An Endzeitgeist.com review

This massive module clocks in at 76 pages (if you take cover/editorial/etc. away) and my review is based on the print version I received at Gencon in exchange for a fair an unbiased review, which is also why you're seeing this review so soon after the module was made available to the public. The review is thus based on the physical copy of the module.

Now, first things first - this module was made to support Gaming Paper's useful and pretty amazing mega-dungeon gaming paper-collection - i.e. the massive map of this module is made up of the respective sheets, allowing for an easy, battle-mat-style exploration of the module and doubling as a gigantic, player-friendly map. If you're not interested in using the accessory (Why?), you're covered, though - the pdf does sport the overview map of the dungeon and can be run without using the mega-dungeon sheets with minimum hassle. I honestly wished all support/tie-in products had this level of service.

Anyway, this does mean that encounter-number/room-numbering is a bit different, with the respective encounters pointing towards the identifying numbers/letters of the gaming paper sheets. If that sounds confusing, rest assured that it's not when you look at the book.

One more thing: While the adventure takes place in the town of edgewater, it remains very much a backdrop and can easily be replaced with any coastal town with a sufficiently developed sewer system and access to a trade-route.

And this is pretty much as far as I can go without going into SPOILERS. Potential players should jump to the conclusion.

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All right, only GMs around? Great! So, the fortunes of edgewater have turned for a while now: The town, currently led by former adventurers, has managed to use subterfuge and intrigue to generate an economic upswing and hamper their competition...not with the most ethical means, but yeah. Their competition, Deep Salt Bay, has seen a sharp decline, fueled by greed and clever maneuvering...but not everyone in the town was willing to just accept edgewater triumphing...and thus a scheme most dastardly was hatched.

The PCs, while in edgewater (or any town you choose to substitute for it), are confronted via one of MANY, extremely detailed hooks, with the basic premise: Plague has come to town. Not just any plague either - one that makes both bubonic and septicemic plagues look like child's toys...and worse, one that seems to mysteriously resist regular attempts at curing it via magic, going only into remission to resurface later. Yeah, you can go pretty apocalyptic there, if you're going dark fantasy. The plague is called civilization's downfall (theatrical - the pdf acknowledges that!) and was engineered by a cabal of plague druids hired by Deep Salt Bay to wreck edgewater. The druids are spreading the plague with the help of a cadre of wererats through town. WAIT. Wait a second.

I know, I know. The plot as such is pretty old and not too remarkable. In fact, I'd be yawning pretty hard if I heard this set-up. But wait. The module does not feel like any other plague or sewer module and exemplifies that, in adventure crafting, the devil is often in the details...but so is beauty. I mentioned extensive hooks, right? Well, the first act sports a massive array of different vignettes, from the plague victim stumbling into the bar, to muckrakers drawing carts on which the dead are put to being directly hired. All of these hooks feature EXTENSIVE rules and even read-aloud text...and they can be combined at your leisure, with commentary providing guidance regarding the respective tones evoked. Preventing a mob/riot goes so far as to provide guidance for non-violent conflict resolution.

Speaking of extensive guidance: The module deals with a hidden agenda BBEG, obviously. At level 7. I have never in my line of work seen this extensive an array of well-written guidelines for the GM to handle scrying, divination and similar aspects of the game. The pdf discusses A LOT of potential issues and shows an intricate care regarding suspension of disbelief. It is quite evident that the majority of the module is an exploration of edgewater's sewer system. I know, sewer-level. No one like those, right? Well, the details provided are AMAZING and if your players are as smart as mine and pick up on inconsistencies with the fervor of a starved bloodhound, then this module has your back: You see, from discussions of bronze, copper, etc. to the science of sewer gas explosions and their likelihood, the module manages to be incredibly consistent and evoke a sense of realism I have never seen before in a sewer-dungeon.

More importantly, the whole dungeon manages to be incredibly ALIVE. Not sterile at all. It makes sense, from the big dynamics to the small: The sewer system features tides (if you need a tide tracker - 4 Dollar Dungeons' superb Horn of Geryon has one); at night, the bats swarm to hunt. Otyughs leave those wearing muckraker uniforms alone. The two antagonist factions behave in a concise and believable manner. How deep do the details go? Well, a wererat alchemist dreams of taking control of her gang - PCs with detect thoughts or similar means could glean that and use it to their advantage. The patrols provided for the enemy factions come with advice on how to make one statblock feel different when used.

The sewer system sports notes on methane-explosions for areas (including real world chemistry explanation!), rules for storm surges, the horrid psychological effects of being drenched by overwhelming humidity and stench - in short, the dungeon uses hazards PERFECTLY. It also uses the adversaries in a similarly concise and evocative manner: The foes behave smart and the living, "realistic" dungeon is very much one of the things that make this stand out. When you find several chests, they all have different traps. When you come to a junction you can't cross, the pdf notes several means, both mundane and magical, to solve the problem. When you come to a combat dealing with multiple foes, the sidebars provide ideas and guidance how to simulate the chaos of such an encounter. When an area would work well as an ambush location, the pdf draws your attention to it.

Oh, and the adversaries: Beyond the aforementioned main factions, hydras and several creatures from the excellent Sewer Bestiary (statblocks included here) provide ample versatility in that account. Speaking of which: The NPC-builds for the foes are versatile and in the end, after exploring the sewer, the PCs may still need to take on the command vessel of the plague druids, anchored in the sewer dock...which makes for a truly furious experience that requires brains as well as brawns for the PCs to survive. Oh, and in the aftermath, there is still the problem of the true culprit being none other than Deep Salt Bay's burgomaster's wife, a powerful bard in her own right...and putting her to justice, in any way, will be a challenge indeed. Have I mentioned that GMs even receive some notes on the limitations of certain spells, where applicable/potentially problematic? This is the most considerate module regarding the vagaries of adventuring I have seen in ages.

Have I mentioned the magical sparring dummy, the giant catfish or the dire raccoon?

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are very good. I noticed some very minor cosmetic hiccups here and there. Layout adheres to Gaming Paper's elegant two-column b/w-standard and the pdf sports several nice b/w-pieces of original art. The dead tree version is saddle-stitched and paper-quality-wise, nice.

Damn, this was hard for me - and I'm pretty sure I failed, but here it goes: This module is AMAZING. It frankly has no right to be this good. The plot-line, the environment, the primary adversary faction choices - none of these excite me on paper. If I had them summed up for me, I'd shrug and move on. I implore you to not do that here. This module manages to provide a level of consideration, detail and internal consistency only VERY rarely seen in any system, much less one as rules-intense as PFRPG. It clicks. It comes together. It feels alive.

Usually, sewers are a designer's lazy way out to generate a dungeon with a certain theme right under a village. They are set-pieces, window-dressing at best. This sewer feels alive. It is a fantastic eco-system that embraces all the things that I always wanted to see in such an environment. In fact, for the very first time in my roleplaying career, I have found a module that is a sewer-crawl where the very dungeon explored has more character, more unique peculiarities, than most non-sewer dungeons. In short, this module represents the rebuttal, delivered with panache aplomb, to all the negative clichés associated with the dungeon type. It also represents a huge step up for author John Ling, who so far provided good, even very good, modules - but this goes a step beyond and reaches the lofty realms of excellence.

The author acknowledges with meticulous care non-dice-roll-dependent problem-solving, magical means and manages to evoke a sense of internal consistency that is very hard to convey in a review, but that should nonetheless be made very explicit: I have rarely seen any module feel this internally consistent, this alive; this is an excellent example of a living dungeon set-up: Considerate, intelligent, well-written, versatile and yes, evocative even, with hazards galore, SCIENCE! and diverse challenges, this is now my reference module for any adventure that features a sewer. This is the best adventure John Ling has penned so far and the best module released by Gaming Paper since the legendary Citadel of Pain. In short: GET THIS. I mean, one of the (optional!) lead-in hooks has a chase...and we get chase card obstacles! It's a perfect example how diligence, cohesion and consistency can conspire to make a module play in an absolutely amazing manner. My final verdict will clock in at 5 stars, + seal of approval...and this also receives a nomination for my Top Ten of 2016, even though its pdf went live only recently. This is the new reference module for sewers and all excuses for making these areas lame are hereby null and void. Turns out sewer-levels can be fun, after all!

Endzeitgeist out.

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This module clocks in at a total of 16 pages, minus 3 for the editorial etc., leaving us with 13 pages of content, so what do we get?

This module was moved up in my reviewing-queue due to me receiving a print copy of this book at Gencon.

The world of Orbis is one where steampunk influences abound, thanks to a special type of wood called scaldwood, which allows for the cleaner and more efficient generation of steam. Situated on this world, there is a nation roughly modeled after China - the Ten Thousand Scales, where the truth about the function of scaldwood and the actual use of steampunk-y technology is a jealously guarded secret, kept by advisors and bureaucracy from falling into the hands of the public, with the scheming at court keeping most issues far away from the emperor's notice. The PCs are contacted by the bureaucracy to deal with a rather significant issue - with 5 sample traits providing justification for them being chosen. The traits generally are solid and have but one issue: They do not specify their trait type.

Where should they go? Well, the deal offered to them provides a HUGE monetary benefit to go into Shuigong, the eponymous and restricted access filtration/sewer/water-processing system.

Anyways, this module is intended to be used with Gaming Paper's Mega Dungeon 3: The Sewers game aid, but does not require it - the final page is devoted to depicting the set-up of the gaming paper sheets, but also doubles as a map of the complex - player-friendly, in case you were wondering...

...and this is as far as I can go without SPOILING anything. Potential players will want to jump to the conclusion from here on out.

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All right, I mentioned the huge reward before, right? Well, players should be skeptical and if they manage to get on the bureaucrat's good side, they may gain some additional information: There is a monster hiding in Shuigong, and its body-count is rapidly rising. While details are scarce, public persons have been eliminated and the military had been sent in. To no avail. The dread "Beast Below" that has been causing the deaths in no monster, at least not in the classic sense of the word; rather than that, it is a man named Zihao, one born as a fourth son, but with serious magical talent. Emotionally and physically tortured by his brothers for the perceived favoritism he received, they sought to break his heart via a courtesan...and instead broke his mind. Zihao stalks the tunnels and has created a web of death below...one the PCs are now in the process of entering.

