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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 9089783" data-attributes="member: 6750502"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/EewjyIo.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />The penultimate chapter of Azrael’s Guide to the Apocalypse throws in a fresh mix on things, where instead of a big singular boss taking up the majority of the chapter it’s a prolonged siege involving multiple encounters, a pseudo-dungeon crawl, and then a proper boss fight.In order to take back Jerusalem, the forces of Heaven have a multi-step plan: go into Nazareth and defeat the demonic army assembled there, then march through the Valley of Megiddo. There, they will claim the fortress of Tel Megiddo, which the forces of the Beast have claimed as a strategic base. Once that’s done and a reliable supply line is established, the celestials will move on to Jerusalem.The first combat in Nazareth involves General Sabnock, a pit fiend commanding a two-thousand strong army of the dregs of Hell. The demons are individually weak, using Cultist stat blocks and can be easily dealt with via area of effect spells. Fighting them isn’t really so much of a combat as it is to let the PCs feel awesome and powerful, and General Sabnock is just as prone to flee when his forces are depleted.Once Nazareth is claimed, the Battle of Armageddon begins in full. The sourcebook suggests using one’s favorite mass combat rules for more involved wargaming, but in the book itself we have some barebones suggestions: there are CR 9 stat blocks for Heavenly Legions and Infernal Legions representing masses of weak celestials and fiends, whose total number is dependant on how many hearts and minds were swayed by the Two Witnesses in their battle with the Antichrist back in Chapter 4. Legions are treated as individual monsters, and are rather simple swarms who can make 6 melee attacks and an AoE Whelm that grapples and restrains affected targets. Remaining Elders can be placed in control of Heavenly Legions, adding some of their special abilities to the stat block of that particular Legion.The battles involving the Legions occur separately from the PCs. The party instead will have their own problems to deal with on the Front Lines, where they will fight a number of waves equal to the number of PCs there are. The waves are randomly determined, and the specific enemies they fight are based on small Flashback scenes related to a character’s Eternal Trait and appropriate emotion. For instance, a Flashback where feelings of anger and/or chaos were prominent will have the party fight Bloodfiends of every type, while a flashback involving Mounsing or Loss will pit them against 5 Plague Bringers. The scenes are pretty bare-bones, with the GM making things up in congruence with the backstories of said PCs and the actions they took during the course of the campaign.Sadly, the resolution of the Heavenly and Infernal Legions doesn’t have any long-term changes for the remainder of the chapter. The angelic attempt at taking Tel Megiddo is a disastrous failure no matter what, as the front lines of the celestial are wiped out in a flash due to the Orb of Xenocide, an artifact specifically tailored to kill their creature type. However, the PCs aren’t celestials, being mortal spirits, so they won’t be affected. Thus the party has to infiltrate Tel Megiddo and deactivate/destroy the artifact and signal to the army it’s safe to besiege.Tel Megiddo is a 20 room dungeon crawl populated by a mixture of Marked Taskforce members, actual fiends, and in one case a lich. Any Elders who were part of a defeated Legion can be found in the Prison, and the Armory can give another Weapon Specialty to a PC with at least 15 levels in Commando. The administrative building holds various collections of intelligence gathered by Hell’s forces, and the PCs can learn some pertinent info about the rest of the fortress’ defenses via an Investigation check. As for the lich, his name is Gamigin and he allied with the demons in hopes of finding a way to bind or imprison the Horseman of Death. He also knows how to deactivate or change the Orb of Xenocide.The Orb itself is kept in a tower, and was a careless experiment by the Watchers in the past who never intended to see the thing used. It was later claimed by demons who put it to evil use. The Orb of Xenocide is a legendary item which will automatically emit a 1,000 foot radius blast of magical energy that deals 10d10 force damage whenever a creature of a particular type comes within 120 feet of it. It can only do this for 1 hour at a time, and a DC 25 Arcana check (or receiving instructions from someone who operated it before) by someone proficient with Tinker’s Tools can recalibrate it to affect another broad or specific target type.After the PCs deal with the Orb, the archangels Michael and Uriel will arrive with reinforcements to take control of Tel Megiddo with minimal casualties. The PCs can take a long rest while the armies of Heaven dig in and set up a