Raise the Dead

Raise the Dead turns death into a chance for adventure. Occasionally, even though you designed a fair adventure, a player character dies. Do you treat resurrection like buying 50 feet of rope? Of course not! This DM Utility product contains four thrilling quests designed to bring a fallen hero back to life, including options for non-good aligned characters and other "difficult to raise" characters such as druids, rangers and non-humans.

RAISE THE DEAD is a 72-page collection of four adventures, each designed to enable a party of PCs to bring one of their fallen comrades back to life. Apparently if a DM desires a more original means of permitting his PCs to revive a party member, he can use one of these four adventures. The premise of the book is this: If the PCs are too broke to afford a “raising,” or if the DM wants to make them work for this service, they can complete one of the four adventures in order to restore their dead comrade.

Overall, this is a unique concept. PCs die in every campaign, and this seems to be the first product dealing directly with that event. The adventures themselves are also fresh and lively. In one of them, the heroes can be either good or evil, and they’re racing against a tough party of NPCs (who are either good or evil, as necessary). Both parties are hunting for the relic that will restore the dead to life. Each of the other adventures has a similar plot “twist.” For example, in the last adventure, the NPC who hires the PCs actually tries to steal the item from them as soon as they find it.

The adventures can be dropped into any campaign world with little trouble. This makes them very user-friendly. Another accommodating feature is that each adventure contains guidelines to scale their Encounter Levels up or down as needed. There are also a few new magic items, monsters, and one spell. The settings are both wilderness and dungeon. Maybe they could have included a city or urban venue, but the book doesn’t lack usability because of this omission.

The cartography is excellent, and the interior art is comparable to other Necromancer Games books. All in all, this is one of the most useful products a DM can have on his shelf, as every campaign must eventually deal with a dead hero.

Raise the Dead
By Casey Christofferson, Brendon Simpson, and Lance Hawvermale
Necromancer Games/ Sword and Sorcery Studios
66 pages/15.95


     Raise the Dead is the second release of “DM aid books” that Necromancer Games have put out. The book contains 4 adventures for parties that have lost a fellow PC, and seek to bring them back to life. No more “Well, you go back to town, pay the priest, and head back to the dungeon…” treatment. These are good adventures, and the common thread is a problem for many DMs to overcome.
The book contains excellent interior artwork (great job Brian LeBlanc!), and the maps by Ed Bourelle are very clear and easy to understand. The interior art and maps are black and white, and the full color cover art from Llyn Hunter is quite colorful and eye catching. Typesetting, word count and word density is all standard Necromancer Games high quality. No fluff product here!
The 4 adventures take up a moderate amount of space (55 pages), with 2 pages of random encounters, 3 pages for 2 new monsters and a monster template, 2 pages of new magic items containing 5 new (and well thought out, I might add) items. Legalese takes up a page as well and 5 pages of product and ads end the book.
Now to the meat of the book. Raise the Dead is an excellent concept. How many players have had to sit out part or all of an evening due to PC death? Many, I am sure. This book allows the player of the deceased to continue to be involved, giving them the opportunity to use NPCs from each adventure, or to play the parties opposition in the struggle to return the fallen PC to life. The four adventures are geared for mid to upper mid levels (3 are for level 8 parties, 1 is for level 6) and seem challenging but not overwhelmingly so; the object is not really to cause more PC deaths, but these are not walks through the park. There is no easy ride in any of these scenarios. The adventures are all scalable for 2-3 levels higher or lower than the stated party level.
One of the most interesting adventures is “Kinslayer’s Moon”. This is a very malleable scenario, as it has 2 paths to take, one for good parties, and one for evil. I found this quite refreshing, although some DMs refuse to allow PCs of evil alignment; I found the openness of this to be something to look forward to. “Nature’s Bounty” makes extensive use of a woodland environment, with all the appropriate woodland critters both baneful and beneficial. “The Crypt of Ronashim” is a tomb crawl with a few surprises. “Them Bones” is set underground, with many troglodytes (which are greatly underused, in my opinion) to harass the PCs.
My biggest problem with the book, and which keeps it from being another 5 star product from Necromancer, is the levels the adventures cater to. I’d have liked to see some lower level sections, maybe for levels 3-5? I don’t think that would have been asking too much. This could be presented as a future download from the Necro website, in which case I would certainly bump up the stars for such a free download. As far as errata, the Necromancer Games messageboard has found a few things that needed to be explained. Negligible stuff in my opinion. price may be an issue for some, but I didn't see it as a problem. I'd be happy to pay for quality product.
All things considered, I see this as another solid presentation of the DM aidbook series. I look forward to many more such offerings from the talents at Necromancer Games. I give this book 4.5 stars.

