Monday, October 25, 2010

The Haunted Keep! (Non-BX version)

Somewhere back when I was in high school, I finally got around to drawing up an adventure in The Haunted Keep on the Karamiekos map.  Since I'd started with Mentzer and had only ever had the slightest perusal of the Moldvay/Cook BX edition, I had never seen the sample dungeon in Moldvay's Basic book.

Which means, to my Castlevania inspired mind, my version of the Haunted Keep became the lair of a vampire.  And it was broken up into several sub-sections, each with a sort of 'boss' encounter, and a place to magically rest and recharge (just like how Castlevania levels end with that orb dropping to recharge your health after you beat the boss).  OK, maybe kinda lame, but the dungeon did have some pretty cool stuff in it, though.

Particularly, I'm fond of the castle's courtyard, which was a maze of semi-sentient thorn hedges.  You could chop your way through or try to fly over them, but you'd take damage doing so.

Maybe I'll get ambitious and type up the notes to go with these maps and make it into a downloadable PDF.  Don't think I'll have it done in time for Halloween this year, but oh well.

First, you had to make your way through the secret tunnels.

Then you had to go through the courtyard thorn maze.


Then you had to work your way through the crypts to get into the Keep.


Finally, you had the five levels of the Keep to deal with.

I remember that Killingmachine and I ran through this one night at his house. He played several of his PCs, and I ran several of mine to fill out the party. We had a blast, and I know we finally beat the vampire, and I don't think anyone got level drained too badly. :D

5 comments:

  1. Nice maps! I kind of like the idea of level Bosses and healing orbs as well.

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  2. The hedge maze was very memorable. I'd forgotten what adventure is was tied into, but I knew for sure I'd played this one as soon as the hedge maze was mentioned. I also remember being pretty afraid of the vampire pounding us into dust. Pretty neat to take a look at these maps now.

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  3. Cool... Castlevania is a perfectly fine inspiration for D&D. Kind of like how Ravenloft (2e campaign) should have been, if you ask me... horror-themed, but still plenty to fight.

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  4. So how do YOU model a whip in B/X D&D?
    : )

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  5. They all do 1d6, you should know that!

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