ADVENTURE RECAP:
After a fortnight of travel to Corunglain, Ralnor and Druinder arrived in the city. While Druinder went to the docks to book passage down river, Ralnor went to the inn's common room instead. Asking the bartender about ship travel, he learned no ships would be leaving the city for several days, given the ongoing harvest festival celebrations.
As he sat and listened, he also heard tales of the mysterious Lion Castle, which lay a day's journey outside the city walls, deep in the foothills bordering the Broken Lands.
Tales said only one hardy soul at a time could pass through the gates, and any who ventured out to the castle had not been heard from again. They also said great riches awaited those who could weather the challenges Sargon the Great had left for those foolish enough to enter his abode.
Gathering up his gear, Ralnor left his uncle a note and explained he would return in a few days from a hiking expedition to gather rare herbs for magical research.
After a one day hike, he arrived at Lion Castle, deep in the foothills of the Broken Lands. He entered through the walled gate, which closed behind him. He went to the front entrance of the castle and encountered four straight traps as he went in the "front door."
Barely surviving with only two hit points left (lucky AND brutal!) he went in. Surprisingly he encountered only three monsters before making it to the ghost of Sargon- a giant fire beetle, a giant black widow spider and a giant oil beetle. Without finding a potion of healing for replenishment, he probably would not have made it. Between the treasure associated with the monsters and finding lots of gems and the reward for making it to the ghost of Sargon, he cleared a few thousand gold worth of treasure and a couple magic items, to boot (ha ha, gauntlets of ogre power and . . elven boots!).
That was quite a haul!
When the quest was finished, he was teleported back to the common room of the inn where he started, only to see Druinder standing at the bar with a shocked look on his face. After the older elf learned what had happened he was both furious and proud- "Ralnor, my boy," he said, "You are a true son of the Moondance- and if you ever do something like that again, I am sending you straight back to Dorneryll!"
With ship's passage set for the day after next, the two elves enjoyed spending some of the gold and sharing tales of their adventures with the other patrons of the inn.
THOUGHTS:
The module is laid out with area location descriptions randomly spread out and jumbled across several pages so you cannot easily cheat by looking ahead. The layout style was not too hard to follow, it was just time consuming remembering where I had already been and not accidentally following the same series of entries for those places. The full run-through took about 2 - 2 1/2 hours.
It is amazing I didn't die. Four straight traps just to get through the front door was pretty bad, and all the monsters were pretty tough. Fortunately, there weren't too many of them!
Further reward for completing the quest was a full level advance, plus the experience he gained for the adventure. Wow! I don't think that's going to happen again!
So, this was a lot of fun, and even though Lion Castle does not lie in the Ethengar Khanate in my campaign world, it will not be soon forgotten!
Next up will be the adventure "The Sword of Justice" by Jon Mattson, which comes from issue #92 of Dragon magazine, first published in December 1984!
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