When the D&D 3rd Edition Player’s Handbook was released at Gen Con 2000, two third-party modules were available the same day on the convention floor: Atlas Games’ Three Days to Kill by John Tynes and Green Ronin’s Death in Freeport by Chris Pramas. The first official D&D module for 3rd Edition, The Sunless Citadel by Bruce Cordell, wouldn’t be released until September 2000. This might seem totally unremarkable today, but that’s only a testament to how truly revolutionary the moment was at the time. This was the birth of the OGL, and the hobby and industry would never be the same again.

I was and am a big fan of all three of these modules. When I launched my first D&D 3rd Edition campaign, I used Three Days to Kill and used the end of that adventure to plant a hook that would lead the PCs to The Sunless Citadel. (My second 3rd Edition campaign would start with Death in Freeport.)

At this time, I was prepping mix-tape soundtracks for every adventure that I ran, with tracks cued to specific locations, characters, events, and scenes. I would also often take these soundtracks, burn them to CD, create cover art, and give them to the players as mementos. (You can see the CD cases for the Sunless Citadel soundtrack above.)

I’ve previously shared one of the soundtracks from my D&D adventure The Fifth Sepulcher. As I was recently prepping my review of The Sunless Citadel, I revisited my notes for the adventure, found the original soundtrack listing I’d used, and thought it might be fun to share it here. It can be just as easily used with the 5th Edition version of the adventure, which was published in Tales from the Yawning Portal.

SUNLESS CITADEL – SOUNDTRACK

Oakhill

1. The Journey North (Final Fantasy IV, Track 7, Main Theme)
2. Avenue of Stone (Princess Mononoke – Japanese Soundtrack, Track 1)
3. The Villagers (Ancient Airs & Dances, Track 4, L’usignuolo)
4. Oakhill (Ancient Airs & Dances, Track 8, Villanella)
5. To the Citadel (Final Fantasy IV, Track 33, Somewhere in the World)

The Sunless Citadel

6. Song of the Citadel (Final Fantasy VIII, Track 2-7, Galbadia Garden)
7. The Threatened Halls (Final Fantasy IX Plus, Track 13)
8. Haunted Ways (Final Fantasy VIII, Track 3-14, The Salt Flats)
9. Shadows of Suspense (Lost in Space, Track 13, The Proteus)
10. The Eldest Halls (Planets – Holst, Track 5, Saturn – The Bringer of Old Age)

Combat

11. The Thrill of Blades (Final Fantasy IX Plus, Track 3) – set-up to fast pace
12. The Goblin Drums (Final Fantasy VIII, Track 1-9, Starting Up) – thrilling to steady pace
13. Race to Perdition (Final Fantasy VIII, Track 2-5, Only a Plan Between One and Perdition)
14. A Suspended Breath (Princess Mononoke – Japanese Soundtrack, Track 2) – suspense to combat

The Dark Grove

15. The Greeting of Belak (Final Fantasy VIII, Track 2-6, Succession of Witches)
16. The Temptation of Belak (Final Fantasy VIII, Track 1-8, The Landing) – 50 seconds to combat, segue to Track 17
17. The Death of Belak (Final Fantasy VIII, Track 2-12, Fithos Lusec Wecos Vinosec)
18. The Blackened Trees (Final Fantasy VIII, Track 1-6, Find Your Way)
19. The Dark Grove (Princess Mononoke – Japanese Soundtrack, Track 6)
20. The Cavern of Stars (Universal Sampler ’92, Track 8, And Evening Falls)
21. The First Seal (Final Fantasy VIII, Track 3-4, Blue Sky)

SOUNDTRACK GUIDE – CAMPAIGN TRACKS

There are a couple of places where this soundtrack reflects how I homebrewed The Sunless Citadel to it into my ongoing campaign, so let’s take a peek at those first.

