Publication:Mordenkainen's Fantastic Adventure

[  Mordenkainen's Fantastic Adventure]

System: Dungeons and Dragons 1e Levels: 9 – 12  Author: Robert J. Kuntz and Gary Gygax  Publisher: TSR  Publication Date: 1984  Format: Paperback  Page Count: 32

Product Blurb Four great and powerful heroes travel in search of adventure. Led by Mordenkainen, wizard without peer, they have come to mysterious Maure Castle, a forlorn and foreboding place, source of wonderment and awesome adventure, following a strange and terrible story. For, somewhere deep beneath Maure Castle, from whence no person has returned alive, there stand two massive iron doors -- doors without latch, lock, or handle -- the Unopenable Doors. And if the doors are opened, what then? Such potent evil, such terror lies beyond, that even the bravest adventurers may quail before the ultimate test! Mordenkainen's Fantastic Adventureis a challenging adventure for high-level play. Four original characters from Gary Gygax's famous Greyhawk campaign are included for your use. Can you meet the challenge? Can you survive what lies beyond ... the Unopenable Doors? An adventure for characters level 9-12. This text is quoted from promotion material. Text and images are copyrighted by the original publisher.

Plot Summary

Mordenkainen's Fantastic Adventure is a three-level dungeon scenario for high-level characters, and features appearances of characters from Rob Kuntz and Gary Gygax's original Greyhawk campaign.

The module begins when the players are informed that a pair of impassable doors has been discovered under the abandoned Maure Castle. Suspecting that these iron doors lead to fantastic treasures, many have tried to gain access, and all have failed.

The adventure is broken up into physical "levels", the first is entered through the doors. Once the players find a means of bypassing the doors, they are presented with a fairly open dungeon with several rooms placed throughout. Each area includes its own challenge, ranging from images that come to life and attack to pools of dangerous fish to a climactic encounter with an iron golem.

On the second level, the party encounters the first modern occupant, Hubehn and his guards, and eventually his master, Eli Tomorast. Eli is an insane mage, bent on the collection of arcane knowledge at all costs. He is in these dungeons to study them and the treasures which they contain.

The final level is populated by worshipers of a demon named Kerzit, which Tomorast had set up as a false god. These worshipers include a band of gnolls, a group of mages (one of whom is surprisingly trigger-happy) and a pair of torturers.

The climax of the module is an encounter with the demon Kerzit himself.

Publication History

WG5 Mordenkainen's Fantastic Adventure was written by Robert J. Kuntz and Gary Gygax, with a cover by Clyde Caldwell and interior art by Jeff Easley, and was published by TSR in 1984 as a 32-page booklet with an outer folder.

This module, according to the Introduction, was based on the campaign that Robert J. Kuntz ran for Gary Gygax, and they later both worked on. The original version was written in 1972-1973. Mordenkainen's Fantastic Adventure, however, was the first published form of the adventure. This campaign, in its pre-commercial form, was the seed from which much of the World of Greyhawk campaign setting and the Dungeons & Dragons game itself originated. Gygax wrote about his experiences in this game in what would later be called "one of the foundations of our favorite hobby," by Dungeon magazine Editor-in-Chief, Erik Mona. Gygax's article was written for the May issue of Wargamer's Digest, and was later reprinted in the Dungeon issue which acted as sequel and rules update to the original module in July 2004.

The publication contains versions of Gygax's characters, Mordenkainen the Mage, Yrag the Lord, Riggby the Patriarch and Bigby the Wizard, but is designed to allow the introduction of the players' own characters if they wish.

Some iconic creatures of the Dungeons & Dragons game were first introduced in the pre-commercial version of this adventure in the 1970s such as the Iron Golem which claimed the lives of two of Gygax's characters, and was inspired by the Conan the Barbarian books by Robert E. Howard.

In 2004 the module was updated to the 3.5 edition rules by Robert J. Kuntz, Erik Mona and James Jacobs (with some advisory material provided by Gary Gygax), and re-titled "Maure Castle." Dungeon magazine typically contains 3 adventures and a number of columns. Issue #112 was dominated by the updated module, and contained no other adventures. The module itself was preceded by a reprint of the 1974 article/short story "Swords and Sorcery - In Wargaming" by Gary Gygax, which introduced Dungeons & Dragons. Robert Kuntz followed this adventure up with "Chambers of Antiquities" in Dungeon #124, and "The Greater Halls" in Dungeon #139.

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