and the end result is kind of an incoherent mess. An admirable attempt was made to make it all make sense, but it's really just a bunch of strange rooms strung together for no real reason. I wish I'd put my money elsewhere.

Set in Varisia, the home of Paizo's original material, this adventure concerns long-lost swords which once belonged to the Runelords who ruled the Empire of Thassilon. Knowing that if they themselves quarrelled it would bring widescale destruction to the land, these wizards each created a sword embued with a faint trace of their power, and when they had a difference of opinion the swords were entrusted to champions who'd fight to the death to decide the matter. But that was long ago and few people even know of the swords, let alone know where they are now... or do they?

The characters are hired by the Church of Abadar, who apparently used to possess the Sword of Lust but it has been stolen and they want it back. Worse, they have heard rumours that someone is trying to collect all seven swords, each named after one of the seven deadly sins. To undertake this task, they need to travel to a town that's a haven for all the worst folk, thieves and cutthroats and even more unpleasant people, where the person thought responsible for the theft lives. Once there, asking around should eventually lead them to the underground lair of the thief - and what follows is a good dungeon-delve, with plenty of traps to keep the party on their toes.

You either love or hate puzzle/trap dungeons, and if you and your players enjoy them this is an excellent one with a whole raft of intriging and puzzling rooms to investigate and survive. It might make a good one-night stand, something outwith your normal campaign, and if you choose that option there are 4 pre-generated characters provided to allow you to jump straight in.

Overall, it is an interesting and well-constructed delve and certainly from this side of the DM's screen it holds together fairly coherently, although I think that it might appear a random succession of rooms to the characters. Good entertainment!

The module lacks in flavor. It is themed / linked to RotR yet the connections are few and far between. It soon becomes apparent the "logic" or "ecology" behind the dungeon is quite artificial. The maps were not sensational and the traps not particularly clever. Overall the worst Pathfinder Module so far.

One star.

This adventure is basically a series of traps and monsters strung together with a fairly flimsy pretense for existing. Not to say such a thing is inherently bad; rather, this adventure doesn't present a story so much as a giant meat grinder. In the context of a series of loosely connected dungeon chambers, the module certainly succeeds, with memorable, fresh, and well constructed encounters and environments. However, I'm more likely to use these rooms piecemeal, or run the whole thing as a one-shot, than I am to insert this adventure in an ongoing campaign.

The city in which the module is set is very cool flavor-wise, but the module is a little too sparse on detail to really use the city for anything more than a lead-in. A stronger map of the city would have been especially helpful.

Overall, this is a fair offering, and worth having if you have a subscription, skip if you buy piecemeal. Bump the rating up a star if you are in the mood for an old-school dungeon crawl. (***--)

Yes, this is mainly a dungeon, and it started as a delve. It's the "D" series, as in "Dungeons", after all!

The flavor is excellent, the dungeon deadly with an old-school feel on several levels, among which the sci-fi undertones and the rooms with each specific traps/problematics to be solved.

This is a good dungeon crawl. You might not appreciate if you want to purchase a "story". If you are an old-schooler, you can invest with confidence: you'll find the module well designed.

Set in Varisia, the home of Paizo's original material, this adventure concerns long-lost swords which once belonged to the Runelords who ruled the Empire of Thassilon. Knowing that if they themselves quarrelled it would bring widescale destruction to the land, these wizards each created a sword embued with a faint trace of their power, and when they had a difference of opinion the swords were entrusted to champions who'd fight to the death to decide the matter. But that was long ago and few people even know of the swords, let alone know where they are now... or do they?

The characters are hired by the Church of Abadar, who apparently used to possess the Sword of Lust but it has been stolen and they want it back. Worse, they have heard rumours that someone is trying to collect all seven swords, each named after one of the seven deadly sins. To undertake this task, they need to travel to a town that's a haven for all the worst folk, thieves and cutthroats and even more unpleasant people, where the person thought responsible for the theft lives. Once there, asking around should eventually lead them to the underground lair of the thief - and what follows is a good dungeon-delve, with plenty of traps to keep the party on their toes.

You either love or hate puzzle/trap dungeons, and if you and your players enjoy them this is an excellent one with a whole raft of intriging and puzzling rooms to investigate and survive. It might make a good one-night stand, something outwith your normal campaign, and if you choose that option there are 4 pre-generated characters provided to allow you to jump straight in.

Overall, it is an interesting and well-constructed delve and certainly from this side of the DM's screen it holds together fairly coherently, although I think that it might appear a random succession of rooms to the characters. Good entertainment!

This "module" is full of interesting rooms - but I put module in quotes for a reason. This so obviously started as a delve. The rooms really have no bearing to each other. It is very apparent most of the rooms were developed separately. As a delve, this is a death trap dungeon and not suitable for use in an ongoing campaign unless you want to end it with a TPK. A good number of rooms also have a strong SciFi theme which many will not like in their fantasy.

I like the background of the city the dungeon is set in. I like the story idea. I like the BBEG. I am actually using this in my campaign but I cut most of the dungeon only using rooms 1-4, 13 for the first level - using 9 to guard an alternative way into 1. I cut out the second level all together and connected 4 to 25. I’m using 25, with 25 connected to 28, 30. Room 28 connected to 31, 32, 33, 35, 36. The battle with the BBEG is going to be tough but fair for my five man party of 8-9th level characters.

This was called a “D” for Dungeon module - but that is the weakest part of the adventure with me only using 14 of 36 areas. If 4th Edition was not coming out fairly soon I would probably get some use out of the rooms I cut out because many are interesting and could be BBEG encounters or lead ins in their own right – which should tell you how lethal this dungeon is for its 7th level character design. If you do want to run it, as is – Paizo has included a set of pregen characters – I doubt they would make it much past a few rooms on the second level unless they were very clever or lucky. I'd give this a 2 except some rooms are really well done as is the BBEG, adventure background and setting.

Though this adventure far too clearly started its life as a delve, I don't think it suffers too much for that fact. I would not run regular characters through this adventure as part of a campaign (unless I wanted to sleep on the couch for a month), but as a one shot adventure, I think the Seven Swords of Sin could find its place with other equally Gygaxian constructions... making itself, perhaps someday in the future, a 3.5 compatible modern Tomb of Horrors (yes, the traps ARE that deadly).

The artwork exceeds the already high expectations I have for Paizo products, and the rooms have a sci-fi/fantasy mixture that reminds me of the old days of D&D, when an occasional anachronistic piece of arcane science had an almost expected quality to it. Deadly and whimsical at the same time, this adventure almost makes the inevitable deaths worth it.

Absolutely perfect for a single day marathon delve, but avoid it in your campaign unless you have a well-established penchant for killing characters already. Excellent work used in the right capacity, but it loses a star for only being useful as a one-shot.

This is a good one night game as the PCs will likely die. Plus the why it is laid out is is relatively easy to use it without preparing before hand. A nice module if you looking for a quick and easy game.

James L. Sutter did an admirable job piecing the various rooms made by the Paizo staff into an almost coherent dungeon. However, that said, this is far too much deathtrap dungeon for me. While this may be fun at a convention, as a "who dares to test their mettle on this...". It just isn't much use for me in a regular campaign. Maybe I can use it as a oneshot, or pick the neat parts and reuse elsewhere. Hmmm.
As someone else pointed out, the artwork is gorgeous!