Track 1 – The Journey North: As I mentioned above, I started the campaign with Three Days to Kill. The PCs headed north to reach Oakhill and the Sunless Citadel, and this was the soundtrack for that.

Track 2 – Avenue of Stone: I placed the village of Oakhill, where The Sunless Citadel begins, in a section of my campaign world that had once been ruled by an Elven empire. (The Citadel was also lightly themed to support this and reveal some of the secret history of this Elvish civilization.) Taking inspiration from Avebury, I embedded the village in druidic circles, including a mystically preserved wood circle (known as an ilda circle):

As you emerge from the far end of the tunnel, you find yourself standing just a few short feet away from two large blocks of wood – nearly four meters tall and half as wide – on either side of the road. It takes you a moment to realize that fourteen others just like them stand in a circle. Each is inscribed with runes which seem to glow a faint blue in the waning sunlight.

The road passes through the center of the circle, and continues on beyond it.

Then, as at ancient Avebury, an avenue of stone led to Oakhill, and then another from Oakhill to the Citadel:

The Unen’dil runs for nearly three miles before its stones begin to decrease in size. The avenue of stone is abruptly interrupted by a natural ravine. At the point where the ravine actually intercepts the road, it more closely resembles a deep, but narrow, canyon. Beyond this ravine you can see a few more of the smaller standing stones of the Ulen’dil, but you notice that – on that side of the ravine – the stones seem to be suffering the weathering of great age. The road also continues, but – like the South Road you came in on – the North Road loses its ancient precision beyond the boundary of the standing stones.

Several broken posts stand on either side of the ravine. It appears that a bridge of some sort once reached across the gap in the road here, but it has collapsed. The ravine itself runs out of sight in an east-west direction.

So this track was picked to set the mood for this ancient history.

Track 21 – The First Seal: The campaign arc involving the PCs finding and sealing three ancient seals that had been damaged as a result of their actions during Three Days to Kill. The hook for The Sunless Citadel was that one of these seals was located within the Citadel, so this track is the grand finale.

SOUNDTRACK GUIDE

Oakhill

Tracks 1 & 2: See above.

Tracks 3 & 4: These are, obviously, for the PCs’ arrival and interaction in Oakhill.

Track 5 – To the Citadel: Track title says it all.

The Sunless Citadel

Track 6 – Song of the Citadel: This was intended to be the default background music for the Citadel.  I used it as the PCs entered the Citadel for the first time, and then I’d loop back to this track out of the other Sunless Citadel/Combat tracks. It was really too short for that, but using it as a transition between other pieces helped with that a bit.

Track 7 – The Threatened Halls: Used for kobold areas.

Track 8 – Haunted Ways: Areas 28, 29, and 30.

Track 9 – Shadows of Suspense: Used for goblin areas.

Track 10 – The Eldest Halls: Area 20

Combat

These were, obviously, used for various combat scenes. They were lightly themed to different opponents (e.g., “The Goblin Drums” was my default for kicking off goblin fights), although I would also swap between tracks to keep things fresh.

You can also see that I notated the track list to indicate the pace/tone/structure of the track. This would help me in sort of “live mixing” the music. (For example, if we reached a suspenseful moment in a fight — maybe somebody was making a vital saving throw! — that might be a good time to swap to “A Suspended Breath – suspense to combat.”)

The Dark Grove

These tracks were keyed to the lower level of the Sunless Citadel.

Tracks 15, 16, 17: These tracks scored the final meeting (and probably fight) with Belak, the dark lord of the Sunless Citadel.

Track 18 – The Blackened Trees: This was the default background track for the lower levels.

Track 19 – The Dark Grove: Areas 49, 54, 56

Track 20 – Cavern of Stars: Area 55

FURTHER READING
Music in Roleplaying Games

The D20 Trademark License means that Wizards of the Coast has to compete with John Tynes, Chris Pramas, John Nephew, and a half dozen design studios. Can they do it? Of course they can.

