B3: Palace of the Silver Princess is most commonly known in its green cover edition, credited to Tom Moldvay and Jean Wells. However, this wasn’t the original version: the original module was written by Jean Wells alone, but was recalled and destroyed by TSR management before it went into wide release.

In 2000, Wizards of the Coast released the original module in PDF form, and I was able to see the adventure for the first time. It is an unusual beast, displaying the signs of a design and development team still new to the form. I don’t know that you could ever describe Wells’s Palace of the Silver Princess as a great work, but it certainly has a number of distinctive features that distinguish it from other modules of the time.

The adventure concerns the exploration of the ruined palace of the Silver Princess, some 500 years after she mysteriously disappeared. The palace is a haunted ruin, inhabited by various monsters that have wandered in, and the palace is set in the lands of Glantri, which had only been recently introduced in the Expert Set and the Isle of Dread adventure.  The revised version never explicitly sets the adventure anywhere, and is set during an attack on the Silver Princess’s home. This is a different style of adventure.

A wilderness map is provided of the nearby surrounds, and descriptions are given of the towns and major features of the land. Although it is suggested that the DM should not run a wilderness adventure until the characters have advanced past 3rd level, the adventure does recommend detailing the travel of the party to the ruined castle, thus laying the groundwork for later adventures.

Two NPCs, the Tinker and his daughter, are described in some detail, along with general advice for running NPCs. The Tinker’s role in the adventure is mainly as a source of rumours, although he has a number of secrets that can be uncovered by the party.

The dungeon itself is an interesting hybrid between the “do it yourself” encounter areas of Mike Carr’s In Search of the Unknown, and the detailed encounters of almost every other adventure ever published, with detailed encounters being in the majority. Some of the encounters look quite deadly to my eye. Others only appeared deadly, due to monster statistics different from that of other products. “Ghosts? Levels 1-3? That’s a TPK!” However, these are much weaker ghosts, more appropriate for an novice-level adventure.

Thirteen monsters make their debut in this adventure. Of particular note are the “Bubbles”, which are sentient pockets of air and the dreaded decapus, a strange monster that hangs from the ceiling from a single tentacle, whilst using the other nine to attack its foes. In addition, it can create illusions to deceive its foes into approaching closer.

The strangest of all the new monsters are the Ubues, three-headed giants that were illustrated by Erol Otus to have heads of different genders (two female and one male, or vice versa). This was due to a misunderstanding of what Wells wanted, and his illustration of such, which may have representations of TSR’s founders in it, probably had a major part in causing the recall and destruction of the adventure.

The art in this module isn’t particularly good, and wouldn’t be much improved by the revision which removed some of the more objectionable pieces. The map, although nicely drawn, doesn’t make the greatest of sense when viewed as a palace floor-plan. It has been noted that the map lacks an easy way to get between levels in the palace – the stairwell is somewhere far in the back of the map. In fact, a large part of the palace is ruined, but it still doesn’t make all that much sense.

However, there is a lot to like about this adventure. NPCs are given a lot more attention than they would in many other adventures of this era; a section details a number of potential foes and friends in the dungeon, and the major monster groups (acolytes, bandits, goblins, etc.) are also given purposes for being in the adventure. The adventure feels far more as being the setting and base for a campaign than its successor, which is very much a one-shot quest. Wells’s work gives hints to the palace existing in a greater world: there’s a wilderness outside it, and NPCs that are described to be more than simple opponents or allies. The descriptions are more to provide starting points for the DM to work with rather than being the be-all-and-end-all of the character.

There are also secrets to be discovered as the party explore: what was the fate of the Silver Princess? Clues are scattered around the palace, and, though the entire story is never told, what is revealed might surprise the players. This is a long way from the simple “explore and kill things” of the first two adventures in the Basic series.

That said, the adventure could be better written and laid out. Several areas and descriptions are poorly described and developed, and so some of the real heart of the adventure is lost in flaws that should have been corrected. The basic premise behind getting the players involved – “there are rumours a valuable gemstone in the palace” – is effective, but I’m left with the feeling that it could be better.

Palace of the Silver Princess, as designed by Jean Wells, possesses a number of virtues that stand it in good stead when read today. It isn’t the greatest adventure to come out of TSR, but neither is it the worst. It is a great pity that the Powers That Be at TSR at the time weren’t able to support it properly, for with a better development process it might have become one of the better D&D adventures. As it stands, it’s a flawed but still worthy addition to the D&D library.