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The Lich-Queen's Begotten

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This adventure is now Adventurers League legal!

The Lich-Queen of the Githyanki is one of the most malevolent beings in existence, and she is scheming to become more powerful than ever before. Our heroes must journey to the Astral Plane where they will encounter astonishing new locations and terrible new enemies. Can they thwart the diabolical plans of the Lich-Queen and save the multiverse?

This 4-6 hour adventure is for characters of 11th to 16th level, and contains new creatures and story elements from Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes.

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Reviews (24)
Discussions (22)
Customer avatar
Felicia D November 18, 2023 10:45 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Am I missing something with regards to maps? Most of these purchases come with some sort of downloadable maps and I don't have anything besides a rough outline on the last page
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Customer avatar
M.T. B November 19, 2023 5:28 am UTC
CREATOR
This does not have a color battlemap - just the b/w map on the final page.
Customer avatar
Gregory W November 12, 2023 4:59 am UTC
PURCHASER
There's something that doesn't make sense to me. Janara was told by Menyar-Ag that the Begotten was "hideous and corrupt." Yet it's found out at the end that she is neither of those things and is in fact beautiful and naive. This is very strange to me, as Menyar-Ag would not lie, especially to one of his devoted followers. So what gives?
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Customer avatar
M.T. B November 12, 2023 11:01 pm UTC
CREATOR
I wrote this a long time ago and I can't recall what my thinking was. But I think it's possible that Menyar-Ag had only a vision of the chrysalis, which was certainly hideous
Customer avatar
Victor N November 01, 2023 4:28 am UTC
PURCHASER
How would you adapt this adventure to work in a lower-level campaign, like one of the reviewers did for Light of Xaryxis?
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Customer avatar
M.T. B November 02, 2023 8:21 pm UTC
CREATOR
Where there are multiple monsters, reduce the number. Where there is a single foe, replace it with something thematically similar. Give it a try - it is an easier than you might think.

For combat balancing, I recommend the Lazy Encounter Benchmark. I use it all the time when designing: https://slyflourish.com/the_lazy_encounter_benchmark.html
Customer avatar
Michal K May 16, 2022 9:50 am UTC
PURCHASER
Speaking from my players perspective. Really phenomenal experience with astral plane and githyanki (which they didn't know existed). Fun throught whole campain whether it was going through the city or interacting with different puzzles and events.

well written adventure, which i recommend to anyone looking for high lvl fun time.
Only question i got was if there is a 'sequel' to this module, where players go straight for the lich queen. They asked me this and i couldn't answer them.
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Customer avatar
M.T. B May 19, 2022 11:13 am UTC
CREATOR
Chris Perkins wrote a 3rd edition adventure called "The Lich-Queen's Beloved" many years ago. This is an unofficial prequel. I think it would not be hard for you to convert Perkin's module to 5E and play it
Customer avatar
James C June 26, 2019 10:52 am UTC
would you put these in a bundle? Or ever consider doing bigger campaigns? or converting these to Fantasy Grounds?
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Customer avatar
Brian P June 26, 2019 2:15 pm UTC
PURCHASER
I can't speak to Black's future plans, but he has done bundles in the past, so this might get included in a future one. And, he's one of the writers for the official Descent Into Avernus full season campaign coming out in September!
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Customer avatar
M.T. B June 26, 2019 8:19 pm UTC
CREATOR
Yeah, this will end up in a bundle with the othe MToF adventures in a month or two.
Customer avatar
Armin M May 14, 2019 4:58 pm UTC
PURCHASER
How long would you say this adventure is supposed to run, in hours?
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Brian P May 14, 2019 6:13 pm UTC
PURCHASER
My group ran it in two four-hour sessions. They tend to run twice as long as things recommend (for various reasons) so it could probably be done by a fast-paced group as a one shot.

On the other hand, there are a lot of combats, and my group did well at circumventing a couple of them... combat tends to eat a lot of time for most people. I also gave them a two-page handout on the gith as "homework" so we wouldn't need to cover as much in session. Another reviewer mentioned that it took about five hours for them to run it. Given that, and the way we ran it... five hours seems like a reasonable "average" time.

