The work opens with a description of the unusual setting of Hanan Pacha. It's worth considering using it, rather than just slotting the adventure into your own campaign world, because it is so strange - take the characters out of their usual environment and watch their wonder. However, although it is an intriguing place to visit, it is not completely necessary to the adventure if you prefer not to use it.

Next, there's the outline of the adventure itself. The survivors of a ruined settlement and the local druid enlist the characters' help to evict a bunch of demons from a hollow spire which they have taken over. The backstory gives a clear explanation of how they got there, which helps set the scene for the DM, and gives rise to plenty of intrigue which will be going on even as the characters seek to complete their mission.

NPCs and encounters along the way to accomplish the mission are well-detailed, with all that you need to role-play people and events effectively. There's always a air of 'this is going on anyway, just you have arrived on the scene' that makes for a good feel of an alternate reality in which your characters - and everyone else - really lives, rather than things placed there just for the adventure. Yet they all fit in with what's going on as well.

The mission itself is well-constructed with some travel, negotiation, plenty of combat, nightmares and even some extra dimensions to explore... and that's all before the climax of the actual assault on the spire where the demons have taken up residence! This is no jaunt either, but several challenging levels with plenty of opposition, a fitting climax to an excellent, if combat-heavy, adventure.

Overall, this is a well-presented, challenging and exciting adventure which should suit an organised and competent party of adventurers.

Return to Spire of the Raven God page.

Reviewed: 5 August 2008