I was looking up something in an old Dragon magazine the other day and stumbled across one of those things that really takes you back - an ad for the computer RPG "Temple of Apshai".
When I was a kid, for some reason I thought that game was just about the coolest thing around (something about the name and cover art, most likely); but I never played it, since I didn't have a computer - having a go at Zork in the school library was about as close as I've got.
Vintage computer RPGs are oddly one area of old school gaming inspiration that seems to be mostly overlooked. While later iterations in the genre were more reliant on graphics, the early ones were written by D&D players and followed the tropes pretty closely.
As it turns out, Temple of Apshai would make perfect fodder for a Holmes dungeon. There's a local village, near which is a seacoast with bluffs beneath which lie caves. In times past, cultists of Apshai arrived, but were driven from the village by the local priests of Geb the earth god. The Apshai cultists retreated south, but could go no further due to an impassable swamp. A stroke of luck revealed the entrance to a cave complex, which was found to run out to the sea. The cult of Apshai built a temple, and eventually expanded the cave complex into living quarters, fungus farms and mines - but eventually calamity struck, and after an earthquake the Temple of Apshai and the caves below were buried.
Why does all this work for Holmes? You have a village for a home base, and a buried cave complex (dungeon) that stretches out to sea caves - the perfect site to locate near Portown with its own sea caves. The manual for the game includes simple room writeups that can be easily stocked (B1 style), and a monster roster that tracks well with D&D. Pair it with the Monsters & Treasure Assortment supplement, and stocking is easy as pie.
Temple of Apshai box cover image:
http://www.lemon64.com/covers/full/t/temple_of_apshai.jpgTemple of Apshai game manual, in PDF format:
https://openretro.org/file/7c68b152f5e392fe71bea30fc79f529013e50953Temple of Apshai maps as well as background text (pulled from the manuals) by an Atari gamer:
http://atariage.com/forums/topic/183584-temple-of-apshai-trilogy-maps/#entry2320821Best of all, the Temple of Apshai was known for stocking its dungeons with giant insects - perfect for the Holmesian trope of giant animal encounters (the spider and octopus of the Zenopus Dungeon). Also of note is a giant ant creature with a centaur-like body and manipulative arms - a perfect fit for the Formian insect folk in the AD&D Monster Manual II. That aside, for D&D use I'd probably replace the giant mosquitos with stirges.
