An Endzeitgeist.com review

This massive module clocks in at 81 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial/author’s notes on making this, 1 page ToC, 2 pages of notes, 3 pages of SRD, 1 page MonkeyBlood Design glyph, 1 page back cover, leaving us with 71 pages of content, so let’s take a look!

Okay, first things first: This adventure is intended for 4 characters of 5th level, and it was the first big production of Glynn Seal, who handled everything but editing and cover illustration. The module was playtested, credits its playtesters, and it shows. In many ways, I consider this to be the first big production by the company…and oh boy does it do things right that many others get wrong: The two pages of counters to represent the monsters and adversaries? They’re nice enough. However, where I seriously started drooling, was with the cartography: Not only do we get a LOT of it, we get player-friendly versions of everything. Yes, this includes not only the dungeons, but also lavishly-depicted roadside encounters! Fully mapped! Player-friendly! Heck yeah! Now, the village featured herein is the one exception – its map is the only one that comes only with a keyed version, but considering the module’s plot, I can kinda live with it, even though I don’t get why the pdf-version, which is layered, fyi, doesn’t at least feature that – don’t get me wrong: Having a version sans key would have been better, but at least it doesn’t spoil anything.

Speaking of which: There are two types of player-friendly maps: The ones that do the minimum (remove numbers and the like), and the ones that go one step beyond. This book features the latter. What do I mean by this? Well, not only are secret door “S”s excised, there are proper walls here, so if you’re using VTTs, or if you’re like me and cut up maps and hand them out, then this is AWESOME. Serious kudos for getting that right! Another aspect this gets right: I own the perfect-bound softcover of the book, and it properly spells the module’s name on the spine. It may be a small thing, but it’s something I appreciate.

Now, regarding themes, this obviously deals with meteorites, but if you’re thinking automatically about Lovecraftiana or mythos creatures, let me assure you that the module is smarter than doing the obvious.

Regarding themes, the module is billed as “medieval”, and it certainly fits that bill regarding its aesthetics and theme: The module does feature magic, but said magic is not commonplace or something everybody knows about; furthermore, while using fantastic tropes, these are always grounded. If you need a comparison, my best direct references would be Greyhawk’s grittier side, or Raging Swan Press’ offerings. The latter is also a great reference, because, much like Raging Swan Press’ modules, this is not a brutal adventure regarding its difficulty; you can run this with groups that are not that into min-maxing their characters. This doesn’t mean it’s trivial, mind you – just that, depending on the power-level of your group, you should contemplate running this at an earlier level than the indicated 5th.

Regarding rules, the module tends to gravitate to the simpler side of things, with builds being relatively simple; on the plus-side, the rules are much better than what you’d expect from a first foray into the gaming system’s complexities, and the book certainly knows what it’s doing The adventure’s new monsters come with unique b/w-artworks, and the same holds true for the NPCs. Apart from important characters and the like, stats are placed throughout the module where they’re needed, which renders running this a pretty comfortable enterprise for the GM.

The depiction of aforementioned village deserves special mention: Not only do we get names and behavior patterns/oddities for the NPCs, we also get a few sentences for important information to paraphrase. The attention to detail here is far beyond the usual. The module comes with atmospheric read-aloud text. More importantly, it does something I didn’t know I wanted to see, but which I adored: In the dungeon, above the read-aloud text, we have values: The first value denoted how far below the surface the keyed locale is; then, we get values for width, length and height, and a few key notes for the construction, overall feeling, and immediate sensory inputs – so if you’re in the camp that prefers terse, bullet-pointed lists, this has you covered. Even if you like the read-aloud text, this lets you reference dimensions in one glance without consulting the map. It’s a great piece of convenience for the GM.

Anyhow, this is as far as I can go without diving into SPOILERS. Potential players should jump ahead to the conclusion.

… .. .

All right, only GMs around? Great!

The PCs are contacted by a mysterious dwarf, who may seem kinda crazy – Rhuin Graystone babbles about “The Great Basalt One” sending him on a sacred quest to hand a holy symbol to the PCs, and task them to travel to the village of Gravencross, to guard the “stones that feel from the sky”; en route, the PCs will be attacked by strange wolves that seem to be suffering from a magical disease, and, well, as the PCs arrive, they’ll see a farmer burning crops, trying to stop the blight. Which obviously comes from the stones, right? Well, no. After the PCs have acclimated themselves to Gravencross and researched the details about the environment, the module goes into full sandbox mode and lets the characters explore the vicinity, with several biomes and random encounter tables presented. Arriving at the first stone will prompt visions for the holder of the divine symbol, and over the course of the module, the party will be able to piece together more and more.

This presentation of information is handled in a smart manner as well; everything happens pretty organically, and isn’t subject to requiring huge exposition dumps. Anyhow, beyond the dangerous wildlife and the mysterious wychblight, the PCs will see a strange, humanoid pteroglyph, and essentially do a wilderness investigation, as they try to find all three demon stones – these stones are not responsible for the magical blight; instead, they are part of the cure.

In a clever twist, the stones are a defensive meachnism of the god Basaltor, for the glittering geode, an important artifact of the deity, is in the process of being found/breached by a very nasty criminal, who dubs himself “The Underlord”; the bitter necromancer has a whole mercenary company under his sway, and the PCs will probably have crossed blades with them by now. The stones, in fact basalt elementals, are basically a safety precaution! The resting place of the geode? Right in the middle of the fallen stones! Atop a high ridge, the Wardcroft ruins hold the dungeon that contains the means to access the geode – thus, the final act is all about the PCs exploring this plausible dungeon, and trying to stop the dark necromancer…and the devil he has just summoned! This dungeon is well-executed, and sports diverse and fair challenges.

