Tomb of Horrors, Demonomicron, and more @ Premiere FLGS

Festivus

First Post
My FLGS is a premiere store and has Tomb of Horrors, Demonomicron, Vor Rukoth and Orcs of Stonefang Pass in stock.

I'll swing by tomorrow and take a look and post what I can... perhaps there is someone else who already has these at their Premiere FLGS and can post more info?

I have several questions:

Tomb of Horrors: Any poster maps? How many encounters and at what levels? Is there any info on the city of the dead that was constructed around the original tomb?

Demonomicron: Fluff content and how it differs from existing content, what percentage guesstimated?

Vor Rukoth: Poster map of the city in smaller scale (like was done with Hammerfast?) Is it similar style, eg. a lot of plot hooks and personalities, but no real adventure there?

Orcs of Stonefang Pass: Similar to Slaying Stone? Same author I would hope so. Poster maps?
 

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Tomb of Horrors just came in the mail to me. I got the 2011 spring catalog and a bunch of minis and dice but not the other books.

Yes, there is a poster map double sided.A quick count give me 46 encounters.
 

I picked up Demonomicon yesterday - since my group is preparing to invade the Abyss tomorrow, I figure it was worth hunting it down when the early release hit the local game store. :)

I don't have it on-hand, but did take a good look through it, so can try and answer some questions.

Demonomicron: Fluff content and how it differs from existing content, what percentage guesstimated?

Starts off with a pretty in-depth discussion of the origin of the Abyss and the demon lords. Basically, even before all the current existence, there was another realm of existence that fell to pure evil, and when it began to self-destruct, the last remaining beings of that world - the obyriths - pushed a shard of their world's essence into ours. Into the hands of Tharizdun.

Of course, its power drove him mad, and when they showed up to conquer our world, the twelve that came through battled him to a stand-still. In the aftermath, the shard began to corrupt the Chaos, the Abyss was formed, the first demon lords began to fight over the Shard - some of them corrupted primordials like Demogorgon, others obyriths like Dagon.

Anyway, lots of fall-out from this that ties into the Dawn War, the constant strife over who gets to be Prince of Demons, the origin of the Rod of Law / Rod of Seven Parts, and more.

Interesting stuff, and feels like a solid expansion on the 4E mythos. Some of it might override earlier references, though enough things have been shrouded in 'possibilities' rather than definites that I couldn't point to any one thing for sure. Except for Asmodeus, they tie his corruption into Tharizdun and the Shard, and I'm not sure how I feel about that.

The next chapter, as I recall, goes more into the nature of demons. Again, substantial amounts of fluff here, though I mostly skimmed through this section. Includes information on demon possession, a ritual to summon and bargain with demons, a random table for what happens if PCs go around eating the scraps of souls that can be found in the Abyss, some fun stuff.

Then we get into details on the Abyss itself and a focus on a number of Layers. I would have probably preferred a smaller focus on more Layers, but the ones they do present are well fleshed-out (sometimes literally), and they fill them with various locales, planar properties, denizens, and you can easily see various adventure hooks there. Also, throughout everything, there tends to be small references to things that could easily have entire adventures built around them in their own right.

The focus was on the Plain of a Thousand Portals (Layer 1), the Blood Rift (Layer 4), Azzagrat (Grazz't's realms, of Layers 45-47?), Abysm (Demorgon's realm, Layers 88 and 90), and maybe one or two others - the realm of the Demon Lord of Wrath, and I think one about some Abyssal city. There was also maybe half-a-dozen more Layers that got shorter write-ups. Finally, there was a page with a list of pretty much all the commonly-known Layers and any relevant rulers. Various names come up here that I don't think have commonly shown up elsewhere in 4E.

Somewhere around here we have a few short adventures presented. One involving going into Abysm, another one involving PCs being manipulated by Shemeska the Maurauder, which actually could serve as a starting book for a longer plot.

Finally, lots of demons, and stuff on demons. A half-dozen themes to flesh out followers of Grazz't, Baphomet, Yeenoghu, Oublivae, etc. Some powers you can give demons in place of Variable Resistance. A number of abyssal hazards, though I would have liked more, and more abyssal terrain in general.

And then a boatload of demons. Four or five demon lords statted out, and lots of enemies, mainly across Paragon and Epic tiers. Mostly creatures of the Abyss, but also some demonic creatures in the natural world like Wendigoes or Ixitxachitl, or demonic clockwork horrors. Some creatures have solid fluff with them, others are a bit less inspired, but overall I felt this adds a ton of options and new toys for a DM.

So... that's a general summary of what I remember. To actually answer your original question, I'd say the book has a hefty amount of fluff, and it felt pretty evenly matched between fluff and crunch - the first few chapters are packed with it, and there is a lot of good stuff among the monster entries. Especially new enemies like Oublivae and such.
 

Tomb of Horrors just came in the mail to me. I got the 2011 spring catalog and a bunch of minis and dice but not the other books.

Yes, there is a poster map double sided.A quick count give me 46 encounters.


Anything new on this catalog ?

