Mitarra – Cave of Crystals is an audio-enhanced adventure for four to five 2nd level characters. Descriptive text is available to be played as a download from Silven Publishing. I don’t have the technology to play the text, but not having access to it didn’t detract from my appreciation of the adventure. The adventure also includes a mini-campaign area called Mitarra complete with map and six pre-gen characters.
The adventure builds on a previous adventure, Centipedes!, but includes notes on running this adventure alone. The adventure connects to other adventures in a series about ultimately defeating a lich.
The adventure itself is simple, yet it includes a variety of encounters from roleplaying to wilderness exploration, to dungeon crawling. Basically, the Bishop of Ravenorra wants crystals for wands he’s crafting. These crystals are found in caves located in the lands of elf barbarians.
The adventure is organized into eight parts. The first six parts takes the PCs one step closer to the caves and the crystals they seek. The final two parts provide adventure as the PCs return to the Bishop with his crystals.
I was impressed as soon as I read the first encounter. A page invites the PCs to a dinner with the Bishop. Instead of assuming the PCs will meekly say yes and not investigate further, the author includes the results of a Gather Information check for PCs who want to snoop around before the dinner. The results could help the PCs prepare to present themselves in the best light before the Bishop.
The meeting itself provides numerous answers for questions the PCs may pose to the Bishop. What would normally be boxed text can be played aloud instead.
What I enjoyed about the adventure is the required mix of roleplaying, exploration and travel. For instance, the PCs will need to get the elven barbarians permission to travel through their lands before heading to the caves.
While out in the wilderness, the PCs have to make choices, such as going upstream to find a ford but taking longer, or going downstream in shorter time but taking a more dangerous crossing. The adventure is filled with choices for the PCs to make. Some of the choices are simple and some are complex and require thought and/or roleplaying.
The adventure only rewards intelligent play. A powerful wizard and a terrible demon both have to be roleplayed with successfully. Combat would be foolish against either of them.
The exploration of the caves ends with a surprise for the PCs. The Bishop doesn’t know about the demon or the relationship it has with the caves. And the Bishop himself was keeping a secret from the PCs. The unraveling of these mysteries is another enjoyable part of the adventure.
The adventure could be completed without combat. While I find it unlikely that many groups will make it through without some hacking, the option to allow talking to win the day is a great idea that encourages roleplaying.
Two appendices include additional details. The first appendix details the land and people of Mitarra, making the adventure that much easier to run as a one shot.
The second appendix adds some nice twists to the adventure. Many otherwise standard monsters receive tweaks, making their stats unique for this adventure. Examples include a juvenile owlbear, a wounded brown bear, and an ettercap that speaks Giant instead of common and stays out of melee with any foe not trapped in his web.
Six ready-made-characters round out the second appendix. Even if not used as PCs, these characters could be used as NPCs for other adventures.
The color city and area maps were well rendered and could easily be used over again. Strangely, though, the cave map itself was brown and white, without squares, and not detailed. Since the whole adventure revolves around traveling to these caves and exploring them, I disagree with the choice to spend a lot of time on the city maps and much less time on the caves map.
When a reference to another page is listed it is highlighted in red. Clicking on the reference takes you to that page. A nice feature, and I only saw one broken link in the adventure (a xx in place of a page number).
I found one other error, in the description of freezing ray spell. It lists the damage as fire, when the damage should be cold.
This adventure supports a variety of play styles, takes into account many of the more difficult options players may pursue, and is easy to read and a follow. It is easily played as a one shot but could also serve as the basics for a whole campaign revolving around Mitarra. It would be a great addition to any DM’s collection of adventures and small campaign settings.
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