DMs Guild Review – Dusk Tower

A review copy of “Dusk Tower” 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: Lefteris Stefanis

Dusk Tower is a mini-adventure for 7th level parties, centered around a classic wizard’s tower. Clocking in at barely over a dozen pages, the adventure (and tower) are teeny-tiny, but still pack a lot of content, and a fun twist or two.

Gregorian is a drow archmage who retired from adventuring, building a tower and settling down in the town of Fern.

Far from the evil wizard stereotype, Gregorian was always polite and respectful to townsfolk. But he did spend his years researching the Far Realm and eldritch creatures, at one point even capturing an aboleth and imprisoning it below the tower.

However, peering into the Far Realm caused Gregorian to suffer a split personality form of madness, creating a darker half named Erebucere (no, I can’t pronounce it either).

The party is called to investigate the tower through several different adventure hooks, including searching for a McGuffin gem, checking on the increasingly odd behavior of Gregorian from a friend, or following up on a borrowed spellbook.

I appreciate that the town of Fern is not only mapped, but given some important locations and NPCs. It’s not exactly Phandelver-level detail, but for such a tiny adventure, it’s more than enough.

Most importantly, the party meets Gregorian’s apprentice, Daniello.

Unbeknownst to everyone (even Daniello), the apprentice has become enslaved by the aboleth. Since Gregorian’s split, the other half isn’t keeping up with maintaining the wards for the creature, and the aboleth has managed to ensnare the apprentice. But it needs someone capable to casting dispel magic to make it downstairs to free it from its cage.

Thus, the party learns of their real quest through Daniello — but with multiple twists. Daniello is working for an evil entity, but not the wizard! And he tricks the party into thinking the wizard is kidnapping young women from the town, and has one of them trapped inside.

A recent missing woman simply eloped with her lover, creating a fun little red herring for the DM to work with.

The tower consists of only four areas (five if we include a garden full of friendly awakened trees), but each area has something interesting: animated armor and flying sword guards, patrolling gargoyle brutes, an invisible stalker butler, the telescope of madness-inducing eldritch sight, and a rug of smothering guarding the hidden laboratory below.

Daniello supplies a scroll of dispel magic for the party to open the arcane lock on the trapdoor, while the aboleth appears as a damsel merfolk trapped in the water tank.

The aboleth tries to enslave a PC or two to pull the lever on its cage. If it can’t, Daniello is conveniently there (having cast invisibility) to do the deed.

It’s a fun little twist, and if the PCs think of it, they can avoid killing Daniello to free the poor apprentice from his mind control.

At any point (presumably after dealing with the aboleth) the master of the tower can return. This showdown could be anything from a simple social exchange to a brutal battle with an 18th-level spellcaster. It’s even more complicated when you factor in the wizard’s dual personalities.

I like the idea of the party making CHA checks to try and change him to his less hostile half.

In the end the party has dealt with a dangerous threat, and perhaps gotten Gregorian some help (or killed everything inside, either way).

The adventure includes full color maps of the village and the tower and each of its floors. Despite its brevity, Dusk Tower checks all the right boxes for a fun experience, with proper story developments and twists that you won’t find in many adventures twice this size.

Pros:

• Multiple adventure hooks, and quest-relevant townsfolk.
• Interesting story twists and developments.
• Full color map of the wizard’s tower.
• Well-organized; professional layout.

Cons:

• None!

The Verdict: Dusk Tower is a gold standard for micro adventures, with a solid little dungeon crawl, fun NPCs, and a rescue mission with a suitably sinister twist.

A review copy of “Dusk Tower” 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.