Disclaimer: I purchased this module to run in my own campaign, and have done so several times. I really, really like the stuff that Green Ronin publishes, but will try to remain unbiased. I have just finished running this in my current campaign. This review contains spoilers, and if you don’t run games, but are planning to buy your game master this product, just do it. It’s that good.
Terror in Freeport, published by Green Ronin Publishing, is a d20 Module for character levels 2 to 5, and the sequel to Death in Freeport. It is 32 pages long, losing only two pages to the obligatory licences. As a sequel, Terror in Freeport represents some of the information from Death in Freeport, but also expands on it adding in several new locations and personalities. The text itself has no noticeable typographical errors, which is a good thing.
As in the previous title, the art and cartography are both excellent. All of the pieces of art are in black and white. My favourite piece is of a person climbing down into a sewer. The maps are also good, but not awe inspiring.
Beginning with a summary of the events of Death in Freeport, we are then presented with a synopsis of what will happen. While the synopsis is useful, this adventure really requires preparation ahead of time to be used to its full potential, as it is more complex than the first. While some complexity is good, the overworked game master who is short on time will be scrambling to stay ahead of the players in this one.
The players are investigating the activities of one of their adversaries from the previous module. This leads them to several new locations. After investigating some lodgings, the party is faced with a situation where three Orcs are attacking a messenger. This messenger actually has hired the Orcs and is planning to steal something of value from the party. My players were a little too suspicious for this particular tactic, but they are used to things not being as they appear. Fortunately, Orcs are aggressive, right?
Arriving at the former Temple of the Unspeakable One, the party finds the place under the personal guards of Chief Councillor Verlaine, one of the biggest wigs in the city. These soldiers refuse the party access, at least at first. Once inside the temple they discover that everything is being moved to a new location, which draws them into the next part of the adventure. This part of the adventure seems somewhat railroady. Should the party fail to follow the pickpocket, the module encourages the use of Brother Egil to push the players in the right direction. In the previous module the party was free to investigate at their leisure, while here they have to follow along a scripted set of encounters.
Part two brings us to the Merchant District, and the party discovers that the crates of unholy artifacts are being transported to the home of Chief Councillor Verlaine. Depending on how the players react, they may or may not go through all the encounters described in this section, and that’s ok. At least they are allowed some freedom of choice. Egil is once again used as a plot device, suggesting that the party check with the Office of Public Records. I know that Freeport is supposed to be somewhat settled from its pirate roots, but an Office of Public Records? These pirates adopted the trappings of society quickly. The text does state that most of the records relate to recent history, which addresses some of my concern.
At the end of Part 2, the party comes face to face with the apparent villain, Chief Councillor Verlaine. He suggests that they leave town on the soonest boat they can get passage on, but just at that moment, Brother Egil comes to the rescue once again. Unfortunately Part 3 depends on railroading in much the same fashion as Part 1 did. After a mercifully brief dungeon crawl in the sewers, the party emerges in Chief Councillor Verlaine’s house, only to find him dead. While this removes him as prime suspect, there is not really a build up to his death. Much of the module makes his seem very important, and develops his character, only to have him be murdered. If you are not planning on running the modules, but are buying them for the setting information, then the detail is definitely a good thing.
Finally, the Temple of the God of Knowledge is attacked. This final encounter is rather brutal if the party has not had time to heal; however, there are a lot of frantic clerics around, so access to healing is not a problem. Finally, a major secret is revealed, and we are left wondering what will happen next. The text also contains three adventure seeds to keep you going until Madness in Freeport comes out. Since Madness in Freeport has been published for quite some time, these are not strictly necessary; however, they do leave a little room for a game master to make his own Freeport.
Appendix I contains statistics of friendly, and not so friendly opponents. These stats are abbreviated wherever possible. For some reason, one of the evil clerics is much more detailed than Brother Egil. Why this is, I’m not too sure. Either way, there is enough information to run either character in combat. There are also two handouts, both of which are useful and of good quality. Finally, we see the pregenerated characters from the previous title advanced to Level 3. I especially like that the fighter is a gnome.
Appendix II contains the necessary licences.
While this title is not as strong as its predecessor, I still really enjoyed running it. The encounters are a little more complex, and depend a lot more on being gone through in a specific order. This module requires a lot more preparation to run that the first one, but that’s not so bad either. 4 stars.
