Old-School Essentials Adventure Anthology 2 contains—just as Old-School Essentials Adventure Anthology 1 did before it—four adventures by noted contributors to the Old School Renaissance. The first two consist of dungeons designed for Player Characters ranging from First to Third Level, whilst the third is an adventure for Fourth to Sixth Level Player Characters and the fourth is an uncommon inclusion, a mid to high-Level adventure for Old School Essentials, in this case, Sixth to Eighth Levels. All four are dungeon-style adventures and relatively short, with only one of them possessing more than twenty locations. They are all self-contained, so easy to run as one-shots or add to a campaign. Either way, none of should should take longer than two or three sessions to complete at the very most.
All four dungeons are neatly organised with an overview and explanation of the adventure at the start along with a ‘Random Happenings’ table rather than a random encounters table, followed by details of the main denizens and some general notes. The ‘Area Descriptions’ come after this and each adventure is accompanied by a very nice map from Glynn Seal.
The anthology opens with ‘Barrow of the Bone Blaggards’ by Chance Dudinack. It is designed for Player Characters of First to Third Level and opens with a simple set-up. In recent weeks caravans have been attacked by skeletal brigands on the road near a single barrow in the woods, built one hundred years ago to inter the dead from a historic battle which took place nearby. Nobody has had any reason to go near the barrow in living memory, but now its circular stone entrance is open and ghostly, lively music emanates from inside. In classic Dungeons & Dragons-style play, the Player Characters would enter the dungeon, discover lots of undead and that the villain behind it all was a Necromancer. So it is with ‘Barrow of the Bone Blaggards’, but the scenario gives a classic roleplaying situation a twist or two. One twist is that the Necromancer is both a villain and an idiot and the other is that the undead raised by his efforts are not in his thrall, but instead freewheeled. They eat and they drink—despite the food and drink falling and running out of their bodies, and they want to be alive again, which why they have taken prisoners. Add in some undead NPCs and an angry Pixie and the Game Master has some fun NPCs to portray, though some of the general Undead could also have been named too. Of course, the skeleton and zombie warriors are Chaotic in Alignment, but giving a horde of them motivation is a delightful touch. There are other elements which are just as good that the players really will enjoy discovering and overall, this really is a really well done dungeon with lots of detail and flavour.
Nate Treme’s ‘Shrine of the Oozing Serpent’ is also for Player Characters of First to Third Level and also has a similar set-up. The local duke offers a reward to whomever can slay the creature that is attacking travellers on the King’s Road. The local people claim to have seen a black blob slithering through the marsh to a Gnome Shrine of Mulvis that a decade ago was destroyed by Sootmurk, a legendary grease dragon. The dungeon combines religious fanatism of Deep One-like creatures called Gloops with Gnomish mechanical inventiveness and a Gnomish shrine to a demon and their dead and a temple to an emollient serpent! Despite being designed for low Level Player Characters this is a tougher adventure than the previous ‘Barrow of the Bone Blaggards’, not least because Sootmurk is a six Hit Dice beast! The dungeon has an interesting combination of themes, but they feel constrained within the limited space of just twelve locations as if it should be a much bigger dungeon.
‘Cathedral of the Crimson Death’ by Diogo Nogueira is designed for Player Characters of Fourth to Sixth Level. The Purifying Church of the Crimson Flame—which venerates the deity Bahal, the Flame of Purification—has for a decade, stood as a refuge and a place of hope for the lands around it that have been ravaged by the Deathless Plague. Sufferers are inflicted with incurable, rotting wounds that ultimately turn them into the Undead. The priests and acolytes of the church could not truly heal the sick and as they laid more and more of the Undead to rest, they lost their way and instead of offering succour to the sick, imprisoned and tortured them, before putting them to the flame to purge them of the plague. When the sick stopped coming, the Church’s newly founded, but soon reviled Crimson Knights went out looking for them. Perhaps the Player Characters have been sent to put an end to the cruel reign of the Church or come simply to plunder it in the last days of civilisation or are fleeing the hordes of undead that wander the land…
A Cleric is an absolute must in this horror mini-dungeon, which is effectively, a quite straightforward strike mission. Go in, rescue what prisoners survive and slaughter everything and everyone else. Since everything else is evil and tainted by demons, this is perfectly acceptable in what is a serviceable, combat focused dungeon.
Lastly, ‘The Ravener’s Ghat’ is a dungeon for Player Characters of Sixth to Eighth Level designed by Brian Yaksha. Unlike the other adventures, this one comes with two maps, one a standard two-dimensional affair, the other one done in three dimensions which very nicely gives depth and detail to the location where it is set. This location is a temple in a flooded valley where a scholarly Rakshasa, known as the Ravener, was worshipped as the herald of monsoons and a divine servant of the Monsoon God. Like all Rakshasa, the Raverner was demonised and turned into a man-eater by changes in fickle divine dynasties and in his newfound evil, stole the offerings to the Monsoon God and enveloped the lands in permanent monsoon rains. The Ravener’s priests trapped him inside, shackling to the waters of the floods, and only recently, after time uncounted, has the veil lifted on the Ravener’s Ghat. Perhaps a holy order wishes to prevent the Ravener from being woken, perhaps wisdom may be learned from one of the priests, or simply, the party wants to plunder the ancient temple before someone else does.
This is an engaging dungeon with multiple factions, including elevated Baboons and Crocodiles as well as treasure hunters and rival servants of the Raverner, and a design inspired by the folklore and architecture of the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. The Player Characters are free to approach the temple in whatever way they want and listen to whichever faction they want, many of them are sympathetic and do not necessarily wish them ill. Ideally, the Player Characters will end up facing the Raverner himself, a monster despite what he once was. Depending upon the faction that the Player Characters have allied themselves with will likely determine if that confrontation is challenging or even more challenging. Its probable location and cultural theming do make it more difficult to add to a campaign than other adventures in the anthology, but this does not stop it from being a very nicely done dungeon. It packs in plenty of detail and flavour and factions so that it is not all about combat, but also exploration and interaction. If the Game Master has a suitable setting for this adventure, one inspired by Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, then she should definitely add this dungeon to her campaign.
The Old-School Essentials Adventure Anthology 2 is not as good as Old-School Essentials Adventure Anthology 1. This is not to say that its dungeons and adventures are bad, but only two of them stand out being either interesting or inventive. Of the four, ‘Barrow of the Bone Blaggards’ is the most fun and the easiest to use and the one that the players are likely to enjoy, whilst ‘The Ravener’s Ghat’ is well written and packs in a lot of theme and flavour.
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