Plight of the Tuatha, Vol. 1: Feast Hall of Ash (PFRPG) PDF

I ran this as the second adventure for a party of six 2nd level characters, all of them fairly new players. While I have some criticisms, overall we had a good time and will be continuing the adventure with the next module.

The Feast Hall of Ash has a lot going for it – an interesting setting, a good story, and (most of the time) interesting foes. Some of these strong points could have been even stronger. For example, I felt that going into the Fae should have been a more fantastical experience, and the first encounter with Eoghan is kind of simplistic. Things do pick up once you reach Lord Ash’s hall, which is the highlight of the adventure.

Unfortunately, this then leads to the biggest disappointment – the Fomorie, who both open and close the adventure. These legendary enemies of the Tuatha are just kind of boring. Instead of a desperate battle to defend the village, the finale against the Fomorian invasion is a huge let down with an extremely simplistic battle map – just a store house and three almost identical groups of Fomoire attacking every few rounds. Despite these weaknesses, we greatly enjoyed the adventure and I would still recommend it. With a few tweaks, it can be an excellent adventure.

The author's introduction sets the scene: this adventure is born of a mature fantasy campaign world which has detailed history and myths, a background that drives the actions and motivations of many of the NPCs and forms the setting in which events take place. Yet it is flexible enough that you can run it anywhere: put it someplace appropriate in your own campaign world if you prefer and use the bits of background that appeal, that fit in with whatever else is going on there or which can be developed as a part of it.

The adventure background sets the scene comprehensively. Initial strokes are broad, detailing the conflicts that have shaped the setting from the earliest times before the dawn of history, how elves retreated yet supported the developing human population which in its turn was invaded by an empire that has fallen prey to internal divisions... that common tale of selfish acts and greed that trample on ordinary people trying to carve out a home and living for themselves, even those in the remote village that is the setting for this adventure. Oh, and all the bloodshed has awakened the evil bloodthirsty deity that caused the elves to retreat in the first place. The one thing is, it is a little difficult to tell how to inform your players of the background as the general sweep of history and bits that directly affect the adventure are swirled together in what makes a stirring story for the GM but one that's not totally for your players' ears - yet, their characters will know of the broad sweep of history that has shaped the world in which they live.

After a brief adventure summary, the details dive straight in to the first of four chapters of action. The opening is in media res... all I'll say here is that the party has been captured and had better make good their escape before...

Throughout the action, there are boxes giving advice to the GM on how to handle issues that will (or might) arise in play, starting off with how to actually run an in media res opening like this, which can annoy players who feel that their hand is being forced. A neat trick, especially with a game so heavily based in its own history, is that notes abound awarding XP for finding out snippets of information about what's going on and why, as well as for the more normal reasons. As many of the snippets are useful in advancing the adventure, provision is made for NPCs to 'conveniently' mention them if the characters don't ask the right questions or fail to make the die rolls indicated - although of course they won't then get the XP rewards, just the details that they need to know.

The characters should be under some time pressure throughout the adventure, as they need to find a healer for someone severely injured and defend the village (which is presumed to be their home or at least somewhere with strong family connections for most of them) against raiders who will be along very soon. Oh, and there are plenty of Fae around causing trouble in their usual inscrutable way... as usual nobody knows what they are really up to but they are sure good at making pests of themselves! The otherworldly nature of the fey is brought across well in the parts of the adventure that involves interacting with them.

The final scene involves the climatic battle to save their village, and this should provide combat enough for anyone who has got restless during earlier parts of the adventure where negotiation and finding stuff out is as important as the strength of your sword arm. Be careful here, some of the game mechanics are not quite according to core Pathfinder rules: you may wish to amend some of the bonuses given to fit the standard ruleset. Despite their low level, the battle is set up so that they will be able to play a meaningful yet realistic role in saving the village.

