paizo.com - Blood Runs Cold (OGL) PDF

Blood Runs Cold is a D20 system adventure for four to six characters of 10th-12th level. The party should contain a mix of classes, with at least one fighter and one mage. The setting for the module is in and around the generic town of Rivenwater. A good Referee can easily adapt it to any setting or plunk Rivenwater into an area in their campaign. Blood Runs Cold is a classic adventure featuring five new monsters, players handouts, a battlemap and gorgeous maps.This adventure is penned by Chad MacPhee and Greg Oppedisano, authors of "The Jackal's Redemption" appeared on Dungeon #95.

Many generations ago the land that is now the Blackened Fen was actually the thriving and warlike city-state of Shyyth. Populated by a race of evil humans knows as Annelids, Shyyth was a religious center of dark renown where the Annelids held sacrifice to their vile god Hirudinea. The Annelids worshipped the Drinker of Life, Lord of Slime and Leeches. They tattooed their bodies in leech-like patterns of mud brown and deep ochre and drank the blood of their enemies. As penance their priests would attach leeches to the exposed parts of their bodies, always feeding their essence to the Drinker in return for His granted powers.

The module includes beutiful artwork by Daniele Bigliardo, many maps depicting various locations and a bonus battlemap (the Captain's Cabin aboard of the Cottonmouth, the slave ship) You can expand this adventure with Battlemaps, Slave Ship which contains all slave ship's battlemaps plus the complete floorplans.

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Presented in the lush 'stone effect' format familar to readers of 0one Games's Master Adventures series, this adventure is partnered with a entry in the Battlemaps series that provides a whole ship, although the bits you'll actually need are provided within the senario itself.

Aimed at 10th-12th level characters, it is set in a fairly generic riverside port town called Rivenwater, which has the right amount of detail to be usable without much effort and yet capable of being dropped into a suitable location in your campaign world. The background to the adventure gives a run-down on events in the distant past which have a bearing on the threat which has re-arisen and places every inhabitant of Rivenwater at risk. Like many adventures, the DM will need to find a reason to put the characters in the town to start things rolling (a few basic suggestions are given), but once they are there, they'll be swept straight into the action by the initial encounter.

While the whole thing is very atmospheric, and it feels like the town and its inhabitants will carry on with their daily lives irrespective of the characters' presence, the adventure itself is quite straightforward, and suited to the party that likes a good fight or two rather than those who want to interact with their surroundings in a more peaceful way. However, if combat - and combat against strange and exotic foes - is what you like out of an adventure, then this one is well worth consideration. You get to skirmish on shore, in the river, on a boat, through a swamp and finally... well, you'll see when you get there! Should you be victorious, you really will have saved the locals from a fate worse than death.

Maps and handouts are beautifully presented, as is the adventure itself. Overall, a well-written and presented combat-oriented adventure that should keep a party of adventurers on their toes.