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The Pale Lady |
$5.00 |
Average Rating:4.1 / 5 |
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Full review: https://stygian-muse.com/the-pale-lady-fear-and-philosophy/
There’s an abbey, not far from the woods. In the woods lives a witch called the Pale Lady, only she’s not really a witch. That’s just what the peasants say. She’s a faerie queen. Every spring, she leads a column of strange man-beasts out of the forest to abduct the sons of the populace. None of them have ever been seen again. Until now.
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This is a fun adventure that is a blast. It has some adult themes, the art is not the best, and it is a "locked room" adventure where the players are stuck in a seperate plane of reality till they deal with some stuff; these factors might be a bit of a detraction for some, but it has a really great scenario. It is easily converted to other D20 systems too.
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SPOILER ALERT
The good:
-Some good, creepy horror elements. Rabbit-men slavers/underlings led by Pale Lady who gives birth to said rabbit-men given the right kind of mate.
-Great, dark artwork.
-A pretty interesting result if PC's succeed.
The bad:
-The key to success in this adventure requires a PC (specifically, the elf or magic-user) to agree to sleep with the creepy, Pale Lady. IMO, any sane PC wouldn't agree to such a thing. And if you've read much LotFP material, you know this is the exact sort of decision that will get your character unmercifully slaughtered. And, of course, they would be right in this case, as sleeping with the Pale Lady is almost fatal - he ages 1d100 years.
-The location is basically an extradimensional slave plantation, yet struck me as fairly bland.
On the whole, I'm torn as to whether I want to introduce this adventure to my PC's. IMO, the most interesting part of the adventure would likely be bypassed by most parties - as such, I can only give 3 stars.
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This short adventure is quite simple to read and follow, without losing the taste "weird" that every good adventure of LotFP must have.: With only minimal adjustment is easily adaptable to any campaign you're running, or as a one -shot, simple and lightweight. Everything starts with the story of a mad man, on which account the White Lady, a mysterious and powerful woman, who lives in a place out of this world, guarded by horrible rabbit-mens who abduct children for her. Adventure, being simple in its approach, open spaces for a party want to try social movements or engage in one or two fights that the DM can easily adapt to the level of their players. Special mention of the possibility that a player is willing to engage in a more intimate bond with the Lady.
High points: easy to read and follow, will allow one or two sessions perfectly. It gives possible ways forward later and the magical object present at the end of the adventure can give a huge amount of frames and ideas for future adventures ... the possible rewards in experience are fine for a party of low levels with little or no experience.
Lows: Being a closed environment, does not allow a game of exploration and travel, no less exploring a large dungeon, solving riddles or sophisticated and dangerous traps. It is a well bounded adventure. In that sense, the level of challenge for more experienced players may be a bit low, but that is easily adjustable.
Overall it is a simple adventure and more than adequate for the level that is designed, requiring only a few adjustments for customization, at a convenient price. And I ran a couple of times with good results, including scenes of sex, violence and existential questioning by the players.
Versión en español, para los colegas de América Latina y en especial Chile:
Esta aventura corta es bastante simple de leer y seguir, sin perder ese sabor weird que toda buena aventura de LotFP debe tener.: Con tan sólo unos minimos ajustes es fácilmente adaptable a cualquier campaña que estés dirigiendo, o como un one –shot sencillo y ligero. Todo parte con el relato de un hombre loco, en el que se cuenta de la Dama Blanca, una misteriosa y poderosa mujer, que vive en un lugar fuera de este mundo, custodiada por horribles hombres conejos que secuestran niños para ella. La aventura, siendo simple en sus planteamientos, abre espacios para una party que desee intentar movimientos sociales o dedicarse a uno o dos combates que el DM podrá fácilmente adaptar al nivel de sus jugadores. Especial mención a la posibilidad de que algún jugador este dispuesto a entablar un vínculo más íntimo con la Dama.
Puntos altos: sencilla de leer y seguir, permitirá una o dos sesiones perfectamente. Te da posibles caminos a seguir posteriormente y el objeto mágico presente al final de la aventura puede dar una enorme cantidad de tramas e ideas para futuras aventuras… las eventuales recompensas en experiencia están muy bien para una party de niveles bajos y con poca o nula experiencia.
Puntos bajos: Al ser un entorno cerrado, no permite una partida de exploración y viajes, ni menos la exploración de un gran dungeon, resolución de enigmas o trampas sofisticadas y peligrosas. Es una aventura bien acotada. En ese sentido, el nivel de desafío para jugadores con más experiencia puede ser un poco bajo, si bien eso es facilmente ajustable.
En general, es una aventura sencilla y más que adecuada para el nivel que está diseñada, que requiere sólo unos pocos ajustes para su personalización, a un precio conveniente. Ya la corrí un par de veces con buenos resultados, incluyendo escenas de sexo, violencia y cuestionamiento existencial por parte de los jugadores.
