The Vessel of Stars

Alright, I'm eager to get to the published, hardcopy stuff for November, but before I get into that I just want to do a quick review of the online adventure that was posted for November: The Vessel of Stars.  This is easily the longest of these adventures so far, clocking in at a whopping 23 pages. Here's the brief intro paragraph:

The Vessel of Stars is a DUNGEON & DRAGON® adventure suitable for four 4th-level player characters. Player characters find themselves escorting a child monarch to a mysterious location in an area stalked by extraplanar horrors, alien assassins, and secret forces. Two unallied groups seek the queen. One wishes to kill her. The other wants to capture her alive. The player characters are her only defense.

Alien assassins? Okay, then. I mean, extraplanar horrors are part and parcel of D&D ever since the mind flayer showed up back in 1975. But alien assassins? That's new. Unless you consider Spelljammer creatures to be aliens, in which case you're one of the few people who ever actually played in that setting.

Remember those new creatures from the prior post? The Stellar Devas and the Vrill? Well, that child monarch is a Stellar Deva Emprix, and the Vrill are the ones chasing after her. So, there's already an interesting moral component to this adventure that the players may or may not become aware of. Ah, the joys of throwing moral dilemmas at the party paladins and watching them squirm to keep their alignment (and special powers). There are also some wizards chasing her, just to add to the fun. They've hired some mercenaries to help them catch her. The vrill simply want to kill her due to the whole 'slavery' thing. Seems a bit extreme, but then I'm not an enslaved vrill, so who am I to judge?

The adventure starts in the town of Horvath, where the PCs have several possible hooks to explain their presence there. The eventual goal is in the Blighted Hills, where a buried spaceship--I'm sorry, what? A buried spaceship? So we're going full-on Expedition to the Barrier Peaks here. Or Blackmoor, for the Mystara-philes out there.

Horvath isn't given much of a writeup, just enough for it to serve as a generic town and temporary home base for the PCs. It hosts about 2,500 souls, so it's respectably sized. The party can gather some information here, then are asked to escort a young initiate of the Temple of Pelor and her holy relic to somewhere in the Blighted Hills, which will resolve an intrusion by otherworldly creatures in the area. Well, that's quite the quest hook, isn't it?

On the way to the Hills, there's a convenient forest, where a trio of vrill have set up an ambush. Their primary goal is to kill the Emprix; the PCs are secondary targets unless they are actively protecting the girl. Assuming the party gets through that ambush, there's a second one further on, this time from the mercenaries who want to just capture the girl. And if the PCs are having a rough time with the vrill ambush and it looks like they're actually going to kill her, the mercenaries will in fact step in to snatch the girl out of harm's way...and into a new harm's way, leaving the PCs to deal with the vrill themselves. You just can't trust mercenaries, can you?

If the mercenaries are successful in capturing the Emprix, they will take her to the Waystation, which is normally a rest-stop for travelers under the control of Fharlanghn priests, but now under the new management of the bad wizards and their mercs. If the party can figure out that the 'priests' are in fact nothing of the sort, they can have a jolly good time beating up mercs and rescuing the real clerics (and, if she's there, the Emprix).

Once they get past the Waystation, it's time for the Blighted Hills. There are a few random encounters available, including a vrill patrol seeking to kill the Emprix. Actually, these encounters are no walk in the part; there's a greater barghest, for example. While they are in the Blighted Hills, the Emprix can actually locate the buried spaceship through some sort of racial memory. I didn't know memory worked that way, but whatever. The important thing is that the PCs don't have to being an excavating crew and dig up the whole countryside.

After she has led them to the spot, there are a couple of spectacular battles to be fought, then the Emprix can use the 'royal yacht' (glorified escape pod) to get back home. Whether that is a good thing or not, depends on how the PCs have done in learning the truth about the Emprix's people and the vrill. Regardless, the party gets to collect XPs and treasure, and that's what's really important.

The adventure itself only covers up to page 14; the rest is monster and NPC stats, as well as a new magic item and the maps needed for the adventure. I think this would be a good adventure to run for a party that likes to really get into roleplaying and moral dilemmas. From what I've read of it, I would certainly recommend it.

Okay, that's enough of the preliminaries. It's time to get into the meat of the month's products, so next up we will dive into the Living Greyhawk Gazetteer. Until next time!