Monstrous Mondays: Devils

Last week I concluded my This Old Dragon retrospective of the Devil and the Nine Hells as they appeared in Dragon Magazine. Today for Monstrous Monday I want to look at some books about devils and show how there is a direct line continuity from those Dragon articles in 1983 to the 3.5 Fiendish Codex II: Tyrants of the Nine Hells from 2006 and even the 4e The Plane  Above in 2010.

Fiendish Codex II: Tyrants of the Nine Hells (3.5)

PDF and Hardcover. 158 Pages. Color covers and interior art.

This book does for Devils what the Fiendish Codex I: Hordes of the Abyss did for demons. Sadly there is no Fiendish Codex III. For this review I am considering my hardcover I bought back when it came out and the PDF on DriveThruRPG.

Preface: This might one of the more important bits of D&D fiction out there. Devils in D&D have always had a problem. No not from busy-body mothers and evangelicals looking to ban D&D because of devils and demons (they would find something else anyway), the issue is that the very nature of the devils in question tie them closely to the Abrahamic religions.  Asmodeus is a Jewish demon, Baalzebul comes to us from Beelzebub, another demon found in the Bible by way of Judaism. Mammon comes from the New Testament and Belial from the Old Testament.  Remove the Judeo-Christian origins who are these demons? This new(ish) preface gives us the new origins of these devils and how they fit into the D&D cosmology and the Blood War.

Introduction is just that, tells you what this book is about.

Chapter 1: All About Devils covers devils and hell. The only valuable things in Hell to the devils are souls.These are what they strive to collect, to barter, and bargain with.  Where demons are spit up from the nature of the Abyss itself, devils need souls to make more devils. This should imply there is a distinct dichotomy in the devilish hierarchy; devils that were raised up from souls to devils that fell. Speaking of hierarchy this chapter goes into that and how devils rise up from one form to the next. Also discussed are Demons and Devils and the Blood War. 

There is advice on running devilish encounters and how to deal with Faustian Pacts, devil worship and infernal alliances. Yeah, this in not 80s D&D.  Pretty much everything in this chapter can be used with any edition of D&D.

Chapter 2: The Hells. A detailed "guided tour" of Hell. We are going over some of the same ground back when Ed Greenwood took us here in 1983 in Dragon #75 and Dragon #76. There is more details here and some layers have changed a bit; Avernus comes to mind. Throughout the layers, we also get a listing of the various D&D Gods that live in the Hells. Something that I spent a lot of time covering in my series One Man's God.  There are updates not just from the AD&D 1st ed time of Ed Greenwood's article and the Blood War material of late 2nd Ed AD&D, but from 3.0 D&D as well. Phlegethos is now controlled by Fierna instead of jointly controlled by her and her father and Glasya in the newly anointed Lord of Malbolge having offed the Hag Countess. All great material and more than I'll ever use in a game.

Chapter 3: Game Rules. This cover the 3.5 D&D specific rules. There are Hellbred characters, new feats, and new Prestige Classes. Of special interest to me is the Hellfire Warlock. There are also plenty of new spells. 

Chapter 4: Devils are our new monster listings of devils. The Abishai are back, along with 16 other devils, some new and some updated.

Chapter 5: Lords of the Nine detail the Nine Archdukes. You can pretty much tell what version of D&D you are using by who the Archduke of Avernus is. In 3.5 it is Bel. Though I think he might have been it for late 2nd ed as well. All the Archdukes get a bit of a makeover from their 1st Ed days. Dispater has hair now, Mammon has a new cursed form, Levistus is the lord of Stygia, and Glasya gets the best upgrade and is now Lord of Sixth Layer Malbolge. Baalzebul still looks like a slug. Mephistopheles is still working on Hellfire. Only Asmodeus is constant. As he demands it. 

As its sister product, this is a great book on Devils and the Nine Hells for any edition of D&D.

