Friday Fantasy: The House of Jade and Shadow

Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #15: The House of Jade and Shadow is a scenario for Goodman Games’ Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game and the fourteenth scenario for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar Boxed Set. Scenarios for Dungeon Crawl Classics tend be darker, grimmer, and even pulpier than traditional Dungeons & Dragons scenarios, veering close to the Swords & Sorcery subgenre. Scenarios for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar Boxed Set are set in and around the City of the Black Toga, Lankhmar, the home to the adventures of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser and the creation of author Fritz Leiber. The city is described as an urban jungle, rife with cutpurses and corruption, guilds and graft, temples and trouble, whores and wonders, and more. Under the cover the frequent fogs and smogs, the streets of the city are home to thieves, pickpockets, burglars, cutpurses, muggers, and anyone else who would skulk in the night! Which includes the Player Characters. And it is these roles which the Player Characters get to be in Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #15: The House of Jade and Shadow, small time crooks trying to make a living and a name for themselves, but without attracting the attention of either the city constabulary or worse, the Thieves’ Guild!

This is the set-up for Dungeon CrawlClassics Lankhmar #15: The House of Jade and Shadow, is a scenario for First Level Player Characters and is both an archetypal scenario for use with the Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar Boxed Set. A stranger has come to the City of Seven-score Thousand Smokes. He says that has come from Far Kiraay, a realm considered near mythical by many Lankhmarts, but based upon the size of the baggage train and number of men and women he brought with him, as well as the home he has had built in the style of his homeland, where even now he holds parties for the wealthy and the nobility, intrigued as they are by his exoticism and his mystique, he is a rich man. Rumours swirl about his having been exiled from Far Kiraay for the deplorable acts of depravity and cruelty, that he keeps a king’s ransom in jewels, gems, and other valuables in a vault below his house, and that he hosts lavish masquerades for the rich and powerful at which introduces them to the pleasures of his homeland. Of course, every Lankhmart loves a good party and especially one that involves masks, since masks hide a person’s identity and when you happen to be stealing from the host, you definitely want to be keeping your identity a secret! Surprisingly, there is actually a lot of truth to the rumours flying about the Far Kiraayan nobleman, Master Fang-tzu, and both the household he keeps and the soirees he hosts, but there are definitely rumours that are not true and secrets he would not want revealed. Such as the fact that he is a leading member of fanatical cult dedicated to the Snake God, which is why he fled far Kiraary after an uprising, and having found a home in the City of the Black Toga, plans to suborn its rich and powerful as acolytes of the Cult of the Snake God!

However, Master Fang-tzu’s politics and vile practices have not travelled to Lankhmar alone as Xiang-li, a fellow Far Kiraayan has come to the city and wants to employ some local thieves to perform a job for him—in other words, the Player Characters. Suggested by a local contact (which the Judge will need to work into the campaign), Xiang-li wants the Player Characters to break into Master Fang-tzu’s and steal a set of seven jade stones that are necessary to ensure the rightful sovereignty of the ruler of Far Kiraay. Fortunately, the Player Characters’ contact has a way in—an invitation on a very fancy scroll to the very next party hosted by Master Fang-tzu.

Despite a lengthy backstory, the scenario focuses upon the event and Player Characters’ attendance, though they have time to case the joint and collect some rumours before arriving at the party. This enables them to pick up on a rumour or two and probably learn that Master Fang-tzu keeps some strange creatures in the grounds of his house. There is a table of random encounters provided should the Player Characters decide to check out the sewers beneath the house, as it is another possible means of the breaking in, but the route favoured and detailed by the scenario is using the invitation they already have. This enables them to look round the grounds without looking out of place and it also enables the Judge to run some fun roleplaying encounters at the party. Here the Player Characters can make some interesting contacts if they play their cards right. The encounters include being invited to dance by a brazen noblewoman and being called to duel as another nobleman’s champion. These are nice little encounters which give a player a chance to roleplay a scene and his character to do more than sneak around the house. There are only four such encounters as well as an optional one if a Player Character is caught red-handed committing a criminal act and the watch is called. More would have been useful, but these are about enough for the low player count required by the Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar Boxed Set.

Physically, Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #15: The House of Jade and Shadow is well presented. The artwork and cartography are both decent, but it would have been nice if a few more NPCs had been illustrated.

The sad new is that Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #15: The House of Jade and Shadow is the last release for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar Boxed Set, but it is definitely not a bad scenario with which to bring the licence to a finish. Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar #15: The House of Jade and Shadow is a classic theft and mystery scenario for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar Boxed Set, in parts entertaining and horrifying. Plus, it really has some really fun roleplaying encounters. Unfortunately, it is a scenario for First Level Player Characters and there are enough of those for Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar Boxed Set, which really could have done with more scenarios for higher Level Player Characters instead.