Review: D&D 4E: Scourge of the Rat-Men (Adamant Entertainment)

Scourge of the Rat-Men
Adamant Entertainment
July 2008


One of the earliest adventures for the 4th Edition of Dungeons & Dragons, it is designed for characters of 1st through 3rd level.

In this adventure, a town, stretched to the limit with refugees, is struggling with the loss of livestock, and recently, children.  The adventurers are tasked with helping them stop the scourge of the rat-

Scourge of the Rat-Men

Aside: One odd thing, the rat-men are sometime hyphenated, and sometimes not.

The adventure comes with a battle-mat (pages of blank squares) that can be printed out for use with miniatures (a waste of space, really).  And for the forest encounter and the well battle, there are printable encounter tiles...which are also a waste. The forest one is just ugly, and doesn't add anything, and the well one is just a blank grid with a well in the middle.  You will be better off drawing on a battle-mat or using Dungeon Tiles or something similar.

The Art

The art is a wide range of styles, from rather cartoony, to really strong pencil-drawings (the rat-man on page 11). Unfortunately, there are only a couple of really good drawings, and the rest don't add much to the adventure.


Introduction p3

This describes how to use the adventure and provides a plot synopsis of the adventure.

Stand and Deliver p4-6

The adventure begins immediately with an encounter with four human bandits and a war dog.  I love adventures that start this way, as it gets the players involved right from the start.  The stats for each are given, plus tactics, treasure, and further adventures.  The encounter is a pretty good first combat.  The bandits have a neat power with their dazzling strike power that stuns, and war dogs that can knock enemies prone, thus providing combat advantage, which the bandits can take advantage of.  I did find the treasure write up odd..."a few handfuls of silver coins, totaling no more than a dozen gp in value."  Why not just say:   Treasure: 12gp worth of silver.

Edgecombe p7-10

This section describes the town that the adventurers will next come to.  I like the idea of a town overwhelmed with refugees, to the point where there are no inns, taverns, or temples, as they have all been converted to housing.  It is here in town, that the party will meet with Uther Flint, the leader, and learn of the events plaguing the town.  This is a good set-up, but I would have like to see more info on the town and townsfolk.  I would love to have seen skill challenges to help with the problems here, or encounters and challenges dealing with this interesting set-up...but, no, the adventure as written doesn't really require any of this neat set-up.

Smelling a Rat p11-13

The next encounter, unfortunately, makes a lot of assumptions...mainly that the PC's will be doing guard-duty, and that they will be near where three rat-men assassins will be killing.  Plus, three level 6 enemies may be a lot for a party of five 1st level characters.  Then, the one consideration to the party not being there or not seeing the rat-men as they crawled out of the well, is that wet paw-prints will remain, but will dry up early in the morning--although this also assumes the party will be there early.  As a DM, I have many ways to work around these flaws, but the adventure should have thought about them.

Lair of the Ratmen p14-32

The adventurers descend into the lair of the rat-men. Here is the meat of the adventure, but unfortunately, it, too, is beset by problems.  The first trap (a nasty level 6 trap) is interesting...a poison dart shooting wall that can target 2d4 targets in range 20 (pretty nasty if the party is first level)...very Indiana Jones!  The part I don't like is that to disarm it, a thievery check is done against the tripwire and not the trap itself...seems odd since the tripwire already triggered the trap...otherwise there is no way to disarm the trap once triggered.  It is also not shown on the map, just described.

Then, the hallway splits into two passages...both that end in a dead end...and one with a staircase ending in a dead-end.  Hmmm...I wonder if there could be secret doors there...oh yes there are.  Boring...why bother with secret doors if it is going to be obvious?  Plus, the room behind the second secret door doesn't even mention it and assumes the party is coming through the secret door, as it mentions a rat-man escaping across the room from them.

The primary reason I wanted this adventure was for cool new rat-men to add to the game.  Unfortunately, the rat-men are very uninspired.  They have some swarm abilities (+2 damage on melee if two or more rat-men are adjacent to target), but nothing else that makes me think of them as rat-men.  Even the champions and other big-guys have no cool "rat" abilities that make them unique.  I was very let down.

Then, if the party investigates the old jail cells (with no description of them removing the image of iron bars from my mind), they find two ochre jellies trapped in the cells.  This makes no sense, as the jellies could just slide between the bars.  The adventure writer was sloppy and could have made a neat description about a different type of door (perception check) that could tip of the party about something unique and different inside.  Then, there is no treasure or even reason for this encounter.  It just feels random.

Level 2 of the dungeon has a rather boring layout, with locked, empty rooms and uninspired layouts.

There is a magic mirror/escape portal that the rat-men use in emergency.  This should have been located later in the dungeon, or at least have the means to let the characters know that this is for escaping, not for exploring.  A party could easily go through and never finish this adventure.

The party will discover a "carnage demon"...a rather boring demon that is tough, but nothing unique.  I was rather put-off by the author trying to be amusing in the tactics section...this is the whole entry:

"It's a Brute, called a 'carnage demon.'  I think you can probably guess."

  Wow, how condescending and annoying...especially in a first level adventure where newer DM's could be playing and may not know.

I was also annoyed at the part that intrigued me the most...crossing a bridge over an underground river, the party notices and eerie blue glow to the west.  Then, the condescending narrator returns,

"If, for some reason, the players decide to investigate the eerie blue glow, figure out a way down the 20 feet to the river, and manage to traverse 40 feet of rushing river, they will discover..."

Again, why the need to be so snarky?  Based on the intriguing description of the blue glow, I imagine most players will at least attempt to find a way to what is, arguably, the most interesting part of the adventure so far.  And, what do they find if they do a great job and actually make it?  A monster...no treasure...no plot...just a monster.  What a wasted opportunity!

Final Thoughts

What a wasted opportunity.  The premise is nice, but the cliched encounters, poor maps, missed chances, and boring rat-men make this adventure a waste.  With a little work, though, a good DM could make something better of this, but I wouldn't waste my time or efforts on this one.
____________________________________________
Adamant Entertainment
by Gareth-Michael Skara
Art: A. Nemo, Alex Cort, Brian Massey, Gareth-Michael Skara, and Shaman's Stock Art
Cartography: Big Finger Games' Stock, Art Maps, Copyright Michael Todd, Used With Permission

Required Books:
Player's Handbook
Dungeon Master's Guide
Monster Manual
Dice
Miniatures