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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 9234298" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dungeon/Polyhedron Issue 93/152: Jul/Aug 2002part 4/10Swamp Stomp: A swamp based adventure where the true antagonist is not who you expect? We had one of those just a couple of issues ago. Not assuaging my fears about being too repetitive and formulaic here guys! The mayor of a small town has concocted a scheme to drain the nearby swamp and make a lot of money in the process. This of course made the lizard men who live there & their water naga protector very angry, so they’re trying to stop this. The mayor is not to be deterred and tells them he’s going to arrange peace talks, then hires adventurers (ie, you) to go in and kill the lot. Will you blindly follow his orders, or will you try and talk before you fight and realise you’ve been set up, and the real bad guy is back there in town engaging in lots of pre-emptive plans for property development and forcing people to pay for the water they used to be able to get for free. So it’s the kind of adventure which has two possible solutions, but it’s pretty obvious which the “good” one is and they drop plenty of hints along the way for the players to pick up on even if they don’t have a druid in the party that would naturally push them to the side of wildlife preservation. The story part is quite short, but there’s lots of detail on the village and it’s surroundings, putting this firmly on the sandbox end of things where the players have the freedom to wander around and do their own thing without the adventure falling apart, possibly coming up with another solution that is not one of the expected two. A familiar formula, but pretty decently done, giving you plenty of room to solve it in a hack & slash way, or almost entirely with roleplaying, this all looks easy to use with a wide variety of groups but not mind-blowing in any way. Critical Threats: Rather than being just a single creature, this is more of a full encounter, and really should have been labeled a Side Trek instead. Sadie is a Drider sorcerer who’s trying to get back into Lolth’s favor by raising a whole clutch of baby white dragons as her own. They all live together in a large cavern served by several dozen kobold minions. Any PC group that can take care of half a dozen dragons, even baby ones in a single combat would go through them like a lawnmower so they’ll stay well clear from the fight, but at least the writer is thinking about logistics here. Like all the previous three big bads this issue, she won’t fight to the death for her kids, but flee and try to get revenge later if at all possible and the PC’s aren’t set up to spam attacks of opportunity at attempts to disengage from combat. Still, even if they’re sticking firmly to formula in that respect at least this is unusual in not only using dragons, but lots of them at once and packs a decent amount of flavour into it’s small size. Another one that’s decent enough on it’s own merits but not very satisfying when trying to consume this whole issue as a single meal.</blockquote>

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