Populated Hexes Monthly #35 – Dry Gulch Dungeons

By Todd Leback
Third Kingdom Games
OSE
Level ... 5?

Dry Gulch is built upon the bones of a much older city, Lisau, that fell into ruin over seven hundred years prior to the current day. Almost no traces of the city remain aboveground, but belowground are plenty of re? minders of the old city’s existence. Much of this is unknown to the citizens for Dry Gulch; the Guild of Silence, un? der its current master Uco Fridtack, dis? courages exploration of this under? ground network of ancient tunnels, sewers, and cellars. This is partially be? cause the ruins still contain dangers — creatures and spells of antiquity that have moldered these many years — but also because it is useful for the Guild of Silence to have a network of hidden tunnels that connects multiple buildings surreptitiously.

This 46 page adventure details six mini-dungeons undr a major city, all connected together loosly. I really like the concept, but the execution tends to the dry and overly wirteen/padded side of the adventure spectrum. The undercities of the Petal Throne are still waiting to be discovered.

This is issue 35 of Popilated Hexes. Last issue it looks like they descrived a city in a hex. This issue has a description of the undercities dungeon, rather than hexes. I love undercity dungeons! So off we go! Visions of tube transfer stations and isometric DL1 maps dance in my head! We’ve got six little standalone regions under the city, connected, in one way or another, via some long abstracted tunnels. (Which, for the record, I’m ok with even though I usually complain about abstraction. In this case it serves a purpose and can even add some mystery, as, for example, wthe wizards bring a prisoner down a LONG tunnel to the Guild of Silence area for “supplemental questioning.”) 

Each little section has it’s own, say, primary entrance, and is connected to some other areas as well. In fact, this probabally goes on too long, the entranes that is. We get an overview of areas, a listing of all f the underground entrances, a specific listing of each area in a general way, the conditions of each area … I think there might be another section as well for each area, before we get to the keys. Seriously, you go through, like five different “overviews” for each of the six major dungeon areas. At some point you’ve got to wash your hands of it and put the information in the section for that specific area. I don’t know, the conditions for that area, at a minimum? It ends up that each area is so fragmented, at that so much information for each area is scattered throughout the pages, that it’s hard to put it all together. Lot’s of flipping with this one.

The overall vibe of this thing is … normalcy? Mundanity? I love a touch of the normal,of the real world, in an adventure. I think it adds spice to see real life show up. In one of the rooms you find a journal telling how the thieves guild is entwined with the ruling council, and “as well as a general picture of how profitable the Cantering Stallion [ed: the front taven] is (very) and the frustrations of running a business in the hospitality industry (extreme).” Now see, that’s the kind of sly shit that I can run with and GO. A kind of throw-off sentence that contains mountains of gameable information in it for any DM. When I say I’m looking for shit to riff off of that’s what I mean. 

But, also, those moments are, I think, few and far between in this thing. What’s far, far more common are long sections of text, padded out, that just have mundane details in it. We get a section telling of the apprentices in the thieves guild, working in the front tavern, which include “Heson Du (F1, 4 hp). A young lad, strong (STR 17) and cocky with the assurance of youth, Heson is desperate to escape Dry Gulch and see the wider world. When not working in the forges (Area 8 of Issue 34) he spends his time in the Cantering Stallion, listening to the tales of merchants and adventurers as they tell of their experiences.” That’s a nice background portrait, but not really informative. A few keywords would have done as much. The frail consumptive waif with a brilliant mind, for example. 

And these sorts of long sections of text, overly long for what they are trying to accomplish, are everywhere. And they are do this for the most mundane of purposes. “The stairs level out after descend? ing 15’, into a corridor that runs for an? other fifteen feet before opening up into a chamber measuring 15’ x 15’. There are three exits leading out of this cham? ber: open corridors leading out of the center of the south and eastern walls, and a stout oaken door set into the cen? ter of the western wall. The door leads to Fridtack’s personal office (1.3.2),” Well fuck, that told me nothing. And then we get a hudge section on the door trap and how to pick it. This, the hallway map description and door/lock porn, are the only things in this key and it takes, I don’t know, a column of text? And the next room openes with “Fridtack’s personal office is here, just at the bottom of the stairs, behind a well-secured locked and trapped door.” That’s, I think, the third time the adventure tells us where the dudes office is and which door its behind. Another section has a column to describe ton empty room with two doors in it. And describe is a strong word, I don’t think the room proper is very described at all, maybe a dust trail. But backstory, where the doors go, etymology, etc? All present.

I’d like to also mention two specific encounters, as examples of design. The first is a room, kind of sealed off and blockaded in one of the populated sections of the thives guild area. In it is a kind of abandoned library. There’s a collapsed bookshelf by a door, and a ghost comes out from under it and attacks you. This stands out to me because of the nature of a ghost vs a humanoid monster. If you look at the humand monsters, kobold, goblin, orc, gnoll, hobgob, giant, etc, then you notice that, essentially, there’s just a humanoid monster for each HD. It’s just “a 3hd monster.” And in this case the ghost is being used in much the same way. It’s just something to stab. tit comes out from under the bookcase and attacks. It’s nature, as a ghost, and all of the subtext and cultural heritage that brings, is completely absent. Now, certainly every encounter doesn’t have to illustrate a justaposition between the order and chaos of mankind, but, also, fuck man, it’s a ghost! You know, unfinished business and all that jazz! Sure, I guess it canbe a murder ghost. But its presented as just something to stab, a single enconter and then you move on with your life. B O R I N G!

The second one if with a mummy. In this case, once you kill the mummy you could find some earrings … if you unwrap the mummy. I love this sort of “hidden in plain sight” stuff. Looking under the bridge, at the bottom of the chasm, behind the waterfall, cutting open the purple worm stomach, or … unwrapping the mummy. The assumptions that people make about their environment. “This is a monste encounter and I don’t need to search the monster to find the treasure’ or, maybe “i only need to do a surface search.,” “Mummy” is now a monster, and is treated, by someplayers, much like a naked orc. But, it’s not. It’s body wrapped in bandages. With, potentially, things underneath it. That’s good.

But, really, these moments are. little far apart for my tastes. What we’re getting here, mostly, is some mudanity, for the most part. It feels disconnected from each other, mostly. It doesn’t feel like the undercity. It doesn’t feel lie it’s a part of something larger. It just feels kind of like the interior of the great pyramid of Giza. Dusty, boring, and empty. 

This is $3 at DriveThru. The preview is six pages, and shows you nothing of interest to make a decision on.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/484818/phm-35?1892600