Shuigong is not a cosmetic backdrop - it is a proper environment: Pitch-black, slippery and potentially lethal, the place's structure influences CMD and Acrobatics and you should definitely know what you are doing - high Dex-characters will have some chance to shine here.

Exploring the dungeon that is Shuigong is btw. an internally consistent manner - it makes sense from the perspective of the deranged mastermind as well as from that of the GM: The obstacles the PCs will encounter focus on crippling PCs, on generating slowly a means of decreasing their potency; from deathblade poison-covered hidden blades to the creatures - which deserve special mention: The first would be hungry fleshes, which not only are diseased, they also accrue growth points and regenerates when hit by the wrong type of weapon, making for basically a puzzle-foe from the get-go.

This level of imaginative potential has been applied to more critters - take the plasmic otyugh, which can change its shape when in water - the interesting component here being definitely that the creature does not need to adhere to the standard formation of creature space, allowing for a creative application of flexibility and interesting tactical options I have not seen executed in any other critter so far. Even skeletons with filed feet or amphisbaena can be found here and astute players will slowly notice a sense of cohesion, that something is amiss - and indeed, the whole structure amounts to a gauntlet to soften up the pesky adventurers. From huecava and necrocrafts, the PCs will need more and more resources, as they slowly make their way towards the darkness and madness of Zihao and his ghoul retinue...

Conclusion: Editing and formatting are generally very good; while my print copy lacks some formatting among the statblocks (bolding/italicization), I have been told that this was cleaned up. Layout adheres to a printer-friendly two-column b/w-standard and the pdf sports several nice, original b/w-artworks. The print-version is a nice softcover. The cartography-overview page is solid and unfortunately, I can't comment on any pdf-versions, since I'm not sure there even exists one.

Dan Comrie's Shuigong is a nice, unpretentious, internally consistent dungeon crawl against relatively challenging foes that shows some sparks of brilliance and creativity among the builds for the adversaries; less so for the BBEG, but there is some true creativity herein. Considering the evocative twist on the classic sewer level trope, one can definitely consider this a nice module, particularly for slightly more experienced groups and convention play. While certainly not super-hard, it is definitely a potentially challenging module and I mean that in a good way. Not all encounters reach the highlight-level of brilliance, but for the brevity, the module does indeed deliver a fun excursion. All in all, a fun module - which is why my final verdict will clock in at 4 stars.

Endzeitgeist out.

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This little bestiary clocks in at 16 pages, 3 of which are devoted to editorial, etc. - leaving us with 13 pages for the critters herein.

The review is based on the dead-tree version I received at Gencon in exchange for an unbiased, critical review. Due to me receiving a print copy, this was moved up in my review-queue.

All right, so we begin this bestiary with the CR 1 Chimerette, which is an AMAZING concept: Think of these guys as anti-familiars, instilled with an intense hatred for spellcasters and a will to free their enslaved brethren. And yes, non-spellcasters may gain these as companions with a new feat presented herein.

The CR 4 Cystling is a similarly evocative concept - basically a fey that has literally been consumed and trasnformed by the cancerous growth of unchecked civlization's refuse into a horribly disturbing mockery of its former self. Yeah...evocative.

The giant cone snail and its increased emperor iteration at CR 1/2 and 3, respectively, are similarly cool: Trails of slime make terrain difficult, poisonous stings, soft bits and the option to traverse walls make these nasty threats Speaking of animal-like threats: The vessel-capsizing CR 5 black boar with its jagged tusks is another effective, deadly threat that maintains the streamlined emphasis on efficiency you expect from animal builds.

The denlock, at CR 3, are basically long-necked, hairless degenerate dwellers of the realms below, adept at swarming and leaping pounces. The CR 2 plague drake is a great story foe - they hatch from dragon eggs corrupted and diseased and thus can make for a perfect angle to introduce draconic mentors or do one of the scaled majesties a favor.

At CR 7, the gatorpede is actually one of the few examples of weird hybrid creatures where I really can see it work - unique and deadly, it has the potential to become as popular as the classic owlbear. The CR 3 filth golem is usually not created - it happens when refuse manages to gain accidental sentience, emitting a powerful stench, nauseating blows and the classic immunity to magic make this for a great foe.

The CR 6 prismatic cube determines its color and precise effects anew every single round - from fire to acid and poison, it is a unique twist on the gelatinous cube. I've, as often, kept the best for last: The CR 9 rat emperor is basically a composite entity composed of a swarm of rats that grant it a collective intelligence - as such, it can swarm, spellcast, inflict the bubonic plague on foes...and worse. That's campaign BBEG-material, just add the required class levels and there we go, even at higher levels. My favorite critter herein, though...is one you will never see. No, not even with invisibility purge. Dire Midge Swarms, at CR 4, cause horrible itching and painful welts and they are particularly nasty when facing foes that are bleeding...oh, and they are so small you can't see them. This is amazing and I already know how I'll be using these critters.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are very good; I noticed a minor formatting glitch of a purely aesthetic nature, but the Gaming Paper-crew has since told me they had fixed it, so consider this to be excellent. Layout adheres to a printer-friendly, solid 2-column b/w-standard and each critter herein has a nice, original piece of artwork, all adhering to a uniform style. The softcover is solid and does not leave much to be desired for such a booklet.

A bestiary at this length has a tough job - it NEEDS to be all killer, no filler to warrant its dead tree price point, which is why you don't see too many small bestiaries at this length. Thankfully, the Gaming Paper crew has hired industry-legend Owen K.C. Stephens to write this pdf. This may be the first bestiary of his I have read and it's absolutely glorious, an all-killer, no-filler beauty that I really want to use in my games. Not a single creature herein is even "only" good - every single critter here is superb, making this one of the best small bestiaries I have read in a long, long while - and Legendary Games has spoiled me big time regarding great creature design. This is superb and well worth getting in print. 5 stars + seal of approval.

Endzeitgeist out.

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This module clocks in at 58 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page SRD, 1 page back cover, 2 pages of editorial, leaving us with 53 pages of content, so let's take a look!

I received this module prior to public release and playtested it. It was moved up in my review-queue as a prioritized review at the request of my patreons.

The premise is pretty much fantasy modern day: In a world that is pretty much like our own, monsters and the like are common and pose a significant risk to the populace. The government has two choices for the truly dangerous creatures out there: Submit to a painless death or be confined and become property of the state for scientific scrutiny in one of the Infinity Directive's hidden prisons. The PCs are agents of 7th level and the module assumes a medium XP-track and get Exotic Weapon proficiency (Firearms) as well as Technologist.

...and this is as far as I can go sans SPOILERS. Potential players should jump to the conclusion.

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So, the module begins with a detailed introductory briefing - the agents are told that a certain secret prison facility, Facility X, has been compromised: While the dimensional barriers are intact, the neurotoxin to pacify the powerful inmates has not been released, evacuation protocols are in place. The facility is on lock-down and no one knows what's going on in facility 10 - so yeah - there you have it. On the plus-side, there is only one way to enter or exit the facility, so no huge amount of powerful inmates will scour the land...for now. The agents receive dossiers for the most powerful of inmates - and they are awesome: Handouts, fully realized each and every one of them, they bring the agents up to what to expect...and it sure ain't pretty. Urdefhan death cult leader. Intelligent frost drake. Quickling con-artist. Vampire. A soul-bound mannequin called Experiment 42...hag sisters...a psychotic efreet...yeah, this will be fun.

Shaped cylex explosives may prove to be important - and thus, the agents are off to deal with the situation. Below a storage tank, the PCs can enter the sewers - and they'll have a brutal welcome committee: For one, they will encounter cranial crabs. Think of them as headcrabs with laser torches that detonate, but instead of killing you, they try to render you helpless and implant cranial bombs in your skull. Fun. Even cooler: Swarm-version included. Once this module is over, PCs will HATE them. Oh, have I mentioned the cyborgs? I should mention the cyborgs. For example the cyborg scrags with chainsaws for hands. And yes, the artwork makes them even more awesome than I can convey here. I mean, come on: Scrags with chainsaws for hands. YES.

More importantly, the actions of the PCs pretty much matter from the get-go, for the peculiar location of the complex makes flooding a VERY real option/potential problem: The maps of the complex(based on the modular dungeon-maps by Gaming Paper) come with an easy codification that lets you track flooding of the prison.

Because we know that cranial crabs and cyborg brineborn marsh giants and the rogue's gallery down there isn't yet enough of a challenge, adding flooding to the mix makes things even more interesting...oh, and yes, the overseer robots are compromised and dangerous...and the traps spread throughout the complex are nothing to sneeze at either. Oh, and guess what? The true mastermind behind the incident has a timeline - the longer the PCs take, the more creatures/villains from the rogue's gallery will come under the gray eminence's control. Have I btw. mentioned the barghest serial killer or the werewolf? The prisoners shot chock-full with drugs?

Agents progressing far enough will also be harassed by doom-pronouncing whispers and it soon becomes apparent that simulacra pose a significant risk. Speaking of risks: Laser tripwires. Gravity mines. EMP...and there is a fission reactor the PCs better stabilize...oh, and that pesky permanent gate must fall...it may non-functional for now...but for how long? Oh, and yes, the final confrontation (no, not spoiling against who or what) is downright delightful and brutal!

(And here's to hoping that none of the high-profile prisoners got away...otherwise, the agents will have their next assignment cut out for themselves...)

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are good - while I noticed a couple of typo-level glitches, the overall presentation is solid and well done. Layout adheres to Gaming Paper's elegant 2-column b/w-standard and the pdf sports 11 glorious dossiers for the villains as hand-outs. The artwork provided is surprisingly copious, in gorgeous full-color...and here's the kick: See that front cover? The internal artwork is the same, high level of quality - and visualizes perfectly quite a lot of the adversaries herein. Showing the players the artwork really works well here - kudos! Cartography is based, as mentioned before, on Gaming Paper's modular rooms, which per default are player-friendly. The pdf sports no extra player-friendly maps beyond that, but I won't hold that against it. EDIT: Now, this module comes fully bookmarked for your convenience, eliminating basically my one complaint!

