MacrAbeesus, Mother of Manticore The Underground Oracle (@UOPublishing) - Jess (@JessPendley) & Keith (@UO_Keith) Pendley

"She bangs, she bangs Oh baby when she moves, she moves I go crazy 'cause she looks like a flower But she stings like a bee Like every girl in history"

• Ricky Martin, She Bangs

This is eight pages filled with flavour, foreboding, creatures, creeps, strategy, rumours, roleplaying tips, plot hooks, and whopping Mother of Manticores herself, MacrAbeesus, in all her bloody beautiful glory!

"Surrounded by crystal clear waters and bathed in tranquil sunlight, the island of Delcai appears inviting and beautiful. But just behind it’s benign facade lies a tortured landscape of corrupted spirits and the evil machinations of MacrAbeesus."

Opening with the above belter of beautifully written and insidiously enticing quote this supplement just begs to be read and devoured...just as MacrAbeesus would have have you.

Using This Supplement

"This supplement provides everything a GM needs to design an encounter with MacrAbeesus, Mother of Manticores. Below you will find the legendary creature herself, along with descriptions for points of interest in her lair, the cursed island of Delcai, and three new undead creature options. Plot hooks and rumours have also been included to assist GMs in creating their adventures to the island and to guide players toward their final battle with MacrAbeesus"

Clearly this is no simple statblock and fluff for a cool monster, rather this is a fully realised supplement to give a GM/DM everything they need to craft their own unique tete-a-tete with this monstrosity mère. The island of Delcai, its unique undead, lore and the incredible and disturbing art by Anderson Maia (artstation.com/anderson_maia) come together to provide the basis for a memorable adventure and a deadly showdown.

There is a thoughtful GM Note about the content, including "graphic explanation and evidence of torture" and the importance of gauging your player's comfort levels. With the severity of the subject matter, and all games honestly, I can't recommend the use of Safety Tools and communication with your players more strongly.

The Terror of Delcai

This fascinating backstory that I don't wish to spoil too much, involves dark gifts, darker appetites, abyssal deals and bloody supremacy.

Personality and Description

MacrAbeesus is truly a monster, far surpassing her brethren in brains and brawn. She is depicted as singularly sadistic, revelling in psychological torture (before the physical torture and eventual devouring), playing with her food like the big beastly cat-dragon-lady she is. This wicked monstrosity is truly the stalwart adventurer's dream; with so many tempted and slaughtered, before, so much destruction wrought by her offspring and so many valuable and powerful artefacts coveted and displayed with sneering pride. There's so much too be avenged and won, not to mention the potential for seed her exploits into your adventures to truly make this personal -- more on that later.

A full bombastic set of traits, including ideal, bond and flaw are provided, positively seething with malice and hubris.

Strategy and Tactics

This section details her macabre voyeurism, opportunistic strikes, braggadocios swagger, as well as mentioning her unique and cruel ability.

A second GM Note discusses roleplaying MacrAbeesus, encouraging them "to channel her essential essence; that of a very evil feline". In many ways MacrAbeesus is the apotheosis of the aggrandisement and cruelty ever projected onto cats (who are just little furry murder babies really).

Rumours and Hearsay

Being a mercurial and wickedly intelligent creature, MacrAbeesus has sown many rumours about her island and herself, keeping the truth of it well guarded. These five rumours range in veracity, adding more mystery and confusion to the adventure, and the very rude awakening.

The Trapped Souls of the Delcai

There is no life on Delcai besides MacrAbeesus, but that does not mean she is alone. The tormented and broken souls of her victims wander her island as undead. Her personal favourites are two new creatures included in this supplement, Feeder Spirits and Crowned Souls, who are provided with lore, creepy cool artwork and unique statblocks, as well as a Trapped Soul Template -- more on that later.

Feeder Spirit

Well...let's just say the lore for these is freaking dark and bleak and I am here for it!

Crowned Souls

These blasphemous beings are the remains of a broken Cleric or Priest that turned against their deities before their deaths, after seeing the nightmares meted out by the Mother of Manticores.

The Island of Delcai

The blasted ruin was once an island paradise, you know, before all the blood and the evil and the undead.

Another GM note on Investigation and Opportunities. These provide information and clues for the GMs to use and the Players to explore and discover at each othe points of interest on the island.

These points of interest include The Destroyed Harbour, The Church, The Lighthouse and a The Courthouse. All come with incredibly evocative flavour text, investigation details, opportunities and description.

Another DM Note on PC Death has suggestions for optional rules to provide options so that a PC death doesn't necessarily mean their soul is trapped on Delcai for all time.

Plot Hooks

Five plot hooks, including a haggard harbour humanoid with mysterious book, a bloody boat's bosun's final log entry, one of mama's baby manticores mangles a seaside village and spills the beans on the island, secretive seafaring scoundrels whisper of wonders, and a devout's dark dreams drawn to the dead by their deity, provide more than enough ideas and suggestions to get an adventure started.

Feeder Spirits

The Feeder Spirits are truly a sad and horrific sight, brought to vivid unlife by Maia. These 1/4CR are persistent, moaning and exhausting.

Trapped Soul Template

This template can be applied to any and all undead to create unique MacrAbeesus-damned versions to populate your Delcai.

Crowned Soul

These blasphemous bstrds may have lost their faith and free will, but not their flare for the dramatics. These CR5 undead are no joke and work well as leaders of hordes of of Feeder Souls (although beware the amount of redirection and healing this provides) or heading up squad of your own converted Trapped Souls.

MacrAbeesus, Mother of Manticores

Well this is one serious monstrosity, clocking in at CR16 with Legendary Actions that would make a Banshee blush, and Lair Effects that really spoil your party's picnic and give her Lair epic rotten flavour. Not to mention the fact that the entire island of Delcai and 100 yards off the coast in every direction count as her Lair. MacrAbeesus, you own everything!

The artwork of MacrAbeesus shows her off in all of her bloody awesomeness, from the tip of that hideous scorpion tail, a disgusting and wonderful new take on the tail spike (included in original descriptions of Manticores), to the huge, fleshy pinions that are too big to be kept in frame, she all Monstrosity, and if you allow me this, possibly a Momstrosity...Momticore? Anyhow, the blood and the pilfered baubles anoint this queen, making her one fine ferociously fierce frightening feline!

It's also awesome to see a female Manticore, as they are so often described and depicted as having masculine features and the faces of old men, especially with them coming from Persian Legendary Creatures and being similar to the Egyptian Sphinx that are more often than not depicted with feminine features. I'm all for creatures from the spectrums of sex and gender.

The word Manticore comes from a lexicographic journey across languages and time, but the meaning has changed little: Man-Eater. It can be said with no doubt that MacrAbeesus, Mother of Manticores is a Maneater.

"She's a maneater Make you work hard make you spend hard Make you want all of her love She's a maneater Make you buy cars make you cut cards Wish you never ever met her at all"

• Nelly Fertado, Maneater

This is the first release that the Pendley's of The Underground Oracle that hasn't been put out for free on their website the undergroundoracle.com or PWYW here on DriveThru RPG for the infinitesimal price of one dollar. Judging by the quality and steadily growing quantity of their free releases, you might expect a little more bang for your singular buck. Let me assure you that this supplement and the eponymous manticore within were almost certainly the inspiration for the multi-classed Bard-Divination Wizard cursed to only be tell the future through uptempo Latin pop, Ricky Martin and his 2000 hit single 'She Bangs'. There is truly so much more than a dollar's worth here!

I had the pleasure to interview the Pendley's, regarding their website and works, which can be found here: https://undergroundoracle.com/2019/10/22/interview-curse-of-sebs/ MacrAbeesus, Mother of Manticore The Underground Oracle (@UOPublishing) - Jess (@JessPendley) & Keith (@UO_Keith) Pendley

"She bangs, she bangs Oh baby when she moves, she moves I go crazy 'cause she looks like a flower But she stings like a bee Like every girl in history"

• Ricky Martin, She Bangs

This is eight pages filled with flavour, foreboding, creatures, creeps, strategy, rumours, roleplaying tips, plot hooks, and whopping Mother of Manticores herself, MacrAbeesus, in all her bloody beautiful glory!

"Surrounded by crystal clear waters and bathed in tranquil sunlight, the island of Delcai appears inviting and beautiful. But just behind it’s benign facade lies a tortured landscape of corrupted spirits and the evil machinations of MacrAbeesus."

Opening with the above belter of beautifully written and insidiously enticing quote this supplement just begs to be read and devoured...just as MacrAbeesus would have have you.

Using This Supplement

"This supplement provides everything a GM needs to design an encounter with MacrAbeesus, Mother of Manticores. Below you will find the legendary creature herself, along with descriptions for points of interest in her lair, the cursed island of Delcai, and three new undead creature options. Plot hooks and rumours have also been included to assist GMs in creating their adventures to the island and to guide players toward their final battle with MacrAbeesus"

Clearly this is no simple statblock and fluff for a cool monster, rather this is a fully realised supplement to give a GM/DM everything they need to craft their own unique tete-a-tete with this monstrosity mère. The island of Delcai, its unique undead, lore and the incredible and disturbing art by Anderson Maia (artstation.com/anderson_maia) come together to provide the basis for a memorable adventure and a deadly showdown.

There is a thoughtful GM Note about the content, including "graphic explanation and evidence of torture" and the importance of gauging your player's comfort levels. With the severity of the subject matter, and all games honestly, I can't recommend the use of Safety Tools and communication with your players more strongly.

The Terror of Delcai

This fascinating backstory that I don't wish to spoil too much, involves dark gifts, darker appetites, abyssal deals and bloody supremacy.

Personality and Description

MacrAbeesus is truly a monster, far surpassing her brethren in brains and brawn. She is depicted as singularly sadistic, revelling in psychological torture (before the physical torture and eventual devouring), playing with her food like the big beastly cat-dragon-lady she is. This wicked monstrosity is truly the stalwart adventurer's dream; with so many tempted and slaughtered, before, so much destruction wrought by her offspring and so many valuable and powerful artefacts coveted and displayed with sneering pride. There's so much too be avenged and won, not to mention the potential for seed her exploits into your adventures to truly make this personal -- more on that later.

A full bombastic set of traits, including ideal, bond and flaw are provided, positively seething with malice and hubris.

Strategy and Tactics

This section details her macabre voyeurism, opportunistic strikes, braggadocios swagger, as well as mentioning her unique and cruel ability.

A second GM Note discusses roleplaying MacrAbeesus, encouraging them "to channel her essential essence; that of a very evil feline". In many ways MacrAbeesus is the apotheosis of the aggrandisement and cruelty ever projected onto cats (who are just little furry murder babies really).

Rumours and Hearsay

Being a mercurial and wickedly intelligent creature, MacrAbeesus has sown many rumours about her island and herself, keeping the truth of it well guarded. These five rumours range in veracity, adding more mystery and confusion to the adventure, and the very rude awakening.

The Trapped Souls of the Delcai

There is no life on Delcai besides MacrAbeesus, but that does not mean she is alone. The tormented and broken souls of her victims wander her island as undead. Her personal favourites are two new creatures included in this supplement, Feeder Spirits and Crowned Souls, who are provided with lore, creepy cool artwork and unique statblocks, as well as a Trapped Soul Template -- more on that later.

Feeder Spirit

Well...let's just say the lore for these is freaking dark and bleak and I am here for it!

Crowned Souls

These blasphemous beings are the remains of a broken Cleric or Priest that turned against their deities before their deaths, after seeing the nightmares meted out by the Mother of Manticores.

The Island of Delcai

The blasted ruin was once an island paradise, you know, before all the blood and the evil and the undead.

Another GM note on Investigation and Opportunities. These provide information and clues for the GMs to use and the Players to explore and discover at each othe points of interest on the island.

These points of interest include The Destroyed Harbour, The Church, The Lighthouse and a The Courthouse. All come with incredibly evocative flavour text, investigation details, opportunities and description.

Another DM Note on PC Death has suggestions for optional rules to provide options so that a PC death doesn't necessarily mean their soul is trapped on Delcai for all time.

Plot Hooks

Five plot hooks, including a haggard harbour humanoid with mysterious book, a bloody boat's bosun's final log entry, one of mama's baby manticores mangles a seaside village and spills the beans on the island, secretive seafaring scoundrels whisper of wonders, and a devout's dark dreams drawn to the dead by their deity, provide more than enough ideas and suggestions to get an adventure started.

Feeder Spirits

The Feeder Spirits are truly a sad and horrific sight, brought to vivid unlife by Maia. These 1/4CR are persistent, moaning and exhausting.

Trapped Soul Template

This template can be applied to any and all undead to create unique MacrAbeesus-damned versions to populate your Delcai.

Crowned Soul

These blasphemous bstrds may have lost their faith and free will, but not their flare for the dramatics. These CR5 undead are no joke and work well as leaders of hordes of of Feeder Souls (although beware the amount of redirection and healing this provides) or heading up squad of your own converted Trapped Souls.

MacrAbeesus, Mother of Manticores

Well this is one serious monstrosity, clocking in at CR16 with Legendary Actions that would make a Banshee blush, and Lair Effects that really spoil your party's picnic and give her Lair epic rotten flavour. Not to mention the fact that the entire island of Delcai and 100 yards off the coast in every direction count as her Lair. MacrAbeesus, you own everything!

The artwork of MacrAbeesus shows her off in all of her bloody awesomeness, from the tip of that hideous scorpion tail, a disgusting and wonderful new take on the tail spike (included in original descriptions of Manticores), to the huge, fleshy pinions that are too big to be kept in frame, she all Monstrosity, and if you allow me this, possibly a Momstrosity...Momticore? Anyhow, the blood and the pilfered baubles anoint this queen, making her one fine ferociously fierce frightening feline!

It's also awesome to see a female Manticore, as they are so often described and depicted as having masculine features and the faces of old men, especially with them coming from Persian Legendary Creatures and being similar to the Egyptian Sphinx that are more often than not depicted with feminine features. I'm all for creatures from the spectrums of sex and gender.

The word Manticore comes from a lexicographic journey across languages and time, but the meaning has changed little: Man-Eater. It can be said with no doubt that MacrAbeesus, Mother of Manticores is a Maneater.

"She's a maneater Make you work hard make you spend hard Make you want all of her love She's a maneater Make you buy cars make you cut cards Wish you never ever met her at all"

• Nelly Fertado, Maneater

This is the first release that the Pendley's of The Underground Oracle that hasn't been put out for free on their website the undergroundoracle.com or PWYW here on DriveThru RPG for the infinitesimal price of one dollar. Judging by the quality and steadily growing quantity of their free releases, you might expect a little more bang for your singular buck. Let me assure you that this supplement and the eponymous manticore within were almost certainly the inspiration for the multi-classed Bard-Divination Wizard cursed to only be tell the future through uptempo Latin pop, Ricky Martin and his 2000 hit single 'She Bangs'. There is truly so much more than a dollar's worth here!

I had the pleasure to interview the Pendley's, regarding their website and works, which can be found here: https://undergroundoracle.com/2019/10/22/interview-curse-of-sebs/

The Ultimate Race Creator by Andrew Engelbrite with Jeremy Connal for LootTheBoss

In the spirit of full disclosure I was provided a review copy of this supplement for a full and honest review.

This is 335 pages containing everything you need to make any kind of race for any kind of setting use D&D5e with an actually incredibly balanced 10 RP point systems with positive and negative attributes to allow for the most specific and varied, or simple and functional race you can imagine, and many beyond your comprehension. An easy to follow process with clear advice and a cornucopia of options at each stage. With addition aiding to adding lore, a system for random race creation, a pet creation system, 48 prebuilt races using this system that truly show the diversity and range of supplement. I can’t recommend it more strongly for DMs and players alike!

I do have something to say about the naming conventions of supplements and bundles likes these, which I’m sure you can guess, but I’ll leave that at the bottom of my review*

Please see my in-depth view and own creations below.

So What Is This?

“This is the ultimate race creator! It’s designed so that YOU can design any 5e playable race that you can possibly think of, with this book you can be anything, really anything.” This honest and impassioned introduction tells the tale of that “deflated” feeling you feel when you have an idea for a character, but the race and rules don’t support it, and how they have created this tome to make anything and everything possible, so we can all stay...flated? “By tapping into the original design philosophy of the 5e core races, we’ve put together over a thousand racial traits encompassing EVERYTHING we can think of. We balanced these abilities against those of the core races and boiled everything down to a simple modular points system. No more constraints, if you can imagine it, you can be it.” This is definitely a mission statement I can get behind!

For GMs

This part of the introduction reassures DMs that balance has been at the core of this book, and they know the fear of wildly overpowered homebrew that makes DMs swear and players pout when they don’t get it, as well as drawing attention to the Red Flags section, which contains things that DMs may want to veto for their own games. More on that later. This ‘I got you dawg’ section also makes the very salient point that race creation is not just for player characters, and with the tools within DMs make their own races for their own worlds (which can inspire so much more on its own), which can be a wonderful thing to offer a new player coming to your table.

For The Players

This section truly appeals to the players that want to make particularly bizarre creations, going at it real hard with a casual, “How about a draconic undead cyborg with chainsaws for hands?” While also tempering the players that have had their heart set on creating something specific, be it “pandafolk...cute, fearsome, or imaginative creation you’ve had your heart set on.” The point is there’s a whole lotta choice and balance, but also choice, “nearly endless creation possibilities”. There’s even “48 featured races... built using the Ultimate Race Creator” for inspiration and ease. Take the sage advice, “Have fun, go nuts, become that character you’ve always wanted to be.”

Table of Contents

Thorough and easy to peruse with sensibly ordered steps and subcategories. Something I would say rhat PDF is in desperate need of is a digital table of contents, but as the steps from one to the next it’s not the nightmare it could be of Engelbrite had gone for the jazz Jackson Pollock method of layout some rulebooks and supplements strive to achieve.

The Ultimate Race Creation (URC) Method

This method uses a 10 point Racial Points (RP) to create a “race that will be balanced to play alongside the core [5e] races” using the various traits and weaknesses. These trait categories are Ability Score Increase, Age, Alignment, Size, Mobility, Senses, Offensive, Defensive, Magic, and Language. One of each of these traits must be chosen at each stage, unless something specifically states otherwise, with miscellaneous traits to pick if there are any RP left over. There’s even a cleanup step to explain how to turn the chosen traits into a race ready for rolling.

Subraces

A step by step process shows how to create subraces by omitting certain steps from the parent race and adding them to the specific subraces, as well as allowing for replacement traits as necessary.

Transforming Races

This process adds a number of different transformation triggers and reminder to save points to be spent on the transformed form. I’m going to be making my own Werebear of Sebs race (Werebearious Sebsious) as I go through this review, so this is going to be important for me. (Actually, this will be by second attempt at this race as I got overexcited and missed the golden rule: exactly one trait must be picked from each of the main steps!)

Monstrous Races

This sidebar contains the point ratio for regular Adventurering (base), Advanced, Monstrous and Epic-Tier Races for creating races with abilities above and beyond the norm for higher level games, as well as giving the opportunity to create some awesome monsters and BBEGs. This is definitely something I will come back to as a DM to create weird and wonderful monstrosities!

Another great sidebar, I’ll include in full here, addresses the fact that the URC is focused on mechanics and that the aesthetics are up to the creator:

But What If I Want Polka-Dots? The Ultimate Race Creator is designed to fully encompass any functional traits that affect game mechanics you might need to describe your new playable race. What it doesn’t do is fully describe your race’s appearance. Feel free to include any cosmetic features that you decide are important to your new playable race. We put some flavour and fluff into a lot of the racial traits but if that just doesn’t match the idea in your head you always have the power to change it! The racial points are tied to the mechanics, fluff and flavour are free game!

