The Inside Scoop on Gaming

The Banewarrens is a D&D Third Edition (3e) adventure for characters of 6th to 10th level. It features a number of factions seeking to penetrate an ancient complex storing evil items and artifacts. The PCs have a number of reasons to enter the dungeon, and they must also prevent other factions from taking possession of the powerful magic within.

What's It About

The characters are in the city of Ptolus when they run afoul of a strange dark elf who inadvertently curses bystanders with random magical powers. The elf has escaped from the Banewarrens, an old repository of evil magic and artifacts thought lost long ago. Four factions want to penetrate or reseal the Banewarrens: the Inverted Pyramid (a powerful arcane society), the Church of Lothian (a powerful religion associated with the rulers of Ptolus), the Pactlords of the Quann (an association of monsters determined to wipe out humanoid life), and House Vladaam (a powerful fiend-associated house in Ptolus).

The Inverted Pyramid is named after its lair, an invisible pyramid hanging over the city of Ptolus. Its main concern is to preserve arcane knowledge and practitioners from those who would destroy them. They wish to reseal the Banewarrens, so that others can not gain access to the magic within and threaten them. There is a specific artifact within the Banewarrens called the sword of truth that is especially deadly to arcanists, and they wish to make sure that it falls into no one's hands.

The Church of Lothian is a powerful religion closely associated with the Imperial government. It wishes to recover the tainted sword of lies from the Banewarrens and restore it to further the glory of the church. They have no direct interest in the complex otherwise.

The Pactlords of the Quann is a multi-dimensional organization of monsters determined to purge the world of humanoids. As a means to this end, they seek the Black Grail, a powerful evil artifact buried deep in the Banewarrens. They opened the Banewarrens and are gathering information to penetrate further into the complex.

House Vladaam is one of the ten ruling houses of Ptolus. House Vladaam wants to awaken an ancient demon race, the Natharl'nacna. They are said to be buried deep in the earth below the Banewarrens. They want to find a way there through the Banewarrens and possess a key to part of the Banewarrens.

The adventure is divided up into chapters that represent different locations. They are fairly self-contained, so that the order they are completed depends largely on the decisions of the PCs. The first chapter is the discovery of the opening of the Banewarrens and the PCs being approached by the factions. The second chapter is the meandering passage dug from Ptolus to the outer vault of the Banewarrens. The third chapter is the Broken Seal area of the Banewarrens. There the PCs can fight a Quaan team trying to get into the dungeon and learn more about the Church of Lothian. Unfortunately, to get farther into the Banewarrens requires a wish spell or a special key in the possession of House Vladaam. The fourth chapter covers breaking into House Vladaam to get the key that they possess. They may do this in the company of a disguised Navanna Vladaam, who wants them to steal the key to avoid suspicion. The fifth chapter is the Outer Vaults of the Banewarrens, which the PCs enter with the aid of the Banewarrens key or following whoever has the key. To go farther, they must pass through another sealed door. Chapter six is a description of the Belfry, the headquarters of Quaan traitors within the Church of Lothian. Chapter Seven describes the Quaan, the small dimension containing the headquarters of the Pact of Quaan. There the characters can recover a part of the staff required to reseal the Banewarrens permanently. Chapter Eight is the Inner Vaults. Chapter Nine is Tremoc Korin, the Baneheart, which is the section of the Banewarrens contained in the Spire towering above Ptolus. The final chapter is the The Dread One's Path, which is a multi-dimensional path that culminates in the Dread One's right-hand man, a corrupted planetar and the final part of the staff required to seal the Banewarrens.

This design is good because it is modular, and the PCs can take a number of different paths and even skip some locations. The adventure makes sense irregardless of what the PCs do, and it is easy to extrapolate the actions of the players. Unfortunately, though there is a lot of information on the plot twists and possible ramifications of PC actions, the NPCs seem to be fairly vanilla. Their motivations don't seem to be very well explored, and they end up hard to tell apart.

Names

One downside of the module is the names given to NPCs and monsters. They seem to have no rhyme or reason, and they are noticeably jarring to read. For example, the creator of the Banewarrens was once a good man, Danar Rotansin. When he was corrupted to evil, he became Eslathagos Malkith. His tower was originally called Mosul Pearl, but after it was corrupted became Jabel Shammar. What's the rhyme or reason in that? Why would anyone would name their tower after a city in Iraq and then change it to something else unpronounceable afterward? The names seem to follow no pattern and are frequently hard to pronounce. There are a lot of NPCs in this module, and I had difficulty finding any clear pattern, except that demi-humans had english last names, like Ravenspell, Farsong, etc. This module seems to exhibit a common problem in fantasy novels of names that don't make sense or go together, and it really started to bother me as I was reading it.

Design

The visual design of the module is excellent. It is very clear, sidebars are obvious, and there isn't an overuse of color that makes text hard to read. The text is small and there is a lot of it. All of the design is distinctive but doesn't take too much space. Sections and chapters are clearly marked and easy to follow. In addition, as an added bonus, there are a series of half-page illustrations to show to the players, just like in the old TSR mega-modules.

