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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Messageboard Golem" data-source="post: 2008954" data-attributes="member: 18387">The Tomb of Abysthor is a 96-page perfect bound, softcover book with color cover and black-and-white interior.  Layout follows the standard <a href="http://www.necromancergames.com" target="_blank">Necromancer Games</a> format.  The cover features a painting by Talon Dunning and interior art is by Brian LeBlanc.  Priced at $11.95 (US) the book is an excellent value.WARNING: This review contains spoilers.  If you plan to play through this adventure, please stop reading now.The Tomb of Abysthor consists of an ancient set of burial halls dedicated to the gods Thyr and Muir and the caverns around and below those halls.  The tomb is now horribly desecrated and home to two competing evil factions, the priests of Orcus and the priests of Tsathogga.  Tsathogga is an evil demon-god worshipped by the Tsathar, an evil race of frog-like humanoids.  In addition to the factions, Tasha, a drow cleric/sorcerer and Balcoth, an undead rune mage, also lurk in the dungeon with their own agendas.  There are more monsters waiting to slay your PCs as well, but I don't want to reveal all the Tomb's secrets.The tomb itself is divided into six levels and two sub-levels.  Each level has its own map, wandering monster table and short summary of the level's inhabitants.  Old-timers will be immediately familiar with several of the adventure's elements.  The Temple of the Frog is an homage to the very first published dungeon from the D&D supplement Blackmoor and the whole concept of a multi-level dungeon that contains competing factions is not a new one.  Add to the mix things like teleporting corridors and familiar monsters like the mobat and killer frog, and Tomb becomes a virtual trip back into the history of D&D dungeons.  Fortunately, The Tomb of Abysthor is MUCH better written than the majority of those old modules.Tomb contains two appendices.  The first presents a new spell (chant), a new cleric domain (vermin) and five new magic items (including three minor artifacts).  The second appendix presents a new monster race (the tsathar) and several new monsters (cave moray, mobat, four different monstrous frogs, font of bones skeleton and stone guardian).  Old-timers might remember the mobat from the Monster Manual II.  In addition to the monsters are a new monster template (bleeding horror) and statistics for common priests of Orcus and priests of Tsathogga.I found few problems with Tomb.  I wish the maps were bigger.  There are a few editing gaffs.  Also, the fonts for the section headings look 'crammed together' for some reason.  My biggest gripe is that using two of the NPCs require access to Relics & Rituals.  Not a biggie, but I hope Necromancer doesn't make this a habit with future releases.The best thing about Tomb is that it's not just a dungeon crawl.  Clark and Bill took the time to create a 'political' situation that a clever DM can explore if he wishes.  Of course, there is nothing to prevent the players from ignoring all this and just hacking as usual.  I was also surprised how much I liked Tomb's art.  The cover painting is well executed and I like the way Brian LeBlanc's interior illustrations follow the same party as they explore the dungeon.I can't express just how much I like this adventure.  In addition to just being a big hocking, nasty dungeon, The Tomb of Abysthor evokes the "third edition rules, first edition feel" like no other product from <a href="http://www.necromancergames.com" target="_blank">Necromancer Games</a> that I have read.  I can't wait to actually run a party through it.  The only drawback for me is that I don't own Relics & Rituals and so I am going to either be forced to buy it (and God knows my RPG budget is limited enough already) or do some tinkering with the NPCs.  That aside, Tomb is the most satisfying adventure that I have purchased since Third Edition D&D was released.NOTE: <a href="http://www.necromancergames.com" target="_blank">Necromancer Games</a> has posted a page of rumors and a summary of the Gods and Demons from the world of Necromancer Games on their <a href="http://www.necromancergames.com/prod_support.html" target="_blank">product support</a> page for The Tomb of Abysthor.</blockquote>

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