What Evil Lurks

[Messageboard Golem]

Horrific dreams and nightmarish images of burning flesh and unknown terrors haunt the town of Leafton. Can your players find out what is behind the evil dreams and missing villagers? Can they stop the soul engine before it unleashes darkness on the world? A dark and brooding mystery featuring city, wilderness and dungeon adventure, designed for 4 to 6 characters of levels 8 to 10. Includes new monsters, spell casting feats and a new monster template!

 

[Psion]

What Evil Lurks

To date, Necromancer Games has concerned itself chiefly with classic dungeon crawl type adventures. What Evil Lurks seems to deviate from their classic fare, with an adventure that requires a bit of interaction and investigation, as well as a bit of dungeon crawl.

What Evil Lurks is an adventure for 4-6 characters of 8th-10th level.

A First Look

What Evil Lurks is a 48 page staple-bound softcover book priced at $10.95 US. This is a fairly typical price for d20 system books of this size, many of which are published by White Wolf under the Sword & Sorcery banner.

The cover scheme is similar to most Necromancer Games adventures, with a greenish border. The picture on the front is by Kieran Yanner, and depicts some sort of dark skinned, light haired undead creatures shambling towards the viewer, with a dwelling of some sort in the background.

The interior is black-and-white. Brian LeBlanc is the only credited interior artist. Many of the pieces appear to be charcoal or perhaps soft pencils, and work well with the mood of the module. There are also some ink pieces that I am not as fond of.

The cartography is done by Chistopher Boll and is excellent. The maps are very detailed and include outdoor and indoor maps, including one perspective map. One map did bother me, though. There is an outdoor encounter map depicting the locations of some ogres. However, the ogres don't stand out too well at a glance, which may make this map hard to use in play.

A Deeper Look
(Warning: The following section contains spoilers regarding details of the adventure.)

The central villain of the module is a man by the name of Gilean Vel. Gilean Vel is a wizard specialized in shadow magic, and who has transformed his essence to shadowstuff to become a creature of the plane of shadow called a shade. Gilean is also the recipient of a family curse. The curse was lifted generations ago when one of his forebears performed a heroic deed. However, the curse has returned due to Gilean's roguish lifestyle.

Unfortunately, Gilean is not the direct recipient of the curse. His family was. His wife died in childbirth and his daughter was left a simpleton. Gilean's entire motive in this adventure is to remove the curse from his daughter.

Unfortunately for the PCs, his methods are somewhat Faustian. An expert on shadowstuff, Gilean is building an artifact that will burrow a tunnel to the plane of shadow and plunge the world into night. He hopes that by doing this, he can curry the favor of the demon lord Orcus and get him to lift the curse.

But that is not all. Gilean has an apprentice named Siebkron who is working with Orcus behind Gilean's back. Siebkron plans to divert the artifact to the negative energy plane, causing massive death instead of massive hysteria.

The artifact, called the soul engine, is powered by the energy of souls. Bodies are incinerated and their spirits become a fuel called essence ingots. Obviously, this will require Gilean's followers to collect victims to power the machine. It is this that involves the players in the ongoing plotline.

The sole hook to the adventure is a letter to one of the PCs by an Lothair, an NPC that the PC is assumed to know. The letter requests the PC's presence in the town where the Lothair lives, Leafton.

The adventure is split into three acts. The first act details the PCs time in Leafton. Upon reaching Leafton, the characters can track down Lothair. He explains that his son was abducted, at which point the PCs are expected to investigate. Some investigation turns up that he is not the only one missing. Eventually, it is assumed that the PCs investigate the nearby forest.

The forest has a number of fixed and random encounters. The most curious of these is an encounter with ogres that seem very stealthy. The text is rather arbitrarily assigns a high DC to tasks to notice their presence. However, these high DCs are not borne out by the ogres' hide and move silent skills. In fact, they are regular ogres.

The party will as some point come across a pack of dire wolves which the players might assume are responsible for the disappearance. However, the dire wolves do not attack first. Eventually, a druid will join the dire wolves. The druid is named Daitha, and is Gilean Vel's brother. He is currently caring for Gilean's daughter, Katya. Daitha is interested in what his brother is up to and is likely to either join the party or trail them.

