Okay. Exposition time.
Pie said:
First, some overall thoughts:
Characters: This match had more cool characters than any previous match. Rune's hating brothers were a classic trope and evocative; although his zombie wyvern didn't exactly have a developed personality, it was weird and creepy enough that I could easily see its being a memorable character for players.
As soon as I put the ingredients together, I knew that I wanted this to be a redemptive tale. Inferior characterization or no, I do think I had Macbeth on pathos.
Spectacle: How could anyone NOT use a zombie swarm for a spectacle? Both entries had multiple spectacles; in each entry, a town being destroyed by the zombie swarm figured prominently. Rune's had also the faux-ghost in the graveyard and the nursery scattered with coffin-nails, both very cinematic scenes.
Zombie children (a nod to Jonrog). I had to do it. I just had to.
Mood: Strong moods appear in both entries. Rune's adventure develops the theme of familial love quite well; vengeance and forgiveness and the complications of family are intertwined through the backstory and much of the adventure.
I tried to have my ingredients appear so often (and subtly) that they wove together in a net that I could rest the scenario on. I think I pulled it off pretty well, particularly with the thematic elements that keep popping up.
Filthy Nursery: Rune's nursery is one of three major scenes in his adventure (the others are the graveyard, and the streets of the town once the swarm descends). Although I didn't really buy the explanation that the town's kids were raised communally, the adventure wouldn't really have suffered from removing that explanation entirely.
It was more like a daycare that was also, frequently, a sleep-over place, too. Still it was really just yet another play on the "familial love" ingredient.
Wyvern: both wyverns were pretty lame. The wyvern was drawn by the curse, Rune? Why not a manticore, or a hill giant, or a plague of hell wasps? Its wyvernness had nothing to do with the adventure.
Point conceded. I was (also) thinking along symbolic lines, but since I didn't mention anything about it...point conceded.
Zombie Swarm: when the nursery and the swarm both came up as ingredients, I knew someone would do zombie kids, and Rune didn't disappoint. I was pleasantly surprised that their existence was well-justified.
Again, weaving ingredients. Plus a nod to Jonrog, how could I not do it?
Nails: Interesting uses both; I was a little surprised no one went with fingernails. By this point in the story, Rune's curse is really working overtime with all the specific effects it's causing - and why does the curse care about writing kids' names on the nails anyway? It's a good clue, but I'm not sure the story justified it.
Point taken about the names, but sometimes you just have to have cool imagery. Also, this is a weaving with the mistaken hunch ingredient, by serving as a red herring.
Mistaken Hunch: both of you had multiple mistaken hunches. Both integrated them fairly well into the adventure. All the same, I found Macbeth's hunches more interesting than Rune's.
I thought for sure that by including the red herrings (thereby insuring PC interaction with the ingredient), I'd have this one, but oh well.
Familial love: Rune's familial love was great, although I was initially skeptical: an ingredient that figures into the adventure by its absence? It worked, though, and indeed the multiple examples of familial love gone bad (brother kills brother, husband loses family, parents lose children, children return as zombies and kill parents) made this Rune's strongest ingredient.
I wanted to try something new. Glad it worked!
