I feel like it goes without saying but before I begin spoiler warning for the entire adventure!!!

Also, I need to give proper warning that some of the themes/events of the adventure may be triggering to some people. To quote the author the main themes of the adventure are ‘horror, suspense, and sadism. There are some very twisted and sick scenes’ throughout the adventure. I was very shocked by some of these scenes. Some very bad and nasty things happen to people, including children. I’m not saying this is bad, the author was writing a horror adventure and the use of these scenes helped accomplish that goal. However, I do need to give due warning. With that out of the way, let us begin!

This is a horror one-shot adventure for level 5 characters who will reach level 7 by the end. Easily dropped into any setting there are several great adventure hooks to help guide your players to the story. In the adventure, a newly freed vampire spawn, named Morklav, has entered the servitude of a demon called Maraxax. Morklav lures unsuspecting victims to a dungeon in the woods. Some he tortures before feasting on their blood, others he sends through a portal to Maraxax’s domain.

The adventure begins with the characters going to investigate a ‘butcher in the woods’. There have been several disappearances along a certain road and the party is hired to investigate. Once they arrive at the forest and begin exploring several creepy events happen. For example, they discover the half-eaten corpse of a dead young girl, or they are plagued by ghostly figures. Eventually, they will discover an entrance to an underground dungeon. They will explore this dungeon, face Morklav (who has a slightly altered stat block from that of a vampire spawn) before going through a portal to face Maraxax in ‘Maraxax’s Domain’. Maraxax is already a powerful demon and beating him will be difficult. However, within Maraxax’s Domain, healing magic has no effect, make this an extremely challenging feat. Upon competition of the quest the characters escape the dungeon with a hefty amount of loot, that is if they can survive…

In short, I really like it. However, I think it is definitely not for everyone. That’s not saying it is a bad adventure, but as I already mentioned it above but there are some pretty horrific scenes. If you’re a DM, make sure your group is ok with these sorts of themes before running it. If they are okay with these themes, then you’re in for a great time. If everyone is invested in helping create the atmosphere with some dim lighting and spooky music this adventure will make for a thematic horror story. For example, before the party enters the dungeon there are some encounters that I mentioned above. These are excellent at setting the mood which can be continued throughout the entire adventure. There is excellent read-aloud text and descriptions of more shocking gruesome imagery throughout the adventure.

Be aware that as written it is a very difficult adventure, especially with the no healing in ‘Maraxax’s Domain’ rule. However, I don’t think this is a bad thing. You never really face a big bunch of enemies, it’s more a single strong enemy. This is good because it makes the enemy feel very deadly and there is a very real threat of character death. For a player, that is scary. Another benefit of having these single deadly monster encounters is that the game isn’t bogged down by big long drawn out combat encounters. Short and sweet is good for keeping the tension that you will be working hard to create.

The layout of the text is very well done. It is aesthetically pleasing which makes reading the adventure easier and more enjoyable. A must-have for any D&D supplement in my opinion.

I briefly mentioned the adventure hooks above, but I just want to mention them again as they are really good. They are simple yet effective and tie in smoothly with the adventure.

One thing to note is that there are several spelling mistakes/grammar errors throughout the adventure. It’s nothing that makes the text difficult to read but I felt I should mention it.

The adventure comes with an excellent map of the dungeon (I am a big fan of DungeonDraft). One of the cool things about the adventure is that the two dungeons use the same map. When you go through the portal to Maraxax’s domain you reach a mirrored hellscape of the dungeon you were in previously on the material plane. In this hellscape, everything that was already pretty horrific on the material plane is ten times worse. Exploring this mirror domain as a player would be very fun.

Another great thing about the adventure is that it includes some great artwork. This always helps make reading the adventure more enjoyable as a DM.

With the right DM and the right group, this would be a really great horror adventure, perfect for your Halloween oneshot! 5/5

TLDR: This is a great supplement that would be very helpful to any DM intending to run a campaign in Icewind Dale. It consists of lots of great lore on the Ten-Towns and well as extra options for players and rules DMs. It also includes adventure hooks for each town and great high-quality battle maps to go along with those hooks. Finally, it includes extra magic items, 16 new Monster/NPC stat blocks, and a short fully detailed adventure. The supplement adds lots of material complete with an extraordinary amount of fantastic artwork. For the amount of content contained within the book, I feel like $9.95 is a decent price for the supplement and it is overall an excellent and useful tool for any DM who wants help fleshing out their world.

