# Best Dungeon Magazine Adventure(s)?



## Kryndal Levik (Dec 14, 2002)

In your opinion, what are the best Dungeon Magazine Adventure(s) that you've run/played?  Follow-up question: what are some adventures from Dungeon you've linked together in your campaigns?

(My answer- I really enjoyed Kingdom of the Ghouls in Dungeon #70.  Issue #84 was great all around, with "The Harrowing," "The Dying of the Light," and "Dungeon of the Fire Opal.")


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## ced1106 (Dec 14, 2002)

There's a really old one called, "The Spottle Parlor". The PCs basically spend the evening gambling -- featuring a frog. That's almost it! What's fun is that it has three NPCs who are both colorful **and** easy to run. I'd sure like to know why D&D doesn't have more tavern adventures.


Cedric.
aka. Washu! ^O^


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## Melan (Dec 14, 2002)

SPOILERS!





#1: Deadly Treasure - in the 40s, I believe. It's a horribly hard dungeon crawl in the Tomb of Horrors style. The premise revolves around a wizard, whose tomb is protected by traps made of his own magic items. Nasty. I DMed it thrice and only one party completed it. 

#2: Asflag's Unintentional Emporium: nice abandoned wizard's tower/house/whatever. I ran two rival parties into it and they ended up killing each other. Great fun.

Nothing in the 3e issues have gripped me so far.


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## Adlon (Dec 14, 2002)

Deadly Treasure, and Mud Sorcerers Tomb. Issue numbers I cant go grab at this time, but the Mud Sorcerers Tomb, is by far one of the best. It's well written, it flows nicely, and requires a GOOD balance of combat, and brain. Its set in a desert atmosphere.

Pig and Camel bring thee woe. Hippo shows the way to go... 

There was another, the name of which escapes me at present: it involved a pair of imps, one of which drops a cube of force over a PC/PC's while a floor fastened Decanter of Eldless Water is examined. Can we say Dispel Magic ?? !!
The other imp attempts to flatten the PC's with a Daern's Instant Fortress, a DFA attack. Pesky Imps


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## Plane Sailing (Dec 14, 2002)

I've linked together in my campaign Depths of Rage (#83) and Eye for an Eye (#82), both of which have worked really nicely.


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## Mithriltooth (Dec 14, 2002)

Im going to second the Mud Sorcerer's Tomb (I also cant recall the Dungeon issue it appeared in).

There was also an oldie by a Grant Boucher, something with an Ancient Frost Giant Lair - Excellent Module though I cant remember the name  .

New 3E goodies include (by level)....

1)The Raiders Of Galath's Roost (1st level/Dungeon #87) - Skip Williams
2)Gorgoldand's Gauntlet (1st level/Dungeon Magazine CD) - Johnathan Richards
3)Dungeon Of The Fire Opal (3rd level/Dungeon #84) - Johnathan Tweet
4)Tears For Twilight Hollow (7th level/Dungeon #90) - Christopher Perkins/Angel McCoy
5)The Elfwhisper (8th level/Dungeon #90) - J.C. Alvarez
6)Interlopers Of Ruun-Khazai (13th level/Dungeon #92) - David Noonan (excellent Planar adventure)
7)The Harrowing (15th level/Dungon #84) - Monte Cook
8)Glacier Season (15th level/Dungeon #87) - David Eckelberry
9)The Storm Lord's Keep (21st level/Dungeon #93) - James Wyatt (excellent Epic Level)


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## EricNoah (Dec 14, 2002)

Tears For Twilight Hollow (7th level/Dungeon #90)  -- 

we spent about 4 months on this one, it was good overall.  I removed the weird gizmos (you'll see when you read it) and had to beef it up significantly for a party that was just one level higher (and had 7 members) -- some of the encounters were rather underpowered.  But very nice overall!


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## Sanackranib (Dec 14, 2002)

*dungeon*

"through the night" and "shades of darkness". both create that creepy feeling and keep the players on their toes


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## Tyler Do'Urden (Dec 14, 2002)

"The Forgotten Man" in #75 has to be one of my favorites (to read)... I really need to run that one some time.


