Raiders of Cardolan (1988) doesn’t really continue the threads of Woses of the Black Woods, but it sort of sits next to them. It would be nice to intertwine the two, as I think the overarching problem here is much more interesting in its resolution than the dungeoncrawl of the last. This time we’re dealing with a different Wose cultural group, some dissolute “Petty” dwarf necromancers and a force of corsairs from Umbar who are working for the Dark Lord. The larger scheme is to destabilize the region for invasion.
The players get involved when they are tasked to collect a bounty on the head of a Wose usurper who has turned brigand, which puts the players in league with the tribe of Woses who oppose him. Once that is resolved, they must further aid the Woses in ousting the corsairs from a ruined fortress on the southern cape. This boils over into the third scenario, where the pirates have holed up in the underground fortress that is also occupied by the necromancer dwarves. Both, ideally, need to be rooted out. None of this is as good as the first two scenarios in the previous book, but it is more cohesive and there is a greater sense of purpose in the climactic dungeoncrawl.
Daniel Horne cover featuring some of the piratiest pirates I’ve encountered. Very much of the Howard Pyle school. Do they feel MERPy? Not at all. Do I care? Also, not at all. Liz Danforth does the interiors, some fun ones here including the tomb and the flying frogs (!). Also, just, I love how colorful MERP books were willing to be. Purple and yellow!
