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Stellar vibes. Excellent environmental storytelling. Solid design. All-round a superb one-shot indeed!

Yes, whether the encounter leads to combat can vary and but in my mind if its randomly generated with the whims of the PCs and the Reaction Die I still treat it as potential combat; plus I wasn’t opposed to them on the ground of too many combat encounters, just too many encounters in general occurring each exact hour.

Yeah the Gulch does lack description on what makes it arduous terrain, particularly since it as you pointed out is titular! It would’ve been great to see what you wrote for it, perhaps an expansion later?

When I was looking at the Shadowdark corebook and considering overland travel I was considering the gulch as difficult terrain (which multiplies the time by 2) chiefly because arduous would make it a flat 8 hours regardless of walking or mounted, which I take as reserved specifically for travelling through mountainous terrain.

I think the shadow encounter should be described as occurring at sunset instead of during a specific numbered hour, that way it accounts for PCs who set off on their journey early/late, encounter time, and/or pausing to rest along the way.

Understandable though I feel I must point out that  technically by the wording they may encounter up to 7 or 8 encounters! (Even though the tower is 6 miles away “if mounted, the party should arrive within seven hours. If walking, it should take eight hours.” and that you should roll on the desert encounter table every hour of travel. 

a) I think that’s far too many encounters; even upwards of 6 is too many in a row, even if they’re not all combat, but since they’re all random you have no control over if they are. My suggestion: Roll for an encounter check on a d6 each hour. If that was the intention no worries.

b) I also think the discrepancy between walking and mounted should be greater than an hour. Mounts usually cut the walking travel time in half, otherwise the cost of them wouldn’t be worth the modicum of savings in travel time.

Sorry, I’m not trying to nitpick, I just want to provide constructive feedback. There’s good stuff here, let’s just polish up the rest. :)

Solid premise with a couple of neat ideas that could really shine with a bit more interactive detail. Understandably towers are tricky to do because they tend to be very linear.

I felt the first room was an unused opportunity as it’s completely barren besides the secret door, which is so strongly telegraphed by the lone chair, it’s not really a secret at all IMO. This would have been a great spot for an interactive element, like possibly a basic puzzle to locate the door (choose/sit on the right chair, with the incorrect choice having consequence); provide an additional clue like a faint hand print or bloodstain, etc. Something that would make the PCs interact and investigate rather than take the initial scene entirely at face value. Even adding a simple detail like a tapestry or mural about the archmage help make an empty room much more interesting. :)

Great minds. Originally the body did have a note regarding the constellations but I pulled it because the hint I came up with was too obvious and/or I was running out of space.

Your feedback is much appreciated!

So my intention behind the addresses is subtle, perhaps too subtle: As stated 1 is designed to be obvious. 2 & 3 and 4, 5, & 6 aren’t location specific, but are linked by shared mediums: 2 &3 are connected as they are both found on metal plates.

 4, 5, & 6 are connected because they’re found via decorative elements (mosaic, fresco, etc.); further more, their specific series is also meant to be implied by the state of the night sky (dawn, dusk, night = 1st, 2nd, 3rd).

Hehehe it’s one of those things when you work on a puzzle so much the answer seems obvious, but yes I completely agree they could’ve certainly used some more hints.

All the individual elements of writing, layout, map, colour, vibes, etc. come together and play off each other like notes in a song, creating whole that is much greater than the sum of its parts. 👌 

Thank you very much for the kind words!

I enjoyed the fanciful locations and the novel chase mechanics, as well as the open-ended questions; even if not used collaboratively at the table, they can be used as prompts for the GM to further tailor the adventure.

Also the design is on point! Well done!

A excellent grimy and visceral pamphlet adventure!

I ♥️ everything about this! The town cuisine literally made me 🤤 Seriously, phenomenal stuff. I really want to run this!

I absolutely adore the use of colour; not just in the art (which is phenomenal) but in the layout and in the adventure itself! Both vivid and dreamy!

Thanks! I actually think I didn’t provide enough detail for locations!

I’d seen a couple other examples of depth-crawls that had mapping and I wanted to include it but it wouldn’t completely work if the site constantly changed each time one visited it so granting partial advantage seemed like a decent compromise.

Your kind and astute observations are much appreciated!

C'est magnifique! 

A delightful swashbuckling romp and an excellent reminder that Appendix N shouldn't just be limited to the medieval period. I think this would be perfect scenario to run in 17th Century Minimalist!

Glad someone else had the clever idea repurposing Weird Tales art and making it work so well!

Looking forward to the thrilling conclusion!

I’m glad to have delivered on that promise but didn’t expect such high praise! Much appreciated!

I'm at a loss for words just how much this rips!

A remarkable example of less is more.

How eggsemplary of you! 

Eggellent! Dare I say perhaps even Eggquisite!

I don't think there's anything else that can be said that hasn't been. This looks like a riot to run/play!

