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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Macbeth" data-source="post: 2011520" data-attributes="member: 11259">This review is of the PDF version of Shadows Under Thessalaine. This is not a playtest review. Spoilers abound, so if you are playing the adventure, don't read this (or at least don't tell your DM).The book is presented well, with borders along each page that are very nearly distracting, but are for the most part inobtrusive. Maps for the dungeons involved in the adventure are reasonably informative, but not particularly nice. They look a bit small on screen, but can easily be enlarged. The art is good, but doesn't seem to fit the tone of the adventure. The art can also easily spoil the adventure for the PCs by showing the squid masks, so beware.The plot of the adventure is by far the high point. The bad guys are impersonating mind flayers using squid as masks. The only problem with this plot is that it really plays upon player knowledge (only experienced players will know that low level characters have no chance against an illithid), while the rest of the adventure seems much more appropriate for beginners. Playing the adventure with beginners misses out on the fear the mind flayers should inspire, while more experienced players will probably find the rest of the adventure a bit too straight forward. I really liked the idea of inspiring fear in the players using monsters they know they don't stand a chance against, and the adventure really rieds on the fun of putting low level characters against "mind flayers."The adventure basically consists of three dungeon crawls, with little to do between them. I would have liked to see more action between dungeons, but the adventure shores up the weak time between dungeons by presenting the first two dungeons so they can be tackled in any order. The first two dungeons seem completely unrelated until both have been completed, giving the DM a neat way of presenting the Shadows Under Thessalaine as three smaller adventures.The dungeons themselves are, for the most part, fairly uninspired. With the exception of a few encounters, the dungeons all seem too generic. The high point of the dungeon design is the watery lair of the shuagin. The possibility of fighting in deep deep pools, or even under water, adds a large bit of need originality to the dungeon. A few encounters seem truly interesting, with the players being attacked from all sides, or with other interesting circumstances, but most just seem plain. The adventure could really use some more non-combat encounters, with the only real non-combat encountar being fairly boring (the PCs are just given information for the second dungeon).Really, I think the author had some very interesting ideas, especially the main bad guys with their illithid masks, but the adventure as a whole comes off as plain, with a few high points. Of course this does not warrant a bad review, it is, overall, a very solid adventure, it just lacks that extra little bit that would make it really shine. The encounters show a good variety of Challenge ratings, with a few that may prove to be a hard battle for the PCs.Everything is stated out correctly, to the best I could see. The stats for every creature in the book are listed in the back, which is very convenient in a PDF, but might be less usefull in the print edition.Overall the adventure is good, but not anything new or interesting. I would have really liked to see more creative ideas. The illithid masks show that the author has great creativitity, and I really liked the ideas behind the adventure, but the rather staid dungeons and lack of non-combat encounters hold the adventure back.Good: Creative premise, some good encountersNot so Good: Staid dungeons, litle non-combatOverall: A good adventure, with an original premise, but the dungeons don't follow the creativity of the antagonists. My Score: 3 Stars (Average), in the best sense of the score. I am tempted to give a score of 4 stars, just for the intriguing premise, but the adventure as a whole is average, in a good way.</blockquote>

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