Ability Score Increase

This has been a hot topic recently with a lot of folx putting forward the idea that ASIs shouldn’t be tied to Race, rather Class instead, and while I do agree with the specialisation, rather than homogenous Race ASIs, they variety arrayed here definitely gave me some food for thought.

Here you find 14 different ways of setting up the ASI for your race, ranging from the Deeply Flayed +2 to one attribute and -2 to a second for -3RP, through multiple variations on the standard bonus of +3 spread over 2 or more attributes coming in at 0RP, all the way to Greater Versatility +2 +1 +1 for 4RP and the expensive, but effective Jack of All Trades +1 to EACH attribute for 9RP.

There are also choices for those with subraces with 4 core and 5 subrace options.

I’m making my own Werebear race (Werebearious Sebsious) and I’m factoring in my chronic conditions and ability with folx, so I’m going for Deeply Flawed with a +2 Charisma -2 Dexterity (I considered Constitution , but we Spoonies are a resilient, yet slow and clumsy lot, so Dex was the obvious choice) putting me at -3RP

Age Traits

There are over 50 choices in this section, all of which cost 0RP, which is only fair as there is already a huge variance within the core races. There is everything you could ever want here, from setting your own exact maturity and lifetime and those barely making it to 20 summers to those reaching 3,000 and all manner of reasons why a race might be functionally immortal, unliving or even the lifespan of a race not yet being known, as well as everything in between.

For Werebearious Sebsious I was going to go with the somewhat grim and realistic, Less Time Than Most, but this is fantasy and I love the name:

Longbeards. Your kind mature at the same rate as humans but are considered young until they reach the age of 50. On average, your kind live about 350 years 0RP

Alignment Traits

This is where the idea of ‘Race’ has, rightly taken the most criticism with the ‘Evil’ Drow and ‘Savage’ Orcs often being brought up. Like a lot of DMs these days, I don’t have races that are all inherently one thing or the other. Some might sway to Lawful , Chaotic or even Evil, but Good can be found in all races. The URC has the entire spectrum and combination for all manner of reasons with over 50 philosophies and perspectives, all coming on at 0RP. These are described with the magic words, “tend to” and “lean towards” that, as with the prevailing modern opinion, shows the URC is open to variance of morals within a race.

For Werebearious Sebsious I went with:

Wistful Freedom. Your kind love freedom, variety, and self-expression, so they lean strongly toward the gentler aspects of chaos. They value and protect others’ freedom as well as their own, and they are more often good than not. There are exceptions, those exiled into the Underdark have been made vicious and dangerous. Such exiles are more often evil than not. 0 RP

Size Traits

These over 50 traits rage from the Miniscule 2-3 inches 1-2 ounces (Diminutive) for 0RP, all the way to the Astronomical 28-30 feet averaging 30,000 pounds (Gargantuan) at whopping 14RP, and every height, width and breadth in between. There are variable sizes, Swarms (as a whole or ruler of), scaled down versions of other races and even a synchronised collaboration of different individuals making up a whole. Also, included are the Customizable Size Traits, which show the parameters within each trait, enabling a size group to be chosen for customising your race within those bounds. The sizes from medium down are 0RP and increasing RP the larger they get.

Special rules for playing Swarms, Diminutive, Tinyarge, Huge and Gargantuan are included, which seem perfectly in line with the creature sizes and traits from the Player’s Handbook, Monster Manual, as well as comparing relative spells such as Enlarge, and include a system for various sized weaponry, who can wield it as what and how it works. The effort that has been put into staying in line with official material and allowing for advantages and disadvantages to balance each category is seriously impressive.

For Werebearious Sebsious I’m going with:

Sturdy Build. Your kind are around the same size as humans but considerably heavier. You average between 5 and 6 feet tall and average about 800 pounds. Your size is Medium. 0 RP

Movement Traits

There are over 100 movement traits to choose from covering absolutely anything and everything you can think of! You wanna swim? How about fly!? Sorry you’ll have to be more specific, are we talking small wings, spectral flight, drone flight, fire jets or are you simply held up by divine will!? You can shimmy, shake, burrow, slide, have lots of legs. Are you, perchance, made of jelly? It really feels like everything you could possibly think of is covered in this mind-boggling array of possible ways of perambulating.

These mobility traits also help round out the shape and design of your race, their composition, limbs, wings, moving parts, biological, magical, mechanical or otherwise. I absolutely love the depth and spectrum of movement that has been considered in this section and how it informs the physical design. This also lends itself to certain bonuses, such as Agile Claws giving you walking, climbing and natural weapons or arm ambulation giving bonuses to strength checks and saving throws because of everyday being a skipped leg day.

I could seriously go on and on about how much I love the choices provided, including options that allow for the inclusion of disabilities, because 1) remember we exist, play and want to be represented too and 2) the URC is also great way to create unique NPCs too. But on to my choices.

So the Werebearious Sebsious is transforming, so I need to pick a Base Movement Trait and a Hybrid/ Bear Movement Trait for later, so for my base:

Slow. Either by simply having shorter legs or a lack of motivation, your kind move slower than the norm. Your base walking speed is 25 feet. – 2 RP

And for my Hybrid/ Bear trait:

Determined But Slow. Your kind are slower, but move with steadfast purpose, easily surmounting the obstacles in your path. Your walking speed is 25 feet, and you have a climb speed of 25 feet. – 1 RP

Sense Traits

There are 70ish sense traits to choose from ranging from seeing time-travellers, sensing pollen, smelling evil or the dead to multiple heads, all manner, configuration and effectiveness of eyes, antenna, and sense organs and orrifi, as well as all the various senses creatures might have such as web sense and the unsleeping extra head of a Hydra.

For the Werebearious Sebsious I went for something that reflects my chronic conditions, but with a positive fantasy twist for my base trait:

The Feeling of Storms. Your kind can feel the oncoming weather as an ache in your joints or hair standing on end. You receive a premonition 8 hours before any major weather event and can accurately predict the size and severity of any oncoming weather events. 1 RP

While I went with some classic Werebear for the Hybrid/ Bear trait:

Scent. You rely on your nose to catch the scent of your quarry. You make Wisdom (Perception) checks relating to smell at advantage. 1 RP

Offensive Traits

There are well over 100 offensive traits from pacifism and playing, through using all manner of limbs, claws, Jaws, suckers, fangs, tails, to swiping through portals, laser eyes, various clouds, elemental and eldritch forms, and absolutely everything in between or conceivable, as well my personal favourites, a haunted weapon in which you are an Undead Construct that ‘wields’ themselves and CAN OF BEES “Bizarrely, inexplicably, your kind always seems to have a can of bees.”

For my base I didn’t choose one as my Werebear is a simple humanoid-looking person:

No Offensive Trait. You have no innate offensive trait. Remove this trait in the Cleanup Step. 0 RP

Hybrid/ Bear:

But with my hybrid/ bear form I decided to with Big Meaty Claws because of big ole bear claws and, despite only doing it once, I absolutely loved having big ole acrylic nails for my Pride a few years ago.

Big Meaty Claws. Your kind have large muscular crushing claws. You can use your claws to make unarmed strikes, if you hit with them, you deal piercing damage equal to 1d10 + your Strength modifier, instead of the bludgeoning damage normal for an unarmed strike. Your claws are ill-suited for delicate work and you make all Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) checks at disadvantage. 3 RP

(Wookie claws, these are not)

Defensive Traits

Well over 100 defensive traits, with simple weaknessss, resistances and immunities laid out for easy perusal, followed by everything from Brittle to Phoenix Resurrection, through all manner of adaptive, magical, integrated, bestowed or other defensive traits, not to mention the ability to be a Lush Plant or Innately Invisible.

My base is another reflection of my real life chronic conditions:

Weak Immune Systems. You are vulnerable to poison damage. -1 RP

Hybrid/ Bear:

Went for something relatively classic Werebear.

Arcane Resistance. You have advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects. 11 RP

Magic Traits

This sections contains all manner of magical traits of all manner including an extended Draconic Ancestry table, all manner of magical abilities, Cantrip Traits, granting the knowledge of one or more Cantrip, Spell Sets, granting a set of specifically flavoured spells that increase through levelling, Racial Spells, which are a selection of 20 new spells created with races in mind, ranging from Cantrip to 2nd level with full description and class specifications, adding some fascinating, utility and disgusting magical additions.

Language Trait

I imagine my Werebears living in woods and being on good terms with Halflings, possibly even having a working relationship with some Halfling farming communities for protection in return for food, especially before hibernation.

Lingual Explorer. You can speak, read, and write Common and Language. Choose a Language, you may not select Druidic, Primordial, or Thieves Cant with this trait. 0 RP Halfling.

Miscellaneous Traits

This is the section for anything and everything else, and I do mean anything, as it opens with the image of a humanoid scientist with a rotary telephone for a head; an example of Absurd Resemblance. There are over 100 misc traits from something as simple as having the equivalent of a Feat or a skill bonus, as with Appealing giving +2 to Charisma (Persuasion) checks through traits that resemble misc traits of various creatures and races, such as the Aasimar’s Healing Touch and all manner of various physical and/ or internal construction, as with Joey Pouch or Futuristic Lights to the weird, whacky and wonderful, want to natural produce something nutritious and try to convince your allies to eat it? How about photosynthesis? Did you want to be the host for smaller creatures under your control? Oversized Endowment..?

Also, included are Fundamental Proficiency Traits, granting one or more specific or choson proficiencies, Specialisation Traits, which “are essentially a tax, they allow you to select an additional trait from specific trait categories at an increasing cost. This is an effort to combat “min-maxing” but also allowing players to specialize a race if they want to make a race with all of the senses, or bristling with natural weapons” essentially allowing you to spend RP to make more than one choice in previous categories. Then you have Alternate Damage Traits, which the book describes wonderfully, “what if you wanted to say, make a flaming claw attack? Or bite somebody in the soul with spirit teeth? The following traits allow you to do just that.” Next are the Transformation Triggers, which will be essential for my Werebear.

So for Miscellaneous Traits I went with a few interesting choices that spoke to me, my conditions, my love of animals and of course the Werebear:

Hibernating. Your kind are native to environments where one or more seasons are unlivable, forcing you to prepare for a long sleep tucked away from the elements. You can enter a state of hibernation by consuming an amount of food equal to your body weight. Entering this state requires at least an hour of uninterrupted gorging. While in this state you are unconscious but require no food or water. You may remain in this state for a number of months equal to your Constitution modifier without suffering penalties for dehydration or starvation. You can choose to remain in this state for the maximum time allowed, or you can choose to rouse yourself after a set amount of time you decide upon before entering hibernation. Other creatures or environmental stimuli can also wake you but you are otherwise unable to wake yourself. 1 RP

Seasonal Rhythms. Your kind are especially attuned to the changing of the seasons. You gain one of the following bonuses depending on the current season: Seasonal Rhythms Season Bonus Cold Season Your instincts tell you to eat hardily and store up energy for winter, if you are allowed to eat your fill, you gain 1 additional hit die to spend recovering hit points during short rests every 24 hours. Rainy Season In stormy seasons, you tend to become more skittish and alert, you gain a +2 bonus to Dexterity checks made to determine Initiative order. Harvest Season You become particularly amorous during this time and gain a +2 bonus to Charisma (Persuasion) checks. 2RP

Trusted by Nature. You are proficient in the Animal Handling skill. 1 RP

Voluntary Transformation. Another form waits for your kind’s command to emerge, but that power is taxing and must be used tactfully at the right moments. You may transform voluntarily using an action. Your transformation lasts for 1 minute or until you end it as a bonus action. Once you transform, you can’t transform again until you finish a long rest. With this transformation trigger you must select at least 6 RP on transformation traits. – 2 RP

This trigger has criteria that need to be met, but I have easily spent more than 6RP on transformation/ hybrid/ bear

Cleanup Step

This step takes you through all the choices, underlined or italicised text, which are generally choices you will have made such as a specific ability scores or secondary abilities, getting rid of RP costs, cutting redundant traits, like my Werebear’s base no offensive trait. Next we have the optional renaming of traits, adding of creature type (which is optional and Ignores mechanical benefits), there’s a whole informative and sensible paragraph about the creature type that makes things very clear. Then we’re dealing with cleaning up duplications and stacking attributes nicely.

Red Flags

This section is more for the DMs. “[URC] set out to allow players to make anything and everything, but we understand that there are some things that just don’t fit in every campaign. [URC] want to make this book easy to tailor fit to suit your unique campaign.” These “red flags” are compiled into the following four categories: Size, Flying, Information and Technological Traits for DMs ease.

That is the incredibly comprehensive and easy to follow method! I will leave my Werebear (Werebearious Sebsious) at the end of the review.

Ultimate Random Race Creator (URRC)

This is a full 13 step process with all different manner of tables to roll for random creation with astronomical possible permeations, which is going to be a fun tool to play with for inspiration and creating all manner of bizarre creations.

Flavor, Fluff and Lore

This section takes you through the elements and details needed to create background lore for your race. This is broken down succinctly here: “Fundamentally, players need to know 4 things: the race’s appearance, their behaviour, their culture, and their adventuring motivations. For a fully realized race, write a paragraph or 2 for each of these sections.” There are expanded information on appearance, behaviour, culture, adventuring motivation, story, race names, history, quirks, and TLDR, to give you all the information you need to create detailed background lore.

Lore Generator

In a very similar way to the URRC the Lore Generator has tables going through each step and an extensive adjective table. Roll some dice and see what comes out the end. I can’t wait to use this to come up with some bizarre inspirational backgrounds.

The Ultimate Pet Creator

This section opens with a notes on creating your own Familiars and Advanced Familiars, with the latter being the Warlock Pact of the Chain Level Familiars, as well as including Advanced Familiar as a Feat that anyone able to cast Find Familiar has access to. This is followed by notes on creating your own Ranger’s Companion. These breakdown as Familiars having 4RP and, Advanced Familiars and Companions having 8RP to spend.

The creation method mirrors the race creation with many of the similar options available to races, but on a smaller scale with the adorable example of a Microsphinx.

Augments, Mutations, and Magic Items

The Magic Item section takes you through a seven step method for creating items of all kinds, including cursed, converting the traits throughout this supplement into magic item trait and/ or curse.

Mutations and Curses follow a similar method with the severity of 1-8 that can be chosen or rolled, a trait category and apply the chosen or rolled trait as a mutation or curse

Augmentations on the other hand, sucker or tendril, are bought or booned traits with a full explanation of the process, as well as a full table of RP, component cost, suggested service price and, the arcana and medicine checks required.

Racial Backgrounds and Feats

These are a collection of 20 new backgrounds and 20 new feats! These are all tied to a “race” prerequisites. The backgrounds come with full background information, skills, languages, equipment, features and traits (or refer to an appropriate existing background for traits). They range from Chosen One to Deep One with Feral, Fey Outcast, From the Future and Mad Scientist, and many more. The Feats work in a very similar manner and range from Alien Technician with Intelligence bonus, exotic weapon choices and vehicle proficiencies to Fey’s Comic Relief with Charisma boost and being able to diffuse situations with a joke, and many other weird, whacky and useful Feats with the extremely varied Sudden Mutation, which allows a chosen trait worth 4RP (excluding ability scores).

Featured Races

Okay so this section contains 48 new races created using the URC method at 10RP. There’s so much variety here really showing off the range of possible creations from “Ancient statues from the beginning of the world found buried and still compelled to obey their instructions from the ineffable will of the gods of creation” through “Aquatic half-goblins half-sharks that terrorize the seaside, though for some their curiosity overtakes their hunger and they take up the adventuring life” to “voyagers escaped temporal war and journeyed far, now they quietly insure the stability of the time stream, as powerful masters of time and space.” The rest I’ll let you discover got yourself, but just think how much a supplement of 48 playable races would go for on its own!

Ultimate NPCs

These are 10 ready to go unique NPCs with full statblocks, backgrounds and advice, seeds and hooks for using them in your games, all created with the URC method. They include an explorer cursed/ gifted new life as a bear-plant, an ooze scientist that somehow has managed to complete their doctorate, Frank... and a self-appointed “world’s greatest pirate” who often replaces his body parts with or eats the booty from his dungeon delving an piracy, among others.

Finally, there is a full list of thanks to their backers, supporters and credits: Loot The Boss (@LootTheBoss) Lead Writer: Andrew Engelbrite (@AEngelbrite) Supporting Writer:Jeremy Connal Lead Artist: Rachel Maduro (@RachelMaduroArt)ll Supporting Artist: Nick Carry

Something that came to me, as I was reading through the alignments, and is a theme running through all the traits and choices, is the fact that every option has just the right amount of flavour to be inspirational seeds for races, obviously, but monsters, myths, cultures, gods, adventures. This is a supplement packed with flavour and ideas that I will definitely be coming back to for inspiration when building worlds and adventures, as well as races.

The art throughout is as varied as the creation options from thoughtful sketches to big silly pieces, but are all are quality and truly convert the cornucopia within this supplement.

I can’t say enough good about this immense supplement. With this you’ll never need to look for new races, monsters, NPCs, BBEGs, Magic Items, Familiars, Companions and more ever again! It’s absolutely chocked full of awesome options that will satisfy the most bizarre predilection and randomizers for those throwing caution to the wind. Not to mention the 48 races, 10 NPCs, and examples of all manner of things along the way. It’s very simple to use, but so extensive it’s taken me a long, long time to wrangle this review because of the amount of things and potential crammed into this one supplement.

I’m genuinely shocked at the consistency, quality, range and depth of the options and the accessible nature of the explanations and steps. This is an absolute marvel!

*I have to address the problem all creation methods and compilations of fantasy ‘races’ have in their naming conventions, which often come out as sounding like some kind of Nazi eugenics manual. The Ultimate Race Creator is not alone on this, only recently I commented on Jack Smith’s Master Race Bundle, which is a fun collection of varying fantasy races and, not the collected writings of various white supremists you think. His response on the DMs Guild page acknowledges the issue, “[I] thought “Huh, Master Race Bundle sounds fine. Nothing wrong with this.” And only later did I realize my mistake. Future iterations will likely have a different name!” I don’t really have an answer to this besides moving away from the term race for species or ancestry, though ‘race’ is such an ingrained aspect of D&D and many TTRPGs which makes things tricky. I would advise at least moving away from the superlative race combo in titles in the future. Engelbrite addresses this in the brief interview below**.

Please enjoy this brief interview with Engelbrite, the lead writer:

S: So my usual opener is your inspiration, but that’s answered in the intro, so I’ll ask if you have any fun stories of your human Wizard who thought they were an Ogre Magi?

E: The campaign with my “Ogre” magi was sadly short-lived but our GM had a fun way to work my madness into the plot. I was secretly contacted by an evil deity (the primary BBEG) and made some deals to “awaken my true self”. So I gained some secret demon power and in a particularly nasty combat I as a frail little wizard, charged the enemy and bit out its jugular vein. I still remember the pleading from my party to stop when I announced that I ran up and tried to bite the enemy, and their horrified shock when it worked.

S: You mention the modular nature of 5e made things easier, it really seems this modular nature is why there is such a homebrew/ DMs Guild/ Drivethru RPG boom at the moment. Can you tell me what you found the most easy and what ended up being the trickiest in terms of balancing and keeping the universality?

E: For keeping balance, everything that had a solid comparison in an existing race was very easy to balance once I boiled everything down. I’d say the hardest thing to keep balanced was the potential for min-maxing. Keeping it divided into categories did most of that in check but I had to be constantly aware of potential stacking on a single ability or strategy and I tried hard to make sure that maxing one thing out would be GOOD, but didn’t invalidate other race options.

