DriveThruRPG.com
Browse Categories
$ to $















Back
pixel_trans.gif
DDAL08-14 Rescue from Vanrakdoom $4.99
Average Rating:1.7 / 5
Ratings Reviews Total
0 0
1 1
1 1
0 3
3 9
DDAL08-14 Rescue from Vanrakdoom
Click to view
You must be logged in to rate this
pixel_trans.gif
DDAL08-14 Rescue from Vanrakdoom
Publisher: D&D Adventurers League
by Peter H. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 03/15/2022 12:51:37

Several Notes:

  • Formatting of this adventure both in the Printer friendly and regular pdf is incomplete. Several typos, lack of page breaks, and odd paragraph breaks.
  • Lack of monster variety, and the encounters go very quickly if the group has a paladin or cleric. Even without paladins or clerics, the fights are mostly a slow chipping of damage without any danger to the characters
  • The maps and handouts are incomplete. No markings on the map, and the friezes handout is illegible.
  • Several missing details, most agregious being the SINGLE mention of the named shadow dragon NPC, in a flavor text box. No details are provided to the DM for additude, location, or purpose of the shadow dragon other than a stat block.

This module feels like a rough draft. With a few tweaks and an editor, this could be a good tier 3 adventure.



Rating:
[1 of 5 Stars!]
pixel_trans.gif
DDAL08-14 Rescue from Vanrakdoom
Publisher: D&D Adventurers League
by Kevin H. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 11/27/2020 22:22:13

The story is well written, but for some odd expectations about how the party leave the final scene. The encouters are a joke and need serious work.



Rating:
[2 of 5 Stars!]
pixel_trans.gif
DDAL08-14 Rescue from Vanrakdoom
Publisher: D&D Adventurers League
by William A. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 06/11/2019 12:01:30

The encounters were not tier appropriate. Every time I have been part of this... either DMing or a player... it has taken less than 2 hours for the entire module with bonus objectives just because the fights were underwhelming. I feel like there was a fear... and sure you could have swarms... but with Tier 3... swarms of lower CR monsters [CR 5s] just isn't that terrifying.

Following the theme... I might have utilizing more Vampires over Vampire spawn... maybe keep the spawn but add in a 1 or 2 Vampires / Vampire Spellcasters...

There was just no sense of urgency.



Rating:
[1 of 5 Stars!]
pixel_trans.gif
DDAL08-14 Rescue from Vanrakdoom
Publisher: D&D Adventurers League
by John K. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 06/04/2019 01:56:39

Adventure was scaled to tier 2 and a complete joke to any party that was tier 3. What was the point of showing us the forge of fangs? This is tier 3, people can passwall through rooms. The dragon exit didn't quite make much sense either. This is one of the weakest modules of season 8.



Rating:
[1 of 5 Stars!]
pixel_trans.gif
DDAL08-14 Rescue from Vanrakdoom
Publisher: D&D Adventurers League
by David E. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 05/30/2019 10:14:45

The issues with this adventure are numerous.

  1. The connection to the first adventure in this series. It ignores the portal the players find in the first adventure and makes them find a new one. It would have strenghtened the continuity if the players used the same portal.
  2. The map. There are no labels. Why?
  3. The "Playing the Pillars" sidebars are missing. I actually hate this format and would rather find all the information in the text, but not including it leaves the DM guessing. They are present in the bonus objectives.
  4. The window in the captive's cell that reveals Shar's Perpetual Darkness. Is this a set up for the next adventure? Should characters have access to this room? If so, there is no description of the scene. If the characters are not to have access, how do I prevent them from gaining access?
  5. The Shadow Dragon. Are the adventurers supposed to encounter the Shadow Dragon? There is no stat block and no description of how this encounter is supposed to work?
  6. Editing. Read the creature blocks for bonus objective B.
  7. Timing. The entire adventure with bonus objectives did not take four hours.

I had to read this three times before I could make sense of it.



