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I’m working my way through reviewing the adventures in FIght On! magazine. The magazine proper is a great resource that reminds me a lot of the early days of Dragon or White Dwarf; you know, before they started to suck. Of special note in this issue is a Mutant Future hex crawl around Slimy Lake, and a nice city and borderlands keep write up. If you haven’t checked it out you really should; it’s got great articles to get your imagination going.

As always, I hope you can learn enough about these adventures from my descriptions that you can decide if you want to use/purchase it. I have my own preferences, which I’m not shy in sharing, however the real goal here is describe the adventures enough so you can decide for your self if you’d like them or want to use them.

Hell-Grave of the Tveirbrodur
by Jason Morningstar
2nd level characters?

There seem to have been a proliferation of adventures in barrow mounds in the last couple of issues. This seems to be the last charge in to the valley of barrow mound death. What’s interesting about this one is the very strong historical feel to the barrow, along with the non-standard adventure layout. The adventure could almost be the product of one of those Iron DM contests. “Given these six words, creature an adventure.” The author here used those words as room descriptions/section headers. There is a small map of the barrow that it keyed off the room names, rather than a number or the more uncommon alphabet character. There are also a few section heading prior to the barrow description which fall in to the same vein. It took me a bit to get used to however it works out pretty well, especially for an adventure this short. The set up is interesting, at least to me. (But then again, I have a strong surface interest in barrow mounds, so you milage may vary.) Some kid in a dirt poor village has a treasure he should not have and a story to go with it. The villagers will be displeased if the party announce their plans to loot the mound, leading to a lack of shovels/picks/etc being available if they find out what the party is up to. The mound looks to me like it could have come out of some archeology journal. There is a longship in it, as well as more than a few bodies, all nice and fetel’d up on the map. The treasures here are all bronze armlets and electrum knives and so on, what little of it there is. They seem a whole lot like burial artifacts, … or at least they do to my In Search Of addeled-mind. There are a couple of traps, and a decent amount of undead in the simple tomb. In fact the undead may end up overwhelming the party, being crafty sorts and attacking en masse. The mundane treasures are all very well described however values are missing from many. Given the low loot count of the ones that are described, this stands out a little more than usual. This is a strange sort of adventure that seems to have a very Bronze Age, Runequest, or Harn feel to it. While not what I’m usually looking for, it does seem true to real mounds, which means it should have a great appeal. It’s not a bad adventure, but more a little short and … mundane? for my tastes. Not mundane in a bad way, but more very grounded in the historical.

The Tribe of Rorvash
by Erin Bisson
1st level characters?

Goblin Raiders! Oh No! This little five room minidungeon takes up two pages and feels like filler. Three rooms with goblins in it. A room with their human leader in it, and a treasure room. Oh, and the goblins have trained some giant mantis bugs. The mundane treasures are well described as if the single magic item of note, but that doesn’t really make up for lack of interesting things going on. This may be the least interesting adventure I’ve seen in Fight On. That still makes it better then 70% of all published adventures, despite its length.

Blocks of Quox
by Tony Rosten
Levels 3-5 characters

Puzzle Dungeon! Do you and your players like puzzles and traps? I tend to prefer them integrated in to my ‘normal’ dungeon levels however my tastes are not universal. This one is also pretty interesting. Essentially what we have is a wizards tomb/lab/workshop that one special feature: Giant stone blocks with rings set in them that are 9’9″ on a side (perfect 10′ hallways are noted as present.) These blocks are used in a variety of ways throughout the dungeon to bypass traps, open doors, kill players, etc. The blocks are the dungeons defining characteristic. Put the block on a pressure plate and a door opens. Turn it the correct way and stuff it in an alcove and a goody appears. Do the wrong thing with a block and something bad happens. The dungeon only has about 11 rooms and the layout is essentially linear. It reminds me a lot of Portal: you come in to an area and need to figure out what’s going on before you can leave. Repeat. There are no real riddles but several clues in the form of riddles or cryptic sayings. This is a plus for me; I can’t stand riddles and puzzle dungeons based on them. There are several interesting misdirections in the dungeon; once the players concentrate on the blocks they may ‘get in the groove’, so to speak, and turn off their normal dungeon paranoia. Those self-imposed blinders are what I mean by misdirection. That’s very neato mosquito. It’s interesting enough and I don’t see any real frustration setting in from the players. It would certainly make a nice sub-level to a dungeon, or a side-trek for a party needing something different. There’s a cute little twist at the end involving a deal with the devil … after all, the wizard Quox WAS an Illusionist.

The Darkness Beneath Level 5 – The Lower Caves
by David Bowman
Level 5 characters?

