# Mini Encounter Contest: Heat Three



## Morrus (Mar 12, 2002)

Mini Encounter Contest: Heat Three 

The winner of Heat Two was Crocodile Tears.  It will be joining Put to the Sword in the final heat.

Here are the entries for Heat Three:


Culinary Delights 
Down by the Sea 
Multhana Veloor at the Ship on the Mountain 
Pond Scum 
Dark Valkyrie 
Kole Blak and the Seven Dirty Dwarves 
Narvesh the Seer 
Bibliothèque 
A Hunter In The Darkness 

Get voting!  This poll has been set to expire in 3 days.


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## Berandor (Mar 12, 2002)

My take on the entries...

_1: Culinary Delights_
Hey! A traveling inn, potions as food, a charismatic wizard and magical barmaids?
Fun galore, and I knew the others had to be VERY good to beat it... and none of them managed.
This is so far the best encounter I have read (of all heats) - funny, easy to place, seperate NPC/location, great!
And don't forget: the sample encounter mentions lizardfolk!

_2: Down by the Sea_
Quite nice, a dwarven druid is always a welcome sight. All in all, it was a fairly standard "druid encounter", though.

_3: Multhana Veloor at the Ship on the Mountain _
I also liked this encounter, but was immediately forced to think of it as very hard to play. Even if you isolate one PC and attack, the others will inquire whether they hear the fighting (and why not, if not) and jump to their comrade's help. I don't think it would be such a dangerous encounter...
Both NPC and Skyship are neat ideas, though!

_4: Pond Scum_
That wouldn't work, at least in my group. Any damsel in distress is immediately the subject of close inspection and very careful treatment.
More so with the knowledge check.
The NPCs didn't strike me as particularly special, too. As a "distress" encounter, it was a nice one, though.

_5: Dark Valkyrie_
I also liked that one, but the technical outcome wasn't too appealing to me. The spellbook of the Valkyrie didn't even show all her memorized spells like "Haste", and I was somehow unimpressed by her power considering she slays more than one guard every night.
Also, why did she send the messages? If she is the champion of Orcus, why are there these notes?

_6: Kole Blak and the Seven Dirty Dwarves_
That one was tough. It had loads of very silly puns (especially unentertaining when compared to the humour of the Culinary Delights), bad spelling errors, struck me as rather unimaginative after the setup (which could have made this a rather cool adventure) and went over the allowed page count.
Muffy? Please tell me you were joking.
I was considerably unimpressed by this one.

_7: Narvesh the Seer_
A nice idea, but I would have liked some details regarding the gold-making. How long does it take? What does it need? 
It is true Narvesh is in danger of greedy types - which fits most adventuring groups! 10,000 gp is such a big sum that the encounter would have required some thoughts on the process and how to stop the players from getting very rich, very quick.

_8: Bibliothèque_
I really liked this one. One question kept appearing in my mind:
Does the treant know paper is made from plants? Does it regard the library as his grove? Can he animate the shelves, or the scrolls itself? These questions needn't be answered in the text, as they are somewhat out of context, but represent the ideas that immediately struck me.
I don't care for the spelling errors, as the adventure was well-made otherwise and the errors probably don't stem from sloppy editing, but rather having English as second language.
Very good one, and probably my choice if not for "delights".

_9: A Hunter In The Darkness_
Also a nice encounter, though why these commoner vampires keep popping up I don't know... especially why they are vampires, not vampire spawn.
Again, the errors didn't detract from my reading a lot, though more so than with "bibliothèque".
A wizard with a shield guardian was a very nice touch, and I really liked both NPCs.
A solid third place, and I will try to use this sometime (perhaps before my players go through the converted "Ravenloft" original module?)

EDIT: Ranks deleted due to bad image.

NOTE: I DO take into account the technical side of the entry; except for glaring errors or important overviews I tend not to talk about them here, though, as I think the technical side is easily improved upon by just comparing to other published stuff, or the d20-statblock-foundation.


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## Corporate Dog (Mar 12, 2002)

To be honest, I think a LOT of the entries in this heat had NPCs that were tied pretty closely to the location (not that that really affected my voting... I've said it before, I'll say it again, I'm going with a real loose interpretation of the rules).

In the end, I chose "Dark Valkyrie". Reminded me a lot of the old "Spring-Heeled Jack" legend, tied to a fantasy world. And maybe I have a short memory, but there haven't been too many entries which take place in an urban setting.

 "Bibliotheque" was also good, and came in a very close second for me.

Regards,
Corporate Dog


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## TrizzlWizzl (Mar 12, 2002)

Berandor said:
			
		

> *My take on the entries...
> 4: Pond Scum
> That wouldn't work, at least in my group. Any damsel in distress is immediately the subject of close inspection and very careful treatment.
> More so with the knowledge check.
> ...




I'm not totally sure whether or not it's considered 'couth' to reply to the posted review of one's encounter, but as a creative professional (not creating DnD products obviously), I just wanted to comment very briefly on my own work.

