New One-Shot: Beneath the Pulsing Web

[velkymx]

Awakened in a sticky web, your party finds themselves snared in the heart of a nightmare. Chilling skittering echoes through the darkness of caves once home to a goblin clan, now eerily silent except for the rhythmic pulse of something alien. Giant spiders, guided by an unseen intelligence, have transformed this delve into a labyrinth of fear and death. Can you escape the web, uncover the gruesome fate of the goblins, and confront the monstrous mind pulling the strings before you become the next meal?

Check it out: Beneath the Pulsing Web

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

Since the OP didn't bother to say so, this is an adventure for some RPG called Cresthaven, which appears to be entirely free (as is the adventure itself) and can be found at the link provided. Never heard of it before, but from a brief dip into the rules it looks like generic D&D-like fantasy with some extremely old-fashioned artifacts of the TSR days embedded here and there. My favorite was calling for a designated Caller and Cartographer as though we were back in the 1970s again.

I won't spoil the adventure itself (takes less than half the 24 minutes to read the site claims), but it starts in media res with the party predictably waking up trapped in webs with no memory of how they got like that, with the promise that this big mystery will be resolved over the course of the delve. Spoilers, it is not. Sure, you'll find out who/what did it to you (as if you can't guess). but how they managed to beat the party in the first place, much less why they were left alive, alone, and barely secured at all with all their stolen gear neatly displayed for them to re-equip. You're not even down hp to start, and unless your dice go very badly you will murder everything in the dungeon by the end - so what caused that initial defeat? Unanswered. There's not even a convenient wizard to blame it on.

Also, if you have dreams of exchanging witty banter with cousins of the Mirkwood spiders, forget it. These are boring D&D giant spiders and have less dialog than the scenery.

 

[velkymx]

TBH I try to leave some things up to the DM. If you want the spiders to talk, go for it. As for the system, you nailed it. We've been homebrewing 1e/2e for years now. I think the first version I did was back in 2010.

 

[velkymx]

Also on a side note, this adventure would work just fine in 5e or Pathfinder with minor tweaks

 

[velkymx]

Since the OP didn't bother to say so, this is an adventure for some RPG called Cresthaven, which appears to be entirely free (as is the adventure itself) and can be found at the link provided. Never heard of it before, but from a brief dip into the rules it looks like generic D&D-like fantasy with some extremely old-fashioned artifacts of the TSR days embedded here and there. My favorite was calling for a designated Caller and Cartographer as though we were back in the 1970s again.

I won't spoil the adventure itself (takes less than half the 24 minutes to read the site claims), but it starts in media res with the party predictably waking up trapped in webs with no memory of how they got like that, with the promise that this big mystery will be resolved over the course of the delve. Spoilers, it is not. Sure, you'll find out who/what did it to you (as if you can't guess). but how they managed to beat the party in the first place, much less why they were left alive, alone, and barely secured at all with all their stolen gear neatly displayed for them to re-equip. You're not even down hp to start, and unless your dice go very badly you will murder everything in the dungeon by the end - so what caused that initial defeat? Unanswered. There's not even a convenient wizard to blame it on.

Also, if you have dreams of exchanging witty banter with cousins of the Mirkwood spiders, forget it. These are boring D&D giant spiders and have less dialog than the scenery.

Would you want me to include more of these details?

 

[Morrus]

I've moved this to the Promotions forum for you.