An Evening's Entertainment

[Messageboard Golem]

This 33-page PDF, written by Michael Hammes and illustrated by Christopher Shy, presents two adventures for use with 3rd edition and other D20 System fantasy games.

The Sign of the Mushroom
The “Sign of the Mushroom” is a small inn built into the side of a cliff (or steep hill) along a well-traveled road. It sits some distance from the nearest village, perhaps an hour’s walk or so. Its location is such that it gets business not only from the local village, but also from travelers moving through the area.

The “Sign of the Mushroom” is named, and chiefly known for, its mushrooms. These delectable little fungi, much like champignons, are grown by the proprietors Renyc and Lira Hollybush on-site in the caves that dot the cliff. They form the basis of all of the inn’s dishes and, under the expert cookery of Lira, have gained an area-wide reputation.

The couple is justly proud of their little home and business. Renyc built the inn with his own hands and runs the common room while Lira’s cooking has brought in the business and she manages the books. Their children help out to the best of their ability. Donvan, the oldest son, manages the stables. Their daughter Aleara helps in the common room and watches Convan, the baby boy.

Unfortunately, in addition to the guests mentioned above, on the fateful evening described in the Introduction, the “Sign of the Mushroom” has some unusual visitors (see Appendix) lurking within the mushroom cave, which pay the owners and guests a fatal visit.

The Hearty Draught
“The Hearty Draught” is a tavern that could be located in any town or city. Taverns the world over are renowned for serving alcoholic beverages, and “The Hearty Draught” is no exception. Visitors here will find the ale plentiful, the food bland, and the company occasionally questionable but never dangerous.

Like most such establishments, “The Hearty Draught” is affiliated with a specific local brewery and serves only ale from that brewery. In the case of “The Hearty Draught” it has recently changed the type of ale it serves from Monry’s Stout, pride of the Monry Brewery, to Carec’s Bitter, product of the upstart Carec Brewery. The new upstart has quickly been making inroads into Monry’s market share having converted several former Monry’s Stout clients to Carec’s Bitter.

This evening, despite the switch in libations, the “Draught” is once again full to the rafters with tradesmen, craftsmen, some merchants, and even some adventurers. Business is good and the owner, Teor, is already thinking of the profits he will be making from the evening, especially with the locally known troubadour Tumyr the Fair on the stage as he taps yet another keg of Bitter. Alas for Teor, all is not as it seems, for a sinister force is at work in the “Draught”, one that is affecting every one of his customers and is about to bring the place crashing down about his ears. It is about to become a night to remember for everyone inside the “Draught.”

 

[JoeGKushner]

An Evening's Entertainment is two adventures for 3rd edition rules. The review below contains spoilers so GMs only.

The first adventure, The Sign of the Mushroom, is for 1st to 3rd level characters. This adventure was to me, an extreme let down. Have you seen Aliens? Would you have been satisfied if the Aliens had all been wiped out after the first encounter? If you answered yes, then this module is perfect for you.

It has the players come to the Inn, the Sign of the Mushroom, only to notice that there is something wrong here. Something that they need to investigate. As they move through, they find more and more signs of struggle and death until they come upon the enemy, the new creature, the Skull Beetle, a monster that uses numbers and has a massive swarm, thriving in the caves where mushrooms were harvested by the owners for their stew.

There needs to be boxed text for the GM to navigate the adventure. In addition, some GM's may feel uncomfortable using a Will saving throw to showcase the 'horror' of the situation, a check that makes the characters shaken if they fail. If the GM is running this for 1st level adventurers, it might be appropriate but if so, it also sets a bad example. “Yeah, I cut off the NPC's head and spatter the blood around so that the enemies all have to make Will saving throws or be shaken.”

The second adventure, The Hearty Draught, also takes place at an Inn. The party becomes part of the background as old grudges heat up and party members themselves may find old memories resurfacing about things their fellows did wrong to them in the past. This leads up to the good old bar room brawl, but the real question is, why did this happen?

The people who didn't drink weren't effected by these problems which in theory, leads the party to Carec, the brewer of the drinks at the inn. The party will get to do some exploring and some options are presented for the GM to help move the party in the right direction, but the adventure stays a little too ambiguous by not providing several direct solutions the party can take outside of combat. It's almost a do it yourself adventure which isn't bad, but it should follow the vignette methods more closely than of Eden's d20 products rather than trying to be a full adventure.

Those looking for some new game mechanics get a few relating to alcohol, for instance a cantrip to neutralize alcohol. More interesting with some potential long term effects for a campaign is the Brew Ale item creation feat that allows the caster to craft alcohol that has the effects of an emotion spell on it.

The PDF comes in two types, a full color version and a printer friendly black and white version. The art is top notch, coming form the talented brush of Christopher Shy, the mainstream artists for Ronin Arts products. The black and white version, on my ink jet, came out a little blurry on details. Format is in landscape, something a print publisher has finally decided to try with Redhust by Human Head Studios. Thumbs up to Ronin Arts for starting the trend.

The adventures would make a nice diversion for standard hack and slash encounters but need to be more fully fleshed out and the first one really needs to be touched up in terms of originality. How about some mushroom men come to take vengeance for those seedlings that they planted long ago under the Inn that have been harvested? If you stick with the bugs, how about expanding the adventure in true Aliens style rea so that there are other types of bugs and more environmental hazards that the player's have to avoid like a killer winter where they can't travel outside?

There's potential here, but GM's are going to have to shake and stir it for maximum use.