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Atlas Games launched its Penumbra line of D20 products last Autumn with this module, Three Days To Kill. While the Adventure Path series published by Wizards of the Coast serves to show the Dungeons & Dragons experience as intended, Three Days To Kill shows the flexibility of the new edition by presenting a short adventure that mixes the ambigious morality of low fantasy with a strong horror element. It's meant for PCs of 1st-3rd level.

The setting is in and around a walled city on a mountain caravan route named "Deeptown". Surrounding it are scores of bandit gangs that prey on the caravans, but only two are big enough to properly call themselves "bandit lords"- Modus and Lucien. The ruling body of the city is the Trade Circle, made up of the city's seven most powerful merchants. Deeptown is a free city who's business is business, and that explains the unusual level of religious tolerance within its walls. The interplay between the bandits, the merchants, and the temples drives Deeptown's political dynamic.

It also drives this module's adventure. The PCs are hired by one lord to stop an alliance between his rival and one of the evil sects in the city, an alliance that the merchants wouldn't like too much if they knew of it. They get some gear, some intelligence, and three days to get the job done. It's a simple adventure at its core, but what makes this adventure worthy of acclaim is the context that surrounds it.

To get the most out of this adventure, the Game Master really does need to sit down beforehand and read through the module throughly. He needs to do the usual things that a generic module requires for it to fit well into a given campaign, and he needs to acquaint himself with Deeptown's culture. Failing to do will make the experience fall flat, and that is a death sentance for this module. Mr. Tynes spends half of the module's 32 pages on Deeptown, so use it. (That's Chapter One, by the way; Chapter Two is the adventure proper.)

The scenario requires that the PCs be muscle-for-hire, but this is quite easy to get around; a party with idealistic characters can take the same job from Cassius of the Holy Order (the Good Temple) instead. Mr. Tynes suggests playing out the trip to Deeptown as a means of briefing the PCs and the players about Deeptown and its culture; it will make the encounters at the Festival of Plenty much easier to run and enjoy.

The adventure proper begins when the PCs arrive and the Festival of Plenty begins. The Sect of Sixty (the Bad Temple) puts it on as part of their ceaseless quest to corrupt everyone to their ways, albeit in a way that allows plausable deniability. There's booze, brothels, brawling, bardic performances, and passion plays to enjoy. Within this raucous atmosphere rests the encounters that leads the patron NPC to contact the PCs and offer them the job.

In my experience, it pays to spend some time here and let the PCs partake (or not) of the festival. Let them sing, dance, brawl, cavort, or whatever else that the PCs are given to do; when things get slow, spring an encounter upon them that shows a would-be employer wants to see. After this, they're ready for the job offer.

As the meeting goes, it is important to keep the PCs from knowing that the patron (and his middle man) is one of the two bandit lords. Do what you must to get the PCs on board, and keep the true nature of their employer concealed. Once they're on the way to the meeting site, you're free to do unto the PCs whatever you want. Don't skip on the travel encounters detailed--they'll want the Detect Evil device, and the smart ones will gain a goodly clue about the forces they face--but don't go overboard either.

The mission itself is a fantasy-themed special ops job, as Mr. Tynes points out, and the goal is not to kill everyone there. The goal is to trash the summit and prevent the alliance from cementing, and to that end all that needs to happen is to force one or both parties to appear incompetant in the other party's eyes. Of course, it doesn't go so easily.

The complication is that the evil clerics will bring in Infernal allies from beyond the pale as soon as things go sour. While any good cleric or paladin will easily take care of the evil clerics, as well as the artifact they brought with them or most of the nasties they'd bring forth, smashing the artifact definately brings about a round of "Today's Solutions become Tomorrow's Problems".

Here is where the horror element comes in. Smashing the artifact turns the site into an outpost of the Infernal Planes, and what comes through is more than enough to overwhelm the PCs and everyone else there. The PCs either run or die, and since they aren't hired to cleanse the place all things that move that's what they ought to do.

Note that dealing with the above-mentioned consequences are not part of the module proper, but is instead put into the aftermath section. Not that stretching out the PCs' stay in Deeptown is that hard to do, as there is plenty of politicing and adventuring to be had in and around this place. As a module, this one is strongest in presenting a place filled with grey morality and gritty low fantasy adventure. As an adventure, it's an interesting experiment in how to repackage the tropes of another genre as a fantasy scenario. The adventure itself isn't anything to write home about, but that's fine with me; I'm more concerned with execution than originality.

My only gripe is that the maps aren't gridded or using the 5'=1" scale that D&D3 uses, and if that's all I've got then it's not that bad at all. Go forth now and give it a good long look. I look foward to seeing Mr. Tynes produce another Penumbra product.

