A review copy of “Aldri’s Wonderful Laboratory” was provided by the publisher. Find more DMs Guild Reviews on my website and YouTube channel.
Support my work by using my affiliate links and pledging via Patreon.
Designed by: Yuri Rodriguez
Aldri’s Wonderful Laboratory is a Tier 3 (!) dungeon crawl adventure, taking place within a large extradimensional wizard tower floating in the Astral Sea.
Despite its exotic location, the adventure’s blasé introduction makes it easy to drop in to any campaign or setting as a random encounter.
The adventure is designed for veteran player characters at Levels 12-14. Already you have my attention!
Unfortunately the very beginning is easily the worst part.
There’s no inciting incident or proper quest to seek out this mysterious wizard lab. Several too-long Adventure Hooks do little more than provide rumors, or sent players off on a random fetch quest. They’re given no clues as to what they might find, or why they should explore all 30-some rooms of this gigantic, eight-floor tower.
The good news is that it’s a fun dungeon crawl that’s definitely worth exploring!
Aldri was a masterful wizard and artificer who even mastered the legendary wish spell. That got him exiled into the Astral Sea, however. By stumbling upon a seemingly random rune-covered stone, players can access a portal to teleport to Aldri’s tower.
He appears early into the players’ exploration, but is perfectly fine with them triggering traps and stealing triggers, all another grand experiment.
The tower features an excellent mix of combat, role-playing, and exploration.
Parties (and DMs) who enjoy nasty, interesting, and complex traps will enjoy the anti-magic trap-zone surrounding magic artifacts, the chairs that swap souls, and the generator that summons demons.
Role-players will love completing quests for a githzerai diplomat, seeking healing from a friendly dryad, and avoiding antagonizing a bored beholder.
Hack and slashers will be the least satisfied, but the tower has several automated drones ready to battle, and each NPC can be fought (which could make the final confrontation with Aldri far more challenging).
The densely packed tower takes some inspiration from Dungeon of the Mad Mage, with some levels featuring their own quirks and unique situations, such as the Fifth Floor being entirely ruled by the beholder Elytrax.
Aside from the usual loot, parties also have an opportunity to nab spell scrolls of the new spells provided in the adventure. The gravity and reality-themed spells would feel right at home in Spelljammer.
Each spell scroll is encrypted, requiring players to work a little harder to appease NPCs (who can decrypt them) or finding Aldri’s Master Book. I particularly like the little puzzle to acquire the wish scroll that involves finding notes and learning the names of Aldri’s students.
The final battle doesn’t even have to be one. If players have been courteous to each NPC (other than the beholder, who’s a total dick), they can enjoy a friendly conversation with the titular wizard before being transported back to their home plane.
The adventure includes full color battle maps of each of the tower floors. It appears to use AI-generated art throughout the adventure, but neither the art nor the maps are credited.
Aldri’s Wonderful Laboratory is less a full adventure and more of an encounter that turns into a massive dungeon crawl. Despite the light story, it’s a solidly-designed dungeon that has something for everyone.
Pros:
- Excellent balance of combat, role-playing, traps, puzzles, and loot.
- 13 new spells (and a unique way to acquire each one via encrypted spell scrolls).
- Over a dozen magic items.
- Full color battle maps for each level.
Cons:
- Lacks motivation or quests for exploring the extradimensional tower.
- No credits for map or arts.
The Verdict: Though the introduction is lacking, the extradimensional tower of Aldri’s Wonderful Laboratory is packed with nasty traps, interesting NPCs, and satisfying rewards.
A review copy of “Aldri’s Wonderful Laboratory” was provided by the publisher. Find more DMs Guild Reviews on my website and YouTube channel.
Support my work by using my affiliate links and pledging via Patreon.
RogueWatson 