Judgment: Last Match of Final Round: Enkhidu vs. Zenld
Judge's Note: Since Zenld never posted an entry, technically Enkhidu should win the match by default and thus win the title of WINTER IRON DM 2004. However, Enkhidu contacted me via email and said he preferred that I call it a tie and make the judgment based on the tie-breaking ingredient to give CarpeDavid an opportunity to win. So, I have decided to fulfill his request. A judgment on Enkhidu's entry will follow, and that will be followed by a comparison of use of the 'Celestial Wrestler' ingredient by all three contestants.
I have to admit these were perhaps the hardest ingredients I have come up with in a while and I was really curious to see what the two contestants would come up with, and as usual Enkhidu did as good as could be expected with what he was given. That is to say, nothing he came up with blew me out of the water with cleverness and originality, but still it was a solidly built little dungeon-delve.
". . .But I Know What I Like" reminded me a few other adventures I have read/run in my experience as a DM. There is "Asflag's Unintentional Emporium", a Dungeon adventure (#36) where the death of a wizard makes his estate filled with monsters from the 1E Fiend Folio into a dangerous zoo that needs to be explored and looted. Then there is 'A Wizard's Fate' (from #37), where the dead wizard's imp familiar fulfills the role that the super intelligent awakened monkey does in this scenario. And don't forget the classic 'Lost Island of Castanimir' with a strange and seemingly shifting layout to a dead wizard's lair.
But I guess total originality is too much to ask for in a D&D adventure, since we are often dealing with similar situations, conflicts, foes and locations - so what really matters is how we put these common and basic facets together and what spin we put on them to keep our player's entertained - and one of the things I love about IRON DM is that the often bizarre ingredients really push the use of the more common ones to the limits of imagination - forcing contestants to think of things in new ways in order to include, for example, gossipy washer women.
Anyway, under normal circumstances I would be comparing this entry with that of the other contestant in this round's match, but Zen disappeared - so this is all academic - but no less interesting.
Enkhidu has the classic 'smash and grab' approach for this adventure, regardless which of the the provided hooks comes into play (or even if the DM were to come up with some variation of these) all the adventure comes down to is breaking into a wizard's tower and grabbing the neat and/or shiny stuff and get the hell out in one piece. Of course, Enkhidu does throw some wrenches in this basic treasure hunt though, which he would have to to insure a victory over his competitor.
Taking it step by step, I found Enkhidu's use of the
Ruined Desert Temple ingredient to be pretty weak. While, I like the idea of some nomads surrounding the place in an attempt to worship and the kink that might put in the PCs' plan, Enkhidu leaves this up to the DM and it really is nothing but an obstacle that does not really tie in to the rest of the adventure. It might have made more sense to make the Kordites be the desert nomads come to worship and seek the
Hand of Glory, perhaps helping to sow confusion by making them unaware that the ancient temple they were going to search (and perhaps hope to rehabilitate it a place now extra-sacred because the hand of Kord was found there) is also the lair of an amoral wizard. This makes more sense, because I think if a DM were to try to include the nomadic tribe and the group of Kordites, I think it'd be too many possibilities and NPCs to handle well.
But if Enkhidu had problems with the outside of the site, he does a much better job with the interior. The idea of a model that corresponds to the actual site, that allows the person in control of it make changes to the actual layout of the place is neat and has a very "Puppet-Master" (from Fantastic Four) feel to it. I do wish that Enkhidu might have included a list of possible changes that could be made to the place using the model aside from the ghostly guardians and the removal of doors. . it might give a better idea of some of the strategies the person (or monkey) in charge of the model might use to hold off intruders.
Speaking of monkeys, I really liked the monkey as a villain and his resentment of his "loss of innocence". It is a pretty bizarre motivation for his actions, but even with its irony it works (or maybe it works
because of its irony). The fact that the PCs may not even realize at first (if ever) the danger the monkey poses just makes it even better - as even if he is spotted he might be let go simply because he is an animal - or if interrogated with a speak with animals spells Chim might just act "dumb" in order to get away.
Enkhidu's use of the
Bald Medusa is very bizarre, and makes me thing that she is suffering from
Stockholm Syndrome, if only because she went from a captive used to be experimented on, to a concubine that cares about her master and refuses to believe he could be dead. If a medusa is a ugly as mythology would have us believe, then I also have to believe that the wizard Dorin is a pretty freaky dude - and gets off over the strangest of things. I wasn't too sure about the strength of this ingredient, however, then I started imagining the party's encounter with her - and how a good DM could make the veil she wears seem like it might be for mourning over Dorin - which might make her seem sympathetic, and might make good characters question their right to loot the place if they see her as the rightful inheritor of his place and things. However, if they find out she is a medusa they might let their prejudices take over. In other words, it would be a good encounter, even if one snake-less medusa is not much of a match for a party of 10th to 14th level PCs (that is quite a range, by the way).
