Emelda’s Song
Dolmenwood Adventure Review
This is a review of the adventure Emelda’s Song for the Dolmenwood campaign setting. Spoilers for the adventure below. I’m not going to review the adventure without spoilers, and then do a “deep dive” in which I say similar things but with spoilers, because WHO TF ONLY LISTENS TO HALF A PODCAST?? Erm, I mean, blogpost. Who reads only half a blogpost. Moving on…
Necrotic Gnome adventure review boilerplate: high production value, sturdy and nice, maps on endpapers, efficient layout and keying, fun art. Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way:
This is a very flawed adventure, and I probably won’t run it in my campaign, and if I do I will make significant changes. The premise of this adventure is that the party of level 2-4 PCs will be investigating a festival and party. Below this party an occult undead-raising ritual will be taking place in a crypt, and it will be up to the PCs to sneak into the crypt and stop the ritual. I don’t hate this premise; it’s workable, as I’ll discuss at the end of this review. But the execution leaves a lot to be desired.
Hooks and Investigation
We are told there must be two days left in the festival when the PCs arrive. Why two days? Surely there must be a countdown to the ritual, along with a procedure for the GM to follow to put pressure on the players? Nope. There’s no way for the PCs to know that there’s a ticking clock, and that this clock is tied to the end of the festival. In fact, the PCs might not learn there’s an occult ritual taking place until they eventually stumble upon it. And there’s no reason for the ritual to be tied to the festival, except that the person raising the undead (Lord Malbleat, a goat-person breggle lord) thinks it would be dramatic (which, fair).
But let’s back up; how do the PCs get involved in this scenario if they don’t know what they are looking for? Via one of three very flimsy hooks. Number one is that Emelda, a singer, has been abducted (because her beautiful voice is key to the occult ritual). Here I personally have misgivings about the overuse of “missing persons” as a call to adventure, though in this case this is probably the strongest hook. More problematic is that if this is the hook, almost none of the rumors given are relevant. Or, they are only relevant because all of a sudden the GM is telling you, via various npcs, all about this festival and these crypts, and so players might put it together that that’s where the adventure is supposed to be.
Not very subtle, and yet far more subtle than the other two adventure hooks, in which the GM takes out a giant neon-lit sign reading “Adventure this way--->.” Consider the second hook:
In any High Wold location, the PCs are approached by a soft-spoken, hooded shorthorn who calls himself Clopnott. He says (truthfully) he is Lord Ramius’s “collector of secrets”. Clopnott wants “intrepid outsiders” to infiltrate the Shadholme during the Hlerribuck and investigate strange goings-on at the tomb complex. He says his spies have witnessed soldiers regularly bringing wheelbarrows of strange alchemical mixtures to the Shadholme Lodge, and have intelligence indicating they are somehow related to the Hlerribuck [festival], currently underway. Possibly also related are the recent disappearances of several Lankshorners. Clopnott offers 1,500gp for proof of anything untoward happening. His agents within Malbleat’s court add the PCs to the lodge party guest list, using aliases and identities as wealthy grain merchants from the south. He says he will find the PCs after the mission.
So, does this guy just go around the wood asking strangers to investigate local nobles? He must be very secretive, or else why would he immediately identify himself to these strangers as a rival noble’s “collector of secrets”? And what would “evidence of anything untoward” consist of? This spymaster already has insiders who have told him about strange alchemical mixtures that are specifically related to the festival, and also possibly related to the disappearance of Emelda, and has enough sway to get these PCs on the guest list. It seems like he’s pretty well positioned to get whatever additional evidence he needs. And what exactly would the rival noble do with this “evidence,” which may end up just being eyewitness testimony of the party? The remaining hook is no better, as some secretive Drune (a magic-y faction) ask the party—again, a group of randos—to stop the ritual. Why don’t the drune stop it themselves? And the adventure says they want a magic book from the crypt, but they explicitly don’t ask the PCs to retrieve this.
Now, a mysterious stranger approaching the party asking them to go on an adventure is kind of a trope of dnd, and most people would just suspend disbelief enough to take the hook. I mean, would this sort of thing be out of place in a 5e adventure? I’ll return to this point.
Time to Party
The hooks, such as they are, will eventually point the party to the festival and in particular the more exclusive party that is happening above the crypts. This part is fine, as the party can wander around the festival, meet some folk, and get some scenes that present the lore of the setting in organic ways. The party in the lodge above the crypts has a great table of 20 guests they could interact with, and in the course of said interaction these npcs will drop some secrets about the crypts. These secrets are…quite on the nose. There is, for example, one in which an npc says
this is a very special Hlerribuck (the festival). There is talk that Gnarlgruff (undead sorcerer) will rise again.
or
there are other ways into the crypts besides the main entrance in the Salon.
Ahh, you must be the heroic adventures who have snuck into this party, wink wink. Here, let me tell you something directly related to your mission. One way to make this make more sense this would be to have these guests be the spies of the rival noble who are explicitly telling the party how to sneak into the crypts. (Also, I guess this party continues day and night, or else why don’t the PCs just break in when everyone is asleep?)
There are several entrances to the crypts, so one way or another the party finds themselves there. So now I guess we are in the dungeon crawl part of the adventure. An interesting twist here is that the party might not have their normal weapons with them, depending on how they entered.
Anyway, the crawl here is pretty anemic. First, the map is very linear and not jaquaysed at all aside from the multiple entrances (two of which are sealed unless the party entered through them). More importantly, there’s basically no environmental interactivity here. There are some npcs and guards who will need to be pacified one way or another, lest it lead to a bigger fight. The funnest idea is a sommelier who has been turned into a spider, who can be cured. Otherwise, it all leads inevitably toward the ritual room.
You’ve Foiled My Evil Plan!
