{"id":8489,"date":"2023-03-22T07:11:00","date_gmt":"2023-03-22T11:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=8489"},"modified":"2023-03-08T09:04:28","modified_gmt":"2023-03-08T14:04:28","slug":"the-curse-of-the-dreadstone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=8489","title":{"rendered":"The Curse of the Dreadstone"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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By Luiz Eduardo Ricon\nHexplore Publishing\nOSE\nLevels 2-3<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Everybody knows Brumeer, the dwarf, a locally renowned merchant. When a farmer named Arcbold failed to meet him at the market square, he hires the PCs to find out what has happened to his friend. The answer might not be pleasant, or safe\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This eighteen page digest adventure has a couple of encounters in a farm overrun with vermin. It\u2019s got some ok sentences here and there, describing things, but it\u2019s also just a straight forward plot adventure with little going on. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I play about twice a week, some times a little more if I  join an online game. And, you know, I\u2019ve REALLY  been wanting to take my games to the next level. So, imagine my delight when this thing popped up, promising just that: to take my games to the next level!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ok, so, Genero the Dwarf hires the party to go kind Archie the farmer. He bought a bunch of vegetables from him and he hasn\u2019t delivered. He\u2019s giving you 10 GP to go do it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, lets pause the fuck a moment here. TEN GP! Fuck yeah I\u2019ll go do it! The little orphan scamp will do it for 1. Fuck man, the widow Merry will do it for half that! Ten fucking GP! How the fuck much is a carrott going for? Remember the early days of panic buying when they announced the shutdowns and the milk, eggs, and meat sold out? Maybe this is some kind of reverse thing? All the veg has sold out and rough greenery is now 10gp a bundle? Or, is this like a Chinese peaches thing where rutabagas keep the black death away? Fuck man, let\u2019s all become farmers! Fucking WAYYYYY better than going down in to a dark hole in the ground with a fucking torch. Have you heard about what goes on down there? No fucking way I\u2019m getting my brain sucked out! Who has cabbage seeds? Or, hey, maybe it\u2019s something else? Maybe this is a drug deal? LIke, it\u2019s actually meth and not veg, but Genero cant really hire you to go get his meth, right? That makes sense. 10gp. Fuck, man\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Good things first. Dude can write up a scene when he wants to. \u201cCovered in cobwebs and hay, his skin turned gray and his hollow eyes and gaping mouth producing a cascade of tiny spiders crawling over his body or tangling up and down in silk threads.\u201d This, my friends, is a ghoul. What a delight! Good description and good job taking a creature that you create and then just saying yeah, stats as a ghoul. I mean, it is a ghoul, not stats as a ghoul, but still, you know what I mean. This is going to be a freaky ass encounter for the party. VERY nice job. Likewise, the farmers house is covered in webs inside with hundreds of spiders of all shapes and sizes crawling over the walls. You had to be there. It\u2019s good in the descriptions. The entire adventure is full of small vermin as window dressing, and its not always handled well. It frequently isn\u2019t. But when he tries he does a great job. In addition, dude telegraphs a future encounter. Outside you find a goat in a giant spider cocoon. It\u2019s still barely alive. WHich telegraphs that someone inside, in the spider webs, might still be alive also. Brings it to the front of the parties minds so they don\u2019t just burn the place down. Good design there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Let\u2019s see \u2026 hooks \u2026 \u201cYour former patron referred you to this town.\u201d Who, exactly, is that written for? The DM? Then why use \u2018your?\u2019 It\u2019s so aggressively generic. Abstracted to a point of uselessness. One of the wanderers is \u201cA bard offers news of the road.\u201d Well? What fucking news of the road is he offering? Nothing. At the end you need to return a magic rock to the place where the farmer found it, in the swamp \u2026 two hours away. With no directions. And nothing to go on except MAYBE a word that \u201cArchie found it in the swamp.\u201d But the adventure is written like you walk right there. It makes no sense. And, sometimes, the descriptions go a little overboard. Cocoons \u201chang like dreadful ornaments.\u201d Oh come on mman. That\u2019s just purple prose. We don\u2019t say htat to players and if aimed at the DM there are much more effective ways to communicate the vibe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, show up and kill some orcs. Then kill some giant rats. Then some more rats. And then a ghoul. And then a giant spider. IDK, maybe I forgot another round of giant rats in there somewhere. There\u2019s your adventure, in eighteen pages. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
If this were paired WAY down, and the descriptions beefed up, and it was in a magazine as a side-trek then it might be ok. That\u2019s a lot of if\u2019s. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is $5 at DriveThru. The preview is eight pages. You get to see the intro\/hooks, wanderers, and orc encounter at the farm. Then entire adventure is like this, so, good preview from that sense. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
https:\/\/www.drivethrurpg.com\/product\/416373\/The-Curse-of-the-Dreadstone–The-ideal-SECOND-adventure-for-starting-players?1892600<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Luiz Eduardo Ricon Hexplore Publishing OSE Levels 2-3 Everybody knows Brumeer, the dwarf, a locally renowned merchant. When a farmer named Arcbold failed to meet him at the market square, he hires the PCs to find out what has … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8488,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dungeons-dragons-adventure-review","category-reviews"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/dread.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8489","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=8489"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8489\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8490,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8489\/revisions\/8490"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}