Publisher: Wizards of the CoastAll is not well in the kingdom of Vestland.
Not only is the king dead and the holy Sonora Crown missing, but the heir to the kingdom was lost at birth and no on knows where to find him. As if this wasn't bad enough, the forces of the Ethengar Khanate, never on the best of terms with Vestland, are now massing on the borders, hoping to take advantage of Vestland's plight. To complete the rosy picture, traitors from within also threaten to speed the downfall of the High Kingdom.
Sounds like a job for you. You must find the long-lost heir to the kingdom and recover the Sonora Crown, the mystical device without which a king cannot be crowned. Standing in your way are traitors and spies from within and invaders from without the kingdom of Vestland. Time is running out! Can you save Vestland from disaster?
This adventure is for use with the Dungeons and amp; Dragons Basic, Expert, and Companion Rules. You must have these rule sets to play the adventure.
Product History
X13: and quot;Crown of Ancient Glory and quot; (1987), by Stephen Bourne, is the thirteenth and final Expert-level adventure for Basic D and amp;D. It was published in December 1987.
Origins (I): X = X + 1. The Expert-level Basic D and amp;D adventures ran for six and a half years, starting with the publication of X1: and quot;The Isle of Dread and quot; (1981). With their frequent focus on wilderness adventures, they were some of the most distinct adventures published for D and amp;D in the '80s. However, X13: and quot;Crown of Ancient Glory and quot; (1987) marked their end.
More than that, and quot;Crown of Ancient Glory and quot; marked the end to an entire era of Basic D and amp;D publication. The and quot;B and quot; Basic adventures would make a brief resurgence in 1989, but other than that the adventures coded and quot;B and quot;, and quot;X and quot;, and quot;C and quot;, and quot;M and quot;, and and quot;I and quot; ended with this adventure. Instead the future of the Basic D and amp;D line lay with the the Gazetteers (1987-1991) that had begun earlier in the year. When adventures did return, they'd be more tightly connected to the Known World of the Gazetteers and would bear strange codes like and quot;DDA and quot; (1990-1991), and quot;HWA and quot; (1990-1991), and and quot;HWQ and quot; (1992).
Origins (II): Character Notes. X13: and quot;Crown of Ancient Glory and quot; has a surprising connection to X11: and quot;Saga of the Shadow Lord and quot; (1991), also by Stephen Bourne. They both share the same set of pregenerated player characters and mdash; and nbsp;except advanced by two levels in this new adventure, since it's for slightly higher level characters.
Within the context of the game world, it almost makes sense, as both adventures lie toward the north of the Known World.
Adventure Tropes: Not Your Average Wilderness Adventure. The later and quot;X and quot; adventures tended to move away from the wilderness-focus of the early series, and that's again the case with and quot;Crown of Ancient Glory and quot;. Much like Bourne's previous and quot;X and quot; adventure, this one is a double-macguffin hunt, as players search first for a crown, then for an heir. The heart of the adventure is actually a series of no less than three fortress assaults, a pretty common variant of the dungeon crawl.
One of the most interesting aspects of and quot;Crown of Ancient Glory and quot; is that it claims to be an and quot;Expert/Companion Game Adventures and quot;. It's not a bridge adventure like B10: and quot;Night's Dark Terror and quot; (1986), as it only runs levels 7-10. However its deep political basis might have been seen as an introduction for the domain-focused adventures of Companion-level play.
Exploring the Known World. and quot;Crown of Ancient Glory and quot; returns to Vestland, following on from X3: and quot;Curse of Xanathon and quot; (1982). With that said, there's not a lot of new detail on the land, other than political overview. Those political details are also somewhat troublesome because they describe a very feudal society where the rulers all have English titles, a bit of a variation from the looser, Viking society of GAZ7: and quot;The Northern Reaches and quot; (1988).
TSR settled the difference between this and quot;X and quot; adventure and the Gazetteers via their preferred method: they said that and quot;Crown of Ancient Glory and quot; must have taken place in a different time period. GAZ7: and quot;The Northern Reaches and quot; would claim that and quot;Crown of Ancient Glory (X13), a D and amp;D and reg; Expert adventure set in Vestland, takes place a century and a half after the time period of this Gazetteer. Vestland has become progressively more modern and feudal, like the Grand Duchy of Karameikos and quot;. However, AC1010: Poor Wizard's Almanac and amp; Book of Facts (1992) instead would say that Tenitar (Harald), the heir that the players can rescue here, was coronated in 986 AC. There's also discussion of a and quot;Trollheim Homesteading Acts and quot;, which produced feudal titles for a few years before being rescinded in 1000 AC. This dating, which puts and quot;Crown of Ancient Glory and quot; in the recent past, seems to be the preferred canon.
Artifacts of Note. The eponymous Sorona Crown is one of the few artifacts of note in the Basic D and amp;D line. However, two others also appear: the Harp of Spirit Restoration and the Throne of Transformation.
About the Creators. X13: and quot;Crown of Ancient Glory and quot; (1987) was Bourne's fourth and final book for TSR, following his work on X11: and quot;Saga of the Shadow Lord and quot; a year earlier.
About the Product Historian
The history of this product was researched and written by Shannon Appelcline, the editor-in-chief of RPGnet and the author of and nbsp;Designers and amp; Dragons and nbsp;- a history of the roleplaying industry told one company at a time. Please feel free to mail corrections, comments, and additions to shannon.appelcline@gmail.com.