Man, Dark Tower (1979). Widely considered one of the best D&D adventures ever written, it is wild how unlike contemporary D&D modules it was. The Giants modules (1978) were twelve pages. Dark Tower is SEVENTY. After Tegel Manor, it is one of the first times we see something we could consider a megadungeon in print (it is small, compared something like Stonehell, but still).
Also unusual is the backstory. Though only a couple pages, (the Giants modules have like…a paragraph of set-up?) it seems like a major shift. In a nutshell: the god Mitra built a tower, the god Set got jealous and grew and evil tower out of the ground next door. Hijinx ensue, in which both towers get buried in an avalanche. Years later, a village of evil Setites live above the buried ruins, trying to destroy Mitra’s tower and murdering adventurers drawn to by rumors of treasure. There are tons of NPCs both in the village and in the dungeons, good and bad, all with their own agendas, which sets Dark Tower up to be one of the first faction crawls too. Jennell Jaquays has lined up tons of dominoes for the party to come through and knock down in unique ways, a great example of emergent storytelling.
It is also crazy non-linear. Each tower is six levels, then there are four sprawling dungeon levels connecting them, as well as the village. Lots of paths between the levels, too, including disorienting ones, like secret teleportation zones. Which, speaking of, Dark Tower is weird. Lots of gonzo elements. So many things are randomly invisible, to the point that players are going to be stubbing their toes every other room. Illusions conceal danger signs, such as the snake hair of a medusa (that’s a real mean move, honestly). There are villains who sit in locked rooms waiting for adventurers. It’s a romp, but a dangerous one: Jaquays recommends a 6 to 10 characters ranging from 7th to 11th level!
A solid gold classic, honestly. And Jaquays, with Rudy Kraft, even sort of parodied it the next year with the RuneQuest module Duck Tower, which is also a damn fine adventure.
