tenfootpole.org

This is a Castles & Crusades adventure, although it can easily be used with any pre-4E version of D&D.

This product describes a major underground/underdark city. It’s ruled by a lich and the drow are only a minor species, for a change. The subplots and machinations are on the light side so this is really just a framework product for inserting your own plots in to an underground city environment. The tavern fare is nice. (Halfling stew is only guaranteed to contain 20% halfling.)

The underdeep city of Ulgakur was once ruled by goblins, until an evil group of adventurers took it over. Their leader is now a lich and in firm control of the city. He’s (it?) turned it in to a Free City of the underdeep. The vast majority of the inhabitants are made up of humanoids. The drow are few and far between; having been greatly reduced in number and power they are now little more than elite mercenaries. About 28 locations are detailed in the booklet. There are two or three bars, an inn for foreigners, a black library, the lich tower, a couple of evil temples, and so on. Each of these generally has a person detailed along with it’s description. I didn’t find much of interest except for the bars and the black library. The best part of the inns are their menu choices, including the halfling stew mentioned above. The black library is interesting in that it houses a portion of a very evil artifact. I can see that as being something interesting, both in this cities context and in a surface city. There’s a wandering monster table for the market and for the bars however it doesn’t strike me as being nearly as interesting as the visitors to the Vault. For the most part the location descriptions are void of subplot and motivation information. This is Not Good. If the locations are a little bland then we need to rely on the people and their plots. Without any of that then all that’s left is a pretty cut and dried description of an evil city. Market. Evil Wizard. Fungas Patch, etc. You could work at it pretty hard and get something, or perhaps combine this supplement with several other Evil City supplements to get something with some real character.

There are a fair number of extras in this. There are a couple of new races detailed: evil dwarves, and subterranean humans. There’s a new class, the COnjurer. This is a spontaneous caster with access to both Divine and Arcane spells. There’s about 16 new monsters detailed, a significant portion of which are just brutes with more HP than an orc. A couple of new magic items are detailed as well, none of which really fall in to the weird magic category that I’m so fond of.

Underground cities are a tough market. Everyone has seen Vault of Drow which means you not only have to build an interesting city, you have to make it evil, atmospheric, AND different from the Vault. Those are some tough cookies to crumble. I find that my taste in city supplements is directly related to colorful characters who live in them and the colorful places they contain. The orc bar from … Deadly Nightside? Or the various folks in Pembrooktonshire. That’s the kind of detail I’m looking for, quirky and memorable. Those sorts of supplements are few and far between. Generally I’m happy with a city supplement if I can steal two or three ideas. There’s at least one good idea in this so I’m left with a … Meh.

This is available at DriveThru.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/78605/Castles–Crusades-DB6-Dwellers-in-the-Darkness?affiliate_id=1892600

This is a Castles & Crusades adventure, although it can easily be used with any pre-4E version of D&D.

This product describe the free half of a city under siege by rampaging hordes. As such it is an adventuring locale, rather than an adventure. A city under siege is an interesting setting, however the modules supporting cast lack the depth I’d like to see in a product like this.

Duke Doofus had finally decided to reunite a large section of divided kingdoms and gather his troops to sally forth and put the petty princes to the sword. Off he went with his forces in to nearby lands. And his own were then promptly invaded by rampaging humanoids. He hurried back to find a good portion of his lands in ruin and his capitol city half under humanoid control: everything on the east bank of the river belonged to the invaders. He bolstered his troops on the western half of the city and set out to make things right. Thus the product focuses on a city caught in a single moment of time. The returning army has stopped the invaders on the eastern shore and the Duke is is now maneuvering to start reclaiming his lands. Meanwhile, the western half of the city is in a state of half-siege while the eastern half is overrun. This product describes the western half the next in the series describes the captured east.

This sort of product has to thrive on the environment it creates. A city is just a collection of people & places and the product needs to brings them life in order to be a good one. This module provides some background on the Duke, Duchess, the Sheriff, and a few of the Duchesses bodyguards and hangers-on. It also touches on the court mage, the thieves guild leaders, and a spy. That’s not much to work with in a lively city game. We get a brief description of a few locales outside of the city, and then a run down of the various quarters within the free portion of the city. This typically involves a paragraph or so for each of the seven or eight locations/businesses that are described in each of the sections. This really isn’t much, although it does focus on inns, smiths, and garrison locations, as those are likely to be of interest to the players. Most of these locations involve some little hook or another: smugglers, people looking the other way, and so on. Prices are inflated everywhere, when you can get what you want. Refugees are everywhere, the thieves guild is running a racket with the upper crust of society, and no one knows what the mage is up to. Two small adventures are located in the back. One is a kidnapping that is typical of many city adventures. Lots of intrigue involvement with the upper classes. The second is a straight forward raid across the river with a group of allied barbarians in order to destroy siege equipment. The second is interesting because it uses the C&C mass combat rules.

