What Do I Know About Reviews? Under the Seas of Vodari: The Hunt for the Undine

Let’s start the month with a look at an adventure released for Under the Seas of Vodari, The Hunt for the Undine. If you haven’t looked at the setting, The Seas of Vodari is a third-party D&D setting of fantasy pirates and swashbuckling, with all the D&D-isms built in. Under the Seas of Vodari is the expansion of the setting that details the undersea cultures of the setting. This adventure’s hook and locations all take place in the undersea realms.

Disclaimer

Brandes Stoddard, who has writer/developer credits on this adventure, is a good friend of mine. I received my copy of this adventure as a backer of the Under the Seas of Vodari crowdfunding campaign. I have not had the opportunity to play in or run this adventure, but I’ve had pretty extensive experience both as a player and a DM of D&D 5e.

Under the Seas of Vodari: The Hunt for the Undine

Writing/Development: Brandes Stoddard
Editing: Shawn Ellsworth
Art Direction: Shawn Ellsworth
Graphic Design and Layout: Dave Jumaquio
Illustrators: Mariam Trejo
Cartographers: Kate Woodall and Dave Jumaquio

The Hunt for the Undine is a 24-page PDF. It includes a cover page and a credits/table of contents page, with the rest being the adventure material, including NPC stats. The artwork continues with the same style in the Vodari material so far from Mariam Trejo. I’m an easy mark for a setting with an established art style and a fan of Trejo’s work.

Technical Details

This is an adventure designed for 5th-level characters. A section provides story-based advancement suggestions if you aren’t inclined to track XP in your games. There is a sidebar that uses surface characters in the adventure. At the very least, they’ll need the ability to breathe underwater, and the sidebar summarizes some of the other issues that may come up if a character is built for dryland adventuring. 

The adventure was developed for the Under the Seas of Vodari crowdfunding campaign, so the stat blocks don’t utilize the new 2024 format, but nothing about the adventure would be significantly modified by using the 2024 rules. If you want to see some of the initial development of 2024 versions of Vodari elements, there are some previews of this work on the Vodari Voyages Patreon.

The adventure does something I appreciate whenever I see it: It includes a structured sidebar on role-playing an important NPC. More than player characters, having an NPC’s personality traits, ideals, bonds, and flaws can help a DM understand why the NPC is doing what they are doing and why.

The Plot

If you’re likely to play in this adventure or want to be surprised when you read it for yourself, it’s time to get out of the pool. 

The adventure starts with the PCs finding an inscribed gemstone that serves as a map to a lost piece of technology: the Undine, a submersible supervehicle. If you’re wondering what kind of superscience is floating around the backstory of this setting, think of the tragically underappreciated Atlantis: The Lost Empire to visualize this tech. It’s technology that has a very arcane feel to it.

This could just be a “treasure map that leads to a dungeon” but in an underwater setting, and that would make it an interesting spin on the trope. But in addition to a treasure map to a lost piece of super valuable technology, multiple factions are on the hunt for The Undine because we’ve got a cold war situation turning hot, and a superweapon all brings out the faction agents. 

While exploring the undersea fortress, other factions might have encountered various traps or travails, leaving dead bodies or NPCs to interact with, compare notes with, or strike temporary alliances with. The PCs may be going it alone, or they may already have hitched their water wagon (?) to one of the existing factions. 

The secret of The Undine’s construction is that the ship’s creator struck a deal with a literal undine, an aquatic fey creature who thought it would be interesting to see what it would be like to be integrated into the ship itself, at least for a while. That means to utilize the ship fully, the crew needs to be on good terms with the spirit that is integrated into it. That will be important if the PCs still have some rivals willing to take a shot at them as they pilot The Undine away from the fortress. 

The Devil (or Fey) is in the Details

Your PCs may already be affiliated with a faction by the time they reach 5th level, but if not, the included hook defaults to connecting the PCs to the Avalsi League. This undersea nation is composed of a mix of different undersea folk. The Avalsi are less ambitious than they are concerned that Avalsi will suffer if the recovery of The Undine flares a war into life. 

While there are a few other factions that are mentioned as being available to swap out for the primary factions described in the adventure, the assumed primary powers include:

• Taevara–Taevara is a strict anti-pirate theocracy that sends its well-financed knights to secure The Undine and the seas for the Archpriest.
• Veraci–A merchant nation ruled by a queen and serving the needs of the various merchant houses, they’ve got even more money to throw around than Taevara, and they want The Undine to secure favorable trade lanes. 
• Xolen–A nation of gnomes, humans, and dwarves known for its engineers and inventions, Xolen can’t help but be interested in such a fabled technology as The Undine. 

