Today we’re going to look at a scenario where the player characters are working for a government agency investigating clandestine Cthulhu Mythos activity. The scenario isn’t set during the modern era, giving a glimpse into the world in a different era. Wait, no, come back, I didn’t accidentally post the same review two days in a row. It just happened to finish up two adventures that have similar themes.

Today’s review is for Brinkmanship, a scenario for Green Ronin’s AGE system RPG Cthulhu Awakens. This is a scenario set in 1963, in that magical period of time when the CIA and the KGB were trying to one up each other trying to figure out if they could control people’s minds or set up a program of psychics to give them advantage in the Cold War.

Disclaimer

While I have received review copies from Green Ronin in the past, I am not working from a review copy. I was a crowdfunding backer for Cthulhu Awakens, and this adventure is one of the goals. I have not had the opportunity to run or play this adventure. I don’t have a lot of AGE system experience as a GM, but I’ve been a player before.

Cthulhu Awakens: Brinkmanship

Design: Alexander Thomas with Malcolm Sheppard
Development: Malcolm Sheppard
Editing: Michael Matheson
Graphic Design: Hal Mangold & Kara Hamilton
Art Direction: Hal Mangold
Interior Art: Danil Luzon
Cartography: Zach Moeller
Publisher: Chris Pramas
Team Ronin: Kara Hamilton, Troy Hewitt, Steven Jones, Steve Kenson, Ian Lemke, Nicole Lindroos, Hal Mangold, Chris Pramas, Evan Sass, Malcolm Sheppard, Dylan Templar, and Alexander Thomas

Digital Doom

This review is based on the PDF of the adventure. The PDF is 26 pages long. The PDF is in two-column layout and follows the trade dress for the Cthulhu Awakens line, with a parchment like page background, green headers and section dividers, and black “slate” sidebars. In addition to artwork that serves as a snapshot of what is going on in the adventure, there are portraits of all of the main NPCs. There are also several maps of the adventure location.

The pages are broken out as follows:

• Front Cover, Back Cover, and Credits: 3 pages
• Entities and Individuals: 5 pages
• Main Adventure Text: 18 pages

The Era

As mentioned above, this adventure is set in 1963. The dabbling with psychic phenomenon that was part of real-world history, in the Weird Century setting of Cthulhu Awakens, reaches into the powers of the mythos.

The organizations at play in this adventure are the CIA, which you may have heard of, and the ICG, the Implicit Cartography Group. The Soviet organization at play is the GRU, although they aren’t quite the villain of the piece, but they do contribute to what shaped one of the antagonists.

The adventure mentions the issues surrounding the marginalization of people regarding gender, sexual orientation, and race. There is the standard (and good) disclaimer that you don’t want to include content that makes your table uncomfortable. Because of the remote location where the majority of this adventure takes place, the primary prejudice that the PCs will encounter is the systemic sexism surrounding the CIA, mainly regarding the degree to which the adventure location is not set up to make female agents comfortable in an effort to let them know that they don’t belong in the field.

Outpost 323 is located in Northern Türkiye, a location secured by the CIA with their support of far-right paramilitaries and funding counter-insurgency groups. This outpost is near the USSR and is conducting some research on top of housing members of the ICG, which includes individuals involved in remote seeing (clairvoyant) activities.

Visiting the 60s

The opening of the adventure includes suggestions for how the adventure can be used, beyond a one shot in a 60s era campaign. These include the following suggestions:

• The events of the adventure establish facts that are revisited in the modern portion of the campaign
• The PCs may be displaced in time by interacting with existing supernatural effects
• The modern PCs may be older, and playing themselves as young agents in their 20s and 30s, and flashing back to an earlier mission
• Characters in the modern era start reading files that they have found, and they play through this adventure to see what is detailed in the logs

What is Going on Here

If you might be a player in this adventure, or if you want to be surprised while reading the adventure for yourself, you should probably perform a ritual that removes you from the current fragment of reality

The PCs will be contacted by the CIA, sent to Outpost 323 in northern Türkiye, to investigate strange events surrounding the outpost. Why the PCs? Because one of the members of the ICG left instructions to recruit them, because that agent has been on some mind and time period swapping adventures due to the Yithians he’s been in contact with, and he knows the PCs are important to resolve the situation, but not why.

The CIA contact recruiting them trusts the ICG agent that left the instructions, so she wants to follow through. She can’t ask him any further questions, because he’s disappeared. As written, many of the government agents that deal with strange topics like remote viewing may understand there are some inexplicable psychic things that happen but aren’t clued into the much wider reality of the cosmic horrors that might threaten the planet. But she understands that all of this is likely related to some kind of psychic phenomenon.

Because they may be dealing with double agents, the PCs are going to be set up with false clearances to show why they are being assigned to the outpost. The default ID sets up the PCs as airplane mechanics, and they’ll be given a quick training session to let them bluff their way through any questions about their jobs, which is represented as a temporary bonus on checks related to airplane maintenance. If the PCs have some other specialty that might qualify them for a different security clearance, they can ask about it, but the point is to not stand out.

The PCs will be given inoculations, which they are told are related to the location to which they are traveling. The truth is, one of the inoculations they receive is an experimental compound that blocks telepathic intrusion.

Investigating the Site

Much of the bulk of the adventure is about the PCs exploring the outpost, justifying why they may be in the section of the outpost that they are currently investigating, and being scrutinized by Betty Fuller, a radio engineer at the site who has been assigned the job of coordinator for the ICG projects on base.

One interesting element of this scenario is that depending on who finds out that the PCs are here under cover identities, this is a CIA operation, and multiple layers of subterfuge are almost expected. That said, having their cover blown is going to draw eyes on them and make investigation much harder.

There is a strange, ongoing effect where an area near the base is constantly raining ash, and that ash burns through the material it settles on. Neither Fuller, nor the PCs, have clearance to enter the special hanger that is part of the P-VERTICAL project.

There are a number of secrets the PCs can uncover through investigation. If they follow Fuller, they find out that the pilot that flew them into the Outpost doesn’t trust her, and they find out that she’s suspicious of the PCs. The PCs may find out the P-VERTICAL hanger contains an experimental aircraft.

Eventually, the PCs may find a group of agents who know something is wrong with Fuller and have been sequestering themselves until they can secure more of the psionic inoculation that the PCs were given before they were sent here.

What is REALLY Going on Here

The experimental aircraft has been using technology that touches on reality warping powers. In creating the power source for the aircraft, the engineers effectively began an Eldritch Working that was never completed. This damages the prison of an entity that has been trapped below the site’s location since pre-historic times. The burning ash that keeps falling is a side effect of where the plane’s technology damaged reality.

Melvin Bird, the agent that sent the cryptic recommendation to recruit the PCs, has swapped minds with a Yithian, incredibly old aliens that explore other times by inhabiting the bodies of others. The Yithians imprisoned the skotomorphs in ancient times, sometimes in vaults, and others sealed away in underground cities. Melvin knows some of what is going on, and that the Yithians are afraid that the Skotomorphs will escape their prison.

