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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 9420703" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dungeon/Polyhedron Issue 100/159: July 2003part 4/10Agents and Allies 2: Looking ahead, it turns out this column doesn’t catch on after all, so these two are all you’re getting. At least it is another interesting one. Lone Tooth is a monk who joined the Sacred Order of Man-Beasts and was permanently transformed into a Dire Lion. The solitary lifestyle suits him and so he’s quite happy wandering the wilderness, but anyone who tries to despoil it will find it has a powerful protector with a very different set of tactics from the more common ranger or druid. A fairly basic gotcha encounter then, where you think you’re getting a basic lion encounter, then the lion starts talking and busts out some sick kung-fu moves. If he doesn’t consider you a mortal enemy, he’ll even reincarnate anyone killed in the fight as a random dire beast as well so no hard feelings. That definitely has the potential for very interesting long-term ramifications in a campaign. Just the kind of thing I like. Woe to Mistledale: Oh bloody hell. While the previous adventure wasn’t brilliant, it was at least a sequel to two good adventures, so you can see why there would be public demand for further instalments. Who on earth wants more Skip Williams adventures?! Nevertheless his position at WotC is secure enough that he can force this scenario on us, a sequel to Raiders of Galath’s Roost from issue 87. Once again the Zhentarim are causing trouble in the Dalelands and guess who’s got to deal with it. First of course you’ve got to figure out who’s responsible in the first place, as they’re trying to make sure the humans think it’s the elves and vice versa, so they’ll fight and do half their work for them. The humans get a wagonfull of trolls sent careening into the centre of the village to cause havoc. Meanwhile the elves have to deal with loggers disguised as a local trading company cutting more trees than their quota allows, in places they shouldn’t even be at all. When the PC’s investigate the Zhents will pretend to be just regular brigands or loggers and harry them further. Plus the Drow are also busy with their own raids, completely unconnected to these schemes and happy to attack humans or elves regardless of their allegiances. So while their scheme is a bit scooby-doo, it’s not Hijinx levels of wacky, the plot does actually make sense and the PC’s are in genuine danger. Even once you know who it is, you won’t be able to just tie them up and deliver them to the authorities with nothing but an “and I would have got away with it if it weren’t for those pesky kids!” (although the adventure does strongly encourage questioning your enemies rather than killing them all straight away to solve the problem.) This isn’t actually that bad after all for a scene based, plot driven adventure, letting you do many of the scenes out of order and have a significant impact on how they play out rather than just going from one to the next. It’s not any kind of masterpiece, but it is at least about average for an adventure in here, putting it well within the playable quality range. Who knew he had it in him.</blockquote>

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