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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Legion" data-source="post: 2010489" data-attributes="member: 5723"><a href="http://www.bombshellstudios.com/legion/reviews.shtml" target="_blank">Legion's Review Disclaimer</a>Morrick Mansion is a town and dungeon adventure designed for 4 to 6 characters of 3rd to 5th-level. Morrick Mansion challenges adventurers to battle strange, mutant creatures in an effort to solve a mystery and stop an insidious curse. Do your players dare enter the mysterious mansion and can they survive long enough to discover its source.Possible spoilers, you've been warned.This adventure written by Patrick Lawinger, illustrated by Brian Leblanc (cover by Erik Pollak,) and cartography by Ed Bourelle is a very solid bullet in Necromancer's arsenal.The adventure itself, while not innovative in any way, is fun and well constructed. With a bit of investigating thrown into the beginning, for the most part it's a traditional 'dungeon romp.' This is by no means a bad thing; in fact, with regards to this adventure, it's a good thing, because it follows the rules, is clear, concise and straightforward to run. This is actually one of the best things I like about the adventure. Thought it is for 34d-5th level characters, DMs looking for a great introductory module for new players or the stepping off point for a long campaign will find that Morrick Mansion fits the bill perfectly.All right, onto the pros and cons. First the pros, then the cons.As already stated the artwork is very nice. I liked Brian Leblanc's work from Book of Taverns and I like it here, my personal favorite is the the illustration on page 12 with the thief cracking the safe; the look on the fighter's face is hysterical conjuring all sorts of images of what the thief just told him, "If you'd quit fidgeting your armor might stop clanking long enough for me to hear the damn tumblers!" The cartography by Ed Bourelle is terrific, I especially like the map of the Mansion Interior. The writing and editing are both clear and crisp. I spotted very few typographical errors or missing sentences.The NPCs of the adventure are also very nice. They've got just enough quirkiness to them to make the module standout from others in similarity. Great examples of these are Argrim White, the blind caretaker whose been hiding out for five years (but could literally kick the collected arses of the PCs) and Koriela, the stranded Air Mephit. One of the highlights of the module that I was really enamored of is the death of Lord Morrick. This is handled quite nicely and Morrick's solution to saving his family is reflected in the strength of the NPCs.As to the cons, some might consider the fact that the module itself feels like covered ground. As I mentioned it's a fairly straightforward 'dungeon crawl' (and no, it isn't actually IN a dungeon but it has the move from room to room feel of a dungeon crawl.)  But that for me wasn't a con, more a plus as noted above. Another thing is the power of the curse itself. It's pretty darn potent. Now, I'm not averse to sticking the characters against something tough, but a good DM should keep this potency in mind, especially as it's just beginning before the players have any clues that it's a curse and not a poison.The only real problems I had, and they don't actually detract from the module - it's still easily playable - is the apparent absence of two elements that almost beg to be included.First, in the explanation of the town the population is stated as being approximately 850 people. Six storefronts are described. Five of these six pay fees to the local thieves' guild to prevent thievery from happening inside the establishments. The local thieves guild master is also described. Yet the guild itself isn't described at all. Even more, Miriam Kriel, the town magistrate, is said to be quite competent at her job. 850 people and a thieves' guild that's been bought off by nearly every storefront? This sounds to me like the thieves' guild runs the town, not Miriam. If that were the case, I'd definitely include the thieves' guild description.Second. The man who started the curse, Lord Eldoran lived between Morrick Mansion and the town (at least as depicted in the provided map of the area.) Yet Eldoran's home or grounds have no description. Having DMed for quit a long time, I know players. They love to do something unplanned. However, this just seems like an obvious course of investigation that logically the players would think to check out Eldoran's home, especially after they begin hearing people talk about being suspect. Even if his daughter has moved into town, the chance to find evidence would just be to, well, obvious. This is easily solved, the DM can always just make up a quick description of a building and say the player's find nothing there, but given the fact that the introduction clearly says Lord Eldoran conjured the demon using his 'extensive' library, I'd be willing to bet that some small lip service should have been paid to the Eldoran grounds.In summary, this is a fun, virtually straightforward adventure. It's one of those modules that I'll always keep around in case I get a new group together on the fly because I know I can quickly pull it out for a hat trick. That's a great niche to fill.</blockquote>

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