Dungeon Crawl Classics #5: Aerie of the Crow God

[Messageboard Golem]

Remember the good old days, when adventures were underground, NPCs were there to be killed, and the finale of every dungeon was the dragon on the 20th level? Those days are back. Dungeon Crawl Classics don't waste your time with long-winded speeches, weird campaign settings, or NPCs who aren't meant to be killed. Each adventure is 100% good, solid dungeon crawl, with the monsters you know, the traps you fear, and the secret doors you know are there somewhere.

In this all-new adventure, someone is threatening to kill poor Lady Pendour and her two young daughters! The characters can save her if they find the key to her deceased husband's lock box. Unfortunately, Lord Pendour disappeared while questing to clear the ruined fortress of Gurnard's Head of the "harpies" that ravage the village sheep and defile the cemetery. It's to Gurnard's Head that the PCs must go if they are to find the key and save the beautiful lady. But Gurnard's Head is home to an evil far greater than mere harpies. Carved inside the very rock is a temple to Malotoch, the Carrion Crow Mistress, foul patron of scavengers and cannibals. The task ahead is far greater than imagined, and the danger more dire, but the desperate time limit remains. Can the PCs survive and return with the key in less than three days' time? Lady Pendour's life depends on it!

Dungeon Crawl Classics can be integrated easily with any fantasy setting. If you enjoy this adventure, you might also enjoy the rest of the Dungeon Crawl Classics series.

 

[Psion]

Aerie of the Crow God

Aerie of the Crow God is an adventure in Goodman Games' Dungeon Crawl Classic series of adventures designed to emulate first edition adventure modules. The adventure is written by Andrew Hind, and is designed for a party of level 7-8 characters (though it has adaptation notes for different levels.)

A First Look

Aerie of the Crow God is a 48-page saddle-stitched (it's been a while since I used those words!) softbound book priced at $12.99 US.

The cover is a goldenrod color, adorned b a somewhat cheesy looking color pick of adventurers battling harpy-like creatures. The front cover is illustrated by Chuck Whelon and the back by Brad McDevitt.

The interior art is black and white, with art by Jason Edwards, Brad McDevitt, and Brian Tarsis. Some of the art is a bit "old school", but there is a rather nice collection of illustrations to show the players.

Cartography is by Jeremy Simmons. The inside covers are used for some maps, which are done with blue ink in the old school style.

A Deeper Look
(Warning: There are spoilers to secrets of the adventure in this section.)

Goodman Games have been doing the Dungeon Crawl Classic series for a while, but this is the first one that I have had the pleasure to review.

As some of you may be aware, the big dog in d20 adventures, Necromancer Games, has adopted "Third Edition Rules, First Edition Feel" as its tagline. While they may emulate that feel in some ways, it is interesting to see that a large portion of their products are mini-campaign style adventure more characteristic of... well, I won't say it. Not to say that Necromancer's adventures are bad, anything but. But most of the quality in their adventures shows itself in the ways which they are not like first edition adventures.

As far as format and presentation go, perhaps Goodman games deserves the first edition feel tagline. The thin saddle stitched booklet with blueprint maps were a hallmark of first edition adventures, as is the uncomplicated dungeon-crawl plot.

Of course in some ways, I feel like Necromancer, Goodman has defied the first edition feel by doing better than the adventures they hoped to pay homage to. Noteworthy innovations that I would not have seen in a first edition adventure include scaling notes for different level parties, accommodation in the hook for details of the GMs game, and a variety of introductory hooks.

The adventure also has a little "early third edition" feel in that it has a EL chart that few adventures use these day (some to their detriment, especially larger ones). The chart professes to be useful for XP calculation, but the be useful for that, it would have to list CRs, which are used for XP calculation It also has more than the recommended amount of treasure, though some are well hidden and to his credit, the author points out the treasure and provides suggestions for those who would rather tone it down to standard levels.

The basic concept of the adventure is that the adventures are asked to search for the body of a lord who had gone to assail an ancient fortress. The lord was said to carry a key to a lockbox, one that is important to open, which an unknown assailant has demanded. There are a few weaknesses in this hook. First off, the lockbox being impregnable to thievery and magic is wise to keep the adventure on course, but seems a little handwaved. Second, many parties would want to go after the assailant.

