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Scales of War, Part 6

“Our eyes are open, our fists are closed. Our walls are stone, our shields are steel. Our faces are many, our soul is dwarf. And thus is there no foe against whom Overlook cannot stand” It is an ancient Overlook proverb – some would call it a prayer – and it’s about to be put to the ultimate test

Cast your mind back. It’s the holiday season last year and you’re reminiscing about the adventures you’ve been a part of all through the year. You’re thinking about Scales of War, what’s been good, what could have been better. You’re wondering about some of those loose plot threads and what things will look like in the paragon tier. While you’re pondering these weighty issues, Dungeon #161 comes online and you idly hit the download link. It’s big. Its 68 pages. It’s by Ari Marmell. It’s 9th level. And is that a githyanki riding a dragon on the cover? Well that’s different...

The meat

It’s the last knockings of the heroic tier and the adventure path decides to take a decidedly different approach to its instalments. We are promised urban investigation, dungeons and outright war, which, frankly, pushes all my buttons. First, we have to get our heads round a whole lot of plot and bring it all together into an appropriate tier finale. Turns out the Elsir Vale is not just a Tolkienesque collection of farms, fields and industrious peasants and lords. It’s also riddled with portals to the other planes. Players will have already encountered one such portal to the Shadowfell, and there are others still to explore. That makes the Vale a strategic jumping off point for warlike powers and it’s the githyanki who are behind the adventure path’s shenanigans to date. They desire the Vale and its portals, and they are led by a General Zithiruun whose mission it is to make this incursion a success. He has his own masters to report to, and they will not be revealed until later in the path. Usually I find this kind of secrecy annoying, but here we’re promised plenty of resolutions so it’s not such a biggie.

It’s all about a place called Mountainroot temple, a kind of ultimate temple to Moradin, not just for dwarves, but for anyone. As is the way of these things, the temple fell into ruin following an earthquake ages past. The priests took the chance to grab many of the treasures and flee, never to return. All except for the most faithful, who came back and set up the post of caretaker of the temple. This caretaker controls the temples remaining defences, and maintains a solitary watch on behalf of Moradin. The temple is anchored to Overlook by the Stone Anvil, a temple built within the city bounds. This is great background for adventure. It taps into 4e’s assumed world building ethos, with the notion of countless ruined civilisations. We now have a compelling location, all we need is a villain.

The Big Z

Enter General Zithiruun the Broken. It’s worth flipping all the way to the back of the adventure to get the full skinny on this guy. He was once a big deal in the Gith community but fell from grace following defeat at the claws of a scourge dragon, who managed to burn most of the Generals body away, as well as effectively turning his red dragon steed into a mindless undead brute. So the general has seen better days and is seeking to drag himself back up the slippery pole of Gith society. His schemes involve taking down Overlook. To do that, he has a cunning plan. He has mercenary forces waiting in the wilds for his signal. Within the city proper he has installed puppets, mind controlled movers and shakers within Overlook. These host bodies contain Githyanki possessors who control their every move. What they can’t do however, is access the hosts memories. Which means that High Priest Durkik doesn’t get possessed, he gets the torture treatment instead.

This plot-in-a-page has me licking my lips with anticipation. I’m actually wondering how Ari is going to pull this off, what encounters will tell this story? A common pitfall in adventures is to have a superb backstory, but little of it actually emerges at the game table. At the conclusion of this adventure, will the players be any the wiser? Only time (and the rest of this review) will tell.

The usual preamble

  As usual we get the standard intro pages, how to run the adventure, how to customise it etc. We also get the treasure parcel chart, and as usual, it’s confusing. The text says 17 parcels, the table shows only 13. (This is because there are 4 parcels to be given out during the skill challenges) However, in a change from the norm, the monetary treasure is listed as specific gems and jewellery, a nice touch.

Then it’s into the adventure proper. There’s a few hooks presented, but essentially all you have to do is get the party back to Overlook, once you’ve done that the adventure gets into gear. The big Maguffin from the last instalment wanders off to look after her own plans. Let’s hope your party let that particular loose end remain so, there’s no further development here. What is developed is the city of Overlook. To be honest, it would be worth going back to Siege where the city got its first outing and reacquainting yourself with the place. There’s going to be a fair amount of time spent here, about two thirds of the whole adventure. Obviously it’s a much more open environment than the standard corridor and room set up you may have been used to in the path so far, and that means you’ll need to prepare to improvise. There’s a very handy overview of the essential locations, and I’d recommend having it to hand when you run the big investigation piece later on.