Holy Crap! The community megadungeon ‘The Darkness Beneath’ has turned out some very good levels thus far, with a single exception. I was expecting and looking forward to another pretty good dungeon level in this issue. I was wrong. Holy Crap! This thing is awesome! Even by the VERY high standards of Fight On and The Darkness Beneath, this level is crazy bad ass! The map has 70 or so keyed areas in it and has a pretty complex design: lots of loops, lots of ways in to and out of the level, lots of terrain features. It’s divided up in to five or areas each of which has a separate feel to it. The core is a kind of travelers inn in an old fey home. These two elements, the inn and the former fey, map up the bulk of what’s going on in this level. There are 40 or so named creatures, from goblins and humans to trolls and demihumans, that are scattered through the inn and the environments. Everyone has their own motivations and goals, which makes for fabulous play, in my experience. The party can interact with people, learn rumors, go on side quests, get information about deeper levels, explore the cave areas, and so on. There’s a richness and history to a lot of the areas; details like former bands of murder hobos to be found in various states of death through the level, and terrain features with a history behind them. These elements help bring the level alive. Many of the areas have so much going on that they feel like those ‘wilderness encounter’ pieces that sometimes show up in magazine and supplements. You know, two or three pages of someone you can meet in the wilderness? Those are EVERYWHERE on this level, and condensed in to a paragraph or two for the most part. This level is so rich and has so much going on that it feels a lot like a fully formed portion of one of those drow cities, like in Vault, if they were fully fleshed out and detailed. The entries are a little longer than I generally prefer, but that’s more than made up for by the rich content they provide. Not endless mind-numbing room descriptions but details about the occupants or the special things going on in that room. There’s a host of new magic items that are well detailed and unique which also contribute to the original feel of the level. There are also several pages of new monster entires that will keep the party on their toes. This is a fabulous effort and ranks right up there with the best products ever made: Thracia, Dark Tower, and so on. A really stellar example of what a good dungeon level can be.

I’m working my way through reviewing the adventures in Fight On! magazine. The magazine itself is great and is chock full of ideas that should your creative juices flowing. Check it out!
The Tomb of Ixtandraz
by Lee Barber
4th-6th Level Characters

This is an interesting little dungeon. It doesn’t have as much meat as I’d normally prefer, only 17 rooms or so. This is generally not enough to get something interesting going that can sustain play. This one though is a little different and appeals to me in an unusual way. It may be because it’s in a burial mound; I’m SUCH a sucker for those. It starts gimmicky enough: the tomb of the archmage Ixtandraz has been found and the party gets ahold of a map. In it’s swampy location the party comes upon a lizardmen village at the base of the mound. Inside is a wonderful assortment of oddity and an excellent selection of OSR elements. The map is … hard to categorize. Despite having only 17 rooms AND being a burial complex, it manages to be interesting. Lots of little features, corridors running over others, flooded sections, interesting secret doors, mini-tunnels, etc. I was pretty pleased with the variety the map presented. The rooms are nicely done as well. Statues that turn and open secret doors, clues in paintings, small environmental modifiers to combat from rubble & water and so on. There’s a goofy table of wine bottle effects which include things like ‘coated in blueberry jelly’ and ‘STR reduced by half for 2d10 rounds.’ I LOVE it when dungeon have things for the party to play with and the wine bottles more than satisfy. There’s also a goofy little ghost cat named Norbert that could become a hanger-on. Why don’t more published adventures have this originality? This is the kind of stuff that a campaign thrives on and I’m continually amazed more of it doesn’t show up in print. It doesn’t appear that any of the monsters, except maybe the lizardmen, are standard; everything has a little twist. I like this because it keeps the monsters scary; the players never know what to expect. The magic items are also an interesting allotment. They are all non-standard in some way, even if it’s just a little adjustment like “of returning” added on to a magic weapon. No generic crap in this dungeon! This would make an excellent little adventure for an evening of play or a con; it’s a great introduction to elements of the OSR.
Black Blood
by Gabor Lux
3rd level characters

RedRum! REDRUM!
This is a kind of investigatory adventure set in an old home that starts with an excellent hook. the party, having arrived at a major city by ship, is greeted by deserted streets. Well, except for a detachment of the city guard which informs them that all three of the city gods have issued the same omen: the strangers who arrive this evening will destroy the town and anyone who succors them. A bribe is exchanged and the ships captain anchors in the harbor … until getting second thoughts about “succor” and kicks the party off the ship. In the empty streets of the town they meet a strange woman covered in blood with a dagger and a wild look in her eyes. This leads to the Villa of Severius and it’s 42 or so rooms of adventure. The hook is excellent and will certainly lead to some great roleplaying opportunities. The villa is two stories with two basements and the maps interesting enough to sustain play. In the grandest tradition of Weird Fiction, the house proper is will be mostly an investigation as the party travels from room to room. This builds from emptiness, to clues, to gruesome body finds and finally to creatures and more gruesomeness as the party enters the basement levels. This would probably make a great Call of Cthulhu adventure and could be dropped in to almost any other game system or time. To me that means it works for what it’s trying to do: create a weird fantasy adventure. The only problem is perhaps that the NPC along for the ride, which adds so much flavor, is likely to get massacred or left behind early on by the party. The NPC is critical not only for raising tension but also for a single secret door. Without finding that door the party will be lost. There’s not a lot of magic items in this but what there is nicely done and fits the tone of the adventure. For example, a silver cross with a few charges that allows the holder to turn undead as a cleric. The creatures are either nicely weird or undead, both strange and new and good ol zombies. This would make an excellent halloween/christmas adventure and/or serve as a nice change of pace or interlude, although there’s a very real chance of death: the wizard behind things is mad an 9th level. Guile over brawn gang!

