Lands of Mystery

[Messageboard Golem]

Four distinct and separate adventures which can be used individually, or tied together that can also be used individually to suit the needs of the GM. Players uncover an evil cult which travels upon a mysterious ship from distant lands, become embroiled in a battle between two fey races, search for the murderers of a kindly gold dragon, and battle strange orcs the likes of which they¹ve never seen before. This fantastic book of D&D adventures includes 5 new 3e monsters, 4 new 3e spells, magic items and poison, detail on eight diseases and jumpstart rules for underwater adventuring.

 

[Thindul the Gnome]

First off, let me say that I receieved this adventure as part of a promotion by Kenzer Co. Secondly, I haven't play-tested these adventures yet, but I will come back and add comments once I have.

Lands of Mystery is a perfect bound softcover book. At $15.99 it seems a bit pricey, but there isn't a single bit of unused space in the book. There are maps in the front and back inside covers and a page covered front and back with maps of the adventure settings. The adventures themselves have 62 pages dedicated to them and there are 16 more ImageQuest pictures as well.

Lands of Mysteries contains 4 seperate adventures of different power levels. The Sirocco's Kiss is for 4 to 6 characters of 1st through 3rd level. In Too Deep is for 2nd to 4th level PCs, Night of the Rot Lord is 3rd to 5th level and Unguarded Hoard is 5th to 8th. These adventures aren't tied together, though an enterprising DM could easlily do so. Each of the adventures has a side bar called The Winding Road that give suggestions on how the DM lead the party into other published Kalamar adventures, such as Deathright, Harvest of Darkness, or the Coin Trilogy. After each adventure there is a series of appendixes that describe new monsters, spells, magic items, diseases and a poison used in the adventure. There are also locales in them as well, describing small pieces of the Kalamar setting.

These adventures have a solid mix of problem solving, role-playing, and combat. The ImageQuest system, reminds me of Tomb of Horrors, where the picture is key to solving the adventure. However the execution is better, since the images are not only numbered, a small picture key is provided with the text. Such attention to detail allows the DM to be certain that he is showing the correct image.

On the downside, one of the spells seems a bit too powerful for it's listed level. It is a simple thing for a DM to adjust up, but some players might complain.

Overall I thought this adventure pack to be very good and the adventures are generic enough to be ran in any campaign. Most of the additional information is generic enough to be of use in any campaign as well. Lastly the maps on the inside covers and setting information is a bonus to those who use the Kingdoms of Kalamar.

 

[JacktheRabbit]

Lands of Mystery is a 64 page softcover module containing 4 distinct short adventures. None of these adventures directly tie together and while two of them are located relatively close to each other the other 2 are much further away. If a DM wanted to run his players through all 4 adventures he may have to move their locations a bit or his or her party will be doing quite a bit of travelling.

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Each of the 4 modules was well put together in my opinion and I was impressed with them as I read through them. A couple small points on each:

Sirocco's Kiss - This is a good opening adventure for a group with a decent challenge and a plot that moves on its own well if the party does not act quickly enough. The only negatives to this are two.

1. Odds are meta-knowledge from the PC's is going to kill the surprise for this adventure from the start. I plan on altering a few minor details so that my PC's won't be certain what they are facing at the end.

2. If the party rolls bad and fails to take down the main foe with the items provided then they could be in real trouble. The main foe is quite capable of thrashing a 1st - 3rd level party.

These are both very minor points since a DM should know if point #1 will apply to him and the odds of point #2 happening is pretty low. In addition this adventure includes some nice information on the docks section of a city that one could reuse easily. Bonus points for including an item I will probably steal time and time again with just a few name changes.

Too Deep - This is an interesting adventure that makes the party act as peacemakers in a town beset by two groups of Fey that do not get along. This module is a welcome change from the normal hack and slash since it requires the party to be diplomatic at times as well as use their brain for some riddles in the dungeon portion.

One minor point is that the arcane spell seems much too powerful for its level. Thrown on a fighter before he closes with an enemy or enemies and watch him go to town. Makes me wonder to a degree what mage would ever research such a spell or let it get out if he or she did create it.

