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Saturday, June 16th is Free RPG Day ‘12 and with it comes a slew of new and interesting little releases. They can usually be divided between tasters for new games that will be released at Gen Con this forthcoming August and support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera. In general, the tasters for the new, “hot” games are highly anticipated and on the day itself, in high demand, but come the day, it would be remiss of us to ignore the less-in-demand titles. Many of these it should be made clear, are worth your time and effort to make it to your friendly, local gaming store to get hold of a copy. One such title is Dead in the Eye, provided by Wizards of the Coast for Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition.

Dead in the Eye is an adventure for five characters of eighth to tenth levels that builds on material presented in Dragon #375. Its events take place in the Forgotten Realms in the Thornwood, not far from the Plaguewrought Lands. As the scenario opens, the player characters are entreated to come to the aid of the Black Arrows, one of the many arms of the Keepers of the Celestian Order dedicated to protecting the natural world against incursions from the Far Realm. The Black Arrows has trapped the leader of one such incursion, a twisted Beholder known as Omaranthanx, in a cave, but its members have exhausted themselves in the process. The player characters are asked to enter the cave and not only return with the spirit of the Beholder (they are given a device that will do this), but also learn of the fate of a Black Arrows team that had been sent in earlier.

At just sixteen pages in length, it is no surprise that Dead in the Eye is a very simple and very direct affair. Follow the path, defeat any monsters on the way, defeat the end of level boss, and then get out again. It consists of six “Events” or encounters of one type or another, but this being Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition, mostly combat. In terms of rewards, success brings a little treasure and perhaps a new contact. In terms of challenges, the adventure contains just the single roleplaying challenge, though that is just as likely to end in a fight as well. The climax of the adventure has the potential to be the most entertaining, being a big fight in a very traditional showdown sense.

For the most part, Dead in the Eye is well presented and well written. If there is an issue with the adventure it is that some of the maps could have been better described. At one point a tunnel with a side tunnel off of it is described as a “crossroads of a sort,” which is vague and certainly unhelpful when it comes understanding how the rest of that encounter works. Another issue is with the map of the cave complex as a whole – there just is not one given. Had there been one, it would be easier to gain a feel for the dungeon and its layout, plus the adventure would have felt less like a linear series of encounters placed one after the other, and it would have helped the DM who wanted to expand or develop the adventure further.

Ultimately, it is difficult to describe Dead in the Eye as anything other than a reasonable adventure. Certainly its cover is excellent, and there is no denying that the final encounter with Omaranthanx has the potential to be exciting. It is just a pity that the journey to said climax is so ordinary.