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The Great Trial by Christian Zeuch (@czeuch)
An epic one-shot dungeon inspired by the most devious and infamous dungeons and their creators.
I find it inconceivable that this amount of awesome can be obtained for less than $6! This is nearly 40 pages of epic adventuring with one humongous dungeon that is one whole classic dungeon level, a labyrinth level with puzzles and a unique minotaur, AND a whole tropical demi-plane filled with more thought, flavour, encounters and events than many adventures!
This is truly an epic undertaking and a seriously awesome adventure, which is impressively both a love letter to old skool dungeons and their creators both in and out of game. This will be a great trial for adventurers new and old, but it is crafted with the care and understanding of 5e that we know and love, while harking back to the crucible of heroes that great dungeons of the past have been. I think this will test and titillate players of any and all generations, which is a phenomenal achievement.
Aenor Gleenwith is an Elven Wizard, Artificer, Engineer and huge dungeon nerd with posters of Acererak and Halaster up in their bedroom. He feels a compulsion to create a dungeon to surpass their masterpieces, workshopping the ultimate dungeon by kidnapping all manner of adventurers and reviving debriefing them on the other side.
Characters begin separated with novel advice of beginning the adventure with them individually over play by post messaging.
Hooks
A variety of catfishing bounties are suggested, along with a traditional hired in a tavern, only for the poster to be Aenor in disguise who turns an individual into a slug, puts them to sleep, freezes or simply batters the individual or group with multiple high level spells until they are easily transported to the dungeon. It’s also suggested the party could wake up in the dungeon with no memory, which only adds to the tension and confusion.
Detailed information is provided regarding placing this adventure in the Forgotten Realms, as well as advice on locating the dungeon anywhere.
It’s interesting to note Zeuch makes a point of stating: “Since this is a tough challenge, Aenor won’t mind players taking rests inside.” Though food and water could become a problem depending on the time frame and how closely track this in your games.
The dungeon is comprised of three levels:
The Entry Level: Many challenges, but ultimately about acquiring the items necessary to move to the next level.
The Labyrinth Level: Classic exploration and boss battle at its heart, though the minotaur is a bespoke creature.
The “Halaster” Level: Inspired by the creator of the Undermountain, this is a dangerous jungle pocket dimension.
Chapter 1: The Entry Level
The characters begin in randomly assigned positions with a nice variety of puzzles to begin the testing, which also doubles up as a great list of quick puzzles to refer back to if you ever need.
Reunited or meeting for the first time the group comes together and the difficulty gets ratcheted up. “Many of these traps are designed to trick adventurers into making mistakes and could be considered unfair. Aenor understands that; his purpose is to give a sense of despair to the group.” These are truly evil and brilliant, as are the accompanying illustrations of the traps.
After facing the cruelty of the traps, it’s time to rumble with a lot of interesting creatures primarily taken from Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes! “The corridors are defended by weak creatures that are meant to give players a sense of power, but it’s only a ruse to lower their guard as the main rooms will contain hard fights that will wear them down physically and mentally.”
There are just so many uniquely inspired and evil traps, as well classic and media inspired rooms and puzzles, including a maternal Aboleth whose ‘egg’ the party must snatch and another big boss to face once the level is defeated. You know, like seconds or dessert.
Showing that Zeuch is equally malevolent as Aenor they suggest the use of alternative lingering damage rules from the DMG, which they also include links to their own extended version, as well as this little nugget. “This is just a reminder; All traps can cause lingering damage if you like to be mean with your players.”
(Admittedly, things will be restored in the eventual completion of the dungeon, but it’s hard to feel sorry for the poor adventures!)
Chapter 2: The Labyrinth Level
Before the heroes can get out of the labyrinth, they have to get in. This requires solving a number of puzzles and taking on a couple of monsters to locate the items needed to unlock the way ahead. These feature some really thoughtful and brain-tickling conundrums, as well as a classic treasure fake out.
The labyrinth’s maze is presented alongside the introduction of Skill Challenges from 4e, which don’t appear on 5e, as a means for solving complex problems. The walls in this labyrinth move and change once a certain amount has been passed making doubling back is very difficult, which I definitely think qualifies this as complex puzzle. The Skill Challenge allows for various skills to be used with separate success and failure tables to randomly generate results and the party’s traversal or their lack thereof and/ or facing one of six original and nasty (and one literally wrapped in “soft wool”) traps or random encounters of undead punching bags.
