lucklesshero
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View attachment 66228Fiend's Embrace
A Dungeon's and Dragon's adventure from Dungeon Magazine#121 pg. 16
Author: Stephen S. Greer
Art: Attila Adorjany
Cartography: Ted Reed
Type: Overland journey (Cold Swamp) and Dungeon Crawl (abandoned keep)
Level: 4th
Setting: Greyhawk
Warning spoilers!
Overview
Fiend's Embrace was run by myself in autum of 2013 as a part of my Broken Banners http://bannermen-101.obsidianportal.com/ campaign . Five player characters of 4th level started the adventure.
There was one character fatality during the adventure . My initial impression of the adventure was: it would be a cool (no pun intended
) fetch quest type adventure. I also had an NPC who had a backstory that connected to the area. My thoughts on the overall adventure design are mixed. The adventure's MacGuffin has an excellent backstory.
Plot
The adventure centers around the retrieval of a semi-intelligent magic item known as Fiend's Embrace . It is the skin of a Pit Fiend made into a cloak by the Demon Prince Graz' zt and gifted to Iggwilv (see told you the MacGuffin was cool!) The party starts in the only known permanent settlement of the Wolf Nomad people, Eru Tovar.A couple reasonable plot hooks are presented and the adventure is written with the idea that the party will be hired by a third party to retrieve the MacGuffin. The default hook is a wizard named Arakk. He will give the party members a map made by another deceased wizard named Zarlag. The PCs will then proceed through the Cold Marshes toward an abandoned keep. They will have a few keyed encounters along their way to the keep ( an insane Barbarian obsessed with a cursed sword is a particular highlight). There will also be an abundance of random encounters and weather related challenges.
Part two is a short Dungeon Crawl through the abandoned Cold Stone Keep. The focus again is on environmental hazards in conjunction with creatures. The adventurers will have to overcome a rival adventuring party, the resident trolls, and a couple other monsters. The real challenge will be the freezing water of the half submerged keep. Assuming the party overcomes these challenges they will retrieve Fiend's Embrace and will have to make their way out of the Cold Marshes.
Roll Play vs combat ratio
Fiend's Embraceis an encounter based adventure. Monsters and environmental hazards are the primary focus with roll-playing taking a back seat. Breakdown is about: 20% roll-playing opportunities and 80% combat or other dangerous hazards.
Possible problems
Fiend's Embrace is not an overly difficult adventure as written. However, there are some very challenging encounters. The random encounter table doesn't include any creature over a CR6; However, the frequency of random encounters, as written; could prove problematic. The adventure suggest an 8% chance of a random encounters per hour while traveling. It also suggest encounter checks for every four hours the party rest. It will take the average party 8-9 days to reach the keep from Eru Tovar. The average adventuring party will face somewhere in the neighborhood 10-12 random encounters before reaching the keep! This does not take into account the keyed encounters that the party will experience along the way.
Some of the keyed encounters that could cause problems include:
1. Zarlag's hut (the close quarters the party is likely to encounter Kurdin the Barbarian make this a dangerous encounter)
2. Area 21 the Vault; encountered all at once the Fingers of Iuz mercenary party is an EL8 (my group of PCs had little problem however, as a couple of them had made level 5 and they had one more member than, the traditional party of 4)
3. Area 24 The Skrag Dam could potentially be a TPK if the party doesn't manage to overcome the make-shift trap and/or gets un-lucky with a few swim checks.
Play Time
It took our group eight 3-4 hour sessions to finish Fiend's Embrace. However, we spent almost two full sessions of preparing to leave for the Wolf Nomad lands and some roll-play encounters inside the city of Eru Tovar. We also had a character death during play and the introduction of a new player character in this adventure. I believe a reasonably experienced group could finish this adventure in as little as 10-12 hours play time if the Dungeon Master limits the random encounters.
What the players thought
Pat: Human Ranger/Scout: Was pleased that he got to use his survival skill frequently (particularly enjoyed predicting the weather in advance with it having mechanical significance rather than just flavor). He also was a big fan of the MacGuffin and thought the quest cool even though none of the monsters were particularly memorable.
Josh: 1/2 elf Bard and also Gnome Wizard (after the Bard's death): This player was frustrated with the amount of time spent traveling through the swamp and lack of roll-playing opportunities. His preference for arcane spell casters didn't especially highlight any of their abilities in this adventure.
Summary:
Fiend's Embrace is an a good Overland exploration and "Fetch Quest" type adventure. Although, few of the encounters are particularly memorable; the adventure's MacGuffin is extremely special. In fact Fiend's Embrace may inspire follow-up adventure hooks. Yes, one of my players didn't enjoy the setting as much as the others. Yet, all of them liked the idea of the unique location when first presented. Parts of the adventure do tend to drag. The Dungeon Master must remain vigilant in, limiting the number of random encounters and perhaps "hand-waving" a day or two of Overland travel.
The challenge ratings of the both the random and prepared encounters is appropriate. However, the author may have failed to play test the random encounter chart correctly. If these problems can be overcome/overlooked, the Wow factor of the MacGuffin may make several play sessions of slugging through swamps worth it for your players .
I give Fiend's Embrace, 3 out of 5 smiley faces
I have been a Dungeon Master since 1st Edition and have run 3 different 3.5 campaigns since 2008. I am by no means an expert therefore all polite constructive criticism of this review or my understanding of the rules is appreciated (truly.) This is my first review of a product on EN-World forums. If you like the review please leave a comment as it will most likely encourage me to do another.
