I have Demon Queen's Enclave (P2) and Manual of the Planes

[Jack99]

Hmm...I knew the name sounded familiar, and I found a reference to a "Vocar the Obedient" in Domains of Dread, p. 115, as a 16th-level priest and the secret leader of Vecna's cult in Kas's domain of Tovag. Any connection?

Yep. That's the guy. Later he is promoted to Exarch, but has since lost that status. However, being an ex-exarch (can't believe I just wrote that) of the god of secret, makes him very interesting to quite a few people.

Speaking of the Abyss, is there any mention of Red Shroud and/or Broken Reach?

Didn't catch any.

 

[jensun]

Pretty much the same as it was previously detailed in RttToH and Dragon, except for saying they turned to Pelor. That's a bit odd. And they stuck it in the Shadowfell, whereas previously it was a demiplane on the edge of (and slowly being subsumed into?) the Negative Energy Plane.

While it has been a long time since I read RttToH wasnt Moil cursed by Orcus because they started worshipping a sun god?

 

[Jack99]

My question is how does the book treat fey desmenes and the domains of dread?

Fey demenes are areas (some small, some large) that attune themselves to the most powerful creature living in that area. Likewise with domains, except they have the twist that you cannot just exit them, without slaying the dark lord (or breaking his curse etc)who has a lot of control over them, as opposed to fey demenes, who “act” independently. Cool stuff IMO.

There are nine pages on the Nine Hells. Can you give us an overview?

The Nine Hells is a dominion floating in the Astral Sea. It’s also a planet, so when you breach the veil from the Astral Sea, you plummet to the surface, unless you enter at the correct spot. Then it describes the Nine Hells and their Lords. Pretty standard stuff, following the prior editions as far as I can tell.

Likewise, I would like a summary of the City of Brass, the Abyss, and the Astral plane stuff.

City of Brass was pretty much covered in the excerpt.

The Abyss is made of layers, floating pieces of terrain caught in a downward spiral. The Abyss is full of demons (surprise!) and powerful demons can get take control of a layer (or parts thereof) and bend it to its will.
We get a paragraph about The Plain of a Thousand Portals (top layer), the Abysm (Demogorgon’s layer), Azzagrat (Graz’zt’s 3 layers), The Demonweb (Lolth’s layer), Thanatos (Orcus’ layer), Twelvetrees (a place where some angels got tricked) and the Endless Maze (Baphomet’s layer)

The Astral Sea is a space-sea that binds the dominions together. I am not quite sure what you want to know, any chance you could be more specific? I believe the preview had a list of the dominions, so that would be a waste to type them all out again. It has been one of the battlegrounds of the bloodwar, and githyanki are one of the races living here.

Is Gloomwrought actually gloomy?

Despite its name, Gloomwrought is described as one of the brightest spots in the Shadowfell.

 

[Jack99]

Demon Web: Does the adventure feel particularly Paragon-y? Is there RP potential, or is it dungeoncrawl-tastic? How does it hold up vs. the others? Is it as good as Trollhaunt?

Having read it cover to cover, I must say that it rocks. As I say in my blog's mini-reviews, it's by far the best adventure ever produced by WotC. Included blog for people who do not like to click on links in sig.

[sblock=short review of DQE (spoilers)]
The heroes find themselves (depending on which hook you use) heading to a drow settlement in the Underdark in order to stop a greater evil brewing. An rebellious drow has been lured to the dark side (as if Lolth doesn’t qualify as the dark side already) by Orcus. The drow, now a vampire, has taken over a domain in the Shadowfell which used to be ruled by an exarch of Orcus. From there, it has launched an attack on the drow settlement, breaching it defences.

So when the players arrive, they find a town-battlefield, infested by undead and demons. And drows, of course. The goal might be to stop the nefarious plans of the Orcus worshipping vampire-drow, but how do you do that. Do you ally with the lone drow necromancer, with the failed drow commander that thinks of himself as dead man walking, or do you see out the matron mother in the temple of Lolth, and strike a deal with the most unholy of all. Or maybe you just plow through everything. That would of course be a pity. Once an alliance has formed, how do you proceed to enter the realm of Orcus? There is also a personification of the plane that has its own agenda, and an artefact that doesn’t quite want what everyone assumes it wants.
The adventure is choking full of interesting encounters, awesome settings, meaningful choices, cool application of skill challenges and interesting NPC’s.

