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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 9474574" data-attributes="member: 6750502"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/4HmFoC4.jpeg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /><a href="https://www.dmsguild.com/product/465852/Lamordia-The-God-Engine--Levels-13-Adventure" target="_blank">Product Link</a>Product Type: AdventureCoS-Required? NoWhile most Ravenloft material on the DM’s Guild tends to be domain-neutral, Barovia-specific, or homebrewed, every so often we get a product seeking to flesh out the setting’s other iconic realms. In this case, the God Engine is a 1st level mystery set in the 5th Edition setting’s interpretation of Lamordia, inspired by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin%27s_lost_expedition" target="_blank">Franklin’s Lost Expedition</a> and the invention of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Difference_engine" target="_blank">difference engine.</a> Before the adventure’s beginning, a scientist known as Dr. Yonas Savitch joined a scientific expedition into the frozen northern waters to research undersea ruins. A fossilized illithid elder brain was discovered, and tragedy struck on the way back that resulted in the deaths of everyone onboard save for Savitch, the captain and first mate, and a skeleton crew just enough to sail back into port. Savitch became a psionic thrall of the brain, spurred on to build a “God Engine” to house the monster in order to restore its psionic powers. Although still far below its true potential, the God Engine hopes to make improvements and expand its network of psionic thralls in order to regain its former power.Savitch is a recluse, but his role in academia at Ludendorf University means that there are people there who took note of his disappearance. So it wasn’t long before a professor peer of his hires the PCs to find out what happened to him. The adventure begins at 1st level, but the PCs level up to 2nd after visiting the Blue Orchid Cabaret and 3rd level after completing the module. It is non-linear, with three locations to explore with clues to point them to the Stainedwell Mortuary that holds the elder brain and Dr. Savitch. It takes place entirely within the city of Ludendorf, and grid maps are supplied for every area of significance, including as their own separate files for VTT play.The God Engine is a small product, being only 19 pages in total. The adventure notably uses no boxed text, instead encouraging the DM to come up with their own through the use of bolded tags and physical descriptions, sample quotes, and personality traits of NPCs provided in sidebars. The brevity of information provided still manages to paint a clear picture for the DM to work off of. But with that being said, I do feel that this has potential downsides for a mystery-focused adventure. The lack of sample boxed text to go off of means that the subjective descriptions of DMs can make it so that certain features of an area will have more or less obvious clues than intended.Ludendorf University is where our adventure starts, where Professor van der Werf hires the PCs to investigate Dr. Savitch’s residence. They get a brief timeline of his maritime research expedition (minus the illithid details), are pointed to a nearby general store for supplies (particularly for cold-weather clothing) if necessary, and get directions to Savitch’s residence as well as the Kraken, the icebreaker ship used for the expedition. The DM rolls for the possibility of random encounters whenever the PCs visit new locations, and those without cold-weather gear risk taking cold damage on a failed Constitution save. The random encounters have a 1 in 6 chance of triggering, and 4 of them are rather mundane: starving wolves, graverobbers who don’t want to leave any witnesses, thugs shaking down outsiders, and Dr. Savitch’s rival (has no stats) who offers to pay them for giving him the scientist’s research. The two other encounters are more blatantly supernatural, one being a pair of undead attacking the PCs after exiting a sewer entrance, and the other being a psycog sent by the elder brain.Speaking of which, the psycog is a new monster in this module, clockwork constructs  remote-controlled by the elder brain’s telekinesis that look like humanoid corpses. The elder brain sent them out into Ludendorf to track down and kill anyone looking around for Dr. Savitch. Statwise they are CR ½ constructs with a decent amount of hit points (22) but an easy to hit Armor Class of 12. They are quite deadly offense-wise, having a Multiattack Armblade that deals slashing damage and releases an AoE echo upon death, dealing psychic damage to adjacent targets that fail an Intelligence save.The Savitch Residence is a two-story house with a buildup of snow causing the roof to sag. The snow provides ample hiding room for two psycogs in the backyard keeping watch for intruders. The front door is locked, and tampering with it risks summoning guards, but the cellar door in back is unlocked and can be entered once shoveled out of the way and once the psycogs are dealt with. Once inside, the PCs can find various clues such as a partially burnt note in a stove repeating “my mind is not my own” and a book discussing the creation of clockwork zombies and the address of Stainedwell Mortuary. Which is the final area in this module, so this clue may cause the PCs to complete the adventure a tad early if the house is the first place they visit. The only real danger within the house is a poisoned-laced nail, and there’s some good treasure in the form of a healing potion and 2 potions of psychic resistance, the latter which is particularly useful against the God Engine boss battle at the end of this module.The Icebreaker Kraken is a moored ship in Ludendorf’s docks. The surviving crew has left, with only an alcoholic and depressed Captain Olig Vageir left to drown away his sorrows. He is more than willing to tell the PCs what he knows. Dr. Savitch hired the ship to go on a research expedition in the northern seas, and a huge stone brain was salvaged from the ocean floor. On the way back, tragedy struck.Content Warning: Suicide[spoiler]The ship’s crew began attacking and killing each other without apparent rhyme or reason, with the survivors committing suicide by jumping into the sea. Only the captain, Dr. Savitch, his first mate, and a skeleton crew survived.