Hellbound: The Blood War has been one of my favourite D&D supplements since it came out. I liked best the adventure "Squaring the Circle", from the "War Games" book. "Hellbound" and "the Blood War supplement" seem to be synonymous with StC among most other newsgroup posters as well.
But there are always those who have critiques and suggestions, like, er, me (in the case of Carl Sargent's Night Below). I'd recently got interested in moving beyond Night Below, and had done some expansions myself, so I looked for similar places on the 'Web on AltaVista. Thus far the chief would-be editor of StC is an anonymous GeoCities web author who seems to go by "PSlost". I decided to review that site and make my own suggestions.
There are spoilers. Do not read further if you are playing in a lower-planar D&D campaign as a PC.
PSlost's critiques come in two forms: explicit, where he tells us what he wants to improve; and implicit, where he makes the improvements.
Explicitly, he wanted to "extend the... adventure, to truly make it an epic". He also thought the DM should introduce players to the plot "in a far more subtle way than suggested in the book."
StC had the party meet Sanuire, a Finnish / Qua-Nosham priest in Sigil, who gives the party some names to look up. PSlost had the party visit Qua-Nosham itself (spelled "Qua-Nashaam" in that site) instead of the priest.
The region of Qua-Nosham whence came Sanuire is a desolation with one site of note, the city Oninol. PSlost allowed that the PC's transportation might not be reliable enough to take the PC's to that precise point; accordingly he added some unsubtle markers to that direction. But the search for Oninol is unimportant to the adventure and easily replaced.
In Oninol the PC's get to meet Sir Praetol (paladin Prætol, there) and hear his report on how he discovered the secret of the fiends. The PC's leave while the paladin is embarking on a second, presumably final quest... but now know a name they might investigate: "Maeldur et Kavurik". "Squaring the Circle" proceeds from there with the research and Torch segments.
PSlost's next additions are to the end of Daubei's Obscure Woe, prior to the Abyss. Daru Ib Shamiq points them not directly to the Abyss but to Gehenna, where he thinks the Maeldur still resides. PSlost extended the trail additionally, if gratuitously, to Carceri, probably because that was the one lower plane untouched by any part of "War Games".
I don't know about unsubtle, but the beginning of "Squaring the Circle" is certainly illogical. If anyone was leatherhead enough to bring such a secret into the City of Doors, the first passing ESP-user would catch wind of it in seconds. (As, in fact, happens soon after the PC's learn it.) In addition, in Qua-Nosham PSlost provided a taste of what fiendish power means to the innocent. PSlost better protected this secret from multiversal publication and better illustrated the stakes of what the PC's hope to accomplish.
My problem with PSlost's site is with his second round of additions. This section assumes that, when the PC's come calling, neither Praetol (standing in for Sanuire) nor even Daru Ib Shamiq know that the vuulge and the Maeldur are both missing. But in this case there is no reason for either party to lack the necessary information. Both are in a better position for information input than for output. In addition the PC's are likely to want to follow Praetol and see the Maeldur directly.
To which I say: let them. Allow the PC's to witness the ritual which opens the gate to Krangath, and to follow Praetol to the fortress of Arribidinon. (It will obviously be less guarded now.) Throw in some BattleSystem or other large-scale engagements so the players don't get that feeling of playing second fiddle to an NPC. Once the PC's investigate the empty citadel, they can go home and find out through the library who might know of the Maeldur's current location.
I also suggest filling in the blanks in the library, to give the players a better feeling of planar history and atmosphere. library.rtf
Note that my description of the fictional Book of Inverted Darkness here derives from the citations in Hellbound and Planes of Conflict, which are of legendary character. The description does not match the ritual in Vecna Reborn pp. 50-51. This is deliberate; the scroll Vecna uses is not accessible even to Athar sages. There may be hints to the ritual aspect of this anti-Torah elsewhere in the multiverse, but this is beyond the scope of "Squaring the Circle".
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zimriel@sbcglobal.netThis page was created 26 Dec 2001.
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