[Review] Ascent of the Leviathan
Old School Essentials
The ship has been breached by a monstrous jellyfish! Will you be able to delve within and find a solution on how to free your ship?
A sea adventure for characters of level 2-4 using Old School Essential rules.
Author: Malrex
Other reviews: Bryce Lynch
Text and Formatting
We’re given a summary, intro, gm notes, hooks, wandering encounters, 36 keyed locations, 7 fully detailed new monsters, a 4-page appendix on how to randomly generate the bottom floor of the dungeon instead of running it as written, 5 pages of maps, and 4 pages of full art spread across 42 pages.
The tables and magic item formatting is easy to read if utilitarian:
The room descriptions are done in my preferred style:
The first paragraph of each room is a natural language description of what’s observable about the room, with important elements bolded. It’s not strictly a read-aloud but you could read it directly. Then, in bullet points below, each bolded element is expanded on, in order. Love it.
The in-line monsters are given full writeups, which is, in my opinion, one of two good ways to do it (the other being to have a name plus page number reference to a full writeup in either an appendix or the monster manual).
Malrex takes the time to elaborate on what the traits mean. Compare this to Gabor Lux’s style:
where he assumes that the GM knows what “hop attack +2”, “tongue +4”, or “swallow” means, and I massively prefer how Malrex does it. Make my job easy!
My main criticism here is that we’re using a single level of bullet points, and any additional information lives at the same level, leading to pattern-breaks. For example:
When I read the opening paragraph, I expect to see 3 bullet points (shells, polyps, blob). Instead, there’s 5, and the last two are additional information about the blob. I would prefer for these to be nested, like this:
Also, bolded font is pulling double duty; both to call out keywords but also to mark area numbers, which makes it harder to scan. I recommend using different formatting for area numbers like underlining (as above).
Last bit: we’re using bullet points, but the text under each bullet are full sentences rather than sentence fragments. I wonder if paragraphs would work better:
The Map
The Overview is great for being able to visualize the space. Love it. The actual level maps are utilitarian. I appreciate the clear numbering, callouts for which room have light, and explicit mention that each square is 10ft, which is something that way too many modules forget.
If we wanted to go the extra mile, I would have appreciated some extra labeling, like that the access hole in #7 goes to #19 and vice versa, or callouts for which rooms have inhabitants:
I end up doing this myself when I prep modules, so it’s always nice when the author does it (like Incandescent Grottoes).
Melan Diagrams
3 entrances, gloriously looped. The structure and open-ness makes practically every room optional.
The second level is much tighter - there’s a central hub and then spokes: you can check out the abyss whisperer stuff at 20-24, the cnidarian stuff at 15-17, or the air sacks on the far west/east side.
I started doing the Melan diagram for this one, but as far as I can tell it’s fully connected. It’s possible to get from any room directly to another room, for instance you can go straight from 30 to 28, even though they’re on different sides of the map.
I think this would also be a nightmare to try to map <_<. Disclosure: my players never explored down here, so any analysis for this level is speculative.
Backing up a little, we do have a missing section, which is above ground. This is important because it actually contains the main antagonists (the pirates) as well as what I think the biggest set piece is (the ending clash with the pirates).
We’re given this art piece:
and can compare that to the other maps to get a sense of scale. The level 3 map gives the surface of the jellyfish a diameter of 1000ft. The inner maps give a diameter of ~450 feet, which looks in-line with the outer map.
Judging from the placement of the ships in in the overland-art, it appears that they’re about as close to each other as they are to the edges. We ended up using something like this:
The main implication here is that each ship is still within bow-shot distance of each other; missile weapons (and movement) is tripled outdoors (you treat feet as yards), so a long bow has a max range of 630 feet, and a shortbow of 450 feet. Should an archer be able to attack from 630 feet away at only a -1 to hit penalty? Probably not, but those are the rules :)
I would have loved to get an actual battle map for above-ground that way I wouldn’t have to do these calculations myself!