In addition to explaining the factions and describing the teams each faction will be sending (if the PCs aren’t affiliated with them), each faction has a section explaining how the adventure assumptions change depending on what faction the PCs might be affiliated with, including what happens if the PCs break they contract with the faction.

Dungeon Crawling (Swimming?)

The fortress is divided into broader sections and more heavily locked-down engineering portions. Unlike some dungeons, the fortress has various barracks, and if the PCs take their time exploring, they can use some of the barracks as their home base. However, even if they get a head start, eventually, other factions arrive and start to inhabit different barracks themselves. There is a chance that the PCs can encounter other factions and negotiate a truce so that they don’t fight off traps, sea creatures, and constructs, as well as rival adventurers.

Several Challenge Rooms locations are locked down with puzzles. If your players are having trouble with the puzzles, or if your players just aren’t puzzle people, there are several entries for these rooms, including a more accessible version of the puzzle and event development, which also notes that if the PCs aren’t on bad terms with another faction, they may work with the PCs to solve the puzzle so that everyone can advance to the next area.

Because the research at the facility involved the fey, a group of undersea unseelie fey are waiting to be alerted to anyone reaching part of the fortress. Two groups of these unseelie are trying to find the fey working with the engineers, unaware she’s integrated into The Undine itself. 

Favorable Seas

I’ve said before that I enjoy it when there are adventures available for a setting that utilize what is unique about that setting, and this adventure fits that bill. You can adapt this to other campaign settings, and the concepts of an undersea dungeon crawl with rival adventurers and lost technology make the adventure strong without its setting elements. However, this also does a great job of using elements of the Vodari setting to show how setting details can enrich an experience. I appreciate the inclusion of easier puzzles and the option to have other factions solve them. I appreciate details like how allying with factions might change things, the disposition of NPCs and how they operate, and he full workup of the primary’s NPCs personality and motivations.

The Cold Depths

I’m one of those uncultured slobs who worries about puzzles in adventures. I’m always biased in this because my anxiety makes it hard for me to engage with puzzles in social situations. I appreciate puzzles when I engage with them before my anxiety catches up. As a DM, I worry about not presenting well enough for PCs to have the necessary information. But that’s not a valid concern for just this adventure. It may be a little challenging to juggle all the factions, even with the guidelines in the sidebar in the adventure, even if it’s worth the payoff. I appreciate the efficiency in the presentation of The Undine’s stats, but I would have loved to have had its whole stat block instead of the “use this vehicle with the following changes” approach, but that’s been standard practice in 5e adventures from the beginning. 

Recommended–If the product fits in your broad area of gaming interests, you are likely to be happy with this purchase.

My primary concerns with the adventure aren’t major flaws, just personal preferences. This is a solid adventure for presenting a unique adventuring scenario: an aquatic dungeon with rival adventurers. If you’re interested in the Vodari setting, this adventure highlights its unique elements. 

If you want to support the blog and help me pick up additional RPG material to review, you can check out the affiliate links below. Thanks!

• The Seas of Vodari
• Under the Seas of Vodari

If you want to hear us talking D&D with our actual voices, you can find our podcast, THAC0 with Advantage, on the Polygamerous Podcast Network. 

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We’ve got another release from the Vodari Voyages Patreon, supporting the Seas of Vodari Setting, which, if you aren’t up to speed, you can read about at these links:

• Seas of Vodari Review
• Under the Seas of Vodari Review
• The Goblin King’s Vault

Let me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up. Seas of Vodari is a 5e SRD setting where all of the major nations are separated into different islands, facilitating high fantasy age of sail and swashbuckling adventures, as well as integrating various undersea races into the narrative of the world.

The first offering from the Vodari Voyages Patreon was a heist adventure in the capital city of the setting’s goblin nation. This time it’s more of an adventure toolbox than a standard adventure.

Disclaimer

I’m a patron of the Seas of Vodari Patreon, which is how I received this adventure. I’ve received review copies for Vodari material in the past, but not today! I have not had an opportunity to run or play through this material, but I’ve very familiar with D&D 5e both as a player and as a dungeon master.