The Plane Above: Secrets of the Astral Sea (4e)

PDF and Hardcover. 160 Pages. Color covers and interior art. I am considering both my hardcover (one of the last D&D books I ever bought at Borders I believe) and the PDF from DriveThruRPG.

4e reordered the Cosmos and that is fine for me really. In 3e they explained that how one perceives the outer planes is largely based on how they believe they should perceive them. So Hell in 4e is both a "Lower Plane" and an "Upper Plane." No contradiction really.

This book has the same relationship to The Plane Below as the Fiendish Codices have to each other. 

Chapter 1: Astral Adventures cover adventuring on the Astral Sea. Again it is easy to see why Wizards of the Coast moved their version of Spelljammer to the Astral. The seeds for that are all here. Indeed Spelljammers are mentioned on page 19 as a means of siling the Astral Sea.

Chapter 2: Divine Dominions deal with the homes of the gods and the afterlives of mortals. Different sorts of creatures are detailed here; gods, angels, the exalted, and Outsiders. A few divine domains are also detailed. Arvandor is the home of elves and eladrin. Celestia the Seven Heavens. Chernoggar is a plane/world that essentially has the Lawful Evil Gods of War Bane and Gruumsh fighting it out for all of eternity. 

The Nine Hells get their own special sections. This repeats some of the details (but not copy-paste) from 3e about the fall of Asmodeus and the creation of Hell. [Aside: D&D really needs its own Silmarillion, Kalevala, or Enūma Eliš] There some small adventure encounters here too. A few more domains are also detailed.

Chapter 3: The Deep Astral Sea is very far removed from the normal lives of mortals. Here various new races are discussed like the familiar Githyanki, and the less familiar Maruts and Quom. Here there are also forgotten and "shattered" domains like Carceri and Pandemonium. 

Chapter 4: Astral Denizens cover our "monsters." Here are 44 new monster stat blocks including six new devils. Among these, there is the return of Bahgtru, Luthic, and Other Side favorite Vaprak. 

This book would make for a great trilogy of books with "The Plane Below" and "Manual of the Planes." With the PDFs from DriveThruRPG it would not be too difficult to print them out and rearrange as needed.  It would be a 480-page book, but it would also be the ultimate source of the planes knowledge in D&D 4e.

100 Days of Halloween: The Dungeons & Dragons Tarot Deck

Here is something you never would have seen from TSR at the height of the Satanic Panic.  Over the summer Wizards of the Coast released a Dungeons & Dragons-themed Tarot desk.

The Dungeons & Dragons Tarot Deck

78 tarot cards. Illustrated full-color guidebook.

For me, Tarot has been a part of D&D ever since my High School DM got a Rider-Waite Tarot Deck at the best Occult Book Store the 80s had to offer, Waldenbooks.

Since then I have used them off and on over the years. I mostly used it in place of a Tarroka Deck when I run my Ravenloft games. And they are pretty much essential to the running of any sort of Blue Rose campaign, 1st (True20) or 2nd (AGE) Edition.

I have never bought into a divinatory sort of power to these cards; that is not my world view. BUT I have over the years noticed that people ascribe meaning to these images based on their own internal workings. In this case, it makes them a rather rough Thematic apperception test, with all inherent problems of that. (In grad school we may or may not have had a song called "T-A-T" sung like AC/DC's "T-N-T"). But also I can admire the art on these for art's sake.

So when an Offical Dungeons & Dragons Tarot Deck was released, well you know I have to grab that!

Major Arcana

The art is amazing really and worth the price ($24.99) of the deck. 

There is a guidebook as well where we learn the suits Wands (clubs), Swords (spades), Cups (hearts), and Pentacles (diamonds) have been replaced by Strength, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma.  This is not that bad really. Any book on Tarot will reveal these associations are already there. WotC is just saying the quiet part out loud.