teleportation circle supply line. But the demons aren’t going to let this happen without a fight, so the PCs have to shore up the defenses against three waves of attacks. The first two waves are large numbers of various fiend types and Marked Taskforce soldiers and vehicles, and the book does point out that using the Orb of Xenocide can automatically destroy one wave. But the third wave unleashes a Chained Devourer who seeks to outright destroy the fortress. Additionally, any fiends from earlier in the module who escaped during Wormwood’s prison break will show up as extra waves. Including Lilith and Beelzebub from Adventurer’s Guide to the Bible!In terms of stats, the Chained Devourer is a CR 23 gargantuan fiend who is first and foremost a physical engine of destruction. It has multiattack and can make a bunch of slam attacks, fling enemies and objects as a ranged attack, has an Inevitable Presence that Frightens enemies and reduces their speed to zero, deals fire damage when struck in melee or as an explosion upon death, and has legendary resistances and actions such as more attacks and an AoE wing buffet attack.Like so many other big beefy melee enemies, the Chained Devourer doesn’t possess any significant long-range attacks; even its Fling has a maximum range of 60 feet. However, it does have a 40 foot fly speed, meaning it can chase after aerial enemies sniping at it. Its biggest weakness is perhaps its mental saving throws: its highest score in these categories is 20 Charisma, and it’s only proficient with physical saving throws.Once Tel Megiddo is secured, the PCs take a short rest to march on Jerusalem. But the Beast has one final ace up his sleeve: by breaking the Talisman of the First Sea, he summons Leviathan who rises from the Mediterranean Sea. This monster’s very presence is causing apocalyptic tremors and waves, and it’s expected that the PCs will break the Talisman of the First Earth in order to summon the Behemoth who will fight and counter the Leviathan.Amusingly, if the PCs don’t do this, this will actually make things easier, as any lair action effects that come from the Behemoth will be ignored. Which is a pretty big example of <a href="https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GameplayAndStorySegregation" target="_blank">Gameplay and Story Segregation,</a> given than the intent is to use the Behemoth to slow the Leviathan’s destructive impulses.Getting past the walls of Jerusalem is technically a battle, as there are Marked soldiers and fiends in the various areas around the wall on a gridded map. But the goal is to gain entry into the city rather than defeating all the enemies, so PCs who manage to get through can move on without incident. Once inside,* the PCs must head to the Temple Mount where the Beast waits in the Throne Room. Michael will join the PCs in combat against the Antichrist’s true form.Sadly, what Jerusalem looks like and if it still has any living mortals within, is unmentioned in the adventure.The Beast is a CR 27 enigma (not fiend, strangely) who is a seven-headed monstrosity. He doesn’t have a lot of spells (dimension door, dispel magic, levitate, and telekinesis 3 times per day each) and has the “multiple head” ability the Dragon has in ignoring certain negative Conditions, and his primary physical attacks are a pair of claws. But the Beast’s real major offense comes from his Legendary Actions, and he can do one such action per round for each active head he has. He has a Visage for each of the 7 Deadly Sins, which can cost anywhere from 1 to 4 Legendary Actions. For example, Sloth’s Visage (2 actions) is an AoE cone that can reduce affected targets’ speed to 0 on a failed Dexterity save for 1 round, Greed’s Visage can telekinetically pull all Rare or rarer magic items closer to the Beast on a failed Strength save, and Pride’s Visage (4 actions) is also a cone that stuns all targets (no saving throw but anyone affected is immune for 24 hours).The Beast has no special movement speeds, but as the fight takes place in an enclosed throne room and all of his Visages are AoE effects he can be guaranteed to hit at least a few characters per round. While he has quite a bit of resistances and immunities, two of the good saving throws (Dexterity and Wisdom) he is not proficient in and thus has a mere +3. While he has Legendary Resistance and is immune to the charmed and frightened conditions, the Beast is pretty weak to most area of effect stuff.Once the Beast is defeated, whispers will fill the air speaking of the Beast’s death, and a doorway in the wall behind the throne opens up into darkness. As the PCs are already 20th level, they instead gain an appropriate Epic Boon, Blessing, or Gift of the Spirit as an upgrade.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/3HuBR4a.