The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth - your experiences?

[Haloq Jakar]

I loved this one as a DM

I ran this one back when it 1st came out( the actual date escapes me). While the exact events are fuzzy I can say that 2 of the pc's that entered are still in play in my campaign and they still talk about this being one of their all time favorite adventure arcs perhaps only being surpassed by the Isle of the Ape. I do remember that 7 out of 10 adventurers PC and npc died in the final encounter and there was much debate over what to stuff in bags of holding and portable holes. This adventure easily took 3-4 months of real time to complete with a game every other weekend or so including 2 marathon games sessions that took place over July 4th and Labor day weekends including a massive cookout that is still talked about. Oh to be young and able to spend that much time to gaming again.

In conclusion if you get a chance PLAY this one out, I whole heartedly give this one 2 thumbs up and I only got to dm it.

 

[TerraDave]

Ran it with the gnomes and tied into WG4. But while WG4 has basically two coherent parts, this has cavern after cavern of wacky goodness that never seemed to stop, and seemed in no way to be related--and there was so much original material it needed a 2nd book. Weeks and weeks of play were had, but so much was left unexplored...

To describe Tsojcanth in 5 words: Caves of Chaos on Acid

 

[Altalazar]

For some reason, this is my favorite 1E module - I just liked everything it had in it, even if it didn't make much sense. I went through it as a player, on a specific quest for a specific item, which I think was the book for a wizard to gain a level. We made it to the end and I found the book, which I found out later when I got the module that wasn't actually in it, but it made sense that the DM added it where he did (there were a bunch of similar type Tomes in the adventure in that location).

I remember almost nothing about it, except the monster at the end and the strange new beast with the lightning breath (which I think is on the cover).

I haven't looked at it in a while.

 

[grodog]

For S4 fans, check out the maps I recently created showing the relationships between the dungeon levels and all of the other "hidden" entrances, exits, adits, chimneys, etc.:

http://www.greyhawkonline.com/grodog/temp/S4-maps_Fanged-Entrance-Cavern-lowres.jpg

http://www.greyhawkonline.com/grodog/temp/S4-maps_Lesser-and-Greater-Caverns-lowres.jpg

http://www.greyhawkonline.com/grodog/temp/S4-maps_Levels-in-Profile-and-Umber-Hulk-Caves-lowres.jpg

If you have thoughts/suggestions on the maps, I'd welcome input on how to improve them, in particular how to show more detail on the levels in conjunction with a true compass direction.

 

[Varianor Abroad]

Did you Play or DM this adventure (or both, as some did)? What were your experiences? Did you complete it? What were the highlights for your group?

I DM'ed it. In approximately 1983. So my memories of it are buried in a notebook I can't find. I do remember a very memorable fight on the main level with the illusionist tossing illusionary fireballs. Boy, that sucked when the PCs blew through that encounter, but they loved it!

The part that I liked best reading the adventure was Daoud's Wonderful Lanthorn. It was right at a point where my self-study of English collided with the vision of a magic item where the powers were variable depending on what you did with it.

I remember some really fun fights in the mountain passes on the way to finding the caverns. At that point (and for 15 years after), I sucked tactically. But for some reason with those humanoids on those trails I was on. I was hot. I gave the PCs a run for their money.

(If I had it to do all over again - I'd kick some PC ass. I'd put a duplicate cyst in there built by a splinter group of Tharizdun worshippers. The cyst would trigger a new Invoked Devastation. With the PCs left in a tiny circle at the center. When the dust settled, there would be Tharizdun. A god. For them to fight - for maybe a second - at 7th level!)

 

[greymist]

Played it 23 years ago, during first year university. I remember the teleporters and of course the final battle in the sphere-shaped room. I was playing a psionic elven fighter/magicuser/thief and when we killed off the vampire and the xe-yi and xeg-ya, the rest of the party, mostly fighter were interested only the big pile of jewels and the magic items that the vampire had. My PC was given all of the books, and the "useless" lantern and bird cage! It's not often that a 1E character got to raise every attribute!

 

[Tuzenbach]

I don't own this one nor have I ever played it. When I eventually get around to it, looks as if I'm in for a treat, no?

 

[Sundragon2012]

I no longer like running dungeon crawls much, but that module and the Dwellers of the Forbidden City are just great. Maybe it is nostalgia, maybe not, but those modules just "feel good."


Chris

 

[riprock]

I DM'ed it. In approximately 1983.

S4 was a great module. I DM'd this around 1984.

I did a horrible job.

I selected this module, totally unsuitable for beginners, as the intro to D&D for a large group of beginners. I had them start at very low levels -- I should have given them quite high-powered characters. I threw in a guide NPC -- a magic-user -- whom I roleplayed. I tried to stay in the background and give them hints. Of course, I had to throw in another guide PC -- my best buddy at the time wanted to play a high-level ranger. The whole thing was very much reminiscent of Gandalf and Aragorn leading a bunch of silly halflings.

So most of the adventure was a high-powered ranger leading a bunch of much lower-levelled characters around like an entourage. This was lots of fun for my best buddy, and a very unprofessional job on my part. I only hope the other players didn't hate it too much.

This was the first -- but sadly, not the last -- time in my life when I realized that I am really not impartial or fair.

 

[Alsander400]

I played it in about 1982, which was unusual in itself as I always had the bulk of the DMing duties. We never finished it but it was one of the best player experences I have ever had - which is surprising as:

a) the GM (who otherwise was a fine GM) was a terrible killer GM who never enjoyed himself unless there was significant character deaths
b) one of the players was into characters that would harm or kill other player's characters.

Luckily, one of the first encounters was an avalanche. When the dust settled, one character was dead, the assassin run by the aforementioned player. He was quickly given a replacement pre-made character from the adventure and we were good to go again, but as the GM had scored an easy kill he was much more relaxed the rest of the adventure. With his assassin dead, the other player didn't have any excuse to get up to his normal mischief and was actually useful throughout.

Highlight - battling the Behir, the GM shows us the picture from the module and one of the players states, "If that's the room were in, then I look out for the green slime shown in the picture right... there!"
Every battle we had, Golems, Trappers and all, seemed to be tough, but within our capabilities. Through tactics, caution and character abilities we overcame everything without further losses.

Unfortunately, while we found the way down to the 2nd level and gained a limited wish and a wish (that we knew would be twisted if we tried to use it, given both the GM and the creature supplying it), our very long game session ended there and despite huge player interest, the GM refused to run the adventure further - probably in disappointment at not having killed more characters!

Good players, good GM (for once), good times