Review: The Queen of Elfland's Son
Fairymounds and Folklores
The Queen of Elfland’s Son
Michael Curtis is at it again! This adventure is one of the best level-1 DCC adventures. In short, it’s a low-level adventure with a village, a bit of intrigue, and a nearby dungeon. Those are often the classic elements of a starting adventure, going all the way back to classic TSR modules like Keep on the Borderlands or Against the Cult of the Reptile God. And whenever that combination of elements is effectively executed, its hard not to get an instant classic.
The Queen of Elfland has reestablished the borders of Elf- land with those of the lands around Eng – reopening the Elf Mound that acts as a gateway between the mortal world and the faerie lands. She has sent he son, Prince Ashheart of Elfland, to conduct a campaign of terror on the unsuspecting residents of Eng. This quest will take the heroes to the very borders of elfland and pit them against the cruelty of the unseelie court of faerie. Will the heroes overcome the machinations of the Queen of elfland or will they fall victim to the glamorous and wiles of elfland’s malicious nobility?
Alright, that’s all you get without major spoilers! So if you’re going to be playing this one anytime soon, you may want to hold off on reading more. However, forward this onto your judge if I’ve piqued your interest!
Prior to first running this adventure, I watched Brendan LaSalle run it on Blades Against Bandwidth. I found it a very helpful watch, and wholesale stole a bit that he improvised. When he players asked what the local lord was doing (and mine asked just the same question) he improvised a prideful and mostly useless young duke and his wise grandmother who helped point the PCs in the correct direction.
This kind of highlights what I think is the primary problem in the adventure. There is a great map of the town of Eng, but nothing really written about the town. They can talk to the Parliament of Eng, which is simply a group of respected villagers. These folks can provide information on what little they do know about the situation, but it seems that more than a few groups will seek out the Duke for some assistance. Besides that, there’s a great encounter at Marrow’s Farm, but the rest of the adventure is all the Fairie Mound. A random encounter table for the surrounding area or the Ivy Wood could go a long way. I can’t help but wish for something a bit more similar to the village of Hirot from Doom of the Savage Kings. I probably sound rather negative at this point, but I really do love this module. I just wish there was a bit more here.
Moving on! The adventure really leads the PCs to Marrow’s Field, where the PCs likely slay an Unseelie Unicorn. After that, Farmer Marrow basically spells out everything the PCs need to learn to find the Fairie Mound. Its guarded by 4 Fairie Doormen. Now, all fey are immune to sleep and charm effects, plus glamours and illusions. That means you are either going to fight them, or must get through with a good lie (or half-truth), possibly aided by a disguise. Thieves can really shine here with their ability to create disguises. I imagine many groups kill these doormen and take their uniforms as disguises for the rest of the adventure.
The inside of the Fairie Mound is a quite Jaquays’d in its area layout. It’s very fun to explore and plays like most “dungeons” do. Every room is full of something new. There’s kitchens with cowardly goblins who just want to cook, store rooms and servants quarters, there’s an empty unicorn pen, a dungeon, a smithy with a captured dwarf (named Fimbulfambi, a.k.a. the best NPC in the adventure), and more! Just about every single room has some good opportunities for shenanigans, but can also devolve into combat.
However, the PCs must confront Prince Ashheart to resolve the situation. He sits in his courtroom along with several guards and courtiers. There are a few factors that can change his reaction: if Fimbulfambi is present, or if an alarm has or hasn’t been sounded. There’s a great sidebar about roleplaying the Prince, but there’s little opportunity for results except combat. Now this can be a great combat! The guards fight are guards usually do, but the Prince can permanently curse the PCs in three very interesting ways. However, in my game no one got cursed. High Will saves and a luck Halfling saved the PCs much pain.
In my game the PCs slew the Prince, who (right before his death) tried to convince them that he could not die a true death in mortal lands, and that he would return from Elfland with a vengeance. That never happened in my campaign, but you could make it happen in yours! I didn’t mostly because I was afraid of my players choosing to go to Elfland and what lay in that strange country. Later, I wrote a whole zine that would have helped me solve that problem.
Anyway, there’s some excellent loot inside, plus a passage into Elfland. Again. I was very happy that my players decided not to pursue that avenue. The PCs left the Fairie Mound and I rolled a d7. For the first time that the PCs leave the mound, they’ll discover that time passes differently in Elfland. It had been one night for them, but a whole month in the mortal realm! The PCs collected their reward from Eng for banishing the Fairie Mound and went along to further adventure!
Summary
This is a fantastic adventure! I’m not doing a number rating system, but The Queen of Elfland’s Son is a must buy/must play in my book. It does promise a follow-up adventure that has yet to be delivered. But this is a fantastic adventure that stands alone so no worries about that unrealized sequel. Hopefully my zine, Elfland: Beyond the Fields We Know, can help you answer what exactly goes on over there.
Have you played this adventure? Or maybe used my Elfland zine when your players went to Elfland? Let me know in the comments! I love to hear gaming stories!
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Academia Arcana RPG
I’ve updated my DCC “wizard-school” hack. A few typos corrected and some slight changes to the Channel Die rules for the Spell Thief. Go download it over at DriveThruRPG for free! It’s a very investigative focused game with 3 new classes, tons of random tables to help you create your own adventures and explore the setting, plus an introductory adventure titled Academic Ascension! Download it, play it, and send me some feedback so I can improve it!
We had a great time with this module when I ran it several years ago. The players loved Fimbulfambi!