by Thomas J. Scott
for Magique Productions Inc
OSRIC
Levels 2-3
Misty Ridge has been threatened by mysterious raiders that come at night and loot homes and businesses. Most who have crossed paths with the raiders have been slain without mercy. Those rare few who have survived an encounter with the raiders describe them as ferocious, gray-skinned creatures that blend with the mists and move with deadly silence. The Regent of nearby Geldhart has been notified of the problem and he has sent the PCs to investigate and deal with the matter. Can the player characters solve the mystery of the Dark Raiders and restore peace to the once quiet retirement village of Misty Ridge?
So, here’s a question for you, Gentle Readers. I strongly dislike High Fantasy. You know, those kind of magical economy worlds for clerics casting continual light spells on rocks for streetlamps, the wizards guild who is on duty to clean up the sewers and keep the guards and wards fresh, the proliferation of archeologists and adventurer guilds, quiet retirement villages, and an explanation and justification for everything magical so that nothing is mysterious. I hate this stuff. If I buy a product that proudly advertises itself as High Fantasy can I justify criticizing it as High Fantasy?
Right, Wrong, I’m the guy with the keyboard. Realms of Arkonus is a High Fantasy setting. This adventure is set in a quite retirement community full of wealthy old people with extensive collections of rare things. Stamps. Coins. Paintings. These extremely wealth, and therefore presumably powerful, people have no personal guards. And there is no town guard. Perhaps because of this they are now finding themselves the victims of thefts. Oh, and murder; the thieves have killed on more than one occasion. Rather than hiring some guards or pressing some of his staff in to service, Lord Eridahl decides to fulfill his lordly contract with the people under his protection by instead spending 4000-6000 gp to send the party on the job. I will now avoid explaining how Feudalism works so as to not appear to be the kind of nit-picky know-it-all reviewer that I loathe.
The party arrives and is introduced to the villagers during a meeting, and they now have an opportunity to question the villagers about the raids. The one nice thing in this section is that when introduced the elder also talks a little about each characters exploits, giving the villagers something to ooh and aah about. This is a pretty nice detail. It gives the party something to feel special about and it includes the concept that their actions have meaning. When they burn down a village people will hear about it. When they kill a band of bandits people will hear about it. It gives the world a bit of continuity. It also probably make the party more inclined to helped the villagers, and this module needs all of that it can get. There’s not much provided in the way of details for the DM to hand out to the party. No names of the looted or killed villagers. No list of what was taken, etc. BY asking around the party can learn about people spotting lizard men nearby and of a young boy who went missing after feeling them. Hmmm, and the village still hasn’t done anything? Really? Oh, I’m sorry. Yes, they did. They sent some potato diggers to look in to things, who never came back. Oh, and there’s a place to rent boats A FEW MILES OUT OF TOWN. WTF?!?! Is this New Jersey where every square inch is populated and you’re never more than 5 minutes from a business? This village literally has like 30 buildings in it and there’s a boat rental place a few miles outside of town. Whoops, showing my High Fantasy again … It’s too bad that more information is not provided about the village. Adventurers that involve towns and villages revolve around brining the NPC’s to life They need personalities and feelings about what’s going on and the other people in the village. The six short entires for the businesses in this village don’t cut it.
The party will either stake out the village at night and kill some raiders, tracking them back to their lair, or investigate the rumors of lizard men NEAR THE OLD ABANDONED CASTLE ON THE CLIFF. You know, the one with the warning sign on the cliffside that’s lit by a continual light spell? Yeah, that one. It has seven rooms. It has eom lizard men, giant ants, and a giant lizard, as well as secret tunnel to the bottom of the cliffs. Down below the party will meet the thieves and, if they can breathe water, their boss with all the stolen goods. They steal from the villagers and sell the goods to pirates who stop by regularly … you know, the ship everyone sees from time to time under the ruins that flies the pirate flag? Yeah, that one. There’s no real reason for the bandits to be lizard men and “new race” rather than humans. There’s no foreshadowing of the boss, leading to the Lareth problem. How can the party be intimidated and impressed by the bad guy if his appearance is a total surprise? “Oh, your the boss? Huh . DIE!” He’s just another thing to hack instead of the evil mastermind of this plot.
The problem with this adventure, like so many others, is that it pays too much attention to form and not enough to substance. So many of these products (weee! let’s generalize!) ape the layout, font, and format of older published adventure modules without seemingly paying much attention to creating new and interesting content. I don’t care much what your stat blocks look like. Or if your new monster section follows the format of earlier products. Or even if you got the AC and damage right for a lizard man. Enter Room. Kill Monster. Repeat. That is not fun. That is going through the motions. I don’t need a plot but I do need something for the party to do other than hack things. Poke at statues. Investigate strange pools. Talk to monsters. Set up hair-brained plans.
On the plus side there are two other things this adventure gets right. First, the party can find an old knife in the ruins that once belonged to the missing boy. Too often I think this kind of stuff is glossed over. If people have disappeared then the party should find signs of them. I don’t need graphic detail however there should be some evidence. Again, it provides a sort of continuity that makes the game world actually seem like a real place and makes it much more real for the party. Second, there’s a new monster, the Sprat. It’s cross between a giant rat and a giant spider. Ewwww! I like new monsters, non-humanoid monsters for the most part, because they keep the party guessing. “There’s no telling what that thing can do! We had better be careful!” This is he kind of mystery that adds so much to RPG’s.
This is available on DriveThru.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/29506/Dark-Raiders-of-Misty-Ridge?affiliate_id=1892600