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D&D 4th ed Adventures #2
Thunderspire Labyrinth
A 4th Edition D&D adventure for characters of levels 4–6
Beneath Thunderspire Mountain lies a sprawling network of mazes, tombs, and caverns collectively known as the Labyrinth. In recent years, this vast labyrinth has become a living dungeon where trade between the surface and subterranean worlds is possible. However, beyond the well-lit halls where prospectors, merchants, and traders convene lies a darker world where adventurers battle monsters and fiendish beings perform secret rituals for their dark masters....
H2 Thunderspire Labyrinth is a D&D adventure designed for heroic-tier characters of levels 4–6. It can be played as a standalone adventure or as the second part of a three-part series. This product includes an adventure booklet for the Dungeon Master, a campaign guide with player handouts, and a full-color poster map, all contained in a handy folder.
H2 Thunderspire Labyrinth is the second adventure in a three-part series that began with H1 Keep on the Shadowfell and concludes with H3 Pyramid of Shadows. It can also be played as a stand-alone adventure.
Beneath Thunderspire Mountain lies a sprawling network of mazes, tombs, and caverns collectively known as the Labyrinth. In recent years, this vast labyrinth has become a living dungeon where trade between the surface and subterranean worlds is possible. However, beyond the well-lit halls where prospectors, merchants, and traders convene lies a darker world where adventurers battle monsters and fiendish beings perform secret rituals for their dark masters....
H2 Thunderspire Labyrinth is a D&D adventure designed for heroic-tier characters of levels 4–6. It can be played as a standalone adventure or as the second part of a three-part series. This product includes an adventure booklet for the Dungeon Master, a campaign guide with player handouts, and a full-color poster map, all contained in a handy folder.
H2 Thunderspire Labyrinth is the second adventure in a three-part series that began with H1 Keep on the Shadowfell and concludes with H3 Pyramid of Shadows. It can also be played as a stand-alone adventure.
96 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 2008
38 people want to read
About the author
Richard Baker
84 books229 followersA best-selling author and award-winning game designer, Richard Baker is known for his novels in the Forgotten Realms setting and his work on the Dungeons & Dragons game. His Realms novels include Condemnation (book 3 of the War of the Spider Queen), the Last Mythal trilogy, and the Blades of the Moonsea trilogy. He is currently working on a new military-themed science fiction series centered on the character Sikander North; Valiant Dust, the first book in the new series, debuts in November 2017 from Tor Books.
A native of Ocean City, New Jersey, Rich graduated from Virginia Tech in 1988 and went on to serve as a surface warfare officer in the United States Navy. When he's not writing fantasy or science fiction, he works in game publishing. He's the founder of Sasquatch Game Studio, a small game company based in Auburn, Washington.
Rich currently resides in the Seattle area with his wife, Kim, and their daughters Alex and Hannah. His interests include gaming (naturally), history, hiking, racquetball, and the Philadelphia Phillies.
A native of Ocean City, New Jersey, Rich graduated from Virginia Tech in 1988 and went on to serve as a surface warfare officer in the United States Navy. When he's not writing fantasy or science fiction, he works in game publishing. He's the founder of Sasquatch Game Studio, a small game company based in Auburn, Washington.
Rich currently resides in the Seattle area with his wife, Kim, and their daughters Alex and Hannah. His interests include gaming (naturally), history, hiking, racquetball, and the Philadelphia Phillies.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
November 7, 2017
This is the adventure I was playing when my foray into D&D 4th Ed. petered out. I don't think it was the system (I had fond memories of the games I played) but my group just started getting sidetracked with life and most of us weren't friends enough to keep the group going once the game started becoming less of a priority. I was a player in that game and we stopped about halfway through the duegar stronghold.
Currently, I am running this game (converted as a 5th Ed. adventure) and the group is having a blast. At the time of this review they have finished their battle with Chief Krand (it was a nail-biter of a battle that had everyone caught up in the suspense of the moment as they achieved victory from the brink of a TPK).
SPOILER: The only gripe I really have with this adventure is that it does not really give a good hook to get the party to attack the duegar stronghold (other than they are evil) even though it's a fourth of the adventure content. The main adventure seems to be the initial Bloodreaver assault and then focusing on the alliance between the gnolls and Paldemar. I'm not even sure if my PCs are even going to attack the duegar because it would seem to go against the wishes and laws of the Mages of Sarunn and their laws enforcing safe commerce for all in the Seven-Pillared Hall.
Currently, I am running this game (converted as a 5th Ed. adventure) and the group is having a blast. At the time of this review they have finished their battle with Chief Krand (it was a nail-biter of a battle that had everyone caught up in the suspense of the moment as they achieved victory from the brink of a TPK).
SPOILER: The only gripe I really have with this adventure is that it does not really give a good hook to get the party to attack the duegar stronghold (other than they are evil) even though it's a fourth of the adventure content. The main adventure seems to be the initial Bloodreaver assault and then focusing on the alliance between the gnolls and Paldemar. I'm not even sure if my PCs are even going to attack the duegar because it would seem to go against the wishes and laws of the Mages of Sarunn and their laws enforcing safe commerce for all in the Seven-Pillared Hall.
