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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 8465228" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dungeon Issue 39: Jan/Feb 1993part 3/5Last of the Iron House: We follow up with another short adventure that probably won't last even a full session in itself, but is begging for expansion. A local cleric has been accused of engaging in bizarrely open banditry. He has an airtight alibi for at least one of the incidents, so it looks likely something supernatural is going on. Fortunately, a little wandering around the area while not looking like too dangerous a target will attract the impostor's attention. It turns out to be someone who co-incidentally looks very similar, being manipulated by a sahuguin priestess who's ultimate goal is to kill the original and use the patsy as a political pawn. Fortunately, her minions aren't very bright, and it's not too hard to foil them & trace things back to their base of operations. The main dungeon itself is more of a Polyhedron style adventure than a Dungeon one, short, linear and thoroughly unimpressive, and the only thing that distinguishes it stylistically is the greater attention paid to external plot hooks that running this adventure could lead too in the future, with the distinct possibility that the Sahuguin priestess behind it will escape and come up with further plots to harm and manipulate the landbound communities. So this is one that could be useful for low level parties, but you'll need to put in a fair bit of effort as a DM to really make the most of it. Maybe someone will save you the work and do a sequel adventure like the editorial encouraged them too. We'll just have to keep reading and see.The Fountain of Health: The first basic D&D adventure in nearly a year does what usually happens after a break and goes right back to basics, a dungeon crawl for starting level adventurers with a magical fountain at the end. The PC's are trying to save the life of a dying villager, and being only 1st level, have no healing spells of their own. They need to negotiate the dangers of a ruined temple and get to the fountain in the middle to use it's healing water. Since the temple is crumbling, there are multiple entrances, several routes through, and you can gain even more nonlinearity by doing a little rubble climbing, although it'll be risky with your low skill levels. Most of the encounters are fair, but there's a golem that's probably too powerful to fight head-on, and is better avoided or tricked to it's demise, and a gargoyle at the end that'll slaughter you unless you've picked up the magical weapon from earlier on in the adventure. (or a previous one) It's challenging for the intended level, and you might well lose some of your PC's in the process, but there's always a trick given that you can use to solve things if you're smart, and if you make it to the end, the fountain will let you raise everyone. It's a little too merciful to be truly old school, and gets easier disproportionately quickly if you do have a few other adventures under your belt, but good at what it's intending to do, encouraging low level adventurers to use their brains and explore rather than hacking through every problem. It rewards caution and thinking outside the box, and seems like a pretty good way to start off a campaign overall, as once you've done it you can stock up on healing water that'll let you take on a tougher mission for your next adventure. (although they're smart enough to limit the fountain's output enough that it won't be gamebreaking) Now you just need to decide what that adventure might be, as unlike the previous ones this issue, it doesn't have any potential recurring antagonists or hints of other locations to develop into a future plot. Can't have everything every adventure I guess.</blockquote>

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