Friday Fantasy: Dread Shores & Black Horizons

The world stands on the precipice of doom and those dedicated to the forces of darkness that lie beyond the veil, long ripping at the walls that separate them from the mortal realms, claw at the boundaries that have kept them imprisoned for time immemorial tear at them with renewed vigour. The news refreshes anew the ambitions of their servants, members of cults dedicated to the ‘Dark One’, as they congregate to sing and sacrifice to their master… As the omens gather and signal his return, the Archivist Order rush to investigate. Perhaps to gather the knowledge to prevent his return, perhaps to gather the knowledge necessary to welcome his return. The order launched an expeditionary fleet to set sail form the southern peninsula of the Wracked Coast away to the Arcana of the Temples in the East, on the sixth day of its voyage, the second ship of the expeditionary fleet was caught in raging storm in the ice waters of the Maelstrom. Neither the skill of her sailors nor the sturdiness of her hull was enough for the ship to avoid being dashed ashore at the base of a rocky island on the archipelago that was not marked on any map. Thrown into the sea or picked up by the one boat that rowed free of the wreckage, the few survivors find themselves at an ancient carved landing from which narrow, steep steps cut their way through the rock to the top of the island.

This is the beginning of Dread Shores & Black Horizons, a scenario published by Archon Games. Originally funded via a Kickstarter campaign as part of ZineQuest #4, its production values have been elevated beyond that of a simple fanzine. And even then, it is very much a scenario and not a fanzine in the traditional sense. It is a systems-agnostic grim, dark fantasy that could be run in a very minimalist fashion with the included Player Characters and the Game Master improvising, it could be adapted to the fantasy roleplaying game of the Game Master’s choice. There is almost not a single fantasy roleplaying game which Dread Shores & Black Horizons could be adapted to, from Old School Essentials Classic Fantasy and ShadowDark to Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Fourth Edition and the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game. The provided Player Characters, each accompanied by an illustration, includes an eager relic hunter, a seasoned and patient guide and tracker, a loyal guard, an out of their element scribe, a steadfast boatman, and an astronomer with a dark secret.

Once the Player Characters reach the top, they discover a sparse garden and a beacon tower… The door to the tower is locked and the single inhabitant, later to be revealed to be a bruised, battered, and crotchety old man, refuses to let them in. The question is, if this is a beacon tower, why was it not lit when the ship the Player Characters were aboard sailed past? Once the Player Characters get to talk to the beacon keeper, he will explain that its wick will not stay alight and the oil has run out. He will suggest that they descend the steps at the rear of the island to the storerooms there to get more. The way down is blocked by barnacles, but once past these, the storerooms prove strangely to be empty of the needed supplies. Perhaps they could have been taken through the grate in the floor that the beacon keeper kindly provided the key to? Unlocking the grate and descending deeper into the island reveals that it is not a beacon station to warn ships during storms, but a prison for Siren, a Fiend of the Dark One, one that will taunt the Player Characters even as they scramble to gather supplies and escape the thralls that protect the fiend. Fortunately, the Player Characters can escape their clutches and get back to the beacon tower. They need to persuade the beacon keeper to let them in and actually repair the beacon, but it can be kept burning throughout the night, even as the thralls clamour at the door to the beacon tower. Whilst they cannot get in, there is nothing to stop the cultists who arrive in the morning in answer to the call of the fiend below the island. At which point, the Player Characters have a choice. Swear fealty to the Dark One and live or refuse and die…

And that really is it as far as Dread Shores & Black Horizons goes. It is so straightforward as to be described as linear and there really is very little that the Player Characters can do to affect the outcome. There is a hint of something unsettling to the bleakness of the setting, but the scenario never really develops that, never puts the Player Characters in peril over the course of the night, never has the thralls climbing the walls to capture them or the Siren taunt them from below. Perhaps it could be run as a character piece, focusing on the interaction between the pre-generated Player Characters, but their backgrounds do not include details of their knowledge of each other, let alone their relationships, and only one of them has a secret.

Physically, Dread Shores & Black Horizons is very well presented. The scenario itself is short, but packed with decent artwork and maps, all in black and white. It comes in a boxed set that includes a large cloth map giving a cross section of the island that is not in the book and a sheaf of seventeen cards that give the character details and illustrations as in the book, maps—unmarked for the player and marked for the Game Master, and a cross section of the island from the cloth map. Yet whilst it is clearly written, it is overwritten in terms of its directions and advice for the Game Master, yet often underwritten in terms of its explanation.

With its high production values, Dread Shores & Black Horizons promises a lot. It is certainly an eye-catching boxed scenario. However, the intriguing promise of its stark black and white look and hints of horror, remained disappointingly unfulfilled with its underwhelming plotting and character design. There is potential here for a session’s worth of cramped and uneasy tension against a growing sense of dread as a horror slithers up from inside the island where it was imprisoned, to taunt and terrorise the shipwrecked survivors. Yet not as written and not as developed. The high production values of Dread Shores & Black Horizons means that it deserves—or needs—a re-write or more development to really live up to them, but until that happens or a Game Master does the work herself, it remains a bafflingly missed opportunity.