By Keith Sloan
Expeditious Retreat Press
1e
Levels 5-7
Orcs have long been a danger in the northern woods, but the Dukes have always been able to contain them and protect the human southlands. No longer. Rumors swirl that formerly warring orc tribes have united under a new leader, and make ready to march under a single banner, a banner depicting a black spider. Even the stolid men-at-arms of Dermoth Duchy are nervous at what all this portends. What can be done to stop the rise of the orcs and their new Spider Goddess?
This sixteen page adventure details a small overland journey to a two level cave system with about 65 rooms worth of orcs, giant spiders, and undead. It’s more on the hack side of spectrum, and while it has a few decent concepts I don’t think it ever does anything very interesting with them.
Hey hey! It’s XRP! Looks like they are back! This time, it looks like them warring orc tribes have pulled it together under the banner of a black spider and are advancing on humanity, as they are wont to do. And ohs nos, the local army get chewed up by hit and run orcs, so they need a group of hobos to go in and deal with it. Through the spider woods, next to spider mountain, you see the spider temple. Looks like the orcs have been busy, it was someone else’s temple but now they redecorated with spider statues and carvings. Inside you’;ll stab orcs. Inside you’ll stab spiders. Inside you’ll meet a bunch of undead who used to be a part of the former temple and are now being forced back by the spiders and orcs. Undead. Wights and Spectres. Shadows. Forced back by orcs and giant spiders. I guess when you die you lose your will to live? I’m here all week folks. Anyway, get to stabbing, cause non-magic fire clears 10’ of web per turn. The wood itself is four miles by eight miles. I’d just burn them all out, but, timber resources blah blah blah, I guess.
I am somewhat disappointed by this entry in to AA. Ignoring our pussy undead, there does tend to be a lot of stabbing and not a lot of exploring in this. You’ve got just a couple of opportunities to talk to shit, mostly unmotivated undead who can energy drain. Other than that this is going to be a VERY stab heavy adventure. There’s a random room thing or two, think Deck of Many Things, but those feel out of place. And, there;s no real order of battle, so just get to stabbing as almost everyone just dies in their own rooms. There’s a comment or two about the spiders being arrogant, so I guess that’s it.
But the adventure has some ideas that are ok, especially in decor. There’s ye olde bottomless pit in a room, and it’s got leering demon statues around it, peering down in to it. Hey, that’s pretty good! If I had a bottomless pit I’d put those in. Well, no, I wouldn’t, but when someone else suggested it I would KNOW I fucked up and that they fit PERFECTLY the vibe of the room. And if you squint hard then this is not altogether uncommon in the adventure. Some of the trappings, or room set ups are not terrible. A couple of giant spiders in a room, sisters, who always bicker with each other. Noice! You’re just gonna stab them and the bickering will be mocking the party (a lot of spiders like to mock the party. A lot of spiders gonna die. Seems like a flaw in the spider … forbrain?) not any sort of REAL human-ish connection with the party.
The language used just doesn’t make the scenes stick. The demons around the pit thing isn’t really sold well. These are, I guess, fact based descriptions. “The remnants of someone flayed, probably alive, are in the center of the room. The remnants are not recent and seem to have been undisturbed.” Ok. Sure. As the end all be all of a room description? (I’m omitting a scrawled message, but thats it.) They just are not sold at all. I will readily admit that ths the hard part of writing. Making someone feel something. And, yet, in a world in which every adventure ever is available, and AI’s (human or machine …) churn them out at ten a day, you’re going to need to to a good job to rise above the slop.
And this is in spite of long sections of text. I’m not really sure how its done. I’m not sure how you can have such long sections of text and NOT have a decent description. When I looked at the first page of wilderness encounters my eyes kind of glazed over and I sighed. Take a second wind and get that pointer ready to mark my place and go through it. It’s not really padded out, in the traditional manner. Maybe, it takes two or three sentences to communicate, in a far lesser way, what one good sentence could? That, and the small font, do certainly make one spectre-like. No will to live. Sapp’d. Sucked right out of you. Get it?! Get it?! I Stalkered late last night and am slap happy.
“SHRINE: Formerly a shrine to some obscure demon lord, this has been converted to one to the Spider Goddess. The depictions of the demon lord and his cult have all been desecrated, damaged, or destroyed. Now, a crude wooden statue of a great black spider sits at the west end” Sure, I guess so. Meh. But, then also, there’s a room with a vampire dude in a giant bell jar. “Its charm ability will work through the glass, but there are no rats or bats for it to summon.” CAUSE ITS FULL OF SPIDERS!!! There’s a little bit of thought here. It’s just leaning more to the trivia side of the house (while still being relevant) than I think it needs to be.
