What’s this sorcery? Two new products in less than 10 days? Newly appointed Templar Neujack’s team has released the adventure that pits heroes against the machinations of Dregoth, as his Emissary travels south, to the Dead Lands to meet with forgotten kings.
The Emissary is Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 adventure designed for 4 player characters of 14th level.
Congratulations to the team for getting this out! Writing and Conversion : Adam Cieszlak Editing, Formatting, and Graphics : Jack Meyer Advisory : Jason Wills-Starin, John Machielsen Cover art : Edward Echavez Internal Maps: Jack Meyer, Yanick Moreau Contributing Artists : Jane Bradley, Bruno Lopez, June Soler Playtesters : Robert Adducci, Sébastien Gamache,
Very nice! This is one of the longer adventures I’ve seen in a while, most tend to fall between 30-60 pages. Definitely a labor of love. I’ll have more feedback once I have a chance to chew into all of the Deadlands content properly
Also getting some Día de Muertos vibes from the cover, adds some nice extra personality to the undead.
It’s actually asa oke (pronounced asha okay) style (Yoruban, what is now Nigeria).
All of the Dead Lands factions have cultural references from the Mediterranean or northern half of Africa. We wanted to get as far as humanly possible away from the predictable “endless legions of generic undead” vibe, so we literally built the Green Age history of Ulyan (which you’ll see more of in Faces of the Dead Lands).
Thanks for sharing this! So great to see it finally.
I have a question about Dregoth’s motivations in this adventure. I’m trying to think about how to place this adventure somehow in my own campaign. Maybe this is touched upon somewhere in the adventure - I haven’t yet read every single word - but why would Dregoth send an emissary? Why wouldn’t he just go down there himself? And in the context of Dregoth Ascending, what is he hoping to gain by creating an alliance? I’m pretty sure I could craft something myself to make it all fit together in my own campaign, but I’m curious how the authors thought about Dregoth’s overall motivations here.
Well, big D is probably either to busy or important to go himself.
Dregoth wants an army of the undead to help invade/conquer the Tablelands (probably to preserve the lives of his precious Dray). He’ll promise them the bodies of the resulting dead, but its a lie.
First thing is that Dregoth is a weird dude so it’s hard to gauge his motivations in the first place. Another is that Dregoth’s undead existence could make the Deadlands a greater risk for him personally. He may believe, for example, that in going to the Deadlands he may not be able to leave.
I think the simplest explanation is that why would you risk your own personal appearance on a visit to an unknown quantity? He’s probably thinking if they are really undead down there, there’s no telling if they’ll be reasonable or receptive.
I thought it was perfectly sensible for him to delegate someone powerful in his organisation but still expendable.
Thanks for the answers everyone. The reason I was thinking he might just go himself is that he already sees himself as being nearly a god, and stat-wise he’s nearly invincible anyway. And I somehow figured he might go the megalomaniacal route of "They’re undead, and I’m the strongest undead, so I’m like, already their king. Swoop in and conquer, vs. political maneuvering. So then I thought, maybe there are more nuanced reasons, something I’m missing…The uncertainty and careful first step is probably the simplest, like you say.
He also knew Qwith once upon a time, and he knows quite a few of Rajaat’s own strongest rank and file defilers from the Cleansing Army were left down there, but not what happened to them. So god-like and arrogant he may be, it would be foolish of him to gamble on being outnumbered by heavy hitters, not least because Borys the Dragon was taken out by less only a relative few years before on the timeline…
(Fun fact: so far as I can tell from the original 3e developers’ work, they designed almost the whole Dead Lands as a kind of death trap for murderhobos. I’m still not sure if this was accidental or intentional…)
Ah right, so that helps me frame it, thanks!. I had the picture in mind that this was a completely new place/new people for him. If he has a history with Qwith, that’s more interesting. Is that hinted at anywhere in the various deadlands documents?
Wow, I bookmarked this a few months ago and finally just read this adventure and LOVE it. I think everyone did a great job on this, and I think this would be an unforgettable way to introduce the Dead Lands to the players. When they first introduced the Dead Lands in the old revised boxed set I remember thinking “hmm, kind of cool, but why would PCs ever want to go there” but this would be such a terrific introduction and I feel there’s a very high likelihood it will quickly leave the party plotting their return.
I think this has everything - great NPCs, great use of the history, unforgettable encounters. You think it’s hard to survive in the sand dunes? Welcome to obsidian glass storms. Really classic Dark Sun stuff. I love it!
Thank you for the kind words! This entire project has been the labour of love of three separate teams over a long time.
If you liked that adventure, you may be happy to know that we’re planning on launching a companion book of additional adventures fittingly titled “Adventures in the Dead Lands”. We’re estimating a targeted release for the end of the year. Watch this space!