Review Originally Published December 29th, 2000

Writing a low-level adventure for D&D is a thankless and difficult task: The most interesting monsters in the game don’t become available until the characters start hitting the mid-range levels. The challenges you do concoct must be kept simple. Nor can you effectively spice things up with intrigue, because low-level characters are assumed to be low on society’s totem pole.

With The Sunless Citadel, however, Bruce Cordell has put together an extremely impressive introductory package for WotC’s first generic module for the third edition game. Not only has he taken the usual suspects of goblins and kobolds and done something interesting with them, he’s also designed a dynamic environment with the assumption that the PCs will be gaining experience and power as they go. The result is something I haven’t really seen since the heyday of the 1st edition classics: A module with some real heft to it – with a lot of potential to leave your play group with epic stories. And, unlike its 1st edition predecessors, The Sunless Citadel doesn’t suffer from an unbelievable scenario and nonexistent plotting – quite the contrary.

The fact that Cordell has pulled this off in 32 pages designed for 1st level characters is extremely impressive.

PLOT

Warning: This review will contain spoilers for The Sunless Citadel. Players who may end up playing in this module are encouraged to stop reading now. Proceed at your own risk.

The structure which is now known as the Sunless Citadel was a “once-proud fortress that fell into the earth in an age long past”. Three important things have occurred in the long years which have passed since: First, a vampire was killed deep in the core of the citadel. The stake which pierced his heart was green, however, and took root. The tree which grew – known as the Gulthias Tree – is a thing of unspeakable evil. Twice each year the Gulthias Tree gives forth a single fruit: At Midsummer a ruby-red apple capable of granting health, vigor, and life; at Midwinter an albino apple which takes the same. There is a catch to this, however: The seeds of either fruit, if planted, will grow into a tree – which will then transform itself into a hideous and mischievous creature known as a twig blight. The Gulthias Tree is currently tended by an evil druid by the name of Belak, who has hatched a plan to infect the world with these twig blights.

Second, the citadel became the home of a roving goblin tribe – who have allied with Belak (largely because Belak and the strange Gulthias Tree frighten them).

Third, and most recently, a group of kobolds – seeking to worship the dragon gods of the citadel, have also moved in (coming into conflict with the goblins). The kobolds brought with them a young dragon hatchling (showing the flexibility of the third edition – allowing even first level characters to effectively tangle with dragons) – who has recently been kidnapped by the goblins.

The module is location-based: The PCs need to move through the sections of the dungeon controlled by the kobolds, then the goblins, and finally into the lower levels which are dominated by the Gulthias Tree. There is also a section of the citadel which has remained sealed since it sunk beneath the earth – giving a total of four different adventuring environments for the PCs. (There is also an entrance to the Underdark, which can be used at the GM’s discretion.) However, the module also has its dynamic components: For example, if the PCs keep their heads about them they can negotiate with the kobolds and use them as allies to punch through the goblin-controlled territory.

Cordell also does a nice job of planting a couple of seeds (pardon the pun) for future adventures: For example, the twig blights which have been released on the surface are still running around – and the PCs may end up running into them again.

WEAKNESSES

All right, I think the case has been sufficiently made for why you should pick up The Sunless Citadel, so let me now spend a couple of quick minutes analyzing its faults:

First, the adventuring hooks are fairly weak. The only one with real potential, in my opinion, involves the heroes being hired to discover what happened to another adventuring party which disappeared after going out to the Citadel (this is developed nicely in the module itself – the only weakness being that there’s really no explanation for why this other adventuring party decided to head to the Citadel in the first place).

Second, there’s no EL chart for this adventure. Dungeon Magazine has them. The third party developers have them. One should be here – particularly considering the probable desire for DMs to do on-the-fly adjustments to EL levels.