This is a difficult type of product, in terms of detail and scoping it. It captures a moment in time, so too much detail and and it will be wasted as the siege of the city is lifted or succeeds. Too little detail and the city doesn’t really feel like a city; Colorful characters is what a city thrives on. This product probably provides enough information to run the city in this moment of time. I wish there had been a few more details on the refugees and so on, however it the scope is limited to the cross-river raids, the kidnapping, and a couple of a major plot lines detailed in the book then things will probably come out ok. I do appreciate TLG giving us something different, a city under siege, and also providing a way to work in mass-combat rules. Both of those concepts are generally few & far between in the gaming world. It’s going to take some major fleshing out and work by the DM to add the detail I generally like to see in a city.

This is available on DriveThru.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/56225/Castles–Crusades-DB4-Dro-Mandras?affiliate_id=1892600

This is a Castles & Crusades adventure, however it can be used with any pre-4E version of D&D.

This is a continuation of module DB2 and adds three more levels on to that dungeon. The maps are very linear and the chambers tend to be a bit bland and crawling with creatures. Each level has a different theme: gargoyles, bugbears, and serpent-men.

This product adds three more levels on to the Crater of Umeshti dungeon , first seen in module DM2 – Crater of Umeshti. You may want to go back and reread that review to get the backstory on the Crater, and how the party came to be on the fourth level. The maps for this product are one again very linear. It’s really just a wide circle of hallways/rooms that surround the central pit of the crater. There are a few side passages here and there and an occasional interesting detail, such as a robe bridge across the crater on level five or stairway from level three to level four, however for the most part this is a linear crawl. Each level will be dealt with in turn and then the next will be explored. This is really a shame. This level has more openings on to the central pit than others, however the party is probably not high enough level yet to fly or have other means of hopping between openings. The concept of the dungeon is a good one however the cramped feelings of the maps and their linear design really work to prevent any meaningful explorative play. A true three-dimensional dungeon complex would be a nice thing to see. The maps are STILL too small, just one-third of one column. I’d love to see these as downloadable on the website; my eyes get fatigued just thinking about them.

Level the fourth is home to a large group of gargoyles. This levels has about 15 keyed locations and every room, save one or two, has a creature in it; invariably hostile. There are a few vermin to break up the gargoyles, and tomb complex with a few undead in it. The tomb has a puzzle to two to work out, including how to get in. This provides a nice change of pace the from “See Gargoyle. Kill Gargoyle” routine encountered in most of the chambers. There’s also a group of trapped adventurers that the party can rescue. It’s pretty lame that they have a wand of undetectable alignment. Yeah, I know, otherwise they’d get slaughtered right from the get go, probably. I just hate that kind of stuff. It’s a kind of forced economy and gimping the party. I’d rather see the other party have more complex motives and there be a better reason for the PC’s to cooperate. It’s too easy to just say they are scum slavers and have magic that conceals their intentions. Divination magic gets the short end of things from most groups; I like to see it pay off.

The fifth level is full bugbear and ogre outlaws. This level is another straight-forward 16 keyed location hack-fest. Every room but one has a monster encounter in it. There is a small trapped area and a fountain that can be repaired for a boon, however for the most part it’s just a really linear hack. There’s a rope-bridge across the central pit shaft which may end up as an exciting encounter. I suspect it was written to be that way. There’s also a foundry and a prison where the party may gain some allies. They are not very interesting as presented and will need some work to beef up their personalities.

The sixth level is one of the more interesting. It’s also very linear however only about half the chambers have creatures in them. Those are the Thune, a new monster race of extra-planer jerk-faces. They have a strong culture and lots of abilities. Kind of like a cross between the Drow (abilities), Yuan-ti (bloodlines) and Mind Flayers (planer, culture, evil.) There are a few new magic items to be encountered here. They are very interesting and provide some nice new effects. There is also a lot of strange stuff for the party to poke & prod. Unfortunately, it doesn’t really do anything, positive or negative, if the party interacts with it, making it just window dressing. Window dressing is good however a nice opportunity was lost in not presenting effects. There’s a section of rooms underwater in this area, and there is a little more than a column of rules inserted just before that section that explains underwater effects and how the parties abilities will interact with their underwater environment. Movement, temperature, spells, drowning, invisibility, being swept away, etc. This level is all too short.

