Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden Dice and Miscellany

 

Let's check out the new dice set! You can order this set right here. According to the promotional materials:

"To help with your expedition to Icewind Dale we want to arm you with dice that'll bring the heat, so we've included in this package Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden Dice and Miscellany, which will be available on September 29 and features eleven frosty metallic blue dice, a felt-lined dice tray/box, and 20 doubleside character.creature cards as well as a foldout map of Icewind Dale and Ten-Towns."

Box

I feel like they've really perfected the art of the special dice set. The only question to me is whether the price is too high. The box is really nice, felt interior. I think I like the Avernus one better, but this is really great.

Map

This double-sided map is about a foot long, maybe a bit longer. One side depicts the Icewind Dale region, and the other side has a bunch of very tiny maps of the ten towns. I think you can get a digital version of the Bryn Shander map right here on Mike Schley's site.

I'm not sure how useful the tiny maps are, I guess we'll see once we read through the adventure.

Cards

Like in the Avernus set, we get cards with info on them. One side of each card depicts a creature/NPC, then on the other side are Drizzt's thoughts on that entity. Here's a swanky list of all the cards:

Arveiaturace: A white dragon

Auril the Frostmaiden: "The divine manifestation of winter's cruelty"

Awakened Beasts: Animals who can talk

Black Ice Berserker: Black ice is infused with demonic magic which can warp people.

Chwingas: Small, good-aligned elemental beings.

Coldlight Walker: People who freeze to death sometimes become these awesome-looking undead entities. 

Drizzt Do'Urden: Famous D&D Guy! In my campaign, he died in prison.

Frost Giant: Big tall guy

Frost Giant Skeleton: Maybe my favorite art in the whole set.

Ice Troll: "Their frozen hearts beat, or rather shiver, emanating cold with each pulse."

Icewind Kobolds: They serve a white dragon.

Ol' Bitey: A stuffed trout, magically animated.

Oyaminartok the Goliath Werebear: A sworn enemy of evil who is building a clan of werebears.

Reghed Nomads: There are three tribes: Tiger, Wolf and Bear.

Remorhaz: Also known as a "polar worm." Really cool art on this one. 

Snowy Owlbear: Owlbears.. in the snow.

Tekeli-Li the Gnoll Vampire: He laughs a lot and has some cool unique weaknesses.

Ten-Towners: The citizens of Ten Towns.

Verbeeg: Giants who often boss around ogres or hill giants.

Yeti: Wow Drizzt really hates yetis. "I hunt hunters, and my blades have painted many a mountainside red with yeti blood."

The Dice

These are blue, pretty nice. The numbers are gray rather than bright white. They're all the same size, which is a bit of a bummer. I prefer larger d20's. There are four d6's, rwo d20's, two d10's, and one of everything else.

Overall

I really like these sets. The box is so nice, and I love having a custom set specifically for the adventure I'm running.

The only question I have is whether it is worth $30. I could buy dice like this for about $10 at the game store. The map is somewhat useful, and the box is really nice, but the cards are somewhat superfluous. I'd prefer it if the cards have stats on them. I know that would be a problem, as then you'd have players having access to stats from the adventure.

Maybe the answer there is to have some of the cards depicting magic items with the item's stats on the back, some cards depicting each of the towns, with the essential info (names of major NPCs and locations) included, heck maybe even a map of each of the towns.

Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden Promotional Materials

 

I got a big old box in the mail today from Wizards of the Coast. In it was piles of stuff linked to the new adventure: Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden.

In this post, we'll take a quick look at all of the cool ancillary stuff. In the past, they've sent me some neat little things when new adventures came out, but never anything like this! The flyer puts it like this:

"We're also providing some promotional items you can use to flavor your Icewind Dale games including notebooks with the alt cover art by Hydro74, a dice bag themed for Icewind Dale filled with 11 dice, a light scarf featuring a map of Icewind Dale and a couple Pop Sockets to display your D&D cred on your smartphone. Feel free to use these items or give them away to your readers!"

I'll discuss the dice box and the adventure in separate posts.

Notebooks

 These are thick spiral-bound notebooks full of.. wait for it... graph paper!

To me, these are extremely handy. How many of you still use a pencil and paper? Do most of you DM with a laptop now? 

I think these are especially cool for kids in school. I would have died to own these when I was in high school. I got in-school suspension one time, and I loved it (to the point that I seriously thought about pulling the fire alarm so I could get in trouble again and go back there the next day). These would have made that day even better.

Icewind Dale Scarf

Your outfit isn't complete without this sleek, thin and breezy scarf emblazoned with the map of Icewind Dale. Yes, "Dougan's Hole" is placed in a prominent location on this stylish garment for those of you looking to show off just a bit of sass.

This thing is really light and huge. I mean... really huge. It's got to be about 1 foot wide and 4-5 feet long. I can't really do it justice with a photo. I actually thought it was a shirt when I first opened the box. This thing is crazy.

Promo Dice Bag and Dice

So get a load of this. This box already included the dice box. But on top of that, they sent a separate dice bag and dice! The bag is nice and big enough to hold your game-tested assortment, your regular rollers and your special situation d20's such as Goldie, the Die That Always Rolls 20's that my friend Barry had.

This is where it became clear to me that they are not messing around with this release. They are giving us dice on top of dice. It's sort of like in Aliens when Ripley wants to nuke the site from orbit.

D&D Pop Sockets

They sent two of these little guys, that you can stick on your phone. Very nice. I like the white and blue!

That's just the side stuff. Stay tuned for a review of the dice box and then I'll roll up my sleeves and make a Guide to Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden.

Lore You Should Know - Nautiloid

The D&D people just put out a video on a topic near and dear to my heart - the nautiloid.

What is that? It's a ship - a mind flayer ship. It is featured in the upcoming PC game, Baldur's Gate 3.

