A third-party collection of monsters for the Pathfinder RPG, clearly inspired by the AD&D 1st Edition Fiend Folio - its title is even taken from the Fiend Folio's subtitle. This is actually a conversion of another third-party product, designed for AD&D 1E, and that origin is reflected in the distinctly old-school writing style. Like the Fiend Folio, this book is full of strange and unusual monsters. There aren't any truly bad monsters in this book, although some feel less inspired (mainly the subtle variations on existing monsters) while others feel like a few random traits smashed together. (Also, for some reason, they included the wood giant from the Wizards-approved third-party Tome of Horrors.) One disappointing aspect of the book is that only half or so of the creatures are illustrated, but fortunately they all include the Pathfinder-standard text descriptions.

Some highlights from the book include:

• Arcanoplasm: An amorphous creature that absorbs and replicates spells.
• Blessed Ring: A ring of mushrooms that protects the good and devours the evil.
• Bone Sovereign: A skeletal creature that absorbs other skeletons to increase its power, and can command other undead.
• Brine Crust: An ooze-like creature composed of animated salt that can drain moisture from victims.
• Dark Woodsman: A wood-based humanoid that animates trees to fight in its other-planar wars.
• Goldencrest: An ooze infused with positive energy that targets undead.
• Ioun Golem: A construct that can compel others to gather ioun stones to reactivate it, after which it's basically a gem beholder.
• Haemovorid: A self-hating, bloodthirsty fusion of pixie and stirge.
• Inscriber: An undead creature that craves written knowledge and pulls it from writing around them; they can also steal or impart knowledge to others.
• Lostling: A spirit that died lost and alone in the wilderness, and tries to make others share its fate by getting them lost as well.
• Molt Naga: A naga that can teleport out of its shed skin, which fights on while the naga escapes.
• Rope Horror: Basically a rope golem, which can unwind itself to pass through small gaps.
• Skyshark: Part shark, part bat, all murder.
• Time Spider: A spider that builds its webs in four dimensions; adventurers may suddenly find themselves surrounded by its webs.
• Tulgorth: Plant-mold creatures that drain the life force from nearby plants, and can infect humanoids with spores to create more tulgorths.
• Vorpa: A giant wasp-scorpion hybrid. 'Nuff said. (Originally posted on Goodreads)

Definitely in my personal Appendix "N". Great resource for World Builders. Another great product from the team at Expeditious Retreat Press!!!

This World Building Resource would go on my Appendix N. Aspiring World Builders will get a decent amount of mileage out this resource.

Good, solid adventure. A dark tower, crazy wizard, tales of strange deadly creatures... what's not to like? This fit seamlessly into my existing campaign. The new monsters are creative and tough for the unwary. There's some fun, new magic to be found as well. I highly recommend this one.

Quite frankly this book is amazing. I have recently read half-a-dozen or so books on everyday life in Europe during the middle ages and I don't think that I have learned anything that isn't already written in this book. Even if you're just a history buff that doesn't play RPGs you could get a ton of value out of this book. The amount of research that has gone into this work is phenomenal. If you want to run a campaign with a strong foundation in historical accuracy there is nothing written that comes even remotely close to being as helpful as this. There are newer editions available but I purchased the first edition several years ago and conitunue to use it so I am placing my review here for that reason.

Really enjoyable AD&D style adventure. They do a great job of continuing the tradition of old school modules.

The Advanced Adventure series is really great! Perfect addition for any AD&D group.

Really well done adventure for 1st edition AD&D. Good job!

I've run it twice, once in 1e, and once converting on the fly to 5e. It is an extremely well-constructed dungeon crawl, designed to be run bottom-up and top-down, depending on your needs. The monsters and traps and hazards are mostly unique, with a great creepy theme that PCs seem to really react well to. It strikes an excellent balance as far as danger to the PCs, also.

One thing to note is that the follow-on adventure, Down the Shadowvein, is more of a sandbox set of areas, and not written in the same style as this adventure.

I had bought this hoping the authors had worked out how magic could be embedded into medieval society without it feeling like modern technology (i hav that problem with steam punk) and causing modern society. (downtrodden serfs, hapless villagers, starving townsfolk)

Instead the magic users are a guild, like tanners, alchemists. Sort of squeezed between the cracks of history, without making any changes. This is good if you want low-magic games that look and feel just like historical reality - play Harn Master? - though i find that too gritty.

I had wanted it to be more like a fourth estate, with its own power base, but not too powerful, held in check by the nobility's armies and the church's faith-based powers. But not everyone with a sword works for a lord, and i would expect rogue mages just like there are witches and mercenaries. So i would also expect magic-strong areas to have better food in the country, fewer famines (ourside cities and large towns), better roads and tracks, some medicines etc. And there may be a rub - out in the wilderness there are no such luxuries, you need to do it all yourself!

A simply fantastic book for background when running a medieval campaign.

Great little free product that should be included in any mapmakers library as a resource for reviewing their own creations. It overviews aspects of geography and occurances in nature that ought to influence our designs but are easily forgotten in the excitement once pen hits paper so to speak. Highly recommended!

I have to say, i wasn't sure what exactly i was going to read, and was hoping it would help me define the contents of my fantasy world, as well as help me personally 'think' in a medieval way for DM'ing. I am so very impressed by this medieval guide! I wish i could articulate better in words my overall satisfaction. To the author, thank you so much for taking the time to pull this together, you are helping many DM's young and old master their worlds...

This is one of my favorite OSR adventures. I absolutely love it! Its a great dungeon crawl with some great villians and awesome magic items.

This is one of my favorite OSR adventures. Defintely has that gritty vibe to it.