Dzeebagd: Under Dark and Misty Ground is a d20 System module from Troll Lord Games, intended for 4-6 characters of levels 2-4. The layout consists of two columns, with read-alouds, character names, and encounter titles in boldface and everything else in normal type. It's utilitarian, but nothing else. A few bits of average-quality black-and-white art break up the text here and there. I like the wizard in the turban. Sections of "referee's advice" and background information on the game world are screened against crudely drawn pictures of flags, and range from the useful (tips on how to handle wild animal encounters) to the why-do-I-need-to-know-this? (most of the game world info).
[Warning: From here on I proceed to spoil pretty much the entire plot of Dzeebagd. If you are playing, or will play, the module, please stop reading and go do something else. Fair is fair, after all.]
Unfortunately, the text is riddled with typographical errors and sloppy writing. One of the most blatant examples is that the leader of the bandit gang that opposes the PCs is a member of a race called the Ungern - but the module tells us nothing at all about the Ungern except that they're "foul creatures." He's got a "gore" attack listed among his stats, so maybe he's a kind of minotaur? Who knows? In the dungeon, the PCs can find 250 pounds of ingots of an unnamed rare white metal "used in making the finest weapons and metal implements." What are they worth? Beats me. And so on and so forth. There are plenty of lesser but still annoying mistakes (a reference to "type C poison," a bandit who uses a spiked chain in combat despite not having the appropriate Exotic Weapon Proficiency, und so weiter) that should have been caught and fixed before printing.
Another flaw in Dzeebagd's presentation: just reading the names makes my head hurt. The author seems to have gone out of his way to make goblinish names as unpronounceable as possible; besides Dzeebagd itself, the text is filled with beauties like Glizzd, Kleejd, Jzunad, Zjerd, and my favorite, Kdyzj. Apparently the goblins in this world are still learning the art of vowelsmithing. Fortunately, there's a small pronunciation guide in the back of the book, but it'll take a lot of tongue gymnastics if you actually plan to use these names. I'm also not terribly fond of the practice of sticking apostrophes in the middle of names to make them look more "fantasy-ish," so you can probably imagine what I thought when faced with stuff like Geis' tot, Ban' Thout, Nipt' Than, Krung' Thep, Me' enup, and so forth (and no, I don't know why there's a space after every apostrophe either). The brain-numbing effect of reading page after page of this kind of thing cannot be understated. The human names have a Teutonic flavor, a la Warhammer, and are mostly inoffensive - though the name of the marshy region where the adventure takes place, Dampfrat, immediately summoned images of a bunch of Kappa Gammas stuck out in the rain, which I doubt is what the author intended.
The adventure itself? It's your basic "go into the dangerous area and rescue the innocent person" plot. Although the back cover claims the genre is "grim realism," it's no more grim or realistic than most other D&D adventures. Evana (or Evanna, depending on which page you're reading) Rothenheimer, who is repeatedly called a princess even though her family seems to be simply a wealthy merchant clan, has been kidnapped by bandits and taken into the Dampfrat. The bandits have stopped at Dzeebagd, a tumbledown fort currently occupied by a band of goblins, and intend to leave Evana there for safekeeping while they go arrange to collect her ransom. So far, so good. The PCs' search for Evana started in the first module of this series, Vakhund: Into the Unknown, but even if you haven't played that one, it's fairly easy to pick up the plot here - always a plus.
The PCs cross through a mountain pass and into the Dampfrat, a snowy, swampy upland kept warm and foggy by numerous hot springs and geysers. It's an intriguing idea for a setting, but the module doesn't really do much with it beyond background color. So what do the PCs find here? Wandering monsters. Lots of 'em. The module recommends eight or nine checks a day. I have nothing in particular against wandering monsters - some of my best friends are wandering monsters - and the text gives full stats and suggestions on how to run each encounter, but having the early stage of the adventure thrown together at random only emphasizes the shapeless nature of the adventure.