Betty Fuller is actually a Russian double agent, who was also recruited due to her psychic abilities. The skotomorph whose prison was damaged has convinced her that she needs to free it. Fuller, who has trained to use multiple cover identities, is now convinced that she is a double agent, but for who, and why changes in her mind constantly. She just knows she needs to free the skotomorph. She’s also got control of many of the personnel, since none of them knew to use the inoculation to protect against mental intrusion. Fuller is planning on completing the destruction of the skotomorph’s prison.

Because of the outpost’s remote location, once everything comes to a head, the PCs will need to determine how they are going to get back to inhabited settlements. They can travel through the wilderness, which will take a while, as well as requiring food and water. They can attempt to fix the experimental airplane, which can be potentially dangerous, since they need to complete the ritual used to power the aircraft in order to use it. Or, in my favorite bit of irony in this scenario, they can repair the Cessna that is used to fly personnel into and out of the facility.

Endings

The skotomorph escaping its prison is bad, but it’s not “the world is ending immediately” bad. It could still get there, because the skotomorph will be working to break down the barriers to all of the other prisons around the Earth, and then secure control of the planet.

Betty Fuller is a wildcard. Depending on how the PCs approach their final confrontation, she may escape and get picked up by her Russian handlers, or she may surrender and wait for a good time to attempt an escape or find a way to wheedle into someone’s trust.

Defusing the Situation

I’ve said this before, but I like investigative adventures that give the players wide latitude to investigate what they want, how they want. I like how the base is laid out for investigation, and how the different NPCs that the PCs can find or interact with might recontextualize everything they think they know, without invalidating that information that they have gathered. I’m going touch on this below, but when I was thinking of what kind of pop culture “vibes” I get from this adventure, this almost feels like an X-Files or Fringe style scenario. I mentioned it above, but I love the irony of needing to fix a plane after showing up with false credentials as airplane mechanics.

Accidental Dimensional Membrane Damage

I mentioned this above, and it’s not really a negative, but if you are coming into a Cthulhu Awakens scenario expecting a more horror-oriented vibe, this one leans more “weird” science in execution. There is a recurring line used in the adventure about how the PCs can only trick the guards because their minds are clouded, and they could never use silly tricks like you see in action movies on them otherwise. We’re playing an RPG. Some of us don’t want to think about what tactical training would or wouldn’t make guards likely to be on guard about. That’s why you set a difficulty and let dice roll. There is a lot of backstory in this adventure. Much of it may not even be revealed to the PCs, even if they manage to stop Fuller’s plans.

Speaking of things that the players aren’t likely to know in the adventure backstory, there is an element of Fuller’s story that I think is unintentionally sounding a wrong note. At most, the PCs will probably learn that Fuller is a deep cover agent with multiple identities. However, her history includes her hiding her Jewish heritage due to Russian antisemitism. That’s a compelling backstory for this era. But then the character that hid their Jewish identity ends up being part of a potential conspiracy free former rulers of the planet, and she’s using her abilities to secretly control almost everyone on the base. It’s not intentional. It’s not a critical plot. It’s just one of those things that may be interpreted in an unfavorable light.

Qualified Recommendation–A product with lots of positive aspects, but buyers may want to understand the context of the product and what it contains before moving it ahead of other purchases.

This is a solid investigative adventure, and it plays well with the more structured Mythos history established in the Cthulhu Awakens core rulebook. It establishes that the game is about using the Mythos as a story element, and not just retreading traditional Cthulhu Mythos tropes. That said, I know there will be some people that expect this to be a little more horror heavy.

There is also just a lot going on in the backstory, and if I were running this, I would have to sit down to map places where the backstory could bleed through, if I wanted to make it more meaningful. In some places, there are areas where it can be naturally communicated, but those areas of the adventure aren’t clearly called out or highlighted, making those fine points a little trickier to remember.

https://whatdoiknowjr.com/2024/10/01/what-do-i-know-about-reviews-cthulhu-awakens-brinkmanship/

#33cccc #800000 #AGESystem #Brinkmanship #CthulhuAwakens #ffcc00 #GreenRonin #RoleplayingGames #rpgs #ttrpgs

It’s been a while since we visited the alternate World War II of Achtung! Cthulhu, and I had the chance to read a new adventure, so let revisit, shall we? If you haven’t seen the game yourself, or you haven’t read any of my reviews of the game, Achtung! Cthulhu is a game set in World War II, where the PCs are special operatives attempting to thwart Nazi occultists using the forbidden supernatural powers of the Cthulhu mythos. While there have been other versions of the setting using different game system, this one uses Modiphius’ 2d20 system, the same base system that powers the Fallout RPG, Star Trek Adventures, Dune: Adventures in the Imperium, and Dishonored, although it leans into the slightly more mechanically textured system in Fallout versus some of the more streamlined implementations.

The adventure we’re looking at today is Operation Oberon, a mission where the PCs are attempting to shut down a German operation to steal objects of power from Asia, funneling the operation through Shanghai.

Disclaimer

I received a review copy of this adventure from Modiphius, and I have received other review copies from Modiphius in the past. I have not had the opportunity to run or play in this adventure, but I have had a good amount of experience running 2d20 games as well as being a player in a few.

Achtung! Cthulhu: Operation Oberon

Achtung! Cthulhu Created By Chris Birch
Writing Bill Heron
Editor John Houlihan
System Design Nathan Dowdell
Cartographer David Keenor
Graphic Designers Matthew Comben, Richard L. Gale, Michal E. Cross, Tony Mastrangeli
Project Managers Haralampos Tsakiris, Gavin Dady
Project Assistant Robert Hebblethwaite
Creative Lead John Houlihan

This mission is 26 pages long, which includes the following pages:

• Cover and Credits Page: 2 pages
• Table of Contents: 1 page
• Handouts: 2 Pages
• Ad for other Modiphius Products: 1 page.

The rest of the content is the taken up by the adventure itself. In addition to the adventure PDF, there is a file with player and GM version of the handouts. The adventure is formatted in a two-column layout, with the product lines standard weathered look, which includes simulated stains, taped in photograms, and other affectations that make it look like a file that sits in an office of some hidden government agency.

The Outline

We’re going to get into spoiler territory, so if you don’t have clearance for this file, please wait for your handler to assign your next operation.

The Nazis from Black Sun, the more mystical, sorcerous Nazi supernatural agency, has an operation to plunder the supernaturally powered relics from Southeast Asia, facilitate by the Japanese military, and funnel through China via Shanghai.

The PCs only know that Black Sun is running an operation known as Operation Oberon, and their mission is to find out as much information about it as they can, but they aren’t necessarily being sent to personally shut down the organization. That means, once they learn the above information, they can focus on exfiltrating themselves from Shanghai.

The PCs start the adventure with invitations to get into an event at The Wagnerian Nightclub, what functions as both a standard nightclub, and a fan club for the Nazi party. The place is owned by Gerhard Wagner, a man with no actual standing with Black Sun, but one with his own supernatural secret.

