This is an adventure designed to be dropped in on the party to enliven their travels from one place to another. This time it's a rural setting, scattered villages and expanses of forest. One day they arrive in a village called Blackbrook, but something is amiss, trouble is brewing. In the centre of the settlement a crowd of angry villagers are being faced down by a young woman who is declaring that the well has been poisoned by evil and nobody should drink from it. It looks like a brawl is about to break out...

The DM's Background gives you the low-down about what is really going on, and a complex and tragic tale it is. It should already be clear that something is amiss in the area even before they reach Blackbrook, and in that convenient way encounters have, it doesn't matter when they arrive a riot is on the point of breaking out when they do. The thirsty villagers have reached the end of their patience with the young woman, a perceptive cleric, and are about to harm her to get to the well. Once the party calm things down - assuming they choose to do so - everything the locals know will be explained.

A while back the area was beset with vampires but they eventually left. However, there's been a recent spate of disappearances, and people have been falling sick. The disappearances occur mostly at night and near the old cemetary, which has been closed as a precaution... especially as a mysterious hole has appeared there and the much-loved willow tree that has stood over it for generations has vanished! A party of adventurers seems like a boon from the gods, after all, it was a similar group that dealt with those vampires a few months ago, and so the entire village attempts to enlist the party's help.

As one would imagine, the adventure consists of a delve under the cemetary with a few good combats as the party investigates and hopefully is able to put a stop to the problems. There are a couple of ways in which this can be done, one does not involve killing everything in sight. There's a nice feeling of closure for those who succeed, but not much in the way of potential follow-on adventures. Overall, it makes a nice side-adventure for a party on its travels.

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Reviewed: 18 March 2018