Stephen Rowe knows how to craft absolutely awesome adventures - this one basically reminded me of a glorious, classic Marvel storyline, wherein Venom instigated a prison break in the super villain prison. The module does practically everything right: It sports unique adversaries, does a great job of blending modern day concepts with fantasy and scifi-elements sans making things awkward, sports cool new critters, is challenging, has options for social encounters, environmental hazards and also features smart foes. If anything, this module made me wish it was more than a one-shot, that it had a whole 300-page book of setting information and delightful prisoners/villains, SCP and/or Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.-style. This is an extremely entertaining modern module with generally awesome aesthetics. This module sports so many downright awesome components and ideas, with the handouts being the icing on the cake - so yes, Stephen Rowe once again proves that yes, he can write very good crunch...but oh boy, is he a master of writing brilliant modules! This is absolutely inspired and will leave you asking for more!

My final verdict will clock in at 5 stars + seal of approval.

Endzeitgeist out.

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This module is 54 pages long, 1 page front cover, 2 pages of editorial, 1 page back cover, leaving a total of 50 pages of adventure so let's check this out!

This being an adventure-review, the following contains SPOILERS. Potential players may wish to jump to the conclusion!

All right, still here? Leander d'Arstand is not your everyday lich - in fact, the undead creature was rather smart and modified the standard phylactery-ritual to split his phylactery into 4 parts and scattered them subsequently to the elemental planes. Half a millennium has come and gone and the tide of years has eroded Leander's resolve to exist, nourishing a subtle death wish. Now, he depends on a twisted game, challenging the strongest of heroes to put an end to his undead existence. Since this is a high-level module, the adventure provides some pieces of advice on how to deal with the by now obligatory divinations and teleportation capabilities your PCs will no doubt have. Of course, since plane-hopping is involved in these pages, we also get a short run-down of planar qualities and necessary protections and peculiarities that separate planar adventures from their prime material counterparts. Additionally, much of this module is presented in a rather free-form, sandboxy style and at the end of a given section, expansion ideas and options for the respective planar forays are given alongside suitable suggestions for creatures..

That being said, first would be the elemental plane of fire, where the PCs will have to enter the palace of Overthane Grosk, fire giant warlord and owner of whole kennels of nessian warhounds. Of course, the obvious way would be for the PCs to merrily slaughter themselves through the fortress, though perhaps not the wisest one: If they agree to peacebonding their weapons, they may enter the thane's hall and can even negotiate the release of the ruby they seek from the thane's throne - if they endure the cruel pranks of e.g. magma mephits etc. and have come peacefully before the thane. Of course, they could also fake peace-bonding etc. - sideboxes elaborate on these tactics, though I would have liked some sample DCs for the peaceful negotiation with the thane - an omission that could have easily been rectified.

After that, we're off to the plane of water where the keeper of this part of the phylactery is already expecting the PCs - in a vast grotto, the PCs are lead towards the old one, an exceedingly powerful Aboleth sorceror who awaits them with a peculiar and deadly trap as well as a whole cadre of aquatic minions to challenge the PCs and add them to his collection. His spellcasting prowess notwithstanding, I couldn't help but feel that this final confrontation felt a bit behind its own potential: One of the coolest and most defining traits f aquatic battle is its 3-dimensional aspects, which are absent from the encounters portrayed here. See Alluria Publishing's legendary Cerulean Seas Campaign Setting/Underwater adventuring guidebook for an excellent example on how buoyancy, streams etc. can be used to make battles under water truly interesting and feel DIFFERENT.

After this one, we have an interlude when a rogue 6/assassin 10 and a summoner 16 are sent after the PCs by Leander to make things interesting and slaughter them - even if the death of one or two characters is only an inconvenience at this level. On the elemental plane of earth getting to the adventure locale might make for the toughest hindrance, even though what awaits the PCs is no cake-walk - carnivorous crystals and an advanced crag linnorm as a boss make for a challenging foray, though honestly, I would have enjoyed to see the tunnels featuring more evocative environmental elements like earth spikes, earth quakes, crystallizing viruses - you know, things that make the players appreciate how non-hostile the prime is.

The final foray, then, leads to the plane of air, aboard the flying air ship Skydragon (which comes with full stats as a magic item, but not with stats for the naval combat system - wasted chance there!) and meet its surprisingly nice crew of air-born smugglers, who is currently trying to safely deliver some astral devas - Only to have the ship attacked by a horde of demons. Whether the PCs fight with the crew, with the demons or choose to use the chaos to get their fingers on the final part of the phylactery, the ensuing epic battle and chaos aboard the Skydragon will definitely be something the players will fondly remember.

With the fractured phylactery in their hands, it's time for the PCs to hunt a lich and their only lead to the whereabouts of Leander lead to an abandoned mansion situated in a swamp - which is, of course, a false lair protected by guards and wards as well as the spirit of a human bard who had to witness his children being slain by Leander and turned into Blood Urchins, some of the more deadly inhabitants of this haunted house-style. Among the other challenges, traps and minor undead will serve well to slowly but steadily deplete some of the PC's resources before the meet Leander - who turns out to be a grave-knight! After taunts about wasting time on the elemental planes and an epic battle, PCs will hopefully be smart enough to realize that this seemingly final boss is just a dupe and enter the teleportation circle towards Leander's true lair. The house has a great flair and if you don't know the tricks to make "old" paper, a sidebox explains the usage of coffee or tea. Nice for those who didn't know about this classic trick! Leander's true lair is no cakewalk and it is here that the difficulty of the module escalates - iron golems. Clockwork Golems, Alchemical, Brass and Bone Golems, Zombie Megalodons guarding a lake. Have I mentioned a room that has every inch covered in symbol and rune traps, from explosive runes to the worst of the symbols? And then there is the final showdown, in which the supra-genius lich hurls undead, spells and even dominated, good adventurers at the PCs in a lethal, epic final confrontation that would a worthy conclusion to a campaign - or the beginning of a new one, if the PCs fail and Leander reignites his ambition, seeking to enslave towns, cities and perhaps even kingdoms...

Conclusion: Editing and formatting are good, though not perfect: I noticed multiple typo-style glitches in the module. Furthermore, a peculiarity of the formatting is that each chapter begins on a new page, often resulting in the final pages of a chapter containing perhaps 3 paragraphs of text and being otherwise empty - space that could have been used for further information, content, or even cut in order to save printing/ink costs. Layout adheres to an easy-to-read 2-column b/w-standard, with monsters and traps as hazards being highlighted with respective symbols to make the information easier to find. The b/w-artworks herein belong to the upper echelon of quality and carry evocative themes and look neat. Robert Lazaretti's maps are b/w and simply awesome, though the Overthane's fortress feels a bit bland in comparison. What I don't get is why we don't get player-friendly versions of the maps sans map keys - the maps are nice, yes, but the players will see the letters on them - and I hate that. Player-friendly maps are by now in many publications standard. The pdf comes fully bookmarked with nested bookmarks for easy navigation. High-level adventures are few and far between and honestly, I don't get why - sure, stats are messy, the rules are complex, but high-level adventuring can be a total blast - with Coliseum Morpheuon still being one of my favorite modules/sourcebooks of all time, it should come to you as no surprise that I joined the kickstarter that gave birth to this particular module. If you're following my reviews on a regular basis, you probably also know about my aversion to elemental-themed classes, though perhaps not one secret of mine: I really love the elemental planes! I really do and think that the lack of coverage and modules set on them is a huge gap not only in PFRPG, but in practically all d20-derivates. Here we have untapped potential and this pdf seeks to tap into that. Or at least tries to. What I do like about the elemental sojourns is that they not only consist of the locations, they do also take the planar traits and PC capabilities into account, yes, actually require them. I also really liked how two of the trips to the planes can be solved by non-hostile means - I just don't get why no sample DCs to make the discussions more complex, why not more information on the NPCs to negotiate with was given. And I don't get why the elemental plane of air has to resort to an attack by hostile beings from the outer planes instead of creatures from the inner planes. For e, that felt a bit jarring in theme.

The final location is flavorful and sufficiently creepy and the respective boss encounters as well as the final confrontation feel sufficiently epic for such a quest. Where the pdf fails, albeit slightly, is showcasing the unique nature of the respective planes - why no 3-dimensional combat on the plane of water? Why not battle between rival skyships on the lane of air instead of an invasion of one vessel, especially with naval combat rules established and made by Paizo for Skull & Shackles? Why no cave-ins or sentient earth on the plane of earth? The module features a lot of going to other planes without making them feel unique - and they should be more than a more hostile, elementally-themed version of the prime. Yes, the traits are there and fractured in, but the module lacks the environmental hazards that create the true feeling of estranged otherness. Don't get me wrong - the planes-hopping is still good and enjoyable, but it hurts my heart to see how easily it could have been a module of truly epic coolness and instead settles for being just good. Combine that with the editing glitches, blank space and lack of player-friendly maps and we have even more wasted potential at our hands. A capable and imaginative Dm can make this module still the stuff of legends, but as written, it falls a bit behind what could have easily been a benchmark for PFRPG planar modules. Thus, my final verdict will be 3.5 stars, rounded down to 3 for the purpose of this platform.

Endzeitgeist out.

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This module clocks in at 35 pages, 1 page front cover, 2 pages editorial/SRD, leaving us with 32 pages of content, so let's take a look!

This being an adventure-review, the following contains SPOILERS. Potential players should jump to the conclusion.

All right, still here? There we go! The Cellend family has been haunted by a prophecy most dread - according to the premonitions, one of their scions was destined to one day initiate a demonic apocalypse of "opening the worldwound"-level of catastrophe. Unlike many a stereotypical plot like this, though, the family took counter-measures -prohibiting careers as arcane casters, instead focusing on virtue, bringing forth paladins galore over the ages. Alas, as often, the true cause of the prohibition was lost to posterity and thus, Lady Astriel Cellend, born with a superb array of powers, seeks to undo the unjust restriction based on her family - guided by voices she does not understand, she has ventured into the family crypts to once and for all rid her family of the obsolete traditions. Unlike many a tradition/superstition, though, she is walking right into a trap, potentially fulfilling the prophecy and bringing unprecedented doom upon the world.

Via various hooks, the PCs can be on the very hunt of lady Astriel, entering the crypts - and once again, defying expectations, the family's former heads were not bumbling idiots, actually foreseeing something like this catastrophe looming, they have hidden clues throughout the dungeon to initiate a counter-ritual. These clues, present throughout the rooms, provide essentially a complex puzzle for the PCs to unravel as they explore the complex. Better yet, there are other things in favor of the PCs braving the catacombs tainted by the abyss. Remember that planescape maxim on the difference of effectiveness between devils and demons, where demons only reached a 13%? Yeah, these guys are chaotic and have a vast array of different liege-lords and thus, clever PCs might actually incite hostilities between the diverse abyssal threats, which include btw. fiendish grizzly bears, skitterdarks balbans (originally from FGG's Tome of Horrors, provided with full stats) and classics like babaus, cambions, shirrs etc. It should also be noted that aforementioned clues more often than not feature visual representations as plaques .

