown in skill and power, much as Hatgeld had. She’s not much more powerful than she was in Slavers, though. In Slavers, ten years had passed since the “final” confrontation at Suderham; and in that noble work, Markessa had advanced from a meager 5^th level magic-user and 5^th level fighter to a F12/M13; where in the five years that followed she has only risen to F13/M14. That seems realistic to me. It would take far longer to advance in levels and carry on her research.

Some might say that she exceeds level limitations. She does. Were she a PC, she’d have been limited to 5^th level fighter (14 strength) and 9^th level magic-user (16 intelligence) in AD&D 1e. She was still “legal” in A2. She is even “legal” in 2e: Fighter limit 12, magic-user limit 17 (15 +2, due to Intelligence). She is not legal in OSRIC: F5, M6; but she’s not a PC, is she? She’s an NPC; and NPCs have always been a little outside the rules, haven’t they?

As to the Pregens, they have a detailed backstory, much like those of A1 Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan had. Are they required? Not for a tournament; but those stories do add a little lore to the setting, if you are so inclined to use them. Much like the classic A series, the Lising sequel use the same pregens in each of his A adventures.

They include:

Our Heroes

Marya Hammerfist, 8th level Dwarf Female Fighter

Quenden Tasander, 6th level Elf Male Fighter / 6th level Magic-User

Sildan Enathwrel, 8th level Elf Male Magic-User

Ilsandre Sunshower, 6th level Gnome Female Illusionist / 6th level Thief

Jaran Braxx, 7th level Half-Elf Male Ranger

Telvas Thistlewine, 8th level Halfling Male Thief

Khâzratha Ironthews, 7th level Half-Orc Female Cleric

Lyandra Yrsanthi, 6th level Human Female Cleric / 6th level Magic-User

Merranen Eagleheart, 8th level Human Male Druid

Ravella Zaar, 8th level Human Female Illusionist

Brother Lyrwend, 8th level Human Male Monk

Kendrel Rilsheven, 7th level Human Male Paladin

12 Pregens. That seems a lot, more than in the average classic tournament module, in any event. I’ve never attended a convention, so that may be the number of seats around a convention table.

Storm Zothculb

Back to the adventure, and what I will disclose.

Needless to say, Marquessa is well protected. She was in A2, and she is now. There are guards, and guards do what they will: they patrol. She has a trusted lieutenant in Storm Zothculb (if that seems at all familiar, it might be that the 5^th level thief Sturm Blucholtz of A1-4 Scourge of the Slavelords survived A1 Slave Pits of the Undercity, and has prospered under Marquessa, ever since {now 8th level Thief}).

Stealth is crucial.

The PCs should understand their fate if captured.

Marquessa’s reputation proceeds her.

If the party surrenders to the garrison, they will be disarmed and their magic items, and armor confiscated. Once the party members have been rendered harmless, Markessa will question them as to what they know of slaver activities, using all means available, including torture, if necessary. Once she has learned everything she can, Markessa will immediately kill all spell casters (if these can be identified) and sent the other party members to the dungeon [,] where it can be assumed that the mad cavelings will kill them for meat.  [A2 - 3]

She could have experimented on them, as well, a fate potentially worse than death, one might assume.

One should expect no less now.

The consequences of failure would be catastrophic. Not only would Marquessa become aware that the system she relies upon for her safety is compromised, but the Player Characters could well pay for their defeat with their lives. Perhaps worse, the enchantress would likely vanish from sight, never to be so easily be found again. Certainly, the good folk of the land would pay dearly, in such a case. [A5 - 1]

Her fortress strategy of A5 is essentially identical from that of A2:

Once a party of adventurers is detected inside the fortification complex, the guards will raise the alarm. This will generally be done by means of an alarm switch (with which every room is equipped) that sounds a great klaxon within the facility. If, for some reason, this switch fails to sound the alarm, the guards will voice a great hue and cry that is much more limited in effectiveness (only the rooms or halls on either side of the area in which this is raised will be alerted to trouble). Should the alarm switch be thrown, the entirety of the fortification will be alerted at the end of the turn in which it is sounded. If a shouted alarm is used, the fort will be alerted at the end of the turn following the one in which the characters are spotted.