S: What are your favourite trait options?

E: As for my favorite traits, I absolutely love the swarming options and the multi-headed traits. In writing you sometimes see “group” characters, like the trio of scheming triplets or the constantly arguing two-headed giant. I love the roleplaying potential of those kind of characters and I wanted to make sure every variation of that concept was achievable. Also the mimic traits, because who wouldn’t want to play a mimic?

S: Can you share any of your favourite races and characters you’ve built with this system and what bizarre abominations have been spawned from the awesome Ultimate Random Race Generator and if they have, how they’ve inspired you?

E: As for my favorite races, I’m actually playing a Medozan (jellyfish person) in our current game. I’m a bit of a marine biology geek and I love roleplaying this very alien mysterious creature who’s just vain and wants to collect pretty baubles. [Plus] it has one of my favorite flying traits, I took a long time to make a flying speed that would feel like ephemeral floating rather than say bird flight.

For bizarre abominations Chris Zito of the Unexpectables has done a few twitch streams of rolling up races on the random creator. I particularly like the “Time Snakes” and the “Hover Slugs” they rolled up.

S: Was there anything you would like to comment on the name of your supplement and the unfortunate way it can be taken due to the history of far right politics?

**E: As far as the weird connotations on the word “Race”, we did worry about that when creating the book. The word “race” though is so built into 5E that we felt that trying to work around it would just add a layer of confusion. Our conclusion was that people can see it as political if they want to, but we just want to make vampire squids and hyper-intelligent fire squirrels.

Werebear (Werebearious Sebsious)

Ability Score Increase: +2 Charisma -2 Dexterity

Age: Mature as Humans. Young until 50. Live to about 350.

Alignment: They lean strongly toward the gentler aspects of Chaos and they are more often Good than not.

Size: Your kind are around the same size as humans but considerably heavier. You average between 5 and 6 feet tall and average about 800 pounds. Your size is Medium.

Speed: Slow. Your base walking speed is 25 feet

Senses: The Feeling of Storms. Your kind can feel the oncoming weather as an ache in your joints or hair standing on end. You receive a premonition 8 hours before any major weather event and can accurately predict the size and severity of any oncoming weather events.

Defences: Weak Immune Systems. You are vulnerable to poison damage.

Languages: You can speak, read, and write Common and Halfling

Seasonal Rhythms. Your kind are especially attuned to the changing of the seasons. You gain one of the following bonuses depending on the current season: Seasonal Rythms Season Bonus Cold Season Your instincts tell you to eat hardily and store up energy for winter, if you are allowed to eat your fill, you gain 1 additional hit die to spend recovering hit points during short rests every 24 hours. Rainy Season In stormy seasons, you tend to become more skittish and alert, you gain a +2 bonus to Dexterity checks made to determine Initiative order. Harvest Season You become particularly amorous during this time and gain a +2 bonus to Charisma (Persuasion) checks.

Trusted by Nature. You are proficient in the Animal Handling skill.

Voluntary Transformation You may transform voluntarily using an action. Your transformation lasts for 1 minute or until you end it as a bonus action. Once you transform, you can’t transform again until you finish a long rest.

Hybrid/ Bear Form

Speed: Your walking speed is 25 feet, and you have a climb speed of 25 feet.

Senses: You rely on your nose to catch the scent of your quarry. You make Wisdom (Perception) checks relating to smell at advantage.

Offensive: You can use your claws to make unarmed strikes, if you hit with them, you deal piercing damage equal to 1d10 + your Strength modifier, instead of the bludgeoning damage normal for an unarmed strike. Your claws are ill-suited for delicate work and you make all Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) checks at disadvantage.

Defences: Arcane Resistance. You have advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.

I imagine my Werebears living in woods and being on good terms with Halflings, possibly even having a working relationship with some Halfling farming communities for protection in return for food, especially before hibernation.

A mystery criminal from the City of Splendours past threatens to steal Lady Zulpair’s priceless goodies, and on her birthday no less! It’s time for a 4th-5th level party to pull on their longcoats and dust of their trilbies and bust this case wide open, in an adventure in Waterdeep that works well with Dragon Heist or any other city shenanigans.

Included in this $2.95 RPG Writer Workshop adventure: 8 pages of a full-color stylized PDF A simplified single-column tagged PDF with no images

This adventure is also included in the RPG Writer Workshop Vol. 1, among many other great adventures many of which I have had the pleasure of reviewing: (https://www.dmsguild.com/product/284175/RPG-Writer-Workshop-Vol-1-Bundle)

Please see my in depth review below

This adventure contains spoilers regarding the nature of one of the NPCs in Waterdeep: Dragon Heist

Right from the off this has a fun, campy, detective noir feel, from the cover and layout by Willy Abeel. Who doesn’t love a good silhouette of a hardboiled detective with their coat flapping, hat hatting and smoke billowing!? Abeel does so much with such simple shapes, silhouettes and effective use of stock art.

Barillaro (@Barilleon) opens with a credit box, complete with, feedback and editing – Krysts and Tyson VanOverhill (@Tyson_NW), Abeel for the cover and layout, playtesters and stock art references.

Synopsis

House Zulpair has recover a threat to steal a valuable signed, “Hair of the Dog”, a phantom thief from the city’s past. The party are hired to thwart the thief, ensuring the running manor and the Lady’s birthday aren’t effected.

Adventure Hook

This adventure is optimised for 3-6 players of level 4-5 and can easily fit in with the later stages of Dragon Heist, with several familiar faces seen along the way, although it’s not necessary to be played Dragon Heist or even in Waterdeep with a little tinkering. This section doesn’t really contain a hook as such, but handily it does appear at the beginning of chapter 1: “The party discovers the ransom note and conducts their investigation into the illustrious phantom thief, Hair of the Dog. They must decide early on whose help to accept: the City Watch’s, or that of Vincent Trench: Private Eye.”

How To Use This Adventure

The section provides advice on the three beat/ chapter structure of the adventure, The Investigation, The Party and The Getaway, and how the first two parts really have no set length and are at the direction of the DM and players who long and deep they play them. There are groups that will just skip the party and those with players like myself who will enjoy scoping out the place and schmoozing with the NPCs in a fun, specific setting. Barillaro sums things up well with their closing statements: “Instead of providing for specific possibilities, this adventure aims to empower the Dungeon Master as a player in their own game. I have drawn you the board and handed you the pieces, but it is up to you to set up and run the game.”

Adventure Background

This is an adventure with a history going back 300 years with a master thief, the eponymous Hair of the Dog, amazing a gargantuan fortune, before finally getting caught. In a bizarre happenstance the lead detective was revealed to be not who the watch thought they were, creating a chance for the thief to escape. The thief had given a gift of affection to their paramour, an ancestor of the current Lady Zulpair, which they need back for sentimental reasons and the truth contained within. The outed detective is back on the beat with a new persona as a private dick, so it seems their paths will cross again.

This is definitely an exciting and enticing background, which sets the scene and grounds it in a number of stories and connections with clear motive and conflict.

Chapter 1 – The Investigation

The Argument

The adventure assumes the PCs are leaving Trollskull Manor, through they could come across the following altercation in any alley in any city as it takes place in the street. The argument is the hook to bring the PCs into the adventure, as the private detective, Vincent Trench, tries to convince Lady Zulpair to cancel her birthday party due to the note from Hair of the Dog (HOTD). The aristocrat involves the PCs, hiring them to protect their locket.

A bio of the two NPCs are provided on the page with background, physical descriptions, reference to the statblocks they would, and a full personality profile with personality, ideals, bonds and flaws for ease of reference. I particularly enjoy the making no bones about it and having “gruff, hard-boiled private investigator” as a personality, fun can be had when you knowingly lean into tropes. I have to say I’m really coming around to the having relevant information at the time of it coming up in the adventure, rather referencing to appendices, though a system employing a little of both is probably optimal.

Trench’s Office

Vincent Trench and his office, The Tiger’s Eye, will be familiar to those familiar with Trollskull Alley, while not necessarily the details about him. The private dick is cagey and sends the PCs off to gather more information. However, there are some nice hidden details about the past of the infamous HOTD and clues to their connection with Trench, which are, honestly going to be very tough for PCs to get their hands on, though it’s certainly doable. I just relish this level of detail and forethought that can be added to an adventure, and think inspirational for DMs to see these tidbits and Easter eggs that we can include in our settings to give them greater depth, even if they don’t necessarily come into play.

City Watch’s Office

Access to the records with can come in many different ways, which comes down to how the PCs approach the situation. Once acquired, HOTD’s rap sheet tells an interesting tale in itself and gives them all the information they need to formulate their plan to prepare for the master thief and the next steps they want to take.

To Catch a Thief

This leaves the players and characters with a lot of choices to make, and possibly in need of a little prodding from the DM to reminds them the city and the mansion at their disposal. This section provides various options the PCs can employ, including Trench’s snooping skills, the watch and their burly sergeant they can assign to the case, as well as scoping out the mansion to lay traps and prepare for HOTD, which can be found in chapter 2.

Chapter 2 – The Party

“As Shantra’s celebration plays out on the bottom floor of Zulpair Manor, the party endeavors to guard her locket, but they may be vastly underestimating their foe.”

This chapter opens with a nice and simple map depicting the two floors of the octagonal-shaped manor with a description of its place in the sea ward and surrounding fences. This is followed by descriptions of each room, including the details of the staff in the kitchen, more clues and information in the library and the locket and its secrets in Lady Zulpair’s dressing room.

The Celebration

“Shantra’s birthday celebration fills the entire ballroom on the first floor of the villa. The players have a chance to mingle with the guests while waiting for Hair of the Dog to make a move.”

This section has the full rundown of HOTD’s true name, nature, knowledge, personality and modus operandi, as well a sidebar sensibly reminding DMs that HOTD is a master thief and adaptable.

Magical Guests

There are a number of nobles attending the celebration, any of which HOTD could be impersonating at the choice of DM or D4, and they all are under magical effects that work into their personalities nicely. This both adds flavour to the NPCs and make it so a simple Detect Magic spell doesn’t spoil the evenings fun. There is also a sensible reminder to give the PCs a chance to interact with the impersonated, before HOTD attempts their distraction.

And that is that; the table is set the players (NPCs and PCs) are ready and the celebration-come-burglary takes place however the DM and NPCs want. This brings me back to the quote from the introduction: “Instead of providing for specific possibilities, this adventure aims to empower the Dungeon Master as a player in their own game. I have drawn you the board and handed you the pieces, but it is up to you to set up and run the game.” The PCs can schmooze, rub elbows with Waterdavian nobility or seed/ bring in your own NPCs, try exotic aperitifs, marvel at the band or scandalous event’s between feuding houses (perhaps even an honour duel?), fine champagne and drunken uncles’ impromptu garbled speeches, whatever the DM’s imagination can provide (You’re more than welcome to any of those)...or you could have a party that just want to get right to trying to catch the thief. As with any roleplay the possibilities are endless.

Chapter 3 – The Chase

“When Hair of the Dog has a grasp on the locket, they make a break for their rendezvous point. The adventuring party must pursue on foot, which leads them to the City of the Dead. But there are more dangers in Waterdeep’s graveyard than a runaway thief.”

The Chase

This is a chase through the streets of Waterdeep (of whichever city you are using this in) using the rules from Chapter 8 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide, but with the caveats of the strict rules about combat and magic within the city, enforced by the Watch (less of an issue if your PCs have a sergeant with them), and an augmented complication table provided. This new table is varied, fun and very amusing. I actually did a little giggle at one of them, which is always a good sign to me.

City of the Dead.

The chase inevitably leads to the City of the Dead (or an appropriate graveyard or cemetery) and most likely with a confrontation with HOTD, who will say anything, everything, possibly even the truth that drove them to steal the locket...but you know when you’re having a lovely intense chat after a chase, and you’re trying to catch your breath, but the undead rudely butt in? Now it’s up to the players as to how they go about fighting side by side, chatting while fighting and whether or not they apprehend the master thief or allow them to escape, either by choice or bad luck.

Conclusion

Again, this is in the party’s hands, but there are a variety of outcomes with differing monetary and moral values. Among them, one has an unlikely to be kept promise and another has a parade! Depending on revelations made during the adventure, there are knock on effects for Trollskull Alley. I do like their being so many options and different perspectives for PCs to take, depending on the information they have and their personality. I can see some frantic and fun arguing and moralising round the table as difficult decisions have to be made.

Author’s Notes

“Names are powerful things. They are an encapsulation of our identity. Unfortunately, identity and perception tend to get tangled up in ways that seem unfixable. Do peoples’ perceptions of you match your identity? Do you want them to? [NPCs in this adventure] have spent years being other people as a means of finding out more about themselves, which is, incidentally, exactly how I use D&D.” This heartfelt author’s note really made me stop and think. It really encapsulates some of the themes of the story, and I definitely feel I have learned so much more about myself playing D&D. I see every character I’ve ever made as an element or reflection of elements of myself, and exploring them have made me feel more confident and true that I am non-binary, and that I want to be motivated by love and positivity – that’s why I put so much effort into these reviews, to help share the wonderful things folx create.

Enough about myself. This is a fantastic short and sweet adventure that has so much potential for being played out in many different ways. There is a rich backstory, fascinating characters and some wonderful scenes to play out with your players. I thoroughly recommend this for any city action, especially working with Dragon Heist. Not enough adventures are written with such a strong concept, flavour and moral ambiguity. This adventure may leave some work for the DM to put their own mark on it, working with their own party, but all the tools, elements and beats are here, and they combine to make a great, original adventure.

I reached out to Barillaro to ask some questions about this adventure. My questions, their inspiration and insights are below:

S: Hair of the Dog has a fun noir feel, evoking hardboiled detectives, which is very different from a lot of adventures. How did your come up with the idea and the flavour of the adventure, and further how did you manage to convey it so well to Willy Abeel for the art and layout?

B: Vincent Trench is always a favorite whenever I run Dragon Heist. I always adore detective types in media (think L.A. Noire, or Dick Gumshoe from Ace Attorney), and I wanted an adventure that expanded on my favorite Trollskull neighbor. When I was first gathering resources and inspiration, he mentioned old Dick Tracy comics. I loved the idea, so he ran with it!

Barillaro laid out these inspirations in a great thread that can be found here: https://t.co/GaSP2qhVDF

S: I’m currently playing in a Waterdeep game and I’m thoroughly enjoying the city, especially after reading some of the novels. What drew you to the City of Splendors and make the wonderful choice of grounding the adventure firmly in Dragon Heist? (though I appreciate with a little tweaking it works without Dragon Heist or even Waterdeep)

B: From the moment Dragon Heist was announced, I knew that it was going to be MY adventure, so to speak. As much as I love the epic, sprawling adventures we see a lot of in 5e (a la Princes of the Apocalypse or Out of the Abyss), the setting and pacing of Dragon Heist is so close to my own comfort zone when DMing. It’s RP heavy, there’s a ton of intrigue and politics, and instead of introducing new places all the time, the table has the opportunity to iterate on the city of Waterdeep, really see how their choices has changed the world around them in a way they really don’t get to otherwise. The idea that if Trench is exposed at the end of my adventure, he disappears “for good” comes from that potential for cause and effect.

S: Like any good crime story, Hair of the Dog has varying shades of grey and genuine reason and love behind the antagonist, and some difficult choices for the players. How important is it to you as a writer and a DM to have player’s expectations subverted and for their to be history and reasoning behind the NPCs that the PCs are hired to thwart?

B: As a DM and RPG writer, I think the one concept I keep coming back to is that nothing is ever as it seems, and it’s very rarely black and white. I think the stories where there is no ‘right’ answer are super interesting, and allow players to get more invested in the world around them. Of course, that isn’t to say it’s not fun to just know who the Bad Guys are and go get ‘em, too!

S: In your heartfelt Author’s Note at the end of the adventure, you talk about the power of names and the ideas around identity, and how you use D&D as a method to find out more about yourself. I definitely echo that sentiment, and definitely think it’s helped me realise I’m non-binary. Is there anything you wanted to add about names and identities, and the your choices for names in the adventure, particularly the eponymous Hair of the Dog?

B: I’m super glad you got something out of the author’s note!! I think names are very important, whether you’re naming yourself or your children (human, furry, or fictional)! But there’s a lot of pressure around names sometimes as well. It took me a year and a half after coming out to figure out a new name for myself, and the stress I felt before going public with it was real. There’s also a ton of tension around deadnames. Sometimes just hearing your deadname makes you anxious, even if someone isn’t addressing you with it. Even if you aren’t trans or nonbinary, names and identity can be a tough subject! They mean different things to different people, which is another reason why I love them. For that reason I also really really like it when names are silly. Dick Gainsley and HotD were both plays on a certain part of the human body, but I actually came up with HotD’s true name when I learned that the latin word for thief was “fur.”

Before I start, I’ve had this in my head since I picked this up and can’t tell if it was implanted, but humour me: Neogi Neogi Neogi! Oi! Oi! Oi! – ah that’s better.

This a freaking awesome 6-9 hour tier 2 adventure from The Gallant Goblin (@GallantGoblin), written by Theo Thourlson, with art from Victor Tan (https://www.instagram.com/victortandesign) and Hung Pham, with cartography from Thourlson and Grady Wang, is a tale of aberrations abductions and nefarious Mind Flayer machinations that have layers and layers of unreality and crises of identities. It’s truly quite unlike any other adventure that I’ve come across and I’ve really fallen in love with it while reviewing it.

Please enjoy my in depth review below.

The first thing you see is the truly singular and spectacular cover depicting an Illithid ‘scientist’ holding an alchemical bottle aloft, while their adorable Neogi pet looks on and humanoids float in amniotic tanks, all looking down on a planet. I’m absolutely blown away by the quality and details of Tan’s work! It truly is a masterpiece that I want up on my wall at home! Also, there is nowhere near enough art of the adorable and beautifully terrifying Neogi! The recent addition of the Electrum medal chain and glasses to the Neogi are an absolute delight!

Inside the cover are a full set of credits, including editors: Cassie Rose, Wang and Mikaela Sims (@Mikaela_V_Sims), playtesters, among the contributions I listed above, and special thank to Ashley Warren (@ashleynhwarren) and Michael Nasson.

Author’s Note

This is a truly heartfelt note about the difficulties and the numerous folx in loved in brining this adventure to life, from Wang’s “love, support, and endless assistance behind the scenes”, Satine Phoenix support (@satinephoenix) “for her guidance and wisdom”, Warren for the RPG Writer Workshop, to Rose’s “+9 perception ability to meticulously improve almost every sentence in this adventure”. With Special Thanks to their playtesters and artists, “Victor Tan and Hung Pham, for bringing my imagination to life.”

About The Author

“Theo Thourson is one half of the team behind The Gallant Goblin, a YouTube channel devoted to helping players and game masters find the right tools to improve their Dungeons & Dragons games and spark their story-telling imagination. He lives in Bakersfield, CA with his partner, Grady Wang, and works as a school psychologist.”

Gallant Goblin: https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCcNWC5fZJ3xwKoqJoT7XAqg

Introduction

The sadistic narcissist perceives himself as Godlike, ruthless and devoid of scruples, capricious and unfathomable, emotion-less and non-sexual, omniscient, omnipotent and omni-present, a plague, a devastation, an inescapable verdict.—Sam Vaknin, Writer

I love an adventure that grounds and encapsulates itself so well with an opening quote. We know exactly where we are and that it’s about to get megalomaniacal up in here!

