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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 9064493" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dungeon Issue 81: Jul/Aug 2000part 5/5Khazefryn: Last adventure gradually became more old school as it went on. This one is old school to the core all the way through, but using different influences, being a deliberate throwback to the D series that packs all the details for a full underdark city into 14 pages and then lets your players do what they please in response without any of that intended plotline nonsense. Once a duergar monastery, the cavern containing the settlement of Khazefryn is now half-flooded, with six little islands each occupied by a different race and the whole thing ruled by a mated pair of Deep Dragons. With living space at a serious premium, tensions can run high sometimes, but as long as the dragons can play the other races off against each other, their position on top is pretty secure. Of course, the PC’s could upset that balance of power in a number of ways. They could play politics and get some groups fighting against others to weaken the city as a whole. They could go for the stealthy theft and assassination route. If they’re extremely high level they could hack their way through everything. Or they could just try and pass through the legal way while paying as little tax as possible and be on their way if they have a more important mission. This is one of the purest and densest sandboxes they’ve done in a long time, making the stats of the monsters extra-abbreviated so they can pack more in. It’s aimed at high levels, but could accommodate a wide range as long as they know their limits and don’t try to fight through everything. This is another pretty neat way to say goodbye to the old ruleset that’s particularly handy for the really long-running campaigns that need big complicated challenges taking you far away from opportunities to recharge. Whether you’re heading for the demonweb pits or trying to overthrow the kingdom of the ghouls it’s a nice addition to make the journey even more epic. Skulking Below: No side treks this time around, but the final adventure is still the smallest and feels like it was chosen to fit the allotted page count neatly. The thieves guild is irked by a group of skulks in the sewers who are breaking the law without their permission. They arrange things so they’ll attract the attention of the law, which’ll take down the competition, let the watch feel smart for solving more crimes than they actually have and generally solidify their hold on organised crime in the area. Unless the PC’s hired to do the dirty work of venturing into the sewers to capture them are much smarter than expected. So this is a short and easy mission for low level PC’s that’ll take a session or less, but with two hidden optional objectives that they could succeed at or fail to even notice independently. In addition to the political underside, there’s also a hidden trapdoor which leads to a sealed off temple of Mask now only inhabited by ghouls. Finding this nearly doubles the length of the dungeoncrawl part and gives further hints to the dark history of the city. Another bit of competent filler that gives the DM plenty of room to expand in ways that suit your campaign, it’s very much the same formula as the previous adventures this issue. I guess since they’re moving on, leaving us a bunch of adventures with more open ends than usual is useful for the people who aren’t planning to switch straight away. With an above average number of high level, open-ended and heavily customisable adventures, this issue turns out well above average overall and makes for a decent note to end this edition on. They’ve set themselves a pretty high standard and now it remains to be seen if they can keep it up through the challenges of persuading their writers to switch to the new one and the increased time pressures when they switch to a monthly schedule. But first, there’s still a little more RPGA business to take care of……</blockquote>

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