An Endzeitgeist.com review

This module clocks in at a massive 69 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, slightly more than 1 page ToC, 1 page SRD, leaving us with 66 pages of content, so let's take a look!

But before we do, I should not fail to mention that 9 pages of the module are devoted to spell, bestiary and item references - this means that you don't need to do any book-flipping when running this module. Kudos! Better yet, we actually get fluff for the respective creatures, all written and provided for your convenience. Similarly, in the tradition of 4 Dollar Dungeons, we receive an art appendix, which contains all the art, ready to be printed out. a total of 4 maps as jpgs (including player-friendly versions for the two of them that can use them!) are included, with one being a map of Asgard, based on Iceland.

The pdf also provides work-sheets for riddles, which have been reproduced as individual jpgs. as well.

So, this is not a spoiler, but it should be noted that this pdf assumes the Asgardian gods to exist; in fact, the assumption is that the tales we know from real world mythology are in progress. For guys like yours truly, who are intimately familiar with the mythology, the pdf provides a concise and easy to grasp summary of what has happened and what hasn't. If that sounds like it'd be hard to integrate into a given campaign, rest assured that it isn't - but to explain that, I'll have to go into spoiler territory, so you'll see that in the next paragraph. Before I go there, I should note that this pdf does contain a detailed glossary, which can help GMs not familiar with the myths to keep tabs on the names and places.

All right, this is as far as I can go without SPOILERS. Potential players should jump to the conclusion NOW.

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All right, still around? Great! So, "World's End" is an inn unlike any other. For one, it is run by Odin...when he can be bothered. It also has a habit of jumping from plane to plane. The PCs, caught in a blizzard, stumble upon exactly this inn. Inside, a rowdy band of vikings can be found and promptly invites the PCs to a drinking game - but unlike anyone you would consider to be common. The PCs are peppered with poetic riddles pertaining the gods - and the PC's answers to the moral conundrums each riddle poses are noted down on aforementioned work-sheets. With a pounding head and 8 riddles answered, the PCs will find themselves in most peculiar beds after awakening - it seems they have shrunk!

Well, almost. You see, World's End adapts those it has taken on a planar ride to the worlds it happens upon; however, beings from other worlds do not receive this adaptation. And Asgard is literally larger than life - about thrice the size of anything the PCs are familiar with. While the PCs will have a fight for their lives with a spider, they'll soon hear that Asgard is thankfully pretty peaceful now...Note that while knowledgeable players may assume the truth regarding the nature of the deities, the module works perfectly well without prior knowledge - though, admittedly, helping Freyr (who is having a hell of a time with Gerðr!) get his inspiration back and maneuver the giant Gullinbursti out of a field makes for an interesting start.

The PCs literally are tiny, impotent motes in a land of living gods, but that does not mean that they don't have plenty of adventuring to do! The PCs will have to work for their upkeep - the tasks they perform will yield proper compensation...but ultimately, if the PCs wish to return to the regular prime material plane, they'll not only need escorts, they'll have to find Odin and bother him enough so he actually brings them back! It seems like Odin is interested in Freyja, so Séssrumnir, her domain, would be the first stop for the PCs. Here's a problem, though: Her chariot is drawn by cats. Which are, in relation to the PCs, Gargantuan. Cats are fickle and not too kind...so, in order to pass them by, the PCs will have to catch mice for them. Which are, actually, thrice their usual size. Various strategies are included for this endeavor, allowing you to reward creative players.

Well, turns out Freyja may not be too amused - not long ago, she has lost a golden ring she received from bedding a traveling minstrel called Faðr Galdr...and a strange vision of a golden fish the PCs had en route, may very well be the culprit of the loss. She promises to help if the PCs can retrieve that ring (as she suspects Odin's handiwork and will not demean herself to hunt that damn fish). This would btw. be as good a place as any to note that this pdf's writing can be HILARIOUS and as dead-pan as some of the sögur; When I read "Freyja is not a happy bunny right now." I laughed out loud. If you enjoy absolutely amazing, subdued humor, then this pdf will have you smiling time and again - often also in the explanatory and entertaining footnotes. Thankfully for the PCs, the fish will have croaked and beached by now, but unfortunately, the PCs will still have to traverse a truly spooky landscape and contend with draugr-rejects! (Hej, here even the rejects are deadly!)

The trail leads from here to...Yggdrasil! Yep. However, the PCs thankfully will sooner or later find a way to hitch a ride on giant eagles (for a proper delousing) and here, the PCs can meet the norns, all of which present, often metaphysical and interesting ways of proceeding on Yggdrasil: Walls of knowledge, teaching to make individual, fair decisions as a group, etc. - the section here is at the same time abstract and concrete, befitting of the norns. Oh, and the PCs can eliminate some of Níðhöggr's worms as well...but sooner or later, the trail leads to the annoying and abusive squirrel ratatoskr, who has a riddle for them to answer - and promises actual help. You see, he has an idea regarding Odin and so happens to have a favor owed from a giant deer, who could transport the PCs to the next stop - Bilskírnir, legendary abode of none other than Thor...who is currently not here. Obviously.

However, Sif is and the radiant beauty allows the PCs to wait here, but asks for a favor, namely the retrieval of a particular lichen she needs for her hair. (At this point, Loki has stolen her golden hair - she is wearing a clever metallic wig that is "beautiful to look at, but a bit of a pain to wash and she breaks a comb about once a week." - told you this pdf was hilarious!!) Oh, know what's even funnier? The cave is actually a lost boot of the giant Skrýmir - a colossal being over 150 feet in size! Once the PCs have defeated the slurk that has taken up residence, they'll almost be squashed by the giant...who thankfully has sensitive toes. Unfortunately for the PCs, the giant is currently en route to the wedding of Þrymr with...Freyja? Fans of Norse mythology will know that this actually would be Thor in disguise...and they'll be able to witness the comedic proceedings of the Þrymskvíða firsthand - and rest assured, if you are not familiar with it and can't be bothered to look it up, that the pdf does provide enough guidance in that regard to run the proceedings! Before things escalate hilariously with a Thor in drag on a killing spree of giants, the PCs will have to fight a giantess' housecat, ole' Fáfnir, for the amusement of the assembled guests though.

Saved by Loki from carnage that far outclasses their capabilities to deal with (i.e. Thor getting his hands back on his hammer), the PCs are spirited away be the amiable trickster god to the lava fields of Eldhraun (yep, I've actually been there - several locations from myths and this adventure do exist in Iceland!!)...and then, he'll take them to meet Baldr. Who is invulnerable, very much alive...and Loki hates his guts. You see, from his point of view, Baldr is a spoiled pretty boy who has achieved...nothing. He's just beloved for his looks and annoys Loki to no end. Thus, the PCs will have to brave a cavern, eliminate a crysmal and try their luck with these stones...obviously failing. Whether or not Baldr turns out to be an utter prick or truly a deity of love and light remains up to the GM, so if you're looking for a classic twist that still makes sense in the context of mythology, well, there you go.

The second task of the trickster god pertains a builder who is currently trying to build a wall around Asgard. More precisely, his powerful steed Svaðilfari - which may have the task actually succeed in time. (Bad news for the gods, who have promised Freyja's hand...) Thus, Loki transforms the PCs into...horses! They'll have to establish communication with the legendary steed and help him deal with annoying elemental creatures - as a means of thinking them, he'll let them in on a secret regarding his master...and the PCs may actually determine, from his behavior, a weakness that Loki would come to exploit sooner rather than later...but that is written in the myths!

Njörðr and Skaði also can be found here, with tragedy and high octane skill-based challenges included in the mix; and the sky may indeed shed a tear for her... Even Andvari does feature in the adventure: The legendary dwarf is in the underworld, though, so the PCs will have to survive a harrowing mini cart-ride...and they'll have to solve a nice logic puzzle posed by intelligent rats...

Once the PCs have thus taken a massive trip through northern mythology, they'll be contacted by Loki again - and they'll have to pass Bifröst...which is not an easy task and a rather interesting combat set-up, as the beheaded skulls of invaders rise from the bridge to attack...but ultimately, the goal here is to unleash the valkyries in the House of the Horn...who will promptly come to save the PCs, bring them to Valhalla...and then basically ignore them.

The PCs will not find Odin. Instead, sooner or later, Frigg will appear and lead them back, leaving them with a speech a s wise and memorable as you'd imagine. As for the divine items - they are surprisingly down to earth, but ultimately, can easily be made into artifacts, mythic items or the like, should that suit your campaign requirements better - so no, the module will not end with over-qualified PCs.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are very good - although there are a few formal deviations and typos here and there (one references "IReland" instead of "Iceland"), the pdf generally is professionally presented. Layout adheres to 4 Dollar Dungeons' printer-friendly two-column full-color standard with a nice blend of original and stock artwork in both color and b/w. The pdf comes in two versions - one optimized for the European A4-paper standard and one for the US-letterpack paper size. Very cool! The jpgs are a nice bonus as far as I'm concerned. the pdfs come fully bookmarked for your convenience.

I have never read a module like World's End. This module is utterly epic and the most high-concept low-level module I have ever read. At the same time, it is grounded in an almost hilarious sense of mythological realism. Let me explain that contradictio in adjecto: I love the Norse myths. A main reason for that love lies in the deities being...well. ...humane in their faults and behaviors. Unlike comparable pantheons of deities, they may behave like pricks, but usually not towards the mortals. This grounds the whole mythology as far as I'm concerned, makes it seem more plausible and relatable. It is into this context that the PCs stumble and the module deliberately asks them, in the 8 riddles in the beginning, to judge the faults of the deities and their behavior, to present their moral perspective.

And indeed, when the PCs then meet the deities, they may be taken aback, they may argue - but the PCs are not penalized for their opinions. This module is epic, but the conflicts the PCs face will be ones that are based on scale - they are thrust literally in a world where humble vermin can pose a threat and thus, if your PCs object to feeling small...then this module does its job. You see, the module plays with physical and metaphysical size and power; the humble 1st level PCs may not have actual, physical size and power, but they still help the gods; they are, in a metaphysical sense, participating in, nay, writing mythology. If you're familiar with Norse myths, this alone will make you grin from ear to ear...and if not, then chances are you'll be intrigued after completing this module.

Rereading my review, the module does sound a bit like a tour-de-force of mythology, but the matter of fact is that you can decelerate the proceedings however you want; similarly, you can speed everything up. The transitions alone could each carry a whole session worth of gaming, if you're inclined to work with them. The PCs are stranded in a strange land and much like many a mouse-protagonist of popular children's movies, they will be swept along to a degree; they will bear witness and interact, make a difference. Weave the myth presented herein.

At the same time, World's End is NOT, and let me emphasize that, "Norse myths - the module"; quite the contrary. It does not focus on the often quoted legendary beasts, on wartime, epic battles or the like - and shines a spotlight on the very human, almost always neglected aspects of the mythology. And it does so in a hilarious manner. I haven't laughed so hard while reading a module in ages. The themes and topics highlighted here, while founded in mythology, by means of their contextualization take on the shape of a comedy of manners with a delightfully dry and deadpan humor. This is, in short, the funniest module I have read in a while, with some of the jokes reserved for the GM, yes...but several situations in which the PCs will find themselves are very comical as well. It should also be mentioned that the respective vignettes can, for the most part, be recombined as the GM sees fit - they can easily be expanded upon...or even be cut.

Now there is one potential fact that can be problematic - and that would be to make the PCs accept that they're outclassed big time. Granted, at level 1 not too hard, but there are some personalities that can't cope with that....but then again, these folks may benefit the most from playing this module. You see, the leitmotif of "comedy of manners" also includes a certain humbling; everyone in this module is treated as a fallible being. The deities and PCs alike are subjected to circumstances that undermine self-importance and bloated egos - not in a mean-spirited way, mind you, but in one that invites players and GMs alike to take a step back and smile for once.

This is at the same time one of Richard Develyn's easiest and hardest modules to recommend. This module exists in the sharp contrast between the epic and the mundane and it makes this field of tension work perfectly; similarly, the lines of the comedic in the module receive a tinge of tragedy when read in the context of the whole mythology. I would not recommend this module to groups that have no sense of humor. But then again, perhaps those groups might be cured of that. I don't know. World's End is easy to recommend for its stints in the epic and fantastic, for its refreshing take on a mythology usually coded as violent and grim; at the same time, it can be recommended for how it manages to convey the "You are 1st level characters. The world is big and scary."-trope...without resorting to making the PCs literally meaningless in the context. They are, after all, mortals in a larger than life world of gods!

You can emphasize this, by expanding the day to day life between quests; you can de-emphasize it and make everything feel more like a dreamy, hazy journey that may or may not be taking place as written. World's End is very elusive in its tone and it is nigh impossible to adequately describe how it works.

The best I could come up with would be: A divine comedy of manners, wherein the PCs get to write and participate in myths, with "An American Tail"-like scenes and the ultimate goal of contextualizing judgments of people and putting deities in perspective." (Yes, Dante-reference intended - after all, the PCs, for most of the journey, do have guides!)

Fans and scholars of Norse mythology should consider this to be an absolute must-have offering., but that goes without saying.

This does require an experienced GM who can make the mythology shine, yes. And yes, I can see some players not coping too well with the requirements of this module. But at the same time, I am overanalyzing this big time. For most groups that play this, this will probably end up being a downright hilarious experience that will provide more scenes for the gaming annals than pretty much any other module I know. "Remember that time, when we witnessed Thor's "wedding"? snicker"

In short, this module is no joke; it is NOT easy. But it is delightfully funny and one of the very few modules that manages to be funny without being ridiculous. It makes sense...and is epic at the same time. And, as always, it's ridiculously inexpensive. I mean it. For 4 bucks, you get a TON of truly creative adventure and scenes that you and your group will never, ever forget. Enough to get much, much more out of it than the price and scope would suggest.

Well-researched, with a palpable love for the source material and a strong, distinct authorial voice, this module delivers in all the right ways and presents a type of experience I have never had before. That alone should justify getting this gem. My final verdict will clock in at 5 stars + seal of approval and, no surprise there, as a total fanboy of humorous RPG-supplements and modules as well as Norse mythology, this also receives a nomination for my Top Ten of 2016.

Endzeitgeist out.

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This adventure clocks in at 106 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 2.5 pages of ToC, 1 page SRD, leaving us with 100.5 pages of content, so let's take a look!

Wait, before we do - in case you are not familiar with 4 Dollar Dungeons: The philosophy of these modules is that you get all the relevant rules-information inside: A Total of 31 pages thus provide animal tricks, spell reference, feat reference, bestiary reference and item references for your perusal. All artwork herein is collected in a total of 7 pages that you can print out, cut up and use as handouts. It should also be noted that no less than 18 high-res jpegs for use with online gaming (or as handouts) are provided; and yes, these include player-friendly iterations.

The pdf also has a great summary of encounters, with associated creatures involved and loot to be gained, including items, total GP values tallied for you and scaling advice. Set in the county of Surrey, weather and travelling distances by foot, horse or coach are similarly collected in one handy table. We also don't just get one paltry random monster encounter table: Based on the specific region, each and every one of the 8 tables provides sensible creatures for the respective environments. Oh, have I mentioned the 9 (!!!) fully statted settlements, all with statblocks and descriptions? The modules released by 4 Dollar Dungeons do their utmost to make running them as easy and comfortable as possible for the GM.

Okay, this is indeed as far as I can get without going into SPOILER-territory. Potential players who want to play this module (Hint: You do!) should jump to the conclusion right now.

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All right, only GMs left around here? Outside of the circle of Ravenstone in the kingdom of the Bretagne, there lies a circle of stone; a place of legend, where power is supposed to gather, but no one knows for what purpose - not even the wizard Humphrey and his devilish companion Beauregard, who are living nearby. As such places are wont to, it has become a kind of meeting spot to get away, drink and have a good time for the local populace. The circle's supposed power is lending an air of mystique and danger to the environment that most of us will relate to; abandoned factories, rail-yards, playground, special spots in the forest - we all had a spot like that in our childhood.

