The Horror Beneath spends a lot of time shooting itself in the foot.

Review Originally Published May 21st, 2001

This adventure, to put it bluntly, is a mess:

1. You’ve got a bunch of maps. Tragically, three of them are completely illegible. Actually, I don’t know if “illegible” is the right word, because they’re also completely unkeyed. Let’s just say that — between the fact that they are unkeyed and reproduced in a muddy and indistinct greyscale — it’s nearly impossible to figure out what information they’re supposed to be conveying. The fourth map is of a dungeon. This one is keyed with numbers. For reasons beyond the scope of imagination, however, these numbers are not referenced in a standard D&D format. Instead, Metcalf has decided to describe his dungeon in, basically, a stream of consciousness format – dropping the numbers into the middle of the text between a couple of parentheses whenever he feels its convenient. Simply incredible. It takes true skill to deliberately go out of your way like this to make a product as unusable as possible.

2. Metcalf seems to have persistent problems with the English language. My favorite examples are his nebulous sentence structures, which result in treats like this: “He is unarmed and has no weapon proficiencies. He doesn’t think he needs them.” Needs weapons or needs weapon proficiencies? “Steorra’s temple is the oldest and largest in Ravendale.” Oldest and largest… what? Building? Temple in general? Steorra’s temple in general? You’d assume the second, but this passage is made particularly hilarious by the sentence which appears two paragraphs later: “Temple of Saint Tollan: Ravendale’s newest temple, as well as the largest.”

3. What’s truly bizarre is that the adventure spends a bunch of time discussing Ravendale… which serves absolutely no purpose except as a place for the PCs to pick up an undefined adventure seed which is going to take them to another town: Scarborough.

4. When the PCs reach Scarborough they find the entire town deserted… except for one family, the Tendermores. They discover this when they find the Tendermore’s fourteen-year-old daughter drawing water — by herself — from the well. First off, this staggers my suspension of disbelief: Everyone in town has been dragged off by zombies except your family, and your daughter is wandering around by herself? The daughter will take them back to her house, where the PCs will meet her father Jonathon. To add insult to injury, however, Metcalf closes this description with: “…he believes that he and his “boys” can hold their own.” Who are his “boys”? I dunno. Are they literally his sons, or do the quotation marks imply something else? I dunno. Is the wife of the house still alive and around? I dunno. Are there any other daughters? I dunno.

5. As if Metcalf’s lock-lipped descriptions are not bizarre enough, we then get the sequence of events that night when the zombies come: “The Tendermores are not very effective archers, the zombies should have no trouble advancing to the front of the house.” So, in other words, they’ve had no problems holding them off this long – but as soon as the PCs show up, the Tendermores are doomed? Apparently so, because no matter what the PCs do, they will “see two of the Tendermore women taken by the zombies.”

6. Actually, they’re not zombies. They’re grub hosts – which are just like zombies, except they can’t be turned. They are also the way that the Brood Queen (who’s hiding out in that dungeon, which is supposed to be part of an abandoned dwarven citadel, but doesn’t look it) creates her young (the Brood Warriors).

Basically, The Horror Beneath had a semi-decent idea (Aliens in a fantasy setting), but then simply fumbled the ball in executing it. Actually, let me rephrase that: They didn’t fumble the ball. They deliberately tossed it on the floor, tripped over it, broke their leg, stumbled over their target audience, and plunged off a cliff.

It would have been better if the maps had been legible. It would have been better if the presentation had been smoother. Heck, it would have been better if the plot had been comprehensible.

In short: Don’t buy The Horror Beneath.

Style: 2
Substance: 1

Title: The Horror Beneath
Authors: Eric Metcalf
Company: Nightshift Games
Line: D20
Price: $8.95
ISBN: 192933228-9
Production Code: CFE4001
Pages: 32

Style 2? I was apparently feeling generous that day.

I feel bad for Eric Metcalf. He was one of the very first adopters of the OGL and D20 System Trademark License, making the superhero RPG The Foundation and The Horror Beneath two of the earliest third-party 3rd Edition supplements, before the market became glutted with competitors. Unfortunately, this just meant that the entire hobby’s eyes fell upon what were extremely neophyte efforts. Sort of like grabbing someone who just took their first singing lessons and thrusting them onto a Broadway stage. Yeah, the result is terrible. But you can still empathize.

Re-reading this review, it was also interesting seeing my early reaction to someone forgetting how to key a dungeon. Notably, back in 2001, I don’t recall anyone trying to justify this.

For an explanation of where these reviews came from and why you can no longer find them at RPGNet, click here.

Ultimately, Deep Horizon lacks the space it needs to tell the story it wants to tell.

Review Originally Published June 27th, 2002

Designed for 13th-level characters, Deep Horizon is WotC’s sixth Adventure Path module. Skip Williams, the author, takes us into the Underdark with this one, revealing a developing struggle between beholders, salamanders, and the long-forgotten civilization of the desmodus (a race of bat-like humanoids).