Third, there’s one whopping inconsistency at the adventure’s conclusion: Two of the missing adventurers have been captured by Belak, who has used the Gulthias Tree to transform them into helpless supplicants. The primary adventure text claims that, if the Gulthias Tree is cut down, the supplicants will become mindless and bestial. A sidebar specifically designed to explain the supplicants, however, claims that, if the Gulthias Tree is cut down, the supplicants will immediately die.

Fourth, Cordell does a really excellent job of making the Sunless Citadel a dungeon that makes sense… almost. There are a couple of key flaws here, both of which involve the goblins: First, it makes sense for Belak to be here (this is where the Gulthias Tree is). It also makes sense for the kobolds to be here (they’re worshipping the dragon idols of the Citadel). Unfortunately, the goblins aren’t given a similarly compelling reason for deciding to live here: Why don’t they go up to the surface and farm the vast expanses of empty land which the adventure text tells us surround the citadel?

The other key flaw is far more disturbing to the adventure’s essential structure: Belak uses the goblins to sell the magical fruit of the Gulthias Tree to the nearby villagers (who plant the fruit, furthering the spread of the twig blights across the surface world). Unfortunately, Cordell has designed a dungeon in which the goblins have been completely cut off from the surface world by the kobolds. Whoops.

The only other major problem I have with The Sunless Citadel is this: Dungeon Magazine has a lower price, more pages, and higher production values. Something doesn’t quite add up there.

But my rave review of Dungeon is for another time. Suffice it to say, for now, that The Sunless Citadel is a bargain at ten bucks: Although its only thirty-two pages long, there’s enough material here to fuel your game for at least two weeks and possibly as much as month. Great stuff.

Style: 4
Substance: 4

Title: The Sunless Citadel
Authors: Bruce R. Cordell
Company: Wizards of the Coast
Line: Dungeons & Dragons
Price: $9.95
ISBN: 0-7869-1640-0
Production Code: TSR11640
Pages: 32

Phew! Thank goodness this module has such great plotting, right? (Oof.)

As I’ve mentioned in a few previous commentary on these older reviews, Justin the Younger was still operating under the Plot is Adventure/Adventure is Plot paradigm even as I was beginning to figure out the pitfalls of that paradigm. This sometimes produced cringe-worthy results; sometimes just ones that are a little incoherent to my modern eyes.

Also feels like I was aggressively nitpicky in trying to find “weaknesses” in the module. The only criticism I actually have of the module today is that its dungeon design is a little over-linear, but fortunately it’s not particularly difficult to xander it up. The truth is my esteem for The Sunless Citadel has only grown over the years: I’ve run it three or four times now, and almost certainly will again. The lore is cool, the factions compelling, the upper level fun to explore, and the lower level creepy as hell.

The Sunless Citadel is also the birthplace of the twig blights. And I love those little bastards.

For an explanation of where these reviews came from and why you can no longer find them at RPGNet, click here.

DISCUSSING
In the Shadow of the Spire – Session 41A: Dominic’s Denunciation

“I would ask your help,” Agnarr said. He pulled the body of the boy out of his bag of holding. “Is there anything you can do?”

“Perhaps,” Aoska said, examining the boy. “The damage runs deep. It will take us time to find a cure, if one is possible at all. And we would need to keep this collar upon him, to preserve him in his current state of stasis.”

Agnarr readily agreed. “Send word.”

The iron collar used to preserve the horrifically transformed child in a state of gentle repose is, if I say so myself, a pretty cool magic item. The players loved it. The flavor was fun, the aesthetic was punk, and the utility was phenomenal (in both keeping them alive and conserving their healing resources).

I hadn’t actually expected it to be such a big hit when I added it to the Laboratory of the Beast, but I was equally delighted by its presence in the campaign.

So why take it away from them?

Precisely because it was important to them.

And also because saving the life of the boy was important to them.