Anyways, one dingy night in autumn, a group of 7 13-year-olds actually manages to activate the circle - but no creature from the stars manifests; no demon invasion begins - instead, a motley crew of adventurers, picked from their own iteration of reality, is picked and unceremoniously dumped inside the circle: Yes, that would be the PCs, who have just been summoned forth and now look into the awed faces of the following:

Deako, a pale-feathered, nervous tengu; Adriana, a platinum blonde girl in a fine dress and her similarly immaculately dressed cousin Augustus; Paulina, a light-haired and somewhat plain but pretty gnomish girl; Bairn, an honest and polite young man with good looks; Tilvern, timid and dark-haired and somewhat small for his age and Holly, a bright light-haired girl with a wide smile...perhaps a tad bit too wide. The children, though, are confused - Augustus conducted the summons and knows that the book he took it from was...well. Rubbish. The kids, spooked and with obligations in the morn, will undoubtedly leave an array of confused PCs with a distinctly unhelpful book, as school's in the morning. Humphrey and Beauregard, both surprisingly amicable for their vast power (and...well, Beauregard being a devil), have a thesis that the circle granted a wish unconsciously thought by all of the children - and thus, the only way home for the PCs would be to fulfill the wishes of the kids. Each of the respective sub-chapters of the module, just fyi, lists the dramatis personae in a handy list in the beginning, allowing for easy juggling of the casts of characters, should the PCs oscillate between adventures/get stuck.

Thus, the trail should bring them to the nearby town Fordguild - all children attend the same school, while Adriana attends a "Special" school; with scaling successes, the PCs can do some leg-work - and it is here that the module becomes pretty free-form, for the sequence in which the respective tasks are tackled is all up to them - for all intents and purposes, the module acts as the adventure-equivalent of a short story anthology. As such tales are wont, there are leitmotifs here, though: Number one can be easily extrapolated from the title - each of the tales deals with one of the 7 deadly sins. Unlike what you may think, the kids are not the correlation with the respective sins; rather, it's the parents.

It takes a special type of person (i.e. slightly insane, a bit narcissistic and inured to violence) to take up the mantle of the adventurer and as such, it should be not too surprising that beings who wield the power cosmic, cut humanoids to ribbons and make powerful enemies can make for rather problematic parents. Each of the kids has her/his own issues with parents, issues the PCs can help resolve. This whole component can be downplayed by the GM and taken to instead focus on a number of smaller quests, but the roleplaying herein can be rather cathartic, if you do opt to properly depict all of this. My own childhood wasn't perfect, to say the least and I know that a lot of the anger, resentment and frustration I had was resolved by roleplaying; it can provide an angle towards a form of peace, an acceptance of unchangeable facts by resolving the challenges at least within the framework of our favorite make-belief game. Even as an adult, witnessing the like can hit close to home, yes; but it also represents a chance. At least I know the like worked well for me and a couple of my friends.

So, let us begin: 8 weeks ago, the brother of Deako the tengu kid, was tragically killed by a hippopotamus. The unfortunate Seako had been previously injured on a hunting trip with his samurai dad and was subsequently struck down by a single bite. This death has put a serious strain on his parent's relationship and they ever since refuse to communicate or speak to each other, as the edicts of the two lawful good samurai emphasize personal glory for the father, protecting communities for the mother. Deako has formulated a plan to reunite his parents - he wishes to present the head of the troll that almost finished his brother and indirectly did, to his father; to his mother, he plans to bestow the teeth of the hippocampus that slew his brother. Unfortunately, he can't do it alone and needs the PCs to do just that - and thus, the two beings need to be killed...but what happens thereafter is in the hands of the GM.

Adriana's issue is rather different - she is supposed to be subjected to a arranged marriage she doesn't want. Adriana comes from a well-off stock of humans haunted by tragedy - she has lost her father (and more!) to something truly sinister: A blood hag has been using her family as her breeding project for generations and Adriana is pretty close to what she wants...but not perfect. It is hence she has arranged this horrific marriage, keeps Adriana sheltered and locked up...and in fact, has replaced Adriana's mother a long time ago, raising her perfect little angel for the most horrific of purposes. So while the tengu's tale was pretty straightforward, this is one complex little investigation...and a word of warning: the blood hag is BRUTAL. If your players suck at piercing the clues (which, in some cases, drip with a subdued, delightful humor) together, be very careful here...or not. The module does mention the power of the adversary here, so yeah. While the death of the blood hag deprives Ariana of her mother, her further fate isn't actually that grim and the elimination of this horrid thing does cancel the marriage...and fulfill her wish.

Augustus is rich enough to buy anything he wants...but unfortunately for him, money can never buy happiness. Raul and Dahlia, his parents, are unfortunately addicts - the decadent nobles visit a place called "The Hungry Caterpillar" on a daily basis and are disinterested and spaced out; in a secret basement, a rather nasty druid commands a variant basidrond with hallucinogenic spores and makes a pretty dime of those looking for far-out-experiences; in order to fulfill Augustus' wish, the PCs will have to infiltrate the high-class establishment and eliminate the drug-producing creature.

Paulina's dad was a famous "archaeologist" - complete with fedora and whip. Always not the best of fathers, one day, he simply did not return from his quest after the fables Shagreen, which he successfully tracked to the pyramid of Balzac. Paulina's wish is to recover the Shagreen and thus fulfill her dad's final quest and place the artifact in a shrine dedicated to him. The theme here being greed, much like the previous adventures, there are subtle tests associated with the respective sin written into the module itself: Greedy PCs may suffer consequences here...something to bear in mind and perhaps a wake-up call to "not become like Paulina's dad." On a formal level, the tales features a cool and pretty easy puzzle with glyph-plates and a hint...and here, just fyi, greed can kill the PCs hardcore. Being destroyed by a stone golem is the least of their issues, for if the PCs were greedy when securing supplies and interacting with the locals on the journey, they may find themselves sans camels or supplies...but a sphinx can show up, providing yet another well-crafted and simple little puzzle of logic to pose for the group and test their spirit.

In the sleepy village called hook, charming Bairn's father Nik is well-known: The charming, silver-tongued bard just can't keep it in his pants. The beginning of this section focuses on finding out what has happened to Bairn's dad - and the PCs will have to follow the trail of broken hearts Nik has left...with, at least partially rather funny results - from a dryad to a centaur, an ogress (!!), a cecaelia (!!!) and finally a HARPY. Well, what's left - for Nik has been taken prisoner by a medusa, who has petrified the harpy. The medusa's living on an island with constantly shifting mists (concealment and total concealment by roll included - very cool...I'll use that table a LOT beyond this module!) and she is not particularly on good terms with Nick - when he tried to abandon her for a kitsune, she proceeded to petrify and...use him, I guess. While this whole section is, theme-wise, pretty adult, it is kept mostly PG 13 and can easily be stripped of the slightly raunchy bits...or they can be emphasized for adult groups that don't have an issue with a bit more graphic themes. Also: The characteristic foot notes in 4$D's are a highlight here and actually made me laugh once.

Tilvern, timid and a bit of a runt...is actually the son of a paladin, noble Sir Reginald. And he has a serious issue: There is an uneasy truce between the giants of the Plantagenet mountains and the humanoids of Surrey; Sir Reginald's former commander perished due to his own stupidity in an unnecessary, boredom-bred skirmish right in front of Sir Reginald...who has sneaked off to ask the giant king for a fair duel against the giant that killed his commander sans breaking the truce. Tilvern, understandably, doesn't want the duel to commence and his dad to die due to his stupid pride. Unfortunately, Sir Reginald has rolled the maximum pertaining his stubbornness and even the best laid of arguments won't dissuade him; in order to fulfill Tilvern's wish, the duel must be thwarted for once and for all and either giant or paladin must die. In both cases, hostilities may erupt once again in the future and the question is, whether anyone has learned anything here...apart from the players, PCs and Tilvern, that is.

The final tale is perhaps the most creative of the bunch: Holly Willoughsby is a kind and nice girl, vivacious and friendly, in spite of coming from a wealthy family. In a seething satire, her dad, Elder, can't seem to be bothered to do anything, but thanks to his sorcerous talents, he could...well, just animate his dead family members and have them do all the chores. Holly is somewhat horrified by this, but it's the reality of her life and her father, thankfully, doesn't seem to mind adventurers poking around as long as they don't cause too big of a mess. Holly is frightened. Recently, spiders have begun swarming in her room and she wants to move back there - exploring the fully mapped and detailed manor, the PCs will be able to deduce that there is more wrong than just the problem with the spiders - and indeed, both an invisible friend (attic whisperer) and a friggin' deathweb must be defeated to provide some sort of help here. Still, so surreal and suffused with dark humor, this did remind me more than just a bit of good ole' Shirley Jackson's blend of the macabre and dark humor.

Having finished the wishes of the children, the PCs may now finally return home - and the default here is a slightly comedic feel-good ending I appreciate, considering the subject matter. But I'll get back to that below in the...

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are top-notch, I noticed no serious glitches or typos. Layout adheres to 4 Dollar Dungeon's two-column standard with a mix of original b/w and full-color artwork. The cartography and numerous handouts contained are absolutely awesome and the high-res maps and player-friendly versions leave nothing to be desired. The pdf comes in two versions, one optimized for the US letterpack paper standard and one for the European A4-standard - kudos!!

Richard Develyn is a living, breathing one-man-refutation of the notion that mainstream RPGs like Pathfinder cannot be creative, cannot be art. If anything, this module truly cements his status as an artist and auteur; as someone who brings a whole new level to the game and steps up what to expect. With the exception of his first module, which is "only" good, every subsequent module he releases has made the Top Ten of the respective year. EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. Every single module does something truly unique; something creative and smart; he switches styles like a chameleon, writing horror with the same ease as sword and sorcery-esque fantasy, southern gothic or a thoroughly fresh take on the tired, but beloved Ravenloft-aesthetic. Beyond switching genres with ease, a subtle and profound distinctly English humor suffuses his works, making them an actual joy to read. Oh, and there would be the fact that his craft, nay, art, cannot be mistaken for that of another author - there is a distinct voice; a levity tinted slightly by the macabre that is utterly unique. Oh, and the modules leave nothing to be desired regarding running them. I have never, very wished for better organization in them, never had an issue running them from paper after the obligatory first reading.

And he does that not for the bucks. 4 friggin' dollars is a huge steal for such a module. I can rattle of more than 100 modules that cost at least 5 times as much and feel like the phoned-in paint-by-numbers designs of amateur hacks in comparison.

Why am I talking so much about the totality of his work so far? Because even in this extremely impressive canon of works, Seven Sinful tales stands out. What would be an array of bland sidequests in the hands of a lesser author has more heart and soul in the introduction or one of its mini-adventures than most 100-plus-page epics ever achieve. This module has comedy, tragedy, investigation, wilderness survival, smart puzzles, a ton of social challenges and roleplaiyng opportunities, gorgeous adversaries, interesting terrain. It has, in short, everything.

That alone would make it already a must buy module. It's more than that.

I mentioned this before, but this module's subject matter pertaining no-good parents and their very mortal shortcomings can hit close to home for some of us; but the depictions are not mean-spirited. This is not grimdark and neither is it a feel-good fairy-tale, though it can be tweaked in either way. This is an allegory. There is a saying that the parents are gods to the kids and that sooner or later, their mortal shortcomings will result in disappointment, disillusion, rage...and so on. I can relate. I've been there. The problems the kids face herein are significant and every person who wished for superheroes to take them away, to resolve the issues they face will relate to this module's stories at one point or another. The ultimate moral here, is that external persons can help resolve issues and that asking for help in dire circumstances may be required...but also that even a successful intervention does not necessarily fix everything. If your players are good roleplayers, this module can actually provide a catharsis for those of us who suffered from less than perfect parents; it can help mitigate the issues kids can have with their parents and their shortcomings, for even in the most comedic of the stories, the respective parent is not beyond redemption, the future not necessarily bleak, even in the case of the kid left orphaned. There is always light. The world always goes on.

I played this module twice and the envy and lust stories may need to be toned down a bit for kids; otherwise, depending on sensitivity, from ages 8 or 10 upwards, this works rather well when used with younger players. (Though they should have some experience with the system - this is not a cakewalk of a module!) Kids in puberty may actually eat this one up. That being said, if you want to emphasize this component, I'd suggest a slightly more somber end: Return the PCs sans a parade of happily ever after families. Then ask the players what they think happened thereafter. What the parents and kids have learned, what the consequences of the PC's actions are and how things will turn out. Engage in dialogue. When handled properly, this module can actually defuse issues.

Well, or you can just run this as one awesome blend of all the virtues of old-school and new-school gaming: Internally consistent, with a great and creative story, memorable NPCs, a diverse variety of challenges and all of that sans railroading. To make that abundantly clear: I consider this to be the 4$D-module that had me slightly choke a bit while reading, yes; frankly, it resonated. At the same time, it is, and that should NOT be understated, FUN, as it should be. This is not l'art pour l'art - this may be the first time I've seen a module fully cognizant in its design as a means to teach about our very human shortcomings as both parents and kids within the medium of gaming; all sans a raised finger and jamming morality down our throats; it shows and doesn't tell; it teaches by experience, not by reading a text.

I'm rambling, I know, but I need to drive this home: This module, when taken only on its merits as a module, as nothing more, nothing less, is excellent. But it transcends what I have seen any author do with the medium. It can leave people better persons for having played it. It can actually deliver the eureka effect usually reserved to novels, philosophy and the most inspiring of movies. This is not rated by my scale, it pushes it. I am not engaging in hyperbole when I'm saying that I was pretty skeptical about the premise. It worked out. Perfectly. This module has just raised my expectations, what I thought possible within the means of our medium. This may well be the first module I have read that truly deserves being called valuable from a humanist point of view and in the hands of the right GM, this can resonate more than all the earth-shattering apocalypses and demon-hordes you can possibly dream of.

My one regret here is that I have to operate within the very tight space of the usual rating system, so bear with me for a second: Picture seeing the star-shaped rating section of the online RPG-vendor of your choice. Now picture me teleporting in, slamming a post-it with one extra star right next to the 5 on the screen and vanishing. Every time you look at this module, mysteriously, the damn post-it phases in and tells you that this module is a one-of-a-kind experience that can make you laugh, make you cry, make you love more and become a better person...or just have a really great time. For 4 bucks. THAT is my rating. Post-it-teleport-in-level of ridiculously good and valuable; not only as a module, but for gaming in general. Since the teleport-thing, alas, only works in one's mind and the artifacts of our civilization demand such, my final verdict will be 5 stars + seal of approval...oh, and this is a very hot contender for my number 1 spot of my Top ten of 2016.

Okay, you've read me gush and rave about this for more than 3500 words...so please...go ahead and buy this. We need authors that take chances, that are not content with games as only mindless entertainment, when they could be entertainment that also improves us in the very strictest sense of the philosophical concept of Bildung.

Endzeitgeist out.

This tough adventure is intended for characters of level 1. About half the pages are the actual module, the remaining pages are reprint of the creatures with Knowledge DC check (very cool) and coverage of some of the rules that will come into play when running the adventure. As if this was not enough to help the GM, the beginning of the adventure sports a table illustrating how much experience characters will get in each room and what type of treasures they get. As you finish reading a room or a part of the adventure, a very convenient recap table of DCs for skills and why you make them is provided. Add to this the abundant notes on how to run and modify the adventure and you have a near perfect module for beginner GM or a GM with little time to prepare. It is very nice to see attention to such details.

