By Brad Kerr
Necrotic Gnome
OSE
Levels 5-7
A cruel warlord hoards horses and power at the edge of the wilds. His castle brims with treasure, terror, and twisted secrets. Can players infiltrate the Horselord’s stronghold, overcome its treacherous occupants, and liberate the borderlands from this tyrant’s reign?
This 20 page adventure is focused tightly the 27 location motte-and-bailey compound of The Horselord … and looting it. Clear maps, great focus on interactivity and what makes a good raid adventure and memorable NPC’s serve the adventure well. A premise pushed not quite to being a farce, it provides everything you need for a good night or so of gaming.
As with some other Kerr adventures, there’s a bit of absurdity here, or perhaps, dark farce. It’s not as absurd as the Temple of 1000 Swords, but it does use it to give us a solid foundation to adventure on and build from. The horselord REALLY likes horses. He’s confiscated the horses from the locals. His kitchen prepares them for meals. He keeps some live ones in cages suspended in his great hall. His petulant wife rides around on a toy one. He’s got a taxidermist that stuffs them and mounts them all over the place. And, he’s working on a giant sculpture of one. For he, gentle reader, is a true artist and lover of horses! Just ask him …
Local adventurer makes good! He and his men set of a motte-and-bailey on the edge of the wilderlands to bring order. Also, he really appreciates horses. It’s nice to see the use of an former adventurer here, in the villain role. I guess he’s the villain? He’s cruel, as is one of his sons and some of his men. And a bit despotic. But we’re not full on slaughtering the locals and s on. But, he does have some loot. Also, the local Farmers guild, suffering without horses, he having confiscated them all, would like to have a word with you about a potential regime change. Not quite the questionable full on Loot The Keep from B2, but perhaps some more nuance in realpolitik in the feudal ages.
The motte-and-bailey here is an interesting addition, something you don’t normally see. Situated in grasslands, The Horselord has, of course, centaurs patrolling outside of it. There are archers on the roof of the bailey, surveying the lands around for trouble/intruders/horses. There’s a system of bugle/trumpet calls to indicate danger/all clear and so on, that the party can learn if the watch closely. And, in fact, there’s a nice little surveillance table of things the party can learn if they scope the place out for a bit. The usual “lie to people, use a cart, climb te walls” stuff are all well handled in a terse but meaningful way to give the DM guidance.
And this is not a one-sided affair with everything arrayed against the party. The centaurs are utterly demoralized, subjugated and believe themselves “loathsome creatures un-
deserving of His Excellency’s charity.” The archers can’t really distinguish friend from foe in the main compound, with the people milling about, and don’t generally have good shots once you are inside. The soldiers inside, his former men, are without leadership and while they will run for help they are leaderless, not reacting well, given their confusion about their lords current pursuits. (horses …) While the older son is cruel the younger one is more sensitive, and locked in his room by dad, giving the party and out for a line of succession if they take it. The servants are beaten, terrified, sometime executed over minor matters, hate the older son and sometimes look sympathetically on the younger one. The castellan, a fine and experienced man, is tasked with pulling around the petulant wife’s toy pony while she rides it.
I talk sometimes about writing neutrally and this adventure is a good example of that. We start with this motte-and-bailey and the retired adventurer in charge. Sone, wife, servants, soldiers, an outer patrol. This is all great. But there is no such thing as perfect. Given a group then someone is a drunk and someone is lazy and someone is fucked up crazy and so on. Thus we add in the Horselord and then move on to Ok, so what are the consequences of this? His men are leaderless and a little confused. The castallen, a good man, is given dumb tasks to do, personally, by the vapid princess that the Horselord got in marriage. The servants are beaten, as are the outer patrol, demoralized. A cruel son and a emp son. We have all followed on to these natural consequences and perhaps pushed them some to heightened reality of an RPG setting and that creates this more dynamic, and realistic if hyper-realistic, environment for adventuring in.
There’s a taxidermist in this place. He’s really in to it, since the horselord loves his taxidermied horses. He’s the only one here that the Horselord really might respect, um, as a fellow artist lets say. Dude is totally dedicated to his art. He’s got things to tell you if you can tolerate him. Wanna see the special collection in his closet? Local farmers. Are you gonna judge him? That will not get you the info you need. Memorable NPC’s, with something present in them that you can hang your ha on as a DM. You know how to run them all, instantly.
Formatting is solid, not the normal OSE house style but a more free-flowing summary/read-aloud maybe, that is followed by highlighted section headings and bullets. It’s easy to follow and does a great job helping the DM locate information during play.
Given the levels here, 5-7, there are interesting possibilities. As we enter domain play this could be your nutso neighbor next door. (What do you think of those zoning laws now?!) The petulant wife the daughter of your liege. He’s stealing your horses, maybe. And the local farmers guild is upset, crops are coming in low because he’s bought all yours up. A minor recurring nuisance that turns in to a problem for your domain. So, beyond tactical issues, a good political situation, or the potential to be, as well. I mean, he IS blocking the orcs hordes to the North from coming through.
Obviously, I love it. The extra potential domain issues. The slight force here from the premise. The tactical situation. The interpersonal stuff inside. This is absolutely the kind of D&D stuff I’m fond of.
This is $5 at DriveThru. The preview is twelve pages. More than enough to show yu the preamble and a decent selection of the rooms. Did I mention how tight this thing is? Nary an appendix of fluff or background/intro information that doesn’t contribute. It’s great!
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/558357/quick-delve-3-against-the-horselord?1892600