Awesome! I'm glad that worked out so well! :D

Thank you so much, David! This was wonderful and very motivational to hear. I'm so glad you appreciated those design nuances, and I'm grateful you took the time out to say so! :D

I know, once upon a time I said Bruce Cordell was my favorite adventure writer -- no longer You are. Your style is really revolutionary. All aspects of it. * A single page per encounter; * The transitions you provide at the end of each encounter; * The thoughtful way you provide appeals to reward and heroism and discovery to hook the widest variety of players; * Lists of details instead of a wall of words; * Bolded keywords * How you detail every NPC with a unique appearance, something they do, and a secret. It's all real, next-level design. Truly. It's not all perfect (for instance, there is no mention of the second story or how to access it in 'Masque of the Worms,' but the picture on the cover clearly shows one), but it is very close. ;) You can safely count on me to purchase every adventure you ever produce.

@@dmwagner71 Aw dang! I'm so honored that I don't even know what to say. Bruce Cordell is one of my biggest inspirations and someone I look up to immensely -- the fact that you'd put some of my ideas on par with his own is absolutely humbling and so appreciated. I'm not sure I'm deserving, but I'm thankful all the same of your high praise. The quest for perfection is impossible, but worthy, as you suggested, and feedback of all sorts makes me better with each iteration. Thank you so much for your truly kind praise and insight, and for your support!!

That is fantastic, I'm so glad to hear this fit so well with your campaign! A dark, challenging, survival-style game sounds super cool. And I love that there was already a meteor. Fits perfectly! :)

Fantastic! Good luck, and have lots of fun! :D

Thanks so much, I'm really glad to hear this video was helpful! :)

Thank you so much! There's so much potential in meteors. Good luck writing your adventure! And I wish I could be at Gamehole Con this year, but it's not to be this time around. I'm definitely planning on being there next year! :)

Thank you so much, that makes me so happy to hear! :)

Dang! Yep, that's a tough fight if the characters try to hold back the unending flood of ankhegs. I'm glad you pulled back from a TPK over it, I bet they learned some new battle strategies from the whole thing! :)

Ran this last night, and my party was the same -- didn't figure out it was the shard until too late. I'm not a pull punches DM, so it did end up in a TPK. One in a pool of acid, the other three to ankhegs. But it was great! It was a one-off, outside of a campaign, so players were fine with dying. I ended up playing it a bit like Call of Cthulhu -- all atmosphere and theater of the mind -- until the sub-crater, when I set up a map. I think, in hindsight, especially as the PCs became more worried about tactics with the grid set up, that I might have been better off with staying ToTM the whole time, and players might have pulled it off. In any case, my players LOVED the Alien homage, and I had a fantastic time running it! Wil definitely be running more of your adventures, @TheArcaneLibrary, and am looking forward to my Shadowdark hardcover to arrive!

Nicholas Squires I’ve never actually played Darkest Dungeon! But I’m glad to hear you’re into the idea of the adventure! :)

The Arcane Library the last expansion of Darkest Dungeon, called Color of Madness is basically a retelling of the Lovecraft story Color Out of Space, meteorite crashes into the countryside (specifically a farm) and an alien Intelligence takes control of the Miller and his laborers. They have meteorite crystals imbedded into their flesh and warp time/space with their insanity

@@Audiotrocious OMG hahahaha!!! I guess the saying is true that everything has already been done. xD But I will say that Color Out of Space did inspire some of this adventure!

Hahahahahaha yesssss, amazing! :D

Hahahahaha OH NOOO! 😆

I'm glad you're gonna bust out Watchers in the Dark with them! :) Some of the combats are a bit tough, but I think if you hold back 1-2 enemies in the wings from the "swarms," you'll probably be okay in that case. You can always have those enemies come along if the fight seems like it's too easy.

I was unaware of Pandorym until now, but I'm glad you prompted me to check! Such a cool elder evil! :D

I'm waiting with held breath for a group to report back that they all got taken over by mind shard! It would be both terrifying and awesome.

