Sister Severa's Cathedral of Corruption

[Neuronaut]

Hello All!

So I've recently gotten into mapping for D&D, and my first map that I drew here sort of took off in terms of its concept. I wanted to turn my map into a complete adventure that could be used by anyone.

Since this is my first attempt though, I'm not really sure if I'm including enough info, or the right info, or too much info because I've never DM'd myself before.

So I thought maybe I could get a few more eyes on this and possibly get some advice on tweaks if it needs it.

But feel free to use this if you think it's ready to run!

Some questions I have are:
1. I wanted to leave monster scaling to the DM so I don't limit this to "Levels 1-3" or whatever. Is that ok to ask?
2. I didn't want to stock the place with loot because I also think that should be up to the DM and what they want in their campaign. However, I still provided secret rooms and places for loot to happen. Is that cool too?
3. stuff like that

Thanks for any advice and it's good to be here!

P.S. I couldn't attach the multi-page PDF for this, so here's each image in it.

Sister-Severa-P1.png
Sister-Severa-P2.png
Sister-Severa-P3.png
Sister-Severa-P4.png
Severa-level-1.jpg
Severa-level-2.jpg

[Adfor]

Overall this is very well done. Short and to the point, and it sticks to an easily tweakable outline, which is crucial for making abstract adventure paths.

Two things though.
1) Where is the puzzle listed for room 1 of the basement level? You mention about succeeding or failing the puzzle, but nothing in regards to what the puzzle's mechanics are. Puzzles can always be a fun encounter, and can fit into any outline quite easily, so definitely keep it, just need some details for it.

2) Drow mages? Not sure exactly where they come into the story line, because while they are evil, yes, they generally are extremely chaotic, and don't play well with other races. More often than not, if humans are involved with drow elves, it's because the humans are their slaves. Not to say that drow couldn't be involved here, because they sometimes do have their own goals outside of their racial drivers, it's just very random to have two stray drow elves working under a human. If there's a good reason behind them, by all means, use them, but I think it would be better served for the story you have, to go with something such as a Hellbound Creature (https://www.aonprd.com/MonsterTempla...und%20Creature). This is a Pathfinder template, but can be converted to 5e, I just personally prefer PF over 5e.

Otherwise the maps are really well done, this is a great first stab at writing an adventure path!

PS: Have some rep!

[Neuronaut]

Hey Adfor, thank you so much for your input, this is so valuable for me! You make a couple excellent points that I need to address

1) Where is the puzzle listed for room 1 of the basement level?

That's a problem in my description. I wasn't very clear that I was referring to the puzzle on the first level, which is turning the key at the altar. There is no puzzle in room 1 of the basement! But the state of that room changes depending on how they entered the basement. I figure if enemies can rush out from under the altar then they would come from this room and the gates would be open. I should totally be more clear in the writing of this room.

2) Drow mages?

You found a really good issue there. Initially I was thinking just the STATS of Drow mages just as a baseline for what these enemies were technically, but not at all in terms of lore, story, roleplay etc. But actually the Severa's Apprentice cards I made take care of their stats anyway. So I should remove that Drow mage label entirely! Thank you so much again!

I have passed this to a few DM friends of mine and I hope they actually use it because you cant beat a real play test!

[Ilanthar]

Very nice work, Neuronaut : clean and gamer-friendly.