Written by Kristóf Morandini Swords and Wizardry, Level 5 1 sorcerer’s tower, lightly catapulted. The sorcerer’s tower is a lonely building in the wilderness, surrounded by a forest of dead trees. The owner is an evil sorcerer, feared by many and referred only as The Sorcerer. The building itself is a round building, with two floor and inner courtyard. The forest around it is made of dead trees, which died because of the poisons and experiments of the sorcerer. The soil is black and dead, except the meadow around the tower. There are no animals in the forest, except one monster, escaped from the tower in the last days. Wizardly towers, man, who can ever have enough? Well, us, probably, we probably as a hobby have enough wizard towers. But that doesn’t mean that a well-done wizard’s tower can’t come in handy. Kristóf Morandini, of the redoubtable Hungarian OD&D Scene, brings something a little fresh in The Red Tower, a wizard tower that’s just undergone some recent besieging; half the upper level is smashed by catapult, and the bulk of his defenses are all expended, leaving just a simpering valet and a cleric-powered steward as the owner’s servants. Into this fairly time-sensitive situation enter the PCs. Formatting is a touch wonky, going from single-column to double-column at a random intervals. A couple charming illustrations do add something to the text, while the map is hand-drawn with some post-production for the catapult damage. I’m not going to critique the occasional ESL spelling or grammar issues, but the information could have been organized in a more conventional, and thus more understandable, way…the tower isn’t keyed, just room-labeled with those rooms described sometimes…a basement level isn’t even shown, which is a pity because one of the alternate means of ingress is a well that leads there. Strict room-by-room numbered key is a format that has issues being followed slavishly at times, but there’s a good reason for it being the convention. Besides the frustrating omission of the basement level and the format-level choice regarding keys, the tower map is quite good. A simple circular structure built around an open inner courtyard, the main gate is protected by a forcefield puzzle and so there are alternate entryways both upper-level (a thorny rose bush to climb) and beneath (aforementioned well secret passage), every level thus has multiple ways of access both inside and out. As I’m sure I’ve mentioned before, towers are typically known structures, so you don’t expect careful exploratory/discovery play for most of the map, but the geometry is excellent for set-piece battles or careful skulks. Sadly by default there’s not a lot of pressure to conduct either of those operations; this location is remarkably sparse. One of the two dragon-newts owned by the sorcerer has fled to the forest, we’re informed, as did the sorcerer himself…either or both could be used, as could the initially set-up hostile army of besiegers. Alas, only a wounded dragon newt and the two scared servants are even available to fight as it is. A standard S&W dungeon random encounter roll could work I suppose, but that’s not mentioned anywhere in the text. There’s nice interaction outside of the sparse fight-dangers. Traps and obstacles like the aforementioned gate forcefield are naturalistic, meaning nothing is an overt puzzle but they still require a little problem-solving. Risk-reward calculations are all pretty obvious, which is where the meat of the game really sits. The rewards are pretty sparse, though. Lot of silver pieces, a few very tiny hoards, the cash value of flipping over this magician’s wrecked house is pretty low. Magic is usually the counterbalance in wizard towers and there’s some, but outside of a well-hidden ring of human control (in the ashes of a fireplace, classic) it’s all in one room as potions. I don’t know how much magic item XP are worth in S&W, but I think a level 5 group is going to feel a little underpaid for this one. Placing this one is a little tricky…not that it’s hard to plop down a wizard’s tower just about anywhere, but while this site is very easy to place in space, it’s very hard to place in time. The place isn’t active, healthy, and normal, nor is it a crumbling ruin. Instead, players are expected to interact with this site a couple days to a couple weeks after a siege, which makes things awkward. Thing is, the recent incatapultationization is pretty important in making this entry interesting and unique. Certainly if you have a need for a recently overthrown wizard’s tower, this is custom-made to fit the bill.
5 Comments
As far as I'm aware, there is no x.p. for magic items in S&W.
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Commodore
2/15/2024 06:06:34 am
It really is a wonderful premise, the fact that the tower is partially destroyed by catapult damage gives a very different feel beyond the usual wizard's tower.
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Stooshie & Stramash
2/15/2024 02:48:29 pm
That's a really nice cover image for the adventure. I like the premise. On your bit about the difficulty of placing it temporally I once ran an adventure for mi-level PC where the manse of a wizard exploded after an experiment went wrong. The plume of electric blue smoke from the consequences could be seen for many miles and asking a few locals gave them a clue on what could be found in that direction. This adventure could be introduced in a similar way, with the added hook that others may also be coming to have a nosey around.
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Kristóf Morandini
2/17/2024 11:38:42 am
Thank you for the review and for the honest opinion!
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Commodore
2/19/2024 01:58:15 pm
Of course, I appreciated the submission...as I said above, it's a great premise.
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