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<blockquote data-quote="Alzrius" data-source="post: 8694054" data-attributes="member: 8461"><p>Any way you slice it, <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/17536/The-Dungeon-of-Death-2e?affiliate_id=820" target="_blank"><em>The Dungeon of Death</em></a> is an odd duck.</p><p></p><p>By any casual perusal, it shouldn't really be considered part of the "Apocalypse Adventures" mini-series, since unlike the other two adventures under that banner it doesn't herald any sort of spectacular end/changes to a game world; instead, its purpose is simply to kill off your PCs so that a new campaign can be started (i.e. a D&D Third Edition campaign). It was only because it was included in the advertising (in <em>Dragon</em> that I saw, though it may have been elsewhere) that talked about closing out a campaign that it was put alongside the likes of <em>The Apocalypse Stone</em> and <em>Die Vecna Die!</em></p><p></p><p>The module itself, however, is given the "Dungeon Crawl" label, which makes it part of the series of Forgotten Realms adventures which include <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/17570/Undermountain-I-The-Lost-Level-2e?affiliate_id=820" target="_blank"><em>Undermountain: The Lost Level</em></a>, <em><a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/17575/Undermountain-II-Maddgoths-Castle-2e?affiliate_id=820" target="_blank"><em>Undermountain: Maddgoth's Castle</em></a></em>,<em> <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/17579/Undermountain-Stardock-2e?affiliate_id=820" target="_blank"><em>Undermountain: Stardock</em></a></em>, <em><a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/16858/Hellgate-Keep-2e?affiliate_id=820" target="_blank"><em>Hellgate Keep</em></a></em>, and <em><a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/17355/The-Lost-Shrine-of-Bundushatur-2e?affiliate_id=820" target="_blank"><em>The Lost Shrine of Bundushatur</em></a> </em>(that last one being the only non-FR adventure, being an old RPGA tournament module that was dusted off for AD&D 2E release). Naturally, <em>The Dungeon of Death</em> is the final entry in the series, since that particular header was (like so many mini-series) retired for good with the end of AD&D 2E.</p><p></p><p>But by far the most notable thing about <em>The Dungeon of Death</em>, at least to my mind, is what it isn't.</p><p></p><p>Coming out only three months before the release of D&D 3E, this was the final Forgotten Realms product to be released for AD&D Second Edition. Given that, and that it was released as part of a set of adventures that were designed to shake campaign worlds to their foundations, you'd have thought that this would have been a "Realms-Shaking Event," as the fan community likes to call them.</p><p></p><p>It wasn't.</p><p></p><p>That's notable, because it makes the 2E -> 3E transition the only time over the life of D&D (unless you count 3.0 -> 3.5 as a transition, which I don't) that the Forgotten Realms weren't blown up when it came time to change the game rules. 1E to 2E? <a href="https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Time_of_Troubles" target="_blank">Time of Troubles</a>. 3E to 4E? <a href="https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Spellplague" target="_blank">Spellplague</a>. 4E to 5E? <a href="https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Second_Sundering" target="_blank">The Sundering</a>. But 2E to 3E? Nope! The game world just quietly kept going, assuming that the changes weren't ones that were noticed in-character. Which is pretty notable, since <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/17546/Netheril-Empire-of-Magic-2e?affiliate_id=820" target="_blank"><em>Netheril: Empire of Magic</em></a> flat-out stated that, over the course of Toril's history, you used the rules in its boxed set prior to the Fall of Netheril, then used the AD&D 1E rules for that period until the Time of Troubles, and then used the AD&D 2E rules afterwards. To have things subsequently change so much without an in-game reason for it was quite the sea change!</p><p></p><p>Of course, that's all a bit beyond the scope of <em>The Dungeon of Death</em>. Rather, this dungeon, which was long since noted in Realmslore, even if only ever given a cursory overview, was written up to do exactly what was mentioned earlier: simply kill off your PCs so that you could pack AD&D 2E away and go out and buy Third Edition. Of course, the 3E <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/28729/Forgotten-Realms-Campaign-Setting-3e?affiliate_id=820" target="_blank"><em>Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting</em></a> wouldn't come out until a year after this adventure was published, so that might have been a bit awkward for some groups (even if <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/140752/Into-the-Dragons-Lair-3e?affiliate_id=820" target="_blank"><em>Into the Dragon's Lair</em></a> and <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/134340/Pool-of-Radiance-Attack-on-Myth-Drannor-3e?affiliate_id=820" target="_blank"><em>Pool of Radiance: Attack on Myth Drannor</em></a> came out almost exactly midway through that twelve-month period). But I digress...