Once the complex is alerted, guards in barracks will proceed to the area in which the alarm was thrown. Storm Zothculb (possibly accompanied by one or more of his pet giant weasels) will likewise speed to said area, if he yet lives. Marquessa will begin casting defensive spells upon herself and her bodyguard in anticipation of their approach. [A5 - 2]

No complains there on my part. Don’t mess with what works.

To disclose more would be unfair to both Carlos and to you.

Is this a good adventure? I think so. Is it a great adventure? Those who’ve played it loved it (Carlo’s games much sought after at conventions, I’ve heard), if that is any guide.

Is it worth the expenditure? I think so. I purchased it; and I think you should, too, especially if you are a fan of the Greyhawk setting. Few are creating new adventures for the setting, and it behoves those who wish to keep it “alive” to support those who write for it.

What do you get for your money, you ask?

The adventure hardcopy is staple bound, with glossy cover. The adventure is 10 pages in length of a total 40 pages. Marquessa is extensively detailed, and each PC is given 2 full pages, ideal as handouts. There is a page for tournament scoring, one for the Open Gaming License, and 2 for maps.

The bound maps are grey in colour, and look to be computer generated. They may have been rendered in colour, but they are B&W in the fold.

Carlos was kind enough to donate a digital copy for my review purpose (to which I am grateful), and that has B&W maps. I prefer these. I printed them, and doodled what was described in text for each room within them, to get a feel for what was there, how spacious or cramped they might be, and to better see how combat might play out in each. I do that, doodle. I’ve copied and printed every module map for the same purpose throughout the years, painstakingly drawing altars and pews, and desks and beds, and braziers with a fine-point pencil, adding descriptive passages and notes in the margins and spaces between. Those doodled and annotated pages are tucked into my physical copy of this module even now, and likely will remain there until I pass beyond the veil. What did I discover?  I can say with great certainty that nothing thicker than the consistency of water will drain from the refuge chutes of two rooms given their length of travel and depth of discharge (it’s a small complaint, maybe even trivial, but I am exhaustive in design, given what I do for a living). The rest holds up to scrutiny, and I’m finicky, as you can now well imagine.

All considered, it’s a good adventure, and worth the cost of admission should you deem it worthy of your consideration, and its potential place on your shelf.

I wish you luck.

Defeating Marquessa will not be easy. Honestly, the odds are in her favour that she’ll escape.

But that’s okay. Her escape paves the way for A6, and A7….

“...all evil, to crazy Ahab, were visibly personified, and made practically assailable in Moby Dick. He piled upon the whale’s white hump the sum of all the general rage and hate felt by his whole race from Adam down; and then, as if his chest had been a mortar, he burst his hot heart’s shell upon it.”

― Herman Melville, Moby-Dick or, the Whale

One must always give credit where credit is due. This piece is made possible primarily by the Imaginings of Gary Gygax and his Old Guard, Lenard Lakofka among them, and the new old guards, Carl Sargant, James Ward, Roger E. Moore. And Erik Mona, Gary Holian, Sean Reynolds, Frederick Weining. The list is interminable.

Very special thanks to Carlos Lising, without whose efforts, this piece could never have existed.

The Art:

Kill Marquessa! cover art, by Chet Minton, 2016

Markessa by mli13, originally published in A0-4 Against the Slavers, 2013

Markessa detail, by Bill Willingham (?), from A2 Secret of the Slavers Stockade, 1981

Scrying-Stone by meluran

OSRIC cover, by Mark Ahmed, 2006

In-the-Darker-Dungeon by ashpwright

Dashing-Rogue-Flynn by lokotei

Orcs detail, by Jeff Dee, from A1 Slave Pits of the Undercity, 1980

 

Source:

2011A Dungeon Masters Guide, 1^st Ed., 1979

2010, Players Handbook, 1^st Ed, 1978

2160 Dungeon Masters Guide Revised, 2^nd Ed., 1989/1995

2159, Players Handbook Revised, 2^nd Ed., 1989/1995

OSRIC, 2006

9040 A2 Secret of the Slaver’s Stockade, 1981

11621 Slavers, 2000

A5 Kill Marquessa! casl Entertainment, 2016

A6 Die, Marquessa, Die! casl Entertainment, 2017

A7 Marquessa, Thy Name is Evil, casl Entertainment, 2018