{"id":10537,"date":"2026-07-25T07:11:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T11:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=10537"},"modified":"2026-07-02T08:59:00","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T12:59:00","slug":"outcast-unseelie-and-the-ooze-between","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=10537","title":{"rendered":"Outcast Unseelie and the Ooze Between"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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By Jesse Winter
Slime Mind Studio
BECMI\/Shadowdark
Levels 1-3<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
The mountain bled. Now powers from beyond slake their thirst. Bordering the long-abandoned Brackenhoorg mines, a lone gatehouse suffers both from the churn of a mysterious ooze and the encroaching domain of a fey lord. Test your mettle against a dungeon swamped by a potent arcane ooze and conniving fey vying for power. Will your players learn the secrets of the ooze\u2014or need enough treasure to afford a priest?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This forty page adventures uses about 25 pages to describe about fifty rooms in a two level dungeon features slime, fey, and insects. And dwarves? It\u2019s full of fantastic elements and does a good job with formatting even though I think the overall attempt at a \u201cTimeline of events\u201d doesn\u2019t work very well. A good journeyman adventure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I think this adventure is fascinating. First off, it\u2019s an ok adventure. Which means I guess it\u2019s great? In the sea of filth I usually see it\u2019s not one of those. It\u2019s doing almost everything right. I don\u2019t think I\u2019m excited to run it. And I think that sucks because it IS doing almost everything right and when you compare it to the absolute dreck that people publish it is light years beyond that shit. I mean, the designer deserves some admiration for that. If this was plopped down in front of me at a table and I was told to run it then I would and it would go great and I\u2019d have a great time. I just don\u2019t think I\u2019d ever reach for this of my own free will. Maybe it\u2019s something like marketing. I\u2019m not saying it is marketing, but I\u2019m drawing an analogy. Nothing made me excited by this. Except for the meta-discussion that it doesn\u2019t suck. I\u2019m super excited by that. Seriously. If every adventure in the world were as good as this one then I wouldn\u2019t have the tenfootpole blog. Technically, it\u2019s great. It just lacks a certain joie de vivre. That sucks. It\u2019s like working for one of those shit ass companies in which being competent isn\u2019t good enough. You have to suck off the boss verbally and engage in the kabuki of mouthpiecing the the mission, blah blah blah even though you\u2019re really only there because hookers and blow cost money and you need money. That seems unfair?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The formatting here is nigh perfect. \u201cOh, Bryce cares too much about formatting!\u201d No, dipshit, I do not. But I do seem to understand, which many of you do not, that formatting IS the great downfall of many adventures. My standards are quite low. Can I run the adventure? Ok, you get to squeak by. You can write the worlds best adventure and have shitty formatting and I\u2019m still gonna call it the worlds the best adventure and grumble and recommend it. But, if you write a mediocre adventure and do a shit job at helping me run it then you can burn. The entries are clear and easy to scan. A little summary\/read-aloud  with some words blended that are then called out with more detail in the bulleted sections below. Just a few sentences each. It\u2019s also using a ? ? layout, so ? of the page, the left \u201ccolumn\u201d is used for the keys while the right ? \u201ccolumn\u201d is used for notes and other called out detail, like monster stats and so on. I think the format here is perfect. Easy to scan. It\u2019s clear. It\u2019s easy to find things, and to follow up on information. No notes. Well, ok. You can have your preferences with formats. You can prefer a paragraph style over say an OSE style. Both a paragraph style and an OSE style can be implemented poorly. But, ultimately, many formats styles can be used, anything, really, as long as they succeed in their purpose and this one does. It could, perhaps, be terser in paragraph form. Less whitespace and all of that. But it\u2019s not overly long the way it is and it\u2019s dumping three or four rooms to a digest page in this format, while maintaining an easy to read font size. It\u2019s fucking good. Formatting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And the map is decent also. Dyson is credited. I\u2019m not sure if these are his free maps or this was a commission. They look a little more involved than I\u2019ve seen many of his free maps. A little more complex, a little more involved. Same level stairs, tunnels present, and they even run above and below other passages. A kind of rubble-vibe to them.  Monsters are noted on the map, as well as entry\/exit locations. (The level one map has six, I think, exist\/entrances on it, out of 22 rooms total. That\u2019s some decent map interconnectivity!) Monsters and traps are also noted on the map, and the lettering is generally clear with the keys, proper, being very clear. And the wandering table is ON the map also. This thing is close to being platonic! Maybe just tending a little bit to be busy, but, I\u2019d take a look at the adventure just to see the maps in it and how they are done. Little minimaps are included on each page to orient you toward the room and exits. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Descriptions are pretty decent, above average for sure. Terse, but evocative enough. \u201cAn emerald waterfall, frozen in time, suspends loose rock and a charred body. Green, soot-stained metal encrusts the floor and walls.