It’s an ok adventure. I don’t like the degree of stabby stabby. I get that assaults are a thing, but a simple room by room stab is a little dry. The descriptions are not top notch. I would not want to try and run it. But, also, some people like these things and it’s not TERRIBLE.
This is $6 at DriveThru. The preview is six pages. You get to the wood journey and some of the upper dungeon rooms. It’s a good preview. I’d take a look at it if you are at all interested in buying it. If you’re ok with the presentation and content of the rooms then it may be for you.
“SHRINE: Formerly a shrine to some obscure demon lord, this has been converted to one to the Spider Goddess. The depictions of the demon lord and his cult have all been desecrated, damaged, or destroyed. Now, a crude wooden statue of a great black spider sits at the west end”
Yeah starts with an unescessary “formerly” tell which would be more efficient & evocative if just shown through description of chiselled off sections leaving a few fragments of batwings & a fanged jawless apeshead remaining, the rest hacked away. Or something. (more specific, less abstract to do the same thing).
Sounds like it could be made pretty cool if DM came up with a way to breathe a little life into the undead faction -_- pun, but serious point though. Could be done, not many clues in the preview as to how to tweak it though.
Then Give the orcs a cool item which helps them against the undead and the party to take it. Add a shadow/phase spiders or something which can threaten the shades.
If the party burned the woods I’d guess majority escape the blaze and are flushed out into an open battle- cue skirmish rules or a battle royale with limited vision in a smoky, smoking, ember rained wasteland with the odd wildfire still spreading randomly adding another wrinkle could be fun.
Probably only work i’d be willing to do because the spider /orc angle already neatly fits another domino imc the players have toppled.
I’m actually starting to wonder if the grogs who like this style don’t even bother converting the “this room used to be….” descriptions into something immersive that makes sense for the PCs from a first-person perspective. The DM just reads it off and the players get to hacking, Knights of the Dinner Table style. I mean if you’re playing a wargame who cares about immersion and metagaming right?
I’m really sorry you missed the glory days of exploration and discovery before storytelling took over.
They were awesome.
I’m confused, are you confirming that you & other grogs don’t mind this abstract & history-first style of description because you just read it to the players as-is?
‘Needless to say’ . . . then it was said.
I like the presentation/typeface/layout. It brings me back to the old gangster Murder the Giants AD&D modules.
The rest of it – I did lookover the preview – has the aspect of a 2nd-rate hot fudge sundae. Everything is familiar in terms of ingredients, which is okay, but every element lacks just enough polish (or quality: ice cream, hot fudge, shriveled cherry, etc.) to make it all sing. Like someone mentioned above, I don’t think the authors would need to add too-too much extra imagination or slant to the work to make the music. It is just sort of missing collectively.
It is a Get Them Before They Get Us slasher. With a shriveled cherry.
I, for one, enjoy being pandered to and like the trade dress, TSR-era font and white-on-blue maps.
However, nostalgia only gets one so far. I’ve found the AA modules to be hit or miss and largely miss.
Haven’t read the module yet, so I am speaking at a disadvantage here, but I believe Bryce has a blind spot when it comes to Keith Sloan’s adventures. All of them use simple building blocks and unornamented text (Sorceror’s Stone in Saving Throw #01 is downright spartan); however, they stand up very well in play because Keith has a solid grasp on gameplay and flow. Every time I have run one of his adventures, it has turned out great. The encounters are set up well, the action flows at a brisk pace, and there are sometimes fun mechanics to complicate things (e.g. the escalation mechanic in Grottoes of the Sea Lords). It is “low concept” done well.
The Advanced Adventures line is hit-or-miss. Keith Sloan is not hit-or-miss. He is hit, hit, hit.
Melan, I greatly appreciate your additional personal perspective on this module author – it is always important to have views from multiple perspectives. Happy new year!
I feel as though we might have slogged into an odd Why Isn’t It Your Cup of Tea? mudbath.
Like another stated, I prefer exploration, mystery, and atmosphere, with extra appreciation for humanoid tribes that fight intelligently within their resources rather than mindlessly charging my crossbow. That’s my cup.
Many thousands of haunted houses, brooding evils, sulking wizards and orc-stuffed caverns later, some authors can make them tingle for me, and others cannot.
This one seems to be missing something, just something, but something. Not quite my cup. But I do not want to diminish the pedigree or the efforts of the author in any way. I don’t dig most of Miles Davis, either.