Eventually the party will find a dwelling in the forest occupied by ghouls under the control of 3 necromancers in service of Vel. If they overcome these foul creatures, the party can find a stack of paralyzed but still alive people, including Lothair's son.

In addition to Lothair's son, the party meets a character named Lord Esteban. Esteban is actually some sort of celestial servant of a deity, and is here to aid the PCs. He provides the PCs with his saber, which is actually an artifact called the Quill of Clemency. The Quill of Clemency is indestructible, can use one miracle, and can transform into a variety of different objects. The Quill is the central key to the adventure. Unfortunately, no provisions are made in the book for the players to learn of its powers.

Lord Esteban leaves the party with a fairly cryptic poem that describes the events or potential events surrounding Vel.

In addition to the bodies, the party finds clothes that indicate that the miscreants here worked as part of some surface. It is at this moment that the GM is instructed to remind the players that the PCs heard about a traveling sideshow.

The second act covers the party's efforts to uncover Vel's minions in the circus. There are a number of NPCs that the characters can meet, only some of which have anything to do with the kidnaping operation. One NPC may provide the PCs with an encrypted letter, that may require some brain sweat on the players' part, and honestly may be above some players. While the clue is not essential, it gives the players the impetus to check out some of the wagons at the circus. The section gives some guidelines for keeping the players on track.

The third and final act occurs at the factory that serves as the headquarter of Vel and his minions. Essentially, the third part is a dungeon crawl. The section states that Vel has taken precautions in his construction that should keep high level transportation magic from sneaking in.

The soul engine is housed in a section of the factory that can only be accessed by Vel himself. However, Vel has prepared a special lock with four components that will allow his underlings access to the secured section of the factory. To get these parts, the PCs must brave several traps. While they are in this section, the PCs may run across an encrypted journal that, if deciphered, reveals that Siebkron is working with Orcus behind Vel's back.

After braving minions, traps, and other encounters, the party should be able to find its way to Gilean Vel and his wayward apprentice Siebkron, who are with the Soul Engine. Of course, they will reveal that the players are two late. The party has two tasks at this point: dealing with Vel and Siebkron, and dealing with the soul engine.

The former may be quite a task. Vel is a 20th level character (16th level shadow mage and 4th level fighter) and Siebkron is a 14th level wizard. Unless the players picked up on all the right clues, I can just about guarantee that a party of the prescribed levels is doomed.

If the party deciphered the journal, they will have enough information to reveal to Vel that Siebkron has turned against them. While this will be enough to get Siebkron to temporarily retreat, this will be insufficient to convince Vel to stop what he is doing unless the party also offers a means to cure his daughter.

The Quill of Clemency can cast a miracle, and may cure Vel's daughter. This miracle may also be used to stop the Soul Engine. But there is only one miracle. However, if the players discover enough about the Quill, they may learn that the fact it is physically indestructible may be enough to stop the Soul Engine if thrown into the gear, thus allowing the players to meet both objectives.

The short appendix contains two new creatures: the Soul Nibbler, and the Shade template. The Soul Nibbler is a rat that has been altered by feeding on essence ingots; their bite inflicts negative levels. The Shade template grants bonuses to the creature's abilities while in shadows. The Shade is pretty much a translation of the Shade described in the 1st edition Monster Manual II, with the exception that unlike the original, this Shade is actually strongest in absolute darkness. The original shade was strong in darkness, but was actually strongest when there where deep shadows.

Conclusion

This module has a very moody feel and a nice underlying premise. After a stream of world-conquering villains in various d20 system products, it is nice to see one that has a more complex motivation.

The adventure may be a bit too challenging if your players aren't highly puzzle-oriented. There are many places the adventure can get off-track. Most importantly, it seems that deciphering the Quill of Clemency is almost essential to surviving the adventure. The opposition seems too strong unless the players can access the miracle. The single cryptic poem seems like it would not do near enough to unveil the nature of the Quill. The GM may be compelled to tone down the opposition, provide more clues, or both.

-Alan D. Kohler

 

[GreenPiece]

'What Evil Lurks' is an adventure module for the D20 system for 4 to 6 characters of 8th to 10th level or higher and it is the first full module written by Lance Hawvermale. It is published by Necromancer Games under the banner of Sword & Sorcery Studios. This is a stapled 48-page softcover, from which 44 pages are actual game information.
The cover is of the same style and high quality as the other products by Necromancer Games, much resembling the general layout of classic D&D modules. If you don't know the title yet and hold this book in your hands for the first time, the title 'What Evil Lurks' may be a little hard to decipher at first glance. The cover art is a fine introduction to the general mood of WEL. The interior art is very nice as well and fits the mood of the module perfectly.

