I really like these for a setting where magic is commonplace, and I'll definitely be adding them to some of my games. Most of the items reproduce spell effects, but some of my favorites (Lipstick of Hidden Space, Skulker Cream, Tangle Wig, Samson's Tonic, Fan Lashes, and the Prima Prisma Nailpolish) are a touch weirder, which is a good thing.

The art is great, too. There's plenty of it, it looks like it was made just for the items listed in Magical Costmetics, and it's really well done.

The author says in the foreword that there's more products to come, and if they're anything like this one in quality that's definitely a good thing.

A series of adventure hooks, each detailed out to about a page in length. Includes some good read-aloud text to set the scene for both the players and the DM. Most of the ideas presented are decently interesting hooks that could springboard a session or two of play. There were several, however, that really captured my imagination (The Joke's On You, With Friend's Like These, My Mind to your Mind). Most of the encounters included seem to end in combat, but there are a couple that don't necessarily, and that's always fun.

Conclusion: A small but useful product that will be making its way into my games. Definitely worth a read, and it's free, too. Thanks to the author.

Some small changes were made to this review to better reflect updates made to the adventure.

I'm a huge fan of the mood and themes in the Ravenloft setting, so when I saw this adventure I bought it right away.

Visually, it beats out most comparable products published on DMs Guild, but it's not quite professional quality. The cover itself is intriguing, but the rest of the art inside is lacking. The layout is fine, but the art varies in styles and quality. There are two maps included: One is a hex map, but as there's only three areas of interest, it's not particularly necessary. The other map is a simplified version of the same area for presentation to the players. There are adequate pictures included for most of the NPCs.

Some Spoilers Follow

The first chapter (two pages of material set in a small village) has the makings of an interesting adventure. Mostly, the PCs are making ability checks related to investigation as they poke around the village. There's a fun bit of foreshadowing between a song sung in a village tavern and the lingering scent of rose perfume in several areas. In my opinion, it's a creepy touch and one of the 'gothic-horroriest' things about this adventure. There's a body or two thrown in the mix as well, with prompts for horror checks from the PCs. I'd suggest getting rid of these or at least lowering the DCs, since 3rd level PCs are likely to have seen a bit of gore, but your mileage may vary.

The second chapter (two and a half pages) takes place in a nearby forest. The confrontation therein can conclude a couple of different ways, but ultimately the monster is readily identifiable, since the party conveniently stumbles upon them mid-evil act. A lack of red herrings, other suspects, or interaction beyond running or fighting seems to preclude any possible mystery or chance that the glaistig will get away.

The final chapter (little more than half a page) is by far the weakest of the three, being only loosely related to the much more interesting narrative in chapter 1 and 2. The PCs track down a missing NPC and must make a perform check to rescue him from a giant worm monster. There does not seem to be any other means of resolving this scene. The worm's CR exceeds the player's capacity to defeat without some extremely creative tactics (not a problem from my perspective, but might cause some problems with bull-headed characters itching for a fight).

When I run The Charred Rose, I'll remove or rewrite the 3rd chapter entirely. The giant worm seems a little out of place in a horror adventure, and the glaistig is a far more interesting antagonist anyway. The first two chapters could also use some elaboration. Perhaps Caitrin's spirit, not merely content to follow her possessed body, takes some initiative and attempts to warn the villagers, leading to strange incidents of haunting. A couple more NPCs in the village couldn't hurt either; I'd consider setting up one of Caitrin's suitors as a possible suspect for the disappearances.

End Spoilers

All in all, The Charred Rose is a short adventure in need of some TLC but with a lot of potential. Worth the price of admission.

The Chapel on the Cliffs surpasses any other adventure I've purchased on DriveThruRPG or DMSguild.

The art quality is top-notch, to include the maps provided for different encounter locations. The adventure itself is fairly sandbox, with several areas to explore and two interesting NPCs to interact with. There are a couple of really interesting magical items included, too.

I ran with a group of players who were new to Dungeons and Dragons, and they had a blast from start to finish.It was easy to run, too. I only had an hour to prep/read through the adventure, but even so there were just one or two moments where I needed to stop to read through the book and find an answer to one of my player's questions. I recommend for either a one-off or for incorporation into a larger campaign with horror elements.

One pleasantly unusual thing about this adventure were the numerous methods the player's had for dealing with the central problem, with options that reward creative thinking and careful exploration.

I can't give the author/developer team enough praise for what they put together here. Definitely worth the price of admission and then some.

Some miscellaneous thoughts (spoilers):

Brother Morton (arguably the 'boss monster' of the adventure) ended up being not much of a challenge for the group I was running, but we were admittedly a melee and tank heavy party. He quickly went from terrifying to an annoyance for my players, so if your party is optimized for vs 1 encounters, you might want to beef him up a bit.

My players fell in love with Richard the Zombie, who I played as extremely friendly, hospitable, and lonely for someone to talk to. They were initially suspicious of him, but by the end of the game they were crushed when I told them his fate after the curse was lifted.

My players gravitated towards the chapel, which unfortunately precluded them seeing Brother Morton waking the dead at night and so confused them as to the cause and nature of the curse. I think the dead rising up as soon as the church doors are disturbed might be a mistake, since rather than discouraging exploration of the church too soon it drove my player's immediately inside in a bid to seek shelter. Having the church serve as a place safe from the intrusion of the undead also discouraged my party leaving to get on with the rest of the adventure. It didn't grind things to a halt, but it did slow the adventure down and stopped my players from being involved in any chases or sieges with the skeletons.

While the adventure claims a group of third level adventurers will have no chance in an open fight against 100 skeletons, I'm not so sure. The Hand of Saint Sidvela is a powerful artifact that confers protection from evil on the character holding it, meaning the undead are at disadvantage to hit said character. Plus, the skeletal patrols arrive in waves approximately every 5 minutes in relatively manageable numbers. I actually think that most parties might actually have a decent chance of destroying all the skeletons in a single night. Next time I run it I'll create a few named skeletons/undead that are a little tougher to add to the random patrols in the interest of making these encounters a little tougher (which brings me to my next two points).

Ruth, the Ghast trapped in the Smithy, has a fishhook net that she attacks with. This led to a tough and really fun encounter when one of my players decided he wanted to explore that part of town all alone. It's a cool touch that made a generic monster into something memorable.

Should the skeletons of Kennmouth have the leather armor, swords, and bows listed in their statblocks?They're supposed to be dead peasant, after all.