A dead man's cryptic treasure map may lead to a fortune in Spanish gold - or to quick death. Can you elude Indians, claim jumpers, bandits, and vigilantes and find the lost gold of Mendoza? The module contains town and wilderness scenarios that can be combined to create a series of exciting adventures.
David "Zeb" Cook is an American game designer best known for his work at TSR, Inc., where he was employed for over fifteen years. Cook grew up on a farm in Iowa where his father worked as a farmer and a college professor. In junior high school, Cook playing wargames such as Avalon Hill's Blitzkrieg and Afrika Korps. "I was primarily a wargamer, but there wasn't any role-playing available then," although in college, he was introduced to the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game through the University of Iowa gaming club. Cook earned his B.A. in English (with a Theater minor) in 1977. He married his high school sweetheart, Helen, with whom he had one son, Ian. Cook became a high school teacher in Milligan, Nebraska, where his students gave him his nickname of "Zeb"; the name derives from his signature, which is dominated by a stroke resembling a 'Z'.
There are some parts of this adventure that really haven't aged well, but nothing terribly essential to the adventure itself. It's mostly the vocabulary in a few places which are rather non-woke.
Putting that aside, in terms of structure and composition, this is one of the best composed Hex Crawls TSR ever published. The "senario" based composition is excellent, and combines into a Western novel type experience.