Close
Close
Advanced Search

DDAL00-01 Window to the PastClick to magnify
Quick Preview
/gs_flipbook/flip.php?xml=/demo_xml/200609.xml&w=500&h=324

DDAL00-01 Window to the Past

ADD TO WISHLIST >

When a Thayan research expedition returns from the Glacier of the White Wyrm with only two survivors that are reduced to whispering about an ancient pyramid under the ice, perhaps it is time to discover just what scares the life out of a nation of necromancers.

A 4-Hour Adventure for 5th – 10th, 11th – 16th, or 17th – 20th Level Characters

Content Warnings: horror (isolation, body)

I have other DM's Guild offerings, as well:

Feedback is always welcome - please leave your thoughts here, on enworld, or contact me directly at warfteiner@hotmail.com or on Twitter (@warfteiner).

This adventure's code was originally DDAO-01 - part of the "Author Only" program. Due to it's presence, I was able to attend dozens of gamedays, retail locations, and conventions across the United States. I ran nearly 100 tables of just this one adventure (never mind the dozens of other adventures for my regular local group and other adventures upon organizer request), and in the course of doing so met an unbelievable number of AWESOME players, DMs, and organizers.

Inside this download you can find not only an adventure that can be as fast as 4 hours or as long as 12 hours (the longest I ran it in one sitting!), but you will also see some custom art that was commissioned for this adventure, brand-new maps, and designer's notes on how to run this adventure at your selected tier.

As a bonus, I've also included the raw map files for use with Campaign Cartographer 3. Feel free to customize them as you see fit - and remember that across the 100 tables I ran, each table made an impact. I believe that this comment will make more sense when you read the adventure!

Happy gaming, folks, and let those dice roll!

- Alan

PS: seriously, check out my artists John Latta and Ian Wallace. Great people and super excited to work on these kinds of projects :)

pixel_trans.gif
 
 More from this Title's Contributors
pixel_trans.gif
 
 Customers Who Bought this Title also Purchased
pixel_trans.gif
pixel_trans.gif
Reviews (30)
Discussions (14)
Customer avatar
Casper K April 19, 2019 6:13 pm UTC
PURCHASER
What a shame. This otherwise excellent module lost most of its playability after season 8 where several magic items was withdrawn from play.

Does anybody have any good suggestions on overcoming this great loss in the narrative?
Reply
Customer avatar
Philip K May 25, 2021 6:42 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Play at a home table?
Customer avatar
Justis R May 28, 2018 5:07 pm UTC
I played in the tier 2 version of this mod a couple months ago, and it is by far one of the best mods I've played. Curious to see if the plot continues!
Reply
Customer avatar
Alan P July 13, 2018 10:36 pm UTC
CREATOR
Hey Justis - there are three adventures in the "series". They're thematically connected but do not have to be played in any specific order.

Window to the Past (t2/3/4) - this one!
Those That Came Before (t3/4) - http://www.dmsguild.com/product/230030/DDAL0003-Those-That-Came-Before
Trust & Understanding (t4) - currently what I run when I attend conventions; on dmsguild around Jan 1, 2019
Reply
Customer avatar
Matthew W April 03, 2019 8:46 pm UTC
PURCHASER
I can’t wait to see what Trust and Understanding has in store. You have a great story. As a player, you are on edge. When I took the reins, I was giddy build terror and deploy these deeply disturbing foes.
Reply
Customer avatar
Brian P July 31, 2019 4:19 pm UTC
PURCHASER
I, too, look forward to Trust & Understanding.
Customer avatar
William S March 27, 2018 5:56 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Does this include a fantasy grounds module, or are there any plans to make one?
Reply
Customer avatar
Alan P March 28, 2018 11:05 am UTC
CREATOR
The Fantasy Grounds file is included, yes
Customer avatar
Timothy A March 04, 2018 11:47 am UTC
Excellent module that worked well with a more experienced group. Used it to fill in some gaps and help them level up their characters while playing a hardcover. Interesting story and cool use of monsters.
Customer avatar
Sigmund R January 07, 2018 8:56 pm UTC
I have a Question about the Magical items. In the mod when its is recovered it says one item and then at the end in the rewards it says a different item. which entry is correct? Other then that its a great mod and I had a great time running it at our FLGS for our game day.
Reply
Customer avatar
Caleb Z January 26, 2018 2:04 am UTC
PURCHASER
I too would like to know which is the correct item as I noticed the error recently.
Reply
Customer avatar
Alan P March 28, 2018 11:06 am UTC
CREATOR
Go with the cert and reward description from the end of the adventure.
Customer avatar
Kelanu R December 08, 2017 5:44 pm UTC
is there a better map pack?
Reply
Customer avatar
Alan P December 22, 2017 5:02 pm UTC
CREATOR
The majority of the maps were included in their native format. You're welcome to adjust as you need. Running them through Photoshop or Gimp will allow you to make them "your own" - which is especially important due to some ongoing magical effects.

