Friday Fantasy: The Tomb of Fire

Arc Dream Publishing is best known as the publisher of the Delta Green: The Role-Playing Game, the roleplaying game of conspiratorial and Lovecraftian investigative horror, but in 2019, branched out into publishing for Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition with its ‘Swords & Sorceries’ adventure line and two releases for its ‘Broken Empire’ setting. The first of these was The Sea Demon’s Gold, an adventure offering more dangers than rewards, and doing so in a weird, dank, and squelchy environment, with a strong undercurrent of the Lovecraftian. Where The Sea Demon’s Gold roughly threw the adventurers ashore and into a clammy dungeon, the second scenario, The Song of the Sun Queens, took the player characters to a southerly kingdom and there enmeshed them in its sisterly rivalry, before leading them out onto sun bleached savannah in search of a great treasure.

Each of the two scenarios so far have has had parallels with certain historical regions. So with The Sea Demon’s Gold the feel was that of the Hellenic world, and with The Song of the Sun Queens, it was the kingdoms of Africa. The third scenario in the ‘Swords & Sorceries’ has a Middle Eastern feel to it. Designed for five characters of Third Level, the structure of The Tomb of Fire feels a whole lot like that of The Song of the Sun Queens in that the player characters have travelled to the edges of the civilised world in search of a great treasure. In The Song of the Sun Queens, it was Ndame, the Land of the Sun that they travelled to and from there to the ancient, cursed ruin known as Juakufa where a great treasure is said to rest. In The Tomb of Fire, the Player Characters travel to the Rahaman oasis, in the dry land of Kahlar, at the edge of the great Mahjur Desert, seeking the Tomb of Fire, a ruined temple dedicated to a now forgotten god. It is said that like Juakufa, the Tomb of Fire is filled with great riches, but the local inhabitants will warn that the tomb is warded by great spirits deadlier than any man can defeat. 

For the players, The Tomb of Fire begins with everyone’s favourite roleplaying activity—shopping. Or rather preparing for the three-hundred-mile trek across the inhospitable Mahjur Desert to Jahiz. This trek forms the first part of the adventure, supported by detailed rules for handling its gruelling nature and a table of random encounters. Including a Ranger in the party will help, but either way, one character will be serving as guide and one as animal handler. There is just the one given encounter on the way which nicely, creepily foreshadows the sense of weirdness, distrust, and uncertainty which runs throughout the adventure. Once in Jahiz, they are welcomed by the Bashari, a deeply spiritual people who will constantly offer them prayers to their god, the Lord of Storms. They will be hospitable, once they learn of their interest in visiting the Tomb of Fire, will direct them to visit their high priest in the Temple of the Sky atop the single mountain which looms over Jahiz. He will question their motives, but explain that the Tomb of Fire is the prison of an immortal enemy to the Bashari, a devil of earth and fire known as Kallahaab. He will take Good-aligned characters into his confidence, that he has been warned that evil men are trying to break into the tomb and free Kallahaab and that he needs good men to ensure that they fail and that Kallahaab remains imprisoned. If the player characters are not Good-aligned, then their coming has been foretold, for they are ‘evil men’…

So ideally, the characters must be Good-aligned or particularly deceptive to get the directions out of the priest, but otherwise Neutral- or Evil-aligned characters will need to find their own way. The journey to the tomb will be interrupted by another band Bashari, the Paladins of the Hidden Flame. They are also friendly, but will denounce the Bashari of Jahiz as fools for not worshiping Kallahaab, the true ruler of the land who was betrayed by the Lord of Storms. They want the player characters to free him. This then sets up the dilemma at the heart of the Tomb of Fire—which faith is the true faith and who to trust? This comes to a head in the tomb itself, which although small, merely consisting of six locations, will constantly test the player characters’ faith. This includes a confrontation with Kallahaab within the tomb itself, who will be very persuasive when it comes to suggesting that the player characters free him, including promising to reward them with Wishes if they do…

There is a lot of roleplaying depth to The Tomb of Fire. All of the NPCs, whether human or monster, are interested in the player characters and in persuading them to their cause. So the players will need to decide who to follow, which will be based on two factors. One is their Alignment. The scenario does favour Good-aligned characters, but takes Neutral- and Evil-aligned characters into account. The other is the spirituality of both factions of Bashari, constantly expressed throughout the scenario and full of clues as to what is to come. The Tomb of Fire is not a scenario to be approached in too bullish a fashion, there being a subtlety present in the story that the players and their characters might otherwise miss and so land themselves in the fire… Now that said, the denouement of the scenario will require careful preparation and handling upon the part of the Dungeon Master as there is a great deal going on, whilst the aftermath is underwritten, in that it does not fully explore the consequences of the player characters’ actions, particularly if Kallahaab is freed.

