Today we're looking at The Lost People by Nick Campbell. It's the 3rd in a series of underdark adventures and although it has some ties to the previous entries, could easily be played as a one-off. It is lacking any explicit hooks, though. A few of the rumors could serve that purpose (protip: they're in the back of the book).
The 14-room dungeon is the remains of an ancient creator race, rife with foul, stagnating magic and inscrutable machines. Along with art and layout that breaks away boldly from the Shadowdark template, the aesthetics are a breath of fresh air. It vividly communicates the vibe of the adventure before you even read the words.
And those words begin with "this is a puzzle dungeon." There's a lot going on here. In addition to most rooms having some kind of puzzle, the players can sacrifice 1 hp to boost their rolls by 1d4. Once they do this 7 times, a leyline bursts and creates some kind of wild magic effect like "A fedora appears on your head. Your hair fuses to it. Eisengore, the Vile Haberdasher, will come to retrieve it. Someday." or "Your tongue gives off blinding light. It's really hot." A lot of it will depend on GM and player buy-in. Some of it will mess up your whole game. All of it is interesting.
In addition to that, as you traverse the dungeon the various rooms build up spirits that become hostile and attack when the party tries to exit the dungeon. There's a nice table for what the spirits look like - "A shattered lantern with an eyeball trapped in it." Everywhere you turn there is something wild and creative that will surprise and either delight or terrify your players.
But it's also a bit more to keep track of - how close are we to bursting a leyline, what happened to the demon lord that knows a PC's name, how many spirits are trying to kill them in this room, etc. The author has provided some nice tools and checklists to help keep tabs on everything. I think the juice is worth the squeeze.
The puzzles themselves are... a mixed bag. Actually inscrutable in some places. I got stumped right away. Here's the first room:
It took me about 10 reads before I could piece it together, and I still don't know what "DC 15 check to find secret compartment or fill jars with no body parts" means. But I think the riddle is meant to communicate to the players that they need to fill the jars with a brain, vocal chords, eyes and ears and hands. Or the analogs of those things suggested in the red puzzle piece section. But are they really supposed to having hearing aids handy? Or a clock? I'm having a hard time imagining a scenario where this doesn't end in frustration before the GM finally just allows them to put something, anything, in the jars, just to keep the game moving.
Number one in my review standards is "Tell the GM in plain English exactly what's going on." This is where the artistic and expressive layout are a bit at odds with usability. I'm running the game. It's ok to just tell me straight-up how to solve the puzzle. Remember adventure designers, your audience is not the players. Your audience is the GM. They need to be the omniscient god of the world the PCs inhabit, so you should tell them how things work as clearly as possible.
I often complain about lack of interactivity in dungeons but this one has it in spades. Everywhere the PCs turn there will be something to poke at, experiment with or be irrevocably disfigured by. There's a book shelf but instead of the typical abstract description like "books about Elvish history" you get a list with 20 specific entries. When you're done perusing that, you can grow your own ooze skeleton servant. Or hop through a portal to a Kraken's belly. The players will not run out of things to do and each room presents something interesting.
But throughout we keep running into a lack of information, or information that is poorly conveyed. There are lots of in-voice excerpts, quotes and riddles that provide clues. But the GM doesn't need clues, they need answers and details. This comes up in small ways - for example, a locket where the description simply says "Return to the spouse" (who? where?) - and also in big ways. The final room is called the "Communication Chamber" and it includes an out of context quote that says "Nothing is freely given & nothing is without cost". There are symbols of light, scent and sound on a dais. I can sort of infer that the PCs need to present similar symbols, and that they will be able to ask a question of the ancient race that built the dungeon, and that they must make some kind of sacrifice. But I had to piece that together myself and I'm still not sure that was the author's intent.
This book is beautiful and I love that it breaks the "black and white, two columns with Montserrat fonts" mold that so many 3rd party Shadowdark adventures fit into. It's a bit art-punky, though certainly not to the degree of MÖRK BORG and its ilk. But like MÖRK BORG the aesthetic is sometimes at odds with usability. And the space used for edgy quotes in decorative fonts would be better utilized to explain how the puzzles and other features of the dungeon work.
Regardless, there is a distinctiveness and creativity here that is undeniable. One of the most memorable D&D sessions I've ever had was running Rime of the Frost Maiden in 5e. There's a dungeon that contains a room that has a chance of turning illusions real. One of the PCs managed to create a tiny version of themselves and the resulting hijinks are still remembered fondly 3 years later. The Lost People is full of that kind of weirdness that makes me want to run it. I just wish it were easier on the GM.
On a scale of 2-12, The Lost People gets 7 stingbats.
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