Adventure Site Contest 2 REVIEW: Arena Æmilia

Arena Æmilia

Author: Zed
System: BX
Party Size: ?
Level Range: 4-6

Spectacle! at the Arena Æmilia[.] Every Ides new performances. History and legends, classics and new,
thrill and laughter, reenactments and hunts. Entry a silver sesterce, tours upon agreement.

The above notice "hang[s] in ever (sic) town of the region, and every 15th of the month plebeians and nobles alike from all over the frontier province flock to the amphitheater, for some well earned distraction from the toils of imperial expansion."

The site is located in a settlement—any large town or city with an Imperial Rome theme—and its run by Titus, a 7th-level fighter and, variously, a champion, decorated war veteran, and former slave raider. He lives here with his 3rd-level magic-user daughter and her pet smilodon, along with their 100-year old housekeeper, a 4th-level elf who has served Titus's wife's family "for generations" (for some reason).

Adventure Site Contest 2 REVIEW: Tower in the Lake

The Tower in the Lake

Author: Matthew Lake
System: BX
Party Size: 4-7
Level Range: 3-5

From the surface it’s just a crumbling ruin. But beneath the waves lies the arcane lair of the great wizard Thassalius. Can you unlock the wizard’s fabled library? Dare you plunder his flooded treasure vault? Will you prove yourself against his mutated creations? There’s only one way to find out…

A water-obsessed wizard has built an elaborate tower in the middle of the lake that goes all the way to the bottom. There, he conducted arcane experiments to transform himself into a merfolk like his beloved—a "freshwater" mermaid named Adeline. Then he disappeared mysteriously. Now, twenty years later, only the top floor of his tower stands above the surface, while the submerged levels remain mostly air-filled. The place is leaking badly, however, and the lower level is flooded.

Adventure Site Contest 2 REVIEW: The Bridge of Ptelemegesser

The Bridge of Ptelemegesser

Author: Peter McDevitt
System: BX/OSE
Party Size: ?
Level Range: ?

Whoops, this one's missing a couple of pages. Wait, no... it's only one page long. That's a bold strategy, Cotton. But hey, you can do a lot with one page, so let's see if it pays off.

Adventure Site Contest 2 REVIEW: Foundry Ovens of the Bitter Paramore

Foundry Ovens of the Bitter Paramore

Author: Nick Alexander
System: AD&D
Party Size: ?
Level Range: 5-7

On a blasted hill, squats a foundry of blackened brick [and] iron, belching acrid fumes day [and] night. Wise men call it cursed.

After that brief intro, the text opens with a list of rumors, some of which are only partially true and one of which is false. I'm not a fan of false rumors. When the DM provides information as part of an adventure setup, most players are going to accept all of it as true unless the party has some in-game reason to be skeptical of its source. False rumors serve mostly to create player confusion and waste session time trying to associate the rumor with the action as the adventure progresses. 

The rumors would work better as a proper introduction that sets up the stakes and provides the party with motivation to get involved. As written, there's only three relevant pieces of information and, subsequently, three motivations.

1) The foundry is the lair of a monster called The Paramore. (Kill the monster.)
2) Local women are disappearing. (Rescue innocents.)
3) Caravans have not arrived. (Earn a reward.)

If you throw in the partially-true rumor about golden statues and the true detail about the foundry being the former workshop of a master artificer, then you can throw in a fourth motivation. (Recover treasure.) Just tighten up all those rumors into a kick-ass introductory paragraph and, yeah, that's all you need for a solid session or two of D&D.

Adventure Site Contest 2 REVIEW: Tor of the Vulture Lord

Tor of the Vulture Lord

Author: Alex Edwards (aka SandboxSorcerer)
System: AD&D/OSRIC
Party Size: ?
Level Range: 1-9

A Roc nests in the ruin of a temple set on a 250 ft stone pillar overlooking a desolate hex. Brigand Horde [and] other Creatures of Chaos use the caverns beneath the temple as a base from which to raid local settlements. Rumours of roc/brigand attacks! Rumours of Gold! Rumours of Demon Cults! Princess Jara was kidnapped, Rescue her!

Can't get much more D&D than that.

I'm always interested by how different people process information. Everyone's brains work in unique ways, and it's part of what makes me question the effectiveness of including a Clarity score in my reviews as it's only my impression of what's "clear" or not. What I'm about to say isn't a criticism, but an observation.

Adventure Site Contest 2 REVIEW: The Herbalist's Son

The Herbalist's Son

Author: Jacob72
System: "Classic D&D" (actually BECMI)
Party Size: 4-7
Level Range: 3-5

[T]he lost tomb of the elvish prince Calithilben is said to be close to the tiny ruined druid chapel in the village of Sorn, a sorry place of some two dozen low stone and turf windowless huts.

This adventure assumes the party wants to come here, having arrived at the village via a map or legend related to the tomb. Why they would be interested in plundering the tomb of an elf noble (money, magic, glory, enmity against the elves, etc.) is up to the DM to contrive.

The text dives right into a description of the druid's chapel. It's not clear whether the chapel is a building or a standing stone. No building interior is ever described, so the word "chapel" here may be substituting as a blanket term for a shrine or sacred spot (like a menhir). It's a small quibble, but I was confused and had to re-read the paragraph a few times (and I'm still not certain).

Adventure Site Contest 2 REVIEW: Crimson Garden of the Crocodile Spirits

Crimson Garden of the Crocodile Spirits

Author: Tristan Shoudy
System: AD&D
Party Size: ?
Level Range: ?

A ruined greenhouse that has been long abandoned rises about the grasslands surrounding it. Within the crumbling palisade surrounding it are shells of other ruined stone and wooden structures. It was once an alchemist’s greenhouse but was left abandoned long ago after he was slain. Prior to his death the alchemist has imported Crocodiles from the south to act as guards for his precious greenhouse. After his death the crocodiles remained but soon perished. They soon rose anew as ghost’s (sic) continued (sic) to perform the task they were given in life, with renewed dedication.

This is more of an encounter than a full-on adventure site, though I suppose that's a distinction without a difference. It just feels small compared to some of the other entries. The writeup only uses two of the three allowed pages for the keyed areas, with about a quarter of the third page being used for monster stat blocks. We're not quite sure who this is for, as no party size or level range is provided (not a good start).