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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 9673948" data-attributes="member: 6750502">It’s been a while since I last posted. Upper back pain threw off my schedule, but now I’m feeling better enough to continue.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/gYVz3nj.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="width: 257px" />Everybody Dies at the Circus has the PCs hired by Lord MacGuffin (haha) to look for his missing children, the twins Lima and Lorelai. Via an alliance with the twins’ elven godmother, the MacGuffins’ lands are supernaturally shielded from all manner of natural misfortunes. But when the twins run away to join the circus, this alliance is in jeopardy if Lord MacGuffin appears to be an irresponsible father. The nobleman already dispatched several agents to investigate the circus, but they all went missing. In reality, the circus’ ringmaster Hemlock Harris is a dracolich in disguise, searching for talented people to add to her “hoard” via magically-binding contracts.The adventure begins at Lord MacGuffin’s estate, with the sole major clues being in the twins’ bedrooms. Their pet cat is expecting, which can be discerned via a Nature check and this information can be used to better convince the twins to return home. As for the circus, it is currently closed to the public and the PCs must undergo auditions to enter. They will need to come up with their own act, where success causes Hemlock to make them sign contracts enchanted with the Illusory Script spell (they will not be allowed to leave and will be forced to sign should they refuse) and thus given free reign in the circus. If they fail, they need to sneak in, but are given tickets for the next show.During this time, the PCs can pick up clues by interacting with the other carnies, such as noticing that the dragonborn fortuneteller is secretly afraid of the ringmaster, or learning from jugglers that the Lord’s missing guards were detained for trespassing but are unaware of what happened to them afterwards. Lima and Lorelai are excited to be part of the circus and will need convincing to leave. If the PCs are successful, they ask the party to retrieve their contracts from the Ringmaster’s office during the show. If unable to be convinced, they will ask to do just one more show before going home. They will rat out the party to the other carnies, who will take them to the ringmaster. Hemlock’s office has an extradimensional space with a mirror serving as a doorway, containing an enormous hoard of treasure along with the contracts and the slaughtered remains of Lord MacGuffin’s former investigators.The adventure will end when Hemlock realizes that the PCs seek to take away her newest talent, and her secret hoard is enchanted with an Alarm spell. The adventure’s “win condition” is to stall Hemlock for at least 2 rounds, at which point the dragonborn fortune teller will help the twins escape. The survivable version of this adventure turns Hemlock into a Yuan-Ti Infiltrator with a skeleton minion.Thoughts: Being a mystery/clue-finding module with some leeway for nonlinearity, I do like how successful skill checks can grant the party information as well as making their infiltration easier. Adding in the win condition in helping the twins escape is also a sensible challenge, as lasting 2 rounds is a significant challenge for 1st-level characters on account of the dracolich’s legendary actions, breath weapon, and Multiattack. I rate it a 7/10.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/BUjYs9o.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="width: 625px" />Everybody Dies at the Slurping Spa takes place in Sigil, the City of Doors, but the adventure notes that it can take place in other high-magic cities such as Sharn or the Rock of Bral. The PCs are hired by the Society of Sensation (or appropriate setting faction) to look for a missing member by the name of Howel Maltby. His last job and location was to review the Thalasso Natatorium, one of the newer bathhouses in town. The bathhouse is home to an planar portal to the Abyss, which cultists of Juiblex hope to use to have their demon lord enter in order to bypass Sigil’s “no gods” rule in order to consume the city. The cult leader, Silysia Vandor, repurposed the building above the portal into a bathhouse as a cover for their operations, and so far managed to get an elder oblex acting as Juiblex’s Emissary. Howel is currently alive but imprisoned next to the extra-dimensional rift.The adventure begins at the Society’s Festhall, where the PCs must provide a new name to the flumph doorman as part of his art project in coming up with a new name for themself. The party must also provide a recorded copy of one of each of their memories into a magical device, which is used to round out a bit of each PC’s backstory. The job and meeting proper begins with an interview with Erin Darkflame Montgomery, who provides general information about Howel and the bathhouse, including that it’s members-only and restricts said membership to arcane spellcasters. Howl doesn’t qualify, so he planned to masquerade as such in order to enter. The PCs must rescue him if alive, but if that’s not possible they must retrieve his Advanced Sensory Stone in order to learn his last moments. Montgomery gives the PCs some bonus equipment in the form of gold, potions of healing, and Advanced Sensory Stones to record anything interesting in the bathhouse.The PCs are transported to the Thalasso Natatorium via a mimic shapeshifted into a carriage. The bathhouse is a one-floor, seven-room building, and modron staff members handle the day-to-day busywork. They aren’t aware of the demon cult’s presence and plans, and PCs can take advantage of the modern’s literalist understanding of the rules to bluff their way through. For example, one such modron has orders to prevent anyone from opening the guest ledger, so getting him to open it for others to read wouldn’t violate this rule. Another is that the dress code for bathrobes