Blade of Vengeance (Dungeons & Dragons module O2) [Paperback]

Jim Bambra (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 210 pages
• Publisher: Wizards of the Coast (April 1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0880381906
• ISBN-13: 978-0880381901
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.5 x 0.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,500,987 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful solo adventure from the UK, May 1, 2000

By 

Kent David Kelly "Author & Anthologist" (Denver, CO USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Blade of Vengeance (Dungeons & Dragons module O2) (Paperback)

Here's a hard to find one-on-one adventure (1 veteran PC vs. the DM) that's near and dear to my heart. It's by UK adventure guru Jim Bambra; with the dramatic, dark writing and the classically bizarre Euro-fantasy illustrations, it reminds me strongly of the best of the Fighting Fantasy books, or even better, Steve Jackson's Sorcery. (Hack, cough, `scuse me, showing my age for a minute there...) Do any of your heroes have a true family history? A legacy? In this story, as a living legend among the elves, you return home to find your lovely forest home of Dorneryll in flames. So begins Chapter 1, and did I mention you'll be fighting an angry red dragon alone? A forgotten classic.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must buy, February 8, 2009

By 

Mathew - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Blade of Vengeance (Dungeons & Dragons module O2) (Paperback)

I have played through over forty modules in the D&D world. I rank Blade of Vengeance in the top five. I ran this module as a DM. My friend and I just wanted to kill a couple of hours with a one on one adventure. We both enjoyed this module so much that we purchased the rest of Jim Bambra's modules and my friend adopted the pregenerated character as his own. The rules are for the expert set, but I have always just used the storyline and converted the module to whatever format I wanted. This adventure has a rich background story, a linear but engaging storyline, reasonable and creative magic items, bits of mythology, and some tough combat. The adventure is almost Tolkien like. I have played most of the modules recommended by "darkseraphim" (he also reviewd this module)and I tend to agree with all of his reviews. Enjoy this module!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Incredible Epic Fantasy Revenge Story, March 8, 2011

By 

James Leivers (New York,NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blade of Vengeance (Dungeons & Dragons module O2) (Paperback)

This adventure probably ranks in my top 5 adventures of all time. Why? It is a classic epic story, filled with British fairy tale and Tolkienesque creatures. The hook is awesome, and the quest you go on is one every little kid dreams of when they start playing D&D. While it is written as a One-on-one adventure(one DM, one player) It would be easily be converted to handle an entire party. You'd probably want to enforce all elves who were related and from the starting town. I'm sure you could work in some other races if you considered them adopted children.

The author also includes some really nice handouts such as rhyming poems, bloody half-readable notes, etc.

-------SPOILERS:
The hook: and it is awesome, A Red Dragon burns your elven home-tree to the ground and the dragon's armies of hobgoblins, gnolls, trolls, ogres slaughter your entire family and all the people from your hometown. You arrive after coming home to witness hobgoblins looting your parents corpses. How's that for a hook?

Jim Bambra does an excellent job describing emotional scenes, the destruction of cities, the fantastic scenery of fantasy places etc. There are some similarities in writing to "Night's Dark Terror". Did I mention you witness evidence that some of your recently deceased family members were dragged to death via rope by goblin riders?

You go on a quest to kill this dragon. The dragon is out to destroy your entire homeworld and as time passes she and her armies destroy entire settlements (there is a timeline). The dragon is much too powerful for you to defeat. So you research an ancient legend of an old elven hero who slayed the dragon's great grandfather. You travel around meeting centaurs, pixies, halflings, druids, treants all who help you with part of the legend. You eventually are able to find that the mortally wounded hero left the mortal realm and lives in the elven afterlife world. You travel there and receive his ancient weapon and tools to fight the dragon. Don't worry, no NPC hero comes and defeats the dragon for the players, he stays dead.

Then you travel to the dragon's fortress, which is a staging point for an army of 3,000 orcs, gnolls, giants, goblins etc. Sneaking into the caverns you surprise the dragon and fight it to the death.

Can you see the similarities to Hobbit? Yet, it is an original story.
------END SPOILER

I highly recommend this adventure. It would be easily converted to newer editions, as all the monsters are classics that exist in the new monster manuals. It can easily be converted to handle a party of 5-6 players instead of one player.