In 1986 we seem to be getting some names that we hadn’t heard from in a long time… Tom Moldvay had been kind of removed from module creation since 1982’s The Lost City but he is back now with a Master Set module for D&D, a rare thing in itself. Might the return of these names have something to do with the rearrangement of people in TSR? The fact that Arneson published his Blackmoore module this year is definitely a result of Gygax having left the company (they weren’t best buds, let’s say), but its interesting to see some other names showing up again. 

So, this is one of the few Master modules, as I’ve mentioned, and they seem to kind of work together with previous modules as a campaign. Here Alphaks returns to mess with the party. This time players have to enter the plane of nightmares to get to Carnifex castle but not before retrieving seven keys from seven pocket universes.

The pocket universes do give some variety to the gameplay as the fight against Alphaks, the clear nemesis of Master level players, continues his nefarious plans.