Planescape review: Lost Sovereignty
For the last three years, I've run a Planescape1 campaign through almost all of its modules. Now, after successfully finishing it, I want to look back and review these adventures, highlighting the pros and cons of each one.
Each module will be rated in three categories, up to 3 points in each:
- Presentation: how easy it is to understand and run the adventure.
- Openness: how open the adventure's scope is, regarding the freedom of choice.
- Quality: Overall quality of the adventure, including the originality and richness of its content, and players' enjoyment.
The full list of currently published reviews is available under the planescape tag.
Lost Sovereignty
In which a Formian City faces a Terrible Flood and struggles for Survival while the heroes must Unmask a Wolf in the Fold (or rather, a Bariaur in the Hive).
- Designer: Monte Cook
- Source: Tales From the Infinite Staircase2, Tale 2
- Party: 4-6 characters of 3rd-7th levels
- Play-time: 1 session
- Locations:
- Arcadia / Klictrik, the underground Formian city
Overview
The doorway of polished stone leads to a dark and damp cavern on the outskirts of Klictrik, an underground city of insectoid formians3 — the Arcadian ant-centaurs. After surviving an encounter with a hungry lurker, the party arrives at the midst of a natural disaster. After the lethargy of the Iron Shadow had drained formians of their work ethic and motivation, the dike that was keeping the underground water supply at bay broke due to lack of maintenance, flooding the entirety of the city.
Fifteen labeled locations describe the flooded region of the city in which the module takes place. The highlights include a number of encounters with surviving formians, water hazards, a lost gnome merchant from Bytopia, a trio of investigators working for the Sphinx — a proxy of Ra, and a very young bronze dragon guarding the Chamber of Deep Magic — a natural magical energy source.
Most of the surviving formians take shelter in the mount-nests of the "old city" on the other side of the overflown river. Their main problem is though, is that their queen Hvix'mnac disappeared after the flooding, leaving her city in disarray and confusion. In the absence of the queen, one of the myrmarchs named Demansiq seeks to be the new Formian ruler and to achieve this, had stolen the Mantelavian scepter from the queen's servants, for this scepter is an unquestionable symbol of rulership in the local Formian society. This myrmarch, however, is an impostor — a polymorphed bariaur sorceress from Sigil by the name of Ghundarania who is using the unsuspecting formians for her own ulterior motives.
The scepter in question should currently be in possession of the party, after a skirmish with a pair of belligerent formian warriors serving Demansiq, though the characters could not realize its significance for the time being. The scepter can be recharged in the Chamber of the Deep Magic, and afterwards anyone wielding it would possess the power to command formians to a limited degree. Naturally, if Demansiq/Ghundarania learns that the party has the scepter, she will attempt to get it in any way possible, using violence if needed.
With this setup, the chain of events can go either way, and the DM should keep track of all variables and NPCs to keep the action moving and logical. There is no exact conclusion to this module besides Ghundarania's plan being successful or thwarted by the player characters. The characters' actions might have consequences in the later stages of the campaign, though, especially if they keep the scepter, making them targets for the formian warrior parties. After Stage 6 of the campaign, this location would also have the additional complication in the form of random encounters with blue slaadi4 invading the city through a hidden portal from Limbo.
Presentation
🖋️🖋️🖋️ superb
The supporting material list is quite extensive:
- the map of the Formian city, including the scale and water depth labels;
- a separate rough sketch map as a handout for the players (if they manage to find it);
- the extensive adventure notes on events that happen at different stages of the campaign (for example, the slaadi invasion at Stage 6 of the campaign);
- suggestions on using the adventure independently;
- an overview of magic conditions in Arcadia;
- a brief guide on Formian culture and society.
📝 NOTE: Some additional information on the latter two points can be found in the Planes of Law5 boxed set.
Openness
☀️☀️ semi-linear
The characters are free to roam the flooded tunnels and desolated chambers of the ruined city, but the relatively small scale and almost complete lack of branching passages rob this module of a chance to be a proper sandbox, though the absence of the predetermined outcome along with a decent number of NPCs pursuing their own agendas, is certainly working in its favor.
Quality
★★ good
With all the weirdness of completely alien insectoid society's inner workings, this module was quite an enjoyable and memorable affair, albeit a short one — though this would be a general style of the whole Staircase campaign. This material, however, could quite easily be used as a jumpstart of a stand-alone adventuring location, maybe even incorporating the "Scrambled Eggs" adventure suggestion from the Planes of Law5 boxed set.
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