Dragon Adventures Hacks

[Neomi Bensch]

Onceyou get to Waterdeep, there are some cool ideas. The adventure is poised as a truly global threat, as numerous factions convene to stop the dragon cult. The players can affect these factions and how they will be involved in the final battle. Success on one mission might make one side commit more troops to the fight, or it might anger them, causing them to withdraw completely. A few of the dragon missions are good, especially the green dragon and the blue, even if the blue runs away (again) because he is needed for the final battle.

But the final battle is terrific! It is an awesome ending to a crappy campaign. In fact, it is too awesome. Armies of humans, dwarves, and elves fighting against unlimited hordes of cultists, kobolds, and dragons. Do the heroes get to fight in this epic war? Nope. What are the heroes tasked with? Run inside the temple and stop the ceremony. But of course, they have to fail, because then we get to fight Tiamat! See, it was all worth it. All that nonsense and frustration, but at least now we get to fight Tiamat. Right? Look, save yourself the aggravation; make 15th level characters and run this epic battle as a one-shot.

It all might be too much for your group. If they just want to stroll in, eat some pretzels, and kill some monsters, this adventure might not be for them. It also needs an experienced and organized DM. This is a serious adventure for serious players, or it will just be frustrating and not fun. But if you think your group is up for the challenge, this adventure might be the most harrowing, memorable experience of a (fantasy) lifetime. Oh, and just before the final scenario, your players (and you) get to fight a battle royale as you play as one of the Demon Lords in a winner-takes-all fight to the death. So, you got that to look forward to.

There are some minor quibbles. I wish that the book gave more details about the unique African/Mayan culture and lore that is teased and hinted at, but not fully explored. Next, you must alter the start of the adventure to allow the players the joy of exploring the jungle before compelling them hunt down the source of the time-sensitive apocalypse. Before starting the death curse, I had the players get hired to lead a safari, giving them a reason to map the interior and explore a little before all hell breaks loose. Lastly, while the final dungeon is a vast improvement on the original Tomb, many of the same gags, traps, and unique monsters are included and will need to be adjusted even more for players who are familiar with that module, which seems to be everybody.

Of course, since the players are such low level, the villains never want to kill the players (highly convenient and wholly out of character for most of them), and the players can thwart each bad guy just by finding the gold first (also convenient and wholly lame). Also, this is not a beginner adventure. It needs proficient players who like to roleplay and will appreciate all the meta elements of the story. As written, the DM workload is Medium. You could play adventure straight out of the book, but to truly present an epic quest with good villainous plots, and more importantly, play all four different bad guys, plus all the other factions, all vying for the same gold, and homebrewing a proper heist somewhere into the story, this adventure will require an exorbitant amount of work. Still, Top 5.

After the sprawling, complex, and exciting adventure in the city of Waterdeep, who wants to delve into the sprawling, complicated, and tedious dungeon under the city of Waterdeep? After teasing the existence of the dungeon beneath The Yawning Portal tavern in two prior adventures, we finally get to explore Undermountain, the mega-dungeon that has 23 separate and distinct levels and is the only adventure to take players up to the pinnacle 20th level of experience. This has to be the best adventure of all time. Right?

The original Undermountain is actually too big. Each level is four times bigger than that in Mad Mage. Mad Mage trims the fat and presents still huge levels than are more manageable. If being slightly less than monumental is considered more manageable. And Mad Mage presents all 23 levels while the original gave us only the first three. Some of these levels are spectacular. The city of Skullport, haven of thieves, assassins and worse, on level 3 is excellent. As are the shrinking castle in level 7, the twisted magic school in level 9, and the spelljammer ship in level 19. There are more cool bits and pieces, but there is just as much mindless walking, empty rooms, and dull encounters to slog through before you get to the good stuff. They threw hundreds of ideas at the dungeon wall and hoped something stuck.

I initially bought this adventure for one reason only: The rules on seaborne travel and ship-to-ship combat. But the adventures included with it are pretty good too. Another anthology adventure, this time they stuck to a central theme and the whole story is much stronger for it. Most of the adventures are based around the coastal town of Saltmarsh and the underwater terrors that besiege it. A reprint of the U (for underwater) series of adventures, The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh was followed by Danger at Dunwater, and then The Final Enemy. Several short adventures with a nautical theme from the classic Dungeon magazine round out the campaign.

First off, the campaign immediately improves upon the original by actually including details (and a map) of the titular Saltmarsh. The story starts off with a haunted house then a raid against a tribe of lizardfolk, averting an invasion of sahaugin, and culminating against three aboleths and cult devoted to the Kraken, the deadliest horror in the sea. Throw in some derelict ghost ships and hordes of undead pirates and you got enough nautical nightmares for years (or at least 20-30 sessions). The seafaring rules are another highlight and will be useful in any adventure set on a boat.

Remember this was an old school tournament module. Meant to be silly and memorable not sensible. And deadly. The winner was the group who made it the furthest or scored point based on who they solved stuff

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