Dungeon 83

So, this is the second of the 3rd edition Dungeon Magazine issues. This one definitely has a peculiar theme to it; nothing is quite what you would expect. I'm going to skip the letter column and editorial and get right to the adventures this time.

The first adventure is called "Deep Freeze". This one is for 2nd-level characters, and is 'officially' set in the Theocracy of the Pale in Greyhawk, but it can easily be adapted to any campaign setting, such as the Forgotten Realms, Mystara, or Ravenloft. No, none of those have been adapted to 3rd edition at this point in time, but it's still possible.

So, this is yet another 'find a missing person' adventure hook, and this one takes place in winter. There is an insane asylum up in the mountains where the missing people are supposed to have gone. When the party gets there, of course the guy in charge has no idea where they are. This is about as paint-by-numbers as you can get. The smarter play would have been to say that they had been there, but left a few days ago on their way home.

Anyway, the head of the asylum is actually being mind-controlled by an ancient alien race called the faranth that used to rule Greyhawk way, WAY back. Their civilization collapsed, and the oncoming ice age basically ensured their destruction. However, one faranth leader was able to use very powerful magic to preserve his followers by performing a ritual that put them all in stasis in a beautiful city that was buried by glaciers. And they've been waiting for thousands of years to come back.

There are clues in the asylum that suggest that the head, Dr. Jonathan Asworth, isn't being completely honest. If they are cautious, they can follow him out of the asylum into a mountain pass where he has been taking asylum inmates (and the missing people) to be controlled by the faranth. They are being forced to work to melt the ice, which will eventually free the faranth from their icy entombment and allow them to begin reconquering the world. Ideally, the party will stop this from happening.

The faranth are described at the end of the adventure; they are Large Aberrations with 4 HD and a CR of 2. They look like giant, lumpy toads with a ring of black, 6-foot tentacles lined with suckers instead of a normal head. And they have a magical artifact called a Slave Stone that allows them to control anyone who touches it, which is how they got Dr. Asworth hooked. If any PC touches it, they have to make a Will save against DC 17 or become faranth-slaves. Not the ideal outcome.

The faranth are described at the end of the adventure; they are Large Aberrations with 4 HD and a CR of 2. They look like giant, lumpy toads with a ring of black, 6-foot tentacles lined with suckers instead of a normal head. And they have a magical artifact called a Slave Stone that allows them to control anyone who touches it, which is how they got Dr. Asworth hooked. If any PC touches it, they have to make a Will save against DC 17 or become faranth-slaves. Not the ideal outcome.

It's not a bad adventure, but the plot-by-numbers aspect is going to be old hat for experienced players. Newbies might not catch on as quickly, so it might be better to save this for a group of new players rather than veterans. The remaining inmates in the asylum offer good role-playing potential, especially the pretty redhead in a straitjacket who pretends to be a pyromaniac but is really just a sociopathic killer. Have fun!

The next adventure is "Iriandel". It's for 4th-level characters, and can be set anywhere; rangers are helpful, as are magic weapons as some of the opposition will have resistances. It takes place near the hamlet of Pebbleton, a halfling village where orc raiders have been threatening for a while. But the orcs aren't the main thrust of the story; that would be the stray horse. In the village tavern, the party will meet a bard named Ruallin who will have an interesting story about a unicorn who was the victim of a magical spell centuries ago. Basically, the unicorn had an elf maiden rider who fell in love with a human warrior. A barbarian horde threatened the nearby people, and the maiden (who was a priestess) asked the elven gods to give her lover a weapon to defeat them. The weapon turned out to be the unicorn's horn, and when the warrior did not return (he and the barbarian chieftain killed each other), the unicorn was cursed to remain a normal horse for three centuries, when the horn could be recovered.

So, the party is going to have to track down the barbarian king's tomb, where the weapon/horn is buried. And there are orcs to deal with, as well as haughty elves who don't trust the humans (after all, it was a human who screwed up the magical deal and cost the unicorn its horn). Fortunately, there is also a talking owl that will help the party under the right circumstances. They might also encounter the leader of the orc bandits: a half-ogre who will offer 'assistance' that is likely to backfire on the party if they accept it. Eventually, the party will locate the barbarian tomb and navigate the traps and defenders (such as earth elementals and various undead), eventually locating the magic spear that is actually the unicorn's horn. If they do recover it and escape the tomb, they can bring the spear to the horse; however, the village is surrounded by a large group of ogres, orcs and ogrillons, and the party will have to get by them to finish the adventure properly. Touching the spear to the horse will break the curse and restore the unicorn, who will of course be quite grateful for their assistance.

This was a good adventure; there's plenty of action, it's not a railroad as there are several possible ways to reach the tomb, and the challenges will test even a tough party. I like this one a lot.

The next adventure is called "London Calling", and it's for the Alternity game in the Dark*Matter setting. I have no knowledge of that setting and haven't looked at Alternity in a long, long time, so I'm skipping it entirely.

Next is "Depths of Rage", an adventure for 4th-level characters where they are taking on a pack of goblins. Goblins as opponents for 4th-level characters? How does that work? Well, it works if the goblins happen to be barbarians. As in, class levels in raging berserker. Well, that's a change of pace.

The local settlements are being attacked constantly by the Broken Skull goblins, but recently caught a break: A scout has located their lair in the caves a few miles away. This is an opportunity for the villagers to strike back, but of course that didn't work out well. So now, a group of adventurers just happened to show up, and the villagers ask them to go and chastise the goblins, especially by taking the goblin war chief's magic sword, Valor. This will end his rule as he won't have his symbol of power anymore, which will get the goblins to focus on who's in charge rather than killing villagers.

At first, even with the addition of barbarian goblins, this would seem to be a pretty standard sneak-and-grab adventure. But there's a really nasty twist in this: Once the party has gone through the caves, fought the goblin leader and taken the sword, there is an earthquake. And this earthquake makes extensive changes to the landscape of the goblin lair. Now the party has to find a way to escape the newly-redesigned lair, with passages blocked and new ones opened up, bridges gone and other fun stuff like that. It's quite the change of pace and a really great twist that gives the adventure a whole second act. I heartily approve, and would recommend this adventure to any group.

The last adventure in this issue is called "Alterations". And it's set in Greyhawk 2000, the setting described in this month's Dragon Magazine. It's for 1st-level characters, so it's a good way to introduce the setting and new rules to a group of players. I didn't pay much attention to this one as I'm not really interested in the futuristic Greyhawk setting. I'll stick to the medieval style, thanks.

So, that's it for this issue. It's a good one with a bunch of low-level adventures to keep a new campaign busy. I'm not a big fan of the first adventure, but the unicorn and goblin barbarian adventures look great.

And that's almost everything for this month's products, except for one thing: Dragon Magazine Annual #5, which I will cover next time. It's a very jam-packed issue, so it will probably take more than one post to cover it, but it's going to be a good one. I'll see you then.