Review: Heart of the Forbidden Forge

Normally I dont pay much mind to the Dungeon adventures, mostly due to a lack of time. This one is set in Eberron, so I decided to make an exception...and I kind of wish I hadnt. Aside from Planescape, Eberron is really the only campaign setting that I give two shits about, and I'm looking forward to picking up the book next week so I can read up on the 2-3 pages that werent already posted online.

Spoiler alert!

Heart of the Forbidden Forge is an adventure pegged for a level 7 party that picks up where Seekers of the Ashen Crown leaves off, just in case you bought past adventures from Wizards and actually ran them. The gist of it is that someone finds a creation forge near Darguun, but rather than go back and alert the big wigs up top decides to try and loot it for herself so that she can go back, show them what she found, and get fame, fortune, and etcetera.
Of course, she cant do this on her own, no siree! She hires a bunch of hobgoblins who totally swear not to betray her at the drop of a hat. The twist? They do. Its then up to the players to head into the creation forge, ruin their day, steal their shit, and kill the warforged dragon at the end.

So, pretty typical, really.

The background section is...extensive. I think it could use more than a bit of organization and editing, as it reads more like footnotes that the author was writing for himself than something professional. The rest of the adventure is adequate for a dungeon crawl. There are a few creative elements to be found inside, but mostly its pretty standard fare: there are rooms, things are in these rooms, you can kill these things and go to other rooms. I think the best part of the layout is that the first floor is circular, so that at least for awhile its not quite so linear.
Its got an interesting selection of new monsters, which that and new magic items is mostly the reason I still read Dungeon: prototype warforged models, an iron cobra, and some new hobgoblins (including a dirge singer) will be welcome additions to my own Eberron games. Its just a pity that I have zero compulsion to use the rest of it.