Taking a step back, one of your fundamental goals as a GM is to get the players to care about the campaign. Almost everything else is built on top of that. If they don’t care, then nothing else matters. But if you can get them to care about something – literally anything – in the campaign, then you can use that to get them invested: Outcomes suddenly matter. Consequences have meaning. The stuff they experience at the table will stick with them and they’ll be champing at the bit to come back and play again.

Care often works like a circle: The easiest thing to get a player to care about is their own PC. They invested personal effort into making the character; it’s quite likely they were creatively engaged during character creation; and the more they play the character, the more time they’ve personally invested in it.

It’s also usually pretty easy to grow the circle a little bit and get the player to care about the other PCs in the group: They’re directly connected to real people that the player is spending time with and likely already cares about.

Expanding the circle more than that, though, can feel like a quantum leap. You’re asking the players to care about things that don’t actually exist.

Tee insisted that Tor deal with it. He had been the one to kill them; it was his problem to solve.

“You’ve forgotten your compassion,” Tee said. “This place has made you hard.”

Tor nodded. “Sometimes you need to be hard to survive. I learned that from the horses.”

If the players can make that leap, though, the payoff can be huge. Your options for motivating them (and for motivating themselves) multiply exponentially. You can run far better horror games by putting things at risk other than the PCs’ life or death. Roleplaying will become richer and, as the players become invested in the stakes, more intense.

The other great thing is that this care can be viral: Once the players start caring about one thing in the campaign world, it will naturally lead to them carrying about other things.

You can also use this to your advantage: It can be hard to get them to care directly about some abstract idea (e.g., the Duchy of Kithos trying to win its independence from the Empire), but if you can get them to start caring about a character, then you can use that get them to care about the things that character cares about. (Or, if that care takes the form of loathing the NPC, then vice versa.)

So what I’m looking at in this session is a goddamn holy grail: The players have literally never even spoken to this NPC, but they have become emotionally invested in his fate and are willing to go out of their way to help him. Jackpot! This is what winning looks like!

Naturally, of course, the PCs now go looking for a way to help this NPC. When you see something like this happen at the game table, you might think to yourself, “Well, the last thing I want to do is discourage them! So I should make it as easy as possible for them to help the boy!”

Surprisingly, though, it turns out that this is exactly the opposite of what you want to do.

Which brings us back to the collar.

The collar is a cost. The players want to accomplish something and I’m making them pay a price to do it.

Vitally, this was a choice for them. If, I dunno, an astral vulture swooped out of the Ethereal Plane, grabbed the collar, and flew off, that would be meaningless. Even if Aoska, without announcing her intentions, had just zapped the collar out of existence and used its magical power to restore the boy, the effect wouldn’t be the same.

This cost is also not capricious, obviously. It flows logically from the narrative. As the GM, though, I could have declared that the Pale Tower had their own resources for dealing with the situation and let Agnarr take the collar with him.

But by imposing a cost, I’m forcing the players to demonstrate their care. I’m asking them, “Do you care enough about this to pay this cost?” Paradoxically, this makes them care even more. By paying the cost, they’ve become invested. The thing they’re paying the cost for – and, by extension, the game world as a whole – becomes endowed with value.

It turns out that this works even if they don’t pay the cost; if they had said, “No, this cost is too high. We can’t help this boy.” (Which is something that actually did happen earlier in the campaign when Tee couldn’t bear the cost of selling her house to save Jasin. Although in that case it was Agnarr’s player who proposed the cost; I didn’t even have to get my hands dirty.) In making the decision to pay or not pay the cost, the players have made a value judgment. Just making that value judgment gets them thinking critically about the game world (and their opinions of the gme world), which is enough.

This can work if the cost is just monetary. But it works even better if the cost is something more concrete than that – a specific person, organization, ideal, or, as in this case, object.

The fact that the cost, in this case, is also something they care about only enhances the result.  This is one of the reasons that care can become viral, but it’s also where the hard choices come from.

And the harder the choice, the bigger the payoff.