\u201d or \u201cGreen liquid oozes from a cracked stone wall and marble bricks ju??ing from the ceiling. It pools around a toppled stone statue \u201c These aren\u2019t bad. Like, not rock star but certainly pretty good as a short description goes. The bricks jut and the liquid oozes. Dislodging a brick \u201cspews warm verdigrint.\u201d Spew. And warm. Ewwww! <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The rooms get noise and light pointers to rooms nearby, so you can hear things from the right or to the east or some such. Love it. Same with monsters reacting in certain situations. Attention is paid to the dungeon as a whole rather than a more room by room orientation. (Which, I suppose, is also mirrored in the entry\/exits, both in quantity and in noting them on the map.)  There\u2019s also this thing the adventure does with blocking exits. Normally we\u2019d see a door. But in this there is a frozen emerald waterfall, as noted in the quote above. It blocks an exit if you hack it loose or unfreeze it. In another place there\u2019s this kind of giant mass of flowers in a corridor \u2026 which it turns out is blocking a kind of Y intersection, growing in all directions. These particular flowers regrow FAST when fed blood and there just happens to be a dead body in the intersection that it can suck blood from. An interesting problem, yes? (Also, I really liked the art piece that went along with this. A kind of grayscale\/monochrome  image of a ruined hallway with a mass of giant flower in it, with the petals done in a kind of muted red. It very much delivers the kind of striking impression that I think this encounter was going for.) There\u2019s decent interactivity here. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Randomly, the page count is misleading, there is almost NO padding in this at all. Excess pages are NPC descriptions for the dungeon. These are little paragraphs with  wants, fears and secrets called out and some keywords to help the DM quickly. \u201cMYREROSE – SPITEFUL QUEEN. CALMLY SADISTIC. Master alchemist. Retains her fairy form by bathing in Blood Honey (made from perish lily pollen). The Gardener is her pawn: She gives him Blood Honey, lying that it will restore his True Name. Suspects Shiv, not Slaveral, created this mess. She rules from Bleedspire (V1) \u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And those NPC\u2019s are, I think, the downfall of the adventure, if it can be said to have one. Yeah, sure, the designer didn\u2019t put the fucking level range in the marketing page or on the cover. Yeah, the hooks are fucking lameo hiring shit and the framing of the adventure could have had a little more thought. But, the NPC\u2019s are the only thing here that I think doesn\u2019t work well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The idea is that we\u2019ve got this old mine\/complex that hit an ooze vein and was abandoned. And then some shit went down in Fey land a group\/manor of them got cursed in to bug-like creatures (again, good art!) and somehow their manor is now level two of this place. There is supposed to be intrigue among the fey, hence the wants\/needs\/secrets and expanded NPC sections for them. There\u2019s even a timeline of events. But I don\u2019t think ANY of it works AT ALL. Some individual encounters work out ok, like a room with covered mirrors and a dude can\/will reach through an uncovered one to pull someone in if they can. But the lager intrigue thing just doesn\u2019t come together. And the timeline doesn\u2019t really impact the dungeon environs or the party in such a way as to impact play\/the party to care about. \u201cMeck accidentally blows up Lalizar. The cultists disband. Slaveral and Meck fly away to find Meck\u2019s mother \u201c Sure thing. I guess fewer things to stab then? I mean, whats the impact in intrigue and, ultimately, the party interaction? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is also an overall \u2026 I don\u2019t know, lack of \u2026 intent? Recall the dungeons exits and blocking exits and sounds\/reactions, etc, all of which kind of give the dungeon a more wholistic feel. But, also, that wholistic feel is lacking in the way the dungeon rooms work together. The theming, of the fey anyway, doesn\u2019t come through very well. The entire place, as a whole, isn\u2019t left with an overall feeling. Yeah yeah, that a shit explanation. But, also, I wonder if thats not why I\u2019m saying that the pace lacks a certain amount of joy and\/or glee in it? My lack of enthusiasm for the place? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is doing almost everything right. It\u2019s a good adventure. I\u2019m going to dump this in to two categories until I can decide what I actually think about it. I\u2019m happy to run this. I\u2019m just not sure I\u2019d go out of my way to run this. I think it is absolutely worth checking out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is $9 at DriveThru. The preview is thirteen pages, the first thirteen. You get to see the map, the NPC\u2019s, the timeline, and three rooms. That\u2019s a decent enough preview. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
https:\/\/www.drivethrurpg.com\/en\/product\/566187\/outcast-unseelie-and-the-ooze-between?1892600<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Jesse WinterSlime Mind StudioBECMI\/ShadowdarkLevels 1-3 The mountain bled. Now powers from beyond slake their thirst. Bordering the long-abandoned Brackenhoorg mines, a lone gatehouse suffers both from the churn of a mysterious ooze and the encroaching domain of a fey … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10529,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[15,3,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-no-regerts","category-reviews","category-the-best"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/ooze.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10537"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10537\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10538,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10537\/revisions\/10538"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}