Cave of Seiljua (OSR)
This is a one-page-dungeon; as such, the dungeon and all text literally fit on, well, one page. There are no stats here, with monster-names bolded instead; the map is hand-drawn, in full-color, and surprisingly well-done – while a player-friendly, key-less version on a second page would have been appreciated, I still was positively surprised by the map.
As per usual, I don’t expect a pdf of this brevity to provide earth-shaking stories or the like. The adventure assumes a gold standard. Spells and magic items are not perfectly formatted.
This being an adventure-review, the following contains SPOILERS. Potential players should jump to the conclusion.
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Okay, only GMs around? Great!
The adventure assumes a loosely Nordic backdrop; Skorri, a huscarl, wants his name cleared of an accusation made by Ragnar…who promptly failed to appear before the Thing (or, originally, þing – the proto-parliament/court/etc.). The jarl of the huscarl, Fridgeir, wants the PCs to retrieve Ragnar – alive. (And we even get a bit of flavorful read-aloud text as justification why.)
Fridgeir assumes that Ragnar has hidden in the Caves of Seiluja – minor know-it-all nitpick: “Soul” in Norse translates to “sál”, not “seiljua”…but anyways, the cavern complex is actually pretty flavorful, particularly given the limitations of this humble adventure: Strange pictures on the wall, piles of bones and nasty trolls; we even get brief descriptive flourishes to set the individuals apart, which is neat indeed. Ragnar, btw., is grievously harmed and pummeled – which is particularly relevant if the PCs play this as an infiltration of sorts…his broken leg will slow them down…
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting, while not perfect, are okay. I noticed a couple of minor hiccups. Layout adheres to a two-column landscape-ish presentation, with the map as a third, smaller column. The pdf has no bookmarks, but needs none at this length. Tim Shorts provides a nice little sidetrek here: Whether you’re playing in some sort of quasi-Scandinavia, Storm Bunny’s stormpunk-setting Rhûne or Frog God Games’ superb Northlands Saga, this makes for a neat diversion. Heck, even in another context, it only takes minor reskinning to make this work in other climates, though the module would lose a bit of its charm. This may not be a world-shaker, but know what? It’s FREE. As in: “Costs nothing.” Taking that into account, I definitely suggest taking a look at this. My final verdict will be 4 stars.
You can get this mini-adventure for FREE here on OBS!
Endzeitgeist out.
