{"id":3996,"date":"2018-01-01T07:19:15","date_gmt":"2018-01-01T12:19:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=3996"},"modified":"2019-01-04T10:16:10","modified_gmt":"2019-01-04T15:16:10","slug":"the-hyqueous-vaults","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=3996","title":{"rendered":"The Hyqueous Vaults"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>
\nBy [Various]
\nOSRIC
\nLevel 3<\/p>\n

A centuries-old map leads to a mysterious cliffside complex, rumored to be flooded, and supposedly holding a dead necromancer\u2019s fortune. Sages believe the arm-length metal implement accompanying the map must be some sort of key. The complex stands ripe for exploration by a party sufficiently strong and sneaky to wrest any treasures from the depths within.<\/p>\n

Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,
\nBut he’ll remember, with advantages,
\nWhat feats he did that day. Then shall our names,
\nFamiliar in his mouth as household words\u2014
\nFullerton, Dettmann, Grohe, Johnson, Riedel, Zisch, Redmond
\nBe in their flowing cups freshly rememb’red.
\nThis story shall the good DM teach his players;<\/p>\n

This is a 20 page adventure detailing a one level 67 room dungeon, and old necromancer’s lair. A group effort to celebrate the 10th anniversary of OSRIC, it has no faults.<\/p>\n

This thing doesn\u2019t fuck around with backstory or introductions or other padding that doesn’t\u2019 contribute to the adventure. You get one paragraph of background and one to start the party: you found a treasure map wrapped around a metal rod. Sages point you to a wilderness location. GO! More than enough for a one shot. More than enough to integrate in to an ongoing campaign. Magnificent in both its brevity and usefulness. And wanderers! Broken up by sections of the dungeon, the table is short, efficient, and a great example of incorporating action in to the encounter. Goblins nervously fishing or on an errand for [NPC.] Shadows lurking to ambush the rearmost member of a group. Trogs searching for an escape path. This is not a mindless and boring table copied from the DMG but abstracted encounters in their own right. Just enough detail to get the DMs head working without boring them or making it hard to grasp the encounter immediately. They are perfect.<\/p>\n

Speaking of perfection, let me talk about the map. The dungeon features a river\u201d flowing through it. It has multiple entrances. It makes great use of color. It has little annotations on it to help their DM understand what is going on. There are a lot of \u201csame level: terrain changes, like same level stairs, ledges, rises, and so on. It\u2019s got loops to allow ambushes and ambushing. There is enough conventional cartography present to make the map immediately accessible to a DM and yet it does not let itself be bound to a corner by being forced to follow convention mindlessly. It presents a GREAT adventuring environment (loops, terrain, features) while still understanding that its purpose is to be an aid for the DM. I fucking love it,.<\/p>\n

Speaking of loops and ambushes \u2026 Room three has some bodies in it. Room four has some eel-men, prepared to ambush a group. And they can run through room 3, or a nearby hallway, to get behind the party. A dynamic fucking environment in a dungeon?!?!?! Holy Cow, these people must understand dungeons! It\u2019s one of the reasons for loops and why they can help make play interesting.<\/p>\n

That one little section has so much representative of good design. A hint in room 3 that bad shit is nearby, in the form of the bodies\/previous ambush site. Other areas of the dungeon have deep scar marks on the floor (oh shit! I wonder what’s nearby!) and other hints that something is nearby. It both builds tension and provides hints for the with-it player. The dungeon does this to great effect over and over again.<\/p>\n

Oh, and eel-men, you got that right? Eel-man is a GREAT monster name. It is both magnificently descriptive and magnificently vague at the same time. Enough description to get your juices. your mind races to fill in the details. Koa-toa? What the hell is that? FIsh man? Meh, a little vague. Trout-man.\u201d Perfect! I know what they look like! And yet there\u2019s enough vaugery to allow me to fill in their culture and specifics. I fucking love it.<\/p>\n

Room 1\u2019s, the outdoor entrance, has a name of \u201cClearing.\u201d It says \u201canimal prints near the creeks edge. Two long-unused fire rings.\u201d That\u2019s it. That\u2019s the description. The first two sentences. I know it\u2019s a clearing, I know what\u2019s there. It\u2019s perfect. There a couple of short offset sections (offset with paragraph breaks\/whitespace) that describe what you find if you search. IE: more information. It\u2019s a great format. It communicates immediate information to the DM and then expands upon it \u2026 but in a terse and easily understood manner. It\u2019s easy to scan. \u201cRuined Bedchamber\u201d is another room title. You know immediately what it looks like just from that. The description tells us it has a smashed open door, broken 4-poster bed, musty clothes. PERFECT.<\/p>\n

I haven\u2019t even touched on the actual fucking content of this thing yet. Great tricks, traps and encounters. Not the arbitrary bullshit of other dungeons but well thought out encounters that are still easy to understand and run. Doorways\/archways that do things \u2026 but, I will cover one in particular.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a giant troll in the dungeon. He\u2019s a fucking asshole, extorting people, including, almost certainly, the PC\u2019s. I don\u2019t know where to start with him. He\u2019s presented as an NPC, so you can talk to him. That\u2019s almost always a great idea. You can always resort to stabbing someone, but by adding a social element the encounter becomes so much richer. There\u2019s also this aspect to motivating the PLAYER instead of the character. An asshole monster extorting the party should do that, in spades. The PLAYERS will fucking HATE the guy, and from that great D&D moments are born. I\u2019m in LUV.<\/p>\n

Offsets and white space are used to great effect. There\u2019s a monster reference sheet, with all stats on it. I could go on and on. IF I had a complaint it would be that some of the (ahalanhum) rooms at the end get a little longer. But \u201cevery room isn\u2019t perfect\u201d is a pretty petty thing to bitch about.<\/p>\n

This is free at Lulu.
\nhttp:\/\/www.lulu.com\/shop\/guy-fullerton-and-rebecca-dettmann-and-allan-grohe-and-jimm-johnson\/the-hyqueous-vaults\/ebook\/product-23455816.html<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By [Various] OSRIC Level 3 A centuries-old map leads to a mysterious cliffside complex, rumored to be flooded, and supposedly holding a dead necromancer\u2019s fortune. Sages believe the arm-length metal implement accompanying the map must be some sort of key. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3990,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,3,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-level-3","category-reviews","category-the-best"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/hvault.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3996","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=3996"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3996\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4648,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3996\/revisions\/4648"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}