Help me pick a first level module

[hussar1m]

I'm trying to get together a list of DCC modules for a new campaign and have been agonizing over which adventure to run for first level. The tone of the campaign will be down and dirty swords and sorcery: lots of grit and blood mixed with dark sorcery. The players will start as impoverished fishermen and l run through Tower of the Black Pearl, modified to make it a bit grittier, as a funnel. From there I need a good first level crawl before sending them through Blood of the Serpent King and eventually a converted Many Gates of the Gann.

I'm considering Well of the Worm, Dragora's Dungeon, or the One Who Watches From Below. I want an adventure that plays like dungeon crawl from first edition, yet drips enough DCC goodness to fit the tone of the campaign. Any suggestions or advice would be appreciated. Does any of the above three stand out?

thanks in advance

[MrHemlocks]

The Doom of the Savage Kings is a must! It will fit into any existing campaigns and the village of Hirot can be used time-and-time again by the players. Great adventure. It is DCC version of D&D Village of Hommlet.

[thogard]

I've played in The One Who Watches, and it is gritty underground fun. We were seriously creeped out.

[hussar1m]

thanks. Mrhemlock, agreed Doom would have been perfect, but we already played through it in a previous campaign. thogard, how easy would you say One who Watches is to plug in to another campaign? Is it "earthshaking" or just good underground fun?

[catseye yellow]

i would suggest you check out dragora's dungeon. it is fun, deadly, does its darwinian function of culling out left-overs from the funnel (i always let my players keep all their surviving pcs) and sets up nice reusable misanscene and potentially recurring villain. what could you ask more of a 1st lvl adventure.

[hussar1m]

thanks cat eye yellow. Question about Dragora's Dungeon: Is it mostly a dungeon crawl (which would be a good thing for my campaign)? I read a couple of reviews where it sounded like a large portion of the adventure was a roleplaying op ala Vault of the Drow. While I am not opposed to that kind of thing, in this case I really wanted the old school dungeon action.

[catseye yellow]

it is series of connected dungeons that end in a ruined underground city. think red nails. it is not as open as the vault but yes there are similarities.

if you want more of a 'regular' dungeon (enter, loot, leave) i would second the one who watches. i would probaly tune weirdness a little bit (last encounter and polymorph) for more 'regular' games but it might be just fine for some campaigns.

[catseye yellow]

and lets not forget imperishable sorceress (it introduced a cool villain into my campaign), old god's return (in time for holidays) and elzemon and the blood drinking box (it is somewhat straight forward but could also set up bot a wizardrly mentor/patron and his adversary).

also - frozen in time. you can get this new format reprint that includes 4 page mini setting (frozen north).