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Original D&D Discussion :: Gaming with Dave and Gary and Rob :: Dave Arneson's Blackmoor :: Locating Blackmoor Dungeon Tales

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Topic: Locating Blackmoor Dungeon Tales (Read 582 times)

aldarron
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Locating Blackmoor Dungeon Tales
« Thread Started on Aug 27, 2010, 7:04pm »

I’ve been having some fun trying to match the stories told about adventuring in Blackmoor dungeon back in the day with the maps. What I’ve discovered is that the keys given in both the FFC and ZG suggest some clues but are in no way a direct match the room discriptions. I think old Dave liked to change things up a lot. That’s part of what makes it so interesting though, we get clues to parts of the dungeon that aren’t well described elsewhere (like the basement) and we get some alternative ideas for what to put in particular rooms.
I’ve tried to match the rooms to the stories as best I could using the architectural and direction details given in the tales and using Tavis Allison’s excellent stairwell key. Please feel free to disagree or suggest alternatives.

So far I have looked at (G.S.) Greg Svenson’s “first adventure” and(B.P.) Bill Paley’s Gen Con report from 1975 in Alarums and Excursions. If anybody knows of any other old descriptions of rooms or adventures in Blackmoor Dungeon, please point them out to me so I could try to add it in.

Level one

Basement)

We started by marching down a huge staircase from the main hall into the castle's basement, a huge irregularly shaped room with seven pillars supporting the ceiling and a large number of doors leading into the dungeon. - G.S.

We picked a door leading northwest, later dubbed the "Northwest Passage". We were carrying torches for light. G.S.

We then entered a large odd-shaped room which I heard was once the throne room of the castle, but had since changed shape. Many doors out of this chamber were found, leading to… closets (with outhouse-style arrangements) and some leading to five-foot corridors. B.P. (Editors note – there are two “closets” on the basement map).

We finally chose one such corridor...We walked along it a bit until it widened to ten feet (apparently a major disaster collapsed the room and the area was repaired to different specifications). – At this point (having no graph paper), Tindell became lost. He vaguely recalls walking down a long corridor and then turning back when the ceiling started becoming quite wet. B.P

9 “e” )The group also burst into a room of goblins who fought tenaciously . B.P

9)We pursued and killed a couple more and then found a door held closed by an ogre's body. We shoved our way in and continued exploration . B.P

Secret passage from nine to Orchian Way?) Finally we came to an open stairway with circular stairs down which we heard music playing. B.P

Staircase B12 Tavis’ Notation) We meandered about for a while until we found a staircase going down. G.S.

Level Two

Room 1) After wandering more corridors we entered a room where we were attacked by giant spiders; We found some copper coins and broken weapons in the room along with a bunch of bones, including human bones. G.S.

Stair C23) we came to a room with the fallen statue of Poseidon with trident in his hand. From the room there was a staircase going down. G.S.

Level three

2) At the bottom of the stairs we entered a triangular room with a smoking pot in the center of it. It shot balls of fire at us. G.S.

We found a magic sword on the ground. I am not sure which room we were in when we found it. Probably, either where the statue was or where the smoking pot was. G.S.

Level four

4) Here we found a fountain with a small statue of a devil in it. There was also an ominous red glow here. G.S.

Level 5

Cavern entrance) - Dave Megarry once entered the dungeon thru a tombstone or grave into the cavern system and then the dungeon, that entrance was on the 5th level. G.S.

Level 9

I had pretty much memorized the upper levels at this point and was able to lead us quickly and safely down to the nineth level. As we wandered we stumbled across a staircase that led to a secret door which came out behind the throne of the king of the Orcs of the Blackhand, King Frederick the First. (possibly room 12 on level 10?) …we… did not take the… the secret passage into the orcs throne room from the 9th level. Instead, we (went back up the stair and) did further exploration on the 9th level and hit another route that took us down to where the dragon was. (on level 11) G.S.

Orc level 10

Room 12) Secret room behind the throne room of the orcs.

Room 21) (general area) This brought a horde of orcs on us from in front. While we battled (and Sweeney worked his way forward) ten of the fifty ran off. Soon after, thirty hit us in the rear as well. B.P.

Room 22) – (heroes instead of rocs) On exploring this level, we entered a room, finding some 12 "heroes" in plate with crossbows. We found they were not chaotic and not friendly, so we left. some of the "heroes" were playing craps. B.P.

