warning: *Spoilers!* ⚠
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I ran this D&D 3.5 module by Goodman Games for my regular gaming group a few weeks ago.
The Secret of Smuggler’s Cove is straight forward. There’s a lighthouse, a manor, a cellar, a smuggler’s nest, and some locathah caves. In our game, the players had the mission to secure the lighthouse. Once they had dealt with the smugglers, there was no longer a need to go after the locathah. It was nice to see how there are optional sections of the dungeon.
The dungeon featured some ordinary encounters (gnolls, pirates, allip), as well as some cool enounters (gnomish wizard riding his familiar, the flask, the captain, ogre waiting behind the door as a guard). The ogre encounter is particularly tough if played right. The adventure gives a warning regarding the terrible damage output possible, but if you do the math, you’ll arrive at a much higher value: 2d8+30! You’ll have to watch it. In our game it was no problem because the party “♫ bluffed the stupid ogre ♫”.
There is also some interesting tidbits to learn: What the pirates are up to, why the bard was kept alive, how the other prisoner got there. There’s a pseudo riddle that is not particularly interesting: Figuring out how much gold the locathah had paid – learning it will do you no good. In our game we had nobody to cast *knock* so the *arcane locks* on doors were difficult to bypass. The *arcane locks* also provided an important hint to players. It was intriguing.
I inserted this adventure between *The Skinsaw Murders* and *The Hook Mountain Massacre* (from the *Rise of the Runelords* Adventure Path by Paizo). The first two adventures in the series don’t feature a lot of magic items. My players were amazed at the riches to be gained in this adventure. If you plan to run a campaign with less than your typical amount of magical items, you should look at all the treasure to be found before running this adventure!
LIKED: Doesn’t have to be “completed”. Different sections have a very different feel to them. Interesting encounters.
DISLIKED: Not many secrets to be learned. No interesting riddles.
QUALITY: Good
VALUE: Very Satisfied
RATING: ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ [4 of 5 Stars!]
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Just a note - when one links here from the RPG Blogger Network, it is unclear what game system this scenario is for (some D&D variant apparently), and what company puts it out.
– mxyzplk 2009-09-15 01:08 UTC
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Good point, thanks. I added D&D 3.5 and Goodman Games to the article.
– Alex Schroeder 2009-09-15 06:50 UTC