An Adventure for 4th-level Characters
by Bruce R. Cordell
A trio of unscrupulous adventurers called Stormcrow Company once laired in the caverns beneath a weathered pile of stones in the wilderness. It's been years, however, since the mercenaries have been seen. Rumors suggest Stormcrow Company is no more. If true, then the accumulated loot from raids, rewards, and assaults on dragons' hoards lies unguarded beneath a crown of jumbled stones. Does anyone dare to claim the prize? "Stormcrow Tor" is a Dungeons & Dragons adventure for five characters of 4th level. The adventure is completely self-contained, so it can be used in nearly any D&D campaign.
A final paroxysm of rage and murder swept through the torchlit tunnels beneath Stormcrow Tor. When it was over, two of the three principles were dead and one was altered beyond all recognition. Even the opportunistic creatures that have colonized the old base in the years since know to stay clear of the deepest chambers. Though great treasures surely reside there, so do the most insidious traps left behind by maddened mercenaries whose sanity was well and truly shredded long before their bodies followed. Things still move in the deeps, and not all of those things are living.
Read the entire adventure here.
Discuss this adventure here.
Okay, on to the list...
- P.11 Wrathstone vs. Wrathheart. The module calls it both names. Note: Later in the module it is called Wrathstone so I assume the mention of the Wrathheart on page 11 is a mistake.
- DC5 Athletics check for a group of Level 4 characters? Okay, I'll roll with it... Or maybe I will just describe it as a mildly steep hill and not worry about the check, hehe.
- I agree, the maps are pretty poor looking and often there is no way to know how one connects to another.
- Why is the first map printed twice? Once on page 12 and then again on page 15. To make matters worse, you used a different lettering system for each map to add to the confusion.
- p. 16 - Mentions a narrow staircase from area 1 to area 2 but there is not a narrow staircase on either Area 1 map. There is a little hallway. Was that meant to be a staircase? I'm pretty sure we have a narrow dungeon tiles staircase from one of the sets.
- p. 18 - Says the Kenku inhabit the west side of the chamber but they look like they are in the east side of it.
- Correction: Reading on I realize we were only given half of the map. There is another half to the east that contains the glowing pool with the cistern collecting the magic water. Would have been nice to see that part then.
- Wait? The text for the Magic Fountain says that it is in a hallway east of the mausoleum. The text on this map and the text on the previous map contradict each other and without a map we cannot know what the author's intent was.
- Once again, reiterating that there is no way to know how we are getting from one room to another here. Area 1 does not connect to Area 2. Area 2 does not connect to Area 3. Area 3 does not connect to Area 4. Area 4 does connect to Area 5 but the connection between 5 and 6 don't match up exactly. 6 to 7 works just fine.
- 4 Flamespikers + 8 Flamespiker Tongues + 5 PCs = Encounter 5 being a very packed room. Everyone fits but there is not a lot of room. Going to be a controllers dream and nightmare all at the same time, hehe.
- How did the Kenku in the lower part of the dungeon get past the Myconid? Or continue to do so on a regular enough basis to sustain themselves? - Minor issue
Overall, I give this adventure a 3 out of 5. Parts of it were really good but there are some serious issues that need to be addressed.
I at first thought they might be connected but... nope, just a really strange coincidence.
I don't know that there is anything wrong with that although it is definitely something I would have avoided doing myself. Using similar entities like that with the exact same name.
PERHAPS both authors encountered the same concept in past games and were reviving the idea for new adventures? I don't know, that is just one of many possibilities that could have led to this coincidence.
He was honestly shocked to hear about the similarities between his adventure and Touch of Madness. He told me that he hadn't read Touch of Madness but he really wish an editor had caught it. His inspirations for the concept came from B2 back in the day in which there were some adventurers who disappeared (no, they were not called the Stormcrows - the naming thing was a complete coincidence) and he thought it would be fun to do something with it. He also wish he knew about Touch of Madness because he would have tied them together so the two adventures contributed to each other.
We talked about the mapping issues and he was shocked at that as well. He said he would have to check his copy of the maps he sent to WOTC's cartographers but he was positive that everything matched up.
The room with the Kenku, the undead and the fountain. A lot of us thought we only got half of the map. According to Bruce, we did only get half of the map. No idea why it was chopped in half.
Overall, he wasn't accusatory of anyone else, he was very PC and willing to discuss the issues with the adventure. Very nice guy and very helpful. We talked about a bunch of cool stuff.
So, it sounds like the room with the magic fountain is the missing link for making sense of the map sequence.
Anyone know if they plan to fix this?
The perception check to notice the Myconids is listed at DC 24 in the module. If you look at the updated DC classes for level 4, the hardest they list is 17.
Am I missing something? When I create encounters I use the DCs from the updated DMG for skill checks. Should I be using a modification to that?
I will admit I feel the DCs are a little too easy as listed.
. . . and after several weeks, still no response by Wizards. Oh, Wizards, how do thee suck. Let me count the ways.
I have been back and forth with WotC about this retarded mapping issue and in the end..........well lets just say customer service does not serve well. CS told me they'd relay the information to the "dungeon magazine" department. How hard is it really to replace the first map with an overall main map??? I don't care how it looks, hell hand draw it for all I care, I just want to know how everything connects.
Just thought I would add to the thread with my actual play experience.
Ran a first session in Stormcrow Tor. This was the first adventure for a new campaign in Eberron.
Love me some kenku!
I was pretty pleased with the adventure, but it took some fixing. For a group of 4 (level one) players I had to make some adjustments. Plenty of roleplaying opportunities and I hope to bring back the orb caster as a recurring npc. I was tired of the cliche of moving down a stairway under a trap door and waiting for something to attack, so to give the adventure more of "pulp" feel, I started with the group already in combat in the first encounter and one of the party in peril of being yanked into the pit. After the encounter we did a short "flash back" to how they came to be there.
As for the map... ugh. Without an overall map of the dungeon, it takes a little more effort.
My biggest disappoint is that this is issue 169 and something like this slips by and no correction is made. That being said, I just sketched out a logical connection between rooms and fuged a little here and there. I wasn't going to spend too much effort redrawing the dungeon. The fountain is the easiest...it says it is in an alcove to the east, I just told the players that there was a faintly glowing alcove that opened to the east, etc.
The actual encounter maps are much better than expected. I was really pleased that the encounters encouraged everyone to move around during combat and battles didn't take place just inside the door of a room.
The second area that needed some extra effort (in my opinion) was to include enough clues/info about the Stormcrow Company's fate. Luckily, one of the pcs made a good roll with a magical effect and got to hear some of the story first-hand. Otherwise, I put a lot of extra description and easy DC checks to start figuring out what some of the rooms had been used for in the past and how they had been reworked. I added cheap flavor (like a torn-up portrait of the company in better days and a burned village sign).
Hope this helps anyone that was going to overlook running the adventure because of the broken map issue.
Agera of the Shadow Face, the Level 7 Solo Controller villain of Stormcrow Tor (Dungeon 169, Aug 2009, and also in the Compendium) has the Standard, At-Will power "Hellish Wrath" that says
"Agera makes three basic attacks."
But she has both a melee and a ranged basic attack, and I'm not sure if this power lets her make three of either (or even a mix).
In favor of only a MBA: Hellish Wrath has a melee symbol next to it.
In favor of either MBAs of RBAs: the power specifically does NOT specify either, and the PHB 287 says "When a power allows you to make a basic attack, you can make either a melee basic attack or a ranged basic attack."
What do y'all think? Can she make A) only three MBAs; B) three RBAs; or C) a mix of both when she uses Hellish Wrath?