"Now, I must warn you, this excursion is likely to be perilous. Froderick was a master architect who favored both magical and mechanical traps, as well a summoned and bound guardians. You must be alert, cautious, and skillful if you are to succeed."
MetalMan's Review of "Froderick's Tomb" by Mark L. Chance
The Premise:
"Froderick's Tomb" is the fifth book in the third series of Legends & Lairs mini-adventures from Fantasy Flight games for use with Dungeons & Dragons third edition. These reasonably priced adventures are intended to be used when the GM has had little time to prepare an adventure or is just stumped for ideas. It is recommended for four to six characters of levels four to six.
PERSONAL NOTE: I will be discussing the plot of this adventure in this review. If you suspect that you will be playing in a game with a GM using this adventure, I recommend that you stop reading now. Most people don't like having their fun spoiled.
What Ya Get:
"Froderick's Tomb" is a small pamplet-sized booklet that clocks in at sixteen pages.
Cost:
It, like all the other Legends & Lairs mini-adventures, will cost you $3.95 USD
Appearance:
"Froderick's Tomb" continues Fantasy Flight's excellent trend for making their products look good. There are small pseudo-mystical decorative borders at the top and bottom of each page that look good but don't intrude any and doesn't seem like padding. There is a map for the adventure in the center of the book that is keyed and very legible but also suffers from one instance of confusing text in the adventure (which is no fault of the map itself). It also includes two illustrations of some of the puzzles and one by Eric Lofgen of a new creature called a watery lasher. There is also an advertisment for Dragonstar included in the back.
The Adventure:
This is a warning before you get too far into this review. If you hate puzzle based adventures, stop reading now. There is nothing here for you. If you do like them, Froderick's Tomb is chock full of them - many of them extremely clever and challenging.
The book starts off with a brief overview of recent history and a setup of the powers that are involved. Froderick the Uncanny, master thief and archmage, died over 150 years ago and left many tombs - any of which could contain his real treasure and remains. Two have been found and explored but, recently, Peck Ardell, a noted sage, has discovered the location of another one. He is willing to pay the PCs 500 gold for a map of the tomb as well as paying each character 50 gold pieces for the honor of an interview afterwards. Any treasure found can be kept by the player characters.
If you are a GM considering running this adventure, there are a few things that you should consider first. If you party approaches puzzle solving by just triggering the traps or bulling their way through, you'll want to make sure that they either have a stockpile of healing potions or have a very good cleric or rogue with them (unless you want to teach them a lesson). Even if your party is good at solving puzzles, there are some real tough ones here - including three timed challenges that, for every 5 minutes of time, has a twenty percent chance of triggering anyway.
The party's main concern once they enter the tomb is to obtain the three keys necessary to enter three different locked areas to allow them to advance further into the tomb. Each of these keys are "guarded" by the three aforementioned time challenge puzzle traps. These consist of a logical sequence puzzle, a math arrangement puzzle and a hidden letter pattern puzzle. If I have any complaints about these it is that the math arrangement puzzle is a bit vague and the clue could be a bit cryptic for many parties. You may want to give them hints or allow a free five minute "grace period" in which there is no chance of the trap activating. In addition, there are several combat opportunities with clockwork rats in a confined area, an animated statue, a gelatinous cube, a watery lasher, both fire and ice mephits as well as a very nasty invisible ochre jelly, Some of these encounters can be negated by disabling traps that free them but some are unavoidable. There are also two teleporting pit traps as well as an acid spray trap and a reverse gravity trap. The most dangerous of the mundane traps is a spinning wall room where safe passage to the other side means traversing across a room where the interior walls as spinning and can cause some serious crushing damage. The deactivation lever is on the other side. The descriptive text accompanying this trap is confusing as to exactly where the lever is located but the map makes it clear. There was some heated discussion among a few friends of mine that the Mage Hand cantrip would be sufficient to trip the lever. I maintain that you have to have line of sight that the spinning walls prevents. This may be something that a GM may encounter so you may want to have a ruling ready beforehand.
Once the players have battled their way to the actual burial chamber, they'll find that the tomb is another of the false ones. Many players may find this disappointing but they were told beforehand that he built many false tombs. Besides they are being paid by the sage as well as keeping anything of value that they could take. The real sense of accomplishment here should come from the party being able to outwit all of the traps and puzzles that were thrown in their way.
Overall Impression:
"Froderick's Tomb" is a very good adventure with the stipulation that your gaming group enjoys puzzles and traps. Otherwise, stay far away from this one. It is well constructed with many clever and dangerous traps and that's about all you can ask for an adventure of this type. A definate value and worthy purchase for the appropriate group.
MetalMan signing off.
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