Set in Adventureaweek.com's own campaign world, this adventure begins with some historical background... far enough in the past that it could be tweaked to work with a different setting if required. Winding forwards swiftly to the present, an adventure hook is provided to get the characters to go visit the Crypt of the Sun Lord (if they know what it is, and know their history, they probably want to go there anyway!). For those who are using the campaign setting, there are some more links and notes to embed the characters into the setting from the outset (complete with hyperlinks to the relevant part of the Adventureaweek website, where the campaign world is detailed in an ever-growing section... which you can only access if you take out a subscription!), and there's a fine opening that sets them in the middle of the action from the outset, sailing across a lake on a Viking-style longboat!

The depth of background, skilfully recounted for you to insert into your descriptions and explanations as the game progresses, suggest that using the intended setting will be worthwhile as you seek to immerse yourselves in the shared alternate reality of your game. There's also plenty of advice on running the game in general, especially useful for new DMs but handy nevertheless however experienced you are at running games - and not too intrusive even if you reckon you need no help!

You may find, however, that the adventure is rather scripted: there is little scope for characters to do other than what has been laid out for them. Provided that they do, the tomb they are to investigate is laid out in lavish detail, complete with lush maps and copious atmospheric description - peppered with notes at the appropriate points to remind you what die rolls to call for, monster stats and combat tactics and so on, everything just when you'll need it and colour-coded so that you will not miss anything. Neat! Monsters are hyperlinked to both the D20 and the Pathfinder SRDs, so if you are running the game from a computer that's connected to the Internet, you can check up on the details from your chosen ruleset - and if you are not, there are also links to full statblocks for both rulesets at the end of the PDF.

You could use this as an exciting start to a campaign, or drop it in as a side adventure for characters going about other business in a suitable part of your campaign world... there's suffcient but not overwhelming challenge so that starting characters will feel that they have accomplished something. And there are a couple of neat low-level magical items to discover, too!

Return to Crypt of the Sun Lord page.

Reviewed: 20 May 2012