The combination of the
Gossipy Washer Women and the
Collection of Paintings ingredients was a clever way to include what might have been very difficult elements to mesh. The magical paintings are another "classic" element one might expect to see in an old school Gygaxian adventure, in particular the ones that are portals to the place they depict (like the grotto). I have to say though the tiny mirror of opposition just seemed to weird. Did Enkhidu include it just to continue with that old school "wacky dungeon" theme? Or is it there just to give the washer women in the magical painting fodder with which to mock the PCs? I think the novelty of having these tiny homicidal replicas of the PCs would wear off pretty soon - especially if the PCs just scoop them up and throw them in a sack or box to sell to a circus or something. At least, if Enkhidu had included some other tiny folks in the scenario it might have added something to the adventure (imagine having tiny versions of other former would-be thieves trapped in another model of the place in the zoo area, or in the actual model in the control room, or performing in a little glass-enclosed circus in the zoo area.
The painting of the washer women is probably Enkhidu's finest touch. Not only does it seem like it would be the subject for a Renaissance painting (I can just imagine the colors and the ambient light and the ruddy cheeks of the full-figured old women with wrinkled hands and kerchief on their heads), but it serves as a way to give the PCs information about the place, its denizens and its former master, but at the same time poses a problem, as carrying it around the place would be difficult at best. The clever thing about gossipy washer women, or at least it would be clever if the DM plays it this way (and if Enkhidu had suggested it) is that the information gleaned from a gossip is not always the most reliable - this might help to misdirect the PCs about the role of Chim or the Medusa - and since the sense of time of being that live in a painting might be screwed up, they might talk about things or people that no longer exist in the lair.
The Hand of Glory ingredient could have been a little better. If the party is not there for it, they might not care at all that the Kordites take it, or might even
want to give it to them if they are altruistic and believe in giving back things to their rightful owners. There is one thing I am confused about, however, Enkhidu, in his description of the Left Hand of Kord writes, "This large Hand of Glory bears all the normal powers of the standard magic items" - Uh, what standard magical items? Is there an item called "the Hand of Glory" - if so, the joke is on me, because I just made that up to see what people could come up with. . .
So the question here is, would Enkhidu have won anyway? And we really can't answer that question. This entry is certainly not as strong as Enkhidu's previous works, and while Zenld's previous entries were on the weak side, he would not have been the first contestant to break free of expectations and wow the judge with an entry on par with any final entry ever entered, or even better.
So, as I said, before, Enkhidu has asked that his victory over Zenld not be counted for the purposes of determining who is the WINTER IRON DM of 2003, and that instead I treat this as if it were a tie (i.e. as if Zenld had won) and compare the use of the special tie-breaking ingredient:
Celestial Wrestler.
If you remember Carpe David's Celestial Wrestler was a Hound Archon sent to retrieve the Holy Halberd from the barbarian lizard-riders, and his ability to wrestle really does not come into play whatsoever in the scenario.
Zenld's wrestler was the servant of the dormant goddess who wrestled a white dragon to death in the background for his adventure, but not only had no role in the actual adventure, but did not seem plausible.
And Enkhidu's is the Aspect of Kord. I don't know much about Kord, but from what I could find out he is god of athleticism and brawling, so I can definitely see wrestling as fitting into that portfolio easily - though I could not find anything that says Kord only has one hand (and the fact that his preferred weapon is a great sword leads me to think the deity has both hands). However, Enkhidu does a better job than his two other finalists of meshing this ingredient with the others. He invents a sect of the worship of one-handed Kord, and has the athletic brawling minor avatar link up with the "Hand of Glory" ingredient - giving him reason to be at the adventure site.
So in the end, whether it be by the originals means of determining the winner, or by use of the special tie-breaking ingredient,
.
That is two IRON DM tournaments in a row for the newcomer and he gets to drop the "Newbie" from his title and strut around gloating.
We'll see if this is the beginning of a Vaxalon-like streak when springtime rolls around and the next tournament starts up. The next one is to be judged by long-time player and former IRON DM Wulf Ratbane (I probably won't get back to judging until next fall or perhaps not until the next Holiday Tournament).
Congratulations to the winner, and special thanks for all those who participated. I hope to see you among the ranks of the contestants in future tournaments, whether it be as participants when I judge, or as competitors.
As a final note, I want to say that I am disappointed that Zenld just disappeared. I hope there was not a confusion about when the ingredients were going to be posted that led to his absence.
). As you say though, it's up to Nemm to determine how to resolve the situation.
