Gold Strike!
By Mitch Hamilton
A d20 / OGL Adventure for 4th – 6th Level
Winner of the Autumn 2009 Adventure Writing Competition
In a long abandoned mine, some intrepid miners search for new sources of gold, unaware of the mine’s terrible history. Disaster strikes and the party is called on to delve deep underground to rescue the survivors. As they push further in to the mine they find something far more ancient, far more evil than a simple mining accident. Can the party save the survivors and themselves and stop an eon old evil breaking free?
Free Adventure Download
The full PDF can be downloaded using this link:
Gold Strike! (Open-Playtest Edition)
It is completely free, all we ask is that you give us feedback on the adventure via email or in the comments box below. On the back page of the PDF you will find some suggestion for the sort of information we are looking want but really, we just want to know what you think about it.
Everyone who takes part in the open-playtest will be sent a copy of the final PDF containing not only this adventure but also other winners of the Adventure Writing Competition.
November 9th, 2009 at 7:29 pm
Haven’t playtested it with my group yet, but I’ve looked it over and do think its a good adventure. I have only one complaint: The name evokes images of gunfighters and the old west, not D&D style fantasy. I’ll be calling it something else when I present it to my players.
November 10th, 2009 at 11:34 am
Thanks for the feedback Charles.
You are probably right about the name. It was the original name for Mitch’s adventure and has stuck despite the adventure itself changing quite considerably.
December 16th, 2009 at 5:54 pm
I’m in the process of running this adventure for my group and while I agree with Chris about the name.. The adventure plays out very smoothly and is well written and organized. This has made my job easier as a DM and also allowed room for me to personalize it a bit to bring out strengths and weeknesses in some of my groups characters. Well Done !
December 17th, 2009 at 10:19 am
@Larry – Thanks for the feedback and kind words. I will make sure Mitch (the Author) sees them.
The name is definitely going to change, I just need to think of a new one.
Chris
January 18th, 2010 at 5:12 pm
i am play testing this with my party and it works really well there is one point there aren’t enough creatures for my style of dungeon
January 19th, 2010 at 10:17 am
Thanks for the feedback Adam.
The focus of the dungeon is very much exploration and discovery than combat. The monsters were there to provide interesting challenges rather than mass combat.
Based on your feedback I will see if we can add a “Beefing Up The Adventure” section to offer GMs advice on how to make it more combat orientated.
Chris
January 27th, 2010 at 6:37 am
While my group and I haven’t quite finished playing this adventure, I have got to say that it has been one of the best ones yet. What I think I liked best about it was the ease of use. This was actually my first time DMing, and this adventure made my job that much easier. Another aspect was the emphasis on an actual adventure instead of simply slaying monsters and collecting loot. Possibly the most fun part yet was with the carts going down the mine shaft, which my group had a heck of a time with. Perhaps my only complaint would be that sometimes the extremely large caverns and tunnels made it difficult to map out as well as led to some tedium when it came to rock slides and such. We haven’t reached the ending, however reading ahead I’ve got to say that I’m more than a little excited.
January 27th, 2010 at 10:33 am
@Mike –
I’m glad you liked the layout of the adventure. I tried to design it to be easy to use so its great to have some feedback on this issue.
Large caverns do present problems with mapping on the table-top. This is unavoidable. However it is the price of having something different from the standard 5′ corridor and the 15′ square room.
Thanks for taking the time to give me feedback.
Chris
February 10th, 2010 at 9:15 pm
Hello, I just downloaded this module. It looks great! I’m going to run my PCs through this. Right off the bat, scanning through the module I saw two typos. On page 11, in the flavor text, the steps are described as “warn”. This should be “worn”. On page 23, in the description of the effects of the effects of breathing the gas, the spell “stinking cloud” is printed as “stink clouding”. I’ll be running this on monday, and get back to you with our playtest experience then.
February 11th, 2010 at 10:19 am
@Andrew
Thanks for spotting the typos. Homophones and little like the “stink cloud” are really hard to spot for the author / typesetters.
Many thanks for highlighting them.
Chris
February 22nd, 2010 at 9:59 pm
Ok, I’ve finished this adventure with my group. We had to break off early last monday, hence the delay. Overall, this was a very solid adventure. Party composition: ranger 3/fighter 2, monk 5, cleric 5, wizard 5.
The mine carts were a blast. The party failed their last check and I had great fun describing the crash and the resulting destruction.
I feel like there is insufficient reason for the miners in the lower camp to not have escaped. I inferred from the difficulty finding the lower camp that the miners may have tried to find their way back, but got lost. I played up the confusing, repetitive, and dangerous route to the base camp so that the miners’ confinement felt more real. The random encounters for this section are very good. The dwarf ghosts encounter spooked them pretty well.
The npcs were pretty well fleshed out for unimportant people. It was easy to role play them. Love the “itchy balls” comment. “Everyone I know has beards. Crazy old coot.” got a laugh from the players.
The lemure fight was fun, it was nice to give the impression of a devil horde streaming to the attack. I feel the caves the lemures in could have been a bit more fleshed out, perhaps with some relics of the ancient civilization such as pot shards and arrow heads.
In the junction between areas 8 and 9, I added a pool of water that the pcs had to submerge to get through. I don’t feel like there’s enough drainage here to leech all that water away swiftly. Significant pooling made it more realistic for me and scared the players when they thought they’d have to continue underwater. The wet, treacherous slope in area 9 was a real PITA for the pcs to climb up, and it was a great roleplaying opportunity as they bickered and whined about the climb.
The Cave of bones was pretty epic. When Bonski attacked, my bloodthirsty PCs chased him around and around the room, setting off traps and getting shot. After awhile they smartened up and headed for a corner to get their backs against a wall. From there, the monk struck out solo to find Bonski, deflecting his arrows and eventually cornering him before beating him to death. This fight depleted most of the cleric’s healing spells, which made the temple fight a lot harder. Badanistrax killed the party’s wizard before he went down.
The survivors exited via the goat path. I’m not sure about the path, it seems an awfully convenient way to say “see ya, dungeon” but the players were very relieved to not have to get back through areas 8 and 9. The ranger was a little upset that he didn’t find the goat path earlier when searching the plateau. The orcs were no challenge at all for the players, and the fight was awfully one-sided. Highlights include the monk throwing orc mooks down the mine shaft.
Overall, a very solid adventure. Usually when I run somebody else’s work, I edit the crap out of it. I ran this as-is besides the changes I mentioned, and it flowed really well. I like the layout of the material, it’s logically presented and easy to read. The sidebars were helpful, and I really like seeing the DCs for various actions called out without having to search through the text.
Lastly, here’s the remainder of the typos I found:
page 26 “you realises they are bones”
Should be “realize”
page 26 “because of the evil all around this gave, is unknown but he has appointed himself”
The comma should come after unknown
page 27 “(In Undercommon, the Derro will say: You are not one of the chosen. You will not pass.)
Not technically a typo but shouldn’t be in the read-aloud text
page 27 “some great magic must of been at work here”
Should be “must have”
page 27 “It almost seems like the a building”
Strike “the”
page 27 “more like a gapping mouth”
I think it should be “gaping”
page 28 “Badanistrax was so feint”
“Faint”
Thanks for allowing us to playtest this! A great time was had by all.