[/spoiler]Captain Valgier mentions that his first mate Lisanne Eerbek-Boughrunner frequents the Blue Orchid Cabaret. But he has one request for the PCs; to retrieve a treasured spyglass he threw overboard, which involves braving the freezing waters with a risky DC 20 Athletics check and ongoing cold damage if they don’t retrieve it in a timely manner. In exchange, he will give them a Ring of Swimming, +1 dagger, and valuable red garnet. The module suggests having two psycogs attack the PCs as an optional encounter at any time during their stay on the ship.The Blue Orchid Cabaret is the only time in the module that the PCs can reach 2nd level, meaning that if they make a beeline for the Stained Mortuary as a result of visiting Dr. Savitch’s home first, they can be woefully underprepared for the final encounter. The Cabaret is a multi-purpose theater, saloon, inn, and brothel. And to remind you that this is the 5th Edition interpretation of Lamordia, it has a magical blue flame in a lantern outside the door and non-human staff members such as a tiefling bartender. Lisanne can be found via a DC 10 Investigation check, and unlike Captain Valgeir she is much more tight-lipped about what happened. The module provides 4 ways to loosen her lips, two being appropriate skill checks, one bribing her with gold, and the fourth buying her enough drinks to get her drunk and talking. She will mention that Dr. Savitch continued paying her for jobs after the disastrous expedition, the first job being to transport the stone brain to his private residence, the second delivering various kinds of machinery to Stainedwell Mortuary for purposes she doesn't know. She hasn’t seen Dr. Savitch since then.The Stainedwell Mortuary is the final main area of the adventure. It is an abandoned funeral parlor next to Ludendorf’s sewage refinery. The entry is locked, and as to be expected choosing to break the lock/door rather than subtle lockpicking will alert a pair of psycogs within. While inside, the PCs can possibly ambush the psycogs by learning of their presence via a hidden hole looking into a room which they stand guard, and find a magical mummified hand that grips whatever is placed within its palm. Said hand is one of several means of bypassing a trapped door handle in the basement level, triggered to inflict psychic damage to anyone who grips it in order to open. There’s also a scroll of Dispel Magic in the crematory that can be used to bypass the trap, and the module suggests Mage Hand and other creative solutions by the players to also bypass. While descending into the basement, PCs who fail an Intelligence save get an eerie sensation of a foreign entity making contact with their mind. This has no negative consequences besides alerting PCs that they’re getting close to something dangerous.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/8RzfIVg.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />The Secret Laboratory is the “boss arena” for the adventure, an open chamber in the intersection of four sewer tunnels with a central grating platform held up by four chains. On the platform is the difference engine housing the elder brain, and Dr. Savitch and two psycogs are present. The brain doesn’t initially join combat, only doing so once it determines that the PCs are a serious personal threat to it.In terms of stats, Dr. Savitch is the weakest of the lot, a CR ⅛ human who has a scalpel that functions as a dagger but will only fight as a last resort. Most of the time he will be spending his actions to make repairs to the engine if damaged, capable of healing it for 1d4+5 hit points per action. As long as the God Engine survives, Savitch will remain a thrall. As for the God Engine, it is an immobile construct with 52 hit points and 14 Armor Class, making it a veritable boss for a 2nd-level party. It has immunity to poison and psychic damage, but vulnerability to bludgeoning damage. Its main action is a single-target ranged psionic blast that deals 3d6 damage (presumed psychic, damage type isn’t specified) to one who fails a DC 15 Intelligence save and deals half as much on a success. It can revive a psycog to 9 hit points as a rechargeable action, and as a reaction it can deal 2d6 damage to a creature that damages it, again allowing for half damage on a successful Intelligence save.There are indirect means of damaging/defeating the God Engine. Opening a nearby valve as an action to flood sewer water onto the platform will deal 1d4 acid damage per round to the machine, while breaking the steel chains holding up the platform will instakill the engine as it plunges into the sewer water below. The remaining psycogs die once the God Engine dies, and Dr. Savitch has treasure in a nearby chest in the form of money and precious gems along with Eyes of Minute Seeing and blueprints for creating another God Engine. Destroying the platform will destroy the chest and its contents.Overall Thoughts: Lamordia is one of the more promising Domains of Dread, and I’m always happy to see more material for it. Mystery-centric adventures are ideal both for low-level and horror campaigns, and I do like how the book focuses just as much on indirect and environmental dangers like traps as well as combat. While the adventure’s fights can be quite deadly, enterprising PCs have means of evening the odds, such as the Potions of Psychic Resistance or using subtle means of entering restricted areas like at the Mortuary or Dr. Savitch’s residence.While I do appreciate the nonlinearity that is pretty much necessary for mystery adventures, my main criticism as mentioned above is the predefined level-up and the potential for PCs finishing the module early by finding the mortuary address early on. Personally speaking, I would’ve divvied up the final location piecemeal in each of the three areas: the mention of handling/experimenting on dead bodies to point to evidence of a mortuary (but not which one), some hint about a sewer to narrow things down to a sewage refinery, and then some kind of third clue tying the two together for the true location.In short, the God Engine is an adventure with promise and a solid core, but needs some smoothing around the edges to make it at its best.Join us next time as we check out the CR 27 Strahd author’s take on Greyhawk’s most famous archmage in Mordenkainen’s Magnificent Statblock!</blockquote>

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