 Huge fan of the adventure being presented across various disparate clippings and papers with faux handwritten annotations. And the writing matches this impressive layout. Both the Heartbeats and the Random Encounters are an excellent ways of ratcheting up the tension and putting pressure on the heroes. Absolutely brilliant stuff!

A stunning entry all round. Atmospheric and absolutely dripping with Clark Ashton Smith's Zothique vibes.

A powder-keg with potential, although the small text over that background was brutal on my eyes and brain! A sans background printer-friendly version would be appreciated. Agendas are neat and in a pitch a referee could turn them into adventure hooks. I would have divided the magic square into two parts: the handout itself (found elsewhere)  and then maybe a journal entry that states the code is the shape of the sign of jupiter, touching certain numbers.

A solid temple-full-of-cultists locale. All-round stellar design, layout, and writing, though not exactly heavy on Appendix N themes.

Well-written prose. Great usability as a side-quest dropped into any settlement.

Neat. Would've preferred  larger, more legible text.

A decent premise but very linear with unused potential; mostly series of  empty rooms with few encounters/interactive elements. Lacking in detail: (e.g. Ancient runic writing - what does it say?) Many NPCS lack mention which of the three types of martian introduced at beginning they are. Unadvisable placing notable NPCs (lord, wizard) just as random encounters if they don’t have a fixed location they can be normally encountered.  Unsure how the PCs were supposed to use diadem as in most cases whenever the touch it they get transported somewhere else?

Also Shadowdark specific qualm: Most stat blocks were missing the creature’s lvl, which is required for some spells, etc.

Great vibes. Bare but serviceable layout. Mistake in room #2 makes reference to nonexistent room #9 instead of #6. Map lists south door to #4 as locked with no key to be found (intentionally missing or just oversight?). Room #5 listed as #6 on map. Treasure being attached to two 1:6 chances means there’s a good chance PCs will leave empty handed.  

Valid questions. True, the Appendix N can be viewed through a relatively broad lens but I defaulted to what the jam lists under Theme: Retro-vibes, concepts from weird fiction & science fantasy, elements from old stories, etc. I did get a Masque of the Red Death vibe (decadent nobles partying  during a perceived end times) but I think at least for me because it ended up feeling so on-point for Mörk Borg it didn't feel appropriate for anything else? 

Solid layout with skillful use of text emphasis to aid reference. Love ‘besmooched’ and ‘unsmooched’ as states. Great use of colour blocks for room descriptions and stats. Map could’ve used an element to denote locked areas as well as a couple rooms (9) lacked a note in their description on being locked (one has to recall there is a key elsewhere). Can’t beat a gross manor-crawl, very Mörk Borgian but it doesn't feel very Appendix N to me.

Very cool concept, though I feel like it might be challenging to run as I personally found some of the descriptions difficult to parse what exactly was happening (could very well be a me-problem). The overall imagery/design matches the themes of gravity and sinking perfectly IMO.

The writing was succinct and evocative but I think could use a bit more clarity; the room descriptions could’ve also been more consistent with bolding for ease of reference (e.g. sometimes interactive encounters/elements were bolded, sometimes not.)

The general layout might have slightly better usability at the table if the map was adjacent to the keyed descriptions and was preceded by the Encounters page, not separated by it. Likewise, the page with Burdens/Signs/Environment/Treasures (which is an excellent section BTW for verisimilitude) I think could’ve been left near the end. (Again just personal preference; I’m certainly no layout expert.)

Finally, I think the last page should have been put to use further develop the adventure instead of leaving it pretty much blank; I do see how it visually bookends the leaflet, but one could’ve still made use of some of the space.

That all said, an excellent entry!

Thank you very much for the great review and the kind words, especially "hot tub of ecstasy and terror", which absolutely killed me. I love that consideration!

Great feedback regarding the constellations. I just wanted include some random element but wasn't able to develop it further other than set dressing.

Valid point about the statue, I guess I figured the dungeon needed to be a bit deadly at the end, especially for a powerful artifact potentially game-changer  like the Ledger of Fates. The corpse was there to foreshadow the potential danger in the vault. I presumed the reason for its state was that it would be crushed by the statues' fists and desiccated by the gas when they attempted to take the ledger; both effects because how relentless it would in its task. My original concept was for the corpse to be holding the ledger (that would perhaps explain its fate better), but then it didn't make sense why the statue would just leave it there after dispatching the thief. Also I know realize that I perhaps didn't make it clear that the statue wouldn't be stationary  when activated.

That all said, I didn't specify how deadly the statue could be, I intentionally left that open for the referee to work out. I just wanted to impress the potential peril, and it sounds like I succeeded since you read it that way. :D

Thanks again!

Thank you muchly for the kind words! 😁

This is an all-round solid adventure, with the added bonus of being free! Excellent premise and presentation, with novel monsters/NPCs, and useful supplemental material. 👍

The closest thing to a nitpick is I believe the map is keyed incorrectly based upon the room descriptions: I think room 7 is supposed to be room 4, 4 is supposed to be 5, 5 is supposed to be 6, and 6 is 7.