Black Sun is being facilitated by a local triad, the Flying Dragon Triad. Not only do they have control of the criminal activity in this section of Shanghai, but the Flying Dragon Triad also has its own supernatural traditions and dabbling into the Mythos.

Getting Started

Once the PCs get into the club, a lot of the opening of the adventure is letting the PCs explain what they are investigating, and how difficult different lines of investigation would be. There are a number of NPCs that the PCs can interact with, as well as several sections of the nightclub that may contain additional information that the PCs will find useful.

NPC interactions include some guidelines for different tactics the PCs might employ, like dancing with various patrons or making small talk. There are rules for what happens if one of the PCs gets thrown out of the club (it actually helps the other PCs’ stealth efforts, because the guards already dealt with the rabble rouser). One of my favorite things in this section is that some agents can just work the room and look for leads, look for escape routes, numbers of guards, etc., and they can make a Difficulty 0 test to generate Momentum for the team.

Diverging Paths

Once the PCs have some time to investigate, the local ranking Black Sun Master will arrive, giving the PCs a chance to follow him after he leaves the club, or to attempt to eavesdrop on his conversations. Depending on what tactic the PCs employ, and what decisions they make, they might either follow the Black Sun agents through the sewers to discover a Mythos temple under the club, or they find out about a truck hauling artifacts that they can try to catch.

The temple complex reveals the Mythos connections of the Flying Dragon Triad. They may witness a sacrifice about to take place, forcing them to decide on intervening, or avoiding detection.

Follow That Truck

Either the PCs head straight to this part of the adventure, or they meet up with it after following their Black Sun target, which will determine if he is present in the vehicle, and changes a few of the encounters slightly. It’s also relevant to this section whether the PCs manage to tail the truck without being seen, or if this turns into a full-on car chase.

There are some statistics for vehicles that PCs can use. These include their rented car, local cars that can be stolen, or even some motor cycles. There are some chase rules included, which is essentially a test to determine how many areas exist between the PCs and the truck they are following. Motorcycles are actually a little better for this, as they can weave in and out of traffic that slows down larger cars but provide the PCs with less cover. There are also several Chase Hazards outlined that the GM can spend threat to initiate, including running into road construction, unexpected traffic, or the ever popular boxes set in their path.

Before the truck can make it to its destination, a fight breaks out between the Flying Dragon Triad and a rival triad. Moving through this fight puts the PCs in danger, but if the Black Sun agent is in the truck, it barrels over everyone, even the allied members of the Flying Dragon Triad. The last challenge is a checkpoint run by Japanese military, meaning the PCs are either going to have to have a really good plan to convince them to let the PCs through, or find a way to keep following the truck after sneaking by the checkpoint.

Warehouse Revelations

In the warehouse, the PCs can dig through some crates, which contain both mundane goods, like fireworks, and artifacts. The fireworks are called out as being usable as impromptu explosives, which may be handy, especially since the PCs aren’t likely to have been able to sneak in any demolition gear when they showed up at the club masquerading as regular patrons.

This warehouse is connected to a waterway, which allows a German sub to move in, pick up its cargo, and then move out again. There are a few notes on what happens if the PCs show up and go in guns blazing, versus sneaking around. If they take a direct approach that’s a little too direct, there are stats for the deck guns of the submarine. It’s definitely important to remind the players they don’t have to stop this operation; they just need to gather information on it. I know you can make improvised explosives, and there is a submarine, but if you try to relive your youth playing that Medal of Honor mission where you blow up the engine room on the sub, that’s on you.

The Final Stretch

When the PCs leave the warehouse, the streets are flooded with triad members in an all-out street fight. The PCs can’t avoid the next development when the leader of the Flying Dragon Triad sees them and decides to summon a Hunting Horror to chase down the PCs. If the PCs recognize what the creature is, they know that if they find a way to leave that keeps to well-lit streets, the Hunting Horror will continue to avoid direct light, waiting for them to stray into a more shadowed area. The fireworks the PCs may have found in the warehouse can also be used to drive off Hunting Horror.

When the PCs get back to their contact, they smuggle the team out of Shanghai. The PCs are intended to learn what will be done with this information. The Japanese authorities are tipped off to raid the temple, if the PCs discovered it. The Allied command structures who know about the supernatural goings on aren’t going to stop Project Oberon, they’re going to magically booby trap a number of artifacts they allow to slip into items being smuggled, so they can be widely disseminated.

I Understand Its Power Now

For me, personally, I like Achtung! Cthulhu scenarios that lean more into “what if Indiana Jones, but with Mythos stuff,” and this scenario definitely sits comfortably in that space. Because so many scenarios take place across Europe, it’s interesting to see more of the world and how it interacts with the primary villains of the game. I’m a fan of scenarios that have clear objectives but give the PCs a wide avenue to pursue those objectives, and this starts with a scene that does just that. I appreciate that there are little touches showing what a pathetic Nazi fanboy Gerhard Wagner is, include the fact that PCs can find out that the runes he has on display are non-sensical gibberish.

 . . . Top Men . . . Top Men

It’s always going to be tricky to shift the focus from European locations to China, when China isn’t a location addressed in the core rules, and this scenario is clearly meant to be a touch and go between the more European focused adventures. The problem with this is that it touches on some insensitive elements that Cthulhu mythos stories already have issues with. I don’t think any of this is intentional. I think it’s a matter of not expressly stopping to think about where Mythos stories have gone wrong representing other cultures in the past.

For example, the Flying Dragon Triad play into the “non-European cultures are corrupted by the mythos,” and then really stumble into that issue by implying that the tradition of Chinese dragons actually comes from Hunting Horrors. Instead of using them as an opportunity to shift the narrative away from associating Chinese characters away from being Mythos cultists, the rival triad is given no real characterization. I’m not saying it’s the best cultural representation, but in 1986, we had this movie called Big Trouble in Little China that presented one of the two rival gangs as allies against the gang tied up in supernatural horrors.

The Wagnerian Nightclub is the strongest part of this adventure, mainly because of its open-ended structure and the various clues that exist in different areas. Exploring the warehouse feels a little too sparse, and the final act Hunting Horror complication is heavy handed. Additionally, there isn’t much in the way of explaining how that encounter should end, other than the PCs can fend off the Hunting Horror with fireworks and staying on the main streets.

Tenuous Recommendation–The product has positive aspects, but buyers may want to make sure the positive aspects align with their tastes before moving this up their list of what to purchase next.

There are things I really like in this adventure. Between exploring the nightclub, and the chase through the streets, I was feeling the Indiana Jones vibes. But once they allow the adventure to split off into separate tracks, and then come back together, everything feels a lot more abrupt, and sparse.

Older version of Achtung! Cthulhu detailed organizations from other parts of the world, and allowed for some exploration of those locations, and I would love to see that for the 2d20 version, but I also think it really needs to be done with designers with a background in the culture, to do so with sensitivity and understanding.

https://whatdoiknowjr.com/2024/09/30/what-do-i-know-about-reviews-achtung-cthulhu-mission-operation-oberon/

#2d20 #2d20System #33cccc #993300 #AchtungCthulhu #Modiphius #RoleplayingReviews #ttrpgs

We’re finally going to bring this review home, before any more catastrophic events happen to distract me. I hope life doesn’t get this exciting the next time I do a multi-part review. In case you’re reading this in the future, since I got access to this book, we’ve an attempted assassination on a presidential candidate, a massive web services failure, and a standing president step down for running for reelection. If life is more interesting than this chain of events when you’re reading this, remember me fondly, because I’m not sure if I’m still around.

