The Howling Tower Arduin Adventure #2

The Howling Tower was written and published by Dave Hargrave in 1979. Dave says:

This dungeon was deliberately constructed as a moderately dangerous low level adventure. For those of you requiring one of greater hazards (but as much fun!) you can purchase my first, dungeon: CALIBAN.

I reviewed Caliban here. You may not need to since The Howling Tower follows the same format! The two dungeons are almost identical, not in details but, the pattern used to write them both is the same:

• Almost random map
• Lots of empty rooms (with no descriptions)
• Too many secret doors (with no purpose)
• Each encounter is a
  • Random room description (all rooms are different)
  • Treasure
  • Traps and hidden compartment
  • Guardian monster

Just like Caliban none of it makes any sense as a whole. Each room is an encounter zone unto itself.

That said you might get something out of it. The room descriptions are evocotive. Any single room might inspire a whole dungeon! That is, if you did the work to add the raison d’être.

The Howling Tower makes heavy use of the Arduin books. Many of the monsters and treasure all come from these other books.

There are also some magic and monster cards, I’ll review these in future posts.

The Howling Tower has a great cover by Greg Espinoza. The cover shows stairs leading to a huge head carved in the side of foreboding cliff with the entrance through the mouth of the head, and a foreboding Chthonic tower at the top of the cliff. Great stuff. The adventure doesn’t leverage this at all. The art doesn’t figure into any of the descriptions, the map doesn’t even seem to be the same place.

The adventure includes some back story but none of it makes any connection to the contents of the dungeon or the structure and map. There’s a classic trope where the biggest monster and treasure are on the lowest level or the top of a tower. Dave seemed to have missed that idea or ignored for his own reasons.

Maps

Speaking of the maps. They are very confusing. It’s hard to where stairs lead to. The stairs don’t seem to align with the level above or below. Instead they are marked “stair A”, “stair B” etc. Not only that the map is hard to read.

The maps are all sort of a random maze of passages with many rooms and secret doors. Lots of secret doors. Most of the rooms are empty. Each map must have 50 or more rooms but only 10 might be keyed. None of the map makes any kind of sense from a practical view of how living creatures might use the space.

And then there’s the secret doors. “LEVEL A” probably has 75 or more secret doors! Many conceal empty 10’x10′ rooms, or they seal off areas that you could get to by taking another route. There is no rhyme or reason to uncover here, it’s just random.

No thought has been put into the architecture. Rooms often list the height of the ceiling. This seems totally random. For example on “LEVEL A” the floors are 25′, 45′, 20′, 20′, 33′, and 20′.

The map also has a novelty idea of a “Drop Wall.” Many rooms suggest “the drop is controlled by the guardian.” But, nothing here explains exactly what a “drop wall” is and how it operates! The name has some implications but I’d like a little more information. I suppose, as DM, you can do anything. I’m guessing you could reveal monster, separate party members. Can you crush a player with it? Are these walls transparent? Are they magical? There are probably a few more questions you could ask.

Rooms

The rooms all follow the same format: description, treasure, guardian. Each room is described with materials, features, ceiling height, and light.

Every room always has a treasure. Often the treasure will be in a chest which gets a description. These chests come in a wide variety, often with a trapped secret compartment.

Most often the guardian is a creature from one of the Arduin books. Sometimes it’s standard monster with non-standard stats or added HD and and armor.

It’s like Arduin is built around the idea that every room is an arena with a treasure and a guardian.

Here’s the description of “TOWER, SECOND LEVEL ROOM ONE”:

This room is done entirely in granite
but every square inch from floor to 20′ ceiling is paneled in varnished oak (very flamable). There is a large bed,’ dresser, small desk, chair and a large hanging circular chandelier of brass with ten
lit lamps fully lighting the room. A 12th level warrior named Danelorn the Grim is the guardian. He is an evil black Paladin and all the treasure is worn by him. He has +4 black chain armor. The magik shield “Jaws” (see appropriate card), boots of silent movement, a silver mesh belt of Ogre power, (+4 to hit, extra lDlO damage to attacks) and a dragon’s head shaped helm of “See invisible and +2 hearing.” He carrys a black, runed bastard sword called “Rune Doom.”It is chaotically aligned, +3 to hit and +3 to damage but has no other powers, intelligence, etc. He hates elves.

