Footprints 1 – Keeper of the Old Faith

by Bill Silvey
Freely distributed by Dragonsfoot
AD&D
Levels 9-14

This is a short little adventure that features a fight with a lich and a Type VI. The idea is that a lich has possessed a local abbot and the characters are sent to investigate. At a midnight mass the cleric/lich completes a mass murder ceremony and the demon shows. This all takes place in a small 3-room church. “Adventure” may be the wrong word to describe this since it’s so short. It’s more like a short side-trek. It’s ok for what it is, except for TWO GLARING PROBLEMS.

If we ignore the fact that the group is sent on a mission (which I almost always hate) and accept that this is just a short little romp, then we’re faced with the two adventures two problems: money & mystery. There’s not enough cash in this adventure; maybe 59k in gp. Split four ways you’re looking at about 20k xp. That’s none too shabby at the lower end of level 9 and not enough to get out of bed at the 13th/14th level mark. This is then combined with one of the classic RPG sayings. It ranks right up there with the Land War in Asia wisdom. MYSTERY ADVENTURES DON’T WORK. Ok, they MIGHT work at first level but beyond that the party has about a zillion ways to see through any mystery. Detect evil. ESP. 10000 ‘ask the gods’ spells. “Hey man, Abbot says he’s not evil. I’m gonna check with Zeus. … Yup, he’s evil, NUKE HIM!” That’s how this thing is going to go.

The core concept isn’t bad. Take over a church and do a mass murder at a midnight mass to summon a demon. If you attached a well developed village, created people, gave them personalities, put a real complex under the church, and worked a bit on the abbot and the timeline then you’d have real adventure. But then you wouldn’t have this adventure anymore. This is little more than an excuse to put a lich and a Type VI in the same room. And not a very good effort at that.