Content
Adventure Summary
I think this is great; it provides a structural overview of the adventure and helps orient the GM when they’re reading the rest of the module.
Introduction
This reads like boxed text (and I ended up reading it basically verbatim to my players). I got into trouble here:
Ropes with grappling hooks and weapons are gathered as men and women steel themselves for the upcoming brawl, the Lucky Siren clearly outmatched and outnumbered. (Allow the PCs to do a few rounds of action—shooting arrows, spells, etc.)
We all found this disorienting. I’m doing a monologue, and then I ask the players what they want to do, but haven’t given them enough information for them to have good context. How far away are the pirate ships? How many pirates are there? What are they equipped with? etc. It would be helpful to describe the battle scene a bit more if we want to go into combat and expect the players to cast spells and whatnot.
Referee’s Notes
This has the GM roleplaying heavily with themself: Morblar and Captain Arokar are supposed to be parlaying with the pirates (Arias and Sasha), which ends in the pirates offering to spare the PCs and their ship for 7500g worth of loot.
Outnumbered, Captain Arokor leans on accepting the deal (referee’s discretion) and quietly converses with the party in hopes they may find something within the jellyfish to slow or destroy the pirate ships in case the pirates don’t honor their deal.
I would prefer for the author to tell me if Arokar (the author’s NPC) accepts (the author’s written) deal or not. Compare:
Outnumbered, Captain Arokor accepts the deal and quietly converses with the party in hopes they may find something within the jellyfish to slow or destroy the pirate ships in case the pirates don’t honor their deal.
which requires less effort on the GM’s end.
Depending on negotiations, the pirates reluctantly offer two members (1st level fighters) to accompany the party.
Can we get names and brief personalities for these guys?
I ended up going with Erasmus (who perfectly enunciates) and Hester (who mutters to herself in colorful language) if you want to copy my homework. Given that these dudes are going to accompany a full party of PCs deep underwater away from their pirates friends, I tried hard to make them exceptionally likable as I thought that was the only way they didn’t get stabbed in the first 10 minutes.
Ituresh Slave Collar
Any Ituresh Collar activates itself instantly when placed on a suitable neck. Any wearer of a collar takes 2 hp of damage by the two spikes when it is activated. This damage cannot be healed as long as the collar is worn.
Each Ituresh Collar is made with a unique phrase in the native language of the Ituresh. Only by clearly saying this phrase can an Ituresh Collar be safely deactivated. Non-Ituresh only have a 50% chance of stating the code phrase correctly. After the phrase is spoken, an Ituresh Collar remains inert for one round before resetting itself.
Anyone wearing an active Ituresh Collar doesn’t need to breath underwater as oxygen is pumped directly into the wearer’s bloodstream.
While the collar is activated on land, the wearer cannot breathe and begins to choke. After two rounds, the wearer begins to suffocate, with the loss of consciousness following four rounds later, and death coming in round six. The only way to stop this process is to submerge the collar completely in water.
Furthermore, speaking is impossible while wearing the collar, and eating and drinking is extremely difficult as it needs to occur underwater and may inflict 1d4 damage during the process due to the spikes moving during the chewing or swallowing motion.
This is brutal. The (unlucky) player that puts this on can’t effectively speak for the rest of the session, is down 2hp, can’t surface from the water, can’t effectively eat, and the players are lied to (in a system with no insight check) about the effects and how to release it.
Of note, it’s here where I started to think that Malrex either plays or playtested this in 1e (or some sort of homebrew) rather than OSE. I’ll touch more on it later, but note the suffocation rules: you’re unconscious in 4 rounds and dead in 6 rounds. In OSE, each round is 10 seconds, whereas in AD&D it’s 1 minute. Unconscious after 40s of no air seems a little harsh.