Iconic, rarely used creatures like an abyssal maw can be found herein and the final encounter is a BEAUTY - multiple waves of deadly demons surging forth, while the traumatized (but not beyond redemption) Lady Astriel assaults the PCs with her magic in a massive, epic final conclusion - but that is NOT the end. As long as Astriel's ritual is not undone, the demonic taint and danger remain - hence, the PCs will have to brave frighteningly powerful demons in a kind of second climax - and yes, the counter-ritual might very well be something your players fail to perform if they have not paid enough attention...

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are top-notch, I noticed no significant glitches. Layout adheres to Gaming Paper's printer-friendly two column b/w-standard and the cartography provided is nice. Here, something special should be mentioned - you can essentially have the whole massive map as battle-tiles and assemble it as your PCs go, provided you have the tiles (sold separately as the Mega Dungeon II-set) -neat! (Fret not if you don't have them, the module's map still is nice and can eb run easily.). The module has no artworks apart from some of the plaques encountered in the dungeon. The pdf has no bookmarks, which constitutes a significant comfort detriment.

John E. Ling Jr. delivers a surprisingly versatile module here - I expected "been there, done that"-territory and instead received a thoroughly compelling mid-level module that does something right many modules get wrong - it takes PC capabilities into account. Damaged mosaic? Mending. - Similar awareness of the system and its interactions in game show a thorough grasp of rules and play in practice. The exotic demons provided also help this module in its diversity and the smart story that does not presume that all NPCs are idiots also felt pretty well-crafted.

Now even if you utterly dislike puzzles, this module has you covered as well with advice and finally, the option for redemption and good characters to shine is great. The Demoncall Pit is a fun module and definitely ranks among the better high-level modules I've read for pathfinder - but one that definitely requires SMART players - if your PCs just bumble into this and try to brainlessly charge everything, they will not prevail against the demonic onslaught. Offering a smart array of clues/puzzle, challenging battles and generally, a carefully crafted dungeon makes up for the lack of bookmarks and artworks in my book.

The Demoncall Pit is a fun, old-school module with a dual epic conclusion and well worth a final verdict of 4.5 stars, rounded up to 5 in spite of the missing bookmarks and lack of artwork.

Endzeitgeist out.

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This small pdf by Gaming Paper is 8 pages long, 1 page cover, 1 page editorial/SRD, 1/2 page empty, leaving us with 5 1/2 pages of content, so let's take a look!

DISCLAIMER: As a short look at the editorial will show you, I've looked over the beta of this pdf and helped develop it - I did not control the final outcome or have a say in what goes and what stays, though, and thus don't feel my verdict is compromised in any way.

That out of the way, let's take a look, shall we? We kick off this pdf with a thoroughly well-written piece f in-game prose that gets one in the mood, detailing the hostilities between greco-roman seeming people and barbarians, before getting into the respective traits for barbarians - which take a surprisingly smart approach - whereas usually, traits are exchangeable minor bonuses with one-sentence explanations (and hence not particularly fun to read), this pdf takes a different approach - first of all, it determines several basic roles, the first of which would be non-adventuring barbarians.

In boxes with a black background and white letters (not very printer-friendly...), we get the respective traits, in this first case bonuses to initiative under certain circumstances - the first one netting a +2 to initiative whenever you don't have maximum hit points - which is not something I'd consider good design...always carry around that kitten for the 1 hp-scratch... On the plus-side, each trait, even beyond the description of the general role in barbarian society, comes with a full-blown description that makes the trait more than just a numerical bonus.

Other traits allow you a bonus to will saves against spells and spell-like abilities of foes you've intimidated and another nets you, 1/day +1 round of rage if you hit a foe twice in melee in the same round - which is hard at low levels and later rather easy. While not particularly elegant design-wise, not broken either. More interesting would be imho a trait that lets you track creatures as if they're larger or one that mitigates the fatigued condition's penalty when using aid another. Changing facing upon defeating foes, being the last of your kind (and thus hardened to fear- and despair-effects) - all come with nice fluff. Another trait allows you to reduce the duration of the fatigued condition incurred by allies by 2 rounds (for fellow barbarians) or one round (for non-barbarians), but not fatigue with an indefinite duration. Getting 1/day plus one final round of rage when damaged in the last round of rage or receiving one free, non-AoO-provoking move action upon receiving damage, but before falling unconscious make for other interesting concepts via traits.

Next up would be some simple archetypes, the first of which would be the Raider - raiders lose medium armor proficiency, but become faster, later get a bonus to dex and may use essentially a spring attack variant of charges - i.e. charge as a standard action and then move again in a straight line, not exceeding your double base movement. per se cool ability for wolf-pack style tactics, but usually moving through the square of an opponent requires an acrobatics-check and moving in a straight line through a target's square doesn't always make sense...just picture the gelatinous cube blocking the dungeon tunnel to get where I'm going.

The second archetype would be the Auctor, who gets less rounds of rage, but instead gains a kind of favored enemy-style bonus against his own type (and later - other types). Okay, I guess.

The Lusus Naturae takes a penalty to cha while raging, but may use this penalty as a bonus when intimidating and is a specialist at using the intimidating glare power.

The pdf also offers three new rage powers: Death totem and its lesser and greater brethren - lesser death totem allows you to incite fear in foes hit in melee (or struck by your ranegd attacks), while its regular version allows you to ignore nonlethal damage, ability damage, energy drain and fatigue-themed effects while in rage and the greater version allows you to substitute 1d4+1 points of temporary str-damage for your regular damage - the latter might be considered too powerful, especially due to not requiring a save and stacking with itself.

The pdf closes with 1 new feat, which nets you HP when you reduce a nonhelpless creature of HD greater than you to 0 HP - which means that in order to break this, you require kittens with metric ton of templates added - but it still can be done. A caveat of x/day uses would have helped there.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are good, though I noticed some minor glitches here and there. Layout adheres to a beautiful 2-column b/w-standard and the pdf has A LOT of text - you'll get your money's worth from this - the font is small. The pdf has no bookmarks, but doesn't require them at this length.

Author Daniel Comrie has crafted an interesting supplement - taking the (at least for me often) very boring task of reviewing trait-pdfs to a point where I actually enjoyed reading this - the traits and concepts herein resound, are inspiring even, and the prose can be considered neat indeed. Now crunch-wise, the pdf isn't particularly elegant in some cases, with slight ambiguities in the wording/rules and similar hick-ups. Now that doesn't mean the pdf is bad - quite the contrary: Design-wise, a lot of damn cool things are done with traits, often offering more than a bland situational bonus on roll xyz that we've come to expect from (and be bored by) traits.

I'm in a bit of a conundrum here - on the one hand, this pdf tries very hard to be innovative with one of the most yawn-worthy components of character design and succeeds. On the other hand, it also has some serious rough edges that should be addressed. How to rate this, then? In the end, I will settle on a final verdict of 3.5 stars...but have to round down to 3. I still encourage you to check this out - the prose and design-ideas to scavenge are rather interesting, and hope the author will continue to try to do interesting things with traits.

Endzeitgeist out.

A compelling backstory launches an epic adventure in which the party is called upon to stem an influx of demons called up by a ritual spoken of in prophecy... what is there not to like?

There are suggestions as to how to get the characters involved, and a wealth of notes to help you run the adventure effectively - especially as clue-finding and puzzle-solving are inherent to the plot and not all groups favour such things, or find solving puzzles easy. Ways to make this work with the group you have - after all, you know them and their preferences! - are given, select the route that suits the folk at your table.

But fear not, there is plenty of demon-slaying, undead to turn or otherwise defeat and treasure to grab so whether or not your party likes puzzles they will have plenty to deal with.

Basically, the adventure involves the characters advancing on a crypt out of which demons are already streaming, with the intent of doing something about it. Simple, yet challenging. It's all go from the outset, supported by an extensive map and concise but evocative descriptions. Notes continue the introductory theme, providing information on how to cope with whatever the party throws at you. Players being players, they WILL come up with something you haven't thought of, but used carefully the information provided will enable you to cope, and cope well (especially if you are well-prepared and know the module well in advance!).

As you can imagine with demons streaming forth, the consequences of both success and failure are going to be quite critical as far as the world is concerned. Four possible outcomes are discussed, one of which involves the party visiting the Abyss (and yet again, it's explained how to manage that, if you are even willing to run such an excursion). Overall, a well-contrived and exciting adventure presented a good challenge to an organised and competent party. Enjoy!

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This free teaser of Gaming Paper's Seeampunk-setting of Orbis is 11 pages long, 1 page front cover/editorial/SRD, 1 page back cover, leaving us with 8 pages of content - though that would rather be 16.

Why? Well, because the pdf has one weird quirk - even if set to single page, it always displays two pages at once, something that usually only happens when a file is scanned in. Slightly annoying, but oh well.

So what is Orbis about? Essentially, it endeavors to be (as far as possible) realitsic, at least regarding the results of the availability of magic - the old guard, those that command arcane and divine might, are essentially the rulers and the machine age has relatively recently upset their power-base, inciting a struggle between the old and new, technology and magic, rich and poor - so far, so compelling - as further enforced by the nice in-character narratives in boxes.

In the following sections on the respective nations, we get a glimpse at potential for racial issues, colonialist discourses and problems and similar relatively unexplored tropes and topics that do offer quite a compelling selection of varying topics to cover via adventures (of which there are at teh very least, 3 planned) - in a world in revolution, a lot of changes can be made and the PCs may well end at the forefront of said upheavals.