Reviewing this adventure module without spoiling the fun of reading it is not an easy task.
The plot draws the adventurers from a seemingly simple mission of finding a friend's missing son into the wicked plot of a desperate -yet enigmatic- man, questing to remove an ancient curse. On their way they will meet several bizarre persons and visit strange places, some of them inviting and friendly, others dark, dangerous, and filled with unspeakable evil.
This is all I dare to say about the story. Detailing it more would definetly spoil the fun of it, for both, DM and potential players.

The entire module is written in such a fine language and style that it almost feels like reading a short story with an atmosphere of strangeness and gothic horror. This alone makes it worth the price of $10.95. When I finished reading it, I felt like I had just finished a good novel. I lay awake for more than an hour imagining the main characters, thinking about their feelings and desires and how to run them.
All the NPCs that occur in 'What Evil Lurks' are described in a very imaginative manner, the places are ripe with atmosphere and the plot may well stirr the full range of human emotions in the players.

To play WEL, I'd recommend a healthy mix of PC-classes, as it holds parts for every class. There are riddles and traps, investigation and interrogation, diplomacy and battle, wilderness and dungeon encounters, divine will and magic power, and poor souls to be saved. The riddles, by the way, are quite difficult and you may wish to help your players along with some additional hints.

The seven maps were made by Necromancer's new cartographer Christopher Boll, who also did the maps for 'Prisoners of the Maze' for them. They are very detailed and otherwise excellent in all respects.

Finally, there are a new monster, the 'Soul Nibbler', and a new monster template, the 'Shade', to be found within the pages of WEL.

For the negative aspects: There remain one or two questions about the villain's background unanswered, the title is hard to decipher, and some of the riddles may appear a bit too difficult.

These three points do not influence the overall quality of 'What Evil Lurks' so much that I'd be willing to rate this product less than Superb.

Should I come to a different conclusion after I have DMed this, I may review this product again and update my opinion.

As a concluding word I can only say: I love it. If you love mindless hack & slay adventures, you'll hate it.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

What Evil Lurks: A review by Greg Ragland

A module designed for 4-6 characters of levels 8-10

Module written by: Lance Hawvermale
Art: Kieran Yanner (cover), Brian LeBlanc (interior)
Cartography: Chris Boll

Retail price: $10.95 U.S.

Note: This is not a playtest review. Also, there are spoilers in this review. If you are planning to be a player, READ NO FURTHER!

Format: What Evil Lurks is a 48-page module by Necromancer Games in their G-series (denoting modules done by "guest" writers). The interior format is fairly standard for Necromancer Games modules (3/4 inch margins, decent type size, etc.). The inside covers are blank, and the last four pages hold the OGL and three pages of ads. The first page holds the titles and credits, and the rest is all adventure.

Art and maps: The interior art does a good job conveying various parts of the adventure, with a few slightly shakier pieces (an illustration of one of the main villains is a bit crude-looking, and a couple of the illustrations do not match exactly with the corresponding areas). The maps range from good to excellent, with the low point being an overland map showing an ogre ambush where the ogres are a tad difficult to make out amid the trees.

Adventure Format: The adventure is divided into three parts, prefaced with an introduction that does an outstanding job delineating the history of the people involved and their current motives. The other three parts are designed to act as counterpoints to each other: Act I involves overland travel and wilderness encounters; Act II details an urban environment and features roleplaying and investigation; Act III describes a fortress, and is essentially a dungeon crawl.

The story: This is where WEL truly shines, with a tale of a curse haunting a family line, a man of that line who embraces evil and reawakens the curse, and his hideous actions to save his child from its taint. The story is deliberately designed to explore grand elements of evil and good, the price of sin, and the cost of redemption.