 
A Giant Dilemma
by Frank Farris
2nd-4th level characters

This isn’t really an adventure, but rather a brief encounter in the wilderness. The party is stopped by some orcs who plead with them to rescue their children. The kids were locked in their cave after a red giant came crashing in and kicked them out. The feverish fire giant s really the only opponent, and a smart party will attempt to ignore/bypass him. This tactic only has a 1 in 6 chance of failing, unless the party is full of idiots. The rest of the small seven room cave complex only has one surprise in it.

The Barrow of Therex
by Erin Bisson
1st level characters

This small five room barrow that is in the process of being looted by goblins. The portion they haven’t reached yet contain a few undead. There is some nice historical flavor to the barrow with enough fantasy to make it interesting, especially in the grave gifts category. The few magic items are both interesting, detailed, and non-standard. This is a nice little adventure for a 1st level hex-crawl encounter.
The Darkness Beneath Level 2 – Warrens of the Troglodytes
by Calithena and D. Bowman
Level 1-5 characters, depending on GM cruelty/kindness

I’ve loved two of the three previous levels of this community megadungeon and was happy to see the trogs finally get their level. These are caverns and the map that supports them is windy and full of natural features. While there are several small loops present there is not enough alternate passages for my tastes. I wish more were done with the multiple elevations that come from the numerous chasms, sinkholes, slopes, and terraces that are present. The 40 encounters are supplemented with two small sub-levels that add an additional eleven or so encounters to the mix. The core of the encounters on the this level are going to be with the trogs, in their various forms. And therein lies this levels largest fault: it feels RELENTLESSLY trog. It’s not, but it can feel that way. It’s actually a nice cavern system with some native inhabitants. Gas Spores. Giant Badgers, a Dragon, etc. There’s also a major ally to be found: the Mole Men! These guys are essentially co-inhabitants and are completely random in when they will appear. I LOVE the mole men, especially as potential, and very weak, allies. There’s a good assortment of ‘creatures in the pit’ and ‘fungus gods’ as well, but the whole ‘trogs everywhere’ feel is hard to escape. I also wish the magic items had some more detail. While there is some variety in them, there are also too many “+1 spear” and even one instance of “they all have +2 daggers”. The later is a travesty in my eyes. Overall a decent above-average level but not enough interesting things in the “not creatures” category. Of course, an above-average Fight On! adventure like this is also better than at least 80% of other modules, and it’s quite a bit better than the Mysterious Crystal Hemisphere in the last issue.

I’m working my way through the various issues of FIght On! magazine, reviewing the adventures. The rest of the magazine tends to be chock full of great thing from the OSR and feels a lot like the early Dragon & White Dwarf.

House of the Axe
by Calithena
4th-10th Level
Arduin!

This adventure details the ground and upper story of a ruined home of a dead wizard, along with the basement and dungeon level. There are about 65 or so encounters in all, with most being in the basement and ground floors. The adventure has that quirky and idiosyncratic feel that I’m looking for. All of the rooms contain a pretty lengthy description and a section of boxed text, neither of which I prefer, however nearly every room has something interesting going on. In this way it very much resembles Tegal Manor. There’s an old ghost who floats around with a random chance of screwing with the party. There are many and varied In Media Res rooms where the party stumbles upon a recently slain body (or bodies.) There’s a great assortment of new baddies to learn about that should keep the party on its toes. The magic items, and to a certain extent the mundane treasure, all have a pretty good description attached to them. In fact the most valuable item in the adventure will only be obvious to smart players, exactly the way things should be. This is a great adventure with perhaps three things that could be better. The textual items are a bit long for my tastes; I’ll need some strong highlighting to run this. The second floor is also a little too gimmicky for my tastes. The core gonzo element of the floor is a little too … direct? for my tastes. Finally there is not really enough interaction with the creatures, other than to hack them: the intelligent beings jump to attack immediately instead of some much more interesting party interaction. Otherwise the party is going to have a great time playing the various rooms and getting themselves killed over and over again, in the grand tradition of Tegal.

