Originally posted here: https://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2022/10/100-days-of-halloween-priest-witch-and.html

Tonight we have a DMsGuild adventure for 5e. It has a lot great things going for it for my ongoing campaign so let's see what it can do for me.

The Priest, the Witch, and the Lost Temple: An Adventure

PDF. 40 pages. Full-color cover and interior art.

This adventure is for characters levels 2 to 3. This fits the archetype of the "strange newcomers who MUST be witches" deal. Our two "witches", Ashali and Lathna, one a Red Wizard of Thay and the other her apprentice and lover, are not really witches, but everyone around them is treating them as such. Quick aside, I wrote a one-shot years ago when I first wanted to run something in the Realms about an underground of would-be good Red Wizards trying to escape Thay. They had help from a group in Aglarond. This ties in so perfectly to that adventure I might dust it off as an opening.

The focus of the adventure is to investigate the witches and find out they are mostly harmless but discover a bigger evil along the way. It works for me. It is a nice little adventure I can fit in nearly anywhere If I want. Though I do have some specific ideas. And let's be honest, who DOESN'T like stopping a bunch of undead?

There are some new magic items and new NPCs (featured for the adventure). The art is from DMsGuild so it is good, but the layout is something the author did and it looks good. So really a good-looking adventure.

The town of Whitehaven is just detailed enough to make it usable and enough detail left out to make it flexible. I really appreciate that bit. And much like the Villiage of Hommlet for Greyhawk, this would make for a good base of operations for low-level characters. I get why the adventure is for the 2nd to 3rd level, but I wonder if a bit of work could make it more suited to 1st to 3rd level for a true starting feel. You are far enough away from the Sword Coast to make it feel like a different world but still close enough to know where you are. If that makes sense.

Kudos to the author for taking a chance on a "good" or at least redeemed Red Wizard.

Is this a perfect adventure? No, but it is perfect for what I need it for.

For My War of the Witch Queens

There is so much here that fits right in, even if the witches themselves are not really witches. The "Whitehaven" of this adventure is a perfect stand-in for my own "West Haven." Indeed, much as I used "Haven" from Krynn as the alternate universe of West Haven in my world, the character will find themselves later in "Whitehaven" in the Realms and "Winterhaven" in the Nentir Vale.

Ashali and Lathna also fit in perfectly as a Red Wizard and her maid turned lover and apprentice that they are almost exactly like the characters I made (no plagiarism here, I never published mine!) so close in fact that I will drop the location I had them in (in Rashmeen) and instead have them here.

For a stronger link I might have them mention they knew the Witch Queen (but don't yet know she is dead).

So yeah, this one will work great for me.

I thought this was a superb adventure and extremely well written. You will get a lot of milage out of Whitehaven and the threads of the story. Thanks to the author for enriching my campaign and crafting a top-notch adventure. My players now see Whitehaven as their home base, are building a stronghold and have married one of the NPCs.

This was wonderful, after adapting it to Tal'Dorei and padding it with flavour I got an easy 30 playing hours of fun out of it, despite my players blowing through many small chunks of it. Players were afraid to explore the most of the witch's house, almost agreed to murder her BEFORE the demon summoning - they orginally skipped the tower but tried everything short of explosives to get into the crypts while still way too low of a level. They loved Anton and Hilda. Key moment was when captured and did a public excecution of Tristan which really bonded them as a team and to the citizens of Whitehaven. Just a great framework for the start of a Campaign, thank you.

For other DM's reading the review, I'm very new as a DM so if you are too it's hard to go wrong with this tale.

Pros:

• Packs in four distinct dungeon crawls: a bandit tower, a mage’s magically defended home, an undead crypt, and an unholy temple, and each has a map.
• Detailed NPC backstories, relationships, and roleplaying notes.
• Intriguing side quests that take advantage of the undead uprising theme.
• Satisfying, fun, action-packed finale involving the whole town.

Cons:

• I’m not a fan of the Dyson Logos-style dungeon maps.
• No map of the town, nor of the side quest areas in chapter 2.

THE VERDICT: WITH A COMPELLING OVERARCHING STORY, DETAILED NPCS, MULTIPLE DUNGEON CRAWLS, AND A WONDERFUL BALANCE BETWEEN COMBAT, EXPLORATION, AND ROLE-PLAYING, “THE PRIEST, THE WITCH, AND THE LOST TEMPLE,” IS ONE OF THE MOST COMPLETE TIER 1 ADVENTURES ON THE DMS GUILD.

Full Review: https://roguewatson.com/2018/12/15/dms-guild-review-the-priest-the-witch-and-the-lost-temple/

Video Review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNneq36gkHs

Whitehaven is besieged by undead. Why? Is it a coincidence or is someone up to something. As you can imagine from the title, someone is definitely up to something. But is it the priest or the witch? Send in some tier 1 PCs to investigate before things get really nasty and out of hand.