</p><p></p><p>Before going any further, I should make mention that my repeated mentions of this being a TPK dungeon is fait accompli. The module itself says nothing about this, explicitly or otherwise. In fact, the module itself is surprisingly light on backstory or meta-plot, to a degree that might seem nostalgic to veterans of First Edition. It does have a connection to <em>Hellgate Keep</em>, in that it presumes that adventure has been run and that it's now a year later (which by my reckoning puts it at 1371 DR). But that's more background than anything else; the annis hag who led the Blue Bear tribe of Uthgardt barbarians was a servitor of the nabassu tanar'ri who's the final boss of this dungeon, which doesn't ever really come up over the course of the adventure.</p><p></p><p>So what's here that makes this adventure so deadly? Well, bear in mind that it's deadliness for "three to six characters of 7th to 9th level," so a high-level character-killer this is not. I can't say that I disapprove of that, since it's right in the "sweet spot" that many think of when they reminisce about where D&D is at its best, but if you're running a group of 20th-level characters, don't expect this to be too deadly overall.</p><p></p><p>Which isn't to say that it's cakewalk, either. In what almost seems like an homage to <em>S1 The Tomb of Horrors</em>, most of the first level of the dungeon is filled with traps. From the classic pit traps to the diabolical tilting floor trap to the "always heard about it but never personally experienced it" huge ball rolling down a staircase trap, these are the sorts of things that will soften a party up nicely. That's no coincidence, as the aforementioned dungeon boss has put these here to weed out the adventurers that he thinks are too wimpy to bother devouring (which is kind of a big deal for nabassu demons). It's afterward that the hack-factor picks up, as you start running into demons, including a pair of alu-fiends who're the secondary antagonists (and one of which is a 10th-level wizard!).</p><p></p><p>But what really makes this place deadly is the Shadow Curse. Described as a manifestation of all the vile deeds performed at the Dungeon over its long years, the Shadow Curse is probably the clearest indication you'll find that this place isn't meant to be survived. See, the Shadow Curse makes it so that anyone (who isn't undead or extraplanar) who enters the Dungeon loses 1 point from their prime requisite (i.e. Strength for warriors, Dexterity for rogues, Intelligence for wizards, and Wisdom for priests, to use the class group names), which can only be regained at a rate of 1 point per day after you leave the dungeon.</p><p></p><p>Worse, it explicitly says that the PCs won't notice this until they're already down a quarter of their prime requisite. And since your prime requisite is virtually guaranteed to be your highest score, that means that you're likely going to be down there for at least a few hours. So unless you're absolutely powering through the place at breakneck speed, then you'll probably find yourself in a bad situation right at the worst possible moment.</p><p></p><p>Now, there are a few spells that can hold this at bay, and there are a (very) small number of safe areas where you won't lose any more points (but won't regain any, either), but this is virtually guaranteed to cost you at least a character or two, if not the whole party. I'm not quite sure if that wipes out the higher-level spells a mage prepares, since their Intelligence governed the maximum level of spells they could cast, but I suspect that it does. (EDIT: And of course, I should mention that if your prime requisite drops down to 0, you die.)</p><p></p><p>And...that's really it. Being only thirty-two pages long, and placing almost no emphasis on background and even less on build-up or resolution, this adventure feels almost perfunctory in its presentation. You'd never guess that its author was one-half of the team that brought us <em>The Apocalypse Stone</em>. It was quite the quiet send-off for the Forgotten Realms.</p><p></p><p>Of course, that might be because the Realms were still part of the Great Wheel cosmology back then, and our next entry in this list would see fit to blow up not just a single world, but the entire freakin' multiverse...