Simon Collins
Explorer
Beware! This review contains major spoilers.
This is the twelfth booster adventure by AEG. It is designed for three to five characters of level 5-8. It costs $2.49.
Production and Presentation: This module is 16 pages but each page is only ½ the width of an A4 page. The front (soft)cover features poor colour artwork, the back cover features an introduction for the players to the adventure. There are two mediocre internal pieces of black & white artwork and the central pages contain a basic scaled map of the unnamed town, overlain with the sites of the murders and the lines that connect them indicating a seven-pointed star. The final page and the inside back cover contains OGL bumpf. The inside front cover contains advertising.
The Story: Five hundred years ago, a vile demon (Urneil) was summoned by a necromancer – the demon escaped and slaughtered the necromancer. A group of elven knights, carrying magical swords, defeated the demon but only one knight survived. The descendant of that knight, a half-elf sorcerer, has discovered that the demon was only banished for five hundred years by the knights and is set to return. He plans to summon the demon in order to banish it once again. The demon is summoned by committing eight ritual murders. The PCs are hired to investigate the murders by the town guard, including a red herring murder not committed by the sorcerer. The final murder is actually a suicide by the sorcerer himself. He has given the last two remaining magical blades of the ancient elven knights to the PCs, in order that they can defeat and then banish the demon once more.
The High Points: There are a couple of good twists to this plotline that is focussed on investigation and problem-solving. Roleplaying is encouraged and the final combat is climactic – it’s a really vile demon. The descriptions of the NPCs give more information than many of the other AEG adventure boosters and there are some random encounters for use around the town. The magic swords, which cause minor damage to the wielder as well as major damage to the opponent, were a good idea.
The Low Points: My main gripe has to be the map, which would have been better as two separate maps – one for the DM and one for the players (a plan of the town which the players can fill in as they discover the information).
Conclusion: One of the better AEG adventure boosters, I give this a Good rating. The module seems to be influenced by the film ‘Seven’ but the author has made it his own.
This is the twelfth booster adventure by AEG. It is designed for three to five characters of level 5-8. It costs $2.49.
Production and Presentation: This module is 16 pages but each page is only ½ the width of an A4 page. The front (soft)cover features poor colour artwork, the back cover features an introduction for the players to the adventure. There are two mediocre internal pieces of black & white artwork and the central pages contain a basic scaled map of the unnamed town, overlain with the sites of the murders and the lines that connect them indicating a seven-pointed star. The final page and the inside back cover contains OGL bumpf. The inside front cover contains advertising.
The Story: Five hundred years ago, a vile demon (Urneil) was summoned by a necromancer – the demon escaped and slaughtered the necromancer. A group of elven knights, carrying magical swords, defeated the demon but only one knight survived. The descendant of that knight, a half-elf sorcerer, has discovered that the demon was only banished for five hundred years by the knights and is set to return. He plans to summon the demon in order to banish it once again. The demon is summoned by committing eight ritual murders. The PCs are hired to investigate the murders by the town guard, including a red herring murder not committed by the sorcerer. The final murder is actually a suicide by the sorcerer himself. He has given the last two remaining magical blades of the ancient elven knights to the PCs, in order that they can defeat and then banish the demon once more.
The High Points: There are a couple of good twists to this plotline that is focussed on investigation and problem-solving. Roleplaying is encouraged and the final combat is climactic – it’s a really vile demon. The descriptions of the NPCs give more information than many of the other AEG adventure boosters and there are some random encounters for use around the town. The magic swords, which cause minor damage to the wielder as well as major damage to the opponent, were a good idea.
The Low Points: My main gripe has to be the map, which would have been better as two separate maps – one for the DM and one for the players (a plan of the town which the players can fill in as they discover the information).
Conclusion: One of the better AEG adventure boosters, I give this a Good rating. The module seems to be influenced by the film ‘Seven’ but the author has made it his own.
