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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tuerny" data-source="post: 2008368" data-attributes="member: 674">The Pit of Loch-Durnan is the first product in Mystic Eye Games' line of d20 products. Designed for use with the Hunt: Rise of Evil campaign setting, The Pit of Loch-Durnan is an adventure for 3-6 characters of 2nd to 4th level. The Hunt: Rise of Evil campaign setting is not required to use The Pit of Loch-Durnan, and it can be easily adapted to most settings. It is a macabre and dark adventure composted mostly of dungeon crawling, but with some opportunities for character interaction and negotiation during certain points.The Book The Pit of Loch-Durnan, a standard laminated, perfect bound booklet, is seventy-two pages long. The margins are filled with the illustration of a gargoyle-encrusted wall and are generally 1" wide.The cover illustration, by David Manuel, depicts a group of adventurers descending into the Pit while fighting off a group of goblins. The illustration has a lot going on with it and is well rendered, serving as a nice introduction to the module's content. The interior artwork, by a variety of artists, is composed of black and white drawings of characters and scenes from the module. The drawings are generally poor, if creepy, but there are a few exceptions that rise above the others. The Meat    The Pit of Loch-Durnan begins with the PCs being recruited to help the village of Loch-Durnan rid itself of the threat of goblins. The adventure provides two possible ways for the PCs to be drawn into it, both with the same result. The PCs travel with the men who hired them to the village of Loch-Durnan, where the grateful villagers direct them to enter into the Pit of Loch-Durnan to confront the threat of the goblins.    Unknown to the PCs, the mayors of the two (two brothers), and most of the villagers are really in league with or charmed by the devil Warphit. The devil also controls the goblins and the brothers have decided to lure outsiders into the pit to generate new servitors or at least anguish for Warphit to feed on. If the PCs choose not to follow their manipulations and enter the pit then the entire village jumps them and tosses them in the pit bereft of much of their equipment.    In the pit itself the PCs must navigate through a large cave system full of goblins, undead, and miscellaneous horrors. Unexpected help comes in the form of a zombie dwarf, who grants the PCs instructions on how to entrap Warphit, and a goblin sorceress, who aids the PCs in getting around the massed forces of goblins to confront Warphit himself and free their chief from its control. Warphit himself is currently entrapped in a crystal and cannot attack or be directly attacked by the PCs. With the dwarf's instructions they can collapse Warphit's cave and put him out of commission.     After the disabling of Warphit the only option the PCs have in escaping is through a passage that leads up to the mayor's mansion. The brothers and the goblin chieftain have been warned of the PCs arrival by Warphit and one of them has gathered a group of guards to face the PCs. There is a timetable in the back of the book that provides details of the activities and locations of each of these individuals at certain points after the PCs face off against Warphit. The mansion itself is filled with a mix of guards, monsters, and prisoners from whom the PCs can gain information on how they can sneak over to the other brother's tower and face him as well. They also encounter an interesting scholar into pain who wishes to follow the PCs and chronicle their actions.     Assuming the PCs chose to face the second brother rather than merely flee, the tower itself has a mix of monsters similar to that of the mansion with guards, an elven ranger, and a variety of more bizarre monsters both hostile and nonhostile. The PCs will be unable to actually face the other brother as he flees in the form of a black bird as soon as they arrive to face him.    After the brothers and Warphit are defeated the villagers are removed from Warphit's charm they are extremely grateful and request the PCs take over as leaders for the village. Information is also provided on what happens if the PCs chose to not face the second brother, or failed to succeed in the dungeon.    The Good    The Pit of Loch-Durnan is good as far as dungeon crawls go, providing a macabre variation to the typical find the monster threatening the village and kill it plot. Very little new ground is truly covered in the module, but the vast majority of what which is provided has an interesting spin. The new mutant monsters that are provided add greatly to the module, and a few of the NPCs provide a sneak-peak into the upcoming Hunt: The Rise of Evil campaign setting. The Luis Rodgrigo NPC will also create an interesting moral dilemma for the PCs, in the form of a dispassionate and non-evil student of pain and suffering who has stood aside and let horrible things to happen. The module also provides several items that make the adventure useful to run including player handouts, a discussion of multiple possible aftermaths to the adventure, a sheet of DM reminder notes, and a timeline of events after the fall of Warphit.The Bad    The Pit of Loch-Durnan's main flaws are rule-based with inconsistency between statistical blocks, its lack of vital information, and in some cases a poor understanding of the rules. The module's statistical blocks, while not necessarily inaccurate, often leave out information (such as ability scores and skills) that are fairly important for running an adventure. It sometimes even goes as far as having different stat block compositions on the same page. The module's authors also show a lack of understanding of the rules in several cases. One example of this is with the elite goblins. The elite goblins have an increase in hit dice, but fail to increase anything else such as attack rolls, or challenge rating, not to mention the entirely lacking saving throws and skills. Rating: 3/5    The Pit of Loch-Durnan is a worthwhile purchase if you are looking for a horror-tinged dungeon crawl and are willing to overlook the numerous little errors and lack of necessary information that are frequent in the book.</blockquote>

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