This is a fairly straightforward adventure suitable for beginning adventurers, yet successful completion should give the party a sense of accomplishment, a real feeling of 'being heroes' even at this low level.

The situation is this: a small but fairly prosperous township has fallen on difficult times with a nasty illness called the Burning Plague (it causes sufferers to come out in blisters and have an unquenchable raging thirst) that first struck down miners and has now spread to others in the settlement. Crops and livestock have not escaped either... and a recent kobold attack hasn't helped matters. Finally, the last few able-bodied souls to venture up to the mine haven't returned.

Whilst one would hope that aspiring adventurers would step up to help the struggling community, a couple of hooks are provided to get the party involved if you think they might be reluctant. However they get involved, the remaining townsfolk are convinced that the source of their troubles is the mine, and they'd like the adventurers to go and take a look. The 'meat' of this adventure, then, is an exploration of the mine, dealing with its perils including those pesky kobolds who've taken up residence there, a few devilish traps and the real source of the Burning Plague... not to mention the Plague itself which is fairly contagious!

Everything's laid out clearly so the adventure is quite straightforward to run. A fairly basic map is supplied, you might want to get a little more creative to reflect the descriptions of the various locations given. The results - and consequences - of success are given, with a few hints as to whom might be displeased and what they might do about it in the future, which could be used to inform further adventures. Overall, it's a good 'starter' adventure to get a bunch of first-level characters off to a flying start. Or die horribly, of course.

I'm just a little puzzled as to why an adventure published in 2000 in support of the then-new Dungeons & Dragons 3e - then as a freebie to meet the clamour for adventures to go with the new rulebooks - has been marked as being for Dungeons & Dragons 3.5: I have the original download from the Wizards of the Coast website, and it's exactly the same!

Return to The Burning Plague page.

Reviewed: 6 January 2016