Appendices contain detailed notes (as well as stat blocks) for important NPCs, explain the rules of a 'Storytelling Game' that the party may be asked to play, and explain other details that will have arisen during the course of the adventure. There are also a description of the village and notes on important items that will have been encountered, and there is a bestiary of new creatures introduced here. For those in a hurry to get started, there are some pre-generated player characters, complete with backgrounds that embed them in the setting. A neat idea is that two major NPCs are provided with 'table tents' - a portait on one side to show the players, and key notes about them on the GM's side.

The whole is beautifully presented and fills one with excitement about the whole campaign world of which this is just a glimpse. It could, however, do with more maps, especially those suitable for showing to the characters. A minor quibble in what promises to be just the first in an exceptional series of adventures in a setting that is true fantasy.

This freshman offering of Mór Games clocks in at 80 pages, 1 page front cover, 2 pages of editorial, 1 page ToC, 1 page SRD, 1 page advertisement, 1 page back cover, leaving us with 73 pages of content - quite a bunch, so let's take a look at this!

After a short introduction, we'll immediately jump into the meat of the module, but before we go there, let's first get some basics out of the way: First of all, there are some (but by no means many) alternate suggestions to make the module more challenging - a good feature and one I hope to see further developed, if mainly due to my players being generally bored by standard difficulty modules. Less experienced DMs benefit from copious advice-boxes interspersed throughout the module, which would be another plus.

All right, so the following contains SPOILERS. Potential players should jump to the conclusion.

Still here? Good! The once proud Tuatha De Dannan, the elves, have been warring against the dread Fomoire - and ultimately lost, retreating into sacred trees concealed from the Fomoire and their bloodthirsty god with powerful magics. Bereft of their foes, the Fomoire turned their attention elsewhere and went away - and peace returned to the forests. Unfortunately for the PCs and anyone in general, this period of calm is about to come to a harsh end - or rather, already has, for we kick off this adventure in medias res, with the PCs being captured and caged by the vanguard of the Fomoire's host. The PCs are led to their cages, witnessing their grim doom in a sacrifice performed, driving home the importance of escaping - preferably soon.

Thankfully, during the night, a Tuath, the elven wizard Philiandrius contacts them - he's a fellow prisoner and still has spells memorized, but alas - no component pouch. Oh, and he's next in line for sarificing - and can help as a tool for the DM to help the PCs plot their escape - unfortunately for the PCs, before they can enact an escape plan, their adversaries nail Philiandrius' to a tree, ruining his hands (yes - ripped off Fingers...ouch!) - and thus, his arcane prowess. On the plus side, a window for escape presents itself soon, and provided the PCs prevail against their captors, they are free - alas, the boats are coming and they better warn their home (or otherwise treasured settlement) Iria. Philiandrius, now honor-bound to help them, pledges to defend the village with his arcane might - but in order to do so, the PCs have to seek out the near-mythical healer called "Ash" in the woods -before the Fomoire's bloody swath cuts their home to pieces and obliterates the souls of their kin and friends.

So the PCs are off through the Loc-Sil forest, where they'll encounter a lycanthrope woodsman (lycanthropes are nature spirits here, bound to people, and eternal adversaries of the otherworldy intruders known as fey...) -a conflict neatly showcased by the woodsman slaying a fey and transforming into his alternate form, as the nature spirit takes over. Rather cool - the map provided for the encounter has moonlight-bathed spots, in which the lycanthrope's prowess grows. The PCs may also encounter a bunch of children playing tag while chanting a weird rhyme - which is btw. fully depicted.

Meeting a bunch of unnerving (but benevolent) grigs (who probably don't understand the PCs) will point the PCs toward the Feast Hall of Ash - unfortunately, the little fey seem to be hesitant to go there. Why becomes apparent upon mentioning Ash to the fey- guards, so-called Ballybogs, for they immediately attack! Defeating the leaves Ash free to exit his tree - he was a powerful fey; at least before one Lord Armillaria took over his feast hall.