Credits

Designer: Shawn Ellsworth
Additional Design: Tomas Gimenez Rioja
Editing: Brandes Stoddard
Graphic Design: Dave Jumaquio
Illustration: Mariam Trejo
Cartographers: Dave Jumaquio

Mapping out the Product

This is an 11-page PDF and . . . there isn’t a whole page dedicated to the 5e OGL, because it’s referencing the SRD that’s in Creative Commons now. Am I going to miss that wall of text in future 5e products? I’ll survive.

This has the same artwork that graces the rest of the Seas of Vodari line, and I’m a big fan of it. I hope they keep this style across the line in the future. We get some artwork portraying some rival captains as well as art for the Cannon Golem, a new monster for this product.

What Am I Looking At?

I mentioned above that this is as much a toolkit as it is an adventure. What I mean by that is that the adventure is an outline that goes something like this:

• PCs get treasure map
• PCs sail to the island with the treasure
• PCs explore the island and run into some hazards
• PCs find the treasure and fight the treasure’s guardian
• PCs are ambushed by their rivals

The toolkit is what you hang on that structure. There are tables for the following random elements:

• Treasure
• Sea Monsters
• Landmarks
• Locations
• Guardian
• Rival Crew
• Traps & Hazards

Depending on how you use the material from the tables, the PCs may have accidentally stumbled across the treasure map, they might win it gambling, or there may be a sailor that wants to pay the PCs back for some favor or another, so long as they take the sailor with them to find the treasure. I’m sure nothing bad has ever happened when a sailor shows up out of nowhere to help you follow a treasure map.

In addition to the information on the tables, a few paragraphs describe how you may want to expand the individual entries. I appreciate some of the entries, like the Feylands Glade, to remind you this isn’t our Age of Sail, this is a fantasy setting that has its own treasure maps and honest crews just trying to make a living by innocently looking into tales of hidden wealth.

My favorite part of this is the rival crews. Each of these is summed up in about two paragraphs, so the descriptions do a lot with the amount of space they take up. The names of the ships do a lot of heavy lifting and the details on the captains, their names, motivations, and the stat blocks to use for their crew are all elements that work together to efficiently communicate a theme.

There are a lot of details for a short product. The paragraphs for “starting the adventure” provide some nice variety, sometimes assuming the PCs have agency in getting the map, sometimes having the PCs stumble over it. Sometimes the PCs know exactly who their rivals are from the start and may even clash with them before they get to the island, and other times, they are the third-act surprise.

Wind in Our Sails

This is a fun toolkit, and you may not want to use it more than once with the same group, but it’s a great fallback when you just want to have a fun game session that is very on-theme with the setting. I’m really impressed with how much detail and flavor gets worked into one or two-paragraph descriptions.

Storm on the Horizon

If I have any real complaint, it’s that this feels like it’s a wee bit higher level than I want for this kind of adventure. The adventure assumes 8th level characters. Is that a big deal? No, but I feel like the kind of archetypical adventure this represents is something that should be hitting the players earlier, maybe around 5th level? The outline is light enough that it shouldn’t be too hard to modify, although I will say the scaling suggestion sidebar is a little basic, and probably could have been left out.

Recommended–If the product fits in your broad area of gaming interests, you are likely to be happy with this purchase.

We’re two products in, and I feel like I’m getting my money’s worth from the Patreon. I am already a fan of the setting, and I am enthusiastic about having more tools to support the setting. The rivals have a lot of personality, and the variety of adventure beginnings is flexible for keeping things fresh and providing inspiration. I’m looking forward to what comes next, and I’m interested to see what other “toolkits” might be on the way to facilitate using the setting.

https://whatdoiknowjr.com/2024/08/13/x-marks-the-spot-vodari-voyages-5e-srd/

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I would like to say that picturing myself at sea, the wind behind me, the sun overhead, would be a calming thing, but I’d be lying. I can’t swim, I don’t like being on boats, and I much prefer overcast days. And yet, I’m a huge fan of nautical swashbuckling stories. I contain multitudes.

Since we’re already on the topic of nautical adventures, I thought today would be a good day to take a look at the first issue of Vodari Voyages, from Angryfish Games’ new Patreon.

