{"id":9753,"date":"2025-05-05T07:11:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-05T11:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=9753"},"modified":"2025-04-25T08:21:14","modified_gmt":"2025-04-25T12:21:14","slug":"the-mistwood-ascent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=9753","title":{"rendered":"The Mistwood Ascent"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Elderlight Press
Generic\/Universal
levels 5-7<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
The quiet village at the mountain\u2019s base is gripped with fear\u2014protective symbols line every door, and whispers of shadowy figures haunting the forest grow louder. What sinister forces lurk in the mist? What ancient power stirs beyond the veil? Gather your party and ascend into the unknown, where the shadows themselves may not be what they seem\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This eight page \u201cadventure\u201d is just the flimsiest of pretexts to have some dice rolling in \u2026 three encounters?. It\u2019s a read-aloud followed by a combat, in outline form. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is a giant spectrum of games. You can play Warhammer. You can play one of those indie RPGs in which you explore your own death for some catharsis. Somewhere in the middle is D&D. I\u2019m out camping right now. Just like D&D, camping means something to people. It could mean backpacking in to the woods over a week. It could also mean sleeping in a giant RV in the middle of a parking lot like campground while 600 grandkids run around and you sit around watching Tv outside. Or any of a thousand different variations. Now, someone says to you \u201cHey, wanna go camping?\u201d Which one can you expect? Alas, it is the same with D&D. The D&D experience I\u2019m looking for is not 4e. It\u2019s not Warhammer. I\u2019d play those if I wanted to play those. I\u2019m not fanficing my character or min-maxing them. I\u2019m a brave little tailor with a glint in my eye and sharp knife up my sleeve in a hole in the ground. I guess you get to play 4e D&D if you want, but I just don\u2019t see the appeal when games do it better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And thusly this adventure. It\u2019s sitting in the generic\/universal category but it is clearly 5e. But it\u2019s the kind of 5et that is 4e. This is just the barest outline of an adventure in order to get to the die rolling. It starts with the Village. Literally the bolded heading \u2018Village\u2019 followed by \u201cDynamic Moment: As the players arrive, they witness a villager hurriedly nailing new protective charms to a door. A scream echoes from another house, abruptly silenced. This adds immediate tension.\u201d You will get no details about that scream. It\u2019s just window dressing. It\u2019s all just window dressing. The first encounter is you travelling to a grover in the woods and getting attacked. I guess you talk to the villagers and they tell you they are scared of the grove and so you go? Anyway, you\u2019re walking to the grove. There\u2019s a short read-aloud \u201c\u201cThe trees grow denser, their trunks twisted and blackened as though scorched by an unseen flame. The mist thickens with each step, swallowing sounds and casting strange shapes in the periphery of your vision. Then, the whispers start\u2014faint voices at first, like distant murmurs on the breeze. But soon, the whispers form words: \u2018Turn back\u2026 your fate awaits.\u2019\u201d And then combat starts as \u2018Shadow Creatures\u2019 attack you. What are they? Your guess is as good as mine, all we get is a pretty lengthy stat block with no description or ambiance to their attacks. The next encounter is your skill challenge, as you navigate some cliffs and ledges. Make an Athletics or Acrobatics roll to navigate safely. Last up, another very short read-aloud that says you\u2019ve arrived and then are attacked by the grove’s shadow beast guardians. COMBAT! (In color! Caje is a cajun!) <\/p>\n\n\n\n
If I ignore the half page stat blocks then the text here takes two pages. Which STILL seems excessive for a short read-aloud followed by a combat or skill check. There\u2019s literally nothing more to this. Agnostic my ass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For the sake of a civilized society you must be allowed to enjoy this gameplay. But, try as I might, I don\u2019t see it. I guess, if that\u2019s what you\u2019re after then this adventure is perfect for you. It\u2019s got a grid map for your minis and You get a little read-aloud before your die rolling starts. So, you found one that fits your style perfectly?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Also, there\u2019s no fucking level range in the marketing\/cover\/etc. And no fucking loot. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is $4 at DriveThru. The preview is six pages, and the core six pages of text, so you do get to see the entire adventure Good preview. And worth it to see a fine example of this sort of thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.drivethrurpg.com\/en\/product\/517397\/the-mistwood-ascent-the-shattered-veil-mini-series?1892600<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Elderlight PressGeneric\/Universallevels 5-7 The quiet village at the mountain\u2019s base is gripped with fear\u2014protective symbols line every door, and whispers of shadowy figures haunting the forest grow louder. What sinister forces lurk in the mist? What ancient power stirs beyond … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9751,"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-9753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/ascent.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9753","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=9753"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9753\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9754,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9753\/revisions\/9754"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}