The Rot Lord - This adventure is a good old mystery. The townspeople are dying of a strange disease that normal means cannot cure. Its up to the party to find the source of the disease and end it. The nice thing is that just curing the disease will not end the problem. The foes in the module will just come back and start over again or worse depending on the parties actions the foes may overrun the town and put all the townspeople to the sword.

The DM will have to be very specific and careful about enforcing the time issues in this adventure. It is rated for 3rd - 5th level but if the DM lets the time deadlines slide the adventure will be a cakewalk for a party of this level. There is room for expansion of this module since mention is made of an orc tribe. Little information is given about the tribe so using the tribe would require a good amount of work from the DM.

Another bonus is that in this adventure there is a listing of several deadly diseases in Kalamar. Since the Rot Lord makes a good long term foe the addition of all these diseases and the stats on them is a great addition. More bonus points for this information.

Unguarded Horde This adventure is the highest character level of all of them and possibly the most challenging. I say possibly since the main foes in this adventure are a group of evil PC's whose levels are to match the parties. These foes though are completely left to the DM to create. This allows a nice balance but requires the most work of any of the adventures to use.

This adventure also runs the risk of killing your entire party if they are greedy. There is an entire Gold Dragons horde just sitting there to be taken but only enough time to start grabbing it before the Dragons mate arrives. Woe to the PC who has a armful of jewels when the very angry Gold Dragon girlfriend arrives!

This adventure also has nice hooks into a longterm relationship with said Gold Dragon and a long term war against the local Hobgoblins. This is very nice since about this level you really want to start working long term politics into your adventures and this will do that nicely.




Finally the module comes with very nice ImageQuest pictures that go with all 4 adventures. They are posted in the back of the module and can be torn out to show the party. In addition all through the book there are small notes about bits that can be dropped in that can entice the party into other Kalamar modules.

All in all I must say this is an excellant product. If this is how Kenzer creates mini adventures then some of their full length adventures are definately in my parties future.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Lands of Mystery
Edited by Brian Jelke & Mark Plemmons
Published by Kenzer & Co.
80 b & w pages
www.kenzerco.com
$15.99

Lands of Mystery is a collection of old, out of print modules that Kenzer & Co put out when Kalamar was ‘meant for any system’ but included AD&D 2nd edition stats. This is the 2nd module collection Kenzer has published, the first being Harvest of Darkness. The four modules here are The Sirocco’s Kiss, In too Deep, Night of the Rot Lord, and Unguarded Hoard. The modules are arranged in level so The Sirocco’s Kiss is for 1st-3rd level characters is first, while Unguarded Hoard, for 5th-8th level characters is last.

The Sirocco’s Kiss is perhaps one of the easiest adventures to transport to any setting. While there is a fair amount of background information on Bet Seder, and it includes over ten different locations that characters can explore, the majority of the action takes place on the Sirocco’s Kiss itself, a boat. This boat that has pulled into harbor hosts a terrible evil, a powerful rakshasa. Normally, such a powerful monster is beyond the strength of characters in this level range, and if the player’s aren’t crafty, there is every possibility that Rhingarr the rakshasa, will tear them apart. Fate however, is kind, and provides the party with the tools necessary to finish the job. The extra information on Bet Seder is useful for GMs wishing to reuse the city and perfect for those with the Pekal Gazetteer.

In Too Deep pits the party against the charms of a clan of Water Nixies and a pair of Sirens. The problem with the module is that it continues the stage set by the first module in providing the characters some easy solutions. How do the players breathe underwater? Why, they ask the friendly Nixies for help. How do they assist the leader of the friendly Nixies, a Naga whose intelligence has been drained? Why, there is a scroll of lesser restoration that can be found in the Naga’s own chest. Of more interest to me was the puzzle of the Mask of Races, a powerful item hidden away in a riddle guarded, trapped laden barrow. Here, different heroes of different races have been buried and protected with various traps and the party, if wise, will only try to find the tomb with the Mask of Races. Another side benefit of his module is that it too is set within the Pekal region and GMs can use this to augment such campaigns.