Our remaining sections in this book are Appendix A: Magic Items and Technology, and Appendix B: Creatures. We’ll be looking at all of the moving parts that you can mine for your own adventures, outside of this anthology.

Artwork

We get artwork for Daud’s Wondrous Lanthorn and the Staff of Ruling, but sadly, no individual image of Heretic other than the images of Drelnza holding her sword. There is also a group shot of all of the technological devices introduced in the anthology.

Each of the creatures in Appendix B are illustrated. We even get a separate image of Nafas’ sword. A few of these creatures weren’t illustrated in their own adventures. I think Nafas and Zargon are especially impressive, but I have to admit, Drelnza’s image in the Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth is my favorite of Iggwilv’s undead daughter.

Appendix A

We only have three new magic items in this section, one of which is an artifact, one which is evil, and one that the PCs may have been asked to turn over to the archaeologists in the Desert of Desolation.

My opinion of D&D 5e artifacts is that some of them have been a bit lacking. The Lanthorn isn’t the most powerful item, but it does have some fun, thematic abilities, revealing everything invisible within 60 feet of the artifact. There are also some powerful abilities linked to the lenses of the lantern, but each lens requires powdered gems to power it, and that gets expensive. It’s the kind of artifact that makes sense for someone to ask to be recovered, but maybe not one that people don’t want to give up.

Heretic is Drelnza’s evil longsword, which has some nice abilities. It has a lot of handy abilities, some of which are more effective against celestials. It’s an intelligent item that pushes its owner to destroy the servants of good-aligned deities. But it’s a +3 sword that can paralyze and can cast fly and true seeing. I like that it’s an evil sword that is still tempting for someone to use.

The Staff of Ruling has a nice “building” effect. You can summon a ball of lightning, and for each round you concentrate on the lightning effect, and it doesn’t detonate, it gets more powerful. It’s also got a thunder effect, and can turn into a snake, which to me is the least interesting effect and is probably a remnant of someone trying to think of what kind of magic should go into an Egyptian-themed adventure. I would almost be tempted to yank the snake ability off the staff and just go all in on the thunder and lightning theme.

• Daoud’s Wondrous Lanthorn (Artifact)
• Heretic (Legendary)
• Staff of Ruling (Rare)

The high-tech weapons in the DMG are referenced in Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, so if you want stats for an anti-matter rifle or a standard laser pistol or rifle, those don’t get reprinted. There are some fun technological items included, and since they all use power cells, it’s pretty easy to shut them down if you don’t want them having a continued effect on the campaign. I am a little disappointed that the powered armor’s only strength effect is to grant advantage on Strength checks. At the very least it should have had some kind of additional damage for punching with the enhanced fists.

• Antigravity Belt
• Concussion Grenade
• Needler Pistol
• Paralysis Pistol
• Powered Armor
• Robot Controller
• Sleep Grenade

Appendix B

There are lots of creatures that someone like me, that fondly remembers picking up the AD&D 2e Monster Manual II, is very nostalgic for. Do you want an even bigger froghemoth? Got  you covered. The NPCs stats are all pretty versatile when used outside of the adventure to which they are associated. You have spellcasters and warriors with shadow swords, as well as general champions.

Gibberlings, the monsters you have probably killed by the hundreds if you played Baldur’s Gate when that CRPG came out, have been converted to fiends instead of humanoids, and there is a stat block for swarms when you want to throw a lot of them at your PCs, but you don’t want to run a ton of low CR stat blocks. Changing them to fiends helps to shift them from “small mean humanoids that try to kill you,” without much of a culture of their own, to primal forces of destruction that are literally all about destroying things.

I have the distinct feeling that Legendary Actions are probably a thing of the past in the 2024 rules. The creatures with lair actions and those that are singularly powerful all have the more recent design development of giving them multiple reactions per round, with several reactions that can be triggered. I heard people on podcasts attest to how they don’t remember to use Legendary actions, and apparently they don’t work as well for a lot of gamers as they do for me. I’m just not sure remembering how many reactions a creature has, and knowing what triggers those reactions seems harder to keep top of mind for me than just remembering that I can take actions between PC turns.

I like that Nafas and the Gardener serve as potential Warlock patrons, in addition to Nafas serving as the PCs patron if they play through this anthology as a connected campaign. I love my demon lords and archdevils, but I want more singular entities. We need more archfey, archoelementals, genie lords, and archangel style celestials.

CR

Creature

Type

0

Gibberling

Fiend

1/8

Guardian of Gorm

Humanoid

1/8

Mage of Usamigaras

Humanoid

1/8

Warrior of Madarua

Humanoid

1/4

Derro raider

Aberration

1/4

Vegepygmy scavenger

Plant

1/2

Tower hand

Humanoid

1

Derro apprentice

Aberration

1

Tower sage

Humanoid

2

Champion of Gorm

Humanoid

2

Champion of Madarua

Humanoid

2

Champion of Usamigaras

Humanoid

2

Sion

Humanoid

2

Vegepygmy thorny hunter

Plant

3

Barkburr

Plant

3

Swarm of gibberlings

Fiend

3

Vegepygmy moldmaker

Plant

3

Worker robot

Construct

4

Horrid plant

Plant

4

Leprechaun

Fey

4

Memory web

Aberration

4

Pech

Elemental

5

Android

Construct

6

Combat robot

Construct

6

Nafik

Undead

7

Wolf-in-sheep’s-clothing

Plant

8

Maschin-i-bozorg

Construct

12

The Gardener

Fey

15

Drelnza

Undead

15

Froghemoth elder

Aberration

17

Zargon the Returner

Aberration

23

Nafas

Elemental

Visiting the Wonders of the Multiverse

Several of these adventures feel like they maintain some of the core experiences of these classic adventures, with some fine tuning to make them less punitive and time intensive than the original experiences. Nafas and his domain on the Infinite Staircase are great additions to D&D’s planar lore. There are a lot of elements that can be mined from the book, not just individual adventures or encounters, but also items and stat blocks. I love the presentation of the Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth, and I’m glad to see an iconic location/adventure with a presence in D&D 5e. I really appreciated some of the slight adjustments, like NPCs that volunteer information without the need to be pressed, and more creatures willing to negotiate and bargain with the PCs.

Gloomy Doorways

Some of Nafas’ marching orders for the adventures are a bit thinner in content than I would have liked. There are also some places where it’s a little confusing exactly who was making a wish, although most of the adventures do have clear objectives. Having the Iron Shadow introduced but getting so little detail on it, other than using it as an excuse to introduce shadow creatures and corrupted doorways, is a little frustrating. Some of the adventures could have used one more pass of quick lore to add some context to their events. I honestly missed some of the weird hyper-dimensional explanations for snared psionic creatures in Barrier Peaks, for example.