Room 25) - (2400 wealth) A bit farther on, we found a room full of gold. Apparently the treasure room was the Heroes. B.P.

Level 11

Stair?) We found a stairs to an eleventh level (to my knowledge this area was never published) and we went down. At the time, we had not idea that the dungeon would have a way to go deeper then the orcs lair. (level 10) The walls here were rougher and there was a dim red light through out the corridors. Soon we found ourselves on a ledge over looking a huge cavern with a lake of lava at the bottom. In the center was an island covered with treasure. On top of the mound of treasure was a dragon (I think that it was golden, but the colors meant less at that time). G.S.

ZGG area 16-10) William jumped and managed to land on the island. The rest of us stayed on the ledge and watched. Mello took some chalk and wrote "Kilroy was here" along with the famous sketch of the head peering over a wall on the wall of the ledge. The dragon posed a puzzle for William. I don't recall the details, but he solved it and was rewarded with a blue suit of magic armor and mechanical horse. I have always thought of the armor as a dark metalic blue, but the description was just blue. The armor was more like powered battledress then a suit of plate armor, for Sic-Fi fans. William doned the armor and somehow was back with us on the ledge. William and Mello then tried to figure out what the buttons on the left arm of the armor did. It was quite funny for those that were watching and quite frustrating for William as it led to the stories of him charging into battle screaming "No! No! Stop!" later. This is how William of the Heath became known as the Blue Rider. G.S.

Note: Probably this was the original bottom of Blackmoor Dungeon. Dave may have intended teleportation to other areas from here though, such as the city of father dragon.

« Last Edit: Sept 10, 2010, 11:39am by aldarron »

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gsvenson
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Re: Locating Blackmoor Dungeon Tales
« Reply #1 on Aug 28, 2010, 1:07pm »

Yes, Dave's original dungeon was done in pencil and things changed over time...

The Orcian Way was added by the king of the Orcs (Fred Funk) later in the campaign. The music was a classical piece called Rule Britania (Fred's favorite, he was an Anglophile).

The passages were all originally 10' wide. There was some sort of general collapse at some point (I seem to have missed that adventure) in the top level of the dungeon. The 5' passages were dug through the rubble by various player groups until they found the regular 10' passages.

« Last Edit: Aug 28, 2010, 1:08pm by gsvenson »

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havard
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Re: Locating Blackmoor Dungeon Tales
« Reply #2 on Sept 2, 2010, 12:09pm »

Cool project Dan!

Here's the report from the 1976 game Greg mentioned where the guy for some reason was upset that Svenny was part of the game:

http://initiativeone.blogspot.com/2008/1....ursions-15.html

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Re: Locating Blackmoor Dungeon Tales
« Reply #3 on Sept 2, 2010, 12:12pm »

Aug 28, 2010, 1:07pm, gsvenson wrote:

The Orcian Way was added by the king of the Orcs (Fred Funk) later in the campaign. The music was a classical piece called Rule Britania (Fred's favorite, he was an Anglophile).

This is an awesome detail Greg. I love how Rule Britannia was associated with the Orcian Way, while this music was played at the Temple of the Frog: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVJD3dL4diY

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aldarron
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Re: Locating Blackmoor Dungeon Tales
« Reply #4 on Sept 2, 2010, 12:36pm »

Hey Greg, I'm attempting to add the details from your story of the how the blue rider got his armor to the dungeon details. Do you remember if you entered into the throne room of the king of the Orcs through the secret door you found and left the throne room some other way, or did you find stairs down to the 11th level without going into the throne room?

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Re: Locating Blackmoor Dungeon Tales
« Reply #5 on Sept 7, 2010, 1:24pm »

My recollection (it has been a long time) is that we took mostly the same route but did not take the last stairs through the secret passage into the orcs thrown room from the 9th level. Instead, we did further exploration on the 9th level and hit another route that took us down to where the dragon was. At the time, we had not idea that the dungeon would have a way to go deeper then the orcs lair.

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Re: Locating Blackmoor Dungeon Tales
« Reply #6 on Sept 7, 2010, 3:25pm »

Sept 7, 2010, 1:24pm, gsvenson wrote:

I am honestlty wondering if the Dungeon ought not go on down forever... <evil grin>

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