Rumors
Morblar drops four pieces of knowldege
1. Jellyfish float with air sacs. Perhaps they could be punctured to deflate the jellyfish so it sinks. (True)
2. Small creatures, such as fish and crabs can inhabit jellyfish. He is afraid of what might live inside this jellyfish due to its size! (True)
3. We must hurry! Some creatures explode after death due to gas build-up! Probably have less than 48 hours! (true about explosions—see whales, but may not be case with jellyfish. Referee discretion).
4. There may be access from underwater through the mouth, but the mouth is usually surrounded by tentacles (True—see Tentacled Forest, pg. 21).
These, except #3, are great. I prefer true rumors to partially true rumors, and greatly prefer partially true rumors to false rumors. The GM is the only source of information the players have, so when the GM tells the players false stuff, it’s way more confusing than sorting through false information in real life.
For #3, this is my personal distaste for “GM’s choice” coming through. Pick one! I can always change it if I don’t like it! Compare
We must hurry! Some creatures explode after death due to gas build-up! Probably have less than 48 hours! (True).
Then we get:
The babble of confusion from sailors and pirates alike may uncover some information (roll 1d4 times on the table below):
I’m happy that we provided a procedure to figure out how many rumors to give out (most modules forget to do this). But, if we’re only giving out 1d4 rumors, why do we have a list of 8? For replay-ability?
Also, this is GM-facing randomness rather than player-facing. See On Randomness and note that we don’t gain anything by making this random. Malrex could have rolled 1d4, and then rolled on their own table and wrote down the results rather than making the GM do it, and it would exactly the same from the player’s perspective.
Order of Battle
This is buried in the Ref’s notes section and it’s terse, but it’s better than nothing:
After an hour has gone by, Captain Arias orders a pirate crew to follow the party inside and ensure they are attempting to find a solution to submerging the jellyfish. The pirates search for the party and attempt to intimidate them to ‘hurry up’, as well as insisting they take all the risks. They demand all the loot found. They fight until half their numbers are slain then attempt to flee.
I would have preferred more detail here:
What are their tactics for an all-out battle?
How much fresh food/water do they have?
Do they set guards or patrols during the day?
Do they set guards or patrols at night?
These are useful because the adventure module directly expects the PCs to try to sabotage the pirates somehow (sneakily tying anchors to the ships, using explosive barrels, etc). If we want to do that, we need to know how they’re operating. Preferably the module author is doing that legwork rather than the GM.
Also, how does boarding these boats work - the boats are marooned on jelly; how difficult is it to get up to a boat from land? Are the boats short enough that you can jump and grab the ledge, or do you need some sort of grappling hook setup or similar?
The Pirate Standoff
Captain Arias, Level 5 Human Thief […] hp 25, ATT 2 x dagger (1d4), THAC0 17 [+2], […] STR 13, CON 10 […] Gear: Dagger +1, (3) daggers […]
Keeping in mind that Arias is defined as a 5th level Thief…
he gets to make two attacks when dual wielding (which isn’t a OSE thing, but is a AD&D thing 1e).
Arias’ 13 STR should give him a +1 bonus to hit and damage that doesn’t look included in the writeup, and then his dagger is also a +1, so he should be attacking at +4 for 1d4+2 in melee, or at +5 (+2 from dex, +1 from magic bonus) for 1d4 at range
Arias’ 25 hp should be impossible in OSE; thieves only get 1d4 hp per level and 10 con grants no bonus (but not AD&D, where thieves get d6 hp per level).
Someone get this man some leather armor.
Captain Sasha, Level 4 Human Fighter: AC 6 [13]; […] ATT 1 x cutlass (1d8) […] STR 15, […] DEX 16 […] Gear: Leather […]
We forgot to include 15 STR’s +1 bonus in the to-hit and damage; it should be +3 to hit for 1d8+1.
We miscalculated AC; Leather is AC 12, and the 16 DEX gives a 2 bonus, so Sasha should be at AC 14 rather than 13.
Captain Arokor, Level 6 Human Fighter: […] ATT 1 x cutlass (1d8+1) […] STR 16 […]
With a STR of 16, we should be getting +2 to hit and damage, and the cutlass itself has a +1 bonus so Arokor should be attacking at +5 to hit for 1d8+3.
