Editing A1-4: Scourge of the Slave Lords

'''Scourge of the Slavelords''' is an epic quest assembled from tournament-play in 1980.

=The Development=
As early as the 1970s, Dungeons & Dragons had a problem with crappy unoriginal dungeon-crawls. In 1979 the gamers at GENCON rose up in revolt and petitioned four TSR designers - Zeb Cook, Allen Hammack, David Johnson, and Lawrence Schick - to come up with better. Johnson, to punish the others, on "one cold evening" the following winter dropped the other three's first-level party arse-and-boobs naked into a minotaur's labyrinth. (They did get a loincloth each.)

The four agreed this should be the LAST encounter for a tournament, not the first. Fortunately the loss of an equipment-advantage serves to put high-level adventures on almost the same even keel as low-level, excepting maybe hitpoints. And so the adventures which became A1, A2, A3 were born, to lead to that last dungeon. The A series proved popular so they were brought together, and expanded, into ''Scourge of the Slavelords'' published May 1986.

The party getting captured, looted, and potentially enslaved themselves is a running theme in the series.

=The Chapters=
==The Road to Highport==
This first chapter is "A-Zero" in the expansion. The party comes to a formal ball at Dame Gold's. Gold wants the party to deliver a MacGuffin to her brother. But she is about to be . . . ''Taken''. The party, following the kidnappers, get hit by pirates too and Taken, onboard the slaveship ''Ghoul'' - to man the oars. Hope they weren't much attached to the magic weapons they'd acquired up to now.

==The City of Highport / The Temple of Highport==
Here commences A1, ''Slave Pits of the Undercity''. The "City" chapter is five pages of mostly charts, so this adventure is the temple. Highport's liaison to the slavers are the orcs, running the operation from the sewers.

==Into the Wilderness==
This moves the party so they can start A2. It's basically a Gazetteer of the northern Pomarj coast. Party can interact with humanoid villages, who charge tolls; and fend off orc opportunists, charging "tolls" outside their property. It expands and essentially replaces the optional wilderness run in that module. It's about to be replaced itself (see below).

==The Slavers' Stockade==
Five chapters in and we're at A2, ''Secret of the Slavers Stockade''. In the stockade the party learns The Princess Is At Another Castle. This speedbump in the narrative justifies itself in a fine sultry BDSM villainess - Markessa - and lots of body-horror. The party can be Taken here too. OH NOT THE WHIP.

==The Caves of the Drachensgrab==
This is the start of A3, ''Assault on the Aerie of the Slave Lords''. It was a tournament run, to be done in three hours. This tunnel-system is how people find the slavers' Gondolin called Suderham. Here's a nod to the Afrikaans language, a language in bad odour during the early 1980s.

==The Hidden City of Suderham==
A3 continues. In the first part, the players need to find the catacombs. The catacombs themselves are Tournament Mode again aaaaand IT'S A TRAP.

==The Dungeons of the Slave Lords==
Why we're all here: good old-fashioned Carter-era nudity. It's A4, ''In the ...''.

=The Force Awakens=
Sean Reynolds and Chris Pramas published ''Slavers'' in 2000.

Its first 81 pages (of 128) detail the cities of the Wild Coast, including Elredd. Highport is introduced p. 89-97... but not the Temple nor undercity. Stockade ain't here either. Instead Markessa has her base at Kelen Lekos p. 100-9. Instead of Suderham, the adventure culminates at the Temple of the Earth Dragon which is a standalone cavern-complex.

Reynolds and Pramas presented this as a sequel: Stalman Klim, leader of the Slavers in the first lot, is back with a new arrangement of bases. Players familiar with the first set might appreciate the nostalgia-trip if the DM runs the two new stomping-grounds instead. But these dungeons are a pale imitation of the dungeon-crawls and the sheer naked terrors of the original A series. It's a soft-reboot, more than a sequel or an honest remake. It will be too soft for most.

What ''Slavers'' does offer the DM, is a gazetteer of the Coast and Pomarj, to supplement the series if you bought the four and didn't buy ''Scourge''.

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