Voyage Of The Golden Dragon
VOYAGE OF THE GOLDEN DRAGON
By Nicholas Logue
Wizards of the Coast product number 953637400
32 pages, $9.95
SPOILER ALERT: As with any review of an adventure, there's bound to be details discussed that will ruin your fun if you're a player who will be running a PC through this adventure. Do yourself, your fellow players, and especially your DM a big favor and read no further than this initial paragraph in green font. Here's the short version of the review, in any case: a high "3 (Average)," brought down from a 4-star rating by some poor stats.
Voyage of the Golden Dragon is an
Eberron adventure for four 7th-level PCS. It's the latest in an
Eberron adventure path, but as I haven't seen the others that came before, I can't comment on how it compares to them.
The cover, as is the
Eberron default, is a Wayne Reynolds painting chopped up into pieces and then rearranged. Unfortunately, it's one of the few products in the line that doesn't reprint the entire piece of artwork elsewhere in the book, so I can't tell exactly what the "big picture" is. I recognize a male soulknife featured in the prominent "big circle" on the front cover, and an axe-wielding shifter on the back, fighting some masked rangers (probably drow). Other than that, I can't really say what's going on.
The interior artwork consists of 6 black-and-white illustrations by Steve Prescott, each featuring one or more characters from the adventure. These are pretty well done, and Steve does a good job of paying attention to the written descriptions of the NPCs, as even in the "group shot" of 9 crewmembers of the
Golden Dragon on page 2, I had no trouble identifying who was who based on their one- and two-sentence descriptions on the following page.
Cartographer Jonathan Hill provides 4 black-and-white maps, each pretty easy to read (although I had trouble figuring out where the "
banishment bomb" was supposed to be on the map on page 11; besides the squares with hobgoblins or Telgin Char on them, there's a control-panel-looking thing on one square and a bunch of scuba-diver-tank-looking things on another square - I'm assuming the scuba tanks are the bomb - even though the bomb's description is more like a flat disk - because I can't see where else it's supposed to be).
The adventure itself is broken down into four mini-adventures, each of which can be linked together to form a larger adventure (although in one or two cases, there's a bit of railroading going on to ensure that events go as the author intends). Each deals with the
Golden Dragon, the world's largest airship (originally intended as a warship, now commissioned as a luxury cruiser). It's different from all other existing airships in that it's much larger than normal, requiring not one but two bound elementals to keep it afloat and maneuvering. The airship has a logical layout (and an excellent set of three deck maps on the inside front cover), with a well-rounded crew full of all kinds of hidden subterfuge and intrigue.
The first adventure, "Dragon's Fall," deals with events in Sharn at the commissioning of the
Golden Dragon, right before its maiden voyage. The PCs must foil a hostage-taking event, where even the guy holding hostages for ransom has been duped - the whole deal is a cover for the real shenanigans: an attempt to blow the airship out of the sky by a bomb that will destroy one of the two elemental rings keeping the ship in the air. Since the rest of the three mini-adventures rely upon the
Golden Dragon not being destroyed, if the PCs fail to stop the real plan, one of the crew steps in and saves everybody's bacon - and then proceeds to blackmail the PCs into working for him for the rest of the adventure. That seems like a kind of ham-handed approach; I don't think the "blackmail" makes a whole lot of sense, or is particularly necessary.
The second adventure, "Cloak, Dagger, and Spell" has the
Golden Dragon in flight to Xen'drik, with ambassadors from several countries aboard, including a Cardinal and his two paladin escorts from Thrane and several Karrnathi skeletons guarding the Karrnathi ambassador, neither of which group thinks very well of the other. The PCs get involved in a murder investigation, with the theft of an Orien courier package and an attempt at sabotage of the
Golden Dragon thrown in for good measure. Of the four mini-adventures, this one provides the most opportunities for role-playing, and those who enjoy investigating murder mysteries should have a good time with it.
The third adventure, "Ruins of the Giants," is a pretty straightforward "explore-the-ruins-of-Xen'drik" dungeon crawl (said dungeon being above ground, however), with predominantly undead opponents and their necromancer master.
Finally, "Battle in the Clouds" takes place back aboard the
Golden Dragon as it prepares to leave Xen'drik for a return back to Sharn - only now the PCs must contend with a drow druid intending to use her charmed dire animals and monstrous scorpions to wreak havoc on board while she steals it and takes it to her jungle homeland. She's aided by a bunch of drow fighters on glidewing (pteranodon) mounts, and a young adult white dragon. This should make for an exciting aerial battle, and an interesting conclusion to the series of mini-adventures.
Proofreading and editing was fairly good this time around, with only a few non-stat-block-related errors getting past proofreader Chris Thomasson and Editor Scott Fitzgerald Gray: mainly, a discrepancy in the number of bunk beds in area 14 of the
Golden Dragon (the text says nine, but the map shows only 8), one typo ("determinse" instead of "determines"), one punctuation error ("workers" instead of "worker's"), a word in bold font when not required, and a whole slew of times where the hit point totals in the "bare bones info" blurbs at the end of an encounter area disagreed with the full stats in the back of the book (or the number of creatures in question is in conflict). For example:
- p. 6, Jaeden Kovane's hit point total given as 32; stats on p. 31 state 34.