All the usual races can be found on Orbis (so no humano-centrism), but orcs and half-orcs are unknown - instead, there are Crocodilians, who get +2 Str, -2 Cha, can hold their breath twice as long as humans, get a bite attack at 1d6 that is treated as if it were an unarmed attack (why not as a primary natural weapon?) and can be used in e.g. monk damage progressions as if it were a regular unarmed attack. Furthermore, they can 1/day move double their movement rate as part of a move action. The race feels a bit strong, but still okay. I hope the bite attack is streamlined for the final books, though. The second new race would be the Hekano - aquatic humanoids (full blown water + air breathing) with 4 tentacles they can use to make skill checks while protecting themselves. They also get +2 stealth,+2 to Int and Dex and -2 to Str. Those tentacles are a can of worms - can they wield weapons? If not, why? Can they activate magic items (via UMD a skill-check...) - do they get better grapple? Urgh...the concept is cool, but I fear that unless handled with much, much care, these guys will end up as terribly broken, even though the concept is intriguing. It should be noted that, while they do get a lengthy write-up, neither race comes with an age, height and weight-table, something I hope to see in the final book.

Now a new rule would be the calibration of weapons - via concise, easy to grasp rules, one component stat of a weapon can be raised, whereas another is lowered - which per se is damn cool - more damage for slightly less chance to hit (i.e. +1 damage, -1 atk) and similar options sound like fun. Magic items that are calibrated lose some of the inherent bonuses they get, but can be calibrated for three benefits instead of the standard two - and here I'm not 100% sold - why? Because threat range and crit multiplier are part of what can be calibrated. That means x5 scythes and picks. Urgh. Stacking with keen etc.- urgh. Also, giving a weapon range may be cool, but is the thrown weapon, if it was prior to calibration a pure melee weapon then treated as an improvised weapon? Uses it str or dex to calculate atk? Can it be thrown at the end of e.g. a flurry? Why not make weapons more usable for different maneuvers instead or provide an anti-calibration to make items especially suitable to destroy the efficient, but fragile wonders? The system is complex and can be rather cool, but I hope that all the moving parts are properly covered in the final books - this, as written, is still very exploitable.

The pdf concludes with a massive map of the world.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are very good, I didn't notice any significant glitches. Layout adheres to a printer-friendly, nice two-column b/w-standard and the pdf has no bookmarks, but various beautiful b/w-artworks.

From what I could glean, Dan Comrie and Steven E. Schend have created an intriguing setting full of adventuring potential, cool nations and ideas - but at the same time, this pdf leaves me slightly cautious - while Orbis seems very intriguing, both tentacled humanoids and the calibration-mechanic are cool, but require very skilled hands to properly pull off without breaking the game - a mastery I'm not 100% sure that is there from what I've seen so far. Now this being a free sneak-peek, there's nothing to lose here and the ideas per se are inspiring - now let's hope the team Gaming paper has assembled is up to the task and that enough space is allotted to the respective rules. I am cautiously intrigued and hence my final verdict will clock in at 4 stars.

Endzeitgeist out.

Disapointing, wish DRPG had a return policie. Nothing new or exciting, just another bland combo of dungons

This module is 26 pages long, 1 page front cover, 3 pages editorial, 3 pages of advertisement and 1 page back cover, leaving 18 pages of content, so let's check this out!

This being an adventure-review, the following contains SPOILERS. Potential players might wish to jump to the conclusion.

Still here? All right! The pdf kicks off with an overview-map of the complex before the module introduces us to the back-story of an archdruidess, an ancient nature spirit and a harnessing of essence gone horribly awry - and so the hidden valley of the druidess remained undiscovered for ages. Until representatives of a fiendish guild of slavers found the we--hidden vale and began the slaughter. When the PCs encounter the corpse of a satyr, they can track back the trail to the illusion-covered entrance to the vale, where an advanced basidrond will make for the first deadly challenge, coming with some nice sample hallucinations induced by its spores. Unfortunately, the guardian of the vale, a rather massive advanced wood golem will make for yet another deadly challenge.

Unfortunately, the pdf is not free from glitches, as e.g. Glenfinnian, sprite librarian, is missing from the stats and doesn't mention using the standard sprite-stats. From here on, the PCs will have to act smart in order to defeat the savage slavers, for the module comes with alarm-response tactics and if they do well, they might actually not only deplete the ranks of their enemies, but also face down with the leaders of the enemy forces - a mighty druid as well as a half-fiendish, winged ape-like humanoid! The latter is a damn cool boss, not only for his ability to cause alarms, environmental hazards etc., but also for the fact that he's actually an aerial combatant. If the PCs are successful in dealing with the slavers, they might not only have saved a the vale's remaining fey, they will also have gained the friendship of the rare ebonwing pegasi by preventing the corruption of her offspring- great if you're like me and plan to make extensive use of the upcoming "Companions of the Firmament"-book by Geek Industrial Complex.

Conclusion: Editing and formatting are good, though not perfect: I noticed things printed bold that shouldn't be etc. Layout adheres to a printer-friendly 2-column b/w-standard with battles emphasized by symbols, somewhat similar to Adventureaweek.com's symbols. However, here, they have not been implemented to their logical conclusion and there only are combat and trap symbols, and not for all statblocks - which essentially take up space and make this adventure feel unfinished/rushed.

The b/w-artworks are sketches and the 3d-bird's eye view illustration unfortunately is just as ugly as the majority of the sketchy interior illustrations. It should be noted that the module comes with a 20-page pdf that has battle-map-style pieces of maps to create the adventure while playing, which are compatible with the mega-dungeon - the cartography is awesome, btw. The pdf is fully bookmarked.

Originally released for Free RPG-day, Gaming Paper's module provides us with some cool adversaries, an uncommon location, interesting environmental factors - what can go wrong? Short answer: A lot. Long answer: The artworks suck. Editing and formatting are not up to the standard of all their other releases. The bird's eye-view is sloppily depicted. And then there's the amount of content: 18 pages. Legendary Games provides us with short modules for 5 bucks, with original full-color artworks, stellar writing and drop-dead gorgeous artwork - this module is weaker in all regards. 0onegames' "The Sinking" modules provide only slightly less content (or even more), for 2 bucks and actually most of them are better. This module costs 9 friggin' bucks - for the pdf. Yes, the cartography is awesome, but honestly, that's not even close to enough to justify the price-point, especially when you can get Citadel of Pain, a 100+-page module that is vastly superior in every way for just a buck more. Worse yet, this module was once intended as a Free RPG-release and handed out, and while other 3pps like JBE and LPJr Design give away the pdf-versions of their Free-RPG-day-offerings for free, this pdf has the audacity to cost 9 bucks.

If this module would in any way, whether regarding artwork or content, justify the price-point, I wouldn't complain - I'm willing to pay major bucks for great content. I expected a cool, detailed module for the price-point and instead got a very short module that even surpasses Caragthax by TPK Games in brevity without having the class of Legendary Games. For 2 or 3 bucks, this module would be a 3-star file, but honestly, for 9 bucks you can have Ben McFarland's full-color, Jonathan Roberts-cartographed, stellar, longer "Breaking of Forstor Nagar" - which btw. also has vastly superior full-color maps. Try as I might, this offering has no single component, no merit I can find that would justify its insane price-point. Buy "Citadel of Pain" and once you've gotten that, get "All-Stars take on the Mega-Dungeon", but avoid this overpriced thing like the plague. My final verdict will be 1 star due to an inability to stand up to any of its competitors in any discipline.

Endzeitgeist out.

(review originally posted at TenkarsTavern.com)

I generally don't review much of the stuff released for Pathfinder. The system is fine, just too rules heavy for my current taste. It doesn't stop me from grabbing adventures and sourcebooks for the system, as most of the stuff, even the licensed stuff, is top notch and easily convertible for my needs.

Tonight I'm looking at All Stars Take on the Mega Dungeon. Now, everyone has their own opinions on who's a star adventure writer and who isn't, but I recognized 3 of the 4 names right off the bat, and 2 (if not all 3) are certainly starters on any adventure writers team I might assemble.

Now, the adventures within all use geomorphs that can be found in Gamin Paper's Mega Dungeon 1 release, but it's not required for play, as the dungeons are all mapped out in each adventure (and labeled if you did want to use the sheets with it).

Lets get to the meat of the matter: How do the 4 adventures stack up?

The first one we get is The Temple of the Half-Born by Monte Cook. Certainly the headliner. He's pulling this from his Ptolus setting and redesigning it. I have no idea how close in remains true to the original, and I'm not dragging the monster out to check. It's for 7th and 8th level characters. Monte seems very comfortable with the Pathfinder system (as well he should) and there are DC checks throughout the text. Undead heavy, but what do you expect for a dungeon under a temple? Four Tankards out of Five

Arena of Souls is the next in line. It's written by Brian Cortijo and is for characters of levels 3 and 4. The author's name doesn't ring a bell for me. Here's where it lost me: "PCs begin the adventure waking up alone in an unfamiliar setting, stripped of all of their possessions". Sorry, tapped out and moved on to the next adventure, as this screams "railroad" to me. No rating, as I stopped reading at the above point.

Alright, Ed Greenwood is the next author. He gives us Lost Coins and Flying Bones for 4th and 5th level characters. I happen to like Ed's work. He gives a rumor list and nice background material. Ed also gives very detailed encounter descriptions. It gave me an old school feel, but then any adventure that includes a Gibbering Mouther tends to do so for me. I'll give Ed Four Tankards out of Five.

Last but certainly not least, we get Keep Away From the Borderlands! by Steven Schend for beginning characters. Now, I'm going to quote Steven's opening paragraph, just to give you a feel for what follows:

As much as I’d love to make this a full homage to the early days of roleplaying, I won’t bother you with a “Welcome to the land of imaginations!” and all that. If you’re reading this, chances are you’ve played in or run a roleplaying game before using one set of rules or another. You probably don’t need hand-holding to walk you through a dungeon or tell you how to prepare or use this material1. What you do need is a good old-fashioned starter adventure to get a new campaign rolling—and I hope this module !ts the bill for you.

How's that for getting you in the Old School mood? There is an implied, sandboxie setting that could be fit easily into nearly any larger setting. There's a rumor list, there's a Generic Dungeon Details list (I'm yoking this) and even a Generic Corpse Detail list. Some of the NPCs even have pre, current and post adventure status's written up for them and well as some post adventure hooks. It's an excellent starter adventure for new or experienced DMs. Five out of Five tankards. Heck, I'd even give Steve a "buyback" if he patronized the Tavern ;)

Overall, a very strong product. Even if you just used the 3 adventures I read, the cost to you would be 2.50 a piece.

This pdf is 119 pages long, 1 page front cover, 2 pages of editorial, 1 page of ToC, 1 blank page prior to the content, 1 page of Kickstarter thanks to patrons, leaving 113 pages of content, quite a bunch! It should be noted that the new version of the pdf is separated into 2 files - adventure and map-sheets and thus uses up less space than before. (The high-res map-sheets should be printed out anyway!)