The Tower of Duvan’Ku
by James Edward Raggi IV
1st-2nd Level

This adventure also appears, somewhat revised, the Raggi module Death, Frost, Doom. Raggi does a good job of invoking a certain type of feel in his work. A kind of weird horror that not too many others, if any, have captured. They also tend to be linear deathtraps. This adventure is no exception. The party encounters a ruined tower in the middle of an idyllic glade. Properly preped, they know that tower holds something. There are just five levels to the tower, one room per level, and only four of them really come in to play, along with a special door and the doors guardian. The adventure is short, deadly, and has no treasure to speak of. It’s more of a lesson, and the author admits as much, that not every place the party explores is rewarding.
Arcane Vault of Isis
by Matthew Riedel
High to very-high level party

This is a linear dungeon with 18 or so encounters. The party hears of a strange stone structure that has been revealed by a recent sandstorm and plunges in to explore the depths underneath it. The dungeon is pretty relentlessly linear and presents several other tropes that I generally have problems with. The undisturbed tomb has living creatures in it. They don’t pop out of stasis, but it still strikes me as being out place. It’s full of constructs that attack relentlessly. What else can you put in a tomb except for undead? That’s why tomb explorations tend to be boring as hell. It’s all set piece traps and constructs and undead. It has an egyptian theme and a magnet trap, both of which are turn off for me but may work out better for you. The party ends up fighting a dragon and maybe a stasis wizard and maybe a band of priests that show up. I found the whole thing very unsatisfying, but then again I’m looking for a lot more whimsy in mu dungeons and VERY much don’t like linear tomb crawls.
Fungoid Gardens of the Bone Sorcerer
by Geoffrey McKinney
Carcosa

This section of nine pages details some points of interest in hex 2005 of Carcosa map one. “Carcosa” is all you really need to know though. It’s wild, it’s wooly, it batshit crazy and it’s wonderful, although not quite the whimsical that I prefer. The hex has a scientific outpost for aliens, a group of barbarians that ride dinosaurs and hunt sorcerers, and assorted other strangeness. The core of the text is taken up by describing the 27 room cave system of the Bone Sorcerer. It’s a cave system with a map that adequate although without any real interesting features. The encounters, however, will be remembered for a long time to come for any players that stumble through here. A lake of green slime, caves of bones, giant fungus forests, chthonic beasties, and a certain moral ambiguity in its presentation should lead the party in to some interesting hijinks. You know, Gamma World has always suffered a bit from the lack of a campaign setting. ASE1 and Carcosa could be the setting GW needs.

The Darkness Beneath Level 4: The Mysterious Crystal Hemisphere
by James Maliszewski
Level 4 characters

This is level 4 of the community megadungeon, and by far the weakest. While the previous two entries have been stellar this one lies somewhere on the lower end of mediocre. The eleven pages describe 50 or so encounter areas, however the first two pages are full of background. That’s probably the first indication in any product that its going to be problematic for me. Only Stonhell comes to mind as a product that had a longish introduction and didn’t disappoint. Then again, it had 20 or so maps so it’s introduction size, relative to the product, was short. Two pages of introduction for one small dungeon level …. that’s not short. The idea is that a portion of an alien spaceship has materialized inside a larger set of caverns. This divides the level in to caverns, spaceship, and “stabilizing chambers” where the materialization is not quite complete. Nice idea. Different wandering monster tables are given for each area however they are all over the place. Trolls, dopplegangers, and owlbears in the stabilizing portions with giant ticks, cave bears and spiders in the caverns. The differentiation in creatures makes no sense; it just seems like it was randomly thrown together. The non-spaceship parts of the map are generally very simple, with a lot of linearity. It’s also confusing. Hand drawn is a nice touch but it needs shading to denote solid spaces from passages. The spaceship has a little more variety but again the lack of shading makes the map confusing. The chambers themselves are … well, boring. There’s just not much going on. The cavern creatures attack on sight, and viscously, with only a couple of exceptions. This in spite of their troubles with the spaceship. There’s not enough factions at play in this space, which is a lost opportunity. The players could be teaming up with the trogs or trolls or even the spaceship to work against the others or play both sides of the street. The room descriptions are more verbose than I would prefer and seem devoid of any sparks. Standard giant spider room. Standard beetle room. Standard collapsed chamber. Oh, there is a bad save or die trap that seems to come out of nowhere. It should have had some kind of warning, bodies or bones or something. The aliens in the ship are just mind flayers in uniforms, which brings to mind the Barrier Peaks illustration; perhaps that was the inspiration. The adventure is probably too high for a party of 4ths, given the frequency & high numbers of 6HD creatures sent against the party by the ship. This level is supposed to expand on the brain parasite found on Level 3 in the Crab Spawning Grounds, but it does a poor job. The mystery and bizarreness is removed. This feels too much like standard high fantasy “explanation” based exploring.

I’m working my way through Fight On! magazine reviewing the adventurers. I’m skipping over the rest of the magazine, and the hex crawlish sorts of things. The magazine in general is very good and compares well to the early days of Dragon and White Dwarf.  The general content is excellent. This issue also includes several regional/hex description sections and level 5 of Hell by the same author who presented the first four levels in the 1980 Judge’s Guild supplement Inferno.