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />The final chapter is the shortest one of the book, involving a final battle against Satan in his seven-headed Dragon form. The PCs find themselves back in the Lampstands, with one torch remaining:Each PC will then have a brief scene narration related to a flashback from Chapter 11. Six sample visions begin with events from Biblical history, such as the serpent convincing Adam and Eve to eat the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden, or Abraham about to sacrifice his son Isaac. How the scenes resolve are dependent upon the flashbacks, and the DM is expected to draw something out in line with the PCs’ backstories and Ideals/Bonds/Flaws/Eternal Traits.Once that’s dealt with, Satan in snake form appears at the base of the lampstand. As it lunges at the party its course is stopped by Jesus suddenly appearing to stomp on the snake’s body. Satan continues to bite his ankle, and although bleeding and in pain Jesus speaks softly. He says he didn’t want things to end like this, and that Satan still has a chance at taking the high road and being forgiven. Satan defies Jesus, still biting, as the PCs realize their final mission as Reapers as God’s voice speaks once again, “to bind the Dragon.”The floor breaks as the PCs and Satan fall into the void of space, with galaxies and stars passing by. Jesus produces the Scroll of the Seven Seals, this time summoning the Four Horsemen to join the party in battle against Satan who has now taken Dragon form. The Four Horsemen no longer have Legendary Actions or Resistances, but this time the Dragon does!We talked about the Dragon’s stats way back in Chapter 2, so let’s talk about the new tools he has. He has 6 uses of Legendary Resistance, and a number of Legendary Actions equal to the number of active heads. The Actions include Unholy Insight (learn the target’s greatest fears and they can’t benefit from their next Long Rest…which is amusing as this is the final fight of the campaign), casting Dispel Magic, a cone-shaped AoE Tail Sweep, offering a Dark Bargain to a character who has been marked by a use of Unholy Insight (Satan offers something to the character; if they accept 1d2 of the heads are stunned but they are returned to life and taken out of the battle with their offer fulfilled), and Rend Reality where the Dragon speaks a perverted version of “Let there be light.” This last ability creates one of four following effects: all creatures become older or younger and have to reroll initiative; the Dragon speaks the name of a location of special significance to a character and has up to a 1 mile cube of the place teleport and crumble before their very eyes to deal psychic damage; a multi-target effect against all creatures with 100 hit points or less, forcing otherworldly creature types back to their home plane and destroying “unliving” types such as constructs, elementals, and undead; causing all stars to dim within 5 light years and all natural creatures (plants and beasts) with fewer than 50 hit points to instantly die.So what are the Dark Bargains? Well Satan isn’t so cliche as to ask for eternal ownership over souls. Instead he has something more insidious in mind. He offers a character something of deep meaning, and will fulfill it for them. If accepted, they will return to life to enjoy the offer.But what’s the catch, really? Well, beyond just disappearing from combat and leaving the rest of the party to fight Satan, this represents a lack of trust and uncertainty in God’s plan, as well as marking the character as being vulnerable to temptation. Like any good demon, Satan wants the PC to live a long mortal life where they can make future mistakes and future sins, therefore taking them further from Heaven each time.There’s also optional lair actions offered for DMs who feel that they can handle additional complexity, and involve various cosmic effects as the universe approaches eventual heat death. It’s a random d8 table with things such as falling through the debris of a crumbling planet that adds asteroids which provide cover, falling past the event horizon of a black hole that deafens all creatures, an interdimensional ripple teleporting all creatures to random places within 120 feet, and the actual heat death where all stars wink out and everyone takes 10d6 cold damage that can be resisted via a Constitution save.It doesn’t matter whether or not the PCs defeat Satan; what actually alters the ending (on an individual level, at least) is if one of them accepts a Dark Bargain. Such a scene is individual to that PC and ran in a collaborative manner similar to how they died before the beginning of the campaign, but with the addition of a feeling that they can’t shake that there is something or someone out there watching them, waiting for something…Otherwise, another optional aspect is offered to the battle: the PCs can only defeat the Dragon if they drive a Holy Nail through its heart before the start of its next turn once it reaches 0 hit points. That way, Satan will be confined irreversibly to Hell for all time. If the PCs don’t have such a weapon, Jesus will give it to them in the lampstand chamber.The default ending is almost the same as how the campaign began:The ending is meant to be vague and subject to interpretation. Perhaps it is Azrael having found the PCs worthy and is asking if they’re ready to go to Heaven. Or it could be a time loop as the PC(s) is still not ready, bound by their Eternal Trait and can now try again this time hopefully learning from their mistakes. Or the entire adventure was a near-death fantasy in the characters’ own minds, coming to terms with their Eternal Traits in a reflection of themselves and their life choices. There is an alternate ending where the PCs find themselves back at the Lampstands, where a hidden meaning in each mission statement from God is formed into one message:<img src="https://i.imgur.com/knNCiHd.