There are a couple of points the DM must hit early on, the first being an appearance by an NPC with a big part to play later on. Captain Aerun is leading work teams to fortify the city, and it’s vital he chats to the party as they approach. If you’ve got this far through my review you’ll know there are plenty of spoilers, prepare yourselves for more. The good captain is one of the possessed, so now you know. The author adopts a conversational tone in this section, and it’s one I appreciate. It’s like a chat between one DM and another, with gentle advice and reminders about time keeping. It makes it an easier read, less textbook like and more like an unfolding tale. As the adventure begins the party will be hooked into investigating the disappearance of a priest, Haelyn. There’s lots of flavour describing the parties wandering through town, most of which flag up later events. This is good to see. Too often the plot and the bad guys are only known to the DM and arrive as a total surprise to the players. These little signs and portents give the adventure just that little more depth and richness. For example, in a conversation with a priest she mentions four other priests and their gods by name. This fills in a little bit of the world’s background, and in fact becomes part of the adventure’s foreground later on. Very subtle, and very clever.

Finally in this intro Ari (can I call you Ari?) advises that the party don’t adopt violence as their first and only solution to any obstacles they encounter in the city. This is backed up by a priest of Erathis. I sense this advice might need underlining, we’ve just had 8 levels of (largely) hack and slash encounters where extreme violence is not only necessary but encouraged. Still, maybe your players are more diplomatic than mine!

Actually this is a genuine concern. The investigation is reliant on groups that are proactive, observant and perceptive, and that’s just the players. Even the DM gets a cheat sheet to stay on top of the clues, and that means the players will need to be the sort that takes notes. For example, the scene in the Stone Anvil needs characters who will question NPCs about the untidiness of the place. That’s pretty subtle, especially for the type of D&D experience exemplified by the rest of the path so far. Your players will also need good memories. They meet Megan Swiftblade at the temple of Moradin. She is the leader of the Freeriders, and it’s been a while since they’ve encountered them. It’s good to see these ties to previous instalments though, so it’s not a criticism. Similarly there’s a run in with one of the Ironfell clan (last seen in Lost Mines of Karak). This is another chance for interaction with the world and the city, good to see.

The Coolness Continues

Another neat story trick is at the Shrine of Erathis. There’s plenty of adventure to be had with a visit. There’s NPCs to talk to, body language to decipher and, if you can do it, good reason to return at night looking for mischief. Should that happen you’ll be reaching for the battlemat for the first time in the adventure. In this way the location gets a double dip, and the tactical map reflects that with forces and dispositions marked according to the way the characters approach the scene. Already I’m getting a sense that this isn’t a run of the mill adventure, and all the better for that.

There’s also a second bite of the cherry with Captain Aerun if the characters decide to go to the authorities. He tries to give them the brush off, but it allows the PCs a first real chance to sense that something is afoot. In fact, it’s essential that they follow up on these suspicions in order to get a full idea of what’s actually happening. As DM you’ll need to keep an eye of the mood at the table and keep the party interested without them getting too interested, not at all easy! There is another way to proceed through the plot, and that comes from a successful fight off with some would be ambushers. So there’s actually two ways to proceed, one with combat, one without, and that’s good design.

Catch the High Priest

All this preamble leads to the heart of the conspiracy, the pursuit of the false High Priest. This is handled by means of a juicy skill challenge. It’s only a mid complexity challenge but there’s plenty of meat on the bones. There’s results for partial victory available, so it’s as much about quality as quantity. Defeat has real consequences, with a harder encounter (significantly so) but with added time to the investigation which will really matter in the latter stages of the adventure. One way or another the story will end up in a warehouse, as these things often do in urban investigations. It’s bound to come to blows and the PCs previous actions will determine exactly how hard this fight will be. The tactical map takes in the whole warehouse and it gets a full page in the PDF too. Again the author uses multiple colours to show possible enemy placements, and there’s plenty of fun to be had with the terrain too. I really like this encounter. It reminds me of Warhammer scenarios in that it’s not too out there with bizarre monsters and such, it’s a bit more down to earth but definitely fantasy. Grim and gritty? Yeah, that’s it. Should the party prevail there’s a chance to get a fuller picture of what’s going on by interrogating the survivors. In fact, that’s called out as a valid tactic earlier in the adventure too and it’s good to see provision for multiple play approaches.

