[No-Artpunk] #14 Stirring of the Slumbering God

Stirring of the Slumbering God
Ethan B.
OSE
Lvl 3 – 5
28 pages

Just today, as I returned from a relaxing weekend at the local spa, I speculated on tenfootpole that from a strategic point of view the best move for people fighting for the legitimacy of Artpunk DnD would be to compete under a pseudonym, win, and then reveal the deception afterward if so desired. Likewise, for my purposes, which are to shift the focus back to adventuring fundamentals, this is also the most advantageous. Last year we had two promising aspirants, and they conducted themselves worthily, but these were relative newcomers.

This year is a different year.

Stirring of the Slumbering God is a advanced level entry with a certain distinctive style, rooted firmly in Artpunk DnD, yet adhering to solid dungeon design principles that raises strong suspicions as to its mysterious author. I will not be so uncouth as to speculate on the identity of the author, but I think an observant reader might be able to puzzle it out for themselves. Let us begin.

Clue #1: An evil cult attempts to unearth a buried Titan that will bring great malice if unleashed

Reminiscent of Swordthrust, another clue? Rumor table is intricate, with partial truths, each prompting exploration of some area. Misdirection, if prompted, tends to be more in the way of a complete red herring, rather then prompting erroneous strategies or actions. Plot hooks are baroque vignettes, impregnated with atmospheric flourishes, conveyed in paragraphs that fire the imagination but also have about them a certain sloppiness.

This adventure spares no effort. A vaguely orientalist cult steered by the predictions of opioid visions and horoscopes scrambles to unearth the buried godling, seeking to displace its spirit with one of their own. The titan Filthscreamer has five phases of awakening, three of which I believe can be prompted by the players only. Starlight makes food rot. The dead begin to rise. At first touch the Titan stirs, and part of the dungeon collapses (indicated on the map GREAT GREAT GREAT). At phase V the Titan will free itself in 24 hours, and walk the earth once more, a behemoth from the time before heaven and earth, raising the dead, bleeding Aqua Regia from his wounds.

The Black Lotus Society is tastefully described in a paragraph flat, and responds differently every week depending on the roll of a d12, symbolizing the casting of a horoscope. A d6 weather table, at first d4, indicates weather, folds into supernatural weather, rains of blood, which affect the Witchburner cave later on, meaning it is flooded on some of these rainy days.

An Overland portion

It was around the hex area that I began to get my suspicions it was you, Brother. Or if not you, then a man who bears the twin of your soul, the Omegon to your Alpharius, and as such I might as well address you for you are him and he is you. The starting town, with simple population figures, prices for the head cleric, Zechordiabola, for you always had a gift for names, and just enough notes for the shopkeeper to make him stand out.

It is the way the hex encounters, which are a compliment to the dungeon locations proper, are described, are given flesh and made distinct. 20 hobgoblins on high ground, dressed in silk brocade worth 100 gp each, or this one below. The way you can evoke an image even with well-worn building blocks, and the way you omitted the crucial details in a stray editing pass for you are a creature of image and quantifiables do not come easy to you, although you have done well here overall. Take also, a herd of mastodons, with a chance of having one ridden by a wizard, its spells carved into its tusks, its hide painted with woad chevrons. More then a match for any party of level 3-5, but this was never a problem in second wave OSR.

Then there was the map. The main dungeon has multiple entry points, via either the lodge at the top, a clear landmark with a narrow entrance, and even via another cavern, the Witchdrowner cave. The drowned Witch, you have used her before, in encounter #21. But this could still be some other one, someone who is from your camp but was merely inspired.

You were never a mapper and yet these maps are excellent which implies you have learned to map for this contest alone. You studied the old ways from the masters. You must have known that only a crushing victory would be good enough for you so you spared no effort. This map floods with the coming of the blood rain. In Entrance C, an insane megatherium with phosphorescent Algae and two man-sized young, with steel shod claws, has burst into this cavern. This was almost enough but I needed to be sure.

The random encounters in Witchdrowner cave, these show your hand as well. The poppy goblins, the gnomes in the caverns brewing moonshine once used to appease the dragon, this could indicate some trip to Yoon-Suin, some lingering echo of its presence, but it was this, your unique entry, which you have appropriated in addition to the Titan, which raised my suspicions yet further.

3 of these against a party of levels 3-5 is potentially crippling. You did not have time to playtest and your feel for these mathematical balance is not as sharp but you rely on understanding and natural elan to win the day and you are perhaps right to do so. But it is the Caecilia, an obscure form of salamander, that revealed your hand in this. For who but you has such an extensive knowledge of obscure fauna, who else is so fascinated by them?

The encounters in this are good, so much so that I knew then that you would be one of the Anointed. Who would consider dressing ghouls in burlesque and lace, and have them lure adventurers, or have them be the brides of a mad antibishop Excuarius of Dagon, whom you have given tactics and an order of battle. This is a recurring element. Intelligent foes have tactics that rely on more then simply hammering it out. Monster selection will offend some because you have converted entries from Fiend Folio, the Monster manual II and even the Creature Catalog. You have used every advantage that was alloted to you. Your individual use of them is sublime, but so was it ever. You foreshadow, or you set the hook with tasty bait. Now, two encounters in a row that reveal your hand yet again, brother.

