Shadow of the Deep King

By Glenn Robinson
Self Published
OSE
Levels 4-6

Once upon a time, this was Dwarf land, with all their stone houses and secret tunnels. But then, they vanished, like they were never here. And we came along, making our homes in this old, empty place. Some of their buildings were still standing, but they were like empty shells, missing all the cool stuff they used to have. But guess what? Folks say the dwarves are coming back. We’ve only heard stories about them, never actually seen one for real. But our grandparents, they tell us if a dwarf’s shadow touches you, you gotta spit on the ground to keep away bad luck.

This 46 page adventure has 32 linear rooms in an old dwarf base under a hill. It’s a weird one in that while it APPEARS to have some descriptions and interesting things, it actually does not. With a decent mythology and final encounter, it doesn’t really give you a decent journey, just a destination.

This adventure has one really interesting thing going on. The final room is a large underground lake in a cavern. In th e middle is an island, and there’s a flooded causeway just a few inches under the water that can get you there. On it is the big boss, trapped, because he’s surrounded by water. If the water level lowers then the dude can get free. Ought oh! The use of water brings back those cultural memories. An underwater causeway is great imagery as well. There’s a big  skull on the island, which is great. All pretty well done. Well, except maybe for the fact that you don’t know what you are doing if you stop the water.Youget a clue, in the form of some wall writing in a room with the flow of water in it, room two: “My flow holds back the darkness Hinder me not, lest you awaken the shadow in our hearts “ We get one hint and it’s a bit ambiguous, not knowing yet that the dude lives on an island underground, etc. Just, hey, don’t push the button. I’m not morally opposed to Fuck Around And Find Out. But, pushing you’re luck, and making intentional decisions about risk/reward just hit better. Knowing what you are doing can cause problem, but, man, I really want that Hand of Vecna … this is the tension that D&D thrives on. So, decent concept for that last room with the overall effect being dragged down by the decisions you make in room two. 

The rest of the adventure, I’m afraid, I can’t be so kind to.

No real backstory. We’re trying, it feels like, to tell it through the keys. Which is a great concept. But it comes off VERY disconnected. There’s a road, for example, running through the forest. It crosses a stream. Further in there’s a pool. The pool is a kind of keyed encounter. It tells us that there is a sign on the road where it crosses the stream that the body of water is Stonegrievers Creek. Well, fuck me man, that would have been nice to know back on the road, yeah? And it does this all over the place. There are these little bits of info that ae out of place of where they should be. 

There MIGHT be a wilderness adventure here also, to kick us off, as you travel to the hill. The hexes are one mile across and you have to travel, I don’t know, two hexes on a road? There are really only three hexes presented, completely, on the map. This is supported by two or three pages of tables for you to roll on. A 2 in 6 chance every turn. Yes, every turn. No less than eight different tables to walk … two miles? Fortunately the vast VAST majority of the stuff is not an actual encounter. It’s a bunny rabbit running away or some “escalate the tension” stuff, like the wind blowing hard. And, the cyclops, dragon and wyvern table. All three. No, not all three. You have to pick one, to lair in the dwarf hill. But all three are presented. I fucking hat eit when they do this. Just pick one and go for it man. Theme the fucking thing around it. Dragon dung, a pair of binoculars torn apart. Pick one and go, otherwise it comes off, as it does here, generic and perfunctory. 

Inside the dwarf home we get … not much in the way of interesting writing.The Well room is described as “clear and fresh.” This is outstanding for this adventure. Most rooms do not really get a description. More of a “contents of the room” instead. And, sometimes, “Reception: 30′ tall space of dressed stone and a mosaic floor with geometric patterns.” The scriptorium trades prose for bullet points telling us about leather books, and then dusty bookcases, and then large crates. The description is disjointed. It doesnt consider the room as a whole and, if we were to go with the formatting it is using, the bookcase and crates should probably appear first, as the objects most likely to be noticed first.

The formatting in this digest is using 2/3rd’s of the page for the text and one third, essentially a side column, for extra information. Not a bad idea. I’m not sure I’m supportive of it in the way it is used here, with things for rooms ‘not on this page’ appear. It’s trying to keep things relevant, but, there’s too much relevant in some places. WHich could mean rekeying to solve the problem (oh, but it’s mostly linear!) or putting the stats in the main text (Heresy! Or, let us not be too devoted to our conceits and instead keep the eye on the ball of usability) 

There’s a lot of magic treasure and it’s quite decent. Nogs Grasping Staff sometimes appears to crackle with electricity and has a hand on the end of it. You can grab things! And, also, shocking grasp! The thing is PACKED with potent and unique magic items, almost to a Monty Haul level. 

But, also “Each room is unlit with a name engraved above the door. Plain stone walls methodically scored by picks.” is not the height of evocative description. At places things are mentioned never to make an appearance again. Any depth hinted at here is lost. I’m not angry at this one, just disappointed., You can see that someone had some pretty decent ideas, with bandits, the lost king, etc. But the size, combined with the lack of follow through and consistency in following up on its ideas, and their implications, causes this one to miss the mark.

This is $4 at DriveThru. The preview is twenty pages. More than enough to see the “intro”, wilderness, and first few rooms. Great preview!

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/486391/shadow-of-the-deep-king?1892600