The real adventure lies in the direction of the keep that the lord was lost in assailing.the tower at Gunard's Head. The tower was long ago protected by guards that fell to canibalism, and eventually became ghasts and fell to the worship of Malotoch, the carrion crow god, who also is the patron of harpies and rooks. (Rooks are sort of musically retarded harpies introduced in this module.) The tower became home to many rooks, and the lord that went there had done so not knowing that there were more inhabitants than "harpies."

The adventure is basically a dungeon crawl. There are two main sections, the ascent of the rocky cliff that the tower is on, and the tower itself. The challenges are mainly traps and monsters, many of the latter classed (another thing you will rarely see in 1e.) There is little in the way of diplomatic or roleplaying challenges, by design. The dungoen section has in-line stat blocks for all creatures, and interesting junctures are illustrated through photocopyable pages to display to the players.

Appendices include a description of the environs around Gurnard's Head, new creatures, new magic items, player handouts, and a character record sheet that reminds me not of the 1e character sheets, but the basic set character sheets.

Conclusions

If you are going to do something, do it well. Words that Goodman seems to live by when it comes to this installment of the Dungeon Crawl Classics series. It is a fairly straightforward dungeon crawl in the classical mold. But it is excellently supported with good hooks, guidelines, and illustrations, aspects which many modern adventures have been negligent on and would have been nearly unheard of in the adventures the series hopes to emulate. But this deviation is, undoubtedly, a good thing.

Overall Grade: B+

-Alan D. Kohler

 

[JoeGKushner]

For me, it takes more than a dungeon in and of itself to be considered a classic adventure. After all, old 1st edition classics like White Plume Mountain, have grown to be more than their adventure. Why’s that? Well, in my opinion, it’s the material that surrounds the adventure. It gave us a skeletal dragon. It made a legend of the wizard. Now these things weren’t detailed in and of the adventure itself, just hinted at. It introduced new and unique magic items even as it used traps and monsters in new and interesting ways.

Aerie of the Crow God gives me some of those same vibes. Unlike some Goodman Dungeon Crawl Classics, this one clocks in at 48 black and white pages and runs for $12.99. A better per page value than the 32 page books. It still uses the interior covers for the blue inked maps. Internal art moves a little beyond 1st edition feel. Although there isn’t much, it’s fairly better than some other pieces that look like they belong in the 80’s instead of the year 2004.

The adventure starts simply enough. We get some background information on a tower built upon a landmark and how its history brings us to the present day. We get a NPC hook to throw the players in as noble heroes. Then, we get to the dungeon crawling.

It starts off by messing with the character’s heads. One monster, featured prominently on the cover, looks like a traditional monster, but it’s not. To make matters worse, the characters have limited mobility. Add into this an enemy that can fly and knock you off your narrow stairs, and you have some dangerous encounters. While the italic text is easy enough to spot once you’ve read the whole thing, it would’ve been nice to see it either boxed or put in gray background to make it easier to identify for tournament play.

The first part of the adventure past the stairs is a fairly simple cleaning of the tower. Now it’s a five level tower with a lookout tower and signal tower above it providing for numerous encounters. The trick though is that its not the tower where the entirety of the adventure takes place. Seems that at the very lowest level of the tower, there is a connection to a three level temple.

Now for some of the things I like about the adventure. One, there are new monsters. Anytime the adventure gives you something to take out of it and move it into your own campaign, I’m convinced that’s a good thing. Next, it provides new items. Now the mundane items like the Duergar Axe-Hammer and the dark valerian herb are good for background ideas, but it’s the unique, non-magical items known as the Star Arms that take the cake.

These items are intelligent members of a group of items but the group is individualistic. So not only do they prevent one player from hoarding them through their individual wills, but through their alignments and their ego scores. Each one has unique and distinct names and while I don’t see any becoming the next Whelm, Wave or Black Razor, I wouldn’t be surprised to hear about how Azurak, a great mace, was vital in smashing through a heavy door or how Cruel Justice fit one player’s drow ranger with two scimitars perfectly.

Another huge point for me is player’s handouts. These are rare these days. It’s nice when you get not only a page or two, but several pages to copy and hand out to your players. Truly a first edition feeling. Heck, even the character sheet they’ve included is a near match for an old 1st edition character sheet.

