Adventure Site Contest: The Fountain of Bec

​Written by Stooshie & Stramash
Labyrinth Lord, Levels 3-5 (or is it 4-7, unclear)
Ancient cult fountain in the hills.
  Once the monastery of the Sisters of Bec sat in the Carraig Mountains in the Glen of Winnoch. For over two hundred years the sisters brought learning, healing and benevolence to all inhabitants of the glen through application of the annals of Bec, mother goddess of cultivation and horticulture.
  You guys did it, Stooshie & Stramash, that thing I said to do. Take a Dyson ruins map, roll a dungeon map from a generator, and then roll a monster…trolls, in this case…to inhabit your place. Keep it simple, don’t be stupid. In the case of The Fountain of Bec the ruins are of a long-lost monastery of a gardening goddess, with a magical healing fountain in the basement. A two-headed troll and his buddies have set up in the old ruin and are raiding the locals, but they have not found the secret treasure cache of the monastery. There’s a slightly confusing formula for where the trolls are in any particular visit, and it could be used to approximate a patrol path…danger and hinted rewards, married together, boom, now go enjoy your afternoon’s D&D.
  Nothing flashy is done with the writing or format here, just the standard of site history-> hooks -> rumors -> creature positions -> room keys all done in a clean two-column format. The authors are on the ball enough to know “adjectives good” as a Lynchian review standard and there is some decently evocative description, never in danger of veering into purple prose or obscuring location details. It’s a well-imagined site, constrained by realism but not unimaginative for all that.
  Maps are okay. Not too much to do with the very open ruins but mind those angles of approach for getting scoped…once down within the dungeon proper everything is very tight with only 10 rooms, the barest hint of a loop, and some water to add interest. While exploratory play is very constrained given the scale, between the few alternate routes and the secret chamber there’s enough interest for a little bit of poking and prodding. Decent size too, the choice to go with 10f squares means trolls have room to maneuver but there’s also tactical options. Well-chosen maps.
  The random placement of the trolls means exploration of the site can be quite different depending on all those d6s. Gnarly frontal assault with the level 5 party mashing it against 6 trolls? Ow. Or it could be a quiet infiltration, imaginably just killing off one troll at a time cleanly. There’s plenty of D&D stuff to do, a fountain to mess with, a skull hiding a key, secret treasure hidden behind a curtain, the works. I don’t see anything obvious to permit much in the negotiation/diplomacy interaction axis, but there’s a funny bit where in the main room trolls argue loudly about the best way to roast a person…even if it’s just one troll. That’s good. The only pause I had was the custom(ish) monster, an extraplanar shadow octopus, which is just an octopus with shadow strength-drain abilities, I have no objection to it as a monster but a little telegraphing might help. Bonus points for the different hooks radically changing how the site gets approached, although players might be grumpy about the Sisters of Bec hook that grants them easy access to the fountain (2,000xp per PC for messing with it) but demands the sacred relic upon retrieval.
  The treasure is good, slightly low for the level but well-distributed and nicely hidden in some cases. The largest monetary hoard is the troll’s stolen stuff, while the “shrine side” has neat ideas like scrolls sewn into a curtain and the jawbone of a saint as the main magical loot, I’m not sure if it’s worth the nasty layers of defense (invisible stalker and paralytic gas) but that’s a flavorful relic right there. All of the loot is pretty flavorful, in fact, a +1 short sword isn’t “short sword”, it’s a “fine falchion with a keen, bright blade decorated with a rose bush pattern”. Very good, it’s also hidden behind a skull stack. The authors also realize that things like keys and puzzle-hints are treasure, too.
  The Fountain of Bec is flavorful but can be placed darn near anywhere. Ruined monasteries are the salt of any D&D hexmap, and even the hills part isn’t strictly necessary…wherever you are, there’s a plausible spot for The Fountain of Bec. I know I’m putting it somewhere in mine. 

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