{"id":9770,"date":"2025-05-17T07:11:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-17T11:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=9770"},"modified":"2025-05-05T09:01:29","modified_gmt":"2025-05-05T13:01:29","slug":"ogre-caves-of-the-toad-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=9770","title":{"rendered":"Ogre Caves of the Toad God"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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By Ian Hickey
Gravity Realms
2e
Levels 1-2<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Crashing into an unfamiliar world, the adventurers begin to uncover past events between two warring factions and a hunger that led to their downfall: a hidden cult dedicated to the return of the Great Toad, Father of Death and Rebirth, an ancient being responsible for birthing the universe! For many decades, the cult has been in hibernation. But now, a wandering tribe of ogres has awakened the cult, becoming its servants and capturing tributes to feed the Great Toad in preparation for an ancient prophecy. The stars are in alignment, and the hottest of summers is upon us; the way to RA\u2019hala will soon open, and the father of death will consume everything!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This 117 page adventure uses about seventy pages to describe sevenish scenes, some of which are mini-dungeon and some full blown, in an interconnected set of adventures that don\u2019t mean anything. Mostly stabbing, the great set up is marred by overly lengthy text, as usual, and problems with the encounters. It\u2019s not a disaster, but not worth running. Except for that set up \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So I\u2019m taking my first run through this and I get to the section on weather on page elevent and it says \u201cClean, fresh water will be hard to find as dead bodies fill the lakes and rivers.\u201d What\u2019s that all about, I think to myself. Then, I get further in: \u201cThe day of the falling, thirty thousand people fell from the sky. Screams and thuds broke the silence of the summer heat.\u201d OHHHHHH! That\u2019s fun! This is a whole Dungeons and Dragons ride at the amusement park, except thirty thousand people get transported to the sky WAY above the new realm. Bloody splats! A friendly wizard zips by to give you a levitation potion, so, you know, you\u2019re safe. And others survive also. You come together, only to find that you are revolving in to neanderthals AND your metal is rusting fast. Oh, also, there\u2019s disease everywhere because of all the bodies. And, also, it\u2019s super hot and dry, so you need extra water. (That fucking shit is not my favorite. I assume there\u2019s some game trauma buried in my past when some asshole DM took away all of our shit because of it.) Anyway, you see a tower nearby and fight the small group of cavemen goblins in it. You get a hint to the curse, and follow that to a manor, and then meet a paladin, and then that leads to a village thats been raided, and then to an old dwarf mine, and then to the titular Ogre Caves, and then to an extradimensional space where thousands of high priests of the toad god from thousands of planets are all sacrificing people to bring the toad goad, avatar of universal destruction, back so he will destroy the universe. There\u2019s nothing you can do, so you save the paladin from YOUR evil high priest (which is not as great as it might seem) and then run through a portal to another world. As the adventure says, \u201cwithout the adventurers entering RA\u2019hala, Imhullu [the paladin] dies, and the Great Toad God, father of destruction and rebirth, returns and consumes the cosmos. Can the adventurers stop the coming of the Great Toad if they enter RA\u2019hala? No! They can only save Imhullu.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, congrats, Friendship was the goal the entire time. I guess, maybe, you leveled? It feels wrong. I\u2019m down with meaningless adventuring. I may even be down with a plot. But to have the goal of the adventure be a plot and then not be able to impact things in any way?  I mean you collect things along the way in your mini-adventures\/scenes in this adventure, but, if you don\u2019t collect them, not to worry, the evil high priest has them all collected for you. The lack of any free will, of your choices matterring, is just nonsense. This is the bullshit of one of those adventure paths, except all in one adventure package.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Looking at the read-aloud, it follows through on the railroad theme, along with over-reveals. \u201cBy the sound of it, the tower is infested with goblins; their shaman leader stands on top of a pile of stone blocks in the tower\u2019s centre. Waving primitive stone weapons and covered in fur they prepare for your attack\u201d or \u201c Two large palisades flank the entrance outlined by the campfires. From behind the palisades, a hail of poisonous toads rains down on you.