First of all, thank you Berandor for your feedback.  Feedback is neccessary; without it most games and gaming products would more than likely suck.  Second, I must say that my groups (both of them) are probably like yours in that 'damsels in distress' are subjected to a fairly high degree of suspicion.  Maybe it didn't come across in the encounter (in which case I would deserve to lose), but the idea was that things would develop so quickly that PCs would be forced into what zoologists call a 'critical reaction' (that is to say they would be forced to fight or flee) before they have a chance to engage in any meaningful assertation of the damsel's true nature.  There's not too many adventuring parties that would be content to watch a big ogre cut down a fair maiden, no matter how nefarious the party suspects the schemes of the maiden might be.

In the playtests (one of which I didn't participate in) both parties decided to kill the ogre first and ask questions later, a response the encounter is designed to trigger.  Of course the encounter assumes the PCs will be able to see through the ruse eventually (the Knowlege (local) check, provided Bluff modifiers, Will saves vs. illusion, etc.), but the opening round is where the enounter is sold.

Also, someone pointed out on the boards in the first heat how he considered this competition to be kind of like a warm up for writing modules for Dungeon magazine or some other publisher, an opinion I agree with (and still do).  I actually used the WotC format as best I could and I think I did a pretty good job getting all the stat blocks, encounter format, etc., etc. into proper order.

Of course, if you don't care about the technical aspects of editing d20 stuff then you probably won't vote for the encounter, as it is pretty straight forward (as evidenced by the NPC) and devoid of cutsey knick-knacks.  Personally, I'm voting for the encounters that are the 'tightest' in terms of their understanding of d20.    That's just my opinion though; everyone has their own tastes.

Thank you again, Berandor, for the feedback.


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## Berandor (Mar 12, 2002)

Reply to reply  :
Actually I shouldn't have included "rankings", and I will delete them soon.
I liked the setup, as I said.

However, in the situation described therein, with the setup ending with "...and the ogre lifts his head to strike", I fear my players would wait the surprise round to see what happens.
Even if not, what if the Ogre won initiative? He wouldn't hit his mistress, and the scam was up.

Rank no.6 seems harsh, but I think it was all very close - I even likes the Dwarven Druid encounter (down by the sea) but due to my giving ranks, it landed at 8.

That said, while I look at the technical side of the entry (competition rules, D&D rules, clarity of the entry), I do not rate the technical side higher than the content side, but mostly equal.

I noticed that "Culinary delights" didn't list the wizard's skills, and I thought the description of the inn WAS rather vague.
However, I relished in this encounter so much, it really hit my nerves, and these flaws didn't flaw my reading (or imagining playing) experience a lot.

As you said, this is also a test for future adventures. IMO an adventure with a compelling plot can be forgiven of some (not too many, ot too big) technical errors, while a technically sound adventure with a not-so-decent plot is still boring.

NOTE: The above paragraph is phrased as it is on purpose, so as to drive home a point about hidden criticism. It seems as if I remarked on "Scum" as being a boring adventure, but I didn't.
The same seemed to be true in TrizzlWizzl's response, where I got the impression of hidden stabs against my judgement due to the choice of words.
I think it was not in TW's intent to do so, but I wanted to remark on it nonetheless.

NOTE 2: F-I-V-E...HUNDRED! 500! I am the greatest! (Uhm... don't take this seriously)

Berandor


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## tenelo (Mar 12, 2002)

*Shameless bump and begging for attention*

Bump for this thread, and shamelessly begging for feedback on Harmonies in the Snow from Heat One - I've started a new thread so as not to clutter up this one with irrelevant posts.


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## Mistwell (Mar 12, 2002)

Sorry I missed heat two (was away for the weekend). I'll post my own personal review of heat three here, and if anyone from heat two cares to hear my opinion on those entries, just let me know and I will post a review of that heat as well.


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## Cyronax (Mar 12, 2002)

I voted for Narvesh the Seer. I thought a few aspects of the encounter were left a little murky, i.e. his prophecies and his final "enlightenment." I liked the murkiness however. It sparked some ideas in my head for the why and how as it pertained to my own world.

I also liked how the encounter set Narvesh up as a helpless combatent. No memorized spells.....no defenses, nothing. This complete lack of care on Narvesh's part could be a moral dilemma to the PCs (if they figure out that he wouldn't be able to stop an all out robbery), and it also left the seer open to the attacks from superstitious peasants or bandits. 

I also really liked the Dark Valkyrie encounter. Nice riddles, nice atmosphere, nice potential.  Its a good encounter, but Narvesh the Seer had more applicability to my campaign world (which isn't known for having much to do with celestials or fiends).

Good work!
C.I.D.


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## der_kluge (Mar 12, 2002)

*As always*

You didn't ask for them, and you probably don't want them, but here are my hard-nosed, pull-no-punches reviews of the current entries.

I haven't voted yet, and will have to chew on which entry I think I should pick in this heat.  Haven't decided as of yet.

-----------------
Culinary Delights
This encounter is suitable for most worlds, and could occur anywhere the DM desires.  One problem I have with this encounter at face value is the sheer "been there, done that" factor of it.  I've been a DM for so long that if I actually ran this, my players would go, "what, another astrally traveling tavern?"  Don't get me wrong, it's cool, but been done to death.  There's no real problems with the encounter as described.  Heck, it will probably win since it takes place in a swamp!  (including references to lizardfolk!)  The chef's stat block could have been better (spells memorized?)