Dungeon Magazine's first spelljammer adventure was all about a crashed nautiloid that the group could clear out and keep! I think that the adventure depicts it as too damage to fly, but I did away with that and I bet other DMs did too. I assume that many groups ended up with this ship when they decided to head into wildspace.

Namin their nautiloid "The Mystic", my group had a number of really fun adventures during one of my first, and most successful, D&D campaigns.

The 2e Nautiloid seems to be different than the 5e one. The "tentacles" on the 2e nautiloid didn't move - they were just part of a wooden ram.

So let's see what we can learn about the 5e nautiloid!

Chris Perkins and Greg Tito are tackling this topic. Greg says you should definitely check out the Baldur's Gate 3 trailer. Chris repeatedly refers to this ship as a creation of Larien, the studio that made Baldur's Gate.

Chris begins by explaining that, a nautiloid is a mind flayer vessel that moves through air, space, and the planes. It is the primary vessel that mind flayers use to travel. Nautiloids first appeared in the Spelljammer campaign setting.

The ship has a shell and tentacles, and is similar to the nautilus from 20,000 leagues under the sea.

The new nautiloid has tentacles that can grab people and teleport them to the interior of the ship. It can also plane shift, which the pilot activates by thrumming on a cord - similar to the tuning fork that is a component of the plane shift spell.

The mind flayers can't build them any more, because their empire is so fractured. There are a finite number of nautiloids in the multiverse.

The primary purpose of the nautiloid was to allow mind flayers to go from world to world, to seek out new slaves and their delicious brains.

There are different mind flayer ships. There is the illithid dreadnought, which elder brains can travel on. They also have smaller shuttle crafts.

Spelljammers normally are powered by helms, but nautiloids are powered by pools that draw psionic energy from their mind flayer pilots. There is speculation that the ships are somewhat sentient. During construction, liquified brain matter is pumped through the ship, and that brain matter has a sort of collective consciousness.

Chris points out that Dungeon Magazine #28 had an adventure with a crashed nautiloid. Chris actually has a copy of the issue on hand. The ship in this adventure crashed in the Forgotten Realms, east of Neverwinter.

In Dungeon of the Mad Mage, there is an illithid ship, which is more of a shuttle. The idea is that if you can figure out how it works, you can use it.

Chris and Greg begin discussing possible campaigns involving mind flayers and nautiloids. You could start a campaign on a mind flayer ship as a prisoner. You free yourself, but you're stuck on the ship.

Chris has an idea that a bunch of nautiloids are converging on a world that the mind flayers are looking to overtake.The heroes need to go up there and stop them.

Chris mentions that The Speaker in Dreams is a 3e adventure where there's a town that's been secretly taken over by mind flayers.

If Chris was a nautiloid captain, what would his name be? Captain Tentacleese.

Links

Nautiloid Wiki
DM Dave: 5e Stats for the Nautiloid
Elven Tower: Crashed Nautiloid Map

Dungeons & Dragons - Laeral Silverhand's Explorer's Kit

You can buy this set right here.

Look what showed up in the mail! A new dice set, with all sorts of other stuff. Let's check it out.

Dice: I was initially wary of the dice, as they looked like that glossy kind that just keeps rolling forever. They're not, they roll just fine. If you hold these dice up to a light source, the light shines through. Very nice!

They actually went ahead and made the d20's bigger! Each one has a D&D ampersand in place of the number 20. These d20's aren't quite as big as my preferred giant gray d20, but these are very cool.

All in all, this is a really nice set of dice and I really appreciate some of the changes they made. I'd say if they make another set, the d20's should be even a little bigger. Or, perhaps make all of the dice in the set a larger size.

Dice Box: It's hard to describe this in a way that does it justice. The interior is lined with felt. The exterior has foil designs on it. I should note that even if you think the dice roll too far, you could roll them right in this box to eliminate the chance of your dice rolling right off the table (a phenomenon which I refer to as "sloppy dice").

I do wonder if the box might get scratched up if you threw it in a backpack with your D&D books? You probably need to be careful when transporting this thing if you want to keep it looking nice.

Map: A bit taller and wider than a regular sheet of paper, the map comes folded-up in the box. On one side, there is a map of the city of Waterdeep - handy if you are running Dragon Heist. It labels only the wards, gates, the market, and a few areas outside the city.

On the other side is a classic Mike Schley map of the Sword Coast, useful for running everything from Tyranny of Dragons to Descent into Avernus! It includes most of the Moonshae Isles and a portion of Icewind Dale.

Cards: The back of the box describes these: "Twenty illustrated, double-sided cards detailing Laeral's expert insights on key characters, locations, and lore from across the Forgotten Realms."

I really like the art by Shawn Wood on some of these cards, especially the Harper and Dagult Neverember. 

The cards have basic info on different NPCs, factions, and locations. Very handy for people trying to get familiar with the realms. There are cards on Drizzt, Halaster Blacksloak, The Xanathar, and more.

Candlekeep is the one that sticks out the most to me. I can remember, years ago, when I first took a stab at playing the Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition game, being really impressed with the whole idea of Candlekeep - a library that you only gain access to if you donate a tome not already present in the library's collection. It seems like you could do a lot of cool things with that.

Overall: So is this worth getting? I guess it depends on the price. I am seeing that it is $15.00 right now on amazon, which in my opinion is a great price. To me, that's a no-brainer.

Honestly, this set and the Avernus set are really cool products, right up there with some of the best ancillary D&D items released in the past like the old Orcus/mini and the tiny versions of the 1e handbooks.

An easy thumbs up from me!

Dungeons & Dragons - A Guide to the Gray Render

by Tom Baxa

Today I'm going to tackle another monster who seems to be a Monte Cook favorite - the Gray Render. We'll go through each edition, and take a look at some gray renders in actual adventures.

In my opinion, the most interesting content lies in a Dragon Magazine article that never actually got published! Details are at the bottom of this post.