</p><p></p><p><em>Please note my use of affiliate links in this post.</em></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Alzrius, post: 8694054, member: 8461"] Any way you slice it, [URL='https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/17536/The-Dungeon-of-Death-2e?affiliate_id=820'][I]The Dungeon of Death[/I][/URL] is an odd duck. By any casual perusal, it shouldn't really be considered part of the "Apocalypse Adventures" mini-series, since unlike the other two adventures under that banner it doesn't herald any sort of spectacular end/changes to a game world; instead, its purpose is simply to kill off your PCs so that a new campaign can be started (i.e. a D&D Third Edition campaign). It was only because it was included in the advertising (in [I]Dragon[/I] that I saw, though it may have been elsewhere) that talked about closing out a campaign that it was put alongside the likes of [I]The Apocalypse Stone[/I] and [I]Die Vecna Die![/I] The module itself, however, is given the "Dungeon Crawl" label, which makes it part of the series of Forgotten Realms adventures which include [URL='https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/17570/Undermountain-I-The-Lost-Level-2e?affiliate_id=820'][I]Undermountain: The Lost Level[/I][/URL], [I][URL='https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/17575/Undermountain-II-Maddgoths-Castle-2e?affiliate_id=820'][I]Undermountain: Maddgoth's Castle[/I][/URL][/I],[I] [URL='https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/17579/Undermountain-Stardock-2e?affiliate_id=820'][I]Undermountain: Stardock[/I][/URL][/I], [I][URL='https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/16858/Hellgate-Keep-2e?affiliate_id=820'][I]Hellgate Keep[/I][/URL][/I], and [I][URL='https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/17355/The-Lost-Shrine-of-Bundushatur-2e?affiliate_id=820'][I]The Lost Shrine of Bundushatur[/I][/URL] [/I](that last one being the only non-FR adventure, being an old RPGA tournament module that was dusted off for AD&D 2E release). Naturally, [I]The Dungeon of Death[/I] is the final entry in the series, since that particular header was (like so many mini-series) retired for good with the end of AD&D 2E. But by far the most notable thing about [I]The Dungeon of Death[/I], at least to my mind, is what it isn't. Coming out only three months before the release of D&D 3E, this was the final Forgotten Realms product to be released for AD&D Second Edition. Given that, and that it was released as part of a set of adventures that were designed to shake campaign worlds to their foundations, you'd have thought that this would have been a "Realms-Shaking Event," as the fan community likes to call them. It wasn't. That's notable, because it makes the 2E -> 3E transition the only time over the life of D&D (unless you count 3.0 -> 3.5 as a transition, which I don't) that the Forgotten Realms weren't blown up when it came time to change the game rules. 1E to 2E? [URL='https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Time_of_Troubles']Time of Troubles[/URL]. 3E to 4E? [URL='https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Spellplague']Spellplague[/URL]. 4E to 5E? [URL='https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Second_Sundering']The Sundering[/URL]. But 2E to 3E? Nope! The game world just quietly kept going, assuming that the changes weren't ones that were noticed in-character. Which is pretty notable, since [URL='https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/17546/Netheril-Empire-of-Magic-2e?affiliate_id=820'][I]Netheril: Empire of Magic[/I][/URL] flat-out stated that, over the course of Toril's history, you used the rules in its boxed set prior to the Fall of Netheril, then used the AD&D 1E rules for that period until the Time of Troubles, and then used the AD&D 2E rules afterwards. To have things subsequently change so much without an in-game reason for it was quite the sea change! Of course, that's all a bit beyond the scope of [I]The Dungeon of Death[/I]. Rather, this dungeon, which was long since noted in Realmslore, even if only ever given a cursory overview, was written up to do exactly what was mentioned earlier: simply kill off your PCs so that you could pack AD&D 2E away and go out and buy Third Edition. Of course, the 3E [URL='https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/28729/Forgotten-Realms-Campaign-Setting-3e?affiliate_id=820'][I]Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting[/I][/URL] wouldn't come out until a year after this adventure was published, so that might have been a bit awkward for some groups (even if [URL='https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/140752/Into-the-Dragons-Lair-3e?affiliate_id=820'][I]Into the Dragon's Lair[/I][/URL] and [URL='https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/134340/Pool-of-Radiance-Attack-on-Myth-Drannor-3e?affiliate_id=820'][I]Pool of Radiance: Attack on Myth Drannor[/I][/URL] came out almost exactly midway through that twelve-month period). But I digress... Before going any further, I should make mention that my repeated mentions of this being a TPK dungeon is fait accompli. The module itself says nothing about this, explicitly or otherwise. In fact, the module itself is surprisingly light on backstory or meta-plot, to a degree that might seem nostalgic to veterans of First Edition. It does have a connection to [I]Hellgate Keep[/I], in that it presumes that adventure has been run and that it's now a year later (which by my reckoning puts it at 1371 DR). But that's more background than anything else; the annis hag who led the Blue Bear tribe of Uthgardt barbarians was a servitor of the nabassu tanar'ri who's the final boss of this dungeon, which doesn't ever really come up over the course of the adventure. So what's here that makes this adventure so deadly? Well, bear in mind that it's deadliness for "three to six characters of 7th to 9th level," so a high-level character-killer this is not. I can't say that I disapprove of that, since it's right in the "sweet spot" that many think of when they reminisce about where D&D is at its best, but if you're running a group of 20th-level characters, don't expect this to be too deadly overall. Which isn't to say that it's cakewalk, either. In what almost seems like an homage to [I]S1 The Tomb of Horrors[/I], most of the first level of the dungeon is filled with traps. From the classic pit traps to the diabolical tilting floor trap to the "always heard about it but never personally experienced it" huge ball rolling down a staircase trap, these are the sorts of things that will soften a party up nicely. That's no coincidence, as the aforementioned dungeon boss has put these here to weed out the adventurers that he thinks are too wimpy to bother devouring (which is kind of a big deal for nabassu demons). It's afterward that the hack-factor picks up, as you start running into demons, including a pair of alu-fiends who're the secondary antagonists (and one of which is a 10th-level wizard!). But what really makes this place deadly is the Shadow Curse. Described as a manifestation of all the vile deeds performed at the Dungeon over its long years, the Shadow Curse is probably the clearest indication you'll find that this place isn't meant to be survived. See, the Shadow Curse makes it so that anyone (who isn't undead or extraplanar) who enters the Dungeon loses 1 point from their prime requisite (i.e. Strength for warriors, Dexterity for rogues, Intelligence for wizards, and Wisdom for priests, to use the class group names), which can only be regained at a rate of 1 point per day after you leave the dungeon. Worse, it explicitly says that the PCs won't notice this until they're already down a quarter of their prime requisite. And since your prime requisite is virtually guaranteed to be your highest score, that means that you're likely going to be down there for at least a few hours. So unless you're absolutely powering through the place at breakneck speed, then you'll probably find yourself in a bad situation right at the worst possible moment. Now, there are a few spells that can hold this at bay, and there are a (very) small number of safe areas where you won't lose any more points (but won't regain any, either), but this is virtually guaranteed to cost you at least a character or two, if not the whole party. I'm not quite sure if that wipes out the higher-level spells a mage prepares, since their Intelligence governed the maximum level of spells they could cast, but I suspect that it does. (EDIT: And of course, I should mention that if your prime requisite drops down to 0, you die.) And...that's really it. Being only thirty-two pages long, and placing almost no emphasis on background and even less on build-up or resolution, this adventure feels almost perfunctory in its presentation. You'd never guess that its author was one-half of the team that brought us [I]The Apocalypse Stone[/I]. It was quite the quiet send-off for the Forgotten Realms. Of course, that might be because the Realms were still part of the Great Wheel cosmology back then, and our next entry in this list would see fit to blow up not just a single world, but the entire freakin' multiverse... [I]Please note my use of affiliate links in this post.[/I] [/QUOTE]
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