The introduction includes a brief synopsis of the adventure, waking at an unfamiliar campsite and having to fight through a false reality to reclaim true memories, and because of this and the elements of the adventure, a Critical Content Warning that addresses Gaslighting, refers to further resources in the appendices, including handout cards, and has a wonderful text box to address the players with before playing, which makes reference to Safety Tools that are much needed in an adventure with the themes of this one.

The Adventure Background speaks further on the emotional abuse of Gaslighting in greater detail. I am glad to see this very serious and prevalent form of abuse of addressed with such care and concern. It is important for us all to remember that, while some themes and story elements may not be triggering or uncomfortable for us, they can be very difficult and even bring back past trauma in others. I know this from experience with my own Complex PTSD, greatly appreciate the way this subject has been handled.

This sections goes explain some of the unique aspects of this adventure, such as the characters starting without their class benefits and operating under a falsely implanted identity, which can be found on the appendices or created by yourself. There is advice on either letting your players know from the outset that they will be beginning without their class features or having an NPC make them aware that these can be regained later, roughly 2/3 through the adventure. This is a delicate matter than most groups and players will happily accept for the unique opportunity for experiencing the game in this manner, though being upfront can help to temper some frustrations certain players may have, after obsessing over and meticulously crafting their character. This and the power balance are things to consider depending on the different personalities at the table and the identities they are assigned, though advice for balancing encounters and the possible allowing of useful uncommon magic items can go a long way to allay all of the above.

Story Background

It’s a classic buddy cop movie where one cop is an alien that looks like a “spider with an eel’s neck and head” the size of a large dog and the other is a humiliated and outcast aberration with a octopus face who was too obsessed with the Arcane...except they don’t fight crime, they abduct people and put them in strange situations to harvest their emotions, you know to weaponize them and make potions...like coffee and the octopus head gets to eat the brains when they’ve been used up...like donuts. They probably bond over their bizarre aquatic features and pathological disregard for the lives of humanoids. Can you work out who you really are and be the real identity you made along the way, while escaping from hairy-spider-eel cop octopus-head-brain-doughnut cop in a sustained metaphor internal critics are calling, stretched to the point of absurdity, and you know their actually aren’t any cops in this adventure that’s actually great, but you’re now making sound like a fever dream?

Adventure Overview

Chapter 1 – Terror Around the Campfire

The party wake in a literal and existential nightmare.

Chapter 2 – The Village

Explore a strange village and discover the machinations of the mysterious mayor

Chapter 3 – Malinthalid’s Lair

Gain allies by giving them their minds back and escape a horrific laboratory of terrifying guardians, before working out just how the heck to get the f-word out of Dodge.

There’s really only one adventure hook, but it can be pretty much applied to anytime you go to sleep or rest. Perhaps your watch got bored and fell asleep so blame them! When you know who they are and why you should blame them.

Chapter 1 – Terror Around the Campfire

Right off the bat the first piece of box text is beautifully written and conveys the confusion and disorientation in the penumbra before awakening. Truly capturing the surreal, elusive and illusory nature of the adventure from the offset.

The characters awake in a forest, which unbeknownst to them is actually a super hi-tech shed full of illusory magic the most believable AstroTurf ever created.

Players are informed that they no longer have their memories or class abilities and are handed role cards from the appendix or the DM’s own creation to start the adventure.

The titles for each of the main scenes in this chapter are gloriously evocative on their own with, A Whisper in the Dark and A Seeming Savour. The party receive a strange message, shortly before being attacked by tiny fiends (with statblock included at the point of the encounter, rather than in the appendices, which is my own and many others preference for ease of referencing), before a strange saviour appears, allays at least one character’s fears and will leave everyone at the table excited, confused and almost certainly very, very afraid.

Chapter 2 – The Village

“Stepping from one false reality into another, the characters find themselves in a vaguely familiar village.”

From bizarre, almost real feeling setting to one even stranger, but somehow more familiar for the characters, with more illusory and synthetic details. This is where the Mr. M’s experiments, psychodramas and emotional manipulations/ take place. Think of the Campfire as the bag fish are kept in as they come up to the temperature of their tank and the village as aquarium where illithid conducts its illicit, cruel and immoral experiments in eliciting and extracting emotions.

The features of the village are written out in bullet points. These details, as with the entire adventure, are written in a manner that is fluid and enjoyable to read, with the bullet points conveying a wealth of detail at a glance. It’s quite incredible just how far Mr. M and Thourlson have gone to address the senses and minutiae that bring the village to such a vivid facsimile of life.

There are extensive sections on roleplaying the villagers, both their current frazzled state and how their original personalities bleed through as important clues for Chapter 3, and the Mr. M, the inhuman/e ‘scientist’ and ‘mayor’, including their confusing and manipulative strategies to keep anyone from getting a clear answer or know what’s going on, and advanced roleplaying tips on the various stages of the cycle of this Gaslighting/ emotional abuse.

Areas of the Village

There is a an adorably cheerful map of the small village with a full description of each building, an detailed accounting of the NPCs, their current and original identities, the weird and frustrating elements of their homes, and the Emotion Monitors ready to alert Mr. M when it’s time for him to come harvest, with varying amounts of subtlety, unwavering lies and Gaslighting. Highlights include a fact about chalk that genuinely blew my mind, a general store that has everything that looks the part, but nothing works (the longer this takes to work out the better. Be sure to keep a note if a PC has a rope, axe or bolt that’s nothing but a strange alien polymer for fun later), a devastatingly sad backstory and current sad state of affairs of a child that ties into their lore and this adventure so wonderfully, various melodramas Mr. M can have the villagers play out, a security Umberhulk who I envision in a big coat and shades, and Mr. M’s place having one of the most bizarre, amusing and wasteful applications of Wish level magic in the form of an Animated Oven!

The simplicity of this small town also has something to teach us about creating better, more believable settlements. By which I mean, we can take inspiration from the details missed out and those fabricated to keep in mind when writing. In many ways we are own Mr. Ms, but we want everyone to feel real, fulfilled and the world around them tangible and believable. Also, we don’t want to gaslight and we only want to extract some emotions... On the other hand, we can learn a great deal about the backstory and personality of NPCs that truly bring any in game settlement to life, as they do here.

Chapter 3 – Malinthalid’s Lair

This laboratory-lair abruptly ends the facade of the village in favour of alien alloy, complicated words for complicated domes and bright lights, with some big dumb guards and clever leggy brain security measures, as well as an adorable anxious possible new friend hiding in a wardrobe! There are little touches and details that put my in a glass Vial of Emotion, such as the likely hood of the PCs bullying a terrified Neogi (I know they’re the baddies in this story, but they’re all alone and all furry and adorable) although the adventure emphasises convincing them they will be spared, elements from the previous chapter influencing items in the present (which is always a nice touch) and one seriously, devilishly genius use of a disguising ability!

The final confrontation comes with the reveal from the beautiful cover that this is taking place in spaaace above Faerun! This is guaranteed to be a moment remembered forever by everyone at the table; the players for discovering they are in spaaaace, somewhere so beyond their normal setting, and the DM for revelling in everyone’s agape mouths and bulging eyes. You can’t always guarantee a moment, but I truly feel you can take this one to the bank! Oh and then they have to fight a Mind Flayer, which is always kinda memorable too. Tactics and scaling suggestions are included with Mr. M’s unique statblock in the appendices.

There are still some pretty nasty traps in the normally tranquil setting of a meditation chamber, but this adventure is all about subverting expectations in all the best ways. There is a full body of Mr. M’s Necromantic research to have fun with describing as much or as little as you like, which could make for some fun props. There’s obviously some goodies too and I quite enjoy the fact that a couple of different times in this adventure it calls for the rolling for magic items, which can be a lot of fun at the table, but there’s nothing to stop you rolling or choosing before too to make things easier.

Finally there is the chance to put all right, a tearful reunion and the chance to go to wherever home is. Sadly, but honestly understandably the rest of the ship is “beyond the scope of this adventure”, though if you were feeling bold this is something you could work on, as are the possible future run-ins with Mr. M, if he is able to escape. I’m so torn between the pathos and epicness of the moment that potentially thwarts his escape, but imagine completing a mega-dungeon years from now when the party come face to face with a familiar looking Illithid Lich...

Appendices

The appendices contain full unique statblocks for Mr. M, Zashmed (9th level spellcaster) and Shanathea (13th level spellcaster and the PCs’ friend on the inside), and the named magic items, including the two unique pieces of equipment found in Mr. M’s Lair, as well as the five unique emotion potions...empotions? All with their unique and flavourful effects. The maps for the Village and Mr. M’s Lair are also included in full, as well as the nine identities for the players with empty ones to add your own, with pretty, creepy and pretty creepy backs, and double-sided information cards about Gaslighting. The identity cards all have a name, title, brief backstory, skills and abilities, which are more than enough to get your players started with their new personal. The Defeat Real Life Mind Flayers! Gaslighting information cards are packed with information and resources for those interested, concerned or in need. It’s truly wonderful to see this taken so seriously, yet so accessibly, while making it something that, if your table are comfortable with it, can be played out and shown for the evil it is.

I Am Your World is truly rich story with more depth and layers than a schichttorte (German layer cake of many layers [20 in fact, thanks GBBO]) that truly gives the DM so much to work with through the layers of reality, unreality and the detailed true and false personas. The thought, craft and care. That has gone into the world and NPCs within it is exactly what I’m wishing for when I pick up an adventure and I kept stopping reading, closing my eyes and just imagining running aspects in my head because I loved the premise and elements so much! Also, more adventures should contains Neogi! Yes, there is a serious topic in here that won’t make this the perfect fit for every table, and as DMs we have to accept that, but through the descriptions, insights and handouts I don’t think it couldn’t be handled any better. There is pathos and a true chance for right and compassion to win over a heinous cruelty, which is awesome on its own, but it just happens to come with one of the most original and...out of this world stories I’ve ever come across on DMs Guild. I absolutely cannot wait to see what Thourlson and/ or any of the Gallant Goblins do next!

Gallant Goblin: https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCcNWC5fZJ3xwKoqJoT7XAqg

I reached out to the Thourlson and include my brief interview with them here:

What inspired your adventure?

As a Patreon backer of Satine Phoenix, I worked with her to brainstorm story ideas for the project. She recommended thinking back to some of my favourite movies or books to get inspiration, and I remembered one of my old favourites, Dark City, which itself was inspired by Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. In the allegory, prisoners in a cave experienced reality as shadows cast on a wall from a fire behind them. They knew nothing else of the world. If they were somehow freed from their current existence and learned about what else existed in the world, they would likely resist this challenge to their conception of reality, clinging to that which was untrue. I thought this was an interesting avenue to explore. I also really wanted to tie my adventure to something about the current human condition so that the adventure might be more than just a fun little excursion to a spaceship, but which might also help people learn something that could help them in their own lives. I realized that these ideas of altered reality and clinging to a perceived truth manufactured maliciously by someone else was basically the definition of Gaslighting.

Are there any interesting tidbits or lore that didn’t make the final version you would like to share?

I don’t think there was any lore that got cut. Nothing comes to mind anyway. I have given thought to what becomes of Mr. M, the villain, at the end of the adventure. I imagine he is able to escape using Plane Shift for many parties. Other parties may leave his body behind. Being a necromancer, he may very well find a way back to life. I have the very basics of a follow-up adventure planned which will share a similar structure of providing a hopefully fun adventure, while also attempting to educate on a modern topic. I probably won’t attempt to craft the story in a month again. The only reason I was able to do that before was because I was on summer break, but it nearly killed me nonetheless. I’ll take my time on the next one. So it’ll probably be independent of the workshop. But who knows. I may try to do something less ambitious with the workshop again one day.

Talk to me about your interest with aliens and aberrations (I’m a huge fan too!)

Oh wow. Well, I’ve just always been a fan of sci-fi. Watched ST:TNG with my dad growing up. Loved Star Wars, Star Trek, Red Dwarf, Silverhawks, Babylon 5, and almost any sci-fi I could get my hands on. I devoured books by Douglas Adams, Robert Heinlein, Frederick Pohl, Ray Bradbury, Kurt Vonnegut, and Robert J. Sawyer. Currently super eager to dive into the Broken Earth trilogy by N.K. Jemisin.

I thought that the neogi and a mind flayer would make interesting allies. In the lore, it seemed like the neogi were constantly getting outplayed by creatures who experienced humanoid emotions, and being incapable of them themselves, I could see them wanting to find a way to acquire and weaponize them. Mind Flayers with their unique ability to manipulate people (and devour brains) seemed to be the ideal ally to enlist if the neogi wanted to pursue such a strategy, since neogi don’t really have emotions. And a mind flayer on the run after being exiled due to his incredible ego and pursuit of lichdom would likely welcome the assistance and protection a Neogi spaceship could provide him.

This absolutely adorable little critter is the brainchild of Brent Jans (@DorkLordCanada) with splendiferous artwork by Jeff Martin (@HEATcomic) and published by Prairie Dragon Press with all proceeds going to the wonderful children’s charity, Extra Life (@ExtraLife4Kids), “Which is frankly how the hedgicorn would want it.”

So what exactly are these tiny, enchanting erinaceinae? “Hedgicorns are the founts of wisdom and stalwart pro-tectors of the smallfolk of the fae” and “defenders of lost children” keeping them safe and amused, “distracting them with funny stories and magic as they lead them back to safety.” They are ambassadors working for peace between all fey of both the Summer and Winter Courts and everything in between through the power of diplomacy. However if conflict arises,” they will not back down, trusting both to their own formidable abilities” and allies. “Once brought to conflict, hedgicorns rarely give second chances, fighting to the death”, which is pretty intense, but they do not go to battle easily and the toll they reap serves the cycle and balance of life.

Coming in at CR4 and a 5th, the Hedgicorn is nothing to laughed at, even if its regular melee, Spiney Barrage, is a bit of yawn doing minimal damage and putting creatures to sleep. However, the spells in it’s arsenal at first glance seem to have a lot of utility (which it does, it’s a busy fey on the go after all), there is a daily blast of epicness that will power of friendship you right through that wall! Plus they can make the forest around them start wailing on its enemies, and if all else fails it can be sure you can-trip and can’t get away. The image of large evils of the forest getting dragged across the mossy, leafy floor, before being Sleeping Beauty’d and pummelled by the very nature they besmirch is glorious.

What I’m saying is these neutral good tiny fey are far from harmless...especially in a prickly array of 3 or more, due to their Magical Resonance that makes them more powerful casters. If you mean evil, the last thing you want to come across is an adorable herd of 7 or more cuties, as their powers combined make them each 17th level casters each with ALL spells at will! That’s a serious amount boom that would give even a Dark Lord pause... If the Feywild is one reflection of the material plane and the Shadowfell another, Gods help us all there are armies of Hedgimares...Nighthogs/pigs with blazing spines and nothing but darkness in their teeny weeny adorable hearts!

This lore is far more robust than I would have expected at first and truly pays homage to the precious little fey furze-pigs; their happy and magical ties to other fey and smallfolk, stalwart guardians of lost kids, expert diplomatic immunity (or at least magical resistance) in the politics of the fey courts, as well as their rather shocking blitzkrieg of deadly cuteness for those that cross it, all in service to the life’s balance.

Remember this wonderful creature that can add so much rooty tooty fey cutey and lore to any game, particularly near or in forests, the Feywild or large piles of leaves/ bonfires (always check!) are all for a wonderful cause: Extra Life: https://www.extra-life.org/ @ExtraLife4Kids

More of Jeff Martin’s art and comics can be found here: http://hell.rentathugcomics.com/ @HEATcomic

I reached out to Jans to ask him more about the Hedgicorn, the inspiration behind it and how they got involved with Extra Life and more, which they were kind enough to enough to answer in this short interview I include in full below:

Where did the inspiration for this adorable, yet powerful little fey hedgepig come from?

I have a soft spot for hedgehogs, I think they are fascinating creatures. And in my home D&D campaign I knew that the smallfolk of the Fey (pixies, brownies, sprites, etc) were going to play a substantial role. I wanted a creature to act as a protector for the smallfolk, and for a while I was considering a normal unicorn but that didn’t have the right feel; why would a (albeit magical) horse worry about folks so small they might step on them by accident? But what if the uni was a creature more on their level? Thus the hedgicorn was born.

How was the process of having the precious art provided by the stellar Jeff Martin?

Jeff is a friend of mine here in Edmonton, and I have loved his art style. I’m a huge fan of his online comic Hell Inc., as well Redcoats-ish, his strip about the War of 1812. He has a simple but evocative style, full of expression and story. I knew he could put on the page what I could see in my head, and I was right. He came back with sketches within a few days, and I had a finished version in a few weeks.

How did you get involved with Extra Life?

I have been a supporter of our local children’s hospital, the Stollery, for over a decade. I used to take part in their Hair Massacure each year, dying my hair pink and then shaving it off to raise funds and awareness. But when that fundraiser came to an end I took to Extra Life, as it let me combine raising much needed funds for children’s hospitals with my favourite hobby, gaming. This will be my seventh year fundraising for Extra Life, and I am looking forward to spending the day with friends, playing games and raising money.

What inspired you to make this minikin fey such an awesome little powerhouse?

I think one of the strengths of the small fey, is that they are underestimated because they are cute. Looking at the hedgicorn, you wouldn’t expect it to pose much of a threat; it’s essentially a slightly larger hedgehog with a horn. But then it has some unicorn abilities, I gave it a fly speed, and I added some things that would allow it to call upon the Fey Wylde itself to defend the smallfolk. Suddenly this cute little creature, while largely benevolent, can act as a believable protector. Add to that the special abilities that only come from hedgicorns working in concert, and I felt I had created for myself (and other DMs) a creature who could be scaled up or down depending on the campaign and the stories you wanted to tell.

Finally, how did you come up with the lore? The diplomacy and lost child helping are adorable, but the sudden swerve into cold and deadly when crossed was a shocking, yet delightful twist!

I didn’t want to play off the “small creature acts angry all the time because of its size” angle, I felt that was boring and overdone. So I went in the opposite direction. Besides acting as protector, I wanted hedgicorns to be the wise advisers to the smallfolk, settling disputes and dispensing advice. So they have substantial power, but will not use it capriciously. Once they do make that choice, however, there is no wavering; hedgicorns will give you the benefit of the doubt, but no second chances. The lore around children came at the end, when I decided to give all proceeds to Extra Life. Once I decided that, it made sense to add some lore about protecting lost children. After all, that’s what I was trying to use it for in the real world.

I can’t thank Jans enough for taking the time to answer my questions, and for leading by example with their charity work. I urge you to follow Jans example and support Extra Life, whether through picking up this awesome prickly pal, creating your own wonders to help the kids (in all settings) and/ or making a donation at www.extra-life.org!

In the spirit of full disclosure I was provided a review copy of this supplement for a full and honest review. This supplement is filled with passion and awesome ideas, in the form of four subclasses and a new system for converting the Enochian language of the angels into glyphs that can buff characters and items. 10 pages of divinity with great layout and fantastic art for $3.95, less than a dollar a class, which should be a sin. Please see my in-depth review below.

The first thing you see is the arresting cover illustration by Ruben Cardenas (www.instagram.com/cardenas_ruben) depicting a Goristro Demon bearing down on a Half-Orc Path of the Solar Paladin that is bringing about their divinely-charged blade, their angel-gifted pinions reaching to the heavens about them, on the edge of a fiery expanse in some hellish Realm.

Credits

Full credits with writing and editing by Daylight Publications (@daylightpub1066), wonderful looking layout by Bryan Holmes (@FallenWyvern), beautifully realised interior Characters by Ruben Cardenas, all playtesters and other art sources list. (More on the art and design later).

