There’s something about this module that makes it appealing and I just can’t figure out what. On the surface it’s a rather straightforward affair. Go to a village plagued by evil. Go to ruined manor house. Explore. Kill bad guy. Nothing much. But in reality it seems to have so much more.
The module runs about 28 pages of heavy stock. It contains three primary adventure areas: a small village, a graveyard, and a ruined manor house. The players get a player handout from the village sheriff asking for help. On the way to the village they meet some refugees and Ye Old Rumor Table is broken out. I love rumor tables, and fleeing refugees are a great way to distribute them. Hitting the village the players are confronted by the following BOXED TEXT: You know you have reached the outskirts of Sheridan Springs when you pass an unkempt cemetery on your left. As you get closer to town, you see that several houses have been boarded up and abandoned. Those that are still occupied all have their windows closed and curtains drawn. There are very few people on the street. At the towns center the road widens around a well and a stone monument. The blacksmiths shop and Harold Johnson’s Inn seem to be the only businesses open.
Yeah, it’s boxed text and boxed test sucks, but it’s VERY good boxed text. It conveys the feeling of the town and mentions every single area of interest in the village. In particular I like how the stone monument is mentioned in passing. It reminds me of the way dungeon environments should be described: a passing reference to several objects which the party needs to ask further about to get more information. I don’t wish to imply that all of the BOXED TEXT (which is actually bolded text, not boxed) is this good. In fact quite a bit is not. “Still hot stew” and “a corridor used by former servants to run errands” both serve as counter-examples of BOXED TEXT not doing what it should. The module is trying to be a ‘pick up and play with no prep’ affair, so at least he boxed text can be justified, but still quite a bit of it is bad and/or overly long.
That aside, did you catch the name of that inn, Harold Johnson’s? The sheriffs name is Olob. These sorts of things remind me of the way I run a game when I start to get a bit loopy after too many hours of DM’ing. I love it. It brings a feeling of authenticity and familiarity to the module. The inn is another good place to scrounge up rumors, so the rumor table is pulled out again. It seems the village is suddenly plagued by evil. Did I mention that the villagers recently turned up a small stone obelisk while clearing fields and have moved it to the center of their town? Again, hint of a real home campaign. These villagers are simple people, real salt of the earth. You know: MORONS. There’s nothing I love more then making my villages full of mud and dirt and morons. Why did we put the strange obelisk with weird runes in the center our village? Seemed like a good idea at the time … Well, it turns out that’s really the end of the obelisk. It doesn’t really play a part other then being an ‘evil magnet.’ Sure, the party can get rid of it, but that’s not really the adventure.
The cemetery is another locale that can be briefly explored. Very briefly. I only mention it because I found it quite amusing. Two orcs are down in a grave digging up a body. They left a skeleton on guard. “The skeleton was a poor choice to leave on guard. It can be surprised on a roll of 1-4.” Ok, it’s subdued, but I liked it. 🙂
Finally we come to the manor home. Turns out the last mayor liked to experiment with portions and went and blew himself up. Getting to the manor house could be an issue: a nice wandering table is given, complete with Owlbear and a walking evil tree! Unfortunately, the map scale is a bit large and the DM is instructed to “roll for monsters as he sees fit.”
The manor is small, with two stories above ground and one below. It is, however, quite charming. The party is not really channeled in to any specific area and the central corridor systems allows for the party to explore the rooms ad-hoc. There’s generally only one intelligent monster per level, with a few vermin and undead thrown in. It’s the details though that make the difference. A room the orcs have to run through to escape the stirge in the chandeliers … complete with orc corpses lying on the floor. Disturbing portraits and a nice spooky encounter in the master library round things out. Oh, and I shouldn’t forget the book on cannabis cultivation. Yeah, it’s sooooo high school but then again that kind of playfulness is part of what makes life fun. I LIKE the monster mix. vermin are always welcome, and restricting itself to just a single type of humanoid, Orc, both seems more realistic (or at least doesn’t make me say WTF?) and also makes it quite easy to replace them with bandits. Finally the Necromancer and his undead, while a trifle overused in modules, were presented with enough uniqueness, through the details, to make them not only inoffensive but in some cases downright interesting encounters! The module only has a few magic items, as a low level module should. In addition they tend to be potions and unique items. I like both of these choices. I want my magic items to be unique and full of flavor, not just “shield +1” or “cup of cure light wounds”.
The adventure is not the most unique however the devils in the details and I found the flavor provided for the DM to be more than enough to bring the thing to life in my mind and overcome the “Yet another manor house” adventure barrier. Plus, I love idiot villagers and the thought that they would bring back some mysterious obelisk to put up in the center of their village.
Insidious used to have module code TSR1 and list itself for use with AD&D. My second print run copy is now labeled DCG1 and lists itself for use with 1st Edition Advanced. A charm against the trademark troll, no doubt.