As many of you know, Bruce Cordell is a good friend of mine. He's been my best friend (well, except for Sue, of course) for almost 20 years, in fact. I make no apologies for that. This is the first product I've reviewed to which I've given five stars. Coincidence? Well, what it probably means is that Bruce and I have had 20 years of gaming together to influence each other and come up with a mutual sense of what is good and what's not good. So perhaps it's not surprising that I find this such a great adventure.

I'm not spoiling too much to tell you that this is an undead-based adventure, centered around a ruined tower called Nightfang Spire. It's for mid-level characters, although the challenges are so great, that I think you could take a group of characters of 12th to even 13th level through this senario and still find it challenging. The adventure's main antagonist is a well-constructed and extremely scary fellow. Part of the reason he's so scary is that he is very smart and well prepared. Bruce lays out excellent tactics for him -- he's not just a "boss monster" waiting at the end of the module in his bedroom. He's aware of the PCs throughout the adventure and interacts and reacts to what they do.

Like I said earlier, it's an adventure dealing with a lot of undead. That's not good for the rogues in your group (undead don't worry about sneak attacks), but there are indeed other foes as well. More importantly, Bruce wisely puts lots of other things requiring a good rogue -- namely, traps -- into the adventure so that there's plenty for everyone to do. (And some of the traps are really nasty, so let's hope the rogue is looking very closely.)

Overall, the adventure shows a real grasp of what characters of this level can and can't do, and it is puts that knowledge to good use, preparing the DM for most likely contingencies should the PCs attempt to use teleport, passwall, or other spells at their disposal. And no, that doesn't mean that the text just says that they don't work. Instead, Bruce clearly demonstrates not only a knowledge of what the PCs might do, but how to challenge the players without simply restricting them. (That's probably a sign of good playtesting as well as good design.)

At the risk of throwing out a spoiler or two, Bruce does some wonderfully creative things in this adventure -- a gibbering mouth vampire, a half-dragon flesh golem, and the encounter involving the "heart" itself (yes, a literal heart -- but whose heart, I'm not telling) are all imaginative and interesting. The encounters offered here are visually interesting, challenging in new ways, and go way beyond just simple "roll for intitiative, kill the monster, repeat" gaming.

Like practically all of Bruce's adventures, you get a lot of game for your buck here. The adventure costs $9.95, but you'll have at least four, if not six, playing sessions in Heart of Nightfang Spire. There's lots to do here.

I would use this in my game without changing a thing. The only things I didn't like were some of the artwork, which is mediocre, and the fact that Bruce likes to give some of his encounters "cute" names, like "Dragon, We Hardly Knew Ye" and "Will Fight for Food." (Fortunately these mood-breaking names are few and of course have no effect on actual game play.) There simply is no better adventure for characters of this level on the market now.

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