When a new D&D adventure -- a free one -- comes along, I'm first in line to download it. If it's a sequel to a Gen Con ENnie Awards nominee, even better.

So it was with high expectations that I read through "Seed of Evil", the sequel to Goodman Games' "Aerie of the Crow God," and written by the same author -- Andrew Hind.

Alas, I was quickly disillusioned.

I knew something was up very early on, when I reached the "Encounter Table", which lists all the encounters, along with their Encounter Level. According to the module, this adventure was designed for a party of four 9th-level characters. Here's the list of ELs, sorted from lowest to highest: 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 3, 4, 5, 5, 6, 6, 6, 7, 7, 9, 17.

Twenty encounters, and half of them EL3 or lower. Ninety percent of them at least two under the party level. Just one at the party level. And one encounter exceeding the party level by eight.

There's more to this review, but the adventure is so critically-flawed by the encounter structure that the conclusion seems foregone.

The plot of the events is relatively clever, and, I would assume, fits well into the preceeding adventure. The writing is clear and free of errors.

The individual encounters are generally well-written, although they can't shake the pall of being tragically puny. One of the EL5 encounters is with a lone creature, who boasts AC 18 and only 18 hit points. Sure, she can cast summon monster I, and charm (DC 13), but she'll barely slow down a party of 9th-level characters. I suspect even a party of 3rd- or 4th-level characters could deal with her.

Similarly, a later encounter with six CR1 creatures and a CR3 creature does not really form an EL6 threat to a party of the recommended level. The encounters are even more underpowered than the list first led me to believe!

I can imagine, with crystal clarity, the adventure playing out. The party traipsing along through trivial, tedious encounters.

Then, when they've been lulled into a false sense of security, BAM! A 9th-level druid who has likely been spending the last hour preparing for the adventurers. It's a recipe for a Total Party Kill.

But let's say they happen to survive that unpleasant brush with a Challenging encounter. It's back to CR3 swarms and CR4 traps.

Until BAM! A CR17 demon-goddess guarding the McGuffin. The entire adventure so far has made one thing clear: allowing this monster to escape with the McGuffin is not only a complete failure for the PCs, it's actually made things a whole lot worse than they were before the PCs got involved.

I don't mind a vastly-overpowered monster every once in a while to remind the players that retreat is an option, but the plot of this adventure gives the characters every reason to believe that retreat is not an option. If the druid didn't kill them, this monster will.

Then, for some reason, a whole other encounter area -- a cave with three young children, aged 8 to 13, who have been turned into ghasts. If the PCs kill one of them, the other two cry their little hearts out and beg for mercy. Yeah, that sounds like a fun encounter.

The Dungeon Crawl Classics line is a retro nod to the old adventure modules of days gone by. Thinking back to classics like the "Tomb of Horrors," it may be that they've succeeded to capture that old-time feeling with "Seed of Evil." Any lingering nostalgia I may have felt for those days, however, has been totally crushed.