Sunless Citadel, The

Sunless Citadel

It seems odd with the release of Fourth Edition Dungeons and Dragons to go back and look at the first module by Wizards of the Coast for Third Edition Dungeons and Dragons. It is also a little odd to realize this was either years ago. Sunless Citadel is one of the classic adventures of third edition and it was the first adventure I ran for that game. It was a lot of fun and I have fond memories of that game. I also ran it last week for my latest third edition campaign. It is a different group and the game has changed quite a bit with all sorts of options and choices. The module though was still very fun and it held up well.

Sunless Citadel is written by Bruce Cordell and published by Wizards of the Coast. It is a module well packed into the thirty two pages. The cover art is classic with the heroes backed up against a twisted looking tree surrounded by twig blights. The interior art is a mixed bag. There is a picture of some rats that I am not a fan of but then there is nice picture looking over the shoulder of a toad familiar high in a tree looking down on his master and companions. The maps are good. There is one on the inside of each cover. It is a typical dungeon crawl but it does have some neat features in it.

I like the basic hook of the adventure. It is one that I really have not seen in other adventures and that is surprising. The player characters are going after another group of adventurers that went into this place and have no returned. This is a great way to get the players involved as it is a rescue mission as well as a basic dungeon crawl. There are clues to what happened to the group and some of them can be saved. I like that aspect of the adventure and the way it uses the track feat to have the PCs follow in the other adventures footsteps, literally.

For the most part the monsters in the place make sense. There are some random skeletons and a troll that I think could have been better cast. The troll is a cursed formal priest of dragons that for some reason they buried here and made a troll. I like the idea of the hidden shrine and all of that. But I just do not see why they would curse and bury the guy with magical items like they did.

One of the truly famous parts of the module is the kobold Meepo. He even has his own mini which is pretty neat for a kobold whose role is to offer some knowledge of what is going on down here and lead the PCs to other kobolds. About a year after the module came out there was a great thread that had many people talk about what their group did with Meepo. Some groups killed the guy, others befriended him and had him become a NPC in the campaign. It was fascinating to hear all the stories and shoed just how many groups had fun with this module. In the game I just ran I had the Kobolds mostly killed already by the goblins. Meepo was still around and had set up a lot of traps in a room and was luring the PCs into the room and through the traps. The Bard ran into the room and through all of the traps making seven straight reflex saves that I had ranging from 15-20. I use the trap master kobolds inspired by Classic Monsters Revisited for them. Meepo lived through encounter and will be seen again in that campaign.

The Kobolds are enemies with goblins and rats that are down here. There are some very big rats in here including a mama rat that is quite disgusting looking and tough. One of the orginal adventuring party got killed by her. The goblins are numerous but should be easy to kill. There is a leader and a hobgoblin but again not a big challenge. There is a wyrmling white dragon that can be found in the goblin area as well. The kobolds want it back, but my players always befriend the dragon and it follows them around for the free food.

The second level of the adventure is a lot smaller having less then a third of the encounter areas. This part could have been stronger. I like the hidden shrine down here. The Thoqquas on this level just seem like extra things to through in and I replace them with just more minions that make sense to the area. The adventure ends with a confrontation with the evil tree on the front cover. While I said a lot about the module I am not spoiler the main plot of the villains and what they are doing down here with the evil tree and those cute little twig blights. They got minis of them too.

This is a fun module. There are not a lot of individual rooms that are noteworthy like in White Plume Mountain or other famous module. This module has a cool kobold NPC that most people seem to have a story about. Also, it would be neat to see how many people killed that little dragon and how many do like my groups do and adopt the little guy. Sure, he’s chaotic evil by nature but certainly nurture plays some role in his alignment? The module can be run pretty quickly if one needs to or darken it up and make it a little horror like. That can work especially well when finding the dead bodies of the former adventuring group. I like this module and even after all these years and the way the game has changed from the beginning of third edition D&D to now the module holds up well.

As a side note I have recently seen a dozen of so copies of this for five bucks or less at used books stores. If you don’t have a copy one should be relatively easy to find for a good price.