Down by the Sea
Here, the party meats Molor, a surly dwarven druid.  I'm quite certain this is at least one of two dwarven druids I've encountered in this competition, maybe one of three.  Druids tend to be a popular theme here, not sure why.  Not a big druid fan myself.  Probably because I've never seen anyone play one accurately, and this portrayel of a druid seems to be about the same as others I've seen.  There's nothing *wrong* with this Druid, per se, but just tends to fit the stereotype - loner, activist, hates people, hugs trees, etc.  In this case, the trees are crabs, and with a twist, the druid is a Dwarf.  There isn't really an encounter here so much as there is an opportunity to kill a mean dwarven druid.  The major problem I have with encounters like this is that it forces the DM to move from a "macro" view of the geography to a "micro" view.  In other words, the PCs are travelling up the coastline, and all is going well until the DM says, "but wait, you see some crabs on the beach, what do you do?"  This is immediately going to raise the suspicious eyes of the PCs who are going to declare things like readying weapons and spot and listen checks.  I'd like to have seen a better lead-in to introduce this Druid rather than through possible hostile intentions.  And the location here is nothing fancy, just a seaside cave.  Definitely, I think there could be more here than there is.

Multhana Veloor at the Ship on the Mountain
Whatever the author was smoking when they wrote this, I want some.  This is truly unique.  Not only do I like the location - a wrecked gnomish flying vessel (ok, I have a thing for gnomes), but in all my years, I've never seen a cannabilistic human female rgr1/drd5.  Despite the fact that this is probably not something I'd ever run, having the stats for a flesh-eating human female druid around just seems like a good idea somehow.  I guess what I *don't* like about this encounter is just that it's such a dichotomy.  The gnomish ship is a generally really cool idea, and investigating it seems like a glorious thing for a party to do.  But to have the guide turn out to be a cannabil is so out of the ordinary it's like going to the bank to deposit your paycheck and seeing that only prostitutes work there.  You'd be like "what the heck!?"  It's just that off-the wall.  On the one hand, the PCs would NEVER suspect that their guide is what she is, since they'll be too busy admiring the ship.  But, on the other hand, I'd like to have seen a more applicable NPC.  Something like a gnome or a gnome ally who tries to kill the PCs to prevent them from learning the truth about the wrecked aircraft, that maybe it's hulls are full of illegal narcotics or something.  It would have helped tie it all together a little better.  Besides that, you'd think people would stop relying on Multhana as a guide if she kept eating all her clients.

Pond Scum
This encounter involves a green hag and her ogre companion.  It's designed to be very much a 'side-trek' adventure that takes place on a roadside near a small pond in the forest.  The plot involves the green hag (Esmurea) luring the party into her trap by pretending to be a damsel in distress.  Even if the PCs fall for the trick, only the hag gets in a surprise attack, but by then, the party is already engaging the ogre.  Once the hag attacks, the party will trounce the hag, and both the hag and the ogre will die in a matter of rounds.  The end.  What I'd like to see here is some more personality.  And by that I mean some sort of sense of realism with the hag and the ogre.  As it is, these monsters are not much more than cardboard cutouts who have arisen in the woods to challenge our heroes, and once vanquished, will be forgotten.  The author could have done a lot more fleshing out the ogre or the hag, or both, and maybe talking more about the hag's lair (which seems nonexistant).  What does the Hag do all day when she's not luring unsuspecting PCs?  This encounter just seems kind of hollow.

Dark Valkyrie
This encounter has a very heavy, very gothic feel to it.  I like the descriptions of the silent cathedral and the allusions of the decaying town, and the decrepit cemetary.  These paint very vivid pictures for me.  What is lacking, for me, is the Dark Valkyrie herself.  While I think the puzzle of the Valkyrie is a very intersting one, what is lacking is the leap between the town militia's problem to the PCs problem.  At what point in this do the PCs get involved?  Situation - PCs walk into town and the town guards, seeing their obvious puzzle-solving ability and magical weapons plead with them to help with their problem.  That's unlikely.  So, I guess what I'm saying here is that I'd like to see some sort of PC tie-in here to make it a little more personal.  What I'd also like to see is some more clarification of the Dark Valkyrie's motives.  What is she doing, and why?  I'm unclear on whether she is looking for someone in particular, or just anyone willing to join her group.  It's not clear there.  I do really like the word scrambles that represent the clues.  The author obviously spent a lot of time coming up with those.  Very clever.

Kole Blak and the Seven Dirty Dwarves
Ok, first off, I'm getting pretty tired of repeating myself - "ROUGE" is make-up that women, homosexuals, and maybe actors wear to give color to their cheeks.  "ROGUES" are thieves who ply their shady trade at night.  Aside from being a "railroad" type of plot, the story is pretty weak here.  Why DOES Kole hang out with Seven dwarven rogues?  What's their story?  Is there a reward on their heads?  Why are they willing to travel 2 miles into the dark forest to steal horses to eat?  Aren't there other sources of food for them?  What does horse meat taste like?  Does it make a good stew?  All these questions could be answered, but weren't.

