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Introduction

Spectre of Sorrows is the second volume in the Age of Mortals Campaign line for the Dragonlance Campaign Setting. This installment begins where Key of Destiny left off in a campaign of heroic proportions.

Cam Banks took up the torch on the second part to this series and he more than delivered. While me and my players enjoyed the first volume, Spectre of Sorrows completely blew us away. So let’s dive right in.

Style

Where this volume shines over the first is that it is a complete product. The editing job was a lot better and you aren’t missing large tracts of information that require a 15 page errata like Key of Destiny did.

My only complaint? Again with the shiny paper. I am not a fan of the glossy paper which reflects the light and has a cheaper feel. All in all, if that is all I can complain about I guess it isn’t too bad now is it?

Substance

WARNING!!! Substantial Spoilers Ahead!!!

Key of Destiny ended with the characters retrieving Huma’s Lance from the lair of a dead Dragon Overlord. They have a music box, a holy shortsword, and THE Dragonlance.

In this episode they discover that the music box is the key to opening the way to the Dragon’s Graveyard and that if the wrong person uses it to do so, a terrible darkness will engulf the world. So, the heroes begin an exhilarating journey across the eastern coast of Ansalon in an attempt to locate the Dragon’s Graveyard and discover what secrets it holds.

As I stated in my previous review of the Key of Destiny the group I am running this for is not your typical group of adventurers. It consists entirely of Silvanesti elves, and now they are Silvanesti elves with a mission. They seek to reach the Dragon’s Graveyard in hopes to discover a means to reclaim their lost kingdom of Silvanost. I mention this because it greatly affects the group dynamic and how they approach certain situations presented in the module. They do not have your normal motivations and, with their superiority complex, some parts of this adventure played out different with this group. Because of this, there are certain areas of this module they did not touch, I’ll cover those areas but cannot attest how they played out.

Enough with the intro already, let’s talk chapters.

Chapter 1: Clash of Fire & Darkness

The first chapter of Spectre of Sorrows begins with a bang.

Literally.

After escaping from the Peak of Malys with Huma’s Lance in tow, the volcano undergoes a massive eruption. You just thought traveling across the Desolation was rough before, wait till you try it while dodging volcanic debris and escorting a band of kender refugees. Now that is fun.

This is an extremely fast paced section. As usual, the module gives the DM all the tools necessary to run the encounters as easily as possible. You have random encounters, weather effects and how to handle the aftermath of the eruption. You also have an encounter with a Dark Knight patrol, angry dragonspawn and a likely three-way battle with the dragonspawn, the party and the Dark Knight vanguard.

The action is quick and unrelenting; my only complaint in this area is that there is so much happening that as a DM it can be hard to keep track of it all. The upside of this is that if handled correctly, your players won’t have a moment to catch their breath. It makes for good gaming when they are absolutely sure of defeat at every turn.

They do eventually find some relief however as a pair of phaethons leads them to cover. Their rescuers take them to their camp where the party learns more of the music box they hold and the Dragon’s Graveyard. They also are given one of the keys to open the way top the Graveyard, a magical artifact known as the Tear of Mishakal. So now the party has yet another artifact thrust upon them, this time one with considerable healing abilities. Don’t let them get too cocky however, like I said before, they’ll need every bit of help they can get to survive all the horrors this module will throw at them.

The party also learns that there are two Tears of Mishakal and they will need to retrieve the second one in order to open the way. The fun part? The second tear is located in the dungeons of Darkhaven, a Dark Knight stronghold. It gets better; the second tear has been corrupted and will also require that the party find a way to cleanse it of its taint before they can make use of it.

Evil DM’s rejoice.

To retrieve the tear the party has to slip into Darkhaven through a series of goblin tunnels. Once inside they have to conduct a guerilla style raid to reach the tear and escape with it alive. The raid into Darkhaven played out as one of the most exciting sessions our group has ever had. Never before had they come so close to utter defeat on so many occasions. The dungeon holds not only your typical generic bad guys, but a few officer knights who, when fleshed out some by the DM, make intriguing villains for this chapter.