DQE (P2) is by miles the best adventure WotC has ever produced. In fact, I will go so far as to say that it is probably one of the best adventures made for D&D in many years. Buy now!
Rating:******
[/sblock]

It definitely feels paragon-ly - much more than Trollhaunt.

[sblock]Seriously, if you run this well, your players will never trust any NPC in your campaigns again. (if they still do )[/sblock]

 

[Shroomy]

Fey demenes are areas (some small, some large) that attune themselves to the most powerful creature living in that area. Likewise with domains, except they have the twist that you cannot just exit them, without slaying the dark lord (or breaking his curse etc)who has a lot of control over them, as opposed to fey demenes, who “act” independently. Cool stuff IMO.

Does the book given some example desmenes and domains? If so, could you provide a brief description?

 

[Shroomy]

Having read it cover to cover, I must say that it rocks. As I say in my blog's mini-reviews, it's by far the best adventure ever produced by WotC. Included blog for people who do not like to click on links in sig.

[sblock=short review of DQE (spoilers)]
The heroes find themselves (depending on which hook you use) heading to a drow settlement in the Underdark in order to stop a greater evil brewing. An rebellious drow has been lured to the dark side (as if Lolth doesn’t qualify as the dark side already) by Orcus. The drow, now a vampire, has taken over a domain in the Shadowfell which used to be ruled by an exarch of Orcus. From there, it has launched an attack on the drow settlement, breaching it defences.

So when the players arrive, they find a town-battlefield, infested by undead and demons. And drows, of course. The goal might be to stop the nefarious plans of the Orcus worshipping vampire-drow, but how do you do that. Do you ally with the lone drow necromancer, with the failed drow commander that thinks of himself as dead man walking, or do you see out the matron mother in the temple of Lolth, and strike a deal with the most unholy of all. Or maybe you just plow through everything. That would of course be a pity. Once an alliance has formed, how do you proceed to enter the realm of Orcus? There is also a personification of the plane that has its own agenda, and an artefact that doesn’t quite want what everyone assumes it wants.
The adventure is choking full of interesting encounters, awesome settings, meaningful choices, cool application of skill challenges and interesting NPC’s.

DQE (P2) is by miles the best adventure WotC has ever produced. In fact, I will go so far as to say that it is probably one of the best adventures made for D&D in many years. Buy now!
Rating:******
[/sblock]

It definitely feels paragon-ly - much more than Trollhaunt.

[sblock]Seriously, if you run this well, your players will never trust any NPC in your campaigns again. (if they still do )[/sblock]

Wow, I'm so stoked for this adventure, and I loved H2, H3, and P1!

 

[Rechan]

P1 was the first 4e module I wanted to run wholesale (rather than farm for encounters/monsters/maps) so wow, that's a good vote of confidence!

Although, I think an Orcus/Lolth schism plot would be more intriguing than that. An issue of "Pick the lesser evil" like in Return to Castle Ravenloft.

 

[Jack99]

Does the book given some example desmenes and domains? If so, could you provide a brief description?

Not really. They mention that desmenes usually happen where ley lines cross. They mention it could be as small as hut or a tower, or it could be the area around the eladrin king's castle, causing storm clouds to appear when he is in a foul mood.

No real examples of Domains, but there is one described in Dragon, but I suspect that you are very well aware of that

Although, I think an Orcus/Lolth schism plot would be more intriguing than that. An issue of "Pick the lesser evil" like in Return to Castle Ravenloft.

I agree. It's just pretty much a given, which is the lesser evil in this case.

 

[TarionzCousin]

City of Brass was pretty much covered in the excerpt.

What excerpt?

Thanks for the great info, Jack99. I appreciate it.

Edit: I found the excerpt here.

 

[Derulbaskul]

(snip) Enter the drow city that is under assault of an army of undead coming from a realm in the shadowfell, then enter said realm to stop the soon to be newest exarch of Orcus, while risking to actually make him exarch? (snip)

(snip)Although, I think an Orcus/Lolth schism plot would be more intriguing than that. (snip)

It really does read a bit too much like 3E's City of the Spider Queen. Perhaps a little more creative effort should have been expended to get past a conflict between the spider drow and the undead drow? I just hope it reads and plays better that CotSQ.