tenfootpole.org

This is a tournament module. According to the introduction it was originally written for GenCon 22, in 1989, and then updated and released for the 3rd North Texas RPG con in 2011. The module is divided in to two parts in order to accommodate two rounds of play. My only other experiences with tourney modules are the C1/C2 series, as well as the expanded ‘conversion’ modules, such as the S series. The difference between the two is one of linearity. Tournament modules, must, by their nature, be rather linear and constrained. The expanded S series took the their convention roots and expanded in to something more exploratory and less linear. Storm over Skyreach is certainly a real tournament module, complete with pregens and scoring. It can easily be used as a linear dungeon for a group over a couple of sessions. In fact, it may be LESS linear and more interesting than many 4E and 3E modules.

The backstory revolves around an evil wizard. A few years back he raised a couple of armies, which contained some dragons not seen before, and set about  subjugating the surrounding area. His dragons abandoned him and he lost the war he started and disappeared. It was rumored he had a hide-out high up on Skyreach mountain, however the existence of a barbarian tribe, and war-weariness, made following-up difficult. Now, 50 years later, one of the wizards Storm dragons has been sighted in the area which is renewing fears that he wizard is once again gearing up to cause trouble. The party is sent to find and investigate the Skyreach lair.

After a brief roleplaying encounter with the king the party journeys to a village to rest overnight on their way to the mountain. A ruckus starts outside when a skeletal figure on a winged black horse shows up [I think I had that micronaut when I was a child!], complete with skull in hand, and shouts threats and starts a building on fire. A building with a child in it. Oh, and he turns a stone giant statue to life in the courtyard. Did I mention he also shoots some Shadows out of his skull? That’s a nice warm-up situation for the party!

More role-playing encounters happen with the barbarians tribe, and some wilderness encounters getting to and up to the mountain lair. There’s a great moment with a ring of delusion which is found at he top of a cliff. Nice! Here’s a helpful adventuring tip: don’t experiment with newly found items when you are in potentially perilous situations, like on top of cliffs or in the middle of lava fields. There are a couple of cave encounters prior to reaching the mountaintop lair. The first portion of the module ends with an encounter at the top of the mountain with a Storm dragon. The first half of the module has a few role-playing encounters, a few puzzle encounters, and a few combat encounters. I found it interesting and not at all boring. It should be a nice 3 hour challenge of a group. This first half does have a couple of issues. First, the skeletal figure on the horse flies off before the party can react. This is good from a ‘previewing the villain’, after all, we don’t want another Lareth situation do we? Better to get the party worked up over the Big Bad. I can’t help shaking the feeling though that it’s a bit of a cheap shot. Secondly, there’s a section where the party is knocked out and captured. This is less of an issue in a tournament module, since it’s most;y a series of set pieces anyway, however it still leaves me a bit anxious.

The second half of the module is meant to be round two and has the party exploring the wizards lair. It feels smaller and shorter and much more straight-forward in a ‘dungeoncrawl’ kind of way, even if it is a simple one. There are fewer puzzles, fewer interesting situations, and, IMHO, less fun. It feels like a tack-on rather than the focus of the adventure, which is what the backstory sets it up to be.

Yes, it’s linear, but it IS a well-written tournament module. Meaning that it has plenty of role-playing encounters, tricks, traps, and interesting situations for the party to navigate. It also, necessarily, has a ‘correct’ way to play, since the parties actions have to be scored. It does give some good advice to the tournament GM in running the party, managing their creativity, and limiting the amount of frustration the party may feel.

If this were a 4E module then it would probably be the greatest module ever published, given the non-combat encounters and exploration options. As it is, it’s an above-average OSR module and an excellent tournament module.

This is available on DriveThru.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/263917/TM2-Storm-Over-Skyreach?affiliate_id=1892600

This modules presents difficulties for me, on several fronts. After a great deal of consideration I have finally come to peace with it, or at least I believe I have. Essentially, it’s a manor home murder mystery followed by a dungeoncrawl. I’ve seen a lot of published dungeoncrawls and that portion is neither a whole lot better or a whole lot worse than the vast majority. What you don’t see a lot of is murder mysteries … and with good cause.

