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This series is well known for the quality of its writing, and for the atmosphere of each adventure, something that many of it American counterparts are lacking. This is despite the UK adventures not being tied to a specific TSR background. Many of the series’ authors are names that can be recognised from the British magazines of the time: Imagine and White Dwarf. Another factor to the series was that the authors invariably drew upon the lesser sources for its monsters. By this I mean, the Fiend Folio sourcebook, and then later, the Monster Manual II. Certainly those from the Fiend Folio are often regarded as particularly absurd. Whether this is actually the case, or that this is a slur upon their British source is certainly a matter for conjecture. Actually the use of monsters from the Fiend Folio is more of a problem today, as in superseding the old first edition AD&D rules, the second edition did not include many of the creatures from the Fiend Folio, and this has continued with Dungeons & Dragons Third Edition. Certainly this would make running many of the UK series somewhat difficult, and though the solution would be to purchase a copy of the Fiend Folio, it might be a little expensive at £30, or more!
And so to UK6, All That Glitters …, an adventure is for 5-8 characters, of levels 3-5, and which adheres to the standard appearance and layout of all TSR modules. Of course, the atmosphere of the series’ writing extends to the internal art, and the delightful cartography of Paul Ruiz.
UK6 begins with a treasure map – or parts of one. It falls into the hands of the players as scraps of parchment wrapped around sticks of ivory for use in the Clerical spell, ‘Augury’. It shows a path to great treasure beyond mountains that stand behind a jungle in a far off land. Their only clue lies in the name of a trading port given on the map. The players begin at the edge of the jungle, which the party has learnt to be the home of a fiercely territorial tribe, as well as the fact that the mountains they are trekking to, are in fact, impassable. If they follow the map, the party should manage to skirt the bulk of the tribe and get into the mountains. Or rather get inside them. With the help of a mad fire giant, they discover that deep in the bowls, there a large magical construct.
This is the secret of the area. An ancient civilization built a pair of magical tunnels as a means of travelling through the mountains. In entering these, the traveller is converted to a gaseous form and blown by the wind to the other side. Unfortunately, the emergence of a volcano destroyed the civilization and threw the wind tunnels into a state of disrepair. The tunnels are one way, and whilst there is a way through to the valley, unless they can repair the tunnels, there is no way back. Further, since the system fell into disuse, it has become a prison for a demon. This itself could be another problem if you attempted to run this scenario under the second edition rules. TSR, fearing Christian outcry, dropped all reference to demons, devils and the like, which proliferated the first edition. That said, this is no longer a problem under the aegis Wizards of the Coast and the d20 system that has allowed a proliferation of sourcebooks for such creatures -- following the lead set by the Third Edition Monster Manual.
Beyond the tunnels, the party finds not a verdant ‘lost’ valley, but an arid dustbowl. The descendants of the ancient civilization, several tribes, each feuding over basic necessities, particularly water, inhabit the area. The tribes are a threat to the party if they discover that their cleric or druid can create water, such that a kidnap attempt will be made, despite their initially open overtures of friendship. Part of the fun for the DM in handling the tribe, is that although they speak common, they speak an archaic form and the adventure encourages the DM to ham this up!
If they can escape, their destination is the centre of the valley, which is marked by a building on the treasure map. From the tribe, they can also learn that this is the source of the greatest of treasures. Unfortunately it is not a safe refuge, as it is home to other descendants of the civilisation, a priest, the mad head of a mad and inbred family, including a variety of undead. Although there is plenty of treasure to be found in the temple, it is not as the title of the scenario suggests, the actual treasure in question. Rather it is water, and a ‘Decanter of Endless Water,’ that is the treasure and from which the priest dolls out treasure to the tribes outside. The other treasure that the party can find is the means to repair the tunnels so that they can get back to the outside world. When the tribes learn of the party’s incursion into the temple, they call a truce and lay siege to the temple. The means to get past them lies in negotiation, their bargaining chip being the decanter. Once the tunnels are repaired and the party has got back, the adventure is over, with their reward being a fair amount of loot and a tale to tell …
As I have already pointed out, this is a series of modules decidedly heavy on atmosphere. UK6 is no exception, but here it is somewhat difficult to pin down. Is it South American? Is it African? I would suggest that either would work, making it easy to slot the adventure into your own campaign or some of the more generic published campaigns, such as The Forgotten Realms. With the final part of this adventure’s use of undead such as ghouls and ghasts, as well as use of the lost civilisation and valley motifs, that it has a South American feel to it.
Perhaps the only thing that irritates about this adventure is the title. Not that I object to the use of the quotes, but rather to the use of a misquote. Not ‘All That Glitters …’, but rather it should be “All That Glisters … (is not gold) …”, from Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice. Otherwise, this is a fine adventure, with an intriguing use of some old themes. Even with the use of demons and other creatures from the Fiend Folio and Monster Manual II books, this is a solid little package, that is a potential bargain at an average price of just £7, and whilst it might not be the best of the UK series, it is neither the worst.
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