Ursula, 2nd Level Human Cleric, AC 7 [12], […] Spells: Cure Light Wounds […] She does not heal anyone unless a hefty donation is given to her deity.
No DEX is given for Ursula, so unless she has a negative mod, her AC should be 13 (leather + shield).
How hefty of a donation for healing are we talking? Specifics are better for the GM than vague hand-waving.
Who is her deity?
Optional Adventure Hooks
These are weak, imo, which is mostly fine because they’re explicitly optional. All of the optional hooks remove the pirate tension, which in turn harms a lot of the dungeon’s interactivity and complexity.
Wandering Encounters
Check every 6 turns. A roll of 1-2 on a d10 results in an encounter.
On average, we’ll get an encounter every 30 turns. The main part of the dungeon has 25 rooms (level 3 has it’s own random encounter chart), so if it takes ~50 total turns to complete we’re looking at 1-2 random encounters. We’re given 10; I’d probably cut this down to 4 or 6. In particular, I’d cut the pirates (they’ll already show up after an hour as written), the herring swarm, the stalker, one of the amebocyte entries (which show up several times already), the harmless jellyfish, and the Cnidarian (which shows up twice).
That leaves us with
4 Giant Amebocytes
5 Barracuda
Stinging Jellies (swarm)
4 Zontani Pelican Eels
I also recommend converting any module that has you roll every X number of turns into every turn, but with an additional 1-in-X chance to trigger the encounter.
For example, we’re rolling a 1-in-5 every 6 turns, but could be rolling a 1-in-30 every turn. This gives the same number of encounters per turn on average, but makes it less predictable (and easier for the GM to remember). I have a 30-sided dice handy, but if you don’t, you can model this by rolling a (d6, d10), and you get an encounter on a (1, 1-2).
Room By Room
Three craters are spread out over the surface, each with a dark hole that has finally stopped spewing water, suggesting access ports to enter the creature. Taunting and sneering pirates are the only forms of ‘well wishes’ for your task.
This is a jarring switching-of-audience. I’m the GM! I’m not going into the jellyfish, that’s for the players. To keep this in line with the rest of the text (the audience of a module is always the GM), we could instead write “Taunts and sneers are the only form of ‘well wishes’ for the PC’s task.”
2 | Shells
[…] However, after 1d6 rounds of searching, there are 12 beautiful shells that may fetch 10 gp each and a total of 5 milky white pearls, 50 gp each. After the 7th round, searchers may discover the Mask of Orideous. It takes a full turn to delicately carve it out of the jelly wall and doing so has a 60% chance to attract Giant Amebocytes that investigate in 2d4 rounds.
The shells “may” fetch 10g - do they or don’t they?
The searchers “may” discover the Mask of Orideous. Do they or don’t they?
Why are we rolling for 1d6 rounds of searching here? In OSE, searching a 10x10 area takes 10 minutes. 1d6 rounds ranges from 10 seconds to 1 minute, so specifying that something interesting happens at the 70th second is really weird.
The Giant Amebocytes investigate in 2d4 rounds. What are we supposed to do with that randomness? We don’t track exploration time in rounds, so there’s no difference between them arriving in 20 seconds vs 60 seconds. If this was AD&D 1e though…
The wearer’s Charisma is reduced by 2 owing to the fish smell emanating from the mask. The smell makes it easier to track by creatures using olfactory senses and seabirds may be attracted to the stench.
How much easier is it to track the wearer by using olfactory senses (OSE does not provide monster tracking mechanics)?
Seabirds “may” be attracted to the stench. Are they attracted or not?
3 | Air Bubble
Careful inspection reveals a milky white pearl (100 gp) embedded in the jelly.
This is a pet peeve of mine, but this sort of language is all over modules, and I still don’t exactly know what it means. What distinguishes “careful inspection” from “inspection”?
