B9: Castle Caldwell and Beyond

B9 "Castle Caldwell and Beyond" (1985) by Harry Nuckols contains five loosely-connected mini-adventures, designed to bring PCs from 1st to 3rd level.

Module B9 "Castle Caldwell and Beyond" (1985) by Harry Nuckols.  Cover illustration by Clyde Caldwell, from this painting.

I wrote a review of this module (linked, here) after running the adventures for my son and his friends, back when they were in grade school, (you can read our campaign journal, here).

Design Origins:

Years earlier, I'd corresponded with artist Clyde Caldwell, regarding the name:

"Castle Caldwell and Beyond" was indeed named after me.  The game designers who produced the module were also going to name a character "Clyde Caldwell"...but the TSR legal dept. wouldn't allow it.

Clyde Caldwell, 2010

Editor Michael Dobson explains the module's origins:

Unlike most modules, this wasn’t done by in-house designers or people in our usual freelance network, but sent in unsolicited.  Bruce Heard was our product acquisitions guy, so he would most likely know more about the author.  We didn’t have a lot of Basic D&D product coming in, so it was a welcome addition to the line.  I liked the fact that it consisted of very short adventures, and felt it would work well for someone’s first campaign.

posted on Facebook (February 23, 2021)

About the Author:

It has been speculated that "Harry Nuckols" is a pseudonym, compounded by Frank Mentzer's comment that the actual author was someone named "Ron Charulsky":

Q. Who REALLY wrote B9 Castle Caldwell and Beyond? It's credited to "Harry Nuckols" but that's obviously a joke.

A. Why is that obvious?  It was written by a previously unpublished author named Ron Charulsky.

Frank Mentzer, posted on Dragonsfoot (January 17, 2006)

A statement he later didn't recall making:

Q. You mentioned at one point that the real person behind "Harry Nuckols" was Ron Charulsky, but I didn't see any follow-up after.

A. I don't recall writing that, and if I did I may have been drunk. I simply don't know.

Frank Mentzer, posted on Dragonsfoot (July 25, 2010)

And according to Clyde Caldwell:

There was no "Harry Nuckles"...that was a pseudonym. I remember that Bill Conners was involved in the creation of the module, but don't remember anyone else who was complicit.

Clyde Caldwell, 2010

Harry Nuckols (left) and Mary Poplawski, with Craig Robertson, from this blog (July 27, 2011)

Turns out that Harry Nuckols was the actual author:

I am Harry Nuckols, the author of Castle Caldwell and Beyond. Yes, it's my real name. I live in upstate New York. I am a retired computer programmer, and my chief interest is, and always has been, contract bridge. I have played in many parts of the United States, and in several other countries. My interest in D&D started with my two sons. We played frequently when they were young. They are both grown now, with children of their own, but they still play D&D occasionally.

Harry Nuckols, posted on Dragonsfoot (September 14, 2012)

Namyats:

Namyats is the benevolent entity who leaves the mystic bell in the Church of the Holy Sanctuary, for which one reviewer came up with a disturbing anagram ("My Satan", here).

In fact, Namyats is a bridge term, derived by spelling the name of bridge player "Stayman" backwards, and therefore an Easter egg included by bridge enthusiast, Nuckols.

Location:

The module was not explicitly set within the Lands and Environs of the D&D Wilderness Map #2 in the Mentzer Expert rulebook, although can be situated in the Northern Reaches.

Clifton Caldwell:

The death of Clifton Caldwell was reported in the Poor Wizard's Almanac III (1994) by Ann Dupuis:

Servants of Clifton Caldwell found their master dead on Klarmont 12 of AC 1011, apparently of a heart attack.  Baron Sherlane Halaran of Threshold subsequently confiscated Caldwell Castle, which Mr. Caldwell had purchased some twelve years ago.  The castle has been offered for sale for the price of six years' taxes owed on the property.

from "Distinguished Dead" (pg. 112) in the Poor Wizard's Almanac III

The entry supposes a location in Karameikos for Castle Caldwell, likely based on the supermodule "In Search of Adventure" (1987),