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Lair of the Lava Queen - Pathfinder $1.99
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Lair of the Lava Queen - Pathfinder
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Lair of the Lava Queen - Pathfinder
Publisher: Pyromaniac Press
by Thilo G. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 06/06/2017 06:35:08

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This brief sidetrek module by Pyromaniac Press, first of the Encounter-series-pdfs, clocks in at 11 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page SRD, 1 page back cover, leaving us with 7 pages of content, so let's take a look!

This review was moved up in my reviewing-queue as a prioritized review at the request of my patreons.

We begin this with a cliff-notes version of the dungeon-specifics - where to best place it regarding terrain, climate, etc., room height, doors and illumination and the pdf also includes hard stats for the doors featured herein. A variety of 3 different hooks provide nice lead-ins for the module. The cartography deserves special mention - rendered in full color, it is really nice to look at and comes, better yet, with a high-res, key-less player-map version. A secret door "S" has been concealed on the map, which generally works well, but keen-eyed players may still see it - still, the effort alone is to be applauded and a very minor black brush-job (literally 20 seconds) takes care of that.

As the PCs approach the complex, they will hear strange, howling sounds, which will hamper communication and perception within several areas, already pointing towards the importance of terrain in the module - as far as I'm concerned, a big plus. Speaking of plusses: The pdf sports well-written prose and read-aloud texts for each of the regions - a relevant boon for GMs who are less versed in maintaining a coherent atmosphere.

...And honestly, that's as far as I can go without getting deep into SPOILER-territory. Potential players should jump to the conclusion.

...

..

.

All right, only GMs around? Great! So, this dungeon is very much a protracted boss fight, if you will: The eponymous lava queen is a variant medusa, infused with the forces of both earth and fire, and as such, she has elementals and mephits under her command - and the PCs probably stumble right into her gallery.

This would be a perfect point in time to quote the pdf, for the prose here is exquisite: "Sure enough a closer examination of the statues reveals them to be roughly shaped humanoids. They appear to be carved from cracked volcanic rock, but rather than being smooth like cooled magma, they have rough surfaces that crumble to sharp chunks and slivers if touched. The rock also leaves behind a fine ash that seems to cling tenaciously to surfaces (and creatures).[...] All of them have expressions of anguish on their faces, and the howling emanates from their open mouths. The largest sources of light are emitted from empty eye sockets, mouths and

ears, while the odd crack in their ‘bodies’ lets out a little illumination." Come on, that is frickin' amazing!

And yes, witnessing this horrific scene can render PCs shaken - nice to see some proper use of conditions there! The tactics of the lava queen are potent indeed and her abode has been constructed with the obvious intent of defending the place! Searing hot air currents and a new creature (think "magma-squid" with fiery rends and a fatiguing aura...and lava jets) await here - and worse yet, the lava queen has an artifact, the Eye of Imix, which can bathe the wielder in flames and heal him - but also renders subjects to its powers helpless. It first fatigues, targets, then exhausts them and if you use its maximum uses, may even kill the wielder. I do have two complaints here: 1) The artifact lacks a suggested means of destruction and 2) and in the revised iteration of this pdf, the previously slightly opaque wording for its offensive use has been cleaned up. Speaking of which: The artifact now comes with a proper destruction method -kudos there! On the plus-side, the healing effect is not cheesable, which is a definite plus...and not sure whether you'd want to carry around an artifact that lets an evil elemental deity know your whereabouts...

The lava queen herself is btw. a unique medusa with a blistering aura, lava-like blood and no, she cannot be petrified via her own gaze...oh, and she can fling balls of lava. Big plus: The previous iteration had some obvious hiccups in the statblock that have been cleaned up. Kudos!!

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are very good on a formal level - no complaints there. Layout adheres to a nice two-column full-color standard and the pdf features really impressive full-color artworks for the queen and the critter, with in particular the glorious cover-artwork making this potentially worthwhile for art-aficionados. Cartography leaves nothing to be desired, as far as I'm concerned. The pdf has basic bookmarks to front and back cover and editorial, but at this length, that's still okay.

Micah Watt's Lair of the Lava Queen is an extremely flavorful sidetrek dungeon with impressive production values for the price. I adore the flavor, I love the prose and the revised version takes care of pretty much all my complaints that remained. Russ Brown's critter, the magma-squid, is btw really cool..

And then there's the fact of the bang-for-buck-ratio: This pdf is really, really cheap. As in: Ridiculously cheap for what it offers. 2 bucks. The art and map alone and the critter are pretty much worth investing the time to briefly tinker with the map- if you're like me, that will take 20 seconds, tops, tops....and leaves you with an AMAZING villain in an evocative complex that practically demands being inserted into the game.

My only remaining complaint with this iteration of the sidetrek remains the small, barely perceptible "S" on the map...and that is most certainly no reason to skip this. In short: Now the sidetrek is just as amazing in PFRPG as it is in the 5e-version and thus gets a final verdict of 5 stars, + seal of approval.

Endzeitgeist out.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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