This adventure, for 1st-level characters, begins with a chance encounter when travelling through a fairly remote forest. While it involves an inn, and even a brawl in the tap room, it has a proper storyline rather than a mere fight for the sake of it. The characters will be sucked swiftly into ongoing events, whether they like it or not, but there is a good sense that things will be happening here even if the characters cut and run rather than participate. It's stated that the adventure is located within the Pathfinder Campaign Setting, but it can be placed anywhere you like as a good campaign starter - although it does assume that the party are already together: introducing them to each other as well to the first few events could be taxing.

Despite being a fairly simple hunt through the forest for some treasures with a few encounters with forest monsters, creatures and a rival band of treasure-seekers, everything is well-developed and clearly presented... and could serve as an introductory adventure for a novice DM, or indeed to introduce new players to the game. Each NPC is well-described and individual, not just someone to attack and rob!

Naturally, locations are mapped and items described within the book, but for full effect several other Paizo products can be used - as the woodland locations are featured in their Flip-map: Woodlands, the two inns you'll visit are to be found in Map Pack: Inns and the special items you hopefully will find are included in The Rise of the Runelords Item Cards set. The first two are of particular use if you use miniatures for combat, while the cards are a handy way of showing players what their characters have found and can even be handed out to indicate ownership!

Overall, a straightforward adventure but exceedingly well done and presented - especially if you have the accessories mentioned (they are available supplied together as a set with this adventure or can be purchased separately).

This is a solid module involving an enjoyable romp through the forest. It has the usual high production qualities of all Paizo’s products, full colour, quality editing, and good artwork. But the module underlying it all is just workmanlike. There is nothing particularly wrong with it; it just lacks the spark, the zing, the pizzazz that is the hallmark of most Paizo products. It is disappointing in this case because the module definitely has the potential to be something special.

After the obligatory introductory encounters (involving a bar fight, some missing loot, and a busted work of art), the PCs are tasked to track down the Panoply of Narven. 5 items of renown, the regalia carried into battle by the last forest king, and supposedly imbued with the elements of nature. And when they finally find them? Disappointment.

What should be 5 interesting, evocative, creative wondrous items that ooze flavour and history with a strong connection to the various elements are instead 5 bland, generic, ordinary objects. None of them are actually wondrous items, 2 of them aren’t even magical, one of them is actually a scroll, and for items representing the elements of nature, why are 3 of the 5 related to fire?

The final battle provides the party a nice climax to the adventure, as well as providing the DM with the opportunity to control the challenge of the encounter that makes perfect sense both in and out of game. I ran this with the FlipMat: Woodland, and while they worked very well together, in places the module does feel constrained aby the need to explicitly incorporate the various Gamesmaster items.

Overall, this is a solid, serviceable module that doesn’t have any glaring flaws (mechanical, plot or otherwise). However, while that may be good enough for some companies, I have come to expect more from Paizo than just competent, and there is nothing in this module that really makes it stand out. A disappointing module, but serviceably disappointing.

This made an awesome game. Both in role-playing and roll-playing. The adventure starts out slow and build perfectly to climatic end. I would highly suggest this as a good one-shot campaign or as a starting module for future sessions.

The world can always use another good 1st level "kick off" adventure. The art and production values are top notch, as we have come to expect from Paizo, and the author even mixes in some good old fashioned detective work.

So what's the problem? Well, the set up for this adventure is a total railroad. While I understand that this criticism can be leveled against most adventures, especially ones of the low-level variety, there are *way* too many places to come off the rails here.

Assuming you manage to stay on the track, things turn into a solid low-level wilderness romp, with cool, varied encounters. I didn't see any glaring stat-block errors on the first read-through, and I really liked the flavor text, names, etc.

Another nipick, more related to the integration of the various TC products than to the adventure itself: A few of the related products feel a bit shoe-horned in (for example, the inn is two stories, but the map pack depicts a single-story inn). The adventure does point out this discrepancy, and I get that most people will buy this as part of the treasure chest. Just read carefully lest you make bad assumptions based on the map tiles, etc. that end up not matching the text.

Undoubtedly well worth the $5 price, but not up to Paizo's normal standard. In any event, D0 is a much stronger choice. (***--)