[No-Artpunk] #16 Dragonwrack

Dragonwrack
Jonathan Becker (a.k.a B/X Blackrazor)
AD&D 1e (UA strongly disrecommended)
Lvl 9 – 12
Page count: 40 + 6 maps
Classification: Golden Barge of Melnibone

Well he did it. Don’t ask me how. Black magic? A lifetime supply of bullet energy drink? The Holy spirit? Jonathan Becker somehow managed to get in an entry in 1 month time, its a pretty feisty one and there we fucking are. After tearing his way through all the other entries in the line-up, Dr. Jonathan ‘sigh…’ Becker is now himself on the chopping block.

This is a real ass scenario for real ass D&D players. Tiamat is up to no good. After an inadvertent gateing by a foolish wizard, she has set up shop in a remote area of the world and has begun forging her army of evil. Evil humanoids, berserkers, monks, fallen champions of good, DRAGONS and all manner of ne’erdowells have teamed up to bring the pain to the good guys. It is up to you to beat the shit out of Tiamat. You can do that via the functional CHAINMAIL mass combat scenario, or you can do that the old fashioned way: by infiltrating the temple and putting the SMACK down on Tiamat and her five different dragon armies.

A meaty scenario with a solid core. The peripherals are a bit leaner, probably on account of the time pressure. There is a page long overview of the city of Mosco and the surrounding environs, it’s not going to win any Gemmel awards but its good enough so you know what the hell is going on, you get a time line of both the allied armies and the dragon armies as they rush towards Tiamat’s stronghold for a forlorn hope assault. Needless to say, if the PC’s do not intervene the region falls to Tiamat’s legions.

The overland travel and city parts are sort of handwaved, as is the process of entering the city. Here I assume time contraints came into play while writing the scenario. It is given that the PCs will be able to find accomodations but no notes on trying to hide from the clientele, which is likely to consist mostly of one of the five dragon armies. The scenario proper is quite functional, but the connecting tissue, if the PCs are pursued, how difficult it is to set up a base of operations within the city proper etc. this is left open and could be stronger. What is appreciated is that the time line has a real effect on the scenario. The temple gets populated in swathes as the dragon armies rush to the fortress for a final defence, meaning there is a genuine incentive to move swiftly.

Temple proper is nice and meaty. The map is gorgeous and beastly, with multiple points of egress. A living complex filled with branded slaves, humanoid troops, Tiamat worshippers and various tricked out villainous captains. Occasionally there is a bit too much symmetry, more in the encounters then the geometry, each ‘wing’ of the complex having the more or less the same elements. I think this would have been more palatable by throwing occasional curveballs our way (and to his credit, this is at times done, this is as much a taste thing as anything else). What Becker gets right besides that is the scale and pageantry of the thing. A grand audience chamber where Tiamat and her five dragon lords hold court. The opulent chambers of the Lords. The interrogation chamber where the prisoners are held in durance vile etc. They are classics, and classics for a reason.

Hazards are numerous and direct, and the different factions remind me a bit of T1-4. 12 White Brethren (evil monks). 20-40 Elite gnolls. 2d4*10 Duergar. The place has over 10 dragons. Occasionally you can run into important NPCs accompanied by an honor guard, and a very nasty ambush involving 5 spectres and a doorway with a darkness spell cast on it but for the most part these are straightforward (the ghost trying to possess the PCs and then bargain with them into recovering his body (carrying a Ring of Wishes) in Tiamat’s garden is a welcome exception). I have no doubt that most of this works, but I do think it would have been made stronger with more tips for organization: notes on a general alarm, orders of battle, certain preparations against repeat forays etc. This can add a bit of extra reward for reconnoitering, though as is the keys and secret areas prevalent in the temple shall have to suffice. The weird, more beloved of OD&D but occasionally present in the works of E.G.G., is few and far between, the closest thing being the enchanted idols of dreaded Tiamat.

There’s a note on the useability of this thing. There are a lot of references to NPCs with custom stats so it might be worthwhile to consider printing abbreviated stattblocks below the relevant encounters.

Treasure. JB does not fuck around. Besides multiple artifacts and what appears to be several bootleg Dragonlances and half the fucking items in the DMG, we are also given generous amounts of treasure, provided the party can make it into the war chests of the various armies. There is a bit of depth here too. Stealing the banners of the various forces severly hampers that army’s abilities in mass combat. I would have expected a similar or equivalent provision for raiding an army’s treasury. The total treasure must be upward of 500k, not including the tonnes of magic items, although you might have to pry a lot of that from Tiamat and her fucking five consorts. All of this is lavishly guarded by fairly straightforward but deadly traps, poison needles and glyphs for the most part. The opportunity to rescue prisoners (and the execution of prisoners as time goes on) adds an extra dimension.

W.r.t taking on ole’ five heads this is where the seemingly straightforward scenario gains a bit of hidden depth. I suspect a full frontal assault against Tiamat and her 5 consorts (all dragons), even with 10 characters of level 9-12, will prove to be more or less suicidal even with a full compliment of spells and items. The party shall have to obtain some of the Dragon ahem Spurs, Orb of Dragonkind or assorted storehouses of magic weaponry if they wish to stand more then a snowball’s chance in hell, and even so, there is a cunning secondary objective (I would consider highlighting it at the beginning since it is easily missed) that adds a secondary complication.

Then there are the extra credits. No I am not talking about the artisinal stable of premades, each furnished with exactly one paragraph of background so they can be used in the scenario, as well as a tasteful handful of magic items and abilities. That’s expecting. I am talking about J.B. writing a fucking CHAINMAIL SUPPLEMENT for dragons so you can actually just play out all the mass combats in the adventure. Probably some sort of map of the battlefield would have been called for but holy shit this is dedication. I don’t play Chainmail, I have no idea how functional this all is but talk about going the extra mile and using a system that has been battle-tested. Bravo!

Dragonwrack is heavy, formidable, and punchy. It is a bit conventional by most standards (but then JB is a formidable force of orthodoxy on this blog) but it makes up for that in pulchritude and no-nonsense functionality. I think if some tips on organization were added and the connective tissue expanded it would be even stronger. As is, thank you JB, for showing the kids how to do a no-nonsense high level scenario of appropriate scope and difficulty. Very cool.