The Priest, the Witch, and the Lost Temple will provide you with 12 or more hours of gameplay (unless your group are murder hobos simply looking for blood and guts). David McDonough has established himself as an author of note within DMs Guild and I hope he continues to create great content!

http://www.nonzerosumgames.com/the-priest-the-witch-and-the-lost-temple/

Read my full review here.

Review as of 19th of November 2018 Full video review here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDQUueJe-p8&feature=youtu.be

What is it

• Adventure for levels 2-3
• A tale of misdirection, a classic villain is not all that they seem and those who seem like allies may reveal themselves in time to be the true evil at work.
• Taking place in the town of Whitehaven, though it is possible to uplift this to whatever setting your heart desires.
• Presented in three parts, a preamble of sorts to get players thinking and engaged in the story, a confrontation with a possible enemy in a lair with traps aplenty and finally a dive into dungeons unknown with a showdown.
• There is a lot of background information presented here. Great for DM’s who love that world building but it might grate on those that just want to get on with the adventure.
• Each Chapter is something different, a town to explore, a villian to confront or a dungeon to delve.

What I Liked

• The guides on how to roleplay each NPC were really nice and informative allowed me to really understand the character and how best to portray them to my players.
• The town is rich in history and a gem to explore with lots of factions to interact with and manage.
• Lots of player choice in the first section as to what to do and where to go gives a great breadth of explorable options.
• The included maps are a really nice simple design that gets the point across.
• I like the small simple puzzle in C7, though I don’t play with alignment generally I can see it being interesting to roleplay out.
• I really liked the thematics of the villain appearing at the last minute only to get away.
• The Bodak/Deathlok Encounter is really interesting I like how it plays out thematically gives a real sense of theatrics you usually don’t get at lower levels.
• I liked that it’s left open at the end to start a greater adventure, it’s a great springboard adventure.
• There are some great monster choices from Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes and Volo’s Guide to Monsters that have options to replace them with different ones from the main Monster manual. I like the intention it’s interesting and shows understanding that not everyone has every book

What I didn’t Like

• First Encounter isn’t really described very well there are three creatures with sickly parlour but it doesn’t say what they are? Zombies Ghouls what? Be specific when it comes to combat. (Fixed)
• The flow of the first encounter feels broken and disjointed, the players see the zombies and the two farmers but what is the priority here do the zombies continue to feast into the farmer on the ground and what happens after the battle is over. The wording jumps around a lot. (Fixed)
• A map of the town would help a lot with general flow.
• The how to roleplay sections were great I wish though that they were either organised better or at least had a Dramtis Persone section where you could find where these sections were located easily.
• It might of been nice to include scaling to allow this to be used in a wider level and party range something like APL (Average Party Level) is a great idea gives your adventure more lifespan.
• An appendix with any unique monsters (goblin zombie) is a must.
• I’ve seen it now in a few larger adventures or ones with more complex plot lines it would be great if there was a flow chart of the adventure to give a sense of things in scale of time.
• I think you are allowed to include monster stat blocks from official WOTC books in modules released on the DM’s guild but not 100% sure on that one.
• A lot of the Second chapter references creatures in other books it would probably be ok to include a sample stat block for these creatures.
• Why would someone who left Thay have a bust of Tam who represents everything that Thay is?
• For a lot of Chapter 3 I can see players attempting to deal with or attempt to rescue villagers it would of been nice to include a random encounter table for just such an occasion.
• Putting a barrier in front of players where the only option is to retreat feels a little weird, perhaps if the almiraj is behind them when they are trapped.
• I feel like the final confrontation is more interesting as a player if the monster is still there it makes it harder yes but more engaging.
• The final sacrifice of that NPC feels like it might of been better to leave it up to the players to help with that part perhaps giving part of their life force as an option?

