Terror in Tosasth

By Leon Atkinson
Self Published
BFRPG
Levels 1-8

Despite the benefit of longer lives, only vague details may be conjured from Elven memory about the once-great city that now is little more than a graveyard teeming with the undead. “Stay away from that cursed valley,” they will advise. Perhaps the stories told by their fathers were parables only, myths meant to illustrate the folly of hubris, for among the various horrors professed to dwell in Tosasth, a curious mind will discover a singular theme. Long ago, Elves and Dwarves who grew from parallel limbs of the tree of life, made war that ended in terrible catastrophe.

This 187 page adventure details a ruined city full of undead, as well as a dozen-ish side-locales in the surrounding lands. The side sites are decent for 1984, but the main adventure site loses focus, I think, as the adventure continues.

So, ancient abandoned city full of undead. And, a couple of points of lights nearby: a town, a small lumber village and four farmers huts spaced together. In the spaces inbetween we’ve got a couple of burial sites/graveyards, some abandoned manors and towers and such. The idea is that you start on some of them, at level one, and work your way up them until you reach level seven or so and can tackle the main abandoned city … and the demiplane of death beyond that some gates lead to. Gates that keep funneling undead in to the ruined city. 

The minor adventuring sites are relatively interesting. Maps have cave ins on them that you’re gonna have to dig out to get behind them … appropriate challenges for level fives. Other maps, I’m thinking specifically of a tower, have no real way in … just entrances 30’ or more above ground … with no interior stairs. You’re level three’s; figure it the fuck out. Which is the way it should be, to a certain extent. This sort of thing, in the adventure, is excellent. The writing is generally terser, using boxes and bullets effectively to bring clarity to rooms but not overly relying on either 

There are moments of brightness here, with things like deeds to land/farms popping up more than once, as treasure, and some detail sprinkled in here and there to book magic items, particularly swords and mundane treasure, like “copper coin stamped with a cactus.” 

This is all augmented by descriptions, sometimes in read-aloud and sometimes merely as DM text, that are trying to evoke some decent imagery. “A narrow staircase lands in this round room. Statues of angelic maidens to each side of a passage beckon with pleading faces.” or “Intermittently, flashes of lightning crackle along the underbelly of the clouds followed by ominous thunder.” You get where the description is trying to go. It’s not exactly great, but, its better than most adventures would produce. And, there are a decent number of people to talk to … both undead and not, and more than a few things to drink and/or bathe in that are going to have a character impact. 

Maps are nothing very special. Pretty simplistic. There are isometric views, which help with the vertical understanding … of which more than a few maps have, to their credit. But, really, the maps are pretty basic affairs.

The main attraction here is the city of the dead. And, it has the same problem that ALL ruined cities have. Or inhabited cities, for that matter. How do you handle all of the rando places the party will end up going in to? The party is notorious for going places you don’t want them to, and when ducking in to a building, or cutting through walls, or across rooftops, in a city, they will crash in to some randos building. What to do? The solution, both in general and in this adventure specifically, is usually to have some sort of house generator. This is a “roll on the table” occupied by “roll on the table” with “roll on the table” treasure. Sure. But it’s also pretty bland. I’d love to see a little more detail, five or ten detailed more fully, for the DM to pull out of their ass when the party goes crashing in. Then the more fleshed out ones can be sprinkled in. And if they search every house, well, thats on them. 

This is also exacerbated by The Compounds. There are a lot of manor homes/compounds in town and they are generally handled much like D3 was: with a short little description and not much else. So: “Elmyra Nerijyre’s Compound: Elmyra Nerijyre, once a courageous warrior princess, is now a black knight who seeks to unite the gangs of Tosasth into an army to raid St. Orlan.” Okey dokey, run with it! I mean, sure. There’s a lot to cover in town. And there’d be more than enough room for it if the hit points werent llisted kisted as checkboxes for each monster, or if you just tacked on more pages to a free PDF product. I understand. The project is scale. You’re trying to represent this huge thing and you have to find the appropriate level of detail for the scope of the product. But I don’t think that this is it. Everything kind of breaks down in the city, be it because of the scale or the level the party is now at. That assistance to the DM is much less  and everything much more loose. For the main event of the product. 

Up until this point (and, in certain locations in the city), it just a standard adventure. There’s enough interactivity, and decent enough formatting and descriptions that are not going to win any award but also are trying. These larger adventures, this one ranging from levels one through eight with a demiplane adventure tossed in also, are a rare thing and thus somewhat compelling, just for that reason. But, in terms of supporting a longer term game, and the overall quality of whats going on, I don’t think I’d turn to this. I’m sure this will be more than enough for most folks, but I’m looking for more. I don’t find it particularly compelling, which is going to be required if I’m to get behind it and run it well. The support, for the local towns, etc, is a bit too minimal as well for something that is ranging over eight levels. And, then, there’s the loosy goosy nature of the city proper. 

I think I need to go back and take another look at Gaxmore, which I recall thinking of fondly, to see if its doing better than this one did.

This is free at the Basic Fantasy website/forum, so, hey, check it out for yourself!

https://basicfantasy.org/downloads.html#la1