CONTENT

Warning: This review will contain spoilers for Deep Horizon. Players who may find themselves playing in this adventure should not read beyond this point.

One consistent weakness in the Adventure Path modules have been the character hooks, and this remains true with Deep Horizons: They’re tepid at best. You’ll be best off, in my opinion, using them as a way of foreshadowing the adventure.

Of course, part of the reason the hooks for these modules are weak is that, in general, WotC’s authors are not attempting to convey a plot. The Sunless Citadel, for example, is not a module about the PCs attempting to accomplish X, Y, and Z. The Sunless Citadel simply exists – and there are any number of reasons why the PCs might go there.

Similarly, Deep Horizon doesn’t convey a plot – it conveys an environment. A situation. How the PCs enter that situation, and what they do once they’re there, is entirely up to them.

Here’s the background: 300 years ago the desmodus were at war with the drow… and they were losing. In order to save themselves, the desmodus used powerful magic to reroute a magma flow – using it to seal off their city (and, simultaneously, destroy the nearest drow city). Although the desmodus survived, sealed off from the rest of the world (with the exception of small colony of salamanders, who traded with the desmodus for metal ore), every passing year of isolation brought them closer to the brink of extinction.

Three months ago, however, an earthquake reopened the desmodus’ corner of the Underdark. This has created a crisis in desmodu society, and their old ways of life have broken down: The entire race now stands on the edge of a knife, trying to find its way into the new future which has opened up before it.

Deep Horizon details three environments: The first is Chael-Rekshaar, the drow city destroyed when the desmodu redirected the magma flow 300 years ago. Today, it is inhabited by a trio of beholders (supported by a variety of slave laborers). These beholders are excavating the city with their disintegrate eye, searching for whatever treasure they can find.

The second is the Desmodu Enclave, the final refuge of what was – until just a few months ago – a slowly dying race.

The third is the Salamander Citadel, built upon the underground volcano formed by the backed up magma flow created by the desmodu 300 years ago.

Deep Horizon also details a power struggle: As their society has fragmented and redirected itself, the desmodus’ shipments of ore to the salamanders have slowed. This has angered the salamanders, who have allied themselves with the beholders – hoping to wipe out the desmodu once and for all. While the PCs are here, an assassination is attempted against the leader of the desmodu.

Also at work here is the destabilizing effect lying behind the recent earthquake: The ancient magic the desmodu used to seal themselves away is finally having consequences. If the situation isn’t completely remedied, the earthquakes will get worse. Unfortunately, undoing the magic and allowing the magma to return to its natural flow patterns will significantly cool the current habitat of the salamanders – something which is sure to raise their already heated ire.

STRENGTHS

If you want a summary of why you should pick up Deep Horizons, you don’t have to look any farther than the summary of its content: Skip Williams delivers an active, compelling scenario and invites you to bring along your PCs.

Of course, WotC consistently puts together a well-produced package, and this module is no exception: The cover, by Brom, is eye-catching. The maps are well done. The interior art delivers without detracting. The rules are impeccably handled. All the i’s are dotted and all the t’s are crossed.

WEAKNESSES

Unfortunately, Deep Horizon does have one significant problem: It just plain, flat-out lacks the space it needs to tell the story it wants to tell.

For example, the concept of the ruined drow city of Chael-Rekshaar is really cool. But, in actual execution, it’s rendered into nothing more than a single, ruined temple. (The rest of the city is left beneath the lava flow.)

Similarly, the assassination attempt which forms the module’s only substantive arc of plotted action is essentially squeezed into half a page. Its presentation is simply rushed, leaving you more with the sense of an outline than a module.

Which isn’t to say that Deep Horizon doesn’t work: It does. Everything on the page functions. It just doesn’t live up to its potential, and the primary problem here simply seems to be a lack of space. (Deep Horizon wouldn’t be the first Adventure Path module hurt due to its limited page count, either: The Speaker in Dreams was significantly gutted before its release. Ironically, WotC opted to increase the page count of its Adventure Path modules immediately after Deep Horizon — both Lord of the Iron Fortress and Bastion of Broken Souls feature 48 pages).

A less systemic problem the potential DM should keep an eye on is the introduction of the desmodu: I’ve had several DMs tell me that their PCs were initially hostile toward the desmodu, due to the fact that they fall victim to a desmodu raiding party on their way down into the Underdark. (When faced with an unknown race of humanoids in D&D, I’ve found that players tend to assume the worst of anything that attacks them first.) Since the rest of the module assumes that the PCs will be, at the very least, neutral towards the desmodu, this has the potential to cause some problems.

