Review: Bloodstones - The Crown of Blood and Ice
Today we’re looking at Bloodstones - The Crown of Blood and Ice by Legend of Talik. This is the third published adventure in the “Bloodstones campaign”, for levels 3-4. I haven’t read any of the others but this one had neat cover art so here we go. As near as I can tell after reading it, there aren’t a lot of references to the previous chapters.
The upshot is that the party is trying to track down a powerful artifact called the Bloodstone of Ice Blast. There’s three ways to kick things off - 1) someone just tells them where it is, 2) they pass a DC 20 INT check to translate a journal or 3) you give the party the journal entry and ask them to complete a 2,000 character substitution cipher to translate it themselves. None of these seem like terribly engaging or fun options.
Above the 20-room dungeon there is a four-level watchtower. Two pages are devoted to the map although each room is just a square. Contents are randomized. “Something else could be nesting here? Refer to the d10 chart on the next page for what that might be?” Hate to be a word asshole again but these are not questions. And rather than give me a d10 table with somewhat obvious entries (goblins, harpies, etc), I’d rather have one, really good idea. The players aren’t going to play this more than once, so randomization here is kind of pointless.
For random encounters in the dungeon, we are told “Refer to the Random Encounters rules from SDCB pages #112-113 or roll a d20 on the chart below once for every chamber the Crawlers enter.” The first entry on the random encounter table is “1-10: The chamber or section is empty at that time.” Following the RAW Shadowdark method means your actual rate of encounters is cut in half, and following the method suggested by the book fails to apply the requisite time pressure to the party. If you’re running this, use the RAW method and roll 1d10 on the 2nd half of the table. The encounters themselves are pretty good - nicely varied and each with a little bit of interest beyond “2d6 stingbats”.
We run into problems right in the first room. There is a trap with this description:
“At the far end of the chamber, a short rise of steps leads to a shadowed alcove. There looms the Veiled Watcher, a hooded statue carved from black marble, standing 20 feet tall. Its face is obscured beneath a deep cowl, creating an immediate and unsettling sense of being watched. Any Crawler who looks into the darkness beneath the hood feels as though something unseen is gently probing their thoughts. A soft whisper follows, warm and familiar, like a loving mother calling to her child. Crawlers will need to roll a DC 12 WIS test or become transfixed, staring into the statue’s void-like face and listens to its alluring voice.
To break free, the affected Crawler must succeed on a second DC 12 WIS test. If they fail, role-play out a pleasant scene or memory from their past as if it was real: ‘You find yourself in front of your home. Laughter fills the air as you play with friends. Suddenly, you hear your mother’s voice calling you inside for dinner. The promise of warmth and comfort pulls you forward. You see her standing in the doorway with open arms and smiling, welcoming you home. You feel safe. You feel happy. What do you do?’
Other Crawlers may notice something is wrong. Their companion has not moved, eyes locked upward, body rigid, utterly entranced by the statue’s hidden gaze. They must intervene to break the trance and pull their friend back from the Watcher’s embrace… before the memory becomes something far more dangerous.”
I have so many questions, starting with: What is the purpose of this trap? It isn’t guarding any treasure or alternate path. How do you expect a player to answer the question, “what do you do?” in this context? What is the actual danger? What happens if they don't snap out of it? Nothing dangerous is described. What can end the transfixation?
When you’re coming up with a trap, or any other feature of a dungeon, you have to carefully consider how it will play out at the table. You need to try and anticipate how the players will respond, what questions they might have and what reason do they have for interacting with it in the first place. And perhaps most importantly, you need to consider whether that interaction will have any sort of lasting impact. If the answer is no, then maybe it doesn’t need to be included.
