Categories: ReviewsThe Best

Sharky

Idle Cartulary
Self Published
OSE
Level ... 2?

A young man dragged into the sea. Cattle slaughtered and half-devoured. Villagers scared to leave their homes. Something terrible and massive roams the seaside village of Conchi at night. Can you help them?

This 56 page digest adventure presents a small investigation in a fishing village along with a three level thirtish room sea cave dungeon. Interconnections abound, with a delightful grouping of entanglements throughout. Combined with a penchant for verisimilitude, we have something that turns out to be interesting enough.

I know, I know. It’s from itch. But this one is different, I promise.

I don’t know where to start with this one. I guess the relatability of this, of the situations and people in it, that marry both real life and the myths that we had absorbed as real-life. I’m going to touch on a couple of minor things and then hit the big one. First, let’s look at this overview description of an NPC: “Anesidora, a villager. Foolishly exchanged her laughter for vengeance after Gaston rejected her. She regrets her actions, of course. She weeps perpetually, now.” That’s pretty good. She’s exchanged her laughter for vengeance to a sea witch. Foolishly exchanged. Vengeance. Rejected. Weeps perpetually. Very good word choices. I think we can all get a great vibe for how to run her and what motivates her. Or, maybe, lets look at a couple of the hooks: “… offers 500 crowns to deal with the beast of Conchi, whatever it may be; double that if there is indeed a beast that needs slaying.” Ever wanted to be a Pinkerton keeping the workers working? Well there you go! Or, how about this one? “Thirty years ago, an ever-bright star indicated the birth of a god. Three aged magi have finally divined its’ location: They have sent you to recover the god from Conchi and will reward you each with a magical gift.” The allusions here are obvious. These are really some decent hooks that go beyond the simplistic formulas that plague most adventures with hooks. A rumor you say? “A ship — the Incorrigible — wrecked out in the bay a few months agone. Only survivor is a peacock of a man staying at the Harp & Harpoon” A peachcock of a man. The rumor is relatively in voice. Not bad! There’s a relatability as well as ord choice which really brings the people and situations home. This is what I mean when I reference the written word evoking more than just the words on the page, and the ability of a description to spark a GMs imagination and let them run with an idea effectively.

I think, in order to illustrate the adventures interconnections, that I’m going to try and do it through the relatively small town section. We’ve got Gastons house (No one turns in to a were-shark like Gaston!) broken up inside and full of flood … with slaughtered cattle in the farm field nearby. (Along with mom … with a black eye and scabbed over scars on her arms, hoeing her beans, bitching that a THING tried to kill her and took her son.) The inn, with Navigators Tea … which is turns out is secretly made from creatures caught out in the bay. INTELLIGENT creatures. And that strutting peacock of a man who has a secret … the rotting corpse of one of his former shipmates came to visit him and told him not to go too far away lest he die. (And the innkeep, a scrawny old woman, not to be found in the inn, but out working her fields during the day.) I can go on and on and on about the town. Essentially, each place is there FOR A REASON. Isn’t that refreshing? Places that contribute to the adventure? And, as it turns out, WILL BE IMPACTED by what he adventurers do, as a kind of epilogue. It ALL contributes to the actual play of the adventure. The trivia, what there is (that I am relating badly) just adds a little local color. (At one point we learn that the local lighthouse keeper is also a were-shark. ‘He’s a were-shark, too. The sea-witch lacks imagination in her curses.’ That’s the kind of aside I can get behind. 🙂 It’s fucking great, and so refreshing to see the things on the page ACTUALLY MATTER.

There’s a little bit of a build up with an ever, a shark attack scene, involving the chick that caused all the trouble, the now crying one. It’s fucking great! “you hear screams from outside in the street.[…]. Algernon Cavendish is lying in the street, his hands up to protect his face. Anesidora is standing nearby, screaming.”

Moving on, how about the play Mrs Lincoln? “ Mossy, barnacled rocks around a darkened cove. Two identical wave-worn statues flank the entrance: A beautiful woman, but her form is twisted, subtly, as if she was made of kelp? – Squelch, squelch of saturated sand. The roaring of rushing water. As your eyes adapt: a crudely painted wooden sign, dripping with weed: Keep out! – Inside, a corpse half-buried in the sand.” Pretty good descriptions. Squelch. Barnacled. Darkened. Wave-worn. Crudely painted. The descriptions are evocative enough and do a decent job of setting the scene. Maybe not rock-star, but more than enough. And the room descriptions are generally hitting like this, to one degree or another, consistently. “High ceilings. Deep drifts of silt and sand, washed here by the tide, but never away. Nonsense writing is carved into the walls here, visible as bright moss, grown into the carvings. The scrawl on the wall says “Gur gernfher vf ohevrq urer!”” I can work with things like that. Deep drifts. Silt and sand. This is easy to visualize, and therefore riff on.

Room interactivity is good. Secret doors, silted over, hidden by a giant anemone. ‘People’ to talk to. Different factions with different wants and needs that are not slap you in the face. Great sets oof tricks and room specials, not overwhelming the room like a set piece but adding to it.

My only complaints here would be minor. The locals didn’t loot the shipwreck offshore, which is not what locals do, but, I guess it is a D&D adventure. And that the curses of the sea witch, in one room begging to be undone, is ALSO begging for a table for weird shit to happen if you just go in cutting everything, undoing every curse and wish shes given.

Quite the nice job on this.

This is $20 on itch. You get to see three pages. A hook page is ok, and you can se ethe town overview on the facing page. The random encounters page is nothing special. The last page of the preview shows two rooms, which are relatively reflective of the other rooms as a whole, if a bit on the plainer side. Good previews.

https://idlecartulary.itch.io/sharky

Bryce Lynch

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Brandon says:

June 2, 2025 at 8:05 pm

I backed this one for Zinequest, which I am learning is something I should do less of. Fortunately, this is one that got a definite "Huh, not bad," from me. Also, it's fun for me to say its title in the most exaggerated Australian accent imaginable: "Shawwwwky." Apologies to the author.