Table of Contents - A handy way to check out my articles by topic
My most recent Guides:
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
You can reach me at: powerscorerpg@gmail.com

Friday, January 8, 2016

Rage of Demons - Out of the Abyss

Out of the Abyss is the tabletop Dungeons & Dragons adventure for the Rage of Demons storyline. In this article, I am going to review the book. I'm not going to go into too much detail, as I think I broke a brain vessel completing my guide to Out of the Abyss, which is meant to be an aid to DM's running the adventure.

I'm going to go over the good stuff first and then get to the bad stuff. I can say right off the bat that this is a pretty good adventure and is definitely worth getting. Even if you don't run it, there are tons of dungeons and encounters to pilfer for your own use.

You can buy this adventure on amazon here:

Out of the Abyss (D&D Accessory)

The Good


Starting off Captured

I think it is quite a classic D&D trope to have the heroes be captured by the bad guys and it's the group's job to escape using their own ingenuity. It's hard to do this in the middle of a campaign unless it happens organically, so it's a good choice by the authors to have things kick off already in prison.

I really like the dynamics between the drow captors, and I love how the group meets all these fellow prisoners and they have jobs that they are forced to do. I think it could have been laid out a bit better - I would have liked some more concrete information on the tasks. But overall, it's cool.

The NPCs and Madness 

One major element of this adventure is demonic madness. The heroes will have to roll many times on charts to see if they go insane for a while (and perhaps even permanently). That's pretty fun, and it's especially useful on NPCs. You can load up the madness on NPCs and have all sorts of hijinx.

I really like a lot of the NPCs the heroes start off with, particularly Stool and Jimjar (make sure to read the sidebar in chapter 17, as it gives Jimjar a really fascinating story to play with). If I had one criticism of the NPCs, it's that there aren't enough females. In fact, if I were to run this I am pretty sure I would make Sarith, the drow prisoner, female.

The Charts
I have a love/hate relationship with the random encounters. The adventure just wants you to roll for everything way too often. It is is very obvious that this will ruin your game at the table, because the DM will have to spend too much time rolling and looking things up.

But, I think that if the DM prepares these things ahead of time, then the journeys to the different areas of the Underdark will be a ton of fun. There's a lot of great encounters and I really appreciate how the authors went way out of their way to give us non-combat scenarios. It's not just fighting monsters - you're dodging cave-ins, meeting other lost people and examining weird, glowing mushrooms.

The Organization

One of my major beefs with the previous 5e adventures was with the way they were organized. This book still has major issues in that department, but some things have been fixed. If you remember in Rise of Tiamat, two chapters were combined into one chapter. How weird was that? And the coalition events that occurred throughout the campaign were all listed in a single chapter, rather than being placed chronologically in the book when they would take place.

Here, each chapter pretty much details the place the heroes are likely to go next. It's tricky because the adventure is supposed to be a sandbox. But I can tell they are tightening up the format a bit.

The Dungeons


This adventure has a bunch of dungeons and set-pieces that I find to be vastly superior to most of the other stuff published for 5e so far. This book is brimming over with creativity and it is astonishing how densely-packed this book is with hooks and ideas.

Here's a list of the things that I think you should definitely use even if you don't run this adventure:

The Oozing Temple: This is a really great mini-dungeon and I absolutely love the idea of the group befriending a semi-intelligent gelatinous cube. Oozes in general don't seem to get enough attention in D&D so I'm really glad to see this.

Sloobludop: I really hate spoiling this, but there's no way around it. The heroes are in a kuo toa village, and suddenly Demogorgon himself pops up out of the water and looms over everyone, intent on devouring his sacrifice. How awesome is that?

The Battle of Blingdenstone: Our heroes lead a small force of duergar in an attack on a cavern full of oozes. The adventurers must tear through 4 encounters' worth of oozes and slimes to get to their leader - The Pudding King. This is just awesome.

Gravenhollow: The whole idea of Gravenhollow is great. It's a magic library run by stone giants who have information on everything. The place is infected with spirit echoes of past travelers. This means that if the heroes come back to Gravenhollow, they might run into an echo of themselves. It's a great location that you could put in any campaign and it would stand out.

The Worm Nursery: Purple worms are one of those monsters that don't get a lot of focus. I never considered the idea of a purple worm dungeon being something worth doing. But it is. This dungeon is great. The whole thing comes together so well, with purple worms burrowing tunnels to connect to dungeon rooms as it is being explored, to climbing strands to steal an egg while drow hunters try to do the same - this is a dungeon that deserves to be used.

The Maze Engine: I love this thing. In general, I love random charts. I love modrons. I love combats where a random effect goes off every round. I love battles over a pit of magma. This has all of that. I love it and I am using it ASAP.  I would recommend that if you use it, you change some of the chart results as they are really wacky (being sent back in time to the beginning of the campaign?! Awesome, but no thanks).

Menzoberranzan: I've never been a Forgotten Realms guy so this city is all new to me. I think it is really well done, and I like a lot of the street encounters. Especially the roaming drow kids who give the heroes lewd gestures. And I also got a kick out of the statue of Lolth which, if a non-drow touches it, a spider swarm crawls out of its mouth and attacks. Also, the pillar that lights and heats the city is a really cool and clever idea.

The Final Encounter


I like the whole idea of getting the demon lords to fight each other. I think it's tricky to run, because the heroes are going to be high level and while they are meant to be close by to witness the battle, I get the idea the heroes will be using high-level spells to protect themselves and might not even witness it.

I also appreciate the notion that 'killing' the demon lords physical forms just sends their essence back to the Abyss. Maybe players won't like it, but I don't like the idea of these guys being killed too easily. Truly killing a major entity should involve something bigger, like how you have to destroy a lich's phylactery.

This way, you can 'kill' the bad guy but he's not gone forever.