This latter issue points to another problem with The Tomb of Fire and ‘Swords & Sorceries’ adventure line and the three releases so far for the ‘Broken Empire’ setting—and that is a lack of context. So far all three scenarios have been set far from the ‘Broken Empire’ and all three have been set in separate locations, so there is no sense of connection between the three and thus no sense of sharing the same world. This makes each scenario easy to pull out and work into a Dungeon Master’s own campaign world, but there is no world building between them which might otherwise have come about had the three scenarios so far been linked. The lack of context means that the player and their characters do not have any grounding in the setting, so it is harder for them to engage with it.

Physically, The Tomb of Fire is fantastically presented. The maps and writing are both good, but the artwork is excellent, full of character and rich detail, and like those in The Song of the Sun Queens can all be shown to the players as they progress through the scenario.

The Tomb of Fire is again relatively short, offering two to three sessions of play. It feels rich and deep in terms of the setting and its people, pleasingly embroiling the player characters in religious rivalries that provide a really good mix of roleplaying and action—often with an element of horror. Like the previous scenario, The Song of the Sun Queens, it presents more of a setting that nicely draws upon on cultures other than Western fantasy, but again leaves the Dungeon Master wanting and needing more. 

Friday Fantasy: The Song of the Sun Queens

Arc Dream Publishing is best known as the publisher of the Delta Green: The Role-Playing Game, the roleplaying game of conspiratorial and Lovecraftian investigative horror, but in 2019, branched out into publishing for Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition with its ‘Swords & Sorceries’ adventure line and two releases for its ‘Broken Empire’ setting. The first of these was The Sea Demon’s Gold, an adventure offering more dangers than rewards, and doing so in a weird, dank, and squelchy environment, with a strong undercurrent of the Lovecraftian. Where The Sea Demon’s Gold roughly threw the adventurers ashore and into a clammy dungeon, the second scenario takes the adventurers out onto sun bleached savannah in search of a great treasure.

The Song of the Sun Queens is an adventure designed to be played by five characters of Second and Third Level and takes place out on the vast plains of the Sunlands. In the Broken Empire—the setting for Arc Dream Publishing’s campaign world—this lies far to the south of the remnants of the Zyirran Empire, a fallen Byzantium-like empire, placed of course, in the Swords & Sorcery genre. There is no background given on the Broken Empire in The Song of the Sun Queens, but it does include details of the Sunlands kingdom, its weather and its gods. The Sunlands themselves are similar to parts of Africa, so the scenario is relatively easy to adapt to other settings, to other roleplaying games like Robert E. Howard’s Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of, and even to other genres, for example, it could be run using Raiders of the Lost Artifacts: Original Edition Rules for Fantastic Archaeological Adventures, Leagues of Adventure: A Rip-Roaring Setting of Exploration and Derring Do in the Late Victorian Age!, or Pulp Cthulhu: Two-fisted Action and Adventure Against the Mythos . Essentially, The Song of the Sun Queens is a fantasy scenario with pulp undertones and so perfectly in keeping with its ‘Swords & Sorceries’ genre.

As the scenario opens, the adventurers have travelled south to the colourful royal fortress of Juafalme, where they hope to learn more about the location of an ancient, cursed ruin known as Juakufa where a great treasure is said to rest. Here in Ndame, the Land of the Sun, the Sunlanders of the local kingdom welcome the adventurers as honoured guests and invite them to join an ostrich hunt and a celebration afterwards. The former drops the adventurers into the action more or less straight away, the latter an opportunity for roleplaying and the chance to learn more about their proposed destination. (It should be noted that there is a scene of an adult nature here, but it is well handled and could easily be dropped if a group would be uncomfortable with it.) Armed with what they have learned and equipped with a guide, the adventurers then set out south and into the Bleak Lands.

There really is only the one route south, which means that the trip is linear in nature. That said, The Song of the Sun Queens is quite short and the encounters the adventurers have along the way, as well as the villages they visit, could all be moved around if they decide to deviate from the route that the guide is leading them along. As they journey south, they will be harassed by giant hyenas and hyena giants—which even the author notes is confusing—and their Gnoll allies, as well encountering other horrors and finding respite at various villages. Ultimately, they come to Juakufa, otherwise known as the ‘Cackling Fortress’, a dusty, rubble-strewn ruin littered with some nicely detailed treasures, but haunted by a pair of quite tough monsters in a pleasingly creepy climax.

The Song of the Sun Queens is decently presented, cleanly laid out, and well written, and includes advice on making it tougher or easier depending on the strength of the party. The maps are excellent as are the illustrations, both being fully painted. Certainly the illustrations can all be shown to the players as they progress through the scenario.