Act I: The first part of the adventure involves the players with a mystery involving a kidnapping. The adventure begins in a village designed as a place of good, honest folk-a location which will serve as a contrast to the duplicity and passion that infect those the PCs will later meet. The town of Leafton itself is quickly described over a page and a half, but the brief descriptions are quite evocative. A sample: "The sensations in Leafton are rustic, rudimentary, and real: smooth wood, water buckets, children's laughter, roasting venison, sunsets, handshakes, and long periods of pleasant silence." In one sentence Lance does more to evoke this town than I've seen in paragraphs of boxed text in other adventures. And this level of quality in descriptions continues throughout the adventure.

Investigation leads the PCs into the woods, and later to the location of the kidnappers. There are a few encounters along the way, including one with two NPCs who are key elements of the mystery, and whom the DM is encouraged to bring back late in the adventure to heighten the suspense. There are a few bumps in the adventure at this point: most notably, the wandering monster encounter table leaves the impression that the woods are swarming with creatures, with a 12 in 20 chance of an encounter for each mile traveled. Since the party will probably have to travel 30 miles or more through the forest, this equates to about 18 random encounters, which seems a bit steep. Still it is very easy for the DM to reduce the frequency of encounter rolls, so this is no great problem.

Act II: After clearing out the kidnappers' lair, the PCs will then enter the second part of the adventure, which takes place in a circus located outside of a major city. This location seems like a risky choice to me for a setting; I personally have no great love for circus settings, since it seems like all the circus performers are inevitably evil people hiding behind a façade of buffoonery, and this adventure is no exception. However, if you can get past your aversion to the setting, if any, the NPCs are well-described and engaging.

Unlike Act I, which had a definite sense of progression, Act II is left up to the DM and players to develop. Basically we have a description of a circus and some of its performers, many of whom have knowledge which will lead the players to the final part of the adventure. How the PCs go about acquiring this information-through slick talking, magic charms, capture and interrogation, bribery, mind reading, or other means-is entirely up to the players. I would have liked to have seen a playbill or other consolidated description for the circus performance itself, though, since I think most players will begin by taking in a show first.

In passing, I would like to note that if the PCs have done a really good job figuring out what's going on with the curse and how to remove it, and do so, then it is possible to largely circumvent the third act of this adventure. I don't view this as a problem, but rather as a reward for outstanding play.

Act III: Assuming the characters are successful in getting the information they need, they then proceed to a factory located deep within a swamp. This once again involves overland travel, this time through a swamp, and the random encounter tables once again seem designed to swarm the party, but can be easily toned down. The third act really begins when they reach the factory itself.

This structure is divided into two levels. The lower level contains mostly just traps, information, and a few monsters-nothing the party cannot handle at the module's designed level of difficulty. The upper floor contains some low level henchmen types and the heart of the operation, along with an encounter that will be a great challenge to DM. This involves negotiation and probable combat with up to three NPCs ranging in level from 10 to 20. How they interact with the party and with each other depends entirely on how much information the players have managed to uncover, and whether they understand what they do know. If the DM has not carefully kept track of the player's level of knowledge, e.g., in how to use a certain item to remove the family curse, the PCs may be forced into a combat with three NPCs that could wipe the floor with them, especially if they have exhausted themselves reaching this point of the complex. However, the adventure itself, as it states at the outset, is designed to throw good and evil into stark relief, so the DM would be wise to do what he can to avoid mindless combat at this point, and pull out all the stops in roleplaying these three key NPCs.

Assessment: What Evil Lurks is a module with the potential to be a truly epic adventure, but it will require the skills of an experienced DM at the helm. If the players tend toward mindless hack, they will probably have great difficulty in the information-gathering portions of the adventure, and will likely get slaughtered by the final encounter. If your players fit this profile, you may wish to skip this adventure and run something more combat-oriented, like Rappan Athuk. Players not afraid to roleplay should have a good time, however. The adventure also has a number of puzzles that the PCs will need to solve, although if the players are bad at riddle-solving, the DM can always provide hints via appropriate successful skill checks or the use of divinatory magic or divine visions.

Structurally, WEL is fairly sound, although I do wish that the stats for the important NPCs had been put in an appendix in the back instead of buried in the text. This is very true of the 20th level NPC-his stats are repeated twice, once in Act II and once in Act III, and some of his special abilities are not listed in the first location. Also, there is a new feat provided (Anchored Spell) which I thought was too vague in its wording to be usable without a rewrite.

