Terror in Freeport (SOTDL) by Robert J. Toth is a role playing game supplement published by Schwalb Entertainment for use with Shadow of the Demon Lord. This is the second adventure in the Freeport Trilogy, following on from Death in Freeport, and has been adapted to Shadow of the Demon Lord and Urth. This is aimed at Expert characters.
The supplement is available as a 32 page PDF from DriveThruRPG for [$3.99], as a softcover print on demand book for [$18.78] or as both PDF and softcover for [$20]. It is also available in printed for from sites such as Amazon. The PDF is the version reviewed. Two pages are the front and rear covers, one page is the front matter, one page the Table of Contents and one page is an ad for Death in Freeport. The PDF comes in two versions, one with and one without page backgrounds.
The adventure starts by explaining about how the Sea Lord of Freeport, Milton Drac, had recruited a greedy dupe. The dupe heads the Captain’s Council and is making money from Drac’s plots, but thinks this is simply corruption and doesn’t realise that all the evidence points to him as being behind everything.
This adventure starts a month after the end of Death in Freeport, and the GM will either need to get the characters back into the city or decide what they did during that time (although not mentioned, Forbidden Rules has downtime options). They are asked by Brother Egil, who originally recruited them, for help.
Part I: The Serpent’s Skin has Egil meeting the characters and explaining that the main enemy they dealt with had rooms rented under another identity. The characters can visit these rooms, then the temple that they had cleared out.
Part II: A Threatening Posture has the characters identify a lead from the temple that takes them to Drac’s dupe’s residence; not a place that can be stormed by force – successfully anyway. This poking around will result in the characters being taken, by force if needed, to see said dupe at the courts. Both parties at this point will have the wrong motives for the other.
Part III: The Serpent Strikes has the characters apparently rescued from being deported, but only so that they can be led into an ambush. An extremely dangerous one at that; a total party kill is a definite possible outcome. If the characters survive – and the trap is dangerous enough that there is a sidebar on what to do in the event of a TPK – they can investigate the new temple and find out details about a frame that is being set in motion.
Part IV: The Siege has the characters find out some unexpected truths and have to defend the Temple of the Seer against the Brotherhood of the Yellow Sign.
Aftermath: Thuron’s Confession has some tidying up material and some suggestions for further adventures, which may be needed if the characters are not yet of a high enough level to tackle the next adventure, Madness in Freeport.
Terror in Freeport (SOTDL) in Review
The PDF is well bookmarked with major and minor sections as well as sidebars linked. The Table of Contents is to a similar level of depth and is also hyperlinked. Navigation is very good. The text maintains a two column full colour format and appeared to be free of errors. There are also a variety of colour illustrations. Presentation is very good.
This adventure has perhaps more combat and less investigating than the first in the series. There are some encounters where violence will definitely not solve anything, for the characters will be mobbed by guards. Intelligence needs to be used in these – starting a fight in the centre of law enforcement is not smart nor is trying an armed raid on the home of the council leader. The plot to frame the characters and others is quite thorough; the good news is if it works the characters will probably be dead and not care. The death trap room is potentially very deadly. There are a few ways for characters to escape and the GM is suggested to have a bit of leeway when it comes to deciding if what characters try works. By the end of the adventure, the characters should be very suspicious of certain things in the city. Or dead. Terror in Freeport (SOTDL) is an interesting continuation to the trilogy and it can be found by clicking here.
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