My group and I really enjoyed this. It is a very coherent adventure, things made sense and I appreciated not having to make corrections to the story! There was enough information about the village and its inhabitants to make it feel like a real place. Also, as a history enthusiast, I loved how the cherry elements actually have parallels in the medieval real world, like cherry orchards, cherry fairs and cherry desserts. The Tanglewood is also really well done and provides ideas that a GM can use in a faerie forest in the future too. My only word of caution for the GM is that - Spoiler - since the Grombel can be harmed by fire, it seems likely (at least this is what my players did) that the PCs will somehow just overpower it using fire.

I'm going to gush in this review.
So my country entered a lockdown at very short notice, on a Wednesday when we were meant to be playing D&D that Saturday afternoon + evening. There was some discussion and on Friday night it was decided I'd run something Pathfinder via Discord, and it would have level 2 or 3 pregens that I'd create.

I needed an adventure that would take about 7 hours to play, and needed minimal prep, and I had this one on my watchlist.

Best $1.49 I spent at Drive-Thru, absolutely recommend you go and buy it. For personal reasons I wanted the party to be all elfs, visiting and elf village so I quickly reskinned everybody's race. I spend about 10 minutes writing the stats for the titular fey, and ... that was it. The rest of the monsters I could fill from a usual bestiary.

I printed this, but didn't feel the need to highlight or take notes. The party got thrown into the adventure, and started the investigation of a missing child (a good strong hook that most parties will take), and as parties will always do, went off on the wrong direction. But that is fine there was enough stuff in here to flesh everything out. I had to quickly pull a short dead exit dungeon out of my prep shelf, but I knew what needed to be in it.

At its heart this is a simple mystery/investigation. It has a strong fey vibe, and it plays up the creepy and unknowing attributes of the fey really really well. The village comes alive easily, and feels real.

The session was very memorable. I spent longer whipping up 6 pregens in herolab than other prep work. My only negative comment is there didn't seem to be a player facing map to give the players, so I just gave them the real one. *

A good module for beginner roleplayers. I DM'd with a party of 5 people who had never played before, using Labyrinth Lord. It's quite easy for the players as well as the DM which is ideal if you're just starting out. The whole story took about 3 hours. It is a very easy campaign but I would recommend it.

WHAT WORKS: A nice change of pace for a level 1 adventure, with one of the coolest workarounds for a level 1 party having to deal with an enemy that’s immune to non-magical weapons. The encounters in the Tanglewood outside of town are cool and potentially awe-inspiring for a level 1 party.

WHAT DOESN’T WORK: Nothing that can’t be fixed with a conversion to Savage Worlds or the AGE system, something other than a D&D derivative (purely subjective, of course.) Oh, the color selection for the cover is just downright ugly. I would have picked something, anything, other than pink, I think. And maybe an art piece that fit the theme more closely (though the art is directly linked to the adventure).

CONCLUSION: Another great adventure with a unique adversary. If I were to nitpick anything about the SNG adventures, it would maybe be the production values, but remember that this is coming from a guy who’s looking at the material from outside the OSR fanbase. The art and layout perfectly matches the aesthetic they are aiming for. For the material itself, I have no real complaints, as the adventures have been unique and interesting, with conversion work being no real problem. Stealer of Children continues to fit that pattern, providing low-level fantasy adventure with a weird/horror twist.

For my full review, please visit http://mostunreadblogever.blogspot.com/2013/06/tommys-take-on-stealer-of-children.html

The Stealer of Children is a Labyrinth Lord adventure for 1st level characters. The product is neatly presented, with good art and maps, and the writing is clear with excellent attention to detail. This adventure takes place in the small town of Leandras Row and its environs, a setting that can easily be placed in any area of a homebrew campaign setting. This is largely a freeform adventure, with characters making their own decisions, so may not be suitable for groups that need a lot of nudging to get them to head in the right direction.

In this adventure the players arrive in Leandras Row, where they are immediately confronted by a challenge that sets the scene for the remainder of the adventure. Something mysterious is afoot in the town, and it's up to the PCs to discover what's afoot. While investigating, they get to engage with numerous well-crafted and interesting NPCs and factions, and that is one of this adventure's strengths. The NPCs are detailed, the town is detailed, and there's lots of opportunity for good and interesting roleplaying. The characters will have to work to solve the mystery. Of course, while investigating matters take a turn for the worse as the Stealer of Children strikes again, and with missing kids on the menu, things start to get serious. The PCs need to delve into an ancient past to discover the truth of matters, and offer some chance of redemption for a family spurned. Then, they'll need to find a solution to finding the Stealer of Children and destroying a creature that mere 1st level mortals should not be able to harm.

I've always enjoyed Small Niche Games' adventures for Labyrinth Lord, and this one is no exception. It's a lovely and detailed freeform adventure, where the characters aren't forced to take certain paths on how to approach the mystery and the adventure. The story is interesting and has a good back-story, and it should be a good romp for the characters in solving it. This is very much a roleplaying heavy adventure - combat encounters are few and far between and even the fixed combat locations/dungeons don't offer much in terms of continuous challenge. LLs might want to use random encounters in the environs to challenge the PCs in this area a little further.

The adventure itself can actually be quite short, and without long combat encounters, the roleplaying can be handled fairly quickly. The PCs need to be proactive, though, otherwise the players might get bored if they're not getting much in the way of information and it can easily feel like you're not getting anywhere. Some encouragement might be needed here and there. I think the final solution to the adventure is quite clever, and I think the players will enjoy it once they've discovered the culprit and managed to find out how to deal with it. If this adventure is treated as a sandbox in some regards, these issues can easily be addressed, and creative LLs will make this and enjoyable adventure.

Overall, I think this is a good adventure. I love the detail behind the NPCs and the town, the premise is interesting, and the freeform nature of the adventure makes for an interesting change of pace from the linear style of many adventures. The combat is a bit lacking in several areas, but that can be addressed while investigating the town environs. Proactive characters will find there's plenty on offer here, and will enjoy piecing together the pieces of the puzzle, while LLs might need to encourage other groups to ask the right questions and investigate the right areas. A good introductory adventure for characters, particularly from a roleplaying point of view.