D&D Tarot, Strength

D&D Tarot, Intelligence

D&D Tarot, Wisdom

D&D Tarot, Charisma

The art is indeed gorgeous, but feel some of the symbolism of the Tarot is lacking here. True, this is supposed to be a game aid AND much of the symbolism comes from our world and our myths. So these might not apply to the multitudes of D&D worlds.

For comparison's sake, I'll look at a few Major Arcana cards from this deck and compare them to other decks I use.

My main decks are the Smith-Waite Deck, which is an alternative to the Rider-Waite Deck with the art by Pamela Colman Smith restored to its original colors, The Witches Tarot, and the Shadowscapes Tarot by Stephanie Pui-Mun Law.

The Fool

The Fool is the card of new beginnings. In the Hero's Journey, the Fool represents our hero in their starting phase. Young, brash, and lacking wisdom. In S-W deck this is a youth leaving home (the pack he or she carries), they look up to the sky but are oblivious to the danger in front of them. The dog at their heels is trying to warn them.  We get similar imagery in all four cards. The dog is absent in the Witches Tarot and looking away in the D&D Tarot. 

The Hanged Man

In our world this is Odin hanging on the Tree of Knowledge. It signifies a sacrice given up for great understanding. In the Hero's Journey this can be the loss of the mentor figure or other loss of innocence. The S-W deck and Witches Tarot this is obvious. The Witches Tarot goes one step more and has the man old and missing an eye. The D&D tarot keeps the man upside down.

Death

One of the most feared and most misunderstood cards in the Tarot deck. Death is not always about physical death, but change. In the S-W deck Death is a skeletal knight riding a white horse (an allusion to the Biblical Death riding a Pale Horse), he tramples or walks over people regardless of their station or class because death comes to all. This is also seen in the Witches Tarot. The Shadoscapes deck takes this notion one step further and show a phoenix.  The symbolism on the D&D Tarot is not quite as sophisticated. 

The Devil

Lastly we get the Devil. In S-W deck the Devil is presented as a demon-like figure. The people in the foreground are slaves, but as their loose chains show they are slaves to their own desires; Worldly comfort (the grapes) and power (the fire).  The Witches Tarot goes with the Horned God and he is still of Earthly pleasures and desires.  The D&D Tarot goes with the Prince of Hell, Asmodeus. Which in the context of the D&D worlds works.

So Yes a fantastic-looking deck, but lacking in some of the classical symbolism of other Tarot decks.

If you use Tarot in your D&D games then this one is system agnostic. You can use it with any edition.

October Horror Movie Challenge: Godzilla Night

I do love getting a few Godzilla or Kaiju movies in. I thought why not three different versions of the King of Monsters, Godzilla.

Godzilla vs. Hedorah (1971)

Also known as Godzilla vs the Smog Monster this movie is what you get when the writers of Godzilla start to worry about pollution. Now Godzilla has always been social commentary, but this one seems a bet heavy-handed, and the monster...well Hedorah is just silly.  Still, I had good memories of this one as a kid and the battles for the most part hold up.

The teens in this one seem like some sort of nihilist hippies. Thinking the world will end due to pollution (we will burn ourselves up first!) and deciding to have one last party on Mt. Fuji. Plus we get a rare spotting of Godzilla's ability to telepathically communicate with children. 

No, it is not good, even by cheesy late 1960s, early 1970s Toho standards. But it is still fun.

I still can't get that "Save the Earth" song out of my head from the English dubbed version. I watched the subbed version and it has the equally ear-wormy original version, "Return the Sun."

Shin Godzilla (2016)

This is the 3rd reboot of the Godzilla franchise. This one reminded me a lot of the original Gojira from 1954. Godzilla in this one looks really freaky, going through three different forms is really cool. I am not 100% sure about him firing lasers out of his tail.  Speaking of tails, I am also not sure about the budding of other monsters of his tail. I do like how weird and creepy it is. I rather enjoyed it to be honest.

