WARNING: Spoilers in abundance below!
Beyond All Reason is a D20 fantasy adventure module that's designed for use with Dungeons & Dragons, Third Edition and meant for four 13th level characters. The adventure takes place on the frontier of Kalendia, Fiery Dragon's in-house campaign setting, and it concerns the sudden aggression of the isolationist Jirockk clan of fire giants. If the PCs defeat all of the challenges put before them in this module, then they may attain 15th level.
Unlike previous modules, there are no counters included within. Some will lament their exclusion, but I like it; now that Fiery Dragon has two of their Counter Collection line of playing aides on the shelves, this feature is no longer necessary. The margins bordering the text remain thin, so there's plenty of meaty text and maps in these 72 pages. The maps are quite useable, but the keys sometimes don't match up; GMs need to take the time to note the errors, lest a slip happen during gameplay. The artwork is quite good inside and on the covers; you get the feel for the region and the action, which aids a GM greatly in presenting the module to his players.
(Note: Now come the spoilers.)
The module assumes that the PCs begin at the Castle of the Delta's Ram, just after the giants' assault and subsequent desertions. The winter season just set in, so it will quite some time before the warmth of spring returns to the frontier. The identity of the fire giant clan, and their stronghold, is known to the NPCs who command the castle. So is the news of the giants' raids throughout the region. What isn't is why the giants--who are usually content to stay to themselves--suddenly became aggressive, and well into the worst time of year for them. This is what the PCs are to discern.
It is wisely assumed that the PCs will do the following: question the castle garrison and command so they may ascertain the situation, look at the known information about the giants and their activities, and then scry upon the giants and their likely targets to see what they plan next. Once informed, the PCs will execute a plan of action that will lead them to solving the problem right quick.
The course of the module assumes that the PCs will travel overland in the winterland of the frontier. Along the way, they'll encounter the giants and some of their unusual allies. These encounters add to the pile of clues that the PCs gather towards solving the mystery, until a critical mass arises and the PCs make some key connections. Once done, they make a few alliances with the other pockets of remaining regional resistance and take down the would-be Evil Overlord and his nascient Legions of Terror. In other words, this module assumes the same sort of structure that one expects of a module meant for PCs who have no access to effective scrying and teleportation magics. This is the fatal flaw, and it breaks the scenario.
The early phase of the adventure begins at a frontier fortress of Kalendia, the Castle of the Delta's Ram. This is the last reported assault by the Jirockk fire giants and the source of the desertions. While the module assumes that the PCs will inquire as to recent events and gather intelligence regarding the Jirockk clan, it does not account for the consequences of the PCs acquiring reliable data on where the Jirockk stronghold is or the pattern of their raids.
The playtest (using D&D's Iconics) skipped ahead several steps when Mialee used scrying spells to ascertain the current status of the giant clan and their allies. First, the PCs skipped all of the random encounters between the castle and the ruined ranch of a well known regional druidess by teleporting directly to the site. After they slaughtered the giants, there was a three-man tagteam as Jozan used a speak with dead spell to allow Lidda and Mialee to help him to interrogate the giants' ghosts. The ghosts, free of the mind control, told them everything: the initial encounter with the mind flayer, the psi-tech bioweapon called "The Drone" that uses mutant bees as the delivery system for a mind-controlling poison and how the flayer wants to extend his control through poisoned honey mead.
With this information in hand, the PCs talked to the druidesses' two assistants. They helped the PCs confirm the poison angle and get the surviving information out of the ranch's house. The PCs returned to the castle, sussed out the poisoned mead and had the NPCs in command take care of the mead problem. Thus ended the immediate threat that the mind flayer posed to Kalendia, but the giant problem remained.
That's what the playtest group did. Here's how it ought to go, in brief, as the module presents things: treck through the frontier winterland, encounter some random groups of monsters, encounter a weird athach/ettin couple and then arrive at the druidess' ranch. There's no interrogating the dead, and the living won't cooperate, so there's nothing to do but kill them or release them so the PCs can track them back to some base camp. Travel time through cold winter conditions is about a week or more, on average, one-way. Contacting the castle isn't considered, but flying is: it provokes the chance of entering combat with the pet red dragon of the Jirockk clan.
Already I see a lack of accounting for magical resources accessable by 13th level characters. The threat of cold weather ends with the casting of a resist elements spell, and the travel time withers with the use of teleportation and flying spells. None of the NPCs that would oppose the PCs have any means to counter the PCs array of magic at their disposal; the only reason that the giants are a threat is that they have triple-digit hit point scores. The inability to keep information from the PCs due to the PCs' magical resources is another glitch; this module operates under the assumption that the PCs won't find out what the deal is until well into the module. That can't happen when the cleric speaks with the dead and the rogue sweet-talks the ghosts into spilling their guts (as it were). As a result, a week of game time collapses into a day or two.
The next phase of the module puts the PCs into the giants' homeland of the Mattadin Valley, wherein the volcanic Uffatos Strath is on the far side. The plan calls for the PCs to start at the Jirocck war camp, rescue the yuan-ti held captive there and make an alliance with the local yuan-ti enclave against the Jirockk. The playtest quartet did go this route, but only after scrying the giant's stronghold and discerning the likely location of the hive. They ambushed the camp at dawn, used summon monster spells to back up their numbers and quickly overwhelmed the camp. They found the yuan-ti captives, struck the bargain and then released the yuan-ti. After that, they returned to the castle to make their next move.
This is the case for the entirety of the module. The PCs are meant to trek across the valley, make nice with the yuan-ti and then get to the fortress. The dungeon crawl begins there, and the PCs (with their allies) are supposed to sneak or fight their way through it to get to the hive. Of course, this isn't exactly how the playtest went down.
The group met the yuan-ti, who came in force, near the south tower of the fortress. With the aide of the PCs' massive magical resources, the yuan-ti quickly tied down the garrison while the PCs rushed into the fortress. Jozan used a find the path spell to find the way to the hive, and then cast a etherealness spell so that they could just run directly to the hive without having to deal with the intervening levels. Once in the hive, it was a pitched battle--the only one in the adventure for them--against the mind flayer. First down was the queen bee of the hive, which severed the link that allowed the flayer to control it, followed by the flayer. (This was pure luck, as it failed a Fortitude save vs. massive damage after Lidda's sneak attack did 51 points of damage.) After that, it was a big mop-up operation.
Of course, this isn't at all how it's assumed to go. The scenario assumes that the PCs will struggle their way through the fortress and then to the hive, allowing the mind flayer plenty of time to prepare for them. The first magic-using foes saw some screen time at this point, but since the mind control was (de facto) gone it became an opportunity to parley. The PCs pointed out the obvious--that they saved the giants from lifelong thralldom, and that the yuan-ti are far more of a threat--and escaped. After the battle between the giants and the yuan-ti ended, the PCs returned to the castle and enjoyed success.
The enemies' magical resources were not enough to stop the PCs from scrying them at will, teleporting everywhere at will or penetrating the center of their fortress. Nevermind their information-gathering abilities at this level; the PCs mobility alone was enough cut short this scenario. The rest follows from there.
Now, it's not that the scenario isn't tough. If the PCs don't have any such magics, then it's going to be very tough going indeed. That isn't a wise assumption in high-level scenario, as no less than Monte Cook pointed out recently, so adventures should be built with these capabilities in mind. If this adventure were for 8th-10th level PCs, that would be ideal. I won't say that this is a horrible module, but it does need some work by the GM to patch the lapses in the abilities of the NPCs.
The flaws really hurt the module, but it's worthy of your consideration anyway. It's still meaty, classy and workable; it's just not ready as written.
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