So what do you get when you cross S&S Greyhawk with 0one Blueprints' Caverns of Chaos?
I can't decide.
I want to make a 1-3rd level adventuring locale for S&S Greyhawk. That means no orcs, goblins, etc. Degenerate humans are the default "humanoid hordes" in S&S Greyhawk. Monsters are big, dark, scary, and usually the product of an unkind sorcerous ritual or a debauched experiment.
Undead are cool, too.
I'm thinking Howard, Vance, Lovecraft; all mixed together for a nice introductory meatgrinder, with plenty of mysteries, traps, and just plain weird things to look at when not fending off howling cultists and giant serpents.
Help me pick between these:
1. Baleful Caverns of the Mind Lord
2. Lost Valley of the Obsidian Throne
3. Sinister Caves of Kor-Kuros
My vote is for "Baleful Caverns of the Mind Lord." Actually, I vote for "Baleful" anything.
ReplyDeleteI say name the whole thing the Lost Caverns and use the other two as names for key sections.
ReplyDeleteI like Jeff's suggestion.
ReplyDeleteIn my recent "Caves of Chaos", a mash up of D&D B2 and Hackmaster B2, I replaced hobgoblins with Warangutans (The Ancients uplifted simian shock troops, now somewhat devolved but not so much their chieftain couldn't still use his laser pistol) and Molemen in place of goblins.
ReplyDeleteWhen in doubt do what Rients says. Baleful Caverns of the Mind Lord can replace the whole temple complex with the Mind Lord's Lair/Lab. Rest of caves can be Mind Lords escaped/cast off "experiments".
I agree with Jeff too!
ReplyDeleteAnd you can still toss in a few mutant humanoids as the cast-off creations of either "the Mind Lord" or Kor-Kuros (or as a result of exposure to the Obsidian Throne).
"Lost Valley of the Obsidian Throne", because obsidian is the most S+S material possible (even moreso than basalt, porphyry or self-illuminating crystal).
ReplyDeleteHow about a degenerate tribal cannibal cult?
ReplyDeleteLost Valley of the Obsidian Throne
ReplyDeleteYou can use the Eloi and Morlocks from Well's "The Time Machine".
ReplyDeleteOh, and I like option #2.
Great ideas! I'm gearing up for a similar translation of B2 into a S&S theme!
ReplyDeleteFor naming, I wanted to keep the familiar sound, so I called it: The Caves of Kyros. Kyros is a mad sorcerer who keeps a menagerie of his past experiments (failures and successes) in the labrynthine caves.
I look forward to hearing about your caves!
"no orcs... Monsters are big, dark, scary, and usually the product of an unkind sorcerous ritual or a debauched experiment."
ReplyDeleteActually, you could still keep orcs but re-connect with their origin as the debauched product of Melkor's sorcery in Tolkien. JRR had several versions of their origins -- as captured elves that were tortured and corrupted; as corrupted men; as soulless beings animated solely by the will of Melkor. He described the origins of orcs as the "foul broodlings of Melkor." In The Fall of Gondolin, he wrote that the race of orcs was "bred by Melkor of the subterranean heats and slime. Their hearts were of granite and their bodies deformed; foul their faces which smiled not, but their laugh that of the clash of metal, and to nothing were they more fain than to aid in the basest of the purposes of Melkor."