The latest in Dark Wizard Games' line of Maximum Mayhew mini-adventures, Phantom of the Scarlet Heart is a thematic cousin to Beauty and the Beast and the original Ravenloft. That's a good thing.

Designed to be completed in an evening or two by a party of levels 5-8, Phantom of the Scarlet Heart is 15 pages of good old dungeon crawling.

Lord Winslow Veymar, a cursed Death Knight, resides within a moody castle set amidst fog-shrouded hills where he is cursed to eternally long for his lost love. His melancholy taints the castle, and indeed the surrounding landscape, so that today they are inhabited by restless dead and horrific monsters. Player characters enter the castle to discover what taints it and to end the curse.

Anyone who has been following Dark Wizards Games knows that publisher and author Mark Taormina has a distinct style. He has an obvious a contagious passion for old school gaming that comes through in spades in his adventure design. His modules are full of deadly traps, dangerous fights, memorable characters, and innovative dungeons. The same holds true here.

With a background in the cinema (where he is an actor), Taormina also brings deep stories to the gaming table. The adventure has deep emotional resonance as it is, at its heart, a tragic love story. Particularly appealing is that players not only learn about the lost love that curses Lord Veymar through a series of encounters but can leverage it to impact the outcome of the adventure. Taormina's design skills have matured.

The production values of Taormina's adventures have matured as well. While Dark Wizard Games have always been solidly produced, they are now of notably elevated quality. Cartography - old school blue maps is excellent and the illustrations, all handcrafted by professional artists, are beautiful and evocative. The quality of the printing and paper is phenomenal. This is a robust and attractive product.

If the adventure has a weakness is that Taormina is guilty of over-writing. The background is excessive - four pages of (admittedly well written) prose in a 15-page adventure. Similarly, read-aloud room descriptions, while evocative, are quite long.

Unlike Beauty and the Beast there is no singing in Phantom of the Scarlet Heart, but this adventure is nonetheless close to pitch perfect.