If you haven’t heard of the setting yet, The Seas of Vodari is a 5e SRD setting where the continent has been shattered, and nations and city-states exist on islands of varying sizes. There is lots of sea travel, lots of piracy, and lots of aquatic magical mayhem. You can find my review of the campaign setting books here:

• What Do I Know About Reviews? Seas of Vodari (5e OGL)
• Under the Seas of Vodari Review | Gnome Stew

Vodari Voyages is an opportunity for Angryfish Games to publish adventures and setting material for Vodari to support the work they have already done. The first issue is an adventure, The Goblin King’s Vault.

Disclaimer

I am a member of the Vodari Voyages Patreon and did not receive a review copy of this adventure. I have not had the opportunity to play in or run this adventure, but I am familiar with D&D 5e, both as a player and as a Dungeon Master.

The Ledger

The first issue of Vodari Voyages is 11-pages long, which includes an introduction, credits, and table of contents page, a four-page gazetteer of the city of Lor’Thak, a handout map of the location of the adventure, and the four-page adventure itself.

The artwork, like much of the art in the core Vodari books, is done by Mariam Trejo, and I hope that remains to be the case in the future. In the past, certain artists created a style that was associated with a particular setting, whether it was Elmore with Dragonlance, DiTerlizzi with Planescape, or Brom with Dark Sun. The product line may not be as broad, but one of its strengths is that it has both a unified and unique look to it.

The Gazetteer

If you own the Seas of Vodari campaign setting, some of the Lor’Thak Gazetteer is going to be familiar from that source. Lor’Thak is the capital of the goblin nation of Ghak, a nation that is trying to expand its influence with other nations. Compared to the description in The Seas of Vodari, the Grand Cathedral, multiple pubs and taverns, an inn catering to travelers from outside of Ghak, and various merchants have been added.

We also have additional characters detailed in the Allies and Adversaries section, including several NPCs that contribute to an emerging story in this product. There is a rebellion against the current king of Ghak that has sprung up, which incorporates an NPC detailed in the setting book, and introduces a new personality that serves as the leader of that rebellion.

If you have preconceived notions of goblins from previous editions of D&D, it’s worth noting that neither the king nor the rebels are evil. King Garhung has mostly been well regarded for increasing trade but has also come under greater scrutiny for the wealth he, personally, has accumulated, and Brobbi Vezz, the leader of the rebellion and a retired adventurer, is at least as motivated by boredom as she is by justice.

There is a secret that is revealed in the core setting book that isn’t repeated in this Gazetteer, but isn’t necessary for running the adventure, and isn’t something that detracts too much from the city if you don’t have the information. I’m glad to see this city being used, because it’s one of the most unique and fun places in the Vodari setting book. Lor’Thak builds up and out, and has many collapsing buildings and industrial mishaps, but it’s not due so much to incompetence or a lack of engineering knowledge, as it is to constant construction. Ghak even has its own national sport, Bobbleball.

Specific merchants and trade outposts called out in the gazetteer include the following:

• A trade company specializing in food and medicine
• A trade company specializing in cornering trade from a specific region of the setting
• A butcher shop
• An explosives shop
• An apothecary that may also sell nefarious substances (the assassination kind)
• A large general store
• A place to buy trained beasts and monsters

Some of these may be relevant to the adventure, depending on the preparations made by the PCs. I also appreciate that they help to flesh out the character of the city.

The Goblin King’s Vault

There are going to be some spoilers for this adventure, so if you are planning on playing in this scenario, or just want to be surprised by it, now is the time to jump ship.

The adventure is a heist, where the PCs are hired by Brobbi Vozz, the leader of the burgeoning rebellion, to raid the vault of King Garhung. They are provided with a general map of the location, a way to infiltrate the site, a lead on where to pick up the key to the vault, information on a few of the obstacles, and a warning of the location of a trap, but only sparse details on how it works.

Brobbi wants them ready to go the next day, so whatever planning they are going to do, they need to do it quickly. There are some guidelines for what the PCs could pick up from various local merchants, but the primary encounter that’s detailed is an encounter with General Mugg’dar, who holds a key to the vault. Reading ahead, you don’t need to convince Mugg’dar to give you the key, bribe him, or rob him, it just makes it easier to find the entrance to the vault and open it.

I like this kind of setup for a heist. It’s not too open ended that the players will likely plan their way into oblivion. There is a time limit and there is a specific insertion point provided by the employers. There are a set number of obstacles to which the PCs have been made aware, and nothing they do to plan for the heist is absolutely necessary, but several things will make it easier to pull off. It’s a very similar setup to what we see in the adventures in the Keys from the Golden Vault anthology.

