Morrick Mansion

[JoeGKushner]

Morrick Mansion is a 56 page adventure designed for 3rd-5th level characters. In a small town, a curse is slowly spreading its evil outwards and it falls to the party to determine if they can cure the curse before all of Grollek's Grove falls under its say.

Now that the introduction is done, here's the review. Note the spoilers below. Players, you go away now. Leave the review to the Dms.

There are a number of ways that the players can get involved with the quest to end the curse. The first is of course, being hired by the relatives of the family who are posting a reward. The second is a local druid, trying to stem the curse. This ties into my take on the roles of druids as patrons for parties in Druids and Druidism. Other factors can help the GM get the party into the swing of things. One of the most interesting might be for a group of evil characters to try and replicate the curse or work with some of the NPCs within the Grove for other nefarious purposes. The characters will have ample opportunity to explore the nearby countryside and speak not only with those who might hire them, but also seek out the services of the many shops within the Grove. Almost like a sourcebook-adventure with the details provided on the Grove.

Most of the mission is going to involve the players trying to survive the Mansion, which has a nasty curse about it. Seems that all food and drink on the grounds is cursed and the curse has some nasty effects. Things like giving the user claws, super strength, insanity, you know, minor things really. One of the most dangerous parts of the adventure is that every time the user is hit by an infected creature, he's got to make a saving throw or become infected himself. Now the save is an easy one to make, but it builds up so that if you keep getting hit, then you're going to have some rough saves ahead of you.

Now as if the curse itself wasn't enough, the changes it makes insure that even if the characters have fought many of the creatures within the book before, they can't take anything for granted. A quick look at the cover reveals that not everything is normal with these two bugbears and they aren't the only ones who've undergone augmentation. This helps keep the players on their toes and doesn't rely on the GM having to use outside monster books or numerous templates to change the core creatures.

One of the things that the book does right is that it provides multiple resolutions methods for the players so that they're not pigeonholed into a single solution. This is nice because it allows the GM to provide as much or as little help as the players need in order to achieve the goals of the mission. Another strength is that there are a wide variety of characters in the Grove for the GM to customize and help and hinder the players with.

The interior covers are used, the front being a map of Grollek's Grove, the rear Grollek's Groave and the Surrounding Area. One rear page is used for an ad on the Judge's Guild product coming out soon. The book is laid out in standard two-column format. White spaces leak occurs at the end of the chapters. All art is handled by Brian LeBlanc, who uses his 'charcoal' look as opposed to the pen and ink he sometimes does. Most impressive, to me at least, is that Ed Bourelle handles all of the maps. This gives the maps a very polished, high quality feel. Easy to read and understand, although I still want a map key.

The adventure provides bonus experience points for various deeds, including the rescue of those trapped within the manor. Those more interested in monetary rewards will be pleased to know that not only is there gold to be had, but new and unique items that players may wind up with as a result of their actions. Those looking for further adventures get some ideas to help further their campaigns, but no deep details.

One of the things I thought was backwards, is that the reward offered isn't listed up front with the starting of the adventure, but in the rear of the book. Make sure to read the adventure all the way through as the NPCs have various motives and take different actions depending upon how the characters act and who they interact with. The module itself is also an odd page count, weighing in at 56 black and white pages. Normally I see 64 page books for $12.95 but this puppy is $13.95. Inflation or ? A personal pet peeve, one that I hear many other people do not have, is that it takes place in a mansion in a small town. Just for something different, I may move it to a city where the need to come up with a cure is more urgent.

Morrick Mansion is a solid adventure that has a good play between investigation and combat, between exploration and a simple dread that only comes when a player hears the dreaded, “Make that saving throw.”

 

[Messageboard Golem]

Morrick Mansion and the surrounding vineyards were deserted years ago when a terrible curse twisted every living thing on the property into a mockery of its prior form. Fear now grips the land. The curse spreads and someone needs to stop it. Can you find its source and cure it forever, or will the very curse you are investigating touch you with madness?


