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The Grave of the Prince of Lies
[ma04]

The Grave of the Prince of Lies

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Date Added: Tuesday 18 April, 2006

by Megan Robertson

As ever beautifully-presented in a pseudo-stone border, this brief encounter consists of but 3 rooms, suitable for placing in any dungeon setting - or a remote cavern - somewhere in your campaign world, provided it's chilly! A zone of magical cold will suffice, if all suitable locations are in temperate or warmer regions of your world.

It begins with some background: who is buried in this grave, what he was like when he was alive, who his associates were and what's happened since... If the scene-setting doesn't give you sufficient to lead in to the place, some specific bait is provided in the shape of three different items that your players might find elsewhere in their travels, that all point generally in the direction of the Grave and whet their appetites for a visit. Alternatively, of course, they may happen across it in the course of some other exploration entirely. There's also a brief word on scaling the encounter up or down, depending on the level of your characters.

The three chambers themselves are then detailed, with evocative text as well as sketches of what they look like. The sudden drop in temperature described makes me think that the magical cold option, rather than putting it in a chilly part of your world, would be more effective. The place is guarded both by monsters and traps, so potential visitors need to be wary.

The monsters - all original designs - are all cold-based undead, and will likely require magic and/or divine magic to drive them away. Once you have done so, there are a few goodies to be picked up, as well as other items such as some delightful lying books. Excellent for spooking players, and also as devices for seeding thoughts for adventures you have planned for later on... As the 'Prince of Lies' was, after his death, discovered and reburied by a necromancer, if you intend to offer this as an alternative path to power for less-scrupulous wizards or use its practice as a common thread amongst your bad guys, this encounter could serve as an introduction and source of some initial knowledge of the topic, from spellbooks and notes to be found in here.

That's it for the actual encounter, but it is supported by a range of illustrative material. There's full-colour isometric and top views, full-colour and greyscale plans with 5' squares incorporated in the design ready for miniatures use; and finally a revised copy of the master checklist that shows where all the floorplans 0one Games have published are to be found. Looking at it, the whole place looks quite scary, and it should prove an exciting challenge to put a chill down your characters' spines. As always, the excellent visual support makes it easy! A word to the wise: the final 4 pages before the back cover are advertising material for other 0one product, you may wish not to print them out!

A pleasantly-chilling encounter to add to your game, and a good introduction to the quality of work presented by 0one Games - try it and see if you'd like to add this kind of enhancement to your campaign.

Rating: 4 of 5 Stars! [4 of 5 Stars!]

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