Beware! This review contains major spoilers.
This is not a playtest review.
Price: $7
Page Count: 40 pages
Price Per Page: About 17 cents per page
Designed for level: 10-12
Format: Softcover
Front Cover Art: A good piece of artwork showing a leering blue dragon, guarding a dark castle perched on a rock.
Additional Page Use: The back page contains an introduction and overview. The two inside covers have both been used for maps - good to see. The first page contains credits, the last page has the OGL.
Interior Art: The internal black and white sketches are all of good quality, directly reflecting the text. The art is fairly large, several pieces taking up a whole page each.
Maps: The maps are very basic, and some lack scale or compass or both.
Page Layout: Margins are small, text density is good and there is little white space. Different types of information are clearly marked on the whole.
Style: The style the author uses hints at pseudo-mediaeval, and is sometimes boldly so - using phrases like "she well knows that he is a powerful god" and "upon this he cast another spell Mirage Arcana, this in order to disguise the ice-bound castle". Sometimes this works and lends a flavour of legend to the text, other times it comes off as faintly ridiculous. This style is used more in the text to be read to the players, but is also used to a certain extent in the main text. There are regular spelling and grammatical mistakes which detract from the pleasure of using the module, and occasional lapses such as text to be read to the players being included in the main text. On the whole, poor editing and a dangerous line to tread with the writing style.
The Adventure:
The module begins with some flavour text introducing the main concept that a king, who has since become a minor god, sailed away from his wife in order to hide a magical sword from the encroaching armies of an evil overlord. The queen died of grief when he did not return, and her restless soul still haunts the mausoleum where she is entombed. The PCs meet the queen's ghost, and offer to find her husband who legend tells still lives on an island in the Dreaming Sea. They sail over the Dreaming Sea, a sea affected by dreams and nightmares of the peoples of the land, and attempt to release the king from a magical sleep. They then return a ring worn by the king to the queen, which finally puts her soul to rest. The full background story is given over the next few pages.
The PCs begin their adventure in an ancient wood, drawn to the queen's mausoleum through clues in an ancient text found in a previous adventure.They enter the mausoleum, where they encounter the queen's ghost. In addition, an insane mage (actually another minor god and an old friend to the queen), teleports to the mausoleum to defend the queen. When calmed down, the mage entreats the PCs to help the queen seek eternal rest by retrieving her wedding ring from her husband. Yet another minor god, also an old friend of the queen, then arrives to help take the PCs to the edge of the Dreaming Sea and to give them a magical item that will allow them to travel on a ship of Dark Faeries across the sea.
The PCs sail across the sea, risking insanity from the effects of the chaotic dreams and nightmares that they must face. The GM is encouraged to garner the fears and hopes of the characters before play to twist them into horrific visions during the crossing. The PCs come across an icy island where they can fight some evil dream warriors to gain some magical items that will be helpful later on in the adventure.
They finally reach the island where the king lies sleeping his magical sleep. They can stop at an inn run by yet another minor god, and old companion to the king and queen. This is a god of drink, who serves a brew so potent it ages the characters. The innkeeper, the god Banawick, calls himself Brian Tosspot. The author has obviously never visited Britain, where the word 'Tosspot' is considered an amusingly rude insult. It grated on me, but probably doesn't have the same connotation in US English. Anyway, the PCs must then face an evil blue dragon, which the sleeping king (a lawful good paladin) has let guard his castle. After charming or defeating the dragon, the PCs must finally cross a magical bridge that could transport them to another plane, before waking the king, explaining the proble, taking the ring, and returning to the queen's ghost in the forest to put her to rest. Travelling back across the Dreaming Sea and following the path of the adventure somehow allows the PCs to gain a point of Wisdom and Constitution.
High Points: The setting and history described within the adventure are evocative and complex. The text and theme of the story speak of legendary deeds and the involvement of the gods raises this to epic high fantasy, with a strong mediaeval feel to it. It is strangely reminiscent of Arthurian legends or perhaps those of Charlemagne. The art and layout are both good.
Low Points: What is so disappointing is that the setting and the background promise so much, whilst the adventure itself is a story about the gods, with the PCs as the messengers. There is far too much railroading in the plot, and several plotline inconsistencies which had me frowning in consternation. In addition, the setting of ELs is haphazard at best, and there are far too many possibilities for PCs being killed or lost far too easily. The whole adventure screams 'Deus Ex Machina' on more levels than one. The treasure seemed a bit random and monty-haulish, but to be honest I wasn't going to spend the time working out if it was balanced or not since I wouldn't use 9/10 of it anyway for a game I was running.
Conclusion: A promising setting with an interesting story, but the PCs are bit parts in the play and are likely to be meaninglessly destroyed. Unbalanced, inconsistent, and rigid. The locations and theme could be ripped out for another adventure or setting, but it would need a great deal of work from the GM to make this adventure worthwhile for the players and their characters.