The adventure kicks in with a neat splotch of blood and a famous line by Oscar Wilde prior to getting into the action. It should be noted that this adventure uses the mega-dungeon map from Gaming Paper and includes 25 sheets for the map of the dungeon. The sheets are b/w and large enough to use with miniatures and come with a grid. Early in the adventure we also get an extremely useful one-page overview map and this is just as far as I can go without delving into massive

SPOILERS. ...Potential players, please jump to the conclusion. Seriously, you don't want to spoil this one. ... Still here?

.... All right! The adventure takes the PCs into a citadel sealed by liquid, magic-resistant stone that once belonged to mad and sadistic Vilseph Dumond, who sought to transcend mortality by building the ultimate torture device. Prior to the Citadel being sealed, an almost vanquished army of monster sought refuge and the citadel has lain dormant for long. The PCs are hired via 3 sample hooks or one of your own making to enter Rogthondar, the dread citadel, alongside Twith Ballancastor, alchemist extraordinaire, whose drilling tank provides for the PCs entrance to the otherwise sealed dungeon. Yep. They enter a citadel covered by liquid rock via a drilling-tank. How cool is that? Of course, this act of drilling is not too simple and panicking guards as well as the dread dumondite (the liquid stone) do their very best to make the entrance to the citadel feel well-deserved. Additionally, the atmosphere of claustrophobia is almost tangible right from now on to the very end of the adventure. Even cooler, though, is the micro-society that has sprung up within the bounds of the citadel, sentient altar-prototypes of the legendary Eureka Rib lead different fractions in an ongoing struggle and seek to further transform and propagate their very brand of superior creatures. The PCs enter the playing field of the dungeon's politics via the fraction of the deviceless (they don't have an intelligent torture device), who are lead by humans and work as a kind of police-force in their quarter, which also contains the bazaar, a rather surreal hodgepodge of ogres, minotaurs, bugbears and troglodytes. Food, of course is scarce, valuable and especially any food not being fungal or a derivative of an alchemically-modified edible vermin called slitch is guaranteed to bring A LOT of attention with it. Another peculiarity of the area controlled by the deviceless is a huge cistern from which alchemical slough is extracted to create so-called demi-potions - unstable alchemical potions that come as three sets of quality and with 20 (sometimes utterly hilarious! Examples include blown-up lips that blind you, but help you swim due to increased buoyancy, becoming a meaty ball with a face and growing hair... a lot of it...) side-effects per level of quality for the imbiber that are thankfully temporary enough to make the game-relevant, but also amusing to the afflicted player. A simple mini-tracksheet containing the factions also helps the DM manage the reactions of the different factions, but more on that later, after all, the PCs have just crashed into the citadels neutral ground, the kitchen, and may be stunned to see a kind-hearted troglodyte futile attempts at saving one of the guards that accompanied them and got hit by the dripping, deadly liquid rock. That's where the fun starts: Lou Agresta & Rone Barton's former collaborations have been more than rife with several interesting and ingenious tidbits of fluff and this one is no difference: The premise of a wholly isolated society with its own balances and the arrival of newcomers is played up to the fullest: From cults springing up to celebrate the advent of the liberators to the simple fact that in such a limited population everyone knows certain rules. Everyone but the PCs, that is. Add to that a nice smattering of a kind of urbane "slang" employed by the denizens (with easily mistakable measurement units like "a human hand" - no, the ogre does not want a severed human hand, you sicko!) and you're in for a background that may in and of itself offer hours of roleplaying fun and potential for both hilarious and dangerous situations.

Indeed, after maneuvering the strange and curious bazaar and at least partially getting to know the place, the PCs will have the opportunity to defeat some foes and thus gain the option to talk to an ambassador of the alchemically-mutated deviceless (who don't have an altar, i.e. a sentient torture device), who seeks to use the novelty of the PCs for a "diplomatic" mission to the respective monster clans. As a benefit for the PCs, the deviceless mention the fabled eureka rib, perhaps the very only possibility for the PCs to once again escape the citadel - of course, coincidentally one of the sentient altars worshiped as gods by the humanoids might very well be said rib... Unbeknownst to both ambassador and PCs, the grandmaster of the linen-wrapped mutated alchemists has more on his agenda, though and the ambassador seems to be an instigator of the worst kind... This concludes act 1.

Act 2 serves as a rather free-form flow of the different monster territories, first of which is the Fantôme-bugbears: Mutated bugbears half-caught in the realms of dream, whose altar is possessed by a ghost who in turn acts as a seal that holds back the tide of nightmarish creatures from the depths of dreaming shallows. Interfaction events, already explained prior to this, also are presented: They are events that can be introduced to change the balance between the factions like assassination attempts to keep the political landscape of the citadel mutable. Mutability is a good cue: The fantôme bugbears all come with individual, imaginative, cool mutations and whether the PCs battle or negotiate with the dread Oneiromant, the ghost trapped on the dread bed-altar has some rather interesting/disturbing dreams and if one PC accepts the boon and curse of the bed, they'll have to contend with a dread invader from dream.

The second faction presented are the minotaurs, who worship the dread white witch, a rotating marble pole with an attached harness that end its merry-go-round by suddenly stopping and slamming the victims against its base - the resulted witch-kissed minotaurs regenerate and henceforth are infected with strange...things that make them almost unkillable. To make matters worse, interfaction events and an internal power struggle between king and high-priest over the amount of minotaurs to be exalted by the witch has the faction torn and not necessarily makes the PC's quest to see the devious and aggressive torture device any easier. Even more interesting: The device actually has an inkling how to escape and in an act of self-preservation might even try to creatively talk to PC out to destroy it.

The Troglodyte camp is similarly unique: Transform by their altar, the foul-smelling brutes have found a monastic (and a pronounced contempt for their untransmogrified brethren) calling via their iron-skinned new forms. The paranoid leader wants one of the regular troglodytes forcefully recruited and once again, faction politics might make it harder than at first glance. The metal-syringe-studded iron ball they use for transformation might yet offer another clue, though...if the PCs brave the merciless troglodyte's requests or infiltrate the compound.

The final faction are Riddle's End's Ogres, three-eyed intelligent ogres (wizard class levels, baby!) obsessed with magic and subsequently out for the PC's tools. The deceptive ogres actually can prove to be a significant challenge, as they prepare one of the smartest and deadliest ambushes I've seen in quite a while in their partially submerged complex- the PCs will definitely remember the clever ogre's assault. The hidden altar of the ogres, a grisly spine-snapping chair, sunken and yet possibly repairable. Have I mentioned a water elemental and its pet octopus or the possibility of the PCs flooding a region of the citadel?

And then there's the slog, a kind of common ground to which the PCs will frequently have to return on their subquests. Sooner or later, the saviors from Without (the term for "from outside the citadel") will come to the attention of Gabrele, a GOOD ogre to assassination attempt, minotaur recruitment drives etc., the PCs will have their hands full and you as a DM enough fodder to make the citadel feel even more alive. More importantly, the slog offers the PCs something to fight for - the unique culture of the citadel, as mentioned earlier, its endearing slang and the fact that here of all places, while besieged by mad factions, humanoids and men have begun an probably unprecedented, more or less peaceful coexistence, at least among the general populace. This rather strange yet endearing utopia, based on a claustrophobic equilibrium of power, is about to come crashing down with the PCs finding the lower condensing room where a nasty surprise sits ready to initiate the furious climax of the adventure.

Act 3 features the condensed sentient alchemical waste hinted at in the bazaar during the very first encounters, a dread and deadly ooze. made out of gallons of discarded alchemical waste. To make matters worse, the deviceless finally move into open action trying to bury the PCs alive buried and sealed in dumondite - but to no avail. At this point, the undead (and surprisingly nice and cooperative) gnomish engineer might offer the final clues for the activation of the Eureka Rib, which initiates the epic final confrontation of the module: Here the faction-tracker will come in handy - the PCs and their allies as well as the opposition are up for an epic showdown, having the PCs try to get past several attack squads and offering a very cool cinematic run, finally facing off against Grandmaster Sinas Crabbe of the deviceless. After this showdown, a PC (or ally!) will have to brave the unimaginable agony of being subjected to the Eureka Rib (or destroy it and escape thus) and thus choose the fate of all Rogthandor: Freedom for all, escape for but the PCs and continued confinement for the inhabitants or an escape for the PCs alongside a devastating self-destruction that kills everything inside - quite a weighty decision to thrust upon the subject's shoulders, after all, while the inhabitants are peaceful now, who can tell how they'd react to life outside? Do they remain relatively docile, becoming the PC's faithful army? How do the humans react, with prejudice or even a pogrom? Or do the humanoids revert to their usual clichés, ravaging the lands? If the PCs killed all, how can they live with such a genocide at their hands? And what to make of the ribs significant permanent (yet not overtly game-influencing) powers like stopping to age? And what of Vilspeth? The possibilities are endless.

The pdf also features stats for optional assassins, a list of magic items by value, 8 pages of lovingly-crafted hand- outs (which should be standard - handouts are GREAT and help immerse the players in the story), a one-page version of the faction tracker and two pages of the handouts of the torture-device visions.

The pdf closes with the additional sheets to expand the mega-dungeon.

Conclusion: Editing and formatting are top-notch, I didn't notice any glitches - the few that existed in the first version have all been taken care of. Layout adheres to the clear two-column standard, is b/w and features aesthetically pleasing borders. The inside artwork is b/w and ok, though nothing to get too excited about. The pdf is EXTENSIVELY bookmarked, with each subchapter, encounter etc. there, including the CRs - commendable and a boon for the DM. I'm not the biggest fan of large dungeons, at least most of them tend to degrade into "Kill all"-sprees or fail to present sufficient social/infiltration changes of pace to keep my attention. Some dungeons are well-enough designed in their craft to have me ignore this time and again, Necromancer Games and its heirs being among the prime examples. But then there are some dungeons that don't feel common. That feel different. Like e.g. the classic Banewarrens. The Citadel of Pain stands tall and proud in this tradition, feeling completely unique in being not a dungeon to wade through and slaughter anything that crosses your path (though that's an option, too!), but instead combining political intrigue and mystery of urban adventures with the claustrophobic and hostile environment of a dungeon. It took forever to write this review, if only due to the fact that I was hard-pressed to give you even an essential overview of the possibilities and imaginative potential of this environment - the society Lou Agresta and Rone Barton crafted rivals e.g. the strange societies of China Mièville in imaginative potential and iconic quality. Even better, the duo of authors have managed to create an adventure, that thanks to the tracker makes it easy for the DM to handle complex faction politics and ensure modularity. The crowning achievement of adventure-writing any sandboxy adventure, at least to me, is utter modularity and freedom of choice. While printed adventures always have to somewhat rely upon minor guidelines to ensure the story works, I've rarely seen an adventure that can be modified this easily and I guarantee that no two ventures to Rogthandor will be the same - there are that many possibilities.

