This adventure published
by MonkeyGod Enterprises is suitable for a party of 3rd or 4th level characters.
The module is divided in three parts, the first two can be played in any order.
It is mostly a combat oriented crawl in multiple sites with a mystery to solve.
Here's the story. A tribe of hobgoblins has decided to take back the land that humans have beaten them out of. Thanks to the clever subterfuge of their sorcerer leader, the hobgoblins use drow, grimlocks and orcs to attack the province's capital from under. To control the drows, the hobgoblins masquerade as Mind Flayers. They do this by manufacturing masks out of squids. The hobgoblins gather squids by dumping huge doses of poison on the seashore and gathering the squids as they wash up dead on the shore.
The squids are not the only victims of the poison, of course, and a tribe of Sahuagins are suffering heavily. They blame a nearby coastal human city for their trouble and are retaliating by sinking fishing ships. The PCs are asked to figure out what is happening to the ships. The adventure takes them in the Sahuagin's seashore cave. After killing some of them they find out that the Sahuagin are simply retaliating for what they think is an attack from the humans. The PCs find some hints that will help them figure out who is really behind the poisoning.
The second part of the adventure takes place in the capital of the province of Thessalaine. The city is being attacked by orcs, drows and grimlocks during the night. The commercial areas are heavily targeted and the economy of the capital is starting to suffer. The duke asks the PCs to do something about the elusive attackers against which his militia seems to be powerless. The PCs can use different methods to discover the enemy's lair. Once they find the lair they infiltrate it and fight orcs, grimlocks, drows and drow clerics. They will find clues that when added to the ones found in the first part will give them a better, if inaccurate, idea of what is happening in the area. They will also know where to take the fight if they want to exterminate the menace over the province and rescue the citizens of the capital that were taken as slaves. At that point the PCs, like the drow, still believe they are dealing with real Mind Flayers.
The third part takes the PCs in the mountains where they are going to attack the enemy's home base. This is where they'll find out that the Mind Flayers are actually disguised hobgoblins using sorcery. They'll have to fight more drows and can eventually kill the leaders of the hobgoblins, a sorcerer, a rogue and two fighters. They rescue the slaves who were working under the effect of charm person spells.
This is a well done module that will be easy for DMs to run. The maps of the sites the PCs will attack are very well done and the combat strategies of the enemies are dynamic and well laid out. The art work provides evocative imagery for the story.
