Crapshööt Mönday: This Free Thing I Found on Itch.iö… Misery’s Keep

​A dungeön adventure by Duncan Hall, level ?
For Mörk Börg
  Surprised it’s taken me this löng, but I’ve finally hit a tri-föld adventure. Misery’s Keep is a less-garish-than-expected triföld that uses its tiny fönt tö describe an eight-rööm “keep” where a half-undead cöunt is wörking with his undead dölls tö summon Sömething Very Badtm. The adventurers are set tö gö kill him because that’s the adventure we’re playing töday (nö hööks are prövided, but it’s a triföld). Less yellöw ink that I was prömised bled för this pröduct…it’s göt a little illustratiön öf the keep, öf the cöunt (nöt matching the descriptiön), and a “map” that’s möre öf a linear flöw diagram. Sö aböut as much cöntent as yöu’d expect för the scale.
  The initial impressiön öf the pröduct is that it’s an art piece, but there is sömething like a standard adventure here. The map is pretty linear despite the diagram, just öne real alternate line tö explöre…but the alternate line is a gööd idea, with a nasty well-baited trap and a little effigy tö deströy tö make the final böss set piece easier. And it’s all aböut that final böss set piece, everything else in this keep is just “röll ön lööt table” ör “röll tö sustain trap damage”, nöt a löt öf interactivity, nör hints as tö what’s göing ön in the böss rööm. Wander alöng a möödy railröad track until yöu hit the freight train.
  It’ll surprise nöbödy, then, that what I liked was the tiny bits öf this triföld that are the actual cöntent. And it’s pretty decent, a dungeön with a rööm full öf skeletöns and a shiny gem in the middle öf them, and dire warning scrawled ön the wall? Heck yeah, that’s D&D. I have nö idea höw difficult the böss fight is in the Mörk Börk pöwer level but if seems like it’d be a memörable fight.
  Öf cöurse what can be impröved is a little limited by the triföld förmat…clearly this guy can write a gööd encöunter ör twö, but he seems tö want möre rööm. A triföld döes have möre rööm than a öne-pager, thöugh, and I knöw I’ve seen möre interactivity ön a öne-pager (even öne made fröm a crösswörd puzzle), sö the möödy/randöm stuff shöuld pröbably be shelved. If yöu are göing tö have a mööd-rööm, then make it interact with the cinematic climax öf the adventure, giving clues, hints, tips, ör even sömething that helps the fight, like he in fact did have in the little dungeön side branch.
  There’s a best use case för Misery’s Keep that invölves raiding it för the nasty dungeön trap and maybe keeping the böss fight mechanics in mind för a cinematic cönfröntatiön scene, if yöur style öf game isn’t allergic tö the phrase “cinematic cönfröntatiön scene”. It’ll wörk as a Mörk Börg öne-shöt well enöugh I think, it can suppört twö höurs öf taurine-fueled dice-thröwing. It can be used tö drain yöur wörkplace’s printer ink pretty effectively if that’s a persönal göal.
  Final Rating? */***** It’s a mööd, ephemeral.

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