Mystery of the Soulless Dead is a murder mystery adventure by Marieke and Michal Cross, aka Crossover, for a first-level party.

Disclaimer: We were provided with a free digital copy of this product.

Story

Taking place in the desert city of Teriq, this is a sandbox adventure. It begins with the party being contacted by a priest of Kelemvor to investigate a pair of murders – normally an everyday occurrence in the cutthroat streets of Teriq, but these ones are unusual: the victim’s souls are missing, seemingly erased from existence.

The players must investigate the murder scenes, the victim’s homes, talk to various persons of interest, and probably get into some fights along the way. The authors mention it’s designed for 1-2 sessions, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it takes a lot more than that – not because it’s hard to follow, but because there’s an amazing amount of information and details your players can delve into. There are 10 locations and more than 30 NPCs, and a deep plot with lots of backstory and lore behind it for them to investigate and uncover, ending up with a sinister infernal cult and an even more sinister plot that makes its way towards Silverymoon – paving the way for an upcoming supplement continuing the story.

Art, Layout, and Extras

There’s plenty of art sprinkled throughout, including several portraits, illustrated letters and coded messages you can print to hand out, and of course, detailed maps of the city and locations of interest. There are also tons of boxed text that help you with exposition, as well as providing a ton of details. I particularly appreciate the fact that there is a page in the intro with all of the key plot points that makes it very easy to keep track of what’s happening, as well as an appendix with a list of all the NPCs and the most pertinent information about them. Finally, there are also files included for VTTs, such as tokens and, again, maps.

Final Thoughts

Mystery of the Soulless Dead is an amazing adventure with a ton of effort put into it, and it shows. It’s perfect to get a break from high-octane action with some investigation, and especially if you want to introduce relatively new players to that aspect of DnD.