The Dead Pines – The Dolmen Tomb

After plundering several more cairns and a warrior's barrow mound, the party makes their way toward the center of The Dead Pines, where they discover a thicket of scrub and pine trees—a dense ring of foliage approximately 300 ft. in diam. and 75 ft. thick.

• Rangers, druids, and elves can make a DC 12 Perception check to sense an ancient magical influence (druidic/nature) that permeates the thicket.

• Except for rangers and druids, the dense thicket reduces movement by half again, on top of the normal difficult terrain penalty (one-quarter Speed).

• The foliage provides half-cover (+2 AC) to any target of a ranged attack greater than 10 ft. away, and three-quarters-cover (+5 AC) to any target greater than 20 ft. away. The foliage totally obscures line-of-sight at more than 30 ft. away.

• Within the thicket, melee attack rolls by slashing or bludgeoning weapons have disadvantage due to blocking (rangers and druids can make a DC 12 WIS save at the start of their turn to overcome this effect until the start of their next turn).

The Dead Pines – Sample Barrow Mound

On their second foray into The Dead Pines, the party discovered an old barrow mound. I rolled up several of these graves in advance, using the tables I adapted from Greg Gillespie's Barrowmaze adventure. Of those, I picked this one first simply because it was the coolest, most elaborate one I rolled up with lots of stuff in it. It also turned out to be the only barrow the party ended up exploring before they found the central Dolmen Tomb dungeon. I present it here as a good example of how the tables worked out.

Keep on the Badlands – The Dead Pines

I seeded my original map for the campaign sandbox with a series of "Lurid Lairs" (a la Judges Guild's Wilderlands of High Fantasy)—one-or two-sentence descriptions of a potential encounter/adventure area that could be ad-libbed easily should the players wander into it. One of these was the following site, nestled in a box canyon well within walking distance of the keep:

Dozens of rock cairns spawn the ancient skeletons of slain warriors that rise from the dead to attack. One has a +1 weapon.

On one of the party's initial forays into the Badlands, I rolled some encounter checks for their trek and came up with two results: Discovery > Trail and Monster > Undead > 1d3+1 Skeletons. The first encounter occurred just a few miles down the southern canyon, so it seemed a perfect opportunity to cram the two encounters together and introduce the lurid lair.

Law and Chaos in the Badlands — Part 1

The central conflict in the original module: B2 Keep on the Borderlands is between the ostensibly-good forces of Law—represented by the Castellan and the Keep’s residents—and the shadowy forces of Chaos—embodied by the cultists and their army of evil humanoids gathering at the Caves of Chaos. I wanted to keep the same overarching Law vs. Chaos structure from the original module for my Badlands campaign, with the chief difference being that at the start of the adventure, the forces of Law are mostly unaware of the growing cultist threat, outside of some vague rumors of “...trouble brewing in the south.”

In B2, the religious nature of the fight between Law and Chaos is never specified outside of the existence of generic elements such as priests and curates, temples, altars, etc., and no gods are ever named. This is consistent with Original/Basic D&D’s alignment system—which categorizes people and monsters as lawful, chaotic, or neutral—but I think it’s also left intentionally vague because this module was intended as a template adventure for DMs to dress with their own details. That’s part of the genius of the early adventure modules, and what modern, official campaign-book adventures are mostly (but intentionally) lacking.

Wandering Encounters in the Badlands

After dealing with the goblin ambush, the adventurers abandon further pursuit. The day was getting long, the heat was brutal, and they were all parched with thirst, so they return to Irongate Keep. In a bold move, the party decides to start their second foray into the Badlands at night, when the heat would not impede them. 

They depart the Keep the following evening, just as the gates shut for the night. As they head out, the guards on the wall stare in disbelief. The Captain-of-the-Gate gives them a stern warning: "The drawbridge will not be lowered again until dawn, so whatever happens to you is on your heads. May the gods have mercy on you this night..."

Setting out down the canyon under the darkening sky, they soon become surrounded by a deep gloom. Their torches seem feeble and pathetic under the night's ebon pall, and the ridgelines now loom over them like walls of utter blackness. The air quickly grows cooler, then cold, and the howls of coyotes begin to echo through the canyons. 

