Well, this was a little different for me attempting to review this module. First of all, as you can see, it wasn't a module from a native speaker of English. However, this didn't pose a problem as the author helpfully provided the opportunity for me to choose my language right at the start. A nice touch and I'm always humbled when someone bothers to add another language to their own to make it easier for others to play. 

(Before going any further can I apologise for the scary Orc in some of the pictures below? The first time I played the module I was foolish enough to pick it as the PC).

The author says in his introduction that he wrote this module some time ago for his children. It's a "little Adventure without any fights" he says.  And he is true to his word. This module has no combat with the central characters being a group of kids that the PC comes across. They are playing in a slightly eerie looking setting near a graveyard and the PC is tasked with obtaining some firewood for them from that graveyard, then later helping them find the adult who was looking after them.

The kids don't have much in the way of character but that didn't matter. This struck me as a "getting used to the toolset"  sort of module with lots of pointing and clicking, a few quests, simple amounts of reading and no danger. There were gravestones in the graveyard ( why wouldn't there be?) and also the odd ghost or two but they aren't hostile and I don't think kids would find the setting scary. 

All sounds fine so far but if I'm honest I was quite frustrated at the start of this for a number of reasons. The first is that the main area is HUGE. I know this as, not wanting to get any spoilers beforehand, I jumped straight into it without looking at it in the toolset and explored the area directly in game: almost half an hour later I was still running around aimlessly, totally lost. Yes, I had found a couple of bits of road and followed them but neither led to a transition and ( probably just my bad luck) I hadn't even come across the children. Even when I did, I promptly managed to lose them as I had assumed there would be map pins for locations I had been to but there weren't and most of the module takes place in almost darkness which prevented me from seeing much in front of me. 

Memo to adult - Stick to the road !

Ok, with that out of my system ( I hate modules where I'm running around looking for something to do) I have to say that once I found the kids it improved quite a bit. I enjoyed finding the firewood for them and especially lighting the fire as they all leapt up and surrounded the fire.  Make sure you pick up the tinderbox as well as the logs for the fire - I missed it first time around.  Without giving too much away I also started to grasp what the author was trying to do and it started to make sense with a couple more quests, including some characters kids would like. 

It was only when I opened the module afterwards in the toolset that I realised what a labour of love this must have been for the author. An impressive  number of scripts behind the scenes just adding little touches to the story. However, I use the term l "opened" loosely here because although the module itself opened in my toolset, it crashed as soon as I tried to open anything within it - scripts, areas or even properties. Not sure why but this prevented me from checking if I had missed anything important.

Given the size of the initial area and the lack of visual clues at the start I would say this would be best played with an adult sitting beside a child, doing some of the movement and maybe prompting so the kid doesn't wander off ( like I did)!  It is probably also aimed at the lower end of the age range, possibly old enough not to be spooked by the graveyard but young enough not to need some of the extra things like chests, rewards etc. I do think it might have been  nice if the author had given thought to planting chests with shiny things inside throughout the initial area. (There are a few later in another area). If the kid gets lost at least they feel they are gathering something. There are also a lot of animals wandering about but none of them have a conversation which might have been interesting. 

Anyway, eventually I'm sent off to find the adult in charge of the children who has gone missing while on a shopping trip and the first stop is the orphanage.  This led to a colourful encounter with some magical characters and onto another quest. I left it there so you will have to find the lost adult yourself . . .

Positives - By the end I was getting into this module and it's simple feel. It is well put together and pitched around helping children which would appeal to youngsters. The quests are non-threatening but satisfying, there are enough areas to keep them interested and it would be a good introduction to point-and-click with no pressure on being able to move or turn quickly. As I've said, I got a buzz out of lighting the fire for the kids  due to the way they quickly gathered round the flames ( just radial menu once you have the firewood but there is something else you need to light the fire, if you catch my drift - I missed it first time around ). I also like the way it wouldn't let me light the fire on the wooden structure they were sitting on! The quests were simple enough and there were enough clues in the dialogue or in game to keep you right. 

Less so - This is harder to assess. Because I'm reviewing all these kids' modules I tend to leap in and see what's there. This doesn't pay dividends here. If I had stuck to, and checked, all the roads first I would have found the kids earlier and after that the quests flow nicely. However, for any youngster approaching this on their own, the initial area is far too big with almost no visual clues. Even revealing all the important spots via map pins would have been fine for the younger kids. I wonder, if the adult with them doesn't steer them to the kids early on, if they wouldn't need a little more to keep them interested?  It could be easily done as I've said, with chests to open, animals to talk to or strange/ humorous characters to talk to. This would maybe make a decent introduction to NWN for a younger person with an adult beside them. I wouldn't suggest thoroughly examining the initial area as there isn't a lot to interact with once you have found the kids. 

One final point. The last quest, to find the lost adult, left me confused. I was instructed to go north and found a road leading north which I assumed led to the village where I would find her. However, for me at least, the road doesn't have a working transition. I went back and checked all along the north edge of the area but couldn't find anything. Maybe if someone can get the module to load in the toolset ( I work on a Mac using Crossover but it's unusual for something like this not to work) they can PM me with the ending ?  

This module was last updated in 2015 and can be found on the Vault here.