3e Monster Manual

Here's the description: "This hulking biped has the mass of a giant. It has a stooped frame, a gray, hairless body, and broad shoulders. Its arms are long and sinewy, and its clawed hands scrape along the ground as it walks. Its sloped forehead bears six small, yellowish eyes. Its mouth is wide and powerful-looking, filled with black teeth."

Details:

• 9 feet tall.
• Can uproot trees with their jaws.
• Do not travel in groups.
• Asexual. They produce one offspring and carry it for a time in a pouch.

Protectors: They tend to bond with creatures native to their surroundings. The creatures could be wolves, horses, displacer beasts, even unicorns.

Whether accepted or not, the render keeps close, watches over them, and brings them offerings of meat each day.

Bite: The gray render can clamp down on enemies with their bite, effectively grabbing them. Then, they rend and tear the flesh.

Six Eyes: Their 6 eyes give them extraordinary sight.

City of the Spider Queen

Arachnoid Gray Render: This adventure features a drider/vampire named Jhorganni, who is building a vampire cult devoted to Kiaransalee. Her bodyguard is an "arachnoid gray render."

The render lurks in her nest.

Description: "...another hulking monstrosity, a multi-eyed thing with multiple arms and huge mandibles dripping with venom."

"The render is covered with chitinous plates, and coarse brown hair protrudes from between the plates. It has eight eyes instead of six, and six muscular arms instead of just two. Poisonous mandibles jut from its mouth."

The arachnoid gray render has stats somewhat similar to a normal gray render, except that it has a poison bite ans is immune to charm/illusion/etc.

Dungeon Magazine #84 - The Harrowing

In this adventure, the heroes must enter the Demonweb to battle Lolth's daughter. Along the way, they come upon an area guarded a gray render. The gray render serves Ullistrin (a drow vampire) and Vagdrioth (a drow mage).

Description: "...a tall, gray-skinned bipedal beast with long claws and terrible teeth stands ready to rend flesh and bone."

Demon God's Fane

This adventure features a special group of spellcasters called the Runewardens. Their leader is named Tyrestina, and she has a gray render protector.

Description: "Within a shimmering sphere stands a human woman with long black hair. Covered in tattoos and symbols, she holds a bright red wand and laughs maniacally. Three terrible, spine-covered, sulfur-breathing beasts stand outside the sphere, pawing at the ground, an a huge, hulking brute with gray leathery skin and six eyes crouches protectively next to it."

Tyrestina actually created the gray render with a spell called graven image.

4e Monster Manual 2

by Christopher Burdett

"Widely feared throughout the world, a gray render kills everything in its path. This creature feeds upon flesh and terror alike, working itself into a mindless rampage."

Uses You as a Weapon: In 4e, a gray render can use a grabbed target as a weapon. If they hit with it, the target takes damage and gets swatted 20 feet back, while the bitten victim takes half the damage as well.

Dismembering? Gray renders have a "dismembering Bite" that does a pile of damage.

Lore: Scholars believe that their roots can be traced back to the Elemental Chaos, where they gained their chaotic impulses.

Entropy is bound within the existence of gray renders, causing them to leave a path of wanton destruction in their wake. They are drawn to homesteads, where they unleash their destructive urges.

Wow. They got rid of the whole bonding/protector stuff, which to me was the most interesting thing about the monster!

Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes

Oh good, they got their protector thing back. Right off the bat, we are told that gray renders want to bond with an intelligent creature and will, if necessary, give their lives to protect that creature.

New Reproduction Method: They reproduce by forming nodules on their bodies that break off to form young gray renders.

"As a side effect of its breeding. each gray render has an overpowering need to bond with an intelligent creature."

Singing: When a gray render finds and identifies a suitable potential master, it begins to sing, a weird warbling cry.

Chaotic: Gray Renders are chaotic and can cause problems for the masters. They sometimes follow despite being told to stay put, burrow holes, all sorts of stuff.

Quirks: We even get a chart of quirks! One result: "Likes to snuggle." Buries treasure that it finds. Chases birds.

Stats: The stat block is pretty basic. They can knock you prone, and get a reaction attack when they take damage.

Needs More Rending: The one thing I'd like to see more of with a gray render is actual "rending." I do like the idea of them being able to dismember people, though in D&D that can cause all kinds of problems.

There is an accompanying youtube video about gray renders.

In this video, Adam Lee discusses how some have said that the gray render was made from elemental chaos. Then he says: "A group of silver dragons were polymorphed into elves, so they created bodyguards." I think he is actually referring to the unpublished Dragon article which I discuss below.

Gray renders are tough, loyal, and destructive. They go from 0 to 100.

Adam says that a low-level character could get a gray render as a companion, and then the fun begins when it does something random and crazy. They're bizarre and alien. They're from a different kind of realm.

Unpublished Dragon Magazine Article

Sometimes Google gives you greatness! I found a post on ENWorld that contains an unpublished Dragon article about gray renders. The poster says:

"This is another of the fiction-and-footnote "Ecology" articles I had sitting on the Dragon editorial desk in 2000 when the new editor decided to scrap that format." The whole thing was purposely full of misspellings, but the assistant editor didn't like it."

This is one of those ecology articles done in a story format, with footnotes containing D&D stat stuff.

Vrak and Lizzie: The story goes like this. The main characters, Vrak and Lizzie, saw a gray render leading a herd of cattle to a river. They approached the render, but it chased them away.

They continued to spy on the herd, and watched as a wyvern tried to snatch one of the cows. The gray render protected the cow, and tore at the wyvern's wing, forcing it to flee.

Yikes, this one is dark. Lizzie insists on trying to heal the render. It kills her in a most gruesome fashion. Once Vrak recovers from shock, he just slaughters the render with his axe.

Origin: Gray renders may have come from the planes or an alternate reality. No 'planet of the gray renders' has been discovered.