Raise the Dead is the second book in the DM series, the first being the Book of Taverns. Unlike the Book of Taverns, though, this one isn't so much a DM sourcebook as it is a collection of adventurers.

The book's theme revolves around bringing a comrade back to life. The adventurers are inspired by the fact that the players have to perform some deed to have the dead character restored. This is okay but doesn't really focus on the important things like rate of decomposition, the dead body increasing random encounters or basically anything to do with the issues of a dead character, like what happens to that character's soul in the meanwhile. How about the level loss the character suffers? Any way around that? This book isn't concerned with those issues.

So if you're looking for a book the helps the DM and players solve some of the issues that result from having a dead character, this book isn't the 'event' book for you.

As far as the adventurers themselves, they do a good job of delivering a few nights worth of gaming. Nature's Bounty, Kinslayer's Moon, the Crypt of Ronashim and Them Bones all provide something a little different.

Nature's Bounty, designed for 8th level characters, for example, doesn't rely on raising the dead, but reincarnating them. A nice twist on the usual order of things, using druids as patrons for the players, a common theme in fantasy. Kinslayer's Moon, designed for 8th level PCs, can provide the GM some fun as the party has to race against another party to the well either in order to revive a dead evil comrade, or prevent an evil overlord from being reborn. The nice thing is that two opposing parties are presented so the DM has either option open to him.

The Crypt of Ronashim, for 6th level characters, plays with history a little as players learn small details here and there, but discover that history is written by the winners and even those of good nature often cover up the mistakes of the past. Them Bones, designed for 8th level players, is another twist as the party isn't looking for help by a person in raising their comrade, but from an item of power.

Some of the challenges that face the characters are riddles that if they solve, can help them overcome their enemies. I rarely see riddles in adventurers and enjoy the meta-challenge as the players have to think what their characters would know and apply that to the game. In addition, some of the assumptions players may make will get turned on their ear if they're not careful, especially when dealing with the NPCs. One thing that was nice to see but could've been expanded upon a little is the Scaling the Adventure. A few words at the start of the module provide some brief ideas on how to insure that parties of a level or two higher or a level or two lower have some challenges.

One thing I think the book failed to capitalize on was the dead player issue. No rules for running around as a ghost or inhabiting another's body, merely running the bad guys or a one shot character. Nothing brand new in either of those ideas I'm afraid.

The book is laid out in standard two column format. There's excessive white space usually only at the end of the chapter. Art is handled by Brian LeBlanc and as usual, is good, lending the product one feel through the book. His half page illustration of the wolf spiders and his one-quarter page illustration of the undead hill giant Gol are impressive pieces and lend the work a dark feel. The maps are done by SkeletonKey Games cartographer Ed Bourelle and as usual, are great but have no map key. These are several full page maps that DMs can use not only for this adventure, but for similar areas. The bad news is that there are five pages of ads and that some of the monsters, drawn from Necromancer's excellent Tome of Horrors, don't have full statistics reprinted here.

Outside of the adventurers, there are two new monsters, the Drench, basically a water weird, and the Fungus Man, a living plant. Five new magic items are also introduced to the d20 system, expanding the use of the module beyond the adventurers a little.

