While it has been rumored for many years that the centaurs were one of the earliest inhabitants of the area around Mor Aldenn, there has never been any definitive evidence presented to give this legend any credence. In the Ossindrillon forest just west of the road to Ossindil, such evidence awaits discovery.
Elven settlements are known to have existed in the forests and marshland around Mor Aldenn for centuries before the founding. Every so often rumors arise of the lost traveler who stumbled upon some great monument or ruined structure from a previous age in the wilds outside of the city. Many an adventurer has begun their career searching for these ruins with visions of long-abandoned treasures just waiting to be plundered in their heads. Unfortunately the reality is that most of the stories turn out to be completely unsubstantiated or, at best, a huge disappointment when all that is found is a few toppled standing stones where one had envisioned discovering long lost temples full of hidden riches.
11 pages, written by Scott Moore, artwork by Bruno Balixa and Justin Hernandez. Cartography by Tom Fayan.
Product Availability
Fulfilled immediately.
Are there errors or omissions in this product information? Got corrections? Let us know at
store@paizo.com.
This free web-enhancement to the city of mages is 11 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page advertisement, 1 page SRD and 1/2 page editorial, leaving 7 1/2 pages of content, so let's check this one out!
This being an adventure-review, the following contains SPOILERS. Potential players, please jump to the conclusion.
Still here? This latest little supplement from Headless Hydra Games features essentially a mini-dungeon, the ominous ruins. Legends of a breed of elven giants and a legendary centaur-civilization in the primal woods of Ossindrillion abound and these little ruins actually represent the true ruins that may prove or disprove the validity of the thesis. The part of the ruins that is detailed herein is above ground, 3 levels long, provides 15 rooms/locations and turns out to be challenging - rust monsters, invisible stalkers, army ant swarms and worse have made the place their home. The best part about the ruin-exploration, though, at least in my opinion, is how languages and deciphering ancient scripts is made a rather intriguing, complex task that can actually bring excitement to the game. While here, it is via skill checks, I look forward to seeing Headless Hydra Games come up with more complex rules, as announced on their blog.
The potential to actually decipher the ancient script in the ruins (potentially even IRL would be a great idea for a longer adventure, perhaps even with glyphs or a full cipher...) enhances the excitement of finding ancient scripts can add a sense of wonder to an exploration, that, while certainly not bad, would otherwise not be half as intriguing. Once the PCs have found their prize, perhaps a map of ancient magical gates, the short sojourn ends, leaving us wanting more and opening some neat options and hooks for the DM to develop.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are top-notch, I didn't notice any glitches. Layout adheres to a full color, beautiful version of the HHG-layout and the two pieces of b/w-artworks and 2 pages of b/w-maps are of a higher quality than one would expect from any free pdf. The pdf does not come with bookmarks, but at this length, that's ok. The content and writing of this mini-adventure/location are very good and concise, though not as enticing as in Gallery of Dreams. Nevertheless, The Ruins is well worth the space on your HD and giving this away for free makes getting this pdf essentially a no-brainer: A neat little location, some fun with linguistics and coherent enemies make this a 5 star-pdf.
This is the third and last freebie to celebrate the 'newly' released Mor Aldenn Setting Guide! It presents a ruin of a pyramid outside Mor Aldenn... the last remnants of a lost civilization.
Enjoy... and if you do, please check out the Mor Aldenn Setting Guide as well.
I might just be missing it, but what level(s) is this for? I didn't see anything in the write up above or in the mini adventure itself, which seemed odd.
The highest EL is 7, so I'd suggest a low-level party, perhaps second or third level. If you're a sadist like me, you could throw this at 1st level cars and watch them suffer and struggle for survival. ^^
Well, this wasn't really written as an adventure, more like an adventure location, but seeing as it is really short (and free) I hope you'll forgive us Marc and make your own decision on this :)
Well, this wasn't really written as an adventure, more like an adventure location, but seeing as it is really short (and free) I hope you'll forgive us Marc and make your own decision on this :)
So my question involves the loot at the end of the adventure, its complicated by the fact i have allowed one of my characters to be a centaur. The adventure works great for the plot with his character but im not sure what to do about the armor loot. its half a chain shirt half chain mail, what should i rule it as? and what should i play it as in comparison to his mithril chain shirt he has?
I think it is written like that to make the armor useful to characters who play centaurs and characters who play regular races. For a centaur this is a chainmail +2 and for another race, this is a chainshirt +2. Also, if a character wants to use part of it as barding for his horse, he can, but it costs a little to make it a complete set.
Compared to a mithril chainshirt, I'll take the +2 chainmail, unless I was playing a spellcaster, of course, or had a +6 dex bonus to AC.
