The Hole in the Oak arrived as a free adventure PDF from Exalted Funeral during the corona virus lockdown. Based on Old-School Essentials (combination of 1981’s Basic Dungeons & Dragons and Expert D&D), it is the perfect blend of modern adventure design and an old school dungeon crawl.
Mike, a friend I met in high school, asked me to DM The Hole in the Oak. I ran this module via Google Hangouts using theater of the mind for a group of gamers I’ve known from childhood all the way up to meeting them in my current campaign. While no longer free, The Hole in the Oak is well worth getting for two reasons.
First, the modern design includes short concise descriptions. Not boxed text. Here is an example from the Faun’s Kitchen:
Second, the old school feel comes from a sprawling dungeon with multiple entrances, rooms interconnecting in many different ways, and dungeon denizens divided into factions similar to D&D The Lost City. Weird beasts, ravenous ghouls, scheming fauns, and duplicitous gnomes all create both roleplaying and possible combat challenges. Who the PCs befriend and how those interactions play out change and modify the rest of the PCs’ exploration of the dungeon beneath the hole in the oak.
The dungeon itself is part of a bigger sprawling fantastical underground maze called the Mythic Underworld. The description given of the Mythic Underworld sums up what exploring the dungeon under the hole in the oak will be like succinctly:
I did modify the iguana encounter. Four of the reptiles are included with multiple hit dice and multiple attacks. I dialed this back to less hit points and one attack for my adventure. However, an overwhelming encounter that requires retreat or clever problem solving is okay as well. I just didn’t want to try to run it electronically.
Adventurers start off knowing some rumors and can learn more about the dungeon from talking faces in the walls, ghostly wizard projections, and the NPCs themselves. Many of the NPCs like the fauns and gnomes are twisted and disturbing but before they reveal their true selves can be fonts of knowledge and even bastions of rest and recovery. Traversing the labyrinth twists and turns of the NPCs’ motivations and minds can be just as daunting as facing the physical challenges of the actual dungeon itself.
Suggested ways to expand beyond the adventure are covered as well. The underground river can lead to new caverns and new adventures either upriver or downriver past a waterfall where lizard men and giant reptiles roam. A stairway could be added to the crypt and lead to a deeper level, perhaps populated by undead monsters like reanimated serpents and mummified reptiles. I would likely throw a mummy in as well.
Sometimes making a complex character with a deep back story that is part of a larger group with a shared back story all exploring a huge world is a worthy and fun endeavor. Other times, it is equally enjoyable to spend five minutes rolling up a character, joining a misfit band, and exploring a weird and wild mythical underground world. The Hole in the Oak offers the second opportunity and delivers what is promised: a fantastic and dangerous world of weird characters and challenging encounters. If you are like us you will likely laugh a lot while enjoying a great dungeon crawl.
Mike, a friend I met in high school, asked me to DM The Hole in the Oak. I ran this module via Google Hangouts using theater of the mind for a group of gamers I’ve known from childhood all the way up to meeting them in my current campaign. While no longer free, The Hole in the Oak is well worth getting for two reasons.
First, the modern design includes short concise descriptions. Not boxed text. Here is an example from the Faun’s Kitchen:
Combined with the map, these descriptions are all I needed to quickly run the module. Combat descriptions are similar, and the map itself has the names of the monsters in the room they are encountered in which is another big help. The physical map is well illustrated with water features, some curving passages, and important notes written right on the rooms themselves.
Second, the old school feel comes from a sprawling dungeon with multiple entrances, rooms interconnecting in many different ways, and dungeon denizens divided into factions similar to D&D The Lost City. Weird beasts, ravenous ghouls, scheming fauns, and duplicitous gnomes all create both roleplaying and possible combat challenges. Who the PCs befriend and how those interactions play out change and modify the rest of the PCs’ exploration of the dungeon beneath the hole in the oak.
The dungeon itself is part of a bigger sprawling fantastical underground maze called the Mythic Underworld. The description given of the Mythic Underworld sums up what exploring the dungeon under the hole in the oak will be like succinctly:
Tim, my brother, played a fighter, Mit, who met his end fighting giant iguanas. His left fist had been mutated to twice its normal size and as the teeth of the lizard tore him open, Mit struck with his mighty fist and laid the lizard low even as he died. The promise in the description above translated directly to the virtual tabletop.
I did modify the iguana encounter. Four of the reptiles are included with multiple hit dice and multiple attacks. I dialed this back to less hit points and one attack for my adventure. However, an overwhelming encounter that requires retreat or clever problem solving is okay as well. I just didn’t want to try to run it electronically.
Adventurers start off knowing some rumors and can learn more about the dungeon from talking faces in the walls, ghostly wizard projections, and the NPCs themselves. Many of the NPCs like the fauns and gnomes are twisted and disturbing but before they reveal their true selves can be fonts of knowledge and even bastions of rest and recovery. Traversing the labyrinth twists and turns of the NPCs’ motivations and minds can be just as daunting as facing the physical challenges of the actual dungeon itself.
Suggested ways to expand beyond the adventure are covered as well. The underground river can lead to new caverns and new adventures either upriver or downriver past a waterfall where lizard men and giant reptiles roam. A stairway could be added to the crypt and lead to a deeper level, perhaps populated by undead monsters like reanimated serpents and mummified reptiles. I would likely throw a mummy in as well.
Sometimes making a complex character with a deep back story that is part of a larger group with a shared back story all exploring a huge world is a worthy and fun endeavor. Other times, it is equally enjoyable to spend five minutes rolling up a character, joining a misfit band, and exploring a weird and wild mythical underground world. The Hole in the Oak offers the second opportunity and delivers what is promised: a fantastic and dangerous world of weird characters and challenging encounters. If you are like us you will likely laugh a lot while enjoying a great dungeon crawl.
