Death Frost Doom - too lethal?

I'm running Death Frost Doom this Friday in my Eberron/Pathfinder campaign and I'm a bit concerned about the lethality of it. I'm pulling it out at a last minute to fill a hole in our gaming schedule since I didn't have any standard stuff prepared and I've thought about a killer way it will blend into the campaign.

But...WOW. A TPK is almost a likelihood, isn't it?

It's an awesome adventure and I'm loving the idea of running it, but should I have everyone make up new characters and do it as a one-off?

I haven't heard of that module, what's it like and who made it?

It's an old school module meant for AD&D or OD&D or BECMI or one of the clones. I first heard about it at the Save vs. Poison blog and the D&D Podcast and the one other podcast that I can't seem to put my finger on just yet. I think it was the atomic cast that used to do the Kobold Quarterly cast.

Mearls mentioned in the D&D Podcast.

anyway it's more of a mini setting and from what I've heard very deadly.

Death Frost Doom : Lamentations of the Flame Princess : Role Playing Game Publisher : Helsinki, Finland
Save Vs. Poison: An Analysis of Death Frost Doom

Oh and GROGNARDIA: REVIEW: Death Frost Doom

GROGNARDIA: REVIEW: Death Frost Doom

Check that review out Crothian.

Edit: Ninja'd!

I first heard about it from Zak from the DND with Porn Stars blog. It's seriously old school (save vs poison or die, many curses, etc), but it has a great flow and feel.

It's designed for AD&D but since the stats are minimal to non-existent, it really doesn't matter. (It will note a 6HD wight, or 2HD skeleton, rarely giving any thing more).

Haha, I saw this thead title and thought it was a heavy metal thread from www.metal-archives.com! Carry on..

One tip and a couple clarifications about the adventure...

(mild adventure spoiler warning!)

North is to the right on the dungeon map (1 -> 1a is going north, the Tooth basins open the door towards #13). People miss that and it will be made clearer in the next printing. Another thing that wasn't too clear is that in the pit in the High Priest Temple, a falling body doesn't count towards the 10 points of damage for the trigger there.

Although the painting in the cabin is supposed to show where one of the secret doors is, I find that people don't remember it by the time they get to the room depicted in the painting. Perhaps prompting them that it's the same room, but with no opening in the wall there, would be an appropriate "gimme" once they reach the room to help make sure they reach the Greater Tombs... but make sure you only give away the location of the door requiring the ritual!

My experience with actual play is that the yellow mold trap is by far the deadliest bit in the module. I've only had one PC death happen after The Big Event of the module and that was because the other PCs thought he was possessed so left him to die.

There were three ways out explicitly built into the module. When I first used this during my normal campaign (before ever thinking of publishing it), they found one of those ways. For the first official playtest, another group of players came up with a way out that I never anticipated.

It's not an auto-TPK adventure.

A TPK is a strong possibility, especially if the players are accustomed to normal "balanced" 3.5/PF play where it seems you're doing something wrong if someone loses a prized weapon, much less their entire character. If you do it as a one-off, give the players a chance to "port over" surviving characters - a PC that makes it through DFD deserves to go on to further adventures.

I've read through it a few times, haven't run it for my group yet but will soon.

I think it is a survivable adventure and has a unique Mythos undertone - slow creepy build-up that my group will enjoy.

Your players will only die if they play stupid. When it hits the fan they will know and hopefully act accordingly and look for a way to survive. Balanced encounter this aint, which is part of the reason as to why I love it.

When I ran it, it wasn't a TPK at all. Instead, players thought the big event so awesome several of them said this would have been an excellent campaign starter.