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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Style" data-source="post: 1655950" data-attributes="member: 21072">Like a lot of other folks, I got this as part of the old Expert set.  Its campaign map was immediately incorporated into my homebrew - elements of it still persist to this day.The first time I ran it was as part of a treasure hunt.  McGuffin Artifacts #1 and #2 were these Blades of Power that were rumoured to have been discovered on the island.  They located one in the lair of the giant squid but lost it to a rival party of NPCs and were forced to return to Specularum - although they later retrieved the sword.  They recruited fresh bodies and made the lengthy voyage south once more (it took them longer than expected and the new players were becoming increasingly skeptical of poor Setius' hex-mapping skills).Landfall was made near Tanaroa and the PCs managed to strike up relatively friendly relationships with the locals.  They never encountered the pirates and headed inland as soon as possible.  Their path took them through the jungles to the secret plateau.  They took pains to avoid encounters en route so it was a largely peaceful journey (a couple of dinos but litle besides).At the plateau they soon fell afoul of the cultists living at the temple.  A bloody battle erupted (I recall that this was the first time I had an NPC use a cause wounds spell - my players were most shocked) with the PCs fleeing into the depths of the temple.  They worked their way through the complex, eventually finding their way into the volcanic caverns where the vile kopru held the second of the blades.  We lost one PC to the lava but they snatched the weapon (and the other treasure listed in the adventure) and fled.  Like any fledgeling DM I decided that the only sensible response was to make the volcano erupt.  Which it did.The PCs escaped (although they lost one of the blades en route) and fled the island, not to return until they were much higher level.  This return visit was simply to retrieve the lost weapon, now entombed in solid rock.  Much high level spell-blasts later and the sword was finally theirs.I later used the pirate camps as inspiration for a similar set of encounters in a 2e game and am immensely looking forward to the upcoming Dungeon treatment of the jewel of the Thanegioth.  Dinosaurs rule.</blockquote>

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