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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lancelot" data-source="post: 7657238" data-attributes="member: 30022">Heh.I've got no problem with Epic-level characters doing Epic-level things, but the H-series modules actually trivialize these heroes of legend. There is nothing epic about walking into a random room which is titled Poisonous Gas, that has no flavor text and is described as a featureless room, except it's filled with poison gas; save at -8 or die. Or rolling a 3 on the Wandering Encounter table and bumping into exactly 1,000 green slimes with 8,000 total HP. There is nothing epic about fighting a deadly battle versus Orcus and then getting congratulated by St. Sollars in front of the Castle Al-Amo, with the following flavor text: "Well dogies, I thought for sure you were gonna be goners! Sure as shootin', Orcus'll git himself another wand, though." Mmmhmm. That's clearly what Athena said to Odysseus at the end of his long journey, or what Merlin said to Arthur when he pulled the sword from the stone, or what Belit said to Conan after an epic battle at sea.Or how about the Lake of Fire (area 2 in the Abyss)? Walk into a room and see a huge lake of fire with demons poking pitchforks into screaming souls. It's an illusion. If you fail to penetrate the illusion and attack the demons, your PC is automatically moved one step closer to CE alignment. If you do attack the demons, you must fight 100 Type 3's (glabrezus). What fun for 18th level characters!Or how about area 6? 100 liches, 12 demiliches, 12 death knights. It's described as a "battle royale". If you win the fight, you get... and I quote... "40-50 miscellaneous magical items and the artifact known as the hand of vecna". That's it. That's the complete description of the treasure. How is ANY DM  supposed to run that fight? That's 100 Azalins, 12 Acereraks and 12 Lord Soths. And the hand of vecna is just lying there, with no explanation. What about room 11? The Lair of the Dire Whiner. It has a unique creature called a Dire Whiner. Her special powers are whine, complain, and put down. She's described as an elderly woman, of course. And yet that doesn't even crack the top levels of misogyny in these modules. I dare someone to ask me about the princess in the H-series.This is immediately followed by room 12, the Lair of the Tarrasque. I'm going to quote the entirety of the text of this room, from the module. Here's the entire boxed flavor text: "A large horned monster sees you and charges in your direction." And here's the entirety of the rest of the room description: "This is a tarrasque. It pursues the players until it is killed or one or more of the PCs is dead.". For anyone who doesn't own the module, I'm not kidding. That's it. That's the entire text.H4 was one of the biggest and most expensive production modules of the 1e era. It features full-color poster maps, a superb Keith Parkinson cover, and sells for INSANE amounts of money on ebay. H2 and H3 are just as bad, if not worse. Castle Greyhawk is equally appalling.To claim that Forest Oracle is one of the worst modules of all time is just laughable, given the competition. Forest Oracle is actually playable, with a small amount of effort. The Bloodstone series are a sick joke.</blockquote>

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