Deep Horizon also has an annoying flaw: The PCs need to travel through the ruined drow city of Chael-Rekshaar in order to reach the Desmodu Enclave. No problem. But the map of the Desmodu Enclave also shows two passages leading off deeper into the Underdark. Problem: If the magma flow sealed off the desmodu, why are there still passages leading into the Underdark? Plus, the descriptive text implies that Chael-Rekshaar was just the nearest drow city involved in the war with the desmodu: But there’s nothing between Chael-Rekshaar and the surface. And the only way to get deeper into the Underdark from Chael-Rekshaar, according to the map, is through the desmodu enclave. So, unless the drow had a habit of living on the surface three hundred years ago, the whole premise doesn’t seem to make any sense.

(This is easily fixed, however: Move the passages leading deeper into the Underdark to Chael-Rekshaar. These passages would have been sealed by the magma – and were recently reopened, along with the passage to the surface, by the earthquake.)

CONCLUSION

Deep Horizon is a good module: The PCs are dropped into a complex power struggle, and are given the opportunity to save an entire race. This module can represent a launching point for the higher levels of your campaign – as your PCs begin to have a larger and broader impact on the development of the campaign world as a whole.

But Deep Horizon isn’t a great module, and that’s unfortunate: Because the potential was definitely there. And with another twelve pages or so it probably could have been delivered on.

That shouldn’t dissuade you from picking this one up, though – particularly if you’ve followed the Adventure Path series to this point. If you’re willing to take the time to expand the material found here – or even just keep on your toes when it comes to improvising — Deep Horizon presents a highly enjoyable gaming experience.

Style: 4
Substance: 3

Author: Skip Williams
Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
Line: D&D
Price: $9.95
ISBN: 0-7869-1855-1
Product Code: WTC11855
Pages: 32
Year Published: 2002

In my retrospective on my review of The Sunless Citadel, I talked about how Justin the Younger was still belaboring under the Plot is Adventure/Adventure is Plot paradigm. You can see the vestiges of this here, as I use it (incorrectly) as an explanation for why the scenario hooks for the Adventure Path modules were so poorly done. (The reality, of course, is that there’s nothing about prepping situations that requires threadbare scenario hooks. Quite the opposite.)

In reprinting these old RPGnet reviews, we’ve skipped ahead a bit with this one in order to release all the Adventure Path reviews together. This was actually one of the very last reviews I ever wrote for the site, appearing on the same day as a review of Atlas Games’ Backdrops. Two years later I would write a review of A Song of Ice and Fire, but these two RPG reviews were the true end of an era. (I never finished reviewing the Adventure Path series.) There were a number of reasons for this, the most prominent of which was that in 2002-03 I was spending a lot more time doing professional freelance work. I also lost my primary gaming group during this time as multiple members moved out of town. Shortly thereafter, I was knocked out of the industry in late 2003 by the post-D&D 3.5 collapse, during which most of the companies I had contracts with simply ceased to exist.

It was a rough time. And, at the time, it felt like I’d left RPGs for a long time. Looking back, though, I can see that in 2005 I both started the Alexandrian and took the first steps to getting a new regular gaming group. So it was just a couple years. And then, a couple years after that, I wrote the viral articles that transformed the site, launched my long-running Ptolus campaign, and started publishing RPG books again. Since then, my road has taken many unexpected turns, but I don’t feel as if the journey has ever been interrupted.

Hopefully the road ahead of us will be long and prosperous!

For an explanation of where these reviews came from and why you can no longer find them at RPGNet, click here.

DISCUSSING
In the Shadow of the Spire – Session 47C: Home Suite Home

Several hours into Ranthir’s candlelit researches, something sinister slithered under the door. Ranthir, intent on the strange intricacies of technomancy, noticed it not as it slipped across the room and attached itself to Tee.

Its first touch was so gentle that Tee didn’t even feel it. And when its voracious, lamprey-like mouths fastened onto multiple points along her spine it was too late… it had taken control of her body. As it drained her lifeblood, she twitched violently on the bed.

Ranthir, unfortunately, remained oblivious.

In The Art of Pacing, I talked about bangs, which are the big, explosive moments that launch scenes. Bangs come in a lot of different forms, and they can be prepped and discovered through play in a lot of different ways. One way that I use them is as a timeline of bangs, a list of events in my campaign status document that are going to happen in the PCs’ future. In practice, these bangs aren’t fully formed — “they’re more like bullets waiting to be fired. When the moment arrives, the actual bang will be customized to the circumstances of the PCs.”

The spineseeker which attacks in this session is an example of what these bangs look like in practice. Here’s how it appeared in the campaign status document:

2. TILAXIC ASSASSIN (9/25/790)

• The cultists summon a tilaxic, one of the Elder Brood.
• Tilaxic (Spineseeker, Book of Fiends 2, p. 58)
• Saavia (from NOD1; she has more levels and Pythoness House biocrystal breastplate)

Let’s break this down a bit.

