With the Cult of Crimson Revelers’

By directsun
Self Published
Knave2
Level 2

The viscount’s son has been kidnapped. The worst is feared when a ransom paid does not return the son. But could the truth be far darker – or wilder – than anyone suspects? See what actually happens! The win, smoke and forbidden potions flow freely in a reckless spree of medieval excess. It’s a whirlwind of power, pleasure, and peril. WIll they survive the highs, or lose their souls to drug-crazed abandon!

This sixteen page adventure details about eighteen rooms in six pages inside of a cave complex that is an old cult site full of horny ghosts and hand abominations. It wants to be a frat party with monsters in the basement and a portal to elsewhere. It’s not that at all.

Ok, dudes son was kidnapped and not returned when the ransom was paid. Some drunks bought a bunch of booze at a rural bar with the ransom gems. You’re sent in to get the son back. It’s obvious, I think, that the son is behind everything, just from that summary. You track them back to a small cave system that once housed a drunken cult. Inside are the drunk and drugged up youths and a bunch of friendly spirits that are going to eat their souls.  You have to destroy the body of the high priest spirit, which you get at by going to a demiplane like place inside the mouth and over the tongue of a giant head that talks to you. Fun! 

The magic items here are pretty decent. A jar of pupae that when ate turn you in to a horsefly for a turn. A small silver gorilla status that, when shaken, hoots more and more until an irritated angry gorilla pops out. Now THATS how you write a figurine of wondrous power! The most abusable is a jade frog that turns you in to a bullfrog when you kiss it. I’m not a big fan of mechanics but that one may need some limits, although seeing Ra turn in to a bullfrog would be cute.

There’s also an encounter or two that is decent. “Shelves full of tomes and trinkets cover the east and west walls. A massive openmouthed head fills the north, saturating all in oppressive red light.” And then the tongue A thick, curvy tongue drapes limply over her chin, resting on a dark altar” There’s more. The head is alive and speaks and tells you you would be much more comfortable inside of the mouth. Walk right up on the tongue! You can see inside … a mystical realm/room awaits! That’s a nice little vignette. There’s a great piece of artwork also, of ono the monsters, a combination of many many arms and hands. It gives very creepy vibes. 

Alas, our time with the positive has come to an end …

I hate it when I have to validate the views of the prols. This is using a bullet point type format slightly reminiscent of other bullet/bolded formats. And it’s bad. It’s not bad because of the bullet format; the starting with a couple of short sentences and then expanded upon on certain things with section headings with bullets. It’s bad because it’s not very evocative at all and the choices for both language and subject, on what to expand upon are not well made. If we assume the platonic form of a format that is not going to save an adventure that implements it badly. And, in this, it’s done poorly. The initial text tends to the purple side of the spectrum. “Sounds of snores harmonize with the gentle undulations of a colossal humanoid—their over-sized limbs draped languidly over a Barrel.” I’m afraid this is a critical case of thesaurus syndrome. We must imagine a scene and then try to describe it, not just pick out words from the dictionary. And then we tend to get bullets that expand on mechanics or some slavish minutia. The major heading of Ratbird Nest then tells us, in the first indented bullet, that “?Grape-sized, veiny eggs. Silhouettes are visible throughbtranslucent shells.” and then we get another level of indentation and bullets with “? Ratbird eggs (12).” We’re engaged in post-modernism at this point, with bullets, bolding and indents just for the sake of having them, as Moe would say.

In another example we have a back entrance to the place: “On the south side of the rocky hill is a three-foot-diameter dug-out hole that tunnels through the earth. HOLE ?Handprints in the loose earth. ? Made by Pluckerfiends (p. 14). ?Speed is halved. Checks at -5. ?Leads to Escape Hole (p. 8).” You’re gonna have to imagine the indentations rather than the run on Im using. But, also, We see backstory/explanatios and this need to tell us what the map already tells us. Certainly not the worse sin, in this example, but we see this over and over again.

And this comes to the detriment of actual content. It is, for the most part, lacking. The room descriptions are not the greatest, while they are terse. They come off as boring and the expanded bullet sections to little to augment them. Combine this with an interactivity that is also somewhat lacking: doing rugs and stabbing things. The map annoys me, having page numbers on it instead of keys, but in the grand scheme of things I’ll live.

You, however, will not live. Those pluckerfiends? Remember the level range here, 2? 14 HP each, attacking at level 3. Every time you’re hit you need to make a save or your soul is plucked from your body and replaced. The last room, with the ghost last boss? That’s got twelve of them in it. You not making it there though; there;s more than enough on the wanderer table or other rooms, in threes and fours, to fuck you up before then. CHA save my ass. I THINK I know how a CHA save should work in Knave2 … maybe I’m wrong?

The formatting and bullets make this an outline, but not a great one. Things just don’t click, from an interactivity standpoint. Great magic items, ut the drug/alcoholCHA save stuff is a bit heavy handed, I think, for level 2. All for a transparent hook that is expanded enough for me and a cult ending that doesn’t have enough lead in for me.

This is Pay What You Want at DriveThru with a suggested price of $7.50. The preview is everything, as a PWYW should be.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/497712/with-the-cult-of-crimson-revelers?1892600