[No-Artpunk] #2 The Arcane Font of Hranadd-Zuul

The Arcane Font of Hranadd-Zuul
Daedalus
AD&D 1e
Lvl 1 – 3
25 pages

With the dropping out of some of the stronger combatants [1] from the previous No Artpunk I had some trepidations that for NAP 2, the selection would be unable to match the breadth, quality and ingenuity of the original contest but after this second entry I am confident we will match, if not exceed, the quality of the first volume.

The Arcane Font of Hranadd-Zuul is an atmospheric foray into a mythic underground temple of Athenian flavoring, and is centred around an enchanted pool which grants arcane knowledge to anyone bathing in it under a fool moon in exchange for extreme physical degeneration. Unfortunately all is not well, as a malignant plant life-form, the hideous Weeping Ichor Vine, has taken root over the pool and exerts hideous mind-control over the Wizard Vezzelar. We also have successive waves of inhabitants setting up shop in the sanctum. A tribe of grimlocks has ventured upward from the mythical underworld below it, a Drow thief has taken up residence, bearing a strange mythril key stolen from the frost giant warlord Tanzen Kar (YES!), and he is herein pursued by a notorious Bugbear bounty hunter and his company of hobgoblins. It is late 1e, almost 2e in its style, but still high 1e, flavorful in the best of ways, with a charming amount of gygaxian naturalism, and good use of iconic monsters.

Considerable effort has been expended to make the adventure useful in Actual Play, which is always heartwarming. There’s a helpful overview of the various inhabitants of the dungeon, their reason for being there, their mood and how they are likely to respond. Very few sentient things are automatically hostile, but many have conflicting objectives and things are volatile, bypassing ‘tea-party’ syndrome where everyone in the dungeon is happy to have a friendly chat and team up with anyone who happens to tag along. Effective use is made of bullet points to seperate key information but the content feels rich and complex, there is no hint of the ‘compression’ of some of the official OSE modules. In the back, Daedelus is even kind enough to put all the treasure and give an estimate how much XP per PC the characters are likely to get (3300 max, but 800 is far more likely).

The map has been purloined from Dyson-Logos but it happens to be from a good batch. With 25 encounters, there are still enough loops, secret doors and branches to make exploration somewhat enjoyable, although it suffers from the curse of Dyson Logos, wherein all encounters are doomed to take place 30 feet away from eachother. There is even, and it takes a bit of cheating to make it fit on the map, a concealed second entrance into the complex proper. A whole scala of doors (stuck, locked etc.) is accounted for, as is the, unlikely but interesting possibility of breaking through the floor of passage 6 into the larger hall, using a variety of pickaxes, digging tools and sledgehammers. There’s little environmental effects too that add to the strength of the module; passages of unworked stone where you can slip if you run. A bag of caltrops already placed invites you to set an ambush elsewhere. The geography is actually utilized.

Let’s talk a little about the atmosphere. The way the adventure opens, nice and quiet. You go through a passageway of limestone, decorated with sculptures of warrior maidens. A statue of Pallas Athena in the vestibule points one way, but there is another path. If you happen to point in one direction, the statue animates and nods or shakes its head. If you point in both directions, hah!, a secret compartement opens, revealing a scroll of protection from possession! Marvellous! It takes a while before you encounter anything, but you find ominous hints; a pair of shackles broken open, a shredded halfling corpse, a guard room with splintered remains everywhere, a bronze key hanging from a hook, and a strangely intact and good looking weapon rack. You examine it BAM IT’S A MIMIC.

This sort of subtle telegraphing, of knowing where exactly to place your assholish spear trap, or setting something up by a magic mirror that allows you to see the room of the fount, the remains of a camp fire with a single half eaten iron ration, is something The Arcane Font does quite well. There is a deliberation to the way each room has been keyed that is wonderful to see, and it means that observant players are likely to have a good time of it. A carrion crawler is set up with a dead grimlock with Carrion crawler eggs in it, then fighting the Carrion Crawler actually has a chance of bringing nearby Grimlocks to investigate? Holy shit that is great!