In order to save Philiandrius' hands, the PCs will have to retake the feast hall that has been taken over by the Niseelie, entering the strange domain of the fey. In order to pass this place, they will find quite a few interesting challenges - what about a game of story-telling, for example? And yes, we get rules for that. Also interesting would be that the children's chant and superstitions/folklore generally hold power within this setting, meaning tidbits like this actually matter also on a mechanical level. These are represented in so-called emergences that the PCs may receive - these can be lost as well, though - provided the PCs violate their tenets or don't properly roleplay them. Nice! Speaking of nice - a lot of the fae encountered herein come with disturbing and playful, often unique abilities that really help drive home their alien nature -also in their often not necessarily violent interactions with the PCs.

And yes, games of wits and dealing with sluaghs are part of the deal - the latter trying to coup de grace you and steal your lower jaw... Lord Armillaria in the meanwhile has a counterproposal for the PCs, asking them to kill Ash to have him heal Philiandrius -whatever the PCs decide (and provided they don't fall prey to the creature the chant warned about...), they'll get the appropriate emergence, allying them with a court. With the mage's injuries healed, the PCs have to race to Iria and prepare the town for the waves of Fomoire about to come crashing down on the little town.

Now here, I do have a nitpick - the preparations are problematic - using caltrops nets you a +1 to hit? That's not how caltrops work...and most of the benefits listed here DO NJOT conform to how such things are handled in PFRPG - concealment/cover etc. are also non-standard...and at times nonsensical: Why do archers on the roof get +2 to hit, whereas slingers on teh same roof get +2 to AC instead? Unfortunately, almost all of the preparation tactical advantages for the finale suffer from these glitches -here a new consulting of the respective rules would have helped. Other than that, the finale is rather challenging - or would be sans Philiandrius. The elf is simply too strong - circle of death, fireball, wall of fire - in direct comparison, the Formoire almost could evoke pity. This guy doesn't require the PCs to help in the finale. While the module has him take care of the majority of the hostile force, with the PCs guarding the villagers, this still feels somewhat anticlimactic - having the big bad elven wizard around the corner to step in to save you just doesn't feel that heroic to me. A DM should take great care to avoid stealing the show of the PCs...

The appendices contain the stats and portraits of the key NPCs, the town's statblock, aforementioned supplemental rules, various, lavishly detailed magic items (that really feel magical!), with one class even scaling throughout the levels, 10 new creatures found in the module, 4 pregens (all with original pieces of art) and a final page, on which short primers of NPCs alongside their pictures can be handed out to players - nice!

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are very good, though not perfect - while I didn't notice grievous glitches, some minor formatting glitches can be found. Layout adheres to an easy to read two column standard in full color, with key rules-information usually bolded for extra convenience and internal hyperlinking to e.g. the storytelling game depicted in the appendix. The pdf comes fully bookmarked with copious, nested bookmarks for maximum convenience. The artwork provided in here deserves special mentioning - all beautiful full-color and original, the individual pieces go well together and help evoke the sense of antiquity the module strives for. The maps are nice as well...but not particularly functional - one encounter map with fight-influencing terrain, for example, could have really used a large, player-friendly version - which holds true for all maps herein, really: Player-friendly maps in the appendix to print out and slowly uncover as the players progress would have imho helped - especially since per se, the maps are neat!

I did not expect to like this module. Yet *ANOTHER* setting? Oh, and with fey? Yeah, I've seen a lot of those - and excellent ones at that. If the frame of reference you compete against is "Courts of the Shadow Fey", you have a herculean task indeed. And guess what - author William Moomaw actually does a splendid job! Showing a distinct understanding for folklore, for what makes fey tick, this module reminded me of "Tales of the Old Margreve" in all the right ways, while still offering a superbly written, exciting, alien module, suffused with Celtic/Gaelic influences that seem to dominate the setting, lending itself not only to a sense of antiquity, but also to a surprisingly fresh take on fantasy module writing.

To give you a point of reference - this module actually has me stoked to learn more about the setting, with folklore, mini-games and emergences making for great cues of the things to come. Furthermore, the writing of both monsters and magic items also drive home a working knowledge of how to craft magic that actually feels magical.

