Dire Spirits

[Messageboard Golem]

The fearsome bounty hunter KanUk -- a kosan orc from the Mythical Ages of Nyambe-tanda -- was long ago bound into the body of an undead dire lion. His savagery knew no bounds among the helpless slaves of his land until he was defeated in the Great Rebellion, and his spirit was shunted into his own still-beating undead heart. This heart has rested undisturbed in a foul shrine for thousands of years, protected by the magical wards erected by the kosans before they fled. But not even kosan magic is eternal, and just over a month ago, the wards collapsed, exposing the shrine to the outside world.

When this malignant heart begins to assemble animal slaves intent on locating a new body for their evil master, a group of brave warriors must find and destroy it before it orchestrates KanUk"s rebirth, and all of Nyambe-tanda falls beneath his claws!

Dire Spirits is a D20 System adventure for 1st-level characters. It provides an introduction to the Nyambe: African Adventures campaign setting, though it can also be used as a stand-alone scenario. It is recommended, but not necessary, that players own the Nyambe hardcover sourcebook (stock number AG3700).

This 48-page module includes:
* A map and description of the village of Mounchili, a typical community in the Empire of Mabwe, that can become the PCs base in a larger campaign.
* Rules for generating the family compounds typical of Nyamban villages.
* Maps and descriptions of the ancient temple that contains KanUk

 

[Simon Collins]

Beware! This review contains major spoilers.
This is not a playtest review.

Dire Spirits is an adventure designed for 1st-level characters and is suitable for use with Atlas Games' African-style Nyambe campaign setting. Four pre-generated characters are provided at the end of the book.

Dire Spirits is a 48-page mono softcover product costing $12.95. Font size is fairly large, particularly the chapter headings, which take up about half a page. There are a few chunks of white space and a full-page ad too. Whilst this layout makes things easy on the eye, there's a fair amount of 'wasted' space in the book. Each page is given a background 'watermark' effect of an African circular design but this does not interfere with the clarity of the text. The art, though a bit sparse, is good quality. Maps are average, with scale but no compass direction. The writing style is clear and concise. Editing is good.

Chapter One: Introduction
The adventure begins with some decent flavour text regarding a battle with a dire lion overlooked by some sentient monkeys. This ties well in to the the adventure. The background of the adventure involves KanUk, an evil orcish bounty hunter whose spirit was transposed into the body of a dire lion, and eventually transformed into a lich variant. The lich ruled over the orc nation and subjugated many races until he was eventually overthrown in a great rebellion thousands of years ago. His orc followers took the undead heart of the lich (which still housed KanUk's spirit) and built a temple around it to protect the heart until they were able to find a suitable living vessel in which to install the heart. However, the orcs were exterminated as the rebellion raged on and the temple protecting KanUk's heart remained hidden down the centuries. Eventually the wards protecting the temple failed and the Undead heart began to enslave the local animal life to find a suitable vessel for KanUk's reincarnation. The main animals under the heart's control are monkeys who the heart has brought to evil sentience, and he has sent them in search of a dire lion to be its vessel.The PCs are contacted by a lion spirit asking them to find and destroy the evil that infects the nearby rainforest - they must go in search of the temple and destroy KanUk's heart forever.

Chapter Two: Mounchili Village
This chapter details the community of Mounchili on the edge of the rainforest, which is actually split into several smaller units termed family compounds. These are in turn occupied by various clans including the more civilised Tembu, the pygmy Nghoi, the elven Wakyambi, and the halfling Agogwe. Various services and places of worship can be found in the different family compounds, but there is little direct information apart from level/class/race on the NPCs.

Chapter Three: Evil Awakened
The village hunters have recently captured a blue-furred dire lion and are holding a festive ritual in honour of this unusual capture before sending the lion on to the Emperor as a gift. This chapter involves the release of the lion by awakened monkeys under the influence of KanUk's undead heart. A lion spirit (orisha) appears to the PCs and sets their quest. Some rumours to build to the scene and possible consequences of refusing the spirit's request are discussed.

Chapter Four: The Rainforest Beckons
The PCs must enter the rainforest in search of the forgotten temple. Various possible random encounters are given and a d20 rules recap is given for moving through jungle terrain and the effects of heat exhaustion. The PCs can face various encounters with evil awakened animals providing clues or resistance in their search for the temple.

Chapter Five: Dark Heart
This chapter visits the temple where KanUk's heart is located. It begins with a brief description of the interior facets of the temple and some possible random encounters. The temple offers combat, traps, and opportunities for skill use and climaxes with the discovery of the heart and its guardians.

