Megadungeon Monday (On a Tuesday!): Roslof’s Keep Folios 1, 1.5, 2, and 2.5
I’ve joined a small megadungeon book club on the rainbow/purple OSR server. The crux of the club is that we read through a megadungeon in sections, then discuss and post our thoughts on Monday (I’m a bit late for this week, when Folio 2 was due). The group just started a new dungeon, Roslof’s Keep. The first part of this module was published back in 2015 and is dual statted for 1e and 5e. It’s broken up into a series of folios that cover different levels of the dungeon (and some non-dungeon material as well, it seems).
I’m going to just dive right into my thoughts on Folio 1/1.5, which covers module background and GM tips, the first level of the dungeon, and a small dungeon to be used as an intro to the campaign, as well as Folio 2/2.5 which covers the second level and another mini dungeon.
Folio 1
Campaign Background
The central premise of the campaign is that a mad wizard built a huge dungeon under Roslof’s Keep. Noble houses essentially sponsor adventuring companies to delve the dungeon, with the goal of recovering treasure - especially the rumored elixir of immortality. The dungeon has an ‘Infernal Machine’ that populates and manages the dungeon (more on this later). The adventuring companies are treated akin to competing sports teams, with fans in the city, individual PC contracts with the “team owner,” and reputations that precede them. It’s a neat setup and I like that it automatically inserts rival parties into the mix.
One interesting catch, which I’m hoping the module does more with, is that one of seven special banners is needed to enter the dungeon at all. The banners need to be placed on a stand at the dungeon entrance to allow access to sworn members of the company, and can only be removed if the entire company perishes or the company removes it themselves. I wish there was a bit more about the dungeon entrance and how the banners are handled; it’s not described at all except to note that the banner stands exist. Do the noble houses have guards that watch the banner in the event the company dies, so that random people don’t take it? The banners are mentioned as being under heavy guard when not in place, but what does this look like for the various noble houses (I’m sure my players would love to steal one)? The GM can certainly figure this stuff out themselves, but typically when I’m using a module I’m doing so in order to avoid figuring out too much myself. It also may be that some of this is addressed in later folios.
Immediately following the campaign background is a rundown of the shops in the keep, which I don’t have much to say about other than that it’s interesting that many of the shops are run by fairly high level NPCs (especially outside of the context of 5e). There’s also the magic shop owner, Molo, but we’ll deal with him in the next section…
Dungeon Master Notes and Suggestions
The next section is made up of notes to help the DM run this module more effectively. I’m going to focus on the ones I had the strongest response to.
The suggestion that each PC privately negotiate their contract with Lord Aldenmier (the sponsor of the company, the Ivory Scimitar) and end up with different terms is an interesting one. I suspect that most of the time it will have zero effect on anything, but could maybe produce some intraparty tension.
The text notes that other house companies will try to kill the party to get their banner but that few are on the first floor. There is some real promise here with the rival companies, but I’d love to see some procedures dealing with the other company locations (maybe there are, but there’s nothing in the first or second folio). Random encounter tables would have been a really simple way to incorporate them into the mix, but the module apparently eschews those for the most part.
In order to progress to the next floor, the PCs need to clear every room on a dungeon level at least once. I’m not a fan of this, as it conflicts heavily with my playstyle. This condition, combined with the fact that every encounter on the first floor leads immediately into combat, would make this a slog in any system. I suppose ‘clear’ is up to interpretation though, and no GM should hold a text so sacred that they can’t change anything. I know I would find a way to reinterpret the clear condition were I to run this.
Overall Story Arcs and Threads
This section goes over some of the plot threads going on in the background of the module, though it’s up to the GM to determine how to implement any of it. There is mention of actions some of the factions will take against the PC company, such as:
The castilian of the keep should have his cronies harass the PCs and try to convince them to betray their patron.
Returning to our creepy friend Molo the mage merchant, he will try to barter magic stuff for a marriage contract with a female party member and then use charm spells on them to get the White Scimitar Banner. This detail is pretty ick.
The most powerful noble house will send a company to hunt for the PCs (it’s up to the GM as to what this means).
The leader of the non-human company, the Laughing Beasts, should uhhh…gut stab a PC as a friendly initiation into Roslof company life before moving on silently. Hazing rituals, amirite? (It’s noted that this should clue the players in that this company isn’t interested in their banner and could maybe be an ally down the line, but can anyone see players having a response beyond “this fucker tried to kill me!”?)