Motivation: Their most power driving force may be a feeling of isolation and loneliness.

Speculation: Others think that gray renders might be a created race. Wizards might have made them to look after various groups of animals, or to act as bodyguards.

True Origin: Gray renders were created by a small conclave of silver dragon wizards who spent most of their time in elven form. The renders were made as bodyguards, and their means of reproduction was designed so that the silver dragons wouldn't have to create new ones every few decades. "The gray render arranges for its own 'replacement' before it dies of old age."

The method of creating gray renders was passed to several elven communities, and then to wizards.

Eyes: The gray render's eyes detect even the tiniest movement.

Bony Plates: Gray renders have thick bony plates on their heads that form distinctive patterns. A newborn is a clone of the parent, and thus will have an identical pattern.

Walking: They walk similar to gorillas, "knuckle-walking" with their hands.

One Offspring: Once in a gray render's lifetime, it grows a bud which becomes an offspring, which develops in the render's pocket. The offspring nurses in the pouch for 6 months, and then goes off on its own.

Long Lifespan: They can live for several hundred years, and will look after generations of its adopted wards.

No Talking: Gray renders can understand spoken language, but cannot speak. They lack the necessary vocal apparatus to speak with.

That's it! Not too much on the gray Render out there. It seems like there's a lot of room to add your own details. Giving the group a gray render sidekick seems like it could be a lot of fun. 

Dungeons & Dragons - A Guide to the Hezrou

by Mike Schell

I am gearing up to run four classic Monte Cook adventures, all converted to 5th edition. As I prepare them, I have noticed that Monte uses certain monsters in every single module. I guess they're his favorites? The monsters: Retrievers, gray renders, and hezrous.

I have never liked hezrous, but I decided that I need to embrace them. If I'm running a series of awesome Monte Cook adventures, then I should try to deliver an authentic Monte Cook experience, right? It turns out that this experience apparently includes using hezrous.

Let's go through the core books of each edition, and then branch out into whatever I can find after that. I'm sure I missed hezrou appearances in all sorts of products, but the goal here is to figure out what their deal is and how they can be used.

If I missed any particularly cool hezrou appearances, please let me know.

AD&D 1st Edition Monster Manual

In 1st edition, demons were often referred to by "type". For example, a type I demon was a chasme. A type VI demon is a balor. Hezrous are a type II demon. Check it out:

• Type I: Vrock
• Type II: Hezrou
• Type III: Glabrezu
• Type IV: Nalfeshnee
• Type V: Marilith
• Type VI: Balor

Those are the core demons in D&D history! Weird, right? A nalfeshnee? So, here is what we learn about type II demons:

• They resemble 7-foot-tall "gross toads" with arms in place of forelegs.
• They can create magical darkness.
• They can cause fear, levitate, detect invisible, use telekineses, and summon other type II demons (20% chance of success).
• They will eat human flesh.
• They do have psionic powers, of the 1st edition variety.

That's it! Short and sweet. I'm interested to see what kind of lore they come up with for these monsters in future editions.

AD&D 2nd Edition Monstrous Compendium Outer Planes Appendix

by Tom Baxa

We get a pretty sweet piece of Baxa art. I was wondering if an artist would draw stink lines, but nope. Just splashy water. Quick note: In 2e, demons are referred to as "tanar'ri" due to the Satanic Panic. In 2e, we learn:

• Hezrou serve the nalfeshnee.
• They wander the Abyss and oversee the formation of armies.
• They communicate with telepathy.
• They like to bear hug and bite enemies.
• Stench: Their skin emits a foul liquid. Anyone within 10 feet must save or be overcome by the stench, unable to attack, helpless on the ground, gagging and vomiting. Even if you make your save, you have -2 on most rolls!
• They have a ton of spells, including animate object, blink, unholy word, and summon insects.
• They take half damage from normal weapons.
• "They are impossible to surprise." Huh. Why?
• Hezrou are less advanced than other demons. They are not especially intelligent or intuitive.

The Dark Walk: "During certain times of a century, the hezrou are given the ability to plane shift at will." During these times, they make pacts with mortals. They will serve a mortal but exact a heavy toll - usually the eternal subservience of the mortal or someone close to them.

Their job is to walk the Abyss and enforce the directions of the higher true tanar'ri.

Blood War Role: Hezrou enforce the will of the tanar'ri.

AD&D 2nd Edition Planescape Monstrous Compendium I

by Tony DiTerlizzi

There are a few changes in here. Tanar'ri are now divided up a bit further, categorized according to how powerful they are:

• Least: Dretch, manes, rutterkin.
• Lesser: Alu-fiend, bar-lgura, cambion, succubus.
• Greater: Babau, chasme, nabassu, "water lord."
• True: Balor, glabrezu, hezrou, marilith, nalfeshness, vrock.
• Guardian: Molydeus.

Hezrou are true tanar'ri! What does that mean? "These classifications actually mean little in their lives. They are merely broad estimates of destructive power."

OK. I have one other question. See the list of greater tanar'ri? What the hell is a water lord? I have no idea whatsoever. Flipping through the book, I see that a water lord is another name for a wastrilith! Mystery solved.

Dark Walk Note: The hezrou entry in this book is slightly different from the Outer Planes Appendix version. In this, those mortals who make pacts with a hezrou turn into demons known as manes.

Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition Monster Manual

Check it out! The hezrou now has weird metal plates embedded in it. I really love the way they look.

Their description is pretty much the same as in 2e, except that they're 8 feet tall now. They grew a foot in a single edition, not too shabby.

Their stench now nauseates foes. Even if you make the save, you are only sickened. That's it! No explanation of the metal. Man... nobody cares about the hezrou.

3e Book of Vile Darkness

In the entry of the demon lord Juiblex, it says that hezrous pay him fealty by bringing him victims for his slimy brood to hunt and feed on.

