There are quite a few old-school Dungeons and Dragons players and DM's who have a soft spot for module T1, The Village Of Hommlet.I mentioned several days ago that David Trampier illustrated the cover of T1. I don't know that this artwork is quintessentially Tramp, but it is somewhat visually interesting, if not terribly inspiring. The antagonists with the flaming eye emblasoned on their armor and clothes seemed Tolkien-esque.
I'm guessing the armored dude is Lareth the Beautiful (yes, for those who did not know where Lareth comes from, he makes his first appearance in this adventure), but I don't every recall encountering a giant lobster. Is there a giant lobster in this adventure, and did anyone have a memorable encounter with it?
I'm off to the cabin in ... an hour and forty minutes. I will be posting while on vacation, but don't be surprised if one or two of my posts are of scenic views rather than gaming-related posts.
Scenic views are always appreciated.
ReplyDeleteThere was a giant crayfish in a pool in the dungeon beneath the ruined moathouse. The flaming eye was emblazoned on cloaks that were found in a store-room full of weapons.
ReplyDeleteI also recall reading somewhere that the flaming eye was supposed to be the "eye of fire" symbol (inverted triangle with a Y) of the Elder Elemental Eye.
ReplyDeleteThe Village of Hommlet was one of those adventures that we had a great deal of fun with back in the day...and I recall we used it as a "home base" for adventures for a while... but we waited and waited and waited and waited on the sequel... which never came. I finally gave up and invented my own "Temple of Elemental Evil" that had a god who had four arms, four faces, etc., and used water, fire, air and earth powers.
ReplyDeleteThe master of the temple was a vampire/priest and his partner was a magic user vampire and they rode around on wyverns and did bad things. There were also a bunch of prisoners who had been polymorphed into rabbits, mice, etc., that the players could rescue. I thought it was really cool. Alas, the players lost interest long before I could roll out this masterpiece... then we all went our different ways (to college) and I didn't find another gaming group for years.
I remember that the players encountered the giant crayfish but don't remember the details. I do remember, however, that 1/2 of the party got killed when they were fighting Lareth in his underground lair because one of the players had a scroll with a "Fireball" spell written on it. They opened the door, saw Lareth and all of his guards and decided to use the scroll. The fireball killed most or all of the guards and then expanded out into the hall, killing most of the party. That may have had a lot to do witht heir lack of enthusiasm over continuing for more promised chills and thrills.
I do know that when I finally got a chance to read the pdf of 'Temple of Elemental Evil' years later, it just didn't excite me like I thought it would have.
One of the first adventures I played. Yep, there's a giant crayfish in there.
ReplyDeleteI agree, not my favorite Trampier cover. It's merely interesting, as opposed to his usual crowning moments of awesome.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, that crayfish really is convincing, right down to the attitude.
Perhaps if Lareth had used two weapons in the moathouse he would still be alive...
ReplyDeleteMy Lareth nearly wiped out the entire adventuring party (including Burne!) the one time I ran T1...a great villain, though I had him bare-headed rather than helmed (if a guy is going by the name, "the beautiful," he better be showing off his looks).
ReplyDeleteI think the party avoided the giant lobster, though.
Unfortunately,
ReplyDeleteI was not so lucky when I went thru the Village of Hommlet
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My DM updated this to the Pathfinder 3.75 rules to run for us. It was a lot of fun but unfortunately we didn't get to finish the module because one of guys moved away & another lost his job and had to spend more time job hunting.
ReplyDeleteI'm trying to get him to start the module up for our other gaming group but he's more interested in running City of the Spider Queen.
I don't remember a crayfish or a giant lobster but we did meet Lareth. S/he was very interesting!