{"id":8970,"date":"2024-01-17T07:11:00","date_gmt":"2024-01-17T12:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=8970"},"modified":"2024-01-05T09:48:56","modified_gmt":"2024-01-05T14:48:56","slug":"prison-pit-of-the-agelast-king","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=8970","title":{"rendered":"Prison-Pit of the Agelast King"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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By Thom Wilson\nThrowiGames\nShadowdark\nLevels 1-2<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
A Request!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An exiled king\u2019s castle has aged centuries overnight, terrifying locals and passing travelers. Although relieved to be rid of the ruthless despot, farmers are fearful of what the small keep’s sudden and unexplainable ruination could mean. Will some curse or foul magic now creep into their lands? Rumors of the king\u2019s remarkable wealth have lured adventurers and brave villagers into the perilous tunnels below the castle, but none have returned. Can anyone find out what is going on at Castle Grushnal?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This 24 page adventure details a 25-ish room linear dungeon. Most rooms are the same. One or two decent ideas doesn\u2019t make up for the monotony of it all. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the first big room of this adventure there are two actual fucking angels standing in a room, each guarding one hallway. You can check in any time you like but you can never leave. That\u2019s pretty nifty! Mythic, you might even say. Like, we\u2019re making sure the evil don\u2019t get out. Therest of the room is not quite ENtrance to the Mythic Underworld, but a couple of fucking angels standing guard outside? Fuck yeah! And, in another place, you\u2019ve got a room with a bunch of skeletons just standing around in it. Almost a trap, yeah? That\u2019s a pretty sweet concept, using hordes of creatures as a trick or situation instead of just a straight up combat? Noice! And then it happens again with zombies. And in both cases it\u2019s more of a fight than a trick\/situation. There is, I\u2019m afraid, no salvation in this adventure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our enemies list, up front for level 1-2 adventure, is: Two angels, 20 lesser skeletons, 4 imps, 1 imp-mother, 30 zombies, 4 succubae, 1 devilish advisor, 1-4 bone devils, 4 shadows, and 1 devil-king. My old complaint returns again and again: you have to know what you\u2019re up against. If a 600\u2019 tall titan has 1 HD and an orc has 20 HD, seemingly at random, then we\u2019re not doing a good job with adventure design. What the fuck are you fighting at level three? Vampires? Gods at level four? (Actually, I think I just did review an adventure with vampires at level \u2026 two?) <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The rumour table is a disaster. \u201cA few young villagers who went to explore have not returned.\u201d Where\u2019s the specificity? The young rapscallion, Blind Billy, who picks pockets and empties cess pots, has gone missing?! But, no, please, just shovel in some more generic abstracted words. What\u2019s that Immortan Joe line? Don\u2019t drink too much water lest you become addicted to it? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ok, back to the adventure. There\u2019s this castle and it\u2019s suddenly started decaying in to ruins. Like, overnight. The upper level is four big open areas. And a pool of water down at the bottom of the hill that a stream runs through. That has been poisoned by cultists. Now, the cultists are just an afterthought here. They show up in one room in the upper ruins. But, also, they have poisoned the pool of water. The pool of water that is meaningless to the adventure. In every way, this pool of water does. Not. matter. But, there it is, poisoned, and taking up space. The cultists don\u2019t matter. The dead bandits in the next room don\u2019t matter. It\u2019s almost like these are separate adventures. There\u2019s no foreshadowing, or secret entrances, or anything like that. It\u2019s like I just stuck an exploding chest out in the wilderness for no reason. Sure, not everything has to have meaning or contribute to a larger cause of holistic design, but, this one just stands out as being \u2026 meaningless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Let\u2019s see here. The map is essentially lineart. Perfect. The text is full of \u201cSeems to be \u2026 \u201c statements. You find a glowing magic sword at the bottom of a pool of acid. It does \u201can extra point on damage.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The adventuring environment is \u2026 a little repetitive. Here\u2019s the description for one of the rooms: \u201cGrand room. Massive collapse covers half of room. Broken furniture. Pieces of tables and chairs found throughout the room.\u201d Got it? You now know what just about every room description is. Oh, I guess there\u2019s the smell of acid thats missing, as well as the acid pools up against the wall, that are in \u2026 three quarters of the rooms? An acid pool., a collapsing room full of rubble and a monster. There\u2019s your room. Just repeat that a dozen times or so. Ten of the eleven first rooms have acid or are collapsing, with a great many doing both. I stopped counting after that because I was bored. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mostly linear maps. Little to no specificity. Repetition to the point of monotony. Monster zoo or demons. At level one. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is $5 at DriveThru. There is no preview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
https:\/\/www.drivethrurpg.com\/product\/453803\/PrisonPit-of-the-Agelast-King?1892600<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Thom Wilson ThrowiGames Shadowdark Levels 1-2 A Request! An exiled king\u2019s castle has aged centuries overnight, terrifying locals and passing travelers. Although relieved to be rid of the ruthless despot, farmers are fearful of what the small keep’s sudden … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8968,"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-8970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/pris.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8970","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=8970"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8970\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8971,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8970\/revisions\/8971"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}