ASC Review: Scrotum's Monolithic Sanctuary

Scrotum's Monolithic Sanctuary (Szilard Dreska)

OSRIC adventure for three to five PCs of levels 4th-6th

I am reviewing these in the order they were submitted. For my review criteria, please check out this post. All reviews will (probably) contain *SPOILERS*; you have been warned! Because these are short (two page) adventures, it is my intention to keep the reviews brief.

*sigh*

 25 encounter areas. Again, I will quote The Rules Of The Contest:

"...8-24 keyed locations, ideally a single session's content."

Everyone gets that right? 8-24? I mean, for my money that's waaay too much leeway for a "single session," unless you're still running eight hour sessions like we did back in high school. But it's Ben's contest, and he set the terms (even if he couldn't abide by them himself).

But what's one extra encounter area, JB? It's only 25. Sure. But then, why not 26? That's only one more than 25. Heck, why not 27?  or 28? It's all just guidelines, right?

Wrong. Disqualified. Again.

But everyone hates that, so here's the review of this unfortunately named adventure.

[yes, it's unfortunately named. Sorry. I can tell from the author and play-testers' names that these are probably Hungarians, but to the English-speaking world you might as well be calling this "Penis's Monolithic Sanctuary." And reading about how Scrotum's name "was slowly forgotten" just made me think, yeah right pal, ain't no way I'm forgetting that.  Trust me on this. I'm the guy that once made the mistake of creating a PC with the name of "Balzak" and having to suffer through jibes for weeks thereafter]

This is a three level dungeon that has almost nothing going on. Ostensibly written for PCs of levels 4th to 6th...well, it's really not. It's way too light on treasure (should be something like 75K and it has less than a third of that) and only five of the 25 encounter areas contain monsters; which are:

• 6 skeletons
• 2 "breathstealers"
• 2 "mechanical scorpions"
• 2 juju zombies
• 1 spectre + 1 shadow

[there are also a couple rooms that have a heightened chance of random encounter; however the encounter is always 1d3 giant rats...not much threat to 5th level PCs]

The author notes that "breathstealers" are not found in the OSRIC rules and that the creature is borrowed from a Gabor Lux adventure; he provides a stat block of the creature (published with permission). Great.

How about the mechanical scorpions? Those aren't in my copy of OSRIC. 

There's a lot of missing/left out information. Ability scores are reduced via traps willy-nilly with no stated duration...these are permanent? Can they be cured? How does the mechanical scorpions electric sting work? Is there a saving throw to reduce damage? Can breathstealers be "turned" by a cleric since they are undead? What should they be turned as?  A red lotus plant makes anyone examining it go berserk on a failed saving throw...for how long? Forever? Until the dude is put down like a dog by his fellow PCs?

Why the heck do we need a magic devil painting casting charm monster spells on the party to get them to fight the juju zombies? Have D&D players EVER needed a reason (let alone magic domination) to  exterminate zombies with extreme prejudice? What is this...some poor excuse to shoehorn "roleplaying" into the adventure?

There are only TWO magic items in this three level, 25 encounter dungeon: a +1 scimitar and a cursed +1 dagger that inflicts cannibalism on its wielder after first use. Some might call this "mudcore."

This one ain't good. Low two stars (**-), even if it wasn't disqualified.