The Bad

Please remember that I like this adventure. Don't take these criticisms as anything other than one guy's rambling. I haven't even run this, and I don't think I ever will. These are just my thoughts after going through the book with a fine-toothed comb and preparing it as if I was going to run it.

Tons of Homework

I have been developing a theory based on what I have seen in Hoard of the Dragon Queen, Rise of Tiamat, Princes of the Apocalypse and this book. That theory is that the game designers who make these books don't run published adventures.

That makes sense, right? Game designers design games. It follows that their home campaign, if they have one, is full of material that they have created.

The problem then is that these designers don't have a feel for what a DM needs when they run a published adventure. The big selling point of these books is that all the work is done for you. I should be able to sit down, read a chapter, and then run it with few problems.

That simply cannot be done with this book. You will need to take extensive notes. You will have to map things out very carefully, and you'll need to look up a ton of spells, monsters, and traps.

Worse, there is no adventure summary. Do you want to know what happens in this adventure? Read 250 pages of tiny, tiny text and you'll find out. I can distinctly remember when Dungeon magazine started using adventure summaries at the start of each scenario and what a relief it was. That was in the mid-90's. Why have we taken 20 steps backward? A summary would take up a single page in the front of the book, and would save DMs a lot of agony.

Here's an example of the mentality that I am talking about. Very little thought seems to have gone in to how a DM is supposed to run an encounter full of things that need to be looked up ahead of time. Here are all of the spells/traps/monsters you need to look up in order to run Gromph's Outer Sanctum - a single room that the heroes need to get through (page 206):
  1. Arcane Lock
  2. Knock
  3. Continual Flame
  4. Fire Elemental
  5. Research spells that the heroes might use to figure out command words (to deactivate some of the traps)
  6. Dispel Magic
  7. Stone Golem (whose stat block will need to be modified to reflect his 4 arms, something you should do on paper in advance so you don't mess it up in play)
  8. Maze
  9. Glyph of Warding
  10. Bestow Curse
  11. Leomund's Secret Chest
That is one room! It's an important room, and it's an extreme example of what I am talking about. But can you imagine how long it would take you to prepare that properly? They are asking a lot of DMs who just don't have a lot of time to prepare, especially Adventurers League DMs who are going chapter-by-chapter.

No Page Numbers

You will notice something else in this book. Nothing is referred to by a page number. It's by chapter. Here's an example:

"Much of the party's travel through the Underdark is handled abstractly, using the rules and advice given in chapter 8, "Adventuring," of the Player's Handbook."

How inconvenient is that? Chapter 8?! You can't give me a page number? Worse, even when referring to something in this very same book, we're given a chapter rather than a page number.

I thought and thought about why they would have done it like this. In previous adventures, there was usually an instance or two of "page xx" getting published - an editor missed filling in a page number. I think there have also been instances where the wrong page number was put in the book. Did they just give up and decide to refer people to the chapter and let them figure it out from there?

The only conclusion I can come to is that maybe future printings of the Player's Handbook will include errata, and the extra content might change what page things are located on. So printing the chapter rather than the page number would prevent future discrepencies. But come on, you can't give me page numbers for the stuff in the very same book?

Random Encounters

This is another big reason why I think the people who made this book don't use published adventures. This adventure is overloaded with random encounters. There are vast stretches - we're talking weeks and weeks - of travel. Every single day of travel, the DM needs to:
  • Roll for encounters (and then scramble to get the stats ready).
  • Let the group roll for foraging (and know how those rules work, know how long the group can go without food, have the exhaustion rules ready and have the foraging fungus page bookmarked).
  • Roll to see if the group gets lost (and if they do, figure out how long they are lost for and have them roll again to see if they get on track).
  • Track the dark elves who are pursuing them (requiring you to be familiar with an entire subset of rules).
Every day. For weeks. A lot of new DMs are going to hit a wall when they try to handle this section.

What makes this so mind-boggling is the fact that Hoard of the Dragon Queen had a long travel section like this that most people hated! I can't believe that they did this again, and they didn't even give us a concise cheat sheet or guide to help us keep track of everything.

Months of Walking

That brings me to another thing. This adventure is FULL of walking. Walking through the Underdark. Worse, there's this faerzress energy that can hinder or even block teleportation. There is a part of this adventure where the group has to travel 200 miles from Gauntlgrym to Mantol-Derrith. Thats 33 days of walking with a horde of NPCs at their side. Then, soon after that, there is a trip to Gravenhollow that takes 60 days. And then you have to come all the way back!

I'm going to estimate that this campaign takes the heroes around 10 months in game to complete. Most of that time is spent walking. Let's think about this. The demon lords are trapped in the Underdark. Lolth has 10 months to take over their Abyssal domains. That's an awful lot of time to take over their realms, right?

And if the demon lords are in the Underdark for that long.. I mean, that's 10 months that Graz'zt has to infiltrate Menzoberranzan and wreak havoc (he doesn't - in fact, he doesn't do anything in this adventure). That's 10 months for Orcus to raise an undead army (he doesn't).

What exactly are the demon lords doing down there for all that time? Walking? Do they really move that slow?

It's not the end of the world or anything, but it will probably be noticed by the players. Bad guys pull off entire evil schemes in much less than 10 months in D&D.

The Grimoire and the Timmasks

If you remember, there have been very confusing errors in previous adventures. For example, the plot hook for Princes of the Apocalypse - the Mirabar delegates. It was quite the process of poring over that book to find out who they were, what they were doing, where they were going, who had captured them and where they were held.

What made it really hard was that the delegates had this dead body quest hook that had no resolution in the final printed product, and the final delegate was accidentally omitted from the final node printed in the book.

That was not a minor error. The delegates were the entire reason the heroes got involved in the storyline. The heroes were looking for Teresiel from level 1 to level 15, only for it to turn out that she's not imprisoned anywhere due to an editing oversight.