In the end, the problem is that the book is nothing more than a collection of mini-adventurers. This is fine, but for half the price, I can buy the full color Dungeon Magazine or check out some free online support and with a slight tweak, modify it so that the goal is the return of a dead character.

Raise the Dead is a good collection of adventurers but isn't going to set any new standards in adventure construction and GMs interested in longer adventurers should check out their Gray Citadel or the Tomb of Abysthor.

Warning: spoilers!


‘Raise the dead’, by Necromancer Games, contains, as it says on the cover, ‘four adventures for 4 to 6 characters of 4th to 10th level, each aimed at bringing a dead party member back to life’.
These adventures are written by Casey W. Christofferson, Brenden Simpson and Lance Hawvermale.

When a partymember dies that you want brought back to life, there are a couple of options: ask the cleric of the party for help (presuming the cleric has already reached level 9), go to the nearest temple for help (and pay quite a few goldpieces), or send the party on a quest which will get their dead partymember brought back to life. This last option is for those DM’s who don’t want bringing people back to life to be that simple. And this is exactly what ‘Raise the dead’ is for...

RtD contains four adventures, all roughly 15 pages long: Nature’s Bounty, Kinslayer’s Moon, The Crypt of Ronashim and Them bones.
Nature’s Bounty
This adventure ‘offers the chance of reincarnating a neutral PC or a character that follows a philosophy rather than one of the divine powers.’ It’s for characters of level 8.
The party goes to Wiltangle Forest, to seek help from the druid Bearn. When the party arrives in the forest, it seems that there is trouble in paradise. One of the druids, Gothgul, seems to have gotten under the influence of the Witch Tree, and stole the golden Cauldron of Purity. Bearn needs this cauldron to perform the ritual of reincarnating the party member... So he asks the PC’s for help…
Kinslayer’s Moon
This adventure ‘provides the option of raising an evil PC from the dead (though PCs of any alignment may take part in the adventure), while competing against a rival NPC adventuring party’. It’s for characters of level 8.
The leader of an evil tribe is about to get raised in the Well of Ashan’kor. Depending on the alignment of the party, they can help get the evil leader raised, or they can help to stop the evil leader from getting raised. If the party succeeds, they can use the well to raise their partymember.
The Crypt of Ronashim
This adventure is ‘an opportunity for impoverished characters to procure the services of a high priest and find the fabled Rod of Arden.’ It’s for characters of level 6.
The party asks the help of father Elijan, a cleric who is known for helping those in need. But father Elijan has been attacked by mysterious strangers and has lost a few levels in the attack. This means that he cant’t do a raise dead anymore. He asks the party to help him, so he can raise their dead partymember…
Them Bones
This adventure ‘grants the PC’s a chance at raising someone even after raise dead and resurrection have failed.’ It’s for characters of level 8.
A ranger, Klavdiya Antonova, has a haunt in her house: Torvayin. She asks the PC’s to help her to get rid of the haunt. In return she will provide the party with an ore called ephemeryl. One of the properties of the ephemeryl is that it grants a wish, and can thus bring the dead partymember back to life...

Things I liked:
- The adventures in RtD are all orginal adventures with an evil twist... For example: those who don’t use the Rod of Arden (in ‘The Crypt of Ronashim’) in the wright way, get cursed...
- The adventures fill the gap for the PC’s until their cleric reaches level 9 and can learn raise dead.
- The adventures fit easily in your own world, because they take place in a relatively small area.
- The adventures contain options for the player of the deceased PC to participate in the quest; he can play one or more of the monsters or play one of the NPC’s. In ‘Nature’s Bounty’ f.e. the player can play a pixie.
- Each adventure contains suggestions for up- en downscaling the adventure for parties of higher or lower level.
- There are adventure hooks given to use the adventure even if you don’t need a partymember raised.

Things I did not like:
- Three of the adventures contain monsters of the ‘Tome of Horrors’. Not for all of those monsters are (abbreviated) statblocks given. DM’s who don’t own this book have to either buy it (for $29,95!) or find alternatives for those monsters.
- I expected the adventures to be for lower level parties. Instead most of the adventures are for higher level parties (level 8).