The Darkness Beneath, Level3 – Spawning Grounds of the Crab-Men

by David Bowman

Level 3 characters

This level won first prize in the Fight On! adventure contest and now seems to be expanding it’s reach. Level 1 appeared in issue #2 and Level 2 claims to be appearing in issue #4. This level has SO much going in it’s 13 or 14 pages that it’s going to be hard to mention how it all interacts. First there’s the Crab-Men. These are primitive cavemen who worship a demon crab and use this level for their bizarre rites. Ceremonies which turn them in to various crab monstrosities. A large part of the level is devoted to them and the various types of ‘real’ crabs which hang about as well. But wait, That’s not all! Also lurking about the crab section are an ‘insane’ crab monstrosity/humanoid named Crazy Clonk. He’s under guard by crab men who release him upon intruders, but only reluctantly because he’s a pain to get back in his pen. You see, he picked up a glowing-red sword which is now dominating him … Oh, and the giant crabs that roam around are really just animals and can turn on their crab-men handlers at any moment. DId I mention the elderly hill giant whose cave reeks of dead crabs and butter? He moved hear in order to enjoy his favorite food, hot buttery crab, in his retirement and offers a bounty for each the party brings to him. That’s the kind of quirky good natured fun that a lot of modern products are missing. Note also how various factions of the dungeon are presented. Not every encounter has to turn in to a fight: the party can talk to the giant, manipulate the giants crabs or the ego-dominated Clonk. All of that is just in one section of the dungeon. There are other sections with a crazed sorcerer and his Speci-Men, which could easily turn in to a great recurring villain because of his twist. That section has factions as well, with hive-minds, alien intelligences, and sympathetic ‘monsters’ who have their own goals and motivations. This wonderful environment is supported by an interesting map with 54 or so encounters that has several distinct feels to it, from caverns to seemingly inaccessible areas to standard dungeon halls. The wanderers generally support this same environment, with a variety of special events and encounters offered to make the journey more interesting, such as trog raiding parties, loose experiments, and battles in progress. The magic items and treasures fall in to either a mundane category or a Kick Ass Flavor category; it would have been nice to see more individualization in all of the treasures. The textual descriptions are a bit long, with eight or so rooms per page described each with a longish paragraph. This is a little longer then I’d like to see because I find that length hard to pick apart during play. It’s also nothing that a highlighter can’t fix. In the best tradition of module writing a great deal of the history and background of the level comes out in these descriptions which IS the correct way to present this information. This level fits in well with the overall megadungeon environment and is a rich and full flavored (buttery flavored?) place to adventure in. It’s one of the best efforts of the OSR and I strongly recommend it

Explore the ruins of an ancient monastery. Delve in to the depths of the burial vaults of a decadent city-state. Journey to a corrupt nature node to make it pure once again.
I’m got a stack of Fight On! magazines on my desk, each with a couple of adventures in it. Rather than review the magazine, or review the adventurers in the magazine, I’m going to review all of the adventures in each issue, naming my favorite in the subject line. I don’t know how this is going to work, so comments are welcome. The magazine proper is full of great articles that remind me of the very early Dragon magazine and Strategic Review articles. Defiantly worth picking up if you want some fresh content.
 
The Ruined Monastery
by James Maliszewski
1st Level
This is a small 14 room dungeon that describes the first level of a complex under a ruined monastery that could be expanded upon by the DM. The map design is relatively simple and would be familiar to players of 3/3.5. The map is small and the wandering monsters rather straight forward for first level: goblins, wolf, skeletons, spiders, slime, and rats. Not much interesting there, other than all of the classic bases are covered. The 14 encounters are spread out over 5 pages, including the map. Thus the writing and descriptions are rather verbose in a round-about way that I don’t prefer. Essentially each rooms original purpose is described. This writing style, not uncommon, sets me on edge. I don’t need a description of what a vestry is, or what could be found in a vestry. I want to know what’s unusual about the vestry. Eventually the room descriptions get around to that point however even then it’s in a round-about manner. The actual encounters are not too imaginative: a scriptorium with yellow mold, a larder with spiders, etc. The weird and wooly world of the idiosyncratic is not present in this adventure. It’s clearly a tribute to Gygax; it’s a shame it’s not a very good one. Overall it’s a serviceable little adventure that’s primary sin is the Vanilla nature.
 
The Tomb-Complex of Ymmu M’Kursa
by Gabor Lux
4th level? 5th? “Old school mixed” is probably a better level designator
This is a pretty sweet little dungeon adventure. These are the burial vaults of the decadent city-state mentioned in the teaser and they do a good job delivering. There are only 15 keyed entires on the map, although several have (a) and (b) parts to the rooms. The adventure is spread out over four pages so it has that compactness and terseness that I appreciate. The wandering monster table is full of of the usual suspects of undead, from skeletons to shadows and mummies and include an entry or two for generating mixed groups or one of the tombs ‘named’ undead leading a group of 1d2+1 groups against the party if they sloppy/noisy! Ouch! I believe that’s the first time I’ve seen that on a wandering monster table and I like it! The map of the tomb is sufficiently complex to lead to some fun escapades as the party uses corridors to get behind behind or get ambushed by monster doing the same. I counted five loops in the map some of which intersect with each other. The encounters are all wonderfully bizarre and idiosyncratic.  For example, at one point the party encounter a group of statues who’s heads have been decapitated. If the party repairs one then the statue speaks: “We are the men of Konoth, and such is out thanks.” Save vs wands or be decapitated by an invisible sword. A W E S O M E ! That’s the kind of mysterious and strange D&D that I want to play! There are also animated mummy wrappings, cool little unique magic items like “The burial shroud of Ymmu M’Kursa” or “Ymmu’s paw”. Or maybe the potion that turns bodies of bodies of water in to glass from the waist down? How can you not love stuff like that? It boggles the mind how published high fantasy modules can survive when stuff like this is floating around. Plus, there’s an amazon woman in carbonite with a laser pistol and laser sword. It’s a deadly little tomb but it is going to give the party the feel of exploring a tomb more so than almost any other adventure published. Highly recommended!
 