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## Blackthorne (Dec 14, 2002)

Check out "Pandemonium in the Veins" (current issue). It R-O-C-K-S.


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## mearls (Dec 14, 2002)

I really like everything by Ted James Thomas Zuvich. My all time favorite has to be The Siege of Kratyrs Freehold, with A Hot Day in L'trel a close second. In Siege, the characters have to defend an isolated manor house from a small orc army. They have a roster of the NPCs, equipment, and supplies in the house and must organize an effective defense over 2 or 3 days. I ran it as part of my campaign, and built the entire manor house and surrounding area using miniature buildings and terrain in my friend's basement where we gamed. I also bought and painted miniatures for every orc, warrior, and NPC in the manor. We played the siege over a 20 hour span and it has to be one of the best single D&D sessions I've ever run.

I also like Chris Perkins' work, and the 3e issues have been great. I ran Dungeon of the Fire Opal and had a lot of fun with it.


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## Piratecat (Dec 14, 2002)

I'm actually running a greatly changed version of Kingdom of the Ghouls right now. It's a _fine_ adventure.


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## Graf (Dec 15, 2002)

This brings up an interetesting point....

There are lots of old good dungeon magazine adventures.... I wonder why they don't have a best-of-the-best-get-converted-to-3e issue?
(I think I've heard about the Mud Sorcerer's Tomb at least 5 times...)
Heck, it could even be a regular feature.

Though I've only recenlty gotten into Dungeon/Poly I have to go with Porphyry House Horror. the BoVD stuff aside it's a remarkably well developed setting/adventure.


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## el-remmen (Dec 15, 2002)

*Chadranther's Bane*: so good!  The party is all shrunk down to teeny-tiny-size!

There are so many others.

I am with mearls, Ted Zuvich was absolutely the best along with Willie Walsh (who posted here some time ago).

Not a big fan of the Chris Perkins ones though . . .  I always felt they used him too much.

Off the top of my head some of my favorites are:

*Song of the Fens*
*Tallow's Deep*
*Mud Sorcerer's Tomb*
*Is There an Elf in the House?*

In fact I would go as far to say that at its high point (Dungeon has stunk for a while now) the magazine adventures were far and above much better than the packaged "company" ones.


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## Skade (Dec 15, 2002)

My fave has to be Tears for Twilight Hollow.  It is a pretty long adventure, more than enough to take characters from 7th to 8th level.  I am not a dungeon crawling sort of DM, and although this one has several I thoroughly enjoyed it.  There is a great plot, and though the players may figure out whodunnit, the characters will have a harder time proving it.  I ran this adventure using elements from the BoVD, but you by no means have to, nor is it in the adventure.  I just see Loviatar as being particularly vile.

-kane


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## pogre (Dec 15, 2002)

I concur on issue #84. I think I ran every adventure in it.

I still like Dungeon and continue to use the adventures.


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## Barendd Nobeard (Dec 15, 2002)

Have to agree with *Tears for Twilight Hollow*.  I'm running it right now as a redemption quest for a fallen paladin, and it's a lot of fun.


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## Trevalon Moonleirion (Dec 15, 2002)

> _originally posted by Graf_
> 
> This brings up an interetesting point....
> 
> ...





I would lay down big bucks for an issue ilke this!


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## Asmo (Dec 15, 2002)

I remember that when our group switched to 3 ed,one of the dm:s  run an adventure called "Operation Manta Ray" or something similar.
It´s  the best adventure I´ve played from Dungeon.

Asmo


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## Agamon (Dec 15, 2002)

Geez, I just went to look up the name of the adventure our group had fun playing a while back, A Race Against Time from issue #81, and realized it was written by guy that lives in my wee Canadian town who I just met last week...go figure.


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## Sanackranib (Dec 15, 2002)

*dungon*



			
				nemmerle said:
			
		

> *Chadranther's Bane: so good!  The party is all shrunk down to teeny-tiny-size!
> 
> There are so many others.
> 
> ...




