Friday Fantasy: Glipkerio’s Gambit

In aspiring to great power and in obtaining the patronage of a great power, perhaps a god, a demon, or a celestial, there is sometimes a cost to be paid, a service to be rendered in return such patronage. So it is that the Three Fates, patron to the wizard in the party, call upon his aid and thus the aid of all in the party. There is no denying that is a great hook. It gets the Player Characters involved immediately because the wizard owes his patron a great deal and he stands to lose much, starting with his reputation and standing with the Three Fates, if he says no. What the Three Fates want him and the rest of the party to do is to recapture their temple, the Temple of Destiny. They can tell the Player Characters that it has been captured by the forces of Chaos, but no more, for something blocks their vision of it. To do so, the Player Characters must ascend Mount Tyche, in particular, the Staircase of Fate, close to the top of the mountain, in order to enter the Temple of Destiny and determine who leads the forces of Chaos in its takeover and defeat them.

This is the set-up for Dungeon Crawl Classics #80.5: Glipkerio’s Gambit is a scenario published by Goodman Games for use with the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game. It is designed for a party of Second level Player Characters and it can be played through in one or two sessions. What has happened is that the wizard, Glipkerio, emboldened by his dark patron, Obitu-Que, has brashly seized the Temple of Destiny and turned it into his own lair, tapping into the Fates’ wellspring of power to fuel his own magical research. In particular, he has been able to infuse an amulet with enough power to control time and will use that against the Player Characters in what is the best scene in the scenario. However, to get to that scene, the Player Characters have to get through the rest of scenario and the scenes and encounters that make up the rest of the scenario are not bad, they are far from inspiring or exciting. The scenario begins well, with the Three Fates summoning the Player Characters when they return home from a night out and asking for their help. It does not have to be the Three Fates and they could instead be replaced by a Player Character’s own patron, but in this instance, it is the Three Fates and they give the Player Characters a magical artefact, a thread from their spinning wheel to protect the wearer from the forces of Chaos. Once the Player Characters accept the task and are transported near Mount Tyche to bring their ascent. The Player Characters can follow the path that winds round the steeply conical mountain, climb up the side, or fly, but pretty much, after a handful of fights, they get to the top.

If the encounters up the mountain underwhelm, the random events do add some colour and many feel a bit more ominous. For example, the phrase ‘Turn back now’ has been chiselled into a rock wall in gigantic letters and the Player Characters can discover the severed head of a Dwarf propped up on a rock which will croak the same phrase again and again, “You-ooo go-ooo noooooow.” The scenario picks up a pace when the Player Characters reach the Staircase of Fate just below the entrance to the Temple of Destiny. There is a fun puzzle here for the Player Characters to crack, though it has the potential undermine the gift that the Fates gave them, and between that and the Temple of Destiny has turned the temple entrance into a Corpse Gate, a gate of undead flesh, all grabbing arms, formed from the corpses of the villagers who lived below the mountain. If the Player Characters get too close, they will be grabbed, but a Cleric’s Turn Unholy ability will release them or do damage, and if a Thief wants to pick the lock, he has to reach into a gaping mouth!

The finale sees the Player Character confront the wizard, Glipkerio, not just once but multiple times. This is because he has used his newly infused Chronomantic Amulet to reach back in time and recruit younger versions of himself. Fortunately, these younger versions of himself are not as powerful as he currently is, though there are more of them. The number of duplicates also limits his (or their) spellcasting ability, but the Player Characters will need to kill them multiple times before they stop reappearing, and eventually, they will only be facing one, which transforms into the strange cat-headed, partially furry, one tentacled arm creature depicted on the cover. It is a cinematically fun final boss battle which brings the scenario to an entertaining climax.

Unfortunately, an exciting climax does not make up for an otherwise unexciting and underwhelming scenario. There are few opportunities for roleplaying, but worse, the scenario mostly ignores its themes of fate and the Fates with the Three Fates and time travel and manipulation with Glipkerio’s newfound powers. There are elements of both in the scenario, but not enough. Some of this can be explained by a lack of space, the scenario barely running to nine pages in length, but it would have been interesting if the Player Characters had been given the option of exploring three possible Fates somehow and perhaps been flung around in time as well.

Physically, Dungeon Crawl Classics #80.5: Glipkerio’s Gambit is as well presented as you would expect for a scenario for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game. The writing, the artwork, and the cartography are all excellent

Dungeon Crawl Classics #80.5: Glipkerio’s Gambit is a serviceable adventure and no more—as written. If a Judge wants to take it and develop its themes and create some engaging encounters and events around them, whether that is the Player Characters chasing Glipkerio through time or deciding between their fates, then Dungeon Crawl Classics #80.5: Glipkerio’s Gambit could live up to its ideas and its potential.

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Dungeon Crawl Classics #80: Intrigue at the Court of Chaos was the previous scenario •

The next scenario is Dungeon Crawl Classics #81: The One who Watches from Below.