Review
At long last my run through of Night’s Dark Terror is over.
36 sessions over 10 months. Each session around two to two and a half hours long. YMMV - I thought I’d be done by Christmas when we started. 3 PCs and many monsters dead.
I think it went quite well given my lack of experience behind the screen. I made a few mistakes along the way and I was lucky that my players knew the rules so could help me out.
But is the module actually any good?
I still think so. There’s some great set pieces, the first half is particularly good as there is the siege and then loads of places to explore.
The second half is more of a railroad and I think my players struggled with the plot - we were selling horses but now we’re looking for treasure somewhere. Why is this NPC tagging along again? And why are you killing off our mules?
There is such a variety of stuff in this module that with a bit of work you can fit it all together. And there is a lot of adventure for your money as can be seen from the number of sessions.
In comparison to modern adventures, the short descriptions can be a bit of a pain but on the other hand they give you hints to improvise - I could play up the trader aspect of Fyodryll (and also decided she was the half-sister/black sheep of the family of Prestell in Riflian).
From a 5th Edition D&D point of view, some of the fights are a bit unwieldy. In particular, there was a fight between the PCs and their allies in the Lost Valley that ended up as me pretty much playing against myself, which was no fun for anyone.
I do have some ideas for some changes to make the whole thing more cohesive. I'll stick the at the end of the article as they'll likely include spoilers.
I do heartily recommend this adventure. I’m not sure all the encounters are needed when you run the adventure but there are a lot that would work as short standalone encounters or adventures - elves tormented by pixies, strange tombs, gnome mines and even with a little expansion the Threshold bits that I didn’t run.
Useful links - Note that DTRPG/DMs Guild links are affiliate links (sorry)
There's lots of useful free stuff on the Vault of Pandius, including:
https://pandius.com/B10_Nights_Dark_Terror_5E.pdf - a free conversion document
And it's also worth checking on The Piazza Forums
Possible changes to the adventure... (probable spoilers ahead)
From the module as written, several months before the adventure starts, the Traldar defeat the Hutaakans and force them from this temple. It is implied that this prevents the Hutaakan from conducting the rituals required to stop the dead from rising in the valley.
The majority of the undead are not dangerous - instead just mindlessly repeat actions they carried out during their lives.
Now what happens if this doesn't just occur in the lost valley - there are sightings of strange undead activities in the wilderness regions of western Karameikos. Now the authorities in Kelven may not be too bothered but the homesteaders (possibly also gnomes and elves) are concerned and ask the adventurers for help.
Meanwhile, Golthar is also interested. I've got this vague idea of the Iron Ring's goal is to unlock the forbidden secrets of the Nithians or maybe they're all ghouls and thouls. Maybe they only have half a tapestry and think Xitaqa is where they need to be.
Anyway, they need prisoners for some purpose and trick the goblins into attacking the homesteads to get them. And then the PCs arrive at Sukiskyn...
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