Death in Freeport (SoTDL) by Chris Pramas is a role playing game supplement published by Schwalb Entertainment for use with Shadow of the Demon Lord. This is the first adventure in the Freeport Trilogy, and is an adaptation of the original adventure to Shadow of the Demon Lord and Urth. This is aimed at Novice characters.
The supplement is available from DriveThruRPG as a PDF for $4.99, as a print on demand softcover for $18.99 or as both PDF and softcover for $19.99. It is also available as a softcover from sites such as Amazon. The PDF is the version reviewed and was purchased at the reduced price of $2.79 during a sale. The PDF is the version reviewed and comes in two versions, one with and one without page backgrounds. The PDF has 30 pages with two pages being the front and rear covers, one page the front matter, one page the Table of Contents and one page an ad for Terror in Freeport.
A Brief History of Freeport gives a history of the location, starting back with the Valossan Empire, the former realm of the serpent people which largely sank beneath the waves after a ritual was enacted to summon the Unspeakable One. Freeport itself is built on one of the Pirate Isles, known locally as the Serpent’s Teeth, the largest surviving bit of Valossa.
Freeport started as a pirate town but as navies in the mainland become larger, pirate ships were no longer able to act individually. A navy led by two of the most noted captains went on a successful raid. Afterwards, there was tension between the two and real fighting in Freeport, until one captain betrayed the other into a trap.
The surviving captain, Drac, became ruler, Sea Lord, of Freeport and, despite how he came to power and how he eliminated enemies, proved to be a good one, choosing the interests of the city over his own glory. He picked a successor but required that said successor be approved by his advisory council, the Captain’s Council.
The town’s prosperity improved but a later captain was a descendant of Drac and proved to be less than ideal. He was succeeded by his brother, who was more competent but was assassinated. A law had been passed requiring that the Sea Lord be a Drac, and another, the present Sea Lord, took his place. In the current day, this Sea Lord is still in power and has almost bankrupted Freeport by building an enormous lighthouse.
A sidebar gives some information on the Freeport Trilogy and states that the events take place five years prior to the city as it is described in The Pirate’s Guide to Freeport and there is a map of Freeport.
The Captain’s Council explains how the council is a major part of the Freeport government, and has increased in power over the years. How the town is run and some of the history is given here – which does overlap with history explained in the previous section. Finally, there is a timeline on notable events.
Death in Freeport is the actual adventure. It starts with a synopsis of how it runs, then has a hook for characters. It is advised that they be new to Freeport, otherwise they will have too much local knowledge. The characters, after tangling with a press gang, are asked by a priest to look for a colleague of his, a librarian, who has gone missing. They can visit the temple, the librarian’s house, where they can find clues as to what the librarian was doing, and a pirate ship. During the investigation, the characters will be set on by mercenaries, which will then lead them to the headquarters of the cultists they are dealing with and an underground temple and lair.
Following the adventure, there are some suggestions for Further Adventures – including the next in the series – about one and a third pages of handouts and two pages having a larger map of Freeport.
Death in Freeport (SoTDL) in Review
The PDF lacks bookmarks and is long enough that these would have been useful. The Table of Contents is thorough but navigation is on the whole pretty poor. The text maintains a two column full colour format and appeared to be free of errors. There are a variety of colour illustrations and maps, at least some of which are definitely custom. Presentation is very good.
This is largely an urban investigation concluding in a fight in a cultist lair, although there are some other skirmishes along the way, with a pressgang, mercenaries and, if the players are feeling potentially suicidal, the crew of a pirate ship. Although it’s never explicitly stated, it can be figured out that the abducted librarian previously had his consciousness swapped with one of the Great Race of Yith. The adventure, probably because it wasn’t written for Shadow of the Demon Lord originally, has a bit of a different feel to many adventures that have been written for the system rather than adapted. It is more of a classic fantasy adventure in many ways; whether this will continue for the rest of the trilogy isn’t clear. It does function as a good introduction to Freeport and a new area of Urth. Death in Freeport (SoTDL) can be found by clicking here.
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