Jerimonds Orb

[Simon Collins]

Beware! This review contains major spoilers.

This is the fifth booster adventure by AEG. It is designed for four to six characters of level 2-4. It costs $2.49.

Production and Presentation: This module is 16 pages but each page is only ½ the width of an A4 page. The front (soft)cover features poor colour artwork, the back cover features an introduction for the players to the adventure. There are three mediocre internal pieces of black & white artwork and the central pages contain a basic map of the village of Treefall, sufficient to run the adventure. The final page and the inside back cover contains OGL bumpf. The inside front cover contains advertising.

The Story: A magical orb that brings luck to a village has been stolen, cursing the village with bad luck, and condemning the villagers to shapechange every night into monsters called mathorn. The PCs must speak to the village inhabitants to solve the mystery – a young man of the village has taken to thievery in order to get the gold to marry his girl – he’s holed up in a nearby tower, waiting for his girl to join him before they elope.

The High Points: A pleasant change from previous AEG modules – this adventure focuses on roleplaying in order to solve a mystery, and the PCs are encouraged not to kill the monsters or the young thief who has stolen the orb. In addition, the PCs are encouraged to return the magical item to the villagers, at the risk of being hunted down by a pack of mathorn if they don’t. There is also a nice ‘Rumours’ section at the beginning.

The Low Points: Though there are several characters detailed in the module, some seem a little clichéd and two-dimensional. The module still doesn’t give enough options for PCs who wish to do something different from the expected path of the module, but it at least does give some tips.

Conclusion: A definite improvement on previous AEG modules. I have to give this a rating of Good – at $2.49 this seems like a fun evening’s entertainment and easily integrated into an ongoing campaign.

 

[thundershot]

Okay, I'm not a professional reviewer or anything, and this is my first, so bear with me. I took my party through this adventure, and we had a blast! Everything below is potentially full of SPOILERS, so read at your own risk.

GOOD: It's a simple adventure, for the most part, that allows the characters to spend most of the adventure solving a mystery, and then it all hits the fan and they've got to fight for their lives. If played out properly, it can be down right scary! Also, something that most of the AEG adventures are great for, is that you can easily make this small town a part of your campaign that can be revisited so the players can see what the people of the village have been up to.

BAD: The battles against the Mathorn get a bit repetitive, since they're not really a huge challenge... until someone gets poisoned. To counter this, I added quite a few Mathorn to put the scare into the PC's.

OTHER NOTES: Like I said before, this setting is EASILY expandable. I've already added a lot of my own material that the PC's are discovering as I'm doing the other AEG adventures such as "Where did Jerimond get the orb, anyway? What are the consequences of his actions before coming to Treefall? Are there other Mathorn out there somewhere? If so, how did the race originate? Lots of fun making the Greater Mathorn and True Mathorn... though my Players haven't seen them yet.



All in all, ENJOY!

 

[Messageboard Golem]

A magic orb that brought good fortune once blessed the small town of Treefall. But now the orb is missing, and the town that flourished under its benevolent magic is cursed by its absence. When darkness comes, so do the beasts. With morning's light comes forgetfulness. Uncover the secret of the curse, and return Jerimond's Orb to its rightful place.
For 4-6 characters of levels 2-4

 

[trancejeremy]

This is one of the little tiny adventures from AEG. They're literally small - half a regular sheet of paper folded over, but they are about the total equivalent of a 9 or 10 normal sized page adventure. Thankfully, they're priced really cheap, at $2.50 (less on Ebay), so despite their short length, they're not a bad value - about on par with a 32 page adventure's pricing ($9 for 28-30 pages or so of an adventure).

What I really like about this adventure in particular, is that is can be used by just about anyone. Basically, the premise is that the PCs are travelling to somewhere (at night time), and they get attacked by a mysterious beast. After fighting it, at daybreak, they are shocked to discover that it was really a local farm boy. Assuming that haven't killed him, he begs for them to take him home.

So, the PCs go to the village, and there they discover that strange things are afoot. They must then solve the village's problem. Well, they don't have to, but if they are nice they will.

The adventure isn't very long, but it requires a good mix of roleplaying (in particular, talking to various village folk and finding out what they know), problem solving (putting all the leads together) and a decent amount of combat (though not too much) to finish.

Despite the short length, the author does a very good job of giving most of the village folk personalities. And the map of village can be used and reused for other small villages. The whole plot is also quite good - not the typical one, either (at least, why the villagers are being changed into monsters).

I really enjoyed this adventure, and have incorporated the village into my ongoing campaign, so I think this really deserves a 5.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

This is not a playtest review. The review contains minor spoilers.

Jerimond's Orb is a short adventure that could be dropped into any existing campaign and played in one session. It is designed for a party of four to six characters of levels 2-4. This seems a little vague, but the challenge rating of most of the encounters, especially the more dangerous ones, is easily adjusted simply but adjusting the number of monsters encountered.

The story is scary and gripping, starting with the characters being attacked by an unknown monster that turns into a youth at dawn (unless it stabilizes, the characters will probably let it die). This is the first intimation of a curse on the village that turns the inhabitants into monsters at night.
The adventurers must find and restore a magical orb, the loss of which has unleashed the curse.

The village of Treefall is detailed with a number of interesting (if somewhat bland) NPC:s and a good story (including a murder mystery). There is room for role-playing and investigating (there are several clues to be found) until nightfall, when the monsters emerge and the adventure probably turns into a hackfeast (or, depending on party strength) possibly the characters will be chased around the village by the monsters.

Eventually they will be informed of where the orb is to be found and a final battle will ensue (or possibly this encounter will be resolved through role-playing).

High points: The adventure is rather flexible, and details a number of locations, NPCs and clues. It is easily scaleable by adjusting the number of monsters and maybe adding levels to the main villain. The mood is scary and a DM could easily convey a sense of dread and paranoia.

Low points: The art is mediocre, and there is no written description of the main monster, in spite of the fact that the first encounter is important to setting the mood of the adventure.
There is also no map of Jerimond's Tower, which is a major encounter location.

Worse, the stat blocks provided (there are very few of them) are incomplete and inaccurate. The saves are wrong, the skills are wrong, and the bandits (presuming they are human) are missing a feat. There is also no class given (as far as I can tell, they should be warriors).

The main monster (a new one) is also a bit weirdly conceived. Its claw and bite damage is far above all comparable monsters of the same size. Also its attack bonus is too high for its HD. I suggest reducing the claw and bite damage and instead boosting its strength to compensate.

All in all the amount of work that needs to put into correcting erroneous stats makes me strip the adventure of a star, earning it a 3 (average). It is still decent value for the money, providing one evening's entertainment.