The village and nearby dungeon are well described. The dungeon itself is a dwarven ruin with a very interesting architecture. It feels a lot like a sandbox because the exploration is not linear. There is also a description of how each inhabitant interacts with the others. It makes the place comes alive and it makes a very enjoyable adventure. While reading this adventure, you will notice a bit of humor interspersed in the text like how the Ogrekin reacts if the characters act like a parent figure or the fact that the goblins call the Krenshar “Phalos”. Even with the apparently disparate nature of all the dungeon inhabitants, a reason is provided for them to be there and they all have a reason to stick around.

I have only have two points of complaints about this adventure. The first one is that the challenges are tough. Not too tough, but careless players or players thinking that first level adventure mean they will not get anything too tough will get killed. The second point is that the adventure abruptly ends after the description of the last room. Although the adventure starts as a request to help villagers get rid of goblin raiders, the end of the adventure does not mention how the villagers react. If they become more friendly, or what happens with these ruins once they are cleared out (considering that there are tunnels leading deeper in the Underdark, should the ruins be closed off). This does not take anything off the adventure, it just feels like something missing in the end, the adventure feels incomplete...

Disclosure: I received a review copy.

This amazingly priced module is about 129 pages, but a big chunk of that is meant for reference. More on that later.

I like this product, and I like it a lot. It's exactly what an adventure module should be, and does a good job of staying close to the Paizo model of telling the game master everything that he needs to know from the start. As a side note, I very much like their use of footnotes.

The premise and exposition were thorough, and gave good and heroic reasons to adventure (apart from being stranded on an island, that is). There are some interesting encounters, but I had hoped that they would not all uniformly be CR 4, though the sandbox approach necessitated that somewhat. The variety of creatures encountered, and the potential for a number of those encounters to be role played was awesome, though. The encounters themselves were all well thought out and implemented.

The inclusion of a number of psionic powers and rules was an interesting one, and though I did not have as much time to review all of that information, it seemed intriguing.

The appendices are great as well, giving a lot of information that is relevant for both the encounters and for the included NPC group. That there are knowledge check results and blurbs makes things much easier in case people have questions about the plethora of creatures they may encounter.

The rules listing in the appendix was a nice touch, and a bit surprising. Really, the experience is geared towards minimal page flipping or prd searching. I think that is fantastic, just not for printing purposes, though printing only the adventure portions is easily accomplished.

The art was sparse, but not significantly so. What art there was did a good job of being poignant and well purposed. The art was also good in terms of quality. The cover was especially neat, adn evoked a kind of pulp/Robert E Howard vibe.

Ultimately, this is a 5 star product, through and through. It toys with the formulaic, but does not wade too deep in the waters of convention. Rather, it uses iconic D&D mainstays to tell a new story and incorporate enough disparate but fun elements to make the module memorable. I may even run this module with only slight modifications, but I am excited to do so.

I give it 5 stars, and the royal seal.

An Endzeitgeist.com review

The latest 4 Dollar Dungeon-module clocks in at 88 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page ToC, 1 page SRD, leaving us with a massive 84 pages, so let's take a look!

But before we dive into the nit and grit of this module, I feel obliged to point out some peculiar facts of this book: For one, I provided basic advice for a minor crunch-component that is part of the supplemental information in this pdf. I was not involved in any other way with this book. Beyond that, this book follows the format established by 4 Dollar Dungeons - that means you'll get A LOT of supplemental material herein - spells, items etc. Basically, the idea is to provide a holistic experience and minimize your requirement for book-swapping. Additionally, the pdf does provide all artworks in an appendix, so you can easily print out the pieces and utilize them as hand-outs.

Beyond that, the module offers excessive and sound discussions on the nature of fear in roleplaying games, particularly in the fantasy-horror genre - the observations and justifications for the design-process presented here are more than sound - and the same can be said about the detailed advice provided for the more lethal encounters herein. Few modules provide this level of guidance, so yes, GMs will have a pretty easy time running this - also due to handy tables listing CRs, XP, treasures and encounter-difficulty as well as scaling advice. Of course, the by now traditional, detailed random encounters and traveling information are also provided and, as a bonus, monster-lore for teh GM to hand-out to players, can also be found.

All right, so let's see whether Richard Develyn can maintain his streak of absolutely legendary modules. From here on out, SPOILERS reign. Potential players should jump to the conclusion. No, really. Don't spoil a 4 Dollar Dungeon-module - you'd regret it.

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All right...only GMs here? Great!

So can Richard Develyn write classic horror? I'll let the module answer:

"Somewhere deep below the ground lies a vampiric creature of fearsome proportions [...] it stretches its veins, each of them big enough to swallow a tarrasque, through densely packed iron and rock [...] and when these tendrils break through to the earth's crust, a new dynasty of vampires soon comes into being." - and so, an ancient, quasi-cthulhoid menace spawned a vampire dynasty in Maison D'Artère. While subtle, the vampires, supplemented by this vein of terrible power, became a bit too confident - and so, they drew the attention of the order of the lily. Unlike the previous, foolhardy heroes that sought to end the undead menace, the cavaliers did their homework - and targeted a nodule of the vast cthonic creature, plunging the magical lance "Fleur de Lis" into the nodule, pumping poison into the vast creature to destroy it - but such gigantic threats are not easily defeated. Cutting the nodule off from crucial components of the vampiric Great Old One/deity-analogue, the isolated nodule soon turned against the vampires it had spawned - after the blood was drained from the vampires and after the cavaliers had fallen, nothing remained to sate the unholy appetite of the vast creature below castle Rougemord and so, the ancient veins petrified.

The Fleur de Lis, an intelligent weapon with an inflated ego (and a significant paranoia) remained lost, embedded in the ancient, chthonic threat. Now, the order of the lily has tasked the PCs to retrieve the lost item - the first clue of which will force the PCs to explore the tomb of Lemaistre, the fleur's former wielder.

But first, the PCs will get a taste of the walled town of Englouti (full settlement statblock provided), where the module starts, which also will provide a new experience for people familiar with 4 Dollar Dungeons: Know how the cartography was pretty much the one thing not absolutely superb in the 4$D-modules? How it usually was copious, provided for all areas, but just functional? What would you say when I told you that this one sports absolutely stunning, original cartography, both in b/w and full color? Particularly the renditions of the towns and overland maps are absolutely awesome and not something I've seen in many pdfs, much less ones at this price range, with player-friendly high-res versions provided? Yes, particularly for the low price-point, this is more than impressive.

An interesting note regarding the structure of this module would also pertain to the PCs traveling to the village of Sans-secours, from which the fabled tomb can be reached: You see, it's spring (NOT autumn or winter!) and thus, it is perfectly valid for the PCs to spend some time in the local village while they prepare their expedition to the remote tomb - and 3 weeks of slowly escalating weirdness and foreshadowing are provided for the life there, adding a pretty detailed depiction of the local life and allowing the PCs to form connections, rather than plunging head-first into horror. Oh, and they will probably fall to a bait-and-switch there - you see, the tomb does not hold the lance...or any undead for that matter. All the nice holy water and spells they brought...are pretty useless. Heck, the place isn't even really dangerous apart from one particular creature, but that lairs beyond the tomb.

It's when the trail leads to Rougemord, that things get creepy - fast. The castle's vicinity seems to spawn rather disturbing visions and nightmares and the approach of the castle is guarded by a creature that fits with the horror-theme in a slightly less obvious manner; that being said, this adversary can TPK foolish groups and provide a nasty hit-and-run adversary. The castle sports massive amounts of ravens, deadly animals, crawling claws - and something I could hug the module for: There's not a single undead to fear herein. heck, even dueling skeletons are animated objects. The exploration of the castle allows the PCs to partake in the horrors that once graced these halls and much of the place's incantations remain...as do some outsiders. From psychopomps to devils, there is a lot to uncover and indeed, some places can be considered micro-puzzles.

Describing the immense amount of detail that the castle is studded with would probably bloat this review to an extent I do not consider feasible in this case - instead, let's skip a bit ahead: Sooner or later, should the PCs not fall to the castle's dangers, they will find those odd caverns...and finally, the lance. Who is a) annoying and not too smart and b) urging them to pull it free. What nether the lance, nor the PCs know, though, is that with the removal of the lance, a strange heartbeat is heard - and no amount of coaxing can properly jam the lance back inside. From here on out, things become rather dark very fast - all lupine creatures within miles of the castle howl to a blood-red moon, as more and more hungry vampire-spawn are released from the slowly revitalizing walls...and it soon becomes apparent that the PCs are in over their heads...massively.

Fleeing the castle precipice under the auspice of hundreds of snarling, lupine creatures, they can witness a friend fall to the maw of a winter wolf - who also constitutes the boss...but not the end. With the sledge conveniently brought by their erstwhile, now dead ally, the PCs have a sledding chance to escape the doom that has re-awakened in Rougemord in a final adrenaline-laden chase sequence. If you've handled this well, the darkness has returned to Rougemord and a new reign of terror will begin...and your players will look at each other in true horror and whisper "What have we done?"

Now if the apocalyptic awakening of a vast clan of vampires and a chthonic elder vampire thing don't fit your plans, fret not - as the module suggests, there is a certain demiplane of dread all too willing to scour the whole region with its misty tendrils...

As mentioned before, the module has copious supplemental information, including the order of the lily, which actually features some intriguing visuals - and if your players are like mine, they may want to take up the order's vow and seek to right the terrible thing they have unwittingly wrought...

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are very good -I only noticed pretty minor issues here and there. Layout adheres to 4 Dollar Dungeons' printer-friendly two-column b/w-standard. The pdf comes fully bookmarked for your convenience AND in two versions - one for letterpack-format and one for the European A4-format for people like yours truly. The pdf comes extensively bookmarked with nested bookmarks. The cartography's quality (and particularly, the gorgeous isometric renditions of the places) are beyond what you'd expect to see in such a low-cost pdf. The pdf also comes with high-res jpgs for use with virtual tabletops and, as mentioned before, with plentiful materials for the GM.

Richard Develyn has written the most un-gothic gothic horror adventure I've ever read. That's a great thing. Good horror is NOT, contrary to what 99% of found-footage movies believe, being startled. Neither does it derive its impact from being grossed out. Sure, that can be horrific - but it's not horror. Horror may spring from the grotesque and alien, sure, but that's not what this is about, either.

Horror has a psychological component that taps into our psyche with subtle imagery and symbolism - and such symbolism can be found herein - whether it's the idiot child, the twisted mother figure and the like - we may not perceive it consciously, but our unconscious notes these.

Hence, this module is decidedly smart - it begins at a stage of innocence with set-ups, which, while foreboding, mirror a certain innocence that is inherent in the fantasy genre. It then begins to dismantle it - slowly, but surely, escalating the threat by making the backdrop, symbolically-charged and the imagery of the lance and the nodule resonate with a primal sense of horror to which one could ascribe perinatal dread hard-coded into our very being. The season of growth, early spring, and the imagery of wolves and ravens with their symbolic charges further supplements this reading - it's these creatures that are the threat in the end, less so than the intentionally pitiful dragon that is featured in the innocent phase of the module.

Surprisingly, in spite of the lack of undead (a stroke of genius design in a genre that all too often is defined by the erroneous assumption that bones, blood and undead are creepy in and of themselves), this module GETS what makes gothic horror work...and one-ups it. While this can be read as a kind of gothic horror narrative, it could conceivably just as easily be read as a tale of cosmic terror or Lovecraftian proportions - the psychological imagery evoked by the module can just as well be externalized to represent a hostile cosmos of adversaries, a glimpse at a world at best indifferent to the suffering of its inhabitants. Note that usually, such a reading would be terribly at odds with any remotely related to Gothic Horror: Cosmic terror is existential, pertaining to a reality that is removed from the individual, to a sense of complete alienation from everything. Gothic Horror, on the other hand, is a deeply humane kind of horror, one wherein the internal struggles of the psyche are made into externalized threats - it is deeply personal. The only reason both are often confused is a shared array of backdrops and styles, both of which, however, sport vastly diverging meanings and readings - they may occupy the same physical building, but they do not play in the same house.

Horror must grow - and this pdf takes its time with a decidedly slow-paced set-up, one that has its climax hit all the harder - so hard, in fact, that it can become the nexus of a whole campaign, should you choose to embark on this train of thought. It doesn't have to, mind you - but the potential is undoubtedly there. So what do we have here? We have a module that actually understands what gothic horror is about. Yes, at first glance it does read a bit like early Ravenloft modules - something almost decidedly intentional. However, unlike those "bones & blood are creepy"-modules, it shows a distinct understanding why some of the classic Ravenloft modules worked, while others devolved into sucky hack-fests.

This knowledge is not something you could easily convey, either in modules, words or artworks - it bespeaks of a deeper understanding of the genre. To the point, where not even aforementioned pseudo-lovecraftian readings of the subject-matter undermine the impact of this book, allowing for one of the very few cases where one could conceivably generate an overlap between the two without losing the impact on either. And yes, should you choose to, you can make the finale less...impactful...but you'd rob yourself and your group of a truly horrific pay-off of epic proportions.

On a personal level, I read this module with some sense of dread, mainly because I've seen A LOT regarding gothic horror - I've dabbled for many years in all of its forms and representations, not only in the context of gaming. However, Richard Develyn once again displays his vast and diverse talent by portraying yet another genre in a way I have not seen done before - the design-decisions, imagery and brave ending to the narrative conspire to make this module one that will leave your players at the very least gulping, at the best rather shocked...stunned even. Not via a cheap, narrative trick, but by virtue of all those little symbols and pieces falling into place with an almost audible "thwump." This module could have been the plot to a classic tale by Poe, had he had a background of fantasy roleplaying games - what more can you ask for?

One more thing: If my above explanations made no sense to you, feel free to contact me and I'll elaborate. And if you don't care about any part of this, just run it - you'll understand what I meant once you've completed this module...

Richard maintains his streak - this is the 7th module IN A ROW, all wildly different in focus, story, structure and genre, that gets 5 stars + seal of approval AND status as a candidate for my Top Ten of 2015. In case you're wondering - yes, so far ALL of these seven featured in the final top ten for their respective years. These modules aren't simple adventures - they are stimulating, smart art that can be appreciated on a whim or analyzed in-depth. In either case, you won't find a module even close to this level of quality anywhere near this price-point...or beyond that, for that matter. Dear adventure-authors (and particularly, anyone who throws the term "gothic horror" around willy-nilly without knowing what it means), take heed - this is how it's done in a fantasy context without losing the impact the genre requires to thrive.

Endzeitgeist out.

As I promised in the Product Discussion section ... here is my official review of Dance Macabre. I'll start off by saying that my Pathfinder group (the 5 PCs that I took through this adventure) collectively and unanimously gave this module a rating of 5 Stars. As the GM, I concurred - and also granted it a 5 Star rating. To put it succinctly, we had a whoooooole lotta cerebral fun in the 4 gaming sessions we took to complete all the objectives. So much fun in fact, that my players demanded to stay in the outré & peculiar town of Twisted Bridge at the end ... and to use the town as the base HQ for their next adventure. As a GM, I have nothing but glowing commentary for the way this adventure was written, designed, formatted and structured. For any budding PF-3PP adventure authors out there, please note the inventive template that Richard Develyn used to make Dance Macabre. The entirety of the GM info-points were extremely easy to access - it was like being in a well-designed cockpit. When stat-blocks, maps, PC handouts and clue flowcharts are so ingeniously placed in a PDF like this, it can't help but make the GMs job 10 times easier. Which allows for GMs to manage time and resources 10 times better ... and to feel more attuned to enhancing the roleplay experience of this adventures bizarre and intriguing set of NPCs.

