By Paul Wolfe
Mystic Bull Games
OSE
Levels 1-3
The evil sorceress Evia Alyn lies dead. Those who know of her dark legacy have begun to gather in REDSTOWE VILLAGE, perched on the edge of the ZHEROVAIN HIGHLANDS. All seek the same prize: SKULL MOUNTAIN, her fabled fortress deep in the RAVENYR MOUNTAINS. For generations, she held the WESTERN SLOPES in her iron grip. Now, tales of POWERFUL ARTIFACTS left within her fortress draw a strange parade to these windswept plains: WIZARDS bent and twisted with their ambition, THIEVES with sharp eyes and sharper blades, PRIESTS mumbling and sacrificing to varied gods and WARRIORS dreaming of glory.
This 68 page adventure presents a hex crawl in a small region, along with about eight sites to explore/delve. It’s a full work with some decent puzzles and a fully realized environment to adventure in. For some definition of “fully realized” … meaning it tends to the minimalistic side of things.
This is the first part of a larger campaign that is eventually, according to designers notes, end up in the Skull Mountain ten level dungeon of the witch queen. But, first, you’re level ones and need to FIND skull mountain. So you hit the local town looking for rumors and begin to explore sites related to her. That’s this adventure, a hex crawl and some adventuring sites related to the witch queen. It has everything you’d want for something like this, but, just perhaps not to the extent you might want it. Conceptually, think of the support system (not the adventuring sites) as being on paragraph and then a twenty entry random table to support it. It’s easy to think of as adventuring regions. The Pine Forests get a short description and then a wanderer table to support it. Or the town gets a paragraph and then a twenty entry table to support it. That’s not quite true, but it gets you in to the correct frame of mind for the review.
The town, which adventurers are flooding in to, has an inn that gets a VERY basic description, as does the town. We’re told that there are market days and sometimes the steep nomads show up, or the Bone Charmers (although, no description of either entity) and then a little events table to help support play. This can range from a monster attack to a heavy fog to an actual market day, and so on. Including a bad batch of ale at the inn, save vs poison or be at -4 CON for a few days. Just a few little things to spice up the town and keep it a bit dynamic. There’s a brief section on the town growing and money flooding i, which is a great touch, although a little short. And, there’s not much, at all, of the other adventuring parties flooding in, or trouble caused by them. This is going to be a theme. The adventure touches on little aspects but then doesn’t really provide much at all about them. I’m not asking for an appendix here, but a couple of sentences more would have been in each of the various areas. There is a relatively decent little rumors table. The Silver Queen’s fortress lies at confluence of the Rhoest and the Whisper rivers.” or “ Restless dead roam battlefields found across the steppe, crags, and thickets.” This is a good way to get the party going to locales, so they are relevant and help drive the adventure forward, although perhaps I could use some in-voice for them.
Magic items are great. The Salt Lords Sceptre. Staff, +1. Carved from a single crystal of salt with the head of a bull. Casts hold person(!) once day. On one subject. Nice little items, mostly book with a little more and a decent little few word description like that. Really nice sweet spot in describing magic items and giving them just a little uniqueness so not everything is just a generic +1.
The locations vary in size, but range from a few rooms to, of, say, twelve to sixteen. They are interesting environments, interlinked with objectives to unlock each other and greater mysteries. The first is quite mirror-forward, as they say. (I had a condo once owned by the Saran Wrap heir that was very mirror forward … or was it the Reynolds Wrap heir?) So, we’re looking at frescoes, grabbing mirrors, putting mirrors up. Looking at reflection, and using magic light from mirrors to do things in the dungeon. Things are not really being telegraphed, at least not in an obvious way, but you can figure things out if you pay attention and do some things that should be obvious.
The room descriptions though, are pretty minimal. We’re looking at mostly fact based descriptions, and terse ones at that. “Mirror Hall. Mirrors (3’x5′) east wall. Worn tapestry west wall. Tarnished censers hang from chains (center)” So, a room title which is good. Then we get an indented and bolded bullet for Cracked Mirrors, Tapestry, and Censor. “Tapestry. Queen gazes over shoulder in hand mirror at supplicants. Hides pristine mirror (3’x5′). See area 4.” A nice little bit of cross-reference there. I would have liked a few more words here, not many, but some adjectives and adverbs. Gazes sternly or something other than “worn” for the tapestry, a couple of more words per items to cement them a little better. The facts and just the facts.
This makes the entire adventure read more like a framework, and while, yes, all adventures are frameworks, some are more so than others. I wanted just a bit more in town. The other parties, a little more intrigue. Just a little more for the various rooms to bring them to life. And, perhaps most of all, a little more in a summary of how the adventure should work. You are clearly finding things at one site for another and aligning things between sites and so on. That’s all great, but the adventure is just too “long” for a DM to really put that together all by their lonesomes. And, besides, you know the deal, if the DM has to do it then the adventure designer should be helping out.
I’m not angry at this. It’s well constructed in parts and clearly thought has gone in to it. I can’t see myself ever running it. But, buying it, putting some effort in to prep, and then running it could be an option for folks that tend to the minimalism side of things. Well, no, I consider myself a minimalist, but this goes a bit far even for me, without ever actually reaching those Vampire Queen levels that I find so annoying.
This is $10 at DriveThru. The preview is one page, a hex page in the region. So, poor preview. It needed to show a few dungeon entries so a DM can know what to expect.
I suppose this adventure has a Mattel He-Man and the Masters of the Universe vibe with Evia Alyn standing in for Evil-Lyn and Skull Mountain standing in for Castle Greyskull. Just who may be the Skeletor stand in?