Review 16: Elzemon and the Blood-Drinking Box
Back to Goodman Games land! This time, we will take a look at "Elzemon and the Blood-Drinking Box" written by Terry Olson for Dungeon Crawl Classics. Art is by Doug Kovacs and Stefan Poag, and cartography is also by Doug Kovacs. I acquired this one as part of a compilation of adventures meant to take players from levels 1-5, and I am not aware of whether it was released separately or not. This particular adventure is intended for level 1 PCs, and I ran it as such using DCC.
This is a rather short adventure, coming it at only 6 pages counting the maps page, and the fact that it is a fairly contained series of encounters makes it perfect for one-shots or convention games. The premise is also fairly simple to insert into a longer campaign: the PCs are hired by a wizard to steal a magic item from a rival. Simple enough, but the twist is that the box must be "fed" a significant amount of Lawful blood in order to stay functional.
Getting it to the Table
It's a Goodman Games adventure, so I'll just say "wordiness" and move on. An advantage that this one has is that it's pretty linear by design, so it is fairly straightforward to prep the encounter areas without having to do a whole lot of thinking in order to be able to adapt to PCs that are going to take an unexpected route. Overall, there is a nice variety in the encounters and all of the information you need for each one is present in the area description. The solution to the puzzle in the first area (plus what happens if you try to bypass it without fulfilling the terms of the puzzle) is right there for you, as are the stat blocks for the various combat encounters.
The encounter that took the most thinking about in terms of getting it ready to present to the players was the massive staircase spiraling down into the darkness. This is intended to be a two day journey with several things happening along the way. I had to think about what it would mean in terms of the party's preparation (torches, rations, etc), as well as good ways to pace the events that happen during the descent. My favorite aspect of that bit is the "harassment table" of all of the things inflicted on the party as they try to sleep. My advice would be to sketch out a timeline of the two day descent, and mark times when you want things to happen so that you can appropriately build the tension. Another fun addition to the module was a sidebar detailing some of the dimensions of the staircase and cavern, in case the players want to get creative and try to find shortcuts.
The remainder of the module's encounters are fairly straightforward, interesting battles in weird locations (fighting bat-demons next to a massive guano pile suspended over an acidic lake full of leeches, cool), and the discovery of the titular box, which requires 5hp worth of Lawful blood per day, otherwise the shadow trapped inside is released and angry. This then leads to the agonizing climb back up the spiral stairs, with most of the same sorts of hazards unless the party dealt with the creatures on the way down. Interestingly, the module itself is laid out in an entirely linear fashion, with the trip up the stairs getting a separate section from the trip down. Finally, once the party brings the box back to the surface, they're given a nice alternative option of what to do with it-- they can choose to betray the wizard and bring the box to a temple for a different sort of reward. This is a great addition to put in any adventure, because it provides the GM with some ready-made plot hooks to drive further questing.
What Worked?
- Contained play space-- linear, but not necessarily railroading (as I wrote about in Creep Skrag Creep)
- Stat blocks where you need them
- Alternative conclusion options, that can lead off to new adventures
What Didn't Work?
- Maps at the end of the adventure. Also, my usual pet peeve about Goodman Games maps in that they are beautiful maps but you can't really show them to the players because they have secret rooms and other features plainly shown on them.
- Pretty much only combat encounters. Can easily be changed by an industrious GM though.
Final Thoughts
This was one of the first DCC adventures that I played as a player, and I was impressed by how different it felt from what I considered to be a standard fantasy adventure at the time. The endless staircase gave me a very "House of Leaves" feeling, and the lair of the gross wizard felt very vivid and full of personality compared to the vanilla stuff I had seen prior to this. I think this is a good introduction to the style of play that you see in Dungeon Crawl Classics-- generally a sort of parade of cool set pieces and weird fantasy tropes that are probably going to be solved by cool combat or maybe some puzzles.
You can get the "Chaos Rising" adventure compilation that includes Elzemon and the Blood-Drinking Box" at the Goodman Games web store. Thanks for reading!