Conclusion:
Four original adventures with an evil twist, to send the party on a quest to get their dead partymember raised. It’s a great way to fill the gap until the party’s cleric reaches level 9.


Rating: 4/5

RAISE THE DEAD

CAVEATS
This is not a playtest review. The review contains extensive spoilers.

OVERVIEW
Raise the Dead is a 72-page accessory containing four mini-adventures all centering around a common theme—getting a dead PC brought back to life. It is intended to provide an alternative to the common gaming attitude of hauling dead PCs back to town to be raised. Three of the adventures are targeted at 8th level PC groups, while the fourth focuses on 6th level characters; however, brief notes are given on retuning the adventure for higher or lower level groups. In addition, each of the adventures has hooks that allow it to be played even if your players don’t need one of their characters revived.

Of the 72 pages, 66 pages contain the introduction, adventures, and an appendix for new monsters, magic items, and wandering monster stats. The last 6 pages contain the OGL and advertising. The inside covers are not used. Font and margins are standard for Necromancer Games—readable without being puffed out. The artwork is by NG’s standard illustrator, Brian LeBlanc, and the maps are done by Ed Bourelle—I particularly like his interior work, though I don’t care as much for the style of his wilderness maps. They are generally accurate, though I did find occasional discrepancies between the maps and the body text. In particular, though the maps all have a scale, they do not have a compass rose, which is a problem since north is not always up on these maps.

INTRODUCTION
The preliminary section, only 2 pages, is a brief, well-written introduction to the concept of the book, and a quick summary of the four adventures. No problems here.

ADVENTURE ONE: NATURE’S BOUNTY
This is an overland adventure with a sylvan feel, targeted at four 8th level PCs, and intended particularly for a case where a standard raise dead spell would not work for religious, moral or ethical reasons (all circumstances that I have never seen arise in any game I have DMed or played in, but it is still usable for standard raisings). In short, it will allow access to a reincarnate spell.

The players seek out a group of druids, but find their wood overrun by twisted creatures. They are tasked to seek out the source of this infestation—an evil tree—which they must destroy, and recover a cauldron. The druids will then be able to reincarnate their friend.

Though a straightforward enough task, I did have a few problems and questions about this whole setup. For example, why was the tree allowed to survive before this? Why didn’t the druids simply destroy it long before? If it was for philosophical reasons, I would say that they got what they deserved.

Also, despite the forested nature of the adventure, the adventure is structured similar to a dungeon crawl, right down to the map with clear paths and heavily overgrown thickets off the game trails. I feel that by constraining themselves to a dungeon mentality, they lost a chance to fully exploit the setting.

Note, by the way, that north on the map for this adventure should be down toward the bottom of the page.

My rating: 3/5

ADVENTURE TWO: KINSLAYER’S MOON
This adventure is targeted at four PCs of 8th level again, of either good or evil alignment. It takes place in a region with two warring groups—some good-aligned inhabitants of the town of Horonaim, and evil plainsmen known as the Abarim. The brilliant leader of the nomads, a man named Chemos, was killed some time back, and now their tribe’s wizard wants to send an expedition to an ancient temple of Set, where the body can be placed in a magical well and revived. PCs favoring evil get to take on this mission, while good-aligned parties form an expedition from Horonaim to overtake the bearers of Chemos’s remains and prevent him from returning from the dead. Thus, the first half of the adventure is a race against NPC adversaries to reach the ruined temple, and the second half is an exploration and battle within the temple culminating with the discovery of the Well at Ashan’kor. Assuming the party bears a dead PC of their own, they can then toss their friend’s body in as well if they dare to call upon the power of Set to get it revived.

The first half of this adventure is straightforward and outstanding. PCs are given a choice between siding with good or evil, which is a rare nod to less-than-noble adventuring groups. No matter which way they choose, the race to the Well is bound to be exciting, and the adventure is careful to include information on how fast the Abarim group can travel with the body of Chemos in tow.