The credits also contain a heartfelt Special Thanks, “To my great grandmother, Regina Stanhope, the kindest and hardiest soul I ever knew”, which really gave me a little emotional hit that stayed with me as I went through the supplement.

Through the Skyring Pool

The introduction discusses the inspirations for this supplement, both in Day’s “love of history and theology” and “[their] interest in mysticism and magick”. The special ‘k’ coming from the academic study of historical magic/k such as Dr. John Dee, a fascinating chap, loyal servant of Elizabeth I and possible Wizard...who, if believed, was one of the first people on record casting Scrying! Because of the history and academia, it was Skrying, probably bekause of tke spekial k. But in all serious, he claimed to have made contact with an Angel that taught him the Celestial tongue, Enochian. You might be aware of Enochian from its use in the TV show, Supernatural, to write, bind and protect things using this angelic language and sigils. Dee is genuinely a fascinating figure and his Enochian has “stumped scholars and thrilled mystics for centuries” and it ties in wonderfully with Baldur’s Gate: Descent Into Avernus, inspiring Day to “throw Dee’s strange formula and alphabet into the fray in the form of new subclass options.”

Inspiration

Taking this fascinating premise, Day pulled directing from Enochian Magic: A Practical Guide by Gerald and Betty Schueler, trying to “pull as much for the mechanics of the Enochian system...as well as the history behind the pseudo-language.” Day also drew inspiration from the lore and visuals of Warhammer Fantasy and World of Warcraft “because giant armour and lots of holy radiance is always a good thing.” I couldn’t agree more, and that lambent, fantastical, angelic light and might shine throughout this supplement. Thinking to Descent Into Avernus, Day adds they “wanted to offer some kickass divine class options before diving into the eternal infernal battleground”

What Is Contained Within

Four new angelic/ celestial class options for the Barbarian, Paladin, Sorcerer and Warlock. Also contained in this supplement is a system for using the Enochian glyphs as buffs for yourself and your party members.

Barbarian – Path of the Demigod

Despite the hoards of fury-filled berserkers, “there are those few Barbarians who hold within their veins the blood of deities”. These warriors filled with righteous fury are sequestered and trained to focus their rage into divine fury.

Glorious Wrath

At 3rd level when you rage “burns with righteous light” that is so bright it effects enemies within a large area and this light deals additional divine damage from your weapons, which increases as you level up.

This is a gloriously bright ability that is just spectacular to imagine on the field or the blasted plains of Avernus and some bonus Radiant damage never hurt anyone...you liked, anyway. The concern I have with this ability is that the save for the righteous light is not quantified. Looking through the Player’s Handbook (PHB) and Xanathar’s Guide to Everything (XGTE), the closest comparison I could find was the Storm Herald’s Storm Aura. Quoting XGTE, “the DC equals 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Constitution modifier.” I believe that this would be the case, though I cannot be certain and I believe this is simply a minor oversight that would almost certainly be rectified in an updated version.

Divine Hand

At 6th level you can summon weapons made of light! These weapons hit for a modest amount of Radiant damage that increases when you are raging.

First of all summoning weapons made of light is one of the coolest things ever, and the damage, while not as much as you might be used to dealing with Heavy weapons, has that light and fair trade off for the Radiant damage (not to mention the bonus from Divine Hand). This is a very cool, somewhat situational ability that just looks awesome, right up until the moment when you really need it. In those moments this is going to be quite literally a godsend.

Celestial Presence

At 10th level “the overwhelming power of your godly parent permeates the air around you as you rage.” Anyone trying to get pretty close to you gets burnt by the spirit of deity daddy, almighty mummy or whatever form your parent takes forcing a save that takes damage either way and can be overbearingly bright.

Again, a glorious image of a holy Barbarian with the air around becoming viscous and heavy with intense divine light emanating all around them, instantly comes to mind and I love it! This save is quantified and could possibly be applied to the first one where one is omitted, though the parameters of the save are different, so I wouldn’t be so sure. This is a bloody brilliant feature, which I would happily allow at my table, but comparing this to the PHB and XGTE 10th level features it seems to be in the higher end of power and ability.

Demihuman Fortitude

At 14th level your blood is that of a god and you gain an ability that enables you a couple of chances to gain a nice chunk of health back when your health is low. This increases at a higher level.

This is a really cool and flavourful ability that gives the Barbarian greater survivability, reflecting their Demihuman nature. I’m a big fan of finding alternate uses for the Character feature this ability makes use of and like this a lot.

The Barbarian, Path of the Demigod, is an awesome subclass filled with flavour, righteous fury and the blinding and healing light of you godly sire. Once the Glorious Wrath save has been addressed, I could very much see this being the first Barbarian I play. I’m thinking an Aasimar daughter of Freya or Tyr, leaning on the Norse side of things with standard blue tattoos, runes and warpaint that glow with radiant light when she rages!

Cardenas’ character art is phenomenal and the depiction of the Demigod Barbarian with their celestial sire standing ephemerally behind them truly captures the subclass’ godly essence.

Paladin – Oath of the Solar

These “true champions of divine justice” are the “mortal instruments of the most powerful angels” and have the righteous authority, strength and unwavering devotion to prove it. Divine justiceliness is next to Celestialiness.

Tenants of the Solar

These are described wonderfully, but break down to being the light, sword and justice of the divine, including judge, jury and executioner when called for.

Channel Divinity

At 3rd level Path of the Solar grants two more options for Channel Divinity:

Purge the Wicked: The Paladin can mark a target with Purging Sigil, granting benefits against them in combat and making sure the slain stay dead. This second aspect increases at higher levels.

Bear the Light: The Paladin can create a sun that hovers above them like a spherical halo of dazzling radiance as a reaction!

As a Paladin Path quite literally holier or at least divinier than thou it makes sense for them to get a little extra kick in the Channel Divinity department and these two abilities are epically flavourful and powerful, but balanced by each one being used against a single target. This truly is where flavour, mental image and mechanics come together, and I already want to build one of these Paladins without even checking out their other abilities...but I’m definitely going to that now.

Oath Spells

It’s a pretty awesome set of holy light and righteous fiery fury.

Aura of Radiance

At 7th level “the light of justice pours from your body” that allows them to let out a blaze of divine light as a reaction forcing Constitution Saves to all enemies nearby. The area of enemies effected increases at a higher level.

This is another flashy, visually and mechanically appealing ability that creates such great mental images, but as with the previous subclass, it suffers from not having the Constitution Save quantified. It was simpler for me to look up and make my assumption that this would be the same as the default Paladin Spell Save DC from the PHB, “8 + Proficiency + Charisma Modifier”. This is only my estimation and it would definitely be preferable for this to be addressed in an update.

In the Arms of the Angel

At 15th level you “grow colossal wings made out of white-gold feathers” that grant you flight and make you look so fly that certain creature types find you all the more charismatic.

As far as descriptions of features go, you have to go pretty darn far to best these perfect pinions and that they actually have a mechanical factor in how freaking cool you look! Did I mention, “colossal wings”!

Chosen of the Solar

At 20th level your truly are divinier than thou, with “waves of powerful light rolling from your body”. Once every few days you can literally embody your patron solar, or rather they mebody you, bringing there Celestial hardiness with them.

This is a stonking ability that truly makes the Paladin of the Solar the apotheosis of a tank! Another flavourful and epic features that allows for some interesting roleplaying options and enough health to headbutt a terrasque and laugh it off.

You had me at purge the wicked! I am all about this Paladin subclass that kicks arse and takes names for the angels! The art for this is awesome and I thoroughly enjoy a Minotaur was chosen to depict this class as the divine Minotaur with angels wings and Enochian runes on their shoulder guards just looks epic!

Sorcerer – Angelic Bloodline

With this bloodline you’ve always known you were special, perhaps because your blood is gold! Although if that wasn’t clue enough, the Angels sign your forehead as an 18th birthday present.

Angels Gift

At 1st level you choose which type of angel was your progenitor:

Deva: Grants a bonus to readied actions Solar: Grants bonus radiant damage to your first attack Planatar: Grants a bonus to an attribute’s check

There’s a resistance, but also you can summon an angelic fox! This is not a drill. ANGEL FOX FAMILIAR! With some very handy abilities.

So the ancestry bonuses are interesting and nice situational bonuses. The Solar bonus being to an attack with a weapon, rather than spell is an interesting one, but a crossbow bolt with a radiant blaze to it is still pretty damn cool. But who cares!?FRICKING FLYING ANGEL FOX FAMILIAR WITH AWESOME ABILITIES INCLUDING +1000 ADORABLENESS! AnGeL fOx!

Rain of Fire

At 6th Level you can summon “Celestial comets from the sky” in a decent sized radius rolling an almost blasphemous amount damage that increases at higher levels.

Holy comets Batman! This is such a freaking cool ability with another great visual, but I can’t help think it’s pretty overpowered compared to a lot of the other Sorcerers in the PHB and XGTE, essentially being a lesser Fireball once a day that doesn’t cost sorcery points. I’m not sure how I would feel about this at my table, but it’s so cool I would allow it with some changes, perhaps at a cost of 3 Sorcerer Points or lowering the amount of dice, possibly by half.

Wings of the Ancestors

At 14th level “you grow a titanic set of glowing feathered wings” that are super speedy and strong.

So what’s bigger colossal or titanic? I have seen spirited debate in my research, which seem to either have them as interchangeable synonyms or with titanic edging in front, so I suppose they will have to measure them against the Solar Paladin. At least the Angelic Sorcerer will always have the fact they get them a whole level sooner and, while they might not necessarily look as cool, they do actually work a heaven of a lot better.

The Doorway Opens

At 18th level you become so Celestial that you can call on your parent to come fight your battles for you, or at the least make a few actions and leave.

This is another ability that sounds and looks really cool, which just needs to quantifying to actually make sense. Looking at the Angels in question, they have actions, including Multiattacks, Spells, the Solar’s Legendary Actions, to name a few. The idea of calling an Angel and them having a few immediate actions is awesome, but with so many variables between the various Angels I can see this raising some questions on both sides of the screen, which is a shame as the concept is there, but it just needs more specificity.

I feel like I’ve been a bit harsh to the Angelic Bloodline Sorcerer, but it’s tough love because I do love it and know that it could truly be something special when some of the kinks have been worked out. Do I want to play one? Definitely! I would just have a very open conversation with my DM or my player’s about how we would handle the aspects seem overpowered of vague to me. Also, I really needs me one of those angelic flying fox Familiars! So cute and effective! Would love to see a statblock for it in a future update so it could have the potential to be an animal Sidekick for any pious PC. Also, the option and rules for a small Hollyphant familiar would be phenomenal, but that’s just my greedy, sinful wishes.

The art is just spectacular and that angelic fox is almost too adorable with its glowing eyes and little wings...the Sorcerer looks radiant too, but ANGELIC FOXXXXX!

Warlock – Patron: The Archangel

These Patrons are more often than not, Solars who seek our Warlocks who have lost their patrons and / or those searching for meaning and atonement.

The spells gained at the various levels are an interesting mix of many more utility and restorative spells than Warlocks normally get their hands on, though no actual healing, and some offensive spells drawing from the more pious and natural spell lists.

Archangel’s Oath

At 1st level you get to understand and talk to the angels with skill, as well as emanating a golden light from your body and “tattoos of golden chains encircle your forearms and torso.”

It makes sense to be able to make nice with those angelic beings giving you a second chance, but I absolutely adore the golden chain tattoos! Definitely a wondrous image, evoking Kratos’ chains and marks from the God of War video games, and the binding and servitude to the Celestial patron. I think the light is merely cosmetic, but it sounds cool and could be used to help and hinder depending on how you and your DM choose to interpret it together.

Redemptive Step

At 6fh level you gain the ability to take a hit for someone else and make the attacker feel bad for what they’ve done...with pain!

This is a really cool feature that finds that sweet spot between flavour and mechanics. The image of stepping up and taking the blow for someone else and the enemy getting a taste of their own medicine is great. I see the Warlock walking into the blow with arms raised of open, welcoming the attack and perhaps grabbing them or merely placing a hand on the attacker’s weapon, sending retributive damage back at the aggressor.

Strike of Judgement

At 10th level you gain extra damage on top of your crits, which increases at higher levels.

So far every feature has had flavour and its own cinematography in my head, but this kinda falls flat. Crits are awesome and bonus radiant damage is great, but I’ve come to expect more drama from this supplement.

Celestial Deliverance

At 14th level you gain the ability to create a magical circle that grants you great restorative powers without spending Spellslots. While in the Inscribed circle there is healing, but you can also cast the granted spell outside of the circle.

Okay, so I ended up describing that quite poorly to try avoid giving all the secrets away, but the feature itself is brimming with flavour. The description of walking out of the circle “with Celestial sigils radiating from your body and appearing wherever you step” is fantastic and the ability works mechanically and with the lore of the subclass, which is awesome.

For me, this isn’t one of those instantly wanting to build a character right, stat, now! But there is such potential for creating a rich backstory or having a conversion over the course of campaign! I can definitely see myself using this class for NPCs, possibly even enemies that my players let live or had to run from, having a come to Angel moment leading to an awkward reunion and necessary team up in a battle against evil. Now that’s some inspirational subclass, even if I’m not chomping at the bit to play one.

The divine Tiefling Hellboy with lambent horn tips, golden chains hanging from their wrists and reading a hovering tome might not be my favourite of the supplement, but it really is an evocative piece of an the Internally tainted turning themselves over to the divine. I also love the additional horns and facial features in this image.

Enochian Inscribing

“Enochian is a confusing pseudo-language as it has no true translation”, which is a whole lot of what the Avernus? This strange pseudo-language uses its own and English letters, referencing values of tarot cards, and I am absolutely fascinated and incredibly confused. Luckily Day lays out a complete table with the Enochian letter, It’s English equivalent, the tarot card associated with it and the ability the glyph grants in a nice clear manner.

“The Enochian language was used to create wards and magical locks”, which Day has converted to allow for them to be “inked, painted, etched, carved or tattooed” onto yourself, a team mate or an item. This systems uses a new set of tools and materials, including a ritual dagger, athame, and one of the baby Jesus’ first Christmas presents, myrrh, which includes images of the real thing, and I have to say that myrrh looks darn tasty. It looks like a cross between popcorn chicken and honeycomb! These items are retroactively added to Priest’s Packs.

The three separate methods, drawn or painted, etched/ carved or sewn and tattooed or branded, are detailed along with the cost, materials and time needed to perform these activities/ rituals. Sensible limits are placed on the number of glyphs and how they are maintained or lost.

The list of glyphs and there abilities is long and varied with some obvious bonuses, as well as some really interesting and bizarre abilities, such as one that grants three “clues” that can be used to make someone give a full and complete answer to a question, and another that creates the illusion of “something or someone the effected desires to hold, such as a long lost loved one, or departed friend.” The former has some great utility, while the layer is absolutely creepy cool and reminds of the goo clones the ship creates to keep Summer safe in Rick and Morty.

This optional system is well thought out and researched. It’s clear that this and the entire supplement are a passion project and I am very intrigued to dabble with some Enochian in my games to prepare myself for my eventual Descent Into Avernus game.

Layout and Design

This really is something! Holmes’ use of an aged paper effect with stylised medieval lettering are enough to give this supplement the feeling of being an old, sacred pamphlet without making it too difficult to read. With the addition of Caradenas’ wonderful character art and thematic stock images, the layout and design of the supplement is stylish and professional. However, I would suggest that providing a non-stylised accessible PDF should be the standard, if not a requirement for DMs Guild/ Drivethru RPG for more accessibility. Also, unfortunately due to the formatting, it does not seem to be possible to select or copy text, which is not a huge factor, but in this age of using more devices for character sheets and D&D Beyond (as well as humble reviewing), it is a great benefit to be able to copy and paste text.

When looking at subclasses and other player options the most important factor for me is whether or not I feel that instant excitement and urge to start building a character right there and then, and I have to say that three of the four gave me that rush of excitement, while the fourth made gave me great inspiration for NPCs and ideas for my games, which are also great.

I had the sudden thought that with all the lights and pyrotechnics, getting these folx together in a dark room or cave with some funky Bards and you could create a rave worthy of the Archangels! This is the visualisation and excitement I have had poring over this supplement; there are so many fantastic ideas, imagery, flavour and fantastic abilities that had me hooked from the word go. This has an incredible excitement factor and will definitely bring a lot of joy and mayhem to your table, being especially fun and suited for Descent Into Avernus!

On the other hand the lack of quantifying the saves that abilities call for and the odd ability being somewhat overpowered or missing the pazzaz of the others (in my humble opinion) is a bit of a shame in such a quality supplement. Luckily these are things that can easily be remedied in, but it was confusing to see and had me poring over my PHB and XGTE to come up with suggestions.

I have thought long and hard about how to rate this title. It truly has the potential to be five star quality and it is ludicrous to think of rating this three stars, so for now I am giving this a very high four, which I could easily see becoming a five with later additions. I thoroughly enjoyed reviewing this supplement and definitely recommend it, especially if you are playing DIA. There are such rich ideas and cool mechanics that brought me such joy. I look forward to keeping up to date with this to see if my recommendations and/ or the necessary elements for saves are added in the future.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I was provided a review copy of this supplement for a full and honest review.

You had me a book fighter and the beautiful art by @missalppy! (more on that later) Also, Knight Librarian just sounds so damn cool!

These stalwart guardians of knowledge and ancient tomes have a rich and storied history, legend telling of their formation “by the Tome Keepers of Harbour’s End City Atheneum, after acquiring items for their library had resulted in the loss of life and limb.” So these aren’t your local friendly librarians, stamping cards and stacking books, if you are lucky enough to still have a local library – Just a quick aside, libraries and librarians are awesome, as is the access they give everyone to joy and information, and if there’s anything you can do to support yours I entreat you to act as guardians of these bastions of knowledge. Though I do understand if you aren’t quite ready to lose life and limb, a membership, petition and/ or donation should do 

Knowledge is power

At 3rd level the Knight Librarian has the option to take Intelligence as their Attack Modifier, which definitely helps plotting attributes in character creation when planning to build of a Knight Librarian, and reflects the studious grace and Intellect with which they fight.

Already, there is a stark difference from the archetypal image of a Fighter, as smooth as a Swashbuckler, but with the full arsenal of a Fighter and bookcases full of wonders a Rogue would only see the value in stealing. Not a good idea to attempt when these folx are around!

The Pen is Mightier Than the Sword

At third level you gain proficiency in a helpful and on brand skill, as well as a new set of tools created for and included in this Archetype, Scholar’s Tools. Gaining expertise with both at a higher level. I’ll talk more about the Scholar’s Tools later, but for now they are a well thought out, thematic and useful new tool set.

Spellcasting

The rules for casting, learning, and numbers are very similar to the Eldritch Knight up until one key element made very clear in this Archetype, though it is bizarrely vague in the Player’s Handbook for the Eldritch Knight; Knight Librarians can use their weapons as spellcasting foci! It’s not explicit in the PHB, but Eldritch Knight’s cannot use an Arcane Focus, meaning they have to use material components, even with their Bonded Weapon. Whereas a Knight Librarian merely has to be proficient with the weapon the are using, which as a Fighter is pretty much all of them, for it to be a focus. They do still need a hand free for Somatic components of spells, but with the Warcaster Feat taken in creation or at level 4, you suddenly have a Fighter that can wield sword and shield, two weapons or two-handed weapons and still cast, while the Eldritch Knight watches on with one hand sulkily rummaging through their bumbags (fanny packs for the Americans) full of potpourri!