Narvesh the Seer
This is a light-hearted encounter which involves the PCs meeting a stereotypical "crazed old man" atop a hill in the woods.  What I find humorous here is the image of the PC hounding the prophet after he spouts his wisdom all the way back to his lair.  I have this crazy image of this old man hobbling through the forests giving paranoid glances over his shoulder as the PCs hunt him down.  I also like the seer as a possible source for potions and as alchemical sage down the line, becoming a possible vehicle for future plot development as the encounter suggests.  I'd like to have seen a more indepth stat block, and a map to his abode would have been nice, but not a significant detractor.  I would also just remove the "gold-making" ability in favor of alchemy and Craft Potions.  Giving out free gold isn't generally a good idea, but having a place for PCs to buy hard-to-find potions is a true treasure!

Bibliothèque
Here, the PCs encounter a treant guarding a library of maps.  How a huge walnut tree treant fits in a 30-foot domed building is beyond me, but then what do I know of walnut trees?  That aside, this is a fairly interesting concept, although I also don't know how the treant gets a source of water.  There's nothing particularly wrong with this scenario.  Oh sure, the author switches from 10-pt. font to 12-pt. font, but far be it from me to nitpick such things.  I guess what this is, mostly, is just a location, and there happens to be a Treant there.  There's really not much of an encounter here to speak of.  Not much more than say, an encounter with a condom machine in a road-side bathroom.  It's more a facet of the location.  I could see myself including something like this in my game in the future.  Very usable idea, and not at all ordinary.  But still, it's missing some sort of angst that we might associate with an encounter.

A Hunter in the Darkness
I hope everyone appreciates the work I go through for these reviews.  I also feel sorry for whoever I review *last* since by this time, I've already spent a couple of hours reading, and typing and thinking about the review.  I end up getting pretty spent by the time I get to the end and I have to avoid just hacking out "it's lame!" for the review.  I'll avoid that here, especially since this encounter isn't lame; it's quite good.  Aside from the DM railroading PCs into a possible encounter with a high level wizard, this encounter poses an interesting challenge.  Although, if the party does challenge the wizard, 1 14th level wizard would pretty much get smoked by an EL 15 party.  It's pretty much a non-issue, in fact.  But, I do like twist.  Rather than kill the vampire, the wizard wants to BECOME a vampire, and then use his shield guardian to kill the original so that he can become his own master.  So, the wizard becomes a nemesis if the PCs try to stop him, OR if they try to kill the vampire.  This would be a good adventure if the PCs are somehow convinced to not interfere at all, and then they have a Wiz14/Vampire on their hands to deal with.


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## FMVD (Mar 12, 2002)

*Forgive my suckage*

I know it was bad, I was not told about the contest until two days before the dead line and I rushed it.  I have never played 3rd ed rules or wrote an adventure in 10 years. Did not help that it was the first time I had used microsucks Word and I was not used to it's spell check and format tools.  I had to cut out a lot of ideas to get down to 4 pages. I'm working on a longer version that makes more sence and having friends who play 3rd ed look it over. 

I'm not Kidding about muffy, it takes place in a children's fantasy world I have outlined for some interrelated stories and plays I have written,  I have turned "Little Miss Muffit" into a Ranger who hunts giant spiders.  I don't see many other humorous adventures so I will keep working on this one and maybe add more in this setting even, gygax himself wrote one wacky module 

To ancer the other question, Kole used the dirty dwarves as expendable henchmen.  They are dirty dwarves because they were banished for creating steam-mech devices that filled the dwarf city with fire and oily smoke.  They ate the horse (or DM's option an NPC underling) because after years of being on there own (and mabey the effect of chemiclas used in the inventions they are just nutty


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## KDLadage (Mar 12, 2002)

*Voted...*

...and bumping.


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## Nail (Mar 12, 2002)

Morrus said:
			
		

> *Mini Encounter Contest: Heat Three
> 
> Culinary Delights
> Down by the Sea
> ...




Arrgg....this 'un's a hard one.  Filled with "character" this list is....y'all should've put in more spellin' errors and gramatical mistakes ...makes me feel at home.....   

I'll shoot down the 'easies' first:
    *Down by the Sea:  Yep, it's got a character an' a location....not much goin' on, but they're there, alright.

    *Pond Scum:  Ummm....if yer players fell fer this....have I got a no-risk, 100% profit gauranty deal fer them.....jes' send 'em on down to Honest Nail's Pre-owned Helmet Shop.....

    *Hunter in the Darkness:  Huh?  Oh, a vampire......right, boys, get out yer standard-adventuring issue wooden stakes.....

    *Multhana Veloor at the Ship on the Mountain:  Jus' one thing....ambushing lone PCs is, err, not likely to win any brownie points from tha' players.......that, an' a gnome airship?

Okay, now the selection gets harder:

    *Bibliothèque: always had a soft spot fer Ents.  Don't know why.  If only there was a good link between the "why" an' th' "where".  Why is the library here?  It's not likely ta be a "random encounter" right?  Seems like the location would need lots of explanation outside of this description.  An I wish the treant had a better backstory.

    *Narvesh: Good stuff, but.....again, you'd need a bit o' back story work ta make this make sense.  That, an the "old wise man" motif is....errr....old.

    *Kole Blak and the Seven Dirty Dwarves:  If this was cleaned up it'd be good  (heh, heh, heh...).  Seriously, if the motivations and descriptions were tightened up, it would be a winner.