If you need to fit it in a single session, it is easy to see places where you can drop easier battles. If you want it to fill two sessions and have a group into lore, you can add time delving into it in character, and adding a "night on the town" prologue before the opening encounter on the streets of the city.
Customer avatar
Jeremy S March 06, 2019 7:28 pm UTC
PURCHASER
are there no un locks in this module?
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Customer avatar
M.T. B March 07, 2019 6:44 am UTC
CREATOR
No - I only started doing that with Blue Alley
Customer avatar
Brian P February 04, 2019 4:06 pm UTC
PURCHASER
I'm running this now (near the end of chapter 2), and looking forward to leaving a (positive) review when finished... although my group tends to run very slowly, with a ton of tactical planning and roleplay, so this is going to take a few more sessions. (They're also busy renovating Skyhold Tower now that they are high level enough to be rich. ;) ) Leave it to M.T. Black to make an interplanar adventure a manageable, straightforward affair for a busy DM! Even better, one that is easy to plop into the middle of almost any campaign! You have a distinctive style, MT, and it's on display here in an appreciated rare upper-tier adventure.

I've noticed something in my prep (very minor spoilers follow): Page 11 describes a structure "perhaps 200 feet tall." Based on the diagram on page 18, it's slightly over 100 feet. I don't think I would have noticed if I wasn't the kind of person who made battle maps for EVERYTHING, including one of the outside of the structure... but it is a minor inconsistency...See more
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Customer avatar
M.T. B February 04, 2019 7:47 pm UTC
CREATOR
Thanks Brian, I will have a look
Customer avatar
Devlin L August 26, 2018 2:37 am UTC
PURCHASER
Is mordenkainens tome of foes required to run?
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Customer avatar
M.T. B August 26, 2018 8:39 am UTC
CREATOR
I'd recommend you have Mordenkainen's, but you can probably manage without it
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Customer avatar
Devlin L August 26, 2018 10:46 am UTC
PURCHASER
Thanks for the clarification!
Customer avatar
Benjamin P August 02, 2018 8:49 am UTC
PURCHASER
Excellent adventure. We ran it in three and a half hours. . I had one of the PCs play Janara, which made my life easier as a DM.

The combat was largely quite easy; Gith Warriors are not much of a threat because they only have a +4 to hit. I would consider replacing 2 Warriors with Knight if your players are dealing with them too easily. The exception to this was the battle against the mind flayers at the beginning. One of the characters had their brain extracted. This could easily be a party wipe if the flayers win initiative, as most PCs have weak Intelligence saves.



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Customer avatar
M.T. B August 24, 2018 3:12 am UTC
CREATOR
Thanks Benjamin - I'm glad you had a great time!
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Customer avatar
Brian P February 13, 2019 11:19 pm UTC
PURCHASER
At 2/3rds of the way through this, I would agree that the opening battle can go spectacularly badly with unlucky rolls and intelligently-played foes. It does not seem like it should be that difficult (with PCs at full power, and you assume the opening battle is a prelude to the real challenges) but by the numbers, it's a "Deadly" encounter, probably the toughest in the game unless the group unwisely picks a fight they can and should avoid.

It might be worth having Janara step in to help them in the fight. Although, like you, I'm a generally a fan of letting a player run NPCs in combat; I might just control her for the first fight. (And possibly fudge rolls related to her if things are going really bad.) Gloves off in the later fights they could avoid or run from, but if I railroad the characters into a deadly ambush, I want to give them a lifeline.

Mind, it speaks to the quality of the adventure that my "complaints" are all fairly trivial.
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Customer avatar
M.T. B February 14, 2019 1:17 am UTC
CREATOR
Thanks Brian, I'm glad you are having a good time!