Night of the Rot Lord pits the power of a priest of disease against the party. The group must save the villagers of Bhorr’s Bend from the horrors of the Rotting Flesh disease. The party will get the chance to pit their might against the foul priest Gharr and his orc minions, but again, the module provides an easy out. In one of the encounters, the party can find Keoghtom’s Ointment, which can cure the plague. Of more interest to me then the adventure, as a GM, was the section on Diseases of the Sovereign Lands. Each section includes a stat breakdown of How is the Disease Contracted, Who Carries the Disease, Stages of the Disease, By What Method Can the Disease be Cured, and the stats of the disease itself. Included are Rotting Flesh Disease, Orc Shingles, Goblin Pox, The Black Plague, The Rotting Death, The Blue Death, and the Dancing Death. These diseases can add a lot of depth to any campaign that needs to augment the variety of infection found in the setting.

The last adventure, Unguarded Hoard, is another relatively short beast. The party is contacted by the government of Bronish, a free city in Svimohzia, to deliver a message to their gold dragon guardian. The problem is that the hobgoblins of the area have already slain said guardian and there are looters at the lair already. The party must battle a group their own strength. I felt that Kenzer copped out here by suggesting that the GM just copy the character’s sheets and use those as templates. This isn’t an inexpensive module and providing some options would’ve been of great value in such a situation. The majority of this section is actually taken up by details of the Free City of Bronish and includes background, a map, numerous details on different city quarters, government, economy, military might, and templates. These details are the true meat of this section and provide the GM with opportunities to use the city of Bronish several times over. The information on the Dark Elves and Lizard Folk can help the GM set up a short term or long term campaign and hopefully Kenzer will build up on this material in future modules as the death of a gold dragon is no small thing.

The maps are very good and easy to read although their placement is somewhat puzzling. For example, why is the Dragon’s Lair from Unguarded Hoard placed before Gharr’s den, or the village of the Nixies and the map for the Sirocco’s Kiss is the very last map provided? The ImageQuest tool, large, well done illustration on perforated pages, is another excellent tool for newer GMs. These sixteen pages provide illustrations for key events and scenes in the module.

The layout is standard two columns. Text to be read aloud is boxed in gray. The modules share a similar layout in that it starts with an introduction, provides background, an adventure synopsis, and adventure hooks. Most of the adventure hooks are simple matters that GMs can customize for their own use. Another important tool that is the Winding Road sidebars. The Winding Road provides the GM with quick ideas on how to use the adventurers in this module with other modules already published by Kenzer. The interior covers are used to provide the GM with city maps. The first interior cover illustrates the city of Bet Seder, or at least the Seaport district. The rear interior cover provides the City of Broish and almost 40 locals. Because this is an official product, there is no D20 License and no open content within the module.

So what would this module have to do to earn a five rating? First off, competitively speaking, it’s a little too high in price. These are old modules redone for 3rd edition and the original creation stages are already done. Both Fiery Dragon and Necromancer have similar sized or larger books out for a smaller price tag. Second, there are no notes on how to Scale the Adventure. Third, two of the adventurers, the Sirocco’s Kiss and Unguarded Hoard are so short, that they should’ve been either rewritten entirely, or removed. Sirocco’s Kiss is less then five pages of adventure and Unguarded Hoard is about five pages. The background provided for the two cities is fantastic and can provide the GM with numerous additional sessions but this is an adventure book first, sourcebook second. Fourth, the module should’ve included stats for the looters in Unguarded Hoard.

This is a nice collection of modules for GMs and with two of the adventurers, the lower level ones at that, set in Pekal, it’s perfect for those GMs who wish to establish a campaign there. The Free City of Bronish is an excellent touch for those who want to get outside of Pekal and the material here provides the GM with enough information to last several sessions.

 

[gambler1650]

Greetings all. As this is my first review on this site, I'll give a quick introduction. I've played AD&D before, but not Third Edition. I originally dove back into the D20 products as a way to gain ideas for Neverwinter Nights computer modules. In my usual fashion I soon accrued a huge amount of material. I've been reading through this site to not only find out about things that I might still want, or gems I've missed, but to compare reviews here with my own feelings on things I've already purchased. Kingdoms of Kalamar was one of my first major campaigns I spent my money on, and as such is the one I actually have the most reviews already done on Amazon.com.