Chapter Six: Concluding The Adventure
This briefly deals with the two possibilities at the end of the adventure - the party succeeds in destroying the heart, or not. The latter may be quite an interesting option for a long-term villain in a Nyambe campaign and the book details the possibilities if the heart finds a dire lion vessel. It also includes the template 'Pseudo-Lich', a lich variant where the being's spirit resides in its heart rather than in a phylactery.

The book also gives some guidelines for experience awards and lists the EL's for the various encounters. It also has four pregenerated characters - a Tembu human, a Nghoi human, a Wakyambi elf, and an Agogwe halfling - all 1st-level PCs that can be used 'as is' with this adventure.

Conclusion:
This is an interesting adventure, full of the flavour of the setting and a good introduction to a Nyambe campaign. There is a reasonable mix of encounter types, though weighted towards traps and combat rather than roleplaying. The help given to a first time GM and players is also quite good with key rules explained clearly where appropriate and pre-generated characters provided (though there are a few errors in the stats, such as giving the rogue a halfspear that she is not proficient in). It may be disappointing to some to discover that the meat of the adventure takes place within only about 20 pages of the 48 available, with the background, set-up, and NPC/PC stats taking up the remainder. However, there is a lot of meat in those pages with plenty of encounters to while away a session or two alone. The ELs (ranging from 1/2 to 5) seem well-suited to challenge the PCs and the experience should see them well into 2nd level. All in all, a good introductory adventure for the world of Nyambe, which could even with some effort be re-worked into a standard fantasy campaign in a jungle setting.

 

[Mr. Patient]

Dire Spirits is an introductory adventure in the African-themed Nyambe campaign setting, by Atlas Games. It is a 48-page stapled softcover booklet priced at $12.95. It utilizes 3.0 rules and conventions. Note: this is a playtest review. Spoilers follow.

The adventure is set in the village of Mounchili, in the bIda Rainforest. The villagers have poisoned and captured a dire lion, but in the middle of a celebratory festival, the lion is set free by awakened monkeys who appear to serve some dark master. After the party has defeated the lion, the lion spirit (orisha, in Nyamban terms) warns the party that there is a great evil in the rainforest which is awakening animals for some malevolent purpose. The adventure takes the party to various locations in the rainforest, and eventually to a crumbling shrine once used by the apparently extinct kosan orcs.

There are four sample characters provided in the back, and two more are available as a web enhancement. The link from Atlas' website is broken. Try this instead.

Along the way, several new monsters are introduced, including the pseudo-lich template, the howling fern, and the rainforest zombie, along with a few new magic items.

***

Overall, this is a solid introductory adventure that really gives players a good feel for the Nyambe setting. The primary villain is quite unique and innovative, and makes an excellent challenge for the party. The encounters are mostly appropriate, and feature a good mix of roleplaying and combat opportunities (but see below). They may be a bit heavy on the awakened animals, but this is really the focus of the adventure, so it is understandable. The artwork, especially the cover by Steven Sanders, is striking and evocative, and the design is attractive throughout. The writing and editing are excellent. The new crunchy bits (monsters and magic items) are well-designed and usable in any setting.

Even if you don't intend to run it as an adventure, Dire Spirits is an excellent DM's aid for Nyambe campaigns. It's a very useful tutorial on the layout of a typical Nyamban village, the composition and layout of Nyamban households, the inhabitants' relationship with the orisha, and many other areas which are touched on but not discussed extensively in Nyambe: African Adventures.

On the downside, I found that I really had to try to spice up the random encounters in the bIda rainforest; a couple of the ones provided were pretty similar to one another, and perhaps a little dull. In addition, a couple of the encounters seemed extremely nasty for a 1st or 2nd level party. In particular, there is an encounter near the end with a reliquary guardian, a Nyamban construct with DR 10/+1 and SR 13, that I think would be almost impossible for most party members to survive. Clever PCs will figure out that they can't defeat it, but by the time they realize that, half of them may be dead. In the game I ran, the reliquary guardian essentially ended the adventure. I'd recommend toning him down, or making him easier to avoid.

 

[Merova]

"Even if you don't intend to run it as an adventure, Dire Spirits is an excellent DM's aid for Nyambe campaigns."

I agree. This module works very well as a GM aide. However, the adventure itself has definite problems, which you addressed in the review. These problems made the product less enjoyable in actual play.

Nevertheless, this is a useful and concise review, as are all of your reviews. Keep up the good work and thanks for writing!

---Olivia