i think the radiation angle is immediately gripping. you sell the eerie feeling behind it with some simple but potent visual choices. i read the design diary post on your blog and love how much the robot art shifted some gears for you. it would've done the same for me, but more than that it's such a clear showing of how easy it is to be moved and inspired by other folks' work. taipan rocks and is the biggest win of the module IMO - the thing i look at that makes me say "oh, i've gotta see this guy at the table." peep the name, but i am a little biased there 😌 i like the faux-handwriting on the map, just one of those human touches that would add interesting flavor if this were on a handout.
in general, i think the thing this module wants is More Energy. take what you've already got and go even bigger with it! some thoughts:
- on the night cat's crit, 1d4 damage from an intelligent pack hunter is measly. crits are your chance to swing hard! rip a chunk out of their leg so they can't get away, make the damage recurring as the cat latches on and needs to be shaken off, just go bigger with it. if you only want damage, i would double or even triple the size of that die
- brother, why is taipan not on the map. you gotta put that guy somewhere. you're really gonna leave a party running into the sickass necromantic cancer machine up to random chance? be so for real. if this is at my table, i'm putting him in the mist in area 6. i also wouldn't mind some kind of trigger to bring him in once the party grabs the uranium - maybe the forest is shielding it from him, but once it's out from that spot he hones in fast.
- the environment table is a shining star and a great showing of the undead stuff which otherwise feels underutilized. i think you could have given this more mechanical grip by hooking into cairn 2e's established wilderness weather rules - adding fatigue or increasing the number of watches between points would sell the vibe even more, i think
- i like the use of radiation as a long-term poison, although i have no idea how your average cairn character is going to cure it lmao. weirdly, this made me consider where my line is on sci-fi stuff in a fantasy RPG. the big robot feels fine, mostly because it's very bold and also unexplained. but the nuclear bomb fliers in area 3 feel firmly out of place. like it pushes everything into more modern territory and turns Taipan from a bizarre relic into something that makes a little more sense. aura loss! spiritually i would say this feels more like an Into the Odd module, but that's minor tbh.
in-between: the angle of the forest withering under this uranium and deciding to lean into that as if acclimating to snake venom RULES. your current implementation doesn't shine though, because like... the uranium is already in the forest. like it's just in the woods' control. you can't even touch it unless the forest lets you. i think this would've felt less off if the uranium were protected in some kind of rigid structure that the forest couldn't sink its tendrils into (or something similar)
overall: keep making stuff!! i really like your vision and just want to see more. great work!