Dawn of the Serpent - 4 Good
This is a Mini-module that is part of the AEG Adventure Keep line.
Cost: $2.49
Size 16 half pages, although page 16 is OGC and Legal stuff, inside front cover is add, inside back cover is OGL.
Pages 8 & 9 are a centerfold 81/2 x 11 Map of the adventure area, with compass, but no scale.
Back cover is Adventure intro.
I liked this adventure and the price was right.
This is of a quality that it could have easily been published in DUNGEON Magazine as a Side Trek.
Designed for 3-4 characters levels 5-7.
- - - - - - - - - - SPOILERS- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Basic plot is that a Medusa and her Maedar (new 3ed monster, but one that existed in 1st and 2ed D&D) mate live in the woods...caves in the woods actually. The Medusa turns creatures or travelers to stone and the Maedar drags them back to the lair where he breaks off chunks of the statues and uses his gaze to reverse the flesh to stone, leaving the couple with meaty chunks which they feast on.
The adventure starts when the party happens on a campfire scene in which the people around the fire have been turned to stone. Drag marks lead off into the woods where the party is ambushed by a Drider Bandit and his two human cronies. Seems that this trio found the stone party before the Maedar could retrieve them and has been using them as bait for their own trap.
As the party returns to the campfire they find any henchmen or mounts left there turned to stone and one of the statues of one of the afore mentioned NPCs, or one of the original statues missing with more drag marks leading into the woods in a different direction. Seems the Maedar has tracked down his meal and taken part of it back to his lair.
The party should investigate and they are eventually led to a 9 encounter area cave in which the Medusa and Maedar lair.
Area 1: small entrance
Area 2: Rattle snake in small tunnel
Area 3: Very small trapped tunnel leading to area 8
Area 4: Fungus room with Digester (why this creature, living in the cave with the Medusa, isn't stone is not explained)
Area 5: Statue storage room
Area 6: Pit trap
Area 7: Mushroom forest with Shriekers and Violet Fungus
Area 8: Maedar's room
Area 9: Medusa nest room, with eggs
An additional NPC is provided: Larian the Druid can be used as a rescue party, or as a balance against any nature destroying methods of combat the party may attempt. Larian's info and an Ending the adventure paragraph take up just over a page.
The new creature: Maedar seems well done, and once slain its head may still be used to reverse petrifaction. The Maedar and its head take up two pages.
All in all the adventure is quite short and may take an hour or two to play. The adventure makes a good Side Trek and can be used as such. I thought the Drider Bandit and his lackeys were an interesting twist for a party that was expecting a creature with the petrifaction ability.
At $2.49 I was pleased with this mini-module. I just wish they had put a little more info into it. The page for notes could have been used for a couple more encounter areas.
ASEO out
