Encephalon Gorgers on the Moon (5E) by Casey W. Christofferson is a role playing game supplement published by Frog God Games for use with Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition. As such, it is covered by the Open Game License and some parts are considered to be Open Game Content as a result. This is an adventure for Tier 2 characters and is also available in versions for Pathfinder and Swords & Wizardry.
The supplement is available from DriveThruRPG as a 33-page PDF for $4.79 although it was purchased at a reduced price as part of a special bundle. Two pages are the front and rear covers, one the front matter, one the Table of Contents and one the Open Game License.
The opening paragraph states that the adventure is set in the hills around the Stoneheart Mountains of the Lost Lands but can easily be placed elsewhere.
The supplement starts with some Background on the Night Forest, a very dark local forest, in which feral cats are often seen. These cats are also known to help lost travellers and are companions for scouts and guides. Recently, the cats have withdrawn to the Midnight Mountain.
Adventure Summary does what it says, summarises how the adventure goes. This is followed by some hooks for getting the characters to the region.
Encounter Areas describes the various locations marked on the map of the region of the Night Forest, starting with the Hurrie Inn, the first place the characters will encounter. Whilst there, they will witness an argument between a co-owner of the inn who is blaming another for the disappearance of her favourite cats. A sidebar explains what makes the cats of the region so special. The characters can then travel to other encounter areas before reaching the mountain’s top. Once at the top of the mountain, the characters travel through a portal to an area of the moon, Sybil. There is another wilderness area and several sites to explore before coming to the final location. There are a couple of places where characters could end up sent to another plane, or possibly marooned on Sybil; it could be inconvenient for the GM if that happened.
Appendix 1: Creatures has a lot of new monsters. It looks like many of these have been taken from the 5th Edition version of Tome of Horrors. Though all the stats are included for the monsters, no fluff text is.
Appendix 2: Magic Items has two new items, though one is in fact a very old one, one of which is the main way for the characters to get back home.
Four more pages have player maps of the main locations visited.
Encephalon Gorgers on the Moon (5E) in Review
The PDF is well bookmarked with major and minor sections linked. The Table of Contents only covers the most important sections. Navigation is decent. The text maintains a two-column format and appeared to be free of errors. There are a number of colour illustrations, which appear to be custom, plus the colour maps which come in smaller labelled versions and larger, unlabelled player-friendly versions. Presentation is good.
This adventure should be easy enough to drop into other settings. The starting area isn’t really tied to the Lost Lands at all and the moon could be substituted with other moons, or even other demiplanes or dimensions, without much trouble. Having to travel to a moon is a bit different and interesting. The first part of the adventure is more linear than the second, because the characters start at the bottom of a hill and have to get to the top. For the second part, the characters could roam around a bit, having or ignoring other encounters, before finding their final destination. Encephalon Gorgers on the Moon (5E) is a nice little adventure and it can be found by clicking here.
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