In 2025 I’m reviewing zungeon zines. They’re stream of consciousness and unedited critiques, just like Bathtub Reviews, but they’ll be a little briefer. The goal here is a little different: I want to spotlight what a craft-based, just-do-it approach to module writing can do.

Spell Shrine Pit is a 15 page “spell shrine” by Zak Hamer for Cairn 2e. A spell shrine is the home of 1 of the 100 spells in the Cairn 2e rulebook — Hamer, in a fun gesture, suggests that the community make more of them. You venture into the dungeon in order to claim the spell, Pit.

Starting with a description of spell shrines and how they might fit in your campaign, quickly the equivalent of hooks and rumours are described — these are slight, focusing on “something is amiss”, because the intent is that you’d be heading to the shrine for the purpose of gaining the spell, rather than being drawn there for other reasons. The framing here is explicitly intended to be like shrines from Breath of the Wild: The players seek them out, explicitly to expand their powers. This makes it hard to criticise the lack of juicy hooks or impactful rumours; the context minimises the need for them. In this context, the fact that the presence of the shrine impacts the region around it means that these changes act — along with rumours — as foreshadowing and clues a spell shrine might be present. If 100 spells shrines were present in a campaign, this foreshadowing would be both a puzzle and a lure after the first few. Very satisfying.

Keys are very clear, and most of the rooms have an interactive element t in them. The writing is workmanlike.

Thematically, I feel like a shrine related to a spell would be a little weirder. This one is effectively a tunnel, dug by spell, a context in which I don’t quite understand the presence of wooden doors or mechanisms. Especially, in the context of the unique creature which are pretty weird and flavourful — I feel the dungeon should’ve reflected them a little more. I don’t quite understand the combination of choices, but they’re also muted enough that it seems like it’s supposed to make sense. I think a brief paragraph explaining what’s going on in the shrine would help me.

Layout is solid — clear headings consistent highlighting, a cute hand-drawn map, public domain art. Perfect balance of DIY and legibility in a zungeon.

Overall, though, while Spell Shrine Pit isn’t a really strong dungeon in isolation, the concept here absolutely is a strong one. In the context of 99 other Spell Shrines, the complexity and depth of individual shrines becomes less important, and the context of other shrines, finding them in the campaign, and the fight for their contents becomes far more important. I think that if any other zungeon writers are stuck for a concept, they should as Hamer suggests steal a spell shrine as a concept and add to this. If the community managed to make 100 spell shrines this year, that’s an overworld campaign well worth running. For that reason alone, I think it’s worth checking out Spell Shrine Pit. It’s just one part of a concept that’s more than the sum of its parts, but that concept is a powerful one.

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