First, this entry is #2 because it appears on a prep sheet titled “Laurea’s Doom.” This sheet contained multiple responses I planned for the cultists to take after they identified Tee as being “Laurea” (who had infiltrated their ranks and attacked the Temple of Deep Chaos, back in sessions 27 and 33, respectively).

I prepped this sheet as I was getting ready for Session 39, and then added the following entries to my master Event List:

9/22/790 (Evening): Chaos cultists identify Tee as being “Laurea.” They attack the Ghostly Minstel. (Laurea’s Doom)

9/25/790: Cultists send Tilaxic Assassin. (Laurea’s Doom)

9/28/790: Arveth uses Dais of Vengeance on Tee. (Laurea’s Doom)

These would have been interspersed with a bunch of other upcoming events.

Note the “(Laurea’s Doom)” reference, which reminds me to reference the prep sheet for these events. Not every event is supported by a full prep sheet, only those that require enough that they would clutter up the Event List. In this case, the prep sheet included a stat block for Saavia.

The spineseeker is taken, as noted, from The Book of Fiends, a monster supplement published by Green Ronin. (I’ve talked previously about looting bestiaries for my campaign prep.) I’m fairly certain that I created the “tilaxic” species name.

The reference to the “Pythoness House biocrystal breastplate” is one of the items taken by Wuntad and the other chaos cultists when they ambushed the PCs in Session 23. A good example of how you can take a bunch of different loose threads and tie them all together to set up a new situation.

USING THE BANG

As I mentioned before, the bang is incomplete. It needs to be plugged into the specific context of the game session to turn it into an actual scene.

What I know is that:

• There is a spineseeker, which is being handled by Saavia.
• At some point on the 25^th of Kadal they’re going to try to assassinate Tee.

And that’s basically it. At the time I slotted this bang in to my campaign status document, these events were still days away. I had no idea where the PCs would be or what they’d be doing on that date.

So when the 25^th rolls around, I’m looking at the list of current bangs on my campaign status document — of which this is only one — and I’m keeping my eyes open for any moment during play in which the bangs could be useful to

• escalate the action;
• fill a dead spot;
• logically happen;
• or basically anything else that makes me say “oh! let’s do it!’

There are limitations to this, of course. For example, the spineseeker won’t show up in the Banewarrens because the chaos cultists don’t know about the Banewarrens. So if the PCs, for example, spent the entire day of the 25^th in the Banewarrens, then this bang probably wouldn’t happen. (Although perhaps I might trigger it offscreen and the PCs might return to the Ghostly Minstrel to discover that there have been some strange deaths on the premises in their absence.)

Other bangs might be more restricted in time or place or circumstance (or they might be less so). Regardless, if the right moment arrives, I’ll use the bang (crossing it off on my campaign status document). And if it doesn’t, then that bang goes back in the bandolier (or simply gets deleted if it’s no longer relevant or useful).

In this case, getting ambushed at the Ghostly Minstrel was probably always the most likely use for the bang. But that can still leave a lot of questions that can only be answered in the moment: Who’s asleep? Who’s awake? Where are they? What time is it? And so forth.

So there’s a bunch of variables that can, literally, be in play here. But, in practice, it’s really pretty simple: You look for the moment where the bang makes sense. You combine what you prepped with the given circumstances of what’s happening in the campaign at that moment. You pull the trigger and frame up the scene.

The bang itself often requires very little prep, because the alchemy of the table will supply you with all the rich context you need to bring it to life.

Campaign Journal: Session 48A – Running the Campaign: Contract Handouts
In the Shadow of the Spire: Index

SESSION 47C: HOME SUITE HOME

December 26th, 2009
The 25th Day of Kadal in the 790th Year of the Seyrunian Dynasty

They started towards the Temple District with the crates, intending to dispose of the chaositech as quickly as possible. But on the way, Ranthir convinced the others to let him take the crates back to the Ghostly Minstrel so that he could study them: He was fascinated by what he had read of the technomantic arts of chaositech in some of the lorebooks they had recovered from the cultists and wanted to apply those skills with actual examples of the same. Moreover, even if the material proved useless to them (due to its taint), knowing exactly what these items were capable of might give them some clue as to how the cultists had intended to use them.

When they returned to the Ghostly Minstrel, they found that their new suite of rooms was almost finished: The window wards hadn’t been raised, the secret door leading from the false front room to their actual quarters wasn’t completed, and the reinforced inner door between their quarters wasn’t installed yet, but the rooms themselves were livable and it was clear the work would be easily finished on the morrow.

Ranthir set up his research area in the outer room of the suite (with Tee sleeping on a nearby bed to help keep a watch on the crates). Agnarr, for similar reasons, took Seeaeti to one of the beds in the next room. The others, however, scattered to their old rooms.