The Song of the Sun Queens is a relatively short scenario, offering two to three sessions of play. Consequently, it is straightforward in its plotting, but the Dungeon Master could easily expand the scenario, perhaps by playing up the rivalry between the twin monarchs in Ndame, the Land of the Sun, and have that dog the adventurers all the way to scenario’s denouement. Even without this expansion, The Song of the Sun Queens presents a good mix of roleplaying and action, offering a strong combination of pulpy horror and fantasy in a setting that nicely draws upon on cultures other than Western fantasy. 

Lovecraftian Dungeons & Dragons

Arc Dream Publishing is best known as the publisher of the Delta Green: The Role-Playing Game, the roleplaying game of conspiratorial and Lovecraftian investigative horror, but now it has published its first release for Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition. This is The Sea Demon’s Gold, a scenario designed for a party of five First Level adventurers, the first in the publisher’s ‘Swords & Sorceries’ adventure line and the first release for its ‘Broken Empire’ setting. The scenario is quite short and should be playable in a session or two, comes with notes to adjust the difficulty up or down depending upon the number of players, and is primarily focused on exploration and combat, although there are some nice roleplaying opportunities along the way.

The setting for the line and the ‘Broken Empire’ are the remnants of the Zyirran Empire, which once conquered and enslaved all of the lands around the Sea of Storms, ruling over a long, uneasy peace. Once enthralled to its patron and god-king, Surkat the Conqueror, Father of Furies, devil-god of water and the underworld, patron of sailors, traders, and soldiers, a century ago, the paladins and priests of the sky-gods of the eastern Samarran kingdoms overthrew the empire, supplanting temples dedicated to devils with those to the  sky-gods. The empire disintegrated and was so replaced by petty kingdoms and city-states, separated by long stretches of dangerous wilderness that are home to chaos, monsters, and ancient ruins. None of this is given in The Sea Demon’s Gold, but the feel of both this background and the scenario itself is of the northern Mediterranean, of Greece and a fallen Byzantium-like empire, placed of course, in the Swords & Sorcery genre. Although the scenario can be easily slotted into another setting, the scenario, its setting, and its genre are fully supported by a set of pre-generated player characters ready to be downloaded and the scenario played.

As the scenario begins with the player characters aboard the Heart of Iron, heading for a long-lost island said to be home to an abandoned temple of the Sea Demon. The extinct people of the island are rumoured to have appeased the Sea Demon with sacrifices of wealth and their own criminals, and with the temple having been abandoned, then that wealth is just lying there, ready to be plundered. They have been hired by the ship’s captain to go ashore and delve into the temple in return for half of the wealth they find. As the scenario opens though, the Heart of Iron is caught in a violent storm and being attacked by raiders from the depths, just as the ship is about to be driven onto the shore…

The set-up gets the adventurers and their players nicely involved in the action and it is nicely counterpointed by a roleplaying encounter which hints at the dangers to be found within the temple itself, that leaving may require a greater sacrifice than they are willing to make. This is only the first hint of the dangers to come, the other hints coming whenever the player characters take long rests to heal and recover spells. This includes presenting another roleplaying hook which is likely to have long term consequences to both character and the adventuring party in general.

The temple of the Sea Demon consists of just ten locations, much of it warped coral covered in fleshy slime and interrupted by chitin. Lit by algae and dripping with water, it feels almost alive as air seems to pass through it, and for the most part, the danger to the player characters really comes in their meddling and being greedy, the temple seeming to respond to their actions, although they may encounter an NPC who definitely wants to help their progress. Overall, the player characters will need to work for the treasure and will probably need to be wary to of the dangers within its slime encrusted walls.

Physically, The Sea Demon’s Gold is well presented in full colour with some decent illustrations—starting with the excellent front cover, which really reaches out and grabs you. The deckplan of the Heart of Iron feels superfluous, whilst the map of the dungeon perhaps could have done with a little more detail and it would have been nice if some descriptive text had been given for each location. The writing feels a little brief in places, but that is down to the brevity of the scenario itself at just eighteen pages.

The Sea Demon’s Gold nicely models the Swords & Sorcery genre in offering  more dangers than rewards, doing so in a weird, dank, and squelchy environment. There is a pleasing sense of corruption to both location and the scenario’s storyline, one that should be fun to roleplay out should both the Dungeon Master and her players embrace it. Overall, The Sea Demon’s Gold feels grimmer than most scenarios for Dungeons & Dragons, with a strong undercurrent of the Lovecraftian that has been mapped onto traditional Dungeons & Dragons stylings.