Firstly, I want to get one thing out of the way quickly. When I read through this supplement there were a lot of typos and errors. This comes back to the old saying, “Always hire an editor. Always!”. I reached out to the author to ask them about this and they confirmed my suspicion that they were under pressure to finish the supplement for a deadline. I have been told that they are going to release an updated version soon (I haven’t read through it since so I don’t know how many have been fixed) but if I’m spending ~ $10 on something I expect there to be very little typos. I think it’s probably better to wait a day or two and release a completely polished product than rush it and release one with errors for the sake of meeting a deadline.

The book begins by giving interesting and informative lore about each of the ten towns in Icewind Dale.

This lore includes a town’s history, the livelihood of its people, any interesting relations they have with other towns, interesting landmarks/Points of Interest, shops, and taverns. Then there is a plot hook provided for a possible quest/adventure which incorporates the given lore of each town. Each of these plot hooks includes a high-quality battle map for the corresponding adventure. These plot hooks were very good and would prove very useful for any DMs. One thing I would have liked to see in this section is one or two sample NPCs for each town. I think this could be been a useful addition to this section. It would also cut down on the work for the DM and give them another tool to use if the party visits a town. I would have also liked to see a bit more detail in some of the smaller towns but overall a lot of useful detailed and interesting lore.

Next, the supplement adds several player options. While all of the subclasses are quite thematic, unfortunately, I found some of them to be a bit lackluster. The best of them is the barbarian subclass which is very thematic and also has some cool abilities. I think the other four are just a bit underwhelming and I think they wouldn’t be very appealing to a player. This doesn't mean that extra player options need to be overpowered, but they need to have something that makes a player go 'oh that's very cool'. I just don't think these subclasses have that, unfortunately. Next are optional rules for resting in the unforgiving environment of Icewind Dale. These rules are great and help expand on what is given in the DMG.

After this is a short adventure that can be very easily inserted into the Rime of the Frostmaiden or any other campaign set in Icewind or another similar snowy environment. It seems like a fun adventure that could be easily adjusted to suit your party and your needs as a DM. The next chapter includes several brand new magic items. They are all very interesting and very thematic. I think the rarity of some of the items should be adjusted. One item is the ‘Melkor’s Finery’. It is listed as very rare but I feel rare would be more suited for the item. There is also an item called ‘Numb Studded Leather’ which is listed as legendary but I feel it would be better suited to ‘very rare’ called. This is a minor point but something I felt I should point out. Overall though, the magic items are excellent with some great artwork to boot.

Lastly is the Frigid Folio which contains 16 new stat blocks. I am a very big fan of this part of the supplement. More monsters are great and these monsters fit in exceptionally well with the Icewind Dale setting. I am no expert on monster balancing and the CR system, so I’m not sure how accurate the printed CR for each monster actually is. Realistically though the CR system is flawed and only ever a rough indicator of how tough a monster is. The monsters have great abilities and would make for a fun interesting encounter, which is what matters most.

At the very end of the book, there is a compendium of all the battle maps used in the plot hooks in the adventure. They are all very high quality which I love to see. I will also use this opportunity to comment on the art in the book. The book is packed full of fantastic art. Having art is not a necessity for a product but any means, but when a product has nice artwork it is very nice.

So to conclude, this is a great supplement adding tons of extra content. Most of it is amazing but I feel some aspects, could have done with a small bit of extra work. Overall a great purchase that would provide amazing tools to help a DM who run the new Rime of the Frostmaiden campaign or any other arctic adventure. 4/5 If you are interested you can pick it up here

This is a great supplement that adds well designed and fully fleshed out Guild. I have to say I love what Ryan has done here. The supplement takes a mundane concept, a delivery service, and makes it epic. With excellent lore, a clear progression system, and plenty of plot hooks, this is a great product for any GM who wants a helping hand with world-building. You can pick up this product, read through it very quickly, and have a great Guild added to your world in no time.

