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DDAL09-20 Where Devils Fear to Tread $4.99
Average Rating:4.4 / 5
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DDAL09-20 Where Devils Fear to Tread
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DDAL09-20 Where Devils Fear to Tread
Publisher: D&D Adventurers League
by Christopher D. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 06/08/2021 23:11:45

As-written this is an underwhelming conclusion to a season. Take 6-8 hours to run this, not 4. Your players will appreciate the full experience more that way.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
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DDAL09-20 Where Devils Fear to Tread
Publisher: D&D Adventurers League
by Marcello V. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 11/17/2020 18:29:13

I ran this adventure with five players and Dara of Illmater NPC'd. We skipped 09-19, but since I did have it, I added the plot points from 09-19 into the intro for this adventure to quick spin up the party. The players really enjoyed going into Yeenoghu's realm. They ran into the rocs, the slaves and the ghoul and Night Walker encounter before Capturing the Commander. We made it three waves, before I could see and hear the slogitis in players. Knowing we had another part left to get to, I brought the battle to a close at three waves. The temptation of a yummy demon heart got one player, who was stopped by the party paladin. They return back to Avernus with Commander De La Rue. The battle council can get long, but if you just summarized what everyone does you can move on to the war effort. I appreciated that players can just leave here ... I can see players going "We got De La Rue, we already set Elturel free, Devils and Demons be d@#$%" and go home. I apprecate that the designers allows for this. They decided to take on the devils ... the rocs, wizards and towers made things tough! One target of magic missles from all the wizards? ...certainly a possibility. Challenging encounters. IMO this adventure brought the end of the season 9 to a great close. DMs- if your goal is to get this adventure done in four hours, please let me know how you did it. I have not known anyone to pull it off without leaving something on the floor. But I'd rather have more than less. Players enjoyed it. Well done.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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DDAL09-20 Where Devils Fear to Tread
Publisher: D&D Adventurers League
by Jonathan K. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 08/25/2020 09:23:53

Ran this with a heavily optimised party, in hindsight there are several changes I probably should have made.

Before that though, I would like to thank the author for finally spelling out Dara's mission in the call to action. Previous modules appear to be missing this, instead using vague ideas of what she is doing in the Hells. There's a few inconsistencies between this module and 09-19, namely it's implied that Mahadi has left the company of Dara's entourage. His emporium reappears without explanation which is a bit jarring.

The first part is intersting with the use of Advancing and Delaying encounters. I didn't like how there's half a page of "These abilities simply do not work" something that has cursed high level content since its first release. Would be nice if it is spelled out that a paladin's divine sense identifies a path of consecration.

I didn't realise that the encounters must be played in order, the way the text reads "Play an advancing encounter" implies that they can be mixed up slightly. For future DMs of this adventure, don't mix them up, it works a lot better. The delaying encounters are far more detailed and intersting than the advancing encounters. the third advancing encounter doesn't read like an encounter at all, there's a non-threat that is hidden but there's no reason the party would interact with it. That encounter certainly needs more work.

The Battle at the End of Part 1 is definitely set up as something of an epic scale, however it didn't play out that way in teh slightest. This is where I would have made some changes since the big bad appears by themself in the second round. And (despite maxing their HP) within a round they are dead. Single targets are too easily ganged up on to place in a field by themselves. Instead, for strong-very strong parties, the second and third waves should arrive at the same time to try to prevent the party from being able to focus fire upon the boss.

Part 2 is a bit of a blur, I love the stakes but I don't love the encounters. The first encounter with four Rocs is an exercise in attrittion, and parties hate the 28 wizards. The second encounter with the balor is ok, but still nothing to write home about. The rune in the center of the encounter is interesting, but not interesting enough to make use of.

I'd like it if there was clarification on what happend with Elturel exactly. Is it still in hell at the beginning of the adventure? At the end? My players had questions and I had no answers.

Tier 4 content is tough to design for, players simply have too many resources to be able to drain them within a 4-6 hour module. If tables seek a challenge without having to make too many adjustments to the modules I would suggest that 09-19 and 09-20 are run back-to-back with no long rests. That should provide a gaunlet of a challenge where players actually have to manage their resources and not just use them all at once to blow away encounters.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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DDAL09-20 Where Devils Fear to Tread
Publisher: D&D Adventurers League
by Roger M. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 08/03/2020 08:08:34

4 stars. The layout and some information being buried in the text hurt the rating. A DM may want to hightlight the number of evil mages in part 2. Some of the DC are low according to my players. I think the DC should be not less than 15 for tier 4 module. This does not include spell dc from monsters. We all enjoyed the advancing/delaying idea. The Madness Chart on page 5 was fun and will really affect game play if the players go along with the idea. They were a little confused with the four choices. DMs will need to point out how little the information the module gives you. It took me some time to get my players to understand, the setup for Part 2 was a quick overview lacking details. Due to time we did not finish all of part 2. So DMs need to watch the clock on Part 1.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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