Conclusion: Editing and formatting are very good on a formal and rules-language level, particularly for a first foray into PFRPG. Layout adheres to an elegant two-column b/w-standard, and the module sports A LOT of neat original b/w-artworks. The pdf version is layered, allowing you to customize it, and the module comes with a second, more printer-friendly iteration. The cartography is exemplary: Not only is there a lot of it, the player-friendly versions are super appreciated. There is but one formal issue the pdf version has: It lacks bookmarks. That’s an annoying comfort detriment, that’d usually cost the pdf version a star…but guess what? The pdf is PWYW! I am not even kidding!

Glynn Seal’s The Demon Stones” is a great adventure if you liked the gritty feel of old-school Greyhawk, if you gravitate more to the down-to-earth aesthetics of Raging Swan Press. While the module has high-fantasy-ish themes, it clothes them in a layer of plausibility, mystery and superstition that makes them feel appropriate for the overall atmosphere. The module achieves a high level of immersion throughout, with plenty of details and love evident. Now, I bought this module when its pdf was not yet PWYW, and I was thoroughly happy with it. If you’re just doing pdfs, I’d suggest something in the range of $5 – $6.99 for it; the book is certainly worth it. I’d strongly suggest getting the print version, though. My final verdict for this adventure will be 5 stars – with my seal of approval added for the fair gesture of making the module PWYW. This is 100% owning.

Endzeitgeist out.

Let me start with the disclaimer, I received a free copy of this module for the purposes of reviewing it. I have no connection to the author.

tl;dr - this is awesome, buy it!

To be honest, when I read over the cover of this adventure I thought it sounded a little typical for a fantasy module. Stones fall from the sky...land is cursed...PCs have to fix everything. Well, the expression "Don't judge a book by its cover" applies perfectly here.

I am not going to talk about the specifics of the adventure plot, but rather the whole feel and composition of it. First off, the design, layout, graphics, and maps are fantastic. But, hey, it's Monkey Blood Design, so I would expect nothing less.

As I read through the background of the story I was happy to see it was not endless pages of exposition detailing every little facet. It was concise and covered the major points. If you are like me, when you run a published module you only use 50%-75% of what is there, particularly story-wise, since you generally have to adapt it to a long-term campaign you are running. However, for a newer GM or someone running this as a stand-alone, the background and adventure synopsis are presented nicely to give a overview and structure of how it can/should be run.

The adventure is set in a valley with the main town and multiple encounter locations. The town has just the right amount detail on it and the inhabitants to present a good structure for a newer GM, but nice seeds for a lot of expansion if a more veteran GM wants to create more gaming with this area and its people. Town locations have good descriptions and NPCs each have specific knowledge regarding major plot points of the adventure. So encounters with the various NPCs will yield certain knowledge regarding what is going on. These are NPCs built for role-playing, so if that is what your group of players enjoy, this will be a delight for them.

Encounter areas in the valley are interconnected but do not need to be run linear, which I love! There are even notes for the GM on what information can be gained when PCs visit various locations before or after meeting certain NPCs. Some of the encounter areas are not related to the adventure plot, but are great seeds for additional adventuring if you want to keep your players in the area. With how well fleshed out the NPCs are and the locations, I personally could see using the valley & town as a base of multiple adventures. The end of the module even provides a small list of future adventure hooks.

The Demon Stones of course has its BBEG who has his maniacal plan. It culminates in a nice dungeon crawl with a big final battle. Depending on how the dice roll and what a GM wants to do, the plot line could easily be expanded to create multiple adventures fighting the BBEG or even a whole campaign.

There is a great balance between combat, investigation, and role-playing opportunities in The Demon Stones. Information players need to obtain is scattered about, letting it be played with a sandbox feel to it. As I was reading through it my mind was whirling on where to incorporate it into my current campaign.

Buy this! You will enjoy running it, and your players will love too.

The Demon Stones is a phenomenal adventure. My expectations were of a rather basic story, but it does so much more. It takes just the right amount of tropic fantasy and throws in twists that will leave your players delighted. What sounds like a straightforward adventurers gig will end with an unexpected climax. The type of finale players reminisce over for years to come.

The town of Gravencross provides the DM with plenty of material. There are enough adventure hooks to run a much lengthier campaign from this region. It felt reminiscent of the old Baldur's Gate games where an adventure could be found around every corner and behind every door.

The book has a nice clean layout making the module easy to run. I predict very little page flipping. The artwork is beautiful, as is expected of MonkeyBlood Design, and helps tie the book together. Just enough to bring the setting to life without excess clutter. The maps are wonderful pieces of work, both beautiful and highly functional. The price tag on the book would be worth it for them alone. Instead you get a great set of maps, a truly grand story line, memorable antagonists, and enough DM inspiration to keep your group hacking, slashing, dungeon delving, and RPing well beyond the scope of this product.

TL,DR: Buy this, it's freaking awesome.

Demon Stones combines an excellent rural romp, replete with interesting NPCs of mixed desires, with a solid delve with interesting tricks and a nice assortment of baddies. In the hands of a good GM, the finale promises to be remembered by the players for a long time to come. But I suspect the ride getting there will be remembered for even longer. Between the denizens of Gravencross and the multiple story threads running through the adventure, this could easily make for the foundation of a lengthy campaign.

The PDF is cleanly laid out in a logical fashion. The descriptions are clearly written and well summarized to make it easy for a GM to quickly get acquainted (or reacquainted) with the story lines, and as necessary, multiple descriptions are provided depending on how the characters arrive at a particular scene.

And the maps. As can be no surprise to anybody who has seen other work from Monkey Blood Design, the maps are beautiful and highly functional. Both GM and player/VTT versions are included, and there are lots of them. Sketches throughout the piece finish off the work nicely, bringing an extra bit of life to the story.