You would think after that happened, that people would take more care to get the important things correct in this book. Right?

Well. Deep into this adventure, we get to this major thing. Our heroes need to make a talisman. The wizard NPC tells us we also need a grimoire. The book then proceeds to contradict itself on whether the grimoire is needed to make the talisman. Here's what it says:

"...they have two goals in the City of Spiders: obtain Gromph Baenre's demon summoning grimoire, and place Vizeran's talisman in Menzoberranzan..."

Obviously this implies that the talisman is made without the grimoire. But on page 215 under "Readying the Plan", the components needed to create the talisman include:

"Gromph Baenre's grimoire (from Sorcere in chapter 15)".

Page 215 is very, very clear. It is among a list of "...components need to create the talisman...". And yet other parts of the book just as clearly show us that the talisman is made before the group even has the grimoire.

You, the DM are left digging through this giant book with no page references (only chapters!) trying to figure out what the hell is going on. The grimoire is the entire reason for going to Menzoberranzan. It's the point of an entire chapter. And we can't figure out what we need the grimoire for!

But that's not even all. There's the timmasks. They're mushroom ingredients to make the talisman. Where do our heroes find these? Actually, the heroes might have grabbed some randomly in the opening chapters, but they probably ate them. Here's how the timmasks we need are described deep into the book:

"Thirteen timmasks, also known as 'devil's mushrooms', sprouted from the footprint of a marilith, a balor, or a goristro - a lure to draw demons in."

OK.. so eventually in chapter 14, our heroes run into a goristro being beat up by Yeenoghu! Crazy, right? Well, there's a goristro. I guess this is where you get the timmasks. Right?

No. There is no mention of timmasks at all in that entire section.

So you keep reading, and you get to chapter 15, which talks as if the group already has all the ingredients. But they don't! Then you pore over the book again. Did you miss it? This is a dense text, maybe you glazed over for a second.

No, you didn't. The timmasks are mentioned again - in chapter 16. A chapter that, I assume, should be run before chapter 15. The timmasks are not found in the footprints of "...a marilith, a balor, or a goristro...". They are found in the remains of a battle between Zuggtmoy and Juiblex, mentioned in a paragraph that I almost entirely missed. It says:

"Additionally, the thirteen timmask mushrooms on the list of required components that Vizeran needs to create his dark heart talisman (see chapter 12)" - No page number! - "can be found in the aftermath of the failed wedding ceremony, sprouting in locations touched by Zuggtmoy or Juiblex."

Then, in chapter 17, we are given a CHECKLIST of the components. Why is that in the final chapter? Why is that not in chapter 12? Here's what it says about the timmasks:

"Thirteen timmasks sprouted from the footprint of a greater demon (from Araumycos's cavern in chapter 16, or elsewhere)."

OR ELSEWHERE?! Can you give us a hand here, people!?

This is why I believe that game designers don't run published adventures. If they did, they would not organize books like this. It is incredibly frustrating. The book should not be your enemy.

Most people running games do not have tons of spare time to dig through a book to find this stuff. Most don't even have the time to read ahead. In fact, many will assume they just missed something and they'll make up a way for the group to get the timmasks on the spot.

The whole point of a published adventure is so that the DM doesn't have to make anything up. It's all done for them.

The NPC Horde

Another problem with this adventure is that the group has a ton of NPCs with them. In the beginning, the heroes will likely be accompanied by freed slaves. There's about 8 of them.

It's a cool idea. But when you have 8 NPCs with you, that game is going to slow to a crawl unless you have a very prepared or experienced DM. And then, when you add in the fact that the DM is rolling random encounters, foraging, navigation checks, the game will become very, very boring.

On top of that, there's no scaling. 5 PCs and 8 NPCs versus 1d6 giant spiders? So... maybe 1 giant spider? 2? Versus 12 people? Those spiders will be dead so fast some PCs won't even get to roll to hit.

It gets worse in the second half of the book. The group will have 20+ NPCs with them. I am not kidding. Up to 25 NPCs. And these NPCs go with the group on that 60 day journey to Gravenhollow that you're supposed to roll out each day for.

Random encounters include 1d4 chasmes, or 1d2 hezrous. Versus 30 people. I don't even know what we are doing at this point in the adventure. Why? I mean, why not give us a horde of monsters with 1 hit point (minions) each attacking us. Right? Minions would make the bookkeeping easy, but at least you will have the feeling of your small platoon being threatened by a substantial force.

I just don't get why they gave the group all these NPCs. It's too unwieldy. If you're going to do it, cook up special abstract rules to help the DMs run it without grinding the game to a halt.

I don't think there's too many DMs out there who can possibly keep all those NPCs straight. They all have names, they're all in factions, and there's about 6 different stat blocks to keep track of.

Gracklstugh is the Worst

Let's Not Find Droki
Now we get to the main event. Chapter 4. Gracklstugh. I don't know what happened here. It's like they ran out of time to work on this chapter. It's too big. It's organized in the most insane manner I've ever seen.

Quest lines are broken up by section of the city. It's so bizarre. You'll read about half of a quest, and then you'll read about a tavern, and then 5 pages later, you'll read more about the quest from earlier.

Then there's quests that are not even finished. There's this whole quest involving the derro and how they're getting surface world currency. There is no resolution to this! In the final room of Whorlstone Tunnels (the dungeon nearby), there's this monolith and a single coin from the surface world. There is no explanation as to where it came from. There are no other surface coins. The whole thing is just dropped, as if somebody deleted a paragraph and didn't realize it.

I could go on forever about how much I hate Gracklstugh, and especially how much I hate Droki. Droki is a derro who has a sack of stuff. The heroes need to find Droki. All of the jumbled-up quests that will take you 2 hours to piece together all end up with the same goal: find Droki.