So to me, the following things help make this one of the better Dungeon Crawl Classics: Price per page value, Unique Monsters, Unique Magic Items and Handouts. If you’re looking for a 7th-8th level adventure for your group, you could do much worse than Aerie of the Crow God.

 

[GameWyrd]

The Aerie of the Crow God is from the Dungeon Crawl Classics series from Goodman Games. The idea here is that it's done in the old style of D&D. "Old" as in appearance, when the company was just young their products simple, and when people who are now 45 were 15 and busily kicking in dungeon doors. Jumping to the point - I don't normally like dungeon crawls let alone pre-written adventures but I've found its easy to play these "classic" adventures in good humour. Other gaming groups, I'm sure, will relish the tactical challenges here and some DMs will use bits from the game or wrap it in a larger plot.

In fact, The Aerie of the Crow God is especially left open for larger plots. However, since I cut the usual caveats abut pre-written adventures we're onto discussing the adventure already. If you're worried about spoilers then flap off now.

Rightyo. Still here? Good. The Aerie of the Crow God is open to larger plots because there's a shadowy blackmailer in the background. It's up to you who's blackmailing the lady of the manor and thus forcing her to hire the characters to enter the tower fortress of Gurnard's Head. Fear not, the game has two alternative suggestions for local NPCs who could full the blackmailer role if you don't have a long term villain of your own. I like this. Okay, I like this because it has the signs of a non-linear, overlapping, expansive campaign which is perhaps everything that Aerie of the Crow God is not. That doesn't matter though - it's an added bonus which can be taken or left.

The blackmailer could be quite a tough character to deal with. Ultimately she/he might not be as tough as the final fight in the tower. The Aerie of the Crow God is tough but the rewards for characters whom do well can be very high. There are a whole bunch of powerful magic items kicking around just for a start. Fair enough, this normally works well, challenge the players so they have fun and then award them suitable so they don't feel too bitter. But, but, but! Every olde style D&D adventure seems to do this. I want a low level adventure, an easy one, one where the players can experiment with their characters and abilities - and it doesn't have to be chock full of treasure.

Aerie of the Crow God suits four to six players of about 7th or 8th level. There's no mention of useful classes - and there aren't really any issues in here. It's not so easy to scale this adventure down, making it suitable for less powerful characters as playing with the encounter levels doesn't change the troublesome strategies and the good guys won't stand a chance. It's easy enough to scale the adventure up; just start doubling the amount of small creatures in mass encounters, adding to the DC of traps and powering up the encounters with proper nouns.

As for the plot, well, tower fortress of Gurnard's Head did it what it was designed to do - not to fall to an enemy attack. Someone had a jolly good go, attacking by surprise, stopping the tower from stocking up on supplies and camping outside until the garrison inside starved. The garrison inside didn't starve though, not all of them anyway, as some of the soldiers turned to cannibalism and feasted off each other. By doing so they wound up as followers of Malotoch, the carrion crow demon (so we're fudging the demon/god thing here). When troops finally arrive to relieve the tower they, very rightly, decide that those inside are too evil and too far gone to save. They just keep them locked in the tower. Rather than die, though, the cannibal troops are turned into ghasts and ghouls by Malotoch. Oh, that tricky demon! And so as the memory of the tower fades into history, the actual tower stays in place and the ghouls make it even more fort-like by burrowing tunnels into its rocky base.

Skip forward to the character's time. The local lord unfortunately decides a harpies are the worst thing the tower has in it and since they've been bothering the locals and raiding graveyards he sets off to purge them. Ooops. He's missing, presumed dead, when the characters arrive. It's his lady wife who's been blackmailed.

Then rest? It's a dungeon crawl in a tower. It has traps, fights and magic treasure - just like an old Dungeons and Dragons roleplaying game might have!

The Aerie of the Crow God does what it says it'll do. It's an easy promise to live up to but if it had gone wrong it would have gone terribly wrong. In actual fact the adventure is quite fun, there's just enough going on to interest people and a good chance much of the back story will come out (whereas it's normally lost entirely). This was a 2004 Ennie Award Nominees for best adventure. It's good enough for me.

* This Aerie of the Crow God review was first posted at GameWyrd.