While the group’s B-Team had been retaking the border tower from the strange invaders, the A-Team continued ahead to the metal cave that had been disgorging bizarre creatures that so threatened the Grand Duchy of Geoff.
The main party members had camped outside the metal cave, studying the area for a few days. No creatures emerged, but the metal access door opened and closed on a regular schedule. Twenty hours closed; one hour open.
The B-Team showed up after a few days, having cleared the border tower. They were proud of their successful first adventure, describing creatures strange even to the veterans: Vegepygmies, assembled skeletons, zombies possessed by plants, and a metal man and metal golem locked in a violent feud.
The party sent some members back to hold the tower and to send word back to the Grand Duke.
We lost two members of our Wednesday game group for the moment. My two older sons both enlisted in the military at the same time, one going Army and the other Navy. They’re in basic training right now. We’ll get ’em back at some point. To cover the missing characters, the remaining 4 players are running their A & B characters.
What We’re Playing
Expedition to the Barrier Peaks
During this adventure walkthrough / playthrough, I use primarily the original module, with some extras lifted from Goodman Games fantastic Original Adventures Reincarnated hardcover.
NEW! Quests from The Infinite Staircase adapts Expedition (and other classic adventures) into 5e (Amazon)
VTT Maps are by Jon Pintar. He’s kindly extended permission for me to use them in the game and session posts. (Link)
This adventure is quite unlike any other Gary Gygax module I’ve run. I have some strong first impressions at the end, after the session recap.
Unfamiliar Territory
Yebarinscrud, Starkin, Willhelm Pembroke, Wil-Li, Delmar, and Del-Li stood outside the metal door. It was currently open. (The crew had earlier blocked the door from completely closing with a boulder. A short time later, a tentacle reached out, dislodging the rock, and the door slid closed.)
They entered through the door, and replaced the boulder once again. A low, annoying buzz sound came from the portal; it was angry at them. Once all were within the small metal chamber, the large door ahead opened.
A much larger chamber lay beyond. It seemed deserted. It was dominated by a large abyss in the center.
They began exploring. The buzzing continued from the angry jammed entrance door. Delmar dropped a coin down the shaft. It hit bottom, seemed to be as deep as a well.
A metal golem could be seen down the east passage. It was still.
From the north arrived a similar golem. It proceeded with a clanking gait, passing right through the party, clearly headed for the buzzing entrance door.
Tagren followed it. The golem dislodged the boulder, and the door snapped shut. Tagren tapped the robot, which paused for a moment, murmured in a strange language, and continued north.
The party went down the east passage to investigate the motionless golem. It had been battered by something.
The golem was surrounded by parts and tools of some sort. Yebarinscrud pried open the chest panel, and was able to grab a bearing that looked like a gem.
The doors in this place were odd. They had little raised squares – the B-Team members recognized these as “buttons” – that sometimes had effects when depressed. These particular buttons did nothing. There was also a slot above. Different doors had different colored slots. Some black, others violet, orange, and more. [Players remarked: “Gygax and his colors!”]
The doors appeared to be very sturdy, and the party was reluctant to bash them down at this time, so they were channeled down the hallways.
They did find a few open rooms. They were full of debris, and a shocking number of human skeletons.
Vegepygmy Salad To-Go
At a junction, vegepygmies advanced on the party. The B-Team had encountered them back at the tower. but these had dog-like Thornies with them.
I love all the Erol Otus art in module S3!
Dumbfounded, the party watched their bruiser Tagren flee to the east!
Four vegepygmies chased after Tagren. Others went after the main group.
The party pushed ’em back with little trouble. But that wasn’t the end of Tagren’s unpredictability.
Tagren grabbed the nearest vegepygmie, and began to eat it!
Everybody began cracking up. They were used to my youngest son’s preference for throwing opponents around, but this was entirely new!
OK. I told him to roll a D20 for a to-hit roll. With his bonus, he succeeded. Then I told him to make an Intimidation check and a CON save at advantage.
WHAT!!??
Tagren nat-20’d both rolls.
I told him that he realized that eating vegepygmy would be poisonous for anyone except him. For Tagren, they were walking salads.
The other vegepygmies stopped in their tracks, gasping in horror as Tagren ate their squirming comrade.
They fled, some cut down as they passed through the party.
