Right here is one other journey I haven’t had the chance to pursue in its unique type. I do know it solely from its status as a event module. In the event you’ve by no means heard of that earlier than, folks would play the situation at conventions, and they might get factors for various aims. When D&D Past launched a preview model of this journey, Descent into the Misplaced Caverns of Tsojcanth, they included a rating sheet in case you need to recreate the expertise. That model of the journey doesn’t embrace the introduction, and solely particulars the Lesser Caverns.
The Misplaced Caverns of Tsojcanth wasn’t simply well-known for being a event module or for introducing Iggwilv (Tasha). It’s additionally the place lots of monsters that went on to be detailed within the Monster Handbook II have been first revealed. This included some new demon lords, some iconic demon sorts, the behir, and the derro.
Unique Credit for The Misplaced Caverns of Tsojcanth
Design and Growth: Gary Gygax
Growth: Gary Gygax, Allen Hammack, Jon Pickens, Edward G. Sollers
Modifying: Edward G. Sollers
Artwork: Jim Holloway, Erol Otus, Jeff Easley, Stephen D. Sullivan
Playtesting: Jeff Dolphin, Luke Gygax, David Kuntz, Richard Kuntz, Sonny Savage, James M. Ward
Particular Thanks: Rob Kuntz
Paintings
This chapter consists of fourteen items of artwork. This consists of three maps (together with a location map for the Yatil Mountains), seven scenes from encounters, three areas, one character portrait, and a picture of the doorway on the Infinite Staircase that results in this journey.
I significantly beloved the picture of the cavern of corpses and the altar room. The black and purple, and black, purple, and darkish inexperienced of those two items actually promote the environment of the areas. I’m additionally a fan of the picture of Drelnza that’s included within the chapter.
The Framing Gadget
In case you are utilizing Nafas as a framing system, he summons the PCs to offer them one other mission, this time telling them {that a} determined nation is searching for an archmage’s misplaced treasure, which incorporates nice information and energy. Many of the framing gadgets I’m high-quality with. They’re fast and do the purpose. However on this occasion, it feels a bit of extra nebulous to say “a nation needs this wealth and energy” than among the earlier “this particular person wants assist,” or “this particular person needs to undo the hurt they did.”
I feel much more than if I used to be operating this as a part of a marketing campaign, as a participant I might be a bit of cautious of being despatched on a mission to make one nation significantly extra highly effective than its neighbors with out lots of backstory on the steadiness of energy within the area. Is that this a nation struggling to outlive, that does proper by its folks, or is that this a questionably ethical place, searching for energy to keep up a stalemate with different questionably ethical nations?
This journey has a canon location within the Greyhawk setting, however this journey supplies various areas for utilizing it in Eberron and the Forgotten Realms. I recognize that the Realms location is close to Elturel, which at the least namechecks one other location from 5e’s historical past.
The portion of the journey launched earlier this 12 months has each of the above options, however provides in a location to make use of in Dragonlance. It makes use of the Speaker of the Suns of the Qualinesti as a possible employer, however on condition that elves, at the least in the course of the Conflict of the Lance period, don’t actually belief anybody that isn’t a Qualinesti, and so they are inclined to keep away from something that appears like evil magic, I might most likely reframe this as having the PCs employed by one of many Heads of the Orders of Excessive Sorcery, recovering a well-known misplaced spellbook left by one of many Black Robes. In the event you needed to name-drop somebody, you could possibly even reframe this as a misplaced laboratory of Fistandantalus.
Journey Overview
In case you are nonetheless wandering round looking for the doorway to this journey, chances are you’ll need to backtrack and camp for the evening, as a result of there’ll be some spoilers, assuming chances are you’ll need to be a participant on this journey, or if you wish to be stunned.
The journey begins with the PCs assembly up with an agent of the March of Bissel, who needs to rent them to discover the Misplaced Caverns of Tsojcanth, minus a ten p.c finder’s charge, and one particular merchandise, the artifact often known as Daud’s Wondrous Lanthorn. To facilitate this, the PCs are given a fundamental map of the Yatil Mountains and the paths by it, with a verse written by Iggwilv that provides a clue as to the place within the mountains the caverns are situated.
The Yatil Mountain map exhibits a number of mountains, passes by the mountain, and (on the DM’s model) areas the place you possibly can place encounters, moderately than rolling randomly. The map is damaged up into four-mile hexes, which I recognize as a nod to the Greyhawk marketing campaign maps, which have been often expressed in hexes.
If the PCs can’t decipher the clue on the map, a number of of the encounters embrace characters that may share further hints to the placement. Even creatures which are typically assumed to be hostile have notes on interacting with the PCs, together with a blue dragon, a troll, and a fireplace big. The fireplace big provides the PCs a mission that may level them on the trolls, and the trolls might give the PCs a mission to remove one other band of trolls residing within the caverns.
The Lesser Caverns
As soon as PCs discover the doorway, they’ll be getting into the Lesser Caverns. This can be a fairly broad open stage that features an underground river and mushroom farms, along with the same old caves that may home some lurking creatures. I’m not going to go room to room, however proper off the bat, there’s a puzzle that isn’t obligatory, however might push the PCs in a selected route and should yield some treasure, and I’m simply going to say, I might by no means do what is required to work together with this puzzle. Not that it’s tough, it’s simply not one thing I might assume to do when confronted with the outline.
