The Lost Leagues / The Shadow Pearl

[Two orcs]

The Shade Pearl (The Lost Leagues)
Eyeball sized glass marble of unusual weight holding whirling white smoke. When uncovered and especially when held aloft it eats light cloaking the bearer in shadow (though not complete darkness). If already in darkness light from lanterns or infravision will not penetrate the darkness of the pearl. The peal is nearly indestructible and functions as a sling bullet+3, only if crushed against equipment of +3 enchantment (or similar) will it break.

If studied closely the smoke inside the pearl is revealed as clouds hanging over a miniature landscape of rolling forested mountains and a ruined castle. If you dress in bright colors and proclaim yourself light the pearl will absorb you into the pocket dimension called The Lost Leagues (roughly three 6-mile hexes in area), a barony removed from the world and put inside the pearl. It is now a monster haunted wood, dead if the pearl has been in the dark for too long or withered if thrown in a fire. The temperature will be warm whatever the state of the outside world. The state of their world is obvious to the inhabitants as the glassy ends of the world can be touched and peered through (dressing in black and proclaiming yourself shadow while touching the glass and you are thrown out). In the grand hall of the ruined castle rules the Howling Baron and his werewolf knights, if he is slain or if the pearl is destroyed The Lost Leagues regain the former size, inserting themselves back into the world with the ruined castle as the epicenter of where the pearl was.

I've been thinking about turning this into a proper mini-module.
Background: The Baron of Tarvale was a cruel and greedy man who eventuelly drove his subjects to rebellion. He and his men-at-arms put it down, still dripping with the blood of the rebels he adressed the assembled peasantry and cursed their thankless stingyness, swearing they and everything in his domain would remain with him forever. This turned him and his soldiers into werewolves and transformed the barony into the Pearl.

Situation: The people of Tarvale lived off of tar production. The baron has taxed every silver penny and ring and submerged them in a pool of tar, so that any would be slayer would be marked by it. In addition to his 30 werewolf knights a wolf pack also patrols the Leagues and they help the baron sadistically hunt down any real or imagined rebel, or invading adventurer. The baron still levies unfair taxes (nearly meaningless as there is no trade with the outside world) and those who can't pay have their relatives taken and devoured.

The dead in Tarvale do not find the afterlife. As the population and economy shrinks the woods reclaim the fields, the spirits of the dead reincarnate as anguished dryads in their image (perhaps inert trees wearing their faces?).

Necessary material to run:
Details on the weather, how the sky looks etc. in this bizarre dimension.
Details on The Howling Baron and his forces, The Curse, a map of the barony and the baron's stronhold.
Tactics of the Baron and his wolves, especially with regards to tracking and flushing out adventurers. Crossing streams to muddle tracks, fields of view in the valleys. Traitorous peasants?
How the peasants support the adventurers, a faction who likes the isolation the Pearl provides and wish to have the Baron imprisoned instead of slain.
Alternate solutions, what happens in the Barony is reintegrated into the world with the Baron alive? Would the Baron accept vassalage? Long term evolution of the Pearl if the situation isn't resolved. Timeline what happens if it is denied light to feed off. Can the peasants leave at all?
An abandoned hamlet (people seek to hide from the Baron), people who plan to slay the wolves (very illegal now, even self defense). The abandoned smithy where weapons could be silvered.

If you were to run this, what would you need or want?

 

[squeen]

Awesome side-dimension quest inside a magic item. Perfect!

I think the pearl-lands should lean heavily into fairy tale tropes. The villagers ultimately need to be sympathetic to endear themselves to the party. Maybe not just an abandoned village. One of the main adventure goals should be recovering silver to fight the werewolves.

Maybe a "light" economy.

A really,really great idea.

 

[Two orcs]

I figure the peasants make and stockpile torches, given the tar industry with nobody to export to, and their fear that the Pearl will end up someplace dark for a long time (which it probably has in the past, maybe harrowing tales of the deep sea or someone's belt pouch).

 

[Beoric]

One of the main adventure goals should be recovering silver to fight the werewolves.

Pretty tough since the Baron shut down the silver mines, and they are now infested with monsters.

All currency is now copper and gold, trying to pay in silver attracts unwanted attention.

Or you could change the werewolves to something else. This is sounding pretty close to a Ravenloft/Domains of Dread module.

 

[DangerousPuhson]

So, two orcs... your idea is Curse of Strahd, but with the vampires swapped out for werewolves? Because this sounds like pretty much like Curse of Strahd with the vampires swapped out for werewolves.

 

[squeen]

Don't let DP deter you. It's ALL been done before in once sense or another --- what matters is execution....the little details that fill out the game. An adventure inside a magic item is a wonderful premise.

 

[DangerousPuhson]

Don't let DP deter you. It's ALL been done before in once sense or another --- what matters is execution....the little details that fill out the game. An adventure inside a magic item is a wonderful premise.

Not trying to be mean about it. I point it out because things are just at the conception phase of the process, so your ideas have barely formed and are easy to change. The core is there. I like the whole werewolf and werewolf cronies seize power and confiscate silver - that's cool. But all the oppressing the peasantry who doesn't really die when they die stuff... that's been done before (to much critical acclaim and fanfare).

It's one thing to write an adventure that parallels, say, The Matrix or The Grinch Who Stole Christmas or whatever. You can get away with that. It's gonzo, it's not everyone's cup of tea, but it's acceptable. It's another thing entirely to write an adventure that parallels another existing adventure.

 

[Two orcs]

What's up with the peasants in CoS (never read it though I know the gist of it)?

 

[DangerousPuhson]

What's up with the peasants in CoS (never read it though I know the gist of it)?

