The Siege of Durgam's Folly (Necromancer Games 2001)
By Mike Mearls
D&D 3.0 edition for 4-6 characters of 5th to 8th level
Durgam's Folly sits at the edge of the kingdom, an embattled outpost against the evil creatures of the wild. You travel with a caravan to that distant fortress, transporting mysterious cargo. But as you approach your destination, something is amiss. A local hamlet is in ruins. Strange creatures patrol the land. Has the famed fortress finally been overthrown?
THE BASICS:
The adventure is 32 pages long, cover price of $9.95 American.
Depending on how thoroughly your party explores or how mission oriented they are, some encounters will be bypassed. In my estimation, there are:
Overview:
The fort of Durgam's Folly is being used as a secret research facility for a wizard that is experimenting with self-repairing clockwork mechanisms run by a central brain gear. The central brain gear goes crazy--it imprisons the wizard and then turns on the fort's defenders. The brain gear recruits some nearby ogres to take over the fort, and possibly plans to use them for additional experimentation. The adventure thus is divided into 3 distinct parts
The first part has the party joining a caravan that is bringing rare magical supplies to the fort Durgam's Folly. There is some interesting roleplaying as there is both a military commander of the caravan, and the civilian leader (the wizard's apprentice). Then there is a series of linear encounters as the party travels on the road. As the party approaches the Fort they find a town looted by ogres; they are attacked by a roc; and they come upon the fort that has fallen to Ogres.
The second part of the adventure has the party attempting to take back the fort. There is a great deal of freedom for the players to make up plans. The fort is well detailed, but the positions of the ogres are not, as they move about and have different stations and activities at different times of the day. Most likely the party will be able to sneak in and take on Ogres in small groups before alerting the entire mob. Once they've re-taken the fort, they learn from human captives about the treachery of the brain gear in the dungeons under the fort
The third part of the adventure is a straight location-based dungeon crawl where the party must fight through the clockwork creations defending the brain gear. There are more opportunities for role-playing as the party meets both the original wizard--now infected with clockwork gears, yet still capable of helping the party. There is another prisoner, a fiendish spy sent to bargain with the brain gear, but the brain gear turned on it and had it imprisoned.
Strengths of the Adventure
The adventure has an interesting plot and each of the three portions move by very quickly. The unveiling plot shifts gears fairly quickly, keeping things interesting. The opportunities for role-playing are pretty robust, as the party has to figure out to do with a number of potential prisoners that could provide information, or aid, or be a liability.
Taking the fort back from the ogres was an interesting tactical challenge, and my party spent a good amount of quality time strategizing... then patting themselves on the back when it all worked out. The dungeon beneath the fort was suitably creepy, especially with the failed half-living/half-clockwork creations that gave the operation a sense of tragedy.
Weaknesses of the adventure
A few encounters were really clunky, particularly a Roc attack during the journey to the fort, and a maze-like portion of dungeon with living walls underneath the fort. A few encounters with the caravan or siege may involve over 20 NPCs and 10-15 ogres, and battles of this size don't always work well with 3.x edition rules. I thought that there were far too many types of clockwork monsters, many of them making only a single or insignificant appearance. The final battle with a flesh golem and stone golem can be a major problem if the party doesn't have means of getting around the damage reduction and spell immunities.
THE SPECIFICS:
I don't give much weight to text density and cost per page... I'd rather pay a lot for a small clever mystery than pay a little for a huge repetitive monster bash.
I don't give much weight to new monsters, prestige classes, and magic items... they can add a little variety to an adventure, but to me they are minor decoration.
1. Interesting and varied encounters (I look for unique encounters, allowing for a variety of role and roll playing.): (3/5)
There was a very good variety of exploration, combat and roleplaying. The siege is particularly good in that it allows for some player freedom to come up with their own plans, and the plans may have to change as the situation develops.
There were no significant traps or puzzles.