I love me some Poirot, but there’s probably two reasons for the lack of murder mysteries, especially at higher levels. First, the party will almost certainly have access to spells and abilities which making the hiding the truth difficult. Know alignment, detect lie, esp, speak with dead, etc. It’s very hard to keep secrets in an environment like this. This is dealt with by a simple statement: don’t let the party have those spells/powers in this adventure. No mystery-breaking spells means the adventure doesn’t break and the games afoot! Beyond this, the villain has gone through EXTRAORDINARY steps to prepare his workspace, the manor, and get everything in order. Memory drain potions, two or three other specialized magic items in the same vein, secret doors and passages, magic to FURTHER obfuscate those secret doors & passages. Minions who specialize in secrets & sneaking, etc. This guys done a lot of leg work; he probably deserves to get his way based on the amount of prep work he’s done.

Which leads to the second major issue: player agency. The players presumably worked hard for those skills/powers that were just taken away, and the DM just took them away during the one time when they are to be most useful. Uncool of the DM. The PC’s have to be able to use what they have and forcing them down a certain path and making them rely on their deductive abilities is a major no-no. I’m sure everyone can relate a story where their carefully dropped and most obvious clue was completely ignored by the party, leading to many frustrating hours of play for everyone. That. Is. Not. Fun.

We have a Manor home full of residents & servants. There’s a LOT of NPC’s in this adventure; 39 named ones who are supposed to be in the house. There’s a large marriage celebration that the party attends. A BIG snowstorm develops, forcing some guests to stay the night, including the party. Some people get murdered by a vampire. The party is under suspicion, and there is an investigation in to the deaths. There are a lot of pre-programmed events that happens, based on a timeline. Again, player agency is undermined.

Finally the party is supposed to figure out who’s behind things, which a major push in the right direction if they are having trouble. This leads to part two, the dungeoncrawl. The dungeon ties in to the manor home very well; hidden floors and Ah Ha! moments lead to entrances … assuming the party is not disgusted by the their earlier lack of success in searching. The ‘dungeon’ is full of undead and the villains minions, none of which I had a major problem with. The traps are not that unusual and I didn’t really see anything I would call an OSR Trick.

As written, I’m not sure I’m happy with this product. If the DM played the murder/investigation party briskly, and didn’t allow the party to waste time and become frustrated, then it may serve as a decent introduction to the small dungeon. IE: a good locale and hook to get the party to go adventuring. It’s going to require a very good DM to get the party moving correctly, not railroad, complete the set up. Allowing the party to investigate at their leisure, and not providing some good player knowledge, will surly lead to ruin, IMHO.

Quantum Ogres:
http://hackslashmaster.blogspot.com/2011/09/on-ressurecting-quantum-ogre-and-having.html

This is available on DriveThru.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/264076/V1-The-Vampires-Curse?affiliate_id=1892600

Realm of the Technomancer is a double adventure. One side of the book has an adventure for Labyrinth Lord while the other side of the book has an adventure for Mutant Future. It just so happens that these are essentially the same adventure, re-stat’ed and re-described depending on which game the characters are in. In the Labyrinth Lord adventure the PC’s are contacted by villagers who are having some troubles with the (secret) underground portion of their village. This is essentially the same as the Mutant Future version: the underground complex associated with the village is having some trouble. Thing have gotten weird and the villagers want the party to investigate. The village depends on the machinery/magic in the tunnels and they need the party to succeed.

It should become obvious to the party that realities have become mixed. In the Labyrinth Lord version it turn out that a group of Morlocks from a post-apoc time stream have somehow mixed their homeland with that of the Labyrinth Lord villagers. Same set up in the Mutant Future version, except instead of post-apoc Morlocks we get fantasy/magic Morlocks. The two adventures have the same idea, the same basic map, and the same basic encounters with the same basic monsters. The Morlocks are given a little more flair: technoweapons in the LL version and Spears, crossbows, and magic in the MF version. In addition the room descriptions and trappings are localized for the game system, but otherwise the adventures are the same.