Knight Librarian gain access to Ritual Casting and their own dedicated spell list containing many rituals and two unique and useful spells of their own, created @DragonbornDoug after discussion of the class with Way, among a smorgasbord of others. This new spell list draws from all casting classes to provide a wide range of spells representing the breadth, pursuit and defence of knowledge that are key to the Knight Librarian in a fun and varied manner.

The two unique spells from @DragonbornDoug are an interesting and awesome pair perfect for the Archetype. I will discuss them in full later.

Know Your Lore

At 7th level Knight Librarians gain the ability to draw on their vast knowledge and studies of ancient times to enter a meditative state to recall information and lore on a subject. There a specific check made, which can be augmented by the spending of Spell Slots, with a spectrum of nothing pertinent coming to you, all the way to being an expert on the subject in question, “knowing one particular pieces of information that has bee lost to the ravages of time.” I absolutely love this ability and can see so much fun being had with information being passed between the DM, the KL and the rest go the party, with secret whispers if that’s how you play. The uncovering lost lore gives the DM scope to make things up, as well as discovering and/ or planting seeds for further adventures in the moment. Personally, I don’t think you can beat an ability that has a mechanical and/ or informational benefit that also encourages improvisation, roleplaying and the discovering of new bizarre and wonderful revelations.

This is one for DMs to be aware of and player’s to give their DMs the heads up, but with some understanding, flexibility and improvisation this truly open new approaches, ideas, seeds and possibly even future campaign inspiration from what the Knight Librarian manages to dredge up from their mind palaces.

Diligent Studies

At 10th level the Knight Librarian has been such a diligent reader, researcher and generally making grabby hands at any arcane book or magical writings that this gives them access to extra spells from an array of classes always to hand. This tome diving and scroll snuffling increases the number and allows swapping spells out at higher levels.

A Mind as Sharp as a Sword

At 18th level your brain is so filled with knowledge of magic punching and insults that would make a drag queen blush that you have the ability to attack with both steel and spell on your turn, which is freaking awesome and conjures some dramatic and exciting images of a blade sticking a towering troll in its rotten guts, while at the same moment tossing arcane fire up into its bellicose face!

Appendices

The Knight Librarian spells are laid out in full in class and alphabetical order with asterisks to mark additional spells from Xanathar’s Guide to Everything and two asterisks for the new spells.

The two unique spells from @DragonbornDoug are a thoughtful pair. Introspect allows for so time spent looking in the mirror reflecting on the previous 24 hours, keeping the higher result. This allows for some awesome Archimedes moments (I don’t suppose there’s anything stopping you from casting it in the bath), where a clues missed earlier in the day suddenly become more clear. I can definitely see this leading to some fun roleplay moments and ejaculations of, ‘aha!’ and ‘by Mystra I’ve got it!’ while the rest of the party wait to be filled in.

Absorb Knowledge on the other hand is more about leeching the knowledge and/ or magic by the way of touch. This instantly brings to mind the skill books in the Elder Scrolls games that are consumed when read and confer a bonus or knowledge of a spell or skill, as the book is reduced to ash in the process. It also has the added bonus of turning a Spellbook into a pile of Spell Scrolls that count as spells of the absorber’s class, with the caveat that they cannot be then copied into another book. Despite the caveat this is incredible and can turn a book store into the scene in the Matrix in which they download knowledge...albeit with a furious and dusty owner not so impressed that you suddenly know everything there is to know about the horticulture of athelas.

I think these spells add something new, useful and fitting the flavour of the Knight Librarian, despite one involving turning a book to ash. Books and libraries are only sacred for the information they contain, so once absorbed the Knight Librarian is preserving that knowledge within themselves. It’s also a handy way to save and hide information from those who would steal and/ or destroy it.

Scholar’s Tools

I shall touch on the Scholars tools with the special white gloves historians in TV and movies where to handle ancient tomes – In looking up the correct name for these gloves, I discovered they are another darn Hollywood lie! One article was very adamant that correctly washed and dried hands are for more safe and dextrous than gloves, which has very little to do with this review...but I’m confident it’s something the Knight Librarians would know.

The fascinating and well thought out tools include a whale bone folder – another thing I had to look up, with the intention of making an informed and immature joke, but ended up being rather interesting (and amusing to my childish mind). From Wikipedia (the most scholarly of works to reference), “A bone folder, bonefolder, or folding bone is a dull-edged hand tool used to fold and crease material in crafts such as bookbinding, cardmaking, origami.” I now desperately want an Knight Librarian who protects the knowledge of origami and spends many frustrating hours during downtime trying to teach their compatriots the art of paper folding with a bonefolder, explaining that after the 100th time bonefolder shouldn’t be funny. chortle

Silliness aside the “Scholar’s tools contain everything a character needs to maintain, preserve and investigate the texts and tomes of the ancient world.” This is presented in the expansive and genuinely useful manner of the detailed descriptions of tools in Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, and fills an appropriate niche relevant to more than just the Knight Librarian. The thought and presentation that has gone into this tool kit is so in keeping with the quality and style of those in XGTE, as to be indistinguishable. (I don’t know if I would make a good Knight Librarian as my Intelligence is so low, I spent a good five minutes wrestling with the spelling of indistinguishable, so far off that the internet couldn’t even help me for a while there).

Art

This supplement contains a stunning triptych from the incredibly talented @missalppy that Way saw on twitter and instantly knew she would be perfect for the job. And she is, creating three gorgeous images depicting an owl familiar holding a sword over an open Spellbook that appears to be then crest of the Knight Librarians, a Knight Librarian in the process of research and/ or drawing arcane knowledge from the books themselves rendered in @missalppy’s trademark Celestial stained glass style, which would work perfectly as exactly that in a library temple or Knight Librarian keep. Finally, there is a depiction of a Dwarf with shining sword and what appears to be a magical shield who I can easily imagine as a founding member or fabled hero of the Knight Librarians memorialised in glass, so the light of knowledge may forever pass through them to the apprentices studying below.

This is a seriously well put together Archetype and supplement presented in a beautiful and professional manner. A well thought out, flavour rich and mechanically sound Archetype that will certainly be a lot of fun to play, as well as brining some interesting things to the table for the DM and other plays too.

I reached out to Way asking for the inspiration and ideas around the Knight Librarian, which I have tried to work into the review, but the remarks in full are below:

“It was originally going to be a paladin subclass and it was something that I saw... I don’t remember but it was a post on [Twitter] that made me think, hey what if there were these order of knights that were dedicated to preserving lore/knowledge. And then it sort of expanded from there.”

“The spells were actually done by a friend of my @DragonbornDoug and were used with his permission. I shared a bit of what I was doing and he asked if I wanted to use them.”

“As for [Eldritch Knight] I do love that subclass but I feel like we needed more and I always hated the dumb jock/dumb fighter stereotype.”

“The tools came about because the more I was looking in the PHB I realized that things like calligrapher’s tools fit but they didn’t fit so I used the template in XGtE and created my own to fit my needs.”

“This is actually one of the very first subclasses I started designing and it went through sooooooooooo many revisions. And I had a lot of help translating my vision for what I wanted it to be into something tangible. Also I didn’t want to step on Matt Mercer’s Cobal Soul Monk cause they also were knowledge seekers or the knowledge cleric.”

“Also I really really love books”

I think these comments show the passion and thought that went into making this class, finding them a niche and not stepping on anyone’s toes. I belive Way has succeeded in her goals to make an Archetype that stands out on its own with its own lore and protection of lore.

...I’m already making one and I kinda want to call him Giles Wesley Winter...

Oh and I too love books!

Also available in a bundle with Way’s other two fantastic subclasses: https://www.dmsguild.com/product/291648/

This first part of The Once-Wicked Ones, a dark fantasy serial novella, has a deep, rich flavour steeped in the imagination of an author who knows the precise heft and aroma of each word; the blend and balance of detail and intrigue.

I have come away from listening to the perfectly produced and arresting audio book entranced and enchanted by the delicate and disarming trills of guitar and the deliberate dulcet intonation of Angela McCain that match the bittersweet cinnamon sticks and bergamot laced tea leaves of Warren’s words.

I had been meaning to listen for since picking this up on the release day, but tonight when sleep was not going to surrender easily and my chronic pain was raking its talons down my spine, was the perfect moment to listen to this. I took my glasses off, placed my headphones on, shut my eyes and was transported to somewhere so tangible and familiar yet so intoxicating and wondrous, where magic and meaning drifted lazily from sweet incense, entwined with the sweeter steam from a copper kettle. I was truly taken away from everything mundane by this first part of a tale I absolutely need to witness unfold.

Every element is heady and aromatic with patterns, names and orders of power that seem to sit of the precipice of great change. I will remain taught as the meniscus on a scolding tea waiting for the following parts of this story to cool enough to drink.

The entire presentation of the PDF and production of the audio book are fantastic, and this truly is a story and world I have bought thoroughly into.

I cannot thank Warren enough for this tea break from the discomfort of mundanity and I truly cannot wait to hear more of take.

It somehow seems a crime that something some wonderful and professionally produced should be on offer at such a low price.

This is an epic collection of monstrous races for all manner of characters, NPCs and BBEGs you could want, including many original races and a number of well thought of conversions of existing creatures. Among them Imps stand out as having a great deal of potential to be a lot of fun, especially in a Descent Into Avernus campaign!

This supplement contains 29 races over 27 pages for $3.99, which is less than 14 cents a race!

The supplement opens with a great number of art references, which are put to incredible and effective use throughout this supplement and thoughtful Special Thanks section. The quality of the design work throughout is really something.

Each race comes with its own rich, evocative lore, in a similar manner to the Monster Manual, with existing creatures given a wonderful rewriting/ paraphrasing and the many original races being provided their own insightful origins and overview.

Christensen has gone to great lengths to incorporate the key aspects of the creatures that have been converted, whilst not making them overpowered, which they manage deftly, as well as adding their own interpretations here and there. Where these changes have been made they have been clearly thought out, as with the Flesh Golem needing to be imbued with more intelligence to make them a sapient race, opposed to a single-minded construct.

There are too many to go through in detail, so I will mention each race, go into more detail on those that catch my attention:

Allip - I've always loved the magically warped creatures like the Allip and the Nothic. This is an accurate translation of the creature to and now I have a mighty need to play Wizard that failed in their endeavours to become a Lich that spends their unlife to seek out all secret knowledge to reverse the transformation or finally gain Lichdom.

Arachne – Spider-folk of the Underdark, but nice. Somehow less terrifying than a Drider by having less Drow and more spider. Can be a tiny spider too!

Bat-Folk - There friendly, tree living, curious folk all shade the ability to release a deafening shriek, while also coming in two different flavours. Fruit Bats are absolutely adorable and Vampire Bats have a real nose for detecting creatures with blood...so there's some variation in cuteness.

Beheld - The humanoid creations of Beholders as there spies and infiltrators with a single randomised eye-ray. Such an awesome idea! I really need add some of these as NPCs to my games!

Deep Scion - This is another dutiful conversion that removes the shapechanger ability so that on land they take human form and in water they take their piscine form, while maintaining the amphibious and psychic screech.

Flesh Golem - The creature has a whole lot going on, which has been paired back for balance, leaving elevated strength and advantage against poisons. Also, as sapient beings the Flesh Golem race have a boost to intelligence "reflecting their creator’s imagination and capacity for invention", rather than the shambling, berserk creatures.

Ghost - One of Christensen's original races for one of their players in their first campaigns DMing, the Ghost as a race looses some abilities for the sake of balance, but being able to treat solid objects and creatures as of they were difficult terrain is awesome!

Hagdottir - One of Christensen favourite created races, the Hagdottir are a Half-Hag race created when a something goes awry on the perfectly natural processes of Hag reproduction. Perhaps the ingested baby causes indigestion or the moon wasn't waxing full gibbous during the birthing period, but the Hagdottir are a little more human than their fey aunties, but they still have the ability to give themselves the terrifying Hag visage.

Harpy - These cursed creatures have been converted with care, with the Luring Song being translated into a proficiency and innate spellcasting, which improves at higher levels. This Is another great example of how Christensen takes an overpowered creature ability, slightly tweaking it for balance.

Ignari - This original race are the descendants of Christensen's God of Emotion, Hallen, and are born into humanoid families much like Aasimar. These six-armed beings are in tune with the feelings of those around them and greet each other as kindred. The Ignari have possibly my favourite line from this whole supplement, "Well known are their infamous handshakes, which can carry on far longer than one might think necessary or possible."

Imp - Another high quality conversion staying very true to the creature in many ways, though losing the Invisibility and sting for balance. Once kitted out with weapons and armed with spells, the full Imp experience isn't hard to achieve. I think this is a race that could be a hell...of a lot of fun in an Avernus game!

Illithid - This Mind Flayer conversion was created as a part of Christensen's second campaign and stays very true to everyone's favourite aberration (sorry Beholders and Beheld) with a great reworking of Devour Brain and Mind Blast that levels along with the character.

Living Armour - Created as part of Christensen's first campaign, the living armour takes inspiration from Animated Armour, but whereas the latter are mindless constructs, Living Armour have a soul bound to them giving them their own mind and personality. This race comes in Light, Medium and Heavy with their own additional traits.

Lycanthropes - The lycanthropic races, Werewolf, Wererat, Werebear and Weretiger (though sadly no Wereraven, maybe next volume?) all share the ability to transform into their bestial forms (at will or on a full moon) with the benefits they entail, while also risking loosing themselves to their bestial nature, which handles the question of alignment and savagery nicely. The different forms of Lycanthropes have their own traits, reflecting their animal nature.

Myconid - With so many races in this supplement, there is not mushroom for these fungis...Another great conversion with the loss of Rapport Spores, leaving them a mute race, which "most simply take it in stride when dealing with creatures of flesh and blood" and will definitely make roleplaying one an interesting experience. Personally, if I were DMing a game with this race, I would probably allow the addition of Rapport Spores if a player wanted the ability to communicate more easily.

Ogrillion - An original take on the Half-Ogre, expanding on their very simple ability set in the Monster Manual, incorporating elements of the Goliath to create a unique race of strength and intimidating savagery.

Pseudo-Mimic - This terrifying and sad race are the evolved for of Mimics that take a humanoid form with a mind more robust than simply hiding and eating, and some heavy lore. "Sometimes they evolves a little further. They think, they grow lonely, they stretch the limits of their shape-shifting. And sometimes, they get the hang of something “sort of” humanoid, with the vocal cords and all." And now I'm sad and want to take one of these on happy adventures!

Salithi - These chitinous scorpion-folk are the children of Christensen's Goddess of Greed that pack a mean sting and have harnessed their natural avarice to enhance their abilities.

Siren - Inspired by myth, these are the amphibious and alluring cousins of the Harpy with an enthralling song.

Skeleton - One of Christensen's creations for their second campaign, Skeletons have some fantastic flavourful abilities with hilarious names. These include using one your bones as proficient weapon and collapsing into a pile of bones when dropping to 0 HP.

Slime-Folk - These adorable ooze people instantly found a special place in my heart. "Generally shy and benevolent, the luckiest travellers are those who stumble across these oozes in a time of need" With the ability to become amorphous, this is the race for you if you want to relive the awesomeness of Alex Mack from your childhood.

Stone-Cursed - These living statues are "victims of powerful magic, a curse, or even the touch of an angered god." There are benefits to being stone, rather than living flesh, and gorgon-like ability to petrify their enemies.

Succubi - Another creation for Christensen's second campaign "infamous for their deadly lovemaking and haunting beauty", which is a hell of a thing to have on their dating profile! Succubi are another great, if more adult, conversion of the creature. As a race they take the first draining base ability of the creature to "...ahem, procreating with a humanoid", which is something you may want to consider if it's too much for your players.

Sword Wraith - These "perpetually glory-seeking spirits of great warriors, sword wraiths live again to defend their old honor, and shudder at the thought of being forgotten" are an undead race of consummate skills with blades. Their talents include being able to summon their chosen blade.

Troll - Another quality conversion that balances the regenerative nature of Trolls with their vulnerabilities.

Vampire Spawn - This may be the only one that falls a little flat for me. Vampire Spawn are certainly a powerful creature that needs balancing to be a race, but the vulnerabilities and necessities seem to outweigh the awesome Deadly Bite grapple that can be maintained.

Wispling - These are one of Christensen's favourites and I concur. I love this ephemeral and melancholy Will o' whisp race, "created from a soul which died in agony...doomed to lead other to a similar fate..." So much sadness, but they still light up the room, although they can also be a real drain...

Yochlol - These devil's beholden to Loth are melty, waxy, oozy fiends able to change into Drow or Giant Spider for. There is so much fun to had with these, especially if the ruse can be maintained.

Zombie - "While normally a grunting flesh eating shell, some zombies retain part of their former personality and memories." These are a more mindful zombie with the classic movie infectious bite reminding me of Randall from Ugly Americans.

I am absolutely blown away by this supplement and I now have so many ideas of characters I want to plays with these races. This is an incredible supplement!

I reached out to Christensen to ask about their inspiration for this collection. I have incorporated elements of it into my review, but here is their response in full:

"My very first experience DMing was kind of a dive headfirst in a homebrew setting and a full on campaign, which was terrifying, but also where the idea came from. I wanted to make a campaign with really open creation rules, because I enjoy playing as weird shit frankly. So Malice's Motley Monsters was the premise for that campaign, a guild helmed by a tiefling named Malice. His guild was a monster safehaven, where they could live and also make money doing odd jobs. In order to "do" that campaign, I needed a bunch of monster races available for my PCs, so the original party became a living armor, a regular dwarf monk, a changeling, and a ghost. And then I kept expanding on the premise.

I'd have trouble picking an exact favorite, but Hagdottir and Wispling are probably my two favorites.

I ran another instance of this campaign earlier this year with a succubi, illithid, a skeleton, and a bunch of tieflings. It was a good time.

Some of the fully custom monsters are based directly on gods from my homebrew pantheon for fun, as opposed to being aasimars/warlocks/clerics of said gods."

Christensen also mentioned they are working on a second volume in the works coming soon, which I can't wait to see!

This new subclass from Brittney Hay (@FNDungeonMom), a pillar of the online D&D community, is an awesome take on an elemental subclass with the emphasis on infusing the Druid's Wild Shape with primordial power. This supplement distinguishes itself, standing tall over the sea element-based subclasses due to its quality, originality and flexibility. Rather than being another Shyamalan take on element-bending, this is a unique and beastly take on a Druid Circle. Rather than Avatar, in some ways the Druid themselves become their own Wild Shape Pokemon, which evolve as you level up. And if Pokemon isn't your thing, how does becoming an earthquake causing bear made of rock sound!?

The first thing you see with this subclass is the absolutely sensational cover art by David Barrentine (@DavidBarrentine) depicting a Circle of the Elementals Druid harnessing their power, flanked by wonderful representations of the Elemental Aura infused Wild Shapes. This quality artwork sets the beautifully flavored tone of this supplement. Barrentine is also responsible for the evocative subclass description and a joyous illustration of Goblin Druid Controlling Water inside.

Bonus Spells

Taking this Circle at 2nd level opens up the opportunity to learn an additional element-based Cantrip from a list not normally open to Druids, providing greater utility and damage, as they "tap into the magic that flows forth from [the Elemental] planes, connecting them with something more primal and powerful than anything found on the material plane." This really gives the Elemental Druid the opportunity to have more magical damage to hand compared to the single offensive Cantrip on the base Druid Spell List.

Primordial Speaker

This grants an in depth knowledge of the Primordial language as the magic drawn from the planes opens the Elemental Druid's mind, enabling them to converse with their potential Elemental allies, as well as being particularly handy if they are invited a Dawn Titan coffee morning. But seriously, this is nice flavor that will only come in handy in certain situations, but when it does it will be their time to shine.