I enjoyed chadranthers bane a lot but the scale of the creatures is off, especially the rats and the big snake.

Tallows deep is an excelent adventure and I plan to run my party through it soon


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## grodog (Dec 15, 2002)

> There are lots of old good dungeon magazine adventures.... I wonder why they don't have a best-of-the-best-get-converted-to-3e issue? (I think I've heard about the Mud Sorcerer's Tomb at least 5 times...) Heck, it could even be a regular feature.




IIRC, 3e conversions of old adventures was discussed in Dungeon when 3e was initially released.  Don't recall the details offhand though.  

Anyone else???


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## Skade (Dec 16, 2002)

Barendd Nobeard said:
			
		

> *Have to agree with Tears for Twilight Hollow.  I'm running it right now as a redemption quest for a fallen paladin, and it's a lot of fun. *




I hope you use the kids to good effect on this one.  That was one of my favorite elements in the story.  There is a pairof children in specific who get entangled in the whole mess.  The paladin in my group had to accept responsiblity for endangering the kids when their hero worship of her led them further into the situation.  In the end, when al turned out wel, the note the kids left them was quite nice.  Besides, its fun to roleplay as a 7 year old kid.  I still think like one.


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## Darrin Drader (Dec 16, 2002)

Issue 17 Out of the Ashes: A red dragon called Flame, who was killed in an adventure in Dungeon issue #1 called "Into the Fire" returns from the dead and appears in a great crystal citadel that floats above a lava fissure.

I've run this one at least twice, the second time after the party killed a red dragon in "Horror on the Hill" (a basic D&D adventure). In that adventure I changed the dragon's name to Flame, and then several adventures later I ran Out of the Ashes as the sequel.

Among the things I like about it: Flame is a very cool dragon, the Vecna connection, and of course my all-time favorite secret society - the Kamikaze Kobold Corps.


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## Sanackranib (Dec 16, 2002)

*dungeon mag modules*

I have also gotten a lot of milage out of the module "inheritance."

s

p

o

i

l

e

r

s




depending on how you introduce it (weither the pc knew/lived with uncle or not, the knowledge of the secret door can make it capable to go through as a solo adventure. and with the series of attacks that the pc will have to endure this is a money pit. the last groupe I ran this for came here between trips down to undermountian and continued to make improvements and convert it to a fully garasioned castle rather then a simple keep for the year and a half that I ran that game.


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## Piratecat (Dec 16, 2002)

Baraendur said:
			
		

> *Issue 17 Out of the Ashes: A red dragon called Flame, who was killed in an adventure in Dungeon issue #1 called "Into the Fire" returns from the dead and appears in a great crystal citadel that floats above a lava fissure. *




This was the first issue of Dungeon I ever read. I was flabbergasted as to how cool this adventure was!  Lots of fun.


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## King_Stannis (Dec 16, 2002)

Rich Baker's "Rana Mor" was by far my favorite dungeon adventure so far. Great location and great villains.


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## Mithriltooth (Dec 16, 2002)

grodog said:
			
		

> *
> 
> IIRC, 3e conversions of old adventures was discussed in Dungeon when 3e was initially released.  Don't recall the details offhand though.
> 
> Anyone else??? *




you are correct. It was discussed in the "Letters" section of Dungeon #87 titled "updating the Classics". The letter was written by a James Landry via email.
Wizards answer in short ....



> As mentioned in last issues "Letters" column, we intend to update old Dungeon Magazine classics (making them compatible with the new D&D  rules) and present them as downloads on our website. Overlapping deadlines and an Overworked staff have thwarted us so far, but we are pushing forward with this project. We are also reading your letters and emails and compiling a list of your favorite modules from past issues. Thanks for your letters and your patience!




Maybe we can revive this?


