Three Zhents and a Paladin Go on an Adventure Together...

Last night, I was able to participate in a D&D Adventurer's League Game Night at my local gaming store. My first time playing Dragonborn Paladin, Ser Rhogar, since November. Needless to say I was quite excited. The latest module was an older one from the first year, 'Outlaws of the Iron Route'. In light of the announcement of the DM's Guild, a subject for a future blog post, a brief review will follow.


Ah, but what's this about 'three Zhents and a paladin' that the title refers to you may ask? We had a very strong table of seven players last night. Three players played characters that are members of the Zhentarim faction. For those unaware, the Adventurer's League allows player characters (PCs) to join five factions, including the Zhentarim. One catch about faction membership is that players can't allow their faction membership to cause outright inter-party conflict. As the non-Zhentarim players chose to take a more neutral stance towards the antics of the Zhentarim players, I was placed into a difficult position as player of a paladin. Rather than impair other players fun or leave, I chose to play my Ser Rhogar in a more passive aggressive manner. Probably the first time since I started playing him that his love of dragon chess was mentioned let alone played. There were also jokes about the paladin sitting around re-thinking his life and decisions. Difficult play environment for me aside, the evil PCs really shook things up and made for an engaging session.


Outlaws of the Iron Route is a much more open-ended module than many of the modules that comprise the Adventurer's League. The PC's had several avenues to pursue and there was little hand holding. In fact, several players chose routes that not only did the DM not expect nor did the mod anticipate. So there was quite a bit of improvisation! Warning: because of the free-form nature of Outlaws of the Iron Route the mod may require quite a bit of play-time commitment and preparation. My particular play group chose to help an NPC out that mod intended for us to stop. We also at one point split the party into four or five groups. For groups that use factions, there's something for every faction although only the Order of the Gauntlet's task was discovered during the course of game play. Combat in the mod is deceptively tough. While I enjoyed Ser Rhogar's Heavy Armor Master feat being used to excellent effect, our exceptionally strong party found the final combat particularly nail-biting.


Rating: 4 out of 5 stars. Probably one of the better mods I played. Very sandbox in feel. The combats are challenging. Story is quite good. My only complaint is that mod is too huge so a completest may feel disappointed. Some groups may find the mod too difficult.