The Songsmith

Chivalry and Sorcery Module

Review by Les Brooks

Written by J Andrew Keith
Fantasy Games Unlimited PO. Box 182, Roslyn, New York 11576
Released: 1984
Catalog No.: 7752
Price: $5.00
Complexity: Intermediate
Solitaire Suitability: Low

The Songsmith is a scenario intended for use with the Chivalry and Sorcery game system. The milieu is the mythical "North Kingdom," a part of the authors own fantasy world. Action begins in Barinsglen, a town in which The Dragon Lord, a previously published scenario, was concluded.

The player-characters are carousing in a local inn when they notice a ragged, penniless minstrel being driven off with cuffs and curses. They overhear this vagabond muttering about "dwarvish gold." Naturally, the hearty adventurers, intrigued with the prospect of pillage and plunder, offer him food and drink for his story The minstrel tells them of his discovery of the ancient subterranean dwarvish city of "Khalazheer," after his old master (the Songsmith) gave him the key in the form of a song on his deathbed. The song contained the magic words which would open the hidden door in a cliff-face above the minstreB home city of Dwarvendale, hundreds of miles to the east.

One of the player-characters is told he just happens to remember that Thuvale, a great wizard and scholar, is in town. After visiting Thuvale, the characters are ready to mount an expedition to Dwarvendale, seeking the ancient dwarf-hold.

The wizard is so fascinated he wants to go too. He is seeking one of the three legendary and powerful "talismans of light," reputed to be in Khalazheer. Combined with the one he already has, Thuvale hopes to bring "gread good" to "the land." After all, it's there for the taking, since all the dwarves who once lived in Khalazheer reputedly killed themselves during the Age of Chaos. Of course the chivalrous adventurers just want all the other loot they can get their hands on, so they're more than willing to go.

After a harrowing sea journey aboard a merchant cog and a cold reception in Dwarvendale, they eventually find and penetrate the deadly and forboding depths of the ancient city They must conquer an evil necromancer and confront his dwarfwraith minions before the quest is over.

This module is barely 20 pages long, with rather poor illustrations and virtually useless maps filling over a quarter of that space. Thanks to FGU the jacket design, typesetting, and binding are industry standard, giving the entire project a professional look. With the strange exception of the writing style, which is colorful, vivid, and actually conveys a real sense of epic fantasy, there is almost nothing about The Songsmith that I liked. in fact, while reviewing this module I could not escape a feeling of deja vu: "Where have I seen this before?" I soon realized where ... everywhere! This module is, with very few exceptions, exactly comparable to what could be found on the market six to seven years ago.

The scenario is completely linear. That is, situation A leads directly to situation B, leading directly to situation C, and continuing in this fashion until a mandated climax is reached. The only real options the players have if they try to interfere with the carefully choreographed and connected situations is to die in the attempt or digress from the published scenario.

What little there is between the covers of The Songsmith is neatly organized into boldly titled, conveniently accessable sections. There is just so littie substance that without a massive amount of work on the part of the Gamesmaster, I doubt that anyone could derive any enjoyment from this module. For example, on the long sea voyage, random encounters occur which are described only in a vague and general manner, without nearly enough information to properly run the incident.

All events in the module are more or less like this, except for those unalterable and unavoidable major encounters. In fact, stats are only given for the three major NPCs (Non- Player Characters), and those stats are in abbreviated form. The crew of the merchant cog (ten hands including a captain and mate) aren't even named and, of course, have no stats. This is in spite of the fact that many events along the sea voyage require the players to interact with the crew. There is even the the chance the crew could mutiny!

The fell minions who inhabit Khalazheer are likewise completely overlooked except in short prose description even though the player characters must fight and communicate with them! These are just two examples of many that can be found in The Songsnifth. All of the meaningful depth that should have been included is left to the referee to develop.

Overall, the module isnt wortti the cover price. Any merits The Songsmith could have, require it to be over twice as long as it is. Unfortunately, such a lengthening would only begin to redeem it because the story itself is too predictable. Any bright player could anticipate the guaranteed-to- occur conclusion before the scenario is half over.

The sheer bulk of work required to make this adventure playable and the shallow story of The Songsmith mean that the referee may as well adapt a fantasy short story into a scenario. It would require a comparable amount of effort and the events would be far more thoughtful and interesting.

The module-buying market has a right to expect a published scenario to have most of the rules and depth of detail to allow it to run with only a minimal amount of pregame effort. The Songsmith is too predictable, too contrived, too shallow, and much too short. This adventure, unfortunately, gets an emphatic "thumbs down" from this reviewer.

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