X11: Saga of the Shadow Lord

X11: Saga of the Shadow Lord is an Expert (levels 5-9) module by Stephen Bourne. He was, at best, a Basic level DM at the time.

X11 is set in the Known World north of Glantri... just east of the plateau in Palace of the Silver Princess. D'OH

The region is (somehow) under Thyatis' protection. Bourne's timeline is where Norwold is a province of Thyatis, not misgoverned by the scum Thincol'd sent up there in CM1: Test of the Warlords. Or maybe X11 was supposed to be a standalone, and Da Suits running TSR at the time strongarmed Bourne into filling in the continental map.

X11 is split into two Adventures.

The Setting

There's a Good Kingdom and a Bad Kingdom. The Good Kingdom is Wendar, a sort of Dor-Lomin where elves and humans live in harmony, under an honest-to-God Philosopher-King "Wizard King Gylharen" (p. 2). This they can manage because of the fist-sized sapphire Elvenstar, a MacGuffin the whole MacGuffin clan had expelled as being twew bluidy obvious laddie, wotta pile o' shite. Thirty years ago, so the module retcons on the next fucking page, the sage Bensarian of Kevar / Wendar had owned the Elvenstar first; the Sage handed it over to Gylharen so Gylharen could use it against invaders from Denagoth. Bensarian has no further role in the first Adventure's plot; he'll join in the next one's.

Denagoth would be the Bad Kingdom. It's "6000 feet above the valley of Wendar" so fantasy Colorado, except orkish. A necromancer Landryn Teriak has taken over the bulk of it. He's barred from the east by mountains full of "ruthless humanoids and monsters" he cannot cow just yet. So he's historically aimed south, at Wendar. He's the suspect in stealing the gem, which had fended him off lo these last thirty years.

In between, offset a bit east, is Essuria. This is a fallen kingdom, now a mirkwood. There's actual lore on this one, since the party will get to check out its catacombs in Adventure Two. Although all that lore amounts to archaeology here, since an undead dread lord took over and killed all the folk.

Adventure One

Wendar's in this fix because Gylharen is a naive idiot and the Sage was too lazy to ever ask for his gem back. Security has generally gone for shit in this bucolic paradise. Wendar seeks around for help - read, for mercs - and it's Thyatis who've taken up the call. They don't send an army; they send you, the party. Wendar might as well have asked Glantri or even the Alphatians in Norwold, or any of the underemployed adventurers in Karameikos, but hey.

So the party goes to Gereth Minar, retrieves the gem, and Gylharen grants the party a shiny new barony. At level six or seven. Forget it Jake, it's Elventown.

Adventure Two

But wait... there's more!

After chapter four this module, amazingly, retcons itself by cooking up a backstory for Teriak. Apparently he'd come from another land, Essuria. After Adventure One, he flees "back" there and the party has to venture out of Wendar again. He's undead now: the Wraith Lord.

Where Gylharen drives the plot before, it's the Sage Bensarian in this one. Essuria shares a plateau with Denagoth and is actually between Denagoth and Wendar, but we'd never set foot in it over Adventure One.

The Wraith Lord is looking for a long phallus called, I kid you not, the Blackstick. He can use it to do pornshoots and to bring undead back to life... undead like himself. Unlike the Elvenstar at least the Blackprick does something other than serve the plot.

Oww My Head

The first half of this module counts among the most trite bullshit ever published in the TSR line, and will break your skull if you think about it for longer than five minutes. There's good reason there never was a Wendar Gazetteer. It's Marysuastan.

As for the Sage, it's obvious he was pulled into the first Adventure only because he's important in the second. These are two wholly different adventures poorly stitched to each other at home and stuffed into the Known World map abroad.

Understand that, and you MAY have a shot at sparking life into this Frankenstein monster. Essuria is of interest, as on the Fallen Kingdom postapocalyptic template.

Legacy

Because TSR forced X11 into the Known World, it became the only data DMs had on the lands north of Glantri. Wendar is further a local elven kingdom that's not Alfheim; and New Grunland in the Shadow Elves' realm overlaps, rather underlaps, Glantri City itself.

And for sure, that's one way of setting borders around the realms we care about, rather that continually being sucked into "just one more kingdom past this... and then another..." East and south are ocean. West is the Nomads' desert of Sind. Northeast, Heldann barbarism fading out into what's going to be Norwold. X11 explains why we don't bother with the north: because it's boring and silly up there.

So Wendar had to get mentioned over several Gazetteers, and Mystarans are stuck with it.