OPD 14 Review - The Smugglers' Caverns - Level 5

The Smugglers' Caverns - Level 5

A Smuggler hideout that is connected via a semi-secret tunnel to an ancient, undead filled cult's temple.

Organization: Standard org: Map on top left, general info/background top right, map key bottom. There's a new monster introduced - Brain Slugs.  Not a bad monster concept.  My issue is that they (and rust monsters) only appear on the wandering monster list (which has these two and zombies).  Why are there potentially 1 or 2 Rust Monsters showing up every so often?  At least the brain slugs have a connection to the undead in the temple... But they seem more like a set-piece monster than wandering...

Clarity: I'm not a fan of the hand-drawn map, not because of the hand-drawing, but mostly because of the lack of contrast. Still, it's serviceable...  Not everything is clear in the writing, however.  Room 8, for example, says "Approximately half the room is filled to floor level with sea water..." I THINK I know what that means - that the east side of the cave is "scooped out" kind of... Probably an issue with my perception though.  Less clear is the west door at 10 that is "locked from the outside"... Does that mean it is locked in such a way that you can't get to it from the outside or that the lock is on the outside?  I would say the latter, but I'm not sure that's the author's intent (and it very much could matter). And there's a number 11 on the map (clearly a trap), but my copy of the OPD doesn't have a key for it - though there's plenty of space at the end of the adventure to add another location or two...

Usefulness: I'd use this.  I have a sneaky, semi-organized smuggling/slaving gang in my campaign and they need lots of little hideaways to store their wares between acquisition and sale...

Subjective: My griping aside, I could and probably would use this little OPD. 

One more kind of oddity here - it is clear that the author expects the smugglers to be a "surprise" to the PCs exploring.  The numbering suggests the party comes to this location from above (possibly level 4 of some un-named dungeon?). Even the writing in the smuggler's caves suggests that they are approached from within, not from above or from the sea or even breaking into the west door...