Godzilla vs. Kong (2021)

The American Godzilla, but at least this series is better than the old Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich version from 1998. This one pits the King of Monsters against the...King of Monsters. This is the 4th movie in Legendary Films Monsterverse and was inspired by the 1962 King Kong vs. Godzilla. This one deals with using Kong to find an opening to the Hollow Earth. Kong and Godzilla are natural enemies and once Kong is off of Skull Island Godzill hunts him down. 

While this is going on an evil corporation is taking what is left of Ghidorah to build a Mecha-Godzilla. This is good, because now we don't have to figure out who would win between Kong and Godzilla. 

All three have been great all for different reasons.

October Horror Movie Challenge 2022
Viewed: 36
First Time Views: 26

100 Days of Halloween: Witchblood

I have reached the end of all the adventures I have on hand for War of the Witch Queens and before I pivot onto my next, and last series for this #100DaysOfHalloween, I really wanted to do something special. I had not found anything perfect yet. I had about four or five different ones that I kept rotating through.

Then I was contacted by Rose Bailey. The author of the great "Die For You" RPG, which I reviewed five years ago to this date in fact. That, and what her game does makes it the perfect choice for today's #100DaysOfHalloween.

Starting today and through the rest of these till Halloween I am moving my posting to the day and exploring the topics in more detail.

Witchblood

PDF. 237 pages. Color cover, black & white interior art.

There is a hardcover option for this book, but I do not have it. Yet. 

I knew this game was going to be good when I started reading it. First off the authors list Howard's Conan and Tanith Lee's "Kill the Dead." Seriously. I LOVE Kill the Dead. I love Tanith Lee. We are off to a great start. Also listed are Russian Folk Tales and Gimm's Fairy Tales.  Also mentioned is Ron Edward's Sorcerer, a game I do rather enjoy.

Rules Basics

Ok we learn that this game is based on One Roll Engine.  Knowledge of that game is not needed here, which is good because while I know it I have never played it.

This is a character focused game so we are going to focus on that.  All characters (called Wanderers here, more on that) have Identities and Qualities. Identies come in pairs and characters have three of them. They are numbered from 0 to 5.  This is a dice pool game where you will roll a number of d10 based on the Identities and one of the Qualities. So anywhere between 3 and 10 dice. Successes, Critical successes and failures are also detailed. 

The Fiction

The world of Witchblood is the Forrest. A giant forest that covers an area about the size of Europe, which tech levels about late 18th early 19th century. Ok another plus for me.  The game discusses how to being to create the world.the 

The game is divided into this Basic Introduction, the Player's Guide, and  Storyteller's Guide.

Player's Section

Chapter 1: We start here with some background setting fiction to get a feel for this world. It sets the mood and stage well. For me it already feels familiar.  I have seen this world before. No. Not in print, but it is the world you see in fairy tales.

Chapter 2: Character creation follows.  The characters are known as Wanderers, people who wander the world to learn more about their world and themselves. You build a character in 6 steps. 1. Name and Concept, 2. Birthright. 3. Calling. 4. Profile. 5. Bonuses. 6. Finishing touches. 

Each Birthright is like your species or race. We have Changeling, Commoner, Ghostborn, Noble, Troll, Witchblood (thus the name), and Zver.  Each gets two pages and helps decide your Indenties and advancement paths. 

Callings are like classes or professions though they go deeper than that. They are the Balladeer, Devoted, Fortune Teller, Robber, Sellsword, Trader, and Wise One. Birthright is balanced against Calling. 

Chapter 3: We get the section on Identies and Qualities. Identities as mentioned before are in pairs, Patience and Cunning, Vigor and Grace, Understanding and Persuasion.  These are subdivided into two more pairs. For example Patience and Cunning also has aspects Generosity and Selfishness and Demonstration and Observation. 

Points in these allow the characters to perform actions.  

Chapter 4 covers these actions. The identies and qualities give you points that you then roll d10s. Roll these and look for matches or sets. So things like riding a horse in a dangerous situation would be Graceful Endurance. Just riding a horse would need no to roll.  Various sorts of rule situations are covered.