Juiblex has a black pudding servant named Darkness Given Hunger. "It was possessed by a hezrou demon at Juiblex's command..." The demon has become one with the pudding, and is now the main servant of Juiblex. It patrols Juiblex's layer, looking for food.

Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition Monster Manual

by Sam Wood

I love the art on this one. They still have the metal plates, but I am not finding any explanation of what they are.

I'm actually starting to feel sorry for the hezrou. It's like nobody cares enough about them to give them any attention. In this, we get a very bare-bones rundown of what they are:

• Obedient, loathsome, eager servants of powerful demons and summoners.
• Their stench aura gives a -2 and if the hezrou is bloodied, the aura also weakens foes.
• They can phase through difficult terrain.
• Lore: They are numerous, expendable, powerful, and focus on simple tasks.
• Hezrous are easy to please if there is abundant food they can kill.

That is it! Sheesh. They've been in D&D so long. Let's see if we can find any more hezrou stuff in other 4e books.

4e Manual of the Planes

The hezrou gets a nice big piece of art. It is credited to William O'Connor, but I think that is a mistake, as this looks nothing like his other work.

Again.. the hezrou with the metal looks really cool! I'm bummed to find that they only get two tiny little mentions in this book:

1. Hezrous can be found in Demogorgon's screaming Jungle. 
2. Sometimes, they serve Grazz't.

I figured there would be some hezrou stuff in Plane Below. Nope! Just a few mentions, nothing meaningful.

Nothing in the 4e Book of Vile Darkness, either. This is depressing.

Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition Monster Manual

The 5e redesign was by Christopher Burdett, but I can't figure out who did the official art.

What the?! They got rid of the metal plates!! I liked them! They looked cool. I can't take this hezrou abuse much longer. I mean, they're one of the original demons! Type II, dammit! That's gotta mean something, right?

Let's see what they have for us in 5e.

• They have magic resistance.
• Their stench now poisons people who are within 10 feet.
• Hezrous are foot soldiers in the demonic hordes of the Abyss.
• They are weak-minded and can be duped into sacrificing themselves for more powerful demons.

Baldur's Gate: Descent Into Avernus

They did something real interesting in this adventure. They redesigned the demons who served Yeenoghu, demon god of gnolls, so that they looked more like him! This is what Yeenoghu's hezrou look like:

by Max Dunbar

How about that for a wild idea?! And, just in case you're interested, this is what a Yeenoghu balor looks like:

by Max Dunbar

I really like the idea that demons linked to a particular demon lord look similar to that demon lord. In this case, it's a bit weird. The hezrou's entire deal is that it stinks and looks like a toad. As presented here, the hezrou is a mangy hyena. Unrecognizable as a hezrou!

I think the problem lies in the fact that the hezrou has so few identifiable traits. All it has is body odor and toad-y goodness. 

Anyway... on page 142 of this adventure, the heroes defend a place called Idyllglen from Yeenoghu's demons, who come in waves. Among the rampaging demons is a hezrou, who might kill a mastiff and force open some temple doors.

Also, I want to mention again how much I love the Descent Into Avernus dice set. It's got a map and all the concept art... the box is lined with felt.. it's great IMO.

That's it! I find myself rooting for the hezrou. They've been around far too long to be this neglected.

Let's go through these Monte Cook adventures and see how they are used.

Dungeon Magazine #84 - The Harrowing

This adventure is about Lolth's daughter. She's got an evil scheme, and the adventurers need to go into the Demonweb Pits to stop her.

As they are exploring the Demonweb, the adventurers come upon a room with a pool of water in it. 4 vrocks swoop down and try to throw the heroes into the pool. A hezrou lurks beneath the water.

Later, the group comes across a sailing ship that was pulled into the Demonweb. In one area of the ship, two hezrous are rummaging through crates and sacks, looking for food.

There are more hezrous in the actual Demonweb Pits (which lie below the demonweb, collecting anything that falls from it). The sides of the pits are made from "impenetrable darkness". Hezrous actually "swim" in this darkness.

Demon God's Fane

OK, so this is not an 'official' D&D product, but it's made by Monte Cook for 3rd edition (and he's one of the designers of 3rd edition!).

Demon God's Fane is about a massive statue in a lake. The statue is of a demon lord named Ochremeshk, and it has a dungeon inside of it! A hezrou named Lasteresh has escaped the dungeon and is exploring the village that is right next to the lake.

His lair inside the statue has a water tank with red runes on it.  The runes say, in Abyssal, "The drowning screams that come from the murders in this pool are yours, oh mighty Ochremeshk."

A Paladin in Hell

This is an epic adventure in which the group must sail a demon boat into hell, bust into a hell-fortress and rescue a paladin.

On the demon boat, there are a number of rooms. One holds a 20-foot-tall statue of a froglike, scaly demon and a waterfall (this is a magic boat, obviously). In the murky water are 2 hezrou and... a water lord! Also known as a wastrilith.

One hezrou has a bracer of watery fire: It allows fire spells to do full damage under water.

The submerged hezrou lair is nearby. In it, 6 skeletal corpses hang from chains. They were former intruders who were hung on the wall and eventually drowned when their water breathing spells ran out. "Now they serve as decor."

OK... I am still not satisfied with what I've dug up on the hezrou. I see that the forgotten realms wikia has a great entry on the hezrou. Apparently, these monsters have appeared in quite a few novels. The wikia says that there's a hezrou mention here:

Dungeon Magazine #359 - Demonomicon of Iggwilv: Apocrypha

In this article, there is a claim that Demogorgon spontaneously came into being when the first evil mortal soul arrived at the Abyss. This contradicts previous claims that the Queen of Chaos created Demogorgon before she discarded him and created Miska the Wolf-Spider.

It says that the first tanar'ri had few, if any, humanoid aspects. "Other tanar'ri bear the mark of sibriex alterations and have an almost mechanical aspect to parts of the bodies (such as the hezrou and goristro and glabrezu, both of which have half-organic armor plating under their flesh)."