As for a few of the hand drawn entries... I'd like to, but have no plans to upgrade those maps until the adventure reaches platinum status.
Customer avatar
Robert S November 18, 2017 3:35 pm UTC
PURCHASER
This adventure has been one of the best modules i have DM and played in. I enjoyed the imaginary in story and my players enjoyed it as well
Customer avatar
David P August 24, 2017 10:05 pm UTC
PURCHASER
I love this module. Easy to adapt to any tier, full of cool lore, and super challenging for out of the box style players. I definately have recommended it to others!
Reply
Customer avatar
Alan P August 25, 2017 1:02 am UTC
CREATOR
Thanks for the enthusiasm! There's a ton of lore in this one, which can be hard for some DMs. I'm glad you enjoyed it :)
Customer avatar
Judd W R August 07, 2017 9:35 pm UTC
I DM'd this for my FLGS. The store bought the copy, so I will leave my review here since I don't have access to the reviews section.

Overall: 4/5

I LOVED the lore and depth of this adventure. Soooo much detail, and all really good stuff. The adventure itself was well written, works awesomely at three different tiers, and has both a creepy and an epic feel. Just super fun both to play and to DM. Excellent DM notes and organization too; even great pictures! And for an AL mod, the lack of typos/errors was truly shocking (i.e. there were almost none).

The reason for one star off: There is TOO MUCH in this adventure. 65 pages! Ordinarily more is better, but in AL, with time limits and expectations, and caps for rewards based on the time, you need to be able to cut it down. Unfortunately, everything in this is so critical to the plot and the feel of the story, that it's really hard to cut this down shorter than 6 hours. Mine ran just over 4 hours with 6 players at Tier 3, and that...See more
Reply
Customer avatar
Alan P August 10, 2017 4:24 am UTC
CREATOR
Yeah, it's not an easy one to run. That said, people -really- wanted to see what went into an Author-Only adventure, so I converted from AO to AL. It's lore-heavy and I agree not ideal for new or on-the-go DMs.

That said, Those That Came Before (the next one in the series) is lighter on the lore and more "dungeon crawl-y". ;)

Thanks for the feedback!
Reply
Customer avatar
Ryan F August 16, 2017 10:35 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Will "Those That Came Before" come to AL. I've DMed Window to The Past at every Tier and am excited for more material :)
Reply
Customer avatar
Alan P August 18, 2017 4:23 am UTC
CREATOR
Yes! I am targeting the first week of November for "Those That Came Before" - and it's MUCH easier to run than "Window to the Past". Each part of this series focuses on different elements of adventure design.
Reply
Customer avatar
Ryan F August 18, 2017 1:32 pm UTC
PURCHASER
I have no problem with the LORE of DDAL00-01, it makes the adventure more engaging for me!
Customer avatar
John S June 23, 2017 1:02 am UTC
PURCHASER
In the adventure, it states that the party finds a set of Mithral Armor. Yet in the Rewards section and the Cert both say Admantium.
Reply
Customer avatar
Gavin M July 11, 2018 6:05 pm UTC
I had the same issue. So much for prepping all the info of what a Mithral set does!
Customer avatar
Adam C February 03, 2017 7:45 pm UTC
PURCHASER
How are the multiple damage tags (fire and necrotic) from the mythal handled when it comes to resistances, immunities and vulnerabilities?
Reply
Customer avatar
Alan P February 06, 2017 4:37 am UTC
CREATOR
Mythals are extremely high-level magic. If a mythal refers to two or more damage types, the character must be resistant (etc) to -all- the listed types or they take effect as normal.
Reply
Customer avatar
Adam C February 09, 2017 9:59 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Thanks!!
Reply
Customer avatar
Donald M October 09, 2017 10:54 pm UTC
PURCHASER
So where it lists the damage dealt from such as a combined damage source, its just that number and not that number for each damage type?
Customer avatar
Captain N January 09, 2017 5:27 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Spoilers...





While an interesting concept, I think the Enmity of Thay story award has some issues in terms of execution.

It's something of a headache logistically:
1. Every downtime day spent now has to be accounted for in front of a DM
2. Every adventure completed has the potential to be randomly extended by adding in an extra fight at the end. (When we often have difficulty wrapping stuff up within the assigned timeslot anyway.)
3. The stats on a Red Wizard aren't provided anywhere as far as I can tell, and normal AL adventures don't even expect the DM to own the Monster Manual.
4. If these extra enemies are killed, it's unclear whether extra XP should be awarded and whether they carry any gold or other treasure.
5. It's unclear whether they should kill a PC in a way that prevents raise dead from being used. If not, should killing a character that's later raised remove the story award?
6. If the Thayans are bought off by...See more
Reply
Customer avatar
Matt P June 02, 2017 1:49 am UTC
PURCHASER
I can't agree more. This story award for basically being good and choosing not to be a Thayan puppet is a big middle finger. Alan said, "Have fun trying to play this character now."