One really great thing about the product is the amount of lore it has ready-made for you. It begins with history about the guild and its founder, the world climber (Spoiler: The founder came from humble beginnings and his goal in life was to become a noble. To do this he founded the Guild. The Guild was very successful but before he could become a noble, he died of a fatigued heart. This brought a tear to my eye). The supplement then goes on to describe the organization of the Palms Passing Parcel & Logistics Guild in great detail. It describes everything from getting paid, to gaining prestige (which lets you rise through the ranks of the Guild), to courier rankings. It also details the courier code and lists several great ‘tools of the trade’. Tools couriers use to traverse the wilds and ensure their packages arrive, by any means necessary.

I absolutely loved the sheer amount of tools this supplement gives to dungeon masters. It adds random effect tables for travel. These are great and could be used even if you don’t have a player being a courier. It’s common knowledge that exploration is one of d&d 5e’s weak points. These tables are a great tool that a DM can use to spice up any bit of traveling that the party might be doing. It also adds loads of adventure hooks which is always great. Many of these adventure hooks come with ties to prewritten adventures, something really useful to DMs, especially newer ones.

I’m happy to say that I genuinely have very few critiques of the product. One thing that some will see as an issue with the product is that it does not follow the official WotC style guide. I don’t think this is a major problem, but it is something that does need to be pointed out. There are also a few grammar errors, a missing common here and there but nothing that makes the product hard to read. The one thing that I think a DM should be aware of is that if only one player becomes a courier it could be potentially problematic. For example, they may have to deliver a parcel in Waterdeep, but the rest of the party wants to go to Neverwinter. I don’t think this is ever going to be a major issue because the player could just choose to deliver parcels to where the party is going, but just something to be aware of. Another thing is that there are several more obscure terms used throughout the supplement (chit, yeoman, etc). The supplement comes with a great glossary at the back of the product, but someone might not realize this until after they’ve read through the entire thing. I think moving the glossary to the front would be a great idea.

As mentioned earlier, this product is an excellent tool to help with worldbuilding. Even if you don’t have a player be a courier, at some point a player is going to want to post something to someone. Now I know exactly where the player has to go and how much it’ll cost them. Really help makes the world feel alive and real. Another great use for the material within the supplement is to help create more detailed NPCs. By making NPCs couriers you give them more fun and interesting backstories for the PCs to learn about. This could in turn encourage a PC to become a courier. Then you can send them on fun quests exploring the wilderness!

So to conclude, this is an excellent product, ready to be picked up and plugged into your world with very little work from your side. I feel the only potential major issue is not adhering to the WotC style. However, I personally don’t mind so it doesn’t majorly affect my view of the product. The amount of inspiration that this provides is just awesome. It accomplishes what it set out to do extremely well and I feel it is reasonably priced at $4.99. 5/5 You can pick it up here

TLDR: The College of the Crow’s Nest subclass is an excellent expansion for the bard class. Being quite honest, it literally made me want to play a bard, something I’ve never really had any desire to do. In the hands of the right player and DM, this supplement could prove to be amazingly fun and presents lots of opportunities for roleplay and storytelling. I do have a few critiques but is it worth $4.95? Yes, absolutely! If you are any bit interested in it, you should read through the full preview which is available on DMsGuild. If you want a more in-depth review, then read on!

This supplement provides players and DMs with an additional subclass option for the bard, The College of the Crow’s Nest, a sort of treasure hunter. The supplement begins by giving a bit of lore on the subclass before getting into the abilities and features of the subclass. After this, there are 15 brand new options for familiars. Each one has a cool unique feature which synergizes very well with the abilities that the subclass grant to the bard. After this, there are adventure hooks for the sought treasures which are really excellent. There are also some examples of sought treasures, an optional feat, and some optional spells.

At level 3 you will be getting some bonus proficiencies and access to all the extra familiar forms included in the supplement. Additionally, you gain access to ‘sought treasures’ and ‘ethereal keepsakes’. A sought treasure is a magical item that is the focus of your latest treasure hunt. You must locate this item and then return it to its rightful heir. But wait, I do all this hard work of finding it and get nothing?! No need to fear ethereal keepsakes are here! Once you return the treasure to its rightful heir the treasure manifests as what’s called an ethereal keepsake (stored in your familiar’s pocket dimension). This ethereal keepsake is a perfect replica of the treasure with a few extra benefits.