Bradford C. Walker

Three Days To Kill
Item type: game Review by: Bradford C. Walker Product Name: Three Days To Kill Author: John Tynes Company/Publisher: Atlas Games Line: Penumbra SKU: AG3200 Cost: $8.95 (US) Page count: 32 pages ISBN: 1-887801-94-4 Ratings: Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 4 (Meaty) Review type: Playtest Review Genre tags: Fantasy,Horror,Espionage,Conspiracy	Atlas Games launched its Penumbra line of D20 products last Autumn with this module, Three Days To Kill. While the Adventure Path series published by Wizards of the Coast serves to show the Dungeons & Dragons experience as intended, Three Days To Kill shows the flexibility of the new edition by presenting a short adventure that mixes the ambigious morality of low fantasy with a strong horror element. It's meant for PCs of 1st-3rd level. The setting is in and around a walled city on a mountain caravan route named "Deeptown". Surrounding it are scores of bandit gangs that prey on the caravans, but only two are big enough to properly call themselves "bandit lords"- Modus and Lucien. The ruling body of the city is the Trade Circle, made up of the city's seven most powerful merchants. Deeptown is a free city who's business is business, and that explains the unusual level of religious tolerance within its walls. The interplay between the bandits, the merchants, and the temples drives Deeptown's political dynamic. It also drives this module's adventure. The PCs are hired by one lord to stop an alliance between his rival and one of the evil sects in the city, an alliance that the merchants wouldn't like too much if they knew of it. They get some gear, some intelligence, and three days to get the job done. It's a simple adventure at its core, but what makes this adventure worthy of acclaim is the context that surrounds it. To get the most out of this adventure, the Game Master really does need to sit down beforehand and read through the module throughly. He needs to do the usual things that a generic module requires for it to fit well into a given campaign, and he needs to acquaint himself with Deeptown's culture. Failing to do will make the experience fall flat, and that is a death sentance for this module. Mr. Tynes spends half of the module's 32 pages on Deeptown, so use it. (That's Chapter One, by the way; Chapter Two is the adventure proper.) The scenario requires that the PCs be muscle-for-hire, but this is quite easy to get around; a party with idealistic characters can take the same job from Cassius of the Holy Order (the Good Temple) instead. Mr. Tynes suggests playing out the trip to Deeptown as a means of briefing the PCs and the players about Deeptown and its culture; it will make the encounters at the Festival of Plenty much easier to run and enjoy. The adventure proper begins when the PCs arrive and the Festival of Plenty begins. The Sect of Sixty (the Bad Temple) puts it on as part of their ceaseless quest to corrupt everyone to their ways, albeit in a way that allows plausable deniability. There's booze, brothels, brawling, bardic performances, and passion plays to enjoy. Within this raucous atmosphere rests the encounters that leads the patron NPC to contact the PCs and offer them the job. In my experience, it pays to spend some time here and let the PCs partake (or not) of the festival. Let them sing, dance, brawl, cavort, or whatever else that the PCs are given to do; when things get slow, spring an encounter upon them that shows a would-be employer wants to see. After this, they're ready for the job offer. As the meeting goes, it is important to keep the PCs from knowing that the patron (and his middle man) is one of the two bandit lords. Do what you must to get the PCs on board, and keep the true nature of their employer concealed. Once they're on the way to the meeting site, you're free to do unto the PCs whatever you want. Don't skip on the travel encounters detailed--they'll want the Detect Evil device, and the smart ones will gain a goodly clue about the forces they face--but don't go overboard either. The mission itself is a fantasy-themed special ops job, as Mr. Tynes points out, and the goal is not to kill everyone there. The goal is to trash the summit and prevent the alliance from cementing, and to that end all that needs to happen is to force one or both parties to appear incompetant in the other party's eyes. Of course, it doesn't go so easily. The complication is that the evil clerics will bring in Infernal allies from beyond the pale as soon as things go sour. While any good cleric or paladin will easily take care of the evil clerics, as well as the artifact they brought with them or most of the nasties they'd bring forth, smashing the artifact definately brings about a round of "Today's Solutions become Tomorrow's Problems". Here is where the horror element comes in. Smashing the artifact turns the site into an outpost of the Infernal Planes, and what comes through is more than enough to overwhelm the PCs and everyone else there. The PCs either run or die, and since they aren't hired to cleanse the place all things that move that's what they ought to do. Note that dealing with the above-mentioned consequences are not part of the module proper, but is instead put into the aftermath section. Not that stretching out the PCs' stay in Deeptown is that hard to do, as there is plenty of politicing and adventuring to be had in and around this place. As a module, this one is strongest in presenting a place filled with grey morality and gritty low fantasy adventure. As an adventure, it's an interesting experiment in how to repackage the tropes of another genre as a fantasy scenario. The adventure itself isn't anything to write home about, but that's fine with me; I'm more concerned with execution than originality. My only gripe is that the maps aren't gridded or using the 5'=1" scale that D&D3 uses, and if that's all I've got then it's not that bad at all. Go forth now and give it a good long look. I look foward to seeing Mr. Tynes produce another Penumbra product. Bradford C. Walker