The adventure is pretty basic. The tunnel complex is pretty linear and their are only about nine keyed locations. There is a brief section regarding scaling the adventure which is always appreciated, especially since this one provides some non-obvious scaling tips. What would otherwise be a pretty standard ‘clean the tunnels’ adventure is added to by a couple of elements. The first is the Technomancy Mishap tables. Whenever technology and magic are used in the same place then there’s a pretty good chance that something bad will happen, and a slight chance that something disastrous will happen. This should provide a good amount of fun is taken the right light. Taking the PC’s toys away from them has some serious GM fiat issues, Most of the mishaps are not very serious, however there is a slight chance that something VERY BAD will happen. Like a magic item being drained of power of a number of them exploding. This is probably too much for me to drop on the party out of the blue; I like the ‘warn and suffer the consequences’ style of play.

The second interesting element is some of the dungeon dressing proper. Just about every room has something interesting in it for the players to screw with. Some of these are seriously creepy, like the rotting severed head of a gnome wrapped in wire and grafted to pipework who’s eyes continually roll in their sockets and whose mouth whispers nonsense. Others are more environmental, like a slippery & mud covered sloping tunnel. These elements really spice up the adventure and each one is well worth stealing to put in your own game if you’re not going to run the module.

The end of the adventure is interesting also. The Morlocks are trying to return themselves home and the final fight _probably_ has the party trying to prevent this. After all, any party worth it’s salt will usually try and stop anyone they attempting to complete a ritual. Unfortunately … the Morlocks completing the ritual is probably the best outcome. Yeah, things are bit harder for the villagers in the short-term, but live should return to normal. If the party causes the ritual to fail, well, things can get quite a bit worse for both the villagers and the party.

I should also mention that the module is chick full of new goodies. Several new monsters, new magic items, new technology items (with limited ammo that can’t be recreated.) This is always welcome in any module, as it keeps the party guessing, both about their adversaries and about the loot; the sense of wonder and the unknown is one of the most important parts of old style gaming.

This is available at DriveThru.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/90120/Realm-of-the-Technomancer?affiliate_id=1892600

The Northlands saga is a bit of a different beast than most published materials. It’s quite a bit looser than most published adventure modules, yet quite a bit more specific than most sandbox/setting related materials. Essentially, it’s a Vikings vs. Evil Eskimos adventure. The party is given the opportunity to join a viking treasure expedition to the far north. The Long Serpent, a viking ship, has just returned to port from an exploration/resource gathering trip with a large portion of it’s crew dead, but also with some pretty interesting treasure. another expedition is organized and the party joins. On the way to the north a couple of programmed encounters happens, one of which leaves the party in charge of the expedition. Reaching the shores of the frozen the party then …

What happens next? Well, things could go a few different ways. The party could tool about and hunt seals, whales, and other assorted wildlife. They could also hunt a cult of evil eskimos. What the DM is presented with is a the bare bones of a wilderness area. There’s one ‘good’ village and five evil villages. Each village except for the last is very briefly described; basically how many warriors, dogs, slaves, and women/children. The last village gets a little more, but no maps are provided for any of them. The party is led to believe that the evil villagers have vast amount of treasure, which along with the revenge motive, is the basis for the adventure. Only the last village/temple actually has any treasure though.

And that’s just about all there is to this product. It’s clearly VERY opened ended, just providing a framework for the kinds of action that could take place. How will the party, and the 20 sailors/vikings on their ship deal with the evil villagers? What do the villages look like and what will be the plan of attack, if any? How will the villagers react? What kind of framework will the party use to gather treasure/resources? All in all, it’s very much has the feel of 13th Warrior crossed with Vault of the Drow. “Here’s a bunch of primitive people in some tersely described area. Go get rich and seek revenge.”

We are provided one general map of the layout the villages; how they relate to each other geographically, and one map of the main evil village which shows a bit more information on the huts and so on. a small amount of data is provided on the history of the region and how the peoples came to be here and how the evil cult got started.

