Review: Curse of the Velvet Morning

 


Today we're looking at Curse of the Velvet Morning by Dave Silberstein. It is a small region-based adventure for levels 1-3, focused around investigation and mystery.

This one's a bit different from the usual fare. For one thing, it doesn't have any dungeons. surprisedpikachu.gif For another thing, we are told right off the bat that it's inspired by Lee Hazlewood’s song “Some Velvet Morning”, but actually it goes a step further as Lee Hazlewood, a singer-songwriter from The Real World™ features heavily in the adventure. More on that later.

The setup is that a shadow demon is using a dryad to lure mortals and feed on their dreams. This includes Lee Hazlewood from 20th-century Earth, whom the dryad has summoned and fallen in love with. Every morning after the demon feeds, the sky turns crimson, crops fail, birds die, etc. The provided hooks all center on getting to the bottom of this apparent curse.

The adventure begins with an optional encounter on the road to the village. The PCs are attacked four cursed rabbits with sharp fangs.

Look, most people in this hobby have probably seen Monty Python and the Holy Grail once or twice or forty times. So the appearance of fanged, ravenous rabbits is going to set a tone. A tone that is definitely at odds with the rest of the adventure. I would skip this one.

From there we arrive at the village of Braeloch. Although the town has a map with 16 numbered locations, none get an actual key - instead we get one word like "Cooper" or "Stable". We're told to give whatever NPCs the party encounters a name, traits and a rumor from the table. This is where some time spent with random tables like the D30 Sandbox Companion would go a long way. But it should be the author not the GM that is putting in this work. As it is, we're only given two named NPCs beyond Lee Hazlewood, and even for him we aren't given any guidance as to what information he might reveal. 

This part of the adventure is supposed to be an investigation, but it doesn't matter who the party talks to or where they go. The whole thing boils down to a few rolls on the rumor table. I would love to see some fleshed out NPCs and some clues that are discoverable through actual investigation rather than random chance. The saving grace of the otherwise under-described town are the random encounters. These are very well done, providing both world-building and hooks to areas outside of town. I would probably use all 10 were I running this.

From here, the adventure moves to the surrounding region and the party will have a few places to follow up on - the witch, the herbalist, and maybe some rowdy satyrs. The witch just straight up knows everything that's going on, but she has a couple of sidequests that need to be completed before she spills the beans. The first is catching a corrupted pregnant sow. It's exactly the kind of open-ended challenge I like to see. The second is even better - hunting a unicorn. This is the real meat of the adventure - both a dilemma and a challenge. The heart of the unicorn can be used in a ritual to learn the shadow demon's true name, allowing the PCs to banish it for what is probably the happiest ending to the whole affair. But capturing and killing a unicorn is known to have dire consequences. The herbalist also has some sidequests although they're a bit less compelling.

Depending on who else they talk to and what they believe, the PCs may come to the conclusion that Phaedra is the source of the troubles and needs to be dealt with. There are several ways things could play out, from making a deal with the demon to battling it out with the writer of "These Boots Were Made for Walking". Whatever happens is likely to cause some lively debate at the table and have lasting consequences in the game.

This aspect of the adventure is done very well - it sets up some really interesting decisions with valid arguments to be made on all sides. There are the sort of dramatic choices that a purely location-based adventure is rarely able to provide. So although this isn't a traditional Shadowdark dungeon, there's certainly something worthwhile and memorable here.

The shadow hanging over the whole thing, for me, is the inclusion of a real historical person in a fantasy world. It's certainly a trope, even as the adventure itself calls out, but I think it's unnecessary and doesn't really enhance the adventure in any way. I am absolutely inspired by music when I sit down to design an adventure or even just to GM, and I am not opposed to writing an adventure that borrows elements of a song. But I think there are two possibilities from including someone like Lee Hazlewood in your adventure: 1) the players are familiar with him and his work, and his inclusion destroys immersion 2) the players are not familiar with him (and he's not exactly a household name in 2026) and the big reveal lands with an indifferent thud.

If I were to run this, I would replace Mr. Hazlewood with a bard inspired by the real life musician, and leave out the whole bit about someone being transported from 20th century Earth. I don't think the adventure would suffer for it, and it would avoid some potential weirdness that seems implausible even within the established tropes of the implied dark fantasy setting of Shadowdark, as well as the inevitable "am I supposed to know who that is?" from the vast majority of players. Of course I'm only speaking for myself - if you think your table would have fun with that sort of thing, go absolutely nuts.

I also feel obligated to mention, both for my readers and for the author, that this adventure includes AI-generated images. Putting aside any ethical concerns, I can say from experience that the TTRPG community, and especially the old-school/indie community, has little tolerance for that. I have heard more than once that having no artwork is preferable to AI images, and its inclusion will limit the reach of anything you publish. The siren song of free, fast images is alluring but there are better alternatives and these are just a few: 

Besides all that, I think the skeleton of this adventure is strong, and it does a great job of driving to some very impactful decisions that the players will need to make. But we need a little more flesh on these bones. It reads a bit to much like a GM's session notes (which is how it began) rather than a properly polished adventure. The town and the entire first act needs more detail. There's a group of 60 satyrs but not a single one is named. The overland map has no scale and travel times are not listed. It could really use a small, keyed location or two. There are some wonderful random encounters and sidequests, though. Worth a look, even if you don't run it as-is.

On a scale of 2-12, Curse of the Velvet Morning gets 6 stingbats.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/545288/curse-of-the-velvet-morning

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