Dance of the Medusa by Joseph Mohr is a role playing game supplement published by Old School Role Playing for use with OSRIC. As such, it is covered by the Open Game License and some parts are considered to be Open Game Content as a result. This is an adventure for characters of 4th to 7th level.
The supplement is available as a 32 page Pay What You Want PDF from DriveThruRPG. One page is the front cover, three the front matter and three the Open Game License.
Background Information explains that a cult worshipping a snake goddess has sprung up in the swamps near Freeport. The cult’s power is growing and several officials have recently died, presumably poisoned by the cult. The characters are hired by the baron of the town to seek out the temple and end the menace.
Game Master Information gives some details on the true nature of the cult and its connection to an important villain of the setting. There are random encounter tables for the region and the swamps, some being simple creatures, others having more details given.
The Temple of the Snake Goddess describes the exterior of the temple and random encounters inside it, one of which gives some details on the cult’s priestesses.
The Key to the Temple of the Snake Goddess describes the temple which has two levels, one of them below ground. Snakes, unsurprisingly, feature heavily and there are also some puzzles that can result in extra treasure.
Game Master Notes explains how the characters could successfully complete the adventure and gives some more details on some setting-specific information.
New Magical Items has some new items.
After this are two pages of player handouts.
The final two pages of content have maps of the temple.
Dance of the Medusa in Review
The PDF lacks bookmarks and is long enough with enough different sections that these would have been useful. Navigation could be better. The text maintains a two-column format and some minor errors were noticed. As well as the maps, there are a number of stock colour and black and white illustrations. Presentation is okay.
This is a pretty standard and potentially dangerous old school style adventure; heading to a destination to deal with a threat and exploring a place filled with dangers, both animate and traps. As such, it works well as that kind of adventure and, despite there being quite a bit about some of the setting’s details in it, is still easy enough to drop into another setting with some minor changes. Dance of the Medusa is a serviceable adventure and it can be found by clicking here.
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