The heroes might see Droki in the market. They might chase him. But the adventure says: "Pursuing characters quickly lose sight of the derro as he vanishes into the crowd".

So there's NO CHANCE of the group nabbing him. He gets away, no matter what.

You know what usually happens in D&D when you put an NPC that the heroes need to find in front of them? The heroes trample their own mother to get to that NPC right away. They bust out spells. They fling nets. They use magic items everyone forgot they owned. They get on horses. They climb on rooftops. They throw sticky stuff at the NPC's feet. They shout to everyone around the NPC that they'll pay 100 gold to whoever tackles him and restrains him. And they will gladly pay it.

So how do we find Droki? The heroes are supposed to go to the derro section of city, and somehow stumble on a pipe. In the pipe is tunnel. In that tunnel is a dungeon called Whorlstone Tunnels that Droki's in. There's no footprints. No one says, "Hey! Droki went over there in that pipe!". The heroes just notice a pipe, and peer in looking for treasure or a dungeon rather than the contents of 50 deep gnomes' bowels.

So then our heroes enter Whorlstone Tunnels. The idea here is that Droki eats magic mushrooms that make him small and allow him to run through tiny tunnels to elude the heroes. The group is supposed to pursue him through the dungeon. Eventually the group just finds him or something. The book leaves that entirely up to the DM!

The worst part of all of this is that there's cool ideas in this chapter. The red dragon is awesome. The idea that he's being replaced by a dragon yet to hatch - also awesome! The concept of the heroes being his spy - that's epic!

So how the hell did we end up chasing Droki and his sack through Whorlstone Tunnels (which in my opinion is a lousy dungeon)?

Prior to this, I considered the trip to Thay in Rise of Tiamat to be the low point in the 5e published adventures. Mostly because it was just too short and there was barely anything to it.

I also hated the tacked-on barren dungeon in the final chapter of Rise of Tiamat. And I thought the first 25% of Princes of the Apocalypse was sort of weak and probably would bore players into quitting.

But now there is no question. Chapter 4 - Gracklstugh - is the low point of 5th edition. It's simply not finished. It makes no sense. It's like a first draft of a chapter that nobody ever got back to. And worst of all, it's one of the longest chapters in the book! 33 pages! Why?

Overall

Despite my criticisms, I think this is probably the best adventure put out so far. While I enjoyed the dragon-centric action in Tyranny of Dragons, those books were more uneven than this one. Out of the Abyss maintains a pretty high level of quality throughout, with a couple glaring exceptions.

93 comments:

Mason said...

Great review! Thank you for it.

Bronk said...

Thanks for the awesome twosome of reviews!

This was pretty neat to read, because the setup for all of this was in a novel I just read, "Archmage", the most recent of the Drizz't series by Salvatore. Basically, while the Dwarves and Drizz't completely retake Gauntlegrym (which was a plot point for what, 5 or 6 books now?) Gromph get's tricked by Jarlaxle's cohort Kimmuriel into thinking he's just created a super powerful mixture of psionics and magic that can summon demon lords, specifically Errtu, while in reality it just weakened planar barriers and yeah, he accidentally called Demogorgon. (Kimmuriel had been tricked by Lolth herself into thinking the spell would summon his mother out of the Abyss for revenge). The story in the adventure is a bit confusing though, because it sounds like all the major players from the book don't know anything, Gromph, who just joined Bruenor and Drizz't after fleeing Demogorgon, is gone, and the story gets wrapped up with nothing left to follow up on in the next novel. Weird!

The Narbondel light is interesting, because it used to just be a clock that the drow could see with their 'infravision', not a city wide light.

The hundred year banishment of demons has also been coming up in the drizz't books since the beginning. It sounds as if they ditched that rule for 4E but brought it back for 5E?

Thanks again for the two great reviews!

Bronk said...

You know, considering Menzoberranzan has always been written as an irredeemably evil city from top to bottom, I wonder if the only reason the adventure shies away from using that talisman to destroy it is because of the novels? Although, it sounds like the adventurers were able to find refuge in various points, so maybe not everyone was bad after all...

Benji said...

Bronk, there's still the option for the talisman to be left in the Drow city. It ne of many places suggested. It's entirely possible that the plays go "Screw This. Vizeran is kinda right, drow suck. They imprisoned us for god's sake! Let's just make it and take it back to menzoberranzan".

Bronk said...

It seems weird to me because on one hand, if you're going to hand the players the chance to take down such an evil city, you'd think it would be the preferred option. But, on the other hand, it's weird that they'd make it an option at all, due to the tie in with the popular Drizz't novels.

MadCar said...

I wish that wizards would provide DM accessories with the book:

* Deck of NPC cards with image on front, and stats/behavior/background on the back. I made my own, and insert them into baseball card holders. Very handy for players.
* Deck of Monster cards specifically for this adventure
* Summary sheet that includes a mind map or story plot map showing how the various quests are linked, (with page numbers)
* Example table to use for tracking daily food, pursuit, madness level, ...

Sean said...

Mason Peatross: You're welcome, I appreciate the feedback!

Bronk: Bruenor is in Gauntlegrym just hanging out in the adventure and there is no mention of Kimmuriel at all. I could be wrong on the narbondell thing, I'll have to go back an look. I just really liked the art of the city and the description. Thanks for the novel info, i don't read those and it's cool to hear a bit more of the connecting story.

MadCar: I agree with you completely. At the very least they should have provided a traveling tracking sheet with all the info you need to help a DM run all that walking smoothly. Thank you!

Matt said...

Once again, thanks for the review...I think you've hit the nail on the head with it all.

The travel sections are becoming cumbersome at best. The part is midway from Slublodop to Gracklstugh and rolling dice 60 odd times for random encounters is tiresome. My plan is to keep it up until we hit the Duegar City and then run themore streamlined rules after that. The party has encountered so many fire beetles that I don't even bother running the encounter now.

