My commentary on “Keep on the Borderlands and Caves of Carnage SUPERCUT” first edition

This splendid recreation of an actual play has many good ideas for darker role-playing campaigns.

 

Note:  I prefer playing and game mastering heroic fantasy and light-hearted campaigns.  Thus, while I sometimes like campaigns with horror elements, I dislike grim and dark campaigns.  There are good reasons why Professor Tolkien started “The Lord of the Rings” in the Shire, instead of Mordor.

 

Note:  Moreover, Professor DM created a Kobayashi Maru, a no-win situation or lose–lose situation, with a real downer ending that might cause the player characters to become, in the eyes of the national leaders, their most wanted criminals.  I promise to all my current and future players that as a game master that I will never run a Kobayashi Maru situation.

 

Note:  There is no way that a community as large as the Keep would not have a building, as well as priests and priestesses, for worshipping the Lawful gods.

 

In an earlier episode, not included here, a “Civil War” is mentioned.  Yet, that Civil War never impacts the player characters in any way.  Why not have the chapel remain standing; but the priests and priestesses of that chapel were recruited by force into the army of one of the factions fighting for control of the lawful nation?  Also, why not have the Civil War wartime economy alter the lives of the player characters; such as the price of metal goods and weapons double in price?

 

Imagine that Iuz the Old, half-fiend tyrant-god of the land of Iuz killed a lawful god, and then in the disguise of that lawful god, took over that lawful religion.  Iuz declares through his priests and priestesses that mages are evil and must be killed.  Then, Iuz uses devious messages that mages are welcome in Iuz’s kingdom.  Iuz’s subtle recruitment of mages reduces the combat strength of that lawful nation, while increasing the combat strength of his nation.  That “Iuz as thoughtful deceiver” is a campaign narrative arc that player characters can work for or against.

 

I like the idea of the Caves of Carnage having Moonstone, an alien stone brought to this world by the impact of a massive meteorite thousands of years ago.  The Moonstone is described as “The primary ingredient in potions of speed and healing.  It's also a powerful mutagen capable of turning hominids and animals into monsters.  That's why most of the monsters of these caves are mutated Neanderthals and indigenous wildlife.”

 

Moonstone solves many problems on how the Chaos priest keeps his followers busy, while earning money to purchase food and other supplies from ethically gray merchants who live in the Keep.  My hat is off to Professor DM who has improved upon an already enjoyable to play module.

 

Yet, as important as the mine is to the Professor DM's campaign, the mine itself is not described at all.  Where is the Moonstone mined?  Where is the Moonstone separated from the waste rock?

 

To remedy this slight oversight, I would have the ravine become an open-pit mining site.  The caves themselves remain as they are described in the module.  The cave’s inhabitants are the miners, who take great care to pass themselves off to visitors as “reformed and lawful” humans and humanlike species, working in harmony to better the Lawful nation.

 

The mining site has no trees, cut down long ago for building the ore grinder mill, the mining carts, and other objects. 

 

Note:  If you think about it, even in a normal campaign, years ago all the trees in the ravine would have been cut down by the cave’s inhabitants for cooking fires, heating the caves, and making everyday objects and weapons that use wood, like cudgels and spear shafts.

 

The rock, with Moonstone inside of it, is moved from the mine to the mill’s hammer rock crushers by a 2 track, granite tramway with grooves cut into granite blocks, shaped to guide the wheels of horse-drawn wagons.  This tramway is based upon the actual Haytor Granite Tramway; built to convey granite from Haytor Down, Dartmoor, Devon to the Stover Canal.

 

“The Haytor Tramway was constructed to carry the granite 10 miles (16 km) to the canal, which involved a falling vertical interval of 1,300 feet (400 m) to the basin of the Stover Canal.”  This fictional tramway is much shorter in distance and is almost level from mine to mill.

 

The Moonstone mill, with 3 large and thunderous hammer rock crushers, is powered by three water wheels powered by the river current.  The water wheels power rock crushers that crush the rocks into fine particles, to separate the Moonstone from the worthless rock.  River water is then used to separate the Moonstone from the worthless rock that is dumped into the river, to be carried downriver by the current.

 

Also, extracted daily is 3d6 gold coins worth of copper, iron, and nickel.  The smithy buys this metal and then makes metal objects from this metal.

 

There is a barn that is the home to sixteen horses, sixteen side-tipping carts, and 4 luxury passenger open-air coaches, for 9 passengers for each coach (3 bench seats that have seats for 3 passengers each bench).

 

There is a visitors’ office where humans give visitors walking tours of the Moonstone mill and a smooth ride on the tramway for 1 silver coin per person and 2 silver coins per coach.  The tour loops around in the mine; but the passengers are not allowed to leave the coaches.  There are double tracks, reversing loops at each end of the tramway.

 

This visitors’ office keeps the legal papers for the mining rights to Moonstone in a safe room.  Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, the Chaos priest can be found here between the hours of 10 AM and 2 PM.  He will interact with visitors, business owners, and government officers as his professional alter ego of a lawful-aligned business owner.  He wears a white 3 piece business suit on warm days and a black 2 piece business suit on cold days.  The Chaos priest uses the profits from Moonstone to fund the Chaos war on the Lawful nation.

 

It is possible for the muscular player characters to get hired as day workers, for educated people to work as clerks, and for those who can detect magic, to find areas in the mine rich in Moonstone.  Being magical in nature, Moonstone can be detected by the spell Detect Magic.

 

Note:  The hill here was leveled, and then a canal was cut into the earth to power the water wheels.

 

The Achilles' heel of the world’s only Moonstone mine is that the waste rock is dumped into the river that flows west to east into the heart of the lawful nation.  However, what nobody knows is that small amounts of Moonstone particles are also being dumped into the river, and then flow downstream.

 

As the water flows downstream, the Moonstone particles are mutating the water plants and fish and those animals, humans, and allied species that eat any of that river fish.  Without water purification magic, drinking this water will make animals and people sick.  This toxic water is also mutating any crops, such as rice and wheat into something beneficial 50% chance, and sometimes dangerous 50% chance.  This river combined with other smaller rivers, flow through the national capital and then into the nearby sea.

 

Note:  The Keep inhabitants get their water from upstream wells, and thus the Keep’s inhabitants are safe from the toxic waters.

 

With more and more toxic water poisoning cases happening along the nation’s widest river, lawful temple priests and priestesses or other important persons employ the local adventurers' guild, who then hires the player characters to put an end to whatever is making the water toxic.  The player characters start their adventure in the nation’s capital, inside a large and ornate guild hall.  They are loaned a river boat, powered by sail and magic, for transportation along the river and as a mobile bastion.

 

Note:  Any player character that has a Geology and/or Mining skill has a chance to realize that the open-pit mining site is a meteor impact site.  The player character has a double bonus if they have both skills.