The D&D Dad blog reviews by Wizard in a Bottle by M.T. Black.

This was our second M.T. Black adventure in a row, and it did not disappoint! We followed up Tower of the Mad Mage with this coastal adventure for level 2 players, and the story has a fascinating sense of history to it (see my spoilerific Adventure Report for details). This one took us about four and a half hours to complete.

Overview of the Adventure

The party must travel to the tower of Nightheart, where a sorcerer who dabbled in potions and the dark arts once lived, to find the lost members of a former adventurer’s party. The quest takes the part to an old tower ten miles north of Neverwinter, overlooking the Trackless Sea.

The party must solve some fun puzzle to advance through the tower, and they were the right level of difficulty (we had another new player with us this time, and the party was a full roster of 6 Player Characters).

What really made the adventure fun was finding the lost members of the Crimson Company. The sense of gathering clues really added to the fun, and people were dying to get to the end, and the final battle with the “boss” was unlike any other combat we’d ever seen before! Kudos to M.T. Black for creativity.

Tips for Running the Adventure

I didn’t really have to streamline anything once the party made it to the tower, though after everyone got to the last room, we didn’t continue on as the adventure suggested. There were some sad words about lost companions, and then the session was over. So the last two pages or so of the adventure weren’t really relevant to the party.

I also add the use of dice to the missing party members, so the current party would find one die on each of the old party members, in some way. I did this to set up an adventure of my own for the party after this adventure.

Otherwise, there wasn’t a lot different I would suggest to a DM for this adventure. It’s very well-done.

Final Thoughts

Again, its the original touches in M.T. Black’s adventures that really make them shine. Some of the concepts might be a bit cliched, just because this is an adventure designed for low-level characters, but the style with which the adventure is written is refreshing, fun, and new.

Grade: Another straight A

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