Nature’s Nasty Node
by Makofan
Levels 4-7
This is a short 12 room adventure through a set of caves near a collapsed tower. A magical nature node has been corrupted and the party needs to purify it again. The map has a little variety near the beginning however it quickly turns in to a linear map after the first 5 or 6 rooms. The nature of the adventure, a magical nature node, immediately gives it a bit more flavor than the standard dungeon dressing of The Ruined Monastery, however in the end it’s really just about the same in content, although it manages to do it in only three pages. Like the first adventure this one is quite serviceable but doesn’t really distinguish itself much. It does feature pixies and a basilisk, both solid Mystic Wood type creatures. This and a few other touch contribute a lot to it’s more mystical feel. There’s also a short little set of tables in the back, a tribute to Bob Bledsaw, which you can use to generate your own Nature Node adventure. Roll a boss, a fantastic monster, a normal monster, a setting, normal treasure, fantastic treasure, guarded treasure, what’s being wielded, and the hook agent and you’ve got yourself a customized adventure! If you assume the point of the dungeon is to show how the table can be used then you’ve got much better  possibilities, but then it wouldn’t be an adventure and I wouldn’t be reviewing it.
 

Fifty years ago a treasure-laden caravan accompanied the Princess Allisandra to her destiny – A pre-arranged marriage with a prince from a neighboring kingdom. Then the caravan and princess disappeared without a trace. Now a clue has surfaced that may uncover the fate of The Lost Caravan.

This is a two-part tournament module originally created for MDG’s Wintercon in 1982. Tournament modules have a reputation for being rather linear, a requirement for scoring different parties, however this one is more open than a lot of non-tournament modules I’ve seen. There is a heavy tactical element to the scoring.

The setup here is better than most: An aged and dying King summons the party to him. Fifty years ago his daughter disappeared while on her way to her pre-arranged wedding. A clue recently emerged, the first to ever do so, and he’d like the party to look in to it before he dies … which will be quite soon. Not earth shattering stuff but a decent enough hook. There are supposed to be two paths for the party to then take: attempting to track the caravan or following up on the clue which turns out to be a bit of a family tree exploration: Track down Bobs sister, ask about their father, go visit with his friends, etc. Because the clue is directly related to this second option its pretty certain the party will do that first and then go track down the caravan from there. Both parts have to be completed however the linkage from the family tree clue to the caravan is not the strongest. I’d perhaps drop a clue or two more in there. Both paths have an NPC encounter in which points can be earned, and both have some pretty big set piece battles. The caravan path has an old abandoned monastery to explore, a group of giants to potentially battle, and a cave to explore that comes with another giant battle. The family-tree path has a potentially much more deadly encounter: the party is ambushed while at an inn.  The ambush is pretty good, believable, and not forced at all. And very very deadly. It’s a very large battle in a burning inn at night with a lot of 1HD opponents. The cultists that are attacking are never really explained very well however by stepping back a bit the DM can easily come up with a good reason. There are a lot of humanoids in this adventure, both in the set encounters and on the wandering tables. I usually object to that however not this time, for reasons I’ll explain at the end. Both plot lines seem very combat heavy however the NPC and exploration elements are very well done, especially in the cave plot line. It’s got a lot to love: the abandoned monastery has some nice little exploration pieces, there’s a crotchety old NPC for the party to interact with, and lots of things to get the party in to trouble. The family-tree plot is more straightforward in its NPC interactions … so much so that I didn’t get a lot of flavor from them. The inn attack however is a VERY good set piece. Played correctly its hard to imagine the PCs escaping without some major damage. This leads once again to the problem of the caravan vs/ family tree plot. The caravan plot taking place first make the inn an excellent place to end the first part of the adventure. A little more work to strengthen ‘tracking the caravan’ in the introduction would be a good way to get the party there first while still preserving their ability to choose.

