Review of Fall of the Fell Hammer

Fall of the Fell Hammer, designed for 3rd level characters, is officially the first quest in the epic Death of Divinity: Wrath of the World campaign, but it can be played as a stand alone and I am reviewing it as such.

The adventure bills itself as an adventure based on creatures and tales from Greek myth. It boasts an impressive cover of an ancient temple's entrance that certainly makes you want to strap on your cuirass, grab you Xiphos sword, and venture forth is search of an epic adventure that the storytellers will pass on for generations to come.

The background is certainly epic in scope. The Gods are angered that their temple on Mount Athos has been allowed to fall to ruin and occupation by swarms of goblins ascending from the depths. Zeus has let his anger be known and demands that his servants lead an expedition to reclaim the temple. To do that, the heroes must venture into the temple and a subterranean causeway connecting it to a fallen, goblin-infested dwarfhold below. Thankfully, the means of doing that exists: The Fell Hammer, designed for just this eventuality, is secured in Prometheus' shrine within the temple. Activate it, cut off the flow of goblin reinforcements, clear the temple, and the characters emerge as heroes. The stuff of legends!

The design, however, is far more modest and doesn't quite live up to such lofty heights. That's not to say Fall of the Fell Hammer a bad, because its certainly not. Fall of the Fell Hammer is a perfectly serviceable low-level adventure that has its high points, but sadly doesn't really leverage the strength of Ancient Greek lore in any meaningful way. Nothing in the flavor text evokes the color of the setting, and goblins and orcs don't scream the Greece of Hercules or the Trojan Wars to me (it would have been a different story had they been described as fallen, subterranean satyrs and the remnants of a warband transformed into boar-men for defiling a priestess of Dionysus)

That said, if you ignore the paper-thin nod to Greek culture and religion and look at it through the lens of a standard high fantasy adventure, Fall of the Fell Hammer comes off much better.

While much of the dungeon is fairly standard fare there are some highlights, including a pretty fun fight against giant spiders around a web-shrouded statue of Zeus, and the scene in which the characters destroy the bridge has the potential to be suitably epic, perhaps with desperate PCs fending off a horde of goblins crossing the bridge while also trying to activate the hammer. The one scene where Greek lore is leveraged also happens to one of the encounters that stands out. It involves a member of an ancient magic guild that worship Prometheus in his guise as the former Mycian god of magic, members of whom wear shadowy robes made from the tattered remnants of Prometheus' cloak. Nice! Its not really explained what the wizard is doing there and how he is co-existing with the goblins, but still.

Fall of the Fell Hammer is very easy to run as the authors have written it almost in tutorial mode, in many cases reminding GMs rolls to be made and how to adjudicate scenes, making it ideal for novice gamemasters. Stats are accurate, editing is decent with no glaring errors, and layout is serviceable. The adventure comes with maps that can be inserted into Roll20 for online play. And they're good maps, a distinct highpoint for the adventure. Sadly, there's no interior artwork to bring the adventure to visual life.

Fall of the Fell Hammer certainly isn't Homeric, but it's a decent low-level adventure that gains extra kudos for the epic nature of its climactic scene. And, since its Pay What You Want (recommended price $2) its certainly worth a look.