strong premise and very good location work, nice one

Loved the cover and the isometric map! I do like that the entire ordeal can be skipped on a simple game of chance, however, I genuinely hope most groups do not take it, or they’ll be missing out on a fun premise of an infiltration. Great work!

Beautiful cover that has everything it needs to have. You got a really good title, so I am going to be expecting a good entry here. Double edged sword, I know. Such an evocative title gives you a lot to work with, but sets the bar immediately high for what you give us. I empathize.

Scaling it to print size has me squinting a bit, but with the mostly-clean text color to background color, I am sure it will print fine. Might need to hold it a little close to my face, but it's not precisely a tiny blurred mess. Pretty much everyone has shrunk down the font to dangerously small, so there's nothing unique here. Keeping the contrast between text and background strong is vital when it's like this. So, success there.

First paragraph sets up how this all starts well enough. I am guessing there's an editing error in the statement “...freeing one of his marked.” I suspect the wording was probably something like 'marked status' or such. When you removed the latter word, the former needs to be shifted into present tense. “Freeing one of (I would say from here rather than of) his mark”. As I read this, I find myself thinking this is going to be a perfect adventure to keep in my emergency fold. One day when there's a TPK, boom, I pull this out and have death offer them a deal.

The reward is pretty self-explanatory here and you probably could have bought yourself a little more space leaving it out. Location is solid. Short and sweet. The complications though is twice as long as it needs to be. It's 2 sentences long and one of them is basically repeating something we learned in the previous paragraph. Another thing you could have shaved down to add more breathing room to the piece.

Factions is interesting. Based on the setup, it seems to be rather unique. Most of the ones I have seen in the past place the cult leader and cult members into a faction. I notice you separate out the leader by name under 'The Horror' faction. I kind of like this. It mirrors real cults. Often cultists are enthusiastic folks who've been manipulated and don't even really see how off kilter things have gotten. It works to keep them from all just being evil monsters trying to warp everyone. They legitimately believe what they're selling and are going to come across very differently because of it. I will say you note peasants for the guest stats. I would at least reference the other two as well since they appear on the back cover. Also, I am almost certain that some of the cultists are in the know given the stat block for them, so I would probably distinguish between the oblivious ones and the ones who are higher rank.

Under the compound, you note to start rolling for encounters starting room 2-8, but don't indicate a danger level. A quick glance at the encounter table tells me it's not there either. I'd be sure to include this somewhere at least. One less thing for the DM to make up on the fly and won't really cost you extra space. At least not if it is added to the encounter table itself along the top bar.

I don't see a percentile roll very often in ShadowDark. It's a little jarring to have one right out of the gate. Not calling it bad, just saying it's a little jarring. I would probably have formatted it to match other elements in the document. So, 1:10 instead of 10%. The bigger question I have is why need an invitation at all? If they are trying to gain members and steal souls, the best bet is to let as many people in as possible. My guess here is that it's meant to be a classic heist option. Find a way to procure invitations and failing that, try to bribe. Combat the moment they walk in probably kills a lot of the interest of trying to uncover things. Just my initial thoughts. I'll see how the rest of it is laid out.

Courtyard's fine. I'm sure there's a lot of conversation and such to be had here. For the groups inclined to sleuth, it's a gold mine. Murder hobos who stabbed their way in the front door will probably just have a bunch of screaming guests and attacking guards/cultists. Two very different options. Pillow room that follows is odd to me. 9 guests, but not a single cultist? Also, where in the world did the sword come from. It feels like it was just randomly put here for players to perhaps find and have a weapon with.

Servant's Room is a stronger narrative connection for providing weapons. It's interesting as a means to provide clothing to disguise themselves with, though it's a little weird imagining them making the pitchers up in this room that seems to be just a sort of laundry area. Zone of Truth could be useful, but again feels weird in a room with a hamper and a cabinet as the only features.

The dining room is fine. I think I'd indicate something where instead of just a 1 in 3 chance of seeing things, each turn lingering in the room increases it by 1. So first turn 1:6, second one, 2:6, Third, 3:6. It means they are increasingly more likely to notice something useful and if they spend enough time there chatting with guests, eating, etc, they are going to absolutely notice it eventually.

Sorceress' Room is where I finally break and stop thinking 'odd choice' and instead go 'intentional gaminess'. A sorceress leaving a journal laying out everything along with a scroll she would never need but that absolutely helps the players is probably a bridge too far for me. I'd probably decide to swap this out so the journal entry talks about someone snooping around claiming to be an agent of death and having taken the scroll from them. Maybe some hints at the truth without openly stating the evil plan.

So before I move on to the map page, I am rescanning this page. You have the horror's amulet stats, but no actual mention of it on this page. Skimming the next page, not there either. I finally find it on the back cover under the boss fight. Not a shock really, but having it here made me think I should expect to see it in the rooms on this page. I know why you put it here. Space. There was a blank spot and putting it here avoided orphans. I can't even really complain. I had my own item sitting on the cover. Still, I think at least a small reference to where it's going to be found would be nice. Maybe next the the name (page 4) or something similar.

Map is nice. Attractive and clear. Multiple directions one could move around the map with. More than one entrance, doors clearly marked for which are locked, visual reminders of what's in the room. Everything's solid. It reminds me I meant to note there was no indication of difficulty on opening the locks through other means besides knocking or having a key. There's going to be someone trying to lockpick one of these almost certainly. Might help to note a difficulty on the related roll.

Glowing drinks notation are fine. Honestly happy to find out these aren't some soul sucking drink. It's a wonderful little red herring. Turns out it's basically just strong alcohol with a Chr benefit. Int drop is to be expected when drinking strong alcohols. It's the incapacitation that matters here. I absolutely foresee players trying to detect magic on the drinks, avoiding them like the plague, etc. Kind of love that.