I have to say, the other reviews here spurred me to post my modified and slightly expanded review from amazon.com to here. I hope I am not immediately blasted for being a drive by troller as I've seen some people called for a negative review. Just check my reviews on Amazon. I rarely give 1's, just as I rarely give 5's. Also, this will not be my only review here and I'll make sure to give my more positive reviews for a Kalamar product by the weekend. While production qualities matter, the content is what determines a final rating. Good pictures or unique ideas won't save a product from a poor review, but it might push a good one slightly higher. Functionality first, then the flash if you please. Price is also generally taken into consideration. A quick summary of my personal ratings:

1 - Lazy, incomplete, shoddy effort. So disgusted I'm likely only to open it again to review it.
2 - Below average. Not completely unhappy I bought it since it probably has some good ideas.
3 - Average/Good. I got approximately what I expected in terms of content and quality. No major flaws and useful.
4 - Very Good. I got more than I expected. Inspired me enough to think about using it down the road.
5 - Excellent. The cream of the industry. I immediately want to use it somewhere. Excellent production values.

On to the actual review:

I'll save the suspense. This module gets a 1 from me along with my heartiest warning to stay away. Ok, so why is that?


(WARNING: SPOILERS WILL FOLLOW - Read the conclusion to avoid the spoilers):



I like the "Kingdoms of Kalamar" overall look. In general their production quality is good, and in this case it's no exception. There's a nice colorful, glossy cover and back. I like the fact that the back cover shows where in Kalamar each adventure takes place. It describes how the adventures are translations of previous adventures into the D20 system. The touted (on the back cover) ImageQuest Adventure Illustrator is a set of black and white drawings that can replace shaded text. The DM can simply show the players what they see. The pictures are nicely done and consistent in look. The latter at least is something that can't be said for some of the other Kingdoms of Kalamar adventures. It's a nice idea in theory and, for many of the pictures, in practice.

I do have one significant concern with some of the drawings in this ImageQuest system, and particularly in this module. In the last two adventures in the module, there are hidden things in the drawings. According to the suggestions given to the DM, if your players spot these hidden things, then their characters do too. In some cases it's suggested to not make spot checks if the picture is shown, and in others it's suggested to do a spot check even if the picture is shown. Does anyone else have a concern that now it's the player's keen eyesight to see "what doesn't belong in this picture" rather than the abilities of the character? The problem is even more insidious. If the DM shows these pictures and the players spot the hidden thing, then in the future they may spend an inordinate amount of time poring over the images shown even if there's nothing there. Instead of a quick die roll to determine what they see, play is slowed. The DM could simply place a time limit on each image's viewing, but even then the players will be looking for the hidden thing and not at the image as a whole. The DM can't simply say "Well, you don't have to look for anything in this one." because then that gives it away that there is something there if he doesn't say it. My recommendation to any DM using this module, is to not use the drawings that show something hidden, to avoid the potential problems. Unfortunately, a new DM might not be experienced enough to handle the situation.

Another problem I had was that the adventures don't link with each other (except the first and last ones - the problem here is that it's suggested that the first adventure occur at the same time as the last one. The first adventure is for characters of levels 1-3, the last adventure is for characters of levels 5 to 8. You do the math. Either low level characters are gonna get slaughtered in the last adventure, or high level characters are gonna just flick away a gnat in the first adventure unless the DM modifies one of the encounters - again, something a beginning DM might not do). They can link to other modules however and to be fair, the back of the book doesn't specifically say that the adventures link to each other, although the first time I read the back, I thought they did because of slightly ambiguous wording and general expectations based on other Kalamar Modules.

Ok. So nothing yet that warrants a 1. Just a poor (in my opinion) design decision with the ImageQuest system, a poor linkage attempt within the book which a very creative DM could make work, and a misunderstanding based on ambiguous wording. Simply put, the reason for the low rating is the errors, the schizophrenia of the module (is it an adventure? is it a disease handbook? is it a city gazeteer? You be the judge. Since this is billed as an adventure module, that's what I'm going to review it as.) and pure laziness.

