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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 8987273" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dungeon Issue 74: May/June 1999part 5/5Side Trek - The Vale of Weeping Widows: We reach the end of another issue, and we have another side trek that feels like it was chosen because it was exactly the right size to fit with the page count and amount of adverts. They must have had slightly more space than usual, because this is three pages of atmospheric buildup and only one short combat encounter at the end. While trekking through arid mountains, the PC's come across an abandoned valley with signs that there was once a civilisation there. Spooky statues, odd sounds in the distance, out of body experiences when they go to sleep there, there's lots of forebodingness but nothing actually happens and there's no treasure or magic no matter how hard they investigate. Eventually a storm will sweep through and they'll be attacked by a pack of leucrotta, using their mimicry powers to imitate the voices heard earlier to be all the more unsettling. But the core mystery will remain unsolved, unless you make up a solution for your own campaign. So this is a shaggy dog story, a boy who cried wolf setup, an extended break between things actually happening to build tension with an anticlimactic finish. I guess you should throw in a few things like that between the actual adventures so the PC's don't come to take it for granted that there's a treasure chest behind every waterfall, undead in every graveyard, and more statues that come to life than stay still but this still leaves me a bit nonplussed.Apart from the high level spectacular, this issue was pretty mid really, feeling like a definite comedown after all the interesting serial and tie-in stuff of the past year. I guess they're taking a break between trying to really push the envelope again so it doesn't lose impact when they do, but it means this one won't be going on any best or worst of lists and felt like it passed by pretty quickly. Another little bit of landscape along the long road to the present. Time to break the next issue down into bite sized chunks and see how smoothly it slides down.</blockquote>

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