Demons and Devils

My initial reaction upon getting Demons and Devils was lukewarm. I put it aside for a bit because I got busy, and planned to look at it again later.

Well, I finally got to take a second look at Demons and Devils from Necromancer Games, and my opinion is a bit higher now.
There are 3 short adventures. Each is basically like a heavy-duty "Side Trek" adventure from Dungeon, or like those short adventure pamphlets released by AEG.

I don't think this module is exactly disappointing. What it is, is workmanlike. It's supposed to be three short but tough side adventures, unlinked and easily dropped into a campaign when the DM wants the PCs to acquire a powerful magic item, but really wants them to work for that item.

Is the module classic? No. But it is solid. It's for more...hmmm...how to put this...let's say "combat oriented" PC parties. Is it worth it? If you like the mini-adventures of AEG, then yes, it is; you basically get the equivalent of three of those booklets for the equivalent price.

The module arrived unaanounced out of the mail, then I remembered that I pre-ordered it when I bought the "worth it's weight in gold" Rituals and Relics.

In the module you get 3 "climactic" adventurers battling type "x" demons, as S+S continues to build on its "3e rules, 1e feel" theme. But this is not all, for the website has another 20 pages of adventures that lead up to each of the 3 modules in the purchased product.

The modules are definitely hack n' slash focused, but contain some linear twists that add to the fun. These adventurers offer a great end game to other activities, such as searching for a lost artifact, tracing a deceit in a powerful organization that leads to evil, or simply a random adventure of a party stranded between adventures.

Some of the artifacts at the end of the adventures are too powerful and need replacing depending on the flavor of the campaign. Of course, for the final module, that is the point. The DM may want to flush out the minor magic item in the modules.

Rating: The price is right

Beware! This review contains major spoilers.

Demons And Devils is a set of three short high-level dungeons for character levels 9-13. The cost of the module is $8.95.

Production And Presentation: This is a 32-page module. The front cover has a good quality piece of colour artwork, by the same artist as Crucible of Freya. The back cover contains an introduction and overview of the adventures. The first page contains credits, the last two pages OGL bumf and advertising. The inside front cover has two reasonable maps in cross-section and top-down view, relating to the first adventure. The back inside cover contains maps for the other two adventures. The text is clear, black on white background. The several pieces of internal black & white artwork were generally good – a distinct improvement compared to the Crucible of Freya. One or two of them really helped me to envision things more clearly than the text allowed. The text takes up about nine-tenths of each page in a familiar two-column layout – the edge of each page is bordered by a strip of grinning skulls.

The Story: There are actually three adventures in this module. Before launching into them, there is a one page introduction, explaining that the dungeons are designed to be the culmination to an extended quest for an important magical item or artifact. Ideas for adventures whilst the PCs are travelling to these dungeons can be downloaded from www.necromancergames.com, though it requires a password available in this module. The introduction clearly states that these adventures are meant to be deadly – be warned. The first adventure ‘The Sorcerer’s Citadel’ (for PCs of level 9 and over, 11 pages) is a wizard’s tower-dungeon carved out of a mountain using a sphere of annihilation, and built above ground using stone transported to this plane by the lawful neutral wizard’s infernal servants. The sphere still lies within (in a forecage protected by 3 cornugon devils), the wizard long dead, but his servants (including golems, animating statues and an erinyes) still protecting his tower. The whole complex is also defended by a series of really nasty traps and secret doors. The second adventure ‘Ra’s Evil Grin’ (for PCs of level 11 and over, 9 pages) involves recovering a sacred artefact, the Globe of Arden (said to be the eye of a dead god). The globe was stolen by a treacherous priest from his temple and hidden in a complex dedicated to an evil frog-god on an island far away. The players can only enter the dungeon by solving a puzzle. Once inside, the PCs face more puzzles, deadly traps and secret doors. There are two major monsters still lurking within (a mummy priest who is the original traitorous priest and his consort, a Marilith demon). The final adventure ‘The Pit Of Despair’ (for PCs of level 13 and over, 8 pages) involves a quest by a paladin PC for a holy sword hidden in a desert temple. The quest is actually a ploy by the demon-lord Orcus to kill or corrupt paladins. They either die in the dungeon, or they recover the holy sword, which is really an unholy sword, enchanted to mimic a holy one. A paladin of great renown many years ago had a holy sword, which had been passed down from generation to generation. No worthy successor appeared to take the ownership of the sword when the paladin died. The priests of the paladin’s temple were then visited by a demon posing as a celestial, who took the sword to a secret temple in the desert, telling the priests that only a worthy paladin could retrieve the sword. The sword was hidden in the temple, but another sword, an unholy one, is easier to find and presented by the demon posing as a celestial once the PCs get beyond the secret entrance, and the vrocks and dretches that ‘protect’ the inner temple. The adventure ends with some advice on enabling the paladin who takes the unholy sword to atone afterwards.