Chapter 5 is the chapter on Magic. Magic here is not the organized magic of D&D. Its not even the emotional but structured magic of say Mage. Magic is, in the words of this book, bloody, blunt, and feral. There are many ways magic can manifest. There is "Petty Magic" or minor magics and anyone with a supernatural birthright can have Petty Magics.  Charms are things you can pick up along the way and allow characters to do things others can't. Hunches are ways the characters can manipulate magic around them into effects.  They are not something the character "does" but rather "discovers."  Divination, Pacts,  Lineage and Deeds, Sorcerery, Spoiling,  Gifts and Shapeshifting are all magical talents that have their own means of working.  The variety here is amazing and paints a picture of a world steeped in magic.

Storytelling Section

Chapter 6: This starts our Storytelling section or GMs section. It explains again that this world is largely a combination of two genres; pulp fantasy and fairy tales. This first chapter goes over the elements of these two genres and how the designers break the down the themes and rebuild them in the world of Witchblood. It is an interesting breakdown of both genres and what makes them work.   

We also get some Storytelling tips. There is section on NPCs like Companions, or characters essential to the Wanderers and how they fit into the story, and Locals, or the NPCs that don't interact all the time with the Wanderers. Antagonists are those NPCs that work against the Wanderers. So exactly what they sound like.  Each of these types get their motivations defined. A good guide for any game really.  

Given the nature of magic in this world/game, Enchantments are the NPCs of magic.  They are continuing or permanent magics. So Sleeping Beauty's sleeping curse is a good example of what this sort of thing is.  They are defined more or less like other NPCs. Now this is a FANTASTIC idea. 

Chapter 7: Covers "The Village" or "Where the Mild Thing Are." Ok that is a bit glib on my part. It is about where the humans live.  This covers the various people living in the "Village." There are various roles like Butcher, Miller, Fisher and so on.  There are also people outside the Village, like Bandits, Creeping Trees (LOVE THIS), Predators and so on.

We get themes going on in the Village, like Abuse of Authority, Domestic Violence, Human Sacfrice and more.  This can be a dark game if you choose. 

Chapter 8: Encounters. This covers what is in the Woods outside Village. What I love about this is everything I wanted to be here, is here; So Spirits, Ghosts, and Witches. And things I didn't like The Aunts, the Burned Man, the Dead Robbers, the Hearteater, the Mancutter and more. 

This chapter is great. These encounters are so well detailed and thought out that I would love to add them to other games. Just so much flavor here.

--

This game is so rich in flavor and depth. I once said that even in D&D I don't explore dungeons, I explore characters. This is one of the better character exploration games. The Villiage, the Forest, even the Burned Man and the Mayor. They are all there for the sole purpose of exploring your character.  Think about the fairy tales you know, most are named for the lead character. This is what we have here. 

This game lets you do that. And to do that there is plenty of adversity here. Not just in terms of the features in the Woods but in the themes you are expected to explore. Not all of them will be comfortable or nice. It is Grimdark, but not always nihilistic. Characters work towards making things better OR at least that is their expectation.  In many ways this makes things much darker than say Dungeon Crawl Classics (no slight on DCC).

This would be a great game for a group of good friends to explore. I also think it is a good game for people to use to explore different aspects of themselves. I talked about notions where the characters we make are different extensions of our own psyche. For example my Paladin character Johan is a manifestation of a Freudian Super-Ego and my Witch character Larina is a manifestation of my Jungian Anima. Just to add some armchair psychology to it. This game would do the same.  

The game is fantastic and I am going to have to come back to it later this week.  Maybe create a character.

There is not a ton of art (though the cover is fantastic), but I don't see this as a negative thing. Reading this reminded me of a book of fairy tales and legends I had as a kid where the only art was on the chapter pages. It invoked that same feeling in me and that is likely exactly what the designers wanted.

