The Ghost Tower of Inverness - your experiences?

[Eridanis]

I played it in 1st edition, DMd it in 2E, and DMd it in 3E (with a fun group that included Eric Noah, Wulf Ratbane, William Ronald, Baron von Starblde, and Painfully at a Chicago Gameday some time back). I agree with what Monte said - all the tropes are in place, but it's a heck of a lot of fun to run as a archtypical dungeon crawl.

 

[Quasqueton]

Here are links to the other threads in this series:

Keep on the Borderlands
http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=86425

Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth
http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=88474

Secret of Bone Hill
http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=87434

The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh
http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=89262

Dwellers of the Forbidden City
http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=89848

In Search of the Unknown
http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=91236

I guess by your user name that you might have done a thread on 'The Keep on the Borderlands' or even 'Return to the Keep on the Borderlands', which I am DMing right now as a 3.5 conversion.

My screen name actually comes from In Search of the Unknown -- the first adventure I ever experienced. The name of that dungeon was "Quasqueton". The name was used again in Return to the Keep on the Bordelands as the name of an undetailed cave found on the general wilderness map. The same mysterious cave existed in the original Keep on the Borderlands, but was not named "Quasqueton".

In the original module, the name of the dungeon was learned when the PCs pulled a spear from a body skewered to the wall of the first hall. The body drops to the ground revealing a blood-covered wood plaque with the word, "Quasqueton". Too cool.

This scenario/description was rehashed/payed homage in the D&D3 adventure module The Sunless Citadel.

Quasqueton

 

[diaglo]

In the original module, the name of the dungeon was learned when the PCs pulled a spear from a body skewered to the wall of the first hall. The body drops to the ground revealing a blood-covered wood plaque with the word, "Quasqueton". Too cool.

Zelligar and Roghan would be proud.

 

[BOZ]

the soul gem sucked. literally.

 

[Barendd Nobeard]

Played it about 2 years ago, in a 3e conversion. We all survived, but one PC was turned permanently white.

Then I played the LG version ("Return to the Ghost Tower") at GenCon last year. It was a lot of fun, but it sounds like we had a much better DM than Creamsteak had.

 

[Silver Moon]

My first gaming group also played this module. What was interesting is that this particular DM felt that the "Levels 3 to 7" feel of it was too easy, so scaled it upward, telling everyone that he wanted levels 6 to 8 instead. The crazy thing was that most of the PC's in the group were in the 3 to 6 range, so two of us brought in our 6th level characters while everyone else rolled up new 8th level characters. And the only two who survived were the two of us with the established seasoned characters, despite our being two-levels lower than the newbies.

 

[joshwitz]

Just noticed this thread after Q. reposted the link. It just so happens that I ran this one 3 months ago as a 1-shot when only 4 people could make our regular game. I modified it using both the 3E conversion I found here, and the HackMaster "Demon Tower of Inverness" update.

We played it as tournament using the 5 pre-generated characters. Surprisingly, even though the group is mostly in their 30's, I was the only who had played The Ghost Tower before. It was a total blast, especially with all the 1E goofiness, which was so different from our normal game. Imagine the players surprise when they met a Rust Monster for the first time! At one point, one of the players said he felt like he was in a cheesy video game!

Here's a quick summary I wrote up the next day. <Spoilers ahead!>

Thanks to everyone who participated in yesterdays run through "The Ghost Keep
of Inverness". It was great fun!

Congratulations to:

Adam for being the first player to grab the Gem and activate the Amulet of
Recall.

Javier for being the only player to escape with his original character!

Rob for getting the most puzzle/story points.

Muffy for getting the most Combat points (Damage Dealt - Damage Received).


Characters:

Muffy - Hodar the Wizard
Adam - Zenthar the Cleric
Rob - Dominque the Rogue
Jav - LiHon the Monk

Lembu the Fighter was a joint effort, with everyone getting a chance to run
him.

Highlights:

Picking the Flaming Sword and the Rope of Climbing at the beginning was key.
Not picking the "Stone To Flesh" scroll was a bad idea... Rob quickly
established himself as the leader and scout and all around sneak attack guy.
The Coatroom of Inverness. Adam setting off ALL the runes in the first
room, even though he KNEW that they summoned monsters. (Avoiding them was as
simple as a 10' jump!!) Rust Monsters rule! I so didn't feel sorry about
the chain shirt... Activating ALL 16 of the bugbears. (You could have
avoided most of them.) Scoresheet is all negative points by this
time...Kudos to Rob for figuring out that the metal bars were keys and being
the first player to say "Four Towers, Four Keys!"