There’s a rescue to perform, as the real High Priest is under the warehouse. To reach him, the PCs must get past a nasty trap. The stats for this are in the main body of the adventure, not in the tactical section which is a formatting decision I like. It’s rare to see standalone traps in 4e, and frankly I miss them. Played right they can be a good change of pace and fully engaging at the same time. This is a neat one, it’s obviously to see, in fact you can’t miss it, but it needs creativity and some good rolls to defeat. This could have been a skill challenge I guess, but it works really well as it is. Once freed, the High Priest (or his spirit if things went awry) will fill in all the knowledge gaps and provide the impetus for the party to get to the Mountainroot temple and take on the usurpers. To get there the party will have to return to the Stone Anvil and figure out the portal contained in the sepulcher.

Mapping gone mad

The advice given is to draw out the map at this point as it’s difficult to envision. He’s not kidding. I’ve criticised the previous adventures for including maps that are difficult to recreate on your table. I could do the same here, but I think it would be churlish to do so. The maps are lovely and, crucially, they really help get across the flavour. This particular map has a look reminiscent of the teeth in cogs, it’s all very in keeping. I wonder what the system is at WotC with writers and cartographers? The portal is dealt with by way of skill challenge, with failure meaning brute force is the only option, and the adventure provides interesting opponents in the shape of animated chains. The skill challenge and the potential combat are heavily linked which makes this so much more than just a sequence of discreet encounters.  

The Mountainroot Temple

And we start with a twist. There are two competing factions within the temple and the party will have to deal with both. The General has a full squad of lackeys on hand as you’d expect. The new arrivals are a cadre of fey who are looking for an ancient tome of power. These guys will feature in future instalments, but they’re fully integrated into this adventure, they’re not just an afterthought. The best way of finding out what they’re all about is to interrogate them, and sure enough there’s a big side bar that let’s you do just that. FYI, the gith forces are well worth questioning too. Unfortunately the backstory doesn’t come out in play any other way.

There’s no way out of the temple once entered unless the place is ‘solved’ no there’s no getting round the fact that this temple has to be cleared and cleared properly. Also the party are on a deadline. I’ve mentioned this before, but there’s a victory point system used later in the scenario, and time taken is a big factor in that. I’m not sure if the party would be particularly aware of this factor, so it’s worth egging them on once they get into this part of the story.

A quick aside, in the ‘dungeon features’ section, the author makes note that all the doors have the hinges on the inside of the rooms. That made me chuckle. That’s exactly the sort of thing my players ask all the time yet published adventures rarely tell you things like this. It’s a good insight.

I’ve got to mention the maps again. They are really very good, beautiful even. The encounters are good enough that you’ll want these maps to be represented on your table as best as they can be. Be warned, Dungeon Tiles won’t be up to the job. There are multiple levels, some big open spaces and lots of interesting nooks and crannies to explore. I’m even tempted to try to work some of these up in 3D terrain just for one offs, they’re that inspiring. I’d love to hear how other groups approached this temple. How did you represent the encounters?

Room by room

The first chamber is relatively straightforward. Here the party meet the fey rearguard, though 2 of them are dwarves, which doesn’t immediately scream fey to me. These fellows are slystone ruffians, hammer wielding fey cousins to gnomes. They are fully statted out in the appendix. The tactics section mentions a power called raging stone, but I can’t see it in the stat block? I like them, but they’re not really dwarves, they don’t even speak dwarven. Given that I’m certain DMs everywhere will be using dwarf minis, I think the subtlety will be lost on most groups (the lore checks use the arcane skill). They are paired with harpies for this encounter, and it’s a pretty standard fight. As I’ve said, hopefully there will be prisoners to question to get the most out of the plot. Of real interest here are the other portals which lead to, well, wherever you like. The PCs can’t go through the portals (yet) but they can look through them. Reminds me of the classic Queen of the Demonweb Pits where doorways took you to some truly strange vistas. That’s probably just me though.

One exit from here takes you to the kitchens where there are quickling corpses to be found. This gives the dungeon a recent history and should give any party pause. During that pause it would be wise to check passive perceptions as there’s a secret door that leads to the vault and an encounter therein. Should that be found there’s a cool fight with more fey, harpies and quicklings in an environment that really favours the defenders. Don’t forget, there’s 3 treasure parcels available here, so miss out and your party will be behind on loot. Another easy miss are the underchambers. They don’t appear on the main map as they are under the main hall, but they are accessed through the kitchens. It’s a crazy encounter (it’s got marching hammers which very much appeals to the Pink Floyd fan in me) but well worth running.

