Beneath the Ruins of Griffon Keep

By Aaron Gustwiller
Aaron's Gaming Stuff
S&W
Levels 1-5

As long as anyone can remember, Griffon Keep has been in ruins, with only vague rumors of strange rites performed in the dungeon below the keep giving any hint as to what may have occurred there and a possible reason for why the castle was eventually abandoned. But for anyone who lives near the ruins, it is believed to be a cursed place that is best avoided. There are other rumors though, that say the castle was once the home of a wealthy king and that his riches are still hidden away beneath the keep. 

This seventeen page adventure uses about eight pages to describe about 120 rooms across three levels of classic dungeon maps. Minimally described and with a seemingly random assortment of creatures and treasure, there are fewer specials than I would prefer, and thus not much going on other than stabbing and finding keys. 

As I wade through the filth in my kingdom of shit, there is a special place in my heart for the minimally described dungeon. I don’t particularly like them, but I do prefer them over the ones that drone on and on and on about a single room. There’s a balance, between the verbose monstrosities and the minimally described … and this dungeon isn’t it.

There’s not much lead-in here. Really just that intro text and a wandering monster table. There’s a small blurb about the dungeon walls being irregular fieldstone and the upper ruins, what there is of them,  and then off we go! I appreciate the context provided by the upper ruin … though it really falls down in practice, not hinting at all of the horrors that lay beneath through footprints and the ilk. And, of course, the wanderers don’t do anything. I can has sadz.

Inside the dungeon room are, in fact, quite minimal. “There are two chests in the room.” or “A stone pillar is located at each of the rooms four corners.” While the treasure room goes on to list treasure, both have nothing more to them. Nor do almost none of the rooms here. “There are ten zombies in this room.”  Vampire Queen at least saved the ink by just saying “10 zombies.” There is, quite rarely, just a hint of something more. Locked doors waiting on you to find the levels key to open them, for the treasures beyond. “Hanging from a peg on the wall is an Iron Key, which will unlock the doors at: … “ So, to it’s credit it tells you, at a locked door, where the key is and in the key room which doors the key unlocks. But it all feels more than a little crpg. We have a medium here, the written word, which is not limited to the coding rules of 1979. It’s a shame that is not taken advantage of. 

It’s trying, sometimes. “There are 3 Orcs in this room; one is wearing part of the tapestry from room 1 as a cape.” But, alas, this is just trivia. This is nothing special and leads to nothing. No knowledge to be gained. In fact, the roome one tapestry is “… and along the south wall hangs a tattered and faded tapestry.” So, not even a design to tell that the tapestry is FROM room one. 

In other places the little effort is counter-productive. A room with pillars (again) we are told has one “2 Ghouls hiding behind one of them; they gain surprise when they attack.” Well, yes, that might be the case. I think, perhaps, though, tha the wiser move is to take in account the parties alertness, their actions and so on before determining surprise, yes? Especially for such a mundane hiding spot?

The maps here, I’ll briefly mention, are by Tim Hardin, one of my favorites. Tim tens to do larger dungeon level maps and that’s on display here, with thirty or so rooms per level. There are some fine dungeon features on the maps, like all those pillars, as well as same level stairs, for confounding the parties, and hallways running under others. Porculli and statues and pits, oh my! These are excellent foundational elements that could have been exploited much better.

“Sniffing around the room is a Hell Hound.” is the entirety of one description. And this is quite the interesting little thing, the power levels here. Wraiths on level one (although they only attack if you fuck with a body.) and it would not be unusual to find 5 HD creatures about. I am leaning, hard, toward this being a randomly generated dungeon. The monsters and treasure and traps being placed at die roll. Which makes me wonder about the appearance of a Hell Hound. In 1e that would be monster level four, which technically CAN appear on level three of a dungeon. But, more to the word, it just feels really disconnected. The creatures, rooms, traps, and so on don’t really make sense together. As if all we did was take the random roll and let it stand. And, of course you CAN key a dungeon that way. But, then again, there are tons of online generators that will do that also. So what makes a dungeon stand out? It’s the ability of the designer to take those random rolls and put the thing together into something more than that. I know I harp on evocative descriptions, but, also, making the dungeon make SENSE. A slide trap on stairs with spikes at the end? Perfect. A book that causes you to forget your memorized spells? Great! (Although, i believe it’s traditional to give it a dumb name.) These are both examples of specials/traps in this dungeon, but, also, they are very few and far between.

I suppose that makes this a true throw-back. And shows you how far the hobby has come from Vampire Queen. There IS a happy medium between minimally descriptions and the reams of text wasted on some keys in some adventures. And this is closer than the verbose ones, but lacks anything to it to single it out as something other than Randomly Keyed.

This is free at DriveThru.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/519650/beneath-the-ruins-of-griffon-keep?1892600