Review: Inside the Everflowing Curtain
Today we are looking at Inside the Everflowing Curtain, designed by Anthony J. Zinni and published by Revivify Games. It's a level 3-4 dungeon with 16 rooms where the PCs are tasked with recovering the second half of a magical staff from a goat demon's lair.
Everflowing Curtain pulls double-duty, being written for both Mörk Borg and Shadowdark. We've seen 5e/Shadowdark and DCC/Shadowdark, but this is my first time for this particular combo. The two systems have very little mechanical similarity, but when has that ever stopped anyone?
It has one of the most bizarre setups I've ever seen for. It assumes that a bunch of stuff directly related to the adventure itself has already happened and hinges on the PCs finding a very particular set of items to summon the demonic questgiver. "The GM must place the crystal ball, copper brazier, and lower piece of the staff where the characters can find them. Once a character touches the crystal ball, the scene described on the previous page will occur." Then there's a cutscene where they meet the Goat Lord who tells them they've found half of the Staff of Rulership and the second half is in his lair. To open in it they must complete another task that is completely outside the scope of the adventure as presented. "The Goat Lord’s task requires the characters to obtain a piece from a dryad’s tree and ignite it with 'living fire, such as from a fire elemental." Everflowing Curtain gives no suggestion as to how the PCs may come across these things or what sorts of adventures they may have along the way. It's like the first half of the adventure is just missing. There are some real "draw the rest of the owl" vibes.
Look, if your adventure requires another one or two adventures to set it up, either write those adventures or figure out another setup. I don't think many people are going to put in the work over a few sessions to build up to what is a (spoiler alert) very mediocre 16-room dungeon.
The central puzzle of the dungeon is set up in the first room - four animal constellations are projected onto the ceiling that correspond to the four cardinal directions. In the rooms that are in those directions, the PCs must press the correct constellation in order to open a door and proceed.
The puzzle's first problem is in the way it's described. "Investigating the relief reveals a handful of constellations amongst the stars. A Wisdom check (MB: test Presence) can narrow the number of relevant constellations the character recognizes depending on the level of success. The star representing a snake’s fangs is more pronounced than most around it." Imagine you're a GM describing this to a player and you tell them "there's a handful of constellations" and ask for a WIS check (DC: not found). Then depending on how high they roll, I guess you have to just make up a bunch of constellations and include the snake. And then they press on the snake and open the door. I don't like this because a) it relies on a somewhat arbitrary skill check and b) isn't clear about the choices available. There's a bit too much reliance on the GM fiat and not enough on the player's own abilities.
The puzzle's second problem is that there are no consquences for a wrong answer. So if you tell the player there are 5 constellations they can just hammer them all until something happens. It doesn't actually matter if they have the wits to solve it or even if they roll well on the WIS check. I think a better solution might be a just a random scattering of stars, and the PC needs to draw the correct constellation. If they draw the right one, the door opens. If they draw the wrong one, that animal shows up to fight them. Not sure how that would work since one of the animals is a whale but it would definitely be hilarious.
Room descriptions are often lacking key information and important details are relegated to the bullet points below. Although there's no sign of it in the textual room description, the map for room 6 shows a large chest. One of the bullets underneath the description tell us there's an "enormous" treasure stash (consisting of a single roll on the 0-3 treasure table), but offers no information on where or how it might be found. Slapping an icon on the map is not enough. If there's something that important in the room, you need to describe it. What if you're playing theater of the mind? What if the players are mapping?
Another room has four robed skeletons standing at attention, but they're omitted from the initial description. It's the first thing the PCs are likely to noticed but the way it's written, the GM is probably going to give the room description and then say "oh yeah and there's four skeletons in robes standing around". And only if the GM even reads that far ahead before throwing it back to the players to state their actions. Otherwise they're going to investigating the room before the GM says, "Hold up... uhhh... everyone roll initiative." Something obvious and important like NPCs or potential combatants should be stated upfront.
Besides the aforementioned puzzle, a few of the rooms are sort of interesting. A floor covered in poisonous snakes is a bit tropey but is also a nice open-ended challenge. And a room with several scrying mirrors is a nice opportunity for the GM to seed some future adventures. There's good variety here and even the rooms with the constellation puzzles typically have something else going on. One room has a really well-designed secret door where there are four statues, each holding a book. Three are already opened, and opening the fourth opens the door. Sure beats "roll WIS", or as is often the case, the presence of a secret door with no further explanation or elaboration.
But the titular Everflowing Curtain is a bit of a letdown. In the final room there's a waterfall (the curtain) and the second half of the Staff of Rulership. When the PCs take it, d3 lizardfolk and a giant snake attack. This is an adventure for level 3-4. At most we have 11 levels of monsters against probably 12-16 levels of PCs, making it an average encounter if all the baddies show up. And... that's it. Take your magic staff and go home.
So in addition the poorly designed puzzle and unclear room keys, it's all a bit boring. There are no dynamic elements to the dungeon - no one to talk to, no clocks counting down, no interesting lore to uncover. Not even a terrible amount of danger. Half of the adventure isn't even there.
On a scale of 2-12, Inside the Everflowing Curtain gets 4 stingbats.
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