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This is the fourth module in the Splinters of Faith adventure path series from Frog God Games. As with the others in the series, you can play these standalone or link them all together to form a more unified story arc. Thus far they have all been strong standalone adventures with the adventure path a bit tacked on. Something like: “You need the blessing of the temple of Foo. After journeying there they need you to retrieve the McGuffin before they will bless you scepter.” Like I said, tacked on. However, the adventures themselves have all been strong through the first three.

In the second and third module in the series there was a brief description of a temple and this one is no different. While the previous temple descriptions have been a bit bland, not so this one. What we have here is a temple full of pacifist hippie priests who define the term “flower child.” Being pacifists with a “the hippy god will provide” attitude, it turns out that the party is in the perfect position to help them, since presumably the PCs have not all taken Vows of Peace … uh … especially since this is a Swords & Wizardry module and not a 3E module …  Anyway, the temple complex is a delight, overgrown with flowers & greenery on a mesa in a green green valley. The hippy priests are a delight to interact with and have a refreshing attitude & character for module priests which reminds me quite a bit more of what happens in home games, rather than the staid old stuff we typically get in publisher materials. In one portion of the temple there are some evil plants. The priests aren’t happy about the situation, but they believe they have as much right to life as anything else …  Most of the priests walk around in a daze, and they meet their adversaries with a pacifist stance. Pure Gold. If a GM can’t work with this then they should probably switch to video games.

The adventure proper, once the PCs get through dealing with the excellent role-play opportunities in the temple, deals with finding some holy oil the party needs. It seems the last high priestess killed her husband and flung herself off a high cliff … and she had the oil with her. And no one could find her body at the base of the cliff. And search parties have not returned. And there are random screams of pain coming from the valley below … But … the Dude Abides, and in this case the PCs seem to be hippy sent to provide just the help the hippy priests need. Off they go to the valley floor to find out what is happening and retrieve the oil! I won’t spoil what is happening below, but I will say that the trick/trap quotient is a little low on this module, as compared to others in the series. There are several factions, but the villains left me a bit luke-warm. I did enjoy the various factions though. The final leader is a bit of a let-down, but with some foreshadowing and build-up then even that could be fixed up. The wandering monster charts in this series have been pretty good so far, but this one is less diverse than the others. It has a list of creature encounters but noting very off the wall like the previous entries had, which is a little sad.

Unlike the last two, the temple area of this module is a very strong & interesting setting, and unlike the previous two the actual adventure portion of this one is a little lacking. It’s not a disaster, but it’s nothing very special either. It does has it moments, mostly coming from interactions with the despoiled garden of eden the adventure takes place in, however the villains and their machinations are a little blunt and too much to the point in this entry. In the end, I’d describe it as a solid module with a few high points.

This is $5 at DriveThru.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/86764/Splinters-of-Faith-4-Swords-and-Wizardry-Edition?affiliate_id=1892600

This is the third in the Frog God Games Splinters of Faith adventure path. Each module appears to have a strong stand-alone elements to it, with a small tie-in to the overall adventure path. This one is no different. In it’s 24 pages we get about eleven pages of actual adventure detailed about 42 locations. In addition we get about four pages detailing the city in which the adventure is set and about another four detailing the temple complex. The cover is the same as the other 9 modules in the series, and the back cover blurb is about two sentences long. Frog God does themselves a disservice with this: so far this series has delivered very well and just seems to be getting better and better.

The city proper is only very briefly described and the locations detailed all relate in some way or another to the adventure that appears further on in the module. There’s not really enough information here to make the city a detailed environment for adventure, and only a brief description is given for the ‘flavor’ of the city. IE: Generic fantasy city. The locations that ARE described are well done, as are the two major factions. Thus you get exactly enough detail to bring that aspect of the city to life enough to run the adventure. The city feels like a bolt-on, but what IS presented is what you nee to run the adventure, so I don’t think I can complain too much. Well, no, I can complain a lot but it may not be justified. Similarly we get a four page description of the temple which the party needs to visit for the adventure path portion. The backstory is interesting (Lessons Learned: Don’t worship the god of Luck) and again, enough of the temple is described that the party can interact with it’s elements prior to setting for on the core of the adventure. Turns out the priestess won’t do what the party wants for the adventure path unless they help her with a little Necromancer problems she’s having …