Among the plant clippings, the party found bits of clothing and wiring repurposed into jewelry. They also found palm-sized color cards (brown & violet) which they realized would fit in door slots.
Distressed Damsel
The party encountered a woman motionless on the floor!
“This is a seemingly unconscious beautiful human female, but in reality it is a berserk, malfunctioning android…”
To nobody’s surprise, she leapt to her feet and attacked with some kind of ray device.
She got off a few shots from the ray device, which paralyzed Yebarinscrud and Delmar, but she was quickly cut down by the rest of the party.
After that fight, the party discovered lounges, dining halls, and a kitchen. They used a door card (brown) for the first time.
They found another door card (black), and an undecipherable note about an intellect devourer, judging by the hand-written sketch.
Willhelm managed to get one machine to dispense food, an unsettling green pastes with red spots.
Tagren ate it of course, cleaning the whole tray, pronouncing it delicious.
I’ve never ran this module that I can recall. Expedition to the Barrier Peaks is very distinctive, and a bit controversial then and now for DMs who don’t like their players running around with laser pistols.
Massive. This dungeon is huge! Qualifies as a megadungeon I reckon. Perhaps one of the earliest.
Interconnected. Many different ways to go. Not linear at all.
Empty. Lots of vacant rooms. “Unless noted by a number code each such area is thoroughly looted, has some jumbled furniture or rotting goods therein, and from 0-3 (d4, 4=0) inanimate skeletons of generally human appearance. Everything is worthless or in bad condition, the furnishings plastic or metal, and only bits of rag or odd pieces of junk can be found.“
That’s going to get old fast. Going forward, I’m looking for ways to make the empty rooms more interesting. I plan to use the random “Treasure List” from the back of Gamma World 1st Edition book. It has lots of mysterious (and typically useless) tech artifacts. I’m looking for other ways to spice up the empty rooms.
–> If anybody knows of additional OSR technological random table resources to help fill out the emptiness, let me know.
Disorganized. Expedition to the Barrier Peaks is a mess. Gygax, though always verbose, was much more systematic in Tsojcanth and Tharizdun. Here, in Expedition, the instructions about the doors and color cards are scattered in the first few pages. The card colors are detailed in two needlessly redundant tables.
Do the doors themselves indicate what color card is necessary? Talk online shows that most DMs think it’s entirely guesswork for the players. Not so. It’s revealed in an isolated throwaway line on page 4; I didn’t see it until my 3rd read-through: “The metal around the upper slot will be color keyed, if applicable.”
It’s already a complicated adventure layout. Gygax’s disorganization here makes it even more difficult.
Art. There is an embarrassment of riches when it comes to illustrations. The art by Erol Otus, Jeff Dee, and others elevates the module to superstar status in my opinion.
It’s a Blast! Expedition is so much fun for both DM and Players. Wacky and unpredictable environment.
Welcome back, been looking forward to the heroes tackling the main module! I hadn’t ever thought of it as a “megadungeon”, but it is definitely huge. It could also get quite boring, lots of rooms with nothing and hordes of Vegepygmies that we got so tired of fighting. The loot is great though and so is the illustration book in the middle of the module. I’m sure there have been some notes on how to keep the PCs from becoming too over-powered after they are done with module. Most things run on charges, so there is that limitation. Another suggestion I heard, is that nothing works outside of the ship, which seems kind of lame.
I had no idea that each door was color-coded! I completely missed that one, but given all the text in that module, it’s not surprising.
Gamma World’s Treasure list is a great idea for spicing up the empty rooms. I think the Goodman Games book also had a suggestion of speeding through those rooms. ‘Ok, there are various rooms of junk…how much time do you want to spend checking all of them?’. I believe that book also talks about a mistake in the original module, where you couldn’t get to one of the floors? I don’t have my copy to double check.
Anyways, nice start and looking forward to following the game posts! 🙂
>> “…how to keep the PCs from becoming too over-powered after they are done with module. Most things run on charges, so there is that limitation.”
That’s been on my mind. I’m not too worried. One big difference between magic items and tech gear is: Tech is fragile. I’ve already been emphasizing that during the Tower prelude. Adventuring is going to break & burn out their gear going forward.
>> “Goodman Games book also had a suggestion of speeding through those rooms. ‘Ok, there are various rooms of junk…how much time do you want to spend checking all of them?’”
