Best old school fluff?

[FATDRAGONGAMES]

Orcus.

Nuff said.

Yeah, I'd have to second that.

 

[SpiderMonkey]

In particular the intro/start to Keep on the Borderlands.

As the OP on the "Bree Yark" thread, I have to completely agree with this.

To my shame, I have never ran nor played in KotB, though I'm sneaking an opportunity for my players to investigate it in the next game.

It is the best module I have never ran.

Best old school fluff besides that? Does Bargle count?

 

[Nightfall]

Yeah, I'd have to second that.

Thank you!

 

[T. Foster]

Almost every word of The Keep on the Borderlands is flavor-gold -- if I started listing off cool/memorable fluff elements I wouldn't be able to stop and would eventually end up posting the entire module. Just a few (in addition to those already mentioned above): orc guard keeping watch from the wall of skulls, secret meeting room of the two orc chieftains, goblins throwing their bag o' gold to the ogre, hobgoblins sneaking into the goblin lair to steal suuplies, "we'd like to have you for dinner," and pretty much everything in the Shrine of Evil Chaos:

The wide corridors and chambers are deathly still. A faint groaning sound, and a shrill piping may be occasionally heard, barely perceptible even if the party is absolutely silent and listening.

The south wall is covered by a huge tapestry which depicts a black landscape, barren trees, and unidentifiable but horrible black shapes in silhouette - possibly demons of some sort - holding aloft a struggling human. A gray sky is torn by wisps of purple clouds, and a bloody moon with a skull-like face on it leers down upon the scene.

As soon as the party enters the place, black candles in eight great candelabras on either side of the place will come alight magically, shooting forth a disgusting red radiance. Shapeless forms of purple, yellow and green will dance and sway on the western wall...

-- to a nine-year old kid who'd never even heard of, much less read, H.P. Lovecraft or A. Merritt, this was mind-blowing, nightmare-inducing stuff!

 

[Shemeska]

Faces of Evil: The Fiends.

More specifically the first page or two in the Tanar'ri, Yugoloth, and Baatezu section that tries to describe each race's mindset in terms for a mortal to understand. That's probably the high point of flavor text pre-3e in my mind.

 

[thedungeondelver]

Almost every word of The Keep on the Borderlands is flavor-gold -- if I started listing off cool/memorable fluff elements I wouldn't be able to stop and would eventually end up posting the entire module. Just a few (in addition to those already mentioned above): orc guard keeping watch from the wall of skulls, secret meeting room of the two orc chieftains, goblins throwing their bag o' gold to the ogre, hobgoblins sneaking into the goblin lair to steal suuplies, "we'd like to have you for dinner," and pretty much everything in the Shrine of Evil Chaos:
-- to a nine-year old kid who'd never even heard of, much less read, H.P. Lovecraft or A. Merritt, this was mind-blowing, nightmare-inducing stuff!

SILENCE!

Did you tie the "Temple of Evil Chaos" descriptions in with the Elder Elemental God worship of AGAINST THE GIANTS? I sure did - I mean, I know it wasn't Gary's intent. He's stated elsewhere that he made up B2 KEEP ON THE BORDERLANDS in about six weeks and wrote it as whole cloth but the descriptive text for that temple is just too sweet and ready for explotation as a hub of Tharizdun or Elder Elemental God worship.

 

[grodog]

Some of my favorite 1e backstory appears in S4 Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth (Iggwilv and Graz'zt, the imprisonment of Fraz' in Castle Greyhawk, Drelnza), and the interplay between that module and WG4 has always been fun.

 

[diaglo]

Some of my favorite 1e backstory appears in S4 Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth (Iggwilv and Graz'zt, the imprisonment of Fraz' in Castle Greyhawk, Drelnza), and the interplay between that module and WG4 has always been fun.

don't mess with the gnomes, mang.

 

[hong]

Best? The intro to C2: Ghost Tower of Inverness:



Great langauge, great local references, an intriguing story, plus a coherent explanation for the why and layout of the dungeon plus a warning to the players.

That, plus the first sentences are stolen from the Nemedian Chronicles!

"Know, O prince, that between the years when the oceans drank Atlantis and the gleaming cities, and the years of the rise of the sons of Aryas, there was an Age undreamed of, when shining kingdoms lay spread across the world like blue mantles beneath the stars ... Hither came Conan, the Cimmerian, black-haired, sullen-eyed, sword in hand, a thief, a reaver, a slayer, with gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth, to tread the jeweled thrones of the Earth under his sandaled feet."

 

[DaveyJones]

That, plus the first sentences are stolen from the Nemedian Chronicles!

paraphrase: He is Hong, Austrian, he won't cry, so I cry for him.