The climax, the sentient altars - there are a lot of great ideas herein and, sometimes, adventures make players ask themselves questions: Is it right to slaughter all these humanoids that don't hurt anybody and are oppressed by cruel ruling castes? Is it right to eradicate the sentience of an intelligent item begging for quarter, even if it's evil? Where does being a hero end and being a murderer begin? Even if the general populace is not evil, is it right to release them into the world? The repercussions of the successful adventure are wide and might upset the social order of a certain stretch of land (and I haven't touched upon the boons for the PCs...), offering adventure ideas galore and the sympathetic cultural hodgepodge in Rogthandor potentially points towards questions of culture, identity and racial understanding. While not the easiest adventure to run and definitely not one to run spontaneously, Citadel of Pain ranks among the most rewarding, iconic, complex and thought-provoking dungeon-adventures I've read in quite a while, supported by a commendable amount of handouts, map-sheets and awash with creative ideas. Have I mentioned the subtle and gratifying humor that is interspread within some of the encounters and e.g. the demipotion-lists? I'm running out of superlatives to heap upon this awesome piece of writing and thus will just say that, if I could, I'd rate this 6 stars - my final verdict will be 5 stars and the Endzeitgeist seal of approval. If you're even remotely intrigued by dungeons or any of the things I mentioned, do yourself a favor and check this out. You won't regret it.

Endzeitgeist out.

This adventure compilation for Gaming Paper's Mega Dungeon map pack is 62 pages long, 1 page front cover, 2 pages editorial/SRD, 1 page ToC, 2 pages of advertisement and 1 page back cover, leaving 55 pages of content.

This anthology provides for takes on the mega-dungeon, i.e. for configurations of the some of the components of the map pack. It should be noted that each configuration results in a small dungeon and that they cannot be pieced together to create a huge dungeon - essentially, the 4 dungeons are completely separate from each other. If you're on the fence about the map-pack, you should know that while the pack facilitates running these adventures, it's not a requirement. That being out of the way, we'll delve into the adventures and this, being an adventure review, from here on contains SPOILERS.

Potential players might want to skip to the conclusion. ... Still here? All right!

Monte Cook is the first with his dreadful Temple of the Half-Born, which some of you might remember from Ptolus -this is no reprint, though, but a completely original take on the concept introduced - essentially, the dungeon is populated by several deadly half-formed fleshy, cadaverous abominations under the control of a dread fleshformer who makes for a surprisingly hard foe - the creature turns out to belong to a race of humanoid outsiders, who are rather hard to kill... I'm not one of the Monte Cook fanboys. I really like some of his designs, but I also own books that I did not enjoy. This short adventure, though, captures what is great about his writing when it works - one of his excellent works and even better when you have a Ptolus tie-in. Level 7-8 characters wil definitely remember their sojourn into the temple...

The next all-star would then be Brian Cortijo, who abducts us (quite literally!) to the Arena of Souls - a subterranean arena where individuals have to fight for their lives for the amusement of depraved individuals of all species. While the premise of the adventure is cool, it uses a mechanic that not all groups will be comfortable with - namely the fact that the lvl 3-4 PCs are abducted and stripped of their gear to fight in the arena. The battles in the arena are another potential problem that remains unresolved - I know for example that my players would flat-out refuse to fight for the depraved audience of the arena, even if it meant their death. The possibility of the PCs attacking with the audience is also not covered. The escape attempt and subsequent defeat of their captors (with a rather climatic final fight) rocks, but the limitations and possible loopholes in the plot that accompany this kind of scenario makes it a tad bit more problematic than it necessarily has to be.

Ed Greenwood is next up and has a rather interesting scenario - a once great smuggler/merchant guild has fallen some years ago, and while the guild is gone, several of their huge assets remain to be found. Against the backdrop of cool smuggling tactics (alone how the gold is concealed is pure genius), the lvl 5-6 PCs finally find the secret complex which harbored the guild's treasure. This makes the adventure rather high on the treasure's side, but also means that the PCs will be hard-pressed indeed to battle their way through the complex: The new inhabitants belong to the most disturbing variety and act and fight SMART. Really smart. Environment stacked against the PCs, intelligent adversaries, smart spell-selection. I can see this complex become the tomb of more than one group of hapless (or greedy!) adventurers. Combine that with frightening scare-tactics and the fact that the PCs have no easy way out of the complex and you're in for a deadly, claustrophobic, well-written adventure. My favorite of the bunch, to be honest.

The final take on the mega-dungeon by Steven Schend is entitled "Keep away from the Borderlands" as a nice nod for all the grognards out there and centers on a border keep (Captain obvious is obvious today.) that has failed to respond to inquiries for some days. The adventure is unique in that is uses the maps of the map-pack not to provide the framework for a subterranean complex, but rather for aforementioned keep. The adventure is intended for 1st-level characters and starts off by the PCs witnessing a suicide by one of the guards who jumps to his death. Blue fires have haunted the keep ever since a holy day has passed and the PCs are up for a mystery: Some of the soldiers have raped silent temple maidens and subsequently got punished by a dread curse that was brought upon the keep as divine punishment by a splinter sect of the moon god. The fact that a relative of a local lord is involved with the crimes (and the lycanthropy-inducing curse) further complicates things, as does the (largely obliterated) strike squad that was supposed to get him out.

The now-cursed fortress hence includes the remains of the guards (some of which now lycanthropes), undead, some of the religious knights hell-bent on retribution and the remains of the strike-team. The adventure is interesting due to the coverage of the consequences the survival of individual NPCs have as well as due to the plethora of conflicting agendas - unfortunately to the point where the respective plot-lines get a bit muddy: The players will have a hard time figuring out just what the hell is going on in the fortress. The adventure also presumes a certain political landscape (and a belief) that makes the adventure feel rather setting-specific - while this works in favor of the adventure with regards to flavor, it can also be considered detrimental with regards to the plug-and-play potential of the adventure. When all's said and done, the final installment of the All-star compilation felt as if it was intended for a longer module and had some parts cut that would have made the adventure truly outstanding. As written, it requires some work on part of the DM as the nature of a dungeon map used to represent a keep makes close-reading the individual entries a requirement, as there seem to be some minor discrepancies.

Conclusion: Editing and formatting are top-notch, I only noticed 2 minor formatting glitches (words in italics, for example). Layout adheres to a clear b/w-two-column standard and the pdf features extensive bookmarks. The b/w-artwork is nothing to write home about, unfortunately. It should also be noted, that due to space-concerns, only the bare minimum of statblock-information is printed herein, but that is not a reason to detract from the final score. What does fracture into my final score, though, are the problems I encountered with the second and fourth adventure: While both are good adventures, the second involves two angles some groups will have problems with, namely being captured and fighting for an evil audience. The fourth, while making for an interesting mystery-scenario, somewhat felt a bit shoehorned to me in that it felt more like a campaign-setting specific adventure that has been cut down to fit into the available space. That being said, even with these gripes, the first and third adventure alone are worth the low asking price and the 2 adventures I had problems with still remain good adventures, though they are not exactly stellar. With the epic Citadel of Pain, one of my most favorite adventures of this year, this adventure-anthology has rather big foot-steps to step into and while the scenarios herein are excellent to good in quality, the whole anthology feels like it falls just short of being stellar. For the low price, you should check out the 4 adventures, especially if you already own the AWESOME Citadel of Pain. My final verdict will be a good 4 stars.

Endzeitgeist out.

This review was first published in GMS Magazine and written by Thilo Graf.

This pdf is 119 pages long, 1 page front cover, 2 pages of editorial, 1 page of ToC, 1 blank page prior to the content, 1 page of Kickstarter thanks to patrons, leaving 113 pages of content, quite a bunch! It should be noted that the new version of the pdf is separated into 2 files - adventure and map-sheets and thus uses up less space than before. (The high-res map-sheets should be printed out anyway!)

The adventure kicks in with a neat splotch of blood and a famous line by Oscar Wilde prior to getting into the action. It should be noted that this adventure uses the mega-dungeon map from Gaming Paper and includes 25 sheets for the map of the dungeon. The sheets are b/w and large enough to use with miniatures and come with a grid. Early in the adventure we also get an extremely useful one-page overview map and this is just as far as I can go without delving into massive

SPOILERS. ...Potential players, please jump to the conclusion. Seriously, you don't want to spoil this one. ... Still here?

