Beware! This review contains major spoilers.
This is not a playtest review.
Price: $9.95
Page Count: 36
Price per page: About 27 cents per page
Designed for Character Level: 8-9
Format: Softcover
External Artwork: A decent, if disturbing, piece of artwork which shows a pale half-scorpion half-fiend pulling a drowned man from a river, whilst behind it another fiend-like humanoid bound in chains reaches out a claw whilst flanked by two wolf-like hellhounds with flaming eyes and muzzles.
Additional Page Use: The back page has an introduction to the adventure along with a good sketch of a giant wielding a flail. The inside covers have maps of the two temples, the first page is credits and contents whilst the last two pages are the OGL and an advert.
Internal Artwork: The internal black and white sketches range from poor to good, with the art being relevant to the text.
Maps: Maps are basic but practical, scaled to 5 feet on internal maps, and keyed to the text.
Text Density: Text density is good and there is little white space. There is a fairly wide runic margin on the side of each page although some sidebars overlap this margin.
Text Style: The text is well-written with few typos.
The Adventure:
The module begins with some Historical Background outlining the town of Raftport and its dark history of battles against evil. It was thought that the evil had passed, but there have been a recent spate of disappearances and destruction of the rafts that bring goods downstream to the town. An adventure summary is then given, together with an outline of the subplots that also run through the adventure - several factions are influencing the resurfacing evil in the area: a human-hating ogre and his vicious followers who are disrupting river traffic, an aboleth seeking access to the river who has made a pact with the duergar who are plotting the eventual downfall of Raftport, a Fire Giant who has also requisitioned a magical sword of human-slaying from the powerful Duergar, and enchanted by a faction of Drow (however, the Drow will enchant the sword to take control of the Fire Giant on behalf of a powerful tanar'ri). Several character hooks are then outlined. An overview of Raftport is then given with stats for the town, and notes on the economy, politics, and some places of interest. The section ends with a list of rumours and a list of facts for the GM's use.
The PCs, following investigation of the rumours and facts, are tempted along the Road to Devils Forge, a mountain to the north of Raftport. After coming across two corpses, the PCs meet Dervish, the human-hating ogre, who is responsible for many of the problems that Raftport currently faces. If the PCs defeat Dervish and his band of ogres and trolls, they may find a map that gives four paths to lead them further into the adventure and evidence that the ogre was selling kidnap victims to duergar who live in the depths of the mountain. Depending on which path they take, the PCs come across several different encounters - further corpses, an insane golem trapped in a magical circle (just waiting for the PCs to release it), and tracks leading to Devil's Forge from two unusual landmarks. If the PCs follow the tracks, they lead to a doorway into the side of the mountain.
This is the entrance to the Temple of Shazartza, a forgotten fire goddess. The mountain is in fact a dormant volcano with old lava tubes running through its depths, the perfect place for a temple to the fire goddess. The PCs can explore the disused temple, haunted by the spectre of a traitorous priest. They can then find an entrance to the Underdark, which the duergar use as an exit into the surface world. The journey into the depths takes two and a half days and the PCs must face the possibility of a series of random encounters on the way as they follow the trail of the duergar, including devils and hell hounds working for the duergar. The PCs eventually come to an illusory dead end that is guarded by an aboleth and its enslaved duergar.
Beyond this is the duergar's lair, the Temple of the Dark Lady, the grim goddess of the duergar. The lair is well thought out with areas designed for food, water and other practical matters, as well as the prison area for the slaves that have bee bought from the ogres. Further into the temple the PCs may discover the fire giant and the drow finishing the crafting of the sword of human-slaying in the duergar's forge. The drow and the duergar smiths will attempt to escape whilst the fire giant will fight the PCs, covetous of his new sword. There is, of course, another door here that leads further into the depths but is currently sealed to the PCs.
The Appendix contains stats for NPCs and creatures, as well as some information on the Dark Lady, goddess of the Duergar.
The High Points: This is a well thought-out dungeon crawl, very reminiscent in tone and theme to the AD&D 2nd Edition 'Night Below' boxed set, although comparatively much truncated. The adventure is strong on combat, tactics, and a fully realised (if limited) setting. The relationship between the factions leaves a lot for the interested GM to continue with, if he wants to develop further adventures leading on from this. There are some interesting encounters, good advice on running the adventure, and the writing is clear and relevant.
The Low Points: Despite the plethora of rumours and facts offered up by Gather Information checks at the beginning of the adventure, few of the townspeople of Raftport are mentioned let alone detailed. There is very little opportunity for roleplaying within the adventure - this is a good old-fashioned dungeon crawl, despite the complex relationships between the NPCs. Even as a dungeon crawl, the PCs come up against a lot of duergar, and facing the Grey Ones can be a bit repetitive at times.
Conclusion: A well-thought out and fully realised dungeon crawl, lacking roleplaying opportunities and depth of NPC personality, and at times a bit repetitive. If you like dungeon crawls, particularly Underdark-type ones, I highly recommend it. For me personally, I found it average bordering on good, a 3.8 say.