My players still talk about the raid when we sit down to game. No pitfalls to worry about here, although I would suggest making a copy of the keep’s map and notate the positions of the knights throughout the two levels. That way if the alarm gets sounded you can keep track of the knights’ movements as they close in on the PC’s.

Chapter 2: Flotsam & Jetsam

Along with a host of city encounters the DM is presented with all the information needed for the party to seek entry into Lord Toede’s manor whether it is legally or illegally.

Assuming they take the legal route, they must first secure an audience with Toede in order to request use of his library. Given the convoluted and insanely beaurocratic nature of Flotsam, this is a worthy task in and of itself.

The DM is given the means of running the characters through a variety of government offices, each time they are successful they can move up to the next tier of offices and move a step closer to an actual audience with Toede. In all honesty, I wasn’t sure how this would play out with my group but it ended up being quite a good session. Here you have a chance to play a multitude of roles and have a lot of RP interaction. It is great to see the characters get XP awards for overcoming non-combat encounters.

Once they secure an audience with Toede, he of course won’t let them make use of the library without completing a task for him. The party is asked to journey to the ruins of Micah and retrieve a clutch of dragon eggs that were stolen from him.

In Micah you have a rather uninspiring, standard dungeon crawl. Go in, beat bad guys and get out with eggs. Once done the party can access the library and find a clue that points to the Fountain of Renewal in Nordmaar as a way to cleanse the tainted tear.

Chapter 3: The Blood Sea

The Blood Sea is a rather open chapter that covers the various ways a party can continue their journey northward. You are given various side quests that can be completed to help the plot along as well as a handful of locations.

Some of the things the party might do are take an overland route, travel by ship, rescue a prisoner from the village of Rockhorde, and participate in an elven rebellion as they fight against the ogres holding them as slaves.

The options available here are too many to list, but the players are given a wide degree of freedom in the pursuit of their goals. Like any other chapter, this one is filled with all the information and helpful hints for a DM to keep the story on track.

The second portion of this chapter is a bit heavier handed. Eventually the party should resort to ship travel to continue northward. This results in an attack on the ship by Dargonesti elves being controlled by an evil priest of Zeboim. From there they are taken captive in the underwater city of Surf.

In surf the heroes are to escape their imprisonment and free the sea-elves from their control by the wretched priest. Once that is complete and they retrieve all of their gear they can return to the surface.

Chapter 4: The Ogre Dirk

. The heroes now arrive in the war torn nation of Kern, washed up on shore. The beginning of this chapter is perhaps the weakest portion of this module in my opinion.

When the party comes ashore they witness two mercenary companies squaring off against each other. Both side see the party and request their aid. The initial part of this chapter depends on the party leaping to the aid of one side or another and that seemed extremely odd to me. They are in a strange land and seeing to mercenary companies they know nothing about, your average person wouldn’t side with either is my common opinion. The text even suggests that if the party doesn’t choose a side, then utilize on of the NPC’s they’ve been toting along to leap into the battle on a side for them.

I just don’t care for that sort of heavy handed railroading.

That being said, it is not difficult to change the situation from as it is written and involve the party in other ways later. That is how I ended up doing it.

Anyways, the party is introduced to a civil war brewing in Kern where the ogre titans are fighting a battle against a Dire-Covey of hags. The party also discovers that it requires a special configuration of Kyrnn’s three moons, a “Night of the Eye”, to open the way to the graveyard.

Luckily, they find that there is a scroll of the stellar path located in the nearby ruins of Ghuth and that use of the scroll will force the alignment of the moons. So now a race is on between two competing mercenary companies trying to be the first to reach the tower.

The dungeon crawl into the ruins of Ghuth is an interesting one. It is a fallen tower, largely intact on its side. The trek into it ends up being an extremely hazardous one due to anti-magic zones, magical darkness and cunning gargoyles. If your players aren’t overly cautious, or know when to run, they just might find themselves on the receiving end of a TPK so be careful.

After all their hard work they discover a gnome beat them to the punch and nabbed the scroll before them. The clues left behind lead them to the Clocktower of Miremier.

This is another dungeon crawl, but one with a twist. The heroes have to make their way through a clocktower gone haywire, animated by chaotic magics and run by a celestinfernal engine. Yeah, I know it sounds odd but it ended up being a worthy dungeon crawl, so have faith.

