Scent of the Beast is designed in a surprisingly complicated way for an introductory adventure. It can be divided in 2 parts: the first part takes on the form of a series of encounters, as the PCs and the crew of the land barge Arda travel from Cymril to the town of Tordan. This part involves four encounters, two of which can be considered interludes. In the second part, which deals with the main mission, to find a traitor in Tordan and stop the illegal weapons trade with the Beastmen, resides the gist of Scent of the Beast. The latter part involves a few investigations and two battles and yet Scent of the Beast, as a whole, is a rather complicated book.

This is explained by the fact that the scenario swarms with NPCs (many merchants, Molith s bandits, Beastmen, the patrons of the tavern in Kiran etc.) and that the author crams it with details, minute descriptions rarely encountered in introductory adventures. Moreover, 25 pages are devoted to the encounters, 4 pages to the rudimentary rules of Talislanta and 15 pages to Tordan. Like Sarista, Scent of the Beast could be described as a sourcemodule rather than as an adventure. I think its best section is not the adventure itself, whose plot doesnt strike me, but the one in which Tordan (an uncommon city built on a mesa!) is detailed quarter by quarter. I would not recommend Scent of the Beast to a novice GameMaster, as it calls for some experience and imagination to run it properly. After all, if the GM uses all encounters, then it could be regarded as a mini-campaign.

I grade Scent of the Beast as a whole with 4 stars and the adventure itself with 3 stars.