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## grodog (Dec 16, 2002)

Thanks for finding the quotation, Mithriltooth.  I'll post a new topic for Eric, Lisa, Johnny, et al, to find


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## Capellan (Dec 16, 2002)

*2E*
_Old Man Katan (and his all singing, all dancing mushroom band)_

Actually, pretty much anything by Ted James Thomas Zuvich was guaranteed to be a good time.

_Kingdom of the Ghouls_ was a great high level adventure - I'd planned to use it in my last 2E campaign but we never quite made it.

There were many others whose names escape me now, but I remember _generally_ finding the Ravenloft / horror games to be of good quality.

Like some others, I was not much of a fan of Chris Perkins' work, though I certainly respected his ability to generate large amounts of material!  I was generally disappointed with the issues of his editorial run, as well - the _Mere of Dead Men_ series comes to mind immediately as a great concept that I felt suffered badly in the execution.


*3E*
_Dungeon of the Fire Opal_ and _Raiders of Galath's Roost_ come to mind as two of the best I've glanced through, but I have so far avoided reading many of the 3E issues in any detail; at first for lack of time, and more recently because arwink is using them for his campaigns, both of which I am playing.


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## Stone Angel (Dec 17, 2002)

SPOILERS












I don't remember the name or issue# but you were hired to find out information about a Dragon. You get a magic item that allows you to sacrifice another magic item, it was kind of like saving a video game. Just killing the dragon never worked, you had to find out what it ate, it's lair, MM essentially but everyone really enjoyed it and it was a blast to run.

Also the Hero's Fairs or challenge was always kind of fun.

I also remember the ghoul empire adv. I never got to run it either.


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## Balrog (Dec 17, 2002)

I will second (or third) the kudos for "Out of the Ashes" from Dungeon #17.  I think I still have that one lying around here somewhere, along with a few other old issues from the first 2 years.  Then I quit gaming of any sort for several years.  It wasnt until right before 3rd Ed came out that I really and truly got back into DnD again.  I have found several good 3rd Edition adventures since Dungeon started putting those out.  

The following are adventures I have used so far in DMing 3E:

1)Iriandel(Dungeon 83/3rd Level)--by Tito Leati
2)Gorgoldand's Gauntlet(Dungeon CD/1st level)--by Johnathan Richards
3)Natural Selection(Dungeon 85/5th level)--by Matthew Adkins
4)Stormdancers(Dungeon 86/ 3rd level)--by Ole Munch
5)The Rock and the Hard Place(Dungeon 91/ 16th level Side Trek)--by Brian Corvello
6)Bloodlines(Dungeon 94/ 7th level)--by Luke Johnson

I have to say that I loved Gorgoldands Gauntlet, Iriandel, and Natural Selection.  I dont have issue 84 but it sounds like I missed out on some good ones there.

Not to hijack this thread, but does anyone know a good source for Dungeon Back Issues, mainly since 3rd Edition came out?  I am missing issues 82, 84, 89, and 93 and my FLGS doesnt carry back issues.  Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.  Anyone with any info can email so we don't clog up this thread.


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## Silver Moon (Dec 17, 2002)

*Dungeon Magazine*

I've used seven of them so far.   I'd say that the single best was "The Ghost of Mistmoor" from Dungeon 35.    A great mystery with a few good plot twists.

"Flesh to Stone" from Dungeon 85 is a great short fun adventure with comical NPC's.

"The Crypt of Istaris" from Dungeon 9 is a short but challenging adventure if your party likes undead.

The other four I did as a linked series for a spin-off group of new 1st level characters.  They were the following:

"Mightier than the Sword" from Dungeon 29 - A murder mystery set in a city; 

"And a dozen Eggs" from Dungeon 30 - a variation on the old alligators in the sewers theme;

"A Wrastle with Bertrum" from Dungeon 30 - a short silly game set in a tavern;

"Lurkers in the Library" from Dungeon 9 - fairly self-explanitory from the title;

and I finished that series with the following two classic modules from old Dragon Magazines:

"The Assassins Run" from Dragon #64 - excellent skills-based challenge test for the characters of any class

"The Chapel of Silence" from Dragon #50 - standard undead now haunting abandoned chapel scenario with a few surprises.


