After Dungeons & Dragons Entertainment Corporation was dissolved in 1986, Ernie went back to Lake Geneva but soon followed his father out the door as Lorraine Williams forced him out of the company. Ernie traveled the country for a while but ultimately settled back in Lake Geneva. Those who believe that life comes back in a full circle will not be surprised that Ernie came back to the retail hobby shop business - right back where he started (actually 3 stores down from the original Dungeon Hobby Shop!). The place was the Game Guild, a hobby store owned by Margaret Weis and Don Perrin, two individuals who were no strangers to the fantasy roleplaying hobby. Margaret originally took on a job at TSR as a book editor but was soon writing some of the earliest Dragonlance novels. Don too is an author writing novels for Dragonlance as well.

In 1995 the two of them opened up The Game Guild and Ernie dropped in to help out, regularly running promotional games and tournaments as a celebrity DM and bringing large groups of players in. Then in 1996, Ernie's involvement with helping to run the store increased when Don and Margaret took a trip to Australia.

It was during this time that Ernie created several fantastic Advanced Dungeons & Dragons adventures, even bringing out the old classic Dungeon Hobby Shop Dungeon on a regular basis to draw people into the Game Guild. He even convinced his father to stop in every now and then for a real treat for those in attendance! These sessions produced some spirited games and spectacular tales.

The adventure up for auction here was written by Ernie during this time. The adventure, titled The Cliffs of Geryon, consists of: 1 outdoor environs map showing the floor of the canyon where The Cliffs of Geryon are found, a 1 page key for this outdoor area, detailing the desecrated open-air Shrine of St. Cuthbert, 1 half-sheet map and key showing sub-area B., 1 sheet of hex paper showing the overall map for the Temple of Geryon (the central theme of the adventure), 1 piece of graph paper showing detailed areas from the overview map, a 1 page key for the detailed areas map, and finally a 3 page key for the rest of the Temple of Geryon shown on the overview map.

This adventure is a favorite of Ernie's. He takes the original temple from the Dungeon Hobby Shop Dungeon and adapts it into a really fun outdoor and underground adventure.

The acorn doesn't fall from the tree - this is classic Gygax. Ernie managed to create more adventure flavor in 9 pages of encounter notes than some authors can do with a 32 page module! The layers upon layers of this massive adventure are simply fantastic! Characters ought to be mighty tough before they try to locate the artifact hidden in this dungeon: "The Horn of Geryon" for they may have to face the eponymous owner of said horn!

Once again, a fantastic collectable and fun gaming item!

Copyright © 1994-2010, [Paul J. Stormberg]. All rights reserved.