The grand cathedral stands at the centre of the temple and it’s a very big encounter in more ways than one. It merits 4 pages of tactical encounter and it needs it too. It’s split over 3 levels and is about 220 feet long by 120 feet wide. Controllers? go mad. The foe comes in two waves, fey first, then the General’s forces which include a two headed troll and his spitting cousins. Once the trolls arrive, the fey split their attacks between them and the party. So we get a three way fight, not a simple proposition even for experienced DMs. There’s a helpful side bar provided, which if heeded, will make this a truly memorable encounter. It mentions using average values for damage, but they haven’t made it into the stat blocks. It’s well worth working these out for yourself in advance.

Things get tougher over to the east where there’s a level 13 encounter waiting. This area got the worst of the earthquake that brought the temple to ruin in ages past. Again, this is a mapper’s nightmare, but a well prepared DMs dream. This is the home camp of the fey, and they’re here in force. Banshrae, cyclops, slystone dwarfs, hag, it’s a fey carnival of carnage, with the potential to bring the roof down, literally. There’s interest in the tactics section too as the initial defenders make a fighting withdrawal, bringing the party onto the teeth of the second line. This is a very, very tough fight, but the party will need to do well here as it’s a safe haven to rest, and believe me when I say they’ll need it before going further. Also, the tome of power is held here, and it’s another one of those ‘all will be revealed in future instalments’ items. Hmmm. Deeper into the temple towards the final encounter in the reliquary. This is where the map will either delight you or make you want to tear your hair out. It delighted me. It’s multi level, but with the upper level having a transparent floor. That’s right. It sounds bizarre (well it is bizarre) but it’s all reasoned out in the story of the chamber. This was a kind of museum for worshippers to visit to see the artefacts and items collected by the temple. It was also the portal to the astral sea, which can still be seen but not travelled through. General Zithiruun has made his camp here, and is busy torturing the temple’s last remaining caretaker to try to control the portals. As the party enter, they’ll get a glimpse of the general before he moves away. It’s a simple scene but it’s a vital one. Again, this is foreshadowing, and it means that the later true encounter with the villain won’t be starting from cold. (There’s a very interesting observation in DMG II about the difference between RPG villains and those in comic books, and this scene makes all the more sense from a design perspective if you’ve read that).

The scene is pretty complex and rewards careful reading. There are loads of those Now Read This boxes to help the players senses, but to be honest they’ll probably be busy fighting off the bad guys first. And what a collection they are. There are 5 different types of monster here, including trolls, and they have the guardian of the temple on their side in the shape of an eidolon. Luckily the sheer size of the encounter area makes it unlikely that the party will have to deal with them all in one go. A couple of bull rushes or poor rolls could easily change that though.

The combat dealt with, the party can find the Caretaker who’s probably not what or who they would have expected. This should be a high point in the story, if not the action, and DMs should use this to tee up the rest of the adventure. This scene looks good on the page I must say. I’d be tempted to use this to start a session rather than end one. The information in it and the emotional content want to drive the game on yet it doesn’t really work as a cliffhanger. Either way it’s a sweet end to the dungeon section of the scenario.  

The Taking of Overlook

The adventure (and the heroic tier) ends with the siege of Overlook. The threat comes from the mercenaries camped outside the city walls and the PCs will be at the centre of the defence. I couldn’t have picked a better place myself. I’ve always enjoyed Overlook and it’s acted as the spine to the path so far. If your party has made connections and put down roots here, then even better. The rest of this adventure serves to put all those stories at risk, and that can only mean more engagement at the table.

War and battles have always been a part of roleplaying scenarios, and not just in D&D. It’s not easy to pull off. Traditional parties of 6 PCs are difficult to mix into a warfare scenario and still have them be effective, but not over emphasised. Then there is the combat system. D&D is all about the one on one, or the small unit at most. How does your adventure reflect the bigger picture that war demands? There’s no mass battle system to fall back on, and skill challenges, well, they have their issues. Ari has decided to use a victory point system, a classic method from wargaming. Victory Points (VPs) are gained by the parties actions, and in fact they’ve been winning and losing them all the way through the scenario so far. As DM, you’ll have to make a big decision about how much of the system you want to have on show at the table. It’s a bit like minions. Your opinion on whether or not to announce them for what they are will give you an idea of how to approach this section. There’s help with the descriptions for those who want to use that to drive the results, or you could come out with it and tell the players how to claim the points in game.