The going is slow and difficult, and the party has virtually no visibility to potential threats or obstacles. Thero, the elf ranger, leads the way just outside the ring of torchlight, but even his night vision is limited to just a few dozen yards, eliminating much of the range advantage of his longbow. Ban the bard second-guesses their decision, but Smitty the fighter is determined to mitigate the sun's relentless effect on their travels.

Without warning, the party is beset by a half-dozen skeletons dressed in the remnants of archaic wicker armor and wielding corroded bronze scimitars. The skeletons scramble toward them from a nearby rock terrace, scrabbling down the scree slope like rattling avatars of death. Quickly gaining their composure, the party reacts to the surprise attack and manages to defeat the skeletons without serious injury to themselves. Still, it was an important lesson that random threats can emerge suddenly in the Badlands—especially in the darkness.

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I'm a big fan of wandering encounters. 

Interestingly, B2 Keep on the Borderlands doesn't include a wandering encounters table for the Wilderness Area, nor does it give any guidance for using the tables in the rules booklet (which are explicitly for dungeon levels "below ground"). In the module's text, Gary Gygax created a curious sub-system for possible encounters if the party camps overnight within a specified number of squares from a numbered area on the map—a system which isn't used in any other adventure module, as far as I'm aware—but that's it. There aren't wandering encounters in the Caves of Chaos, either.

The omission can be easily explained by B2's relatively limited wilderness region and the Caves' layout of segregated lairs; or, perhaps, by Gary's desire to simplify the novice DM's transition into the role of managing an adventure (although there are wandering monster tables in B2's predecessor—B1 In Search of the Unknown—which is much more of a "training" module).

B2's iconic cover image by Jim Roslof. After David Sutherland's
blue-tinted red dragon on the box cover, this was the second D&D image
my 13-yo brain ever saw. It still holds tremendous power over me.

Nevertheless, I almost always include wandering encounters in my adventures unless the scenario renders them unnecessary. As DM, I have so much control over the proceedings (other than the dice rolls) that I find it thrilling to surrender control over "what happens next" by rolling random encounter checks. (I feel the same about rolling magic items randomly.) 

In fact, the skeleton encounter above led the party to explore the ridgeline from which these ancient skeletons attacked, and that exploration in turn created a whole series of unplanned adventures that transformed a lowly Lurid Lair (L1) into a Major Encounter area I later dubbed "The Dead Pines." (I'll include all this material in future posts, because it ended up having a major impact on the campaign.)

I created the following wandering encounter table and descriptions for the Badlands.

Keying the Badlands Wilderness Map

Previously, I described the methodology for developing my hexcrawl map of the Badlands. In this post, I will lay out the different types of terrain hexes on the map, and provide descriptions of the important adventuring locations to be found within the campaign area.

The Hexcrawl Map

The original area map is around 17.5 x 17.5 inches, which strains the blog's capabilities to display a detailed image, making some of the keying numbers difficult to make out. I increased the font sizes of some labels and changed the color to black to increase readability. A full-sized, fully-legible version of the map may be found here.

 

The Badlands Hexcrawl

When I set out to re-frame B2 Keep on the Borderlands as a pseudo-Western setting, I knew that I would keep all the original encounter areas in some form, but needed to replace the Wilderness map with something that would not only provide more adventure opportunities for my experienced players, but also put a little distance (and secrecy) between the Caves of Chaos and the Keep. 

The discovery of the existence of the caves (and the evil cult) is a big part of the early campaign, but the site is a fair trek from the Keep and the environment will limit the party's endurance on a particular foray. I also intend to bump up the difficulty level of the Caves of Chaos a bit and expand it into a mega-dungeon. The "breathing room" to explore an expanded sandbox should give the characters opportunities to earn a few experience levels and magic items by the time they find the site.

Adapting the Borderlands

After purchasing arms and equipment with their shares from the escort job, the party heads out the Keep gate under the watchful eye of the guards on the wall. Though it was only mid-morning, the heat was already unbearable. Returning to the spot along the north road where the other caravan was ambushed, the party discovers that Keep soldiers have already recovered the bodies of the slain merchant and his laborers. The charred skeleton of the wagon still sits off to the side of the path as vultures pick over the carcasses of the dead draft horses. 