Final Thoughts and Rating

• I’m a little harsh on the new guy but in general I like what’s presented here.
• There is a lot going for it and for a first foray into the guild this is a damn fine piece.
• A lot of the problems I mention are strictly a problem with structure of an adventure things like monster stat blocks or perhaps adding in flow charts. They by no means make the adventure un playable or un fun.
• So for the P.E.R.C. System C Combat,
• Combat in these low levels is an interesting affair making it difficult to judge how interesting or unique any given encounter is. The bodak presents an interesting challenge though it is an optional encounter, I really like the way that encounter could play out presenting an interesting challenge to a group as it’s effectively a three way fight. Other combat in the module is handled more of your standard affair but I will say tends on the more lethal side but it’s level 2-3 so it’s a bit expected. 4/5 R Roleplay,
• There are a lot of really interesting dynamics present here and in a lower tier adventure it’s hard for players to get invested sometimes. What’s presented though is a joy with a plethora of unique and engaging characters to play around both for a GM and a player. I can’t stress how helpful it is to have that roleplay advice and I really like the false scent that is thrown down early on. 5/5 E Exploration,
• The first chapter is really great here a lot of areas to explore and a lot of choices to make. It’s a shame that the final chapter is bit more linear in nature. It would of been nice to see that same flair drawn though in the design of the final dungeon. That being said both areas are interesting in their own rights and sometimes a good easy straight through is what you need. I will say here there are some inconsistencies with the layout and design of certain areas particularly both the final spot and the second chapter mansion around characters presented. Such as the final area the villain is moving through in front of you some evidence of their passage maybe sprung traps or the likes would add to the interest. 4/5 P Polish
• This is where work needs to be done, Maps should always be in separate files for VTT use. Its make a small difference but it’s a big deal for those of us who game that way.
• In addition there are a lot of things around general structure that can inhibit your play and implementation experience.
• A map or general layout of the town would help immensely here I know you have a world map which gives more broad locations but the players are traipsing around this area a lot so it would of been nice to have.
• The first encounter feels weird and not explained very well but then subsequent ones are handled really well.
• It would also be nice to do something to extend the playable range a bit. Giving a range of monsters per encounter so that this can be enjoyed by a larger level range would be fantastic.
• It could use a few handouts as well to help players visualize things like the orb of undeath.
• Any unique monsters should always be in the appendix same as the NPC’s.
• A bit more art to break up the word blocks might also be appreciated here.
• All in all there are a lot of minor things which are easily fixed or changed to really help this shine.
• The maps are simple and effective I really like them and I like the battle maps that are used here I know some people really have a problem with the style used but the simple design means I can add whatever flair I want to them (which I probably will and produce full colour versions with stuff in them.)
• The how-to roleplay sections are great but they are all over the place so it would be nice to have them grouped up or at least a page number reference. 3 / 5
• So all told I give it a 4 / 5 I really like this adventure another polish pass and you have a really great starting adventure that can springboard a whole campaign.

An interesting and well written adventure which offers great balance between roleplay and combat. I ran this adventure and found that it was fun, engaging and had enough content to suit and satisfy different play and DMing styles, although I recommend that new DMs read the adventure more than twice before running it. It took two six-hour sessions for our group to complete it but the racy plot kept us hooked from start to finish. The layout and artwork breathe life into the words in this adventure.

You will not regret snagging this up.

This is my first purchase here so I cannot comment on how it compares to others' products. I found an occasional word choice that I might not agree with but it's exceptionally well crafted and that only comes after someone knows the science or the basics well enough to get good at the craft. As a result of clearly knowing the mechanics of play and the chemistry involved in playing this writer has crafted a module that represents a true contribution to the play of this game. It makes me want to play again and it makes me want to spend more at this site. Hopefully on more of McDonough's works. He has made a significant contribution to the canon of works that I will recommend to others. You've restoked my enthusiasm for play. Thank you.

Just purchased the adventure, so far it looks amazing! The art and format looks great and looks as professional as an official campaign book. I'd love to see a printer friendly version, but I know that would require substantial formatting changes.

This is a substantial story and adventure. I hope it gets steam and you can recoup the costs of all this hard work! It certainly seems like a LOT of work for a mostly solo project.

The story is intriguing and offers a lot of mystery for the characters. The players might discover the twist early on, simply because of the common theme, however the cast and adventure leading up to the conclusion is unique and fully thought out.

This adventure is really nicely laid out, well written, and looks like an interesting adventure. I look forward to being able to run it.

The maps are also all 1 Square = 5 feet. If only WoTC did this!

Wow! Just purchased this because of the intriguing title. I am super impressed, it is laid out beautifully, with detailed explanations and history. Definitely worth the current asking price and then some. Thanks for such a lovely "fill in" adventure that looks really engaging for DMs and players.

Fantastic, well thought through first adventure from a new DM Guild contributor. I am looking forward to running it and to more content.

My favourite quote: "Physically, they look like typical halflings, although Anton does have very unhalfling-like mutton-chops that he claims is due some long-lost dwarven ancestry, to the subtle bemusement of Hilda."

Keep up the great work!

This is a really great adventure! I just finished reading through it and I rarely find myself doing that for most modules. The story really captures your imagination and the layout is beautiful. The pacing for the story is very well thought out and the modules if full of encounters with a good use of monsters from all official books, with suggestions for those who only have the basic monster manual. The adventure has been planned out so well in fact that it is easily convertible to higher levels and the town has every potential for further adventures.

This is a well laid out adventure with detailed backgorund and world informatrion. Well done, Dave.