    *Culinary Delights: A fav. fer many, I'm sure.  I'm jus' not a fan of stickin' Douglas Adam's material in a D&D game.  Restaurant at the End of the Universe or no, it's jus' too contrived fer me.  But then again, I'm a humourless b*stard.   :^P  

    *Dark Valkyrie: Gonna have ta go with this one.  Needs some more character work on the half-fiend, and some spookier stuff in th' cathedral, but over all good.  The character is useful with minimal work.  The location can be stuck anywhere, an' yet, it's memorable.  The puzzles are fun......And look....it followed the rules of the contest.......

-Nail


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## Mistwell (Mar 12, 2002)

Standard Rant: Here are my comments on this heat.  I'm not doing this to be critical of people, or judge them or their entry, or influence votes in any way. I'm only doing this because I know that I like honest feedback on my work, and I assume others want that as well. That said, I'm not looking for a debate on my opinions (they are just my opinions, which means they are only worth whatever value you put on them, which is probably none .) I also won't mention who I voted for in each batch. 

To make sure I don't influence people's votes in any way in favor of my entry (I just entered the contest for fun, to get my feet wet on writing adventures in preparation for other contests that have more serious prizes at stake), I've asked a friend of mine to write their own opinion of my entry, and I have/will insert that opinion in the appropriate place instead of my own. That friend is fairly critical of stuff, so it probably won't help my chances (as if anyone really cares). Maybe my entry is in this batch, and maybe not . 

A brief word on this discussion about the rules. Pretend for a moment you are writing an adventure for Dragon Magazine and/or Dungeon. They have editorial (and time constraint) rules that you MUST MUST MUST obey. There is no spirit of the rules, there is no sorta-follows-the-rules. You follow them, or you get rejected. Period. This contest is, in a way, a test for people who want to write adventures for various d20 publishers in the future. In that sense, following the rules may be more important than the content of your entry. So, I am personally placing a lot of emphasis on your ability to follow the rules when voting. But then, I am a lawyer by trade, so I am probably way more anal about that sort of stuff than others. 

For reference, here are the Rules: 
1) Entry should consist of three pages. The first page should contain the encounter, the second page should describe (and, if necessary, map) the location and the third page should include your NPC, complete with background, roleplaying notes and combat tactics (if relevant). Your entry may optionally contain one fourth page for illustrations or maps; this is not compulsory. 
2) You may not exceed one page for each of these elements, and your text should be in Times New Roman font (or similar) at a font size of 12 points. 
3) The full 3-page document should bear a title and an indication of its Encounter Level, and sent as an email attachment to me at morrus@d20reviews.com. 
4) The location and the NPC should be useful independently of each other and of the encounter itself.
5) The encounter should be one that can be easily inserted into most campaigns. 
6) The encounter should be clear and easy to run. 

Enough ranting, on to the entries: 

Culinary Delights (EL? Does not meet rule 3 EL): I really enjoyed this encounter.  Comedy relief is one of the things I look for in mini-encounters for my campaign, and this one provides that.  However, I did note a couple of annoyances: 1) There is no EL for this one, 2) The NPC could be separated from the location, but it would lose something in that separation. Chef Gregory III belongs in the Traveling Tavern, and taking him out of that context would harm both the NPC and location, 3) My biggest complaint is there is no real encounter here. The only “encounter” is the introduction to the location, with a “There is definitely more to THIS story”. Gee, thanks for those details.  We see some hints of what the Chef is going to do with potions and some spells, in the NPC description, but they are very vague, and leave a LOT for the DM to work on before the encounter is ready to be run.  I really liked this one, but it left a lot unsaid.  Finally, this is only one of two entries this Heat that actually comes close following all the rules. That’s nice to see.

Down by the Sea (EL5). I liked the character background. The solitude of the Druid’s life is well described here.  In addition, the crab “army” is interesting, and I can see using that in a game.  On the down side, no atempt is made to separate the location and the NPC.  The whole thing is intrinsically linked.

Multhana Veloor at the Ship on the Mountain (EL 6) (AKA "A Fine Young Cannibal ate my 99 Luftballoons”, nice 80’s music ref).  Things I like: The whole thing follows all the rules, and both the “cannibal” NPC and the crashed Skyship are interesting elements that can be used outside this encounter and easily slipped into any campaign (unless you just hate anything that hints at steampunk).  I really like the interestly twisted mind of the cannibal NPC, who uses skins of her victims for armor, and their bones for weapons.  Things I did not like: The stat block is complete, perhaps too complete, for the NPC.  Looks like not enough room was left for tactics on how Multhana separates her victims to feast on.  Overall a really great encounter.  

Pond Scum (EL 7). I had to mess with the formatting to get this one to flow correctly.  Esmurea is an interesting NPC, and I liked the description of the pool’s creation.  I would have liked to have heard more about why she was kicked out of her clan.  On the down side, perhaps it’s a formatting issue, but I could not for the life of me figure out which section was the encounter, which the NPC, and which the location. They all seem to be mixed together, and I have no way of separating the various elements for use outside this encounter.

