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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Messageboard Golem" data-source="post: 2010468" data-attributes="member: 18387">RAISE THE DEADCAVEATSThis is not a playtest review. The review contains extensive spoilers.OVERVIEWRaise the Dead is a 72-page accessory containing four mini-adventures all centering around a common theme—getting a dead PC brought back to life. It is intended to provide an alternative to the common gaming attitude of hauling dead PCs back to town to be raised. Three of the adventures are targeted at 8th level PC groups, while the fourth focuses on 6th level characters; however, brief notes are given on retuning the adventure for higher or lower level groups. In addition, each of the adventures has hooks that allow it to be played even if your players don’t need one of their characters revived. Of the 72 pages, 66 pages contain the introduction, adventures, and an appendix for new monsters, magic items, and wandering monster stats. The last 6 pages contain the OGL and advertising. The inside covers are not used. Font and margins are standard for Necromancer Games—readable without being puffed out. The artwork is by NG’s standard illustrator, Brian LeBlanc, and the maps are done by Ed Bourelle—I particularly like his interior work, though I don’t care as much for the style of his wilderness maps. They are generally accurate, though I did find occasional discrepancies between the maps and the body text. In particular, though the maps all have a scale, they do not have a compass rose, which is a problem since north is not always up on these maps. INTRODUCTIONThe preliminary section, only 2 pages, is a brief, well-written introduction to the concept of the book, and a quick summary of the four adventures. No problems here.ADVENTURE ONE: NATURE’S BOUNTYThis is an overland adventure with a sylvan feel, targeted at four 8th level PCs, and intended particularly for a case where a standard raise dead spell would not work for religious, moral or ethical reasons (all circumstances that I have never seen arise in any game I have DMed or played in, but it is still usable for standard raisings). In short, it will allow access to a reincarnate spell. The players seek out a group of druids, but find their wood overrun by twisted creatures. They are tasked to seek out the source of this infestation—an evil tree—which they must destroy, and recover a cauldron. The druids will then be able to reincarnate their friend.Though a straightforward enough task, I did have a few problems and questions about this whole setup. For example, why was the tree allowed to survive before this? Why didn’t the druids simply destroy it long before? If it was for philosophical reasons, I would say that they got what they deserved. Also, despite the forested nature of the adventure, the adventure is structured similar to a dungeon crawl, right down to the map with clear paths and heavily overgrown thickets off the game trails. I feel that by constraining themselves to a dungeon mentality, they lost a chance to fully exploit the setting. Note, by the way, that north on the map for this adventure should be down toward the bottom of the page.My rating: 3/5ADVENTURE TWO: KINSLAYER’S MOONThis adventure is targeted at four PCs of 8th level again, of either good or evil alignment. It takes place in a region with two warring groups—some good-aligned inhabitants of the town of Horonaim, and evil plainsmen known as the Abarim. The brilliant leader of the nomads, a man named Chemos, was killed some time back, and now their tribe’s wizard wants to send an expedition to an ancient temple of Set, where the body can be placed in a magical well and revived. PCs favoring evil get to take on this mission, while good-aligned parties form an expedition from Horonaim to overtake the bearers of Chemos’s remains and prevent him from returning from the dead. Thus, the first half of the adventure is a race against NPC adversaries to reach the ruined temple, and the second half is an exploration and battle within the temple culminating with the discovery of the Well at Ashan’kor. Assuming the party bears a dead PC of their own, they can then toss their friend’s body in as well if they dare to call upon the power of Set to get it revived.The first half of this adventure is straightforward and outstanding. PCs are given a choice between siding with good or evil, which is a rare nod to less-than-noble adventuring groups. No matter which way they choose, the race to the Well is bound to be exciting, and the adventure is careful to include information on how fast the Abarim group can travel with the body of Chemos in tow. I was, however, quite disappointed with the ruined temple itself. With its scattered rooms containing miscellaneous groups of goblins, a medusa, a bugbear, an ogre mage, large snakes, and golems, it seemed more like something I would have designed in my grade school years. For example, the ogre mage is located in a room with only one entry, through a room holding two golems that attack all who enter. But why wouldn’t the ogre mage be attacked as well? And the room that holds the two golems is described as being secret, but not only are the doors