The sibriex! That's cool.

The forgotten realms wikia reminds me to check one of my favorite sourcebooks of all time:

Fiendish Codex I: Hordes of the Abyss

by Tom Baxa

Wow. Lots of tidbits!

There is a discussion of roles demons can play. Hezrous are described as effective "brutes." When discussing "overlords", the book says: "The ultimate demon Overlord has always been the balor, but adventurers are more likely to encounter a number of hezrou demons acting as Abyssal sergeants before they ever confront one of those nightmarish beings. A hezrou knows how to organize underlings. On the Material Plane, it often uses its above-average intellect and impressive size to recruit less intelligent mortal followers, such as hill giants, trolls, and ogres."

Hezrou Rubric: A rubric is a collection of loose pages containing the names of specific kinds of fiends. "Greenish-gray in color, this page is a piece of leathery parchment that is always coated in a film of slime." The possessor can cast gaseous form 3 times per day.

Pazunia Encounter: Pazunia (the first layer of the Abyss, also known as the Plain of 1,000 Portals) gets a whole chart of encounters! One of them involves two hezrou taskmasters leading a group of chained human and halfling slaves. They would rather cut a deal than fight.

Demonweb Encounter: 3 hezrous unexpectedly burst from a doorway, mindlessly defending the Demonweb under the psychic suggestion of Lolth.

Twelvetrees Encounter: Four robed hezrou pilgrims wander from a Pazunia gate to an appropriate place to worship. Twelvetrees is a place where twelve devas were sacrificed, and it has permanently altered the layer.

Expedition to the Demonweb Pits

by James Zhang

That Pazunia encounter reminded me that there's a hezrou encounter in this adventure! It's got art and everything.

Grazz't rules three Abyssal layers, collectively known as the Triple Realm of Azzagrat. On one layer, hezrous own mansions in a place called Fogtown. They also work on the docks near the River of Salt.

Side Quest: A succubus wants to hire someone to kill off her hezrou master.

The Frogfaced Slaver: When the group gets near Grazz't's city of Zelatar, they have an encounter. A hezrou is leading a long line of slaves. "A fat, froglike demon walks along this line of bleeding, dazed demons, slapping each of the creatures and putting shackles on those who show signs of resistance." The hezrou sees the group and immediately tries to enslave them.

Living Greyhawk - Every Passing Breeze

Teos Abadia was nice enough to point out this adventure, written by Greg Marks. Teos apparently played through this and ended up with his character being permanently altered by Bazhon, the hezrou in this adventure.

In this scenario, the heroes might end up meeting Bazhon, a hezrou. whoserves Rzasanet, the Master of the Blood-Drenched Sky, a vrock who works for a powerful demon lord. Rzasanet lives in the Castle of Foul Breezes.

Bazhon, the hezrou, is a torturer/interrogator. "He is fascinated by mortals, and studies them as he goes. In the end, he looks at himself as an artist..."

Bazhon tortures each of the heroes individually. "At all times during the torture sessions, there is a float quill that records the questions and responses upon a stack of parchment."

Bazhon has a gem that he can use to make a copy of a character's mind.

The tortures are listed in an appendix in the back of the document. There are 6 types of torture, and each one is crazier than the last:

1. Fish: Electric shocks/eat raw fish.
2. Box: Placed in a box where the temperature can be regulated.
3. Blood Replacement Therapy: All of the character's blood is removed and replaced with black ichor! The character must save or become charmed by Bazhon."This effect is permanent and applies to all demons the PC meets until he/she is healed by heal, regenerate, or similar magic."
4. Arm Rejuvenation: The character is strapped to a chair. Their arm is amputated, and replaced with a demon arm!The character loses a point of dexterity and is plagued by dreams of being strangled by the arm.
5. Impalement: The character is impaled on a spike and... it just gets worse from there. These are just getting crazier and crazier.
6. MOLTEN LEAD: Pouring molten lead on the character.

OK, I am somewhat satisfied. Let me know if you think there's anything I should add.

Links

Hezrou Stats on Roll20
ENWorld Discussion on re-making the hezrou
Reduced-Threat Hezrou Stats

Dungeons & Dragons - Explorer's Guide to Wildemount Review

You can buy this book right here.

Wildemount is the setting created by Matthew Mercer for the second season of Critical Role.

OK people, here's what we're going to do. We'll go through this thing chapter-by-chapter and take a gander at all the stuff inside. I don't want to spoil the whole thing, so I'll just pull out some of the ideas that I think are the most interesting. I'll also subject you to my D&D thoughts as we go.

Chapter 1: Story of Wildemount

The main story here seems to be about a war between the Dwendalian Empire (full of rival factions) and the Kryn Dynasty (surface-dwelling drow!).

There is a bit of discussion about running a war campaign, which is something I've always wanted to do. They suggest avoiding mass battles, and point out that characters don't like to be told what to do and don't make good soldiers.

Black Powder: "Dwendalian scientists in Hupperdook" and others have created black powder, which allows for cannons, mobile war engines, pistols and muskets to be used in the game.

Seems pretty cool so far. I like that they kept things very brief in the beginning, as I don't do well with walls of text. I'd say the thing that I like the most is the Kryn Dynasty. I'm also very interested in reading about the gods, as I think they've grabbed deities from many different sources.

So, reading further, the origin of this place involves a variation on the 4e Dawn War story! When mortals began building cities, the Primordials attacked. Some of the gods joined with the Primordials (and became known as the Betrayer Gods). The other gods gave the mortals magic. With magic, the mortals banished the traitor gods to prison-planes, and actually destroyed the Primordials.

We get details on each god. They've got some of my favorites in here! A holy day for each is listed, too, which is a fantastic idea.

Bahamut: "When not wandering the Outer Planes, Bahamut resides within his magnificent, glittering palace of gold, platinum, and mithril hidden among the winds of the Seven Heavens of Celestia."

