Dark Tower

Judges Guild #88

by Paul Jaquays

A scenario, including four detailed dungeon levels, a village, and other items: new monsters and artifacts, the history of the area, and more. An ancient evil has overtaken a once holy shrine; thus, a sleepy mountain hamlet becomes the focal point for strange disappearances and even stranger legends in the eternal battle between Set and Mitra. Nominated for the 1979 H.G. Welles award.

72 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1979

Reviews

[Ken · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fantastic high level dungeon crawl, Dark Tower has a mystery to solve (what's up with all the strange doings in the village) that leads to an unusually designed dungeon: 2 buried towers with interconnecting passages. There's powerful artifacts, powerful npcs to track on both sides, and the whole yarn seems like a Conan story, even using the deities from his stories. The ending battle is ... whoa. I'm giddy with the thought of showing that picture of Manahath to the players, then saying, okay roll initiative as their jaws drop. This review is only based on reading the adventure, not running it, and with a design this complex it is hard to tell exactly how it runs. But I hope it would be a top notch experience. I rate this slightly below Caverns of Thracia, Jaquay's next effort, because it doesn't have the same emphasis on hidden areas and revealing the backstory as the party explores further.

[Juho Pohjalainen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Last time I ran this baby, the party ended up being besieged in the church by the entire damned evil town, fighting their way through and challenging the high priest Avvakris to a clerical spell duel. They won, barely. It got worse from there.

My favourite old-school module, bar none.

[Stephen Newton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great dungeon crawl. One of the greatest D&D adventures of all time.