https://tenfootpole.org/ironspike
56 posts · 1 Votes
Gaming 52% · Life 11% · Nature 9% · Art 5% · Culture 5% · Film & TV 4%
Subscribe via RSS
By Jon BrackinBrackin Adventuring CompanyBECMILevels 3-5 On the hottest night of summer… it begins to snow. For as long as anyone can remember, the quiet village of Frosthollow has celebrated The Night of Falling Snow, an ancient midsummer festival unlike any other. White ribbons flutter from old trees. Candles burn in every window. Gifts are exchanged beneath a blazing summer sun while soft snow falls from a cloudless sky. The villagers call it a miracle. They have forgotten that it is a…
By Greg FerrisTalaraskaGeneric/UniversalLevel ... 3? The hills making up the Archian border with Caledos are pocked with dozens of abandoned mines. These leave a lasting reminder of the rush for silver in the years prior to the rise of the Graun Empire. Without drawing much attention from local officials, a nebulous consortium of investors has been purchasing old dig sites throughout the region. The mine at Mt. Morris was one such purchase. About 12 months ago, a group of ten men reopened the…
By Kirk KahoeCrimson River Games LLCGeneric/UniversalLevels: Any Warning! This is as close as you can get to being a Heartbreaker without actua;;y being a Heartbreaker. An eternal horror haunts the woods, reaping an endless harvest of woe from those foolish or desperate enough to travel through them. Tired and injured, the party will have to not only face an endless onslaught from the horror but fatigue and madness as well, for there is no sleep in the Old Man’s realm other than the sleep of…
By Demi ElGatoPossum Print GamesOSELevel 1? The Delta has long been a dangerous place. Most citizens tend not to stray too far from the port city of Mirkell. When times were not so tough, barges, caravans and other travelers braving the wilds of the province would be well staffed with armed guards. However, as coin purses lightened, the extra expense couldn’t always be justified. Opportunists, both men and monsters, take every chance for an easy payday, or an easy meal. This 120 page adventure…
By HexagnomeSelf PublishedOSELevels 5-8 When the One God’s faith washed over the world, the Old Gods of the forest fought back. They fought back with fire, with blood and with ice, and with every season. And they lost. Last night, the cathedral built on the site of their defeat burned, unearthing forgotten stairs… A journey begins, from that unholy crypt through a hellish fairy realm, to the deadly, blasphemous truth. This 80 page adventure presents a recurring abbey location for your game…
By Greg DaleyTarichan GamesB/XLevel 3 In the delta city of Portic, the heralds walk the bridges and call for the brave to save the settlement from the pernicious Thieve’s Guild. Papyri offering rewards in the thousands of gold pieces are handed out to the armed, the weaselly, and the wise. Advertising had its effect and dozens of applicants turned up at the Lighthouse. Even after describing the undead infested island, and the underground trap maze expected to confront them, four groups of…
By B. Wraven Wright2Die10 GamesDolmenwoodLevels 4-5 Four months ago, Father Wolfgang and several other members of the Church of St Pastery’ clergy were having strange dreams that all had one thing in common: a call of pilgrimage from The One True God. Father Dobey, Vicar of Lankshorn, initially had these strange dreams also but they faded in frequency and severity for him while the opposite was happening to Father Wolfgang and the others. Having been compelled into blind pilgrimage towards the…
By NikolineSelf PublishedOSRLevels 3-8 As above, so below. Above, Tell Arn is abandoned, the Hyrkossi kings ashamed of what is buried there. Below, stranger kings hold greater shames, and greater terrors are locked away. The mistakes of lost civilisations repeat on one another in the dark, holding a delicate, unruly balance. Tip the scales, break the seal, and let the Lions drink deep. This 81 page adventure presents two more levels of Tell Arn with about a hundred numbered major rooms and…
By Scott_mFirst Era AdventuresOSRICLevels 2-4 Ten years ago, the new rector went insane and burned down the town chapel, killing his fellow priests. No one knows why he did it, but superstitious townsfolk just wanted the whole sad affair to go away, so they turned a blind eye. The scene of this terrible crime was abandoned, yet evil abides. Locals believe the site remains cursed, haunted by ghosts of the murdered priests. Now, after mysterious events have befallen the town in recent weeks, many…
By Fabricio GarciaKobold KingOSRLevel 3 Bugbears are attacking the dwarfs on their way up the mountain to make offerings to their god. A group of elf scholars came to the region to study the presence of bugbears in such remote region and they are stopping the dwarfs in their attacks against the bugbears. Furious with the lack of offerings and prayers. The dwarven god is eminent to turn away from the region and allowing monsters to roam free. The PC’s can seek the god absolution on the dwarfs…