An encounter with a Roc during the caravan portion was problematic because the Roc attacks at night when most of the party is sleeping. It is a dangerous encounter and likely to result in the deaths of several NPCs, and possibly a PC. One encounter happens in literal maze, where some of the walls move and try to shepherd the characters into an ambush--this really felt awkward in play. The maze doesn't even make sense given that this is just supposed to be a wizard's research area.
Almost all of the combat encounters in the final third of the adventure involved constructs, and in particular the flesh golem/stone golem combination caused a lot of problems for our group—the party didn't have a good spell selection or ability to penetrate DR.
2. Motivations for monsters and NPCs (or some detail of how they interact with their environment or neighbors.): (5/5)
The motivations for the various NPCs and monsters were outstanding. There was a triangle of NPCs trying to exert their influence during the caravan section. The Ogre Mage leader of the Ogres has his own motivations. The various prisoners and rank-and-file ogres all had good motivations for their actions, and good responses to different player courses of action.
3. Logical (the adventure should obey a sense of logic that clever players can use to their advantage): (4/5)
Except for the roc and maze described above, everything else was reasonable and logical. The brain gear's motives may have been a bit sloppy, (why kill the humans, just to replace them with ogres?). I had no real complaints. There was a lot that the players could discover through interrogating prisoners, scouting, and other planning in order to get a leg-up on latter encounters. The adventure rewards player planning.
4. Writing Quality (foreshadowing, mystery, and descriptions that bring locations and NPCs to life): (4/5)
There were excellent bits of foreshadowing and mystery developed through the adventure. The party has an early chance to discover some clockwork spies which would foreshadow the machinery under the keep. There was not much of a mystery about what happened to the keep, but there was a palpable feeling of suspense as we played. The writing evoked a little pathos for the victims of the brain gear underneath the keep, but for the most part the writing was utilitarian. The descriptions of most places where matter-of-fact. There were not many quirky little descriptive bits to really bring the place to life.
With 8 new clockwork creatures and a template for additional creatures, I think there was too many new constructs for a small adventure. I think the author could have gotten by using animated objects for most of the clockworks, and perhaps only creating at most 2-3 new creatures. It would have been nice to have a clockwork swarm of nano-bot type creatures that had the ability to craft new clockwork creatures… perhaps give them the "animate object" ability 1x per day.
5. Ease of GMing (Clear maps, friendly stat blocks, skill check numbers, player handouts and illustrations): (3/5)
The adventure has adequate maps and some portions of boxed read-aloud text. There is no sample dialog for NPCs, but there are helpful guidelines on their actions and reactions. There is no map for the caravan journey, but it really wasn't needed. There are no player handouts or illustrations.
The layout of the adventure, in three distinct sections, is practical and makes the adventure very easy to handle. The progression of events and NPC responses flows very well and feels natural. For example, after the siege, the surviving soldiers busy themselves repairing the keep while allowing the adventurers to deal with the clockworks in the dungeons.
I have to admit that I played mostly 3.5, not 3.0, so the stat blocks look very strange to me. None of the constructs have bonus size-based HP for being constructs, so their HP seem very low. In some cases, there seemed to be 1E/2E mechanics, for example, when the roc attacks, the soldiers panic unless someone makes a charisma check (instead of diplomacy, intimidate, inspire courage, etc).
FINAL WORD:
This was the first adventure written for Necromancer Games by someone other than Bill Webb or Clark Peterson (The G1 stands for Guest). This is the first adventure that I am aware of from Mike Mearls, and it is interesting that he would go on from here to be put in charge of the D&D line and usher in both 4th and 5th editions of the game. The adventure has a lot to like. The three small sections keep things moving. In play, each portion took roughly a full evening of play, and felt like a satisfying conclusion after each session (the dungeon took 2 sessions). Both the caravan portion and dungeon are linear, with only the siege portion to really provide for player freedom. I'd really like to show some critical insight and point at something in this adventure that would portend the latter role that Mike Mearls would play in developing the next two versions of Dungeons and Dragons; but nothing stands out.