.... All right! The adventure takes the PCs into a citadel sealed by liquid, magic-resistant stone that once belonged to mad and sadistic Vilseph Dumond, who sought to transcend mortality by building the ultimate torture device. Prior to the Citadel being sealed, an almost vanquished army of monster sought refuge and the citadel has lain dormant for long. The PCs are hired via 3 sample hooks or one of your own making to enter Rogthondar, the dread citadel, alongside Twith Ballancastor, alchemist extraordinaire, whose drilling tank provides for the PCs entrance to the otherwise sealed dungeon. Yep. They enter a citadel covered by liquid rock via a drilling-tank. How cool is that? Of course, this act of drilling is not too simple and panicking guards as well as the dread dumondite (the liquid stone) do their very best to make the entrance to the citadel feel well-deserved. Additionally, the atmosphere of claustrophobia is almost tangible right from now on to the very end of the adventure. Even cooler, though, is the micro-society that has sprung up within the bounds of the citadel, sentient altar-prototypes of the legendary Eureka Rib lead different fractions in an ongoing struggle and seek to further transform and propagate their very brand of superior creatures. The PCs enter the playing field of the dungeon's politics via the fraction of the deviceless (they don't have an intelligent torture device), who are lead by humans and work as a kind of police-force in their quarter, which also contains the bazaar, a rather surreal hodgepodge of ogres, minotaurs, bugbears and troglodytes. Food, of course is scarce, valuable and especially any food not being fungal or a derivative of an alchemically-modified edible vermin called slitch is guaranteed to bring A LOT of attention with it. Another peculiarity of the area controlled by the deviceless is a huge cistern from which alchemical slough is extracted to create so-called demi-potions - unstable alchemical potions that come as three sets of quality and with 20 (sometimes utterly hilarious! Examples include blown-up lips that blind you, but help you swim due to increased buoyancy, becoming a meaty ball with a face and growing hair... a lot of it...) side-effects per level of quality for the imbiber that are thankfully temporary enough to make the game-relevant, but also amusing to the afflicted player. A simple mini-tracksheet containing the factions also helps the DM manage the reactions of the different factions, but more on that later, after all, the PCs have just crashed into the citadels neutral ground, the kitchen, and may be stunned to see a kind-hearted troglodyte futile attempts at saving one of the guards that accompanied them and got hit by the dripping, deadly liquid rock. That's where the fun starts: Lou Agresta & Rone Barton's former collaborations have been more than rife with several interesting and ingenious tidbits of fluff and this one is no difference: The premise of a wholly isolated society with its own balances and the arrival of newcomers is played up to the fullest: From cults springing up to celebrate the advent of the liberators to the simple fact that in such a limited population everyone knows certain rules. Everyone but the PCs, that is. Add to that a nice smattering of a kind of urbane "slang" employed by the denizens (with easily mistakable measurement units like "a human hand" - no, the ogre does not want a severed human hand, you sicko!) and you're in for a background that may in and of itself offer hours of roleplaying fun and potential for both hilarious and dangerous situations.

Indeed, after maneuvering the strange and curious bazaar and at least partially getting to know the place, the PCs will have the opportunity to defeat some foes and thus gain the option to talk to an ambassador of the alchemically-mutated deviceless (who don't have an altar, i.e. a sentient torture device), who seeks to use the novelty of the PCs for a "diplomatic" mission to the respective monster clans. As a benefit for the PCs, the deviceless mention the fabled eureka rib, perhaps the very only possibility for the PCs to once again escape the citadel - of course, coincidentally one of the sentient altars worshiped as gods by the humanoids might very well be said rib... Unbeknownst to both ambassador and PCs, the grandmaster of the linen-wrapped mutated alchemists has more on his agenda, though and the ambassador seems to be an instigator of the worst kind... This concludes act 1.

Act 2 serves as a rather free-form flow of the different monster territories, first of which is the Fantôme-bugbears: Mutated bugbears half-caught in the realms of dream, whose altar is possessed by a ghost who in turn acts as a seal that holds back the tide of nightmarish creatures from the depths of dreaming shallows. Interfaction events, already explained prior to this, also are presented: They are events that can be introduced to change the balance between the factions like assassination attempts to keep the political landscape of the citadel mutable. Mutability is a good cue: The fantôme bugbears all come with individual, imaginative, cool mutations and whether the PCs battle or negotiate with the dread Oneiromant, the ghost trapped on the dread bed-altar has some rather interesting/disturbing dreams and if one PC accepts the boon and curse of the bed, they'll have to contend with a dread invader from dream.

The second faction presented are the minotaurs, who worship the dread white witch, a rotating marble pole with an attached harness that end its merry-go-round by suddenly stopping and slamming the victims against its base - the resulted witch-kissed minotaurs regenerate and henceforth are infected with strange...things that make them almost unkillable. To make matters worse, interfaction events and an internal power struggle between king and high-priest over the amount of minotaurs to be exalted by the witch has the faction torn and not necessarily makes the PC's quest to see the devious and aggressive torture device any easier. Even more interesting: The device actually has an inkling how to escape and in an act of self-preservation might even try to creatively talk to PC out to destroy it.

The Troglodyte camp is similarly unique: Transform by their altar, the foul-smelling brutes have found a monastic (and a pronounced contempt for their untransmogrified brethren) calling via their iron-skinned new forms. The paranoid leader wants one of the regular troglodytes forcefully recruited and once again, faction politics might make it harder than at first glance. The metal-syringe-studded iron ball they use for transformation might yet offer another clue, though...if the PCs brave the merciless troglodyte's requests or infiltrate the compound.

The final faction are Riddle's End's Ogres, three-eyed intelligent ogres (wizard class levels, baby!) obsessed with magic and subsequently out for the PC's tools. The deceptive ogres actually can prove to be a significant challenge, as they prepare one of the smartest and deadliest ambushes I've seen in quite a while in their partially submerged complex- the PCs will definitely remember the clever ogre's assault. The hidden altar of the ogres, a grisly spine-snapping chair, sunken and yet possibly repairable. Have I mentioned a water elemental and its pet octopus or the possibility of the PCs flooding a region of the citadel?

And then there's the slog, a kind of common ground to which the PCs will frequently have to return on their subquests. Sooner or later, the saviors from Without (the term for "from outside the citadel") will come to the attention of Gabrele, a GOOD ogre to assassination attempt, minotaur recruitment drives etc., the PCs will have their hands full and you as a DM enough fodder to make the citadel feel even more alive. More importantly, the slog offers the PCs something to fight for - the unique culture of the citadel, as mentioned earlier, its endearing slang and the fact that here of all places, while besieged by mad factions, humanoids and men have begun an probably unprecedented, more or less peaceful coexistence, at least among the general populace. This rather strange yet endearing utopia, based on a claustrophobic equilibrium of power, is about to come crashing down with the PCs finding the lower condensing room where a nasty surprise sits ready to initiate the furious climax of the adventure.

Act 3 features the condensed sentient alchemical waste hinted at in the bazaar during the very first encounters, a dread and deadly ooze. made out of gallons of discarded alchemical waste. To make matters worse, the deviceless finally move into open action trying to bury the PCs alive buried and sealed in dumondite - but to no avail. At this point, the undead (and surprisingly nice and cooperative) gnomish engineer might offer the final clues for the activation of the Eureka Rib, which initiates the epic final confrontation of the module: Here the faction-tracker will come in handy - the PCs and their allies as well as the opposition are up for an epic showdown, having the PCs try to get past several attack squads and offering a very cool cinematic run, finally facing off against Grandmaster Sinas Crabbe of the deviceless. After this showdown, a PC (or ally!) will have to brave the unimaginable agony of being subjected to the Eureka Rib (or destroy it and escape thus) and thus choose the fate of all Rogthandor: Freedom for all, escape for but the PCs and continued confinement for the inhabitants or an escape for the PCs alongside a devastating self-destruction that kills everything inside - quite a weighty decision to thrust upon the subject's shoulders, after all, while the inhabitants are peaceful now, who can tell how they'd react to life outside? Do they remain relatively docile, becoming the PC's faithful army? How do the humans react, with prejudice or even a pogrom? Or do the humanoids revert to their usual clichés, ravaging the lands? If the PCs killed all, how can they live with such a genocide at their hands? And what to make of the ribs significant permanent (yet not overtly game-influencing) powers like stopping to age? And what of Vilspeth? The possibilities are endless.

The pdf also features stats for optional assassins, a list of magic items by value, 8 pages of lovingly-crafted hand- outs (which should be standard - handouts are GREAT and help immerse the players in the story), a one-page version of the faction tracker and two pages of the handouts of the torture-device visions.

The pdf closes with the additional sheets to expand the mega-dungeon.

Conclusion: Editing and formatting are top-notch, I didn't notice any glitches - the few that existed in the first version have all been taken care of. Layout adheres to the clear two-column standard, is b/w and features aesthetically pleasing borders. The inside artwork is b/w and ok, though nothing to get too excited about. The pdf is EXTENSIVELY bookmarked, with each subchapter, encounter etc. there, including the CRs - commendable and a boon for the DM. I'm not the biggest fan of large dungeons, at least most of them tend to degrade into "Kill all"-sprees or fail to present sufficient social/infiltration changes of pace to keep my attention. Some dungeons are well-enough designed in their craft to have me ignore this time and again, Necromancer Games and its heirs being among the prime examples. But then there are some dungeons that don't feel common. That feel different. Like e.g. the classic Banewarrens. The Citadel of Pain stands tall and proud in this tradition, feeling completely unique in being not a dungeon to wade through and slaughter anything that crosses your path (though that's an option, too!), but instead combining political intrigue and mystery of urban adventures with the claustrophobic and hostile environment of a dungeon. It took forever to write this review, if only due to the fact that I was hard-pressed to give you even an essential overview of the possibilities and imaginative potential of this environment - the society Lou Agresta and Rone Barton crafted rivals e.g. the strange societies of China Mièville in imaginative potential and iconic quality. Even better, the duo of authors have managed to create an adventure, that thanks to the tracker makes it easy for the DM to handle complex faction politics and ensure modularity. The crowning achievement of adventure-writing any sandboxy adventure, at least to me, is utter modularity and freedom of choice. While printed adventures always have to somewhat rely upon minor guidelines to ensure the story works, I've rarely seen an adventure that can be modified this easily and I guarantee that no two ventures to Rogthandor will be the same - there are that many possibilities. The climax, the sentient altars - there are a lot of great ideas herein and, sometimes, adventures make players ask themselves questions: Is it right to slaughter all these humanoids that don't hurt anybody and are oppressed by cruel ruling castes? Is it right to eradicate the sentience of an intelligent item begging for quarter, even if it's evil? Where does being a hero end and being a murderer begin? Even if the general populace is not evil, is it right to release them into the world? The repercussions of the successful adventure are wide and might upset the social order of a certain stretch of land (and I haven't touched upon the boons for the PCs...), offering adventure ideas galore and the sympathetic cultural hodgepodge in Rogthandor potentially points towards questions of culture, identity and racial understanding. While not the easiest adventure to run and definitely not one to run spontaneously, Citadel of Pain ranks among the most rewarding, iconic, complex and thought-provoking dungeon-adventures I've read in quite a while, supported by a commendable amount of handouts, map-sheets and awash with creative ideas. Have I mentioned the subtle and gratifying humor that is interspread within some of the encounters and e.g. the demipotion-lists? I'm running out of superlatives to heap upon this awesome piece of writing and thus will just say that, if I could, I'd rate this 6 stars - my final verdict will be 5 stars and the Endzeitgeist seal of approval. If you're even remotely intrigued by dungeons or any of the things I mentioned, do yourself a favor and check this out. You won't regret it.

Endzeitgeist out.