The second entry in the Desert of Desolation series, which started out with I3: Pharaoh, this is a pretty good module that shows off Hickman’s more storytelling focused approach to the game. This was already the case with the previous module in the series but it is even more so here.

Interestingly, this isn’t exclusively a Hickman module, Tracy being brought in to re-write Meyer’s module to fit it into the ongoing Desert of Desolation plot line. Here the adventurers get to face the effects of their actions in the previous module and have to basically clean up their mess.

So, what happened was that they accidentally released an Efreet that is wreaking havoc and kidnapping princesses, so in a There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly kind of twist the adventurers have now to release a Djinn to hunt the Efreet and make everything right… well at least until I5 comes out. With some innovative roleplaying aids like a section with a description of NPC behaviour and personalities this is a sign of more famous story focused modules to come from the Hickmans, with Ravenloft this year and Dragonlance the next.