Review 31: Rise of the Blood Olms
When it comes to adventure locales, caves are second only to swamps in my book. And the adventure I'm reviewing next, Rise of the Blood Olms, has the added benefit of the caves being mucky and muddy! This adventure was written by Yochai Gal for his own system Cairn, which is what I ran it with.
The general premise of this adventure is that the PCs have been tasked with finding out what happened to an expeditionary team sent to investigate a cave system. More importantly, the party must recover a valuable relic known as the Mud Sieve, which the team had in their possession.
Getting it to the Table
I was very much looking forward to running this one as soon as it was released, because it feels very much as though it was written with all of the fine-tuning and development that has gone into the second edition of Cairn. One of the key features of the new edition is the absolute wealth of advice provided for running the game, and this is evident in the adventure as well.
It opens with some re-statements of the Cairn principles that are focused on the concept of dungeon exploration, and then moves immediately into concise bullet points and a "What's Really Going On?" section that provide the Warden with all of the background info needed-- all of this takes up half a page, which is a refreshing change from the multi-page lore dumps of many modern modules. This is followed by a page of "Warden Information" which provides more context for some elements of the adventure, including a small dramatis personae.
The map and details of the dungeon itself follow, and are an excellent example of a brief and concise style that conveys a great deal of information in a small space. One particularly nice feature is the "Dungeon Overview" that details the standard environmental conditions (light sources, entrances, hazards) as well as some guidance for how the Dungeon Event roll (from the 2e exploration procedures) should be interpreted in this particular location.
The area keys are clean and consistent, with an introductory paragraph with points of interest in bold text, followed by bullet points detailing them and providing information gained from further interaction.
One minor nitpick I have is that I would have liked a minimap visible on each page simply to avoid having to flip back and forth to the map as the players moved to areas later on in the area key, but since the dungeon is relatively small it was not a major issue. In practice, my players ended up retracing their steps quite a bit in any case as they utilized the two different entrances to avoid hazardous areas.
Ultimately, this was absolutely painless to bring to the table for my game-- I read through it once when I originally downloaded it, and then just picked it up and ran it at game time. All of the information that I needed was clear and accessible and helped to showcase the procedures and principles that have been made part of the second edition of Cairn. I feel confident that a person who is relatively new to running adventure games would find this very easy to prepare and run because of the amount of thought and care that was put into it.
What Worked?
- Efficient and concise area keys. No space is wasted, everything is useful and informative, and it is easy to reference at a glance.
- Low bar of entry for new Wardens. Re-stating the Cairn principles specifically for the methodology of what will happen in the adventure is very helpful, and I could see this as a great teaching tool for people who want to get into the hobby.
- RUSAL. Primo weird little guy. Interacting with him was the thing that tied the events of the adventure together for my players, and they accepted his gross little boon with reverence and respect.
What Didn't Work?
- I would have liked a mini map with the relevant areas highlighted on each page, but it was not a deal-breaker by any means.
- I feel that the "Dungeon Overview" section could have benefited from a little more guidance for how to apply other results on the Dungeon Event table besides just "Encounter". For example, the "Environment" result is one that I often see people asking about when looking for Warden advice, as it can be a bit more abstract and dependent on the specific location that is being explored. I think that a few examples of what could happen in a cave system like this would have been nice to have, particularly thinking of it through the eyes of a brand-new player learning how to run a game.
Final Thoughts
Like most great adventure modules, this one simply presents you with a situation and guidelines for what might happen when the players interact with it. Using it with the Cairn 2e exploration procedures really allowed it to shine as it felt more dynamic and alive. Some of that ended up being just pure luck; throughout the first segment of the adventure, I kept rolling sixes on the Dungeon Event table (Quiet; the party is left alone) with the occasional "torch goes out" result. But then, after the party had met the normal olms and was beginning to understand what needed to be done to restore the balance in the cave, they had their first "Encounter" result and their first meeting with a blood olm after seeing the painted depiction in the olm den. The Fieldwarden scared it away with her clatter keeper, learning how valuable that was in this environment, and they moved towards the dam through the olm den. That was when the second "Encounter" result came up-- two blood olms this time, intrigued by the new scent in the caves. But the regular olms, starved and fatigued as they were, did their best to fend off these abominations, and gave the party a helpful edge. This all came up as a result of random rolls, but it felt almost as though I could have scripted it.
You can get Rise of the Blood Olms from Yochai's itch page and I highly recommend it! Thanks for reading!