Fog Valley Retreat

By Ben Gibson
Coldlight Press
1e
Levels 5-7

Deep within the valley, where the high keening voices sound in the heavy air and ivy shifts against the wind, an elegant edifice looms out of the fog, cloaked in whispered rumor. They say it is a refuge for all wicked highborn, most recently the villainous one who owes you his head…

This eight page adventure uses two pages to describe about twenty rooms in a religious refuge for baddies. Ben does a good job putting multiple interesting things in a room to interact with and maintaining a tone that while challenging is not adversarial. It’s almost certain to end with a gods avatar getting pissed and hunting you down inside, ala DCO. Terse, evocative, designed. Make mine Coldlight!

Oh, Bryce is a meanie! He hates everything! No, I’m not a meanie. I don’t actually think it’s that hard to snag a best from me. It’s just that most people don’t try. You know who did try? Ben. And bens gonna get a Best for it. This is not the most revolutionary adventure ever written. But it, though, a solid little adventure. It’s based around an adventure need. Oh No! The baddie your party has confronted has gotten away! Where di they go? They went here, to the refuge/sanctuary described in this adventure. It’s a small temple and, as a fleeing despot, if you swear an oath to their god then they protect you … such as it is. It’s a nice little concept, filling a niche need that does seem to pop up in every campaign. And, if you don’t want to use it like that, then Fingol the Vile is inside, having fled some someone.

Ok, so, we’ve got some undead in this place. Let’s do basic check one: can we automatically destroy them with our cleric? Heavens! No! It looks like Ben may have actually played his adventure! Next basic check, treasure. Let’s see … “ A pair of acolytes pray at the golden altar (500lbs, worth 18,500gp)” Ope! Looks like Ben is a son-of-a-bitch! Wonderful! The party can drag that out, as well as a delicate elf crystal gran chandelier, an entire library of books, and some cumbersome tapestries. All those tithes go to waste as gems and jewelry after all 🙂 There’s some coin and gems and jewelry, and also a decent chunk of the overall total is in that more cumbersome “furnishings” os various sorts. It’ doesn’t get rediculaous, but, also, you’ll want to send some wagons back. 

That’s gonna be an issue, though. If you kill ol Fingol, or the high piest, then you get a clash of titans scene. Room 2: “This chilly octagonal chamber is dominated by a flawless 15ft-high statue of a beautiful winged and haloed woman, the Angel of Refuge” there you go! Oh, wait, I didn’t finish. “ (actually the Guide’s Avatar waiting in a stony shell)” If you kill the chief baddies then “the stone cracks off of her and her light bathes halls while she calls out “WHO VIOLATES MY HOSPITALITY?” in a clarion voice and roams.” Oops. That’s thirteen HD of avatar trouble hunting you through the halls before you can get that golden alter out. This is the ol “collapsing dungeon” thing at the end of an adventure, except done well. And there’s really not too many more words to it, except perhaps a note about it not being able to make it down 5’ wide hallways. 

Related, to that, is the skill Ben as in overloading a room. In a decent room you’ll want a couple of things going on. Room two, that angel room, for example, has several things going on. Tapestries on the wall that you can hide behind. The statue proper. A gallery above that the tapestries hang from, giving some verticality to explore. It’s a good room and, it’s handled in, I don’t know, one eighth or one tenth of a page? Well written, I’d argue evocative enough, mutliple things going on, and terse. Creatures bolded and state blocks shaded when the monster first appears. It’s a delight. A page of intro, with rumors and wanderers. A map. Two pages of keys, and a page of consequences that it shares with 5e stat blocks. A fucking wonder this!You can fucking run it!

Oh, those rumors? “THE CULT OF “SAINT” LELIT IS ANATHEMA TO THE GODS OF LAW, BURN HER WICKED SHRINE” Yeah man, that’s how you get a mission from the god/priessts of Law. Anathema. Burn it. I don’t need to be told twice! It’s just fits in so perfeclty, so effortlessly communicating the vibe along with the rumor. Oh, and good map. Decently complex. Some vertaicity, some passages running over others, some features, like said curtains on the map. Pretty good job.

Hey man, it’s a room wth a decent number of cables in it. “the candles begin flickering on one-by one”. Did you fucking run? No? “and a minute later a fireball (10d6) ignites” Dude told you it was coming! 

Ben does this over and over and over again. Effortless looking rooms, easy to grok, with something to do and interact with. This is a solid fucking adventure. Greatest thing ever? No. But a solid solid adventure. And those get a Best around here. And I’ve not even covered the fog effects in the rooms! Solid.

This is Pay What You Want on DriveThru with a suggested price of $2. So, you know, the whole thing is free to look at. But, also, drop a couple on him for it.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/522331/fog-valley-retreat?1892600