THE WINDSOR HUM
A downloadable game
It’s been an unbearable summer for the weary band of adventurers that has slowly, but surely, been making their way down The Old Road. Sweat and dried blood has worked its way into almost every crevice one could imagine on the human body, the fat black flies that follow them day and night bite at their lips and lodge themselves in their ears to die, and most of the food from the last town they visited (which felt as though it was years ago, despite being only a few days) has rotted and fermented into an irresistible meal to the buzzards, who now circle them as they trudge forward. They feel almost like dead, walking once again under the spell of some cruel wizard. But they know the mining town of Windsor is only a day away now. How could a simple ore-lugging village be worse than this, they thought. They could not have imagined a ruder awakening, and a crueler joke thrown at them by the devil who deemed their lives and bodies utter playthings.
Content Warning: Self-Harm, Insects, Cannibalism, Mental Illness, Compulsion and Suicide.
A few-session OSR horror adventure meant to be inserted into a larger campaign on a road to somewhere much more interesting. A terrible curse known as The Hum has befallen a small mining town, and they need a group of able-bodied adventurers to destroy it's source. This adventure includes three parts: a description of the town of Windsor, a section detailing the effects of The Hum and what the previously-established NPCs know about it, and finally, the abandoned mine where the infernal source of the damned buzzing resides. Map art by Scum_artist.
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The Windsor Hum is a horror toned cicada brood themed osr adventure.
The PDF is 6 pages, well-organized, with a great map. The layout is plain but readable, and does a great job of spacing information out into manageable chunks.
Windsor Hum is written to be run using AD&D or a similar retroclone, and references mechanics like Death and Breath saves, AC as Chain, etc.
The writing is the strength of this adventure, and a lot of work has gone into establishing nuanced characters for NPCs and nailing down specific background details (such as the exact population demographics of the central town) as well as bits of fun color (such as coal that burns incredibly loud.) The NPCs in Windsor Hum are generally all at least cantankerous, if not outright hostile, but this fits with the strenuous conditions they're living under.
The adventure's monsters aren't outlandish, and also fit within the adventure's context. Several of them have nasty surprises, but these are the sorts of surprises that show up early in the fight and define it, rather than showing up suddenly at the end and resulting in a party wipe.
The adventure's dungeon is fairly vertical, and it includes lots of little ways to fuss with the environment. It isn't a puzzle dungeon, nor a giant monster zoo, but more of a comfortable midpoint on that continuum. Pushing forward recklessly is dangerous, but there's plenty of treasure scattered on the PCs' path ahead.
It should be noted that this adventure is CW for quite a few things, including insects, cannibalism, mental illness, compulsion, and self-harm, but it can be toned down without much trouble. GMs that are comfortable with running osr will have an easy time reading and modifying Windsor Hum.
Overall, this is a solid adventure. It's easy to run and has its own distinct flavor, and it presents the party with plenty of challenge without feeling unfair. It does walk some odd lines with regards to its horror tone---it's not a horror module, so groups that want to push further in that direction may have to fiddle with it a bit, and groups that *don't* want horror may find those elements overwhelming---but it's not hard at all to adjust. Pick it up if you're looking for a creepy summery location adventure.
Hey thanks so much for this man! This is such a glowing and helpful review! It means a lot that you took out your time to do this!
It's a cool adventure! Thank you for writing it!