Adventures in Bayhaven – Sunrise Over Still Water (Pt. 3, Shrike Incursion) by Brian Benoit is a role playing game supplement published by Roving Band of Misfits Press for use with the Hero Kids game system. This adventure is set in the publisher’s town of Bayhaven and is the third and final instalment in the Shrike Incursion series and is described as being a mega adventure taking two hours to play.
This is a 27 page PDF which is available from RPGNow for $2.99 but was purchased at the reduced price of $1.50 as part of the Adventures in Bayhaven Ultimate Bundle. One page is the front cover and one page the front matter.
The first page is the standard one covering what is needed to play, what is recommended to play, how to use the adventure and Time Units, an optional rule whereby if players run out of time units they fail or fail to fully complete the adventure. The next page is also standard, giving location and adventure background and an adventure synopsis. There are also details on benefits gained from the two previous adventures in the series, and a suggestion that characters could, after the conclusion of this adventure, play The Lost Village from Hero Forge Games.
The introduction encounter has Bayhaven under attack by shrike. If Empty Nets was completed successfully, the characters receive a useful item at this point.
There are three encounters for the main part of the adventure, although one has two tracks. Each involves dealing with shrike at different places and attempting to stop them. The second encounter has help from a water elemental, if Heart of the Bay was completed successfully. The final encounter is the one with two tracks. If the players have enough time, they can do both; otherwise they may only be able to do one.
The concluding encounter has various pieces of text to read to players. Which pieces are read are determined by how successful the characters were at the different encounters, and whether they were able to do them all without running out of time. Treasure is also dependent on this. Finally the last bit is on adapting The Lost Village to fit in with this series, as it was not designed to be part of it.
Next there is a map of Bayhaven with the relevant locations marked. Then there is a page with a new item and some tokens that can be used with the battlemaps. Three pages have monster cards and minis, five pages have battlemaps that appear to have been drawn in coloured pencil and the final page is a map of an estate where the characters should not be using force to succeed.
Adventures in Bayhaven – Sunrise Over Still Water in Review
The PDF lacks bookmarks and, although it is quite short, they would have been appreciated. The text maintains a two column format and no errors were noticed. There are no illustrations as such, just images used from the various maps and monster cards but, given the amount of maps and cards included, presentation is pretty good.
This is a pretty combat-heavy adventure for this publisher. Only one track of the final encounter is not really combat-related, as outright conflict is doomed to failure. The various encounters can also be scaled in difficulty depending on the number of characters present.
A GM would be advised to read through the adventure carefully first. Time units, if used, play an important role in it, and being aware of how they affect the encounters, especially the last one, is also important. Determining where to break the adventure is also advised, as the full adventure may be too long for one session. It’s stated that there are intuitive break points, so the GM should make themselves aware of these prior to playing.
Adventures in Bayhaven – Sunrise Over Still Water is quite a large adventure and it can be found by clicking here.
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