So, as I write this in September of 2020, I’m slowly starting to assemble a (hopefully) ongoing Dungeon Crawl Classics game, and I’m leaning toward more nautical themed adventures, generally.  To that end, I read through The Sea Queen Escapes! By Michael Curtis.

This one has three major locations, starting with a wizard’s keep, moving to a…well, let’s just call it a unique spot where you’ve got to retrieve something, and then on to the final location where the story comes to its conclusion and things get dicey.  This later edition also includes a location a Judge can come back to or use in various ways, the Sunken Kingdom of Ru, a bit of a play on similar mythological spots like Atlantis and Mu.

One thing I’ve come across time and again with DCC adventures is what feels like an almost arbitrary concept of difficulty.  This is a Level 3 adventure, yet I could see lower level parties making it through.  I recently ran Geas of the Star-Chons, which is a Level 1 adventure, and that thing is a danged meat grinder.  Frankly, I think it’s a tougher, more challenging adventure.  I haven’t run this one yet, but that’s certainly how it seems from giving it a read.  I don’t know if that disparity is a bug or a feature of Dungeon Crawl Classics.  You’re always kind of unbalanced in the game.  You may be in over your head or you may be on a cake walk, and you won’t know until the blood starts flowing and you find out if it’s yours or your enemy’s.

I’ve already dropped a couple of leads for this one into the game I’m putting together, so I’m sure I’ll run some folks through it at some point coming up.

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