#blue dungeon map

[oldschoolfrp]

Playing around with the old D&D Dungeon Geomorphs and Monster & Treasure Assorment sets from the 1970s, reprinted as compilations in 1980

[oldschoolfrp]

51: Boulder Filled Passage -- Where does it go?  Somewhere outside or all the way to the Cave of the Unknown?  Decide for yourself then draw your own map and populate it with new encounters  (D&D module B2: The Keep on the Borderlands by Gary Gygax, TSR, 1980)

[oldschoolfrp]

Thinking about the Evil Chapel (55) and Temple of Evil Chaos (58) in the Caves of Chaos, down the road from The Keep on the Borderlands -- This final section of the module sometimes is read as just another random area in a megadungeon full of disjointed random areas that make no sense in close proximity to each other, but I’ve always thought it was the heart of the complex and the reason all the other factions have been drawn together in an uneasy peace.  Someone is building an army, probably preparing to assault the keep or perhaps to bypass it altogether and strike deeper into “The Realm of mankind.”  In a Greyhawk campaign I would place this area on the border of Iuz’ lands, as a prelude to more elaborate plots against his neighbors.  (From Gary Gygax’s 1980 D&D module B2)

[oldschoolfrp]

Spoilers for a 38-year old module?

In prepping to run A1: Slave Pits of the Undercity, I found this “Sunken Treaure” review of the module useful, from the multiverse.world/blog.  It highlights the multiple entrances to the temple complex and multiple connections between the temple level and the sewers.  It also points out the old conundrum that the entire large courtyard full of ruins is inaccessible unless the party climbs over certain walls and drops down.  This always seemed like a mapping error since the module implies the occupants do have easier access to that area.  One correction to that review though: the original 1980 map (blue, above) was updated in 1986 in A1-4: Scourge of the Slavelords when a 10′x15′ corridor was added between temple courtyard “16″ and the ruined courtyard “9″ (black, 2nd picture).