At the centre is a mighty Minotal, a construct with preternatural speed and ability, which becomes all the more deadly when played in line with the well laid out strategy and flanking thwarting reaction. This robobullman (robull?) can be made more manageable by smashing stuff and interrupting magic in two side chambers, if the heroes are able to find their way to them.
Finally, free of the maze and into darkness where they will have to use the power of teamwork to get out and avoid the mechadragon who is not a team player.
If they can make it through, they’ve earned a long rest, a level up and facing the final dungeon level with a reminder that now is the time to be vigilant about the party’s water rations, because mwahahaha...
Chapter 3: The “Halaster” Level
A jungle demi-plane full of dinosaurs is just what the doctor ordered to shake things up a bit, as well as being a love letter to Halaster and their monument to misery, the Undermountain. Did I mention there’s a dino-gang consisting of an Indomitable Rex, T-Rex and Spinosaurus and if they don’t get you the dehydration will?! Oh, and there’s an “alien” area where even the plants try to kill you and everything is bigger, scarier and has more teeth!
A fantastic-looking map shows the whole demi-plane laid out as a hex crawl.
This is a real survival challenge with the water not being safe to drink unless boiled or magically purified and each character needing to drink a gallon of water a day to avoid rolling dreaded Constitution Saves with penalties for those overdressed for the jungle.
Each area is described with all its features and unique elements, as well as the odds of rolling a random encounter of three different tables split across the areas.
A large tribe of lizardfolk live on an island and could potentially be allies or enemies if the party can communicate with them, and perhaps they can even aid one another.
A full list of the dinosaurs and where to find their entries in their appropriate book, along with a link to Keith Ammann’s fantastic article about dinosaur tactics are provided for ease of reference and prep.
On top of the random encounters there are a host of awesome optional special events including a brutal raptor attack on a family of gorillas, a wall of giant insect swarms, a helpful and/ or annoying imp, a stampede, duelling T-Rexes (T-Rexi?), giant sharks and colossal whales and lizardfolk hunters who will cook a nice meal for their friends (if the party are friendly that is).
The questline to allow the PCs to escape revolves around the ruins that are spread out across the tropical demi-plane, each with their own challenges from a trial of athletic and acrobatics to a series of nasty traps so bold they have no need to hide, and a face off against a giant undead ape which will try and rip their faces off.
Triumphant and battered the heroes face their tormentor who has gold, prizes, the Wished return of any characters who died or suffered disfigurement and teleportation to wherever they might want to go!
Despite the fact he’ll do all he can to avoid a fight and teleport away if it gets too rough, Aenon’s unique statblock is included (because there’s going to be some adventurers who understandably want revenge on their captor), along with I-Rex: Indomitable Rex, Iron Wyvern, Minotal and Swarm of Giant Flying Insects.
I find it inconceivable that this amount of awesome can be obtained for less than $6! This is nearly 40 pages of epic adventuring with one humongous dungeon that is one whole classic dungeon level, and a labyrinth level with puzzles and a unique minotaur, as well as a whole tropical demi-plane filled with more thought, flavour, encounters and events than many adventures!
This is truly an epic undertaking and a seriously awesome adventure, which is impressively both a love letter to old skool dungeons and their creators both in and out of game. This will be a great trial for adventurers new and old, but it is crafted with the care and understanding of 5e that we know and love, while harking back to the crucible of heroes that great dungeons of the past have been. I think this will test and titillate players of any and all generations, which is a phenomenal achievement.
I am unbelievably excited to see what Zeuch does next!
Credits
Author: Christian Zeuch (@czeuch1 on Twitter) Cover Illustration: roman3d from Adobe Stock license
Aenor (elf p5): Zairos Artwork commission
BW Traps: Bruno (b.wolf art on Instagram)
Editor: Max (@Rexr400 on Twitter)
Special Thanks
The Homebrewery for this amazing layout generator tool!
www.wistedt.net for the inspiration on traps!
(@PathsPeculiar on Twitter)
To Vitor Mühlstedt Lopes, César Cremasco Piva, Nicolas Piazza Konrad, Ricardo Nanaco for the feedback provided
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