Corellon: Corellon is still an elven god of magic, "...considered the Mother and Father of all elves." I like the nickname: "The Arch Heart."

Ioun: Now we're getting into some of that sweet 4e stuff. In this setting, she was grievously wounded by the Chained Oblivion, and her followers are now hunted by agents of her ancient foes as she recovers. Awesome.

"Ioun sits among the infinite library that fills the hidden realm of the Endless Athenaeum, her celestial servants cataloguing all known things as she inspires those who pray for her insight and guidance."

I love the idea of a wounded god! Their followers are trying to find ways to heal them. Very, very cool concept.

The Raven Queen: What's the universal rule in D&D? Everyone loves the Raven Queen. The Raven Queen underwent some changes in Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes. I'm interested to see what RQ is like in Wildemount.

OK, wow, this is the 4e Raven Queen. "Her rise instantly obliterated the previous now-forgotten god of death..." That's slightly different, I think. I'm pretty sure it was mentioned in 4th edition that she married and then killed Nerull, the god of death, supplanting him. Her holiday is called the Night of Ascension, a day to celebrate her apotheosis.

We get a list of the Betrayer Gods, which includes the D&D heavy hitters: Asmodeus, Gruumsh, Lolth, Tharizdun, Tiamat, Vecna... and Torog?!?! Torog is a 4e primordial, I think. Let's see...

Torog: Yeah, he's the guy who crawls around in the Underdark. Here, he is "...banished within an unknown sliver of the Far Realm that now borders on the deepest pits of the Underdark..."

Each Betrayer God has a champion who wields a unique magic item, which are really cool. Each of these items has the life force of a fiend (balor, pit fiend, etc.) bound to it.

Chapter 2: Factions and Societies

The faction that I am most interested in is the Kryn Dynasty. What we learn about them:

• The dark elves turned away from Lolth and worship an entity known as the Luxon.
• The drow can can endure periods of sunlight.
• "Their cities are shaded by by umbral magic during daylight hours."
• Their armor is made of chitin and emits cricket-type sounds.
• Luxon Beacon: Souls can be bonded to these devices. If a bound person dies within 100 miles of a beacon, their soul is reborn in a child within the vicinity.
• There are 4 known beacons. "It is believed that once all the beacons are brought together, the Luxon will be summoned from their slumber to ask their children the great question and impart the truth."

There's a lot more to it, but that's the general idea. I think the Kryn Dynasty and their beacons are my favorite thing from this whole book.

In this chapter, we start to see that some of the art in this book is in a more cartoon-y style. It is good, but a little jarring for me. The cover itself is a bit more comic book-y than normal D&D art as well.

Library of the Cobalt Soul: The library isn't a physical place. It's a term to describe Ioun's teachings.

• Archives: Temples of Ioun full of information and artifacts.
• Expositors: Covert agents. "These enlightened infiltrators extract information that others would keepsecret and use their newfound knowledge to better the world."

I really like Ioun and I love the possibilities of her connection to Ioun stones.

Chapter 3: Wildemount Gazetteer

This chapter is absolutely massive. It gives me flashbacks to a similar chapter in Storm King's Thunder, which I struggled with mightily. Each area on the map is given a paragraph or two, along with adventure hooks and ideas.

Skyships: We get stats and information on skyships, which are powered by enchanted crystals known as brumestones. Air travel is "for the wealthy elite."

A place called Kamordah is "constructed over the prismatic mud from the Bromkiln Hills." There are Rainbow Vineyards, where wines are made. I will add these to my Great List of Food and Drinks before I forget.

I think I found my favorite piece of art in the book. It's a depiction of a floating outpost called Vurmas. It's so weird to me that, in the last 6 years or so, the best D&D art is of landscapes and places, not people. I don't understand why that is.

I can't seem to find this art online, so check out page 131 if you can to see what I'm talking about.

Hugeness: Taking in the enormity of this chapter, it makes me wonder how many people are going to sit down and absorb all of this, and then put it to use in their game. There are a TON of cool ideas in here - healing fruit (a trope I've always loved), moorbounders (special beasts of burden), a swath of land warped by the Calamity that now contains "electric wind," gravity funnels, and etherial rifts...

Generally, I think DMs prefer to make their own worlds. They'll cherry-pick stuff from books like this to use in their homebrew game.

But then, I forget that Critical Role is extremely popular and that there are a lot of people who are well-acquainted with some of this stuff. They've probably been dying to get their hands on this information. They can now set their own game in this world with their friends who might also watch the show.

So, for me, this book might feel a bit daunting, but for the hordes of Critical Role enthusiasts, this might be something they are already familiar with and are ready to fully embrace.

Found another great piece of art on page 153 - the Cauldron Sea: "A perpetual storm chokes the stony shores of this dark and brackish expanse, where aspects of the Elemental Plane of Water and the Abyss collide in constant entropic turmoil."

Chapter 4: Character Options

I am guessing that this is the chapter that most people will be interested in. Heck, the Dragon+ previews got me interested in this, and I'm not usually into player stuff.

The opening pages discuss how the different races fit in to the world. I am seeing a ton of re-used art from previous products here. I guess it's not a big deal, but I generally don't like that.

Hollow One: Beings whose souls have left for the afterlife, yet whose bodies still retain a fragment of their former selves.

• They are indistinguishable from other creatures, "...save for the faint stench of necromancy that lingers about them."
• Cling to Life: "When you make a death saving throw and roll 16 or higher, you regain 1 hit point."
• Hollow Ones don't age.
• They have an aura that can cause creatures to have disadvantage on a save once per day.

The Hollow One feels very relevant to our times. I guess that's depressing, but it rings true to me.

Dunamis and Dunamancy: An "...arcane force that helps shape the multiverse and might very well be what holds it together, like an infinite web of unseen tethers."