Playtest Results
I've mentioned earlier that the Roc encounter was very dangerous and discouraging, as many NPCs died. In part 2, the taking of the fort was a lot of fun. Underneath the fort, the party had a number of difficult decisions to make, as they were not sure how to deal with a potential fiendish ally (when there was a paladin in the group), and they also had some problems with the victims that had been "infected" with clockwork parts… the wanted to try to help the victims instead of simply putting them out of their misery.
Overall, the adventure was fun, but it also didn't seem to stand out as being particularly memorable a few years afterward. I think it is solidly crafted, and has a potential to be great. It would probably work better in some version of D&D other than 3.x or 4, because there was just too many NPCs and combatants to keep combat quick.
During the caravan trip, I'd remove the roc encounter and play up the "who's in charge" role-playing part. I may add some survivors or some more dramatic elements in the destroyed hamlet.
In the siege, while the players are planning their moves, I'd give the ogres some more interesting things to do… have them engaged in a brawl, or torture a prisoner (within earshot of the party, perhaps forcing their hand). I'd also give the ogres some other type of companion animal or something, just for some variety. (30 consecutive ogres was a bit bland.)
In the dungeons under the keep, I'd add a few more oddball clockwork-technical elements. I'd include some laboratory/factory sections, where clockworks are chugging away building mysterious things while completely ignoring the party. I'd include some devices that are useless to humans but are somehow meaningful to the clockworks. I'd also eliminate the very weak clockworks and a few of the mid-strength clockworks. I think its more important to have a few very distinct types of opponents than a huge number of almost indistinguishable creatures.
You can see my other reviews on the forums at GrippingTales
By Mike Mearls
D&D 3.0 edition for 4-6 characters of 5th to 8th level
Durgam's Folly sits at the edge of the kingdom, an embattled outpost against the evil creatures of the wild. You travel with a caravan to that distant fortress, transporting mysterious cargo. But as you approach your destination, something is amiss. A local hamlet is in ruins. Strange creatures patrol the land. Has the famed fortress finally been overthrown?
THE BASICS:
The adventure is 32 pages long, cover price of $9.95 American.
- 2 pages of credits/legal/advertising
- 3 pages of background
- 7 pages caravan travel adventure
- 7 pages of infiltrating and conquering a fort
- 8 pages of dungeon exploration
- 5 pages of new monsters (clockworks)
- 2 pages of maps on inside covers
Depending on how thoroughly your party explores or how mission oriented they are, some encounters will be bypassed. In my estimation, there are:
- Approximately 10 combat encounters
- Approximately 5 negotiation/role-play encounters
- Approximately 5 encounters with things to examine or discover
- Approximately 1 trap/trick encounter.
Overview:
The fort of Durgam's Folly is being used as a secret research facility for a wizard that is experimenting with self-repairing clockwork mechanisms run by a central brain gear. The central brain gear goes crazy--it imprisons the wizard and then turns on the fort's defenders. The brain gear recruits some nearby ogres to take over the fort, and possibly plans to use them for additional experimentation. The adventure thus is divided into 3 distinct parts
The first part has the party joining a caravan that is bringing rare magical supplies to the fort Durgam's Folly. There is some interesting roleplaying as there is both a military commander of the caravan, and the civilian leader (the wizard's apprentice). Then there is a series of linear encounters as the party travels on the road. As the party approaches the Fort they find a town looted by ogres; they are attacked by a roc; and they come upon the fort that has fallen to Ogres.