The Balance Level of Dance Macabre was just about ideal. I usually judge a module's game mechanic balance on how much I have to tweak adversary builds and CR levels to accommodate the optimized battle prowess of my PCs. Which in my case, very little tweaking was needed. Another aspect of solid design balance was the plethora of RPG challenges. My players vocally noted that they needed a very wide-array of skills, gear and class features to feel fully engaged in the module due to the even distribution of social interactions, puzzles/mysteries and fights.

In essence, Dance Macabre is a wonderfully weird combination of Gothic Exotica and Terry Gilliam-style Magic Realism.

Of the last 14 short modules our PF group has gone through in the past years, we rated this one anywhere from #4 all the way up to #2 in our list of favorites. That's heady praise from my group - as they are quite critical of adventures of this archetype. Panataxia and Horn of Geryon (2 more adventures in the 4 Dollar Dungeon stable) were also picked up ... and a quick read of them also shows similar synergetic attunement to my GMing style. I really can't wait to run these 2 adventures!

Finally, a quick shout-out and kudos to Endzeitgeist for spotlighting this outstanding new PF publisher.

An Endzeitgeist.com review

Holy Island is a massive pdf - 129 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page ToC, 1 page SRD, leaving us with no less than 125 pages of content, so let's take a look!

First of all - you should know that, obviously, not all of the pages herein are devoted to the module - instead, 4 Dollar Dungeons have a tradition of providing all required spells used in the module. A handy appendix collects them and prevents you from needing to constantly switch books. Beyond that, knowledge DCs and flavorful fluff information is provided for every creature encountered - consider these essentially fluff-upgrades; the type of information absent from most current bestiaries. Nice! Beyond that, it should be noted that all of the original artwork featured herein is contained in a look-see-art-appendix that can be used as handouts -I LOVE these appendices and wish more publications had such art-handouts-sections at least.

However, Holy Island also differs from other supplements published by 4 Dollar Dungeons in that it also utilizes the psionics-rules by Dreamscarred Press - and since you may not be familiar with how they work and/or not have Ultimate Psionics, the module also sports 10 pages of powers and basic information on how psionics work - so no, you do not need the psionic rules to run this, though it does help.

The pdf also comes with a massive array of 16 high-res jpgs of the maps featured in this book, with versions for both GMs and players being provided here - kudos for the player-friendly material!

All right, I have stalled long enough - so here we go: From here on out reign the SPOILERS. Potential players should jump to the conclusion. And yes, you don't want to spoil this one for you.

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All right, still here? So, we are all aware of the legend of the mace of St. Cuthbert, right? The artifact has made appearances in mythology over the years and in many a game. What you may not know is that the artifact has a kind of homebase where it rests between making its appearances - this would be the island of Serafina, which coincidentally was known as Lindisfarne in aeons long passed. Evil does what evil does, though, and so, it was only a matter of time before Serafina was invaded - though the forces of good were not unprepared: With a colossus, the holy men and women were able to repel the invading hordes, but at a terrible cost - a toll so high, the order decided to sequester the island in its own demiplane, shrouding the island in obscurity and bringing an end to the fabled mace's appearances across the planes.

Why does the artifact not simply plane shift to another plane? Simple - it's a responsible artifact. This rationale not only made sense to me, it also got a chuckle out of me and is a great example of the unobtrusive humor that suffuses the prose herein.

Ever since then, the colossus has kept the few straggling vessels that cross the planar boundaries from leaving, destroying ship upon ship and thus generating a population of shipwrecked inhabitants - until a group of psionic individuals happened upon the island and saw its leader trapped by the colossus. But more on those folks later. In the long time since, deities have placed minions on the island - for a reason: The wielder of the mace may well be one destined for greatness and a bit of advertisement for one's faith doesn't hurt, right? Anyways, all of this would probably not be a big issue, had the order not died out -well, apart from one being: As in many a group of a certain size, there was indeed an odd man out, a former librarian now turned lich. Yes, lich. Third level module. I can hear you gulp. :)

Now, this module does provide what these days many a module lacks - extensive, concise help for the GM to run this adventure. From trouble-shooting to drawing some attention to the particulars of certain tactics and intentional rule-decisions - with SR and swarms being featured among the challenges, for example, there is a mechanical propensity here for a certain type of play-style. Now before I go into the details of this module, I feel obliged to mention something - this module presents a big sandbox with multiple encounters with aforementioned divine servitors. It is also pretty much a roleplaying module.

What do I mean by this? Well, as the module observes, our current modules seem to have moved away from roleplaying modules in the truest sense. And, let's be honest, there is some truth to that claim. Pathfinder behaves, essentially, like a combat-simulator in battle, making the rollplaying aspect of the game pretty awesome. At the same time, the roleplaying as such, though, is surprisingly often a neglected component - the module calls attention to the tendency towards puzzle-design; I.e. figuring out what to do next as opposed to a dynamic response. Mind you, this module does not judge these components as inferior or the like - there is no snobbery going on. However, at the same time, it observes that this constitutes a strange dearth in PFRPG. Conversely, one could argue that VtM has nothing but that going on for it and while I love it and CoC, the latter often falls into the puzzle-game niche - that's not a bad thing per se, either. When the puzzle makes no sense, when one component falls by the wayside or when there's just one solution, then we get the issues. And I know that every GM with some experience under the belt has ran face first into these issues as a story ground to a halt. We've all been there.

You might be wondering where this rant leads, right? Well, this module considers itself to be pretty much a roleplaying module, extending the sandboxy design-aesthetic not only to the overall structure of the plot presented and rendering it pretty modular (apart from the climax), it also tries to mirror this in the encounters with the deific servitors that inhabit the island. Now, bear this in mind, for it is a subtle nuance that may be lost on you when first reading the module as opposed to running it.

Now I mentioned a group of psionic travelers, right? These guys would be both a proxy for the GM as well as a story-catalyst: The Guardians of the Multiverse. They are a delightfully weird cast of characters, yes, and they actually can be considered an homage to the Guardians of the Galaxy or similar far-out comic-book heroes, with their leader Psi-Lord being an Elan who is currently trapped in the massive colossus. Yes, the tone here is radically different than in just about every 4$D-module I've read so far - again.

How the PCs act and explore, ultimately, is up to them, but per default, Psi-lord's Astral Caravan power is the intended way out of the island's demi-plane. So let's cover the possible first steps, right? Going on a salvage operation at their own stranded vessel? Covered. Finding a local village? Covered. Perceptive PCs may have noted Psi-Lord being trapped in a portcullis'd section of the colossus, though, and potentially try to save the elan. This would be generally easy since the colossus is not hostile towards the PCs and not constantly on the move. Would be. Were it not for one fun fact: The colossus sports a massive anti-magic/psionic field that annihilates every magic in the vicinity. All but the terrain-controlling and trolling spells the servant of the god of magic stationed here - which are tailor-made to prevent PCs from scaling the colossus. If your game is like mine, you'll have a field day annoying the PCs here and the joy upon defeating (or bypassing the creature) will be vast indeed.

Now Psi-Lord is helpful and willing to get the PCs off the island, but first, there s the question of his fellow guardians being missing -and indeed, they have ran afoul of some of the less than pleasant divine agents featured herein, often in a somewhat ironic manner. So, reassembling the guardians and/or finding out on what strange place they have stranded makes up the bulk of the module, as the odd divine agents make up for strange encounters. This is further punctuated by the selection regarding the random encounters, wilderness survival and terrain features provided. It should also be noted that the module does several unique things herein, with each encounter sporting some component that renders it memorable beyond the basic adversary fought.

Ultimately, in the end, the whole gambit is all about finding out that there's a lich present, seeking out and destroying the rather incompetent undead's phylactery and then finding a way to defeat the lich while still being vastly outclassed, even with the support of the guardians. And yes, actually using logical thinking and coming up with a sensible idea here is pretty much the awesome linchpin of the module and was one of the high points of the modules for my group -being the obvious and yet clever central puzzle of the module. And no, your PCs won't be wielding the artifact for long - unless you wish them to. I should also mention a certain, fully-mapped pagoda and a general penchant for some investigation to be had here, but going into the details would ultimately spoil some of the components I'd rather leave for you to discover.

Now granted, all of this, while a wide open sandbox, it looks on paper like it somewhat falls short of what you'd expect from 4 Dollar Dungeons - until you play it. You see, this module is actually a kind of alignment Myer-Briggs-test for the characters in disguise. What do I mean by this? There are ample ways to handle the issues the divine agents present - from signing a contract with an infernal Eve to defeating her to several other options, ultimately, though not explicitly spelled out in the module, the encounters faced within act as a test that can be used to determine the respective interpretations of a group's alignment: After all, we all know how many discussions that topic tends to spawn.

So yes, this module can be considered a huge exercise in in-game ethics, which works exceedingly well when probing the depths and moral fiber of characters and yes, potentially, depending on the competence of your players in abstracting themselves from their characters, them as well. Now this never devolves into a simple good/evil/neutral-option - instead, you get a set-up. How the PCs deal with it ultimately is up to them. Now that being said, even if you do not care for this type of gimmicky subtext, the encounters themselves are complex and interesting, sporting a multitude of cool options - and yes, the very final questions posed by a divine agent may very be uncomfortable to answer - so yeah, this psychological dimension is mirrored in the climax as well.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are weaker than in previous 4 Dollar Dungeon-installments, with a tad bit more typos and glitches and, rather glaringly, all plusses missing from the statblocks herein - a peculiarity, which, while cosmetic MAY annoy some of you. The latter is a pretty serious annoyance, at least to me. Layout adheres to a printer-friendly two-column b/w-standard and the pdf comes fully bookmarked for your convenience. The artworks include nice, old-school full-color and b/w-pieces and the module comes, as mentioned before, with high-res jpgs of the maps, which btw. have a higher quality than those we've seen in the series so far. Finally, the pdf comes in two versions - one intended for the US-market in letterpack and one optimized for the European A4-paper standard to ensure that both can be printed in maximum efficiency. The pdfs come fully bookmarked for your convenience.

Richard Develyn is an artist if there ever was one among adventure authors and, hands-down, he is one of the best I've ever had the pleasure of reading. Moreover, he is a thematic chameleon, switching up his styles in every module, again and again. That being said, Holy Island will probably elicit more than one "WTF?" from its readers. Let me go on a slight tangent here: My mother once worked for the US here in Germany and hence, I not only grew up with an early exposure to multiple languages, English in particular. I also could read English soon after I could read German, at the tender age of 5. This can be attributed to a clever trick: My mom had amassed this huge collection of comic books, some even from the Silver Age. Alas, they were in English and she tired pretty fast of the tedious task of translating comic books, instead setting about and teaching me to read them myself. Granted, many of the peculiar connotations of meanings were lost on me back then, but I could finally read this huge pile of glorious superhero knowledge - and be a wiseass to my friends about it. Yeah, some things never change, do they? ;P

Tangent aside, this module did evoke flashbacks to this era in tone - at one side, we have over the top, whimsical elements, at the other, we have real threats and a mood than can be described by an anything-goes ID run rampant, one that is kept in check by the necessity for narrative cohesion that later was to become the guiding principle that made worlds consistent, as far as that was still possible. Holy Island is essentially that - it is also a test of ethics and a subtle, satirical roundhouse kick in the face of several mythologies, though not a mean-spirited one. By combining elements from real life and game mythology, a subtle tapestry is woven that can provide a discerning reader with yet another layer of meaning that would not be readily apparent, nor is such a reading enforced or shoved down one's throat - so no, if you are religious, your sensibilities, if you are halfway mature and have at least a tiny speck of a funny bone in your body, will not be offended. This is not disrespectful and the winking breaking of the fourth wall for the GM in the footnotes further enforces this.

The oddest thing about this module, though, is that it plays completely different than it reads. Perhaps it's my playstyle and group, but when I read this, I thought things would get whacky and over the top, somewhat akin to certain Planescape modules of old, when in game, the whole module did turn out to be pretty atmospheric, with some light-hearted relief in between. Yes, this module can be funny. But it does not need to be. Analyzing why has been none too easy, but I have already touched upon the reason for this - namely the fact that the quoted mythology and inspirations evident in the text render the whole experience laden with a sense of unearthly gravitas, a sense of the mythological. Much like "Twilight of the Ice Nymphs" and similar arthouse movies utilize symbols and semiotics to generate implicit meaning, so does this module combine these connotations and ties them together with the respective divine agents and the inherent psychology of the conundrums presented unobtrusively herein.

Mythology resonates with the experiences of the conditio humana and thus, it should come as no surprise that the central experiences of mankind, some very powerful concepts of psychology, find the very root of their nomenclature in mythology. It is perhaps this fact, the application of the blending of the two and transference of this conglomerate to the mythology provided within the context of a game's codified deities, which makes this module actually work, which makes the players sooner or later realize that killing everything may not be in their best interest.

Or not. You can disregard all of my ramblings and analysis and play this as an oddball hack-n-slash. But you'd miss out.

I'm trying to say the following here: What should, for all intents and purposes, be a complete, utter, total, unprecedented thematic mess of tones and ideas, something disjointed, boring, reductive, somehow, by some quirk of strange fate and talent, actually works. The weird blending of themes reads a bit jarring, the encounters sound a bit disjointed, but in play, all works - even better than I anticipated. So yes, my rational consciousness considers this to be one of the most impressive feats in establishing a thoroughly unique theme I've seen in ages.

My emotional response, as much as I love the sheer smarts of the module, how it plays etc., still considers this somewhat inferior to Richard Develyn's best works. Mind you, that does not say much - Richard's modules have continuously scored my highest possible accolades and even made the number 1 spot of my Top Ten of a given year; I'm complaining here at a level that most authors cannot dream to reach.

Why? Well, while I do not require a breath-taking story-line, it remains a huge plus and this one, with its subtext being so layered, has the main story suffer a bit; if you do not care for semiotics and symbolism, you'll miss out on some of the module's appeal, since the basic plot is pretty simple. Secondly, the subtext and diversified theme of the module ultimately render the encounters themselves hazy, dreamlike - a good GM can make them feature in a manner that will remind you of the logic of dreams, hence also my reference to "Twilight of the Ice Nymphs" before. (If you require a less pretentious allusion: Picture a symbolism akin to the one of the original "Death Bed, the Bed that Eats," only less convoluted, game-themed and skippable via "I attack it." and similar methods.)

Ultimately, Holy Island is, much like its predecessors, an adventure that can be considered art. However, it is an art that may be less accessible in its entirety than previous modules. The non-analyzing way to play this beast, obviously grounded in Silver Age comic-book aesthetics, is something, alas, utterly and completely lost on me, for while I recall my enjoyment regarding that time of my life, I unfortunately completely lack the psychological capability to access this memory through the haze of nostalgia goggles due to my excellent memory.

One could say that the regular way, the standard running and reading experience of this module is just as lost to me as my overblown analysis of the subtext above may be lost on some of you out there. What ultimately makes me still consider this a superb module, in spite of its glitches, is the fact that it can be read, run and enjoyed as nostalgia-driven pop-corn cinema or as an intellectual exercise - or as anything in-between. This module is odd, but I am exceedingly glad it exists.

So if you do check this out, run it before shaking your head and walking off - you may just be surprised in more than one way. My final verdict will, pretty much exclusively due to the quality of the writing here, still clock in at 5 stars + seal of approval, in spite of an alarming rate of minor glitch-increases. I've been thinking quite a bit on whether to make this a candidate for my top ten of 2015 - but in the end, I will do so; not necessarily due to me particularly liking the plot or set-up, but due to the achievement in generating a unique feeling, mood and theme that I can sincerely call a jamais-vu-experience. Check it out - it's only 4 dollars, after all, and I'm confident you won't find a module this strange and unique at this price-point.

Endzeitgeist out.

Bring a 10-foot pole. And be prepared.

