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Friday, May 21, 2021

A1: Undercity Makeover: Stairway to Heaven

I'm trying to slap A1 Slave Pits of the Undercity into shape for my local campaign consisting of the kid, the cat, and an online troll. When I tinkered with T1 my alterations were pretty limited on account of my well-documented nostalgia for the original. But because, as kids, we ran The A Series exclusively as side adventures on nights when no one had a dungeon ready, the Slaver saga doesn't pack the same nostalgic punch as T1 Hamlet of Villoge.

As a for instance, here's what I remember about our A1 excursion: It was Christmas vacation 1981/82, my neighbor Barry was at the helm--as the best dungeon-crafter in our gang, this was possibly the only time he ever ran a published module--and we spent an entire evening fighting a hoard of orcs and associated 'noids in front of a temple on top of a 60' wall. 

 What the heck are you talking about D-Chuckles? There ain't no temple on top of a 60' plinth in the dang Slave Pits!

 No? Well, tell that to Jeff Dee: 

Dice-Chucker challenge: Find this location in the A1 plans.


Right there on page 3 is an illustration by Jeff Dee of a temple-like structure at the top of a pretty grand stair, but there is nowhere on the map that could possibly suit the drawing. Which is too bad.

It's true that there is a temple in A1, though it's at ground level and accessible via a portcullis. And though there is a wall around the temple grounds--and even a Wall Encounter Table which includes several potential orc encounters--there is no stairs up to the wall, nor are there plans for the "Wall" level.  And despite my memory of the wall being 60' high--I remember mercilessly heaving an orc from the wall to see what 6d6 pts of damage would look like--nowhere is the height of the wall mentioned in the modge. 

Perhaps Barry, inspired by Jeff Dee's illustration from page 3 of the module, changed the plans; a common practice nowadays but unheard of when we were kids. Or perhaps I just don't remember it correctly; sadly, none of my gang--including Barry--has any recollection of what went down when we took on A1.

So Step 1 of Undercity Makeover will be to redraw the plans to include a massive stairway to the temple.

2 comments:

  1. Just love that your use of the term “modge.” I shall henceforth be adopting this.
    : )

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  2. Interesting. I played through part of A1 a few years ago, but haven't read over it in a long time.

    ReplyDelete