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Message: <blockquote data-quote="demiurge1138" data-source="post: 4696609" data-attributes="member: 7451">DCC #40: The Devil in the MistsAn adventure for 7th-9th level charactersThe Devil in the Mists is the rare sequel in the DCC canon, being a follow-up to The Secret of Smuggler’s Cove, which I loved. The premise is, when the PCs emerge from beneath Smuggler’s Cove, their work turns out to have been for naught. Fairhaven has been wiped out, not by armies of locathath but by a strange blue mist. This mist, the so-called Mist of Merengar, after the old nobleman whose mysterious disappearance coincided with its first appearance (after building Fairhaven’s lighthouse and the manor down the hill from it), has been an occasional annoyance, but now the Mist has grown to lethal proportions.Investigating the source of the Mist of Merengar leads the PCs into Fairhaven’s sewers, which have been taken over by opportunistic sahuagin (now that the local locathath have been killed or driven off, there’s no stopping them from moving in) who worship an “angel” named Sareth’turel and his blue mists. After slaying their high priestess, the PCs discover the source of the Mist—a portal to a prison plane, which the PCs (of course) get sucked into. Sareth’turel is the captive of honor in this plane, a bone devil whose opportunism and treachery earned him the ire of his infernal patron. In order to escape the prison, prevent Sareth’turel from escaping, and prevent the Mist of Merengar from expanding beyond Fairhaven’s borders, the PCs will need to overcome a small army of devils, solve puzzles and riddles, battle Lord Merengar’s unholy revenant itself and destroy the Leviathan of Dark Mists, a great heathen idol capable of pumping out enough of the Mist of Merengar to engulf the whole world.What I liked: The numerous shout-outs to The Secret of Smuggler’s Cove were such that they could be ignored if The Devil in the Mists were to be run as a stand-alone, but enough so that they would enhance the experience as a whole. Finding out what happened to poor Lord Gregor Merengar, for instance, was a treat, and his undead gladiator form is both pitiful and fierce, making for a good combat challenge with a good story behind it, which I always approve of. I also approve of the heathen idols as a monster to build a plot around. Great looming constructs built in a parody of angelic form, leaking mist that drives people mad? Good stuff right there.What I disliked: A major theme in The Devil in the Mists is repetition. All of the fights with sahuagin feel pretty much the same. There are four sections of dungeon, and to get from one to another, the PCs have to collect three or four gem keys and place them in the proper place on a statue. Immediately before the climactic battle with Sareth’turel, a bone devil, the party fights… another bone devil! And there’s a lot of weird mechanical decisions to be found here—the heathen idol’s confusion gas has a Strength-based DC, and all of the sahuagin are wearing tons of armor and have no listed Swim bonus (so they walk along the ocean’s bottom, then?)The Mists of Merengar themselves annoy me. I’m fine with the mist being a refined version of the mist of a heathen idol—I believe a town could tear itself apart if everyone in it suddenly became confused. But there’s no indication of that given in the text; it sounds more as if they were all poisoned or suffocated by the Mists, which is impossible in the actual context of the adventure. Worse, the sewers have little pockets of mist which do Strength and Constitution damage, which fits with the background, but doesn’t grok with the confusion effect. Lastly, and perhaps worst, is that that the entire point of The Secret of Smuggler’s Cove was to save this nice little town—but when the PCs get back from that adventure, Fairhaven is already dead, with no way for them to do anything about it. It feels like a cheap gut-punch, and I don’t like it.Was it worth the $2? The Devil in the Mists, like all too many sequels before it, fails to live up to its superior predecessor.</blockquote>

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