I was, however, quite disappointed with the ruined temple itself. With its scattered rooms containing miscellaneous groups of goblins, a medusa, a bugbear, an ogre mage, large snakes, and golems, it seemed more like something I would have designed in my grade school years. For example, the ogre mage is located in a room with only one entry, through a room holding two golems that attack all who enter. But why wouldn’t the ogre mage be attacked as well? And the room that holds the two golems is described as being secret, but not only are the doors to the room not indicated as such on the map, but one of them is at the end of a long corridor with no other doors—always a clear indicator to adventurers that a secret door is nearby. The rooms follow no organized pattern that I can discern. Another thing: the goblins seem to be present to get their dead king revived, though they are more intent on pillaging the temple than getting the deed done. And after all the years the temple has sat there, how could there still be furniture left to destroy?

My rating: 5/5 for the first half, 2/5 for the second, for an overall rating of a high 3/5.

ADVENTURE THREE: THE CRYPT OF RANASHIM
Unlike the others in this book, this adventure is targeted at four PCs of only 6th level. The adventure is short and sweet. PCs hear of a cleric in the town of Westlyn who can raise the dead. They arrive, only to find the cleric heavily level-drained, and a crypt in town has been broken into and an artifact stolen from within. The town has also seen pillaging by the bandits responsible. PCs must go after the bandits and hunt down the hand. They are also asked to retrieve the rod of Arden, an ancient magic item of a long-dead sun god that has the power to raise their comrade. The PCs will thus have to explore two crypts: the one that was just broken into (looking for items the intruder left behind), and the crypt of Ronashim, a child-prophet of Arden. Or so the PCs believe. In fact, there are several deadly surprises in this adventure, which I won’t spoil here.

I found this adventure overall to be excellent. The only quibble I had was with the map of the crypt of Ronashim itself; according to the text, north should be to the right on the map, but is not so indicated. Otherwise a solid, short adventure with more than one diabolical twist.

My Rating: 5/5

ADVENTURE FOUR: THEM BONES
This last adventure is intended expressly for PCs who want to revive a comrade when standard means of raising fail—as the prize of the quest is a wish! They are recruited by a ranger who knows of a stone in a nearby dungeon that will grant them the power to raise their ally, but in return for this information she asks them for a favor. It seems that some sort of evil spirit is haunting her fishing house, disrupting her business. She wants the PCs to deal with it. When they confront the spirit, it tells them they need to seek the dungeon beneath a nearby dam, and recover the entirety of the spirit’s body.

This leads the characters into an old dwarven mini-mine that is now the battleground between several forces, including a tribe of troglodytes with an ambitious leader with designs on the surface community; a group of normally standoffish fungus men (i.e., myconids) who have been provoked by the troglodytes’ attacks into mounting assaults of their own; and a group of deep gnomes (svirfneblin) from the underdark, hoping the two sides will fight it out and they can move in and take over the dungeon for themselves. In addition, the PCs will have to deal with an escaped slave of the trogs (a drow who, though evil, might assist them), and even their own employer, who uses the PCs as stalking horses, and hopes to find the magic stone first.

This is an exciting scenario that gives the players great challenges and many avenues to resolve them. Do they attack the trogs directly, and risk being overrun by their vastly superior numbers? Do they conduct hit and run raids, and unwittingly risk the deep gnomes riling the fungus men and putting them at the center of a pitched battle? Do they ally with the trogs and attack the non-evil fungus men? And if so, how do they respond to the trogs’ plan to poison the lake and kill off the surface-dwelling inhabitants? Or can they figure out what the deep gnomes’ game is, and forge a temporary alliance between the troglodytes and fungus men? I love DMing and playing scenarios such as this.

