''Death Ascendant'' is an adventure for the 2nd edition of the '' Advanced Dungeons & Dragons''

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...

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Plot summary

''Death Ascendant'' takes place in the realm of Darkon, one of the less civilized areas of

Ravenloft Ravenloft is a campaign setting for the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' roleplaying game. It is an alternate time-space existence known as a ''Demiplane, pocket dimension'' or demiplane, called the Demiplane of Dread, which consists of a collection of la ...

. The

player character A player character (also known as a playable character or PC) is a fictional character in a video game or tabletop role-playing game whose actions are controlled by a player rather than the rules of the game. The characters that are not control ...

s come to Nartok, where public hanging and child-branding have become commonplace, and discover that this place is being torn apart by a secret war between two sets of spies. The characters are warned of their goal using the fortune-telling

Vistani The Vistani are a nomadic ethnic group in the ''Dungeons and Dragons'' fantasy role-playing game. They are based on depictions of the Romani people, and over time this depiction has been criticized as overly stereotyped and pejorative, and subject ...

Tarroka, and then rumors of war and a new type of

zombie A zombie (Haitian French: , ht, zonbi) is a mythological undead corporeal revenant created through the reanimation of a corpse. Zombies are most commonly found in horror and fantasy genre works. The term comes from Haitian folklore, in whic ...

drive them to their target location; once there, the characters are left to resolve Nartok's current crisis.

Publication history

''Death Ascendant'' was published by TSR in 1996, and was designed by

Lisa Smedman Lisa Smedman is a science fiction and fantasy author and journalist. Her novel ''Extinction'', set in the Forgotten Realms universe, was a ''New York Times'' bestseller. Smedman first became known for gaming adventure novels, and later published ...

, with cover art by

Fred Fields Fred Fields is an American artist whose work has appeared largely in the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' fantasy role-playing game from TSR. Biography Fred Fields was born in northern Kentucky. He grew up in the small town of Burlington, Kentucky. Fiel ...

and interior art by

John Dollar John Dollar (born 1961 in Georgia) is an American artist best known for his contributions to a number of RPG settings during the mid-to-late 90s (TSR properties and White Wolf's Changeling). Biography John Dollar's illustrations have appeared i ...

. ''

Death Unchained ''Death Unchained'' is an adventure for the 2nd edition of the '' Advanced Dungeons & Dragons'' fantasy role-playing game. Plot summary ''Death Unchained'' is set in the merciless regime of Falkovnia. A horde of dark and sinister assassins pursue ...

'' was episode 1 of the ''Grim Harvest'' trilogy, and ''Death Ascendant'' is episode 2.

Reception

Trenton Webb reviewed ''Death Ascendant'' for ''Arcane'' magazine, rating it an 8 out of 10 overall. Webb felt that the "wheels-within-wheels" premise of Ravenloft's secret societies is what links ''

'' to this adventure. While he felt that ''Death Ascendant'' could work as a stand-alone feature, "this would be a waste" because the "continuity of the plot makes ''Ascendant'' far more satisfying as a sequel". He warns that with "a vast abbey as the central location and a less convincing climax than ''Unchained'', players need to bring recent histories to bear in order to get the most out of ''Ascendant''. If they've fought their way through the first installment they won't care about the slightly silly resolution." Webb concludes the review by saying: "An excellent sequel, ''Ascendant'' perfectly continues the events set in motion in ''Unchained''. But they do need to be played in sequence if the full effect of this series is to be enjoyed."

References

{{D&D topics Ravenloft adventures Role-playing game supplements introduced in 1996