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HWQ1 The Milenian Scepter (Basic)

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CIVIL WAR Unrest. Turmoil. Rebellion. As above, so below - the cataclysmic events of the Wrath of the Immortals echo throughout the HOLLOW WORLD setting. The Milenian Empire, with its classical Greek culture, has not escaped. Already the streets are unsafe, and the omens are getting worse...

The emperor is dead...long live the emperor! But is the new emperor a man of the people, or a tool in the hands of malevolent powers? Walk carefully, for no stranger is safe upon the streets these days, and adventurers least of all!

The mood of the capital city is turning ugly. Minions of the new emperor look on uncaring, while citizens disappear and philosophers fall to heedless mobs. The old emperor's elite guards are disbanded and scattered. Disorder reigns, and restless citizens threaten open revolt. And yet...a whisper is heard. Civil war can be averted. An ancient artifact, the Milenian Scepter, can rally those who would serve the Empire best. But the Scepter has been lost for generations, and who can say where it might be?

The trail leads into the depths of the city, and across a dangerous wilderness to a forgotten oracle. For the lucky and the bold, perhaps it will lead to... THE MILENIAN SCEPTER This stand-alone adventure is compatible with the WRATH OF THE IMMORTALS boxed set and the accessory HWR3, The Milenian Empire. You will need the D&D HOLLOW WORLD boxed set to play this adventure. Easily adaptable to the AD&D Game.

Product History

HWQ1: "The Milenian Scepter" (1992), by Anthony Herring, is the one and only adventure in the HWQ series. It was published in November 1992.

Origins (I): More Codes. By the early '90s, TSR was rapidly switching between module codes. Thus, instead of being the fourth "HWA" Hollow World Adventure, "The Milenian Scepter" was instead the first "HWQ" adventure, which probably was intended to stand for "Hollow World Quest". It makes some sense, since the "HWA" adventures had been a tightly connected trilogy, but the use of such generic product codes didn't help to delineate those lines (and in fact muddled them in some product lines, such as Dark Sun).

"The Milenian Scepter" was also the only "HWQ" book, because the product line was cancelled shortly thereafter. It was the last Hollow World supplement, and nearly the last Known World supplement: just three more trickled out in 1993.

Origins (II): The Milensian Duology. "The Milenian Scepter" is closely tied to the last Hollow World setting book, HWR3: "The Milenian Empire" (1992), which appeared just three months earlier from the same author. Like its predecessor, it features the blue "challenger" banner that adorned Basic D&D's more "advanced" products in its last days.

Metaplotting Along. The metaplot events of Wrath of the Immortals (1992) continue to spin out in "The Milenian Scepter", which reveals that when the Hollow World sun went out for a day, the Emperor Adronius of Milenia was killed by a mob. (Ironically, the adventure focuses on rolling back that bit of metaplot!)

Adventure Tropes. "The Milenian Scepter" is very much an adventure of the '90s, which means that it's a series of event-driven encounters. However, it's not a complete railroad. Players can (somewhat) freely move between the various chapters, depending on what they do, and there are also some minor dungeon crawls.

Exploring the Known World. This adventure offers more details on The Milenian Empire, including information on the city of Corisa. However, the majority of information on all of this instead appears in HWR3: "The Milenian Empire".

Artifacts of Note. Basic D&D was never big on artifacts, but this adventure features the eponymous Milenian Scepter. (It's not a sceptre, alas.) There's also an Icon of Halav and several lower-level magic items that are nonetheless unique.

NPCs of Note. The big star of "The Milenian Scepter" is Adronius, the emperor of the Milenian Empire. However, there are also plotting immortals, particularly Nyx, who is known in the Milenian Empire as Zargos. Obviously, the days when Immortals weren't supposed to muck around with the Prime Plane are long, long gone. Finally, Vix is also of note: she's the mortal daughter of Nyx, and thus one of the only demigods to be found in the entire Basic D&D mythos.

About the Creators. Herring wrote extensively for TSR from 1990-1993. Most of his initial work was for the Marvel Super Heroes line, but he authored D&D supplements starting in 1991. He wrote a dipytch for the Known World, HWR3: "The Milenian Empire" (1992) and HWQ1: "The Milenian Scepter" (1992).

About the Product Historian

The history of this product was researched and written by Shannon Appelcline, the editor-in-chief of RPGnet and the author of Designers & Dragons - a history of the roleplaying industry told one company at a time. Please feel free to mail corrections, comments, and additions to shannon.appelcline@gmail.com.

We (Wizards) recognize that some of the legacy content available on this website does not reflect the values of the Dungeons & Dragons franchise today. Some older content may reflect ethnic, racial, and gender prejudice that were commonplace in American society at that time. These depictions were wrong then and are wrong today. This content is presented as it was originally created, because to do otherwise would be the same as claiming these prejudices never existed. Dungeons & Dragons teaches that diversity is a strength, and we strive to make our D&D products as welcoming and inclusive as possible. This part of our work will never end.

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Eron R April 14, 2023 10:49 pm UTC
I kindly and humbly request this title and all other Hollow World or Known World titles be made available in POD, please.
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Rich E P March 15, 2022 11:05 am UTC
POD please?!
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