At level 6 you gain access to a very fun ability called ‘familiar aura’. This allows you and your party to use the special abilities that your familiars’ possess. You also gain access to ‘treasure vault’. This ability grants extra bardic inspiration, depending on how many ethereal keepsakes you have.

Finally, at 14th level, you gain access to ‘familiar bond’. This ability lets you protect your familiar. If your familiar would take damage you can expend a bardic inspiration and take the damage yourself. You also gain access to ‘treasure trove’. This lets your familiar bring ethereal treasures back and grant their abilities to your allies.

This subclass is really well written and laid out. It’s very clear to follow and is aesthetically pleasing. It has fantastic artwork and it’s clear a lot of thought and love went into the project. As I mentioned earlier, I don’t really like bards so I went into this a bit skeptical but was pleasantly surprised by how good it is. The mechanics of the class are very solid. The sheer amount of opportunity for roleplaying and storytelling it presents is amazing!

I only really have two major issues with the supplement.

Firstly, I think the level 14 capstone ability is a bit underwhelming. Letting you protect your familiar with the familiar bond ability is nice, but I don’t like the ‘treasure trove’ ability. I just can’t think of a situation where I see it being really good. Now in fairness compared to some of the other 14th level bard subclass abilities it’s fine, but I would’ve liked something… more. My second gripe with the supplement is I feel it could easily make the bard the main character in the story. If the bard’s thing is hunting down these ‘sought treasures’ it could derail the campaign, as all the party does is travel from one place to the next hunting down these treasures. To exacerbate things, after spending all the time finding the items, they then have to spend more time finding the rightful heir. On the flip side, the party might just refuse to help the bard track down the items. Then there’s just no point playing the character at all. Also, ultimately the DM decides what the sought treasures are so if you have a mean DM you might not be in for a good time (but I mean if you have a mean DM why are you in their group..).

This is why I said that this supplement could be great in the hands of the right player, DM and ultimately you need the right group. It has the potential to make or break a campaign. However, I don’t know if I can fault the author with this because I can’t think of a way around the problem. It’s just something inherent with the type of thing that this subclass is. Also, I don’t think it’s that big of a problem because the DM could easily fit it in that these items are placed where the story is going. Still, something to be aware of.

One thing I loved about the supplement is the amount of opportunity for fantastic storytelling it adds for the DM and the player. Sometimes players’ characters have very little to help the DM drive the plot forward. They lack motivations other than ‘I like gold and want more of it’. You are not going to have that problem with this. Storytelling is built into the class. But wait it gets even better. If you’re stuck for ideas and can’t come up with where to put the character’s sought treasures there are 11 amazing adventure hooks included. There are also random tables included for where the sought treasure is and who its rightful heir is which helps remove lots of the work for the DM.

This next thing isn’t so much a critique just something I thought I’d mention. I’m not sure exactly why it’s called the college of the ‘crow’s nest’? From the name, I was expecting a real heavy pirate theme but that’s not really what you get. I think ‘College of the Treasure Hunter’ would be a better title.

My last critique of the supplement is that I feel like the ‘familiar aura’ ability at level 3 could break the game. If you have your familiar be an owl, all of your allies within 30ft benefit from the ‘flyby’ ability. This means they just don’t provoke opportunity attacks. Now I don’t know how game-breaking this actually is (one thing I know for sure is it frees up bonus actions for rogues etc) but this is just one example that I quickly came up with. There’s probably more. Just something to be aware of . Another thing that the adventure adds is a plethora of brand-new familiar forms! Each one has a cool unique ability which is definitely needed as I feel the normal familiars are a bit bland. I loved the spells that are included in the adventure. They fit the whole theme of the subclass very well and would work great.

Ultimately, despite the few issues I mentioned earlier, I feel the supplement accomplishes what it set out to do very well. It is extremely well put together and presented with exceptionally fantastic artwork to boot! I would highly recommend this adventure! 5/5

If you want to pick this up click here!

Before I begin Spoiler warning for the entire adventure!!!

TLDR: The boneyard is a short horror-themed adventure. Overall, it is a really excellent product. It has a few minor flaws, but I would definitely recommend the adventure. It is well worth the $2.95, perfect for a Halloween adventure. If you want to learn more read on!

