Side Trek: Death & Taxes

As a side trek, most of this is going to be spoilers.

---

Ever since 5th Edition was announced I have not paid much attention to Dragon or Dungeon, largely because the sparse offerings really have not interested me until now. I’m a pretty big fan of Aeryn’s work, so figured I would give it a shout out.

Death and Taxes is basically an extended encounter–part social interaction and part combat challenge–in which the characters need to avoid being tricked by a treacherous knight, using the tried and true method of “pretend you need help with your wagon, and then ambush the shit out of would-be helpers”.

The social role-playing part, while not a skill challenge, gives the characters a chance to figure out that something is amiss and avoid being surprised (which also affects creature placement on the map). Characters with any emphasis on History, Insight, and Perception will really shine here, and while there is not any advice on using other skills I would highly recommend allowing players to creatively use skills to figure stuff out.

The rest of the encounter is a pretty tough fight, partially because its 2-3 levels higher than the recommended adventure level, but also because the enemies have the terrain advantage. On the bright side, if Sir Tyros is taken down then there is a chance that some of his allies will flee (though the non-minions try to leg it anyway when bloodied).

The haul at the end is pretty nice, totaling about half the total treasure that a level 5 party is expected to get, and as an added bonus there are three hooks for expanding the adventure.

Not bad for a “side trek”.

Madness at Gardmore Abbey Review

It has been a long time since Wizards of the Coast actually published a dead-tree adventure (the last one that I could find came out just over a year ago, Marauders of the Dune Sea). Unlike past adventures, Madness at Gardmore Abbey comes in a box. A box that is kind of a pain in the ass to open, and contains four paper-back books similar to what we saw in the original line of adventures, a sheet of monster tokens and dungeon tiles, two double-sided poster maps, and an actual deck of many things that you did not have to print out from a Dragon article or proxy with a normal, non-magical/sentient deck of cards.

If you have been keeping up with the previews then you already know that the plot concerns some madness happening at Gardmore Abbey.

That place. You can’t see it, but there’s madness going on.

The other spoiler free revelation is that the whole mess was caused by misuse use of the deck of many things–with good intentions, of course–which caused undead to attack and gave a bunch of orcs the opportunity to take over. The cards ended up getting scattered, and the adventure begins with the party possessing one of them and presumably seeking the rest. I do not want to go into spoiler territory (well, too far at least), and will instead try to talk about things I liked from a cursory reading without revealing too many specifics.

Flexible Duration
If you ever ran Expedition to Castle Ravenloft in 3rd Edition, then you probably recall how the adventure’s duration depending on how quickly you wanted the group to face off against Strahd: it could last you a few months, or you could wrap it up in one night (skipping most of the content, however). The same thing goes here. If you just want to speed through the adventure, you can do just that, though there are quite a few optional side quests to keep the players occupied if you are running this as a continuation of an existing campaign, and/or intend to keep going once you are done with it.

Flexible Encounters
I recall Wizards of the Coast stating in one of the previews that the adventure would contain encounters that could have explicit methods to resolve them without resorting to attack rolls, and they did not disappoint: there are encounters that the players can talk their way by, sneak past, and even one where the characters can simply trade character background information for hints. Some meet you halfway, giving you both social and sword interaction.

OKAY SPOILER! (highlight to read) 
There is an ettin early on that is supposed to guard a door. At the start of the encounter the DM rolls to see which one–or both–heads are awake. It prompts for the answer to a riddle, but if only one head is awake it instead is willing to make a deal for something that varies by head. If they cannot answer the riddle and do not want to make a bargain, they can instead just attack it to get it over with.

The cards can manifest in the encounters, providing at-will and encounter powers that both the good and bad guys can use. There are also sections on what happens if the players kill certain monsters, which can create a power void or just upset the overall balance between different factions. This helps reinforce a living dungeon that is more than just a series of disconnected encounters of monsters waiting to be killed.

Flexible Story
Also like Expedition, a couple parts of the adventure are randomly determined by a draw of the cards. The randomization is not as pervasive (and a fortune teller does not provide you with hints), and mostly serves to identify the hidden villain and a few story elements. The ending is also open, allowing the characters to ultimately decide what to do with the deck if they manage to reconstruct it. Also, if you have your own campaign it would be a simple process of simply dropping a ruined abbey somewhere around a village or town.

Conclusion
There is a nice mix of encounter types that will cater to a variety of players, especially those that purport to like an “even mix”. Despite a focused goal of finding a super-powered artifact, there are plenty of NPCs that the characters might have interacted with before (well, if you ran Keep on the Shadowfell at least) that have their own agendas. This is the first printed adventure from WotC since Orcs of Stonefang Pass that I would like to run without having to modify it extensively., and I am hoping this is due to WotC hitting their stride as opposed to a George Lucas-ian random fluke.

As numerical ratings go I would probably go with an 8 out of 10, but my general opinion is to just pick it up, especially if your group is approaching the appropriate level range (6-10) and/or you don’t have any definitive
plans for their immediate future.

Product Images

---

I for some reason just forgot to interject these in with the actual review.

The cards are basically of decent card-stuff, with printed images that you would expect on an authentic fantasy card deck. Think of the Three Dragon Ante decks and you have the right of it.