The Firebringer is an adventure for 1st level characters, providing enough treasure and XP to bring a party of 4 characters to 2nd level by the conclusion. It is based around an old abandoned dwarven mithral mine, since overrun by goblinoids (amongst other things), set near the village of Pig's Trotter (heh).

I was lucky enough to be sent a review copy for 4DD, and was warned that it is a) their weakest work, and b) quite tough.

If this is their weakest work, I'm looking forward to seeing more, and this thing is deadly as all hell.

When playing this module, I had to take some liberties with the setting - I'd already run an introductory session for my players and was hemming and hawing about how to move a plotline along, when the review copy of this module fell into my possession, and it was a godsend. I needed goblins. It has goblins. I needed the goblins to have a home. They have a home. I needed them to have a reason to be out raiding. They have a reason to be out raiding. So far, so good.

On the downside, I have only 3 players (plus a plucky half-elf teenager NPC), and the intro session was set in the wilderness, some miles from any settlement.

So, I set about making the few minor adapatations I needed to this adventure to squeeze it in to my setup, and set my players loose.

[b]The Good[/b] A complete adventure, with an extraordinary amount of detail, background, and flavour. Every creature has a reason for being their, and different relationships with the other creatures present. Every room has a reason to exist, and the little touches like statues of the individual dwarves who founded the mine being scattered around the 4-level complex were delightful (and yes, my players did pick up on the keyhole/hidden key thing).

XP/Treasure table. This addition was perhaps my favourite part (and I really liked a lot of things in this adventure): near the beginning is a room-by-room breakdown of the dungeon, with the XP award for defeating the challenge, and the treasure awarded, with values, so you can easily see what there is. There's also guidance on the table for increasing the treasure if you have a larger party.

Zombie dragon! My favourite creature in this whole thing, which my players avoided like the plague (they made good stealth checks, it sucks at perception) is the zombie white dragon. I was really looking forward to describing it drunkenly flopping down in front of them, gobs of flesh hanging from its bones, as it lazily shambles towards them. But they ran away. Ah, well. Other notable creatures include the half-wit half-ogre with mommy issues, the mommy ogre with [i]everyone[/i] issues, and the insanely arrogant ifrit sorcerer. Love them all, love the little touches that make them incredibly easy to play and turn them all into real characters. Bang-up job writing engaging NPCs for the GM, even if the players learn nothing at all about them.

Maps! Maps, maps, maps, maps, maps. I love maps. They're one of my biggest weaknesses (or at least one of the things that makes my bank account go "ah, there are maps, so that's why I'm empty again") as an RP collector. Give me a good map to purchase, and I will devour. This adventure comes not only with the maps in the adventure pdf (which are beautiful), but blown up image files of each of those maps (in all their delightfully attractive cartographed glory) and simplified versions (without all the cool drop-shadows and shading, and whatnot), [i]and[/i] unlabelled versions of each of those, too! Utterly perfect for the GM running the adventure online a VTT - upload, fit, line up the squares, and bosh, you're ready. Brilliant.

[b]The Bad[/b] Hot DAMN this thing is tough! My players aren't really old-school, so never struggled through The Saga of the Shadow Lord in BECMI like I did back in the day, and some of the design concepts in this adventure are... problematic for players whose GM has been a bit hand-holdy. First, while there's guidance on making this adventure scale to groups larger than 4 PCs, there's nothing in it about how to adjust for smaller groups. Second (and I know this is going to seem a bit weird at first) the lowest encounter CR in the whole thing is 1. In fact, of the thirteen encounters, exactly 4 of them are CR 1. All the rest are 2 or higher, topping out at a whopping CR 4 in one case. In case that didn't sink in: less than 33% of the encounters presented in this adventure are CR-appropriate, the rest are higher. Now, that's not necessarily a bad thing, in itself, since the PCs can typically roll all over anything you put them up against, but I had an under-sized party to begin with, and this exacerbated the deadliness of those encounters a fair bit. I even went so far as judiciously modifying a few bits and pieces here and there to make it less deadly (like that pit trap. I love that pit trap. It's hilarious. And way too deadly, even if it practically hits the players over the head with the obvious stick. Players will screw up and fall down it. Trust me. They will).

Room number which, what, where, huh? Nitpick time! The room numbering on the maps goes haywire at level 3. The text has a room with no number right at the start of the level, and then the next room picks up the numbering again with no break, but the maps are numbered in full, so you have to subtract 1 from the map's room number to make sure you're reading the right room in the text. Phew! That one threw me for a loop for a bit.

Read-alou-ooh-adventure-details. I'm not a fan of read-aloud text most of the time, because it's almost always too much. "This ancient room is designed in the Targorn period of architecture, with buttressed ceilings of sandstone run-through with so-called bloodstains - red streaks of iron-rich silt. The walls are covered in tapestries depicting historical battles from ages past, and your eye is caught by a particularly attractive needlework scene on a stand of the star-crossed lovers Wandero and Julia from a famous stage tragedy. On the floor is..." Bleurgh. This adventure manages to go to the other extreme by not including any read-aloud text at all, but falls down because the GM-details are mixed in with the room descriptions. Several times I found myself reading a small passage verbatim because the description was actually what I [i]want[/i] from read-aloud text, only to have to catch myself before I revealed some secret that only the GM should know. I'd love to see those frankly elegant and perfect room descriptions cordoned off as read-aloud, with the GM-guidance text swiftly following on.

[b]The Conclusion[/b] I got this adventure with mere days to spare before my game session, and I was able to read it through, upload what I needed, change what I needed to fit into my existing plot, and other than a few concessions to make it a bit less deadly, run it as written. It was tough for the party, but this adventure is an excellent piece of pick-up-n-play work. It's by no means perfect, but for the harried GM in need of a quick adventure to kick off a party, this is really good.

I've been arguing with myself about what rating to give The Firemaker, and I've settled on 4-stars: The extras such as the maps; the XP/Treasure table; the brilliant room descriptions; the wonderful creatures and their relationships, hopes, and dreams. All those things push this above just average. It's a total beast to your party, but this adventure is a good one to have in your repertoire.

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This module clocks in at 90 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page ToC, 1 page SRD, leaving us with 86 pages of content, so let's take a look!

Now the first thing, before anything else, you should know that this literally is the only book you need to run the module - no switching to thousands of different books, not a full bag of supplemental material - this module provides more supplemental material than you can shake a stick at: First, we get all spells used in the book; then, there would be the rules-reference section, which includes all those handy special abilities, from ability drain to breath weapons, handily explained for your convenience. The same goes for magical items, btw. And yes, there even is a nice array of animal tricks explained for your convenience, rendering this module exceedingly comfortable to run. Beyond even that, though, we get something you can use even when not running the module - the bestiary-section does provide ample Knowledge DC-checks to deduce information on the respective creatures featured in the module. Oh, and the module does sport all artwork handily collated at the back of the book in the form of a collated appendix, allowing you to print it out as a kind of look-see-artwork-booklet.

Think that takes up too much space? Let me assure you, it doesn't - the module, even after that, clocks in at a massive 52 pages - there is A LOT of content to be covered. It should also be noted that this module, like all 4$D-modules, does provide handy lists of CR, adversary, XP and treasure for each relevant encounter, including options for extra treasure, depending on your playstyle (and extra PCs - up to +2 PCs are thus supported without you having to do ANYTHING). You should also be aware of the vast amounts of maps - while not necessarily beauties, I've seen worse and EVERY relevant location is covered - the sheer amount of maps provided deserves applause, especially since they also come with high-res jpegs and player-friendly iterations.

It should also be noted that the unique town herein does sport an extra mini-gazetteer for the players and that a clue-flow-chart helps running the module.

So far for the formal criteria, now let's take a look at the module itself, shall we?

Now before we dive in, this is the SPOILER-WARNING. Potential players should immediately jump to the conclusion. Seriously, you will be so sorry if you spoil this one for yourself.

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All right, so this module begins common enough - a drunk father and ratcatcher, bereft of his daughters (who have chosen the adventurer-lifestyle) have recently taken off and the grief-stricken father immediately tries to pick a fight with the PCs. However that works, in the end, the PCs will have been tasked by the man to track down his daughters and ensure their safety - and the trail leads into the aptly-named twisted moorland. Now if you have played the supreme "Journey to Cathreay", you'll immediately realize the sheer massive amount of detail you can expect from 4$D wilderness trips - and this module does feature just that - random weather-tables (with all relevant rules), random encounter chances by time - the level of detail is staggering and from lone guest-houses to the farm where the two adventurers hang out (sans the daughters, mind you, and very much hostile...), the level of detail provided is interesting indeed - take e.g. a druidic stone circle, where the devout PC may acquire a temporary elemental servant - not required by the story in any way, but it does add the sense of cohesiveness and realism to the magical world depicted herein.

Now whether on friendly or hostile terms with aforementioned adventurers, the PCs sooner of later will make the acquaintance of a dryad of a forest most dilapidated and desolate, who ahs struck a deal to ensure her survival - and in case you haven't noticed, yes, there is a subtle theme at work here, but more on that later. Her combat tactics come with a level of detail scarcely seen, and from TPKing to less lethal failure scenarios and the like, the encounter with the pragmatic, corrupt dryad offers quite an array of different options. Now, alternatively, the PCs may have found among the adventurer's belongings a call for help in clearing out an evil temple or have been bluffed by them - in either way, the temple is just another elaborate anti-adventurer trap, much like the dryad's gambit. If this does not look to exciting so far, rest assured that the way in which this is handled is superb - and the level of detail provided here is staggering as well - take a skeleton with a foreign pterodactyl bone rattling in its rip cage - and yes, this is a curious and intriguing foreshadowing of the things to come.

Either way, the investigation sooner or later will bring the PCs to the aptly-named town of Twisted Bridge, where a special kind of evil flourishes. The town is not a poor place; in fact, it is quite wealthy (and fully statted). However, it is a town rules by egotism and passivity- we have a macabre blending of gillmen working menial labor and a kind of aristocratic upper class, sneering at the irrelevant, marginalized people that do not belong to the illustrious crowd of the village's people - here, everyone is in only for themselves and their immediate friends and family. Mind you, this is not a depiction of a town that is suppressed or "kill 'em all"-vile - it can be considered almost a subtle satire of a mentality that is all too real in our very world. Sounds too dreary? Players not into subtle, unobtrusive social commentary? No problem, just spring on them the top-hat wearing deinonychus currently running a errand for his master and they'll be right back in the fold. And yes, this is one of the colorful sight &sound-style random encounters form the table. On a mechanical level, the mentality that considers "evil" behavior a matter of discussion and the townsfolk's fun when looking at paladins whirling from all the evil they can detect is not only rationale and concise, it makes surprising sense and adds a whole new spin on the black-white-morality conundrums.

Twisted bridge itself is not only mapped, but also sports what essentially amounts to a lavishly-detailed gazetteer-section that had me reminisce about the weird cities in 3.X's Scarred Lands, though, obviously, in less depth, Twisted Bridge definitely can be considered a town so unique and dripping with flavor and tangible magic, it exudes an allure that is difficult to describe - from undine sorcerors to lizardmen, from chocolatiers to female-only hair-saloons (aptly and humorously named "Rapunzel"), twisted bridge equally breathes a sense of decadence and wonder, of despicable passivity and carelessness and intoxicating wonders - and allows one to easily see how one can be sucked into the moral choices such a lifestyle may engender. The massive investigation-potential and related clues definitely allow for one glorious free-form investigation, set against one of the most compelling backdrops I've seen in quite a while.

The trail of the girl's horses, though, can sooner or later be tracked to a farm - where matrons grow narcotics to allow the people in town to sedate their children, should they act up - have I mentioned, that, much like many a good fantasy or scifi novel, this module can be enjoyed on a consumerist perspective and still has some serious social commentary going for, should you be so inclined as to delve into it, all without shoving an ideology down your throat? Among the narcotics-inducing plants, though, jack-o-lanterns loom, including a moderately intelligent one, with whom the PCs can talk, alternating quickly between settings of potentially psychedelic horror and abject comedy - oh and then there is a level of detail that borders on the ridiculous, the ridiculously awesome, that is - the fields actually note which plants are grown where: From chai to chilies, the handout provides the detailed notes on this. Yes. That is a realism that can only be described as staggering -and whether you use it or not, it does add immensely to the sense of immersion. The trail, then, leads to the cathedral of bone, the macabre abode of the town's de facto dhampir-ruler and aforementioned, top-hat wearing dinosaur companion. There is a macabre axe-beak skeleton to be found here, but whether or not hostilities break out depends very much on the PC's actions - and yes, the reason why a friggin' axe-beak skeleton is here, is also given - and the pterodactyl bone mentioned before may give the PCs away, so let's hope their investigation skills are on par.

Among the weird places to be found (potentially via the nasty adventurers), an alchemist (vivisectionist) and the way golem he created as an automaton to sate the depraved desires of the townsfolk can also make for interesting encounters, the latter even for a potential cohort of the oddest kind. Tzitzimitle, the main antagonist of the module, currently resides in a clock tower most unusual - in that e.g. it sports a pool that is inhabited by piranha-level voracious, bad-tempered killer-goldfish. No, I'm not kidding. This is a thing - and it is glorious. My players actually started laughing as their PCs started to be chomped by the little buggers. The exploration of the tower, alas, yields no satisfactory results (apart from further leads and the satisfaction of destroying clockwork creatures and braving the traps with which the place has been laden) - and so, a further stop along the way may be the massive Necropolis of the town, where the bored, amoral gargoyle Gabriel, a picturebook sociopath, awaits - alongside Enya, one of the kidnapped girls, who is currently trapped within a mausoleum that is both warded and dangerously unstable - and hence, rescuing her will prove to be difficult.

Have I mentioned, that her statements (or the alchemist's investigation) can lead them to essentially the same goals, namely the sewers, where the whispers of the dead abound and a worm-that-walks, the gaoler of Enya, provide further evidence of the horrible things to come: And it is at the very latest here that the pieces will click together - Tzitzimitl, an exceedingly powerful oracle (level 10) who has gleaned the circumstances of his death, but not the particulars, has entered an unholy alliance with a powerful wraith named Yetaxa - with combined efforts, they have not only engineered all those nasty anti-adventurer traps the PCs had to face; they have also introduced a truly decadent festival to the town, wherein the living dance with the wraiths under the control of Yetaxa - at the low price of just one innocent to be wraithified per festival - and who cares about strangers? Hence, the first of the daughters, alas has already been transformed by Yetaxa in the general rehearsal of the last festival -for today, shall be different. Wraiths cannot endure the sunlight, but a total eclipse renders a festival today possible - and also the only way in which Tzitzimitl's prophecy of his own doom could come to pass - hence, he has engineered this rather elaborate plot to prevent just that.

Alas, the festival, detailed with a concise timeline and hearkening to a carnival, through a glass darkly, proceeds - and provides the PCs with an option to save Enya - provided they have been smart enough to provide her with an amulet they can acquire, which renders her impervious to Yetaxa's cruel attempts of transferring her to undeath - so, in a finale both decadent and epic, the PCs will have to destroy Yetaxa in the catacombs - success frees the wraith and spawn from his control, resulting in a massacre and the prophesized death of Yetaxa, while also putting the PCs in dire peril, as they are shepherded into a dead end by now free, vast amounts of undead - only to be saved alongside Enya by the rays of the sun emerging from beyond the eclipse - and yes, if played right, this is one hell of a finale that also sees a town made uninhabitable by the undead - as well as killing the powerful Tzitzimitl and setting him up for potential sequels as a new undead threat to face!

