Adventure Sites 3: Scrotum's Monolithic Sanctuary

​For OSRIC, Level 4-6
By Szilárd Dreska
Scrotum was a hedonistic scientist and sorcerer who hosted many wealthy eccentrics in his secluded Sanctuary. He had many generous supporters, so he acquired a considerable fortune. However, 150 years ago, he disappeared, not even visited by guests, and his name was slowly forgotten.
   I'm going to assume Scrotum is a perfectly normal name in Hungary and let it otherwise pass without comment. Playtesters are credited, nice.
   The site's story here is going to be in the sci-fi/fantasy mix, which seems to be a common theme for the Melanian Renaissance (Hungarian OSR). Scrotum was messing around with some Star Trek level crap, to the point of this sanctuary having a central reactor powering strip lighting and multiple force fields. Then he did That One Wizard Thing where he messed up a ritual and turned his entire complex's staff into undead, while putting himself and his lady into stasis. So, your basic fallen wizard's lair, with added tech stuff. 
   Map is portrayed rather simply, but very clear and clean...looks like a graph paper scan with a lot of post-production. Love the symbols like collapsed staircases, locked doors, etc. It's three-level with tons of interconnections, flow is good. I find the number of big open rooms without walls in between them is interesting, slightly hard to adjudicate at times but there's a logical pathway or two, great stuff. Also pretty big.
   ...because then we get to contents and we get a slightly empty vibe. Many rooms are bare, while those that do have interaction usually just have a single thing. I will highlight a good bit of interaction, a devil statue as part of a carved fresco is chatty and willing to help, but also Charms a PC to go kill one of the servants because he's been slighted by the man. Some of the poison or death effects are a little random, but lead to stuff like "party member goes berserk", which can be interesting. The whole "shut down the reactor" bit where you have to figure out the sorcerer's favorite number for the passcode can be fun.
   I think part of my feeling stems from the rather simple monster roster. Wanderers are skeletons, giant rats, or ghasts, fine things to fight but not a lot of variation (and clerics get rid of the undead easily). The Melan-imagined "Breathstealers" are a cool undead, pity they're only fought once. Mechanical scorpions give a little variety, but beyond that it's just "bigger deal undead" like juju zombies and the nasty final chamber with a spectre and a shadow.
   I do appreciate the treasure distribution here. There's a steady drip-drip-drip mostly of bulky stuff (yes you can swipe the silverware) while bumbling around, with the main hoards near the bottom behind a bigger boss fight. The book that caused all this is a huge value and there's an opulent mass of statues and jewelry in the final room (behind the force field, so need reactor shutdown). I don't have issues with the amounts either...my only grump is that magic treasure feels a little light, three magic +1 weapons and that's about it. Players don't mind that, fundamentally.
   The site's location is cool and easy to put anywhere (secret passage beneath a monolith) but campaign managers will need to make a choice about how much high-tech stuff they're willing to have in their game, it's central to the location. Your mileage may vary, but if you like tech...

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