{"id":9238,"date":"2024-07-01T07:07:00","date_gmt":"2024-07-01T11:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=9238"},"modified":"2024-06-17T14:09:52","modified_gmt":"2024-06-17T18:09:52","slug":"the-wizards-tower","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=9238","title":{"rendered":"The Wizard&#8217;s Tower"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/wiz.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"567\" height=\"821\" src=\"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/wiz.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-9236\" style=\"width:670px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/wiz.png 567w, https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/wiz-207x300.png 207w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 567px) 100vw, 567px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-preformatted\">By Robert Mills<br>Trebormills Games<br>d6? Levels ... Mid?<\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p>The situation in Greymarsh has become dire indeed, heroic individuals are needed to rise to the task of defending it. Villages in the Southlands have reported sighting hoards of undead, coming from out of the Deadwood. In addition there are also reports of roving patrols of goblins, orcs and bandits close to the Wizard\u2019s tower. Bertrum Greymane the fifth hasn&#8217;t been heard from in two months. It is imperative that contact is re-established with the hermit-like mad mage. Find out what is going on with Bertrum and if he is alive make contact with him, then report back to Greyhold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This 32 page adventure uses eight pages to describe about seventeen rooms in an underground complex. You\u2019ll \u2018enjoy\u2019 stabbing things, stabbing things more in rooms with overly simplistic descriptions, but still padded out. Note that there is no Wizard\u2019s Tower. Or really a hex crawl either?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ok, undead, orcs and goblins are coming out of the Deadwood. That\u2019s, oh, ten days horse ride away, thirty or so days on foot. Frank the Wizzo lives on the edge of the woods and no one has heard from him. Pretty please go check on him? Ok man, we got a hex crawl! A thirty day hex crawl as a part of the plot? Or a ten day hex crawl on horse? That\u2019s a bit strange, given the urgency that is being communicated. But, sure, ok.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Said hex crawl involves you rolling on wandering monster tables twice a day to have a potential encounters. That\u2019s it. No hexes to explore. No sites to discover. ROll twice a day and have your wandering encounter. I don\u2019t know that I would use the words hex crawl to describe that. I guess its technically accurate? Maybe? Maybe it\u2019s just a Hex Travel adventure and Hex Crawl means what we traditionally think of it as? Anyway, lame, adds nothing, boring. The adventure suggests that perhaps as many three gaming sessions could be taken up with the journey to the wizards tower, as a hex crawl. Again, that\u2019s not quite what I would expect?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Congrats! You\u2019re now at the wizards tower! It\u2019s being besieged by hundreds of orcs, goblins and undead. Eventually you will stumble across a magic telepathy session that tells you to go to some ruins and explore them. Thus, the adventure of The Wizards Tower is not actually IN the Wizards Tower. It\u2019s in a dwarf ruin nearby. *sigh*&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now we\u2019ve got kind of an Indiana Jones scene, from Raiders, where the nazis are digging one desert site out and Dr Jones is going in to another site, the real one. Except the siegers are tunneling&nbsp; in and the party has found the front doors, so to speak. Except there\u2019s no real above ground portion to this, not the big mining operation for the siegers, or, really, any interesting details of the siege at all. Lame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We now get to the dungeon. Inside we shall be dazzled by such descriptions as \u201cThe Orcs bypassed the sealed door by tunnelling into the chamber. Anyone discovering this tunnel will be faced by a picket guard of 2 goblins at the entrance, plus the individuals in room 5.\u201dThe Orcs bypassed the sealed door by tunnelling into the chamber. Anyone discovering this tunnel will be faced by a picket guard of 2 goblins at the entrance, plus the individuals in room 5.\u201dIn fact, almost every room has a \u201cBertram did this to room\u201d section to it. FUll of padding and backstory and useless detail. \u201cThere is a sealed pit in this room (treat it as magically sealed by Bertrum, unless you have added your own extra tunnels, in which case it could connect to those)\u201d or some padding like \u201cShould the PC\u2019s touch or pick up the treasure they risk angering the guardian of the tomb.\u201d That\u2019s a nothing statement. And that sort of padding is everywhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Interactivity involves stabbing things. Lots of things. I think there\u2019s a spider you can talk to, but that\u2019s about it. Just stab things. But, no real order of battle, of course. Maybe a note here or there that the dudes in room 5 are alerted, which is better than nothing I guess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cA former council room for meetings between the Dwarven elders and visitors. Now used by Bertrum to store furniture and unimportant documents. The room is currently being ransacked by three goblins\u201d That right there is what you are paying your money for. Three gaming session to get to that. You enjoy that right there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is $4 at DriveThru. The preview is four pages and shows you nothing, thus, an ineffective preview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.drivethrurpg.com\/en\/product\/472770\/gma2-the-wizard-s-tower?1892600\">https:\/\/www.drivethrurpg.com\/en\/product\/472770\/gma2-the-wizard-s-tower?1892600<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Robert MillsTrebormills Gamesd6? Levels &#8230; Mid? The situation in Greymarsh has become dire indeed, heroic individuals are needed to rise to the task of defending it. Villages in the Southlands have reported sighting hoards of undead, coming from out &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=9238\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9236,"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-9238","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\/06\/wiz.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9238","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=9238"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9238\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9239,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9238\/revisions\/9239"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}