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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 8656121" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dungeon Magazine Issue 52: Mar/Apr 1995part 3/5Welcome to the Krypthome: :sighs heavily: I guess it is april. Time for one of those comedy adventures filled with whimsical NPC's seemingly designed to test your patience to the limit because you can't just slaughter them all without taking an alignment hit. A wild mage has set up home in a forest, and his experiments are racking up an increasing number of oddities in the surrounding area. A pair of goblins found the secret entrance to his treasure room while he was out and have stolen a bunch of magical items. They've then used them to kidnap a dwarf and send a ransom note. His friends obviously don't want to pay that, and ask the next set of wandering adventurers for help. If you accept, you have to deal with the comic relief prattling of the dwarves along the way, the tricks and traps of the goblins when they get there, an upside-down waterfall, moss that honks when you touch it, multiple jump scares that have no real danger at the end, and if you get through all that and stick around afterwards, the eccentricities of the wizard when he does finally come home. Basically, nearly every single thing in this is saccharinely whimsical to the point where I can feel my teeth ache just looking at it. It's not a railroad, so that puts it above either incarnation of the caves of confection, but it still makes me roll my eyes repeatedly. Only for using with very little kids who'll still be amused by this kind of comedy.The Hurly-Burly Brothers: As should instantly be apparent from the title, this one also has definite comedic elements. A pair of ogres have found themselves in possession of a Quaal's feather token that turns into a Roc, a crumbling tower, and a giant scorpion. They've put the scorpion at the bottom, rigged up a net and rope mechanism to slowly lower people into the scorpion pit, and are now going to grab some passers-by in the Roc's claws and put them in said deathtrap, then watch and laugh as their victims die horribly. Basically, a Batman '66 or James Bond scenario where one of the PC's gets captured and has to figure out how to escape the deathtrap, or at least stall proceedings enough for their friends to catch up, only unlike in the movies your last-minute escape isn't a foregone conclusion. Less irritating than the previous adventure, but still only one for the more theatrical DM who can get the players into the right spirit by going full ham with the roleplaying of the ogre brothers. It's also only a single encounter, so don't use it thinking it'll last the whole session and have other stuff prepared for afterwards. Since it's the kind of thing that you can use nearly anywhere when they're travelling between more intentional adventures, that shouldn't be too hard. Overall, neither good nor terrible.</blockquote>

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