I'm supposed to go up to some random con DM and tell them that since I spent 50 downtime days and rolled 8 twenties that they have to add 24 wizards and 16 assassins to their 2 or 4 hour time slot adventure? And my party now has to put up with this and probably not receive XP for it (it's AL, you know they won't give extra XP).

What about, "Here cleric, hold these diamonds while I go have a chat with these fellows. Count to 12 and come revive me." Seems like the most expedient route to go.
Reply
Customer avatar
thomas H October 25, 2017 6:19 am UTC
I feel until the Enmity of Thay story award is worked out this shouldn't be on offer through the DMs Guild. We were a Tier 2 party of seven: five fifth level, one seventh and one 10th. We are now saddled with a penalty that would wipe us out as a party. I don't think I have ever encountered this before in an Adventurers League game. On the other hand, I am confident other DMs will just shrug it off and say it's a bad idea, trying to deny people use of their downtime days, and not make us honor it. Really overshadows the rest of the adventure.
Customer avatar
Fanhalla P December 15, 2016 5:55 am UTC
What is the season for this adventure? Like is this part of Rage of Demons?
Reply
Customer avatar
ROBERT H December 15, 2016 4:48 pm UTC
as its ddal-00; not part of any season per say, seasons currently fall in DDEX-01/02/03 thru current nomenclature DDAL-04/05(SKT.)
Reply
Customer avatar
Alan P December 15, 2016 5:16 pm UTC
CREATOR
Correct. This technically takes place after the events of season 2 (Elemental Evil), but can be enjoyed without the players having experienced those adventures. By using a season code of '00' it is not considered to be part of any specific season.
Customer avatar
ROBERT H December 14, 2016 2:09 pm UTC
I played this as a 15 Evoker - at Queen City Conquest '16 at Tier 3, run by the man himself; It was a blast, I highly recommend playing or running it. I have plans to run this myself in the near future, but I would rather run T3/T4 as It seems a waste to use it on lower levels considering how much content is already out there for T2...YMMV.
Reply
Customer avatar
Alan P December 14, 2016 4:03 pm UTC
CREATOR
My t3 tables seem to really enjoy themselves, and the handful of t4 tables have been... well, excited to say the least. Good luck! (and thanks for playing it with me already!)
Reply
Customer avatar
Donald M July 10, 2017 4:59 am UTC
PURCHASER
Got to run this day 3 of 4 at a Con with less than two hours of prep time due to the need of GM's. It ran a little long and I borked a few pieces that I wish I could go back on, and redo now that I've had a little time to marinate on it. There are a lot of small details that can be added or flavored for the party, with creativity to be used by both the DM and the party to circumvent things and I'll admit watching the players face go "Oh... we had this all planned out... *@!@ that changes everything" was quite rewarding given the situations they popped in. That being said, there are a few points for AL that I think could be cleared up:

The Mythal Effects with shared damage types - is it collectively or is a blast of each elemental type of that amount?
Make the Mythal Effects A Page unto themselves so that they can be pasted onto the DM screen itself so they're quickly accessible instead of needing them on pages that contain adventure text as well.
The Mythal calls out timing...See more
Browse Categories
$ to $
 Follow Your Favorites!
NotificationsSign in to get custom notifications of new products!
 Recent History















Product Information
Platinum seller
Community Content
Author(s)
Artist(s)
Rules Edition(s)
Pages
64
Format
Original electronic Click for more information
Scanned image
These products were created by scanning an original printed edition. Most older books are in scanned image format because original digital layout files never existed or were no longer available from the publisher.

For PDF download editions, each page has been run through Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software to attempt to decipher the printed text. The result of this OCR process is placed invisibly behind the picture of each scanned page, to allow for text searching. However, any text in a given book set on a graphical background or in handwritten fonts would most likely not be picked up by the OCR software, and is therefore not searchable. Also, a few larger books may be resampled to fit into the system, and may not have this searchable text background.

For printed books, we have performed high-resolution scans of an original hardcopy of the book. We essentially digitally re-master the book. Unfortunately, the resulting quality of these books is not as high. It's the problem of making a copy of a copy. The text is fine for reading, but illustration work starts to run dark, pixellating and/or losing shades of grey. Moiré patterns may develop in photos. We mark clearly which print titles come from scanned image books so that you can make an informed purchase decision about the quality of what you will receive.
pixel_trans.gif
Original electronic format
These ebooks were created from the original electronic layout files, and therefore are fully text searchable. Also, their file size tends to be smaller than scanned image books. Most newer books are in the original electronic format. Both download and print editions of such books should be high quality.
File Last Updated:
August 01, 2017
This title was added to our catalog on December 13, 2016.