Lost Caverns of Tsojanth...

[haakon1]

I remember at least one Scroll of Stone to Flesh, plus a Wish due to a god intervening/me as DM not wanting to kill off a PC in a save or die situation that was failed, being necessary to get the party through alive.

But it was an awesome, awesome adventure.

The backstory about Iggwilv and Drelnza is really fun stuff . . . and I had the "theft" of Daoud's Wondrous Lanthorn by our Bissel-backed PC's as the proximate cause of the war between Ket and Bissel that's central to the setting for my two subsequent campaigns. Bwahahaha! Much more fun than the canon version of the Greyhawk Wars, IMHO.

 

[Treebore]

From the header I assume this mod was done in C&C. Would it possibly have been less deadly in 1e? Saving throws in Castles & Crusades tends to be pretty brutal.

Maybe, but I also use luck points, which have allowed for re rolls and out right avoiding death results by permanently burning them. So I would say straight up 1E would still be deadlier.

 

[Deuce Traveler]

I usually do some research on various opinions people have on modules before running them. I was interested in running Lost Caverns, but after reading some of those reviews I will probably run it with the right group and pre-generated characters. I have heard that it is a very challenging dungeon, and it has been compared to the Tomb of Horrors, though all that made that comparison also admit that Tomb of Horrors is still quite deadlier.

 

[Jhaelen]

Lost Caverns is a strange adventure: as much as anything it's Gygax going "I've invented all these weird monsters; let's stick them all in the same place". Rhyme or reason doesn't much apply here: it's all "can we survive the new deadly monster?"

That's an accurate description

Despite the lack of logic I remember we had a lot of fun playing this module (which is not something I can say of most other 'classic' modules). It's also similar to the kind of adventures I used to write when I started with roleplaying games: Every room is its own challenge without any connection to anything else.

I cannot remember how deadly it actually was for our group, but the Bodak(s?) was something that left a lasting impression.

 

[Bullgrit]

Lost Caverns is a strange adventure: as much as anything it's Gygax going "I've invented all these weird monsters; let's stick them all in the same place". Rhyme or reason doesn't much apply here: it's all "can we survive the new deadly monster?"

Every room is its own challenge without any connection to anything else.

Yeah, the above is all why I've never really liked this adventure.

If the DM and Players are the types to think and play only encounter-by-encounter, then LCoT is great fun. The individual encounters are some fun stuff. The harem room? -- cool!

But if the DM and/or Players are the types to think and play considering the whole dungeon, then LCoT is illogical and senseless. The harem room? -- dumb!

It's similar to Slavepits of the Undercity: interesting and fun individual encounters, but with no sense or logic to the whole dungeon environment.

For me, I like fun and cool individual encounters within/tied together in a logical sensible overall environment.

the party got down to the "Greater Caverns" last night

Would be interesting to hear from you how they are doing in the looting process. This is one of the modules that I collected treasure data on.

Bullgrit

 

[jcayer]

Effectively a TPK, we got trapped and the only way out was to levitate. Fly was not listed as an option. No one could levitate, so we ended it there.

That being said, our current 4e campaign is coming to a close and I know we're going to try a lot of AD&D, so this will certainly make my list.

 

[grodog]

Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth remains one of my favorite adventures of all time! There so much possibility to expand on the original that it practically begs for the DM to build new levels; if you're so inclined, see Greyhawk's "Lost" Dungeon Levels: S4 The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth for some my ideas on how to do so.

 

[Treebore]

Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth remains one of my favorite adventures of all time! There so much possibility to expand on the original that it practically begs for the DM to build new levels; if you're so inclined, see Greyhawk's "Lost" Dungeon Levels: S4 The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth for some my ideas on how to do so.

That is one AWESOME page! Are other modules given this same treatment? For example, assuming they live to get there, next up is Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun.

 

[Treebore]

Actually I am finding a lot of "sense" in this module. Ecology is given at least a "nod". Water is present, in abundance, fungus is on the cave walls throughout. They give a very weak yet somewhat plausible reason as to how trogs are surviving right next to a Bodak, in my case, 2 Bodaks (party of 6, so adjusted).

So bottom line is, I find the ecology to definitely be a bit of a stretch, but resources are there, distance is there, and nearly everything is powerful or numerous enough that their neighbors would be very unlikely to want to attack, or at least not wipe them out.

Then there are a fair number of "monsters" who do not need "food". They are Xorn, demons, margoyles, Djinn, Marids, etc...

Plus they do have this big butt river that might have a ton of fish in it, and the "calm" areas would definitely have lots of some kind of growth.

But I have only really looked at this up to the first few rooms of the Greater Caverns, maybe it completely falls apart from here on in. But so far there is some kind of attention given to ecology, and if you look at the monsters, you can see why in most cases they are still able to be there.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Back in the day, I mostly regarded S4 as a mini-Monster Manual, set of new treasures, a gallery of great art (the daughter sleeping under the lantern is just awesome) and a module as a distant fourth.