Tower of the Necromancer
Author: Riley
System: Swords & Wizardry
Party Size: 3-4
Level Range: 1-2
Hidden amongst a copse of trees atop a small cliff lies the tower of Santha of Nikoza, the Conjurer. Recently villagers have reported seeing undead and hearing strange moaning sounds.
What's really going on? The magic-user has captured a blink dog and her two pups, whose pitiful howls echo through the caves (this is the ghostly moaning heard by villagers). The magic-user has been experimenting on the blink dog and his magical research has resulted in the flesh of his sell-sword guards phasing out and becoming transparent, giving them the appearance of skeletons (these are the reported undead). Finally, the experiments have caused his charmed ogre servant to periodically teleport to a random location nearby.
The rumors are all pieces of information the party needs to get started (except the false one), so they shouldn't be rumors but simply part of the introduction (as already partially referenced above). Why the party would want to investigate the site isn't specified so it's up to the DM. No reward or incentive is offered by anyone, either.
Turns out Santha isn't an evil necromancer at all, but a "not evil" 4th-level conjurer (not sure the significance of level titles in S&W, but in AD&D these titles indicate a significant difference in ability). He just wants to be left alone to continue his normal, not-necromantic arcane research. His mercs are there to keep people away. Then the author throws us this curveball:
"[This adventure site] doesn’t need to be a dungeon crawl; Santha will be open to hiring adventurers to perform duties for him that would otherwise require him to travel. If adventurers are found to be trespassing, the reception will be less warm."
Okay.
The key starts with a description of the general approaches to the cliff-top tower: A direct path through the forest and up the cliff, or a pair of entrances into a cavern system and cellars below the tower. Then we get a few descriptive sentences about each of the exterior locations: The forest approach (where the party can encounter some "skeletons" i.e., the mercenaries with transparent flesh); the tower itself (with the name of the resident in elvish above the door); and both cave entrances, from which the party can hear the "strange moaning."
Now, the sound of howling puppies is pretty damn recognizable—not at all like the "harrowing" groans of the living dead—so the mystery here escapes me. Or even the need for it. Tell me I hear moaning undead, I'm liable to avoid the cave at 1st level. Tell me I hear puppies howling in despair and I'm charging inside to rip somebody's head off. I get it, it's all in service to the bait-and-switch designed to trick the PCs into trespassing on private property and probably, at a bare minimum, committing some sort of breaking-and-entering crime. At worst, the party will accidentally murder up to nine innocent people and steal all their valuables.
The front door is marked with the resident's name and actual level title in Elvish. More subterfuge. This revelation may tip the players off that something else is going on here and give them pause about attacking immediately, but more than likely, they're just going to assume this person was the former resident who was slain by the necromancer that now occupies the site (according to the fake background).
The inside of the tower was once opulent, but is now old and worn. The lower tower levels are occupied by 8 mercenary fighters (stats as bandits). Some treasure can be found with basic searching, but there's nothing else of interest here. The magic-user lives on the top floor, but the stairs are trapped with an exploding glyph, which is a clerical spell in "regular" D&D (and a 3rd level one at that). Again, I don't really know S&W so maybe it's different?
Santha's room is furnished with some alchemical equipment along with a few treasure items. The tower's general description says to roll encounters "normally" but doesn't give a rate or chance, so whatever constitutes normal in S&W. If an encounter occurs, there is a 1:6 chance to encounter the magic-user traveling between his room and laboratory, but what is the chance he is here in his room? The text doesn't say, though he's statted up in this section. He has taken the time to learn all the optimal spells a magic-user would need for a good dungeon crawl/mass combat. (But the premise here is that he is studying/doing research? Is he expecting trouble? Isn't that why he hired the guys? Or does he plan to Magic Missile his research? Maybe surround it in Darkness? Put it to Sleep?)
The cavern level is described next, where things get a lot livelier. As a result of the 4th-level magic-user's experimentation on the blink dog, "his charmed ogre" ally now teleports every turn between one of four caves (including the entrance). But ogres are not affected by Charm Person, and Charm Monster is a 5th level spell (in D&D at least). Regardless, Santha doesn't have any sort of charm spell memorized in his stat block and his spellbook is never mentioned in the writeup, so... just go with it.
The charmed, teleporting ogre will presumably destroy the recommended party of 3-4 lowbies when they meet, which will happen almost immediately as the adventurers must pass through three of the four teleportation caves just to get inside, while the fourth cave is a junction into every other part of the level. Eight (smaller?) giant spiders live in the back of one section of the caves, while 7 giant centipedes lurk in another. If the party somehow survives the ogre, these critters are probably going to finish them off. Maybe S&W is balanced differently, so I could be off-base here, admittedly. (I also wonder why the critters don't attack and eat the ogre when it's asleep.)