The High Points: The first two adventures are chock-a-block with creative ideas for traps and puzzles. The backstories are logical, and the villains despicable. The tactics of the monsters are well-explained, and there are plenty of demons and devils as the title suggests, with some nice deceptive introductions to them. The first two adventures are easily incorporated into a larger campaign and aspects of them can be altered. The free downloadable 21-page wilderness encounters that can be used with this module give a lot of added value.

The Low Points: There is a distinct lack of material designed to aid roleplaying NPCs – indeed the adventures seem to specifically avoid dealing with this aspect in many instances, concentrating on combat, traps and puzzles instead. The third adventure is less easily adaptable to one’s own campaign (requiring a paladin and a search for a holy sword) and tends to railroad the PCs a bit. I like the concept of demons deceiving PCs – in fact I would have liked to have seen some complex behind-the-scenes demonic plotting in the module – but the third adventure gives little room for the PCs to manoeuvre.

Conclusion: I give this a Good rating despite some of it’s shortcomings, because on the whole the module presents plenty of interesting ideas for use in a home-grown campaign, the explanations of plot, monsters, tactics, traps and puzzles is excellent, and it is clearly organised and well-presented. The addition of the free wilderness adventures from the website pushes this above the average. If you’re looking for complex demonic plots and in-depth NPC background, give it a miss. But if you’re looking for a solidly written dungeon adventure or new ideas for tricks, traps and puzzles for your own game, look no further.

When you have a demon-slaying Paladin in your group sometimes it is fun to play to his strengths. This series of short adventures proved to be the vehicle for me to push him into a larger campaign role.

While I thought that about one more page of "framing" to allow DMs to link the three adventures together into a framework would have been nice, the adventures stood well enough by themselves. I found the challenges to be more than adequate for a group of predominately hack-and-slash players. Even the combats were tense and challenging.

The individual artifacts are wonderful (I'd forgotten how much fun a Sphere of Annihilation can be). I especially liked the new ones. Well thought out and entertaining for the players to discover before turning them over to the authorities.

THe twist in the third adventure is fiendish (pun intended). If you want a little bit of high-powered excitement for your game any of these adventures will do well, but the combination of all three is a romp your players will enjoy.

Originally appeared on www.AtFantasy.com

Demons and Devils, written by Bill Webb and Clark Peterson, is the latest offering from Necromancer Games. The first in their Lair series of modules, it contains three mini-dungeons that serve as holding places for items of power. Each of the dungeons is intended to be used alone, without any connections required to any other module. The first of the dungeons is reccomended for ninth level charachters, with further dungeons requiring progressively higher levels. It is set in the generic world where all Necromancer Game modules to date have been located, but it is easily transportable to any other world.

Plot Outline
Each of the dungeons within Demons and Devils lacks a true plot, being a dungeon and little more. Each one does contain a fairly interesting premise, however.

The first dungeon, The Tower of Crane the Sorcerer, centers around the tower of a long-dead sorcerer dedicated to law name Crane. Long ago he died fighting a group of chaotic-evil sorcerers known as the Violet Brotherhood resulting in the abandonment of his tower and the sphere of annhilation. Now it lies as a virtual death trap to those who would seek to enter it, with many several devils serving as guardians to the items within.