Guardian: See “Treasure,” his attack is plus nine (+9)! His dexterity is 18 and his AC is 4+4 (+4 for dext!). He is never asleep, surprised or talked into being reasonable. He just attacks!

The room is granite but covered in oak with a large bed, dresser, and chandelier, this sounds like it could be in almost any dungeon. Remember this description when we look at some of the other rooms.

Notice there is a guardian and a treasure. The treasure is over the top. We’re not messing around here, +4 chain armor, magic boots, magic helm, belt of ogre power, and a +3/+3 sword!

Also notice he hates elves and just attacks. This is a theme. There are no notes about creatures that might parlay. On the other hand it is often noted that creatures just attack.

The description is well done. “Danelorn the Grim” is a good name for an evil black paladin in a dragon helm wielding a runed bastard sword called “Rune Doom.” Did I see this on the cover of a stoner metal album? These ideas are enough to build a whole adventure. This adventure is just collections of rooms like this. A good starting point but leaving all of the important questions unanswered.

• Who is Danelorn?
• Why is Danelorn here?
• Why does he hate elves?
• Who made Run Doom?

Let’s take a look at “TOWER, SECOND LEVEL ROOM TWO”.

The room is entirely of yellow jade, floor to 12′ ceiling. It stinks badly of rotted meat and the air is damp and feels “greasy.” There is a large canvas sack in the southeast corner containing 1,000 s.p. and four scrolls. Two have 2 spells (2 uses each) on them of random choice of spells of the 3rd level. The third is a permanent scroll of clerical healing of all light wounds for all types. The last is a foul curse that causes the reader to save vs magik at minus four (-4) or immediately teleport to the nearest room that has a monster or guardian still in it.

The guardians are a mated pair of giant cobras. Each has 5+1 HD, 45 HP, AC of 6, a speed of 60″ per turn and is 35′ long. Their bite does lD3 plus 10D8 venom.

Notice the formula. Description, treasure, guardian. The description is not half bad, and would fit well in a Conan or Gor story! These descriptions start to evoke a Frazeta or Vallejo painting!

The structure doesn’t make any sense. The first room with a 20′ ceiling, granite covered in oak, and the next room has a 12′ ceiling, and made entirely of yellow jade. He must have rolled all of this randomly! If it was just these two rooms that were different I wouldn’t mention it. But, all of the rooms are wildly different in all their features, ceiling height varies by a wide margins, nothing seems to be repeated. Lots of good ideas that make no sense together.

The guardians are a pair of giant cobras. Not just giant snakes.

Dave doesn’t answer questions like how did these snakes get here? Who feeds the giant cobras? How long has all of this been here? Who left that large sack with all that Loot in the center of the room and why? Why does the room smell of rotting meat? Why does the air feel damp and greasy?

There is a creativity here that I can appreciate. The problem is that Dave has not done the hard work and answered the questions about how and why things are the way he describes them. I guess in the early days of the hobby, remember this was written in 1979, players were just happy to be playing and didn’t know what to expect. These days people understand the mechanics of the game and want to be surprised. This is why these adventures are not classics and instead just oddities from the past.

Just to prove that this is following a formula and there is no master plan underneath, Dave was not playing 4D chess, lets look at another room. Here is “GROUND LEVEL ROOM NINE”

The floor and 40′ high ceiling are of pale yellow marble. The walls are of pale violet marble and have iron torch sconces 15′ up set every 10′ (the torches are ‘unlit). The treasure is stacked behind the secret door in the northeast corner. It consists of 6 leather bags of 100 g.s. each, a magik wineskin capable of holding 300 gallons of liquid, a crystal ball keyed for Illusionists only and a +5 magik kite shield only Paladins may carry (it has a white unicorn on a gold background).

The guardians use ten (10) 1st level zombies in chainmail and with shields and broad-swords. Each has an AC of 3, is of 4+1 HD, and has 38 HP. Five have dexts. of 10 and five have dexts. of 12. They are led by a 4th level Priest-Mage of Cthulhulos (see appropriate Monster Card) with a dext. of 14 and carrying a Witchfire wand (with 23 charges) and a blue jade ring of becoming invisible for 10 minutes per day. He will be invisible as the door is opened. Surprise!