Room descriptions are written entirely in prose and are essentially a wall of text. There is no effort to prioritize information or to delineate what is meant for players and what is meant for GMs. No bolding or bullets. It is honestly surprising to see such ignorance of basic information design principles given the many wonderful examples of well-formatted dungeons that are freely available. I don’t mind reading. I have a tolerance for wordiness that goes well beyond the OSE style of terse phrases. But if I were to run this I’d have to attack it with a highlighter and make copious notes in order to translate what’s on the page to something I can use at the table. Really reorganize the entire thing.
In addition to the lack of informational hierarchy, the room keys are full of unnecessary details. Hunter Spiders mate for life and live to be 10 years old. Good to know. That will be relevant if the PCs want to marry one, or if they stay in this dungeon for more than a decade. In the “interrogation room” we read “It was said that most who were witnessed entering this chamber were never seen again. Usually tortured to death or lead off to the Grand Hall and used in duels of combat for sport; or worse yet, taken to the Temple and sacrificed to the dark and sinister ShadowLord.” Is that something the PCs can learn here? Does it impact any choices they will need to make? No? THEN LEAVE IT OUT.
Conversely, important details are missing everywhere. A necromancer raises the corpse of a dark elf queen to undeath. What stat block should we use? Not mentioned. One monster clings to the ceiling and threatens to drop PCs. How far do they fall? No idea.
Despite the page-long room descriptions, there isn’t much to do in most of them. Maybe a secret door here or a random treasure there. Many of them are effectively empty and the player’s primary interaction with this adventure will be listening to the GM, I guess. Or watching them read the book with a furrowed brow as they try and suss out what, if anything, in the room is relevant to the PCs.
In one place “Strange contraptions fill the room, arranged with meticulous intent rather than chaos. Slender frameworks of black iron rise from the floor like skeletal trees, fitted with articulated arms and clamps, designed to adjust with precise and unhurried cruelty. Some devices have runes etched along their surfaces glowing dimly as if eager for use.” Neat! What are the devices? What do they do? This would be the perfect place to put some weird stuff for the PCs to experiment with, but we get nothing. Many of the rooms are effectively empty, filled only with words.
All throughout there’s an over-reliance on asking the GM to fill in the details. When investigating the bedroom of a dark elf usurper we read “See SDCB pages #269-279 to determine what loot Vesstra might have left behind.” It doesn’t even tell us what level table to use. Nope. Absolutely not. The author should decide what’s there and make it cool. That’s their job. That’s what you’re signing up for when you decide to publish an adventure for others to use. In another place, if the party restores a dwarven hammer to its owner it will bring back memories long forgotten. OK, what are the memories? How do they benefit the PCs or what do they teach them? There isn’t just an expectation that the author will provide this information, it’s also an opportunity to reward the PCs and build the world out a bit. But it’s wasted.
The titular Bloodstone is found in a room that is covered in ice. We’re told that it can be freed by inflicting 50 hp of damage and that hits are automatic. Again, let’s imagine how this plays out at the table - the party rolls up and just starts making damage rolls until the total is high enough. This is the part of the adventure where everything they’ve learned in the dungeon, any allies they’ve made, any risks they’ve taken, should finally pay off. But there is no real opportunity for creativity here. No decision or sacrifice to be made and no challenge to be conquered. Just roll the dice a few times and off you go.
If the party happens to turn right when they enter the dungeon, they will make it to the artifact and only encounter a single pit trap. No monsters, no NPCs, no other challenges besides random encounters. There are some optional planned “scenes” where a group of rival crawlers has arrived right before the party does, or right after.
The rivals are the saving grace of the whole affair. One of a few scenarios suggested by the adventure has the party meet the rivals in a tavern prior to the dungeon and ask for their help to reclaim their stronghold that was stolen by forbidden, dark magic. Then to have them betray the party at an opportune moment. That is absolutely the way to go if you run this, and maybe the only way to inject a little adventure into this… adventure.
There’s just not a lot to work with here. Heavy on words and light on gameplay. At least there is an abundance of really excellent art throughout.
On a scale of 2-12, Bloodstones - The Crown of Blood and Ice gets 4 stingbats.
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