Rating:
[2 of 5 Stars!]
pixel_trans.gif
DDAL08-14 Rescue from Vanrakdoom
Publisher: D&D Adventurers League
by Marcello V. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 05/24/2019 00:24:30

Hi all. I ran this adventure at a lower APL for the three players that I had. We went three hours with only the main story line (combats were long). The shadows and that vampire spawn did challenge them, but we had a wizard that had a sunburst spell that made things more challenging for the vampire spawn; the undead beholder didn't worry them for too long.. they had a great time! I liked the scrying mirror; thought it was a great way to give major plot points to the adventure if the players missed anything. The puzzzles .. ? Well, since I know the designer to be a great creator of puzzles, I would expect nothing less! I'm so glad that my players did not go into the Shadowfell, but was prepared for it if they did! This is only my second time running a Tier 3 Module, but I will say as a DM, it was easy to digest (the map made it clearer). It gives me enough of story to let me work it in to any DotMM game I have. Thanks!



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
pixel_trans.gif
DDAL08-14 Rescue from Vanrakdoom
Publisher: D&D Adventurers League
by Dan S. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 05/12/2019 15:58:06

Let me lead by explaining that I give ratings based off of whether or not my players had fun. And they did. My players enjoyed getting to romp through the lair and solve the puzzles. There was a real sense of stress and anxiety when the shadows almost killed two characters with their strength drain ability. Other than that, combat was pretty uninteresting. They knew they were dealing with undead and came equipped for that kind of action. These players have been using these characters for most of the season 8 modules and had figured out the theme, so to speak. Sunblade makes short work of vampires. Regardless, the adventure was fun and they enjoyed the bonus missions with the redemption storyline. They were a little disappointed that they never found the shadow dragon after scrying it, but I think they are excited that it may be in a future adventure.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
pixel_trans.gif
DDAL08-14 Rescue from Vanrakdoom
Publisher: D&D Adventurers League
by William W. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 05/01/2019 14:25:17

This and Forge of Fangs are probably tied for the worst adventurer league adventure, ever. The link to the first adventure is horribly weak and poorly written. The author turns the big bad into a nothing spawn with her base (and the portal to this adventure) having absolutely nothing to do with the hideout from Skull Square Murders. Calling it a bad plot device would be generous. Even if the author didn't know details of the first part it could have been done much better with a little actual effort. The unlock is uninspriring, but that is probably the only thing that isn't the fault of the author.

The combats are laughable for a tier 3 party, most wouldn't challenge an average tier 2 group. The flow is way off, even a medicore tier 3 can easily finish everything in a couple hours. The second bonus objective is pure lazy. On every level this is just a terrible adventure. Either the author has no experience as a player, let alone a DM, or they just didn't care.



Rating:
[1 of 5 Stars!]
pixel_trans.gif
DDAL08-14 Rescue from Vanrakdoom
Publisher: D&D Adventurers League
by Wrich P. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 04/18/2019 14:39:29

I think it would be a mistake to judge this module by the combats- they are not challenging in the least, but not everyone has optimized characters. It would be an error to judge the module by the poor treasure- after all the item was designed by WOTC to be a very rare item that was one of the poorest choices on the list, and it was AL's call to switch to the TP system- the writer did the best they could and added some flavor. I think the layout of the module is suboptimal, but again, not the writers call.

The main problem I have with it is that the story offers nothing new to the players at any level of engagement. Which is fine if you have not read the hundreds of these mods which have been published in the past...but if you have, you can pretty much save your cash and run one of them.



Rating:
[1 of 5 Stars!]
pixel_trans.gif
DDAL08-14 Rescue from Vanrakdoom
Publisher: D&D Adventurers League
by Roger M. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 04/01/2019 14:39:10

Ok, this is a tier 2 module with one tier 3 boss fight. The story line is some what interesting as it contiues from the group finding a teleportation circle. Now they need to rescue some prisoners. But here are some of the problems. Bonus Objective A is worthless as a hand out. It is all grey scale. The big bad from the last module has been depowered from CR 15 to CR 5 with no reason given. The hit point drain would have killed most of the prisoners. And is not a threat to Tier 1 PCS. The boss fight is a walk for any party. I do suggest you add vampire for every odd pc. The Shadow Dragon is just a special effect. My group finish the main part in just over 2 hours but took a 20 minute dinner during this time. I don't think I took anyone down by half their hit points.



Rating:
[1 of 5 Stars!]
pixel_trans.gif
DDAL08-14 Rescue from Vanrakdoom
Publisher: D&D Adventurers League
by Henry B. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 03/31/2019 18:00:59

This module takes all the problems of Season 8 and is somehow worse, on top of the general bad formats of Season 8 modules.