Thanks so much, Brad! Cheers and happy gaming! :)

Thank you for this fantastic recap! Wow, sounds like it was an EXTREMELY close call -- I'm glad all the PCs made it through! The mind-shard is such a deceptive and strange foe... but the ankhegs are really what put the major hurt on. And good call on the water breathing bit, I initially wrote that in simply so characters couldn't "camp" inside the meteor, but it's just as well hand-waved if the PCs seem like they're moving through without lingering! :)

@@TheArcaneLibrary :-) You are awesome! Agreed on the ankhegs...playing them with "unusual intelligence" was definitely a challenge for the PCs. The surprise "round" when the stalactites release acid spray and drop to the floor was quite shocking both descriptively and (in game) with respect to the way the combat went. Just a note for others planning to run this - I *absolutely* needed to follow Kelsey's instructions on that encounter and have the insects disengage towards the meteor once below 15 HPs. Having them fight to the death would have resulted in several more unconscious PCs (or worse) - and Roslin (apart from a miracle) would have been gone completely. That's really a master stroke of planning (on Kelsey's part) for DM balancing *and* playing the insects intelligently. For some other stuff I did/lessons learned: - I allowed the wizard to retrieve the potion in the acid pool with Mage Hand (using a blended intelligence/dexterity ability check that I kind of Zen'd) - BUT, I had the vial be some kind of "acid infused" transparent glass, so the identify spell used later has only given them the information that it is some kind of a "strength modifying" liquid. Once they decant it/change containers, they'll be able to figure it out more specifically. What was funny was when the wizard, on starting the final battle, said, "I think I'll try this thing out." The rest of the party, almost in unison said, "and do what?" It was hilarious - but it kept him from using it in a way that probably wouldn't have helped anything. - I had the initial encounter (Torvaine and boars) leave Torvaine almost unconscious. This was because there was at least a 2-round delay before my anguished screams and squeals (trying to encourage the PCs to rush in and engage - or at least transmit a sense of urgency) were rewarded by the PCs dashing into the dusty mess and attacking the boars. They were much more interested in making nature checks at the beginning to figure out what the squeals were (insert wry grin here). I gave the Rogue inspiration as a result of his dumbfounded response to this and saying - "I'm running toward the noise to try to save whoever's screaming." And he's of a neutral alignment - go figure. The delay resulted in extra damage to Torvaine - and this resulted in a spell of healing being "lost" for the party's use later. More below... - The sight inhibiting dust and the "weirdness" of the crater resulted in a very cautious approach by the PCs to investigating (completely understandable). Which means that they took several rounds just trying to figure out what it was and how it looked - which means that the odds of having an ankheg acid shower happening from multiple directions out of the dusty cloud are almost overwhelming. This is a GREAT motivator for them to get into one of the tunnels. I chose, as Kelsey suggested, to have the insects not melee - just shoot acid from beyond 30 feet. This, combined with horror music, is a great scene. - So all this sound fun, right? The lesson here is that the party was almost drained of healing/potions/etc. between the two rescued wizards, Roslin, trying to be in reasonable health once entering the warrens, and the egg room surprise. All of their healing potions but one were consumed, and they might have had 1 spell (maybe two at the most) for buffing the characters still available. AND they were all fairly low on HPs by the time entering the meteor happened. The warrens just really don't allow for things like hour-long short rests (without combat), etc. I decided to allow a prayer of healing (10 minute ritual) to occur at some point - which probably prevented a TPK. If you play the monsters intelligently (which you probably should, given the shard's influence), then trying to just run from the warrens isn't really a recourse for the players once inside. A few acid showers on the surface, followed by boars/wolves/whatever near the crater's radius probably means that combat is a certainty even while attempting to run... I mention this just to prepare anyone getting ready to send their party through this (i.e., make sure their buffing capacity is up to snuff). For context, my party consists of 6 fourth-level PCs (druid, cleric, fighter (ranged), paladin, wizard, rogue) - and they flirted with disaster just a bit in this run. Of course, dice rolls, strategy, etc. all played a part. Had all of them said, "damn the torpedoes," and charged the mind shard as a group (opportunity attacks from the ankhegs notwithstanding), that battle would have been over sooner (and probably would have allowed the druid and Roslin up in the warrens a fighting shot at staying on their feet until the shard's influence was broken). Anyway - great adventure - strongly recommended. I'm going to be looking at the newly released horror series for follow-ups :-)

