Adventure Site Contest 3: Thick Thews, Brutish Brows, and Heaving Bosoms

For OD&D, Levels 4-5
By Rook
LOCALE: A cave in some rocky outcrop or glacial cliff side. It has been used by many beings for countless ages but now finds itself the lair of a desperate caveman tribe.
   So funny story about this one. It was submitted near but by no means too near the deadline, back on December 30th. Near as I can tell, either the title or the associated public domain Frazetta art triggered my spam filter when the clanker was in a particularly prudish mood. Rook noticed the issue when JB finished his last review and nothing had appeared, reached out to me on Discord, and so here we are. It 'twas the bot that ate my homework, honest. 
   The adventure is OD&D at its most Frazettacore, all about a grug caveman tribe that somehow lost most of their cavewomen to some [insert disaster here]. Now they're kidnapping the most buxom of the local babes and sacrificing them each full moon to fix their issue. Surprisingly, local house-mans are objecting to this unorthodox bit of cultural praxis so in come ye olde PCs. Shirts optional. Hope you like fighting >150 cavemen.

   Our map is an old Dyson from back in his Matt Jackson period, high on branches but low on loops. With only twelve keyed areas I think that's okay, but a secret connection between, say, 7 and 9 wouldn't have gone amiss. How the players approach this one is going to be a little weird, I honestly don't see how most encounters don't lead to a single massive set-piece battle that either does or does not trigger the 50% tribal casualties mark, but if you roll low on caveman numbers and prep a lot of Silence I guess this can be a reasonable dungeon crawl. Looks nice.
   I already kind of touched on it, but there's a real problem here with the fighting. Namely, how do you deal with 152 ostensibly Neutral-aligned tough humanoid combatants? That needed a bit more thought, I'm afraid...it's ALMOST there, with the tribal chief and his cowardly brother having morale effects, a non-magical witch doctor, all the cavemen doing things by default...just feels like no order of battle is a whiff. Other fights are a giant snake, a black pudding, and a weretiger-princess, all solid combats. There's not a lot of traditional trapping going on in here but there are infectious diseases and "you know you should make the X mad" situations...except for a quicksand pit with an animate caveman zombie-head that chomps at the stuck victims. Rad. 
   Intractability is excellent. Most of the cavemen only communicate in hoots and grunts, but there's a fair bit of "person wants Y" in the text allowing for high-stakes (and hilarious) negotiation once the DM breaks out his caveman-voice. I like the allies possible to find, and the best bit of business is that the cavemen's dark evil god-idol has gemstone eyes and messing with them summons a MUTANT TERMINATOR T-REX WHO IS SINGLE-MINDED IN PURSUIT OF THE DESECRATORS. Straight into my veins. 
   Treasure in general is probably a little under-numbered if you look at the sheer number of hit dice here but it's probably over-generous in a sneak-and-loot or trick-and-swipe scenario. Flavor is good for everything except for the jewelry, but that's in-genre. If you're describing a sacrifice's heaving bosom you're not going to go long on the necklace she's wearing. Chief is wielding a +1 sword and +1 shield and the witchdoctor's club has a magic scroll taped to it. Charming. Not a lot of magic for the level though. 
   This is a lair full of cavemen. It's usable in any world of pulp D&D. The location is going to be more challenging logistically if you're the kind of person who wonders how a tribe of 200 is supporting themselves in a given region. Not really an OD&D question though...this thing is pretty cool. ​