This module, when taken with module DB2, appear to be attempting a mega-dungeon. There are a few problems with that. The maps are not big enough or interesting enough to truly get an exportation feel. The small cramped maps feel even smaller because of the lack of empty rooms; every room has something to slay. The limited mobility between levels and small level maps mean that there’s not really an opportunity for factions. There are some one-liner comments here and there in the text about hiring the party, however these are usually overshadowed by the “attacks immediately” type verbiage that is quite liberal. This limits factions. IN addition, the lack of a coordinated response to invaders, and “they use ambush tactics” is not addressing the issue, means more work for the DM ahead of time to work out who’s coming to who’s aid and when. The lack of exploration elements, empty rooms, traps, weird scenes and things to play with, makes the crawl a little one-dimensional.

You coulda been somebody kid. You coulda been a contender.

This is available on DriveThru.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/28484/Castles–Crusades-DB3-Deeper-Darkness?affiliate_id=1892600

This is a Castles & Crusades adventure although it can easily be used with an pre-4E version of D&D.

This is a three-level dungeon, further levels are show in the next module in the series, that is a kobold hack-fest. It’s rather one-dimensional, in a semi-interesting location, and expands in to a undead filled lower level.

From time to time I like to offer advice to to the rulers of fantasy kingdoms and I’d like to take this opportunity to do that once again. Time and time again we see proud and storied civilizations destroyed by the gods. It’s time to learn from history kids: spread the love around a bit. If your civilization is at the height of it’s power then don’t go around breaking some young gods heart. It’s not going to end well. I t never does.

This adventure revolves around the Create of Umeshti. In days long past it was a shining city, until a giant rock was dropped on it by some jealous gods. Lunar based mass drivers: Effective and Green! A bit later some dwarves tunneled in and mined all the special iron. When the ore ran out they left and … other creatures moved in. Seriously? How many times have we seen this? Someone needs to start riding those little bearded boogers about this type of behavior. It’s like libertarians on midwest coal plants: yeah, it’s not hurting anyone right now, but what happens later when the frigging Balrog moves in? How many mountaintops have the dwarves removed in order to get at that precious ore? Do they clean up later? On nooooooo, of course not, there’s no funds left for that after they get slaughtered.

In this case we have a multi-level dungeon centered around a great crater in the earth. This product presents the exterior of the crater as well as the first three levels. The next module in the series appears to expand the crater with more levels. The primary tunnels in the levels were created by the dwarves before they left the complex, with some expansion by the current residents. The exterior of the crater is inhabited by kobolds; there are “dozens of caves” where they hide out and harass the party, and provide warning to the first level of the crater. The first two levels are full of kobolds as well.

The maps are relatively simple. There’s a central pit/shaft surrounded by worked dwarven tunnels and chambers. On the first two levels there are also some supplemental tunnels, kobold sized, that link some of the chambers. Access between the various levels is by an indestructible dwarven lift basket system. Generally access between two levels is on one side of the pit and access to the next level is on the other side, requiring that at least half the level be explored to get to the next level. I don’t usually complain or note layout unless there’s something very troubling. There is in this. The maps are presented as TINY. They take up about 1/3 of one column on a page. My tired old eyes need to bring the book up very close and squint to get the detail. Uncool. The basic layout is linear, in a circle around the central pit.

The first two levels are crawling with kobolds. Just about every room has some and it’s very probable that the PC’s will be attacked from the moment they get in the basket and descend. There are not really many tricks/traps, just one or two. The most interesting is a “don’t desecrate my temple” type of encounter. The best way to describe this is a as a relatively realistic monster lair. A couple of vermin, but mostly just kobolds, with a few traps and without any weird elements. The third level is the home to a necromancer. The map layout is mostly the same, a linear map in a circle shape. Again, mostly just a hack-fest with undead and tougher than normal kobolds. There are no really interesting elements.

It looks like this module is trying to be a megadungeon. Multiple levels, increasing difficulty between levels, and a page or so on how to restock the dungeon between adventurer forays all contribute to that feeling. It’s a little too crowded for my megadungeon tastes, and needs some more interesting maps so we get more of an exploration feel and less of a hack-fest feel. I don’t have a problem with a group slaughtering kobolds, however I would have preferred to see some additional notes on how the kobolds would respond. There’s a just a few brief sentences and they don’t really cover a coordinated response by the kobolds.

