The Sinister Spire
By John Grigsby, Staff Reviewer
Initiative Round
The Sinister Spire is a Dungeons & Dragons adventure from Wizards of the Coast. This 64-page folder is written by Bruce Cordell and Ari Marmell. The cover art by Steve Prescott depicts a medusa standing before a life-like statue of Regdar, the iconic fighter. In the background, the looming spires of an underground palace can be seen. The interior art is by Wayne England and Mike Schley serves as your cartographer. The Sinister Spire retails for $19.95.
Deep beneath the surface of the earth, in the realm known as the Underdark, the waters of a sunless sea meet a pebble-strewn shore. Beyond this boundary opens a wide vista shimmering with pale cave-light. Titanic columns as large as castles march miles into the misted distance. The wide, steeply sloping base of the nearest colossal column is carves with streets, walls, and elaborate structures, many with gaping, empty windows. A few glimmer with faint illumination. Are you brave enough to explore the spire-city and face the terrors that lurk within?
So reads the back cover of The Sinister Spire, an adventure for four 5th level characters from Wizards of the Coast. The whole is presented as a folder, the cardstock cover enclosing a 64-page adventure book. As is the new format, the adventure provides a DM overview in addition to tactical maps for all of the major encounters. Altogether, it looks like a group could finish this adventure in four of five sessions of average length.
The entirety of The Sinister Spire takes place in the underdark and has hooks for continuing from DD1: Barrow of the Forgotten King or for starting anew with a group of the appropriate level. The adventure is presented in the same format that was established with Expedition to Castle Ravenloft, with the bulk of the adventure presented first and then specific encounters included as an appendix, complete with tactical maps. This is a great format that I, for one, really appreciate and hope to see continue in future products.
The adventure itself looks entertaining, with a decent mix of traps and monsters that should keep every party member busy. Also included in this adventure are six new magical items, a new legacy item, four new monsters, and a new template, the plaguelost.
Critical Hit
On the plus side, the adventure features some interesting uses of various monsters and will provide a DM with plenty of ideas about how to make some unique monstrosities of his or her own. I was also glad to see that creatures from other sources are being included in adventures now (this one is full of beasties from Libris Mortis).
Critical Fumble
Twenty bucks for a single adventure. Wow, times sure have changed. This is good material, but is it $20 worth? I don’t think so. For one thing, it would have been nice to have had all the new critters in one place and full stat blocks (per the Monster Manual IV) provided for them. Second, and this is a nitpick, the introduction states that the adventure is intended for use with the D&D Miniatures, so wouldn’t it have been a good idea to include suggestions for what miniatures can represent which creatures, especially those that have no official miniature representation? The only other complaint I have is if you’re going to charge $20 for an adventure, you could at least include miniatures-scaled tactical maps, even if they are printed in black-and-white.
Coup d’Grace
The short of it is this is a decent adventure that will keep your group entertained for a few sessions, but not a must-have for your collection. The $20 price tag is probably about right for a 64-page softcover, but the veteran gamer in me balks at having to pay that much for a one-shot adventure. Maybe a couple of DMs with different groups could split the cost and each use it, but I really couldn’t see myself purchasing it.
Review Scores
Final Grade: B