Hatred, Death and Danger!
Morrick Mansion is a town and dungeon adventure designed by 4 to 6 characters of 3rd to 5th-level. Morrick Mansion challenges adventurers to battle strange, mutant creatures in an effort to solve a mystery and stop an insidious curse. Do your players dare enter the mysterious mansion and can they survive long enough to discover its source?

 

[Legion]

Legion's Review Disclaimer

Morrick Mansion is a town and dungeon adventure designed for 4 to 6 characters of 3rd to 5th-level. Morrick Mansion challenges adventurers to battle strange, mutant creatures in an effort to solve a mystery and stop an insidious curse. Do your players dare enter the mysterious mansion and can they survive long enough to discover its source.

Possible spoilers, you've been warned.

This adventure written by Patrick Lawinger, illustrated by Brian Leblanc (cover by Erik Pollak,) and cartography by Ed Bourelle is a very solid bullet in Necromancer's arsenal.

The adventure itself, while not innovative in any way, is fun and well constructed. With a bit of investigating thrown into the beginning, for the most part it's a traditional 'dungeon romp.' This is by no means a bad thing; in fact, with regards to this adventure, it's a good thing, because it follows the rules, is clear, concise and straightforward to run. This is actually one of the best things I like about the adventure. Thought it is for 34d-5th level characters, DMs looking for a great introductory module for new players or the stepping off point for a long campaign will find that Morrick Mansion fits the bill perfectly.

All right, onto the pros and cons. First the pros, then the cons.

As already stated the artwork is very nice. I liked Brian Leblanc's work from Book of Taverns and I like it here, my personal favorite is the the illustration on page 12 with the thief cracking the safe; the look on the fighter's face is hysterical conjuring all sorts of images of what the thief just told him, "If you'd quit fidgeting your armor might stop clanking long enough for me to hear the damn tumblers!" The cartography by Ed Bourelle is terrific, I especially like the map of the Mansion Interior. The writing and editing are both clear and crisp. I spotted very few typographical errors or missing sentences.

The NPCs of the adventure are also very nice. They've got just enough quirkiness to them to make the module standout from others in similarity. Great examples of these are Argrim White, the blind caretaker whose been hiding out for five years (but could literally kick the collected arses of the PCs) and Koriela, the stranded Air Mephit.

One of the highlights of the module that I was really enamored of is the death of Lord Morrick. This is handled quite nicely and Morrick's solution to saving his family is reflected in the strength of the NPCs.

As to the cons, some might consider the fact that the module itself feels like covered ground. As I mentioned it's a fairly straightforward 'dungeon crawl' (and no, it isn't actually IN a dungeon but it has the move from room to room feel of a dungeon crawl.) But that for me wasn't a con, more a plus as noted above.

Another thing is the power of the curse itself. It's pretty darn potent. Now, I'm not averse to sticking the characters against something tough, but a good DM should keep this potency in mind, especially as it's just beginning before the players have any clues that it's a curse and not a poison.

The only real problems I had, and they don't actually detract from the module - it's still easily playable - is the apparent absence of two elements that almost beg to be included.

First, in the explanation of the town the population is stated as being approximately 850 people. Six storefronts are described. Five of these six pay fees to the local thieves' guild to prevent thievery from happening inside the establishments. The local thieves guild master is also described. Yet the guild itself isn't described at all. Even more, Miriam Kriel, the town magistrate, is said to be quite competent at her job. 850 people and a thieves' guild that's been bought off by nearly every storefront? This sounds to me like the thieves' guild runs the town, not Miriam. If that were the case, I'd definitely include the thieves' guild description.

Second. The man who started the curse, Lord Eldoran lived between Morrick Mansion and the town (at least as depicted in the provided map of the area.) Yet Eldoran's home or grounds have no description. Having DMed for quit a long time, I know players. They love to do something unplanned. However, this just seems like an obvious course of investigation that logically the players would think to check out Eldoran's home, especially after they begin hearing people talk about being suspect. Even if his daughter has moved into town, the chance to find evidence would just be to, well, obvious. This is easily solved, the DM can always just make up a quick description of a building and say the player's find nothing there, but given the fact that the introduction clearly says Lord Eldoran conjured the demon using his 'extensive' library, I'd be willing to bet that some small lip service should have been paid to the Eldoran grounds.

