R3: Wicht vs Seasong
Just a quick reminder: Use of the ingredients is one of the key elements in winning a round. Not the only element, but key. In this round, explained in some detail later, BOTH Wicht, and seasong have tacked on the ingredient
Nostalgia, which is a little disappointing to me. It seems easier to work this ingredient into a short adventure than a concept like
A conflict of interest which you really have to nail down. But let’s get to the story judging.
Witch’s entries certainly get stronger as the contest goes on. This IRON DM judge is left to wonder if he is actually sand bagging. The strengths in this short adventure far outweigh the weaknesses. Let’s go over some of them:
The
atmosphere – shockingly, Wicht far outstrips seasong in this ‘arena.’ In many places in this scenario, he reinforces the feel of the location. The attitudes of the NPCs, and even the timing of events drives home the gloomy, grim location that is Garno. And speaking of timing, I’m a big fan of “the back up plan” in case the PCs fail to bite, or miss in game plot hints. Wicht has devised an adventure which can go the investigative route, or can simply allow the escaped demon to set the wheels in motion. Good use of the ingredients - besides nostalgia, which feels like a tacked on attitude to the NPC Agris. There is the delightful keep, the clever, indirect use of the potion of glibness to weasel out of the
Zone of Truth spells (since there is no spell
detect lies), and the Book of Hushed Rumors as a plot advancement device - which kept me focused as a reader and DM on this story.
Interesting Note: Both writers included one extra tome which had little or nothing to do with the scenario – Wicht: The Book of Restless Dead, and Seasong: Remember. My guess it that with a longer timeframe to flesh out their submissions, these would’ve been more tightly incorporated…But I digress…
We do have a set of weaknesses/vagueness in this submission. How do I get into Wicht’s Keep? Maybe Agris will tell me? Awww…he’s dead. And I would have preferred Wicht to flesh out how to gather info from the NPC in more detail if they chose not to go the combat route. Witch wisely cuts of the direct divination angle, but most DMs reward parties for not always being hack and slash, and here we have a good opportunity. Another flaw I felt present in Wicht’s entry was timing of some events. What happens if the PCs encounter Targio in the Keep? Unless the adventure stays VERY scripted (which is fine, but let me know up front), there is the significant possibility that the PCs will bypass the demon, and head into the keep, first. And although I love Witch’s Keep as a story element. The combination of pissed guards, AND Stone and Clay golems that attack on sight, may leave the PCs too weakened to resolve the final fight scene between the Ogre Champions, the Tentacles, AND The mad cleric. I’d like to see some detail added as far as reigning in the encounters. This is an important factor in timing-based adventures.
Talking about adventure resolution gets me thinking more about seasong’s entry. So let’s pick apart the good, the bad, and the ugly in our rising star of IRON DM competition.
I am going to work backwards through seasong’s submission, because I talk about what’s best, first – and his best stuff comes at the end, rather than the beginning. More specifically: the Twists. Use of a second (or third, or fourth) layer to this relativly short scenario really adds to the meat I have become used to in a seasong entry. While we all can agree that Baron Malsteffan is the villain we love to hate – it’s often better to hate him, then like him, and maybe even hate him again later. Twists gives us these options. Then the image of 1/12 size ogres sneaking out late at night to terrorize the local town is so amusingly fascinating, I immediately went out and scripted a mini adventure on my own, utilizing the concept. Other positives: The potion of glibness in a glass is a great, slick, way for the Baron to get away with (dare I cliché?)
murder. Although I like Witch’s indirect/defensive use of the potion better – I like seasong’s FLAIR better.
So what’s missing? The entry is missing some of seasong’s usual strong points, namely; hooks. If the Book of Hushed Rumors is to be introduced to the party earlier in the campaign – you are betting A LOT that they will check with the book while in the Baron’s lands. Even worse, depending on what else they are involved in, an entry in red may not interest them. Worse still, some of the other hooks are dependent on reading and having interest in the entry, so if ‘A’ does not lead to ‘B,’ you can’t get to ‘C.’ I have two major problems with the adventure (the bad, and the ugly?). Given the spell that seasong detailed – there is a WILL save involved in the shrinking. Since one or more of the PCs are likely to try to resist the spell and attack the Baron, we have an implicit story problem, since we have to make the Baron strong enough to take on the 1-3 party members, or weak enough that one wonders if the PCs will just take him out from the start. The other is spell based again. Last time seasong failed to detail Divination precautions. This time he fails to account for
Dimension Door/ Teleport. In Wicht’s adventure, the PCs want to be in the keep, in seasong’s they don’t - which means that seasong must go out of his way to prevent escape, and he misses the boat (a little). This really forces us to use one or more of the ‘Twists” section – and hey – some of those twists are fantastic – but then they shouldn’t really be in an ‘extra’s’ section, but included in the main adventure.
By a larger margin than I expected at this stage in the competition, I award this round to
WICHT. I feel I must mention the bad timing of seasong’s cold. However, for a first time IRON DM competitor, seasong availed himself very well indeed.
Expositions! I demand expositions!