[Blog] Tomb of Abysthor (Necromancer Games 2002)

[Havard]

This 2002 module from Necromancer Games was brought to my attention recently. Apparently, Necromancer Games' President at the time Clark Peterson, had inserted references to Dave Arneson's most famous modules:

"Anyone catch the homage to Arneson's Temple of the Frog, which just happens to be the first published adventure for D&D (I say first published adventure because it was published in the original Blackmoor supplement. The first actual module--meaning all the product contained was an adventure--was Palace of the Vampire Queen by Wee Warriors)."-Clark

Writing under the pseudonym Orcus, Peterson goes on to express his satisfaction with the module, and also reveals his high opinion of the Temple of the Frog:

"...it has a cool homage to several really cool modules in it (Lost caverns of Tsojcanth and Temple of the Frog), it has links to Rappan Athuk for those who want them, it links to Crucible in that Tavik is there (if he survived), the new monsters are cool as are the new magic items.Can you tell I am proud of this one?"

Yes Clark, we agree with you on this at least. Temple of the Frog is a really cool module! I don't have a copy of Tomb of Abysthor, but looking at some of the preview from DrivethruRPG, I came across the following excerpt from page 2 of the module, which may be the reference Peterson was talking about:

"The physical ruin of the shrines and burial halls in the Valley of the Shrines is by far the least of the corruption ofthe once-holy sanctuaries. In the great caves beneath the burial halls, the tsathar, inhuman priests of the foul god Tsathogga, long ago raised a temple to their hideous demon-frog god. The tsathar as a race are detailed in the Monster Appendix. More vile still, a contingent of priests of Orcus—the evil demon-god of the undead—recently came some ten years ago from the legendary dungeon of Rappan Athuk to corrupt the burial halls and exploit the location as a base of operations for further expansion of their evil cult. The followers of the two evil gods have reached an uneasy truce. Both, however, seek a power even darker still—the power of a legendary Black Monolithrumored to be hidden somewhere in these caverns, sealed away long ago by an ancient power"
So the Tomb of Abysthor was built by the followers of the Frog and the followers of Orcus. This would make the module ideal to place somewhere in the world of Dave Arneson's Blackmoor, right?

If any of my readers owns this module and have additional information from within the pages of the book, please let me know!

Full version: http://blackmoormystara.blogspot.no/201 ... -2002.html



-Havard

[Havard]

Forwarding some comments from the blog:

You can get it for PF or S&W at http://talesofthefroggod.com/lost-lands ... art-valley

I had a great deal of fun running this module a few years back. Not quite as lethal as Rappan Attuk, although it does have some tricky bits. However, they only got to the third level, so I have not extensively researched the politics of the inner temple. As indicated above it has been re-released at part of the Stoneheart Valley module.

-Havard

[hedgehobbit]

I ran this for my 3e group way back in the 3e days. Back then I really had no idea what Blackmoor was or who Dave Arneson was so I can't recall any similarities.

[Havard]

I ran this for my 3e group way back in the 3e days. Back then I really had no idea what Blackmoor was or who Dave Arneson was so I can't recall any similarities.

Hey Hedgehobbit! Good to see that you are still around. The main connection to the Temple of the Frog appears to be the Frog/Tshathoggus cultists. Do you remember if those are just part of the backstory, or if they play a larger role?


-Havard

[Havard]

More from the blog:

TheBaxNovember 26, 2013 at 7:21 AM
Havard, as someone who owns the Stoneheart Valley and the original modules, I can answer some of your questions. The modules were originally sold separately and not integrated. They are well designed but generic enough that they can be used in any campaign, including a Blackmoor one. Of the three, Tomb of Abysthor would probably have the most relevance to the Blackmoor setting (especially one dungeon level in particular). In Stoneheart Valley, while they are "linked", the links are light enough that you can dispense with them and use the pieces separately if you want to. If you are looking for something tightly integrated, SV is probably not it. But with some dm work it could be made to suit your purposes.

-Havard

[Havard]

Finally got my hands on this module. Turns out there is more Blackmoor related material here than I first assumed. An entire dungeon level is dedicated to the Frog God. In addition there is the new monster race, the Tsathar ("su-Thar"). Although similar to Froglin, they are sexless and their origins suggest they are related to Slaad. If anything they could be used as a Deep Froglin type race.

There are also a couple of references to Hel in the module, including with a magic item. Hel is of course known as Hella in the D20 Blackmoor line.

-Havard