4 | Sea Squirt Garden
Ultimately [the meritahti stalker] seeks a new Meritahti Lord to serve, although it is friendly towards the Zontani Spined Sea Star in Area #18.
What am I supposed to do with this? As far as I can tell, the stalker can’t communicate, there isn’t a nearby Meritahti Lord, and there’s no way for the players to learn this information.
5 | Glow
[The purple kelp’s fronds] are very strong, capable of holding 500 lbs of weight and can be used as rope. There are enough fronds to knot together for 2,000 feet of rope. Clever PCs may attempt to use the rope to anchor/slow the pirate ships.
I’m totally lost as to how Malrex is imagining this working. Here’s how anchors work; the main idea is that you affix one end to the ship, and another end to something that digs into the sea bed.
Here, I’m guessing that we’re affixing one end to something in the jellyfish, and the other end to the pirate ship. I’m not at all sure how we can do this given that the ships are…
On open land
Hundreds of feet away from any sort of thing blocking line of sight
Trying to sneak to the ship with thousands of feet of rope seems like a nightmare. Once there, how do you affix the rope to the ship? I’m so confused.
7 | Oysters
Giant Amebocytes […] become aware of the party in 1d4 rounds, attacking immediately.
The random-amount-of-rounds thing keeps happening! Say that we roll a 4 here; what’s the at-the-table difference between the Giant Amebocytes becoming aware of the party after 40 seconds vs after 10 seconds?
Instead, can we say “The blobs are Giant Amebocytes that attack immediately.” or “The blobs are Giant Amebocytes that attack when anyone comes within 60ft”
Level 2: The Stomach
The walls, ceiling, and floor are slightly acidic (to break down food), and PCs take 1d4 damage every turn while inside Area’s #8-11.
Woah, totally missed this when we played. Brutal. If I were to play this module again, I’d telegraph this somehow so that I don’t just surprise MUs and thieves with a death roll.
While traveling through the jellyfish stomach, roll every two turns on the Miscellaneous Item Table. Each item can only be discovered once.
This is the perfect time to create an shuffled list rather than a random table. “While traveling through the jellyfish stomach, every two turns the party finds the next item on the Miscellaneous Item List.”
8 | Whale Bones
The fossilized baleen plates of the whale could potentially be fashioned into a special suit of armor (AC 6) by a skilled armorer and leather worker.
How much do they weigh? Also, is there a reason we care about AC 6 armor? That’s worse than chain. Maybe the intent is that it counts as leather, and so thieves can wear it? If so, say that! Also, how am I supposed to deliver this information to the players?
Also, there’s this:
Against the wall rests algae-covered bones of a gigantic fish. […] The blue whale bones have been here a long time, extending 100’ along the northwest wall.
We lost about 15 minutes to this, and it was the beginning of the animal-facts shenanigans.
Blue whales ARE NOT FISH. They are MAMMALS. I almost got attacked in real life by my rabid players.
10 | The Laughing Dolphin
A chest lie among broken crates and furniture. In 1d4 rounds, algae-covered skeletons rise from the debris and move through the swirling, rotted cloth to defend the treasures they were sworn to protect (vision reduced to 5’).
Man, Malrex loves specifying random numbers of rounds.
11 | Throat
Halfway down the throat, perceptive PCs notice bones of fish, humans, and other sea creatures entwined within the tentacles of the murky water.
Which PCs are perceptive?
12 | Mouth
The tentacles near the entrance of the shaft/mouth are more potent, delivering a nasty sting (2d4 damage) and the victim must make a save vs. paralysis or be stunned for 2d4 rounds, which result in extra opportunities to be stung.
Is there any chance that the sting misses? A lot of other stuff like this is modeled as an attack roll from a HD-whatever enemy. If you get stunned, there are “extra opportunities” to get stung again. How do these extra opportunities work? Complete your mechanics!
13 | Anchor
The anchor is 125 lbs. The connecting chain is 125’ long, rusted, and coiled in the muck. Attaching it to a boat unawares, such as a pirate ship up above, can decrease the speed of a ship by 35% as it tangles in kelp, etc. (Referee’s discretion).
