Planescape review: Recruiters
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.
Recruiters
A Tale of the treachery of Evil and the sometimes Significant dangers of dwelling in a Gate-Town.
- Designer: Colin McComb
- Source: The Well of Worlds2, Chapter VII
- Party: 2-6 characters of 5th-8th levels
- Play-time: 1 session
- Locations:
- Outlands / Plague-Mort
Overview
Fact is, if the mindset of a town gets too morally and ethically aligned to its plane, it'll get sucked through the gate. The whole burg just disappears from the Outlands and moves to the other plane.
β Player's Primer to the Outlands3
The hook of this module is trivial. Hired by Bachalis, a Free League wizard, the party departs to Plague-Mort to retrieve a special breed of razorvine that only grows exclusively around the Gate to the Abyss. Bachalis got the jink in abundance, so the characters have little reason to refuse such a simple and profitable gig.
The Town
The good half of the module is occupied by the Plague-Mort's description and locations. The party can go anywhere they desire and you will have at least some general info about the town quarter they are in currently. Some locations have more detailed descriptions, especially those in the Arch-Lector's Palace. Others are just a couple of sentences long.
π NOTE: Don't forget to visit Sweet Larissa's Sausages β the best sausages in (some even say "of") Plague-Mort!
Also, it is here the mysterious Illuminated first mentioned in The Eternal Boundary adventure dwells in (13. The Bell and Whistle Tavern). They are not directly included in the plot of the module though.
Tensions Rising
Naturally, the first thing the characters would probably plan to do is to go straight to the Gate, cut a sprig of razorweed, and get out of this seedy place as quickly as possible. Of course, bringing this simple plan to fruition it's not as easy as it seems.
Firstly, tiefling Gaz, one of the Hounds β the local police β keeps a close eye on the Gate and does not allow the party to even come close to it without an "official permit". He is kind enough to agree to get the needed permit tomorrow in exchange for a small sum of gold. (Of course, this all is tiefling's clever business scheme of fleecing the clueless, but it's not wise to aggravate the berk considering the abundance of other Hounds around.)
Secondly, unbeknownst to the characters (and most of the town's population, for that matter), a secret plan of pushing the burg into the Abyss starts just about this time. Conspiring with the Arch-Lector Byrri Yarmoril himself, a small group of tanar'ri plans to seed rumors of unrest, start some riots, and, just to be sure, fake the Arch-Lector's assassination to drive the town past the point of no return. What the Arch-Lector is unaware of though, is that his associates plan to assassinate him for real, just to be sure and to keep his reward for themselves.
Just as the party wanders through the streets of Plague-Mort, they witness agitated murmurs, isolated incidents of unrest, and a general feeling of tension spreading around the town. Four fleshed-out encounters of such nature are presented, accompanied by some short suggestions of other scenes the character could witness this foreboding evening. Each encounter involves one of the tanar'ri conspirators in disguise.
Stuck Between the Worlds
At this point, more cautious characters might try to leave the burg for the time being, but alas! All of the chaos happening in the streets already pushed the town to an edge between the realms of Outlands and Abyss. Not only do all of the portals cease to function, but you cannot leave the city by any means at all, and the gate to the Abyss slowly grows in size, ready to engulf the whole town the moment the frail balance ceases its hold.
Meanwhile, the chaos finally erupts, as someone shouts about the Arch-Lector being killed by the Hounds. The town-wide riot starts almost immediately, primed by the prior tensions carefully planted by the scheming tanar'ri bunch. Now the townspeople finally realize what's going on, screaming about saving the town from being swallowed by the Abyss, and the fate of the whole burg lies upon the shoulders of the player characters.
Tipping the Scales
The climax of the module is a showdown with the tanar'ri party. Led by a cambion Marquis Fearson, this group consists of his brother Mortai, succubus Latana, alu-fiend Haarsa, and bar-lgura Stkal. Should the player characters win the tough fight, they still need to calm the burg down, if they wish it to remain in the Outlands, that is. I suggest leaving the exact ways the characters bring order to the streets to their discretion. And if they start to loot the Arch-Lector's coffers instead⦠well, I hope you have some Abyssal materials prepared for the next session.
Assuming that the party keeps Plague-Mort from sliding through the Gate, they can finally finish their original mission, returning to Sigil safely. Plague-Mort calms down for the time being, but that won't be for long. The last page of the module gives information on what happens in the burg after the party leaves, and what surprises they might see when they return to it after a month or so.
Presentation
ποΈποΈποΈ superb
Keeping up with the quality of the other modules from The Well of Worlds, Recruiters provides detailed background information, full statistics of NPCs and monsters, a suitable amount of read-aloud text blocks, and enough town locations to even use this module as a Plague-Mort mini-setting reference if you desire to run other modules here. Very nice!
The full-page map of the town and the Arch-Lector's Palace is adequate for the purposes of this module and has all 18 keyed locations mapped out. It is not stated on the map, but judging from a similar map in Player's Primer to the Outlands, the Spireward direction is up.
Openness
βοΈβοΈ semi-linear
Considering the nature of the events, the characters' freedom is severely limited in some ways, but they can deal with what they've got in any way they please.
Quality
β β good
A fun little module for one evening. Depending on your party's alignments it will play differently, but generally, the players would probably enjoy the experience of exploring the town and dealing with the demonic conspiracy.
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