If you’re looking for that kind of the general overview of a small area, with an open-ended adventure seed then this will fit the bill. If you are looking for an extremely detailed setting in the far north, ala the MERP Lossoth supplement, then this is NOT for  you. It’s certainly nothing like a traditional dungeon adventure and is clearly a wilderness adventure; something like Isle of Dread if that product contained A LOT less detail. That’s not in and of itself a bad thing as long as you know what you’re getting in to. It’s really a kind of adventure seed that’s quite a bit more fleshed out than most.

There is one encounter I take issue with. One of the programmed encounters causes he captain to die, putting the party in charge of the expedition. I understand WHY this was done, so the party can do what they want, but I’m still a bit uneasy about it. A certain part of me thinks that if the captain was left alive then it could have provided some interesting roleplay moments as the party seeks to EARN the trust of the crew and perhaps tangles with the captains motives, especially of the party were co-leaders of the expedition.

This is available at DriveThru.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/175454/The-Northlands-Series-1-Winters-Teeth-Swords-and-Wizardry-Edition?affiliate_id=1892600

There’s something about this module that makes it appealing and I just can’t figure out what. On the surface it’s a rather straightforward affair. Go to a village plagued by evil. Go to ruined manor house. Explore. Kill bad guy. Nothing much. But in reality it seems to have so much more.

The module runs about 28 pages of heavy stock. It contains three primary adventure areas: a small village, a graveyard, and a ruined manor house. The players get a player handout from the village sheriff asking for help. On the way to the village they meet some refugees and Ye Old Rumor Table is broken out. I love rumor tables, and fleeing refugees are a great way to distribute them. Hitting the village the players are confronted by the following BOXED TEXT: You know you have reached the outskirts of Sheridan Springs when you pass an unkempt cemetery on your left. As you get closer to town, you see that several houses have been boarded up and abandoned. Those that are still occupied all have their windows closed and curtains drawn. There are very few people on the street. At the towns center the road widens around a well and a stone monument. The blacksmiths shop and Harold Johnson’s Inn seem to be the only businesses open.

Yeah, it’s boxed text and boxed test sucks, but it’s VERY good boxed text. It conveys the feeling of the town and mentions every single area of interest in the village. In particular I like how the stone monument is mentioned in passing. It reminds me of the way dungeon environments should be described: a passing reference to several objects which the party needs to ask further about to get more information. I don’t wish to imply that all of the BOXED TEXT (which is actually bolded text, not boxed) is this good. In fact quite a bit is not. “Still hot stew” and “a corridor used by former servants to run errands” both serve as counter-examples of BOXED TEXT not doing what it should. The module is trying to be a ‘pick up and play with no prep’ affair, so at least he boxed text can be justified, but still quite a bit of it is bad and/or overly long.

That aside, did you catch the name of that inn, Harold Johnson’s? The sheriffs name is Olob. These sorts of things remind me of the way I run a game when I start to get a bit loopy after too many hours of DM’ing. I love it. It brings a feeling of authenticity and familiarity to the module. The inn is another good place to scrounge up rumors, so the rumor table is pulled out again. It seems the village is suddenly plagued by evil. Did I mention that the villagers recently turned up a small stone obelisk while clearing fields and have moved it to the center of their town? Again, hint of a real home campaign. These villagers are simple people, real salt of the earth. You know: MORONS. There’s nothing I love more then making my villages full of mud and dirt and morons. Why did we put the strange obelisk with weird runes in the center our village? Seemed like a good idea at the time …  Well, it turns out that’s really the end of the obelisk. It doesn’t really play a part other then being an ‘evil magnet.’ Sure, the party can get rid of it, but that’s not really the adventure.

The cemetery is another locale that can be briefly explored. Very briefly. I only mention it because I found it quite amusing. Two orcs are down in a grave digging up a body. They left a skeleton on guard. “The skeleton was a poor choice to leave on guard. It can be surprised on a roll of 1-4.” Ok, it’s subdued, but I liked it. 🙂

Finally we come to the manor home. Turns out the last mayor liked to experiment with portions and went and blew himself up. Getting to the manor house could be an issue: a nice wandering table is given, complete with Owlbear and a walking evil tree! Unfortunately, the map scale is a bit large and the DM is instructed to “roll for monsters as he sees fit.”

