The Sunless Citadel

Note: This review contains "spoiler" information.

"Back to the dungeon!" is the rallying cry for the new edition of the Dungeons & Dragons rules. The Sunless Citadel, first adventure released for the new edition, is a traditional dungeon-delve that provides a number of other challenges for the players, while carrying the torch for the new Dungeon Master as he treads the shadowy corridors of the third-edition rules.

The adventure starts in the town of Oakhurst, provided as a simple block of stats that the DM can develop. The heroes hear rumors of a citadel devoted to an ancient dragon located in a nearby chasm. An adventuring party has gone missing! Goblins auction magical healing fruit to the poor townsfolk! Cattle are being mutilated! If that's not enough to get your party strapping on their weapons and collecting up their spell components, you should probably think about playing Parcheesi instead.

The dungeon, the Sunless Citadel of the title, is two levels, with a total of fifty-six numbered encounters. The first level is split between a force of goblins and a group of kobolds battling each other for control of the abandoned dragon citadel. Last I checked, kobolds were yappy dog-headed things that were mostly sword-fodder for low-level heroes. Wizards of the Coast has reinvented them for the new edition as small dragons with big attitudes. The scheming little curs... er, lizards... see themselves as the inheritors of this ancient dragon temple, and want the goblins out. This gives the heroes a chance to use their interpersonal skills and negotiate for help in taking on the goblin hordes, or whack away at the scaly schemers and then go off and take on the goblins themselves. The kinder, gentler new edition allows for the same amount of experience either way the heroes overcome the kobolds.

The second level of the citadel focuses on the evil druid Belak, who has taken over the dungeon and is using the magical Gulthias tree to transform creatures into twisted mutations. (Providing a great opportunity for a DM to use the flexibility of the new monster system to create some new creatures.) Belak is backed by a forest of Twig Blights, mobile saplings with sharp branches and a bad case of root rot. What an evil cackle it elicited from me when my party wandered into the ruined garden in the citadel only to have it come to life all around them. What fun to teach them about flanking and attacks of opportunity that way! The module has little sidebars all through that explain and clarify the third edition rule set for the Dungeon Master. This keeps the rules close at hand for the DM, while expanding on the explanations in the rulebooks.

The adventure is thick with plot elements for the DM to develop, from the ruined citadel and the dragon cult that worshipped there, to the scheming kobolds, to the evil druid's experiments, to the Gulthias Tree itself (which reappears in the later Heart of Nightfang Spire adventure). There are some spots, though, where the story seems to be lacking, like an encounter with a half-troll Dragonpriest; there's plenty of story in the DM's text about how the Dragonpriest became a half-troll, but no real way in the adventure to express that story to the Player Characters or involve them in it. There's another point where the party finds a map to the next adventure in the new series (The Forge of Fury), but it isn't identified as such anywhere in the text.

If you and your players are new to third edition Dungeons and Dragons, The Sunless Citadel is a great way to get started, with lots of advice for the new DM. You can play it as an old-fashioned hack-fest, or develop the story threads in the module into elements in an ongoing campaign. The Sunless Citadel plants the seeds of adventure from which great D&D campaigns grow.

Reviewed by Keith Gapinski

Summary

Readability	Good
Playability	Good
Production Quality	Good
Value	Good
Overall	Good