In summary, this is a fun, virtually straightforward adventure. It's one of those modules that I'll always keep around in case I get a new group together on the fly because I know I can quickly pull it out for a hat trick. That's a great niche to fill.

 

[trancejeremy]

Morrick Mansion

While it sounds like a 90s short lived syndicated television sitcom, Morrick Mansion is a fantasy d20 adventure from Necromancer Games. It's pretty much a setting based adventure, based around a cursed mansion, not unlike the classic old module for D&D, "Castle Amber".

This is not as good (or as weird) as Castle Amber, but it's much less bare bones.

It's got two basic parts. One is basically a role-playing aspect, which is set in a small village. The second part involves the exploration of the mansion itself, which is pretty much a dungeon crawl.

The major NPCs in the town are well done, with varied and fairly fleshed out personalities and descriptions. The physical descriptions are very well done, making it a breeze to visualize NPCs. (This is one of those things I often have trouble with while DMings, coming up with descriptions of NPCs - when I have to make them up, they all look like Fess Parker. Or someone I know, and the women look like women I used to date.)

The artwork is excellent. I've said it before, but it's worth repeating - I think Brian LeBlanc is the best artist working right now in the RPG field (d20 field at least). Necromancer games stuff is almost worth buying just for his artwork.

The maps are good, but would have been more useful if they were in the back or someplace easily found. I had a lot of trouble finding the map of the mansion itself while using the module - it was in the middle in an inconspicious spot.

It's also the sort of module I like, based around a small-ish town/village that can be dropped in your game world fairly easily. And afterwards, you can reuse it as a recurring location. So I give it a B+


Spoilers (mostly nitpicky stuff that came up during gameplay):


The plot is actually somewhat fairy tale like. A neighbor wasn't invited to a wedding, and wanted revenge (there were also apparently business reasons), so he cooks up a plot with a demon to curse Morrick Mansion.

Actually, kind of reminded me of a Kedrigern novel. (A depressingly unpopular series by John Morrissey, about a grumpy old wizard who is an expert at removing and reversing curses.)


I had a few logical problems with it, at least the background.

It's low level module (levels 3 to 5), yet a really rich guy wants the PCs to investigate. If he's rich, why couldn't he have hired much better help 5 years ago, when this all started? A couple of Legend Lore spells would do wonders to solve some of the mystery. This depends on your campaign setting. I used it in my homebrew, which is a relatively standard D&D-ish world in terms of magic power. But it has a number of magical colleges (Redhurst, the one from Unhallowed Halls, plus a couple others), any of which could have been consulted by a rich guy if there was a curse.

It seems to me that the Thieves' Guild in the town is a bit too powerful, in terms of the influence it wields. It's got a protection racket going, which generally doesn't work in small towns. Especially since there is more than adequate amount of police men and a very competent judge/magistrate.

The town has 853 people. At least 62 of those people are police/guards, almost 8%. In North America, the ratio is generally around 7 or 8 per 1000 people. Yet this town has a uber-powerful thieves' guild. (By contrast, Freeport has 20 per 1000 people, and doesn't have a thieves' guild. Of course, they also have a supercop from "Nuvo Jorca". But I digress).

It's hard to explain how some of these people survived for 5 years. Sure, the cleric had the create food & water spell, but what about the blind guy?

The variation of monsters could have been better. There's both a cursed Tiger and a cursed Puma. Almost right next to each other. (No Pugers or Timas, though).

It was sort of a pain keeping track of all the saving throws versus the curse itself. (Everytime they are bitten or clawed by a cursed critter, they have to save). It was sort of a pain for me, and most of my PCs had firearms, so melee combat was not that common (usually they killed the thing just before it reached them). I imagine it's worse for more traditional D&D games.

This is actually an observation I read elsewhere, but is worth mentioning here - PCs will probably want to visit the house of the guy who had the curse put on the place. I said it was burned down shortly after the death of the guy, which solved that, but if you don't want to do something like that, you'll have to come up with his mansion as well.

