Seems like only a couple days ago I posted last week’s reviews… and now more of them! Only four this time. But, one of them was unlike any foundry we’d ever played before.
Swamp of the Lost by @hellscold
Alrica, the Pie Lady in the Seven Suns market, has lost track of her cousin, Jarred (or Jarrod, as becomes clear once you get into the quest). Jarrod was hurrying back to Neverwinter with a wagonload of the rarest Sembia silk at Alrica’s demand, but… she believes it is possible he took a shortcut through the Hillman’s Road, the road that travels through the dread Swamp of the Lost. Did he put Alrica’s needs above his own safety? That’s what Kasul and I were tasked with discovering.
“Swamp of the Lost” is a short, straightforward adventure. There’s lots of tweaks that could be made — fixing Jarrod’s name, deciding whether his horse is brown or white, the weird emphasis on retrieving the silk, directions that ask you to go northwest but lead you northeast, average encounters… Nothing particularly stands out, but nothing’s particularly wrong about it.
It was an average quest for us, so we both rated it three stars. Players have rated it 4.32 stars, which is well above average. If you liked lionhaert777’s “A Cold, Dark Place”, you might find this to your liking as well.
Pros: A somewhat dark ending
Cons: Could use a lot of little fixes.
Dead World by @Asasin_X
Strange lights in the forest are freaking out the residents of a nearby town. Naturally, the only people who can investigate are me and Kasul. We quickly headed into the sewer for some reason to get to the forest, and followed some streetlights to a hidden necromancer camp. Negotiations proved fruitful, and we headed to the town to collect our reward…. Well, nobody said this quest would be easy. The typically incompetent town leadership and all the citizens were entirely unable to deal with several simultaneous existential threats.
My feeling is, if you can’t protect your town, you shouldn’t be allowed to have one. But, we muddled through.
Kasul and I felt the lights in the forest portion of the quest and the dealing with the incompetence of the dorks in the town part of the quest really seemed like two separate quests. The town map, however, was completely custom, but never really felt very alive. The forest map was shrouded in a dark cloud effect that made it hard to really appreciate it. Some female NPC undresses and throws herself at you as your “reward”, so if you’re into that, this is a thing that happens.
This quest is still in the review tab as of this writing, so its ratings haven’t had a chance to settle down, and the author is still actively developing the quest. Kasul and I rated it three stars.
Pros: Handmade town map
Cons: Feels like two separate quests.
Ocean Caverns by @darkestdays9
A powerful guild of wizards has lost one of their own in a dungeon not far from town. They, being wizards, clearly have no business being in a dungeon. Thankfully Kasul and I came by to help.
Turns out the ocean caves, a decorated version of Gnarlroot’s Lair, are home to a vile sorceress, Morgana, who has enslaved earth elementals to help her harness the power of a number of glowing crystals. All we have to do is kill Morgana and her minions, free the earth elementals, search for crystals throughout the dungeon, wonder about how earth elementals see a bridge where we see a wall, kill Morgana again, and continually wonder how it was that a guild of wizards couldn’t manage this task.
Never met a control wizard who didn’t claim they could solo even the toughest elite dungeon… in five minutes… afk…!
There were a lot of trash encounters, and a LOT of running around looking for those crystals. We split up to find them, after we pulled all the trash encounters to a cul-de-sac and killed them all at once. We both rated this quest three stars. The community, however, has rated it at 4.13 stars. If you enjoyed this quest, why not give Alexstark78’s “A dark conspiracy” a try?
Pros: Some subtle squid puns near the end
Cons: Lots of trash and running around
The Family Farm by @Longshire
The family farm has been in your family for generations. The last of the old generation has finally passed away, and now it’s harvest time, the busiest time of the year for you and your siblings. With your days filled with tending to animals, harvesting crops and going to market, adventuring couldn’t be further from your thoughts. Unfortunately, Fate isn’t done with you quite yet.
This quest is made for at least two players, one of which accepts the mantle of Dungeon Master and is given the tools to manipulate the map and the story based on how the other players approach the quest’s separate puzzles.
Kasul was the DM for this run; I played his loyal sister. It was a totally new experience. Sure, there were glitches — I had to suicide a couple of times in order to get out of places I should not have been to so soon. I have this habit, with foundries, of avoiding random encounters, and that wasn’t in the cards, here. Also, Kasul’s unfamiliarity with the quest had him accidentally triggering things before they were due a couple of times. But we managed to make it through.
As a player, I was often times just sitting around while Kasul tried to absorb all the quest details and figure out how to roleplay the plot to me. Kasul, for his part, felt overwhelmed by all he had to do. Nonetheless, the scope of the quest and the originality of its implementation dwarfed any of the glitches we encountered. Five stars from both of us.
Pros: The first quest I’ve played that actually feels like D&D.
Cons: The person playing the DM has a lot of stuff to keep track of.
….>.^>…^>.<.^<^.>..>^.^.>.<^..>.^>^.^^
The median score for all the reviewed quests was 4.22. The average score was 4.17. Writing music tonight: ODESZA, “In Return”. The permanent link to the full list of reviews is right here: http://goo.gl/XbV9hj
