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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 8887282" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dungeon Issue 68: May/Jun 1998part 5/5Stepping Stones: Lisa Smedman decides to go full celtic, with an adventure revolving around a set of magical standing stones and the fae that live just a step away in an odd direction. The PC's come across a treasure map with a cryptic riddle written on it. If they interpret it correctly, they'll get the idea that there's treasure in them thar stones if they can only get hold of the Crown of Lapis, which is buried very close to them in a position that'll require some basic astronomy knowledge to figure out. Of course, first they have to figure out which of the several sets in standing stones in the area they're referring to, which will require some detective work, probably encountering the local centaurs along the way, who's reaction varies widely depending on the racial composition of the party. If you're mostly elves it'll be easy, but one with dwarves may well wind up in a fight and have to continue their search the hard way. Then when they get to the stones they have to deal with the korred that come out from them and dance around them, which once again could turn into combat (or the PC's being mind-controlled, joining in the dancing then waking up next morning with a stinking hangover and most of their stuff nicked) but could also be resolved peacefully if the group stays calm and talks fast. Finally, once they've dug up the crown and followed the instructions, they get the nastiest twist of all. The stones are actually petrified trolls, and speaking the command words turns them all back at once. They do have a load of valuable gold orbs in their possession, but you'll need to separate them from their grip, not just turn them straight back to stone in a panic to get maximum profit from the adventure. Probably not going to get through that encounter without a fair bit of violence then. A pretty linear sequence of events and quite whimsical as well, but at least one that allows for plenty of roleplaying and nonviolent solutions while not breaking either if the players are pure hack & slashers. Middle of the road in quality for a Dungeon adventure, but still solidly above most Polyhedron ones in both writing quality and freedom of choice. Meh.By Merklan's Magic: Straight from one single-sessioner with a strong fae theme to the encounters, to another one of similar size with a plant theme. Story as old as time, a wizard is doing experiments and creating increasingly smart and capable mutant plants, one kills him & takes his stuff and now the area is being overrun by them. As soon as they cause a bother for a trade route, adventurers are hired to find out what the problem is and deal with it. Wander through the woods and you'll have to deal with half a dozen encounters in any order. Thornslingers, needlemen, mold men, boring grass, a shambling mound, plus a werespider who's just as irked about the sudden influx of plant monsters as anyone and will join up with the party if they talk to her instead of attacking. Venture a little farther off the beaten path and you'll soon come across either the evil treant that's the big boss of all the other plants, or the wizard's old house, which contains a mix of old traps & guards from when the wizard was alive and new monsters. Talk to the Grandfather Plaque on the front door, which is getting a bit bored and would rather be moved somewhere more inhabited, fight a spouter, some nightshades, flying cleavers, unseelie fae and a particularly malformed plant mutant. Mostly straightforward combat stuff, but with enough trickery and roleplaying encounters to keep it from getting too monotonous. Another solid middle of the road one to fill a session, get you more XP and keep a campaign going between bigger events.Nodwick is ordered by Yeagar to use the Grandfather Plaque as a guard for his booze stash. At least he can be sure he'll get plenty of visitors to talk to even if it's not the most dignified posting. Sure beats being put on the end of a 10' pole and being used to test out traps.Easily the freshest and easiest to get through issue in a long time, as it becomes apparent that Chris is going to be the first editor to make any serious alterations to the format of the magazine since it started over a decade ago. Standalone adventures of various lengths are still going to be the main course of the magazine, but at least they're not the only thing on the menu anymore and it's nice to have more choices. Let's get to the next issue and find out if these changes turn out for the better or worse in the long run.</blockquote>

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