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THE DREAMING STONE is a 64 page softback adventure by Kevin Ross. Its plot starts out with the investigators gaining possession of an artifact called the Dreaming Stone (natch) which zaps them all into the Dreamlands. Then they are sent on a Dreamlands-spanning quest to recover the stone, because a) they're stuck and b) Nyarlathotep is coming. This takes the investigators up through the jungles of Kled, across to Celephais, into the Forbidden Lands, and up to the Moon.

The plot is a little railroaded - but there has to be some of that in a MacGuffin plotline by its nature. Still, the investigators are taken along a very specific path to their goal. People like to show up and assign quests to the characters unprovoked. The plot itself goes on in a way very, very reminiscent of the Brian Lumley Dreamlands novels.

THE DREAMING STONE is overall a well written adventure. I have to say, however, that I did not like it. What this adventure feels like, to me, is a pretty good Dungeons and Dragons adventure, very similar to I1 and I2, or perhaps even I6 Ravenloft in tone and content. It is very combat intensive, and there are a number of notes in the text about the difficulty of the combats. Combat, in fact, is the solution to almost all of the hurdles in the adventure. It features many D&D hallmarks like random encounter tables (Roll 1d8 each day of travel...) and goblins which might "offer a minor magic item in ransom for their lives if the fight is going against them." The climactic antagonist sits in his castle like Strahd the vampire and is guarded by animated suits of armor. The captives in his dungeon are very helpful when released. The players kill the monsters and evil wizard, get the stone, and return to Earth. I'm afraid I ended up wondering what the Dreamlands, or Lovecraft in general, really contributed to this storyline.

Besides the occasional sentence of color text, each of the wonderful and dangerous areas the adventurers travel are mostly described by their wandering monster tables (and location key for the final castle). The castle is nice and spooky, and its inhabitants also creepy. The leadup to the final encounter with Nyarlathotep back on Earth is very anticlimactic, and in fact I'm not really sure why Nyarly was in this plot at all, except to lend it some Mythos credibility. All he does is tease the players, take the stone, tell them he was Christ on the cross or some such gibberish, and leave. Adventure over. (Unless the players tweak him, then they die.)

Although I'm all for nihilism as a Mythos theme, in this case it also renders the plotline null and pointless, which is bad IMHO. Basically the players got railroaded into the plot, followed the order of events as spiced up by some random encounters, and their reward is surviving (or not, with this much combat I'd expect lots of deaths). It is certainly a blend of fantasy and horror, but not the cosmic horror we associate with the Lovecraft Mythos.

I hate to be so negative about this adventure - I very much hope Chaosium continues to put out Dreamlands adventures, as I have lots of high hopes for the Dreamlands as a wonderful setting. This adventure, however, simply makes a standard fantasy adventure plot and calls it Dreamlands(tm).

Of course, if you really like Lumley's view of the Dreamlands and think that it's a good idea for the lands of dream to be a D&D-style fantasy world, all these things are good. And that's a valid interpretation of the Dreamlands, just not one to which I subscribe. It seems too "normal" for me - OK, it has monsters and spells and stuff, but that does not seem to capture the whimsical and often inimical randomness that the lands of dream should contain.

If you like the Lumleyan approach, however, the only weaknesses of the adventure, as I mentioned, were the lack of additional detail on Dreamlands locations the the characters travel through, the tendency of the plot to railroad, and the weak Nyarlathotep payoff. The Keeper should read up on the Dreamlands locations and offer more color commentary on them, allow for players deviating from the dotted line on the map, and cut out the Nyarlathotep parts (only about 2 pages). Then, you'll have an adventure that would be one of the best fantasy/horror modules - certainly surpassing all of the D&D "Ravenloft" modules. And, I think, the plot is better than the Lumley novels themselves - his Dreamlands horror/fantasy mix was a little too reminiscent of stilted Leiber (Fritz? Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser? You know?).

So, flame away at me, but I have to give THE DREAMING STONE thumbs down, at least given what I want out of the Dreamlands. Though hey, I still play a lot of D&D, I may see about porting it over - like I say, it's like a thematic mix of I1, I2, and I6, three of the best AD&D modules ever made. My problem with THE DREAMING STONE, in the final analysis, is not the execution, which is reasonably good, but the premise - which some of you will agree with, and others will not.