Is this perfect? No, as a freshman offering, it's lack of player-friendly maps can be somewhat excused, though it still acts somewhat detrimental in my book. The second weakness would be the somewhat anticlimactic finale of the module and its rules-glitches, which, while not breaking the module, act as further detriments. Now don't be fooled - this still is a) one DAMN IMPRESSIVE freshman offering with more professional quality than many modules I've read and b) still a mostly awesome module, on I can wholeheartedly recommend. I'm already stoked to see the next module and if Mór Games continues to improve, we'll be seeing some 5 star+seal ratings - due to the aforementioned accumulated minor issues, though, I can't go any higher than 4 stars on this one. Still, if you like old world-style modules, fey or are looking for fluff that's not your run-of-the-mill fantasy, then be sure to check this out - it's one fine module.

Endzeitgeist out.

Full disclosure regarding this review: I participated in the kickstarter and in one play test for this module. I am a friend with the author, Will Moomaw. That being said I received no compensation of any kind to write this review and am doing my best to remain impartial.

The Feast Hall of Ash is the initial offering of newly founded indie game publisher Mor Games and is the first part of the Plight of the Tuatha Adventure Path. The module is compatible with the Pathfinder rules set and is written in their typical fashion; if you're familiar with they way they do thing you won't be surprised here. It could also be modified to be run in any D&D-esque system out on the market pretty easily.

The first thing that really pops when looking at the module is the production quality. The physical book was made through a print-on-demand printer, but doesn't suffer for it. There's none of the poor printing quality or layout issues that tend to plague indie POD printers. The art is also excellent. There's no cheap DeviantArt anime tracing or crappy author drawn images. Its clear that a large amount was spent on the art budget and it shows. Full color illustrations throughout, as well as some great looking cover art. I only looked through the physical book, so I'm not sure how the PDF holds up or how well its bookmarked.

The module itself is interesting in that you see its Celtic roots rather than the typical Scandinavian Lord of the Rings inspired fantasy. I was very pleased when I found that this wasn't another initial adventure thats bogged down by your standard fantasy tropes with the PC's going off to kill more giant rats and goblins. Technically, this isn't wholly true: the backdrop for the adventure is that the PC's have been captured by "not-orcs" and need to save the nearby town from their impending raid. Pretty typical, but very little of the actual adventure has to do with this. In order to enlist some additional help the PC's interact with the local Fae and end up helping with getting a feast hall back for a local dryad. The Fae are really the main protagonist here and I liked the breath of fresh air. There's a lot of new, interesting fairy creatures, some awesome undead jawless druids, and an interesting take of lycanthropy.

The magic items in the module are also unique. There's no +1 swords just laying around; each item has a history and a context within the society at large. The items all have flavor to them too which make them really stand out as something more than just a mechanical benefit. My favorite is the Cloak of the Autumn Court; it can be throw to extinguish lights, but smells faintly of charred wood and is recognizable as the Cloak by other Fae.

I also liked that are a lot of options that exist outside of combat to earn xp. Make a knowledge check and you learn something cool about the world and get 100 xp. There's a storytelling mini-game that rewards players for taking a perform skill or otherwise thinking outside the box (although it is unfortunate to note that none of the pregenerated characters have any perform skills).

The main thing I didn't like about the module was the low quality of the maps. Not the images themselves, they're pretty good; its fact that they take up so much space and provide so little information. At one point there a map that takes up 2/3 of a page and its just a tree, a cart, and a path. There is a moonlight mechanic that interesting (you're fighting a werebear at the time), but could have been handled better with a rolling mechanic instead. Similarly the feast hall itself looks like a giant symbol of some kind and it is helpful to see it, but since the path that the PC's follow is pretty linear it seems more like an old text based adventure than anything else. This is personally disappointing since one of the main reason I buy modules is because I hate drawing my own maps and would prefer to have the author do that work for me. Hopefully future modules will improve on this.

Overall the module does most of what I personally want out of a module (a mine for good gameable ideas, mechanics and interesting magic items) and is a good quality book, especially for something published through a Print On Demand publisher.