The errors start right at the beginning in the credits, one of the adventures isn't listed with its author. Instead the 4th adventure listed is one from "Harvest of Darkness" (another Kalamar module). Some other noteworthy cases include a priest of god being referenced by his god's name, and not the NPCs name. Once an NPC is called by his race name and not his own. There are other examples of this shoddy editing.

To better illustrate my problems with the module, I'll review each adventure briefly: (SPOILERS BELOW)

1. The Sirocco's Kiss: This appears to be a very short adventure if the characters pick up on the clues in the opening encounter (or happen to have read the Monster Manual and know the trick to killing the creature they face - the fact that it's expected that the characters won't immediately recognize the creature and the trick to killing it, suggests that this adventure is designed for beginning DMs... you know, ones who might blindly accept that they can combine the first and last adventures together with no problems). If the players don't figure out the solution, the DM will end up killing his first level party, or a 2nd level party, or a... probably up to an 8th level party. Think his or her players will want to play an AD&D game again? This adventure seems mostly included in order to provide a reason to flesh out the seaport district of Bet Seder (5 1/2 pages for the adventure, 9 1/2 pages for the 'gazeteer portion'). While this background is interesting and well written, there's not much advice on how to use this information to flesh out the adventure itself, particularly for a new DM. Even with one that's somewhat creative (as I believe I am), ideas didn't immediately spring to mind.

Individual Rating: 1 (Way too easy or way too hard. In most cases, way too quick unless the DM spends a lot of time fleshing this out). Raise it to a 3 if you base your adventures in Bet Seder for awhile.


2. In Too Deep: This adventure is basically five separate tiny adventures in a very non-descript, tiny town. There are some minor connections between a couple of these vignettes, but the overall feel is quite disjointed. There are a few decent concepts, none of which are fleshed out beyond the synopsis level (appropriate, since that's the feel of the whole module to me). Oh, and there's a logic problem that could be taken straight out of a book with problems like (If Sue lives in a house next to the librarian, and the librarian goes to work after Joe...) which you can expect players to have to spend a lot of time on compared to most game activities. If there are some who don't like logic problems they'll be bored. If too many like logic problems it'll take even longer (too many cooks).

Individual Rating: 1


3. Night of the Rot Lord: This one is just rotten. This seems mostly designed to create some 'spot the monsters in the ImageQuest system' illustrations and to provide 4 pages detailing some diseases of Kalamar. Only 2 of the 7 diseases actually can be found in the adventure. That's 4 pages compared to 1 page actually detailing the encounters in the adventure, and maybe 2 pages for the NPCs and a key to the area. This is the one where an NPC is called by the name of his god. Another NPC is called 'him' when it's a female. In other cases two NPCs have their names mixed up, The most amusing part to me is that when the village's history and current status is described, the form of government is specifically described as having no mayor, with some businessmen running things. One of the NPCs is called Mayor Deanaar Sumona and he is indeed described at this point as being the Mayor. Pitiful. The story's just average and again, far too short without fleshing out. Perhaps three of those pages describing diseases could have been used? Nah, that would have required creativity.

Individual Rating: 1.


4. Unguarded Hoard: (MAJOR SPOILERS) This adventure is by far the best of the lot. The characters get to interact with a village protected by a Gold Dragon rumored to have been killed. The characters have some encounters (basically combat though the characters can ally with an evil group) on the way which makes this a reasonably long adventure compared to the rest of the adventures in this book. There's a slight twist at the end and the characters can even make a few different choices in how they handle things. This would probably get a 3 except for two things. There are more "spot the monster" ImageQuest illustrations. The last encounter though is an example of the absolutely lazy mentality found throughout the book. There is another party exploring the area, trying to get to the treasure before anyone else, or trying to protect the dragon if the PCs allied with the evil group. Does the module set this up with an encounter with this party earlier? Nope. They just appear in the dragon's lair. Ok, fine, that's easily within the realm of possibility. So... where are their stats? Nowhere to be found. The directive given to the DM is to make it a challenge by making them nearly identical to the PCs in terms of power and skills. Then it even suggests that the DM can even just use the player's sheets! Uh. Huh? Why? There's no reason, other than to balance the encounter. Further proof that this is just a slap it together effort. Oh, and there are 9 gazeteer pages on the City of Bromish (compared to six for the adventure)... A couple of those pages could have been used to flesh out some encounters with the other adventuring group, maybe even come up with an explanation why the PCs might be fighting their clones, at least in abilities.