I decided early on to leave the NPCs out of combat. They travel separately or are conveniently elsewhere. They're just a pain to manage. The party have about 3/4 left with them.

I really like the extra sections, they make the travel sections less borring and more interesting. The Silken Paths were a little disappointing as they were over in the blink of an eye. However, I'm in the middle of the Lost Tomb and that has gone well (albeit it's a short interlude). The Wild Magic effect in the area is a cause for much hilarity.

Anonymous said...

Yes, thank you for this review it has been helpful in conjunction with your other entry on this adventure. I agree these modules have taken several steps back in terms of being helpful to a prospective DM. I recently agreed to DM for the first time after many years, way back when it was still 1st edition, and will be running this adventure so I will be relying heavily on your notes to help piece things together. Way back when the books were cheaper and had ALL the information you needed, including each enemies stats, abilities, treasure, etc. I suppose this is more challenging and can be fun to some extent, but at some point it may get tedious and beyond confusing. At least the licensed DM screen has the madness tables in it.

Sean said...

Matt: That's bummer about The Silken Paths, on paper they look really fun. The prospect of falling off seems like it would make it pretty intense. Thanks!

Anonymous: It's a good adventure but yeah it can be a real pain in the butt to prepare. Good luck!

Daern said...

This review helped my thinking about this module. I've been running it untll it fizzled out in Grack city. So true. The dragon spy plot is cool, but the information is sooo confused and the Whorlstone caves are deceptively long. The motivation is weird as well. Are they poking around just to get permission to leave the City? Maybe a map to the surface? The idea of Teleport Nodes is really good. I'm thinking the Obelisk should be one. This is my idea to salvage the campaign. The heroes can escape to the surface, have a side quest and possibly be drawn back in later, maybe a request to help Blindenstone against the Pudding King.
It really is a question of why these modules are so confusing and poorly edited. I think the answer that they were all subcontracted to outside studios. These books were passed back and forth between the studios and WOTC editors, who are all very creative people with very good ideas, but it kind of shows that the modules missed having a point person right the "bulk of the series" and keep it coherent. It is interesting to note that Curse of Strahd was written in-house and seems to be a bit better organized.

Anonymous said...

Here's what I did for Grack.
Replace Demogorgon influence with Orcus. Droki is carrying ingredients to cultist in the caves for a ritual to turn the dragon into a dracolitch for Orcus. They also took the egg for this ritual. The characters were arrested and asked to investigate where droki was going and who he is meeting by errde. Keepers meet and want help finding the egg. they think droki knows its location. Then thumberchaud wants to speak and asks they follow with the plan to find information but report to him first.
A few things can happen here, depending on who they report to. (My group lost droki but tracked him to the chamber where they were performing part of the ritual. Droki was here but got away in the encounter. They can find him later and capture or kill him doesn't matter.)
If they tell either the keepers or errde, they try to stop the ritual and ask for help. Cultist attack, big battle, stone guard and keepers vs cultist with a crazy stone giant (I didn't use giant attack encounter), cultist succeed or fail as it plays out.

If they tell thumberchaud, the idea of eternal life is appealing and he wants to go through with it. Helping when the cultist attack.

Then you have this dracolitch flying around with rotting flesh dripping off burning the city. If the players told him, have a scene where he flys in, land and his eye or tongue falls and splats in front of them. For the info they are allowed to live, for now, then he turns and continues his destruction.
If cultists succeed without the dragon knowing just have him mess up the stone guards so players can escape.
If cultists fails grant audience with deepking.

ShyberKryst said...

Sean, I totally agree with your assessment. Out of the Abyss has some really cool stuff in it but is almost impossible to DM as written.
One thing I hated that you didn't mention: the second half of the book doesn't have enough maps. Its like they ran out of time for the cartographer. Granted some of those chapters in the second half maybe don't need maps, but I hate running "random maze" locations with no map and just a bunch of die rolls to see if the PCs get lost or not...
Even though its like the 4th re-boot, I much prefer Curse of Strahd as a super-adventure: better organization, more maps, clear flow, more manageable sandbox.
cheers

Anonymous said...

"...they have two goals in the City of Spiders: obtain Gromph Baenre's demon summoning grimoire, and place Vizeran's talisman in Menzoberranzan..."

It is oddly worded, but I don't think they meant to say that the goals were to be achieved in the first visit. The impression I get is that obtaining the grimoire is the achieved on the first visit, and they are to return if they decide to place it there, unless Vizeran's assistant convinces them to put it somewhere else.

Unknown said...

Thanks for the review and especially the guide, it's been soooo helpful.

Anonymous said...

This is very interesting, You’re a very skilled blogger. I have joined your feed and look forward to seeking more of your fantastic post. Also, I have shared your web site in my social networks!
Regards - www.office.com/setup
www.office.com/setup

Michael Jones said...

For students help you just look at the Assignment help given by the assignment experts. Opting for our Online Assignment Help could be ideal for such students and they can get a complete assignment solution from us.

Assignment Help Firm said...

Thanks for sharing. Nice blog. I am working as an academic expert. We provide quality
assignment help for students.

hookstefan said...

gives an online service of 24 hours of receptiveness to understudies.
write my essay for me
online homework help

john smith said...

Get the Perdisco Assignment Help from the top tutors. our customers keep trust in our company because of our excellent services. We provide 24x7 online support.

john smith said...

Get the MYOB Assignment Help from the top tutors. We are the best in providing custom assignments, at an effective price.

Candle Walsh said...

Writing a University of Michigan Essay is not an easy thing to do. Such a paper should fully reveal your potential and personality. If you need the michigan essays you can order the essays online from our professional writing service.

Ciana Langham said...