This telegraphing is in many cases highly neccessary as Arcane Font does not fuck around. 16 Grimlocks, a Mimic, a band of hobgoblins led by a great bugbear, a lone Drow thief, 10 large spiders that can attack by suprise if the PCs are incautious and of course, the all but insurmountable 10 HD Tree of Weeping Ichor that huddles over the magical fount. If I must level criticism the Tree proper is almost too tough, with multiple ranged attacks with mind control ichor, 8 20 ft. tendril attacks doing 2d6 each AND grapple. I can see ways of fighting it because of its limited mobility and range but anyone not picking up on that is going to get turned into mincemeat. For a party of level 1-3 this module packs little punches, but it is also not mean. You should be able to tell if you are going to get punched. If you do get hit it will be with the force of the Tunguska meteorite but for the most part, Arcane font is very gentlemanly and will kill only the weak and the unlucky.

Treasure is just as good. Placed with deliberation, usually artfully concealed in a way that rewards careful and meticulous searching, at times too heavy (in the form of two great bronze cressets), sometimes in a false bottom, or among the detrius of a Carrion Crawler nest. There is a subtlety to it that is JUST right. You can see more careless players missing a lot of it. AND THAT IS THE POINT. Treasure is very carefully drip-fed but soon comes in large bursts as characters deal with major encounters. Progression. Deliberate progression. Good. Magic items probably a bit too powerful. Boots of Speed, A crossbow of accuracy+3, Axe of Throwing +2, Sword +1/+3 against shapechangers. Your mileage may vary and this could be the B/X gm speaking but for characters level 1-3 it seems on the heavy side.

The cherry on top, the weird is implemented tastefully and in harmony with the environment. The aforementioned athenian statue. Or take this secret door in an alcove. Written on it ‘One of deadly seven, flames of desire yearning! Patience, oh Heavens, while passion yet is burning! and if you answer the riddle, you find a secret door that is optional! A shrine to a goddess of death, and if you take the coins from the offering bowl, you are stricken by a curse! If you offer a coin, you gain either boon or bane depending on your alignment. Hah! Excellent work.

I can probably wax poetically about the cryptic pronouncements of doom in the emaciated wizards diary, or the way the writing makes things come alive but is also useful from a game perspective

Will try to lure the party to the font (to kill the VINE and free him, but from the VINE’s
perspective so it can enthrall or kill the party). May start to say or do something then
abruptly stop as the VINE “intercepts” his thoughts and forces him to change course.

Daedelus asked me to be very critical of his work so he could learn from it, but the heaviest criticism I can level at this work, besides the difficulty of its last encounter, is that its fairly small and its scope is limited, 25 rooms, low level. As far as I am concerned you have just demonstrated that you can write a banger adventure for levels 1-3. I urge you to spread your wings, and sojourn out into the higher level bands, as most assuredly, you are ready for them. There is a bit of a cheat in that site leads into the Mythical underworld in order to explain the presence of some of its creatures, which the DM is now urged to create for himself, which does work but seems a bit inelegant for my tastes. The Dyson Logos map is perfectly serviceable, but for full greatness you will eventually ascend to do your own mapping (said the man who does not do his own mapping).

The possibility of gaining access to the Arcane Fount, an item that gives whoever bathes in it access to a single spell-like ability of 1st level 1/day in exchange for the loss of one attribute point is another wonderfully elegant mixture of flavor and gameplay that we like to see here at Age of Dusk.

The adventure ends, in style, with a list of possible follow up adventures to develop from the events in the module. A fine entry, and we have barely scratched the surface!

[1] The superlative Chomy and the inimitable Olle Skolgren had to drop out this year, as did the author of the excellent City of Bats and many others. Fortunately, we do have some finalists from the last NAP joining the listings, so competition remains steep.