{"id":8540,"date":"2023-04-24T07:11:00","date_gmt":"2023-04-24T11:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=8540"},"modified":"2023-04-11T08:51:26","modified_gmt":"2023-04-11T12:51:26","slug":"journey-to-the-wayside-shrine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=8540","title":{"rendered":"Journey to the Wayside Shrine"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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By Elven Tower\nSelf Published\nShadowdark\nLevel 2<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
[…] the characters are sent to catch up with a group of halfling pilgrims as they travel north to a shunned location known as the Wayside Shrine. The halflings come here every year to commune with fey spirits, especially older halflings as they feel an inner call to visit the shrine. The journey is dangerous because a band of orc brigands has moved into the region and has learned that the halflings carry valuable offerings. This is not true but the orcs believe so. In the end, the characters’ presence shall prove invaluable as they are the only thing that stands between the dangerous orcs and the halfling pilgrims. This Shadowdark adventure has the heroes travel across a picturesque landscape looking for halfling pilgrims, pits them against the orc brigands that scourge the region and allows them to commune with the ancient spirits from the Woodlands Realm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This nine page adventure is utter garbage. Trash. Dreck. The worst kind of content. And exactly what you would expect from a Patreon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But, man, check that cover! Right?! I was just about to get sucked in to some more Mohr marketing, when I see this thing. Sexy sexy cover! It appeals to my weakness for marketing! It reminds me of something, but I can\u2019t recall what. Anyway, that\u2019s the high point of the adventure. By far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Halfling fuckwits are going on their pilgrimage from their village to a shrine about a week away. But, ohs nos! There are orc rumors! You get hired to catch up to the band that has already left and escort them there and back again. This means two orc encounters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You start in the village. Nothing happens there. The houses are laid out like events. At this house this event happens. At this house this event happens. It\u2019s room\/key, but event related. The person who lives here will spit on the party when they pass by. Great. The person who lives here will \u2026 there\u2019s nothing to this part. It feels like it lasts a hundred and ninety six pages, even though it can\u2019t possible. Let\u2019s see \u2026 three or four pages. In a nine page adventure. Wonderful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You go catch up with the moronic little fuckers. Nothing happens on the road. You find them, a few days later, camped out next to a river. It\u2019s got an extensive text section, of course. Two pages. Describing the camp, the nearby by places, the people there. Nothing happens. And then, the next morning, eight orcs show up and demand some cash. This is handled in just a couple of sentence. Yeah! But, also, boo! The amount of space wasted on empty content is astonishing. And, for the short paragragh that handles the orc encounter, it\u2019s STILL padded out. \u201cIn the morning, the characters and pilgrims wake up to a pestilence from the west\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Blah blah blah, get to the shrine, get attacked by seven more orcs. Then you get to smoke the ol bong with the fey and the adventure is over. THIS is what modern adventures are. NOTHING<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Oh, I mentioned padding, earlier. How about this? \u201cThe characters may have clean motives if they wish to help the locals such as Vaddara, Edanna, or the speaking frog from area 7. Conversely, the characters could care not for the halflings and choose to side with the evil scholar, Tarkin. In such a case, they would do well to keep their intentions hidden as the locals are hard to give their trust.\u201d That says nothing. It just summarize the situation in the village we\u2019ve spent three pages reading about. What the fuck is the point of that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019ll tell you what the fucking point is. It\u2019s to fucking read it. Elven Tower makes $1300 each time they pop one of these shit holes out. That\u2019s powerful motivation to pop out more. And, like all adventures, it will be read more than played. So it\u2019s written to be read. There\u2019s no fucking adventure here. This is the worst form of crap the hobby falls in to. And, Elven Tower announces that they are shifting their focus from 5e to Shadowdark. Wonderful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nice cover though!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is $2 at DriveThru. You get to see seven of the nine pages, so, at least you know the crap you\u2019re getting in to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
https:\/\/www.drivethrurpg.com\/product\/433030\/Journey-to-the-Wayside-Shrine–Level-2-Shadowdark-Adventure?1892600<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Elven Tower Self Published Shadowdark Level 2 […] the characters are sent to catch up with a group of halfling pilgrims as they travel north to a shunned location known as the Wayside Shrine. The halflings come here every … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8539,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,29,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2-out-of-10","category-dungeons-dragons-adventure-review","category-reviews"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/wayside.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8540","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=8540"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8540\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8541,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8540\/revisions\/8541"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}