Style: 3 (Average)
Substance: 3 (Average)

The Dreaming Stone
Author: Kevin Ross Category: game Company/Publisher: Chaosium Reviewed by Ernest Mueller on 08/11/97. Genre tags: none	THE DREAMING STONE is a 64 page softback adventure by Kevin Ross. Its plot starts out with the investigators gaining possession of an artifact called the Dreaming Stone (natch) which zaps them all into the Dreamlands. Then they are sent on a Dreamlands-spanning quest to recover the stone, because a) they're stuck and b) Nyarlathotep is coming. This takes the investigators up through the jungles of Kled, across to Celephais, into the Forbidden Lands, and up to the Moon. The plot is a little railroaded - but there has to be some of that in a MacGuffin plotline by its nature. Still, the investigators are taken along a very specific path to their goal. People like to show up and assign quests to the characters unprovoked. The plot itself goes on in a way very, very reminiscent of the Brian Lumley Dreamlands novels. THE DREAMING STONE is overall a well written adventure. I have to say, however, that I did not like it. What this adventure feels like, to me, is a pretty good Dungeons and Dragons adventure, very similar to I1 and I2, or perhaps even I6 Ravenloft in tone and content. It is very combat intensive, and there are a number of notes in the text about the difficulty of the combats. Combat, in fact, is the solution to almost all of the hurdles in the adventure. It features many D&D hallmarks like random encounter tables (Roll 1d8 each day of travel...) and goblins which might "offer a minor magic item in ransom for their lives if the fight is going against them." The climactic antagonist sits in his castle like Strahd the vampire and is guarded by animated suits of armor. The captives in his dungeon are very helpful when released. The players kill the monsters and evil wizard, get the stone, and return to Earth. I'm afraid I ended up wondering what the Dreamlands, or Lovecraft in general, really contributed to this storyline. Besides the occasional sentence of color text, each of the wonderful and dangerous areas the adventurers travel are mostly described by their wandering monster tables (and location key for the final castle). The castle is nice and spooky, and its inhabitants also creepy. The leadup to the final encounter with Nyarlathotep back on Earth is very anticlimactic, and in fact I'm not really sure why Nyarly was in this plot at all, except to lend it some Mythos credibility. All he does is tease the players, take the stone, tell them he was Christ on the cross or some such gibberish, and leave. Adventure over. (Unless the players tweak him, then they die.) Although I'm all for nihilism as a Mythos theme, in this case it also renders the plotline null and pointless, which is bad IMHO. Basically the players got railroaded into the plot, followed the order of events as spiced up by some random encounters, and their reward is surviving (or not, with this much combat I'd expect lots of deaths). It is certainly a blend of fantasy and horror, but not the cosmic horror we associate with the Lovecraft Mythos. I hate to be so negative about this adventure - I very much hope Chaosium continues to put out Dreamlands adventures, as I have lots of high hopes for the Dreamlands as a wonderful setting. This adventure, however, simply makes a standard fantasy adventure plot and calls it Dreamlands(tm). Of course, if you really like Lumley's view of the Dreamlands and think that it's a good idea for the lands of dream to be a D&D-style fantasy world, all these things are good. And that's a valid interpretation of the Dreamlands, just not one to which I subscribe. It seems too "normal" for me - OK, it has monsters and spells and stuff, but that does not seem to capture the whimsical and often inimical randomness that the lands of dream should contain. If you like the Lumleyan approach, however, the only weaknesses of the adventure, as I mentioned, were the lack of additional detail on Dreamlands locations the the characters travel through, the tendency of the plot to railroad, and the weak Nyarlathotep payoff. The Keeper should read up on the Dreamlands locations and offer more color commentary on them, allow for players deviating from the dotted line on the map, and cut out the Nyarlathotep parts (only about 2 pages). Then, you'll have an adventure that would be one of the best fantasy/horror modules - certainly surpassing all of the D&D "Ravenloft" modules. And, I think, the plot is better than the Lumley novels themselves - his Dreamlands horror/fantasy mix was a little too reminiscent of stilted Leiber (Fritz? Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser? You know?). So, flame away at me, but I have to give THE DREAMING STONE thumbs down, at least given what I want out of the Dreamlands. Though hey, I still play a lot of D&D, I may see about porting it over - like I say, it's like a thematic mix of I1, I2, and I6, three of the best AD&D modules ever made. My problem with THE DREAMING STONE, in the final analysis, is not the execution, which is reasonably good, but the premise - which some of you will agree with, and others will not. Style: 3 (Average) Substance: 3 (Average)

The Dreaming Stone