Dark Valkyrie (EL 8).  At first, when I saw that the enounter, NPC and location were not on their own pages, I assumed there was a page limit violation.  Well, in case anyone else was wondering this, once I threw appropriate page breaks in there, it all worked out fine.  Each section is less than a page, and does not violate those rules at all.  As for the encounter itself, I like Swanhild, and could see using “it” in my games.  It’s a villan than can grow in experience along with the party, assuming it can escape an encounter.  The location itself is rather uninteresting, unfortunately.  Swanhild is mentioned in the location, but could be easily removed. 

Kole Blak and the Seven Dirty Dwarves (EL? Does not meet rule 3 EL): My very first impression of this encounter, once it was pasted into a word document, was that it has a very nice map. Not sure what program was used to make it, but I appreciate the time it took to create.  Second, all of the page limitation rules were violated for this encounter.  The encounter itself pours onto a second page (almost half way down in fact), and the location spills into another page as well.  The NPC is short at least, but once it is formatted with page breaks, we are looking at a 6 page enounter, which just flys in the face of the rules. Finally, my favorite thing in this encounter is Kole Blak, one of the NPCs.  I really like it when evil is manifested in the things it wears and uses, and Kole does that well. We have Giant spider leather armor, Cloak of Shadow black spider silk, and toratsume hand claws. That fits the character well, and adds some nice color.

Narvesh the Seer (EL ? Does not meet rule 3 EL):  First impression? Some margins cheating, which is not mentioned specifically in the rules, but I feel violates the spirit of the rules. With only minor editing on the author’s part, I think this could have been avoided (and should have). That said, I like Narvesh.  His motives are well described, and you can see why his history lead to this kind of a life for him.  However, Narvesh is directly linked to the location, and heavily mentioned in it.  It doesn’t have much use without the NPC.  Narvesh’s description also directly relates back to both the location and the encounter.

Bibliothèque (EL 11).  First impression is that this enouncter break rule 2, font size, many times.  The font is often reduced to 10, rather than 12.  Ordinarily this is not a “technical” rule, and by breaking it, the author increases the amount of space they have to write, and that is a significant advantage.  However, once I changed the font size back to 12, the page limits were still not violated.  So, I have no idea why the author did these font changes, but I don’t think it’s a huge issue.  I did like the treant in this encounter, and can see using him in my game.  

A Hunter In The Darkness (EL 15).  I like Ian and Hank, and the idea behind the vampire is well thought out.  The location and NPC’s are all directly linked, however.  The location itself is fairly uninteresting, though I suppose I could always use another farm house in my game. 

-Mistwell


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## GruTheWanderer (Mar 12, 2002)

*Why doesn't voting bump a poll?*

Seems like that would be a good feature.

I enjoyed reading the entries.  "Culinary Delights" does seem like a fun idea to me, and "Dark Valkyrie" had a wonderful dark feeling to it.

However, I decided to vote for "Bibliothèque".  The idea of a treant cartographer is quite fascinating.  It's true that most people drawing maps of castles and towns would be under some suspicion, but not a tree.  I could imagine placing him in a larger city or in the countryside.  The location didn't have as much value without him, although had an interesting look at feel for a library.

Regards,
Gru


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## UniversalMonster (Mar 12, 2002)

*I voted for Dark Valkyrie!*

because the puzzle was clever and I love Valkyries. And other reasons.


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## MavrickWeirdo (Mar 12, 2002)

I really liked _Multhana Veloor at the Ship on the Mountain _ except for one thing. 

In encounter it says "The gnomish crew all made their way down the mountain about two months ago, taking everything valuable with them." 

There's nothing valuble on the ship. No treasure. No Gadgets. What is the point of fighting a homacidal guide then getting no treasure. In spite of that I think I will vote for it.


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## gustavef (Mar 12, 2002)

A bimp to the front

-g


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## Napftor (Mar 13, 2002)

I'll also bump this before it leaves the first page.


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## der_kluge (Mar 13, 2002)

This is the hardest heat yet.  There's no clear winner here, that I can tell.  There are a couple of fairly good ones, but all of them have flaws that I just can't surmount.  Gonna have to stew over this a bit longer.


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## Blacksad (Mar 13, 2002)

Mistwell said:
			
		

> Bibliothèque (EL 11).  First impression is that this enouncter break rule 2, font size, many times.  The font is often reduced to 10, rather than 12.  Ordinarily this is not a “technical” rule, and by breaking it, the author increases the amount of space they have to write, and that is a significant advantage.  However, once I changed the font size back to 12, the page limits were still not violated.  So, I have no idea why the author did these font changes, but I don’t think it’s a huge issue.  I did like the treant in this encounter, and can see using *him* in my game.




it! (but thats a personal opinion)

On another point, are those threads archived? The comments might be good advices for the different author.


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## Mistwell (Mar 13, 2002)

Bump! Damn thing should stay at the top like the first heat did! I suspect many people don't even know the vote is still on!


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## Erekose13 (Mar 13, 2002)

*bump*


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## Nail (Mar 13, 2002)

*Vote, you scally-wags!*

Morrus, ya gotta work on the "get out th' vote" thing.  Is this contest gonna be determined by only a handful of yahoos like me?

