Lots I could talk about this week, but the most enjoyable and memorable stuff happened today during the latest session of After Ruin, our dark fantasy campaign in the realm of Mystamyr. Fittingly, the player characters found their way to one of the more iconic locations in my personal canon: Moonspike Tower.

Back in 2016, I was commissioned to write an adventure for Mythras Classic Fantasy. The module I wrote was too big for the page count so the iconic location of Moonspike Tower was cut out. A few months later, given that it was such a cool little adventure site in its own right, The Design Mechanism published it anyway.

Nine years later, as I was conceiving the After Ruin campaign, I decided to revisit Mystamyr and utilise the locations in those modules. The village from M1 was modified to become Falcon Ridge while Moonspike was slapped in the Ettinmarsh west of the village. The reincarnation of Mystamyr as a dark fantasy setting is a good recycling of material.

As we sat down today, only two of the four players could make the session but I wanted to play nonetheless. After a couple of hours resolving downtime projects in Falcon Ridge, it was clear that the players deserved some action. Luckily, I had stuck the Moonspike Tower module in my bag so it was easy to drag it out and run it.

The joy of using GURPS as a system is that, just as it says in the book, you can use any module from any other system with ease. As long as the measurements are in plain English, such as feet and inches (or metres), then conversion is simple. I already had stats for my local Redpatch Goblins so there was little prep to worry about.

At the table, the trek along the Causeway and through the Ettinmarsh was simple. An quick encounter with Redpatch scouts was resolved through missile fire before the two PCs arrived at the tower. Deciding to climb to the top, they evaded the guards outside and entered Moonspike through a mysterious upper window.

What I love about an adventure site – and how I always intended the modules to be used – is the flexibility of the design. While the context of the location in this new world is somewhat altered, the core shape and tone of the original worked beautifully. As we closed out the session, the two PCs were halfway down the tower and faced with a curious situation.

Sometimes you just need a quick adventure to give the adventurers something fun to explore. With Moonspike, I rediscovered some dark secrets and curious lore that enriches my world in ways that I had all but forgotten. I don’t know if the party will get out alive… but I do know that I can’t wait to find out.

Game on!