Elemental Fury

This is where this Circle really starts to set itself apart and establish its core...element. At 2nd level the Druid's "beastial fury is infused with the power of the Elements" enabling them to choose an element when using Wild Shape, which allows them to cast the first level spell assigned to the element once while in Wild Shape. Again, these are predominantly not from the base Druid Spell List and allow more offence and damage than usually available. This is all the more awesome as Druids in Wild Shape are not able to cast spells and the image of spells launching from the maws and claws of beasties is freaking epic! Even better, at higher levels where applicable these spells can be cast at higher levels, providing the appropriate Spell Slot is available.

Elemental Spells

In the same way Circle of the Land Druid have a mystical connection to their chosen terrain, Elemental Druids draw magic from the Elemental Planes. These spells are added at the usual 3rd, 5th, 7th and 9th levels. These Elemental Spells really open up a whole heap of potential damage dealing and manipulating the elements.

Elemental Soul

At level six Elemental Druids become so connected to the Elemental Planes that they flow through their entire being, bringing with them resistances and additional bonuses depending on which element the Druid focuses on from day to day. This is hugely exciting as the bonuses and resistances are all awesome, but also rather situation specific, so the Druid with a decent calendar can plan ahead which element they attune to while seeing to their morning ablutions.

Elemental Aura

At 10th level the Elemental infusion of the Druid's Wild Shape increases, corresponding to and stacking with Elemental Fury. These grant even greater bonuses, spells and/ or advantages aligned with then chosen element for the Wild Shape. I believe these are what are represented on the sensational cover art by Barrentine. This is what the Circle of the Elemental is all about; becoming a seriously powerful elementally supercharged beast and I am here for it!

Improved Wild Shape

At level 10 and 14 the maximum CR of the Beasts the Elemental Druid can become improves. Not as much as the Circle of the Moon Druids, but bigger, scarier, more teeth is their whole thing. However, it is an improvement on the baseline for the majority Druids, which is awesome and fits the emphasis on the augmented Wild Shapes of this Circle perfectly.

Elemental Guardian

At 14th level "the elements protect you when you are the most vulnerable." When the going gets tough and things look bad and Elemental guardian is sent to watch your back once per long rest. This is a somewhat bizarre, but completely awesome ability that shows at this level not only do you have the ability harness great power from the Elemental Planes, the Planes themselves are watching over you.

These Druids are not so much the rolling around with in the field with beasts or tending the land, they themselves are beasts of another kind, and rather than being in harmony with nature, the primordial forces of the elements flow through them, granting access to destructive powers and the ability manipulate their elements. The new options on top of the standard Druid spells and abilities make the Elemental Druids a seriously portent and versatile party member, able to hold their own against more traditionally offensive classes.

This is one seriously awesome subclass with style, flare and substance for the incredibly low price $1.99. I have absolutely fallen in love with this Druid Circle and if I'm not mistaken rolls dice yeah I'm definitely in the process of rolling up a Elemental Druid character. I want to be a big, rocky earthquake bear of awesomeness!

Well hello! This Supplement comes right out of the gate with one of the most beautiful and evocative covers I have ever seen! “A fearless magical warrior charges a monstrous demon atop their flying steed in this beautiful image, painted by Bob Greyvenstein.” This really kicks things of and conveys the heart of this collection of adventures; hunting down Infernal naughties and giving them the proverbial, and most likely literal, spanking they deserve. Now will your players be as white as this knight who clearly uses Daz as a component when casting Prestidigitation? Probably not, but there’s more than enough fun ahead for folks who get down in the dirt and the most pious Paladin to come together, hunt and kick some bad booty and get paid!

The About This Product section inside the cover makes clear that these hunts can easily be dropped into any game, session or Avernus campaign in need of a one shot bounty or break from the main thrust of your story, bringing the new fiends to the field and creating a questline incorporating them. “Monster Hunts: Avernus offers a way to integrate each fiendish foe found in Baldur’s Gate: Descent Into Avernus into your conventional D&D games, be them fantasy rich epics, city focused adventures, or a homebrew campaign of your own design.”

Chapter 1: How To Use This Book

The opening chapter is dedicated to breaking down what a Hunt is and what they consist of, namely short bounty quests beginning with generally vague bounty, rumour, plot hook or seed presented as a bounty board scroll, leading to further steps explained after the Hunt layout. Hunts are set out with title, brief summary, recommended party level (APL), party size the Hunt is balanced for, difficulty with parentheses for party size, and quest creature.

The Hunts themselves play out in four scenes detailed as stages: 1. Meeting the NPCs and gathering information 2. Exploration, the game is afoot! It’s time to investigate and put skills to use. 3. The Hunt, the game is on! It’s time to face off with the quarry, with its tactics and a map for the encounter provided. 4. Conclusion, the conquering heroes are rewarded or get to a-looting! This section also covers NPC traits and places of interest in the Hunt. This is simple and elegant formula for creating all manner Hunts and short quests furiously makes notes for my own games, as well as providing all the information a DM needs at a relative glance.

There are too many Hunts to go into great detail so I shall give little overview of each one and expand on elements I find the most compelling, before discussing the supplement as a whole:

Tier 1

1. Herding cats...well more like catching cats. Okay, one cat, but it’s a sneaky flying feline that leads the party on a wild cat chase all over town!
2. A classic cattle mutilation mystery with a pestilent twist, an opportunity to ingratiate yourself with the locals by getting them inebriated, and the chance acquire unique hide armour.
3. A call to a grizzled bounty hunter in a Wild West town to deal with a faceless outlaw out in the wilds who refuses to stay dead.
4. There’s gastropods in my kitchen, what am I gonna do? With a cursed cookbook and an Escargatoire of monstrous molluscs, it’ll take more than a mop to clean up this mess.
5. Help rid a mine of wretched things leftover after a cult’s ritual went abyssally wrong.
6. Join forces with a sad giant whose status has been brought low by a foul creature with an insatiable appetite. Team work, quick thinking and doing your best not to get eaten or squished are the keys to success.

Tier 2

1. A Whacky Races destruction derby against an infernal engine terrorising a town. The party are provided new and very cool magically powered vehicle, which is put to the rest with racing rules and complications included.
2. Rescue the blacksmith’s daughter from a fiend and a clan of Kobolds under its sway holed up in a tower with a couple of new and fancy elemental firearms.
3. A nice, calm midwinter festival with food, drink, a play...and lots of little evil ambushing jerks! Highlights include flaming lanterns being thrown from trees, burning kegs rolling towards the banquet and a contingent of party crashers enjoying the play so much they are willing to reward any fluffed lines with their blades. Also, the look of your players faced when they hear, “the real reward was the friends we made along the way.” Have no fear as there’s a surprising good use for the party crashers’ burnt hair...
4. A simple ‘theirs something sewers’ quest...that turns out there’s a planar rift connecting the Abyss’ and the town’s plumbing with the River Styx flowing out and something huge that makes “cackling grunts and gargling chuckles” (poetry) splashing around that vomits up foul friends. Truly wonderfully horrible with the opportunity to craft some unique and rather amusing potions.
5. A thinly-veiled allegory for a certain fast food fried fowl company and their abyssal views, which sees the party tasked with collecting the humble MVP (Most Valuable Poultry) of Descent Into Avernus and stuffing them in a Bag of Holding to help a business with better values. This stands out as one of my favourite Hunts with the sheer amounts of ridiculous fun and mayhem contained within, as well as the quality of the detail of the random things left in the Bag of Holding and another super useful, ridiculous and apt charm that can be made from the leftovers. I really want to know what they taste like...
6. A sad tale of slain paladins and dark deal struck to save a town with the chance to gain a priestly retainer.
7. Take a fort back from a big infernal fleshy and its stinky little friends without destroying the place. With the right knowledge and time the rancid guts of the golem can be crafted into a strong charm that probably necessitates the wearing of lots of cologne and Prestidigitation.

Tier 3

1. Sneak behind enemy lines to assassinate an infernal general, while an order of paladins fight an all out war with a horde of devils, or take things head on with a great deal of hellish warriors between you and your goal. I have a great fondness for quests that take place against the backdrop of a much larger conflict. This and the enemies you will potentially face only serve to ratchet up the tension and put the fear of Asmodeus into the players.
2. A quick and simple job to smash up some equipment...only it’s popping into Avernus and smashing up a big bad guy’s precious work for a rather surprising employer. A true test of stealth, cunning and smashing things.
3. Can you capture the most devilish of wasps for a shuckster gnome’s travelling infernal zoo and rescue a family in the process or will you become food for he hive? Glorious detail about an ‘Imp’ who refuses to “break character” and awesome limited use magic weapons that can be harvested.
4. An avatar of a demon lord roams the labyrinthine aqueducts beneath a city and the only way to stop them is to destroy their cultist’s profane altars...before it finds you. A truly terrifying game of hide and go smash or get squished, which reflects the sorry state of politics today.
5. Look out! Look out! Gold elephant on parade. Drunk Half-Orc hippoty hoppoty. They’re here and there Spined Devils everywhere. Look out! Look out!
6. It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a minotaur in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a labyrinth...and an army of devils! Take out a BBEG (Big Bull Evil Guy) in a fascinating and deadly labyrinth with a pair of supernatural investigators.
7. This A-maze-ing Hunt involves doing a favour for an Eladrin with a bizarre relationship with a Devil in return for a Fey-vour. From a Noble’s garden maze to “vast library coated in pulsating flesh” and ice caves in stygia, this quest has many different options for how to go about things, with the opportunity for the brave and cunning to end up a Fey-vour and a Devil-vour...In-favour-nal?

Treat 4

1. A suave Demon Lord hires you to take out a hit on another giant Demon Lord in the name of embarrassment. However, there’s need a Lord of the Rings montage of three weeks travelling through the mountains and the snow, with encounter suggestions, to either observe, attack or convince a cabal of Frost Giants to summon their fiendish lord. However you slice it there’s a whole lotta giant going on.
2. A father seeks revenge for his lost son and a trophy to hang in his feast Hall. Creating a portal with a nifty puzzle including some great unique magic items, the party step out to face the living angry Pride flag, the Undying Queen, in her own backyard! The trophy is her white head. The party face the choice to slash and grab or to try to take the Dark Lady down, earning the attention of the Platinum Dragon.
3. Save a BBEG from becoming Bahamut Blasted Eviscerated Gloop for the greater good...IT’S A TRAP! Ambushed by a terrible trio the gullible PCs either get sacrificed or end up with veritable bounty of magical goodies. There’s a moment when the party are greeted by skeletons that chatter and grind their teeth to announce their arrival and all I could think of was that creepily unnerving sound skeletons made in Oblivion!
4. There’s only one way this collection of Hunts was going to end and the Archduchess does mot disappoint. Her wrath has brought plagues up a city, in response to a cult of Bane. There are four choices. 1. Run away screaming and/ or die. 2. Take the fight to fallen angel. 3. Lay the heads of the Cultists at her feet. 4. Double cross the Infernal Angel and team up with the Cultists. However, things shake out, 1. Aside, there’s always a chance of being tempted with a tantalising work opportunity...

What an incredible array of adventures!

The size and scope of the adventures, using the always awesome cartography by dysonlogos (@dysonlogos), ranges from intimate encounters, to travelling to the Hells and the Abyss, and full city-wide chaos. The maps reflect this perfectly and the different scales can be worked into tour games to maintain or change the scale as needed. Speaking about scale, there’s also no reason the lower tiered Hunts couldn’t be scaled up to be a test for mightier parties.

There’s just so much packed into this that it has me feeling inspired to pull threads and expand NPCs and questlines into larger adventures and campaigns, which goes to show that these are great pick up and play Hunts, but so well crafted they worm their way into your imagination and make you want to explore their aspects in greater detail. I certainly know I did:

The information PCs can learn from NPCs and asking around is full of flavour and character, which often has varying levels of things that be gleaned. The personality details about notable NPCs might not necessarily be extensive, but each one feels unique with elements of their personality that stand out. These NPCs and their interactions could very well cause the players to become fascinated with the locals and interviews that these scenes could be fleshed out further in game with buying drinks for locals turning into a night of heavy drinking, a hoedown or even a hootenanny, a strange noble seemingly testing the party asks many interesting questions to build upon, there is a Paladin order that appear in a couple of Hunts that provide enough information to add this faction to your setting with potential for many for quests and complications. What is the history of Gimble’s “Traveling Zoo of the Infernal” and how did the ‘Imp’ come to be apart of it and such a dedicated thespian? The brilliant and varied cast not only serve as quest or information givers, and companions, they have enough life in them to play about and expand upon, following those you and your players’ find most intriguing.

The Hunts set up a situation, but there are so many possibilities as to how the creatures came to be around or what their intentions are. Why is the fiend commanding Kobolds to have weapons made? What happens if the party suffer a TPK and are resurrected in Avernus to answer for your trespassing and how the hell are they going to get out!? There are so many little details about the creatures hunted and those effected by the Hunt itself that again, it just has me wanting to expand upon and build. I want to know the Frost Giant Cabal and their exploits. What Beasts of the mountain and frozen Elementals lay in wait in their lair that now exists in my mind?

Rewards themselves provide the standard pay and some awesome unique items imbuing them with properties of the hunted quarry, as well as roleplay items that serve as hooks, seeds and inspiration for further adventures, including a signet ring that will get the party in to all the fanciest of functions in the surrounding area, being gifted land and the opportunity to help rebuild a town that could become a home base with all sorts of opportunities for further adventures,
Wonderful arrays of harvested items, weapons and armour from devilish floaty capes, all manner of unsanitary but helpful charms, paralysing stinger blades to demonic masks of seeing and telepathy. All these goodies have an effect on the party and how they play and fit into the world, if that’s what you want, or they can just take the reward money, items and breeze on to the next bounty or wherever they fit into your game.

Failing a Hunt can also provide further seeds as a grieving father abandons his business to fight dragonkin (probably needing rescue or being found dead later on), certain factions can be adversely effected by the parties action, which could lead to legal proceedings, chance encounters or making enemies who can appear out of the blue when the players least expect it. If succeeding in Hunts raises they party’s status, failing them would have the opposite effect and all the ramifications that come along with defeat.

With a little safety pins and sticky tape these various Hunts could be strung together into a Fiend bounty hunting campaign or one based around the Paladin Order of the Seraph that appear in coupe of the adventures. They can be played as one shots or dropped into any game with a fiendish flavour. What I’m saying is they are, in the words of Captain Birdseye, “Waffley versatile”.

The appendices have all the weapons, armour and crafted found in the Hunts laied out in alphabetical order. These are followed by the unique statblocks for a couple of the NPCs that may accompany the party on their respective Hunts, and the unique magically powered vehicle seen in the Mad Max-esque Hunt. Finally, Hunt Tables are provided, divided Into Tiers so they can be rolled up randomly: T1:D6 T2:D8 T3:D6 T4:D4.

Also, supplied is a zip file containing the print friendly version of the supplement and all the maps as individual image files.

This is one of the most enjoyable supplements I’ve had the pleasure of reviewing, the interior design with its gilded frame by The Knotty-Works (@KnottyWorks) is impressive. Jimmy Meritt (@Jimmymeritt) and Vall Syrene (@valldoesdnd) have created an absolute doozy of a collection of quests with so much potential for more or easily played as they are. This is 60 pages of epicness worth far more than $9.95.

Just one of my quick bundle review to say that this is absolutely packed to the warty nose with awesome stuff for a ridiculous price!

Class, serious, epic and spooky adventures and ridiculous and silly adventures plus the incredible Hags Cookbook.

Just so much awesomeness!

In the spirit of full disclosure I was provided a review copy of this supplement for a full and honest review.

Aries Christensen (@Aries_AlyssaGD) dives straight into the magic items Magelin’s Magical Merchandise consists of, not wasting space and cramming a collection 60 enchanting wares into this supplement’s 11 jam-packed pages for an absolute pittance at $1.99. That’s barely more than 3 cents an item!

The layout and design strongly echo the section of the Dungeon Master’s Guide and the many varied items are laid out professionally. The use of art throughout the supplement is wonderful with Christensen combing many sources for appropriate art to accompany and signify a significant number of the items, again evoking the DMG.

The items themselves range from the sublime to the ridiculous, with many stops on the way at useful, awesome and extremely amusing. All of items have interesting concepts, flavour and/or inspiration behind them, which make them feel more alive and unique than a dry list of +X with Y type of damage, although the Tempered Iron Weapons have you covered if that’s what you’re after. This collection ranges from Common to Very Rare, so there are goodies for all the levels.

Due to their being so many items, I have picked out a bunch that stood out to me to take a bit of a closer look at, but I have strange tastes, so remember there are many more that are more useful and stabby.

The first of the magical merchandise is the Annoying Hat, a steampunk top hat with “The spirit of a talented gnomish wizard named Grumbles [living] inside this hat”. This spirit can give aid in arcane matters, but also has a tendency to lecture and rant. How can you not love a haunted headpiece!? Stylish, useful and filled to the brim with fun roleplaying opportunities.

Bag of Infinite Oranges, Uncommon Wondrous delight that does exactly what is says on the tin, allowing the owner to roll lots of dice and fill a space with oranges. The party will never suffer from scurvy again! I can also see some world breaking and definitely economy destroying ramifications from this bag falling into the wrong hands, which gives me flashbacks to the Skyrim videos of folx dropping collosal amounts of cabbages, but otherwise it’s just juicy fun and rather a-peeling.

Cape of Divine Music, Uncommon garment that provides appropriate musical accomplishment to heroic deeds and generally look so cool you just ooze charisma. In many ways this is the cooler older sibling to the Cloak of Billowing that lends you their CDs to make your own mixtapes...

(This makes me so old...Right back the review!)

Fancy Lingerie, Uncommon undergarments that give the wearer “Advantage on errr… performance checks”. Magic panties, briefs, bloomers, boxers and thongs! MAGIC PANTS! (UK) I can this being something Vargis (@twittysuch) on Tales from the Mist (@MistTalesDnD) would snatch if he had the chance!

Fine Mustache, Uncommon fake mustache of exceptional quality that proves that the mustache maketh the person and all top lip facial hair, the toothbrush/ Hitler mustache excluded, make a person all the more alluring and charismatic. See: Tom Selleck, the eponymous Bob of Bob’s Burgers and Burt Reynolds. However, this mustache, as fine as its is, just happens to be cursed with the chance for it to fall off at inappropriate times. Fashion is dangerous, death save young and leave beautiful facial hair.

Glass Dragon, Very Rare new and improved Figurine of Wondrous Power, which can became a real pseudodragon with added fire power once a long period of Attunement has passed. This is such a wonderful thing to find, keep and then have a PC suddenly realise they have their own pet/ familiar. I truly see the potential for an epic moment of surprise and joy at the table when it takes physical form. I love the line of flavour, “it has a tendency to move from place to place while your back is turned” while in its crystalline form, which a DM could have a lot of fun with.

Hat of the Wild West, Rare Stetson that essentially turns you into Travis Billingham (Critical Role), a charismatic and rugged (oh so rugged...) outlaw with a great Southern accent. This is magical headgear that makes the wearer feel like a rugged outlaw, whether they are or not, and compels them to speak in Southern (US) accent. Also, the hat cannot be removed except by magical means. These are described as a curse, but quite frankly I see that as added bonuses and I can see some fun and silly roleplay moments.

Kitty Got Claws, Uncommon magical brass knuckles that snikt! These are perfect to live out your Wolverine fantasies and are just a really cool set of magical weapon with a great deal of style.

