Friday Fantasy: Fortnightly Adventures #0: The Hollow Tower

Today the desert region is known only for the nomads that cross its sands, the tales of ancient myth and legends of what it once was, and the monsters said to lurk there. In times past, despite its dry environs, it was crossed by well-known trade routes on which the once-great Anhurak people—or the Children of the Burning Stone and the Wandering Stars, as scholar say they called themselves—grew rich and powerful ensuring the safe passage of goods and people. When they sought to build a settlement in the middle of the routes, they began by establishing a great tower for their leader, Mahrun Tal’Zahir, with the help of the group’s Cartographer. Yet legends say they turned on him soon after and fled the desert after the settlement began to sink into the sands. Now all that remains are half-buried houses and the tower itself, although only the top three of its five storeys are visible. This is the setting for ‘The Desert Forgotten by Time’ with which stands The Hollow Tower.

Fortnightly Adventures #0: The Hollow Tower is a mini-hexcrawl published by Angry Golem Games. It is the inaugural in the publisher’s ‘Fortnightly Adventures’ series which is intended to provide a brand-new, original module every two weeks—each exploring a different biome, mysterious locale, and unique challenge. For The Hollow Tower, this is a section of desert, a strange tower, and a mystery to uncover. It is written for use with Old School Essentials Classic Fantasy and Old School Essentials Advanced Fantasy, published by Necrotic Gnome Productions, it is based on the 1981 revision of Basic Dungeons & Dragons by Tom Moldvay and its accompanying Expert Set by Dave Cook and Steve Marsh, and presents a very accessible, very well designed, and superbly presented reimplementation of the rules.

What Fortnightly Adventures #0: The Hollow Tower details is a seven-hexagon rosette of desert terrain. Each takes roughly two hours to explore, so the region is not a large one overall. In fact, it could easily be treated as a mini-location as a whole and placed in a single hex in a Game Master’s campaign. In that case, what would distinguish it from other hexes is the Eternal Sandstorm that rolls around the region, moving from hex to hex within the region. This is part of a curse said by the Anhurak people to have been laid on the region by their leader, Mahrun Tal’Zahir. A handful of hooks are included to get the Player Characters involved, including one of their number having “[a] dream about the sunken city and felt drawn to the mysterious place.” and being hired to investigate the region and make sure it is secure, primarily from the giant ants that plague it. These are not enthralling hooks and the Game Master will likely want to create her own that are stronger and likely tied to her campaign setting.

The four adventure locations in Fortnightly Adventures #0: The Hollow Tower consist of a ‘Giant Ant Lair’, ‘Mahrun’s Tomb’, ‘The Sunken City’, and ‘The Hollow Tower’ itself.

The ‘Giant Ant Lair’ is detailed, but not given a map. That said it is a simple encounter, more bug extermination that anything else. ‘Mahrun’s Tomb’ is singular in nature, consisting of single room under a cairn of white stone. He is though, still ‘alive’, and will plead his case with the Player Characters, telling them of how he was wronged. There is the possibility that the Player Characters discover his tomb and even aid him before his true nature is revealed when they discover the secrets of ‘The Hollow Tower’. (The point when the Player Characters confront him is both when they discover what a charmingly challenging foe he is, since he is actually powered by the stars, and when any NPC accompanying them turns out to a cultist dedicated to him.) ‘The Sunken City’ consists of ruins which the Player Characters can scavenge before ascending the spiral staircase with winds around ‘The Hollow Tower’.

The most detailed location in in Fortnightly Adventures #0: The Hollow Tower is ‘The Hollow Tower’ itself where Mahrun Tal’Zahir once worked and studied. It inverts the exploration by making it from the top down, rather than bottom up, and is filled with secrets and the occasional monster. In comparison to other locations in the region, and barring the occasional random encounter, the focus is on exploration and investigation rather than combat or interaction. There is plenty to find, whether an indestructible chest which can either be opened with its key or cut open with a magical weapon, a pot plant with gem petals, and a ghost in the cells which wants help to move on to the afterlife. There is also ‘Anhurak’s Peculiar Library’ filled with potentially interesting books. These are listed by type and value, but the Game Master might want to develop them further to add detail and possible bonuses for their study.

What there is not in Fortnightly Adventures #0: The Hollow Tower is any plot or sense of story. There is no imminent danger in the region which threatens to spill over into the surrounds and Mahrun Tal’Zahir remains trapped in his tomb. Instead, the Player Characters will have to poke around to find out what is going on and potentially find out who Mahrun Tal’Zahir was and what he has become. However, there are elements here around which a plot can be strung in the setting with the addition of a rumour or two and some NPCs, perhaps some scholars or cultists with an interest in Mahrun Tal’Zahir and the civilization he left behind. These through, require development by the Game Master, but with their inclusion, the Player Characters might have stronger motivation to visit the region.

Physically, Fortnightly Adventures #0: The Hollow Tower is decently done. The layout is clean and tidy, the illustrations good, and the hexcrawl is an easy read.

Fortnightly Adventures #0: The Hollow Tower veers from overview to detail and back again. In places it feels underdeveloped, whilst in others, comparatively overly detailed. It leaves a lot for the Game Master to create herself to make it more useable and useful, but it at least provides the bare bones for that in what is attractive-looking minx-hexcrawl.