The one and only fixed encounter in this section comes four or five days into the trip, ten pages into the book. It involves a group of evil red lizard men - I'm using the above-mentioned names as little as possible - who are hunting a group of good blue lizard men who just happen to have holed up in Dzeebagd's dungeon. Assuming they and the PCs don't come to blows at first sight, the red lizards will try to hire the PCs to kill the blues for them - for a fee of 50 gp. Do you think your players would agree to kill a group of complete strangers for another group of complete strangers for a crummy 50 gold? I know I wouldn't - and if the reward was increased, it'd only give me more reason to suspect I was being roped into something. If the PCs decline the offer, as they probably will, the red lizards will "attack the characters whenever possible" during their stay in the Dampfrat. Unfortunately, the module only gives the fuzziest suggestions on how to set up or run these attacks. An inexperienced DM might easily wipe out the party here, since there are 28 of the red lizards, far too many for a second- or third-level party to handle if they attack en masse.
Finally (after some more wandering monsters), the PCs reach Dzeebagd. Soon after they arrive, the bandits, a group of four fifth-level characters, leave the fort, split into two groups, and start heading back to civilization. The module suggests it would be a bad idea if the PCs attacked either of them, but I can't imagine any group of PCs worth their salt not trying an ambush - and despite the module's warnings about what dangerous combatants the bandits are, the average party should be able to whip two of them without too much effort.
The module also suggests that the number of goblins in Dzeebagd be adjusted to match the strength of the party. Fair enough - but it gives no guidelines on how many goblins might provide a challenge for a given party. And there's not much in the way of ideas on how the goblins might react if attacked - the module says they'll keep at least one man on watch at all times, they'll send off runners to get help, and they won't fight to the last man, and that's it. Besides that, you get a simplistic map of the fort (palisade here, tower here, well here) and the goblin stats. Everything else is up to the DM to determine.
Presumably, though, the PCs will eventually beat the goblins and find Evana. Evana has gotten in touch with her hidden potential as a result of the kidnapping and become a first-level sorcerer, a neat twist on the standard damsel in distress that can be a springboard to making her into a strong recurring NPC. But here we run into one of the bigger flaws in the module's plot - there's absolutely no reason for the PCs to go into the dungeon, assuming they haven't agreed to do the red lizards' dirty work, and every reason not to. They've just overcome the goblins in a tough fight, they have no idea when the bandits will be back (assuming they allowed them to get away without ambushing them), the goblins have probably sent off runners to get reinforcements, and they've finally rescued Evana. So why risk their lives and the reward waiting for them by climbing down the well and doing some dungeon crawling? But if they don't go down, then over half the book will go to waste. It's not like it would have been hard to plot around that - perhaps Evana used her newfound powers to slip away from the goblins and hid in the dungeon. If you want to tie everything together, then just assume she's met the blue lizards and been taken under their protection.
As one would expect in a swamp, the dungeon is partly flooded. Short or heavily armored PCs, or ones without the Swim skill, would be well advised to tread carefully, making for a nice change from the standard-issue ten-by-ten stone corridors. And there are a few interesting encounters and objects to be found down there, including an overprotective ogre skeleton, a magic pen that makes mapping much easier, and a fresh slant on that old chestnut, the gargoyle statue that animates. But generally there's not a lot of adventure or treasure to be found in the dungeon, just lots of rats, spiders, and snakes. And, of course, the blue lizard men, who are so well concealed that the PCs will likely never stumble across them on their own. It's up to the DM (again) how and when to lead the PCs to them. Once that occurs, the PCs will probably befriend the blues and their partially fallen paladin leader, who will cheerfully hand his magic sword over to a good-aligned PC - apparently regardless of whether or not the PCs decide to help them fight the reds. Now that's being charitable.
The climax of the module is intended to be a fight between the blue lizard men and the remaining red lizard men, with the PCs presumably fighting on the side of blue righteousness. Fine and dandy - but once again, there are no suggestions on how to set up or run this fight. I realize there are a lot of variables to juggle, such as how many of the red lizards the PCs have killed, how they travel through the dungeon, how they plan to leave Dzeebagd, and such - but it's still irritating for the author to casually declare what the climax should be like in one paragraph in the middle of the book and then leave all the details up to the DM. There are also only vague hints on how to run the PCs' and Evana's journey back to civilization if you don't plan to use the next module in this series. Well, you can always throw more wandering monsters at them, I suppose.
At base, Dzeebagd is a perfectly serviceable adventure, and there's nothing wrong with it that an experienced DM can't fix. But, as a DM, I have to ask: if I have to do this much preparation to make the adventure workable, then why am I shelling out seven smackers for it in the first place? When I buy a module, I want something that I can quickly file the serial numbers off and drop into my game world with a minimum of fuss to cover those times when I have nothing prepared. By that standard, Dzeebagd falls short.
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