If I were to run this, and I may as a Meetup game, I would probably run it it in one of two ways. Given that there are nearly 100 kobolds on the first level, and they mostly have 2 HP each, I may run it as a dark comical adventure. DEX checks for slipping on entrails, buckets of blood from slaughtered kobolds EVERYWHERE, kobold eyes hanging off of swords, just a really ridiculous amount of gore, with the implicit, but not explicit, moral implications for the PC’s. The other way would be to make the kobolds some pretty heavy hit & run snipers with their missile weapons, making raids on the party and never staying anywhere to fight toe to toe. It would lend itself nicely to the first style of play, and maybe not so well to the second, just because of the sheer numbers of kobolds involved. Although, the chaos of a running battle, PC’s splitting up, and so on, would be very interesting to see as well.

This is available on DriveThru.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/24507/Castles–Crusades-DB2-Crater-of-Umeshti?affiliate_id=1892600

This is a Castles & Crusades adventure however it can be used with any pre-4E version of D&D.

This is a home-base setting with a couple of small plot seeds that have been expanded in to a few lair type encounters. The home base is well done however the plot seed encounters feel like tack-ons.

I really have absolutely no idea how to describe this product. This is my fifth rewrite, and I’m going with i, no matter the length. This module describes a small region of land. The local humanoids are in an uprising, led by a fearsome warlord searching for something called The Century of Skulls.  A local large town is under siege and half of it has already fallen. The region described is just beyond the town. This make the land, already wild and borderlandish, rotten with marauding humanoids, mercenaries, outlaws, and other unsavory types.

The home base is meant to be Dirty Bowdie’s Roadhouse. It’s about 35 miles away from the city under siege and is a small palisade with an inn, stable, and blacksmith. It’s houses all sorts of unsavory characters as they pass through and has a bad reputation in civilized lands. It has half a dozen or so colorful characters that reside there and run the place, as well as some more normal bar help. The NPC’s that are described are very well done. They come across as real people, with all their petty problems and issues. The roadhouse has a nice little section on food, drink, and entertainment, with six or so bar games being described, as well as bards, etc. It’s a pretty solid write-up of a roadhouse. It has a grittier feel then most fantasy inns and would probably make a fine base for the characters to come back to time and time again between forays in to the wild. It’s less weird and less bizarre than I generally like, but is a solid effort.

If the module had stopped there, or perhaps included a hex crawl aspect then this would be a great product. Instead we get a short little write-up of about five small adventuring sites that the party can stumble over. There are some old barrows carved in to a cave. I generally like barrows, but this one left me uninspired. Just some undead, a couple of bandits, and a potential opportunity to be branded grave robbers. There’s a small druidic circle with a couple of hill giants nearby. Megaliths and old tress are present, but neither are really presented as being very interesting. There’s a small bandit camp. It’s interesting because of the large pyramid of severed heads nearby, but otherwise is not particularly well done. Likewise the swamp hag and a tribe of crude humans. Every once in awhile there’s a flash of something interesting: the pyramid of heads, or the hag making her fences from human bones, The Century of Skulls, but for the most part it’s some pretty uninspiring writing. As it turns out, that’s not what I’m looking for. The regional map has no scale and the wandering monster chart is not very interesting. I like my wandered to be doing something while wandering about; hunting, looking for someone, etc. That’s the case for a few of these, but most are just presented as simply an entry on a table.

The roadhouse feels like an average write-up from one of the Citybook supplements. Well done but not stellar. The tack-ons lack the flavor I’m looking for in a supplement. Perhaps all will make more sense when I reach the next in this series?

This is available on DriveThru.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/15804/Castles–Crusades-DB1-Haunted-Highland?affiliate_id=1892600

This is a Castles & Crusades adventure, although it can be used easily with any pre-4E version of D&D.

This adventure attempts to handle a difficult encounter type: large battles. It presents several battles of increasing numbers and odds culminating with a large battle on a lightly defended outpost. There are some brief new mechanics presented to handle the mass combats. It is, essentially, a complete railroad in order to get to the battles.