The Tomb poster is about what ?

Anything cool jumped in your eyes ?
 

Anything new on this catalog ?

Everything in the catalog is new, they aren't really advertising old stuff!! :D

The Tomb poster is about what ?

It's about a map. One side has two maps and on the flip side is one large map. It seems fine, but doesn't look exceptional.

Anything cool jumped in your eyes ?

I don't like the history they gave Acererak but I do like the four different parts to the adventure and they seem to take the group to many cool places.
 

I also forgot to mention - there are a lot of sidebars 'by' Iggilvw and other bits of flavor through the book.

Meanwhile, here is a list of some of the monsters in the book. It isn't complete - I just jotted down some of what I was looking to use. Primarily missing are any yugoloth types, of which there were a half-dozen or so.

Abyssal Wurm - Level 30 Elite: Big, two-headed abyssal dragon that makes enemies attack themselves.
Blood Demon - Level 13 Brute: Demon ooze that grows more powerful as enemies are bloodied.
Bonegauge Assassin - Level 24 Lurker: Demon with a portable aura of heavy obscurement.
Bulezau - Level 11 Brute: Goat-demons with huge halberds who knock people down.
Ferrolith - Level 24 Soldier: Former succubi encased in metal shells.
Fire Demon -Level 18 Elite Skirmisher: It's... a fire demon.
Guardian Demon Soul Drinker - Level 26 Soldier: Demon with tentacles that grabs people and drains life from them.
Jovoc - Level 10 Skirmisher: I love these little guys. Savage little demons that have an aura that inflicts damage on non-jovocs whenever the jovoc gets hurt.
Kostchtchie - Level 31 Solo: Demon Lord of Wrath, frost giant associations.
Mahatta - Level 28 Lurker: Mud demons that burrow everywhere and explode out of the ground.
Nabassu and Nabassu Deathwing - Level 20 and 23 Skirmishers: Corrupted gargoyles.
Oublivae - Level 30 Solo: Demon Lord of Ruin, Ruler of the Barrens.
Pazuzu - Level 33 Solo?: Demon Lord, Ruler of the Plains of a Thousand Portals.
Phraxas - Level 30 Solo?: Demon Lord, 'Ruler' of the Blood Rift.
Quarrak - Level 21 Skirmisher: Small demons who get bonuses when flanking with other Quarrak's... and each has a twin, and they get bigger bonuses and stun when flanking with their twin.
Ruin Demon - Level 16 Skirmisher: A demon formed of a living swarm that can infest an enemy and take them over.
Sezrath - Level 24 Brute: Hungry demons with tentacles that grab enemies, throw them around, and chew on them during combat.
Shaadee, Level 20 Controller: Undead demon that has an aura that shuts down OAs and Immediate Actions, and who can dominate and immobilize enemies.
Sibriex Chain Reaver - Level 26 Elite Soldier: Demons formed from the power of Obyriths. Melee edition.
Sibriex Flesh Crafter - Level 29 Elite Controller: Demons formed from the power of Obyriths. Caster edition.
Sibriex Spawn - Level 28 Minion Brute: Demons formed from the power of Obyriths. Minion edition.
Voracilith - Level 25 Brute: Demon with lots of tentacles, an acid blast, and an aura that hinders healing.
Zuggtmoy - Level 22 Solo: Demon Lord of Fungus, currently weakened by lots of recent stuff and regathering her power.
Zythar - Level 26 Artillery: Demons formed by the Balors, who embody their explosive destruction - set things on fire, make fires bigger, and have a small death explosion when slain.

Not a complete list, as I said, but I think that covers the bulk of them.
 

Tomb of Horrors: Any poster maps? How many encounters and at what levels? Is there any info on the city of the dead that was constructed around the original tomb?

Just picked up Tomb of Horrors.

Poster map: Yes. Looks like a cavern of some sort, but not sure what's on the other side.

Encounters: 45, give or take. The chapters begin at 10th, 14th, 18th, 22nd, though it recommends starting at lower levels to make it more of a challenge.

Yes, there is some info on the city of the dead.
 


Starts off with a pretty in-depth discussion of the origin of the Abyss and the demon lords. Basically, even before all the current existence, there was another realm of existence that fell to pure evil, and when it began to self-destruct, the last remaining beings of that world - the obyriths - pushed a shard of their world's essence into ours. Into the hands of Tharizdun.

Of course, its power drove him mad, and when they showed up to conquer our world, the twelve that came through battled him to a stand-still. In the aftermath, the shard began to corrupt the Chaos, the Abyss was formed, the first demon lords began to fight over the Shard - some of them corrupted primordials like Demogorgon, others obyriths like Dagon.

Anyway, lots of fall-out from this that ties into the Dawn War, the constant strife over who gets to be Prince of Demons, the origin of the Rod of Law / Rod of Seven Parts, and more.

Interesting stuff, and feels like a solid expansion on the 4E mythos.

Is it just me, or do the bad guys in the 4e mythos seem way more important to the universe then the good guys?

This is not a criticism per se, just an observation!
 


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