Anyway, it went pretty well. And I think the town itself (and the NPCs) has good long term potential (though you'll definitely want to tone down the Thieves' Guild). Like I said, a B+

 

[MonsterMash]

Morrick Mansion
by Patrick Lawinger

Necromancer Games, 56pp US$13.95

Capsule Review.

This review has been based on reading the product and preparing it for use in my campaign, rather than a full playtest. Warning the review contains spoilers so is unsuitable for anyone playing in the scenario.

A cursed mansion full of strange mutations and a village with some of the clues and allies the players will need to overcome the curse and make their fortunes.

The setting consists of a village, Grollek's Grove and the eponymous Mansion itself. This is a fairly simple setting to integrate into an existing campaign as there are few unusual features. The ideal location would be in a relatively peaceful agricultural area on a trade road, within a few days of a port.

For adventure hooks there are a number of suggestions for how to tie the product into an existing campaign, such as the PCs either hired to investigate or attracted by rumours to the village of Grollek's Grove and the Morrick Mansion.

The curse on the mansion was placed by a rival of its owner who entered into a pact with a demon lord to curse the wedding day of Lord Morrick's daughter and Lord Byron Beval, scion of a family of wealthy merchants from a nearby port. The curse can be caught be getting bitten by a cursed creature or by eating or drinking food from the grounds of the mansion. The DC of the save increases with exposure so characters will initially have little difficulty in resisting, but if they spend much time in the mansion they could succumb. Effects of the curse can be randomly generated using the table and are likely to end in death unless a character has a remove curse, miracle or wish used upon them.

The party can encounter a range of NPCs in Grollek's Grove and the mansion itself, some of whom can be useful allies and the majority of whom will not be opponents for the PCs. One element which seems odd given that the village has a number of high level lawful NPCs and an effective system of constables is the existance of a thieves guild. The overall number of guards is not totally clear, but would be at minimum around a hundred, which with a total population of the village is pretty high, but for some campaigns this would explain why the village is peaceful.

The encounters with cursed creatures in the mansion have the advantage of the mutations making it a change from just another dire rat or whatever. The curse could also affect characters meaning that players will tend to become wary of encounters after the first few times... or suffer.

Treasure levels are higher than I usually use in my campaigns, but this is easy to adjust and they are far from being Monty Haul as there are a number of tough encounters involved. Suggested levels of PCs are a party of 4-6 characters with levels 3-5. Personally I'd tend towards the higher end of the range, but not all the encounters are going to overstretch a party of 4 third levels and a lot would depend on how they approach exploring the mansion.

Major NPCs, new monsters, random encounters and new items are listed in appendices at the rear of the book, I like this, but as I know its not to everyones taste I've noted it. The NPCs are useful with full stats for the major ones and enough details of their personalities and how they could interact with the party to help a DM.

Appearance and production
This is a softcover module with maps inside the front and back covers in the style that Necromancer Games have used which resembles the old 1e modules. The layout is clear and the text tends to use about 90% of the page with the border of skulls which will be familiar to owners of other Necromancer products. The artwork by Brian LeBlanc add to the atmosphere of the product and were clearly done after reading the text, and the maps by Ed Bourelle are clear and easy to use, though there is one mistake on the labelling of the Mansion map.

Positives

• Writing Style - I consider this to be one of the better written RPG products I've read
• Coherent module design. The mansion and village hang together well with the few reservations I've noted
• Potential follow ups from the curse
• Use of appendices
• Maps and illustrations

Negatives

• No detail of Lord Eldorans Mansion
• No additional material on the web (at time of writing)
• Size of thieves guild given strength of local law enforcement

Overall
I'm giving this a 4, as it is a good solid piece of work and would be useful in many campaigns. Overall probably about an 8.5 out of 10. It has scope for side campaigns around Grolleks Grove and because of the problem solving aspects is not just a kick in the door and kill the monsters type module, but one that could be used as the basis for a longer capaign.