Adventure Sites 3: Spiteful Springs

For ACKS II, Levels 1-3
By Zathras Adventures
A naiad and witch battle for control of a ruined bath complex. Bandits, orcs, and haunts are all pawns with wealth and ruin as prizes. Will the party be unwittingly captured in the intrigue, or will they master the lies and enchantments to claim a prize of their own?
   I might need to modify my contest rules a little bit. Most of the entries have been very good about keeping to text length limits. I didn’t set limits on maps. Holy smokes. I might need to set limits on maps. There are six pages of maps in this darned thing. Sure, most are repeating things, but it gets a little, uh, overwhelming. I appreciate the crisp, clear style and level of detail here, but this miiiight be a bit too much muchness. I mean, look:
   As you can clearly see, this is set in a Roman-esque villa-and-baths built around a natural spring. It’s got quite an involved backstory involving a lovelorn patrician and his lecherous naiad lover, long-ago raiders destroying the location, and now the half-naiad daughter of the pair ruling the ruins in a bitter rivalry with a local witch…it’s convoluted. There’s also a bandit crew ruled by the naiad and orcs hanging out for Just Orc Reasons, who apparently have kicked the bandits out. Complicated as it all is, these motivations and personality sketches mean I could play every single named character with any possible reaction roll, so good job. Hooks are “loot it”, “you got robbed”, or “witch asks for help”, all fine reasons to investigate a site.
   Going on to the site map(s), we first note the slightly odd choice to not key them with numbers or letters but just with proper Roman names. I don’t hate the decision based on the scale, but it does make for some occasional hunt-for-the-room moments. The overland and under-tunnel options aren’t obvious for how to interact with both site locations, a watch can be sussed out to make the tunnels helpful but that’s not obvious. I suspect the cutting room floor has more than a few elements here because of the site’s size. Very nice realistic location maps are quite well-imaged, though, props for the look of these things

   Monster numbers are a little wonky here, probably because of cuts. First off, both the witch and the bandits aren’t anywhere on the map by default, rather existing in a sort of fuzzy nether space of “connected to the site via narration” or else appear in the random encounter table. The bandit leader wants “all twelve orcs” gone, but I only count ten. The rather heartbreakingly tragic naiad hangs out in her room unless she’s spying from a random encounter. Most of the monsters are standard low-level wildlife, like giant toads, giant dragonflies, spitting cobras (or vipers), etc. Three dead slighted women are haunts, which are a unique ghostly ACKS creature that, per page 175 of the MM, have a touch attack that deals escalating damage. MM referents are helpful if you’re not going to break out statblocks (cutting room floor again, I think). There’s a comment about the witch having a reanimated servant but no stats or anything. Everything is very fleshed out narratively, as expected by now in ACKS, but a little more spreadsheet rigor wouldn’t go amiss.  Not a lot more threats exist beyond the occasional arrow trap loaded with silver bolts…which I only mention because this adventure lists all the way down to level 1 as its range, and as near as I can tell that silver bolt from the trap is the only reliable method of hurting haunts if you’re out of magic or silver weapons because you’ve just started.
   Treasure seems fine for the level. Nothing especially special, just pretty baubles held by the naiad, loot near the orcs and the bandits’ old hide, and of course some heavy bronze statues.  In what feels like an ACKS-miss I don’t see repair costs for the facilities, which is a pity…this would be a perfectly serviceable lair, home base, and/or bordello spot once cleared.
   This one might be the first site I’ve hit where three pages of text really would have been perfect. I love the maps, I like the concept, and everything that’s here shows real potential. Unfortunately, there is a lot of homework needed as it is. Add another page or two (but certainly not more) and you have a darned solid site. It’s still worth it to me to put in just because I like the scenario so much, but that’s going to be more effort than some people want. 

The most comprehensive key imaginable.