The caves open into the tower cellars, where a pair of blink dog pups are held captive in an arcane circle to prevent them from blinking away. (Gosh, I hope their mom is okay.) They howl piteously but also in a way that sounds exactly like undead moaning apparently, so be prepared for an overcautious party to just murder the puppies, assuming they're an illusion or some other ruse. There's an empty storeroom with a trapdoor up to the tower, and then the magic-user's laboratory, where a vivisected mama blink dog lies on the table. (Nooo!!) Is Santha here? Doesn't say.
Treasure amounts to almost 2,600 gpv, mostly in coins, gems, and jewelry, though a few pieces are object-related (fancy robes, books, alchemical equipment, etc.). The mercs don't carry any loot, though some may be found in their footlockers. But to get almost 100% of the treasure, the party will need to kill Santha and his mercs, and steal all their stuff.
Magic items are scarce, as they probably should be for a low-level adventure site. A Potion of Healing (classic), a Mirror of Mental Scrying (?), a +1 Two-handed Sword, six Potions of Invisible Flesh that make the drinker look like a skeleton for 24 hours, and most notably, a Magic Net that prevents anyone trapped in it from teleporting or phasing. This is an incredibly powerful and useful item that totally won't come back to haunt the DM someday. The blink dog pups may also come in handy if they can be tamed. Not sure what the total XP would be with the monsters and items, but maybe enough to gain second level or get a good chunk of the way to third.
And that's it folks. This is definitely a site, but how adventurous it will be depends on your party because there's not much to do here except kill some people and critters minding their own business and doing absolutely nothing wrong (ogre-charming and blink dog-murdering notwithstanding).
Or the party can talk to them and maybe get another job elsewhere... hope you have another adventure site ready.
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1) THEME
(How strong/consistent is the adventure's premise, flavor, and setting?)
The theme here may appear to be "mage's tower," but it's not. The theme is: "Let's trick our group of players into making a rash decision based on intentionally-faulty information with little chance for their low-level, poorly-equipped characters to understand the true picture before initiative commences." At that, this adventure succeeds wonderfully.
The party can enter the front door, where they may be confronted by a few skeletons in leather armor and swords, actually the transformed mercenaries specifically hired to guard this place against intruders. Roll initiative. If not, then the party is free to explore the lower level and find some loot, but now they've committed trespass and possibly theft. Further exploration will eventually bring them into contact with the skeletal mercs, particularly when the "glyph" explodes outside the magic-user's room. In any case, according to the intro text, the guards will not treat trespassers warmly, so roll initiative.
If the party enters the main cave entrance, there is a high probability of encountering the teleporting ogre in one of the first two caves, so roll initiative. If they get lucky and the ogre is in one of the other two caves, then they either encounter giant centipedes or giant spiders, so roll initiative. Presumably, since these side caves are close to the ogre's caves, combat in either area will bring the ogre, so roll initiative. If the party takes the narrow cave entrance, they encounter giant spiders (the same ones as above), so roll initiative. Again, the ogre will probably hear this, so...
My point here is that the DM's introduction to this adventure has primed the party to come into this site guns-a-blazin'. They have zero reason to suspect that any (much less all) of the setup information is false, and upon their arrival at the site, the initial evidence ("the unnerving sound of undead moaning") strongly reinforces the "truth" of the setup info.
To repeat, Santha and his men have done nothing (much) wrong, so the chance here of a misunderstanding or miscommunication resulting in a terrible crime is high. VERY high. Maybe this magic-user has it coming for performing experiments on a sentient, Lawful Good being with its own language, but do any local laws apply here? Does Santha have any friends or allies? What is his alignment? (The text says he's "not evil" but an argument can be made that neither is he good.) What is his standing in local society? The answers to these questions all contain serious potential consequences for the party, having been misled by the DM—ON PURPOSE.
There's just no reason to shitcan the party like this, and it's really kind of malfeasance on the part of the referee. The players rely on a neutral DM to impart a certain amount of "known" information—the adventure setup that they reasonably assume to be true. It doesn't mean that no "false" information can ever enter into the equation, but there should be some context for it (WHY are we misleading the party?) and the party should have some reason to suspect the information may be false—or the source, faulty—as part of their decision-making process (even if the reason is given subtly). This is a simple matter of narrative "fairness," in the same sense that a DM shouldn't pose the players with a puzzle that has no solution, or a riddle with no answer. Sure, you can do it, it's easy; but it's an abuse of game responsibility.