Maios’s Crown of the Maiden, Rare crown gives the wearer an youthful, harmless and innocent appearance (within reason), which has so much potential for disguise, espionage and hilarious antics.

Porta-Piano, Uncommon floating keyboard that follows the attuned character and rolls up like a scroll for the busy bard on the go. And now I really want to roll up a bard based on Gene from Bob’s Burgers!

Rusty Lamp, Common voice activated lamp with the default setting being yelling “wake up” at it. Perfect for night time strolls and getting the party up after a late night of carousing.

Seno’s Monocle, Uncommon eyeglass of monlologuing, mansplaining and making yourself feel like the smartest person in then room with the advantage to prove it. Both useful and potential to lead to some really amusing and hopefully funny annoying roleplaying opportunities

Spider Necklace, Very Rare Cursed arachnid chain that looks creepy cool... but slowly turns the wearer into a Drider. Fashion is all about taking chances.

Tiny White Flag of Cowardice, Uncommon vexillological wonder with ability to make enemies chill out, giving the wielder an opportunity to chat, escape or take advantage of the sudden lack of hostility.

These items have the kind of flavour and individuality that makes it easy to use them as seeds for lore and adventures. Rumours tell of an ancient artefact in which an immensely powerful Wizard used to keep her secrets in to keep them safe. Tales tell of a Glass Dragon filled with arcane knowledge lost to the ages, though no-one has ever managed to crack its crystalline mysteries. They can be used to build NPCs. Who would own something like an Annoying Hat? Who is the spirit that resides within and are they a relative? Besides the aid and monologueing, what kind of relationship do the wearer and resident have?

Through messaging with the Christensen, I was made aware that “most of those magic items were compiled from all the shops for [their] first few campaigns”. This goes some way to explaining the wonderful flavour and a reminder for us all to keep track do the items we create because they could bring a lot of joy and amusement to others one, as this supplement clearly shows!

This is a seriously awesome hoard of goodies that looks great and comes at a incredible price. I cannot recommend it more strongly and will definitely be using these items in my games!

This Module Has Nothing to Do With Zak (previously Ezmerelda vs Ravenloft)

In the spirit of full disclosure I was gifted a copy of this adventure in what seemed to be a ‘I’m sorry you got pulled into a social media drama with me because you enjoyed my work and some jerk didn’t, so they accused us of being in a relationship’ present.

Just a reminder Oliver and I have a sassy passing acquaintance on twitter and my reviews are always open and honest, so there!

So I am rather late to the party on this, but I have just been so busy with requests and health stuff, though I have been really looking forward to diving into another one of Mr Clegg’s (@deathbybadger) ridiculous offerings. This truly is the apotheosis of Clegg; the setting is Ravenloft, the style is his Kartoon Khaos comic panels introduced in Killer Kobolds from Outer Space, the subtext is as subtle as Death House and as queer as the Babadook riding Tiamat in the Chromatic Dragon Pride Parade, and oh boy, after the fun the finale is as bleak and dark as the man’s soul. Peak Clegg.

(CW: Assault, Kidnapping, Stalking

So this began life as Ezmerelda Versus Ravenloft, which pushes glasses up I have a first edition pdf framed on my computer, but later became This Module Has Nothing to Do With Zak, after a fart company made a real boo boo furiously tries not to swear in case it makes the DMs Guild blush promoting their poopy product using the name of a Marmite jar filled with maggots and faeces, which was faux pas...that had absolutely nothing to do with how this title changed and was total random happenstance... However, the price did change from $4.99 to PWYW ($4.99) with “all author proceeds from this module will be donated to RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network)”, which is a pretty classy move that in no way makes up for what’s inside both versions.

They are both the same on the inside, with only the words on the front cover, and a certain hipster pride emanating from the former, while the latter is for charity, or whatever. (obviously the charity thing is awesome, but I’ve worded myself into a corner with a weird hipster tone, so forgive me).

In this version of Ravenloft Ezmerelda and Ireena are in love, but Strahd vardos-blocker-in-chief of Barovia has kidnapped the fair Ms Kolyana. Ezmerelda must fight to get her back through battling her seven evil exes with the aid of the only person she trusts Van Richten... Nope HERSELVES FROM OTHER REALITIES!

The pregenerated Ezmerelda characters consist of a wonderful collection of versions of the Vistani monster hunter drawing from cartoons, video games, movies, classes and general fun and inclusive tropes:

Play Princess Ezmerelda, and murder your way through to Ireena with your bow, Friendship Play Ezmerelda Enraged, and burn your enemies to cinders in glorious technicolour Play Robo-Ezemerelda, and terminate anyone unfortunate enough to stumble into your path with ironic prejudice Play Ezra, and run circles around everyone with your super speed and trusty weapon Stabby McStab Play Kombat Ezmerelda and delight in severing vital organs from each other Play Magical Girl Ezmerelda and destroy mankind without breaking a sweat (or your costume)

It turns out there were other iteration-eldas with Clegg releasing this unused Bear-merelda who is a huge chaotic neutral grizzly on his twitter the day I started writing this in some Dark Powers twist of fate: https://mobile.twitter.com/deathbybadger/status/1180517380784611328

The players choose their Ezmerelda/ Ezra sheet, which are all rendered in vivid arcade style with their bio, stats, spells, abilities and special abilities all shown as if they are clickable buttons. These sheets are ridiculous and wonderful in their sheer gaudyness in Clegg’s inimitable Kartoon Khaos style.

The game uses its own simplified version of the standard 5e rules with everything but the spell descriptions on the sheets and Ezmerelda’s being limited to casting one of their spells per encounter. Similar to Killer Kobolds... this is actually a quick and fun pick up and play version of D&D that can be used for quick and silly games, as well as a fantastic way to trick cool kids into playing this hip game, unaware it is a gateway into a life of homoeroticism and tabletop roleplaying games...

The adventure itself is optimised for four or five Ezmereldas as they play through the seven ex encounters one after the other in a Scott Pilgrim Vs the Word inspired gauntlet. Hoo boy, these are some problematic boyos, so “Content Warning: Abuse, Domestic Violence, Stalking, Men in General”. The Exes take the form of “monsters who exemplify the some of the very worst traits that man has to offer”, including White Knight, Nice Guy, Gavin... & the Baronvia of Barovia himself, multiple lifetimes worth of creepy and recent star* of Weekend at Strahd’s, amongst others. These guys really are the worst ranging from the annoying to the truly horrific – looking at you Gavin!

This is an opportunity from some fun, frolics and vent some frustration at some problematic excrement in a cartoon death match gauntlet of swords, spells and sticking it to the Strahd man. A game in a can with glorious, ridiculous and obscenely stylish comic book design. The whole thing is a delight and I cannot wait to take it for a spin!

Disclaimer: “[Oliver] is absolutely not qualified to write about lesbian romance but he hopes the opportunity to beat some misogynist senseless makes up for it.” I’m not sure where that leaves me and my qualifications to do my best at reviewing this beautiful hot mess of awesomeness, but what the hell grab yourself some great fun and raise money for charity!

(Seriously, the whole something bad happens and Oliver’s response is to make his most appropriate adventure PWYW with all proceeds he would have made going to a fantastic charity. That’s pretty pooping awesome, you know?)

This adventure supplement from the RPG Writer Workshop opens with an intriguing abstract that sees the adventurers hired to break up a sibling-run smuggling ring. The added complication being their employer is one of said siblings, the eponymous Marisa, planning to extricate her brother from the clutches of a devil masquerading as a Tiefling. More than enough wrinkles to make for an interesting adventure!

A heartfelt and important About section details the writer, Justin M. Cole (@Razzed251)'s past experience with TTRPGs, their 20 year hiatus and their love, bordering on obsession, with DMs Guild, "[they] started buying and downloading more and more, even though [they] will never get to use even a quarter of what [they] have bought!" (Looks at my own DMs Guild library I'm feeling really called out right now!) A truly wonderful and original aspect to the creation and population of this adventure is detailed here with Marisa's Blades being in Cole's words, "designed using elements drawn from other DM’s Guild creators, using their creatures and NPCs, their locations and items, and their ideas and back stories and drawing them together to enhance my own storyline ." This wish for collaboration and promotion of other creators and putting their wonders to good use is truly a wonderful spirit I have seen within the DMs Guild and the lovely core community of D&D, TTRPG and artist community on twitter, though I have yet to come across cross pollination in this manner before, though it is truly inspired; these tools, creatures and characters are out there for anyone to use at their table, so why not use them to populate or even build a story around them, as long as there is a clear line of communication and acceptance of the concept. It warms my heart to see the collaborative storytelling is never over with D&D and there is such love and support within these communities (that's not to say that there aren't bad eggs out there, but we're getting better at rooting them out).

I didn't realise until I read through this adventure, but Marisa's Blades are actually a gang that first appeared in Villains and Lairs by Jeff C. Stevens! It's incredible and such a wonderful thing to see creativity breed and grow in this manner. If you can write adventures about the Harpers, why not work with the created characters, organisations or what have you to build there stories!? Again, as long as permission and understanding have been attained.

I just want to make it clear that, whilst it would be awesome for you to pick up all the referenced supplements from which elements have been used, it is not essential for running this adventure. The assets and where they are from are all listed inside the cover and the statblocks and items are details in the appendices, but more on that later.

Background

Devilish cults and bizarre happenings are happening all over Faerun with Waterdavian noble families being implicated, small villages not being free of the insidious infernal taint and the populace grasping at any trinket that offers even the merest glimpse of protection. Marisa and her violent brother, Milo, fled Waterdeep, after he beat a noble to death at a young age, disgracing their father, a city watchman of modest regard. They have lived as mercenaries all along the Sword Coast, with others joining their cause under the banner of Marisa's Blades, but now Milo has battered his soul with a devil in Tiefling guise. Marisa will do anything to help her brother, even reaching out to their father in secret as their business brings them back to the City of Splendour. This definitely contains all the ingredients and detail that gets me excited and I couldn't wait to read on.

Chapter One

The first chapter opens with a truly thoughtful and inspirational quote from the 1986 sci-fi novel, Speaker for the Dead, which encapsulates the core conceit of the adventure, "No human being, when you understand his desires, is worthless..." I always enjoy a positive message and an author able to distill and present the core concept of their writing in such a concise manner.

A trio of adventure hooks are presented with the first linking the adventure to previous connections made during the events of Dragon Heist. The second sees an auspicious meeting on the streets of Waterdeep or possibly within the famous Trollskull Tavern hiring the party to deal with the smugglers, amid talks of cults and devils. Finally, the third hook truly tugs at the heartstrings as Marisa and Milo's father reaches out to the party to help find his daughter and carry his forgiveness to his son, offering his entire pension! These are a lovely trio of ways in that work perfectly with Dragon Heist, can easily be worked into any city setting, and with the recent release of Baldur's Gate: Avernus, this could either serve as a prelude to the infernal action in the south or alternatively this adventure could be alongside the campaign shifting the setting to the Gray Harbour.

Investigating The Hungry Duck

This section begins with the options of adding to some diversions en route to the Dockward tavern. To this end, Waterdeep: Urban Encounters with its tailored encounters is suggested, along with Volo's Waterdeep Enchiridion to expand your player's and your own intimate detail of Waterdeep, it's customs and laws (and consequences for when the party inevitably break them). However, they are not needed for the events in the adventure, and you can use your own encounters, wing it, or simply have the PCs arrive at tavern named after a malnourished mallard. The description of the place and the sudden pause upon entrance evokes old Westerns and are all too familiar with anyone who has ever blundered into a particularly 'local' pub. Here inquiries can be made, before a barroom brawl breaks out and the party finds themselves overwhelmed and taken prisoner by the Blades. Cole provides a number of options regarding how to handle the fight and capture, asking the DM to gauge their group and how they are to respond, providing a clue in a message as to what is to come, as well as providing a non-violent stealthy option. This is one of those difficult situations that really depend on the players, personally I'm fine with surrendering/ being taken down by overwhelming odds if it is in service to the story (or brought down upon me by my own actions), but others don't always feel this way. It's about trust and understanding between the DM and players. Although, not quite the same, I remember freaking out and fighting waves and waves of guards in Markarth in Skyrim in a quest in which you are set up and need to be arrested to further the story. I didn't find this telegraphed and fought frustratingly and reloaded a number of times, so be sure to have an understanding and let them have some cool narrative moments with the suggested checks if they succeed (an epic fight description with the players describing actions will more than make up the fact the scene is 'unwinnable'), but be prepared to be open about the game continuing and that capture does not mean defeat.

The map Cole suggests using is included in The Mottled Donkey, which is PWYW and has a lovely separate document with various versions of the map for printing (and a great urban outing searching for a missing statue of an ass in Baldur's Gate - further showing how the cities can be swapped out and an adventure you can always tie to or follow this with), though Cole adds that any inn or tavern map would work. Depending on your game and how you are handling the taproom takedown, playing out the scene using theatre of the mind could be very effective.

Chapter 2

The party find themselves in a holding cell and has there first brief meeting with the eponymous Marisa, as she tasks them with a puzzle to obtain their escape, before disappearing with a, "ta ta" like an absolute bad ass. This is definitely a contender for best introduction of an NPC in an adventure and adds further mystery to the strange predicament the PCs find themselves in. The puzzle provided is a ten digit code with clues hidden around the cell. I have to say that these kind of puzzles are not my thing as my brain simply melts, but my partner positively loves them, so you may need to judge what's best for your party, but not to fear as Cole has a number of references for puzzles in Nerzugal's Dungeon Master's Toolkit 1 or 2 and, Puzzles, Predicaments, and Perplexities, as well as allowing for a way out to prevent itself if an hour in game passes because noone likes being stuck and getting puzzle burnout. While I don't love the provided puzzle, I do appreciate its challenge and the quality of the suggested supplements, which are predominantly pay what you want on DMs Guild.

Once access has been gained (or granted by a merciful DM), the party find their gear, before face a new type of ooze, the Monstrous Ochre Jelly from the Monster Manual Expanded (statblock in the appendices). I love coming across new creatures or familiar ones DMs or others have modified in some way, so I thoroughly enjoy the inclusion of this huge squishy baby. It's also a nice touch to give the PCs their gear back and a chance for a win, after being beaten down and imprisoned, which is good player management and an important narrative beat.

The escaping party (or those opting for the non-violent stealthy option) come across a bizarre and macabre infernal altar room containing a variety of hellish trinkets and a devilishly awesome and detailed magic item. The provided trinkets come from Trinkets of Avernus, though you can use any from the supplement or your own imagination, and the magic item was created using tables in Nerzugal's Dungeon Master's Toolkit to great effect, brining to mind Sting from The Hobbit with a powerful bonus and narratively fascinating drawback. Along with the goodies, two members of Marisa's Blades-turns-cultists await the PCs. These are two new, awesome and dangerous NPCs from Adaptable NPCs (statblocks in the appendices). This battle will be tricky for smaller parties so beware, especially as it can bleed into a further battle with some new imps with attitude, 4 Assassin Imps and an Assassin Imp Murder Lord from Emirikol's Guide to Devils (statblocks in the appendices). This aptly named Imps are a deadly lot on their own, not least of which due to the fact they can wait, invisible and ready to rend flesh, in the chamber in which they were summoned, so be careful how you handle the encounters.

The subterranean levels are filled with flavour that definitely indicate infernal inclinations, as well as a number interesting opponents from various sources brought together by Cole through Leucis Blackbard. They will provide a great challenge to the PCs, but triumph will feel so sweet after subjugation, as long as they survive as there is more to come above.

Upstairs the PCs find more of Marisa's Blades, including Marisa and her brother, Milo (all with individual statblocks in the appendices originally from Villains and Lairs, reproduced in the appendices). This is an interesting combat with carried NPCs, made all the more strange by Marisa's obvious pulled shots at the PCs, while Milo is out for blood. Bullet point tactics are provided for all the NPCs to make the combat more manageable, although this is another fight that could be very dangerous for the party, especially after the events below, not least of which as the final bullet point sees a fresh combatant enter the fray by dropping a fireball, albeit more aimed at Marisa than them... Thankfully, Marisa will take a moment to triage the party to see whether they look in shape to taken down the Ras a 'iiblis, Leucis Blackboard, or whether her priority is getting out of there with her brother as soon as possible.

If they party seem strong enough to take on the Harvester Devil (Emirikol's Guide to Devil's) in Tiefling guise (statblock in appendices), Leucis can be found in his laboratory flanked by Imps. The charismatic devil will do as devil's do and try to make a deal, offering riches and all manner of bargains (see: Devil's Advocate: A Guide to Infernal Contracts), only fighting as a last resort if attacked. The laboratory holds three Potions of Greater Healing, providing some much needed succour, which you may wish to bring to your player's attentions in a pinch.

Chapter 3

This is the conclusion and possible further adventures, which see Milo brought to justice and sets Marisa up as a possible ally, contact and or quest-giver. A number of future quests are provided, which are mostly variations on the theme of busting smugglers and ensuring Milo and possibly Marisa see justice. The is followed by a humble and heartfelt afterword welcoming reviews and feedback, and thanking Ashley Warren and the RPG Writer Workshop.

The appendices contain the statblocks for all the NPCs and creatures involved including brief descriptions and references, as well as the magic items included in the adventure and the map of the Marisa's Blades Hideout.

This is 16 pages of adventure and intriguing NPCs/ creatures with links to so many wonderful DMs Guild supplements for $1.95, which is a bargain. There is definitely an old skool feeling to this adventure, from the Patrick E. Pullen cover and artwork, to the paired back use of box text and the rather high difficulty level. I think this is the kind of thing many OSR and older editions fans will love, while there may be a bit more work on the DMs part, particularly in balancing the combat, than some 5e DMs will be used to.

The attitude and support for fellow writers in the DMs Guild are things I am truly blown away by and I feel so inspired and invigorated by this fresh approach. The works referenced here are not needed to run the adventure, but they are most certainly worth checking out. I would love to see more works like this and more creators working with and from each other's work to create new and wonderful things, as long as permission is granted. As with the party in the game, we are stronger together and you never know what inspiration may spring from your ideas in the hands of another.

This is an old skool treat that might prove a bit tougher than newer DMs/ players may be used to. There are some really wonderful nuggets of golden, flavourful ideas in here, though I would have liked to see a greater exploration of some of the elements and an expanded finale or more thought out further adventures. I feel the characters and backstory as presented held more narrative weight than they were able heft in the adventure, but this is all in the playing and running, as you are give the tools to work with.

For the price, old skool appeal, backstory and the joyous networking, this is definitely still a great little adventure, and I am truly keen to see what this writer does next.

References in order of appearance:

Villains and Lairs www.dmsguild.com/m/product/259099 Waterdeep: Urban Encounters: www.dmsguild.com/m/product/251816 Volo's Waterdeep Enchiridion: www.dmsguild.com/m/product/254063 (included in Dragon Heist) The Mottled Donkey: www.dmsguild.com/m/product/173215 Nerzugal's Dungeon Master's Toolkit www.dmsguild.com/m/product/18862 Nerzugal's Dungeon Master's Toolkit 2 www.dmsguild.com/m/product/242485 Puzzles, Predicaments, and Perplexities www.dmsguild.com/m/product/278936 Monster Manual Expanded www.dmsguild.com/m/product/267678 Trinkets of Avernus www.dmsguild.com/m/product/281825 Adaptable NPCs www.dmsguild.com/m/product/262588 Emirikol's Guide to Devils www.dmsguild.com/m/product/211941 Devil's Advocate: A Guide to Infernal Contracts www.dmsguild.com/m/product/283699