This is really rather fun! The characters have come into possession of a well-provenanced treasure map (never mind how) and head off eagerly to the remote valley it depicts to go dig the treasure up.

Only... there's a prosperous little village on the very spot they are heading for... and none of the locals know anything about any treasure! At least, they don't know what they know. Well, they'd have been digging the place up had they known anything was to be had.

The characters will have to follow what clues they have or can unearth, more like archaeologists than adventurers. Of course, it's vital that they don't tip the villagers off as to what they are after, else they'll all become treasure-hunters too and start digging...

This is an adventure where it is genuinely possible to achieve your goal without a single round of combat! Naturally, the party may provoke a brawl or you may choose to provide one if you know your players will be unhappy without some combat... but it can be interesting, even for the scrappiest players, to sometimes face a challenge where fighting will not get them what they are after.

The GM will have to think things through carefully, to ensure that clues are found without making it too obvious. Various locations and people are described and the clues to be found are detailed clearly, but it is left to you to decide how to let the characters find each one out. Of course, there's some misdirection too and if they follow the wrong clue they will end up digging a hole that will only result in the ire of whoever's flowerbed it is in the middle of!

Have fun with this unusual little caper.

This module was essentially written as part of the ill fated Dwimmermount campaign as part of the stretch goals, the author (known for his Adventures Dark & Deep) kindly offered to write an adventure detailing one of the treasure maps found in Dwimmermount. I imagine most people expected a mini-dungeon, instead it's essentially a write up of a small town and a treasure hunt.

It's actually a very interesting idea, I was a little disappointed not to get a dungeon, but the end result is extremely clever and charming. It does have flaws though - it's rather sketchy, the npcs don't have really any physical description or in most cases, even a personality, just name and age. It's suggested that some of the NPCs befriend the PCs, but without that information it's more difficult to. I also would have liked some adventure hooks for the village beyond this adventure, as well as reactions or aftermath of the townsfolk to the PC finding the adventure.

There really isn't any combat involved except for a rival group also looking for the treasure, which seems a little forced.

3 pages are devoted to a rather strange use of the OGL. It seems to include every monster from the Tome of Horrors, so the Section 15 of the OGL goes on and on and on. Yet strictly speaking, the product does not use any items not found in the SRD, so that was really unnecessary. Beyond that, as the copyright owner of Adventures Dark and Deep, he didn't need to use the OGL to use his own material, it's only needed when using other people's material. But it's rather a moot point because the open content declaration says there is no open content in the product (which strictly isn't true, by using the OGL, all things derived from the SRD are open content, essentially the stats)

So basically, it's really a 6 page module in total, with 3 pages for maps (1 treasure map, 1 player map and 1 DM map that is the same only keyed). As a freebie it's pretty neat, but I'm not sure it's worth $2.49. 99 cents, sure.