No sign of the bodies of the goblin bandits is found, but after locating the gangs' tracks, the party follows their trail westward, off the caravan path and into the rugged wilderness. The ground becomes loose and uneven. Ledges, gullies, and cul-de-sacs make moving in a straight line all but impossible. Fortunately, the ranger's guidance helps the party make decent progress despite the treacherous terrain, and soon they enter a wide pass between a cluster of jagged hillocks to the north and an imposing ridgeline to the south. 

The southern ridges rise like the walls of an impenetrable fortress. Their serrated cliffs conceal numerous shadowy clefts and dark folds, and as the party moves through the pass, they sense eyes watching them. A tense hour later, they emerge from the pass into a stretch of broken ground that slopes gently west and then disappears into the golden savanna of the Horse Plains stretching out before them.

The tracks turn south along this fractured border, skirting the edge of the Badlands and leading the party farther away from the Keep. They have already consumed much of their water, and still have to get back to the Keep before nightfall or be forced to sleep outside without proper camping gear. Just as the party decides to turn back, however, the air fills suddenly with the angry buzz of goblin arrows... 

__________

I love wilderness areas. 

The characters in my campaigns must travel in-game to wherever they want to go, with all that such journeys entail. I always design an exterior component to my adventures, and the party typically has to find the dungeon before they can start exploring it. My players don't often like or appreciate this aspect of my campaigns, but I don't care; I do it for me. I owe this minor obsession to B2 ( and T1 and X1 to lesser extents).

The B2 wilderness area isn't even all that conducive for exploration and adventure. Any of the encounters can easily trash a group of 1st-levels. Most of the encounters are gated by an imposing river, whereas an easy-to-follow trail takes characters right up to the dungeon (the main event). The dungeon itself is so close to the Keep, it defies logic that the Castellan wouldn't immediately send his troops to wipe out the evil camp forming right on his doorstep.

But even with these gentle flaws, B2's concept of a dungeon existing within a wilderness teeming with encounters is ur-D&D for me. I don't consider a dungeon "complete" until I know something about the territory around it (and what lives there). 

When I set out to adapt B2, I knew I wanted to greatly expand the wilderness area but still use as much of the source material as I could. To prepare, I read through the original text carefully to pull out all the fun little details that Gary hides in his module-writing—details that are easy to miss if you just skim the write-up. As expected, I found quite a few things I did not remember.

Notable Personalities and Characters (NPCs)

The following morning, the party assembles outside the Tavern, taking note of a group of peasant lackeys milling about a large wooden sign, tacked up with numerous notices. The lackeys press the party for work, offering to tote gear or hold torches. Most of the party members ignore the lackeys to examine the notices.

Eager to sculpt a reputation for himself, Ban pulls a half-dozen lackeys aside and gives each of them a silver bit, which they eagerly accept. He then instructs each one to begin spreading a carefully-crafted rumor about a visiting raconteur named Ban Barlowe—famous across the land for his access to King Manfred's court, his reputation as a rakish rascal, and for his romantic (and sometimes adulterous) affairs.

Once inside the Tavern, the party discusses a plan and arrive at a consensus to return to the site of the caravan ambush and try to find and follow the bandits' tracks back to their hideout. There might be more loot there to recover, and now that they know they can take ears for money, maybe they can find some more gobbos to kill.

First, they need to purchase equipment and decide to head to the Provisioner's shop to gear up. Smitty wants better armor, so he heads straightaway to the Smithy. He enters the smoky interior through a pair of wooden doors that stand wide open. The forge sits in the center of the open room, with the heat and smoke venting through a hole in the ceiling. The walls are hung with various tools and weapons, and there, in one corner, hangs a suit of chain mail on a stand.

The blacksmith, a burly, black-bearded man, looks up from the spear he sharpens and says, "Howdy! Can I help ya?" Smitty introduces himself and expresses interest in the chain mail. The smith grins broadly and offers a grimy handshake, "Come on in...they call me 'Iron Dan'!"

