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The Stoneheart Ruin $2.95
Average Rating:4.3 / 5
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The Stoneheart Ruin
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The Stoneheart Ruin
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Sam H. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 01/17/2021 04:35:40

Get your Indiana Jones groove on as you explore The Stoneheart Ruin! The party is tasked with exploring the ruins of an ancient civilisation after the original research team was scared off by a weird noise, and also discover what happened to one of their colleagues that was left behind in the confusion. Unbeknown to the researchers, these aren’t the vestiges of an ancient civilisation but actually an old mindflayer temple. The illithids have since abandoned it, but their followers still inhabit the ruins, preying on local fauna and anyone foolish enough to set foot in their domain. Designed for a group of tier 1 adventurers, this module can be ran as a one-shot, or is the perfect starting point for a campaign based around the underdark and mindflayers.

Once the party has got the quest from the druid anthropologist running the research team, they must make the arduous journey to the ruins. After a brief encounter with a bulette, the characters have to overcome a skill challenge to make it up the mountain to the ruins. This is a good way of simulating the ascension, and also points out how other skills can be used when travelling rather than just a survival check, however it would be nice to of had the rules for skill challenges be more explicit here, as they do not officially exist within 5th edition. There are a fair few guides that you can find online so this isn’t a major problem, but it would be helpful.

Once they’ve overcome these challenges they can get stuck into exploring the ruined illithid temple. The layout of the temple itself is interesting, having adopted a non-linear layout that allows for a few different exploration routes. There is also an excellent mix of allies and enemies within the dungeon. The party can hope to convince a wounded githyanki warrior to ally with them, which also provides a convenient way of providing mindlfayer lore, while facing off against the grimlocks that form the remains of the illithids cult, and their king, who has a really nice stat block. The grimlocks also use decent tactics, pulling back to regroup if they take too much damage, which helps guide newer DMs towards making fights more dynamic. They can also find and save the missing research team member, though they might not be quite what they seem.

The Stoneheart Ruin really provides an excellent starting point for a campaign designed around mindflayers, no matter how much experience your players have. Illithid lore is provided throughout the adventure in how the temple is constructed and via the NPCs. The adventurers will also face off against the traditional followers of a mindflayer cult: intellect devourers and grimlocks, but without actually encountering any mindflayers, leaving room for the big reveal in a future adventure. There are also plot seeds that are dropped throughout (such as the blood powered portal and the githyanki ally who returns to the underdark) that can be picked up again later. This can of course be easily tied to the research group, whose leader is proposed as a group patron.

This adventure carefully balances all three of D&Ds pillars. It’s an excellent starting point for a campaign, but is also a very good one-shot that could help introduce new players to some of the games most iconic monsters, as well as covering the basic mechanics and a few more advanced tools. The Stoneheart Ruin is a solid addition to a DMs library.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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