So the PCs have arrived in the ritual room, and wouldn’t you know, they are just in the nick of time! (Though again, it’s possible this is also the first they are learning about this devious undead-raising ritual). They see Emelda locked in a cage, in a trance, singing. They have to stop it! How much time do they have? Here are some things the adventure tells us
Upon noticing the PCs, he [the evil lord] rushes to complete the ritual.
If attacked: Uses his Ring of Vanishing to teleport to the surface
Timing: The ritual’s culmination occurs at the Referee’s discretion. Emelda’s song reaches a shrill and fearful crescendo as the sarcophagus lid slowly slides sideways, and Lord Gnarlgruff arises from the coffer.
I’m picturing the old Batman tv show.
PCs: Give it up Malbleat. We’ve got you surrounded. Free the girl!
Joker Malbleat: Ahh but you probably didn’t realize that I can just rush to complete the ritual right now, instead of taking my time as I was doing before. Come, Emelda, give us a dramatic crescendo!
The coffin lid starts to open
PCs: No, it’s too late for that! We attack!
Malbleat: You may have stopped me this time, but you’ll never catch me! Evil laugh! Teleports away
And if they happen to face the “legendary sorcerer”…well he turns out to be pretty level-appropriate for a party of 3rd level characters, though he might be able to get off a pretty deadly lightning bolt from his staff. I’m really not sure what the stakes would be of this creature being let loose in the world of Dolmenwood, unless you want to say that once he gets a chance to study some spells he would be a more serious threat. And I’m not sure how much Malbleat had to gain from raising him from the dead in the first place. Either way, it’s not really a game-changer.
Now, reading this, some of you might be saying, “but that sounds like fun!” And sure, games like Call of Cthulhu or investigative scenarios for 5e can be a ton of fun if everyone goes along with the premise and is just into play-acting their character. But as I read this adventure, I am sort of wondering, why did one of the most well known OSR publishers include a trad scenario in their flagship kickstarter?
Because that’s what this is, from the mysterious stranger to the not-so-subtle clues to the climactic scene. You can take all the advice about prepping open situations and motivating exploration and problem solving over pre-defined plot and leave it on the shelf for this one. What this adventure really does is introduce players to the drama of the setting. It’s a form of setting tourism. It’s really in the aftermath of the adventure that we get something more dynamic going on, because now the balance between the breggle factions is upset in some way, especially if Malbleat is deposed. The adventure itself, however, is just a very forced way to get the players to that point.
Is it Fixable?
As I said above, I do like the basic premise of a party with occult shit happening downstairs. I had a GM run such a session in the 3.5e days, and it was fun. Mostly because we split the party, and I can see a group have a fun time doing something similar here. One character tries to keep the guards occupied, another chats with the guests, a couple characters sneak into the crypts, the thief is distracted by stealing the candelabras (150gp each). A sleep spell here, some stolen guard weapons there, and they talk their way out of fighting the big-enough bad evil guy. Meanwhile, a fight breaks out upstairs, the whole place burns down, and everyone runs away, snagging a bottle of expensive wine on the way out. So, while I wouldn’t buy this adventure if it didn’t come with the kickstarter, I could see it being an ok time.
Here’s how I might run it
Go with best-trad-practices. Brush up on my 3 clue rule and node based design.
Build the characters’ relationship with Emelda so that they care that she’s missing.
Flesh out several locations in the town of Lankshorn for the players to explore
The church: Father Dobey should still be around and available for questioning, but with a couple ruffians guarding him. His servant, Mabble, knows a few things, but is afraid to speak.
Emelda’s house: clues to her kidnapping
Ribblemead’s house: clues to his kidnapping. Searching his desk, they find papers related to Malbleat’s summoning ritual
Man of Gold Apothecary: Sydewich has been getting requests for strange ingredients
All these should point to the crypts and to the alchemist lab
Clewyd Baldricke: the party can convince him to give them his invite to the party
Make the alchemists lab and the crypts two different spaces. Since there isn’t much interactivity in either, maybe the party investigates the lab to learn the final details of the horrific ritual. The lab could be a 5-room dungeon situation with a possible combat solution, and then contain clues that direct the party to the crypts. The lab could be located near Lankshorn.
By the time the party gets to the crypts, the festival/party has started. Now they have to figure out how to get to the crypts and stop the ritual while also blending in. They’ll need formal wear and a way to hide their weapons.
Juice up the party a bit. The table of npcs are nice, but flesh them out and add some relationships that the party can learn about and possibly exploit. Maybe Raimus has spies at the party. Maybe there are members of the Malbleat crew that know about how he is messing with the tombs, and want to expose him. Maybe Dobey shows up, and seeing the party, fears for his life.
No matter how I run it, I would add some sort of clock (“at the midnight hour, the ritual will be complete).
Redraw the crypt map with more twists and turns, and maybe some undead encounters. This will do. The party tries to follow the sound of Emelda’s voice.
Malbleat doesn’t teleport away. Maybe the tunnel that connects the town and the crypt leads directly to the ritual room. Whether Malbleat completes the ritual or not, he runs away via the tunnel; if he completes the ritual, he runs away pursued by the undead sorcerer. This might also be a way for the PCs to skip the investigation and get straight to the ritual if they find the secret door.
Something like that? If I do that, however, most of the Necrotic Gnome house style is lost on what actually needs to be prepared for this adventure. I don’t need the information presented as if the players are procedurally exploring a dungeon; I need a handful of interesting, fleshed out NPCs they could interrogate and maybe a couple spaces they are going to search, but for specific clues, not for treasure. I don’t really care that the space of the party has “Round, polished wooden tables (2-3 chairs each).” But I might need to know more about the intrigue between the guests that the players can exploit.
So unfortunately this one is a miss!
For real though people do only listen to non-spoilers.