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Adventure in the Legends & Lairs Instant Adventures series for 4-6 characters of levels 4-6
The Weeping Tree
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The Weeping Tree
The Weeping Tree is one of Fantasy Flight Games' Legends & Lairs instant adventures. The adventure is designed for 4-6 characters of level 4-6. See the section entitled General Comments for information on the general layout and production value of such adventures.
(Warning: There be spoilers ahead!)
The adventure begins as the players are passing through the town of Blackbrook, and stumble upon a scene: a woman trying to stop some parched villagers from accessing a well, claiming it is poisoned. If the players don't intervene, the villagers will attack the woman.
Hopefully at this point, the players will intervene to beg a peaceful solution. If they do so, the village spokesman Terias will try to explain the situation as best he can and implore the PCs to assist them.
It turns out that the village has had its share of tragedy, recently. A month before the adventure was depicted, a band of vampires preyed on the town. Some adventurer's intervened, but many members of the village were laid to rest.
There were two unusual victims during this assault that the villagers were not aware of. One was a druid named Malik who was transformed into a vampire. Another was a treant who secretly watched over the village; the treant was injured and cursed by the vampires.
Malik returned after the prior vampires had been cleared out, to find that the villagers cast him out for not coming to their aid. Consumed by his newfound wickedness and hunger, he plotted his revenge. He poisoned the well water, completed the transformation of the treant into a psuedo-undead creature, and started preying on villagers in the countryside near the cemetery.
The adventure is basically a simple site based adventure. Terias directs the adventurers to the cemetery, where he discovered a new hole in the ground, which is Malik's new lair. They must match confront some vampire spawn and eventually Malik himself. After they emerge from the lair, they will be confronted by the cursed treant.
The adventure, while simple, has an interesting premise. However, it has a few flaws. While I understand that sometimes fiat is necessary, I think that there should have been some better justification for Malik's ability to bring about the doomed treant (see the new template described below).
Perhaps more importantly, some GMs may take issue with the fact that Malik cannot operate as described per the book. First off, Malik is a 4th level druid. Per the vampire rules, a character raises as a vampire spawn if they have 4 HD or less. Second, even if he could be a full-fledged vampire, as stated in the rules vampires are always chaotic evil, and a chaotic evil druid would lose all of his abilities.
As with many FFG Instant Adventures, The Weeping Tree has some extra game material. One is the staff of nature's gainful bounding. Supposedly this staff was created by ancient druids, and it grants an ability "similar to a shadowdancer's shadowjump or a dimension door", but traveling between tree trunks. Further, it requires dimension door to create, which druids do not normally have access to. Accordingly, one wonders why he didn't base the staff on the tree stride spell, which druids do have access to, and already operates much as described.
The second new item in the doomed template. The doomed template is applied to living creatures who are afflicted by a condition similar to undeath. Doomed creatures have a gaze that causes an effect like the doom spell, as well as natural armor, damage reduction, darkvision, and a few other bonuses.
Conclusion
This is a decent if straightforward site based adventure so long as the fact that the druid vampire cannot exist doesn't bother you, or you are willing to make some changes to make it work. The premise is interesting, but could use some more development.
Ratings: Ideas: 4, Ready to Run Material: 3, Value: 3
General Comments: Fantasy Flight's Legends & Lairs Instant Adventures
(standard blurb)
The Legends & Lairs adventures are similar in format to AEG's Adventure Boosters. They are small, cheap adventures for the D20 System, primarily targeted at D&D 3e players. The format is a single booklet, 4.25" x 11" (the size of standard US 8.5x11 paper folded in half lengthwise.) There are 16 interior pages (i.e., four 8.5x11 sheets), staple bound to the cover. Legends & Lairs adventures are a bit pricier than AEG Adventure Boosters, at $3.95 US each.
The covers of the Legends & Lairs adventures are attractive, with a "metal bound book" motif and a handsome illustration, doubtlessly from the Diskwars game. As with AEG Adventure Boosters, the back cover contains a bit of exposition, which is often the introduction to the adventure. The inside front cover has an introductory "how to use this" note and an ad for other Legends & Lairs adventures. The last page contains a blurb about who Fantasy Flight Games is and legalistic stuff. The inside back cover contains a copy of the Open Game License, obligatory for D20 System products.
Internally, the product is arranged similar to the AEG Adventure Boosters. The adventures are set in the world of the Diskwars game but by changing names it can fit the typical D&D campaign. The maps are of much higher quality than AEG's maps, or for that matter, than most D20 System adventures: they are clearly illustrated with a professional look and an easily readable simple key. The adventures also typically include a new creature and a new magic item, but some deviate from this formula.
Contrasted with the Adventure Boosters, it appears that the adventures are generally more flexible and original, in addition to having nicer maps and covers. This may not be a good value, though, if you consider that you are paying nearly $1 US per sheet. Considering that for a few dollars more you could pick up an issue of Dungeon and have many times the material, perhaps Fantasy Flight Games' pricing/quality approach is somewhat ill considered. Overall, they aren't quite the value that AEG's Adventure Boosters are, you should probably spend a little more time seeing how good the adventure within rates before you buy than you would with the AEG Adventure Boosters. However, some of these adventures are very good and worth picking up.
How I Rate D20 System Adventures
(standard blurb)
As far as I am concerned, canned adventures provide two primary points of value: ideas (adventure premises, interesting challenges, etc.) and ready to run game material (maps, useful and properly done encounter statistics, new creatures and items). The obvious third criteria is overall value for money, which includes page count for a given cost and use of space.