The manor is small, with two stories above ground and one below. It is, however, quite charming. The party is not really channeled in to any specific area and the central corridor systems allows for the party to explore the rooms ad-hoc. There’s generally only one intelligent monster per level, with a few vermin and undead thrown in. It’s the details though that make the difference. A room the orcs have to run through to escape the stirge in the chandeliers … complete with orc corpses lying on the floor. Disturbing portraits and a nice spooky encounter in the master library round things out. Oh, and I shouldn’t forget the book on cannabis cultivation. Yeah, it’s sooooo high school but then again that kind of playfulness is part of what makes life fun. I LIKE the monster mix. vermin are always welcome, and restricting itself to just a single type of humanoid, Orc, both seems more realistic (or at least doesn’t make me say WTF?) and also makes it quite easy to replace them with bandits. Finally the Necromancer and his undead, while a trifle overused in modules, were presented with enough uniqueness, through the details, to make them not only inoffensive but in some cases downright interesting encounters! The module only has a few magic items, as a low level module should. In addition they tend to be potions and unique items. I like both of these choices. I want my magic items to be unique and full of flavor, not just “shield +1” or “cup of cure light wounds”.

The adventure is not the most unique however the devils in the details and I found the flavor provided for the DM to be more than enough to bring the thing to life in my mind and overcome the “Yet another manor house” adventure barrier. Plus, I love idiot villagers and the thought that they would bring back some mysterious obelisk to put up in the center of their village.

Insidious used to have module code TSR1 and list itself for use with AD&D. My second print run copy is now labeled DCG1 and lists itself for use with 1st Edition Advanced. A charm against the trademark troll, no doubt.

There are at least three versions of this module. Normal ‘ol DCC7 is a third edition adventure, while GG3 is for Castles & Crusades. This version is by Black Blade Publishing, under license, and is for the First Edition of the worlds most popular fantasy roleplaying game. The trademark troll strikes again! I have absolutely no idea why this DCC is so popular; the reasoning completely escapes me, unless it was an experiment in systemless design so they could release modules for every game system simultaneously. In any event, the credits lead one to believe that Black Blade just converted the adventure to OSR and that’s it. I hope that’s the case for the mad archmage’s sake.

What we have here is something very evocative of Saltmarsh. There’s a lighthouse that people think is haunted. There’s a ruined house attached to the lighthouse. Both have been ‘haunted up’ by a group of smugglers that dwell in sea caves underneath. And there are fish-men, Locath in this case, that are involved also in another connected cave system. That’s four adventure areas and maybe 60 keyed encounters. covered in about 32 pages with a ‘double module cover’ ala Queen of the Demonweb Pits. There are three player handouts, all on one page for easy photocopying.

There’s a village quite nearby, with a thousand feet or so, with a population of 550. It has about six businesses described, including the local alchemy shop. An inauspicious beginning, even if the town is described at the end of the module. The village lacks any sort of flavor at all; if you’re going to use DCC7 then I’d suggest transplanting in some Harnic village or town.

The lighthouse has four rooms, one per level, with a very simple wandering monster chart. Basically you get to experience two spooky illusions and then a real undead haunter before making it to the top, wherein the first clue lies to the actual events going on. The ruined manor home also has a rather simple wanderer chart to go along with it’s 12 keys. Gnolls, scorpions, weasels and a harpy lurk about. There’s not much going on, although a thorough group will pick up a clue for a magic item discovered deeper. Well, not much going on except for the BOXED TEXT. I did mention the BOXED TEXT didn’t I? I wouldn’t want to forget the BOXED TEXT. The BOXED TEXT is in just about every room in the module. I loathe boxed text.

The first dungeon level is more of a ‘basement of the house’ level, complete with evil demon temple and prisoner cells. I like prisoners in dungeons but this cell area has a problem. You see, there’s an Iron Flask in one of the cells. If the party opens the flask then we’re given instructions on what happens as the creature appears. If they don’t open the flask then the creature is sitting in the middle of floor is a cloak over it. Wait, what?! If I open the flask then the monster appears but if I don’t then it’s sitting on the floor? Clearly, something is amiss here in the design, something being left out or being lost in the translation or original concept. Otherwise, it’s giant rats, dark mantles lame wanderers, and the temple with a couple of devils and an undead.