The second, The Ra's Evil Grin Dungeon, serves as the hiding place for a powerful artifact of good, the Globe of Arden. The Globe once was the eye of Arden until he was killed by Tsathogga, the frog-demon. The Globe was secreted away in one of Arden's temples until a second blow was dealt when the high priest, Asari, fled with the Globe and turned it over to Tsathogga's followers in exchange for power. The Globe was hidden in the depths of a maze and trap filled dungeon guarded by Asari's undead form and a Type V demon(marilith)


The third, and final, dungeon, The Pit of Despair serves as a special trap to lure paladin PCs into death and evil. Rumored to be the home of the holy Sword of Karith, it is, in fact, a trap designed to put in the unholy sword Entranhumani in the hands of a paladin. The Type IV(Nalfeshnee) demon Caanara serves to mastermind this trap, and hs is backed up by 5 Type 1(Vrock) Demons. The true holy sword is also present, and it is within the PC's power to recover it if the PC wishes to be rid of Entranhumani.

Presentation
Demons and Devils, a standard laminated, stapled booklet, is thirty-two pages long. The inside covers are illustrated with maps of the three dungeons contained within the module.The margins are one and a half inches wide and filled with faded skulls.

The cover illustration, by John Masse, depicts a battle between several adventurers and a marilith. The interior artwork, by Brian LeBlanc, is composed of black and white drawings appropriate for the the material discussed in the text.

The maps are informative, including a grid and scale where necessary, and including major furniture and physical features.

Overview

Demons and Devils is divided into an Introduction and three adventure sections each detailing one of the dungeons. The OGL/d20 System License files up the thirty-first page with an ad on the thirty-second.

The Introduction discusses the premise behind the module, the background behind each of the dungeons, as well as the module's statistical conventions. The premises are covered for the most part above. However, there are also notes about it being important that these modules being the culmination of epic quests, that each adventure is very much a team effort, and that using this module as a break from the normal campaign might be a good idea. To help this effort Necromancer has provided pre-generated high-level charachters on their web site at www.necromancergames.com The statistical conventions for the module are standard, with the monster's stat blocks being placed in the text where the monster is encountered rather than at the end.

Each of the adventure sections is divided into an Introduction, a Legend, details of how to get to the dungeon, and a keyed location description. The Introduction explains the premise behind the dungeon, the item within it, and the level requirements for the dungeon. The Legend details the dungeons history and how it came to be. The details of how to get to the dungeon detail what sort of wilderness the dungeon should be found in. In each case a suggested wilderness can be found at www.necromancergames.com. The keyed location descriptions each go into an in-depth detail of the areas found within the dungeon.

Analysis
Demons and Devils does a good job of doing what it set out to do: provide three difficult, high-level, short dungeons in which to locate a powerful magical item or artifact. For the most part each of the dungeons' features are logical within the premise, are very challanging, and use the attendant demons or devils to their maximum capabilities. Each one of them is innovative and has moved largely beyond the layout and statistical flaws found in previous Necromancer modules. The shaded boxed text that once dictated charachter actions and reactions is gone, leaving nothing save for a general description of the area for the GM to use as he wills.

There is, however, one flaw of note within the module. Dendorandra the Type V(marilith) demon possess an intelligent longsword of speed, Xpatias, that is dedicated to slaying amphibians, including hezrou demons. In the encounter text notes that go along with Dendorandra, it notes that she likes to summon hezrou demons because of the ease in controlling them because of their fear of the sword. However, if she did summon them she has a more than 50% chance to be forced into battle, by the sword, with those hezrou that she summons.

Conclusion
Demons and Devils is certainly worthwhile if you need a dungeon to house a magical item of power. Each of the dungeons is interesting and dangerous, fitting homes for such items. The material found on Necromancer Game's website, www.necromancergames.com, only adds to this value. Each should prove to be a memorable experience for any players who undergo the challange of the module, truly having the 1st edition feel that Necromancer Games seeks to aspire to.

Nominated for 2 ENnies!