Thank you for reading...
Lucklesshero
A Dungeon's and Dragon's adventure from Dungeon Magazine#121 pg. 16
Author: Stephen S. Greer
Art: Attila Adorjany
Cartography: Ted Reed
Type: Overland journey (Cold Swamp) and Dungeon Crawl (abandoned keep)
Level: 4th
Setting: Greyhawk
Warning spoilers!
Overview
Fiend's Embrace was run by myself in autum of 2013 as a part of my Broken Banners http://bannermen-101.obsidianportal.com/ campaign . Five player characters of 4th level started the adventure.
There was one character fatality during the adventure . My initial impression of the adventure was: it would be a cool (no pun intended
) fetch quest type adventure. I also had an NPC who had a backstory that connected to the area. My thoughts on the overall adventure design are mixed. The adventure's MacGuffin has an excellent backstory. Plot
The adventure centers around the retrieval of a semi-intelligent magic item known as Fiend's Embrace . It is the skin of a Pit Fiend made into a cloak by the Demon Prince Graz' zt and gifted to Iggwilv (see told you the MacGuffin was cool!) The party starts in the only known permanent settlement of the Wolf Nomad people, Eru Tovar.A couple reasonable plot hooks are presented and the adventure is written with the idea that the party will be hired by a third party to retrieve the MacGuffin. The default hook is a wizard named Arakk. He will give the party members a map made by another deceased wizard named Zarlag. The PCs will then proceed through the Cold Marshes toward an abandoned keep. They will have a few keyed encounters along their way to the keep ( an insane Barbarian obsessed with a cursed sword is a particular highlight). There will also be an abundance of random encounters and weather related challenges.
Part two is a short Dungeon Crawl through the abandoned Cold Stone Keep. The focus again is on environmental hazards in conjunction with creatures. The adventurers will have to overcome a rival adventuring party, the resident trolls, and a couple other monsters. The real challenge will be the freezing water of the half submerged keep. Assuming the party overcomes these challenges they will retrieve Fiend's Embrace and will have to make their way out of the Cold Marshes.
Roll Play vs combat ratio
Fiend's Embraceis an encounter based adventure. Monsters and environmental hazards are the primary focus with roll-playing taking a back seat. Breakdown is about: 20% roll-playing opportunities and 80% combat or other dangerous hazards.
Possible problems
Fiend's Embrace is not an overly difficult adventure as written. However, there are some very challenging encounters. The random encounter table doesn't include any creature over a CR6; However, the frequency of random encounters, as written; could prove problematic. The adventure suggest an 8% chance of a random encounters per hour while traveling. It also suggest encounter checks for every four hours the party rest. It will take the average party 8-9 days to reach the keep from Eru Tovar. The average adventuring party will face somewhere in the neighborhood 10-12 random encounters before reaching the keep! This does not take into account the keyed encounters that the party will experience along the way.
Some of the keyed encounters that could cause problems include:
1. Zarlag's hut (the close quarters the party is likely to encounter Kurdin the Barbarian make this a dangerous encounter)
2. Area 21 the Vault; encountered all at once the Fingers of Iuz mercenary party is an EL8 (my group of PCs had little problem however, as a couple of them had made level 5 and they had one more member than, the traditional party of 4)
3. Area 24 The Skrag Dam could potentially be a TPK if the party doesn't manage to overcome the make-shift trap and/or gets un-lucky with a few swim checks.
Play Time
It took our group eight 3-4 hour sessions to finish Fiend's Embrace. However, we spent almost two full sessions of preparing to leave for the Wolf Nomad lands and some roll-play encounters inside the city of Eru Tovar. We also had a character death during play and the introduction of a new player character in this adventure. I believe a reasonably experienced group could finish this adventure in as little as 10-12 hours play time if the Dungeon Master limits the random encounters.
What the players thought
Pat: Human Ranger/Scout: Was pleased that he got to use his survival skill frequently (particularly enjoyed predicting the weather in advance with it having mechanical significance rather than just flavor). He also was a big fan of the MacGuffin and thought the quest cool even though none of the monsters were particularly memorable.
Josh: 1/2 elf Bard and also Gnome Wizard (after the Bard's death): This player was frustrated with the amount of time spent traveling through the swamp and lack of roll-playing opportunities. His preference for arcane spell casters didn't especially highlight any of their abilities in this adventure.
Summary:
Fiend's Embrace is an a good Overland exploration and "Fetch Quest" type adventure. Although, few of the encounters are particularly memorable; the adventure's MacGuffin is extremely special. In fact Fiend's Embrace may inspire follow-up adventure hooks. Yes, one of my players didn't enjoy the setting as much as the others. Yet, all of them liked the idea of the unique location when first presented. Parts of the adventure do tend to drag. The Dungeon Master must remain vigilant in, limiting the number of random encounters and perhaps "hand-waving" a day or two of Overland travel.
The challenge ratings of the both the random and prepared encounters is appropriate. However, the author may have failed to play test the random encounter chart correctly. If these problems can be overcome/overlooked, the Wow factor of the MacGuffin may make several play sessions of slugging through swamps worth it for your players .
I give Fiend's Embrace, 3 out of 5 smiley faces
I have been a Dungeon Master since 1st Edition and have run 3 different 3.5 campaigns since 2008. I am by no means an expert therefore all polite constructive criticism of this review or my understanding of the rules is appreciated (truly.) This is my first review of a product on EN-World forums. If you like the review please leave a comment as it will most likely encourage me to do another.
Thank you for reading...
Lucklesshero