The second dungeon level is the home of the smugglers and the module makes a big deal of the tides. Two high tides and two low tides a week, with the high water line marked on the map in multiple places. Great! Good detail! Except of course for the fact that several of the smugglers rooms are below the high tide mark. The smugglers storeroom? Below water twice a week. The leaders opulent bedchamber? Below water twice a week. Long-term prisoner storage? Guardroom? Treasure chamber? All below the high water line.

Finally we get to the Locath caves. They throw pots of green slime at the party. Look, I don’t mind gonzo, in fact I LOVE ASE1, but either do gonzo or don’t. If you just toss in some half-ass gonzo like this then it feels like a cheap shot. Otherwise it’s caves full of Locath and their leader. Joy.

This thing is a hack-fest. Almost every room has an encounter in it. In fact there are about 31 creature rooms and 5 traps rooms. Not a lot of room to maneuver around with your bloody battle-axe doing your talking for you. I’ve heard people talk about this module in glowing terms but I’m at a loss as to why. Yes, there are no ancient dragons in 10′ rooms, however that’s a rather sad commentary on what it takes to be a good design. More puzzels! More factions! More complex maps! More weird! Alas, those are not present in this product.

This is available at DriveThru.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/1781/Dungeon-Crawl-Classics-7-The-Secret-of-Smugglers-Cove?affiliate_id=1892600

This is the ninth module in the Frog God Games Splinters of Faith adventure path. Each module has a stand-alone adventure of they can all be linked together to form a campaign in which the lowly PCs advance in power, reconstruct an artifact, and battle the Big Bad. In each of these modules we get a description of a good temple and a description of an evil temple which is the adventure site.

In this installment we visit with two differing god of magic, one good and one evil. Our good temple is a rather boring structure however it does have two notable features: the magic students practice their arts out in the open for the townsfolk, giving it it a circus sideshow feel, and the Angel trapped in a block of crystal that stands in the middle of the main temple done. The city the temple is located in is a seaside/docks kind of place where everyone lives in peace and harmony, thanks to efforts of the local magic temple. The adepts clean walls, cure the sick, do public works projects, and generally turn the place in what a REAL society would look like if magic was present and common. I am not a big fan of this sort of thin. I like my magic rare and my items weird. Other than the brief mention of a side-show atmosphere, and the angel, which is part of the adventure hook, the place, and the city, is a little bland. Although, you could probably work some kind of Stepford Wives/Orwellian vision of the city based on the temples public works.

The adventure takes place at the evil temple of magic, up the side of a nearby mountain. 14,000 feet up. It’s a slog to get up there and there are rules for altitude sickness and acclimation. Strangely enough there is no wandering monster chart for the ascent or the evil temple. This is made even stranger because the ascent is going to take something like 18 days in order to fully acclimatize. (Two days for each 1000 feet above 8k, 1/2 day to climb 1000 feet.) And no wandering monsters. Go figure.

The temple proper reminds me of that old Role Aids modules Lich Lords. In the temple we have some priestess-wizards of the evil magic-user god, each of which has some hook. The evocation master. The necromancy master, etc. There’s a ghost priestess-wizard, and a medusa priestess-wizard, and so on. There’s an entry which states that they all plot against each other unless under a common threat but there are no additional details given except for a brief mention that one of them would gladly work against the high priestess and turn on the party if it helped her. It’s disappointing.

The temple proper is set on two floors with a small dungeon underneath. That’s ‘dungeon’ as in ‘prison’ rather than ‘dungeon’ as in ‘chock full of adventure.’ There are a couple of interesting encounters in the temple; mirrors of opposition, tricky demons/devils, and creatures from the pit and the like. For the most part though it’s just a slog through an evil magic-user temple. If the party sneaks in and is careful then it could be a nice stealth mission to learn the secrets of the hook and free some prisoners that the party doesn’t really know exists. If the party wades in and hacks their way through then they are going to have a tough fight with all of the evil magic-users and their minions.

