Originally posted at: http://diehardgamefan.com/2011/12/05/tabletop-review-castles-crusades-dwarven-glory/
The third and final adventure in Dwarven Glory is ” The Winding Stair” and it is for three to five players at either third or fourth level. This is my favorite of all the adventures as it features a really awesome magic axe as the center piece of the adventure, along with the ghost of a fallen dwarven hero who will attempt to possess a player character, albeit it more or less benevolently. This dungeon crawl takes place in an underground remains of a castle. It contains fourteen rooms and offers a nice amount of diverisity. There are fourteen rooms, but there’s not a lot of combat. You’ll encounter a shadow mastiff, a succubus and some green slime, but that’s it. As well, there is no final battle per say. There is a “big bad” so to speak, but the climax can be as simple as just walking away from it. There are a lot of magic items to be found in this small adventure, but because the adventure revolves around a specific magical weapon and it takes place in the remains of a once great dwarven citadel, I’m fine with it. There are thousands of gold pieces worth of loot to be found, which due to the location make sense, but that’s a LOT of money to be throwing at fourth level characters. Overall, I really liked the adventure. The lack of monsters made everything seem more suspenseful and ominous and it helped to prove that a dungeon crawl doesn’t need to be littered with creatures to be fun or effective.
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