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />There are three Appendices in Azrael’s Guide to the Apocalypse: Magic Items, Creatures, and Elders & Heroes. Given that I covered most of them in the proper parts of the adventure, there isn’t much to go over here but I’ll still point out the stuff I didn’t touch.For Magic Items, there’s a Benedictine Shield (+1 AC, cannot become cursed while attuned) and Sword of the Cherubim (can burst into flame when a command word is spoke and mentally commanded to float and attack creatures within 60 feet, dealing +2d6 fire damage on top of greatsword damage), Each of the Four Horsemen have their own special items. We already covered the Scythe of Death in prior posts.The Bow of Conquest is a +3 longbow that functions as a Weapon of Warning and can cast Crusader’s Mantle as a bonus action once per day. It technically has infinite ammo with a single arrow connected to a golden threat that is automatically retracted when fired, but creatures hit can spend a reaction to restrain the arrow and prevent it from returning if they succeed on a DC 24 Strength check.The Scales of Famine function as a staff that adds +1 to spell attacks and save DCs, and can spend charges to cast various debuffing spells (Ray of Sickness, Contagion, etc). It can also spend 7 charges to reverse the financial fortunes of everyone in 10 miles, turning all copper pieces into gold and turning all gold and platinum pieces to ash, and everyone’s lifestyle changes to Modest. Hmmm, that doesn’t exactly sound very famine-like to me…Finally, the Sword of War is a +1 weapon that can take the form of any sword. It grants advantage on melee attacks made with it against any creature not at its maximum hit points, and grants the wielder an amount of healing equal to half a target’s hit point maximum when the target is reduced to 0 hit points.Each of the Horsemen’s items are sentient and have their own personalities. They have views and ideologies in line with their original wielders. For example, the Sword of War thrives on chaos and violence and believes that times of peace generate corruption, commerce, and discrimination.As for creatures, we’ve got a few. The First is the Avatar of Satan, which is a manifestation of the Devil in human form. The Avatar is but a Construct with 1 hit point and no damaging offensive capabilities, but has amazing mental and social scores and skills, and is immune to all damage and conditions over than force. He can cast a small variety of low-level spells usually involving subtle magic, and his Touch of Temptation can fill a target with doubt and impose disadvantage on their next ability check as well as being more susceptible to temptations for the next 24 hours.This stat block is most likely never going to see the light of day. The Avatar is posing as an intern in Unity Tower in Chapter 3, and is only there to watch the ensuing events with detached amusement.The other is a Foul Frog Spirit, creatures summoned by fiends or wicked mages to act as messengers, and in some cases phylacteries in the case of liches. The Antichrist takes the form of such a spirit upon his death in order to usher in the apocalypse. In terms of Stats the Foul Frog Spirit is a CR 0 creature with no offensive capabilities. It is immune to all damage until it reaches its destination, has a fly speed of 50 feet, is incorporeal, and can cast Plane Shift and Teleport on itself at will.Thoughts So Far: The Battle of Armageddon is a refreshing change of pace from the prior 5 chapters, and the waves of enemies do a good job at wearing down the party’s resources, being mostly individually weak so that 20th level characters can feel awesome tearing through them, and also making the chapter feel like the backdrop of a greater war. Personally speaking I’m not fond of the fact that the initial battle before Tel Megiddo doesn’t have any consequences for losing, and having the main villain of Adventurer’s Guide to the Bible show up as a one-time optional wave encounter feels kind of…well, she’s the final boss of the prior adventure, it doesn’t seem right to just make her a mere road block in the greater battle. Then again, I can see it as a means of showing how much more powerful the PCs in Azrael’s are, and that Satan is pulling no punches in sending out his best.Similarly, having this lack of consequence in fighting Satan and losing in the final battle also feels unrewarding. It goes back to that Biblical