Maze of the Blue Medusa
| Character levels | 1-4 (careful survival) or 5-10 (deliberately fighting dangerous inhabitants) |
|---|---|
| Authors | Zak Sabbath and Patrick Stuart |
| First published | 2016 |
| Pages | 269 |
| ISBN | ISBN 978-0-9832437-5-5 |
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Maze of the Blue Medusa is a standalone roleplaying adventure written by Zak Sabbath and Patrick Stuart, published by Satyr Press and illustrated by Sabbath, intended to be adapted for many common tabletop roleplaying games. Published in 2016 by Satyr Press, the adventure is a 304-room dungeon crawl where the players' characters are able to explore an extradimensional maze by entering through a stolen painting. The maze itself, the lair of the Blue Medusa, is home to vast riches, ancient petrified threats, and dangerous intruders. Reviewers consider Maze of the Blue Medusa an exemplary Old School Revival (OSR) adventure..[1][2]
Plot Summary[edit]
The player characters are not given any specific direction by the adventure, and all references to locations outside the dungeon are either located far away or in the distant past; this allows the dungeon to be set in a wider campaign setting, or played without any context. The introduction to the book provides backstory for some of the characters trapped in the maze: the immortal Torn sisters, each cursed with an awful and uncontrollable power, were once the figureheads of a cruel empire that changed hands between successively more powerful warlords. Five thousand years before the present day, three liches conspired to imprison the sisters in the Maze of the Blue Medusa, along with the current arch-lich and de facto ruler of the empire, themselves, and their retainers.
The maze itself has two entries. The players are expected to enter through a cursed painting, which functions as a portal so long as it is acquired through theft and illuminated by moonlight. The other entrance, an enchanted staircase that descends to the remote island of Elatior, has convinced the inhabitants of the island that the dungeon is their afterlife. Islanders clean and maintain the maze, wearing masks of unattractive women to avoid unwanted attention from the dungeon's inhabitants. Other intruders include the savage survivors of a reptilian civilization devastated by genocide, a group of bandits confounded into believing themselves to be birds, and art critics trapped by the food-rotting time field that maintains the dungeon's art gallery who have resorted to cannibalism.
The maze is divided into seven areas: Chronia's Halls, the Gardens, the Gallery, the Reptile Archive, the Dead Wedding, the Almery, and the Cells. Although the entrances to the maze lead into Chronia's Halls and the Medusa resides with the most dangerous prisoners in the Cells, the maze is unlike many other dungeons in that each successive area is not necessarily more difficult than the last.
Development[edit]
Many of the elements of Maze of the Blue Medusa were released earlier on Sabbbath's blog. It was edited and published by Ken Baumann, who created Satyr Press as an imprint of his publishing company Sator Press for the purpose of selling RPG books[3]
RPG System[edit]
The text of the book does not specify any particular intended RPG system must be used. It notes that, "This module tries to be edition-agnostic. You should be able to run it in any version of the world’s most popular RPG as well as its relatives", and that there are few enough system-specific details that little adjustment is required to adapt it to any rule system.[4]
Reception[edit]
Maze of the Blue Medusa was well received by critics. At the 2016 ENnie Awards, it was the gold winner for Best Electronic Book and silver winner for Best Cartography and Best Writing, and was nominated for both Best Adventure and Product of the Year.[5]
References[edit]
- ↑ Bryce Lynch (2016). "Maze of the Blue Medusa". tenfootpole.org. Retrieved September 8, 2017.
- ↑ James Holloway (2016). "Maze of the Blue Medusa review". Gonzo History: Gaming Edition. Retrieved September 8, 2017.
- ↑ "Sator Press". Retrieved September 8, 2017.
- ↑ Sabbath, Zak; Stuart, Patrick (2016). Baumann, Ken, ed. Maze of the Blue Medusa. Satyr Press. p. xi. Search this book on
- ↑ "Congratulations to our 2016 Award Winners". ENnie Awards. 2016. Retrieved September 8, 2017.
External links[edit]
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