Dungeon Magazine provided a lot of entertaining adventures over the years, across all editions up to 3.5. It also provided a lot of slop that didn't read well and played just as poorly. But sometimes, there is an adventure that really grabs you and gets back to the old-school feel of 'the DM against the players'. And here was a great one: Tallow's Deep, a 1st edition adventure for levels 4-7. And this adventure answered the question, 'if goblins are such wimps, why are there so many of them?' Turns out that the answer is, 'they aren't wimps'.
Back in Dragon magazine 127 there was a legendary editorial called 'Tucker's Kobolds'. It was about a sadistic DM whose kobolds were deadlier than dragons despite having d4 hit points. He used them tactically, and gave the kobolds enough of a cunning strategy that they could wipe out even high-level parties by using traps and ambushes. This adventure did the same thing for goblins.
The adventure starts off with the party arriving at a small frontier mining town which has fallen on hard times. Turns out that the silver mine was near a goblin lair, and when the miners broke through, the goblins wiped them out. Then they wiped out the search party that went to find the miners. Now, the townsfolk are scared to death and need adventurers to clear out the goblins.
However, these goblins have carefully studied Sun Tzu and Clausewitz, and they are loaded for bear. Imagine the Vietnam War, except you're in a series of tunnels that are too small for you (unless you're a halfling or gnome). And the enemy is hitting you from all sides...including above. Ever had a dozen giant centipedes drop on your head? A better analogy might be the Mines of Moria, except the rooms are a lot smaller. Balin's Tomb is your destination, complete with suspenseful drumming as the goblins hunt you down. Murder holes, arrow slits...the goblins are ready and waiting.
There's no heavy plot here; there's no big bad to fight at the end. However, there are 85 goblins in a single room, including their leader, Grishog and his pet worg (along with six others). The one saving grace the party might have in this room is that 1st-edition fighters can attack one goblin a round per level (a 5th-level fighter can attack five goblins in a single round). And after that, there's a long, dark passage that leads to goblin undercities where the Goblin King is planning war on the surface...
There is some nice treasure to be found at the end, but many parties won't ever get to it; the traps and ambushes are lethal and intended to be so. To beat this adventure will require tactical skill, tremendous fortitude, intelligent spellcasting, and no small amount of luck. This is a meat-grinder of an adventure, sort of like the Tomb of Horrors but with more monsters and fewer no-save traps.
So, why do I like it? Because I like all those things. I had a party go through this adventure with only one survivor, and he was lucky to get out alive. He was a gray elf fighter/magic-user, with all the arrogance that goes with that race. Well, the arrogance went away in a hurry after this nightmare of an adventure. Dwarves and gnomes would love this adventure, of course, and it could lead to a military campaign as the goblins come storming out of the lower caverns to destroy the local settlements and wage war on the surface folk.
Next time, I'll head back to the BECMI line for an adventure that bears some similarities to this one.
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