Beware! This review contains major spoilers.
This is not a playtest review.
Price: $14.50
Page Count: 64
Price per page: About 23 cents per page.
Designed for Character Level: 6-8
Format: Softcover
External Artwork: An excellent piece of art showing undead in a swamp, one with a sword shoved through its skull.
Additional Page Use: The back page contains a good overview of the module with a couple of pieces of good art - a wanted poster and a picture of one of the creatures from the adventure. The inside covers contain a map and an ad. The first page contains credits and contents, the last page has the OGL.
Internal Artwork: The black and white sketches are average to good. They tend to be a bit 'blocky' for my liking - a bit like 1st Edition art, but better quality.
Maps: The maps are all fairly good computerised maps, the outdoor maps clearly scaled and keyed, whilst the indoor maps are gridded though the scale is not defined (presumably 5' squares).
Page Layout: Margins are a little large, text density is average. There are a few small chunks of white space. Different types of information are clearly defined.
Text Style: The writing style is fairly standard, though with some amusing asides and ideas, particularly with the magic items section. Due to the importance of the creatures, NPCs and magic items sections (which are found at the end of the book) in terms of their effect on the game play, first reading through the adventure can be confusing without reference to these sections. The GM is advised to read through the adventure at least a couple of times to understand both the placement of these and the partial maze.
The Adventure:
In a ploy to take over the neighbouring kingdom of Cossor, the half-mad king of Harwich has arranged a marriage with the sister of the Cossorian king, called Ianthe. Ianthe though, discovers the king of Harwich is plotting to assassinate her brother and take the kingdom as soon as they are married. Ianthe escapes over the castle walls of Harwich, only to fall foul of the poisonous creatures in the moat. She scrambles out the other side, only to collapse unconscious. She is rescued by a young healer, Quentin, the son of a wizard who collects and repairs damaged or weird magic items. After the wizard's wife was killed by thieves, the wizard created a magical swamp around his home and filled it with strange creatures and plants to protect his home from further intrusions. Quentin saves the life of Ianthe and brings her back to his home in the swamp to nurse her back to health. The king of Harwich offers a huge reward for Ianthe's return and sends out squads of his guards to search for her.
The PCs are encouraged to go after Ianthe into the swamp, and to return her to her future husband. When they do, they discover the swamp is actually a partial magical maze, littered with strange and dangerous creatures and plants, not to mention the disgusting environment (for which there are fairly detailed rules affecting combat, movement and spellcasting). After trudging through hallucinogenic forests, dagger-like grass and mangrove swamps whilst facing exploding frogs, giant lizards called Fuzzy and Mittens, and Necro Woodpeckers (whose heads fall off when they peck at armour) they eventually reach the home of Quentin and his wizardly father (who is currently away on business). The whole area is a junkyard for weird magic items and the PCs are in for some unusual surprises from items such as Yul's Hairbrush (which thins ones hair to baldness), Ralph the Sword of Undead Slaying (an intelligent item with the mind of a six year old) and a Figurine of Wondrous Power: Ant (which summons an ordinary-sized ant). The PCs learn of Ianthe's motivation for escape and have a decision to make about returning her. Whatever happens, the PCs must face the squads sent by the king of Harwich both within and on exiting the swamp. Advce is given for various options of how the PCs may deal with this.
The High Points: This is a creative adventure with lots of humorous and weird twists in it. The author obviously had a lot of fun in designing the creatures, plants and items in the adventure, and it would make for an amusing and fun once-off adventure. There are plenty of opportunities for roleplaying, combat, puzzle-solving, skill use and investigation with a well-balanced set of encounters. NPCs are well-detailed with logical backgrounds and a distinct personality.
The Low Points: The worst thing about this adventure is probably the single weak hook into the adventure, which may lack appeal to parties of a good alignment. It should be relatively easy for GMs to design their own links into the plotline, but what was on offer was disappointing. Despite the standardisation of putting NPCs, monsters and items at the end of adventures, this was one adventure where information on these things with their locations would have made the running of the adventure much easier. Some work will need to be done by the GM to prepare for the discovery of unusual creatues, plants, items and the effects of the maze.
Conclusion: A weak hook and some information layout difficulties should not detract from this creative, unusual and amusing adventure. GMs should be prepared for some chaos if the PCs manage to extract any of the magic items from the swamp but the fun of running it should outweigh these minor difficulties. Plenty of opportunity for using ideas, items and creatures in other settings or adventures where you want to add a touch of humour or weirdness.
