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Introduction
Key of Destiny is the first volume in the Age of Mortals Campaign line. It is the beginning of an epic campaign arc which, when complete, will take the characters from level 1 to 20.
As a long time fan of the Dragonlance setting and fiction, I had reservations about picking up this product. I've not been too fond of the whole "Age of Mortals" twist and have preferred my Dragonlance gaming to be set in the War of the Lance era.
Well, we were beginning a new campaign and due to time constraints I decided I would go with a premade one. So, with trepidation I picked up the Key of Destiny. I'm glad I did.
Let's get to the heart of it all:
Style
Overall it is a nicely packaged product. There are a few things that drag the overall rating down but there is alot of good as well.
Art
It was nice to see a piece by Jeff Easley adorning the cover of this book. I have to admit, it is not my favorite work by him, but it is definitely his style. If nothing else this earned points simply for nostalgia's sake.
The interior art continues to be good. Simple black and white pieces, nothing too fancy but definitely not the eye sores I've grown accustomed to seeing in RPG products these days.
Cartography
The interior maps are quite nice. Concise and easy to read. They are well rendered and don't get overly fancy. While running this adventure for my group I don't recall running into any map errors that you occasionally find in a product.
Layout
The product is well laid out, divided into various chapters of the story. The columns and fonts are nice and tasteful with the information in each chapter presented very well. Each chapter has its random encounters presented well and overall in a very helpful manner.
I didn't care for the chunky borders used but it didn't detract from the overall look of the product too much.
What I Did Not Like
I had two major dislike about the overall production of this adventure. These two things dropped the style rating from a 4 to a 3 in my estimation.
1. The paper : The paper used in printing this book was the shiny, magazine type. I really dislike that. The slick feeling and glare of the page due to lights gets relatively annoying to me.
2. The Errata:The work had a number of typos, mistakes and left out information. The errata document for Key of Destiny is 15 pages long! Come on now, that is uncalled for. This was the major downside to an otherwise outstanding work.
Substance
This is where Key of Destiny really shines. It is a solid module of epic proportions, a promising beginning to the Age of Mortals Campaign series. It is designed for 4 characters beginning at level 1. By the end of it they should reach approximately 7th level.
The adventure begins with the characters coming into possession of an ancient elven music box known as the Key of Quinari. This sets them on a fast paced adventure seeking out the mystery that the music box is purported to unlock.
The plot, mechanical aptitude and general flow of the module are great. In some regards it is a bit "high powered" considering some of the rewards the PC's are given but, it fits with the epic scale of this adventure and the party needs all the firepower they can muster to succeed at some of the challenges.
Generally, I usually do not run campaigns of this magnitude. This is an epic adventure of grand proportions. Normally, this is not my cup of tea, I prefer doing things on a much smaller scale. However this module makes it all quite enjoyable.
Before I continue with a chapter breakdown I must first state that when I and my group played through the Key of Destiny we had an atypical adventuring group. All of the characters were Silvanesti elves with the eventual goal of seeking a way to reclaim their homeland from the invading minotaur. So, this does skew some portions of this adventure due to their admittedly different motivations from your average group of adventures.
WARNING!!! Substantial Spoilers Ahead!!!
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Chapter 1: Finding the Key
The adventure begins in the town of Pashin located in the lands of Khur. It assumes the characters have completed The Sylvan Key, an introductory adventure fount in the Dragonlance Campaign Setting in which they gain possession of the music box known as the Key of Quinari.
This chapter outlines various encounter areas around the town, providing numerous opportunities for role-playing and interaction with NPC's. It does an excellent job of laying out the political climate of the town with the local Khan, the occupying Dark Knights and the elven underground.
Once you allow the players to get acclimated to the scene the DM can spring a twist on them. A gnarled figure approaches them in the street, hisses a cryptic prophecy then bursts into flames.
Witnesses believe the party is responsible for the burning of the person and promptly alert the guards. The chase is on as the Dark Knights respond.
The chase that ensues eventually lands the party in the elven underground where they learn more about the key they possess and another cryptic message urges them to seek out the "Shattered Ruins" to learn more. The elves of Pashin are an interesting group, living beneath the city in the sewers and afflicted by a wasting curse.
This chapter is well set up and written, providing a DM with pretty much all you need to get the story started. It played out well with my group, they took the bait willingly and were confused but eager to learn just what they had been thrust into.
As a DM, I disliked the heavy handed nature of thrusting the party into the main plot of this campaign. That being said, my players didn't seem to feel railroaded by it and even I will admit sometimes you do need to give a proverbial arm twist for the sake of the story.
Chapter 2: The Mystery Unfolds
This chapter begins as the party leaves Pashin behind and begins the treacherous journey across the desert seeking out the Shattered Ruins. They are not sure what to expect when they reach the ruined temple, they just know that right now, it seems their best course of action.
Provided in this section are several interesting encounters for the party to face in their journey. All of the encounters are well described and fit in with the setting, so that is good.
The party will also meet up with a wandering group of tribesmen known as the Mikku. The meeting with the Mikku was a high point of this chapter. My players enjoyed the role-playing generated by this encounter and it made for some good gaming. While spending time with the Mikku they also receive yet another clue as to their goal.
In the middle of the night they are visited by the spirit of a dead Mikku girl, telling them to seek out the Shard of Light within the ruined temple, informing them that it will lead the way to their destiny.
This chapter ends with them reaching the ruins of the shattered temple. Once a grand temple to Paladine but now under an ancient curse due to betrayal from within.
