Here's some of my thoughts on my first round match. First of all, Pbartender did an absolutely outstanding job analyzing and judging. I found myself nodding along to the criticisms and I'm certainly going to implement many of them if I get the chance to run this adventure (hopefully soon!).
I might have to resist the urge to finish fast next time. Inspiration hit and I just hammered it out. I missed some things that really could have elevated the end result and also a little editing to tighten things up. "Falled" the roll...ugh!
I think the hardest ingredient turned out to be "jealousy." The "oh, that won't be hard to use" straightforward nature of it caused me to treat it as an afterthought and bolt it on rather then integrate it and make sure it really stood out. Oddly enough the most "D n D" specific ingredient, the Otyugh, was the one that I think worked the best. It lives in filth and eats corpses...perfect!
My favorite aspect of Waylander the Slayer's entry was the use of the alembic, another ingredient I struggled with. Alchemy is, after all, supposed to be a process that transforms materials. The concept of using it to "fix" people raises a lot of interesting possibilities. I imagine everything from "Clockwork Orange" criminal rehabilitation to dealing with "traitors" to creating soldiers who won't experience fear, pain, or remorse. Then add to that by making it a dungeon of sorts that is large enough to poke around in and perhaps be menaced by...there's a lot of cool stuff here.
Thanks again to the judges, CleverNickName for organizing and everyone who had kind words for my entry. Best of luck to all the competitors in the next round, I'll see you there! Beeeeeee-aaaahhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!11