Hello! Cool post! By the way, if you see that you have no time for writing papers then it's better to use additional help and open an essay writing service. For instance, you can visit lab report writing service and get all the necessary information.

john smith said...

we provide 24x7 online support. Feel free to contact us as we will support you and solve all kinds of problems associated with assignment. get the MATLAB assignment help

digital marketing said...

digital marketing course in kurukshetra
digital marketing course in haryana

ASSIGNMENT HELP said...

Whenever it becomes tough to manage the assignments in college, availing assignment help is a wise choice. Students often miss assignment submission deadlines and score low grades. That's exactly where assignment help online is useful. We are at assignment-help helps under our assignment help so that students can complete their assignment on time and score good marks.

Best Assignment Help said...


Thanks for sharing this information. I have shared this link with others to keep posting such information to provide the best in class assignment help online at very affordable prices.
Marketing Assignment Help
Math Homework Help
Nursing Assignment Help
programming assignment help
statistics homework help
Finance Homework Help
Business Plan Help

call tutors said...


If you want to know how to create an assignment in google classroom. Here know 4 best tips on how to create an assignment in Google classroom.
How To Create An Assignment In Google Classroom


Assignment reports are difficult to work with, but now you do not have to worry at all. Here are 8 Best Steps On How To Write An Assignment Report in detail
How to Write An Assignment Report

statanalytica said...

Do you want to start with the data science, but don't know how to start? If yes, then here are some basics of statistics for data science to start with.
statistics for data science


Have a look at the best ever comparison between R vs python. Here you will come to know which one is best for data science.
r vs Python

William smith said...

Get the best Statistics Assignment Help only from our qualified experts to ensure you get A+ grade in your assignment.My Assignment Help
is the best assignment service provider offered online by a team of experts tutors. We offer 100% original and plagiarism-free answers for all assignments. So what are you waiting for? Avail our assignment help Now.

crazy 4 watches said...

thanks for the posting great article. for any help with Economics Assignment help , contact to our customer support. we provide almost assignment on every subject and topics with quality content and at a low cost. you can easily get Economics Homework help at the best price in the market.

tim kalkin said...

Coming up with an essay soon and you don't know how best to write it? At this time, few can help? Even friends can't jump anything? I think they will be able to help you with this here service essays and hand over your work without any problems!

john smith said...

The quality of our work performance can increase your career for future. We provide the best MYOB Assignment Help for the students at the best price. We provide all types of help whether it is related to writing, homework, project, tutoring or any other help regarding MYOB Homework help.

ASSIGNMENT HELP said...

Psychology Assignment Help is the branch of science which studies the behavior of mind and embracing all the aspects of it while dealing along with the thoughts. It has the potentiality of dealing with the conscious and unconscious experience. Psychology deals with the facts and information which drives the tendency of a mood or any activity which relates to the behavior enhancement or mood disturbance. We are at assignment help . Assignment helps under our psychology help assignment help so that students can complete their assignment on time and score good marks.

john smith said...

If you require any help with Accounting assignment help , you need not to worry. You can contact us at any time with your query or problem. We will solve all your query related to the Accounting Homework help at the best price.

Unknown said...

For any professional help with Database Assignment help, we are available to help you. You can ask for any query whether it is related to assignment writing or dissertation and thesis help. you can get the Database Homework help the best price in the market.

QuickBooks Error said...

Nice & Informative Blog !
Our team at QuickBooks Customer Service Number believes in giving honest advice in these serious times.

fred perry said...

Need to submit an essay and don't know where to start and which topic to choose? Don't know what to do at all? They will be able to help you with this here what is a response essay and will do your job well!

crazy 4 watches said...

Our aim is to provide the best quality services at the best price. If you require any first copy watches in india, then you are at the right place. We have more than 10+ years of experience in this business. We provide the 24x7 online support and machine warranty. You can get the best quality Replica watches in India at the best price.

Anonymous said...

Excellent thread, I have to thank you for this. It helps me a lot to enhance my knowledge. I truly like your way of blogging. I bookmarked it to my bookmark website list and will be checking back soon. Please check out my website rationalism assignment as well and let me know what you think.
oracle assignment
matlab assignment
corporate finance assignment
mathematics assignment

Anonymous said...

Thanks for writing this case study-based article.

The CRM software stores every single necessary information in a single location. With its use, it is possible to acquire real-time notifications which will definitely help your Customers to carry out a remarkable activity.

LiveWebTutors said...

Hey, thanks for the article that was a great one! I am currently using the Marketing Homework Help
facility by the LiveWebTutors platform in USA. Their proficient experts use updated and
modified resources and methods to complete the academic assignments with premium
quality content. I would definitely recommend the American Scholars to try out their top-
notch java homework help facilities to observe a remarkable change in their academic grades.

Sarah Winget said...

Australian market is crowded with proficient organizations giving online tutors help administrations to academic assignments, notwithstanding just the couple of are able to cook the specific requirements of a student. ABC Assignment Help is set apart as an organization which is effectively giving secondary school tutors help administration for a student's assignment issues. The organization prides itself to be among the not many organizations in Australia that ensures exclusive expectation answers for a student's whole assignment needs. essay writing help , assignmenthelp

Unknown said...

Do My Homework for Me?
The Answer is Yes. We at Do My Homework Help are looking for opportunities to help you complete your homework on time so that you do not miss any of your assignment submissions. We are here to help you achieve balance in your life and make you enjoy what you like without worrying about completing your assignments. Our team is well educated and expert in writing different types of assignments and doing homework for all the fields, including commerce, Management, Accounting, Business, Science, Computer Science and many more.
Do My Homework For Me
Do My Homework Help

valueassignmenthelp said...

Welcome to the world's most searched assignment help in the online arena. Value assignment help since the last decade has been helping students to configure their assignments by assisting them in their subject research and drafting contents as per the rubric set by the education institutes.
VAH is offering online assignment help services in Australia, Canada, the USA, UK, Germany, New Zealand, UAE, South Korea, India and other countries.
assignment help online

Assignment Help Online said...