What I like is that identical to the areas exterior of the dungeon, there are a number of locations the place interacting with among the inhabitants pays off later. For instance, if you’re pleasant with the pechs, they might help you out in case your basilisk encounter leaves one in all your get together members petrified. The most important set piece encounters on this part contain two genies, one in all whom is certain to protect the caverns, and one other genie that has been imprisoned. That is one other space the place figuring out the pechs pays off. The imprisoned genie has an axe to grind with the opposite genie, who imprisoned her, so the PCs could also be requested to take care of the opposite genie.
If the PCs are actually fortunate, there’s a probability they solely encounter a cloaker, some gargoyles, a chimera, and a gorgon. More than likely they’ll float down the river the place it’s extra possible they’ll movement additional down the river, and probably all the best way to the encounter with the trapped marid, which ends up in the dao, and so forth. My level is, this will not be a “discover each room” sort of dungeon, and it needs to be evident to the PCs that this space is principally some pure caves which have a couple of areas deliberately carved into them. It’s doable for them to overlook some directions they could want later close to the doorway to the Better Caverns, so when you don’t suppose your PCs will need to backtrack, chances are you’ll need to be actually apparent whenever you describe how the clue is hidden.
Better Caverns
That is the place issues get bizarre. This part of the caverns has touched different planes, and the Abyssal affect makes it more durable to relaxation right here. There are a couple of extra inhabitants that aren’t mechanically hostile, just like the behir and a galeb duhr. There are many creature encounters and varied traps. There’s a false altar containing a facsimile of the Demonomicon of Iggwilv that opens a portal to the Abyss if disturbed. There are environmental hazards enhanced by the abyssal affect, after which there may be . . . that room. There’s a grotto that’s principally a useless finish, however anybody getting into, and anybody inside 10 toes of them, is plane-shifted to the Abyss, Elysium, the 9 Hells, or Mechanus. There are quick encounters that the PCs can play out to discover a portal again from that airplane.
This space is a kind of issues that sounds enjoyable, however could also be extraordinarily irritating to the gamers. It’s doable that everybody within the get together isn’t 10 toes from the primary particular person to enter the room, that means that the get together could also be forcibly cut up up, which makes a few of these varieties of easy encounters extra harmful. Every time somebody comes again to the grotto, they could get shifted to a different airplane, except the randomly rolled airplane is identical one they only got here from. That is even worse if the PCs do get cut up up, as a result of then, once they come again, a few of them could also be protected once they return to the grotto, and a few of them might take off once more, on the identical roll. My recommendation could be to fudge this, and ensure if anybody within the get together goes, everybody does, and perhaps take into consideration saying that as an alternative of being proof against being shifted to 1 airplane for twenty-four hours after they’ve visited, perhaps make them proof against the cavern’s impact for twenty-four hours.
To succeed in the inside sanctum of the dungeon, every one in all six doorways must be opened. These are organized in a circle, and every door can solely be accessed through a selected tunnel. Every time the PCs open one in all these doorways, they’re teleported to a distinct location on the extent. That signifies that even when the PCs didn’t encounter among the hazards, traps, and monsters, the teleportation impact would possibly drop them very near one in all them that they beforehand prevented.
Within the remaining room, the PCs run into Iggwilv’s daughter Drelnza, who’s guarding what’s left of Iggwilv’s treasure on this dungeon. She acts like she was trapped right here, giving her an opportunity to appeal PCs and ambush them. In the event that they survive the battle, the Lanthorn is hanging within the chamber, however the remainder of the treasure is hidden in Drelzna’s coffin, which is recessed into the stone dias and must be looked for. Inside that, there may be some paintings, gems, and many cash, and various books which are as much as the DM. The recommended books are the assorted manuals and tomes that increase capacity scores, and chances are you’ll not need to let everybody pump up each stat, however at the least one which’s helpful to every of your PCs may be good to have round.
The DM can also be informed that you could possibly drop the Demonomicon of Iggwilv within the treasure, and directs PCs to Tasha’s Cauldron of Every thing for the statistics of that artifact.
Ideas on Chapter X6: The Misplaced Caverns of Tsojcanth
I don’t know why I really feel the best way I do about this journey, however despite the fact that I do know that is an older journey, at the least as offered right here, it feels a bit of extra like what I count on from dungeons within the present period. Among the clues aren’t wanted to determine what to do subsequent, they’re only a good head’s as much as assist reduce down on time. There are a ton of iconic D&D creatures, and lots of them are arrange as roleplaying encounters, at the least till somebody within the get together will get twitchy.
That doesn’t imply there aren’t a couple of old-school frustrations. I detailed the planar lure within the grotto above, and whereas I just like the simplicity of simply needing to go across the passages to open every of the doorways to succeed in the inside sanctum, if the PCs don’t know there are a number of doorways, they may get actually annoyed in the event that they open a door after which get teleported into one other a part of the dungeon, with out realizing that their vacation spot might be pretty near the place they should go for the following door. They might not even know there’s a subsequent door, making the puzzle a bit of more durable to complete, particularly in the event that they did miss the additional clues.
Regardless of among the frustrations, this dungeon feels very D&D to me, and it’s a approach higher “iconic” expertise to point out folks what older editions of D&D have been like than dropping them into the Tomb of Horrors.
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