-Alan D. Kohler
The Weeping Tree is one of Fantasy Flight Games' Legends & Lairs instant adventures. The adventure is designed for 4-6 characters of level 4-6. See the section entitled General Comments for information on the general layout and production value of such adventures.
(Warning: There be spoilers ahead!)
The adventure begins as the players are passing through the town of Blackbrook, and stumble upon a scene: a woman trying to stop some parched villagers from accessing a well, claiming it is poisoned. If the players don't intervene, the villagers will attack the woman.
Hopefully at this point, the players will intervene to beg a peaceful solution. If they do so, the village spokesman Terias will try to explain the situation as best he can and implore the PCs to assist them.
It turns out that the village has had its share of tragedy, recently. A month before the adventure was depicted, a band of vampires preyed on the town. Some adventurer's intervened, but many members of the village were laid to rest.
There were two unusual victims during this assault that the villagers were not aware of. One was a druid named Malik who was transformed into a vampire. Another was a treant who secretly watched over the village; the treant was injured and cursed by the vampires.
Malik returned after the prior vampires had been cleared out, to find that the villagers cast him out for not coming to their aid. Consumed by his newfound wickedness and hunger, he plotted his revenge. He poisoned the well water, completed the transformation of the treant into a psuedo-undead creature, and started preying on villagers in the countryside near the cemetery.
The adventure is basically a simple site based adventure. Terias directs the adventurers to the cemetery, where he discovered a new hole in the ground, which is Malik's new lair. They must match confront some vampire spawn and eventually Malik himself. After they emerge from the lair, they will be confronted by the cursed treant.
The adventure, while simple, has an interesting premise. However, it has a few flaws. While I understand that sometimes fiat is necessary, I think that there should have been some better justification for Malik's ability to bring about the doomed treant (see the new template described below).
Perhaps more importantly, some GMs may take issue with the fact that Malik cannot operate as described per the book. First off, Malik is a 4th level druid. Per the vampire rules, a character raises as a vampire spawn if they have 4 HD or less. Second, even if he could be a full-fledged vampire, as stated in the rules vampires are always chaotic evil, and a chaotic evil druid would lose all of his abilities.
As with many FFG Instant Adventures, The Weeping Tree has some extra game material. One is the staff of nature's gainful bounding. Supposedly this staff was created by ancient druids, and it grants an ability "similar to a shadowdancer's shadowjump or a dimension door", but traveling between tree trunks. Further, it requires dimension door to create, which druids do not normally have access to. Accordingly, one wonders why he didn't base the staff on the tree stride spell, which druids do have access to, and already operates much as described.
The second new item in the doomed template. The doomed template is applied to living creatures who are afflicted by a condition similar to undeath. Doomed creatures have a gaze that causes an effect like the doom spell, as well as natural armor, damage reduction, darkvision, and a few other bonuses.
Conclusion
This is a decent if straightforward site based adventure so long as the fact that the druid vampire cannot exist doesn't bother you, or you are willing to make some changes to make it work. The premise is interesting, but could use some more development.
Ratings: Ideas: 4, Ready to Run Material: 3, Value: 3
General Comments: Fantasy Flight's Legends & Lairs Instant Adventures
(standard blurb)
The Legends & Lairs adventures are similar in format to AEG's Adventure Boosters. They are small, cheap adventures for the D20 System, primarily targeted at D&D 3e players. The format is a single booklet, 4.25" x 11" (the size of standard US 8.5x11 paper folded in half lengthwise.) There are 16 interior pages (i.e., four 8.5x11 sheets), staple bound to the cover. Legends & Lairs adventures are a bit pricier than AEG Adventure Boosters, at $3.95 US each.
The covers of the Legends & Lairs adventures are attractive, with a "metal bound book" motif and a handsome illustration, doubtlessly from the Diskwars game. As with AEG Adventure Boosters, the back cover contains a bit of exposition, which is often the introduction to the adventure. The inside front cover has an introductory "how to use this" note and an ad for other Legends & Lairs adventures. The last page contains a blurb about who Fantasy Flight Games is and legalistic stuff. The inside back cover contains a copy of the Open Game License, obligatory for D20 System products.
Internally, the product is arranged similar to the AEG Adventure Boosters. The adventures are set in the world of the Diskwars game but by changing names it can fit the typical D&D campaign. The maps are of much higher quality than AEG's maps, or for that matter, than most D20 System adventures: they are clearly illustrated with a professional look and an easily readable simple key. The adventures also typically include a new creature and a new magic item, but some deviate from this formula.
Contrasted with the Adventure Boosters, it appears that the adventures are generally more flexible and original, in addition to having nicer maps and covers. This may not be a good value, though, if you consider that you are paying nearly $1 US per sheet. Considering that for a few dollars more you could pick up an issue of Dungeon and have many times the material, perhaps Fantasy Flight Games' pricing/quality approach is somewhat ill considered. Overall, they aren't quite the value that AEG's Adventure Boosters are, you should probably spend a little more time seeing how good the adventure within rates before you buy than you would with the AEG Adventure Boosters. However, some of these adventures are very good and worth picking up.
How I Rate D20 System Adventures
(standard blurb)
As far as I am concerned, canned adventures provide two primary points of value: ideas (adventure premises, interesting challenges, etc.) and ready to run game material (maps, useful and properly done encounter statistics, new creatures and items). The obvious third criteria is overall value for money, which includes page count for a given cost and use of space.
-Alan D. Kohler
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