Art

The art is mixed. The cover art shows PCs under attack in a tower by a vrock holding an enchanted sword in its hands, while one of the PCs holds a huge yellow glowing trident. It's a good picture and it displays a scene from the module well, except the vrock doesn't have a sword. The 16 half-page illustrations are a great tool, but the quality in them varies greatly. The one featuring the kyton is terrible - the chains on the kyton have no depth or texture and look very cartoonish. The picture of the doomwalker and the hall of statues are far better. I like that Malhavoc had several different artists and had them all create different illustrations. It gave a variety to the illustrations and accentuated the different feel of each chapter.

Extras

There are a number of extras in the module. For example, a new type of werewolf is presented that acts as a template over the normal form when it shifts to template form. I liked this werewolf more than the original in the Monster Manual. In the appendix at the end of the adventure, there are a number of different magic items (mostly evil) of varying power. In addition, there are four new creatures: the banebrute, betrayed, thought stalker, and winter harridan. The banebrute is a monstrous humanoid that turns its opponents into banebrutes. The betrayed is a specialized vampire that results when a cleric feels totally betrayed by their god and faith. While it is an interesting concept, the problem is that this should have been written as a template, like the standard vampire. The thought stalker is a modified troll that can detect thoughts and move ethereally. This could also have easily been a template. The winter harridan is just a modified air elemental.

Necessary Features

One problem with this module is that it requires two other supplements from Malhavoc Press: The Book of Eldrich Might I and II. Many NPCs use the variant bard or sorcerer classes from BoeMII, not to mention the use of variant prestige classes. Spells and magic items from the two supplements are liberally sprinkled through the module, and no real effort is made to explain the BoeM spells and magic items or offer alternatives. The worst example of this is the Black Grail, desired by the Pactlords of the Quaan and located in the Banewarrens, and yet nothing of its purpose or powers is explained in the module. If you were willing to do so, you could run this module without those features, but you would have to replace some spells and items, and depending on how finicky you are, rewrite some NPCs.

Conclusion

The Banewarrens is a complex, multi-threaded module that features dungeon-delving and many other elements. It is a vast improvement over Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil. It is probably the best dungeon-oriented adventure you are likely to see in a while, but it does have some slight faults.