to the room not indicated as such on the map, but one of them is at the end of a long corridor with no other doors—always a clear indicator to adventurers that a secret door is nearby. The rooms follow no organized pattern that I can discern. Another thing: the goblins seem to be present to get their dead king revived, though they are more intent on pillaging the temple than getting the deed done. And after all the years the temple has sat there, how could there still be furniture left to destroy? My rating: 5/5 for the first half, 2/5 for the second, for an overall rating of a high 3/5.ADVENTURE THREE: THE CRYPT OF RANASHIMUnlike the others in this book, this adventure is targeted at four PCs of only 6th level. The adventure is short and sweet. PCs hear of a cleric in the town of Westlyn who can raise the dead. They arrive, only to find the cleric heavily level-drained, and a crypt in town has been broken into and an artifact stolen from within. The town has also seen pillaging by the bandits responsible. PCs must go after the bandits and hunt down the hand. They are also asked to retrieve the rod of Arden, an ancient magic item of a long-dead sun god that has the power to raise their comrade. The PCs will thus have to explore two crypts: the one that was just broken into (looking for items the intruder left behind), and the crypt of Ronashim, a child-prophet of Arden. Or so the PCs believe. In fact, there are several deadly surprises in this adventure, which I won’t spoil here. I found this adventure overall to be excellent. The only quibble I had was with the map of the crypt of Ronashim itself; according to the text, north should be to the right on the map, but is not so indicated. Otherwise a solid, short adventure with more than one diabolical twist.My Rating: 5/5ADVENTURE FOUR: THEM BONESThis last adventure is intended expressly for PCs who want to revive a comrade when standard means of raising fail—as the prize of the quest is a wish! They are recruited by a ranger who knows of a stone in a nearby dungeon that will grant them the power to raise their ally, but in return for this information she asks them for a favor. It seems that some sort of evil spirit is haunting her fishing house, disrupting her business. She wants the PCs to deal with it. When they confront the spirit, it tells them they need to seek the dungeon beneath a nearby dam, and recover the entirety of the spirit’s body. This leads the characters into an old dwarven mini-mine that is now the battleground between several forces, including a tribe of troglodytes with an ambitious leader with designs on the surface community; a group of normally standoffish fungus men (i.e., myconids) who have been provoked by the troglodytes’ attacks into mounting assaults of their own; and a group of deep gnomes (svirfneblin) from the underdark, hoping the two sides will fight it out and they can move in and take over the dungeon for themselves. In addition, the PCs will have to deal with an escaped slave of the trogs (a drow who, though evil, might assist them), and even their own employer, who uses the PCs as stalking horses, and hopes to find the magic stone first. This is an exciting scenario that gives the players great challenges and many avenues to resolve them. Do they attack the trogs directly, and risk being overrun by their vastly superior numbers? Do they conduct hit and run raids, and unwittingly risk the deep gnomes riling the fungus men and putting them at the center of a pitched battle? Do they ally with the trogs and attack the non-evil fungus men? And if so, how do they respond to the trogs’ plan to poison the lake and kill off the surface-dwelling inhabitants? Or can they figure out what the deep gnomes’ game is, and forge a temporary alliance between the troglodytes and fungus men? I love DMing and playing scenarios such as this. The only blemish on this adventure are some discrepancies between the map and area descriptions. One room on the map is indicated as rectangular, with exits up, down and to the right, but the text describes it as circular, with exits to the east and west. And the battleground cavern seems smaller than it should be. I get the impression that the original maps were compacted somehow to fit them on one page, but it could just be the result of a misunderstanding between the author, the mapper, and/or the editor. My Rating: 5/5CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS: The premise of this adventure is inspired: why have PCs simply get their character raised at the local temple when you can make them adventure for it? Each of the scenarios is unique, though I had problems with the first two that others might not find so bad. Though not a masterpiece, I feel that it is nevertheless a product well worth picking up. One final note: At a few points in the adventure, creatures from the Tome of Horrors are included in the adventure, but not statted out. If you don’t have the Tome of Horrors (and you should, it’s a damn fine book), be prepared to replace them with equivalent creatures. I think the only cases of this were an undead ooze and a haunt in the Crypt of Ronashim, and a mercury ooze in Them Bones.</blockquote>

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