Souls for Qovahe

By AB Andy
Adventure Bundles
OSE
Levels 2-3

Adventurers gather at the mansion of a well-respected noble for what seems like an elegant dinner. But as the night unfolds, it quickly spirals into something far more dangerous. A deadly game of murder is about to begin, where survival comes with unimaginable rewards. Is it simply a twisted contest, or does the noble harbor a darker, more sinister secret—one that demands bloodshed before dawn to save his own life? Prepare for a night where trust is shattered, alliances are tested, and only the sharpest minds—or blades—will make it out alive.

This 52 page adventure presents a mansion and its grounds and outbuildings along with about thirty people, the setting for a Battle Royale type adventure. I should hate it. But the degree of chao and interactivity here does successfully channel the genre and does so with a delight and glee seldom seen in an adventure. This is the one, if you want a Battle Royale.

Absolutely bat shit fucking crazy. In exactly the way it should be. The premise is bullshit. The intro tells the DM “With time running out, the dinner is just a lure for contenders. Gladiators. A life-or-death contest will be held until dawn, one that may hold the key to his survival.” Ahh. Bullfucking shit.  A test your might gladiator fight. Boo! Boo! Except … NO! This thing is great. It delights in its tropes, leaning in to them with glee. Hit after hit after hit after hit comes through the text. The NPC’s, the rooms, the wanderers, all working toward a common goal and theme. This is absolutely the fucking way how you do it. 

Conrad the wizzo invite you to his mansion for dinner . It’s an open invite to the village. The party is present with about seven others, along with some house guards (about 25) and some servants. Dude is friendly and affable, but sick, and has got a dungeoncrawl prop for you. Except, of course, the drinks are drugged. But you wake up with a note telling you that you get his inheritance if you’re the last group standing by dawn. And the house guards are a group/alliance also. Turns out he’s dying and made a deal with a demon. He needs fifteen people to die in the mansion before dawn in order to save his own life. The guards know that and the servants don’t. It’s on, motherfucka! Oh, also, if you fuck around then there’s poison gas at dawn that will get everyone, says the note, so get moving! Also, if you don’t get drugged and/or go willingly with guards … then THIS SHIRT STARTS NOW!! No railroad here!

It is absolutely absurd. This may be everything I hate about a railroad Test Your Might setup. But, man, everything that comes after this nonsense is fucking great. It is tropy and schlock in the absolute best sense of the word. Giddy. And therefore this hook/intro nonsense makes perfect sense. I’m in LUUUUUVVVVVVVV!  Seriously. 

Ok, so, what makes this thing absolutely great is the … I don’t know. Interactivity? Vignettes? The shit that’s going on, or potentially going on, in the various rooms. This is a combination of things in the rooms (there are 85 or so, I think, probably more than a party can do between drugging and dawn, but, fuck it! It’s not TOO long, and it’s not too short. I think it’s the perfect size of a kind of free exploration game. And, dude covers rooftop shenanigans! Always a staple, I appreciate that! Man, this parenthetical is dragging on now …) and people doing things in rooms. (And, of course, wanderers showing up.) Weight get a room with a secret door in it, a cupboard shelf full of dishes. Dishes shattering requires a d4 roll on a little table. Many rooms have this, something to amp things up. A maid runs in hysterical, or you summon guards, or you hear footsteps running away, or “. Danjel shouts from the courtyard, “Let us not hide anymore! Let’s help each other in the name of Lumenor!”. Heh! Just the kind of psycho shit from a battle royale movie. Or, a small island, crossing the lake, you get wet. You’re freezing. Build a fire to get warm? A guard shows up. “Hey, lets all work together, we can … ARG!” He’s shot in the chest with a crossbow! If that aint a trope I don’t know what is! Or, you’re in a room and there are three guards. Chick is on dudes lap and they are making out frantically while another dude is bored. Fuck yeah! That’s exactly what happens to three of the guards! So, something in the room or something in the room that could up the stakes in the room. And focused, completely focused on the adventure at hand. All of it working together towards the same vibe. Clues in some rooms to other rooms, which is exactly what you want.  In one room “Thick carpet covers the floor, gray and muted from a thick layer of dust.” and then “Under the carpet: A carved raven on the hardwood floor, encrusted with blood. Inscriptions in blood, rituals to the raven god of death. The phrase “Let the raven fly in” comes often in between.” Gah! That’s fucking freaky! And is a clue to another room. 

The entries are relatively short, maybe five or six to a two-column digest page. Bullets are used well as a kind of initial features description, easy to scan and expand upon and easy to locate follow-up information with the section headings that follow. “G12. Guest Suite ? Ornamental king-sized bed with torn silken sheets. ? Thick carpet covers the floor, gray and muted from a thick layer of dust. ? Open balcony doors. ? Round table by the bed, dagger pierced note on top.” Those bullets are indented on seperate lines, and easy to scan and grok. 

I understand it sounds weird, bt this thing is just so focused on brining the kind of psychotic chaos interspaced with quiet, the exact sorts of beats you might find in one of these movies. There is just so much going on, but, not really. The room formatting, and the d4 tables and ability for the party to get in to trouble in the various rooms is what lends to this vibe of a lot going on, but doing it in a way that is very manageable for the DM to run. It all brings this air of chaos to the vibe. It’s the kind of chaos that so many adventures want but few succeed in. It’s not craziness … but the party will absolutely be thinking that “This is crazy!” Is the build up, room after room and encounter after encounter. A kind of bizarreness, without any one thing going over the top and saying this is bizarre. It’s not ham handed, is what I think I’m trying to say, even though the individual things sound out of the ordinary. And it is that build up from the lack of ham handedness but still unusual that contributes so much to this.

I don’t know how this would work in OSE. We’re still pretty squishy at 2-3 and this is over a single night. Maybe lean in to that vulnerability, perhaps. I don’t know how I would fit this in to my game either. My campaign or a one shot … but it is the sort of thing that once you see it you you are immediately thinking “Man oh man, how do I get this shit in to my game?! “ I get it, battle royal. BS setup. But also it ha sthe space in the place to breathe and let the party get in to trouble and then leans in to that when it happens. It gives you the tools and the space to run a magnificent adventure. If you can get over the battle royale nature of it. 

And, hey, yo! A NPC summary sheet next time, yes?!

This is $5 at DriveThru. The preview is nine pages and gives you a good overview of the adventure. Page seven of the preview is a good sample page to look at and I think communicates the room vibes, the little tables, and formatting well.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/498461/souls-for-qovahe?1892600