The Banewarrens
The Banewarrens Capsule Review by James Landry on 04/11/02 Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 4 (Meaty) A well-crafted dungeon module with different environments. Get it if you like your 3e spiced up with dungeon goodness. Product: The Banewarrens Author: Monte Cook Category: RPG Company/Publisher: Malhavoc Press Line: Sword and Sorcery 3e Cost: 17.95 Page count: 128 Year published: 2002 ISBN: 1-58846-103-3 SKU: WW16111 Comp copy?: yes Capsule Review by James Landry on 04/11/02 Genre tags: Fantasy	The Banewarrens is a D&D Third Edition (3e) adventure for characters of 6th to 10th level. It features a number of factions seeking to penetrate an ancient complex storing evil items and artifacts. The PCs have a number of reasons to enter the dungeon, and they must also prevent other factions from taking possession of the powerful magic within. What's It About The characters are in the city of Ptolus when they run afoul of a strange dark elf who inadvertently curses bystanders with random magical powers. The elf has escaped from the Banewarrens, an old repository of evil magic and artifacts thought lost long ago. Four factions want to penetrate or reseal the Banewarrens: the Inverted Pyramid (a powerful arcane society), the Church of Lothian (a powerful religion associated with the rulers of Ptolus), the Pactlords of the Quann (an association of monsters determined to wipe out humanoid life), and House Vladaam (a powerful fiend-associated house in Ptolus). The Inverted Pyramid is named after its lair, an invisible pyramid hanging over the city of Ptolus. Its main concern is to preserve arcane knowledge and practitioners from those who would destroy them. They wish to reseal the Banewarrens, so that others can not gain access to the magic within and threaten them. There is a specific artifact within the Banewarrens called the sword of truth that is especially deadly to arcanists, and they wish to make sure that it falls into no one's hands. The Church of Lothian is a powerful religion closely associated with the Imperial government. It wishes to recover the tainted sword of lies from the Banewarrens and restore it to further the glory of the church. They have no direct interest in the complex otherwise. The Pactlords of the Quann is a multi-dimensional organization of monsters determined to purge the world of humanoids. As a means to this end, they seek the Black Grail, a powerful evil artifact buried deep in the Banewarrens. They opened the Banewarrens and are gathering information to penetrate further into the complex. House Vladaam is one of the ten ruling houses of Ptolus. House Vladaam wants to awaken an ancient demon race, the Natharl'nacna. They are said to be buried deep in the earth below the Banewarrens. They want to find a way there through the Banewarrens and possess a key to part of the Banewarrens. The adventure is divided up into chapters that represent different locations. They are fairly self-contained, so that the order they are completed depends largely on the decisions of the PCs. The first chapter is the discovery of the opening of the Banewarrens and the PCs being approached by the factions. The second chapter is the meandering passage dug from Ptolus to the outer vault of the Banewarrens. The third chapter is the Broken Seal area of the Banewarrens. There the PCs can fight a Quaan team trying to get into the dungeon and learn more about the Church of Lothian. Unfortunately, to get farther into the Banewarrens requires a wish spell or a special key in the possession of House Vladaam. The fourth chapter covers breaking into House Vladaam to get the key that they possess. They may do this in the company of a disguised Navanna Vladaam, who wants them to steal the key to avoid suspicion. The fifth chapter is the Outer Vaults of the Banewarrens, which the PCs enter with the aid of the Banewarrens key or following whoever has the key. To go farther, they must pass through another sealed door. Chapter six is a description of the Belfry, the headquarters of Quaan traitors within the Church of Lothian. Chapter Seven describes the Quaan, the small dimension containing the headquarters of the Pact of Quaan. There the characters can recover a part of the staff required to reseal the Banewarrens permanently. Chapter Eight is the Inner Vaults. Chapter Nine is Tremoc Korin, the Baneheart, which is the section of the Banewarrens contained in the Spire towering above Ptolus. The final chapter is the The Dread One's Path, which is a multi-dimensional path that culminates in the Dread One's right-hand man, a corrupted planetar and the final part of the staff required to seal the Banewarrens. This design is good because it is modular, and the PCs can take a number of different paths and even skip some locations. The adventure makes sense irregardless of what the PCs do, and it is easy to extrapolate the actions of the players. Unfortunately, though there is a lot of information on the plot twists and possible ramifications of PC actions, the NPCs seem to be fairly vanilla. Their motivations don't seem to be very well explored, and they end up hard to tell apart. Names One downside of the module is the names given to NPCs and monsters. They seem to have no rhyme or reason, and they are noticeably jarring to read. For example, the creator of the Banewarrens was once a good man, Danar Rotansin. When he was corrupted to evil, he became Eslathagos Malkith. His tower was originally called Mosul Pearl, but after it was corrupted became Jabel Shammar. What's the rhyme or reason in that? Why would anyone would name their tower after a city in Iraq and then change it to something else unpronounceable afterward? The names seem to follow no pattern and are frequently hard to pronounce. There are a lot of NPCs in this module, and I had difficulty finding any clear pattern, except that demi-humans had english last names, like Ravenspell, Farsong, etc. This module seems to exhibit a common problem in fantasy novels of names that don't make sense or go together, and it really started to bother me as I was reading it. Design The visual design of the module is excellent. It is very clear, sidebars are obvious, and there isn't an overuse of color that makes text hard to read. The text is small and there is a lot of it. All of the design is distinctive but doesn't take too much space. Sections and chapters are clearly marked and easy to follow. In addition, as an added bonus, there are a series of half-page illustrations to show to the players, just like in the old TSR mega-modules. Art The art is mixed. The cover art shows PCs under attack in a tower by a vrock holding an enchanted sword in its hands, while one of the PCs holds a huge yellow glowing trident. It's a good picture and it displays a scene from the module well, except the vrock doesn't have a sword. The 16 half-page illustrations are a great tool, but the quality in them varies greatly. The one featuring the kyton is terrible - the chains on the kyton have no depth or texture and look very cartoonish. The picture of the doomwalker and the hall of statues are far better. I like that Malhavoc had several different artists and had them all create different illustrations. It gave a variety to the illustrations and accentuated the different feel of each chapter. Extras There are a number of extras in the module. For example, a new type of werewolf is presented that acts as a template over the normal form when it shifts to template form. I liked this werewolf more than the original in the Monster Manual. In the appendix at the end of the adventure, there are a number of different magic items (mostly evil) of varying power. In addition, there are four new creatures: the banebrute, betrayed, thought stalker, and winter harridan. The banebrute is a monstrous humanoid that turns its opponents into banebrutes. The betrayed is a specialized vampire that results when a cleric feels totally betrayed by their god and faith. While it is an interesting concept, the problem is that this should have been written as a template, like the standard vampire. The thought stalker is a modified troll that can detect thoughts and move ethereally. This could also have easily been a template. The winter harridan is just a modified air elemental. Necessary Features One problem with this module is that it requires two other supplements from Malhavoc Press: The Book of Eldrich Might I and II. Many NPCs use the variant bard or sorcerer classes from BoeMII, not to mention the use of variant prestige classes. Spells and magic items from the two supplements are liberally sprinkled through the module, and no real effort is made to explain the BoeM spells and magic items or offer alternatives. The worst example of this is the Black Grail, desired by the Pactlords of the Quaan and located in the Banewarrens, and yet nothing of its purpose or powers is explained in the module. If you were willing to do so, you could run this module without those features, but you would have to replace some spells and items, and depending on how finicky you are, rewrite some NPCs. Conclusion The Banewarrens is a complex, multi-threaded module that features dungeon-delving and many other elements. It is a vast improvement over Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil. It is probably the best dungeon-oriented adventure you are likely to see in a while, but it does have some slight faults.