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This review is of a PDF Copy of this product. This review contains spoilers.
I decided this year to read all of those modules I saw in the store at a young age but never had the money to buy, luckily cheap PDF’s and my works high speed printer/copier provide a convenient way for this to happen. I decided I should pass on my thoughts as well.
This is a 32 page adventure for the Advanced Dungeon and Dragons Game 1st edition. This adventure is for 5 to 8 characters level 1-4. This is a straight dungeon crawl with tournament scoring rules as well.
Appearance I printed my copy on a high-speed copier, this product is mostly printer friendly with few large ink wasters. The interior art is by Jeff Easley and is great, what one would expect from this quintessential D&D artist. There are several large full page pieces that could be used as player hand outs or could be skipped when printed by those who have to pay for their own toner.
There is also 8 pages of pre generated characters which could be skipped as well. Though with names like Abnir Mremhouse, Relek Noshouse, Genton Stildhouse, “Beetle” Farhills, Watim Berelstane, Porall Frehouse, Gro Mekadet, and Paterno Stildhouse, why would you not want to print them? There is no mention if the two Stildhouse PC are related but Paterno defiantly came out ahead on stats probably because he is a paladin, back when you need great stats. Why everyone gets a “House” at the end of their name is also not explained, a local custom? The non “House” are two dwarves and a Halfling, but there is an elf in the “House”.
The Maps are by Diesel, another name familiar to fans of early editions, and Dungeon Magazine. The maps are clear and easy to read, but have a grey background which wastes inks and are at the odd scale of one square equals 4 feet. I do like the smaller scale, it stops the 30 by 30 room at the inn that crops up so often in 1st edition modules.
Summary of Events The adventure begins with a large section of box text where we find out the Castanamir is a 18th level mage (yes I gives his level in the box text) who laired on a island that apparently is cursed to sink ships that approached to close. The PC where hired by a magician (no name are level given) to investigate the island and bring back all treasure. There is no mention if the characters get a cut of this treasure or what they where being paid. At no point does it say that the unknown magician hired them in an inn, that would have made this a true 1st edition opening and I was disappointed. All this disappointed quicly passed though when I read the brilliant plan apparently conceived by the Halfling thief “Beetle” and his 8 intelligence. The party came up with this and I had to quote it. “You Anchored your ship a distance away and swam to the island. The sea was rough, however, and much of your equipment and provisions was lost, and when you looked back, your ship was sinking.” I guess I should reiterate this was originally a tournament module and so set up was mostly irrelevant. The PCs discover a stone door way and stairs that lead into the wizard’s den and the real adventure starts.
This module probably plays better than it reads. The wizard’s layer is magical and doors in each room lead to doors in other rooms using teleportation, but the characters will not know they are being teleported around and this will lead to a very confused mapping process. The lair is inhabited by a variety of humanoids and magical constructs, all in the haphazard fashion of a true first edition adventure. Thiers some explination on where the humanoids get food but its mostly irrelevant at this point, if your players didn’t question why they decided to swim to the island their not going to be worried about how everyone eats. This is a dungeon crawl, if you don’t like dungeon crawls you are going to hate this. At one point the characters encounter a magical being that can answer questions about the dungeon for either magic items, gold or experience levels. It will even tell them how to get out of the dungeon for enough loot or experience. For the record the exchange rate is 4000 gp or 4 magic items or 1 experience level. Theirs more great 1st editionisims like this in the adventure, and in the end if the players escape the lair they get to wait 20 days (on a island devoid of anything but rock) for a ship to pass by and pick them, they can’t return to the lair once they exit. Quick rules are given on losing HP due to hunger and exposure but these rules state that both can be healed normally with healing magic.
Conclusion This was fun to read, but more to see how much this game has evolved. There are some decent ideas, including a race of summoned beings that can be used as guardians or bound as magical items, but in history of dungeon crawls this is no Expedition to the Barrier Peaks or Tomb of Horrors. I could see using the pre generated PC and having a nostalgia night, playing a lot of this to embrace the 1st edtionisms for laughs, even using the tournament scoring system for extra fun. The 5 to 30 points for rules knowledge could be especially fun. How well do you remember 1st edition? Just calling for initiative the first time and seeing what dice everyone rolls could cost a lot of folks some points.