Need a difficult hiding place for the holy sword of a paladin’s quest? Demons and Devils is for you! It’s the first in a “lair” series, a set of modules containing short adventures useable in one or two game sessions for the Dungeon Master who doesn’t need a full-scale dungeon. We’ve made the dungeons and created their demon guardians. You decide what to hide there.

Demons and Devils Review


Note: This review contains spoilers; if you are a player, do not read further!


Demons and Devils, by Necromancer Games, is a 32-page book. The first page is a title page, and the last two pages hold the OGL and an advertisement; this loss of space is made up for by having the maps printed on the inside covers of the module. Use of space within the book is decent, with an average-sized font and margins. The illustrations within the text are of uniformly good quality.

Demons and Devils is not a single adventure, but a collection of three challenging mini-dungeon complexes designed to be resting places of "quest items"-powerful things like holy swords and artifacts. They are therefore designed to be easily inserted into your campaign, whenever the PCs decide to go off on a side trek for an item they may need in whatever major campaign they are currently on, or even as the thrust of the campaign itself. While the areas leading up to the dungeons in Demons and Devils are not detailed in the product itself, there is an excellent web enhancement from the Necromancer Games website which provides this, and gives a good example of how to handle such a quest.

All three adventures involve, as stated, retrieving a particular powerful magic item, and while items are provided in each scenario, other items of your choice can be easily substituted.

The three dungeons are as follows:

The Sorcerer's Citadel: This area involves a tower and a corresponding dungeon area, within which is contained a powerful magic item, guarded by devils. It is designed for characters of ninth level or higher. This is my favorite of the three scenarios, with a good challenge level throughout, especially at the end.

Ra's Evil Grin: This area starts with a riddle, and ends with a powerful demon. It is designed for characters of eleventh level or higher. It does have a couple minor weaknesses: there is a maze section, which is a dungeon design feature I find to be a needless pain and a chore for both the DM and PCs; also, the final monster's tactics involve possibly using skeletons to herd PCs about, which seems pretty unlikely to occur with parties of the recommended level for the adventure.

The Pit of Despair: This is a small but deadly dungeon with an evil twist, designed to truly rile paladins (but in a good way!). It is designed for characters of at least 13th level. Its only weakness is the likelihood of the characters to see through the initial deceit: the true seeing spell is all but required to find the dungeon's entrance, and the same spell could be used to penetrate the deception. Despite the notation in the text that the true seeing spell should have long worn off by the time the characters encounter it, checking the map shows that unless the PCs dawdle after finding the entrance, this may very well not be the case. However, even if the deception is seen through, the adventure is still quite playable and challenging.

Assessment: If you have PCs around level ten or higher, and they are itching to get their hands on some important magic item, this is an excellent book to buy. Even if you are not running a major campaign, the individual dungeons still make excellent one-shot adventures.

The criteria I use to evaluate a d20 adventure includes the following:

1. Interesting and varied encounters: I look for unique encounters, allowing for a variety of role and roll playing. There should be opportunities for many different classes to excel or use their abilities.
2. Motivations for NPCs and Monsters: or some detail of how they interact with their environment or neighbors.
3. Logical: the adventure should obey a sense of logic that clever players can use to their advantage.
4. Writing Quality: this includes foreshadowing, mystery, and descriptions that bring locations and NPCs to life.
5. Ease of DMing: Clear maps, friendly stat blocks, skill check numbers, player handouts and illustrations, balanced rules, appropriate treasure and EL.

MY OPINIONS AND PREJUDICES:
I also believe that Dungeons and Dragons is not a contest of Players vs the DM, but rather the Players are trying to "conquer" a scenario with the DM acting as supporting cast and providing impartial decisions. I do not like adventures in which the DM is expected to adjust room content, monsters, and treasure on the fly. I do not like adventures in which players are rescued or helped by divine intervention or the intervention of powerful NPCs.


