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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 9482796" data-attributes="member: 6750502"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/pf0ejI4.jpeg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /><a href="https://www.dmsguild.com/product/383658/Publish-or-Perish" target="_blank">Product Link</a>Product Type: AdventureCoS-Required? NoComing in at a mere 9 pages, only 5 of which are the adventure proper, this might be the shortest module covered yet. It’s optimized for 3-5 PCs of levels 5 to 10, which IMO is too wide a level range to really give us an accurate estimation on the level of challenge. Set in 5th Edition Ravenloft’s interpretation of Dementlieu, the adventure concerns the recent disappearance of the eladrin bard and playwright, Malrim. Fairley, Malrim’s rival and a self-described noble who’s recently fallen on hard times, is responsible for his disappearance, having gotten involved with a cult dedicated to the Faerunian deity Cyric. However, Fairley has gotten in too deep, and has come to regret his associations.The module is a linear mystery, beginning when the PCs are hired by the local neighborhood to look into Malrim’s disappearance, and are given a Rod of Security (an extremely powerful magical item) as down payment. Granny Carrie, a resident of the boarding house that Malrim also lives at, explains that Malrim has been working on writing a play for an unknown patron in order to pay rent, and has been stressfully working day and night before he disappeared ten days ago. She also tells the party about his rivalry with Fairley on a successful Persuasion or Investigation check.The PCs have the option of going either to Malrim’s apartment or Fairley’s house. The first location has various clues that can be found with Investigation checks, such as a receipt for a loan from Fairley and oddly acidic ink formations eating away at Malrim’s notes indicating the work of sabotage. As for Fairley’s house, PCs can interview local lamplighters around the area who mention that the occupant has been quite surly as of late and didn’t want them nearby anymore. Fairley will accept the PCs for an interview if asked, but he will play dumb about Malrim’s disappearance. If the party confronts his dishonesty or otherwise ask too many questions, he will call for his muscular tiefling butler named Essential to escort the PCs out. If the party resorts to violence, Fairley will cast a Sleep spell and escape. In fact, his escape is deemed so vital to the module that he manages to do so in 1 round via Cutscene Powers, no matter what the PCs do.As for Essential, the acidic ink from earlier is staining part of his clothes, which can be detected via various skill checks. And with even more skill checks the PCs can get the tiefling to open up to them, revealing that he’s a paladin whose oath mandates that he serve Fairley’s interests. Unfortunately for him, the noble is a manipulative sort who has exploited the oath’s letter against the spirit of Essential’s terms of service. For this reason, the butler is willing to cooperate with authorities if proof is shown of Fairley’s guilt, but he shares one clue with the PCs that the house has a series of underground rooms and that someone was moved through them, along with seeing a cloaked person accompanying Fairley with a jawless skull on a sunburst. He points the PCs to the library at the temple of Ioun as a place to research the symbol.Ioun’s temple is a humble place, consisting of little more than a library and some smaller rooms. The resident librarian is happy to help the PCs, but starts to panic upon realizing that the skull-on-sunburst symbol belongs to a dangerous cult. This section of the adventure is a bit confusing, as it has specific boxed text for the librarian’s in-character explanation, but then continues out-of-character explaining Cyric’s background. Then mentions again out-of-character that “the librarian stops himself,” which makes it sound like the prior explanation was also meant to be explained in-character.The hidden passageways upon which Marlin was kidnapped lead to an underground shrine. It is a three-room dungeon with no map, and is linear in how the PCs progress. The shrine’s entrance is blocked by a pair of guards (use Knight stats) who can be distracted, and further in the dungeon has two more pairs of guards. There’s a Lantern of Revealing, and bags of flour which the adventure calls out can be baked into an explosion with spells like Grease and Sacred Flame to cause a distraction, but has no rules for how large or damaging the explosion can be besides that it’s “not enough to cause a cave-in.”The final room is an amphitheater, with Malrim tied to an altar. Fairley is standing next to him, joined by a cloaked figure. During the brief boxed text, the cloaked figure will mention that this is a test for Fairley’s ambition before vanishing (PCs cannot prevent their escape in any way), and Fairley is clearly distraught. The party can convince him to not commit the unforgivable and stand trial for his crimes via a successful skill check, or fight him in combat. If successfully persuaded, a glabrezu will appear to kill everyone, and Fairley and Malrim can contribute during the fight. Fairley uses the stats of a Warlock of the Fiend from Volo’s Guide to Monsters, which isn’t reprinted in the module itself so the DM needs to own that book as well. The adventure notes that if the party’s too strong when fighting Fairley, to add a dretch…which is a CR ¼ monster that won’t even be a roadblock for Tier 2 groups. Additionally, as Plane Shift cannot work in Ravenloft under most circumstances, the module swaps out that spell for Circle of Death for Fairley to cast.And no, Malrim doesn’t have any stats provided, which is a major oversight.The adventure has two major endings depending on whether or not Fairley was reasoned with. If reasoned with, he doesn’t want to stand trial after all, not wishing the Darklord to find out about his crimes. He offers to settle things “like gentlemen” with Malrim, who forgives him all too easily and they go into business together as a co-op. The party is paid 8,000 gold by Fairley as well as a life debt favor from him to call upon in the future. If Fairley was fought, Essential provides his master’s will and testament to Malrim. Turns out that Malrim is entrusted with Fairley’s estate, who then pays 6,000 gold to the party.In either case, freed from his master’s service, Malrim becomes an Oath of Redemption Paladin and works with Essential to look for any other victims of Fairley’s art theft to administer reparations.Overall Thoughts: This adventure’s bad on multiple levels. Not only is it way too linear for a mystery, too many clues hinge on a single successful skill check in order to move things along. Additionally, it lacks stats for important NPCs who may reasonably end up in combat such as Essential and Malrim. The choices of PCs end up not mattering in the end or cannot be made due to “cutscenes,” like Fairley escaping if confronted at his house or the cloaked figure teleporting away. Furthermore, the party can get access to an awful lot of gold and a very rare magic item from Dementlieu’s inhabitants, which thematically brushes up hard against the domain being an impoverished city that only appears wealthy. The fact that Fairley not only refuses to stand trial at the end if he survived, and that he entrusts his estate to the guy he just recently had kidnapped and sabotaged his work, is going to make quite a few gaming groups ask “just what was this all for anyway?”Join us next time as we review the fanmade sequel to Curse of Strahd: Griffon Hill Manor!</blockquote>

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