14

Tournament Adventures CM8
The Endless Stair

(1987)

The Endless Stair

by Ed “Elminster” Greenwood

 

 

 

 

Development and Editing:

Chris Christensen

 

 

 

Cover Art:

Jack Fred

 

 

 

Interior Art:

Graham Nolen

 

 

 

Typesetting:

Kim N. Lindau

 

 

 

 

Special Thanks To:

Jenny, Anita Buttemer, Jim Clarke, Andrew Dewar, Ian Hunter, John Hunter, Victor Selby, and (or course) Grimwald.

 

 

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This is a fun module that serves very well as a setting from which many adventures can be born.  Daelzun’s Rest, the inn where the PCs are spending the night when the action begins, is fleshed out down to the embroidery on the hand towels in the gentry rooms.  The further the adventure progresses from the ‘Rest, though, the more sparse the game information becomes.  The villains, while given a considerable amount of text in the module, are left almost entirely to the DM in terms of their actions and recourse.  What would have helped this adventure considerably would have been a few set encounters wherein the villains use their minions to either help or hinder the PCs according to their motivations.  I have never been a fan of a module that provides a host of NPCs, villains, and some wandering monsters…Then lets the DM manipulate them within a wilderness setting.  I buy a module for pre-made adventure for when I don’t have time to make those encounters myself!  What saves this adventure in the end, though, is the strength of those same villains and NPCs.  Daelzun nearly leaps from the pages, and his inn takes on a life of its own in the reader’s imagination.  Lathkoon and Zelazel are believable villains, though their motivations could be a little more developed, and the latter is truly unique among evil wizards I’ve come across in published adventures.  Lathkoon fills the Darth Vader role well, and his likely return to hound the heroes in the future spells out a sort of continued play even beyond the ‘Rest itself.  Overall, a fun adventure that taxes the DM a little more than this DM would have liked.

Realm Rating: 3/5

 

 


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Yes! Yes!! YESEYESYESYYEESSSS!!!!

Thank you, Ray and Maureen, I've been dying for this to come out since your very first Realm design - this was always a favourite module of mine.

 


All of the preceding modules and game worlds are trademarked property of TSR Inc, which is now the property of Wizards of the Coast, Inc. I take no credit for the stories or ideas presented here, I merely converted them to a playable format for SSI's Unlimited Adventures game.