Categories: Level 2ReviewsThe Best

Manic in the Monastery

By Will Jarvis
Inverted Castle press
OSR
Levels 2-4

The sun-bleached buildings of the monastery huddle atop sheer sandstone cliffs. As night falls, flashes of vividly colored lights can be seen from the valley below, and frenzied voices are carried on the wind. The monks have not been seen in weeks; their fervent preachers, normally a fixture in town, are absent and their renowned casks of ale have been sorely missed on market day. Something is very wrong at Silver Shroud Monastery.

This 26 page adventure presents a two level monastery with about 35 rooms in the process of falling to madness. It’s a delightful mix of encounters with something to do in most places, described fairly well, and easy enough to follow. The quality level I expect, in a good way, from just another Tuesday night.

The framing here is relatively interesting. The temple-city of Mitosu disappeared over a thousand years ago. Ruled by the Veiled Emperor the One True God, it’s return is foretold to be a sign of the end times. It’s been raining nonstop for weeks now. No one has heard from the monks up at the monastery in the nearby mountains. They don’t come in to town to rant at folk or even to trade their ale. People who have gone up to see haven’t come back. Whelp, looks like maybe the city HAS returned. A crack has opened under the monastery, with an portal and an alien tree. “Fed by nightmares of the floating city’s slumbering denizens, its roots have grown deep, cracking and warping the ancient passageways.” Oh, and turning most of the monks insane. Not necessarily murderous though. Te stakes here are relatively low, it’s just some monks for the most part. You’re not saving the world or anything. But, also, a series of interconnected adventures framed by the floating cities return would be a pretty cool idea for an adventure path sort of thing. No real railroad, just a bunch of shit all kind of linked from the same root cause and the campaign ending in the city? Cool. I’m not sure that’s what this is doing, but the framing here was both specific enough to come up with an idea for it and open-ended enough that I could see it could possibly not be a railroad. Decent campaign idea if its going there, and perhaps a model for how to do OSR adventure paths? [

Also, as an aside, which costs more, the ale or the barrel used to transport it? If you bring a cask in to town to see, are you selling just the ale and taking the cask home again to reuse? I think so? Anyone can make shitty ale from anything but a cooper makes casks, meaning it must be the product of skilled labour? Anyway, just wondering]

Nice to lead the monks with their descriptions. And good “peled with food” encounter

Inside the monastery we;ve got some mad monks, who are not necessarily immediately hostile, some sane monks of various sorts. (The blind guy. The meditative guy. The FOCUSED guy) There’s some villagers who’ve wandered one. A chick looking for illicit lover monk boyfriend. The local sheriff and his men, terrified. And the there’s some alien mind worms and nightmares-made real kicking it also. There’s also wells to climb down, chasms to cross, statues to pull arms of, and TONS of other shit to do. It feels like every room has something interesting init. Not just something to do, like stabbing shit, but something interesting to interact with. “Entrancing smells of simmering aromatics. Towers of dirty dishes caked in grease are stacked everywhere. Brother Aeron (HP 11) warmly greets anyone entering the kitchen. He is stirring a massive stew pot and wears a stained blue robe over his bulky frame.” Wants to cook for you. Reacts angry if you refuse. Also, hates the fucking brewer-monk, but wants some his ale. He knows a secret … I’m really down for the variety here. Stabbing. Talking. Statues. Other little puzzlybits. Exploration. A really fine mix for so few rooms, without it feeling … trite? Blase? “Standard?” And nothing here is like a set piece or anything. Well, there’s the final room, but those always kind of get a pass. Anyway, it’s just a great mix of solid interactivity. So we’ve got this kind of “oh no, weve not heard from the monks!” plot thing maybe as a framing but the interactivity feels like it belongs in an exploratory adventure. Which is fucking fantastic! Little vignettes and situations. “3 mad monks carrying a 4th tied to a stretcher who frantically claims he isn’t crazy.” says the wandering monster table. Great! “4 ghouls wearing monks robes pretending to be sick and asking for help.” I’m down!

Obvious trouble, tempting the party. And a nice wy to find a holy relic

The map is pretty good. Decent loops for it’s size, multiple entrances to the levels. Some verticality to it for more interesting play possibilities. Maybe a little “hallway with rooms hanging off it”, especially on the second level, but the vertical element adds to it. You get little mini-maps throughout the text to help run the specific areas you’re in. I get it, but, also, I run from the map behind the screen. Maybe that’s a digital age thing? And, I think that the little side-view art piece of the compound could have been bigger and more prominently displayed. It’s a little, ? of a page piece? It helps a lot with understanding the vibe and layout and the level one map and should have been larger and more centrally displayed.

This is how people act in real life. it enhances the adventure

That cook monk? He’ll slash your face with a pan of hot oil. How’s that?! WHo hasn’t wanted to include a deep fryer basket as an attack! I love it when adventures get visceral like that. It pulls you out of the d&d abstraction. Oh, look, another club. Nah man, it’s the claw end of a claw hammer! You get stabbed! Nah, he’s using a bloody screwdriver as a shiv! This turning of the somewhat generic abstraction of the rote of D&D play in to a something more, breaking out of the cycle.

And yet, it covers the waterfall, and the monster in it, and the hole at the bottom of the well. And brain eating worms sucking out brains. And something in the bottom of the latrine. Classic tropes, but done well, and proving the good definition of ‘classic.’ The Magic items have some decent variety, although they may be a little strong for level 2’s. Turn things to glass. Read magic glasses. But, also, a Syrup of Ipecac potion. And, at least according to the adventure notes, enough loot to level a party of 4 from 1-2 levels. Hmmm, maybe a little too much loot then? And, there’s a fucking journal. It’s the abbots, so, yeah, I guess he does keep records. But I’m so knee-jerky about diaries. I just wish a different manner had been used. The text gets long in places and yet could use a little more … “The air inside the case appears cloudy. Opening it releases poisoned gas with a garlicy odor that swiftly fills the room. Save versus Poison or take 1d4 dmg/Round for 6 Rounds.” I like most of this, but I’d love a “coughing up your jellified lungs” at the end. And a little less “opening it” and “swiftly fills the room.” Yeah, it’s a fucking trap, I got it. Give me some inspiration. (Although, I guess, swiftly filling could be seen as that.)

But, overall, a pretty decent adventure. A good Tuesday night game to play. We’re not changing the world here, but its very very solid. And, in the end, that’s all I really want. Something solid.

This is $5 at DriveThru. The preview is twelve pages, shows the map some intro, several rooms. GREAT preview.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/532562/manic-at-the-monastery?1892600

Bryce Lynch

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View Comments

Peltast says:

November 12, 2025 at 9:34 am

Very much back of the envelope:

In the 15th century a skilled labourer like a cooper might earn as much as a shilling, and knock out as many as a dozen barrels in a day. So ballpark 1d/barrel in labour costs, plus fees, expenses, whatever.

In the same century a gallon of ale in London, presumably good quality, cost 2d. A barrel-size cask would hold 32 gallons, so that's 5s 4d (which is surprisingly high to me). Even if you quarter that for trash ale and quadruple the labour cost for the final price of the barrel, the ale is worth four times as much as the barrel.