A1 Undercity 2: The Stairway continues

One of my favorite parts of Dungeon Module A1 is this little tidbit from the map of the slave pits.

The cartographer drew this handy sketch to let us know that the northern portion of room #19C is accessed via a corridor that goes underneath room 18B. This is good to know cuz that's not clear from the map; one might otherwise conclude that there is no way to get there. I draw these sort of thumbnail sketches of the more convoluted portions of my dungeons all the time; it's nice to see one in an old time TSR adventure as well. 

That said, what's the significance of the space? Is it essential that it goes under 18B above? More important, is it interesting enough to merit a special sketch? Well, it's the machine room for the works that open and close the slave pits in room 18--the actual levers that control the works are upstairs in 18b--and it's occupied by an aspis drone and a few slaves whose job it is to oil the cogs and such. It's nice that they acknowledge this sort of infrastructure, but is it worthy of the sketch? You be the judge.

But then I took another look at the sketch and thought "That is the widest stairs in the whole modge [that's for you JB]," and if you ignore the context of the underground setting and squint at a spot just to the left of the arrowhead while singing the national anthem of a country you've never heard of, it just seems maybe plausible that this could be what inspired Jeff Dee's illustration of the stairs to the temple from page 3:

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.

Beware! Lord Namalk VII is coming

 

Behold!

Every now  and then I get a bee in my bonnet about old timey fantasy/weird authors, particularly pre-Tolkeinian Brits from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. So I was looking around for the works of Wiliam Hope Hodgson the other day, author of such works as the House on the Borderlands--no, it bears no resemblance to B2 whatsoever, though it's interpretation of "borderlands" might add some depth to that setting. 

"Blah blah blah, what's your point, O Great Chucker of Dice?" you ask? My point is this: check out that little pacman-shaped dude in the lower right corner of the cover of The Night Land by WH Hodgson and then tell me that that isn't the inspiration for the dude on the right.