The second part has the party journeying to where they believe the princess is and brining her back to see the dying king. There are five of six encounters that all will take place in a pretty much linear format. This part is essentially a test of the parties ability to stay on task. As they traverse a LARGE mountain lake system they are confronted with an island each night that they can & should camp on. Each of the four islands has some kind of encounter on it. Each encounter has NOTHING to do with finding the princess and bringing her back. It’s just one BIG RED SHINY SHINY BUTTON every night. The islands involve a bunch of giant monsters straight out of those bad 70’s ‘giant vermin’ movies, a hermit who wants to be left alone, a group of dwarves after some buried treasure, and a strange obelisk. They all have a nicely distinct flavor to them and they will ALL lead to the party screwing themselves over. Stay on Target. Stay on Target! The adventure ends with the party finding the princess in her fortress and a set piece attack from a group of giants on her outpost. This is another LARGE battle with lots of troops involved. This second section is … strange. A smart party will avoid the islands … but a meta-think party will know they can pick up some points on the islands. Avoiding the island encounters basically means that there is just one large battle on this part of the adventure; not too exciting. This is a little akin to finding a pouch of 100gp in the first room on your first adventure and then going back home to live in peasant splendor the rest of your life: realistic but boring. A non-tourney party won’t be point-whoring and should have an excellent time roleplaying with the hermit and helping the dwarves find their treasure.

The designer suggests, and I agree, that this would be a pretty good lead in to the G1/G2/G3 series of modules. It features giants and humanoids and raiding by both the monsters and the humans. It’s a little weak on the weird magic and fungus men front, however it is an excellent tourney module.

This is available on DriveThru.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/263915/TM1-The-Lost-Caravan?affiliate_id=1892600

Explore “Modnar’s Cellar,” the undercroft of a ruined tower owned by a magic-user with a strange agenda. Visit “The Nest of Otrogg,” a cave system once occupied by a loathsome cult. Discover the secrets of  “The Sanctuary of Chthonia,” a secret sub-level located inside Stonehell Dungeon and overseen by an undead witch.

This is a nice little Stonehell supplement that collects three separate expansion areas. They can be used without Stonehell although together they serve to really fill out the Sandbox.

The three small areas presented in this product do a good job of providing some sublevel environments to a dungeon. The first two are areas outside of Stonhell dungeon while the third is meant to be a true sublevel to the dungeon. Modnar’s Cellar is the basement on an old wizards tower that blew up. The map feels rather small with 31 or so encounters on it. The design is roughly that of two or three looping corridors around the central entrance with some branches off of it. There’s lots of secret doors, and doors for that matter, however I just can’t shake the feeling that the map is smaller and/or simpler than the ones in Stonehell. The wandering monster table has about 10 entries of mostly vermin and oozes, but including bugbears and kobolds. The humanoids seem thrown-in on this one. I would probably replace them with bandits. This keeps the shock impact of humanoids in Stonehell high and also provides for a bit of a transition from the mundane world to the that of the fantastic. The actual room encounters in the cellar are great. Each one is about two or three sentences and they all provide some kind of interesting place for the party to explore. There are lots of rooms with nothing too fantastic in them that are otherwise interesting. A bucket on a pole, mounds of humanoid bones, and so on. SOme will contain treasure if the party is creative; like looting a partially constructed summoning circle. Quite a few rooms have something MUCH more interesting. A statue that will recharge a wand, or a well that can let you reroll a stat, once. The entire cellar is full of these sorts of idiosyncratic things. This is exactly what I’m looking for in a module: non-standard things for the party to hang themselves with. And unlike Stonehell the monster names are bolded in each entry allowing the DM to pick out the creature easily. The humanoids in the dungeon (bugbears and kobolds) feel out of place to me however that’s hard to argue considering the number of humanoids in Stonehell proper. If I had never seen Stonehell then I’d be pleased with the encounters but slightly disappointed in the map, although it is quite a bit better than most.

The Nest of Otrogg expands on an area near the entrance of the dungeon. This is supposed to be the forgotten temple of a vermin god. The caverns have about 17 keyed encounters and the map is simple yet contain several loops. The wandering monsters are pretty perfect: vermin & ooze! The temple caverns are described as a Nest … but I’m not sure I got that feeling in reading. Certainly many of the rooms have some flavor text with the words ‘moss’, ‘damp’ or ‘fungus’ in them, and the introduction recommends that there be an abnormal amount of harmless bugs present, that get in to everything, but I just didn’t feel the vibe. It could be that it plays a lot better. Hmmm, maybe the hallways/tunnels/corridors are what’s killing the atmosphere for me? Anyway, there’s a lot of interesting things to explore in the caves and get freaked out by.  It’s less “wizard weird” and more “fungus weird.”

The final area is a true sublevel to Stonhell and is presented in the same fashion as the dungeon encounters are in the core dungeon book. This means a two page introduction and then a map, notes, wandering monsters, and key description appearing on two more pages. This is a great format and works well. The map is not too complex, really just 16 encounter areas in a simple layout. The entire place has an empty feel to it; much like exploring an old decrepit house would. The interactions with the environment is mostly going to be through mundane things, like looking in teapots and so forth. The central concept of the NPC’s on this level is very good and this level could perhaps serve as a hidey hole for parties exploring the dungeon.

