Sky-Blind Spire Review

https://blog.trilemma.com/2016/04/the-sky-blind-spire.html

9/5/2025

I have not run a lot of one-page adventures that went well. Usually they lack an overall plot, unifying elements, or just enough information to actually make them fun to run. It can be done, the hexes and dungeons in Summer End prove that, and I’m happy to say that this one does to.

I can easily recommend Sky-Blind Spire by Michael Prescott.

Story: “A wizard tower where you can’t see blue”

The story of the module is simple: there’s a wizard tower and you need to go raid it. It’s very straightforward, and there’s some dynamics going on inside the dungeon between some goblins, some giants, and some dire pelicans. AND there’s a cohesive through-line throughout the dungeon that is pretty cool.

The only thing I’d really say its missing, and that’s stopping it from getting a perfect 10 on plot is some rumors or reasons for the players to come here. Otherwise, for a one-pager, it has everything I could ask for.

Content: “When you say the ‘pelican is huge’ do you mean huge for a pelican or like, huge compared to me?”

There are combat encounters, social encounters, and a few puzzles as well. There’s also a few environmental hazards that can be exploited (and my players did), so there’s a lot to work with here, especially for a one-pager.

I love the absolute confusion my players had when they realized that parts of the dungeon looped in on themselves and their map made no sense. It was exactly what I wanted to give them, great design.

Where it’s lacking points is that the vast majority of rooms in the dungeon are total walk-through rooms with nothing going on. There’s not even descriptions for them, which isn’t the worst because their are illustrations, but still, it’s not very exciting. It’s clearly a space issue, and it’s why most one-pagers usually don’t have a ton of rooms.

That, and, the giants really didn’t do it for me. I found them confusing on why they were stuck, but that’s mostly a usability complaint. The content side is that one is able to drink and spit molten lead so does he just like, have molten lead on him? Or is this just a fun fact? It was strange to bring up in practice.

Art: “Everything you need to know is in this picture”

Not only is there an image of the entire layout of the dungeon, but there’s supplementary images of tower exterior. ALSO, across the art are a series of helpful reminders (which window is which, which room is what number, etc).

There is what I think is one error. In room 7, the window to 5N has a chain coming down from it, similar to the one shown going into 5S from the roof (room 24). But the window to 5S is in room 23, not room 7. I won’t count it against them though, because maybe it’s on purpose and I have a pee-brain.

The art is really well drawn, and makes up for the lack of text in a lot of the rooms. Overall, perfect score for art, this is what we like to see.

Usability: “We you say ‘blind’ do you mean ‘blind-blind’ or like… ‘its an illusion’?”

This is my biggest complaint: what the heck do you mean by “completely blind to anything blue”? This is one of the key magical effects of the dungeon, it’s relevant to most encounters in the dungeon, and I have no idea what it means. It seems different for every situation:

For the Ricalu Thieves, it seems to work like a cloak of invisibility
For the Giants, the blue tapestries seem to blend into the wall and look like stone
For the Dire Pelicans, it seems to have no effect because they can still fly around outside and hunt in the lake

Speaking of the lake outside, how the heck does water work? Or the sky for that matter? I just described them as black voids (but they can still see clouds), but neither of those make sense with the other examples given so far. Do the players see through the sky and into space?

This may seem like a small complaint but again this is a core effect of the dungeon, and every time it came up I felt like I was explaining it wrong. Honestly, had this even been given a single line of description, this might have been a “highest-recommends” situation.

Conclusion: “Very nearly one of the best”

Before you run this module, figure out how you’re going to deal with the “sky-blindness.” It’s core to the adventure, and if you don’t have an idea for it, it will kick you in the butt later on.

It’s an above average adventure that could have been made great with a different social encounter and a better description for sky-blindness. Here’s my pitches to cover down on those:

Instead of the giants, they are normal adventurers, a party of four, that has grown in size due to the Changeling Cone in room 15. They’re roasting a dire pelican over a fire and arguing about jumping out the windows.
“Sky-blindness” causes your brain to fill in the gaps. A blue tapestry on the wall covering a secret door makes your brain treat it as a stone wall. When the bandits use it, they’re treated as being invisible. The sky looks like it’s always at sunset/rise and water looks like a green liquid that you can’t see into. Blue-eyed folks look like they have green-eyes.
The front gate is painted blue. Once the blindness sets in, it looks like a stone wall.

Thank you for reading!

Until we meet again,

GOOD LUCK ON YOUR ADVENTURES