Greater Houses
This section outlines the noble houses that hold banners, as well as their companies. Most companies are given some description regarding racial makeup of the company, relative strength as compared to other companies, and sometimes very loose commentary on their preferred approach to problem solving. By and large, there’s no indication of how many members any of the companies have or what level they are - maybe so that the GM can customize things. There are small exceptions here and there, which mostly just serve to highlight the inconsistencies in company presentation.
Contrast this - “The company is made up of a lowl [gnoll] leader, an enormous lizardman, two delving orcs, a hobgoblin martial artist [monk], a half-ogre, a human [lycanthrope wererat] cleric, and a kobold sorcerer,” with this - “The current roster of the Blades is fully human, the leader another Shona woman who made her name as a gladiator…” with this - “For game purposes, the Men of Iron are a heavy fighter company, mostly human, and should be considered to be 5th to 8th level.”
Again, I can certainly come up with this information on my own, but I wish the module did some more heavy lifting here. The company descriptions also give some info about whether the company is likely to mess with the Ivory Scimitar, though I again wish there were some procedures guiding when the party might run into them. This is also likely a disconnect between my current OSR playstyle and a more trad/neotrad play culture, which relies more on the GM setting up plots and scenarios. I suspect a trad GM might really enjoy plotting out scenes where the PCs run into other companies in the dungeon, though I’d rather leave it up to procedures and encounters. Commentary like the following seems to support that the module is aimed more at that playstyle: “If the Ivory Scimitar is ever too hard pressed, the Brothers of Earth might be used to help swing an encounter back in the player’s favor.” This is my OSR GM brain talking, but inserting a company that likes to heal other companies by GM fiat if the players are having a hard time feels bleh to me.
The Infernal Machine
“What is the Infernal Machine? Well, that is up to you!”
The text implies that what the Infernal Machine is doesn’t really matter, but that the author views it as the DM. It’s kind of a riff on the mythic underworld, where the dungeon is a malevolent entity that hates the party and wants to kill them. Curious about the opening text of this section, I jumped ahead to see if there is an Infernal Machine present in the dungeon and - spoiler alert - there is! This matches up with the second half of the section suggesting that the machine could be a magical generator deep within the labyrinth. Either way, it’s an interesting way to give some weight to the mythic underworld idea and I’m curious to see where it goes.
The section continues to describe the ‘immortal monsters’ from the first level - monsters that can be killed but always reappear later. It remains to be seen how this differs from the other monsters in the dungeon, which also repopulate - though I wish there was some advice or procedures on restocking.
Gex the kobold sorcerer and a group of delving orcs called the Sly Six are highlighted here as the immortal monsters from level 1. The text also notes that these monsters may become more powerful and have better gear when they reappear, which could be neat in play. Interestingly, each company seems to have its own personal immortal monsters - I’m curious to know if we ever find out what the other company monsters are. If two companies are on the same floor, would both companies’ monsters appear?
There are some fun possibilities here, but I’m interested to see if they’re further developed or if a GM will need to put in work to make the immortal monsters more interesting than recurring fights.
The Dungeon - Floor 1
Now we get to the dungeon itself! 23-ish rooms that the PCs will need to clear before they can move on. Rather than going room by room, I’m going to hit some high level highlights.
There are at least 5 traps that are very likely to outright murder a level 1 PC in 1e or 5e. I could do with some more signposting of the traps, personally, as I don’t like having to lean on things like skills to spot traps. That’s a personal preference though, and something that’s easy enough to do on my own. This module is far from unique in not providing trap tells. I do appreciate that the module is willing to just have very deadly traps from the start.
Most of the rooms have an immediately hostile combat encounter, occasionally paired with minor set dressing (though many rooms are just barren cells containing hostile creatures). This is very much Fight D&D, for better or worse (not a good thing for me, as you might expect).
One room has the smartest gelatinous cubes I’ve ever seen. They coordinate to cut off the party and wait for an opportune moment to attack. Good job, cubes!
The module really wants to give poor Gex the kobold sorcerer every chance in the world to survive. Before initiative Gex apparently hears the door open and will cast Shield on himself, then hide behind a statue to give himself cover while he casts spells.
The bugbears pretending to build a fire in order to ambush the PCs cracks me up - do they just stand there and mime building a fire for hours on end?
The delving orc chief is mentioned as having earth magic to slow down party members - I guess he’s a shaman, since delving orc shamans are mentioned as having druidic magic, but it’s not clear and absent from the stat block.
Mixed feelings on the exploding gem trap. I think if players go in expecting the dungeon to actively try and kill them (something I would mention), they probably would approach with appropriate caution. I do think it’s funny that the trap meant to weaken and not kill can absolutely kill many level 1 characters in 1e or knock down a level 1 5e PC.
