Adventure Sites 3: The Secret of Glassmaking

​For Swords & Wizardry, Level 4
By Billinger Bence
Peristera Island is the only place in the world where the rare art of glassmaking has been combined with magic. The glass magic items made here are extremely powerful and valuable. The island's inhabitants guard the secrets of glassmaking more than anything else. One of the old workshops, located on a separate small island, was partially flooded and left to its fate. Who knows what treasures and secrets may be hidden here among these swampy lagoons.
   Sometimes we focus a little too much on gold and jewels for our loot found in dungeons, but while those have always been valuable, there are many other substances back in the day that were far more valuable to the ancients. Silks and wine get frequent nods, but what about spices and oil? And that's not even starting to talk about dyes, aromatics, prophylactics, abortifacients, fertilizers, seeds...an ancient merchant would give away gold by the pound for many of these substances. And then there's glass, an incredibly difficult substance to make. Romans considered the production methods of their glass to be darned near a state secret. Why don't you include more glass in your treasure hoards?
   Well here Mr. Bence has taken that question and added "magic" to it. Magic glassblowing workshop in a flooded lagoon, I can dig that concept. Beyond that initial idea there's not a lot more story, sadly, but hey, my players have committed war crimes for less.
   The map is a bit, uh...conceptual. Buncha buildings on chunks of islands in the middle of the water, okay. There's no scale given but really 5ft squares or 20ft squares, it doesn't really matter, because each island, and each building/room, exists independent from every other one. That's a bad sign. Compass rose is very pretty, but I don't know where we're supposed to be coming from. North? South? West-Southwest? Sometimes your map isn't really any better than no map at all. 

   The islands' keys are a little light on monsters but that random encounter table is loaded with monsters, pretty nasty for level 4 Swordwizards. A manticore lairs here, along with logical other nasties like giant crocodiles. The rolled d# encounters are rough at max, nobody wants their level 4s to tackle 5 satyrs, 3 harpies, or 3 wights. Oof. And frequency is 2-in-6 every turn, so I hope you like a violent hack-and-slash grind. Makes the keyed encounters (manticore, zombies, and a "wright"[sic]) almost a relief. Really the only nasty/weird keyed fight is a glass golem. Traps will be similarly kind of abstracted, like a pressure plate in the furnace room for fire, a poison dart trap in a treasure chest, etc. An old blower apparatus belching out poisoned air is nice, at least. Beyond deathtraps or monsters, the only interaction is a weird little setup with a glass sword in a furnace that is irretrievable without putting glass beads into the bars for...reasons. 
   At least the reward there is a +2 glass sword. There's also another glass sword that's +2, +3 vs. minotaurs, and a continual light glass vial, but most of the rest of the treasure here is rather abstracted, just gold, diamonds, or rubins. Glass golem is protecting "artworks" and there's a secret magic glass formula (no value given), but I really feel like the whole glass theme could have been leaned into a lot more with the treasure. 
   Plopping a choked lagoon full of ruined buildings onto your hexmap should be easy. In fact, I have exactly the perfect area in my campaign...but unfortunately, I'd rather just take the prompt "flooded glassworks" and make something where it matters if the map has a scale. Wonderful prompt though.