In conclusion, I'm giving What Evil Lurks four stars out of five (4.5 out of 5 if this site allowed it), though it has the potential to be a five star adventure in the hands of competent and experienced DMs and players. If your group hates doing more than minimal roleplaying or if you detest circus adventures, then this is probably not the module for you. If you are not very experienced as a DM, I would still recommend picking it up and waiting until you feel ready to handle its opportunities.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

What Evil Lurks

Writing a review of this module without giving away the storyline is difficult at best. Lance’s work is excellent, as any regular Dungeon reader will tell you, and his first full module for Necromancer is well up to par for his standards. This is definitely a story-driven adventure, and hack-n-slashers may well be disappointed. I feel that this is definitely going to be one of Necromancer Games’ best offerings and will become part of the common experience of gaming, much in the same way that Ghost Tower of Inverness or Tomb of Horrors have insinuated their way into our collective subconscious.

As is the case with the current NG products, WEL can easily be dropped into any campaign world, as it doesn’t specify regions or areas. The town the party starts in can easily be dropped into any world, from Greyhawk to Forgotten Realms to Ravenloft (The storyline behind WEL would work very well in RL, as a matter of fact). The adventure is written for a party of 4 characters of 9th level, although you could use it for more characters of a lower level. I wouldn’t try it with a party of less than six 6th level characters.

The adventure starts the party on a mission to find the son of an old friend or NPC contact. As the adventure progresses, the party will be swept into the evil schemes, and should be eager and willing to take the fight to the villains. If a Paladin didn’t immediately jump in to the fight, I would be curious as to whether or not the character deserves to be a Paladin (the villains’ schemes and plans are that evil and disturbing).

The party’s actions can really effect the outcome of the story, and deciphering the puzzles, riddles, and clues will help them tremendously. The major artifact they can find can stop all of the villain’s plans and help them finish their quest IF they can figure out how to work the artifact properly. Otherwise, they can finish the quest or stop the villain, but it’s unlikely that they will do both.

Outside of the adventure itself, the module contains a new metamagic feat (Anchored Spell), A new monster (SoulNibbler), and a new Template (Shade). Anchored Spell is very different, as it allows the caster to cast spells without material components by inscribing the spell on the caster’s body in the form of a rune, sigil, or ideogram. Just reading the feat gave me at least a half-dozen ideas for NPC’s.

All in all, I found WEL to be well balanced and well thought out. Lance has certainly shown us what he is capable of with this offering into the world of extremes in the 3eD&D game. The party should feel quite heroic (and rightly so) if they manage to solve everything, and feel a pyrrhic victory otherwise. Either the quest gets solved and the villain succeeds with his plan, or the villain is foiled, but the quest fails. But knowing players, they’ll always do the unexpected and come up with a solution that the DM hadn’t foreseen.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

The shadow knows. In my 18 years of roleplaying I have witnessed many changes, some good and some bad. I was raised on the classics: Land Beyond the Magic Mirror, Baltron's Beacon, Ravenloft, and When a Star Falls. I lived and died (literally) by the words of Gary Gygax, Tracy Hickman, and other wily veterans. But somehow all the magical prose, devilish traps, and mind-boggling riddles got sucked into The Void. However, like a thunderbolt from Heronious, a ray of hope shines through the dense storm clouds of the present. What Evil Lurks is a module spawned, perforce, to salvage the dwindling integrity of the game. There are several issues that I wish to address, so from here on out SPOILERS abound like stink on a goblin.

Prior to the composition of my own review, I took a little looksee at what the masses thought. In reference to the difficulty level of this game, I submit that if an adventure is supposed to be designed so that every 13 encounters a character advances one experience level, then by Asmodeous, it should be frightfully hard. Granted, Siebkron's cryptogram was pretty daunting, but if this game does not promote higher levels of thought, we all might as well just be playing Diablo on our PCs. Continuing on. . . The heartlock traps were superb. The scale trap is quite cunning and the disguised sphere of annihilation is downright evil. It is obvious to me that the author comes from the same old school as the legends of this game.