This not a game to do in an afternoon and be done. This one should be played a few times. I would even suggest on a regular interval; much like you read to your children before bedtime every night, this should be done at the same time in the same place. Really get that feeling you are leaving this world and move into one that sits in that liminal place between dreams and nightmares and being awake.

Can't wait to explore it more.

October Horror Movie Challenge: Demon Night

My wife, who never watches horror, has expressed a desire to see some demon movies. "Something like the Exorcist, but not as scary." Not a problem, most movies are not as scary as the Exorcist.  "But good." Damn. She got me there. Well, we found some for an afternoon and evening of watching movies.

Hellraiser (2022)

This is the new one and was much easier to get her to watch. Every year there is a movie that everyone in the October Challenge watches. This was one of those (the other so far appears to be Halloween Ends).

This is a reboot, revision, of the Hellbound Heart novella from Clive Barker.  This one stars Goran Visnjic as rich hedonist Voight, the current owner of the Lament Configuration or the puzzle box.  Odessa A’zion stars as Riley, a recovering drug addict who finds the box and starts to open it. And we get Jamie Clayton who is taking a turn as the Hell Priest, more commonly known as Pinhead. Clayton was given a lot of grief online a little because she is not Doug Bradley, the friend of Clive Barker who played Pinhead in all but 2 of the original 10 Hellraiser movies. But mostly it was due to the fact she was a trans woman I feel. 

Watching her in this she was an AMAZING Hell Preist. Going by Barker's own words in the Hellbound Heart.

Its voice, unlike that of its companion, was light and breathy-the voice of an excited girl. Every inch of its head had been tattooed with an intricate grid, and at every intersection of horizontal and vertical axes a jeweled pin driven through to the bone. Its tongue was similarly decorated.

— The Hellbound Heart, Clive Barker, ch. 1

This fits with Clayton's portrayal. The story, if the plot, is familiar. People mess with the box, Cenobites are summoned, and people die. Often in horrible ways. 

Riley manages to escape with her brother's boyfriend, but Voight is given a new "reward" in the end.

The movie is quite good really, and a sequel seems likely.

Errementari (2017)

This movie is based on an ancient European folk tale of a blacksmith and the devil.  The one I remember was about a tinkerer and the devil and was an Irish tale. This one deals with a blacksmith who has captured a demon. The villagers avoid his home, except for the orphaned Usue (played by the amazing Uma Bracaglia) who is unafraid. The local children call her "witch child" and tease her.  She goes to the blacksmith's home where she is trying to find her doll; a local boy tossed the head onto to property. 

Here she discovers the blacksmith has captured a demon, Sartael, and keeps it chained up.  Meanwhile, a local magistrate is investigating the blacksmith claiming he was an army deserter who turns out to be a demon lord, Alastor, and the lord of the chained-up demon.  

To stop the unleashed mayhem of two demos, Usue asks Alastor to be taken to her mother. They disappear and go to Hell.  The blacksmith is being hounded by the villagers but manages to get free. He convinces Sartael to take him to Hell to save the girl. He goes, sending the girl back with Sartael (who tells the scared villagers that "this girl is a Saint and Hell rejected her. You better treat her well or I will eat your thumbs!" 

The final scenes are of the blacksmith swinging his giant hammer, and fighting devils.

The movie has a real fairy tale quality to it. There is comedy, some scares and good story.

Jennifer's Body (2009)

Believe it or not, I have never seen this one. Jennifer (Megan Fox) and Anita "Needy" (Amanda Seyfried) are unlikely best friends. They do everything together including going to see this indie band Jennifer has "been stalking on MySpace."  They go see them and the bar catches on fire killing a lot of people.  In shock Jennifer goes with the band, much to complaining of Needy. They ask Jennifer if she is a virgin (spoiler, she isn't and hasn't been since Jr. High), but she tells them yes. So they decide to sacrifice her to Satan so they can be as big as Maroon 5. 