We know that each and every students has their own individual needs. Some one needs research paper help, some one needs to law assignment help, some one wants perdisco help. No matter what specifications or requirements you are assigned to meet, our expert assignment help uk service are instantly help you with everything.

jerry said...

For every student education is necessary but mostly student get bored while doing their assignment or coursework. So don't get worry we are here to help you in all of these. Our is team specialist in assignment writing services and in dissertation help. We give this service from the natives of UK.

babyswingstore said...

Appreciating the article and you will not find any collection better than our fun collection of baby bouncer chairs, swing chair, baby rockers, baby cradle swings and baby rockers . Shop now and enjoy free standard delivery.

Leo Oliver said...

Hey! You've written a genuinely unique piece. For your consideration, I've added some valuable hints. Our writing assignment help will ensure that you get the best mark possible in college.visit now:- My Assignment Help

Leo Oliver said...

Super! It's a fantastic job you've provid here. My Assignment Help


Leo Oliver said...

Exceptional work! well done. My Assignment Help

Leo Oliver said...

Best wishes! Because it offers large-scale writing services from a different view, your blog has had an impact on me.
My Assignment Help

Leo Oliver said...


Very good article. Please continue to post in this manner. I am overjoyed that you are producing things like this. My Assignment Help

Leo Oliver said...

This is a pretty helpful, and knowledgable blog, in my opinion. I'd like to express my gratitude for the time and work you put into writing this site. Visit now:- My Assignment Help

Leo Oliver said...


Very good article. Please continue to post in this manner. I am glad that you are providing things like this.visit now:- My Assignment Help




Leo Oliver said...

Hello, I enjoy reading your article. as follows from seemore-My Assignment Help

Leo Oliver said...

Wow, this is a fantastic article. Thank you very much for providing this helpful information. This was a lot of information for me. That's just what I needed. . My Assignment Help

Leo Oliver said...

Without the need for a sure, this is an excellent article. You do a fantastic job. You have inspired me. So keep going. . My Assignment Help

Leo Oliver said...


The post was quite informative, and I learned a lot from it. I think its fantastic blog. The article was very helpful to me. This blog will assist the reader in obtaining information. Thank you for creating such an informative article. My Assignment Help


Abhishek Sharma said...

The Answer is Yes. We at Do My Homework Help are looking for opportunities to help you complete your homework on time so that you do not miss any of your assignment submissions. We are here to help you achieve balance in your life and make you enjoy what you like without worrying about completing your assignments. Our team is well educated and expert in writing different types of assignments and doing homework for all the fields, including commerce, Management, Accounting, Business, Science, Computer Science and many more.
domyhomework

Online Assignment Help said...

Great article, I enjoyed lot when reading this article. Please keep it on if you don't mind then i will love to share this valuable piece of contents.
Online Quiz Help
<a

Need Assignment Help? said...

Keep sharing such a great information We really apperciate this information. If you are student then Don't take risk with grading. Get Higher Grade with our professtional tutors having minimum 10 years experience. Thanks
We are offering our best assignment help servies with lowest budget
Computer science Assignment Help
Business Assignment Help
Pay Someone to do my homework
Assignment Help Manchester
Finance Assignment Help Online

Online Assignment Help said...

Are you searching for urgent assignment help in Australia? Then don’t worry! My Assignment experts provide you the most reliable assignment writing services at very affordable prices. Visit My Assignment Experts website for help with your work.

AHECounselling said...

HEC is an acronym for academic help and e-counseling. Established in 2017, AHEC has by far assisted over 15000 students across 4-5 continents— including countries such as UK, USA, Australia, UAE— and helped them obtain excellent grades. We live in a fast-paced world these days, and as a student, you may often get caught up with more activities than you can efficiently deal with. All of these activities demand equal attention, which is nearly impossible to give. Now, you can just sit back and relax, because AHEC is always there to help you. You can focus on activities that need your presence and delegate some tasks which you never thought could be delegated. AHEC is an India-based platform that offers academic help and e-counseling for undergraduate as well as for postgraduate students. We have a team of professional writers and online counselors & tutors who are considered estimable in their respective fields. Professional writers deliver plagiarism-free content, and counselors and tutors address your queries and offer the best solution to your problems related to academics.
Visit Here: https://ahecounselling.com/
Contact Us: https://ahecounselling.com/contact-us
Services: https://www.ahecounselling.com/services
Blog Page: 1https://ahecounselling.com/blog/University-of-West-London

Goodtime said...

This is a very useful and important information, it was so useful to me and other readers, thank you for always feeding the readers with interesting and useful information, your blog is indeed doing very well, kudos, meanwhile you can checkout this uniuyo cut off mark for dentistry

Online Assignment Help said...

Marketing is a kind of process in which promotion of a product or service is done. In management marketing is considered as the most important function because it helps in attracting new customers. Nowadays students are assigned with marketing assignment because this assignment makes them think critically about the marketing strategies. Sometimes students face difficulties in completing their marketing assignments. So to solve theirproblem OnlineTutorHelps.com is the best solution. It is the best website where you can get solutions to all your problems. Experts at OnlineTutorHelps will help you in doing your marketing as well as assignments related to various subjects like nursing, finance, economics, statistics etc. Read More At: https://www.onlinetutorhelps.com/marketing-assignment-help/
Marketing Assignment Help

SAVIOLA said...

Thank you for taking your time to put in your best in this article. This post is the most incredible article I haven't read in a very long time. You can also check cut off mark in university of maiduguri

Goodtime said...

Excellent post and very informative as well. Your knowledge appears very well on this topic and the way you have explained it, any new person can understand it easily. I would like you to keep writing like this and share your information with us tasued post utme form

Graysonau said...