Chapter 5: Plague and Redemption

Here the heroes get to interact with the Dragon Overlord Pitch. Pitch is suffering from a devastating plague through the machinations of another Dragon Overlord and the betrayal of his right hand man, an Aurak draconian named Barathrutus.

The fountain, which is needed to cleanse the tear of its taint, happens to have Pitch’s lair built around it. A portion of the fountain, the lens, is also missing from its arch within the lair.

So, the heroes not only have to find a way to access the fountain, but to replace the lens there as well. Fortunately, it is not as difficult as it sounds; the dragon’s assistant has a convoluted scheme of sending the party after the dragon with the hopes that one will kill the other. Some talk instead of sword swinging can gain the characters a lot here, with the heroes helping the dragon by dispatching with his ill-meaning draconian.

There are several opportunities for good role-playing here as well as a tough battle with the draconian. If the heroes manage to rebuild and activate the fountain they also have the option of cleansing Pitch of his progressing disease. It is up to the party as to whether a Dragon Overlord lives or dies.

This chapter can get a little convoluted if the DM doesn’t read through it thoroughly before attempting to run it. I would suggest going over it several times in order to make it a clean, good session with minimal frustration.

Chapter 6: Ghosts of the Past

A massive battle will ensue at the ruins with the heroes facing hordes of undead creatures. Seriously, HORDES of undead creatures, it seems someone is amassing an army of undead beings.

This someone, as the heroes soon discover, is none other than a figure known to them as the Betrayer. Until now the only time they had seen him had been in the flickering images of the shattered temple back in Key of Destiny. Looks like their removal of the Shard of Light from his body allowed this man to rise again as a rather potent lich in the service of Chemosh.

The party doesn’t know it, but the Betrayer is after a dark elf mystic who had offended Chemosh AND who has been pulling the party’s strings all this way, manipulating them to reach the graveyard and open it.

The battle with the undead horde is an intense one if run properly. None of the undead minions pose a threat to the now fairly powerful PC’s but as a horde they can and will whittle the party down. Fortunately, reinforcements arrive and allow the characters to make a hasty retreat.

The party will eventually reach the city of Wulfgar. While there they will also meet a figure of no small amount of fame. Gilthanas. This was a pretty cool meeting for most of my players who were avid fans of the novels. Gilthanas knows the location of the Graveyard and will take the party there.

This is a fairly straightforward chapter and you shouldn’t run into any hang-ups or have the need to troubleshoot. The party will also learn of Lothian, the evil elven mystic who has been responsible for the apparitions that have approached the party over the course of their quest, goading them on. He wants to enter the graveyard and return to life the elven woman that he misguidedly believes he loves.

Chapter 7: The Dragons’ Graveyard

The tests offered in the module are fairly straight forward, but deliberately designed in such a way that the ambitious DM can expand upon each test to make it a session within itself. The tests as is are quite challenging as they are however (in fact some of them are outright deadly for the careless party). All the while Gilthanas is giving them aid and the spirit of a dead elven woman is giving them more pieces of the story.

Once the tests are complete it is time for the big showdown. These are two extremely difficult fights which can be very dramatic if played properly. The fights involve Lothian, the evil elf and the Betrayer, the bad-ass lich. Sooooooo, expect a hard fought battle.

Once the heroes prove victorious they are able to rejoin the magic nature of the graveyard with the dome of creation and once again allow the spirits of the dragons to enter this blessed realm.

This chapter is another, very straightforward chapter. It is also a chapter with a lot of dramatic possibility. You can expect a lot of “on the edge of your seat” fights and a brutal DM could easily kill off more than a character or two if he were so inclined.

Overall this chapter is an excellent ending to a very good module.

In Conclusion

Well, this module is FULL of sessions like that. My players absolutely loved it 100%. What is more they are going stir crazy awaiting the release of the next installment. I’ve been gaming for a number of years and have rarely seen a printed adventure go over quite as well as this one did with my group.

So, my recommendation? Only pick up Spectre of Sorrows if you enjoy some top notch gaming. This is some one of a kind entertainment.

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