Adventure Site Contest: Legacy of the Black Mark

Written by DangerIsReal
Swords & Wizardry, Levels 2-3
Dungeon set in a snowy, icy mountain area.
  At the top of the CursedPeaks, a hell of snow and ice, is a cave complex infested with Morlocks. Somewhere deep in this maze is the burial place of the former mistress of these degenerate beings: Ircana the Spider Sorceress. No one has returned alive from these dark caves, but groups of grave robbers have been pouring into the valley since the discovery of a lost entrance. What else do you need before delving in the dark?
  Delivered mere hours upon opening the contest, DangerIsReal serves us up our first entry, a classic 12-room tomb/shrine with a spider theme, dedicated to a long-dead spider sorceress (a Drider with the serial numbers filed off) worshipped by morlocks. A modest list of rumors gives bits of backstory, and then the viewer is dumped on the chilly spiral staircase to loot the place silly. Very aware of the Tomb Problem, the author gives us a random encounter set consisting of morlocks, headless zombies, and spiders, pretty nasty threats for level 2-3’s and definitely good incentives to move fast.
  A brief note on formatting/writing…it’s fine, good even. Takes a little work to parse the technical writing at first but it does the job. Lots of bullet points and bolding, clean two-column format, and decent adjectives to evoke imagery.
  Our map is tight, with a central entrance immediately allowing multiple directions to explore. As a loot ‘n scoot site, having no obvious flow direction works fine, although the lack of hints in the initial landing means that there’s ironically not much choice to be made. It’s the maze situation; you’re not testing the gameplay skills here, but rather their mapping skills (you DO use a mapper, right?) The tightness of the map also means the lack of order-of-battle hurts a little bit, but noises are nodded at from time to time provoking extra encounter rolls. Secret doors and traps are peppered throughout and clearly marked, so well done there. Empty rooms are at a nice ratio, but they cluster to the north so it’ll be a little unrelenting on the southern half of the map. What the first room does do well is provide a couple hints to the nature of the environment, with a secret door (hint) that conceals two similar-looking potions, one of healing and one of poison (hint).
  The story of the site, such as it is, will be one of shivering players going up and down chilly rooms, encountering poisons and nasty monsters, as well as possibly encountering a teleporter leading to the “black mark”-giving room that buffs characters who receive it at the price of turning their alignment chaotic. There are a few involved set-pieces, most memorably at the tomb of the main drider-lady, her ghost trying to possess PCs while zombies attack. Her mummy being burnt will end the ghost-attacks, so that’s a fun encounter. An ice block holding an elf fighting morlocks is also a lot of fun, chipping open the ice grants a scroll and a key to the main loot chest of the site, but hammering away at the ice provokes extra random encounters.
  A note on loot…there’s a lot of gold here to be looted, 18,000gp by my count (assuming “po” is a typo for “gp” in a couple cases). Magic armor and a couple consumables are probably about right for this level, and I was tickled by things like a ring of weakness. It’s a lot of cash for a single night’s adventuring at this level, but the risks are commensurately high…I’m impressed with the group who can find/grab it all without losses in four hours of D&D.
  The final thing I look for in these things is how to use this in a campaign, and I think it gets a pass. The icy cold flavor is good for any mountain, and spiders are common. My own world doesn’t have drow/driders, but a spider-worshipping sorceress is easy enough to have in any sensible D&D space, and you don’t have to make morlocks into morlocks. Distinct flavor without being overwhelming, exactly what you want in an adventure site. Good start.

Edit: And we have more judges' reviews...
ShockTop
Grutzi 
Owen Edwards

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