The one Season 8 issue it avoids is Adventure Hook issues. Artor Morlin (whether they played 8-13 or not) asks the players to go rescue some victims from Skulldeep.

The other good thing about this module is that the two puzzles in it are actually properly written puzzles. If you give the players the handouts, they can arrive at the correct answer.

Beyond that, all of the combats are very one-sided. If the party is surprised, the monsters can be a threat. If the party is not (or cannot be) surprised or wins initiative, the combat will be over in a round or two.

Other reviews have provided accurate assessments of the incredible shortcomings of all the combats in this module. The problem with using out of tier monsters is that they cannot be depended on to provide a predictable challenge. Take the Shadows for example: Either the party is very well suited to eliminating them (Clerics Destroy Undead immediately) or miserably slog through them (a small party of low AC will get massive strength drain in a couple rounds).



Rating:
[1 of 5 Stars!]
pixel_trans.gif
DDAL08-14 Rescue from Vanrakdoom
Publisher: D&D Adventurers League
by Tony V. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 03/25/2019 22:32:36

First up, there are multiple gramattical/formatting mistakes throughout here. Hopefully these can get cleaned up.

Combat here is somewhat uninteresting. Without spoilers, about half of them rely on getting surprise as the entire encounter can die to a single fireball otherwise. That’s also even if the party triggers combat. Unless the party pokes around and explores, it is possible to have 1-2 encounters at the most, one of which is the aforementioned fireball to finish one. Additionally, some of the combats are rather unintuitive in their setup (one spawns an enemy for "every 8 living creatures." I'm assuming the 30 non-combatants don't contribute to this total. Finally, the point of this module is essentially a rescue mission, but it is hard to convey the urgency that the players must IMMEDIATELY get those people out, except for the token, “one dead child” to tug your heartstrings.

The bonus objectives show the history of the area you are venturing into, but both can be accomplished quickly if you don’t force combat. I do really like that the longer bonus objective is placed at the very end of the module, which lets you budget time better.

Overall, it is an OK module, but, as with most season 8 mods, the DM needs to do a bit of prep work to figure out exactly what is going on in each scene and how to challenge the players. This module very much feels like a transition one between the first and third parts of the trilogy and could honestly be skipped without feeling like you are losing out on the story.



Rating:
[2 of 5 Stars!]
pixel_trans.gif
DDAL08-14 Rescue from Vanrakdoom
Publisher: D&D Adventurers League
by Jonathan K. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 03/24/2019 20:41:51

Oh Dear.

This is a 6 hour module, we finished in 1.5 hours, completing all the content. Admittedly this was partly due to resolving certain combats narratively as, well, there isn't a single creature witha CR greater than 5 in the module as written, with only suggested vampires for stronger parties.

Did the Author miss the memo that this is supposed to be an adventure for level 11-16?

The magic item was hidden in the wrap up. it could have been given to a dangerous antagonist to offer some variety but instead it is awarded at the completion of th eadventure... yawwwn

There a shadow dragon, that can breathe out a teleporting mist? Kind of neat but I must have missed something in the memo because that isn't explained at all. Why does the dragon work with the vampires? Why would it help the party and the prisoners? None of these questions are answered in the adventure.

The bonus objectives have a promising start in BO A, but then it all falls apart in BO B with CR2-5 threats, and then an inane backstory that can't be reconciled, ugh.

My ony reccommendation for this adventure is that it can be run in so short a time, while being worth 6 advancement checkpoints. so if you need to level someone quick, you can run 8-14 and 8-15 in the time it takes to run a standard module.

Poor show on the Admin's front for allowing this through the approval process.



Rating:
[1 of 5 Stars!]
pixel_trans.gif
DDAL08-14 Rescue from Vanrakdoom
Publisher: D&D Adventurers League
by Michael Z. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 03/14/2019 14:28:27

This adventure is not good. It is a straightforward adventure with very few interesting elements, and the challenges it presents are entirely inappropriate for the tier it is written for.