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## Silver Moon (Dec 21, 2002)

*Dungeon Adventures*

There's one more Dungeon Adventures Module that I wanted to put in a plug for:

"The Akriloth" from Dungeon #79 (March/April 2000).  It's a really interesting undersea adventure set in the ruins of a Merman/mermaid city.    I was all set to run it, but the player's decided they wanted to do something else instead - oh well, some time in the future...


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## Kryndal Levik (Dec 21, 2002)

Almost forgot two, as well- I (heavily) converted "Granite Mountain Prison" (Dungeon #36) into a single-PC adventure for the rogue in my campaign.  It was an absolute blast.

I'm also planning on using a (once again) heavily converted version of "Sleep of Ages" (Dungeon # 69) to round out a story arc in my campaign.


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## Wicht (Dec 21, 2002)

Chadranther's Bane and Out of the Ashes are both two that I remember well, though I never got a chance to run Out of the Ashes.  I always wanted to run Tallow's Deep too but never had a party I disliked enough to send them on such a suicide mission. 

Another I like, Sleepless Night, I think it is called, featured a doppleganger murdering people in an Inn and I have used that to great effect many, many times as a 1st time adventure for new players.

The one I really always wanted to run however, and I lost the issue and can't remember the name, was a tale of were-rats infecting everyong in a town famous for its cheese.  Anyone know the name and issue number of that one?


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## Byrons_Ghost (Dec 21, 2002)

I can't remember the issue (I think it was somewhere in the teens or twenties- a while back), but it was called "The Wounded Wyrm". The foe was a wounded red dragon, who some time ago had been assaulted by a group of adventurers and left for dead while they made off with his loot. Lacking his magic items, the dragon wasn't able to heal itself properly, and is basically left with only two legs and no wings, plus a lot of scars. And it's seriously pissed off.

Over a few years, the dragon uses various ruses and tricks to charm humanoids, passers-by (it can still leave the cave to crawl around, appearing as a crippled old man), and the like into becoming it's agents. They then go out into the countryside and "recruit" more people. In addition to adding their money to the dragon's horde, they also guard his lair, spy on humans, and attempt to find the group that made off with his possessions.

The PCs get inolved with this when they are hired by one of the dragon's agents, posing as a member of a fallen adventuring party. He wants them to go and take on this wounded dragon and help him recover his fallen comrades, and the dragon's treasure. Actually, the agent is a recruiter, and the plan is to charm the PCs and make them more agents of the dragon. By this time the dragon has gotten enough power that he's targetting competent people, ie monsters and PCs.

I always liked this one because it's the first adventure I saw with a dragon using its resources intelligently, instead of sitting in a cave waiting to be killed. Plus he has actual motivation, and an almost-sympathetic agenda- he just goes about it in the way that a powerful, CE monster would. And the double-cross on the PCs was pretty rare back then, I think.

Now that I think about it, this could be a whole mini-campaign, with the PCs uncovering a mysterious conspiracy and finally tracking it to the dragon. They'd definately be in for a surprise.


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## gordonknox (Dec 30, 2004)

*Mere of Dead Men*

Any more comments on the Mere of Dead Men Series, Dungeons #69-73?

I have heard that it is very interesting and yaun-ti are always cool...

gk


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## MonsterMash (Dec 31, 2004)

I've used Evil Unearthed from issue #82, though I had to convert to 3.5 and found it to be a good 1st level addy.


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## Psychic Warrior (Jan 1, 2005)

The Contest of Champions 1-4.  I don't know the issue numbers but I have now either played or ran my group through all of them.  A series of 10 challenges that the PCs must overcome using only what is provided for them by the Wizard's Guild running the show.  There are 10 events in each.  They are cleverly designed and will have your players wracking their brains for the answers to the puzzles.


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## Piratecat (Jan 1, 2005)

Psychic Warrior said:
			
		

> The Contest of Champions 1-4.