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are very good, though I noticed a couple of minor typos, though the pdf has cleaned up and fixed the worst offenders immediately. Layout adheres to 4$D's printer-friendly two-column standard and the pdf comes fully bookmarked for your convenience. The pdf comes in two versions, one for the US-paper-format, one in A4 for Europeans like yours truly - love that! The artwork provided is copious and I have seen none of the neat, old-school b/w-art before - really nice! The cover, as always, is also breathing the spirit of old-school awesomeness. The cartography is functional, as are the handouts, and make up for not being the most beautiful being provided for just about EVERYTHING.

Okay, let me get one thing out of the way - my complaint about the typos above, now mitigated by the immediacy of them being fixed? That is the only negative thing I can say about this module. At this point, all of the following things are a given: 1) Whenever Richard Develyn releases a module, my players want to play it asap, even if it means putting the main-campaign on hold. 2) I actually go to these modules when I require a break from reviewing; when I'm frustrated and need a reminder of why I actually do it. 3) Every module has a radically different style.

All of these hold true with Dance Macabre - even though formally, like "The Key to Marina", it can be considered an investigation module. Alas, the way in which it works is pretty much radically different - less of a scavenger hunt, more of a detective tale, it reminded me in the best of ways of the first Gabriel Knight game in the atmosphere it evokes - what we have here can be called a blending of far-out fantasy with the underrepresented panache of proper, fantastic Southern Gothic. From the themes provided to the imagery evoked, the glorious sense of decadence oozes from each and every pore of the module - you can play this as pure entertainment...or emphasize the striking themes it evokes: If you want it to, this module can serve as a social commentary and a rallying cry against indifference and cold-heartedness.

The absurd amount of details provided help running the module immensely, and so does the flow-chart, though novice DMs still should read the whole module before trying to run it - this one is very much free-form in its flow. The true genius here, at least in my onion, would be the blending of the horrific and the absurd, of horror and comedy - and the optional nature of either. A competent DM can easily ramp up the comedy factor and make this module genuinely funny. Or utterly horrific. I ran this module twice prior to writing this review; the first time emphasizing a Ravenloftesque sense of horror for my mature players - and it worked perfectly. The second time around, I mastered this with a mixed group that contained some kids - and emphasized the fun and odd parts. Yes, there are some dark elements here, but nothing kids (talking about the 8 - 12-range) can't handle - make e.g. the courtesan a menial laborer à la Cinderella and we maintain the message, but make the theme child-friendly - cosmetic reskin and that's it. One of them surprised me when she mentioned that she had understood that fear of death can lead one to horrible choices, that one should instead do good and that the town exhibited traits of our own society - and that payback for such a behavior might come in some guise or another. Subtle themes, clearly understood - yes, this can actually be played as a morality play with some educational value.

Southern Gothic horror, absurd, but still exciting comedy or a means of teaching about the world - the module provides a lot of playstyles - and it ran completely differently both times I ran it, so it has replay value to boot! I ADORE this module. It is unique in every sense of the word and sports yet another facet of Richard's capacity that sets him apart as one of the few authors who push the boundaries and raise the level in the art of adventure writing. And yes, this module, in my opinion, can be called art...or proper literature. It is excellent and while the odd typo here and there may be slightly annoying; it is mainly due to the exceedingly high level of quality of the whole book this catches one's eye. Still, I implore you to get this awesome piece of adventure-writing. It is unique in all the right ways and acts as one glorious example of what adventures could be beyond rolling dice and slaying monsters. Highly modular, versatile and with replay-vale, oozing with details, this module once again receives my highest honors - 5 stars + seal of approval and since this was released in 2014, candidate for my Top ten of 2014-status.

Do NOT let this one slip by!

Endzeitgeist out.

An Endzeitgeist.com review

The latest module by 4 Dollar Dungeons clocks in at 79 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page ToC, 1 page SRD, leaving us with a massive 75 pages of content, so let's check this out!

This being an adventure-review, the following contains SPOILERS. Potential players should jump to the conclusion. No. Seriously. You don't want to spoil this one.

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Okay, only DMs left? Great!

Now DMs may wish to know the following - like all 4$D-modules, this one does provide some guidance beyond the usual synopsis in modifying the hook for the DM to fix issues with encounters that might come up, rendering this module easier to prepare than most comparable resources. This level of foresight by the way also extends to the copious maps provided for the module - DM and player maps are NOT identical in every case - two thumbs up. Scaling advice, handy lists of encounters, treasures etc. - all provided, rendering the running of this module as easy as one can possibly make it.

Now let's dive into the plot, shall we? We begin this module in the coastal city of Morphoton - or any other coastal city. Here, a note on adaption should be made - the module delivers a handy list of criteria a city has to fulfill for the module to run smoothly and this advice, once again, renders running this module easier - 50+ years, predominantly stone buildings, districts for different classes, a strong mercantile presence and a council among the governing bodies are rather easy to fulfill.

So, how does this scenario begin? Well, it (probably) is autumn, when, by some relation or friend, the PCs are bequeathed a picture depicting the Gardens of Marina, a local park in a less than popular neighborhood, with a cryptic hint that there is some mystery to be found there. Depending on your players, their innate curiosity may even suffice - for mine it did! Checking out the park the PCs encounter a scene of neglect and decay - the gorgeous statue in the middle of the park has been vandalized and several of the decorative statues from the park are missing. However, between nostalgic old people and the occasional loner frequenting this abandoned, dilapidated park, they may also notice a ring of odd, symbols around the fountain and a discrepancy in the composure of the statues. There is obviously a mystery afoot and the missing statues are obviously tied to the task. Hence, the PCs will have to hunt down the park's former statues - wherever they might be.

Thankfully, at least one man can help the PCs, the by now over 90-year old senile gardener Arbitan, who may very well be the park's only frequent visitor - it is via the interaction with this man (a nice way to once again enforce a theme of decay and finality and the fleeting nature of life, btw.), the PCs can glean the first hints - and much like in a good mystery/adventure-movie, the detective work begins - from the unpleasantness of essentially forced labor weaving to the bureaucracy of the council, dealing with greedy art dealers and snobbish custodians, the trails lead towards a crab-merchant, a bell-tower, a crypta and even a maze - and we haven't even started the deadly part yet! Still, the individual encounters collectively manage to set a tone that starts resonating as one plays, slowly developing the mood in an excellent example of indirect storytelling.

Now from the plinths of these statues and their signs, provided as hand-outs for the PCs, btw. - after all, visual puzzles sans visual aids are hard and a total of 9 jpgs make visualizing the puzzle exceedingly easy. Have I mentioned that all combat-relevant aforementioned locations sport player-friendly maps?

So finally, the secret is unearthed, the access route opens to perhaps one of the best examples of secret dungeons I've seen in ages - and we enter the dungeon below - which is highly uncommon. Why? Well, first of all, the place is essentially an example for a vertical, rather than a horizontal dungeon, with cross-section maps being provided as well (and secret rooms not included necessarily in the default map. Secondly, the module's dungeon sports massive tanks that can be modified and accessed via special keys - and which require some thinking. Essentially, this whole level can be considered one gigantic logic puzzle - not every room, not every creature is relevant, but the system per se is concise and well-wrought...and it makes one thing pretty clear - If your PCs are dumb, they can die horribly here: Diving into a mix of water over-saturated with oxygen? In case you've never played Metal Gear Solid 2, let me enlighten you: No, you can't swim in it, yes, it's a bad idea to try. The same can be said about diving headfirst into a tank as a level 1 character that contains a massive giant zombie shark - of course, you can just empty the tank and then kill it at range, though it will take some arrows to put down...

Smart tactics and smart playing will be required to properly navigate this part of the dungeon indeed - but the challenge does not end there - in order to proceed further, at one point the PCs quite possibly will have to deal with a rather lethal demonic adversary...only to stumble upon an evil seamstress (who do you think makes all those cultist's robes?) and a massive chapter of Asmodeans. Thankfully, if the PCs are not dumb, they'll be disguised in Asmodean robes. Walking the floors of this place should send torrents of sweat down the PC's backs - multiple high level clerics, high-level outsiders - the PCs are well in over their heads and with imps buzzing to and fro, unmasking is suicide. Thankfully, the cult has not taken one thing into account -the reservoir. They have not been visited for ages. No one bothers them. Why guard the ingress? And who would have thunk that a certain tank now is filled to the brim with 1.5 tons of water? Some crowbars, a little bit of force and a massive, crushing tsunami-like floods can be used to annihilate the opposition that is so far above them, they will just be cheering. At least my players were. Thankfully, the water drains and with the missing head of Marina's statue, the park can be restored to its former glory, the PCs rewarded and blessed and the module brought to a satisfying conclusion.

As always with 4$D-modules, we receive handouts of the artworks for your PCs, properly detailed maps, stats for all creatures, hazards, spells and yes, even creature qualities as well, rendering this literally the only book you need to run this module.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are top-notch, I did not notice any significant glitches. Layout adheres to a printer-friendly 2-column full color standard sans backgrounds and the pdf comes extensively bookmarked for your convenience. As an additional benefit for people like yours truly, we receive two pdfs - one in A4-format and one in US-format, making the printing of this module easier and better looking for Europeans like yours truly. Cartography is provided in full color, of just about every combat-related environment, with player-friendly maps and even cross-sections galore. It should also be noted that, as always, each encounter features the respective DCs for skill-checks and results in a handy mini-table.

No 4$D-module is like the other - but ever since "Horn of Geryon", all three have been superb in their own, distinct ways. They all sport a subdued, mature humor that makes reading them a joy and provide a level of detail and logical cohesiveness seldom seen in any other publication. Instead of resting on his laurels, after "Journey to Cathreay" became one of my favorite wilderness modules of all time, author Richard Develyn instead opted for something different - and made a module that is equal parts investigation and essentially the exploration of a vast, magical and logical dungeon. Suffused with a sense of decrepitude, the module's theme is enhanced by just about every step building atmosphere along the way - and this is good. Why? Because this module requires respect to beat. I am not kidding when I'm saying that this module is difficult - in an uncommon, very rewarding way - from the beginning to the end, this whole module is all about BRAINS over brawn. If this were a GoT-character, it would probably be Tyrion Lannister.

What do I mean by that? Organically, the dungeon and its challenges prepare the PCs (and players!) mindset-wise towards a most uncommon finale that would not work with another mindset. It's essentially like the glorious classic "Tomb of Abysthor" and the author does not kid when the CR-rating for a particular room is denoted as "infinite" - at their level, the PCs have simply no chance to prevail other than being smart -something that would come out of left field in any other module and result in unfair TPKs here works as the logical conclusion of the things that have come before.

All right, I'll come out and say it - this is the brainiest module I've had the pleasure to run in quite a while - and I mean that as a compliment. Mind you, there are enough combats in here and a skeleton whose skull is inhabited by an undead octopus and similar weird creatures make for fantastic changes of pace throughout the module and the fights before furthermore enhance the emphasis on tactics, strategy and using your brain.

This module can be deemed a love-letter to all the glorious modules that could not be solved by rolling a 20 every time, an homage to the brainier of mystery/adventure movies and is just plain fun to run. That being said, DMs should carefully read (and understand) the full module before running it - its modular nature and complex dungeon are not something you can pull off on the fly. if your players and you are bored by roll-playing, if you want concise and logical puzzles that do not require trial and error to solve, then this will be a true blessing for you. The Key to Marina is a glorious module that once again shows what was once considered to be the best of old-school adventure-writing and puts it into a new, polished form. At this point, I am using 4 Dollar Dungeon-modules as a type of balm for my reviewer's soul - after reading flawed math, the oompteenth supplement dealing with xyz, after being frustrated by a logical glitch or railroading - this is when I open one of these modules, read them, run them...and all is well. And no, that was no exaggeration. Add to that the exceedingly low price-point and I guarantee that you won't find something similar around.

I am aware that I must be sounding like a fanboy at this point and honestly, I kind of am - but deservedly so. The level of quality provided is staggering for this price-point and the amount of superlatives I can heap on this module are rather impressive as well - but you've heard those before, I wager. Hence, let me just reiterate that this is a module for the advanced player, for the thinkers, a module steeped in glorious detail, one that could be easily transplanted into e.g. Ravenloft or any other setting. It is also yet another flavor of awesomeness from the penmanship of Richard Develyn and the fourth (!!!) module in a row I consider a candidate for my Top Ten of the given release-year.

Yeah. this level of mastery is getting creepy. still, once more, let me spell it out - final verdict: 5 stars + seal of approval, candidate for the Top Ten of 2014. Go buy this now - it's cheaper than a pack of cigarettes or a proper meal, even in a fast food chain, and it will stay with you for much, much longer.

Endzeitgeist out.

An Endzeitgeist.com review

Journey to Cathreay clocks in at a massive 115 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page ToC, 1 page SRD, leaving us with 112 pages of content, so let's take a look!

The module begins with a massive explanation of the module for the DM - essentially, the module provides an extremely helpful explanation of the module's structure, making the modification on the fly very easy on the DM. A total of 5 maps are provided and a table of all encounters with CR, treasure, XP to be seen at a glimpse. It should also be noted that the pdf also comes with a 25-page NPC-book that has versions of the NPCs of varying strength depending on the number of PCs your party sports - one statblock for 4, 5 and 6 PCs. Indeed, DMs have an extremely easy time with this book - a reference for all animal tricks, beasts, items, rules and spells used in the module is part of the deal - i.e. you ONLY need this book when running it. No book-flipping. (And yes, these take up quite a bunch of pages, but a massive 67 is still left, making this a long module. This being a journey-module, we also get a massive write-up of a caravan resting, with rules for slashing through tents and the like as well as stats for bisons and their handlers - and yes, we actually get multiple stats for guards and handlers, making these guys more versatile than what most modules would provide.

This being an adventure-review, the following contains SPOILERS. Potential players should jump to the conclusion - believe me, you'd hate spoiling this one.

Okay, still here? Roco P'loma is a man with a reputation for making the trip to the domain of the Crimson Khan a couple of times and bringing back curious wonders - and now, his guards have ran off, claiming the caravan's haunted. P'loma, imbued with the power to negotiate by the Khan, offers a significant reward for the PCs and after signing the contract (yes, paperwork etc. would be part of the module's realism, though you can skim over this fast) and after that, the first subplot immediately kicks off - Acomat, the brother of Tegana and an important part of the caravan, is about to have the time of his life with gorgeous gal named Daisy. And after that, the worst, and last time of his life. In truth a doppelgänger, the creature wants to infiltrate the Khan's court and her plan is lavishly detailed. Know how usually in a module, such a plot works like "He is killed and replaced, the end." Well, here we get a full write-up, step by step of the infiltration process and thus also ample opportunity for the PCs to foil the gambit. This level of realism (including, btw., plainly hilarious moments of unobtrusive humor) is mixed with an uncommon assassination weapon (a giant rot grub - yeah...nasty) for the best handling of such an operation I've seen in quite a while. Whether the infiltration works or not much depends on what you as the DM want to do with it and how perceptive and paranoid your players are. After this, the PCs will have to make a short 4-mile trek to a dwarven bison ranch and escort bison to the caravan - in a dynamic skill-challenge type escort. And yes, bison are not that easy to ride or lead and accidents may well happen... This journey already uses a level of detail nigh unprecedented - take potentially poisonous berries bison may or may not eat, a wizard practicing his fierball-spell and unintentionally creating a stampede

The journey hasn't even started yet. Now if I go through the day-to-day things that happen, this review will become bloated beyond repair. So let me tell you: Yes, EVERY DAY of the 5-week journey has its own write-up of small things happening, landscapes changing, stops at settlements, interactions with ratfolk traders, taking down a fire drake so the caravan may safely progress (in its disturbing cave of 500 eyes) - there is a LOT going on and beyond these effects, it should be noted that 7 NPCs in here are of particular interest -interacting with them and driving forward their respective plots allows for maximum customization options for the DM. And yes, these interactions are relevant, but more on that later. Assaults by very smartly planned div-assailants and wonder galore await on this journey - what about an oasis, where peacock-feather-like reeds grow and turn towards those closer, making it look like the plants are watching you? (Including a neat, challenging combat here that makes nice use of the strange place...)