By Dinko "Salty Nick" Galeti?Salty Nick's TavernGeneric/Universal/D&DLevels 5-6 Strange phenomena plague the land: saltwater rain, shared dreams of a tide covering the land, shallow puddles reflecting deep, strange oceans. Some people have even fallen into puddles and disappeared entirely. The epicenter of the phenomena has been traced to the mausoleum of an eccentric who believed the whole land was once under the sea. Whether to stop this, explore it, or just to loot the tomb, the players have…
By Stephen GreenMoonwhisper MagicOSELevel ... 3? The world is shattered, the wizards are gone, and the sea swallows the ruins of their age. Scattered across the waves lie the broken islands of a forgotten empire places of fire, frost, and ancient magic. Among them stands the Isle of Ruk, a frontier of black sands, steaming jungles, and secrets buried beneath volcanic stone. […] The wizards are dead. Their secrets are not. This 64 page adventure uses about seven pages to describe about fifty…
By Matt GullettThe Long Con PressOSRLevels 1-2 The adventure starts in the rough-and-tumble port city of Warrenburg during the revels surrounding the imminent hanging of a notorious pirate. The Player characters are enlisted to explore the enigmatic cave system some locals refer to as the Caverns of the Dead god. This 28 page adventure uses about thirteen pages to describe a cave/dungeon full of cultists who just LUV insects. It’s heart is in the right place with a decent amount of…
By Peter D GraySelf Published5e/OSRLevel ... 4? Farmer Jebsom has a problem – half his farmhouse, along with all of his family fell into a sinkhole that appeared beneath his farm’s foundations. Now he is desperate to get his wife and children back from the mysterious depths and is willing to give 20% of his farm to anyone succeeding in returning them to safety. This seven page backstory uses one page to describe nine rooms in a tunnel complex full of bugs. A general overview with a lengthy…
By Fabricio GarciaKobold KingOSELevel 3 The adventurers will face an ancient mage trying to free his soul from it’s bindings in his tomb. The group has 10 sessions to reach the tomb, where they can stop the ritual or join Kaeloreth’s quest to rein the region again. In the tenth session, Kaeloreth completes his ritual and now possesses a new body. He send his undead thralls to slaughter 3 Sylvandur population, each death gives him more power. As sessions progress, the common enemy will start to…
Says here I have published 2,161 posts on this blog. About three a week since August 2011. All but eight have been reviews. Let’s post a ninth, shall we? The tenfootpole is a place of crap. Full of shit and worthless writing about it. A monument to the hubris of man that stinks like a trash container full of dead squirrels sitting the June heat for a week. What it is not is an outpost of the great internet hype machine. But the hype machine has made a foray, testing the borders of the volcano…
By Dan Collins, Paul SiegelWandering DMsOSRLevels 3-5 Long ago, a secretive cult promised salvation through sacred waters said to heal any affliction, wounds, curses, even madness. Pilgrims came from distant lands to seek their aid, hoping for a miracle beneath the cult’s solemn gaze. But the cult’s mercy was not freely given. Cloaked in silence and ritual, they judged each petitioner, granting grace only to the worthy. The rest were cast aside, their fates hidden beneath still waters and…
By David HayThird Castle GamesOSELevels 1-3 Travel from sun-drenched beaches to dense jungle trails, over vine-rope bridges and up volcanic cliffs. Encounter lizardmen, the living dead, diabolical cultists and worse. Find magical items, gold and perhaps some glory too. Or at least a good tale to tell, should you make it to the taverns of Hardwind Harbour. But don’t tarry too long – for dark smoke belches from the volcano and the earth trembles. Where will your party be when it erupts? This 74…
By Greg GawronAdvanced Fantasy GamesOSRICLevels 2-4 Hidden within a long-forgotten cemetery stands an abandoned mausoleum, once a place of grand splendor and solemn reverence. Now it lies broken and rotting — its roof collapsed, headstones shattered, and its glory buried beneath decades of neglect. But decay has not left this place empty. A new evil has claimed the ruin as its lair, and by fate or folly, you have found its resting place… and it now awaits your party of adventurers in The Lost…
By Ben Gibson Coldlight Press5e/Pathfinder/OSELevels 4-6 What’s going on in Morpheus’ villa? We’ve not heard anything from them for weeks, outside of the weeping, and the screams, and deep below, some kind of roaring… This ten page adventure uses a couple of pages to describe a two level villa with about forty rooms in it. Overly terse, it leans hard toward the Vampire Queen style of writing, or perhaps Tegal, than a modern take. I think I’m missing something here. This is in the OSR section on…
