Blackmoor AC1000

[Havard]

My preliminary "Darklands of Skothar" map takes LoZomp's excellent work and mashes it up with Kal's HUGE Mystara hex map.

It's funny Havard should mention quests to that location, since the penultimate arc of Thorn's Chronicle (tentatively titled Awaken, Oh Empress of Dreams) will involve just that....

Ah, brilliant Rob! Perhaps we can make use of this to give more detail to the area.

Question: How far south does the World shield's Anti Magical Field extend?

Glad to see you like this old map!

Good to see you posting here at last Zompa!

An interesting hint useful for PCs to organize and expedition to the lands of Blackmoor could come from this note from HWR2 Kingdom of Nithia supplement (DM's book, at the beginning of the "History" section):

Ah, thanks for posting this here! I knew this passage existed somewhere, but I was just not able to find it.

When we discussed this sentences at the old IMB message board we supposed that a likely sponsor for the ancient Nithian expedition to Blackmoor could have been pharaoh Tokoramses V "the far traveller" of M5 module (library clue #2 on page 22). This pharaoh claimed also the Great Bay area of Norwold, coming close to the Arch of Fire.

Sounds good to me!

An interesting adventure path could lead the PCs from Edairo (where the clue about Tokoramses V is located) to the Arch of Fire of Norwold: here they could find more info about Tokoramses V and details about his expedition to the lands of Blackmoor (and maybe also a couple of techno-magic artifacts brought back by the Nithians, just to lure the PCs). Further investigations might lead to follow the steps taken by the Nithians during their old and dangerous voyage to Blackmoor. For example, a possible stop could be the ruins of the Thonian Temple of Remembrance (likely somewhere inside New Thonia in my map above) where, accordingly to DA1 module (page 9 halfway the third column), the last relics of Blackmoor/Thonia were held until they were utterly (?) destroyed in a great fire around AC 0.

This is a great adventure setup! I wonder what the Nithians did in Blackmoor and what they might have discovered there? Did they bring something back with them?

If you like to increase the difficulty of this adventure path, the PCs could also incur into the Immortal Spell of Protection if they happen to learn too much about Nithia: their memories will be erased of all the relevant details about Nithia and the PCs suddenly have to figure out where they are, what are they doing in the wilderness and where they are going. They could go on on their voyage only if they manage to rebuild their original scope using their notes and what they already gathered during the previous stops (an exercise in roleplaying by the players, who are not allowed to use most of the information they already know), otherwise they have to give up the whole adventure and find a way to return safely home.

That is a pretty cool idea actually. I have never seen the Spell of Oblivion used in such a way before, but I like it!

-Havard