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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 9199681" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dungeon/Polyhedron Issue 91/150: Mar/Apr 2002part 4/12Side Treks - Sloth: Now here’s another familiar concept that they’ve done on a much larger scale in the past. A wizard screws up a summoning, the summoned thing kills them and now lurks in the ruins of their home. Only this time it’s deliberately done in a small and unglamorous way. The wizard was a low level one who got hold of a scroll slightly above her level, and rather than living in a magical tower she was already living in a small ramshackle cabin with mess everywhere, so the chaos after the Belkar was summoned is barely distinguishable. Still, the odd noises coming from the place have changed in style, so the neighbours ask the PC’s to investigate. There’s still a decent amount of magical gear in there if you have the patience to search it properly after beating the monster so it won’t be a wasted trip. Short, lighthearted, and basically a riff off the author’s own experience of having a slovenly teenager, this is amusing and usable but not particularly imaginative. It shows you can scale a concept way up or down in both size and intended level, which is handy, but not as impressive as previous examples like Sleepless from issue 28. Critical Threats II: Another of these in the same issue as they try to make them a thing, although they’re still all being written in-house. This time the villain, while still villainous, does actually have a valid point. Gnarlcrown is the ghost of a treant who tried to protect his forest, but was betrayed by the human druids who’s idea of balance with nature obviously involved a certain degree of controlled deforestation and didn’t take kindly to him engaging in all-out war against humanity. They lured him into a trap under the guise of peace talks and now he has an undying grudge and will be even harder to talk down. He’ll target any druids in the party first, using his spells and wildshaping to confuse and weaken before solidifying and going full-on nature’s wrath. Can you figure out how to lay him to rest, or will you have to banish or imprison him, resulting in him being back later, angrier still? You could definitely construct an interesting adventure involving more than one encounter around him, given how ghosts can keep on coming back if you merely beat them in combat. Much better than their first attempt. The Legend of Garthulga: The slew of short, lighthearted adventures continues with one of our irregular scooby-doo riffs. A roadside inn has recently been plagued by a fearsome monster from legend. He’s at his wits (and finances) end and will beg adventurers for help before he goes out of business. It’s actually just a dire boar that has been dressed up by a gang of rogues pulling an extortion racket. It’s tame enough that if you have a ranger or druid in the party you can easily resolve this without bloodshed if they think to do so. Even without one, the fact that it’s just a pig in a costume will be pretty obvious after it takes a few hits in combat and it’ll flee rather than fight to the death, giving a pretty strong hint that you should be looking for whoever put the costume on it in the first place. Track them down and either kill them or subdue & hand over to the authorities, depending on how nice your players are feeling and that’s the adventure over. Another one that’s unlikely to last even a full session, but is easy enough to put nearly anywhere as they travel from one place to another. (although it has a canon location in Greyhawk for the lore obsessives) Once again, usable, mildly amusing and not railroaded, but very small-scale and not groundbreaking in any way either. Just another bit of modular stuff to fill a gap in the campaign when you have no ideas of your own or want the journey to last a bit longer.Nodwick’s party are not noted for their animal communication skills and roast the pig. Waste not, want not.</blockquote>

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