Ranthir used several spells to examine the various items in the crates, trying to intuit their purpose. He succeeded with none of them, although he was able to determine that the filigreed manacles could be activated by stroking the oblong device attached to them and the small silver balls could be twisted around their circumference. He also recognized the cord-and-plug attached to the noduled harness as being similar to the one they had found plugged into Shilukar’s neck, suggesting some sort of physio-mental control.

He also discovered, much to his own disquiet, that the floating brain would follow the person closest to it. (On the other hand, it seemed harmless.)

THE SPINESEEKER

Several hours into Ranthir’s candlelit researches, something sinister slithered under the door. Ranthir, intent on the strange intricacies of technomancy, noticed it not as it slipped across the room and attached itself to Tee.

Its first touch was so gentle that Tee didn’t even feel it. And when its voracious, lamprey-like mouths fastened onto multiple points along her spine it was too late… it had taken control of her body. As it drained her lifeblood, she twitched violently on the bed.

Ranthir, unfortunately, remained oblivious.

Tee, waking to find herself trapped in what felt like an endless life-or-death struggle for the control of her own body, felt the creature take her to the very cusp of death before she finally managed to seize a moment of self-control.

“It’s biting me! On the back of my neck! It’s controlling me and I don’t—“

The creature re-asserted its vice-like grip over her body. Tee’s mouth snapped shut.

Ranthir called out for Agnarr while backing nervously away from Tee, who rose from the bed and headed towards the door. Agnarr snorted himself awake and came into the outer room. “What’s wrong?”

“Tee’s acting strangely.”

By this time Tee had reached the door. As she opened it, Agnarr crossed to her. “Tee? What’s wrong?”

Tee smiled up at him. “Nothing’s wrong.”

But something was definitely wrong… She was being way too nice to Agnarr.

Agnarr shared a moment of befuddlement with Ranthir as Tee turned and walked out the door. Ranthir, at a loss for anything else to do, cast a web into the hall – filling it from side-to-side and stopping her from leaving.

But Tee’s reflexes seemed undimmed by her possession. She lithely avoided the worst of the webs and started making her way determinedly through the rest of them. Halfway through the process, however, she managed to wrench control away from the spineseeking demonic worm on her back a second time: “It’s on my back! It’s taken control of my mind! Help me!”

Agnarr, finally figuring out exactly what was happening (and perhaps truly waking up for the first time), used his flaming greatsword to rapidly burn his way through the web towards her.

As the thing tried to regain its control over Tee, Tee reached up, grabbed ahold of its slippery length, and tore it free. She got her first true look at the gruesome creature: A snake-like body covered with the chitinous hide of a scorpion; hundreds of skittering, insectoid legs; and three lamprey-like mouths.

It slipped through the thick strands of the web easily. Agnarr, coming up alongside Tee, swung at the creature, but his blade scarcely scratched its resilient, segmented carapace and the flame seemed to be sucked away in a snare of energy emanating from its radiating spines.

The spineseeker leapt at Tee’s face and its three dorsal mouths raked huge holes in her chest as it scrabbled across her body. Tee – already badly weakened from its possession – collapsed from the excruciating pain.

As the creature dropped away from Tee’s limp form, it suddenly split into a half dozen duplicates. There was a moment of panic at the thought of so many body-snatchers, but Ranthir recognized the illusion for what it was, shouting out, “Mirror image! They’re not real!”

The shouting and sounds of combat, meanwhile, had awoken Elestra and Tor. (Nasira, on the other hand, was far too comfortable in her bed.) While they began scrambling out of their beds, however, someone else had also been alerted: The door at the end of the hall was thrown open and a large drakken woman stepped through. They recognized her as one of the chaos cultists who had ambushed them at Pythoness House, although now she wore blue-mauve crystalline armor.

“Grab her pouch!” the drakken shouted, drawing her sword and advancing.

Ranthir summoned multiple magical missiles to sweep away the spineseeker’s mirror images, while Agnarr launched an assault to beat it back from Tee’s unconscious form. As Elestra opened her door, the creature made a break for it – having failed to secure Tee’s bag of holding.

(Nasira continued sleeping peacefully in luxurious dreams.)

Tor ripped open his door (which had been held shut by the webs) and started chopping his way through them. He felt particularly vulnerable in his lack of armor, which he hadn’t taken the time to don. And when he engaged the drakken he was particularly frustrated to find that her armor was absorbing the impacts of his blade by crumbling away to dust… and then instantly regrowing to repair the damage.

Tor was still half-entangled in the web, however, so the drakken simply backed away and began peppering him with shots from her bow. Agnarr, similarly caught in Ranthir’s web, was also trying to reach her when Ranthir managed to strike him with the familiar spell of growth. As Agnarr rapidly grew to twice his normal size, he ripped free of the webs. The drakken, suddenly finding herself within Agnarr’s reach, didn’t even have a chance to backpedal (or react in any way) before the barbarian’s sword had torn her in half.

