Horrendous Habitats: Forsaken Hwellan is a 44 page pdf product and the first product in Silven Publishing's new Horrendous Habitats line. Each product in the line introduces an arch villain and its habitat to your d20 game, complete with history, other inhabitants, and more. This first product looks at Forsaken Hwellan, an evil den of madness occupied and run by priests of a plague god. Forsaken Hwellan is habitat suitable for 10th level characters.
Silven Publishing provides both a screen and print version of this product. The latter contains no bordering or art, thought the full text and maps are included. Writing, editing and layout is very good, something that Silven Publishing have achieved almost from their very first product. They certainly deliver something professional and well-presented. Some very good art in contained within the product, and it's bountiful as well, and the artists have done a good job to enhance the look of the product. The maps are good as well, clearly marked and labelled, with no omissions or discrepancies. Overall, a good job and a quality presentation.
Forsaken Hwellan is a seemingly deserted village that was once a meagre little village where inhabitants spent their time tending crops and livestock. Now Hwellan holds a dark secret and sinister people, and this product provides an extensive overview of the village, its history, its interesting location, its people and much more. And when I say extensive, I mean it - no stone is unturned, detail is everywhere (probably more than one would conceivably use) and lots of background and current information is included. It makes for a complete package, even including new spells, magical items, monsters etc. related to Hwellan and the priests of the plague god.
The pdf starts by providing sound advice on using Hwellan, including scaling details, a variety of plausible plot hooks, and hints on incorporating the location into your campaign. The pdf then moves on to provide an extensive overview of getting to Hwellan, including dealing with all aspects of the frozen weather of the forsaken village. The surrounding are detailed, and wandering monster encounters are provided for the journey there and through the mountains around Hwellan.
The next chapters deal with Hwellan itself, providing a thorough history on the plague that struck Hwellan, the rise of the plague priests, the current status of Hwellan and a location-based overview of all the important locations of Hwellan. There is lots of atmosphere here, each encounter written well and clearly to describe in detail the locations of the forsaken village. The locations and encounters make sense within the context of the village's history and present status, and provides a dynamic location for all the horrors that wander around the village. There is good opportunity for roleplaying interaction in the adventure, and certainly more than one way to handle the many perils that the village provides. I quite enjoyed reading through the product, as it provides a thorough and entertaining overview of a cursed place.
The latter parts of the pdf deal with all the new spells, monsters, NPCs, statistics and the like. Full statistics are provided for all the creatures possibly encountered in Hwellan. There are a few stat block errors here and there, but certainly not many and all very minor. New magical items are presented such as the Staff of the Ice-Mother, wielded by the Daughters of Ice, and Bottled Plague. Spells (almost entirely necromantic spells and many associated with the new Disease clerical domain) include Greater Contagion, Wave of Pain, Seven Plagues and Wall of Flies, all spells fitting within the scenario context.
I quite liked this product. It's an all-in-one package, containing all the detail you want, and presents a flavorful location that can be used to great effect in any game. DMs should have fun running the encounters within the village, and roleplaying the various NPCs and creatures while creating an atmosphere of dread. Forsaken Hwellan is an enjoyable product, and a good start to Silven's new line of products.<br><br>
<b>LIKED</b>: Horrendous Habitats: Forsaken Hwellan provides an interesting village and location-based encounter area filled with flavor and dynamic creatures and NPCs. It's a solid product, a complete package filled with detail and supplemental information, and an atmospheric premise.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Nothing much. A handful of minor stat block and editing errors, but overall a solid product.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>
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