Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Simon Collins" data-source="post: 2008153" data-attributes="member: 9860">Beware! This review contains major spoilers.Death In Freeport is an adventure module for 4 characters of 1st level, though it can be run for characters up to 3rd level. It costs $7.99.Production & Presentation: This is a softcover 32-page module. The front cover is a good piece of colour artwork depicting a pony-tailed skeletal creature lunging forward with its clawed hands. The back cover introduces the module and outlines its features. The front inside cover and back inside cover are blank. The first page contain credits and some OGL stuff, continued on the penultimate page; the final page has advertising. There is a basic map of The Serpent’s Teeth islands inset into a larger map of the City of Freeport, where the adventure is based. There are other maps of the ship The Bloody Vengeance and The Temple Of The Unspeakable One. Scaled by 5’ squares and with a Key. The text is well-defined and clear, making it easy to read. The text takes up all of each page (except where there is art) in a familiar two-column layout – the edge of each page is not bordered. There are several pieces of pencil-sketch internal black & white artwork, including pre-generated PC character sketches – the art ranges from poor to good.The Story: The module begins with an introduction to the module and a 4-page history of Freeport, which gives a background to the Serpent People who appear in the adventure and an overview of the current situation where an expensive lighthouse has caused town services, including policing of the town, to degenerate. Crime has risen and pirates are once again seen openly in the dockside taverns. An adventure background and synopsis follow, including information on how to adapt the setting to your own campaign. Lucius, a librarian in the Temple of Knowledge is possessed for five years by an alien entity. The entity forces Lucius to travel in order to gain knowledge of the world. When the entity leaves Lucius, the librarian returns to the temple but he is plagued by nightmares of the entity’s homeworld. Lucius then disappears. Lucius’ friend Brother Egil spots the PCs handily defeating a press gang when they first arrive in Freeport. He offers them money to help find Lucius. The PCs can investigate Lucius’ home, an orc pirate ship and the temple of knowledge to gain further clues to Lucius’ disappearance. Their investigations lead to an attack by the alien-worshipping cult who has kidnapped Lucius (who are torturing him for information about his dream visions). The module outlines some possibilities for tracking down the cult’s headquarters, a bricked-up house. Investigating the house, the PCs come across various traps and creatures (and may accidentally call up one of the alien entities worshipped by the cult – an unpleasant experience!). The finale comes when they discover that the cult leader is not only a priest high up in the ranks of the Temple of Knowledge’s priesthood, but also a polymorphed Serpent Person. There are clues that the cult is a small cell of a much larger cult (and a lead-on to future ‘Freeport’ adventures). Future adventure seeds are outlined at the end. The appendices include creature and NPC statistics, a new creature (the Serpent Person), a couple of player handouts and 4 pre-generated PCs (a gnome fighter, a half-elf sorcerer, a human rogue and a dwarf cleric – all 1st Level).The High Points: The background history was very readable and contained some useful information for expanding the setting if desired. The beginning of the adventure is mainly investigation, which is done on an interactive basis – reactions of NPCs are well-detailed, and includes the information that they might disclose to PCs given the right circumstances. The second part of the adventure is more combat-orientated, with useful information on villains’ tactics, and a well-developed sense of chilling atmosphere. The finale contains information on scaling down the encounter if the PCs are already badly wounded and out of spells. The pre-generated PCs at the end enable a quick start if desired.The Low Points: Some of the information in the history section, though interesting, could have been better spent on fleshing out the NPCs – though their reactions and information were well-detailed, more information on their personality and idiosyncrasies would have been preferable in my opinion.Conclusion: A good adventure that is close to being excellent. The plot is easily adaptable to a home-grown campaign and the PCs have plenty of opportunity for following different paths to the end of the adventure. The setting itself is a little less easy to adapt, and I personally have a problem with pirates and ‘alien entities’ called The Unspeakable One. But that’s just nit-picking what is essentially a good buy. Note: Despite being seen to be a 'pirate adventure' there are precious few pirates in it.</blockquote>

Verification