Dark Waters of Hate is the second adventure in the Tenets of Bane quadrology for level 1-4 characters. It’s a D&D Adventurers League-legal adventure.
The task for the characters is simple: Retrieve the second platinum disk created by Bane that embodies Hate.
To do this, all they have to do is descend into the depths of the Moonsea, fight underwater creatures, meet merfolk, enter the abandoned palace of the merfolk king, and persuade him to hand over the disk.
Did I say it was simple?
The adventure has some memorable situations. Being underwater is always challenging, and the environment contributes to the unusual feel of the adventure. Giant Octopuses, Sharks, Merfolk Skeletons and Spectres challenge the party, and the barnacled palace of the Merfolk King is a lovely idea.
The interaction with the king’s ghost, who goes between clarity and delirium as he struggles with the curse of the disk, is likewise evocative and unsettling.
The chief problem the adventure has is with its difficulty level, especially in the case of first-level characters. Using a giant octopus as an opponent is thematic, but as it can both grapple and restrain a character in addition to dealing 10 points of damage (enough to incapacitate most first-level characters with one hit), is on the edge of what a first-level party can handle. Once you add in that the characters are unlikely to be wearing armour, and they are fighting underwater where many ranged attacks are disallowed, and most attacks, in general, have disadvantage? That’s incredibly difficult. When you add to that four levels of exhaustion?
What?
Yes, in the first encounter of the piece, the depth of their explorations means that every 30 minutes, each character must make a DC 10 Constitution saving throw. On a failure, the character gains a level of exhaustion. If the character is wearing any armour or wielding a shield, the character makes the save with disadvantage. With four saving throws before they fight the giant octopuses, unlucky characters might end up fighting with four levels of exhaustion.
Thankfully, they can rest before the rest of the adventure, so they’re not permanently hampered, but low-level characters don’t have the resources to function well underwater in the first place. You don’t need to make it harder! (This is even harder with the low levels of gold; PCs might not be able to buy suitable equipment for the dive). The rest of the adventure is still challenging, but it isn’t as difficult as that first encounter.
As with the previous adventure in the series, the adventurers must solve a puzzle (an anagram) to claim the disk. There’s a clue, but it can be frustrating to solve. Amusingly, the party don’t need to solve the anagram – they can just take the container with them, something that didn’t occur to my party when I ran it. That’s a nice way of solving the puzzle – take it to your patron and let them deal with it! (It’s a bit like the Doctor not realising the prison door wasn’t locked!)
There’s one choice as to the path characters take in the adventure – whether to enter the castle through the kelp or the caves. I wish there were more to give the characters a clue about what they might face in each direction. Alas, the spectre of exhaustion raises its head again here; at least I think that’s what the text implies. Don’t spend time searching for worthless treasures! Get inside the castle!
The adventure is nicely formatted and uses art effectively.
Overall, despite my misgivings about the first encounter, Dark Waters of Hate is an effective adventure and one worth investigating. It’s relatively simple but has enough in it to entertain. Recommended.