Next thing we know Jennifer is back at Needy's home where she is acting very strange. Like coughing up a bucket of black blood.

While everyone is sad about the deaths at the bar, Jennifer is elated. She has never looked and felt better. Though Needy knows something is wrong.

Jennifer is not only acting strange, she is eating high school boys.  Needy soon discovers this and hears Jennifer's story. She did die in the sacrifice, but because she was not pure the demon took over her body making her a succubus. 

Needy tries to get her to stop, or finally trying to stop her, and Jennifer just continues to eat boys including Needy's own boyfriend.

Needy and Jenifer fight, Jen bites Needy and Needy manages to kill Jen. Jen's mom sees this and now we see why Needy is in prison.  But we also learn that Needy has gained some of Jen's demon powers so she is strong and can levitate.

The movie's credits roll as we learn that Needy has killed the members of the band that had sacrificed Jennifer to start with.

It was a fun movie and honestly, I totally bought into Needy's nad Jennifer's friendship. They did seem like they need each other.

Ok getting tired tonight. I had one more, but that might need to go tomorrow night.

October Horror Movie Challenge 2022
Viewed: 33
First Time Views: 26

  

Monster Manual Minis, Set A-C

I am on record on how much of an effect the first AD&D Monster Manual had on me.  I can recall playing AD&D and wishing I had (or could even afford) minis just like what was in the Monster Manual.

Well. Now I can.

This is the first set of minis for D&D (and of course AD&D) based on the art from the original Monster Manual. I have to say I am loving them.

Obviously not every monster A to C, but it has the stars. I always wanted a Carrion Crawler mini, not sure why, I think they were cool to me back then (still are!).  I have a few now, but this one is the best.

I am thinking that the next set will just be "D" to be honest. Dragons, Demons, Devils. All are perfect for this. 

 Can't wait for the others!

100 Days of Halloween: Fane of the Witch King

I have spent all month long so far on "Witch Queen" adventures, I thought maybe a Witch King might be nice. Spoiler. There is still a Witch Queen here. 

Fane of the Witch King

Print and PDF. 68 pages. Color cover, black & white interior art.

So this one goes all the way back to the 3.x days from Necromancer Games. It is an adventure for 4 to 6 characters of 10th level and higher. 

The adventurers investigate the site of an ancient and evil city where the minions of the now-dead Witch King reside and plot his return. Among them is his former lover, the Witch Queen Kytara Bane.

"Witch" in both cases just means "evil spell-caster" but I can work with it. So this is a Necromancer Games product so expect there to be plenty of monsters to kill, deep forgotten dungeons and everything that made 1st Edition adventures so much fun. The NPCs are also great in a "how can we make something so evil" sort of way. The Witch King Osenkej for example was the product of a Balor father and Red Wyrm mother. Kytara Bane, his queen, was/is a Half-nymph/Half-demon. There is the Ghul Legion a band of dark elves and gnolls working for a group of evil Stone Giants and their Black Dragon leader Ghul Lacronus. All who they have to fight to get into the Black Fane and then to get out they have to face Kytara Bane herself.  Along the way they can also run into the Covenant of the Claw, they are a half-elf/half-dragon, a half-human/half-dragon and a half-gnoll/half-dragon.  Really giving those half-dragon template rules a workout.

Not to mention all the demons and undead running around including a demonic triceratops! This adventure is a meat grinder and the characters are assumed to be level 10. I think they need to be a little stronger.

The appendices are full. A new spell. New magic items including new artifacts. Five maps.

The locations are great, and that is what the adventure gives top billing, but for me, it is really about these NPCs.

Use in War of the Witch Queens

Again, it is the NPCs here that interest me the most. The locations are fun but I can put those anywhere, or re-do them as I need. The NPCs are just too much not to use. The adventure is fun as it, but what if I add this twist for my world/campaign. Kytara Bane learning of the death of the Witch Queen decides to make her move.

It could be fun really. Certainly near the end of the campaign.