I got my copy a deathright a bit late, so the review is late as well. I enjoyed the module and look forward to running it, but keep in mind that I'm a fairly negative person so I tend to point out the flaws instead of the good parts.
***********spoilers*******************
The module is about an ancient queen who fell in love with a bard. He died due to a terrible disease and she grew depressed and turned to necromancy to try to raise him. She falls in with some undead clerics and eventually transforms herself into a lich. Some undead hunting group stops and banishes her and she puts herself to sleep after crafting a dungeon that she thinks only her lover will be able to cross. She intends to sleep until he arrives, the PC's arrival will cause her to assume one of the PC's is her lover and fall in love with that PC.
Overall: I liked the module, very well written and well-thought out. It could fit into any campaign for the reasons that the story is generic enough to work anywhere, and the towns and nations described could be anywhere. It doesn't need a floating city to work or anything.
Pros: Well written, good plot, decent cover, great inside art, plenty of DM helpers and some new unique monsters.
Cons: Dry read (although looks fun to play), some incomplete information in the stat blocks like what weapon they use, a few odd monsters with missing info, and I don't like dead and/or tortured children in modules although some people may prefer the darker mood.
I'll just go in order of the table of contents.
Background info: This is wonderful, they have a good story about the background with relavent and useful information, as well as information about one of the main villians and his childhood. He's not just "umm, an insane guy who enjoys killing people". He's the guy who was struck from a very young age that he didn't want to die. He's motivated to gain life after death and his story is very believable and people can relate to it. It provides good incite into why someone would raise a lich. I wish other modules had some info on the main villian other then: Pick one - insane, sadistic, power hungry. Having an entire page with him is cool, it's enough info to make him into a guy that escapes (perhaps in his undead form) and plagues the party at a later date. On a comparison to the Temple of Elemental Evil where they have roughly a paragraph and all they say is "he's the leader, he's really really old, he's cruel, see - he sleeps on nails, EVIL!!"
Synopsis: Decent, it doesn't have step A, B, and C in that order and only in that order. The different sections can be completed in different orders and different things happen depending on which order you're in.
Adventure Hooks: Generic hooks, nothing too original here but you don't need to twist their arms to get them into the module. One of the hooks is having a missing child relative, probably one who eventually dies according to the module - not cool. This is the biggest gripe I have about the module and is one thing I'd change. I don't like the dark mood, but others might.
Settings: Nice towns, decent NPC's, good info, but nothing vital. No twisting of arms needed to get the info they need for the next step. Some interesting things like a tavern with riddles on the wall and the NPC's like the PC's more if they can figure them out. Good stuff here.
Adventure itself: Some interesting traps, but most of the encounters seem uninspired. Good puzzle and riddles, with a chance for characters other then a rogue to excel. Some nice traps that need to be figured out rather then just have a good roll on the search check. The pictures that go along wth them are great too, one room I didn't quite get what they meant when they described it and I'm glad there was a picture. It helps you feel you're really there. For a trap figureing out party it's great. If you're more into hack n' slash then the fairly weak skeletons and zombies wont' matter much. Some of the ghouls, and new monsters pose more of a challenge, but nothing extremely tough. The lich at the end who falls in love with a PC is pretty entertaining, just reading the few ideas they have made dozens more spring into my head and if they bother to chat instead of attacking directly it will be an encounter to remember.
Encounters: I don't have much experience in the 8-10th level range, but the fights seemed rather weak. The dominance of undead and traps makes clerics and rogues worth their weight in gold.
New Monsters: They have one called a Coffin Guardian, one of it's special attacks is listed as a breath weapon, but I can't find anywhere that lists what that breath weapon actually does!! It's also immune to magic, and has DR of 50/+3. For a setting that touts itself as low-magic they sure expect a lot out of PC's to even harm it. It's a construct so it's immune to crits - how can you get 50 damage? It also doesn't mention that the guardian backs off at all. I don't mind hard encounters - but there should be a way to defeat them. I'd also like to know their breath weapon if anyone knows. There is another monster called a Skeleton Henchmen/Warrior but it doesn't really list what kind of monster he is. Is he new? Is he from a book I haven't seen? The stat-block is enough to go on, but he's a different type of undead then the one in the Monster Manuel and I'd like to create more of them for other modules. BAB of fighter, more HD then regular skeletons, feats, some int, highter str, etc. I like it a lot, but I want more info on them.
Conclusion: The adventure ends with the death of the Lich Queen. The NPC's who died are transformed into undead and still need to be dealt with, which isn't covered much. The plague isn't cured as far as I can tell. I was under the impression while reading that the new disease was a result of the Queen awakening, but it says nothing about that in the module which frustrates me. Does it stop spreading, run it's course, immediately cease even in mid-disease? I want to know! Also do the towns get wiped off the face of the earth due to this horrible disease?
Overall: Good module, great info on several things, but a few unanswered questions that need extra time to resolve. If you like open ended endings you'll like it, but I prefer to have all loose ends tied up after an adventure is over. The lighter parts like the Lich feeling randy for a PC is cute, the darker parts like towns dying of disease and children getting sacrificed while the PC's aren't of high-enough level to do much is a bit dark which I don't like. Remember that I tend to dwell on the negative things instead of the positive. I plan on buying more Kalamar modules in the future, just as soon as the new local gaming store opens up (first one in town!!), I want to buy a 1st level module for after the return to the temple of EE, but I want to support the new gaming store so I'm forced to wait.
