​Crapshoot Monday: This Free Thing I Found On Itch.io…Sauna of the Stone Moles

A dungeon by Aaron King, level [404 object not found]
Written for some vague mysterious OSR idea
   By this point, artpunk is more or less a passing fad. Its influences are still felt in places here and there, with more projects cropping up on itch.io than, say, DriveThruRPG. But sometimes, we have anti-artpunk…and that’s what’s here. A twelve-page document describing six keyed areas seems like pure over-production, doesn’t it? Well…no. This thing is ‘zine-scaled, massive 16-point font, simple single-column, has multiple blank pages, you get the deal. It’s just a Word document somebody exported as a .pdf and I’m fine with that formatting decision. I might have preferred using italics, underlining, and/or bolding instead of ALL CAPS as means of emphasis, but it’s fine, it’s all fine. A bit worse is the choice to drop key story/setting information as asides mid-paragraph, but hey.
   What the heck is a stone mole, and why would one want a sauna? Well, apparently stone moles are human-sized moles made of stone. Huh. Figures. Why a sauna? Because they too find them relaxing. Although there’s also a Holy Mole (heh) that has now claimed the hot springs as a holy site and manifested powers and is causing tremors and I guess that’s why we’re invading the site? Certainly, the hooks are thin on the ground. There’s also a little bitty baby sun?
   Outside of the Redwall-induced fondness for charming moles, what I liked on this one is the map-given-its-scale. Two entries, meaningful secret door, mildly interesting choices in exploration…that’ll do pig. The infant sun thing is creative and interesting…it’s a great item, using it as a cleric makes his spells harder to resist, but he loses 1 HP each morning and -1 year of life per week used. That’s good. Nice that there are hints about this in ancient dwarven runes that dwarf-speakers can sus out, very solid. I like the primary treasure is CRYSTALIZED MOLE SWEAT, that’s great.
   Though what can be improved first is probably adding more cash value in treasure, it’s low even for silver standard games. Out fights are also a little dull, too, just bonkers or zappers or a lever that summons 6d6 damage of steam. Better hooks and rumors would be helpful to add some more pizzazz on this one. Honestly, there are scale issues here that tell me this is a modern D&D player…it’s a little lair laid out like a full-scale dungeon.
   That said, I’d still say best use case is to run this as a lair. Stone moles are charming but a lot of different creatures can populate this spot, it’s perfect for thirty minutes of fun upon discovery. Great treasure to steal, too.
   Final Rating? ***/***** as a lair, just perfect for a “book of lairs” style publication and now I’m considering where I’m putting this. Very well made.