Campaign Journal: Session 41B – Running the Campaign: What the Magic Looks Like
In the Shadow of the Spire: Index

IN THE SHADOW OF THE SPIRE

SESSION 41A: DOMINIC’S DENUNCIATION

August 15th, 2009
The 22nd Day of Kadal in the 790th Year of the Seyrunian Dynasty

Still standing over the bodies of Malleck and Silion another argument broke out regarding the dead, half-transformed boy they had half-saved. Many of them felt that his case was hopeless: Even Malleck had said that there was no cure for his piteous plight.

But Agnarr was adamant that they should at least try.

“But what can you do?” Tee said.

“We can find someone who can help,” Agnarr said. “We have friends who can help.”

“Like who?!” Elestra said, exasperated.

“Zavere.”

“I’m not sure I trust Zavere,” Tee said.

“Or the Pale Tower.”

“Fine. But if you want to do it, it’s yours to do.”

“Give me the papers.”

“What papers?”

“The papers describing what they did to him,” Agnarr said. “They might help.”

Ranthir was loath to part with them, but he eventually relented.

A DUMPING OF BODIES

Agnarr took the papers and left them, heading towards the Pale Tower. A quarter hour later he was knocking on the great door of the Tower.

The Graven One swung the doors open.

“I would ask for your help,” Agnarr said. He pulled the body of the boy out of his bag of holding.

The Graven One looked down inscrutably. “I think we should go inside.”

Agnarr nodded and followed him. When the door was shut behind them, the Graven One excused himself. He returned a few minutes later with Aoska.

Agnarr explained the situation to them and gave Aoska the research. “Is there anything you can do?”

“Perhaps,” Aoska said, examining the boy. “The damage runs deep. It will take us time to find a cure, if one is possible at all. And we would need to keep this collar upon him, to preserve him in his current state of stasis.”

Agnarr readily agreed. “Send word.”

“We will,” Aoska promised.

Meanwhile, Elestra and Tor were taking care of the bodies. Tee suggested that they use a cart full of hay to move them inconspicuously. (“How do you know so much about moving corpses?” Elestra asked. “I’ve been hanging around with you,” Tee replied.) But she insisted that Tor deal with it: He had been the one to kill them; it was his problem to solve.

“You’ve forgotten your compassion,” Tee said. “This place has made you hard.”

Tor nodded. “Sometimes you need to be hard to survive. I learned that from the horses.”

On the way to the Midden Heaps they ran into a watch patrol. There was another moment of nervousness, but, like their fellows earlier in the day, these watchmen recognized Tor and they passed on without incident. At the Midden Heaps they had to pay a special premium to dispose of the load themselves, but this, too, was easily enough done. Silion and Malleck disappeared into the midst of the slag heaps.

Tee, Ranthir, and Nasira sold their loot from the two temples. Against the hope that they would benefit from such fortunes again, they decided to invest in another bag of holding. At Myraeth’s they found one formed from links of golden chain with a dragon worked in crimson links within it. It was larger than the ones they already owned, and Tee – envying the dragon design – was depressed to find it was too bulky and heavy for her to carry. (Ranthir took it instead, nestling it among his many pouches and bags.)

Ranthir stayed at Myraeth’s a while longer (purchasing scrolls and various miscellaneous supplies) before returning to his room to study.

Tee grabbed newsletters from several vendors throughout Midtown. She discovered that their rescue of the slaves at the Temple of the Rat God was already making headlines. Tor, in particular, was being widely named for his heroic acts, and even his return of the imprisoned children was finding its way into the rapidly circulating stories.

She also discovered that Dominic had denounced Rehobath.

DOMINIC’S DENUNCIATION

Empress Square could be found in the northern reaches of Oldown. (They had passed it often on their way to Pythoness House and the Banewarrens, in fact.) At its center stood a large statue of red marble, depicting Empress Elyanella of Seyrun.