The only blemish on this adventure are some discrepancies between the map and area descriptions. One room on the map is indicated as rectangular, with exits up, down and to the right, but the text describes it as circular, with exits to the east and west. And the battleground cavern seems smaller than it should be. I get the impression that the original maps were compacted somehow to fit them on one page, but it could just be the result of a misunderstanding between the author, the mapper, and/or the editor.

My Rating: 5/5

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS:
The premise of this adventure is inspired: why have PCs simply get their character raised at the local temple when you can make them adventure for it? Each of the scenarios is unique, though I had problems with the first two that others might not find so bad. Though not a masterpiece, I feel that it is nevertheless a product well worth picking up.

One final note: At a few points in the adventure, creatures from the Tome of Horrors are included in the adventure, but not statted out. If you don’t have the Tome of Horrors (and you should, it’s a damn fine book), be prepared to replace them with equivalent creatures. I think the only cases of this were an undead ooze and a haunt in the Crypt of Ronashim, and a mercury ooze in Them Bones.

Now having been a playtester for the first adventure in this book at GenCon 2002, and later getting a hold of it, it has lost nothing of its appeal since then. While others have offered longer breakdowns of each adventure, I will simply say that this work of art (for it is great- 4 adventures of useful and excellent quality wrapped up in one product) offers much more then a benifit to have one's players get to raise a companion. Each adventure works even without the need for raising someone, and as the result of them may prove to actually need another of these adventures just for the purpose of the product
If one reads my previous reviews, yes they are short, but besides that, to deserve a 5 they have to be truely useful, and this does just that. Not to mention that the art and maps are awsome, it makes a DM's heart proud to unleash upon his players...I mean allow them the chance to raise a companion..no unleash sounds better *S*.

Raise the Dead is the second DM resource book for Necromancer Games, the first was The Book of Taverns. This book contains short adventures easily run in 1-2 gaming sessions and affords different ways for players to get their dead PC brought back to life. Each adventure is designed with a customization chart allowing for higher or lower level PCs to play in any of the given adventures.

Most of the book is pure gaming content, while the last several pages are ads for Sword and Sorcery Products, and the legal appendix. The book follows a standard 2 column format found in most rpg products. The interior Art is done by Brian LeBlanc, maps are done by Ed Bourelle. The maps look great and the artwork is excellent, though I wonder about the deep sea creatures in a lake for the last adventure.

The adventures offer a wide variety of challenges, with one (Natures Bounty) featuring a full wilderness adventure taking the PCs against an evil witch tree to restore the balance of a druids grove. It was this one that I had participated in with much delight. Kinslayers moon combines a wilderness chase with a good ol dungeon stomp. Crypt of Ronashim is similar in that it has wilderness encounters as well as nasty plot twists. The last adventure is most dungeon crawl like of all.

ShaneG.

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Legion's Review Disclaimer

"Raise the Dead turns death into a chance for adventure! Occasionally, a player character dies. This DM Utility product contains four thrilling quests designed to bring a fallen hero back to life. It includes options for non-good aligned characters and other "difficult to raise" characters such as druids, rangers and non-humans. This book also allows interesting options for the player of the deceased character."

Necromancer's Raise the Dead, a 68 page Dm utility. written by C.W. Christofferson, Brendon Simpson and Lance Hawvermale, is another good accessory for busy DMs to investigate. Its premise is the idea that if you've got dead characters and either don't want to or hate to resort to the old 'visit the cleric of so-so' then this will help you with your dilemma.

The book is broken down into four micro adventures, and an appendix of random encounters, two new monsters and a smattering of new magic items.

The first adventure, entitled Nature's Bounty, deals with the party getting involved in the search for a magical cauldron that will allow a local druid to reincarnate a dead character. Along the way they get mixed up with a malevolent druidic cult that has taken over the forest.

The second, Kinslayer's Moon sets the character in one of two directions, depending on group alignment and affiliation. If they're evil they take the side of a dark barbaric force trying to resurrect their dead warrior general. If they're good, they side with the Knights attempting to prevent this dreaded resurrection.

