Greetings gamers from all systems, places and timelines.
During a conversation with my friends, the question of which was the hardest module you ever completed came up. If you’ve been playing for years on end, that’s a difficult question because a module can be challenging for dozens of reasons ranging from the environment to the difficulty of encounters. To help answer this we put in two qualifiers: The first is that it had to be licensed material, but it could be from any edition of D&D. Then what popped instantly into my mind was the Throne of Bloodstone.
To set the stage, The Throne of Bloodstone is the finale of a 4-part series that was published in 1988. What was neat about this was the original module, Bloodstone Pass, was written in 85 and TSR released the next module in the series every year until the story reached its big finish. What makes this module so unbelievably difficult that it made the #1 spot on my most challenging module list? Grab yourself a coffee and let’s talk about how, back in the day, D&D at times cranked the difficulty dial up to 11.
What’s the Plot of This 80’s Version of a Suicide Squad Mission?
The story takes place in the frozen reaches of Bloodstone where invaders sought to take control of the precious bloodstone mines for which the land is famous. By the start of part four of the adventure, the players have already taken care of all the light work like repelling invading hordes, clearing a mine filled with demon-worshiping cultists, and putting a league of assassins out of business. Now, all that stands in the way of peace is to roll into the hostile kingdom of Vassa and give “The Witch King” and his entourage of minions their just desserts. While The Witch King isn’t actually Sauron, he is a badass lich who also has an ancient white dragon. And the best part is, after he’s defeated, it’s just the beginning.
Just as the players are getting ready to pop the campaign bottles to toast the death of the Witch king, a literal angel appears to have a word with them. He then plot drops that the Witch king and all of the minions before him were just pawns of the demon prince Orcus, who ultimately needs to be taken out of the picture so the kingdom can finally be safe. Orcus, mind you, lives in the heart of the Abyss, which is a dimension with 666 layers that are actually slightly worse than the hells. But wait! There’s more: Because he is as powerful as an actual God, one does not simply travel to his realm, either. You will have to journey through the Abyssal layers making your way from one hostile world to the next until you reach the 333rd.
I Want to Know Who Playtested This and Said, “Yeah, They Got This!”
At this point, it’s worth mentioning that the Throne of Bloodstone is for characters between levels 18 and 100, making it the highest-level D&D module ever released. So, you are probably asking, “What the hell does that mess look like? Well, let’s talk about some of the encounters you could have the displeasure of meeting on your way to confront Orcus.”
The party enters a dead garden that, not suspiciously at all, happens to be covered with treasure. Unfortunately, it’s also filled with invisible ghosts that aren’t much for talking to people with pulses. How many ghosts are here you might ask? Three times the average character level in the party, so have fun with that.
This encounter finds the party as they are confronted by a Balor commander. You’re probably thinking, “Hey, that’s a tough fight, but it’s manageable. Right?” The punch line is that he is commanding a force of 100 Glabrezu demons.
The party comes across a Solar who has been captured by demons, and what group of heroes would leave an angel trapped in the underworld in the hands of the enemy? The only problem is, to save him, you’re going to have to fight your way past 10 Balor demons. Gandalf, eat your freaking heart out!
Fyrillicus is an encounter that’s near and dear to my heart because he is an abyssinian-bred red dragon. This charming fellow was raised in the Abyss by Orcus, who didn’t think red dragons in their own right were powerful enough, so he fed this little guy a high-protein diet of souls. Needless to say, this made him larger than any other dragon on the prime material plane. Oh, and like most things in this adventure, he’s not much of a conversationalist.
A large horned monster sees you and charges in your direction This creature is a tarrasque – because why not? The writers of the adventure clearly studied at the Cobra Kai dojo.
However, the grand prize of encounters in this adventure has to be the city of liches. And like the name not so subtly suggests, it’s shockingly filled with undead wizards. Remember back in chapter one when everyone was so proud they defeated the Witch King? Yeah, inside this city are 12 death knights, 12 demiliches and … 100 actual liches. There is a decent amount of treasure inside as well, but that’s like saying we could find some cool stuff if we could break into the pentagon.
How Does a Story Like This Have a Big Finish?
After making a journey to the heart of the Abyss and beating up the demon God who’s in charge, you would think that would have to be the story’s climax. Well, not exactly because Orcus had this pesky wand that he creatively named the Wand of Orcus, and it’s basically his horcrux. In other words, unless his wand is also destroyed, then his death was just inconvenient, and one day he will return to eat your descendants.
Therefore, the party also needed to retrieve the Wand of Orcus and destroy it. The only problem is that it’s literally indestructible except by one means, which isn’t revealed until the later chapters of the story. This means the party needs to saddle up for one more ride.
The last leg of the adventure take’s the party to the lair of the dragon Tiamat. Some of you may know her from Sumerian methodology, others the D&D cartoon, where the dungeon master was an actual character in it. The point is that the only way the wand of Orcus can be destroyed is by immersing it in the black heart’s blood of Tiamat. And because villains aren’t in the habit of fighting fair, the Queen of dragons also has a dragon with her of each of the Chromatic colors, making this final battle consistent with the adventure’s over-the-top, ultra-violence level of difficulty.
Once the Queen of dragons is slain and the wand of Orcus is destroyed, all that remains of it is a magical white gem. When planted like a seed back in Bloodstone, it will grow into an equally magical tree, CS-Lewis-style, that will forever repel demons from entering the kingdom. Then the Solar/angel appears and rewards each of the surviving party members with a wish spell, as if to say “I am so sorry for what the game designers put you through.”
Conclusion
Ironically, you would think after completing this adventure that the characters would have nowhere to go in terms of the story. That all depends on the table you’re at. In my case, I both played in and later ran this adventure, and both of those campaigns went on long after its conclusion. In one, my character kept the wand of Orcus for himself. While it gave him both power and immortality, he always had to contend with Orcus reforming. Everyone wants to be a demon Lord until they have to deal with the big problems, like both endless betrayal and revenge … but I digress.
As a DM who likes epic adventures, this is about as high-stakes and over-the-top as they come. While there are brief moments of humor throughout the adventure, it is primarily a serious one because its overall difficulty is as serious as a heart attack. Finally, this module is packed end-to-end with so many insane battle scenarios that I encourage you to check out a copy of the PDF yourself if you are not already familiar with this legendary nightmare of an adventure.
I ran and played this adventure back when it was originally released. Honestly, I feel the entire series was the best campaign ever published. I still have the character I used back then and use him as an npc in 5e campaigns. He began as an original cavalier in the first Unearthed Arcana.
Regardless it is without a doubt the highest level dungeon ever created, but I disagree about it being the hardest. There are a few that can compete with it. The Maze of Madness for one! This module even had an introduction that
stated your character would likely die!
My players did this. We had some 20+ level characters in the old school methods – 10+ years of playing – and I was able to even work in some table top army battles using Warhammer rules – one player became a Baron in Damara – before the conclusion.
Yes I went through this campaign we had two demigods an avatar of a medium diety a war priest and the equivalent of 6 gold ancient wyrms I wont go through any spoilers so I’ll just say the only ones to make it out alive was one of the dragons and one of the demigods.