Down the Shadowvein

Well, it seems like I've done it again. I've went and had a good idea that's proving too long for the space restraints I put upon myself for an Advanced Adventure and bitten off more than I can chew. As anyone who has written for us knows, I place a 12k word limit on an Advanced Adventure as I want them to be short, sweet, and to the point - just like the modules of yore. Being the boss, however, means that I can make exceptions for myself and it seems like the adventures that I'm interested in writing (like #10 The Lost Keys of Solitude & #15 Stonesky Delve) are always over that limit. I can't help but feel a bit hypocritical to my authors, but hey, take the perks where you can in this business, I say.

Anyway, back to the subject. As I'm sure you all know, Matt Finch's excellent adventure #1 The Pod-Caverns of the Sinister Shroom has a river in it called the Shadowvein, and the PCs may approach the location either from the surface down or from the river up. Nice that. So this Shadowvein's inspired me to write an adventure called Down the Shadowvein, detailing what lies surprise, surprise, surprise down river of The Pod Caverns.

I started with a map (the way to go, IMO) and it quickly got out of control. See, my other inspiration for the adventure is the Giants series (The classic, IMO) wherein the PC enter the underdepths and explore (The D series). I made the map in a similar style and voila, I've bitten off more than I can chew. Now it's looking to be the first two-part series of adventures in the Advanced Adventure line, or it's going to be one big horking adventure.

*sigh*

But damn, I love the map. And the idea of a lower-level descent into the underdepths tingles my little geeky heart.