Recommended–If the product fits in your broad area of gaming interests, you are likely to be happy with this purchase.

It is not too difficult to recommend this book, given that it manages to present some classic adventures with 5e sensibilities, but because as an adventure anthology, it also makes a solid toolbox. The expanded setting material, detailing Nafas’ Censer of Dreams and information on the Infinite Staircase, provides some good additional setting information. If the multiverse is the setting, we might as well have some flavorful characters and locations for that setting.

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The final adventure in Quests from the Infinite Staircase is the legendary Expedition to the Barrier Peaks. I have read this adventure! Not only have I read this one, I did a review for the Goodman Games OAR3 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks conversion/commemorative release.

Expedition to the Barrier Peaks is another tournament adventure. PCs show up at the dungeon and it seals them in for 20 hours. PCs need to find as much stuff as they can inside the unidentified unmoving object before time is up.

Original Credits for Expedition to the Barrier Peaks

Design and Development: Gary Gygax
Development: Gary Gygax, Allen Hammack, Jon Pickens, Edward G. Sollers
Editing: Edward G. Sollers
Art: Jim Holloway, Erol Otus, Jeff Easley, Stephen D. Sullivan
Playtesting: Jeff Dolphin, Luke Gygax, David Kuntz, Richard Kuntz, Sonny Savage, James M. Ward
Special Thanks: Rob Kuntz

Artwork

There are once again fourteen pieces of artwork in this chapter. There are four maps, all done in the style of a computer display. There are seven scenes from the adventure, and two character images. There is also the standard door on the Infinite Staircase, which in this case appears to be a suitably science fiction “whoosy” door.

While some of the artwork is probably what you would expect for modern science fiction artwork in this day and age, some of the android illustrations have strong Maschinenmensch from Metropolis vibes.

The Framing Device

If you’re using Nafas and the Infinite Staircase as the framework for a campaign, Nafas mentions that they have heard a voice trapped in a mountain of steel and sends the PCs to free them. Slight nitpick on my part, but I’m not really sure who is wishing what, since the person being referenced is still in suspended animation. Minor quibble.

One of the hooks presented for use outside of the Infinite Staircase framework is very similar to the original hook from the adventure. Weird things are causing problems for the Duchy of Geoff, and adventurers are hired to head into the Barrier Peaks to figure out where these strange things are coming from. The other hook has the PCs being hired by an inventor that has heard about some of the strange mechanical items in the vicinity of the Barrier Peaks, and wants some samples brought back to them.

This adventure has a canonical location in the Greyhawk setting, but there are three more suggested locations in other settings. One suggestion is the Vingaard Mountains in Solamnia in the Dragonlance setting, the Blackcap mountains in Eberron, and the Greypeak Mountains in the Forgotten Realms. It’s interesting that two of the three example settings are places that are traditionally “walled off” from being easily accessed to the outside cosmos, and in at least one place, feels like it may be fighting a bit against the tone of the setting.

Adventure Overview

We’re going to be accessing restricted files, otherwise known as spoilers, so you may want to leave the access hatch before the time lock seals is shut again if you’re going to play in this adventure.

The original adventure didn’t have a lot of backstory on the ship other than describing it as a colony ship. There were a few details that suggested a narrative, but not as many definitive elements assembled into a history. This adventure adds some of that story in. What’s interesting to me is that this version of the adventure has a tiny bit of the plot of the AD&D 2e adventure Tale of the Comet, another fantasy/sci-fi crossover adventure, in that it involves a malevolent computer villain.

This is still a colony ship, but it specifically set out to find a new world, after the people of the society that created the ship ruined their own planetary ecosystem. The sentient computer that runs the ship (you know, I was going to call it an AI, but I kind of feel like that term no longer has any meaning in this context) decides that the people on the ship don’t deserve a new home, as they will likely ruin it as well. It introduces deadly mold into the ventilation system, and kills almost the entire crew, with the exception of one scientist that managed to seal herself into a stasis pod.

Once the computer kills the final scientist, it plans on mobilizing the robots of the ship to start gathering resources from the world and being it’s task of controlling the world where it has landed. The computer will point the PCs to different locations on the ship, eventually sending them to remove the last obstacle for its security robots, so the robots can finish off the scientist. The PCs may find the servers for the computer and shut it down before it can finish its plans.

As in the original adventure, once the PCs enter the ship, it seals itself off for 20 hours.

Exploring the Ship

Compared to the original adventure, the ship is a bit smaller, cutting down on the number of empty rooms. This is subject to my ability to count, so take it with a grain of salt, but as an example, level 1 in the original is around 540 feet across, while in this conversion its about 400 feet across.

A lot of the iconic encounters from the original adventure still exist in this version, but with fewer rooms, many of them are closer together, with a few rearranged to place them in more convenient places. Some of the monsters have been swapped out, but not the iconic creatures that were introduced. For example, the eye of the deep that appears in the original adventure gets swapped out for an aboleth. The Shedu that appear in the original adventure get swapped out for slaad.

We still have wolf-in-sheep’s-clothing monsters, froghemoths, androids, and robots. There are some changes of terminology, like referring to the previous police robots as security robots.

There are four levels in this version of the starship:

• The main deck
• The observation deck
• The garden deck
• The service deck

That’s a change from the original adventure, which had:

• Technicians Quarters
• Service Deck
• Upper Walkway and Lounge
• Botanical Garden, Rookery, Menagerie
• Service Deck
• Theater, Athletic, Activity Deck

The service deck in this adventure is less about being a transition between levels, and more the level where all of the story elements come together. That means a few locations shift floors, but there is still a general logic to where things have been rearranged. There are a few added elements, like Githyanki in the ship hunting the illithids that are present.

Electronic Dreams

Once the PCs find the central computer room on the first level, the ship’s computer acts benevolently toward the PCs, asking them to perform certain tasks for it, and then rewarding the PCs with additional technological items. Its ultimate plan is to maneuver the PCs to take out the froghemoth guarding access to the service deck, ideally while being wounded or killed, allowing the security robots to clean up and find the scientist in suspended animation.

The computer doesn’t have complete control of the ship after the crash. It can control robots, but not androids. It can open doors and gravity lifts between levels, but it can’t lock people out of rooms if they have the proper key cards.

The vegepygmies in this instance are a little easier to negotiate with, although they don’t trust the computer and will be wary of the PCs if they are working for it. Some of the androids know what’s going on with the computer but won’t volunteer the information because it’s not required of their programming.

If the PCs free the scientist, she can explain how they function. There is a “Figuring Out Alien Technology” table, which is the same as the chart in the DMG for the same topic, except it adds an additional category if a check is 4 or lower. It’s a little more forgiving than the flowchart in the original adventure, and there are no weird designs that are expressly made to get the PCs to point the thing in the wrong direction.

