Dragon Delves - Part 2
While I Read
A tradition from RPG.net where a person reads through a book and gives first impressions as the poster reads through the book. This is Part 2. Start here if you want to see my thoughts on the Cover, Introduction and first two adventures. Beware that this While I Read contains spoilers.
The Will of Orcus
This is an 11 page adventure with 2 half page art pieces by Jodie Muir, a diagetically sketched map handout, and a keyed map with 14 locations.
The one page summary heading call this one out as a 1-2 session adventure. The Preparation section also adds making a copy of the Temple map as a handout, so that's useful beyond the usual "read the adventure or NPC descriptions."
The background for this adventure sounds really awesome. An Orcus cult has setup shop in an abandoned temple, but a silver dragon was there when this happened as is now trying to stop the cult from the inside. The dragon is giving them harmless missions and sewing dissent among the different cultists by pretending the silver dragon is providing Orcus's message through a statue. Purposefully drawing in PCs by having the cult attract attention. Very cool!
The plot hook is not super juicy, but is serviceable. The local inn is run by the child of an adventurer that cleared out the temple decades ago. They have seen the cult's activity and ask the heroes to lend a hand. From there you are given a map of the temple and are zipped to the temple.
I think the keying of these rooms is pretty well done. Bolded sub-sections for everything of interest in the room. An interesting note: treasure is included in a specific "Treasure" section of the room's key. For example, Cell C contains the Torturer's remains and they are clutching a +1 whip. Instead of noting this in the Skeletal Remains section, it says' "(see "Treasure" below for details)". I'm not sure if I'd do it that way but it does give you one single entry for all of the treasure.
Overall, I think this adventure is pretty decent. There's no random encounter table or movement to what's here, but it's solid. Interacting with the silver dragon if you haven't fought Xia, the ghoul cult leader is a bit weird with them sending you on fetch quests. I'd likely skip that if I was running this. The final keyed room is 6 treasure vaults with 6 random guardians and 6 statues guarding 6 treasures. Fun little bit of randomness but I wish there were a few more of each and more randomness to the dungeon overall.
For Whom the Void Calls
This is a 12 page adventure with two half page art pieces and one smaller piece by Justine Jones and 2 keyed maps by Dyson Logos.
Well, the one page summary makes better use of the Preparations section in this adventure, calling out specific difficult rooms and magical items that you should know about before starting. Awesome! Way better than generic "read the adventure" seen before, though that advice is still in this adventure's prep section as well.
The hook for this adventure is an unknown telepathic voice asking you to save it. That might be ping a lot of player's "Uh-oh" alarms. If this original hook doesn't work, the voice escalates to describing the loot in the horde and finally, asking to save the modrons being harmed by the dragon. I think having this level of escalation is a good idea. If the players don't like the idea of helping the telepathic voice, they are correct! It's from a Far Realm creature that is connected to a Bag of Devouring. After the hook we get some descriptions of the adventure location, Starglass Waypoint.
Let me break here and say that this setup is all rad as hell. You cross a bridge of magical glass that shines in the sun and glows in the moon. You're investigating an old Githyanki creche that has become the new lair of a brass dragon. There's modron servitors that live in the lair. Unbreakable glasssteel doors. Hell yeah. Really awesome, extremely D&D setup!
The first few rooms are pretty fun. There's a fountain with treasure and a hostile water elemental. There's a forge that a modron is hiding within but the modron only speaks sign language. A spectator guards a set of empty bookshelves but is not hostile if the bookshelves are left alone. A large statue of Gith herself is the center piece of this area. Some neat flavor and potentially good roleplaying. You can also find your first Glyph Card in the fountain. These are essentially magic key cards, like the one I use to get into work.
The dungeon has an interesting layout and looks to be a fun place to explore but I'm not sure if the NPCs bring much of interest. There's a few factions: the Bag of Devouring, the Modrons, the Dragon, the winged kobold, and the Githyanki, but their goals don't intersect in any really meaningful way. The bag wants to be "rescued" but I'm not sure why? It has access to a huge variety of food at the moment. The modrons have no motivation beyond serving whoever lives in the old creche, at least until the dragon becomes cruel. They exist to provide lore dumps and give out key items. The Githyanki wants to protect the modrons and investigate the alarm but doesn't care about anything else. The dragon wants to find who is stealing its treasure. The winged kobold just wants to make a big score.
I know this creche is abandoned, but isn't the haughty Githyanki perturbed that some dragon has taken over a Githyanki stronghold? Aren't the modrons, creatures or order, upset at the dragon upsetting their space? How does the winged kobold not know about the dragon in this old creche? This dungeon is fine and actually seems pretty fun, but I feel like it could be more!
History of...
I've been skimming over these sections. But before each adventure we continue to have a preview of the key dragon in these "History of..." sections. I'm torn. They feel like filler, but also they give you a lot of visual cues on the dragon you'll be seeing shortly. I appreciate having a grounded view of the dragon's appearance.
The Dragon of Najkir
This adventure is 15 pages, the biggest so far, with art by Joshua Raphael and maps by Francesca Baerald. There are 3 half page art pieces and one smaller piece and 2 full page maps. The art is very detailed and realistic in style. The maps are vibrant and full of detail as well.
I think my reviews are going to get a little shorter from here on out. This is the biggest adventure, but feels the briefest. An evil assassin has taken refuge in a monastery that's protected by a dragon. The assassin uses a family tie to convince the dragon to sink or repel ships to protect himself. Survivors of such a shipwreck make their way to the monastery, identify the assassin and notify the monks.
Alright! That's not a bad setup! So what's happening? The monks, as pacifists, are just sort of sitting around wringing their hands. The assassin? Just chillin' in the basement. He killed the messenger falcons, but otherwise has done nothing to protect himself or secure the monastery. The dragon? evidently not talking to the monks anymore.
So the players waltz in and, as non-pacifists, can take care of the assassin. This monastery has an extremely detailed key but most of it is not a gaming space. But if your players want to loot the monk's secret vault or steal all of their crafting supplies, that's all written out for you.
I'm not sure why this adventure wouldn't play out like this:
- Take quest for money
- Encounter with dragon on ship
- Meet monks who ask them to deal with assassin
- Fight assassin and friends
- Confront dragon? Maybe?
I'm not sure why the players would poke around in the room full of the deceased remains of the monastery's leaders? Or break into the weaving room and steal all of their stuff? Why is this all here and detailed so carefully? Why didn't the adventure start by warning them about this assassin? The dragon won't listen to the heroes about the assassin and his large kill count. If you DID know beforehand the heroes could bring some sort of evidence.
This adventure feels like the GM spent all their prep time researching medieval monasteries and just sort of shoehorned in an adventure. This is the worst adventure in the book by a long shot.
Next time we'll see what's left in this adventure anthology. We made it from level 1 to level 7. What's waiting for the level 8, 9, 10 and 11 adventures?