But now a quagmire of sorts erupted in the torn remnants at the heart of Ranthir’s web: The spineseeker was ferocious; its demonic, chitinous hide almost impossible to harm. Even the mighty blows of Tor and Agnarr only seemed to deflect harmlessly away. And to make matters worse, it constantly churned out illusionary duplicates of itself and wrapped all of its forms into confusing displacement effects.

Hoping for additional reinforcements, Elestra sent her homonculus to awaken Nasira. But she was forced to call it back again only moments later when the spineseeker, seizing the opportunity of her weakened defenses, leapt at her in an effort to possess her. Elestra rapidly backpedaled, but still suffered deep wounds up the length of her arms as the creature’s claw-like legs and dorsal mouths ripped away at her flesh.

Nasira, however, had finally been roused. Unfortunately, when she opened the door she couldn’t get through the thick webs. Ranthir was forced to burn them away with a wave of magical fire (which also left scorch marks on the wall of the hall).

While Tor, Agnarr, and Elestra’s homonculus continued pounding away at the spineseeker (Tor having circled to take Elestra’s place in blocking its potential escape through the window), Nasira finally managed to reach the side of Tee (who was rapidly bleeding out). With a burst of holy energy she healed Tee, who went to check on the body of the drakken. She confirmed that it was dead (and unlikely to be sneaking away in the confusion).

In a final, desperate bid for freedom, the spineseeker leapt for the back of Tor’s exposed neck. Although Agnarr’s blade caught it in mid-air (slicing off a section of its tail), the spineseeker latched onto Tor’s neck and took control of the knight’s body. Agnarr suddenly found himself facing the body of his friend. He was unwilling to inflict mortal wounds, but uncertain what other choice he had.

Agnarr was just about to abandon his defensive posture and launch a (regrettably mortal) assault, when Tor managed to free himself from the spineseeker’s control. The spineseeker tried to leap to Agnarr’s body—

And that proved its undoing. The barbarian thrust it away and then beat it repeatedly with his greatsword. Finally caught unprepared and in the open, the spineseeker was segmented into parts as Agnarr forced his blade into the chinks they had opened in its devilishly hard chitin.

MISMATCHED CORPSE LOOTING

Agnarr joked about taking the spineseeker to a taxidermist and then hanging it in their room. (At least, the others hoped he was joking. Particularly since they were going to be sharing rooms now and Nasira was convinced it would give her endless nightmares.)

Tee searched the drakken’s body. Then she searched her room. While all of her equipment was of the highest quality (and some of it of considerable interest, like the crystalline armor) the room had been professionally stripped down and the drakken carried no identification of any kind. (The crystalline armor itself proved to be non-magical, leading Ranthir to conclude that it might be some sort of chaositech. They stuck it in one of the crates from Mahdoth’s.)

Tee suspected – hearing from the others about the drakken’s interest in her bag of holding – that they had been sent by Wuntad to retrieve the golden key from Pythoness House. In the morning, however, they would know more: Elestra would call upon the Spirit of the City and speak with the dead.

Running the Campaign: Inserting Bangs – Campaign Journal: Session 48A
In the Shadow of the Spire: Index

Go to Table of Contents

The Vladaams own a block of apartments in Oldtown on Crossing Street, which are primarily as housing for members of the Vladaam deot. Recently, as detailed in the “Temple of Deep Chaos” adventure in The Night of Dissolution, a chaos cult took control of one of the buildings and used it as a site for testing and developing askara, a potent magical poison which turns its victims into venom-shaped thralls.

A few weeks ago, a party of adventurers cleaned out the chaos cultists and did their best to destroy the cultists’ research. The building was sealed for a time by the city, but then reclaimed by the Vladaams. Members of the Red Company of Magi moved in to figure out what the chaos cultists had been doing, and the project was quickly taken over by Aliaster Vladaam.

During this same time, Navanna Vladaam became aware that the Banewarrens had been breached (as described in Chapter Four of the Banewarrens campaign). She began mounting expeditions into the Banewarrens and began bringing the “banes” she liberated to the Oldtown Apartment so that they, too, could be studied by Aliaster in the labs he’s established here.

DESIGN NOTES & BACKGROUND

This is a tricky location. As presented here, it reflects both the actions the PCs in my group took when raiding the apartment building and how events played out in the Banewarrens (thus determining, for example, which banes Navanna was able to bring back here). I prepped the following timeline for how events played out here:

• 09/22: The “outraged” Vladaams force the city watch to remove their quarantine on their apartment complex.
• 10/06: Navanna brings the body of the pain demon here from the Banewarrens.
• 10/10: The Vladaam Pain Devil Research notes are added to area 6.
• 10/10: Contents of BW05 weapon vaults brought here by Navanna.
• 10/15: Aliaster duplicates the hell scourge & agony’s caress abilities of the pain devil. Four of the Twelve Claws gain hell scourge grafts (including the two guarding the front door).

