{"id":9468,"date":"2024-11-23T07:11:00","date_gmt":"2024-11-23T12:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=9468"},"modified":"2024-11-07T09:23:05","modified_gmt":"2024-11-07T14:23:05","slug":"twin-lakes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=9468","title":{"rendered":"Twin Lakes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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By Yochai Gal
Self Published
Cairn<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Two weeks ago, Aldra, the beloved butcher of Isthmus Town, suddenly vanished without a trace. Some days later, a local teen reported seeing a man swallowed up by the earth near Deadmill. Others have also gone missing. Now, the townsfolk are left wondering: Who might be next?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This little 24 page digest adventure presents a classic setup: a small village with some shit going on for the PC\u2019s to investigate and then fix. The NPC\u2019s and situations are real enough to be more relatable than usual, and the text is focused on DM using it for gameplay. This is a basic adventure done well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hey, just don\u2019t fuck up your adventure and I\u2019ll probably be ok with it. I might not drool over it and gush but I won\u2019t hate on it.There is nothing really wrong with this adventure. In fact, I think it grounds itself pretty well. The asshat reeve (always a good villain choice!) and a meek selfish POS farmer have been defrauding the tax collector. One night they get caught by the butcher and the farmer knocks him and drags him to an old mound where an entity rips out his heart and eats it. Hmmm, that took a turn, eh? Turns out ol meek farmer found something and it\u2019s been promising him power. The reeve is kept complicit by fear and selfishness. That\u2019s all pretty relatable. It\u2019s a nice solid grounding in human emotion and character that the adventure then leverage with its \u201cfantasy RPG\u201d elements. And that\u2019s gonna give the DM a lot more to work with than just generic NPC\u2019s in a generic village. On top of this lets add in the tax collector. Just as a coincidence, he\u2019s gone and fallen in to a time loop at an old ruined mill. Every 30 seconds he comes out of the door and stumbles in to quicksand and dies. He, also, is kind of a real person; he likes old stories, from a historian point of view, and collects them and was out looking at the mill. Old Gran knows, he used to talk to him a lot. The tie in to the reeve thing is interesting, just a coincidence, but any DM should be able to use it to amp things up. And then there\u2019s Annafanax. \u201cAn elder half-witch living deep in the [the nearby deep wood]\u201d Also \u201c She eats mostly fungi, as well as the occasional rude traveler\u201d Fun! Sh\u2019es not really evil. Or, maybe she is? We\u2019re looking more at a force of nature type of thing here. SHe\u2019s got a very Witcher setting vibe to her. She doesn\u2019t really care about whats going on. But, she is exploiting the time loop death to charge up a Wisp with the tax collectors death agony. She just wants to use it to open a portal she\u2019s interested in. The \u2026 banal? nature of this is so appealing.  She\u2019s not really an antagonist. There\u2019s a nice little column or so backstory that explains all of this in a very relatable way. It cements these NPC\u201ds and their motivations in the DMs heads. See, I will read your backstory; if it\u2019s not shitty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are some supporting NPC\u2019s, the granny, the dumb kid who works the inn, the butcher’s wife and so on. Just enough information to bring them to life so the DM can riff on them well when the party comes a calling to question them. And the rumors. ALL of the rumors, here, point the party in a direction. \u201cA hunter drags a large net stuffed with dead quarry. There is blood on his shirt. \u201cHave you been through the Downs lately? A wind is blowin\u2019 from the East, carrying with it something foul, like death rolled over.\u201d\u201d Well now, thats the butchers body rotting in the fens. The rumor gets the party going that direction, they do a little explore and find the body, his heart ripped out \u2026 the rumor led to something. The other five, also, get the party moving towards a person a place in which to take off and that will lead to more. It\u2019s an interesting take on the rumor table, different than the traditional BreeYark model. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The mill thing is nicely done situation. It has elements of puzzle to it, in that the party needs to figure out how to do the things they want to do without falling afoul of the rotting, sinking mill, etc. And, after the village investigation there\u2019s a little dungeoncrawl to resolve the butcher situation. Both can end up in bad way, with a rift to another place\/sinkhole in one and a lich queen in another \u2026 nice little touches that can impact the campaign \u2026 but not become overwhelming to it. \u201cYup, on my way to the front to guard to old forest. THings aren\u2019t going well there \u2026.\u201d Oh, sorry sir, good luck to you, me? Nope, first I\u2019ve heard of it \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The text is clean and easy to read and locate information. If I had a couple of complaints it would be, I think, in the writing. The various encounters and locations are \u2026 I don\u2019t know. To it\u2019s credit some are fact based, so a hidden trap on a path doesn\u2019t really bother with a description \u2026 it doesn\u2019t need one. But, also, \u201cThe creek terminates in a small bog just a few minutes\u2019 walk south of White Tower Fens. A smell of rot and decay permeates the area. On the west end of the bog is a large mound of grass and detritus\u201d So, this is not terrible, but, also, the wildlife found in a bog? We get smells but not sounds. It just feels like an incomplete picture. And most of the locations are somewhere in this range, a little fact based and a word or two to spice it up. It could use a little more in this area. It\u2019s not BAD, and it\u2019s not padded. But, also, it\u2019s not really giving the DM more a lot to riff on. I suppose I could be persuaded that this is in the right part of the spectrum of acceptable descriptions \u2026 it\u2019s just not where I prefer it to be. Hence the Not Bad designation. Bah! Humbug! I\u2019m unsatisfied but I can\u2019t really complain. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I note, also, that while I enjoy (meaning: find useful)  the village people and the mill, and the various smaller locations throughout the wilderness (and, in fact, almost everything about this) I am also a little let down by the dungeoncrawl, perhaps because of the descriptions. This feels like it should be the climax, logically, but it is a little straightforward. I don\u2019t get a descent in to the darkness with a torch vibe, exploring the unknown in fear, or really , much of anything from it. There\u2019s a good viscera sac now and again (always love a viscera sac!) but it can feel a little hollow. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But, also, this is free? From a production values standpoint this may be the one of the best, if not best, free things I\u2019ve seen. And it\u2019s certainly not making me angry. As a free intro adventure I think this is hitting VERY well. I don\u2019t know that _I_ would use it as an intro, but for just another Tuesday night? Absolutely. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I note, also, that there are hints of a larger gameworld here that are very intriguing. Almost like the game world factions in the D&D Organized Play garbage. But integrated well. The Cities are giving that same kind of vibe they did in that \u2026 what, Blood of the Juggers Rutger Hauer movie?\u00a0 Nicely Done. Other random notes: Twin Lakes DO appear in the adventure … a hurdle some can’t seem to do, and does the title remind anyone else of a Hardy Boys\/Nancy Drew title? That’s kind of fun for an investigation!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is free at DriveThru.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
https:\/\/www.drivethrurpg.com\/en\/product\/500557\/cas-1-trouble-in-twin-lakes?1892600<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Yochai GalSelf PublishedCairn Two weeks ago, Aldra, the beloved butcher of Isthmus Town, suddenly vanished without a trace. Some days later, a local teen reported seeing a man swallowed up by the earth near Deadmill. Others have also gone … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9466,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[15,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-no-regerts","category-reviews"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/twin.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9468","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=9468"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9468\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9469,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9468\/revisions\/9469"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}