Thoughts on Chapter 7: Expedition to the Barrier Peaks

I like the framing device of the computer to provide some momentum for the PCs in case they don’t want to poke around too much of the ship. Despite being more of an “old school” adaptation, even the OAR3 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks adaptation talks about cutting down on the PCs wandering in and out of empty rooms. I think condensing things and directing them makes sense, but it does feel a little different than “the ship accidentally let a lot of things out of stasis to run amok.”

Strangely, for an adventure conversion that adds more story to the original dungeon crawl, there are a few narrative touches that don’t appear, and I wish they had. For example, some of the stranger D&D creatures to appear in the original adventure are noted as having been snared by the ships hyperdimensional fields, interacting with their psionic abilities.  In the original adventure, the illithid is one of those creatures, but with the natural connection to cosmic horrors, the illithid felt right at home. There is an image of a mindflayer in a space suit in this adventure, but the illithids in this adventure are from the world where the ship has crashed, and just started wandering onto the ship. The inclusion of Githyanki hunting them feels a little unnecessary and doesn’t add much.

Since this version of the adventure preserves a lot of the big, memorable moments, someone playing the original version and someone playing this version are going to have some common ground to discuss. It’s going to let people bond over talking the martial arts instructor android to beat up the fencing instructor. That connection is one of the best things you can ask of any conversion.

Wanna give me money, but not directly? Feel free to use the affiliate link below, I promise I’ll appreciate it.

• S3 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks
• DA3 City of the Gods
• CM4 Earthshaker!
• Tale of the Comet (2e)

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Continuing with adventures I, personally, hadn’t read through from previous editions, and also continuing our trend of looking at the UK series of adventures, our next adventure is Beyond the Crystal Cave. While the plot doesn’t directly follow any one story, there are some elements in this adventure borrowed from Shakespear, most notably with the NPCs the group is hired to find, with their feuding families and forbidden love. While I knew about the AD&D 1e version of the adventure, I only recently realized that this adventure was adapted for a season of D&D Encounters during the D&D 4e era.

As with the previous adventure, I can’t speak to what has been changed from the original, other than what the adventure itself notes. The original lovers who created the Eternal Garden were originally male and female presenting characters, and for this adventure, both original lovers that created The Eternal Garden are women. The archfey that appears in this adventure, the Gardener, was originally The Green Man, a character from real world folk lore.

Original Credits for Beyond the Crystal Cave

Design and Development: David J. Browne, Tom Kirby, Graeme Morris
Editing: Tom Kirby, Carole Morris, Graeme Morris, Don Turnbull
Art: De Leuw, Timothy Truman
Cartography: Graeme Morris
Playtesting: Jim Bambra, Jeanette Blaaser, Clive F. Booth, Michael W. Brunton, Chris Hall, Bill Howard, Kate Kirby, Gary Kirkham, Steve Mote, Chris Rick, Dave Tant, Don Turnbull, Pat Whitehead

Artwork

There are 15 pieces of art in this chapter. This includes nine images drawn from encounters in the adventure, three maps, two-character portraits, and the image of the doorway leading to the adventure that appears on the Infinite Staircase. In addition to the artwork in this chapter, there is also a picture of the Gardener that appears in the stat block appendix to the book.

The opening portrait of the two lovers who originally created the garden is my favorite piece in the book so far. It features the two women in robes of green and purple, surrounded by flowers and greenery, in the company of a young centaur, a treant, and a pair of dryads.

The Framing Device

The wish that Nafas asks the PCs to facilitate is a plea from two formerly waring families to find and bring home their children, who fell in love and ran away from their home. If the PCs aren’t going to be working for Nafas, the suggested hooks include the PCs arriving at the island as part of another trip, or as survivors of a shipwreck, and being recruited by one of the family members. The other hook assumes that the PCs were old friends of the characters and have just learned about their disappearance.

The original adventure was set in Greyhawk, so it’s got a canonical location that the introduction mentions, but it gives suggestions for placing it in Dragonlance, Eberron, and Theros. I wasn’t expecting a Magic setting to be thrown in there, but I like the reference. I appreciate that the Eberron placement mentions the unique planar structure of that setting. The Dragonlance suggestion is to make the children inhabitants of two traditionally unfriendly nations, such as the Qualinesti and the Silvanesti elves, but honestly, make it a Neidar clan dwarf and a Hylar clan dwarf and expand your horizons.

Adventure Overview

Don’t get your heart set on reading through this review if you plan on being a player in this adventure, because there are spoilers on the horizon. Seek your heart’s desire elsewhere and come back to the blog later.

Once the PCs arrive on the isle of Sybarate, they are approached by Governor Folcarae, a member of one of the two formerly feuding families. She explains about the feud, the children running off, and that she has hired multiple adventurers over the past two years to find them. She’s hoping the PCs will have better luck. She gives the PCs their last known location, the Cave of Echoes.

Inside the Cave of Echoes, if the PCs speak too loudly, they get feedback in the form of thunder damage. If they determine that the word “ask” on the wall means something will happen when they ask for assistance, the cave will answer them, potentially gaining the results of up to an 8th level spell, including a response similar to a Divination spell if they ask a general question.

While most of this adventure is designed to be resolved without combat, the cave has a few creatures that can get vicious, including some mud elementals, an ooze, and some poltergeists. The far end of the cave has a portal to the Eternal Garden, where the PCs can find the lost lovers, but they need to find a way to tame the waterfall that’s raining down with enough force that it’s almost a solid wall. There isn’t one solution here, the key is for the PCs to have some kind of creative way of dealing with the waterfall to allow them to pass through it, with some examples provided.

Past the waterfall, the PCs find the portal to the Eternal Garden, which is now a Domain of Delight, a region of the Feywild controlled by an archfey. The PCs arrive in a fairy ring and have some leprechans they can interact with, who provide several limericks that give them clues about the rest of the domain. If you aren’t the type to be able to decipher clues, none of the clues are necessary, but they are helpful.

The PCs can encounter a bronze dragon, some dryads, satyrs, awakened bears, awakened toads, awakened otters, sprites, a treant, centaurs, unicorns, or a chimera. Each one of these encounters provides the PCs the opportunity to learn more about what may have happened to the lovers that ran away and may potentially learn that the inhabitants consider the lovers to be the reincarnation of the creators of the garden, so they’re pretty happy with them sticking around.

There is a location in this domain, the Fountain All Heal, which can provide the effects of spells like Greater Restoration or Heal. However, if you avail yourself of this fountain, you no longer want to leave the domain. The only exceptions are characters that are fey or have fey ancestry. The only way to remove this effect is via a Wish.

Since there isn’t much in the way of combat, unless the PCs are terrible people, there is one encounter where the PCs may be afflicted, and thus tempted to use the fountain. Creatures called barkburs inhabit a grove, and they can turn people affected by their toxin into wood.

Eventually the PCs run into the Gardener, who invites the PCs to sit with them for some refreshments. They may pick up the benefit of the Hero’s Feat spell now, and the Gardener will provide general answers about where the lovers may be, telling the PCs to navigate the Hedge Maze nearby to get more answers.