Individual Rating: 2 (Good idea, lazy, lazy, lazy execution)



CONCLUSION

This book felt like the editors just grabbed random (usually extremely short and undeveloped) adventure ideas (since they admitted as such on the back cover I guess I can't fault them for this), slapped a minor layer of polishing on them (if so I'd hate to see the originals), and then added information to flesh out the Kalamar setting. If you want information on diseases, or two of the cities in the campaign setting, then it might actually be worth it, except then you'll have to keep one more book handy to look up the information.. assuming you remember that "That 'fun' disease" is in an adventure module and not a sourcebook. If you want to be convinced that you too can write AD&D modules since this one made it to publication then borrow a friend's. If you want to be amused at someone's editing job, read "Night of the Rot Lord". If you want four well done adventures, buy something else. As a final note, this module's retail price is $15.99 for 78 pages (16 of which are the imagequest illustrations). Compare this to "Rappan Athuk 3" by Sword and Sorcery which retails for the same price and is 108 pages long. As a final warning, if you're a new DM do _not_ make this book your first one to run your players through. There's too much work to do and too many pitfalls in the module.

One final note. This module in general has made me wish that AD&D modules came with a rating system on the back similar to wargames. For instance, I would like to see the following rated on a scale of 1-5 for suitability:

For a beginning DM
For beginning players
How complete the adventures are


RATINGS:
Production Quality: 4 (Good graphics layout and pictures both on the outside and inside. Somewhat poor use of whitespace in the text)

Content: 1 (This is billed as an adventure module. There are 18 pages of gazeteer type information, only some of which directly affects the adventures. This space would have been better used to flesh out the areas directly related to the adventure and to expand the adventures. As it is, the adventures are short, usually disjointed, and poorly edited).

For a Beginning DM: 1 (Don't even think about it)

For Beginning Players: 1 (If your DM pulls this module out, hope that he or she has a ton of creativity and experience)

Completeness of Adventures: 1-2 (None are really a complete adventure in itself. Lots of work for the DM to do).

Overall: 1 (Yeah, production quality is high.. As I said at the start, production quality only nudges a good game higher, it doesn't save a bad product).

Again. This is not a troll by review. Maybe there's worse out there, but given that this is a high profile setting, it's more likely that someone will buy this over a more obscure item (like most of the ones I see given a 1 on this site). The above is my opinion only. Obviously some people liked this module, and I give them a lot of credit for finding the good in it.

 

[gambler1650]

[No message]

 

[Messageboard Golem]

I think you gave a well thought and well excuted review. Nothing to apologise for that. Whether or not you'll get people to agree with you, another story. Still I respect your opinion.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

By Glenn Dean, Staff Reviewer d20 Magazine Rack

*** Warning – Possible Spoilers ***

Sizing Up the Target
Lands of Mystery is a set of adventures for Kenzer’s Kingdoms of Kalamar campaign setting. Written by a number of authors including Christopher Heath, Tony Wilson, James Mischler, Brian Jelke, and Scott Meredith, this is an 80-page softcover that includes maps and 25 special illustrations that retails for $15.99.

First Blood
Lands of Mystery provides a set of four Kingdoms of Kalamar adventures for characters of level 1-8. Each of the adventures can be used alone, or as part of an ongoing Kalamar campaign. The adventures have complete maps, full monster stat blocks and adventure-specific appendices at the end of each adventure, and use the Kenzer ImageQuest system that provides a series of illustrations to be shown to players during the course of the adventure. The adventures are set in Tellene in the Kalamar setting, though the adventures could just as easily be set in any campaign setting with very minor modification.

