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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Messageboard Golem" data-source="post: 2011128" data-attributes="member: 18387">They don’t make adventures like this any more. Intrigue, mystery, bizarre characters, and yes, a little bit of twisted sex… The Village of Oester has it all. A beautifully-colored cover depicts a demon called the vargenzin, a type of octopus-succubus, trying to seduce a party of adventurers. Her ploy seems to be working on the men, but not the female member of the group who appears more interested in something stirring in the murky water. It’s a brilliant layout and probably the most clever cover illustration I have seen in a long time. Most of the interior art is very good to excellent. There is more atmosphere and ambiance to these pictures than found in most RPG products today. Each seems to be specifically related to the text as opposed to generic art. I also enjoyed the maps a lot, too. The Village of Oester starts out much like The Hamlet of Thumble with a map, a weather chart, and detailed random encounter tables for the region. This is supposed to be a sequel, but I can see it easily used without its predecessor. In many ways, it is very different because of the darker tone and subject matter. The next section is about a strange town called Mullikin. I think that this could have been an entirely separate book entitled The Town of Mullikin, which would make sense in this series. I’m glad it was included here though because there are quite a few interesting characters I’d like to use like a low-life group of gangsters and a quirky dwarven entourage. I really liked the Crime and Punishment listing, too, which gives an idea of what kind of a punishment might be appropriate for a crime in a medieval fantasy setting. One minor error I noticed though was that a portion of the stat block (HD and hit points) for a dwarf NPC was repeated. What follows are an abandoned village and mysterious tower. These are the locations for the main adventure. As you go deeper and deeper into the tower, more and more clues are revealed about why it and anything around it is cursed. There are four full variations of the boss with varying treasure which I think is great. The possible endings are surprising because it could get the adventurers involved in local politics and even taking over a domain to rule over. Also included is a section on the marsh to the east of the village. There are more potential adventures and side quests to be found here, including one involving pirates. The end of the book has some new rules like a template for undead warriors, a feat, a spell, a couple of new monsters, and a bunch of new magic items. There is also a brief DM Tips section in The Village of Oester which I found a bit weak compared to the plethora of great advice found in The Hamlet of Thumble. Of course, you’ll find pre-generated characters for both good and evil player characters. The Village of Oester offers more adventure and adventure ideas than you can possibly expect from a 64-page product. This is a great value and definitely a keeper. Grade: A</blockquote>

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