What about a Jiang-Shi that has managed to stowaway among the people of the caravan, making for yet another complex foreshadowing and multi-part plot that may see an innocent man and his goat exiled. Rescuing a desperate man from a cyclops? Crashing an arranged marriage via trial by combat and potentially winning the freedom of a lady by besting her less than enthusiastic husband to be's champion? An Elk-hunting mini-game with a megaloceros? The wonders of the journey are plenty and varied indeed.

On day 32, the PCs finally arrive at the Khan's winter palace to a roaring welcome party...during which, their employer bites of more than he can chew and unintentionally makes a bet with the Khan that he (or another of the NPCs with their various plots that the PCs unearthed during the trek) and the PCs can take on Sennacherib. What is Sennacherib, you ask? Well, it is a legendary Tendriculous. , dare I say, MYTHIC adversary. Yeah. And before you say anything - I've been using mythic foes as legendary adversaries in my campaign for quite some time and they make for superb bosses against non-mythic groups. However, they imho require proper foreshadowing and the module does a superb job - a fully depicted legend of the creature, extensive and superbly written, makes clear from the get-go that this beast is indeed something to be feared. Even the end of the creature, should the PCs and their NPC-ally prevail, is the stuff of legends. By the way, this is not the only legend provided in the module - remember the fire drake's cave? I failed to mention that another legend the PCs may have encountered hides the true treasure of the place in an unobtrusive puzzle. Yes. This module has it all.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are top-notch - I only noticed 2 minor typo-level glitches à la "Ncps". Layout adheres to a printer-friendly 2-column standard that is exceedingly easy to print out. The module comes with a handy NPC-book, varied stats, includes all the rules required to run it, is extensively bookmarked with nested bookmarks and has two versions, one optimized for the US-standard and one for the A4-default used in Europe - awesome! A total of 6 solid full color maps are provided, also as high-res jpgs and the artwork is provided, handout-style, in the back of the module, allowing you to print them out and hand them to your PCs. The artwork is solid, btw., and adheres to a very old-school aesthetic.

The last 2 modules by 4 Dollar Dungeons made my top spot of my top 10 list of 2013. "Horn of Geryon" can be considered an apex of the art of wilderness sandboxes. "Panataxia" is one of the best dungeons/planar modules I've ever read, regardless of system. Then this one hit my review-list and I was concerned - caravans? Urgh. Two massive potential issues seem to be ingrained in such a scenario - a) the caravan-rules introduced in Jade Regent just aren't that good and b) such modules are by definition railroads.

"Journey to Cathreay" deals with both issues remarkably well - by ignoring the caravan-rules and replacing them with STORYTELLING. You know, with developments, cool wilderness-scenery and a ton of things to do. The second gripe is harder to handle, though - how do you change that up? Via great NPCs and subquests galore the DM can introduce on the fly, by providing varied challenges and options to amp up or slow down the pace whenever required. Then, there would be the potential issue with the final boss and its mythic nature (and no, you don't eed mythic adventures to run this module - all rules required are provided) - the module manages to properly foreshadow it and makes for a truly epic final fight that is challenging, yes, but NOT unfair. Each combat, each encounter comes with round-by-round tactics, interesting terrain-features and at the end of each section, all relevant skill-checks/DCs are collated into a handy box, available at a glimpse.

Richard Develyn seems to be out on a quest to demonstrate mastery in all types of module possible - this journey breathes the spirit of wonder so often lost in fantasy, the sense of exploring a truly different world. The level of detail provided is simply staggering and the world feels ALIVE. It may be ugly at times, it may be hilarious - but over all, these NPCs and places feel like they truly exist, like you could just fall from this world and wake up in the pages of this module. The diverse choices of the PCs and how they matter, the simply astounding, great writing, the unobtrusive, realistic puzzle (that can be brute-forced), the bison-herding mini-game, the hunting mini-game - adventuring is not always a fight to the death and this module shows exceedingly well why one would embark on such a career. PCs actually get to do something that may be considered fun not only for the players, but also for the characters. Add to that the copious amount of read-aloud text, legends, ridiculously easy to use format, the fact that NOT ONE ENCOUNTER in here is boring/common, that creatures get smart tactics and actual background stories/reasons for their actions and we get a module that is on par with the superb predecessors, perhaps even beyond it.

Want to know how good this is? My players actually were sad when the module was over. They've been badgering me about more 4 Dollar Dungeon-modules ever since Horn of Geryon, and this module took them a long time to complete and unlike every caravan module I've ran before, not one of them lost interest even for a short time - invested from beginning to end, this module just blew them away. This beast is long and never loses its stride. When your players refuse to get up from the table at midnight, even though they have to go to work on the next day, when they ask for more roleplaying sessions because they are so into a module, then you realize you have one glorious beast of a module on your hands. This module cements Richard Develyn as one of the best, perhaps even the best, adventure-writers currently active for PFRPG. It's hard to describe what makes this so impressive, how this quasi-realism and wonder go hand in hand - let it be known that there are few modules that breathe the spirit of old-school gaming to this extent and combine it with all that is great about new school gaming for a result that can only be described as master-class.

Modules like this make reviewing worthwhile. Seriously. And then there is the ridiculously low price, the fact that you need no other book to run this. And the rather interesting fact that this module surpasses its predecessors in length. If this review is short on the actual story of the module, then only because I want YOU to experience this beast like I did - with eyes wide open at the wonder that oozes from every page, chuckling at the humor, grinning at the smart encounters and all the details. The writing is so captivating, it also makes for simply a great experience to read and honestly, I've read a lot of fantasy novels I found less engaging than this.

You won't find a better bang-for-buck-ratio anywhere. Seriously. This is, by any scale I apply, the apex - if there were 10 stars, I'd slap 10 stars + seal of approval on this book. This is the best caravan/journey-style module I've ever read. This is a must-purchase. This module makes me run out of superlatives to slap on it and, at least as far as I'm concerned, may actually surpass its predecessors. This is a hard contender for the number 1 slot of my Top Ten list this year and, barring the means to rate it higher, I'm going for the highest honors of 5 stars + seal of approval. I guarantee you'll love this module if the idea of a caravan even remotely interests you, if you're looking for this sense of wonder the old grognards always complain about being absent from most current modules - here is where it lives and breathes and has been blended with all the comfort we now expect.

Why are you still reading this ramble? Seriously, buy this.

Endzeitgeist out.

An Endzeitgeist.com review

The latest module by 4 Dollar Dungeons and heir to the SUPERB "Horn of Geryon" is a whopping 70 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page SRD, leaving us with 67 pages of content, so let's take a look, shall we?

This being an adventure-review, the following contains SPOILERS. Potential players should jump to the conclusion.

All right, still here? Adrift in the vastness of the astral plane, there is a demi-plane...or a fraction of a planet. Or a sentient construct - whatever its nature may be, it's called Panataxia, it's shaped like a dodecahedron (a D12) and its layout may feel like an underground dungeon/cavern crawl, but it is so much more than that. Panataxia phases throughout worlds, accumulating, whether by accident or design, a diverse set of specimens has accumulated in the tunnels and caverns that suffuse this weird place. Used as an oubliette for a succubus, the place swallows the PCs - and that's about the only thing fixed herein. Panataxia is, genre-wise, the most pure example of an underground sandbox I've seen since Open Design's closed "Empire of Ghouls", but is not a simple regular underdarkish module with a sense of planar flair dumped in. As the extensive (very extensive!) DM-advice suggests, the sheer wonder of subterranean landscapes here is suffused with unique planar properties that work cohesively as one due to the unique nature of the environment.

Due to the strange layout of the environment Panataxia, orientation via north, compasses etc. tend to start becoming a bit problematic and the module does not fail to address concerns like this in the wake of preparing a DM for running this. Speaking of which - we also get a table with encounters, treasures and GP-values - all at the beck and call of your hand. I wish more publishers would include tables like this - it makes running the module much smoother.

Now, I've said that Panatxia is essentially shaped like a dodecahedron - that is not wholly precise, though - that's the meta-array on how the encounters are situated herein. In reality, Panataxia is essentially a sphere with its core removed and a sphere in the center, composed of the solidified nature of all four elements. Now if your players have a scientific bent and tend to experiment (like mine are prone to do), peculiarities of the gravity of Panataxia and the fact that the PCs may actually walk round the whole place in a straight line are all covered - which is just not the extra mile as far as I'm concerned, but rather the extra marathon. And yes, you can ignore many of these miniscule pieces of information if your players don't mind - but they are THERE. While this is still magic, of course, the theory behind this place is as stringently logical as possible - well as logical as a magic environment like this may get.

Now before you turn away, rest assured that these concepts are in no way dry or boring in any way - and the module supports perfectly "regular" play-styles as well, featuring tables for strange effects from damaging walls (including wall harness and HP) etc., wandering monsters etc. And all of this aforementioned information not even takes you past the first 9 pages - so should you choose to ignore all of this background, you still get a HUGE module for the price-point.

But let's get into the module itself, shall we? Arriving in a cavern where the wind flutes through natural holes in the walls and a bat swarm looms, the PCs are faced with a relatively common cavern - so far, so common. Less common: Once a kingdom was determined by law and clock, by a means of indenture and slaving. When the clock (spot the less than subtle tongue-in-cheek subtext), said instrument of oppression, was destroyed, Panataxia took its detritus and so its chute, a ball and part of its weird mechanism still suffuses one cavern as perhaps one of the strangest combinations of foe and hazard I have ever seen. By the way, have I mentioned that the connecting passages that lead from location to location also get their own descriptive details that clever players can use to keep their bearings? Well, yeah, they're there - I told you this was massively detailed, didn't I?

Ever wanted to go full-blown Sméagol on your players? At the shores of an invisible lake (which comes with all necessary swim-checks, nice and collated in a box), the choker Philos would make for a glorious example of a roleplaying encounter that can go either way. As befitting of a planar prison like Panataxia, not all opposition should be considered for immediate execution by 2nd level characters: The PCs have a chance to save an Aeon Paracletus (who makes happy beeping noises if saved in addition to offering bonuses...) from a CR 9 fire elemental. Yes. CR 9. the one chance the players have here would be to properly use the map and tight spaces to escape from the elementals predation - VERY cool and potentially lethal if your players are stupid, but gloriously exciting as well and something almost never seen in gaming. Climbing down into a cavern of mist (which also hides a vampiric mist) may be cool - but what about a cavern with variable, increasing gravity and making the encounter with a shadow so much more lethal - and unique. What about a cavern that could have been taken from an active volcano? One where the character's prowess is determined by mental attributes? What about a halfling-home (of the resident planar explorer/wizard) with a panorama-view of the astral? An arctic goblin druid? And then there's the potential option of being tricked by afore-mentioned succubus into a conflict they can't yet win - hopefully, the PCs are not that gullible.

Have I mentioned a swiss cheese-like cavern that is now the home of a gibbering mouther? Sandmen? We also get the Bestiary-appendix with read-aloud fluff, a list of all monster-rules used, reprints of all spells used, 6 (!!!) pages of hand-out art and there also are maps galore - each and every location herein has been provided in full color both for the DM and the players in separate pdfs included in the deal and this pdf also provides all of these maps as jpegs to print out/use with software.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are top notch, I didn't notice any glitches. Layout adheres to an easy-to-read two-column standard and the b/w-interior art fits thematically nice - especially for the price. The cartography is also good for the exceedingly low price-point and most importantly, covers each and every locale in detail. The pdf also comes fully bookmarked for your convenience and in two versions - with one being optimized for US-paper-standard and one for A4-standard for Europeans like yours truly - awesome!

"The Horn of Geryon" was a surprise beyond belief for me - a superb, awesome wilderness module if there ever was one - but it could have been a one-of-a-kind phenomenon. Let's get this straight out of the way - it wasn't. Much like it, Panataxia oozes old-school flavor in all the right ways - this is wonder. This is weirdness. This module is players looking with a mix of puzzlement and horror at your screen, not knowing what is going on, sensing the unknown and embarking, wild-eyed on an adventure they can't predict. Beyond even that, Panataxia is HUGE and the text for even connecting tunnels makes this simply glorious. With the archwizard, DMs still have a tool to guide players and lethal encounters are mixed with a spelunking-style that hearkens back in detail as well as in at times unobtrusive tongue-in-cheek humor and in sense of wonder to the Dungeoneer's Survival Guide of old, one of the best books ever released on that topic.

Richard Develyn. Remember this name. Managing to create one superb module is a fortunate occurrence. Actually surpassing it in the next offering is a trend. Managing to capture the essence of what planar adventuring is about, this module ranks among the best planar modules out there - unique, innovative, wondrous places, cool NPCs/monsters, superb terrain hazards - there is NOTHING about this pdf I could complain about. Let me spell it out - with this, Richard Develyn has reached a point where the environment created is on par with the iconic, legendary writing of Greg A. Vaughan. Let that soak in.

And then, there's the price-point. 4 bucks. 4 friggin' bucks. This is a joke. Seriously, I guarantee you won't find a better bang-for-buck ratio anywhere. Panataxia not only should be considered a stellar module that fits into EVERY campaign, it should be considered a hallmark -I couldn't for the life of me name any 2nd level stand-alone PFRPG-module on par with this one. Not ONE. Mind you, players will need both brains and brawns to survive this place, but I also guarantee that they will be talking about this weird place for years to come. This module BLEW ME AWAY. Whether for groups preferring a hack-and-slay-style or for those endeavoring to identify and codify environments and delve deep immersion-wise into a given environment, Panataxia delivers in unprecedented level of detail without losing its easy accessibility.

Seriously - get this if wondrous locales and inspired old-schoolish adventuring or excellent sandboxes to develop and play in even remotely interest you. I am thoroughly impressed and delighted by this module - it stands out among all of its competitors and should be considered an absolute must-buy. With this module, 4 Dollar Dungeons has the second module in my list of candidates for the Top Ten of 2013. If it were possible, I'd rate this 6 stars - and since I can't, I'll instead settle on 5 stars + seal of approval.

EDIT: This and Horn of Geryon shared my no.1 spot of my Top Ten of 2013. That good.

Endzeitgeist out.

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This adventure is 65 pages long, 2 pages front cover/editorial, 1 page ToC, 1 page SRD, leaving us with 61 pages of content, so let’s check this out!

This being an adventure-review, the following text contains SPOILERS. Potential players may wish to jump to the conclusion.

Still here? All right! It all starts with a missing rabbit. No, seriously. When the rather difficult daughter of a retired adventurer turned innkeeper misses her rabbit, he asks the PCs to investigate and, providing the distracting child can be persuaded to let the PCs snoop through her things (her interference actually makes the job harder – VERY cool!), they will find that a bauble has gone missing alongside the pet. The trail leads the PCs to a warehouse and it is here I’d like to mention one peculiarity of this module: The maps. While not particularly awesome, the fact that just about every major location is detailed not only in the module, but also as a separate jpg that makes for a nice player-friendly hand-out is a big factor on the plus-side. What about the warehouse? Well, turns out the culprit is one nasty druid named Alydon, who sent his snake companion to retrieve the bauble – the animal just couldn’t let the fluffy food just be! Alydon and his thugs are currently trying to “persuade” a local captain to get them to a certain island. It should be noted that we get a buff-suite and rather extensive tactics for Alydon, adding to the massive skill-DC-tables that help in the beginning investigation. In the aftermath of the quarrel, the PCs will find yet another of the strange baubles – as well as a treasure map that also features a rhyme that will help the PCs decipher what to do – both again replicated as a jpg-hand-out. But how to reach a remote island at this level? Thankfully, they have just rescued a captain and thus, the PCs can board the Astrid to get to the island of Snakero. The tropical island was once a playing ground of Geryon, who led the local kobold tribes in a vast game to almost exterminate themselves while squabbling over the baubles called Hydra Eyes, 2 of which now are in the PC’s possession.