 __________

In the original B2 Keep on the Borderlands, Gary Gygax didn't name the non-player characters (NPCs) who inhabit the Keep so as to help a DM adapt the module to their own campaign. He wrote each NPC in fairly broad strokes, but injected a ton of flavor and personality into each brief description.

For my Badlands campaign, I wanted to hew as closely to the original as possible, with an understanding that it's possible some of my players will figure out that this campaign is B2 in disguise, which might render some of the conflict and treachery in the module less effective. As a result, some of the NPC details from B2 are modified from the original text.

It's also possible my players may become, or are already aware of this blog, in which case I am revealing many important campaign details they are not meant to know. If this is any of my Monday night Roll20 guys, please stop reading now...

Hooks and Threads

When the party arrives at Irongate Keep, they are first questioned outside the walls by a sentry, who asks each character their name and business in the keep. Here, the merchants who hired the party as escorts sign the documents confirming their service and explain that the party members can receive the balance of their payment at the Guildhouse in the keep's village.

Passing through the curtain wall, the four party members—Smitty, a human fighter; Ban, a human bard; Thero, a wood elf ranger; and Thoin, a dwarf cleric—enter the courtyard under the gaze of several soldiers up on the parapets. They form a short queue as other keep visitors ahead of them speak with the Master-of-Stores. While they wait, a stern-eyed Sergeant-of-the-Gate strolls over with a pair of guards and converses briefly with the party. He makes some small talk and then stresses, in no uncertain terms, that the Castellan brooks no mischief or law-breaking. The Sergeant doesn't seem to give the same attention to the other peasants and merchants in line.

Soon enough, the Master-of-Stores comes over and asks each character if they have any valuables to declare for sale within the keep. Most answer "no," but Ban explains that the party recovered some trade goods from an ambushed caravan that they would like to turn in for a reward. As several lackeys take the goods into the warehouse, the Master-of-Stores speaks briefly with the party's previous employers who confirm the story. He then gives Ban a receipt for the bundle of goods and instructs him to take it to the Guildhouse. 

Ban shows him the bronze sigil taken off the hobgoblin bandit's body. The Master takes the pendant and pockets it, telling Ban that he will take care of it and "not to trouble himself over the matter." He barks at one of the young lackeys, ordering the lad to escort the party to the Guildhouse at once, and then he shuffles off to attend to other keep visitors.

They head up the ramp into the village proper, observing groups of commoners—mostly women and children—gathered outside a row of apartments, performing daily tasks: cooking, scrubbing laundry, gossiping, etc. Ban flirts with several of the maidens as he passes by, causing the girls to giggle and laugh, and the older ladies to cluck disapprovingly. The few male villagers present pause their labors to glare at the fancypants bard.

Smitty glances inside a nearby blacksmith's shop and sees the smith hard at work at his anvil, assisted by two able apprentices. He is reminded of his youth as a smith's apprentice and makes a note to come back later. At the top of the ramp, the party's escort rounds a corner by the Provisioner's shop and brings them to a prominent building—the Guildhouse. Next to the door, a wooden placard displays the merchant guild's sigil: three golden coins forming a triangle.

Inside, the Guildmaster takes possession of the recovered goods and listens intently to the party's report. He thanks them for the information and their good deed, and offers the party a reward of 150 guilders, which they gladly accept. After turning in the loaner gear from the caravan masters and their pay receipts, the Guildmaster also gives the party members their remaining wages for guarding the caravan: 150 guilders each. 

As journeyman artisans, Smitty and Thoin opt for the free accommodations at the Guildhouse. Ban and Thero decide to head for the Inn. They agree to convene at the Tavern in the morning to figure out their next steps...

____________________

At this point, the players are let loose to do what they want in the area. They each have the clothes on their back, a few personal items, and not-quite 250 guilders each to gear up and begin adventuring. In addition, Smitty gleaned some leather armor and a longsword from the hobgoblin, Ban has his dagger and a scimitar he grabbed from one of the goblins, Thero has a goblin scimitar along with his longbow and a few arrows, and Thoin has his hammer.

I'm running the campaign as a hexcrawl/sandbox with a loose background plot involving an evil cult of chaos gathering an army of humanoids to smash the keep and clear the way for an infiltration of southern Remedios. It will take some time for the cult's plan to achieve fruition, but the clock is ticking.