The adventure begins when the party arrives at an old graveyard called The Boneyard to pay their respects for somewhere dear to them who died some time ago. However, the Boneyard is ‘closed for repairs’ after an earthquake but all is not as it seems. Something foul is definitely afoot. Undead roam the graveyard and dead bodies are being mysteriously exhumed. Throughout the adventure, the party will investigate the graveyard in an attempt to get to the bottom of these strange happenings. The text begins with a bit of background about the boneyard and the gravedigger Drel, who is a ‘dhampir’, basically a ‘kinda vampire’. He is protecting his mother Rasha, who lives in the graveyard. This background also tells you about Slav and Trewdy, the two gnome necromancers who just arrived in the graveyard and are responsible for the undead. This background is quite important as it sets up all the motivation for Drel, who is the main NPC the party will meet. After that, we get into the adventure proper as it describes different areas in The Boneyard and the various goings-on inside. The adventure culminates with the party fighting the two gnome necromancers in a cave beneath the Boneyard.

The adventure is extremely well written and easy to follow, with read-aloud text for every area the party is likely to visit. I’m not usually a fan of random encounters but the random encounters in this adventure work quite well. If you are any bit of an experienced DM you can pick this up, read it in less than 30 minutes and be ready for an evening of good old spooky fun.

This leads me to my first critique of the adventure; however, this is more of a personal preference thing. There is no actual map of the boneyard. This may lead to DMs, especially newer ones, being confused while running the adventure as they don’t know where the locations actually are. Even a rough sketch of the boneyard, nothing fancy, purely for the DM’s use would be really helpful. However, on the flip side of that, it allows DMs to be flexible. If the adventure is getting slow you can just decide ‘alright the party reach the crypt entrance’. Again, this is mainly personal preference. I would prefer a map, so that I know where everything is. Still, this isn’t a big deal because if a DM wanted a map, they could easily whip one up fairly quickly. The adventure also contains no battle map for any of the combat encounters which is disappointing. Not every DM uses battle maps but is nice to have the option and once again helps keep things clear as to where everything is.

The adventure has a very solid plot hook that is expanded on during the adventure. I loved Area C – Grave portents. The characters arrive at the grave of their dead friend to find his body has been dug up by the necromancer wizards. This is really great as instantly the stakes are heightened, and the story is driven forward. Not to mention a potential heart-wrenching scene where the party must fight their undead friend. The main critique I have with the adventure is that some of the encounters feel a bit unbalanced. The main examples of this are the final fight and two of the random encounters, one where the party fight a flameskull and one where the party fight a ghost. With a few unlucky die rolls, I could see these encounters going south fairly quickly. I think this comes from the author trying to make the adventure adaptable for levels 1 – 4. I think it is probably better to choose a level and stick with that. The adventure does say that the necromancers flee when they get low on HP, but I think knowing that the encounters can be challenging is definitely something that a DM needs to be aware of before running the adventure.

The NPCs of the story are overall quite good and well thought out. While we get a bit of information about their background, the two necromancer villains of the story are a bit bland. I would have liked to see some more motivation to explain their actions, but I think they do their job well and don’t really need to be incredibly detailed characters. On the other hand, Drel and Rasha are excellent and very well thought out. I also really like the Detective character.

When I first began reading the adventure, I was skeptical about whether the author was going to be able to fit social encounters into an adventure that takes place in a graveyard. However, I was pleasantly surprised! There is in fact plenty of social encounters. From making a deal with Drel and Rasha to getting help from a priest, to aiding a detective. There are many opportunities for roleplay throughout the adventure. One small problem is what happens if the party doesn’t meet the detective? Or worse yet kill her! There is no written way to progress the story. Again, this is easily worked around. You could have the party glimpse one the necromancers returning to their lair. Still, I would have liked to see other ways to move the story forward written into the adventure.

The adventure ends with the potential for further development, which I love. The party could: explore an ancient forgotten tomb beneath the graveyard, track down one or both of the necromancers who managed to escape and are on the run or find themselves having to defeat Rasha. So to conclude, if you decide to pick up this adventure you’re certainly going to have lots of fun. I think a small bit of extra prep from the DM and a bit of tweaking is necessary before running it but for the price it’s being sold at it does its job well. 4/5 stars