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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Simon Collins" data-source="post: 2009225" data-attributes="member: 9860">Beware! This review contains major spoilers.This is not a playtest review.The Hall Of The Rainbow Mage is a Necromancer Games adventure designed for 4 to 6 characters of 7th to 9th level or higher.At $15.95 for 96 pages, this is a fairly standard price for a book of this type and size. 4 pages of advertising and large chunks of white space at the end of each chapter diminish its value in terms of content amount but font size and margins are reasonably good. Despite only one internal artist, the moody mono art ranges from poor to good. The front cover makes good use of colour and retains a very 1st Edition feel to it. Maps are clear and functional but use different scales for different indoor locations and some are lacking a compass direction. Writing quality and editing is average.Three adventure hooks are offered to encourage the PCs to search the mansion of a well-known mage several miles outside the scheming village of Hampton Hill. The mage has disappeared and several people want to find him. The mansion is warded and trapped and the NPCs have been looking for a group of foolhardy (sorry, brave) adventurers to investigate the mansion to ascertain if the mage is still alive. The village and NPCs of Hampton Hill are well detailed and a sidebar includes a new deity - Arn (Lesser God of the Sun). The intigue already begins here as several secret agendas are discussed. The PCs travel to the mage's mansion in the forest, with a few encounters along the way. The PCs must infiltrate the mage's mansion, where they discover the body of the mage and clues that the mage was not the harmless figure he portrayed. Instead, he is in league with a powerful baron to use a magical artifact to dominate the local area and eventually forge a new nation of his own. The mansion includes an interesting underground jungle cavern and the backstory gives a sense of realism to the proceedings.When the PCs return to the village, they find that one of the NPCs has been tortured and left for dead by the baron. Information from this NPC leads them to attempt to find and destroy the evil artifact. They discover the artifact is hidden in an ancient temple to Horgrim, lawful evil God of War and Magic (with sidebar on the deity), which has been sealed in the past by lawful good clerics. Once inside the temple, the PCs must once again battle various creatures, avoid deadly traps, and collect treasure along the way, in true 1st Edition style, through 4 levels of ancient temple, in order to reach the artifact.There are several appendices at the back of the book. The first gives some detailed descriptions of the major NPCs, and some stat blocks for lesser NPCs such as guards and merchants. The second offers 3 new monsters - Chrystone (a crystal construct), Wood Golem, and Lead Skeleton (a metal-encased skeletal construct). There is also a new monster template - Dark Warden - a powerful undead with a sonic attack, created by a ritual designed to create guardians for Horgrim's temples. There are also stat blocks for randomly encountered monsters. The third appendix details 13 new magic items and relics, including books that add bonuses to skill checks once read, and the evil artifact that is the centre of the plot of the adventure. The final appendix offers four new spells - etch stone, rainbow spear, rainbow staff, and teleport other - and a new feat - Colorize Magic (which enables spellcasters to define the colour of visible spell effects, giving bonuses to skill checks such as Intimidate or Bluff).The last few pages are dedicated to maps of the various locations throughout the adventure.Conclusion:The Hall Of The Rainbow Mage definitely exemplifies the 1st Edition feel that has become the trademark of Necromancer Games adventures and is bound to please those who enjoy this style. However, it also has a decent plot, well detailed NPCs, and a clever explanation for the locations and creatures within the adventure. The creatures and treasures are varied and appropriate to the locations with background explanation as to their presence. As a pleasant change to some other products I have reviewed recently, the stats also seem to be in order.On the negative side, there are a few minor holes with some of these explanations. I also would have liked to see ELs for all the locations, not just some (the ELs are pretty tough for the designated character levels but not outrageous). I personally don't like stat blocks, maps, NPCs, etc. at the back of a module - I like them on the page where they enter the adventure, so I was not impressed with the organisation of information but this is more a personal taste thing. There was also this years winner of the longest descriptive title for a monster, with a "female half-celestial/half-elf vampire fighter/sorcerer"!!This adventure will appeal to those who like 1st Edition style, but it also offers a quality adventure for those who enjoy plot twists and good characterisation, despite the few minor irritations with layout and EL designation.</blockquote>

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