The Hidden Citadel

By ND Hobbies, Ulises Martinez, Mauricio Rosel
ND Hobbies
1e
Levels 7-9

In the majestic dwarven capital of Runekaatara, the miners’ guild has made an unprecedented discovery. What are these dwarven miners hiding from the city authorities, and why are they desperately seeking the help of a group of adventurers who have just arrived in the capital? In The Hidden Citadel, adventurers will embark on a classic dungeon-crawling subterranean adventure to discover the secrets that an ancient citadel holds, the dangers that protect these secrets, and the reason why the citadel fell into disgrace in the first place

This 32 page adventure is a simple hack on a simple simple map with underpowered monsters and a weird tonal imbalance. Grist for the gristmill.

The cover blurb here says “A group of mining dwarves found the remains of an old and forgotten underground city. Everything indicates that it is a lost and ancestral citadel of dwarven origin.” So, of course the heads of the dwarf mining guild, in the dwarf capitol city, looking for the dwarf ancestral citadel of dwarven origin, hires non-dwarves to go find it. Also, the dwarf ancestral capitol and origin is like six levels, each with, I don’t know, about six rooms? Anyway, we’re gonna forget about all of that and look at the rest of the adventure.

So you end up in dwarflandia and in the marketplace you overhear shit like  “The governor doesn’t have to find out” “They say the pay is crazy” “It’s the discovery of the century, whoever goes there will be remembered forever” “What if Is there something down there?” and most importantly “They are in the Anvil tavern. Shall we venture?” This is from people in the market, all members of the miners guild, who beat the characters away from them. But, also, direct them to the Miners Guild inn if they need a place to stay. I do like the overheard snippets of conversation; it smacks of the in-voice rumor tables that I love that I think add a lot of color and framing for a DM to play off of. Arriving at the inn a dwarf, who turns out to be the guildmaster in disguise, drops a bag of gold in front of the party while passing through the room. If you return it to him then you’re honest and he wants you to go on the adventure. If you steal it then it shows daring and he wants you to go on the adventure. If you ignore it then a thief picks it up and runs over the parties table to get out, no doubt prompting the party to intervene, which shows the parties [something] and the guildmaster wants you to go on the adventure. Tell me again, is the illusion of choice a good thing or a bad thing in an adventure? I guess it’s just the hook. Hey, also, they only want 10% of the loot you find in the ancient dwarven capitol origin. For realisies. Anyway, we’re gonna forget about all of that and look at the rest of the adventure.

I’ve mentioned that the map levels are rather small. Five rooms on a level, six rooms on a level. One has like thirteen rooms, an anomaly. They are done in a faux-art style so you’ve got cracks in the stonework and so on. The end result is that it’s hard to make out doorways and other features that you need to run the adventure. What’s a portcullis? What’s a door? What’s an open doorway? Good luck to you. Level entry/exits are not the clearest, from the maps, but there is an “overview” map in the back that has all of the levels on it and has some lines showing stairs from one location going to entry on another floor, so, that helps. But, also, putting it on the single page maps would have been better. The text says things like “ Room 2 is locked behind a closed portcullis and only accessible through Room 1.” Uh … no? Yes? Technically? The adventure seems to do this a lot. In another place we’re told “To continue delving into the dungeon, the adventurers will have to open the titanium gates that block the way to the Great Stairs.” Uh. I’m level nine? So, I guess the meaning of the text is that ONE of the room two entries has a portcullis in front of it and the other entrance is just open, the one from room one. It’s a strange way of writing it though. I’m sure there are EASL issues here, which I generally give a wide allowance for, but I think in this case it’s something else. It’s something like a lack of acknowledgement that you can go through the portcullis? Or the gates to the stairs to level two? There are no additional details, like bend bars/lift gates, or spells or anything. Which I guess you don’t need, it’s just a weird phrasing. Over and over again. Anyway, we’re gonna forget about all of that and look at the rest of the adventure.

Looking at the enemies we’ve got a two hit die ooze. And a one hit die giant rat. ONE one hit die rat and ONE two hit die ooze. Eventually you get to fight like FIVE two hit die creatures. There’s a 4 hit die ghost. What’s the turning rules again? TWO three hit die orbs? There’s a gold golem. I guess he’s seven hit die. The boss is a twelver. I understand that we normally look at dungeon encounters that are tough, and give the “it’s OSR, run away” answer, but I’m not sure what we do in the opposite direction? There is the usual “doors slam shut’ stuff. Anyway, we’re gonna forget about all of that and look at the rest of the adventure.

Writing is dull. The usual padding. “This room has several armored corpses, which in the past were dwarven guards.” THIS ROOM HAS is all padding. And then we run in to the usual historical survey of what the room was. It’s dull, long, multi paragraph with little in the way of formatting to help scan and run the adventure. Interactivity is generally stabbing something or a trap or “pull the two levels on the level to unlock the door to the next level.” I mentioned a gold golem earlier. Here is the entirety of that room: “This room is filled with gold and valuables, as if the noble dwarves had put their riches here to protect them in desperation. If someone takes a coin, several of them take on a humanoid form and will turn into a gold golem that protects this treasure.. Upon death, the golem becomes 355 gold coins.” That’s it. Nothing more. What do you think filled with gold and valuables means? 355 gold coins? Does it seem weird to mention the 355? Everything is like this. Missing information. Dull writing. Lengthy writing that leads to nothing. Anyway, we’re gonna forget about all of that and look at the rest of the adventure.

And then the tone changes, in one place. “This room is full of bags and suitcases, all arranged in a pile. Inside the suitcases there are souvenirs, family portraits, letters, and books. Everything is mundane, but each object represents someone who died in this place.” Uh …. The next room has a bunch of people in it, skeletons, bodies. Children sitting on mothers laps. People huddled. With the marks of slit wrists where they all killed themselves. Jesus man! So, yeah, there’s an emotional impact there. The antechamber, with the luggage, clearly is culturally overloaded. A mass suicide scene would not have as much impact as a mass suicide scene with some hints beforehand to really foreshadow and bring home the horror. “And we looted it?!” It’s the Lareth principal, done right. But, also, Jesus man! Here I was just killing rats and oozes and stabbing shit and pulling levers and you dump this on the players? But, whatever, it was good design even if tonally it is out of place.

There are also a few decent art pieces in this. Good art, in an adventure,helps the DM run the adventure. It helps clarify a room, or sets the mood for them, helping them riff on it. It’s evocative. David Arcila and Diana Rex are credited. I don’t know which one it is but I like them  for the purpose of inspiring the adventure. A nice barrier peaks vibe to it, that pulls you in. It’s not all the art, maybe four pieces or so, but those are good.

So, just kind of  generic adventure for the most part. Nothing very stand out in the writing or the room interactivity, with a notable exception. I’m not overly upset by it, but it’s just another of the large number of marginally poor adventures that flood the market.

This is $5 at DriveThru. There’s no preview, but you do get to see some page layout on the product marketing page. It needs a real preview, that shows real rooms, so potential buyers can get a read on if they want to purchase it or not.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/482182/hidden-citadel?1892600