Tee knew that the “Empress Elyanella” had not, in fact, been an empress at all: Several centuries ago she and her entourage had alighted on the docks of Ptolus, claiming to have been recently crowned and now engaged in a “tour of peace throughout the world”. She held court in the city for three weeks, and by the time her deception was revealed, she and her entourage had left the city and journeyed south… reportedly disappearing into the Southern Wastes.

Now only her statue remained and the square was commonly used for large gatherings, public speeches, and the like.

Earlier that morning, word had quietly gone out and a large crowd had gathered before the statue. Not long after, Dominic and Sir Kabel had appeared on the steps of the Empress’ statue and gave a speech to the gathered crowd.

Sir Kabel had spoken first (and Tee searched until she found a newssheet that gave the full transcripts, accurate or not as they might be):

I stand before you as a humble servant of the Nine Gods and a keeper of their faith and service. In these past few weeks, that faith has been tried by those who would turn the Church upon the Nine Gods and the Nine Gods upon the Church.

But my words mean nothing. My service lies in my arm and my blade. Instead, let one speak whose service lies in his very voice.

Dominic had stepped forward:

In the eyes of Vehthyl, I stand before you penitent.

His eyes had lit with the prayer.

I have been told that I speak with the Living Voice of the Nine Gods. That might be true. I don’t know. Maybe those who stand closest to the light are the most blinded… Or maybe I’ve been marked for some other reason.

But what I do know is that, no matter how dark or dangerous my life has become, I have kept my faith true and bright in my own heart.

I also know that my name has been used by a man I now believe to be false to the Nine Gods. My eyes glow with Vehthyl’s silver light. Even I don’t know what the God of Mysteries intends for me… But Rehobath has claimed those marks for his own glory.

I stand before you now to denounce him, with the same light that he has claimed bright in my eyes. I name him a False Novarch. And those loyal to the Church and to the Nine Gods should turn against him and his false prophecy.

… thank you.

(When Tee read the transcripts to the others later, Elestra laughed. “Well… That last bit sounds like Dominic, anyway.”)

Dominic had then moved into the crowd, healing the injured among them as he passed his way to the west.

LATER THAT NIGHT…

Agnarr took Seeaeti out behind the Minstrel to continue the hound’s training.

Tee made several circuits through the inn’s common room, sounding out the common opinion on Dominic’s speech. She found that most of the wanderers were against Rehobath. They seemed to consider his religious zealotry a dangerous unbalancing of the local scape of power. On the other hand, the opinion of the common citizen seemed more evenly divided.

Tee eventually settled down at a table to share a drink with Nasira. She had briefly discussed the matter with the others. Their common foe had not been eliminated, but they also had other matters to attend to. If Nasira was going to continue journeying with them, she would need to be briefed.

Unfortunately, while Nasira’s companionship had grown on them during the trials of the two temples, they had not yet reached a resolution of just how much she should be told. So Tee made evasive small talk with her. And while she filled her in on their involvement with the Banewarrens, she avoided discussing both their memory loss and their complicated relationship with the politics surrounding Rehobath. At least for the time being.

Nasira, for her part, was also glad to have found some friends in Ptolus. She had felt hopelessly alone since the loss of her village. And certainly their shared fortunes had been quite lucrative to date. As long as the majority of their attention would be focused on the pursuit of Wuntad (and Tee was more than happy to assure her that the bastard would be firmly in their sights), she was more than happy to aid them in their other exploits.

When they were done chatting, Nasira returned to the room she had let at the Welcome Inn near Southgate.

Elestra and Tor had gone from the Midden Heaps to the Warrens. Using the map they had found beneath the Temple of the Rat God, they did a walk-around. They confirmed that the locations were shivvel dens and gathered as much information as they could about them. (Which didn’t amount to much beyond “they sell shivvel there” and, the slightly lesser-known rumor, that “the rats run ‘em”.)

