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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 8741147" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dungeon Issue 57: Jan/Feb 1996part 3/5Side Treks - Carcass Fracas: Thouls! There's one of the most interesting old monsters that don't get used enough. Like the Bhaergala one a couple of issues ago, that's very pleasing to see, even if it's only a short scenario. One of them uses their part undead nature to more convincingly pretend to be a regular hobgoblin corpse in the road with some treasure on it. Then when the PC's get close, they'll try to paralyze them while another one attacks from behind. If the battle turns against them, their regeneration makes fleeing and then attacking again a little later to wear their opponents down an extra effective tactic, so some way to finish them off with ranged attacks would be very useful. Nothing exceptional, but another good example of how to use a creatures's special abilities to best effect and make the players work for their XP. The more complex their tricks are, the more examples like this are valuable.The Rose of Jumlat: Time to head to Zakhara again for an adventure where the machinations of genies interfere with the fates of ordinary mortals in interesting ways. The titular rose is a jewel of ridiculous beauty & value that's also reputed to be cursed. (technically it's not, but with nearly everyone who sees it competing over it, it brings plenty of strife and misery to whoever owns it anyway.) The PC's are hired to escort it from Jumlat to Gana. Unsurprisingly, things do not go smoothly at all and it'll wind up getting stolen on the journey whatever the PC's do. Now you have to get it back, and deal with the efreeti who lives inside it, the sea mage who stole it, and the restless spirit of a previous owner, all with their own agendas. To top it off, the desert experiences one of it's rare torrential rains during the pursuit, further complicating your journey, particularly if you allied with the ghost, which has some idiosyncratic desert based powers and weaknesses. Not a complete railroad, but somewhere in the upper half of the linearity spectrum, this feels like it was written as a story first and an adventure second, with a definite "right" set of moral decisions and only minor support if you stray from that. It's a decent enough read, and the maps are well above average quality for some reason, with the cartographer putting in extra effort to make them not only useful but fit the style of the setting as well, but I remain ambivalent about the idea of actually using it.</blockquote>

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