Crapshoot Monday: This Free Thing I Found On Itch.io…Shrine of Abundance

A dungeon by Idyll Games, level not listed.
Written for The Electrum Archive, whatever that is.
   There are an infinite number of RPG systems. Mathematicians, physicists, and philosophers may tell you that’s impossible…they might point out the sheer vastness of the concept of infinity, the fact that there are only eight billion people on this planet right now, the fact that even if a hundred billion worlds with a trillion people all working for a quadrillion years on bespoke artsy RPG systems we still shouldn’t have a drop in the bucket compared to the limitless vastness that is infinity. Nevertheless, there are an infinite number of RPG systems.
   To whit, The Electrum Archive. No idea what it is, but this adventure is written to be compatible with it under the TEA license. Six pages with a generous art budget, eight keys, kind of random placement of information here or there, but otherwise with normal bolding/bullets/organization. Good job, Idyll Games, I saw your sketchy map and had been worried, but this is a perfectly readable product.
   Our story is fine. Rumors are about a new sacred spring in the desert draw in pilgrims, but a lot of those who drink from the spring later die. Apparently in this setting there are malign High Spirits who can move into handy empty idols, in this case said spirit is haunting an old shrine and sending up water as a temptation to pilgrims. Why? Metaphysics are unclear, but there’s nothing wrong with the odd hungry ghost in any setting. Please go destroy the evil idol, thanks.
   What I liked, beyond the dark chalk-art piece on the penultimate page, is this map. It’s linear, but with an 8-room dungeon that’s reasonable, and it does have water features which always improve things. Plus there are multiple means of ingress, secret passages, and it all makes sense. The scribbly style here is not at all to my taste, but game recognize game. I like the monsters, just the right amount of weirdness, and the sturgeons that grab and drown PCs are a good idea. I waffled a bit on the drowning mechanic being in the “liked” column, but in the end I think it’s neat…anyone who drowns in this shrine reawakens in the silver pool at full health but having lost one core memory. It’s fine for a one-off weird space. Treasure values, I have no idea, but the treasure itself is well-placed and decently frequent. This one surprised me with how many decent elements it had.
   Which is why what can be improved seems a little bare. I do think the site lacks a little on the interaction front. There are naturalistic traps and bits to fiddle with, and the monsters all have goals, but something sentient and able to talk would make for a better session. Even a multiply-drowned amnesiac would be nice. On the drowning thing, I’d also add a mechanical penalty myself, but I’m not sure if this system has enough juice to supply that. Obviously, writing this for B/X or whatever would be an improvement but now we’re just being churlish.
   Yeah, you’re hearing me right, this is a pretty okay adventure site. I think the best use case is to adapt it into whatever system you are running, put it in a handy desert hex (or other dry region, to be honest), and let those rumors naturally flow. It’s not anything unique or out-of-this-world, but that’s not needed all the time, sometimes you just need a decent little adventure site. This is that.
   Final Rating? ***/***** with almost another half star added. Really, it’s as good as something this humble and small can be, and there’s nothing at all wrong with that. A good and useful location, feel free to place in your hexmap with my permission.

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