There’s the formula again: Room of materials and ceiling of height, treasure in some container, and a guardian.

A room with a mage priest of Cthulhulos and a bunch of zombies in chainmail is a good idea. But, they need to have a purpose! In the Howling Tower it’s as if the rooms are held in stasis until the players open the door and their sole purpose is to attack who ever opens the door, which is not very interesting.

A temple to Cthulhulos, covered in yellow jade, where the mage priests sacrifice innocents to renew their foul spells while the zombies of a former mercenary band worship them gives us a story to follow. Dave doesn’t offer anything like this.

The treasure here is over the top again. +5 shield, crystal ball, and wineskin of holding. I like the idea of a wineskin of holding. The priest also has a Witchfire wand and a Blue Jade ring of “becoming invisible.”

The descriptions are great. A “blue had ring” is better than “a ring”. The shield is a kite shield with a white unicorn on a gold background. These items need a little history and some quirks to make them really fun. The descriptions good.

The Witchfire wand is from Arduin Grimoire Volume 1. Here’s the description:

Item: WITCH FIRE WAND Value: 3,500 G.S. plus 100 G.S. per charge Charges: 1 to 100 Looks: Shiny black 18″ long wand with a glowing golf-ball-sized blue sapphire tip Range: 60′-90′ Effects: A brilliant 6″ wide whistling blue flame that spirals out to form a cone 15′ across its far end. All hit take 3-24 fire damage and are paralyzed (except elves, who are stunned). It can be “started” up to 30′ from the tip of the wand.

Wow that’s pretty good, 3d8 and it paralyzes or stuns. Some smart players could really abuse the range and the idea that it can be “started” up to 30′ from tip of the wand. Of course we need to know a few things:

• Is there a saving throw?
• How long does the paralyzation or stun last?

While the effects are a little over the top, the description is great! A shiny black wand with a large glowing sapphire tip, that shoots a brilliant, spiraling blue flame. That’s better than fires a “lightning bolt as per the spell.”

Just to prove my point about the rooms being random we’ll look at one more. Here is “TOWER, FOURTH LEVEL ROOM ONE”

This huge room, from floor to 30′ ceiling is built all of human skulls fused and melted together. The footing is treacherous (20% chance of stumbling each turn) and all of the eyes glow with a weird green aura that dimly lights the room (1/4 daylight). The treasure is piled in the southeast corner and consists of six large sacks of 1,000 gold crowns each, a keg (20 gallons) of Elven wine and inside that keg is a 6″ square gold box (worth 480 g.s.) is a plain iron ring that has one (1) limited wish “stored” in it.

The sole guardian is a huge (30′ across) 8+1 HD,
72 HP, AC 5, dext. 16 land Kraken (giant ground Octopus). It can strike 1D8 times per turn for lD8 each time with a 25% chance the tentacle will “wrap” and do 2D8 crush damage thereafter. The beak does 1D12 but is only used after a victim has been held lD3 melee rounds. It moves at 75′ per turn and can put out a 60′ diameter black cloud to hid in if hard pressed.

We have a room with a 30′ ceiling, covered in skulls with eyes that glow green, treasure is piled in the corner, and the guardian is a giant land kraken. Dave spices this up with some descriptive words but it’s not more than the first sentence.

Notice we have rooms with 12′, 20′, 30′, and 40′ ceilings. totally random. There is no thought to the elevation of the dungeon.

I like the way he says “the sole guardian…” He does this every time there is a single guardian. You get the impression that he was a little disappointed that there is only a single monster here, or that this might be an easy encounter! I get the impression Dave might have been an adversarial DM?

Where this could be really interesting is if it answered the questions:

• Where did the skulls come from and who put them there?
• Why make a room with skulls for walls and floor?
• Why do the eyes of the skulls glow green?
• Where did that treasure come from and why was it left there?
• Why is there a 6″ gold box containing a ring with a wish inside the keg of elven wine?
• Where did the kraken come from?
• What does it eat?
• What does the kraken do when there are no murder hobo’s blundering into its lair?

This is a good exercise. Answer these questions and this room becomes an entire dungeon. If Dave had answered these questions more people would be talking about his work!

This adventure came with some monster and treasure cards, which I think are a positive innovation, I’ll be reviewing these in an upcoming post!