Continuing our whirlwind tour of AD&D modules, Secret of the Slaver's Stockade is the second of four "slaver" adventures which originally ran during the Gen Con 13 tournament in 1980. In Part One, the characters infiltrated and destroyed a slaver marshalling ground, in the humanoid city of Highport.

Now, they must pursue the slavers from Highport to an unknown location in the nearby mountains. Along the way, they encounter a way station - the stockade of the title - providing an opportunity to do more damage to their enemies.

Secret of the Slaver's Stockade contains the standard traps and puzzles found in a tournament adventure. There's also a fair amount of combat for the hack-and-slashers, as the orcs of Part One give way to goblins in Part Two. Unlike the first module, role-playing opportunities are minimal here; the players will need to use stealth and quick strikes to achieve their goals, rather than deception and character chutzpah.

This is somewhat unfortunate, because Secret of the Slaver's Stockade has some truly interesting villains running the show. The fort's commander is an evil albino elf, who performs fiendish experiements on helpless slaves in order to produce the "perfect" worker. Her failures, misshapen and hopelessly mad, are banished to the dungeons below the stockade, where they live a squalid tribal life marked by occsional raids against their former masters.

But wait, there's more! The captain of the guard is a blind man who has honed his hearing to superhuman levels. His lieutenant is an abnormally intelligent ogre in an executioner's mask and a very nasty personal sword.

Characters like these keep Secret of the Slaver's Stockade from becoming just another monster fest. It's amazing how fresh they can make the material, and how much they add to what could have been a terrible bore. They're clever, intelligent villains who can keep the party on their toes for the length of the adventure. And the best part is, they're only the warm-up act for what comes next...

Other Lost Treasures

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