Interludes: Brief Expeditions to Bluffside A D20 System adventure from Thunderhead Games Rating: (2 out of 5 hearts) by Jean-Michel

This is a review of a module, don't read it if you think you'll be a player in it.

The title of this module is pretty misleading. This is a single adventure, not multiple expeditions, and it doesn't take the PCs to Bluffside. Bluffside is a city around which Thunderhead Games' setting revolves. Although most of the artwork looks good, the maps did not come out well in print (when compared to the colour versions posted on their website). The module is meant for 2nd level characters and requires good aligned PCs, determined to become heroes, or else there will be motivational problems.

Here are the big lines and plots. A group of bandits ply their trade on a road north of Kirkwood village, where the module starts. The bandits' leader was sick and did not get in touch with them as planned, so the bandits assume that their leader was captured. They organise a raid on a nearby farm to divert the attention from an escape attempt at the town's prison. They try to make it seem as if a neighbouring tribe of goblins are responsible for the raid by planting evidence and making false goblin trails. A guy responsible for extra diversion gets captured by the real goblins. By now the PCs are involved and follow the false trails to the ruins of a Holy Grove, where the goblins live. The DM has to pull the play towards negotiation rather than combat, and eventually the matter is set straight. A goblin accompanies the PCs back to Kirkwood village, bringing with them the prisoner (the one in charge of planting more false evidence), with further proof that the bandits are the real culprits and that the goblins are innocent. The PCs then go and rescue the kidnapped family from their fate of slavery.

The technical organisation of the module is commendable. Most encounters include modifications for a stronger or weaker party. Every time a check is required from the PCs, boxed text containing the type of check and the DC indicates it.

Only half of this 63 page book is the actual adventure, the rest includes a big section on all the NPCs, two new feats, two new spells, some magic items and two prestige classes. All of the NPCs, including townsfolk from Kirkwood and almost every single goblin are described and given at least a paragraph of background text.

The second and most detailed part of the adventure is devoted to the exploration of the goblin's lair in an old temple. It describes the goblin's lair and how to fight them. The goblins and the rakers (a new kind of goblin) are evidently powerful enough to beat a 2nd or 3rd level party. A note at the end of this section explains that the party will accomplish nothing if it does not negotiate with the goblins. It seems to me that a lot of effort is deployed to reach such a predetermined conclusion.

The synopsis of the adventure does not contain all the important information of the plot, which is dispersed throughout the book, with some gaps. The reasons for some of the antagonists' actions are a bit sketchy.

The new material isn't very remarkable. The prestige classes probably won't attract many partisans and the new monsters are mostly animals.

Although this module has enough flaws to keep it a step short of the three hearts I give to a solid adventure module, it has some good qualities, especially the amount of detail given to each location and the efficient organisation that makes it suitable for novice DMs. The village of Kirkwood and its inhabitants are very well detailed and provide a DM with a lot of material.

New Prestige Classes: Blood Guardian, Sisterhood of Mercy

New Monsters: Arbor Fish, Bhagaista, Giant Tree Slug, Ice Flower, Lynx, Mule Deer, Nevaequariani, Raker, Ripper, Shadow Lynx, Snow Leopard, Snow Racer, Thorn Faerie

New Spells: Agony of Deceit, Remove Exposure

New Feats: Armored Caster, Sixth Sense

New Magical Items: Cloak of Elemental Endurance, Everfull Waterskin, Cursed Fetish, Fetish of Canine Control, Fetish of Disease, Fetish of Warding, Spell Fetish, Font of the Wisdom of Ages, Reading Glasses, Synthia's Quarterstaff of the Traveller


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