\u201d It doesn\u2019t matter what you were doing, the designer has deigned that you must now be attacked. Nerfing any of the parties actions. You have no free will, you are but a pawn. This is not fun. This is the kind of shit that causes players to disengage. Don\u2019t fucking do this! We can also see in places an over-reveal in the read-aloud. The RA telling the party things that they should only really be aware of after a deeper examination of the rooms. Not to mention, some of the re-adloud is just confusing. \u201cA faint glow of light spills in a doorway at the far end of the room.\u201d \u2026 uh, that room has no doors? I guess maybe a hallway?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This all extends to the DM text where things are padded out through some sloppy writing. \u201cThis large kitchen has an entrance into the dining hall and pantry and, a corridor connecting it to the reception and ballroom.\u201d It\u2019s the old wound, my lord.\u00a0 Which is frustrating because in places there ARE hints of things being done correctly. \u201cThe large wooden dance floor, once polished and intact, now warped and buckled, covers the room. A large wooden piano dominates the southwest corner of the room\u201d Getting near the piano can cause the floor to collapse. And we\u2019re told that, or its hinted at anyway, by the warped and buckled floor. That\u2019s the way you telegraph a graph in read-aloud.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is a disconnect in this adventure in places. We\u2019ll get mounds of text but then that whole \u201cfalling through the air\u201d air just comes out of nowhere eleven pages in. Likewise, there\u2019s this paladin that things hinge on, supposedly the only reason you exist in this adventure, and yet here\u2019s what we get \u201cShortly after the adventurers clear out the Duke\u2019s Manor and attain 2nd level, they will encounter Imhullu in the wilderness, possibly near the kitchen gardens. Alternatively, she can show up near the adventurer\u2019s camp. Imhullu is with a handful of survivors. They are being attacked by an ogre raiding party riding giant toads. Shouts for help attract the adventurer\u2019s attention.\u201d That\u2019s the ENTIRE adventure section. Mountains and mountains of text, and then this. That fucking paladin gets almost nothing in the adventure. And yet thats who were supposed to be focused on saving at the end. (Again, for no fucking reason other than doing it.)  Tonally, this follows as well with things like \u201cThe Shamen of the Crow and Chief Mayor Randy Adams.\u201d Uh \u2026 ok, it is 2025, I guess. If I\u2019m not mistaken, he runs the inn that \u201cThe inn has turned into a hub for drunken Neanderthals\u201d Sure thing man. It\u2019s just got some weird tone to it in places. More of a Gamma World vibe, but in a weird way. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Did I mention the challenge levels here? Level one? AT the dukes ruined manor, the second location? It\u2019s got a garden. Want to check it out? \u201cThe adventurers will be randomly attacked by ankhegs if they wander around the garden\u201d Uh. Sure. I don\u2019t know. Doesn\u2019t feel kosher. Hydras in the wilderness table? Ok, I guess. Maybe. But, also, you WANT the party wandering in the wilderness. It feels like punishment for playing the level one adventure instead of real world verisimilitude. I\u2019m up for high level shit, but not being FORCED on the party. It\u2019s as if the level one party must travel through Tarrasqueland for two weeks where every 30 minutes a tarrasque shows up on a 1-2. Uh. Ok. You TOLD them to do that! In another place there\u2019s forty ogres. As enemies you are supposed to kill. I\u2019m not even sure this is kosher in a 5e adventure? And, on that front, almost ALL of the interactivity in this is just stabbing things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, I went on a lot about hating this. And I don\u2019t like it. But, also, it\u2019s not as bad as most things. If you wanted a plot based adventure where most of what you do is stab things then this would be ok. You can see hints of decent things. Yeah, it\u2019s padded out. And I hate the RA. But it does manage to do a plot based multi-location adventure in a less cringy way than most. Plus, you know, it starts with all those splats and that ending where no matter what you do the toad god shows up to start consuming the universe. There\u2019s something you don\u2019t see every day \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is $14 at DriveThru. Fourteen dollars and no fucking preview. Great. Sucker<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.drivethrurpg.com\/en\/product\/513622\/ogre-caves-of-the-toad-god?1892600<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Ian HickeyGravity Realms2eLevels 1-2 Crashing into an unfamiliar world, the adventurers begin to uncover past events between two warring factions and a hunger that led to their downfall: a hidden cult dedicated to the return of the Great Toad, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9768,"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-9770","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\/05\/ogre.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9770","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=9770"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9770\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9771,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9770\/revisions\/9771"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}