This one is simply too brilliant to be ignored. Is there an amateur out there that would combine this descriptive richness with the extra gameplay caveat, who is experienced, yet not so conditioned by prior knowledge he would point out this is not how reincarnation works in DnD, and would balk at the mere imagining of it?

And here! You neglected to specify the amount of wasps in the nest, which I would imagine is nonzero, though you put them on the random encounter table and specify they drag people to the nest. But it was that last sentence, a zombified god emperor of gnomes. You are no stranger to the 41st millenium brother, nor am I. It is over this that we quarrelled, so long ago now.

The Lodge overland, is where you show the most growth. Guard schedules, clever use of ingame mechanics, a wizard perpetually invisible. There is no prohibition against such a working in OSE. Invisible coins too. A drum of panic when an attack takes place, and an elevator platform going down.

It is in this cavern that you achieved apotheosis. There are few forms and tricks that elude you now. You waste no time on alert statuses and other organized defences but in truth you have no need of them here, even if this entire complex is dug out by The Black Lotus Society. You create the impression of a type of eco-system, and do so in a way that comes across as natural. The cult, its Quaggoth slaves, its pool of human laborers, pseudo-dragon spies, escaped Dopplegangers of some protection. Again the statts of an important Black Lotus society member have been omitted, an oversight.

Consider the set piece of 3 and 12, where you reveal a tiny but of light shining through a slit, and if the PCs approach halfway, the door is kicked open and the ballista inside is discharged by the guards. I note this because it is so inimical to your usual visually rich style. You considered it in terms of interesting gameplay first! Add notes for a password next time, for clever players will interrogate those above, or perhaps steal their secrets with ESP. You have an even more fiendish room, with a lever, a room that decants dopplegangers, and a sliding wall. Your dungeon exists somewhere between White Plume Mountain and more naturalistic ones like G2.

There are traprooms that evoke White Plume Mountain or any other set piece, but who would conceive of a concept, of scales that weigh alignment. Who else would make that synaesthetic leap? Or did they merely recall the myth of Anubis and do I rant at ghosts, for there is a pyramid of red stone in this selfsame place. But there was one before, in your first attempt!

Consider in this level a Book of Vile Darkness, down spiralling stairwells of bones, their eyes set with Gemstones, and the terrible power that is unleashed by merely touching it without saying a cryptic phrase. And yet who would make the simple mistake of Raise Dead for Animate Dead? Knowledge of the dungeon can be learned, this is crucial. The vaults of the cult can be plundered of the offering they use to bribe the Green Dragon in the cavern system nearby, and if the time elapses she will rampage through the dungeon and kill all organic life within. The green dragon, who is formidable, but not so formidable it should have over 100.000 gp in treasure. And then there is an odd stinginess with handing out consumable items, there are somes scrolls but where are the potions, there is not a single one in this adventure? The way treasure is always compartimentalized a bit too much, someone unused to rolling on random treasure tables.

There are other elements that are fascinating. The presence of explosives, quite plausible given the mining affair, can be used to potentially destroy the awakening titan, or be used as a trap. And even prisoners to free, albeit it in strange fashion, the Knight Sir Plumcor, trapped in a mirror of life stealing. Speaking of traps, invisible beartraps are particularly inspired, and used sparingly. In this, I think you have some way to go. The Vault of the Black Lotus Society is not guarded. This can happen at times, the muse comes and goes and so we must rely on procedure and foundation. Is this not the very raison de etre of this Crusade? And you made this, of which I am proud, for the doom that is about to befall should at least be discernable to a good player.

Actually level 2

Your second level is…weaker. It does not fit together quite so well. The traps get more obscure, sometimes nonsensical. The veneer of naturalism and higher reality begins to wear thin, and you did not stat the enchanted blades that are embedded in Filthscreamer’s head, serving as a lure for characters to awaken him. There is a hint of faction play here with a disgruntled cult member who might be allured, and several chameleons and devices of horror, but it feels vaguely anticlimactic. One would expect defences around the dig site to be at their heaviest, defences elsewhere to be more relaxed. Two strange devices that can be messed with here, in a place that is already redolent with weirdness to interact with, there is a face-stealing device that seems out of place, is it connected with the dopplegangers? It is hard to say.

Who writes like this if not you? Who has mastery of the written word combined with high intermediate level dungeon-writing craft? Yet not supreme mastery. The errors and omissions are forgiveable, but the treasure amounts, the encounters that are occasionally unwieldy or too strong and at times not strong enough, in this there is room for improvement. The naturalistic and the artificial, they are not yet a seamless whole. The ebb and flow, the intelligence, the organization, in this there is room for improvement also. But what grand ambition! There are two methods that I can see to kill the Titan as it rises!

Why did you come here, in your suit of fossilized chitin, with visor closed, thinking I would not suspect the hand that wields the sword? Or is this some deception, and are you merely an impostor, or some other Artpunkman? If you are you are a grand one, and the knights in all the OSR who could match you could be counted on two hands, but not four. Did you seek glory? You have it. Or did you seek to humble us? You have only exalted us with your performance, as you have exalted yourself.

In all likelihood I will pick this for the collection, but if I do not, if there are stronger entries yet to come, not giving it a second editing pass and putting out elsewhere would be a criminal waste.

UPDATE: Lest more idle speculation occur, the contestant has confirmed he is not Patrick Stuart. A new challenger has entered the field, and what an entry indeed!