Cosmic Horror, where the true test isn’t so much the fight as it is resisting his Dark Bargains. Which is fine, but at that point why bother with rolling initiative? There should be some stakes if the PCs fight and lose, even if God will win in the end. And the ending itself to the campaign leaves me with mixed feelings. I’m personally fondest of the idea of Azrael greeting the PCs once again, helping usher them into Heaven. Making the adventure end with “syke, it was all in your head!” is something only a DM who is very, very familiar with their gaming group and knows they won’t feel let down by this. The Lampdstand’s message as an alternate ending also lacks that oomph <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Un4p-6lzIpI" target="_blank">when it’s really just a series of encouraging words.</a> At least let them see Jesus’ Thousand Year Reign or something!Final Thoughts: Azrael’s Guide to the Apocalypse, much like its prequel product, has high expectations: to turn the final book in the Bible into a gameable adventure. It sought to create an epic story where the PCs oppose the forces of evil across time and space, and unlike most campaigns its enemies and environs are explicitly otherworldly. It very well may be one of the few campaigns out there where most of the enemies aren’t some variety of humanoid!But as far as campaigns go, Azrael’s Guide is not one I’d recommend. While it does a good job of making the high-level adventures feel appropriately cosmically epic, many of the encounters and adventures are linear in a bad way. Be it the very railroaded scripts, the lack of consequences one way or another for various events (like whether or not the Tree of Life dies), the bare-bones nature of places the characters visit before being spirited away to some other domain, make the product feel unfinished and in need of a good polishing to make it shine.I’ve tried my best to not make direct comparisons to Adventurer’s Guide to the Bible, trying to judge this product on its own merits. I’ll admit that Adventurer’s Guide really raised my expectations, and I won’t lie that it didn’t contribute to feeling quite let down when I found this book quite lacking in comparison.But I feel that it’s inevitable.If you look at my review for that book, I talked about the loving care and detail in writing up the various locations, events, and characters. Many of the adventures had open-ended means of resolution to encourage a variety of play styles, the faction system and side content unrelated to the main quest made the world feel more real and that there were things beyond just the PCs, the lovingly-detailed research notes in back gave a great springboard for DMs who wanted to do further research in the time period…all of this gave extra weight to the battle against the Archdemons, for a DM had all the tools they needed to make the players care about the world and its people.Yet in Azrael’s Guide, we don’t have opportunities to stop and smell the roses. The world under the Antichrist is extremely vague, committing the classic pitfall of being barebones to avoid looking like one is giving a political message or ending up dating one’s product. When the PCs fly into Jerusalem with angels at their side, the city itself is undetailed. In Adventurer’s Guide to the Bible, we had a map, a list of districts, characters and side quests, and an explanation of the recent history and its current political and religious unrest. In Azrael’s Guide, none of that matters, only the battle against the Beast. How the people survive under the Antichrist’s yoke doesn’t matter, only the infiltration into Unity Tower and to get back the Scroll of Seven Seals.Barring some rare exceptions such as Azrael and Gethsemani, most of the characters in Azrael’s don’t really have much time to get to know the PCs and bond with them, more often appearing to fulfill a Biblical checklist like with the Woman and her Child. And such checkmarks have to be done, even if there is an illusion of choice. The Antichrist must break at least four of the seven seals, the Scroll of Seven Seals must not be taken back, and when there are choices like with fighting the Dragon at the end or the Legions during the Battle of Armageddon…too many just don’t matter.And add onto that the errors in the stat blocks, this only brings the product down further.I don’t like to end things on a bad note. I still want to see Red Panda Publishing continue to make Biblical 5e material, and I am interested in seeing what other famous religious figures from folklore and history they convert (pun intended) in their upcoming Heroes of the Heavenly Host expansion. I’ve seen how good they can be when they wrote Adventurer’s Guide to the Bible, and even in this product I can tell they put a lot of work into it. They are doing something precious few other publishers are able or willing to do in the tabletop gaming scene, so I view Azrael’s Guide as more of a setback than an inevitability for future productions.</blockquote>

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