The Incandescent Grottoes (5e)
After having concluded our long-running Shadowdark campaign we decided to give the 2024 5e rules a try and embarked on a new campaign in Neverland. This time around I decided to approach 5e from an OSR perspective and just run it with that attitude and see what would happen. As Gavin Normanās Incandescent Grottoes fit the setting of Neverland perfectly I thought Iād give it a try and integrated it into the island. I did not adjust any encounters and just replaced all monsters with their 2024 Monster Manual equivalents. The players bit the hook and in they delved.
The adventure is a two-floor 57 room dungeon with a at first whimsical feel that turns dark (all the strange pillars!) at times. Inhabitants range from classic Kobolods, Oozes and Wights to an interesting Dream Dragon or a mysterious Prismist for some roleplay opportunities. There are some fun mechanical riddles to overcome and the map has nice looping pathways in all dimensions that give players plenty of choices of how and where to proceed next to. At times though, an empty room here or there could have been useful to give the players more opportunities to use the map tactically or subvert the expectation that every room āmust haveā something interesting to discover. Factional play in the dungeon was a bit on the weak side and I did not feel like investing a lot of energy into sprucing it up. The tensions between the prismist and the dragon proved to be the most interesting ones in terms of table-relevant gameplay impact and set up a nice trajectory where the party decided to poison the dragonās mineral pool in hopes of sickening it. The gamble paid off and they managed to get away with some of its treasure and besting it in true OSR fashion.
Overall a great, very usable adventure with nice vibes and challenges. Here and there it could have used a little more room(s) to breathe or a few extra words to build up tensions between the dungeon denizens. As it was described, the dungeon felt a bit āfragmentedā and less like cohesive whole. But nonetheless, we had a great time here. It took us 6 sessions to complete 80% of the dungeon. 7/10