Irongate Keep

NOTE: The following material is an homage to the Basic D&D module: B2 Keep on the Borderlands. In adapting it to my 5e campaign, I took liberties with the original document (some of which I intend to discuss in a future post), but I tried to keep much of the flavor and phrasing of Gary's original text. This module taught me what a dungeon setting was all about, and, to some degree, has influenced every adventure I've ever created.

Classic illustration from B2
by D. S. LaForce (Diesel)

This sturdy fortress sits at the southernmost edge of human civilization. Built along an ancient trade road, atop a high bluff at the head of a wide canyon between two steep ridgelines, the keep's purpose is to defend the remote border of Remedios against invaders from the Red Desert. A village has sprung up within its walls, catering to the needs of those intrepid enough to brave the wild frontier beyond. The village will serve as the characters’ base camp as they adventure in the Badlands.

The keep's Castellan is a no-nonsense, law-and-order man. Though loyal to the king, he expects his ailing liege to die soon, so he is careful with his alliances and keeps his troops close by to fend off ambitious rivals. Despite the tenuous political situation in the northern capital, he is duty-bound to his sworn mission: maintaining the keep’s standing strength and defending the pass from incursions. 

In recent years, it was discovered that the craggy hills around the keep are rich in ore and gems, prompting an influx of itinerant prospectors and treasure-seekers. As a result of the mining boom, the Castellan's coffers are filled with gold. He has received credible reports, however, that trouble is a-brewing in the hills to the south: witnesses claim to have encountered various bands of hostile humanoids roaming the canyons, and perhaps gathering together into a bigger force.

In order to protect the keep—and his new source of revenue—without risking his own troops, he has decided to fund an operation off the keep's books. His closest advisors and officers have orders to find trustworthy mercenaries willing to brave the wilds and root out the source of this growing menace. Several parties have been dispatched so far, but none have returned. 

There are many such opportunities at the keep for brave souls willing to handle dangerous threats, particularly those who first make names for themselves among local residents and officials.

Campaign Prologue

Session 0 for this campaign consisted of rolling up characters and then giving the players the following background information and encounter.

Seeking adventure, the characters have signed on to escort a merchant caravan across more than 700 miles to Irongate Keep on the southernmost border of the kingdom of Remedios—the edge of the civilized world. Each was paid 50 guilders (gp) to sign on, plus another 150 guilders upon arrival.

During the trip, each character learns two of the following rumors about the area, overheard from the merchants (roll 1d8, no repeats)…

1. The Badlands region was once the site of an ancient temple dedicated to Thera—matriarch of the Solis pantheon, and the goddess of earth, life, and hearth. In the distant past, her temple priests fought a war with an evil cult. The ruins of both the Theran temple and the cult’s former lair are hidden somewhere in the hills below the keep.
2. The keep’s castellan is a former Remediosi knight, a righteous man of law and order.
3. The keep’s doctor pays good money for animal and plant specimens for his studies.
4. The broken hills of the Badlands are rich in gold and silver ore, but there are also many reports of caves and ancient ruins dotting the region, chock-full of treasure and artifacts.
5. There is a fountain in the keep with a statue of the water-goddess, Luvia (daughter of Thera). Supposedly, its waters invigorate any follower of the Solis pantheon. When the moon is dark, the statue is said to whisper secrets to the faithful.
6. There is a secret morgue beneath the castellan’s fortress, where the doctor conducts grotesque experiments on the dead. Some say he is a necromancer.
7. The vizier of the keep is one of the castellan’s closest advisers. He is said to possess a magical eye that sees everything that happens in the keep.
8. Many unsavory characters pass through the keep’s village...especially now that so much ore is coming out of the hills. Be careful what you say and to whom you say it.

It is up to the players as to what rumors they share with the rest of the party (or don't). 

Survival in the Badlands

The extreme climate makes life difficult on the frontier. A semi-desert region, the Badlands typically sees high temperatures and arid conditions, with some days becoming unbearably hot.

Heavy rains and flooding are occasional problems in the canyons, as are blinding dust storms that sweep in from the Red Desert to the south.

