By Yochai Gal
Self Published
Cairn
Two weeks ago, Aldra, the beloved butcher of Isthmus Town, suddenly vanished without a trace. Some days later, a local teen reported seeing a man swallowed up by the earth near Deadmill. Others have also gone missing. Now, the townsfolk are left wondering: Who might be next?
This little 24 page digest adventure presents a classic setup: a small village with some shit going on for the PC’s to investigate and then fix. The NPC’s and situations are real enough to be more relatable than usual, and the text is focused on DM using it for gameplay. This is a basic adventure done well.
Hey, just don’t fuck up your adventure and I’ll probably be ok with it. I might not drool over it and gush but I won’t hate on it.There is nothing really wrong with this adventure. In fact, I think it grounds itself pretty well. The asshat reeve (always a good villain choice!) and a meek selfish POS farmer have been defrauding the tax collector. One night they get caught by the butcher and the farmer knocks him and drags him to an old mound where an entity rips out his heart and eats it. Hmmm, that took a turn, eh? Turns out ol meek farmer found something and it’s been promising him power. The reeve is kept complicit by fear and selfishness. That’s all pretty relatable. It’s a nice solid grounding in human emotion and character that the adventure then leverage with its “fantasy RPG” elements. And that’s gonna give the DM a lot more to work with than just generic NPC’s in a generic village. On top of this lets add in the tax collector. Just as a coincidence, he’s gone and fallen in to a time loop at an old ruined mill. Every 30 seconds he comes out of the door and stumbles in to quicksand and dies. He, also, is kind of a real person; he likes old stories, from a historian point of view, and collects them and was out looking at the mill. Old Gran knows, he used to talk to him a lot. The tie in to the reeve thing is interesting, just a coincidence, but any DM should be able to use it to amp things up. And then there’s Annafanax. “An elder half-witch living deep in the [the nearby deep wood]” Also “ She eats mostly fungi, as well as the occasional rude traveler” Fun! Sh’es not really evil. Or, maybe she is? We’re looking more at a force of nature type of thing here. SHe’s got a very Witcher setting vibe to her. She doesn’t really care about whats going on. But, she is exploiting the time loop death to charge up a Wisp with the tax collectors death agony. She just wants to use it to open a portal she’s interested in. The … banal? nature of this is so appealing. She’s not really an antagonist. There’s a nice little column or so backstory that explains all of this in a very relatable way. It cements these NPC”s and their motivations in the DMs heads. See, I will read your backstory; if it’s not shitty.
There are some supporting NPC’s, the granny, the dumb kid who works the inn, the butcher’s wife and so on. Just enough information to bring them to life so the DM can riff on them well when the party comes a calling to question them. And the rumors. ALL of the rumors, here, point the party in a direction. “A hunter drags a large net stuffed with dead quarry. There is blood on his shirt. “Have you been through the Downs lately? A wind is blowin’ from the East, carrying with it something foul, like death rolled over.”” Well now, thats the butchers body rotting in the fens. The rumor gets the party going that direction, they do a little explore and find the body, his heart ripped out … the rumor led to something. The other five, also, get the party moving towards a person a place in which to take off and that will lead to more. It’s an interesting take on the rumor table, different than the traditional BreeYark model.
The mill thing is nicely done situation. It has elements of puzzle to it, in that the party needs to figure out how to do the things they want to do without falling afoul of the rotting, sinking mill, etc. And, after the village investigation there’s a little dungeoncrawl to resolve the butcher situation. Both can end up in bad way, with a rift to another place/sinkhole in one and a lich queen in another … nice little touches that can impact the campaign … but not become overwhelming to it. “Yup, on my way to the front to guard to old forest. THings aren’t going well there ….” Oh, sorry sir, good luck to you, me? Nope, first I’ve heard of it …
The text is clean and easy to read and locate information. If I had a couple of complaints it would be, I think, in the writing. The various encounters and locations are … I don’t know. To it’s credit some are fact based, so a hidden trap on a path doesn’t really bother with a description … it doesn’t need one. But, also, “The creek terminates in a small bog just a few minutes’ walk south of White Tower Fens. A smell of rot and decay permeates the area. On the west end of the bog is a large mound of grass and detritus” So, this is not terrible, but, also, the wildlife found in a bog? We get smells but not sounds. It just feels like an incomplete picture. And most of the locations are somewhere in this range, a little fact based and a word or two to spice it up. It could use a little more in this area. It’s not BAD, and it’s not padded. But, also, it’s not really giving the DM more a lot to riff on. I suppose I could be persuaded that this is in the right part of the spectrum of acceptable descriptions … it’s just not where I prefer it to be. Hence the Not Bad designation. Bah! Humbug! I’m unsatisfied but I can’t really complain.
I note, also, that while I enjoy (meaning: find useful) the village people and the mill, and the various smaller locations throughout the wilderness (and, in fact, almost everything about this) I am also a little let down by the dungeoncrawl, perhaps because of the descriptions. This feels like it should be the climax, logically, but it is a little straightforward. I don’t get a descent in to the darkness with a torch vibe, exploring the unknown in fear, or really , much of anything from it. There’s a good viscera sac now and again (always love a viscera sac!) but it can feel a little hollow.
But, also, this is free? From a production values standpoint this may be the one of the best, if not best, free things I’ve seen. And it’s certainly not making me angry. As a free intro adventure I think this is hitting VERY well. I don’t know that _I_ would use it as an intro, but for just another Tuesday night? Absolutely.
I note, also, that there are hints of a larger gameworld here that are very intriguing. Almost like the game world factions in the D&D Organized Play garbage. But integrated well. The Cities are giving that same kind of vibe they did in that … what, Blood of the Juggers Rutger Hauer movie? Nicely Done. Other random notes: Twin Lakes DO appear in the adventure … a hurdle some can’t seem to do, and does the title remind anyone else of a Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew title? That’s kind of fun for an investigation!
This is free at DriveThru.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/500557/cas-1-trouble-in-twin-lakes?1892600