Overall the adventure feels a little bland and forgettable. It’s lacking in tricks, traps, encounter flavor, and memorable environments. It feels an awful lot like the Temple of Elemental Evil, only smaller.

This is $5 at DriveThru.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/93865/Splinters-of-Faith-9-Swords-and-Wizardry-Edition?affiliate_id=1892600

This is the eighth adventure on the Frog God Games Splinters of Faith adventure path. Each module has a adventure that can serve as a stand-alone location or link together through the entire ten part series in order to destroy a resurrected vampire lord. In each module a good temple is described, which serves as the hook for the adventure path. Inevitably the good temple needs the party to fetch something for them before they can/will perform the blessing required for the adventure path. This involves the party traveling to an evil temple.

In this module the good temple is devoted to the Lady of the Scalding Waters and is located in the caldera of a volcano. It’s a ‘fantastic’ temple, in that it’s located in a geyser field and is in the shape of a lotus, with a geyser located in the center of the temple, complete with glass-enclosed viewing chamber. The temple is briefly described, and has the beginnings of an interesting plot, with a couple of ‘factions’ involved in the temple; a group of corrupted priests are hinted at along with at least one who is outright evil. The town nearby, hanging over the edge of caldera, is briefly described, along with a couple of faction descriptions in the town. Again, the chief of which are a couple of evil priests. While the temple and town setting could be described as ‘fantastic’, the settings are lacking a bit on the interesting detail which would really bring the setting alive. We do get a page describing an NPC Druid class of the evil god featured, which is a nice addition, especially in a Swords & Wizardry product.

What the good temple lacks is made up for in the evil temple/adventure section. Our baddies have located themselves in the depths of a mine. THAT’s not all that interesting, but just about everything else is. The evil priests worship an insect god, so we get lots and lots of vermin which I LOVE in an adventure. In addition the mine maps are full of looping passages and alternate paths to get the locations. This is the sign of a good dungeon since it’s doesn’t railroad the party in to encounters. Finally, the mines have A LOT of factions in it. This is what turns it from a decent adventure in to something stellar. Almost ever single intelligent creature encounter could conceivable we worked through with talking & negotiation. This is WONDERFUL; creatures with their own motivations and reasons for being in the dungeon. Spies, the disillusioned guards, previous occupants, new occupants from deeper levels; almost every intelligent creature has a good reason for being there other than ‘Im a fanatical cultist.’ In fact, some of the factions have factions also!

I was hooked pretty early in to the dungeon, during the introduction. Here’s the brief summary that sealed the deal: “Phyllox (the EHP) is now facing trouble on many fronts: a retriever wandering the mines, a dergogaemon that refuses to return to the lower plans and also refuses to fight, a bugbear rebellion and an aboleth invasion. Phyllox’s dream of a grand temple to Rachiss is quickly falling apart.” And that’s not the HALF of it. He’s got a host of other problems that he doesn’t yet know about. In to this mess drops the PC’s. There’s a real sense that the party is entering a living breathing environment with it’s own events & issues going on, not just waiting for the next band of adventurers to slaughter them. There have been shades of this sort of thing in other modules and especially in the wandering monster tables; the wanderers are listed with a reason for being there and wandering about. None of the previous modules in the this series has gone this far, and I can’t recall ANY other module, OSR, TSR or otherwise, that has had this much, not TOEE and not the Steading, which has been the gold standard against which I’ve held up my factions yardstick in the past. This place is ALIVE, and the PC’s just walked right in. Our fearless DM’s may have problems getting the party to realize they don’t need to hack everything in sight, especially since the factions have been a little light in the past, but that’s what the DM is for; getting the players involved. What all of this means is that there’s a lot of different ways for the party to accomplish their goal, and that makes this module GREAT. There’s vermin & ooze, new monsters and new magic items, environmental issues, The adventure is just about perfect. I prefer to have more tricks and a few more traps, although I suspect that’s just a quibble.

