Dungeon Mag #71 has a nice little adventure in it called Priestly Secrets which is set in Restenford some five years after L2 Assassin's Knot. Grellus and Fairwind, both murdered during the events of L2, are still dead and their daughter Andrella, now a 5th level MU, reigns as the Baron of Resty. She has been trying to whip the town into shape after the years of mismanagement inflicted on it by her inept father. Likewise, she has tried to sideline the influence of the overbearing Pelltar but finds that she still needs his aura as a sorcerer to protect the town--even though he failed to protect her parents from assassination.
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| "Priestly Secrets" also brought us this cool image of Resty. |
Sidenote: In both of Lakofka's TSR-published modges, the head priest of the local church is a nutter: at the church of Osprem down in G-town the high priest there was also a loon. What was Lakofka's beef with high ranking priests?
I bought this mag several years ago specifically for this adventure and its affiliation with Restenford but never read it until now. Probably because it's very wordy in the way that modules became after the golden era. This issue came out in 1998 which, I believe, was in the 2nd Ed period
of AD&D so there are some oddities in it that are beyond my ken. For instance, one NPC's class is listed as "Rogue"; if anyone has an idea what that might be please let me know.
Intro material aside, this module is less of a sequel to L1 and more of a reboot of the village portion of said modge. As in the original module, there are two issues that the PCs are urged to deal with in town: giant rats are assaulting children and the undead wander the town at night. This adventure begins with an encounter involving giant rats eating a young person and Baron Andrella hiring the posse to eliminate neighborhood ghouls (actually ghasts). Further, there is an as-yet undiscovered underground pirate lair beneath the abbey, just as there was a hidden thief's lair under the abandoned guardhouse. This adventure goes to some length to flesh out these encounter ideas, even adding some minor intrigue at the abbey--hence the title--which is a significant upgrade on the original. It also details the tomb of a necromancer; could this be the same dark mage that created the wraith that inhabits the castle on top of Bone Hill?
Reviewing module-play has never been the focus of this blog, but I do feel the need to address the initial encounter in this adventure. The PCs, having just stepped off the boat onto the dock at Falco's tavern, hear the screams of a child coming from a copse of trees directly across the Restin River (kudos to the author for correctly noting that the river name is spelled differently than the village name). The locals are all pointedly disinterested in going to the assistance of the tormented child, refusing even to allow the PCs to borrow their boat to cross the river unless they are threatened with physical violence! This sets the tone: Restenford is a harsh, uncaring place.
But wait, if the PCs do run to the rescue of the savaged kid, they will be hailed as heroes! And Falco--who moments ago was annoyed at them for demanding use of his boat--now praises them and insists that they stay at his tavern while all the other locals that couldn't be bothered to help are now buying rounds for the gang. That's quite an about-face; Restenfordians, it would seem, are a bunch of fickle cowards.
And for a piece of adventure design that I find highly suspicious: when the PCs arrive on the scene of the rat attack, they will find a dozen giant rats attacking a street urchin and her two dogs. If PCs cast a sleep spell on the rats or use some other means to "bypass the encounter," the DM is advised to "have another pack of 12 rats emerge from the trees." Negative-kudos to the author for that error in judgment.
