The House under the Moondial

By Hexagnome
Self Published
OSE
Levels 3-4

There is a witch in the wilds, a goddess unremembered, and a madman. There is a circle of stone – who knows what lies beneath? The villagers are distraught: their children! replaced by fae! The villagers are distraught: who heeded their plea? Ravenous inquisitors, that’s who. Oh, and adventurers…

THis 100 page adventure setting details the goings on in and around a small village. It’s a little busy in places, but it certainly knows how to layer on situations and make them available for the DM. All of those “takes place in a small region” LotFP adventure want to be this adventure when they grow up and get off the meth.

The party wander in to a village and get asked for help, just as the village did a couple of hundred years ago Back then a Paladin helped them, St Elm. I wonder if the party might help, just like he did? Also, there’s a couple of (small) adventuring sites nearby to plunder. So, whatever your motives, there’s a reason to stick around. Why are they asked for help? The villagers think their children are being replaced by fey. Oh, and the next day a group from the inquisition wanders in to town, ready to investigate and do some burning. Seems like The Old Ways may be a little too prevalent in this here village. Which isn’t true. Well, anymore. It seems it USED to be true, which is part of the problem. Old blood pacts and so forth. The new priest is very upfront and helpful. And also unwittingly part of the problem. And those inquisitors? Kind of bandits on board to do some inquisiting, led by their VERY devout cardinal leader. Also, they are werewolves. The wise woman in the woods hut IS an outcast fey. But, also, kind of doing the right thing and keeping curse in check. Oh, but also she might cause the end of the village if things go badly and a rogue spell thats chasing her goes off. Also there’s a weird hermit that lives in a boat in a tree in the woods. How about those standing stones and whats under them? I have not covered, AT ALL, those fey in the fey world you can get to, which is large itself. This thing just keeps going and going and going. There are some fucking complications here. While there’s not a lot that is outright going to stab a party, like a typical dungeon, thereis A LOT to maneuver through.

Amd I ain’t even got to the village prepper yet. Location descriptions take about a column each, and are FULL of good shit. Breif little NPC descriptions that give a DM something to work with in a game.For the two women who bake the village bread:  “These two are always in a shouting match. Constable frowns a lot. Wystan’s in love with Aubrey Riesick (the only one with no clue about it).” That’s fucking great. For Mia Goth fans, some young chick married to an older farmer who has a bunch of kids: “Kerstina is a nervous wreck. She plans to poison Turner so his death looks like a drunkard’s misfortune, but lacks the herbalism skills. Unless she finds help, she’ll eventually snap and splinter his skull with a woodaxe” I’m in LUUUUUVVVV! THings that contribute to the plot at hand. Things to cause complications. Thigs to mix things up with the party. It’s all fucking magnificent! Oh, and it’s harvest time! So everyone is busy and worried. 

This is EXACTLY how you write one of these little village/small regional investigations. There is shit GOING. ON. They care about their harvest and their kids, who gives a fuck about that orc invasion on the other side of the kingdom?  They hate Mary cause shes was a cunt at the pie contest last year and is stuck up. Petty jealousies writ large. I fucking love this entire thing.

Well, ok, not the ENTIRE thing. 

Things start to get a little shaky in the Fey realm. A little too handwavey maybe? I do tend to the darker/more realistic side of folklore for my Fey and this trends a bit Alice/Pan (explicitly noted as inspirations in tone but not substance.) Maybe that Strange & Norell vibe, if a bit darker and less refined. But, also, I acknowledge that my preferred tone is not everyones. It just feels less solid when we get to those portions. 

The formatting can be a much in places. Hmmm, no, let me walk that back. I like the formatting and I think it does a good job. But there;s a little too much in places for things that I don’t think you always need. Color coding the map, for example. Putting the place names on the village map was a good idea but I’m not sure of the utility of the color coding. Nor, for example, the cause & effect chart … it just gets silly in its attempt to explain … which I think causes more confusion than it helps. I think the plot is straightforward, anyway. There’s also maybe a little too much extra in places, with mechanics. Almost mini-game like. Nor really procedurally general, but new procedures for doing things. Maybe pick one and go with it. Maybe two. 

I’m not too bent out of shape about any of those. Slightly more serious is the opposition forces in this adventure. You’re going to have to push the party a bit to get some outright conflict. There are some wanderers to kind of bring some action, but, for the most part, there are lots of provocations but not a lot of “you’re attacked!” You’re going to have to, say, use the inquisitors to, say, visibly ransack a house under the pretense of searching for heresy. And Maye have them visibly steal something. Or physically abuse someone or some such. You need to provoke the players and their characters, I think. And I don’t think that’s necessarily bad. This really helps with the slow burn investigation of the adventure. And, at what point do you feel justified stepping in. You gonna sit around and watch them finally burn people at the stake? This is a gasoline factory, but the DM is going to have to give the party opportunities to bring their fireworks in. Again, not bad, but its going to take a different sort of DM play to run a sandboxy little thing like this, keeping things on the razor edge of tension until it spills over to outright conflict and then filling in the details of what happens next, using the characters (in the town) that are in play. I’m a big big fan of this, if you can walk that line. In particular, there are LOTS of opportunities for the DM to motivate the PLAYERS, rather than their characters, from the inquisitors to that Mia Goth. And motivating the players is a sure fire way to win as a DM.

I think this is what you’re looking for in a sandbox and investigation. Lots going on. Lots of chances for provocations. Maybe a little wonky in the presentation here or there, but, fuck, I’ll take this over those shitty ones any day. Yeah yeah, maybe it’s got some third act issues in the fey realm. But the rest of it is very strong … IF you really get in there as the DM and drop some provocations on the party. And what kind of DM would you be if you didn’t, ahem, present the party with opportunities?

This is $10 at DriveThru. The preview is eight pages and does a great job of showing you what to expect. And page one is the Mia Goth chick!

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/474868/the-house-under-the-moondial?1892600