Which part is the GM’s discretion - how much it slows the ships by? But also, same problem as above; how does an anchor get attached to a ship unawares? Are we imagining that there are convenient tie-off posts on the undersides of these ships? These are sailboats! I’d love to hear from Malrex what he was imagining here.
Finally, here’s the anchor
Bro this does not weigh 125lbs. There’s a skeleton for scale, we can say that from butt to head it’s ~3ft tall. It looks like the anchor is about 9ft tall, with 5ft flanges on either side. If each section is roughly cylindrical with a 1ft diameter, we’re looking at pi•0.5^2•19 cubic feet of iron, which is roughly 15 cubic feet or 538020 cm3 of iron. Iron is 7.87 g/cm3, so this works out to ~4,234,218g or ~9335lbs.
14 | The Lurker
Leather straps allow the shell to be wielded as a Medium Shield +1.
OSE makes no distinction between different types of shields; AD&D however…
16 | Cnidarian Quarters
A barnacle laden tortoise shell dominates an alcove to the northwest. […] The tortoise shell is 6’ diameter and may be worth 400 gp to a crafter (for making lyres, combs, etc).
What is a tortoise shell doing anywhere near the ocean? From Brittanica, “The most important thing to remember about tortoises is that they are exclusively land creatures. They live in a variety of habitats, from deserts to wet tropical forests.”
All tortoises are turtles, not all turtles are tortoises. This is not something I knew until I ran this module, and described this exact tortoise shell, to absolute rioting from my players. It totally derailed us for a solid 20 minutes, as multiple players frothed at the mouth, tripping over each other to tell me about turtle facts.
17 | Commander
The random table of information was very awkward in play. I’m not sure what ya’ll do, but I just have normalish conversations with the players when they meet NPCs like this. At most I’ll make a reaction roll, but generally it’s just a lot of folks asking and answering questions.
I recommend just making a bullet-point list of what he knows, and maybe some common phrases like what Lux does with Tumula in Cloister of the Frog God
18 | Starfish
The skull has a series of three holes above the empty eye sockets. Close inspection reveals that the holes might have once held gems
What about regular inspection?
Collecting all three gems and inserting them into the skull provides additional benefits, such as a damaging eye beam, but all are rumors and speculations (referee’s discretion).
How about the module designer fully design the item instead of giving me homework.
20 | Stinging Jellies
A failed saving throw results in the jellyfish latching onto the PC; they must make a save vs. paralysis or be paralyzed for one turn and take 1d4 damage per round as the jellyfish swarm the victim and feed. Once a turn passes, the PC can move and is immune to further paralyzation effects for a full turn.
There are 60 rounds in a turn.
Merely survive 60d4 (~150) damage and then you’ll be fine and can move again. It’s also the sort of thing where players are going to immediately try to help somehow, so it’s a good idea to complete the mechanic.
23 | Abomination
Note: After 1d4 rounds of combat, the Abyss Whisperer begins to attack from Area #24 with its one tentacle.
Holy cow how long are these tentacles? 40-60 feet? The text makes it seem like the Abyss Whisperer is attacking into room 23 from room 24. Can the tentacle be attacked back?
an exotic shell necklace with pearls (800 gp), a Potion of Gaseous Form, a Cormadhar gem—Hessonite (2,000 gp, see Area #18), and an ancient, barnacle-covered Wand of Fire (7 charges).
OSE does not have a Wand of Fire (even the OSE Advanced). It does have a Wand of Fireballs. AD&D 1e, however, does!
Level 3: Tentacled Forest
I’m going to skip these as I didn’t experience them (or prepare them) and it doesn’t feel exactly fair to review them. Skimming through them, it seems like they’re consistent with the rest of the adventure in terms of style and quality (good).
