Haunted Ruins of the Dunlendings (1985) is a MERP adventure book that is actually for MERP (by which I mean, unlike Court of Ardor, MERP rules existed when this one came out). This one features another Gail McIntosh cover which I like a lot. I particularly like how the woman with the magic sword is about to take care of business. I enjoy the transparency of the ghost as well (I got this one recently and it’s interesting how many of the MERP books I didn’t own for a long time involve ghosts). Also dig the subtle detail of the Pukel-man above the mound entrance.

Again, we have a set of scenarios that I like very much, but feel more geared toward a Celtic or similar Bronze Age game than Middle-earth. The psychogeography vibes are strong here, with ghosts and burial mounds and standing stones. Those things are part of Tolkien’s work, of course, but they seem so centered here as to be something else entirely. But maybe I’ve been reading too much Alan Garner lately.

All three scenarios are site-specific and, unusual for the time, offer a number of reasons for players to explore them (each of which sets them at odds with the current inhabitants in different ways), none of which have clear cut solutions. The first involves an isolated tower that is haunted by a ghost, bandits and an enchantress who wants to claim it for herself (there is a massive treasure, too, and I enjoy the fact that if the players take it, the ghost demands they donate it to her chosen charity). The second involves a mound, a cursed pool and another ghost. The final one is a plateau, mound and cave complex where a tribe of brainwashed cultists worship a ghost-god.

Interior art by Stephan Peregrine and Jessica Ney. Ney and Judy Hnat worked on the maps which, Iron Crown always has nice cartography, but the maps in this module are particularly striking for their delicate lines and dimensionality. I love the overland maps, but hot damn, that cross-section of the tower is a beast.