The second part of the adventure has the party attempting to take back the fort. There is a great deal of freedom for the players to make up plans. The fort is well detailed, but the positions of the ogres are not, as they move about and have different stations and activities at different times of the day. Most likely the party will be able to sneak in and take on Ogres in small groups before alerting the entire mob. Once they've re-taken the fort, they learn from human captives about the treachery of the brain gear in the dungeons under the fort
The third part of the adventure is a straight location-based dungeon crawl where the party must fight through the clockwork creations defending the brain gear. There are more opportunities for role-playing as the party meets both the original wizard--now infected with clockwork gears, yet still capable of helping the party. There is another prisoner, a fiendish spy sent to bargain with the brain gear, but the brain gear turned on it and had it imprisoned.
Strengths of the Adventure
The adventure has an interesting plot and each of the three portions move by very quickly. The unveiling plot shifts gears fairly quickly, keeping things interesting. The opportunities for role-playing are pretty robust, as the party has to figure out to do with a number of potential prisoners that could provide information, or aid, or be a liability.
Taking the fort back from the ogres was an interesting tactical challenge, and my party spent a good amount of quality time strategizing... then patting themselves on the back when it all worked out. The dungeon beneath the fort was suitably creepy, especially with the failed half-living/half-clockwork creations that gave the operation a sense of tragedy.
Weaknesses of the adventure
A few encounters were really clunky, particularly a Roc attack during the journey to the fort, and a maze-like portion of dungeon with living walls underneath the fort. A few encounters with the caravan or siege may involve over 20 NPCs and 10-15 ogres, and battles of this size don't always work well with 3.x edition rules. I thought that there were far too many types of clockwork monsters, many of them making only a single or insignificant appearance. The final battle with a flesh golem and stone golem can be a major problem if the party doesn't have means of getting around the damage reduction and spell immunities.
THE SPECIFICS:
I don't give much weight to text density and cost per page... I'd rather pay a lot for a small clever mystery than pay a little for a huge repetitive monster bash.
I don't give much weight to new monsters, prestige classes, and magic items... they can add a little variety to an adventure, but to me they are minor decoration.
1. Interesting and varied encounters (I look for unique encounters, allowing for a variety of role and roll playing.): (3/5)
There was a very good variety of exploration, combat and roleplaying. The siege is particularly good in that it allows for some player freedom to come up with their own plans, and the plans may have to change as the situation develops.
There were no significant traps or puzzles.
An encounter with a Roc during the caravan portion was problematic because the Roc attacks at night when most of the party is sleeping. It is a dangerous encounter and likely to result in the deaths of several NPCs, and possibly a PC. One encounter happens in literal maze, where some of the walls move and try to shepherd the characters into an ambush--this really felt awkward in play. The maze doesn't even make sense given that this is just supposed to be a wizard's research area.
Almost all of the combat encounters in the final third of the adventure involved constructs, and in particular the flesh golem/stone golem combination caused a lot of problems for our group—the party didn't have a good spell selection or ability to penetrate DR.
2. Motivations for monsters and NPCs (or some detail of how they interact with their environment or neighbors.): (5/5)
The motivations for the various NPCs and monsters were outstanding. There was a triangle of NPCs trying to exert their influence during the caravan section. The Ogre Mage leader of the Ogres has his own motivations. The various prisoners and rank-and-file ogres all had good motivations for their actions, and good responses to different player courses of action.
3. Logical (the adventure should obey a sense of logic that clever players can use to their advantage): (4/5)
Except for the roc and maze described above, everything else was reasonable and logical. The brain gear's motives may have been a bit sloppy, (why kill the humans, just to replace them with ogres?). I had no real complaints. There was a lot that the players could discover through interrogating prisoners, scouting, and other planning in order to get a leg-up on latter encounters. The adventure rewards player planning.
4. Writing Quality (foreshadowing, mystery, and descriptions that bring locations and NPCs to life): (4/5)
There were excellent bits of foreshadowing and mystery developed through the adventure. The party has an early chance to discover some clockwork spies which would foreshadow the machinery under the keep. There was not much of a mystery about what happened to the keep, but there was a palpable feeling of suspense as we played. The writing evoked a little pathos for the victims of the brain gear underneath the keep, but for the most part the writing was utilitarian. The descriptions of most places where matter-of-fact. There were not many quirky little descriptive bits to really bring the place to life.
