This review contains spoilers

The adventure starts with the characters being hired to find an amulet that is lost in somewhere in the Fell Mountains. A trading caravan was transporting to the amulet through the mountains on its way to the frontier town of Kraden’s Hill. The characters can follow the trail of the attackers (degenerate toad-men) for a short while, but will have to continue exploring the mountains on their own as the trail becomes too hard to follow, if they are to succeed at their mission. Of course, once they find the lair of the toad-men, they will have to fight them to recover the amulet. The adventure ends once the amulet is returned to their patron.

The first thing to understand about this adventure is that it is designed to be “old school”, therefore, not everything is quantified or explained by a magical effect found in one of the core rulebooks. For example, when the characters first arrive to the toad-men they witness their shaman summoning a foul slime toad to prevent them from recovering the amulet. This is not linked to a monster summoning spell or to a specific magic item, rather, the event is used further the story, expose the characters to the power of the amulet when used by a priest of the Toad God, and as a mean to further enhance the story. Having played this game for several years and being “old school” myself, this is something I truly enjoy. Not waste of time trying to figure out if it is “legit”. My most memorable games are the ones where not everything was transparent to the players or explainable by a rule in a book. In any case, it makes for awesome storytelling and a sense of wonder.

The second thing awesome about this adventure is that it is more like an open sandbox. There is a small hexcrawl provided complete a player’s map. Not something you often find in Pathfinder’s adventure, but something that is extremely for players as they get to choose where they want to go.

Lastly, many names and locations are rather generic because the adventure can be used anywhere there is a jungle and a mountain range. There are notes as to how to adapt the adventure to your own world.

Overall, I really liked the adventure. It is created to be played as a small sandbox with only the goal of recovering the amulet. The main antagonists, the degenerate toad-men, are really fearsome foes, their savageness being well rendered; and their lair is very evocative of what you would expect from such weird foes. It is a very challenging adventure I believe though, but one that is very enjoyable!