The Hive Under Eisenstead

By Drew Collins
Living Past Games
B/X
Levels 2-4

Below the silver mines of Eisenstead, an underground structure was just uncovered. Something killed the mining crew; now the mines are closed, costing the crown a fortune every day. A powerful wizard is en route to resolve the crisis… but until he arrives, there’s an opportunity for some brave or desperate nobodies to find their fortunes and make a name for themselves.

This 48 page adventure uses about 27 pages to describe a three level dungeon with about seventy rooms. All three levels play different from each other, with a decent amount of interactivity. This is supplemented by town events and writing style which is not overly terrible. It FEELS a little devoid of joy because of that, but I don’t think it is. A nice little romp in a dungeon!

I see a lot of garbage adventures and I think I go pretty easy on them. Then I see something that JUST misses the mark and suddenly I’m ripping it apart. I suspect that I see the potential, an understanding of what makes a decent D&D game and thus I am picking apart the aspects, and nits, that are preventing it from being a rock star level adventure. 

This adventure is doing something with, oh, the context in which the adventure is taking place let’s call it. Sometimes this kind of shows up in adventures as events in town, or a dungeon with Situations instead of just encounters. That context, not overwrought, lets us turn Palace of the Vampire Queen in to more than just a series of encounters. If an adventure is well written then you can add this context in some terse statements. In this adventure we have a basic setup. Silver miners found a brick wall, broke through, and a bunch of them got slaughtered. Now there’s no more silver coming out of the mine. What do we do about this? We’ve seen a set up like this a thousand thousand times. The town has a Mr Victor Smalls running the mine on behalf of the king. Oh, wait, no, Victor smalls JUNIOR. His dad was a dick, he’s determined to do better, and is now bogged down in bitterness and ruthlessness. Jesus man, talk about the cycle of violence. I fucking love it. But wait! In three days some mercenaries show up in town, a rival party. Who can ally with any enemies the party have made by then. Or get hired by Victor. There’s a wedding in town on day six. Also, the bride has tossed an engagement ring. And drama about the chick marrying a common miner, someone lower class than her. And a debt collector showing up to hassle the tavern owner who is therefore motivated to keep the inn and mine open.. And, then, on day nine, Hector Thriangulum, a ninth level wizard, shows up with a group of level 4-7 fighters, he cordons off the mine, and starts raiding, sent by the king to sort the fucking mess out. This is a huge amount going on back in town, at the home base. Deadlines. Motivations. Rivals. All related to the mine. All supplementing the choices the party makes in the mine. This is excellent. Think of the push your luck elements in D&D. The wandering monster table. Resource consumption in the adventure. Driving the adventure forward. Go! Go! Go! Or suffer. And, the events back in town, the context in which the adventure is taking place, supplements this. Driving the party forward. Providing reactions and actions to their choices in the mines. 

And then the mine, proper. Or, rather, the dungeon under the mine, through the brick wall. We’ve got a drop down situation, with ropes through the ceiling. All three levels are distinctly different vibes. The first level has 12 HD golem roaming around, a blind one. This is what slaughtered the miners, if they made noise. Which questioning the one survivor back in town would give a slight hint to. All he knows is that he cowered in the corner with his eyes closed and when he opened them it was gone and his friends were torn apart. The party isn’t told, but is only hinted at. Note that it’s 12 HD. This isnt a monster as much as a puzzle. Every time you penetrate the dungeon you’re going to have to deal with this first level and the fucking golem. Back and forth, up and down. Making things harder are Torment And False Hope, some illusionary creatures who are interacting with the party on what is mostly a dead level, with things to discover and poke at. It was a prison, and they were interrogators. Man, False Hope as an interrogation technique? This thing is hitting close to home. But it’s not the usual magical prison garbage. So, level one, explore and avoid the golem, each time you’re here.

Levels two has kobolds and mushroom people  engaged in a struggle for control, with some gnomes, the original dungeon inhabitants, having returned to try to reclaim it also. Almost everyone here talks to the party. They have goals, wiping out the others, etc. Thus, some social play, with alliances, and then pitched battles. And then level three, the domain of the kobolds and their leader: a dragon. Who is not a dragon anymore but a  nine HD hive creature. Oops, I guess thats why there’s a bee reference here and there in the adventure, for those who were paying attention. DId you make friends on level two? Are they gonna help you on level three? Are they gonna help you when you all find 250,000 silver pieces, and all the other loot, in the literal dragons hoard? Or are all bets off? Do you have to drag it out again past that 14HD golem, or did you find a solution … some of which are in the dungeon for those paying attention. The adventure is constructed. Things in one area could, explicitly or implicitly, be used to solve problems elsewhere. Situations abound, in addition to whatever the specifics are in the room you are in. Good fucking job.

In addition to these larger situations there are some things going on in the dungeon beyond combat and social. Traps, puzzles and so on. Things for the party to figure out, which EVERY party loves. I swear to god, if you let them figure out 1+1=2 then they will be thrilled. Every single party. Every time. 

To the Bitchmobile boy wonder! 

Keys do tend to be long and use a formatting style which I think detracts from the overall effects of the rooms. This extends to the town encounters as well as the dungeon rooms. There’s this attempt to organize well but I think it causes a kind of wall of text effects and the overall impact is a set of kind of glazed over eyes. It’s using a kind of bullet point style exclusively for all text, with supplemental bolded text and nesting of bullets. This makes the entire thing more than a little busy. I suspect a more traditional opening paragraph overview combined with bolded bullets later with more information would have worked better. There are weird implications to the style chosen, like important things almost a column away from the room start because there was, say, a desk in the middle that got eight bullet sentences inset. EVENTUAL:LY yu drop down to the green parrot head on the wall, or some such. 

Things get a little long, superfluous things get included, I think the effects is exaggerated because the format/layout styles chosen. It’s organized, but, also, its a pain in the ass. Also, I think it robs the rooms, areas, and people of their charm. There’s no opportunity to build up a room because of the way nested bullet points work. The net effect is a certain amount of dryness that comes through. It doesn’t seem to have that joy of life that good room entries have. Further, the selected style, of the various intrigues being in their own entries rather than, say, up front and summarized, doesn’t really put things together well. It’s as if you are hunting all over the place to get the entire story. We could, I think, combine this with a few other obvious things missing, such as perhaps an OOB for the final level and/or some general outlines, a sentence or two, for things happening on level two, generally, as the four or five groups, the kobolds, the mushroom men, the gnomes, the party, and potentially the other party, try to work their designs. Just a sentence or two, much as it did in the town and in other areas.

I think this is a pretty remarkable adventure. The town is a good supportive town. The three dungeon levels vary wildly, and the overall design of how they work together is pretty good. Notes and a highlighter can only take you so far though in saving something. The formatting, combined with SOME padding, and a kind of malaise in the room descriptive text really sucks the enthusiasm out of the room. Drew has done a good job here, especially for a first adventure. 

This is $10 at DriveThru. The preview is 22 pages and shows you a lot of the encounters. Great preview.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/584747/the-hive-under-eisenstead?1892600