This variable difficulty adventure is designed to act as a single session encounter or as a side quest to your existing campaign. The unique way it’s written and the various appendix sections present three difficulty levels to best suit your needs as a GM.
We’ve provided the game resources below if you’d like to use the pre-generated characters and/or maps designed for the adventure.
- Download Adventure Maps: HOHF – Creaking in the Dark Maps
- Download Pre-Generated Characters: HOFH – Creaking in the Dark Pre-Generated Characters
Nieman010 –
A very well organized quick adventure. Good for a side quest or as part of a larger chain. Everything you need except the game system.
Paul (verified owner) –
This module is a great example for this kind of product. It works great as a one-and-done, but it also adds a couple of possible seeds for future adventures if the PC’s show interest. The layout is great, everything you need is right at hand – except for the monster stats, which are given in 3 appendices for low, medium and high level parties. Plenty of nice additional details that add a bit of flair (consumables, lair effects) without getting too complex and therefore defeating the goal of having an adventure that’s simple to prep for and run. The pregen PC’s and digital map downloads are a nice touch too. Great job, I’m looking forward to more of these!
John (verified owner) –
The previous reviews pretty much summed up my feeling concerning the adventures. I would like to stress one thing, the variable level challenges achieved by breaking the difficulty of the challenges down to beginner, intermediate and advanced is a great concept that I hope you Nord games will continue to develop. I feel that it definitely gives your product and edge over over similar materials now so readily available because of the open game license. I’m glad I bought these and hope to see ore stuff like this in future.
Timothy (verified owner) –
This adventure is 24 pages long (I don’t think I saw that information provided anywhere on the product page). It has an easy-to-read, 2-column layout that isn’t a strain to read on a tablet. It features several evocative illustrations.
As others have mentioned, I appreciate that he difficulty was broken down into beginner, intermediate, and advanced options. You could run this as a one-shot or within an existing campaign across a whole range of levels.
I would’ve liked to see a bit more variety to the monsters in the adventure. For example, there are three encounters with giant rats, and that kind of repetition can wear thin. I suspect the reason for this is that each creature needs to be given three sets of stats. It must be more tedious to add a monster to adventures of this nature than standard adventures that are intended to be played at only one level range. Still, I found myself searching for a substitute monster before long.
Don’t overlook the maps and pre-gens available on the product page. They definitely add value to the adventure. Overall, this is a solid adventure at a reasonable price.
Chris (verified owner) –
looks like it could be a good side quest
Jeremyn923 (verified owner) –
I picked this because the hook got me interested, and the variable difficulty makes it easy to drop in to any established game no matter the level. I do recommend changing one of the encounters on your own, as the first 3 encounters are more or less the the same. There is no way I’m not running this at least twice.
Robert (verified owner) –
I found this to be a good side adventure in my 5E campaign when only a subset of my regular players could play and three new players joined the group. I rarely run modules straight as written and Creaking in the Dark was no exception. Nonetheless, I kept the basic plot and moved the adventure into a large city. The module is written so that you can scale it to three tiers of difficulty. I think this could work for the first two but would seem a bit hokey at the highest level. But at higher levels, you could substitute different encounters if needed and keep a similar plot. But I think the module works best as a low-level adventure. Here is a more detailed write-up of how I used the module in my 5E campaign: https://thulaen.wordpress.com/2017/12/28/session-12-what-lurks-beneath-the-golden-tankard/
Jeff Thorpe (verified owner) –
Great product! It’s very well organized, can be placed anywhere a campaign or as a one-shot adventure, and it’s scales in difficulty by PC level. Personally, I’m using this as an intro adventure to go along with Out of the Abyss.
Hyperbeast (verified owner) –
I got it with a bundle. I like how it has different tiers of gameplay so you can stick it anywhere in your or a pregenerated world!
Toonkid –
One of the first adventures I received in Dungeon Crate back in their early days, I and my friends have thoroughly enjoyed what it brought to the table as a quick, unique, and fun one shot. Great job!
aesthesia –
I used this module for my first time ever GM-ing and it went spectacularly well! Very neatly organized, with enough information that it can stand on its own while still allowing for a lot of creativity if you so wish, and the pregenerated characters and maps were a very well received bonus. Stellar product!
Toonkid –
I received my copy through Dungeon Crate and I loved it. The variable difficulty with a compelling story that kept my players hooked with each step. My friend liked it so much, I’m getting him a copy for his own use. Great job guys!
Chris (verified owner) –
Looking for a quick 1 shot adventure, a great way to introduce monster variations.
damion101 (verified owner) –
This is a one or two session adventure designed for multiple levels. It is a fun take on the trope-y “kill the rats in the Inn basement” style starter quest. Easy to drop into any urban setting
repima –
Love these small modules so much! They’re so clearly written, easy to DM as a one shot or to include in a larger campaign! These small adventures are what initially drew me to Nord games.
Zugeva (verified owner) –
Fun and engaging!
I ran this one-shot as a favor to my Forever DM to give them a break and be able to play, he and the rest of the group loved this campaign and repeatedly asked me to share where I found it.