One of the things I liked was the table of rumors the PCs discover based on different Gather Information skill checks. On the whole, this is an interesting adventure with an interesting premise. The PCs may also decide to help the dryads heal some of their damaged trees. The restored dryads can then summon a large water elemental to battle the flame hive queen. The PCs need to investigate the ruined tower to find the stone statues of Niederial’s sisters as well as a way to return them to flesh. The flame hive queen destroyed the tower and began the fire now threatening the entire forest as well as giving rise to a number of offspring from the elemental plane of fire. The summoned creature turned out to be a ‘flame hive queen,’ a new creature whose stats and description are provided at the end of the module. Using an amulet of charming she charmed a powerful elven wizard and forced him to summon a horrible creature to attack the wizard’s tower in the forest. Niederial was turned to stone by a wizard during a brief battle many years ago and was recently returned to flesh only to find her sisters gone and the grove of trees where she lived horribly ill. After gathering some information the PCs must enter the forest where they encounter Niederial, a mad dryad. I don’t see the lack of a map as a problem but some GMs looking for a quick adventure might find it annoying. Although there is no map of the town, a clear description of the major NPCs and locations is provided. The PCs begin in the town of Foresthall where they must gather information before entering the forest to find the source of the fire. If your GM may be using this adventure you probably want to stop reading now. Spoiler Alert: The rest of this review contains information about the plot that players probably do not want to know. The printed adventure can be punched with a three-hole punch and placed into a three-ring binder without disrupting the text, figures, or maps. It is organized in a standard two-column format with text meant to be read to PCs set off in the standard gray-box that has become the industry norm. Maps were legible and relatively easy to follow but did not include a map of the town. I found the black and white artwork to be slightly sub-standard but this may be my own bias. To assess quality and layout the adventure was printed (double-sided) on 24 lb high quality paper using an Epson inkjet printer at maximum quality.
The total download is 31 pages in length with 4 pages devoted to the cover, back page, and Open Gaming License.
pdf adventure files for download.ĭead Fire revolves around a forest fire that is approaching a small, predominantly human town named Foresthall. Printing and distribution costs are high enough that many new d20 publishers aim to only produce. Many companies have produced introductory adventures in this format as a route to introduce themselves and their future games to players and GMs.