I still haven’t actually made it to a DCC Day celebration.  But then, I don ‘t think any of the game stores in my region participate.  Still, I had to check out this weird looking module by Harley Stroh for level 1 characters.  Shadow of the Beakmen reptile-looking creatures spilling out of a glowing, floating obelisk.  I had to find out more.

The scenario is fairly shot, taking up only eight pages, plus maps, art, and photocopiable Judge-aids.  It has some pretty nasty combat and definitely features several opportunities for characters to get killed.  There’s a small like-side village to run through while chaos erupts and a small dungeon to explore.

Like several Dungeon Crawl Classics modules, this one blurs the genre line, with elements that have a very Science Fictional vibe.  Part of what appeals to me is that this could probably be added into a campaign that starts with something like Danger in the Air! and culminates with Expedition to the Barrier Peaks. 

There’s not really any info on the town, as it isn’t really important to the proceedings, but it might be worth fleshing out if you want to use it to populate a hex crawl or “local area.”  The map is nice, and I can imagine in a game where your characters defeat the creatures from this module, they might be heroes of the town.  Or, in an ongoing game where this module appears, the PCs may have friends in the town, giving it some more weight.  Whatever the case, it’s a nice town map with potential for being a cool spot.

The dungeon map has a super-weird style that makes me want to do some kind of reverse gravity thing, where the PCs enter at the base of the obelisk, but flip upside down and have to descend toward its top.  We’ll see if I bother with that sort of nonsense or not.

More good stuff from Stroh.  It’s weird.  It’s a bit genre bending.  A lot of nutty stuff is implied.  What’s not to love.

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