Chapter 3: The Shattered Temple
This chapter is a classic dungeon crawl as the characters delve into the ruins seeking out the "Shard of Light". The encounters here, once inside the temple itself are relatively sparse. A majority of the encounters are with "Spectral Flickers", ghostly scenes from the past showing the downfall of the temple.
How this chapter plays out depends largely on your group and is perhaps the only weak point in this adventure. IN theory, this is a GREAT thing, not only is the party exploring the ruins, but they get to know the history of it as well. The downside to that is there is ALOT of DM narration as you describe the scenes. If not handled correctly it could quickly lead your players to boredom. Also, remember earlier when I mentioned the 15 pages of Errata? Well, you'll need to print it as one of the main flickers got cropped greatly.
Fortunately, my players took to the narration of the flickers and, though they got frustrated by it at some points, near the end they were becoming engrossed in the unfolding story of the "Night of Betrayal".
This chapter culminates in a fight against a bearded devil as they retrieve the Shard of Light, a minor artifact and shortsword blessed by the now mortal god Paladine.
With the Shard of Light they now must seek out the ruins of Kendermore and see what their future has in store for them.
At this point, my players were feeling a little forced into the plot. Usually this is a bad thing, but the story so far was entertaining enough that they didn't grumble about it, they just felt a certain lack of freedom.
Chapter 4: Across the Sand and Sea
After leaving the ruins and reuniting with the Mikku, the party must now determine a way to reach Kendermore and the next leg of their journey. To that end they head towards the port city of Ak-Khurman.
Here the players have access to a number of shops and NPC's able to provide training or induct them into certain PrC's. There is also a member of the newly re-established Orders of High Sorcery available to conduct the test for any of the party's wizards who wish to join the order.
In the typical way of this module, a number of encounters and ideas are provided. Enough so that any number of side quests can be done while the part is in the port.
Here the party can gain passage to Port Balifor across the bay, a city controlled by the Dark Knights. The chapter provides the DM with hooks to get the party there and how to lead them to Kendermore.
This is where I had to do my first troubleshooting. My party (comprised entirely of Silvanesti elves as I mentioned earlier) had no plans to sneak into a city run by the Dark Knights and seek aid by the underground there. They came up with a plan to avoid the city altogether.
This ended in a few on the fly adjustments on my part but nothing too difficult to manage.
Chapter 5: Far Less Kender
This chapter is indeed a gem in an already outstanding module. It begins with the party traveling across one of the most dangerous tracts of land around, the Desolation.
As I've grown to expect in this module, it lays out everything you need as a DM to run it flawlessly. Not only are the encounters detailed but you are also given important information on dehydration, heat exhaustion, sandstorms, earthquakes, poisonous vapors, lava spews and adverse weather.
A lot of good stuff here.
When the party does eventually make their way across the hazards of the Desolation they are greeted by the twisted ruins of an undead afflicted Kendermore.
As the party explores Kendermore not only do they have the undead to deal with, but traps and ogres and a lot of other nasties as well. This is another chapter however that you need the errata. The information pertaining to the forlorn kender was cut out and it can be found in the errata download.
The exploration of Kendermore leads to the discovery of a secret entry into the Peak of Malystryx, the lair of the now dead Dragon Overlord. Not only in regards to their quest involving the Key of Quinari, but also to hopefully save a number of captured kender as well.
My players had so much fun with this chapter that I can’t cover each and every individual portion in detail without getting to long winded.
Chapter 6: The Peak of Malystryx
It is here that the first part of the campaign culminates. The party slips into the peak and find aid in an unusual source, the Phalanx.
The Phalanx are a large variety of semi-intelligent ants. Some good RP and diplomacy checks can lend the party a considerable amount of aid in reaching their goal.
There are two main combat encounters here:
Grigolthan: This encounter is with a fallen ogre titan. He is a wretched creature seeking to re-enact the ritual to regain his titan status and has been sacrificing the captured kender to reach his goal. Grigolthan is a tough foe but the flaw here is that he is one person against a full party.
My group made short work of him without him being able to do much damage in return. The animated kender zombies didn't even get a chance to come into play and crawl out of the pool before the ogre was dispatched.
Sindra: After their battle with the ogre, before they can even rest they are thrown into an encounter with Sindra, a powerful dragonspawn woman. This combat was far more difficult and I almost feared a TPK as she began efficiently tearing into the party.
The battle was fairly intense and the party managed to barely defeat her. 3 of the 4 characters were dropped unconscious in this battle as their resources had already been taxed reaching this point.
From here the Shard of Light leads them to the surprising goal. They discover a Dragonlance. Not just any Dragonlance mind you, but THE Dragonlance. The Lance of Huma.
Yup. Level 7 and now in possession of a MAJOR artifact. Usually this sort of thing would drive me nuts as a DM, but with the scale and scope of this adventure it fits well and my game was not thrown out of balance because of it. In fact, the 2nd module in the series accounts for the extra oomph that the party has due to the lance.
So, that is how this book ends.
In Conclusion
I heartily recommend this adventure to anyone. I was not a fan of the whole Age of Mortals era until I ran this adventure and it showed me the fun I could have there with my group.
Even if you are not a Dragonlance fan you might consider giving this series a try. Not only is the beginning to a series that will allow you to take your party to the 20th level, it's go a darn good plot behind it to boot.
The whole layout is extremely DM friendly and gives you the tools you need to run an excellent campaign, so get it while you can.
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