I put aside Schreber (he's mad beyond words, that one) last week to speed through the latest module from WOTC. Like the review for the earlier module (H1, Keep on the Shadowfell) I'll be talking about the three major points: physical presentation, story line, and of course, the playability.

Physically, this is a near dead ringer for the previous module: it comes in a folder with two pockets. Included in these pockets are two pamphlets (adventure books 1 and 2, respectively) and a full-color, two-sided map, scaled for miniature play, of key areas within the adventure. The first book contains a general description of the story arc of the adventure along with details on the underground market area, personalities therein, and other miscellaneous bits (such as monsters used in the story, but not in the MM). The other booklet details the four discrete parts of the story line. Booklet 1 comes in at 31 pages, while the other is a relatively massive 64 pages. Both feature full-color images, maps, and the faux-parchment marginalia WOTC uses on its other D&D stuff.

First off, they used slightly heavier paper for the two adventure booklets. It's still a far cry from the paper TSR used to use for their modules, but it's a step in the right direction; the booklets are still fragile, but not as delicate as those in H1. For purposes of preservation, you might not have to xerox this thing in its entirety if you plan only to make only limited use of it. For extended usage, however, xeroxing may be the only way to keep it in one piece. The battle map is still on the classic H1 paper; I think mine is already giving away at the seams, and I've only opened it once. An honest to God battle mat might be the best solution, though if you have the resources, using the map in conjunction with a piece of plexi glass (or [gasp] real glass, if you're part of the toast-points and champagne set) will definitely save you some time drawing in the details.

Secondly, the lay out has some quibble points. The bird's-eye maps, like before, are buried in the text, and though specific encounter area descriptions are accompanied by immediate area maps (marked with monster positions), the latter have limited utility since action can easily bleed beyond the border forcing you to reference (again and again, likely) the fuller maps. Photo copying seems to be a likely answer.

Another gripe with the maps is the way they are keyed. WOTC still numbers each room, but they also number by encounter. Thus, encounter A1 might occur in rooms 1, 2, and 4, with nothing at all going on in room 3. At the beginning of each sub-adventure, a short index by room number appears, then a fuller description of each encounter by encounter number. Fine so far, it makes sense. Alas, WOTC is inconsistent in the way they mark the maps. So, for the map on p. 3 of booklet 2, you get room numbers in little boxes, and encounter numbers in circles. This works fine, but on the map p. 13 of the same, you only get room numbers even though the encounters often cover two or more rooms. The other maps suffer similar though not identical defects. The point here is that WOTC is still figuring out how to index their maps and descriptions, and that puzzles me to no end. Puzzled though I might be, this is a minor inconvenience and is easily remedied. Then again, the module costs $24.95 plus tax, and one would hope that for that price, they'd get their stuff squared away by the time they go to publication.

Yet another complaint is the simple fact that, because of the way they packaged the module, there has to be two booklets of nearly the same size. This bugs the crap right out of me because it means that no matter how much sense it makes to combine the info into one booklet (with the possibility of a much slimmer, separate booklet containing the maps), they can't do it because the two-pocket folder wouldn't be balanced, and the price stays in the stratosphere. Would it kill them to go back to the way TSR used to do modules? Or maybe figure out some other, less irritating way of packaging the material?

On the other hand, there is the story. The story is not great, but it's at least plausible. There are a few moving parts involved, and the DM will have to be very familiar with the material to make some of it work, but it's presentable. The real selling point is the setting.

The adventure takes place in an abandoned, under-ground minotaur city, the top level of which has been secured by a confederacy of wizards to function as a market. All of the components to the adventure happen within the city, though this only begins to scratch the surface of what else might be down there. This could truly be the gift that keeps giving, if one were willing to put in the time and work. What I really, really like about this is that this setting allows for an easy mix of combat and non-combat gaming. For instance, it wouldn't take much to toss a Cthulhu-esque adventure into the mix, or have market intrigue thrown in on the side. And I'm sure everyone is wondering about how an underground minotaur city deals with infrastructure problems. But you get the point.

Playability is high on this one. It ought to prove to be fun, though the person running the game should be prepared.

I've hinted at it above, but let me state it explicitly: running this adventure as a part of your game will require study, a bit of planning, and some work to fill in the holes. Even so, I think that this is the strongest item so far in the 4th edition fold, and even though it's a bit pricey it's probably going to be worth it ( )