@@jayburkette8977 Aw shucks, I am super grateful to hear some of those combat tips for the ankhegs worked out as planned! They can be an overwhelming force if they fight to the death. It sounds like your players were very heroic and confronted (and took damage from) pretty much every source of damage in the module! I'm glad they were able to squeak by even without much resting. Real danger is what makes D&D memorable and fun (IMO), but it's always a thin line to walk. I think I tend to write harder baseline combats than other designers because of that, but hopefully with a few levers and dials (and NPCs) in place to help salvage a disastrous situation. I'm glad you were able to put all those things into play to give your group a really harrowing run through this one without it leading to a TPK! :D

@@TheArcaneLibrary So another quick update. I was able to use the relationships forged between the party and Iskoval/Torvaine to good use in the very next session of LMOP (this party is getting close to finishing that campaign). It's way too long to completely summarize here - but while in Wave Echo Cave (I use the improved version done by some folks on Reddit), two of the characters decided to explore on their own (apart from the rest of the party) and just waltzed into the Temple room with Nezznar and all the baddies (to include Glasstaff and the dopplegangers). They were completely overwhelmed immediately, and then the rest of the party was "invited" (personally, by Nezznar) into the room to be stripped of all their stuff and shackled. It looked worse than bad for the campaign, until finally one of the characters remembered that they knew where a nice mass of star metal was just sitting. (Of course, that character doesn't know that the rogue has already let his faction, the Zhentarim, know about the star metal - it will be disappearing shortly :-) ). Bargaining with this information and wealth, they were marched in shackles in the middle of the night to the crater site, accompanied by a host of bugbears, spiders, foxes, and shape-shifters (and Nezznar, of course). On the way, the two elves (cleric and druid) whispered to each other and reminded the druid of his animal messenger skill. He sent a message to the wizard's tower - advising them of their impending arrival and situation. Once at the crater, Nezznar had the characters lead him to the meteor shaft. Having sized up the wealth there, Nezznar announced that he would let the characters live - but they would be sold into slavery by his minions. About a mile away from the crater, all hell broke loose - as Iskoval and Torvaine unleashed the Glabrezu on Nezznar's expedition. The druid wildshaped (releasing him from his bonds) and the rogue rolled nicely to escape his knots as well. This led to the party escaping (Nezznar misty stepped as well - and the dopplegangers survived - everyone else died). What an epic session - and a sweet connection to Kelsey's adventure.

Lastly - I just purchased the Horror 2 Bundle....can't wait for our Halloween session :-)

Very strong Lovecraft vibes on this one for sure! :D I also wrote The Horror Within, which is equally inspired by Lovecraft, but I don't know if I've ever done a full-out explicit tribute the way I have with Poe works. Maybe I should! :D

@@TheArcaneLibrary Pleeeeeeeeeease do. I believe you are the mind that'll do it the most justice :-)

It's a low CR becuase its damage output is very low. :) It actually can't deal any damage at all apart from falling damage due to levitate / reverse gravity -- weird, right? Was an interesting creature to calculate!

Hi Terry! :) Sorry, I think I might have misspoken on that one -- it's supposed to be Legendary actions that the Mind Shard creature has in its statblock (Minor Flux, Flux Wave, Flux Storm), not lair actions. I often say one when I mean the other, too many Ls!

I still can’t see the descriptions of what those flux actions do. Are they in a supplement somewhere? Thanks again.

@@Tellius23 Oh, yes! Sorry, they should be on page 13 of the adventure on the top right column. Let me know if you’re not seeing that, maybe there’s a page missing from your download or some other mishap!

@@TheArcaneLibrary I do see them listed, but it just says the name and how many times per day but no description. Is there any way you could provide that info if possible? If not, I’ll adjust

@@Tellius23 Something must be weird! Yes, I’ll paste them below. They’re actually just ways for the mind shard to cast additional spells from its spell list! Here they are: Minor Flux. The mind-shard casts an at-will spell. Flux Wave (Costs 2 Actions). The mind-shard casts a 3/ day each spell. Flux Storm (Costs 3 Actions). The mind-shard casts a 1/ day each spell.

Finally getting to watch this and this is a fantastic module! You've got a great mind for creating these. Love the horror themed adventures you've been pumping out.