The sea-journey aboard the Astrid, a vessel with 4 (!!!) full color maps (again, with player-friendly versions) is AWESOME. From the mutated rats, chances to deal with diseases, minor lightning elementals accompanying a storm to bad dreams, the journey should be remarkable and would make a great way to e.g. enhance adventures à la “Journeys to the West” even if you don’t plan on running the module.

After 7 days, the Astrid reaches the island and the captain tells the PCs he’ll return twice for them at specific dates – after that, he’ll assume they’re dead. The island of Snakero is a great case of nomen est omen and offers a variety of dangerous serpentine life as well as a great, concise table of travel speeds that provides a godsend, easy help for the Dm to track movement and time. GLORIOUS and something I wish all modules with any amount of wilderness featured. Wandering monster tables, skills it takes to scavenge food and water would be expected – where the module starts breathing this magical sense of wonder, all too often absent from modern modules, is with the allies – from a lucky pelican that actually will provide quite a boon (great synergy with real life mythology) and a monkey (who may or may not give his life to prevent a particularly nasty ambush) to a well-endowed, but not particularly bright mermaid, the PCs will have some nice means of…ehem…interacting with the locals. Especially cool – not all of these interactions are required; there is no catch unless you absolutely want there to be one. This breaks the “everything is connected”-assumption and makes the module feels more…alive. Speaking of alive – the degenerate descendants of the kobold tribes of once still inhabit the island and the tactics of them are WORTHY! They fight dirty and smart – and oh so glorious. Poison-darts, cower below the water surface while breathing through reeds, summoned beasts, deadly ambushes – the environmentally-relevant combat encounters will test not only the mettle of the PCs, but also the brains of the players, which is EXACTLY what so many modules get wrong.

Presentation-wise, the exploration of the island is a sandbox in the truest and best form – the aforementioned encounters should provide for a lot of things to do alongside e.g. dealing with malaria and, of course, the Ordeals: Spread throughout the island, there are temples – one devoted to Geryon’s supremacy over the respective elemental lords and home to an hydra eye each. Every temple again comes with a full-color map that also is featured as a player-friendly map – and yes, e.g. wall hp/hardness are included! The respective shrines will scare the players and manage to evoke a sense of danger as well as explorer’s awe – the PCs may see the stones a medusa has left in the earth shrine before they find her remains the caryatid column guardian, for example. Or take the shrine of air, which is a small volcanic cauldron, only accessible from the main island when the tide is low – worse, the caldera is suffused by sulphuric mists that obscure everything inside and make for great hunting grounds for the giant constrictor snake living there. If your PCs are dumb, they’ll die here. Wait, why? Well, I mentioned tides, didn’t I? Turns out the mists clear depending on the tide and tables make this easy to recall for the DM.

But wait, you’ll say, do I have to track tides? Yes, for this module features 10 pages of tide tracking and food consumption-sheets for all the time the PCs spend on Snakero. Adventure-writers out there: Read this. Look at it. THEN COPY IT. These sheets are the difference between tedious tracking and easily looking it up and will feature in ALL my future island/coastal explorations. Better, they are not simply a backdrop/relevant for this one shrine, the tides also greatly influence the type of challenge the PCs will find in the shrine of water – as that one floods completely at high tide, but houses dangerous animals on low tide… The fire shrine is also awesome – toxic fume/heat build up, a maze full of hot mud lakes and flammable gas make exploring these caverns and the foe inside, an advanced thoqqua so rewarding I consider it one of my very favorite locations in ANY first level module I’ve read for any iteration of a d20-based game. Yes. That good.

As soon as the PCs have picked up the different eyes, they’ll have the tools to access the temple of Geryon, which is a stone 1 to 10-Hydra in the island’s central lake – yes, it rises from the water, NOT an island. In order to open the door, the PCs will have to scale the stone hydra-heads rising from the waves and set the eyes into the stone irises of the hydra-heads. As the 200 ton stone door slides open, the PCs may get inside the temple and face its guardian – a variant hydra that fights rather democratically and not to maximum efficiency, but which should still make for a massive challenge for the PCs. Worse yet for them – upon defeating the beast, the door will crush down in one round, the eyes will pop from the sockets and the PCs will be sealed inside. Now escaping via a variety of means is covered – from toppling Geryon’s statue and climbing out and various other means, the PCs will have some options...if one of them managed to get outside, he might even manage to find the eyeballs and set them back in – which, however, will trash the temple for good, for a suitably climactic finale. To once again show you the amount of details crammed into these pages: It is mentioned how many rations of meat the Hydra yields… Hopefully the PCs don’t succumb to the predators of the island while waiting for their trip home – now that they have wrestled the Horn of Geryon (by the way: Not the true horn, of course, but valuable nonetheless!) from the serpentine hell-hole of Snakero…

All spells used by spellcasters in the module have been reprinted in an appendix, as have been fluff-only descriptions of all monsters/adversaries included. A glossary of rules-terms, feats etc. provides even the most inexperienced of DMs with rules-information for just about any particular tactical option without requiring the DM to consult additional books and beyond the GENIUS tide/food-tracking sheets. The 12 pieces of artwork in the module have been reproduced in their own appendix to print out and show to your players, making for yet another great way to make “Horn of Geryon” more rewarding.

Conclusion: Editing and formatting re top-notch, I didn’t notice any glitches. Layout adheres to a crisp, easy-to read, superbly organized standard that makes running the module with an absolute minimum of preparation time not only feasible, but rather easy. The concise table of challenges and rewards also makes customizing the module rather simple with regards to reward/challenge-levels. The pdf is fully bookmarked and the pdf comes in two versions – one optimized to be printed out in a4-format and one optimized for letterpack (US)-paper standards, meaning that Europeans like yours truly get a printed out format that is nicely suited to our paper-size. The pdf comes with extensive, nested bookmarks, 10 jpg-player-handout maps, additional 2 player handouts (which are slightly lacking in the resolution department and could be a bit more crisp) and is VERY easy to run overall.

There are not enough wilderness adventures out there. In spite of their popularity, when compared to dungeons and urban modules, wilderness modules often get the short end of the stick – which is a pity, for when I think about 2nd edition and old-school gaming, the environment, the epic journeys through locations like the Desert of Desolation or the jungles of Maztica are what made a LOT of the glorious sense of wonder associated in retrospective with old-school modules. This module captures that sense of excitement, that sense of wonder, danger and challenge that made me get into roleplaying games in the first place. Suffused with subtle humor, details galore, puzzles that don’t feel artificial or might not be even seen as puzzles and studded with just about every comfort a DM could want, this module offers a window back into this peculiar way of crafting modules, one that evokes the sense of wonder associated with e.g. the first tomb raider game or aforementioned classics. Going even beyond that, its mastery in both writing and mood-crafting surpasses just about every module in the Dungeon Crawl Classics 3.X-line and is on par and perhaps even beyond Frog God Games.

Yes. That good. Author Richard Develyn has managed to meld superb ease of mastering with stellar writing in a grand voyage to the heyday of wonder, excitement and danger – survival, tides and the best environmental encounters I’ve read in any PFRPG-module make this a challenge that raises the bar for any wilderness module out there. Yes, the story is not that awe-inspiring, but it doesn’t have to be. If I were to complain about one thing, it would be the relatively low-res handouts jpgs, but then again, this pdf also comes at a price-point that is almost insane for this level of quality.

Want to really know how good this is? It’s so good that I consider it on par with Raging Swan Press’ Retribution, my all-time favorite PFRPG 1st level module. Where Retribution is story-driven, the Horn of Geryon exhibits a mastery of the genre of wilderness modules that has me craving more. “The Firemaker” was good – the “Horn of Geryon” is a whole different beast. Any DM of Freeport, Razor Coast, Skull and Shackles (and perhaps Serpent Skull) – GET THIS. And other DMs – get this as well. If you even remotely have a soft spot for a sense of wonder, for having your preparation time minimized (who doesn’t?) and for those of you who like humanoids that act INTELLIGENT, shell out the extremely fair 4 bucks. This module is iconic in all the right ways: Smart, witty, clever, easy to run, challenging, deadly, unique – in one word:

Glorious.

If I could, I’d immediately, without hesitation, rank this 6 stars. We need more wilderness modules of this quality, more of this wonder, of this excitement, of this design philosophy. If you even remotely like Frog God Games modules, old-school-style or if you’re remotely curious what all those grognards are talking about when they complain about a lacking sense of wonder in those new modules, then this is an absolute must-buy.

And yes, if 2013 does not spoil me completely with mind-bogglingly good releases, this one will feature on my Top-Ten-list. It is not often I get to enjoy a module as much as I did this one. Far more scarce is the module I feel the NEED to run in my campaign. This one, I’ll run come hell or high water (pardon the pun!). Adventure-writers, take a peek. This is how it’s done. Final rating? 5 stars and seal of approval and the status of sharing the throne of my favorite PFRPG-1st-level module. Here’s to hoping we’ll get more wilderness modules from 4 Dollar Dungeons.

Endzeitgeist out.

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This module is 39 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, ¾ of a page ToC, 1 page SRD, leaving us with 35 ¼ pages of content, so let’s check this out!

This being an adventure-module, the following review contains SPOILERS. Potential players may wish to jump to the conclusion.

All right, still here? The village of Pig’s Trotter is your typically (un-)friendly backwater village – peaceful, distrustful of strangers and featuring a pig-based economy. All would be well, were it not for strange incursions from the nearby forest – pigs get slaughtered and though the village is located in the middle of civilized lands, humanoids like goblins and worse are sighted. A job for adventurers, to be sure! Doing some research in town might be helpful and the fully mapped village is provided n quite some detail, including a settlement statblock. Also, a layout peculiarity I actually like is introduced: Where applicable, all DCs with short pieces of information on what they are for are collected at the end of each room/location, collecting all rules-relevant bits and pieces in one place. Nice!

It should quickly become apparent that the PCs will have to track the goblins back through the forest and before we get into the action, there’s yet another thing to be aware of: The amount of notes for the DM: Drawing your attention to particularly nasty tricks, potentially lethal traps as well as the VERY extensive and detailed information that helps adjust rewards via a table is commendable indeed and makes running the module with relatively short prep-time a possibility. Again, kudos!

In classic modules, a sometimes distinct and oftentimes macabre component was part of the gaming experience, as was a certain anything-goes mentality and one of the most refreshing things about this module is that it breathes this spirit. You see, the source of the incursions is a tribe of pyromaniac goblins with its allies, under the command of one Ifrit sorcerer named Kalza. While I still could froth at the mouth at Paizo getting the mythology of the term “Ifrit” wrong, this is not the module’s fault, so back to it: The fire planetouched sorcerer has ventured forth to an abandoned mining operation of a clan of dwarves, where once mithril was excavated and smelted down. To properly conserve resources, these dwarves have bound a fire elemental, which they conveniently forgot in the old place and which has since then turned mad. Kalza seeks a way to turn this as of yet bound creature into a companion. The dwarven mining complex is surprisingly 3d in layout and features several interesting features, one of which would be a rotund that allows access to all 4 levels of the dungeon.

Interspersed throughout the levels, the PCs may meet goblins playing skull-ball, a zombie wyrmling, a psychotic bugbear, a young ogrekin (whom they may command to stand in the corner when confronted with parental authority – though he’s bigger than the PCs and carries a nasty greatsword) and his mother, an ogress that ate her son’s father since the hobgoblin failed to maintain her. It should be noted that the dungeon features a kind of ecology that explains what people do and while it can be run as static, you could easily make this a dynamic environment – guidelines for NPC behavior are part of the deal. Speaking of which: If the PCs confront the ogress with the death of her son (e.g. by throwing his head at her – and if your players are like mine, you know they’re capable of doing something like this!) – she is first taken aback and then gets a frenzied morale bonus. Minor? Yes, but reactions like that make environments stand out and characters believable.

Now the ultimate goal beyond the exploration of the dungeon would of course be the defeat of the ifrit and the elemental – perhaps the PCs even manage to get some mithril out of the ground! I’ve mentioned old-school writing and another favorite of mine is a quite deadly trap: While recognizable and telegraphed in advance, there’s a pit-trap that is almost guaranteed to kill whoever falls in. On the interesting side is how it’s covered: With paper painted like the floor – prodding the ground with a stick/carefully working your way forward automatically finds the trap, even if perception-checks failed. Call me grognard, but in the days of old, we saw more often puzzles, traps and hazards that could be avoided/disarmed/moved around by just acting smart instead of (only) relying on die-rolls. As long as the rolls are still there to represent character-expertise versus player-competence and as long as they make sense, I applaud solutions like this and would like to see more in the future.

When all’s done in the complex, the PCs will btw. also have a route to further adventures in the underdark open. The module also offers a 3-page index of reprints of spells used in the module and 4 pages of glossary that covers rules from catching fire to undead traits and should make running the module especially for less experienced DMs easier. There also are 4 full-color (though less detailed) versions of the maps of the complex with grids. The final 4 pages collect the artwork as a kind of player-hand-outs.

Conclusion: Editing and formatting are good, though not perfect – I noticed punctuation errors, lower case letters that should have been upper case and minor misuses of words. Nothing that would detract from understanding the module, though, and all belong to the world of minor glitches. Layout adheres to a 2-column standard with statblocks being shaded reddish. The b/w-artworks are nice stock art and I welcome the decision to collect the relevant skill-DCs, as it makes running the module easier. The pdf is also rather printer-friendly, not succumbing to the parchment-background disease and instead opting for a printer-friendly white background. The pdf sports extensive bookmarks and comes in two versions: One optimized to be printed out in us letterpack format and one optimized for A4, which is a great service to Europeans like yours truly and duly appreciated. The module also comes with 8 jpegs – 4 depicting the simple versions of the dungeon-maps and 4 depicting the more detailed versions. What really bugs me with the cartography is not its quality (though it is nothing to write home about, it serves its purpose and I’ve seen MUCH worse…), but the fact that ALL versions are studded with numbers denoting the respective rooms, which makes it impossible for me to hand them out to my players sans breaking immersion – a version of the maps sans numbers would have been much appreciated.

Honestly, I didn’t expect too much from this module, but it proved to be a pleasant surprise – not due to antagonists, story or anything like that – honestly, these components are not the module’s strengths. The strengths lie in author Richard Develyn’s subtle humor that suffuses the module without making it ridiculous, in its details that make it come alive. Not only via front presentation, but also in style, it remembered me of the better installments of Goodman Games DCC-series for 3.X. While I did not enjoy the series universally (having been more a Necromancer Games fanboy myself), it did provide us with some interesting modules then, though not all were of superb quality. Is this a good module, then? Yes, I think by virtue of its relatively interesting dungeon-design and its characters, it stands out as an above-average offering that should delight some of you.

As much as I like the module’s go-play approach, it should be noted, though, that minus maps, glossary and appendix, its page-count is much less impressive, at roughly 21 pages – still respectable, though I can’t help but feel that some sort of proper epilogue/catharsis to the module would have been in order – something to make its end feel less abrupt. Another minor issue is that some creatures are named in the fluff/DM’s text, but when they just use a monster’s stats straight from the bestiary, the statblocks don’t sport this name. Minor, yes, but a slight inconvenience that is only relevant due to the otherwise extremely user-friendly presentation. I also would have liked to see slightly more terrain-use by the respective combatants, but in contrast to some other modules out there, we at least get some of that. When all is said and done, this is a nice freshman-offering with an old-school flair for a fair price and thus my final verdict will clock in at 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4 for the purpose of this platform.

Endzeitgeist out.