Reflections on Designing and Running Adventure Modules: Into the Mists
I recently finished running a module titled, accurately, if unimaginatively, Into the Mists, which I wrote because I wanted to run a Ravenloft adventure in my Legend of the Five Rings game. I thought it would be a great way to subvert expectations.
I had a vision of the mists rising up and transporting the PCs to an alien land, populated by strange people, and haunted by a grim night. Unfortunately, converting an official module was more work than I was willing to invest.
Not to be deterred, I wrote my own module that takes the PCs to a pocket dimension modeled on the Burning Sands. There, they meet three members of the Ki-Rin clan who say they know how to escape: enter the Temple of Blood and face the deadly puzzles contained within.
The module begins during a bloodspeaker army attack on shiro Usagi. The PCs are caught up in a spell cast by the bloodspeakers, causing the mists to rise up and transport them to the pocket dimension.
So, I kept the themes appropriate to bloodspeakers in mind as I designed the puzzles. Thus, many puzzled blood or bloodspeaker things in some way.
But that’s getting a bit ahead of things. First the PCs have to get to the Temple of Blood.
Shortly after finding themselves in the desert, the PCs meet three members of the Ki-Rin clan who claim that they were trapped in the dimension by an evil sorcerer so long ago that they have no idea how much time has passed. They know how to escape, but had been waiting for the necessary help.
The Ki-Rin play a number of important roles. They fill the characters in on the situation. They can give the players hints if they get stuck on a puzzle. They can heal the PCs, and maybe give them some Shadowlands taint. Finally, if you’re lucky, they can give you a laugh when they betray the PCs in the final room of the dungeon.
For those wondering, my PCs killed the Ki-Rin early on. Sadness.
After meeting the Ki-Rin and learning how to escape the pocket dimension, it was off to the Covenant Oasis to find the Temple of Blood.
Before arriving, the group encounters a single porcelain-masked zombie. This let the PCs understand how strong zombies are relative to their party, which is important since zombies show up more than once later.
Upon reaching the oasis, they find it guarded by a large number of zombies. I made a mistake here by presenting the PCs with a very open problem and then writing the adventure under the assumption that they would try a specific solution. I thought they would try to sneak in at night. Instead, they decided to tediously kite and fight all the zombies. I’ve kept the specific solution in the adventure and added a hint that maybe they should try it.
Once the final zombie was laid to rest, the party was able to solve the first puzzle at their leisure and gain access to the Temple.
The first puzzle was just about spilling some blood on the wall of the Temple.
However, it sets up an important reoccurring clue: a dark bloodstain. Dark stains appear throughout the adventure to indicate that the PCs might be able to use blood to do something for the puzzle.
Once inside, the PCs are presented with four corpses, a wall holding a bunch of masks and a vague hint.
The second puzzle presented the PCs with four corpses and a wall of masks.
The solution to the puzzle was to put the four wooden masks on the corpses. If they put one of the other, porcelain, masks on a corpse, it becomes a zombie.
I like this puzzle because, like most of these puzzles, it can be brute forced, but at a cost. In this case, you have to fight, potentially, eight zombies. I also love that the solution for the puzzle is hinted at by the earlier zombie encounters.
The puzzle also encourages players to interact with the environment, not just engage with the game’s mechanics.
No notes for this puzzle. One player intuited the basic solution immediately. After convincing the other players to put masks on corpses, they figured out which were the wooden masks and progressed quickly to the next room.
The third puzzle involves a lockbox, nine keys, and a painting depicting an important moment in the life of each Kami (the founders of the seven great clans, Hantei, and Fu Leng).
Each painting has certain details changed from the canonical story, which help the PCs determine which keys open the lockbox. Again, there is a brute-force check: each time they use the wrong key, they take damage. My PCs figured out a workaround, but I will patch that out when I update the adventure.
Overall, I was happy with how the puzzle went. It only took two tries to get the correct answer, but at least one player didn’t understand the answer. In the update, I’ll emphasize the details leading to the correct solution more.
The forth puzzle involved drinking tea and eating flowers.
The teas are all poisonous and have an antidote in the form of a flower. There is a limited supply of flowers, but a suspicious dark stain hints at a way to replenish the supply. In this case, it’s to drip blood into the soil. The solution was to drink the most-poisonous tea and take the antidote. Not the best-sounding solution on paper, but it prompted quite a bit of engaging discussion between the PCs in-game.
For the poison, I had a vague mechanic built around a stamina checks at dramatically appropriate moments. Sufficient failures, the character passes out and eventually dies. In the update, I’ll retain the reoccurring stamina check, but have the character suffer damage for failure until they consume the antidote.
The fifth puzzle was definitely the boldest in terms of design.
The PCs are presented with a checkered game board populated with strange game pieces. A matching checkered carpet lies between them and the exit. When the PCs stepped into a square on the carpet that corresponds to a threated square on the board, the appropriate piece moved to the square on the board and the PC began sinking in quicksand.
I had vague rules about making a strength check to escape or slowly continuing to sink. In the update, I’m going to make it a check with damage on a failure. The PCs ended up shooting arrows into squares to trigger the threatened squares. Not really what I had originally intended, but I thought it was a clever solution. I’m also going to reduce either the number or complexity of the pieces.
The final puzzle was the ickiest, but hey, this is a puzzle dungeon made by evil dudes.
Basically, the PCs needed to dribble some virgin blood on a bed. If the Ki-Rin are still alive, they attack any unmarried PCs that they are aware of. When they hit, an anime amount of blood sprays from the wound and splashes the bed, causing a portal to open. The Ki-Rin beat feet. In the absence of a battle, the PCs need to figure it out on their own.
It took my PCs quite a while to figure it out, so the clue probably needs to be improved. I also need to add a contingency for a party with no virgins.
Overall, I was happy with the adventure.
My players had a good time; the puzzles were sufficiently challenging; and I think I did a good job running it. I think I’ve identified the faults and have fixes to improve things. The response from the group was pretty positive. One player commented that they loved how the zombies outside the Tent of Blood hint at the answer for the mask puzzle.
The two big disappointments, for me, were the stamina check for the poison tea and the strength check for the board game. I really wanted some checks that would add tension and challenge parts of the character sheet that don’t get a lot of love in my group, but ultimately, I backed away from the death saves that both situations implied to me.
Maybe that’s me not being a good, or daring, enough designer. Maybe it’s not the right style of play for my group. Maybe it’s just the limits of the system. Whatever it is, I’m keeping those checks, but having damage on a failure. Not as dramatic, but easier to adjudicate.
Do you think your PCs have what it takes to escape the Temple of Blood or are you like me and just enjoy reading adventures? You can download Into the Mists for free below: