Pages from the Lost Grimoire – Seaspire / What Lurks Below by Dan Coleman is a role playing game supplement published by Dan Coleman Productions 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 the fourth in a series of supplements that introduce new content, with this issue containing a location and a combat encounter.
The supplement is available as a Pay What You Want PDF from RPGNow. The PDF has eleven pages with one being the front cover, one the front matter, one a thanks for patrons and two being the Open Game License. There are also six pngs, three being maps of the encounter area, one of which is for GMs and the other two being for players, one with and one without a grid, and the other three being maps of Seaspire, one an overhead plan, one a side-on view and one combining both.
One page has an overview of Seaspire and its supposed history – this is mentioned a few times as being unproven. Formerly the lair of a bronze dragon who defeated a demon horde, Seaspire is an island which is now primarily inhabited by dragonborn.
The next three pages have information on Seaspire’s government, culture, residents and defence, various places of interest and some adventure hooks.
The final two pages are a combat encounter. This has a chart showing roughly how difficult it will be depending on party size and level. The characters have to defend a couple of dragonborn children from sea spawn.
Pages from the Lost Grimoire – Seaspire / What Lurks Below in Review
The PDF lacks bookmarks and, although it is brief, these would have been useful. Navigation could therefore be better. The text maintains a two column full colour format and no errors were noticed. The only illustrations are duplicated from the separate pngs but, combined with these pngs, presentation is well above average for a supplement of this length.
As with all supplements in this series to date, there are two major areas. The first is Seaspire, which is described in enough detail to be useful, although it could of course be fleshed out more. With it being an island, it is easy to drop into most fantasy campaigns, as long as those use dragonborn. It could still be used otherwise, but would require more tweaking.
The combat encounter is just that – a combat encounter. There are no definite motivations given for the attack or anything else, although there are some suggestions into developing it further. As it stands, this is just a brief combat with some sea spawn; a GM who wants it to be more will need to spend more time developing it.
Pages from the Lost Grimoire – Seaspire / What Lurks Below contains a usable location and an adequate encounter and it can be checked out for free by clicking here.
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