It does have one VERY bad feature, which is listed as optional but which I’d lie to highlight. During a certain fight it’s noted that the DM can make the fight tougher by suddenly introducing the creatures opposed faction, from elsewhere in the dungeon. That’s kind of cheap. What’s worse is that it advises that if the party has already killed that faction, then an Demon Price senses it and send a replacement to be involved in the fight in the same way. That, gentle readers, is a CHEAP SHOT. If the party has wasted resources taking out the previous encounter then why punish them by, in essence, making their actions irrelevant? For the sake of story & plot? That’s BS. Let the players create their own story. In any event, it’s offered as an option in a sidebar, so it’s not too intrusive. It’s also one of the first things of this type I’ve seen in this series, which is probably why it stood out so much.

The dungeon portion of this is a fabulous adventure and with a little work the scalded & burnt priests in the good temple could be turned in to a decent home-base type locale. It’s  my favorite adventure in the series so far.

This is $5 at DriveThru.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/92422/Splinters-of-Faith-8-Swords-and-Wizardry-Edition?affiliate_id=1892600

This is the seventh module in the Splinters of Faith adventure path from Frog God Games. Each module offers an adventuring locale that can be used separately without tying in to the other modules in the series.

This module centers the party around a temple-fortress of a paladin-like god, and the associated city that has grown up to service the fortress temple. The city is only briefly described in a couple of paragraphs; basically is a place for the temple to recruit new warriors and to buy the goods they need for the temple. The temple/fortress proper is lightly described over three pages and is not as interesting as the temples in the last two modules. Whereas those had plenty of local color, in the form of the personalities of the clerics, these are more of the stereotypical LG cleric/paladin type which most of us have seen quite a bit of in the past. in any event, the temple & town are just there to provide the rather weak hook for the adventure proper. Seems like Mr Head Guy pissed off his daughter and she went to raid a nearby evil stronghold and hasn’t come back. If the group rescues her they win the ‘Prove your Bravery’ contest, which is only held every ten years and is the only way to get access to the blessing the party needs for the adventure path. Yeah, an official rescue party went after her, but they didn’t return and so now none of our Paladins or hopefuls will go get her. LAME. Oh yeah, and if she comes back dead then you still win since they resurrect her. Not the most interesting base of operations and the hook is quite forced.

Our theme for this weeks evil temple is “Evil Air God”, so we get lots of flying creatures. Let us think of a mountain craig with lots of hollows for flying creatures. OK, I can get with that idea. Nice themed dungeon, even though I thought “I bet the next module is water based.” We get a wanderer chart. The encounters on the cart are not that interesting but they DO each have a motivation for being wandering around, in a sentence or two, which is a nice aspect that has been pretty universal in this series and should be utilized by other authors. The adventure proper is a bit too bland. “Room with flying monster #1.”, “Room with flying monster #2”. “Room with flying monster #3.” etc. There are about a half dozen new monsters, which I always appreciate; it keeps the party guessing and in fear for their lives as they figure out the new guys advantages and disadvantages.

There is a REALLY good/weird encounter in the module, in the form of a swarming insect. I REALLY liked it; it’s one the of the best ones I’ve seen so far in this series and is akin to “oops, looks like you left the stopper out of your ever-full jug.” There’s another encounter related to a magic-jar spell that I’m undecided upon. It _feels_ like a cheap-shot, but maybe I just have something with multiple possessions? There is ABSOLUTELY a cheap-shot later on. There’s a pit in the floor covered by an unlocked grate. The hostage is in it. If you open the grate without saying the command word then a pillar of flame descends and kills her. She has no idea the trap is there, but is reaching out through the bars. Really? She reaches out but never tries to open the unlocked grate? She’s never heard the command word when she’s been fed? There’s no scorch marks anywhere from a previous hostage? Uncool.

This is one of the weaker modules in the series. The temple is bland, the city description is almost non-existant (although probably enough to wing it; I continue to be impressed with the authors ability to impart a flavor with only a few sentences, as in the best of Gygax.)

The evil temple is not very interesting beyond the fact that everything flies and the the swarm encounter. Further, the suspension of disbelief required for the hook is MASSIVE.

This is $5 at DriveThru.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/92420/Splinters-of-Faith-7-Swords-and-Wizardry-Edition?affiliate_id=1892600