With 8 new clockwork creatures and a template for additional creatures, I think there was too many new constructs for a small adventure. I think the author could have gotten by using animated objects for most of the clockworks, and perhaps only creating at most 2-3 new creatures. It would have been nice to have a clockwork swarm of nano-bot type creatures that had the ability to craft new clockwork creatures… perhaps give them the "animate object" ability 1x per day.
5. Ease of GMing (Clear maps, friendly stat blocks, skill check numbers, player handouts and illustrations): (3/5)
The adventure has adequate maps and some portions of boxed read-aloud text. There is no sample dialog for NPCs, but there are helpful guidelines on their actions and reactions. There is no map for the caravan journey, but it really wasn't needed. There are no player handouts or illustrations.
The layout of the adventure, in three distinct sections, is practical and makes the adventure very easy to handle. The progression of events and NPC responses flows very well and feels natural. For example, after the siege, the surviving soldiers busy themselves repairing the keep while allowing the adventurers to deal with the clockworks in the dungeons.
I have to admit that I played mostly 3.5, not 3.0, so the stat blocks look very strange to me. None of the constructs have bonus size-based HP for being constructs, so their HP seem very low. In some cases, there seemed to be 1E/2E mechanics, for example, when the roc attacks, the soldiers panic unless someone makes a charisma check (instead of diplomacy, intimidate, inspire courage, etc).
FINAL WORD:
This was the first adventure written for Necromancer Games by someone other than Bill Webb or Clark Peterson (The G1 stands for Guest). This is the first adventure that I am aware of from Mike Mearls, and it is interesting that he would go on from here to be put in charge of the D&D line and usher in both 4th and 5th editions of the game. The adventure has a lot to like. The three small sections keep things moving. In play, each portion took roughly a full evening of play, and felt like a satisfying conclusion after each session (the dungeon took 2 sessions). Both the caravan portion and dungeon are linear, with only the siege portion to really provide for player freedom. I'd really like to show some critical insight and point at something in this adventure that would portend the latter role that Mike Mearls would play in developing the next two versions of Dungeons and Dragons; but nothing stands out.
Playtest Results
I've mentioned earlier that the Roc encounter was very dangerous and discouraging, as many NPCs died. In part 2, the taking of the fort was a lot of fun. Underneath the fort, the party had a number of difficult decisions to make, as they were not sure how to deal with a potential fiendish ally (when there was a paladin in the group), and they also had some problems with the victims that had been "infected" with clockwork parts… the wanted to try to help the victims instead of simply putting them out of their misery.
Overall, the adventure was fun, but it also didn't seem to stand out as being particularly memorable a few years afterward. I think it is solidly crafted, and has a potential to be great. It would probably work better in some version of D&D other than 3.x or 4, because there was just too many NPCs and combatants to keep combat quick.
During the caravan trip, I'd remove the roc encounter and play up the "who's in charge" role-playing part. I may add some survivors or some more dramatic elements in the destroyed hamlet.
In the siege, while the players are planning their moves, I'd give the ogres some more interesting things to do… have them engaged in a brawl, or torture a prisoner (within earshot of the party, perhaps forcing their hand). I'd also give the ogres some other type of companion animal or something, just for some variety. (30 consecutive ogres was a bit bland.)
In the dungeons under the keep, I'd add a few more oddball clockwork-technical elements. I'd include some laboratory/factory sections, where clockworks are chugging away building mysterious things while completely ignoring the party. I'd include some devices that are useless to humans but are somehow meaningful to the clockworks. I'd also eliminate the very weak clockworks and a few of the mid-strength clockworks. I think its more important to have a few very distinct types of opponents than a huge number of almost indistinguishable creatures.
You can see my other reviews on the forums at GrippingTales
