The Curse of Mizzling Grove is a generic DIY elf-game adventure module written by prolific blogger Idle Cartulary, crowdfunded in Zine Month 2024. I have the physical version, a 38 page perfect bound booklet fulfilled via Lulu. It also features really striking art by Niosis, which is what originally caught my eye. The module centers on Renwall tower, a haunted wizards lair in Mizzling Grove packed with memorable encounters and furnishings. I should disclose that my zine month project last month received a nice plug in Idle Cartulary's substack, although I was thinking about doing this review before that happened, and I will make this review honest and be critical where I see appropriate. I have not run this module.
One of my strongest impressions of The Curse of Mizzling Grove (or CoMG) after reading it is that it was written by someone who is well versed in the various techniques in the modern OSR. The first page acknowledges Anne from DIY & Dragons for her most well known blog post Landmark, Hidden, Secret, and utilizes this technique explicitly with "H"s and "S" in room descriptions to indicate Hidden contents that need to be explicitly asked about before being revealed by the referee, and Secret contents which need to be discovered through more committed investigation. The module demonstrates another recent best practice from the blogosphere, being strongly reminiscent of what Gus L. calls Jewelbox design. Jewelbox design is named after house design for retirees who have financial resources, but lack mobility to make use of a large house. These houses are small but very deliberately and meticulously designed. Such dungeons exemplify quality over quantity of rooms. Each of CoMG's rooms is well seated in the tower's fable-like origin story, the inhabitants are unique and weird, and their relationships with each other are detailed. A third bit of OSR wisdom that it employees is that it uses the ultra lethal wandering monster (the Star-gazing golem) that is not intended to be a combat encounter but a hazard of the dungeon meant to be cleverly dealt with in the tradition of the crawling giant in Deep Carbon Observatory. Each of the dungeons 20 rooms has a page dedicated to it, and a map of each floor is reproduced near its descriptions for convenient reference at the table. The complete map of the tower's five floors is also shown near the beginning. I have noticed this technique in the OSE modules I've read, but I'm sure this trick dates from further back. Finally, the layout seems to be based on the Classic Explorer Template by Explorer's Design, but I may be imagining this last one. The protagonist in the lore of the dungeon is the wizards daughter Valeria, and a story centering a woman is not something common in the OSR.
Despite the high quality of form in the construction of the module, I do feel that despite all the attention put into the details that come together to make it, it is a little disconnected thematically from a big picture perspective. The tower was once inhabited by a great sorcerer Cacus Aquilia and his daughter Valeria. Cacus' specialty was astrology, but the dungeon is also filled with clockwork creations, and Valeria studied dragons. This combination of sorcerous specialties feels mostly arbitrary. It's likely that the Star-gazing golem was conceived of together with the complex brass telescope on the top of the tower, but the combination doesn't feel meaningful to me. There is also an apprentice mummified in moss on one of the balconies, which I have trouble placing in the dungeon. He is certainly an interesting encounter, but what does magic moss have to do with astrology and clockwork creatures? These are all very interesting features on their own, but there is a sort of disconnect I feel in the overall picture.
CoMG features a variety of puzzles. The secret doors of the tower are tied into the lore of the setting and tower itself via crystal paintings of historical sorcerers. Some of these paintings have constellations on their frames, and if the correct constellation of their birth is depressed, a secret door will open. The correct constellations are recorded in a book by the Star-gazing golem, so solving this puzzle means taking a dive into the fiction woven throughout the tower. Gaining entrance to the tower itself is a puzzle as well, a few possibilities are offered in the module. The most salient is the secret door (the visible door is a ruse, totally impenetrable) hinted at by an obscure pedestal outside the tower that calls for a "wizened eye." One way of discovering the door is to look through a shard of wood with its eye burned out that splintered from a tree struck by lightning, which serves no real purpose other than to furnish the shard. This is a bit video gamey to me, but at the same time I can imagine a players excitement on looking through the shard to discover the secret door, and that makes it fine for me. There are also alternate entrances to the tower, including treating with the highwaymen who have a lair in a cave with a secret entrance to the tower basement. Players can also climb up to the various balconies visible from the outside. The titular Curse of Mizzling Grove is another major puzzle. To break the curse, players need to collect several scampering eyeballs and reattach them to the statue of the Observer, a god whose protection has been broken, resulting in the scattering of its eyeballs. This could easily constitute the main activity of the delve, I can imagine searching the tower trying to catch them all would take a lot of time and effort. This puzzle is a bit video gamey as well, and is mostly optional, so I feel the same way about this as the secret door.
In all, this is an excellent adventure module, full of character and carefully designed. I've called attention to the many ways this module draws from other places, but it is also decidedly not written by anyone but Idle Cartulary. The concept, rigorous attention to detail and sense of humor come together to make a memorable experience. For all the attention the author gets as a critic and commentator on the scene, I think it is worth considering her as an adventure writer as well.