{"id":7330,"date":"2021-05-17T07:11:00","date_gmt":"2021-05-17T11:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=7330"},"modified":"2021-05-05T09:44:12","modified_gmt":"2021-05-05T13:44:12","slug":"the-mad-alchemist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=7330","title":{"rendered":"The Mad Alchemist"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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By Valleria Studios\nValleria Studios\n5e\nLevel 6<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Oakheart, a once vital trading post, has been struck by a mysterious disease. Over the past month, Lord Ulric Von Vymarc, townmaster of Oakheart, has set out his men to look for the source of the disease and a cure to put a stop to the disaster. Yet they\u2019ve failed to find any clue to what this might be. As the weeks passed, more people got infected to the point where most of the shops had to close. The town’s guard is undermanned as they\u2019re falling ill themselves.Ships are starting to avoid the town, as rumors about a disease are starting to spread. More importantly, The Feast Of The Stars is approaching. This would be a major source of income for the people, as many from all over the land come here to pay their respects to the gods, feast and spend many of their valuables.  The town is already accommodating the first of many visitors to come. Yet most of them leave once they find out about Oakheart\u2019s situation. Lord Ulric has sent out letters to renowned adventurers across Valleria to assist in this serious matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This 28 page adventure details a short little investigation in to a virus(!) and about eighteen rooms in the mad alchemist’s lair. It has some sparks of interesting encounters when it comes to the creatures, although the puzzles are a bit on the nose for my tastes. Still, for what it is it\u2019s an above average adventure that shops promise, particularly in regard to creativity and formatting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was full prepared to hate this. $17 for a PDF is the reason I picked it up. Then, it\u2019s got the generic title. The generic trope of an alchemist as an enemy. It\u2019s 5e, and then there\u2019s the trade dress. None of these give a favorable first impression. Generic background, generic \u201cyou can adapt this to your world!\u201d information, padding to page six, and, at a quick glance, read-aloud that tends to three-four paragraphs long talking up a quarter to two-thirds of a page. These are all the symptoms of a bad adventure. And yet \u2026 it\u2019s not really. Plus, there\u2019s enough going on here to actually write a real review for a change<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is a virus adventure, with people in the town getting sick. I\u2019m surprised that, given the pandemic, we\u2019ve not seen more of these. You\u2019re hired by courier, taking a ten day boat trip to the plague town to meet with the Lord Mayor. The \u2018hired\u2019 trope is not particularly well done, although there is a full page \u201cfancy font\u201d letter you can hand out. I love those. Props are a lost art and letter handouts are one of the last remaining. Anyway, it\u2019s a little easy to get a plague town, breaking the immersion a bit and, most of all, a lost opportunity for some roleplaying efforts and scenes to set a mood. The \u201chired by the town\u201d trope is boring as well, especially when just a hand wave as it is here. But, whatever, we\u2019re playing D&D tonight. (And, I will leave unmentioned, the fact that the party arrives by ship in ten days and later walks only half a day to find the cause of the infection. Ug! Immersion again!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is, at this point, that things start to get better. A check-in line at the town, a sickly gnome at a desk wearing a mask, coughing in to it. A tavern with a sign that has a cat head sticking out of a caldron \u201cThe Boiled Cat.\u201d Things are starting to look up! Further, the innkeep has a nice section called \u201cWhat the innkeeper knows\u201d laid out in an offset box with bullets. Nice! This trend continues for others people that the party are likely to talk to, at least within the bounds of the investigation play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Let\u2019s return, though, to The Boiled Cat. This simple thing, the naming of a tavern, is a degree of interesting content that is not usually seen in adventures, let alone 5e adventures. Not generic. It\u2019s specific and not abstracted. This continues in other areas of the adventure. A delivery boy brings you supplies that you request, and he might keep some of it or charge more, etc, because his family is hurting. Again, an interesting interaction that can lead to more, either sympathy or annoyance with the boy. A young guard, Tim, worried about supporting his family, wanting work, wanting to not get sick or get them sick, torn between these things. This is not your usual generic shit, and, I think, works well because it effectively channels real world things in a way that still makes the game fun. It makes sense AND adds to experience in a fun way. The party can relate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The dungeon encounters are likewise interesting. Gibbering Mouthers as a failed experiment? Perfect! And they slither under doors! Even better, a fresh take! A grey ooze that looks like a rock. A treasure chest in a cell \u2026 that turns out to be a mimic. These all make sense as failed experiments, they surprise and delight and, for whatever reason, they are interesting takes on them. The party hearing a \u201cslosh slosh\u201d as a mouther stalks them on the ceiling. Specificity. Brief points of which shine like binding light in bringing an adventure to life. A flesh golem shoults \u201cFreeeedoooommmm!\u201d Every time it attacks. Great thing added to the encounter, you can imagine a tortured soul doing that. Also, it\u2019s a clue that \u201cLiberty\u201d is the answer to the puzzle lock in the next room. Clever monkey. That\u2019s good design. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are substantial downsides though.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I mentioned the long read-aloud, never a good thing. A substantial amount of information is communicated through diaries. This is almost always a bad decision, an easy crutch. THings are better when they are communicated more naturally, and, no, I don\u2019t mean through the villain monologue. There should be more than enough possabilities, in an eighteen room lair, to get across the points made in the diaries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The plague is not very visceral. Like I said, its easy to get to town. There are not a lot of plague vignettes. There should be some cross-references, both from the lord mayor and the innkeeper, for plague information, so the DM can find that information easily when the party inevitable asks about it. Some of the plague victims in the infirmary have different symptoms than others. This would normally lead to follow up investigations for them \u2026 which are not provided at all. No, you get everything you need from the mayor int he first meeting. \u201cMy alchimist friend disappeared on Blood Cove a few days ago.\u201d Uh huh. That\u2019s the next step, allowing the party to skip the infirmary altogether. The town, the plague, the infirmary, they are all non-existent as far as the adventure is concerned, which is too bad, a serious lost opportunity. And only a Greater Restoration spell can cure people. There goes all the benefits of living in a magical ren faire world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The puzzles in the dungeon, though, are a low point. These are all pretty on the nose. A combination lock made of letters, level puzzle, and so on. The clues, likewise, are on the nose, with bits of paper left around with things like \u201cCIRCLE = GOOD GOOD GOOD\u201d and so on. Yeah, it serves a purpose, but its also about the easiest way possible to relate the clue and they show none of the creativity, either in the puzzle or the clues, tha the better encounters and NPC do. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
To finish up I\u2019ll saw that the map tries to be artistic and it fails at that. Maps are hard, I get it. A simpler map would have been clearer. Or, at least a different color choice for the backgrounds which reproduce more clearly. There is a cute little art piece, masquerading as a town map, that I think gives the town a nice vibe though. It\u2019s numbers, but I think it\u2019s more art than map, unlike the lair proper. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Not a bad effort for someone with no credits to their name! I\u2019d run this before I ran a lot of other things, $17 or no.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is Pay What You Want at DriveThru with a suggested price of $17. You can grab the entire things, obviously, but the preview is 20 pages also, giving you a good idea of what you are about to purchase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.drivethrurpg.com\/product\/356433\/The-Mad-Alchemist?1892600<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Valleria Studios Valleria Studios 5e Level 6 Oakheart, a once vital trading post, has been struck by a mysterious disease. Over the past month, Lord Ulric Von Vymarc, townmaster of Oakheart, has set out his men to look for … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7328,"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":[25,29,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-5e","category-dungeons-dragons-adventure-review","category-reviews"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/alchem.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7330","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=7330"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7330\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7331,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7330\/revisions\/7331"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}