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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 9248817" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dungeon/Polyhedron 94/153: Sep/Oct 2002part 2/10Bloodlines: Just because your Mr Johnson is of noble blood and you know exactly who they are & where to find them, doesn’t mean they still won’t change the deal on you. Count Nolis recently bought an old monastery (that used to be his family’s centuries ago, but a lot has happened since then) In the process of renovation, he discovered a false wall leading down into unmapped dungeons. The first people he sent down never came back, which means it’s adventurer hiring time. Unfortunately for him, something has followed him out, picking off his retinue. Fortunately for him, he’ll run across the PC’s, who are high enough level to make short work of what turns out to be a single ghast. Will you stick around and help him, with a particular focus of finding anything that might connect his lineage to that of the royal family? Well, you’ll definitely find that, but not quite in the way he expected. It turns out his ancestor was a fiend-worshipper engaged in a scheme to put his mind-controlled spawn on the throne. Unfortunately, said child turned out to be too demonic to pass as human and was shut away, eventually going on a rampage and killing everyone in the place, then himself. Now they lurk in the abandoned monastery as various kinds of undead, with the prince himself as a Mohrg. As you explore it, you’ll gradually find fragments of documents that spell out all this backstory to you. Unfortunately, the count is watching your progress through scrying. He’ll think the scheme is simply spiffing and maybe he ought to try a variant of it himself. But first, he has to clean up the loose ends. Those PC’s know too much and must die! Well, that’s a pretty amusing setup, if a bit cheesy. So this is firmly on the theatrical end of adventure design, although the dungeon part is still of decent size and not completely linear. Like any adventure where the employer betrays the party, you should exercise a little restraint and not use too many in quick succession, otherwise they stop working, but this is all quite decent in terms of quality if you like 2e style adventures. The Last Hunt: They’re really enjoying making druids the villains lately, after two whole editions where they couldn’t so easily. This time it’s a goblin druid who’s getting the local animals to be much more hostile to humanity than usual. The PC’s are hired by the local nobleman to deal with a bear that’s been troubling the village. He’ll accompany them, but if they don’t keep a close eye on him he’ll wander off ahead and wind up needing to be rescued. You’ll encounter some goblin scouts who’ll try to ambush you, an ettercap trap and a rival nobleman also hunting there who’ll get grumpy about who’s turf it is. (who you’re expected to talk too rather than fight) Eventually you’ll be attacked by the bear, then the remainder of the goblins immediately afterwards before you have time to recover. Hopefully both noblemen survived otherwise there will be legal consequences later. Your basic set of half a dozen events designed to fit into a single session, mixing roleplaying and combat encounters. Not totally linear, but still short and very formulaic, this gets a meh from me.</blockquote>

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