{"id":4332,"date":"2018-07-28T07:15:26","date_gmt":"2018-07-28T11:15:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=4332"},"modified":"2018-07-16T10:46:46","modified_gmt":"2018-07-16T14:46:46","slug":"5e-the-secrets-of-iriestines-order","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=4332","title":{"rendered":"(5e) The Secrets of Iriestine’s Order"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>
\nBy Cory Mann
\nHorror Module Publishing
\n5e
\nLevel 1<\/p>\n

Deep in the heart of the forest, there is rumour of an underground temple forgotten by the ages, built for a god long dead. You have been tasked by a small town with trying to find out if there is any merit to the rumblings of the temple reawakening and followers flocking to it. Do you and your party have what it takes to delve inside the deepest recesses of the inescapable dungeon?<\/p>\n

This is a 29 page adventure that mostly describes a five level dungeon with about thirty rooms in it. It means well and is better than the usual 5e fare, but makes some pretty basic mistakes. Still, it offers a hint of exploration, and the elements that made D&D popular to begin with: wonder. <\/p>\n

What if the rumors weren\u2019t true? You know, the villager have rumors of a temple in the jungle, the party shows up, finds the temple, and its just a ruin, abandoned? Adventure over! \ud83d\ude42 But , anyway \u2026<\/p>\n

Ok, villagers are under attack nightly. You go there to make your name. The first night the village comes under attack and you go find the goblin attackers the net morning, in a ruined dungeon\/temple, and then explore the five levels until you reach the bottom and some spirit dude who needs put to rest. Less linear than most 5e dungeon far, it calls the various levels \u201cActs\u201d, indicating that someone has either never seen a real dungeon or is pandering to a market that expects things in acts. Anyway \u2026<\/p>\n

You can\u2019t get in to town. In spite of asking for help, they have a guard in front of the gate that won\u2019t let you in. You\u2019re not given stats for her, so I guess a stabbing is out of the question, as is sneaking in. No, it\u2019s made clear you need to describe yourself and make a DC 10 check to get in. This is a classic no-no; It\u2019s a roll to continue. Some trivial challenge blocks your path but you have to roll to get past it. What happens if you fail your roll? You don\u2019t get to play tonight? No stabbing stats, no sneaking in details \u2026 I guess nothing happens and we all go home? No, obviously that\u2019s not what is going to happen. The DM is gonna fudge something and the game will go on. Then why does the roll exist? Why roadblock the adventure? It shows a basic lack of understanding of adventure design. Better, FAR better, to just let the party in and make the roll contingent on how they are treated, rewarded, or some other criteria. Or, not have it all. Just roleplay and let them in. \u201cPlease help us! We\u2019re dying here! One more night and we won\u2019t make it and we\u2019ll all be dead!\u201d \u2026 \u201cBut please jump through these 12 hoops first and agree to these 99 thesis \u2026\u201d Sometimes, D&D villages get what they deserve. Remember people, your choice for Beadle is important! Anyway \u2026<\/p>\n

The town, while unrealistic, have a good outline of things you can learn in the inn, as well as a good NPC summary; what they know and do son. It all fits in about a column and is organized well. WHich can\u2019t be said for the rest \u2026 You learn of a ranger on the edge of town who can tell you where the temple is. But his details are located in an event called \u201cThe Fire\u201d in which a building burns down at night. The whole thing is short enough that it doesn\u2019t really matter \u2026 but any longer and it WOULD. It points to a lack of understanding of formatting and organization.<\/p>\n

The core of the adventure is a five-level dungeon, with goblins, traps\/puzzles and a few undead. It starts with goblins and some hoblins, moves to some puzzles\/traps, etc, and then on to some undead at the bottoms. The whole \u201ccorrupted good guy\u201d tomb thing again.<\/p>\n

The encounters are not all bad. SLeeping goblins to take advantage of. Several puzzle like rooms. They\u2019re not necessarily great ether. An illusion of a red dragon kill everyone, for no reason other than \u201cbecause.\u201d A pillar that allows you to float is in the dungeon explicitly so you can cross a pit trap \u2026 with lots of words about the players thinking creatively, etc. It\u2019s trying, but resorting to things for no other purpose than doing them is not a great way to design. Empty rooms don\u2019t drone on and read-aloud is kept to manageable size \u2026 mostly.<\/p>\n

But \u2026<\/p>\n

It\u2019s lacking core creativity. As such, its little more than a random dungeon design with some rando monsters that is expanded upon with more text. Goblins sleep in beds. Latrine rooms are included. Read-aloud indicates that the creatures see and they attack, etc. Stat blocks (big & bloated, of course) inconsistently appear in the text. One room has four coffins with duergar in them. Alive, as it turns out. WTF? In later rooms the dungeon becomes a test, and doors slam shut when you go in rooms, and there are challenges to prove yourself, etc. Descriptions describe exits. Things like the red dragon illusion pop up \u2026 for no other reason than \u2026 well, there is no reason cause there are no reasons. What reason ca\u2026 anyway \u2026<\/p>\n

Even something with these issues, though, is better than the usual bloated text plot things at is usual for 5e\/Pathfinder. There is something TO this. It may be not great, but you comprehend it. <\/p>\n

This is $10 at DriveThru. The preview doesn\u2019t show you any of the core, the dungeon. The town entry is there, as well as the inn rumors, and the fire\/chase events. Essentially, everything BUT the core of the adventure. Not cool. But the inn summary with the bullets and NPC boxing is well done and you can see that.https:\/\/www.drivethrurpg.com\/product\/245067\/Iriestines-Order?affiliate_id=1892600<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Cory Mann Horror Module Publishing 5e Level 1 Deep in the heart of the forest, there is rumour of an underground temple forgotten by the ages, built for a god long dead. You have been tasked by a small … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4331,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/iriestine.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4332","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=4332"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4332\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4333,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4332\/revisions\/4333"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}