Many of the rooms will get breezed-through no doubt. Come up with a probability for loot, traps, encounters. A few random lurking creatures. The Goodman Games book has a few bonus encounters I’ll grab.
>> “I believe that book also talks about a mistake in the original module, where you couldn’t get to one of the floors?”
I’ve seen talk about that. Seems like all the floors are accessible to me. But I’ll watch out for that in case I’m wrong.
“he new pieces of art on the 5E reskin are solid, while the new maps have corrected inconsistencies and mistakes.” was on rpg.net, but I can’t find anything concrete about what the corrections were. Sadly, all my stuff is packed away for an upcoming move
Oh, forgot to mention that I’m also very interested to see that Infinite Staircase book. Though I’m wondering how they can properly do Expedition and two other modules in just one book??
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>> “Though I’m wondering how they can properly do Expedition and two other modules in just one book??”
D&D Beyond sez: “Quests from the Infinite Staircase features six remastered classic adventures from Dungeons & Dragons history: The Lost City, When a Star Falls, Beyond the Crystal Cave, Pharaoh, The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth, and Expeditions to the Barrier Peaks.”
I’m gonna have to pick that one up. DM Greg from our group was showing me pages. New Expedition map is very cool and readable. Robot art is fantastic.
Oh wow, 6 modules?! Now I’m really skeptical about the level of detail. I’m picking it up either way though, because you never know what interesting bits might prove useful in one’s own campaign.
Welcome back, been looking forward to the heroes tackling the main module! I hadn’t ever thought of it as a “megadungeon”, but it is definitely huge. It could also get quite boring, lots of rooms with nothing and hordes of Vegepygmies that we got so tired of fighting. The loot is great though and so is the illustration book in the middle of the module. I’m sure there have been some notes on how to keep the PCs from becoming too over-powered after they are done with module. Most things run on charges, so there is that limitation. Another suggestion I heard, is that nothing works outside of the ship, which seems kind of lame.
I had no idea that each door was color-coded! I completely missed that one, but given all the text in that module, it’s not surprising.
Gamma World’s Treasure list is a great idea for spicing up the empty rooms. I think the Goodman Games book also had a suggestion of speeding through those rooms. ‘Ok, there are various rooms of junk…how much time do you want to spend checking all of them?’. I believe that book also talks about a mistake in the original module, where you couldn’t get to one of the floors? I don’t have my copy to double check.
Anyways, nice start and looking forward to following the game posts! 🙂
>> “…how to keep the PCs from becoming too over-powered after they are done with module. Most things run on charges, so there is that limitation.”
That’s been on my mind. I’m not too worried. One big difference between magic items and tech gear is: Tech is fragile. I’ve already been emphasizing that during the Tower prelude. Adventuring is going to break & burn out their gear going forward.
>> “Goodman Games book also had a suggestion of speeding through those rooms. ‘Ok, there are various rooms of junk…how much time do you want to spend checking all of them?’”
Many of the rooms will get breezed-through no doubt. Come up with a probability for loot, traps, encounters. A few random lurking creatures. The Goodman Games book has a few bonus encounters I’ll grab.
>> “I believe that book also talks about a mistake in the original module, where you couldn’t get to one of the floors?”
I’ve seen talk about that. Seems like all the floors are accessible to me. But I’ll watch out for that in case I’m wrong.
“he new pieces of art on the 5E reskin are solid, while the new maps have corrected inconsistencies and mistakes.” was on rpg.net, but I can’t find anything concrete about what the corrections were. Sadly, all my stuff is packed away for an upcoming move
Oh, forgot to mention that I’m also very interested to see that Infinite Staircase book. Though I’m wondering how they can properly do Expedition and two other modules in just one book??
>> “Though I’m wondering how they can properly do Expedition and two other modules in just one book??”
D&D Beyond sez: “Quests from the Infinite Staircase features six remastered classic adventures from Dungeons & Dragons history: The Lost City, When a Star Falls, Beyond the Crystal Cave, Pharaoh, The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth, and Expeditions to the Barrier Peaks.”
I’m gonna have to pick that one up. DM Greg from our group was showing me pages. New Expedition map is very cool and readable. Robot art is fantastic.
Oh wow, 6 modules?! Now I’m really skeptical about the level of detail. I’m picking it up either way though, because you never know what interesting bits might prove useful in one’s own campaign.