Monday Magazine Classics

 The Lichway

Albie Fiore

White Dwarf #9

October/November 1978

 “A mini-dungeon for a part of 6-8 1^st level adventurers.”

 One of the early full-fledged adventures, and still highly regarded in the circles in which I move.

 Fiore gives us just a brief paragraph of background, a few notes on running the adventure and four “Rumours gathered by the party in a village tavern.”

 Right away the map inspires me. It’s a conceit of mine that an interesting map elevates a boring adventure. In fact, a good map (and that’s a moving target for me – at least it should look interesting with its connections and features) raises the bar a little on my estimation of an adventure. That is, if I buy into the map, I’m predisposed to enjoy the adventure. Art can do the same thing sometimes for me.

 So, the map gives us a main entrance but several other ways into the heart of the Lichway – and a variety of interconnections as well. Water is used to good effect in the dungeon. The secret doors and the tricks and traps are suitably old-school. They make sense within the context of the dungeon. Notably, there are rival NPCs already here, doing their own exploring, who can become allies, adversaries or just another obstacle to overcome.

 The main monster here is a Susurrus, a strange Fiend Folio monster whose “song” (the sound of wind blowing through its exoskeleton) causes undead to “sleep the sleep of the dead.” One of the first books I bought for AD&D was the Fiend Folio. I thought the Susurrus was a... strange monster (no flumph or flailsnail perhaps, but odd nonetheless). I didn’t see a use for such a creature as this. But the Lichway gave it some purpose. It’s still an oddly specific creature...

 Tiny print and lack of whitespace make this hard to use, but the information is presented clearly enough that I’ve been able to run this with just a read-through.

 Gripes: most of the treasure in the adventure is pretty specific until the “big treasure” which is simply “gold candelabras, gems, jewelry, silver flasks everyday objects, tools, weapons (none magical), etc. (The total value of the hoard is left at the DM'S discretion.)” Dangit! You told me in one room that a “Loose stone in N. wall conceals 88 g.p. and 89 c.p.” but the big treasure is just “You figure it out DM.”

 Like many adventures, I think you’d want a highlighter – or at least a quick summary page of NPCs (there are 14 individuals named if I counted correctly) along with a handful of monsters and undead (well, there’s a lot of “sleeping” undead...).

 

Other reviews:

 

https://www.enworld.org/threads/white-dwarf-the-first-100-issues-a-read-through-and-review.325009/

https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/in-which-i-read-white-dwarf-from-issue-1.405199/page-6

 

https://www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=22832&p=1208631&hilit=Lichway#p1208631

 

https://princeofnothingblogs.wordpress.com/2020/03/12/review-white-dwarf-9-lichway-due-diligence/#:~:text=A%20mere%204%20pages%2C%20Lichway,the%20mind%20of%20the%20GM.

 

 

http://rolesrules.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-lichway-white-dwarf-9-review.html