Echo Knight: A fighter subclass that utilizes Dunamancy. They can create echoes of themselves that can do all sorts of things - teleport, attack, see and hear through it, take a hit for an ally, all sorts of stuff. I really love this.

Chronurgy Magic: An Arcane Tradition for wizards. They can force re-rolls, put enemies in stasis for a round, place spells into a grey bead for an hour (!), and even peer through possible futures.

Graviturgy Magic: Another Arcane Tradition for wizards. They can manipulate gravity, allowing them to alter the weight of things, move things around, increase the velocity of attacks, create gravitational fields that reduce speeds to 0... all sorts of stuff. I am really loving all of this stuff.

Dunamancy Spells: We get a bunch of new spells that do everything from give a bonus to initiative rolls to aging someone to the point that they only have 30 days to live!

Heroic Chronicle: Piles of charts to help you create a backstory for your character. I am somewhat astonished to see 4 separate lists of food!

Backgrounds: We get a few backgrounds:

• Grinner: A member of a secret organization that spreads freedom and inspires hope. They know a number of coded folk songs, which are detailed in the entry.
• Volstrucker Agent: A clandestine organization of arcane agents who silence dissidents who would undermine the will of King Dwendal. Wow.

Chapter 5: Adventures in Wildemount

We get a few short adventures. Each is meant to introduce a group to one of the 4 regions of Wildemount.

• Tides of Retribution (lvls 1-3): Deals with sahuagin, ship stuff.
• Dangerous Designs (lvls 1-3): The heroes are hired to capture a goliath who just broke out of prison, and stumble onto a plot involving a war machine. I really love the art on page 218. Female goliaths look really cool.
• Frozen Sick (lvls 1-3): People are turning into ice statues, the group needs to figure out what's going on. This involves an item with a tremendous name: The Vial of Frozen Woe.
• Unwelcome Spirits (lvls 1-3): A warlock has gone missing.. don't want to spoil much else.

I'm a little thrown that all four adventures in the book are for levels 1-3. I mean, I get it... groups are launched into that quarter of the setting.

Chapter 6: Wildemount Treasures

Well now, here we go. 14 pages of magic items! And we start off with an item linked to one of my favorite planes - the Acheron Blade! +1 to hit, gives temp HP once per day, and it can give an enemy disadvantage on a save once per day.

I want to give some highlights, but the very next item has captured my attention. An Amulet of the Drunkard!! It smells of old, ale-stained wood. While wearing it, you regain HP when you drink ale/mead/wine. Tremendous.

The one after that is an Arcane Cannon. Amazing! It can shoot acid, fire, frost, lightning, and even poison.This can be plopped right onto the spelljammer ships in my Dungeon Academy game.

What's this? A food-related item?! Dust of Deliciousness! Ohh it comes with a drawback.I guess I shouldn't spoil it. It makes food more delicious.

Ah, the Luxon beacon has an entry. I mean.. it's on the cover of this book! Let's check it out. "This dodecahedron if faintly glowing crystal is heavier than it appears." You can use it to summon a "Fragment of Possibility", a little thing that follows you around. You can expend it to get a re-roll.

"If a follower of the Luxon who has undergone a ritual of consecution dies within 100 miles of a Luxon beacon, their soul is ensnared by it. This soul will be reincarnated within the body of a random humanoid baby developing within 100 miles of the beacon."

Reincarnation Dust! Sprinkle it on a dead body and it returns to life with a new body.

We get stats for the special magic items linked to the gods. I love the art for the grimoire infinitus (on page 272). These items have different states that must be unlocked. The states: Dormant, Awakened, Exalted. Each state unlocks different powers.

Infiltrator's Key: A mithral skeleton key. It can turn into a magic daggers, and can cast invisibility, altar self, etc. Once in exalted state, it can be used to create openings in walls/ceilings/floors and cast dimension door

Chapter 7: Wildemount Bestiary

by Andrew Mar

Monsters! About 30 pages of them.Here's some of my favorites:

Frost Giant Zombie: I'm on a big zombie kick right now, so this has my interest. An unstable artifact turned a bunch of frost giants into zombies! "Within the giants' glacial hearts, glowing and unbeating..." They have an aura that slows and possess a "freezing stare" that paralyzes and does cold damage.

Gloomstalker: These are basically wyverns from the Shadowfell. "Gloomstalkers were employed by arcanists and the followers of the Betrayer Gods as mounts in the ancient battles of the Calamity." They can teleport, they can snatch people, and they can emit a paralyzing shriek.

Husk Zombie: Fast zombies! "A humanoid slain by a melee attack from the zombie revives as a husk zombie on its next turn."

Sea Fury: When sea hag covens implode and the hags kill each other, the survivor sometimes becomes a sea fury - a mad, lonely, mega-hag. It has a death glare that can drop frightened enemies to 0 hit points! They have legendary actions  and everything.

Overall

This is one of those products that isn't really aimed at me. I don't watch Critical Role, and I have a backlog of D&D things I want to run (Al Qadim, Spelljammer, a pirate thing, maybe the Extinction Curse). All I'm really looking for out of this product is stuff that I can pull out and drop in to my current games.

There are a lot of things in here that I want to use in some fashion - the Echo Knight, the magic items, some of the monsters, and more. The magic items alone are tremendous, and many of them not in any way world-specific.

The whole idea of Dunamancy is well done. I think it could have gone horribly wrong. Gravity and time manipulation in D&D? That's really walking a sci-fi tightrope. But they totally pulled it off, in my opinion. It's fun and it's magic.

That's the thing I like the most about this book - it's something new. There has been an awful lot of retreading familiar ground in 5th edition. While I like the idea of keeping those old ideas alive, I feel a bit starved for new content. I want them to take those old ideas and walk forward with them.

Or, in this case, just put out something completely new. A new setting. New items, new monsters, new magic. It's fun, and I think it is done really well.