If you’re running The Vladaam Affair independent of one or both of these other campaigns, you can just assume that an NPC party of adventurers raided the Temple of Deep Chaos and got Navanna involved with the Banewarrens. (Or, alternatively, maybe the Temple of Deep Chaos is still located beneath the apartment building, unknown to the Vladaams and filled with chaos cultists preparing to take back what the Vladaams have taken from them.)

If, on the other hand, your PCs are also playing through one or both of those adventures, you’ll want to modify the adventure key here to reflect how events actually played out (and are playing out) at your table.

Either way, you’ll likely want to review the original key describing this building in Night of Dissolution.

It’s also worth noting that overly curious PCs might be able to track Navanna and/or the banes here back to the Banewarrens. That could present a novel opportunity for the PCs to get involved with the Banewarrens campaign, but if that doesn’t interest you, you might want to provide an alternative source for the magic items Aliaster is studying.

Also of note is that the other apartment buildings in the block are still inhabited by various members of the Vladaam deot (who are largely or entirely unaware of what’s going on next door). If the PCs are tracking a member of the deot or looking for a Vladaam to question, their target could easily be a tenant of this apartment block.

Oldtown
Crossing Street – D4

DENIZENS

During the day there is a 60% chance that Aliaster Vladaam (Ptolus, p. 101) is present conducting research. If he’s present, there’s a 10% chance that another member of the family (Navanna, Gattara, or Godfred) is there – either to check up on him, collaborate with him, or just to see what all the fuss is about.

Aliaster will run at the first sign of trouble (using teleport to get out), but if other family members are present things could get ugly.

Vladaam Researcher: Use acolyte stats, MM p. 342. See Part 13: Red Company of Magi.

Hell-Scourged Claws: The Twelve Claws are Navanna’s werewolf agents (see Ptolus, p. 101 and Part 5: The Vladaam Estate). Aliaster has reverse-engineered a pain devil’s hell-scourge (see Area 6, below) and grafted them onto

• Hell-Scourge. Melee Attack Roll: +6, reach 5 ft. Hit: 15 (2d8+6) slashing damage.
• Flurry of Steel. As a bonus action, a hell-scourged claw can make two attacks with their hell-scourges.
• Agony’s Caress. As a bonus action, a hell-scourged claw can send elemental pain cascading through the scourge. Those struck by a hell-scourge must make a DC 12 Constitution saving throw. On a failure, the target becomes Restrained as their body is wracked with pain beyond imagining.

FIRST FLOOR

All of the cocoons and nests on this level have been removed to the second floor. Crude buttresses have been erected using wall of stone to reinforce the weakened floors of the upper level. The holes punched in the ceiling have also been repaired.

AREA 1 – ENTRANCE

Furnished with simple, badly dilapidated and blood-stained furniture: Tables, chairs, and a pair of divans.

AREA 1A – STONE BUTTRESSES/PATCHED CEILING

A large hole in the ceiling of this room has been patched and a wall of stone has been used to support the floor and walls.

AREA 1B – STONE BUTTRESSING

This room also contains a wall of stone used to reinforce the upper floor.

AREA 2 – FORMER APARTMENT

This room was destroyed by venom-shaped thralls. It has been left in a broken shambles.

AREA 3 – FORMER INJECTION ROOM

A large wooden table stand sin the middle of an otherwise barren room.

AREA 4 – FORMER PRISON

DOOR (Strong Wood): AC 15, 27 hp, DC 20 Dexterity (Thieves’ Tools). Unlocked currently, but could be secured.

Smeared feces on the wall.

AREA 5 – THE HOLE

A hole in the corner of the room has been boarded over.

TRAP IN THE SHAFT: Below the boards is a shaft leading to the sewers. Anyone climbing through the shaft will trigger a flame strike that will fill the shaft and column above and below it, inflicting 4d6 fire damage and 4d6 radiant damage. DC 14 Dexterity saving throw for half damage.

• DC 20 Intelligence (Investigation), DC 24 Dexterity (Thieves’ Tools)

AREA 6 – PAIN DEVIL RESEARCH ROOM

The body of a pain devil is laid out and dissected on a worktable in the center of the room.

PAIN DEVIL (as it would appear in life): Skin of glistening ebony. Eyes a blood-red crimson. Mouth a toothless maw with razored lips. Chains are fused about its wrists, each animate with hatred.

• The body is remarkably well-preserved in death (although now vivisected). Note that the animate chains have been burnt away, leaving only charcoaled stubs on the creature’s wrists.

RESEARCH: Papers arranged on the worktable constitute the Vladaam Pain Devil Research.

GM Background: I added a pain devil to one of the Banewarrens vaults, further modifying it so that its hell-forged scourges were grafted to its wrists. The PCs in my campaign freed it, fought it, and killed it. Navanna Vladaam retrieved the corpse and brought it here. D&D 5^th Edition stat blocks for a pain devil can be found in Chains of Asmodeus, p. 249.