The following house rules were implemented to help simulate the difficult conditions.

Keep on the Badlands — Character Creation

I asked my Monday night players how they felt about switching to a different rules system for the new campaign. I explained that I really wanted to run Basic/1e D&D using one of the retro-clones, but my suggestion was met with a resounding, "No, thanks." The guys know 5e and are confident playing it, so they have zero interest in learning a new game (even if it's sort-of the one we used to play 40 years ago).

I like core 5e well enough so I'm not terribly disappointed, but I was jazzed about trying something different (especially for this campaign, my adaptation of B2 Keep on the Borderlands). I haven't played/run AD&D since the late 80s—going back to that system or even Basic sounds like great fun to me, but it's not the hill I felt like dying upon.

Fifth Edition it is, then. To capture the feel of Basic/1e under the 5e framework, however, I established the following character creation guidelines. Because the Caves of Chaos are filled with lots of enemies, I also boosted some of the class abilities to give the party a little more endurance and enable them to press on longer without stopping to rest every other combat (which might be difficult or even impossible during an attack on one of the humanoid lairs).

The Badlands

The Badlands are a desolate range of broken hills located along the southeastern border of the kingdom of Remedios, across the Plains of Yorum. The region is harsh and unforgiving, a labyrinth of boulder-filled canyons that wind through high, craggy ridgelines.

The air here is hot and dry, and vegetation is sparse—mostly dry grass and low, thorny scrub. An occasional stream trickles through the deeper canyons, where thickets of pine trees and brambles grow. In some low-lying canyons, the streams get trapped and form weed-choked marshes that teem with mites and biting flies.

The craggy hills are rich in mineral wealth, however, and mining camps have popped up all over as prospectors, assayers, and merchants flock to the region seeking their fortunes. Caves abound and shelter can be found among the terraced ridgelines (though such caves are often the lairs of dangerous creatures). The ridges are also said to hide mysterious ruins that hold all manner of ancient secrets, treasures, and terrors alike.

The locals consider the entire land cursed. Some say an ancient evil once held dominion over the area—and that shadowy remnants of it linger still. Prospectors tell tales of ill-seeming creatures slinking through the hills... and of an evil cult stirring them up.

To the west sprawl the arid grasslands of the nomadic horse-clans, who compete for territory with herds of aggressive centaurs as well as bugbear tribes who dwell in the fringes of the Badlands. The territory to the east is the stomping grounds of a trio of hill giants—brutish brothers who war constantly with each other. The eastern hills are crawling with their evil minions—goblins, orcs, and much worse. Nobody goes into the east, not even the brave soldiers of Irongate Keep. Beyond the Badlands to the south lies the inhospitable Red Desert, home to the savage red orcs.

Keep on the Badlands

I took a brief hiatus from the blog due to real-life work projects. In the meantime, Jeff decided to end his campaign and asked me to resume DM duties for our regular weekly Roll20 campaign. The only thing I had ready to go was a set-up I created during the 5e playtest (D&D Next). The playtest packet included a conversion of the Caves of Chaos (sans keep or surroundings) from the Basic D&D module: B2 Keep on the Borderlands.

Erol Otus captures it all so perfectly.

B2 was the first module I adventured in when I started playing D&D, and the caves hold a special place in my heart as my first foray into a "dungeon" setting. I still vividly remember flipping through the module for the first time and seeing all those illustrations that cemented what D&D was in my young brain.

My plan during the playtest was to run B2 as a mini-campaign to introduce my players to the new ruleset. I re-imagined the keep as an outpost on the edge of a desert wilderness called "The Badlands," and created a new regional map for the players to explore (much of it cribbed from the original module). I never ended up using any of the materials when we started playing the published 5e rules, even though I'd done a lot of work on it. This seemed like a great opportunity then to dust off the setting and start a new campaign: Keep on the Badlands.

The setting is a sandbox with several active plot-lines occurring in the area (one of which is the restoration project underway at the Caves of Chaos—the existence of which is NOT currently known to the residents of the keep). Part of the early campaign will involve uncovering the knowledge of the caves and the evil cult behind it.

Irongate Keep — the last bastion of civilization on a desolate frontier.