Treasure and XP
Covering the first two levels:
+1 dagger (captain arias)
435g of jewelry (captain arias)
280g of jewelry (captain sasha)
potion of fire resistance (captain sasha)
~20g from the first mates
~45g from the pirates
cutlass +1 (captain Arokor)
~364g (captain Arokor)
~50g (morblar)
~6g (ursula)
~10000g (cargo of your ship)
~60000g (3x Sailing Ship (large))
370g of shells and pearls (#2)
Mask of Orideous (#2)
100g pearl (#3)
650g of jewelry (#4)
1500g explosive barrel (#6)
3000g of pearls (#7)
30g of silver fishhooks (#8)
an assortment of random treasure from the stomach, ranging from 35g buckles to a 500g pearl
523c 310s 696g from the crab lair (#9)
750c 842s 200g, plus 725g of treasures (#10)
shield +1, floats, 10’ light (#14)
400g turtle shell, 2000g shell, 425g of treasure (#16)
375g of shells (#17)
Golden Skull of Cormadhar (1200g), (#18)
750g of jewels (#22)
trident +1, +2 vs sharks (#23)
3700c 1400s 900g and 1175g of jewels (#23)
potion of gaseous form (#23)
2000g hessonite (#23)
wand of fire, 7 charges (#23)
treasure map (#23)
87951g all together. Without factoring in the ships or the good captain Arokor’s loot, we’re at 17161g. Limiting it to only stuff worth more than it’s weight in gold (gems, jewelry, etc), we’re still at 15772g.
We’re also bringing back 5 permament magic items and 3 consumables.
Protecting this loot are:
300xp - captain arias
125xp - captain sasha
2•20xp - first mates
38•10xp - pirates
500xp - captain arokor
20xp - morblar
24•5xp - sailors
25xp - ursula
4•13xp - amebocytes (#2)
175xp - meritahti stalker (#4)
9•13xp - amebocytes (#7)
300xp - giant crab spider (#9)
8•10xp - skeletons (#10)
6•30xp - zontani pelican eels (#12)
75xp - giant barracuda (#14)
850xp - cnidarian (#17)
65xp - sea star (#18)
7•13xp - amebocytes (#21)
50xp - gelatinous merman (#23)
1150xp - abyss whisperer (#24)
All told, that’s 4670xp of NPCs. If we don’t count the good captain and the sailors, there’s still at 4005xp.
Regardless of approach, I wouldn’t count the value of the ships or trade goods in Arokor’s hold as xp. For a full (chaos) looting, we’re looking at 17951xp of treasure guarded by 4670xp of stuff, for a ratio of 3.84x. For a “lawful” looting, we’re looking at 17161xp of treasure guarded by 4005xp of stuff, for a ratio of 4.28x.
In either case, these are exactly the sorts of ratios that we’re looking for. Malrex definitely knows what he’s doing. It’s a very level-appropriate amount of treasure.
Magic item-wise, I usually recommend 1 permament magic item and ~3 consumables per 2000xp of defenders, so the given treasure is reasonable. Heavy on permanent items and light on consumables but totally fine.
Conclusion
Buy and Run!
This was a great adventure, and my table’s final battle against the pirates (with the explosive barrel and wand of fire) was one of the coolest set-piece encounters I’ve had in an OSR game.
My players ended up dispatching both pirate captains and commandeering both pirate ships, and negotiating (coercing?) a hefty reward from Arokor.
A perceptive reader (heh) may notice that most of my quibbles were about minor technical errors; that’s because the adventure is otherwise great and minor technical errors are all I could really find to constructively criticize.
I recommend…
figuring out how you want the opening scenes to work, especially the “combat” before the jellyfish surfaces.
fleshing out the pirates, their resources, and their order of battle a bit better.
fleshing out the above-ground area; it’s potentially the site of a huge, important battle so get it right.
fleshing out Arokor’s forces a little more. Are they willing to go to battle against the pirates? Are they willing to pay the players to solve the problem for them?
remembering that whales are not fish.
ignoring all of the random-amount-of-rounds stuff.
ignoring the random tentacle forest appendix.