Crucible of Freya, The
by Clark Peterson and Bill Webb
D20 Adventure (48 pages)
Product Code: WW8350, ISBN 1-56504-485-1
Publisher: Necromancer Games, Inc., $7.99
This is a very good module, better than most put out by other companies. Designed for beginning adventurers, the story centers around the town of Fairhill and bands of orcs invading its lands in search of the Crucible of Freya. This artifact is used to bless new wheat harvests at the beginning of the planting season.
The module describes the Village of Fairhill and some of the surrounding locations of interest nearby. Major NPCs are also detailed who can help or hinder the group’s plans to stop Tavik, an evil priest, from using the orcs to steal the Crucible. The Ruined Keep, which is the climax of this adventure, is a wonderful challenge for players, but is possibly a bit too much for low level characters. This is the one area of the module that I thought should have been toned down for beginning players.
The adventure starts with the characters encountering orcs outside of Fairhill. Afterward, they enter the village. While in town, the Crucible is stolen and the adventurers then must pursue the villains to the Ruined Keep, where they do battle with various creatures to retrieve the stolen item.
The module has plenty of notes and hints for the DM running the adventure, which would be helpful to new judges. Experiences DMs should get some help from these hints, too. There are also additional story ideas, and some extra free downloads from the internet for use with the module. There were a few mistakes in the rules in this module, which may be due to the fact that this was one of the first D20 module to come out years ago. Nothing really serious, just a few glitches that aren’t correct with D&D 3rd Edition. Otherwise, this is a highly enjoyable adventure, and a good choice for starting DMs!
(review (c) May 2003 / David Flemming)