VLADAAM PAIN DEVIL RESEARCH

These research notes describe an autopsy and magical dissection.

GROSS CHARACTERISTICS

• Pitch black skin with scabrous patches of gem-like glistering. The flesh appears resistant to decay, but there is an intermittent degradation of its luster.
• The vitreous humour of the eye appears to be filled with blood, but not of the creature’s own. Origin of the blood is uncertain, but appears to be integral to the function of the eye.
• Body does not possess teeth, but instead several ranks of razor-sharp lips capable of independent motion along a horizontal plane.
• Charcoaled stubs on the creature’s wrists appear to be the remains of biometallic chains or possibly lashes. Beneath the stubs are receptor sites triggered to serve as channels of emotional extremity.
• Nystulean worms react with stress when placed within the creature’s transluminal aura. Despite the body having been deceased for days or possibly weeks, the strength of this lingering aura of pain and hatred is intense. During life it may have actually been capable of inflicting physical duress.

Additional preliminary notes are given, hypothesizing ways in which the biomagical properties of the creature could be reverse engineered and applied.

AREA 6A – WEAPONS RESEARCH

Multiply display cases for weaponry have been installed around the periphery of the chamber.

WEAPONS: These weapons are tainted. They were retrieved from the Banewarrens (Outer Vaults — Area 11). The weapons all have a Forge Mark on them.

• +1 battle axe
• +1 greatsword
• +1 longsword
• +1 mace
• +1 unholy shortsword
• +1 scimitar
• +1 greataxe
• +1 longbow
• dagger of venom
• sword of life stealing

GM Background: Although these weapons are being studied by Aliaster, there’s actually little of interest about them other than historical curiosity.

FORGE MARK: Worked in red gold and ebony, this forge mark indicates that these weapons were wielded by the Legion of Bhor Kei.

AREA 7 – COCOON/NEST RESEARCH

The remains of three venom-shaped thrall cocoons and four nests (most severely burnt) have been gathered in this room. There are also samples from an osyluth cocoon taken from the Banewarrens (Outer Vaults — Area 4).

AREA 8 – SECONDARY ALCHEMY LAB

DOOR (Steel-Cored): AC 19, 40 hp, DC 18 Dexterity (Thieves’ Tools). Can be barred from the outside, but is not generally secured.

A secondary alchemical laboratory has been set up here to study the specific remains of the unusual nest that was in this area (the victim became a protoplasmic goo similar to a gibbering mouther, see Night of Dissolution).

• The researchers have discovered strength-boosting alchemicals in the burnt remains of the nest and are attempting to isolate them.

DRAUGHTS OF MORPHEUS: Letter from Grui to Aliaster attached to a black ebon box lined with purple velvet. Designed to hold eight bulbs of thick, black oil; it currently holds five. (These are draughts of Morpheus.)

GM Background: The researchers here have been using draughts of Morpheus to work even longer hours.

LETTER FROM GRUI TO ALIASTER

Milord Aliaster the Wise—

Please accept these Draughts of Morpheus with the most sincere compliments of your sister. If you should have need of any further aids to your work or workers, do not hesitate in your request.

Grui
Master of the Alchemical Laboratories
upon the Brewer’s Close

AREA 9 – PRIMARY ALCHEMICAL LABORATORY

The primary alchemical laboratory has been erected here. Two sets of cocoons and nests are in various states of deconstruction, with various alchemical solutions being applied in an attempt to restimulate growth.

NOTE ON NECESSARY ALCHEMICAL SUPPLIES

We’ll need a fresh supply of Naiad’s Tears if we’re going to prevent the cross-contamination endemic in this fecund material.

Also—I have an urgent need for Serenity Draught. It seems to be of great use in easing the side effects of the hell-scourge grafts currently suffered by Navanna’s wolves.

Send word to the lab on Guilder Street and lay in a goodly supply of both… and perhaps a word about the efficacy of the Serenity Draught should be sent along to Brewer’s Close.

                                                                                                -Aliaster

VLADAAM ASKARA RESEARCH NOTES

These research notes describe ongoing studies of the “severely charcoaled organic remains” found in the Oldtown apartment complex. The goal of the research is clearly an attempt to reconstruct the “mutagenic and metamorphic compounds used to create the hybridized morphologies.”

In other words, the researcher clearly does not know the term askara and the research is an attempt to reconstruct its properties. To this end, they have dissected and analyzed various tissue samples and are now in the process of applying various alchemical substances in an effort to “reinvigorate growth.”

GM Note: This handout is written for PCs who participated in the vents of Night of Dissolution and are familiar with the term “askara” and, broadly, what the cultists were trying to accomplish. If that’s not the case in your campaign, you’ll want to rewrite the handout appropriately or present the information in a different way.

Go to Part 16: Vladaam Slave Trade