The last module in this series, I2, had the characters adventuring around a small hill fort/tower that was in the process of being reclaimed by a local goblin warlord. The parties hijinks at the site have given the warlord the pretext he needs to launch an invasion of his human neighbors to the north. He’s in a tenuous position though, and needs success for his longer-term internal plans to come to fruition. Essentially, he’s showing his peers he a tough guy that can deliver, and they should throw in with him. He’s likely to succeed. The political climate is interesting. The other local human rulers in the region are not happy with the victim kingdom, with at least one throwing his support behind the goblins. This is not your typical fantasy worldview …

The players need to be in the goblin kingdom, near the border, and fleeing/traveling towards the north. There are several small encounters that are supposed to build up the tension. FIrst some scouts and trackers are sighted in the distance, following the party. Then some cavalry show up and harass the party; first a lone figure and then a group. The goal is to get the party moving and up the tension. There are a few wandering monsters encounters available from a nicely done table. These are mostly animal encounters, and one small fey encounter. They generally just provide some flavor and false excitement for the group, although they may harass a straggler; they actually act like real animals afraid of humans.

The party eventually reaches the border of the goblin kingdoms, a small river with a ford. And an ambush. The party is going to face about 35 goblins who have a well developed sense of tactics. This is probably going to be a rough fight for the party. Cut off in an exposed area of difficult terrain and facing an enemy with lots of missile weapons … I hope the wizard is fifth level …

That should be a huge battle for the party, and a rough one at that. Making it out of it alive should feel like a decent accomplishment. They can travel north to a small settlement, really just a palisade with a small tower and a longhouse. They can rest and recover here and interact with the frontiersmen villagers. A few of the notables are described however they are not really much more than the standard fantasy tropes and are not very interesting. It feels  a lot like a cross between the village from The 13th Warrior and Rourke’s Drift. After the party has been there awhile and bonded a bit then the goblin army shows up. This should result in a nice ‘Oh Crap!’ moment. There are about 25 combatants in the settlement, with another dozen or so non-combatants. The enemy numbers over 400 infantry, with about 50 fantasy cavalry. And they use good tactics. There’s a small opportunity to role-play with the enemy, however the bulk of this is going to be combat oriented over a single day. It’s going to be a surprise, so the casters will have whatever is at hand. About that 5th level wizard …

This is going to be rough. There are going to be assaults using primitive ladders & rams, archers, flaming arrows and oil flasks, spider cavalry coming over the walls, and villagers blaming the party. A breakout is a possibility, however all of the villagers are not going to flee, and it’s going to be a pretty desperate affair. There are some morale rules that will come in to play once around 120 goblins are killed (!) and there are some rules for massed fights; essentially breaking combats in to groups of 5 and using averages for to-hit roles and dividing up damage with no remainders.

All of the modules in this series have had the opportunity for large massed battles however the centerpiece of this module is the assault on the walled settlement. If the party has played those earlier adventures or are very smart then they may have a chance to survive without DM fudging. Fudging is a big no-no in my book so … This is going to be a very rough encounter, both to run and to play in. The players will certainly remember it for a long time to come, both if they survive and if they die. There’s a very real possibility, indeed likelihood, for a total TPK. As a mini campaign arc this would be a great finale. Either the characters will go on to great things or they will die, hopefully heorically. In fact, there’s a nice little subsection on parting scenes to help deal with character death.

This is available on DriveThru.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/50740/Castles–Crusades-I3-Dogs-of-War-Felsentheim?affiliate_id=1892600

This is an adventure for Castles & Crusades, although it can be used with any pre-4E version of D&D.

This is a short wilderness based adventure with some strong opportunity for role-playing and culminating in a mini dungeoncrawl and site-based adventure. It has good wandering tables and factions. The dungeon is small with an uninteresting map but it built well.

This module is a continuation from module I1, although several hooks are presented to get the characters involved if it’s being used as a standalone. The most straight-forward hook is the sam as the continuation from I1: rescue a hostage being by humanoid bandits. There are several other hooks presented as well, and they tend to be a diverse lot: map the valley, find the bandits, investigate some ruins, etc. What’s nice about these hook is that they differ quite a bit from the core adventure of rescuing the hostage. This allows the party to stumble upon the core scenario, and the sub-plots, and then decide for themselves what they are going to do about it. Right some wrongs? Ignore it? Turn a tidy profit? In fact, I’d say this is one of the strong sandbox type adventures I’ve seen in the last few months. Most products railroad you. There is clearly a right way to play the module. This one does not; it simply presents an area with some things going on and provides a couple of hooks based on the setup to get the players involved in the action. That’s good design.