These are written by our own Richards.


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## Stegger (Jan 1, 2005)

*Results from an earlier Dungeon adventure thread*

Hi,
I actually asked the same question maybe to months ago and got some replies which I compiled. Here is the top list. Not that many recommendations, I know:
Adventure:                    Issue:  Recommendations:
Mud Sorcerer's Tomb	37	5
Mad God's Key	114	4
Adventure Path series		3
Dungeon of the Fire Opal	84	3
Grakhirt's Lair	1	3
Kingdom of the Ghouls	70	3
Rose for Talakara	25	3
The ghost of Mistmoor	35	3
The Wererats of Relfren	14	3
Trouble at Grog's	4	3
Ancient Blood 	20	2
Mere of Dead Men series		2
Mightier Than the Sword	29	2
Tallow's Deep	18	2
the black heart of ulom	10	2

This does not include any from this thread!
Cheers,
Stegger


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## Richards (Jan 1, 2005)

Originally posted by Psychic Warrior:







> The Contest of Champions 1-4. I don't know the issue numbers but I have now either played or ran my group through all of them.



You may not be aware of it, but there's a fifth entry in the "Challenge of Champions" series in _Dungeon_ #108.  They goofed on a couple of the scenario maps, though, which they fixed up on their web enhancement at http://paizo.com/download/dungeon/ChallengeOfChampions.pdf

Johnathan


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## RichGreen (Jan 1, 2005)

Silver Moon said:
			
		

> "Mightier than the Sword" from Dungeon 29 - A murder mystery set in a city;
> 
> "A Wrastle with Bertrum" from Dungeon 30 - a short silly game set in a tavern.




I ran both of these years ago -- Mightier than the Sword in particular is excellent. Of the recent 3.x ones, I liked Thirds of Purloined Vellum (#88) and Headless (#89) the most, but also successfully ran Worms in the Exchequery (#94), The Rock and the Hard Place (#91).

I enjoyed reading the Shackled City Adventure Path and just need to find time to run it.

Cheers


Richard


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## Emirikol (Jan 1, 2005)

Issue #119 as a letter called Poor whitefire in which there is an error.  The author is W. Dougherty.  He lists "Out of the Ashes" as appearing in DU#118, actually appeared in 117.

This guy seems to make a massive list, but it pretty much coordinates with other people's opinions in past issues.  I added it to the rankings on my Dungeon index (see SIG).

jh


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## diaglo (Jan 2, 2005)

Stegger said:
			
		

> Hi,
> I actually asked the same question maybe to months ago and got some replies which I compiled. Here is the top list. Not that many recommendations, I know:
> Adventure:                    Issue:  Recommendations:
> Mud Sorcerer's Tomb	37	5
> ...




yeah, i answered your post back then...

i see a lot of my choices.   

also add Falcon's Peak and Wrastle with Bertrum


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## Deuce Traveler (Jan 5, 2015)

I don't normally like bumping old threads, but if one needs to be risen from the dead 10 years after the fact, it is this one.  Does anyone want to add to the previous suggestions?

Out of those listed by Stegger, I ran Mightier Than the Sword here at ENWorld with some heavy edits and I played in the Mud Sorcerer's Tomb and really enjoyed it.

Over at RPGGeek they made the following suggestions:
Siege of Kratys Freehold (#33)
The Forgotten Man (#75)
The Lich-Queen's Beloved (#100)
The Lady of the Mists (#42)
Eye of Myrkul (#73)
Life's Bazarr (#97)
Into the Fire (#1)
Kingdom of the Ghouls (#70)
The Harrowing (#84)
The Mud Sorcerer's Tomb (#37)


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## Eminence_Grise (Feb 8, 2015)

I'm a big fan of the Mud Sorcerer's Tomb. I played it in the early 1990s with my friends and we had a blast!

Of all the adventures mentionned here, I will have a look on the following:
Mad God's Key (114)
Dungeon of the Fire Opal (84)
Out of ashes (17)


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