“The Sirocco’s Kiss” is the first adventure in the collection, designed for characters of 1st to 3rd level. In this adventure the party discovers a mysterious cult operating out of a strange ship, and will be drawn into an encounter with an extremely powerful monster. Although the party is provided with a magical item to exploit the monster’s weakness, this is still a very dangerous scenario, since its final encounter is an EL 10. The adventure itself is fairly short – probably good for a single playing session – but does include a fully fleshed out city dock quarter to use for further adventures.

The second adventure, “In Too Deep”, is designed for 2d to 4th level characters. This is a set of short site- and event-based encounters in and around a small fishing village. Roleplaying opportunities abound in this adventure; there are a couple of novel encounters, and conceivably all of the encounters could be resolved through clever diplomacy and roleplay without any combat at all. Two of the encounters provide an opportunity for underwater adventuring, with some limited rules for handling underwater events included at the end of the adventure. “In Too Deep” could potentially be used for two to three short gaming sessions, depending upon the depth of the role play.

“Night of the Rot Lord” is a fairly direct investigative-type event-based adventure in which the PCs must save a village from a horrible disease. The village is fully statted, so it has potential for use in further play, but the adventure itself is fairly short, probably one session at most. It does include descriptions of a number of horrible diseases that can be added to the campaign.

The final adventure, “Unguarded Hoard”, designed for characters of 5th to 8th level, is my favorite of the four. The party is hired to investigate rumors of hobgoblin raiders and the lair of a dragon -- doing so provides city-based, overland, and dungeon adventuring in a brief, probably one to two session scenario. This is one of the few published adventures I’ve encountered that provides a set of options for both evil- and good-aligned parties to pursue. Though the adventure itself is short, the PCs actions could provide sufficient hooks for a number of ongoing adventures. This last adventure also includes a complete description of the Free City of Bronish that is adequate for a wealth of adventuring ideas.

Critical Hits
As a GM, I’ve always found it useful to have a couple of short adventures to use as side treks, or to fill a single session or two while bigger things develop in the campaign. Lands of Mystery provides that in a nice package – a number of short, complete adventures that have the added benefit of prepared illustrations to enhance the game. While I won’t say the adventures themselves are earthshakingly original ideas, they do provide a range of material that includes city, wilderness, underwater, and exploration encounters, role-play, puzzle, and combat options, town and city backgrounds, plus full encounter tables all in one package. Given the cost of many published single adventures of similar length, Lands of Mystery isn’t a bad value for the dollar.

Critical Misses
Oddly, though all four adventures are packaged together, there are no hooks that link the adventures together. Kenzer has provided a series of sidebars that explain how to link these adventures individually to other published Kalamar adventures. I would have been nice, though, to see some linkage between the adventures so that they could be used in sequence without any additional work. As it stands, they could be linked together, but the GM must figure out those links – as published Lands of Mystery provides four independent modules in one binding.

Encounter scaling feels a bit off. The first adventure is specifically designed to put a low-level party up against a very powerful creature – potentially a fun game session, but certainly one fraught with risk. The other adventures are all stated to be for a specific level range “but adaptable for use with more or less experienced PCs by adjusting the strength of the foes described herein” – except that no further guidance is provided on what an appropriate adjustment might be. While experienced GMs should be able to handle this, in the “Unguarded Hoard” adventure particularly even the base level range of 5th to 8th is a little broad to not have some scaling suggestions, especially given one of the foes in that adventure. Clearer scaling suggestions, or a tighter level range (I’d suggest 2d, 3d, 3d, and 6th respectively) would make it easier for the GM to fit these adventures to his particular party.

Coup de Grace
Lands of Mystery provides the GM with four nice stand-alone adventures all in one bundle, complete with some great illustrations. As a Kalamar product, none of its contents are Open Content, but the adventures could be easily adapted to any setting. While GMs might want to exercise some care in fitting a particular adventure to their group, overall this product is a reasonable value for its cost.

To see the graded evaluation of this product and to leave comments that the reviewer will respond to, go to The Critic's Corner at www.d20zines.com.