An Endzeitgeist.com review

This installment of the Deadly Delves-series clocks in at 18 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page SRD, 1 page back cover, leaving us with 14 pages of content, so let’s take a look!

As far as supplemental material is concerned, the module includes stats for a Small negative energy elemental, which is nice, as well as an evil book contained some dark rituals and tricks for folks associated with the living dead. These, alas, do not come with proper rules-codification and thus render the book very much an evil story-item for the PCs to destroy – somewhat odd, considering that the presentation makes it look like a regular item, and since the defense mechanisms of the book have been properly codified. The module sports read-aloud text for your convenience and provides some guidance regarding negotiation etc. during the initial hiring talks.

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

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All right, only GMs around? Great! So, the PCs are hired to retrieve a caravan’s crew, taken hostage by hobgoblins, and, if possible, a couple of barrels of wine the goblinoids stole. A mad beggar pronounced a dire warning as the PCs set off. En route, we have a random encounter chosen from a list of 6 (solid, brief ones; nothing too crazy), before the PCs arrive at the hobgoblin cave, where the first couple of rooms present a pretty vanilla hobgoblin crawl, with a CR 3 ranger and CR 2 acolyte statblock; the dungeon’s first 10 rooms offer some choice, aren’t linear and generally are nice. The one thing that’s odd in the complex would be all those weathered glyphs on the walls.

Well, turns out that this is a bait and switch scenario: the complex is neatly bisected into two different areas, with the final 4 areas across the river containing the remnants of agents of the cult of dread Tyrkaven: Extremely fast (50 ft.!) cursed zombies with CR ½ and the ability to emit a bolstering screech. Casting a single necromancy spell alerts these critters and has them burst into the rest of the complex! (The speed is important, also since they need to jump across the river and have no ranks in Acrobatics.) Chaos erupts, and chances are that the single hobgoblin who fights alongside the PCs may make for an interesting future ally. The Warmaster of these tyrkaven-zombies clocks in at CR 4, and the ghost of a madman can potentially provide further hooks. The pdf contains two handouts, which is a nice bonus. No template to create your own tyrkaven-undead is included, alas.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are very good on a formal and rules-language level. Layout adheres to a two-column full-color standard and the pdf sports solid full-color artworks. The cartography is similarly full color and nice, though, alas, no player-friendly version is included. The pdf has bookmarks that work, though they show up as gibberish in my version. The pdf comes with a second, printer-friendly version. Kudos!

Dale McCoy Jr. provides a nice and solidly-executed bait-and-switch scenario. It’s not necessarily a groundbreaking one, but it doesn’t try to be. It executes its angle well and is enjoyable. That being said, there are a couple of small details in book, lack of player-friendly map, etc. that make this one feel less polished than the excellent, more recent installments in the series. All in all, I consider this to be a solid and fun module that plays better than it reads, at least in the hands of an experienced GM. Having an enemy-progressing chart/tracker would have made sense here. All in all, my final verdict will clock in at 3.5 stars, rounded down for the purpose of this platform.

Endzeitgeist out.

This is a short adventure that can easily be played in one session.

**Spoilers** After a caravan goes missing, the characters are hired to find the missing goods and missing villagers that were in the caravan. After interrogating the only surviving member of the caravan, the characters go looking for the culprits. A few random encounters are provided to bring a bit of excitement during the trip. The characters find the caves where the hobgoblin bandits hide and during their exploration, they find that the walls bear strange runes in many places. As soon as a necromancy spell is cast (which is bound to happen when fighting the hobgoblin cleric), Tyrkaven cultists, cursed by their dark god to become zombies, become aware of the presence of others in their cave, and they swarm forward to investigate, killing anyone they encounter. The characters will have to stop them before they reach outside and assault the village.

Although I did not play it yet with my group, this adventure looks tough for 2nd level characters. The introduction and conclusion are very short and to the point, but that is expected in such a short adventure. Depending on your style of play, if you like to have details and stats on everything, get ready to develop the village that serves as the backdrop to the adventure and some NPCs. However, the goal of this product is to provide you with a pre-made adventure, and that is where it delivers very well. I like that while fighting the hobgoblins, the adventure takes another turn and zombies start pouring out of the deepest part of the caves. The mysterious glyphs on the cave walls are also a nice touch even if their main purpose is to serve as a warning that not everything is right. The only thing I would have liked to see is a bit more detailed on the Tyrkaven-cursed zombies. We have a lot of information on how they became cursed and how they will react when they become aware of the presence of others in their cave complex, but when looking at the builds, you will notice that they kept a fairly high degree of intelligence and that they are very fast (their speed is 50 ft.). They have a scream special attack and their leader as the same abilities as a fighter of about level 5. However, we do not get a template for Tyrkaven-cursed zombies or a short sidebar to explain how they differ from regular zombies. While this does not prevent anyone from running the adventure and one can assume that the curse of Tyrkaven made them so, if you want to expand the adventure, it would have been nice to have at least a simple template.

That being said, I still think this is a good low-level adventure with enough details to be expanded in an even bigger adventure.