The storyline is excellent and appalling. The stunned look on my companions faces when we came across four score of paralyzed people stacked like firewood says a lot. Something wicked this way comes. The entire circus scene gives me the creeps. What character! These aren't just cardboard cut-out bad guys, they all have personality. And Daladrina the snake girl, Yum! Who's the bad guy? Gilean Vel, although his methods are warped, he's only acting out of love. Can you kill him for that? How can you help without flooding the world with shadows? What's Siebkron up to? Does Gilean know? Who's using who? Aaarrrrgggghhh! Yeah, it drove me nuts but I loved it. A new twist around every corner keeps you on your toes. Throw in a halfling with the Horn of Change and you've got one heck of a stew.

The artwork in this module is above average. The heartlock looked pretty good to me and those darn efreet tossing the bodies into the smelter with pitchforks, oh yeah. How horrible! (in a good way). It looks like Brian LeBlanc (interior art) must have just come from a Marilyn Manson concert when he sat down to draw the circus acts. That might just be a photo, either way, good job.

As a whole, this module reminds me of the good ol’ days--back when being neutral didn't mean "undecided" and assassins were the antithesis of weal. I look forward to more adventures of this class. Hack and slash are good enough for the kiddies, but there are still the faithful few who hold on to the need for something more. Something else like W.E.L. Keep 'em coming.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

What Evil Lurks
By Lance Hawvermale
Necromancer Games/Sword and Sorcery Studios
45 pages
$10.95
ISBN: 1-58846-193-9
http://www.necromancergames.com/wel.html

I received an advance copy of What Evil Lurks, and to be honest, my plan was to be fair and impartial, not having any preconceived notion of how good it would be or what it was about, and not wanting to be a 'gushing fanboy' of yet another release from Necromancer Games.
I failed.
What Evil Lurks deserves any praise and accolades I can give it. Quite simply, it's an excellent achievement from Lance Hawvermale.
The module has a sense of foreboding through its entirety, from the color cover art to the last page of player handouts (the title font on the cover may be a bit tough to read, right off) that is absolutely fitting for the setting. The adventure reads like a story (from start to finish, I didn't put it down), but it is neither plot-nor timeline-bound. It should be suitable for both "plot-driven" and "dungeon-delver" type players. It is quite interactive; the opponents are very intelligently presented, and have goals and desires that will challenge the PCs at many turns. They seem like characters from an epic tragedy, and you can't help but feel for them. As far as the level requirements, it states the adventure is for four 9th-level PCs. "Only if they are also experienced gamers" is my opinion, otherwise I would say more like 11th to 13th, if they are going to try and "duke it out" with the NPCs. I don't want to give away any of the story here, as that is part of the fun for the DM. Reading (and rereading) this module before game play IS A MUST!
The mechanics of the module look very good. I found no glaring typos or grammatical errors and the sidebars and tables were all handy and easy to reference. The maps at the end of the adventure were quite beautifully done, and used the "tilted 3-D view" that I personally like (thank you Chris Boll!). A new monster (Soul Nibbler) and a new template (Shade) are introduced, and a new feat (Anchored Spell). As far as technical information, the adventure weighs in at 36 pages, with an additional 8 pages of appendices, maps, and a player handout. Interior art is black and white, with a vertical skull banner in the margins.
This quote from the introduction sums up the story in a very basic way: "...What Evil Lurks is an adventure that draws the PCs into a complex and passionate story that harries them from dungeon catacombs to the far reaches of the multiverse. In order to invoke a broad spectrum of emotional responses from both the DM and the players, the settings and NPCs of the adventure represent the extremes of right and wrong, joy and anguish, light and dark. However the story ultimately concludes, everyone should come away from the gaming table with a new perspective on adventuring...and a new name for evil."
This is a dark adventure, and PCs of good alignment will have no problem finding foes within. That said, the players of good PCs might have some trouble with the situations presented. There are some sections of the adventure where good detective work will be important. This is not as simple as "Line up the bad guys, we're here to do justice!" The players will need to determine who they should trust, who they need to help, and how they need to help them. There are some moral questions that need to be resolved before the conclusion. Simply killing the main bad (?) guy is not going to complete this adventure. There are many situations that need to be resolved through good role playing, as hack and slash will not get the PCs to the conclusion.
However, for those of you concerned by the need for role playing, never fear! There is a healthy amount of combat that will be necessary to complete this story. One of the interesting things about this module is that a truly well balanced party will have the easiest time negotiating the storyline. There are times when forest PCs will be helpful, and times when 'cosmopolitan' PCs will have the advantage. A party must work together well to face the trials presented.