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ShortQuests -- individual adventure modules! An all-new collection of digest-sized D&D adventures designed to plug in to your game.

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Simon Collins" data-source="post: 2010209" data-attributes="member: 9860">Beware! This review contains spoilers.This is not a playtest review.Unhallowed Halls is an adventure suitable for PCs of either levels 6-8 (on the back cover) or 4-6 (if you read the inside) from Atlas games. I would suggest that the 6-8 is a better guideline if you want to keep the PCs alive (at one point the PCs could face a Wiz9, a Rog5/Asn2, Wiz3/Rog3, 1 x CR3, 4 x CR2, and up to 18 x CR 1/2 creatures in one combat).Unhallowed Halls is an 80-page mono softcover product costing $16.95. Space usage is fairly average with a few chunks of white space and a 1/2 page ad, but margins and font are fairly decent. Art is average to good, and better than the mock mediaeval front cover depicting a costumed mage against a wood-effect background. The maps are a little small but clear, keyed and scaled. Writing style is average - clear and concise if a little dry and simplistic at times. Editing seems good.The book begins with the background and overview of the adventure. Essentially, the chancellor of a wizard's college (Charles Cavanaugh) has turned to dark alchemical experimentation beneath the halls of the establishment. He has created an elixir that turns victims into creatures with black chitinous scales, and that fall under Cavanaugh's power once transformed. Cavanaugh intends using these creatures to attack the local temple as a test of their strength, and is aided in his efforts by various nefarious allies. The PCs aim is to stop the attack, and they enter the plot via an invitation to attend a party at the local temple to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the college.Chapter One: The Grimm Thorpe BallThis chapter gives various ideas for running the party at the local temple, focusing mainly on roleplaying and interactions between the various NPCs. The information includes different pieces of information that can be gleaned from Listen or Gather Information checks whilst mingling with the guests, most of which hook into the main plotline in various ways. The remainder of the chapter looks at some of the events that should take place over the course of the night and into the next morning, along with the possible clues left over from these events. There is also a sidebar giving information on the sun goddess of the local temple. Chapter Two: The VillageThis gives the stat block for the village of Grimm's Thorp, and various encounters the PCs might face as they explore the mayor's tower and its surrounds. Various clues to the plotline can be discovered here and a sidebar also details a new spell, Improved Animate Dead, which animates body parts.Chapter Three: The UniversityThis gives a descriptive tour of the wizard's college, as well as presenting the community stats, and some further possible clues.Chapter Four: Into The Heart Of The MatterThis chapter begins by summarising the clues that could lead the PCs to exploring the tunnels that lie below the college and village grounds or the chancellor's manor. It also gives descriptions of these two areas and describes the possible encounters that might occur when the PCs investigate further. Appendix 1: PersonalitiesThis section describes about 40 NPCs giving information on each character's possible locations during the adventure, their background, appearance, some roleplaying notes (including behaviours and information known), and a quote, as well as level, class, race, and alignment. The villains and creatures also get a full stat block.Appendix 2: TimelineThis gives a timeline of events from 11pm the day before the ball to noon the day after the ball during which period the events of the adventure unfold.  Appendix 3: The MysticDuring the adventure, the PCs can gain some information about the upcoming events from a visionary mystic called Juliana, who can see into the future on occasion. This appendix details this new 20-level class. The Mystic has some fairly powerful class features and seem to be a cross between a divine version of a sorcerer and a paladin with spells from 1st level, the ability to detect chaos, lay on hands, divine grace, divine fortitude, protection from chaos plus access to a slew of granted powers from 13th level onwards. The Mystic also gains some divinatory abilities such as scrying, portents (read a person's aura), and revelation (visions of past or future events). In addition, they get good Fort and Will saves, a cleric's attack bonus, an ever-increasing armour class bonus, and good skill gains.Appendix 4: NightlingsThis is a template that can be added to any humanoid creature, which then becomes a magical beast with some rather nasty powers such as a paralyzing gaze, a lycanthropic-like attack, and damage reduction.The book ends with an index.Conclusion:Unhallowed Halls is an interesting adventure in concept - mainly investigation/roleplaying with a few very tough combat opportunities. There is plenty of information on the characters that can be interacted with, their personalities, and the information they hold to move the plot along. The author has dealt with the timeline of events pretty well and the adventure will appeal to GMs and players who enjoy immersing themselves in their characters' personalities. However, some aspects of the plot background do not hang together too well, mainly surrounding the dubious motivations of the NPCs and the weak or too-campaign-specific plot hooks. I suspect that the spawn ability of the nightlings and the poison laid as a trap for the PCs at the beginning of the adventure will catch most or all of the party members, transforming them into nightlings - I'm dubious as to how much fun that will be for players. It also seems somewhat unbelievable that a large group of bandits, nightlings, worgs, carrion crawlers and bugbears all live in relative harmony beneath the college grounds. As mentioned above, the climactic encounter could well be a party-killer without some amendment by the GM before play. I found it hard to put my finger on it, but I found myself becoming slightly irritated by the tone used throughout the book, which seems to hint at a modern-day horror scenario translated into a fantasy setting - this didn't work too well for me, and it seems related to the use of modern-day language dropped into the text here and there. I found the Mystic class over-powered and careless in design - the mix of various powers from other core PC classes rankled.The adventure requires a lot of hard work and preparation to run effectively, both in terms of amending some of the weaker aspects of the adventure but also in facing the challenge of roleplaying multiple personalities within a short space of time, leeking information slowly and appropriately to get the pace of the adventure right, and keeping the PCs on target in what could be quite a loose plotline. Recommended for experienced GMs with some time on their hands to make amendments to suit, and players with a desire to roleplay and investigate. Could well be a bridge too far for most.</blockquote>

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