LC1 Assault Against the Menace on the Mountain

A Roman-themed, pulp-horror-style module
for character levels 1-3, for use with 0e/1e/BX and compatible retro-clones

It is the Terrible Season of the autumn, and the wild people in the mountains are preparing for the frightful ceremonies which only rumour tells of in the towns.

One seldom sees these wild people from the mountain; but a few times a year they send down little yellow, squint-eyed messengers to trade with the merchants by means of gestures, and every spring and autumn they hold the infamous rites on the peaks, their howlings and altar-fires throwing terror into the villages. Always
the same—the night before the Kalends of Maius and the night before the Kalends of November. Townsfolk disappear just before these nights, and are never heard of again.

This year the dread is even greater, for the people know that the wrath of the very old folk is due upon the town of Pompelo. Three months ago, five of the little squint-eyed traders had come down from the hills, and in a market brawl three of them had been killed. The remaining two had gone back wordlessly to their mountains—and this autumn not a single villager has disappeared yet. There is menace in this immunity, for it is not like the very old folk to spare their victims at the Sabbath. It is too good to be normal, and the villagers are afraid.

A cohort has been assembled to end this menace once and for all, and there is always room for more heroes.