The primary and most egregious problem with the adventure is that the combat encounters are handled very poorly. The challenge level is not even remotely appropriate for tier 3; combats range from moderately difficult tier 1 fare (six shadows), to moderately difficult tier 2 fare (vampire and giant centipedes). Worse yet, there is nothing interesting about any of the combat encounters. They all consist of one or two Monster Manual creatures, with no major terrain elements or special features to spice up the combats. Even if they weren't laughably easy, the combats are unoriginal and unmemorable. Even the boss fight is just the aforementioned nameless vampire(s) plus centipedes, which is nearly identical to the vampire boss fights in 8-13 and 8-15 (both of which handle it slightly better). There aren't even adjustment suggestions for the boss encounter!

The only redeeming elements of the adventure are the puzzles, which are interesting, if problematic in their own ways. There are two puzzles in the adventure, both of which have decent graphics accompanying them. The first puzzle is in Episode 1, and starts off well, but the leap in logic between the letter and how to use it is not handled well. The key to the puzzle relies upon facts that can only be discerned with an ability check, which theoretically means the adventure is just over if the characters fail the check (something that adventure designers should always avoid). The puzzle also hides room descriptions in an appendix and has difficult leaps in logic that really need additional clues to solve, clues which are not present in the adventure itself. The second puzzle is in an optional obective, and it has a very interesting setup, but again, it really needs additional clues from the DM to be solvable for most parties. There are leaps in logic which are difficult without additional clues. The graphic that comes with this puzzle is very cool, even if it's hard to read and mostly unnecessary.

The story is pretty generic and doesn't feature any interesting twists or turns. Party needs to go into Undermountain to save captives from an evil ritual. They do some dungeon crawling, they save the captives, and they leave. The adventure mentions villains from 8-13 and 8-15, but no such interesting characters show up here. There is a single unique element of the dungeon in Shar's Perpetual Darkness (HP max goes down by 1 each hour), which is a novel way to discourage resting, but it's a very minor penalty for tier 3 characters, and it begs the question of why the 4 HP commoners haven't died yet. In addition, the adventure doesn't mention how to cure the max HP drain. If Greater Restoration is the only way to cure it, that's a very mean thing to do to every character playing this adventure in an AL season where gold is so limited. The bonus objectives tie into each other in a unique way, and hint at a deeper story, but that story isn't presented in a straightforward manner and doesn't stand up to scrutiny. Apparently, Ganloch the dwarf falsely accused Ambergris of a crime, stole her ring, and banished her from the clan. Then, she found him, locked him in a chamber, and used (allowed?) shadows to kill him. If she was able to overpower him like that, why didn't she just take her ring back then? For that matter, how does Ganloch know where she's living in the Shadowfell? The adventure explicitly says that "Very few know her whereabouts... only people with whom she has the utmost trust," which Ganloch clearly doesn't number among. In short, the main adventure story is thin and uninteresting, and the bonus story is deeper but doesn't actually make much sense.

Finally, we have the editing. Adventurers League has never had very good editing in its main adventures, so it's hardly worth even complaining about at this point, but suffice it to say this adventure's editing is very bad. The map is unlabeled so it takes a while to figure out where any of the rooms are (for the record, the portal is in the top left room). There are numerous points where information is just missing (you can convince vampire spawns to tell you about Seabordt's plans, but the adventure doesn't mention what those plans are; the adventure says some pendants may prove useful in later encounters, but they never come up again). The adventure seems to take for granted that the DM has read Dungeon of the Mad Mage, since it mentions a relationship between Keresta Delvinstone and Seabordt which doesn't make sense without knowledge of who Keresta is in the hardcover. It also mentions in the conclusion that the adventurers can use the shadow dragon's Dimension Door Breath to go back to Skullport, without ever mentioning what that breath is, how it works, or why the adventures might know that it can be used this way. The organization of the appendixes is a complete mess. You have DM puzzle solution appendixes far from the puzzles themselves, and interspersed among the bonus objectives. I can imagine reasons for why it's organized this way, but it certainly doesn't make things easier for the DM.

Overall, this adventure is bad, and not worth running or playing. The Season 8 Tier 3 trilogy is mediocre as a whole, but even if you want to run them, you can safely skip 8-14 without missing almost any of the story.



Rating:
[1 of 5 Stars!]
pixel_trans.gif
Displaying 1 to 14 (of 14 reviews) Result Pages:  1 
pixel_trans.gif
pixel_trans.gif Back pixel_trans.gif
0 items
 Gift Certificates