THE BASICS: (not exactly spoilers)
The adventure is 32 pages long + 2 both inside covers used for maps. Cover price of $8.95 American
3 pages of credits/legal/advertising
1 page of introduction
11 pages: Adventure #1
9 pages: Adventure #2
8 pages: Adventure #3

The three adventures are site-based adventure areas. The 3 adventures claim to be designed for high level characters (9+). As other reviews have mentioned, the adventures are VERY difficult, with monsters, traps, and puzzles all appropriate for much higher level characters. My estimate is levels 14+, but I haven't run enough high-level games to be a fair judge of difficulty at this level. The adventure is written for 3.0. Since demons and devils received a big overhaul in version 3.5, you might want to be prepared to use the MM to update the stat blocks. The opponents all have good motivations and combat techniques that should translate easily to 3.5, although this may push the difficulty even higher for the climactic encounters.

The encounter breakdown follows:
Very few role-play encounters... Several opponents talk with PCs, but its usually a prelude to a sneaky assault.
Adventure 1: about 8 combat encounters and 9 trap/trick encounters (Several very devious)
Adventure 2: about 3 combat encounters and 7 trap/trick encounters (several puzzles)
Adventure 3: about 3 combat encounters and 3 trap/trick encounters... though an an adventure seed is planted with additional encounters that plays out as the DM desires.
BONUS: there is a 21 page Supplement of wilderness encounters available at the publisher's website.

The adventures are setting neutral. The adventures have a feel similar to the 1st edition module S1, Tomb of Horrors. Demons and Devils shows a stronger attention to internal logic and devilish mindset than the Tomb of Horrors, however the danger level and concentration of traps and tricks is similar.

THE SPECIFICS: (Some Spoilers Follow)

1. Interesting and varied encounters: (4/5) Every encounter is unique. Almost every trap has a little something extra... most combat encounters happen with an environment, trap, or trick that puts an extra twist on things. My first instinct was to give this a 5/5... and that's what it would be for pure monsters, tricks, and traps. I'd like to see more opportunities for characters to use social skills, negotiation, and conversation. There needs to be a few more role-play encounters for me to give this a 5/5.

2. Motivations for monsters and NPCs: (5/5) The villains were exactly as devious, untrustworthy, and dangerous as you would expect from powerful, intelligent demons and devils. I would even say they were inhumanly devious.

3. Logical: (4/5) There was good attention to the effects that dangerous encounter areas would have on the outside world. The overall plots were very logical. Unfortunately for the players... demons and devils are tricky, methodical, and dangerous. I think that a few puzzles are a little bit out of place, but sometimes this cannot be helped when designing challenges for high level characters.

4. Writing Quality: (5/5) The writing was entertaining and clear. There are excellent bits of advice to DMs, monster motivations, trap descriptions, creative uses of environment and spells, and monster and characterization. An early encounter with an Eyrines stands out, as is an encounter with a celestial and a holy sword.

5. Ease of DMing: (?/5) I believe that any characters at the suggested level will be quickly obliterated by the traps and monsters. The traps are very well described and easy to run. One showpiece puzzle in adventure 2 might be too difficult, especially for younger players. One major trick in adventure 3 could be a campaign-ending disaster, depending on how it is role-played. Not that this is bad... adventures for high-level characters aught to have high-level stakes. If your players want a simple monster-smash/booty-grab, they are in for a serious shock. I think that a DM would need to look at monster stats, possibly revised for version 3.5, and then look carefully at the PCs to make sure the levels are appropriate.


FINAL WORD:
This series of adventures is almost a must-have for a high level campaign. Even if you don't run a high-level campaign, there are brilliant trap and trick ideas that can be mined for your own home-brew adventure. I've looked at some encounters upgraded for 3.5, and this is my assessment of the difficulty:
Adventure 1 is appropriate for level 12 characters, but an (updated for 3.5) EL 19 climactic encounter may need to be scaled back.
Adventure 2 is appropriate for level 14 characters.
Adventure 3 is appropriate for level 14 characters (An encounter that would previously be EL 18+ actually becomes EL 14 since vrocks have been scaled back from CR 13 to CR 9)

The free supplement is a must have and makes this adventure well worth the price (assuming you can still find it in any store).

Errata is also available online, though the errata was written for version 3.0.