Into the Dragon's Maw is a fantastic bolt-on adventure for Hoard of the Dragon Queen as it ties directly into the plot as the adventurers are about to arrive in Baldur's Gate from Elturel. At this point they've just earned their level 4 stats and this is the perfect place to test out those new buffs. With that said, I'm sure you can use it for any group of adventurers heading into a city where there's a set of woods nearby and the module provides suggested adjustment to each encounter if your party is a little weaker/stronger.
Baldur's Gate and the surrounding area is such a magnificent location and the Wizard's campaign book reduces it down to a few paragraphs. Into the Dragon's Maw gives the player's arrival into Baldur's Gate the much needed attention that they deserve and ability to use those new level 4 stats. It also helps to flesh out and give depth to the factions after having recently met with Ontharr and Leosin in Elturel - this adventure very much helps to show that they're little cogs within the great machine.
And the twist, what a lovely game mechanic and story - my players absolutely loved this adventure!
As to the actual adventure...
- production value is excellent - the page design is well laid out and written - the artwork is fantastic throughout and provides added visual context, dm narration pops out using a white background on a coffee-stained page, and the monsters are clearly identified including page reference numbers (that's a very nice touch). Included are DC check levels and DM notes to help provide context when running the game. Additionally, there are a couple post-it-note type boxes for greater detail. My tiny critique would be the cave map is a bit dark and hard to make out the details - it's also only a half page and would be good as a full page.
- adventure design is excellent - the encounters flowed together and the dungeon layout in the cave structure makes sense. There's a bit of a railroad in the story arc in order to provide a twist at the end, but how to get there is a bit of a sandbox once inside the cave. My group had a blast exploring, bumping into supposed dead ends, and of course they went right for the brass-coated stone carving sitting in an open treasure chest - lol!
- monster/traps selection is excellent - without giving too much away... there are a number of classic live and undead monsters that make this adventure a winner. The traps are well thought out as is access to secret areas. The adventure starts out with a burst of fun to get the dice rolling. I loved the pit of the cube and the burrow encounters - we had a great time! Of course the big reveal was awesome and fit into the entire Hoard of the Dragon Queen flavor.
- adventure time was good - this took our group a Saturday night and then a good portion of our next gathering as well. We have a fairly good balance of role playing and dice rolling - this module is well designed for both and appeared to please everyone around the table.
- product pricing is excellent - $2.99 for almost two evening's worth of material is excellent value - additionally, the layout and design of the product is as professional as I've seen anywhere.
My overall thought is what a wonderful adventure which fits in nicely to our Hoard of the Dragon Queen campaign. I very much enjoyed prepping this adventure which was super easy to do and my players all had a huge silly grin on their face when it was all done and a lot of wow! Those wow! looks give this product a five star standing ovation!
Rick Anderson
PS - I did paint a Xande figure...
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