Adventure Site Contest 2: Barbican of Blood

EXPLORATION

​Written by Mitch Hyde
AD&D, levels 6-8
Vampire lair
  Rumours suggest a Dark Lord has taken residence in an old ruined outpost, deep in a forest forlorn. Woodsmen and elves report that a 1st circle of druids have fled their stone circle, driven away by the harassment of a powerful figure. They will offer the use of their spells and agents in return for aid.
  Look at that lovely cover, man. Amateur but clean map on graph paper, lovely pencil-drawn sketch of the site villain, wonky mix of fonts on the title…this is everything I look for in a free DIY product. Might not have a budget, but there’s a lot of love and care that went into making this cover page/map. Sets a mood.
  Looking at our cover the story of the site is pretty obvious, vampire guy has a lair beneath a crumbling old fort (the titular barbican), his brand new Renfield is causing trouble in the local area with his knightly zeal, the knight is Obviously Charmed and freaks out if cured, alternately he’s a formidable fighter but in the end just a fighter. Find a secret passway, go down into the lair proper, overcome linear series of traps and a couple nasty fights, slay vampire, leave beaming with pride. Or smarting over lost levels, it is a vampire after all.
  I’ve said nice things about the line work, so now let me talk a little more critically about the map. It’s…very linear. Highly, highly linear, just a straight line with three spokes; that one line between 2 and 8 is just a vent for a gaseous form vampire, so unless you have a very unusual potion loadout for the party or a lot of pickaxes plus patience. Linear is okay in a site this size (and it’s a pretty decent size), but combined with the relentless brutality of the traps here this is going to be tight and constraining.
  And whew boy the traps. I’d call it baby’s first Tomb of Horrors, but there is a sphere of annihilation present so maybe I shouldn’t diminish it like that. Said sphere is in a window in a room where illusionary vampire assassins hop out, throw darts, and jump back in…there’s not a lot here to telegraph the extreme danger. There’s also a dust of choking and sneezing, a false gargoyle loaded with green slime, a possessing demon mist in the false sarcophagus, invisible coffer corpses in classic giant chessboard room, a few little fire traps…I really want to know how many level 6 characters the author expected us to lose, but it’s a lot. Particularly because there are enough secret doors that you probably want your divination spells for finding those too, or else you’re just stopping in areas.
  There are some reasonably gnarly monsters to fight, too. A flesh golem is unfinished (but is active if the party leaves and comes back weeks later), but there are also some decent NPCs to fight. I like the one cursed room with a simple barbarian who’s a threat because no attack succeeds unless the striker’s full name is spoken while swinging, fun fight. There’s an MU with a spellbook but his spells not called out, bad form. Honestly the vampire himself is probably the chumpiest, particularly given he’s not resistant to turning in any special way. Love of set-pieces is shown here and they’re fun…probably a lot though. Each individual encounter is gold, but it’s too much all at once.
  There’s a lot of treasure here. Like, so much. So so much. Enough that the vampire’s final 10k and a ring of three wishes honestly feels a little cheap for the end. Over a quarter million in gold, which is incredible at first, but given the untelegraphed screw jobs that hammer away time and again, it still might lead to bitterness. Good flavoring on all the magic items.
  This is a hard one to judge for campaign inclusion. I don’t often do this, but I’d almost recommend this being stripped for parts. The initial bit with the knight Renfield is auto-included, and I love some of the trap ideas, but the whole thing needs toning down if it’s a simple bumble into. Much like Tomb of Horrors, probably best as a competition module at a con unless you’re willing to put in some telegraph work long beforehand. 

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