X7 The War Rafts of Kron was released in 1984 as part of the “Expert” line of adventures; that is, wilderness-based adventures for the Dungeons & Dragons line rather than the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons line. It is for characters of levels 9-12.

In this adventure, the characters venture beneath the waves to save a princess from the tritons who have kidnapped her. However, the tritons are close to civil war, and the party must find a path through the warring factions to return peace to the region.

It is a tremendously ambitious adventure and suffers by not including an overview of the action. Adventure summaries were not yet part of the adventure writing toolbox, and so instead the DM needs to read the entire adventure first and then put it all together. And, if you are used to dungeon-crawling and hex-crawling adventures, those styles are not what you find here!

Intrigue in the Depths

Much of the action in War Rafts revolves around the human raft-city of Kron and the triton underwater city of Suthus. In both of these cities, the characters can act to change the policies that have caused them to raid the Minrothad ships and discover the princess’s location. These sections offer the potential for significant role-playing and intrigue, plus some combat – as, in one case, as the party deals with an evil wizard.

The layout of this information is brilliant. Each city has nine or ten critical facts, with tables detailing who knows what. So, while everyone in Kron knows that they are raiding land-dwellers’ ships, only the leaders know that they provide the rafts to the tritons rather than raiding themselves. For the rest of the populace, they think they are at war with the tritons!

The players also learn different pieces of information depending on whether they persuade or coerce the inhabitants! I have rarely seen such attention paid to how the techniques change what the players learn.

Assuming the players play well, eventually, they learn that a third force – an underwater vampire – is behind all of this. The most extensive section of the adventure features the exploration of his citadel.

Challenging to DM

This adventure does not force the plot. Players may do what they like.

As you might expect, this presents a few challenges for the DM. The DM must handle the introduction with care. As written, it reads like the party sets out on a punitive expedition. This feeling is reinforced by the first encounter, in which tritons on war rafts attack the party.

I like that the attack sets up the core concept of the adventure: Kron and Suthus are working together. However, as the players do not know of these places, the revelation’s import is lost. And nothing points the characters towards realising they should be investigating and negotiating. If you would like the adventure to turn that way, you may need to alter some of the introductory material.

The adventure does not provide much other information on either settlement or the personalities of the main NPCs. Most of that is left for the DM to fill in.

Underwater Exploration

Although I have spent a lot of time talking about Kron and Suthus, the longest section of the adventure covers the underwater ruin of Colhador. The ruins play more like a dungeon crawl, albeit one set underwater with all the rules that entails. However, as neither the Basic nor Expert sets described them, this adventure is the first time we see BECMI Dungeons & Dragons’ underwater adventuring rules.

The rules are very much of the era, with many special cases, including alterations to spells. The notes most amuse me for sticks to snakes, which reads “The snakes drown in 4 rounds.” The rules are functional, with some nice touches.

The dungeon feels bigger than it needs to be, but that is partly a modern sensibility talking. The first level is devoted to traps, and below that, we have various guardians, and on the lowest level, Hadric, the Velya. All in all, this section has 49 areas. Encounters range from mundane combat to surprise tricks. Possibly the weirdest is a door that, if opened, causes the character opening it to be dragged inside immediately and propelled 300 feet above the complex, thus needing to return to the ruin. No, you cannot avoid this. Why did you ask?

Colhador does not read that well; I expect it plays better than it reads.

Thoughts on the War Rafts of Kron

This is an odd one.

Is it a great adventure? I would say no. It has one great idea – the intrigue within the two aquatic settlements – but it does not introduce that intrigue to the players in a satisfactory manner.

Indeed, what is going on in the opening is quite odd. After the characters get a briefing, they leave the Minrothad Islands to search the sea and then get attacked. And this feels very much like it wants to be a scripted encounter where the characters get attacked, defeated, and rescued by the Storm Giant Koom, who tells them how to get to the rest of the adventure. However, if the players beat the attackers and do not take any prisoners, how will they continue? It is not like they know where to look – and the random encounter tables leave out any further encounters with the factions.

There is a story here, and it works in a directed manner, but if the players miss some of the beats, the DM needs to fill stuff in. There might be quite a bit of this stuff!

The lack of personality of the main NPCs is a significant lack. It is especially noticeable in the case of Hadric, the underwater vampire (or Velya). He has some well-conceived abilities – I love that the velya can change into marine creatures like manta rays – and there is one journal entry where the characters (and DM) can learn about his past; other than that, he is undefined. It is hard not to compare this handling to Ravenloft, published in the previous year. Strahd’s personality is a crucial reason why Ravenloft is so well remembered today and has been reprinted and reenvisioned so many times. War Rafts has some great ideas, but it does not bring them together in as memorable a fashion.

However, because it does the investigation well and its underlying structure is solid, The War Rafts of Kron is worth a look, especially for a DM who is not averse to adding details.

One of the greats? No. But it is worthy of study.