The PCs get smuggled into the location, and have the following to contest with:

• Guards that need to be pacified before they raise an alarm
• A hidden keyhole to open the vault
• A gargoyle that requires a password
• A trap that they know exists, but not how it’s triggered or disarmed
• A two-headed mutant worg
• Locked bars that they won’t have the key for

The wording on the gargoyle encounter confused me a bit, because it states that after you provide it with a password, you then have to convince it to speak a password, which I’m assuming means that it has a separate password from the password you just gave it, meaning you can’t cut the gargoyle out of the equation by using the password on the door, but it’s a little confusing. I love the idea of talking with Bloodpaws, but I wish the encounter had a “default” action that communicated that speaking with the mutated worg is an option.

Because there is a heist, this adventure has a built-in twist, or possibly two, depending on how you look at it. There isn’t actually any treasure, a secret that the King doesn’t want to get out, because he’s been spending beyond his means, although not just on himself, but also on making the city more amenable to outsiders.

Someone that the PCs interacted with betrayed them and sets up an ambush just after they find out there is no treasure. The adventure instructs the DM to determine who betrayed the PCs based on context. For example, if they have come in contact with any of the merchant houses, it could be them. It could be one of the shopkeepers they visited to get their gear. It could be the general from whom they secured the key. It is mentioned that you can make it Brobbi Vezz, but she’s the least likely NPC to use for this. Once the PCs survive this ambush, before they can escape the vault, King Garhung and some guards attempt to stop them.

Brobbi, if you didn’t make her the turncoat, isn’t going to pay them anything additional, because the original terms were 100gp plus 25% of the take, and 25% of 0 is also 0.

Down with the Monarchy

This adventure uses some strong best practices for heist adventures, leaving the PCs open to follow up some leads, but not forcing them to do all the legwork themselves, and constraining the amount of time they have to prepare. Leaving out the details of the trap, while revealing that it exists, is a nice touch that introduces the idea that they don’t know everything. I appreciate that both guardian creatures are framed in ways that facilitate roleplaying them. If you are going to have a betrayal element to an adventure, I really appreciate having some guidelines for adjusting who the betrayer is, rather than presenting a development that may leave the PCs unwilling to trust any NPCs, ever again, for the life of your campaign. Leaving it open to someone that the PCs may already not trust, or that they may have butted heads with, is a much better option than naming a single default NPC.

Waving the Flag

Any time you introduce betrayal into an adventure, especially after revealing that the PCs aren’t going to get additional treasure, you introduce the possibility of discontent, but I think this adventure does it better than most that I’ve seen. I wish there were a little bit more included about King Garhung’s ideology and potential developments that show the nature of the increased hardships on the citizens, to either make it easier to side with the rebels, or to make it easier to realize that neither side may be the faction to sign up with long term. I also wish we had gotten just a wee bit more guidance on making sure Garhung can escape his confrontation with the PCs, in case we don’t want to change the leadership of a major nation in the setting in a 5th-level adventure.

Recommended–If the product fits in your broad area of gaming interests, you are likely to be happy with this purchase.

This adventure does exactly what I want an adventure showcasing a specific setting to do, and that’s to use the elements that make the setting unique. Lor’Thak is a great location to use to showcase what’s unique about Vodari. I appreciate having a dedicated goblin nation in the setting, and I think it’s something to showcase.

The heist format is strong and thematically builds on a relatively recent WotC product, and it provides a format that is both open-ended and constrained, meaning that the PCs can get inventive without the DM suddenly needing to design completely new scenes to accommodate the kind of drift that can happen with too few borders defined for the heist.

This was a good opening salvo to showcase what the Patreon might have below decks, and I’m looking forward to seeing more issues.

If you are interested in checking out The Seas of Vodari products, and you don’t mind helping me buy more games to write more reviews to buy more games, etc., if you use the affiliate links below, I get a bit of the sales. Thank you!

• The Seas of Vodari (5E): Swashbuckling & Sorcery on the High Seas – Angryfish Games
• Under the Seas of Vodari (5E): Dive into an Undersea World Full of Action & Adventure – Angryfish Games
• The Gunslinger: A Complete Player Class & Firearms Sourcebook (5e)

https://whatdoiknowjr.com/2024/07/08/what-do-i-know-about-reviews-the-goblin-kings-vault-5e-srd/

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