The Crypt of Ronashim, the third adventure, brings them into contact with a cleric, and his village, that have recently been nearly destroyed by a raging lunatic who intends to awaken a dead god. The cleric begs the party to stop the madman and in return bring back an ancient stolen artifact that will return the priest's powers and allow him to revive their fallen comrade.

Last, Them Bones puts the characters smack dab in the middle of a dispute between troglodytes, fungus men, deep gnomes and a pesky drow, all in the hopes that they can recover a minor artifact, called ephemeryl, that will allow them to resurrect their dead companion.

The writing is fairly well done, though less inspired in the first two scenarios and more creatively done in the last two. The interior artwork, again by Brian LeBlanc, is again well done although his picture of the Witch Tree isn't particularly imaginative. Of note on the art though is Llyn Hunter's cover art. Beautiful is putting it mildly. Her use of line and color and shading variation is tremendous and quite different from the other Necromancer covers I've seen. I hope they continue to use this artist's talents. Ed Bourelle again does an excellent job in his cartography especially the maps for Them Bones. One critique I'd mention concerning the maps is the use of the dashed/hashed lines around the shaded hills that are used quite a bit in this book. The hash/dash marks are dark enough that your eye really focuses on them and when there are a lot of hills, this is a bit boring. I can't really offer a solution, it doesn't detract from the usability of the maps, that's for certain, but it would be nice to see a little variation in hill representation. Call this a wish list item.

Mike Johnstone's editing for the most part is clean and precise. A few missed words or typos here and there but nothing to glaring. The only major glitch is that someone did a search/replace for the MM (Monster Manual) abbreviation to change it throughout the manuscript from all lower case to all upper case. So you get words like haMMer. At first I wasn't bothered by it but when I discovered why they had done the search/replace it took on greater significance (see below.)

Each adventure gives a summary as it begins, plot hooks to get the characters involved (including hooks in case no party member is dead but you want to run the adventure anyway) and a means for scaling the adventure to one or two levels higher or lower than what is recommended.

Now onto the meat of the matter. The subject of the book had a great deal of potential. Unfortunately only half of that potential is really fulfilled. The first two adventures, while very interesting fall short. In Nature's Bounty they have an object, the Witch Tree, that is capable of corrupting a druidic coven and turning the forest around it into a chaotic mess and it basically boils down to a kill the big creature at the end, much like a video game. It's incredibly underdeveloped. Good idea, just not executed to its potential.

In Kinslayer's Moon, a similar underdevelopment happens. There are two factions, the barbarians and the knights. As the party you will most likely face one of these groups depending on your alignment. But all that's really provided for the factions is a bunch of statistics. None of the 5 or 6 NPCs in each faction is given the slightest bit of personality. Even a few lines such as "Sir Hector (one of the knights) is constantly distracted. His wife recently gave birth to their first child, a healthy boy, when Hector was called away on this mission. He's torn between his duty and wanting to be with his wife and son." This provides the DM with just an inkling to go on. This becomes doubly troublesome when it's realized that, again depending on your party alignment, you will be most likely be traveling with some or all of the faction members for whom you are working.

Kinslayer's Moon also suffers from a bit of very potential overkill. There is one EL 8 encounter, one EL 10, two EL 11, one EL 12 and potentially either another EL 12 or an EL 13 encounter, depending on whose faction you're with. All of this designed for a party of 4 8th level characters. And, yes, the party could avoid these encounters, but given the fact that some of them - based on the map - must be at least gone through and the fact that the character's are affected by a time constraint and the module specifically states that they arrive just in the nick of time makes it a bit too likely that at least one or two other's are going to die. And the whole point is too get someone resurrected in the first place.