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This short adventure differs from some of the more recent LotFP modules in that it is not set in a specific place on Earth, though it does start in a generalized abbey that can be dropped anywhere. The bulk of the adventure actually takes place in a small fairy domain. The adventure kicks off with a raving man in an abbey and a story of coming back from the Pale Lady's hall, along with strange artifacts kept inside the hall.
The inhabitants of this pocket area are the Pale Lady and a race of creepy rabbit-men, along with their kidnapped human slaves. The hall and surrounding area are mapped and keyed, but this adventure is not really a dungeon crawl. There are no gruesome traps as are expected in many other LotFP adventures, and the emphasis is more placed on stealth (or combat?) and social interactions with the strange inhabitants.
There is a strange artifact at the center of the hall, and its general weirdness is alike to the time cube from another Zzarchov Kowolski book, Scenic Dunnsmouth. It breaks the fundamental rules of physics and will affect future games for everyone affected. It even suggests letting the players take time to dwell on the philosophy of what these changes mean for their characters after the event occurs, which is what really helps to sink the other-worldliness of the artifact in.
One of the problems I have with the adventure is that without interacting with the artifact in the hall, nothing else really happens. If the players somehow manage to murder hobo their way through the Pale Lady's domain, they end up missing the best parts (first time I saw this run, the players merely fought some rabbit-men and escaped with a handful of freed slaves). If the players do meet with the Pale Lady and fail at socializing, they end up missing the good stuff again. Even if they succeed at winning her over, they may miss the artifact and accept a different boon from her.
It feels a little bit like a one-trick pony adventure; either you get it or you don't, but if the pieces fall into place, it does make for quite a creepy adventure with far-reaching consequences and even a few morality questions.
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So I read through the blurb of 'The Pale Lady' adventure for Lamentations of the Flame Princess rpg system. Now I approached James Raggi about a review copy and I didn't know what I was getting into. I'm familiar with the writing of Zzarchov Kowolski from a number of his rpg products over the years but the Pale Lady is very something very weird and a completely different avenue from what I was expecting. The rpg title refers to an incredible goddess or witch of incredibly strange alien power. The module concerns a mini adventure that surrounds her, her followers, her children and much more. Look I don't want to spoil this module but it addresses a prime concern of mine with the Lamentations of the Flame Princess system. What do you do with the Elves and Dwarves in the Lamentations system. Call it a Tolkien hang up but trying to wrap my mind around the concepts put forth for the 'Fey' powers has been problematic in LoFP. Not any more,this module tackles some of the pseudo historical background of the issue and does it with high weirdness and gusto as well as style.
This module touches upon the classic Hammer horror and pulp trappings of dark sorcery and witchcraft whipped to a seething froth of high weirdness in a European countryside. The backdrop and setting fits in and dovetails very nicely with the rest of the adventure. There is some dark and disturbing goings on,and much of the plot as such reminded me of some of games of Kult from back in the 90's. Yes there is a child snatching witch and horrid murders but there's dark goings on in the name of the old religions of the region and more.
The adventure for all of its mature content is a seething cauldron of dark magick and forces bubbling out as part of the deep countryside and its a very messy adventure waiting to splatter your PC's in whipped gore, odd happenings, and more.
The writing is well done and possibly as well done as anything that I've seen from the pen of Mr.Kowolski. The artwork is evocative and even though the pieces are b/w they set the tone nicely. This adventure is sort of like stumbling upon a gem of dark 80's horror popping it into the VCR and coming away feeling like you've found another favorite horror flick as the screen is drenched in gore, guts, and intelligence. That's the type of quality I see in this adventure.
On the price,you can think of it like this. As a comic book fan, I've paid through the nose for quality pieces of artwork,graphic novels,etc. Well this isn't simply another thirteen page download of low quality crap.What this is a thirteen page adventure and kit that fills in as nice and horrifically weird adventure for a party. Although this adventure can be run as a one shot for LoFP, this adventure serves better as a build up on an existing European campaign set in historic Europe. Personally wait till there's a frequent sale on Drivethru if your worried about the price. For me it was worth the admission.
The context here is a nice divider into some of the events of Raggi's 'Better Then Any Man' and other Lamentations adventures. The Pale Lady touches on the powers of magick that came up during the witch trials of the 1600 & 1700's across Europe spun through a darkly pulptastic aesthetic and set into to weird dark common to Clive Barker novels of the fantastic.The content here is a blood drenched mature rife with murder,mayhem, other elements that you'd come to expect from the Lamentations line.
So what's 'The Pale Lady' about? Its about encounters with ancient powers beyond the ken of mortal men where tales of this horror are still told around camp fires across the region of your campaigns. Mothers clutch their children and families look over their shoulders as the sun sets as they watch for the coming of the 'Pale Lady'.
I really enjoyed the hell out of the 'Pale Lady'. A great addition to the Lamentations of the Flame Princess line.
Four out of Five for weirdness and packing in the horror as well.
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