The Slaying Stone Review

The Slaying Stone is part of the second run of sequential adventure modules by Wizards of the Coast. I almost never run these things, but I’d heard it was better than the others and it was cheaper. The other appealing feature is that its a booklet and not a folder, something I appreciate because it makes them easier to store and less fragile. There’s also a map featuring some of the encounter locations, and the rest can be constructed easily with Dungeon Tiles. So far so good. I’m happy with the physical presentation, but what about the actual adventure?


Beware of spoilers.


The backstory is that the town of Kiris Dahn had magic stones that could kill people who attacked it, which were created by tieflings. Almost ten years ago, goblins attacked the town and ran everyone out, claiming it for themselves and subsequently trashing it (par for the course when it comes to goblin behavior). The former ruler of Kiris Dahn, Kiris Alkirk, and his advisor Treona legged it and holed up in a tower some distance away. Everyone was apparently fine for the past eight years or so until Treona found out that one of the slaying stones was still around, and is now looking for adventurers to go get it for some reason.


I say “some reason” because while the slaying stone kills a target that it hits, it can only be used within five miles of the town, affects one creature, and is consumed after usage. Also, according to the magic item stat block it cannot be created via Enchant Item, or destroyed via Disenchant Item. So…why do they care? Are the afraid that someone is going to find it and, I dunno, use it? The goblins and kobolds are going to kill people anyway, its just a one-time-only, really quick way of doing so. Personally, I say let the fuckers keep the damned thing and just put up a sign telling people to stay the fuck away.

Anyway, thats the backstory in a nutshell.


The adventure introduction is, in a word, weak. The party, who may or may not know each other, meets up at crossroads before getting attacked by wolves. Wolves aren’t so bad. At least its not like, another fucking kobold ambush or something. During the fight, an old lady pops out of the tower and takes potshots at the wolves with flash powder, all the while trying to coax you inside. Not the worst setup I’ve seen, and I know its hard to get the party gathered if the players insist on not knowing each other in any capacity. No, where it gets really awkward is when the players wrap up the fight and get their quest from Treona.

Inside the tower, Treona reveals that she’s been watching the characters for an indeterminate length of time, “catching news of their exploits.” Though level 1, she’s apparently got enough faith in the group to give them ritual scrolls to locate the stone, alchemical components to use each scroll, and promises of a hefty reward if they bring it back so that she can destroy it, or if they do and bring back proof of the deed. Like I said, for some reason she wants this thing destroyed despite the fact that its utterly useless outside of Kirin Dahn.

Once the party gets their quest its off to Kirin Dahn. I’m very pleased with the advice presented in this adventure: there’s a rough timeline of how events might proceed to help plan things out, suggestions for which encounters to use to spike the tension, a list of factions along with territories and goals to assist in role-playing, and some themes and hooks to help move the plot along. I could see some players trying to play the kobolds against the goblins, which allows more socially inclined players to shine. Additionally, the adventure is very open-ended: the party can choose from several infiltration methods and once inside can essentially choose their own path. There’s a kind of global Skill Challenge pressing down on them the entire time, and as they fuck things up and get noticed the town goes on alert and makes things harder.

All in all despite the shaky start this adventure looks much better than the original run, but judging from the reception of Keep on the Shadowfell that might not be saying much… Its not a straight-up dungeon crawl brimming with goblins and hobgoblins and a nonsensical plot, and from a cursory examination many of the encounters look to be very interesting and memorable. In particular I like the one where a kobold is packing ankheg juice that she can lob at a character, causing an ankheg to surface and start mauling the hell out of the victim (which reminds me of the antlions from Half-Life 2). The kobold guttersnipes are also really cool new monster. They wear shitty armor that gives them a hefty AC until they get hit, after which it breaks and drops it to an abyssmally low level. Its a nice, simple dynamic.

The only other thing that really bugs me is the brass dragon guarding the stone. The adventure plays her up as to be a suitable challenge for the party at paragon tier, meaning that she could easily take on everything in Kiris Dahn. If nothing else, she could ally herself with the party who is capable of routing the goblins via a skill challenge, giving her a relatively peaceful place to lair. I’m sure even returning villagers wouldnt mind having her around. It just seems like a win-win situation for everyone but the monsters, but I digress. In closing, its actually a decent adventure. The intro is weak but the actual meaty part of it holds up, and the price is good for what you’re getting. A skilled DM can make it really shine and work in more social role-playing with just a bit of work, which is a far cry from having to rebuild Keep on the Shadowfell from the ground up in order to give it a semblance of reason.

Class Acts: Artificer

This Class Acts article ties in racial traits with artificer class features, mostly focusing on the various effects of Healing Infusion: curative admixture, resistive formula, and shielding elixir. For example, Astral Elixer causes shielding infusion to grant resist 5 radiant, and the target can end the effect to gain a variable bonus to a save. On the other hand, Human Innovation lets you recharge an ally’s daily item power when you spend an action point. Any race that’s been in a Player’s Handbook is on the list, even a few that aren’t like the minotaur and shadar-kai, which is good for providing a foundation for players that want to play a “non-standard” artificer. There are a total of 25 feats, all Heroic, so useful to any artificer of any level.