-Nail


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## Blacksad (Mar 13, 2002)

may I advocate for my submission?

and

*bumps*


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## roversaurus (Mar 13, 2002)

*Bump and comments*

This one was hard. There was no clear winner.
 I voted for Culinary delights,
but I'm not certain that was my favorite. I just voted
for number two because I wanted a race.
(I vote Libertarian, I guess I just don't like voting
for the guy that wins 

I liked Valkyries. But I think I would need to change a few things
about it. The clues were cool. I might have her attack random
places in town.

I liked the Culinary delights, but I'm not sure it would
fit in my campaign.

Bibliotech was good. I like Treants. I wanted something more
from it. Maybe a reason the PC's went there.

And *I* liked Pond Scum. It was small and quick with a
twist (even if it was obvious). I would
have voted for it if it had been second.

Narvesh the Seer  was interesting. I like crazy loners. And you could introduce obscure prophetic adventure hooks with him.

A Hunter In The Darkness, This was pretty cool too. I liked the
twists. What would the party do?

My campaign site:
http://home.indy.rr.com/ahwmrklas/dnd/summary.htm


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## BiggusGeekus (Mar 13, 2002)

*bump*

(this really should be a sticky if at all possible)


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## Mistwell (Mar 13, 2002)

Valkyrie came from behind in one day, with more than double the votes of the next entry. Is it really that far and away superior to the rest, or is there something fishy going on?

Just putting that out there and seeing if it floats.


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## KDLadage (Mar 14, 2002)

*bump*

bump


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## Corporate Dog (Mar 14, 2002)

Mistwell said:
			
		

> *
> Just putting that out there and seeing if it floats. *




Glub, glub. Nope. Looks like it sinks.

How exactly do you propose something fishy going on when all the votes are tied to individual accounts, and only accounts which were established before the polls were initiated are allowed to vote?

Maybe the author has a lot of friends here, and he encouraged them to vote for his entry. While I think campaigning is a real cheesy way of turning this into a popularity contest (and I would hope that the people who vote give all entries a fair chance) you're going to be real hard pressed to prove that anyone was doing something underhanded here.

Regards,
Corporate Dog


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## MavrickWeirdo (Mar 14, 2002)

> is there something fishy going on?




While I admit the current leader is not my favorite, it has been consistantly in the lead (not a lot of votes for it all at once).

Also winners of the previous 2 heats wern't my favorite either, so I'm just accepting that my tastes are different than the norm.

and if something fishy does float, that means the fish is dead.


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## Mistwell (Mar 14, 2002)

Okay, Okay, wasn't suggesting anyone was cheating. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong.  Perhaps I'm just paranoid.  I just don't expect the spread on any of these votes to be over 50% within one day.  Statistically, that's a bit odd (unless that entry is simply far and away superior, a possibility I am open to, since I thought Valkyrie was a good entry.)


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## Elder-Basilisk (Mar 14, 2002)

*I voted for Valkyrie*

Since we're discussing this, I'll put my 2 cents in.

I was one of the votes for Dark Valkyrie. It struck me as something I could take and use in my campaign almost without any changes (except, naturally adding spells memorized to the half-fiend's spellbook and substituting deity names).

Culinary Delights seemed like the thing that some of my friends would love to run but it didn't really interest me.

The Downed skyship cannibal one was interesting but it just didn't have enough of a hook. Had it been a magically disguised ghoul druid/wizard cursed to haunt the vicinity of the ship where she consumed the bodies of her companions 1000 years ago, it would have probably caught my fancy a bit more. As it was, the villain's motivation didn't seem sufficiently developed. ("She's a cannibal"--yep, that's it.)

Bibliothek: it didn't catch my imagination. A quirky, semi-interesting NPC who'd fit some of my aforementioned friends' tastes very well the situation (and the treant) don't fit mine.

Pond Scum: It seemed like an interesting idea but the sealed portal on the underground stream bothered me--where does all the water go? I got the impression that it used to bubble up to the ground (in the pool) and continue downhill from there. I don't see how sealing it up eliminates the flow of water. I guess I'm too into details. . . .

Narvesh the Seer: Didn't interest me. If someone gets prophetic visions, I'd rather put them in the Delphi and make characters really think whether or not they want to know their future--and if they know it, can they change it? Either that or have a prophet in Elijah/John the Baptist mode who doesn't just give information but demands a declaration of allegiance (a prophet who changes things in the world).

Hunter in the Darkness: I rather liked this one too. It made good use of the rules and how people might react to knowing the way some of the rules worked (trying to find a weak vampire they could kill). However, it didn't catch my imagination like the silent cathedral and surrounding graveyard in Dark Valkyrie.


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## KDLadage (Mar 14, 2002)

I am one of 4 that voted for the Treant (a soft spot, those guys, let me tell you).

But fishy going on? No. I really do not think so.


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## Corporate Dog (Mar 14, 2002)

Are you looking at my bump? Bump-lookers. Cheeky monkeys.

Regards,
Corporate Dog


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## Mistwell (Mar 14, 2002)

Corp. Dog, you crack me up!


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## KDLadage (Mar 14, 2002)

*Just looking...*

...and Corporate Dog's bump...


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## billd91 (Mar 14, 2002)

I had to vote for Narvesh the Seer. The punchline of having a crypic, important-sounding prophesy turn out to be something really mundane was just too good. I could use and reuse that in my campaign... and maybe I will. Have the seer produce some prophesies that are spot on and verifyable by the PCs, and then throw in some really important ones that take a long time to come to fruition. Hmmmmm....