It’s weird that Gex is here but the other immortal monsters, the Sly Six, are absent. There are delving orcs on this level, so it would be easy to insert them, but it’s odd that they’re not already there.
All in all, there is are a few solid aspects to this even if the overall package isn’t the type of dungeon I’d run. I’m interested to see if that assumption is challenged as I continue reading through it. I’d like to see some more about the other companies as the module goes on, as well as some faction play. I think large dungeons like this really need good faction play so as not to become too samey, which a dungeon that’s focused on fighting runs the risk of becoming.
Folio 1.5
This is a mini dungeon meant to kick off the campaign and is essentially the patron of the White Scimitar testing the party before hiring them. It’s a small dungeon that’s a bit silly since the patron gives you points based on how you do, and even if you fail the module tells you to give another task that will let the PCs prove their worth. I’d probably just skip this thing entirely, or cut out the point requirement.
Much like the real dungeon, everything here seems to want to fight immediately. It gives the feeling of everything play acting until they attack the party, which is pretty boring, but at least it makes sense here in this test dungeon. Lots of skill checks, but those are easily bypassed by just outright giving information. Also, apparently the wine bottle that is the goal of the dungeon is trapped to…fall down if you try to pick it up? What does this mean!? Is it slippery? Does the shelf tilt down? I can just decide something, but I thought this was a strange trap.
This section also introduces the ghost of Lord Aldenmier’s wife, who is set up to be an important figure in the campaign. There are also some suggested background to better integrate PCs into the campaign module if your table likes interweaving backgrounds into the campaign.
Folio 2
Background
This is going to be a much shorter write-up than Folio 1.
The initial section outlines some buildings in the town surrounding the keep, then we get into the DM Notes & Suggestions section. Lots of the notes are along the lines of “X situation should have started to happen or develop” which seems like it would be more useful in the previous Folio, since the module isn’t set up very well for these things to just happen organically.
Next we get into the story arcs and threads.
The Ghost of Lady Aldenmier, who is DEFINITELY NOT A KOREAN WATER GHOST per the module. Suggestions here on how to progress this piece of the module, though it comes across a bit railroady (thankfully you can just ignore whatever).
An EARTHQUAKE happens and makes the dungeon think it’s under attack, triggering a hostile response (the Corruption). Curious to see where this goes and how it bleeds out of the dungeon itself and (hopefully) affects things in interesting ways.
A member of another company, the Black Vanguard, is captured in level 2. Finally, a firm inclusion of another company! This is the kind of thing the module needs a lot more of.
A sixth sense that tells high Wisdom PCs, which alerts them to traps, monsters, and other companies in the dungeon. It’s tied to the standard the company has. Not a fan at all of tying it to high Wisdom, especially since in most OSR adjacent systems there’s little guarantee of anyone meeting the criteria. I’d probably just bypass that entirely and give the party some clues here and there, maybe overloading the encounter roll or something (yes, I would insert random encounters because they would help a lot to rectify some of the problems this dungeon has).
New deets on the Infernal Machine as well, notably that it only generates monsters in rooms with closed doors. Also a new immortal monster, Nargroth the minotaur, who scales HD with the party.
The Dungeon - Floor 2
Onto the rooms themselves!
More Fight D&D going on. You need to clear every room, and most room encounters are immediately hostile (except the Rakshasa, who only attacks after you play cards. Variety!). I’d definitely lean on reaction rolls rather than running everything as wanting to kill you immediately here, but it also seems like that runs counter to whatever purpose the dungeon has.
As mentioned above, happy to finally see someone from another company included in a room description.
The sword that steals breath is cool.
As written, I think players would have a hard time identifying that some rooms are ‘broken,’ especially since the popping/buzzing indication of a broken room seems to show up in a room that is working (the fire trap).
Speaking of the fire trap, it’s nice that it is signposted but also it seems frustrating to have to figure out what needs to be done in the room with the threat of the fire trap.
Monsters keeping doors propped to prevent restocking is a nice addition.
Traps aren’t properly labeled on the map.
Room 24 has a secret room, but it’s not clear what is actually in it, if anything. Nothing, I guess?
All in all, a few interesting bits but mostly just a boring series of fights.
Folio 2.5 - Test of the Tower!
This is another mini-dungeon, specifically for a spellcaster PC. Creepy Molo from Folio 1 gives a test that basically amounts to repeated ability checks and monster fights if you fail the check. Pretty boring stuff.
Final Thoughts
If the barren cells with hostile monsters theme continues, I doubt my general opinion of the dungeon will improve. That being said, I’m happy to be surprised! I’m holding out hope that the Corruption from the dungeon changes things up some.