The pit is deep. Really deep. I assume given the soul sucking thing, the pool at the bottom is pretty deep to avoid instantly killing the people tossed in. Might want to include something about the players who are bold (stupid) enough to just dive in or those who get knocked in while fighting. Some group is absolutely going to find 3 robes in that hamper roll and be doing the secret knock while lugging their (not really) sleeping companion into the room. Fun times.

Garden has a named guest with a specific story. If they come in this direction, they get an immediate hint about something important. If they don't find it until later, the effect may vary. I'm good with this. Also adding a little side-fight treasure is nice. Optional encounter for optional rewards.

Down in the ritual room, the chained guests feel strange to me. Why bother to chain anyone? The leeches are supposed to be sucking souls right away as far as I can tell. Giving someone enough time to wake up and get chained is risky. Especially since they're begging for help. I would think the party would be hearing them scream bloody murder all the way up in the pit room. I don't know. It's a variable, which can be fun, but it's also an oddity in behavior for the cultists.

That reminds me, everything seems to be leading up to the cultists all being in the know. My earlier comment apparently was an inaccurate reading. There are actually only 2 factions here. The cultists with their leader and 'god' being, then the guests. It seems none of the cultists are actually clueless. That's too bad. I really had been impressed by the idea of 'innocent cultists' being a part of the setting. It would have created an odd faction dynamic and fun little moral quandary for those who like that sort of thing.

Soul Pit room is going to be a real horror show if the party has a classic Big Dumb Fighter type. Especially if he decided to have a few drinks upstairs. Having him out of the fight for D3 rounds every failed intelligence roll is going to hurt. Especially since they have to roll it any time they aren't paralyzed. Not saying it shouldn't, just going to make someone regret their lack of strong intelligence rolls. Timer on when more reinforcements arrive is clear. My only real question left is what happens to the drinks when the pool evaporates? I assume they stop glowing and just return to regular alcohol. Also, Leeches is spelled differently here than elsewhere.

Back cover callout is more or less a repeat of the intro. Can't complain about it since it's offering something a player would see on the outside cover. For the jam, it hurts space a little to repeat what we already know. It's a choice. Neither right nor wrong. Simply pointing it out since it came to mind. The encounter table works right up until you get into those rear rooms. Suddenly elements like guests approaching isn't viable. Room 6 and 7 won't work for the table given. Earlier it was noted 2 through 8. I would reorder your numbers or else set a 'specific encounter' for those two rooms. Reordering would be easier. 2 through 6. Change garden to 6 and make 6-7 into 7-8. My suggestion there. Do as you wish however. There's other options.

I do love the reappearance of Halfred as well as the use of the term 'unkindness'. Not enough people use those sorts of terms. Everyone remembers the Murders, no one remembers the Unkindness'. Stat-wise, most of this is within reason. Could be a pretty tough fight there at the end, but not unwinnable. I do notice Beguile notes 'for the duration' but doesn't indicate more. I assume that means for the duration of the fight? Ends with legal stuff. Nothing to say about that.

So where do I fall on this? It could use more space, but who couldn't in this jam? I noted a few spots you could have gained a little more room to perhaps add a little here or there instead. Above all, I think it's certainly workable. If I was to print this out, I would want to jot a few notes in advance before putting it into my folder. I think I laid those out above clearly enough. Just bits to help myself have an answer to questions so I am not working it out on the fly.

I only really had one disappointment. The title certainly alludes to the setup, but very little of the adventure is actually wagering your life. It's doing a task under an ultimatum. You can do a wager at the start, but for me it felt more like a tacked-on 'if they don't want to actually do the adventure' sort of option. I had really hoped to see something where a player's actual life force was involved as a mechanic. I was imagining going to the cult's location and having it really play like a fantasy heist. Cultists are doing some sort of games where the guests can earn riches, but are gambling bits of their souls! The only way to get in is to put up collateral in the form of part of your soul and then you can wager it away or gain it back. Risk, reward, clear tie-ins to the title. Everyone gets drunk and thrown into a pit feels less awesome. Not a bad little module by any stretch of the imagination. Good in fact. Just saying that I had been hoping from the setup and 'party' aspect that it was going in that direction.

Good job on this. It's clean and clear. Only a few things where I had to stop and wonder about something. Map was also good. Cover is beautiful and evocative. I hope you take some time to expand this and maybe add some more interesting personalities like my boy Halfred for the players to interact with. I really do think leaning into the mystery is the way to go here. If even Death itself can't figure it out... this could be quite a fun quest to overcome.

Beautifully designed an illustrated, on theme!  I love meeting with death and his demand, love the climax of the soul pool! Fun and tight adventure! Would be great to throw at your players as they wake from a wild week of carousing!

I really enjoyed reading this one; the map and key are outstanding and seem very easy to run at the table. The visuals ooze charm and draw me in, the words are evocative and the font is very legible while selling the vibe.

*One minor nitpick: I didn't love that you used percentile dice for the guards accepting a bribe, then later 2:6 chance of witnessing cultists escorting intoxicated guests/tossing them into the pit--for Shadowdark, I would have preferred a CHA check for the bribes (Normal or Hard) and tying the potential cult activity to the encounter roll.

Really excellent work!

A cult hide out will always find a use in my games. Very fun! I think it could have been a bit higher level given Death themselves showing up. But then again, why save the crazy stuff for high levels? Great visuals too. The map especially! 

Fantastic design and art. Information presentation is clear and well-structured.  Feels like a class bite-sized adventure.

Damn near perfect

Fantastic shadowdark module, love the multiple threads. The dungeon map is awesome and I really appreciate the consistent color and layout. Job well done!