kensanata
Explorer
This is a mini-campaign for characters level four to nine and it's written for D&D 3.0. That didn't bother me much. I only noticed because of the ogre challenge ratings and the undead damage reduction being different from what I expected it to be. I fudged it all at the table, and it worked just fine. This is an actual play review.
We played this after going through Crucible of Freya Review and another Dungeon adventure and finished with the party finding the treasure at the end and settling down in Bard's Gate with all the loot. It was awesome.
The book has over 100 pages, a surface map, an underworld map, three village maps, many location maps, and a few generic cave & passage maps for encounters underground, a handful of NPCs in all three villages as well as some interesting characters underground. There are many roleplaying opportunities. My players often managed to avoid combat, gained some allies, befriended some enemies, cheated a dragon, and intimidated an orc tribe by defeating the leader in single combat.
This is a location-based mini-campaign. That is, the players get to decide which plots to pursue (and there were always between four and eight things going on), and what risks to take. This also rewards interaction with NPCs to learn information about the wilderness. Rumors of a dragon being seen near one village, or a gorgon being seen in the hills south of another village, rangers to look for, a ruined village to search. Some of these locations are tied into the big plot of finding and robbing the tomb of Larin Karr, other locations stand on their own or belong to a mini-plot involving two locations. There was for example a necromancer in location A looking for an item to be found in location B. Depending on what the players do first, things will develop in very different directions.
The plot is not epic, doesn't build up to extra-planar adventures, doesn't involve fiends and evil tyrants trying to take over the world. It's just a valley with some villages, a crypt to be found and unlocked, and several other small little plots. There is for example a tribe of elves making an appearance. There was a group of adventurers that tried to find the same tomb a few years ago. These little touches will provide entertainment for the storytellers and explorers in your group.
The only thing that got on my nerves several times in the beginning was the map and its scale. In the end I just ruled that it took about a day's ride from village to village along the road and guesstimated everything else. Trying to apply the DMG rules for overland travel was far to cumbersome. Similarly, if your players try to track NPCs into the forest, be prepared for that and don't rely on the official hour-by-hour survival checks. I made these mistakes and learnt my lesson. It will result in a very booring hour at the table!
Random encounters are a big part of what make the forest and the underworld dangerous. Familiarize yourself with the monsters and make sure you give your players the opportunity to flee. I ran into this when rolling up a bulette and unleashing it on the party. It was painful. Similarly, provide adequate warning against overwhelming foes. There's a roper waiting for the party in an unexpected location, and that nearly resulted in a TPK. Ouch! Those events taught me that I could not rely on the module alone. I had to sit down and actually think about the things in wait for the party. And I couldn't just eliminate these encounters or the underworld and the forest would no longer seem as dangerous as they were. You just have to find a way to do that. Prepare some ahead of time. Drop some hints that will alert the cautious players. Be lenient when the players try to retreat.
All in all I look back on this mini-campaign fondly. It was great fun to ride up and down those rivers, trying to unravel the mystery of the tomb.
LIKED: Many interesting NPCs that can be allies or enemies of the party. A location based adventure where players get to choose what to do next. Many plots both big and small ready for you to introduce when other plots end. Non-combat plot points.
DISLIKED: Extra preparation is required to handle random encounters. They cannot be skipped easily. The hex map enticed me to try and use the official overland movement rules, which sucked on the scale of day-to-day travels.
QUALITY: Excellent
VALUE: Very Satisfied
We played this after going through Crucible of Freya Review and another Dungeon adventure and finished with the party finding the treasure at the end and settling down in Bard's Gate with all the loot. It was awesome.
The book has over 100 pages, a surface map, an underworld map, three village maps, many location maps, and a few generic cave & passage maps for encounters underground, a handful of NPCs in all three villages as well as some interesting characters underground. There are many roleplaying opportunities. My players often managed to avoid combat, gained some allies, befriended some enemies, cheated a dragon, and intimidated an orc tribe by defeating the leader in single combat.
This is a location-based mini-campaign. That is, the players get to decide which plots to pursue (and there were always between four and eight things going on), and what risks to take. This also rewards interaction with NPCs to learn information about the wilderness. Rumors of a dragon being seen near one village, or a gorgon being seen in the hills south of another village, rangers to look for, a ruined village to search. Some of these locations are tied into the big plot of finding and robbing the tomb of Larin Karr, other locations stand on their own or belong to a mini-plot involving two locations. There was for example a necromancer in location A looking for an item to be found in location B. Depending on what the players do first, things will develop in very different directions.
The plot is not epic, doesn't build up to extra-planar adventures, doesn't involve fiends and evil tyrants trying to take over the world. It's just a valley with some villages, a crypt to be found and unlocked, and several other small little plots. There is for example a tribe of elves making an appearance. There was a group of adventurers that tried to find the same tomb a few years ago. These little touches will provide entertainment for the storytellers and explorers in your group.
The only thing that got on my nerves several times in the beginning was the map and its scale. In the end I just ruled that it took about a day's ride from village to village along the road and guesstimated everything else. Trying to apply the DMG rules for overland travel was far to cumbersome. Similarly, if your players try to track NPCs into the forest, be prepared for that and don't rely on the official hour-by-hour survival checks. I made these mistakes and learnt my lesson. It will result in a very booring hour at the table!
Random encounters are a big part of what make the forest and the underworld dangerous. Familiarize yourself with the monsters and make sure you give your players the opportunity to flee. I ran into this when rolling up a bulette and unleashing it on the party. It was painful. Similarly, provide adequate warning against overwhelming foes. There's a roper waiting for the party in an unexpected location, and that nearly resulted in a TPK. Ouch! Those events taught me that I could not rely on the module alone. I had to sit down and actually think about the things in wait for the party. And I couldn't just eliminate these encounters or the underworld and the forest would no longer seem as dangerous as they were. You just have to find a way to do that. Prepare some ahead of time. Drop some hints that will alert the cautious players. Be lenient when the players try to retreat.
All in all I look back on this mini-campaign fondly. It was great fun to ride up and down those rivers, trying to unravel the mystery of the tomb.
LIKED: Many interesting NPCs that can be allies or enemies of the party. A location based adventure where players get to choose what to do next. Many plots both big and small ready for you to introduce when other plots end. Non-combat plot points.
DISLIKED: Extra preparation is required to handle random encounters. They cannot be skipped easily. The hex map enticed me to try and use the official overland movement rules, which sucked on the scale of day-to-day travels.
QUALITY: Excellent
VALUE: Very Satisfied
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