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The Halls of Helmoot Rustymail $0.00
Average Rating:4.5 / 5
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The Halls of Helmoot Rustymail
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The Halls of Helmoot Rustymail
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Natalie S. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 06/03/2023 21:48:24

Awesome adventure. My players both decided to be dwarves, and about half the time was spent discussing/rolling about their beards and how said beards might be useful or grant advantages in the encounters with Tygrun and the Echoes. Top-shelf content.

Now, to get specific; this is a good module; it has some interesting and unique mechanics going on, making sure the characters feel like heroes at the end is easy as pie, and (this one's rare), it's appropriately short and low-combat for a low-level one-shot. I liked it a lot and said "oh, cool!" a whole bunch while reading it.

That said, there are some things that I think work less-well than others, and a few that, if changed, could make the document itself easier to use. My gripes are few and minor, but I think they're worth mentioning, especially as the authors specifically note that it's their first adventure and that they're looking for constructive criticisms. I grabbed this one quite a while ago, so possibly some or all of this is old-news, but here's my two copper pieces, for whatever they're worth.

(I should disclaim that I didn't run this adventure using 5th edition; I ran 3 Bones by Brain Binh, but beyond the mechanics of HOW skill checks and combat were managed, I think the result at the table is comparable enough to if I'd used 5e that I can still make informed comments on it.)

One thing I noticed, that I think could hurt the adventure if unchanged, is that the module requires a skill check to enter the dungeon; either to bust down the door or find the key. If they negotiate with the bullywugs (unlikely if run as-written, since they attack immediately), the froggies can also show them a secret way in. Three ways forward isn't terrible, but I feel the bullywug-guide route is unlikely as-written, and there's no fallback if the rolls to bust the door and find the key both fail.

This is something most Dms/adventure-writers learn the hard way. When the result of failure is that the players simply keep trying until they succeed or the DM just hands success over, it's better to not have total failure be a possibility. In this case, the party has to enter the dungeon. You could run the "whatever they roll succeeds, but if they roll bad there's still a consequence" route. E.g., if they'd rolled badly to knock down the door, say they knock it down, but it falls TOWARD them. The other possibility is to offer even more potential means of passage and trust the odds. I opted for both; multiple ways through and no matter what they tried, they'd get in, but failure would mean Bad Times.

The other adventure-mechanics change I'd make is with the boss fight. He's a really cool encounter, though I wish his relation to Helmoot and his hall was more specified, many parties will take "angry jealous asshole ghost" on its face. And ghosts are fun encounters; posession is a fun ability, though I recommend not locking a player out of their character for too many consecutive turns unless they're the type who particularly likes to roleplay their character's experience of being a passenger in their own mind. The potential for the Echoes to get involved for or against the PCs depending on how respectful they've been in their explorations is really fun, too.

My main concern with the fight is that a single ghost can be a really nasty encounter for low level parties, especially if it succeeds on a posession and/or none of them have divine magic abilities or magical weapons. Remember that since ghosts resist nonmagical damage, most PCs will be doing half-damage, if they even hit. Adding 2-3 Giant Bats makes it a bloodbath. I think they'd work better as a scaling suggestion for higher-level parties (there is a pretty significant power diferential between 3 1st-level PCs and 5 4th-level PCs). I did appreciate the tactical notes on Tygrun's battle behaviour though, those were good and more adventures should have them.

My last gripe with adventure content is 99% a personal preference. I had some confusion over the story as-written, but I doubt most parties would have tripped over it. I wondered how the bullywugs got there if the fissure just opened recently, and decided the underground lake connected to a swamp that they'd been forced to flee. I also wished for more detail on Tygrun and why he hated this beloved king so much. I decided he was a noble of one of the clans that Helmoot made peace with, and he resented the loss of the oportunity to become a conquering empire. He was also a racist shit who didn't like Helmoot allowing other species into the Halls. Lastly I was confused at how an earthquake could bury a hall without smashing it to a million pieces in the process, so I said instead that Tygrun and his ilk had done their best to erase all memory of Helmoot after his death, including using dark magic to relocate his halls where no one could visit them.

I know that tweaking an adventure for your and your party's taste is part of running modules, but personally I find filling in gaps of logic/story different than specifying an NPC's personality or rolling treasure for the reward. YMMV, obviously lots of parties wouldn't even notice these slight weirdnesses, and plenty of DMs are more comfortable filling in the story blanks than I am.

My formatting gripes, if you can even call them that, are even more minor. The player map of the halls is half the image size of the other maps, which I'm sure was unintentional, and the NPCs introduction would be more skimmable if each character had their name bolded or even got a subheader. Also it would have saved me some back-and-forth scrolling if the cavern rooms were all before the Halls rooms, rather than some caverns, then halls, then the rest of the caverns. Other than that the document is very polished and easy to quick-prep. And the original art is very charming, with the print-out minis being a really exciting bonus that I will certainly deploy if I run this at a table (I ran TotM via Discord)

I want to end the full review by talking about the Echoes because wow I love that a lot. The idea of having ghosts that aren't Ghost Encounters but voluntary spirits lingering to preserve the legacy of the person interred here is very cool, and allows social encounters in a dungeon without the tension of combat or suspicion of trickery that happens when you discover an NPC in the middle of a dungeon. It was very fun! My only tweak is that if/when I run this again, I'm going to change their challenges from opposed rolls into Skill Challenges, and that's not a critique, actually. The encounters as-written were good, I just wanted more of them; both in quantity and duration. I feel that way about the adventure as a whole, which was why I was delighted to see there's another from the same authors! I'm heading to the download page as soon as I finish tipping for this one. (edit: apparently this wasn't a PWYW; genuinely disappointed.

In summary:

The good:

  • unique noncombat encounters with the echoes, which are really fun especially if your players like social encounters and/or have characters who want to learn about the Halls and their king.
  • content suited for combat-oriented, social-oriented, AND investigation-oriented characters
  • golden opportunity to flesh out dwarven lore and history in your setting
  • Using a ghost as the boss is really fun, I feel like ghost combat is underused in a lot of modules.
  • Tell your players it's about a dwarven ruin; they'll likely roll dwarves and take a greater interest in the ruins and it will be a good time. Just be prepared to spend most of play time describing beard-braids.

The could-be-better

  • hyper-minor formatting issues
  • potential for the game to hit a standstill at the front door unless adjusted
  • ghost + giant bats seem overpowered for 1st or 2nd level characters
  • some gaps to fill in the story if you've got players who notice that kind of thing

Overall a great module though; I'd run it again :)

Edit: I'm not kidding about how fun it was for the players to be dwarves rediscovering a dwarven heritage site. Her'es some MSPaint art one player did of his dwarf's beard when they were rolling to see who had the best barbs: https://imgur.com/G178HGf



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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