Review - The Fall of Gutmound
The Fey Are Up To No Good Again!
The Fall of Gutmound is an 8-page adventure for Shadowdark by Mucilage. Players will find an orcish stronghold overrun by fey mischief, with treasure to be had if you can make it through these warring factions.
What's it About?
It's a simple setup. A group of orcs stole an idol from the Fey and brought it back to their stronghold. Now, the idol and the Fey that came after it are warping the place, making it dangerous for orcs and humans alike. You've got a room full of glue slime. A room with illusory hag arms. A room full of mist. A group of fey trying to convince you to kill sleeping orcs. All kinds of good stuff in there. From there, it's completely open to player choices for what happens. They could gain favor from the fey if they help get the idol back. They could choose to help the orcs. They could choose to just grab whatever treasure they kind find and get out of there.
What About the Ideas?
There's great stuff in here. I mentioned some of the rooms above, but they're all pretty good. There's some good low level traps. The illusory hag arms are below a chasm crossed by tightropes. They make it more difficult and scary, but you're only ever taking d6 damage from falling, and you fly back out a pool of water in a different room. There's a statue that animates if you take gems from its base, but there's clear signs that's happening, and you can stop it by just putting the gems back. Lots of stuff like that that's interesting and potentially dangerous, but none of it feels unfair to the players, and it feels well tuned to give low level characters the old school experience without being punishing.
I think my absolute favorite thing about the ideas in this adventure though, is how it avoids the pitfalls that can come with how different creatures are characterized in stories like this. It's all to easy to fall into tropes of bloodthirsty goblins and orcs, I've done it myself, and I was a little worried going into this how that would turn out, but I was very impressed with how things are handled here. There's not really any "good guys" between these factions. Sure, the orcs stole something, but they're being tormented by the Fey now, and it ends up making the orcs the much more sympathetic side between the two of them for me. The Fey of course also have their reason to be upset since something was stolen from them, so they're a bit justified too. I appreciate that there's no clear cut side that the author intends players to go with. It really could go either way, and that leaves a lot of fun space to play in with how players interact in this area. And you've got two solid NPCs between the Fey queen Petunia and the orc leader Grezlar to personify these groups when you meet them.
I also love the orc chieftain with butterfly wings. Chef's kiss!
How About the Execution?
It's mostly good. In fact, what's provided is all good. It's really what's missing in a few places that I have to comment on. It's well laid out. The room keys are succinct but informative. It's got a good map. Solid execution on the idea. Just a few extra things I would have liked to see.
For one, I think it could use some stronger hooks. All we're given is that a strange flying creature flew of this way with a treasure chest. I guess that might be enough to tempt some parties. But, I question how they would feel about it once they get to this crazy dangerous place and how long they would want to stay just for the vague notion that a treasure chest might be in there. I think it could use some stronger reasons to keep players pushing deeper through all of this once they get started.
There's also a few places that just needed a few extra lines of explanation. For one, I was very confused about the nature of the flying orc until I got to the bestiary and found out he had grown butterfly wings under the influence of the idol. A bit more exposition up front could help clarify some points like that and set you up better as a referee to understand the situation and make rulings about it.
There were also a few places in the dungeon I would have liked more understanding of how they work. There's a pool of water that, if you submerge in it, you get healed. But it also says it disappears if you "manipulate" the water or the dirt around it. I have a bit of a hard time finding where I'd rule on what counts as manipulating if they're investigating it before potentially going inside. Or even if they're just being careful about getting in and putting their hands around the edge. A bit more of exactly how the author thinks that situation should work would be helpful.
For the map, there's also a bunch of symbols that are boxes with letters in them that only make sense after you've read the room key to see what they might represent. I personally would like to have those in the map legend as well for quick reference when I'm looking at the map.
But those are all pretty minor things, and I don't think they should take away from how good the work is here overall.
Art?
There's only two pieces, but they're fantastic. The Fey queen Petunia feels straight out of an 80s module in the best way, and Grezlar is just so perfect with his butterfly wings. I love it.
Summary!
This thing is great. And, what's better, this is set to be part of an ongoing series of short adventures "inspired by Alarums & Excursions zines and classic Judges Guild products." I'm stoked if we can expect more of this quality in the future.