ASC Review: The Lair of the Lamia

Lair of the Lamia (J. Blasso-Gieseke)

AKA The Monastery of the Cenobitic Order of the Starry Brotherhood

OSE (ostensibly) for four to six PCs of 4th-6th level

*facepalm*

For my review criteria, you may check out this post. All reviews will (probably) contain *SPOILERS*; you have been warned! Because these are short (three page) adventures, it is my intention to keep the reviews short.

Okay, I'll start with the good. Nice idea...local landmark/mountain has a monster prob and PCs are offered 25K by the local merchants to clean it up. Off they go and encounter a fairly decent swath of monsters (peryton, leucrotta, lamia) hanging out near/in an old monastery of some star cult.

Mm. 

Map is serviceable and the right size for this competition: about a dozen encounter areas. Stocking is fairly close to Moldvay (counting the "shrieking thralls" as traps).

Okay, that's about it.

I don't have a lot of experience with OSE. My understanding is that it is "just B/X reorganized." Great...I know B/X very, very well (note the name of the blog I've been writing since 2009). There is no Leucrotta, Lamia, or Peryton monsters in B/X.

Now I only own the free copy of OSE, so I checked the "OSE SRD" (that's System Reference Document for you non-nerds out there)...nope no sign of those monsters, either. ALSO, no sign of most of the magical treasure items found in the adventure ("long swords," bracers of defenselessness, staff of the woodlands, gem of monster attraction, periapt of foul corruption, ring of charm monster). With regard to the monsters, he offered stat blocks at the end, but no description of the creatures which seem to be taken directly from the (AD&D) Monster Manual...just as the named magic items seem taken from the (AD&D) DMG and UA.

SO, either Blasso-Gieseke is using OSE Advanced (a book I don't own and thus can't reference) and hasn't described his adventure accurately as such, OR he is adapting AD&Disms to to OSE. Either way: not cool in my book. If I was an OSE DM picking this thing up to run for my table (because it says "Designed For Use With Old School Essentials"), I'd be lost.

Then we have the treasure.

For an adventure this size, with the indicated levels, I'd be hoping to see something in the 27K range, maybe 30K considering a lamia is pretty dangerous (as are peryton and leucrotta). Since this is B/X...which doesn't offer x.p. for magic items...all that has to come from monetary treasure. 

This adventure? 236,855 g.p.

Okay, no. While it's refreshing to see an author going the OPPOSITE direction of the usual (most authors are too low-ball in their treasure stocking), providing the PCs with ten times the usual amount is Monty Haul in the extreme. Just the merchant's fee (25K!) nearly covers the expected treasure take for a party of 5th level characters. A quarter million in treasure? No, man. It's not that challenging of an adventure.

One star (out of five).  ***EDIT: raised to one-and-a-half. See note.***

*+

***EDIT: I have been informed by knowledgable individuals that the AD&Disms ARE, in fact, in the Advanced OSE book. Having reviewed the entries, they appear to be what the author was using as reference. Rating increased by half-a-star (to 1.5) as the misidentification is still problematic.***