Alzrius
The EN World kitten
I'm surprised that no one has started a thread on the latest issue of Dungeon yet. So, without further ado, here it is.
This issue comes with a four-panel color poster map of the Diamond Lake area, which is marked with elevations, notations of major areas off the map, and numbers for various buildings (which are expounded upon in the backdrop section). It also has a scale and compass rose.
The first adventure, "The Whispering Cairn" by Erik Mona, is the kickoff of the new Adventure Path, the Age of Worms. This adventure lays a lot of groundwork for things to come, as many of the NPC's seem to have foreshadowing that they will be met again. There's also plenty of "Campaign Seed" sidebars, and between them and the background information, it's not too difficult to put together the basic premise of what this Adventure Path's overarching plot is.
The adventure itself is meant to take characters from 1st to 3rd level. The adventure itself is rather long, but is broken up into segments, since the PCs have to (in a manner reminiscent of some CRPG's) go back and perform some "side quests" to access the deeper areas of the dungeon. Note that these "side quests" are actually fairly integral to the plot, and form the basis for the next adventure. That said, I wonder if the first part isn't too deadly, since the majority of the dungeon is open to PC's on their initial run-through. Likewise, the segments of the adventure work themselves in seamlessly, but it would have been better (IMHO) to have one in before 90% of the dungeon is cleared, as that would be a good way to work in reaching 2nd level.
The backdrop of Diamond Lake (also by Erik) is quite interesting, and very well done. Most of the major NPC's have artwork of either their entire body, or a bust. The town's history, key NPC's, locations, and more are given. The information here is more than enough to flesh the town out and bring it to life. That said, there's also a strong emphasis on having the PC's be native to the town, or at least living there when the campaign begins. The last page of the overview focuses on how the various PHB races and classes can fit into Diamond Lake.
"The Temple of the Scorpion God", by James Wyatt and Andy Collins, is the second adventure in the magazine. Part two of the three-part Shards of Eberron arc, it has the PC's again recovering a large and powerful dragonshard. While it continues from the previous adventure well, this one is definately short (though no less intense for it). The entire adventure takes up exactly ten pages, with half-a-dozen keyed locations. The characters are air-dropped to a ruined temple, where they must "liberate" the dragonshard there.
Despite it's length, I think this adventure works very well with the feel of Eberron. The entire thing has a very Indiana Jones-style feel to it (it very much reminded me of the opening part of Raiders of the Lost Ark), and works well as a connector between the previous and next adventures.
The last adventure is "Chambers of Antiquities", a Maure Castle adventure by Robert J. Kuntz himself. This adventure fits in perfectly with the mega-adventure from a year ago in Dungeon #112, being extremely deadly and having strange and unique monsters, traps, and treasure. Of course, the shadows of schemes by the old Maure family are still etched (metaphorically in most cases) on the walls.
For those interested in integrating this into a Maure Castle campaign, you'll be happy to note that this level syncs up almost perfectly with the sidebar on it back from issue #112. However, for this issue, it would have been nice if they had provided a mention of exactly where the entrance here connected to other levels. While they did say it was above the Statuary, I had to go pull out my copy of #112 and scan that level to find the staircase from room 101 to the Chambers. Still, this is a minor complaint for a great adventure. I would say more, but I don't want to give any of the surprises away.
All in all, another spectacular issue from the people at Paizo!
This issue comes with a four-panel color poster map of the Diamond Lake area, which is marked with elevations, notations of major areas off the map, and numbers for various buildings (which are expounded upon in the backdrop section). It also has a scale and compass rose.
The first adventure, "The Whispering Cairn" by Erik Mona, is the kickoff of the new Adventure Path, the Age of Worms. This adventure lays a lot of groundwork for things to come, as many of the NPC's seem to have foreshadowing that they will be met again. There's also plenty of "Campaign Seed" sidebars, and between them and the background information, it's not too difficult to put together the basic premise of what this Adventure Path's overarching plot is.
The adventure itself is meant to take characters from 1st to 3rd level. The adventure itself is rather long, but is broken up into segments, since the PCs have to (in a manner reminiscent of some CRPG's) go back and perform some "side quests" to access the deeper areas of the dungeon. Note that these "side quests" are actually fairly integral to the plot, and form the basis for the next adventure. That said, I wonder if the first part isn't too deadly, since the majority of the dungeon is open to PC's on their initial run-through. Likewise, the segments of the adventure work themselves in seamlessly, but it would have been better (IMHO) to have one in before 90% of the dungeon is cleared, as that would be a good way to work in reaching 2nd level.
The backdrop of Diamond Lake (also by Erik) is quite interesting, and very well done. Most of the major NPC's have artwork of either their entire body, or a bust. The town's history, key NPC's, locations, and more are given. The information here is more than enough to flesh the town out and bring it to life. That said, there's also a strong emphasis on having the PC's be native to the town, or at least living there when the campaign begins. The last page of the overview focuses on how the various PHB races and classes can fit into Diamond Lake.
"The Temple of the Scorpion God", by James Wyatt and Andy Collins, is the second adventure in the magazine. Part two of the three-part Shards of Eberron arc, it has the PC's again recovering a large and powerful dragonshard. While it continues from the previous adventure well, this one is definately short (though no less intense for it). The entire adventure takes up exactly ten pages, with half-a-dozen keyed locations. The characters are air-dropped to a ruined temple, where they must "liberate" the dragonshard there.
Despite it's length, I think this adventure works very well with the feel of Eberron. The entire thing has a very Indiana Jones-style feel to it (it very much reminded me of the opening part of Raiders of the Lost Ark), and works well as a connector between the previous and next adventures.
The last adventure is "Chambers of Antiquities", a Maure Castle adventure by Robert J. Kuntz himself. This adventure fits in perfectly with the mega-adventure from a year ago in Dungeon #112, being extremely deadly and having strange and unique monsters, traps, and treasure. Of course, the shadows of schemes by the old Maure family are still etched (metaphorically in most cases) on the walls.
For those interested in integrating this into a Maure Castle campaign, you'll be happy to note that this level syncs up almost perfectly with the sidebar on it back from issue #112. However, for this issue, it would have been nice if they had provided a mention of exactly where the entrance here connected to other levels. While they did say it was above the Statuary, I had to go pull out my copy of #112 and scan that level to find the staircase from room 101 to the Chambers. Still, this is a minor complaint for a great adventure. I would say more, but I don't want to give any of the surprises away.
All in all, another spectacular issue from the people at Paizo!
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