By Marco G. FossatiSelf PublishedDragonbane/OSRI think this is a BRP system … hear the tale of Ardana, a mage who defied the Dragon Emperor and vanished with her dark grimoire, The Heart of Ardana. Her ruined tower still stands, touched by strange demonic magic. This eight page adventure features an old wizards tower and uses four pages to describe eleven rooms on like five floors. Long read-aloud, over-reveals, abstracted treasure. It’s really hard for to describe how “lackof adventure” this…
By Ben GibsonColdlight Press1eLevels 4-6 Gayle, priestess of the god of earth, has received visions; an annoying enemy of the god stirs up in the mountains. If servants of his temple can kill this enemy for good then the three earth elementals tasked with keeping him buried will serve the party for a month and a day. This twelve page adventure describes a two level abandoned temple with about thirty rooms. A classic crawl that leans realistic while still not forgetting it’s a D&D adventure.…
By Phil MartinSelf PublishedKnaveLevel 2 Come for the frogs. Leave when it all goes to hell. The small hamlet of Roudenbush moulders on the edge of the Great Cheerless Swamp. Built at a crossroads, the town sustains itself on a mix of merchant caravans stopping for provisions, those that seek treasure in the swamp, and the bounty of the swamp itself. Wooden, thatched-roofed residences and stone municipal buildings make up the town. Two weeks ago, a tide of giant frogs breached the town’s outer…
By brine Self Published Yarn & Bone/Universal A mage sits in a cemetery, sipping tea while his diggers excavate Lady Veshra’s grave. He must speak only in rhyme lest his lungs collapse. His murdered wife possesses the living to assist his ritual. The cemetery fights back with sentinel crows and grief wraiths. Veshra’s descendant wants the Soulstone inside the coffin… her last asset. Tonight he joins his true love in life or in death. These twelve pages describe the idea for an adventure rather…
By Brendan BarnettSelf PublishedGeneric/Universal"Lower Levels" If legends of the Golden Gargoyle are true it could mean infinite wealth for any who possess it. Trouble is, nobody has a clue where to find it. That is, until a goblin falls out of the sky with a pouch of gold dust and a map to a hidden cave, high in the mountains. What you can make out amongst the blood splatters is very promising. This forty page adventure uses sixteen pages to describe eight rooms in a low-conflict cave full of…
By Greg DaleyTarichan Games1eLevels 2-3 Dead bodies turn up, purple with poison. Word reaches the village that a pair of bodies have been found at the ford of a lonely vale, slashed and bloated. A wyvern has been seen on the mountain nearby. The adventurers explore the valley below the mountain, on the search for the killer. Can the characters defeat a threat from the frigid mountains? Will they defeat the creature and overcome the curse of the peak? This 55 page adventure presents a small…
By John WebbSelf PublishedOSR/5ELevel 2 […] Years later, a band of opportunistic brigands took shelter in the manor ruins. In the depths below, their leader, Halren Pike, discovered the dagger and fell under its influence. Compelled by its will, he now seeks out elves and half-elves, testing their blood in search of a surviving bastard heir to House Thalanor. Though the bandits themselves are not uniformly cruel, their leader’s fixation has led to kidnappings, imprisonment, and worse. Some…
By Operant Game LabSelf PublishedOSR/Rovers & RichesLevel ?? Even the most ignorant children know the realm is divided by a massive, transparent wall. Everything outside the wall is “normal.” Everything that lies inside is “wrong.” The “wrong” lands are called Zu. Today, we take a field trip into strangest Zu… This 35 page decently-sized hexcrawl adventure presents a bunch of hexes in Zu, a weirdo land full of bizarre things going on in a fantasy/post-apoc/PoMo mashup. The hexes can be…
By Dale HoustonDuck & Crow PressOSRLevels: Low/"Rookies" Under a raging river of turbulent, caustic water that melts organic material in moments lies the decrepit remains of a nefarious wizard’s lair. Opening a passage under the river would mean commerce and prosperity, and every brave adventurer worth their salt knows that a wizard’s den is guaranteed to have some reality-bending magical loot! Get ready for some liquefactive necrosis. This 32 page adventure uses about eight pages to describe…
By Jason YoungdaleYoungdale ProductionsDCC/OSRLevels 1-2 Long ago, beneath the fertile valleys south of Castle Dragonwater, a minor baron swore fealty to the Starved King, a demonic entity of hunger. In exchange, the baron’s land flourished with endless crops and fattened livestock. When the baron died, his descendants sealed the King’s shrine in terror—but the hunger below never ended. Now, farmers near Horndale report crops rotting overnight and livestock turning feral. Strange lights flicker…