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To Undo the Glue is practically a metaphor for the subjects that it treats: love and relationships. It’s a light hearted adventure on its surface, which masks the deeper and more troubling elements hidden within from outside observation. The plot as announced is simple, meaning that the players should be able to understand their objective clearly. However, there are several layers that can be used at the DMs discretion to add extra depth, depending on the tone that they wish to give the adventure. The goal is clear: a local noble has managed to get their hands stuck together and needs the party to find a source of the wish spell to get them unglued. Rumour has it that a nearby church has a djinn that might be able to help out. The bulk of the adventure is therefore centred around the exploration of this church, trying to find out if the rumours are true and gain the help of the djinn, which may lead to them uncovering other secrets.
The adventure is quite open in its flow. Each area of the church is described, with it’s NPCs, dangers, hidden objects and all that you need to run it, and the characters are free to explore it as they see fit. This empowers the players, but also places a lot of the story progression on their shoulders. It is up to them to put together the different pieces of the puzzle, and understand the different relationships and plots. There is some leeway provided with the main plot of finding and freeing the djinn, with various substitutes for the puzzle provided, and a few extra clues that they can pick up, which should help the DM move the story forward if things start to get bogged down.
There is also a very intricate and more subtle subplot which runs through the adventure. This is about saving Donia, the most obvious opposition, from her current abusive relationship, and by doing so gaining a valuable ally. Unravelling this plot requires your players paying careful attention to what is happening and picking up on the clues that aren’t quite as spelled out as those of the main plot. This serves to reward the players for thorough investigation, but also plays into the more meta theme of the story, where the abuse can be easily ignored despite the fact that the clues are there.
There are also a lot of elements to like beyond the story itself. Stat blocks are integrated as needed into the adventure, as well as being in an annex at the end. The art style with the stained glass aesthetic is just beautiful, and there is even a playlist with custom music to set the ambiance. Combat is limited, but what there is is well executed, and the addition of wandering encounters that fit within the story rather than just a random encounter table is an excellent addition that I wish we would see more of. The overall quality of the adventure is just really high, and my only real complaints are that the DMs map is slightly hard to read in some areas and that there’s no description of Sune, which are really minor problems overall.
This is an adventure that won’t be to every groups tastes. While it can be played as a quite light hearted and jokey investigation, it requires patience and careful investigation to get everything out of it. This is the sort of adventure that pushes forward what we expect from RPG narrative. The author has taken risks here, and when you take risks then not everything is perfect, but that doesn’t stop To Undo the Glue being an amazing scenario. In optimal circumstances this is a deep and thought provoking story, while under normal conditions it’s still a fun and breezy story with a well thought out investigation segment.
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