This provides some interesting areas to expand on the environs around and in Stonhell and the first two mini-dungeons are excellent example of incorporating idiosyncratic and weird in to a dungeon. There’s a real old school feel to those encounters and rooms. This is better than 90% of the product produced, so you shouldn’t have any problems justifying adding it to your collection given the price.

The trail east from Modron to the Coast, known as Lost Man’s Trail, has been a source of mystery for some time. Adventurers have a habit of disappearing from the trail. Are they lured away by some enticement, or waylayed by the legendary Skandik Raiders? The only safe place to stay, The Fat Deer Inn, offers good ale, soft bedding, and an assortment of characters; each having their own reason for being there.

Four more hexes for the Wilderlands. Encounters are limited to four or five major ones rather than the hex crawl sentences. A fine example of a regional sandbox building block.

I generally don’t review regional settings. Or rather, I review everything I purchase and I don’t generally purchase regional settings, so this one is going to be short. I stumbled upon Lost Man’s Trail because it was Bob “Judge’s Guild” Bledsaw’s last work prior to his passing. There are maps for four more Wilderlands hexes; this time between Modron and Tegal. The hexes feature a trail from Modron to the Fat Deer Inn. All of the encounters provided take place in this last hex. Essentially, the inn is a base for the characters while they explore some of the juicy rumors they hear there. The inn takes up about 1/4 of the pages in the book and is described enough to provide some good play. What I mean by this is that each room is described, however the primary descriptions of the various rooms tend to be the occupants and what they are doing at the inn and how they react to the players and so on. What this gets you is a rich set of people interacting with the party, an absolute necessity for any type of social portion of the game. They have relationships to each other and their own motivations outside of the party. That’s what is going to bring the inn alive and make it a memorable place.

There are about four different sets of bandits roaming the hex with the inn, along with a potentially friendly encounter with a hermit and a small/simple four-level cave system. The bandits are all very different, even though one set is humanoids (ug!) One of the sets of bandits could be called the focus of the adventure, and their defeat probably leads the mini-dungeon and it’s 20 or so rooms/encounters. It’s full of what one expect from a Judge’s Guild product: great atmosphere. Cages made from human/animal hair, great item/jewelry/magic item descriptions, non-standard magic items, and freaky non-standard creatures. This is exactly the sort of detail I’m looking for. I don’t want orcs, I want weird fungus pumpkins that waddle along the floor, or giants slugs that secret strange gasses. That’s the sort of personalized, idiosyncratic whimsy that I’m looking for in a module.

This is available on DriveThru.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/85053/Lost-Mans-Trail-2010?affiliate_id=1892600

The trail east from Modron to the Coast, known as Lost Man’s Trail, has been a source of mystery for some time. Adventurers have a habit of disappearing from the trail. Are they lured away by some enticement, or waylayed by the legendary Skandik Raiders? The only safe place to stay, The Fat Deer Inn, offers good ale, soft bedding, and an assortment of characters; each having their own reason for being there.

Four more hexes for the Wilderlands. Encounters are limited to four or five major ones rather than the hex crawl sentences. A fine example of a regional sandbox building block.

I generally don’t review regional settings. Or rather, I review everything I purchase and I don’t generally purchase regional settings, so this one is going to be short. I stumbled upon Lost Man’s Trail because it was Bob “Judge’s Guild” Bledsaw’s last work prior to his passing. There are maps for four more Wilderlands hexes; this time between Modron and Tegal. The hexes feature a trail from Modron to the Fat Deer Inn. All of the encounters provided take place in this last hex. Essentially, the inn is a base for the characters while they explore some of the juicy rumors they hear there. The inn takes up about 1/4 of the pages in the book and is described enough to provide some good play. What I mean by this is that each room is described, however the primary descriptions of the various rooms tend to be the occupants and what they are doing at the inn and how they react to the players and so on. What this gets you is a rich set of people interacting with the party, an absolute necessity for any type of social portion of the game. They have relationships to each other and their own motivations outside of the party. That’s what is going to bring the inn alive and make it a memorable place.

There are about four different sets of bandits roaming the hex with the inn, along with a potentially friendly encounter with a hermit and a small/simple four-level cave system. The bandits are all very different, even though one set is humanoids (ug!) One of the sets of bandits could be called the focus of the adventure, and their defeat probably leads the mini-dungeon and it’s 20 or so rooms/encounters. It’s full of what one expect from a Judge’s Guild product: great atmosphere. Cages made from human/animal hair, great item/jewelry/magic item descriptions, non-standard magic items, and freaky non-standard creatures. This is exactly the sort of detail I’m looking for. I don’t want orcs, I want weird fungus pumpkins that waddle along the floor, or giants slugs that secret strange gasses. That’s the sort of personalized, idiosyncratic whimsy that I’m looking for in a module.

This is available on DriveThru.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/85053/Lost-Mans-Trail-2010?affiliate_id=1892600