- p. 6, Kalibar Jenks' hit point total given as 25; stats on p. 31 state 27 hp.
- p. 11, Telgin Char's hit point total given as 29; stats on p. 28 state 32 hp.
- p. 13, Kray's hit point total given as 56; stats on pp. 28-29 state 66 hp.
- p. 13, Telgin Char's hit point total given as 29; stats on p. 28 state 32 hp.
- p. 16, Sea Baron Paldrith Malinko's hit point total given as 49; stats on p. 30 state 51 hp.
- p. 18, Lists "Karrnathi Skeletons (5)," yet gives 6 sets of hit points.
- p. 19, Sea Baron Paldrith Malinko's hit point total given as 49; stats on p. 30 state 51 hp.
- p. 19, Lists "Karrnathi Skeletons (5)," yet gives 6 sets of hit points.
That kind of thing pretty much invalidates the usefulness of putting that information there so it's close at hand, doesn't it? Still, I appreciate the fact that the full stats are all herded together at the back of the book; it's much easier to find them that way.
Then there are the stat blocks themselves. Design Manager Christopher Perkins and Development Manager Jesse Decker continue their recent string of low-quality performances with this product; I noted problems with 9 out of 12 total stat blocks, for an overall error rate of 75%. Here's the full list of suggested changes:
- pp. 28-29, Kray, male personality warforged fighter 5/warforged juggernaut 2: +1 battleclaw attacks should be at +12/+7 melee, not +11/+6 (+6 BAB, +4 Str, +1 Weapon Focus, +1 magic weapon bonus).
- p. 29, Sir Gedavin Brant and Dame Hollia Keln, male and female human paladin 4: Masterwork longsword attacks should be at +9 melee, not +8 (+4 BAB, +3 Str, +1 masterwork, +1 Weapon Focus).
- p. 30, Gunter Hegerin, male human necromancer 9 (when possessing Menasos Bethenade's body with magic jar): I see no reason why his AC (or flat-footed AC) should suddenly be 15, given that his Dex decreased and there's no indication that Menasos wears any armor.
- p. 30, Jackrin, Skrakes, and Meldin, male human rogue 2/fighter 1: Masterwork dagger attacks should be at +3 melee, not +4 (+2 BAB, +2 Dex with Weapon Finesse, +1 masterwork, -2 Two-Weapon Fighting).
- p. 31, Ship's Cook Jaeden Korane, male human ranger 6: He should be able to cast two 1st-level ranger spells/day, not just one (1 as a Rgr6, +1 for Wis 14).
- p. 31, Lucius, dog companion: Initiative should be +4, not +3 (+4 Dex). BAB should be +2 (as a 3-HD animal), not +0. Grapple should be at +0, not -3 (+2 BAB, +2 Str, -4 size). With 3 HD, he should have gained another feat, and he also should have gained 2 more skill points, neither of which appears in his stats.
- p. 31, Kalibar Jenks, male halfling rogue 7: Will should be +5 (+7 against fear), not +6 (+8 against fear) - (+2 as Rog7, +2 Wis, +1 halfling racial bonus). +1 finesse rapier damage should be 1d4+1/18-20, not 1d6+1/18-20 (it's a Small weapon, and thus does 1d4 base damage). Masterwork dagger damage should be 1d3/19-20, not 1d4/19-20 (again, it's a Small weapon).
- pp. 31-32, Zolanta Vaazir, female drow druid 9: AC should be 22, not 20 (+2 Dex, +6 +3 studded leather, +4 natural from barkskin spell [since she's a 9th-level caster]). Flat-footed AC should be 20, not 18. DR 10/adamantine should have maximum 90 points, not 100 points (10 times 9th-level caster, as per the stoneskin spell description). Will should be +12 (+14 against spells and spell-like abilities), not +10 (+12 against spells and spell-like abilities) - (+6 as Drd9, +6 Wis). +1 whip damage should be 1d3+2 nonlethal, not 1d2+4 nonlethal (Medium whips do a base 1d3 nonlethal damage, and only half of her Str bonus applies). Spells/day should be 6/6/6/4/3/2, not 6/5/5/4/3/2 (6/4/4/3/2/1 as a Drd9, plus 0/2/2/1/1/1 for having Wis 22). Wild empathy should be +15 (+11 magical beasts), not +14 (+10 magical beasts) - (Druid level 9, +6 Cha).
- p. 32, Drow Fighters, male drow fighter 3: AC should be 14, not 13 (+1 Dex, +3 masterwork studded leather). Flat-footed AC should be 13, not 12.
As always, I hope you'll point out any errors I might have made when compiling my "unofficial errata" list; there's little point in me correcting mistakes incorrectly myself, and the main goal is to provide the DM with accurate stats he can use when running his players through this adventure.
Voyage of the Golden Dragon makes for a pretty interesting set of linked short adventures, and manages to combine on-board combat with aerial combat, murder mysteries and intrigue, and a dungeon crawl of sorts, so I give author Nicholas Logue credit for stretching his imagination and providing the players with a variety of encounters. With a bit more effort on the stat blocks - which, in an adventure, are almost as important in my mind as they are in a monster book - this would easily have been a 4-star rating. As it stands, I'm going with a "3 (Average)."