I1 had some serious issues with organization and verbosity. This product is almost completely different in that respect. I text is certainly not terse, however the extreme exposition that was in I1 is not present. In addition things are organized much better, although there does seem to be a certain style of presentation from this publisher that I have trouble with. The various section headings are not clear to me; or rather, I expect one thing when I see a section heading I get something completely different. Either it jumps ahead  when I think it should be providing more detail or it provides more detail when I think I’m reaching a major new section. That was a major issues for in I1 as well, and while it’s still present in this product it’s impact is not as great. There’s also a combined two page glossary and regional history at the end. Thank Pelor! I1 was hard to get in to because of the slavic/germanic proper names used. They add a LOT of character however you really need to pay attention to not get lost. The glossary helps a lot, and is not so brief to be useless or so long as to be boring. I really liked the regional history put in the end as well. It sort of frames the material as supplemental; I don’t have to slog through it to get to the core of the adventure but it’s there if I’m a n0Ob to the series or want more flavor. Well done.

The adventure starts with an overland portion. We get wandering monsters charts for two different type of region. These charts are expanded by the individual encounter listings for them, which spread out over three pages for each of the two charts. The various encounters range from animals, weird things, and humanoids. What’s interesting is that the vast majority of what the party encounters is NOT looking for a fight. The animals may be looking for an easy meal from a lone figure, or may be simple woodland animals who run off. The humanoids are treated as real living entities with their own goals rather than just an XP total with a sword. Most of the wandering monsters have at least one paragraph of text associated with them, and several have a column, that describes what they are doing and how they will react, etc. This sort of wandering chart has popped up in other modules form this publisher and I liked it then also. I like it when wandering monsters have a purpose in life, however I do tend to favor terse text over verbose, so I would have been happy with a “hunting rats” or “looking for straggler to pick off”, or “generally not in the mood to fight.” next to each encounter. Damned if you do and damned if you don’t. 🙂

There are really only two fixed encounters in the wilderness. The first is a set of humanoid assassins who are camped out waiting for an opportunity to conduct a hit and finish their job. As such they are not immediately hostile to the party and there should be an opportunity for some interactions to occur and perhaps a deal or two to be struck. It’s really just a set up for the second encounter. The second encounter is with a small hill tower being occupied by goblins, with a small dungeon below it, some bandits visiting, prisoners locked up, and a coupe of other groups present as well. By my count that’s SEVEN different factions running around this small area. They all have their own agendas and trying to get something different done. Their agendas don’t necessarily conflict, but they are not exactly the same either. It reminds me of the set ups that designers usually try to put in their cities/ You know, the ones where they try to set up different factions and generally fail? Well this one doesn’t fail. Despite there being a great number of groups in the area their motivations are clear and presented well and easy to keep track of. We know why they are in the area, what they want, and how they are likely to react to certain  events. This is a perfect place to drop a group of troublemakers like the party.

As mentioned, a small hill tower is the site of the core adventure. The ruined tower is surrounded by a small palisade at it’s crown and, unknown to most of the factions, has a small dungeon underneath. There’s a group of humanoids in the “fort” which control it, another two sets of visiting bandit humanoid groups, the group of assassins nearby who want at the other group of humanoids hiding in the hidden dungeon, a pragmatic humanoid merchant, and the prisoners the PC’s are probably after. WHat’s great is that no group is immediately hostile to the party OR friendly to the party, not even the prisoners, for their own justified reasons. This gives the party a tremendous amount  of freedom to accomplish their objectives, whatever they may be.

The dungeon under the compound is unknown to most of the factions. The layout is pretty simple, a hub & spoke design where the party enters at the hub. The design, while not overly complex, is interesting and should provide ample opportunities for exploration. There are several environmental based traps that fit in well with the dungeons design and history. There are a few vermin about, and a couple of undead. The dungeon has a nice feel to it and several weird elements, including some interesting new non0-standard magic items. Most of the rooms don’t contain monster encounters, there is some unguarded treasure, and the entire place has a nice naturalistic feel to it while still retaining some classic fantasy elements and a few doses of the weird. There’s no wandering monsters for the dungeon, and the map is simple, however the designer was really on the right track here. It would make a great single-session dungeoncrawl, even though there’s only 30 or so keyed encounters.

What’s NOT present that was in I1 are the area and regional map. You’ll have these if you also have the I1 module, however it would have been nice to see something in this product also, especially since the sandbox like element is so strong. It has to be hard on the publisher; figuring out which information to repeat and which information to leave out. I do not envy them their task. This is a great little product that presents an adventuring site at a moment in time. What the party does with it is up to them.

This is available on DriveThru.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/50739/Castles–Crusades-I2-Under-Dark–Mistry-Ground-Dzeebagd?affiliate_id=1892600