There is an ongoing puzzle seeded by the leprechauns that will point the PCs at collecting certain leaves. Various locations mention what leaves are available there, so if the PCs have picked up on the clue, they can start gathering what they need. We’ll come back to this.

The Hedge Maze, thankfully, isn’t about navigating an actual maze. Well, it is, but not one that the players must deal with. It takes a group ability check to navigate the maze, but they can also plow through the walls of the maze, if they don’t mind taking damage from the massive thorns that will pierce them as they barrel through. At the center of the maze is a sundial with impressions for different leaves that should be set in it, which will teleport the PCs into the Palace of Spires, where the runaway lovers currently live.

In addition to the lovers Juliana and Orlando, there is another couple, two guards who are also romantic partners, who will protect the palace, Juliana, and Orlando, if threatened. Juliana and Orlando don’t want to leave, because they have both been affected by the fountain. If the PCs find Caerwyn and Porphura’s tomb (the creators of the garden), and they are respectful, the inscription on the tomb instructs them that they can make a wish, which they can use to free anyone from the effects of the fountain. Once Orlando and Juliana are free, the PCs just need to explain that their families are no longer at war to get them to leave.

The PCs need more leaves to teleport back out of the palace courtyard, however, all of the NPCs that live in the palace have tokens of the leaves that can be used to activate the teleportation effect, and some of the NPCs are noted as having an additional set of the leaf tokens. Now, if they tried to raid the tomb, things go downhill. The PCs are confronted by the Gardner and banished from the domain, which changes from a pleasant summer land to a chilling winter domain.

Assuming the PCs don’t upset the Gardener, they can leave with Orlando and Juliana, return them to their families, and collect their reward.

Thoughts on Chapter 4: Beyond the Crystal Cave

I like having more options for adventures that lean more heavily on roleplaying and exploration, although you may want to know how much your party wants that content before you use this back-to-back with When a Star Falls. I am onboard with more archfey being introduced. I would love to have the same kind of diversity in archfey in D&D lore that we already have for creatures like demon lords, archdevils, archoelementals, etc. I wouldn’t mind seeing the literal Green Man as an archfey, since we’ve got lots of other examples of singular planar beings drawn from Earth’s folklore.

I don’t think the leprechaun’s limerick about the leaves is too difficult to follow, but since the leprechans have six total limericks, one of which doesn’t mean anything, and four of with are more foreshadowing then an actual riddle the PCs need to solve to advance the plot, I’m a little concerned about limerick overload and the PCs not knowing what is immediately useful and what isn’t. I appreciate that the PCs aren’t penalized if they don’t think to bring two sets of leaves, so they can leave the palace. I also like that you can blunt force the hedge maze if you don’t manage to navigate it with your group check.

I like all the little interactions with the various creatures that populate the domain. I appreciate the callback to some well-known faerie lore, i.e. its potentially dangerous to eat or drink in the fey realm. This was a fun read through, and I think I would enjoy running it. Ready to look at the next doorway!

If you don’t mind contributing to my ability to pick up new games, and you want to look at some of the history behind this adventure, you can use the affiliate links below. It’s much appreciated!

• UK1 Beyond the Crystal Cave (1e)
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This anthology is interesting in that these aren’t brand-new adventures, so they bring with them some expectation of consistency with the original adventures. While we know that WotC is looking for potentially problematic content to address, the adventure itself carries an expectation of unfolding the same way that the original did.

While looking at this chapter, I pulled out my handy copy of OAR4 The Lost City that Goodman Games produced a few years ago. However, I was looking at it as much to reference the older adventure as I was looking for differences in the 5e conversion.

Original Credits for The Lost City (1982)

Design: Tom Moldvay
Development: Tom Moldvay, Jon Pickens
Editing: Harold Johnson, Jon Pickens
Art: Jim Holloway, Harry Quinn, Stephen D. Sullivan
Playtesting: Dave Cook, Helen Cook, Clint Johnson, Steve Kaszar, Bill Wilkerson, Jeff Wyndham, and the Kent State University Gamer’s Guild

What’s Different

Other than the 5e statistics, not a lot changes in this adventure, although I didn’t do an in-depth reread. At least not until we get into the Extending the Adventure section. There is a Raiders of the Lost Ark homage in one of the hallways that gets removed, and some of the factions that were more gender-specific become more egalitarian. That does make the factions feel a little less dogmatic than in the original. There are some creatures that the original adventure notes are good ways for the DM to impart information to the PCs if the DM wants, and this adventure makes some of that adventure sharing a little more explicit.

Both the original adventure and the adaptation contain an “Extending the Adventure” section, but the original adventure has some additional example dungeon levels that aren’t completely fleshed out, not unlike In Search of the Unknown, an early D&D adventure that was more about presenting dungeon levels and conjecturing on what might be located in different sections. This conversion adds two potential extensions, one leading to the underground Cynidecean city itself, and one leading to a temple of Zargon that may involve Zargon the Returner . . . returning. Considering he’s a CR 17 creature,  you probably don’t want to spring this on 1st level characters.

What’s Different, Part Two

I didn’t do a strict reread of OAR 4 The Lost City, the license D&D 5e conversion done by Goodman Games back in 2020. If you haven’t heard of them the OAR series (Original Adventures Reincarnated) were books done by Goodman Games that featured interviews with TSR staff, essays about the adventure featured in the book, pages reproducing the original adventure (sometimes more than once if there were different printings with changes), and a D&D 5e conversion. While most of the body of the adventure was the same, but with 5e statistics or presentation, there were often expansions of the material in addition to the conversion. For example, OAR 1 Into the Borderlands populated the dungeon levels that were left partially undefined in Into the Unknown, and it does something similar with the example dungeon levels in The Lost City.

Beyond being a lot more literal in its conversion, meaning that some of the factions retain their gender restrictions, NPCs aren’t expressly depicted as sharing information that isn’t asked of them, etc., OAR 4 The Lost City has its own version of Zargon.

Measuring Zargons

The Zargon that appears in OAR 4 is a CR 13 creature, while the Zargon presented in Quests from the Infinite Staircase is CR 17. Some of the highlights of this disparity include the following:

• Zargon’s CR 13 version actually as an armor class one higher than CR 17 Zargon
• CR 17 Zargon has 78 more hit points than CR 13 Zargon
• Both Zargons have Legendary Resistance
• CR 13 Zargon regenerates 5 more hit points per round than CR 17 Zargon
• Both Zargons have multi-attack, but CR 13 Zargon has more attacks
• The damage potential (i.e. the average damage if all attacks hit, of CR 13 Zargon is 133 hp, versus CR 17 Zargon’s 71 hp
• Both Zargons are +12 to hit
• Both Zargons have a slime-based area attack that recharges on a 5-6, but CR 13 Zargon averages 18 points of damage and blinds targets, while CR 17 Zargon averages 38 points of damage and inflicts the poisoned condition
• CR 13 Zargon has Legendary Actions which let it do 10 points of damage without an attack roll, make three tentacle attacks, or cast a spell (for 1, 2, or 3 actions)
• CR 17 Zargon has three reactions per round, which allow him to counter a spell and cause 6 points of damage to the caster, or to make a save-based attack to do 7 points of poison damage

Some of the creatures that first appeared in the OAR series, and later appeared in D&D 5e products, had the same stats that they had in the OAR product, which I’m assuming is a case of editorial approval and oversight. That’s why this Zargon being different is interesting to me, because that’s not the case here. It’s also a reminder that I have no idea what the magic spreadsheet of monster design actually weighs in monster design for WotC, because the CR 13 Zargon hits just as consistently for more damage than the version that’s 5 CR higher.

