A solid adventure for 2nd level players. This adventure could be ran at 3rd level and up to 6 players, but I think four to five players at 2nd or 3rd level is probably best. This took my group 7 hours to run, but could be shorter if you run it as written whcih I did not do - more on that later.

Overall, I liked this adventure. My players were heavily invested in the mystery and enjoyed interacting with the tag along NPC Landy. The combat encounters were fun and the puzzle fairly stumped my players. This adventure can be played as written and enjoyed fairly easily.

That said, I did modify this adventure. I thought it lacked tension in the beginning missing the mark of what makes a good horror. To remedy that, I changed the story so that Calador does not send of a message. Instead, Lindy sends a party of archaeologists and bodyguards to check in on Calador and his team who have not communicated after a prolonged period. That group Lindy sent out, in turn, sent her a cryptic and unsettling message just before they also went silent. Additionally, I changed Havel's Cross from an inn to an ancient tower that acted as a local landmark. The gruesome scene of corpses was moved to a campsite near Havel's Cross, and the temple is now underground with the entrance excevated. I made those seemingly insiginificant changes in order to better reflect the temple being an archaeological discovery and operation as I couldn't understand how the temple could only be recently discovered while it is above ground and so near a popular inn. Finally, Landy is taken hostage by Calador if the adventurers challenge him inside the temple. If the advneturers are deceived by Calador, he will kill Landy in the forest before attacking the adventurers. Landy can be downed at any point so the adventurers are required to protect her, though she is not dumb, and the only real time she was in danger was when Calador took her hostage. I found these changes to add dread, realism (I know, its a fantasy setting), and suspense that my players really enjoyed.

While I recommend incorporating my changes, the adventure as written is still solid!

This is by far my favorite oneshot for introducing new players to DnD, and TTRPGs in general. I have run it half a dozen times with newbies from all over the place. It is interesting to see, how new players approach situations very differently than players, who have played DnD for a long time & try to act “within the rules”.

What makes this adventure so good as an intro to the hobby?

1. It runs on the basic rules, so you need to spend exactly 0$ to start playing DnD.
2. The characters are lvl 2. Not level one means they do not get killed easily by accident. Not level three means, less extra abilities and spells, that will confuse first timers. There is a bit of everything: mystery (trying to figure out what happened at havels cross), searching the temple, combat, and a little puzzle to get to the boss fight.
3. It can be run in a single evening. (I highly recommend having pre-generated characters the players can choose from to save time.)

The only point of criticism I have as a more experienced DM, is that the info could be presented much more concisely. When I first started as a DM however, I was very happy with the “narrative” style of presentation.

I ran a modified version of this adventure as part of my homebrew campaign with a table of new players after we used the 'A Most Potent Brew' introductory adventure. It's a simple but interesting adventure, with plenty of useful information for the DM and lots of mysteries and hooks to keep the players immersed. I'd thoroughly recommend Richard Jansen-Parkes / Winghorn Press products.

I ran a modified version of this for my homebrew campaign.....it helped me tremendously and gave me a lot of good ideas and resources, even though I reconfigured a lot of it to suit my own needs.

Its a short document that's easy to read and review for needed information.

Very nicely done!

Note that, as written, it would also be a very fun one-shot adventure and is very DM-freindly to run.

Absolutely worth picking up!

Excellent module for beginners and experienced players alike. My players loved the feeling of suspense and we all agreed that the investigation and combat were well paced. This will definitely be one of my go-tos for new players who prefer horror settings.

Simple but great adventure! 2 locations, 3 potential combats, easy to set up and interesting story that can lead to major plots. We played it with my group along 3 sessions for a total 7 hours.

Excelent oneshot! I dm it for 2 new level 1 players and we completed it in one session. We had lots of fun :D Players got very into the story and investigating what had happend. I recommend it!

This adventure has more than enough detail to flesh it out as a one-shot, while being ambiguous enough to place it anywhere you want in your campaign. Ran this right after A Most Potent Brew, smooth transition. Some of the combat could be a little much, depending on how many PCs you have, but it is easy enough to scale without losing the thread of the adventure. I really enjoyed running it and playing the villain, and my players liked the puzzle and the surprise abilities of the villain.

Just ran this as a fill-in adventure in Ghosts of Saltmarsh when a player couldn't make it. It fit amazingly well with atmosphere and tone and thep layers had a blast. The strength lies in its simplicity that allows it to be run easily as a one-shot or a closed episode of a campaign. There are few flaws, namely lacks of maps for the inn and the final chamber and few continuity issues in an object changing from onyx to obsidian or Dwarf's name changing from Shatterbone to Stoneskin, but these are very minor. The only real flaw is that the adventure could use a background section explaining what is going on to the DM without having to read the whole adventure. Then again it is only six pages so even that can be forgiven. Overall the adventure proves that simple can still equal brilliant and is certainly worth a try.

Ran it for a group that hadn’t played D&D before, fit nicely into one session and was a lot of fun. Just the right amount of intrigue and problem solving with a bit of combat. Plus tons of atmosphere!

Thx, nice adventure! Done 2 time play it with 2 different groups They loved it!

I used this one shot for my first time DMing and it went great! Everything in the story was very simple to use such as the riddles. They were easily solvable, but still forced my players to think, and they were a lot of fun. I also love the backstory because (without any spoilers) the ending was rather emotional for them because of the relationship they developed with the main NPC. This one shot was about 2 or 3 hours, and only took up one session. I really liked how much lore there was despite how brief it was. I highly recommend those who are interested in DMing to use this as a jumping point!!!

Really fun! My DM ran this for me and a group of his coworkers. They were all new to the game but this was a great introductory adventure for 5e. Open but with clear goals, a few fun combat encounters, a good (but not frustrating) puzzle, and just the right amount of creepiness. Loved it.

This is a great low level adventure and great for newer DMs. It takes place in a ruins near a roadside Inn, meaning it can easily be slotted into any campaign setting. My players really enjoyed the adventure and the massacre at the Coaching Inn (which I renamed the Ironwood Stump to fit my campaign setting) was so evocative and my players were so shocked by it that after several comments from the party about the severity of it became canon that locals were afraid to go there and it remained abandoned causing bandits to become more active along the road creating more adventure hooks. The death cult also became a recurring organization in my campaign and Professor Landy a recurring NPC trying to help the party research the Cult's origins. The inclusion of a puzzle in the ruins really kept my players engaged and made it feel more mystical and not just hack and slash which was wonderful. I fully recommend this adventure. My only criticism is that there is no map for the Inn included but its easy enough to find a generic tavern/inn map online.

Ran this with a couple tweaks for my group in between Dragon Heist missions. A super fun adventure -- I loved the inclusions of both combat and puzzles. Not overly complicated, and allowed me as a DM to improvise where needed and not get bogged down in the details. I would absolutely reccomend this adventure!