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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Simon Collins" data-source="post: 2008144" data-attributes="member: 9860">Beware! This review contains major spoilers.This is the 2nd core adventure for D&D3e by WotC. It is designed for four 3rd-level characters.Presentation: The front cover features a dragon attacking adventurers crossing a broken bridge – full of a sense of movement and small detail, this is my favourite cover of the first four core adventures. The back cover has a short introduction toand overview of the adventure. The internal art is black & white, of mediocre quality. The page count is 32. 9/10 of the page is text, the rest a runic border. The text is clear and readable. The inside front cover has two good top-down maps - The Mountain Door and The Glitterhame, whilst the back inside cover has maps of the same quality showing The Sinkhole, The Foundry and The Black Lake. The maps have a useful key and are laid out in 5’-square mode. The first page contains credits and contents.The Story: The dungeon is an abandoned dwarven stronghold called The Glitterhame, now inhabited by various monsters. The characters are offered three standard hooks – a map, kill the orc bandits, or a nobleman pays the PCs to retrieve legendary dwarven blades from the abandoned stronghold. This idea of the dwarven swords is used as the standard for the introduction. The next two pages give an overview of the outside of the mountain under which Glitterhame lies, with a possible encounter with an orc patrol. The next 5 pages are dedicated to entering The Mountain Door, giving options for defensive tactics by the orcs (and ogre) who now live in this area of dwarf-carved rooms and caves. There are also a few traps to keep the players on their toes. Beyond ‘The Mountain Door’ lies The Glitterhame itself, a large cave area now inhabited by a tribe of troglodytes. Over the next 5 pages, this area is detailed with some sidebars warning DMs that some of the encounters can be deadly to low-level PCs and how to deal with this. The next section covers The Sinkhole, a partially underwater area, in three pages, which may include a deadly encounter with a roper. The next six pages detail The Foundry, the old dwarven forge area. Duergar warriors have infiltrated this area, which is also plagued by various undead and animated objects. The section ends with an encounter with an imprisoned succubus, who needs the PCs to escape her binding. The final two pages of the adventure deal with The Black Lake, the lair of a Black Dragon, who can be negotiated with, if the characters value their lives above their belongings. A Conclusion outlines finishing the adventure and a future possibility for adventure in a duergar city suggested by the module. The last 3 pages contain detailed statistics for the monsters and NPCs.The High Points: This is a traditional dungeon hack, exemplifying Third Edition’s ‘back to the dungeon’ motto. If you like lots of different monsters to slay, traps to puzzle out and dozens of rooms to explore, this is the module for you. The text contains good discussion of tactics for most of the monsters and NPCs, and useful rules are highlighted for the DMs attention all the way through. There are also opportunities for roleplaying later in the module, notably in negotiating passage through the duergar area, with the succubus, and possibly the dragon. The descriptions evoke the abandoned dwarven stronghold well, and the boxed text in general I thought to be good.The Low Points: This is a traditional dungeon hack, exemplifying Third Edition’s ‘back to the dungeon’ motto! If you like plenty of opportunities for roleplaying, with well-developed PCs and a complex plot, avoid this module like the Yellow Mold. The adventure background, the setting and the dungeon hack have all been done before, and they’ve been done better (and worse) than this. The treasure is mainly gold, jewels, scrolls and potions – there is nothing very imaginative here. Though the text states it clearly for the DMs attention, several of the encounters are deadly if the players choose to enter combat - the stated aim is to get players to realise that sometimes their character should avoid encounters. My experience is that players find this out the hard way. Conclusion:  This module is solid and organised with well-detailed tactics and defence options. However, the module suffers from a total lack of NPC depth, a bland setting and shallow plot. If you like traditional dungeon hacks, you'll like it. I don't and my rating reflects the fact that compared to many other d20 offerings, this lacks creativity and depth.</blockquote>

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