January 11, 2015
In a pleasant surprise, I actually enjoyed Thunderspire Labyrinth: An Adventure for Characters of 4th-6th Level more on a rereading than I did on first impression.
I had originally read this adventure in depth when I was preparing for my 4th Edition D&D campaign with several friends. Given that both my marriage and the campaign broke up not especially long after the time we got to Thunderspire Labyrinth (we began with the first adventure in the series, Keep on the Shadowfell: An Adventure for Characters of 1st-3rd Level, and continued from there), I had always retained mixed feelings about Thunderspire Labyrinth. Add to that that some of my players were less than enthused with Wizards of the Coast's publications, not the least of which was that 4th Edition was a sorry excuse for "real" D&D, and my recollections of this published adventure were dismal, to say the least. (I had originally assigned it three stars.)
So upon rereading Thunderspire Labyrinth, I rediscovered that the adventure does in fact mostly hold up on its own. It combines better elements of three fundamental types of dungeoneering—urban adventure (at least in the scenes set in the Seven-Pillared Hall), investigation, and old-fashioned dungeon crawling—and it's simultaneously basic enough in gameplay that newcomers to either D&D itself or 4th Edition could handle it, and difficult enough to challenge experienced players. I particularly remember one scene in our playing of the adventure in which one of my players, playing a paranoid eladrin illusionist with rogue tendencies, managed to circumvent the enemy duergar's immunity to illusion (which I tempered for the campaign, since I didn't want to shut down one PC's abilities altogether) with an extremely clever ruse that moved the story forward even as his abilities couldn't be used to their fullest potential. And it's in incidents like that that Thunderspire Labyrinth shined. It was flexible enough to reward thinking outside the box while at the same time keeping true to the mission at hand as it presented itself.
Admittedly, Thunderspire Labyrinth did have its share of drawbacks. Leaving aside the inherent problems with 4th Edition itself, which were sufficient that Wizards of the Coast went back to basics with last year's 5th Edition release, the beginning of the adventure and the end of the adventure tie in a bit too much with the previous and subsequent adventures, even if Thunderspire Labyrinth could ultimately stand on its own. Compared with, say, the 3rd Edition adventure The Speaker in Dreams, which a DM could really fit in anywhere without much problem, Thunderspire Labyrinth really was at its best when part of a larger campaign that Wizards of the Coast sold you for profit rather than as a standalone.
That being said, left to its own merits, Thunderspire Labyrinth was largely a success, and it deserves credit for that.
I had originally read this adventure in depth when I was preparing for my 4th Edition D&D campaign with several friends. Given that both my marriage and the campaign broke up not especially long after the time we got to Thunderspire Labyrinth (we began with the first adventure in the series, Keep on the Shadowfell: An Adventure for Characters of 1st-3rd Level, and continued from there), I had always retained mixed feelings about Thunderspire Labyrinth. Add to that that some of my players were less than enthused with Wizards of the Coast's publications, not the least of which was that 4th Edition was a sorry excuse for "real" D&D, and my recollections of this published adventure were dismal, to say the least. (I had originally assigned it three stars.)
So upon rereading Thunderspire Labyrinth, I rediscovered that the adventure does in fact mostly hold up on its own. It combines better elements of three fundamental types of dungeoneering—urban adventure (at least in the scenes set in the Seven-Pillared Hall), investigation, and old-fashioned dungeon crawling—and it's simultaneously basic enough in gameplay that newcomers to either D&D itself or 4th Edition could handle it, and difficult enough to challenge experienced players. I particularly remember one scene in our playing of the adventure in which one of my players, playing a paranoid eladrin illusionist with rogue tendencies, managed to circumvent the enemy duergar's immunity to illusion (which I tempered for the campaign, since I didn't want to shut down one PC's abilities altogether) with an extremely clever ruse that moved the story forward even as his abilities couldn't be used to their fullest potential. And it's in incidents like that that Thunderspire Labyrinth shined. It was flexible enough to reward thinking outside the box while at the same time keeping true to the mission at hand as it presented itself.
Admittedly, Thunderspire Labyrinth did have its share of drawbacks. Leaving aside the inherent problems with 4th Edition itself, which were sufficient that Wizards of the Coast went back to basics with last year's 5th Edition release, the beginning of the adventure and the end of the adventure tie in a bit too much with the previous and subsequent adventures, even if Thunderspire Labyrinth could ultimately stand on its own. Compared with, say, the 3rd Edition adventure The Speaker in Dreams, which a DM could really fit in anywhere without much problem, Thunderspire Labyrinth really was at its best when part of a larger campaign that Wizards of the Coast sold you for profit rather than as a standalone.
That being said, left to its own merits, Thunderspire Labyrinth was largely a success, and it deserves credit for that.
November 10, 2016
A pretty intense little adventure with some complex but filfilling maps which lead our players into a series of dungeon crawls through an ancient labyrinth deep within the mountains.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews