ASC III - Save vs Sarnoth
Greece? In my D&D? It's more likely than you think.
The first submission and a very high starting bar for this year’s competition. From Riley, the author of last year’s The Tower of the Necromancer, Save vs Sarnoth is a mid-level Swords and Wizadry adventure which describes a Centaur guarded grove, with a small temple / shrine to a fire god, (appropriately name Phlogesmos, classical naming conventions always get bonus points from me). The grove and temple are also home to some other Greek mythical staples such as Dryads and a dreaded Gorgon (the bull kind). It is also very high in dynamism. There are many possible avenues for players to explore and exploit for a good night’s adventuring and treasure hunting.
Starting off with the theme this positively oozes Grecian myth. I can almost believe there is a missing chapter of the Odyssey where the hateful Odysseus comes here and upsets Pholgesmos and any other god who is represented here as well. That theme is carrying over into treasure, which is always something I enjoy seeing. It’s not just bags of golds and simple gems here instead your retrieving golden torcs from the necks of deck centaurs (I was unfamiliar with the spelling ‘torque’ but wikipedia informed me of its validity), spices, wine, and silks from the offering place of the temple, and and Hoplite Spear not just any old +2 spear. I particularly like the Star-metal spine of the gorgon which can be forged into the titular Sarnoth. Sarnoth for its part is an intelligent sword with a hatred of Magic-Users that also functions as a universal guest key against them.
As far as actually playing this site, it also rates very highly for me. The main challenge is, as always, how do the adventurers extract loot and avoid dangerous fights while doing it. This site offers a few routes, depending on reaction rolls and how willing to investigate and parlay players are. In this case the proper way to proceed is to retrieve a ritual bowl from the bottom of a small, clear lake. This comes with a small amount of treasure as well, but is guarded by 30 Nixies and a large school of flesh-eating pike. Once the bowl is recovered, it must be transported to the shrine in the simple, a ritual fire lit and stoked to open the door to the temple chambers. The whole time being harried by angry centaurs. Clearly not efficient. However, the nearby Dryad is willing to help out somewhat. The centaur leader has stolen her bow, and she has information about a pit secreted away at the back of the grove. This pit leads directly to the offering place of the temple where the gorgon waits (and the largest amount of treasure). Most importantly, the pit has of my favorite phrases “The pit can be scaled.” Meaning the players, if they are parlaying (or lucky) can descend directly to the treasure, minimize encounters with the centaurs, and fight the gorgon with full strength. The dryad also knows where the ritual bowl is, but I am not sure that she knows its use. Over all this adventure packs a huge amount of interactivity into two pages. I have had a great time imagining how it would have gone for the various groups I’ve played with over the years. Very good bones here.
For portability, this one ranks very highly. Even if you are not running a Grecian themed game, D&D as a whole was built with Grecian monsters as a staple. Nothing here with seem out of place in most campaigns especially if the game master is at all competent with placing things in appropriate campaign areas. High marks here
Treasure also seems right, 25,000 GP total if players get every last penny, along with a smattering of magic items (some locked behind Stone to Flesh). A little under half of that is with the Gorgon, so they players still need to take a risk to get the big payday.
I do have a few minor quibbles with this, the first is the centaurs themselves. They have a very “off-table artillery” feel about them. They should be a center piece of this adventure, but are relegated to the wandering encounters table and a single pit trap. Also, The Bowl is underlined and italicized, yet there is no gold value associated with it. Most players I know will be asking how much this ritual bowl is, despite it having value to the dryad and the adventure itself. Sometimes you want to take the easy loot and go. Lastly, the forging of Sarnoth feels obtuse, but that’s easily solved by seeding some rumors about how it should be done. Again, these are very minor blemishes on an overall very polished offering.
Well, congratulations to Reilly for the strong start. Looking forward to seeing the rest of the entries.
Links to other reviews
Coldlight Press - Ben Gibson (contest founder)
Tiny Pink Tentacle - Grützi