The Treasure Vaults of Lindoran is a Judges Guild adventure written for use with Advanced Dungeons and Dragons. It is thirty four pages long. The adventure was written by Geoffry O. Dale and was published in 1980.
Long ago the Elf king saw that his kingdom was being overrun by a vast army of undead and demonic warriors. To protect the treasures of his kingdom he sealed his vault forever with magic. The king went off to defend his kingdom and then fell in battle.
Great treasures are said to be buried in this vault. The scepter and signet ring of the king along with a ring of power were lost here. The magical seals protecting this place from intrusion are wearing off now. It might be possible to break into the vaults. But now a new problem has arisen. An ancient red dragon sits beside the only entrance into the place. And he wants a piece of the action!
What I like about the Treasure Vaults of Lindoran
While it never specifically states a suggested level range it is clear that this adventure is intended for characters in the 8th to 10th level range. Characters of a little higher or lower level might still enjoy this adventure.
This was the first Judges Guild product I ever owned. I bought it around ’80 or ’81 from a store in Houston that sold a variety of in print and out of print RPG material along with quite a few boxed war games. And this store still exists!
This adventure contains a lot of magical tricks. I love these things and I just about never fail to point this out when I see it in other published work. This particular adventure uses this device to keep characters from teleporting in and out of the dungeon at will. The magical seals protecting this place along with the lead walls and other things prevent any such transportation.
The Treasure Vaults of Lindoran has lots of undead in it. Most of these are modified skeletons and zombies. They are just about everywhere and are intended to slowly grind down the resources (magic and hit points) of the players. There is a time limit, more or less, built into this adventure. For the doors open at specific intervals. Other than at these times the only way out is to find the magical items that will open the doors and allow exit. And then there will be that nasty red dragon waiting to greet the adventurers as they leave! Will he live up to any bargain that he makes?
The red dragon is a nice little touch. It is a role playing encounter right off the bat. Or the players could fight it. But then they will enter this place with a few dead characters or badly depleted on resources.
There are quite a few traps in this adventure. Many of them are pit traps. This is important. Because some of these pit traps have secret doors in them which lead to important areas of the dungeon. Should they be bypassed the adventurers might never find their way out or find the treasures.
The maps are simple. These were not even drawn on graph paper which most of the old Judges Guild Modules were.
Two new monsters are introduced. Neither is all that unusual but new monsters are always welcome. There are a couple of new magic items as well.
There are a whole lot of keys ans special locks in this adventure. This is an interesting thing to have if done correctly.
It has a false treasure room. I like false entrances and false treasure rooms. There is nothing like it for psyching out the players. They won’t know whether they have found what they are looking for until they get to the top again and discover that they still cannot get out.
There is no big bad boss here. There is treasure. There are monsters. And then it is all up to the adventurers to decide what they are going to do. It is not a good versus evil story. There certainly is evil here. But that is not the purpose of the adventurers. They are not here to save the kingdom. They are here to find treasure.
What I do not like about the Treasure Vaults of Lindoran
The zombies and skeletons are kind of repetitive. They literally are everywhere in the dungeon. They cannot be turned. And they are greatly enhanced. This makes them a fight every time they are encountered. It would not be a difficult fight though. It is more of a deplete the resources type of encounter.
While I like using keys in a dungeon the use of them in this one is kind of random. There is no real rhyme or reason on whether a key will work or not. On one door a silver key might be placed in a silver lock in order to open it. On the next one it might need to be placed in the gold lock. choosing wrong causes shock damage each time. I like the use of special locks that are the only means of opening doors or passages. But there needs to be some way for the adventurers to reason how to choose which key to use in a lock. Trial and error (causing damage each time) is not a great way to do it in my opinion.
Would I recommend this adventure to others?
Of course! It is a decent adventure for characters in the appropriate level range. And it is highly unlikely that your players would have read it already. I certainly did. But I suspect it was not all that widely distributed. There are a few decent challenges in this adventure and I think it will be very entertaining.
Would I run the Treasure Vaults of Lindoran with my own group?
I very well might. When my players get their characters to the right level range this one would be an interesting one to run.
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