The core of the adventure is a journey through the sewers. Wait! Stop! Don’t close your browser. Yes, I know, “sewer adventure” ranks right up there at the top of ‘cliched adventure ideas.’I LOATHE them and seeing one in this set my teeth on edge. Maybe it’s filled with kobolds too! Or maybe goblins! Yeah! Well, no, that’s not what’s going on. There _is_ a lot of dreck with sewer adventure portions out in retail-land however this one is rather well done. For example, on the wanderers table the party meets a house cat in the sewers who is running down the tunnel mewing like crazy. Turns out it’s got some green slime on it. How many animal loving PC’s did THAT one just get? As with the other modules in this series, the Wanderers table is not all enemies and most of the encounters actually have some plausible reason for being in the sewers. The encounter areas in the sewers are well done also; they are briefly described and yet interesting and plausible. For example, the sections of the sewers under the slaughterhouses are filled with blood & gore, with some of it hanging from the gates in the ceiling as the floors above are cleaned. Reveling in this gore is a group of ghasts/ghouls, and a blood golem thing lurks in a different part of this area. Not just your usual “ghouls in the sewers”; they have a reason for being there. This sort of detail really helps bring the module to life.

This is a good time to talk about the sewer map. Essentially, I think it sucks … but I may be wrong. It’s basically a long sewer tunnel with a few twists in it. Side branching corridors lead to different encounter areas, each of which has some sort of theme. IE: This section is under the slaughterhouses, or, this section is controlled by wererats. A smart party will avoid all of the side branches and head sPeter Pan like straight on till morning to find & defeat the Necromancer. So while the map _is_ pretty linear, the side branches _offer_ encounters but don’t _force_ encounters, which is a very good thing indeed.

In reviewing this I’m reminded of another adventure, from Dungeon magazine I believe. It was centered around a bunch of goblins in their cave. Ho hum, pretty boring. Except it wasn’t, it was very well put together and well worth playing. (I recall an earthquake in there which made the exit difficult.) That reminds me of this: an idea that has been badly done a hundred times in the past but is well done this time. And that, after all, is the point of a review: to guide you past the hundred examples of dreck and to that one certain sewer adventure that is worth checking out. This is that one. I can heartily recommend this one.

This is $5 at DriveThru.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/86762/Splinters-of-Faith-3-Swords-and-Wizardry-Edition?affiliate_id=1892600

Q3 – Death on Signal Island, is an OSRIC adventure for 4-6 characters of 2-4th level. It’s the third in the Pacesetter Quick Play series, designed to played in a single session or two. As such these tend to be brief affairs, and this is no exception. It’s 18 pages long with three pages of introduction, seven for the ten keyed encounters, and a page for the new monster and new magic item introduced. We get a full page for the map and another for a set of pre-gens. The rest is composed of the license, table of contents/credits, and two pages of ads.

The adventure revolves around the PC’s investigating why the fort on Signal Island has gone silent. It seems that the city keeps a guard on the island, located in the bay, and they haven’t been in contact for a bit.  Ought oh! The set up here is similar to Alien: why can’t you leave the haunted house? Because it’s an island you were dropped off on. The island is quite small and has no wanderers on it. There are two animals on the island, some Sahuagin, and some smugglers. Finally, you get some Lacedons and the big bad guy monster himself. Not a lot going on; just ten keyed encounters over seven pages and none of those really stand out as interesting at all. Smugglers & Sahuagin may be the most overused monsters ever in coastal adventures; I groan now when I see them in print. A snake dropping out of a tree and a trapdoor spider do not a thrilling island adventure make.

I’m really at a kind of loss to describe this one any more. It’s short, but then again the first two in this series were short also, and Steading of the Hill Giants was what, 8 pages long? Unlike the first two in this series there’s just nothing of interest going on. It could be that this is a symptom of the size and the type of adventure. While Q1 was location based and Q2 was location based and had a strong hook, Q3 is more of a wilderness adventure, without wandering monsters or a survival challenge, and no strong overall tie to mesh the various encounters in to a cohesive whole. There are some attempts to mix things together; you could solve a mystery by going everywhere and talking to everyone and hacking everything, but there’s no need to. It’s pretty obvious pretty quickly what’s going on, and once you hack it you’ve solved your problems.