B9 - Castle Caldwell And Beyond

System: Dungeons & Dragons

Code: #9143

Type: Adventure

Levels: 1-3

Author: Harry Nuckols

Year: 1985

Publisher: TSR

Format: 32-page book

B9 - Castle Caldwell And Beyond

B9 Castle Caldwell and Beyond - yes I definitely like this module. Most of the time I like adventures that can be completed in an evening, and this module has several of that particular type of adventure. Also, these adventures are relatively easy to work into your current campaign. This module is actually composed of 5 mini-modules. You start out by clearing out a castle (or more like a large fortified house), then clearing out a dungeon underneath the castle, then rescuing a princess from an organized band of chaotic humanoids, then escaping imprisonment from a competing kingdom, then tracking down and killing a chaotic cleric. All in all just several good quick entertaining adventures.

Now, how do I run these adventures? Well - I consider the first 2 pretty perfect for my campaigns. I may include additional monsters or replace monsters with more powerful monsters depending on the party level. But that is about it - those first 2 are Dungeons & Dragons gold! As for rescuing the princess - does she really HAVE to be a princess? No - she doesn't. She didn't have to be abducted because she was about to be betrothed and she doesn't have to be ransomed off as part of the plan. Maybe the leader likes to abduct beautiful peasant girls to keep around for his personal entertainment until he gets bored with them. Now that would be a guy to kill. The neighboring kingdom outpost - well that could also simply be the headquarters for bandits out in the country. It could even be an estate near Specularum (my D&D campaigns are always in Mystara) or whatever city, town, or village your characters happen to be in at that moment. No need for extra political intrigue. And the final cleric adventure - introducing this whole new religion and religious relic and all that - man - I don't necessarily want to manage all that kind of stuff in my campaign. Let's just say that the cleric took some kind of heirloom from a powerful family in the city and they want it back. That just seems much simpler to me than introducing some new one-god religion. Or just have the artifact be an artifact of one of the established religions. If you have a cleric in the party - maybe it is an artifact of their particular religion. Still - all in all - I love these types of modules - lots of little things that will keep you busy.