The Broom Closet of Inverness. Jav: "Flurry of Misses!" Adam: Bull Str the
Monk! Comand the Manticore to Flee! LiHon stunning the Manticore, so
eveyone could beat it down. Muffy-- Dispell Magic to avoid the "Indiana
Jones" ball ruined a perfectly good encounter. How did you know? <DM sigh>
But maybe the gang is getting the hang of this one. Nope, Hodar decides to
"Pull a Telryn" and read the inscriptions on the giant crystal ball instead
of just walking by...Hello Owlbear. Umber Hulk == good review of the Gaze
rules. Rob: "I'm not looking, I'm too busy looting the chest" Rob: "We've
got the key, screw the rest of this dungeon, let's hit the next tower." The
Shoeroom of Inverness.

Rob just waltzing into the alcove. Bye. Jav shrugging and joining him. So
long. Adam and Muffy just looking at each other. Everyone getting zapped by
the Chess puzzle. Rob muddling through with the wrong algorithm. Muffy
punting with a fly spell. Adam getting zapped and zapped and zapped. Jav
just sitting pretty for the levitating fighter. The Hatroom of Inverness.

The Loungeroom of Inverness. That Rope of Climbing sure comes in handy.
Muffy & Rob: "I don't think we're in the castle anymore..." The Air Level --
Pterodactyls! Jav killing a diving Pterodactly with a Flurry of Blows, and
diving out of the way as it crashes to the ground. The Earth Level -- A
jungle with killer vines. The DM decides it's time to use Entangle on the
Players for once. A garden with Miriel tending roses...That's not Miriel!
It's Medusa! The garden now contains very excellent statues of Dominique and
Zenthar. "Did anyone buy the Scroll of Stone to Flesh..." 2 down, 3 to go.
The Fire Level -- Rob & Adam: "This is like video game." Hodar laying down
Ice Storms on the Fire Giant while LiHon and Lembu (now run by Adam) dash
along the platforms. "Good thing the Giant doesn't have any boulders" "The
Giant reaches down to the pile of boulders you didn't notice before and
chucks 3 at you." "Hand to handing would be better than getting hit by
boulders." "The giant sized 2-handed sword on his back doesn't look so great
either." LiHon stepping in the Reverse Gravity Field and falling UP! Jav:
"cool!" Adam: "Lembu looks at the Giant, glances at Hodar, and dives after
LiHon!" Muffy: "Hodar looks around and dives down the stairs..." Hodar
waits and waits and waits and then makes a go for it. All 3 boulders hit.
No more Hodar. 3 down.

The Water Level -- tropical islands and coral reefs and the swim rules.
Lembu drops everything except his chain mail and his flame sword and swims
great. LiHon has nothing to drop and almost drowns. Lembu finds the hatch
DOWN? or is it UP? LiHon waits and waits and waits and then makes a go for
it.

The Gem! Flashing White Lights! The Forcefield shatters! Adam: "I grab the
Gem, touch the Monk and activate the Amulet." Jav: "What about the statues
and Hodar!" Adam: "They're goners! We're out of here!"

Congratulations, you won! You're now banished from the Kingdom, and the
creepy wizard now has the Soul Gem.

Thanks again everyone for a great day!!

-Josh

 

[Barendd Nobeard]

Played it in a 3e conversion about two years ago. A lot of fun.

 

[Cyronax]

I've yet to run this adventure, but I've grabbed the best parts of it and melded it with my running version of Castle Greyhawk.

The adventure's intro (ala Duke Justinian and the Seer of Urnst) helped me create a great-thus-far GH campaign set in 563 CY. A tyrant on the throne of the Duchy of Urnst really throws a monkey wrench in much of the politics of the Central Flanaess.

C.I.D.

 

[DarrenGMiller]

This was one fo the first adventures I converted over to 3rd Edition. The party's wizard got trapped in the gem and had the white hair to prove it for the rest of the campaign. Great adventure. I also ran it back in the "old days" and had a blast on the elemental levels.

DM