When Elestra and Tor returned to the Ghostly Minstrel, Tee gathered up the group and quickly filled them in on the developments with Sir Kabel and Dominic. They ate dinner together and headed to bed.

About twenty minutes later, Tee (who was just preparing for a session of meditation) heard a knock on her door. She opened it—

And was shoved violently back onto her bed by four thugs with clubs.

A blond woman stepped through the door. She wore an eyepatch over one eye, but Tee recognized her in an instant: It was Arveth.

Running the Campaign: Make It Cost Them – Campaign Journal: Session 41B
In the Shadow of the Spire: Index

A solid supplement for the Usagi Yojimbo Roleplaying Game. Dungeons & Dragons GMs may also want to check this one out.

Review Originally Published December 28th, 2000

Usagi Yojimbo: Monsters! is, obviously, the monsters supplement for the Usagi Yojimbo Roleplaying Game – adapting fourteen supernatural creatures from the Usagi comic book for use.

Although there are only fourteen creatures in this slim little pamphlet (making the total cost only slightly less than a buck a monster), the value is here: Each monster receives a two to three page write-up, including behavior, special powers, a summary of their appearances in Usagi comics, and an adventure seed. Although the adventure seeds are often simplistic, and occasionally nothing more than fodder for a single encounter (rather than a full-fledged adventure), this is still rather nice.

The other thing I like about this product is the opening introduction – which gives the background on Japanese monsters and how this is interpreted in the Usagi universe (providing a consistent, underlying mythos to the rest of the material).

There are three really annoying things about this product:

Annoying Thing #1: A half dozen pages are taken up by a completely random section of rules which should’ve been included in the core rulebook. We know they should’ve been included in the core rulebook for two reasons: First, whenever you get a random selection of miscellaneous rules in the very first supplement released for a game, you know that those pages were cut from the main rulebook. Second, one of the things included in this book is the Goat species – which was actually used in the core rulebook to describe an NPC. Whoops.

Annoying Thing #2: Conversion notes are included for FUDGE and D20. That isn’t the annoying thing (I’ll discuss these a more in a second), though. The annoying thing is this: Stats are included in these conversions for the kitsune. Unfortunately, the kitsune is not one of the monsters included in this product – we are informed that the kitsune was a special promotional monster which was published in an unnamed magazine. The kitsune should’ve been in this book. The fact it isn’t, is annoying.

Annoying Thing #3: The book was obviously rushed through the editorial process – typos and grammatical errors abound. The most egregious one I found was this: “Sutras can be written to render a person invisible to spirits and supernatural monsters or they can be written to render the object or person invisible to them.” Since that’s a rule, I’m more than a little annoyed. Very sloppy.

Back to the conversion notes: These are actually very nice, transforming what would otherwise be a fairly narrow supplement into a broadly useful one. I heartily recommend that D&D GMs, in particular, pick this book up: The monsters are well done and come with a lot of support, and should add some nice spice to your campaign.

Usagi Yojimbo GMs would, I think, be remiss in giving this product a pass. The price is a little steep, but the material is fairly solid solid.

Style: 3
Substance: 3

Grade: B

Title: Usagi Yojimbo: Monsters!
Authors: Jared Smith
Company: Gold Rush Games
Line: Usagi Yojimbo
Price: $12.00
ISBN: 1-890305-09-X
Production Code: U101
Pages: 48

I’ve always been disappointed in this review. I didn’t do a good enough job explaining WHY I liked the stuff that I liked about it, which creates a lopsided and overly negative impression. I can’t properly fix that at the moment because it’s been 20+ years since I used this book, but I will say that I was sincere when I recommended it. It’s a slim volume, but filled with meaty, useful material.

Is it weird that this one review still bugs me even after all these years? I don’t think so. Creators grow from their mistakes. This was a miss, but one that serves as a touchstone that has made the reviews I’ve written since better.

For an explanation of where these reviews came from and why you can no longer find them at RPGNet, click here.