I did not expect the first combat to be so tough, partly because the mind flayers were meant to scram once things got a little hot. But it sounds like I misjudged it.
Customer avatar
Anthony S August 01, 2018 10:45 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Haven't ran it yet, but it looks like it will be as much fun for me, as the DM as Rrakkma looks.
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Customer avatar
M.T. B August 24, 2018 3:12 am UTC
CREATOR
I hope you enjoy it, Anthony!
Customer avatar
Jeremy N July 25, 2018 4:42 am UTC
PURCHASER
I really enjoyed running this adventure. A good mix of adventure and story telling. My favorite part was the dream sequence, it was a quick, fun and different section for my players to experience. This was also a really hard adventure too, I only had 3 players APL 14 and several of the battles nearly killed them and they got creative to avoid several other threats. We ran a 5 hour game with avoiding some encounters so hitting everything will make this more like a 6 hour game.
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Customer avatar
M.T. B July 25, 2018 7:58 am UTC
CREATOR
Thanks Jeremy, I'm really glad you enjoyed it!
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Customer avatar
Brian P February 13, 2019 11:28 pm UTC
PURCHASER
The dream sequence was an incredibly fun tension-breaking interlude, and I would encourage people running this to nudge the party towards it.

I wrote the "names" on some slips of paper in advance, which made assigning the dream roles fast and easy, and I think helped players think in terms of the dream logic.
Customer avatar
July 06, 2018 7:52 pm UTC
PURCHASER
In the final scene of this mod, if the players opt for outrun rather than standing and fighting, what was the intent with experience? The outrun option does require a skill challenge so the players have had to overcome obstacles.
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Customer avatar
M.T. B July 06, 2018 10:27 pm UTC
CREATOR
At my table, I award XP whenever the PCs use their abilities and brains to defeat a monster.
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Customer avatar
July 07, 2018 6:11 am UTC
PURCHASER
Thanks for confirming!
Customer avatar
TIMOFEY L July 03, 2018 4:35 am UTC
PURCHASER
This is a great mod, but there is a small inconsistence in the first encounter. The monsters that the party encounters first can cast *detect thoughts* at will, requiring no components. Why should they bother fighting and risk to lose a battle if they can cast that spell and probe deeper in the characters' mind?
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Customer avatar
M.T. B July 03, 2018 9:07 am UTC
CREATOR
Hi Timofey, thanks for the comment and I'm glad you like the adventure!

If you have a look at Detect Thoughts, it would only likely reveal what the mind flayers wanted to know if the adventurers were thinking about it at the time. The spell text says, "Questions verbally directed at the target creature naturally shape the course of its thoughts, so this spell is particularly effective as part of an interrogation." This is what the mind flayers strategy was--capture someone for further interrogation.

cheers!
MTB
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Customer avatar
TIMOFEY L July 04, 2018 5:38 am UTC
PURCHASER
Thank you for the answers. If I ran this adventure outside AL, I would also make some changes to the mechanics of the Astral Plane. I've played both 3.5e and 4e, so the conversion of those mechanics could be useful.

For example. the Astral Plane gravity is not "no gravity", but "subjective directional gravity" (propel by willing it). Back in 3.5 it took a DC 16 Wisdom check to set a new direction of gravity. (-2 for bounded accuracy). If I ran it outside AL, I would require a DC 14 Wisdom check to propel (no action required).

In addition, the Astral Plane was timeless: age, hunger, thirst, poison and natural healing did not function there. So, in 5e terms that could be as: noone can spend Hit Dice on a short rest.

And the most annoying feature was its enhanced magic: Any spells used to be automatically improved by the Quicken Spell feat.

So, I think those changes to the Astral Plane features are going to make the adventure more interesting:...See more
Customer avatar
AARON J July 01, 2018 10:18 pm UTC
PURCHASER
This is an amazing mod. Well done, as usually, by M.T. Black. It has a lot of wonder and grand feeling but the combat is tough. I appreciated the story telling and role playing for the party. So often at this level it is hack and slash and hand out treasure.
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Customer avatar
M.T. B July 02, 2018 5:22 am UTC
CREATOR
Thank you Aaron, that is a very encouraging review
Customer avatar
Scott C June 23, 2018 3:52 am UTC
PURCHASER
What is the Adventurers League code for this module? I'm guessing it's DDHC-MORD-something, since it's another of the Mordenkainen's Tome tie-in modules, like Riddle of the Raven Queen - but not sure of the number at the tail end of that code?
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Customer avatar
M.T. B June 23, 2018 5:42 am UTC
CREATOR
DDHC-MORD-02
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File Last Updated:
May 21, 2018
This title was added to our catalog on May 21, 2018.