Dwellers of the Forbidden City

Classic D&D adventure module review

Dwellers of the Forbidden City, by David Cook – Advanced D&D, 1981

An adventure for character levels 4-7

28 pages plus the separate cover with a map of the Forbidden City on the inside faces. The adventure covers 13 areas of the city, each consisting of from one to a dozen encounter areas. There are seven maps from a quarter page size showing small locations to a full page showing small, but long locations. None of the maps are full dungeons, but are rather just lairs with several areas or long passages with several areas along. The main map, though, on the inside of the covers shows the whole of the city from a 45 degree height. They city is in a valley surrounded by very high cliffs, so it is essentially a self contained environment with many encounter zones (which are shown in the other maps).

At the back of the module are four pages of new monsters: the first D&D appearances of the aboleth, mongrelman, tasloi, and yuan ti; and reprints of two creatures from the AD&D1 Fiend Folio: the pan lung dragon and yellow musk creeper. The last page has 20 pre-generated characters.

Parts of this adventure were used in a major tournament, but this version has been expanded considerably for use in a general campaign. The tournament parts are the entrances to the city: underground passages through guards and monsters. But these entrances are not the only way for campaign PCs to get into the city, and the module explains the monsters and difficulties for going over and down the cliff faces.

The city is basically a monster-filled ruins, with no organization or single control. Different sections of the city are “owned” by different species and factions, but there is nothing like a city civilization. It’s all pure chaos, and walking the crumbled city streets is like walking down a dungeon corridor—wandering monsters will attack you (and each other).

Only 13 areas are detailed in any way, so most of the city is assumed to be empty buildings prowled by wandering monsters. With a creative DM, spending time fleshing out the rest of the city, this could be a campaign setting to occupy PCs for several levels. Without fleshing out the “empty” parts of the city, still, the PCs could spend a few weeks exploring, fighting, and dealing with the various creatures of the city (all of which are wicked and vicious). Near the end of the module is a two-page section on “The Forbidden City In Campaign Play.” This gives hooks and ideas for expanding the adventure. This module does not need the DM to expand on it, but the setting concept just begs for it.

The initial adventure hook to start the adventure is a basic “find the bandits and gain their treasure,” but in the chaos of the location, it would be easy for a party of PCs to forget that and end up expanding their mission to any number of objectives. I’m not sure if the official adventure hook can even really be solved in any certain way. Because the setting is so big, and everywhere so dangerous, and getting into and out of the city so difficult, it could just turn into a survival adventure where the PCs have to worry about food, water, and attrition of comrades.

This adventure is a big concept, and it gives enough content to satisfy, but it is also wide open for industrious DMs to expand upon.

Bullgrit