{"id":9503,"date":"2024-12-16T07:22:00","date_gmt":"2024-12-16T12:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=9503"},"modified":"2024-12-03T08:23:33","modified_gmt":"2024-12-03T13:23:33","slug":"the-black-ruins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=9503","title":{"rendered":"The Black Ruins"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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By Corey Ryan Walden
Self Published
OSR
Levels 1-3<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Blackened esoteric obelisks, henceforth known among most folk as \u2018The Yore Standing Stones\u2019, dot a strangely unnatural hill. The runes are inscribed with runic scripting, but it is what looms below the forlorn hill that should chill any good serf to the bone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This twelve page adventure presents a few hexes as well as a small dungeon with eleven rooms. It reeks of that od&d charm from when things had not yet been homogenized. Light on treasure, heavy on frameworks over content, it does know the meaning of the words \u2018specificity.\u2019
I was poking through the depths of my bookmarks and found this hanging out where it shouldn\u2019t be, next to Mary Ellis and Volante. Only in my head does a nine year old product not count as \u201cold stuff.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is, I think, a hex crawl. With three hexes. I THINK you start out in a small town. The adventure just launches in with a description of hex one, and it has a small town in it. Well, ok, the hexes have A LOT of shit in them. If the art shows four terrain types then there will be at least four different things int he hex. Our town hex has a fetid swamp full of frogmen and degenerate humans, the town, the western wood, and the badlands full of hillfolk. Also, the fucking wilderness, man! The fucking wilderness is DEADLY. Like 1-3 nixies or 1d6+1 frogmen deadly. Anyway, I\u2019m jumping around a lot. In town you learn of Rolff of Haris \u201c… wanted for murder, rape and thievery, being a particularly bad sort. Rolf may be identified as being without one ear and possessing three absent fingers from his left hand. He was last seen heading west into the forest. There is a half crown reward (5gp) for his immediate capture.\u201d I love this. That\u2019s fucking specificity. A half crown. Three fingers and one ear \u2026 dudes had a life. And then we throw in the cute little \u201ca particularly bad sort.\u201d Later on, in the hex with the local castle in it, we find Rolf on the wandering table for the hex \u201cRolf of Haris will be hiding in the woods weeping. He has a dagger but fights like a serf.\u201d Fucking a man! That\u2019s great! Whatcha gonna do now about ol Rolfy?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The town is full of shepherds. \u201cKnights from nearby Zhairmont are oft located a few miles up the road in a lodge where the occasional men-at-arms may be hired for an \u2026\u201d Of course they are. They aren\u2019t hanging out at the serf village. They are out at the hunting lodge with their fellows! Later, in the castle hex, they ride out to meet you and challenge you to a joust \u2026 what matters is not if you win but if you accept and are a good sport. Then they might charge you with finding, in a nearby cave \u201cA creature known as \u2018Leatherman\u2019 inhabits the cave. Leatherman fights as an ogre.\u201d The Leatherman. Not an Ogre. A creature known as the Leatherman. This is 100% what I mean when I talk about named creatures. I loathe the abstraction and genericism of excitement and adventure. This sure as fuck ain\u2019t doing that. It drips with that specificity and verisimilitude. \u201cA shabby trails runs through town.\u201d Of course it fucking does, it\u2019s a village of sheepherds! And it\u2019s full of mud and sheepshit.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Elsewhere we get a ghoul in the forest wanderers, \u201cseemingly dead.\u201d Lots of adventures try this, especially with skeletons. But, finding a body in the woods? That\u2019s something that you might expect. And THEN it comes to life. In the dungeon there\u2019s a lake. \u201cThe Carrion Crawler often swims within the lake, and is incredibly creepy, startling all but the most perceptive\u201d It\u2019s almost, like, the environment was imagined first and then someone found a D&D book and found the best thing that fits. Which is what the fucking game SHOULD be like. \u201cAny gold or silver placed within the lake turns in to platinum.\u201d Fantasy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Oh, also, there\u2019s a cult in the dungeon. It\u2019s a druid and two berserkers. They worship the crawler. Cause they crazy. Also, he knows sleep! There\u2019s a fucking TPK in the making! Wow! <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Okok, two more then I stop. \u201cInterlopers in the wood may discover an unnatural hillock atop which dreadful black obelisks, inscribed with runic scripts, are perched. A grassy dike runs around the centre with an earthen ramp to bridge the still-deep gulf. A lone statue of a loathsome being can be found among the stones.\u201d A dyke. Just like ALL obelisks have. But, also, one room in the dungeon has \u201ca dozen living elephant trunks along the southern end of the room\u201d Yup. Living elephant trunks. You can reach inside of them for goodies \u2026 if you dare! <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This thing is rampant with imagination. It delights in it. Single column. More of a framework than an adventure. Deadly the way only a true \u201cwho gives a fuck\u201d old school wilderness can be. I can\u2019t recommend it. It\u2019s just too .. loose. It needs just a bit more structure to it. But when this thing is hitting it is hitting hard. The definition of that terse, evocative shit I go on and on about. Situations. Imagination without books to get in the wya.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is $5 on Lulu<\/p>\n\n\n\n
https:\/\/www.lulu.com\/shop\/corey-ryan-walden\/the-black-ruins\/paperback\/product-22150228.html?page=1&pageSize=4<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Corey Ryan WaldenSelf PublishedOSRLevels 1-3 Blackened esoteric obelisks, henceforth known among most folk as \u2018The Yore Standing Stones\u2019, dot a strangely unnatural hill. The runes are inscribed with runic scripting, but it is what looms below the forlorn hill … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9501,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-no-regerts","category-reviews"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/18r4gz4j-front-shortedge-384.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9503","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=9503"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9503\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9504,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9503\/revisions\/9504"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}