{"id":7485,"date":"2021-08-16T07:09:00","date_gmt":"2021-08-16T11:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=7485"},"modified":"2021-08-05T12:10:41","modified_gmt":"2021-08-05T16:10:41","slug":"in-the-shadow-of-tower-silveraxe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=7485","title":{"rendered":"In the Shadow of Tower Silveraxe"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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By Jacob Fleming\nGelatinous Cubism\nOSE\nLow to mid levels<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
There could be several reasons to seek adventure in the Gemthrone Wilderness. It is a region that is the subject of speculation on cold nights in the glow of a tavern hearth. Some may talk of the magnificent treasures that have laid untouched for centuries in dark dungeons, just waiting to be pilfered\u2014which is, almost without fail, followed by another who interjects with the dangers of such notions, were such legends even to be believed.  There are, however, those that do believe such tales\u2014 grizzled adventurers that know there is always some truth to even the most unbelievable stories. One just has to know what rumors to listen for\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This 64 page adventure uses about forty pages to describe a wilderness region with around five settlements and nine dungeons. It\u2019s a real adventure, with linkages between places and one thing leading to another. The writing is concise, but could be punchier. Overall, a nice effort. And I\u2019m pretty sure that \u201clow levels\u201d doesn\u2019t mean \u201cfirst level\u201d, there\u2019s some rough shit in the wilderness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, a wilderness region. About 50 miles on side. Big scary forest in the middle. It\u2019s got this Tower of the Ancients in the middle of it. A human village, an elf village, a dwarf village, and a cyclops village scattered around the map. Also, some weirdo statues on the roads\/trails here and there and a couple of dungeon, most of which are triggered through a quest given by someone or a treasure map you find that leads you there. The DM\u2019s map is a nice little topo like thing showing all of the features, dungeons, roads, statues and hill contours that I think adds a lot to overland travel and the DMs ability to describe what the party sees when they crest a hill, etc. Nicely evocative and useful at the same time. If you just wander around the road for a few days you\u2019ll find all of the locations (except one) except for the ones in the scary forest \u2026 cause there ain’t no roads there, fool! <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The settlements are pretty brief, a couple of pages, and mostly mundane location descriptions with some rumors or a hook or two to get the party moving to an adventure site. Dwarflandia has a theater troupe that is absolutely terrible \u2026 but no one wants to admit it for fear of being thought uncouth and not \u201cgetting it.\u201d That\u2019s good specificity. Or, their local tradition of \u201cthe airing of grievance\u201d after the Sunday sermon. When the adventure is dropping these little tidbits in then it is bringing the locations alive. When it\u2019s just saying someplace has an inn, or smith, or an \u201ceccentric\u201d gem merchant, well, that\u2019s not really saying anything at all, is it? Generally I prefer either no detail at all in these situations, just like \u201cGem merchant\u201d or for the adventure to say \u201cGem Merchant who has replaced his eyes with emeralds\u201d or some such. Go one way or another, but don\u2019t describe the mundane and boring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The various dungeons scattered around have around ten to twenty rooms each. The formatting is clear and easy to follow with good cross-references when needed. Descriptions don\u2019t overstay their welcome \u2026 but neither do they tend to bring any sort of evocativeness or quirkiness to the rooms. \u201cA large room with 4 doors and a round 10\u2019 pool in the middle. The pool is purely decorative. Treasure: In the fountain is a heart-shaped locket with some dwarven runes etched in to it.\u201d This isn\u2019t winning any awards for inspiration, particularly given that it\u2019s the room, and item, that the party has been looking for. This is the extent of the rooms description. Large. Pool\/fountain, not really evocatively described in any way. If the room descriptions were punched up, without adding substantially to the word count, then this would be a real winner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There\u2019s some additional rules for hunting, and the weather could certainly add a little variety to the travel through the wilderness. The wanderer table is fairly generic, and brief at only twelve entries and fairly generic like \u201c1d6 hobgoblins\u201d and the like. Given the size of the region, and the probability for revisiting locations (because of mysteries, linkages, etc) travel is likely to be extensive and thus wanderers as well. While the weather table should help, a little more effort on the wanderers, and making them less generic and more linked to the locations, would have gone a long way. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Still, there\u2019s a lot to do here. A lot of places to explore. Explicit quests given \u201cgo find my locket\u201d and others discovered by the party \u201cA map to loot!\u201d Places to just stumble upon. Puzzles to discover and decipher. A little bit, just a little, of faction play. (Which, also, could have been stronger.) It does feel a little static at times \u2026 as if the dungeons and settlements only exist in their own encounter keys and not interfering or being related to others \u2026 even though there ARE explicitly links to other places. Perhaps, I mean it doesn\u2019t feel dynamic?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Anyway, these are small complaints. I\u2019m sure many DM\u2019s will get a lot of out of this, a lot more than most adventures these days and I\u2019m happy to see these larger regional locales appearing. They bring a lot to the table in terms of party immersion and continuity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is $10 at DriveThru. The preview is only six pages and doesn\u2019t show you anything interesting. Just some brief background stuff. The topo map, or a location key or settlement would have been better to include in the preview so we could all get a sense of the core writing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
https:\/\/www.drivethrurpg.com\/product\/358825\/In-the-Shadow-of-Tower-Silveraxe?1892600<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Jacob Fleming Gelatinous Cubism OSE Low to mid levels There could be several reasons to seek adventure in the Gemthrone Wilderness. It is a region that is the subject of speculation on cold nights in the glow of a … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7483,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,15,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dungeons-dragons-adventure-review","category-no-regerts","category-reviews"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/silver.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7485","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=7485"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7485\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7486,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7485\/revisions\/7486"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}