As soon as the party are out of the Stone Anvil they are summoned to a council of war. The High Priest Durkik requests the parties’ aid in formulating the plan to defend the city. The mechanics for this planning scene are represented by a skill challenge. Winning the challenge gains valuable victory points. Now, I’ve made this sound simple and straightforward, it’s actually much deeper than that. I’ve seen this kind of scene a million times in games I’ve played in. Usually in modern games to be fair, but fantasy too. It’s always a bit of a free for all at the table, with characterisation often a first casualty to maps and tactical plans. After years of such planning games, I’ve even grown a bit cynical of them. I’ve come to see them as lazy scenarios where the DM sits back and listens to the tortuous planning exercise, occasionally smiling and writing notes. I daresay many DMs have had no idea how the attack is going to play out until they’re taken account of those plans. This means I’ve rarely been convinced that the actions and decisions at this stage have ever really had in game consequences. With this simple skill challenge, all my worries disappeared. There are 5 primary skills, history, insight, intimidate, religion and thievery. I can imagine many other skills coming into play with creative players too. Each of these gives the PCs a chance to roleplay out their planning skills. You know that player who wants to pore over maps and suggest fields of fire and booby traps because they’ve seen too many Viet Nam war films? It’s accounted for here, and the character has to back it up with dice. Suffice to say, I love this approach. I think the theory is sound, it looks great on paper. I haven’t played it out, but I can honestly see this scene taking over the whole evenings play if you wanted it too. Even then, the mechanics of 3 failures means the scene has to come to a conclusion, so it won’t run out of steam. Brilliant.

Day 2 of the siege has three encounters that can be run as and when suits during the day. These are a fine mix of combat and skill, speed and brutality. It frames the story of the war well, giving the PCs to be a part of the whole war, and to have their efforts rewarded via VPs in the endgame too.

On the third day, the final encounter beckons, and it’s the face to face with General Zithiruun himself. The good General hasn’t come alone. He rides an undead dragon and has his lieutenants in tow to boot. The encounter is level 15. That’s a long way over the party level by this point, they’re going to have to fight hard to take it on. Given that it’s the first encounter of the day, the players are likely to be savvy enough to unload the dailies. There’s not going to be any point holding back, because the enemy certainly won’t be. The General’s abilities in combat come straight out of the Jedi academy. He flies, he shifts, and he wields a silver sabre. He is also likely to prove slippery. I can’t see a defender getting the lockdown on him easily. And of course there’s a dragon to deal with. Actually, I suspect the real problems here will come from the dragonborn raider and the gladiators. These guys are no slouches in a fight and they’re likely to slip under the players’ radar when they see the elites on the table. This is the big encounter of the whole adventure and it’s fine enough as it stands. I won’t say anticlimactic, but I’m tempted to. That’s only because the build up has been exemplary and I think there could have been just a bit more drama involved. The terrain is a straightforward cityscape, the enemy (while big on stats) are largely fire and forget. I just wanted more to be honest. How about some ideas for dialogue? This is a proper big bad, and his plans are likely still a secret by now. It demands a monologue. What about the rest of the siege? There’s an opportunity to fill in the colour around the encounter area with flames, screams, hurrahs, collapsing buildings, routed enemies, all sorts of things. A clever DM could add in these touches to reflect the state of the General’s hit point total. I know I’m being picky, but it’s really only because I’ve absolutely loved getting to this point so far and I’d want to see my players drop with exhaustion and delight at the end of this encounter. As it stands they’re likely to say ‘cool!.... so, treasure?’ and that’s doing the whole adventure a disservice.

Of course, the actual endgame is when the VPs are added up. There are three possible results and each gives the DM some resolution notes so the PCs can know how well they fared overall. So it seems there are winners and losers in RPGs after all.

Overall? This is a seriously impressive piece of adventure writing. It’s not flawless by any means, but when compared to the rest of the path, and especially to the H/P/E series, it is clearly cut from another cloth entirely. Subtle investigations, brutal combats, cunning locations, epic story, all combined into the single most ambitious adventure 4e has seen to date. My only complaint? The title is rotten. However, that doesn’t matter. Given the right group, this could well be the high point of any campaign. Good work Mr Marmell!