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All images were taken from Mythic Oddyseys of Theros. Thumbnail image from the reviewed product’s cover

After being one of M.T. Black’s playtesters on the adventure (you can even find my name in there) I grabbed this adventure to review without a doubt. I had a really good experience running it and wanted to thank its creator by giving my personal opinion on it. I’ll do my best to avoid spoilers, but there may be some mild ones. YOU’VE BEEN WARNED!

In case you are planning to play this adventure or don’t want to have it spoiled, I’ll leave marks in bold and underlined so you can easily read the review while avoiding the spoilers.

GET THE ADVENTURE HERE

Art & Layout

To easily get it out of the way, we’ll start with the art & layout. As this adventure is intended for the Mythic Oddyseys of Theros setting, MT Black could use images out of the book for being a Guild Adept. All images are excellently selected and comfortably placed within the layout. This grants an easy read while also providing nice images to show to your players.

Story & Dungeon

Out of all the things in this adventure, it’s got to be the story behind it that I enjoy the most. Theros creates a mainframe that makes it particularly interesting to create stories revolving around its world. In fact, having the gods be so predominant in it makes it easier to create stories around your dungeons. MT Black did a fantastic job doing this. As you travel through the dungeon there is a story being told in each of the different rooms. As you may know from all the research I did on how to create a story through your dungeon, my belief is that doing that is what differentiates a great dungeon from a regular one. However, what I did find out by playing it is that giving all this information to players that are just playing a one-shot and not ever play Theros again may not be the best choice. The adventure is very much tied to the world and can be an excellent way to introduce players to it.  If you are not going to keep playing or the players are not interested in the gods’ lore then you may lose a big part of what makes the adventure great. Having it as a part of a longer running campaign seems like the best choice.

What about the dungeon and monsters? Even though this adventure is centered pretty much on one kind of foe, I was surprised to see the variety of monsters to fight. So that’s a thing not to worry about. You may even encounter some fun surprises! As regards the dungeon’s rooms and purpose, I had some opinions on the playtest that changed a bit upon rereading it involving one of the rooms. I can now comprehend why it’s there and it is related to the story of the place. <MILD SPOILERS> The dungeon is filled with choices to go right or left, or maybe some other places creating a nice sense of player agency and letting their choices matter. While most decisions might only create some little repositioning in battle, there are some interesting rewards from picking a path over another at specific points of the dungeon. <END OF MILD SPOILERS>

Handouts

The story in this place as well as some of the problems to solve require handouts. I adore handouts. They grant a sense of immersion to the players that is challenging to create with mere words. Without getting into details, these specific handouts dramatically help improve the exploration pillar. There’re even puzzles for those puzzle-lovers like myself. All in all, I believe it is the handouts that work as the icing of the cake.

Final Thoughts

In conclusion, I find this adventure to be excellent as long as you are using it as an introductory adventure to the world of Theros. If not, have it be as part of a bigger story in that world or use the parts you like for your game. The adventure is heavily tied to a story that has very interesting lore. If your players aren’t invested in it, the adventure might not work as a whole. However, as an adventure and dungeon as a whole, I extremely enjoy it and consider it an excellent product that follows everything I like from dungeondelving.

GET THE ADVENTURE HERE