Previous installments in this readthrough of Drakar & Demoner / Dragonbane:
Before we start on the meatier supplements of the second edition, let’s get a couple of stand-alone adventures out of the way. They are neither of them terribly interesting, but I’m all about the completeness, yo.
First off, Dimön (“The Island of Mist”). In this fairly basic dungeon crawl, the players are hanging out in a small village called Utkante (“Outskirt”) when they hear about a mysterious island where something magical has apparently gone down and are offered the chance to buy a map to its treasure. The island, it turns out, is a magical nexus where spells are easier to cast, and that has made it the dwelling of a number of evil magicians, the latest of which just got killed by a demon he summoned. Thus, his underground lair is now ripe for the plunder, though it’s still riddled with traps and guardians – for instance, there are two demons bound in pentagrams that bar the way forward, a lazy troll who still lives in the basement, and a bunch of skeletons ready to be activated.
It’s all pretty basic, though some of the traps are downright mean-spirited – there’s one in the main treasury that not only insta-kills anyone careless enough to blunder into it, but also destroys the treasure while it’s at it. I’m not sure it’s described in the most helpful way at times – for instance, the dungeon is located underneath a lake in the middle of the island (which lies in the middle of a bigger lake, so things are already a bit complicated) and you have to submerge to reach the stairs leading into it, but then you… walk up, apparently? Because the water recedes around you? So I guess I guess the actual dungeon is inside like a hill at the side of the lake? Yeah, I don’t know, it just bugs me. And also, apparently the magician’s last, ill-advised ritual was performed on a sort of elevated platform elsewhere on the island, but that’s not connected to the dungeon itself, which caused me some confused flipping back and forth the first time I read it.
Also, my pet peeve rears its ugly head again: what’s with the uber-NPC hirelings?! The players have the option of bringing a pair with them from the village, and these guys have stats that didn’t get rolling no damn 3d6 seven times in order, I’ll tell you that much! Okay, one of them has actual skills that are nothing to write home about, but the other one is a monster with 90% in Broadsword and 95% in Medium Shield – effectively, he’s close to unbeatable in single combat by anything other than a super-strong monster! If he comes along, the players will effectively be his bumbling sidekicks! I just… why were you like this, Äventyrsspel?!
The module also contains a detailed description of the village of Utkante, complete with references to nearby lands. The writers seem to be very proud of it and like they mean for it to be the hub for multiple adventures, but… it’s honestly not that interesting? It’s stressed how everyone is happy and friendly and no one really wants anything, so the amount of conflict and plot hooks is effectively nil. The village priest is secretly guarding a dark evil magical sword, so I guess that’s something, but other than that I don’t quite know what I’m supposed to do with this image of pastoral bliss.
Havets Vargar (“The Wolves of the Sea”) seems to have been intended to launch its own setting for the game, but as near as I can tell that didn’t happen. The premise is that it’s medieval Scandinavia, except that monsters, magic, and non-human sentients like elves and dwarves exist and are fully accepted, just like in the default game. I feel like that raises a lot of questions that the module never goes anywhere near, but okay, I can kind of see the reasoning: since the implied setting for the game so far has already been “medieval Sweden, with fantasy stuff in without really changing anything important,” why not just go all the way and make the setting be literally that? Hey, it gives you a full set of places, languages and cultures without needing to come up with them, and there’s even already a “Pirate” class that can easily be renamed to “Viking”…
Anyway, the players are hanging out in Kaupang in Norway and get recruited on a trip down to Spain, where they’re going to loot and plunder the keep of a robber baron. We get a lot of information about Kaupang, with special emphasis to what happens if the players try to steal stuff. Considering that nothing much happens there in the story, that’s another thing that makes me feel like this was meant to be only the first installment of many… Be that as it may, the players get on the crew and start rowing. They might get attacked by pirates along the way, for which eventuality the module includes sea combat rules. They may also run into a peaceful merchant ship, in which case their boss pointedly does not allow them to attack and plunder it. So I guss we’re oddly well-behaved Wolves of the Sea, huh?
Arriving in Spain, the players set out with two dozen crewmates and have some encounters along the way, including an optional mini-dungeon in the form of an orc-infested cavern. I feel like in addition to the ship combat rules, this module could have used some sort of mass combat rules, because they’re going to spend most of the aventure having a whole bunch of mates along. For that matter, I also feel like the behaviour of their employer – who will, after all, be right with them the whole time – should have gotten more space devoted to it, because carrying out his orders (or not) will reasonably be a major focus. Oh well.
The robber baron’s keep is a fairly standard dungeon with guards, magical traps, hidden doors, and a few monsters in the sub-basement. Actually, the players should preferably stay out of the sub-basement altogether, there isn’t much there except for the creepy-crawlies and once they find the way there they’ll already have found the main treasury.
Oh, and this adventure has optional pre-gen characters. You should absolutely play one of those rather than rolling up your own, because again, you are never in a million years going to end up with stats this high if you try to get them the honest way.
All in all, nothing terrible, but not very inspiring either. Next time, we dive into Drakar & Demoner Expert, the advanced rules. This will probably inspire some strong language and tearing of hair.