Mini-Review: The Tragic Curse of Grimhill Fort for Shadowdark

So I ran a "They Met at a Tavern" pick-up game on Sunday through Meetup, but had a fleet of no-shows. Except the Shorter Half and my coworker Chris (better known as Frederick the currently-smoldering thief). But the ethos is to run for who shows. I was going to run The Howler, and had converted all the critters and challenges to Shadowdark (so I was a bit miffed at the spent effort - save it for later). 

But with two PCs (A Sea Wolf and a Warlock), something lighter might be suitable. Besides, both had already run through that adventure.

So I grabbed The Tragic Curse of Grimhill Fort by Reverse Ettin Games out of my folder to run. I'm not going to do a recap, other than to say that they got their asses handed to them a couple of times, and I flexed challenges a bit to avoid a mini-TPK. So first off - have more than two PCs. And perhaps a silver weapon or two, in case the ones in the adventure aren't found before they are needed...

Spoilers ahead.

The premise of the adventure is a suitable in media res/dive into the scenario. A storm is coming, you're miles from town. Oh look, a ruined fort. 

Setup-wise, it's a flexible little adventure. Twelve encounter areas, with three access points. Our heroes, of course, marched up to the front door, but that's not the only option to creep in. Two things are going on. First of all, the ruins are currently occupied by a bandit gang. And secondly, the fort is haunted by a pair of star-crossed doomed lovers. You know the story.

So the adventure combines either rooting out or avoiding the bandits, and through treasures and planted clues, sussing out the fate and raison d'etre for the two undead of note. Our heroes bravely fled from the bandits, shanked another one, and almost succumbed to everyone's favorite bloodsucking pest. They were able to avoid a couple of hazards, and serendipitously collected the correct clues and put two and two together to end the haunting.

Confession, I hadn't looked closely at the adventure before running it, so everything was an on-the-fly stress test. That said, it's not too arduous to run in such a mode. 

With twelve rooms, several with some looping quality, the PCs can access/assault/skulk as necessary. Everything is presented in the room descriptions, such as opponent stats, narrative clues, and treasure. No flipping required. The descriptions are bullet-pointed for easy reading and provide good five-sense room flavor. Some timer implications are buried in room descriptions, particularly what the storm outside is doing. The adventure provides the typical modest Shadowdark treasure and magic.

So, the two questions: How does it run, and is it fun?

As I mentioned, I ran this sight-unseen, and made some challenge adjustments on the fly to fit two hapless PCs who couldn't roll to save their lives. As a twelve-room adventure fit into about six booklet pages, I recommend tucking it into our DM's go-bag as a one-shot or side adventure in case the PCs find themselves along the road between towns. It would also fit as a party's first adventure, as the 'new' adventurers have to work together to control the situation and solve the mystery. Now that I've run it, I will be much smoother on the presentation, but it can be run with minimal prep.

And is it fun? Well, my sample population of two had fun, even as they fled, mostly exsanguinated, through the back rooms and storm-beaten ruins. And they were able to put the doomed lovers to rest. And isn't that what everyone wants?