doesn’t specify that other things cannot be worn under the robes, so wearing them over normal clothing and armor is thus permitted. There’s a variety of other ways for the PCs to get inside, such as stealing a key from a human employee during their outside shift, or visiting a nearby wizard-themed shop to disguise themselves as arcane casters if nobody in the party qualifies class-wise. An iron golem security guard can be bypassed by convincing a beholder relaxing in the pool to use its eye powers to disable the golem so that they can sneak by. But the beholder demands to be entertained first, and it’s up to the PCs to come up with something creative.The abyssal portal, and Howel, are in a circular grotto serving the final room in this pseudo-dungeon crawl, and the portal’s nature is clear as an airborne hole in space-time oozing caustic slime. Howl will frightfully tell the PCs about the cult’s plot and that Juiblex cannot be allowed to enter the city. He presumes that the PCs are capable enough to defeat the ooze, and if unshackled from his bonds will attempt to flee. The ooze will form into Silysia Vandor, who will attempt to do a villainous speech before the rest of the ooze devours her and turns into an Emissary of Juiblex. The Emissary uses modified stats of an Elder Oblex, possessing a variety of spells such as Slow, Fireball, Hold Person, and Telekinesis. The “win condition” for this adventure is making sure that at least one survivor (Howel or somebody else) at the bathhouse is able to escape and warn the rest of the city about the extraplanar threat. The Emissary will pursue the PCs single-mindedly through the bathhouse should they flee, ignoring noncombatants (everyone else at the spa will flee, including the beholder). Statwise, an Elder Oblex is a CR 10 creature who fights with pseudopods, can eat memories which deal psychic damage and impose a growing penalty to d20 rolls each time they’re targeted, and a variety of psionic-themed spells that are mostly enchantment-school stuff. The survivable version of this adventure replaces the Emissary with two psychic gray oozes.Thoughts: Another low-combat adventure centered around an investigation, I do like how Slurping Spa plays up Sigil’s high-magic nature in the form of extraplanar and nonhumanoid inhabitants. Taking advantage of the modron’s unimaginative rules enforcement rewards clever play, and I like how the module provides a variety of ways to infiltrate the spa. The low point is the climactic TPK lacking a notable feature other foes in this book have: as the Emissary has no Legendary Actions and a speed of 20 feet, PCs can outmaneuver it via action economy if they’re lucky enough. So theoretically they might be able to avoid a TPK if they prioritize fleeing and hiding. I rate this adventure an 8/10.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/X25LWps.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="width: 398px" />Everybody Dies at Turtle Bay is a setting-neutral adventure taking place at Grave’s End, a prison colony near the sea. The colony was once a town known as Turtle Bay, so named for a dragon turtle frequenting the area that hasn’t been seen in decades. The PCs start as prisoners gathered by Gratter Grumlock, the warden, as part of a lineup. The warden hasn’t told anyone his plans, so both prisoners and guards are confused about these recent orders. Looking for ‘volunteers’ to search for a recently-sighted ghost ship, Grumlock needs a number equal to the number of PCs plus one, and the additional pick is a bugbear known as Benny the Butcher. Although initially presented as a choice, none of the NPC prisoners will step up, so if any PCs hold back Grumlock will pick them out. Benny will never volunteer, and he is also chosen this way.The rest of the adventure is a rather linear boat ride, where the PCs are part of a sailing crew on a ship known as Cod is Great, with a naval officer and mage quartermaster as the only others onboard. The latter provides each PC (and Benny, who picks last) their choice of one weapon and one gem, which combine together to become a magic item. The ship is equipped with ballistas and can take various unique actions if it has an appropriate person in the proper crew role. PCs must perform ability checks in order for the ship to avoid taking damage during the choppy ride, and eventually the dragon turtle will appear after Benny the Butcher briefly infodumps about hearing sailor’s tales pertaining to the creature. The dragon turtle will attack the ship first, then attack and eat any survivors after destroying the vessel. Benny cannot swim, so he’s good as done if he falls into the water. The survivable version of this adventure replaces the dragon turtle with a Plesiosaurus, and renames the former town Dinosaur Bay.Thoughts: The linearity of this adventure, lack of substantial choices, and no “win condition” for a better outcome even in the face of death make Turtle Bay a letdown in comparison to the prior adventures in this post. It would take a lot to improve this adventure, at which point you’d be better off running another from this book. I can only recommend it if your gaming group is really into (doomed) naval combat against a kaiju-style monster, so I rate it a 2/10.Thoughts So Far: As we near the end of Faster Purple Worm, it’s becoming clear that the best adventures are the ones that provide a good amount of noncombat challenges and creative alternative solutions. This type of game design is also good advice for more conventional 1st-level adventures, and I like seeing the writers being aware of this even if TPKs are supposed to be inevitable. Making sure the PCs survive until the end at the hands of the “monster of the week” is important, as dying earlier may feel less dramatic. If I had to pick a favorite of the above three, it would be Everybody Dies at the Slurping Spa.Join us next time as we end this review with a TPK while playing as monsters in a dungeon, on a lightning train, and in Wildspace!</blockquote>

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