Moving on...
The keyed descriptions of the interior locations are well-written enough and concise, though absolutely mundane in terms of helping the DM set a thematic mood (e.g., "Santha’s chambers are large and richly decorated.") Can't you just imagine the arcane splendor of the conjurer's inner sanctum?
SCORE (THEME) = 1 / 5
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2) MAP AND ART
(How complex/useful is the map and/or art? How easy is it to grok the layout?)
Area C (the key location entitled "Bottom of the Cliff") is not indicated on either of the maps, though we can infer its rough location by correlating the tower map trapdoor with the cellar trapdoor and counting squares.
There's an unclear connection between areas 2-6 and 2-10. Is this a wall? An overlook? A secret door?
SCORE (MAP/ART) = 3 / 5
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3) CLARITY
(How easy is the writeup to read/parse quickly? How well does the information flow?)
The text is in two-column format, left-aligned, with wide margins and gutter and plenty of line spacing. The document is easy to read, though the transitions between sections can get lost in the equal title weights and bolding, reducing the ability to scan quickly (but not by much). Creatures are italicized, though no stat block or hit points are included. The variety of monsters is limited and the populations are all concentrated in the same spots, so there won't be too much page-flipping to find the monster's stats in the book.
The Adventure Summary sections are not ordered well in terms of information flow. Paragraph 1 is the 10,000' view of the adventure, two simple sentences that establish the key points. It's fine where it is. Paragraph 2 is the "What's Going On here?" information, but it references details that aren't established until later paragraphs (e.g., that Santha is not an evil necromancer or that the undead figures are reported to be "skeletons"). Paragraph 3 is some guidance on placing the site and then a table of rumors, while paragraph 4 details the truth about Santha and his men, their openness to cooperation, and a vague order-of-battle if the party decides to behave like a normal party would in this situation.
Paragraph 2 should slide down after the rumor table, moving original paragraph 3 and the rumor table up by one section. We want the rumors to come before the material in paragraph 2 because they set up some questions that the details of paragraph 2 answer. Reorganized, the summary information now flows from: Introduction > Site Placement > Rumors > What's Going On > Santha's Motivations and Objectives. Then we move into the key for the exterior and interior locations. Boom, we're done.
The rest of it reads well, except the room key in the caves is off by one number, from areas 2-6 to 2-10. As written, cave 2-6 is actually exterior area E (now described twice), meaning the descriptions for 2-7, 2-8, and 2-9 in the key are actually describing areas 2-6, 2-7, and 2-8. The actual areas of 2-9 and 2-10 are both labeled 2-6 in the key.
SCORE (CLARITY) = 3 / 5
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4) INTERACTIVITY/INNOVATION
(How well does the adventure use the rules to create interesting play?)
There's really nothing to do here except fight or parley. If the party parleys, then the adventure is over unless they decide to become belligerent. There is very little in the way of exploration, none of the doors are locked, there are no secret doors or traps to find (other than the invisible glyph, maybe), the sensory clues are false, none of the treasure is hidden.
Oh, wait! At the very end, we read: "A rusty iron gate leads out into a cave system, the door is locked..." (Woo-hoo! Something to do!!) "...however the key for this door and the cells are hung upon the wall." (D'oh!)
SCORE (INTERACTIVITY) = 0 / 5
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5) MODULARITY
(How easy would it be to drop/integrate the adventure into an existing campaign?)
"This adventure site is designed to be placed in any forested hex near a small town or village."
This is an accurate statement.
SCORE (MODULARITY) = 3 / 5
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6) USABILITY
(How much work will the referee have to do to run this adventure at the table tonight?)
None, if you just want a place for your party to murder-hobo their way through, or if you don't intend for your party to have an adventure tonight and just want them to meet an NPC quest-giver.
If you want to present an actual adventure with goals and clear enemies, then you'll need to figure out a different background. If you want the site to also feature some good dungeoneering opportunities and interactivity to keep a low-level party engaged and on its toes, then you'll need to add all that to this framework. But you'll also have to ask yourself why you wouldn't just create your own site.
Usable, but only to a point. Ymmv.
SCORE (USABILITY) = 3 / 5
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7) OVERALL THOUGHTS
This one has a lot of elements of classic "vanilla" D&D—which I am always down for—but it lacks any of the fundamental gameplay elements necessary for adventure, starting with a coherent objective.
If I foisted this adventure on my players as written, I'd receive an earful of complaints after it was over, and probably be left with a big campaign mess I would have to fix somehow. They would scream, "What was the point of that?!" And I wouldn't have an answer.
FINAL SCORE = 2.1 / 5
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