They're trapped in the Realm under Strahd's tyranny and can't really die - they turn into "soulless husks". I suppose the most overlap comes from the whole "leader oppressing his people even beyond death, plus he's a supernatural monster" thing; nix that, and the comparison should fall away.

 

[Two orcs]

You begrudged me pennies! All the blood I shed for your safety yet you hide butter in bogs and silver in socks. I care not for taxes owed, you owe me your very lives! On my lance and lands, skin and hands, I swear to the deepest Hell that no serf, no sparrow not the light from a candle shall escape me! I own you now and forever! - Curse of the Howling Baron

Overburdened with taxes the peasants of Tarvale rose in rebellion against baron Alarik Tarvale who crucified the instigators and delivered the above curse to the assembled peasantry. The baron and his knights, still wet with the blood of rebels, were transformed into werewolves and the barony disappeared from the world and became the glass marble known as The Shadow Pearl.

Opening paragraphs.

 

[Two orcs]

Does this look reasonable and runnable?

Layout:
Table of contents
Intro and overview

Running the Adventure
How difficult is this adventure?
DM preparations
Encounters, timeline
Fallout

The Pearl itself (powers etc)
Selling it (or conquering it!)
How to introduce it and rumors

The Baron and the his knights
Stats
Strategy and tactics
Diplomacy
The Keep and its contents
The tar pit

The Lost Leagues
The weather and peculiarities of Tarvale
Different sectors (rough map) fields of view
The empty hamlet
Ghostwood (as terrain and fuel/material)
The People of Tarvale
Plans of rebellion
Support
Demographics and economy of Tarvale

Separate files
Encounters
Maps
Monster and NPC table in short form

 

[squeen]

I am a big fan of larger-view/maps first --- then zooming in to the details. I personally need the overview (vebal and visual) to get oriented/interested.

 

[Two orcs]

Right, I know myself to stop reading an adventure after a page or so if it doesn't catch me. What else draws you in other than maps and premise?

 

[DangerousPuhson]

What else draws you in other than maps and premise?

Style - the aesthetic of things, including art.
Popularity - good reviews, hype, brand recognition.
Cost - priced appropriately.
Ease to get - sometimes a single hoop to jump through can kill all enthusiasm.
Ease of use - if just by looking at the module, you can intuitively understand how it's supposed to "play out".
Innovation - the adventure feels different than others.
Interesting - if the premise sounds too exciting to pass up.

 

[squeen]

DP is right. But for me it's a two-step process.

If the presentation is particularly bad...then I have a hard time getting past that to the quality of content.

Bad presentation for me is almost always one-column. Long stream-of-conscious writing (like my forum posts) is also bad---unless its well-written and witty, i.e. immediately entertaining in and of itself.

If you use weird archaic language (looking at you Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea), it's a major turn-off.

If you don't show me the map first and just start telling me about all the details (so that I'm flipping back and forth to the back, trying to connect the words with a place). I will get irritated and give up unless I'm convinced by some other overriding input (possibly external, like a glowing review).

I don't care as much as DP about innovation --- simple, but done well works for me too.

 

[DangerousPuhson]

I don't care as much as DP about innovation --- simple, but done well works for me too.

But surely you can admit that some fresh take - something really unique - would pique your interest over, say, Generic Cave Adventure and its ilk?

 

[squeen]

Oh Yes! I can totally admit it's a plus. Without caveat...but (ok,one caveat) it's just not a deal-breaker for me.

 

[Beoric]

Have never published a module and likely never will, but here are my nonprofessional thoughts. Mostly I have questions.

I'm wondering if the grey lines are subheadings or just notes to yourself of what you want to include. Because if they are sections I am wondering if some of them are really necessary. "How difficult is this adventure?" and "DM Timeline" come to mind, as does the "Strategy and tactics" and
"Diplomacy" sections for the Baron, which you should usually be able to handle in a few lines.

I'm also wondering what kind of structure you want your adventure to have. Is the Keep section largely site based, or mostly social? The Lost Leagues looks like a hexcrawl or point crawl, is that right? Is the People of Tarvale section event based or social? You have a separate section for encounters, are these different from the encounters suggested by the other sections, and why?

 

[Two orcs]

It's going to be an "outdoors adventure" with hexes covering 10 minutes of foot travel. It's basically a cat & mouse game with the baron hunting the players who will travel between settlements to gather info and resources to defeat him. There will be patrols of wolves and knights who travel well in different terrains and have different capabilities to track you. The wolves have to be careful in settlements but the knights can just roll them over if they want to . It's not really a social adventure unless you can convince the baron to become your vassal as the peasants are ready to follow anyone they think has a shot at beating him. The Keep is a zoomed in map in case of assault, prison escape and of course sneaking in and taking the silver and other treasure under their noses.

 

[Beoric]

So, overland map with a few smallish location maps? Key the overland map, overland map references point you to sections with location maps and their keys?

Not sure how much backstory you really need. This is really an overland dungeon, the ordinary rules don't need to apply. I mean, the party enters it through a magic pearl, IIRC. The Baron doesn't need much of a reason, he is an immortal incarnation of the Petty Tyrant, hunting and tormenting his own people; small wonder he turns into a beast. You may defeat him now, but he will return unchanged the next time someone enters the pearl, or reaches his realm in some other way. He is a fey creature, evil by nature. The tar is the essence of the trees which he destroys in his unending lust for land and domination (essentially wood tar and possibly creosote production), poisoning the land and his people.

The people plot rebellions, which are ruthlessly crushed; that is, until a stranger(s) enters the land and leads them to victory. Which lasts until the stranger(s) dies or leave, and the Baron is reborn from the well of blood and tar in the bowls of the Keep, which can never truly be cleansed..