The Crypt of Ronashim and Them Bones are the cream of this book. They are both very well executed, intriguing, entertaining and imaginary. In Ronashim, I was particularly fond of the character of Wendy. She's the damsel in distress with a very nice twist and her ultimate fate, while left somewhat open, is hinted at in the adventure's climax. One odd glitch is the description of the Rod of Arden in the end. It's a bit confusing in that its power description. The last paragraph reads, "to remove the curse upon the rod, it must first be blessed on a consecrated altar by a good-aligned cleric of at least 9th level, after which remove curse or break enchantment must be cast upon the Rod, turning it into a NORMAL rod of resurrection with 4 charges. Should remove curse be cast upon the Rod alone WITHOUT first preparing the Rod by blessing it and consecrating it, the Rod becomes a SIMPLE rod of resurrection with 5 charges." (cap emphasis mine) It appears that doing the harder thing warrants a lesser object? This doesn't seem to jive with what is described a bit earlier. My guess is that a simple errata note would clear this up. However, this does lead to Ronashim's only problematic error. The cleric to restore the Rod must be 9th level or above. The purpose of this adventure is to use the Rod to restore Elijan (the cleric who hired them) to his rightful power - he was drained down to 6th level by one of the maniacs seeking to raise the dead god. The adventure is for characters of 6th level as well. Therefore, apparently there isn't anyone that can actually restore the Rod. The Rod is also described at first as having good powers (amongst them restoration and raise dead) but the curse on the Rod makes it appear this way when in reality it actually is an evil power (with different powers that don't include the above mentioned spells.) Does the Rod really do none of these two things and removing the curse then brings out its abilities of resurrection or does it have these powers and removing the curse returns it to a less powerful state? If so, I'd be surprised if any sane player would remove the curse. As I said, a bit confusing that I'm sure a bit of errata would clear up.

Them Bones is also a terrific romp. A large lake with a dwarven mine underneath it. The descriptions of the mines are very evocative and some of the weird devices to be discovered down there are terrific. I was especially fond of the giant glass window in the 'break room' and the blast hoses near the control room. The political and volatile situation established between the fungus men and the troglodytes is also handled well, and the introduction of the deep gnomes to exacerbate things, along with the imprisoned drow, Solaufein, makes for a very rich and imaginary adventure.

These two adventures is where the MM search/replace came back with a vengeance. Where as the first two adventures often sacrificed detail (like character traits) to throw in a bunch of statistics, Ronashim and Bones resorts to only this: Shadows (2): CR 3; hp 19 each; see the MM. And yet, they give full statistics for the Drench (a new creature) and its powers even though it's already included in the back. Now, granted, most everyone has a Monster Manual. But, as a DM, in the middle of a battle, I want all the vital statistics right there in front of me. I don't want to have to grab my Monster Manual, flip through (whether quickly or not) to the critter I'm looking for just to found out HD, AC and BAB. That's why the OGL created the abbreviated stat block. It should have been included, no question. Also, several of the monsters come directly from Necromancer's Tome of Horrors. Everyone shouldn't be expected to have this and leaving out an abbreviated stat block for this creatures just smacks of self-promotion. Which isnt' necessarily a bad thing but it certainly can be irritating.

The appendix includes a huge list of stat blocks for wandering monsters. A better us of this space would clearly have been to give this word count to the monster stat blocks that are actually in the adventures rather than for wandering monsters.) Both of the two new creatures, the Drench and the Fungus Man, have a familiar feel to them so while well done they aren't particularly innovative. The new magic items, five in all (unless you count the Rod of Arden, though for some odd reason it is included in its adventure chapter rather than listed here with its counterparts) are all very useful and interesting. I really like the ephemeryl, a gemstone that at a random moment turns into a vapor and if inhaled grants the user a wish. Very nice, colorful item.

In the end, I almost gave the utility a 4 rating, due in part to the fact that the last two adventures, The Crypt of Ronashim and Them Bones, are imaginary and executed well. But the overall scope had too many flaws for it to be a 4 and one flaw, the missing abridged statistics, is a big pet peeve of mine. Of course, I also hate the fact that with the EN World reviews you have to round to the nearest whole number.

No stat blocks for MM creatures? Excellent. Thumbs-up for me, and I hope more modules continue to do this.