Fortress of the Yuan-Ti (Dungeons & Dragons) [Paperback]

S P O I L E R - A L E R T

NOTE THIS REVIEW WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS. IF YOU DON'T WANT TO READ SPOILERS AND/OR MAY PLAY IN THIS MODULE AT SOME TIME I SUGGEST YOU READ NO FURTHER.

Summary: The final module in a three part series that includes Barrow of the Forgotten King and The Sinister Spire.

This module contains right off where The Sinister Spire ended with the party stepping through the portal at the top of the Necromancer's Spire. Once through they find themselves in a valley with a small farming village which sits at the foot of a Giant Fortress carved into a Cliff Face. After a quick confrontation with a Naga and a Huge Snake the party learns this is Castle Serastis and that the Villagers are slaves to the Yuan-Ti lords of the castle.

From here the party explores the 6 levels of the Castle running into all manor or Yuan-Ti and their minions. Along the way they will fight a Giant T-Rex Skeleton, A Mindflayer, Various Lizardmen, a Fang Golem and lots more. They will also have the chance to work with some of the castles inhabitants that don't like the way things are going. Along the way the players learn that the Yuan-Ti stole the Forgotten Kings Bones (back to module 1 for that one) in order to use them to resurrect a long dead god, Sertrous. In order to disrupt the ceremony the characters will need to use various portals in the castle to go to bizarre lands and take on wild challenges like Living spells and a beholder and his Enslaved Yuan-Ti Igans.

As the party completes events that disrupt the summoning they are given action points which can be used to give them an advantage in the final battle. In addition they will find some items that are relics from the Forgotten Kings days that will also help them stop the ritual.

The climactic ending takes place in a tower off set from space and time, where the party either saves the day or dies trying (most assuredly the latter, see: The Ugly)

The Good: Another rather interesting story here. Each chapter of this campaign has a unique flavor. The pitiful village and having the players find prisoners in a variety of states throughout the dungeon crawl really gave a feel for how evil the Yuan-Ti were. The castle itself was an interesting dungeon and some of the encounters were very memorable (The living spell and mind flayer fight really stick out). The use of portals to spread the module beyond the castle walls was also excellent. I really liked the concept of the action points, even if they were pretty pointless in the end (see: the ugly).

The Bad: The castle ended up feeling empty. I don't think there were quite enough encounters set up for it and the random encounters just felt like random encounters and not actual creatures moving about a living breathing habitat. This became brutally evident near the end of the module when the party had pretty much defeated every set encounter and were not so high a level that random encounters became free xp. This is probably something that could be adjusted though, personally I just explained it by having most of the Yuan-Ti actually involved in the ritual and not wandering the halls. As was the trend for most of these modules a lot of the baddies were 'cheaters' with lots of save abilities and powers that negated anything the players could throw at them. Immunity to magic, flanking and crits was the norm. The potential allies in this game weren't very likable nor did they really give the party much of a reason to work with/trust them. Which meant in my game that they died along with all the other Snakemen. I think this could have definitely been handled a bit better.

The Ugly: the end of this module is horrible. The last fight is impossible. Even with the Action points and legacy items I don't think any party has a chance. Besides having an EL over twice that of the party, the baddy had quickened spells that could be cast every round. In my particular game the battle was really over in 1 round. One casting of Quickened Evards Black Tentacles caught every member but one. Then that one used every single action point the party had (and they got all of them) to make repetitive attacks on the main baddy with a legacy item. Every single one missed his 33 AC. It was really ridiculous. If you are going to run this series of modules you will have to change the ending, unless you really want a 2 round TPK.

Overall: I really liked this entire trilogy of modules, but this one was the weakest in many ways. The dungeon ended up feeling totally empty and the last battle made the entire campaign pointless. Some interesting ideas like Action Points and portals that spread the dungeon to interestingly unique locals were a nice touch, but not enough to make up for the modules faults. Now any of these problems can be fixed by a DM willing to take the time to modify the module, and in retrospect I wish I had. I still suggest this one if you have played the other 2 modules in the series, but please save yourself and your players some heartache and re-write the ending.

I have been playing D&D for 27 years give or take. Editions change but the core, the "adventure", has always been the most important part. Fortress of the Yuan-ti is the perfect climax to the other two adventures. No matter what edition D&D you play you can adapt this adventure to fit it. I highly recomend it!

I have to state up Front, I love this Race so any book about them gets a little bump. But the adventure is solid so if you like the Yuan-Ti or hate them tis a module you may want. It has a nice hook also.

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