Although perhaps better known by for their comic “Knights of the Dinner Table”, Kenzer & Company are no strangers to Dungeons & Dragons, having acquired and made much use out of an official D&D license from Wizards of the Coast. It seems as though Kenzer & Company found treasure in its own backyard. Mark Plemmons, one of the authors of “Deathright” is Kenzer & Company’s comic book manager. For Mark and the new kid on the block, Robert J. King, to make such a grand initial product as “Deathright” is a stroke of good luck for this company. Indeed, having one of the assistant editors of the “Kingdoms of Kalamar” hardcover teaming up with a newcomer to the industry combines two great perspectives that culminate in “Deathright”. In my estimation, this adventure represents the one of the best-published adventures for “Kingdoms of Kalamar” to date.
While stated that this module is for four to six characters of eighth or ninth level, I found it could just as easily by run for three to seven characters of seventh to tenth level. “Deathright” clearly holds promise by giving fans a fresh take on “old school” adventuring using the Dungeons & Dragons, 3rd Edition role-playing game.
Deathright is an 80-page, perfect-bound, soft-cover book. The cover offers a color illustration by David Day. The interior is black & white, with artwork by Allen Ditzig depicting locations and possible situations from the adventure. The margins are of average size and the text density is high.
The nice and gritty interior artwork comes in a sixteen-page booklet at the back of the main book, which is called the ImageQUEST Adventure Illustrator. The cartography also appears attractive, thanks to Rob Lee.
(Warning: The following section contains spoilers for secrets revealed in the adventure.)
Three hundred years before the adventure starts, Queen Simura of the Principality of Pekal loses her one and only true love to death. Desperate for a way to be with the bard, Gallanos, again, the queen turns to the dark arts of the necromancers. By using the powers of an evil, mystical tome – the Darklight Codex – the queen is able to acquire awesome power that almost destroyed all of Pekal. Fortunately, a force of goodness – the Slayers of the Undead – seal the Queen and her cohorts inside her own dungeon maze, until…
In “Deathright”, the heroes must stop history from repeating itself. If this cannot be done, all of Pekal could wind up losing their breathing privileges. All heck breaks lose as the heroes enter into a desperate race against time.
The adventure is not linear, so the players can feel free to go where they like without the Dungeon Master having to worry about losing control of the adventure. The front inside cover conveniently has a map of the area that the adventurers will most likely stay within throughout the course of the adventure. Another good thing is that the Dungeon Master is given several ways to bring the adventurers into the story. Weather reports are also given – a nice touch.
The heroes will start out, entering the area by going west on the road to Fort Adasir. After speaking to the commander of the fort, the party can investigate the disappearance of some missing children. If the PCs talk to other soldiers at the fort, they can find out additional rumors about the area that will further draw them into the adventure.
The next stop that the PCs will most likely make will be in the village of Karidu. This is the point where things start to get serious for the PCs. One of the PCs may likely contract a deadly disease called “The Wrack”. After gaining more information from a cleric, the PCs will find out how deep in trouble they are from the villagers. So, now the PCs have two things to investigate – a breakout of a deadly disease and the missing children. Are they both related? You bet your arse they are.
Once on the road again, the PCs can find the home of a retired adventurer who can shed some light on things. Another encounter is with a group of bandits – while it’s a bit of a red herring, the bandits can also give the PCs information about the strange happenings in the area.
After that, the PCs will come to the village of lost children. Here, the PCs can interact with some twin children, a temple, an inn, a tavern, a fair, a stable, a smith, a farm, and the surrounding woods – among others.
Once the players learn enough, they will most likely head to a stronghold of the Slayers of the Undead. By this time they should be able to handle the challenges here. Powerful encounters will start taking place from this point on. Afterwards, the PCs may gather more information that will point them to the ruins of Queen Simura’s palace, where the adventure will reach a remarkable climax.
In addition to the adventure itself, “Deathright” includes fourteen appendices. The first three give stat boxes for all beings encountered in the adventure. The two after that give samples of what can be found within various books that the PCs may read.
The sixth appendix provides the details for a new spell – Area of Night. The seventh appendix has two new prestige classes – the Darklight Wizard and the Order of the Slayers of the Undead, called the Kalenal Gali.
The eighth appendix has three timelines – a history timeline explaining what happened what year up to the time the adventure starts and two timelines explaining what events happen when. I especially like how, after the party kills some of the bad guys, they come back as undead that the PCs have to fight all over again. I can see them saying, “Didn’t we just kill that guy yesterday?” Heh.
The rest of the appendixes consist of a new disease, The Wrack, five mini-encounter tables, a great way to pick up women, information from the KoK hardcover on Pekal and the Congregation of the Dead, and a useful glossary/index.
After the appendixes is an excellent list of the books in the Queen’s library – complete with title, weight, value, and language. They all could be used as springboards for more adventures. My favorite one is “How to Properly Farm Otters”, which should be very popular for those who have worked hard to make KoK a more realistic campaign setting.
Next there is KoK’s revolutionary d10,000 encounter table for the Principality of Pekal – this is a big plus for me. The rest of the book contains computer-generated maps of buildings and villages. I would also like to say that the inside covers have maps as well – advertising wasted no space nor was space left blank.
To summarize, I thought that the adventure was well written and consistent with the D&D rules. Both those would like to try out the Kingdoms of Kalamar setting as well as those who already own the hardcover will be very pleased to add this book to their library.
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