Slave Pits of the Undercity

Template:BookSlave Pits of the Undercity is a 1st-edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons adventure designed for 6 to 8 character of levels 4-7. It takes place in the city of Highport^(p.30).

This adventure would be republished in A1-A4 (Scourge of the Slave Lords) were minor difference occur in module content and greater additional content is given to connect the modules.

This module take place in 480 CY (Needs citation)

Blurb

"It is time to put a stop to the marauders! For Years the coastal towns have been burned and looted by the forces of evil. You and your fellow adventurers have been recruited to root out and destroy the source of these raids. But beware, hundreds of good men and women have been taken by the slavers and have never been seen of heard from again!

This module was originally used for official ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS Tournament at GenCon XIII and is the first of four in a series of related tournament modules from TSR.

This module contains a challenging scenario, the tournament scoring system plus nine pre-rolled, playtested tournament characters. Also included are large scale referee's maps, notes, and background information. A1 is a complete adventure in itself, but it is also a companion to A2 (Secret of the Slaver's Stockade), A3 (Assault on the Aerie of the Slave Lords), and A4 (In the Dungeons of the Slave Lords). Be sure to look for other exciting adventure modules from the Game Wizards at TSR."

Index

Characters

Prerolled characters for tournament play

• Elwita, Female Dwarf, 6th level Fighter, LG.
• "Ogre", Male Human, 5th level Fighter, NG. Had exceptional Strength.
• Freda, Female Human, 4th level Ranger, CG.
• Karraway, Male Human, 6th level Cleric, LG.
• Blodgett, Male Halfling, 5th level Thief, NG.
• Dread Delgath, Male Human, 5th level Magic User, NG.
• Phanstern, Male Human, 5th level Illusionist, CG.
• Eljayess, Male Half Elf, 3rd level Cleric/ 3rd level Fighter, CG.
• Kayen Telva, Male Elf, 4th level Fighter/ 4th level Magic User, CG.
• An unnamed Thief found in the 'Slave Lord's Den'. Later named as Sturm Blucholtz, a minor Slave Lord, in A1-A4^(p.44)

Creatures

• Aspis- First appearance.
• Sundew, Giant- First appearance

Locations

• Highport
• An abandoned temple to an unknown goddess. In her anger the plants have become animated. The Temple is supposedly dedicated to Gruumsh^(p.2), although this may have been a recent change.

Organizations

• Slavers of the wild coast, Slave Lords

Notes:

There is humorous Orc Graffiti in places such as “Elves are fairies” and “Grom the kobold takes baths”^(p.14)

Behind the Scenes

Originally run as a 7 part tournament along with the other original modules of the A series (A1, A2, A3, A4), this module is two parts, to be played through by different groups. This leads to some disconnect between the areas in the modules.

In A1 the Slaver ships are mentioned to be identifiable by yellow sails ("The lords have finally become determined to take action, forgetting their petty squabbles to unite against the marauders of the yellow sails." ^p.2) in the A1-A4 compilation this changes to purple sails ("If the player characters mention the purple sails. the old-timers instantly know this was the work of the slave lords."^p.8)

The cover by Jeff Dee shows three adventurers fighting an aspis. These adventurers may be based on the pre-rolled characters above such as Elwita, Blodgett and either Phanstern or Dread Delgath. The interior art by David S. LaForce on page 1 shows another three adventurers fighting orcs- a female dwarf again and two human appearing male fighters.

The nine playtesters were Brian Blume, Helen Cook, Jeff Dee, Gary Gygax, Frank Menzter, Tom Moldvay, Erol Otus, Bob Waldbauer, Jim Ward. It's unsure who played which pregenerated character.

Appendix

Artist's work:

• Jeff Dee: Cover (Three adventurers fighting an aspis), Page 3 (Ruins), Page 14 (Sewer Orcs), Page 19 (Aspis Cow), Back Cover (Halfling and orc)
• David S. Laforce: Page 1 (Three adventures fighting two orcs), Page 5 (The Treacherous Floor room. Also appears to be signed by Jeff Dee), Page 7 (Two adventurers in the cursed garden. one is an elf.), Page 17 (Fighting over the slave pits)
• Bill Willingham:Page 19 (Giant Sundew)
• Unsigned: Page 10 (Orcs presumably in the Temple Chamber), page 12 (Two adventurers fighting Aspis), page 15 (Orcs resting).
  • It's possible some or all of these were Jim Roslof's.

External links

Reviews

Merric's Musings Review

Grognardia's Review

Articles

DriveThruRPG

RPG.net

RPGGeek's page