25 Years Ago...

  Welcome to February, and we start off with our first map of the month: The High Mountain Wizard's Tower . I'll just quote the description from the Map-a-Week Archive... Ancient glaciers and other challenges of this tower's unforgiving location deter those who would plunder its magical secrets. That sounds pretty cool. Unfortunately, we get none of that on this map; all we get is a very minimalist, four-level wizard's tower that could be on any hillside based on the artwork. It's rather disappointing. So, let's look ahead to what's on tap for the rest of the month. We have the usual Dragon magazine (280), as well as Living Greyhawk Journal #3. Our main product (and the only D&D product released in February, 2001) is Monsters of Faerûn, a collection of Forgotten Realms monsters. And there's a web enhancement for it, so I'll try to make the book and the web enhancement coincide this time. It shouldn't be that difficult.

Okay, to close out the month of January, we have the beginning of a series on gateways in the Forgotten Realms. The series is Perilous Gateways, and our first entry is Voices of the Lost . This is set in the town of Illefarn, which should be familiar to old-school FR players and fans, as it was the site of the very first official Forgotten Realms adventure way, way back in 1987. It was called Under Illefarn , module code N5. And just because, here's the cover of that long-ago module: Ah, that brings back memories. Anyway, this is a fairly short article (clearly not written by Mr. Greenwood). It starts off with a history lesson about the ancient elven kingdom of Illefarn, which was at its peak even before the legendary Myth Drannor. Like Myth Drannor, Illefarn had a series of gateways or portals, though not as extensive as those in Myth Drannor. And unlike that cursed place's gateways, these weren't gates to other planes; they were instead teleportation portals that would ta...

Okay, better late than never, I suppose. This is the third 'official' adventure released for 3rd edition in the old module style, and it's for 5th-level characters with the expectation that they will get up to 7th by the end of the adventure. On the front cover we have an elf and a monk getting ready to fight what looks like a combination of a purple worm and a hydra with Lidda the rogue in serious trouble in the hydra-worm's clutches. And this isn't in a dungeon; this is in a city. The city is called Brindinford, and it's the setting for the entire adventure; no dungeon crawling here. The premise is that there's a mind flayer who intends to recreate the ancient illithid empire and make himself a god in the process. Well, even mind flayers can have big dreams...and mental illness. This mind flayer, named Ghaerleth Axom, is an outcast after an incident with a beholder mage and a gelugon devil. So, he's decided to start building his godly empire on the sur...

Today, we have three online additions to our collection: A spell, a Fight Club competitor, and a monster template. Let's dive right in, shall we? Our spell is called Bladesong . Fans of 2nd edition elves will recognize that name as an elven fighting style connected to one of the most broken kits in the game's history, the Bladesinger. However, despite that connection to this month's elven theme, the spell isn't going to make you a kick-ass warrior with an elven fighting style. It just makes your sword play music in combat. Oh, and it gives you an additional touch attack per round that does no damage but dazes the target if they fail a Will saving throw. It's a 2nd level spell for bards and sorcerers/wizards. This one is definitely on the 'meh' level. Our Fight Club competitor is  Muukk', a Green Hag/Rogue/Assassin/Sorcerer . Good Lord, that's just nuts. And this one ties into the monthly theme, as Muukk' grew up as a young hag having to move arou...

Well, as I mentioned on my other blog, this week was not a good one . But the show must go on, as they say. This is another tree-related Map-a-Week, The Swamp . As the description on the archive website says, "This ramshackle lair in the bayou makes a great out-of-the-way base for secret goings-on." Again, there's not much to say about this one.

We have a double-shot of online stuff today. First up is another Celebrity Game Table article, The Campaign Kick-Off by Ed Stark. Here he discusses how he started playing in someone else's 3rd edition game, but soon took the plunge to do his own game. He decided to let his players create 6th-level characters rather than starting at first, and ended up with an interesting group: The halfling thief who is actually a wizard, the cleric of Wee Jas who is far too friendly with the undead (I've seen this before ...), a barbarian, and a multiclass rogue/cleric/something else. The backstory was a Thanedom where the Thane was dead and his rightful heir was away. The local council kept him in the dark long enough to consolidate power in their own hands, and the players were hired by the heir to recover the sword of office (buried with his father). Typical stuff, right? Ed got creative in the dungeon, giving the players mystic puzzles and challenges to overcome rather than the usual unde...