The location for Dark Valkyrie was nice, but the encountered creature herself just didn't do much for me. I think I could get much more mileage out of Narvesh in my campaign.


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## Seule (Mar 14, 2002)

Any opinions are my own, any criticisms are meant constructively.  I didn't bother to comment on good points of most modules, other people have done that, so the following may seem harsh.

Culinary Delights: Another version of the Travelling Building.  This has been done to death.  Maybe in a Planescape campaign, but even so, the building is at least a minor artifact, if not major, particularly being sentient.  I've seen this way too many times.

Down By the Sea: Solidly done, but nothing I couldn't whip up in 5 minutes with the Mastertools Demo.  Another grumpy dwarf who wants to be left alone...  who is also a grumpy druid who wants to be left alone.  Not very original, except for the combination.

Multhana Veloor at the Ship on the Mountain: Almost the only one where location and NPC can be used completely independantly...  unfortunately they are too independant, with not enough given on each one.  Trying to make two separate components leaves the whole feeling a little disjointed.  Quite imaginative though.

Pond Scum: Yeah?  And?  Is there supposed to be an interesting location or NPC here?  I don't see any.  The encounter is fine, but the other two parts are lacking.

Dark Valkyrie: As others have said, not enough background.  What does she actually want?  However, the best use of atmosphere, and pretty good all round.  One of the best, but why hasn't the Church done something about her?  Any city with 8 watchtowers should be able to deal with her, given warning.

Kole Blak and the Seven Dirty Dwarves: I find that enough humour comes into my games without me trying this hard to add it in.  Plus the spelling errors really put me off.  It's basically a joke encounter, where the players get the joke but the characters don't...  unless they don't find out the names.  Then it's not funny for anyone.

Narvesh the Seer: Oh look, another crazy old man who is really the bearer of ungodly power.  Sure this one is no Fizban, but still, this is also way overdone.   Plus, his name is spelled at least 2 ways.

Bibliotheque: A really nice set piece, and a possible shock for someone trying to rob a library, but I think it's much better as a PC ally, and then it's not really much of an encounter.  Plus, Rogue levels?  Why not Expert or Wizard?

A Hunter in the Darkness:  Basically, the PCs stumble on a conflict between two evil types, but one is more evil than the other.  Real possibility for moral conflict, and the Wizard can easily be scaled up or down.  This is the only one I'm likely to use in my game, and its the one I voted for.  Sure, the location doesn't exist outside the NPCs, but it's a great encounter.

  --Seule


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## Berandor (Mar 14, 2002)

Seule said:
			
		

> *Culinary Delights: Another version of the Travelling Building.  This has been done to death.  Maybe in a Planescape campaign, but even so, the building is at least a minor artifact, if not major, particularly being sentient.  I've seen this way too many times.
> *




You're not the first to say this...
Might be me not buying published adventures, but the only thing in D&D that comes close is the tavern in Arabel (FR) where you can travel to other worlds... "Serpent Inn" or something.

Could somebody point me out where it has been used in D&D that often that it bears mention ( compared to a crazy prohet, a Dark Angel in a cathedral, a polymorphed witch, and an isolated druid )...

Berandor


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## Blacksad (Mar 14, 2002)

Does someone know the code for the backround color, so that only those who want to see my comments will see them?
test


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## KDLadage (Mar 15, 2002)

*bump*

bump


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## Morrus (Mar 15, 2002)

And the winner is...

Dark Valkyrie 

I'll post the next heat tomorrow.

No, there was nothing fishy going on.


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## Mistwell (Mar 15, 2002)

Congrats to the author of Dark Valkyrie!


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## Blacksad (Mar 15, 2002)

*Bibliothèque*

To Berandor, Corporate dog, Nail, Mistwell, GruTheWanderer, roversaurus, KDLadage and Seule: Thanks!!

Yes, english is my second langages, and I do not know how I messed the 10/12 points font.

to die-kluge I say , but you are right I forgot the how to enter problem, while as an afterthought it seems possible for a treant to enter, it depends on how you see the moving capabilities of a treant, so remove a rank in spot and listen, add one in use magic device and add in the treant's equipment a staff of size alteration.

To those who wants to use the treant, if you have song and silence, feuillu meet exactly the requirement for the royal explorer prestige classes (that's intentional).

And sorry for the lousy encounter, I made it so that it could be inserted in any adventure (like a dungeon crawl), I'll know better the next time.


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## Corporate Dog (Mar 15, 2002)

Woohoo! So far I'm two-for-three on my votes. If only my NCAA picks were doing this well...

Congrats to whoever wrote Dark Valkyrie!

Regards,
Corporate Dog


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## Corporate Dog (Mar 15, 2002)

An impatient "Where's the fourth heat?!? Dammit Morrus, I didn't give you permission to have a real life apart from this website." bump.

Regards,
Corporate Dog


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## KDLadage (Mar 15, 2002)

Bump -- in case anyone missed who the winner was.


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## Mistwell (Mar 16, 2002)

I think the author of Valkyrie should step forward and take a bow. 

Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?

That joke just never gets old...or maybe I just get old and that joke follows...


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