Skeletons in the Closet

What you get:

27 page PDF detailing a low level adventure. As clearly stated this is a beginner’s adventure and as such is fairly simple in scope which is in my opinion a good thing. You get more than most basic adventures, certainly for what you pay for this module. The town and church have a brief history that relates to the adventure without being necessary to run it. You get tactics for the bad guys which is very helpful starting out with 3.5. You get suggestions on how to make the adventure harder or easier while actually running it without making it obvious that’s what your doing, a good skill for a DM to have. There also several built in hooks to other adventure possibilities. Finally you get battle maps for the important rooms which is a nice bonus. I don’t have any criticisms to level as the PDF matches its description and then gives even more than promised.

Warren Henderson

Skeletons in the Closet is a low-level adventure (being designed specifically for four 2nd level characters) for D&D. In addition to the adventure itself, it includes nine full-color map tiles of important locations in the adventure to be printed out.

Something unpleasant has happened in the catacombs under the Ashmoor Cathedral, a group of acolytes has disappeared as have the guards sent into fine them. The local Cardinal is looking for a group, a team to investigate the disappearances and restore the peace of mind of the locals.

It is a fairly standard dungeon (catacomb?) crawl with several varieties of undead, an evil wizard and a variety of interesting areas to explore. Nothing really stands out as either good nor bad about the adventure, it is just an adventure. As an introductory adventure for a new DM it should work well, with clearly defined and scripted NPCs and straightforward monsters.

More experienced players and DM may find it a little too basic for their tastes but it is a suitable basis for beginning a campaign on (if one wants to work for the church). There are a few mechanical problems, in that the evil wizard, according to the background, has been raising undead (skeletons and zombies mostly) but he is only 2nd level and has no items or other ways to actually do so. This is an oversight that should have caught and dealt with.

For a good, if basic, introductory scenario you could do worse then Skeletons in the Closet, but experienced players will probably want a bit more from their adventures.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Simply, direct scenario. Easy to use.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: A bit too simplistic. <br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Disappointing<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Disappointed<br>

Skeletons in the Closet is a 27 page d20 pdf adventure. The aim of the adventure is to provide beginner players and DMs the opportunity to explore the game by partaking in a simple scenario that won't leave them frustrated. The adventure is intended for 2nd level PCs, although it should be straightforward to adapt to lower levels or perhaps higher levels depending on the nature of the players involved. Of the 27 pages of the pdf, about half of those are devoted to detailing the adventure and adventure locations, while the other half provides scaled room maps that can be used as battlemaps in the adventure. The pdf is presented with a small number of pieces of art, none of them truly exceptional, although the maps are well done and clear, and the battlemaps are excellent. The pdf does not contain any bookmarks, although the table of contents is quite thorough.

The premise of the adventure is that the town of Ashmore requires help in investigating the disappearance of several clergy and catherdral guards in the lower caverns of their burial crypts. The characters are called upon to investigate these incidents and set about exploring the lower caverns where they will stumble upon a dark secret and a sinister villian obsessed with necromancy and the worship of dark gods. The adventure presents both the upper and lower caverns of the cathedral burial chambers, although only the sixteen encounter areas in the lower caverns are fleshed out. Typical chambers in the lower crypts include a fountain room, library, torture chamber, holy pool, dark temple and others, all of them largely the result of the villian wandering the crypt and having made a lair of it.

While most of the encounter areas have fixed inhabitants, the villian is entirely dynamic and useful information is provided to handle the movements of the villian while in the lower crypts as well as discussions on his tactics and abilities. In addition to the major villian, the player characters will have to content with other creatures within the caverns, mostly undead, but also the occasional hazard while exploring areas long uncovered such as rusted doors and slippery floors.

The adventure provides several ways in which characters can be enticed to join the adventure, and provides useful background information to expand on the material presented in the pdf. As the pdf suggests, the adventure can be made as complicated or as simple as the DM or players wish, and some suggestions along these lines are offered, in addition to advice on scaling the adventure for stronger and weaker parties. There's a decent amount of flavor text provided with each of the encounters given, and should be an adventure that can be run through in a single session given that there are only a handful of combat encounters in this adventure.

The adventure concludes by providing suggestions on how to handle possible outcomes as well as the rewards that might be appropriate for concluding the adventure. The remainder of the pdf is devoted to providing battlemaps for the more important rooms and areas in the lower crypts. These are beautifully done and incredibly useful, and an excellent addition to the pdf adventure.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: This is a decent adventure for novice players or DMs and provides a relatively straightforward adventure. The battlemaps are excellent and nicely done and will certainly come in useful. Enough has been done to provide a flavorful, although simple adventure that should be fun for beginner players.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: The pdf suffers from some significant layout and detailing issues. Blocked text, for example, is referred to on one page, but actually contained on the preceeding page. Other text is repeated, or in bold text for no apparent reason, and in general the layout and presentation was poor. In addition the stat blocks are often incorrect or even incomplete which would make if difficult to run for novice DMs, and there are some errors in the writing.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Disappointing<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>