The Ghosts of Aniel, NPC Closeup

The Ghosts of Aniel is another of the free adventures available on the WOTC website. It's a very short, 5-page adventure for four 6th-level characters. It takes place in a small elven hamlet in the forest, and it appears to be both abandoned and haunted. Needless to say, the PCs are going to be asked to investigate.

The background tells of an elf wizard named Navae, who is obsessed with his master's magical gemstone. Despite being told to stay away from it, Navae secretly looks for forbidden lore and...oh, come on! Seriously? He ends up worshiping Lolth?! That's two adventures this month with elves going all pale drow on us. What is with this trend? Lolth is bad, remember, guys? Sworn enemy to all surface elves and all that? Good Lord, that's irritating.

Anyway, Navae tries to steal the gemstone but is caught by his master and by the local hunter Tarlen, and while the master is killed by a phase spider's bite, Tarlen kills Navae. Dying, the elf clutched the magical gemstone and promises to curse the village. Three days later, the whole village found themselves trapped on the ethereal plane, with Navae's ghost and his pet phase spiders terrorizing them. Now their only hope is the PCs.

When the PCs get to the village, one of two things will happen. If they can detect ethereal creatures, they will see the elves, who will excitedly tell them what happened and beg them to help. If they can't see the elves, then they'll find a deserted village with no signs of violence or bodies anywhere. If they can see the elves, that will make things a lot easier for them. But either way, the ghost of Navae will attack them ethereally along with his phase spiders.

If the PCs are still blind to the elves, Navae will then manifest as an elf and claim the magic gem can restore the village and end the curse; the other elves will say the same thing if the PCs can see them, and they will have the advantage of knowing about the trap on the gem's container. It turns out the gem has a single wish remaining, and it can be used by the PCs to restore the villagers to normal, or it can be used by the ghost to possess one of the characters permanently, effectively killing them off and putting a Lolth-worshiping elven spirit into their body. The first outcome would be the preferred one.

If I hadn't read the Cliffhanger earlier, I might have been okay with this brief adventure. But I just can't. Two adventures released four days apart have the same type of antagonist behind everything, a surface elf worshiping Lolth. I realize that this month is Elf Month for WotC, but come on, people. A rogue elf can still be evil without worshiping Lolth. The repetitive nature of this is going to get a thumbs down from me. I would play one of these, but not both, and I like the Tower of Lore better.

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The second article released on this day is from the NPC Closeup archive. It's Shanlena, the Gnome Loremaster. There isn't a lot to say about her; she's a bookworm gnome who is a 7th-level diviner and 6th-level loremaster, making her a 13th-level caster. She would make an excellent sage character to advise PCs if they are looking to solve some archaic puzzle. She is definitely not a combat monster; her spells are mostly divinations and defensive spells. She does have a prismatic spray in her back pocket, though, so she isn't exactly defenseless.

So, there's not much to this one. Just a useful NPC who isn't trying to kill the PCs, which is a refreshing thing to note. We have a few days before the next online release, so I'm going to go through the next Dragon magazine next. As mentioned, it's all about elves. Stay tuned.