NOTE: Spoiler warning appears further down—this section is safe for players.
“CAS-2: Rise of the Blood Olms” is…
- An absolutely fantastic one-shot dungeon
- While in the the standard Cairn setting, it could be easily slotted into your home game
- Adventure #2 in the “Cairn Adventure Series” [CAS] for Cairn 2e
- By Yochai Gal, creator of Cairn
- Free to download!
As with CAS-1, Yochai states that this dungeon could be used by new or experienced GMs. I agree completely. But, this adventure feels like an adventure intended to introduce Cairn–it’s a “Red Box” adventure, easy to understand, easy to run, and yet not lacking in story or danger.
While I very much enjoyed reading “CAS-1: Trouble in Twin Lakes”–and intend to run it–I fully expect that I will get this dungeon to the table even sooner. It’s a really, really great dungeon…that you should run too. Here’s why:
Usability – 4/4
I read this adventure once, two weeks ago…when I was sick in bed. So my brain was not at 100%. And yet, I could run it right now. It is simple, clear, straightforward, and impeccably written. Everything you need is right there.
Granted, I’m very familiar with the Cairn 2e rules. So I could run it as written. But this dungeon could easily be slotted into any system, old-school or modern. To do that, you’d need to think about a few enemy stats and some status/damage effects. There are four enemies that you would need to convert (see pg. 11). Arguably, experienced GMs could likely do that on the fly. And you’d need to adjust for how damage works in Cairn vs. other systems. But, again, that’s not rocket science.
In terms of usability, this is a great dungeon for newer GMs who want to try running a dungeon for the first time–it’s not huge or impossible to grasp. But for experienced GMs, it would also be very useful if you needed a solid dungeon for your preexisting game–or if you just wanted to run a dungeon one-shot sometime.
Art – 4/4
I would have liked more art. But art is expensive. And there are four pieces in this twelve-page adventure, which is a solid proportion. So I can’t really complain. I love all the art.
First is the cover art, that you saw above. This is another piece by Ari-Matti Toivonen. I mentioned an evocative piece by him in last week’s review. I spent more time than I would like to admit trolling around on his social media pages gawking at his art. Can’t get enough of it. And this cover (that I have cropped unfortunately) is another great one. It may be black-and-white, but it doesn’t suffer for it.
Toivonen also did the dungeon map, which is not only clean and usable…but it could also be used for a VTT! So full points there, in contrast to last week’s review. I also assume, based upon style and my interaction with Yochai in last week’s blog comments, that the back cover is also by Toivonen. Rather than continuing to post all his art on here, instead I’ll entice you to download the adventure yourself and check it out. It’s another great one.
Last but not least, there’s a great NPC portrait by Adam Hensley. It departs a bit from the tone of Toivonen’s work. But it still fits solidly within the art aesthetic of the OSR and, I think, gives some character to the NPC. I like it!
Story – 4/4
A survey team has gone missing in a system of caves and the PCs are being sent (a) to find them and (b) to recover a magical item that the survey team had. Simple, clean premise. But all is not as it seems!
You’re about to get the spoiler warning. So before (some of) you stop reading, I want to say here what I say later: this dungeon is one of the best I’ve ever read. Frankly, I can’t think of another dungeon off the top of my head that is better written. It’s simple, but not boring. It’s small, but still meaningful. Every room matters. Every room adds to the story. It’s just absolutely great.
[Spoiler warning for players—stop here!]
In classic form, humans have interrupted nature’s balance and things have come unraveled. The survey team used their magical item to dam up a large stream in the caves. Doing this interrupted the ecology of the cave systems and–without getting in the details–has caused some of its inhabitants to turn violent. So half the survey team is now dead, its leader has gone mad (for other reasons), and one is hunkered down in hiding.
For a twelve-page dungeon, there are several layers of cause-and-effect that created this situation. And the question is whether the players will actually try to fix the situation–or just get the one non-violent member of the survey part and split.
It is my sense that the actual layout of the dungeon (and the placement of NPCs) will encourage players to solve the situation. Here’s one thing that’s great about this adventure: the dungeon draws you into the story. The story unfolds as you go through the dungeon.
I have run a LOT of dungeons. In particular, I’ve run a lot of Gygax and AD&D 1e/2e dungeons. Those dungeons do not tell a story with every room. I’m currently reading 5e’s megadungeon, Dungeon of the Mad Mage. They are trying to tell a story within each level of their dungeon. But they don’t succeed how Yochai has here. Every room matters. It tells the tale, it draws the players in, it has a point. That’s what sets this dungeon apart from the others I’ve read. I honestly can’t place another one that is so economical and straightforward…that also is packed with story. It’s just Grade A excellent. Well done.
I am extremely eager to see what other adventures Yochai Gal writes for Cairn 2e. My understanding is that he has run several other adventures that he plans to release in the CAS series. Keep up the great work, Yochai. Once I’ve run both of these adventures, I plan to report back on how it went.
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