Kenzer, thank you for the free module and I'll see you guys at GenCon if you're there. I'll post a post-play review in 6 months or so when the Kalamar campaign gets up to this level and we're done playing it.
***********spoilers*******************
The module is about an ancient queen who fell in love with a bard. He died due to a terrible disease and she grew depressed and turned to necromancy to try to raise him. She falls in with some undead clerics and eventually transforms herself into a lich. Some undead hunting group stops and banishes her and she puts herself to sleep after crafting a dungeon that she thinks only her lover will be able to cross. She intends to sleep until he arrives, the PC's arrival will cause her to assume one of the PC's is her lover and fall in love with that PC.
Overall: I liked the module, very well written and well-thought out. It could fit into any campaign for the reasons that the story is generic enough to work anywhere, and the towns and nations described could be anywhere. It doesn't need a floating city to work or anything.
Pros: Well written, good plot, decent cover, great inside art, plenty of DM helpers and some new unique monsters.
Cons: Dry read (although looks fun to play), some incomplete information in the stat blocks like what weapon they use, a few odd monsters with missing info, and I don't like dead and/or tortured children in modules although some people may prefer the darker mood.
I'll just go in order of the table of contents.
Background info: This is wonderful, they have a good story about the background with relavent and useful information, as well as information about one of the main villians and his childhood. He's not just "umm, an insane guy who enjoys killing people". He's the guy who was struck from a very young age that he didn't want to die. He's motivated to gain life after death and his story is very believable and people can relate to it. It provides good incite into why someone would raise a lich. I wish other modules had some info on the main villian other then: Pick one - insane, sadistic, power hungry. Having an entire page with him is cool, it's enough info to make him into a guy that escapes (perhaps in his undead form) and plagues the party at a later date. On a comparison to the Temple of Elemental Evil where they have roughly a paragraph and all they say is "he's the leader, he's really really old, he's cruel, see - he sleeps on nails, EVIL!!"
Synopsis: Decent, it doesn't have step A, B, and C in that order and only in that order. The different sections can be completed in different orders and different things happen depending on which order you're in.
Adventure Hooks: Generic hooks, nothing too original here but you don't need to twist their arms to get them into the module. One of the hooks is having a missing child relative, probably one who eventually dies according to the module - not cool. This is the biggest gripe I have about the module and is one thing I'd change. I don't like the dark mood, but others might.
Settings: Nice towns, decent NPC's, good info, but nothing vital. No twisting of arms needed to get the info they need for the next step. Some interesting things like a tavern with riddles on the wall and the NPC's like the PC's more if they can figure them out. Good stuff here.
Adventure itself: Some interesting traps, but most of the encounters seem uninspired. Good puzzle and riddles, with a chance for characters other then a rogue to excel. Some nice traps that need to be figured out rather then just have a good roll on the search check. The pictures that go along wth them are great too, one room I didn't quite get what they meant when they described it and I'm glad there was a picture. It helps you feel you're really there. For a trap figureing out party it's great. If you're more into hack n' slash then the fairly weak skeletons and zombies wont' matter much. Some of the ghouls, and new monsters pose more of a challenge, but nothing extremely tough. The lich at the end who falls in love with a PC is pretty entertaining, just reading the few ideas they have made dozens more spring into my head and if they bother to chat instead of attacking directly it will be an encounter to remember.
Encounters: I don't have much experience in the 8-10th level range, but the fights seemed rather weak. The dominance of undead and traps makes clerics and rogues worth their weight in gold.
New Monsters: They have one called a Coffin Guardian, one of it's special attacks is listed as a breath weapon, but I can't find anywhere that lists what that breath weapon actually does!! It's also immune to magic, and has DR of 50/+3. For a setting that touts itself as low-magic they sure expect a lot out of PC's to even harm it. It's a construct so it's immune to crits - how can you get 50 damage? It also doesn't mention that the guardian backs off at all. I don't mind hard encounters - but there should be a way to defeat them. I'd also like to know their breath weapon if anyone knows. There is another monster called a Skeleton Henchmen/Warrior but it doesn't really list what kind of monster he is. Is he new? Is he from a book I haven't seen? The stat-block is enough to go on, but he's a different type of undead then the one in the Monster Manuel and I'd like to create more of them for other modules. BAB of fighter, more HD then regular skeletons, feats, some int, highter str, etc. I like it a lot, but I want more info on them.
Conclusion: The adventure ends with the death of the Lich Queen. The NPC's who died are transformed into undead and still need to be dealt with, which isn't covered much. The plague isn't cured as far as I can tell. I was under the impression while reading that the new disease was a result of the Queen awakening, but it says nothing about that in the module which frustrates me. Does it stop spreading, run it's course, immediately cease even in mid-disease? I want to know! Also do the towns get wiped off the face of the earth due to this horrible disease?
Overall: Good module, great info on several things, but a few unanswered questions that need extra time to resolve. If you like open ended endings you'll like it, but I prefer to have all loose ends tied up after an adventure is over. The lighter parts like the Lich feeling randy for a PC is cute, the darker parts like towns dying of disease and children getting sacrificed while the PC's aren't of high-enough level to do much is a bit dark which I don't like. Remember that I tend to dwell on the negative things instead of the positive. I plan on buying more Kalamar modules in the future, just as soon as the new local gaming store opens up (first one in town!!), I want to buy a 1st level module for after the return to the temple of EE, but I want to support the new gaming store so I'm forced to wait.
Kenzer, thank you for the free module and I'll see you guys at GenCon if you're there. I'll post a post-play review in 6 months or so when the Kalamar campaign gets up to this level and we're done playing it.
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