I’m also not a fan of the move from Legendary Actions to additional reactions for some creatures. I guess there is concern that people don’t remember to take Legendary Actions, but I’m not sure that giving something multiple reactions fixes that problem, because I think I’m more likely to forget that something has more than one reaction per round than to forget it’s Legendary Actions.

Artwork

We’ve got 18 pieces of art in this chapter, including a picture of the door in the Infinite Staircase that leads to this adventure, various locations, the masks worn by the Cynidiceans, and five maps, including an underground cityscape. There is an interesting mosaic showing the rise of Zargon, as well as an image of Zargon rising from the lake of slime. While these suitably creepy images of our Returning mono-horned, mono-eyed monster, the best image of Zargon is in the appendix with his stats.

The Framing Device

The setup connecting this adventure to the story framework of Quests from the Infinite Staircase is pretty brief, about on par with the connections we got with Keys from the Golden Vault. There is a paragraph detailing the wish that Nafas has received, from people asking for deliverance from the creature that destroyed their society. This is specifically framed as “scout this location out and let me know what’s going on there.”

There are also some notes on where you could place the ziggurat in Dragonlance, Forgotten Realms, and Mystara. The most intriguing placement to me is setting it in Anauroch in the Forgotten Realms, because it probably takes less effort to frame this as a Netherese enclave that fell early in the empires history than it does trying to determine how the gods and Zargon fit into Dragonlance, or reconciling the difference between gods and immortals in Mystara.

Nafas’ directive works with the original premise of the adventure, i.e. try to find a way out once you get locked in, because it just requires the PCs to lean something to report back, and not the destruction of Zargon or his cult. That said, I wouldn’t have minded a more specific goal within Nafas’ request that gave the PCs a reason to keep looking around even once they find the exit.

Adventure Overview

There will be some spoilers going on in here, so if you want to be surprised, this may be the time to find another corridor to explore.

This may not be the first time you hear this setup in this book, but you run into a pyramid in the desert. In this case, it’s a ziggurat, a stepped pyramid. As soon as you enter, the door closes behind you, and you need to find an exit. As you are looking for that exit, you run into four different factions, three of which don’t work well with one another, and another one actively working against everyone else.

This is an adventure for 1st level characters, and if you’re using story-based advancement, you get your levels when you first run into a faction, when you first enter the fourth tier of the ziggurat, and when you escape.

Deep underneath the ziggurat is the remains of Cynidicea, a city that fell long ago when the inhabitants encountered an aberration exiled from the Nine Hells, Zargon the Returner. In the time since the city fell, everyone has adopted the custom of wearing masks. While everyone from Cynidicea wears a mask, all of the members of a faction wear matching masks. Three of the factions want to help Cynidicea return to its former glory, but each faction is beholden to a different god of their old pantheon. While not enemies, the factions are all rivals due to their affiliation with different deities. The fourth faction is the cult of Zargon, which is dominating the descendants of the Cynidiceans, and occasionally sacrificing them to their deity.

One thing you may notice is that for an adventure called The Lost City, the adventure doesn’t actually take place in a city. The people are present in the ziggurat because there are important locations with meaning to the fallen city. This includes holy sites for all three of the gods, as well as the crypts of the fallen king and queen of Cynidicea. There is also a whole level that is dominated by the cult of Zargon.

When the PCs meet the three factions not aligned with Zargon, they are given the opportunity to join them. Joining them makes them friendlier. Not joining them makes them a little more aloof, and if they join a different faction, the other factions become wary of them, not fully trusting them or wanting to share resources.

There are several places where the PCs run into ghosts and other undead. It behooves the PCs not to attack undead on sight, not just because they might lose, but because more than one ghost in the ruins provides information, either providing additional context for what’s going on, or telling the PCs where the exit is. On the other hand, there are still skeletons, zombies, and ghouls that are less than friendly to people enamored of breathing.

There are several places where the PCs can find evidence of what happened to Cynidicea, including a mural that shows the rise of Zargon and the fall of the city. It’s actually pretty noteworthy to look at how many set ups and pay offs there are when it comes to story. You can find out about the relationship of the king and queen, a priest and his brother, and some of the events that led to Cynidicea’s demise. Assuming your players are willing to talk to some of the undead in the ruins, it’s actually pretty easy to provide them enough information to point them at these mysteries. In fact, there are a number of people willing to share information in the adventure, which I appreciate, given that some older adventures provide a lot of hoops to jump through before the PCs get actionable intelligence.

Extending the Adventure

There are two places in the ziggurat where the PCs can either find a passage to a new location, or, if you don’t want to explore more of Cynidiciea story, they find some collapsed passages. The new underground version of Cynidicea has a nice map, various locations, and notes on how the factions are operating within this city. If you want to adventure here, you’ll be making up your own information based on the location information provided.

If you wander down the passage that leads to The Mouth of Zargon, the encounter area could give the PCs whiplash, depending on when they explore this section of the ziggurat. If the PCs have already picked up a level, they might be able to handle most of this section of the ziggurat, since the range of creatures is from CR ⅛ to CR 4 . . . until you get to the primary altar of Zargon, which includes a CR 7 aberration in service to Zargon, and even worse, if the cultists of Zargon manage to sacrifice someone, the CR 17 Zargon shows up to make his presence known. A party that can take on Zargon is going to steamroll most of this section of the ziggurat, but there is a wide gap between 2nd level and “can take on a CR 17 aberration.”

Thoughts on Chapter 2: The Lost City

Given some of the adventures I ran into when I started my D&D career, I think I would have absorbed this a little better than Keep on the Borderlands, if only because it’s pretty clear that the PCs have a goal, find the exit, and if they are curious about any of the mysteries they run into, that’s on them to explore beyond finding the exit. While I already mentioned that “you find a mysterious pyramid in the desert” is a pretty common starting point for earlier adventures, it does strike me that at least some of the setup of this adventure echoes Jenell Jaquay’s Dark Tower, although that adventure has two very stratified factions rather than a collection of opposed factions suffering at the hands of a fourth.

I mentioned this above, but I wish there was an additional objective to tie this into Nafas’ request. Maybe describing a specific item in Darius’ office that is needed for summoning Zargon, meaning that the PCs would have done a measurable good for the Cynidicean descendants, instead of just doing a reconnaissance run through the ziggurat that may not gather than much information depending on how focused the PCs are on just finding the exit and using it.

If you would like to check out The Lost City in its original form, or do some more research on Zargon the Returner, and you don’t mind sending game-buying funds my way, you can use the affiliate link below. Thanks!

• B4 The Lost City
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