Dungeon Magazine #82

Behold, the first 3rd edition issue of Dungeon Magazine! And, to my complete lack of surprise, these are all low-level adventures, the highest one being for 3rd-level characters. My copy lacks the included map, but I have no interest in running a Sherwood adventure anyway, so I'm not going to sweat it. And I'm not going to review the Sherwood adventure, either; I'll focus on the three that are generic enough to use in almost any campaign instead.

The magazine starts with an editorial talking about how to make a campaign stand out with 'an edge'. It references the Praemal campaign, Monte Cook's 3e playtest campaign, and talks about how to use the new features of the game such as monsters with character classes to present new challenges to the PCs. And the editor (Christopher Perkins) talks about his own weird campaign which involves symbiotic plants everywhere. Hey, whatever works. D&D is flexible like that.

The first adventure is "Evil Unearthed", and it's another 1st-level adventure. There are recommendations for running this adventure with characters up to 7th level, but that would require really ramping up the opposition. As written, it's a short adventure involving a priest of Hextor pretending to be a priest of Heironeous who is secretly trying to bring back a powerful evil to the region. The PCs are summoned by an adventuring friend, but they've already disappeared...

This isn't quite as much of an introductory adventure as the other 1st-level ones I've reviewed have been. There's more work for the DM in terms of keeping everything on track, and the characters will have a fair amount of agency to go where they will. The dungeon itself is pretty linear, though, and the opposition is pretty tough. There is a piece of treasure that can be used to link this adventure to the next one, though... Overall, it's an adventure I would use to start a campaign with more experienced players rather than beginners.

The second adventure, for 2nd-level characters, is "Playing With Fire". The treasure from the previous adventure is a blue crystal key. Note that you don't have to play Evil Unearthed first; the key could come from any adventure and treasure hoard. This adventure revolves around an old bandit lair, once the home of the Fire Lord, who terrorized the region ten or so years ago. He hasn't been seen in a long while, though. The best way to get the PCs to the adventure is through the key, which unlocks his secret hideout door; using identification and magical divination (or bardic knowledge) can lead the PCs to the nearby inn.

In the inn they'll meet the innkeeper, who's got some interesting stories to tell as well as a really cool magical shield hanging on his wall that he claims is cursed. The shield is actually very helpful in the adventure, but if the PCs aren't careful, the inn will be destroyed by the people looking for the shield (they're trapped in the lair, but the PCs have the key...) In the end, this ends up as a treasure hunt adventure with a couple of factions within the bandit lair that are sure to cause problems. Fun for everyone! I like this adventure, and would give it a chance with a group.

Next is the Sherwood adventure, "Dark Times in Sherwood". As I mentioned, I'm not interested in it and haven't read through it, so I have no comment on it.

The fourth and final adventure in this magazine is "Eye for an Eye", and it's got more of a wilderness component than the previous ones. It's for 3rd-level characters, with suggestions on how to run it for up to 8th-level characters. The most interesting part about this adventure, however, is the main bad guy. For all his ambition and planned vengeance on the village that wronged him, the villain, Plygar, is...a 3rd-level commoner. How's that for a twist?

Anyway, Plygar is a deformed, one-eyed troll of a man who is bitter about how the villagers tormented him as a child, and now he wants to destroy the village by flooding it with swamp water. As vengeance schemes go, it's not exactly world-beating, but the guy's a commoner, so what else do you want? He does, however, have a magical item that lets him charm people he meets, which means he's been able to gather some followers to help him achieve his dastardly goals. One of these goals is to get a false eye to put in his empty socket, and that's how the PCs get involved: They witness some of Plygar's goons beheading a courier who was selling them a bejeweled eye.

If they play their cards right, the PCs could easily follow the goons (merchant caravan guards fallen under Plygar's spell) to their camp, or even to Plygar's lair. Otherwise, they might run into the guardian of the forest, the awakened wolf Thornfur and his pack, descendants of a long-dead druid's wolf animal companion. Thornfur can empathically communicate with the PCs (although a druid with a speak with animals spell would be even better), and in exchange for help destroying a creature within the forest (a choke creeper), he'll guide the PCs to the swamp where Plygar is preparing his vengeance.

It's a fun little adventure, with some interesting random encounters and plenty of flavor. Oh, and there are a couple of black dragons in the swamp as well. Very young dragons, but still...dragons. And Plygar gets a villain monologue when the PCs finally confront him and (hopefully) stop his plan to flood the village with the swamp. All in all, I would definitely run this adventure for a group.

So, I enjoyed this magazine; the adventures were not too complex, and present a nice variety of challenges for the PCs to overcome. The one thing that really stands out for me, though, is the statblocks for monsters. They take up a lot of space here. I mean, sure, the Monster Manual isn't out yet, so it's good to have this information handy, but I have a feeling it's going to be a common problem going forward.

And that's it for September's products. I'm going to be away for a week, so other than the Map-a-Week post on Sunday, I doubt I'll get anything else posted before next month. And October brings us...the Monster Manual! I can't wait to complete the core set. Until then, keep gaming and have fun!