Plantation shutters being easy to operate, where for receiving sunlight the slats just need to be tilted and at the same time, one can completely open the shutters frames like doors. There are a varied number of materials to choose from for plantation shutters say - wood, PVC, aluminum, foamed synthetics, etc, that saves current bill and provide greater privacy while getting installed by experts say Australian Window Covering, Victoria.

Plantation shutters
vertical blinds
roman blinds
Honeycomb blinds
vision blinds

Anonymous said...

Unique Jewelry Selling & Buying Platform for showcasing the potential of trending designs and traditional legacy to overseas Jewelry Lov
www.diwamjewels.com
www.diwamjewels.com/category/rings

Assignment Help Expert said...

commercial cookery assignments help

Get quality and 100% secure commercial cookery assignment help Help from experienced experts. First, check our quality services then pay

Contact us at info@assignmenthelpexperts.com or call us at +61-3-9088-1335 for more information.

Assignment Editors Pro said...

Get professional coursework help from UK native experts to boost your grades. We at assignment editors pro have a dedicated team of coursework experts that provide the best consultancy to students and academic professionals. Get in touch now with our experts and choose your coursework expert to boost your grades.buy coursework help uk
assignment help experts

John Smith said...

we are provide online assignmnet help canada,"We Have The Best Team! i am check your question and provde best assignmnet help service canada. Need article Specialist who can draft quality tasks without making it extreme to pay? Recruit www.assignmenthelppro.com/ca/. We are the main web-based paper help administration in the Canada who will compose a quality exposition for you at sensible rates.

My Assignment Experts said...

Get Online Assignment Expert
Help from certified authors at My Assignment Experts. We pledge a free Plagiarism Report to assure our originality.

My Assignment Experts said...

My Assignment Expert are 24x7 available and ready to assist via WhatsApp. A team of +150 PhD professors and M.A graduates who promise 90% marks with distinction. We 24 provide 100+ subjects assignment help.
Top Assignment Experts

Gaurav said...

ketu in 12th house is a very auspicious Yoga for people who have the desire to travel to foreign lands and settle in a foreign country.

Studytonight said...

Hi there, thank you for sharing such great informative post with us. It is really helpful.
Install Sublime Text
What Is Localhost
Bash Source Command
Ntoskrnl.Exe

nick247 said...

Thanks for the info, getting tired from doing your essay, get Essay Writer online by professionals to score full marks.
Visit: https://www.bookmyessay.com/essay-writers-online/

Essien said...

Great job! You are amazing and super cool to weblog. I'm always feeling exited coming around to read useful. Thank you so much for sharing. Also visit the best fashion magazines

Digital Skills Up said...

thanks Tata Motors Career

olivila jhon said...


platform for getting the canon printer driver. You can easily download the driver according to your model as ij start canon is designed with a user-friendly interface.
ij.start.canon,
ij.start canon

Leo Oliver said...


University or college students will want Online University Assignment Help in order to complete their university assignments at a higher level. We offer an outstanding writing service that assists students with their university assignments. Students can get immediate help now by using our online service. We provide excellent online University assignment assistance so that you may complete your assignment on time and earn higher grades.

Leo Oliver said...

Our expert Online Minitab assignment consultants provide you with high-quality and trustworthy Minitab Assignment Help . Analysis of the data, sampling, are just a number of the topics we cover in our assignment help. Minitab is a program tool that helps students with statistical studies such as logistic, measurement, grouped, and cost estimates.

starswimschools said...

Our Learn to Swim kids program gives uninterrupted learning for your children all year round. Baby Swimming Lessons are accompanied 49 weeks of the year to support for consistent training and to present students with the possibility to grow through levels at a quicker rate. The Star Swim Schools provides you peace of mind that your kid will receive a high-quality swimming education.Women's Private Swimming Classes

AU Team designs said...

Team Designs is the best 3D architectural rendering service provider in Australia. We offer the latest 3d designs according to customer expectations and requirements. We provide a large variety of 3d rendering, interior designs, 3d product rendering, 3d animation, 3d industrial rendering and 3d floor plans for homes, residential apartments, office and industrial designs, etc.

Research Paper Assignment Help said...

Our quick research assignment helpers follow an absolutely constructive method of paper composition, which allows them to cover every vital aspect of research paper writing with precision. No research paper writing is good unless and until you are arranging the collected notes properly, and adding valid arguments in support of the notion or the particular topic which have been assigned. Our research paper help team is available to help with assignment writing task in ultracareful way.

Essien said...

It’s very interesting, educative and informative, I must commend you for the good work you are doing here while I urge you to keep it up. Thank you for sharing. Visit us: nmcn past questions pdf format

Cookeryassignments said...

Great post, thanks for sharing. Here is a lot of interesting information. You did a great job and your post was very informative. We look forward to your next updates

sitxfin004

zarkazijar said...

What a great erudition article, fell in love with your amazing reads, and visiting your wonderful post more often is of great value and benefit, really appreciate you for sharing this... past questions for nigerian navy pdf

i4 Acmmos Media said...

Hire a specialized Python app development company. i4 Acmmos Media has a dedicated Python development team trusted by the world's leading brands. Contact us if you are looking for a leading Python development company We have dedicated Python app development team.

Contact us at info@i4acmmosmedia.com or call us at +44 20 8432 4513 for more information.

ABC Assignment Help said...

Just had a desire to tell you that your article is amazing. The clearness of what you publish is just excellent and I can imagine that you are a professional
in this subject. Well allow me to go through your feed to stay updated. Well just in case if you need any help with college related work, ABC Assignment Help has been the desired and best assignment company. It consists of a team of well-known Phd experts who have great experience in their subject area. ABC assignment help has a dream to become the leading brand in academic writing services all over the world and aims to do so by providing quality help to college students and professionals.


software said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
hubrix said...

Great Blog, Did not expect this. Really Nice and Informative for
HubPrix Website Overview Review

Indian Gaming News Latest is Interesting